I wonder how long it will take him to relize i’m just gonna push him back down?

y r kittehs sew ebil?

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We know in an instant this is going to be an unusual show. The first image we see is of an endless field of bright yellow flowers capped by an impossibly blue sky. A narrator with a deep, storyteller voice tells us that the little boy and his dog running through the flowers are Ned and Digby, along with their ages, down to the minute.

Digby is dramatically run down by a truck, but when Ned touches him, more with curiosity than sadness, the dog jumps up fully alive. Ned, we are told, has the ability to bring dead things back to life. Now pay attention. His mom is struck dead by on the kitchen floor by an aneurism. Ned brings her back to life. Exactly one minute later, the man across the street drops dead. The dead guy’s daughter is Chuck, the apple of Ned’s eye. When Ned hugs his mom good night, she dies. Again. It’s a complicated gift, and if you missed this first three minutes, I doubt you would make much sense out of the show later on. One touch brings someone back to life, a second kills them. If the person is kept alive for more than one minute, someone nearby dies is his stead.

Fast forward to present day. Ned (Lee Pace) owns a pie shop. Emerson Cod (Chi McBride), a customer and a private investigator, has recruited Ned to help him investigate murders. It’s a big—and refreshing—leap from the normal cop-with-an-unusual-partner show. Kristen Chenoweth plays the adorable waitress Olive, who has a thing for Ned.

Soon, we see Ned and Emerson in action, as Ned sets his watch alarm for one minute and wakes a dead guy to find out how he got that way. Bam, the mystery is solved, and the audience has a sense of how the show will go.

Things become more complicated, however, when the next murder victim turns out to be Chuck (Anna Friel), Ned’s childhood crush. He wakes her; she’s spunky, she’s charming, and reveals that the two of them were each other’s first kiss. Awww… Ned can’t bring himself to re-kill her, so after a minute, she is stuck between life and death for good. What really sucks is Ned has found the love of his life and he can’t touch her. Great dramatic tension, if difficult to believe.

The rest of the pilot (titled “Pie-lette”) involves solving Chuck’s murder, and protecting her aunts, Vivian and Lillian, from the killer. The aunt’s back story is that they are former synchronized swimming stars until one lost an eye, and now they are agoraphobics with a penchant for cheese.

To love this show requires buying fully into the premise. You have to treat it like the beautiful storybook that it is and not over-think reality. The characters talk at Gilmore Girls speed, and plays on words fly back and forth like ping-pong balls. Every detail matters. There is a sort of 1950s aesthetic in both the language and the look. Color in this show is a character in itself. Everywhere there are brighter-than-life hues, from the bulbous cherry red lamps in the pie shop to Olive’s floral print wallpaper and matching pajamas.

As with creator Bryan Fuller’s other shows, Dead Like Me and Wonderfalls, not enough people apparently got it. It was, however, nominated for several Emmys, winning for Directing, Editing, Music Composition (2008), Art Direction, Make-up, Costumes, and Best Supporting Actress—Kristen Chenoweth (2009). Honestly, it was one of those impossible to sustain premises, much like in the aforementioned shows, that couldn’t work forever. But the Pie-lette is delicious.

The answer is emphatically yes, particularly in the initial stages of programming.  A woman’s body needs to be exposed to conditioning stress that targets in particular the neck, upper back and pelvis.

Gravity, long hair the seated position and high heeled shoes all serve to add additional stress to the female body that need to be addressed to help you remain pain free, happy and functioning at your best. Remember that the triad of health has three distinct interconnected elements of emotional, chemical and structural health. Failure to work on all three elements will make your goal achievement harder to attain.

When a body is misaligned the body expends more energy trying to complete basic movements of walking, running, squatting, pushing, pulling bending, twisting and lunging which are all primal movements that the body is designed to do. Furthermore each time that you do these movements the further stress you put onto already stressed joints opening the body to pain syndromes and conditions such as painful, knees, neck, back and the like.

A key area to start with in female conditioning is the head, Forward Head Posture or FHP can be created by sitting at a desk for long periods of time, having long hair, or sitting poorly on the sofa at home.  Believe it or not, having long hair contributes to additional weight on the back of the head causes the head to be rotated and extension of the spine ensues and the head migrates forward. This also causes the tongue muscles to slacken off which now creates a mouth breathing pattern which can lead to an inverted breathing pattern which can affect how the rest of the body functions, which includes pain and even elevated anxiety levels.

Exercises that address the front of the neck will help to prevent this and whenever you complete abdominal exercises always place the tongue in the roof of the mouth to stabilse the neck.

