Posture modifies pain tolerance

Can standing erect and adopting a powerful pose increase a person's pain tolerance?

This is the question Scott Wiltermuth and Vanessa K. Bohns set out to answer in their study "It Hurts When I Do This (or You Do That)" published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
And they found out that it does indeed.
Wiltermuth and Bohns had two hypothesis: The first was that people who were made to pose in positions that express dominance would have increased pain thresholds while those who adopted submissive postures would have decreased pain threshold. The second hypothesis was that when the subjects would be made to interact with dominant or submissive people, they would adopt the postures that would complement the behavior of the person they were interacting with, and their pain thresholds would be affected accordingly.
The research involved 44 female and 45 male participants. To test the first hypothesis, yoga poses were used. For the second, the interaction partners varied their body positions, the volume of their voices, and the space between themselves and the subject to present either a dominant or submissive persona. Pain threshold for both experiments was measured using a blood pressure cuff which was tightened until the subject said “stop.” For the interaction experiment, handgrip strength was also measured.
Results were positive for both hypothesis. That is, as stated in the report's abstract “participants who adopted dominant poses displayed higher pain thresholds than those who adopted submissive or neutral poses,” and “participants who interacted with a submissive confederate displayed higher pain thresholds and greater handgrip strength than participants who interacted with a dominant confederate.”
The results are important because of their implications for pain management. From the first experiment it is clear that the simple act of adopting dominant poses can increase pain tolerance. On the other hand, the second experiment has lessons for interactions between patients with pain and their caregivers, including doctors, nurses and family members. It appears that the people who care for patients in pain must make an effort to become more submissive and let the patient become the dominant person in their interactions.
Scott Wiltermuth is an assistant professor of management organization at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, and Vanessa K. Bohns is a postdoctoral fellow at the J.L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.

Right lessons learned now wrong

The world of Science is always growing, changing.

Recently, two very basic things I learned as true I found out are false.

1. The main function of sex is to promote genetic diversity. FALSE.
"Rather, it's about keeping the genome context -- an organism's complete collection of genes arranged by chromosome composition and topology -- as unchanged as possible, thereby maintaining a species' identity." Read about that here.

2.  Organisms with identical genes will develop in the same way under identical conditions. Except for identical human twins, that is. FALSE.
Read about that here.

There was another one, but I am getting old and I forgot what it was.

I love ScienceDaily. :)

SHS makes teens addicts

Research shows that exposure to second hand smoke from cigarettes can make children aged 11-15 years old who don't smoke into nicotine addicts if they are exposed to smokers.

Jennifer J. McGrath, senior author of the study, explained the findings of their study in a press release as that "Children exposed to the same amounts of secondhand smoke as adults absorb higher doses of nicotine.” She adds that “Early findings suggest that secondhand smoke exposure could possibly trigger addiction in the brain – before kids actually start smoking themselves."

This should serve as a wake up call to parents and other adults who deal with children.

Aside from the physical addiction, the social aspect also affects the teens' behavior. McGrath's co-author Simon Racicot explained "Preteens who were surrounded by more smokers believed that there are greater advantages to smoking," and they don't see it as unhealthy behavior. He spells it out: “Smoking by parents, siblings, and friends increases risk factors for later smoking."

According to the researchers, it is one of the first studies that clearly shows how teens who don't smoke experience nicotine dependence symptoms, including craving for cigarettes. They studied 327 sixth and seventh graders enrolled in French-language public schools in Montreal.

The researchers suggest that prevention efforts must be undertaken targeting young teenagers that are exposed to secondhand smoke. They also point out the need for the general public to be educated on how smoking around youth can make the dangerous habit appear normal.”

The research, "An Investigation of Social and Pharmacological Exposure to Secondhand Tobacco Smoke as Possible Predictors of Perceived Nicotine Dependence, Smoking Susceptibility, and Smoking Expectancies Among Never-Smoking Youth," was published in the Nicotine & Tobacco Research  journal.

