TechyDad

I’ve talking about Sid The Science Kid before. I reviewed and hosted a giveaway for a Sid toy. I even mentioned a great episode about vaccines. So how could Sid get any better? How about like this:

Yes, that’s the complete Sid The Science Kid Vaccine episode able to be viewed online. And no, it’s not a pirated version, but a fully approved version. Don’t think it could get better than that? Well, if you go to Flu.gov, you can download this Sid episode for free.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of online video. I stream Netflix movies regularly on my Roku (especially another Henson production, Farscape). I’ve also considered cutting the cable cord more than once. (If we did, I’d be glad that PBS Kids, and thus Sid the Science Kid and Dinosaur Train would be available via over-the-air television.) Being able to watch a Sid episode on my computer via the Internet is great. (Note to PBS Kids: Please consider making a Roku channel to stream full episodes to people’s Roku boxes on demand. My kids would love this!)

During the giveaway I ran, I promised that I’d soon be reviewing the Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid plush as soon as I received it.  Well, it took a little longer than expected, mainly due to Chanukah swamping my kids with new toys.  They went into overload mode and I knew I wouldn’t get a good opinion out of them right then and there.  So I waited for the toy high to die down and then had them play with Talkin’ Sid. Read more…

The week is up and the Sid the Science Kid giveaway has ended. I used Random.org to pick a winning number from the 59 entries and the winner was:

Yes, number 12, also known as Noelle Cagle has won a Talkin’ Sid plush. I’ve e-mailed Noelle and she now has 48 hours to respond with her mailing information. If she fails to respond, another winner will be selected.

Congratulations to Noelle and thank you to everyone that entered. I wish I could send a Sid plush to everyone, but I’ll have to settle with saving everyone $3.00 off the purchase of the Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid plush at Toys ‘R Us. Go to Coupons.com and click on the “Toy and Game” link on the left hand side of the page. (Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid is currently only available at Toys ‘R Us.)

I would also like to thank The Jim Henson Company and KCET (PBS/Los Angeles) for allowing us to run this contest and for sending us a Talkin’ Sid of our own to review. This review is in progress look for it in the next week or so.

I love science. Always have. As a young child, a couple of my first career aspirations were archeologist and astronomer. (Of course, I wanted to become a baker too at one point.) My first year in college, I was a physics major until I slammed into that brick wall known as Quantum Mechanics. (Yes, I took Quantum Mechanics in my freshman year. Russian too. Yes, I was crazy!) Even though I didn’t choose science as a career, I still retain an interest in all things scientific. I enjoy reading about scientific advances and try to keep somewhat up to date with the latest scientific theories.

Lately, I’ve also been trying to ignite a scientific interest in NHL. I’ve talked to him about how the stars are very far away. So far away, in fact, that looking up in the sky is like looking back in time. I also like it when he watches shows, like Sid the Science Kid, that show science to be fun and exciting. (Oh, by the way, did you enter my Sid the Science Kid giveaway yet? If not, what’s keeping you? Go! Enter now!) Even better is when he comes home from school and starts telling me about some scientific information he learned in school. NHL definitely seems to have that scientific spark – the desire to know how things in the world work the way they do.

My Aloha Friday question is: How do you inspire your child to take an interest in science?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the MckLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #17

I’m a big proponent of science. I was even a physics major for awhile in college. So I like anything that helps to teach my children about the workings of the world around them. In addition, I’m a big fan of pretty much everything that the Jim Henson Company makes (and has made), from the Muppets to the television show Dinosaurs to Farscape. When I watch a Jim Henson production, I can be sure that it will be entertaining and high quality. Sid The Science Kid is no exception.

Sid always begins the show puzzled by a certain phenomenon. Whether it be a banana gone bad or shoes that "mysteriously shrink", Sid wonders how the event happened. Just like any good science kid, or grownup, Sid uses various tools to figure it out. He looks up information on the computer (aided by his mother), he comes up with a few theories (aided by his school yard friends), and he performs some experiments (with the help of Teacher Susie). In the end, Sid understands just what makes that phenomenon occur and starts to dream of putting it to good use (in his Super-Duper-Ooper-Schmooper Big Idea). The translation of the processes that real scientists go through is faithful while remaining understandable to children.

NHL has loved the Sid the Science Kid television show for quite awhile (as I’ve mentioned in the past). During a recent trip to a toy store to shop for Chanukah presents, he noticed the Sid toys. He was drawn to them and wanted one. In the end, we we decided to get him other items, but thanks to The Jim Henson Company and KCET (PBS/Los Angeles), NHL will soon have a Sid The Science Kid Talkin’ Sid to review. Ok, technically it is for me to review, but you don’t think I’m not going to recruit him to review it as well, do you?

You can save $3.00 off the purchase of the Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid plush at Toys ‘R Us by going to Coupons.com and clicking on the "Toy and Game" link on the left hand side of the page. Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid is currently only available at Toys ‘R Us.

