[NEWS] Seven science links

• Climate change is playing a major role in the wildfires of California. Are we now in the Fire Age? Global News considers.
• The new normal of the Arctic Ocean is to be ice-free. Global News reports.
• Plants first reached land through unexpected horizontal gene transfers. CBC reports.
• Zebra mussels have made it to the Lake of the Woods. Global News reports.
• An artificial leaf that turns carbon dioxide into usable fuel is a remarkable technology. Universe Today reports.
• Earth once hosted nine human species; now it has one. What happened? National Pot considers.
• Thanks to better medical care and preventative measures, people have longer healthy lifespans than ever before. Global News reports.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.
• Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.
• The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.
• D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.
• Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.
• Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.
• Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.
• Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.
• io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.
• JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.
• Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of “their” as a singular.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.
• The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.
• Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.
• Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.
• Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.
• The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.
• The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.
• Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.
• Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.
• Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.
• Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, “depose”.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Matt Thompson at anthro{dendum} writes about the complex, often anthropological, satire in the comics of Charles Addams.
• Architectuul looks at the photography of Roberto Conte.
• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes a new computer model suggesting a supernova can be triggered by throwing a white dwarf into close orbit of a black hole.
• D-Brief notes how ammonia on the surface of Pluto hints at the existence of a subsurface ocean.
• Bruce Dorminey notes how the bombardment of Earth by debris from a nearby supernova might have prompted early hominids to become bipedal.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that NASA has awarded its first contract for its plans in lunar space.
• Far Outliers notes the reactions, within and without the Soviet Union, to the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.
• Matt Novak at Gizmodo’s Paleofuture notes how, in 1995, Terry Pratchett predicted the rise of online Nazis.
• io9 notes the impending physical release this summer of DVDs of the Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind.
• JSTOR Daily suggests some ways to start gardening in your apartment.
• Victor Mair at Language Log claims that learning Literary Chinese is a uniquely difficult experience. Thoughts?
• The NYR Daily features a wide-ranging interview with EU official Michel Barnier focused particularly, but not exclusively, on Brexit.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes that an Internet vote has produced a majority in favour of naming outer system body 2007 OR10 Gonggang.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer considers the possibility that foreign investors in Mexico might be at risk, at least feel themselves at risk, from the government of AMLO.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress archives spreadsheets.
• Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal looks at magenta spreen, a colourful green that he grows in his garden.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how we on Earth are carelessly wasting irreplaceable helium.
• Window on Eurasia refers to reports claiming that a third of the population of Turkmenistan has fled that Central Asian state. Could this be accurate?

[PHOTO] Graffiti eggplants, Loblaws

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• blogTO looks at the role of the pigeon in Toronto.
• The Dragon’s Gaze considers the first steps towards estimates of the distribution of planets across the Milky Way Galaxy.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the discovery of a herbivorous plant.
• Joe. My. God. notes an American homophobic preacher who argues that Russia will nuke the US for being gay-friendly, and notes the Polish parliament’s rejection of legislation on civil unions.
• Language Hat notes, contra Chomsky, that there is no such thing as a language instinct.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money mocks opposition to lifting the Cuban embargo and notes Rudolph Guiliani’s support for whatever the police do.
• Marginal Revolution looks at American representation in North Korean films and reports on the Chinese reaction to The Interview.
• pollotenchegg maps population change across Ukraine over 2014.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes the effect, or lack thereof, of global economic shocks on Argentina.
• Peter Rukavina shares the script he used to strip The Guardian (of Charlottetown) website of ads.
• Torontoist describes the history of the Mail and Empire.
• Towleroad links to the interview of the widowed partner of Sydney siege victim Tori Johnson.
• Window on Eurasia notes the departure of migrant labourers from Russia, looks at Russian preferences to keep a pro-Russian Donbas within Ukraine, and looks at the ideological issues surrounding Russia’s opposition to Ukraine and the West.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell reports on right-wing party politics in England.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• blogTO reviews Weird Things, a new gallery of oddities on Bathurst above Bloor, and shares the good news that games cafe Snakes & Lattes is opening a game bar on College called Snakes & Lagers.
• Centauri Dreams anticipates the discoveries coming from Ceres and Pluto when their destined space probes arrive in a couple of years.
• Joe. My. God. notes that American congressman Aaron Schock, known for his anti-gay politics as well as certain things hinting at being in the closet, has made his Instagram account private after being outed.
• Language Log tracks the meaning and usage of the term “86”.
• Marginal Revolution notes a recent study in legal pluralism in the Ottoman Empire (different religious minorities adopted different civil codes for commercial and other reasons, why?) and finds the largest shadow economies in the different states of the US.
• Torontoist’s David Wencer looks at Toronto’s first gangland killing, that of bookie Jimmie Windsor in 1939.
• Towleroad touches upon the struggles of intersex children regarding their right to determine their gender and their genitalia at their own pace, and notes that Navajo are fighting for marriage equality in their large reserve.
• Transit Toronto notes that a water pipe breakage at Yonge and Bloor has flooded the subway station and brought chaos to the TTC.
• The Volokh Conspiracy’s Stewart Baker links to and comments upon a New Yorker article examining the slow but real communications and intelligences of plants, and what they might mean for our own technological future.