[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Dangerous Minds takes note of a robot that grows marijuana.
• The Dragon’s Tales has a nice links roundup looking at what is happening with robots.
• Far Outliers notes the differences between the African and Indian experiences in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing recovers a Paul Goodman essay from 1969 talking about making technology a domain not of science but of philosophy.
• JSTOR Daily notes the mid-19th century origins of the United States National Weather Service in the American military.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which Jared Kushner is not an amazingly good politician.
• The Map Room Blog notes artist Jake Berman’s maps of vintage transit systems in the United States.
• The NYR Daily examines The Price of Everything, a documentary about the international trade in artworks.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw wonders how long the centre will hold in a world that seems to be screaming out of control. (I wish to be hopeful, myself.)
• Drew Rowsome reports on a Toronto production of Hair, 50 years young.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shows maps depicting the very high levels of air pollution prevailing in parts of London.
• Window on Eurasia remembers Black January in Baku, a Soviet occupation of the Azerbaijani capital in 1990 that hastened Soviet dissolution.

[NEWS] Five cultural links: astronauts learning Chinese, hitchhiking, Catalonia, Croatia, Georgia

• The BBC reports on how astronauts from Europe are starting to learn Chinese, the better to interacting with future fellow travelers.
• MacLean’s takes a look at the practical disappearance of hitchhiking as a mode of travel in Canada, from its heights in the 1970s. (No surprise, I think, on safety grounds alone.)
• PRI notes the practical disappearance of the quintessentially Spanish bullfight in Catalonia, driven by national identity and by animal-rights sentiment.
• Transitions Online notes how the strong performance of Croatia at the World Cup, making it to the finals, was welcomed by most people in the former Yugoslavia.
• Open Democracy notes how tensions between liberal and conservative views on popular culture and public life are becoming political in post-Soviet Georgia.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly takes a look at the concept of resilience.
• D-Brief notes the many ways in which human beings can be killed by heat waves.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes a claim for the discovery of a new pulsar planet, PSR B0329+54 b, two Earth masses with an orbit three decades long.
• The Frailest Thing’s Michael Sacasas argues that, in some was, online connectivity is like a drug.
• Hornet Stories considers the plight of bisexuals in the closet.
• Language Hat considers the origins of the family name of Hungarian Karl-Maria Kertbeny, the man who developed the term “homosexuality”, and much else besides.
• The NYR Daily looks at how the item of soap was a key component behind racism and apartheid in South Africa.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes a new book, The Quotable Darwin.
• Peter Rukavina takes a look at 18 years’ worth of links on his blog. How many are still good? The answer may surprise you.
• Understanding Society considers the insights of Tony Judt on the psychology of Europeans after the Second World War.
• John Scalzi at Whatever considers, in Q&A format, some insights for men in the post-Weinstein era.
• Window on Eurasia looks at how boundaries in the Caucasus were not necessarily defined entirely by the Bolsheviks.
• Arnold Zwicky considers various odd appearances of pickles in contemporary popular culture.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the remarkably complex system of Proxima Centauri, with multiple belts and more possible planets, as does D-Brief.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of a new sort of fusion reactions, involving not atoms but quarks.
• Hornet Stories notes a new acoustic cover of the Kinky Boots song “Not My Father’s Son.”
• Language Hat takes a brief look at Cyrillic, since the Soviet era written in Cyrillic script.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how the Trump Administration is unconcerned by the latest report regarding catastrophic climate change.
• The LRB Blog notes how Armenia and Armenians remember past genocides and current refugee flows.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes the further extension of the Dawn mission at Ceres.
• Drew Rowsome shares some of Stephen King’s tips for aspiring writers.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how some long-exposure Hubble photographs of galaxies picked up nearby asteroids.
• John Scalzi shares his cover of “Rocket Man”.
• Window on Eurasia wonders if ISIS is spreading into Russia via migrant workers from Central Asia.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• At Antipope, Charlie Stross bets that barring catastrophe, the US under Trump will dispatch crewed circumlunar flights.
• D-Brief takes a look at the evolution of birds, through speculation on how the beak formed.
• Language Log looks at the ways Trump is represented, and mocked, in the languages of East Asia.
• Noting the death toll in a Mexico City sweatshop, Lawyers, Guns and Money reiterates that sweatshops are dangerous places to work.
• The NYR Daily notes the many structural issues likely to prevent foreign-imposed fixes in Afghanistan.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports from a seemingly unlikely date festival held in the depths of the Saudi desert.
• Rocky Planet reports that Mount Agung, a volcano in Indonesia, is at risk of imminent eruption.
• Drew Rowsome notes a new stage adaptation in Toronto of the Hitchcock classic, North by Northwest.
• Strange Company reports on how the Lonergans disappeared in 1998 in a dive off the Great Barrier Reef. What happened to them?
