Can mothers choose the sex of their baby?

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Why oh why do I not get a discount?!

The evil, nasty Apple people tempted me with a promotional email touting all kinds of big sales today only so I opened it, naturally. I have money to burn, er, spend on two of my favorite guys and tech gear is a sure winner for pressies.

I found exactly what I wanted and both were on really great sales. I could even get free engraving on one and have my choice of colors. Perfect. The other pressie would actually be for me in a way.. LOL.. because it would mean Mr. Field Notes and I could work side by side instead of in separate offices. Awesome! And FREE SHIPPING! Next day shipping! Perfect.

So I put the items in the cart and went to save it for later. Just a few hours while I make sure this is really something I can afford right now. The decision hangs on the outcome of a VIP test I need to take. So I click to save the cart, enter my password and then vamoooose bye bye sale discount.

What the?!

So, if you're a frequent, loyal customer who keeps a registered account then you don't get your discount? Grrrrrrr. Bye bye buy.

I guess I'll just erase the cookies and refill the shopping cart later.

Little Y makes it through surgery

Youngster Yuckster made it through surgery last week. She got spayed Wednesday and has been doing really well ever since. She got her bark back around Friday but has continued to be much quieter than usual. She's got stitches that dissolve and didn't go home with those awful plastic 'Elizabethan' collars. Apparently she showed no signs of self-mutilation her doc said. I was skeptical so we kept a close eye on her which was made easier by us being on vacation.

We still worked from home a bit here and there. Me more so than Mr. Field Notes. Some vacation! Orders, including several large ones, continued to roll in so I found myself working almost non-stop. Then I got a nasty case of food poisoning that shut me down completely. I think that's what it was. We ordered a pizza after we finished painting the kitchen and the next morning I was sick and Mr. Field Notes felt bad too. We decided to take care of the kitchen while Yuki was out for her surgery since it would be impossible to do it with her around.

Katy's a good dog, a very very good dog, so it was easy to work around her while we painted. She just lounged on her couch while we painted around her. She seemed to have missed her little sister. She would go over to look out the window and cry. She'd lay around bored. But, we give her a new toy I had been saving so she could play with something new unmolested by little Yuckstart. She had a good time but now of course, it's Yuki's toy.

Yuki's stitches look good. There's just a little bit of oozing that we're keeping an eye on, and fortunately the 5 hours she spent home alone while we were back at work this morning went well. Her stitches look even better than they did yesterday.

And, more noticeably, her bark is back so she must be feeling better. She's still not allowed to play, wrestle or go on walks, but we still make sure she has plenty of stuff to chew on. Her latest fascination is the toilet paper. Today she ran off ten feet of it before I caught up with her.
What a nut.

Those crazy newfs!

I think they have actually become each others BFF.
The proof is in the picture pudding.

Chair Share

Just recently they've agreed to participate in the Chair Share Program. Katy is a rather wide load and likes to sit in the big comfy chair with her snout draped over the back so she can rest and relax while traffic and walkers pass by. Yuki likes to do the same. Not until today have they both occupied the chair for longer than 20 seconds. Today the stayed nearly twenty minutes!

Traffic Spotting is Thrilling

It must be, anyway, judging by the length of time they spent just staring out the window. They do this at least once a day, every day.

Baby Sister Adores Katy

I had always hoped that Katy and Dear Old Mr. Max would become like two snug little bugs in a rug, but that never happened. Yuki and Katy really do get along really well. They sit next to each other, sleep near each other and Yuki goes crying wild whenever Katy leaves the house for a walk. She has to sit in my lap and get hugs after 15-20 minutes of being without big sister. Except for one incident, Katy has always gotten along well with Yuki. One time Yuki got up in Katy's face when Katy was either relaxing or enjoying some tasty morsel. Katy munched little Yuki's nose so hard it left a bloody gash that left a noticeable scar. Other than that, Killer K has been amazingly gentle and patient with her young annoyance.

Aw...
Miss Put Upon Katy

That's Katy's pout face. We see it when she is really disgusted with the unequal and unfair treatment she receives. She put up with so much annoyance and so little compensation. She shared the chair for a long time — a really long time in dog years — and she didn't even get a cheeseburger for her trouble. The injustice!

