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- La Presse notes how Montréal is placing limits on new construction, and why.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how Basquiat interacted with his surroundings in New York City, using them for art.
- CityLab reports on a study of gentrification and displacement in Philadelphia.
- Guardian Cities reports on the remarkable speed with which Turkish Airlines shifted to a new airport in Istanbul.
- This article in The Conversation is entirely right about the importance of Indigenous urban reserves: Why cannot First Nations be as urbanized as other Canadians?
- Chris Fitch writes at CityLab about how, as part of a new policy, Maori placenames are being introduced (or reintroduced) into the New Zealand capital of Wellington.
- The Inter Press Service reports on efforts to keep the fisheries of St. Vincent active, despite climate change.
- This Guardian report on the sheer determination of the librarians of the Orkneys to service their community, even in the face of giant waves, is inspiring.
- I am decidedly impressed by the scope of the Hong Kong plan to build a vast new artificial island. The Guardian reports.
- This Inter Press Service report about how the stigma of leprosy in Kiribati prevents treatment is sad, and recounts a familiar phenomenon.
- That Behrouz Boochani was able to write an award-winning book on Whatsapp while imprisoned in the Australian camp on Manus island is an inspiring story that should never have been. CBC's As It Happens reports.
- This story about a genealogical mystery newly-found in the genetics of Newfoundland is fascinating. The National Post reports.
- The island of Komodo has been closed to tourists to save the Komodo dragons from poachers. VICE reports.
- China plans to build a city under its control among the islets of the South China Sea. Business Insider reports.
- The Inter Press Service notes the spread of leprosy in Kiribati.
- JSTOR Daily explains why, for one week, the Faroe Islands are closed to tourists to better enable cleaning and repairs.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Mar. 19th, 2019 12:22 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes new evidence that the Pathfinder probe landed, on Mars, on the shores of an ancient sea.
- The Crux reports on tholins, the organic chemicals that are possible predecessors to life, now found in abundance throughout the outer Solar System.
- D-Brief reports on the hard work that has demonstrated some meteorites which recently fell in Turkey trace their origins to Vesta.
- Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog explores sociologist Eric Klinenberg's concept of social infrastructure, the public spaces we use.
- Far Outliers reports on a Honolulu bus announcement in Yapese, a Micronesian language spoken by immigrants in Hawai'i.
- JSTOR Daily considers the import of the autobiography of Catherine the Great.
- Language Hat reports, with skepticism, on the idea of "f" and "v" as sounds being products of the post-Neolithic technological revolution.
- Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen is critical of the idea of limiting the number of children one has in a time of climate change.
- Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on death, close at hand and in New Zealand.
- Strange Company reports on the mysterious disappearance, somewhere in Anatolia, of American cyclist Frank Lenz in 1892, and its wider consequences.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel identifies five types of cosmic events capable of triggering mass extinctions on Earth.
- Towleroad reports on the frustration of many J.K. Rowling fans with the author's continuing identification of queer histories for characters that are never made explicit in books or movies.
- Window on Eurasia has a skeptical report about a Russian government plan to recruit Russophones in neighbouring countries as immigrants.
- Arnold Zwicky explores themes of shipwrecks and of being shipwrecked.
Tags:
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- bicycles,
- blogs,
- cycling,
- demographics,
- diaspora,
- disasters,
- evolution,
- extraterrestrial life,
- feminism,
- gender,
- glbt issues,
- hawaii,
- in memoriam,
- language,
- links,
- mars,
- micronesia,
- migration,
- oceans,
- oddities,
- ottoman empire,
- pacific islands,
- public art,
- russia,
- russian language,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- solar system,
- space science,
- terrorism,
- vesta,
- writing
- CBC reports on a Toronto couple who found a better life in a small town in Newfoundland, Twillingate.
- The Irish Times reports on the difficulties, perceived and otherwise, surrounding the first application of Ireland to join the EEC in 1963.
- The Guardian reports on how the Russian Arctic islands of Novaya Zemlya have been facing an influx of hungry polar bears.
- This account at the NYR Daily of Oceania, an exhibit of art from the Pacific islands at the Royal Academy, makes me wish I could have seen it.
- The Inter Press Service reports on the victory of Mauritius over the United Kingdom at the International Court of Justice, ordering Britain to retreat from Diego Garcia and to allow the Chagossians to return to their archipelagic home.
