A Bit More Detail

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes that the most plausible explanation for Tabitha's Star, KIC 8462852, exists in partial eclipses of the star by dust clouds.


• D-Brief notes that the giant stick insects of Lord Howe Island did survive in their forced diaspora.


• The Dragon's Gaze takes a look at Kelt-9b, a planet so close to its star that it is literally melting away.


• Language Hat looks at a website set up by inhabitants of the Faroe Islands to translate Faroese.


• The LRB Blog shares some of the past appearances of Nobel-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro in the pages of the LRB.


• Neal Ascherson at the NYR Daily looks at the mechanism of the referendum, in Scotland and Catalonia and elsewhere.


• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the import of Mike Pence's promise to send Americans to the Moon again.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how the cosmic phenomenon of inflation explains the entire modern universe.


• Window on Eurasia suggests Chechnya's Ramzan Kadyrov is trying to establish himself as a Russian political figure.

• Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.


• D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans' habitability.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.


• Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.


• Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, "My Immortal", has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.


• Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)


• Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.


• At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.


• Livejournal's pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry's Auroville Café.


• Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.


• Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.

• Centauri Dreams notes the exobiological potential of Titamn after the detection of acrylonitrile. Cryogenic life?


• This guest essay at Lawyers, Guns and Money on the existential problems of Brazil, with politics depending on people not institutions, is a must-read.


• The LRB Blog considers, in the context of Brexit, what exactly might count for some as a marker of dictatorship.


• Did the 15th century construction of the Grand Canal in China lead the Ming away from oceanic travel? Marginal Revolution speculates.


• The NYR Daily considers
  
• Out There explores the reasons why the most massive planets all have the same size.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes the 5th anniversary of the arrival of Curiosity on Mars.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that, with regards to Venezuela, the United States has no good options.


• Roads and Kingdoms considers the febrile political mood of Kenya.


• Window on Eurasia argues that Putin is making the mistake of seeing the United States through the prism of Russia.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes a proposal for British mayors to have representation at Brexit talks makes no sense.

• Alejandro Puyana at NPR describes how the arepa of Venezuela thrives internationally but dies at home.


• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the point that people on the left clinging to Venezuela as it descends into dictatorship are not helping anyone.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that the 1999 constitution of Venezuela seems designed to have allowed for a shift towards dictatorship.

• Charley Ross reports on an unexpected personal involvement in the disappearance of Kori Gossett. Did an informant know?


• Citizen Science Salon reports, in the time of #sharkweek, on the sevengill sharks.


• The Dragon's Tales links to an article on the Chinese base in Sudan.


• Inkfish has a fascinating article describing how New Zealand's giant black swans went extinct, and were replaced.


• Language Hat notes two obscure words of Senegalese French, "laptot" and "signare". What do they mean? Go see.


• Language Log argues that the influx of English loanwords in Chinese is remarkable. Does it signal future changes in language?


• Lawyers, Guns Money notes how Los Angeles and southern California were, during the American Civil War, a stronghold of secessionist sentiment, and runs down some of the problems of Mexico, including the militarization of crime.
  
• Marginal Revolution reports on what books by which authors tend to get stolen from British bookstores.
  
• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer suggests that Donald Trump is not likely to be able to substantially reshape NAFTA.


• Roads and Kingdoms reports from the recent protests in Poland against changes to the Supreme Court.


• Understanding Society takes a look at the structure of the cities of medieval Europe, which apparently were dynamic and flexible.


• Unicorn Booty shares some classic gay board games.


• Window on Eurasia argues that Russia is going to try to wage a repeat of the Winter War on Ukraine.

• blogTO looks at eleven recent Toronto-themed books, from fiction to children's literature.


• Centauri Dreams considers the idea of using waste heat to detect extraterrestrial civilizations.


• Far Outliers reports on how German East Africa substituted for foreign imports during the blockade of the First World War.


• Marginal Revolution suggests that the fall of Rome may have been due to the failure to reconquer North Africa.


• The NYRB Daily looks at the exuberant art of Jazz Age Florence Stettheimer.


• The Planetary Society Blog shares a stunning portrait of Jupiter from the New Horizons probe.


