[BLOG] Some Friday links (1)

• Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster describes, after Timothy Ferris and Greg Egan, the idea of a "galactic Internet" that we just have to find a way to plug into.


• Will Baird at The Dragon's Tales describes one theory for identifying life-supporting worlds on super-Earths orbiting red dwarfs from their spectrographic signatures, and another suggesting that gravitational resonances from Jupiter and Saturn prevented the formation of more, and more massive, planets in the area of Mars.


• Daniel Drezner notes that austerity is controversial in Poland.


• Eastern Approaches touches upon illegal--that is to say, unregulated--adoption in Poland.


• Language Log considers the phonemic--vowel-like, even--qualities of the "Mc" in McDonald's. I'm amused.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that the United States is no longer supporting Argentina's international legal issues with the foreigners claiming its debt.


• Is Towleroad essayist RJ Aguiar correct in claiming that the gay rights movement has neglected sexual freedom for more conservative marriage-type issues?


• A couple of posts at the Volokh Conspiracy suggest that the fall of Detroit can be connected to the use of eminent domain to confiscate property for development. (I suspect causality is reversed.)


• Window on Eurasia points to some interesting articles: one claims that Ukraine for all of its issues is more pluralistic and thus more hopeful than Russia; another talking about the unlikelihood that South Ossetia, once Georgian, will be reunited with North Ossetia inside Russia; and, a final one suggesting that anti-GLBT attitudes are rife throughout the South Caucasus.

[BLOG] Some Friday links (2)

• Centauri Dreams reports on a model for atmospheres of Earth-like planets orbiting red dwarfs that, as pointed out in comments, doesn't take their tidal locking into account.


• The Dragon's Tales describes how the New Horizons probe will approach the Pluto system during its flyby.


• Eastern Approaches notes continuing tensions in Georgia about how "European" the country's political system is.


• Geocurrents notes how the formation of a new Indonesian province bordering Malaysia on the island of Borneo (North Kalimantan) reflects Malaysian-Indonesian tensions.


• Itching for Eestimaa's Guistino notes that levels of economic and technological development in Estonia vary greatly between Tallinn and the rest of the country.


• A post at Lawyers, Guns and Money argues that the proposed Dream Act that would enable illegal migrants in the United States to regularize their status is necessary from the point of justice alone.


• The Map Room's Jonathan Crowe links to fantasy-style maps of real countries, Australia and Great Britain.
  
• The Planetary Society Blog's Emily Lakdawalla notes a minor problem in the exploration of Pluto: what are the lines of latitude and longitude?


• A Registan post observes that a weakening of China wouldn't do good things for Pakistan's status in the world.


• Peter Rukavina contrasts old photos of Charlottetown with contemporary pictures of the same locations.


• Strange Maps' Frank Jacobs describes the quixotic French plan to flood areas of the North African Sahara.