There will be blood

My apologies for getting this up so late. Please have this information ready to discuss briefly on Monday. Also type up your answers in bullet form on your blog via a "post."

–Demographic information such as population data, language, religion, and economic info

–History of the state and history of the dominant nation(s) in the state

–Famous people from that state

–Cultural arts, traditions, and traits associated with the nation(s) in that state

–States / Nations that your state has historically aligned itself with or had conflicts with

–Larger institutions that your state currently belongs to (e.g., UN, NATO, WTO, etc.)

Balkan War III

Kosovo may be thrown into civil war on the first day of its independence this weekend. Watch out... this seriously could turn into a very nasty, perhaps genocidal, situation. All eyes on Kosovo this weekend. We will talk about it on Monday.

Story from IHT.

Oh, and Putin has called Kosovar independence "immoral." Not quite sure if he explains why, though.

Story from the Guardian here.

Secularism versus Religion in Europe

Interesting story today on the BBC. Many Danish newspapers today reprinted the cartoon of Muhammad that sparked worldwide protests several years ago. They did so purposefully as a sign of solidarity for freedom of speech over intolerant religious censorship.

Regardless of where you stand on this issue -- though I certainly hope you stand for free speech over the right for religious groups to decide what is okay to say and what is not, as otherwise I would be forced to lecture that the world is flat -- this will be something to keep our eyes on this semester. I reckon someone in Denmark will be killed for this action -- if not the cartoonist in hiding, an editor or two. (Let's hope not, though.)

Here is the short BBC story. If anyone wants to see the cartoons that sparked such violent outbursts among millions of people who never even saw the cartoons themselves but merely heard about them, you can type "muhammed cartoon" into Wikipedia.

Speaking of... Wikipedia is now under attack by certain Muslim organizations for having ancient mosaic tile pictures of Muhammad made in the year 1200 AD on their website. The organization running Wikipedia has been threatened as well. This is getting very interesting!

The whole thing kind of reminds me of tourists in Pennsylvania who, without thinking, snap a picture of the Amish in their carriages on the road. The Amish believe you will go to hell or something if your picture is taken. So they get pretty irate if they catch you with a camera out... but luckily they don't kill you, because they are practicing pacifists. They just chew you out in ancient German.

NATO arms race with Russia. Putin: "Bring it on!"

Here is an interesting tidbit from the BBC today about how Putin is saber-rattling with NATO countries again. He is already flying nuclear bombers 24-hours a day, but his recent statement seem even more interesting for the long term.

Belarussian Dance