emotional vs rational

So much for me and NaBloPoMo. I wound up prioritizing sleep (hard to come by in third trimester, when you have a 4 year old running about) and work, and never quite finished any of the posts I had planned (lots of drafts, though, so I hope to finish those up in the coming weeks, now that I am off of work.)

Yes, I am off of work, been off since 12/18. Due date was 12/22. EVERYONE reassured me that second babies come early; after all, their own second babies came early, it must be true. This really rankled the scientist in me… your sample size of 1 proves that all second babies come early?

I tried to find some literature on second gestations, and found basically nothing. Not a surprise, I think medicine figured out a long time ago that predicting the EXACT day of birth is a useless exercise. I did find one blogger who, frustrated as I was, began collecting survey results on gestation length. The stats show that, excluding induced births, first time mothers had their babies on average at 39 weeks 5 days, and second time mothers had their babies on average at 39 weeks 6 days.

At a party full of my son’s classmates’ mothers, I tried to point this out, starting my rebuttal with “some statistics I saw…” I was roundly laughed at; “isn’t she cute, statistics!” I dropped the subject, but was surprised by that response. These weren’t uneducated women; the group included at least 2 doctors, a high level program manager at a major Silicon Valley tech company, and others of that type. No science deniers here; why would they brush off the math?

I guess, especially when it comes to our babies, even the most scientific of us are affected by anecdotal evidence. I was recently pointed towards this article, in which the author (a professor of epidemiology and pediatrics) says

“I’ve been increasingly impressed with the power of stories over statistics. So I’ve decided to branch out from my usual publication format and tell a few stories of my own.”

So even the epidemiologists feel the pull of anecdotal evidence over numbers.

Anyways, I stuck to my guns to the very end. J was 5 days late, so no way would #2 come early. I (and my OB) figured she’d be late, for sure.

Turns out I should have paid more attention to the statistics. Z arrived at the exact average, 39 weeks and 6 days. 1 day early, on the winter solstice/apocalypse day. I was both wrong and right, I suppose.

Looking at her now, snoozing in my lap, I have to admit, a part of my brain thinks that it’s no wonder we defer to anecdotal evidence when it comes to our babies. She’s perfect, doesn’t the whole world work as she does? So much for being rational.

We think highly of ourselves now, don’t we?

A sign in the parking lot last week that made me chuckle.

An amusing play on the original phrase? A group with a bit of hubris? I suppose this IS Stanford, but geez :p

Friday Funny

One of the things I look forward to on Fridays is lab meeting… guarantees that (unless I am presenting) I am going to have less hectic morning, AND free breakfast. (Is it sad that, after 6 years, I still like free food?)

There is actually a Stanford email list that posts alerts to free food on campus….

I wish I had seen this Krulwich post before meeting today. I am totally going to try making a mobius bagel next week.

Yay women gamers!! Oh, wait…

Before lab meeting, I got into a conversation with a female labmate about Diablo III gameplay (we both have level 60+ wizards, in Inferno mode) and right then and there she opened Diablo III on her laptop to show me (much to the amusement of our other labmates).

It occurred to me that this occurrence is likely pretty rare… Two women gamers, both at the extreme high end of a first person slash and hack. I tried to google for the percentage of women Diablo III players, and 2 types of articles popped up: those complaining about stereotyping women (both in game plot and costume) and those discussing how many men prefer to play the sexy looking women characters.

Oh well. Girl Power? Is it a bad thing that I really didn’t blink at how the male characters are covered and the females wear metal bras? I just want to explode stuff! (Honestly, I am usually making fun of R for how ridiculous his barbarian looks.)

We voted

I picked J up an hour and a half early from after school care, and he was expecting me.

He happily chatted up a storm in the backseat as I drove to city hall to turn my mail in ballot, and contemplated how much has changed and yet stayed the same since 4 years ago. J turned 8 weeks old on Election Day 2008, and I keenly felt not only the momentous historical shift of that night, but also the tectonic personal shift. I was voting for my child that day, 4 years ago. Today, I voted for my children.

I could’ve placed my ballot in the mail a week ago, like R, but it felt important to me to have J help me push my envelope into the box.

Happy boy about to enter the polls

We all have our reasons to vote one way or another, but I hope that we can remember that we ALL vote with our best intentions. Whether for our families, our businesses, our communities.

I voted for marriage equality, for women’s reproductive rights, for healthcare reform, for advancement of science/technology, for my children’s future. What motivated you?

Reconsidering my pacing

I was really set on getting out a post per day digging into the meat of science funding and policy, but I’m finding that I want to put more thought and care into it. There were vague thoughts about posting things before Election Day too, but the more I think about it, the less that matters.

On one hand, who is elected into office plays a huge role in securing funding for NIH, NSF, DoD, and DoE research budgets. Ultimately, the president proposes the budget, and various congressional committees craft the budget which is eventually passed by the legislature. Clearly, if science/technology funding is a priority, we want a president and congressmen who think likewise.

That said, the importance of funding science remains, no matter who is elected. I’ll be optimistic and say that most of our senators and representatives are reasonable.(Unfortunately it seems there are a few exceptions… how he wound up on the science committee mystifies me…) So if constituents (you, dear readers) are willing to be vocal, then change can be affected.

I think that more importantly, it’s a long game. No one’s minds are going to be changed overnight. It’s more vital that voters eventually be informed properly on what we have gained through government funded research, so that for many election cycles going forward, the US will continue to be on the forefront of science and technology.

 

Nesting?

More substantive post tomorrow, but a quick thought. I was startled today to find myself scrubbing the shower doors midst shampoo. I NEVER clean the bathroom (that’s always been R’s job) so it struck me as unusual.

Nerd that I am, I did a pubmed search for human nesting. Not much came up, other than this article on social nesting (parents pulling back from friends and pulling in family instead).

I don’t remember being particularly ‘nest-y’ (?) with J until a week before he was born, when I made R meticulously clean our bedroom. This one isn’t due for another 7 weeks. /shrugs