20 May 09 Breaking News, Internet Filled With Perverts
Imagine this: the sun is shining, the birds are singing and you have taken the family to the park for some good wholesome fun. Then it happens. At the edge of the playground furthest from the park benches loaded with smiling parents a nondescript man walks up. Before anyone has even noticed him he has dropped trou and is giving half the playground a lesson in male anatomy. And just as quickly he is off and only to be described to police as “He swung a little to the left and I think he had the herp.” Anonymous perverts randomly corrupting the youth. They’re out there, they’ve made the transition to the new digital medium, and they have organized. (more…)
19 May 09 Kids Are Messy, Clean Up
It will happen. Somehow junior’s bowl of cheerios will find its way into your laptop. Or the crayon art projects will extend to the wallpaper. So how to best clean it all up? Trial and error may not always be a good idea as some solvents and cleaning solutions can leave stains worse than what you are trying to remove. Well the internets to the rescue. Over at HowToCleanStuff.net there are numerous guides on, well, how to clean stuff. Organized neatly by category and searchable as well, it should come in handy for junior’s next big adventure. (more…)
13 Apr 09 News Flash: Online Distractions Can Lead to Lower Grades
Research at Ohio State University has found that Facebook is not studying. Or as researcher Aryn Karpinsk put it “Our study shows people who spend more time on Facebook spend less time studying,” Shocking, I know.
The researchers used a sample of 219 undergraduate and graduate students to collect data on study habits and internet usage with a focus on Facebook usage. Among the findings was the statistic that 65% of Facebook users will check their account at least daily and usually more often than that. The study also notes that Facebook users have a significantly lower GPA than non Facebook users. Which can mean only one thing. Facebook, like Hulu and television, is emitting brain rotting pathogens designed to make out grey matter fit for alien consumption.
(more…)
Tags: distractions, GPA, study, time management
08 Apr 09 An Instruction Set For Family Fun
DIY projects can be a great way to spend time with your kids and having a good set of instructions to work from can really help. And there is no better place to find piles of fantastic DIY guides than at Instructables. So we here at Dadmins were very excited to hear that Make has partnered with Instructables to release The Best of InstructablesVolume 1 in print form, because DIY doesn’t always happen around a computer. but it gets even better than that. The whole set of howtos from the book are all online and linked together so you know exatly what is in the book before you buy it! Content online for free! The sky is falling.
Seriously, this is some good stuff. Buy a copy and go build something (and some memories) with your kids. (more…)
07 Apr 09 Big Inputs For Little Hands
Little kids love to push buttons, even more so when pushing buttons makes something happen. Computers are great at making things happen when you push buttons so kids and computers are a great fit, right? Well little keys on big keyboards don’t get along with little clumsy hands so well. And somehow kids can always find that one key, that magic key that downloads the virus, deletes the file, or crashes the computer. I don’t know how they find it, they just do. So what to do?
(more…)
06 Apr 09 Help The Next Generation Master Robots Before Robots Master Us
When the day comes that the robots rise up and execute their cold and efficient plan to kill all humans there will be two kinds of people on the planet. There will be those that know the innermost workings of robots and can use that precious knowledge to target and exploit weaknesses in their brutal clockwork to stand and fight back and there will be those that are doomed to spend their days running. When that day comes, Chicago will be a fortress of humanity, chock full of robotics experts thanks to Bots 4 Tots.
(more…)
Tags: bots 4 tots, charity, chicago, Robot
03 Apr 09 Pirates And Ninjas Fight For Your Child’s Amusement
Pirates vs Ninjas, who wins? The world will never know as no one has witnessed this battle royale and survived to tell the tale. But now you can give your child a somewhat safer reenactment with the help of the Ninja vs Pirate mobile abailable on Etsy. Or atleast it was available on Etsy. The soon to be rich creator of this and other great mobiles has sold out of Ninja vs Pirates. No word yet on restock time.
03 Apr 09 Don’t Sit So Close To Your DS, You’ll Go Blind
Saturday morning cartoons and a big bowl of lucky charms, as a kid that was the life. Of course there would be the inevitable interruption from mom poking her head in with a “Don’t sit so close, you’ll ruin your eyes.” or “Turn that thing off. You’ve been glued to it for an hour already.” Well technology has just replaced mom. A new gadget called the Health Control Game Timer has been released for the Nintendo DS. At a cost of 3,990 yen (about $40) this device plugs into the GBA port of the DS and can monitor how long you play and how far away you are holding the DS.
(more…)
31 Mar 09 Hothead Technologies Protects Players From Hothead Coaches
Back in high school there was a coach who wouldn’t stop pushing until about 30 seconds after you collapsed from heatstroke. ‘You have to push to the limit if you’re gonna be the best’ he would say, and I guess dropping like a sack of potatoes was his way of knowing you hit the ‘limit’. Well just in time for summer football camp Hothead Technologies has announced a device that should dramatically reduce the number of heatstroke cases, 33 of which have resulted in death in the past 5 years.
(more…)
Tags: football, heatstroke, sports
30 Mar 09 Kids Don’t Do What They Are Told, Science Suggests Why
There are many reasons for kids of every age to not do as they are told. But in the case of toddlers there may be a developmental reason for it. Research conducted by psychology professor Yuko Munakata and colleagues at the University of Colorado at Boulder suggest that children around age 3 operate in a more reactionary state rather than predictive.
With a group of children aged 3.5 to 8 years old the researchers measured mental effort during a game they designed. The game was simple Blue (of Blue’s Clues) likes watermelon, when a watermelon comes after Blue press the smiley face. Sponge Bob (of the Square Pants) does not. So if the watermelon comes after Sponge Bob then press the sad face.
(more…)
Tags: development, psychology, thought process
Polls
Friended by your Kids?
- My child doesn't have a facebook page (I think.) (33%, 1 Votes)
- Nope, and I've asked. (0%, 0 Votes)
- No, because I haven't and don't intend to ask. (33%, 1 Votes)
- You bet. We're a facebook family. (34%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 3
Loading ...