32 million brides for 32 million brothers?

Selective sex abortion causes 32 million excess males in China

Some amazing figures in this summary of a BMJ on the massive gender imbalance in China:

...in 2005 alone, China had more than 1.1 million excess male births.

Among Chinese aged below 20, the greatest gender imbalances were among one-to-four-year-olds, where there were 124 male to 100 female births, with 126 to 100 in rural areas, they found.

The gap was especially big in provinces where the one-child policy was strictly enforced and also in rural areas...

Only two provinces -- Tibet and Xinjiang, the most permissive in terms of the one-child policy -- had normal sex ratios.

"Sex selective abortion accounts for almost all the excess males," the paper said. "

For Good Friday

A symbol of the noblest of traditions | theage.com.au

Not a bad attempt here at a response to the modern distaste for the idea of sacrificial atonement.

Broadband skepticism, Part 2

As Michael Stutchbury notes about the proposed $43 billion fibre optic network, the government likes to say:

This is suddenly an "historic nation-building investment" that will "help transform the Australian economy".

And then they talk about how left behind Australia is compared to Japan and Korea, which already have the super high speed fibre to the home.

When is some journalist interviewing a politician going to be bright enough to respond to that line with: "Well, if it's so important to economic success, why is it that Japan has been in an economic slump for 16 years, and it hasn't stopped South Korea from suffering in the current economic meltdown? Apart from its entertainment value, how has high speed internet to every home been an economic boon for those countries?"

It seems the obvious question that never gets asked.

A very funny Colbert

I have no idea why politicians agree to do these bits with Colbert, but last night's "Better Know a District" was an extremely funny one:

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Better Know a District - New York's 25th - Dan Maffei
colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor NASA Name Contest

False memories still popping up

Chris French: False memories of sexual abuse | Science | guardian.co.uk

These are still an issue, it seems. Interesting stuff.

Broadband skepticism

The blog with the most skeptical reaction to the Rudd government's plan to spend $20 to $40 billion on a new broadband fibre network is probably Catallaxy. I'm with many of its readers, like John Z:

The only use I can see on the retail end is pornography, piracy and maybe movie rentals.

Of course, nearly everyone at Larvatus P loves the idea, because it's the natural inclination of the Left to love big spending governments to build and own things which are not strictly necessary.

But there is another motive of many in supporting the idea: to get around the Telstra network bottleneck. I have to admit there appears to be some merit in that, but not at any price.

There is some commentary today on the doubtful extent to which private industry will be inclined to invest in it.

But really, from the Left end of politics (and my incredibly small corner of the Right), I haven't seen anyone yet raise the question of what better use could be made of $30 billion in clean energy development in Australia.

Nothing like dealing with the really serious issues first, hey Kevin?

UPDATE: I just heard on ABC radio that Green MPs will support it because they expect it will help reduce greenhouse gases.

Oh yeah, sure. Half the population will work from home, will they? That'll help productivity.

The Greens do not understand human nature as well as Mitchell and Webb. (The audio on the video at the link may not be entirely suitable for work.)

Not alone

Yet another horror film worthy of the flick - Film - Entertainment

Further to my post about Richard Curtis films, it's good to see someone else with strong opinions about him, and British cinema generally:

We have a knack in Britain of making movies which are not only very bad but bad in an odious way, self-indulgent and self-regarding, knowing and cute, all false sentiment and mirthless humour. Bridget Jones's Diary sets the tone...

Even by those standards, Curtis is grim. Anyone who sees a film which dares call itself Love Actually has been warned. Martin Amis described one of the bleakest evenings of his life as watching Four Weddings, desperate to leave but unable to. He had gone to the cinema with Salman Rushdie, who had to stick to the timetable he gave his police guards. And so they were forced to endure every last minute.

Parky speaks his mind

Sir Michael Parkinson: 'Jade Goody was a wretched role model' - Times Online

Of course, like everyone outside of England, I only knew of the Jade Goody story from news reports, and I never saw her on TV at all. However, the coverage given to her illness and death (see the photo in the article - the funeral procession looks like it was for minor royalty) made me suspect it was all ridiculous talentless celebrity worship.

