A Bit More Detail

• Evan Gough at Universe Today notes that the long-term climate predictions of NASA have so far proven accurate to within tenths of a degree Celsius.


• Matt Williams at Universe Today notes how the launching of satellites for the Starlink constellation, providing Internet access worldwide, could be a game-changer.


• Eric Niiler at WIRED suggests that Texas--and other world regions--could easily sequester carbon dioxide in the seabed, in the case of Texas using the Gulf of Mexico.

Matteo Ceriotti explains at The Conversation how, as in The Wandering Earth, the Earth might be physically moved. https://theconversation.com/wandering-earth-rocket-scientist-explains-how-we-could-move-our-planet-116365ti

• Matt Williams at Universe Today shares a remarkable proposal, suggesting Type II civilizations might use dense bodies like black holes to create neutrino beam beacons.

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of seeing the world from new angles.


• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber suggests that, worldwide, coal is becoming increasingly closely associated with corruption.


• D-Brief looks at a study drawing on Twitter that suggests people will quickly get used to changing weather in the era of climate change.


• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about a family trip during which he spent time listening to sociology-related podcasts.


• Far Outliers notes the life-determining intensity of exam time for young people in Calcutta.


• io9 notes that, finally, the classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Once More, With Feeling" is being released on vinyl.


• JSTOR Daily looks at how medieval Europe regulated the sex trade.


• Language Hat looks at how anthropologists have stopped using "hominid" and started using "hominin", and why.


• Language Log considers the difficulty of talking about "Sinophone" given the unrepresented linguistic diversity included in the umbrella of "Chinese".


• Marginal Revolution suggests there are conflicts between NIMBYism and supporting open immigration policies.


• At Out There, Corey S. Powell interviews astronomer Slava Turyshev about the possibility not only of interstellar travel but of exploiting the Solar Gravity Lens, 550 AU away.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 9 mission.


• Towleroad notes that Marvel Comics is planning to make its lead character in the Eternals gay.


• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines how the human body and its physical capacities are represented in sociology.


• Window on Eurasia notes the growth of the Volga Tatar population of Moscow, something hidden by the high degree of assimilation of many of its members.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes, in connection to Huawei, the broad powers allotted to the British government under existing security and communications laws.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at anteaters and antedaters.

• This alarming VICE report notes the ways in which our phones--and other mobile devices, I'm sure--are in fact listening to us.


• This distressing story looks at how HIV denialism has become popular among many Russians, and the terrible toll this belief system inflicts on people victimized by it (children, particularly).


• Smithsonian Magazine notes how the 1856 discovery of the greenhouse effect created by carbon dioxide by pioneering scientist Eunice Foote was overlooked because she was a woman.


• The detonation of more than 100 substantial nuclear weapons, this report notes, would doom civilization through climate change and agricultural collapse. Motherboard has it.


• Asteroids in orbits linked to that of the Earth would be excellent first targets for asteroid mining, Universe Today reports.

• This CBC article describing the goals of the new head of the McMichael gallery, north of Toronto, is intriguing. I have to get up there!


• The ReBlink exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, using smartphone technology to reimagine select painings, is an interesting idea. I'm not sure about the execution, but props for the idea. CBC reports.


• The City of Toronto's efforts at opening shelters against the cold for the homeless of the city have been less than impressive. Torontoist features a critique.


• At Torontoist, Michael Lapointe takes a look at the city of Toronto twenty years after amalgamation. Was it worth it? Can the city handle its challenges?

• TVO notes that slow Internet speeds cause real problems for people in rural Ontario, focusing here on the southwest.


• Kelly Boutsalis at NOW Toronto reports on new efforts to revive the Mohawk language.


• At Open Democracy, Bulat Mukhamedzhanov describes how a centralization in power in Russia away from Tatarstan threatens the future of the Tatar language in education.


• Ainslie Cruickshank reports on what seems to me to be an ill-judged controversy in a Toronto school over a folksong by Iroquois poet E. Pauline Johnson, "Land of the Silver Birch," calling it racist, over in the Toronto Star.