Locking up radioactive iodine

Researchers at the University of Sheffield in England report on a way to trap radioactive iodine and keep it from moving around and wreaking havoc.

After the earthquake and tsunami destroyed Japan's Fukushima nuclear power station, many rumors spread advising people to buy iodine tablets and swab their necks with iodine solution.

Radioactive iodine is dangerous because it spreads quickly, is easily absorbed by the body, and can cause cancer. It is especially dangerous for children, where ingestion of iodine-131 can result in thyroid cancer after 10 years or more.

Iodine 131 has been emitted by the Fukushima power plant as a gas since March 11. Although officials report that radioactive iodine levels that are constantly being monitored are well beyond the allowable limts, it is still a matter of concern that on May 28 there were reports that fish in Hong Kong were found to have the radioactive isotope. Some grey mullet from a wholesale market in Hong Kong had 7.7 becquerels per kilogram. The government guideline was is 100 becquerels per kilogram. Now it has been raised to 250 becquerels per kilogram. Officials were quoted by the report as saying "Based on risk assessment, normal consumption of grey mullets at this low radiation level will not pose any health risk to the consumer."

But for workers involved in rehabilitation work at the plant, the news is not as good. Already two workers have been found to have 10 times more radioactive iodine levels in their thyroid glands than their fellow workers, according to news reports. The two workers are not sick but have been stopped from working, according to reports. They will be monitored with more checkups.

<b>Microwave iodine</B>

Now researchers have found a new way to handle the radioactive iodine: radioactive forms of iodine can be immobilised by microwaves.

The idea is to make a solid that will contain the radioactive iodine, that can be disposed of in a proper manner. Professor Neil Hyatt and colleagues found that lead iodovanadinite(Pb5(VO4)3I) can work this way.

They heated a mixture of lead iodide, lead oxide and vanadium oxide with a microwave set at the frequency used in typical household microwave ovens to produce the Pb5(VO4)3I. This traps the iodine and keeps it from getting back into the air.

The material and process are being developed further, and it is hoped to develop a cheap and simple way to trap iodine that can easily be used in another nuclear accident.

Professor Neil Hyatt explained in a press release: "In spent nuclear fuel, the iodine is not immobilised, so once the containment is breached it simply gets dispersed.” He added "Our new method offers a way of safely and rapidly containing this radionuclide, reducing the potential long term impact on human health from discharge to the environment."

Monsanto v. small farmers

Organic farmers go to great lengths to make sure that their produce are free of synthetics chemicals, pesticides and fertilizer. It turns out that hovering over them is a threat that their crops will be contaminated by genetically modified strains, and, on top of that should that nightmare happen, it would be possible for agriculture giant Monsanto to sue them for patent infringement.

Surely a world that would allow this to happen must be some kind of nightmarish Wonderland or Twilight Zone.

But it is happening here, now, in our world.

On June 1, Wednesday, the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT http://pubpat.org/ ), on behalf of family farmers, seed businesses, and organic agricultural organizations, amended their complaint against Monsanto’s patents on genetically modified seed, and added more plaintiffs for a total of 83 complainants representing hundreds of thousands of farmers and organizations, according to a report from the Center for Food Safety (http://truefoodnow.org/2011/06/01/family-farmers-amplify-complaint-against-monsanto%e2%80%99s-gmos-reinforcing-their-arguments-with-two-dozen-additional-plaintiffs/#more-1650)

Daniel B. Ravicher, PUBPAT executive director, explained that they are just asking Monsanto to reassure the farmers and organizations involved that Monsanto will not accuse them of patent infringement if their crops are contaminated with Monsanto's seed.

The original suit was filed in March, and after that Monsanto said then that they would not assert their patents against farmers who suffer "trace" amounts of transgenic contamination.

