[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• 80 Beats has more about the newly-sanctioned use of anti-retroviral drug Truvada to prevent HIV infection. Apparently it's quite effective--75% efficacy in heterosexual couples which use it consistently, 90% among homosexual couples which do the same.


• Centauri Dreams considers how the next generation of space telescopes will be able to pick up the signature of water oceans on distant worlds.


• Eastern Approaches notes the exceptionally controversial (and possibly doomed) plan by the Czech government to compensate religious organizations for property expropriated under Communism.


• Geocurrents notes the substantial evidence of influence of Finnic groups on the culture of the Eastern Slavs--Russians particularly, but also Ukrainians and Belarusians.


• Language Hat remarks on a religious song of the Ainu making use of nonsense words.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders why people who watch China's development of an aircraft carrier aren't paying attention to the much larger and longer-established naval aviation programs--including aircraft carriers--of India.


• Registan's Nathan Hamm comments on how Uzbekistan's departure from a Russian-led security alliance signals Russian weakness in its immediate neighbourhood.


• Could elements like lithium be manufactured by black holes? Supernova Condensate speculates.


• Towleroad reports on the shameful decision of the Boy Scouts of America to continue keep non-heterosexuals out of its ranks.