Having a baby is NOT the pinnacle of one's life

Clem Bastow (The Sydney Morning Herald National Times, June 21, 2011)
"I just lack the desire. In fact, I find the idea of pregnancy quite abject."

Choosing to remain childless gets far too much bad PR.
The strangest thing happened the other day: while I was reading the newspapers online, my computer started to make baby noises. Coos and giggles erupted from the speakers. With each tab opened, more babies' voices sprung forth, until a sonic waterfall of ga-ga-ga surrounded me.

It turned out to be an auto-playing advertisement, but that didn't stop me rushing to silence my computer in a panic. Babies have always made me nervous, because I'm one of those people who doesn't particularly want one.

As my 20s have run themselves out, the line of questioning from extended family members has shifted from "Are you seeing anyone?" to "And what about kids?" I'm 29 today and I expect the urgency with which the question is delivered to only increase once next year's birthday rolls around. More

Why Are Our Bees Vanishing? (video)

(VanishingBees.com) Imagine half a million adults skipping town and leaving their children behind. Picture an opened suitcase filled with bundles of cash at a bus stop yet no robber wants to snatch it. The apiary science mystery known as "Colony Collapse Disorder" (CCD) displays these very symptoms. Not only do our critical crop pollinating honey bees abandon their hives, which they cannot live away from for more than 24 hours, but the queen and the brood as well. Unnatural. Unheard of. Even the predators that usually raid the hive for honey stay away when nothing is protecting it. At first it sounds like an urban legend or an exaggerated tale. Except it's not. The situation is both real and dire. Bees are disappearing all over the planet, and no one knew why. But now the answers are becoming apparent:

• systemic pesticides (not toxins sprayed on to dissipate but taken up into every part of the plant where they weaken bees' immune systems)
• mites and fungal blight brought on by weakened immunity, which would normally be segregated with wax in the sterile environment of the hive but is not because of the incapacitated bees
• cell phone tower radiation, which is disruptive to compromised bees
• mono-cropping (growing a single crop in need of pollination but no other plants on which the bees could survive between harvests)
• stresses in the environment (depleted soil, contaminated fields, genetically manipulated plants by companies like Monsanto)
• like AIDS and mystery flu syndromes and E. coli outbreaks, once the organism is compromised in terms of nutrients and immunity, it is open to opportunistic infections and influences

Vanishing of the Bees - Trailer from Bee The Change on Vimeo.