Archive for the ‘News’ Category
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
The Handmade Toy Alliance is getting a boost from Etsy, which makes sense, because Etsy gets such a boost from the army of craftspeople and small business owners whose livelihoods are still set to be snuffed out by the industrial-scale safety and testing regulations put in place as part of the CPSIA, the 2008 law strengthening lead standards in childrens' products.
I don't want to be lead-tainted charm bracelet about the whole thing, but I can't see how the political jiujitsu unfolds in such a way that a CPSIA amendment becomes a reality, unless it's tacked onto something else as an afterthought and never gets a politicized working over.
The only thing I could imagine is people calling and emailing their representatives. And sure enough, that's what the HTA is asking for:
Whether you are an Etsy shop owner or concerned citizen who does not want to see handcrafted toys and other children's products disappear forever, your voice is needed. You can help by continuing to call your state representatives, especially those who are on the Committee of Energy and Commerce, and let them know what will happen to your business (or businesses that you frequent) when the stay ends in February. In our current economic crisis, it is more important than ever that small businesses be allowed to remain in operation!
CPSIA: Handmade Toy Alliance continues the fight [etsy.com via dt reader sara]
Handmade Toy Alliance [handmadetoyalliance.org]
Posted in Lead, News, cpsc, cpsia, etsy, handmade, outofbusiness, politics, safety, toys, woodworking, wtf | Comments Off
Thursday, June 24th, 2010
Wow, does this mean the CPSC has finally cleared their Bush-era Cribs Of Death cold case file? The CPSC issued recalls for over two million cribs, mostly dropside but also fixed-side models, from seven manufacturers. The recalls are based on hundreds of reports of crib malfunctions or defects that cause entrapment or suffocation hazards.
All the manufacturers [well, the six which are still in business] are providing repair kits to immobilize dropsides and/or reinforce sides and mattress platforms.
The affected firms listed in order of the number of cribs sold are:
- Evenflo Jenny Lind, 750,000 [dropside]
- Delta, 747,000 [dropside and mattress support]
- LaJobi, 300,000 [dropside]
- Million Dollar Baby, 156,000 [dropside]
-
The CPSC press release says, "The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) has also launched a new crib safety initiative," which is good, because a flimsy piece of plastic crap.
Seven Manufacturers Announce Recalls to Repair Cribs to Address Entrapment, Suffocation and Fall Hazards [cpsc]
Posted in News, babyindustrialcomplex, cpsc, cribofdeath, furniture, jpma, safety | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
It's been several weeks since Rebel Dad announced his boycott of Pampers for their four-years-and-counting insistence on calling him a mom in all their mailings and marketing campaigns. And guess what, P&G has utterly caved in the face of this massive commercial onslaught.
In a groundbreaking investigation, The New York Times discovered that diaper companies are slowly realizing that dads not only change a diaper now and then, they even buy them occaisionally. And so they threw a celebrity diaper promotional event last week that involved famous dads on "diaper duty."
And while there are still no marketing campaigns, commercials, direct mail, or product designs that acknowledge the existence of dads, Pampers did snag Drew Brees from the New Orleans Saints as a spokesmodel. And then they uploaded a Brees-related video to YouTube.
And as if that weren't enough, P&G even asked Rebel Dad Brian Reid to friend them on Facebook. So if you need Brian for anything, he'll just be out back, soaking in a giant Gunite poolful of his awesome, activist power. Viva la Pampers Revolucion!
Getting Dad To Do Diaper (Buying) Duty [nytimes]
[1] and yes, it would be important even if I wasn't quoted in it.
Posted in Advice, News, commercials, disposablediapers, genderstereotypes, pampers, rebeldad | Comments Off
Friday, June 11th, 2010
Here are some headlines of late, all primed to ruin your weekend with freakoutery:
- The quantity of new parents' sleep is more important to their relationship satisfaction than how well they thought they slept. Of course, the study was conducted seven weeks after giving birth, so maybe "relationship satisfaction" is just fancy science talk for "finally had sex again." [eurekalert.org]
- If 94% of breastfeeding mothers don't have the "proper" diet, do you think that maybe there's absolutely no info on what the proper breastfeeding diet should be? (More lipids, less protein, sounds like.) [eurekalert]
- "Violent video games are like peanut butter," says a doctor. And by that he means, "good for most kids, bad for a few," not "banned from everyone's lunchboxes until fifth grade." [NYT; apa press release]
- Attention affluent parents! Your iPhoning and Blackberrying is causing serious, untold damage to your kids' development, education, and psychological and emotional well-being, and basically destroying your relationship and their future. Says a NY Times reporter's extrapolation from a study of some completely unrelated thing which was conducted before anyone even had email. [nyt]
- All these non-problems can be solved, of course, by giving the kid his own iPad. Or at least an iPhone. [thanks, AdAge!]
