Strollerderby : China

Morning News - Astronauts Watch Star Trek In Space

Brett Singer — Mon, 18 May 2009 02:01:00 GMT

You are either tired of hearing me talking about "Star Trek", or you can't get enough of it. It's like Kirk vs. Spock in "The Apple", a classic episode of the original series. Actually, it's not really like that very much at all, but saying that it was allowed me to get in another "Trek" mention. Sorry.

Anyway, even if you don't care about "Star Trek", you may still think that this is cool -- Real Live Astronauts are Watching ‘Star Trek’ in Outer Space - Right Now. Actually, it happened on Friday, but perhaps due to a singularity created by red matter, it's possible that the astroanuts are, in fact, watching the movie as you read this. Unlikely. But possible.

Moving on to a topic I don't really understand, how about some international economic news? The Motley Fool tells us Why China's Stimulus Plan Will Change the World. Um, OK. Remember when you thought putting 20 bucks a week into your savings account was a solid method of planning for the future?

Barack Obama spoke at Notre Dame, which was a big deal because he is pro-choice. MSNBC says that he called "for 'fair-minded' abortion debate." So they booed him. Not everybody, of course.

David Geffen may want to buy the New York Times. I hope someone does. The idea of the Times going under is something I have trouble with. It's not just the paper, it's the reporters behind it. Sure, they may have made mistakes. But it's a great institution that should live on. So if selling it to a massively successful music and movie mogul is the way to do that, I say "whoo-hoo."

Swine flu, or H1N1, is still here. CNN reports that a "New York middle school assistant principal who was hospitalized with the H1N1 virus died Sunday. BUT he might not have died of swine flu. They won't tell us. Fun. Keep sanitizing the children, and yourself.

David Wells, who has both pitched a perfect game and attacked someone at a diner while drunk (allegedly), says that any home runs that Alex Rodriguez -- aka "The Rod" -- hit while he was taking steroids shouldn't count. Wells was a great pitcher when he was sober (allegedly) but he's got a big mouth. I never liked The Rod, but Wells just rubs me the wrong way.

OK, getting back to movie news, "Angels & Demons" took the number one spot at the box office this week with $48 million, despite generally bad reviews and a complete lack of facial expressions from Tom Hanks. "Star Trek" was close behind ( like a Klingon Bird of Prey) with $43 million, and "Wolverine" dropped to third with only $14.8 million. I saw "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" this weekend, mostly beacuse it was playing nearby at a convenient time. It wasn't as good as it should have been. It's sort of a real-life "This Is Spinal Tap", except that when you watch actual 50-year-olds who never made it in the music business still trying to make it, it can get a little depressing. Also, the film itself was too long (even though it was only 90 minutes) and didn't dig deep enough to hold my interest. Oh well. At least I got to see a movie in a theater with my wife, which happens far too infrequently. And the sushi we had before the film was really good. So there's that.

More tomorrow...

Image: Wikipedia

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Chinese Parents Detained for Seeking Answers about Kids’ Deaths

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:00:00 GMT

A year after the Sichuan earthquake that killed nearly 70,000 people, parents who lost their only child in the quake have been continually thwarted in their search for answers about their kids’ deaths.

Seven thousand classrooms collapsed in the quake, many of them surrounded by other buildings that remained standing. Grief-stricken parents have spent the last year pressuring the government to give them answers about the construction of school buildings, which they claim were built with substandard materials to cut costs.

A new report from Amnesty International reveals that not only has the government failed to provide answers about the shoddy construction of schools, but they have repeatedly detained parents and concerned relatives who have marched or contacted authorities in relation to the kids’ deaths. Some relatives have been held for as long as 21 days, and one of the detained was only eight-years-old.

A new HBO documentary, which will air this Thursday at 8, examines parents’ struggles for government accountability, and will hopefully increase international pressure on China to give these bereaved parents some peace of mind in the form of an investigation and a promise to uphold safe building standards in the future.

Photo: New York Times

Teaching the Chinese to Speak Disney

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:30:00 GMT

The growing English school business in China has a new player: Disney. Disney-owned schools that aim to teach English to Chinese children are opening throughout China. Oddly, Disney is going overboard to refute the obvious: that the schools will propagate Disney brand awareness among millions of children in a formerly closed marketplace.

The Wall Street Journal quotes Disney chairman Andy Mooney as insisting that "We never saw this as an effort to teach the Disney brand and Disney characters. We set out to teach Chinese kids English."

