[NEWS] Five notes on marijuana

• Has anyone heard anything new about the future of retail cannabis products in Ontario under Ford? CBC reports.


• The professionalization of cannabis agriculture, such as is being currently undertaken at the University of Guelph, is a great idea. The Toronto Star reports.


• Why not, as NOW Toronto describes, a virtual marijuana dispensary? More is here.


• The Manitoba town of Gimli hopes to maintain a local ban on the sale of marijuana within its borders. MacLean's reports.


• The Boston neighbourhood of Dorchester is apparently caught up in deep controversy over the mechanics and future of legalized marijuana sales. VICE reports.

[NEWS] Five cultural links: astronauts learning Chinese, hitchhiking, Catalonia, Croatia, Georgia

• The BBC reports on how astronauts from Europe are starting to learn Chinese, the better to interacting with future fellow travelers.


• MacLean's takes a look at the practical disappearance of hitchhiking as a mode of travel in Canada, from its heights in the 1970s. (No surprise, I think, on safety grounds alone.)


• PRI notes the practical disappearance of the quintessentially Spanish bullfight in Catalonia, driven by national identity and by animal-rights sentiment.


• Transitions Online notes how the strong performance of Croatia at the World Cup, making it to the finals, was welcomed by most people in the former Yugoslavia.


• Open Democracy notes how tensions between liberal and conservative views on popular culture and public life are becoming political in post-Soviet Georgia.

[NEWS] Five First Nations links: Assembly of First Nations, Hurons, British Columbia, Mayans, Navajo

• The Discourse makes the suggestion that opening up elections of the Assembly of First Nations to all people of official status would be a great advance for democracy.


• Le Devoir reports on archeological explorations of L'Ancienne-Lorette, an ancient Huron settlement now in the middle of Quebec City.


• An ancient First Nations settlement in British Columbia is set to become a classroom for future generations. The National Post reports.


• Open Democracy notes how Mayan women in Central America fight to get recognized as creators of indigenous goods, and compensated accordingly.


• The New Yorker explores the extreme cyclists of the Navajo Nation, for whom their sport is a way to engage with their ancient homeland.

[NEWS] Five science links: Antarctica blood falls, Great Green Wall, Mars, blueberry Earth, blue

• The mysterious cause of the "blood falls" of Antarctica has been uncovered. VICE's Motherboard reports.


• The Great Green Wall of Africa may not have prevented desertification in the Sahel, but it is a project that has left some positive legacies. Smithsonian Magazine reports.


• Universe Today considers if cyanobacteria could be used to help terraform Mars. (Maybe, though there would still be the planet's shortages of basic chemicals to deal with.)


• The Atlantic reports on the almost surprisingly revelatory nature of an Anders Sandberg paper imagining what would to the Earth if it became a mass of blueberries.


• WBUR reports on the discovery of a new pigment for my favourite colour blue, comprising (among other elements) the rare indium.