The chest is another key area, as breasts often cause a rounding or thoracic kyphosis of the spine, as will the FHP as a knock on effect. Couple this with being sat at a desk all day or breastfeeding of a child will add significant stress to the front panel which consists of the chest and abdominal muscles causing a shortening and tightening of these muscles. Exercises that work on the lower/middle trapezius and the extensor muscles or muscles that help to pull you upright should be an integral part of your exercise program

However most people when they go to the gym do exercises that stress the same muscles that have been shortened all day. The sit up is the most over rated exercise for abdominal conditioning. For people wanting to achieve a slimmer look try this exercise

· Sit down in your usual slumped position and grab a roll of skin

· Now sit up straight into what feel like good posture should be

· You can see that you lose approximately 50% of visual fat just by addressing your postural muscles

· Think about that next time you spending hours each week overworking your abs

The pelvis and in particular the female pelvis can contribute to instability in the bodu. In fact the pelvis has the capacity to destabilise the neck and vice vers, so finding out the cuase can give you a place to start with your conditioning program. More often the not the pelvis has an anterior tilt that is increased in females due to the width of the pelvic basin and often needs more conditioning of the lower abdominals, glutes and hamstring muscles to prevent an increased pelvic tilt and create stability in the lower back and pelvis. You can often see this in women who have that lower abdominal saggyness which is termed visceroptosis or where the abdominal contents spill forwards. this can also greatly affect your digestion, so getting this in check is of great importance to your energy and emotions.

Try integrating these exercises into your exercise regime for fantastic results or better still have a complete posture assessment to find out what exercises your body really needs!

The horse stance and russian twist are great exercises for addressing FHP, spine extensor, rotators and pelvic stability.

New image in the natural orange photography contest

…
Pushing through. photography picture

dgd

Here are some recent ramblings of an enlightened male, that will no doubt make mothers everywhere grind their teeth in annoyance.

According to Michael Odent – a medical expert and ‘childbirth specialist’ – fathers-to-be should no longer be present at the birth of their children, and should be banned from the delivery room. Apparently they make our time in labour longer, more painful and more stressful.

Oh, what a load of crap.

I believe it’s the trying to push and pass out something the size of a bloody melon that is the cause of all the pain and stress, not having the father sat beside us in the room. Something that Mr Odent would know if he was to give it a go. Oh that’s right, he can’t, he’s a man.

Now I can only speak for myself, and the 22 hours in total I’ve spent in labour, but having my husband in the room helped, not hindered the situation. He made the time go faster by talking to me, making me laugh and occasionally laughing at me (as he winched me on and off the birthing ball). He fetched me reading material and fluids, and let me wrap my fingernails so snugly around the bones in his arm I left scars, without making so much as a whimper.

For me, high as a kite on gas and air, the time actually passed quite quickly. For him, unable to escape from my vice gripe long enough to even let the blood flow back into his fingertips, the time must have practically stood still.

His one very stupid idea of offering me a Jaffa cake half way through a contraction aside, my husband was an absolute god send, and made an otherwise traumatic occasion much more bearable. The thought of having had to go through that without him there doesn’t even bear thinking about.

So I really don’t care if Mr Odent has been ‘involved for more than 50 years in childbirth’. He hasn’t been there. Or got the t-shirt, weakened bladder or stretch marks to prove it.  So with all due respect, he should butt out and stop trying to fix something that isn’t broken. Recommending that a woman should give birth with only a silent midwife in the room is like suggesting an operation should be done without the general anesthetic – just because it might speed up the recovery time. Would Mr Odent particularly like to be sliced and diced whilst awake I wonder?

Of course midwives do a great job – my last one was lovely, if my somewhat hazy memory serves me right – but they can’t give you what you need while your pelvis splits in half and your pain levels go off the Richter scale. At a time when all dignity has left the room and you’re freaked out and panicking, you don’t need polite chit-chat with a strange woman between your legs, as she grapples with a slippery crowning head. You need a familiar face and the reassurance of the person who got you into this painful bloody mess in the first place.

The other, even more laughable observation made by Mr Odent, is that watching your wife give birth can ultimately lead to divorce. I’m sorry. Is this man for real? What he’s really saying is if a man is subjected to seeing his wife laid out on a table like a birthing cow, then he will ultimately be put off having sex with her again, and as a result, have no choice but to throw in the towel and his wedding ring.

Now THAT is the saddest excuse in the history of marriages for a man being forced to leave his wife. It’s actually justifying why a man can jump ship and run off with a younger, un-stretched, child-free model. If there’s a Mrs Odent out there, you must be so proud – and so very paranoid.

Generally speaking, the man who gets you pregnant already knows (or should already know) you inside out. If, after the birth, he literally knows you inside out, then that, unfortunately, is one of the side effects of procreation.

