Clipmarks | Marcariel's 'china' clips

Invasive Species Flood Into China

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 20:09:46 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: The article says this will be one of the hidden costs of the Olympics for China. Welcome to the real world of international trade.

The South (USA) has been over-run with an invader vine brought her from an Exposition (visitors pinched a piece off and took it home), and later for cattle feed.

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

It's not just China's economy that's booming. Invasive species are thriving there, too.

Non-native organisms are arriving in growing numbers thanks to increased trade. And they are penetrating once-isolated areas now accessible via new transportation routes

By any measure, China's trade and transportation infrastructure are growing like weeds.

This growth has brought with it exotic species -- some imported deliberately as garden plants or pets, and others introduced accidentally, hitchhiking in products or packaging materials.

Its roster of 400 invasive species costs China a minimum of $14.5 billion a year, according to an estimate cited by the researchers.

This is just what happens with international trade

For decades the United States has battled its own invaders, including increasing numbers of Chinese species like the Asian longhorned beetle, which arrived in 1996.

Aquatic plants may cause some of the worst damage

Clip Source: dsc.discovery.com

It will definitely be a hidden cost of the Olympics

Tags: invasive, species, olympics, china, international trade

Today in History - Dec. 9, 2007

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 20:50:37 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: John Birch Society, Princess Diana's separation, several World War II related events, and tragedy in Moscow.

Clip Source: www.livescience.com

Today is Sunday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2007. There are 22 days left in the year.

In 1940, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

In 1941, China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

In 1958, the anti-communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.

In 1987, the first Palestinian intefadeh, or uprising, began as riots broke out in Gaza and spread to the West Bank, triggering a strong Israeli counter-response.

In 1992, Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple's divorce became final Aug. 28, 1996.)

One year ago: Discovery lighted up the sky in the first nighttime space shuttle launch in four years. A fire broke out at a Moscow drug treatment hospital, killing 45 women trapped by barred windows and a locked gate.

Thought for Today: "Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control.''
—Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher (1788-1860).

Tags: princess diana, discovery, moscow, west bank, china, japan

China's Dollar Holdings Could Ruin US Economy

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 21:20:16 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: This is frightening stuff. China has USA in a political and financial death grip.

Clip Source: english.pravda.ru

The U.S. dollar is standing at the edge of a cliff, and most people don’t even know it.

Data released by the New York Federal Reserve shows that foreign central banks have been net sellers of U.S. treasuries over the past five weeks, with $48 billion having been sold since late July, and $32 billion in just the last two weeks.

The U.S. runs budget deficits each year. If foreigners stop buying treasuries—or worse, start selling them—the dollar could be in big trouble.

the numbers demonstrate “that world central banks are in a hurry to get out of the U.S.

The nation that analysts are watching especially closely at this stage is China.

China’s massive U.S. dollar holdings (which include treasuries) and how it supports the value of the U.S. currency.

Chinese state media referred to the country’s stockpile of U.S. dollars as its economic “nuclear option,” capable of destroying the dollar at will.

a run on the dollar due to Chinese treasury-dumping go far beyond just the value of the greenback

Tags: china, dollars, economy, political

Thursty Drunk Has Blood Chaser

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:21:25 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: You never know what you might do when you're drunk. Mistaken identities are not that uncommon when you are in that kind of an impaired state.

But Ewwwwwww!!!

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

A Hong Kong man who knocked back two vials of blood after a drinking binge has been jailed for two months, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

Li Man-yiu, 29, told a court Monday he was "extremely thirsty" when he staggered into a hospital on September 13 for treatment for an injured toe, the South China Morning Post reported.

Surveillance cameras showed Li "walk up to the laboratory counter, take three tubes containing blood samples, drink the contents of two and then dump the vials in the lift lobby,"

When he realized the vials had contained blood, Li rushed to the toilet to vomit

The court accepted that Li had drunk the blood under the influence of alcohol, but jailed him after he pleaded guilty to theft

Tags: blood, drunk, thirsty, blood samples

"Obesity" Olympics? China Joins the Cola Wars

Thu, 13 Sep 2007 15:14:55 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Here we are sending our corn syrup laden, fat producing colas to China, and they send their poison food over here. Fair trade? Our product makes them fat (which in the long run can kill you from obesity and poor health) and theirs kills outright. Fair Trade?

Seriously ... I feel sorry for their children being introduced to Western culture by destroying their health and becoming addicted to colas. Soft drinks are not one of our better representatives!

Clip Source: blog.healthpolitics.org

One thing is pretty clear if you’re a developing nation, and that is that multi-national marketers have you in their cross-hairs. And for China or India -- with huge populations -- that goes double.

China, of course, is a special case. Whether it be tobacco consumption, an electrical grid fired by dirty coal, a marred food and product safety chain, or infrastructure expansion at rates that make it difficult to manage quality -- in all of these cases, success (translation: economic growth) in the present is being mortgaged with the health of future populations.

One small measure of growth in the wrong direction is the increased ingestion by Chinese citizens of "liquid corn” -- that is, carbonated beverages whose major additive, beyond water, is high fructose corn syrup.

But in the Cola Wars, these things are not taken lightly. There's a lot at stake here: 8 to 10 billion liters in sales by the time the Olympics roll around.

Tags: china, obesity, cola, corn syrup, pepsi, coke

China's Growth may cause Central Asian Ecological Distaster

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 16:15:48 GMT

clipped by: Marcariel
clipper's remarks: Water, water everywhere ... and not a drop to use without death and disaster for an entire region of Asia.

Clip Source: www.eurasianet.org

Conjuring memories of the sharp reduction in the Aral Sea, one of the world’s worst man-made environmental disasters, Eleusizov described a nightmare scenario of Balkhash’s division into several smaller lakes and the spread of desertification throughout the surrounding area. [For additional information see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Worse still, he said, the Aral disaster has demonstrated that airborne salt, potentially produced by an evaporating Lake Balkhash, could be carried as far as glaciers in the Tien Shan Mountains. These glaciers, Eleusizov stressed, provide water for southern Kazakhstan, including Almaty, as well as portions of Xinjiang. Thus, a lack of foresight in handling the use if the Ili River could have profound ramifications, he added.

But this border area – as well as other, drier parts of the Xinjiang region – is at the heart of a lopsided battle for one of Central Asia’s most overlooked resources: water.

Tags: asia, china, water, ecology, resources, glaciers, aral sea, desertification

China: Skin Whitening is All the Rage

Wed, 09 May 2007 02:38:29 GMT

clipped by: cpltaiji
clipper's remarks: Weird! I always liked the Asian skin tone.
But then, look at Japan. Seems all the young girls want to have round eyes now!
Hopefully, this is just a fad and will pass.

Clip Source: chineseculture.about.com

Is the Chinese Love of Lighter Skin Racist?

In China, come home after a hard day's work, turn on the TV, and I guarantee you that on any given night, a third of the television commericials and perhaps half of the infommercials will be dedicated to selling women the magic elixir for lighter skin.

The Chinese are obsessed with light skin, and from casting soap stars to choosing a marriage partner, the preference is clear: the lighter the better.

And it's not just China. Fly West from Beijing to New Delhi, to Lagos, women everywhere are looking for that powder, that cream, that peel that will make them a little bit lighter. Many of these unregulated products will not only damage their skin, but seriously endanger their health.

Tags: life, human interest, health, general interest, drugs, bizarre