So science fiction is now science fact, the ridiculous has become real and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior not so preposterous after all! Take a look at Fox news reporting on the pregnant man, something that is routinely viewed as a paradox, a contradiction of terms:
Thomas Beatie was born a woman (Tracy), then he Tran-gendered into a man by having reconstructive surgery to remove the breasts and taking testosterone hormone injections to grow facial hair and develop other male characteristics. OK so far, familiar enough story: Tran-gendering from one to another sex is getting less shocking and more common. But Thomas chose to keep the reproductive organs he was born with (I don’t know about the genitalia and was somewhat queasy to find out about that, so I didn’t). So since his wife Nancy (I think she was born a woman) could not bear children Thomas decided to go ahead and get pregnant by artificial insemination and is now expecting to give birth to his daughter soon. Here is a clip of him featured on Oprah:
This is apparently not the only instance of a man being pregnant; Mr. Lee Mingwei is also another famous pregnant man, who has elicited the following extreme reactions: One woman is quoted as having said: “This is against God. Mr. Lee is a sick man. Repent now before it’s too late. You sick, sick people. God will pay you back for this evil you have created. REPENT! REPENT!” another woman, herself pregnant was quoted as having said, “Go, Mr. Lee! All my prayers and best wishes to you. I’m so happy for you and your baby. I am six months pregnant myself, and I completely understand how excited you are to be going through this amazing process. Have a happy and healthy pregnancy.”
Another man is quite envious of the concept of a pregnant man and is quoted as having said, “I’ve dreamed about this my entire life. Sign me up! I think I’d be a fantastic father in every way possible. And now I can participate in literally every step of my child’s life … from the embryo on up!”
As of now though, there does not appear to be anyway that a man, who was born a man, can have children, so it is not as if we can as yet decide which one from among a conventional husband and wife can choose to have a baby.
While this is fairly shocking and somewhat unsettling simply because of the unfamiliarity of the concept for me, what Thomas says in that Oprah video gave me pause for thought: “its not a male or female desire to have a child, it is a human desire”. That it is, and for what it is worth, I wish these men a safe and healthy pregnancy and birthing.
I took a short holiday in the hills with my family and it really recharged me! I am back and full of a new energy, a fresh enthusiasm and in a more positive frame of mind. I daresay that my creativity is also somewhat enhanced by the break.
In think that the main benefit of a holiday is being able to take a break from a daily routine, from structure, from the sameness that days can assume. With nothing in particular that has to be got done you can please yourself; seeing the sights is an option but not a must. I personally feel that you must not try and pack too much into a holiday or you lose out on the essence of a holiday, which is relaxation and spending quality time with the family.
If you try and do too much of this and that and the other thing as well, then it becomes too busy and then it’s a bit like work really. One day we may decide to do nothing except hang around and read or just lie around the hotel lounging in the pool or playing a game of some sort! If you are paying for a good hotel, be sure to make good use of its facilities! What is the point of paying for a good hotel if you were too rushed to enjoy the lovely pool or gym or other amenities.
It is never worth it to ‘do’ everything on the usual tourist itinerary; if it means jostling with too many crowds I say give it a miss! Instead concentrate on the unusual or that which is off the beaten track; I find that it is often far more rewarding! If there is a choice between a garden and a shopping mall, may I suggest the former over the latter?
If say you have a week off, plan to visit one or at the most two places in that time. I personally prefer to drive our own car to wherever it is that we decide to go. Both because I love to drive and also because it gives you the flexibility of stopping anywhere, for whatever amount of time, to take a detour, so stop to take in the sights, and basically just please yourself.
I firmly believe that the journey is as important as the destination, so take time to enjoy that as well. We saw some unexpected waterfalls in the hills and with no one to please but ourselves, we were able to take the time to stop and admire the scene and take pictures to our heart’s content! If there is a scenic route, take it, even if it is longer. We actually did that, and drove thru a game sanctuary, so driving thru the thick forest; we were rewarded by the sight of quite a few wild animals who were admittedly rather blasé about tourists.
Any interesting holiday ideas or stories that anyone would like to share?
I took a short holiday in the hills with my family, I’ll post the pictures and my experience of the same in a day or two…..But now after the short holiday I seemed to be getting habituated to holidays…..I was planning to go to Las Vegas for a slightly longish holiday. I came across some very good Vegas Hotels with good deals. I like my trip preplanned and well organized so I prefer doing all my bookings well in advance so that there is no last minute running around. My friends, who have been there, just can’t stop talking about it………..so Vegas here I come……
I will definitely keep you posted on the progress of my holiday plans.
Recently I seem to have come across an inordinate amount of horrifying headlines, which I thought I would share with you; not because I have some ghoulish interest in all things horrible but because when you read something that horrifies you, it makes you think and speaking personally, it always makes me resolve to be a better person and to manage my anger more effectively.
