Social worker and blogger Jae Ran Kim applied a “social worker’s perspective to the wholesome characters in popular Disney movies” and asked, “How many of these beloved characters live in a married, two-parent (hetero) household?”
• Aladdin (Aladdin) — orphaned and homeless; petty crimes for food and shelter
• Annie (Annie) — orphan adopted by rich single dad
• Ariel (The Little Mermaid) — dead mother, rebellious teen who runs away to be with a man
• Aristocats — Marie, Berlioz and Toulouse — three kittens raised by a single mother
• Bambi (Bambi) — raised by single mother who is murdered, has never met his absent father
• Belle (Beauty and the Beast) — dead mother, raised by single father
• Cinderella (Cinderella) — dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful, absent father
• Dumbo (Dumbo)— raised by a stigmatized, depressed single mother
• Elliot (Pete‚Äôs Dragon) — orphaned, runaway from abusive foster parents, adopted by single mother
• Hercules (Hurcules) — son of gods transracially adopted by humans
• Lilo (Lilo and Stitch)— orphaned, raised by older sister
• Mowgli (The Jungle Book)— orphaned, raised by 2-male heads of household (bear and panther)
• Mulan (Mulan) — cross-dressing teen girl with intact, multi-generational family unit
• Nemo (Finding Nemo) — dead mother, raised by single overprotective father
• Oliver (Oliver & Company) — orphaned kitten transracially adopted by rich girl
• Peter Pan (Peter Pan) — orphaned, troublemaker and gang leader of Lost Boys
• Penny (The Rescuers) — orphaned girl kidnapped from orphanage
• Pinocchio (Pinocchio) — wooden toy adopted by aged creator Gepetto
• Pochahontas (Pocahontas) — dead mother, raised by single father
• Quasimoto (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) — physically disabled male adopted by evil church minister Frollo
• Simba (The Lion King) — father murdered by uncle, raised by 2-male heads of household (meerkat and warthog)
• Sleeping Beauty (Sleeping Beauty) — parents transferred custody to 3 fairies
• Snow White (Snow White & the 7 dwarves) — dead mother, raised by abusive Stepmother and neglectful father
• Tarzan (Tarzan)— orphaned, transracially adopted by gorilla family
2. Top 10 Myths About The Middle Ages
3. The Astrophysics of Bedtime Stories
SteelyKid is a big fan of the classic children’s book Goodnight Moon, which, if you haven’t spent the last sixty-odd years in a cave, you probably know features a bunny saying goodnight to a variety of objects in a great, green room. The attentive toddler will find a lot to look at in the pictures— there’s a mouse in every one that SteelyKid delights in pointing out— but an inquiring adult might well ask “Just how long does it take this bunny to say goodnight to all this stuff, anyway?”Well, we can answer this question with SCIENCE! You see, there are six pictures in the book showing the moon through one of the room’s windows, and as the book goes along, the moon moves higher in the window. This provides a way to estimate the passage of time in the book.
4. Conspicuous Consumption of the Week: The craze for vanity mobile phone numbers in Kuwait has reached a new level after the easy-to-remember number 55555555 was sold for [$750,000 U.S. dollars] .
5. Fact of the Week: Average teen sends 3,339 texts per month
6. Weird News of the Week: Crocodile on plane kills 19 passengers
A stowaway crocodile on a flight escaped from its carrier bag and sparked an onboard stampede that caused the flight to crash, killing 19 passengers and crew.The croc had been hidden in a passenger’s sports bag - allegedly with plans to sell it - but it tore loose and ran amok, sparking panic.
A stampede of terrified passengers caused the small aircraft to lose balance and tip over in mid-air during an internal flight in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
7. LBJ Almost Accidentally Shot Hours After JFK Assassination
A former Secret Service agent says in his new book that he nearly shot President Lyndon B. Johnson hours after John F. Kennedy’s assassination.In “The Kennedy Detail,” Gerald Blaine recalls standing guard outside the Washington home of newly sworn-in President Johnson in the early hours of Nov. 23, 1963.
Blaine heard footsteps approaching. He picked up his submachine gun and, in the darkness, pointed it at the chest of a man who turned out to be Johnson.
Blaine writes that the enormity of what had almost happened left him chilled. He realized that, 14 hours after losing one president, the nation had almost lost another one by his hand.
8. Quote of the Week: “What’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke, too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the Cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good. Liz Taylor knows it, the President knows it, the bum knows it, and you know it.” - Andy Warhol
9. Do Intelligent People Drink More Alcohol?
The next time you’re inclined to enjoy an extra glass of wine, consider that it may be a reflection of your intelligence.That is one of the findings from data from the National Child Development Study in the United Kingdom and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the United States.
[ . . . ]
More intelligent children in both studies grew up to drink alcohol more frequently and in greater quantities than less intelligent children. In the Brits’ case, “very bright” children grew up to consume nearly eight-tenths of a standard deviation more alcohol than their “very dull” cohorts.
10. Top 10 Lesser Known Mysteries
11. 2012 Mayan apocalypse calculation might be off
It’s a good news/bad news situation for believers in the 2012 Mayan apocalypse. The good news is that the Mayan “Long Count” calendar may not end on Dec. 21, 2012 (and, by extension, the world may not end along with it). The bad news for prophecy believers? If the calendar doesn’t end in December 2012, no one knows when it actually will — or if it has already.
