The Inter Press Service's Andy Hazel describes how Kurdish-Iranian asylum seeker Behrouz Boochani, detailed by the Australian government on Papua New Guinea's Manus Island, is striving to report on the conditions of his detention.

Despite being locked up in an Australian detention centre on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Island, Kurdish-Iranian ( Read more... )

• The Cranky Sociologists consider a series of controversial videos examining issues of racism and discrimination in Auckland.
• Crooked Timber's Chris Bertram argues that European countries are responsible for migrant deaths in the Mediterranean.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers the international market in surrogate mothers.
• The Frailest Thing ( Read more... )

At the The Asia-Pacific Journal, Camellia Webb-Gannon and Jim Elmslie describe the complexity of Indonesia's relationships with Melanesian states, structured as they describe it towards legitimizing Indonesia's hold over Melanesian West Papua.

Asia and the Pacific-these two geographic, political and cultural regions encompass entire life-worlds, ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes a projection suggesting there will be nearly seven million Torontonians by 2025.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining how
  
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper examining a very unusual planetary system around a subdwarf B star and fears the Russo-Ukrainian war will heat up again.
• Language Hat examines the nearly extinct dialect of ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams features an essay by Andreas Hein arguing that interstellar travel will be quite easy after the singularity hits, when our minds can be copied onto physical substrates.
• The Dragon's Tales notes that the dispute between Vietnam and China over their maritime boundaries runs the risk of intensifying.
• Far Outliers chronicles the ( Read more... )

• The Everyday Sociology Blog's Karen Sternheimer takes a look at the concept of anomie as expressed in the lives of recent graduates.
• At The Early Days of a Better Nation, Ken Macleod comes out against Scottish independence on the grounds that the aftermath will paralyze left-wing politics for a while.
• Far Outliers' Joel notes that Australian defenses ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams examines a close-encounter solar probe.
• Writing at The Dragon's Tales, Will Baird has advice for Ukraine's future. (Integrate into the EU, get Western help, avoid conflict in Crimea.)
• The Dragon's Gaze notes that signs of oxygen in a planetary atmosphere alone aren't sure signs of life.
• Far Outliers notes that the dense jungle of ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster comments upon Brian Stableford's argument that modern science fiction traces its origins to 19th century France.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes a new study suggesting that 0.5% of G dwarf stars and 0.8% of K dwarf stars have very close-orbiting planets.
• At Eastern Approaches, Joe's Biden's reassurance to Poland that NATO would ( Read more... )

• The Burgh Diaspora's Jim Russell observes the fine scale of globalization's movements, which connect nations not so much as they do neighbourhoods.
• The Dragon's Gaze revisits the Kepler-9 system and notes the disintegrating sub-Mercury planet that is KIC 12557548b.
• The Dragon's Tales notes that waves have been detected on Titan's Punga Mare.
• Eastern ( Read more... )

• At Bad Astronomy, Phil Plait makes the necessary point that the unusual lack of the predicted acetylene on Titan's surface doesn't automatically indicate that Titan hosts life.
• Beyond the Beyond' Bruce Sterling reports on how a French trader accused of massive, illegal trading is planning on defending himself by arguing that's what the bank expected ( Read more... )