Not everything is going swimmingly for China. First, there are demographic woes, even given the country’s pro-natalist policies:
  https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202001/18/WS5e22494fa310128217271d58.html

“The birthrate on the Chinese mainland reached a record low last year, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics on Friday showed. The total number of babies born last year was 14.65 million, a decrease of 580,000 from the previous year, while the birthrate stood at 10.48 per 1,000 population－the lowest over the past seven decades, according to the bureau. Meanwhile, total population on the mainland narrowly exceeded 1.4 billion by the end of last year, an increase of 4.7 million year-on-year. Last year marked the third consecutive year of falling births on the mainland despite the universal second-child policy having been adopted at the beginning of 2016. The policy, which encourages all couples to have two children, was designed to boost births to cope with rapid population aging. Births reached 17.86 million in 2016, the highest since 2000, according to the National Health Commission, but they fell to 17.23 million in 2017 and to 15.23 million in 2018. Ning Jizhe, head of the NBS, said at a news conference on Friday that despite the decrease, the total number of births last year on the mainland was still very big, and the universal second-child policy has played a very important role in encouraging births. The decrease last year was the smallest, he said. Births fell by 630,000 in 2017 and by 2 million in 2018. "Of all babies born last year, 59.5 percent were the second or more child, with the percentage rising over the past few years," Ning said. The percentage has remained at about 50 percent since the universal second-child policy was enacted, according to the National Health Commission. Despite the policy, many couples in China were not willing to have a second baby, for reasons such as the high cost of raising children and a lack of nursery facilities, according to a survey organized by the commission.”

     Albert Einstein once complained in a letter about how pushed around American men were by their women, and he did it in tones that would be howled down today; but he was right. I can’t quickly find the letter on the net, but Einstein has been in hot water for realistic portrayal of various nations in his travels at the time.
  https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jun/12/einsteins-travel-diaries-reveal-shocking-xenophobia

     Now the tide turns, and the claim of his wife Mileva Maric Einstein, to his intellectual contribution is being made:
  https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/the-forgotten-life-of-einsteins-first-wife/

     The annual Women’s March has occurred in the US, basically a Leftist, feminist, anti-Trump event, with a mast song in Spanish, America’s soon to be national language, titled, “A Rapist in Your Path”:
  https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/01/17/womens-march-promotes-2020-rallies-spanish-language-song-titled-rapist-your-path/

“The anti-Trump inspired Women’s March is taking place on Saturday in Washington, DC, with “patriarchy” and “rape” as themes, according to the event’s website. “Three years of marching, training, organizing, and building power – it’s all been leading up to this. In 2020, we have the chance to strengthen the movement we started three years, and to unite together in the face of continued attacks on our bodies, our rights, our immigrant communities, and our planet,” the website states. “This year, we aren’t just marching. We’re putting our bodies on the line hand in hand with other mass movements.”

     I have always felt uneasy about X-rays, I mean, it is quite unnatural to be able to see inside one’s body. Surely if God wanted this, He would have made us with zippers, or transparent! 
And, now that we, well, maybe not me, but scientists, know about DNA and mutations, there are other questions to ask:
  https://www.studyfinds.org/radiation-levels-comparable-to-x-rays-cause-mutations-in-lab-grown-human-cells/

“X-rays have been a staple of modern medicine for a long time, and any doctor or radiologist is quick to tell their patients that there are absolutely no risks or harmful side effects associated with the radiation necessary to perform an X-ray. Now, researchers from Erasmus University Medical Center and Oncode Institute in the Netherlands have discovered that low doses of radiation, long believed to be safe, did in fact create breaks in lab grown human cells that allowed additional DNA to enter the chromosome. In more simplistic terms, the radiation caused mutations on the cellular level. To be clear, these findings do not mean that going to have an X-ray is going to harm you, and extensive further research is necessary involving actual living animals, and eventually humans, before any real conclusions can be drawn. Still, the results of this study at the very least are concerning, and seem to indicate that there are still some aspects of how radiation interacts with our bodies, on a cellular level, that science has yet to fully understand.