- Unless you're poor, of couse, like the 21% of kids in the US who live in poverty. It's basically 1975 again for kids, in terms of everything but health care, iPhones, and Elmo. HELL. ON. EARTH. [cnn, washingtonindependent.com via the awl]
- PS 421 in Park Slope had 475 applicants for 12 pre-K slots. And yet somehow two of those twelve kids manage to have the same Knufflebunny? The mind reels. [nyt]
- Maybe if Sweden's awesome parental/paternity leave system were made of sawdust, glue and birch veneered ABS, and it came in a giant blue box with a side of lingonberry jam, the rest of the world might catch on a little better. [nyt]
- Like ten people sent me this stupid Babble article on SAHDILFs, and yet not one mention of the real problem: the playdates section on Nerve.com. Why is that, I wonder? [babble via seriously everybody. It's like Father's Day token linkbait]
- A teacher in Seattle sent the one small brown child away because her hair product smelled, shall we say, uppity. On the bright side, when the one brown kid in my North Carolina elementary school class was out, our teacher seized the opportunity to tell us, "Whatever you do, just don't call them 'colored.'" So, perhaps some progress? No? [the stranger via the awl]
- Look, English people. Why do you think there's no children's book called, "It's just a heroin substitute"? Because sharing your methadone with your kids kills them, that's why. [bbc via dt sr freakout correspondent sara]
- Seriously, one kid gets his head stuck in the storage bin, and 2,000 Costco Pirates of the Caribbean beds have to be recalled? What's the repair kit, a nail? [cpsc]
Posted in News, Preschool, Sleep, africanamerican, babble, beds, breastfeeding, chemicalsareourfriends, freakout, health, iphone, itsjustaplant, paternityleave, playdate, recalls, sex, sweden | Comments Off
Friday, June 4th, 2010
Personally, my own weekends have been full of comment spam-related freakouts. But just in case you haven't hand Ukrainian spambots take down your server lately, here are some recent, overwrought headlines from the worlds of science, safety, and parenting to freakout over:
- Boomer age helicopter parents have turned their kids into over-dependent neurotics. An alternate headline for this study: "10% of college freshmen's moms do one or more clingy, meddling thing." [msnbc via @workingdad]
- The headline, "Book Owners Have Smarter Kids," misses the point, which is that you and your fancy pants college education could be replaced at any time by a pile of 500 books and a guy from the Home Depot parking lot, and your kid'd never know the difference. [Salon, so a giant asterisk, obviously]
- If he swallows it--and doesn't poop it out--the 20mm [penny-size] button battery the kid popped out of the remote can kill, or burn a hole in his esophagus, according to dozens of local news outlets who reporting on this epidemic on the exact same day--and a new study in the AAP's Pediatrics journal, which has somehow ignored the threat of esophageal battery enlodgement for 18 years. [aap, poison.org]
- McDonalds has recalled 150 million Shrek collector glasses for being toxic to children, also for containing cadmium. [cpsc]
- Sprout Slings is recalling all 40 of the infant slings it sold after a 10-day old baby suffocated in one. In 2007. Which makes me think the CPSC has pretty much worked down their Bush-era sling death backlog. [cpsc]
- Artist freakshow Terence Koh has supposedly adopted a baby boy from China, which just makes no sense on so many levels. I really hope this is a performance piece. Says he named the kid Bei Bei. [papermag]
Posted in Books, News, babyboomers, college, cpsc, education, freakout, recalls, science, slings | Comments Off
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
Whatever the results of the trial, Luke Kishpaugh, 33, has been banned from public parks in Salem, Oregon:
The children started to cry and [Luke] Kishpaugh called the dog off, then once again told the dog "get it." This time, the rabbit died.
In the parking lot, witnesses told police that he taunted a 3-year-old girl, then praised his dog.
Taunted a 3-year-old girl.
Police: Dog kills rabbit, owner taunts child [kgw.com via dt sr wtf correspondent ponch]
Posted in News, dogs, rabbittest, tauntonma, wtf, wtfagain | Comments Off
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
Never underestimate the New York State government's ability to completely screw up even the most obvious things, but it looks like the hapless Senate, Assembly, and governor are going to get it together and pass a law giving nannies the right to basic sick leave, paid vacation, and severance pay.
And it's not just the Tibetan nannies or the Mandarin-speakers, either; the law would apply to all domestic employees, no matter their immigration status. Which would add a whole list of new regulations you could be violating for paying your nanny off the books.
