According to the New York Times:

[The] projected peak in China, 1.4 billion people, will be lower than previously estimated and . . . it will occur sooner. With the fertility rate declining to fewer than 1.6 births per woman in this decade from 2.2 in 1990, China's overall population growth rate has slowed to 0.5 percent annually.

In contrast, India's 1.4 percent growth rate is being driven by a fertility rate of 2.7 births per woman.

The bureau's International Data Base projects that China's labor force will peak at 831 million - 24 million more workers than today - in 2016. That is because the number of newcomers to the labor force in their early 20s is expected to start declining in 2011 after reaching 124 million.

In India, the number of new entrants to the labor force is expected to reach 116 million in 2024 before decreasing.

According to the same report, the world's population is growing, but its rate of growth is about to enter a steep decline. It may be that we will witness the world's peak human population in our lifetimes.

via New York Times and US Census Bureau

Top image via Premshree Pillai.

One big difference between Indian SF and that of other countries: There always has to be a happy ending. Says writer Arvind Mishra:

See, science fiction is a literary genre and unlike (Aldous) Huxley, writing about a bleak, dystopian future doesn’t really go down well with audiences. It’s much better to have a bleak situation and then some twist in the end that saves the day and keeps everybody happy.

Also, Indian SF has to appeal to Indian values. Short story author and retired chemistry professor Y.H. Deshpande wrote a story in the 1980s about a widow who has the chance to use her father-in-law's frozen sperm to conceive a baby. She ends up saying no, because using dad-in-law's sperm wouldn't go over with Indian audiences. And the science is seldom explained in Indian SF stories.

The most intriguing Indian authors sound like Nellai Muthu, an actual space scientist who worked on India's Chandrayaan moon probe and writes about interstellar contact. And Dishnuprasad Chaturvedi, who wrote a detective novel about "a thief who swapped his brain." [LiveMint]

ISRO reports that at 8:31 pm Indian Standard Time, the Moon Impact Probe performed its “suicide nosedive” onto the moon’s surface. The probe carries a radar altimeter, video imaging system, and a mass spectrometer, which transmits images and data from its landing and stay on the moon to the remote sensing satellite, which will remain in lunar orbit for two years.

But beyond data collection, this represents India’s first toehold in space exploration, and the probe’s decorations reflect that:

The probe had miniature Indian national flags painted on four sides, meant to commemorate the birth of the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru (known as Children's Day).

It was to "signify the entry of India on Moon," an ISRO official told the Press Trust of India.

The ISRO has reportedly received images from the probe’s crash, but has not yet released them.

[Space.com]

Between Chandrayaan-1 and NASA's forthcoming Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, we'll finally get decent maps of the Moon's surface. "We don't really have really good modern maps of the moon with modern instrument," said Georgetown space policy researcher Scott Pace. "The quality of the Martian maps, I would make a general argument, is superior to what we have of the Moon."

Images by AP. [AP and New York Times]

The Busan, South Korea film festival featured a retrospective on Asian superheros that included Super Inframan, a 1975 feature from China. Today it plays like Power Rangers, but the set design is tremendous:

In the eighties, the Asian superhero in cinema included a superheroine for the first time, Darna, and Mr. India did the Invisible Man trick.

Superheroes increasingly came from working class backgrounds, surpassing whatever caste system kept them in place, and soaring above. (This year's Phillippines series Captain Barbell has that market cornered.) The 1980s also gave us the legendary double agent, magician/crossbow crimefighter, Toofan (right). Somewhere along the way Asian writers began to look back to older characters, including Kamen Rider, who made it the big screen in 2005 as the Masked Rider:

2006's Mercury Man was a more Western take, with a hero overtly modeled after Spiderman. Mercury Man is a Thai fighting Afghan terrorists for America, a concept that continues to make our brain explode. The Mumbai-born director Rakesh Roshan's Krrish project brought Bollywood and Superman together this year. Krrish is already the second sequel in the series, after Kaho Naa…Pyaar Hai and the E.T.-inspired Koi… Mil Gaya. It's doubtful this Superman-ripoff would have much crossover appeal, but perhaps the world is ready for a non-white The Tick who sings?

