[PHOTO] The Dunes Gallery, Brackley Beach: Gardens

More shots today from the The Dunes Studio Gallery and Cafe (3622 Brackley Point Road), this time focusing on the gardens.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• The Big Picture shares pictures of the ongoing confusion and human tragedy surrounding the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes preliminary results for the hunt of exoplanets around very cool stars.


• The Dragon's Tales, meanwhile, observes that the red-coloured formation on Europa's icy surface seem to be produced by internal events.


• Far Outliers notes that Japan provided naval protection to Australia during the First World War, causing the Australians no small amount of alarm at their vulnerability.


• A Fistful of Euros' Alex Harrowell notes the personal and ideological connection between now-separate Crimea and Transnistria.


• At The Frailest Thing, Michael Sacasas talks about how the phenomenon of people disconnecting from the online world can evoke the Bakhtinian carnival, and how it also might not be enough.


• Geocurrents notes that, in various referenda, Switzerland's Francophone cantons are consistently more open (to immigrants, to the European Union) than others.)


• Joe. My. God. observes that for the first time since the epidemic hit, HIV/AIDS has stopped being one of the top ten causes of death in New York City.


• Ukrainian demographics blogger pollotenchegg shares the results of recent detailed polling of Crimea's population, on everything from political views or language usage.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that markets are reacting to Russia's actions, though whether it's Crimea alone or broader fears about a Ukrainian war is open to question.


• Torontoist explains to its readership what co-op apartments actually are, in the course of an explanation that Jack Layton and Olivia Chow were not living in subsidized apartments.


• Towleroad celebrates the classic TV series Golden Girls.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Russian relations with Lithuania are also deteriorating.

[FORUM] What do you think will happen in Ukraine next, after Crimea?

Today's referendum in the Crimean peninsula has ended up producing an overwhelming majority in favour of Crimea's annexation by Russia. (I've been hearing figures like 93% approval of annexation by Russia on the basis of 80% turnout.)

What happens next? A Fistful of Euros' Doug Merrill has come up with a handy guide to 1930s analogies. To wit:

Crimea: Anschluss. Mostly wiling population, dissent shouted down or stamped out, stage-managed sham referendum. The main difference is that the troops of the larger, external power were already in Crimea, rather than just across the border in Bavaria.

Kharkiv, Donetsk: Sudetenland. Some real tension, mostly trumped up and stage-managed confrontations. Pleas for “protection” from some parts of a particular nationality to the outside power. Not fooling anyone. In contrast to then, Kiev would try to defend the frontier region militarily. (The great powers will not intervene, should it come to that.) Whether that defense would succeed is rather an important question. There’s not a major defensible barrier until the Dniepr. Speaking of which…

Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporizhia: Poland. The great powers would not be able to overlook the dismemberment of a major European state. They wouldn’t be able to stop it, either.

Poland: France. It’s on

Much depends on the motives of Russia, and on the internal evolution of Ukraine. I suspect myself that the Crimean annexation was an improvised response to the recent Ukrainian revolution, and that the Russian government wouldn't want to risk a wider war in Ukraine. But would it, necessarily, in Kharkiv and Donetsk? If Ukrainians in those provinces did identify as Russian, or at least as non-Ukrainian, then if those provinces detached themselves from the authority of Kiev a Russian annexation--or perhaps protectorate--wouldn't be unimaginable.

What of events further afield? Would Russophone minorities elsewhere in the world be used to justify further annexations? (I suspect not; Ukraine is likely a case sui generis, neither closely integrated with the West like the Baltic States nor closely allied with Russia like Belarus or Kazakhsstan.) Will there be sanctions, and how strict will they be? (I suspect that there will be sanctions, though I don't know how strict they will be. I do suspect Russia could end up coming out worse: the European Union can buy its gas elsewhere, but if Russia cuts off the taps to Europe will its gas be saleable to third parties?) What will be the consequences for civil society in Russia? (I'm guessing "dire.")

Discuss.

[PHOTO] The Dunes Gallery: Bird on a Buddha

I wish that I had a sharper picture of this corvid--probably a crow--neatly perched on top of a Buddha statue's head, but this is the sharpest of the several I got.

The photo opportunity was obvious: a crow, representative of a group of birds not only known for their wisdom in folklore and myth but actually proven by modern science to be quite remarkably intelligent, sitting neatly on the top of an icon from a religion known for wise contemplation?

Now if only I could think of a cute line of meme-worthy text to superimpose on the image. Any suggestions?