A Bit More Detail

[PHOTO] Glitched out

Mon, 13 Apr 2020 19:15:44 GMT

Going through my photo archives on one of my devices, I found this image. I think photos produced by failure can be eye-catching. You?

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[PHOTO] Five photos of vintage calculators and Commodores, Z&Z Accounting (#thejunction)

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 15:00:48 GMT

I was passing by with Jim through the Junction on Dundas West one recent night when we came across the storefront location of Z & Z Accounting and Income Tax Services, at 3102 Dundas Street West. There, they had on display vintage machines of the sort that earlier generations of accountants would have used, including mechanical calculators and some vintage Commodore computers. (The C64 was not there, but the PET and VIC-20 were.)

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[PHOTO] Major malfunction, Presto card reader, 29 Dufferin bus

Sun, 10 Nov 2019 18:23:39 GMT

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[PHOTO] The C64 Mini, $C 59.99

Fri, 30 Aug 2019 17:32:20 GMT

The nostalgia I felt on seeing this device yesterday felt physical to me.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Thu, 13 Jun 2019 20:58:18 GMT

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Abell 30, a star that has been reborn in the long process of dying.

Centauri Dreams uses the impending launch of LightSail 2 to discuss solar sails in science fiction.

John Quiggin at Crooked Timber, as part of a series of the fragility of globalization, considers if migration flows can be reversed. (He concludes it unlikely.)

The Crux considers if the record rain in the Midwest (Ontario, too, I would add) is a consequence of climate change.

D-Brief notes that the failure of people around the world to eat enough fruits and vegetables may be responsible for millions of premature dead.

Dangerous Minds introduces readers to gender-bending Italian music superstar Renato Zero.

Dead Things notes how genetic examinations have revealed the antiquity of many grapevines still used for wine.

Gizmodo notes that the ocean beneath the icy crust of Europa may contain simple salt.

io9 tries to determine the nature of the many twisted timelines of the X-Men movie universe of Fox.

JSTOR Daily observes that the Stonewall Riots were hardly the beginning of the gay rights movement in the US.

Language Log looks at the mixed scripts on a bookstore sign in Beijing.

Dave Brockington at Lawyers, Guns, and Money argues that Jeremy Corbyn has a very strong hold on his loyal followers, perhaps even to the point of irrationality.

Marginal Revolution observes that people who create public genetic profiles for themselves also undo privacy for their entire biological family.

Sean Marshall at Marshall's Musings shares a photo of a very high-numbered street address, 986039 Oxford-Perth Road in Punkeydoodle's Corners.

The NYR Daily examines the origins of the wealth of Lehman Brothers in the exploitation of slavery.

The Planetary Society Blog shares a panorama-style photo of the Apollo 11 Little West Crater on the Moon.

Drew Rowsome notes that classic documentary Paris Is Burning has gotten a makeover and is now playing at TIFF.

Peter Rukavina, writing from a trip to Halifax, notes the convenience of the Eduroam procedures allowing users of one Maritime university computer network to log onto another member university's network.

Dylan Reid at Spacing considers how municipal self-government might be best embedded in the constitution of Canada.

The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle pays tribute to the wildflower Speedwell, a name he remembers from Watership Down.

Strange Maps shares a crowdsourced map depicting which areas of Europe are best (and worst) for hitchhikers.

Window on Eurasia notes the distribution of native speakers of Russian, with Israel emerging as more Russophone than some post-Soviet states.

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[BLOG] Some Friday links

Fri, 31 May 2019 23:56:40 GMT

Matt Thompson at anthro{dendum} writes about the complex, often anthropological, satire in the comics of Charles Addams.

Architectuul looks at the photography of Roberto Conte.

Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes a new computer model suggesting a supernova can be triggered by throwing a white dwarf into close orbit of a black hole.

D-Brief notes how ammonia on the surface of Pluto hints at the existence of a subsurface ocean.

Bruce Dorminey notes how the bombardment of Earth by debris from a nearby supernova might have prompted early hominids to become bipedal.

The Dragon's Tales notes that NASA has awarded its first contract for its plans in lunar space.

Far Outliers notes the reactions, within and without the Soviet Union, to the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.