Heartened by this statement and hoping to resolve the case PUBPAT wrote to Monsanto to ask them make this promise legally binding. Sadly, in response, Monsanto's lawyer rejected the request and then stated that Monsanto may claim patent infringement against organic farmers whose plants get contaminated by Monsanto’s genetically modified seed.

Jim Gerritsen, a farmer from Maine and the president of lead plaintiff the Organic Seed Growers & Trade Association (OSGATA http://www.osgata.org/) noted that Monsanto’s failure to address the farmers' concerns reaffirmed the importance of the lawsuit.

Francis Thicke, an organic dairy farmer from Iowa, summed up the problem: "It is bad enough that we face the threat of contamination of our organic and non-transgenic crops. The least Monsanto can do is give us assurance that they won’t sue us for their own genetic trespass."

Ruth Chantry of Nebraska expressed the anger of the group: "It is outrageous that our entire farm, family business, and livelihood could be at risk because of Monsanto’s backward and oppressive response and enforcement towards farmers in regards to transgenic pollen drift, unasked for and unwanted—and the subsequent results in fields and farms." She added, "Any transgenic pollen drift that would ever come onto our farm is of great detriment to us, and as such, it is an invasion upon and a contamination of our crops, the multi-species habitat we are assisting and creating here—and to the integrity of how we are farming organically and Biodynamically."

Monsanto has, in the past, sued a family farmer in Canada over seed that had contaminated the farmer's fields. Monsanto demanded that Percy Schmeiser (http://www.percyschmeiser.com/conflict.htm) pay the $15/acre technology fee that Monsanto charges its customers because he "grew" their genetically modified canola plants. Schmeiser did not want to grow Monsanto's canola because he had his own canola plants that he had developed.

Monsanto won at the federal court level, but the Canadian Supreme Court said that Schmeiser did not have to pay Monsanto the technology fee. However, Schmeiser's other concerns were not properly addressed.

The present suit against Monsanto raises many other important issues, most important of which is the safety of the food we eat, as the issue of the safety of GMOs has not yet been properly addressed.

Kansas wheat farmer Bryce Stephens, who is vice president of OSGATA and spokesman for the Organic Crop Improvement Association-International explained that when GMO crops were first allowed by the U.S. Government, they were labelled as Generally Recognized As Safe based on internal studies and company-funded research. He noted: "With the long-term health consequences of GMO food yet to be understood and in the absence of objective studies, we have all been involuntarily co-opted into a giant biotech industry experiment … Our citizens and the people of the world deserve better than that."

Australia launches renewable ARENA

Renewable energy gets a big boost Down Under as Australia creates the independent Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) announced July 8, 2011 by Christine Milne, Australian Greens deputy leader, in Canberra.

Milne reportedly explained that she was the one announcing the agency instead of the government because it resulted from their arguments in the Multi-Party Climate Change Committee. She is quoted as sating that “It has been obvious for years that renewable energy programs in Australia are a mess of badly-designed schemes run as photo opportunities rather than helping build the industry. ARENA will change all that.”

On the other hand, some reports present the side of the government, reporting that Energy Minister Martin Ferguson and Climate Minister Greg Combet had issued a joint statement that "The government has a strong record of delivering support to our renewable sector and ensuring that Australians get value for money on their investments."

They are said to have included in their statement that "The establishment of ARENA will build on this record."

At least both sides agree that ARENA sill bring better things for renewable energy.

The reports give ARENA's working budget at $3.2 billion in renewable energy funding. This includes taking over the management of existing projects: Solar Flagships Round 1; Renewable Energy Demonstration Program; ACRE Solar Projects; Geothermal Drilling Program projects; Australian Biofuels Research Institute (ABRI) initiatives; Emerging Renewables Program; Renewable Energy Venture Capital Fund; Australian Solar Institute; Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund (Solar); Second Generation Biofuels Research and Development Program; and unallocated funding from the Connecting Renewables Initiative.

