Usually, I wait until the end of December to take care of holiday-related shopping and shipping. This year, I've resolved to do better. This year, I'm hoping to ship holiday gifts before Christmas.
Fortunately, my SciBlings have come up with lots of great holiday recommendations to help you share science gifts with those you like and love.
I've compiled some of those suggestions here and I'll keep adding new ones as the month proceeds and people post them.http://scienceblogs.com/dispatches/2007/11/get_your_larry_craig_doll.php
Before we indulge the material world though, I'm going to add a quick suggestion to consider the non-trash producing, field-trip, kinds of gifts like memberships to science museums, aquariums, and zoos. Gifts that make memories are wonderful things.
If those gifts won't suffice, since we all live in the material world, and some of our friends and kids have passed the stage of being excited by Saturday morning trips to the science center, there are other options.
Let's see what the SciBlings have to say about holiday giving.
Shelley wants a brain. Not a jello brain, like the ones that you can make with Archie McPhees' jello molds. Oh no. Shelley wants hers to be knitted . And you'd better not forget the corpus callosum.
Greg Laden suggests the ever popular orgasmo alarm clock for those with trouble waking up.
PZ has some great advice on shopping for a holiday microscope. I, oops I mean the kids, have a Swift microscope (ours is in the picture on the right). We bought at Science, Art, and More in Seattle. It's great!
Last, Mo, from Neurophilosophy recommends a book, BibliOdyssey, compiled from brain images from the internet.
And, if you're a do-it-yourself kind of person, I have some ideas and instructions for making your own science-themed coffee mug.
More later.
Added 12/3/2007:
From Ed Brayton, we have the talking Larry Craig doll. The doll insists that it's not gay. I don't know if it can tap it's foot.
One the Bleiman brothers at Zooillogics has identified the must-have gift for cat owners. No, it's not a catnip mouse, it's a cat toilet training kit. And, they have a funny video of a cat actually using it! I don't think my cats would go for that sort of thing, but it would be amusing to try it out.
I wonder if Razib has ever tried to toilet train his cats.
Added 12/5/2007:
Janet suggests pretty rocks (well, okay, maybe they're semi-precious gems), guidebooks and magazine subscriptions.
After all, when people ask you about the difference between a dolphin and a porpoise, don't you want to know that answer? Me? I say "Never go anywhere without a porpoise."
Steve suggests the walking brain. This sounds like some kind of horror movie!
And Janet reminds us that there are children in the developing world who still don't have laptops! Yee gods, how do they chat?
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Sandra
A must have for anyone with kids between 5-15 is Howtoons . Well I have one too, so maybe 15 shouldn't be a hard stop :)
My parents gave me a little plastic microscope for my 4th birthday. One of the best presents I ever received. I discovered, in 2002, that they STILL make that model, and I bought it, and gave it to my parents as a little 'thank you' gift for getting me into science :)
I believe that if you click on my name at the bottom of this comment it will take you to my science sales site. ( there is a link there to the blog).
If you buy something from me, or someone else, I think it is a wonderful thing to get the kids something that is going to lay down neural pathways in their little brains that will last a lifetime! Even when the actual products themselves have turned to Iron oxide, (rust), or dust, the memories and excitement or learning and discovery can last forever!
I am a big advocate of catch them early and let them start to see the awe and wonder of it all!
Dave Briggs :~)
Thanks Dave!
That's why I make educational products, books, and CDs for students to work with molecular structures.
Thanks Sandra!
That's a fine web site you have! It certainly appears as if we are resonating at the same frequency! :~)
Albert Einstein once said that when a mind expands to hold a new, big idea, it never goes back to the smaller, original size! Studies have shown over and over again that physiologically, brains can be packed with orders of magnitude more neurons than the norm.
The last few years I have been blessed to be enlightened about how fortunate I have been to be able to learn and wonder at so much "scientific."
The awe and wonder that seems inherent in childhood, that too many times dissipates, can last a lifetime and grow throughout the entire lifetime!
Keep up the Great Job!
Dave Briggs :~)
Bathroom cat is all my brother's doing. I want nothing to do with that video.
Now our later post on Charles Mingus' cat toilet training technique, that's classy.