[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Andrew Barton at Acts of Minor Treason despairs on the occasion of Earth Hour. Broader recognition of the critical problems facing the environment of Earth is so badly needed.


• Bruce Sterling quotes at length from Michel de Montaigne, pioneering essayist and critical futurist.


• At Crasstalk, LaZiguezon describes, in pictures and words, five haunting abandoned places: a mine in California's Death Valley, Cyprus' abandoned international airport, and more.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog's Janis Prince Inniss comments on the way that the Trayvon Martin shooting case in Florida is polarizing people into two audiences, once seeing his shooter as an inveterate racist and the other blaming the victim. Intermediate situations are possible: class might be more of a factor than race, for instance.


• Eastern approaches notes that after having been stripped of his doctorate for plagiarism, Hungarian president Pál Schmitt has resigned.


• Geocurrents notes South Korea's significant presence in post-Communist Central Asia.


• The Language Log's Victor Mair calls for the use of more pinyin in Chinese classes to help boost education.


• At the Naked Anthropology, Laura Agustín comments on the recent ruling on prostitution in Ontario, noting that the ban on public solicitation hits relatively disadvantaged prostitutes worse than their more advantaged peers who can better take advantage of the new liberalization.


• Registan is unimpressed by Mitt Romney's identification of Russia as the United States' main enemy.


• Yorkshire ranter Alex Harrowell notes that great efforts are being made to keep new Chinese soldiers depoliticized.