rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • What will become of the Azerbaijani language in education in Iran? More here.

  • Is a Russia-Belarus state union feasible? More here.

  • Is Estonia, as some would have it, a viable model for the Finnic Mordvin peoples of the Russian interior? More here.

  • Will Russia be happy with its alliance with China if this makes it a secondary partner, a relatively weaker exporter of resources? More here.

  • How many Muslims are there in Moscow, and what import does the controversy over their numbers carry? More here.

  • Is the Russian fertility rate set to stagnate, leading to long-term sharp decline? More here.

  • If 10% of the Russian working-age population has emigrated, this has serious consequences for the future of Russia. More here.

  • Irredentism in Kazakhstan, inspired by the example of Crimea, is just starting to be a thing. More here.

  • The decline of Russian populations in the north of Kazakhstan, and the growth of Uzbeks, is noteworthy. More here.

  • The different Russian proposals for the future of the Donbas, an analyst notes, are built to keep Ukraine a neutral country. More here.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a study suggesting the Milky Way Galaxy took many of its current satellite galaxies from another, smaller one.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks of the importance of having dreams.

  • Centauri Dreams shares a study explaining how the debris polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs reveals much about exoplanet chemistry.

  • D-Brief notes that the intense radiation of Jupiter would not destroy potential traces of subsurface life on the surface of Europa.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at the strange musical career of Vader Abraham, fan of the Smurfs and of the Weepuls.

  • Aneesa Bodiat at JSTOR Daily writes about how the early Muslim woman of Haajar inspires her as a Muslim.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how an influx of American guns destabilizes Mexico.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the American abandonment of the Kurds of Syria.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how many mass protests are driven by consumer complaints.

  • The NYR Daily has an interview with EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, on the future of sovereignty.

  • Strange Company looks at the Dead Pig War between the US and the UK on San Juan Island in 1859.

  • Towleroad features the defense of Frank Ocean of his PrEP+ club night and the release of his new music.

  • Understanding Society looks at the sociology of norms.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests Russia and Ukraine each have an interest in the Donbass being a frozen conflict.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at the weird masculinity of the pink jock.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Citizen Science Salon highlights Australian Michelle Neil, here.

  • Ingrid Robeyns argues at Crooked Timber that the idea of punitive taxation of the superrich is hardly blasphemous.

  • The Crux looks at the ongoing debate over the age of the rings of Saturn.

  • io9 notes the sad death of Aron Eisenberg, the actor who brought the character of Nog to life on DS9.

  • JSTOR Daily shares a debate on the ego and the id, eighty years later.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Mitch McConnell may have started the movement of Elizabeth Warren towards the US presidency.

  • The Map Room Blog takes a look at the credible and consistent mapping of Star Wars' galaxy.

  • The NYR Daily looks at Springsteen at 70 as a performer.

  • Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a New England forest in fall.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy notes a sticker that straddles the line between anti-Muslim sentiment and misogyny, trying to force people to choose.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the strong anti-Russian sentiment prevailing in once-independent Tuva.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.

  • Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.

  • Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.

  • James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.

  • Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.

  • The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.

  • D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • The Dragon's Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.

  • Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.

  • io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.

  • Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.

  • Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.

  • The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.

  • Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.

  • The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.

  • Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.

  • Starts With a Bang's Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.

  • Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti's constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.

  • Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • That Archive Of Our Own has won a Hugo nomination is surprising, but deserved, news. Motherboard reports.

  • CityLab notes that people interested in opposite-sex dating, when they make use of apps, look for people near them geographically.

  • NOW Toronto looks at the extent to which anti-Muslim sentiment has made it into mainstream journalistic discourse in Canada.

  • Adam Rogers writes movingly at Wired about the extent to which Notre Dame, for all of its age, is also constantly changing.

  • Vox suggests that Pete Buttigieg, with his rhetoric full of hope, is trying to mobilize the same coalition of voters that saw Obama elected.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a Balkans where Muslims remain in larger numbers throughout the peninsula, leading to border changes in the south, particularly.

  • An Ethiopia that has conquered most of the Horn of Africa by the mid-19th century, even going into Yemen, is the subject of this r/imaginarymaps map. Could this ever have happened?

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines, here, a unified European Confederation descending from a conquest of Europe by Napoleon. Would this have been stable, I wonder?

