[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• A Budding Sociologist or not, Dan Hirschman has a fascinating Q&A up with Canada-based economist Morten Jerven talking about the extent to which economic--and other--statistics in Africa are flawed.


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes the landmark discovery of a distant supernova, a Type 1A supernova 10.5 billion light years away (and 10.5 billion years in the past).


• Bag News Notes comments on the "Jew in a Box" display of a Berlin museum. Providing contemporary German museum-goers with a volunteer Jew to talk about their Jewish experiences may be well-intentioned, but it also has obvious negative echoes.


• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling links to an interesting essay on the ethics of geoengineering.


• Eastern Approaches visits a desolate, impoverished town in Bulgaria.


• New APPS Blog takes on the ridiculous philosophizing of libertarian economist Steven Landsberg, who suggested that no harm is done to a person--a woman, naturally-who was raped while she was unconscious.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell is quite unimpressed with the Vatican's latest statement about the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Something peer-reviewed and new, not just a remining of old data, would be nice.


• Steve Munro talks about various developments in Toronto transit.


• Understanding Society's Daniel Little takes a look at Jonathan Haidt's theory about the natural origins of moral intuitions.