Help! My Child is a Philosopher

A new forum from Katarzyna de Lazari-Radek and Peter Singer, “to encourage parents to help children to develop their natural philosophical curiosity.”    The idea is for us to value and learn from the philosophical questions of children, but I also like to hope that a site like this can contribute to kids being encouraged to value philosophy early and often!

It’s new and the navigation still feels a bit raw.  See what you think, and consider registering to add your own stories.  The photos struck me as uniformly white and blond, but aside from that, it looks like a good start on a worthy project.

Stop the Presses: Dude Person Wearing Pink Shoes (Get the Fainting Couches & Smelling Salts Ready!)

From Sociological Images:

News Outlet Startled by [Male] Professional Athlete Wearing Pink

Honestly, if you ask me it’s a little matchey-matchey.
/snark

 

Now on a more serious line, I thought this was a noteworthy point:

 

Now this isn’t a big deal, but it is a particularly striking example of the little ways in which rules around gender are enforced.  Federer took a risk by wearing even a little bit of pink; the Daily Mail goes to great lengths to point this out.  He also gets away with it, in the sense that the article doesn’t castigate or attempt to humiliate him for doing so. […] Research shows that men who otherwise embody high-status characteristics — which includes being light-skinned, ostensibly straight, attractive, athletic, and wealthy — can break gender rules with fewer consequences

Adventurous Person Needed as Surrogate for Neanderthal Baby [Req: Womb (>=1)]

Scientists seem to have moved on from their Jurassic Park-esque dreams of “Raising the Mammoth” to a Jurassic Parkesque dream of raising a real live Neanderthal…inside a real live human’s womb.

 

If you think you have the right qualifications (a womb and, according to one of the scientists involved, an “adventurous” spirit,) you can fill out an application here.
(The application is a spoof)

 

What is not a spoof, however, is this quote from the same scientist dude (who might have been the inspiration for the scientist in the movie Bats–check the list of quotes for the joke):

… everyone will want to have a Neanderthal kid. Were they superstrong or supersmart? Who knows? But there’s one way to find out.”

 

Shout-out to my friend Nick for the tip on this one!