Brian Baute

Note: This is a re-post from my old blog and was originally published January 5, 2007. I’ve done some very minor editing for clarity. Unfortunately, my prediction (an easy one, I admit) has come true.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists now recommends that “all pregnant women, regardless of their age, should be offered screening for Down syndrome” and that “screening for Down syndrome should occur before the 20th week of pregnancy.” The AP picked up the story, and it got wide distribution.

While additional knowledge about an unborn baby can be very beneficial, especially so parents can choose an appropriate hospital for the birth and make other preparations for specialized care, in this case the primary impact of the additional testing will be more parents aborting babies prenatally diagnosed with Down Syndrome. In the United States, parents decide to abort more than 80% of such babies, and the rate is even higher in Canada and Great Britain. (UPDATE: the abortion rate in the US has climbed to an estimated 92%)

These decisions to abort are often influenced by pressure from doctors and based on outdated and false assumptions about people with Down Syndrome.

A study (PDF link) previously published in the same journal as the new testing recommendation showed about half of mothers who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Down Syndrome “felt rushed or pressured (by her obstetrician) into making a decision about continuing the pregnancy” and that “obstetricians did not supply enough up-to-date printed materials or phone numbers of other parents who have children with DS” (Skotko, Brian. “Prenatally diagnosed Down syndrome: Mothers who continued their pregnancies evaluate their health care providers.” American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. March 2005: 670-677.).

In the past, children with Down Syndrome were almost always institutionalized and given little education and substandard medical care. Today’s medical advancements, better early intervention and education, help from local support groups, and life at home with parents and siblings have made a tremendous difference in the achievements, life expectancy, and quality of life of people with Down Syndrome.

Life expectancy more than doubled from 1983 to 1997, from 25 years in 1983 to 49 years in 1997. Current research indicates the life expectancy of a baby born with Down Syndrome today is 55 or higher, and rising.

With proper early intervention, educational placement, and high expectations, fewer than 10 percent of children with Down Syndrome will have severe mental retardation; most will have mild to moderate learning disabilities. Many graduate high school, and some go on to college (PDF link). Many adults live independently, hold jobs, marry, and participate as full and valuable members of society.

And while all this positive information about Down Syndrome is true and important, it pales incomparison to my experience earlier this week when Caedon, our 15-month-old son with Down Syndrome, greeted me at the door by standing up and raising his arms in expectation of me picking him up and holding him. The light in his eyes and the joy in his smile are far beyond detection by any test.

These platforms are open to whoever has got the chops to get in the game. That’s you, right? – Gary Vaynerchuk

Last night #3 Boise State beat #10 Virginia Tech, keeping Boise’s hopes alive of playing in this year’s national championship game.

The victory also re-ignited the critics’ cries that Boise State isn’t worthy of playing in the national championship game, primarily because Boise plays a significantly weaker schedule of opponents than most other national title contenders due to their conference affiliation (Boise is a member of the WAC rather than a power conference like the SEC, ACC, or Big Ten).

But look at what Boise has done against elite competition. They’ve played in the BCS Fiesta Bowl twice in the past four years and won both times, beating Oklahoma in 2007 and TCU last season. Their record is 5-1 vs. their last 6 major-conference opponents.  They’re 4-1 vs. teams in the AP top 10 since 2000.

The establishment teams don’t like losing major bowl game revenue to lean but hustling outsiders (last year Virginia Tech spent $18.2 million on its football program while Boise State only spent $5.4 million), just like traditional media doesn’t like losing millions in ad revenue to the Web, mobile devices, and social networks.

Thousands of businesses are bypassing traditional models and hustling their way to massive success with the Web & social media, and Boise State has proven they’ve got the chops to dominate on the biggest stage. They deserve to get in the game.

Over the past year I’ve become extremely interested in goal setting. Both the setting and achieving of goals in my own life, and studying how other people set and achieve their goals.

A goal accomplished - hiking Mount Mitchell

Donald Miller‘s great book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years was a catalyst for me in this area, as has been the writing of Michael Hyatt. One of Hyatt’s “Six Keys to Achieving Big Goals” is this:

4. Go public with your commitment. This is a huge key. When I decided to run my first half marathon, I decided to announce it on my blog. For me, this was like Cortez burning his ships off the Veracruz coast. Once I did it, there was no turning back. I was committed, and I was going to follow-through. It’s probably just pride, but “going public” has proven to be a great lever in moving me toward my goals.

