Samwise rides again

Can anyone suggest an American substitute for Chipsticks ?

The TSA are considering a one-year pilot project to allow advertising at passenger screening checkpoints. Genius !

Please feel free to suggest potential advertising slogans in the comments …

Moose gets a mention on, one of my favourite blogs, Inhabitat.

I must include this picture, it is pure Leeds as the sign mentions both Jimmy’s and Harehills ( LS8. )

Mahalo to the Binary Ape for this one.

Big up yo’self Lee, hows life in Leeds ?

Found one of your videos on YouTube …

… I also saw this …

.. I’m just kidding, I know they f’d you on that one.

You can’t make this shit up !

January 22, 2004, Nothin’ Fancy Cafe, Roswell, New Mexico

11:25 A.M. MST

THE PRESIDENT: I need some ribs.

Q Mr. President, how are you?

THE PRESIDENT: I’m hungry and I’m going to order some ribs.

Q What would you like?

THE PRESIDENT: Whatever you think I’d like.

Please read the full press release for full appreciation.

A British Government think-tank have been looking at some interesting ideas recently, not least of which is the effect of in utero sex-determination and selection, and regional stability in Asia.

As cost and complexity come down in coming years, access to the necessary technology to select foetal sex may expand and promote the conditions that could lead to selection. In the future, this could lead to an imbalance of around 3 males for every 2 females could result in some Asian nations. If this does occur, the chance of a significant and long lasting imbalance could increase dramatically, potentially leading to social and economic instability.

In most parts of the world, women outnumber men, in Europe by 7 percent, and in North America by 3.4 percent. In China however, the natural ratio of about 105 males to 100 females has however changed to around 120 male births for every 100 female births. The imbalance is even higher in some areas of the country – in Shaanxi there are 125.15 males born for every 100 females, in Henan the ration is 130.3:100 and in Guangdong 137.76: 100. Similar patterns can be found in Taiwan, with 119 boys to 100 girls; Singapore, 118 boys to 100 girls; South Korea, 112 boys to 100 girls; and parts of India, 120 boys to 100 girls

If, as is likely with falling cost and complexity, access to such technologies increases significantly, the possibility of a significant and long lasting imbalance could increase dramatically - though the response to such an opportunity will be heavily mediated by variations in culture, norms and societies

potential results of such disparities include legislative changes aimed at ensuring equal rights for women, and public awareness campaigns about the dangers of gender imbalances. Tax policies in affected countries might have to be adjusted to remove the economic incentive for giving birth to males, while policies such as free childcare, work training programmes, could be instituted to increase the economic attractiveness to parents.

Shortages of females in affected countries could prompt a re-valuation of their cultural and material value.

With available women increasingly scarce and competed for by men, the possible negative consequence is a “commodification” of women. Already ‘bride-buying’ is increasingly common in regions where there are surplus males.

By 2020, it is possible that trafficking in females, already worth $4bn annually, could become the second most profitable criminal activity behind global drug trafficking.

Some analysts point to the possible emergence of distinctive and even “renegade” bachelor subcultures within society. Typically, unmarried males are more likely than others to turn to vice and violence.

Some commentators have suggested that there could be a connection between the shortage of women and the spread of open gay life in China since 2001, when homosexuality was deleted from the official Classification of Mental Disorders.

A much higher proportion of males could also be a limiting factor in birth rates – since there is a limit to the number of children women are able to have in their lifetimes. Lower ratios of women to men, along with changing roles of women in society, could lead to more women choosing to have children later or not at all, and greatly reduce birth rates. This could lead to slower population growth rates, or even population decline.

Early indicators:

• First domestic applications for bioengineering to ‘balance families’.
• First civil protests by Asian male “bachelor” underclass.

Inhibitors:

• Religious and moral beliefs.
• Continued relatively high cost of foetal sex selection.
• Changes to compensation between families upon marriage.
• Crackdowns on female infanticide.
• Reluctance to use sex selection technology.

Parallels& Precedents:

• ‘Les Filles du Roi’ in 17th Century New France.
• Polygamy.
• Frtility treatments.
• Debates on abortion.
• Belief in myths about how to ‘naturally’ select sexes.
• Massive demographic inequality between the sexes following large scale conflict (most striking example: the War of the Triple Alliance and its impact on the demographics of Paraguay).
• Stunted demographics in small isolated communities such as Pitcairn Island.
• China’s ‘one child’ policies and their resultant gender imbalances.

UPDATE : From the BBC …

Thousands of villagers have rioted in south-western China over the country’s controversial family planning restrictions, reports say.

