A Bit More Detail

• 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.

• blogTO notes a controversial condo project on Dupont just east of me, and Torontoist notes a controversial condo project in Yorkville.


• Centauri Dreams notes preliminary research suggesting rocky exoplanets will be structured like the Earth.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper suggesting that tightly-packed exoplanet systems are product of gas giants.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the Georgian Orthodox Church has requested police protection for a man who filed a marriage equality lawsuit in that country, since previous gay activists have been publically attacked.


• Marginal Revolution notes an apparent permanent downwards shift in employment in the United States.


• The Map Room Blog notes the return of stolen maps of Samuel de Champlain to the Boston Public Library.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer wonders if the Democratic Party can shift as far left as the Republicans have shifted right.


• Peter Rukavina recounts his recent visit to New Hampshire to see the primaries.

In most cases, the independence of the subjects of the current Russian Federation will allow for economic growth and an increase in the standard of living of the population because they will not have to send so much of their income to Moscow whose “’elites’” care only about how to remain in power and how much wealth they can take from the population.

There are three reasons, the Ukrainian analysts say, why the regions and republics may separate from the USSR: “a desire to independently control their own natural resources, nationality concerns, and close economic ties with other countries. In many cases, these are mixed, but the analysts consider each group in turn.

The regions and republics which might separate from Russia in order to control their natural resources include Bashkortostan, the Astrakhan Republic, Buryatia, Komi, a unified Don-Kuban, Sakha, the Siberian Republic, Tatarstan, the Urals Republic, Yugra, and the Orenburg Republic, all of which would see their incomes rise with independence.

The regions and republics which might separate from Russia in order to promote the needs of their titular nationality include a united Altay, Adygeya, Kalmykia, Mari-El, Mordvinia, Tyva, Chuvashia, Daghestan, Chechnya, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Osetia-Alania, Karachayevo-Cherkesia, and Ingushetia.

And those who might separate because of close ties with foreign countries are the Far Eastern Republic, the Kaliningrad Republic, Karelia, and the Kurile Islands.

Getting station names right is important. Station names should, where possible, be unique, intuitive, and simple enough that you can provide directions. Short station names are helpful as they’re easier to display on maps, signs and display boards.

In 2015, Metrolinx developed a decision tree [PDF] with these considerations in mind, in which priority is given to street names, followed by neighbourhood names and local landmarks for identifying stations, and looking to avoid duplicate names where possible. For example, Metrolinx didn’t want to have a “Keele” Station on the LRT, as it duplicates an existing station name on the Bloor-Danforth Subway.

Guided by these principles, Metrolinx staff recommended several name changes. Keele became “Silverthorne,” Dufferin became “Fairbank,” Bathurst would became “Forest Hill,” Avenue became “Oriole Park,” Bayview wbecame “Leaside,” and Don Mills became “Science Centre.”

In October, Metrolinx conducted an online consultation to test these proposed station names. Lo and behold, some names were very unpopular with the public. “Silverthorne” was not very representative of the Keele & Eglinton neighbourhood, others complained that they didn’t know where Fairbank was. (It’s the historic community name for the Eglinton and Dufferin intersection and the name of a nearby park most famous for the Fairbank Park scandal that sent two politicians to prison and launched Frances Nunziata’s [Ward 11, York South-Weston] career as a whistleblower.) Neither Forest Hill nor Leaside stations are in the centre of their historic communities, which also raised some concerns.

Taking public feedback into account, further changes were recommended. “Keelesdale” replaces “Silverthorne” at Keele Street, “Cedarvale” becomes the preferred name for the interchange station at Eglinton West (though the TTC has the final say), Oriole Park was renamed back to “Avenue”, and several surface stops east of Don Mills were also renamed, including Ferrand (to “Aga Khan”, as it’s adjacent to the culutral centre and museum), Victoria Park to “O’Connor” and Warden to “Golden Mile.”

But these changes didn’t satisfy a few Metrolinx board members. At its meeting in December 3, 2015, after passing a problematic GO Transit fare increase with minimal debate, it spent four times as long debating a few station names along the LRT corridor, namely the stops at Dufferin Street, Bathurst Street, and a surface stop at Lebovic Avenue in Scarborough. Toronto Star transportation reporter Tess Kalinowski called the station name debate the liveliest the board has ever seen.

On a very dry November 2013, Jamaica’s Meteorological Service made its first official drought forecast when the newly developed Climate Predictability Tool (CPT) was used to predict a high probability of below average rainfall in the coming three months.

By February, the agency had officially declared a drought in the eastern and central parishes of the island based on the forecasts. July’s predictions indicated that drought conditions would continue until at least September.

Said to be the island’s worst in 30 years, the 2014 drought saw Jamaica’s eastern parishes averaging rainfall of between 2 and 12 per cent, well below normal levels. Agricultural data for the period shows that production fell by more than 30 per cent over 2013 and estimates are that losses due to crop failures and wild fires amounted to one billion dollars.

Jamaica’s agricultural sector accounts for roughly seven per cent of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP) and employs about 20 per cent of its workforce.

