[PHOTO] Icicles frozen against concrete, night

[PHOTO] Placenticeras intercalare, ammonite (@amnh)

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• The Buzz recommends twenty-four different novels for Valentine's Day, drawing on the recommendations of employees of the Toronto Public Library.


• Centauri Dreams links to a new paper suggesting there are thousands of objects of extrasolar origin, some tens of kilometres in size, in our planetary system right now.


• D-Brief notes that cryptocurrency is hindering the search for extraterrestrial life, as miners buy up the graphics cards SETI researchers need.


• Lyman Stone at In A State of Migration notes how unbalanced the marriage market can be for professional women in the United States interested in similar partners, especially for African-American women.


• JSTOR Daily notes how deeply the dreams of Martin Luther King Jr. for racial equality in the United States were driven by anti-colonial nationalism in Africa.


• The LRB Blog notes how the life and writing of Penelope Fitzgerald was influenced by two decades of living on the English coast, suspended between land and water.


• At the NYR Daily, Melissa Chadburn tells of what she learned from counting, and queueing, and perservering in routines.


• At The Numerati, Stephen Baker shares an excerpt from his new book, Dark Site, describing a teenager's attempts to control a cognitive implant.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer takes issue with elements of the timing of Lyman Stone's schedule for immigration controls imposed in the United Kingdom on Caribbean migrants.


• At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla explains how scientists are keeping the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in good stead despite its age.


• At Roads and Kingdoms, Timi Siytangco explains the history of the Philippines through nine Filipino foods.


• Drew Rowsome is impressed by the power of The Assassination of Gianni Versace.


• Ethan Siegel at Starts With A Bang explains why black holes have to contain singularities, not merely superdense normal matter.
  
• Window on Eurasia notes the rather misogynistic essay of ideologue Vladimir Surkin about women and power, timed for Valentine's Day.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: budget, 401 Richmond, Scarborough, Torstar, Six Points

• Edward Keenan is critical of a Toronto city budget that does not have a particular clear focus, over at the Toronto Star.


• The new tax subclass for culture centres like 401 Richmond, Edward Keenan writes, is but the first step toward Toronto becoming the sort of city we might want it to be. The Toronto Star has it.


• It should be obvious, right, that people deserve to know the cost of the Scarborough subway extension before the election, particularly voters? Edward Keenan, again writes at the Toronto Star.


• The idea that Torstar needs government funding to survive--that it should receive such funding, as a purveyor of news for the masses--is sad but makes sense. Why not government support for media, to help them stay alive? The Globe and Mail shares the idea.


• The Six Points intersection in Etobicoke is going to see a partial closure for the next couple of days, Transit Toronto notes. You know, I've always wanted to see this place ...

[ISL] Five islands links: Toronto Islands, Ireland, Sicily, Japan, Halligen Islands

• blogTO notes that the Electric Island festival is slated to return to the Toronto Islands, after their wet 2017.


• Politico.eu notes that the European Union is making the maintenance of integration on the island of Ireland a requirement for the UK if it wants a deal.


• Jacobin Magazine shares a perfectly sensible article noting that the mafia of Sicily is intensely conservative, even reactionary, hardly deserving the romance with which it is too often represented.


• The depopulation of Japan, often particularly intense in its smaller islands, is creating serious dilemmas. What is to be done with these remote, emptying-out, territories? The Japan Times reports.


• The Halligen Islands of Germany's Frisian coast, facing the North Sea and almost effaced every tide, sound like a charming place to visit. The Guardian reports.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: cometary disasters, ET malware, Kepler, bird language, Canadian rockets

• Universe Today notes that, 12.8 thousand years ago, a disintegrating comet set a tenth of the Earth's surface area on fire.


• Should messages from extraterrestrial civilizations be automatically deleted on reception, for fear of their malware? Universe Today reports.


• 14 different worlds detected by Kepler have been scanned for technological signatures of advanced civilizations. Universe Today reports.


• Brandom Keim at National Geographic describes a fascinating study suggesting some birds--here, Japanese tits--have human-like rules for language and can picture in their mind's eye the subjects of their communication.


• CBC asks the perfectly sensible question why Canada does not have any indigenous rocket program.