Our Babies, Ourselves; How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent by anthropologist Meredith F. Small is one book I have been looking to buy but I haven't been able to find it at any of the bookstores. Anyhow, on LiveScience today, there's an article on babies' attention to social interaction and reminds us how critical it is for us to be there, attentive and loving to them right from day one.

Excerpts from the article Your Baby is Watching (and Judging) You:

Experiments years ago by Jeffery Cohn and Edward Tronick of Children's Hospital in Boston also showed that babies have a natural distrust of even their most trusted caretakers when the social rules are not followed. Mothers were instructed to not respond when the baby reached to get her attention for a little one-on-one interaction. Instead, mothers looked back at the baby with a blank face and didn’t move. Aghast, the babies kept trying for a while and then gave up, went limp and turned away.

More startlingly, when the mothers were told to engage again, the babies refused, at first, to pay attention. They just didn’t trust someone who ignored the rules of engagement, even for a minute.

Psychologist J. Kiley Hamlin and colleagues of Yale University recently showed 6- to 10-month old babies various social situations using triangles, squares and circles that play acted helping or hindering each other. The babies clearly disliked the objects that didn't help out. The psychologists concluded that babies are good judges of character, even when they're not directly involved in the action.

This research is a surprise because no one thought babies were paying that much attention to the acts of others. And no one realized baby judgments were so harsh.

Apparently, we were fooled into thinking babies were social dunces by their sneaky ways. Human babies, with their wobbly heads and unfocused stares, look like they aren't paying attention to much of anything.

So remember, the baby is watching. That spaced-out look on her face might not be the start of a nap but the very moment in which she is deciding if you, in particular, are trustworthy.

Technorati: baby psychology, parenting

How milk is produced in the milk industry strikes a very primal chord in me. A male calf is taken from his mother at birth and thrown away to die, cold and alone, never to know a mother's warm nor suckle at her nipples. The mother cries for her baby but he is never returned. Some mothers forget fast but others mourn for weeks and months. The cow is forcibly artificially inseminated again. She becomes pregnant and gives birth once more. Her calf is taken from her yet again as she is milked to cater to the booming milk industry.

This is not fiction. Pick up any book on the milk farming industry and you'll get a similar description on how cows are forced to stay pregnant to maintain lactation and their calves torn from them at birth. Cows are emotional creatures (another reason I am staying away from beef) and having their children taken from them is the most distressing thing a mother can experience. You can read more about it here: The Dairy Cow, Milk: A Cruel and Unhealthy Product, and Veal: A Byproduct of the Cruel Dairy Industry. Note that organic milk is produced the same way.

I am pleased to say Rice Milk has grown on me. :) The addition of B12 helps all on vegan diets. I haven't touched milk although I still eat cheese. While I still had some ham and shrimp (shrimp trawling bad I know) the past 2 days, awareness of what I eat and where it is from is a step towards a humane diet.

Technorati: milk bad, milk cruel, dairy industry, cruel dairy industry

Having swigged down 2-3 glasses of soy (or soya) milk so far and eaten a plate of tofu sausages (which taste like paper), I remember alarm bells sounding in my head about something I read before about soy being bad for baby boys.

Now the hub-unit and I are open to the idea of another child. Human, that is. So a bit of Googling was necessary to stem the bells.

It was a horrific line-up.

Basically to keep a long story short: eat no or very little soy, and avoid completely when nursing or pregnant or even trying (cos who knows if the bun has been heating up in that oven). It could cause gender defects in children in-vitro and out, and other uglies.

Here's a list of soy studies, plus dangers of isoflavones, and a passionate series of articles. Also worth reading is Mayo Clinic's brief on soy, and Whole Soy Story: The Dark Side of America's Favorite Health Food. Even Snopes is undecided on the matter.

Technorati: soy, soya, dangers of soya, pregnancy and soya

I have always lived by one rule: to ensure that no unnecessary suffering is endured to sustain my own existence.

Now, this is rather idealistic. By simply walking down the street, I am causing suffering to trillions of microorganisms and even ants, if I am not careful, by stepping on them and extinguishing their lives. What I shall define this rule by is my consumption of food.

