[BLOG] Some Monday links

• James Bow reflects on Mulcair’s decision to ignore the debates boycotted by Harper, and examines the decline of the Bloc Québécois.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly reflects on the social forces pressuring people, especially women, to smile.
• Centauri Dreams reflects n the pessimism over the potential of interstellar expansion in Kim Stanley Robinson’s new Aurora.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a study examining the links between concentrations of elements in stars and their exoplanets, shares art of HD 219134b, wonders about distributions of brown dwarfs in nearby interstellar space, wonders if a lithium-rich giant star known as HD 107028 swallowed its planets, and imagines compact exoplanets made of dark matter.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares a study of the growth of the state of Tiahuanaco, and imagines what a durable Russian-American relationship could have been.
• A Fistful of Euros looks at dodgy Greek statistics.
• Joe. My. God. shares the new New Order single, “Restless.”
• Language Hat celebrated its thirteen anniversary and looked at the ephemeral St. Petersburg English Review of the 19th century.
• Language Log examines the origins of modern China’s standard language, and looks at the reasons why French texts are longer than English ones.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money examines settler violence in Israel.
• Marginal Revolution looks at how charity, in an age of global income disparities, is inexpensive, and notes the economic issues of Cambodia.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw reflects on Cilla Black.
• The Russian Demographics Blog looks at Ossetian demographics and examines the growth of Kazakhs in Kazakhstan after 1991.
• Speed River Journal’s Van Waffle likes the Cosmonaut Volkov heirloom tomatoes.
• Towleroad reports on a push for marriage equality on the Navajo reservation.
• Understanding Society examines the concept of microfoundations.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Russia’s war in Ukraine has been underachieving, argues Ukrainians should not count on change in Russia, reports on a Russian writer who wants the Donbas to be separated from Ukraine as a buffer, looks at ethnic Russian identity and propensity to emigrate in Kazakhstan, and looks at the identity of Belarusians in Siberia.