Daily Archives: August 13, 2017

Dear Daughter,

You are three weeks old. You nursed pretty much straight through the night last night, as I sort of drifted in and out of being fully awake.

Youre going through a growth spurt.

When you switch sides I feel the sting of letdown. Sometimes you nurse eagerly and gulp down the milk. Sometimes you become upset because you dont want milk. Or you dont want the fast flow of my over-active letdown. Sometimes you just want to lay in the semi-dark and nurse peacefully while your little dark blue eyes stare at my face and your little feet kick the still-soft skin of my belly which was your former home. Sometimes you want to comfort nurse. When this happens I kiss your forehead and switch you back to the empty side and let you lay close. You are a wise little creature that understands what it is that you need.

I am not a human pacifier.

Usually when a mom says that, its an expression of frustration that their infant insists on suckling for comfort. This is not what I mean when I say this.

I am not a warm human substitute for a cold silicone and plastic doohickey.

Your father may sometimes be a human pacifier. You suckle on his pinky finger during diaper changes or when I desperately need to wash my milk-stained body in the shower and remember for a few moments that I have two arms with two hands and that the dimensions of my body do not include an oddly independent nine pound female child that is frequently suspended from my body in a wrap of lightweight gauze. Your grandfather may be a human pacifier, as he holds you lovingly while I get your big brothers ready for bed or eat a hot meal without waiting for it to cool first- a luxury of not being afraid of hot bits of soup falling on you while I eat. Your brothers may briefly be human pacifiers when they offer up their pinky fingers for you to suck on, always imitating their daddy.Your grandma may be a human pacifier when she offers you her pinky finger to suck on and sings you Russian songs from her childhood.

But my breasts are not pacifiers. Comfort sucking is not time wasted. Its part of the job that my body and you have. It is how we evolved. We are the product of a long process of evolution that causes you to seek out my arms and my breasts, to suckle for comfort, to communicate with my immune system, to stay close and warm and protected, to stimulate the supply of your food, your antibodies, the components of breastmilk that scientists can see but cannot identify the function of.

Maybe you want the comfort of non-nutritive suckling because there is something that has you stressed out. Maybe you want a slow flow of high fat hindmilk that comes from comfort nursing. Maybe your body has some bacteria in it and you need the closeness so that your immune system can communicate with my immune system and it all can be taken care of without either of us ever knowing and without you ever becoming sick from the foreign invaders that your body cannot cope with but that my adult immune system attacks with the ferocity of a mama bear defending her cub.

Independence will come at your pace. I DO IT MYSELF! will become the phrase of the moment soon enough. The need to peel off and be independent is as natural a need as the need to breathe, to sleep and to eat. It comes from within the child when the child has the ability. It has come from within your brothers as they get older. It will come from within you as well. I can see it already as you bob your head against my chest in the wrap and peek over the side eager to strengthen your muscles and look at the world.

I choose to neither hold you past when you wish to be held, nor deny you comfort while it is something that you seek. I push you gently to be independent, recognizing that your world naturally expands within your comfort zone without me needing to push you past it into tears.

I am not a human pacifier. I am what you have a biological and evolutionary need for. I will not devalue your needs by implying that you lack the wisdom and understanding of what those needs are. I will not devalue your needs by becoming frustrated by your refusal to accept something that does not meet those needs. I want you to listen to your body from the beginning, to understand the difference between a healthy need of yours and a pacifying object. To have an understanding that dates back to the beginnings of your time on this planet.. That comfort comes from having your needs met, not from distracting yourself with something pink, pretty and plastic.

No manufacturer makes what you need for happiness, little one. I want you to understand this from the beginning of your life. Happiness comes from love, from closeness, and from deep inside of you. Seek this happiness, and never be distracted by things that simply pacify you rather than satisfying your needs.

<3 Mama.

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I Am Not a Human Pacifier | Nurshable

Former President Barack Obama tweeted a quote from former South African President Nelson Mandela Saturday in an apparent response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.

No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion.People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite, Obama tweeted.

The quote is from Mandelas autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Obamas series of tweets also featured a photo of him greeting children at a day care facility in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2011.

President Donald Trump mentioned Obama in his response to the Charlottesville protests, during which white supremacists and other fringe groups clashed with counter-protesters.

We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides on many sides,Trump said Saturday. Its been going on for a long time in our country, not Donald Trump, not Barack Obama. Its been going on for a long, long time.

At least three people died in the Charlottesville area Saturday. A 32-year-old woman was killed after a car plowed into a group of anti-racist protesters. Two more people were killed in a helicopter crash near Charlottesville. The Associated Press has reported that the crash was linked in some way to the violence in Charlottesville, but the details were not immediately clear.

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Obama Responds To Charlottesville Violence With A Quote From Nelson Mandela - HuffPost

There is no chasm that cannot be bridged by sincerity, especially when its conveyed in a handwritten letter. Handwriting compels you to revisit the basics and helps build bridges between people by putting pen to paper. This is what 30-year-old Taiwan-born handwriting expert Ye Ye wants to focus on.

Ye was recently in the city for the annual Hong Kong Book Fair, gracing visitors with his live demonstrations.

He started off as a teacher of fine arts, but is now a full-time instructor of handwriting skills for both adults and children.

Yes determination to improve his handwriting was spurred after he was ridiculed by a classmate back in Secondary Three.

The reason I started to practice writing was due to someone who I feel is an important benefactor.

