[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Anders Sandberg breaks down the possible explanations for the Fermi Paradox, the perceived mystery surrounding the vast size of the universe and the failure of extraterrestrials to contact us. What's the filter?
  
• Geocurrents examines the plight of the Assyrians, a Chrisitan population indigenous to the area of Iraq subjected to ottoman genocide and since then suffering ever-greater levels of violence, all while the world fails to notice..


• At the Global Sociology Blog, Habermas' warnings about the consequences of the delegitimizing of political elites are paired with reports from a Dubai where the idea of society, a shared public space, has collapsed altogether.


• Personal Reflections' Paul Belslaw engages with some of the global controversies around multiculturalism.


• At The Search, Douglas Todd writes about the traditional (and popular) Canadian belief in the possibility of interactions with the spirit world.


• Window on Eurasia <a href="http://windowoneurasia.blogspot.com/2010/10/window-on-eurasia-irans-influence-in.html|>examines</a> Iran's influence in post-Soviet Central Asia. Perhaps alongside Tajikistan, Iran's closest relationship is with a determinedly neutral Turkmenistan. Cultural distances otherwise limit Iran's potential heft.</li> </ul>