[BLOG] Some Tuesday links (2)

[rfmcdonald]

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait approves of the names of Pluto's two most recently-discovered moons, Kereberos and Styx.


• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling observes that Altavista is set to disappear from the Internet as of the 8th.


• Daniel Drezner notes that the inability of Edward Snowden to find a country to grant him, buster of state secrets, asylum demonstrates that states around the world like keeping their prerogatives and secrets intact.


• Commemorating the accession of Croatia to the European Union, Eastern Approaches visits a Dubrovnik that is virtually an enclave on account of the Bosnian frontier, and, at the other end of the Croatian arc, a Vukovar still caught up by ethnic conflict and the legacies of the Serb war in Slavonia.


• Far Outliers notes the decline of immigrant Japanese Buddhism in Hawaii.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer explains why Uruguay, contrary to the wishes of many Argentines including--apparently--the president, is a country separate from Argentina.


• Registan approves of alumnus Sarah Kendzior's examination of the plight of Uzbek migrants, stigmatized by the Karimov dictatorship as lazy for trying to earn a living and forced to witness the victimization of their relatives if they do anything wrong.


• Savage Minds quotes from Umberto Eco's definition of fascism.


• The Tin Man celebrates, as a coupled American gay man, the end of DOMA.


• Torontoist reports that much of the controversy over the Walmart on the fringes of Kensington Market might be--according to the designer--a consequence of a lack of understanding of the design.


• Van Waffle reports on highlights of his 2012 breeding bird survey.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell reports on David Goodhart's still-dodgy use of statistics.