[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

[rfmcdonald]

• blogTO notes that ferry tickets for the Toronto Islands can now be bought online.


• Discover's Crux considers SETI.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering habitable exoplanets around nearby red dwarf stars, defends the potential existence of exoplanets at Kapteyn's Star, and looks at the Epsilon Eridani system.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that a second Scottish referendum on independence is possible, according to Alex Salmond.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Mormons are unhappy with the Scouts' gay-friendly shift.


• Language Hat considers the history of family name usage in Russia.


• Languages of the World examines in two posts the argument that primitive peoples have simple languages.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the strategies of Spanish populist group Podemos.


• Peter Watts considers the peculiar thing of people lacking large chunks of the brain who nonetheless seem normal.


• Diane Duane, at Out of Ambit, is quite unhappy with an impending forced upgrade to Windows 10.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw notes how labour-saving technologies improved the lives of women.


• The Planetary Society Blog considers proposals to explore small solar system bodies.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer considers what would happen if Bernie Sanders won the nomination of the Democratic Party.


• The Russian Demographics Blog links to statistics on the population of Abu Dhabi.


• Window on Eurasia notes the depopulation of South Ossetia and looks at the Russian Orthodox Church's hostility to Ukraine's Uniate Catholics.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that although Labour apparently did a good job of convincing potential voters it was right, it did a worse job of getting them to vote.