This is just a light-hearted piece, that occurred to me when reading about men who have their backs to the wall, and facing losing everything, requested by the court, trial by combat. And, of course, such a request is thought, wrongly, to be incompatible with modern law, but not all law.
  https://nypost.com/2020/01/15/kansas-man-wants-to-settle-ugly-custody-battle-with-trial-by-combat-with-japanese-swords/
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trial_by_combat

“Unlike trial by ordeal in general, which is known to many cultures worldwide, trial by combat is known primarily from the customs of the Germanic peoples. It was in use among the ancient Burgundians, Ripuarian Franks, Alamans, Lombards, and Swedes. It was unknown in Anglo-Saxon law, Roman law and Irish Brehon Law and it does not figure in the traditions of Middle Eastern antiquity such as the code of Hammurabi or the Torah.
The practice is regulated in various Germanic legal codes. Being rooted in Germanic tribal law, the various regional laws of the Frankish Empire (and the later Holy Roman Empire) prescribed different particulars, such as equipment and rules of combat. The Lex Alamannorum (recension Lantfridana 81, dated to 712–730 AD) prescribes a trial by combat in the event of two families disputing the boundary between their lands. A handful of earth taken from the disputed piece of land is put between the contestants and they are required to touch it with their swords, each swearing that their claim is lawful. The losing party besides forfeiting their claim to the land is required to pay a fine. Capitularies governing its use appear from the year 803 onwards. Louis the Pious prescribed combat between witnesses of each side, rather than between the accuser and the accused, and briefly allowed for the Ordeal of the Cross in cases involving clerics. In medieval Scandinavia, the practice survived throughout the Viking Age in the form of the Holmgang. An unusual variant, the marital duel, involved combat between a husband and wife, with the former physically handicapped in some way. The loser was killed.”

     Many municipalities in Germany are clambering, indeed, falling over themselves to get more magical refugees, whom they believe will pay boomer pensions, I suppose. The idea is that as always, migrants will solve every problem, being, well, magical.
  https://www.dw.com/en/german-municipalities-demand-action-refugees-mediterranean/a-51990144

     But, maybe not:
  https://www.dw.com/en/immigration-not-going-to-stop-germanys-demographic-problem/a-18993548

     The ultra-paranoid John Steele has come to the big smoke for a few days, and he is with me now, both of us drunk on the cheap alcohol he went out and brought. I do not complain, being so poor I can’t’ afford a dentist, or to get my fridge fixed (which seems to have the motor run for 15 minutes, then stop, for another 15 minutes, then run again, running up my power bill), so getting drunk is my only temporary release. Anyway, onto the joint masterpiece, not my whinging …

    With global nuclear annihilation, one possible future, the question arises as to what the remnant will eat in the post-apocalyptic wasteland:
  https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/10744317/doomsday-diet-revealed-nuclear-apocalypse/

     The growth of survivalism, or doomsday prepping has been attributed to the media generating fear of existential threats:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-14/new-study-finds-media-generated-fear-driving-doomsday-prepping
  https://www.studyfinds.org/study-finds-rise-in-doomsday-prepping-due-to-mainstream-american-culture-of-fear/
  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-american-studies/article/obamageddon-fear-the-far-right-and-the-rise-of-doomsday-prepping-in-obamas-america/BDF4879C45C6F86F4E2F9FBEBF35D55E
  http://allnewspipeline.com/2019_The_year_Of_The_Prepper.php

““Doomsday prepping” or stockpiling food, medicine, weapons and other supplies in case of an apocalyptic scenario has long been considered peculiar behavior only exhibited by conspiracy theorists and other extremists in the United States. However, such prepping has actually been steadily on the rise in the U.S. over the past decade. So, what’s causing this surge in stockpiled rice packets and underground bunkers? One group of researchers say it is an ever growing sense of impending doom in American culture. Many have speculated that this surge in doomsday preppers over the last 10 years was linked to an extreme political reaction among many conservatives to Barack Obama’s initial election in 2008, but a new study out of the United Kingdom finds that neither the Obama presidency nor extreme right-wing conspiracy theories in general are the main cause of this growing phenomenon. Researchers interviewed preppers from 18 U.S. states and asked about their motivations for stockpiling food and supplies. The results indicated that, although most did seem to be conservative and fear liberal policies, the main reason behind their motivations was the overall sense of fear currently dominating U.S. culture across a variety of media channels. Most Americans can’t seem to log online or turn on the television without being hit by a grim view of the future being reported or speculated on.

