• Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith talks about his upcoming session at the Naked Heart literary festival here in Toronto.
• blogTO notes that Metrolinx is set to kill Bombardier's LRT contract.
• Centauri Dreams talks about the discovery of planets in the system of HD 87646, one not unlike Alpha Centauri.
• Dangerous Minds talks about a documentary on skinheads.
• ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that Yonge and Dundas will soon be hosting a Zimbabwean meat pie restaurant.
• Beyond the Beyond links to a report regretful of past optimisim about geopolitics.
• Centauri Dreams considers extraterrestrial life and red dwarfs.
• Marginal Revolution looks at rent in Puerto Rico's public housing system.
• pollotenchegg maps economic change in ( Read more... )

• Bloomberg notes the rise of populism in Mexico, looks at how Europe is losing its reputation as a renewable energy leader, looks at political protest in Zimbabwe, and looks at changing habits of Saudi oil ministers.
• Bloomberg View notes the politicization of the Israeli army, looks at an effort to smuggle Korean pop culture into North Korea, and ( Read more... )

In The New Yorker, Jacques Leslie examines how the Kariba Dam on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border is one predictable disaster away from collapse.

The new year has not been kind to the hydroelectric-dam industry. On January 11th, the New York Times reported that Mosul Dam, the largest such structure in Iraq, urgently requires maintenance to prevent its ( Read more... )

National Geographic's Adam Cruise reports on Zimbabwe's continued export of elephants to China. This may be better that killing surplus elephants wholesale, but there are still obvious ethical issues afoot.

In October 2014, tens of young elephants were taken from their family groups in Zimbabwe’s Hwange National Park, where they were held in a ( Read more... )

Al Jazeera reports on a new shift that I'm not convinced is even of symbolic importance. To be quite honest, how relevant is Zimbabwe?

Zimbabwe plans to adopt the Chinese yuan as legal tender in return for debt cancellation worth about $40m - a move one economist predicted "has no future at all ( Read more... )

The Globe and Mail's Geoffrey York notes China's new outreach to Africa, aid-wise.

Even as its economy slows, China has wowed its African allies with an impressive display of political promises and a staggering $60-billion (U.S.) in new financial support ( Read more... )

BBC reports with Farai Sevenzo.

For a country that has been largely left to its own fate, the sudden spike in international interest in Zimbabwe did not come from the high unemployment figures, the food shortages, the state persecution of vendors, the lack of medicines, the lack of cash - but from a lion named "Cecil" by conservationists ( Read more... )

I've a post up at Demography Matters commenting on a recent study confirming a sharp fall in HIV seroprevalence in Zimbabwe, linked to the pervasiveness of the epidemic and changes in sexual practices.

Go, read.

• At Beyond the Beyond, Bruce Sterling is impressed by outgoing Brazilian president Lula's interviews with leading Brazilian bloggers.
• James Bow mourns the passing of George Robitaille, the TTC employee photographed sleeping on the job. Making note of his medical conditions, Bow wonders about the Internet's ability to mobilize people for anything.
• ( Read more... )