A Bit More Detail

• Centauri Dreams looks at the latest images of asteroid Bennu provided by the OSIRIS-REx probe.


• The Crux notes the impact of genetic research on theories of language among the Neanderthals. If they were, as seems very likely, users of language, did their language use differ from that of homo sapiens sapiens?


• D-Brief notes that climate change leads to changes in the microbiology of soils. (What effect would this have on the environment? Unknown, as of yet.)


• The Dragon's Tales notes that the Indian aircraft Vikramaditya has just had its second refit completed.


• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the social construction of geography. How are categories created, for instance?


• Far Outliers looks at efforts to educate prisoners of war in the Second World War-era United States, to use them even as test-beds for a wider reeducation of their societies.


• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing, considering the idea of the society of the spectacle of Debord after the thoughts of Foucault, notes the early prediction of a fusion between surveillance and spectacle, of a fusion between the two.


• Hornet Stories notes the anti-gay policies of the government of Tanzania government, arguing that country cannot be allowed to be a second Chechnya.


• JSTOR Daily notes how the rhetoric of Richard Nixon helped pave the way for Donald Trump.


• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money argues that even if the Democratic Party loses today's elections in the United States, Americans should still have hope, should still work for a better future. I wish you all luck, myself.


• The Map Room Blog looks at Stanford University's archive of the Maps of the Office of Strategic Studies.


• Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining immigrant success in Sweden, noting the complicating picture of general success: Children of more deprived refugees do better than more favoured ones.


• The NYR Daily looks at early feminist Ernestine Rose.


• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the work of Cambodian architect Dy Preoung, who during the Khmer Rouge era managed to preserve his work on Angkor Wat.


• Drew Rowsome looks at the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, focusing on its queer elements.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel examines how black holes actually do evaporate.


• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy notes the signal flaws with the argument that migrants should stay at home and fix their country. (What if they have no chance to, for instance?)


• Window on Eurasia notes that the West has a vested interest in the survival of Lukashenka in Belarus, if only because a sudden liberalization could well lead to a Russian invasion.


• Nick Rowe at the Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes a look at "bicycle disequilibrium theory".

1-2-3-4
Walkin' like a man
Hitting like a hammer
She's a juvenile scam
Never was a quitter
Tasted like a raindrop
She's got the look

• The Dragon's Gaze reports on speculation that the Fermi paradox can be answered by assuming extraterrestrial civilizations have died already.


• The Dragon's Tales looks at the climate of early Mars.


• Far Outliers takes a look at ethnic divisions among Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Russia.


• Joe. My. God. reposts his essay on gay pride parades, in all of their diverse and showy glory.


• Marginal Revolution notes a study suggesting that, in Sweden, lottery winners do not experience improvements in their health.


• Window on Eurasia looks at the dynamics behind Putin's neo-Soviet nostalgia, and looks at a sketchy prison in North Ossetia.

• Bloomberg notes Twitter will stop counting photos and links against its 140-character limit, reports on the challenges of the new Taiwanese president, and reports on Japan's efforts to boost its workforce.


• Bloomberg View argues European banks just aren't good at investment banking, suggests austerity worked for Latvia, and argues an IMF suggestion of a debt holiday for Greece is impolitic.


• CBC notes J.K. Rowling's defense of Donald Trump.


• Via The Dragon's Gaze, I found this Eurekalert post noting a search for Earth-like worlds around highly evolved stars, like the red giants that our sun will evolve into.


• Gizmodo reports on how Sweden is moving the city of Kiruna to safer ground, and describes Amazon's interest in opening more physical bookstores.


• The Inter Press Service wonders what will happen to Brazil now.


• The National Post notes the mysteries surrounding a secret American military spaceplane.


• Open Democracy looks at the human rights consequences of Mexico's long-running drug war.


• TVO considers the impact of a long NDP leadership campaign on the party.

• Bloomberg notes two former British intelligence chiefs saying that the United Kingdom is safer within the European Union than without, wonders if Saudi Arabia will be able to accept the economic shocks involved in transitioning away from oil, suggests South Australia could profit hugely from storing nuclear waste, and shares one journalist's experiences inside North Korea.


