Cornelia Neal, of the Office of Transportation of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C., was so determined to give her son the experience of riding his bike to school despite the stream of cars on the capital’s roadways that she came up with a creative solution. She regularly piled her son and his bike into her car, drove him to a park en route, dropped him off to cycle across the park, and then picked him up and drove him the rest of the way to school. Neal grew up in the bike-friendly Netherlands, where, she says, “Every kid goes to school on a bike.” She wanted her son to have the same experience, despite his living in Washington.

I bring this up now because May is National Bike Month, so designated by the League of American Wheelmen (now the League of American Bicyclists) in 1956. This year, specific dates within the month are designated as the first-ever Bike to School Day (May 9), Bike to Work Week (May 14-18), and Bike to Work Day (May 18). Internet resources aboundin support of these efforts, making it possible to map the best cycling routes, enter to win contests (with prizes such as bike racks for your school), and register or find events in your community.

I just did a fun interview about my eBook, HOW TO HAVE SEX IF YOU'RE NOT HUMAN, on the Radio Show, SUSAN RICH TALKS: Love and Lifestyle. Susan Rich and Annemarie Schuetz were great interviewers and we had a fun time talking about mating behavior across the animal kingdom, including humans. Also had a chance to plug my book SEXUAL STRATEGIES: HOW FEMALES CHOOSE THEIR MATES. The show is archived, so you can listen by clicking on the show link.

Personal Confession My name is Elena Ornig and I confess to encourage you to live your dreams.   At four, I was the only child in kindergarten who could fluently read.  Often, the nannies would sneak out for an extra gossip break, leaving me inside of a circle of children; I just loved it. At 15, as a dedicated volunteer researcher of Moscow Regional history, I was invited to write for a local newspaper and I just loved it. At 16, known by every local librarian as a book monster, I was encouraged by one of them to write my own book and I put all my effort into it. And I just loved it because I dreamed of becoming a great writer. Nevertheless, I thought I needed a professional opinion to be sure I was on the right path.  At my school I approached a teacher who was regarded by almost everybody as “the guru” ... Read the rest of this post

It’s easy to understand misogynist Republican men if you view them in the context of the animal kingdom. Males, from fruit flies to men, have an anatomical limitation. They cannot produce eggs, and if they’re mammals like us, they cannot get pregnant or give birth. Their only contribution to reproduction is sperm. And sperm must leave a male’s body in order to fertilize an egg. This means that in the act of mating, males lose control of their most precious biological possession, their sperm. Once sperm leave a male’s body, they are under the control of the female. She can eject them, kill them, block them or allow them to fertilize her eggs. Females are scary creatures!

Among waterfowl, where rape is common, females have evolved vaginas with dead-end sacs, a kind of internal burial ground for an unwanted male’s sperm.
The only way males can try to control their sperm investment is by controlling the recipients—females! And males—insects to humans—do anything and everything they can to exert control and subvert female choice. (Of course there are many wonderful liberated men who think with their brains instead of the instrument below their belt, but those who want to make women’s bodies property of the state are not among them.)

Subversion tactics are seen most clearly in insects. Female insects mate with several males and store sperm in their sperm-storage chamber. Scientists have discovered that female choice goes on internally in the female’s reproductive tract. It is within the changing climate of this internal environment that hidden or “cryptic” female choice takes place, perhaps at the level of the ovum itself, in determining which sperm of which male, if any, will be allowed to penetrate the egg’s membrane to achieve fertilization. Such internal female choice may be going on in women, too!

So males across species engage in sperm competition and mate guarding to ensure that only their sperm fertilize their mate’s eggs and sire her offspring. Among insects, some bizarre tactics for ensuring confidence of paternity have evolved.

One tactic is the copulatory plug, a gluey substance secreted by the male to block the female’s genital opening, preventing a rival’s sperm from getting inside. The male damselfly has a kind of scooper on the end of his penis that he uses to scoop out previously deposited sperm before mating with a female. Some male fruit flies inject toxic semen, which thwarts rivals but also hastens the female’s death.

