The photograpts displayed above accompanied a March 2007 press release issued by PGR (Mexico's office of La Procuraduria General de L a Republica, or judge advocate general) announcing a succesful drug raid on a Mexico City Home. Total Money of 205.6 million in U.S. currency dollar.
While it may seem incredible, even today this custom continues, in Dantesque - in the Faroe Islands, ( Denmark ). A country supposedly 'civilized' and an EU country at that. For many people this attack to life is unknown– a custom to 'show' entering adulthood. It is absolutely atrocious. No one does anything to prevent this barbarism being committed against the Calderon, an intelligent dolphin that is placid and approaches humans out of friendliness.
WHAT A SHAME, A SAD SCENE! THIS MAIL HAS TO BE CIRCULATED. THERE IS NO WORSE BEAST THAN MAN!
Circulate this! Make this atrocity known and hopefully stopped!
The U.N. World Food Program (WFP) warned last month that six nations in the region already face food shortages. Some 2.6 million people are going hungry. Relief organisations warn that up to four million people face starvation as a result of food shortages in Southern Africa. About 19 million are said to be in need of food aid. I pray that we will be more sensitive towards the suffering in the world around us.
Twenty-eight years ago I (Martha) became a mother for the first time. Even though I had "R.N." after my name I was pretty frightened. All those babies I'd played "Mommy" with in the hospital were other people's babies, not my own. I had to learn how to be a mother to my little Jimmy from scratch. It was intense and personal learning, and I have been privileged to experience it intensely and personally seven more times.
My husband, Bill, learned along with me all the things we discuss in this book for brand-new mothers. My voice, speaking mother-to-mother, will dominate the book, with Bill's interjected here and there to give his perspective as a father and pediatrician.
This is not a traditional baby-care book. You won't find anything in it about diaper rash, cord care, or how to give a bath. You can get that information from a lot of other sources. Instead, this book is a guide to mothering your baby, and it is as much about the process of becoming a mother as it is about babies. It will help you to get to know your baby better, and we hope that it will also help you understand yourself as you take on this new, motherly role.
We believe that babies have a lot to teach mothers. Listening to your baby and responding to his or her cues will lead you into a parenting style that will help both of you thrive. Biology and infant behavior will help you get started and build your confidence as you and your baby develop a two-way trusting relationship. But this is not an ideal world we live in, and there are forces you'll meet along the way that can make you doubt your mothering intuition. We hope that this book will prepare you for some of those bumps in the road, and will help you meet the challenges and changes ahead.
Mothering and fathering eight children has taught us a lot. We are very different persons from the ones we were before we had children, and most, if not all, of these differences are for the better. Although personal growth is sometimes hard, we've had a lot of fun along the way. Fun in your life with your baby is what will convince you and the baby that life is good. Enjoy your baby!
How you mother your baby does make a difference.
Mothering in the twentieth century has become a tricky business. We can take our babies' survival pretty much for granted, and in this way we differ from all the mothers who have come before us. Instead we worry about whether our babies will grow up to be happy and productive, a more complicated issue.
Nobody yet has scientifically tested and perfected a parenting system that guarantees children will turn out okay. Much of the research focuses on what goes wrong, rather than what goes right, and psychologists from Freud onward have often laid the blame on mothers. This creates a lot of anxiety, as mothers struggle to raise psychologically healthy children. Mothers often feel that the stakes are high on everything they do, and the possibility of making serious mistakes makes the job of parenting seem frightening.
In reaction to Freud, there's another school of thought that suggests that mothers aren't all that critical to their children's psyches. Children need dependable caregivers, yes, but these are more or less interchangeable, and group care not only is satisfactory, it also makes children independent at an earlier age. Babies do prefer their parents, but they really don't need all that one-on-one attention that goes along with traditional mothering. It's interesting that these theories have evolved at a time when more and more mothers of young children are in the workforce.
So where do you fit in? How important are you, a responsive, nurturing, trustworthy mother, to your baby's development? How do you know if you're making a difference?
In the parenting business, science often fails us. It's hard to study behavior that is as complicated as mother-and-infant interactions, much less relate these interactions to how children behave and feel years later. "Experts" speculate, spinning advice out of tiny threads of evidence, but who really knows?