     I will be producing articles attacking the naïve empiricism of sites like American Renaissance over the IQ issue, especially their ranking of East Asians over Nordics/Northern Europeans. Anyway, here is some material about how nations cheat with the economic statistics, which is something the naïve empiricist school does not address:
  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-06-11/world-s-fastest-growing-economy-may-not-be-so-fast-after-all

“India’s statistics may have been painting a far rosier picture of economic growth than the more modest reality of the past decade. The nation has held the crown of the world’s fastest-growing major economy until recently, but a new study by former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian says the expansion was overestimated between 2011 and 2017. Rather than growing at about 7% a year in that period, growth was about 4.5%, according to the research paper, published by the Center for International Development at Harvard University. The overestimation occurred after the previous Congress-led government changed the methodology in calculating gross domestic product in 2012. One of the key adjustments was a shift to financial accounts-based data compiled by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, from volume-based data previously. This made GDP estimates more sensitive to price changes, in a period of lower oil prices, according to the research paper. Rather than deflate input values by input prices, the new methodology deflated these values by output prices, which could have overstated manufacturing growth. The Statistics Ministry defended the data, saying in a statement on Tuesday that the GDP estimates are “based on accepted procedures, methodologies and available data and objectively measure the contribution of various sectors in the economy.”

     I am always amazed at how sites like American Renaissance have an uncritical acceptance of data, such as IQ, especially that always ranking whites second to other special  groups, even though the entire field of the social science is stricken by a replication crisis, and the widespread existence of fraud and misplaced use of statistics. Thus, we have a highly cited  paper arguing that most published  research is false:
  https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124

“There is increasing concern that most current published research findings are false. The probability that a research claim is true may depend on study power and bias, the number of other studies on the same question, and, importantly, the ratio of true to no relationships among the relationships probed in each scientific field. In this framework, a research finding is less likely to be true when the studies conducted in a field are smaller; when effect sizes are smaller; when there is a greater number and lesser preselection of tested relationships; where there is greater flexibility in designs, definitions, outcomes, and analytical modes; when there is greater financial and other interest and prejudice; and when more teams are involved in a scientific field in chase of statistical significance. Simulations show that for most study designs and settings, it is more likely for a research claim to be false than true. Moreover, for many current scientific fields, claimed research findings may often be simply accurate measures of the prevailing bias. In this essay, I discuss the implications of these problems for the conduct and interpretation of research.”

     The magic of limited, but diminishing freedom of speech in the USA, allows us to make references here to controversial topics, that would take to long to delicately unravel by us, running up the costs of passing copy to our over-worked and under-paid, legal department:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-western-media-not-questioning-mysterious-death-australian-youth-activist-wilson-gavin

Yes, there is plenty here on the threat of social media bullying, but the core issue discussed frankly by Zero Hedge does not get a mention. Best to keep one’s kids out of public libraries. I go there each day, as do most of my fellow journalists, as we use free internet to get the job here done, most of us not having the money for a laptop and paid internet. I find the libraries full of ferals, just like public transport in the off-peak period. I would like to do a James Reed and say, “close ‘em all down,” but I am dependent upon them until my ship comes in.
  https://www.smh.com.au/national/the-sad-death-of-wilson-gavin-a-plea-for-civil-debate-over-toxic-pile-ons-20200116-p53s5x.html

     Sex attacks on white British children was ignored by the South Yorkshire police because the rapists were Asian; there will be no mention of this at all of the “anti-racist” sites, because non-whites can do no harm if whites are the victims, because of …well …white racism blah, blah. Dealing with the rapes was thought to inflame racial tensions, so it was better to let the men rape away. According to The Times, an unnamed senior police officer said: “With it being Asians, we can’t afford for this to come out,” based on an advanced copy of the Independent Office for Police Conduct’s five-year investigation. Police knew that this had been going on for 30 years, but ignored it.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7901731/Police-chief-admitted-force-ignored-sex-abuse-grooming-gangs-30-years.html