Men don’t use genital glue or sperm scoopers but they do use religion, laws and politics to achieve the same end – controlling women’s reproductive biology. The use of mutilating genital surgery in some 28 countries of Africa and the Middle East wounds about three million young girls every year. The current profusion of ultrasound and “personhood” bills being passed by Republican male legislators across the U.S. are the human equivalent of insects’ copulatory plugs. These men are probably no more aware they are acting out such a primitive biological scenario than are insect males. They are caught up in a form of mass hysteria reminiscent of medieval witch hunts and persecution of women. Indeed, the attempt to vilify Planned Parenthood is similar to medieval persecution of women who gave advice on preventing births.

If the current misogynist movement led by Republican men were not so dangerous and harmful to women and our entire society, it would make an interesting anthropological field study. It’s unprecedented in U.S. history, to see males, primarily in one major political party, using the legal process and available medical technology to turn back the clock, prevent access to, and even ban medical advances that benefit men as well as women. Yes, many women accept their subjugation and support these efforts. But would they if they understood that from a biological perspective, these men are acting as brainless as beetles? With this difference: Male insects are ou

Why Every Man Should Update His Wife. Warning – for men only. Exploring men’s sexuality in graphic detail, this controversial book delves into motivation, purpose and futility of persisting with unsatisfactory relationships. It exposes stark views on marriage, on having children and apparently worthless social values.   $3.99 AUD is a fair price for eBook WHY EVRY MAN SHOULD UPDATE HIS WIFE!     To buy – go to Hot Digital Books and read more.  

In the 1960s, I was a Girl Scout for about a minute. I had been a proud and true Brownie, but my elevation to the next level, which back then was just called “Girl Scout,” came at the same time I started Hebrew school, and the troop meetings interfered with my classes. I wasn’t a big fan of green, anyway, so I wasn’t that heartbroken about giving up the uniform. I stowed away my logo pins and moved on.

Yet here I am, writing about the Girl Scouts, for a number of reasons. First, it’s Women’s History Month, and what better way to kick off the month than by focusing on a group that has empowered generations of girls? Second, March 12 marks the 100^th anniversary of the first Girl Scout troop meeting in the U.S., organized by Juliette Gordon Low in Savannah, Georgia. And third, I’ve had a few interactions with the Girl Scouts in recent months that have reminded me how impressive this organization and its members can be.

I proposed writing a biography about Juliette Gordon Low a while back. The project never went anywhere, but I’m happy to report that a number of books on Juliette and her scouts have been published in recent months, in anticipation of this anniversary year. I managed to find First Girl Scout: The Life of Juliette Gordon Low by Ginger Wadsworth (Clarion, 2012) at my local library, and I can’t imagine anyone, myself included, doing a more thorough job of researching this singular woman’s life. Wadsworth tracked Low’s story from Savannah, to New York, to London, and beyond. Her writing is lively and clear, the book is generously illustrated with historic images and reproduced documents, and the back matter is beyond complete. It’s a YA book that's worth reading, whether you’re a Girl Scout or not.

In recent months, the Girl Scouts also have made a literary impact in another way. Last November, in conjunction with the Children's Book Council, they launched The Studio, a Web site that gives authors who write for young people the chance to communicate with Girl Scouts about their work. The lineup has been impressive, with Ann Martin, Jerry Pinkney, Laura Numeroff, and Joseph Bruchac, among others, answering questions about their writing process and sharing behind-the-scenes documents and discussions. I got to have my say the week of January 16.

A fairly quick painting from a recent dream:

For sale here at my Etsy shop.

It’s hard to believe that our blog, I.N.K., is four years old this month, and, as a charter member, I checked the archives and, sure enough, I posted my first contribution on February 6, 2008. So It seems that today I'm launching our anniversary celebration with this post. I want to congratulate I.N.K.'s founder, Linda Salzman, for her courage and perseverance in starting something that has proven to have staying power and real influence in the nonfiction world. For me personally, however, becoming a part of this blog was the beginning of a life-changing experience and I’m not exaggerating. Let me elaborate:

I remember the conversation with Linda when we chatted about my joining her blog. (I think we chatted over the phone but maybe it was by email.) I asked her if it paid anything. She said no. I thought to myself, “No news here” and I immediately responded that I was on board. My marching order for committing to something is:
1. I might learn something.
2. It might lead someplace
3. It pays well.

Two out of three and I do it. I figured that once a month wasn’t that big a chore and I had a backlog of various articles I had previously written that could plug in if I wasn’t inspired to write something new. Obviously, I had a little insecurity that I had something of value to contribute.

