Blog Posts by Mira Jacob, Shine staff

Here's a fact that is hard to explain to a kid: We have an estimated 23,000 nuclear weapons on earth, but we don't know where all of them are. In fact, according to Countdown to Zero, a riveting new documentary film, with nine nations possessing nuclear weapons capabilities and others racing to join them, the world is "held in a delicate balance that could be shattered by an act of terrorism, failed diplomacy, or a simple accident."

Growing up in New Mexico in the 1980s, I knew a few things about nuclear war:

1. The first ever atom bomb was built and detonated in Los Alamos, a few hours from where I lived.
2. One of the foothillls in the Sandia Mountains was filled with nuclear warheads, making Albuquerque target #1 for the Russians when it came time for World War III.
3. If the big flash of light every came, I'd save my family by putting us in a canoe and sailing us down the Rio Grande.

In other words, I knew just enough to make a strange tapestry of logic around an area I sensedRead More »from What do your kids know about nuclear attacks?

dWhy does it always seem like you've just gotten a rhythm established in your summer when--poof!--everything goes up in the air and the back to school dance begins? While some of us are craving a little alone time, nearly everyone has at least one back to school hurdle they are not excited about, whether that's shopping or making sure the kids get their homework done. What's your biggest challenge this year? Are you dreading the chunk of change you will inevitably part with? Worried that one of your kid's teachers may not be the best fit? Let us know below.

Jessi Slaughter's videos on YouTube shocked the millions who watched the 11-year-old girl mouth off."As a father, I was just trying to support my daughter and get people to stop hating," Gene Leonhardt told Good Morning America on Thursday, explaining why he followed up his 11-year-old daughter's foul-mouthed, threatening video on YouTube with another threatening video.

In an interview with Momlogic, mother Dianne Leonhardt explains that even though her family has become the target of a lot of hatred, she's not going to look at her daughter's contribution to the situation.

"The officers had said there were videos, but Jess denied making them. Then my mother-in-law called and said there we videos. But I haven't watched them. I can't be in the room 24/7. We tried to talk to Jess last night, but she got very upset all over again. I am trying to get her back to normal. It's taken a very emotional toll on her. I don't know if she made these videos or not, but she says she didn't. Right now, I am trying to figure out what's real and what's not. This has been very difficult to

Read More »from Parents of Jessi Slaughter speak out

Houlihan's chicken finger's dinner. Image courtesy of The Daily BeastCongrats, Chevy's. You are certainly doing your bit to further childhood obesity. In a Daily Beast article ranking the 25 worst meals for kids in national chains, Chevy's makes the list a whopping 6 times, offering up a kid's menu with everything from a 1,240 calorie flautas plate (ranked #3) to an 840 calorie taco meal (ranked #20). So does that make it better or worse than Friendly's, which shows up just once on the list with their #1 ranked, 2,270 calorie Mac & Cheese Quesadilla meal, replete with Friendly Frank, Shirley Temple, and Friend-z Peanut Butter cup?

If that's not enough to give readers a heart attack by proxy, this might be: Obesity among American children has tripled over the past 30 years, getting up to 19.6% in 2008, according to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. Read that again. That's almost one-fifth of our kids. The mind (and the arteries!) boggle.

While lists like this are shocking and sad, they also put the onus

Read More »from The 25 worst kid's meals from national chains

Image of Jessi Slaughter from her YouTube videoWho knows what 11-year-old Jessi Slaughter was thinking when she uploaded a potty-mouthed video of herself ranting on YouTube last Thursday. Maybe she just really needed to tell her "haters" to back off, as she claims in the video. Maybe being raised in the age of reality television got her to thinking that becoming famous for acting like a jerk was a good thing. Maybe she was just (duh) being an 11-year-old girl. Whatever the reason, the video shows her either making violent threats or playing with her bangs, basically coming across as a disturbing hybrid of the baby dancing to Beyonce and Mel Gibson.

If the video itself was not pretty, then the aftermath was downright brutal. As Gawker recaps:

"The Internet started picking on Jessi Slaughter relentlessly. But it was more than just mocking: People started circulating Jessi's real name, phone number, address and links to all her social networking accounts. Someone prank called her. According to Encyclopedia Dramatica,

Read More »from 11-year-old-girl gets beaten up by Internet, Dad rages

Pretty good indications that parenting times are changing? The Kids Are All Right, a movie about a lesbian couple whose two teenage children were conceived with the help of an anonymous sperm donor, is out this week to rave reviews. Oh, and I got an email from a friend entitled "Sperm donor choices of the week."

In it, C. writes:

Hello, dear and trusted friends. I'm sending you some stuff on two possible donors. Please let me know if anybody looks especially good or bad. The next step is to order (and pay for) more detailed profiles of the guys. If you are totally repulsed by this process, or do not want to advise, let me know, and I won't continue to annoy you!

She goes on to list the qualities she is looking for in a donor, and then it's time for my end of the bargain, should I choose to do it: "meeting" her donors via their profiles.

I know that some people will have issues with a grown woman choosing to raise a child on her own-I don't. C. is a loving,

Read More »from If the kids are alright, what's wrong with me? Feeling funny about meeting a friend's sperm donors

My best friend, one of those beautifully organized types who has a place for everything, once told me that in order to remember important appointments, she puts a cereal box in her living room the night before-- the idea being that when she wakes up and sees something out of place, she remembers her appointment. After several hours of wondering how I could employ the same strategy, I realized I would need to be able to park my car on my bed.

I am bad with small things. As in terrible. As in, once I found my keys in the toaster, no joke. So keeping track of my cell phone has become, well, the worst kind of chore. Why is everything that is so vital in life so small? Why can't my cell phone just ring itself when I can't find it? Why can't someone invent a cell phone/ dog hybrid that would actually follow me around the house?

This morning, as I did the IM of shame--you know, that ping you send to a coworker or friend, begging them to make your phone ring--Shine editor Joanna Douglas blew

Read More »from Lose your cell phone all the time? Find it now

Image courtesy of US magazineAre you ready for the Hollywood ending? Bristol Palin, the spokeswoman for the practice of abstinence-only when it comes to unmarried sexual relations, and Levi Johnston, the spokesman for pistachios, are getting married.

The couple, whose unplanned pregnancy in 2007 and subsequent breakup in 2008 provided vice-presidential hopeful Sarah Palin with some campaign hurdles, have been reportedly back on again for a few months. The news of their engagement, which broke in US magazine Wednesday morning, was also supposedly the first Sarah had heard of the planned nuptials.

"It is intimidating and scary just to think about what her reaction is going to be," Bristol told the magazine of the couple's reasoning behind breaking the news via tabloid. "Hopefully she will jump on board."

Well, the jury's out there. Even though he recently issued an apology, Sarah and Levi have spent the last two years berating each other through the press-with the high school hockey star alleging that

Read More »from Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston getting married, tell Sarah via tabloid