Entries tagged with china

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

The Buzz shares a TIFF reading list, here.

Centauri Dreams notes the growing sensitivity of radial velocity techniques in finding weird exoplanet HR 5183 b, here.

The Crux reports on circumgalactic gas and the death of galaxies.

Dead Things notes the import of the discovery of the oldest known Australopithecine skull.

Dangerous Minds reports on pioneering 1930s queer artist Hannah Gluckstein, also known as Gluck.

Gizmodo notes that, for an unnamed reason, DARPA needs a large secure underground testing facility for tomorrow.

JSTOR Daily looks at how Jim Crow laws affected Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century US.

Language Hat looks at a new project to study Irish texts and language over centuries.

Language Log shares some Chinglish signs from a top university in China.

Lawyers, Guns and Money shares an interview with Jeffrey Melnick suggesting Charles Manson was substantially a convenient boogeyman.

Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting marijuana legalization is linked to declining crime rates.

Susan Neiman at the NYR Daily tells how she began her life as a white woman in Atlanta and is ending it as a Jewish woman in Berlin.

The Planetary Society Blog looks at Hayabusa2 at Ryugu.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel celebrated the 230th anniversary of Enceladus, the Saturn moon that might harbour life.

Window on Eurasia notes how global warming is harming the rivers of Siberia, causing many to run short.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Peterborough, Kingston, Québec City, Detroit, Richmond

Peterborough is facing a serious shortage of housing. Global News reports.

In Kingston, the restoration of the Bellevue House that was home to John A MacDonald continues. Global News reports.

The federal government will provide funding for the new streetcar route in Québec City. CTV News reports.

Will the Detroit television documentary series filmed by Anthony Bourdain see a release? One hopes.

Richmond, a Vancouver suburb home for decades to a substantial diaspora from Hong Kong, is deeply affected by the ongoing protests there. The Toronto Star reports.

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[BLOG] Some Monday links

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares images of galaxy M61.

Centauri Dreams looks at a proposal for the Solar Cruiser probe, a NASA probe that would use a solar sail.

D-Brief notes the discovery of bacteria on coasts which manufacture dimethyl sulfide.

Bruce Dorminey writes about some facts about the NASA X-15 rocket plane.

The Dragon's Tales reports on the strange nuclear accident in Nyonoksa, Russia.

JSTOR Daily reports on the recent uncovering of the ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion, under the Mediterranean.

Language Hat looks at 19th century standards on ancient Greek language.

Language Log notes an ironically swapped newspaper article subhead.

Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the role of Tom Cotton in the recent Greenland scandal.

Marginal Revolution glances at the relationship between China and Singapore.

The NYR Daily looks at how the car ride played a role in the writing of Jacques Lacan.

The Russian Demographics Blog shares an index on state fragility around the world.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why Jupiter suffers so many impacts from incoming bodies.

John Scalzi at Whatever reports on what seems to have been an enjoyable concert experience with Iron Maiden.

Window on Eurasia reports a claim that, with regards to a border dispute, Chechnya is much more unified than Dagestan.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Québec City, San Jose, Tehran, Hong Kong

Real estate in Hamilton, Ontario, is quite affordable by GTA standards. Global News reports.

Québec City has a new farmer's market to replace an old. CBC reports.

San Jose, California, is set to embark on a grand experiment in cohousing, CityLab reports.

These vast abandoned apartment blocks in the desert outside of Tehran speak of economic underperformance, to say the least. Messynessychic has it.

Now that Hong Kong has not just competition from other cities in China but is finding itself outmatched by the likes of Shenzhen and Shanghai, the city-state's bargaining power is accordingly limited. The SCMP reports.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the German city of Nordlingen, formed in a crater created by the impact of a binary asteroid with Earth.

Centauri Dreams reports on the possibility that the farside of the Moon might bear the imprint of an ancient collision with a dwarf planet the size of Ceres.

D-Brief notes that dredging for the expansion of the port of Miami has caused terrible damage to corals there.

Dangerous Minds looks at the last appearances of David Bowie and Iggy Pop together on stage.

The Dragon's Tales notes that China is on track to launch an ambitious robotic mission to Mars in 2020.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog talks about what sociological research actually is.

Gizmodo reports on the discovery of a torus of cool gas circling Sagittarius A* at a distance of a hundredth of a light-year.

io9 reports about Angola Janga, an independent graphic novel by Marcelo D'Salete showing how slaves from Africa in Brazil fought for their freedom and independence.

The Island Review shares some poems of Matthew Landrum, inspired by the Faroe Islands.

