[BLOG] Some Monday links

• blogTO shares pictures of Toronto’s Polar Bear Dip swimmers.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly describes the culture shock associated with renting an apartment in Paris.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster looks at close encounters between stars in our galaxy.
• Crooked Timber started a thread aimed at sharing the best political theory and philosophy papers published in recent years.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to papers (1, 2) examining how patterns of dust in protoplanetary disks of young stars might reveal the existence of planets.
• The Dragon’s Tales links to a paper examining Hadley-like cells in the atmosphere of Venus and notes the decay of China’s rustbelt northeast.
• Joe. My. God. notes that, rather than preside over civic same-sex marriages, fourteen counties in Florida have abolished court weddings.
• Languages of the World’s Asya Perelstvaig looks at Old Church Slavonic and its alphabets.
• Marginal Revolution notes the success of the mall in Bangladesh and the decline of the Russian ruble.
• Savage Minds takes a final look at Zora Neale Hurston as an ethnographer and looks at the relationship of ethnography with writing.
• Spacing Toronto links to the latest newsletter from Fort York.
• Strange Maps describes Europe’s “blue banana” conurbation.
• Towleroad notes marriage equality in Luxembourg and the political uses of homophobia in Slovakia.
• Window on Eurasia notes that foreigners can now serve in the Russian military, suggests Russia seeks Ukraine’s fragmentation, and warns Putin’s entourage might try to get rid of him to save themselves.