Pregnancy diary: week 26 ? birthday (mine, not bump's)

This week has seen us on the approach to 30, in more ways than one: I?m 26 weeks pregnant, so I?m sure 30 weeks will be here before I know it given how fast this trimester has gone; and I celebrated my 29th birthday, so only 1 year left to go before I turn 30. I say ?celebrated?, but this consisted of a very quiet celebration just the 3 (or 4 if you like) of us. In previous years I?ve always organised some sort of get together with friends and family, like a tea party or pudding party or bar evening. But this year I feel like my birthday has crept up on me without me realising where time was flying to, and I?m sure the main reason is being pregnant and not having much energy to think of things other than getting through each day and week as it comes and not planning very far ahead at all. We did have a small celebration on Saturday with my parents. Maybe next year I will have more energy and organisational ability to plan a party for my 30th?. we?ll see!

Wearing one of two dresses that I own which fit over bump! This week has been too hot to wear jeans and t-shirts/blouses like I have been since bump started growing.

This year was also the first time in my life that I worked on my birthday! Having a summer birthday meant that as a child I was always on school holidays, and quite often we were away on our family summer holiday. As an undergraduate and Masters student I also managed to escape working in a summer job on my birthday itself. Then during my PhD (when I could have taken the day off anyway) my birthday happened to fall at the weekend for the two summers. The first year I had a ?proper? job was 2 years ago, when I was pregnant with Andrew, but we?d booked a holiday for the week of my birthday, so I escaped yet again! Last year I was on maternity leave, and that brings us to this year. I toyed with the idea of booking a day?s annual leave, but then I thought that it might actually be interesting to experience working on my birthday for once, being as I?m not going to be working for the next few years once baby arrives and I?m a stay at home mum. I have to say that it really wasn?t a bad day at all! I had a productive morning working, and then met Tom for lunch in town where we both work. Then my work friends and I went out for cake/ice-cream treats later in the afternoon, and they presented me with some lovely gifts (chocolates, non-alcoholic wine, flowers, notecards) and a pretty card. The hardest part of the day was roasting in the office! We are on the top floor of 4, and there is very little air circulation. Being pregnant doesn?t help as I?m already warmer than usual. It was great to cool down with a nice relaxing swim after work, and then my boys and I had a quiet tea together at home. We?ve decided to go out for a family meal on Sunday, because I?d rather sit in a restaurant with the smell of food at lunchtime than in the evening when I still feel nauseous.

Although I?m approaching 30, this doesn?t seem to bother me (yet!) I guess I don?t think of my age in numbers, but rather how old (or young) I feel. When Tom and I discussed our thoughts on having children, both before and after we got married, I said that it would be amazing if we could have two by the time we were 30. Given that Tom is 6 months younger than me, it?s my age that was the limiting factor. I didn?t take it for granted that we would be able to have children as quickly as we did once we decided the time was right to start a family, but I?m very happy that in the end I?ll have reached my (what once seemed like a) dream of being a four-person family by my 30th birthday.

Since I?ve had Andrew (I was 27 when he was born), and we?ve met new parents and their children at groups, I get the feeling that I?m on the young side for being a first time mum amongst the mums that I?ve met. Of course this is a big generalisation, and there are of course mums younger than me in Cambridge, but on the whole it seems like there are quite a lot of mums older than me. As my own mum was 24 when she had me (her first child), this has got me interested in how the average age of first time mums has changed over just one generation. So I trawled through loads of birth stats on the government?s Office of National Statistics website. The latest published data I could find was for 2008 (so 3 years before Andrew was born), and the earliest published data in the same format that I could find was for 1988 (so 5 years after I was born), but this is close enough for my interest here. Below is a graph showing what I found (I love graphs, I?m such a scientist!)?.

The blue line shows the average (mean) age in years of mums when they gave birth (whether that was their first, second, fifth, fifteenth etc. child). We see that it rose steadily from about 27 in 1988 to 29.5 in 2008. Then if we look at the red line ? this shows the average age of mums when they gave birth to their first child ? it rose steadily from about 25 in 1988 to about 27.5 in 2008. The green line shows the average age of married mums when they gave birth to their first child. Interestingly, this line starts below the blue one at about 26.5 in 1988 and then crosses the blue line to end up at just over 30 in 2008. Then, just out of interest, I plotted (in orange) the average age of dads when their baby was born (all births, so whether it was their first, second, fifth, fifteenth etc. child) ? I could only find more recent data on this, from 1998 onwards. We see that generally dads have been older than mums when their children were born, over 30 years old on average since 1998.