  • Was the unification of Australia inevitable, or, as this r/imaginarymaps post suggests, was a failure to unify or even a later split imaginable?

  • Was a unified and independent Bengal possible, something like what this r/imaginarymaps post depicts?

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • La Presse notes that the Bixi bike-sharing service in Montréal is celebrating its 11th anniversary.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how better policing cut into crime in Camden, New Jersey.

  • The NYR Daily looks at how Brexit and a hardened border will hit the Northern Ireland city of Derry.

  • Guardian Cities reports on the gang that goes around Rome at night making illegal repairs to crumbling infrastructure.

  • CityLab reports on how Cape Town is coping, one year after it nearly ran out of water.

  • Roads and Kingdoms shares tips for travellers visiting Hong Kong.

  • Guardian Cities reports on the families made refugees by Partition who tried to swap homes in Dhaka and Calcutta.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • 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.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • At Antipope, Charlie Stross announces (among other things) that his series The Laundry Files has been options for television development.

  • D-Brief notes more evidence for the idea that regular exercise can help psychologically, this study suggesting help to long-term memory.

  • At the Everyday Sociology Blog, Karen Sternheimer writes about sociologists who study subjects that matter to them, subjects that might personally involve them, even.

  • Gizmodo notes that astronomers have detected the formation of dark spots on Neptune, akin to those seen by Voyager 2 in its flyby in 1989, for the first time.

  • JSTOR Daily considers how humans can live alongside crocodiles in peace.

  • Language Log considers gāngjīng 杠精, a new Chinese word that may well denote "troll".

  • Erik Loomis writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about beers that can serve industrial purposes like film development.

  • The Map Room Blog notes new maps of a modern Westeros created by designer Jamie Shadrach.

  • Marginal Revolution notes regulatory controversy in Alexandria, Virginia, regarding a potential halal butchery facility for chickens.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews writer L. Kasimu Harris about the inequalities of New Orleans.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shows readers what the galaxy would look like in electromagnetic frequencies other than those of visible light.

  • Arnold Zwicky writes about progress in education.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • This map at r/imaginarymaps imagines what might have been had the unlikely Scottish colonial project in Panama, the Darien Scheme, had succeeded.

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines an Islamic Greece.

  • This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a revisionist Afrikaner state in eastern South Africa.

  • What organized crime networks might have sprung up in an independent Confederacy? This r/imaginarymaps post considers.

  • The organization of a Europe unified under Napoleonic hegemony in 1820 is laid out in this r/imaginarymaps map.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the decline of the Free Tibet movement from a recent 1990s apogee.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which lynching in the United States is broadly dispersed throughout the country, is not only a method of African-American suppression.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at Beto O'Rourke as a Democratic nominee for the American presidency.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue, rightfully, with the Islamophobic criticism of Ilham Omar by even her supposed allies.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the people who recently died in Bangladesh at one end of a global supply chain, and asks about our responsibility at the other end.

rfmcdonald: (Default)
I've a new links post up at Demography Matters.


  • La Presse notes that suburbanization proceeds in Montréal, as migration from the island of Montréal to off-island suburbs grows. This is of perhaps particular note in a Québec where demographics, particularly related to language dynamics, have long been a preoccupation, the island of Montréal being more multilingual than its suburbs.

  • The blog Far Outliers has been posting excerpts from The Epic City: The World on the Streets of Calcutta, a 2018 book by Kushanava Choudhury. One brief excerpt touches upon the diversity of Calcutta's migrant population.

  • The South China Morning Post has posted some interesting articles about language dynamics. In one, the SCMP suggests that the Cantonese language is falling out of use among young people in Guangzhou, largest Cantonese-speaking city by population. Does this hint at decline in other Chinese languages? Another, noting how Muslim Huiare being pressured to shut down Arabic-medium schools, is more foreboding.

  • Ukrainian demographics blogger pollotenchegg is back with a new map of Soviet census data from 1990, one that shows the very different population dynamics of some parts of the Soviet Union. The contrast between provincial European Russia and southern Central Asia is outstanding.

