'Desert Inhabited by Nomads' →

IN my quest to gain all knowledge of what's going on in the world and why a great essay:

Mauritania has been overlooked for a variety of reasons that began even before the country achieved its independence from France. The country’s history of an altered social structure produced by colonialism and the consequent social tensions that this brought about along ethnic and tribal lines during the period following independence bears watching as an overlooked case study of the challenges that many states in the region faced following independence. The state looked to religion as a unifying force, but relied increasingly on a pan-Arabist outlook premised on the exclusion of the Afro-Mauritanians who were the very inhabitants who had experienced favoritism under French colonialism. Later, Mauritania’s period of limited liberalization, and the subsequent history following the abortive democratic transition in the mid 2000s, merits observation because it echoes – and has sometimes presaged – well-covered events elsewhere in the region, along with particularities unique to Mauritania.

#LaSalida? Venezuela at a Crossroads →

The best writeup I've seen so far on events in Venezuela, the first in this list of links. Contrary to most reporting:

...But where are the protests headed? From the beginning, the numbers have not been particularly impressive by Venezuelan standards, and certainly far fewer than the opposition is capable of mustering. But more problematic for the opposition is the makeup of the protesters and the very predictable geography of the protests, largely confined to the wealthiest neighborhoods. Even the ferociously anti-Chavista blogger Francisco Toro of Caracas Chronicles put it bluntly: “Middle class protests in middle class areas on middle class themes by middle class people are not a challenge to the Chavista power system.”

Roots of Bosnian Protests Lie in Peace Accords of 1995 →

In my endless effort to learn more about the rest of the world:

Ethnic divisions fueled almost four years of war in the 1990s. Today, if there is one thing that unites many of Bosnia’s 3.8 million people — Bosniaks (or Muslims), Serbs and Croats — it is their disgust with the hydra-headed presidency and multiple layers of government that developed to appease the nationalist sentiments of all sides. But the terms of the accords were in time supposed to be replaced by a more streamlined system. They were never supposed to remain in force this long.

On The Killing Of Jordan Davis By Michael Dunn →

Spare us the invocations of "black on black crime."  I will not respect the lie. I would rather be thought insane. The most mendacious phrase in the American language is "black on black crime," which is uttered as though the same hands that drew red lines around the ghettoes of Chicago are not the same hands that drew red lines around the life of Jordan Davis,  as though black people authored North Lawndale and policy does not exist...

Fusion Advance Demonstrates Value of Long-Haul Energy Research →

A paper published in Nature this week resoundingly demonstrates the value of keeping it up, describing an important, if still incremental, advance. The paper, “Fuel gain exceeding unity in an inertially confined fusion implosion,” is deconstructed by Ken Chang and Bill Broad in a nice, if quirkily titled, article in The Times: “Giant Laser Complex Makes Fusion Advance, Finally.”

Nuclear has its issues (e.g., catastrophes), but the dread-to-risk ratio is wildly high, thanks in no small part to an incredible amount of misinformation. The future of energy consumption is unknown, because the issues are so complex. I'd love to see safe, clean renewables eat everything's lunch, but that's not likely to happen (though, again, let's try), so we should be exploring every alternative to finite, relatively highly pollutive, relatively highly dangerous fossil fuels.

Maduro's biggest threat comes from within the Chavistas →

While many media are focused on the government vs opposition battle, realize that one of the biggest issues continues to be the battle for control inside the government. Maduro's biggest threat does not come from the opposition but remains internal to the PSUV. The protests, along with deteriorating economic and security conditions, expose his poor leadership and make Chavistas wonder whether he is the correct person to be leading the country.
Who could replace him? Maduro isn't sure...

Political Scientists Are Targets in Egypt’s Crackdown on Islamists →

...Among the specific charges against the professor are espionage, leading an illegal organization, providing a banned organization with information and financial support, calling for the suspension of the constitution, preventing state institutions and authorities from performing their functions, harming national unity and social harmony, and trying to change the government by force.

"It was a shock. I never thought they would go this far, to this level of fabrication," Mr. Shahin told The Chronicle from the United States, where he was attending a conference when news of the charges became public, in late January...