[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait and Centauri Dreams guest poster Lee Billings and Supernova Condensate all react joyfully to the news of the discovery of Alpha Centauri Bb (or is it B b).


• Next, at Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling blogged about two prescient computer-related predictions, one describing tablet computer for children imagined in 1972 and the other revisiting the Xerox Star.


• Daniel Drezner takes a look at a study describing China's increasing tendency to apply sanctions on other countries. So far Chinese sanction use has been fairly limited.


• Eastern Approaches examines the politics of Montenegro and the potential for progress in deadlocked Greek-Macedonian relations.


• Marginal Revolution notes that a computer manufacturer owned by the father of Psy, K-Pop star famed for "Gangnam Style", is undergoing a boom in its prices.


• J. Otto Pohl argues that leftists in the developed world have a vested interest in Africa not developing and remaining abject.


• The Population Reference Bureau's blog Behind the Numbers notes a study suggesting that, contrary some predictions, a decreasing sex ratio in China and India and elsewhere doesn't strengthen the bargaining position of women but rather does the contrary.


• Torontoist notes a celebration of the one-year anniversary of Occupy Toronto.


• At the Volokh Conspiracy, historian Eric Hobsbawm's support for Stalinism is addressed in the context of the neglect of Communist crimes against humanity generally.


• The Zeds' Michael Steeleworthy fears that the new paywall of The Globe and Mail might augur--if we're not careful--an era of restricted public access to information generally.