I'm out of town, so this is the best I can do. And since one post with Dunecat isn't enough....Climate:'Tis the summer of depressing climate news. Today is Greenland edition (via). Syria:Dan Byman urges full US support for the rebels. Rob Farley discusses CJ Chivers analysis of the impact of rebel-deployed IEDs on the Syrian army.Russia:A long essay by Greg Afinogenov on Putin's Russia and current protests there. Afinogenov argues that Putinism...
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An AIDS-Free Generation? HIV Is Not A Fad
The International AIDS Society conference began Sunday in DC, the first time the conference has been held in the United States since 1990 because of the now-lifted travel ban on HIV+ people coming to the U.S. That means that 25,000 activists, researchers and clinicians have converged on DC and what seems like a fanciful goal - an AIDS-free generation. Given that donor foreign assistance budgets are increasingly constrained around the world,...
R2P and the “Double-Standard Problem”
Jean-Baptiste Jeangène Vilmer (writing at the Fair Observer) argues that there's no double-standard problem because the Libyan intervention did not establish or reflect a generalized responsibility to protect.The R2P is a slogan that has some media efficacy but a rather dubious legal existence. That does not prevent the majority of observers asserting that it was the basis of Resolution 1973, authorizing intervention in Libya. That is not true...
“Have foresight and it’s real”: Carly Rae Jepsen And The Problem of Asymmetric Information
The logic of inappropriatenessBelow, Scott Weiner argues that Carly Rae Jepsen's song "Call Me Maybe" is an illustration of the dynamics of standard game-theory models, specifically the prisoner's dilemma and stag hunt. Weiner assumes that Jepsen is a rational actor, that both Jepsen and her beau are better off being together than being apart or with different partners, and that Jepsen is rationally choosing to communicate her availability to...
Call Me, Maybe: Cooperation and Coercion in the Music of Carly Rae Jepsen
This is a guest post by Scott Weiner, a PhD student in Political Science at George Washington University.One of this summer's most popular hit singles is "Call Me Maybe" by pop artist Carly Rae Jepsen. In the song, Carly attempts to score a date with an attractive male by giving him her number and asking him to call her in order to set up the outing. This strategy is eventually successful, and while the male "took his time with the call," Carly...
Morning Linkage
Globalization of Law:Honduras looking into limited outsourcing of criminal justice to Britain (via).David Weigel draws from Cliff's Global Right Wing in an article on the NRA's quest to globalize gun rights (via Dan Drezner).Economic Armageddon, Round II:If you haven't been paying attention to what's happening in Europe, you should be. Education:Chris Lehmann at Practical Theory: "there are a lot of powerful folks right now who are advocating...
The Order of Ostriches
The Punjab Assembly displays a sophisticated view of ontology. Or it just makes your head hurt.Ostrich, a heavy flightless bird of African origin, was officially declared ‘an animal’ on Wednesday when Punjab Assembly passed a bill overruling the objections raised by the Punjab governor who had refused to sign it, saying, it was a ‘bird’ covered under the definition of exotic species not native to Pakistan.This move isn't quite as weird in the...
Morning Linkage
MANOS: The Hands of Fate is supposedly getting an iOS game. But fans of MST3K are probably much more excited about the Rifftrax live MANOS event on August 16.Dan Drezner takes on the ridiculous Jennifer Rubin piece on how Romney should attack Obama foreign policy. Drezner has regular commentators who are better conservative foreign-policy critics than the people dominating MSM op-ed space.Andrew Yeo responds to Jennifer Lind's analysis of the...
Podcasts and Space Hamsters and Shoulder Dragons, oh my!
The very first Duck of Minerva podcast. Featuring PTJ and Dan.
The Chart That Explains Your World
Everyone agrees China is a rising power. Some people think it can rise indefinitely; some people think its rise will decelerate; and some think that its rise is illusory. But it's hard to put even the People's Republic stellar growth rates into perspective without taking a longer view.The chart above shows the ratios of Chinese to other countries' GDP per capita. It's based on painstaking work by Angus Maddison to reconstruct long time series...
Morning Linkage
Conor Friedersdorf argues that R2P is a decision for Congress to make, not the Executive Branch. Laura at 11d has advice from big student loan debtors. Note the part about not getting an MA that serves little professional purpose.Daniel Little has a very nice post on Chuck Tilly's Durable Inequality and the growing income gap in the United States.Sandy Levinson makes an impassioned plea for putting gun control back on the table. A note on...