men can breastfeed?

As I was randomly multiply hopping, i came across a copy-pasted post that went "can men breastfeed?" The answer? Yes, they can. Pretty interesting. =) Here's the article from mentalfloss.com:
Q: Can Men Breastfeed?

A: Odd as it seems, men can lactate. In their 1896 book, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine, Dr. George Gould and Dr. Walter Pyle recount several occurrences of men breastfeeding their young. The stories include a sailor who put his son to his breast to quiet him and started producing milk; a South American peasant who sustained his child with his own breast milk during his wife’s illness; and a Chippewa man who put his infant to his breast following the death of his wife and produced enough milk to rear the child.
The phenomenon hasn’t stopped. In 2002, a Sri Lankan man named B. Wijeratne lost his wife and was left to care for their 18-month-old daughter. When the child refused powdered milk, Wijeratne tried something different. “Unable to see her cry, I offered my breast,” Wijeratne told a Sri Lankan newspaper. “That’s when I discovered I could breastfeed.”
Wijeratne isn’t alone. All men can breastfeed, because they possess the two most vital components for lactating—mammary glands and pituitary glands. Mammary glands, which produce milk, are present in all mammals. In fact, they’re one of our defining characteristics. In some cases, such as with mice, the mammary glands of the males are too underdeveloped to function. In humans, however, they’re fully formed in both sexes, complete with breastfeeding ducts and nipple.
Of course, for a human to actually breastfeed, those mammary glands have to be activated somehow. In women, this usually happens during pregnancy, when the brain’s pituitary gland starts releasing large amounts of a hormone called prolactin, which prepares the breasts to produce milk.

All men produce small amounts of prolactin during their lifetimes. It’s released after orgasms, for example, and may be responsible for the associated feelings of satisfaction and relaxation. But typically, it’s never present in large enough quantities for men to breastfeed. Under the appropriate psychological circumstances, however, the mind can demand that the body produce more of the hormone. This often happens to mothers who adopt children and suddenly find they can nurse. And as Dr. Gould and Dr. Pyle have documented, there’s a long history of it happening in men, too.
This article was written by Shea Serrano and originally appeared in the September-October issue of mental_floss magazine.

this and that. random cuteness

I've been looking at pictures from my camera and a few things caught my eye. :) These are from random moments when I felt that my material possessions deserved my undivided attention.haha

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This was when I had a sudden urge to cover my books with plastic. I just grabbed random uncovered books from my shelf and used up all the plastic cover I had at that time. I had a very productive book-covering afternoon:

(from top to bottom: Memories of My Melancholy Whores,The Princess Bride, Hannah's Daughters, Stardust, The Mysterious Benedict Society, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Charlotte's Web, Two to Go, The Way of the Dog, All-American Girl, The Nanny Diaries, The Catcher in the Rye, Stainless Longanisa, Beach Blondes)

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These pictures, I took when I was cleaning out my school stuff after graduation (sigh). These were some of my favorite notebooks (the ones I managed to keep):

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I was checking out my kikay kit and I found all these. I'm a lip balm addict. I also used to buy the Body Shop's strawberry lip balm but eventually stopped because I found it too messy to apply sometimes. Anyway, I got bored that day, so I lined them up and took this picture: 

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I also saw all my siblings' cellphones lying around. So I took a picture of them too (with my phone).hahaha

From eldest to youngest (owners, not the phones):

(Yza, Ian, Mico, Mia)

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I owe a lot to Adel who introduced me to this amazing product=D :

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These are my top 3 celebrity crushes as of today, November 20, 2008. I know these don't belong to the "material possessions" category, but I can't resist posting this:

Keith Urban, Christian Bautista, Jason Castro

(I have a thing for singers.Cuties!)

when your boyfriend is younger than you are, you have to remember not to take him to the casino with you

..but obviously, I forgot. Weird thing is,he also forgot his age. (tsktsk, how is that even possible?!) When we got to PAGCOR for the Digital Filipino networking event, he actually panicked when I asked him "diba you're still 20?"(hahaha) but did an awesome job at playing cool (he's almost 21 anyway!). *pats Eliel's back* Also, he also couldn't leave the slot machine (tsktsk, good thing it was a demo machine, we didn't lose a single peso.haha).

looks like someone's having fun

Of course, I wanted a picture too.

weee!

So there, we survived the night!haha (I swear, I think I sounded defensive 'coz when they asked me how old I was, I said, "21, almost 22") It sometimes sucks to look young. =P

weird crazy things

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christian bautista is my forever crush!=D

I haven't posted much lately, mainly because I'm still having my camera fixed. I've basically made Multiply my online storage place for pictures.haha These days, all I've been (and will be) posting are pictures taken by the people I've been with. I can't wait to get my cam back.

The reason why I'm blogging is because I have this need to pine over my ultimate crush. (Cue in: falling hearts) Christian Bautista has been in my heart since forever. For a while, my desire for him has died a bit due to my acquisition (haha) of a boyfriend (yihee, Yelie!). Anyway, last night, Gia and I watched West Side Story and the fire is burning again (hahahahaha). Christian is the cutest! I could die listening to him sing. Sigh. Sigh. *SIGH*

Gia is officially my Christian Bautista buddy. We watched one of his concerts before (at Araneta), and last night, his play. Yey!