So where do I stand in relation to the ?average? then? Well Andrew was my first, in 2011, when I was 27, and I was married, so I?ll look at the green line. I see that I was well below average (given that it is likely to have risen beyond 30 years since 2008, given the general trend). Even when I look at all first births, including those to mums who weren?t married (red line), I was still below average. So my anecdotal evidence of feeling pretty young as a mum around here could have some truth. I?d be even more interested to see these kind of stats just for our area, because I suspect this kind of thing might differ by area, depending on the demographics of the mums living there. It seems also that my mum was below the average age to have me at age 24 in 1983 when she was already married (imagine the green line extending downwards to 1983 at the same angle as where it starts). Interestingly, both Tom and my Dad were even further below the average age of dads when their first child was born ? Tom was 27 (exactly ? Andrew and he share the same birthday!) and my Dad was 25. I guess there are many reasons why people are having children later these days than in the 1980s, one of which could be that women are choosing to start in their career first and then have children. For the moment I am happy that being a mum is my career, and I will pursue other career interests in a few years time, most likely when our children are at school. For us, 27 was a great age to have a baby, but I know that every family situation is different and that there is no ?right? age to have a baby ? what?s right for one family isn?t the same as what?s right for another.

I hope this little excursion into statistics and graphs has been interesting for you as well as for me. As I said, I love looking at numbers like this ? one of the best parts of analysing results from the research project I?m working on (and others I?ve done in the past) is making attractive?graphs that show the information more clearly to me than a table of numbers. If graphs aren?t your thing, I hope you?ll come back for more pregnancy news next week ? I promise not to put any graphs in!

Source: http://blog.cumming.me.uk/?p=1950

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Kids' Lack of Sleep: Nothing New About Blaming It on Modern Life ...

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Posted 07/26/12 1:50 PM ET

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This entry was posted in Parenting, Uncategorized and tagged Parenting by . Bookmark the permalink.

Source: http://www.fyibehealthy.com/2012/07/26/kids-lack-of-sleep-nothing-new-about-blaming-it-on-modern-life/

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Turkey partially closes border with Syria

Turkey indefinitely closed three border crossings Wednesday to Turkish nationals trying to get into Syria, citing security concerns in the strife-torn neighbour, officials said.

"The crossings of Turkish citizens at Cilvegozu, Oncupinar et Karkamis have been... suspended because their security cannot be guaranteed on the other side," Turkish customs minister Hayati Yazici said at a news conference.

Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad's regime seized control last week of three border posts opposite the Turkish crossings after clashes with Syrian forces.

Turkish trucks were burned and looted during the fighting at Bab al-Hawa, the Syrian post opposite Turkey's Cilvegozu crossing.

Commercial trucks from Syria and any other foreign country will also be barred in both directions but any foreign national trying to leave Syria will be allowed to do so, Yazici said.

A Turkish official told AFP that foreigners who want to cross the border into Syria would be required to sign a document that warns them about potential dangers there.

Turkey and Syria share a border stretching nearly 900 kilometres (560 miles).

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/turkey-partially-closes-border-syria-154915080.html

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Volunteer army keeping the Games moving

A 70,000-strong volunteer army from across the globe is helping to put on the 2012 Olympics, giving up their free time or holidays in return for a part in the biggest show on Earth.

Teachers, lawyers and students are among the "Games Makers" eagerly taking a role in London's Olympic adventure and relishing the chance to rub shoulders with global sporting superstars.

"It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I would probably be dead when the Olympics come here again," said Sophie Dickson, 25.

The dental assistant is splitting her time between her job at private clinics in Sussex, southeast England, and the dentist's surgery in the Athletes' Village on the Olympic Park.

Dickson is wearing the volunteers' easily recognisable uniform of a fuschia and orange polo shirt with beige trousers -- an umbrella is also among the "Games Makers" equipment, in expectation of some traditional London rain.

"I am going to miss Kim Collins, unfortunately," she said of the former 100 metres world champion, who was due to pop in to the clinic just as she rushed to the station after seven-hour shift.

But she had a bigger star in her sights -- "hopefully Usain Bolt will pop in," she said.

Lynne Wright, a technical manager for a fragrance company and a big sports fan, has given up two weeks' holiday -- "almost half of my annual leave" -- to help out with transport in the athletes' village.

While she is working for free to help get the athletes around the huge site, her own journey to and from the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, from her home outside the capital comes at a price.

The two-hour train journey each way, plus expenses, "will cost me about ?1,000 ($1,550, 1,280 euros)", she said -- although she does not doubt that it's all worth it.

