- The town of Innisfil is looking forward to some very futuristic developments. Global News reports.
- Jeremy Deaton at CityLab reports on how, buffered by the Great Lakes, Buffalo NY may end gaining from climate change.
- The Ottawa chain Bridgehead Coffee has been sold to national chain Second Cup. Global News reports.
- Many of the more eye-raising installations in the Gay Village of Montréal have since been removed. CTV News reports.
- Warming huts for homeless people in Winnipeg were torn down because the builders did not follow procedures. Global News reports.
- Open Democracy looks at innovative new public governance of the city budget in Amsterdam, here.
- Singapore, located in a well-positioned Southeast Asia and with working government, may take over from Hong Kong. Bloomberg View makes the case.
- CBC reports on suggestions that Kingston should plan for a population expected to grow significantly in coming decades, to not just expand but to have intensified development downtown.
- The rental housing market for Kingston is very tight, not only because of large student populations. Global News reports.
- Kingstonist reports on Queen's plans to build a large new student residence on Albert Street, here.
- The Whig-Standard carries an account of the new Queen's principal being interrogated by Kingston city council over issues of friction between school and city, including costs for policing (and not only at Homecoming weekend).
- This summer, farmers in the Kingston area saw poor crop production as a consequence of the weather. Global News reports.
- Happily, the budget of the city of Kingston was made to accommodate costs for Murney, the police force's horse. Global News reports.
- Weston Food's plant in Kingston has seen forty jobs cut. Global News reports.
- Lake Ontario Park, in the west of the city, may be reopened to limited camping. The Whig-Standard reports.
- Kingston hockey player Rebecca Thompson is now playing for the team of Queen's. Global News reports.
- Queen's University is not alone in urging its exchange students in Hong Kong to evacuate. The Whig-Standard reports.
- Yesterday, a plane crashed in the west of Kingston, killing all seven people aboard. CBC reports.
- Chris Morris at Kingstonist has a long feature examining the Kingston Street Mission, interviewing outreach worker Marilyn McLean about her work with the homeless of the city.
- Kingston-born street nurse Cathy Crowe talks about homelessness, in Kingston and across Canada. Global News reports.
- The family of Royal Military College cadet Joe Grozelle, who disappeared from his campus and was later found dead two decades ago, wants his fate reinvestigated. Global News reports.
- A hundred students at a Kingston public school are being taught how to skate, part of a pilot program. Global News reports.
[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links
Nov. 26th, 2019 06:09 pm- John Lorinc at Spacing considers the complication idea of a city charter for Toronto. Is it worth it? Does it ignore other governance issues?
- Tourism is booming in Toronto, transforming the economy of the metropolis. The Toronto Star reports.
- NOW Toronto notes how the Toronto District School Board is introducing educational courses intended to prepare students for careers in hospitality.
- Legal controversy surrounding the governance of Mount Pleasant Cemetery, and other like cemeteries in Toronto, is ongoing. The Toronto Star reports.
- In Milton, the owner of an illegal rooming house where one tenant died has been found financially liable. CBC reports.
- The Toronto Star tells the story of soldiers returning from the First World War who attacked Chinatown and its inhabitants, here.
- NOW Toronto points to an exhibition of photos created in solidarity with Hong Kong journalists.
[BLOG] Some Friday links
Nov. 22nd, 2019 06:45 pm(A day late, I know; I crashed after work yesterday.)
- Antipope's Charlie Stross has a thought experiment: If you were superwealthy and guaranteed to live a long health life, how would you try to deal with the consequence of economic inequality?
- Vikas Charma at Architectuul takes a look at the different factors that go into height in buildings.
- Bad Astronomy notes S5-HVS1, a star flung out of the Milky Way Galaxy by Sagittarius A* at 1755 kilometres per second.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares photos from two Manhattan walks of hers, taken in non-famous areas.
- Centauri Dreams looks at habitability for red dwarf exoplanets. Stellar activity matters.
- Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber shares words from a manifesto about data protection in the EU.
- Dangerous Minds shares photos from Los Angeles punks and mods and others in the 1980s.
- Bruce Dorminey notes a ESA report suggesting crew hibernation could make trips to Mars easier.
- Gizmodo notes that the Hayabusa2 probe of Japan is returning from asteroid Ryugu with a sample.
- Imageo shares photos of the disastrous fires in Australia from space.
- Information is Beautiful reports on winners of the Information is Beautiful Awards for 2019, for good infographics.
