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Camperdown Memorial park children’s playground is in disrepair. From the pile of empty bottles outside the playground it looks as if there was a party in the playground. And a rowdy one at that.

The lock on the gate is broken. So without an ever constant eye a child may escape. Or a dog may enter.

And both sand pits are full of cigarette buts. Not to mention the odd bottle cap and piece of glass. Not really the thing for a kids playground. I can see some kid slicing their foot open.

The sandpits need someone to run them through a sieve, like they do at the major beaches.

Now the broken swing I can’t definitely blame on the apparent party, but it is another sign of disrepair.

Considering inner city Sydney has a baby boom, it would be nice if facilities for children were kept in better repair.

Building Lego ducks for my child I ran out of appropriate blocks. Desperate to complete the project, as any Lego mad scientist would do, I chose to opt for a hybrid animal.

Using pieces from the farm set, cow genes were combined with the existing duck, resulting in the transgenic (cow)duck.

But how far should one take playing God?
Is it ethical to create GMO Lego?
And are we warping our children’s imagination?

In related news:
(of a more serious nature)

• GM canola gets go-ahead in NSW and Vic (SMH, 27 Nov 2007)

THOUSANDS more toys are being pulled from Australian shelves as an international investigation delves deeper into China’s disgraced manufacturing industry. In a recorded statement, Mattel’s Australian marketing director, Julie Kearns, said the company had been testing toys since the paint scandal broke. See service.mattel.com (SMH, 6 Sept 2007)

read more | digg story

“IT’S FATHER’S DAY tomorrow and, while fathers of all ages deserve praise and acclamation, we should raise a special cheer for the nation’s more recent dads.” A humorous list of 30 changes in their lives new fathers may recognise. (SMH, 1 Sept 2007)

read more | digg story

Dora is recalled from exploring. Sesame Street is no longer giggling. Barney is facing extinction.

Mattel is recalling 83 models of Fisher-Price toys. In Australian the product recall is estimated at 43,000 and in the USA at nearly 1,000,000.

An article from Associated Press, appearing in many publications, indicates that there were quality control errors in a number of toy manufactured in China. Reports attribute the product recall to the level of lead in paint on the toys.

The reports advise that parents should remove the toys from their children and check against the list of recalled products. And that Australian consumers need to contact Mattel Australia directly for refunds or exchange, on 1800 674 753 (M-F 9-5) or www.service.mattel.com

Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece, if you want more details go read the articles below.

References

1. Fisher-Price toys recalled in Australia (SMH, 2 Aug 2007)
2. Fisher-Price recalls almost 1 million toys (SMH, 2 Aug 2007)
3. Australian list of recalled toys (SMH, 2 Aug 2007)
4. US list of toys included in recall (SMH, 2 Aug 2007)
5. Fisher-Price to Recall Nearly 1M Toys (WashingtonPost, 2 Aug 2007)
6. Fisher-Price To Recall 967,000 Toys Worldwide Because Of Lead In Paint (NBC11, 2Aug 2007)

I could keep posting links, but they are all excerpts of the same story by Anne D’Innocenzio and Natasha T. Metzler of the Associated Press

Blogs

1. Lead Paint on Fisher-Price Toys, Worldwide Recall (Pajamadeen, 1 Aug 2007)
2. Fisher Price Toys Recalled in Australia (Babystyle blog, 2 Aug 2007)
3. Fisher-Price recalls nearly 1 million toys for lead paint contamination (MomSquark, 2 Aug 2007)
4. Dora the Explorer Explores the Wonderful World of Lead Paint (TortsProf Blog, 2 Aug 2007)

The list could go on. There were around 15,000 blog posts listed on Technorati when last I checked. Technarati Fisher-Price posts

There is a current baby boom in inner city Sydney. And it is putting strain on the resources that weren’t expecting it. Just ask RPA who down sized their labour ward before the boom.

If you walk around Newtown you will notice a increase in number of babies over the last few years. Other inner city suburbs have been seeing it too. My theory for the current boom has nothing to do with the PM’s baby bonus. It is a nice addition, but it was already going to happen. And it is nice to see that the Sydney Morning Herald agrees with me.

So why the current explosion in baby number in the inner city? Professional women. There are many women who focused on work rather than family (having children) now in their early to mid 30s, who have decided it is best to have children while they can.

The current explosion of births is just a flow on from a previous explosion. The kids of the baby boomers are now having kids themselves.

And if like living in the inner city why move out to the ‘burbs to have kids? In the inner city things are close to hand, public transport is good and you already know the people in your community.

People are choosing not to give up the rest of their lives just to have kids.

References:

1. Two lattes with the tin lids, please - hold the Hills hoist (SMH, 7 July 2007)
2. Urban crawl: pram army hits inner Sydney (SMH, 7 July 2007)

Recently my small child has been taught Miss Polly Had A Dolly by Grandma. Some of the words are remembered, but not all of them, and I am expected to sing the song.

A search of Google brings up a number of version of the lyrics, mostly differing on what the doctor does, as well as sheet music and CDs with the song on it. Unfortunately finding the song as a sound file is another thing.

So where at 11:30pm do you find a song for a small child who is not sleepy?

iTunes music store it turns out. If you search for “Miss Polly” there are 33 listed songs. Two of the listed songs are pop music, with the rest being the nursery rhyme. So it is quite a popular song to record it seems. Ok, some of those listed are the same recording on different albums, but still quite a big list. And I was interested to find amongst the list an RnB version of the rhyme.

One of the better versions:

The RnB version:

Included below are lyrics familiar to me.

Miss Polly had a dolly
Who was sick, sick, sick,
So she called for the doctor
To be quick, quick, quick;
The doctor came
With his bag and his hat,
And he knocked at the door
With a rat-a-tat-tat.

I know a baby that has recently discovered sultanas, or ‘tanats‘ as they are called.

It seems Sunbeam has found bits of metal in some of its dried foods recently and is doing a product recall. Guess which company packages the tanas that are being eatern.

Some articles/posts I found on the recall:

• Sunbeam Fruit Recall (Essential Baby 23/09/2006)
• Angas Park and Sunbeam brand dried fruits (Product Recalls Australia 14/09/2006)
• Natural Country brand dried fruits (Product Recalls Australia 15/09/2006)
• Dried fruits - foreign matter (metal fragments) 13 September 2006 (Food Standards Australia New Zealand 13/09/2006)
• Sunbeam Foods recalls products (ABC 14/09/2006)
• Sunbeam issues product recall (Ninemsn 22/09/2006)
• Product Recall Information (Sunbeam Food site)
• Sunbeam recalls fruit over metal fears (News.com.au 22/09/2006)

While looking for info about the Sunbeam recall I also found this article about the Sunbeam/Angas PArk merger:

• 2004, ACCC ejournal no. 10 (search for Sunbeam on the page)

Found this on a community noticeboard. Reliable maybe and not too expensive, but don’t let them teach your kid English.

NASA accelerates the entrance of babies into the astronaut program, because in space no one can hear you scream.

(This will make more sense to people who have small children)