[PHOTO] Raven and beaver at the Kensington Winter Solstice Festival

Last night I went to Kensington Market to see the Kensington Winter Solstice Festival parade. blogTO has a broader selection of photos than I was able to take.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• blogTO looks at the role of the pigeon in Toronto.


• The Dragon's Gaze considers the first steps towards estimates of the distribution of planets across the Milky Way Galaxy.


• The Dragon's Tales notes the discovery of a herbivorous plant.


• Joe. My. God. notes an American homophobic preacher who argues that Russia will nuke the US for being gay-friendly, and notes the Polish parliament's rejection of legislation on civil unions.


• Language Hat notes, contra Chomsky, that there is no such thing as a language instinct.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money mocks opposition to lifting the Cuban embargo and notes Rudolph Guiliani's support for whatever the police do.


• Marginal Revolution looks at American representation in North Korean films and reports on the Chinese reaction to The Interview.


• pollotenchegg maps population change across Ukraine over 2014.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes the effect, or lack thereof, of global economic shocks on Argentina.


• Peter Rukavina shares the script he used to strip The Guardian (of Charlottetown) website of ads.


• Torontoist describes the history of the Mail and Empire.


• Towleroad links to the interview of the widowed partner of Sydney siege victim Tori Johnson.


• Window on Eurasia notes the departure of migrant labourers from Russia, looks at Russian preferences to keep a pro-Russian Donbas within Ukraine, and looks at the ideological issues surrounding Russia's opposition to Ukraine and the West.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell reports on right-wing party politics in England.

[LINK] "Chile’s Indigenous Rights Come at High Price for the Economy"

Bloomberg's Javiera Quiroga writes about the effects of indigenous land claims on the Chilean economy, and seems to do so in a way less sympathetic to their issues and more sympathetic to the broader Chilean economy.

Wilson Galleguillos watches the wind whip up dust clouds above the waste deposits of the Radomiro Tomic copper mine in northern Chile. He says the dust falls on the fields of Chiu Chiu, his village 3 miles away, and that the chemicals in it damage the harvest. Nestled in the valley of Alto Loa, this indigenous community of 300—descendants of the Atacameños, who lived in the desert valleys long before the Spanish arrived—couldn’t stop construction of the mine 20 years ago. Since Chile’s 2008 adoption of a global accord on indigenous rights, state-owned miner Codelco must consult with them over its planned $5.4 billion expansion. That means Codelco and other mining companies have to meet with indigenous communities to consider the impact a big project would have on their rights and customs.

It’s a messy process. Ideally, a consultation allows a company to proceed with its plans while making adjustments to spare the indigenous people, their customs, and their livelihoods. Although the law doesn’t require that the indigenous communities consent before the project gets under way, indigenous leaders can delay development by refusing to meet with the company or suing it for failing to consult in good faith. Says Galleguillos, a village leader and potter by trade: “I don’t even want to hear Codelco’s arguments. I am not going to compromise. I will sit and talk with them but only to say I want their project far away from here.” The consultation with Chiu Chiu is developing normally and hasn’t degenerated into a legal dispute, Jorge Lagos, head of Codelco’s environment and communities department, wrote in an e-mail.

The negotiations as well as mounting environmental awareness have slowed or blocked more than $20 billion in power stations, gold and copper mines, and transmission lines, according to company statements and a study by Matias Abogabir, head of indigenous affairs during former President Sebastián Piñera’s administration.(Abogabir now advises companies on indigenous relations.) After a decade-long copper boom that made Chile the richest country in Latin America, the disputes have helped slow growth. “We’ve reached a stalemate that has a lot of costs for employment, growth, and welfare,” says Ricardo Katz, an analyst at business-sponsored research group Centro de Estudios Publicos.

Since the consultation rule was adopted, companies involved in 76 Chilean projects have had to take action, Abogabir says. Discussions about 45 of the projects got so acrimonious that they ended up in court, with the indigenous groups filing most of the suits. Usually they want the judge to order a new consultation or issue an injunction blocking a project.

[LINK] "Can Brazil Get Its Ethanol Mojo Back?"

Bloomberg View's Mac Margolis describes how a confused Brazilian energy policy is harming the country's ethanol fuel industry.

By June, the international regulator, ASTM, had signed off on commercial use of farnesane, a new Brazilian-made jet fuel ginned up by biotech firm Amyris and French energy major Total. But the Brazilian wonks are a nationalistic lot and demanded tests of their own. Barred at home, Gol had its homemade fuel jetted from Sao Paulo to Orlando and triumphantly flew back, the other way.

If only Brazil's struggling ethanol industry had such a flight plan. Farnesane, which scientists say will sweeten the skies by releasing drastically fewer greenhouse gases, would probably not exist without the innovations of Brazil's clever sugar and ethanol makers.

For the past six years, however, the world's signature manufacturers of clean-burning renewable fuels have lived on razor's edge.

Some 60 ethanol plants have shuttered this year alone and "blue slips," Brazil's unemployment notices, are multiplying: Nearly half of the more than 36,000 industrial jobs erased last month were in the sugar and alcohol industry, reports Valor Economico.