To say that men can’t stomach the sight of their wife in labour or that they will ’stop feeling a sexual attraction towards them’, is an insult to husbands everywhere. It’s certainly an insult to woman to say that we’re no longer seen as anything other than a piece of reproducing meat after the birth.

If woman had their way, Mr Odent, we wouldn’t be forced to watch our husbands belch, scratch, itch and fart beside us on the sofa every night. None of these manly qualities really puts us ‘in the mood’ you know, but you don’t see us all rushing to file for divorce and citing these disgusting habits on the grounds of unreasonable behaviour.

Really, fancy telling us we should be giving birth in silence and on our own. Are you recruiting for the Church of Scientology by any chance? Next you’ll be saying that pain relief is illegal and Enya is no longer a suitable birthing artist.

For a father to be made to miss out on seeing his child born would be a terrible thing. Not only because he wouldn’t get to experience the incredible rush of euphoria when meeting your 5 second old offspring for the first time, but because for the rest of his life he would be forever reminded by his wife, that not only did she have to do all of the work, but that he wasn’t even there to hold her hand at the end.

And that, Mr Odent, is the part you seem to have forgotten. Woman want their men there with them at this time. Not just to offer them support and a back rub, but so that they can see first hand just how much pain childbirth involves. This way, regardless of how many bins are put out or paychecks earned, the man will always know that he owes something to his wife that can never be repaid.

Call it an unfair advantage in the guilt stakes, but childbirth is the one bit of power we woman still hold in this world. Don’t you dare try and take that away from us.

Oprah Winfrey  and director Tyler Perry arrive at the screening of ‘Precious: Based On The Novel ‘PUSH’ By Sapphire’ during AFI FEST 2009 held at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on November 1, 2009 in Hollywood, California.

More pictures

related  2009 Soul Train Awards

Parents in Sheffield are trying to set up and run their own state school…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: learning disabilities. The blog is also related to: universities.

When I have a conversation with someone who has yet to experience Yoga, their first words are about the Yoga poses. They explain that they are not flexible enough to do Yoga. Then I have to explain that (1) you practice Yoga in order to develop flexibility and (2) there is more to Yoga than just the poses. That last statement garners a puzzled look from the person. “What could be more important than the poses?” they ask.

In Part 1, we learned that Pranayama (Breathing) is the most important aspect of Yoga, and the first thing you should learn.  In this post, we discuss the second most important aspect of Yoga.

The Second Most Important Aspect of Yoga

In Yoga classes, the teachers are there to lead and teach you; however, it is up to you how far, deep, and long you go. The second most important thing to remember about Yoga is that you LISTEN TO YOUR BODY! Yoga is not a competitive sport. There are so many different body types that everything doesn’t work for everyone. That is why, Yoga is solitary and you are not competing with anyone else. You cannot base what you can and cannot do on the other participants of the class, your teacher, or who you see on television.

Your body tells you what you can and cannot do. Your duty is to listen to your body, and stop when your body says STOP. Yoga teaches you to be patient with yourself and your body, to be aware of where you and your body, and to accept you and your body at this moment. Consistent Yoga practice makes your more flexible, more aware, and it soon gets easier to get into poses that were harder for you.

Respect Your Body

Don’t be rude and crude with your body. Be patient and listen. Your limbs should not be shaking. You should not be in excruciating pain. You must develop a healthy balance between knowing when to stop and knowing when you can delicately push yourself further. Your body needs more than just to mimic the poses that you see. The benefits of Yoga are working internally even when your external doesn’t look how you want it to look or do what you want it to do. What you see on the outside is the end result. Inside your organs are getting massaged, your immune system is getting stronger, your respiratory system is more robust, your heart is heartier, your spine is more durable, and you are gaining more energy.

Conclusion

Listen to, be in tune to, and respect your body. Know your limitations. Be patient with your body. Give yourself time to become comfortable. Celebrate every change, internal and external. Don’t focus on what you cannot do; instead, encourage yourself.  Be consistent in your practice and keep learning. Always let your teacher know before class if you have any injuries or ailments. Adhere to your body…it’s the only one that you have.

Yoga Basics: Part 1  
Yoga Basics: Part 3

© 2009 KaTrina Love Abram

5. Avoid giving birth on the back and follow the body’s urges to push - lead author Joyce DiFranco, RN, BSN, LCCE, FACCE

We teach about many different positions moms can push in.  Upright is better, because it opens the pelvis more and gravity can also assist in the baby descending.

