[PHOTO] Goldfish of Allan Gardens, Toronto

The largest and deepest pond in Allan Gardens is home to a large population of goldfish. The very large white goldfish in the second photo particularly caught my attention, but all seemed to be at least basically healthy.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• The Big Picture shares photos from the commemoration in France of the terrorist attacks.


• Centauri Dreams looks, literally, at the atmosphères of hot Jupiters.
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• The Dragon's Gaze links to a report on a model of solar system evolution suggesting the terrestrial planets had to form after Jupiter and Saturn.


• The Dragon's Tales notes one report suggesting a vegetarian diet is worse for the environment.


• Joe. My. God. notes the voting in Slovenia for repealing same-sex marriage has begun.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the peculiar partial transparency of the US-Mexican border.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes the creation of a European border and coast guard.


• Seriously Science reports on a study suggesting straight women would rather get dating advice from gay men than from other women.


• Window on Eurasia suggests the slow-motion disintegration of the Soviet Union is continuing.

[LINK] "The most likely spots for life in the Milky Way"

Science's Ramin Skibba writes about a new study looking at galactic habitable zones.

To support life as we know it, planets must have liquid water and orbit in the right place in their solar systems, not too close and not too far from their star. Similarly, life will not emerge or survive for long near the centers of galaxies. Here, the high density of stars means that at any given time several could be exploding, frying off a planet’s ozone layer and exposing any surface life to deadly ultraviolet rays.

So in the new study, researchers led by physicist Duncan Forgan of the University of St. Andrews in Fife, U.K., focused on the regions far from a galaxy’s center. They used computer simulations to model an entire Milky Way–like galaxy and its neighbors, the Andromeda and Triangulum galaxies. They then simulated the distribution of gas, stars, and planetary systems within those whorls of stars. Finally, they allowed these galaxies to evolve over billions of years, while mapping out their evolving habitable zones. “We’re the first to look at how the history of galaxies affects their habitability,” Forgan says.

For every type of star in the simulation, Forgan and his colleagues estimated the probability that terrestrial planets would form, some of which might be Earth–like or might be as inhospitable as Mercury. They also estimated the chance that a giant planet as large as Neptune would form near the star, as it would disrupt potential earths that could have assembled there. Then they analyzed the likelihood of short-lived life-friendly worlds that happened to be in stellar systems too close to dying, exploding stars.

The team’s simulations show, perhaps not surprisingly, that potentially habitable planets are more likely to remain so if they form in areas far from dense conglomerations of stars, where more supernova explosions occur. The results indicate that for the Milky Way and other spiral galaxies, the most dangerous regions are in the galactic centers, whereas the more diffuse spiral arms pose fewer hazards and are therefore more hospitable to life. Earth lies near the inner edge of this habitable zone.

[LINK] "Argentina's Macri Moves Quickly to Unwind Kirchner Policies"

Bloomberg's Charlie Devereux writes about how Argentina's new president, Mauricio Macri, is starting to undo policies of the Kirchner government.

Argentine President Mauricio Macri has hit the ground running. Less than a week since taking office, he has started to unravel a system of currency controls, trade restrictions and subsidies implemented by his predecessor.

Macri announced an end to taxes on most agricultural exports on Monday and now is moving ahead with plans to reduce subsidies on utility bills, which have contributed to the the country’s widening fiscal deficit. While his pledge to lift currency controls and let the peso float "from day one" has not yet happened, newly appointed Central Bank President Federico Sturzenegger brokered a deal to cut the bank’s liabilities from futures contracts. That move is seen as a first step toward letting the currency trade freely.

Macri is betting that a series of sharp shocks will generate investor confidence and help revive the country’s economy. Argentina has been stifled by a shortage of foreign currency since former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner introduced controls in 2011 and began using reserves to pay foreign debt obligations. So far, it seems to be working.