The 70,000 volunteers at the Olympics and the Paralympics which follow are drawn from 70 countries and were whittled down from 250,000 who applied.

They receive a free travel pass for the duration of the Games, but it only covers them up to the London boundary.

Other volunteers are spending several nights camping on the edge of the Olympic Park, to get round the costly and delay-prone transport system.

Physical education teacher Ros Cramp is among those spending a few nights under canvas. Her pupils are begging her to bring back some autographs.

"But I won't ask for any autographs. That would be impolite," said Cramp, who is working as part of the service team supporting officials -- and in any case, she probably won't be getting close enough to the athletes to ask.

However, Rob Williams, who is helping out the swimmers at the Aquatics Centre, certainly will.

The Canadian lawyer has already enjoyed watching 16-time American Olympic medallist Michael Phelps in training.

"He is an institution," said Williams, who himself boasts a swimmer's physique.

"You have to be calm. You have to help the whole team and not just one person," he said. "But it's great to see my heroes."

Several lifeguards, also volunteers, are posted around the edge of the pool, closely watching the Chinese synchronised swimming team in training.

Among the volunteers is geography student Tom Hunt.

"I don't know why they need lifeguards," he admitted, "but it's great to be here".

Sam Kendall, a teacher, has been posted to help the Ugandan team in the athletes' village.

"If they want to tour London, if some people want to buy a camera, if they are looking for a venue, I can help," she said.

On Wednesday, she got to stand in the shoes of the athletes, by carrying a flag during the final rehearsal for the opening ceremony.

"You give a lot, but you get a lot back," she said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/volunteer-army-keeping-games-moving-231312521--oly.html

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Leigh Sedley and Hank Gaskell head into Round 5 at ASP 4-Star ...

Leigh Sedley and Hank Gaskell head into Round 5 at ASP 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco

Australia?s Leigh Sedley and Hawaii?s Hank Gaskell managed to successfully secure their spot in the fifth round (Round of 16) at the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) 4-Star Quiksilver Surf Open Acapulco after emerging triumphant in their respective Round 4 (Round of 32) heats that went down at the main event site of Playa Revolcadero in Acapulco, Mexico, on Saturday, July 21.

?Accompany the two surfers into the next round were Peru?s Miguel Tudela and America?s Shane Beschen, who clinched runner-up position in their respective heats to extend their life in the contention for the event title.

The competition field continued to narrow down with each completed heat, consequently leaving behind the in-form surfers to compete for the event title. The four-to-six foot waves breaking at the primary event site appeared pretty promising, but the off-shore conditions made it tough for the surfers to collect big scores.

Pitted against Tudela, America?s Ricky Whitlock and his compatriot Chris Tucker in the seventh heat, Sedley had his work clearly cut out for him. However, the Australian surfer managed to rise up to the challenge and managed to get hold of a couple of decent scores to reach a heat-total of 10.90 points. The score held up until the end to see him through into the next round of the competition.

Tudela successfully made the Round 5 cut as well after putting on a determined performance to get to a heat-total of 8.04 points, which proved sufficient to put him in runner-up place.

Whitlock finished in third place with a heat-total of 6.50 points, while Tucker rounded out the bottom-position with a two-wave total of 5.53 points. Both the surfers were consequently eliminated from the competition.

The eighth heat saw Gaskell get the better of his compatriot Dege O?Connell, former ASP World Championship Tour veteran Beschen and his compatriot Ian Crane.

Gaskell finished the heat above his rivals on the score-board with a heat-total of 10.33 points to secure victory, while Beschen finished right behind him in second place to accompany him into the next round of the competition.

Crane finished in third place with a heat-total of 8.67 points, while O?Connell had to settle for the bottom position after finishing with a heat-total of 4.53 points. Failure to finish in top-two resulted in the elimination of both the surfers from the competition.

Source: http://blogs.bettor.com/Leigh-Sedley-and-Hank-Gaskell-head-into-Round-5-at-ASP-4-Star-Quiksilver-Surf-Open-Acapulco-a174850

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Syria rushes reinforcements to its largest city

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian troops rushed dozens of tanks and reinforcements Wednesday toward Aleppo, the country's strategically vital commercial capital, in a bid to crush a rebel advance that has spread to wide swaths of the sprawling city.

As five days of fighting in Aleppo intensified, and with rumors swirling of a final showdown in that city, neighboring Turkey tightened its borders but said refugees will be allowed through.

"We are expecting a big attack on Aleppo," Mohammed Saeed, an activist based in Aleppo, told The Associated Press. "People are worried they might face random shelling while fleeing."