The ministers' joint statement clarifies that “Around $1.7 billion in uncommitted funding from the range of consolidated programs will be available for the ARENA Board to direct investment in new renewable energy projects between now and 2020.”

Initiatives will include solar, geothermal, and biofuel development.

Meanwhile, as Australia is waiting for the announcement of the governments carbon tax policy on Sunday, the reports about ARENA are rife with issues of politics and dealing and power plays.

We can just hope that ARENA doesn't become merely a political arena for Australia, but become a working agency that will push renewable energy forward, benefiting not just Australia, but the rest of the world. After all, even if Australia is a bit away down under, global warming is still global

Vit. D deficient NFL players get injured

Even professional athletes – National Football League players at that – can be deficient in vitamins. This was found in a study conducted by some doctors analyzing the relationship between muscle injuries and Vitamin D levels.

Michael Shindle, MD, lead researcher of the team that undertook the study that is being presented at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Annual Meeting in San Diego, California, said in a press release that “Eighty percent of the football team we studied had vitamin D insufficiency.” He added that “African American players and players who suffered muscle injuries had significantly lower levels.”

Vitamin D aids in calcium absorption for bone growth. Thus, too little vitamin D can lead to osteoporosis, rickets, and other bone diseases. The vitamin also plays a role in the functioning of the nerves, muscles, and immune systems. It is obtained from diet – particularly from gg yolks, saltwater fish, and liver – and supplements. The body also forms it naturally after being in sunlight, but sunlight exposure is not really recommended anymore.

The study involved 89 football players coming from one NFL team. The players' Vitamin D levels were measured as part of routine pre-season tests. The team provided data on which players had muscle injuries. Vitamin D levels were then classified based on player race and time lost due to muscle injury.

It was found that 27 players had deficient levels (<20 ng/ML) of Vitamin D, and 45 had insufficient levels (20-31.9 ng/mL). The remaining 17 players had values within normal limits (>32 ng/mL). It was also found that there was a difference in vitamin D levels in white players (mean of 30.3 ng/mL) compared to black players (mean of 20.4 ng/mL). Sixteen players suffered a muscle injury with a mean Vitamin D level of 19.9.
Shindle's fellow researcher, Dr. Scott Rodeo, MD, Co-Chief of the Sports Medicine and Shoulder Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery noted that “Screening and treatment of Vitamin D insufficiency in professional athletes may be a simple way to help prevent injuries.” Also, Dr. Joseph Lane, MD, Director of the Metabolic Bone Disease Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery expressed that “Further research also needs to be conducted in order to determine if increasing Vitamin D leads to improved maximum muscle function.”

Prehistoric marine life extinction may happen again

The possibility of mass mortality in the oceans that happened when the earth experienced a greenhouse effect during Late Cretaceous Period could happen again, researchers warned.

Studying 85 million-year-old layers of ocean bed sediment drilled off the coast of western Africa, professors Martin Kennedy from the University of Adelaide and Thomas Wagner from Newcastle University discovered a significant amount of organic material from marine life buried within deoxygenated layers of the sediment.

According to the geologists, high amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere together with increasing temperature caused hypoxia – or severe lack of oxygen – in the oceans, eventually leading to mass extinction of some life forms.

In the past, according to Professor Kennedy in a press release, "hypoxia in the deep ocean … occurred relatively rapidly – in periods of hundreds of years, or possibly even less – not gradually over longer, geological time scales, suggesting that the Earth's oceans are in a much more delicate balance during greenhouse conditions than originally thought, and may respond in a more abrupt fashion to even subtle changes in temperature and CO₂ levels."

Considering that the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere has doubled in the past 50 years, Kennedy said it is "like hitting our ecosystem with a sledge-hammer' compared to the very small changes in incoming solar energy (radiation) which was capable of triggering these events in the past.”

Thus, he said, "This could have a catastrophic, profound impact on the sustainability of life in our oceans, which in turn is likely to impact on the sustainability of life for many land-based species, including humankind."