And yet, as the article also points out, the "schools" not only use a Disney-filled curriculum, but feature "stores" that "sell" (via "magic tokens" earned by children for good behavior) Disney products to children that are otherwise unavailable in tightly media-restricted China. And apparently, when it comes to language learning, children are introduced to very little English, in fact, as few as four new words per week (you know, like, "mermaid," "fairy godmother," "lightyear" and "beast").

It seems pretty obvious to me that Disney is trying to sneak into the Chinese media world through a back door and the corporation doth protest altogether too much that this is not the case.

However you feel about Disney or media in China, for that matter, it seems a shame that kids whose parents are paying for English lessons are perhaps getting princess lessons instead.

image: Disney, via www.online.wsj.com

Boys Outnumber Girls in China by 32 Million

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 21:00:00 GMT

A recent study published by the British Medical Journal has uncovered a frightening gender imbalance in China’s youngest generations. With 120 boys born for every 100 girls—a gender difference that far surpasses any other country in the world—China now has 32 million more boys than girls under the age of 20. And since the largest discrepancy is found in children between the ages of one to four, that number only promises to increase.

According to researchers, the disturbing trend is due almost entirely to sex-selective abortions, which have became increasingly common since ultrasounds became widely available in the mid-80s.

The problem, of course, is not reproductive choice. It’s China’s strict one-child policy, combined with a severe, deeply rooted devaluing of females. Female infanticide, once relatively widespread in China, is now blessedly infrequent.

So while outlawing abortion will do nothing to quell anti-girl sentiment in China, a ban on sex-selective abortion must be enacted immediately. Such a pronounced gender imbalance creates a dire situation for women, since the kidnapping and slave-trading of women appears to rise directly with a lower proportion of eligible wives.

Photo: caswell.blogspot.com

Baby Born With Two Penises Healthy, Recovering

Madeline Holler — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 19:01:00 GMT

A boy who was born with two penises underwent surgery recently and his parents say he has recovered nicely. His surgery last month left him with the usual number of penises -- which doctors predict will be fully functional.

Artyom G.'s mother had an otherwise normal pregnancy and birth until everybody realized the strange growth on his back was a penis.

Another case of fetus in fetu, the Chinese boy, born last year in Russia, had the second penis and some other internal organ issues like a missing bladder.

The boy was rushed to a hospital back in March where the five-hour surgery was performed. Doctors say Artyom did well and has pretty much recovered.

Sure, but wait till he finds out what happened when he's older!

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Photo: Telegraph.co.uk

Quest for Sons in One-Child China Fuels Abductions

Madeline Holler — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:24:00 GMT

China's one-child policy, its cultural predilection for boys and the fact that there are tons of immigrant workers in the big industrial cities has created a problem that is just so unimaginable to any parent: children are being abducted and sold to other families who, in fact, love them and take good care of them.

Why? Because these kids are boys. And if you can reproduce your own male heir, you just go find one and take it.

The New York Times ran a piece over the weekend that makes you want to rend your garments, it's so frustrating and unfair and seemingly impossible to stop.

From the Times:

Su Qingcai, a tea farmer from the mountainous coast of Fujian Province, explained why he spent $3,500 last year on a 5-year-old boy. “A girl is just not as good as a son,” said Mr. Su, 38, who has a 14-year-old daughter but whose biological son died at 3 months. “It doesn’t matter how much money you have. If you don’t have a son, you are not as good as other people who have one.”

So abduction rings are snatching boys from the arms of their siblings or luring them away by mangoes. Police claim they have to wait 24 hours before they can investigate a missing persons report, yet claim too much time has passed once they can officially look into it. They're also reluctant to open an investigation, since these cases are rarely resolved at that hurts their stats.

Girls aren't safe from abducation either, the leader of an ad hoc group for parents of abducted children, claims. He said they're sold to orphanages where they are later adopted out to families in the U.S. and Europe.

Even though the Communist Party helped change the old attitudes about gender, a male heir is still important, especially in rural areas where, if a resident's first child is a girl, she is allowed to have a second. However, a third child means fines of almost $6,000 and loss of the job. So buying a boy baby is cheap by comparison.

And sort of acceptable!

From the Times:

... authorities may turn a blind eye if the child does not need to be registered as a new birth in the locale.

In some cases, local officials may even encourage people desperate for a son to buy one. After their 3-month-old son died, Zhou Xiuqin said, the village family planning official went to her home and tried to comfort her and her husband, who was compelled to have a vasectomy after the birth of the boy, their second child. “He said, ‘Don’t cry, stop crying, you can always buy another one,’ ” Ms. Zhou recalled.

Such complicity explains why boys as old as 5 don't raise any eyebrows when they suddenly show up in a village with their new family.

