[LINK] Some links

[rfmcdonald]

• Did the Viking probes miss extremophile Martian microbes? Some scientists say it's a strong possibility.


• The results of a language-use survey in China, as reported more than two years ago in China Daily, are interesting if unsurprising in that they reveal that Mandarin is the dominant language of only a small minority of the total Chinese population, though Mandarin usage rises sharply at work and among the educated.


• Banglapedia has an article on the Greek diaspora in Kolkata.


• Lee M. Abbott's "Coming to a Post-Colonial Poetics of Being Post-Cajun" is an interesting post-modern consideration of Cajun identity.


• The EU Observer reports on the European Union's adoption of Romanian, Bulgarian, and Irish as official languages, the first two through Romanian and Bulgarian accession to the EU and the second as a result of Irish politics.