• Anthropology.net reports on the recent discovery in China of two skulls a hundred thousand years old, possible remnants of a hitherto-unknown hominid species.
• blogTO reports on the boom in the Toronto tech community.
• Language Log breaks down the linguistics, specifically word lengths, of audiobooks.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the difficult ( Read more... )

• James Bow calls for an end to the US-Canada Safe Third Country agreement prohibiting people coming from American soil from claiming refugee status in Canada.
• D-Brief reports on the vast array of man-made minerals appearing in what is now being called the Anthropocene Era of Earth.
• Dangerous Minds notes the efforts of the Disco Preservation Society to ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes the Distillery District's Toronto Light Festival.
• Border Thinking Laura Agustín looks at migrants and refugees in James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia.
• Centauri Dreams suggests that Perry's expedition to Japan could be taken as a metaphor for first contact.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a report about how brown dwarf EPIC 219388192 b.
• The LRB Blog ( Read more... )

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the quiet power of the candle.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining horseshoe patterns in protoplanetary disks.
• The Dragon's Tales looks at the impact of human civilization on the Amazonian rain forest and looks at the negative impact of a 6th century volcanic eruption on the Maya.
• Language Log ( Read more... )

At the Inter Press Service, José Adam Silva writes about the efforts of some Nicaraguan women who farm to get better land tenure rights for their land.

A group of women farmers who organised to fight a centuries-old monopoly over land ownership by men are seeking plots of land to farm in order to contribute to the food security of their families ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes Venezuela is considering dollarization in order to save its auto industry, and looks at the possibility of an OAS intervention.
• Bloomberg View looks at the anti-immigrant mindset.
• The Inter Press Service notes political crisis in Nicaragua and examines the plundering of African fisheries by foreign fleets.
• MacLean's notes Conrad Black' ( Read more... )

• Bad Astronomy notes the literally cosmic homophobia of Louie Gohmert.
• The Big Picture notes a Chinese factory set to make a fortune off of making masks of the American presidential candidates.
• blogTO notes the raising of the Trans and Pride flags at Toronto City Hall, marking the beginning of Pride month.
• Crooked Timber notes the racism that erased ( Read more... )

• D-Brief reports on the Amazon River's hidden reef and on the threat faced by gorillas.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining the age of terrestrial planets in the solar neighbourhood.
• The Dragon's Tales looks at Guatemala-Belize border tensions.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog notes shortages of affordable housing in the United States.
• Joe. My. God ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that April has been the snowiest month this year.
• D-Brief notes that we are on the verge of a literal explosion in gravitational wave astronomy detection.
• The Dragon's Tales examines Maya water management.
• Far Outliers notes the 1709 rescue of Alexander Selkirk from a desert island, one of the inspirations behind Robinson Crusoe.
• ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes controversy over Sanders' attendance at a Vatican conference and reports on the proposal for a bridge linking Saudi Arabia and Egypt across the Gulf of Aqaba.
• Bloomberg View notes mixed evidence behind the idea that separatism can work economically, and criticizes San Francisco's family leave policy as having too much impact on ( Read more... )