Publication News and Followups
rskloot | April 2, 2009
After seven happy years serving as a vice president, I have just finished my second term on the National Book Critics Circle board of directors. While I was on the board, I put together a document of tips for breaking into book reviewing called, Strategies for Breaking in and Staying in: Getting started as a critic, building your reviewing portfolio, going national, and keeping editors happy. It's no longer available on the NBCC's website, and I've gotten quite a few requests for it recently, so I've posted it here for those interested.
I put these tips together a few years ago --…
rskloot | March 24, 2009
Today, in their segment called "Seeing Eye Horse Shocks Store Patrons," Good Morning America featured a woman riding her full sized "Seeing Eye horse" through the grocery store (pictured left). In doing so, it made one of the most common media mistakes: focusing on the quirk factor (woman riding horse in store!) at the expense of the issues involved. The result is a classic oversimplification of a complex story that's pretty misleading about the use of horses as service animals: Most non-canine service animal
users are not, in fact, people who ride horses through stores.
As far as I…
rskloot | March 21, 2009
I'm pleased to announce that, starting in May 2009, I'll be writing a weekly science and health column for Slate's new Double X Magazine. I'll be covering any and all science that might be of interest to women (note: I won't just be covering science about specific female issues -- though I'll definitely cover those). Here, from Double X's website, is a description of the new magazine:
Double X is a new Web magazine, founded by women but not just for women, that Slate will launch in spring 2009. The site will spin off from Slate 's XX Factor blog,
where we've started a conversation among…
rskloot | March 2, 2009
The other day, the NY Times ran a story called "Picture Emerging on Genetic Risks of IVF. It reported on a new Centers for Disease Control study that found that children conceived through the most common infertility treatments had a slightly increased risk of several birth defects, including cleft palate and septal heart defects.  believe this is one of the largest studies looking into the connection between Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) and birth defects, but it's not  the first. Â
Way back in 2003, I wrote a story for Popular Science called "Sally Has Two Mommies + One Daddy…
rskloot | February 28, 2009Okay, so Culture Dish is now back from it's short down time for mourning (and finishing my massive pre-tenure dossier, which was due yesterday and looked something like this).  Lots of posting to catch up on. Â
First, this: Â After reading my recent NYTimes Magazine story on the use of non-canine service animals and the surrounding political turmoil (plus all the follow up here), two producers contacted me about doing a documentary on the subject. I'm not formally involved in the project, but I've talked to them at length, and their idea seems like a good one. Â They're hoping to get in…
rskloot | February 12, 2009
Culture Dish is mourning: After an amazingly long and wonderful life, my
dog Bonny died at home peacefully on February 7, 2009, just two months
shy of her 20th birthday. She was an incredible creature. Her story (which I wrote in 2004) inspired millions and forced good change on New York City. Despite her hard
moments, Bonny was eternally happy. She was also eternally loved, and
will now be eternally missed. I've been preparing myself for this moment for years, which helps a lot, but doesn't mean it's easy.
rskloot | February 5, 2009The Department of Justice has withdrawn its proposed ADA regulations that would have banned the use of assistance monkeys, birds, miniature horses, etc.  This was in response to a memo from Obama's Chief of Staff directing all agencies to hold off on any new regulations until they could be reviewed and approved by Obama's administration.  So for now, the ADA definition of service animal remains as it has been since it's original creation, which means it still includes all species of animals.  One commenter here pointed out that for those concerned about this issue, now would be a good…
rskloot | February 3, 2009A few hours ago, Joe Biden swore in the new head of the Department of Justice -- the first African American Attorney General in history.  This is the man who will be deciding, among other things, the future of guide miniature horses and assistance parrots. Culture Dish will be watching to see what he does with the proposed revisions to the ADA.
In other news, the new semester just started and like a moron, I didn't write a few posts ahead of time to put up during the first week of classes. Â Still figuring out that whole scheduling-posts thing out. Â Getting on it though.
rskloot | January 23, 2009
In this Sunday's Washington Post, I reviewed Hannah Holmes's book The Well-Dressed Ape. Overall it was a pretty positive review, but I criticized her for the way she linked testosterone (via left-handedness and ring-finger length) with various traits, including violence, autism, homosexuality, etc (see review for details). So I was very interested to see this great post on Neuroskeptic today about the problems with coverage of testosterone (pictured left) and autism. Check it out.
rskloot | January 20, 2009As part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them: I've been saying for a few weeks that the currently proposed species ban might not become law if it wasn't approved before Bush left office. And, well, it turns out that the sweeping DOJ changes to the Americans With Disabilities Act were the only regulations under review by the OMB that weren't approved before Obama was inaugurated as president today ...
What this means for the Americans With Disabilities Act and the proposed species ban…
rskloot | January 17, 2009A quick post as part of my ongoing follow up to my recent New York Times Magazine story about the use of non-canine service animals and the DOJ's efforts to ban them: There's an interesting discussion going on about how limiting service animal species also limits religious freedom ...
