I began this blog last year, then stopped, but will try again this year. I have backposted entries from my static journal for 2008.
“How the city hurts your brain”, Boston Globe, 2/1. This article vindicates why I find cities such disagreeable places!
This research arrives just as humans cross an important milestone: For the first time in history, the majority of people reside in cities. For a species that evolved to live in small, primate tribes on the African savannah, such a migration marks a dramatic shift. Instead of inhabiting wide-open spaces, we’re crowded into concrete jungles, surrounded by taxis, traffic, and millions of strangers. In recent years, it’s become clear that such unnatural surroundings have important implications for our mental and physical health, and can powerfully alter how we think.
With the increasing world population, cities are only going to get more hellish to live in.
Regarding the Israel-Palestine situation, I was thinking that one (long-term) solution would be for Israel to give women in Gaza access to education and family planning! As noted in this article:
Gaza has become a giant warehouse of misery. It has no economic growth, no prospects, almost no civil order, yet about half the population is under the age of 17. The population has exploded amid economic privation. Women, living under Sharia law, are used primarily as breeding stock. Nizar Rayan, the most senior member of Hamas killed in the latest Israeli attacks, he had four wives and 14 children.
A Population Media Center blog entry, “Timely Book Puts Finger On Terrorist Attacks in the Gaza and Elsewhere”, reviews a book that addresses these issues.
Clearly as I read this book it is obvious to me after reading page 117 that the current Israeli Gaza attacks are certainly partially the result of Palestinian control of women who get little family planning and typically have 6 children. The 1950 population was 1 million, is now 3.1 million and could be 9 million by 2050. Sex and War reports, “Arab society is sexually chaste and few young men have sexual outlets prior to marriage but lack the financial independence to marry. Given the large pool of young men, the lack of opportunities, the sexual frustration and the inevitable resentment toward a dominant out group, it is hard to imagine a more perfectly conceived breeding ground for team aggression, in this case taking the form of terrorism.” Solution? First understand the problem, then take the actions suggested.
I like Cate Blanchett as an actress, but any more statements like this might make me rethink that!
She doesn’t even rule out more babies. “Who knows?” she says breezily. “Don’t close those doors. The world is very overpopulated, but we do make nice ones. They all look like Andrew. To say he has dominant genes would be an understatement.”
She has 3 children already (not that it shows!). Seems to pop them out effortlessly. (Source article) (Posted to ChildFree Hardcore)
