• 'Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith describes his writing projects for this year.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining exomoon formation.
• The LRB Blog worries about Trump's hold on the button.
• The NYRB Daily looks at Rex Tillerson, an oil company diplomat to autocrats.
• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw shares the rediscovered mid-19th century painting ( Read more... )

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the quiet power of the candle.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining horseshoe patterns in protoplanetary disks.
• The Dragon's Tales looks at the impact of human civilization on the Amazonian rain forest and looks at the negative impact of a 6th century volcanic eruption on the Maya.
• Language Log ( Read more... )

Over at his blog The Frailest Thing, Michael Sacasas has reposted a thought-provoking essay. What will it mean for us if the things that we want require significant change on our part, indeed demand significant change?

It is perhaps a symptom of our disorder that we seem to believe that all can be made well merely by our making a few better ( Read more... )

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Over at Demograhy Matters, I talk about Hans Rosling, a Swedish statistician who has become something of a celebrity.

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In January 2011 and June 2013, I linked to two videos by Swedish statistician and popularizer Hans Rosling demonstrating different demographic trends. Today, via 3 Quarks Daily, I came across Amy Maxmen's excellent long-format ( Read more... )

I originally posted this essay at r/daystrominstitute, drawing it from a post I made on Tumblr ( Read more... )

• Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith has a two part review of some of the fiction that he has recently read.
• blogTO looks at Casa Loma lit up for the holidays.
• Dangerous Minds notes The London Nobody Knows, a documentary of the grim areas of late Victorian London.
• Language Hat looks at how 16th century Spanish linguists represented Nahuatl spelling.
• Lawyers, ( Read more... )

• At Apostrophen, 'Nathan Smith talks about how he made a tradition out of Christmas tree ornamentation over the past twenty years.
• blogTO notes that Toronto's waterfront has major E Coli issues.
• Crooked Timber notes the potential for the recent by-election in London, fought on Brexit and lost by the Tories, to mean something.
• The Dragon's Gaze reports ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes city opposition to a new subdivision in Weston.
• The Dragon's Gaze reports on KIC 7917485b, a massive gas giant found in close orbit of a star.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog dissects the idea of this being a season of giving.
• Joe. My. God. notes Clinton's vote lead over Trump surpassed two million.
• Language Log looks at Chinese transcriptions ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that retail space on Bloor Street in Yorkville is not only the priciest in Canada, but among the priciest in the world.
• Centauri Dreams notes how fast radio bursts, a natural phenomenon, can be used to understand the universe.
• Dangerous Minds looks at a Kate Bush music performance on Dutch television in 1978.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to an ( Read more... )