Guest Post: “Five Freedoms I Had that My Daughter Won’t” (via FreeRangeKids)

Tags

free-time, health, kaboom, recess, school, taylor, uncategorized

Something to think about…When the heck did our society get so freaked out about kids being kids?

Hi Readers — Here's a lovely piece by Kerala Taylor, senior manager of online content & outreach at KaBOOM, the organization dedicated to making sure every kid has a playground nearby. (And even plays in it!) KaBOOM has a "Back to School Pledge" folks can sign, to defend school day playtime. Naturally, I signed it! — L.  Five Freedoms I Had at School that My Daughter Won't, by Kerala Taylor At six months pregnant, like most moms and moms-to … Read More

via FreeRangeKids

reMEDIAted: bad journalism meets scientific illiteracy

Tags

alien invasion, health, journalism, media, responsibility, science

When I happened upon the article a few days ago, it was first the title that bothered me.  Please, go read it…I’ll wait! (if you have time, I also recommend reading the actual paper for comparison)

My problem was mainly that the title seemed very disproportionate to the overall topic of the article (though I realize this is a convention of  journalistic writing), but also because…well, the article just seemed…off, for lack of a better term.

And so, I felt compelled to vet a story by a major news outlet.  Which, of course, was then picked up by other news outlets (Faux News strikes again!).  10 minutes on Google, and I can tell you that this is not only a ridiculously misrepresented piece of fluff, but like most misrepresented news stories, dangerously so.

So…here’s the part of the story that The Guardian–and every other news outlet left out (and probably won’t bother to report).

This is not some government report written by government scientists on the possibilities of alien visitation and what responses should be taken.

From the blog of one of authors:

A while ago, a couple good friends of mine (Seth Baum and Jacob Haqq-Misra) approached me about a paper they were writing, and asked if I wanted to join them on it. The paper was a review of all the different proposed situations for contact with an alien civilization. I didn’t think this was particularly important. After all, I consider the likelihood of contact with an alien civilization to be low. It certainly wasn’t urgent, as I don’t expect this to happen anytime soon. But… it sounded like fun and I decided to join in on it. So we wrote the paper, but I have to admit that Seth and Jacob put in the vast majority of the work on it. One of the scenarios we considered in the review was the possibility that an alien civilization would contact us because they were concerned about the exponential growth of our civilization, as evidenced by climate change. This isn’t an entirely new idea; remember, this was a review effort. Indeed, Keanu Reaves recently played a similar alien in the movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” There were lots of other ideas we reviewed, but this was probably the most provocative.

Its actually a scientific paper written by three  guys who had gone to grad school together for a scientific journal, whose goal is to publish:

original contributions in all fields of basic, engineering, life and social space sciences and of space technology related to: the peaceful scientific exploration of space, its exploitation for human welfare and progress and the conception, design, development and operation of space-borne and Earth-based systems. (source)

Somehow, this hypothetical exercise by a couple of college buddies got picked up by a major news outlet and turned into a major news story (pending deadline? slow news day?)…a news story written in such a way that the average reader assumes this is NASA report, and a news story (particularly by the outlets that picked it up later) that paints scientists (and therefor science) as *out there* and even becomes partisan fodder for all that is wrong with the federal government (all because the convention of scientific journal authorship calls for one’s academic affiliation, and one of the authors happened to work for NASA).

So here’s the deal, folks. Yes, I work at NASA. It’s also true that I work at NASA Headquarters. But I am not a civil servant… just a lowly postdoc. More importantly, this paper has nothing to do with my work there. (source)

“When data are distorted, there are real world consequences.”

Many researchers have seen their results distorted beyond recognition as they filtered through mass media. A decade ago, three medical researchers (Ian J. Deary, Martha C. Whiteman, and F.G.R. Fowkes) published a study about the link between personality and heart disease, finding that “men and women with more submissiveness were less likely to have a myocardial infarction.”

The first few stories, in major newspapers, were fairly accurate. But the researchers watched in horror as their results were recast as an anti-feminist message, with headlines such as, “Do what hubby says and you’ll live longer; Professors’ shock advice to women,” and “Put down that rolling pin, darling, it’s bad for your heart.”

The British medical journal The Lancet reported on the media’s distortion of this research, quoting one newspaper editor who lauded the “rolling pin” phrase: “How many readers, I wonder, were able to pass that headline without the flicker of a smile?” he said. “For this is what the game is about: stopping readers in their tracks long enough to read the story.” (source)

Unfortunately this seems to be the media’s modus operandi for many stories–flashy headline, selective reporting of “facts” and misrepresentation of conclusions.  Combine shoddy journalism with the low rate of scientific literacy in this country, and its no surprise that so many people have taken this news story at face value, not even realizing that something was “off” about it.  Hopefully the author that is doing post-doc research at NASA won’t be in too much trouble for all of this…but what about when its someone’s health on the line, or when someone’s life decisions are influenced by a false or misleading report or when public policy (or lack of public policy) that influences our health and welfare is decided ?