- Le Devoir took a look at the importance of the seal hunt for the Iles-de-la-Madeleine.
- Alex Boyd at The Island Review details, with prose and photos, his visit to the now-deserted island of St. Kilda.
- The Economist took a look at the German North Sea island of Heligoland.
- Orlando Milesi writes at the Inter Press Service about the threats posed by climate changes to the iconic statues and marine resources of Rapa Nui.
- VICE looks at the plight of people who, as convicted criminals, were deported to the Tonga where they held citizenship. How do they live in a homeland they may have no experience of?
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- CBC Prince Edward Island reports on a poster showing the hundred largest islands in the world. (PEI is #96.)
- A broken undersea cable has disrupted Internet service throughout the Kingdom of Tonga, Motherboard reports.
- The melting of ice is southwestern Greenland is accelerating, CBC reports.
- CityLab notes controversy in Montréal regarding plans to redesign the insular Parc-Jean-Drapeau.
- Al Jazeera looks at the problems facing the inhabitants of the United Kingdom's overseas territories, almost all islands, faced with Brexit.
- Representatives of Easter Island, visiting London, plead for the return of a moai statue stolen away in the 1860s. The Guardian reports.
- Guardian Cities notes the problems facing Pacific Island migrants in the New Zealand city of Auckland.
- Daily Xtra takes a look at Pride on Curaçao.
- The Conversation notes how Barbados has demonstrated, and is continuing to demonstrate, remarkable resiliency versus threats both natural and human.
- Deb O'Rourke at NOW Toronto writes about how Toronto Islanders and the Mississauga of the New Credit First Nation are moving towards reconciliation.
- Atlas Obscura takes a look at Malaga Island in Maine, an island brutally depopulated by state authorities a century ago because of its non-white population.
- Gizmodo notes the discovery of some of the oldest soil ever found, paleosoil, 3.7 billion years old, in Greenland.
- A fringe political candidate in British Columbia wants his Vancouver Island to become a separate province. The Province reports.
- The Gibraltar Chronicle has a feature on a journalist with a book exploring the historical connection between Gibraltar and the Balearic island of Menorca, at one time a British possession.
- The Guardian reports on how Palau dealt with a freeze on tourism from China over its continued recognition of Taiwan.
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- The Inter Press Service notes that the vulnerable islands of the Caribbean can survive only a modest increase in temperatures.
- La Presse reports that the new premier of Québec, François Legault, says he has no plans to open up Anticosti island, in the Guilf of St. Lawrence, to exploration for oil.
- VICE interviews some workers on a Greek party island to see what their lives are like. (Rarely does it feel like a vacation.)
- The recent Hurricane Walaka has done terrible damage to some of the most remote islands of Hawai'i, destroying low-lying East Island entirely. Global News reports.
- CNN notes that although the more remote islands of the Federated States of Micronesia might seem idyllic to tourists, local populations are emigrating from these isolated locations in large numbers.
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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Oct. 9th, 2018 11:40 am- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the landing of the Franco-German MASCOT probe on asteroid Ryugu from the Japanese Hayabusa-2 probe.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares a powerful New York Times article she wrote about her health status.
- Centauri Dreams notes the continued fine-tuning of the New Horizons probe as it approaches Kuiper Belt object 2014 MU69, also known as Ultima Thule.
- D-Brief notes how the Gaia satellite has detected hundreds of hypervelocity stars heading towards the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, perhaps coming from other galactic neighbours like the Large Magellanic Cloud.
- At the Everyday Sociology Blog, Karen Sternheimer writes about the possibilities opened up by learning another language.
- JSTOR Daily notes that, once, working-class children regularly roamed the night.
- Language Hat notes how the Maori remembered in their proverbs the disappearance of the moa, long after that species' extinction in New Zealand.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money rejoices at the despair of the alt-right on learning their favourite pop star, Taylor Swift, supports the Democratic Party.
- Lingua Franca takes a look at the past usage of the phrase "cold civil war".
- The LRB Blog writes about the profoundly disturbing case of the apparent murder, inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution has a critical take on the concept of "Airspace", the sort of shared minimalist public spaces enabled by modern technologies.
- Strange Company reports on the mysterious Napoleonic-era haunting of the Upper Silesian castle of Slawensik.
- Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps reports on the most common last names in different European countries, finding that local variations on "Smith" are exceptionally common.
