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Jun. 12th, 2016
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
Jun. 12th, 2016 08:25 am- The Dragon's Gaze reports on speculation that the Fermi paradox can be answered by assuming extraterrestrial civilizations have died already.
- The Dragon's Tales looks at the climate of early Mars.
- Far Outliers takes a look at ethnic divisions among Austro-Hungarian prisoners of war in Russia.
- Joe. My. God. reposts his essay on gay pride parades, in all of their diverse and showy glory.
- Marginal Revolution notes a study suggesting that, in Sweden, lottery winners do not experience improvements in their health.
- Window on Eurasia looks at the dynamics behind Putin's neo-Soviet nostalgia, and looks at a sketchy prison in North Ossetia.
[NEWS] Some Sunday links
Jun. 12th, 2016 08:31 am- Bloomberg looks at Iran's preparation for the international oil market, suggests Brazilian finances were even worse off than believed, and notes Der Spiegel's plea to Britons to remain in the European Union.
- CBC wonders what will happen next to the lyrics of "O Canada" and notes Canada's apparent foreign policy uncertainty towards Venezuela.
- MacLean's looks at Everett Klippert, the man whose life eventually led to the decriminalization of gay sex in Canada.
- Open Democracy points out that, from the perspective of maximizing Britain's options, staying in the European Union makes the most sense.
- The Toronto Star notes that Walmart Canada will no longer accept Visa cards on account of high fees.
John Ibbitson's opinion piece in The Globe and Mail is grim, but accurate.
Earlier this month, Justin Trudeau raised the Pride Flag over Parliament Hill to honour those who have fought for the rights of sexual minorities in this country. But Sunday’s horrific attack on a gay bar in Orlando, Florida reminds us how much hatred and misunderstanding is still out there. Orlando could have been Toronto or Montreal or Vancouver. Orlando could have been anywhere.
Just as fascist governments in Europe imprisoned and murdered homosexuals in the last century, so too religious extremists call for homosexuals to be murdered today. Islamic State has posted videos of gay men being thrown to their death off buildings. Half a dozen countries have the death penalty for committing homosexual acts. Another 70 or so punish the offence with prison sentences. Some also add whippings and/or hard labour.
When governments, terrorist organizations and religious extremists overseas target homosexuals along with women, religious minorities and others in their catalogue of hate, they increase the risk of their message infecting hate-filled minds in our own societies.
A gunman targets women attending school. A gunman targets African Americans attending church. A gunman targets people at work. A gunman targets a gay bar.
The City Centre Mirror's Joanna Lavoie reports on this and other local reactions to the Orlando shooting.
A candle light vigil honouring the victims and survivors of this morning’s nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida is set to take place tonight in Toronto’s Gay Village.
The gathering will run Sunday, June 12 from 8 to 11 p.m. at Barbara Hall Park, 519 Church St., just north of Wellesley Street East, organized by grassroots organizers from Toronto’s Pride community.
All are welcome to bring a candle, say a prayer, and seek or give comfort or simply stand in solidarity with those impacted by this tragedy in Orlando.
The Toronto Star's Ben Spurr notes another potential casualty of the Scarborough subway extension.
It’s survived seven decades, suburban sprawl and encroaching condominiums, but it may not survive the Scarborough subway.
A section of historic woodlot near the Scarborough Civic Centre may need to be cut down to make way for the transit project, according to TTC staff who have identified the parkland as a potential location for the subway’s tunnel mobilization site.
The idea of leveling the stand of old trees is not going down well with nearby residents or the local councillor, who consider the Frank Faubert Woodlot a key community asset.
“I think it’s really unforgivable to even consider going through there,” said Iain McLeod, president of the Glen Andrew Community Association.
McLeod was also the president of the association in the late 1980s, when community pushback prevented the grove from being flattened by a condo developer. He recalls that at the time, “the one thing the community insisted on was: Don’t touch the wood lot.”
Chris Selley writes about Toronto's failed efforts at innovation.
“We can’t adopt a business-as-usual approach,” John Tory told reporters Wednesday morning after meeting his transition team at North York City Centre.
He meant it can’t be business as usual on traffic, on gridlock — the theme of the meeting, and of his campaign — and he’s right. Mr. Tory’s signature people-moving project, the SmartTrack transit plan, is seven long years away even in theory, and in practice, well … let him be sworn in at least. Suffice it to say there are unanswered questions.