• This politico.eu article examining the polarized media landscape in Catalonia, and wider Spain, is disturbing. Is everyone really talking past each other?

• Apparently 80% of blue whales are left-handed. National Geographic reports.


• The FCC has just stopped support for a program that subsidizes vital telecommunications for, among other groups, Native Americans. VICE reports.


• Between political challenges and problems with construction, major infrastructure projects are failing to meet their goals at a noteworthy rate. National Geographic reports.


• VICE recounts the story of Hedy Lamarr, noteworthy actor and brilliant scientist, from the perspective of a documentary noting how misogyny kept her from employing her talents to the fullest.


• This Claire Dederer article in The Paris Review, talking about the works of monstrous men can (or should?) be salvaged from the legacies of their creators, is tremendously important.

• The Inter Press Service examines how, at the subnational level, American states and cities and other entities are trying to fight against climate change.


• Payphones, it turns out, actually still turn profits. There is some future to this technology yet in our cell phone era. VICE reports.


• The Bombardier vision of its Northern Ireland plant at one supporting Airbus' enterprises is lovely, but only if hard Brexit is somehow averted. Bloomberg reports.

• Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith updates his readers about the progress of his various writing projects.


• The Big Picture shares photos from the Battle of Mosul waged against ISIS.


• Centauri Dreams notes the discovery of rogue binary planet 2MASS J11193254–1137466, two super-Jupiters by themselves.


• Dangerous Minds notes the raw photography of early 20th century New York City's Weegee.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is rightly unimpressed by the reflexive Russophilia of The Nation. Imperialism is still imperialism ...


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen strongly recommends Dali, in the Chinese province of Yunnan, for tourists.


• The NYR Daily features Masha Gessen, looking at the truth underneath the lies of Trump.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer makes a case that Macron's use of "civilizational" to describe Africa's issues might be the subject of over-quick outrage.


• Peter Rukavina describes his two weeks with a Nokia N95, without a modern smartphone. There was good and bad to this.


• Speed River Journal's Van Waffle explains, with photos, what hoverflies are and why they are so important.


• Understanding Society considers a fraught question: what paths to modernization were open for China in the 1930s, before the People's Republic?


• Window on Eurasia suggests that, in 30 years, Moscow will be a megacity with a large population of (substantially immigrant) Muslim origin.

Accessing free WiFi in Toronto can often mean ducking into a McDonalds, Starbucks or other fastfood chains. In “world class” cities, such as Tel Aviv, New York City, Seoul, Barcelona, Bangalore and Osaka, free Internet access is readily available everywhere.

The neighbourhood of West Queen West is hoping to change that. Starting February 23, anyone walking along Queen West between Niagara and Markham streets will be able to access free WiFi by logging onto FREE WQW WI-FI.

The service is being offered by the West Queen West BIA and Besify, a Markham-based Internet firm. This stretch of Queen West marks the first phase of a project. Rob Sysak, executive director of the WQW BIA, says that phase two of the project, which includes Queen West between Gladstone and Dovercourt, will launch in March.

• blogTO reports on the history of Toronto's Wellington Street.


• Dangerous Minds introduces me to the grim American gothic that is Wisconsin Death Trip. What happened to Black River Falls in the 1890s?


• The Dragon's Gaze links to hypotheses about KIC 8462852, one suggesting KIC 8462852 has four exoplanets, another talking about a planet's disintegration.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper modeling the mantles of icy moons.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at small city NIMBYism in the Oregon city of Eugene.


• The LRB Blog reports on toxically racist misogyny directed towards Labour's Diane Abbott by Tory minister David Davis, "misogynoir" as it is called.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw reports on the elections in Indonesia, a country increasingly important to Australia.


• Peter Rukavina describes how the builders of his various indie phones, promising in their own rights, keep dropping them.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer is optimistic that NAFTA will survive mostly as is.


• The Volokh Conspiracy examines the ruling against Trump's immigration order on the grounds that its planners explicitly designed it as an anti-Muslim ban.


• Window on Eurasia suggests that the treaty-based federalism of Tatarstan within Russia is increasingly unpopular with many wanting a more centralized country.