[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Centauri Dreams wonders if extraterrestrial civilizations might not be found through large-scale megaengineering but rather through nano-scale artifacts.


• Crooked Timber's Maria Farrell takes a look at trends in Internet governance in a post-American world.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that Arianespace may need more subsidies.


• The Financial Times's World blog follows increasing instability in Venezuela.


• Otto Pohl wonders when neocolonial economics will stop in Ghana, a country that could become a manufacturing power but doesn't.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw likes the gentler and less strident politics of New Zealand.


• Registan features a guest post from David Levy on the subject of Kyrgyzstan's entrance into the new Russian-dominated customs union. Yes, it might be an instance of Russian force majeure, but it is also what large segments of Kyrgzystan would like. (Protection from Chinese products features.)


• Savage Minds features a guest post from Elizabeth Cullen Dunn explaining why she is boycotting Sochi, not only because of the historical ethnic cleansing of the Circassians but because of the contemporary ethnic cleansing of Georgians. (She did fieldwork in Georgia; it sounds grim.)


• Window on Eurasia paraphrases an argument to the effect that supporters of a European linkage will have to overcome the fears of the industrial but uncompetitive southeast as to how their economies will survive.