Posts Tagged ‘islands’
[PHOTO] Exuma on my screen in Toronto
Written by Randy McDonald
May 8, 2020 at 10:00 pm
Posted in Photo, Popular Culture, Toronto
Tagged with bahamas, caribbean, exuma, google, google earth, islands, photos, technology, television, toronto
[BLOG] Some Friday links
- Architectuul looks at the Portuguese architectural cooperative Ateliermob, here.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at how white dwarf WD J091405.30+191412.25 is literally vapourizing a planet in close orbit.
- Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog explains</a< to readers why you really do not want to have to look for parking in New York City.
- Centauri Dreams looks at the slowing of the solar wind far from the Sun.
- John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the gap between ideals and actuals in the context of conspiracies and politics.
- The Dragon’s Tales reports on how the ESA is trying to solve a problem with the parachutes of the ExoMars probe.
- Far Outliers reports on what Harry Truman thought about politicians.
- Gizmodo reports on a new method for identifying potential Earth-like worlds.
- io9 pays tribute to legendary writer, of Star Trek and much else, D.C. Fontana.
- The Island Review reports on the football team of the Chagos Islands.
- Joe. My. God. reports that gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy will compete for the United Kingdom in 2020.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how early English imperialists saw America and empire through the lens of Ireland.
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not like Pete Buttigieg.
- The LRB Blog looks at the London Bridge terrorist attack.
- The Map Room Blog shares a map of Prince William Sound, in Alaska, that is already out of date because of global warming.
- Marginal Revolution questions if Cebu, in the Philippines, is the most typical city in the world.
- The NYR Daily looks at gun violence among Arab Israelis.
- The Planetary Society Blog considers what needs to be researched next on Mars.
- Roads and Kingdoms tells the story of Sister Gracy, a Salesian nun at work in South Sudan.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting continued population growth expected in much of Europe, and the impact of this growth on the environment.
- Strange Maps shares a map of fried chicken restaurants in London.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why a 70 solar mass black hole is not unexpected.
- John Scalzi at Whatever gives</a his further thoughts on the Pixel 4.
- Window on Eurasia notes that, last year, 37 thousand Russians died of HIV/AIDS.
- Arnold Zwicky starts from a consideration of the 1948 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.
Written by Randy McDonald
December 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with africa, alaska, architecture, astronomy, blogs, british empire, cebu, chagos, clash of ideologies, conspiracies, crime, d.c. fontana, Demographics, environment, european union, exoplanets, futurology, google, hiv/aids, in memoriam, ireland, islands, israel, links, london, mars, middle east, new york, new york city, north america, palestinians, parking lot, pete buttigieg, philippines, politics, popular culture, portugal, religion, restaurants, russia, science fiction, solar system, south sudan, southeast asia, space science, space travel, sports, star trek, technology, television, terrorism, united states, WD J091405.30+191412.25, white dwarfs
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the findings that the LISA Pathfinder satellite was impacted by hypervelocity comet fragments.
- Centauri Dreams reports on what we have learned about interstellar comet Borisov.
- Bruce Dorminey notes the ESA’s Matisse instrument, capable of detecting nanodiamonds orbiting distant stars.
- Gizmodo reports a new study of the great auk, now extinct, suggesting that humans were wholly responsible for this extinction with their hunting.
- The Island Review links to articles noting the existential vulnerability of islands like Venice and Orkney to climate change.
- Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of Tucker Carlson–perhaps not believably retracted by him–to be supporting Russia versus Ukraine.
- Language Hat reports on the new Indigemoji, emoji created to reflect the culture and knowledge of Aboriginal groups in Australia.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes one of the sad consequences of the American president being a liar.
- James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the optimism of the spending plans of Labour in the UK, a revived Keynesianism.
- Marginal Revolution notes the exceptional cost of apartments built for homeless people in San Francisco.
- Strange Maps looks at some remarkable gravity anomalies in parts of the US Midwest.
- Towleroad notes the support of Jamie Lee Curtis for outing LGBTQ people who are homophobic politicians.
- Understanding Society looks at organizations from the perspective of them as open systems.
- Whatever’s John Scalzi gives a generally positive review of the Pixel 4.