“A woman whose sexual exploitation as a child was ignored by police over fears of increasing racial tensions in Rotherham has said the force 'aided and abetted' the abuse of hundreds of children. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) upheld six complaints against South Yorkshire Police by a woman abused as a child for several years, starting in 2003. According to a leaked report seen by PA and first reported by The Times, the watchdog said it was 'very clear that you were sexually exploited by Asian men' and found police were aware of suspects but 'took insufficient action to prevent you from harm'. The woman, who received the 13-page report on Wednesday after first making the complaints in 2014, said children were 'sacrificed' by the failings of the police. She told the PA news agency: 'I always thought that maybe the police didn't understand what was happening until I got the report, and now I fully understand that they knew exactly what was going on. 'How could they do this to hundreds and hundreds of children? How could they go home at night after doing a shift and go to sleep? 'We were never seen as children abused, they didn't care at all.'

     It has been wonderful to see the outpouring of support for those whose lives have been turned upside down with loss of lives, homes and precious possessions. It demonstrates the Australian acceptance of the essential Christian heritage of loving ones neighbour as oneself. Mateship demonstrated no less.

     There has always been a concern in my mind as to how the enormous sums that have been collected are to be distributed. It is reported that $50 million has been donated from the USA celebrities alone. It will be interesting to see if one home is built from this fund. It will be put into the hands of a manager and how is he /she to decide whose bank account to put it in? There were massive public funds raised after the terrible fires in Victoria some years ago, does anyone know how many new homes (if any) were built with that money?

     I came across this paper, while paddling in the big ocean of the internet.

Traditional Diet and Food Preferences of Australian Aboriginal Hunter-Gatherers [and Discussion] Author(s): Kerin O'Dea, P. A. Jewell, A. Whiten, S. A. Altmann, S. S. Strickland and O. T. Oftedal Source: Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, Vol. 334, No. 1270, Foraging Strategies and Natural Diet of Monkeys, Apes and Humans (Nov. 29, 1991), pp. 233-241

     The most frequent question I have received over the last month is “who is to blame for the bushfire mess up and down the east coast?” There is a school of thought, mostly put about by state premiers, that the blame game is bad form. We should put the whole bushfire business behind us and move on, they say. Forget the past, the future will be wonderful. I reject this concept, because in any disaster situation lessons must be learned (or rather re-learned) and those lessons applied to improving the way things are done. I also believe those who need to be accountable for the current mess must be identified and the ways they have let us down highlighted.

     The trouble with side-stepping accountability is that mistakes are perpetuated. The same people go back to business as usual, and the same disasters re-occur. If nobody has done anything wrong, as the premiers maintain, no changes need to be made.

     The Royal marriage of Harry and Meghan was a multiculturalists dream come true, where a mixed race, totally woke, politically correct actress, who had done various sex scenes in movies, moved into the Royal Family, to liven it up with magical diversity.  Ok, that looked initially plausible on paper, but, like with Lady Di, disaster has struck, because of personalities:
  https://www.counter-currents.com/2020/01/prince-simp/print/
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/01/12/buckingham-palace-fears-sussexes-could-go-public-damaging-accusations/

“The Duke of Sussex will come face-to-face with the Queen on Monday amid Buckingham Palace fears that he and his wife could go public with damaging accusations about the family if they do not get what they want.
As the Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge join forces to confront the Duke, 35, for the first time since he announced plans to walk away from his role, the threat of a “no-holds-barred” television interview loomed large. The crisis summit taking place at Sandringham is expected to last several hours as the family combs through the various scenarios that could form a blueprint for the Sussex’s “progressive” new roles.”

     I just knew it; the most dangerous “terrorists” today are the climate change fanatics, who want to overturn our beautiful consumer society, which has given us magical things, like plastics, duct tape etc.
  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/10/xr-extinction-rebellion-listed-extremist-ideology-police-prevent-scheme-guidance

