A Bit More Detail

• By at least one metric, New Brunswick now lags economically behind a more dynamic Prince Edward Island. CBC reports.


• NOW Toronto looks at toxic fandoms. ("Stanning" sounds really creepy to me.)


• This CityLab article looks at how the particular characteristics of Japan, including its high population density, helps keep alive there retail chains that have failed in the US.


• MacLean's looks at Kent Monkman, enjoying a new level of success with his diptych Mistikôsiwak at the Met in NYC.


• Can there be something that can be said for the idea of an Internet more strongly pillarized? Wired argues.


• I reject utterly the idea of meaningful similarities between Drake and Leonard Cohen. CBC did it.


• Toronto Life looks at the life of a Hamilton woman hurt badly by the cancellation of the basic income pilot, here.


• Inspired by the death of Gord Downie, Ontario now has the office of poet-laureate. CBC reports.


• Is Canada at risk, like Ireland, of experiencing two-tier health care? CBC considers.


• A French immigrant couple has brought the art of artisanal vinegar to ile d'Orléans. CBC reports.


• Shore erosion is complicating the lives of people along Lake Erie. CBC reports.


• MacLean's notes how Via Rail making it difficult for people without credit cards to buy anything on their trains, hurting many.


• Michelle Legro notes at Gen that the 2010s is the decade where conspiracy culture became mainstream.


• This essay by Robert Greene at his blog talking about what history, and historians, can do in our era is thought-provoking.

• Architectuul looks at the Portuguese architectural cooperative Ateliermob, here.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at how white dwarf WD J091405.30+191412.25 is literally vapourizing a planet in close orbit.


• Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog explains
  
• Centauri Dreams looks at the slowing of the solar wind far from the Sun.


• John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the gap between ideals and actuals in the context of conspiracies and politics.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on how the ESA is trying to solve a problem with the parachutes of the ExoMars probe.


• Far Outliers reports on what Harry Truman thought about politicians.


• Gizmodo reports on a new method for identifying potential Earth-like worlds.


• io9 pays tribute to legendary writer, of Star Trek and much else, D.C. Fontana.


• The Island Review reports on the football team of the Chagos Islands.


• Joe. My. God. reports that gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy will compete for the United Kingdom in 2020.


• JSTOR Daily looks at how early English imperialists saw America and empire through the lens of Ireland.


• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not like Pete Buttigieg.


• The LRB Blog looks at the London Bridge terrorist attack.


• The Map Room Blog shares a map of Prince William Sound, in Alaska, that is already out of date because of global warming.


• Marginal Revolution questions if Cuba, in the Philippines, is the most typical city in the world.


• The NYR Daily looks at gun violence among Arab Israelis.


• The Planetary Society Blog considers what needs to be researched next on Mars.


• Roads and Kingdoms tells the story of Sister Gracy, a Salesian nun at work in South Sudan.


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting continued population growth expected in much of Europe, and the impact of this growth on the environment.


• Strange Maps shares a map of fried chicken restaurants in London.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why a 70 solar mass black hole is not unexpected.


• John Scalzi at Whatever gives his further thoughts on the Pixel 4.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, last year, 37 thousand Russians died of HIV/AIDS.


• Arnold Zwicky starts from a consideration of the 1948 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.

• This feature in The Guardian examines the sufferings of the people who have been made victims of conspiracy theories.


• Global News takes a look at the strong support of New Brunswickers for the New England Patriots, rooted in a historical community that surely extends to the rest of Atlantic Canada.


• Atlas Obscura examines the communities being knitted together across the world by North American immigrants from the Caribbean of at least partial Hakka descent.


• The Guardian notes how, for many property-owners and residents, having Banksy graffiti on one of their walls might not be a blessing at all.


• The Japan Times looks at how a gatekeeper in the infamous Aokigahara forest in Japan, a favoured destination of people planning suicide, is trying to inspire them to live.

• Centauri Dreams celebrates the arrival, and successful data collection, of New Horizons at Ultima Thule, as does Joe. My. God., as does
  Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog. Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explained, before the New Horizons flyby of Ultima Thule, why that Kuiper Belt object was so important for planetary science.