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Parents of Injured Children become an Emerging Political Force in China

Shannon LC Cate — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 19:03:00 GMT

Parents whose children were injured--or died--due to drinking melamine-contaminated milk products have joined to form an organization that gives advice on medical treatments, but also petitions the government for greater accountability in cases like the milk scandal.

While this group, begun by the father of a three-year old who developed kidney stones from contaminated milk is not left completely free by the government, it has also not suffered quite as dire consequences for its activism as are more typical in China. For example, while the government has repeatedly shut down the group's website (before it pops up over and over again), and follows its leaders to their meetings, taps their cell phones and sends police to "interview" members, none have been arrested or jailed.

Parents feel government officials are somewhat sympathetic and respectful of bereaved and suffering parents as they have the sympathies of so much of the general population. Opposing them too strongly might well trigger more upheaval and protest from others rallying to their defense.

Joining this movement of melamine victims are parents who lost children in the Sichuan earthquake last year, when several schools collapsed and were found to have been poorly constructed. Also part of the new "parents'" movement are parents of young people killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989. They want to see a public memorial and declaration of the day as a tragedy, instead of the flowers, plants and shiny facade now seen in the square in the hopes the people will forget.

Not only are government officials more hesitant to come down too hard on parent protesters, those parents are emboldened by a sense of duty to their children, living and dead. "We have lost our child and there's nothing left we'd be afraid of now," said Liu Xiaoying, whose 12-year old daughter was killed when her poorly constructed school collapsed in last year's earthquake.

In spite of the varying specifics of their cases, all of these parents are united in pushing China's government to more transparency and responsibility for public safety. In the meantime, they may just succeed in putting another crack in the stone wall of China's political system.

image: washingtonpost.com

Dinos and Dragons: On the Scientific Method for Kids

Miriam Axel-Lute — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

On my post about errors about the natural world in kids books, a few people piped up to say that the social biases in kids books bother them more—stupid fathers, prissy girls, everyone white, etc. I wish it were as easy to dispatch those with a simple top ten list, but they're far more insidious and numerous.

However, here's one tiny stab at the overlap: A bit of a commentary about the blinders that social biases put on scientists.

The book in question is called Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs. It was recommended to me by a commenter on my previous post, and billed as an introduction to the scientific method, a window into the process of making theories based on the evidence you have, testing them (when that’s possible), and changing them based on new evidence.

And, of course, it’s about dinosaurs, which hold a not entirely explicable fascination for a massive proportion of kids, mine included.

It is in fact, a pretty great book, full of neat stories such as people mistaking Iguanodons’ massive conical thumb bones for horns until they found a complete skeleton, or how some bone cross-sections look more like those of warm-blooded animals than of cold-blooded ones—which is part of what spurred the whole movement toward dinosaurs-as-bird-ancestors and away from dinosaurs-as-big-lizards.

But the book also is a better example of how science works than it really set out to be: It contains two glaring examples of how, for all the real power of the scientific method and (most) scientists’ genuine commitment to objectivity and open-mindedness, science is carried out (and interpreted and written about) by people who are subject, to a greater or lesser extent, to all the biases and assumptions of their day. Those blinders creep into their conclusions far more than they would like to admit.

For example, one of the points that the book makes is that we used to think of dinosaurs as having reptile-like parenting skills—i.e., none; they lay eggs and leave. But then paleontologists found evidence (such as nests with older hatchlings in them) that dinosaurs may have been more active parents.

Except the book doesn’t say parents.

It says mothers. Over and over.

I have no need to project egalitarian parenting onto other species, where it often doesn’t exist. But since it does exist among birds quite often, I would have been pretty slow to make such a massive assumption and present it as a “discovery.”

And in fact, last December a flurry of articles about active dinosaur dads came out—some researchers think in some cases they were the primary parent.

Boy, was the book wrong—not in a scientific way though, in a lazy way.

This kind of assumption can actively bog science down. In the 1990s, cultural anthropologist Emily Martin described how researchers working on new forms of contraception were incredibly slow to recognize key information about how human fertilization works because they were so wedded (unconsciously) to their culturally influenced assumptions of mighty aggressive sperm and passive eggs. (Turns out sperm are weak uncoordinated swimmers and have to be entrapped and engulfed by the egg while they try to get away.)

The other bias in Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs strikes even closer to the heart of scientists and their self image. It starts off with a description of how the ancient Chinese found dinosaur bones and, in trying to figure out what they came from, came up with the creature we now know as the Chinese dragon. It shows a picture, says that they figured they must have been magic to have been so big, and thought they might be still around. “Boy, were they wrong!” Then it says, “Now we think many of our own past guesses about dinosaurs were just as wrong as those of ancient China.”