Matt Novak at Gizmodo's Paleofuture notes how, in 1995, Terry Pratchett predicted the rise of online Nazis.

io9 notes the impending physical release this summer of DVDs of the Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind.

JSTOR Daily suggests some ways to start gardening in your apartment.

Victor Mair at Language Log claims that learning Literary Chinese is a uniquely difficult experience. Thoughts?

The NYR Daily features a wide-ranging interview with EU official Michel Barnier focused particularly, but not exclusively, on Brexit.

The Planetary Society Blog notes that an Internet vote has produced a majority in favour of naming outer system body 2007 OR10 Gonggang.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer considers the possibility that foreign investors in Mexico might be at risk, at least feel themselves at risk, from the government of AMLO.

The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress archives spreadsheets.

Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal looks at magenta spreen, a colourful green that he grows in his garden.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how we on Earth are carelessly wasting irreplaceable helium.

Window on Eurasia refers to reports claiming that a third of the population of Turkmenistan has fled that Central Asian state. Could this be accurate?

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[VIDEO] "Operation Jane Walk"

Wed, 29 May 2019 13:53:45 GMT

Operation Jane Walk from Leonhard Müllner on Vimeo.

Via The Atlantic, I came across "Operation Jane Walk", a 2018 video by Leonhard Müllner and Robin Klengel that uses the setting of an apocalyptic Manhattan in the 2016 video game Tom Clancy's The Division to engage in a sort of Jane's Walk in a virtual city. Their narration does a cool job of exploring the urban history of 20th century New York, its evolution and change in the globalized world.

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[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: grocery games, real estate, housing, Shermans, Goldy

Tue, 14 May 2019 18:09:21 GMT

blogTO notes that grocery chain No Frills has come out with a side-scrolling video game.

blogTO notes that Lakeshore Apparel is making shirts and other garments representing often-overlooked Toronto neighbourhoods.

Famed Little Italy nightclub The Matador has been sold to condo developers. The Toronto Star reports.

The East Side Motel, a Scarborough motel once used by the City of Toronto to house homeless people, has been demolished. The Toronto Star U>reports.

Front-line housing workers are finding themselves faced with problems impossible to solve thanks to the housing crisis. The Toronto Star reports.

Anne Kingston at MacLean's notes that estate documents belonging to Barry and Honey Sherman will be unsealed in a couple of months, attracting interest from people interested in the billionaire couple's murder.

This PressProgress report on the many well-off businesspeople in Toronto who supported the Faith Goldy run for mayor of Toronto is eye-opening.

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[NEWS] Five tech links: Apple, AI, Beresheet 2, agricultural robots, gene editing

Thu, 18 Apr 2019 02:13:39 GMT

Wired notes that Apple is transforming itself into a luxury brand. Is this an unsustainable niche?

Wired examines how Google's human AI experts are trying to train artificial intelligences to do their work.

Universe Today notes that SpaceIL is planning to return to the Moon with a Beresheet 2 probe.

The New Yorker looks at the progress made towards the roboticization of agriculture, looking at strawberry harvesting in particular. Can it be done?

Stephen Buranyi writes at the NYR Daily about the impact of gene editing technologies on humanity. How will we manage them? Can we?

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[BLOG] Some Saturday links

Sat, 13 Apr 2019 17:28:30 GMT

Bad Astronomy notes a push by astronomers to enlist help for giving trans-Neptunian object 2007-OR10 a name.

Centauri Dreams reflects on M87*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of M87 recently imaged, with its implications for galactic habitability.

Crooked Timber is right to note that Kirstjen Nielsen, architect of the cruel border policies of Trump, should not be allowed to resume a normal professional life.

The Crux looks at the Event Horizon Telescope Project that imaged M87*.

D-Brief notes that one-quarter of Japanese in their 20s and 30s have remained virgins, and explains why this might be the case.

Far Outliers notes the process of the writing of U.S. Grant's acclaimed memoirs.

Mark Graham highlights a BBC documentary, one he contributed to, asking if artificial intelligence will kill global development.

Gizmodo explains why the image of black hole M87* does not look exactly like the fictional one from the scientifically-grounded Interstellar.

