[PHOTO] Moss Park at night

[LINK] "Texting brings out passive-aggressive in people"

The Toronto Star hosted Aimee Blanchette' Minneapolis Star Tribune article noting how, ultimately, texting is an impoverished form of communication that leaves much too much open to question.

This modern convenience easily can morph into an anxiety-ridden mystery as you look for signs behind a text’s real meaning, question nonsensical acronyms and wonder if using an exclamation mark or a period will change the receiver’s interpretation of your text. (The answer is yes.)

“These delicate decisions consume far too much of my attention, so much that a brief exchange of texts or emails can leave me psychologically depleted for the rest of the day,” said Paul Scott, 52, of Rochester, Minn. “The exclamation point seems to have become officially required in order to not look like you have produced a passive-aggressive text.”

[. . .]

“Yes” doesn’t mean “yes!” “K” signals annoyance and “hi.” with a period usually means, “We need to talk and you’re probably not going to like what I have to say.”

“Texts have such a variety of meanings with a simple change of punctuation,” said Sara Kerr, a business professor at St. Catherine University. “Text messaging makes passive-aggressiveness worse in the same way Internet comment boards breed nasty trolls and vitriolic comments.”

Even when we try to be direct in our messages, texting is limiting. Without facial expressions, body language and the tone of someone’s voice, we often assume the worst.

“There’s so much misunderstanding that occurs through this medium just because there’s not a universal approach to it,” said Luke Youngvorst, a doctoral student/instructor at the University of Minnesota. “There is ambiguity to texting and we’re left to our own perceptions.”

[LINK] "The Rajab family is home, at last"

Michael Friscolanti of MacLean's has a great article looking at one Syrian family, once consigned to a shack in Lebanon now settled in the greater Toronto area.

Even after he boarded the plane in Lebanon, his seatbelt buckled, Mostafa Rajab didn’t quite believe what was happening. He was certain someone was going to barge down the aisle and order him to get off, insisting there’d been a big mistake. Only when the jet made a stopover in Portugal did reality start to sink in: his family—six Syrian refugees among so many millions—were on their way to Canada. “I realized then,” Mostafa grins, “that nobody could send us back.”

Today, a few weeks after that life-changing flight, the 46-year-old father of four is sitting on a maroon couch in his new apartment: a spacious, three-bedroom unit in Toronto’s east end. His wife, Souheila, is on the cushion beside him, directly underneath a poster of a Canadian flag. “Welcome Rajab family!” it reads (in Arabic and English.) “When we reached here, we found the best people ever,” Souheila says, speaking through an interpreter. “I’ve never seen more kind people in my life.”

“Even the pizza delivery man!” her husband interjects. “He knew we were Syrians so he gave us a bottle of Coke for free.”

Their eldest son, Mohammed, smiles at the anecdote, one of countless acts of kindness heaped on the Rajabs since they arrived in early January. “Even if we become 200 or 300 years old, we will never forget this story of what people have done for us,” says the 19-year-old, wearing jeans and a grey T-shirt.

“This story is going to live on,” his father adds. “It’s going to be told from one generation to another.”

[LINK] "Why Canada risks losing out on minerals in space"

In The Globe and Mail, Michael Byers expresses legitimate concern that notwithstanding Canada's strong mining industry, Canada is so far uninvolved in asteroid mining. There are legal issues at stake: What is Canada's stance on mineral property rights in space?

Three-quarters of the world’s mining companies are incorporated in Canada. But as the global industry prepares for its greatest leap since mechanization, Canada risks losing that leadership position – unless it takes sides in a debate over the private ownership of minerals found in space.

The United States has already shown an interest in asteroids, some of which pass quite close to Earth and might be exceedingly rich in heavy elements such as cobalt, gold, platinum, rhodium and tungsten. Later this year, NASA will launch a spacecraft, the Osiris-Rex, on a mission to retrieve a mineral sample from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu.

Canada is providing Osiris-Rex’s laser altimeter, which will map the surface of the 500-metre-diameter asteroid. This will enable scientists to determine the best site for the spacecraft to touch down, briefly, to collect the sample. The altimeter has been built by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd., the manufacturer of the Canadarm, on a $61-million contract to the Canadian Space Agency.

Although the primary mission of the Osiris-Rex is to collect data for scientific purposes, the project’s leader, Dante Lauretta, readily admits that it will also “develop important technologies for asteroid exploration that will benefit anyone interested in exploring or mining asteroids, whether it’s NASA or a private company.”

In return for providing the altimeter, Canada will receive a portion of any sample obtained. However, NASA and the Canadian Space Agency are unlikely to ever engage in actual mining. This will be left to the private sector, and the company leading the way is based in the United States.

