ON THIS DAY IN 1620, the Mayflower first sighted land in the New World (though it was a little while later before they came ashore). Unprepared for Massachusetts’ harsh climate, about half the passengers and crew were dead by Spring.

OBVIOUSLY, THIS MEANS THAT WE NEED TO KEEP MEN HAPPY, FOR THE GOOD OF FUTURE GENERATIONS: How Dad’s Stresses Get Passed Along to Offspring.

Be nice to men. For the sake of the children! Won’t someone think of the children?

JUST THINK OF THE MEDIA AS DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVES WITH BYLINES, AND IT ALL MAKES SENSE: MSM Claims, Without Evidence, That White House Acosta Tape Was ‘Doctored.’

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: What’s a Legitimately Fun Car You Can Buy for Less Than $10,000?

BREAKING: Judge finds Broward County violated FL Constitution, orders elected officials to comply by 7pm.

BRUCE BAWER: Norway’s Mosques Are Multiplying, and Taxpayers Foot the Bill.

GET SCREENED REGULARLY: Skin Cancer Deaths Spike for Men in Developed World.

AT AMAZON, holiday savings in Kitchen and Housewares.

Plus, save on Software.

29 YEARS AGO TODAY, the Berlin Wall came down.

SEEN ON FACEBOOK:

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG: ‘Remarkable’ decline in fertility rates.

There has been a remarkable global decline in the number of children women are having, say researchers.

Their report found fertility rate falls meant nearly half of countries were now facing a “baby bust” – meaning there are insufficient children to maintain their population size.

The researchers said the findings were a “huge surprise”.

And there would be profound consequences for societies with “more grandparents than grandchildren”.

The study, published in the Lancet, followed trends in every country from 1950 to 2017.

In 1950, women were having an average of 4.7 children in their lifetime. The fertility rate all but halved to 2.4 children per woman by last year.

But that masks huge variation between nations.

The fertility rate in Niger, west Africa, is 7.1, but in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus women are having one child, on average.

In the UK, the rate is 1.7, similar to most Western European countries.

The total fertility rate is the average number of children a woman gives birth to in their lifetime (it’s different to the birth rate which is the number of children born per thousand people each year).

Whenever a country’s rate drops below approximately 2.1 then populations will eventually start to shrink (this “baby bust” figure is significantly higher in countries which have high rates of death in childhood).

At the start of the study, in 1950, there were zero nations in this position.

This is unexplored territory.

WELL, GOOD: New antibiotic shows promise against ‘super gonorrhea.’

PHILIP WEGMANN: Broward County’s election division is a national disgrace: A history.

21ST CENTURY MEDICINE: Man who got penis fillers to boost his girth to 15cm says the procedure has boosted his confidence. “His penis now measures the same width as a bottle of Lea & Perrins sauce.”

HAVING REREAD MOST OF THE AUBREY/MATURIN NOVELS FROM PATRICK O’BRIAN, I’m now reading The Guineaman by Richard Woodman. It’s not O’Brian, but it’s pretty good.

PATRICK POOLE: Islamic State Claims ‘Known Wolf’ Terror Attack in Australia.

THE JUMBO SHRIMP OF SPACE: SpaceX is Fashioning a Miniature Big Falcon Rocket Out of a Falcon 9.

ALSO, ALIEN BASES: Long-Lost Continents Under Antarctica Revealed in Old Satellite Data.