While 2006's Krrish was something of an artistic success and definitely scored with audiences, 2008's Drona (which opened wide at the beginning of October), is by all accounts a dreadful superhero "epic," one described as Harry Potter meets Indiana Jones. Yikes. Better films are in sight, starting with the Cicak Man sequel, Cicakman 2: Planet Hitam, where the heroine's lizard powers will battle the Ginger Boys in a film with the original's comedic tone.

The biggest project in Korea is Jeon Woo Chi. Director Dong-hun Choi helms this sci-fi fantasy epic that includes wizards. The film takes advantage of its setting's rich history — the story stretches all the way back to 1509. We were sold when we heard the protagonist referred to as "an undisciplined womanizing Taoist." A Harry Potter that does wire-fighting probably isn't the worst idea if you're a fan of making money.

The Deepak Chopra superhero is coming as well: Ramayan 3392 A.D. is in development from Master and Commander scribe and 300 producer Mark Canton.

Liquid, Mandalay team for 'Ramayan' [Hollywood Reporter]

Here's a shot inside one of the books, with lots of hyperbolic yelling and green people who are not related to the Hulk.

And here's a great set of comics which show the range of titles.

There's a lot more on VanderMeer's blog. Check out the whole crazy set, including pictures of ads from the inside front cover. Oh my.

Old Indian Comics from the 1970s [Ecstatic Days]

Crappiest way to encourage people to use their imaginations and experiment with evolutionary possibilities in a game devoted to both: Last week saw the release of EA/Maxis' Creature Creator — a component of the upcoming evolution game Spore — and the entire internet greeted it with a cry of happiness. Creature Creator lets you build any organism you like, quickly fleshing out an animated being as cute or hideous as you can imagine. An algorithm animates the little beast, giving it realistic motions for its body shape. You can share your creations with other users, too.

Of course, one of the first things that people did was create the most obscene-looking creatures they could. It turns out the Creature Creator is very versatile when it comes to adding body parts that look like penises, vaginas, and anuses. Thus, within a day after Creature Creator's launch, Sporn was born. Instead of laughing the whole trend off and coming up with ways to prevent people from uploading their dirty bits to kid-friendly areas in the Spore community, EA reacted with censorious poopheadedness. They banned users from the Creator Creator community who uploaded naughty creatures, and requested that YouTube yank any Sporn videos. What the hell, people? Is this any way to encourage people to think about evolution, which is after all very much about genitals and where you put them? I can understand wanting to wall off this grown-up stuff once kids start playing the game, but squashing it entirely? Crap! Luckily, io9 has managed to procure some of the best Sporn available and we've edited it into a smashing NSFW music video for you.

Infographic above via UK Telegraph.

I love when Gotham Chopra says he wants to make the west realize that India is a "source of creativity," not just "a place for outsourcing." Damn straight. Check out more Virgin Comics.

Today the New York Times has an interesting report on a form of urban design whose popularity is growing in India: the walled mini-city, with its own schools and power generators, surrounded by slums full of people who work as servants. While these mini-cities are like the "gated communities" you see in the west, what sets them apart is the degree of autonomy they have from their environs — they are literally running off a different electrical grid, and are designed so that nobody ever has to leave. [NYT]

Robots are getting down all over the place in Japan. The i-Sobot and the Asimo are both dancing maniacs. Robots are shredding the violin strings and tossing old people like dolls.

The 2007 Robot Of The Year awards featured a Japanese surgical bot that can operate while the patient is inside an MRI. Photo by Junko Yagami, Getty Images.

Architecture is so much more radical in places like the United Arab Emirates, which is developing the next generation of sleek towers. Look at the mixed-use Tameer Towers, which uses locally cast light concrete and natural shade. The UAE recently came up with the idea of a "Cool City," which would use 60 percent less energy than other cities using renewable power and efficient waste management. Then there's that giant sail-shaped building. And The Pad, featured up top, just won Best International Apartment for 2007.

