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December 2010

It all started with this post at Jezebel. For those unfamiliar, Jezebel is a blog that covers everything from adorable animals (pictures posted biweekly – one for ‘hump day’ on Wednesday, another for ‘tgif’ Friday) to news wrap-ups, all generally from the questioning perspective of  feminism. Irin Carmon writes, “[The Daily Show is] also a boys’ club where women’s contributions are often ignored and dismissed.” I can’t imagine why that raised heckles.

On multiple occasions, I have been told that a child learns more in their first 5 years of life than they do throughout the rest of their life. Being the argumentative person I am, there are times that I have wanted to debate this theory. Upon further reflection, there is no way that I would win this argument.

The development of people is quite fascinating. Starting from conception, fewer than half of all fertilized eggs (zygotes) survive beyond the first two weeks. Those lucky ones that survive work their way into the embryonic stage (weeks 2-8). During this stage, humans are pretty much formed. The embryo develops all the major organs which are necessary for survival. The heart begins to beat and the liver starts making red blood cells. Weeks 9 through birth (fetal stage), all the fine details are worked on and the baby pops out with all fingers and toes in the right places (hopefully). Then the fun begins…