The villagers, in Guangxi province, reportedly attacked government offices after officials imposed heavy fines on families who had too many children.

The rioting allegedly took place on Friday and Saturday.

Beijing allows urban dwellers to have one child, while villagers can have two if the first child is a girl.

The policy - which was launched in the 1970s - is aimed at controlling population growth in the world’s biggest nation with some 1.3 billion people.

The rioting seems to be over the fines rather than because of any of the issues of security raised in this post.

UPDATE : “Wifeless future for China’s men” from the Beeb …

China’s future problems are easy to spot. You can see them in the front row of the Hui Kang kindergarten class in the city of Huizhou.

Four boys sit next to a girl. Further back, a girl in pigtails and a pink jumper stands out amid a group of boys.

In recent years, the kindergarten has been getting more and more boys.

Since the late 1970s Chinese couples have been allowed just one child - and most parents here prefer to have a son.

“It’s having a real effect,” said Ms Zheng, the school’s head teacher.

“One of our classes has 39 boys and just eight girls. It’s a serious problem. When there are more boys than girls, the girls copy the boys and they become more aggressive,” she said.

At break time, the girls need to be pretty good at defending themselves. One girl beats off four boys who try to have a look at what she was drawing.

China is worried about what may happen in 20 years or so when these kids grow up and start trying to settle down.

An official estimate says that, by 2020, there may be 30 million men of marriageable age who will not be able to find a wife.

The gender imbalance has various causes. Abortions on female foetuses are believed to be widespread as couples, particularly in rural areas, hope for a son who will look after them in their old age. There is also suspected under-reporting of female births.

On China’s tropical island of Hainan, you get an idea of the problems the country might face in a bachelor-heavy future.

In a small village, made up of shacks and pig pens, there are already too many men, and not enough women.

Liu Yaxiao introduces his three brothers - all in their 30s, all unmarried.

They sit along the edge of a bed, looking a bit sheepish and forlorn.

They were born before the one child policy began - but they still cannot find anyone to marry.

All the single women left their village long ago in search of work.

At home they have to cook for themselves. That is embarrassing in a country where women are expected to make the food.

Liu Yading is one of the brothers. He has a motorbike and leather jacket and does his best to look fairly cool. But there is no one for him to impress.

“There are more than a hundred men aged between 18 to 40 who are unmarried in our village,” he says.

“Nearby villages are all like us. How can we get married? I don’t know what to do or where to start finding a wife. I’m stuck - unless God can help me.”

The brothers eat lunch by themselves.

Outside the village shop, men and teenagers hang about.

They keep an eye on the main road - in case any eligible women wander by. But the road is empty.

In years to come, for the single men of China, things will only get worse.

Unfortunatly, as also reported by the Beeb, those young men will also be expected to support families of aging relatives …

Right now Jie Jie has absolutely no idea how much his family is counting on him.

When he gets older, he will have to support them all. Six adults - and just one child. This is the effect of China’s one-child policy.

China may be forging ahead as a world power. But it is also beginning to face the long-term logic of its one-child policy - too many old people and not enough young people.

In other words, fewer workers supporting more and more elderly relatives.

In this, the world’s most populous country, factory owners are now finding it difficult to get enough workers.

Starting up an old people’s home is a guaranteed way of doing good business in China.

This particular home used to be a primary school - until everyone decided it made much more sense to focus on the elderly instead.

In the next few decades, this burden will get heavier and heavier.

I was going to use this article in a different context, as this particular situation has a fairly good chance of being mirrored around the world, not as a result of “one child” policies, but as a result of economic changes.

Although the idea of supporting elderly relatives is a fairly common concept in many cultures, social changes are making this into a very unworkable concept, with children being made into slaves to these expectations.

You have probably seen on some fictional police drama, when a suspects number plate goes from blurry or pixelated and unreadable to perfectly legible using the power of sophisticated investigative software.

Most people who have any experience of image analysis will scoff at such fantasy, and for good reason.

After reading this article, I am inclined to believe that deciphering of certain data may be possible, though probably not at the rate at which it is shown in fiction, and certainly there would have to be a margin of error, that is to say you would be hard pushed to be able to prosecute based on such evidence, though it certainly isn’t unfeasible for people to exaggerate the accuracy of such data for their own ends or through wishful thinking.

Just a quick note to say I am still alive BUT I have had flu ( can you believe that ? ) and have been moving house.

Full story coming to this blog soon … I have to return to the land of the living first.