Interesting Links for 02-03-2014

[andrewducker]

• Lithuania invokes Nato treaty on Ukraine
  (tags: lithuania Russia NATO Ukraine )
• Putting Time In Perspective (Or: Why a T-Rex is more likely to go to a Bieber concert than hang with a Stegosaurus)
  (tags: time visualisation perspective viaDraxar )
• Why you should opt out of Dropbox's arbitration clause
  (tags: dropbox law viaJohnCoxon )
• The Tech

Comments

[makyo]

The image making the rounds of MPs debating welfare and pay rises? A fraud, of course.
Yes, the second of the photos in particular looked a bit dodgy to me - too many people were standing at the same time for it to have been taken during a debate (where usually the only person standing is the person who happens to be speaking at the time). I did an image search the other day and it seemed to be a generic photograph of the House of Commons, about as representative as photographs of the Lords wearing their robes (which they only do at the State Opening of Parliament, or when first Introduced) or fast asleep.

[gonzo21]

Ukraine isn't a NATO member though is it? That's part of what this invasion is about, because having ousted the pro-Russian president, they were likely to vote in a pro-EU president, and wind up joining NATO, and Putin wasn't about to let that happen?

[andrewducker]

It's put off joining NATO, although it does carry out joint exercises and operations with it.

The main reason it's put off joining is that Russia said that if it did so then it would take the Crimea away from them. As Russia is now doing that, we'll see if they end up joining NATO.

Of course, they can still ask for help from NATO without being a member.

[gonzo21]

And there is an feeling in the air that maybe the West cannot appease Putin again... Because what will it be next that he's annexing with force.

[bart_calendar]

It could also be that since the advent of the Internet we've gotten used to seeing pictures of animals doing weird shit.

[andrewducker]

True. I watched a very entertaining documentary on unusual animal friendships the other day - this is an excerpt from it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01lr7cd

And after that, pretty much nothing surprises me.

[drdoug]

Every time I hear about Western responses to the Ukraine situation, I'm reminded of Mitchell & Webb's "Are We The Baddies?" sketch.

[andrewducker]

I know the sketch, not quite seeing how it applies here...

[andrewducker]

Frankly, I can't see a better outcome of this than "The Russians take the Crimea, thus giving them their naval bases on the Black Sea and the supportive population, and the remainder of the Ukraine joines the EU."

Which doesn't strike me as all bad.

[cartesiandaemon]

Hm. I was wondering that. On the one hand, if most people in Crimea would rather be a separate country or part of Russia, then forcing them to stay in the Ukraine is wrong, just like forcing Ukraine to be part of Russia would be. And it would be a sensible compromise.

On the other hand, I assume that (as with any split) there are people in Crimea who would be in danger if that happened. The difficulty is always letting one part secede without screwing over people who become minorities in that region (without letting those minority regions secede back again and have people who are minorities in THOSE regions, etc, etc)

And it also seems a horrible precedent to just let it happen when a country is invaded, even if it would be a good idea for the people there, because the invader ALWAYS says it would be a good idea for the people there. And because once it's happened it's so much harder to undo it if you decide it shouldn't have.