But, wait, there’s more! (I’ve always wanted to say that.) I’ve been presented with the opportunity to give away one Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid plush to a lucky reader (or a lucky reader’s child as the case may be).

TALKIN’ SID THE SCIENCE KID

(Ages 3 years & up/Approx retail price: $24.99/Available Now)

Now kids can bring their friend SID home with the lively TALKIN’ SID THE SCIENCE KID plush character. This soft and loveable plush SID is 12 inches tall and comes ready to play and learn with his iconic "microphone." Squeeze his belly to hear seven different popular phrases from the series. Requires two "AA" batteries, included.

Rules for Giveaway:

• MAIN RULE – Answer the following question: What phenomenon would you like to see Sid investigate on Sid The Science Kid?
  
• 1 Bonus Entry – Follow me on Twitter @TechyDad. Post a comment here with your Twitter username.
• 1 Bonus Entry Per Day – Tweet about the giveaway. Be sure to include @TechyDad in the Tweet. Please leave a direct link to your Tweet in a separate comment for each daily entry. Example Tweet (feel free to use): Chance to win a Talkin’ Sid The Science Kid Plush from @TechyDad. http://www.techydad.com/?p=1426
• 1 Bonus Entry Per Comment (limit of 3) – Post a comment one of my other posts from November or December. Be sure to leave a comment here telling me which post you commented on.
• 3 Bonus Entries – Write a post on your blog linking to my blog about the Sid The Science Kid giveaway. Be sure to leave 3 comments about this to get credit for all of your extra entries

To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today December 7th and ends at Noon EST on December 14, 2009. You don’t need to be a blogger to enter, but I do need you to leave a valid e-mail address in your comment so I can contact you for your mailing address once the giveaway is over. I’ll select the winner using random.org and will contact you via e-mail. Once the e-mail is sent, you will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. residents only.

Disclaimer: As stated above, I am going to recieve a complimentary Talkin’ Sid the Science Kid to review. I haven’t recieved it as of this posting, but I figured that this giveaway should go live as early as possible. When I recieve my Talkin’ Sid, I (and NHL) will review it and will post the review on this website.

Hey Sid, What do you say! What do you want to learn today? I want to know what things happen and how, and I wanna know everything now. How does this thing work? Why does that stuff change? How’d it do what it just did. What’s up with the sky do you think i can fly The world is big and I wanna know why Got a lot of questions and big ideas, I’m Sid the Science Kid.

Those words begin one of NHL’s favorite shows: Sid the Science Kid. Sid constantly tries to figure out the big questions in life like: Why does a banana turn mushy? Or why does it need to rain when you have an outdoors activity planned? Those might not seem like big questions to adults, but to kids questions like these are huge. And for good reason too. Children are just figuring out how the world works and questions like these are key.

Read more…

A few weeks ago, we looked through a local community college’s summer camp brochure trying to figure out which sessions to sign NHL up for. We definitely wanted a dinosaur one since NHL loves dinosaurs. (Even moreso after we saw Walking With Dinosaurs.) For the other session, this listing caught my eye (click to enlarge):

Did you notice something wrong with that listing? That’s right, they’re calling the study of the planets, space and stars “Astrology.” I wanted to make sure that they wouldn’t be teaching my son about birth signs and how the alignment of the planets determines our destiny so we called to confirm. Yes, they meant “Astronomy”, not “Astrology.” While I found this mess-up a little funny, it was also a little scary to imagine that someone in the community college didn’t know the difference between the two. I’d recommend whoever messed this up head on over to the Bad Astronomy blog, run by the wonderful Phil Plait, and find out just why Astrology is wrong.

As so many others have mentioned, it is the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 program and the first human to walk on the Moon. Unfortunately, the original, high-quality tapes of the Moon landing seem to have been lost. Overwritten with new data during lean times when magnetic storage tapes were hard to come by. It’s a small consolation that NASA is working hard on finding the best available footage of the Moon landing and have hired experts on video restoration to clean it up as much as possible. Already, they’ve released a partially cleaned up copy of the video. A more complete copy is expected in September.

In addition, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter just sent back photos of some of the Apollo landing sites. The resolution isn’t perfect, so the details are grainy, but they are there. The LRO should be able to send back some higher resolution shots when it gets into its ideal orbit.

Of course, all of this isn’t going to be enough for the Moon hoaxers out there. Sadly, there are all too many people who think that the Moon landings were a hoax. Ignoring all science and evidence to the contrary, they insist that the Moon landing was actually filmed Hollywood-style on a soundstage. A thorough debunking of their claims is too in-depth for this posting (I’d recommend reading the Bad Astronomy website and seeing the Mythbuster’s Emmy nominated Moon Hoax episode), but suffice it to say that their claims do not survive scrutiny. 40 years ago, man actually walked on the Moon. Neil Armstrong pushed his boots down onto the Moon’s surface and left footprints that will (thanks to the Moon’s nearly-nonexistant atmosphere) last for hundreds of years.

