- The China Daily reports on an influx of local high school and college students who are shelling out money for plastic surgery:
Around 3 million surgical and non-surgical operations to improve looks were conducted in China in 2009, and the figure is estimated to double every year, according to partial data from the Ministry of Health, released in October 2010. Up to 80 percent of plastic surgery patients in Beijing last summer were high school and college students, with the rate expected to hit 90 percent this year, according to a study on the Beijing market by China Medical Treatment Orthopedics and Beauty Association.
- Stay-at-home dads are more likely to get divorced, says Parentdish:
A study published in the American Journal of Sociology concludes stay-at-home fathers are more likely to get divorced because, try as they might, they cannot ignore the calling of their Klingon blood. They generally prefer to be out in the world, marauding and competing. Staying at home — especially because of unemployment — drives them to fits of depression.
- Meanwhile, another recent article on Parentdish describes a Swedish study tying folic acid intake with good grades:
During the Swedish study, Reuters reports, researchers did not fortify foods, and kids didn’t use a lot of supplements.What makes the study unique is that it is among the first to examine links between folic acid and academic achievement, Torbjorn Nilsson of Orebro University Hospital tells Reuters. Nilsson and his team studied 386 teenagers who were finishing up ninth grade. When their grades from 10 core classes were added up, there was a clear difference between teens who got the most and the least folic acid.
- In other health news, Beijing officials launched another crackdown on illegal cooking oil in "C- and D-level" restaurants (whatever that means) this week, says The China Daily:
Starting Sunday, inspectors in all district branches of the health bureau are to visit restaurants daily to inspect receipts for cooking oil purchases and investigate supply channels, said Cai Changjing, publicity official of the Beijing health inspection office. Restaurants are prohibited from purchasing cooking oil from illegal sources or buying oil products without having full information about the manufacturer. Violators will face penalties, and their cases will be referred to the public security department.
- Chinasmack has an interesting post (part of a series on overseas Chinese who have returned to live in China) by an American-born Chinese student at Fudan University who came back to China to study in a local high school after growing up in the US:
Yes, I’m probably a bit loony in the head. I think all through that time, I was trying to rationalize my existence. You see, back in the U.S., I was a dorky geek. I had almost no social life, few friends, but perfect grades. I took “Gifted and Talented Classes”, took the SAT’s 4 years early (1400/1600), and was well on my way to becoming an introverted scholar-guy receiving an above average salary for doing some technical job most people would find boring, like database management or whatever. On looking around, I realized that EVERYONE seemed to have the exact same personality as me. This made be feel uncomfortable. At least in the U.S., I could justify my lack of social grace with “intelligence”.