Toward the end of the book we come back to this theme, but less diplomatically: “Perhaps today’s ideas about dinosaurs will someday seem just as silly as the magic dragons of long-ago China.”

Interestingly, instead of “Boy, were they wrong,” everyone else, starting with European scientists from hundreds of years ago gets “Boy, were we wrong!” (emphasis mine). The message is clear: real scientific inquiry began after those initial discoveries, with the “we” of the rest of the book (all white by the illustrations).

Let’s pause and consider for a second. What did the ancient Chinese think those bones belonged to? A large, long, scaly reptilian creature. What did the first Europeans to try to make a theory about the same sorts of bones—a long time later and with far more technology—come up with? A large, long, scaly reptilian creature. They gave it a different name. They came up with different wrong embellishments. They placed it into a different cosmology. But the ancient Chinese were basically doing the same thing, with fewer tools, and had remarkably similar results. They weren't right, but they were hardly silly.

I understand and support what the book’s authors were trying to do: show how early scientific hypotheses can turn out to be as off-base as something that even a child can recognize as untrue. Only in the process of doing so, they revealed their own ethnocentric biases: They feel that dragons were an obviously silly, superstitious theory, while gray, reptilian brontosauruses dragging their tails through the mud were an educated hypothesis that happened to turn out to be inaccurate.

Boy, were they wrong. But at least they gave the parents reading it a ready phrase to critique their own book with.

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Green Expert Says: Limit Kids to Two

JeanneSager — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 20:27:00 GMT

Have at least two kids? Planning on having more?

A UK sustainable development expert says you should think twice about making any more babies – lest you want to see the world a blacker place.

The way Jonathon Porritt sees it, anyone with more than two kids is "irresponsible" about the way they're affecting the environment.

"I think we will work our way towards a position that says that having more than two children is irresponsible. It is the ghost at the table. We have all these big issues that everybody is looking at and then you don't really hear anyone say the "p" word." Porritt told the London Times.

By "P" word, of course, he means procreation.

The way he sees it, we should be shifting our monies away from curing illnesses (which, of course, keep the population on this earth) and push them toward increasing contraception and abortion.

It's true that each person has his or her own personal carbon footprint. A British study late last year put the figure around eleven tons of CO2 per year by a Brit, nearly double that per year by us in the states.

But if Porritt's adovacating for a shift in funding, how about focusing on ways to reduce people's carbon footprint rather than cutting people's family planning dreams off at the knees? Carbon emissions are indeed an important issue, and one that won't go away anytime soon.

I'm also deeply disturbed by the suggestion that abortion is one of the best ways he can come up with for keeping families down to just two kids. I'm pro-choice, but that's for women who want or need an out from a pregnancy, not for women who are happily pregnant and being told they need to suddenly reduce their carbon footprints.

Does this sound something coming a bit too close to the Chinese? You know, the country accused of human rights violations for its extreme methods of population control that borders on eugenics?

It's true Porritt isn't calling for selective breeding to create a master race but for an overall reduction in peoples populating the earth. But even as a mom who has just one kid, and one who would call for more parents to take a look at their capabilities (financial, first and emotional, next) before getting pregnant again and again, I think Porritt is cutting off the nose to spite the face.

The world is in trouble because people have been stupid. So let's smarten up, and create a "master race" of kids who are wise about the ways of green living - no matter how many there are. Our kids don't have to be a burden on the world's resources if we don't let them be.

At least this guy practices what he preaches. Porritt has just two kids. Wonder if that has anything to do with his magic number?

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Community Raises Money for Blind Toddler's Stem Cell Treatment

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:55:00 GMT

When Joshua Clark of Wales was six months-old, he was diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, a congenital condition that, in Joshua’s case, had caused total blindness. Doctors said there was no way to treat the condition.

But his parents, Joanna and Anthony, did some research and found out about a cutting-edge treatment for ONH using umbilical cord stem cells, which is currently only performed in China. They contacted people who had had the treatment, as well as doctors who were familiar with it, and ultimately decided it offered some hope of at least partially restoring Joshua's sight.

In response to the Clarks' fundraising campaign, their entire community has pitched in to help pay for the expensive treatment. A little boy even mailed the Clarks two pounds out of his pocket money, along with a photo of him and his sister.

Joshua’s parents are not hoping for a miracle cure. Rather, they believe the treatment will be well worth it if Joshua comes away with the ability to see lights, shapes, and colors.