Joe. My. God. looks at how creationists are mocking flat-earthers for their lack of scientific knowledge.

Language Hat looks at the observations of Mary Beard that full fluency in ancient Latin is rare even for experts, for reason I think understandable.

Melissa Byrnes wrote at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the meaning of 4 June 1989 in the political transitions of China and Poland.

Marginal Revolution notes how the New York Times has become much more aware of cutting-edge social justice in recent years.

The NYR Daily looks at how the memories and relics of the Sugar Land prison complex outside of Houston, Texas, are being preserved.

Jason C Davis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the differences between LightSail 1 and the soon-to-be-launched LightSail 2.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks in detail at the high electricity prices in Argentina.

Peter Rukavina looks at the problems with electric vehicle promotion on PEI.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at when the universe will have its first black dwarf. (Not in a while.)

Window on Eurasia suggests that Belarusians are not as interested in becoming citizens of Russia as an Internet poll suggests.

Arnold Zwicky highlights a Pride Month cartoon set in Antarctica featuring the same-sex marriage of two penguins.

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[URBAN NOTE] Ten links on cities, in all their dimensions

The Conversation notes how Canadian cities need new revenue sources as their economies evolve.

Can Canada learn from a New Jersey trying to move homes and residents out of flood-prone areas? CBC reports.

CityLab looks at how St. Louis is finally removing the artificial concrete barriers blocking its streets and neighbourhoods.
The controversial "new towns" of the United Kingdom are the subject of this Guardian Cities feature.

Bloomberg looks at how second-tier cities in China like Wuhan are also competing for white-collar migrants.

JSTOR Daily looks at how urban architecture can be made to work better.

CityLab looks at the extent to which Millennials in North America really do like cities, and why.

CityLab examines the various reasons why Americans have become less mobile than many before, from a love for their community to note being able to move.

This Guardian Cities article looking at how British cities have become dependent on alcohol sales and nightclubbing, despite the social toll, is disturbing.

Justin Fox at Bloomberg looks at how cities like Buffalo and Pittsburgh can thrive despite losing population.

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[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

Bad Astronomy notes how, in galaxy 3XMM J150052.0+015452 1.8 billion light-years away, a black hole has been busily eating a star for a decade.

Centauri Dreams considers how relativistic probes might conduct astronomy. How would their measurements be changed by these high speeds?

The Crux reports on how scientists are trying to save the platypus in its native rivers of Australia.

D-Brief reports on the quiet past of Kuiper Belt object Ultima Thule.

The Dragon's Tales reports on UAV news from around the world.

Joe. My. God. reports a statement by a Trump biography suggesting that the American president believes in not following laws because of his belief in his own "genetic superiority".

JSTOR Daily reports on the importance of the longleaf pine in the history of the United States.

Language Hat considers, in the case of Australia, the benefits of reviving indigenous languages.
Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how the success of Israel in hosting Eurovision is a blow against the Netanyahu government.

James Butler at the LRB Blog looks at the peculiar position of private schools in the UK, and their intersection with public life.

Marginal Revolution looks at a paper analyzing two centuries of British writers noting that productivity was boosted for the least productive if they lived in London.

The NYR Daily notes the end of famed French periodical Les temps modernes.

Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes the expected crash of Chinese smallsat Longjiang-2 from its lunar orbit at the end of July.

Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money notes how ex-president of Argentina Cristina Fernández, running for election this year, was lucky in having the economic crash occur after the end of her presidency.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains the different reasons behind the blues of the sky and the ocean.

Window on Eurasia notes that three hundred thousand Russians have died of HIV/AIDS since the virus manifested on Soviet territory in the late 1980s, with more deaths to come thanks to mismanagement of the epidemic.

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

Architectuul notes the recent death of I.M. Pei.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes what, exactly, rubble-pile asteroids are.

The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about definitions of home.

Centauri Dreams considers white dwarf planets.

The Crux notes how ultra-processed foods are liked closely to weight gain.

D-Brief observes that a thin layer of insulating ice might be saving the subsurface oceans of Pluto from freezing out.

Bruce Dorminey notes the critical role played by Apollo 10 in getting NASA ready for the Moon landings.

The Dragon's Tales notes the American government's expectation that China will seek to set up its own global network of military bases.

Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the Soviet Union's Venera 5 and 6 missions to Venus.

Far Outliers looks at the visit of U.S. Grant to Japan and China.

Gizmodo notes a recent analysis of Neanderthal teeth suggesting that they split with Homo sapiens at a date substantially earlier than commonly believed.

io9 notes the sheer scale of the Jonathan Hickman reboots for the X-Men comics of Marvel.

