[LINK] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Centauri Dreams speculates about the implications for SETI if most civilizations don't experience breakneck growth indefinitely but instead collapse, and highlights the discovery of a planet orbiting a star in the Andromeda Galaxy. (Yes, "!" to that second item.)


• Crooked Timber's John Quiggin argues that the growing prominence of pro-piracy groups, in Europe and elsewhere, might trigger new clashes over the topic of strong intellectual property rights.


• Over at Demography Matters, Aslak examines the demographics behind the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with fertility rates and migration rates and their implications and all.


• Edward Lucas examines some of the main differences between Western and Soviet views of the Second World War.


• Itching in Eestimaa examines Lithuania from the standpoint of an Estonian traveller.


• Language Hat links to a report in Le monde diplomatique on the strength of the reading public of the Malayalam language, spoken in Kerala.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an argument suggesting that perhaps North Korea doesn't have all of Seoul within easy range of its artillery.


• At the Pagan Prattle, feorag links to a surprising number of religious-themed crochet projects.


• Noel Maurer points out that members of American ethnic minority groups who excel need not have assimilated.


• Strange Maps reproduces a Salazar-era map showing that Portugal was not a small country in the European context by superimposing its empire over a map of the European continent.


• Window on Eurasia reports on the growing discontent of Crimean Tatars with a Ukrainian government that hasn't been of much help in restoring their property rights and giving them secure tenure.