Article

2006-01-12 -Short Attention Span Theater-

Toxic waste creates hermaphrodite Arctic polar bears

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Posted by anonymous5089 2006-01-12 10:49|| || Front Page|| [2 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 They can go f*ck themselves.

Posted by BH 2006-01-12 11:20|| 2006-01-12 11:20|| Front Page Top

#2 They found that the bears in Norway's Svalbard, a wildlife refuge where all hunting is banned, had 10 times the levels of the chemicals than bears in Alaska and four times those in Canada.

???????

Posted by gromgoru 2006-01-12 11:25|| 2006-01-12 11:25|| Front Page Top

#3 gromgoru, I'd suggest a combination of prevailings winds and proximity of industry.

Posted by phil_b">phil_b 2006-01-12 11:57|| http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/]">[http://autonomousoperation.blogspot.com/] 2006-01-12 11:57|| Front Page Top

#4 I say proximity to discos and androgynous males therein.

Posted by ed 2006-01-12 12:03|| 2006-01-12 12:03|| Front Page Top

#5 Phil_b
To be entirely sure, I'd have to read the original professional report. However, I'd guess that (i) the methodology and (ii) the interpretation of results in that that paper are (somewhat) less than perfect.
Happens even then authors don't have a politico/ideological ax to grind.

Posted by gromgoru 2006-01-12 12:13|| 2006-01-12 12:13|| Front Page Top

#6 How do they know it's not evolution?

Posted by tu3031 2006-01-12 12:14|| 2006-01-12 12:14|| Front Page Top

#7 Any minute now, someone's going to form a letterhead group called Transgendered Polar Bears Against Global Warming, or some such.

Posted by Mike">Mike 2006-01-12 12:16|| 2006-01-12 12:16|| Front Page Top

#8 Please tell me the rate of hermaphrodism in polar bears for the last 150 years. What, you mean no one has ever studied it before? A statisically insignificant data point is generated and that means that evil industrialists are the cause.

Posted by Whinemp Unogum4891 2006-01-12 12:51|| 2006-01-12 12:51|| Front Page Top

#9 I blame Brokebank Mtn

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-12 12:53|| 2006-01-12 12:53|| Front Page Top

#10 "Giant hairy she-males... I think I already saw that somewhere on the internet..."

andrewsullivan.com?

Posted by Dave D.">Dave D. 2006-01-12 13:18|| 2006-01-12 13:18|| Front Page Top

#11 The Wedding Announcments in the Boston Sunday Globe...

Posted by tu3031 2006-01-12 13:21|| 2006-01-12 13:21|| Front Page Top

#12 Frank G : speaking of that gay cowboys movie I so much read about, I really wonder why the Hollywood suits didn't call it "Bareback mountain", given the opening (hum) of the plot, the lurid (unlubrificated, guess that hurts, especially if you're going to ride a horse for hours the next day) love in the tent.

Posted by anonymous5089 2006-01-12 13:46|| 2006-01-12 13:46|| Front Page Top

#13 Giant hairy she-males...

Must be Ellen deGeneres night at the Comedy Club.

Posted by Mike 2006-01-12 13:52|| 2006-01-12 13:52|| Front Page Top

#14 could this be related to the loss of fertility in developed countries?

Nah, that's socialism. Too much imposed control on what is naturally a chaotic environment leads to entropy which leads to stagnation which leads to decay which leads to a couple chapters back in the history books.

Posted by Glamble Elmeating6835 2006-01-12 14:33|| 2006-01-12 14:33|| Front Page Top

#15 I suppose someone did a study of the incidence of pre-PBDE hermaphrodite bears, and thats how we know that the 1/50 rate is a significant increase compared to the historical norms for Norway's Svalbard. Who is out there sexing these rare polar bears in large numbers? Still no cure for cancer.

Posted by Darrell 2006-01-12 14:48|| 2006-01-12 14:48|| Front Page Top

#16 Frank, you gotta change careers and do stand up!! LOL

Posted by RD 2006-01-12 16:12|| 2006-01-12 16:12|| Front Page Top

#17 I understand that everything is Bush's fault, but I'm not exactly sure how pollutants would get there from the U.S. The Atlantic currents flow north to south along the east coast, as do the Pacific currents along the Pacific coast. The prevailing jet stream flows west to east in North America, sucking air south from Canada.

Posted by DoDo 2006-01-12 16:35|| 2006-01-12 16:35|| Front Page Top

#18 :-) I tried it, but the crowd said I'd be a better engineer...not sure what they were saying..

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-12 17:32|| 2006-01-12 17:32|| Front Page Top

#19 Nah, that's socialism.

Question: Is there *any* country (other than the United States) that you DON'T consider to be a socialist one?

