Posts Tagged ‘crimea’
[NEWS] Ten Window on Eurasia links
- What will become of the Azerbaijani language in education in Iran? More here.
- Is a Russia-Belarus state union feasible? More here.
- Is Estonia, as some would have it, a viable model for the Finnic Mordvin peoples of the Russian interior? More here.
- Will Russia be happy with its alliance with China if this makes it a secondary partner, a relatively weaker exporter of resources? More here.
- How many Muslims are there in Moscow, and what import does the controversy over their numbers carry? More here.
- Is the Russian fertility rate set to stagnate, leading to long-term sharp decline? More here.
- If 10% of the Russian working-age population has emigrated, this has serious consequences for the future of Russia. More here.
- Irredentism in Kazakhstan, inspired by the example of Crimea, is just starting to be a thing. More here.
- The decline of Russian populations in the north of Kazakhstan, and the growth of Uzbeks, is noteworthy. More here.
- The different Russian proposals for the future of the Donbas, an analyst notes, are built to keep Ukraine a neutral country. More here.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 24, 2019 at 5:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Social Sciences
Tagged with azerbaijan, belarus, borders, central asia, crimea, Demographics, donbas, education, estonia, eurasia, former soviet union, geopolitics, iran, islam, kazakhstan, links, migration, mordvinia, moscow, national identity, news, russia, ukraine, uzbekistan
[BLOG] Some Friday links
- Shir Lerman Ginzburg at anthro{dendum} writes about kintsugi in her own life.
- Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait looks at the massive black hole, massing two billion suns, measured in the heart of NGC 3258.
- The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly shares some photos from her Hudson River life.
- D-Brief notes how astronomers may be able to detect the radio signals emitted from the cores of planets orbiting dead stars.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the sociology of religion.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how Ferdinand Magellan acted in many ways like a pirate.
- Language Hat reports on the remarkable differences between the two dubbed French versions of The Simpsons, one in France and one in Québec.
- Language Log reports on the Chinese placename “Xinjiang Uygur.”
- Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the point that Joe Biden is too old, too set in his ways, to be president.
- Molly Crabapple writes at the NYR Daily about the nature and goals of the massive protest movement in Puerto Rico.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks even-handedly at the controversy surrounding the idea of building the Thirty Metre Telescope on top of sacred Mauna Kea.
- Window on Eurasia looks at controversy in Russia over the representation of different Tatar populations on the Russian 2020 census.
- Stephen Gordon at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative wonders why it was 1953 that, in Canada, saw the growth in women on the job market.
Written by Randy McDonald
August 9, 2019 at 8:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with anthropology, astronomy, black holes, blogs, canada, census, china, crime, crimea, ferdinand magellan, first nations, france, francophonie, gender, hawaii, history, hudson river, imperialism, islands, links, mauna kea, ngc 3258, photos, physics, pirates, politics, popular culture, puerto rico, québec, religion, russia, social sciences, sociology, space science, statistics, tatarstan, television, united states, xinjiang
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- Charlie Stross at Antipope has an open thread regarding Brexit.
- Centauri Dreams considers the dust lanes of the solar system.
- D-Brief reports on the discovery of the first confirmed skull piece of a Denisovan.
- Dangerous Minds considers the filmic history of Baron Munchausen.
- JSTOR Daily considers the past of the Monroe Doctrine, as a marker of American power over the Western Hemisphere.
- Language Log notes that “frequency illusion”, a 2005 coinage of Arnold Zwicky on that blog, has made it to the Oxford English Dictionary. Congratulations!
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the talents of Pete Buttigieg, someone who (among other things) is fluent in the Norwegian language. Could he be a serious challenger?
- Oliver Miles at the LRB Blog notes the threat of new locust swarms across the Sahara and into the Middle East.
- Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution highlights a new paper aiming to predict the future, one that argues that the greatest economic gains will eventually accrue to the densest populations.
- The NYR Daily reports from the scene in a fragmented Libya.
- The Planetary Society Blog reports that the OSIRIS-REx probe has detected asteroid Bennu ejecting material into space.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains the import of having a supermoon occur on the Equinox this year.
- Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs reports a new finding that Mercury actually tends to be the closest planet in the Solar System to Earth.
- Window on Eurasia notes that fewer Russians than before think highly of the annexation of Crimea.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 20, 2019 at 4:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with agriculture, archeology, asteroids, baron munchausen, bennu, blogs, borders, brexit, crimea, Demographics, denisovans, economics, english language, environment, european union, futurology, geopolitics, glbt issues, history, human beings, latin america, libya, links, mercury, migration, moon, osiris-rex, pete buttigieg, politics, popular culture, russia, separatism, solar system, space science, united kingdom, united states
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
- Centauri Dreams notes the hope of the controllers of Hayabusa2 to collect samples from asteroid Ryugu.
