[PHOTO] Snowfall at the bottom of the stairs

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the good news: The Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way in 4.5 billion years, not 3.9 billion!


• The Dragon's Tales notes that a new Chinese ground station built in Argentina has not made the promised outreach to locals, with no visitors' centre and rumours aplenty.


• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog explains the importance of doing literature reviews.


• Far Outliers notes the Pakhtuns, a Muslim ethnicity of the British Raj in what is now Pakistan noteworthy for being a major source of recruits in the Indian Army.


• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes Iris Murdoch, particularly her emphasis on learning as a process of engaging with something greater on its terms.


• Gizmodo reports on how space sciences appreciate the work done by the noble rover Opportunity on Mars.


• JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century African-American artists have represented Haiti in the works.


• Language Hat takes note of some of the mechanisms by which linguistics can neglect the study of indigenous languages.


• Language Log takes a look at the Latin motto of the University of Pennsylvania, a source still of unintentional humour.


• Marginal Revolution takes a look at the high levels of dysfunction in Nigeria, from fighting between herders and farmers to the incapacity of the national government.


• The NYR Daily takes a look at the concept of internal exile, starting with Russia and spiraling out into the wider world.


• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a payphone that is one of the few remaining used artifacts of old Island Tel.


• The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper considering the demographic peculiarities of the societies of the semi-periphery as contrasted to those of the core.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes</> the surprisingly large amount of information astronomers will be able to extract from the first image of an Earth-like exoplanet.


• Window on Eurasia notes that North Caucasians in Russia no longer stand out as having higher-than-average birth rates in Russia.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: PATH, Airbnb, houseboat, apartment towers, neighbourhoods

• Jamie Bradburn considers the history of the construction of the Toronto PATH network, and the surprising controversy. Many, it seems, did not want to live like moles.


• VICE takes a look at how Airbnb is directly driving people out of their neighbourhoods.


• The Toronto Star looks at a houseboat in the Scarborough Bluffs area that looks very homey.


• The aging apartment buildings of Toronto need care, perhaps a lot of care, if they are to continue to house safely their many hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. CBC Toronto reports.


• Postcity considers what, exactly, the slowing of development applications in Yonge and Eglinton means. Will the same hypertrophy spread to other neighbourhoods, soon to be overburdened?

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa and Sault Ste Marie, Québec City, Vancouver, Edinburgh, Sydney

• Sault Sainte-Marie hopes to recruit former GM workers from Oshawa to live in that less expensive city, Global News reports.


• Robert Vandenwinkel at HuffPost Quebec makes the case for Québec City not developing a tramway but rather a subway.


• Daily Hive notes that the British Columbia government has increased its funding into research into a high-speed rail link connecting Vancouver to points south.


• CityLab notes that Edinburgh is imposing a tourist tax.


• The Guardian shares images of some of the rejected designs for the famous Sydney Opera House.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Indigenous links: film and TV, Mohawk, Iroquois food, Gaspésie, Beothuk

• NOW Toronto reports on the potential of Indigenous films and television shows to gain international markets, so long as they get needed funding.


• Activists seeking to promote the Mohawk language and culture have received needed government funding, Global News reports.


• CBC Montreal notes the visit of a chef from the Six Nations of the Grand River to Montréal to share Iroquois cuisine there, and more.


• A Mi'kMaq community in Gaspésie does not want to preserve the Maison Busteed, a historic house belonging to an early settler who reportedly cheated them of their land, to the dismay of some local history activists. CBC reports.


• The remains of Nonosabasut and Demasduit, two of the last of the Beothuk of Newfoundland, are going to be transfer from Scotland to a new home in Canada, at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau. CBC reports.

[NEWS] Five sci-fi links: cyberpunk zombies, Alita: Battle Angel, women, W40K, The Silent Star

• Jesse Scott in The Guardian of Charlottetown considers the idea the cyberpunk might be in a process of being zombified.


• McKenna Gray at On The A Side suggests that James Cameron's decision to wait until the technology caught up to his vision helps make Alita: Battle Angel a success.


• Wired notes the research of Lisa Yaszek, who argues the belief that early science fiction was lacking women writers is false, that it was instead a matter of misogynistic anthologists hiding women writers' work.


• This delightful Alex Hern article in The Guardian takes a look at how Warhammer40K has become such a huge hit.


• Eric Schewe at JSTOR Daily looks at the 1960 East German SF film The Silent Star, a remarkably inclusive utopian vision of the future that--conceivably--did set a precedent for Star Trek.