A little backstory here. I grew up pre-woman’s movement when it was not uncommon for girls to believe that men were more intelligent than women. As a young girl, I remember thinking that no one would ever be interested in my opinion about anything. I gravitated toward science partly because talking about science gave me some authority. I was talking about stuff that was verifiable, accepted knowledge, something I could believe in. And it wasn’t easy to acquire this knowledge because when I got to the University of Wisconsin at the tender age of just-turned 16 and discovered my interested in science, I was told that a science major was discouraged for girls because we’d go have families and not use our education. So I transferred to Barnard (a woman’s college) and when said I wanted to major in zoology, I was in, instantly.

Four years ago, when Linda recruited me, I guess I was worried that the well would run dry—I would run out of things to discuss as a regular blogger. There was also a little residual angst about anyone being interested in my opinion. Au contraire! Somehow blogging made me discover that I had LOTS to say. I want to talk about science, about learning, about how teachers can have more fun while they teach and more than meet educational standards by using our books, how our publishing world is changing in this digital age, and how students can learn to love the learning process. I started keeping an idea file for future posts but I hardly ever consulted it. Somehow the topic of the next post welled up in me several days before it was due and I was propelled to my keyboard to start writing. In September of 2010 I started writing a regular blog for Education Update and they can’t post them as fast as I write them. (It’s not like blogspot where we post our own.) It’s as if a spigot was turned on in me and now I can’t shut up. (They say this happens to some women of "a certain age.")

So now let me talk about the Elephant in the Room. The truth is that, for the first time in my career, I have no outstanding book contracts. ( I have a couple of old books currently being updated. That's it on the new book front.) School visits, where I made a very good living, have dried up. I don’t want to retire and I can’t afford to. Scary. Rather than sit and wring my hands with worry, or pretend that this isn't h

This Day in World History

January 23, 1849

Elizabeth Blackwell Becomes First Woman to Receive a Medical Degree

Source: National Library of Medicine

Blackwell was born to a wealthy and progressive-minded English family that moved to the United States in the 1830s, when she was around ten. She became a teacher, though that profession did not engage her. One day, a dying friend told her that she might have endured her disease better if she had been attended by a female physician. The conversation planted the idea of becoming a doctor in Blackwell’s mind.

She received some rudimentary training in medicine in the home of a local physician and began applying to medical school. Geneva accepted her, in part because the student body — to whom the question of her admission had been put — treated the idea of a female medical student as a joke. Blackwell faced the hostility of some teachers, students, and townspeople, though she eventually disarmed critics with her dedication and seriousness.

Prejudice made it difficult for Blackwell to establish a practice after her graduation. In 1853, she opened a clinic for women in New York City. She was eventually joined by her sister Emily and by Marie E. Zakrzewska, both of whom she had encouraged to earn medical degrees. The clinic grew and in 1857 was renamed the New York Infirmary for Women and Children. Eleven years later, Blackwell opened the Woman’s Medical College associated with the infirmary. In 1869, she returned to England, where she lived and worked for the rest of her life.

“This Day in World History” is brought to you by USA Higher Education.
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The twentieth century in Europe was an urban century: it was shaped by life in, and the view from, the street.

Women were not liberated in legislatures, claims Leif Jerram, but liberated themselves in factories, homes, nightclubs, and shops. Lenin, Hitler, and Mussolini made themselves powerful by making cities ungovernable with riots rampaging through streets, bars occupied one-by-one. New forms of privacy and isolation were not simply a by-product of prosperity, but because people planned new ways of living, new forms of housing in suburbs and estates across the continent. Our proudest cultural achievements lie not in our galleries or state theatres, but in our suburban TV sets, the dance halls, pop music played in garages, and hip hop sung on our estates.

In Streetlife, Leif Jerram presents a totally new history of the twentieth century, with the city at its heart, showing how everything distinctive about the century, from revolution and dictatorship to sexual liberation, was fundamentally shaped by the great urban centres which defined it. Below are three videos in which Leif talks about women’s rights, sexual liberation, and the anonymous history changers.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Leif Jerram was born in Woolwich in south-east London in 1971, and lived there until he went to study history at university. After having lived in San Diego, Bremen, Munich, and Paris, he settled in Manchester to do his PhD – the first industrial city. There he has remained, barring a brief stint as a fellow at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He is currently a lecturer in urban history in the School of Arts at Manchester University, as well as being involved in community politics and activism. He has published widely in the field of cultural and urban history, including most recently Streetlife: How Cities Made Modern Europe. You can read Leif’s previous OUPblog post here.