“Counter-terrorism police placed the non-violent group Extinction Rebellion (XR) on a list of extremist ideologies that should be reported to the authorities running the Prevent programme, which aims to catch those at risk of committing atrocities, the Guardian has learned. The climate emergency campaign group was included in a 12-page guide produced by counter-terrorism police in the south-east titled Safeguarding young people and adults from ideological extremism, which is marked as “official”. XR featured alongside threats to national security such as neo-Nazi terrorism and a pro-terrorist Islamist group. The guide, aimed at police officers, government organisations and teachers who by law have to report concerns about radicalisation, was dated last November. It says that issues to look out for include people who speak in “strong or emotive terms about environmental issues like climate change, ecology, species extinction, fracking, airport expansion or pollution”. In the guide, people are advised to listen and look out for young people who “neglect to attend school” or “participate in planned school walkouts” – an allusion to the school strikes for the climate, a global movement of which the activist Greta Thunberg is a lead proponent. Thousands of UK pupils, and millions worldwide, walked out of school last year in protest at government inaction on the climate crisis. The document also flags young people taking part in non-violent direct action, such as sit-down protests, banner drops or “writing environmentally themed graffiti”. The disclosure that XR has been listed alongside proscribed groups such as National Action and Al-Muhajiroun is likely to be deeply embarrassing for counter-terror chiefs. They have for years faced claims that Prevent can cross the line to stifle legitimate free speech, thought and dissent.”

     Stephen King writes trash in MY opinion, but many people love him. Well, it is an unfree country, and we all have opinions, until imprisoned in concentration camps. But consider: there was a mostly white male Oscar night, and King made the mistake of saying, well, its just quality, bud, not discrimination. No, wrong policy move:
  https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/01/14/nyt-mostly-white-male-late-night-hosts-slam-mostly-white-male-oscar-nominees/
  https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2020/01/14/left-cancels-stephen-king-for-backward-and-ignorant-oscars-diversity-comments/

“Author and Trump hater Stephen King is feeling the heat from fellow liberals following his tweets about the Academy Award nominations, in which he said that quality is more important than diversity when it comes to creating works of art. Filmmaker Ava DuVernay hit back at King, calling his comments “backward and ignorant.” Author Laura Lippman also called out King, saying that the Hollywood system is “rigged.” Roxane Gay, the author and contributing opinion writer at The New York Times, expressed her disappointment in King, saying that “most industries only believe in quality from one demographic.” King has become a darling among left-wing Hollywood types and the cultural elite for his vehement anti-Trump stance. The author of The Shining and Misery has repeatedly insulted President Donald Trump  and his supporters on social media, calling him a “horse’s ass” and a “vile, racist, and incompetent bag of guts.” Stephen King posted his diversity comments in reaction to mainstream media outrage over the Oscar nominations on Monday. Hollywood journalists turned their knives on the the Academy for what they saw as a lack of diversity among this year’s acting categories. Harriet actress Cynthia Erivo was the only non-white acting nominee this year, prompting journalists to resurrect the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.”

To The Age          It is good to know that the Nazi flag flown in Beulah has been taken down ("No reason to go soft on hate", 18/1). If I had been a neighbour, I would have pleaded with those flying it to consider the loss of amenity it caused to me and others in the neighbourhood. I would have suggested other ways they could express their views in a less intrusive way. I would have referred to the need to take into consideration the general public perception of Nazism, even if their view differed. However, the episode has encouraged Tim Soutphommasane to continue his campaign to limit "hate speech" in Australia ("No reason to go soft on hate", 18/1) and I shiver a little when he writes that "there are just some things we mustn't tolerate." He deplores the fact that the flying of a Nazi flag involved "the advocacy of Nazism." Yes, but not everything about Nazism was or is unreservedly bad. We should continue to beware of any attempts to limit speech in contexts where there is no clear threat of violence. Flying a flag is in that category.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Anti-racism and woke political correctness can get mighty confusing; at some point, even the most careful, and brownest of nosed sycophants, falls afoul of our insane system. It can also give one a mighty thirst, but let’s leave that one:
  https://summit.news/2020/01/15/uk-university-says-complaining-about-everything-becoming-a-race-issue-is-a-racist-microaggression/

“The University of Sheffield in the UK is to pay its own students to patrol thought crimes, one of which is the common complaint that everything is becoming a race issue, which the university considers to be a racist microaggression. Checkmate, bigots. “A university is to hire 20 of its own students to challenge language on campus that could be seen as racist,” reports the BBC. “The University of Sheffield is to pay students to tackle so-called “microaggressions” – which it describes as “subtle but offensive comments.” According to the university, examples of these microaggressions include;