Xiao Chiang's"The ‘Blog' Revolution Sweeps Across China" for NewScientist.com is a remarkable report on the powerful resilience of technological change and a testament to a people's determination to communicate with each other.

What happens when the campus rage for porn reaches the University of Chicago? That's right. It gets Latinized and theorized. Sepoy has the story at Chapati Mystery. Love that University of Chicago. Get your porn elsewhere.

At Crooked Timber, John Quiggen has the latest update on the Ukraine from historian Tarik Amar.

In afourpartseries, Johnathan Tilove explores a United States, rapidly changed by recent immigration and migration. We are, in his view, not red and blue, but Melting Pot, New Sun Belt, and Heartland. Hat tip to Pearsall Healms at the Dictionary of Received Ideas.

Had I been born nine hours earlier, I'd still be sweet sixteen, but I'd also have earned my doctorate, had years of teaching under my belt, published six books, and many dozens of articles. It's all in how you count time. For historians, it gets real confusing when you change the ways of counting time in the middle of it. Sometimes it changes here, but not there. Sharon Howard explains.

The Little Professor has some very realistic advice to graduate students about expectations for publications on the job market. The short form is that what might make you look very good to Institution A could knock you out of the running at Institution B. My advice is: Do your work and tell the b******* to f*** **f, but Little Professor gives better advice than I do.

Oh, and if you do happen to be on the job market, you might want to read Brendon O'Neill's piece for BBC News on the holy grail.