• blogTO notes that yesterday was a temperature record here in Toronto, reaching 12 degrees Celsius in the middle of February.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the pleasure of using old things.
• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Roe v Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey.
• Language Hat notes that, apparently, dictionaries are hot again because ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams imagines how a mission to Planet Nine might work.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes a literal gap in our mapping of nearby brown dwarfs.
• The Dragon's Tales analyzes the makeup of Saturn's moon Tethys.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog offers advice on resume writing for sociology majors.
• Joe. My. God. notes Bruce Springsteen's cancellation of a North ( Read more... )

• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer is concerned with Trump: what would happen if a terrorist attack occurred under his rule, would he actually be able to save money from changing foreign basing, do terrorist attacks help him in the polls?
• Towleroad notes the advent of marriage equality in Greenland.
• Window on Eurasia notes legal challenges to ( Read more... )

Window on Eurasia's Paul Goble notes a Russian article suggesting that Turkey might interested in pushing the GUAM alliance into forming an alliance against Russia.

The Turkish government is seeking to revive GUAM in order to form an alliance of states against Russia broader than the pan-Turkic groupings it had promoted in the past, Aleksey ( Read more... )

• blogTO lists ten signs someone grew up in pre-amalgamation Toronto.
• Centauri Dreams and D-Brief both react to Planet Nine.
• The Dragon's Tales notes the new Russian manned capsule will be called Federation.
• Joe. My. God. notes an Italian parliamentarian hijacked a civil union bill by adding a new bill that would imprison gay couples who used surrogate ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that graffiti artists around the world, including in Toronto, are promoting Justin Bieber's new album.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly likes pilot Mark Vanhoenacker's book about flight.
• Centauri Dreams notes one possibility for a Europa sample mission.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes simulations which suggest spiral arms in circumstellar disks ( Read more... )

Sergei Markedonov at Open Democracy writes about how the Russian-supported exclave of Transnistria is facing hard times, now that the Ukraine that borders it is making egress impossible.

Fresh intrigue is afoot in the Transnistrian 'frozen' conflict. On 21 May, Ukraine's parliament the Verkhovna Rada revoked the agreement between Russia and ( Read more... )

Bloomberg View's Leonid Bershidsky observes that the collapse of multiple currencies in the former Soviet Union can be traced substantially to instability from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and from Russia's conflicts more broadly. The costs of integration seem high.

The Moldovan leu lost more against the U.S. dollar last week than in all of 2014 ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes the development of a new shopping mall in Toronto's Yorkville neighbourhood.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining the ability of the James Webb telescope to detect exoplanet transits.
• Joe. My. God. notes a breakthrough for GLBT rights protesters in Seoul.
• Language Log notes Google's localization in Kazakh and observes Erdogan's ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes an interesting play being put on at Buddies in Bad Times about a same-sex couple's divorce.
• Centauri Dreams features a guest post from Andrew Lepage examining habitable exomoons.
• Crooked Timber notes the exceptionally high voter turn-out in Scotland.
• The Dragon's Tales notes China's attempts to construct a new security architecture in ( Read more... )