[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• 80 Beats reports that an island disputed by India and Bangladesh over maritime rights has sunk back into the Bay of Bengal, and that a rain of blazing hot helium falls on Jupiter.


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait writes about new telescopic studies of the Jupiter's Great Red Spot, its vast hurricane, and its insights into its implications for atmospheres generally.


• At Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling lists the urban megaregions of the future, like the dense corridor linking Sao Paulo with Rio, or Mumbai with Delhi.


• Geocurrents reports on the massive untapped agricultural potential of Ethiopia and southern Sudan.


• At Language Hat, due if bemused consideration is given to the fact that a growing number of enthusiasts is trying to establish Na'vi, the language of the Pandorans of Avatar as a full-fledged language with its own speech community.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money's SEK makes the compelling argument that Glenn Beck's populist rage bears a great deal of similarity to the anger of punk rockers.


• Palun wonders why Estonians are so politically quiet despite the harsh recession, concluding that, in part, they do not have any options.


• Gideon Rachman argues that Britain's self-exclusion from the Eurozone has left it isolated at a time when the bloc is hanging together.


• Slap Upside the Head writes about the surprising news that, without any obvious justification, perhaps up to 15% of medical studies arbitrarily exclude gay subjects in trials.


• Spacing Toronto's Marcus Bowman writes about the Netherlands' Randstad, the densely-built complex of cities around Amsterdam, and finds interesting points in its greenbelt policies and in the different specializations (business, government, education, and so on) of its component communities. Ryan Bolton, meanwhile, examines the persistence of mom-and-pop shops and the intrusion of chain businesses, competing in the slowly gentrifying Toronto neighbourhood of Cabbagetown.


• Sublime Oblivion makes the point that Paul Goble, writer and poster at Window on Eurasia, has made some bizarrely outlandish claims in the past. Me, I link to his posts only when they feel good. More happily, there is another great large news roundup at his blog.


• Understanding Society has a comprehensive examination of the writings of James Scott, who writes about how the peoples of highland Southeast Asia have forged their identities through a comprehensive rejection of state power and its intrusions.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, surprise, ethnic Russians in the Russian Federation mostly identify with Orthodoxy while mostly remaining non-Christian in the same way as many on the same pattern as other traditionally Christian populations in Europe and North America.