We also teach about mother directed pushing.  Purple pushing (yelling 1, 2, 3, 4…) is not a necessary thing for un-medicated moms.  It is better for mom to follow her body and push in a way that feels best for her!

get off the swing, it's my turn now

I need an adult playground. And not the kinky type in a fantasy world of double entendres. I mean a real playground for adults. With seesaws and slides, and fighting over swings. Where I push you and then you push me. Where I have to be careful to slowly get off the seesaw lest I hurt you. An adult playground with an appropriately sized sandbox where we can build imaginary homes and defend them against the sandcastle kickers. I want to run, I want to push and I want to get sick on the centrifuge. I just want an adult playground.

Tell me. Im always unsure on the subject but you know it either happens or it don’t. Personally i am starting to believe that God ( Yes God. ) gave us free will. And in doing that gave us what makes us human and not robots. we have free will and we make our own choices in life. But yet the question crops up. was this all planned? its almost as if there is this never ending argument. I Want to know others thoughts on this. Do you believe that this fate is real? Comment.

I finally feel like I’m drying out from my run this morning.  Yes, I know I wrote yesterday that I would likely take today off, but the weather conditions made it too good an opportunity to pass up testing what I can handle.

First recap of last night: Sadly my roomie did not hit 1000.  She’s now about 5 shy but the team did win so the mood was not sour because we came from behind to win.  After the game I went to hang out with the birthday girl which was way fun.  She’s over the whole “let’s get as drunk as possible” phase of her life (some of my friends, however, aren’t) so she was actually coherent and the party was a blast.  We went to the before-dance keg that the Programming Council sponsored which was sick because we got THREE free beers.  Pretty sick.  There was also a photo booth, and once the pics get scanned they will be posted because they are hilarious!

Due to the combination of shenanigans and my body’s uncanny way of getting me up early, I got very little sleep last night.  Just enough to cover the basic sleep need but no more.  Unfortunately when you’re as sleep deprived as me just enough isn’t nearly enough.  The hours I did get though were deep, I think the rain over the night helped a lot.

Too bad it didn’t STOP raining by the morning.  When I got up I checked weather.com to see what the day would look like.  Yes I know that I did this last night/yesterday but sometimes the weather people get things wrong, you know? But boo, rain all morning/afternoon with the chance of thunderstorms.  I checked the Doppler (yup major dork alert) and the t-storms didn’t look like they would hit me (and so no one worries, during my run I never once heard thunder / saw lighting).  What I did experience was something akin to a monsoon during the first half of the run.

Okay so maybe not monsoon as I’ve never experienced one but it was torrential rain.  Like so hard it actually hurt at some points.  On the route that I chose there was a point where  I could’ve taken a left and shortened the run (and finish nice and dry at the gym) or take a right and complete the 11.5 mile route originally wanted.  And, like it’s any surprise, I chose the later.

I think it’s because I’m constantly trying to see how far, how strong, how tough I am.  I need to prove something to myself almost each and every time I do something (and not just in running either).  It’s not that I lack self esteem or am insecure or anything (although I do confess to moments like that) but it’s a compulsion.  I’m not even competing against others really (although it does feel nice to beat someone in anything heh). Just me against myself.  And that’s why I found myself pushing through the driving rain.

Which really wasn’t so bad once my feet were soaked – maybe after the first mile? Haha.  But the heavy rain did let up so that the steady regular rain that followed it felt like a light drizzle.  Oh relativity! And there was even a point where it felt like the sun was trying to break through and the dark sky turned to more of a light gray.  It’s the little things in life really.

And, because I really do like to push myself, I ended up with 14.2 miles.  Every single one in the rain.  If it’s any consolation the temperature was 62* by the end of the run.  So at least I wasn’t freezing the whole time.  Again, the little things. And just to prove how bamf I am: I was the only person out running.  Go figure.

And I don’t really know how I look when I’m running.  Especially in the weather that was this morning.  But I am 100% positive that I do not look good enough to honk and holler at.  Yet 6 cars did that.  At first I thought they were annoyed that I was on the road but I’m fairly sure that for most of those I was carefully on the shoulder, especially after my feet got soaked and I didn’t care about getting wet.  Interesting…

Also interesting, yet no means nice, is my body.  I think all the lack-of-sleep, running-so-much etc. has caught up to me because I can feel a really bad cold coming on.  At every vertebrae I feel chilly and achy and it’s slowly extending into my joints.  Please someone tell me that this is just an after-effect of being sopping wet and NOT a cold or, god-forbid, the flu!

But I am chilly even when in a suffocatingly hot room: I went to my friend’s dance co preview today and the dance studio was hot and humid but I couldn’t bring myself to take off my sweatshirt because I was chilled. Which is weird because I was hot too and felt like the air was so heavy that it was hard to breathe.  GAAAAH. I know I’ve been asking for lots of good vibes lately but if you any left: I really would like to not be sick anytime soon.