According to a video (which I can’t post, but you can watch it here), Joshua is an adorable, calm 16-month-old who loves to listen to music. We have our fingers crossed for a successful outcome to the treatment!

Photo: stemcell.taragana.net

Kids Around the Globe Weigh in on Obama

JeanneSager — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:35:00 GMT

Think it's just the adults who got emotional at the peaceful transition of power in America?

Kids around the world were celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama too - from Israel to the Palestinian Authority, China to England.

Stopping off at spots around the globe, ABC News caught up with kids who wanted to send good wishes to President Obama this week, and there was one standout that made me cry:

"No one's better than anyone; we're all the same," said Dara Jorallah, a thirteen-year-old with bright eyes from the West Bank. "We shouldn't discriminate against anyone. We should give chances, even if we look different."

Her comments came just after those of a little boy from Israel, who said he places a lot of hope in the new American president. Put together, the comments lend credence to statements made by Obama's new Middle East envoy, George Mitchell.

"From my experience there, I formed the conviction that there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be ended," Mitchell said this week when his appointment became public. "Conflicts are created, conducted and sustained by human beings. They can be ended by human beings."

If a child in the West Bank and a child in Israel can agree on Obama, maybe the kids are human beings to end it all.

Naive? Maybe, but that children are our future thing still gets me every time. For more on what the kids have to say (and some tear-inducing moments for you), visit ABC News coverage.

Image: ABC News

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Kid Sells Mom's Diamond Ring to Buy Comic Books

JeanneSager — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:31:00 GMT

Note to self: always put engagement ring on a high shelf. A VERY high shelf.

A Chinese kid whose parents wouldn't buy him comic books decided he'd do it himself. But he didn't have any money. He did, however, have Mom's diamond ring.

Which he took to a pawn shop. Where they gave him two hundred yaun (about twenty-nine dollars).

The kid bought himself some comic books, but his parents were none too happy. Especially when the pawn shop told them they couldn't have the ring back. His father, Wang Wei, eventually had to call on the local administration of industry and commerce to step in. The governmental agency stated the child was too young to make a deal with the shop, and forced them to sell it back to Wei for the same price.

The happy ending would make this whole story a lot funnier if the kid in question weren't fifteen. By the time our kids hit the double digits, I think most of us would be appalled to learn we couldn't trust them around our valuables. If anything, this kid is nothing more than a petty thief, and a petulant one at that (poor baby, Daddy won't buy me comic books). I'd be a little more impressed if he showed some industry in making the cash to get his hands on Spiderman and the X-Men.

But I'm still mentally wandering around my house, wondering what I need to keep a little safer with the kid around . . . any ideas?

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China Detains Dad of Baby Sickened by Tainted Milk

JeanneSager — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 19:01:00 GMT

Parents of the babies sickened by melamine in the Chinese tainted milk scandal shot down a $160 million payout, and now they're being punished. Zhao Lianhai, organizer of a parents' news conference slated for yesterday, was picked up by the Chinese government and detained.

The families' lawyer, Li Fangping, says the government did it just to keep the parents from talking.

The payout would have put $29,000 (200,000 yuan) in the bank accounts of the parents who lost their babies (six in all were killed), while parents whose kids suffered kidney stones would get just $290 (or 2,000 yuan). Parents whose children were sicker -but survived - would likely get $4,380 (30,000 yuan). The plan, outlined in the China Daily, said the total one-time cash payouts (for all parents affected) would be $131 million (900 million yuan). Another $29 million (200 million yuan) would be put into a fund to cover bills for lingering health problems.

The numbers, the parents say, are far too low (and I'd agree with them - $29,000 for a dead child?). Put into Chinese economic terms, one of the families' attorneys said it represents one half of the per capita annual income for rural Chinese residents.

The parents have been advised not to sign anything, and a set of ten parents had planned Friday's press conference to broach their next step. That's been called off, and with Lianhai in custody, nothing has been rescheduled.

Image: Toronto Star

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Grieving Chinese Parents Not Allowed To Sue

Brett Singer — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 17:00:00 GMT

A Chinese court has officially refused to hear the lawsuit filed by 57 parents whose children were killed in the earthquake earlier this year, according to the AP.

The New York Times had confirmed this morning that the lawsuit had in fact been filed. 127 students in the town of Deyang lost their lives on May 12; some, but not all, of their parents are involved in the suit. Many parents blamed shoddy construction at the school buildings they were in when the quake occurred; in total, 88,000 people were killed, 10,000 were schoolchildren. The Chinese government has said that they plan to investigate the disaster and promised to punish anyone found guilty of not making the school buildings as safe as they could be; so far nothing has been done, despite an admission by a Chinese official that, "a rush to build schools in recent years likely led to construction flaws causing so many of them to collapse," according to the AP report. The Chinese government has actively tried to stop anyone from talking about the earthquake, offering grieving parents "the equivalent of $8,800 in cash and several thousand more dollars in post-retirement pension payments if they agreed to drop the issue of the collapsed schools," according to the New York Times.