Maglev trains now link Shanghai's subway with its airport, and Mumbai is considering spending $7.56 billion to build 16 to 30 miles of high-speed maglev tracks linking the city with its suburbs. A maglev train uses magnetism to lift the train a small distance above its elevated track, and they featured prominently in the 1950s scifi comic Magnus Robot Fighter. Nowadays, when Mumbai imagines becoming a futuristic city, it looks with envy towards Shanghai. And so does Paris Hilton.

Maglev train outside Shanghai.

European fashion is coming up with designs that can keep you safer as well as looking studly. Just check out this solar-powered ski suit, which uses a special thin film technology to power "Golden Dragon" LEDs that light up at night. It should reduce collisions as well as making you look like a raver on ice.

And then there's stem cells. While the U.S. government continues to try to baptize the little fellers, leading researcher Alan Colman just announced he'll divide his time between cutting-edge stem cell facilities in London and Singapore. Colman, of course, is the man who cloned Dolly the Sheep.

So the U.S. really needs to step up its game. We should be putting people on Mars, creating robot break-dancers and pioneering new green cities linked by high-speed rail. Otherwise, we're collectively going to turn into that old guy who wears his pants under his armpits and shakes his head at all this new fancy whiz-buggery. And nobody wants that, except a handful of armpit-pants fetishists.

Vikram is a highly skilled fighting machine and the world's best detective. So instead of putting him out to pasture when he loses his hand, the Defense Department gives him a new one. His index finger shoots bullets, the middle finger discharges electricity, and the ring finger emits a gas that puts people to sleep. (Please, no "pull my finger" jokes.) His pinky has a transmitter for the radio in his palm.

Also, the hand can detach itself and move by remote control. And if you electrify Vikram, he turns invisible for a short time. Top that, Jaime Sommers!

You need special 3-D glasses to watch Mayavi, which uses a mixture of CGI and "real-time" 3-D effects. Mayavi launches on Zee TV's Telugu-language channel on Sunday, after a successful run on the Tamil-language Jaya TV channel. The show, which won an award at the 2007 Seoul Drama Awards, is also launching in other Indian languages soon.

Sigl's new film, The 13th Disciple, will follow twin archaeologists who discover that Jesus actually had an evil twin brother. We're not sure how that's portrayed... do they find a potshard that says "Jesus Brother Bad!" on it?. Apparently, Evil Bro has been resurrected in the present day. In case you were hoping for a climactic, special effects laden battle between Jesus and his evil twin, you'll be disappointed. According to today's press release for the film, Jesus won't appear as a character.

Sigl is the perfect guy to direct something this weird. His show LEXX featured a world-eating sentient ship, alien nudity, space vampires, a disembodied robot head programmed to be a love slave, and general science fiction weirdness. While it wasn't created for American audiences, the SciFi Channel bought the rights and started airing it with season two back in 2000. Which seems like a lifetime ago. We can't wait for more Sigl. [Yahoo Movies]

In May, China launched a satellite for Nigeria, the first time another country paid the Chinese to put a commercial satellite in orbit. And in late October, China launched the Chang'e lunar orbiter, named after a Chinese goddess who flew to the moon. The Chang'e will orbit the moon for a year, sending back images and data on the Moon's surface. China's seeking more private investment in its space program. And India isn't far behind.

Maybe the competition will force the U.S. to improve its science education, hopes Washington state business leader Don Brunell:

Americans may need a national emergency, like the launch of Sputnik, to wake us up. Perhaps the Asian space programs will be the catalyst.

It was only a matter of time before somebody publicly accused the surgeons of grandstanding. After all, the 27-hours operation involved a spinal separation, a quadruple amputation, a kidney transplant, and a pelvic reconstruction. We've been scanning reports since Lakshmi emerged from the operating theater, to find out if the marathon surgery introduced anything innovative. It was complicated, but evidently nothing new. Really, if they wanted to impress us with cutting-edge surgery, they would have added more limbs, not taken them away.

Questioning the ethics of Lakshmi's doctors [The Hindu]