Archive for the 'Technology/Science' Category

Fertilility lurks in Australian waters?

September 24th, 2008, 1:49 pm by Kate

At least, so says actress Nicole Kidman…

The 41-year-old Aussie, who gave birth to daughter Sunday Rose in July, said she and six other women who swam in the waters of a small Outback town during production of the epic romance “Australia” became pregnant.

“I never thought that I would get pregnant and give birth to a child, but it happened on this movie,” Kidman told The Australian Women’s Weekly in an exclusive interview for the magazine’s 75th anniversary edition, released Wednesday.

“Seven babies were conceived out of this film and only one was a boy. There is something up there in the Kununurra water because we all went swimming in the waterfalls, so we can call it the fertility waters now.”

Fact is, infertility affects 12 percent of women of reproductive age or one in eight couples, according to RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, and up to 30 percent of those cases remain unexplained, with no medical cause found.

So who knows? Maybe something in that water will work for some people where medical science doesn’t. And maybe for others the answer is folate! Or meditation! Or acia berries! But one thing I’m certain of is that the little town of Kununurra is sure to expect a large increase in reproductive visitors. Invest now in a waterfall swimming tour company!

Posted in: Health/Medical • Technology/Science | 1 Comment »

Yes, but does it block drool?

July 22nd, 2008, 3:36 pm by Kate

Geek Daddies and Mommy Bloggers rejoice! (And you Geek Mommas and Daddy Bloggers can applaud, too, if you please.) Knowing that babies, toddlers and little kids loving doing exactly what their parents do, I’m sure you’ve all run into the situation at least once where your ~~little bundle of joy~~ computer is in danger of being ~~destroyed~~ loved to death by your ~~demon munchkin~~ little bundle of joy. Hands without fine motor skills tend to do that, you know.

Solution?

Baby Smash!

Activate this FREE program and your child can bang away at the keyboard to their heart’s content, bringing up only amusing images like the below shapes. (Or letters and numbers, in the case of older kids.)

Only the rather complex ALT-F4 key combination will unlock it, something the child will probably never hit by accident, so it’s truly goof proof. And the videos of kids in action show that they can find a great deal of fun in such a simple program.

There’s been a version of this software for Macs for a while now called AlphaBaby, apparently. But now even PC users can entertain their kids while preserving their computers at the same time. Now if only there was some defense against fingerprint smears on the monitor or the inevitable, toothless gumming of the mouse.

Hmmm.

Posted in: Parenthood • Technology/Science | 1 Comment »

The wild world of genetics

July 16th, 2008, 5:26 pm by Kate

When the odds are one in a million and the population of the earth is now somewhere around, oh, 6.8 billion, it just so happens that we get to see quite a few “one in a million” event occur in our lifetime. One of these events that I find amazingly interesting is genetics — recessive and dominant genes, random mutation, etc. It just seems so powerful, yet so tiny and invisible, that the fact we can understand these itty bitty bits of DNA code is fascinating.

Take, for instance, skin pigmentation. Every once in a while (say, one in a million births), a baby can be born with incredibly different pigmentation that its parents or siblings. White parents can give birth to a baby with skin as dark as their darkest ancestor, and vice versa. But the most visibly odd example lies in twins.

This is Ryan and Leo Gerth, born on July 11 in Germany. Ryan has light skin and blue eyes. Leo is dark-skinned with brown eyes. (Click on the above picture to begin a video in another screen.)

“None of us could believe it,” the maternity ward’s head doctor, Birgit Weber, told one news source. “Both kids have definitely the same father.”

Stephan Gerth is German and white. His wife, Florence Addo-Gerth, is from Ghana and has dark skin.

It was “a real surprise,” Gerth told the German newspaper Die Welt, adding that the most important thing to him isn’t color, but that everyone is healthy.

Check out the whole article for examples of other twins with extremely different pigmentation.

Posted in: Health/Medical • Technology/Science • Videos | Post a Comment »

A picture is worth …

June 12th, 2008, 12:59 pm by Kate

… a thousand words? A thousand dollars? A thousand memories? Aren’t memories, and therefore pictures, priceless?

No, I’m not working for Mastercard, people. In fact, I’m working on behalf of every person who has ever lost a camera, a roll of film or a memory card, every person who knows how frustrating and painful it is to find the photographs from a special occasion or vacation — poof — gone.

You see, I just learned in today’s Life section that a few geniuses have found yet another wonderful thing that the Internet can do, namely to reunite people with their lost cameras and pictures via a Web site called Ifoundyourcamera.net. Kind-hearted individuals who find lost cameras or memory cards can post up photos for viewers, who may be able to recognize faces, to browse.

