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POPSExternalities in the Classroom: How Children Exposed to Domestic Violence Affect Everyone’s Kids kids exposed to kids exposed to domestic violence also have lower test scores and more disciplinary infractions. Around 70 percent of the classes in their sample have at least one kid exposed to domestic violence. The authors compare the outcomes of that kid’s classmates with their counterparts in the same school and the same grade in a previous or subsequent year — when there were no kids exposed to family violence — finding large negative effects. ...
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POPSFood allergies as a weapon for school bullies A very disturbing story -- some school bullies have been using peanut butter as a weapon to terrorize peanut-allergic kids. Consequences are potentially fatal. Archived: http://www.webcitation.org/5Z2UxH0lU . Story also uses the word "consequating," new on me.
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POPSPrevailing theory of aging challenged in Stanford worm study To see whether these signal molecules were part of a wear-and-tear aging mechanism, the researchers exposed worms to stresses thought to cause aging, such as heat (a known stressor for nematode worms), free-radical oxidation, radiation and disease. But none of the stressors affected the genes that make the worms get old. So it looked as though worm aging wasn’t a storm of chemical damage. Instead, Kim said, key regulatory pathways optimized for youth have drifted off track in older animals. Natural selection can’t fix problems that arise late in the animals’ life spans, so the genetic pathways for aging become entrenched by mistake. Kim’s team refers to this slide as “developmental drift.”
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POPSHyped up drug studies If you read the full article, some of the methods they use to make drugs look good are shocking. For example, if a drug doesn't reduce deaths from strokes, but does reduce the incidence of disability in survivors, they add the two numbers together in one column and claim that the drug reduces "death and disability" (meaning "death + disability," but people assume it means that the likelihood of death is reduced, too).
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POPSMen And Women Respond Differently To Stress The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine is reporting research that shows that different parts of the brain are activated in males and females when confronted with a stressful situation. The researchers examined the activity of participant's brains using fMRI while exposed to stress.
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POPSnon-drug options for ADHD - but they leave out the most effective one Sadly, they neglect to mention the most effective non-drug treatment for ADHD/ADD: exercise . John Ratey, MD, associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, studies how exercise affects the brain -- in particular, how it affects people with ADHD. See the articles on his website for more information, or take a look at this article for an overview of what he's found. Personally, given a choice between "take this medication which may or may not help your condition and by the way you'll have to deal with the side effects which can be nasty" and "go for a two-mile run", I'll take the run. It's cheaper, better for me, and a lot more enjoyable.
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POPSYoung, American, and Uninsured: on the rise And it simply doesn't happen in most developed nations. 30% of uninsured from 17% of under-65 pop.; non-whites worse off; could easily face a lifetime of debt or denial of care; 2/3 have had trouble because of cost. And it simply wouldn't happen in most developed nations.
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POPSChuck Norris on hit list Check out what Mr. Norris is doing for kids. "It is what I have been doing for more than a decade with my "KickStart" program, which began in Houston, Texas, teaching 150 at-risk children martial arts as part of the PE curriculum. Since that time, our program, which instills discipline and respect and raises self-esteem, has grown to serve more than 6,000 youngsters year round at 37 schools in Dallas and Houston, Texas. To date, KickStart has graduated more than 50,000 students with many going on to college and becoming successful in their own right."
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POPSModern lifestyle compounds global warming We have to start changing the way that we live. This isn't a problem that is specific to any country in particular, but seems to be a 'side effect' of an 'improvement in living standards' across the world. Another case of where while it may be easy to point out a problem, but how this problem can be solved is completely beyond us. Where the intervention of the authorities is pointless, because it involves a change in lifestyle as a personal decision. There is also a general failure to recognize that the problems such as overconsumption of power, energy, and fuel, with obesity, and overeating, and over cultivating, so we will have trouble providing for ourselves, have a character that can be compared to many addictions. Beside the denial that there is a problem. The allusion that it is something beyond our control, yet somehow it will all work out in the end.
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POPSFootball on the Sabbath? Certainly not! This is a tough one - it's my background, so I kind of get the argument. At the end of the day, I don't follow sabbath observance, but I do respect the culture it comes from... However, would letting them play not be a really good way of celebrating their talents (or god-given gifts, as no doubt sporting prowess is considered to be by such religious commmunities)? ps. football in this case is soccer ;-)
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POPSsmart kids vs popular kids
Partly because teenagers are still half children, and many children are just intrinsically cruel. Some torture nerds for the same reason they pull the legs off spiders. Before you develop a conscience, torture is amusing.Another reason kids persecute nerds is to make themselves feel better.But I think the main reason is that it's part of the mechanism of popularity. Popularity is only partially about individual attractiveness. It's much more about alliances. To become more popular, you need to be constantly doing things that bring you close to other popular people, and nothing brings people closer than a common enemy. It's important for nerds to realize that school is not life. School is a strange, artificial thing, half sterile and half feral. It's all-encompassing, like life, but it isn't the real thing. It's only temporary, and if you look, you can see beyond it even while you're still in it.<< Interesting read.Written by someone who was considered to be a "nerd" at school.
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POPS The Politics Of Freedom: David Boaz (continued) heading early Wednesday for a new round of speeches, rallies and town meetings in West Virginia, which holds its primary on May 13," The New York Times reports. "Highlighting the financial woes of her campaign, Mrs. Clinton has lent her campaign more than $6 million over the last month, according to campaign officials." "Republicans have been trying to drive libertarian voters out of their party. But so far Democrats aren't jumping on that opportunity."
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POPSThe side effects of Ritilin "How many future Beethovens, Thomas Jeffersons, Ernest Hemingways, Martin Luther Kings and Maya Angelous are we currently drugging into stupors in our schools and nation? Men and women of greatness are probably the least likely to sit still and do the normal schoolwork directed at the average student. How many non-drugged kids would have never become famous, but would have been able to hold a job at Wal-Mart, get married, have kids, go bowling, collect the next Beanie Babies, attend church, and enjoy life but are now doomed to become drug addicts, felons, and just plain psychotic?"
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