Suggestion Saturday: November 12, 2011

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, graphs, videos and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

 How a Population Grows to 7 Billion. A short video graphing the population boom.

 The Early Bird Really Gets the Worm. Like many other traits I highly suspect that we have little if any control over being early birds, night owls or something else entirely. I’m 100% a morning person and have been for as long as I can remember. Staying up late is extremely difficult (and sleeping in is impossible).

The Last Words of 25 Geniuses. Not sure how historically accurate this list is but it was quite interesting.

Babies Understand How People Think at Just 10 Months Old. The next time one of our siblings has a baby Aunt Lydia and Uncle Drew just might have to test this theory. 10 months seems awfully young to understand how others think!

This is just plain awesome:

This week’s book recommendation is Valerie Martin’s Property. As a young bride Manon Gaudet moved to a sugar plantation in New Orleans. Ten years later she’s trapped in a stale marriage to an occasionally violent man who has fathered two children with her slave, Sarah. When Manon inherits a small fortune her husband decides to exercise his right to dispose of the property and money as he sees fit.

At this time in history, after all, even wealthy, white women were at the mercy of the men around them.  Manon is oppressed because of her gender (and hates every moment of it) but doesn’t have the insight to see how she is also an oppressor.

What have you been reading?

 

2 Comments

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2 Responses to Suggestion Saturday: November 12, 2011

  1. Lorena

    I have a little nephew, and I can tell you that at 10 month he knew exactly when his parents would be displeased. He already knew how to pander to adults, and how to get what he wanted. I think for way too long adults have dismissed children as non-persons (not talking about you in particular). Children understand way more than we give them credit for. Some children, at that age, already know some sort of sign language and can be trained to even understand some written language.

    I, however, disagree with people who want to exploit that to make them into geniuses. They start teaching them stuff and tricks like if the babies were puppies, just to show off to their friends how smart the kid is.

    They should teach them, yes, how to play and be happy, not how to be geniuses. That’s my two cents 🙂

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