Till recently, I had neglected to include the animals that live and die painfully to feed me every day. It is easy to shut your eyes to what goes on behind the scenes to produce that slab of steak and yummy drumstick. But I have decided to remove those shutters once and for all.

I have been an animal welfare advocate for more than 10 years through my website No More Cruelty! which was run by my cat Boy and now on hiatus. Since, I have supported animal welfare groups like Cat Welfare Society, SPCA, The Animal Rescue Site, and Animals Asia.

Twice I have tried to go vegetarian. The latter, I succeeded for 6 months till I slowly gave up from being always too weak and tired to do anything due to malnutrition. The one organic vegan store I used to eat at every day had closed down.

Nevertheless, this time I have decided to try again. But this time in baby steps and with a full nutritional analysis.

1. My goal is one meal at a time

Even better when several people share a nice vegan or vegetarian meal together. Friends and family have so far enjoyed my vegetarian pastas, Mexican burritos, and vegan cous cous. I've also bought a couple of vegan cookbooks and will try one vegan meal a week.

2. I will give up one type of food at a time

I have already phased out beef, lamb, deer, pork, and veal, simply because I dislike the taste of them. Chicken I eat sporadically.

It is fish that I have a tough time giving up, but the image in my head of a fish asphyxiating, flopping around in distress for 15 minutes before it dies makes it easier to give it up. I love eggs and have been hunting around for a humane egg farmer. Angie tells me Chew's is actually pretty humane but I'll have to see it to believe it. Hubby has said we'll take a trip to the farm in the near future. The alternative is I'll keep my own chickens and that's a no! :D

So for part 1, I am giving up milk first (cheese a little later because I love cheese with a vengeance). I've tried soya milk, which is okay, and rice milk which tastes kinda like breast milk. The rice milk (Rice Dream) is fortified with B12, so that covers the one thing I'll probably lack as a vegan.

3. Enjoy your meals, whatever they may be

Today at Xmas lunch and dinner, I scoffed down heaps of honey ham, parma ham, roast chicken, and smoked salmon. Heck I have a weakness for all things smoked and salted. But I felt rather ill after all that processed meat.

Key is to allow myself to eat anything I want. Eating is a pleasure. We shouldn't change that. If it becomes a chore, veganism won't become a lifelong habit. The repulsion for meat must come naturally. I remind myself that. I also remind myself no one should suffer so that I live another day.

Still, it is still better to eat only bacon as a treat and never eat any other meat, than to throw in the towel and eat everything again. Hence I will not label myself either vegan or apprentice vegan (funny marketing term I made up), or even vegetarian. This puts undue pressure on everyone and helps no one.

4. Search for humane sources of food

Truly, if I can find a farmer who allows his cows to graze in a field of farm land and have their calves naturally and stay with their mothers for a normal period of time, I would drink milk. Similarly, if I can find a farmer who lets his chickens run freely, do not debeak them, nor stick needles in them, I will eat eggs again.

Angie was telling me that in Malaysia, kampong chickens do exactly that. They run free and they lay eggs the way normal chickens do. That's why they are skinny and muscular, and their eggs are small. While it makes sense, I will have to find out more before I can consider them a humane source.

5. Do whatever I can

Whatever I do, I do whatever I can. Small things add up, like spreading the vegan meme. It has been increasing in popularity over the years and look, now you can get organic vegetarian and vegan stuff in the growing number of organic stores all over the country. Soon it will tip.

I have also continued breastfeeding my baby. Aside from the obvious benefits for both of us, I also save a ton of money in milk powder and remove my share of need from the marketplace. Less cows will suffer if every mother breastfeeds their baby.

So far I have thrown three dinner parties with vegetarian meals that the guests truly enjoyed. Considering they would have probably eaten a meat-based meal elsewhere, those meals helped save a few animals by simply offering an alternative and also great company.

An argument to dispel:

We are top of the food chain, so eating meat (et all) is the survival of the fittest. Plus, look at all the animals on Animal Planet, they toy with their prey. Cruelty is in nature.