• In advance of the New Year's, Charlie Stross at Antipope asked his readers to let him know what good came in 2018.


• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber makes the argument that, in the event of a Brexit bitterly resented by many Labour supporters, the odds that they will support a post-Brexit redistributionist program that would aid predominantly pro-Brexit voters are low.


• Bruce Dorminey notes that many Earth-like worlds might be made uninhabitable over eons by the steady warming of their stars, perhaps dooming any hypothetical extraterrestrial civilizations on these planets.


• Far Outliers looks at the patterns of early Meiji Japan relations with Korea, noting an 1873 invasion scare.


• L.M. Sacasas writes at The Frailest Thing, inspired by the skepticism of Jacques Ellul, about a book published in 1968 containing predictions about the technological world of 2018. Motives matter.


• Imageo looks at the evidence from probes and confirms that, yes, it does in fact snow (water) on Mars.


• The Island Review interviews author Adam Nicolson about his family's ownership of the Hebridean Shiant Isles. What do they mean for him, as an author and as someone experience with the sea?


• JSTOR Daily looks at the long history of the human relationship with leather, as a pliable material for clothing of all kinds.


• Language Hat considers the possibility that the New Year's greeting "bistraynte", used in Lebanon and by Christians in neighbouring countries, might come from the Latin "strenae".


• Language Log notes the pressure being applied against the use of Cantonese as a medium of instruction in Hong Kong.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the many reasons why a considerable number of Latinos support Donald Trump.


• Bernard Porter at the LRB Blog comes up with an explanation as to Corbyn's refusal to oppose Brexit.


• Marginal Revolution notes the many problems involved with the formation of supply chains in Africa, including sheer distance.


• The NYR Daily has a much-needed reevaluation of the Jonestown horror as not simply a mass suicide.


• Author Peter Watts writes about a recent trip to Tel Aviv.


• At Out There, Corey Powell writes about how planetary scientists over the decades have approached their discipline, expecting to be surprised.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shared some top images collected by Hubble in 2018.


• Strange Company looks at the strange 1953 death of young Roman woman Wilma Montesi. How did she die, leaving her body to be found on a beach?


• Window on Eurasia notes how Circassian refugees in Syria are asking for the same expedited status that Ukrainian refugees have received.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell takes an extended look at the politics of 4G and Huawei and the United Kingdom and transatlantic relations over the past decade.


• Arnold Zwicky takes a look, in language and cartoons, at "Jesus fuck".

• This alarming VICE report notes the ways in which our phones--and other mobile devices, I'm sure--are in fact listening to us.


• This distressing story looks at how HIV denialism has become popular among many Russians, and the terrible toll this belief system inflicts on people victimized by it (children, particularly).


• Smithsonian Magazine notes how the 1856 discovery of the greenhouse effect created by carbon dioxide by pioneering scientist Eunice Foote was overlooked because she was a woman.


• The detonation of more than 100 substantial nuclear weapons, this report notes, would doom civilization through climate change and agricultural collapse. Motherboard has it.


• Asteroids in orbits linked to that of the Earth would be excellent first targets for asteroid mining, Universe Today reports.

• NOW Toronto gives a glowing review to Love, Simon, one that praises the film for its quality and for its importance.


• CBC reports on how Toronto police seem to have badly mishandled Abdulbasir Faizi.


• The inquiry into the alleged McArthur murders most definitely should be independent of police chief Saunders. NOW Toronto reportsA.


• This story of how a recipe for pickled cucumbers survived the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s is powerful. Taste Cooking has it.


• The way in which LGBTQ rights became a hot political issue in the recent Italian elections is not good. Open Democracy reports.


• The politicization of homophobia across the former Soviet Union is horrible. Open Democracy reports.


• Why do so many people on the American right insist that Obama is gay? VICE reports.

• Anthrodendum considers what, exactly, anthropology majors can do job-wise with their degrees. Interesting ideas.


• Centauri Dreams considers the possible origins of cometary organics in deep space.


• Hornet Stories talks of anti-immigrant Americans with immigrant ancestors who skirted relevant laws themselves, like Donald Trump.


• Language Hat considers byssus, an exotic ancient textile and a word with a complex history.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how the potential for disaster in Florida is worsened by poor planning.