"We know that 'dead zones' are rapidly growing in size and number in seas and oceans across the globe," Professor Wagner added. “These are areas of water that are lacking in oxygen and are suffering from increases of CO₂, rising temperatures, nutrient run-off from agriculture and other factors."

On the upside, the geological record studied also showed that a hypoxic phase is naturally followed by improved oxygen concentration in the oceans and the return of marine life. Specifically, the natural processes of carbon burial occur, and soil-formed minerals collect and bury the organic matter dissolved in seawater. This burial of excess carbon ultimately results in the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere, which results in the cooling of the ocean and the planet.

Professor Wagner explained, "This is nature's solution to the greenhouse effect and it could offer a possible solution for us. If we are able to learn more about this effect and its feedbacks, we may be able to manage it, and reduce the present rate of warming threatening our oceans."

The study, Clay mineral continental amplifier for marine carbon sequestration in a greenhouse ocean by Martin J. Kennedy and Thomas Wagner was published in the May 17, 2011 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

On mommy guilt

Recent racket about mommy guilt; with many thanks to those who shared:

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12 steps away from mommy guilt

Mommy guilt — these two words go together so well, as every working mother knows.

What mom has not had tears come into her eyes as she kissed her sleeping angel goodbye in the early morning to go to work? Has not had her heart wrenched when she handed her crying bundle of joy to the yaya before walking out the front door? Or has not felt the deepest sadness when she had to board an airplane that would take her far far away to work, knowing it would be months, even years, before she would see her “baby” again?

The question then, is: How do I deal with it?

1. Quit work
I was very surprised when a quick Facebook survey to which nine friends responded showed that three of my friends quit work to stay home. Their main issue was the quality of care that their children were receiving.
Betsy, a marketing executive who was working in Indonesia, found it difficult to find the same quality of caregivers that we have available in the Philippines. She quit work to make sure that her sons “developed adequate study habits and manners, ate well and were clean.”

But even when the care was more than adequate, it still wasn't enough, as Faith, a scientist based in the U.S., said “Everyday for 2 ½ years, I called the daycare to ask how his day was going! It didn't take long for me to realize that I'll never be content with whoever was taking care of my children, as good as they may be.”
Of course not everyone is financially stable enough to quit work, so that brings us to the second tactic for dealing with mommy guilt.

2. Work from home
While the best deal would be to get your current employer to allow you to work from home, there are now also all sorts of regular employment opportunities such as writing, transcribing, being a personal assistant, etc. which are available because of the Internet.  For those who feel that they don't have much to offer in terms of skill, there is Amazon Mechanical Turk (https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome) which offers simple tasks that allow users to earn a little bit and get some training as well. Blessie, an editor who works from home, blogs about mommy-guilt and other mommy issues in her blog Nanay Notebook (http://nanaynotebook.blogspot.com/) which is slowly adding to her monthly work-from-home paycheck.

But for moms who really have to work out of the house, rest assured there are more things that you can do to ease your guilt.

3. Explain the situation to your child
Children are often smarter than we give them credit for, and they understand more of the adult world than we know. Elizel, an HR practitioner and single-mom, explained, “I try to explain to him (her son is 6 years old) that I have to work so that I can earn and buy him what he needs like food and stuff like toys and also we can go out together such as going to the beach or just simply playing at Time Zone.” Explaining the situation to your child in terms he can understand will let you know that he or she knows that you don't work just because you want to leave him, and emphasizes that you love him very much and will take care of him.

4. Plan your daily work schedule to maximize time with your children
Perhaps you can arrange your daily work schedule so you get off work early enough to fetch your children from school. This is what Faith did when she went back to work after her kids started going to school. Or put him in a daycare near the office so you can check on him during the day. Lisa, a fifth grade teacher in Chicago, arranged her son's schedule so the nanny would take him to her school in the middle of the day so she could spend thirty minutes with him.

