Baby Gender Swaying

I first heard a legitimate scientific method for increasing the probability of having a baby of a certain gender >10 years ago, I didn't believe it at first so I googled it (ya you could google things >10y ago :-)  From what I could see it seemed legit. As I was going to pass this advice onto a friend recently (who may become a parent in the near future) I thought since 10 years have passed I should try to make sure nobody tweaked or overturned these results...good thing I did because that's exactly what happened!

Turns out this is eponymously named The Shettles Method.  Seems the evidence against it really started piling up in 2006, I checked this maybe 2004 or so...explains why I had no chance to find it! Now, I do want to point out that even if this or some other method worked well it could be an issue if predominantly a country were say to want all boys etc. but the way we wanted to use it is to have a girl first then a boy, which is balanced so I don't see any issue with that.  Clearly since we have 2 wonderful daughters we saw it didn't work the second time, but of course we knew it was only probabilistic (and if it were true, girls would be a higher probability target than boys) so after thinking about it I thought I figured out something that didn't allow us to reach that higher probability.  Of course now I realize that it wasn't going to make a difference anyway.

So if Shettles doesn't work...are there any factors that can influence whether you end up with an XX or an XY?  Most scientist believe there are!  The next question is, OK how can I make use of this fact for gender swaying?  The current answer to that is...it's far from clear :-(

I'm going to point you to some links for further reading, the 1st is a good place to start if you are going to dive deeper into this topic.  I was a bit concerned about the source (I mentioned this before but before you trust anything, especially if you don't have say a scientific background, need to make sure it's a top quality source!) as it's a msg board but they provide legit links to scientific papers to back up their facts.  This will bust or confirm some myths about differences between X & Y sperm, which is ultimately what decides on XX or XY (as eggs are always X).

http://genderdreaming.com/forum/swaying-studies-and-scientific-research/1562-what-real-differences-between-x-sperm-y-sperm.html

Second, this slightly academic article examines different mechanisms (mostly errors either in DNA or in the meiosis process in males) that can cause a higher probability of ending up with an XX or XY baby.

http://sciencequestionswithsurprisinganswers.org/2015/05/05/is-it-completely-random-whether-a-baby-is-a-boy-or-a-girl/

And finally, last but not least a whole group of myths about gender swaying debunked from a top quality source, The Cleveland Clinic!  I want to point out, in fairness to Dr. Shettles that this article should have mentioned his work was from the 1960's!  It was amazing work for that time with the limited technology available to him...of course in 2006 and beyond, tech has come a long way and they can accurately differentiate X & Y sperm...etc so it's easy to see where Shettles went wrong!

https://health.clevelandclinic.org/2014/10/boy-or-girl-can-you-choose-your-babys-gender/

If after all this you are still interested in this topic and want to dig even deeper then I suggest reading more about Capacitation and how it could alter the gender ratio, or this recent theory that is gaining supporters...all these years Doctors said it was the Father who decided whether it's XX or XY but perhaps it's actually the Mother!  The mechanism that could allow this is if a woman's body could somehow differentiate between X or Y sperm...and depending on various factors, decide to favor one over the other!  It sounds a bit crazy but that's what so cool about Science!  Here's the paper showing some evidence of this! How can you make use of this?  You'll have to wait awhile for that as this is bleeding edge research, it's in early stages still...

https://bmcgenomics.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2164-15-293

PS  I nearly forgot, a very interesting tangent here is that with the advances of Biotech, we're getting quite close to same-sex couples being able to have a child that has genetic contribution from both parents.  I'm still learning more about this but I believe it would be easier for 2 Men to have either a boy or a girl since they have both X & Y chromosomes.  What's much trickier is for 2 Women to have a boy (a girl is not that hard as that's just XX, one from each mother...easy peasy ;-) but to have a boy you will need to make a Y sperm from the genetic material of two Mom's.  I have heard this is theoretically possible (I'll need to do more research to understand how) but it's going to take 20 years or so to get that sorted out.

Here's a good link on it, has links inside to less technical News stories on this
https://ipscell.com/2015/03/babysamesexcouple/

QUORA--Are scientists on the verge of finding out how to slow down aging and increasing how long humans live?

One of my fave topics...there's some smart and very informed (esp. wrt timeliness) people on Quora so I learnt a few new things reading this topic.  I'll highlight my fave responses but feel free to peruse the rest of the answers!

Actually after reading a bunch of answers, the 2 that were my faves are probably the only 2 that are sufficiently informed...one person points out that we should focus on raising the standard of living globally before working on reversing aging.  That's a nice well intentioned thought but very naive, based on a complete missunderstanding of how the world works (but I won't go on a long tangent explaining why...).

This one is great, perhaps 2 mistakes are making such a big deal about CEO Liz Parrish (patient zero) apparent age, considering the treatment she underwent was not focused on her outward appereance.  The other is perhaps being overly cautious about everything he reports (I guess it's a refreshing change since almost all news medium's these days do the opposite!)

https://www.quora.com/Are-scientists-on-the-verge-of-finding-out-how-to-slow-down-aging-and-increasing-how-long-humans-live/answer/Roey-Tzezana?srid=uhhZL

This next one is good, well informed, with shoutouts to the guru of Aging research Aubrey de Grey. I did a quick google to checkout the poster's bonafides, didn't find anything crazy so it should be legit (confirming my educated guess).

https://www.quora.com/Are-scientists-on-the-verge-of-finding-out-how-to-slow-down-aging-and-increasing-how-long-humans-live/answer/Johnty-Andersen?srid=uhhZL

QUORA -- How do I prove to you people in 2017 that I'm a time traveller from 3060?