- D-Brief takes a look at how ecologists in Hawaii are using bird song to encourage invasive species of birds to eat local plants.
- Bruce Dorminey notes preliminary findings of astronomers suggesting that stars with relatively low amounts of metals might be more likely to produce potentially habitable Earth-size worlds.
- The Frailest Thing’s L.M. Sacasas considers what, exactly, it means for a technology to be considered “neutral”.
- At JSTOR Daily, Hope Reese interviews historian Jill Lepore about the crisis facing American institutions in the 21st century. Is there a way forward?
- Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen, aggravated terribly by Saudi intervention and supported by the West.
- Andrew Brownie at the LRB Blog notes how soccer in Brazil, producing stars against dictatorship like Sócrates in the early 1980s, now produces pro-Bolsonario figures.
- The NYR Daily notes the resistance of the Bedouin of al-Khan al-Ahmar to resist their displacement by Israeli bulldozers.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how, among other things, extreme temperature swings make the Moon an unsuitable host for most observatories apart from radio telescopes.
- Window on Eurasia notes the sheer scale of Russian immigration to Crimea after 2014, the number of migrants amounting to a fifth of the peninsula’s population.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 27, 2018 at 4:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with asteroids, astronomy, bedouin, birds, blogs, borders, brazil, clash of ideologies, crimea, democracy, environment, exoplanets, extraterrestrial life, football, former soviet union, hawaii, hayabusa 2, islands, israel, latin america, links, middle east, migration, moon, palestinians, philosophy, politics, russia, ryugu, saudi arabia, soccer, south america, space science, space travel, sports, technology, ukraine, united states, war, yemen
[NEWS] Four links from the former Soviet Union: Donbas, Crimean Tatars, Russian nationalism, Yandex
- Open Democracy reports on what appears to be a coup waged in the Luhansk republic by the forces of Donetsk. What is going on in the twin Donbas republics, anyway?
- Maxim Edwards reports from the Ukrainian border with Crimea, from Crimean Tatars rebuilding their communities in exile (again), over at Open Democracy.
- Leonid Bershidsky suggests that the Russian ultranationalism promoted by Putin will remain virulent long after the man is gone, over at Bloomberg.
- VICE reports on the quietly effective censorship that Russian-language search engine Yandex is forced to employ, here.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 25, 2017 at 6:45 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, Politics, Popular Culture
Tagged with borders, crimea, crimean tatars, diaspora, donetsk, former soviet union, internet, links, luhansk, national identity, news, politics, russia, russian language, ukraine, war, yandex
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
- Centauri Dreams considers, in the context of ‘Oumuamua, the import of shads and axis ratios. What does it suggest about the processes by which planetary systems form?
- The Dragon’s Tales notes a report suggesting that Russia is not at all likely to legalize bitcoins.
- At A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell takes a look at Article 63, the German constitutional article that governs the selection of the Chancellor.
- The Frailest Thing quotes a passage from Jacques Ellul about the adaptation of humans to a mechanized world.
- Hornet Stories notes that out actor Russell Tovey is set to play the (also out) Ray in the Arrowverse, an anti-Nazi superhero from an alternate Earth.
- Language Hat tells the story of Lin Shu, an early 20th century translator of European fiction into Chinese whose works were remarkably influential.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money is amused by the story of a young university student who has used basic knowledge of Foucault to play with his family’s household rules.
- The LRB Blog notes the very awkward, and potentially fatal, position of the Rohingya, caught between Burma and Bangladesh.
- The Map Room Blog links to a talk recently given on fake maps, on maps used to lie and misrepresent and propagandize.
- The NYR Daily meditates on the precocity and the homoeroticism inherent in the Hart Crane poem “The Bridge.”
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that we can see, so far, only a surprisingly small fraction of the observable universe. (So far.)
- The Volokh Conspiracy celebrates the many defeats of Trump as he fights against sanctuary cities as a victory for federalism and against executive power.
- Window on Eurasia notes a poll suggesting that, after 2014, while Crimeans may feel less Ukrainian they do not necessarily feel more Russian.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look, linguistically, at an Ian Frazier phrase: “That is aliens for you.”
Written by Randy McDonald
November 25, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with astronomy, bangladesh, blogs, burma, china, chinese language, cities, clash of ideologies, comics, crimea, dc comics, democracy, economics, elections, english language, federalism, former soviet union, germany, glbt issues, hart crane, human beings, humour, jacques ellul, links, michel foucault, migration, national identity, new york city, philosophy, popular culture, popular literature, refugees, rohingya, russell tovey, russia, science, south asia, southeast asia, space science, technology, television, translation, ukraine, united states
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
- The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper suggesting exoplanet transits could start a galactic communications network.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the connections between eating and identity.
- The Frailest Thing’s Michael Sacasas looks at the need for a critical study of the relationship between technology and democracy.