5. Plan your weekly and monthly schedules too
Aside from your daily schedule, you should plan your work schedule weeks ahead if you are in a position to schedule meetings and out of town trips. Malou, a doctor, explained that she would “Plan in detail. Make sure I didn't miss any MAJOR school activities.” Of course holidays and birthdays are also important.

6. Let the office value you as both an employee and as a mom
As a valued employee, you are allowed to take care of yourself and your family. Malou makes sure that “the boss and colleagues appreciate how hard I work and try my best to deliver results when needed so that they will understand when I tell them I need time to attend to mommy duties even during work hours or days.”

7. Have quality time
After they've made sure to make time with their children, many moms make it a point to ensure the time is “quality time.”
Mel, an event organizer, said that because of her work she was “constantly out with my artists, doing gigs and working day and night shifts.” She was particularly sad that she wouldn't be there when her girls “would wake up and before they would go to sleep.” So to ease her guilt, she would sometimes wake them up purposely in the middle of the night for some quality mommy-daughter time.

8. Just be present and let them do their own thing
Not all the time you manage to carve out with your children needs to be high-intensity extremely focused time. It is also important to just be around the children as they learn to do things on their own. Anissa, a stay-at-home mom who homeschools her four children, still feels mommy guilt because she has to work from home and can't attend to their studies as well as she would like. She said “I just try to make it up to them by spending as much time with them as I can. I also try to motivate them to show initiative in their learning.”

9. Shower them with affection
Malou reiterates the need for mommy presence even when the mom and the children are doing different things. She says it is more important to shower the family with affection all the time. “I really don't believe in quality time only. Kids need their moms to be around them, more at certain periods of growth, less in others, but ALWAYS for moms to be ever present in one way or another. That means both quantity and quality.”

10. Use technology to keep in touch during the day
Whether it be a landline or cellphone, the telephone is still the easiest technology to use for keeping in touch with your children or their caregivers, and hearing a baby's coo can be a balm for a guilty mom's heart. But when you are in different time zones because you are a working mom in another country, it isn't always feasible. Stella, a professional in Dubai, follows her daughter's Facebook page to keep current with her daughter's friends, activities, and life in general. They also use the social networking site to send each other messages and chat when they happen to be online at the same time.

But beyond physical presence, there is something else we can do for our children and to lessen our mommy guilt:

11. Trust and pray
When my youngest daughter was in Junior Kindergarten, she would be sad and scared every time I would leave her in her classroom – and I was teaching at the same school then, so it wasn't like I was very far away! To make her feel more secure, I told her that she had a guardian angel watching over her when I was not beside her. Somehow, she picked up on the thought and came up with the idea of exchanging guardian angels. My guardian angel would stay with her, and her guardian angel would stay with me.
Also, Elizel does “pray hard that I'll be able to bring up my son as a responsible kid even if half the time I'm at the office.” Blessie, on the other hand, prays that she can stop working even from home and be a truly full-time mom.

And then there's also the most radical thing you can do about mommy guilt, something that I personally advise moms to do:

12. Know yourself and reject the guilt
Mabel, a banker in Minnesota, admits that she suffered from mommy guilt. “I always felt that I was not selfless enough to give up my career to raise the kids by myself instead of leaving them with babysitters or at the daycare facility.” But, she said, “I rationalized by convincing myself that I am a better person by working and that I will damage the kids more if I were a stay at home mother. I also rationalized my action by believing that since my husband's job was not stable we could not just rely on him.” Now, both her children are in college and she is the vice president of a bank. The family is financially stable despite the recession in the U.S., and they enjoy traveling and doing things together as adults.

These are real tactics from real moms, and I hope you pick up something that will help you deal with, and reject, your own mommy guilt. Stay strong.

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Getting distracted

I've had two more article published on The Earth Times, and I'm still happy about it. But I am getting a bit guilty about getting distracted from my mission: a portal/homepage for Filipino catholic families.