“You have some goodwill at the beginning and they’re tackling a few things that would be complicated to do in the future,” said Diego Ferro, co-chief investment officer at Greylock Capital Management. “They have to look proactive on the domestic front first and they’re doing everything according to the textbook.”

[LINK] "Africa Is Last Frontier for Carmakers on the Hunt for Growth"

Bloomberg's Liezel Hill and Emele Onu note the emergence of Africa as a market for automakers.

When Nigeria first unveiled incentives for carmakers to set up plants its auto industry had ground to a standstill.

Fast forward two years, and there are at least 36 automakers with production licenses in the continent’s biggest economy, with Volkswagen AG, Nissan Motor Co. and Ford Motor Co. already making vehicles with local partners. The country is seeking to join South Africa as the only manufacturing base for the car industry in sub-Saharan Africa, with countries from Ethiopia to Uganda hoping to follow suit.

“Africa really is the last automotive frontier,” Mike Whitfield, Nissan’s head of sub-Saharan Africa, said in an interview. “You still have a very un-motorized population.”

Vehicle ownership on the continent is estimated by the International Organization of Motor Vehicle Manufacturers at less than 50 per 1,000 people, compared with about 800 in the U.S. Demand for passenger cars in particular is growing in sub-Saharan Africa, as road conditions and fuel quality improve and young populations with disposable income seek mobility, Whitfield said.

[LINK] "Oil Approaching $35 Final Blow to Greenland's Exploration Dreams"

Peter Levring and Christian Wienberg of Bloomberg note how the low price of oïl is dooming Greenland's hope of becoming an exporter, and with it, hopes of full independence from Denmark.

After decades of estimates that Greenland may be sitting on oil reserves big enough to meet almost two years of European demand, the Arctic island is throwing in the towel.

Oil is now simply too cheap for Greenland to continue dreaming of the oil bonanza that captured the imagination of its citizens less than a decade ago.

“It’s frustrating,” Kim Kielsen, the leader of Greenland’s home-rule government, said in Copenhagen on Monday. “There are still geological areas in which there is an interest, but the world price has dropped, as you know.”

With Brent crude hovering around $36 a barrel, prices have now plunged almost 70 percent since a June 2014 high. That’s nowhere near enough to make it profitable to try to extract oil off Greenland’s shores. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland estimates production costs could be as high as $50 a barrel for the island, where exploration would be hampered by massive floating icebergs, among other Arctic-style impediments.

[URBAN NOTE] "TTC’s lawyers to examine UberHop commuting service"

Vanessa Lu's Toronto Star article is profoundly unsurprising.

The Toronto Transit Commission is asking its legal department to look into the new UberHop service, offering $5 flat rates for commuters on four routes during weekday rush hours, and see if violates the TTC’s monopoly.

“We’ll have our lawyers have a look at this business model, and determine whether it is in contravention of the City of Toronto Act or not, and go from there,” said TTC spokesman Brad Ross.

The legislation gives the TTC the right to operate all public transportation services, with a few exceptions such as tour buses, school buses and free shuttle services.

Tracey Cook, the city’s head of municipal licensing and standards, added the city is also reviewing UberHop’s operations for compliance with existing legislation.

Uber is launching its latest service Tuesday, where up to six commuters from Liberty Village, Fort York, City Place and the Distillery District can take an Uber SUV or minivan to go downtown during morning rush hour and back home in the evening.

[LINK] NPR on the anti-Muslim policies of Angola

At NPR's Goats and Soda blog, Anders Kelto writes about Angola's suppression of Islam. This seems to be a consequence of a repression of civil society generally.

The oil-rich, southern African nation of 21 million is thousands of miles away, but looks a lot like the U.S. when it comes to religion. Both countries are roughly three-fourths Christian (Roman Catholicism dominates in Angola) and less than 1 percent Muslim.

But in contrast with the U.S., the Angolan government has made it extremely difficult for non-Christian religious groups to practice their faith.

"The problem is that the men in government believe that Angola is a Catholic country," says Elias Isaac, program director for the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa.

