The Unintended Consequences Of China’s One-Child Policy
October 10th, 2012Via: io9:
“Historically, societies in which men substantially outnumber women are not nice places to live,” writes Hvistendahl, “Often they are unstable. Sometimes they are violent.”
She points to examples in history, such as fourth century B.C. Athens and China’s Taiping Rebellion in mid-19th century — both of which were the result of wide scale female infanticide. These eras were characterized by wide scale crime and violence.
In China, this practice has now resulted in a “surplus” of men who have little hope of marrying. Hvistendahl notes that these men tend to accumulate in the lower classes where the risk of violence is accentuated. Moreover, unmarried men who have low incomes tend to get restless — and in fact, areas with skewed gender balances tend to experience higher rates of crime.
And because it’s harder to find a wife, men are having to literally buy or bid for them. This has contributed to China’s elevated household savings rate where parents are having to squirrel away money in order to secure a bride for their son. It has also led to a boom in the mail order bride business — and prostitution.
And as a recent analysis by Wei Xing Zhu has shown, the imbalance is expected to worsen in the coming decades; the biggest gaps currently exist between the one to four-year old group — which means they’ll be the ones having to deal with the fallout in about in 15 to 20 years.
Big Brother Invades Classrooms
October 10th, 2012Homeschool.
Via: Salon:
The RFID tag system popularly known as “Tag and Track” is being sold to schools system across the country by a variety of vendors, including AIM Truancy Solutions, ID Card Group and DataCard.
In general, these systems consist of a school photo ID card affixed to a lanyard that is worn around the student’s neck. The ID has a RFID chip embedded in it. The tag includes a digit number assigned to each student. As a student enters the school or pass beneath a doorway equipped with an RFID reader, the tag ID is read, recorded and sent to a server in the school’s administrative office. The captured data not only provides an attendance list (sent to the teacher’s PDA), but tracks the student’s movement throughout the day.
Students and parents in San Antonio, TX, are up in arms over a decision by the Northside Independent School District to require students at two local schools to wear RFID-equipped nametags as part of the Student Locator Project. The two schools, John Jay High School and Anson Jones Middle School, plan to use the nametags to pinpoint student locations both at the school and outside its premises. In addition, students are required to use the microchip ID when checking out school library books, registering for classes and paying for school lunches.
Secret CIA Training Facility Found in North Carolina
October 10th, 2012Use sic erat scriptum as necessary when reading this piece. I thought it was worth mentioning because it describes a recent cut out operation.
Via: Atlantic Wire:
One of the reasons U.S. Navy SEALs were able to so skillfully execute the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound last year was a CIA training facility in North Carolina that mirrored the architecture of bin Laden’s actual compound in Pakistan. In 2011, during those crucial months that SEAL Team Six trained there, it was one of the most secretive facilities on U.S. soil. Now, for the first time, the facility has been revealed on Bing’s satellite map service during a phase when it was under construction.
More: Cryptome: Osama bin Laden Compound Raid Mock-up
‘Hand-Made Humans May Hold the Key to Saving the World’
October 9th, 2012This one is a keeper.
Via: Brisbane Times:
Human-induced climate change is one of the biggest problems that we face today. Millions could suffer hunger, water shortages, diseases and coastal flooding because of climate change. The latest science suggests that we may be near or even beyond the point of no return.
…
Here are four examples of human engineering that seem feasible to implement in the near future and potentially have broad appeal.
Pharmacological meat intolerance
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Making humans smaller
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Lowering birth rates through cognitive enhancement
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Pharmacological induction of altruism and empathy
Research Credit: latitude38
Feds Charge 91 in $430 Million Medicare Fraud
October 9th, 2012Via: Reuters:
Ninety-one people including doctors, nurses and other medical professionals were charged criminally in a new sweep of Medicare fraud involving seven U.S. cities and $430 million in alleged false billing, officials said on Thursday.
It was the government’s second big raid in recent months after a similar effort in May alleged $452 million in fraud in Medicare, the U.S. health program for the elderly and disabled.
