Good morning. Here are your links ... Bilal Sarwary at the BBC gives us a glimpse of Helmand province that is rarely seen. Â He writes, "This type of checkpost is the real front line. There are poppy fields on one side, police headquarters on the other and constant...
I still believe that some of Snowden's disclosures, and his actions, have forfeited his whistleblower status. But if he'd been a bit more circumspect about what he'd leaked and how he had done...
Update on the international community's reaction to events in Syria: Russia calls on Assad to cooperate with the weapons inspectors. Says it has evidence the attack was propagated by the opposition....
It's morning somewhere, right? Here are some belated links to stories, covering Richard Haass and Syria, climate change and the IPCC 5th assessment, a lethal bat-born virus, gay rights and Russia,...
Only a handful of links this morning: Seth Masket investigates what happens when you raise the cost of voting. Unsurprising: minority and poor voters suffer more. Tim Burke pushes back against MOOCs and the failure of managerial class models of higher education. Nina Zumel provides a public service by transforming William Cleveland's plots into ggplot2. Gopnik on Galileo [The New Yorker] Xavier Marquez traces the spread of liberal norms:[I]t seems clear that many of these norms are liable to lose their force as they become globally dominant simply as a result of adaptation on the part of...
Belated Valentine's from the Duck of Minerva. Brad DeLong wants Cosma Shalzi to figure out what the Chelyabinsk meteorite strike means for policy: "What should this piece of information do, decision-theoretically, to change our view of the situation we find ourselves in?" I'm not a statistics whiz, but I'd say: probably nothing. There's no indication (yet) that the strike is inconsistent with current risk assessments of such events. What it might change is the politics of asteroid early-warning systems and research into ways of defending earth against heavenly aggression. North Korea warns...
If it looks like a Duck -- the Monkey Cage's take on the Hagel filibuster and the politics of the Senate Daniel Serwer thinks the US Â should be funneling money to Moaz al Khatib and the National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition forces. Corruption and inefficiency in the delivery of humanitarian aid -- can it still be overcome. John McCain wants to give the Syrian Opposition Coalition control over humanitarian aid. Â Really not a good idea. Understanding factionalism in Syria -- and how to start a battalion in five easy lessons. Thinking about post-conflict justice in...
Japan's "looming singularity." Xavier Marquez has lots of infographics about the "normativeness of democracy." The nuke content in Obama SOTU address. I'm skeptical of both the feasibility and utility of further nuclear arms control with the Russian Federation, but I'm down with cooperative-threat-reduction activity. BLTN: NUKEMAP! Walt argues that US existential security promotes adventurism. And also: Uncertainty about Russian military reforms. Dynamics of Contention and From Mobilization to Revolution but not Politics of Collective Violence? Say it ain't so, Joe. Vote for me for Chair of...
Good Morning, here's your linkages... Let's start the week in South Asia: Afghanistan General Allen, the 15th of 16 commanders of ISAF in a dozen years, is  delusional if he really thinks ISAF is on the road to victory in Afghanistan as he exits to become the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO.  Unless of course, by the word "victory" he just means handing the ball off to the Afghans while the insurgency continues and the country crumbles.  Notably, the transfer of power from Gen. Allen to Gen. Dunford was held indoors and President Karzai didn't even bother to show. Bangladesh Remember when...
Slow weekend at the Duck, eh? Some of our bloggers are snowed in. Not sure how to explain the rest of us. I've been playing lots of FTL and working on a manuscript review. And the kid's been sick. So here's some stuff resembling content: More trade networks from Thomas Oatley. Did Steve Walt rename "offshore balancing" "a more distant and hands-off strategy?" Hard to tell. But it doesn't seem like a step forward in the science of branding. Jeffrey C. Isaac: "Political Science Departments and Political Advocacy: Some Reflections By an Academic Liberal Who Believes in the Importance of...
Winter Storm Nemo is bearing down on us and everything is shut down up here in the Northeast. No classes and no office hours! Here's the quick snow edition: Why are we now naming winter storms? Canadians dissing on Toronto. Moscow has received its heaviest snow in a century.  With pictures. I used to do this on really cold snow days growing up in North Dakota -- blow soap bubbles and watch them freeze and shatter.  (There really was nothing else to do at -20 degrees in North Dakota) And, the rest of the roundup: The New York Times and the Washington Post broke the story and Wired found the...
Here are some recent interesting posts and articles focused on 52% of the population: Want a fun and informative procrastination tool? Check out the NYT interactive tool exploring the gender gap in science across the globe. Sarah Rainey of the National Times in Australia wrote an impassioned and provocative piece on childless women- she declares them "the final taboo for women." Darlene Iskra, for Times, asks if women in combat is "really that big of a deal." Sheila Moeschen lists 5 'Crimes' perpetrated against women in rock music in her latest Huffington Post post. According to the Sydney...