[PHOTO] The Village Green, ringed

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Cody Delistraty considers the new field of dystopian realism--of dystopia as a real thing in contemporary lives--in popular culture.


• D-Brief notes how direct experiments in laboratories have helped geologists better understand the mantle of the Earth.


• Far Outliers shares a terribly sad anecdote of a young woman in China who killed herself, victim of social pressures which claim many more victims.


• Imageo notes how recent headlines about ocean temperature increases are misleading in that they did not represent the steady incremental improvements of science generally.


• Joe. My. God. notes the unexpectedly rapid shift of the location of the northern magnetic pole.


• JSTOR Daily links to a paper that links to the quietly subversive aesthetics and politics of the 1950s and 1960s surf movie.


• Language Hat links to an intriguing paper looking at the relationship between the size of an individual's Broca's area, in their brain, and the ways in which they can learn language.


• Language Log shares a poster from Taiwan trying to promote use of the Hakka language, currently a threatened language among traditional speakers.


• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extreme secrecy of Trump regarding his Helsinki discussions with Putin, going so far as to confiscate his translator's notes.


• Justin Petrone at north! writes about the exhilarating and liberating joys of hope, of fantasy.


• The NYR Daily examines the new Alfonso Cuarón film, the autobiographical Roma.


• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the interesting show by Damien Atkins at Crow's Nest Theatre, We Are Not Alone.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel reports on what a report of the discovery of of the brightest quasar actually means.


• Window on Eurasia notes the historical cooperation, before Operation Barbarossa, between the Nazis' Gestapo and Stalin's NKVD.


• Arnold Zwicky shares a video examining Chavacano, the Spanish-based creole still spoken in the Philippines.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Presto, Kensington Market, KING, Beaches, Ontario Place

• Jarek Piórkowski writes about how he can use his Presto card records to reconstruct, to varying degrees of fidelity, his commutes across the Greater Toronto Area.


• blogTO notes that the streetside bins of nuts and fruits of Salamanca Dry Foods Store in Kensington Market are no more, thanks to a new charge by the city.


• This paid section at the Toronto Star does a good job explaining the new planned Bjarke Ingels KING condominium complex on King Street West.


• CBC Toronto notes a new push by residents of the Beaches to encourage visitors (and locals) not to litter, on Woodbine or any other of the east-end's iconic strands.


• The Toronto Star reports on a community meeting regarding the redevelopment of Ontario Place, the different proposals all being united by a desire to keep this place a high-quality destination open to all Torontonians.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Ottawa, Montréal, New York City, Athens

• The Hamilton Spectator reports that landlord applications for above-guideline increases in rent have been growing sharply in number, driven by growing demand and by the aging of the housing stock.


• CBC Ottawa shares seven maps of Ottawa and its area which trace the city's development over the previous century and a half and look towards the future.


• The Sun Life Building of Montréal recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. Global News reports.


• VICE shares photos taken by Jacob Fuglsang MIkkelsen in the early 1990s of the contemporary New York City nightclub scene.


• Guardian Cities reports on how the Greek capital of Athens is conducting a survey of its populations of ring-necked parakeets, to see how many of this newly-arrived species are present.