[PHOTO] Tropics behind glass, Flowers by Shyu

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul looks at the divided cities of the divided island of Cyprus.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares an image of a galaxy that actually has a tail.


• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber talks about her pain as an immigrant in the United Kingdom in the era of Brexit, her pain being but one of many different types created by this move.


• The Crux talks about the rejected American proposal to detonate a nuclear bomb on the Moon, and the several times the United States did arrange for lesser noteworthy events there (collisions, for the record).


• D-Brief notes how the innovative use of Curiosity instruments has explained more about the watery past of Gale Crater.


• Bruce Dorminey notes one astronomer's theory that Venus tipped early into a greenhouse effect because of a surfeit of carbon relative to Earth.


• Far Outliers looks at missionaries in China, and their Yangtze explorations, in the late 19th century.


• Gizmodo notes evidence that Neanderthals and Denisovans cohabited in a cave for millennia.


• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox writes about his exploration of the solo music of Paul McCartney.


• io9 looks at what is happening with Namor in the Marvel universe, with interesting echoes of recent Aquaman storylines.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the Beothuk of Newfoundland and their sad fate.


• Language Hat explores Patagonian Afrikaans.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on how mindboggling it is to want to be a billionaire. What would you do with that wealth?


• The Map Room Blog shares a visualization of the polar vortex.


• Marginal Revolution reports on the career of a writer who writes stories intended to help people fall asleep.


• The New APPS Blog reports on the power of biometric data and the threat of its misuse.


• Neuroskeptic takes a look at neurogenesis in human beings.


• Out There notes the import, in understanding our solar system, of the New Horizons photos of Ultima Thule.


• Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog notes that OSIRIS-REx is in orbit of Bennu and preparing to take samples.


• Roads and Kingdoms shares a list of 21 things that visitors to Kolkata should know.


• Mark Simpson takes a critical look at the idea of toxic masculinity. Who benefits?


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why global warming is responsible for the descent of the polar vortex.


• Window on Eurasia notes how the pro-Russian Gagauz of Moldova are moving towards a break if the country at large becomes pro-Western.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at the art of Finnish painter Hugo Simberg.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Metrolinx map, carding, Ontario Place, HIVE, density

• Metrolinx shares a glorious map depicting traffic and trends at the different stops on its many routes.


• NOW Toronto notes how Doug Ford may yet enable carding-like practices by police.


• The criticism by an Ontario government minister of the state of Ontario Place is worrisome. The Toronto Star reports.


• Urban Toronto shares a photo of the construction at the vast Hive site downtown.


• George Popper at Spacing Toronto looks at three neighbourhoods where housing in Toronto can really densify indeed must densify, including the Bloor-Danforth corridor.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Niagara Falls, Montréal, Vancouver, Lisbon, Naples

• Gilbert Ngabo writes about how Niagara Falls, New York, would love the GO Train to cross the border into his city, his article featuring in the Niagara Falls Review.


• Michelle Da Silva writes at NOW Toronto about how the Montréal Igloofest is such a great idea.


• The tax on empty homes in Vancouver may yet be increased, to discourage speculation. Global News reports.


• Guardian Cities notes how tensions between police and locals in the Bairro do Jamaico in Lisbon reveal problems of integration for African immigrants and their descendants.


• CityLab notes how the popular novels of Elena Ferrante may drive gentrification in the Naples neighbourhood of Rione Luzzatti.

[NEWS] Five space science links: Planet Nine, Ultima Thule, Orion Nebula, Sag A*, SN 1987A

• This article by Shannon Stirone at Longreads takes a look at the long, lonely search for Planet Nine from the top of Mauna Kea.


• Universe Today shares a high-resolution photograph of Ultima Thule.


• Universe Today explains how the new crop of young stars in the Orion Nebula disrupt the formation of other stellar bodies.


• Phys.org shares this amazing photograph of Sagittarius A* at the heart of our galaxy.


• The shockwaves from Supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, Universe Today notes, are still crashing into the neighbouring interstellar medium, revealing more secrets to astronomers.

[NEWS] Five politics links: Ai Weiwei on China, nuclear weapons, British navy, Venezuela oil, Iran

• Ai Weiwei is reported as noting at NOW Toronto the role of Western governments in enabling the rise of the People's Republic of China.


• Business Insider argues that, in terms of numbers, technology, and strategy, the nuclear arsenal of China is the best thought-out of any of the nine nuclear weapons states.


• SCMP notes how the naval ambitions of Britain in the Pacific make little military sense but perhaps some economic sense.


• Foreign Policy looks at how oil, in Venezuela, did not guarantee that country's indefinite prosperity.


• Open Democracy hosts an article suggests that monarchism, in the form of the Shah's son and heir Reza Pahlavi, actually has a chance of opposing the Islamic Republic.