[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams takes a look at how stellar winds from red dwarfs complicate the habitability of planets in their circumstellar habitable zones.


• The Crux, noting the 75th anniversary of the atomic age, notes some non-nuclear weapons achievements of this era.


• D-Brief notes the exceptional strength of prehistoric women farmers.


• Daily JSTOR takes a look at the instantaneity and power--frightening power, even--of celebrity culture in an era where technology gives us access to the intimate details of their lives.


• Far Outliers notes that Pearl Buck, American author and missionary in China, actually was egalitarian and feminist.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas considers all those texts created in the past, of importance then and relevant even now, which have been forgotten. How can the canon be restored?


• Imageo shares photos of the eruption of Mount Agung, in Bali.


• Language Hat notes the intense interest of Roman Italy in all things Egyptian, including hieroglyphics. Where, exactly, was the like European interest in the cultures it colonized more recently?


• Language Log tries to find people who can identify the source language of a particular text. It seems Turkic ...


• Lingua France talks about Robert Luis Stevenson and his opinions (and the blogger's) about the weather of Edinburgh.


• Lovesick Cyborg notes the seriously destabilizing potential of roboticization on human employment. To what extent can improving education systems help?


• Tariq Ali at the LRB Blog talks about the latest religious-political crisis in Pakistan.


• The Map Room Blog links to an article describing a Vietnamese historian's search for cartographic proof of his country's claims in the South China Sea.


• The NYR Daily considers an interesting question: how, exactly, do you get an actor to act naturally for film? What strategies do filmmakers use?


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes a new genetic study hinting at a much greater survival of indigenous populations--women, at least--in Argentina than was previously suspected.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes an interesting effort to try to preserve and restore the older districts of Kabul.


• Seriously Science notes the exploration of the microbial life populating the coffee machine sludge of some inquisitive scientists.


• Window on Eurasia notes that substantially Russian-populated northern Kazakhstan is at risk of becoming a new Russian target, especially after Nazarbayev goes.


• Arnold Zwicky shares some thoughts on people of colour and the LGBTQ rainbow flag.

[PHOTO] Eleven photos from the beach, Humber Bay Park East

It was a fine thing to walk along the shores of Humber Bay Park East, on this warm September afternoon as it turned into evening. This park, more than others, exists at something of a remove from the rest of Toronto, surrounded by ocean and with the downtown barely visible in the distance. It was a perfect place for people to visit and relax and take in the last of the warm sun in a summer short on both.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams takes a look at how stellar winds from red dwarfs complicate the habitability of planets in their circumstellar habitable zones.


• The Crux, noting the 75th anniversary of the atomic age, notes some non-nuclear weapons achievements of this era.


• D-Brief notes the exceptional strength of prehistoric women farmers.


• Daily JSTOR takes a look at the instantaneity and power--frightening power, even--of celebrity culture in an era where technology gives us access to the intimate details of their lives.


• Far Outliers notes that Pearl Buck, American author and missionary in China, actually was egalitarian and feminist.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas considers all those texts created in the past, of importance then and relevant even now, which have been forgotten. How can the canon be restored?


• Imageo shares photos of the eruption of Mount Agung, in Bali.


• Language Hat notes the intense interest of Roman Italy in all things Egyptian, including hieroglyphics. Where, exactly, was the like European interest in the cultures it colonized more recently?


• Language Log tries to find people who can identify the source language of a particular text. It seems Turkic ...


• Lingua France talks about Robert Luis Stevenson and his opinions (and the blogger's) about the weather of Edinburgh.


• Lovesick Cyborg notes the seriously destabilizing potential of roboticization on human employment. To what extent can improving education systems help?


• Tariq Ali at the LRB Blog talks about the latest religious-political crisis in Pakistan.


• The Map Room Blog links to an article describing a Vietnamese historian's search for cartographic proof of his country's claims in the South China Sea.


• The NYR Daily considers an interesting question: how, exactly, do you get an actor to act naturally for film? What strategies do filmmakers use?


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes a new genetic study hinting at a much greater survival of indigenous populations--women, at least--in Argentina than was previously suspected.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes an interesting effort to try to preserve and restore the older districts of Kabul.


• Seriously Science notes the exploration of the microbial life populating the coffee machine sludge of some inquisitive scientists.


• Window on Eurasia notes that substantially Russian-populated northern Kazakhstan is at risk of becoming a new Russian target, especially after Nazarbayev goes.


• Arnold Zwicky shares some thoughts on people of colour and the LGBTQ rainbow flag.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: porn, history, Canada, crime, Everett Klippert, New England, Yugoslavia

• VICE notes the endemic racism of the gay porn industry, exemplified by a remarkably thorough segmentation of markets by race, here.


• Gary Kinsman describes, at Daily Xtra, the ways in which the recent apology in Canada for the persecution of LGBTQ people falls short.


• At CBC, Hilary Bird profiles Everett Klippert, a Northwest Territories man whose imprisonment starting in 1966 for being gay led eventually to the decriminalization of homosexuality in Canada.


• VICE takes a look at the prevalence, even grudging acceptance, of homosexuality in the Pilgrims' 17th century New England, here.


• Balkanist takes a tantalizing look at the glimmers of LGBTQ acceptance and pop culture visibility in 1980s Yugoslavia, here.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: Mount Agung, rural Internet, Wacom, space mining school, seeding life

• Global News considers if the Mount Agung eruption in Bali could, through the injection of dust into the atmosphere, lead to global cooling.


• VICE examines how rural electric cooperatives in the United States are adding broadband Internet to the list of services they provide.


• VICE profiles Wacom, the Japanese company with decades of investment in touchscreen technology now finally paying off.


• Wired notes that the Colorado School of Mines is now offering a program for space miners.


• Universe Today shares a speculative plan for using self-replicating robots to seed life on potentially suitable exoplanets across the galaxy, focusing on ones with natural oxygen atmospheres.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: King Street, Regal Heights, Eglinton LRT, Toronto Coach Terminal

• Steve Munro takes a look at early statistics on the King Street transit experiments.


• CBC notes how some neighbourhood residents in Regal Heights used leaves and chalk to redesign the flow of traffic at an intersection.


• blogTO shares impressive photos of the deep mine-like excavations made for some of the Eglinton LRT stations.


• NOW Toronto talks about the efforts to revamp the Toronto Coach Terminal, a lovely old building downtown, in an era of changing transit flows.