Hornet Stories explains the joys of Hawai'i in fall.

io9 notes that the new Deep Space Nine anniversary documentary is scheduled for a one-day theatrical release. (Will it be in Toronto?)

JSTOR Daily makes the point that mass enfranchisement is the best way to ensure security for all.

Language Hat looks at the kitabs, the books written in Afrikaans using its original Arabic script kept by Cape Malays.

Language Log notes, with examples, some of the uses of the words "black" and "evil" in contemporary China.

Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the point that having a non-octogenarian president is a good idea.

Marginal Revolution shares the thoughts of Samir Varma on the new technologies--better computers, faster travel, artificial life--that may change the world in the near future.

The NYR Daily explores the subversive fairy tales of 19th century Frenchman Édouard Laboulaye.

The Planetary Society Blog notes the sad crash of the Beresheet probe on the surface of the Moon.

Drew Rowsome engages with the body of work of out horror writer John Saul.

Peter Rukavina maps out where Islanders will be voting, and the distances they will travel, in this month's election.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel engages with the possibility that we might be alone. What next? (Myself, I think the idea of humanity as an elder race is fascinating.)

Arnold Zwicky looks at the sort of humour that involves ambiguous adverbs.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC, Vienna, Zed 80, Toronto of the Future

Wed, 20 Feb 2019 17:52:12 GMT

Cameron MacLeod at Spacing considers the poor record of the province of Ontario with supporting the TTC.

Steve Munro, writing at NOW Toronto, looks at how the cost of the TTC to the provincial government is inevitably set to climb hugely.

blogTO shares a list of five things Toronto can learn from Vienna.

A second arcade bar is set to open in Toronto, Zed 80 on the Danforth. blogTO reports.

Urban Toronto notes that the latest iteration of the Toronto of the Future conference is set for the end of June.

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[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

Wed, 13 Feb 2019 18:38:40 GMT

The Crux notes the discovery of a second impact crater in Greenland, hidden under the ice.

D-Brief notes new evidence that ancient Celts did, in fact, decapitate their enemies and preserve their heads.

Far Outliers notes how Pakhtun soldier Ayub Khan, in 1914-1915, engaged in some cunning espionage for the British Empire on the Western Front.

Kashmir Hill at Gizmodo notes how cutting out the big five tech giants for one week--Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft--made it almost impossible for her to carry on her life.

Hornet Stories notes that, unsurprisingly, LGBTQ couples are much more likely to have met online that their heterosexual counterparts.

At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox imagines Elizabeth Warren giving a speech that touches sensitively and intelligently on her former beliefs in her Cherokee ancestry.

Mónica Belevan at the Island Review writes, directly and allegorically, about the Galapagos Islands and her family and Darwin.

JSTOR Daily looks at the economics of the romance novel.

Language Hat notes the Mandombe script creating by the Kimbanguist movement in Congo.

Harry Stopes at the LRB Blog notes the problem with Greater Manchester Police making homeless people a subject of concern.

Ferguson activists, the NYR Daily notes, are being worn down by their protests.

Roads and Kingdoms lists some things visitors to the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent should keep in mind.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes a case for supersymmetry being a failed prediction.

Towleroad notes the near-complete exclusion of LGBTQ subjects and themes from schools ordered by Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro.

Window on Eurasia notes a somewhat alarmist take on Central Asian immigrant neighbourhoods in Moscow.

Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the Kurds, their history, and his complicated sympathy for their concerns.

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[NEWS] Five sci-fi links: Star Trek, Neuromancer and cyberspace, solarpunk, cyberpunk

Sun, 10 Feb 2019 15:51:32 GMT

Not too long ago, the Toronto Star noted that back in 1966 it had reported on the filming of "The Man Trap" , the first Star Trek episode to air. Its report is here.

This io9 report on how Alex Kurtzman talks about the tension between staying loyal to canon in Star Trek and doing something new provides insight.

This Mark Hill essay at Heterotopia Magazine looks at how the Commodore 64 version of Neuromancer reflects the cyberspace imagined very early in the history of the online world, all graphics and BBSs.

This Adam Boffa essay at Longreads takes a look at solarpunk, a new SF genre characterized by a hopeful post-apocalyptic environment imagining ecologically sound technologies and societies.

