[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams has more on the electric sail.
• Daniel Drezner is unimpressed with Niall Ferguson’s claims that he’s being unfairly criticized when the blogosphere, when the strongest online critiques have come from news services like The Atlantic and professors of various disciplines.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that astronomers looking at white dwarfs in the Hyades star cluster 150 light-years away have found their atmospheres polluted by dust from asteroids which have crashed onto their surfaces.
• At the Everyday Sociology Blog, sociologist and new homeowners Karen Sternheimer notes that investment firms have been buying up real estate. What of regular homeowners?
• Language Log’s Victor Mair notes a new site seeking to document all of the various dialects and language forms of Chinese.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes the Catholic Church’s qualified support for evolution.
• Savage Minds’ Carole McGranahan argues that a properly curated Twitter account can produce numerous benefits for the academic.
• Torontoist wonders if maps of Toronto showing walking routes and times might be worthwhile.
• At Window on Eurasia, Paul Goble quotes a Russian blogger who argues that the Soviet annexation of territories in Europe after the Second World War, including the Baltic States and Moldova as well as western Ukraine and Belarus, ultimately destabilized the Soviet state.