[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• At Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait makes the necessary point that the unusual lack of the predicted acetylene on Titan's surface doesn't automatically indicate that Titan hosts life.


• Beyond the Beyond' Bruce Sterling reports on how a French trader accused of massive, illegal trading is planning on defending himself by arguing that's what the bank expected of him.


• Language Log examines how dialects of North American English and social networks map onto each other.


• The Numerati's Steve Baker argues that it's a good idea for students of foreign languages, instead of picking up major international languages like Spanish and French, to learn relatively minor languages like Czech or Vietnamese and Danish. His theory is that native speakers of these languages will respond very well to foreigners who speak their language.


• Savage Minds' Rex considers how the clash of interests in Papua New Guinea between a government interested in exploiting the country's mines and forests and peoples violently opposed to this is read and misread, as a conflict involving indigenous peoples instead of representing a failure of the state to engage its citizens.