  • In the area of the former Soviet Union, scholar Otto Pohl has recently examined how people from the different German communities of southeast Europe were, at the end of the Second World War, taken to the Soviet Union as forced labourers. The blog Window on Eurasia, meanwhile, has noted that the number of immigrants to Russia are falling, with Ukrainians diminishing particularly in number while Central Asian numbers remain more resistant to the trend.
  • Finally, JSTOR Daily has observed the extent to which border walls represent, ultimately, a failure of politics.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • The Cantonese language, the SCMP reports, is falling out of use among young people in Guangzhou.

  • The Muslim Hui, living outside of Xinjiang, are being pressured to shut down Arabic-medium schools. The SCMP reports.

  • The Scottish government has received only two complaints about Gaelic on bilingual road signs in the past seventeen years. The National reports.

  • HuffPost Québec notes that the French language has been displaced as the chief language of wine by English.

  • Advanced artificial intelligence has the potential to aid in the translation of ancient languages like Sumerian, with stockpiles of untranslated material just waiting for an eye's attention. The BBC explains.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • The Conversation notes how New Brunswick, with its economic challenges and its language divide, represents in microcosm the problems of wider Canada.

  • This Los Angeles Times article notes how Rohingya Hindus see themselves, rightly, as sharing a different fate from their Muslim coethnics.

  • This New York Times article looks at how the Internet censors of China are trained, by letting them know about the actual history of their country first.

  • Bloomberg reports how on the Iranian government tries to engage selectively with the social networking platforms, like Instagram and Telegram, used by the outside world.

  • Bloomberg notes that the concern of Japan that the United Kingdom, Japanese companies' chosen platform for export to the EU, might engage in a hard Brexit is pressing.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Curbed takes a look at the innovative ways in which the city government of Hamilton has helped boost the city's strengths.

  • Commonwealth Magazine shares a revived plan from the 1980s to protect Boston from sea level rise by building a great crescent-shaped dike in Boston Harbor.

  • CityLab takes a look at New York City's seemingly-inexplicable decision to back down on a years-long closure of the L Train subway line for repair work.

  • Guardian Cities notes the controversy in Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, about the construction of a Turkish-funded mosque there. Is this but an element of a new Turkish sphere of influence in the western Balkans?

  • This fascinating CNN report takes a look at the sheer scale of Chinese influence in Addis Ababa, the booming capital of Ethiopia, on its own terms and as an example of Chinese influence in Africa at large. (The locals, incidentally, find its models quite relevant and wanted.)

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the potential threat to the rings of Saturn by the dissipation of its ice over millions of years.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the potential radical improvements in the imaging of exoplanets provided by the new generations of telescopes.

  • D-Brief notes that the disk of massive star MM 1a is so dense with material that it is forming not companion planets--not visibly--but rather a companion star.

  • JSTOR Daily reports on the achievements of Voyager 2, forty-one years after its launch.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money shares the argument of New Mexican Congresswoman Deb Haaland that the United States is neglecting the problems of Native people.

  • Marginal Revolution notes the death of art critic Sister Wendy.

  • The NYR Daily notes the terrible record of the Weekly Standard.

  • Danielle Adams at the Planetary Society Blog writes about the stars and constellations identified by Arab astronomers.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that Colombia lacks birthright citizenship, posing a serious long-term threat of social exclusion given the influx of Venezuelans as likely as not to be permanent.

  • Roads and Kingdoms features an interview with photographer Laurence Geai on the protests of the Gilets Jaunes in Paris.

rfmcdonald: (Default)
Charlottetown Cenotaph, looking north



  • The Buzz shared a list of recommended books, from the Toronto Public Library, looking back at the First World War.

  • CBC Montreal describes how the Belgian city of Mons greeted the inheritors of their Canadian liberators.

  • CBC reports on how the grief of one Newfoundland family at the loss of a son in the First World War spelled the doom of the entire community of Three Arms.

  • CBC Montreal describes how the city of Montréal greeted news of the armistice back in 1918.

  • Crooked Timber notes the centenary of the armistice that ended the First World War. Have we forgotten the lessons, or did we ever learn them?

  • L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes how the mechanization of the First World War set it apart from other conflicts, inspiring (for instance) Tolkien.

  • Global News reports on the nearly one million Muslims who served as soldiers in the First World War.

  • The Guardian reports on how Islander Leo Cheverie went to France to pay respects to his two great-uncles, killed in the First World War.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on Henry Gunther, the American who was the very last casualty of the First World War.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map showing the casualty rates of different European combatants in the First World War.

