India Bans Captive Dolphin Shows as ‘Morally Unacceptable’ - Says they're highly intelligent & should be seen as ‘non-human persons’ with their own specific rights

I remember when few years ago India outlawed manual cleaning of latrines, which resulted in nothing. Everything besides decisions of Supreme Court of India can be easily ignored, in particular announces of the government. Government holds there very little power and is worthy of making fun of, because of edicts like this.

Disappearing European borders

FT article

Sedan weighting 28 tonnes

Detailed population density map of Africa

http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/atatem/index_files/Data.htm

Rabies in Europe in 2012

Cases of rabies in bat population in green, version.

Source

What are some short films that everyone should see?

She & Her Cat/Their Standing Points - 5 min

Want more? Voices of a Distant Star - 25 min.

Technique: Watercolor Pencil

http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Watercolor-Pencils

Suicide No. 1 cause of death for younger people in South Korea

Not really surprising by itself. Among young adults suicide is:

• #1 cause of death in North Korea,
• #1 cause of death in Japan,
• #2 cause of death in China, after traffic deaths,
• #2 cause of death in Singapore, after traffic deaths,
• #2 cause of death in Australia, after traffic deaths,
• #3 cause of death in Vietnam, after traffic deaths and HIV,

It's also #1 in Norway or in Chile, while #6 in Djibouti and #11 in DRC.

You want to live in countries where suicide is No. 1 cause of death for younger people.

Edit: It's from Global Burden of Disease Study 2010. Suicide among young adults is:

• #2 cause of death in Canada, after traffic deaths,
• #3 cause of death in USA, after traffic deaths and homicide.

What are some great poorly known sci-fi movies of this millennium?

Assuming anime isn't well-known to you - Time of Eve Eve no Jikan.

Paul was big hit, while I discounted it as ridiculous it has proven to be pretty decent.

Nuclear weapons for UK

UK would consider whatever they like, but it is one nuclear states convinced that nuclear deterrence doesn't work.

During Falkland War the British brought nuclear arms, but it was more a liability (they were afraid that the bombs could be captured) than a threat.

Everything is a moot, because:

• US have still nuclear Turkey, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands and Italy,
• US are most expected to send nuclear missiles against Russia anyway.

Rebuilding Europe’s Competitiveness

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_RebuildingEuropesCompetitiveness_Report_2013.pdf

PLA is not a national army

People's Liberation Army is armed structure of the Party, it really is obvious.

You can read more about Mao's idea of an army. It was insanely inefficient, but I'm not well-versed on the subject. While all communist countries had armies acting as ready to mobilise workforce in PRC it was pushed to the extreme without much of combat abilities.

PLA was revolutionary militia, reserve workers, and regular army on the various extent in different periods.