Being Human

Opinion - Stephanie Coontz: Too close for comfort - sacbee.com

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Ever since the Census Bureau released figures last
month showing that married-couple households are now a minority, my
phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from people asking: "How
can we save marriage? How can we make Americans understand that
marriage is the most significant emotional connection they will ever
make, the one place to find social support and personal fulfillment?"

I think these are the wrong questions -- indeed, such questions would
have been almost unimaginable through most of history. It has only been
in the last century that Americans have put all their emotional eggs in
the basket of coupled love. Because of this change, many of us have
found joys in marriage our great-great-grandparents never did. But we
have also neglected our other relationships, placing too many burdens
on a fragile institution and making social life poorer in the process.

A study released this year showed just how dependent we've become on
marriage. Three sociologists at the University of Arizona and Duke
University found that from 1985 to 2004 Americans reported a marked
decline in the number of people with whom they discussed meaningful
matters. People reported fewer close relationships with co-workers,
extended family members, neighbors and friends. The only close
relationship where more people said they discussed important matters in
2004 than in 1985 was marriage.

From Talaris.org:

This research-based timeline is organized by a child's age. It serves as a general guide to the five amazing ways a child grows, from birth to 5.

• Social - Emotional - how children feel and how they learn to relate to others
• Cognitive - how children learn and think
• Language - how children learn sounds, words, and sentences
• Sensory - how children hear, see, taste, smell and feel
• Motor Skills - how children learn to skill to sit up, crawl, walk, and run

As you'll see, each milestone shows a range of ages typically
seen in children's development, but a child may not meet every
milestone and still be progressing normally. Don't be surprised if
your child's growth is different from what's included on this
timeline, or if your child develops more quickly in some areas than
in others. Above all, enjoy learning about the many fascinating ways
children develop. If you have any concerns about your child's growth
and development, please seek a health care professional.

Timeline.

There are two ways to submit content to the site. Here are the choices:

• Personal Blog Entry
  I'm imagining that this will be the most frequent choice. In a blog entry, you can document your thoughts, initiate a conversation, or post something interesting that you've found and think others might be interested in. Click on "create content" and then "blog entry" on the navigation menu. This will allow you to collect your content in one place that others can access. If blog posts are particularly interesting to the whole community, they can be promoted to the front page.

Also, if you're quoting from an article, just pick a paragraph or two that makes your point, and then include a link. Folks can go read the whole thing on the original site.

• Event
  You can let others know about an event by clicking on "create content" and then "event" on the navigation menu. Set the day and time with the menus, then add a description of the event in the text field.
  

You can also comment on other's posts by clicking on the title of a post and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

[via Onegoodmove]

Here is an excerpt from Julia Sweeney's "Letting Go Of God" part of the
"This American Life: In Defence of Godlessness" program on WBEZ

Program Date 06/03/05

Julia's faith began to crack after reading Biblical passages like the one
pictured here, of Abraham about to cut the throat of his beloved son,
Isaac.

Here's an interview with Julie Sweeney on Fresh Air with Terri Gross.

Lab report: James Morgan on the science that's shaping our futurePeople often say there's no such thing as true altruism. I'm willing to bet that those people are Audi drivers.Have you seen the new Audi advert yet? A man looks up to see silver light streaking across the night sky. After a montage of clips from the Apollo landings, we learn it is not a Nasa space shuttle, but the Audi A6.Then comes a subtitle which reads: "To date, Nasa has filed 6509 patents. In developing the A6, Audi filed 9621."That's quite a boast, but, hang on, isn't there an irony here? In the words of one blogger, "To paraphrase Audi, 'We're better than Nasa, because they let everybody else benefit from everything they learned during Apollo. We're making sure you can't. Please buy our car, though.'"

Too good to be true? Altruism’s better for you - The Herald

Do we have a “God gene,” or a “God module”? I'm referring to claims that a number of you may have noticed. Just last week, a cover story of Time magazine was called "The God Gene: Does our deity compel us to seek a higher power?" Believe it or not, some scientists say yes. And a number of years earlier, there were claims that the human brain is equipped with a “God module,” a subsystem of the brain shaped by evolution to cause us to have a religious belief. "Brain's God module may affect religious intensity," according to the headline of the Los Angeles Times. In this evening's talk, I want to evaluate those claims.

Link

So I wasn't in class at all last week:( My mother-in-law was visiting from Ohio and since I hadn't seen her since June I thought I better go to dinner with her at least on Wednesday and then on Saturday I had a class field trip for Age of Irony. The history musuem in Tacoma is pretty interesting and fun if any of you are into that stuff! But, I was hoping someone could kind of fill me in on some of the discussions that went on. Terri started to on Thursday but we didn't really have time to get into it fully. Thanks guys! I promise to be a better classmate this week:)

I'm a Paul Ekman fan, and there is a great post about him at Mind Hacks (with lots of cool links). Go check it out.

