Mid-week links: on parenting, China, and pretty pictures

• Why do girl characters, even in Pixar movies, have to be princesses?  Because Disney has already cornered that market, and drives gender-politics aware parents over the edge. While we are on the topic of parenting, will stay-at-home dads ever make peace with themselves?  And will they teach their kids to argue constructively?  Why would you want to? Perhaps to prevent them from turning into passive-aggressive adults, or ones that use violence as an outlet for their inarticulateness. Here are 50 ways to be persuasive. Some are not suitable for children.
• China is suffering less than expected in terms of growth numbers, could it be because of its stimulus package, and the torrents of domestic lending it has unleashed? Numbers show that China is on track to build more 3G base stations than all the operators in Western Europe. Why are they in such a hurry? Pre-emptive strike against reserve/investment depreciation?  Too bad they got turned down by Australia on the Rio Tinto deal, although this time around (unlike the Unocal deal), the failure was blamed on economics versus politics. But not to worry, they are venturing out to Africa (link is video), and Latin America.
• Pictures are great: depiction on bankruptcies, history of Crayola, a dress for 365 days a year.

picture source: max6

More from our archives

• Sex tourists inconvenienced by Thailand’s social uprising, and other things of decadence
• Here’s an account of Tibet history you don’t hear very often
• If you can only choose one, would you pick transparency over democracy?
• Drugs in somewhat unlikely places
• What I’m reading today