[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams has more on the electric sail.
• Daniel Drezner is unimpressed with Niall Ferguson’s claims that he’s being unfairly criticized when the blogosphere, when the strongest online critiques have come from news services like The Atlantic and professors of various disciplines.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that astronomers looking at white dwarfs in the Hyades star cluster 150 light-years away have found their atmospheres polluted by dust from asteroids which have crashed onto their surfaces.
• At the Everyday Sociology Blog, sociologist and new homeowners Karen Sternheimer notes that investment firms have been buying up real estate. What of regular homeowners?
• Language Log’s Victor Mair notes a new site seeking to document all of the various dialects and language forms of Chinese.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes the Catholic Church’s qualified support for evolution.
• Savage Minds’ Carole McGranahan argues that a properly curated Twitter account can produce numerous benefits for the academic.
• Torontoist wonders if maps of Toronto showing walking routes and times might be worthwhile.
• At Window on Eurasia, Paul Goble quotes a Russian blogger who argues that the Soviet annexation of territories in Europe after the Second World War, including the Baltic States and Moldova as well as western Ukraine and Belarus, ultimately destabilized the Soviet state.

[PHOTO] In front of the Belarusian Greek-Orthodox Church of St Ephrasinia, 1008 Dovercourt Road

I took a quick snap with my cell phone of the placard of the Belarusian Greek-Orthodox Church of St Ephrasinia of Polatsk, one of the two Belarusian churches that I know of in downtown Toronto. Located at 1008 Dovercourt Road, I photographed the building in 2009, here.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• In a recent essay, Paul Belshaw writes about the often overlooked diversity of the different groups which contributed to the founding of modern Australia, whether Aborigines, the peoples of the British Isles, or Germans.
• The Burgh Diaspora notes that, attracted by a prosperous economy back home, many Brazilian immigrants in New England are returning.
• Eastern Approaches notes a controversial event in Kosovo: the publication of a book memorializing the dead of that disputed country.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Edward Hugh argues that despite export success, domestic demand in Spain has collapsed sufficiently to make economic recovery impossible.
• Geocurrents maps the strong regional identities of South Korea as expressed in the vote in last year’s presidential election.
• Sociology, the Global Sociology Blog suggests, is the science of “slow violence”, of bad things happening so quietly over such a long stretch of time as to obscure their existence (or the responsibility for said).
• Language Hat links approvingly to an essayist writing about the role of women in introducing language change, like “vocal fry”.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money’s Erik Loomis writes more about the desperation of New England cod fishers. It looks so familiar.
• Peter Rukavina found the first use of the word “Internet” in Prince Edward Island’s legislative assembly (April 1996, in a speech by Premier Catherine Callbeck about the province’s new website).
• Concerns about the intrusion of the Latin alphabet into Cyrillic-using areas of the former Soviet Union are present at Window on Eurasia, whether we’re talking of the spread of Latin script and local norms generally in Belarus or concerns by Kazakh writers that switching that language’s script from Cyrillic to Latin could cut off Kazakh users from their language’s extensive past.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• The Burgh Diaspora notes that the migration of Puerto Ricans to the mainland United States has continued, accelerated by the global economic crisis, the only new thing being the concentration of later migrants in Florida as opposed to New York.
• James Bow disagrees strongly with the Clarity Act and the Liberals’ take on it and and the NDP policy on national unity. Were he writing the laws, he might require 50%+1 of the total electorate–not just the total of voters turning out–to enact constitutional change.
• Daniel Drezner notes that enthusiasm for Chinese ports on the Pakistani coast is limited to Pakistanis, and that the Chinese don’t really seem very invested in it.
• Eastern Approaches takes a look at the site of the Sochi Olympics, noting that migrants from across the former Soviet Union and even Serbia a) are present in large numbers and b) have apparently been short-changed on pay.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen thinks that a bailout of Cyprus could be risky. If not Cyprus, why not the rest of southern Europe?
• Itching for Eestimaa’s Giustino wonders why Estonia supports Georgia’s push for European Union and NATO membership so strongly.
• At The Power and they Money, Noel Maurer notes that as prominent the flaring of natural gas from North Dakota fields might be from orbit, it doesn’t actually consume that much gas.
• Savage Minds’ Thomas Strong reflects at length on what he sees as the lack of moral self-reflexivity in Zero Dark Thirty.
• Inspired by the ongoing events in Egypt, the Volokh Conspiracy’s starts a discussion about what should be done if anti-democratic forces look like they’ll win a democratic election or vote.