He says freedom of religion is protected in the Angolan constitution but is restricted by many laws. For example, the Angolan government only grants legal standing to religious groups that have at least 100,000 members. There are roughly 90,000 Muslims in the country, the vast majority of whom are immigrants from West Africa. Without legal religious standing, Isaac says, Muslims face many challenges.

"They don't have permission to build mosques, to open schools, to build clinics, to do outreach," he says.

[LINK] "Moscow graveyards upgraded to include free Wi-Fi"

This CBC News report from Russia was amusing.

Imagine standing in a Moscow graveyard late at night. You're alone, with no bars on your phone and desperately curious about Russian author Anton Chekov.

It's an unlikely horror movie scenario, but it's one Moscow is preparing for by introducing free Wi-Fi to three major cemeteries.

Visitors to Novodevichy, Troyekurovskoye, and Vagankovo cemeteries will have access to free Wi-Fi starting sometime next year, according to French news service Agence France-Presse.

These are the city's historic burial grounds, which collectively hold the remains of Soviet Union leader Nikita Khruschchev, writer Nikolai Gogol and author Anton Chekov.

[LINK] "How to do cephalopod philosophy"

Understanding Society's Daniel Little had a neat post last week on the problems of understanding the minds of others. Very Other others.

How should researchers attempt to investigate non-human intelligence? The image above raises difficult questions. The octopus is manipulating (tenticlating?) the Rubik's cube. But there are a raft of questions that are difficult to resolve on the basis of simple inductive observation. And some of those questions are as much conceptual as they are empirical. Is the octopus "attempting to solve the cube"? Does it understand the goal of the puzzle? Does it have a mental representation of a problem which it is undertaking to solve? Does it have temporally extended intentionality? How does octopus consciousness compare to human consciousness? (Here is a nice website by several biologists at Reed College on the subject of octopus cognition; link.)

An octopus-consciousness theorist might offer a few hypotheses:
1.The organism possesses a cognitive representation of its environment (including the object we refer to as "Rubik's cube").
2.The organism possesses curiosity -- a behavioral disposition to manipulate the environment and observe the effects of manipulation.
3.The organism has a cognitive framework encompassing the idea of cause and effect.
4.The organism has desires and intentions.
5.The organism has beliefs about the environment.
6.The organism is conscious of itself within the environment.
How would any of these hypotheses be evaluated?

One resource that the cephalopod behavior theorist has is the ability to observe octopi in their ordinary life environments and in laboratory conditions. These observations constitute a rich body of data about behavioral capacities and dispositions.

More, including the aforementioned photo and some video, at the blog.

[LINK] Wired on the new national flag of New Zealand

Wired's Margaret Rhodes writes approvingly of the current front-runner to replace New Zealand's national flag.

The new flag uses a silver fern frond as its primary motif, instead of the Union Jack, and keeps the four stars that decorate the bottom right corner of the current design. The official alternative flag has quite a campaign behind it: Lockwood has a robust website about the design, complete with information on voting and donating. As for the silver fern, it’s a known icon in New Zealand with roots that trace back to the Māori, the country’s indigenous Polynesian populaton. Māori legend has it that the silver fern once helped hunters and warriors find their way home, by reflecting the moonlight and creating a path through the forest.

On his site, [designer Kyke] Lockwood writes, “the fern is an element of indigenous flora representing the growth of our nation. The multiple points of the fern leaf represent Aotearoa’s,”—the indigenous name for the island country—“peaceful multicultural society, a single fern spreading upwards represents that we are all one people growing onward into the future.” That last bit is some saccharine symbolism, for sure, but that’s hardly uncommon with flag design.

That said, it’s also a smart design. According to experts in vexillology, the study of flag design, a good flag is one you can both recognize immediately and draw from memory. The frond, as a piece of graphic design, makes both possible. It’s almost like a Matisse cut-out in this way: it has a child-like simplicity, but character that won’t be found on another nation’s flag.