(Linda) Schwartz and colleague Steven Woloshin analyzed U.S. newspaper, TV and radio reports on research from five major scientific meetings. Their findings:

• Only 2 of 175 stories about unpublished studies noted that the study was unpublished.
• One-third of the articles failed to mention how many participants were in a study [studies with only a few test subjects are sometimes later refuted by larger studies].
• 40 percent of the reports did not quantify the main result of the research.
• Just one out of 17 news reports on animal studies noted that results might not apply to humans.

“Unless journalists are careful to provide basic study facts and highlight limitations, the public may be misled about the meaning, importance and validity of the research,” Woloshin said. (source)

Don’t get me wrong, its not all mean ole journalists kicking poor little science like a beat up soccer ball, just trying to score with the big story.  If you read the article from The Guardian, you may have checked out the comments.  How many readers took that story at face value?  How many blew it out of proportion as an opportunity to knock NASA (whom they wrongly thought was responsible for the story), to complain about science and scientists, and even to use it as a way to promote a political ideology?  It took me all of 10 minutes on Google to find and read through the blogs and personal websites of the three authors for the pertinent information.  We too are responsible when we stop in our tracks and read an article because of the flashy headline without questioning it, and without demanding better journalism from our news sources when it is seen to be false.

For the rest of us media consumers, we have to remember that new, surprising, or scary reports are designed to attract (and often get) our increasingly fragmented attention. We have to weigh these reports, and put them into context, through a combination of scientific and media literacy: Who conducted the study, why, and with what funding? How many people were studied, for how long, and who and where were they? If the research posits dangers in your coffee or toothpaste, how big are these risks compared to other health risks, or compared to potential benefits of that habit or product? (source)

The moral of this story?  Don’t get your science from the media, and don’t let the media frame your ideology.

How to get kids (and other picky eaters) to eat their veggies. (via greengeekgirl)

Tags

cooking, eating, food, fresh-food, hamburger-helper, health, healthy-eating, home, how-to-get-kids-to-eat, kids, picky-eaters, tips, tricks, vegetable, vegetables

Awesome post!  It totally reminded me of our struggles and successes at getting the whole family to eat better…

One of the things we have done is implement a reward chart for trying new (healthy) foods. Chickadee gets a sticker every time she tries a new food, and she has to try each new food up to 10 separate times (at least a bite) before she doesn’t have to try it (research indicated that it takes at least 10 tries) anymore.

It’s a struggle that a lot of people are facing these days:  after having grown up on processed food, we’re finding out that eating stuff from tin cans, brightly-colored boxes, and greasy fast-food sacks is detrimental to our health, along with smoking, drinking, and all manner of other really fun things.  In order to keep ourselves and our families healthy, we’re turning back to fresh foods–including that all-time kid-repellent food, vegetables … Read More

via greengeekgirl

Fat

Tags

fat, fitness, guilt, health, obsession, weight

I have a love-hate relationship with my body.  I hate to love it and love to hate it in equal measure.  I am not skinny.  I will never be skinny…and really, I don’t *want* to be skinny.  What I really want is to not feel like I SHOULD feel guilty to be the way I am. 

I think part of it stems from the Navy. When you PT every day and eat right, and still have to starve yourself for two months twice a year to stay in standards, there is a problem. Add to that hypothyroidism (the meds only help so much), a family history of obesity, and two high risk pregnancies… I’m sick of fighting to follow what someone else says my body should be.

Could I afford to lose 15 pounds? Sure…but those 15 pounds don’t stop me from hiking or canoeing or mountain biking or swimming or yoga or whatever else I want to do. 

I mean really, at the end of the day,  I would rather play with my kids, have dinner with my family and go for a walk on the beach than struggle with what someone else has labled my “weight problem”…especially when  I don’t see it as such.

And really, I doubt I am alone.

“It’s ironic, really, because I hate to exercise, as I imagine many of you do. From childhood, exercise is forced on us whether we want it or not, often in the most humiliating settings possible. Who could forget those god-awful gym uniforms, the indignity of group showers, or being forced to run in endless circles around the football field while a succession of sadistic coaches blew their whistles?

We forget the thrill of playing freeze tag or Red Rover, or simply of wandering through the woods for hours on end. Moving our bodies becomes a punishment, something we do because we’re not “fit” enough. I have seen more people spend twenty solid minutes bitching and moaning on a Stairmaster three times a week about how much they hate the Stairmaster. My question is, why on earth do they do it?

Well, they say, because it’s good for you.

Right. Being miserable is good for you. I don’t buy that for a second. I believe that the gods put us on this earth and into our lives to find joy, and it’s up to us to seek our places where joy might live. Life already has enough opportunities to suck without us pushing ourselves into even more, so it seems to me that spending hours and hours a week engaged in yet another activity we don’t enjoy is counter to our life purpose. We already lose so much time in the rat race, running circles after the Almighty Dollar to finance the real part of our lives.”

–Diane Sylvan, The Body Sacred

I wonder how many people out there feel happy and are healthy and are content with their bodies…but are told every day by the media, and the medical establishment that they should feel guilty.  And I wonder how many more people aren’t healthy, and how much of that stems from not being happy with themselves because of the media and the medical establishment.

Because, at the end of the day…I’m beautiful, and I bet you are too.