It’s prolly nothing and all in my head.  I could use a spa week or something! Definitely going to be a low-key night: try to get a little work done, drink lots of apple cinnamon tea, read some more of Born to Run then go see Up which is the Baachus movie tonight.

Guess I’ve got a lot on my mind because I definitely didn’t set out to write so much

Before I go Mary awarded me the Kreativ Blogger award.   Sweet deal, so now I will tell you 7 things about me. 

1. I am the oldest of 6 children (all from 1 marriage and all names start with the letter K)
2. I played varsity basketball and varsity volleyball all 4 years of high school but stopped after graduation
3. I ran track for my freshman and junior years of high school.  Freshman year was sprints &  jumps while junior year was distance (because all my friends were on the distance team)
4. Under ripe fruit = heaven
5. I only eat instant oats.  And most of the time half the packet gets eaten before the water boils so I have to add another packet.
6. This past January I was almost admitted to the hospital for cellulitis and a really bad staph infection in my toe.  Luckily I was able to receive all the IV antibiotics as an outpatient but waaaaaaaaay scary.  The toe is still purple.
7. I only get sick once a year but when I do, it’s a doozy.

And I tag:

1. Taydor Tott
2. Matt
3. Emily
4. Kathleen
5. Liz
6. Jess
7. Lacey

But really I love reading these things so even though I’m limited to 7 I really want everyone who reads this to do it

Status today, It’s becoming a endless battle of power and emotion. in and amongst a crowd there are status chasers. in fact today you will find its mostly a battle in which people don’t realise because they are hungry for the power they are craving and push further until they hit the top of the  hierarchy. This status destroys people. Makes them blind to the fact they are equal. This pushes the equality boundary and breaks it.  people who push and attack people with snide comments only to gain on them and show them that they are more worthy and to gain respect are fowl. But yet they know that they will gain respect for being over someone in there own group hierarchy and whether it’s liked or not its the truth that this is so common in day to day life its a common killer. People who lose the confidence to be them self either self destruct or hide behind a wall of false lies and imprisonment of emotion. just so it doesn’t hit them so deep after. just so they can carry on.  This type of people are cruel cause they are willing to sacrifice emotion and play on others weaknesses just to be that bit better then the other. which in all fact is false because in reality these people should be disliked which in all honesty are after a while. but never when they start doing it. they become popular and power hungry simply because they are now in the eyes of the group majority better then everyone else.  But yet afterwards they become a victim of spite and start to be pushed  to there limits so they can be broken down. just because they are at the top and yet they aren’t.  this is emotional warfare yet its only recognised when people look at it after being the person ripped apart to such a point. you stop caring. you lose all point of status and hierarchy position yet there are still people who again and again will thrive cause they want back the power they once lost.  what is the world coming to? People aim to destroy each other for status. They Push and shove until they have lost everything they need to in order to gain it. Yet they expect to be showered with praise and respect. But when they are the one pushed off their high horse they wonder why. It is all around us. this emotional warfare. You apply by force. after trying to defend yourself. This is wrong and shouldn’t have to happen. You should have to shroud yourself in lies and barriers to stop being hurt people shouldn’t try it. the only fact is that until you recognise it and become yourself.  You are a drone to this warfare. but without this realisation you will not find love nor hope. cause both fade with power and status. I cannot say I’m perfect. but  recognised. And I am myself. I have weakness. And I will be attacked both personally and just for power. But i never ask for were I am. I just know in my head were all the same. you just carve your own path. You see it yet?

Lost about 550 words before I wrote this.  but for not it will do.

OK. Explain something to me. People see unhappiness on facebook. They like it and find it fun just to push them a bit further. or they like to talk about people to you behind there back just to announce there hate when really isn’t it is said to be. looking at it it’s more jealousy or lack of  respect then anything. when people chase status and expect to be loved. More hated in my view. People turn to desperation when it get tough and do anything to be noticed. People Need to learn the fact sometimes being an attention seeker can get more than what you wish for. Unregrettably  you have noticed this cause its a matter of which has annoyed me and well you will put a snide comment or thumbs up  in which to annoy me. All fun and games a persons emotions Eh?

Fairly early in the four-months-and-counting project that we call “remodeling the bathroom,” we installed a small whirlpool tub. That part of the project required significant help from Randa’s brother, Kevin. Among the steps involved was the fitting of a drain kit. Drain kits seem so much preferable to just letting the water run down through the ceiling below, so we opted for that. 

We selected the “pop-up” type: no levers, no plugs, just press down once to close and once more to open. Simple, satisfying and almost idiot proof.  Did I mention that I was involved in this project?

About the second time I used the tub, I pushed down firmly to release the pop-up so the water could drain out of the tub. Nothing happened. I pressed firmly again. Then I pressed firmly and repeatedly. Eventually, the valve released and the water began draining.

