Destructive Power of the Media- the end of reason.
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Neither is Japan, and they are offering incentives as well to boost birth rates.
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Oh yes indeed .......
Yes the Ducati Demographic valve train is great ....... ??
Bugger that! I'm on a south pacific island here!! I don't know what "demographics" is!
Arrabbiata1
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And yet still ....... officially .....
http://australia.gov...y/austn-islands
Mind if I keep doing it the official way?
Sigh..
If that means posting the same government website ad nauseum then whatever makes you happy.
Can't find the bit where it says that Australia is the worlds largest Island though probably because it is classified as a continent.
Sorry quoted this before you started your usual edit. I am fully aware that Australia is an Island - so is Rog that is not in dispute, but because of Oz's status as a continent the worlds largest island is in fact Greenland.
http://news.bbc.co.u...les/1023393.stm
You can keep defiantly posting the official government link all you like, nowhere does it claim to be the worlds largest island. Now try finding 'official' confirmation of that.
So there you have the two countries in question, both with low immigration, both needing (wanting?) to boost reproduction rates.
What does that say?
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Not sure if the world follows sports in the US, but maybe the most revered college football program, along with the most revered coach were smashed to a pulp yesterday by the governing committee of college athletics {NCAA}. Penn State, a school that we had been taught for 5 decades was the beacon that every school should pattern themselves after, turned out to be the slimiest of them all. Their legendary coach, who passed away just months ago was the winningest in the history of college football. He graduated his players, he recruited clean, but he had a dark dark secret. To protect the cash cow known as Penn State football, he, along with the president of the university, the athletic director, and other regents of the school, covered up a child molester who was one of the coaching staff. This ....... was raping little boys, and was caught by another assistant coach in the act going all Greek on this kid in a shower. The assistant coach that witnessed the act, goes to the head coach and tells him what he saw. The head coach goes to the President and athletic director to report what he has been told. From there, they decide it would be in the best interest for the reputation of the school and football program, to retire the slimeball and sweep it under the rug. All the while, allowing the ......... full access to the athletic facilities where he wooed young impressionable boys through a foundation for troubled boys that he chaired. This .... went on for 12 years and numerous victims, 10 at last count. The perv is in prison, the head coach was fired and died, the fired President and others are facing criminal charges, for what, money. Tarnishing the reputation of the program would have made it harder to recruit, which means its harder to win, which means the hangers on who pump money into the program through endowments so they can be associated with a winner, dwindle. For money and winning, these men allowed at least ten young boys to be ruined by a sexual predator. As punishment, the school was fined 60 million dollars, one years revenue from the football program.
Scholarships were slashed by 20, they were banned for 4years from bowl games and put on probation for 4 years. All wins by the winningest coach in history were vacated for the last 11 years, a symbolic gesture for those would sell their soul for wins. I thought they got off light.
I don't think the whole thing sustains close examination. Europe was always previously called a continent, panama canal and suez canal come into it, antarctica is apparently not a continuous land mass but separate ones joined by ice etc etc. Australia is not uncommonly referred to the as the island continent.
The geographers seem to keep changing their minds and terminology. I actually learnt on this forum that you guys are inhabitants of the atlantic archipelago.
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The BBC you say!! by golly.
but as it says here:
http://australia.gov...y/austn-islands
"The continent of Australia is referred to as an island because it is surrounded by ocean"
"As an island, Australia is a natural quarantine zone."
The BBC you say!! by golly thats gotta be right then !! .............. is Top Gear on the BBC?
I think I'll just stick to what we declare ourselves thanks
Arrabbiata1
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The BBC you say!! by golly.
but as it says here:
http://australia.gov...y/austn-islands
"The continent of Australia is referred to as an island because it is surrounded by ocean"
"As an island, Australia is a natural quarantine zone."
The BBC you say!! by golly thats gotta be right then !! .............. is Top Gear on the BBC?
I think I'll just stick to what we declare ourselves thanks
Yeah we know you're an Island but as I am at pains to explain to you, you are also a continent...as Michael says, an 'Island Continent' -
which is the 'official' terminology
Now find an official link 'declaring yourselves' the largest island which is the crux of the debate - you haven't yet and won't because Greenland is - while Australia, despite being an island, is classified as an 'Island continent'.
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Im just wondering at what point will cultures realize that they are dooming themselves to extinction. Im more interested in why they have quit reproducing in numbers that will sustain them. Is it a financial decision, a moral decision, or something much more serious. There are studies that show sperm count has dropped significantly in some cultures over the past 50 years. Why is that. Chemicals in our foods, in our water, in everything we consume. Are we evolving, or systematically being sterilized. It seems the most " advanced" countries are the ones being affected, while the less advanced just churn out younguns by the van load. Could our " advanced" way of life be detrimental to our existence in the long run. Just some things to think about.
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If you really wonder, there is quite a bit of good, scientific literature about it that I'd be happy to look up for you if I have a little time for it. I suspect you'll find that the main causes for decreased birthrates are a combination of secularization, female labour market participation, more options for birthcontrol, the rise of the welfare state replacing the need for large numbers off offspring to ensure subsistence in old age, decreasing infant mortality.
The picture you paint of extinction due to lagging birthrates is a falsehood given current knowledge. However, I'm happy you brought it up, as I was previously unaware of the way this issue has been cooked up by fundamentalists.
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You dont believe there is a tipping point where whereas a culture or species can go extinct. Im not saying it will happen next week, next year or next century, but if you continue to reproduce at a rate that is lower than the required rate of sustainability, the math will eventually catch up, especially if there is a pandemic or two along the way. All the things you say make perfect sense as factors, but it doesnt address low sperm count in todays modern male.
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Sure, it is a theoretical possibility, just one that is extremely unlikely to occur in reality.
I don't know much about the sperm count. I would naturally be sceptical about the validity of empirical findings that would substantiate the finding that some cultures (nations? which?) saw a significant decrease over the past 50 year but that's more because I have some sense of the data required to substantiate such a finding. It could be true in any case, I do not know. I don't much about the factors that affect sperm count. I believe frequent ejaculation decreases it, so perhaps we've all been jacking off too much.
Arrabbiata1
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Precisely
Arrabbiata1
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From Malthus trough to evolutionary game theory or the epidemiological cycle, population dynamics is a fascinating albeit extraordinarily complex subject.
Can I recommend 'Population Geography' by Huw Jones in particular - must be on about the tenth edition by now. It will answer many of your questions, but it is unable to account for why so many males in Tennessee are firing blanks.
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Which leads us to internet ..... Who would thunk that a little one on one romance while the wife was at work would be the end of man.
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Hey, the dinosaurs got whiped out in a fiery inferno, we .... ourselves to death. You tell me that's not progress!