We were also evolved large brains for our size and with that, the capacity to think, analyse, and possess compassion. Therefore if we cannot see that our mass production methods of producing food is horrifyingly cruel, we are no better than gnats, intellectually.

We can find options, alternatives. We are smart enough to do that. We're just lazy since we don't have to hunt for our food anymore. The distance between the animals that are slaughtered for our food and the nice sterile packages we bring home has made us apathetic to the process that tortures and kills millions of animals every day.

So what if nature is cruel? It is. And it is also in our capacity to reverse some of that cruelty. We have the power to make this world a better place. Why not do that instead of saying that must be the way things are. Because it is natural?

Stay tuned for more culinary adventures.

Technorati: eating humanely, going vegan, going vegetarian

Here's an example of a man whose upbringing I hope to emulate for Jack. He is Richard J. Roberts who won The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1993.

Here are excerpts from his bio.

* Mom was a homemaker. Read to him and tutored him from an early age.

I am a passionate reader, having been tutored very early by my mother. I avidly devoured all books on chemistry that I could find.

* Received interesting present as a child.

This changed quickly when I received a chemistry set as a present. I soon exhausted the experiments that came with the set and started reading about less mundane ones. More interesting apparatus like Bunsen burners, retorts, flasks and beakers were purchased.

* Father encouraged and supported his interest in chemistry.

My father, ever supportive of my endeavors, arranged for the construction of a large chemistry cabinet complete with a formica top, drawers, cupboards and shelves. This was to be my pride and joy for many years.

* Father introduced mentor to further encourage his passion.

Through my father, I met a local pharmacist who became a source of chemicals that were not in the toy stores. I soon discovered fireworks and other concoctions. Luckily, I survived those years with no serious injuries or burns. I knew I had to be a chemist.

* Mentor in headmaster.

At St. Stephen's I encountered my first real mentor, the headmaster Mr. Broakes. He must have spotted something unusual in me for he spent lots of time encouraging my interest in mathematics. He would produce problems and puzzles for me to solve and I still enjoy the challenge of crossword and logical puzzles. Most importantly, I learned that logic and mathematics are fun!

* Found school boring. :p

Formal chemistry at school seemed boring by comparison and my performance was routine. In contrast, I did spectacularly well in mathematics and sailed through classes and exams with ease.

From age 16 on I found school boring and failed A-level Physics at my first attempt. This was necessary for University entrance and so I stayed an extra year to repeat it. This time I did splendidly and was admitted to Sheffield University, my first choice because of their excellent Chemistry Department. After Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics in the first year, I opted for Biochemistry as a subsidiary subject in the second year. I loathed it. The lectures merely required rote learning and the laboratory consisted of the most dull experiments imaginable. I was grateful when that year was over and could concentrate wholly on Chemistry. I graduated in 1965 with an upper second class honours degree.

(Source: The Nobel Foundation)

If you read the book Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph, he mentions specifically the criticality of a mother's attachment to her son, his father's involvement and encouragement, and the need for parents to introduce good male mentors to a boy. In Richard J. Roberts's case, it certainly worked out well.

Technorati: Richard J. Roberts, Nobel prize, Nobel upbringing, Jack, baby

A special report by LiveScience: Toward Immortality

For about 50 years, caloric restriction (CR) was the only proven method to extend an organism's maximum life span in a healthy way.

Then in 1996, scientists discovered a type of mutant dwarf mouse that lived up to 70 percent longer than its non-mutated peers. The rodents' stunted growth was due to a change at the genetic level that reduced production of hormones related to growth.

Using mice, the researchers found that mothers fed protein-rich diets during pregnancy, but low-protein diets while breast-feeding, had pups that lived up to 50 percent longer than those for whom this feeding pattern was reversed. If a similar approach could work for humans, this translates into a difference between reaching 50 and living to be 75 years old, the researchers said.

Why Great Minds Can't Grasp Consciousness

Important for Susan Greenfield, a professor of pharmacology at Oxford University, her theory is a distinction between 'consciousness' and 'mind,' terms that she says many of her colleagues use interchangeably, but which she believes are two entirely different concepts.