Joe. My. God. shares the argument of Ted Cruz that people should stop making fun of his "space pirate" suggestion.I am inclined to think Cruz more right than not, actually.

JSTOR Daily notes the wave of anti-black violence that hit the United States in 1919, often driven by returned veterans.

Language Hat shares a recognizable complaint, written in ancient Akkadian, of bad customers.

Language Log shares a report of a village in Brittany seeking people to decipher a mysterious etching.

This Scott Lemieux report at Lawyers, Guns and Money about how British conservatives received Ben Shapiro is a must-read summary.

Benjamin Markovits at the LRB Blog shares the reasons why he left his immigrant-heavy basketball team in Germany.

Marginal Revolution looks at one effort in Brazil to separate people from their street gangs.

The NYR Daily looks at how ISIS, deprived of its proto-state, has managed to thrive as a decentralized network.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences and perceptions of his native region of New England, in southeastern Australia.

The Planetary Society Blog notes how the Chang'e 4 rover may have found lunar mantle on the surface of the Moon.

The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that while Argentine president Mauricio Macri is polling badly, his opponents are not polling well.

Roads and Kingdoms shares a list of things to do in see in the Peru capital of Lima.

The Signal examines how the Library of Congress engages in photodocumentation.

Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal explains how he is helping native insects by planting native plants in his garden.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how scientific illiteracy should never be seen as cool.

Towleroad notes the questions of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as to why Truvada costs so much in the United States.

Window on Eurasia notes how family structures in the North Caucasus are at once modernizing and becoming more conservative.

Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes how the distribution of US carriers and their fleets at present does not support the idea of a planned impending war with Iran.

Arnold Zwicky examines the tent caterpillar of California.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five notes about cities: Canada, Japan, China

That the bottom 75% of income-earners in Canadian cities cannot afford an apartment in the major cities of the country is, regardless of the qualifications, bad news. This Yahoo Finance article goes into detail.

It is an exaggeration to talk about an exodus of young Canadians away from expensive centres. The Globe and Mail discusses.

Ozy suggests many young Japanese are fleeing the cities for the less stressful countryside.

The CNRS hosts this interview which contrasts and compares the developments of suburbs in Europe and in Japan.

The SCMP reports that a high proportion of Chinese cities are seeing population declines.

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[BLOG] Some Saturday links

Architectuul writes about the exciting possibility of using living organisms, like fungi, as custom-designed construction materials.

Bad Astronomy looks at first-generation stars, the first stars in the universe which exploded and scattered heavy elements into the wider universe.

Caitlin Kelly writes at the Broadside Blog, as an outsider and an observer, about the American fascination with guns.

The Toronto Public Library's Buzz lists some top memoirs.

Centauri Dreams considers the vexed issue of oxygen in the oceans of Europa. There may well not be enough oxygen to sustain complex life, though perhaps life imported from Earth might be able to thrive with suitable preparation.

The Crux looks at the well-established practice, not only among humans but other animals, of using natural substances as medicines.

D-Brief looks at the NASA Dart mission, which will try to deflect the tiny moon of asteroid Didymos in an effort to test asteroid-diversion techniques.

io9 reports George R.R. Martin's belief that Gandalf could beat Dumbledore. I can buy that, actually.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the local reactions to Woodstock.

Language Hat looks at the language in a 19th century short story by Nikolai Leskov, concerned with the difficulties of religious conversion for a people whose language does not encompass the concepts of Christianity.

Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a book review of his examining the Marshall mission to Nationalist China after the Second World War.

Marginal Revolution links to survey results suggesting that, contrary to the Brexit narratives, Britons have actually been getting happier over the past two decades.

The NYR Daily reports on an exhibition of the universe of transgressive writer Kathy Acker in London.

Drew Rowsome reviews the innovative new staging of the queer Canadian classic Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times.

Towleroad reports on the progress of Pete Buttigieg.

Window on Eurasia notes that Russia and Ukraine are becoming increasingly separated by their very different approaches to their shared Soviet past.

Arnold Zwicky looks at the latest evolutions of English.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Centauri Dreams links to a paper noting that the interiors of planets play a critical role in determining planetary habitability.

Belle Waring writes at Crooked Timber about imaginative dream worlds, criticized by some as a sort of maladaptive daydreaming I don't buy that; I am interested in what she says about hers.

D-Brief notes the very recent discovery of a small tyrannosaur.

Dead Things considers the possibility that a new South African hominin, Australopithecus sediba, might actually be the ancestor of Homo sapiens.

