[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[rfmcdonald]

• io9 notes evidence of massive collisions in the inner system of Beta Pictoris.


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes that the data from the WISE infrared telescope is in, and there is no evidence of a giant distant companion planet in our solar system.


• blogTO has a nice photoessay regarding the Annex in the 1950s and 1960s.


• Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly celebrates Canada's Public Lending Right Program, giving authors royalties based on library lending.


• Patrick Cain warns of "Torontohenge", the day in winter (23rd of February) when the "setting sun aligns with Toronto’s east-west street grid and forces drivers to squint through salt-crusted windshields."


• The Dragon's Tales links to an essay on the changing role of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, something noteworthy after the Crimea events.


• The Dragon's Tales also notes a study suggesting that conditions for habitability on Mars were only ephemeral and occasional.


• Marginal Revolution notes Daniel Drezner's opinion that sanctions against Russia aren't going to deter it from annexing Crimea.


• At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla notes that, with a flyby for Pluto and a probe arriving at Ceres, 2015 will be the year of the dwarf planet.


• Registan notes that Russia is trying to woo the Crimean Tatars, not least by getting help from Russia's component republic of Tatarstan.


• Savage Minds recommends as polymathic and interesting Greg Grandin's new book The Empire of Necessity: Slavery, Freedom, and Deception in the New World.


• Towleroad notes that Douglas Allan, a Canadian economist called to testify against same-sex marriage in Michigan, went on the record as saying that he thinks gay people are going to hell.