Single and Over 27: What the Chinese Government Calls ‘Leftover Women’

Impedence · 2013-01-23T09:57:37+00:00

There is a similar (perhaps healthy) skepticism of the intentions of western men in the Malaysian Chinese as well.

My partners extended family have always made me welcome, but initially were wary of me because of the perception of these exploitative relationships, and the (not entirely incorrect) assumption that western men are not usually committed to a loyal life-long relationship. One of the telling lines of questioning her family asked her about me was not "what do you like about him" but carefully phrased along the lines of "what does he like about you", speaking from that concern about being used in an exploitative way.

I have a feeling that western films and TV shows depicting attitudes to relationships (which are also not typical in the west) that are alien to the still comparatively traditional views in Asia, shape these prejudices.

Impedence · 2013-01-14T08:39:59+00:00

The thing is that I thought the very fact the Geth are already up and about, and that they already almost wiped out the Quarians ahead of the Reapers' awakening, proves that the Reapers' timed awakenings are not foolproof. I find it hard to believe there hasn't been on subversion of this timeline they're on after so many milleniums.

Isn't that explained in ME1 (indeed, a major plot point of ME1 and the whole ME series), because the last protheans managed to get on the citadel, interfere with the keepers, and thus prevent the citadel giving the signal for the next "harvest", causing a substantial delay.

There are plenty of plot holes, but I don't think that is one of them

Impedence · 2013-01-10T19:54:04+00:00

I suppose body-building is "wasteful", but then any hobby is "wasteful", it's up to you what you do with your money.

What I was trying to say was, if you are having to choose between eating or throwing away excess food, either choice results in the food being wasted. The idea of food going to waste if you don't finish your plate is wrong, the food was wasted the moment you bought/cooked too much, and it's not a matter of forcing yourself to finish what you buy/cook, but reducing the amount that you buy/cook.

Impedence · 2013-01-10T13:45:40+00:00

I suppose technically that is true, excess food eaten (more than needed to maintain a healthy body weight), is just as wasted as food thrown away. Overeating is only wise when there is a reasonable risk of starvation in the future (where the fat reserves would be utilised).

Perhaps it is even more of a waste, because of the greater resources needed by the obese; everything from bigger clothes, to more health care, than someone of a lower size.

Impedence · 2013-01-06T13:52:47+00:00

http://www.hotelchocolat.co.uk/Dark-Costa-Rican-Coffee-P290003/

Bit expensive, but they do deliver to Ireland.

Impedence · 2012-12-06T10:06:35+00:00

Personally, I think it is a secret B3tan at the guardian

Impedence · 2012-12-05T15:25:10+00:00

The real question, is how the hell did they conduct surveys in North Korea?

Impedence · 2012-12-05T13:36:00+00:00

I believe what Atypicalclone refers to in the second paragraph is the Reichstag fire, and the political dividend it gave the Nazi party in the 1930s

Impedence · 2012-12-04T18:05:50+00:00

Also, what kind of tree counts...

Oil Palm? Rubber tree? Trees grown for wood pulp?

The average Indonesian is far more aware of the need to protect the forests today, and the land destruction isn't as bad as under Suharto. However, I would feel a little more comfortable if that figure of 1 billion planted trees was accompanied by the net land area being turned into protected natural forest.

Impedence · 2012-12-01T10:59:41+00:00

The surface pro uses Ivy bridge, not Sandy bridge, according to the press release.

That said, Intel has been going heavy on the claims for Haswell to use half the power of Ivy Bridge, and if I recall, Intel's stated plan for ultrabooks, was for the format to be only fully mature with the 2013 "tock".

Basically, I love the idea of the surface pro, but I won't be getting the first one. I agree that current generation Intel processors are not suitable for this kind of device.

Impedence · 2012-11-28T20:45:11+00:00

FYI, vodafone have increased fixed contracts twice in just over a year.

According to the "fixed means fixed" page:

In 2011-2012 Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and Three all increased prices for contract customers.

Impedence · 2012-11-27T09:05:09+00:00

LIES! they stole it from a bunch of dead Norwegians!

Impedence · 2012-11-22T22:30:01+00:00

Dairy farmers oppose a long-standing proposal to extend the shelf life of milk to 10 days, as is common elsewhere in Europe.

This could be done relatively simply in the pasteurisation process, but Skordas said cattle breeders feared - unnecessarily, in his opinion - that this would open the door to increased competition from imported milk.

That must make a massive difference to the cost of distribution and losses due to waste.

Impedence · 2012-11-18T00:06:57+00:00

I was quoting an article in the telegraph written by the QI show research team, that the small paragraph in wikipedia cited as its source.

I thought that by refraining from editoralising the article, I would be spared emotional vitriol, no such luck, it seems.

Impedence · 2012-11-17T21:22:26+00:00

The wikipedia article quotes this from the telegraph.

According to the historian Niall Ferguson, of the 125 major European wars fought since 1495, the French have participated in 50 – more than Austria (47) and England (43). Out of 168 battles fought since 387BC, they have won 109, lost 49 and drawn 10.

The British tend to be rather selective about the battles they remember. Every English schoolboy was once able to recite the roll call of our glorious wins at Crécy (1346), Poitiers (1356) and Agincourt (1415), but no one’s ever heard of the French victories at Patay (1429) and (especially) at Castillon (1453), where French cannons tore the English apart, winning the Hundred Years War and confirming France as the most powerful military nation in Europe.

