[LINK] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Acts of Minor Treason's Andrew Barton worries about the effect of Kindle and other E-book technologies on ready and free access to information.


• James Bow reports on the discovery of a Berkshire pond filled with Daleks.


• Broadsides' Antonia Zerbisias reports on a slew of excommunications visited by a Roman Catholic archbishop in Brazil on people who helped a child rape victim procure an abortion in order to (among other things) save her life.


• Centauri Dreams points out that for most of Earth's history, it was a decidedly uninteresting world, battered by cosmic catastrophes and home to uninteresting life. Also, the minor planet Ceres might be a potential home for life.


• City of Brass examines the emerging new trend of identifying Hindu-born/actively Roman Catholic Bobby Jindal as a secret Muslim.


• Daniel Drezner points out that China can rise and crash at the same time: Look at the United States in the late 19th century.
  
• A Fistful of Euros' Douglas Muir points out that the sharp recession in central and eastern Europe, by discouraging the relatively small cohort of young women from becoming mothers, will only accentuate the long-term trends toward sharp population decline.


• Gideon Rachman reiterates his support for some kind of world governance given world problems.


• The Invisible College's Tobias Thienel explores the question of what a country is to do if it faces mutually confliciting obligations in international law.


• Marginal Revolution points to research suggesting that economic inequality in Latin America is actually of quite recent vintage.


• Over at Normblog, Jeff Weintraub explores the possible and probable future of federalism in Iraq.


• Passing Strangeness' pauldrye blogs about the search for an Australian inland sea and the use of cannons for spaceflight.


• Registan reports on the possibility that Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan's largest body of water, might be about to disappear thanks to the diversion of inflowing water.


• Torontoist's Stephen Michalowicz reports on Islington station's ongoing decay.


• Towleroad reports that, back in the early 1990s, most of the opponents of gays serving in the US military were acting in bad faith, dishonestly and whatnot.


• Windows on Eurasia reports on how some Russian women, promised state aid as part of a recent pro-natalist campaign, are now seeking out abortions with the disappearance of state promises of help.