[LINK] “Two Christmases in One Country”

Over at Belarus Digest, Vadzim Smok’s article of the 7th of January takes a look at national identity in Belarus through the prism of the two largest religious denominations, Orthodox Christianity and the much smaller Roman Catholic Church.

The Belarusian state officially recognises two confessions – the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches – as the most legitimate and important. Orthodox believers celebrate Christmas on 7 January by the Julian calendar, whereas Catholics celebrate Christmas on 25 December by the Gregorian calendar.

Through centuries of coexistence of many confessions, Belarusians have developed a distinct tolerance towards various religions. However, today these two main confessions have different positions and political backgrounds in relations with the Belarusian authorities. They also pursue different policies towards the use of the Belarusian language in church.

Orthodoxy was the first Christian confession that came to the territory of contemporary Belarus in the 10th century. The Catholic Church appeared here in the 14th century, when Belarus’ territories constituted the core of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Grand Duchy presented a very interesting country religion-wise. Here, various Christian churches coexisted with each other and with Islam and Judaism, as well as with elements of paganism.

Throughout the country’s history, no major conflict has happened between the two biggest churches of Belarus, despite the dominance of one or the other during various historical periods. One or another church’s prevalence depended on the domination of either Russia or Poland in local affairs.

In towns and villages, Catholic and Orthodox churches often stood side by side. A family could celebrate Catholic Christmas on 25 December, and two weeks later join the celebration at their Orthodox friends or neighbours. In independent Belarus, the authorities decided to preserve this good tradition of religious coexistence and set both dates as official holidays.