It may seem like a long shot: a random person posts a picture on a blog and you or someone you know happens to stumble upon it. However, the Web site claims eight of the 80 posts so far have resulted in success. And if it was your family’s camera — your memories — I know you’d grab on to that long shot. Besides, such a unique and useful venture is likely to continue growing, meaning more photographs will be posted and more owners will be happily reunited with their memories.

So if you’ve even found a random camera, photo, roll of film or memory card and still have it taking up space in a drawer somewhere, e-mail the site at orphanpictures@gmail.com.

Or log on just for fun. After all, it’s always a kick to look at the strange items left behind in the wake of another’s life, wondering who they are, what they think, where they are now. Take this one for instance:

Can you identify these young hippies? Did they go yuppy 10 years later? How embarrassed would the child in her stomach be to see this classic shot?

If like me, you enjoy this (voyeuristic?) kind of thing, here’s a few other Web ventures that might be right up your alley:

Post Secret: People anonymously send in postcards, on which they write a secret about their lives.

Found magazine: A collection of notes, lists, photos, drawings and other items that readers have found — and found interesting enough to share.

Where do you get your kicks on the Internet? Anyone?

Posted in: Photos • Technology/Science | Post a Comment »

File under “guilt”

May 21st, 2008, 4:36 pm by Kate

You’ve locked up the peanuts and honey. You’ve put latches on the cabinets and covers on the electrical sockets. But I’m betting you haven’t yet isolated (or even known about) the latest danger to your baby: water. That’s right, water. Just look at this headline from MSNBC:

“Consuming too much water can put babies at risk of a potentially life-threatening condition known as water intoxication … Because babies’ kidneys aren’t yet mature, giving them too much water causes their bodies to release sodium along with excess water.”

For goodness sake, turn off the faucet! Lock down the tap! Yes, “too much” of anything is usually bad for a human, especially an infant-sized human. But this article is suggesting that a child aged less than six months should not have the liquid cross their lips, writing, “Babies younger than six months old should never be given water to drink” and “Water as a beverage should be completely off limits.” (Emphasis mine.) Over-dilluted formula and pediatric drinks, even the fancy electrolyte-enhanced ones, are also no-no’s.

The only exception to this NEVER, NEVER, EVER rule: “It may be appropriate in some cases to give older infants a small amount of water; for example to help with constipation or in very hot weather, but parents should always check with their pediatrician before doing so, and should only give the baby an ounce or two of water at a time.”

I’m not saying that the researchers at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center are wrong or that they’re intentionally trying to scare parents, cause parental guilt or cultivate already rampant anxiety. If parents need to be aware about this danger, it’s good our scientists are warning us. But I would like to ask: Has the entire medical community decided to do nothing but study children and what harms them? It’s as if a bunch of people in stiff lab coats sit around a conference table chewing their pens and throwing out ideas.

“Have we tested baby bottle plastic?”
“Yep.”
“How about educational television shows?”
“Of course.”
“How breast milk is super-powered versus formula?”
“Yes.”
“Daycare, and how it will mess up your child forever?”
“Many times.”
“Then what’s left? Come on, people!”
” … how about … water?”
“Excellent. Run with that.”

Any one know just how common this water intoxication is in infants anyway? If so, please let me know.

Posted in: Health/Medical • Technology/Science | 4 Comments »

Teachers gone wild?

May 6th, 2008, 12:07 pm by Kate

I read a very interesting article from the Washington Post in today’s Life section. Apparently, younger 20-something teachers are more likely to maintain pages on MySpace or Facebook, and some of them haven’t yet caught on to the fact that what you post on the Web is PUBLIC, meaning your students and their parents probably have access to whatever pictures, jokes or sarcastic comments you choose to share.

In states including Colorado, Florida, Tennessee and Massachusetts, teachers have been removed or suspended for MySpace postings, and some teachers unions have begun warning members about racy personal Web sites. But as Facebook, with 70 million members, and other social-networking sites continue to grow, scrutiny will no doubt spread …

Not all school officials scrutinize Facebook when conducting background checks on teachers. But some do.

“I know for a fact that when a superintendent in Missouri was interviewing potential teachers last year, he would ask, ‘Do you have a Facebook or MySpace page?’” said Todd Fuller, a spokesman for the Missouri State Teachers Association, which is warning members to clean up their pages. “If the candidate said yes, then the superintendent would say, ‘I’ve got my computer up right now. Let’s take a look.’”

Teachers caught with inappropriate Web sites could be suspended for a first-time offense, said Michael Simpson, assistant general counsel for the National Education Association, a teachers union with more than 3 million members. If they can prove that no one at school complained about the page, they might prevail in a personnel dispute “because there would be no evidence of any real or potential harm to the students or school,” he said.