I believe that experienced parents--parents of children who are turning out well---have the answers. Bill and I have talked to thousands of wise and seasoned mothers over the years, and while we don't pretend that this is a scientific sample, we do feel confident about relaying what we've learned from all these families. We believe that how you mother your children makes a difference in the kind of people they become.
The mothering advice that we have given in this book reflects a style that we call attachment parenting. For babies, attachment parenting includes closeness right from birth, responding sensitively to cries, baby wearing, sharing sleep, and breastfeeding. The involvement of the father, both directly with the baby and in support of the mother, is also important. These practices together make up a very nurturing style of baby care, one that yields a wonderful sensitivity between mother and child. The mother understands what the baby is thinking, most of the time, and the baby responds well to the mother's care. Babies who experience attachment parenting rarely need to cry to get their needs met (though they may cry plenty when something hurts or bothers them), because they can communicate in other, more subtle ways. Mothers who nurture in this style feel confident that they are doing the right things for their children, because they feel they can perceive their babies' needs, and because their babies are happiest when they are most responsive. Even high-need babies can be mellowed by this style of parenting into children who are fun to be with.
There are long-range benefits to attachment parenting. As a baby cared for this way turns into a toddler, he is easy to manage. His mother has a pretty good idea of what he is trying to do or say, so the young explorer is less likely to get terribly frustrated. Since he trusts his mother and wants very much to stay in her good graces, a word of warning or some creative redirection from her is often all that's needed to head off problem behavior.
As children of attached parents grow older, the benefits continue. These kids internalize their parents' sensitivity toward them. They have an inner sense of what is right and are bothered when situations violate their values. They know themselves well and can remain true to their own character in the midst of a crowd going in another direction. They are compassionate and understanding with other people. Having learned intimacy from their early closeness with their parents, they go on to establish and maintain healthy relationships with other people. They bring their parents joy and pride.
So, are you important to your baby? Yes, you are. You as his mother know him best and are the person he trusts most and will look to for guidance in the months and years to come. You are his window to the world and his faithful interpreter of what is going on inside him. Your relationship is built on a long history of knowing each other, a history that begins even before birth. Because this relationship is grounded in love and trust and many small interactions, it can tolerate mistakes and misunderstandings. No single moment is critically important. What counts is the harmony that is developing between you.
So relax and enjoy your baby. This is a special time in your life, and while it's full of worries and adjustments, it is also full of wonder. You have much to look forward to. Being a mother can enrich every corner of your life. Get ready for a marvelous journey.
When you bring home a new baby, remember you are modeling parenting for your older children. Also, you are bringing up someone else's future husband or wife, father or mother. The parenting styles children learn are the ones they are most likely to follow when they become parents. Here is an example of how modeling affects children: A mother brought her newborn, Erin, and her two-and-a-half-year-old, Tiffany, into my office for checkups. During her examination, Erin began to cry. Tiffany rushed to her mother, pulled at her mother's skirt, and exclaimed, "Mommy, Erin cry; pick up, rock-rock, nurse!" This little child had just described responsive parenting according to her mother's model. When Tiffany becomes a mother and her baby cries, what do you imagine she will do? She won't consult a book or call her doctor. She will intuitively pick up, rock-rock, and nurse.
The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. "Holocaust" is a word of Greek origin meaning "sacrifice by fire." The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" and that the Jews, deemed "inferior," were an alien threat to the so-called German racial community.
Organic Eggs: Organic eggs are produced from hens that have been fed a special feed in which all of the ingredients were grown without the aid of commercial fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. Organic eggs come from hens that have outdoor access during the day and are able to run around outside in an area covered with natural vegetation.
Fertile Eggs: Fertile eggs are simply eggs that can be incubated and developed into chicks. Fertile eggs have higher production costs so they are more expensive for the consumer and they also spoil more quickly than non-fertile eggs.
Invented the bikini? You can thank (or curse, as the case may be) two Frenchmen, Jacques Heim and Louis Reard, for that tiny scrap of material known as the bikini. Neither man really invented the item, as two-piece bathing suits had been around for a long time and were depicted in wall paintings and ancient Greek urns. But both men manufactured and popularized the "itsy bitsy teeny weeny" swimsuit.
