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[BLOG] Some Friday links
Oct. 11th, 2019 09:03 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes new research on where the sun is located within the Milky Way Galaxy.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the value of slow fashion.
- Centauri Dreams notes the different gas giants that our early methods have yet to pick up.
- Crooked Timber shares a lovely photo looking back at Venice from across its lagoon.
- D-Brief notes that upcoming space telescopes might find hundreds of rogue planets thanks to microlensing.
- io9 notes that Marvel will soon be producing Warhammer40K comics.
- The Island Review shares some poetry and photography by Ken Cockburn inspired by the Isle of Jura.
- JSTOR Daily notes that different humpback whale groups have different songs, different cultures.
- Language Hat tries to find the meaning of the odd Soviet Yiddish word "kolvirt".
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the history of Elizabeth Warren as a law teacher.
- Map Room Blog shares information from Google Maps about its use of data.
- Marginal Revolution notes that in 2016, not a single child born in the United Kingdom was given the name Nigel.
- Peter Watts talks about AI and what else he is doing.
- The NYR Daily marked the centennial of a horrible massacre of African-Americans centered on the Arkansas community of Elaine.
- Emily Margolis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at how the Apollo moon missions helped galvanize tourism in Florida.
- Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the constitutional crisis in Peru.
- Drew Rowsome takes a look at A Streetcar Named Desire.
- Peter Rukavina looks at a spreadsheet revealing the distribution of PEI public servants.
- Spacing reviews a book imagining how small communities can rebuild themselves in neoliberalism.
- Towleroad shares the criticism of Christine and the Queens of the allegedly opportunistic use of queer culture by Taylor Swift.
- Understanding Society considers, sociologically, the way artifacts work.
- The Volokh Conspiracy argues that the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China should be a day of mourning, on account of the high human toll of the PRC.
- Window on Eurasia suggests the Russian generation of the 1970s was too small to create lasting change.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at how underwear ads can be quite sexualized.
Tags:
- animal intelligence,
- artificial intelligence,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- book reviews,
- cetaceans,
- china,
- comics,
- democracy,
- demographics,
- ethnic cleansing,
- fashion,
- florida,
- former soviet union,
- glbt issues,
- google,
- italy,
- links,
- peru,
- photos,
- politics,
- popular culture,
- popular music,
- prince edward island,
- racism,
- russia,
- science fiction,
- scotland,
- sexuality,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- south america,
- space science,
- space travel,
- technology,
- theatre,
- tourism,
- united kingdom,
- united states,
- yiddish
[BLOG] Some Sunday links
Sep. 15th, 2019 10:10 am- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how variable gravity is on irregular asteroid Bennu.
- Bruce Dorminey reports on how the European Southern Observatory has charted the Magellanic Clouds in unprecedented detail.
- The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links looking at the Precambrian Earth.
- Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina reports on the late 1950s race to send probes to the Moon.
- Gizmodo shares some stunning astronomy photos.
- JSTOR Daily reports on the saltwater roads, the routes that slaves in Florida used to escape to the free Bahamas.
- Language Log looks at some examples of bad English from Japan. How did they come about?
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money rejects the idea of honouring people like Condoleezza Rice.
- Marginal Revolution considers the idea of free will in light of neurology.
- Corey S Powell at Out There interviews James Lovelock on his new book Novacene, in which Lovelock imagines the future world and Gaia taken over by AI.
- Window on Eurasia notes the water shortages faced by downstream countries in Central Asia.
Tags:
- Tracey Lindeman writes at CityLab about how Montréal is trying to keep the redevelopment of the Molson-Coors Brewery site from killing the Centre-Sud.
- In the Montréal neighbourhood of Park-Extension, evictions--renovictions, even--are on the rise. Global News reports.
- Lac-Mégantic now has a train depot that bypasses the heart of this traumatized community. CBC Montreal reports.
- Halifax is now celebrating the Mosaic Festival, celebrating its diversity. Global News reports.
- Jill Croteau reports for Global News about Club Carousel, an underground club in Calgary that played a vital role in that city's LGBTQ history.
- This business plan, aiming to bypass long lineups at the Edmonton outpost of the Jollibee chain, is ingenious. Global News reports.
- The Iowa town of Pacific Junction, already staggering, may never recover from a recent bout of devastating flooding. VICE reports.
- Avery Gregurich writes for CityLab about the Illinois town of Atlas, a crossroads seemingly on the verge of disappearing from Google Maps.
- The proposal for Metropica, a new sort of suburb in Florida, certainly looks interesting. VICE reports.
- Guardian Cities shares a cartoon looking affectionately at Lisbon.
Tags:
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Jun. 6th, 2019 02:05 pm- 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.