- Arnold Zwicky notes the irony of sex pills at an outpost of British discount chain Poundland.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 27, 2019 at 3:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with aboriginal, astronomy, australia, birds, blogs, borisov, california, clash of ideologies, comets, emoji, english language, environment, first nations, geopolitics, glbt issues, global warming, google, humour, islands, language, links, lisa pathfinder, oddities, orkneys, real estate, russia, san francisco, Science, social sciences, sociology, space science, technology, ukraine, united kingdom, united states, venice
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
- Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.
- Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.
- Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.
- John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.
- Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.
- The Dragon’s Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.
- Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.
- Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn’t this have been not mockable but rather creative?
- Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.
- Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.
- Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.
- Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.
- Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?
- The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.
- Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People’s Theatre.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.
- Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 24, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences, Toronto
Tagged with alcatraz, alpha centauri, alpha centauri b, architecture, asteroids, astronomy, australia, blogs, california, china, christianity, clash of ideologies, democracy, disasters, egypt, exoplanets, extraterrestrial life, glbt issues, islands, language, links, military, milky way galaxy, museums, national identity, neptune, orthodox christianity, pinocchio, popular literature, portugal, Science, solar system, space science, space travel, supernovas, technology, theatre, toronto, translation, ukraine, united states
[URBAN NOTE] Five Montréal links
- Renovating the Oratoire St. Joseph will surely be costly. CTV News reports.
- CBC Montreal looks back to when the Montreal Expos seemed like they might not be bought.
- Le Devoir notes how, in Québec, the Liberals are concentrated on the islands of Montreal and in Laval, in their fortress.
- An old Montreal metro car has been repurposed as a hangout for Polytechnique students. CBC reports
- CBC Montreal reports on the proposal of Matt McLauchlin to name a plaza at Frontenac metro station after murdered activist Joe Rose. I like the idea.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 6, 2019 at 9:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Urban Note
Tagged with architecture, baseball, canada, cities, crime, frontenac, glbt issues, in memoriam, islands, joe rose, laval, mass transit, montréal, montreal expos, oddities, oratoire saint-joseph, politics, québec, religion, subway, Urban Note
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
- {anthro}dendum features a post by Kimberly J. Lewis about strategies for anthropologists to write, and be human, after trauma.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports on exoplanet LHC 3844b, a world that had its atmosphere burned away by its parent star.
- Centauri Dreams looks at Neptune from the perspective of exoplanets discovered near snow lines.
- D-Brief reports on the new Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, installed at Kitt Peak to help map galaxies and dark energy.
- Gizmodo
- looks at how Airbnb is dealing with party houses after a fatal mass shooting.
- The Island Review shares some drawings by Charlotte Watson, inspired by the subantarctic Auckland Islands.
- JSTOR Daily looks at the late 19th century hit novel Ramona, written by Helen Hunt Jackson to try to change American policy towards indigenous peoples.
- Language Hat looks at how, until recently, the Faroese language had taboos requiring certain words not to be used at sea.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a proposal to partially privatize American national parks.
- The LRB Blog looks at what Nigel Farage will be doing next.
- Marginal Revolution looks at a speculative theory on the origins of American individualism in agrarian diversity.
- The NYR Daily looks at an exhibition of the artwork of John Ruskin.
- Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw remarks on a connection between Arthur Ransome and his region of New England.
- Drew Rowsome shares an interview with folk musician Michelle Shocked.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel emphasizes the importance of the dark energy mystery.
- Towleroad notes a posthumous single release by George Michael.
- Daniel Little at Understanding Society celebrates the 12th anniversary of his blog, and looks back at its history.
- Window on Eurasia looks at Ingushetia after 1991.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at All Saints Day.
Written by Randy McDonald
November 6, 2019 at 6:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with airbnb, all saints' day, anthropology, arthur ransome, astronomy, auckland islands, australia, blogging, blogs, clash of ideologies, crime, european union, exoplanets, faroes, first nations, george michael, glbt issues, holidays, islands, language, lhc 3844b, links, michelle shocked, neptune, new england, north caucasus, physics, politics, popular literature, popular music, public art, russia, separatism, snow line, social sciences, sociology, space science, technology, united kingdom, united states, west norden, writing
[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links
- I do hope Toronto does something with the abandoned foot court on Queen West and John. blogTO reports.
- blogTO looks at the new Villiers Island set to occupy the mouth of the Don River in the Port Lands.