According to official figures, around 60 per cent of Belarusians today claim to be believers. However, Orthodox Christians appear less religious than Catholics or Protestants. 18 per cent of Orthodox Christians report to be attending church regularly, while 50 per cent of Catholics do so. Most Catholics reside in the western part of Belarus, especially on the borders with Lithuania and Poland. They have a particular identity, more west-oriented, and often call themselves “Poles”, though hardly any of them can speak Polish.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• BlogTO notes plans by the City of Toronto to refurbish Front Street.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster points to astronomers who think current techniques might, just barely, be able to identify massive moons orbiting exoplanets–the more massive and hotter the moon the better, of course.
• Eastern Approaches observes the popularity, in Poland, of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2010 crash of the plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczyński and 95 other VIPs in Smolensk.
• Geocurrents notes that Lithuania’s electorate has voted massively against building a new nuclear power plant to replace the recently-closed Ignalina plant.
• GNXP’s Razib Khan makes mention of the surprising fact that the near-totality of the wilderness present in North America four centuries ago at the beginning of European colonization is back.
• Language Hat comments on the etymology and usage of Rus, as ethnonym and political term.
• Language Log’s Victor Mair examines the origins and usage of the terms “Sinophone” and “Sinosphere.”</a
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Robert Farley points out that with the single exception of North Korea, East Asia is actually reasonably demilitarized by the standards of the Cold War powers.
• The Numerati’s Stephen Baker praises Nate Silver and his methods of statistical analysis: they don’t make use of unquantifiable and misleading sentiments, they just make use very accurate statistical methods and models.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• BlogTO notes plans by the City of Toronto to refurbish Front Street.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster points to astronomers who think current techniques might, just barely, be able to identify massive moons orbiting exoplanets–the more massive and hotter the moon the better, of course.
• Eastern Approaches observes the popularity, in Poland, of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2010 crash of the plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczyński and 95 other VIPs in Smolensk.
• Geocurrents notes that Lithuania’s electorate has voted massively against building a new nuclear power plant to replace the recently-closed Ignalina plant.
• GNXP’s Razib Khan makes mention of the surprising fact that the near-totality of the wilderness present in North America four centuries ago at the beginning of European colonization is back.
• Language Hat comments on the etymology and usage of Rus, as ethnonym and political term.
• Language Log’s Victor Mair examines the origins and usage of the terms “Sinophone” and “Sinosphere.”</a
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Robert Farley points out that with the single exception of North Korea, East Asia is actually reasonably demilitarized by the standards of the Cold War powers.
• The Numerati’s Stephen Baker praises Nate Silver and his methods of statistical analysis: they don’t make use of unquantifiable and misleading sentiments, they just make use very accurate statistical methods and models.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• BlogTO notes plans by the City of Toronto to refurbish Front Street.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster points to astronomers who think current techniques might, just barely, be able to identify massive moons orbiting exoplanets–the more massive and hotter the moon the better, of course.
• Eastern Approaches observes the popularity, in Poland, of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2010 crash of the plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczyński and 95 other VIPs in Smolensk.
• Geocurrents notes that Lithuania’s electorate has voted massively against building a new nuclear power plant to replace the recently-closed Ignalina plant.
• GNXP’s Razib Khan makes mention of the surprising fact that the near-totality of the wilderness present in North America four centuries ago at the beginning of European colonization is back.
• Language Hat comments on the etymology and usage of Rus, as ethnonym and political term.
• Language Log’s Victor Mair examines the origins and usage of the terms “Sinophone” and “Sinosphere.”</a
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Robert Farley points out that with the single exception of North Korea, East Asia is actually reasonably demilitarized by the standards of the Cold War powers.
• The Numerati’s Stephen Baker praises Nate Silver and his methods of statistical analysis: they don’t make use of unquantifiable and misleading sentiments, they just make use very accurate statistical methods and models.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• At Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling reposts some post-modernist revolutionary rhetoric from Québec’s ongoing student protests.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster writes about planet HD 189733b, a gas giant that orbits its star 63 light years away so closely that it’s literally evaporating.
• Geocurrents notes that recent rioting in Zanzibar, connected to the constitutional status of that autonomous island within Tanzania, may harm the island’s lucrative tourism trade.
• Language Hat starts a discussion on the language environment of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which despite its origins among the Baltic-speakers of the modern republic was increasingly dominated by Polish-speaking Slavs of one denomination or another.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money’s Eric Loomis blogs about the collapse of Appalachia’s coal industry, undermined by cheaper competition and the exhaustion of local resources, making things much for the poor locals.
• The Naked Anthropologist Laura Agustín examines sex work from a Marxist perspective.
• Registan’s Joshua Foust is quite right to note that Pakistan’s prosecution fo Dr. Shakil Afridi for aiding the CIA’s location of Osama bin Laden augurs a breakdown in Pakistan’s relations with the West once NATO withdraws from Afghanistan.
• Savage Minds’ Levi Jacobs posts a summary of a recent ethnographic investigation of Occupy Denver, and what futures are possible for the Occupy mvoement and its successors.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little is skeptical about the consequences of a recent conference concerned with triggering rebirth in Michgian.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• 80 Beats has more about the newly-sanctioned use of anti-retroviral drug Truvada to prevent HIV infection. Apparently it’s quite effective–75% efficacy in heterosexual couples which use it consistently, 90% among homosexual couples which do the same.
• Centauri Dreams considers how the next generation of space telescopes will be able to pick up the signature of water oceans on distant worlds.
• Eastern Approaches notes the exceptionally controversial (and possibly doomed) plan by the Czech government to compensate religious organizations for property expropriated under Communism.
• Geocurrents notes the substantial evidence of influence of Finnic groups on the culture of the Eastern Slavs–Russians particularly, but also Ukrainians and Belarusians.
• Language Hat remarks on a religious song of the Ainu making use of nonsense words.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders why people who watch China’s development of an aircraft carrier aren’t paying attention to the much larger and longer-established naval aviation programs–including aircraft carriers–of India.
• Registan’s Nathan Hamm comments on how Uzbekistan’s departure from a Russian-led security alliance signals Russian weakness in its immediate neighbourhood.
• Could elements like lithium be manufactured by black holes? Supernova Condensate speculates.
• Towleroad reports on the shameful decision of the Boy Scouts of America to continue keep non-heterosexuals out of its ranks.