[LINK] "Exoplanet Census Suggests Earth Is Special after All"

Scientific American's Shannon Hall reports on this study, "Terrestrial Planets Across Space and Time".

“Terrestrial Planets Across Space and Time”.


More than 400 years ago Renaissance scientist Nicolaus Copernicus reduced us to near nothingness by showing that our planet is not the center of the solar system. With every subsequent scientific revolution, most other privileged positions in the universe humans might have held dear have been further degraded, revealing the cold truth that our species is the smallest of specks on a speck of a planet, cosmologically speaking. A new calculation of exoplanets suggests that Earth is just one out of a likely 700 million trillion terrestrial planets in the entire observable universe. But the average age of these planets—well above Earth’s age—and their typical locations—in galaxies vastly unlike the Milky Way—just might turn the Copernican principle on its head.

Astronomer Erik Zackrisson from Uppsala University and his colleagues created a cosmic compendium of all the terrestrial exoplanets likely to exist throughout the observable universe, based on the rocky worlds astronomers have found so far. In a powerful computer simulation, they first created their own mini universe containing models of the earliest galaxies. Then they unleashed the laws of physics—as close as scientists understand them—that describe how galaxies grow, how stars evolve and how planets come to be. Finally, they fast-forwarded through 13.8 billion years of cosmic history. Their results, published to the preprint server arXiv and submitted to The Astrophysical Journal, provide a tantalizing trove of probable exoplanet statistics that helps astronomers understand our place in the universe. “It’s kind of mind-boggling that we’re actually at a point where we can begin to do this,” says co-author Andrew Benson from the Carnegie Observatories in California. Until recently, he says, so few exoplanets were known that reasonable extrapolations to the rest of the universe were impossible. Still, his team’s findings are a preliminary guess at what the cosmos might hold. “It’s certainly the case that there are a lot of uncertainties in a calculation like this. Our knowledge of all of these pieces is imperfect,” he adds.

The abstract?

The study of cosmology, galaxy formation and exoplanetary systems has now advanced to a stage where a cosmic inventory of terrestrial planets may be attempted. By coupling semi-analytic models of galaxy formation to a recipe that relates the occurrence of planets to the mass and metallicity of their host stars, we trace the population of terrestrial planets around both solar-mass (FGK type) and lower-mass (M dwarf) stars throughout all of cosmic history. We find that the mean age of terrestrial planets in the local Universe is 8 ± 1 Gyr and that the typical planet of this type is located in a spheroid-dominated galaxy with total stellar mass about twice that of the Milky Way. We estimate that hot Jupiters have depleted the population of terrestrial planets around FGK stars at Redshift z = 0 by no more than 10%, and predict that 1/3 of the terrestrial planets in the local Universe are orbiting stars in a metallicity range for which such planets have yet to be been detected. When looking at the inventory of planets throughout the whole observable Universe (i.e. in all galaxies on our past light cone) we argue for a total of 2×1019 and 7×1020 terrestrial planets around FGK and M stars, respectively. Due to the hierarchical formation of galaxies and lookback-time effects, the average terrestrial planet on our past light cone has an age of just 1.7 ± 0.2 Gyr and is sitting in a galaxy with a stellar mass a factor of 2 lower than that of the Milky Way. These results are discussed in the context of cosmic habitability, the Copernican principle and the prospects of searches for extraterrestrial intelligence at cosmological distances.

[LINK] "Forum Research poll: Liberals would win 70% of seats in election today"

The Toronto Star's Jim Coyle reports on a new Forum Research poll suggesting that the Liberals are massively popular in Canada, nation-wide.

Amid the selfies and the sunny ways, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government has been confronted with some big questions: Money and deficits. War and peace. Life and death.

A new poll suggests that, in direction if not every detail, it is largely in tune with Canadians.

The Forum Research poll found that 49 per cent of Canadians would vote Liberal if an election were held today, producing a “super-majority” of more than 70 per cent of the seats in Parliament.

The support is so impressive that Lorne Bozinoff, president of Forum Research, said it might be time to stop referring to ongoing Liberal popularity as a mere honeymoon.

“It’s gone on far too long to be a brief post-electoral crush,” he said.

[URBAN NOTE] On Justin Trudeau's visit to Dovercourt Village, Toronto

In her article for the Bloor West Villager, "Justin Trudeau marks 100th day in office with surprise visit to Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club", Lisa Rainford describes the circumstances behind Justin Trudeau's visit to my neighbourhood last week.

The prime minister of Canada paid a visit to the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club Friday morning, much to the surprise of its staff and members.

Justin Trudeau’s visit to the Dupont and Dufferin streets-area clubhouse was shrouded in secrecy until just hours before his arrival. The country’s chief executive took a few minutes to chat with members and senior students from nearby St. Mary’s Catholic School before beating them at a game of foosball.