New Holiday Cards & Tags

A custom request I got through etsy inspired me to whip up some new designs for holiday cards and tags. I really love how the design of the snowflake cards turned out. It's just clip art laid over squares I made with rounded corners. The color scheme is one Godiva used a few years ago.

I am a big fan of the turquoise, red and white combination and I hope others are too!

I have one set of 10 cards listed for sale now. Just like the other paper I make, they are seed embedded and can be planted in the spring. Call it the no waste Christmas card that is also a gift!

The other card is a holly card that I colorized in Photoshop. Colorizing a black and white image turned out to be both easy and enjoyable. I haven't listed it yet, but I'm planning to. It's also plantable. I'm thinking about offering the option of customizing it with a family name under the "Happy Holidays" part, something like "Happy Holidays from the Stewart family."

And finally, I made some penguin and polar bear tags. They are more 'cute' than I usually do, so for those who want more 'grown up' tags, I've got the snowflakes design on some other tags that will be available soon.

In the meantime, get your paws on these tags while you still can!

Christmas Holly Card: Click here.
Holidays Card set of 10: Click here.
Penguin & Polar Bear tags: Click here.

Sisterhood is Powerful: Lessons from Gelada & Hamadryas Baboons

Living along the cliffs of highland Ethiopia is a fascinating species of baboon called the Gelada baboon. They are magnificent creatures and stand apart from the rest of the primates due to their chests. They are bare and bright red.

Both males and females of the so-called bleeding heart baboon have hourglass shaped areas of bare, red skin on their chests. Female geladas, upon reaching sexual maturity, develop blister-like bumps around the edges of these skin patches.

They swell and change color from whitish to red in conjunction with the female's estrous cycle. They are an obvious indicator of fertility, somewhat like the fleshy rump patches of other baboons, chimps and bonobos.

Because gelada baboons spend most of their day sitting on their behinds munching grasses, they don't signal ovulation on their rears like many other primates do. What good is a hidden signal? So it's displayed where it can be seen — on their chests. Some evolutionary psychologist think something similar drove the evolution of human female sexual signals. Instead of sporting swollen labia like chimps and bonobos do when they ovulate, human females have a much more subtle signal in the form of a different pair of red lips. The ones on our faces. It's a much more subtle signal. No wonder men find women mysterious!

Gelada baboons live alongside steep cliffs. At night, they climb down the rocks to sleep, safely away from predators. They huddle together for warmth. Nights in the mountains of Ethiopia are chilly. Males and female have evolved thick fur to cope with the conditions. Males have especially thick hair concentrated around their heads, neck and chest. They look very much like lions. It is said that Ethiopian warriors use their manes in traditional costumes.

Their unusual appearance and striking presence is one thing, but perhaps the most interesting aspect of these primates is their social structure. It is one of the most complex among primates and is often cited as a model for understanding what the social structure of ancestral humans might have been like.

Gelada baboon social structure is also especially interesting because it contrasts sharply with a closely related species of baboon — the hamadryas baboon. Both species of baboon live in Ethiopia in the highlands in groups of hundreds of individuals. Bands upwards of 400 have been spotted in one place, but they recognize only the few who live in their troop and especially their harem. Harems are formed of 2 to 8 females, their young and one dominant male. Sometimes harems are referred to as OMUs or one male units to differentiate their social system from that of human harems, but the concept is basically the same. Often, gelada and hamadryas baboon harems have a hanger-on or follower male who is too young, too inexperienced, or too low ranking to acquire his own harem. And that's where some of the stark differences between the two species can be seen.

Hamadryas males actively herd their females using visual and vocal threats. Sometimes they bite. A nip to the back of the neck corrects wayward females who may be intent on defecting to another harem or joining up with a follower male. It can get vicious and stressful from a female's point of view. Hamadryas follower males also try to steal the females — even females that are juveniles not yet mature enough to reproduce. They kidnap the youngsters and guard them until they are old enough to mate with. They do take good care of their young charges by grooming them, helping them up and down cliffs, and watching out for other signs of danger.

