Icons of Trent's Youth?

Every generation has icons of its youth. My generation had those little people with the spherical heads and the cylindrical bodies. They sat on the little bus and bumped up and down as the wheels turned. And then there was the Fisher Price barnyard set with whatever animal sound that was supposed to be when you opened the bard door. A cow? Wounded rhinoceros? I think maybe for Trent's generation it might be this rug with a streets and buildings. Does every kid have one of these? Trent and I also just returned from Babies 'R Us with a Superyard XT. Well, two of them actually. This allows me to create a baby coral within which I can create a relatively safe environment for Trent to explore without my having to provide continuous supervision. For instance, I can create this blog entry while only have to glance over at him every minte or so. He seem very happy. Inside the fence lying on top of his rug.

Trent's New Tricks

Trent has developed a few new tricks. He can now roll pretty much wherever he wants to go. He does seem to be following some sort of plan. I don't think he's just randomly ending up grabbing a hold of the cat's food dish. He can push himself up from the waist forward on his hands. He can make small forward progress by pushing up and then pushing forward with his feet. I think I've seen him momentarily push himself into the crawling position. It's a weird feeling sometimes. You think you see him do something and then second guess yourself thinking you just imagined it. He really loves the cats. He always has a smile for his mommy, but any time a cat crosses his field of vision he just smiles and laughs. He has taken to sleeping with his legs tucked up underneath his body. This has the effect of pushing his butt up into the air. It always makes me laugh. He really is a pretty well-natured happy little guy. Maybe he's even an extravert. Hard to imagine where he got that gene. I think my maternal grandmother was an extravert, but she's the only one I can think of in the family. Sometimes, I think I hear him say something. Like el-oh. Sometimes, he even says it at a time that's appropriate, like when I walk into his room in the morning to get him out of bed. That I'm probably just imagining.

Three Long Months

Tina is three weeks into a three month stint doing consults for the nephrology department. I don't claim to understand the organization. My best understanding is that she's responsible for dealing with questions and cases presented by other departments that might be nephrological. This means that she leaves for work very early in the morning and returns home, on a good day, about 13 hours later. Normally people don't get scheduled for three months in a row, but I guess this is paying off the karmic debt for maternity leave last year. Sometimes, while on consults, she is also on call. Which means that if anything happens that requires nephrological attention during off hours, she has to deal with that as well. As a fellow, she does get to come home while she's on call, but if a situation arises that needs a doctor, she has to go into the hospital. It's a pretty tough gig. Only one year and three months to go until...whatever Tina plans to do after her fellowship.

The Dead Zone

I've recently been watching The Dead Zone television series based on Stephen King's novel of the same name. I think the title is unfortunate. It seems to turn many people off. I imagine that they picture zombies or something. There are no undead in The Dead Zone. A more appealing title might be the tag line on the show's website: The Reluctant Psychic. The show is excellent. Like most Stephen King novels, the story is populated by normal believable characters who are exposed to extra-ordinary circumstances. King's genius, which I think is carried on very well by the show's producers, is simply that. What would happen if this extra-ordinary thing were acutally true. In this case, the main character of the story is demonstrably psychic. If you spend any time with him, you can't help but understand that he really can see the past and the future. What would that be like? What would it be like if such a person served on a jury and could see a vision of what really happened during a shooting? What would it be like if he were on a plane that was going to crash? How would the press react? How would the police react? How would it affect a politcal campaign. Is there, possibly, some greater reason why Johnny Smith has these abilities? Was he put in the right place at the right time by some guiding hand? They are all very interesting questions. The show does not hesistate to find the answers.

The Stork and the Bird Flu

Here's a funny cartoon about faith-based learning.

Evolution and the Bird Flu

There's good news for people who don't believe in evolution. Bird flu poses no serious health threat. The H5N1 virus only infects birds and humans who come into direct contact with infected birds. Some very rare cases of human to human infection are on record, but the virus obviously does not spread well from one human to another. Without evolution to interfere with things, that's the way things will stay. That's a good thing since the mortality rate of H5N1 in humans is about 50%. If the virus could mutate in such a way that it could spread from one human to another, that might be real cause for alarm.

The Center for Design Control (CDC), however, appears to believe it is a threat that we should prepare for it not only on a national scale, but on a global scale. Consult the CDC's bird flu fact sheet for more information. The CDC, however, seems to base their perception of a threat on the ability of the virus to evolve. If we were to actually adopt a theocratic government, that position would have to discouraged. Luckily for the world, even the Bush administration, who lovingly rewrote government reports to down play scientific evidence for global warming, is unwilling to suppress the CDC's position about evolving viruses. Though it would seem that their base, if they thought about it, might want it to be so.