See note on methodologyThere is no competition here. Azerbaijan is at the edge of Europe, and there is one great (and fairly short) novel set there (with excusions to Dagestan and Iran) before, during and after the first world war, chronicling the love of an Azeri boy for a Georgian girl, and how it all concludes in British betrayal. (Be honest, ( Read more... )

17) Islam in Azerbaijan, by Arif Yunusov

This may seem a somewhat obscure subject, but the author gave me a copy of this book when we met at a conference in July 2005 so I have finally got around to reading it.

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From Liz Fuller in today's Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty newsline: AZERBAIJANI EXPERTS ASSESS POSSIBLE INTERNET SECURITY THREAT. The website day.az has asked two experts to assess the possible threat to Azerbaijan's national security posed by the posting on maps.google.com of photographs of strategic buildings in Baku and other Azerbaijani cities ( Read more... )

"I know now where Azerbaijan is located but I don't think that will help from a hockey point of view."

...I generally like talking to students about my work; graduate, undergraduate, heck I've even done the odd high school group in the past. But sometimes I wonder why I bother ( Read more... )

Travel meme from kharin, sorry, qatsi here:

You'll need an atlas. This astrologer's atlas is at least accurate on longitude and latitude; even Wikipedia is pretty useful.

What are the furthest points North, South, East and West you have visited?

Farthest north for me: Åre, Sweden: 63.40 degrees north
Farthest south: Jerusalem, 31.76 degrees north ( Read more... )

From stellanova and subsequently daegaer:

Look at your LJ "interests" list. If you have fewer than 50 interests, pick every fifth one. If you have between fifty and seventy-five interests, pick every seventh one. If you have over seventy-five interests, pick every tenth one. If you have fewer than ten, pick all of 'em. List them on your LJ, and tell everyone ( Read more... )

14) The Orientalist: In Search of a Man Caught Between East and West, by Tom Reiss

This is a biography of the author of Ali and Nino, the insufficiently famous great romantic novel of the South Caucasus. Although Ali and Nino was published under the pseudonym of "Kurban Said", the author was born Lev Nussimbaum, apparently on a train in 1905, and ( Read more... )

The Azeri democracy test

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I've just seen the OSCE assessment report for the elections in Azerbaijan and it seems they want to deploy 500 short term observers, plus another couple of dozen long-term ones. Details of how to apply hereReally, anyone who is over the age of about 21 and has an interest in politics should consider applying. Obviously in this case some knowledge ( Read more... )