Ketchingup

It's all about strategic planning: Runpee.com identifies slow and unimportant spots in movies to help you know when to make that run to the bathroom.

-----

This is pretty cool:

Anyway, I now operate a little mini-library that no one has access to but myself. Practically a real library, because I keep an inventory log and give people due dates and everything. I would be in so much trouble if I got caught, but I think it's the right thing to do because before I started, almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I'm doing a good thing, right? Oh, and since you're probably wondering "Why can't you just go to a local library and check out the books?" most of the kids are too chicken or their parents won't let them but the books. . . .

More

-----

Cool sounding book:

Children, particularly boys, often produce violent images in their drawings, he says. But when it comes to children's books, this becomes a taboo. They're often fluffy and fleecy, but there's rarely room in the children's section for the scenes of slaughter that many boys like to draw. . . .

His book, One True Bear, is being claimed as the first picture book of its kind to include the "particular kind of drawing that boys do". Which he says parents of boys "know all about".

These primary school children's line drawings include battlefield scenes, planes dropping bombs, people shooting each other, tanks, someone impaled on a spike, buildings on fire and a clown with limbs pulled off. . . .

But he says children themselves make a clear distinction between such imaginary violence and real conflict and adults exaggerate the susceptibility of the young to be influenced.

"When children watch Peter Pan we don't expect them to jump out of the window. We underestimate their ability to filter," he said.

"We don't trust children to understand the difference between reality and play acting. . . . "

"Children, boys in particular, have been play acting at hunting, chasing, killing and dying since the beginning of human history," says Dr Thompson.

"There is no connection between writing violent stories and committing violence. If you write violent stories, you are not going to end up in jail, you are going to end up in Hollywood writing action movies."

Full article

-----

Under the "OMG" heading, a game for kids called Border Patrol: There is one simple objective to this game, keep them out . . . at any cost! Whether they be a "Mexican Nationalist," a "Drug Smuggler," or a "Breeder," the only three possible types of border crossers from what I can tell.