I have some friends who had one/adopted one—I think it's actually worked pretty well. They always planned to do it that way—she's a serious environmentalist and she also wanted to do something about the abandoned girls in India (they're Indian.) What I like about it is that the child's not a substitute for anything…

It gets easier—particularly as Nerdlet ages. Basically, a lot of stuff is peer pressure. If you just choose your own path, you'll be fine. My feeling is that entertaining one's self is actually a really important skill—I am currently ignoring my child as I write. She's decided to combat this by practicing the…

Which makes you a better candidate for foster/adoptive parenting than a lot of people. For me, it was less about my desirable genetics (no one needs my crappy eyesight) and what I considered my own limitations as a parent. I'm not patient, I am not an ideal parent for a special-needs child. My kid and I rub along…

Right, which is what matters—you make the choices that work for you. I'm always sort of shocked by some of the things said to people without kids that get mentioned here. I get the would-be grandparents getting upset (though I have to say that mine never said anything, which was great.), but it sounds like all sorts…

That's not going to go away. You can't ignore genetics that way—a biokid will share traits with the parents in a way an adoptive kid won't. Babies aren't blank slates. Also, the foster system is kind of a mess and these situations are more complex that you might think. There was a pretty horrifying case of a…

Sorry, but that's really unfair to those kids. All children should be really wanted, not just as second-best substitutions for the desired bio-kids (or, even worse, potential souls to be saved). I see a fair number of adoptive parents in my work and the best ones are often teachers—people who like and know kids as a…

Yeah, I know that's how a lot of my friends thought at one point. It's not actually like that—it's closer, strangely enough, to a big love affair. In other words, you're weirdly willing to put up with all sorts of stuff and do all sorts of things because you love this little person so much and that little person…

People spend tons of money on all sorts of meaningless crap, so that doesn't bother me. Risking your health like that and other women undergoing hysterectomies for this—that does strike me as pretty extreme. I guess everyone's willing, but whew—I think my choice in the situation would have been surrogacy since the…

Your mother sucks. At least with a settlement, you'd have the money for a surrogate or adoption or whatever, if you'd decided to do the kid thing at some point. Glad you're having fun and enjoying life.

That's actually pretty wild, who knew there could ever be any benefits from mono?

It's not simply programming—there's a very strong cultural component—feeling that being a "real" woman means being able to get pregnant and lots and lots of feeling that the child has to be biologically yours. But I am a parent and I wouldn't do this. I *might* have considered a surrogate in this situation, but I…

I was thinking that a hysterectomy was likely once one of the implanted women was done with childbearing. You can survive without a uterus more readily than with a suppressed immune system.

Yep, I was thinking a surrogates will probably continue to be the way to go. Pregnancy is risky enough as it is without organ-rejection issues.

Yes, and? He was approved for his visa months ago—before the outbreak. I doubt much of anyone is getting a visa to the U.S. from Liberia or Sierra Leone right now.

Look, the thing is, once the Ebola outbreak got big enough, it was going to get here. I was told that months ago by a friend who has a lot of dealings with the CDC. She gave it as the reason that the CDC actually wanted Brantley in the country—there was this big outcry, but the CDC was actually thinking long-term—a…

Which might make sense for a different disease—but Ebola's not contagious unless the patient has symptoms. No one who was on the flight with him has come down with Ebola—in fact, no one on any flight with someone later diagnosed with Ebola has come down with Ebola.

As I've said, there's a tremendous amount of fear…

The point is that when you have thousands of flights a day coming in from overseas, a flight from the middle of Europe isn't going to get the kind of scrutiny a direct flight from Liberia would.

The biggest asset the U.S. has here is that it's not that easy to get here—we only border two countries. Ebola in the U.S.…

It's pretty unlikely that Ebola will become airborne—it would have to start replicating heavily in the bronchial tubes, sinuses, lungs and there would need to be some sort of reason for it to do so. It already does pretty well replicating itself under its current highly infectious method.

In general, I find the…

Look, you do know that the guy came in via Belgium? It wasn't a situation where he flew in directly from Liberia. Part of the problem with just quarantining countries is that pretty much everybody would have to agree to it *and* have the clout to make it stick.

20? Wow. I'm not totally shocked, but I am surprised. Had no idea about the field near Santa Rosa. I did know about Mono/Mammoth, but the activity there sort of got stuck behind the fire danger there this summer (I've a friend who lives up there.) I have this weird geographical blindness about the eastern Sierra…