- An Ossington laneway is going to be repainted after a botched improvement project destroyed its public art. The Toronto Star reports.
- Steve Munro fisks a defense by the Toronto Board of Trade of the proposed Ontario Line, here.
- Andrew Cash, sadly not elected in my riding of Davenport, writes in the Toronto Star about the importance of Toronto having active local MPs.
- National Observer looks at how the City of Toronto is encouraging residents grow gardens for pollinators.
- Samantha Edwards writes at NOW Toronto about how the long-closed Paradise on Bloor theatre is set to reopen in December.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 29, 2019 at 9:30 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Toronto, Urban Note
Tagged with andrew cash, bloor street west, bloorcourt, canada, don river, environment, gardens, islands, lake ontario, mass transit, ontario line, ossington avenue, paradise on bloor, politics, port lands, public art, queen street west, subway, theatre, toronto, ttc, Urban Note, villiers island
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
- Bad Astronomy notes the new X-ray telescope eROSITA.
- Centauri Dreams notes evidence of a recent collision between planets in the system of BD +20 307.
- D-Brief notes the appearance of a strange new sort of storm on Saturn.
- Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery by astronomers of a set of orbits that can direct comets into the inner solar system.
- Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage shares some vintage Skylab photos of his native Massachusetts.
- Far Outliers notes how, in 1786, the United states was uninclined to pay tribute to the Barbary States.
- Gizmodo’s George Dvorsky reports on a new fossil discovery showing how quickly mammals took over after the Cretaceous.
- The Island Review shares an essay by photographer Alex Boyd about his new book Isles of Rust, drawing from Lewis & Harris.
- JSTOR Daily looks at sustainable butchery.
- Language Hat notes that Sumerian cuneiform is now in Unicode.
- Victor Mair at Language Log notes how the Indo-Iranian “don” so commonly forms part of the hydronyms for major European rivers.
- Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money calls for an in-depth investigation of Donald Trump, not necessarily an impeachment.
- The LRB Blog examines the background of the mass protests in Santiago and wider Chile.
- The Map Room Blog shares an illuminating cartogram depicting the #elxn43 results in Canada.
- Marginal Revolution looks at how the government of China has been using the NBA to buy social peace.
- The NYR Daily interviews Naomi Oreskes about her campaign to have the science behind global warming, and the actions of the scientists involved, understood.
- The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper concluding that traditional gender specializations in British families no longer provide a reproductive advantage.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why the speed of gravity must equal the speed of light, if general relativity is to work.
- Window on Eurasia examines the rapid and uncontrolled growth of urban populations in Kazakhstan.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 26, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Canada, Demographics, Economics, History, Photo, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with astronomy, bd +20 387, blogs, canada, central asia, chile, china, comets, cuneiform, democracy, Demographics, earth, elections, evolution, exoplanets, former soviet union, gender, global warming, history, indo-european, islands, kazakhstan, lagnuage, latin america, lewis & harris, links, middle east, migration, new england, north africa, photos, physics, politics, popular culture, saturn, Science, scotland, solar system, south america, space science, space travel, sports, sumerian, united kingdom, united states, war, writing
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
- Architectuul looks at the Porto architectural project Critical Concrete, here.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares the evidence for our galaxy having experienced a phase as a quasar a quarter-million years long some 3.5 million years ago.
- Author James Bow celebrates the end of his publicity tour for The Night Girl, including a controversy over cover art featuring the CN Tower.
- Robert Zubrin at Centauri Dreams considers how we could detect energy from artificial singularities used for power and propulsion. (Is this how we find the Romulans?)
- The Crux considers whether or not the new proposals for more powerful supercolliders in China and Europe are likely to produce new discoveries.
- D-Brief explains why older generations so often look down on the young: The elders idealize their younger selves too much.
- Dead Things notes new evidence, in the tracks of trilobites moving in line 480 million years ago, for early life being able to engage in collective behaviour.
- io9 interviews Kami Garcia about her new YA book featuring venerable DC character Raven, remaking her for new readers.
- The Island Review interviews David Gange about The Frayed Atlantic Edge, his book account of his kayak trip down the western coasts of Britain and Ireland.
- JSTOR Daily explains why Martin Luther King Jr. thought so highly of jazz.
- Eleanor Penny argues at the LRB Blog against taking Malthus, with his pessimism trending towards a murderous misanthropy, as a prophet for our times.
