[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• 80 Beats announces that Japan's solar sail craft is working nicely.


• At Acts of Minor Treason, Andrew writes that the Toronto Transit Commission might be insensitively making use of eminent domain, but at least--unlike its counterpart in the Australian state of Victoria--it's actually telling the people whose property it's confiscating (or wants to confiscate).


• blogTO's Robyn Urback informs us that the Toronto Reference Library, my favourite library, is--like other downtown buildings--infested with bedbugs.


• At A Fistful of Euros, Edward Hugh writes about the Polish economy and the extreme care to avoid Baltic-style debt bubbles its leaders must demonstrate.


• Geocurrents observes that China and India are so solidly the world's most populous countries, not only are they far and away the two most populous countries in the world, 39 of the 61 most populous political subdivisions or either Chinese or Indian.


• At the Grumpy Sociologist, David Mayeda crunches data on problems experienced by students in the United States, suggests that students of indigenous background--American Indian, Alaskan Native, and Hawaiian--are significantly more likely to experience violence than students of other demographic groups. Is the violence of colonization continuing?, Mayeda suggests.


• Joe. My. God lets us know that the tourism agency of Mexico City--a polity which earlier recognized same-sex marriage--is offering a free honeymoon to the first Argentine couple married under the new marriage laws.


• Over at Towleroad, there's an scandal caused by a German football/soccer coach who claims that there were too many games on Germany's third-placing World Cup team.


• Wasatch Economics' Scott Peterson notes that, very rapidly over the past decade, China has replaced the United States as Japan's leading trade partner.


• Window on Eurasia suggests that the European Union--not the United States--is moving towards engaging with Abkhazia on the principle of "involvement without recognition," potentially giving Abkhazia more options other than the Russian.