Best Carry Gun

I frequent gun sites.

Of course questions about this or that fire arm is put forth, and unsurprisingly a number of people offer opinions as to the qualities of that particular firearm.

Disgusting Food

That food of one culture is not appetizing to people of another is nothing new.


This article, You Eat That? in the Wall Street Journal is more than about food. Of the different foods described, this my favorite disgusting food.
Worse than snails.

My favorite fermented challenge, because I'm a cheese lover but am mortally repulsed by worms, is casu marzu. Casu marzu is a sheep cheese popular on the Italian island of Sardinia. The name means "rotten cheese" or, as it is known colloquially, "maggot cheese," since it is literally riddled with live insect larvae.

To make maggot cheese you start with a slab of local sheep cheese, pecorino sardo, but then let it go beyond normal fermentation to a stage most would consider infested decomposition (because, well, it is). The larvae of the cheese fly (Piophila casei) are added to the cheese, and the acid from their digestive systems breaks down the cheese's fats, making the final product soft and liquidy. By the time it is ready for consumption, a typical casu marzu contains thousands of larvae.
Locals consider it unsafe to eat casu marzu once the larvae have died, so it is served while the translucent white worms, about one-third of an inch long, are still squiggling. Some people clear the maggots from the cheese before consuming it; others do not. Those who leave the maggots may have to cover the cheese with their hands—when disturbed, the maggots can jump up to six inches.

Disgust is one of our most basic emotions—the only one that we have to learn—and nothing triggers it more reliably than the strange food of others

China's Population

I never really gave much thought about China's demography, especially in relationship of urban vs. farming populations.

I happen to live in a rural county, largely farming. For over a century it has seen an exodus of citizens to urban areas. I wonder on the local level how people feel about this.

Most Chinese Are Now Urban Dwellers

China has announced that people living in its towns and cities now outnumber those in the countryside, making it a predominantly urban nation for the first time in Chinese civilization.


The historic milestone spotlights a trend that China's government says will be a key driver of economic growth over the next two decades as hundreds of millions more people move into urban areas in search of higher-paying jobs.

But it also points to the challenges facing Chinese leaders as mass migration places an increasing strain on urban housing, transport and welfare, while fueling pollution, social unrest and demands for political reform.

Urban dwellers account for 51.27% of China's entire population of nearly 1.35 billion—or a total of 690.8 million people—the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) announced at a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday.


Wall Street Journal

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