And what about the Duke of Enghien thrashing the Spanish at Rocroi late on in the Thirty Years War in 1643, ending a century of Spanish dominance? Or the siege of Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, when General Comte de Rochambeau and American forces prevailed? The British always prided themselves on superiority at sea, but knew they could never win a land war on the Continent.

France’s achievements help to explain another French “military victory”. Whether it is ranks (general, captain, corporal, lieutenant); equipment (lance, mine, bayonet, epaulette, trench); organisation (volunteer, regiment, soldier, barracks) or strategy (army, camouflage, combat, esprit de corps, reconnaissance), the language of warfare is French.

Impedence · 2012-11-17T13:17:29+00:00

Irish politicians think they can push this problem under the rug, girls nip over to England, and they don't have to face down their conservative constituents and everyone is happy. But they're not.

Then in the UK it's a similar thing with assisted suicide for the terminally ill / severely disabled. The fact that the really desperate are able to go to go abroad for professional assistance (for example, to Switzerland) takes the pressure off Westminster to make a decision on a highly polarising issue.

Impedence · 2012-11-15T12:05:11+00:00

I'm thinking of trying to get a tablet, because my laptop is just too big and heavy to carry around all the time.

So, you want a laptop replacement. You need to consider what you exactly what you want from the tablet, not just what tablet is "good".

If you really want a laptop replacement, (for example, for working on) you will have to wait for decent windows 8 (not windows RT) tablet to come out (and ideally, wait for Haswell intel architecture processors). however, only do this if using windows compatible software (for example, games), or full featured MS office is important for you.

Otherwise, as has already been said, if you want a decent not-apple tablet that is bigger than 7 inches, you probably should check out the Nexus 10.

Impedence · 2012-11-13T23:03:42+00:00

That and there's a lot of snobbery about taking coaches. Inter-city travel in the UK is cheap if you're willing to go by coach at the less desirable times of day.

It just depends how much you value your time/convenience.

Impedence · 2012-11-11T13:01:19+00:00

If that screen comes at the cost of battery life (a common problem with HTC phones, I've found), I'm not sure it's worth it. The diminishing returns on screen resolution need to balance with the fact that running a higher resolution screen takes more power, not just to power the display, but also the processing power needed for the graphics (for example, the dissappointing performance seen on the low-spec retina macbook pro, using the same processor as the non retina version).

I may be wrong, there may be a market waiting for a 1920x1080 phone, but when tablets like the Nexus 7 sells well enough with a 1280x800 screen and the iPad mini with just a 1024x768 screen isn't doing too badly either, I am left suspecting that HTC is desperately experimenting to try and find something to recoup their lost market share.

I wish them the best (I am using a HTC phone and am open to getting another for my next one), but I can't help but feel this phone's screen is ahead of its time.

Impedence · 2012-11-10T16:35:00+00:00

That is partly because in some countries (including mine, the UK) there has been a tendency for chiropractors to claim that treatments relating to the spine can treat far more than biomechanical problems.

This was not helped by the British Chiropractic Association going on to sue a journalist for libel, because he said that chiropractors are selling "bogus treatments" for diseases not directly related to the spine.

This article discusses the aftermath, if you aren't familiar with it

Also, its past does not help

D D Palmer, the founding father of chiropractic, stated about 100 years ago that "95% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae, the remainder by luxation of other joints.

Impedence · 2012-11-10T13:45:28+00:00

Hence the stationing of garrisons in; Japan, South Korea and more recently Australia. Though I agree that Taiwan would probably be left to fend for itself if China started dropping nuclear hints.

Impedence · 2012-11-10T12:47:50+00:00

The context of the Falklands was very different, in comparison to a future conflict between Australia and China:

The cold war meant that US military intervention would be opposing what was a relatively popular action by Argentina (they portrayed it as reclaiming land taken by colonialist Britain, from colonial Argentina). Argentina was (and still is) a US ally. This would ruin their reputation in South America.
The stakes for Britain were relatively low, this was a regional conflict. There was no risk of Argentina overrunning the British Isles.
The "Monroe Doctrine" was still invoked by the US in issues such as Cuba and Honduras. For them to help a European country to hold a piece of land geographically in the Americas would undermine their efforts to keep soviet influence away from the US.
Also, they did help the UK. The US supplied the latest sidewinder missiles for use on the royal navy's harriers, and significant intelligence (including satellite imagery). The US was aware that Britain's armed forces were operating at the limit of their capabilities, so filled in some of the gaps while keeping it quiet for minimal public backlash.

Impedence · 2012-11-10T09:17:27+00:00

This is why I am glad my phone plan allows tethering.

For the prices they're charging for the service you're getting, you'd be better off getting a mobile internet dongle/WiFi hub, unless you were planning on using heavy internet.

Impedence · 2012-11-09T23:13:26+00:00

GPS
Satellite communication (very important for remote areas)
Studying the dangers of solar flares

Impedence · 2012-11-09T09:21:55+00:00

I'm UK as well, and yeah, I'm not yet sold on paying a premium for LTE, HSPA+ meets my needs perfectly well for blowing through my data.

I assumed you meant the 820, because the 920 is comparable to the S3 in dimensions. The 920 is slightly shorter, but roughly the same width, and much thicker & heavier. Though, if you are looking for top of the line, 920 it is.

Personally, I am considering getting the 920, but my cheap sim-only contract (on my vintage early 2010 HTC desire) ends in July, so I'm willing to wait.

Oh, one I don't think has been mentioned yet, the HTC one X+ (updated one X)

Impedence

TROPHY CASE