In the interesting comments thread of this blog post, a woman named Mona Ramouni explains that she is currently in the process of having a miniature horse trained as her guide because her religious faith makes it so she can't use a guide dog. Here's an excerpt of her comments:
"I am a Muslim, and we believe…
rskloot | January 13, 2009
Right about now, many people are starting to fail at their New Year's resolutions. It happens every year: You were good for a couple weeks, but right about now you're starting to slip with a few cookies, some skipped days at the gym ... Why? Because humans aren't very good at changing, which involves nothing short of rewiring our brains.
A while ago I wrote a story for O, The Oprah Magazine, called "Why is it So Damn Hard to Change," which looks at the neurology of why most New Years resolutions fail, and the ways understanding a bit of science can help people struggling to break old…
rskloot | January 9, 2009In a display of stunningly bad timing given all the comments people have been posting here in recent days, the entire ScienceBlogs network will be down from 1pm today until sometime Saturday (or whenever they're done) for a system upgrade. I won't be able to post, and readers won't be able to comment, until the system is back online (alas). If there's some pressing breaking news while this network is down, I'll post it on my old blog here. But I doubt that will happen. Please check back in a day or so to post your comments or, if you simply can't wait, you can email them to me via the…
rskloot | January 8, 2009As part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I've been posting about a Department of Justice document leaked to me with the wording of their proposal to ban all non-canine service animals. Yesterday I posted the DOJ's rationale behind the species ban. I've since gotten several emails asking whether the leaked DOJ documents contained language banning the use of psychiatric service animals as well. It doesn't. Here, below the jump, is the DOJ's new proposed service animal definition:
"The Department's final rule defines "service animal" as "any dog that…
rskloot | January 7, 2009Yesterday, as part of ongoing follow up on my story in this week's New York Times Magazine, I posted about a Department of Justice document leaked to me with the wording of their proposal to ban all non-canine service animals. Below the jump, for those interested, I've pasted an excerpt from that proposal, which is not yet public. It outlines the arguments the DOJ heard for and against the species ban during this summer's public hearings, plus the DOJ's responses, and its final ruling on the issue.
Bottom line:
"The Department agrees with commenters' views that limiting the number and…
rskloot | January 6, 2009The first service monkey, Jack the SignalmanI'll be posting a few more follow ups to my recent NY Times Magazine article, Creature Comforts, today and tomorrow (earlier ones here and here). Then, I promise, I'll post about something other than animals. But for now, the history of service monkeys:
The other day a reader pointed me to what must be the first documented service monkey, Jack the Signalman, a baboon that dates back to the 1800s. His story is pretty amazing (thanks, Carter!).
I didn't have room in my article to include as much information as I'd hoped about the history of…
rskloot | January 5, 2009A lot of people probably look at the video I've posted below and think, Awh, it's a hilarious rat who just loves his friend the cat! But when I watch it, I can't help imagining something evolutionarily larger.
Some background information: The parasite Toxoplasma infects many species (including an estimated 60 million people in the US), but it can only undergo sexual reproduction in cat digestive tracts. Evolutionarily speaking, this means toxo's survival depends 100% on its host being eaten by a cat (even if its host is human; more on that below the jump). So toxo has evolved a…
rskloot | January 3, 2009Debby has a restriction on her license that says she can't operate a car without her assistance monkey presentIn the coming days, I'll continue posting follow ups to my story, Creature Comforts, which is running in tomorrow's New York Times Magazine. Since yesterday's follow up post, and my interview on NPR's Day-to-Day, I've gotten many emails from readers with questions. I answered some of them in the comments thread of yesterday's post (which you should check out if you haven't seen it -- fun photos! video footage of Panda the guide horse!). Below I've tackled a few common questions,…
rskloot | January 2, 2009Update: Culture Dish's feed is now live! (Thanks Sb folks!) To subscribe to this blog, just click this link for RSS feed or subscribe to get Culture Dish via email by clicking here. Also: I'll be on NPR's Day-to-Day today talking about Creature Comforts. The show airs at 1pm eastern time. You can listen to it live online here, or anytime after 3pm ET on NPR's site. Stay tuned for more updates.
rskloot | December 31, 2008Skloot interviewing Richard the Assistance MonkeyThe New York Times just posted my latest feature, "Creature Comforts."
I've posted photos, videos and links below, but first, the gist of the story: When people think of service animals, they think guide dogs for the blind. But today it's monkeys for quadriplegia and agoraphobia, guide miniature horses, a goat for muscular dystrophy, parrots for psychosis and any number of animals for anxiety, including cats, ferrets, pigs, at least one iguana and a duck. They've been showing up in stores and in restaurants, which is perfectly legal because…