I've seen questions like this on Quora a few times, maybe the poster believes they are from the future maybe they are just a Troll but often some of the answers are very interesting!

Here are 2 answers I found fascinating for very different reasons, I'll say little about the first one as I don't want to destroy the aura of mystery it generates!  Can read the comments after as I'm sure you'll have questions or ask me :-)

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-prove-to-you-people-in-2017-that-Im-a-timetraveller-from-3060/answer/John-Geare?srid=uhhZL

Then this answer which is very practical, scientific...perhaps the most interesting part is the comments, especially of "Shin Daniel", this 8th grade kid seems quite smart!

https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-prove-to-you-people-in-2017-that-Im-a-timetraveller-from-3060/answer/Luveh-Keraph?srid=uhhZL

Space as a Muse for New Physics

It's great these days that by following the right Blogs (of Professors or Post-Docs in whatever your field of interest) you can cut out the middle man (Science Journalist's) and get news in a much more timely manner, without the jumbled interpretation of said middle man.  I would point out that there are exceptions, Quanta zine's Natalie Wolchover has (I believe) a Grad degree in Physics and is great at explaining new interesting results in an entertaining and accurate manner.

One of many Blogs I follow is a Post-Doc currently at Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, he's a Theoretical Physicist...goes by the Handle 4Gravitons, physics jargon (Feynman Diagram -- I believe is the reference there).  He's written a great post outlining the many deep and difficult areas of Fundamental physics illuminated by Astronomers/Astrophysicist's in their study of Space.

https://4gravitons.wordpress.com/2017/03/03/what-space-can-tell-us-about-fundamental-physics/

His usual audience are people who at least have studied Physics in Undergrad or more likely Grad school.  But this one he tried to make as accessable as possible, provides some great links too.  I was already familiar with most of what he wrote about, I think #4 is especially cool, I have tried to read Nima & Maldacena's paper (2 Super Geniuses -- in the 180-200 IQ range) and I couldn't follow well at all, even a summary written and simplified by Lubos Motl (word is that Sheldon from BBT is loosely based on LuMo) was difficult to comprehend...other than it being obvious what a genius idea this is!

The one item that was new to me was this amazing idea that seems to have been put in motion and is nearly complete...the Event Horizon Telescope!  Check the link but it's basically a Very Large Array of smaller telescopes that has an effective diameter of Earth!  With this powerful VLA they believe they can view a Black Holes Event Horizon!  Now you may wonder how can you see an Event Horizon (the point at which even light cannot escape the immense gravitational pull of a Black Hole) but there are many ways it could be seen, if a Black Hole is syphoning gas from say a nearby Star then there will be an accretion disk that gets very hot as it enters the Event Horizon.

Another way is a currently a huge theoretical debate, something called the Firewall Paradox, this is a fascinating area of Theoretical Physics as it points out an important way that we likely don't understand Quantum Gravity.  Which of course is a nascent theory far from complete, and that's probably the best case description referring to M-Theory.  The original authors that discovered this paradox believe that space-time ends at the Event Horizon, in a Firewall that annihilates all matter/particles that enter that region!  I don't personally believe this is the correct interpretation, I lean more towards an amazingly creative genius hypothesis put forth by Maldacena & Susskind, it's called ER=EPR.  Try and read about it, it's mind blowing...basically the fabric of space is due to quantum entanglement (that idea is not entirely theirs, check the link) and all entangled particles are joined via microscopic wormholes!  Far out!!

PS

LuMo in one particular post on the Firewall problem, had a couple of guys who thought they were much smarter than they actually are and posted some arrogant comments, LuMo's blog is definitely the wrong place to do this...check out LuMo eviscerate these guys, it's very inside Physics so maybe not accessable to all but I was def LMFAO!! :-)

Frozen Foods Shedding Their Bad Image

For the longest time, when people heard frozen foods or frozen dinners, they probably would have trouble deciding which is worse fast food or frozen food?  I generally agreed until over 10 years ago or so when Amy's began making Organic Burritos, their ingredients were great, not a single artificial or processed ingredient etc.  However, back then they kinda tasted like cardboard...they've come a long way since then, they taste much better!

I digress as I've covered my fave Organic/Natural frozen dishes in an earlier post.  What this article shows is that surprisingly some veggies are better bought frozen than fresh, I know it's hard to believe but it's true!  In cases like Green Peas, even more nutritious frozen!

Also in general, especially the organic veggies and other organic frozen foods are not bad for you at all...which is great news and something I've suspected for a long time.  But don't get me wrong, I'm not recommending anyone go out and get those cheap Salsbury Steak dinner!  Yuck!  Those are bad and always will be :-)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-are-the-only-vegetables-you-should-buy-frozen_us_58bed08be4b0ec3d5a6ba29c?ir=Canada&utm_hp_ref=canada

Retirement Investing Advice

Just posted this on LinkedIn, let me know if you have any questions :-)

https://www.linkedin.com/hp/update/6244600129823784960

Movie Recommendation

Saw the movie Nerve this weekend, while not perfect it's def a very cool & fun movie to watch. The soundtrack is awesome too, picked up a lot of good contemporary songs (for ex. Halsey's Hurricane). It's totally something that can happen, look how many vids on Utube are posted with ppl doing dangerous crazy stunts for no reason other than getting views on Utube!

Here's trailer and reviews, I def lean towards the critics that gave it a score in high 60's and above...

http://www.metacritic.com/movie/nerve