Just want to see if there's any true correlation between childbirths and your belief in which nations constitutes socialist ones and which don't. But if there's only one non-socialist nation in the world, namely yours, attempts at correlation become meaningless.

Posted by Aris Katsaris">Aris Katsaris 2006-01-12 18:24|| 2006-01-12 18:24|| Front Page Top

#20 Been wondering where Rosie O'Donnell's been lately....

Posted by CrazyFool 2006-01-12 18:30|| 2006-01-12 18:30|| Front Page Top

#21 Question: Is there *any* country (other than the United States) that you DON'T consider to be a socialist one?

That's a reasonable question, Aris. I can only speak for myself, but here goes:

1)Mexico - Pure dog-eat-dog capitalist by nature. Corrupt, but capitalist.

2)Singapore - Tiny authoritarian capitalist nation that is also quite wealthy.

3)Estonia - Have instituted Steven Forbes economic ideas straight down the line. Currently has the fastest growing economy in Europe.

Those are off the top of my head.

Posted by Secret Master 2006-01-12 18:47|| 2006-01-12 18:47|| Front Page Top

#22 Thank you, Secret Master.

Going by the fertility rates at a CIA info page we have:

Estonia - 1.39 children per woman
Singapore - 1.05 children per woman (third lowest fertility in the world)
Mexico - 2.45 children per woman

There doesn't seem to be any positive correlation here between socialism and low fertility rates -- or the opposite, capitalism and high fertility ones.

Indeed going by the index of economic freedom and comparing the five most economically free with the most economically repressed countries, and correlating fertility rates with each:

Most free
---------
Hong Kong 0.93
Singapore 1.05
Ireland 1.87
Luxembourg 1.79
United Kingdom 1.66
Iceland 1.92

Least Free
----------
North Korea 2.15
Iran 1.82
Burma 2.01
Zimbabwe 3.18
Libya 3.34
Venezuela 2.26

...we see that the more economically free countries seem to tend to have fewer children than the more repressed ones, though that's far from an absolute.

Posted by Aris Katsaris">Aris Katsaris 2006-01-12 19:22|| 2006-01-12 19:22|| Front Page Top

#23 Frank G.
As to that movie... I don't buy it.
I grew up about 7 miles from GoatRope (er cowboy) country and have lots of real cowboy type relatives.
I just don't see it. Before this century if there was any hint a cowboy was gay (only they would have used a different word starting with the letter Q) that cowboy would have had the living daylights whupped out of him by the other cowboys and likely dragged through Texas Sandburs, Tared and Feathered and left for Indians to laugh at.

Its just not plausible.

Posted by 3dc 2006-01-12 20:05|| 2006-01-12 20:05|| Front Page Top

#24 You make a valid point Aris: economic freedom generally equates to lower birth rates, but not uniformly so.

It's strange to see that Ireland's fertility rate has dropped that far. That's not the Ireland I remember from years past!

Posted by Secret Master 2006-01-12 20:14|| 2006-01-12 20:14|| Front Page Top

#25 3dc - I agree, I'm sure there were some....but they'd have had to be awfully discrete for the reasons you note. This is Hollywood celebrating itself and their values, nothing more. I have a couple friends/coworkers who are gay and a two cousins that are as well. All I ask is (the same as my hetero friends) keep it to yourself. I don't need public displays of affection, or to hear how "hot" that guy is. They agree or they wouldn't be friends

Posted by Frank G">Frank G 2006-01-12 20:24|| 2006-01-12 20:24|| Front Page Top

#26 I really wonder why the Hollywood suits didn't call it "Bareback mountain"

I read somewhere (can't remember where and don't know if it's true) that they originally did intend to call it that but changed their mind. However, for reasons unclear - (as it would have generated tons of publicity for their target audience) they decided it wasn't a good idea.

Posted by 2b 2006-01-12 21:33|| 2006-01-12 21:33|| Front Page Top

#27 Aris,

Birthrates mean nothing, note North Korea, if they don't live beyond adolescence. It is the adult population, or least one that can reproduce that makes the difference. If you breed them you got to feed them, otherwise its just a number count for the bureaucrats.

Posted by Ebbeagum Cleque4324 2006-01-12 22:13|| 2006-01-12 22:13|| Front Page Top

16:47 BirdDog
16:28 BirdDog
14:59 BirdDog
14:55 BirdDog
16:10 BirdDog
12:07 BirdDog
11:22 BirdDog
08:01 ARMYGUY
00:00 2b
23:49 2b
23:48 tipper
23:18 Old Patriot
23:07 Hank
22:38 ed
22:32 Phil
22:16 Spinese Clealet3760
22:13 Ebbeagum Cleque4324
22:10 Nimble Spemble
22:10 Jake
22:09 gromgoru
22:07 doc
22:07 Jake
22:06 gromgoru
22:06 trailing wife