While it was all in good fun, Trudeau chose the local boys and girls club to make a funding announcement on what marked his government’s 100th day in office.

“I’m very happy to announce today yet another example of the kind of real change we’re bringing to Canadians,” Trudeau told his audience that had gathered in the club’s gymnasium, Feb. 12. “I’m pleased to be here this morning at the Dovercourt Boys and Girls Club to announce that our government is creating over 34,000 summer jobs for students this year. Through the Canada Summer Jobs Program, we’re investing up to $113 million more to help more youth get invaluable work experience.”

This is in addition to the 34,000 summer jobs created last year. This means that employers will be able to hire nearly 70,000 students, Trudeau added.

[LINK] "Tom Mulcair's plea for redemption"

NOW Toronto's Barry Weisleder notes Thomas Mulcair's underwhelming response to the NDP catastrophe this past election. Can he survive? I Wonder. (I hope not.)

It has an air of desperation about it. And a touch of remorse. But it is severely lacking in political transparency.

For New Democrats who consider electoral prospects paramount, Tom Mulcair's personal reflections on the 2015 campaign released on the party's website February 10 lead inexorably to the one conclusion. He must be replaced as party leader.

The status of the much-vaunted Interim Report of the Campaign Review Working Group, chaired by party president Rebecca Blaikie, remains in the shadows. Why wasn't it attached to Mulcair's plaintive cry for redemption? How can the party rank-and-file properly appreciate the “insights” of the review so far if they are not made public?

According to Blaikie, her working group's summary will go to the incoming federal executive and council. So much for the promises from on-high to improve communication and decision-making.

Mulcair talks about core social democratic values in his letter. It might be good to make a list of these. Sadly, Mulcair does not. “We came up short,” Mulcair writes. That admission puts him in the worldwide derby for understatement of the decade.

[LINK] On what happened with Dolores Huerta, Bernie Sanders, and a Nevada crowd

In "Neither side was quite right on that Dolores Huerta ‘English-only’ shout-down", Washington Post journalist Janell Ross looks at the scandal. Consider myself unimpressed by the standards of Sanders' supporters here.

First off, neither Huerta, the precinct's permanent chair nor the precinct captains for Clinton and Sanders could be reached for comment Sunday. Nevada Democratic Party officials, who oversee the caucuses, have yet to respond to requests for comment about events or procedure. Ferrera also declined to comment.

Second, this video really does not indict Huerta of the bias alleged by Sanders supporters; it's easy to see why she felt abused and upset after being shouted off the stage. Nor does it completely clear the Sanders supporters of all the allegations against them; some of the comments that are clearly audible in it amount to more than bad public behavior.

[. . .]

The Voting Rights Act requires that translated voting materials and language assistance or interpretation services be made available in areas with a certain concentration of voters with limited English proficiency. Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, is one of those places. It has been since the 2000 Census.

Voting is serious, and goodness knows that the caucus process is unique. So making sure that people fully understand what is going on at a given event and don't have the added burden of rapid personal interpretation is only common sense. Federal funds were provided to states to do so under the Help America Vote Act and to study the best methods. Nevada is not an exception.

The reasons for these laws are clear -- so clear that the applause and excitement as the English-only decision was made at the Harrah's Casino caucus Saturday perhaps did strike some people, including Huerta, as highly inappropriate.

Whether intended or not, those applauding effectively sanctioned a process that allowed qualified voters who do not speak English, or who are Spanish-dominant, limited insight and influence in the evening's events.

Some people at the caucus gathering may have been singularly focused on what they viewed as the risk of a Clinton supporter interpreting events for all Spanish-speakers in the room. But then, at the very least, they shouted an 80-plus-year-old woman off the stage for what they believed to be political bias. That is not a moment of which to be proud.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Keiran Healy suggests much of Apple's opposition to the FBI's demand it decrypt a terrorist's phone has to do with its need to establish itself as a reliable and trustworthy source of hardware.


• Joe. My. God. notes that WWE wrestler Dave Bautista takes Manny Pacquiao's homophobia poorly.


• Language Hat links to this 2008 map showing lexical différences between Europe's languages.


• Language Log notes the politicized position of minority languages in China.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is unimpressed? with Amitai Etzioni's call for genocide in Lebanon.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer, looking to Ecuador, notes that international arbitration awards do matter.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw is unimpressed by Australia's reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis.


• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of Charlottetown transit's new maps.


• Transit Toronto notes the delivery of the TTC's 16th streetcar.


• Window on Eurasia notes the weakness of the Russian opposition, particularly in relation to Chechnya's Kadyrov.