[BLOG] Some Saturday links

[rfmcdonald]

• blogTO notes the Distillery District's Toronto Light Festival.


• Border Thinking Laura Agustín looks at migrants and refugees in James Ellroy's The Black Dahlia.


• Centauri Dreams suggests that Perry's expedition to Japan could be taken as a metaphor for first contact.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a report about how brown dwarf EPIC 219388192 b.


• The LRB Blog notes the use of torture as a technique of intimidation.


• Marginal Revolution looks at China's very heavy investment in Laos.


• The NYRB Daily examines violence and the surprising lack thereof in El Salvador.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw touches on the controversies surrounding Australia Day.


• Transit Toronto reports the sentencing of some people who attacked TTC officers.


• Window on Eurasia argues that a Putin running out of resources needs to make a deal.

Comments

[dewline]

5. The push to make torture "normal" again is largely because the people who want to use it like it as a "force the confession" and "humiliate the victim" technique, never mind any other rationalisation.

10. Putin is vulnerable. Which underlines one of the key parts of the problem for the sane Americans (and the rest of the human race, including us): how to outlast both Putin and Trump. And keep liberal/social democracy across the world viable in the process.