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[LINK] Some Friday links
May. 8th, 2009 09:10 am- Daniel Drezner is tired of writer Robert D. Kaplan's continued proclamations, in his books and his magazines and elsewhere, of the impending breakdown of the state in the face of ancient geographical and cultural constraints, when in fact no such thing seems to be happening.
- Far Outliers takes a look at the inability of the League of Nations or the United Nations to constrain 1930s Japanese expansionism in China, owing to Japan's single-minded determination to proceed, while also taking a look at the German influence on Latin American militaries after the Franco-Prussian War.
- Larkvi's Sean Winslow blogs about the Great Stela--obelisk--of Axum, an ancient kingdom in located in modern Ethiopia.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money's Charli Carpenter examines the war in Afghanistan, contrasting between collateral damage and "lawfare" (human shields used by the Taliban), and argues that to be effective NATO has to abandon its reliance on airpower and send in the troops.
- Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen examines the reasons for Ireland's sharp economic collapse, and his co-blogger Alex Tabarrok points to research suggesting that the Venezuelan state has in fact retaliated against signers of an anti-Chavez petition.
- Open the Future's Jamais Cascio links to an article of his where he ponders if the proliferation of social networking, by encouraging people to pay only partial attention to their surroundings, might discourage empathy.
- Dylan Reid at Spacing Toronto explores some of the new French SMS/flash mob street protests, and Matthew Blackett takes a look at the streets of Reykjavik for much the same.
- Strange Maps introduces us to a political cartoon showing iconic representations of different Asian powers peering ominously at a dangerously unpopulated and white Australia.
- Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn examines the 1880 assassination of Toronto newspaper publisher George Brown (the Globe), while on a walk through a Toronto neighbourhood Damutal Hotan lets us know about the cost differences between red and yellow brick in the 19th century.
- The Volokh Conspiracy's guest blogger Adam Mossoff reports on the dastardly sewing machine monopoly of the 19th century United States.
- Window on Eurasia suggests that there is some pent-up demand for Ukrainian-language schools in Russia and observes that Russian Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov would like to annex Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
