[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

[rfmcdpei]

• At Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling points towards the first step of the exact role that the famed underground tunnels of Gaza have on the political economy of that territory.
• Crooked Timber's John Holbo argues that the legacies of coded racism used by many Republicans in the United States continues to make the party not credible among non-whites.
• At The Dragon's Tales, Will Baird points to a new study arguing that stars richer in heavy elements than our own (elements like uranium) are likely to have planets that have more heavy elements than our Earth, meaning more geologically active planets on account of the additional energy.
• Eastern Approaches notes the ongoing deterioration of Serbian-Croatian relations.
• At False Steps, Paul Drye profiles the nearly successful Hermes spaceplane planned by the European Space Agency for the 1990s, undermined by technical challenges and the costs of German reunification.
• Far Outliers quotes J.H. Elliott on the Catalonial rebellion of 1640, coinciding at the time with rebellion against Spanish rule in Portugal.
• At Normblog, Norman Geras links to a tribunal set up by Iranian exiles to gather evidence about crimes committed by the Islamic Republic.
• Registan's Casey Michel wonders if claims that Kazakhstan in 1992 turned down a proposal by Libya's Gaddafi to keep its nuclear weapons are being publicized to distract from Kazakhstan's authoritarian government.
• Steve Munro gives a positive review of a TTC-themed play.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes Pat Robertson's statement that young-earth creationism is not biblical. Robertson knows, I suspect, that linking any belief system to something incredible undermines the belief system.