"You talk about losing your mind or blowing your mind or being out of your mind, but those things don't necessarily entail a loss of consciousness," Greenfield said in a telephone interview. "Similarly, when you lose your consciousness, when you go to sleep at night or when you're anesthetized, you don't really think that you're really going to be losing your mind."

But whereas the mind is rooted in the physical connections between neurons, Greenfield believes that consciousness is an emergent property of the brain, similar to the 'wetness' of water or the 'transparency' of glass, both of which are properties that are the result of -- that is, they emerge from -- the actions of individual molecules.

For Greenfield, a conscious experience occurs when a stimulus -- either external, like a sensation, or internal, like a thought or a memory -- triggers a chain reaction within the brain. Like in an earthquake, each conscious experience has an epicenter, and ripples from that epicenter travels across the brain, recruiting neurons as they go.

The Keys to Happiness, and Why We Don't Use Them

Happiness is 50 percent genetic, says University of Minnesota researcher David Lykken. What you do with the other half of the challenge depends largely on determination, psychologists agree. As Abraham Lincoln once said, "Most people are as happy as they make up their minds to be."

One route to more happiness is called "flow," an engrossing state that comes during creative or playful activity, psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has found. Athletes, musicians, writers, gamers, and religious adherents know the feeling. It comes less from what you're doing than from how you do it.

Make lists of things for which you're grateful in your life, practice random acts of kindness, forgive your enemies, notice life's small pleasures, take care of your health, practice positive thinking, and invest time and energy into friendships and family.

"Research shows that people who are grateful, optimistic and forgiving have better experiences with their lives, more happiness, fewer strokes, and higher incomes," according to Gregg Easterbrook, author of "The Progress Paradox: How Life Gets Better While People Feel Worse" (Random House, 2004). "If it makes world a better place at same time, this is a real bonus."

There's so much misinformation out there about parenting from harmful advice such as cry-it-out (CIO), not "spoiling" your baby, or sleep training your baby (see more studies on sleep) to simply annoying groundless superstitions and anecdotes. So it was with a breath of fresh air that KellyMom, a great evidence-based parenting resource, was found. It is a true gem in the wastelands of the web.

As with every other science, we can never be absolutely sure. But with peer-review studies turning up the same conclusions, we can surmise that it is reasonably accurate. I have checked the findings against other books by parenting writers like Sears, Biddulph, and others, as well as research published in science and health journals and news releases, and each affirmation buoys my decision to practice attachment parenting (AP).

Here are the things I practice as a parent:

1. I breastfeed my baby on demand.
2. I wear my baby with a sling or baby carrier.
3. Baby sleeps with us in our bed.
4. When my baby cries, I pick him up.
5. I always show my baby love and respect.
6. I give him attention when he seeks it so he gains a sense of self-worth.
7. I don't sleep train or potty train my baby.
8. My baby is with me wherever I go, meeting new people and new scenarios.
9. I continue learning about parenting.
10. I smile to my baby first thing in the morning.
11. I say no and redirect or distract.
12. I never punish my baby for being a baby.
13. I ensure his trust in me is never breached.
14. I always remind my baby how much I love him.

Resources:

8 Infant Sleep Facts Every Parent Should Know by Dr William Sears
What is Attachment Parenting by Diana West, IBCLC
The Science of Attachment: The Biological Roots of Love by Lauren Lindsey Porter
Children Need Touching and Attention, Harvard Researchers Say by Alvin Powell
Early Brain Development: What parents and caregivers need to know by Phyllis Porter, M.A.
The Emotional Infant Brain by Lynn M. Johnson
Mistaken Approaches to Night Waking by Paul M. Fleiss, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.A.P., 2000
Responsive Parenting by Kelley Shirazi
Science Says: Excessive Crying Could Be Harmful to Babies by Dr William Sears
Stress in Infancy by Linda Folden Palmer, D.C.

8 Infant Sleep Facts Every Parent Should Know by Dr Sears

Nightwaking has developmental benefits. Sleep researchers believe that babies sleep "smarter" than adults do. They theorize that light sleep helps the brain develop because the brain doesn't rest during REM sleep. In fact, blood flow to the brain nearly doubles during REM sleep.