An old friend of the family's who just passed away gave a rather formal speech for a simple family gathering last year. He mentioned how he would visit with my grandfather and my aunts because he enjoyed the intellectual discussions.

This resonated with me because I had been reflecting on the idea for several months since a conversation I had with poet ands artist Noel Beduya. What I took from that talk was his desire -- need -- for intelligent intercourse -- not the green variety!

I realized that I was blessed because when I was growing up I had this with my parents, siblings and friends. When I got married and had children, I always had my husband and my children to talk to and argue with, which partly made up for the fact that I had isolated myself from friends.

But I also realized that a lot of people don't have that anymore, even in their own families. I had a student, a very pretty and talented high school senior, who told me that she was sad because when she got home from school she couldn't talk to her mother because she (the mother) would be busy watching Korean telenovelas.

Even sadder, of course, are the many children growing up while their  parents work abroad. A male friend of mine narrated how, when he had just started working abroad, his wife and two young boys would go online everyday to say hello and chat. As the days went by though, they would be online less often, and after several months, he would only get to chat with them once a week.

And there are some families who communicate even less often.

So the idea is a homepage for every family that uses the best features available for websites so that families can share and communicate and be together, even if only virtually. There's Facebook of course, but that's got too many things going on ... too much distraction.

So that's my mission from which I am getting distracted.

But it'll have to be realized on a part-time basis because I do have to keep a steady income source to make sure my own family can keep sharing, communicating, and being together.

Writing about it here, I hope, will mark the movement of the concept out of my mind and onto the Web.

On being an environmentalist

I just got a bylined article published in The Earth Times! It's called Microblog post saves truckload of dogs in China.

I read "The Silent Spring" when I was in grade school. In highschool there wasn't much action going on in terms of environmental activism. Well, everyone was too busy studying.

In college I joined the Marine Biological Society. That was about the greenest group on campus at that time, I guess, aside from the Mountaineers.

Two notable friends from there went on to work for Earth Island and Greenpeace.

Me, I became a mom. But in my own way tried to instill earth-friendly attitudes and behavior in my children. I tried to explain that turning off the lights to save electricity was not just about saving money for the family but for saving the world too.

I taught them the importance of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, and was very very proud when my daughter told me that Repair should also be included.

Now I get a chance to do a little bit more for the earth by writing for The Earth Times.

I'm so happy.

Message for mothers

When this verse first came to me, I thought it was for my husband. And then I found myself in a pretty bad situation and I realized it was for me and other mothers/wives.

Maybe it will help other moms who may, by his grace, stumble upon this post.

          Families are fragile
          Handle yours with care
          Shower with unconditional love
          Defend with constant prayer.

It is so easy to break up families these days. It is even expected in some situations (I can just hear concerned voices saying "you should leave him ..."). But families are much more than the husband-wife relationship. There are children, this is obvious. And much more, but less generally acknowledged, there is God.

My daughter Patricia (an incoming Political Science sophomore at UP Diliman) was telling me about a speech a friend of hers wrote for school. Her friend was saying that people should make sure before they get married and have children that they will stay together and raise their children properly. Seems like an obvious statement. However, taking into account the girl's own life, hearing this made me want to cry. Her parents had split up when she was a baby and she didn't live with either parent. When they were still in high school, she and her sister lived in a house with a helper. Now that they are both in college, they have their own condo and no more maid.

Another friend then said that the couple should remember that a marriage isn't just between them, but should include God. Incredible words to hear from an 18-year-old girl known for her bad behavior in high school -- she would escape from school over the fence and drink and smoke and party all night. But despite this apparently bad behavior, she's a really nice girl, very respectful and a good friend. In her case, her words are also very important in her context. Despite much difficulties, her parents have stayed together and they are a close-knit family, with the three siblings very much involved in each others' lives despite large age gaps.

God loves us with unconditional love and this is how we should love our husbands/wives and our children. It might not be easy, but doable, by his grace, and with constant prayer.