• blogTO notes that after the Berlin attack, the Toronto Christmas Market has upped its security.
• D-Brief looks at how roads divide ecosystems.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes that WD 1536+520 apparently has solar levels of rock-forming elements.
• Language Log examines central European metaphors for indecipherable languages.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money is diffident ( Read more... )

In "Native Soil", Brittany Lyte at The Atlantic describes how definitions of indigenous Hawaiian which require a certain percentage of indigenous ancestry threaten future generations with losing their ability to pass on their property. This definition has to change.

Natasha Boteilho lives in Oahu’s arid Waianae Valley on a jot of land held in ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes the closure of Poland's frontier with Kaliningrad, looks at how Google is beating out Facebook in helping India get connected to the Internet, notes British arms makers' efforts to diversify beyond Europe and examines the United Kingdom's difficult negotiations to get out of the European Union, looks at the problems of investing in ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that Conrad Black's mansion is up for sale, and looks inside the climbing gym that replaced Koreatown's Metro Theatre.
• Centauri Dreams notes a new telescope optimized for detecting, among other things, Kuiper Belt objects.
• Dangerous Minds shares a video of South African cyclists chased by an ostrich.
• Far Outliers notes the existence of a ( Read more... )

• City of Brass notes the lie that is Eurabia.
• Crooked Timber considers Creative Commons licenses as a crude kind of anti-spam technology.
• The Dragon's Tales looks at Ontario's interest in pioneering a guaranteed minimum income program.
• Far Outliers looks at the history of Korean prisoners of war in the Second World War in Hawai'i.
• Joe. My. God. notes ( Read more... )

Alternet's Zaid Jilani describes how Tulsi Gabbard, a Democratic congressperson from Hawaii who came out in support of Sanders, is also intimately tied up with the Hindutva movement.

“Meet the Democrat Who’s Not Afraid to Criticize President Obama on ISIS,” intones a recent ABC News headline. The story describes remarks by Hawaii Rep. Tulsi ( Read more... )

3 Quarks Daily linked to Ewen Callaway's article in Nature examining the wild chickens of Kauai. How do imported species adapt to their new environment? What does the term "wild" mean? Great stuff.

As the two try to act casual by their rented car, a jet-black hen with splashes of iridescent green feathers pecks its way along a trail of bird feed ( Read more... )

Al Jazeera America's Jon Letman writes about how the social accepted transgenderism of Hawai'i's Polynesian past does, or does not, fit well into contemporary American Hawai'i.

Growing up in the largely Hawaiian community of Waianae on the west side of Oahu, Kalani Young enjoyed a diverse upbringing that included attending Catholic, Mormon and ( Read more... )

• blogTO considers the question of what Toronto's shortest street is.
• Centauri Dreams shares spectacular Pluto imagery.
• The Dragon's Tales reports on the latest from Syria.
• Language Log reports "You ain't no Muslim, bruv!", a phrase gone viral.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money connects the Second World War to colonialism in Hawai'i and the Philippines.

Al Jazeera reports on the controversy surrounding elections in Hawaii regarding a controversial election for an indigenous government. As I understand it, the lack of indigenous Hawaiian self-governance has much to do with the particular mechanics of Hawaii's annexation, the old Polynesian monarchy having been taken over wholesale as it was ( Read more... )