Andy Maclachlan of Chainsawcraft makes a sculpture of an Owl behind his house in Rashfield, by Dunoon, Argyll, Scotland.
After nearly 20 years as a chainsaw operator in the forest Andy discovered a natural ability for sculpture and an affinity with the saw as an artists tool. Born and bred in the hills and forests of Argyll Andy's carvings are mostly inspired by the wildlife around him. More abstract pieces may be a result of the insular world you are drawn into when working with the saw. All sculptures demonstrate artistic depths Andy didn't know existed within himself, before he started to carve in 1999.
Originally based in Ardfern, near Oban, the interest and support generated around this small and artistic community greatly encouraged Andy to develop his talent. Since relocating to Rashfield he has vastly broadened his client base, which has in turn further honed his skills.
Thanks to the area Chainsaw Craft is based in, (and friendly relations with both the Forestry Commission and the local haulage firm!) timber is available from sustainable resources. This is mainly soft wood such as fir, pine and spruce. Hard wood including beech, lime and chestnut is often donated by private estates, local tree surgeons or building contractors.
The largest sculptures Andy has created are usually on location, often when large, mature trees have been storm damaged or are deemed unsafe. Such carvings take days to complete and involve ropes and scaffolding for Andy to use his skills to form what remains of the tree into marvelous sculptures.
Andy was lucky to spend the winter of 2002 in the New Zealand sunshine, where he quickly realised the popularity of chainsaw carving. He took part, and placed highly, in the national carving competition in Awanui, Northland. It was here he had the privilege of carving in swamp Kauri, a timber unearthed in a green condition after up to 50,000 years preserved in the ground. This is a resource unique to New Zealand, and considered a national treasure.
Andy went on to demonstrate at garden centers and wood workshops around the North Island. He had the opportunity to work with a variety of species, of a much larger proportion than that found in Scotland. Andy met many of NZ's top carvers and was introduced to specialist carving bars, which allow for much finer detail.
This is an excerpt from the about me section from my website - ChainsawCraft.com
"The completely nude figure of a young man with outstretched arms and open hands, with tilted head, closed eyes and parted lips murmuring a prayer, with breast forward in the act of offering himself, is my interpretation of that sublime stanza. It symbolizes all the unknown heroes who fell during the night. The statue stands on a rustic base, a stylized rugged shape of the Philippine archipelago, lined with big and small hard rocks, each of which represents an island. The “katakataka” (wonder plant) whose roots are tightly implanted on Philippine soil, is the link that binds the symbolized figure to the allegorical Philippine Group. “Katakataka” is really a wonder plant. It is called siempre vivo (always alive) in Spanish. A leaf or a piece of it thrown anywhere will sprout into a young plant. Hence, it symbolizes the deep-rooted patriotism in the heart of our heroes. Such patriotism continually and forever grows anywhere in the Philippines."
This is a very misunderstood subject. Most people think that flying is much safer than travelling in a car. This is a myth perpetuated by airline publicists making creative use of statistics.
Here is the reality: in fact, you’re about 12 times more likely to die in the air than in a car ride. Let us look at the facts:
arrow When the airline industry gives figures about its safety record, it quotes statistics showing that there are about 0.03 fatalities per 100 million kilometres flown, compared with 0.10 fatalities per 100 million kilometres for rail travel and 0.175 per million kilometres for cars. In other words, they are saying that air travel is about 3 times safer than rail travel and 5 times safer than car travel per 100 million kilometres of distance travelled.
arrow But these statistics are highly skewed. Typically, planes travel huge distances but 70% of aircraft accidents take place on take-off and landing, manoeuvres which represent only 4% of journey time and are therefore relatively much more dangerous.
arrow A much more realistic figure is the rate of fatalities per number of journeys made. By this measure, air travel takes on a very different complexion. Fatalities per 100 million passenger journeys are (on average) 4.5 for cars, 2.7 for trains, and 55.0 for planes! This means you are 12 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a car, and 20 times more likely to die on a commercial jet compared to a train.
The photograpts displayed above accompanied a March 2007 press release issued by PGR (Mexico's office of La Procuraduria General de L a Republica, or judge advocate general) announcing a succesful drug raid on a Mexico City Home. Total Money of 205.6 million in U.S. currency dollar.
