A Bit More Detail

• 80 Beats notes suggestions that odd carbon-14 ratios in classical Japanese manuscripts and records of a red cross in the night sky from Anglo-Saxon England indicate that there may have been a supernova visible from Earth in 774.


• Extraordinary Observations is skeptical about the prospects for farming in urban areas in the United States, taken in isolation.


• Anti-Semitic and anti-Romani sentiment in Hungary is detailed, those two populations' histories explored, at Geocurrents.


• A New APPS Blog post suggests that feminism might be unpopular with some men because they're not familiar with working women in their own lives, drawing from the author's personal experiences as well as broader analysis.


• Border disputes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the underlying patterns of disorder they reflect, is the theme of a Registan post.


• Technosociology suggests that the Muslim Brotherhood's transparent communication of electoral results in Egypt may have been responsible for the acceptance of the vote by the military.

• Broadsides' Antonia Zerbisias writes about Castor Semenya's heartbreakingly bad treatment by the media.


• Centauri Dreams talks about laser launch technology, the amazingly detailed discovery of the extrasolar planet CoRoT-7b, and the reasons for communicating with extraterrestrial civilizations.


• Far Outliers describes how the exchange of firearms for hogs on Tahiti started a series of wars.
  
• Hunting Monsters reports on the latest depressing news from Fiji.


• Joe. My. God reports that a South Carolina teen whose insurance company dropped him after he tested HIV-positive has been awarded damages of $US 10 million.


• Noel Maurer examines the massive cost overruns in the private sector, concentrating on the Albertan oil sands' development.


• Normblog considers the most commonly offered reasons for discouraging Jewish assimilation and boosting the number of Jews in the world and finds them unconvincing.


• Towleroad reports on how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church--I think the autonomous one under the Patriarch of Moscow--rejoices that Elton John can't adopt Ukrainian children. We also learn how violent Iraqi homophobes are using Internet chat room to brutally murder gays in that poor country.


• Torontoist reports that the Burj Dubai isn't going to take away the CN Tower's record as the tallest free-standing building in the world. No, I don't understand how.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Ilya Somin suggests that the strong association of American Jews with the left in the modern United States might be explained by a distaste of the Religious Right associated with conservatism.


• Window on Eurasia wonders if Turkey, home to a large Abkhaz diaspora, might be the next country to recognize Abkhazia's independence, as well as reporting on how many prominent Ukrainians want a security guarantee against Russia.

[Christina] Reves, a Dane, is married to Walid Badawi, an Egyptian. The couple -- and more than 1,200 like them -- will tell you that love knows no bounds until it encounters Danish immigration laws. This nation is increasingly anti- foreigner, and its strict marriage regulations are sending hundreds of culturally mixed couples into exile each year.

"I cross what is known as 'Love Bridge' every night to Sweden, and we joke that we're love's refugees," said Reves, who is training in Copenhagen to be a real estate agent.

"I feel betrayed and sad. It's not just the rightist politicians. It's the Danish people, too. We've become very small-minded. We're such a rich country, but those of us who married foreigners can't share it with our spouses."

Suspicion of immigrants has helped propel the rise of the right-wing Danish People's Party, which won 12 percent of the vote in the last federal election and is a key member of the coalition government. The party's platform, according to its Web site, is clear: "Denmark belongs to the Danes and its citizens must be able to live in a secure community ... developing only along the lines of Danish culture."

The European Council in July criticized Denmark's legislation on immigrants as a threat to human rights. The laws are a complicated mix of financial, housing, age and national loyalty requirements that critics say deter mixed marriages.

One of the most contentious provisions holds that both partners be at least 24 years old.

Rightist politicians say the legislation prevents poor immigrants from overrunning the welfare system and protects Muslim girls from forced marriages, which Integration Minister Bertel Haarder has described as an "offense" to freedom. Immigrants and asylum-seekers make up about 8 percent of Denmark's population of 5.3 million. Three percent of the population is Muslim, and the government has imposed some of Europe's toughest restrictions on Islamic clerics.

The human rights group Marriage Without Borders is active in Denmark and Sweden, and many couples are trying to outmaneuver Danish laws. A Dane living in Sweden for two years is eligible for Swedish citizenship. With a Swedish passport, the native Dane can return to Denmark with his or her foreign spouse under the protection of European Union regulations.

"When you turn on the news in Denmark, all they talk about is democracy," said Mohssine Boudal, a Moroccan married to a Dane and living in Sweden. "But look at our situation. We can't live in Denmark. That's not democratic at all. It's a contradiction."