Now Michael Parkinson has confirmed this:

“When we clear the media smoke screen from around her death, what we’re left with is a woman who came to represent all that’s paltry and wretched about Britain today.

“She was brought up on a sink estate, as a child came to know drugs and crime, was barely educated, ignorant and puerile. Then she was projected to celebrity by Big Brother and became a media chattel to be exploited till the day she died.”

An unusual recommendation

Larry Summers, Tim Geithner and Wall Street's ownership of government - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Rare is the day that this blog suggests reading a post by the always hyperventilating Glenn Greenwald, but this lengthy one about how Obama's bailout is guided by the same people who got the world into the mess is worth reading.

(It also makes it clear that the need for regulation of the debt swaps that seem to be at the heart of the crisis was first apparent, and dismissed, in the 1990's under the Clinton administration.)

Modern faith

Madeleine Bunting: Real debates about faith are drowned by the New Atheists' foghorn voices

Madeleine Bunting starts her article with this good point:

What other system of belief has collapsed at such spectacular speed as British Christianity?

and goes on to discuss the annoying New Atheists in a way with which I can more or less agree, even if she quotes Islamic apologist Karen Armstrong with approval.

Her article also helpfully mentions a special edition of New Statesman called "God 2009". (I guess that would be the God that communicates via the internet now, instead of burning bushes.) It looks as if most of it is on the 'net. Plenty of Easter reading for all of you pagans out there.

Noted from the PETA website

Green iguanas are some of the most frequently abandoned companion animals, likely because people find out too late what is required to care for them.

Reptiles count as "companion animals"?

The list they then give of potential iguana raising issues is dryly amusing:

A properly cared-for iguana can live for more than 20 years and grow to be more than 6 feet long. The enclosure for a full-grown iguana should be at least 18 feet long, humidified, and maintained at a particular temperature with specific timetables for darkness and ultraviolet light. Common problems for captive iguanas are metabolic bone disease from calcium deficiency, mouth rot, respiratory disease, abscesses, and ulcers. ...

It takes about a year of daily interaction to socialize an iguana, and even then, sexually mature males will be very aggressive six months out of the year if they see their own reflections or if confronted with other iguanas.

They convinced me, at least.

In other PETA pages, 82 year old Cloris Leachman is their pin-up girl:

She chooses to eat vegetarian. Now Cloris is sharing the secret behind her vitality with her fans by posing in a dress made of cabbage for PETA's newest "Let Vegetarianism Grow on You" ad.

And on a seasonal note, if you're Jewish, you can find out how to have a Vegan Passover:

Traditionally, most Jews include an egg on the ritual seder plate—to symbolize spring and life—but many now replace it with a flower. ... In place of the shank bone set on the seder plate to remind us of "the mighty arm of God," many Jews use a beet, as allowed in the Talmud.

A vegetable to remind them of "the mighty arm of God"?

The ice thins

Arctic Literally On Thin Ice, According To New Satellite Data

This link has one diagram you probably won't see at Andrew Bolt's. It illustrates the following:

Until recent years, measurements have shown most Arctic ice has survived at least one summer and often several, said Meier. But the balance has now flipped, and seasonal ice -- which melts and re-freezes every year -- now comprises about 70 percent of Arctic sea ice in winter, up from 40 to 50 percent in the 1980s and 1990s, he said. Thicker ice that has survived two or more years now comprises just 10 percent of ice cover, down from 30 to 40 percent in years past.

Your cat is killing the planet

Save the planet: Get rid of your cat

Hey, we love a good anti-cat article as much as the next dog and rat person, and this one is pretty comprehensive. For example (quoting the New York Times):

Coco, like most American cats, ate fish. And a great deal of them — more in a year than the average African human, according to Jason Clay at the World Wildlife Fund. And unlike the chicken or beef Coco also gobbled up, all those fish were wild animals, scooped out of the sea and flown thousands of carbon-belching miles to reach his little blue bowl....

