[LINK] "So you found something cool on the Internet ..."

Via the Global Sociology Blog, via Boing Boing, over as Roscott, Inc. originally created by H. Caldwell Tanner and SystemComic.com:

[PHOTO] Pigeons by the school fence

Pigeons by the school fence
Originally uploaded by randyfmcdonald

They might be flying rats, and they might be less cute than squirrels, but there's still something endearing about their intensity and attractive about their plumage. Apparently someone by this midtown school on Wychwood Avenue more than agrees with me.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• At 80 Beats, notes are made of the fact that, at the time of the Roman Empire's fall, the climate of the Mediterranean was drying out. Was there a connection?


• Beyond the Beyond' Bruce Sterling observes that plans are being made in the United Kingdom to build a working replica of EDSAC, the first working computer.


• blogTO's Derek Flack shows, with pictures, the speed and state of the renovations of Toronto's Maple Leafs Gardens arena.


• At A Fistful of Euros, Edward Hugh summarizes the post-crash Estonian recovery. He admires the swift recovery, but fears that the low-hanging fruit have been plucked. Where will Estonia's future growth prospects come from?


• Inuit Panda Scarlet Carwash's Ian is decidedly unimpressed by the self-entitlement and selective blindness of modern composers.


• Language Hat provides an update on the latest issues of the Polish minority in Lithuania, this time relating to Lithuania's location in a time zone one hour in advance of Poland's.


• Slap Upside the Head remarks on an American minister who blamed recent mysterious mass bird deaths in Arkansas on same-sex marriage..


• The Search's Douglas Todd links to a moving essay on the nature of love in a time of tension ans fear and hate.


• At The Way the Future Blogs, Frederik Pohl is really unimpressed with the NRA for its role in legalizing the Glock handgun used in the Arizona mass shooting.


• Finally, A Yorkshire Ranter's Alex Harrowell observes that while a large-scale war between the Koreas is unlikely, smaller conflicts are still quite possible.

[LINK] "The Anomalous Success of Luxembourg"

GeoCurrentEvents' Martin Lewis notes how Luxembourg is a success story in multiple ways. For instance, it has successfully forged a national identity distinct from that of its neighbours, including the Germany that was at one point a co-lingual polity.

Unlike Belgium, Luxembourg has been able to generate a fairly solid sense of national identity. This process was helped by the partitions of the formerly multi-lingual Grand Duchy, whose French-speaking areas were annexed by France and Belgium. The German-speaking rump-state sought to culturally differentiate itself from Germany by elevating its own local dialect to a national language after World War II. From a linguistic standpoint, Luxembourgish (Letzeburgesch, locally) is a French-influenced variant of a group of local Germanic dialects known as Moselle Franconian. The boundaries between Germanic dialects do not correspond with national boundaries anywhere in the greater Netherlands, as the 1890 German dialect map posted above shows. Local dialects, however, are in decline, gradually being replaced by national languages. Outside of Luxembourg, Moselle Franconian is yielding to standard German to the east and north and French to the south and west. Inside the country, it is thriving. Due both to its national status and to the fact that speakers of standard German cannot generally understand it, Luxembourgish is now classified as a language rather than a mere dialect.

After noting Luxembourg's status as a tax shelter, Lewis notes how Luxemourg and other microstates are at once vestiges of the feudal past and key components of the post-modern world-system.

Europe’s feudal remnants, incongruous bits of territory that escaped state-building aggregation, are often viewed as quaint anachronisms. But Luxembourg and Lichtenstein can also be viewed as highly important and utterly modern geo-political formations: small places that have leveraged their anomalous sovereignty into lucrative positions in the global financial system. Whether the roles that they have carved out for themselves serve the interests of the world at large is another question.

Go, read.

[LINK] "The Pleasure Periphery - Rules Are for The Natives"

I can't say that I noticed the sort of tourists heedless of natives that the Global Sociology Blog discusses, but then Prince Edward Island never had anything like the Paris-Dakar Rally; higher-value added tourism, in the context of a First World country, prevailed.

Years ago, I got to meet a few people who did the Paris – Dakar, and they were discussing the norms of the race. One such norm was that if you or someone from your team ran over some natives, you should NOT stop under any circumstances. Keep going, as these people might get brutal if you run over their kids. The bottom line was that the local population was either a hindrance (they force you to slow down and waste precious minutes to the finish line), or straight a hostile force to avoid, which was hard to do as the race got through populated areas.

This fits into a wider trend.

One of the characteristics of the pleasure periphery is that norms are suspended for Westerners, whether we are talking about drug us or sex trafficking or any other kind of activities that are either frowned upon or downright illegal in Western countries.

In the example I gave above, race organizers actively encouraged a hit-and-run attitude. In exchange for the ability to transgress norms for one’s own pleasure, the host country gets money and does not ask too many questions.

The gendered nature of the rally--pictured as a men's sport, as proof of independence and risk, notwithstanding the extensive support infrastructure--is also described.

Go, read.

[DM] "Astrology and birth rates in East Asia"

I've a post up looking at the remarkably strong associations between stereotypes of age cohorts in Chinese astrology and birth rates in East Asia.

Go, read.

[LINK] "Is Canadian Sovereignty at Risk by a Lack of an Indigenous Satellite Launch Capability?"

Does Canada need its own space-launch capability? Thanks to dewline for pointing me to Marc Boucher's answer to this interesting, and important, question.