- JSTOR Daily explains how local television stations made the ironic viewing of bad movies a thing.
- Kotaku reports on the last days of Kawasaki Warehouse, an arcade in Japan patterned on the demolished Walled City of Kowloon.
- Language Hat notes how translation mistakes led to the star Beta Cygni gaining the Arabic name Albireo.
- Language Log reports on a unique Cantonese name of a restaurant in Hong Kong.
- Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an analysis of his suggesting the military of India is increasingly hard-pressed to counterbalance China.
- The LRB Blog notes the catastrophe of Venice.
- Marginal Revolution notes a paper suggesting states would do well not to place their capitals too far away from major population centres.
- Justin Petrone at North! remarks on a set of old apple preserves.
- The NYR Daily looks at how the west and the east of the European Union are divided by different conceptions of national identity.
- Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reports from his town of Armidale as the smoke from the Australian wildfires surrounds all. The photos are shocking.
- Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog lists some books about space suitable for children.
- Drew Rowsome reviews the Canadian film music stand, inspired by the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting that, in Switzerland, parenthood does not make people happy.
- The Signal notes that 1.7 million phone book pages have been scanned into the records of the Library of Congress.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains the concept of multi-messenger astronomy and why it points the way forward for studies of astrophysics.
- Strange Maps looks at how a majority of students in the United States attend diverse schools, and where.
- Strange Company explores the mysterious death of Marc-Antoine Calas, whose death triggered the persecution of Huguenots and resulted in the mobilization of Enlightenment figures like Voltaire against the state. What happened?
- Towleroad hosts a critical, perhaps disappointed, review of the major gay play The Inheritance.
- Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at the power of individual people in political hierarchies.
- Window on Eurasia shares an opinion piece noting how many threats to the Russian language have come from its association with unpopular actions by Russia.
- Arnold Zwicky explores queens as various as Elizabeth I and Adore Delano.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Nov. 5th, 2019 12:20 pm- Bad Astronomer notes the circumstances of the discovery of a low-mass black hole, only 3.3 solar masses.
- Crooked Timber shares a photo of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
- The Crux looks at Monte Verde, the site in Chile that has the evidence of the oldest human population known to have lived in South America.
- The Dragon's Tales notes that Russia may provide India with help in the design of its Gaganyaan manned capsule.
- L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing talks of his work, including his upcoming conference and his newsletter, The Convivial Society. (Subscribe at the website.)
- Gizmodo shares the Voyager 2 report from the edges of interstellar space.
- JSTOR Daily looks at the East India Company and its corporate lobbying.
- Language Hat shares an account from Ken Liu of the challenges in translating The Three Body Problem, linguistic and otherwise.
- Language Log looks at the problems faced by the word "liberation" in Hong Kong.
- Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the implications of the surprising new relationship between Russia and the Philippines.
- Marginal Revolution seems to like Terminator: Dark Fate, as a revisiting of the series' origins, with a Mesoamerican twist.
- Sean Marshall announces his attendance at a transit summit in Guelph on Saturday the 9th.
- Garry Wills writes at the NYR Daily about his experience as a man in the mid-20th century American higher education looking at the rise of women.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the strangely faint distant young galaxy MACS2129-1.
- Window on Eurasia considers the possibility of Latvia developing a national Eastern Orthodox church of its own.
[NEWS] Ten Halloween links (#halloween)
Nov. 1st, 2019 06:03 pm- Jamie Bradburn took a look at now-effaced Toronto cemetery Potter's Field, here.
- Kingston, Ontario's Skeleton Park is a remarkable legacy. Global News reports.
- CBC Saskatoon reports on the origins of Halloween in harvest events.
- The Hong Kong protests took on a new tinge this Halloween. CBC reports.
- The Vancouver tradition of Halloween fireworks may be dying out. The National Post reports.
- Guardian Cities looks around the world, from Derry to West Hollywood, at local celebrations of Halloween.
- Gizmodo shares an image of a ghostly collision of galaxies in deep space.
- Dangerous Minds shared some album covers inspired by Halloween.
- CBC looks at the very low rate of candy tampering in Canada over the past decade.
- JSTOR Daily considers how the Great Pumpkin of Peanuts came to be so great.
- Why not build a public beach in the Montréal neighbourhood of Lachine? Global News considers.
- The Vietnamese cuisine of New Orleans does look good. VICE reports.
- CityLab describes an effort to build a smart city in Berlin, in Siemensstadt. I wish Berliners better outcomes than what Toronto seems to be getting in the Port Lands.