The Met Service’s, Glenroy Brown told IPS, “The CPT was the main tool used by our Minister (of Water, Land, Environment & Climate Change) Robert Pickersgill throughout 2015 to advise the nation on the status of drought across the island .”

• Anthropology.net notes the study of ice man Otzi's gut flora.


• blogTO shares photos of different Toronto intersections a century ago.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the virtues of rest.


• Centauri Dreams considers how we date stars.


• The Dragon's Gaze considers the fates of exoplanets in untable circumbinary orbits.


• The Dragon's Tales notes China's construction of a second, indigenous, aircraft carrier.


• Geocurrents maps real estate prices in California.


• Kieran Healy notes an odd checkerboard of land ownership in Nevada.


• Languages of the World notes a study suggesting that one never truly completely forgets one's first language.


• Language Log notes the snark directed at the Oregon militiamen.


• The Map Room maps thawing in the global Arctic.


• Marginal Revolution suggests one way in which religion is good for the poor.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes an exciting proposal for a Europa lander.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer does not think the 2016 American presidential election will necessarily change much, not compared to 2012.


• Peter Rukavina shares the results of his family's use of a water metre.


• The Russian Demographics Blog maps the distribution of Germans in Soviet Ukraine circa 1926.


• Towleroad looks at syphilis in the male gay/bi community.


• Window on Eurasia notes the alienation of Donbas, looks at the decline of Russia-linked churches in Ukraine and a proposal to shift the date of Christmas, and wonders about Tatarstan.

• Antipope Charlie Stross wonders how technologically advanced a civilization could become without literacy.


• Crooked Timber notes paleocon Peter Hitchens' take on the history of England.


• The Dragon's Gaze reports on the growth of pebble-accreting planetesimals.


• Geocurrents maps Tokugawa Japan as a multi-state system, perhaps not unlike the contemporary Holy Roman Empire.


• Inkfish reports on crows given cameras which track their tool use.


• Language Hat notes some remarkable Gothic graffiti from Crimea.


• Marginal Revolution notes the very high levels of public debt in Brazil.


• The Russian Demographics Blog and Window on Eurasia wonder what will happen if Russia's future turns out not to be Belarus, but Ukraine.


• Spacing Toronto notes the time the Stanley Cup got stolen.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Russians now perceive Ukrainians as separate, looks at the hostile Russian reaction to pan-Turkic nationalism, and notes that the origins of Russia's Central Asian migrant workers have been changing.

• The Dragon's Tales reports on the Syrian war of Russia.


• Geocurrents' Martin Lewis shares a video lecture of his noting misleading maps.


• Language Hat notes the false Slavic etymologies of Leibniz.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the human costs of living near a nuclear facility in India.


• The Map Room's Jonathan Crowe reports that blog is returning.


• The Planetary Society Blog reports about NASA's substantial new budget.


• Window on Eurasia suggests Africa will become a major source of terrorists and notes that Russia is trying to ally with social conservatives in the Baltic States.

In 1914 John G. Bartholomew, the scion of an Edinburgh mapmaking family and cartographer royal to King George V, published “An Atlas of Economic Geography”. It was a book intended for schoolboys and contained everything a thrusting young entrepreneur, imperialist, trader or traveller could need. As well as the predictable charts of rainfall, temperature and topography, it had maps showing where you could find rubber, cotton or rice; maps showing the distribution of commercial languages, so that if you wanted to do business in Indonesia you knew to do so in Dutch; and maps showing the spread of climatic diseases, so that if you did find yourself in Indonesia you knew to look out for tropical dysentery. It also contained the map you see here, which told you how long it would take to get there from London: between 20 and 30 days.

This is an isochronic map – isochrones being lines joining points accessible in the same amount of time – and it tells a story about how travel was changing. You can get anywhere in the dark-pink section in the middle within five days – to the Azores in the west and the Russian city of Perm in the east. No surprises there: you’re just not going very far. Beyond that, things get a little more interesting. Within five to ten days, you can get as far as Winnipeg or the Blue Pearl of Siberia, Lake Baikal. It takes as much as 20 days to get to Tashkent, which is closer than either, or Honolulu, which is much farther away. In some places, a colour sweeps across a landmass, as pink sweeps across the eastern United States or orange across India. In others, you reach a barrier of blue not far inland, as in Africa and South America. What explains the difference? Railways.

• Centauri Dreams considers the likely cometary explanation for KIC 8462852.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes an enigmatic dark spot on a white dwarf.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on China's construction of a military base in Djibouti.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the man who promised to reduce the price of an HIV/AIDS medication that his company hiked has reneged.


• Lawyers, Gins and Money notes that Trump was lying about protesting Muslims in New Jersey after 9/11.


• pollotenchegg maps the distribution of ethnic minorities in Ukraine, now and in 1926.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks at how the right won in Argentina.


• Torontoist notes local initiatives to welcome Syrian refugees to Toronto.


• Towleroad notes a Vietnamese trans right bill.


• The Volokh Conspiracy observes that American states cannot ban Syrian refugees.


• Window on Eurasia looks on a new Chinese railway passing from Xinjiang through Central Asia to Iran, and looks at the odd Communist-Christian-Muslim mélange being favoured by some Russians.