[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Big Picture looks at the uses of oil barrels around the world.
• blogTO wonders if the Annex is ready for a condo boom.
• Centauri Dreams features a guest post from Andrew Lepage noting how odd spectra on Mars were misidentified as proof of life.
• Crooked Timber notes a student occupation of the University of Amsterdam’s headquarters.
• Discover‘s The Crux makes a poor argument that space probe visits to Pluto and Ceres will lead to the redefinition of these worlds as planets.
• The Dragon’s Gaze looks at an odd pulsating hot subdwarf B star with a brown dwarf.
• The Dragon’s Tales suggests chemical mechanisms for life on Titan, and explains the differences in water plumes between Europa and Enceladus.
• A Fistful of Euros notes political conflict in Germany.
• Discover‘s Inkfist notes that birds from harsher climates are smarters.
• Joe. My. God. shares Madonna’s critique of ageism.
• Languages of the World examines the genesis of the English language.
• Marginal Revolution notes Japanese funerals for robots, suggests Facebook usage makes people less happy, and notes family formation in Europe.
• John Moyer examines punctuation.
• Steve Munro maps out routes for a Scarborough subway.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at science on Pluto.
• pollotenchegg maps the distribution of ethnically mixed households in Ukraine.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at how Panama successfully made use of price controls, and why.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell wonders what is the rush for three-parent IVF therapy.
• Transit Toronto explains how old TTC tickets can be exchanged.
• Window on Eurasia notes the importance of Belarus for the Baltic States, notes the newly-debatable borders of the former Soviet Union, suggests Tatarstan is unhappy with Russian federalism, and looks at the small grounds for Russian-Ukrainian hostilities.