Tags:
- angola,
- antarctica,
- argentina,
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- belarus,
- birds,
- blogs,
- brazil,
- china,
- clash of ideologies,
- communism,
- david bowie,
- democracy,
- earth,
- energy,
- environment,
- faroes,
- florida,
- futurology,
- germany,
- glbt issues,
- history,
- humour,
- latin america,
- links,
- mars,
- mass media,
- moon,
- national identity,
- oceans,
- poland,
- popular literature,
- popular music,
- portugal,
- russia,
- slavery,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- solar system,
- south america,
- space science,
- space travel,
- technology,
- united states,
- west norden
- CityLab notes how the effort of exurban Innisfil to use Uber as a substitute for mass transit did not work as expected.
- HuffPost Québec looks at how the Québec government is prioritizing the REM suburban light rails over the proposed Pink Line.
- Yellowknife may see the construction of a decidedly green four-story building. CBC North reports.
- CityLab looks at the experience of Miami Beach in using public art to put itself on the map.
- Guardian Cities looks at how the city of Plovdiv, second-largest city in Bulgaria, is trying to attract past emigrants from the country.
- CBC Ottawa reports on the complaint of an Ottawa condo-owner that his tenant is renting the unit out via Airbnb.
- CBC Montreal notes that a rent advocacy agency in the neighbourhood of Saint-Henri is being driven out of its offices by rent increases.
- VICE reports on how a Miami trailer park and its residents are set to be driven out of their home by luxury housing.
- CityLab reports on a Mexico City market, the Sonora Market, specializing in goods for religious believers.
- Reuters notes a street protest by rent activists in Berlin calling for the nationalizing of the housing stock.
- Missisauga's mayor Bonnie Crombie makes the case for her city's independence from Peel Region, over at the Toronto Star.
- CityLab features a Richard Florida interview with sociologist Alejandro Portes on his new book examining the history and future of Miami.
- New maps showing flood risks are available to municipalities in the Montréal region, but for various reasons they are not using them yet. CBC reports.
- Guardian Cities reports on how the new president of Indonesia wants to move the country's capital away from megacity Jakarta to a new location on the island of Borneo.
- CityLab reports on how the Swiss city of Lausanne is making use of innovative new community consultations to decide how to manage its Place de la Riponne.
- Queerty profiles the new permanent exhibition in Miami of mid-20th century photographer George Daniell, whose works often including queer subjects date back to the 1940s.
- Mike Miksche writes at Slate about the import of the Black Party in New York City in 1989, for partying gay and bi men in the era of AIDS.
- This extended interview with Troye Sivan at The Guardian exposes a lot of this out star.
- This VICE interview with Contrapoints star Natalie Wynn makes me want to start watching her, now, on YouTube.
- John Aravosis is quite right to argue, at The Daily Beast, that arguing Pete Buttigieg is not gay enough is ridiculous.
- Them notes the transphobia involved in novelist E.J. Levy's apparent determination to note define 19th century doctor James Barry as a trans man in an upcoming novel.
- Hornet Stories notes the long history of support of Madonna for LGBTQ people and causes, from the 1980s on.
- Them tells the story of trans writer voice actor Maddie Blaustein, perhaps most famous for voicing the character of Meowth from Pokémon.
- VICE reports from Wilton Manors, the Florida town where all the government officials are LGBTQ.
- The coming-out of YouTube star Lilly Singh as bisexual is huge news, for South Asians and the wider community. (How To Be A Bawse is a great book.) VICE Congratulations! has it.
Tags:
- Quartz notes that Japan this year is hoping to regain two of the Kuril Islands from Russia.
- This sad report looks at how the wild horses of Chincoteague island, off the coast of Virginia, are endangered by an infectious fungus.
- Guardian Cities notes how an energetic resistance in Heraklion, chief city of the island of Crete, helped drive out Golden Dawn.
- Conservative Home shares an article noting that hopes for a tourism boom in the isolated South Atlantic island of St. Helena have come to naught because weather makes regular flights prohibitive.
- Bloomberg reported last April that Fisher Island, off Miami, zip code 33109, is the richest zip code in the United States.
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- The mayors of Hamilton and Burlington have announced their opposition to any changes to the Ontario Greenbelt legislation, the Toronto Star reports.
- CBC Hamilton reports that units in a prominent downtown apartment building has been converted to condos.
- National Observer looks at the threat that a new Université de Montréal campus in Montréal poses to the Park Extension neighbourhood.
- CityLab takes a look at how the construction of Interstate 95, in Miami, destroyed the black neighbourhood of Overtown.
- The Chinese city of Shenzhen has converted its bus fleet entirely over to electric units, Guardian Cities reports.