Tags:
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- birds,
- blogs,
- crime,
- demographics,
- education,
- english language,
- espionage,
- germany,
- health,
- journalism,
- language,
- links,
- new zealand,
- oddities,
- pacific islands,
- poland,
- politics,
- polynesia,
- saudi arabia,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- solar system,
- space science,
- space travel,
- technology,
- turkey,
- writing
- blogTO reports on the lovely Dufferin Islands of Niagara Falls, green creations in the river.
- Language Hat reports on the mythical island of Antillia, a phantom island reputed in late medieval Europe to lie far to the west of Iberia.
- Archeologists are racing to excavate and record and even protect hundreds, if not thousands, of archeological sites in the Orkney Islands ahead of rising sea levels. The National Post reports.
- JSTOR Daily takes a look at the factors that drew the 19th century kings of Hawai'i so strongly towards freemasonry.
- Janet Wainscott writes at The Island Review about her visit to New Zealand's Stewart Island, searching for the remnants of her family's homes and businesses there.
Tags:
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- Reddit's unresolvedmysteries highlights a historical conundrum: Who were these hundreds of people from all over Asia who died in a remote district of the Indian Himalayas centuries ago?
- Smithsonian Magazine notes why 18th century Europeans prized even wildly inaccurate maps and images of colonial cities in the Americas.
- J.M. Opal's argument at The Conversation that the United States, dominated by a rigid oligarchy, is as unreformable as 18th century Britain is depressing.
- The suggestion of Dan Malleck at The Conversation, looking back at the Ontario pre-Prohibition history of unregulated alcohol sales, that the Ford deregulation of marijuana sales might be short-sighted, seems plausible.
- George Dvorsky at Gizmodo shares the latest evidence that pre-contact Easter Island did not undergo a great violent collapse, with no signs of a major conflict.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Aug. 14th, 2018 08:52 am- Architectuul reports on how architects, at a time of new environmental pressures on water, how some architects are integrating water into their works.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about what books she is (and is not) reading these days.
- D-Brief notes a new study suggesting that the prospects of planet-based life at globular cluster Omega Centauri are low, simply because the tightly-packed stars disrupt each others' planets too often.
- Hornet Stories notes how some American conservatives wish to prohibit states from mandating adoption agencies not bar same-sex couples as applicants.
- JSTOR Daily notes how the tattooed heads of Maori first became international trade items in the 19th century, then were returned to New Zealand in more recent years.
- Language Log's Victor Mair writes about his favourite Nepali expression, "Bāphre bāph!".
- The Map Room Blog notes the release of a revised vision of Star Trek: Stellar Cartography, including material from season 1 of Discovery.
- Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw explains how, in 1976, he appeared on Australian television talking about the Yowie, the Australian equivalent to a Yeti.
- Drew Rowsome reviews Folsom Street Blues, Jim Stewart's memoirs of the leather/SoMA scene in San Francisco in the 1970s.
- Peter Rukavina writes about the newly liberal liquor laws of Prince Edward Island, allowing children to be present in environments where liquor is being served.
- Window on Eurasia shares suggestions that the government of Ukraine needs to take a much more visible, and active, approach towards protecting its international tourists, for their sake and for the country's.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell talks about the redefinition, at least in the United Kingdom, of Euroskepticism into a movement of extreme suburban nationalists, away from rational critiques of the European Union.
Tags:
- adoption,
- architecture,
- astronomy,
- atlantic canada,
- australia,
- blogs,
- book reviews,
- california,
- canada,
- clash of ideologies,
- environment,
- european union,
- extraterrestrial life,
- family,
- first nations,
- former soviet union,
- glbt issues,
- history,
- language,
- links,
- national identity,
- nepal,
- new zealand,
- oddities,
- pacific islands,
- polynesia,
- popular literature,
- prince edward island,
- san francisco,
- separatism,
- space science,
- star trek,
- tourism,
- travel,
- ukraine,
- united kingdom,
- united states
- JSTOR Daily notes how severe drought in Ireland is revealing, to aerial and other observers, the outlines of ancient ruins.
- D-Brief examines how the export from Norse Greenland to Europe of walrus ivory played a key role in these lost settlements' economy.
- The people of Rapa Nui, Easter Island, have demanded a return of one of their moai statues from the British Museum, taken at their historical nadir.
- Asylum-seekers being held in detention by Australia on the island of Nauru have beseeched Canada, asking for refuge here. CBC reports.