- The NYR Daily looks at the play American Moor, which touches on the efforts of black actors to engage with Shakespeare.
- Drew Rowsome reviews the new film The Flick, an old to old-style movies and theatres.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map depicting Hutterite migrations across early modern Europe.
- Starts With A Bang shares new speculation that some evidence for dark matter might actually be a mistake in measurement.
- Strange Maps notes the now mostly submerged continent of Greater Adria.
- Window on Eurasia shares a suggestion that the deep Russophilia of many ordinary people in Belarus might support union with Russia.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at the different meanings of “unaccompanied”.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 20, 2019 at 7:15 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with african-americans, architecture, astronomy, belarus, black holes, britain, china, dc comics, Demographics, earth, english language, european union, evolution, extraterrestrial intelligence, ireland, islands, jazz, links, malthus. hutterites, maps, migration, national identity, physics, popular culture, popular literature, popular music, portugal, quasars, russia, Sagittarius A*, singularity, social sciences, sociology, space science, technology, theatre, travel, trilobites, united states, william shakespeare
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
- Adam Fish at anthro{dendum} compares different sorts of public bathing around the world, from Native America to Norden to Japan.
- Charlie Stross at Antipope is unimpressed by the person writing the script for our timeline.
- Architectuul reports on an architectural conference in Lisbon.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the eruption of the Raikoke volcano in Kamchatka.
- Centauri Dreams looks at what the Voyager spacecraft have returned about the edge of the solar system.
- John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the idea of bipartisanship if it means compromising on reality, allegorically.
- The Crux counts the number of people who have died in outer space.
- D-Brief notes that the Andromeda Galaxy has swallowed up multiple dwarf galaxies over the eons.
- Dead Things notes the identification of the first raptor species from Southeast Asia, Siamraptor suwati.
- The Dragon’s Tales notes a paper tracing the origins of interstellar comet 2/Borisov from the general area of Kruger 60.
- Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the privilege allowing people access to affordable dental care.
- Gizmodo tells how Alexei Leonov survived the first spacewalk.
- io9 looks at the remarkable new status quo for the X-Men created by Jonathan Hickman.
- Selma Franssen at the Island Review writes about the threats facing the seabirds of the Shetlands.
- JSTOR Daily looks at what led Richard Nixon to make so many breaks from the American consensus on China in the Cold War.
- Language Log notes an undergraduate course at Yale using the Voynich Manuscript as an aid in the study of language.
- Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money explains her recent experience of the socialized health care system of Israel for Americans.
- The LRB Blog looks at how badly the Fukuyama prediction of an end to history has aged.
- The Map Room Blog shares a few maps of the new Ottawa LRT route.
- Marginal Revolution notes a paper establishing a link between Chinese industries undermining their counterparts in Mexico and Mexican social ills including crime.
- Sean Marshall reports from Ottawa about what the Confederation Line looks like.
- Adam Shatz at the NYR Daily looks at the power of improvisation in music.
- Roads and Kingdoms looks at South Williamsburg Jewish deli Gottlieb’s.
- Drew Rowsome reviews</a the new Patti Smith book, Year of the Monkey.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper looking as the factors leading into transnational movements.
- Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers the question of the direction(s) in which order in the universe was generated.
- Window on Eurasia shares a report noting the very minor flows of migration from China to Russia.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the politics in the British riding of Keighley.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at some penguin socks.
Written by Randy McDonald
October 12, 2019 at 8:00 pm
Posted in Assorted, Demographics, Economics, History, Photo, Politics, Popular Culture, Science, Social Sciences
Tagged with 2/borisov, alexei leonov, anthropology, architecture, birds, blogs, book reviews, canada, china, clash of ideologies, comics, confederation line, Demographics, dinosaurs, economics, environment, fashion, finland, first nations, food, former soviet union, geopolitics, health, iceland, in memoriam, islands, israel, japan, judaism, kamchatka peninsula, kruger 60, language, links, maps, mass transit, mexico, migration, new york, new york city, norden, oddities, ontario, ottawa, photos, physics, politics, popular music, russia, scotland, shetlands, siberia, social sciences, sociology, solar system, southeast asia, space science, space travel, thailand, united kingdom, united states, volcanoes, voyager 1, voyager 2, voynich