View more about this book on the

If it were up to me, you'd listen to this song while reading this post.

So. It's been a very, very long time since I broke up with a sweetheart, given that I've been married for almost 30 years. (In  my culture, you get married at 11.) And I don't intend to ever break up with him. But there comes a time in every writer's life when she has to break up with a topic. Actually, many times. Usually the break-up comes early on in the project. At least for me. I work on something for a short time and realize that there's just no there there, or that it's not for me. Or someone or something else pulls at me, grabs my attention. ("Oh you over there, come hither...")

But sometimes, it seems, you go out with someone for a very long time before you realize he or she was not your bashert. This has just happened to me. It was a long relationship, but it was going nowhere. It just took me a very long time to realize that because I thought... I was sure...though I had niggling doubts...that I was in love.

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By: Lizzie, on 11/10/2011
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By: Sue Macy, on 11/3/2011
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By: David Schwartz, on 10/24/2011
Blog: I.N.K.: Interesting Non fiction for Kids (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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This month I am taking a break from blogging. In my slot, I am proud to present my friend and collaborator (on G Is for Googol: A Math Alphabet Book), an esteemed author and illustrator of both fiction and non-fiction, Marissa Moss. You may be familiar with Marissa's popular Amelia's Notebook series or her other fictional series including Max Disaster and Daphne's Diary. She is also the author of several highly-praised (and highly-researched) journal-style historical fiction novels and a half-dozen non-fiction biographical picture books telling the remarkable stories of remarkable women. Here, Marissa shares the backstory of the history she writes.

I love stumbling on little-known stories that grab my imagination and sense of history. Those are the stories I turn into books, the tales of courage and achievement against the odds that deserve to be widely known. Is it a coincidence that many of these undiscovered gems are about women?

Women have mostly been absent from the grand epic of history. The ones that are recognized are an elite few, Queen Elizabeth I, Cleopatra, Marie Curie. Much more fascinating to me are the ordinary women doing extraordinary things.

Maggie Gee is one such woman. I found her in a local newspaper story about WWII veterans, published naturally on veteran’s day. I didn’t know that women had flown warplanes in WWII and it seemed like an important story for kids (and adults) to know about.

I looked Maggie up in the phone book, called her and asked for an interview. That interview and the many conversations that followed became SKY HIGH: THE TRUE STORY OF MAGGIE GEE. What impressed me about Maggie was her drive, her optimism, her courage. She didn’t see barriers, but opportunities. Sure, there was discrimination against her, both as a woman, and as a Chinese-American, but she barely mentioned such problems when she talked about her life. Although her mother had lost her U.S. citizenship when she married Maggie’s father, a Chinese immigrant, that didn’t deter her from working as a welder on Liberty ships during the war, nor from encouraging her daughter to join the Women’s Army Service Pilots. After the WASP were disbanded, Maggie went on to charge through more doors, becoming a physicist and working on weapon systems at the Lawrence Livermore labs, another job that was rare for a woman, let alone an Asian-American woman.

I thought of Maggie’s grit, her enthusiasm for taking risks and follow

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75. Modesty, A Dying Policy

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By: Elena Ornig, on 10/5/2011
Blog: Anwers from digital publisher (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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 From Anya Tretyakova     If you crave that old fashioned R-E-S-P-E-C-T, as I believe everyone does, you should ask yourself what you are doing to earn it.       A recent, albeit reluctant shortcut through Surfers Paradise late one Saturday night with friends, left me feeling somewhat disheartened about my generation and gender.  Clip-clopping through the streets, like some drunken parade of stilt walkers, I saw group after group of young women looking uncannily alike.  I am not referring to their skin colour, physical build or hair colour – although an inordinate amount sported the Gold Coast peroxide ‘do.  What I could not help but notice, was the prolific number of indecently short dresses and ridiculously high-heeled shoes.  Now ladies, I am not trying to say that short skirts and kitten heels are the devil, but when you sit down, the former should not expose your underwear (which is hopefully present and accounted for) and ... Read the rest of this post

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