  • Adrian Phillips at Spacing Toronto uses Remembrance Day as a frame to examine monuments both permanent and temporary in Toronto.

  • Katie Daubs at the Toronto Star reports on the fake news that caused Toronto to prematurely celebrate the end of the First World War.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how many key elements of the modern world, from borders to ideologies, were created by the First World War.

rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait confirms the discovery of water ice on the Moon.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the latest discoveries regarding Beta Pictoris b, notably new evidence that it is a superjovian massing between 9 and 13 Jupiters.

  • D-Brief notes how oil rigs can support coral reefs.

  • Far Outliers takes a grim look at the Chinese market in servants and serfs and slaves.

  • Hornet Stories looks at opinion polling on minorities in Germany. (Gay people do much better than Muslims.)

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how makeup, at the start of the 20th century highly stigmatized, ended up going mainstream.

  • Geoffrey Pullum at Lingua Franca considers if Crazy Rich Asians, and other like pop culture successes, might get more Westerners to learn Chinese.

  • The Map Room Blog shares pictures from space of the smoke produced by the British Columbia wildfires.

  • The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer takes a look at the way, in federal Mexico, state-level political machines continue to work.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how, in the very early universe, the first elements formed.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that in Bashkortostan, two-thirds of students opted for Russian-medium education, a proportion considerably above the proportion of ethnic Russians in that republic.

rfmcdonald: (photo)
The Met has plenty of gorgeous artifacts from throughout the Middle East: painted glass bottles, file tile mosaics, and more.

Mamluk bottle, 13th century #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #metmuseum #latergram #glass #bottle #mamluk


Box open #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #metmuseum #latergram


Mosaic #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #metmuseum #latergram #mosaic


Qajar tile #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #metmuseum #latergram #tile #iran #qajar


Fan #newyorkcity #newyork #manhattan #metmuseum #latergram #fan
rfmcdonald: (Default)

  • Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.net notes new findings suggesting that the creation of cave art by early humans is product of the same skills that let early humans use language.

  • Davide Marchetti at Architectuul looks at some overlooked and neglected buildings in and around Rome.

  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait explains how Sirius was able to hide the brilliant Gaia 1 star cluster behind it.

  • Centauri Dreams looks at new procedures for streamlining the verification of new exoplanet detections.

  • Crooked Timber notes the remarkably successful and once-controversial eroticization of plant reproduction in the poems of Erasmus Darwin.

  • Dangerous Minds notes how an errant Confederate flag on a single nearly derailed the career of Otis Redding.

  • Detecting biosignatures from exoplanets, Bruce Dorminey notes, may require "fleets" of sensitive space-based telescopes.

  • Far Outliers looks at persecution of non-Shi'ite Muslims in Safavid Iran.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the history of the enslavement of Native Americans in early colonial America, something often overlooked by later generations.

  • This video shared by Language Log, featuring two Amazon Echos repeating texts to each other and showing how these iterations change over time, is oddly fascinating.

  • At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis is quite clear about the good sense of Will Wilkinson's point that controversy over "illegal" immigration is actually deeply connected to an exclusivist racism that imagines Hispanics to not be Americans.

  • Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle of Higher Education, looks at the uses of the word "redemption", particularly in the context of the Olympics.

  • The LRB Blog suggests Russiagate is becoming a matter of hysteria. I'm unconvinced, frankly.

  • The Map Room Blog shares a map showing global sea level rise over the past decades.

  • Marginal Revolution makes a case for Americans to learn foreign languages on principle. As a Canadian who recently visited a decidedly Hispanic New York, I would add that Spanish, at least, is one language quite potentially useful to Americans in their own country.

  • Drew Rowsome writes about the striking photographs of Olivier Valsecchi.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, in the 2030s, gravitational wave observatories will be so sensitive that they will be able to detect black holes about to collide years in advance.

  • Towleroad lists festival highlights for New Orleans all over the year.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how recent changes to the Russian education system harming minority languages have inspired some Muslim populations to link their language to their religion.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell makes the case that Jeremy Corbyn, through his strength in the British House of Commons, is really the only potential Remainder who is in a position of power.

Profile

rfmcdonald: (Default)rfmcdonald

February 2021

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
212223242526 27
28      

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 20th, 2025 02:22 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios