[PHOTO] Front yard irises on Ossington above the rail line

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• blogTO profiles classic Toronto convenience store chain Becker's.


• Crooked Timber links to their index of posts on their recent symposium on the ethics of immigration.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes that a simulation of the Gliese 581 system (assuming four planets) shows it's stable over long periods.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper suggesting that the distribution of trans-Neptunian objects indicates the existence of two large distant planets.


• Eastern Approaches notes the recent revolution in Abkhazia.


• Geocurrents' Martin Lewis notes that there is scarce evidence of environmental issues triggering Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria.


• Language Hat hosts a discussion on Elias Muhanna's essay on the translation of Frozen.


• Language Log's Victor Mair lists the long collection of words censored in China on the grounds of their relationship to Tiananmen Square.


• Marginal Revolution notes a recent study suggesting rapidly declining fortunes among young Americans after 2000.


• Savage Minds engages with the potentially colonial concept of the Arctic.


• Window on Eurasia suggests Russia is drawing multiple connections between Ukraine and Syria, and notes the huge contribution of Ukrainians to the defeat of the Nazis in the Second World War.

[LINK] "Prostitution bill would make it illegal to buy, sell sex in public"

CBC's Susana Mas reports on the very controversial new legislation regarding prostitution recently proposed by the federal government. Multiple people and groups concerned with sex trade workers have said this could well face another court challenge, while the ban on advertising would be another major issue.

The federal government says its proposed prostitution legislation will crack down on pimps and johns, but advocates for sex-trade workers say it will criminalize prostitution and land sex workers in jail.

Bill C-36, dubbed the protection of communities and exploited persons act, would make it illegal to sell sexual services in public spaces where persons under the age of 18 could be present. Offenders could face a maximum of five years in prison.

"Today our government is making prostitution illegal for the first time," Justice Minister Peter MacKay said in a written statement on Wednesday.

"We are criminalizing the purchase of sexual services and in very specific instances the sale … in areas where young people under the age of 18 could be present," MacKay said during a news conference after the bill was tabled in the House of Commons.

[LINK] "Canada’s young men joining foreign jihad: Are we doing enough to stop it?"

CBC News reacts to the news that a growing number of Canadians--young Muslim men of a variety of backgrounds, converts and otherwise--are volunteering to fight in foreign wars and even become terrorists. Recent events in Calgary, where a number of young Muslim men have joined up, have highlighted the issue. "What is to be done?" is the question of the hour.

An alarming number of radicalized Canadians are joining foreign jihadi groups abroad, prompting calls for intervention as other Western nations boost efforts to stop their citizens from waging attacks at home or on foreign soil.

CBC News has learned of as many as two dozen Calgarians who, in the last two years, departed for Syria to join extremist rebel groups.

France intercepted four people suspected of trying to recruit militants to fight in Syria last week, following the arrest of a French citizen who joined a militant group in Syria and then returned to carry out a deadly shooting at a Jewish museum in Brussels last month.

In April, Bosnia introduced a 10-year prison sentence for citizens caught fighting in foreign wars — a move aimed at curbing recruitment for the Syrian conflict.

'Nobody is internally motivated to die. It’s going to be externally motivated, so you can prevent that by understanding the motivations behind it.'— Mahdi Qasqas, Calgary Muslim youth leader

That same month, British counterterrorism police appealed to Muslim women in a national campaign to dissuade male relatives from going to Syria to fight alongside extremist Islamist groups there. Some suspected jihadis have been detained at the airport upon landing in the U.K.

But critics say there has been little public outreach in Canada to stop the radicalization from happening here, before young men leave these shores. Such pre-emptive measures may be overdue.

[LINK] "The Russian-Chinese geopolitical game"

I suspect Immanuel Wallerstein's column at America Al Jazeera might have Chinese motives off. Chats with Chinese netizens make me suspect China places much less importance on the Russian link as grounds for a permanent and enduring alliance than Russia does. Still, it's worth noting.

The unilateral sanctions that the United States has already imposed on Russia because of its alleged behavior in Ukraine and the threat of still more sanctions has no doubt hastened Russia's desire to find additional outlets for its gas and oil. And this has in turn led to much talk of a revived "cold war" between Russia and the United States. But is this really the main point of the new Russia-China agreement?

“What China wants is not consonant with the prevailing ideological language in the United States. Nonetheless, there seems to be quiet support for such an evolution of alliances within the United States, especially within major corporate structures. ”

It seems to me that both countries are really interested in a different restructuring of interstate alliances. What Russia is really seeking is an agreement with Germany. And what China is really seeking is an agreement with the United States. And their ploy is to announce this "forever" alliance between themselves.

Germany is clearly internally divided about the prospect of including Russia within a European sphere. The advantage to Germany of such an arrangement would be to consolidate Germany's customer base in Russia for its production, guarantee its energy needs, and incorporate Russia's military strength in its long-term global planning. Since this would inevitably mean the creation of a post-NATO Europe, there is opposition to the idea not only within Germany but of course within Poland and the Baltic states as well. From Russia's point of view, the object of the Russia-China friendship treaty is to strengthen the position of those in Germany favorable to working with Russia.

China, on the other hand, is fundamentally interested in taming the United States and reducing its role in east Asia. But this said, it wants to reinforce, not weaken, its links with the United States. China seeks to invest in the United States at the bargain rates it thinks are now available. It wants the United States to accept its emergence as the dominant regional power in east and southeast Asia. And it wants the United States to use its influence to keep Japan and South Korea from becoming nuclear powers.

Of course, what China wants is not consonant with the prevailing ideological language in the United States. Nonetheless, there seems to be quiet support for such an evolution of alliances within the United States, especially within major corporate structures. Just as Russia wants to use the friendship treaty to encourage certain groups in Germany to move in the direction it finds most useful, so China wishes to do the same with the United States.

[ISL] "Mike Duffy's P.E.I. hotel bills sought in RCMP probe"

CBC reports on the latest news regarding disgraced Prince Edward Island senator Mike Duffy. The evidence seems to be that, even when he claimed to be resident in his Island summer cottage, he stayed in local hotels.

Newly released court documents filed by the RCMP show they are seeking hotel records in P.E.I. where suspended Senator Mike Duffy would have stayed with his wife during the winter months while he was claiming his cottage in Cavendish as his primary residence.

[.. . ]

"I believe that those records will provide evidence of the named offences showing that Senator Duffy stays in hotels when visiting P.E.I. during winter months, not his declared primary residence."

The RCMP says Duffy's personal calendar shows he stayed at the Charlottetown hotel, the Delta hotel and the Great George hotel during his island stays.

Duffy's assistant told Horton the senator's cottage in Cavendish is not on the main highway and he preferred to stay in Charlottetown during winter storms.

"The house in Cavendish is snowed in," the assistant told Horton.

"Also, when his visits are short (for the weekend or something) he prefers to stay closer to the airport to arrive on time."