Gelada females, in contrast, have much more relaxed lives. Males don't herd them or try to abscond with them or their babies. They live lives characterized more by sisterly bonds than domestic abuse. Gelada females enjoy very tight bonds with other females in their group, spending most of their grooming time on each other. In contrast, their hamadryas counterparts focus most of their grooming on 'the boss.'

Why do gelada and hamadryas females live such different social lives?
The answer is actually remarkably simple: Gelada females are family. Hamadryas females are totally unrelated to each other. Kinship is a powerful determinant of behavior among primates.

Why are gelada females all related to one another?
At sexual maturity, when juveniles complete puberty and become capable of reproduction, they must leave their natal troop, their birth troop, to avoid inbreeding. Among geladas, it's the males who leave. For hamadryas, it's the females who leave. When they join new troops, they find themselves living with unrelated females who are more interested in the dominant male than each other. For gelada females it's just the opposite.

Are the bonds of sisterhood powerful deterrents for male violence? I think the story of the gelada and hamadryas baboons suggests so.

Army of the 12 Monkeys: Monkey of the Month Club on sale now

Introducing the much loved 2008 Monkey of the Month Club felted OrnaMonkey ornament set.

All year long I release one unique monkey species into the wild. A mandrill, a few lemurs, a macaque, a capuchin, a langur or two, two tamarins, the monogamous titi monkey, and maybe a rare uakari or saki monkey round out the twelve.

Normal enrollments in the club fetch the member one monkey per month. This particular one gets the member ALL of the monkeys at once. This saves a lot on the cost of shipping and makes it possible for you to give them as a gift set for Christmas or spread them out among monkey-loving friends, family and teachers. You could hog them all to yourself. They are just that cute!

Each monkey comes with a bio-blurb so you can learn what makes each monkey unique among primates.

Recommended uses: Hang on a tree, in a window, pinned or hung on a bag, backpack or hung from door knobs, even your rear view mirror. This is one set of monkeys you'll love all year long.

And, because the felt used in the OrnaMonkeys is "eco-spun" felt made from recycled plastic bottles, you can feel good about supporting the use of recycled materials. The purchase of anything from me helps me to make charitable contributions each year to conservation organizations. I donate to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and the Jane Goodall Institute. Both work to increase the amount of land set aside for conservation. This helps not only the primates that live there, but all the other species as well. They even help people living near the monkeys and apes by providing employment in the parks, funding local schools and helping families begun small businesses that use the area's natural resources sustainably.

Photos show many of the monkeys that are part of the set. This set gives you a 40% savings compared with buying the monkeys individually. Click on any of the photos for more details.

Water dog sets sail on "Good Ship Washbasket"

The young Yuki must be dreaming of an open sea. With a face this cute, you'd spoil her rotten too. Why can't they stay young longer?

Spoil your dog: Extravagant dog toys.

People these days spoil their dogs like their kids, making them truly part of the family. Toys are a big part of that. But like new babies and toddlers, dogs often take the most pleasure in the cheapest toys. Rag towels, cardboard rolls from the used up TP, empty soda bottles, and the classic — plentiful, free — sticks. Our big Katy loves to play with rocks too.

The one store bought (and sometimes homemade) toy they both absolutely flip for is squeaky toys. The smaller the better. They stuff them into their cavernous mouths, leaving their jowls fully inflated and then run from one end of the house to the other, squeaking the toy rhythmically the whole time. Dollar store squeaky dog toys are usually money well spent. But sometimes their teeth puncture the plastic quickly, deflating all the excitement. I have yet to find a supply of good, loud, cheap bulk squeakers. If/when I do, I'll buy them and stuff old socks with them. They both love taking socks out of the clothes basket so it would be a perfect combination. The only thing better would be couple of ragged, torn old towel ends hanging out from both ends.

If you're not on a tight budget like everyone else in America (the world?) you can splurge on these extravagant toys I found today while trying to find an example of a small, cheap squeaky toy for Big K. The third one is a bit ridiculous, but I can actually see people buying it.

Toy 1: The Poor Dog's Extravagance: Corded Puli Dog Plush Squeaky Toy — a toy that looks like a Portuguese water dog, complete with realistic black dreadlocks and Rastafarian collar.