Canada has no indigenously satellite launch capability and until the last decade it wasn't even an issue people within the industry contemplated too seriously. However global security events such as 9/11, arctic sovereignty, earth observation needs have all increased Canada's need and reliance on satellites. So does Canada need an indigenous satellite launch capability? It's a question worth exploring as we consider whether Canadian sovereignty is at risk by not having our own launch capability.

[. . .]

Every single country that has built their own launch capability always done it first and foremost for security needs. Russia, the United States, China, Japan, the European Union through France, India, and Israel all have the capability to launch a satellite into orbit while South Korea, North Korea, Iran and Brazil have launcher programs underway.

[. . .]

Any foreign country will put its interests ahead of what Canada wants. Case in point is the launching of a satellite that could be considered a threat to the national interests of the country who would be launching the satellite. If the foreign country determined that it could not be in its best interest to launch the satellite, it could just say no. And this in fact has already happened to Canada. Radarsat-2 was launched in December of 2007 after being delayed six years because Canada had to find another launch provider, ultimately the Russians, as the U.S. backed out of launching the satellite. This also forced Canada to find another satellite bus provider. These two changes proved to be costly as they added an additional $191.1 million to the total mission cost of $528.8 million.

[. . .]

With 10 launches pending in the next five years and more likely in the future it would seem there's an economic benefit to having these launches take place in Canada as well. After all, each satellite launch comes with a launch cost, which right now is spent in foreign countries. Those Canadian tax dollars could be spent at home which would also create new jobs and foster the growth of the domestic industry. An industry that would also benefit the scientific community. With more opportunities for space science, Canadian universities and research centres could be able to contribute more to our scientific knowledge base which in turn would help other related industries.

Go, read.

[LINK] "To the roots of geek culture"

The French sociology blog Une heure de peine, maintained by Denis Colombi, is a very worthwhile blog indeed. One recent post--"Aux sources de la culture geek/To the roots of geek culture"--offers interesting insights on the question of what geek culture is and what it developed from.

I mentioned a few days ago that the geek has become, in recent years, an uncommon figure of strength and legitimacy uncommon, so much so that a film like Kick-Ass has seen a surprising reversal: the super-hero is replaced by the geek. Other examples could be cited, but it is certain that geek culture has been widely disseminated. It is in Becker is rereading that I found a clue to help me understand where it comes from.

[. . .]

But where does this geek culture come from? What are its roots? I would like to advance a hypothesis from this classic of sociology that is Outsiders . In Chapter 5, Howard Becker studies "the culture of a deviant group", namely "dance musicians" in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. Drawing on his own field experience - he himself was a jazz musician - he clearly identifies a particular culture, actually not that different in its operation from our own geek culture.In particular, these musicians made a clear distinction between them and the "squares" [. . .], namely those who are not musicians. How could you not see a parallel with how the geeks monitor carefully the boundaries of their group?

But what united this culture? Why did it develop? The dance musicians all faced common problems, and in returning to interact with them, they developed shared meanings. These problems have to do with the nature of their profession[.]

As workers in a service industry, dance musicians were faced with the need to maintain high standards and a certain hostility towards customers who didn't get their profession's needs. Thus, a distinctive culture.

My hypothesis is that the geek culture finds its roots here. Originally, computing was an activity of enthusiasts, often gathered on American campuses, who were able to define their own criteria for good programs because they were interacting with each other. With the spread of computers, they have faced in business and elsewhere people who have other needs of computers, and different criteria of assessment criteria. They come into conflict with those computer scientists who derive a significant part of their identity around computer-generated graphics. This requires that they manage this conflict, and geek culture gives them that opportunity by drawing a space of independence for them. Thus, specialized knowledge in areas that some would regard as trivial, eg science fiction, Star Trek or another, all are means to express their exceptionality in relation to all-comers, this however imposing specific ways of working. [. . .]

The comparison between a group of artists, dance musicians, and computer workers should not be surprising. The independence of the artist, his creative abilities, his strong personality, his talent to take part in projects where he can bring in something new, in brief all the classical representation and some exaggerated activities are central principles of the functioning of contemporary capitalism[.] Therefore, it is not surprising that geek culture is spreading: it is deeply consistent with the "new spirit of capitalism." Hackers of all stripes maybe do not always realize how they are ultimately conformist.

Go, read. Google Translate can produce broadly readable texts, don't you know.

[H&F] "One note on the decline of homophobia"

I've a post up at History and Futility documenting how the recent fuss over the Halton Catholic school board's banning of gay-straight alliances, and the subsequent ending of this policy in the face of massive general opposition, illustrates the progress made by the gay rights movement: with a critical mass of out queers, when forced to choose between those they know and love and their nominal dogma people pick their loved ones. It's nice

And on a related note, see Matt Warren's post at The Long Game, "Surprising news about American religious life" dealing with the question of how Americans can combine religious diversity with religious tolerance. The answer? If need be, they pick people over dogma.

Go, read both.

[DM] "Why did Tunisia revolt? Too-deferred dreams"

I've a post up at Demography Matters explaining the recent revolution in Tunisia in terms of a young, increasingly qualified, and increasingly hopeful population that had their dreams deferred by a corrupt regime that just didn't do enough to enable its youth. Dreams deferred, as it turns out, do explode.

Go, read.