Lee Constantinou, writing at Slate, suggests that the continued survival of cyberpunk and children genres like solarpunk speaks of an exhaustion of the imagination of SF writers, in a lack of belief in change.

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[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Toronto Coach Terminal, Metrolinx, TTC and subways, tech

Tue, 05 Feb 2019 18:07:29 GMT

Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star writes movingly about the neglect of the beautiful Toronto Coach Terminal. This building deserves better.

Ben Spurr at the Toronto Star notes the willingness of Metrolinx to turn customers' Presto data over to the police, even without warrants.

Transit Toronto notes that surveying for the extension of the Yonge subway line north from Finch has begun.

Metrolinx has gone on the record as saying that the Downtown Relief Line, relieving pressure on the Yonge line, must open before a northwards extension of Yonge into Richmond Hill. The Toronto Star has it.

The Globe and Mail reports that, after rising numbers of suicide attempts, the TTC is going to redouble anti-suicide measures.

Toronto is becoming a growing centre of the tech industry, the Toronto Star reports, tech sector growth driving the wider provincial economy.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Raccoon City, Hamilton, Chicago, Milwaukee, Paris

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 19:43:09 GMT

Mark Clapham at CityMetric takes an insightful look at the terrifying, dehumanizing, ways in which the fictional Raccoon City was designed.

Alex Bozikovic writes in The Globe and Mail about the goals of the new chief planner of Hamilton, Jason Thorne, to help grow a dynamic and livable city.

Guardian Cities looks at how many of the major streets of Chicago trace their ancestry to the trails of indigenous peoples.

WUWM notes how Milwaukee has the largest concentration of Rohingya refugees in the United States.

Mira Kamdar at the NYR Daily looks at the agricultural past--and potential future--of the Paris periphery, particularly but not only Seine-Saint-Denis.

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[BLOG] Some Friday links

Fri, 18 Jan 2019 18:20:41 GMT

Architectuul looks at the modernist works of Spanish Antonio Lamela, building after the Second World War under Franco.

Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of life-supporting environments on Barnard's Star b, a frozen super-Earth.

The Crux takes a look at how, and when, human beings and their ancestors stopped being as furry as other primates.

D-Brief notes the Russian startup that wants to put advertisements in Earth orbit.

Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the Soyuz 4 and 5 missions, the first missions to see two crewed craft link up in space.

Far Outliers notes
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes the ironies of housing a state-of-the-art supercomputers in the deconsecrated Torre Girona Chapel in Barcelona.

Gizmodo notes a new study claiming that the rings of Saturn may be less than a hundred million years old, product of some catastrophic obliteration of an ice moon perhaps.

Joe. My. God. notes the death of Pulitzer-winning lesbian poet Mary Oliver.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the rising prominence of hoarding as a psychological disorder.

Language Hat shares a manuscript more than a hundred pages long, reporting on terms relating to sea ice used in the Inupiaq language spoken by the Alaska community of Kifigin, or Wales.

Language Log examines the etymology of "slave" and "Slav". (Apparently "ciao" is also linked to these words.)

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that Buzzfeed was right to claim that Trump ordered his lawyer to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project.

Marginal Revolution notes a serious proposal in the Indian state of Sikkim to set up a guaranteed minimum income project.

Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps links to a map showing visitations of the Virgin Mary worldwide, both recognized and unrecognized by the Vatican.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the continuing controversy over the identity of AT2018cow.

Window on Eurasia suggests that Russians have more to fear from a Sino-Russian alliance than Americans, on account of the possibility of a Chinese takeover of Russia enabled by this alliance.

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[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

Wed, 07 Nov 2018 17:12:58 GMT

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait goes into more detail about the Milky Way Galaxy's ancient collision with and absorption of dwarf galaxy Gaia-Enceladus.

Centauri Dreams considers SETI in the infrared, looking at the proposal to use a laser to signal our existence to observers of our sun.

D-Brief notes a study of Neanderthal children's teeth that documents their hazardous environment, faced with cold winters and lead contamination.

The Island Review shares three lovely islands-related poems by writer Naila Moreira.

JSTOR Daily asks an important question: Can the United States and China avoid the Thucydides trap, a war of the rising power with the falling one? Things seems uncertain at this point.

