Balafon

The latest Wired has a great article on vaccination (emphasis mine).

There is no credible evidence to indicate that any of this [vaccines harm America’s children] is true. None. Twelve epidemiological studies have found no data that links the MMR (measles/mumps/rubella) vaccine to autism; six studies have found no trace of an association between thimerosal (a preservative containing ethylmercury that has largely been removed from vaccines since 20011) and autism, and three other studies have found no indication that thimerosal causes even subtle neurological problems. The so-called epidemic, researchers assert, is the result of improved diagnosis, which has identified as autistic many kids who once might have been labeled mentally retarded or just plain slow. In fact, the growing body of science indicates that the autistic spectrum — which may well turn out to encompass several discrete conditions — may largely be genetic in origin. In April, the journal Nature published two studies that analyzed the genes of almost 10,000 people and identified a common genetic variant present in approximately 65 percent of autistic children.

I am proud to say that Emily had another round of vaccinations the other day. Her risk of dying from a host of fatal childhood diseases has gone down significantly.¹ Her risk of developing autism has increased by an amount so small it would take a scanning electron microsocope to detect.

We evaluate risks every day. There is a small but non-zero chance that I will be run over by a truck while biking to work. Should I then refuse to get out of bed?

My extremely fetching orange and yellow reflective vest is made of plastic, which is flammable, and might melt itself into my skin if it catches on fire. Is the risk of my vest catching on fire (perhaps from static electricity generated by rubbing against my jacket) greater than the risk of a truck driver not seeing me on a dark rainy evening if I don’t wear it?

Sounds crazy, but that’s how anti-vaxxers sound to me. Is the infinitesimal (and in fact made up out of whole cloth) risk of autism greater than the risk of brain damage or death from rubella or measles, or pertussis?

Emily at three months has begun to communicate about things that are not immediately related to her physical needs.

The other day I was bouncing her on my knee and singing a song, she was paying attention and sort of giggling. When I finished, she began waving her arms and vocalizing, so I started singing another song, and she smiled.

Very exciting.

Mia edzino kaj nia bebineto ekvojaĝis hodiaŭ al Kalgario por viziti la gepatrojn de Andrea.

Kompreneble mi profitos dum la tri sekvaj tagoj de la ŝanco rigardi perfortajn filmojn, kaj komputile ludi, kaj manĝi tiujn, kiujn la obejendino ne kutime ŝatas.

Estante introverto, mi ĝuas ĉiun maloftan kaj malmultan momenton de soleco.

Bebineto Emily videble estas kreskanta ĉiutage. Hieraŭ kuŝante en ŝia liteto ŝi klare kaj cele frapis ludileton pendigitan je la lita flanko. Poste dum mi nutris ŝin de patrin-lakta botelo, ŝi uzis sian brakon movi la botelon al pli konvena loko.

Baldaŭ ŝi ekparolos!

Nun staras la demando: kiun linvon paroli krom la angla? Ne estas demando ĉu uzi aliajn lingvojn! Sed estas multaj lingvoj, kaj nur iometo da tempo.

Mi kompreneble unue pensis pri Esperanto, ĉar mia Esperanta povo pligrandas ol mia Klingona, la sola alia lingvo, kion mi esploris en iom da detalo. Mi studiis la Klingonan antaŭ dudek jaroj, do mi forgesis la plejparton.

Mia preskaŭ sola kritiko de Esperanto estas, ke ĝi retenas malbonan patriarkan econ. Ekzistas reformoj, ekzemple riismo, sed mi ne scias ĉu ĝi subteniĝas.

Legi nuntempe la mirinda In the Land of Invented Languages, per Arika Okrent, memorigis min pri la lingvo Láadan. Ĝin kreis Suzette Hadin Elgin por esplori virinajn aferojn, kiujn ne povas facile esprimiĝi per niaj aktuala patriarkaj lingvoj.

Inter multaj interesaj trajtoj, en Láadan la ina estas la nemarkata sekso, kaj Láadan ankaŭ estas tona lingvo.

Do mi pensas, ke estos interesa provo. Sed mi (elble ni) devu lerni Láadan rapide!

Loĝante en Vankuvero, Emily certe lernos la Francan kaj la Mandarenan. La Francan per siaj gepatroj, kaj la Mandarena espere per la najbaroj.

Oni ne povas koni tro da lingvojn!

I’m sure most everybody who would like to know has found out from email or on Facebook, but Andrea’s and my daughter Emily was born last Tuesday. She is the cutest little thing in the world.

Labour took about 18 hours, but went quite well, all things considering (Andrea might disagree, of course :-). After an hour of pushing, out came Emily all wide awake and squalling.

There were a few pretty sleepless nights since, but she’s now sleeping longer periods, and we are settling into something like a new pattern of life.

So the maternal Andrea & I went for a 3D ultrasound last week. We found out that we are expecting a little girl. Opinion is divided as to whether she has the Buhler or the Tisher nose.

Anticipating impending parenthood, I’m always on the lookout for helpful tips:

A week late, due to server problems, but here is a picture you may find interesting:

Yes, this is an echogram of our developing progeny.

This is the text of an email we just sent out to friends and family; I thought I’d reprise it here so as to spread the word…

Dear Friends & Family,

We thought that we should update you on what’s been going on in our
lives in the past few months. We’ve spoken to many of you in person, or
on Facebook or elsewhere, so much of this email may be redundant for
many of you, but we thought we’d send an email to try to catch up
everyone at once.

Our first bit of news is that we have moved! We sold our
650-square-foot condo in East Vancouver, and bought a 1450-square-foot
townhouse in Richmond, south of Vancouver. It feels pretty luxurious.

We are both on Facebook, should you wish to contact us there.

The commute to Regent College, where Andrea continues as the Music and
Worship Coordinator, is a bit better than from the old place. Andrea
will also finish up her Master’s degree in the spring. And Andrea’s
debut CD, Awake the Sacred Song, is nominated for two Canadian Gospel
Music Association Covenant Awards. Read all about it at
andreatisher.com.

Gordon commutes by bus to downtown Vancouver, where he continues as a
software developer at Threewave Software, a video game studio.
Threewave develops multiplayer modes for major video games, including
the past year’s Turok and Army of Two for the Xbox 360 and
Playstation 3, and the upcoming Ghostbusters game from Sony.

All this would be exciting enough, but there is still one more item that
we thought you’d be interested in . . . drumroll please . . .

It turns out that we will be needing the extra space around the house,
since Andrea is now in her second trimester.

That’s right, we are expecting our first child in the second week of
April, 2009. We are, of course, both excited and terrified, and we look
forward to sharing this new stage of our life with you in the coming months.