- New York Magazine suggests that San Juan, capital of Puerto Rico, is despite recent horrors a good destination for tourists.
- Tory MEP Charles Tannock notes how Brexiteers' disregards for the special interests of Northern Ireland threaten to un-do the United Kingdom. He writes in the New Statesman.
- Can Malta become a world centre for blockchain production? CBB
reports. - Anti-tourism protests in the Balearic island of Mallorca are gaining strength. Condé Nast reports
- The conditions facing refugees detained by the Australian government on the island of Nauru are horrific. The Guardian reports.
- Yemeni refugees residing on the South Korean island of Jeju, known for its tourist industry, are encountering mixed reactions. The South China Morning Post reports.
[BLOG] Some Friday links
Jul. 13th, 2018 02:15 pm- Architectuul has an extended long interview with architect Dragoljub Bakić, talking about the innovative architecture of Tito's Yugoslavia and his experiences abroad.
- Centauri Dreams remarks on how the new maps of Pluto can evoke the worlds of Ray Bradbury.
- The Crux answers an interesting question: What, exactly, is a blazar?
- D-Brief links to a study suggesting that conditions on Ross 128 b, the second-nearest potentially habitable planet, are potentially (very broadly) Earth-like.
- Dangerous Minds shows how John Mellencamp was, in the 1970s, once a glam rocker.
- The Finger Post shares photos from a recent visit to Naypyidaw, the very new capital of Myanmar.
- Gizmodo explains how the detection of an energetic neutrino led to the detection of a distant blazar, marking yet another step forward for multi-messenger astronomy.
- JSTOR Daily reports on the now-overlooked writer of supernatural fiction Vernon Lee.
- Language Log makes an argument that acquiring fluency in Chinese language, including Chinese writing, is difficult, so difficult perhaps as to displace other cultures. Thoughts?
- Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that the decline of the neo-liberal world order is needed. My main concern is that neo-liberalism may well be the least bad of the potential world orders out there.
- Lingua Franca takes a look at how Hindi and Urdu, technically separate languages, actually form two poles of a Hindustani language continuum.
- The Map Room Blog links to a unique map of the London Underground that shows the elevation of each station.
- Rocky Planet notes that the continuing eruption of Kilauea is going to permanently shape the lives of the people of the Big Island of Hawai'i.
- Window on Eurasia notes that the Buddhists of Kalmykia want the Russian government to permit a visit by the Dalai Lama to their republic.
- Writing at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Livio Di Matteo notes that the Trump demand NATO governments spend 4% of their GDP on defense would involve unprecedented levels of spending in Canada.
Tags:
- architecture,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- buddhism,
- canada,
- china,
- chinese language,
- disasters,
- economics,
- former soviet union,
- former yugoslavia,
- globalization,
- hawaii,
- india,
- language,
- links,
- military,
- myanmar,
- pacific islands,
- pakistan,
- photos,
- physics,
- pluto,
- polynesia,
- popular music,
- russia,
- south asia,
- southeast asia,
- space science,
- tibet,
- united states
- Journalist Duncan McCue writes about his efforts to learn the Anishaabemowin language of his ancestors, over at CBC.
- The Inter Press Service looks at indigenous language revival movements among in Mexico.
- The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports on the perhaps surprisingly intimate relationship over time between Indigenous Australians and Chinese migrants in Australia.
- Some Aborigines were deported to Vanuatu in the 19th century, part of the "repatriation" of the blackbirded. Some of their descendants have recently returned to Queensland to try to connect to their local kin. SBS reports.
- A Tsimshian woman from Alaska, active in the language revival movement among the Tsimshian of British Columbia, is fighting efforts to deport her from Canada--or, rather, from the Canadian portion of the Tsimshian homeland. The National Post reports.
Tags:
- The Toronto Islands are open for business this year, hopefully without any hitches. (Let there not be unexpected flooding.) Global News reports.
- The sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia has been freed from rat infestations, helping native life recover. National Geographic reports.
- Killing invasive deer on Haida Gwaii is the task of recruited sharpshooters from New Zealand. MacLean's reports.
- Controversy over a new museum to slavery on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe draws on all sorts of political and cultural and economic issues besetting the territory. The Atlantic reports.
- The exact language of the question to be asked of voters in the New Caledonia referendum on independence, coming this year, is a critical question. The Lowy Institute examines the issue.
