Conversations with a toddler and preschooler cont.

While walking through the grocery store, particularly the aisle with candy.

Jolene: "I can't stop looking at the candy!"

---

Jolene: "Is today a Spanish day?"

Brandon: "Everyday could be a Spanish day!"

Adele: "Nooooooooo!"

Baseball

Brandon and I are teaching the kids how to play. I suppose we should actually call it T-ball.

I am surprised by how much they like it. I thought they would lose interest quickly. We played for almost 45 minutes today. The girls wanted to keep playing but Gideon was ready for something new.

We need to get a proper plastic ball and bat. The one we have is for Gideon's age. The bat is almost too little for the girls hands...that's a first.

I don't think the odds are very high of finding a set for sale in the store.

Gideon is giving up his morning nap and Adele is done with her afternoon one. I am having a hard time trying to keep Gids entertained while teaching Jolene. Any ideas? He will colour for about two minutes and then everything ends up on the floor. The same with playdough. I know this will only last for a little while, I am just trying to keep from being too frustrated while in it.

Adele has just shown me that she can now draw hearts. A very important accomplishment for any little girl. Adele has grown up a lot lately. She no longer uses nappies, she gave up her passie on her own accord, and she no longer has naps. She often answers one of our qeestions by saying "of course!"

Example:

Me: "Adele would you like to have a drink?"
Adele: "of course!"

Me: "Adele it is time to eat, please go sit at the table."
Adele: "of course"

We are very proud of her recent accomplishments, especially the ability to draw hearts :-)

*sigh*

It's discouraging when members of a group don't come to a meeting.

When there isn't enough to even have a quorum.

I suppose everyone thinks that the other person is going to be the responsible one and go to the meeting. But what happens when >70% think that?

No quorum.

That is all there is to say, there isn't any more.

Signature in the Cell - Quote #1

"I dropped by to visit a software engineer who was working closely with one of the molecular biologists from the Biologic Institute...the software engineer had been studying how the cell processes information in order to write a computer simulation of gene expression...My colleague told me that he recognized many of these specific design patterns and stratagies at work in the cell.

He expresesd his awe at the "sophistication of it design logic" and its resemblance to that used in the software industry. He said the cell often employs a functional logic that mirrors our own, but exceeds it in the elegance of its execution.

"It's like we are looking at 8.0 or 9.0 versions of design stratagies that we have just begun to implement. When I see how the cell processes information," he said, "it gives me an eerie feeling that someone else figured this out before we got here."

Signature in the Cell
By Stephen Meyer

page 369


Note: Almost finished with the book. Only two more chapters, epilouge, and two appendices to go.

18 weeks - A big fat carrot with many small strings

An election year, ahhh time for the carrots to come out.

Hand #1 offering a carrot -

The Rudd government had committed to an 18-week national scheme that would pay the primary carer $544 a week.

Hand #2 offering a slightly larger carrot -

Mr Abbott has announced the Coalition will reveal its own paid parental leave policy and has said there is merit in six months' paid leave.

Votes, that is what they want. Which carrot, tied up in strings I might add, looks the best? I would say neither.

This is wrong for so many reasons....

1. Businesses are paying out and not getting anything in return. So they will pass on the loss via higher prices on products and services. Article #5

2. Taxes for more wealthy companies are going to increase to help pay for the program. This is even worse that number #1. In this case the company might not even have any women taking maternity leave but they are still required to pay the tax.

So who would pay for it? Big business, or more specifically, Australia’s top 3200 companies. There would be a 1.7 per cent levy on businesses earning more than $5 million a year. Article #1

3. Businesses will not be very excited about hiring women when they may leave for 6 months at a time to have kids. Of course, all sorts of legal battles would ensue. Discrimination! We should be allowed to have kids and still get paid for doing nothing.

So far, Abbott’s proposal has been attacked from everywhere. Predictably, corporations have got stuck into it with the Business Council of Australia, the Australian Industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry warning that it would hurt investment and jobs, distort the tax system, harm Australia's competitiveness and unfairly penalise big business. Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Peter Anderson says these sorts of initiatives need to funded by the community at large (i.e.taxpayers). Rio Tinto Iron Ore boss Sam Walsh says paid parental leave should be left up to individual businesses, not dictated by government. Commentator Alan Kohler suggests the Coalition has taken leave of its senses abandoning its free market philosophy. He says the scheme is too expensive and besides, would institutionalise workplace discrimination against young women. Article #2

Of course in an election year common sense does not abound. Maybe we should follow some of the European countries who offer 18 months paid leave. Or wait! Maybe we should try to up them one and offer moms a 18 years! Now you're talking.

As the GetUp campaign points out, places like France, Sweden and Estonia offer 18 months full pay, as opposed to 18 weeks here. Article #2

Here are some more tasty sections from the articles I read on the subject.

The commission also points out that, after an initial bonding and recuperation period, there are diminishing benefits to mothers and babies from being together around the clock. Article #3

Really, really? I am sorry but this is pure stupidity absurd.

The main economic argument for any type of paid parental leave scheme is that it provides an incentive for women to remain in the workforce. Article #3

Has anyone asked the question that maybe moms shouldn't stay in the workforce full-time when they have little kids? I know there are exceptions, but we are not talking about exceptions we are talking about the norm.

Here are the articles if you want to read more.
Article #1
Article #2
Article #3
Article #4
Article #5

Two Quotes :revisited

*I am republishing this due to some new developments*

that Brandon and I have been mulling over.

"Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts—not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive. And, just as important for our current situation, such a process will lead you, even after you come to a position of strong faith, to respect and understand those who doubt."

Timothy Keller - The Reason for God

“When it comes to the origin of life, we have only two possibilities as to how life arose. One is spontaneous generation arising to evolution, the other is a supernatural creative act of God. Spontaneous generation was scientifically disproved 100 years ago by Louise Pasteur, Spallanzani, Redi and others. That leads us scientifically to only one possible conclusion, that life arose from a supernatural creative act of God. I will not except that philosophically, because I do not want to believe in God. Therefore I choose to believe in that which I know is scientifically impossible, spontaneous generation leading to evolution.”

George Wald (Nobel prize for Medicine in 1967) -"Frontiers of Modern Biology on Theories of Origin of Life" (New York, Houghton Mifflin, 1972), p. 187.


6/2/10 Note: After reading one of the comments, it does appear that there is a controversy over whether this was actually said by George Wald. I have not been able to find copies of the primary sources. From what I have read on the internet it does seem that this is a misquote. Sadly, many have continued to publish this quote without realizing this. Thanks to the comment that pointed this out. It is hard to verify all quotes that one reads. When putting them on a blog or website you should check to make sure they are correct. Lesson learned. I am now ordering George Wald's article from Scientific America : Origin of Species to see what it actually says.