Science Blog

In the study, the researchers had two groups of women take an exam-like test that included two math sections separated by a verbal/essay section.

The math questions were identical, but the essays differed. One put forth the theory that men were genetically advantaged compared to women when it came to math. Another agreed that men outperformed women in math but explained that this was due to environment, not genes. A third essay contended there were no gender differences in math ability, and the fourth essay avoided the subject but did "remind" women test-takers that they were females by discussing women artists.

Did anyone go? Any thoughts?

If you can't play with the quicktime plugin, then download the mp3 file here.

To continue the discussion from seminar, I'd like to hear about people's early experience with indoctrination through cultural memes. What memes did you encounter as a child? Do you remember how you felt at the time? How was that particular meme introduced to you? Do children undergo the same kind of introduction today?

Check out this video of Sam Harris, author of End of Faith.

• 22% are certain that Jesus will return.
• 22% are pretty sure.

"That means that 44% of Americans would look at a mushroom cloud and see a silver lining."

I really found Bloom's section regarding Children and Death quite enlightening.  I never really thought about why children view death differently than adults.  It brought to mind an incident a couple years ago regarding my younger nephew and my parent's cat.  Their cat was the last one they had and he finally died a couple years ago and my parent's thought they should let my nephews no about the cat's passing.  I am not sure what exactly they said, but somewhere in the conversation they mentioned the cat was buried in the back yard.  My younger nephew immediately went upstairs grabbed his truck, headed downstairs and proceeded to head for the back door.  When asked what he was doing he said, "I am going to dig up the cat."  He just thought the cat was sleeping and didn't understand that the cat was not sleeping.  

Bloom's section regarding death put into perspective why my nephew would have thought the cat was just taking a nap.  Really makes one think what the "right" way and "wrong"  way to tell children that somebody died.

i'm still pretty intrigued by the dynamic between animals and humans. i know that we haven't talked much about that lately, due to our bloom reading references in seminar, but i just wanted to put this out there. it's an article about attacks that elephants have made on humans and it's pretty crazy.

check it out ;)

 I know we have been off of the subject for a while, but we did discuss at one time whether or not Autism was a disorder or a adaptation.  After reviewing this article it sounds like to me that it would be a disorder and not a adaptation. 

 

 

 U.S. researchers said Monday that they had identified a genetic mutation that raises the risk of autism and could also explain some of the other symptoms seen in children with autism.

Although autism and similar disorders can clearly run in families, theirs is the first study to find a definitive genetic link to the disorder, which affects as many as 1 in 175 U.S. children.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/10/16/autism.genes.reut/index.html

Everyone can go to this website and take a quiz on their relationship attachment!  Have fun:)

As I was watching the news the other night I heard a quick blurb about these certain types of beetles that can change their identity.  Meaning that they make themselves smell like bees.  They are too small to get where they need to go so when they change their scent and the male bees come-a-lookin the beetles hop on and when they get to their destination, via the bee, they hop off.  I laughed at this at first then thought although deceiving it was a great way to get what they needed.  I then started to think more about why humans may change their identities.  The obvious ones, running from the law, running from a very abusive relationship.  Then I started thinking about the discussion we had in class about the online game Muds and how some people will use that site to be someone else.  Anyways thanks to the beetles it just got me thinkin.

This goes along with the sleep talk we have been discussing.  There is a great article in the News Tribune http://www.thenewstribune.com/soundlife/story/6167251p-5395200c.html

The Mary Bridge sleep clinic offers sleep studies for infants through teens. Children are referred to the clinic by their pediatrician or family doctor.

Like adults, children can suffer from sleep apnea, in which soft tissue in the throat blocks airways during sleep and disrupts rest.

As I read this artcile I also thought of other sleeping problems children and adults have and how this plays a part in their development and what are some ways that parents can help or find help. 

The article also mentions that a three year old should be getting is 12 hours.  I can not help but think of the children that are in our child care.  Some of them in are in care for 10 hours a day and by the time the parent picks them up at 6pm if they were to get 12 hours of sleep they would have to go to bed as soon as they get home.  Then where is the family time foe them?  I am not saying that I think sleep is not important but I am just curious if 12 hours is just a little too much time?  I value the time I get to spend with my daughter and in order for her to meet this need then we would not spend any time together during the week and that makes me sad.  I am just left to wonder where the nurture side to this nature affect comes into play?