[BLOG] Some Monday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster writes about Titan, first noting an apparent river valley flowing into the north-polar Ligeia Mare, the second reflecting on the possible subsurface oceans of that Saturnian moon.


• At Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell reflects on the ignoble record of the Economist in relation to the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.


• The Dragon's Tales' Will Baird notes research suggesting that trees in the Amazonian rain forest have survived temperature peaks akin to those likely to be produced by global warming.


• GNXP's Razib Khan links to a 1930 article projecting a total American population of 180 million by 1980, noting that long-range demographic projections are problematic.


• Language Log's Victor Mair notes the problems with maintaining character fluency in Sinitic cultures like China and Japan.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer observes that Ghana has been forced by a UN tribunal to return to Argentina a naval ship held at the request of Argentian's debtors.


• A Registan guest poster, Anvar Malikov, observes that the questions of Afghanistan will dominate policy-making in Uzbekistan.


• Via Peter Rukavina, I've learned that peak electricity usage on Prince Edward Island amounts to 230 megawatts.


• Understanding Society's Paul Little notes the imprecision of the social sciences relative to the physical sciences. Is this really an enduring difference, though, or will the social sciences catch up?


• Window on Eurasia takes note of growing regionalism in Russia's Kaliningrad exclave on the Baltic.