Rabbit Hole

I've just been putzing around on the interweb, and I couldn't help but be struck once again by how fucking incredible this place is. In about 20 minutes, starting at the New York Times, I went from an absolutely insane baby-swinging video, to a blog post about never being too poor to have kids, to a wikipedia search about Loch Lomond, to a JAMA article about new research indicating that cell phones activate brain metabolism which could potentially lead to cancer. Especially that Russian baby "yoga" video- first off, I was not as horrified as apparently most parents who watch it are. I did find myself wondering about shoulder dislocation and nursemaid's elbow in a 2 week old, and the fact that the kid seemed to be crying at one point (Lena Fokina, the woman doing the actual swinging in the video, says the children do not cry, but rather remain silent or laugh. She runs a family freediving clinic in Dahab, Egypt now, and the baby from the video is perfectly healthy, even "precocious," according to her dad). However, my emotions tended to run towards fascination rather than repulsion. And I felt particularly validated toward the end, when Lena seems to be trying to get the kid to lock his knees so that she can balance him in a standing position on her palm! Sound familiar? Maybe I'm not as crazy or foolhardy as you all thought! Then again, look who I'm allying myself with...