During REM sleep the body increases its manufacture of certain nerve proteins, the building blocks of the brain. Learning is also thought to occur during the active stage of sleep. The brain may use this time to process information acquired while awake, storing what is beneficial to the individual and discarding what is not. Some sleep researchers believe that REM sleeps acts to auto-stimulate the developing brain, providing beneficial imagery that promotes mental development.

One day as I was explaining the theory that light sleep helps babies' brains develop, a tired mother of a wakeful infant chuckled and said, "If that's true, my baby's going to be very smart."

Yup, Jack too. :) He wakes every hour...!

Oh and the sleeping through the night part? 1-4 months is right. They begin night-waking after that.

Meanwhile, Jack is teething and has been waking up rolling over onto his tummy, and even sitting up once. So I reckon the wakings is likely due to both teething and his developmental milestones.

Yet, even though babies achieve this sleep maturity some time during the last half of the first year, many still wake up. The reason? Painful stimuli, such as colds and teething pain, become more frequent. Major developmental milestones, such as sitting, crawling, and walking, drive babies to "practice" their new developmental skills in their sleep.

Children Need Touching and Attention, Harvard Researchers Say

By Alvin Powell

(Source: The Harvard University Gazette)

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/1998/04.09/ChildrenNeedTou.html

America's "let them cry" attitude toward children may lead to more fears and tears among adults, according to two Harvard Medical School researchers.

Instead of letting infants cry, American parents should keep their babies close, console them when they cry, and bring them to bed with them, where they'll feel safe, according to Michael L. Commons and Patrice M. Miller, researchers at the Medical School's Department of Psychiatry.

The pair examined childrearing practices here and in other cultures and say the widespread American practice of putting babies in separate beds -- even separate rooms -- and not responding quickly to their cries may lead to incidents of post-traumatic stress and panic disorders when these children reach adulthood.

The early stress resulting from separation causes changes in infant brains that makes future adults more susceptible to stress in their lives, say Commons and Miller.

"Parents should recognize that having their babies cry unnecessarily harms the baby permanently," Commons said. "It changes the nervous system so they're overly sensitive to future trauma."

The Harvard researchers' work is unique because it takes a cross-disciplinary approach, examining brain function, emotional learning in infants, and cultural differences, according to Charles R. Figley, director of the Traumatology Institute at Florida State University and editor of The Journal of Traumatology.

"It is very unusual but extremely important to find this kind of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research report," Figley said. "It accounts for cross-cultural differences in children's emotional response and their ability to cope with stress, including traumatic stress."

Figley said Commons and Miller's work illuminates a route of further study and could have implications for everything from parents' efforts to intellectually stimulate infants to practices such as circumcision.

Commons has been a lecturer and research associate at the Medical School's Department of Psychiatry since 1987 and is a member of the Department's Program in Psychiatry and the Law.

Miller has been a research associate at the School's Program in Psychiatry and the Law since 1994 and an assistant professor of psychology at Salem State College since 1993. She received master's and doctorate degrees in human development from the Graduate School of Education.

The pair say that American childrearing practices are influenced by fears that children will grow up dependent. But they say that parents are on the wrong track: physical contact and reassurance will make children more secure and better able to form adult relationships when they finally head out on their own.

"We've stressed independence so much that it's having some very negative side effects," Miller said.

The two gained the spotlight in February when they presented their ideas at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting in Philadelphia.

Commons and Miller, using data Miller had worked on that was compiled by Robert A. LeVine, Roy Edward Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development, contrasted American childrearing practices with those of other cultures, particularly the Gusii people of Kenya. Gusii mothers sleep with their babies and respond rapidly when the baby cries.

"Gusii mothers watching videotapes of U.S. mothers were upset by how long it took these mothers to respond to infant crying," Commons and Miller said in their paper on the subject.

The way we are brought up colors our entire society, Commons and Miller say. Americans in general don't like to be touched and pride themselves on independence to the point of isolation, even when undergoing a difficult or stressful time.

