neo-something-something There's so much alarming FSU news this week that I hardly know where to begin. Russia withdrew its ambassador to Georgia and ordered a complete diplomatic evacuation after Georgia arrested several Russian military officers on charges of espionage; last I heard the evacuation had been halted but things are still pretty ugly. The underlying issue--namely, that Georgia is accusing the Russian government of backing separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia--is serious, rather scary stuff. When you situate all of this within the broader regional context--Viktor Yanukovych's rise from the dead in Ukraine, Russia's own democratic backslide, and Romania and Bulgaria's looming accession to the EU--it's almost enough to make a girl start reconsidering her primary research agenda. Even though field research in South Ossetia is, um, not exactly gonna happen. But wait: Cuba? Not boring! In fact, the Russian prime minister just stopped by Havana to give Raúl a check for $355 million bucks. There's no real explanation for the half-mast flag and nostalgia tour on Cuban TV yesterday, except the hypothesis that it was in recognition of the death(s) resulting from a massive explosion and fire at Havana's biggest oil refinery on Wednesday.

In other news, my replacement battery from Apple finally showed up, it looks like I'm going to spend my entire weekend trying and failing to learn Arrr, and I really want a dog. But what else is new.  ¶ 6:46 AM