Back then, a classmate said that my writing was the ugliest of all in the class. I felt really hurt at the time, but on the other hand, I wanted to make some improvements, so it was an important starting point and inspiration.

With only a simple goal in mind, Ye started off his journey, which is to make sure that [his] handwriting is not the ugliest in class.

It was not until much later that he felt writings healing effect, especially when he focuses on getting every stroke down in a slow and steady manner in a bid to improve the writing.

Echoing the same sentiments as his followers who view his videos religiously, Ye said: Sometimes when I watch my own videos, I feel strangely at peace.

Of the many tools he uses, his choice of sticking with the simplicity of a ballpoint pen comes to many as a surprise.

He started using such pens in school and still prefers them because of their accessibility and cheapness.

Afterwards, when I took up pointed pen calligraphy, I realised there were certain limitations, which is why I started to learn brush calligraphy. In the learning process, regardless of your origin or nationality, everyone at the very beginning encounters the fonts used in ancient times, which in a way gives you the opportunity to attain a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese characters.

Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan use traditional characters, whereas mainland China created a simplified system in the 1950s to lift the majority of the population out of illiteracy.

There are also different ways of writing characters, including running and cursive script.

If we look at the structural beauty of the characters, I feel that traditional Chinese characters have an obvious advantage, Ye said.

However, I realise there are many parts in simplified Chinese characters which are adopted from the running and cursive scripts, and this is something that I really appreciate.

The inventors of the simplified script borrowed some characters from running script to reduce the number of strokes in the traditional system. Both the running and cursive script are preferred over standard script for their efficiency.

Watch: Examples of Ye Yes style

Bearing this in mind, I personally hope that when we write, we are able to explore and embrace the versatility and all-encompassing nature of Chinese characters, Ye said.

However, he adopts a conciliatory approach in the competition between simplified and traditional characters, urging everyone to appreciate the charm of both.

When asked how he would judge the beauty of someones handwriting, Ye said: There are only a number of fixed rules and techniques that I can impart to my pupils, and ultimately it is up to them to develop their own style.

To be able to express ones state of mind in the flow of ones writing and in terms of whether ones writing is comfortable to the eyes, to have that delivered to the reader, that would be the true definition of beauty.

Ye encourages everyone to pick up a pen to write as it is never too late to start. But he sees technology as one of the main factors in the decline of handwriting.

I feel that many processes will be replaced by technology. Despite this, things that come with a human touch cant be replaced.

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Taiwan master offers handwriting with a human touch - South China Morning Post

CARSON CITY, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11)

Carson City Health and Human Services and Douglas County Mosquito Abatement are reporting the first human case of West Nile virus in the Carson City-Douglas area for 2017.

The individual had the more serious form of the illness, which can impact the brain and surrounding tissues.

This coincides with the report of one positive mosquito collection in Carson City. The human case is not related to this collection.

Officials tested wetlands, ditches and other small bodies of water during the first week of August and of the samples collected, the virus is present in one of the test sites.

CCHHS staff plan to treat the areas to keep the virus from spreading. Mosquito surveillance and abatement activities have already been conducted a number of times throughout the summer in Carson City and Douglas County and are ongoing in those areas.

The most effective way to avoid the virus is to prevent mosquito bites. CCHHS and DCMA advise Nevadans and visitors to take the following precautions to prevent West Nile virus throughout the summer months:

For information about West Nile virus and other mosqutio-borne illnesses, visit http://www.GetHealthyCarsonCity.org.

Read the rest here:
First human case of West Nile virus reported in Carson City-Douglas area - KRNV My News 4

An average of 22 people die in America every day while waiting for organ transplants, but a group of researchers from the biotech company eGenesis hope to eventually change that statistic by using organs from cloned pig cells.

Using agene-editing tool called CRISPR, the researchers edited the DNA of pigs, removing potentially harmful viruses from their organs. Scientists then cloned those edited cells, put them in an egg, and implanted that egg into a sow. This enabled them to ultimately breed pigs with virus-free organs.

So why is this significant?

"In studies done before, if you took pig cells and human cells and put them together, the viruses would go to the human cells. And so now they've been eliminated, or inactivated. So all of a sudden, it opens the door for the potential of pigs," CBS News medical contributorDr. David Agussaid Friday on "CBS This Morning." "Pigs' organs are about the same size as human organs, so it's actually perfect for transplantations."

The breakthrough in eliminating viruses like the porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) brings us one step closer to xenotransplantation, or transplants between different species.

"It's absolutely wild I mean literally considered science fiction several years ago," Agus said.

In human heart valve replacements, pig valves are used, but they are put in formaldehyde and fixed, Agus said. The new research is different because "these are live cells, functioning [organs] kidneys, livers, hearts. It really is going to be dramatic how it could affect many human lives," he added.

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Scientists in the U.S. have successfully repaired a faulty gene in human embryos for the first time. Researchers used the powerful technology kno...

Altering the DNA and the rapid advances with CRISPR have raised legal and ethical concerns. Most recently, scientists announced they successfully repaired a disease-causing gene in human embryos using CRISPR. Agus called for an international group to start drawing boundaries.

"We're talking about some dramatic advances and literally happening week by week, but they can keep going. And so the challenge is to do it right," Agus said. "The challenge is someone not to change an embryo to make them taller, stronger, faster. The challenge is to do it to benefit human health in a positive way on a global sense."

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We're one step closer to using pig organs in human transplants - CBS News