[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[rfmcdonald]

I'd like to begin my making special mention of the latest massive news roundup at Sublime Oblivion. Covering some two dozen different items from the end of the Pax Americana to post-Soviet politics in Eurasia, it's a must-read.

• At 3 Quarks Daily, Frans de Waal writes about how the cultural perceptions of the Japanese has led to innovations in the study of primates.


• Philip Jenkins, 3 Quarks Daily lets us know, has compared violence in the Bible and the Qu'ran, and has come to the conclusion that the Bible's far more violent.


• Scotland, 80 Beats reports, plans on being a major exporter of tidal and wind power.


• At Acts of Minor Treason, Andrew writes about what it meant for the Toronto Telegram to anglicize the names of some of the (Italian) victims of the Hogg's Hollow disaster (see Torontoist below).


• Bad Astronomy notes that Google's redirection of its Chinese readers to its uncensored Hong Kong site has failed thanks to the Chinese firewall.


• James Bow compares the new American health system with the established Canadian, and finds the former lacking on the grounds that al necessary medical procedures are not covered and health care users remain at risk of bankruptcy.


• Charlie Stross starts an interesting debate with a claim that business favours a global economic model marked by free mobility of capital and restricted mobility of labour, the better to limit wages.


• demographer shows a map of the distribution of gulags in the Soviet era.


• Will Baird at the Dragon's Tales reports on new research in the historic climates of the North Atlantic that provides useful information on Viking settlement patterns in the area, particularly on Greenland.


• Far Outliers examines how the strictly secularist development model adopted by Turkey and Iran came to experience fundamental blocks by the end of the 1970s.


• Geocurrents examines how Taiwan and Mongolia carry on fairly friendly relations, notwithstanding the official Taiwanese belief that Mongolia is part of China.


• Gerry Canavan doesn't think that manned space travel is all that, but he still quite likes the moon landings.


• The Invisible College's Lennart Breuker reports that the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Burma/Myanmar recommends a commission of inquiry on human rights violations in that country.


• Mathew Ingram comes out in favour of anonymous comments, arguing that it allows greater freedom to commenters.


• Joe. My. God links to a map showing the predominant sects of Christianity in North America.


• Savage Minds reports on the ongoing debate surrounding the accuracy of Jared Diamond's Collapse.


• Douglas Todd at The Search writes about Nowruz and how the celebration of this ancient holiday relates to distress among Iranian-Canadians.
  
• Spacing Toronto's Marcus Bowman reports on the geographic concentration of artists in the largest Canadian cities.


• Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn, in his regular Historicist feature, writes about the Hogg's Hollow industrial disaster that killed six workers, and how this created a movement for reform in worker safety laws.


• Towleroad shares the good news that a Georgia high school has allowed a student to bring a same-sex date to his school's prom.


• Window on Eurasia reports that, even as Russia insists on Russian cultural autonomy in Ukraine, the government is shutting down Ukrainian groups in Russia.


• Zero Geography reports on the distribution of placemarks--KML files used to mark geographic locations on Google Earth and kindred software--around the world. China's surprisingly well-marked.