Frances Robles' front page article in The New York Times noting how Muslims from Trinidad and Tobago are being recruited in large numbers for ISIS and like organizations is alarming.

Law enforcement officials in Trinidad and Tobago, a small Caribbean island nation off the coast of Venezuela, are scrambling to close a pipeline that has sent a ( Read more... )

Derek Hawkins' Washington Post article describes how the "black bloc", anarchist rioters who go ot of their way to riot in their identity-hiding all-black uniforms, is making a comeback. I'm decidedly not impressed by this, not least since I remember what they did to downtown Toronto during the G20 protests in 2010, and how the black bloc rioters ( Read more... )

In the latest issue of Toronto Life, Lauren McKeon examines the short and sad life of Aaron Driver, a small-town Canadian who became so lost after family traumas--a mother's early death, a stillborn child--that he managed to join up with ISIS online, eventually to die in a confrontation with police.

Aaron Driver was a sunny, easygoing kid with ( Read more... )

• Bad Astronomy shares photos of the ripple made by moon Daphnis in the rings of Saturn, as does the Planetary Society Blog.
• The Broadside Blog questions whether readers actually like their work.
• Centauri Dreams notes evidence for the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet in the protoplanetary disk of TW Hydrae.
• Dangerous Minds links to the 1980s work of ( Read more... )

• 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... )

The Toronto Star's Allan Woods reports on a Senegalese accused terrorist with Canadian connections and his personal history.

As the child of a Senegalese diplomat, Assane Kamara was accustomed to finding his place in unfamiliar lands. In his 24 years, he had lived in Ivory Coast, Haiti, Dominican Republic and Madagascar ( Read more... )

• At Apostrophen, 'Nathan Smith describes his experience at the CAN•CON conference in Ottawa.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper speculating about the consequences of observing a large extraterrestrial civilization.
• Far Outliers notes how Chinese soldiers in 1937 Shanghai did not want to take prisoners.
• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas considers the ( Read more... )

• blogTO considers some of the spendthrift things a millionaire could do in Toronto.
• James Bow remembers his 9/11 experience.
• Crasstalk features an essay by a New Yorker reflecting on her 9/11.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog reflects on how white power and white powerlessness can co-exist.
• Language Hat shares one book's evaluation of Neapolitan dialect.

When I went to New York City in June 2012 for my cousin's wedding, I opted not to go to the World Trade Center site. We've all seen the images before: did I really want to, never mind need to, see them again? Instead, I walked down to the nearby Zuccotti Park and photographed this statue ( Read more... )

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