• Towleroad notes how Chelsea Manning was just banned from entering Canada.
• Window on Eurasia claims that the Russian language is disappearing from Armenia.
• Arnold Zwicky maps the usage of “faggot” as an obscenity in the United States.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• blogTO notes the rapid expansion of A&Ws across Toronto’s neighbourhoods.
• Centauri Dreams reports that none of the exoplanets of nearby Wolf 1061 are likely to support Earth-like environments, owing to their eccentric and occasionally overclose orbits.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper looking at high-temperature condensate clouds in hot Jupiter atmospheres.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on Trump’s unsecured Android phone.
• Language Log reports on Caucasian words relating to tea.
• The LRB Blog notes the emerging close links connecting May’s United Kingdom with Trump’s United States and Netanyahu’s Israel.
• Marginal Revolution shares an interview with chef and researcher Mark Miller and reports on the massive scale of Chinese investment in Cambodia.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the idea of choosing between the Moon and Mars as particular targets of manned space exploration.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the mechanics of imposing a 20% tax in the United States on Mexican imports. (It is doable.)
• The Russian Demographics Blog reports Russian shortfalls in funding HIV/AIDS medication programs.
• Supernova Condensate warns that Trump’s hostility to the very idea of climate change threatens the world.
• Towleroad shares the first gay kiss of (an) Iceman in Marvel’s comics.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes the constitutional problems with Trump’s executive order against sanctuary cities.
• Window on Eurasia argues Ukraine is willing to fight if need be, even if sold out by Trump.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• blogTO notes that TTC tunnels will get WiFi in 2018.
• Border Thinking’s Laura Augustín shares some of Edvard Munch’s brothel paintings.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the latest science on fast radio bursts.
• Dangerous Minds shares some of the sexy covers of Yugoslavian computer magazine Računari.
• Dead Things looks at the latest research into dinosaur eggs.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper suggesting that a high surface magnetic field in a red giant star indicates a recent swallowing of a planet.
• Language Log shares an ad for a portable smog mask from China.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes issue with the idea of NAFTA being of general benefit to Mexico.
• Torontoist looks at the history of Toronto General Hospital.
• Window on Eurasia is skeptical about an American proposal for Ukraine, and suggests Ossetian reunification within Russia is the next annexation likely to be made by Russia.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Apostrophen’s ‘Natha Smith talks about his tradition of the stuffed Christmas stocking.
• Beyond the Beyond’s Bruce Sterling talks about the decline of the Pebble wearables.
• blogTO lists some of the hot new bookstores in Toronto.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about some of her family’s traditions.
• The Dragon’s Tales looks at the ancient history of rice cultivation in the Indus Valley Civilization.
• Joe. My. God. notes the willingness of the Oklahoma Cherokee Nation to recognize same-sex marriages.
• Language Log shares a photo of an unusual multi-script ad from East Asia.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the Russian involvement in the American election and its import.
• Marginal Revolution links to a book about the transition in China’s financial sector.
• Window on Eurasia reports on efforts to revive the moribund and very complex Caucasian of Ubykh.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• blogTO notes that Toronto finally got its first test LRT from Bombardier, after many delays.
• Centauri Dreams considers some of the problems with drafting a message to extraterrestrial civilizations.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes that an upcoming Japanese telescope could detect oxygen on, among other planets, K2-3d.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Ivanka Trump’s shoe factory is moving from China to Ethiopia in pursuit of lower wages.
• Language Hat links to a report on Alghero, the city that is the heart of a fading enclave of Catalan on the Italian island of Sardinia.
• The LRB Blog notes the ascent of François Filion in France.
• Otto Pohl describes the position of Soviet Kurds.
• pollotenchegg reports on ethnic diversity in the different raions of Ukraine.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer links to a 2013 study suggesting Cuba under Communism underperformed significantly.
• Towleroad looks at Donald Trump’s claim of voter fraud.
• Window on Eurasia argues that deniers of the Holodomor should be shamed.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• blogTO shares photos of Toronto streets in the 1960s, cluttered by signage.
• Crooked Timber and the LRB Blog respond to the death of Fidel Castro.
• Far Outliers looks at the exploitative but functional British treatment of servants.
• Language Hat notes the insensitivity of machine translation and examines the evolution of the Spanish language.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money advocates for an energized public response to racist displays in Trump’s America.
• The Map Room Blog looks at a controversial Brexit art exhibition.
• Marginal Revolution notes a pay by the minute coffee shop in Brooklyn.
• The NYRB Daily shares images of Hokusai.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares beautiful space photos.
• Window on Eurasia notes how terror famines were used to russify peripheral areas of the Soviet Union, reports on strengthening religion among younger Daghestanis, and suggests there will be larger Russian deployments in Belarus.