After several more sessions of having to make multiple attempts to get the drain to open and just before I became desperate enough to remove the drain and take it back to Lowe’s and indignantly demand a replacement, I made a small discovery. If I just press lightly on one particular spot on the drain, it pops open eagerly! Just that light touch and presto! Drain opens.

There are so many frantic pushes in life that do little to move us toward our goals. Most of them probably accomplish just the opposite. All of our pushing and shoving and grousing and griping and meanness and manipulation seldom gains us anything but greater resistance, greater resentment, greater distance. In many of those cases, a gentle touch in the right spot would be far more effective. 

On the reciprocal side of that issue, I’m trying to be so sensitive and aware that the slightest nudge from the finger of God will move me in the right direction. I’d really like to avoid any more thumps!

H. Arnett

9/17/09

More to ‘resetting’ than pushing a button

by Dinh Lanh and Nhu Hoa

US President Barack Obama’s official visit to Moscow this week successfully launched the process to “reset” relations between the United States and the Russian Federation although, not unexpectedly, differences remain.

The term “reset” was first used in March when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton presented Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov with a yellow box complete with a large red “reset” button and asked him to push it with her.

Their symbolic act was confirmation that the two powers would commit themselves to finding a way to rejuvenate ties that – after Russia’s war with Georgia – were at their worst since the 1990s.

Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev and US President Obama then consummated the pledge at their first face-to-face meeting in London early this April.

Proof of the commitment was the signing of several vital agreements during the two-day Moscow meeting that included a framework document for a new strategic-arms- reduction treaty.

Russia and the US possess up to 95 per cent of the world’s nuclear weapons and the most likely result of their joint understanding will be each limiting their nuclear arsenal to 1,500–1,675 warheads.

The agreement is also likely to limit the number of delivery vehicles as low as 500-1,100.

The agreement, known as the Moscow Treaty, will replace the START I treaty that ends in December and is to be accomplished within seven years.

Although the target is still far from the mooted upper limit of 1,100 warheads, it starkly illustrates President Obama’s divergence from his predecessor, George W Bush, who argued that as the US and Russia were no longer Cold War foes, they did not need a detailed arms-reduction agreement.

As the newspaper Kommersant explained: “It was extremely important for Obama to reach a framework agreement with particular parameters of the planned reduction because he had declared nuclear-arms reduction a foreign-policy priority.”

President Medvedev told a news conference that the Joint Understanding admitted a link between offensive and defensive weapons.

“A short time ago we had nothing but disagreements,” he said. “Now we have confirmed this link and this enables us to bring our position closer together.”

Russian Foreign and Defence Policy Council Chairman Sergei Karaganov described the agreement as “an absolute compromise”.

Another key agreement was Moscow’s decision to allow the US 4,500 free flights across Russian territory each year carrying troops and weapons to Afghanistan.

President Obama hailed the gesture, which will save US taxpayers an estimated US$133 million a year, as a “substantial Russian contribution to an international effort”.

It also shows that despite their differences, the US and Russia still need to co-operate in dealing with global issues such as the war on terror, the fight against extremism and drug trafficking as well nuclear disarmament.

The Americans cannot succeed without international co-operation, especially from the Russian government, said Viet Nam News Agency correspondent in Moscow.

Differences

But long-standing differences remain despite the multiple agreements reached during the Obama visit.

These include Washington’s plans to establish a national missile defence system in the Czech Republic and Poland and disagreements about Georgia’s borders.

President Obama had not given an answer to Russia’s worries about the missile system, said President Medvedev after he and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had met with their American visitor.

The visitor had done no more than promise an early finalisation of the plan, he said.

The visiting president told a joint presidential news conference that he disagreed with his host about Georgia’s borders. The country’s territorial integrity and sovereignty should be respected, he said.

The sparring about Georgia tends to hide a broader issue – Georgia and the Ukraine’s aspirations to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and what the Russians perceive as American interference in the region.

The Russian policy council Chairman Karaganov warned: “Without the US dropping the idea of seeing Ukraine in NATO there will be no long-term improvement in relations.

“What we can do now is to increase trust between the two governments, so that in case a crisis of the type of last year’s events in Georgia arises, we are better prepared for it,” he added.

And although Washington supports Russia’s efforts to join the World Trade Organisation, President Obama gave no hint about a waiver of the Jackson-Vanik Amendment that denies most-favoured-nation status and is a barrier to trade.

America wants Russia to be “strong, peaceful and prosperous” and “NATO seeks collaboration with Russia, not confrontation”, President Obama said before leaving Moscow.