Now the parents and the lawyer who agreed to represent them may be in danger of being charged with treason. Despite this, more parents are expected to join the lawsuit. So this isn't over yet.

In other news, a Chinese court did allow someone to sue KFC – yes, Kentucky Fried Chicken – because she ate potato chips that had "black and silk-like things" in them. Priorities, people, priorities. Sheesh.

Sources: chinacsr.com

AP via Google News

New York Times (also image)

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Ethnic Unity 101: Coming to China's Schools

JeanneSager — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:28:00 GMT

The country that's spent years playing its xenophbic reputation to the fullest is about to cut ethnic intolerance off at the knees. Yes, China, a place not exactly celebrated for its views on human rights, is introducing "ethnic unity" classes in its primary schools.

It will depend on its execution, but promoting the melting pot theory to the youngest members of a society is really the best way to guarantee future generations will have a more tolerant viewpoint than their elders (my generation included).

A Reuters report, quoting a translation of the Chinese government's announcement, says school kids will get up to fourteen hours of school-based education to promote the "basic awareness of the vital nature of 'encouraging ethnic unity, protecting national unity and opposing ethnic separatism'."

Technically, China's constitution guarantees religious freedom and equal treatment for all minorities, including the country's 56 different recognized minority groups. Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, the United States Constitution - you know, the one that people conveniently forget when they put into place regulations like the atrocity that is Prop 8.

Would something like this fly in U.S. schools?

Image: TWR

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Mattel Pays Up – Karma for Tainted Toys

SunnyChanel — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:15:00 GMT

The big boys will have to pay out the big bucks. Toy behemoth Mattel, Inc was ordered to pay $12 million bucks to be dispersed between 39 states. This was a settlement over the lead-tainted toys that were shipped to the states from China.
Mattel and Fisher-Price (which they own) recalled a TON of toys last year, more than 21 million. There was worry that the toys were finished off with lead paint. Also recalled were toys that had itsy bitsy magnets due to the fear that kids could swallow them.

Moving forward Mattel agreed to “lower the acceptable level of lead in toys shipped to the states to 90 parts per million down from 600 parts per million, which is currently the federal standard.” Who knew was even an “acceptable level of lead” in kids toys?

It does sound like justice has been served and that not only did they have a financial consequence to their lack of oversight but that in the future there will be much more awareness to safety issues with our children’s toys.

Were any of your child’s toys part of the recall? Does this kind of toy scare make you just want to go totally green toywise?

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China Forcing Mom, 6-Months Pregnant, to Get Abortion

Madeline Holler — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 15:01:00 GMT

China, what's it going to take to get a little human rights going? I mean, you got the Olympics but refused to let anyone protest. You make all these computers but get pissed when your own citizens use them to express their disagreements with you.

And now, you've got a woman trapped in a hospital awaiting word on whether you'll let her have a third child or whether you'll force her to terminate the pregnancy. Oh, and she's six months along!

The woman, who is Muslim Uighar, has until today to appeal her case. Though China has a famous one-child policy, many couples get around it by (1) paying out huge fines or (2) belonging to an ethnic minority with dwindling populations in the country of 1.3 billion citizens.

From McClatchy News:

China's family-planning policy allows minorities, including Uighurs, to have more than one child. If minority couples are urban dwellers, they may have two children, while rural farmers may have three children. Many majority Han Chinese see those exceptions as unfair.

Arzigul holds a rural household registration but her husband is registered in an urban area, creating some legal confusion. Local officials eventually demanded that she terminate her pregnancy.

Let her go, man. The whole worlds is watching!

Photo: ChinaView.wordpress.com

World's Tallest Man Now Father to Average-Sized Baby

Madeline Holler — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:01:00 GMT

The world's tallest man -- China's Bao Xishun -- is a new father. His new son has some growing to do if he's going to literally fill his father's shoes.

Bao's son, who was born 22 inches long, is a far cry from the country's record-holder for length a birth, a little boy measuring 29.5 inches.

But he's happy and healthy despite his average-ish size. Though Bao is 7 foot 9 inches, the mother is 5 foot 6 inches. And probaby glad the boy wasn't a lung-shrinking record-holding length while in utero.