Despite the conventional wisdom that babies should learn to be alone, Miller said she believes many parents "cheat," keeping the baby in the room with them, at least initially. In addition, once the child can crawl around, she believes many find their way into their parents' room on their own.

American parents shouldn't worry about this behavior or be afraid to baby their babies, Commons and Miller said. Parents should feel free to sleep with their infant children, to keep their toddlers nearby, perhaps on a mattress in the same room, and to comfort a baby when it cries.

"There are ways to grow up and be independent without putting babies through this trauma," Commons said. "My advice is to keep the kids secure so they can grow up and take some risks."

Besides fears of dependence, the pair said other factors have helped form our childrearing practices, including fears that children would interfere with sex if they shared their parents' room and doctors' concerns that a baby would be injured by a parent rolling on it if the parent and baby shared the bed. Additionally, the nation's growing wealth has helped the trend toward separation by giving families the means to buy larger homes with separate rooms for children.

The result, Commons and Miller said, is a nation that doesn't like caring for its own children, a violent nation marked by loose, nonphysical relationships.

"I think there's a real resistance in this culture to caring for children," Commons said. But "punishment and abandonment has never been a good way to get warm, caring, independent people."

More evidence that breastfeeding is good for baby but
is it the cause or correlation? Smart Moms + Smart Genes + Nutrition is the likely answer.

A study published this week in the British Medical Journal suggests that the advantage of breastfeeding on baby's intelligence could be explained not by the effect of breastmilk on the infant's developing brain, but by the fact that women who breastfeed are more likely to have higher IQs.

This is perhaps because IQ is correlated with social and economic class, and people in these classes are generally more likely to follow health advice promoted in education campaigns.

Hence, these babies might just be more likely to inherit neurodevelopmental advantages from their mothers (IQ is known to be partially heritable), and are probably more likely to benefit from a range of other factors which better socioeconomic conditions bring.

I suspect that advantage seen in breastfed babies might be a combination of social and genetic factors, as well as the effects of breastmilk.

We know that good nutrition in the early years is crucial to good brain development and breastmilk is a tailor-made for the purpose.

However, the brain also develops through interaction with the environment, so this nutritional advantage has to be balanced against social and educational experience.

(Source: Mind Hacks)

Mike sent me the great news: Asunder, a poem we collaborated on and which appeared in Starline last year, has earned an Honourable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2006: 19th Annual Collection.

Having gone on hiatus for 2 years now, I hadn't expected anything after last year (for work published the year before) so this has been a wonderful surprise! :D

The joys of motherhood are much to behold. I have had such immeasurable joy since I gave birth to Jack that I'd gladly suffer the 28 hour labour and the trying first month all over again. Many have told me that once I have my own (human) child that I would feel differently about my cats and very easily give them up. I scoffed at such comments, although secretly in my heart I feared that I would love them less, and worse, bear to give them up.

Into my third month of (human) motherhood now, I find that that hasn't been the case. If anything, I love and appreciate my cat-children even more and find so much more delight in them. The difference between loving them and loving Jack is that Jack needs me constantly. I confess I had neglected them quite a bit those early days. I remember Boy's forlorn looks, Tux meowing at me for attention. Now that things have stabilised, I've been able to spend more quality time with them, without neglecting Jack as well. That's what parenthood is about, isn't it? Loving all your children, adopted and otherwise, each as much but differently.

And cats, like children, change over the years. What a delight it is to watch them every day. The joy of watching Kaku play with her mouse toy, carrying it around like it is her baby, grooming it, swatting it and grasping it with her paw! Coming home to see Tuxie lounging on the sofa like a possum and staring innocently at us. Boy napping on the couch head, contented now that the rest don't bug him as much. Sam (Mu Child as we call him more and more these days) finally succeeding in jumping down from the rafters all by himself! Buffy, a gentle protector watching over all of us, her family.

I grasp these moments like a lifeboat, knowing that we have such a short time together. Life is, unforgivingly short. Even more so with our beloved cats. Children are not meant to outlive their parents. With my 5 cat-children, the probability is very high that I will outlive them. It would pain me so much to have to see them die one day. But as the saying goes, it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. Isn't that what life is all about? I raised all 5 from the time they were kittens, adopted them with the promise that I would care for them all my life, and give them every bit of love I have. I will not give them up simply because hearsay dictates pregnancy and cats are incompatible, or that cats and children cannot coexist. I have done my research. I know what is fact and what is fiction.

