{"id":198,"date":"2004-04-27T10:03:27","date_gmt":"2004-04-27T14:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vmalt\/?p=198"},"modified":"2005-12-06T15:27:42","modified_gmt":"2005-12-06T20:27:42","slug":"baby-ka-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/baby-ka-boom","title":{"rendered":"“Baby Ka-Boom”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, I wish I would’ve been the one to come up with that title. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit.<\/p>\n

In the early 1990s, I remember reading about how portable ultrasound units were enabling Chinese villagers to find out if pregnant women were carrying male or female babies. Then, typically, they’d abort the female babies. According to the article I was reading, it was reaching a point where some regions had a birth-rate of 32 boys to every 1 girl.<\/p>\n

There’s a new book on the subject, and it predicts that China will engage in a massive, bloody conflict by 2020, presumably because of the pent-up frustrations of all those grown boys. The book is Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia’s Surplus Male Population<\/em>, by Valerie M. Hudson and Andrea M. den Boer, and the Chronicle of Higher Education just ran a neat article<\/a> on it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, I wish I would’ve been the one to come up with that title. Unfortunately, I can’t take credit. In the early 1990s, I remember reading about how portable ultrasound units were enabling Chinese villagers to find out if pregnant women were carrying male or female babies. Then, typically, they’d abort the female babies. According … <\/p>\n

Continue reading ““Baby Ka-Boom””<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-3c","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1287,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/china-syndrome","url_meta":{"origin":198,"position":0},"title":"China Syndrome","author":"Gil","date":"January 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the early 1990s I read about the big problem with cheap, portable sonograms making their way out to the Chinese provinces: namely, parents were aborting female babies the moment they got the news about their children's gender, because they wanted sons. It didn't take much advance thinking to realize\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4678,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-suppose-captain-spaulding-is-next","url_meta":{"origin":198,"position":1},"title":"I suppose “Captain Spaulding” is next","author":"Gil","date":"November 21, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"We decided a few weeks ago that Rufus T. Firefly would be a happier dog if he had a little sister to keep him company. 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Jeff Daniels, as the politician George Fergus, squares off with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2080,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/unrequired-reading-june-6-2008","url_meta":{"origin":198,"position":3},"title":"Unrequired Reading: June 6, 2008","author":"Gil","date":"June 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My links bring all the boys to the yard. Jessica Helfland laments the death of makereadies. * * * Weapons-grade stupidity (and that's putting it mildly), on display at El Camino High School. * * * Heynow: an awesome interview with Jeffrey Tambor! * * * I have only drunk\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Adventures in Gin"","block_context":{"text":"Adventures in Gin","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/adventures-in-gin"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12469,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-336-dawn-raffel","url_meta":{"origin":198,"position":4},"title":"Episode 336 – Dawn Raffel","author":"Gil","date":"September 9, 2019","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 336: Dawn Raffel \"I think Couney understood that no one else was going to save these children if he didn't.\" Baby incubators and boardwalk sideshows: not exactly a natural fit nowadays, but once upon a time, the best way to save premature babies in America was to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Chicago"","block_context":{"text":"Chicago","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/chicago"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffelcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffelcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffelcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffelcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffelcomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C774&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":18093,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-678-paul-gravett","url_meta":{"origin":198,"position":5},"title":"Episode 678 – Paul Gravett","author":"Gil","date":"June 6, 2026","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 678: Paul Gravett \"We're so used to organizing society by male\/female and other binaries and age, and so many things that slot you into places, and comics perfectly avoid those things. They're a maverick medium or art form that's never been respected.\" Happy Pride! 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