[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Cosmic Variance's Sean Carroll considers the implications of the recent declaration on the existence of animal consciousness.


• Crooked Timber's Chris Bertram considers the ethical implications of restrictive immigration policies on the part of countries whose past actions--carbon dioxide pollution, or anti-drug wars--have created large numbers of potential migrants.


• Daniel Drezner doesn't like arguments advanced by the likes of Thomas Friedman that Chinese holdings of American sovereign debt gives China power over the United States. It doesn't, at least not the sort of power that--when used--wouldn't hurt China more than the United States.


• Eastern Approaches notes Bulgaria's decision to postpone Euro adoption, made in light of the ongoing crisis.


• Far Outliers concludes its conclusions from Prussian history book The Iron Kingdom with one conluding that in 1945, the Western powers believed that Prussia had to be destroyed to end German militarism, the Soviets--perhaps remarkably--coming to this conclusion later.


• A brief post by Razib Khan at GNXP notes that India is so much larger than Pakistan, proper cross-national (and intra-national) comparisons in South Asia would be better taken to use Indian states rather than India as a whole.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell notes, after T. Ryan Gregory, the importance of distinguishing between evolution as a theory and evolution as a fact.


• At The Power and the Money, Douglas Muir agrees with a recent International Crisis Group analysis arghuing that the likely medium-term outcome in Syria is not the overthrow of Assad, but ratehr the devolution of his government into a warlord regime unresponsive to the sorts of incentives states normally respond to.


• At The Signal, Susan Manus interviews a historian who has been trying to recover electronic work by Rent composer Jonathan Larson, saved in archaic formats and old programs.


• A Torontoist posting explores Torontonians' reaction to the risk of nuclear attack int he early Cold War.


• Eugene Volokh, at The Volokh Conspiracy, mourns the decision of Israel's Egged bus company to respond to attacks by Jerusalem-area Ultra-Orthodox on advertisements featuring women and Israeli human-rights legislation limiting misogyny by dropping advertising featuring human beings.