JSTOR Daily looks at how one negative side-effect of the renewable energy boom is the mass mining of rare earth elements.

Erik Loomis writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the way in which not just history but history fandoms are gendered, the interests of women being neglected or downplayed.

Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen reports on how a new US-Chinese trade deal will not do much to deal with underlying issues.

The New APPS Blog notes the great profits made by the gun industry in the United States and the great death toll, too, associated with the guns produced.

The NYR Daily visits the Northern Ireland town of Carrickfergus, home to Louis MacNeice and made famous by violence as the whole province sits on the edge of something.

Drew Rowsome takes a look at the queer horror film The Skin of The Teeth.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains what the technical limits of the Hubble Space Telescope are, and why it needs a replacement.

Window on Eurasia notes changing patters of population change in the different regions of Russia.

Arnold Zwicky shares some photos of notable public art in Switzerland, starting with The Caring Hand in his ancestral canton of Glarus.

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[URBAN NOTE] Five links about cities: noise, China, Central Asia, Bauhaus, suburbs

Guardian Cities notes the growing problem of noise pollution, and how it is the poor who suffer the most from this.

Guardian Cities shares photos depicting the scale of China's urbanization and other transformations of the very land.

Guardian Cities shares photos of the apartment towers of post-Soviet Central Asia.

Citylab looks at how Bauhaus and the architects who belonged to that school tried to resist Naziism.

CityLab shares excerpts from Amanda Kolson Hurley's new book Radical Suburbs, examining the real past and potential of suburbs for change.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.

D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.

Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.

Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.

JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.

Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.

Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.

Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.

James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.

Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.

Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.

Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.

Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.

Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.

Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.

Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.

Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

In an extended meditation, Antipope's Charlie Stross considers what the domestic architecture of the future will look like. What different technologies, with different uses of space, will come into play?

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the new SPECULOOS exoplanet hunting telescope, specializing in the search for planets around the coolest stars.

The Crux looks at the evolutionary origins of hominins and chimpanzees in an upright walking ape several million years ago.

D-Brief notes the multiple detections of gravitational waves made by LIGO.

The Dragon's Tales looks at the development of laser weapons by China.

Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the gap between social theory and field research.

Gizmodo shares an interesting discussion with paleontologists and other dinosaur experts: What would the dinosaurs have become if not for the Chixculub impact?

Hornet Stories notes the ways in which the policies of the Satanic Temple would be good for queer students.

io9 notes how the Deep Space 9 documentary What We Leave Behind imagines what a Season 8 would have looked like.

Joe. My. God. reports that activist Jacob Wohl is apparently behind allegations of a sexual assault by Pete Buttigieg against a subordinate.

JSTOR Daily takes a look at the uses of the yellow ribbon in American popular culture.
Language Hat shares an account of the life experiences of an Israeli taxi driver, spread across languages and borders.

Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money makes deserved fun of Bret Easton Ellis for his claims to having been marginalized.

Marginal Revolution considers, briefly, the idea that artificial intelligence might not be harmful to humans. (Why would it necessarily have to be?)

The NYR Daily considers a British exhibition of artworks by artists from the former Czechoslovakia.

Peter Rukavina looks at gender representation in party caucuses in PEI from the early 1990s on, noting the huge surge in female representation in the Greens now.

The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress is preserving Latin American monographs.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how Einstein knew that gravity must bend light.

Window on Eurasia explains the sharp drop in the ethnic Russian population of Tuva in the 1990s.

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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the many galaxies in the night sky caught mid-collision.

Centauri Dreams reports on the plan of China to send a probe to explore near-Earth co-orbital asteroid 2016 HO3 and comet 133P.

Gizmodo reports, with photos, on the progress of the Chang'e 4 and the Yutu 2 rover, on the far side of the Moon.

Joe. My. God. notes that Bill de Blasio hopes to ban new steel-and-glass skyscrapers in New York City, part of his plan to make the metropolis carbon-neutral.

JSTOR Daily notes a critique of the BBC documentary Planet Earth, arguing the series was less concerned with representing the environment and more with displaying HD television technology.

Language Hat notes the oddities of the name of St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna. How did "Mark" get so amusingly changed?

Language Log looks at how terms for horse-riding might be shared among Indo-European languages and in ancient Chinese.

Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the grounds for the workers of New York's Tenement Museum to unionize.

The NYR Daily notes the efforts of Barnard College Ancient Drama, at Columbia University, to revive Greek drama in its full with music and dance, starting with a Euripedes performance.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares some iconic images of the Earth from space for Earth Day.