So if you are reading this because you found this entry while Googling "cats and babies" or "cats and pregnancy", please do your research, check up on the facts. Don't give up your pet because some "concerned" person says they will cause allergies, malformations in your child, or any other similar misinformed problem. Stand your ground. Those who believe strongly in this myth will persist. I still hear it from many well-meaning folk. From the lips of those who did give their pets up, it is a terrible thing to live with the guilt that you sentenced your pet to death.

Yes, giving them up to the SPCA, AVA, or risk giving him to someone who may abandon it eventually, is tantamount to a death sentence. If you didn't know, SPCA simply doesn't have the space so they have to put down (read: kill) most of the pets turned in to them. Similarly, with AVA. You'll be very fortunate to find a good adopter. There will always be the possibility that the person may abandon your pet (who may get caught by AVA and put down, or worse, taken by an animal abuser) or give it up to SPCA or AVA.

For those still worried about cats and children, my son is wonderful, normal (no allergies, eczema, asthma), immensely happy, and to his family and friends, the most beautiful child, who lives with his Mommy, Daddy, and 5 cat-siblings.

I'll bitch-slap anyone else who asks me when I am getting rid of my cats or tells me that my cats will sleep on my baby's face, or any other long-debunked claim. Get your facts straight and then talk to me.

Cats and Babies Can Co-exist
Murderous Moggies

***Your Brain's Pattern***

You have a dreamy mind, full of fancy and fantasy.

You have the ability to stay forever entertained with your thoughts.

People may say you're hard to read, but that's because you're so internally focused.

But when you do share what you're thinking, people are impressed with your imagination.

What Pattern Is Your Brain?

To:  Attorney-General's Chambers, Singapore

David Hooi Yin Weng, 42 was jailed for 3 months for the abuse of cats and kittens at his rented flat in Block 544, Bedok North Street 3.

We strongly urge the relevant authorities to reconsider the astonishingly lenient punishment and punish this inhumane monster with the full extent of the law. Abuse of animals in Singapore carries a maximum punishment of a 12 month jail sentence and a $10,000 fine under the animals and birds act.

A message must be sent to deter other would-be animal abusers that such behavior will and must not be tolerated in a modern cosmopolitan society such as Singapore.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Please click here to sign.

Exciting news from Cassini today! :)

Ok while not quite classified as sea (the title sounded poetic in my head), Saturn's moon Enceladus may have liquid water just below the surface in small pockets. We won't get more 411 till 2008 though.

"If a wet domain exists at the bottom of Enceladus' icy crust, Cassini may help to confirm it," writes Jeffrey Kargel, a research scientist with the University of Arizona's Department of Hydrology and Water Resources, in a related article in Science.

But the spacecraft, Kargel wrote, will not be able to determine whether subsurface water pockets could offer a habitat suitable for living organisms.

Old news, but Europa, on the other hand, may have a vast ocean beneath its icy crust. I'm starting to imagine ice leviathans, big as towns, coasting beneath. Ah... what a blissful thought. :)

I have decided to be entrepreneural and add a link to The Little Cat Shoppe for those art aficionados to browse and consider purchasing my prints of cats, Blythes, and landscapes.

All profits go to BB's nappy and college fund.

Your results:
You are Green Lantern

Green Lantern 95% Iron Man 75% Wonder Woman 70% Hulk 65% The Flash 60% Spider-Man 55% Catwoman 55% Supergirl 50% Batman 40% Robin 35% Superman 5%

Hot-headed. You have strong will power and a good imagination.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Test

Get the Better Humans collection today.

This collection of essays by leading scientists and commentators explores the implications of human enhancement technologies and asks how citizens and policy-makers should respond.

***Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking***

You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal.
You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analysing risk.

You should major in:

Philosophy
Music
Theology
Art
History
Foreign language

What Should You Major In?
http://www.blogthings.com/whatshouldyoumajorinquiz/