Tags:
- CBC notes the underrepresentation of politicians of visible minority background in the city councils of Mississauga and Brampton.
- MTL Blog reports on the different plans of the different political parties in the Québec election for mass transit plans. (I really like the Québec Solidaire plan's ambition.)
- Catherine Tse at the SCMP takes a look at the different sorts of businesses run by young wealthy people, often socialites, of Asian immigrant background in Vancouver.
- Henry Grabar at Slate writes about a paper examining the tactics adopted by different groups in New York City--Hasidic Jews, Chinese, and Bangladeshis--faced with high real estate prices, from intensification to diffusion to underground housing.
- Christian Portilla at VICE writes about how gentrification is undermining the basis for the Miami neighbourhood of Little Haiti, driving out long-time residents.
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- Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto writes about Tunirrusiangit, the new Inuit art exhibit playing at the AGO, here.
- National Geographic reports on the discovery of the royal home of a Floridian king known for opposing Spain.
- An app that tells one about the indigenous history of the place where one lives is really quite useful. Yes Magazine has it.
- Smithsonian Magazine examines the question why it takes so long for scientists to verify indigenous knowledge, here.
- This Stephanie Nolen report from The Globe and Mail takes a look at the struggle of descendants of the Charrua, the indigenous people of Uruguay, to gain official recognition.
[BLOG] Some Monday links
Jul. 9th, 2018 09:15 am- At Anthro{dendum}, Daniel Miller writes about how some of the food he cooks evokes his history in Cuba-influenced Tampa.
- Bad Astronomer notes an astonishingly high-resolution image of protoplanet Vesta taken from the Earth.
- The Big Picture shares photos of the Kakuma refugee camp, in Kenya.
- Centauri Dreams notes one proposal to help extend the life of a Type III civilization in the Milky Way Galaxy by importing stars from outside of the local group.
- Crooked Timber's Corey Robin talks about changing minds in politics, inspired by the success of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
- Dangerous Minds shares the 1978 BBC documentary on surrealism, Europe After the Rain.
- Far Outliers shares the third part of a summary of an article on African and Japanese mercenaries in Asia.
- Hornet Stories reports on the regret of Buffy showrunner Marti Noxon that her show killed off Tara. (I agree: I liked her.)
- At In Medias Res, Russell Arben Fox wonders what American farmers--by extension, perhaps, other farmers in other high-income societies--want. With their entire culture being undermine, what can they hope for?
- Joe. My. God. notes how far-right groups in Europe are increasingly welcoming lesbian, gay, and bisexual members. (Not so much trans people, it seems.)
- JSTOR Daily reports on the obvious utility of the humble beaver (in its North American homelands, at least).
- Language Log considers the politics of the national language policy of China.
- This Language Hat articlereporting on a conference on xenolinguistics, and the discussion in the comments, is fascinating. What can we hope to learn about non-human language? What will it have, and have not, in common?
- The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer considers the slow corruption of independent institutions in Mexico that may occur under the presidency of AMLO.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, while we have not found life on Enceladus, we have found indicators of a world that could support life.
- Window on Eurasia wonders if Russia is increasingly at risk of being displaced in Central Asia by a dynamic Kazakhstan.
Tags:
- africa,
- agriculture,
- anthropology,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- central asia,
- china,
- chinese language,
- clash of ideologies,
- cuba,
- east africa,
- enceladus,
- environment,
- extraterrestrial intelligence,
- extraterrestrial life,
- florida,
- food,
- former soviet union,
- futurology,
- geopolitics,
- glbt issues,
- history,
- japan,
- kazakhstan,
- kenya,
- latin america,
- links,
- mexico,
- migration,
- politics,
- popular culture,
- refugees,
- russia,
- saturn,
- social sciences,
- space science,
- television,
- united states,
- vesta
- Artsy notes a study looking at the different factors explaining why Iceland's population is so creative. Among other things, an educational system that encourages hands-on learning and experimentation and a relative lack of material insecurity help.
- Reddit's mapporn forum shares a map showing where displaced Puerto Ricans are resettling. Florida is emerging as a particularly important destination.
- Charlottetown's The Guardian reports on a recent presentation suggesting that, with sea level rise, Prince Edward Island could be divided into three islands. I wonder where the dividing points will be.
- Wind turbine construction on Amherst Island, near Kingston, has been delayed by weather and problems with roads. Global News reports.
- Ireland is now making a push to attract television stations from the United Kingdom post-Brexit, with the legal position of television networks with EU-wide audiences being uncertain after Brexit. The Guardian reports.
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
Sep. 20th, 2017 02:29 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes the continuing maps and naming of the Pluto system.
- Centauri Dreams considers one method to detect photosynthesis on Earth-like worlds of red dwarf stars.
