• blogTO notes the expansion of condo development south of Yonge and Eglinton.
• Centauri Dreams blogs about the exciting continuing approach of Dawn to Ceres.
• The Dragon's Gaze looks at the system of HD 69830, with three Neptune-mass planets and a dense asteroid belt.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper looking at French government surveillance of global ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreamns comments on the way SETI is akin to casino gambling.
• Crasstalk's commentary on a ridiculous New York Post article arguing that catcalling is a good thing should be read.
• D-Brief notes evidence suggesting that the short height of Africa's Pygmies evolved on multiple occasions.
• Eastern Approaches interviews Ukrainian rebels on the ( Read more... )

I'm sharing Nicholas Keung's Toronto Star article from the 16th of this month because, although it describes a situation since resolved satisfactorily, it also reveals a certain hypocrisy on the part of the Canadian government. How is it proper to condemn the human rights situation in a particular country and then make it difficult for people ( Read more... )

Writing in The Independent of Uganda, Andrew Mwenda makes the case that the general dysfunction besetting Africa after independence was probably inevitable. Using the examples of South Korea and Uganda, two countries with similar GDP per capitas in 1960, Mwenda argues that South Korea had plenty of advantages: centuries of statehood, a long ( Read more... )

• Daniel Drezner has to point out that the comparisons some Israelis like Netanyahu are making between Idi Amin's Uganda and modern Iran, with the implication that a successful strike against Iran's nuclear facilities will discredit Iran the way the Israeli commande attack at Entebbe did Amin is just, well, argh.
• Eastern Approaches is decidedly ( Read more... )

• 80 Beats lets us know that, as Iceland warms, Iceland's volcanoes may well become much more active.
• Amitai Etzioni doesn't like the United States' increasingly hard line on Israel's unconstructive role in the Middle East. I disagree.
• Will Baird at The Dragon's Tales lets us know that a recent study of the planet Gliese 436b reveals that, surprisingly ( Read more... )

• 80 Beats' Andrew Moseman lets us know that not only can some fish see in the ultraviolet, but that they can use markings visible only in the ultraviolet to distinguish between individuals.
• Cartophilia blogs about the possible fusion of Cincinnati and Dayton in Ohio through suburbanization.
• Centauri Dreams wonders whether, based on the evidence from ( Read more... )

Buju Banton, a Jamaican reggae star perhaps best known outside reggae fandom for homophobia, whether the murderous sentiments expressed in songs like "Boom Bye Bye" ("World is in trouble/Anytime Buju Banton come/Batty bwoy get up an run/At gunshot me head back") or for his joining in a mob assault on gay men in Jamaica, has been arrested on cocaine ( Read more... )

• blogTo's Rick McGinnis describes the near-complete state of ruin that Kodak's Toronto facilities have fallen into.
• The Bloor-Lansdowne blog announces that the Gladstone Library will reopen on the 23rd of this month.
• Broadsides' Antonia Zerbisias covers the Conservatives' opposition to funding Toronto's gay pride.
• Over at Demography Matters, co-blogger ( Read more... )

• Amused Cynicism reports that the modern Egyptian government wants to extend copyright protection to ancient Egyptian cultural artifacts, some of them five thousand years old and more. Practicality comes to mind as a major objection to this new policy.
• 'Aqoul has an open comments thread on Benazir Bhutto's assassination, and another on the way in ( Read more... )