Still, it looks like Bao, who had been a sheepherder in Inner Mongolia until he left all that behind to hire himself out for parties and freakshows, is hoping his little baby will turn into a big, but not quite as big, man as himself.

Before the child was born he said:

"I hope he or she can be about 2 metres tall," Mr Bao, 57, said last year about his wishes for a child. "Then he or she can play basketball."

Photo: UK Telegraph

Breaking News: Cadbury chocolate made in China recalled

Brett Singer — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 03:15:00 GMT

The AP is reporting that Cadbury is "recalling 11 types of Chinese-made chocolates after tests found they contained the industrial chemical melamine." This follows the recall of tainted milk powder in China.

AND, according to Newsinferno.com, a specific candy made by Cadbury called "White Rabbit" has been found to contain Melamine, the substance that cause more than 50,000 children to fall ill in China. The candy has been "distributed to California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Texas, and Washington state through wholesale distributors to retail stores."

Before you say what I said ("Newsinferno? What's that?"), here's a link to the FDA's press release about the recall.

Newsinferno also reports that, "Pizza Hut suspended supplying cheese powder found to be contaminated by melamine in Pizza Hut’s Taiwan branch." Unless you happen to be in Taiwan, this one is pretty easy to avoid, but the White Rabbit stuff sounds like it could be in your local candy shoppe. Plus there are 11 other varieties, such as Eclairs (sold in Australia). So be careful.

But wait! There's more! According to Wikipedia, this White Rabbit stuff was recalled last year in the Philippines because it contained formaldehyde. Yum!

Anyone else in the mood for some good news? Like, "Field of unicorns found frolicking in Central Park, film at 11"? Sorry, I made that one up. Sounds good though, right?

Sources: CBS News/AP, Newsinferno.com, Sydney Morning Herald, Wikipedia (also image)

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Now Chinese Coffee May Also Be Contaminated

Chinese Milk Scandal Heads to Europe. Is the U.S. Next? Yes!

YOU say: I got fooled (update to "They USED to say: give babies cola")

UPDATE: Tainted Milk Tally tops 50,000

Brett Singer — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:00:00 GMT

An update to the tainted milk story from VOANews.com:

China is vowing to stop tainted milk from reaching export markets, amid a growing scandal...Four Chinese infants have already died from drinking toxic milk products and more than 53,000 others have been made sick...The widening scandal has already claimed resignations from several officials, including Li Changjiang, the head of China's top quality inspection agency.

Apparently this was a known problem for eight months before anyone did anything about it.

53,000 kids sick? Nasty.

Original post follows.

*-*-*-*-*

The number of children affected by a dangerous chemical in certain brands of Chinese-made baby formula is going up. CNN is reporting that more than 13,000 children in China have been, "sickened by tainted milk."

The details are even worse: four babies have died, and a 3-year-old girl in Hong Kong was hospitalized after drinking the tainted formula. The little girl was released, but this means that the illnesses are no longer isolated to Mainland China.

AND: "In addition, nearly 40,000 other infants and young children have received outpatient medical treatment and consultation as a result of the tainted milk," according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.

The issue, according to published reports, is that the formula contains a chemical called melamine, which is a "key ingredient in most fire retardant materials." In other words, not something anyone should be eating.

Full details are on CNN.com.

A reader emailed to ask if we knew whether or not any U.S. formula brands were affected. We do not. That's not to say that there is any reason to think that there IS a problem with any U.S. baby formulas; as far as I know (the key words there are "as far as I know") there have been no recalls or reports of infants becoming sick from baby formula in the United States. Still, I would be very careful with any formula that you buy, especially if you have any reason to believe it was manufactured in China. To clarify: we are NOT saying that you should avoid any brand of baby formula, we are only telling you what CNN has reported. There has been some concern that boxes of Sanlu-brand formula may be on store shelves in Chinese grocery stores in the United States; more details are here.

Source: CNN
Image: china.org.cn

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They say: Chinese baby formula is dangerous

Brett Singer — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:30:00 GMT

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a waning about baby formula made in China. These products are illegal in the U.S., but the FDA fears that some bottles may have found their way onto store shelves in Chinese neighborhoods.

Before I start a worldwide panic, let me point out that the FDA also said, "There is no threat of contamination in the domestic supply of infant formula." So you can give your little one good ol' U.S. baby formula (provided there are no La Leche people nearby – ba dum bum.)

According to Chinese officials, "contaminants were found in Sanlu-brand milk formula," which, "killed one baby and caused kidney stones in dozens of others who may have drunk the same product." A recall of the product was issued in China on August 6.

