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Chinese authorities are using contraceptive pills to cut down the number of gerbils in a north-western province plagued by the rodents.
Forestry officials are leaving pills by the gerbils' burrows to try to cut back the rodents' exploding numbers.
The gerbils, officials say, are threatening the fragile desert ecosystem in the vast Xinjiang region.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asi...ic/7963836.stm
The Chinese have a saying that that all creatures except humans can be eaten, so perhaps that is the answer to the problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by Scheherazade
The snack that smiles back?
Do they really? Why are there reports about the Chinese eating fetuses because of the belief that it'll slow down the aging process? I'm not sure if it's true though.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bean
There are a number of stories of a similar nature, such as cooking the afterbirth of a first born for example for the same reason. Who knows how true it is, China is a vast country with different ethnic groups; some of whom live in barely accesible regions. However, I was merely quoting what Chinese friends of mine have said.Quote:
Originally Posted by crystalmoonshin
I remember I had a very scary Chinese teacher who enjoyed torturing me, the "class vegetarian," by describing in great detail the practice of removing a live monkey's brain for consumption. I wouldn't put anything past the general Chinese standard of things that are acceptable to eat.
Of course, as Brian says, China is very diverse. I think the expression is something along the lines of "eat anything under the sun"...I am having some trouble translating it.
While travelling through Sichuan province last year, we were told the Sichuanese 'eat everything with legs except the table and everything with wings except an aeroplane'! It made us very wary when we sat down to a meal but I think our hosts catered to our Western sensibilities and served only 'bland' food. We were kept away from the markets that sold some of the more 'unusual' foods, though some of the group were horrified by the pigs' heads for sale in a Yunnan market: while I didn't go out of my way to see them, at least I could remember seeing miscellaneous parts for sale in butchers' shops when I was young and rationing was a very recent memory.
Playing action video games can boost an aspect of adult vision previously thought to be fixed, a US study shows.
Researchers found playing the games improved the ability to notice even very small changes in shades of grey against a uniform background.
"Contrast sensitivity" is important in situations such as driving at night, or in conditions of poor visibility.
The Nature Neuroscience study raises the possibility of using a video game training regime to improve vision.
Contrast sensitivity is often one of the first aspects of vision to be affected by ageing.
It can also be affected by conditions such as amblyopia, known as "lazy eye".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7967381.stm
The first Harry Potter novel is England football star Wayne Rooney's book of choice, he revealed, as he backed a reading campaign for children.
The annual project run by the National Literacy Trust aims to use sporting figures to inspire children to read.
Rooney, who said the JK Rowling stories "really get your imagination going", was among 20 English Premier League players to reveal their favourite read.
Michael Morpurgo's War Horse, and Homer's Iliad were also chosen.
Muhammad Ali's autobiography, The Soul Of A Butterfly, was picked by Arsenal player Bacary Sagna, while England and Portsmouth goalkeeper David James recommended baseball tale Moneyball, by M Lewis.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7982803.stm
woah...can anyone else see the serious cat at the top? ;-)
Let me state right at the outset that I know nothing about football, but unfortunately the current obsession with "celebrities" ( ie. anyone that the media choose to tell you ) makes Wayne Rooney the footballer all too unavoidable.
However, the fact that he can read is nice to know, even if he didn't manage to get beyond the first book of the Harry Potter series.
A cheap solar cooker has won first prize in a contest for green ideas.
The Kyoto Box is made from cardboard and can be used for sterilising water or boiling or baking food.
The Kenyan-based inventor hopes it can make solar cooking widespread in the developing world, supplanting the use of wood which is driving deforestation.
Other finalists in the $75,000 (£51,000) competition included a device for streamlining lorries, and a ceiling tile that cools hot rooms.
Organised by Forum for the Future, the sustainable development charity founded by Jonathan Porritt, the competition aims to support concepts that have "moved off the drawing board and demonstrated their feasibility" for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but have not gained corporate backing.
"The Kyoto Box has the potential to transform millions of lives and is a model of scalable, sustainable innovation," said Peter Madden, the forum's chief executive.
It is made from two cardboard boxes, which use reflective foil and black paint to maximise absorption of solar energy.
Covering the cooking pot with a transparent cover retains heat and water, and temperatures inside the pot can reach at least 80C.
As many as two billion people in the world use firewood as their primary fuel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7991654.stm
What's with this orientalism toward Chinese culinary practices? As far as I know, French people and Sicilians like eating horses, Christians in general eat pigs, and cows are consumed daily. On another level, one could see that many Indians, for instance, will not kill cows. Does that mean somehow that they are "cleaner"? Does the fact that Jews and Muslims (practicing ones at any rate) not eat pork make them somehow cleaner?
It seems like there is an inherent stereotyping of Chinese as willing to eat anything, whereas one could say that, for instance, an upper class business man from New York is willing to snort cocaine that was smuggled into the States inside a humanly digested condom, that was later crapped out, spilled out, and sold.
If the quality of food, that is, the availability of quality food, is greater in The U.S. for instance, that is only because the American economy is more supportive. As for the savage eating habits, perhaps some do eat rats, but I doubt out of anything but desperation. In various places in the Caribbean, for instance, Guinea pigs are eaten as a delicacy, yet no one is about to go and proclaim West-Indians will eat anything.
As for the gerbil problem - well, we'll just need to wait until they are all dead before we know how affective the treatment was.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JBI
The Chinese will be the first to tell you that they will eat almost anything edible. More than one of my Chinese friends has told me so and I see no reason to disbelieve them.