Contextless Links

• Is Asia about to overtake the west?  Foreign Policy doesn’t think so. :: In any case, it is meaningless to talk about Asia as a single entity of power, now or in the future. Far more likely is that the fast ascent of one regional player will be greeted with alarm by its closest neighbors. Asian history is replete with examples of competition for power and even military conflict among its big players. China and Japan have fought repeatedly over Korea; the Soviet Union teamed up with India and Vietnam to check China, while China supported Pakistan to counterbalance India. Already, China’s recent rise has pushed Japan and India closer together. If Asia is becoming the world’s center of geopolitical gravity, it’s a murky middle indeed.
• The Canada Remembers International Airs how is coming up on August 15 and 16th :: With changes to the airport and residential sprawl, it is going to be the last air show we have in Saskatoon.  Despite all of the hype over the event, it is a pretty lame lineup so far.  Standard appearances by the Snowbirds, some CF-18s, and yet another B-25.  The only thing I haven’t seen before there is a F-16 and a F-86 but in the past they have promised American jets and in the end they weren’t there.
• Factors that could lead to Barack Obama becoming a one term president :: While it does not happen very often, even a popular incumbent can lose to an even more popular challenger, especially if he or she is overly bogged down in governing or less than competent in effective re-election campaign planning.
• I know many of you despise the amount of sports related links that make their way into this blog but I found this article on how a summer league team roster is constructed to be rather interesting :: The construction of a summer league roster follows a certain blueprint: Start with draft picks and most of the second-year guys under contract. Throw in an undrafted rookie or two, some D-Leaguers, then the journeymen who’ve been bouncing around or playing overseas. But how do organizations actually choose among the hundreds — maybe even thousands — of players who exist in this talent pool?
• Prince Charles has a terrific website fighting against deforestation and climate change.  While we are on the topic of what the British Monarchy is doing, you can now follow them on Twitter.
• Frank Rich on Sarah Palin’s influence in the GOP :: Were Palin actually to secure the 2012 nomination, the result would be a fiasco for the G.O.P. akin to Goldwater 1964, as the most relentless conservative Palin critic, David Frum, has predicted. Or would it? No one thought Richard Nixon — a far less personable commodity than Palin — would come back either after his sour-grapes “last press conference” of 1962. But Democratic divisions and failures gave him his opportunity in 1968. With unemployment approaching 10 percent and a seemingly bottomless war in Afghanistan, you never know, as Palin likes to say, what doors might open.

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