The pet food industry now uses about 10 percent of the global supply of forage fish.

Yes, your cat has an enormous carbon footprint. Unless you can train it to start planting trees, it has to go.

The problem with modern technology..

..is you might realise old technology has missed its prayer target:

Gulfnews: 200 mosques in Saudi face the wrong direction

Riyadh: Around 200 mosques in Islam's holiest city, Makkah, point the wrong way for prayers, a Saudi Arabian newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the Arab News paper, the mosques were reportedly not built exactly based on the qibla, the official alignment with the holy Ka'aba shrine at the centre of the holy city's Al Haram mosque.

People looking down from new skyscrapers in Makkah found the niches in many older mosques were not pointing directly towards the Ka'aba, and some worshippers are said to be anxious about the validity of their prayers.

Counting people

Population: some boom, some decline - On Line Opinion - 6/4/2009

Online Opinion re-prints an interesting article on the growth of humanity.

(Hey, it was either that or more puzzlement over the mystery of a Prime Minister who is seemingly only unpopular with those who know him. I see little reason to change what I said in 2007: it's either a pact with the devil, or a Jedi mind trick, even if there weren't cheques in the mail to be factored in at the time of that post.)

Sleeping dog

This video has gone viral, by the looks. (It got a mention on CNN). The remarkable sleep running dog:

Bikie Rudd

No word on bikie 'breach' at Lodge - National News - National - General - The Canberra Times

This is a very curious story. (The Age's version has more details.) A couple of bikies, looking like bikies, get access to the Lodge for an hour or so to do "maintenance work" under (apparently) forged accreditation. (Well, I assume that's what "suspect accreditation" means.)

Why on earth would bikies want access to the Lodge? If it' s all a misunderstanding, and they really were doing maintenance but the accreditation was somehow botched by a government official, why haven't the bikies concerned come out and said "see, this is just typical of the discrimination we face"?

Maybe Kevin's Harley needed work. That's his secret pleasure: cruising the streets of Canberra on a hog at 2 am, wearing a bandana, to wind down after a long day of abusing staff. [Update: he probably drives up to the 24 hour MacDonalds and orders a chicken salad. There's trouble if they are sold out.]

Or, less implausibly, they were restocking the amphetamine supplies that keep everyone awake while the PM works them through the night. Or setting up some indoor hydroponic marijuana that a rebellious Minister insisted Kevin start smoking as a way of taking the edge off his personality (probably under threat of leaking some video of a spleen-vent to the media.)

[Hey, I think I'm pretty good at fevered conspiracy theories about Kevin. Someone has to do it.]

Alien report

As previously indicated, the kids and I saw Monsters Vs Aliens in 3-D over the weekend. It's the first full length animated 3-D film I've seen, and it's an interesting experience. As you are aware that everything on the screen is a construct, it continually gives the impression of watching a moving diorama; like watching the action play out on some model train enthusiast's vast set up. It's a pleasing sensation.

The movie itself is very witty both visually and in the writing, and is certainly a crowd pleaser.

One other odd thing is that, for me, Stephen Colbert is one of those actors who has such a distinctive voice that it's actually quite jarring at first to hear the sound coming out of an animated face. Still, the segments his character (President of the United States) were in were pretty funny.

As for 3-D and the kids eyes: one loved it, but the other complained after half an hour and had to take a break from the glasses. It's not for every kid.

Tough goose

Making Ends Meet in the Great Depression - NYTimes.com

The New York Times is providing recession survival hints by interviewing a few old folk about how they got through the Great Depression.

The article is of some interest, but are geese all as tough as this?:

We used to make featherbeds out of chicken feathers and geese, but we’d pick the goose without killing him: all you do is pick him up, yank the feathers off when he was still alive. He don’t mind it. It grows back in two or three months.

End result: an upsurge in candy tycoons

Next: career counselling for toddlers | The Australian