[DM] "How many Copts are there? or, More on questionable population figures"

I've a post up at Demography Matters inspired by the very widely varying population estimates provided for Egypt's Coptic minority, everything from four million to sixteen million. The lowest numbers seem most accurate, of course. Why? Look to the United States and its Muslim population: minorities like to believe in security in numbers.

Go, read.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• 80 Beats points to the ongoing debate as to when Europeans first made fire. Archeologists find a lack of evidence for fire use up to four hundred thousand years ago, evolutionary biologists say that the evidence for cooked meals in human physiological development long predates that.


• blogTO's Derek Flack asks which are the most dangerous intersections in Toronto. Annette/Dundas/Dupont just to my west comes up in the comments, among others.


• Heavy state debt for railroad construction in the 1830s' United States is the theme of Far Outliers' post, with abundant regret for this spending after the economic crash hit.


• GeoCurrent Events discusses the alliance between Venezuela and the Caribbean microstate of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, from the islands' end driven by an interesty in getting Cuban/Venezuelan investment in tourism-related infrastructure.


• At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen starts a discussion relating to the question of what should be done with those intellectuals--Benjamin Barber, anyone?--who (I'd say) acted as sycophants for Gaddafi.


• The Pagan Prattle's feorag collects a list of the most unusual conspiracy theories relating to the recent earthquake in Japan.


• Towleroad links to discussion of an IKEA ad in Italy featuring a same-sex male couple that started something of a furor.


• At Understanding Society, Daniel Little reviews Charles Perrow's latest on disaster management, which suggests that the United States is centralized and vulnerable while lacking the experience of (say) the Netherlands in management.


• Sexism in video games is the theme of Une heure de peine's latest post, in French.


• At the Yorkshire Ranter, Alexander Harrowell reviews the construction processers of the new Boeing 787 and finds them lacking, depending critically on the outsourcing of manufacturing at low cost and the deskilling of its labour force. Since many of the problems experienced by outsourcers become visible only when assembled, at huge cost and liability to Boeing, this is an issue.

[FORUM] What do you think about nigh-meaningless diaspora identities?

Thinking more about my St. Patrick's Day posts, I've been thinking about the generic "Irish" identity that day encourages as a matter of fact and finding myself unhappy with that kind of category. In one light, it's useless: being "Irish" by the dint of a certain amount of genealogy and imagined positions and plenty of booze has little to do with, well, being "Irish" in Ireland or even in the actual diaspora. In another kind of light, it's dangerous: reducing an identity, any identity, to essentially arbitrary qualities is a great way to draw lines excluding people.

I could actually make more of a claim to being Scottish Canadian, you know. I've Scottish ancestors on my Dad's Catholic side and my Mom's Protestant side--oh, half my ancestry--and you might make a case for a greater amount of cultural influence, in my childhood in the post-Presbyterian United Church of Canada and nearly Deist, for instance. You could, but you shouldn't since--well, autopope, feorag, could I have passed in Edinburgh or Glasgow as a native?

So, that's me. You? What nigh-meaningless diaspora identities could you claim?