- Guardian Cities reports on what seems to me to be a terrible plan to flood the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf in Turkey for dams.
- Saša Petricic at CBC looks at how the political consensus in Hong Kong has broken down, perhaps irretrievably.
[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Sep. 10th, 2019 11:52 pm- Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.
- Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.
- Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.
- James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.
- Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.
- Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.
- The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.
- D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.
- Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.
- Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
- The Dragon's Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.
- Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
- Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.
- At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.
- io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.
- JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.
- Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.
- Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.
- Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.
- Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.
- The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.
- Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.
- The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.
- Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.
- Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.
- The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.
- Starts With a Bang's Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.
- Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti's constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.
- Understanding Society's Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.
- Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.
- Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.
[URBAN NOTE] Ten Montréal links
Sep. 6th, 2019 04:38 am- La Presse notes the restoration of the old Archambault sign to its location at Sainte-Catherine and Berri. (I am reminded of the Sam the Record Man sign in Toronto.)
- HuffPostQuebec notes that some of the strings of balls from 18 nuances de gai are up for sale.
- Expelling Hong Kong activists from the Montréal pride parade should not have been done. CBC Montreal reports.
- Camillien-Houde Way, on Mount Royal, will become more difficult for cyclists with the removal of a traffic light. CTV reports.
- Les Forges de Montréal, heritage to the city's blacksmithing tradition, has been saved. Global News reports.
- Historian Desmond Morton, of McGill, has died. CBC Montreal reports.
- The City of Montréal is trying to fight against food insecurity. CBC Montreal U>reports.
- Craig Desson at CBC Montreal reports on the lasting legacy of Moshe Safdie and Habitat 67, and the replication of this prefabricated concrete model in rising Asia.
- Actions of clients are the leading causes of delays on the Metro. CBC Montreal reports.
[BLOG] Some Friday links
Aug. 30th, 2019 05:01 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares a video of the expansion of supernova remnant Cas A.
- James Bow shares an alternate history Toronto transit map from his new novel The Night Girl.
- Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes the Boris Johnson coup.
- The Crux notes a flawed study claiming that some plants had a recognizable intelligence.
- D-Brief notes the mysterious absorbers in the clouds of Venus. Are they life?
- Dangerous Minds shares, apropos of nothing, the Jah Wabbles song "A Very British Coup."
- Cody Delistraty looks at bullfighting.
- Dead Things notes the discovery of stone tools sixteen thousand years old in Idaho which are evidence of the first humans in the Americas.
- io9 features an interview with authors Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz on worldbuilding.
- Joe. My. God. notes that a bill in Thailand to establish civil unions is nearing approval.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how using plastic in road construction can reduce pollution in oceans.
- Language Log looks to see if some police in Hong Kong are speaking Cantonese or Putonghua.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the perplexing ramblings and--generously--inaccuracy of Joe Biden.
- The LRB Blog asks why the United Kingdom is involved in the Yemen war, with Saudi Arabia.
- The Map Room Blog looks at the different efforts aiming to map the fires of Amazonia.
- Marginal Revolution reports on how some southern US communities, perhaps because they lack other sources of income, depend heavily on fines.
- The NYR Daily looks at the complex literary career of Louisa May Alcott, writing for all sorts of markets.
- Window on Eurasia reports on the apparently sincere belief of Stalin, based on new documents, that in 1934 he faced a threat from the Soviet army.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at fixings, or fixins, as the case may be.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- La Presse notes that the Bixi bike-sharing service in Montréal is celebrating its 11th anniversary.
- Marginal Revolution notes how better policing cut into crime in Camden, New Jersey.
- The NYR Daily looks at how Brexit and a hardened border will hit the Northern Ireland city of Derry.
- Guardian Cities reports on the gang that goes around Rome at night making illegal repairs to crumbling infrastructure.
- CityLab reports on how Cape Town is coping, one year after it nearly ran out of water.
- Roads and Kingdoms shares tips for travellers visiting Hong Kong.
- Guardian Cities reports on the families made refugees by Partition who tried to swap homes in Dhaka and Calcutta.
[BLOG] Some Wednesday links
Apr. 3rd, 2019 03:15 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows four different images of nearby stellar nursery NGC 1333.
- Centauri Dreams looks at the hot Saturn TOI-197, and the way it was detected.
- D-Brief notes how galaxy NGC-1052 DF2 has been confirmed as the second galaxy apparently lacking in dark matter.
