A Bit More Detail

• blogTO reports that Honest Ed's will have its final sign sale this weekend.


• D-Brief looks at the New Horizons probe's next target after Pluto, and reports that Venus is tectonically active.


• Centauri Dreams reports on the mechanics of the antimatter sail.


• Dangerous Minds features a video of France Gall singing about computer dating in 1968.
  
• The Dragon's Gaze considers biological fluorescence as a marker for life on red dwarf exoplanets.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on a wall of taco trucks set to face Donald Trump in Las Vegas.


• The LRB Blog notes the flailings of the Nigerian president.


• The NYRB Blog reports on how Brexit will wreck a British economy dependent on single market access.


• Transit Toronto notes that preliminary work has begun on the Scarborough subway.


• The Volokh Conspiracy's Orin Kerr links to an editorial of his arguing that it should be made easier for Americans to migrate.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia is losing a third world war over brainpower and looks at the problems of sleeping districts in Moscow, a legacy of Soviet misplanning.

• Bloomberg notes the recent challenge to one-family rule in Gabon, looks at Russia's new Internet firewall, examines the Syrian Kurds' withdrawal beyond the Euphrates, and reports on near-record migration into the United Kingdom.


• Bloomberg View talks about inequality in China, looks at continuing disputes over Second World War history in Poland and Ukraine, and examines the things Texas and California have in common.


• CBC reports on the impending release of a report on foreign workers, looks at the integration problems of Syrian refugees re: housing, and reports on Canada's interest in more immigration from China.


• The Inter Press Service notes how drought is hurting cocoa farmers in Cameroon.


• MacLean's looks at how some in the Conservative Party have not moved past same-sex marriage, describes how the new British Columbia tax on foreign buyers of real estate is deterring Chinese, and reports on the catastrophic potential of carbon release from melting permafrost.


• National Geographic notes how the young generation sees Pluto and its classification history.


• The National Post describes how design fans want the CBC to release its 1974 standards manual, and looks at controversy over a study claiming extensive support in mosques for extremist literature.


• Wired has photos from the uninhabited cities of China, and describes the new prominence of the alt right.

• Centauri Dreams considers the oceans of Pluto and Enceladus.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes a disintegrating exoplanet.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that the American military can't afford Iron Man suits.


• Language Hat notes a study of fragmented language.


• Language Log looks at multilingual signage in Manhattan.


• The Map Room Blog shares a typographic map of San Francisco.


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen reports from the Belgian neighbourhood of Molenbeek.


• Steve Munro looks at SmartTrack.


• The New APPS Blog considers Brexit in the context of regulations and austerity.


• Torontoist notes the importance of Pride for people just coming out.


• Understanding Society looks at how organizations deal with their errors.


• Window on Eurasia argues Georgia is sacrificing its relations with the North Caucasus.

• The BBC notes a study suggesting that the bombardment of the early Moon by comets gave it water.


• Bloomberg View criticizes red tape in Greece, and notes that the salts of Australia will be drawing solar cell manufacturers to that country.


• The Guardian notes Jeremy Corbyn's claims of BBC bias against him.


• The Inter Press Service examines the vulnerability of young women in Africa to HIV.


• MacLean's notes the struggles of a prominent Inuit family, the Tootoos, with alcohol.


• National Geographic notes an exciting archeological dig into the heart of Roman London and reports on signs of activity on Pluto.


• New Scientist notes that, among the orcas, evolution is driven by culture, with culturally distinctive groups also being genetically distinctive.


• The Toronto Star reports that Mossack-Fonseca, the law firm at the heart of the Panama Papers, is shuttering offices.


• Wired notes Switzerland's Gotthard tunnel and warns that Flint is not the worst bit of American infrastructure in decay.

• blogTO notes the continued delays with Bombardier's streetcar deliveries to the TTC, looks at the expansion of WiFi to Toronto stations, and has hope for independent bookstores.


• The Crux notes a proposal to make the Moon a solar energy power centre for the Earth.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes Venus analog Gliese 832d and observes the mass of material in orbit of WD 1145+017.


• The Dragon's Tales studies the atmosphere of Pluto.


• At The Fifteenth, Steve Roby reviews one book on Blondie's Parallel Lines and another on an in-universe Alien book.


• The LRB Blog mourns Prince and reflects on the Swedish take on Brexit.


• The Map Room Blog maps immigrants in France.


• Towleroad shares the new Roísin Murphy single "Mastermind."


• Window on Eurasia notes the transition of Russian to a polycentric language.

The New Horizons probe revealed the surface features of Pluto in rich detail when it reached the dwarf planet in July 2015. Some of the features look like snapshots of rivers and lakes that are locked firmly in place by Pluto’s frigid temperatures. But now scientists studying the data coming back from New Horizons think that those frozen lakes and rivers could once have been liquid nitrogen.

