[BLOG] Some Thursday links

[rfmcdonald]

• blogTO shares pictures of the lineups for free food on Canada Day at Mandarin's buffet restaurants.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper identifying three thousand nearby red dwarf stars as potential sites of Earth-like exoplanets.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a sober assessment of the Chinese space program.


• The Frailest Thing considers the import of Facebook's experiment on its user base by noting the ability of complex systems to undergo unexpected catastrophes.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Google's social network Orkut, big in Brazil and India but absent elsewhere, will be shutting down at the end of this September.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that anti-gay activists are pleased with the Hobby Lobby ruling.


• The Planetary Society Blog's Adam Block shares pictures of colliding and interacting galaxies.


• Seriously Science notes that not only do spiders have different personality types, but that these types contribute to the maintenance of their physical cultures.


• The Signal notes ongoing research into data recovery methods and issues with compact discs.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes cases where putting the victim on trial does matter. (Records of past violence are noteworthy.)


• Towleroad notes an economist observing that homophobia has an economic impact and points to an upcoming Irish referendum on same-sex marriage in 2015 that's quite likely to pass.


• Window on Eurasia quotes a Ukrainian about Russia's issues with a separate Ukraine and notes a statement by Kaliningrad's government claiming some Ukrainian refugees in Russia might be anti-Russian activists in disguise.