Toy 2: Middle of the Road Splurge: Premium O'Drools, Super Slobber Brew — a 'beer bottle' for your dog that squeaks.

Toy 3: Champagne and Caviar: The Sleepover Suitcase Giftbox
Inside a Louis Vuitton-esque suitcase lies a plush terry robe ($25 extra will get you a giant breed sized one), a squeaker toy "Bark Street Journal" newspaper, an embroidered plush squeaky toy passport, a yellow plush NYC-style taxi cab that squeaks, a stylish ceramic food dish, organic turkey and parmesan bone-shaped cookies, and a luxurious chocolate brown throw blanket. Only $150 to provide retail therapy for your dog's first night away from home.

$850 for a stuffed chicken? Yes, for real. Welcome to Japan.

Wow! Does it taste like gold?

Only in Japan could you expect to order a piece of meat that costs that much.

When I was there a little over a year ago we went to a marvelous department store, Takashimaya, the store selling poultry gold. Think Harrods, but more extravagant. Saks Fifth Avenue on steroids.

The super upscale department store in Tokyo made headlines today for taking advance orders for chickens stuffed with foie gras, black truffles, sausage and chestnuts.

They are asking 84,000 yen for them (around $850).

Japanese companies — like those in the US and every other first world economy hit hard by the worldwide financial crisis — expect a recession and have turned away from appealing to middle class buyers to instead grab those who still have loads of cash.

This is definitely one way to go about that!

It took a little searching around, but I found Takashimaya's online page where the $850 chicken is being sold. You can see it here. You can get a taste of the flavor of an extravagant Japanese Christmas here. Japanese go gaga over Christmas. It's clearly not a Christian tradition anymore. It is a worldwide commercial phenom.

Takashimaya has numerous floors. The bottom floor is a food court full of the most expensive food imaginable, much of it packaged to be given as a gift. To show your admiration for someone, you go out of your way to get them a really, really splashy gift — like a melon. I remember seeing huge melons there, all exquisitely displayed to showcase their perfection.

Costly, especially useless, gifts are the epitome of something evolutionary types call costly signaling.

The higher the cost and the more difficult it is to fake, the more likely the effort is an honest one. Nearly anyone can buy a fake Rolex or fake Fendi purse at a place like Times Square or Shibuya, but few can give a Kobe beef steak or $180 cantaloupes from Takashiyama.

I blew some money on fancy toothpicks for my dad while I was there. I couldn't afford anything else!

Exciting Discovery: Gas prices temperature map.

Whoever invented the GasBuddy.com site is a megagenius. The content is all user generated which results in a temperature style map to display the price per gallon of gasoline around the country. The map is updated daily. At the site, you can zoom in to view your county, and in some cases, your city. Like google maps, you can click to drag to a new location. You can also search by zip code to find what is the current price of gas by gas station in your city.


It's really interesting that the map resembles, in some really obvious ways, the electoral map of the recent election. There are also some stark differences. Speaking of electoral maps, this site has them going all the way back to the time of George Washington, when there weren't even really parties yet. It's interesting looking back through history that the last time there was a true third party candidate it was 1912. And, the South for the most part went to Democrats until 1964 when the southern states went to Republican Barry Goldwater instead of Democrat Lyndon Johnson and stayed that way until even now, with the exception of Jimmy Carter who was from Georgia. I'd guess Goldwater was also from the south, but wikipedia says he's from the same state as this year's loser.

So there you go, two great databases — one gas prices and the other history of electoral votes — presented visually. I love well-organized and presented visual data.

Now, if anyone can explain why the highest gas prices are concentrated along the west coast and in New England, regions that are Democratic strongholds, I'd love to hear your theories. I've got some ideas, but I'd love to hear what you think!

The same thing goes for the South, why was it Democratic and then suddenly went Republican? I have no theories there, so I'd be especially interested to hear what you think.

Baby Chimp Cares for 2 Orphan Tiger Cubs

My dad forwarded an email to me that I couldn't resist sharing this way.

Apparently, during hurricane Hannah, two baby tigers were born at "TIGERS, The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species" in South Carolina. Their mother was too stressed, they said, so they separated the cubs and humans began caring for them — that is — until 2-yr-old chimp Anjana stepped in.