Pluto has turned out be a surprisingly active place. New Horizons has shown us what might be clouds in Pluto’s atmosphere, mountains that might be ice volcanoes, and cliffs made of methane ice that melt away into the plains. If there were oceans and rivers of liquid nitrogen on the surface of Pluto, that would fit in with our evolving understanding of Pluto as a much more active planet than we thought.

Richard Binzel, a New Horizons team member from MIT, thinks that lakes of liquid nitrogen could have existed some 800 or 900 million years ago. It all stems from Pluto’s axial tilt, which at 120 degrees is much more pronounced than Earth’s relatively mild 23 degree tilt. And computer modelling suggests that this tilt could have even been more extreme many millions of years ago.

The result of this extreme tilt is that much more of Pluto’s surface would have been exposed to sunlight. That may have warmed Pluto enough to allow liquid nitrogen to flow over the planet’s surface. These kinds of changes to a planet’s axial tilt, (and precession and eccentricity) affect a planet’s climate in what are called Milankovitch cycles. The same cycles are thought to have a similar effect on Earth’s climate, though not as extreme as on Pluto.

According to Binzel, Pluto could be somewhere in between its temperature extremes, meaning that if Pluto will ever be warm enough for liquid nitrogen again, it could be hundreds of millions of years from now. “Right now, Pluto is between two extreme climate states,” Binzel says.

• Bad Astronomy shares a stunning photo of the Tarantula Nebula, in the Large Magellanic Cloud.


• The Boston Globe's Big Picture shares photos from the world of Chinese opera, in Thailand.


• blogTO has a humourous list of signs you've survived, and suffered, on the 29 Dufferin bus.


• Centauri Dreams reflects on the possible ancient ocean of Charon.


• Dangerous Minds shares beautiful hand-painted portraits of tattooed yakuza.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that data from Cassini sets strict limits on hypothetical Planet Nine.


• The Map Room links to a map of the Japanese Empire's rail network circa 1936.


• Steve Munro reports on demand projections for various subway relief lines.
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• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer has lost any appreciation for Marco Rubio.


• Strange Maps shares various sound maps of London.


• Window on Eurasia notes the dynamics behind the alliance of Putin and Russia with Europe's far right.

• On Livejournal, bitterlawngnome shares some remarkable vintage print ads from the early 20th century.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes that robots installed the mirrors for the James Webb Space Telescope.


• The Dragon's Tales notes the abundant water ice on the surface of Pluto.


• Joe. My. God. and Towleroad note the imprisonment of Philadelphia gaybasher Kathryn Knott.


• Language Hat explores college girl fiction.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes Marco Rubio's encounter with a gay man in New Hampshire.


• Marginal Revolution notes the global market for super-butlers.


• Steve Munro considers how Smarttrack and GO will co-exist.


• Otto Pohl compares nation-building in Central Asia with that in the Middle East.


• The Russian Demographics Blog notes a conference held in Moscow on Muslims and their space in that city.

• BCer in Toronto Jeff Jedras foodblogs from different Ottawa junkets.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly lists 20 ways to enjoy winter. (If it comes.)


• Centauri Dreams shares the latest Pluto imagery and examines the ancient impact that created the Moon.


• Crooked Timber notes that volunteers who help refugees arriving in Greece might be criminalized.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes that some Earth-like worlds at different points in their history might be difficult to identify, and notes a SETI search looking for flashes from KIC 8462852 has turned up nothing.


• Geocurrents maps development in the Philippines.


• Marginal Revolution shares Alex Tabarrok's opinion that home ownership is overrated.


• The Planetary Society Blog's Marc Rayman notes how important light is for Dawn"s imaging of Ceres.


• pollotenchegg notes the historical patterns of ethnic change in southeast Ukraine, the Donbas standing out as especially Russian in population in language.


• The Russian Demographics Blog notes demographic changes in Chechnya.


• Transit Toronto notes that Toronto has gotten its 14th and 15th streetcars from Bombardier.


• Window on Eurasia examines possible outcomes from Tatarstan's confrontation with the Russian federal government, notes the influence of Central Asian migrants on Russian Islam, suggests Russia is over-centralized, and notes one proposal to abolish Russia's ethnic units.

• blogTO considers the question of what Toronto's shortest street is.


• Centauri Dreams shares spectacular Pluto imagery.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on the latest from Syria.


• Language Log reports "You ain't no Muslim, bruv!", a phrase gone viral.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money connects the Second World War to colonialism in Hawai'i and the Philippines.


• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the first Voyager images of Jupiter's Great Red Spot and on the successful insertion into Venus orbit of Japan's Akatsuki probe.


• Towleroad reports on the death of trans Warhol icon Holly Woodlawn.


• Transit Toronto notes the further spread of the WiFi network in the Toronto subway.


• Window on Eurasia notes Russia's refusal to help Circassians in Syria, looks at ethnic Russian volunteers for ISIS, and examines the implications of Saakashvili's loss of Georgian citizenship.