Anyway, just to make it clear, the entire production (not just the Christian Bautista parts… though, I must say, those parts are BETTER.hahaha) was great. Karylle now has my respect as a singer and an actress. Also, I think I like listening to her classical soprano singing better than her pop singing (but that’s just me). There are times when I get nervous for her (especially when the notes are really, really high), but she pulled through. =)

It was a great night. Not just because I sat next to Kuya Germs (weeell…there was an aisle between us, but still!), but because Christian Bautista was so cute! (And it all goes back to Christian.hihihi)

Afterwhich, I had dinner with Erika (I missed her!) and caught up with all the juicy details of her life. Girl talk=) I wish all of us girls – Pat, Adel, Ria, Jessa, Er and I – could get together and bond sooooooon. (How soon is soon? I have no idea!haha) When that “soon” happens, you’ll be sure to hear about my Christian Bautista raves. Wee=) And Jes, you have a research assignment to submit to me pa (as discussed in the last YM comference.ahahaha) Del! Chika about Billygoat. I heard...=) Pat! I also heard something...Chika nya! Ria! I haven’t heard anything…Chika nya! Haha And if anyone has insider info about Christian, chika to me!hahaha

This is clearly a fan post. Warning: I am deleting nega comments about the person to whom this blog post is dedicated to.=P

saying goodbye to our house Orel house near Queensland and Cempark

A few years ago, a Queensland branch was constructed on our secluded street. (For those unfamiliar, it's a well known motel. I'm not sure if it's found in Cebu only) When that happened, Orel (that's the name of our street) became common knowledge for taxi drivers. Something which I found very helpful everytime I had to ride a taxi.haha I didn't have to say "turn left the on the street before Jade Court"(ehem, another motel), because I just had to say, "left sa Queensland" and then the taxi would turn left as it comes face to face with the billboard-ish thing that says, "P230 for 3 hours" (or something like that..I can't remember exactly).
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Sometimes I'm glad we left that area. I've had too many embarrassing taxi rides, because taxi drivers think I'm headed you know where. Worse is when I'm with my boyfriend. Um, kuya taxi driver, I just wanna go home. Diretcho pa. Landmark ra toh.
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Interesting was the day my mom complained about being stressed. She said she wanted to unwind, go to some resort. And then my innocent sister said, "Sa Queensland nalang pag hotel, near pa." (she's 12.hihi) We all laughed, and she just looked confused.
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I applaud Koreans coming from the motel. They don't take the taxis waiting right outside. Instead, they walk all the way to the intersection(no walk of shame for them) to find tricyles or other taxis passing by. Those taxi drivers waiting by Queensland probably overprice when they see foreigners.
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As I was writing this entry, I messaged my Eliel asking him what the billboard said about the room rates. He asked me why I asked him. "Are you marketing your old house?" haha. No, I'm not, there's a family renting the house already, thankyouverymuch.=P
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And did I say that at the end of the road is a locked gate? So technically, it's a deadend. And you know what's behind the gate? Cempark the cemetery. haha I used to always have that in my mind especially back in highschool. I couldn't study well at night or at dawn, because as soon as the dogs started barking, I'd imagine a procession of spirits going down our streets. hahaha
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During Novembers 1 and 2, our tiny street would be closed off, because Cempark opens it's backgate as an exit. So it's pretty cool when we just have to say "naa diha among balay", and we get to enter the street.haha Mabaw.
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Also, because we live in Sitio Orel, with the street named Orel as well, people used to think we owned the street just because our family name is Urgel and it sounds like Orel. And I have to explain that my familyname is U-R-G-E-L and I live in O-R-E-L.
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Anyway, I just remembered all these because I was posting pictures of the old house and the new house. Kinda makes me miss what we used to call "home". The house near Queensland and Cempark, in Orel, Banilad, Mandaue City. But "home" is in Singson Village now, and it doesn't feel so bad. =)

It's a 1 minute walk to the church, we could hear every single mass. Ian and Mia both, on separate instances, joked that maybe it's okay if we don't go out for mass anymore, just go when it's time for communion.haha Maybe they were serious?haha We get to hear mass twice a day and around 8 times on Sundays. How cool is that?

my summer starts today

I got home a week ago, but I was still caught up in "work" and the party. I've submitted my articles already, and so I declare the start of my summer.hahaha

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I took a quiz online a while ago. What kind of guy will you fall for? (very highschool) And I ym-ed the result to eliel. And na-igo daw xa.hahaha He thinks it's him. "waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa" that's what he said.
"fine, geek ko!" he also said that. And I didn't even say anything yet.
anyway,
tobey mcguire looks really cute here. wala lang=)

You will fall for the geek. If you're looking for love, consider spending a little more time studying up in the library. To you, there's nothing more attractive than intelligence, shyness, and kindness; your future love may have four eyes and zero social skills, but he'll make up for it in brains and heart.

>the four eyes part made me laugh. Contacts still count as a second pair of eyes right?

>the weird thing about E is that he has always insisted that he has zero social skills. But if you ask me, that's totally not true. =P

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I hung out with the girls last night at IT Park. Dinner at Ila Puti and coffee at Brown Cup (suki). Erika was absent (in Manila, training with the dragonboat national team. go girl!) but someone else was present. Yiheeee. Welcome Nelson. hahaha Saw Py and Noel. Caught up with the chika. Hai..Feels good to be home. =)

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The downside is spending another monthsary apart (as in islands apart).
That's 4 out of 8.hahaha
Happy 8months eliel=)

21

it sucks to be old.hahaha
i've actually been alive for 21 years, and am now living my 22nd year.
time just goes on and on and on.

Jen(my former Kalay and Molave dorm mate) and I have this birthday tradition. We have to have a birthday meal together. You see, we share the same birthday. Only, mine is a year earlier. (aargh.) Freshman year was dramatic, sophomore year, i can't really remember what we did(haha). We only started taking pictures junior year:

Yza@20

Jen@19


and this year...

Jen@20

Yza@21

Looks like nothing's really changed much.haha