She feeds the babies milk with a bottle, lies with them, plays with them and in other ways acts as a surrogate mother.

But wait a second, aren't chimps notoriously really aggressive?

Yes, they hunt and kill monkeys to eat. They beat each other up as part of dominance struggles, and they stalk other chimp groups and kill them gang warfare style.

They are also very affectionate and as far as parenting goes, tend to be very attentive caregivers. Like humans, mama chimps differ in parenting styles and attentiveness. First time chimp mothers often don't seem to know what they're doing. They hold and carry the baby wrong. Fail to respond to cries. Accidentally sit on the babies - you name it. But, chimps who have babysitting practice, seem to get it. They are more attentive, more patient and also less likely to use aggressive ways of disciplining their babies.

For example, some mama chimps bite their babies during weening to get the babies to stop whining and begging to nurse. Others lay their chest down on the ground or cover their chest with their arms — a much more gentle solution to the problem.

Young chimps are fascinated by babies. Older siblings seek out their younger siblings to play with and practice parenting skills by babysitting them. And, evidence such as this case along with many others like it, suggest that chimps (like other apes like gorillas and humans) don't seem to care what species the baby is.

Koko, the gorilla who was taught sign language at an early age, had a pet kitten that she treated like a baby.

Of course, both of these young apes grew up learning from humans so that has something to do with it. Wild gorillas and wild chimps would never even have the chance to care for another species, but there are a few scattered reports I recall of juveniles accidentally coming across babies of other species. The reports indicate the instinct seems to be one more of curiosity than of murder.

**** Say it isn't so...

Unsurprisingly, the chimp in this case appears to lack upper teeth, something that is not normal at this age. They may very well have been pulled, a practice routine with chimps used in show business. It makes them less dangerous to work with as they grow older and stronger.

Googling this TIGERS place, and reading their website, makes it clear to me that it is very much like other fake animal sanctuaries that skirt the line of legality and ethics. Rather than being places of genuine research and sanctuary, they are in actuality roadside zoos and excuses to keep exotic animals as pets where laws prohibit it. They are not a non-profit organization. They don't list what percent or even exactly to whom they make charitable donations for conservation. At best, they merely educate people that wild animals can be trained to do extraordinary things.

In my opinion, they are scumbags who exploit animals.

The TIGERS website has a page where they advertise the animals have appeared in commercials. "One of the series of commercials that our animal actors have starred in recently is for Schweppes Tonic Water," they proudly say.

Don't bother looking at their website to learn more about animals or even conservation, you won't find it. You'll find more educational value in reading one paragraph of a description of the felt monkeys I make and sell on etsy.

In any case, I'm glad you're reading this and hope you found value to it. You can probably guess that I'm pretty passionate about this stuff. I don't often come right out and call people scumbags, but when I do, I mean it.

Thanks for listening, and please do chime in with comments.

Rainman: Does rain cause autism?

Of course not, but the results of a study recently published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine seem to indicate an association between autism and rain.

Specifically, the rate of childhood autism is higher in counties in California, Oregon, and Washington with greater precipitation.

According to the study's co-author, Sean Nicholson, who is not a psychologist but rather a public policy analyst, Washington counties west of the Cascade Mountains, get four times as much precipitation and had autism rates twice as high as those in the drier east.

The research made headlines in papers across the country, including our small community's newspaper. It makes sense too, if rain doubles the chance of autism, you'd think that's important information people should know about.

While the results of this study are interesting, it needs to be put into proper context. First of all, this is another case of correlation research. Two things being associated does not mean one caused the other.

Another cause for concern with this type of research finding is how it is that we're looking at incidence rates, not raw numbers. And this kind of number (rates) is very difficult for to keep in perspective.

If the rate of autism is doubled in rainy counties, what do suppose is the risk of any one individual developing autism in that county compared with one in a drier county? Twice as high, you'd say. But — you'd be wrong. Why? In absolute terms, about 1 in 150 people has autism. If the rate doubles, that means 2 in 150 people has autism. So, the rate of autism goes from 0.6% to 1.3% which is a lot, lot smaller than the 100% increase that gets reported.