The rebels have made stunning advances over the past week, but the battle for control of Syria, a geographic and political linchpin at the heart of the Middle East, is far from over. And the potential for wider, regional unrest is great.

Israel's foreign minister warned that his country will act immediately if it discovers Islamic militants such as Lebanon's Hezbollah are raiding Syria's chemical or biological weapons stocks.

"For us, that's a casus belli, a red line," Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio.

Israeli officials have reported a run on gas masks. Demand has almost doubled in the past few days, to 4,200 requests on Tuesday from a years-old average of about 2,200, said Merav Lapidot, a spokeswoman for the Israeli postal service, which distributes the masks.

On Monday, Syria threatened to unleash its chemical and biological weapons if it faces a foreign attack.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. still wants to see a peaceful resolution to Syria's civil war.

"That said, who bears responsibility for the preponderance of violence in Syria?" she asked. "Who is the one who is using now fixed-wing aircraft against their own people, helicopters, artillery, gunships, et cetera? It is the Assad regime."

Nuland added: "It is unfortunately not surprising that people are trying to defend themselves now."

Still, after 17 months of fighting and a death toll that activists say has reached 19,000 people, the government remains far better armed than the rebels and willing to launch attacks from the sky, strafing neighborhoods with helicopter gunships. In Aleppo, witnesses also have reported warplanes unleashing sonic booms.

The rebels are disorganized and disparate, unable to communicate on a national level or hold territory for long. After a rebel rush on the capital, Damascus, last week ? including a brazen bombing that killed four regime insiders ? the government routed the fighters by calling in attack helicopters and heavy weapons that devastated entire neighborhoods.

Regime forces followed up the shelling with door-to-door searches in Damascus that were still going on Wednesday to flush out remaining rebel sympathizers.

The escalating bloodshed prompted two more defections by Syrian diplomats Wednesday ? the envoy to Cyprus and her husband, the former ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, according to the opposition Syrian National Council. The announcement follows the televised appearance late Tuesday by Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, who confirmed his defection and said Syrians must work together to build a new country.

It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month. French officials later confirmed that he was in France. Tlass is the son of a former Syrian defense minister.

Turkey's decision to seal its border to trucks Wednesday comes as fears mount that the 17-month-old crisis in Syria will spread. Syria's close ties to Iran and Hezbollah mean that the conflict has the potential to draw in the country's neighbors.

Iran's Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said there are no Iranian troops in Syria and that the Syrian government is capable of confronting terrorists ? the regime's term for its opponents ? the semiofficial Fars news agency reported Wednesday. Vahidi was reacting to reports that accuse Iran of deploying troops in Syria to help quell the armed uprising against Assad's government.

Turkey was a Syrian ally before the uprising began in March 2011, but Ankara is now among the harshest critics of Damascus. Turkish territory along the countries' 566-mile (911-kilometer) border is used as a staging ground for rebel fighters as well as a haven for thousands of refugees. Before the uprising began, the border was the transit point for food and construction materials that Turkey exported to the entire Middle East.

"We have serious concerns over the safety of Turkish trucks regarding their entry and return from Syria," Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said, adding that three border crossings were in rebel hands. Syrians seeking refuge or to resupply would still be allowed in.

The battle in Aleppo is just 40 miles (60 kilometers) from the Turkish border.

On Wednesday, Saeed, the Aleppo activist, described fierce battles in neighborhoods all over the city, including some near the center.

Aleppo's historic old city at the center is a U.N. world heritage site.

"Shooting and clashes are going on nonstop," Saeed said.

There are no immediate prospects for international action in Syria or the kind of NATO air campaign that tipped the scales against Libya's Moammar Gadhafi. NATO and the U.N. have all but ruled out foreign military intervention, in part out of fears that it would only make the country's problems worse. The U.S. and its allies have shown little appetite for getting involved in another Arab nation in turmoil.

Russia, Syria's longtime ally and a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has ensured that the kind of U.N. resolutions that allowed Western military action in Libya would not be repeated in Syria. On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov criticized new European efforts to enforce an arms embargo as "unilateral sanctions" and a "blockade."

The new commander of the U.N. observer force, Lt. Gen. Babacar Gaye, and the U.N. official for peacekeeping operations, Herv? Ladsous, were in Damascus on Wednesday to assess the prospects for a U.N. peace plan that is being widely ignored.

Half of the 300-member U.N. observer force, meant to monitor the nonexistent cease-fire, has left the country.

"I think diplomats have to be optimistic and that's no joke, I think we have to hope," Ladsous told reporters. "We have to hope that the whole process gains traction, that the vicious circle of violence can cease, and that some political solution and first and foremost some political dialogue can get started."

