Reflections From a Murky Pond

The British ladies are busting out and throwing the world a set a curves.

It seems that a recent market study determined that the lovely ladies of England have the shapeliest breasts in the world, or at least of those on the far side of the Atlantic.

This was determined by a Bra Usage and Attitude Study performed by COIN, for lingerie manufacturer, Triumph International.  While not truly global, the study did include China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the UK.

It’s certainly a titillating study and one that will garner a lot of well-deserved attention. It, however, has some interesting points for both the $30 billion per year global lingerie market and for societal views of body image.

Asylum UK distills the salient points:

Researchers have discovered that women in Britain have the most shapely bodies on the planet.

A recent global survey of breasts discovered the average British woman wears a size 34D bra — meaning she has bigger boobs and is more slender than most around the world.

Over in Germany and Italy women have a larger under-bra size of 38 inches and in France the average bra is 36B.

In Japan and China women are said to have the same 34 inch ribcage measurement as Brits, but this is again only paired with B cup boobs.

And while British women have an average of a 34D bra, the most common cup size is said to be a rather generous ‘DD’.

The Triumph international “Bra Usage and Attitude Study” also compared results to those from 50 years ago, finding that British woman’s chest and hips are now 4cm bigger.

If this continues it will mean that by 2060 the average UK bra size will be a gigantic F or G cup… how come they never mentioned that on Tomorrow’s World?

Obviously, despite the borders of the British Empire having contracted, it’s assets are still quite astounding and growing more so with the passing years. This and the finding of COIN’s study can be born out by empirical study of these delicious British lasses who all have DD cup sizes and whose underbreast measurements average to 34 inches:

Making Statistics Beautiful

Similarly, one can see from representative samples of women from China, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan that COIN’s study is certainly not too far off the mark.

Still, the British women, indisputably as fine as they are, shouldn’t gloat too much or become complacent. There are many, many roads to beauty and sexiness – and the study that Triumph International commissioned didn’t address the glories of women’s legs or butts.

I hope that Triumph doesn’t make the mistake of ignoring their “bottom line” by focusing their efforts exclusively on the bra. That’s the sort of marketing mistake that could hurt them in “the end.”

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While the pleasant and prurient aspects of the curvaceousness of British women and the size and shapeliness of their breasts is quite nice and a wonderful distraction, the COIN study on bra usage and attitude towards brassieres also presents some much more important data relating to manufacturing, marketing, and to women’s and societies’ body images as compared to objective reality.

Read the rest of this entry »

A few overseas sources are reporting that there is currently a coup underway in Niger. Forces – currently unidentified – are trying to forcibly remove the quasi-dictator Mamadou Tandja from power. It seems to be a coup d’état as opposed to a general uprising since smoke is reported to be coming from Tandja’s palace but there are no report of general violence beyond the normal “background noise” of Nigerian society.

Supposedly Tandja’s guardsmen are not doing well in defending their “President” and things look grim both Mamadou Tandja’s rule and, Given Sub-Saharan Africa’s politics, life.

From Ireland’s non-profit Public Service Broadcaster, RTÉ:

A coup attempt is under way in Niger with the country’s President Mamadou Tandja described by a senior French official is ‘not in a good position’.

Smoke was seen rising from Niger’s presidential palace in what an intelligence officer said was a coup attempt President Mamadou Tandja’s guardsmen were trying to put down.

President Tandja, ruler of the uranium exporting central African nation for a decade, has come under heavy domestic and international criticism for last year orchestrating a reshuffle of the constitution to entrench and extend his power.

He dissolved parliament and orchestrated a constitutional reform in 2009 that gave him added powers and extended his term beyond his second five-year mandate, which expired in December.

The constitutional referendum in August, condemned internationally and at home, eliminated many of the remaining checks on Tandja’s authority, abolished term limits, and gave him an initial three more years in power without an election.

The constitutional court declared that vote illegal, to which President Tandja responded by abolishing the court and replacing its members with his own appointees.