• Via The Dragon's Tales, I came across this Gizmag article reporting on a Dutch family living in a greenhouse.


• The Inter Press Service notes controversies surrounding transnational humanitarianism.


• The National Post wonders what non-endorsements of Trump by prominent members of the Republican Party will do to this institution.


• Open Democracy writes about the ongoing revolution in gender relations in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Rojava.


• Wired reports on Sweden's ongoing transition away from cash to a completely digital economy.

• Bloomberg reports on how the weakening yen is hurting some Hong Kong retailers, notes how Chinese are visiting Hong Kong in the search for approved vaccines, and observes Brexit may not change British immigration much.


• MacLean's notes a court ruling which states the Confederate flag is inherently anti-American, and reports on the Swedish Tourist Association's new campaign which offers people around the world the chance to talk to a random Swede.


• Juan Cole at The Nation reports the exceptional unpopularity of Egypt's transfer of two islands in the Gulf of Aqaba to Saudi Arabia.


• National Geographic considers the concept of dam removal in parts of the United States.


• Open Democracy examines the awkward position of Russian culture in the Ukrainian city of L'viv.


• Science Daily notes findings suggesting that the genes which influence homosexuality are found in most people in the world, explaining why homosexuality is common.


• The Toronto Star reports on a thankfully foiled, but still horrifying, suicide pact involving 13 young people in Attawapiskat, and notes Denmark's turn against even people who help refugees.


• Wired describes Yuri Milner's proposal to use powerful lasers to launch very small probes to Alpha Centauri.

Sweden wants a blanket ban on the importation of live North American lobsters across the European Union in an effort to prevent a possible underwater invasion.

Gunvor Ericson, the Swedish secretary of state for the Ministry of the Environment, told CBC more than 30 American lobsters have been found in the west coast of Sweden over the last few years.

The fear is the new lobster could threaten the local species. Sweden is now asking the European Union to consider an import ban on live North American lobsters.

It's something those who work in the Swedish fishing industry are keeping a close eye on.

Anders Wall works at Carapax, a fishing supply store in Sweden. He's seen a number of North American lobsters. He says the concern is they reproduce faster.

Credit Suisse, in its annual report on global wealth in October, pointed to findings that the richest 1% of Swedish households control 24% of the population’s total wealth, making it only a bit less unequal than India (25.7%). In contrast, Spain’s 1% control 16.5% of the wealth, and Japan’s only 4.3%. As in many countries, family-controlled businesses are the norm in Sweden. But as Randall Morck of the University of Alberta in Canada has noted, Sweden is an extreme case among rich countries in that one particular family, the Wallenbergs, holds such sway in business.

The foundations were laid for the dynasty’s fortunes 160 years ago when André Oscar Wallenberg, the globe-trotting son of a Lutheran bishop, returned from America with a book on how to set up a bank, and founded Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB). The bank flourished, and began buying chunks of distressed industrial firms, leading the family to set up a holding company, Investor, 100 years ago.

At the height of the Wallenbergs’ pre-eminence, in the 1970s, their various firms together employed 40% of Sweden’s industrial workforce and represented 40% of the total worth of the Stockholm stockmarket. Like most modern manufacturers, the industrial firms in their portfolio, including ABB and Atlas Copco (engineering), AstraZeneca (drugs) and Electrolux (appliances), are no longer huge employers. But Investor, plus SEB and the other listed firms in Investor’s portfolio, still account for about a third of the stockmarket’s value. And they generally do better than the rest: in the past decade, Investor’s shares have doubled, whereas the OMX Stockholm 30 Index rose by just 40%.

Swedes often talk about the collection of companies as Wallenbergsfaren, “the Wallenberg sphere”, and to its smaller local rivals as “systems”. One of the largest systems is Industrivarden, whose portfolio includes Handelsbanken and the maker of Volvo Trucks. It has passed through several hands down the years, including those of Ingvar Kamprad, the founder of the IKEA furniture stores; its leading investor nowadays is Fredrik Lundberg, the son of a construction magnate. The Wallenbergs and Industrivarden both have large stakes in Ericsson, a maker of telecoms equipment.