[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

Bed rest can suit me well. You too, apparently.

• Bad Astronomy reports that it is unlikely that the information suggesting Betelguese will go supernova is incorrect, and that even if it did there wouldn't be any risk to us (but we knew that). I'm disapponited. Is it so wrong for me to want stars to go supernova for my amusement?


• blogTO lets us know that bus shelters and garbage cans are going to be removed from the downtown during the G20 summit. So, no to shirtsleeves habitability, then?


• Centauri Dreams has a remarkable article examining how astronomical data went from being closely-guarded to being available to anyone who wants it.


• Extraordinary Observation's Rob Pitingolo is curious why the poor do not make use of bikes more often. I respond in the comments that it is because of rational concerns over time and effort, and the existential problems with cycling culture in North American cities.


• Landscape+Urbanism announces a new collection studying the Untied States' "Third Coast," the Great Lakes Basin that incidentally includes nearly all of inhabited Ontario. Yay! to new geographic paradigms.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money's argues that, based on military budgets alone, Iran is not a regional superpower in the Middle East, with defense budgeting half that of Israel's and a fifth of Saudi Arabia's.


• Murdering Mouth links to some interesting articles suggesting that Apples proprietary approach to software is going to battle it out with Google's more open model. I'm rooting for Google.


• Torontoist's Nancy Paiva is surprised that famously combative Torotno mayoral candidate George Smitherman did quite well during his appearance at comedy club Second City.


• Wasatch Economics' Scott Peterson makes the reasonable argument that Mexicans immigrate heavily to relatively poor regions along the border because of the human connections that they have to labour-hungry economic sectors.


• Yorkshire Ranter writes about the politics of aesthetics and their influence on--of all things--the efficiency of London buses.