[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen argues compellingly that stories featuring queer protagonists should also have other queer characters (among other things).


• James Bow talks about the origins and the progress of his new novel, The Sun Runners.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the recent hopeful analysis of Ross 128b, still a strong candidate for a relatively Earth-like world.


• Crooked Timber starts a discussion on having elections in the European Parliament being based on transnational lists.


• D-Brief notes a hauntingly musical study of the plasma of Saturn's ring system.


• Hornet Stories reports on N.K. Jemisin's article that bigots are not good writers of fiction. I'm inclined to agree: People who cannot imagine the lives of others as legitimate have issues with plausible characterization.


• Joe. My. God. notes that Nicola Sturgeon opened Pride in Glasgow on the same day as Trump's visit, saying there was where she wanted to be regardless.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the winding history of New York State's Adirondacks, as a protected area.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the evidence for the unwitting involvement of Glenn Greenwald and Wikileaks as agents of Russia in support of Trump.


• Lingua Franca, at the Chronicle, considers the genesis of the phrase "Sherpas of the Beltway." How problematic is it?


• Marginal Revolution suggests that Canadian public opinion in support of open immigration rests on borders being controlled.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that the strange behaviour of Boyajian's Star can be explained by dust alone.


• Window on Eurasia speculates that Russia might be on the verge of another wave of regional reorganizations, amalgamating some provinces and other territories into others.


• Arnold Zwicky points out the achievements of Samantha Allen, a journalist writing for The Daily Beast.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: The Discourse, First Nations park, Yorkdale, ravines, Parkdale

• The Discourse reports on what they have learned about local issues from interviewing people in Toronto. Much appreciated; I hope they get a bigger local footprint here.


• Toronto's first First Nations-themed park is being planned for a North York site, at Finch and Weston Road. The City of Toronto reports.


• Urban Toronto notes the new green and solar roofs being installed at Yorkdale.


• Shawn Micallef makes the argument that the cold green treed ravines of Toronto are good places to seek refuge from the heat, over at the Toronto Star.


• It is sad, if perhaps unsurprising, that one tenant participating in a Parkdale rent strike has been issued eviction notices. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Mississauga, Kahnawake, Madrid, Helsinki, Mumbai

• Croatian-Canadian fans in Mississauga were definitely organized and ready to celebrate the Croatian team playing in the World Cup finals. Global News reports.


• People in Kahnawake are looking forward to an upcoming powwow, as a celebration of indigenous culture and a vehicle for reconciliation. Global News reports.


• CityLab notes the progress that environmental initiatives in Madrid have had in bringing wildlife back to the Spanish capital.


• Politico Europe reports on the mood in Helsinki on the eve of the Trump-Putin summit there. Avoiding a repetition of Munich was prominent in locals' minds.


• Namrata Kolachalam at Roads and Kingdoms reports from Mumbai on the negative environmental impact of a controversial statue of Marathi conqueror Shivaji on local fishing communities.

[URBAN NOTE] Five notes about cities: Arctic, floating, cemeteries, wildlife, immigrants

• Wired noted how Arctic cities were facing significant problems from melting permafrost, and how they were trying to deal with this threat.


• CityLab notes the ever-popular idea of a floating city, riding the waves.


• Atlas Obscura notes, unsurprisingly, that some cemeteries in the United States were used as parks. Why not? These can be lovely green spaces. Just look at Toronto's Mount Pleasant and Prospect cemeteries.


• In a feature on Menno Schilthuizen's Darwin Comes to Town, Simon Worrall at National Geographic looks at the many and varied ways wildlife can adapt to city life.


• Melissa Byrnes, at Lawyers, Guns and Money, noted how Trump's rhetoric of ICE "liberating" American communities echoed ways in which French authorities in the Algerian war militarized immigrant neighbourhoods.