BaldwinP

72 posts
In a world full of people, only some want to fly. Isn't that crazy? Baldwin Periphetes wants to fly, and also to juggle, tell jokes, and rule the world. He is at least halfway to his goal.

More Wild Births of the Endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat

In our recent article about the critically endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat, we saw photos and footage of the first baby (known as a joey) born at the newly established wild colony at Richard Underwood Nature Reserve in southern Queensland. There was a second pregnancy at the reserve and lo and behold, in the past 10 days, a second joey has been running around. And we do mean running. The footage that the park rangers have taken of the second joey suggests he/she is a hyperactive little born performer! Continue reading →

The Increasing Gap Between Youngs and Olds

Much has been said of the increasing gap between rich and poor.  But the past quarter-century has also seen a greatly increased gap between people under 35 and people over 65.  A newly released report from Pew Social Trends highlights this:  between 1984 and 2009, the average net worth of an under 35 actually fell by 68% (despite the massive booms that are meant to have taken place during that time).  The average net worth of an over 65 increased by 42%.

To put it another way, the average American over 65 in 1984 had 10 times the net worth of an American under 35.  In 2009, he or she had 47 times the net worth of an American under 35.  The figures were not much different in 2005, before the financial crisis began, although the effect of the crisis has been to increase the gap further in percentage terms.  See the handy-dandy charts after the jump.

What are the primary reasons for this increased gap?

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Are Sweatshops Bad?

The image at the top of this article is a Nike product, the “swoosh” clearly visible.   I’m sure most of our readers would remember the savaging dealt to Nike in the 90s in the media, in the classroom, in the university cafeteria, and anywhere where people regarded themselves as socially aware.  These days, the popular target is Apple, partly as a result of the well-publicised suicides at the Hon Hai factories in China which churn out Apple’s bestselling and stylish industrial designs.  Regardless, “sweatshops” have been getting a bad name for a very long time:  the name was coined in the 19th century, and then as now the clothing industry has been a major culprit in their use.

Continue reading →

Endangered Northern Hairy-Nosed Wombat Born in the Wild

The northern hairy-nosed wombat is one of the most endangered creatures in the world, ranked as critically endangered.  In the 1980s, the estimated number of surviving wombats was as low as 35 before a breeding and protection program gradually increased the population.  Still, wombats are slow breeders (each fertile female will have no more than 1 baby wombat, known as a joey, every 2-3 years) and by 2003, there was still only estimated to be 113 wombats, including 30 fertile females.  All these wombats were in a single location:  Epping Forest National Park in northern Queensland, Australia.  This concentration made the wombat vulnerable to being made extinct in a single stroke if a natural disaster hit the park, and one only needs to remember the gigantic floods which covered Queensland in January this year for a reminder of how easily that could occur.

Continue reading →

Saudi Woman Sentenced to 10 Lashes for Driving is Spared by King

Following on from the news that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is allowing women to vote in muncipal elections starting in 2015, comes the latest baby step in women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi courts sentenced a woman to 10 lashes for the crime of driving. Not driving recklessly or drunk, just driving while being a woman. King Abdullah has intervened to prevent the sentence being carried out. The King’s intervention was first announced on Twitter by the wife of a billionaire Saudi Prince, in a somewhat surreal contrast to the far less modern situation on which she was commenting.

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AFL Grand Final Preview 2011

This, the 115th Grand Final of Australian Football, has all the makings of one of the greatest games ever played.  Geelong vs Collingwood. The two dominant teams of the past few years. Geelong the 2007 and 2009 champions and the 2008 runners-up. Collingwood the 2010 champions and home of reigning Brownlow Medallist (league MVP) Dane Swan. Both know what it takes, both have proven they can handle the pressure of playing in front of over 100,000 screaming fans and millions on TV, and both play football about as well as it has ever been played at both the offensive and defensive ends.

And that’s just the first storyline running through this one. Continue reading →

Sperm Bank Tells Gingers to Beat It

Redheaded men who want to pass on their gingerness are being treated like the proverbial red-headed stepchildren by Danish sperm bank Cryos.

Cryos is the largest sperm bank in the world.  It distributes more swimmers than Speedo, in a claimed 65 countries.  And now this sperm bank whale has thrown its weight behind the many who cruelly discriminate against gingers. Continue reading →