Mark Liberman at Language Log looks at the continuing lack of progress of machine translation.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a recent discussion on the Roman Republic, noting how imperialism and inequality led to that polity's transformation into an empire. Lessons for us now?

The Map Room Blog shares a Canadian Geographic map describing the different, declining, populations of caribou in the north of Canada.

Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting that global pandemics will not necessarily kill us all off, that high-virulence infections might be outcompeted and, even, controllable.

The NYR Daily takes a look at historical reasons for the prominence of Rembrandt in the British artistic imagination.

Towleroad notes that Massachusetts voted to keep transgender rights protected.

Window on Eurasia suggests that the quality of Russian taught in schools in Uzbekistan is declining. I wonder: Is this a matter of a Central Asian variety emerging, perhaps?

Livio di Matteo at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative takes a look at the long-run economic growth of Australia, contrasting it with the past and with other countries. In some ways, Canada (among others) is a stronger performer.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five Montréal links: separatism, Westmount church condos, transport, Métro, Hovespian

Wed, 24 Oct 2018 21:42:32 GMT

This MTL Blog article calling for the separation of Montréal after the CAQ electoral victory in wider Québec sounds, to me, akin to calls to separate Toronto from Ontario after the PC victory outside this metropolis.

CTV News reports on the possibility of the conversion of an old United Church in Westmount to condos. There can be, I think, no surer sign of a city's strong real estate market than such conversions, I say as a Torontonian.

Olivier Robichaud writes at Huffington Post about the transport choices facing greater Montréal under the CAQ government.

CTV reports on how Montréal mayor Valérie Plante is continuing to work towards building a Pink Line for the Metro, extending to Montréal-Nord.

Craig Desson at CBC Montréal reports on 79 year old Joseph Hovsepian, one of the last classic electronics repairpersons in the city.

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[BLOG] Some Sunday links

Sun, 29 Jul 2018 16:37:04 GMT

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about her experience at the NY Daily News after that newspaper halved its staff.

Hornet Stories talks about US Navy drag queen Harper Daniels.

io9 notes that Chelsea Cain is returning to Marvel to write for a new mini-series featuring the Vision.

JSTOR Daily

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[NEWS] Three links about sci-fi and pop culture: Westworld and AI, machine learning, Janelle Monáe

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 23:59:07 GMT

This fascinating look at Westworld takes a look at how changing representations of artificial intelligence influence storylines in pop culture, as we shift from fear of AI to potential sympathy. The AV Club has it.

Machine learning these days is demonstrating an astounding ability to understand complex systems. Quanta Magazine has it.

io9 notes an upcoming queer Afrofuturist film from Janelle Monáe (also starring Tessa Thompson as a love interest) that sounds amazing.

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[BLOG] Some Saturday links

Sat, 21 Apr 2018 17:39:52 GMT

Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase's Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.

Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.

Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.

Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.

D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.

Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo's Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.

The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.

Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?

The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.

Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul's Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.

Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.

At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.

JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)

Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?

Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?

The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.

Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)

The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.

Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.

Progressive Download's John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.

Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can't wait to see it.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.

Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

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[NEWS] Five sci-fi links: HAL 9000, Space Seed on VHS, baseball on DS9, Civilization, AIs doing D&D

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 23:28:58 GMT

How did the movie version of HAL 9000, from 2001, come about? And why does HAL sound so Canadian? The National Post reports.

The official Star Trek website explains how the release of the episode "Space Seed" on VHS helped change the videocassette market of the 1980s, here.

Deadspin explains how the central role played by the sport of baseball in Deep Space 9 underlined the ways in which that show was atypical Trek.

Rock Paper Shotgun examines how many long-run civilization-building games, like Civilization, do a poor job of depicting stagnation and decline, and what this failure says about us now.

The idea that the game that artificial intelligences need to learn to play is not chess but D&D--that games involving roleplaying are good tests for general intelligence--seems obvious to me. Aeon has it.

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[BLOG] Some Sunday links

Sun, 08 Apr 2018 17:48:58 GMT

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait suggests that strange markings in the upper atmosphere of Venus might well be evidence of life in that relatively Earth-like environment.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly raves over Babylon Berlin.