• Window on Eurasia considers the idea of containment in the post-Cold War world.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the British election.

• blogTO

A new mandate letter issued to Minister of Democratic Institutions Karina Gould, released publicly on Wednesday, says "changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate."

[. . .]

​"There has been tremendous work by the House of Commons Special Committee on Electoral Reform, outreach by Members of Parliament by all parties, and engagement of 360,000 individuals in Canada through mydemocracy.ca," Trudeau writes in his letter to Gould.

"A clear preference for a new electoral system, let alone a consensus, has not emerged. Furthermore, without a clear preference or a clear question, a referendum would not be in Canada's interest. Changing the electoral system will not be in your mandate."

Gould was appointed minister last month, replacing Maryam Monsef.

"Our view has always been clear. Major reforms to the electoral system, changes of this magnitude should not be made if they lack the broad support of Canadians," Gould told reporters at a news conference convened to comment on her new mandate letter.

"It has become evident that the broad support needed among Canadians for a change of this magnitude does not exist."

For three months now I’ve been hearing people talk about resistance against Donald Trump. Time and again I’ve seen and heard people say that we should not normalize Trump or the putrid cabinet he’s assembling. I keep hearing that resistance would take bold and assertive action and I’ve heard people demand that the Democrats in Congress be at the forefront of the resistance.

Yet when Booker does just that in order to stop Sessions from having the power to set legal policy that will severely harm everyone who isn’t a white, heterosexual, Christian man he gets shat on for voting against a separate amendment that a) wasn’t going to pass b) was non-binding and c) would have undermined some of the drug provisions of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) that the Republicans are hell bent on destroying anyway. I’ve seen several people say that his vote on this one amendment completely invalidated his effort to stop Sessions and by extension resist Trump.

A lot of people have framed it as Booker rejecting Bernie Sanders (I-VT) amendment. Only the amendment was actually the work of Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) — Sanders was only a co-sponsor. Surprise, an old white man is taking all the credit for the work done by a woman. Not to mention that Booker and the other 12 Democratic Senators that voted against Klobuchar’s amendment voted in favor of a very similar amendment proposed by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR). Wyden’s amendment covered the same ground as Klobuchar’s, only there were greater safety provisions and fewer strings attached in his amendment than hers, and his amendment was also co-sponsored by Sanders (Wyden’s amendment was not passed either and the 51–47 vote was a direct partisan split). Speaking of Sanders, the man exposes himself as fraud and an absolute hypocrite every time he opens his mouth these days, and his large cult of rabid worshippers are the slimiest and most deceitful pieces of shit on this earth (and the ones most deserving of getting their heads bashed in). Notice that I wrote “cult of rabid worshippers” and NOT “supporters” because his supporters were at least willing to accept that Hillary Clinton won the Dem nomination, support her in the general election, and in many cases did the work necessary to make sure she would be elected.

But the large Bernie Bro/Zealot/Never Hillary cult made it clear that anyone who didn’t worship at the altar of Saint Bernie Sanders wasn’t a “real progressive” and therefore wasn’t worthy of their support unless they cleared an impossibly high bar. And they joined forces with an already established wing of far left purists for whom any Dem politician who rates less than 100% in their purity scale of select issues is a “neoliberal” and therefore justifies them to throw away their votes on crackpot third-party candidates so they can preen to everyone how “radical” or “revolutionary” they supposedly are and to try and shame people who consistently vote Democrat as ignorant and brainwashed sheeple. Yeah, I’m brainwashed for realizing that a system that often requires some level of compromise to move things forward renders 100% ideological purity useless and subsequently voting for whichever candidate in best positioned to effectively advance the issues I care about in a given election is the most prudent option. Yeah, I’m ignorant for realizing that this is a two-party system, no third party is going to magically rise overnight to save us, and the Democratic party is presently the only viable electoral vehicle for effective progressive action in America. Both parties ARE NOT THE SAME. Every politician takes corporate money because that’s the cost of doing business in American politics — even Bernie does — but only ONE Senator stood up to confront his colleague for the rights and safety of all Americans this week, and it WASN’T BERNIE SANDERS, IT WAS CORY BOOKER.