[BLOG] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• Andart's Anders Sandberg links to a paper of his examining the ethics of brain emulations. How ethical is it do make very life-like simulations of minds?


• blogTO notes a public art movement tracing the former path of the Don River.


• The Burgh Diaspora's Jim Russell notes that population change in the US is a consequence of migration and natural change.


• Centauri Dreams considers intergalactic travel. Given the huge travel times involved, travelling on a hypervelocity star ejected from a solar system may be more secure.


• The Cranky Sociologists' SocProf notes that not caring about a particular social issue until it affects you actually isn't good for society as a whole.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to one paper suggesting between 5.3 and 10% of Sun-like star ssupport Earth-sized planets in their circumstellar habitable zones, and another identifying HIP 114328 as a solar twin.


• Joe. My. God. notes the latest developments in marriage equality in Finland.


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes that Scottish devolution hasn't changed much policy, perhaps passing over the possibility that perhaps devolution has prevented change.


• Patrick Cain maps the 2014 Ontario election.


• Torontoist notes that the Toronto Star has given the Toronto Public Library more than a million of its vintage photographs.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that, according to a recent court ruling, smartphones in the US are safe from arbitrary search.


• Window on Eurasia notes that the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine is steadily losing its position there.