12. Image of the Week: Bence Mate, Fly to Eye
13. Art Tool of the Week: Mural Locator - Locate Murals Around the World
14. Founding Fathers’ papers to be accessible online
History buffs will soon be able to explore the private thoughts and official writings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and other Founding Fathers in a public, online clearinghouse of their letters, journals and other documents.The University of Virginia Press is putting the published papers of Washington, Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin on a National Archives website that is expected to be accessible to the public in 2012.
When complete, the website will allow users to read, browse and search the text of tens of thousands of documents from the period.
15. Top 10 Unusual or Unique Flags
16. Spain Holds National Siesta Competition
The competitors started off by lying down. On blue sofas. Some in pajamas. Most fast asleep and a few on the verge of snoring.What is billed as Spain’s first national siesta championship is underway in Madrid.
It’s something of a wake-up call for a country that’s become so fast-paced that many say the traditional siesta is at risk.
“The modern life is a danger that we feel is against the siesta. When you sleep la siesta everyone has the image that your life is calm, you have a good life. And then, the modern life is a direct attack,” said Daniel Blanco, president of the National Association of Friends of the Siesta.
(Via: Neatarama )
17. Infographic of the Week: Just How Massive Is Google, Anyway?
18. Airplane food tastes bad because your brain can’t handle the noise
Generally speaking, it’s not just that airplane food tastes bad - most passengers, when asked, report that the food is bland and a bit flavorless. Airlines have been very heavily seasoning and salting their foods for years in an attempt to counteract that, but they don’t have much success to show for it. As it turns out, it might have been easier to just figure out a way to make the engines run silently.That rather strange conclusion comes from a new study at the University of Manchester. Researcher Andy Woods noticed airplanes weren’t the only place where food had to be heavily seasoned to get any flavor, and he wondered about a possible connection . . .
19. 20 mad scientists who turned against their creations
20. Ten Things Learned from Watching ‘Mission: Impossible’ Reruns
If the mission takes place in a foreign country, don’t worry about not being able to speak the language. Native speakers communicate in accented English, even when no English speakers are around. (Corollary: to convince a native speaker that you are from his country, put on the appropriate accent.)
22. HistoricalLOL of the Week
23. 8 Natural Disasters of Ancient Times
24. World’s Most Considerate Computer Thief Backs Up Victim’s Data, Mails It to Him
When a professor at Sweden’s Umea University had his computer stolen, he was devastated by the loss of his data more than anything. But a week after the theft, he got a package in the mail: A USB drive.The thief had backed up his data and mailed it to him.
25. Monet 2010 is an interactive experience celebrating Claude Monet for the historic exhibition at Grand Palais, Paris, France. By clicking on ‘Journey’ you can see Monet’s work at a glance through a unique digital experience. (Via: The Presurfer )
26. Understanding Alphanumeric Phone-Numbers
These days, telephone numbers are just . . . numbers. A sequence of digits which, when entered into your phone correctly, should bring you in contact with the owner of number who should be the person you want to speak to. Simple, isn’t it? And yet, some of us may remember a time, perhaps not too long ago, when a telephone-number didn’t start with a number, but rather a series of letters or a word. Welcome to nostalgic and at times, confusing world of alphanumeric telephone numbers.
(Via: Neatorama )
27. How-To of the Week: Buy a Home at a $100,000 Discount
28. 10 Notable Buildings People Hated
29. Engineer Uses Knowledge Physics to Save a Life
Driving to a Mariners game, Duane Innes saw a pickup ahead of him drift across lanes of traffic, sideswipe a concrete barrier and continue forward on the inside shoulder at about 40 mph.A manager of Boeing’s F22 fighter-jet program, Innes dodged the truck, then looked back to see that the driver was slumped over the wheel. He knew a busy intersection was just ahead, and he had to act fast. Without consulting the passengers in his minivan — “there was no time to take a vote” — Innes kicked into engineer mode.
“Basic physics: If I could get in front of him and let him hit me, the delta difference in speed would just be a few miles an hour, and we could slow down together,” Innes explained
(Via: Geekosystem )
30. Top 10 Fast Food Recipes You Can Make at Home
31. A Rainfall Theory of Democracy
hy have some countries remained obstinately authoritarian despite repeated waves of democratization while others have exhibited uninterrupted democracy? This paper explores the emergence and persistence of authoritarianism and democracy. We argue that settled agriculture requires moderate levels of precipitation, and that settled agriculture eventually gave birth to the fundamental institutions that under-gird today’s stable democracies. Although all of the world’s societies were initially tribal, the bonds of tribalism weakened in places where the surpluses associated with settled agriculture gave rise to trade, social differentiation, and taxation. In turn, the economies of scale required to efficiently administer trade and taxes meant that feudalism was eventually replaced by the modern territorial state, which favored the initial emergence of representative institutions in Western Europe.
(Via: Marginal Revolution )
32. 5 times we almost nuked ourselves by accident
33. How to (Safely) Set Yourself on Fire
Note: Don’t actually do this.
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For this week only, a generous supporter has offered to fully match all new and increased donations to First Things up to $60,000.
In other words, your gift of $50 unlocks $100 for First Things, your gift of $100 unlocks $200, and so on, up to a total of $120,000. But if you don’t give, nothing.
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Make your year-end gift go twice as far for First Things by giving now.