___

Associated Press writers Paul Schemm in Beirut, Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, Natalya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Adam Schreck in Dubai contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-rushes-reinforcements-largest-city-181851282--finance.html

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AccessData Releases Cyber Intelligence & Response Technology ...

By Business Wire

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July 25, 2012 11:03 AM EDT

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AccessData is announcing the release of Cyber Intelligence & Response Technology Version 2 (CIRT 2). CIRT is the first platform to integrate network and computer forensics, malware analysis, large-scale data auditing and remediation. The solution is an integration of four of AccessData?s proprietarytechnologies: the AD Enterprise network-enabled computer forensics solution, SilentRunner^?network forensics product, the data auditing capabilities of AD eDiscovery and ? new in version 2 ? AccessData?s new Cerberus malware analysis technology.

Traditionally, organizations rely on a number of disparate tools for information assurance and incident response. There are often multiple teams each focusing on one small aspect of a much larger cyber security picture. For example, a forensics team, a network security team, information assurance or compliance auditing team each use different tools and may or may not collaborate on a routine basis. According to Jason Mical, Director of Network Forensics at AccessData, these gaps in technologies and processes make it difficult for an organization to quickly identify when a security breach or data leak has occurred. Since perimeter defense and alerting technologies can only detect what they?ve been told to look for, the ability to catch what tools, such as intrusion detection (IDS) and data loss prevention (DLP) systems, miss is absolutely vital. ?Today, when an organization discovers it has been compromised, it?s often by accident, and usually long after widespread damage has occurred. CIRT is designed to provide 360-degree visibility into what is happening on your network to speed detection, root cause analysis and thorough remediation,? stated Mical.

By allowing users to correlate computer, network and malware data, as well as audit tens of thousands of machines, CIRT gives organizations the ability to identify and address all types of threats, including zero-day events, hacking, data spillage and advanced persistent threats. ?In the age of Stuxnet and Flame, organizations need the visibility and response capabilities CIRT provides,? commented Mical. ?It?s not just another platform that provides a mound of data to sift through. It delivers the threat intelligence you need and it remediates.? Using CIRT, organizations can continuously monitor network traffic, computers and removable media to detect threats and more quickly acquire actionable intelligence in the event of a cyber incident. In addition, with CIRT?s ?check in? feature, CIRT users can monitor the laptops of traveling employees, even when they are not logged on to the organization?s network.

In a June 2010 article in the DoD blog, Armed with Science, head of US Cyber Command, General Alexander, stated ?? we have been leaning forward and building an organization and a mission alignment that is more integrated, synchronized and effective?? In Mical?s view, integrated, synchronized and effective should extend beyond people and processes to include the technology deployed in facilitating incident response. In his words, ?the incident response infrastructure is an organization?s last line of defense, so a few different teams, each juggling a bunch of tools, is not the most effective approach.?

One platform providing a single pane of glass through which users can see what is happening on the network and at the host level has been the vision of AccessData CEO, Tim Leehealey for the last decade. Key features of AccessData?s Cyber Intelligence & Response Technology include the following:

• Correlate network and host analysis to quickly determine root cause and more effectively chase down data spillage.
• Identify and triage suspected malware using both static analysis and advanced disassembly analysis to determine behavior and intent without a sandbox or reliance on signature-based tools.
• Perform proactive and reactive enterprise audits to identify data spillage, such as personally identifiable information, payment card information or classified documents.
• Play back security incidents in real-time to gain a better understanding of an exploit or data spill.
• Build threat profiles and monitor to prevent incident recurrence.
• Continuously monitor the network and information assets, including removable devices, on or off the organization?s network.
• Perform batch remediation.

?By providing integrated analysis from multiple vantage points, as well as real-time collaboration among personnel and easy-to-read reporting for those at the top of the command chain, AccessData?s CIRT solution is the only product of its kind, engineered to better aid organizations in their efforts to stop the bleeding,? commented Leehealey.

About AccessData

AccessData Group has pioneered digital investigations and litigation support for 25 years. Its family of stand-alone and enterprise-class solutions, including FTK, SilentRunner, Summation and the CIRT security framework, enable digital investigations of any kind, including computer forensics, incident response, e-discovery, legal review and compliance auditing. More than 130,000 users in law enforcement, government agencies, corporations and law firms worldwide rely on AccessData software solutions and premier digital investigation and hosted review services. AccessData is also a leading provider of digital forensics and litigation support training and certification. www.accessdata.com

Source: http://sox.ulitzer.com/node/2319882

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