Dang it. So much for statistical literacy.

Lately I've been paying a lot more attention to this issue since I received a special supplement to a peer-reviewed academic journal I subscribe to. The supplement, Psychological Science in the Public Interest, features a long article written by a team of very critical scientists who argue that the way health statistics are presented, oftentimes with the complicity of medical doctors, does an enormous disservice to the public and in some cases does actual harm by leading people (and doctors themselves) to make bad medical care decisions.

I'm only 3 pages into the tome, but I'm finding it very interesting and it has certainly helped me to put studies like this Rain + Autism one into proper context.

I'm not sure what public policy decision the autism study authors would make, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were downright idiotic.

Here's some evidence to support my hunch. They had presented early results from this data before as part of the Johnson Graduate School of Management's "Research Paper Series" which I'd bet is not a peer-reviewed journal. This is what they had to say about it (edited for brevity, and bolded to point out where the authors false make causal claims where the data is merely correlational):

"Autism ... one of the current theories concerning the condition is that early childhood television viewing serves as ... a trigger. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, we... show... consistent with the television as trigger hypothesis, that county autism rates are also positively related to the percentage of households that subscribe to cable television. Our precipitation tests indicate that just under forty percent of autism diagnoses... is the result of television watching due to precipitation, while our cable tests indicate that approximately seventeen percent of the growth in autism... is due to the growth of cable television. These findings are consistent with early childhood television viewing being an important trigger for autism."

Now that an apparently respectable peer-reviewed journal has published this autism + rain link piffle, I'm left scratching my head and hoping that people don't monkey around and take this crap seriously.

Rain and TV viewing do not cause autism!

Words and an Unforgetable Image

I just don't think I can add anything to what's already been said about what happened yesterday, but this was certainly memorable.

Get your urban news at DimeWars.Com

I don't know who said this originally, but it has also made an impression:

Rosa Parks sat so
Martin Luther King, Jr. could stand so
Barack Obama could run so
we could fly.

Maybe in my lifetime I'll see a female U.S. President too.

Light Blue Leaf Card Bundle

Flame orange berries and gorgeous red dogwood tree leaves created the perfect backdrop for a set of light baby blue leaf cards I recently made.

Usually I don't make quite so many leaf cards all in the same color range, but I made too much pulp for one project and had others lined up so I had to think of something to use the pulp for. It had been a while since I made leaf cards and with the leaves changing color all around, I couldn't resist going whole hog on a bunch of them.


I ended up with 7 full sized cards and seven miniature cards that would be great gift tags. Sycamore, maple, oak, ginkgo and other leaves from trees that grow in my neighborhood grace the fronts of all of them. I collect the leaves on walks with the newfs.

Almost all of the cards bear a natural stain from the leaves too, something that doesn't always happen but I think it's wonderful when it does.

Click any of the pictures or here for a more complete description of them.

Dia des los Muertos

The Mexican celebration of ancestors, Dia des los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is a day set aside to remember the dead. It coincides with All Saints Day, November 1 and All Souls Day, November 2. Like most other holidays, this one comes and goes in our house much like the others, which is to say, without any sort of fanfare.

But, this particular one reminds me of a store in Portsmouth, NH that had the best Dia Des los Muertos paraphernalia — three foot tall handpainted porcelain skeleton dolls. Freakin' awesome ones. I always wanted one because they were wicked cool works of art, but they were also prohibitively expensive.

Apparently, the traditional thing to do is to visit the graves of ones ancestors and leave candles, food, drinks (like tequila and mezcal), and other things to entice the dead. Supposedly on this day, the spirits of the dead can come back from 'the beyond' for a visit if the living show them the way with petals of the cempazúchitl, an orange marigold flower. The petals point them in the direction from the grave to the house.

I've collected a lot of marigolds for my card making, but I seriously doubt even if I wanted to, that I would have enough to stretch all the way to the graves of any of my ancestors. Instead., I'll just send a shout out to 'the beyond' for some uncles who died from brain tumors and a maternal grandmother who always made me hot chocolate when I stopped by to warm up on the way home from school.

WallExpress on etsy makes the best 'sugar skull' art. That's one of her sold items above.