What's worse, they are victims of the wonks and activist bureaucrats whose good intentions to goose growth and contain inflation have only compounded their troubles. The road to ruin was paved by the government of President Dilma Rousseff, a micro-manager who converted state-run companies into the useful idiots of misguided economics.

[LINK] "Chinese Annoyance With North Korea Bubbles to the Surface"

The New York Times' Jane Perlez writes about how many Chinese--including Chinese in prominent positions--are becoming ever-more frustrated by North Korea. (They aren't frustrated enough to cut the country loose, yes.)

When a retired Chinese general with impeccable Communist Party credentials recently wrote a scathing account of North Korea as a recalcitrant ally headed for collapse and unworthy of support, he exposed a roiling debate in China about how to deal with the country’s young leader, Kim Jong-un.

For decades China has stood by North Korea, and though at times the relationship has soured, it has rarely reached such a low point, Chinese analysts say. The fact that the commentary by Lt. Gen. Wang Hongguang, a former deputy commander of an important military region, was published in a state-run newspaper this month and then posted on an official People’s Liberation Army website attested to how much the relationship had deteriorated, the analysts say.

“China has cleaned up the D.P.R.K.'s mess too many times,” General Wang wrote in The Global Times, using the initials of North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “But it doesn’t have to do that in the future.”

Of the government in North Korea, he said: “If an administration isn’t supported by the people, ‘collapse’ is just a matter of time.” Moreover, North Korea had violated the spirit of the mutual defense treaty with China, he said, by failing to consult China on its nuclear weapons program, which has created instability in Northeast Asia.

The significance of General Wang’s article was given greater weight because he wrote it in reply to another Global Times article by a Chinese expert on North Korea, Prof. Li Dunqiu, who took a more traditional approach, arguing that North Korea was a strategic asset that China should not abandon. Mr. Li is a former director of the Office of Korean Affairs at China’s State Council.

[LINK] "Li Yinhe, sexologist in China, reveals relationship with transgender man"

CBC carries an Associated Press report. I've been seeing lots of news of this kind coming from China, suggesting to me that China might be on the verge of a GLBT rights revolution.

A leading Chinese sexologist's revelation that she's been living with a transgender man for 17 years has sparked a rare public discussion about China's largely invisible and marginalized transgender community.

Li Yinhe made the relationship public Thursday on her blog, which was read more than 200,000 times within 24 hours. The blog became a hot topic on China's Twitter-like site Weibo, getting nearly 3 million hits as it spurred spirited discussions on social media not only about Li's nonconventional relationship, but also about transgender Chinese in general.

Chinese are increasingly liberal with heterosexual relationships, but still hold deep prejudices against sexual minorities despite government efforts to achieve equality. As an obscure group in the already socially marginal gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community, transgender Chinese get even less attention and understanding from the public.

[. . .]

Li, a sociologist who is retired from the China Academy of Social Sciences, is known not only as a leading expert on homosexuality, but also as the widow of well-known Chinese author Wang Xiaobo, adding to the huge reaction her disclosure received.

Li said she met her current partner shortly after Wang died in 1997. "He is an angel sent by God to save me from the bitter sea of losing Xiaobo," she wrote on her blog.

[LINK] "Torture, Russia, and Conservative Dictator-Envy"

The New York Magazine hosts Jonathan Chait's article talking about an unhealthy vein of envy in the United States for the leadership style and governing ideology. It's in other democracies too, I'd add. I myself have more read of cultural conservatives of one kind or another who are really fond of Putin's neo-traditionalism.

Three decades ago, right-wing French intellectual Jean-François Revel published a call to arms entitled How Democracies Perish, which quickly became a key text of the neoconservative movement and an ideological blueprint for the Reagan administration. Revel argued that the Soviet Union’s brutality and immunity from internal criticism gave it an inherent advantage over the democratic West — the United States and Europe were too liberal, too open, too humane, too soft to defeat the resolute men of the Iron Curtain.

“Unlike the Western leadership, which is tormented by remorse and a sense of guilt,” wrote Revel, “Soviet leaders' consciences are perfectly clear, which allows them to use brute force with utter serenity both to preserve their power at home and to extend it abroad.” Even though Revel’s prediction that the Soviet Union would outlast the West was falsified within a few years, conservatives continue to tout its wisdom. And even as Revel’s name has faded further into the backdrop, recent events have revealed the continuing influence of his ideas.

The ongoing Russian crisis has given American conservatives the chance to reprise in miniature their mistaken overestimation of communism’s power. When Russia invaded Ukraine earlier this year, the right lamented Barack Obama’s slow, contemplative diplomacy, which was no match for Vladimir Putin’s autocratic will. Rudy Giuliani practically lusted after the Russian dictator. “Putin decides what he wants to do, and he does it in half a day. Right? He decided he had to go to their parliament, he went to their parliament, he got permission in fifteen minutes,” swooned the admired foreign-policy strategist. “That’s what you call a leader.” Other conservatives echoed Giuliani’s praise for Putin’s will to power.