Centauri Dreams considers, fifty years after its publication, Clarke's 2001.

Crooked Timber considers Kevin Williamson in the context of conservative intellectual representation more generally.

D-Brief considers "digisexuality", the fusion of the digital world with sexuality. (I think we're quite some way off, myself.)

The Dragon's Tales considers evidence suggesting that the agricultural revolution in ancient Anatolia was achieved without population replacement from the Fertile Crescent.

Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the flight of Apollo 6, a flight that helped iron out problem with the Saturn V.

The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas is not impressed by the idea of the trolley problem, as something that allows for the displacement of responsibility.

Gizmodo explains why the faces of Neanderthals were so different from the faces of modern humans.

JSTOR Daily considers if volcano-driven climate change helped the rise of Christianity.

Language Log considers, after Spinoza, the idea that vowels are the souls of consonants.

Lawyers, Guns and Money engages in a bit of speculation: What would have happened had Clinton won? (Ideological gridlock, perhaps.)

Lovesick Cyborg explores how the advent of the cheap USB memory stick allowed North Koreans to start to enjoy K-Pop.

Russell Darnley considers the transformation of the forests of Indonesia's Riau forest from closed canopy forest to plantations.

The Map Room Blog shares some praise of inset maps.

Neuroskeptic considers how ketamine may work as an anti-depressant.

The NYR Daily considers student of death, Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Justin Petrone of north! shares an anecdote from the Long Island coastal community of Greenport.

Personal Reflection's Jim Belshaw considers the iconic Benjamin Wolfe painting The Death of General Wolfe.

The Planetary Society Blog's Casey Dreier notes cost overruns for the James Webb Space Telescope.

pollotenchegg maps recent trends in natural increase and decrease in Ukraine.

Roads and Kingdoms talks about a special Hverabrauð in Iceland, baked in hot springs.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares his own proposal for a new Drake Equation, revised to take account of recent discoveries.

Vintage Space considers how the American government would have responded if John Glenn had died in the course of his 1962 voyage into space.

Window on Eurasia considers the belief among many Russians that had Beria, not Khrushchev, succeeded Stalin, the Soviet Union might have been more successful.

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[NEWS] Five technology links: geoengineering, Nile, Long March 9, space internet, hacking

Wed, 04 Apr 2018 22:31:17 GMT

Wired reports on how climate change skeptics are starting to get interested in geoengineering.

BBC reports on the growing stresses being placed on the Nile, but countries upstream and downstream.

The Long March 9 rocket proposed for a 2030 date by China would be a Saturn V equivalent, capable of propelling people directly to the Moon. Universe Today reports.

Is it necessarily worthwhile to develop an Internet suited for space? Wired reports. Wired considers.

Are nuclear plants in Ontario at risk of hacking? NOW Toronto makes a case.

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[BLOG] Some Sunday links

Sun, 25 Mar 2018 21:13:32 GMT

Anthropology.net shares in the debunking of the Toba catastrophe theory.

Architectuul features Mirena Dunu's exploration of the architecture of the Black Sea coastal resorts of Romania, built under Communism.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of sleep hygiene and of being well-rested.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the filaments of Orion, indicators of starbirth.

Centauri Dreams notes how solar sails and the Falcon Heavy can be used to expedite the exploration of the solar system.

D-Brief notes the discovery of debris marking the massive flood that most recently refilled the Mediterranean on the seafloor near Malta.

Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca uses a recent sickbed experience in Paris to explore the genesis of Bemelmans' Madeline.

Lawyers, Guns and Money noted recently the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, trigger of a world-historical catastrophe.

The LRB Blog hosts Sara Roy's defense of UNRWA and of the definition of the Palestinians under its case as refugees.

The NYR Daily notes how the regnant conservative government in Israel has been limiting funding to cultural creators who dissent from the nationalist line.

Roads and Kingdoms uses seven food dishes to explore the history of Malta.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why, even though dark matter is likely present in our solar system, we have not detected signs of it.

Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the field of machine learning, and notes the ways in which its basic epistemology might be flawed.

Window on Eurasia notes how the dropping of the ethnonym "Mongol" from the title of the former Buryat-Mongol autonomous republic sixty years ago still makes some Buryats unhappy.

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