• Antipope's Charlie Stross considers the question of how to build durable space colonies.
• blogTO notes that the musical Hamilton might be coming to Toronto.
• The Dragon's Tales notes that European populations are descended from Anatolian farmers, not local hunter0-gatherers.
• Far Outliers notes the plight of Czech and Slovak migrants in Russia following ( Read more... )

Bloomberg's Jasmina Kuzmanovic and Gordana Filipovic report on the renewed push in the western Balkans for European Union membership. Certainly it's not as if the western Balkans have any other future.

Former Yugoslav republics and neighboring Albania vowed to resuscitate their drive for European Union integration after the migrant crisis rocked ( Read more... )

Bloomberg reports on the breakdown in Serbian-Croatian relations over border controls imposed on account of the refugee crisis.

Croatia, an EU member, on Wednesday banned Serb vehicles from entering except those with perishable goods. In retaliation, Serbia blocked imports of Croat products. Croatia also accused Serbia of having directed migrants ( Read more... )

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers what it takes to be a credible journalist.
• Centauri Dreams considers the study of planets orbiting brown dwarfs.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering if Sedna was captured from another star.
• The Dragon's Tales wonders if orbital probes can detect volcanism on Venus.
• A Fistful of Euros' Alex ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams notes how the New Horizons probe is maneuvering into mapping orbits of Ceres.
• Crooked Timber examines the decline of inter-generational mobility and class mobility.
• The Dragon's Gaze reports on Jupiter analog HIP 11915b.
• The Dragon's Tales notes Russian claims in the Arctic and links to a comparison of Chinese and American statements ( Read more... )

I didn't link to this important news, reported by the CBC among many others. Is it too much to hope that this might lead to a thawing in intra-Yugoslav relations?

The top court of the United Nations ruled Tuesday that Serbia and Croatia did not commit genocide against each other's people during the bloody 1990s wars sparked by the breakup of the ( Read more... )

Bloomberg's Zoltan Simon notes that the surging value of the Swiss franc has left many central European countries, with large numbers of homeowners having mortgages taken out in the newly-strong currency, trying to figure out how to learn from Hungary's earlier experience.

Governments from Poland to Croatia are under pressure to mimic Hungary’s ( Read more... )

• Crooked Timber's Daniel Davies writes about the end of his career as a financial analyst.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper discussing the brown dwarfs of 25 Orionis.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper suggesting that Uranus' moon system is still evolving, with the moon Cupid being doomed in a relatively short timescale. It also wonders if North ( Read more... )

• blogTO has a visual history of the Toronto Islands up.
• Centauri Dreams looks at GU Piscium b and Beta Pictoris b.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper examining two concepts for theoretical nuclear fusion-fueled space drives, one using additional coolant and one not.
• Eastern Approaches examines the disastrous floods in the former Yugoslavia.
• Joe. My. ( Read more... )

• blogTO shares pictures of Church Street up to the 1980s. The street looks surprisingly different, rather less nice.
• At the Broadside Blog, Caitlin Kelly describes a week in her life as a writer.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper suggesting that Stickney crater on Mars' larger moon Phobos is ancient, 4.2 billion years old.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money ( Read more... )