[LINK] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Acts of Minor Treason points out that any number of science fiction scenarios feature great technological advances and amazing artifacts coming much too early, like (say) immense powerful submarines in the 2020s as per seaQuest DSV.


• BCer in Toronto reveals that Foreign Policy rates Michael Ignatieff highly as a public intellectual of power. This won't do good things for his reputation among Conservatives.


• Jim Belshaw supports the Commonwealth for its ability to bring diverse countries together.


• blogTO reports on new public art projects involving banners in Bloorcourt Village.


• A (Budding) Sociologist reports how continuing attempts to disprove Weber's thesis about the role of Protestantism in industrialization prove his importance after more than a century.


• At City of Brass, Aziz Poonwalla points out the similarities between anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim sentiment in Europe (and elsewhere?).


• Daniel Drezner points out that it's never a good idea to make sloppy comparisons in the realm of foreign policy.


• At A Fistful of Euros, Douglas Muir informs us about the continuing disarray in Kosovo's coal mines.


• Gideon Rachman suggests that heavy-handed responses to separatists are never good ideas.


• Global Sociology shows examples of how public architecture can be very subtly exclusionary, bumps on ledges and the like.


• Douglas Muir at Halfway Down the Danube points out another reason why Sarah Palin can't be president.


• Joe. My. God lets us know that the San Francisco-area GLBT Bay Area Reporter is uploading its obituaries of AIDS dead for public viewing and comment.


• Skating has already begun at Dufferin Grove Park, Michael's Bloor-Lansdowne Blog reports, notwithstanding the unreasonable warmth (no snow all November!).


• Marginal Revolution suggests how the development of Africa's potential for agriculture could create new problems for that continent.


• Murdering Mouth continues the examination of how online mobilization does not translate into real-world action.


• Noel Maurer studies the assimilation of Venezuela's large European immigrant population.


• At the Pagan Prattle, we learn that Indonesian conservatives blame pornography for eartthquakes and that Australian Catholic schools lie about condoms.


• Torontoist considers at length a recent protest here in Toronto against the death penalty worldwide.


• Understanding Sociology considers how difficult it is to tackle problems common to regions with multiple jurisdictions.