In the meantime, and for a long time, we have been neglecting tools that could make life on the roads better immediately. This week, police announced a crackdown on one of Mr. Tory’s pet peeves: Illegal parking during rush hour. As a contributor to overall gridlock it’s probably less serious a factor than he makes out — but it’s significant, it’s infuriating and it’s highly symbolic.
Sometimes, islands can be interesting workshops. The Spanish island of Formentera, one of the Balearics, is as The Guardian's Stephen Bergen notes, pioneering a push towards an electrification of all its cars.
The tiny Mediterranean island of Formentera has taken delivery of six electric cars as part of an ambitious plan to be the first island in Europe to banish traditional cars from its shores.
At 12 miles (19km) from end-to-end and with a population of about 12,000, Formentera is the smallest of Spain’s Balearic Islands. In summer, however, 15,000 cars are in circulation, arriving by ferry or rented on the island.
The six e-Mehari cars were donated by Citroën as part of a pilot scheme for transport on the island to be all electric, although no target date has been set. As the distances are short, the e-Mehari’s range of 124 miles is not an issue.
The first stage consists of offering hotels and tourist apartments tax incentives to install charging points, as there are only 14 on the island. However, with 16 charging points per million people in the rest of Spain this is much higher than average.
National Geographic's Adam Hoffman reported on the latest about Homo floresiensis. New archeological finds have confirmed that the specimens found so far represent a species, not isolated dwarfs, one with a long evolutionary history on its Indonesian island.
For the past decade, a fossil human relative about the size of a toddler has loomed large in the story of our evolutionary history. This mysterious creature—found on the Indonesian island of Flores—has sparked a heated debate about its origins, including questions over its classification as a unique species.
But now, a scattering of teeth and bone may at last unlock the mystery of the “hobbits,” also known as Homo floresiensis.
The 700,000-year-old human remains are the first found outside Liang Bua cave, the site on Flores that yielded the original hobbit fossils. The much older samples show intriguing similarities to H. floresiensis, including their small size, and so provide the best evidence yet of a potential hobbit ancestor.
“Since the hobbit was found, there have been two major hypotheses concerning its ancestry,” says Gerritt van den Bergh, an archaeologist at the University of Wollongong in Australia and a contributor to the work.
According to one theory, H. floresiensis is a dwarfed form of Homo erectus, an ancient human relative that lived in East Asia and parts of Africa until about 143,000 years ago. But other researchers think the hobbits evolved from even earlier, smaller-bodied hominins such as Homo habilis or Australopithecus.
“These new findings suggest that Homo floresiensis is indeed a dwarfed form of Homo erectus from Java, a small group of which must have gotten marooned on Flores and evolved in isolation,” van den Bergh says.
Today has been a raw day for so many people, many for the obvious reasons of today's tragedy, others perhaps for less prominent reason. Finding security, somewhere, is a good idea. Van Waffle did it with a beautiful nature walk; I'll do it with a bit of music.
"L'amour existe encore", like the "Ziggy (Un garçon pas comme les autres)" that I blogged about last November, comes from Céline Dion's Dion chante Plamondon album of 1992. By Dion's standards it's a quiet song, careful, with wonderful gentle lyrics.
"L'amour existe encore", like the "Ziggy (Un garçon pas comme les autres)" that I blogged about last November, comes from Céline Dion's Dion chante Plamondon album of 1992. By Dion's standards it's a quiet song, careful, with wonderful gentle lyrics.
Quand je m'endors contre ton corps
Alors je n'ai plus de doute
L'amour existe encore
Toutes mes années de déroute
Toutes, je les donnerai toutes
Pour m'ancrer à ton port.
La solitude que je redoute
Qui me guette au bout de ma route
Je la mettrai dehors...
Pour t'aimer une fois pour toutes
pour t'aimer coûte que coûte
Malgré ce mal qui court
Et met l'amour à mort
Quand je m'endors contre ton corps
Alors je n'ai plus de doute
L'amour existe encore,
L'amour existe encore...
On n'était pas du même bord
Mais au bout du compte on s'en fout
D'avoir raison ou tort
Le monde est mené par des fous,
Mon amour il n'en tient qu'à nous
De nous aimer plus fort...
Au-delà de la violence!
Au-delà de la démence
Malgré les bombes qui tombent
aux quatre coins du monde.
Quand je m'endors contre ton corps
Alors je n'ai plus de doute
L'amour existe encore...