The incidents the article relates are either minor or humorous in my humble opinion: a 22-year-old teacher with photo of herself posing with a bottle of tequila, a special-ed teacher who had posted a joke from a friend calling her a “retard,” a teacher who advised, “Teaching in DCPS - Lesson No. 1: Don’t smoke crack while pregnant.” My favorite example was art teacher Stephen Murmer, who was fired last year for painting canvases on YouTube — with his “buttocks.” (Wow. I’d kind of like to see that, just to witness how it’s done.)

So I came up with the bright idea to check out Colorado Springs’ local teachers on Facebook, seeing how many are online and how many have somewhat risque content on their pages. After all, the Washington Post article said: “Log in at Facebook.com. Join a geographical network. Search the Web site for your favorite school system. And then watch the public profiles of 20-something teachers unfurl like gift wrap on the screen.”

And unfurl they did. However, I had a hard time dredging up any dirt. I found teachers who say their favorite book is the Bible, who volunteer at their churches, who enjoy hiking in their spare time, who post baby pictures, who relate how much they like their students. I think the most controversial thing I stumbled across may be that teachers like to meet at local taverns for beer on Friday nights. Whoa! Stop the presses!

So what lessons have we learned, class? Well, first of all, I learned that students and the general public still have a hard time picturing the private lives of teachers, and they’re very curious about teachers to the point that they (yes, and me) will snoop online. As educators in a position of respect, they need to make sure that these private identities don’t bleed into their professional role, and that means not posting irrelevant or controversial stuff on the Web. Lesson No. 2: Blog anonymously, people! Especially if you have a burning need to dis your job, use four-letter words or, well, paint with your buttocks.

Wanna give Facebook snooping a try? I won’t deny that it’s rather fun, if a little illicit. But here’s hoping there’s no dirt to dig up on the great teachers in our community.

Posted in: Education • Technology/Science | Post a Comment »

A little pill to ease the guilt

April 29th, 2008, 3:04 pm by Kate

Unlike many recent scientific studies, the results released today may alleviate the guilt of families who rely on daycare: Parents who send their children to daycare (and ESPECIALLY those who send their children to daycare at a very early age) may be protecting their kids from a form of often deadly childhood leukemia.

Their analysis presented at a conference in London showed that children who attended daycare or playgroups have a 30 percent lower risk of developing the most common form of childhood leukemia compared to those who do not.

And the earlier the social interaction the better because the review of 14 studies showed children who started daycare at age 1 or 2 had the most protection, said Patricia Buffler, a cancer epidemiologist at the University of California, Berkeley.

While they’re unsure where exactly the leukemia protection comes from — a child must have a genetic mutation first, which is then triggered in childhood by an infection or other catalyst — the exposure to infections through social interaction early in life offers some kind of leukemia forcefield.

Sure, the experts have also brought forth evidence that daycare causes aggressive behavior as well as other negative outcomes, but at least those who’ve fallen into the “deep pit of mommy guilt” can use this research to soothe their stressed souls (Daycare also has been shown to improve vocabulary, FYI.)

And to our mommy blogger Heather — whose been suffering from a wide range of colds, coughs and infections thanks to her daughter’s daycare adventures — may you at least know that your suffering now is not in vain. Or at least 30 percent not in vain.

Posted in: Health/Medical • Technology/Science | Post a Comment »

They are what we eat

April 23rd, 2008, 3:03 pm by Kate

A It’s a boy! ccording to a new scientific study conducted in Britain:

“Mothers-to-be who skip breakfast and eat less are more likely to give birth to girls, while moms who consume more calories and a wider range of nutrients — including, specifically, those from breakfast cereal — are more likely to deliver sons.”

What? There wasn’t enough that the woman — who carries, births and nurses the child — was responsible for already? The men have ONE little duty, to have either an X or a Y swimmer inseminate the egg. And now we have to be partially responsible for that, too? Pfffbt.

“The British scientists said that although fathers do determine sex, their research indicates that mothers’ may be able to favor the development of one sex over another, perhaps in the way that high-glucose environments in in-vitro fertilization appear to favor male embryos and inhibit female embryos. The research is also supported by an evolutionary drive to produce more offspring in times of plenty. In many animals — including horses, cows and some species of deer — more males are produced when a mother has more resources, the scientists noted.”

But the facts and figures behind the study are less cut-and-dried than they seem: 56 percent of women with the highest energy intake (the most high-quality calories) gave birth to boys, while 45 percent were boys when women consumed the lowest amount of energy. Sure, in a test group of 740 women, that means women who eat more and/or don’t skip breakfast are 24 percent more likely to have boys. But 54 compared to 45 percent? “That’s still darn close to 50/50,” says our Mommy blogger, who scoffs at the conclusions drawn.

She’s not the only one.

A father’s sperm determines a child’s sex, and there’s no evidence that maternal nutrition has anything to do with it, said Dr. Paul Magarelli, vice president of the Pacific Coast Reproductive Society. “A correlation does not make the truth,” said Magarelli, who is also director of the Reproductive Medicine and Fertility Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I think it’s a spurious correlation, that’s all I can say.”