- D-Brief notes the discovery of Octlantis, a permanent community of octopi located off the coast of Australia.
- The Dragon's Gaze notes Earth-like world can co-exist with a Jovian in a circumstellar habitable zone.
- Hornet Stories notes that Morrissey is now in Twitter. (This will not go well.
- Language Log notes the kanji tattoo of one American neo-Nazi.
- The LRB Blog notes how the English town of Tewksbury is still recovering from massive flooding a decade later.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the improbable life of Barry Sadler, he of "The Ballad of the Green Berets".
- The Map Room Blog shares this terrifying map examining the rain footprint of Hurricane Irma.
- Spacing reviews a fascinating dual biography of architects Frank Lloyd Wright and Philip Johnson.
- Window on Eurasia notes an call to restore to maps the old Chinese name for former Chinese Tuva, Uryankhai.
Tags:
- animal intelligence,
- architecture,
- australia,
- caribbean,
- cephalopods,
- china,
- chinese language,
- disasters,
- england,
- extraterrestrial life,
- florida,
- history,
- in memoriam,
- japanese language,
- links,
- naziism,
- news,
- oceans,
- pluto,
- popular culture,
- popular music,
- russia,
- science,
- siberia,
- social networking,
- solar system,
- twitter,
- united kingdom,
- united states
[BLOG] Some Monday links
Sep. 11th, 2017 02:32 pm- At Antipope, Charlie Stross considers the ways in which Big Data could enable an updated version of 1984.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at all the ways in which this photo of galaxy NGC 5559 is cool, with a supernova and more.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares a week of her life as a professional writer.
- Crooked Timber looks at the potentially dominant role of racism as a political marker in the US.
- Far Outliers notes that the Confederacy's military options circa 1864 were grim and limited.
- Language Log shares an example of a Starbucks coffee cup with biscriptal writing from Shenyang.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that the Rohingya are being subjected to genocide. What next?
- Marginal Revolution notes the introduction of a new chocolate, ruby chocolate".
- Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw has it with ideological divisions of left and right.
- The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer looks at the remarkably intemperate Spanish court decision that kicked off modern separatism in Catalonia.
- Charley Ross looks at the sad story of missing teenager Brittanee Drexel.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that now is an excellent time to start highlighting the politics of climate change.
- Towleroad mourns New York City theatre star Michael Friedman.
- Window on Eurasia notes the ways in which Russia is, and is not, likely to use the military.
- Arnold Zwicky shares a map of the regional languages of France.
Tags:
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- burma,
- catalonia,
- china,
- chinese language,
- clash of ideologies,
- crime,
- disasters,
- florida,
- food,
- former soviet union,
- france,
- futurology,
- genocide,
- global warming,
- history,
- hiv/aids,
- in memoriam,
- journalism,
- language,
- links,
- military,
- new york city,
- photos,
- politics,
- racism,
- russia,
- separatism,
- southeast asia,
- space science,
- spain,
- technology,
- united states,
- war,
- writing
[BLOG] Some Saturday links
Sep. 9th, 2017 12:08 pm- Anthrodendum considers what, exactly, anthropology majors can do job-wise with their degrees. Interesting ideas.
- Centauri Dreams considers the possible origins of cometary organics in deep space.
- Hornet Stories talks of anti-immigrant Americans with immigrant ancestors who skirted relevant laws themselves, like Donald Trump.
- Language Hat considers byssus, an exotic ancient textile and a word with a complex history.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how the potential for disaster in Florida is worsened by poor planning.
- The LRB Blog looks at the sad intersection of war, xenophobia, and rising rates of polio in Pakistan (and elsewhere).
- The Map Room Blog notes an interactive map-related play still showing at the Halifax Fringe, Cartography.
- The NYR Daily notes a high-profile corruption trial of a former government minister in Moscow.
- The Planetary Society Blog shares Paul Schenk's story about how he interned at JPL in 1979 for the Voyager 2 flyby.
- Roads and Kingdoms looks at the search by a Brazilian man for caves in the south of that country.
- The Volokh Conspiracy asks some interesting questions about the mechanics of Settlers of Catan.
- At Whatever, John Scalzi remembers Jerry Pournelle.
- Window on Eurasia notes how Russia is strongly opposed to any Circassian return to their ancestral homeland.
Tags:
- anthropology,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- brazil,
- conspiracies,
- diaspora,
- disasters,
- extraterrestrial life,
- florida,
- games,
- health,
- history,
- in memoriam,
- language,
- links,
- middle east,
- migration,
- north caucasus,
- nova scotia,
- pakistan,
- russia,
- science fiction,
- social sciences,
- south asia,
- space science,
- space travel,
- theatre,
- united states