The FDA...said agency officials were concerned the Chinese formula may be tainted with melamine, the contaminant found in pet food ingredients from China and linked to the deaths and illnesses of hundreds of cats and dogs in 2007.

Bad stuff. If this formula is on sale in the U.S., or anyplace else, I hope it gets pulled from the shelves.

Source: Reuters
Image: china.org.cn

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Green products that don't work

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Mr. Rogers Talking Keychain

Reduce Your Carbon Footprint—Don’t Have A Baby

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Allow me to be crassly scientific for a moment.

Think of all the times you make decisions about to be as “green" as possible: saving fuel by driving to vacation instead of flying, buying soymilk instead of cow’s milk, using cloth diapers instead of disposable. Now think of all the greenhouse gasses you could keep out of the atmosphere if you didn’t have one more child—all of the miles not driven, plastic not used, waste not washed out to sea.

This, in a rather bleak nutshell, is the reasoning behind the British Medical Journal’s recent recommendation that families have no more than two children. According to the authors of the editorial, families in rich countries have a particular responsibility to reduce family size, since any child born into the U.S. and Britain, for instance, will most likely emit 160 times more carbon than a child in Ethiopia.

According to a recent Census Bureau report, this family downsizing appears to be happening naturally in the United States, which makes sense given the precarious health of the planet. When global resources are stretched thin, the cost of living is higher, so women naturally choose to have fewer children. But in order for all women to have the ability to make this decision if they want to, every woman needs access to high-quality reproductive health care.

Of course, such a scientific approach to family planning doesn’t take into consideration that raising children who care about their environment—natural, political, and societal—is one of the best ways to contribute to the world. Maybe we just don’t need to raise seven of them.

Image: Mother Jones

Motherhood? I've Got Other Things to Do

Nastia Liukin's mom watches from the stands (video)

Brett Singer — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Apparently Nastia Liukin's mother, Anna Kotchneva Liukin, has a hard time watching her gold-medal winning daughter compete. According to the NBC commentators, she spent some of the recent Beijing events shopping. This time, though, she stuck it out, but not without some difficulty. They didn't mention it, but I don't think she knows the guy she's sitting next to, despite the fact that she almost ends up in his lap.

My kids aren't terribly athletic (at least not yet) so I don't know what it's like to see your offspring in an intense competition, and the Olympics are as big as it gets for gymnasts. Anna knows from being on that big stage: she was a champion gymnast herself. Not sure if that makes it harder or easier to see your kid out there; judging from this video, I'd say it must be pretty tough.

Read more:

IOC orders investigation of Chinese Gymnast's age

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IOC orders investigation of Chinese Gymnast's age

Brett Singer — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 19:54:00 GMT

He Kexin won a gold medal in the uneven bars and also contributed to the Chinese beating out the U.S. in the team gymnastics event. She looks really really young, and there have been questions about her age for awhile now. The IOC has begun to formally investigate whether or not, "Chinese authorities covered up the true age of their gold-medal winning gymnastics star because she was too young to compete," because of, "'discrepancies' that have come to light about the age of He Kexin." You kind of have to wonder what took them so long, but apparently someone, described as an "American hacker" by the U.K.-based Times Online, has uncovered documents that offer proof that Kexin is too young.

Watching the games, the judging also seemed biased, although that's more subjective. Still, I'm pretty sure I saw a member of the Chinese team fall in one event and not get any deduction, whereas an American who had a similar fall lost points. Béla Károlyi told Bob Costas that, "The lack of competence of certain judges is obvious," and it was tough to disagree.

Károlyi's wife Marta has attacked the age issue the way her gymnasts attacked their events, and while I think she went a little overboard, I agree that the whole thing is very suspicious.

Would the Chinese government lie about an athlete's age in order to gain a competitive advantage? And if so, what happens? The medals get stripped, but should they be banned from the Olympics for a time after that?

So – how old do you think she looks? 14? 16? Do I hear 12?

Source/image: TimesOnline

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Aussie Rower keeps his kids close

Protesters and journalists arrested in China (video)

Team more mature than coach

Bela Karolyi likes to kill things

Brett Singer — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

When Béla Károlyi isn't training world-class gymnasts or telling Bob Costas that, "The lack of competence of certain judges [in this year's Olympic Games] is obvious," he likes to go…hunting.

When I googled Károlyi in an attempt to get the spelling of his name correct, this page was the fourth result. After seeing him comment, often mercilessly, on the various Olympic gymnastic events, I'm going to say that I'm not exactly shocked that one of his leisure activities is hunting big game.

I'm not going to say anything else about this, since, you know, I don't want to get shot.

Images/Source: bigbexotics.com