(Pikes Peak Parent interviewed Magarelli back in October 2007 about alternative treatments for infertility.)

It’s a girl! But me, what do I think? In part, I see this article as speaking to the unconscious thought that sons are (still) more valuable in some way than daughters. This MSNBC article notes the study “may offer some women another reason to eat their Wheaties.” (Women want boys, they’re saying. Yes, they said “some,” but I don’t see any mention that “some” women might AVOID the cereal of champions because they crave a daughter.) The article then goes on to point out that families in India, Vietnam and China use selective-sex techniques, including abortion, to have more boys. “The new study may influence mothers to try to use nutrition to select sex.” And which way would they select? Which direction of selection does the article lead you to believe is obvious?

Fact of the matter is, most of the parents I know would have been happy with either a boy or a girl, even if they have leanings in one direction or the other. It would be a better use of our scientific dollars to study what nutrients and eating habits make a healthier, happier child of either sex, rather than focus on the sex itself.**

**Wait, they already do a lot of that, too. The results of most scientific studies about nutrition during pregnancy and infancy? More mother guilt.

Posted in: Parenthood • Technology/Science | 2 Comments »

Delivered to your doorstep

April 3rd, 2008, 1:39 pm by Kate

Tired of slogging out to the Internet to see if Pikes Peak Parent News or our resident Mommy have posted anything new? Have it delivered to your virtual doorstep instead by subscribing to our RSS feeds.

For those of you who are as yet unaware of this magical invention — which brings your favorite blogs to you, just like a magazine subscription, whenever a post appears — check out the description at www.whatisrss.com. All you need is a feed reader (Yahoo, Gmail and several other internet e-mail providers have feed-reading capabilities) and the ability to find the little orange button.

Can you find it on this page? Don’t feel bad: I had a reader point out our subscription button was difficult to locate, so I’ve included a diagram below that points the way.

Once you’ve mastered the technology, you’ll find that RSS feeds are a wonderful way to keep track of all your favorite people on the Internet: the blogs of friends and family, other mothers and fathers, shopping groups, etc. Here’s a few of Pikes Peak Parent writers’ favorite parent-themed feeds. (I cannot vouch that every entry is free of occasional foul language or sarcasm, of course.)

Mighty Junior: A kid-centric shopping blog

Finslippy: The adventures of Alice, a mother and author

Dooce: Motherhood in SLC and pictures of a dog, balancing things on his head

Looky Daddy: Fathering three daughters, two of them twins

Are you a parent with a Pikes Peak area blog? Let us know! We’ll not only RSS you, but we’ll give you valuable real estate on our blogroll in the right sidebar, too.

Posted in: Technology/Science | Post a Comment »

Ear candy for high-tech parents

March 27th, 2008, 4:35 pm by Kate

Headphones Come on, if you’re here — on the big, scary Internet reading one of those new-fangled bloggy things — you’re a relatively high-tech parent. You’ve mastered digital pictures and e-mail, and perhaps even have a blog of your own to share your kids’ milestones (and mishaps) with family and friends. The next step, one that some parents are reticent to take, is into the wide world of podcasts.

Reticent? Really? You don’t have to be. Loading your MP3 player with podcasts is as easy as loading it with music. (Click here for an iTunes tutorial if you have an iPod, or you can try out AOL or Yahoo’s tools.) And once you have a few downloaded, you’ll find they’re great earphone entertainment while you’re unloading the dishwasher, mowing the lawn or completing other mindless chores.

And it’s not just idle entertainment here, people, although some casts are purely light and humorous. But we’re also talking about interesting, informative and enlightening podcasts geared just for you.

Jumping Monkeys podcast logo Take, for instance, Jumping Monkeys, served up from TWIT. Hosted by Megan Morrone, mother to three toddlers, and Leo Laporte, father of two teens, the Jumping Monkeys weekly podcast speaks to parenting in the digital age with links, advice, interviews, book and video picks, product recommendations and more. They cover an impressive range of topics: For instance, this week’s cast discusses Autism, while the week before dealt with archiving family memories.

Doesn’t sound like your cup of tea? Don’t give up. There are a wide variety of podcasts that might get you hooked. Check out:

* Pediacast: A Pediatric Podcast for Parents, where a pediatrician covers everything parents want to know but don’t have time to ask while in the office.

* 101 Uses For Baby Wipes: A reluctant father’s journey through parenthood, with always funny, often irreverent and sometimes touching tales of fatherhood.

* Home Word, a Christian-themed podcast seeking to educate and encourage parents and families

Are you already hooked on podcasts? Tell us what you’re favorites are and we’ll try to share them with other Pikes Peak parents on the blog.

Posted in: Parenthood • Technology/Science | Post a Comment »