[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• BlogTO notes plans by the City of Toronto to refurbish Front Street.


• Centauri Dreams' Paul Gilster points to astronomers who think current techniques might, just barely, be able to identify massive moons orbiting exoplanets--the more massive and hotter the moon the better, of course.


• Eastern Approaches observes the popularity, in Poland, of conspiracy theories surrounding the 2010 crash of the plane carrying Polish president Lech Kaczyński and 95 other VIPs in Smolensk.


• Geocurrents notes that Lithuania's electorate has voted massively against building a new nuclear power plant to replace the recently-closed Ignalina plant.


• GNXP's Razib Khan makes mention of the surprising fact that the near-totality of the wilderness present in North America four centuries ago at the beginning of European colonization is back.


• Language Hat comments on the etymology and usage of Rus, as ethnonym and political term.


• Language Log's Victor Mair examines the origins and usage of the terms "Sinophone" and "Sinosphere."
  
• At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Robert Farley points out that with the single exception of North Korea, East Asia is actually reasonably demilitarized by the standards of the Cold War powers.


• The Numerati's Stephen Baker praises Nate Silver and his methods of statistical analysis: they don't make use of unquantifiable and misleading sentiments, they just make use very accurate statistical methods and models.