It’s hope that he stays on message and supports it with immediate action. —

Source: vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn

We’ve all studied push and pull tactics in school. It is pretty common sense. When you use “pull” as your main strategy, you are creating demand. You are essentially “pulling” consumers into wanting or feeling they need to buy your product, service, brand, what-have-you. Many times, you do this through direct interaction with the consumer. You show them you are not all about shoving the corporate motto down their throats. In a “push” strategy, however, you “push” the channels of media/communication towards your product, etc. so that they communicate the message. This can be done by advertising, promotion, and the likes. In essence, you “push” the product.

Steve Rubel over at AdAge explains that we have largely been focusing on the “push” strategy. That is, in the near past, we used channels like television commercials and radio to facilitate the communication of our messages. But now, with the rise of search engines and social networks, Rubel suggests that we may be shifting to a “pull” strategy.

Harvard Business Publishing also agrees to this statement, saying that “pull” helps us tap new markets that we never knew existed and takes LinkedIn and Facebook relationships to a whole new level.

While I agree with this new-found use of “pull.” I do feel as though “push” has a huge part in social media. After all, are not the internet and the individual social networking sites channels within themselves? Yes, we do communicate our own message directly to the end-user on social networking sites, etc. True, the channels themselves voice no opinion; but then again, neither does the T.V. commercial.

Not to mention that though we are told to “Pull, not Push,” is it not the job of a tweeter for XYZ Company to “push” the corporate message and ultimately to “push” the product/brand/service!?

I think there needs to be a balance between the two. To simply “push” a brand is obnoxious. No one wants to follow XYZ Company on Twitter if all they tweet is how good their product is.

Similarly, if XYZ Company were to only “pull” consumers into their brand, they would seem a little sketchy. We all know that the financial bottom-line is the most important thing on the company’s mind. They just can’t trick us into thinking otherwise; and, if they try to, they just appear fake. Take for example a company who claims to be “going green.” If I don’t see clear explanations as to the oh-so-environmentally-friendly actions a company is taking, I don’t buy the product specifically because I feel it is exaggerating the truth in order to make me feel good about buying their product.

Therefore, a balance between “push” and “pull” always seems like the way to go. I can say that at least from a consumer’s viewpoint if not slightly from an intern’s viewpoint as well.

I had an opportunity to work at the hospital yesterday.  I am not working a lot of hospital shifts these days because I am working on some other Your Birth Right Projects.  I gotta tell you though… It never fails, whenever I do go work at the(any) hospital, I am quickly reminded why I started this blog and I am reminded of the things that are so wrong with maternity care in this country.  A few things happened in the course of my short 7 hour shift that smacked of foolishness and I thought I would quickly highlight a few…

Scenario ONE
The OBGYN as Larry the Cable Guy…
A nurse comes to the nurse’s station to let the doctor know that his patient, who has an epidural, is completely dilated.  He says “Okay, put her up and start pushing.” First I am ALWAYS annoyed about the way I hear some doctors, nurses and others speak about patients as if they are anything but human. The very casual way it’s said.  There is no connection; no use of names; he is not interested in going to support his patient with her pushing efforts. Nope! From the desk he says “Put er’ up.” it reminds me of Larry the Cable Guy… “Get er done.”  

 When he says this he means he wants the nurse to put the patient in the lithotomy position with her legs in stirrups.  Research has shown that this is not the most advantageous position for the mother or the infant. It results in increase pressure on the perineum resulting in more tears, it decreases blood flow to the uterus and it makes a mother in essence push “up hill.”  Birthingnaturally.net has a great excerpt from Robbie Davis-Floyd’s book Birth as An American Rite of Passage where this is discussed in great detail.  The blogger over at  Dare to Birth Naturally also has a great post about the disadvantages of pushing/birthing in a lithotomy position. 

Let me be clear here….this particular doctor is one of the BEST there is at this hospital. His patients adore him and he has a good bedside manner which is more than I can say for a lot of the others. He THINKS he is really doing well by his patients and he is only doing what he was taught and unfortunately he is passing on his bad habits as noted by my next example…

Scenario TWO
The BLIND leading the BLIND…
During the delivery, this doctor (the one from above) allowed a resident (doctor in training) to assist him. After the delivery they are once again at the nurses’ station for a quick debriefing and a quick “How to birth a baby” lesson.  The doctor began to teach the resident about the importance of supporting the head and the perineum as the baby is born to help prevent a laceration. (Good lesson I initially think.) Then I hear him say. “As the baby’s head is crowning you want to hold onto the head and give it some pressure so it doesn’t pop out. Now you keep telling her to push hard, you need her to keep pushing hard, but you give that counter pressure.) I sighed a big sigh. Ummmm actually as the head is crowning there is usually not a need for the patient to ‘push hard.’ In fact there is often no need for the mother to push at all at this point because the uterus can do the job.  If a mother simply grunts with the contractions, as the head is being born or gives small pushes BETWEEN contractions, and does NOT push hard, she is waaaaaayyyy less likely to tear.  Childbirth connection has a great section on avoiding lacerations.  Among many other things, it says…

“Ease the baby out and do not push forcefully at the time of birth: Ask your caregivers how they guide women at the time of the birth to try to avoid tears into the perineum. Unless there is a medical reason to get the baby out quickly, bearing down gently, pushing in between contractions, or not pushing at all and letting the uterus do the work can help the tissues to stretch gently.” 

