[LINK] Some Saturday Links

[rfmcdonald]

• Via 'Aqoul, al-Qaeda blames the theory that the Israelis perpetrated the September 11th terrorist attacks on Iran.


• Centauri Dreams discusses the Great Filter that seems to be necessary in order to explain the Fermi paradoxi, "the apparent contradiction between high estimates of the probability of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations and the lack of evidence for, or contact with, such civilizations."


• Aziz Poonawalla at City of Brass examines the motives behind the acceptance of pseudoscience by smart people, starting from the whole nasty IQ debate.


• Far Outliers quotes at length an analysis of China that blames many human rights violations on the weakness of the national government versus its nominally subordinate provincial and other local governments.


• Hunting Monsters takes a look at the "shadow countries" of Taiwan and Somaliland.


• Joe. My. God links to a survey in the United States suggesting that non-heterosexuals make up something in the area of 3% of the population.