The latest copy of The Futurist has news that should feed the already-swollen egos of a bajillion adoptive parents. The subheading says it all: "New study shows adoptive parents may have a slight advantage".
That link goes to an abstract of the article, but basically, what it's saying is this: A study in the American Sociological Review looked at how growing up in "nontraditional" families affects kids. There's a wealth of information about how much better two-parent families are than one-parent families as far as outcomes for the kids (on average, always remember), but there's not much research comparing different kinds of two-parent families.

What the study found was that on every measure, two-parent adoptive and biological families came out essentially the same - including the education level, employment and financial success of grown adoptive children. Biological families don't have any kind of edge, and in fact turn out a little bit behind the pack. The Futurist article doesn't really get into that much, but does mention that adoptive families tend to be older and have more resources than other households, which certainly isn't true in my case but I'll take what I can get.

However, this pdf of the original study makes the point a lot clearer - adoptive families actually show a higher level of "parental investment" in children. In essence, we're less likely to take kids for granted, probably because of all the paperwork.

(OK, they don't come out and say that, but it's the same general gist. They actually use the phrase compensate for lack of biological ties, which I'm not sure how I feel about, but there it is.)

The Futurist author also makes the point that the findings could be used as a policy counterargument against "China's recent decision to restrict foreign parents' adoption of Chinese orphans."

Experts say family is thicker than blood. Good to know.

On a less ego-boosting note, the Guardian brings more disturbing images for those of us who've been there -- Pollution in China: a tragedy in 11 pictures.

Of course, comic book fans will recognize that toxic waste is just one way to get amazing superpowers like these. Don't ask me to explain how Mr. Zhang does that.

(One laughs to keep from crying.)