[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling links to a review of a book highlighting the prominent role played by the nearly one million Chinese migrants in Africa.


• James Bow examines the Southridge Mall, a mall in Iowa's Des Moines that engaged in a suicidally bad redesign.


• Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster summarizes a recent study by astronomers of the different layers of the atmosphere of brown dwarf 2MASSJ22282889-431026.


• Daniel Drezner is skeptical of the idea that American military deployments abroad give the United States an economic edge, pointing to the example of South Korea.


• Eastern Approaches examines the political mood in Serbia, finding an odd optimism that--if unsatisfied--could turn badly on the incumbents.


• The Global Sociology Blog shares a chart showing the relationships, ideological and even dynastic, between the most powerful factions in China.


• Razib Khan at GNXP deconstructs the myth of "Mitochondrial Eve" as the only woman who left descendants.


• The Planetary Society Blog's Emily Lakdawalla sums up the ongoing American Astronomical Society conference. Plenty of news about exoplanets!


• The Signal describes the efforts of oral historian Doug Boyd to come up with a suitable file format for oral histories.


• Torontoist highlights the Sherlock Holmes collection of the Toronto Reference Library.