This one I first read over at the gin blog, and that got me thinking about honor killings: “17-year-old girl, Rand Abdel-Qader, was stabbed to death last month by her father for becoming infatuated with a British soldier serving in southern Iraq.” The father, reportedly stamped on, suffocated and stabbed his daughter. Not only is he unrepentant about his heinous act, he is still a free man and was supposedly congratulated by the police for his act instead of being arrested! Then a few years ago, a Pakistani father killed his daughter for marrying against his wishes; the father then proceeded to kill his other three daughters aged 12, 8 and 4 so that they may not dishonor him and his family by doing the same as their sister!
Apparently honor killings claim some 5000 lives a year according to a UN report and honor killings apply mostly to the women in the poorer countries where they are the most impoverished and the least empowered.
Now this one seems to be one that appears all too often in the Western Media, rather than honor killings, it is serial or other psychopathic killings: “a 15-year-old girl wearing her school uniform was found in the lift of Matheson Lang House on Baylis Road in Lambeth with at least 10 knife wounds to her front, neck and back.”
Another malaise the seems to stalk western society, perhaps because of breakup of the traditional family structure and the lack of support that is therefore available to young mothers, is characterized by this horrifying headline: Mother of Quadruplets charged with beating! “She was arrested on fourteen counts of child abuse. One son was hospitalized in a near-vegetative state. The other three children suffered skull fractures and broken bones. They were placed in foster care.” Apparently she was a single mother, who already had a six year old suffering from Downs when the quads were born.
Are these horrifying stories signs of a sick society or are they just aberrations that will help you and I check our own behavior and perhaps make us strive to be better people? Your thoughts?
The other day I was told to find some Drug treatment centers by my friend for her son who had been doing drugs since a while and now needs rehabilitation immediately. I was not aware much about these centers till I started my search, while searching I came across a lot of Drug Treatment Centers.
They are simply awesome. These places look no less than a five star hotel. The property is beautiful; it looks so peaceful, and full of life. They are ideal places for a drug addict person to come out of his habit and enjoy the real life and be one with nature. There is so much more to life then to just destroy it with a puff of smoke.
If my post could help even 1 drug addict person to leave drugs and start life all over again, I would feel myself blessed.
Life is beautiful; it shouldn’t be wasted like this……….
All those days of batteries running out, frantically trying to find a charger, worse, no charger at all …. Are passé. Meet the new-gen water-powered phones. Samsung has been the first company so far to introduce a micro-fuel powered phone.
It is essentially a regular hydrogen fuel-cell generator but micro sized. The underlying concept of how it works is when the handset is turned on; a reaction occurs between metal and the water in the phone to produce hydrogen gas, a process known as electrolysis (micro electrolysis in this case). The hydrogen gas then flows into the fuel cell where it reacts with oxygen in the air producing heat which is converted into power.
Samsung claims the phone battery can last up to ten hours of usage! That would really make it a treat! It is three times as good as many phones and about twice as good for others. Which still makes it the clear leader?
The only gripe however is that the hydrogen cartridge would have to be replaced every five days. Yes, that’s the fine print. So you can’t really be free… Even if they could, why would they? Will any business in their right minds sell you a phone that is completely and absolutely free to operate?? I won’t think so. The match point lies in the pricing of the hydrogen cartridge. If it’s too expensive or even moderately more, then regular charging would be preferred choice.
If you’re arguing that in the wilderness with no electricity and everything this would be a good choice, then I say to you look at the other options available to charge your phones. You can get tiny solar panel phone charges, hand cranking powered chargers …. Soon forgetting your wall-point charger will be no worry…
A few days back I had written a post on Health Insurance. After that post and giving you various information about the positives of health insurance, I realized the value of car insurance or for that matter of fact any auto insurance.
Last evening while returning back from work I met with an accident. I am alright, thanks to god for that, but my car is not fine. I got so scared when I saw the condition of my car post the accident, the whole bumper had gone, the glass windscreen was cracked and scratches all over.
That time my friend told me about maczoop.com. It is an insurance agency online which gives cheap car insurances. I checked the site and was quite impressed with their services. Since I was late this time, I made sure that all the cars in my house are insured with this company the very next day. After handling the loss of the repair for this car I did not want to handle any more losses.
This is the time I realized that when our health, or life and even our cars can be insured then why not use these facilities to make our tensions less. If I had done my car insurance earlier I wouldn’t have suffered the losses. These services are for the betterment of our living. I suggest we must all go ahead and get ourselves and our belongings insured as much as possible.
evawhite on June 30th, 2008
I took a short holiday in the hills with my family and it really recharged me! I am back and full of a new energy, a fresh enthusiasm and in a more positive frame of mind. I daresay that my creativity is also somewhat enhanced by the break.
I firmly believe that the journey is as important as the destination, so take time to enjoy that as well. We saw some unexpected waterfalls in the hills and with no one to please but ourselves, we were able to take the time to stop and admire the scene and take pictures to our heart’s content! If there is a scenic route, take it, even if it is longer. We actually did that, and drove thru a game sanctuary, so driving thru the thick forest; we were rewarded by the sight of quite a few wild animals who were admittedly rather blasé about tourists.
This one I first read over at the 
All those days of batteries running out, frantically trying to find a charger, worse, no charger at all …. Are passé. Meet the new-gen water-powered phones. Samsung has been the first company so far to introduce a micro-fuel powered phone.