But Derek Sivers suggests the exact opposite approach in his recent TED Talk called “Keep Your Goals to Yourself.” Sivers says,

Repeated psychology tests have proven that telling someone your goals makes them less likely to happen.

I think Hyatt and Sivers are both right. And, both wrong.

For some people, broadcasting your goals is exactly the accountability you need. For others, telling no one (or only a very small group) is what’s needed to keep the competitive fires burning.

The key is to discover which is most effective for you.

I’ve found that if I broadcast my own goals I often fall into the trap Sivers warns about, so I generally keep my goals quiet.

Which method do you prefer?

UPDATE: My respect for Michael Hyatt is such that I didn’t like disagreeing with him publicly even the little amount I did in this post. So, I forwarded a draft copy to him and asked for his feedback on my conclusions. He graciously responded: “Brian, That makes a lot of sense. I am very pragmatic: whatever works!”

Dear iTunes 10,

Netscape Navigator wants their logo back.

A friend messaged me today asking about our family beach trip to Folly Beach, South Carolina this summer, what we did, and if we’d recommend it. We loved it and want to go back again. Here’s what we did, and what we’ll do on our next trip.

Decide Where to Stay

• Stay toward the edges of the island instead of the middle. Anything beyond the 600 block west or the 400 block east is good. We stayed near the middle of the island (the 100 block east) and that was too close to some of the traffic and the noise from the restaurants with live music. It wasn’t inordinantly loud, but the noise was definitely there. The middle of the island is great for people who want to relax all day and have a good time at night, but at night we were exhausted from playing with the kids all day and just wanted to relax in peace & quiet.
• Stay 1 or 2 blocks from the beach. Arctic Ave is the beachfront road & Ashley Ave is the 2nd block. It’s a really short walk even across Ashley where we stayed because the blocks are short. The island narrows toward the ends and Ashley becomes a beachfront road on both ends.

Find a Place to Stay

• Use VRBO.com, fredhollandrealty.com, dunesproperties.com (who we used), or avocetproperties.com. Those 4 seemed to have 95+ % of the Folly Beach rental market.

Plan Some Activities

• Tour the aircraft carrier & submarine at Patriots Point. The ships were great & well worth the price. The Medal of Honor Museum aboard the USS Yorktown is the most engaging and well-done interactive/multimedia museum we’ve ever seen. Gretchen and I loved it, and our kids (especially the 10, 8, and 6 year olds) were totally engaged.
• Visit surrounding beaches. We went to Isle of Palms for an afternoon, and Gretchen and the younger kids played on the beach while Cameron and I rented a jet ski from Tidal Wave Watersports.
• Visit old Charleston. Another afternoon Gretchen and the girls took a carriage tour from Classic Carriage Tours while I played with the boys on Marion Square. Then we all walked around Battery Park and a few blocks of other historic houses. The carriage and self-guided walking tour were great and affordable, but touring inside the houses can be pretty expensive so we passed on that.
• Go to one of Charleston’s water parks. These are reasonably priced county parks, and even more so if you take advantage of their Two for Tuesdays or after-3pm rates. The kids had a great time, and it was a nice break from the beach.
• Go to the north end of the island to see Morris Island Lighthouse. It’s even better if you get the family up before dawn and make the hike to that end of the island for sunrise. It was by far the most meaningful part of the week for all of us.
• Eat at Queen Anne’s Revenge in Charleston. Authentically pirate-themed, and kids eat free on Saturdays. Good food and big portions.

Save Money

• Use coupons. We used Entertainment Book coupons for the jet ski, carriage, and Patriots Point, and we printed coupons for the South Carolina Aquarium from their web site (though even with the coupons we thought the aquarium wasn’t worth the cost).
• Negotiate. I was able to negotiate a 15% discount on our condo because we booked only about 2 weeks in advance and toward the end of the peak summer season.

The Charleston area is great, and we loved Folly Beach. The kids loved playing in the waves, boogie boarding, and watching the surfers and kiteboarders (Folly is known for its good surfing), and we loved relaxing on the uncrowded beach.

I started blogging seven years ago and wrote about 1000 posts in that time, primarily from 2003-2008. It was a truly personal blog that lacked focus, touching every topic in which I had some interest. The site grew stale, and by 2008 I moved most of my writing onto Twitter. The brevity of Twitter was just right to give me a breather from longer writing, but lately I’ve had more desire to go beyond 140 characters again.

So it’s time for a fresh start.

I’ve deleted the old site, and my new plan for the site is to write 2-3 times per week, constraining my focus to two areas – business technology and spiritual life.

Let’s get to it.