At Demography Matters, I link to Cade Metz's Wired article "Trump's Win Isn't the Death of Data--It Was Flawed All Along". It makes interesting observations about statistical data collection generally, not just political polling.

The lesson of Trump’s victory is not that data is dead. The lesson is that data is flawed. It has always been flawed- ( Read more... )

• Antipope Charlie Stross wonders about the interactions between parasite loads and the intelligence of the inhabitants of off-world colonies.
• Bad Astronomy shares a stunning mosaic of the Milky Way Galaxy.
• blogTO notes the construction of a viewing platform for Toronto plane spotters.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog examines why we call other people stupid ( Read more... )

• blogTO warned yesterday of impending snowfall.
• Centauri Dreams considers if planets in the circumstellar habitable zones of red dwarfs, like Proxima Centauri b, might tend to be ocean worlds.
• Crooked Timber tries to track down the source of some American electoral maps breaking down support for candidates finely, by demographics.
• D-Brief shares ( Read more... )

• Centauri Dreams describes an unusually old circumstellar disk orbiting a red dwarf.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper analyzing the possible internal structure of Proxima Centauri b and looks at how common water worlds are.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how poverty can complicate aging in the United States.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the ( Read more... )

• blogTO shares photos of old Toronto department stores.
• Discover's Citizen Science Salon reports on how people are facing California seals and sea lions faced with famine.
• D-Brief warns people to be cautious about the newest claim of detections of extraterrestrial intelligence.
• The Dragon's Gaze reports on the discovery through microlensing of a ( Read more... )

• blogTO looks at Toronto's old neon signs and its still-visible ghost signs.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly looks at Donald Trump as a bully.
• Dangerous Minds shares vintage photos from the set of Labyrinth.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes a not-unexpected non-detection of Proxima Centauri b.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the presidential debates ( Read more... )

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Julien Gignac's exploration in The Globe and Mail about Kensington Market and this new study is just lovely. Gignac's photographs of the neighbourhood and its residents are a nice touch.

On a sunny recent weekday afternoon, a woman walked with her pet pigeon through Bellevue Square. To her left, a man played chinlone - a traditional Myanmar game ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that Toronto has its first Ethiopian food truck.
• Beyond the Beyond considers the alien ocean of Europa.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the protoplanetary disks of brown dwarfs.
• D-Brief notes that Saturn's moon Dione may have a subsurface ocean.
• The Dragon's Gaze looks at how broadly Earth-like exoplanets form their atmospheres.

• blogTO notes that Muji is opening up a second location.
• James Bow writes about how voicing complaints can make things better for transit riders.
• The Dragon's Gaze notes the detection of ice in the disk of HD 142527.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper speculating on the origins of rings like Saturn's in the disruption of dwarf planets.
• Lawyers, Guns ( Read more... )