• Language Hat reports on the Wenzhounese of Italy.
• Language Log writes about the tones of Cantonese.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money writes about the costs of law school. (They are significant, and escalating hugely.)
• Marginal Revolution reports on the problems facing the Brazilian pension system, perhaps overgenerous for a relatively poor country facing rapid ( Read more... )

• Bad Astronomy shares a photo of the Earth and Moon taken by a Mars probe.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money responds to a baffling claim by a New York City policeman that stranger rape is more of a concern than acquaintance rape.
• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw, returned from Denmark, wondersabout the extent to which social happiness is maximized by ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that the Toronto real estate market is now the most unaffordable of any in Canada.
• The Big Picture shares photos of melting Antarctica.
• Crooked Timber considers the economic benefits of open borders, and the costs.
• Dangerous Minds shares photos of posters from Paris in 1968.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the problems of legal education ( Read more... )

Simon Worrell's National Geographic interview with author Salvatore Settis, author of a book arguing that much of the current touristification of Venice both threatens its future as a living city and augurs ill for other metropolis, is thought provoking.

Most of us who have seen Venice have gone there as tourists. According to you, we are part of ( Read more... )

• Antipope's Charlie Stross worries about the literal survival of Britons in the post-Brexit United Kingdom.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of an ancient corpse in China shrouded in cannabis.
• Dangerous Minds reports on a 1971 BBC documentary about New York City starring a pre-stardom Patti Smith.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a study mapping the changing ( Read more... )

The Globe and Mail carries Andrew Dampf's Associated Press article noting that Rome is withdrawing from the running for the 2024 Olympic Games.

Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi rejected the city’s bid for the 2024 Olympics on Wednesday, effectively dooming the capital’s candidacy for the second time in four years ( Read more... )

CBC News' reports about the devastation of the Italian hill town of San Giovanni di Accumoli, recently ravaged by an earthquake, and how its inhabitants fear the community will end up disappearing unless it is repaired quickly.

Cold mountain spring water continues to pour out of old taps above a trough on the edge of the piazza in the small hamlet ( Read more... )

• James Bow shares his photos from Airport Road.
• Centauri Dreams reports on a SETI candi9date signal form a nearby star in Hercules.
• Far Outliers reports on how the Japanese named ships.
• Joe. My. God. quotes one Trump backer, Roger Stone, about his desire to move to Costa Rica to escape Muslims if Hillary wins.
• Noel Maurer debunks the Maine governor's ( Read more... )

Livia Albeck-Ripka's article in The Atlantic tells the story of an Italian island's lone keeper and his struggles to remain on it.

On a sweltering day in July, the sole inhabitant of Budelli, a small Mediterranean island in Italy’s Maddalena archipelago, glances up from his iPad just in time to observe a single wave crashing on the shore. He is ( Read more... )

• ABC reports on the Sudanese-Australian basketball players who are transforming the game in Australia.
• Bloomberg reports on the potentially transformative scope of China's New Silk Road project.
• Bloomberg View likes the new Star Trek movie's shift beyond speciesism.
• CBC reports on the strength of pro-Trump support among non-voting Amish in Pennsylvania ( Read more... )