The allegations include billing the government for unnecessary ambulance rides in California, writing prescriptions for patients in Dallas who did not qualify for them and paying kickbacks such as food and cigarettes to patients in Houston if they attended programs a hospital could later bill for.
Research Credit: ottilie
5 Broken Cameras
October 9th, 2012Via: Total Film:
In 2005 the people of the Palestinian village of Bil’in, in the Occupied Territories, learned that the Israeli government’s Separation Wall would run close to their village, depriving them of much of their cultivated land – land which would then be taken over by Jewish settlers.
They resolved to protest by every non-violent means possible – and one of them, Emad Burnat, decided to document the protests with his newly acquired camera.
Over the next five years Burnat doggedly carries out his plan – despite being beaten up, wounded, jailed and having one camera after another smashed by soldiers. “I film,” he tells us, “to hold on to my life.”
Research Credit: almaverdad2
Florida School District Considers ‘Trash-Cams’ in Lunchrooms to Study Wasted Food
October 9th, 2012Via: NBC:
Cafeteria trash cans in some Florida schools may soon be getting a high-tech makeover.
After finding out that most of the fruits and vegetables on the school lunch menu ended up in the trash, school board members in the Lake County school district in central Florida are considering attaching cameras to school cafeteria trash cans to study what students are tossing out.
“I said, how about we put cameras in the trash cans so we can document the concrete data of what students are throwing out,” School Board member Tod Howard told NBC News. “That way we can not only show what the students are not eating, but we can also look at how presentation affects consumption and present that data to the federal government if we need to.”
Howard said he made the suggestion as a 2010 federal law on child nutrition, vigorously promoted by first lady Michelle Obama, went into effect in schools across the nation.
Research Credit: alvinroasting
High Frequency Traders Trying to Create Arbitrage Opportunities by Flooding Market Systems Bogus Quotes
October 9th, 2012Via: CNBC:
Translation: the ultimate goal of many of these programs is to gum up the system so it slows down the quote feed to others and allows the computer traders (with their co-located servers at the exchanges) to gain a money-making arbitrage opportunity.
The Term ‘Food Unrest’ Will Become Part of Our Daily Vocabulary
October 9th, 2012Via: Daily Ticker:
“The term ‘food unrest’ will become part of our daily vocabulary,” Brown tells The Daily Ticker.
It reflects the imbalance between the supply of food and demand for food globally.
On the demand side, says Brown, is a growing global population — 80 million more people born each year — and more people moving up the food chain, which means as many as 3 billion people are consuming more “grain intensive products” like meat, milk and eggs. “Rising affluence may have eclipsed population growth” as a major demand factor for food prices, says Brown.
And in the U.S. about one-third of the corn crop is diverted to produce ethanol for gasoline. “We’re now using more grain to fuel cars than to feed livestock and poultry” says Brown.
On the supply side, severe drought in the U.S., Russia, the Ukraine, Pakistan and Kazakhstan have crushed grain harvests at a time when crop yields are stagnating in many countries. “Rice yields in Japan haven’t increased at all and the same is true for wheat yields in France, Germany and the U.K,” says Brown. He doesn’t expect that “glass ceiling” will be broken anytime soon.
“We’re doing everything we know how to do. We’ve eliminated nutrient constraints, moisture constraints and we’ve designed the most efficient plans we can….there’s not much else to do.”
The impact of all this are higher food prices in the U.S. and more competition for U.S. grains from China—which dominates soybean consumption now, says Brown. But in countries like Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Peru and The Republic of the Congo the effect is much more dramatic.
“There are now millions of families in the world that plan foodless days. They can’t afford to buy enough food at inflated prices to maintain their consumption levels,” says Brown.
No Updates Next 24 Hours
October 8th, 2012We’ve been on a roadtrip for the last several days and we’ve had an unscheduled stop in Auckland. I’m going to drive through the night to get home. I’ll resume updates tomorrow. Thanks.