- Language Hat notes how nationalism split Hindustani into separate Hindi and Urdu languages.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the grim outlook in Somalia after the terrible recent Mogadishu bombing.
- Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen thinks Trump’s decertification of the Iran deal is a bad idea.
- The Map Room Blog links to an article imagining a counter-mapping of the Amazon by indigenous peoples.
- Neuroskeptic considers the possibility of Parkinson’s being a prion disease, somewhat like mad cow disease.
- The NYR Daily notes that a Brexit driven by a perceived need to take back control will not meet that need, at all.
- Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw looks at the problem Sydney faces as it booms.
- The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the extent to which an independent Catalonia would be ravaged economically by a non-negotiated secession.
- Peter Watts tells the sad story of an encounter between Toronto police and a homeless man he knows.
- Window on Eurasia notes a Sakhalin bridge, like a Crimea bridge, may not come off because of Russian weakness.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 17, 2017 at 4:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with africa, amazonia, astronomy, australia, blogs, catalonia, cities, clash of ideologies, crimea, democracy, economics, european union, extraterrestrial intelligence, first nations, food, former soviet union, health, homelessness, imperialism, india, iran, islands, language, links, medicine, middle east, national identity, pakistan, police, prion, russia, sakhalin, separatism, social sciences, sociology, somalia, south america, south asia, space science, spain, sydney, technology, terrorism, three torontos, united kingdom, war
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
- Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.
- D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.
- The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans’ habitability.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.
- Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.
- Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, “My Immortal”, has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.
- Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)
- Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.
- At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.
- Livejournal’s pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.
- The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.
- Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry’s Auroville Café.
- Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.
- Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.
- Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.
Written by Randy McDonald
September 19, 2017 at 2:45 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with anthropology, astronomy, blogs, callisto, china, clash of ideologies, crimea, crimean tatars, democracy, economics, europa, extraterrestrial life, fan fiction, food, ganymede, gender, imperialism, india, islam, links, migration, naziism, oceans, oddities, politics, pondichéry, popular culture, racism, russia, social sciences, sociology, space science, titan, tourism, travel, ukraine, united kingdom, united states
[BLOG] Some Monday links
- Centauri Dreams reports on asteroid P/2016 G1, a world that, after splitting, is now showing signs of a cometary tail.
- The Everyday Sociology Blog considers outrage as a sociological phenomenon. What, exactly, does it do? What does it change?
- Joe. My. God. reports on a new push for same-sex marriage in Germany, coming from the SPD.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money examines the Alabama government’s disinterest in commemorating the Selma march for freedom.
- Marginal Revolution looks at Oxford University’s attempt to recruit white British male students.
- At the NYRB Daily, Masha Gessen warns against falling too readily into the trap of identifying conspiracies in dealing with Trump.
- pollotenchegg maps the distribution of Muslims in Crimea according to the 1897 Russian census.
- Savage Minds takes a brief look at ayahuasca, a ritual beverage of Andean indigenous peoples, and looks at how its legality in the United States remains complicated.
- Elf Sternberg considers the problems of straight men with sex, and argues they might be especially trapped by a culture that makes it difficult for straight men to consider sex as anything but a birthright and an obligation.
- The Volokh Conspiracy considers how the complexities of eminent domain might complicate the US-Mexican border wall.
- Window on Eurasia reports on protests in Russia and argues Belarus is on the verge of something.
Written by Randy McDonald
March 6, 2017 at 4:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences, Toronto
Tagged with asteroids, astronomy, ayahuasca, belarus, blogs, borders, clash of ideologies, comets, conspiracies, crimea, crimean tatars, Demographics, donald trump, education, first nations, former soviet union, germany, glbt issues, history, links, marriage rights, mexico, politics, popular culture, racism, religion, russia, sexuality, social science, sociology, space science, ukraine, united kingdom, united states
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- Dead Things looks at the health issues of a hadrosaur.
- The Dragon’s Gaze notes close binary systems may not support planets very well.
- Joe. My. God. notes Trump’s reaction to Obama’s statement that he was unfit.
- The Map Room Blog notes Russia’s issues with Google over the non-recognition of Crimea’s annexation.
- Marginal Revolution notes that driverless taxis are coming to Singapore.
- The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer disproves arguments claiming that Pennsylvania is uniquely suited for Trump.
- Peter Rukavina shares his schedule for the Island Fringe.
- Spacing Toronto notes the problem of distracted cycling.
- Window on Eurasia looks at language death in the North Caucasus.
Written by Randy McDonald
August 3, 2016 at 7:15 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with astronomy, blogs, borders, clash of ideologies, crimea, cycling, dinosaurs, donald trump, exoplanets, google, language, links, maps, north caucasus, politics, prince edward island, russia, science, singapore, space science, technology, theatre, united states