• The LRB Blog looks at the sad intersection of war, xenophobia, and rising rates of polio in Pakistan (and elsewhere).


• The Map Room Blog notes an interactive map-related play still showing at the Halifax Fringe, Cartography.


• The NYR Daily notes a high-profile corruption trial of a former government minister in Moscow.


• The Planetary Society Blog shares Paul Schenk's story about how he interned at JPL in 1979 for the Voyager 2 flyby.


• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the search by a Brazilian man for caves in the south of that country.


• The Volokh Conspiracy asks some interesting questions about the mechanics of Settlers of Catan.


• At Whatever, John Scalzi remembers Jerry Pournelle.


• Window on Eurasia notes how Russia is strongly opposed to any Circassian return to their ancestral homeland.

• Centauri Dreams reports on asteroid P/2016 G1, a world that, after splitting, is now showing signs of a cometary tail.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers outrage as a sociological phenomenon. What, exactly, does it do? What does it change?


• Joe. My. God. reports on a new push for same-sex marriage in Germany, coming from the SPD.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money examines the Alabama government's disinterest in commemorating the Selma march for freedom.


• Marginal Revolution looks at Oxford University's attempt to recruit white British male students.


• At the NYRB Daily, Masha Gessen warns against falling too readily into the trap of identifying conspiracies in dealing with Trump.


• pollotenchegg maps the distribution of Muslims in Crimea according to the 1897 Russian census.


• Savage Minds takes a brief look at ayahuasca, a ritual beverage of Andean indigenous peoples, and looks at how its legality in the United States remains complicated.


• Elf Sternberg considers the problems of straight men with sex, and argues they might be especially trapped by a culture that makes it difficult for straight men to consider sex as anything but a birthright and an obligation.


• The Volokh Conspiracy considers how the complexities of eminent domain might complicate the US-Mexican border wall.


• Window on Eurasia reports on protests in Russia and argues Belarus is on the verge of something.

• City of Brass notes the lie that is Eurabia.


• Crooked Timber considers Creative Commons licenses as a crude kind of anti-spam technology.


• The Dragon's Tales looks at Ontario's interest in pioneering a guaranteed minimum income program.


• Far Outliers looks at the history of Korean prisoners of war in the Second World War in Hawai'i.


• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Nancy Reagan.


• Language Hat starts a discussion about the cost of designing fonts.
  
• Language Log notes the difficulties of some Westerners with learning Chinese compared to Western classical languages.


• Marginal Revolution notes the complexity of the new European Union-Turkey deal on Syrian migrants.


• Discover's Neuroskeptic notes that we are far from being able to upload content directly to our brains.


• Strange Maps notes how, in Turkish, different cardinal directions are associated with a different colour.


• Is Buffalo strongly anti-gay? Towleroad considers this finding, from a social media analysis.

Conspiracy theories are no stranger to resourceful leaders. They can consolidate political power, cultivate the image of an external enemy and reduce their responsibility for the nation's ills. And in the ex-Soviet republic of Azerbaijan, conspiracy theories help keep incumbent president Ilham Aliyev in power.

According to these conspiracies, Azerbaijan has two main enemies: the Armenian lobby and the jealous west. As the former is often said to finance the latter, these two enemies become one: an omnipresent and all-powerful ‘Armenian lobby’. This powerful structure has become a commonly used weapon in the hands of the authoritarian leadership of Azerbaijan to crack down on dissent. By referring to all of its critics both at home and abroad as Armenian, pro-Armenian, and representing Armenian interests, the authorities have created a quick conspiracy formula for muzzling independent voices by labelling them as traitors.

In Azerbaijan, Armenia wasn’t always used as a political tool—at least, not as much as today. Between 1988 and 1994, the two countries fought a bitter war over the mountainous area of Nagorno Karabakh. The ceasefire that ended the conflict in 1994 failed to maintain a buffer zone.

Casualties on the front line continue to this day, and the failure to reach an agreement between the two states to this day leaves the territory administered as an unrecognised state under Armenian protection. Thousands of civilians have been displaced. Warlike rhetoric has significantly increased over the years and, these days, it is the rubber stamped government policy in both Armenia and Azerbaijan.