YEP… that’s what I was taught as a midwife in training.  Allow the woman to ease her baby out.

 Scenario THREE
Who’s in charge of patient education
I had two different patients with a similar issue and the same defense yesterday. Both of these women were 34 weeks pregnant.  They both came in with complaints of possible labor.  They were both reassured that they were NOT in labor and they could go home and continue to nurture their babies inside. “You are still pre-term” I told them both, “and the best place for your baby right now is inside your uterus.”  I smiled and thought this should be good news for them right? WRONG!! Their response to me… “My other babies were born early and they are fine.”  Both of these women were oblivious to the dangers inherent in pre-term birth even though one of them actually lost an infant who spent time in the NICU after being born at 34 weeks.  I did my best to educate them and they went home reluctantly.  Who is educating these patients on how to prevent pre-term labor and who is educating them on the importance of having a term pregnancy?  Obviously no one.  One of the patients even said to me “Well I will just see what my doctor says.”  I thought to myself, “Perhaps he should have been saying something to you before now about pre-term labor and birth and you would be HAPPY that your baby was going to grow inside of you for a few more weeks.” Sigh… Here is a FANTASTIC video that has been circulating regarding preterm birth and how we can avoid it. If you haven’t seen it definitely check it out.  

Scenario FOUR
Contrary to what they say, an Epidural DOES affect your baby…
A nurse was taking care of a patient who was having her second baby.  She wanted an epidural at 6cm.  Prior to her epidural her fetal heart monitor strip was perfect. There was nothing that would indicate any fetal compromise.  Within two minutes of her epidural being placed and the patient being repositioned appropriately with a lateral tilt there were significant fetal heart rate changes. There were decelerations in fact, significant enough for the doctor to consider an immediate operative delivery. After about 30 minutes of what we now term “intrauterine resuscitation” the fetal heart rate pattern improved but it never looked as good as its pre-epidural state and this patient ultimately was wheeled to the operating room.

 Anesthesiologists, who get paid by the number of procedures they do, tell women that there are little to no risks associated with an epidural. I often hear them say… “The biggest risk is a headache and I will know immediately if that’s gonna happen.”   They actually LIE to women, because if they told women the truth about epidurals many would decline the procedure. Am I completely against epidurals? NO, I am not. I think that for some women epidurals are a great thing and if a woman wants an epidural I will do what I can to help her get one.  I AM against LIES and deceit however. I think women should really know that epidurals affect labor, they affect birth outcomes and YES they affect your baby.

Epidurals increase the length of second stage, the pushing stage of labor. Epidurals increase the chance that you will get an episiotomy, and an operative delivery (forceps, vacuum, cesarean). It is important to note that these two things are directly tied to each other. An impatient doctor who does not want to wait for a woman to push a baby for 2 hours because her bottom is numb is more likely to use a procedure (episiotomy, forceps, vacuum, cesarean) to speed things up!  Women with epidurals are more likely to spike a temperature and depending on hospital policies this can result in numerous pokes, prods, and tests for your newborn infant.  Epidural and spinal meds DO cross the placenta and as a result can cause respiratory depression in your newborn. Babies born with eidural anesthesia do not breast feed as well.  And on a less serious note, let’s not forget the back pain/soreness/discomfort women complain about sometimes for YEARS after their epidural.  

The worse part about investigating epidurals is that a lot of the research is all over the place.  I have worked in hospitals all across the country and while the epidural trays that contain all of the needles and things a doctor needs to do an epidural are pretty consistent, the drug combinations vary widely from hospital to hospital and even doctor to doctor. Then there are the differences between a basic epidural and a combined spinal/epidural and the differences between women.  Every woman will not react the same way to the same meds and neither will your infant.

My advice, leave the epidural alone. However, if you do decide you want one, understand that it DOES affect you, your labor, your delivery and your baby. Do some extra research to understand how you can prevent some of the complications of epidural anesthesia. 

Well that’s all for now.  There is more that I can mention but you get the point.  I urge women to get the facts, know your rights, and have some advocates. At the end of the day YOU are your best advocate and the information you get now or the information you ignore will affect your birth experience.

In Birth and Love
Nicole