[BRIEF NOTE] On mapping the languages of the world and their networks

Language Log and Language Hat both linked to the paper "Links that speak: The global language network and its association with global fame". The abstract?

Languages vary enormously in global importance because of historical, demographic, political, and technological forces. However, beyond simple measures of population and economic power, there has been no rigorous quantitative way to define the global influence of languages. Here we use the structure of the networks connecting multilingual speakers and translated texts, as expressed in book translations, multiple language editions of Wikipedia, and Twitter, to provide a concept of language importance that goes beyond simple economic or demographic measures. We find that the structure of these three global language networks (GLNs) is centered on English as a global hub and around a handful of intermediate hub languages, which include Spanish, German, French, Russian, Portuguese, and Chinese. We validate the measure of a language’s centrality in the three GLNs by showing that it exhibits a strong correlation with two independent measures of the number of famous people born in the countries associated with that language. These results suggest that the position of a language in the GLN contributes to the visibility of its speakers and the global popularity of the cultural content they produce.

Sciencemag's Michael Erard goes into more detail.

[Shahar] Ronen and co-authors from MIT, Harvard University, Northeastern University, and Aix-Marseille University tackled the problem by describing three global language networks based on bilingual tweeters, book translations, and multilingual Wikipedia edits. The book translation network maps how many books are translated into other languages. For example, the Hebrew book, translated from Hebrew into English and German, would be represented in lines pointing from a node of Hebrew to nodes of English and German. That network is based on 2.2 million translations of printed books published in more than 1000 languages. As in all of the networks, the thickness of the lines represents the number of connections between nodes. For tweets, the researchers used 550 million tweets by 17 million users in 73 languages. In that network, if a user tweets in, say, Hindi as well as in English, the two languages are connected. To build the Wikipedia network, the researchers tracked edits in up to five languages done by editors, carefully excluding bots.

In all three networks, English has the most transmissions to and from other languages and is the most central hub, the team reports online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But the maps also reveal “a halo of intermediate hubs,” according to the paper, such as French, German, and Russian, which serve the same function at a different scale.

In contrast, some languages with large populations of speakers, such as Mandarin, Hindi, and Arabic, are relatively isolated in these networks. This means that fewer communications in those languages reach speakers of other languages. Meanwhile, a language like Dutch—spoken by 27 million people—can be a disproportionately large conduit, compared with a language like Arabic, which has a whopping 530 million native and second-language speakers. This is because the Dutch are very multilingual and very online.

The network maps show what is already widely known: If you want to get your ideas out, you can reach a lot of people through the English language. But the maps also show how speakers in disparate languages benefit from being indirectly linked through hub languages large and small. On Twitter, for example, ideas in Filipino can theoretically move to the Korean-speaking sphere through Malay, whereas the most likely path for ideas to go from Turkish to Malayalam (spoken in India by 35 million people) is through English. These networks are revealed in detail at the study’s website.

The networks exposed, connecting Russian to a variety of Eurasian languages for instance or English to South Asian languages, are quite revealing. Fascinating stuff.

[LINK] Two CBC items on the Wildrose Party and Preston Manning

In "Wildrose turns to Heather Forsyth as party reels from defections", the CBC noted that the Wildrose Party of Alberta has picked an interim leader.

The Wildrose Party has chosen Heather Forsyth as its new interim leader and announced the caucus has been "re-energized."

"I am deeply humbled to receive this endorsement from my colleagues," Forsyth said in a release after the announcement was made in Calgary.

Forsyth was elected in 1993 as a Progressive Conservative MLA, but crossed the floor to join the Wildrose Party in 2010.

[. . .]

The Wildrose Party is still reeling after nine MLAs crossed the floor to join the governing PCs last week, including former leader Danielle Smith. The change leaves the PCs with 72 seats.

"We need a few days to just relax and we need to reach out to Albertans, reach out to our candidates, find out what the next step is, work with the party," Forsyth told CBC News. "I think more important than anything is to talk to Albertans, obviously."

Meanwhile, "Preston Manning apologizes for role in Wildrose defections" tells that remarkable story.

Preston Manning is now apologizing for the role he played in last week’s defection of Danielle Smith and eight other Wildrose MLAs to Jim Prentice’s Progressive Conservatives.

In a Facebook post, the former leader of the federal Reform Party said he was asked by the caucus to share his experience in uniting his party with the federal PCs 15 years ago.

Reports state that Manning's talk was the turning point in the MLAs' decision to cross the floor.

But Manning now says that he failed to mention that the unite-the-right decision back then was approved by democratic means -- discussions with the grassroots, a vote by members and ultimately the 2000 federal election.

Manning now regrets not making that more explicit to the Wildrose caucus.

[DM] "Notes on the demographic future of Cuba"

I've a post up at Demography Matters arguing that the recent improvements in Cuban-American relations give Cuba the chance to catch up, to become wealthy before it grows old, to overcome its existing demographic issues or at least minimize them. Will it? That remains to be seen.