Frankly, the toughest thing might be trying to grapple with the idea that something David Paterson does is worth paying attention to.
New York Expected to Give Protections to Nannies [nyt via @jodikantor]
Posted in News, Work, money, nannytrends, newyork, workfamilybalance | Comments Off
Monday, May 31st, 2010
When they're not watching footie [i.e., rugby with less gentility and tinier pants], Australians pass the time either rolling strollers down sloped platforms into the path of oncoming trains, or watching CCTV footage of same.
Last week, it was a 1-yo at Melbourne's Tooronga station's turn. His 3-yo brother climbed out of their double stroller and distracted their grandmother at just the right moment, and--BAM!--the kid rode the rig onto the tracks just as the train was pulling in.
While he received points off for timing--the train was going pretty slow already, and the stroller only got dragged 8m--the kid does win for the minorness of his injuries, and for bringing the rig in almost completely unscathed.
The kid's 15 months old, which means his tank-like Mountain Buggy double was almost certainly produced in New Zealand, before Phil & Teds bought the brand out of bankruptcy last March.
Which means folks wanting to see how the new Chinese-made Mountain Buggys perform under trains will have to wait. But probably not too long.
Baby escapes death after pram struck by train in Tooronga, Victoria, Australia 26/5/10 [youtube via @mclayfield]
Driver lucky? Kid lucky: Driver lucky to pull up in time to avoid pram [abc.net.au]
Previously: Was That Kid Riding In A Love'N'Care Pram When He Got Run Over By That Train?
Posted in Grandma, News, actuallybychina, australia, citylife, mountainbuggy, newzealand, strollers, train, wtf | Comments Off
Friday, May 28th, 2010
Daddy Types freaks out your long weekend with the latest news and hype from the worlds of medicine, science, health, and parenting:
- See, it's not that the New Yorker was ignoring the whole BPA controversy; they just needed a couple of extra years for Jerome Groopman to write a sweeping, panoramic piece about the fresh history of chemical exposure, environmental science, and the conundrums of epidemiological research. Of course, like every other BPA article, it ends with "But think of the children!" [newyorker.com]
- The Royal Dutch Medical Association is calling for a stop to circumcision for infant boys on the grounds of bodily integrity and autonomy. [nu.nl, google translate, via dt reader elisabeth]
- When it gets into a womb during the sexual differentiation stage, that Roundup is, well, "you have a molecular bull in a china shop." And the china is your kid's undeveloped testicles. Or something like that, basically don't huff weedkiller if you're pregnant. [mother earth news via dt reader dt]
- In reality, I think they're saying every boardbook is made from murdered rain forest, but personally, I blame on Sandra Boynton. [ran.org via publicist]
- Did you know the cradle cap brush//sponge from the hospital is one-time use "because the sponge can become a breeding ground for bacteria!"? Look at where I'm writing, and tell me why I have no idea what they're even talking about. [via someone marketing a better cradle cap sponge/brush]
- Sometimes you just gotta quote the study's press release: "Want kids who are smarter and thinner? Keep them away from the television set as toddlers. A shocking study from child experts at..." [sciencedaily]
- Forget freaking out, just stay put: "Children are more likely to watch high levels of television if their parents do, but parents do not need to be physically active to help their children to be active..." [sciencedaily]
- You can tell the kids from the chimps because the kids overimitate. Otherwise, it's pretty much a tossup. [sciencedaily]
- Viking men were just like us when it comes to baby naming, says a guy at a Viking conference. Guess you had to be there. [sciencedaily]
- Mixed-race families have been "problematized," according to a conference on mixed race families. And by "families," they mean "white moms." Guess you had to be there, too. [sciencedaily]
- The CPSC has approved new, final safety standards for infant bath seats that go into effect in six months. In completely unrelated news, "Information gathered by CPSC staff indicates that no baby bath seat currently on the market complies with the new mandatory standard." [cpsc]
Posted in Advice, News, bpa, canada, chemicalsareourfriends, circumcision, freakout, health, thedutch, tv | Comments Off
Monday, May 24th, 2010
Didn't think it'd be Dr. Andrew Wakefield Day around here, but, you gotta blog about Darryl Cunningham's 15-page vacctivist saga comic book when you find it:
Also, the publisher of an autism treatment-related book with a foreword by Jenny McCarthy has advertised on Daddy Types.
The Facts In The Case Against Dr. Andrew Wakefield [tallguywrites via waxy.org]
Posted in Books, MMR, News, UK, comicbooks, dtadvertisers, freakout, health, media, science, vacctivists | Comments Off