The space program used to inspire our children to become scientists and engineers. Nowadays, kids yawn when presented with people going into space. Is it a coincidence that we’re dropping behind in science scores in school? Here’s hoping that NASA gets the funding (and the management organization) to do some truly dazzling things in space. We’re scheduled to head back to the Moon in 2020 and I’ve been told that it will take that long to do it right, but I’d love to see it happen sooner. Since the last Apollo mission was Apollo 17 in December of 1972, we haven’t gone to the Moon in my lifetime. We haven’t even gone beyond Low Earth Orbit with anything other than robots. Don’t get me wrong, robots are cool and all, but you still can’t beat the thrill of knowing that there’s an actual human walking around up there. My only consolation is that, by the time the next Moon mission rolls around, NHL will be 17 and JSL will be 13. That will be prime “influencing their future careers” time.

So here’s thanking those who bravely went where no man went before, those who followed them, and those who are working hard to ensure that we return there. We may have gotten side tracked along the way, but I hope that we will soon be watching images broadcast from almost 239,600 miles away as men (and women!) walk on the moon again.

There was a post on ProActiveDads.com today referencing an article about the Amish and Autism.  The article claimed that the Amish don’t raise their children and also don’t have any instances of Autism.  This, the article implied, was proof that vaccines caused (or at least were somehow linked to) autism.  Something about their reasoning didn’t sound right to me, so I did some digging.  It wasn’t hard.  A simple Google search for "autism Amish" turned up another article.  This article pointed out that many Amish do indeed vaccinate and that there are autistic Amish.  Their rates may appear lower, but there’s a reason for that:

[Dr. Kevin Strauss, MD, a pediatrician at the CSC] says a child in the general population is more likely to have autism detected early and to receive a diagnosis than an Amish child. "Amish child may not be referred to an MD or psychologist because the child is managed in the community, where they have special teachers," he says. "We know autism when we see it, but we don’t go actively into the Amish community and screen for ASD."

So the Amish aren’t as likely to take their children to the doctors who would diagnose the child as autisic.  Since the child wouldn’t be diagnosed, the autistic Amish child wouldn’t be listed in the statistics and the Amish would appear to have few, if any, cases of autism.

However, there’s a deeper flaw in the original Amish-Autism article that goes beyond lack of facts.  Even if the Amish didn’t vaccinate and even if the Amish had a lower, or even zero, rate of autism, that wouldn’t mean that vaccinations cause autism.  Correlation does not imply causation.  There are a lot of other factors that could lower the Amish rate of autism (assuming still that it was indeed lowered and not a statistical fluke caused by low reporting numbers).  Perhaps all the fresh air helps the development of the brain.  Perhaps working in a field has some benefit.  Perhaps the Amish simply tend to reproduce within their own community and their gene pool doesn’t contain as many genetic risk factors for autism.

To put the Correlation-Causation link another way, imagine a study that was made counting the number of firefighters at a blaze and how big the fire was.  You’d be sure to find out that there were more firefighters at the biggest fires.  If correlation equaled causation, you might conclude that firefighters caused fires and a lot of firefighters caused BIG fires.  In truth, the cause of the fires would be completely unrelated to the firefighters’ presence.

The Internet is a great resouce, but with the good information comes misinformation.  One must always take articles one reads online with a grain of salt and a critical eye especially if said article claims a conspiracy theory (that the author somehow uncovered despite the best efforts of the hugely powerful conspirators) or a scientific breakthrough found out by someone who hasn’t had (or won’t have) their work peer reviewed.  If the author is claiming a scientific conspiracy to keep something quiet, then your BS detector should be blaring sirens and flashing red warning lights like crazy.

The autism-vaccine link has been looked into multiple times and, save for a few isolated instances, no link has been found.  (One of the major studies used to back up the autism-vaccine claim was recently accused of falsifying data.)  If multiple studies don’t uncover a clear pattern, then any outliers that seem to indicate links are likely the result of other factors.

No, we don’t know everything about autism, but a few things are clear:  1) Vaccines protect us from dangerous diseases.  Look up Polio one day.  Images like this one have all but vanished in our modern world thanks to vaccines.  2) Not vaccinating your child puts them at risk.  Many diseases (e.g. measles) are making comebacks thanks to a growing number of unvaccinated children.  You can’t simply not vaccinate and trust that your child will always be surrounded by vaccinated children.  3) Children are exposed to millions of germs every day.  The one to five that they get in one vaccine is nothing for their immune system.  It is certainly preferable that they be exposed to the vaccine versions of the germs (which are mostly incapable of causing the disease) rather than be exposed to the full disease-causing version.