- Gizmodo notes new confirmation, from an orbiting probe, that Curiosity detected methane emanating from Mars back in 2013.
- Hornet Stories tries to correct some misconceptions about the Burning Man festival.
- The Island Review links to a New York Times profile of post-Maria Puerto Rico.
- Joe. My. God. notes that Martin Shkreli has been tossed into solitary confinement.
- JSTOR Daily notes the work of psychologists in the 1930s US who profiled individuals who did not fit the gender binary. Would these people have identified themselves as trans or non-binary now?
- The LRB Blog notes the fondness of Jacob Rees-Mogg for extreme-right German politicians from the AfD.
- Language Log shares a written ad in Cantonese from Hong Kong.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money compares China now to the Untied States of the past, and finds interesting correspondences.
- Marginal Revolution notes the deep and significant commitment of China under Mao to providing foreign aid.
- The NYR Daily looks at the complex, once-overlooked, life and career of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, writer of "The Yellow Wallpaper".
- Out There notes that, while dark matter is certainly real, "dark matter" is a poor name for this mysterious substance.
- Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the challenges to be faced by Hayabusa 2 when it fires a sampling probe into asteroid Ryugu.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how into the universe a spaceship could travel if it accelerated consistently at one gravity.
- Strange Company examines the life and adventures of Jeffrey Hudson, a royal dwarf in 17th century England.
- Daniel Little at Understanding Society builds on the work of V.K. Ramachandran in considering the ethics of development ethnography.
- Window on Eurasia notes the new identification of Azerbaijanis as victims of genocide by neighbours, and what this means for the relations of Azerbaijan.
- Arnold Zwicky has fun, in a NSFW fanfic way, with figures from comics contemporary and old.
- CTV News reports the exceptional popularity of a Toronto Blue Jays away game in Montréal.
- A library n Thunder Bay is playing a critical role in helping treat the ills of that city. Tanya Talaga writes at the Toronto Star.
- Guardian Cities reports on how poor children in mixed-use housing in London are being kept from using public playgrounds.
- The Financial Times reports on the rapid growth of the French immigrant community in Hong Kong, now numbering tens of thousands of people.
- Céline von Engelhardt writes at MacLean's about how Sobey's has secured for itself, in the new north-central Edmonton neighbourhood of Griesbach, restrictive covenants that exclude any possible retail competition elsewhere in the neighbourhood.
- HuffPostQuebec imagines what an Expo held in Montréal for 2030 would look like, and what effect it would have on the metropolis.
- The Alaska Life notes the near-ghost town of Hyder, a community most easily accessible from Canada.
- Guardian Cities reports on a recent expulsion of street traders from a district in Buenos Aires.
- CityLab notes the growing unacceptability of a group parading in blackface in Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
- Guardian Cities explains how through, among other things, canny property investments, mass transit in Hong Kong is self-supporting financially.
- MTLBlog reports from each borough of Montréal to see what a monthly rent of $C 1000 can get a hopeful tenant. The results will shock you, especially if you are used to Toronto rents (or higher!).
- The Alberta city of Lethbridge hopes, coming the 2020 census, its population will finally reach the mark of one hundred thousand residents. Global News reports.
- The northern Canadian town of Tuktoyaktuk is literally falling into the Arctic Ocean, as the ground crumbles while the sea rises. The National Post reports.
- The aging of the population of taxi drivers of Hong Kong leaves open the question of who, or what, will take their place. Bloomberg reports.
- CityLab reports on the remarkable ambition of the new transit plan of Berlin.
- CityLab looks at the sheer density of the Marvel universe in New York City.
- CityLab reports on how the Portuguese capital of Lisbon is suffering a rash of thefts of its iconic tiles.
- A series of private movie screenings in Lagos are explored in CityLab, as a way of building community.
- Open Democracy takes a look at how the cities of Donetsk and Luhansk, in the occupied Donbas, are now being run.
- Guardian Cities reports on how urban explorers and photographers in Hong Kong are trying to archive images of their changing city.
- A community organization in Saint John, New Brunswick, is hoping to try to save some of the many abandoned buildings in that city. Global News reports.
- Wired notes that a proposed Amazon expansion in Seattle has also been abandoned.
- Bloomberg View suggests Hong Kong is being unduly conservative in not investing its budget surpluses.
- Roads and Kingdoms tells the history of Singapore through ten local dishes.
- Ars Technica suggests the medieval city of Angkor, in Cambodia, died slowly as its complex machineries gradually ground to a halt.