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[BLOG] Some Monday blog links

Crooked Timber at John Quiggin takes issue with the idea that, now, there are many Republicans who accept Trump only conditionally, for what a Trump presidency could achieve.

D-Brief notes the XT2 signal, issue of a collision between two magnetars in a galaxy 6.6 billion light-years away.

Cody Delistraty reports on an exhibit at the Institut du monde arabe in Paris on the history of soccer in world politics.

Earther reports on a new satellite mission focused on studying solar-induced fluorescence, the glow of plants as they photosynthesize.

Far Outliers notes how U.S. Grant responded to slaves seeking freedom from the Union Army.

JSTOR Daily explores Lake Baikal.

Language Log reports on the multilingualism of Pete Buttigieg.

Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money gives deserved praise to the Jason Lutes graphic novel Berlin.

Marginal Revolution looks at the ways in which dense social networks can keep stroke victims from getting quick help.

The NYR Daily looks at the campaigns and ideas of anti-authoritarian Chinese professor and writer Xu Zhangrun.

Drew Rowsome gives a largely negative review to the 2014 Easter horror film The Beaster Bunny.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the singularities of black holes have spin.

Window on Eurasia notes on the report of a Muslim community leader in Norilsk that a quarter of the population of that Russian Arctic city is of Muslim background.

Arnold Zwicky considers the ways in which flowers and penguins and cuteness can interact, with photos.

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[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: loonie, Alberta, Jess Guilbeaux, Grindr and Blued, The Matrix

CBC reports on the controversies surrounding the creation of a loonie one-dollar coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Daily Xtra reports on the consequences of the election of Jason Kenney and the rise of the UCP to power in Alberta for LGBTQ people.

This VICE interview with Queer Eye subject Jess Guilbeaux on her experiences being black and lesbian in Kansas is inspiring.

This Radiichina article, noting American concerns over Chinese ownership of Grindr, looks on China's similar and arguably more successful app Blued.

This fascinating Vox article by Emily Sandalwood looks at how the Wachowskis represented the trans experience in the Matrix trilogy.

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[ISL] Five #islands links: St. Vincent, Orkneys, Hong Kong, Kiribati, Manus

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.

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[BLOG] Some Saturday links

Architectuul features a photo essay made by Evan Panagopoulos in the course of a hurried three-hour visit to the Socialist Modernist and modern highlights of 20th century Kiev architecture.

Bad Astrronomer Phil Plait notes how the latest planet found in the Kepler-47 circumbinary system evokes Tatooine.

Centauri Dreams looks at tide and radiation, and their impacts on potential habitability, in the TRAPPIST-1 system.

Citizen Science Salon looks at how the TV show Cyberchase can help get young people interested in science and math.

Crooked Timber mourns historian David Brion Davis.

The Crux looks at how the HMS Challenger pioneered the study of the deeps of the oceans, with that ship's survey of the Mariana Trench.

D-Brief looks at how a snowball chamber using supercooled water can be used to hunt for dark matter.

Earther shares photos of the heartbreaking and artificial devastation of the Amazonian rainforest of Brazil.

Gizmodo shares a beautiful Hubble photograph of the southern Crab Nebula.

Information is Beautiful shares a reworked version of the Julia Galef illustration of the San Francisco area meme space.

io9 notes that, fresh from being Thor, Jane Foster is set to become a Valkyrie in a new comic.

JSTOR Daily explains the Victorian fondness for leeches, in medicine and in popular culture.

Language Hat links to an interview with linguist Amina Mettouchi, a specialist in Berber languages.

Language Log shares the report of a one-time Jewish refugee on changing language use in Shanghai, in the 1940s and now.

Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the horror of self-appointed militias capturing supposed undocumented migrants in the southwestern US.

Marginal Revolution reports on the circumstances in which volunteer militaries can outperform conscript militaries.

At the NYR Daily, Christopher Benfey reports on the surprisingly intense connection between bees and mourning.

Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw, responding to Israel Folau, considers free expression and employment.

The Planetary Society Blog shares a guest post from Barney Magrath on the surprisingly cheap adaptations needed to make an iPhone suitable for astrophotography.

Peter Rukavina reports on the hotly-contested PEI provincial election of 1966.

Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains what the discovery of helium hydride actually means.

Understanding Society's Daniel Little praises the Jill Lepore US history These Truths for its comprehensiveness.

Window on Eurasia reports on the growing divergences in demographics between different post-Soviet countries.

Arnold Zwicky starts with another Peeps creation and moves on from there.

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[ISL] Five #islands links: Newfoundland, Komodo, South China Sea, Kiribati, Faroe Islands

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.