[PHOTO] West towards the Galleria in fresh snow

All was white Sunday morning, from the sky down to the ground.

[PHOTO] Theodore Roosevelt on horseback

This statue of Theodore Roosevelt stands before the museum he helped make.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Kambiz at Anthropology.net notes evidence that Neanderthals in Italy used fire to shape digging sticks 170 thousand years ago.


• Missing persons blog Charley Ross reminds online commentators to be careful and reasonable in their speculations online, if only because these last forever.


• D-Brief notes a new study of the TRAPPIST-1 system suggesting that its outermost planets, in the circumstellar habitable zone, are so low density that they must have abundant volatiles. Water is the most likely candidate.


• Hornet Stories introduces readers to the impressive photography of New York City's Peter Hujar.


• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox meditates on the issues of friendship in the contemporary world.


• Joe. My. God. shares representative Tammy Duckworth's mockery of the authoritarian Donald Trump, aka "Cadet Bone Spurs".


• JSTOR Daily notes the continuing importance of the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder.


• The Map Room Blog notes that someone has made cute maps of seven solar system worlds for children.


• Marginal Revolution links to an article looking at how some of the schoolgirls abducted in Nigeria by Boko Haram are doing.


• The NYR Daily engages with "Soul of a Nation", a touring exhibit of African-American art in the era of Black Power.


• The Planetary Society Blog reports from the scene of the impending Falcon Heavy launch, sharing photos.


• Towleroad notes a South African church that not only beats its queer parishoners but fines them, too.


• Window on Eurasia suggests Western sanctions could hinder the Russian development of its Arctic presence.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: crowding on the TTC, Downtown Relief Line, Eglinton, Ontario Place

• At Spacing, John Lorinc wonders what will happen when someone gets killed in an accident related to crowding on the TTC.


• Edward Keenan considers crowding on the TTC to be a crisis, one justifying the Downtown Relief Line, over at the Toronto Star.


• blogTO notes how temporary closures of Eglinton station will make Yonge and Eglinton commuting even more nightmarish.


• Torontoist calls for the King Street transit experiment to be applied elsewhere, to midtown, even.


• blogTO shares some impressive photos of the abandoned Wilderness Adventure Ride at Ontario Place.

[NEWS] Five Canada politics links: Ruth-Ellen Brosseau, Caroline Mulroney, the right and the NDP

• This editorial from the Globe and Mail makes the perfectly valid point that once-novice MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau is an excellent MP, the sort Canada needs more of.


• As leader, Caroline Mulroney would be prepared to change the platform of the Ontario PCs if need be. The Toronto Star reports.


• It turns out that outgoing Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown's claim to have boosted paid membership of the party to 200 thousand was off by 70k. The National Post goes into more detail.


• At the level of the national Conservatives, Stephen Harper's admission that he knew of the claims of sexual harassment against MP Rick Dykstra could potentially be very damaging for the party. The Toronto Star reports.Is now really the right time, Susan Delacourt wonders at the Toronto Star, for left-wing populists inspired by Bernie Sanders to make a bid for control of the NDP?

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: ancient stars, Great Filter, Luxembourg, uploading, beacons for ET

• 
  Matt Williams at Universe Today notes that the discovery, by a team of astronomers based in the Canaries, of J0815+4729, an ancient metal-poor star in the Galactic Halo some 13.5 billion years old.


• Fraser Cain at Universe Today shares a video making the argument that finding extraterrestrial life would be bad for us, since it would suggest the Great Filter lies in our future.


• David Schrieberg at Forbes notes early signs that the decision of Luxembourg to market itself as a headquarters for the commercial space industry is paying off.


• Beth Elderkin at Gizmodo interviews a collection of experts to see if the possibility of uploading a human mind, as depicted in (among others) Altered Carbon, is possible. Most seem to think something is imaginable, actually.


• At Wired, Stephen Wolfram expands upon a blog post of his to consider what sort of archive, containing what sort of information, might be suitable as a beacon for future extraterrestrial civilizations after we are gone.