West Africa’s regional bloc suspended Niger in October and the US terminated trade benefits for the country in December.

Niger is one of the world’s leading producers of uranium. It produces around 7.5% of the world’s uranium, according to the World Nuclear Association.

As the cost of oil and fears over global warming have rekindled interest in nuclear energy, Niger has handed out over 130 prospecting licenses, most of which have been for uranium.

However, just 10% of these are currently active as the political uncertainty comes on top of a two-year revolt led by Tuareg nomads calling for greater autonomy for the north, and a larger slice of the revenues from natural resources.

I doubt that this will be more than throw away one liner mentioned en passant by the American MSM since they’re myopic, parochial, and currently seemingly afraid of mentioning African unrest out of fear of it somehow “tainting” the half African President Obama. Despite their silence though, this is a matter of international importance that we should be more than a little concerned about.

The Dangers

Niger is an oil exporting country and China buys a large portion of their annual production. Anything that destabilizes oil production in Nigeria will impact not only oil prices in general but China’s stance on such issues as sanctions against Iran and various other trade agreements.

Niger’s uranium resources are also very important to the world. Not only, in the wake of the AGW hype, has nuclear power production returned to being an acceptable idea across the world, but it’s quite conceivable that unrest in Nigeria will facilitate the illegal sale of uranium to rogue states seeking either nuclear weapons or “dirty bomb” materials such as North Korea and Iran, both of whom have limited and “constrained” domestic uranium mining operations.

And, of course, one only has to look at Somalia to see that civil unrest and the collapse of the government – however vile and despicable that government is – gives the Islamists a chance at gaining control of large swaths of territory.

The Hope

On the other side of the equation, and equally deserving of media coverage, is the fact there is currently a coup underway to drive a vile and pernicious quasi-dictator from power in an African nation. This could well be cause for jubilation.

Currently Niger is sanctioned by the US and cutoff from relations with the rest of the West Africa’s regional bloc.  A regime change could well, depending on what group of people is behind it, result in the normalization of relations between Nigeria and both the West and the rest of the West African nations.

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Just don’t expect to hear much of from the American Media.  As I said, for their own reasons they’re uninterested in reporting news from Africa.

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UPDATE [February 18, 2010 4:45 PM EST]: Both the BBC and The Times in England are reporting that coup d’état in Niger was initially successful and that Mamadou Tandja and much of his cabinet are the custody of the opposition.

The Times further states that the coup was by disgruntled members of the Nigerien military came after the collapse of talks between Mamadou Tandja’s regime and the Opposition over a recently “adopted” referendum allowing President Tandja to hold power indefinitely.

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And we finally have a US report on the issue. The Wall Street Journal posted an article about it.  Say what you want about News Corporation but they’re global presence and coordinated efforts have their benefits.

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UPDATE [February 19, 2010 6:45 AM EST]: The Daily Monitor in Uganda is reporting coup was led by Colonel Adamou Harouna and was aided by Colonel Djibril Hamidou, both officers in Niger’s military. While Colonel Harouna is previously unknown, Colonel Hamidou was the spokesman for the 1999 coup that removed a military ruler, Colonel Ibrahim Bare, and ushered in elections that sadly led to Mamadou Tandja becoming President of Niger.

Colonel Djibril Hamidou of Niger’s CSRD

The Guardian is reporting that the junta that seized power calls itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) and has appointed squadron chief Salou Djibo as its and Niger’s leader.

What fighting there was is reported to have died out and there does not seem to be a strong likelihood of a counter-coup in the immediate future.

Chinese nationalism and collectivism is a wonder of the world – not a good and glorious wonder, but a wonder-none-the-less. China’s hive mind of collectivism under their Communist regime might not be quite so pervasive as they would wish the Civilized World to believe though.

I Love China…Or Else.

Of course it’s easy for the Evil Old Men in Beijing to coerce their population into at least mouthing harmony with the regime’s agenda and ant-like collectivism. When the “or else” in question is having your vital organs harvested by the State, it’s amazing how tractable people become.