[NEWS] Five links about space travel: cheap rockets, robots, and war

• Small, inexpensive rockets like the sort we are now starting to see could have a transformative effect on space travel and the global economy. Bloomberg View reports.
• The roboticization of space would leave less to do for astronauts, but potentially more fun stuff. Bloomberg View reports.
• Gizmodo notes that the American military wants more money for a potential armed conflict in space, as does VICE.
• Universe Today notes that, likewise, Russia and China are developing space-based military capabilities.

[ISL] Five notes on islands: Iceland, Puerto Rico, Prince Edward Island, Amherst Island, Ireland

• 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.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: architecture, cryptocurrency condos, crime, police

• Toronto Storeys shares the opinions of six architects as to their favourite buildings in the city.
• Why is one condo owner in Toronto only accepting bitcoin payments from potential purchasers? Among other things, it makes things relatively easier for foreign buyers. CBC reports.
• Marcel Theriault, one of the policeman accused of brutally beating Dafonte Miller, is also accused of misleading Durham Region police investigators. The Toronto Star reports.
• University of Toronto doctoral student Sasha Reid identified the pattern of a serial killer at work in Toronto’s LGBTQ community, and told police. Their response? They thanked her and moved on. The Toronto Star reports.
• Edward Keenan wonders why Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders possibly thought he could say what he said about the community not helping, especially when the community has been warning about a serial killer while police denied anything. The Toronto Star has the article.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that a recent massive flare at Proxima Centauri, one that made the star become a thousand times brighter, not only makes Proxima b unlikely to be habitable but makes it unlikely Proxima has (as some suggested) a big planetary system.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that South Korea, contrary to earlier reports, is not going to ban cryptocurrency.
• Hornet Stories notes that six American states–Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, and Oklahoma–have seen the introduction of legislation replacing marriage with a marriage contract, on account of marriage equality.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the deep similarities and differences between serfdom in Russia and slavery in the United States, both formally abolished in the 1860s.
• Language Hat links to a Telegraph article reporting on the efforts of different people to translate different ancient languages.
• The New APPS Blog notes that, after Delta dropped its discount for NRA members, the pro-NRA governor of Georgia dropped tax breaks for the airline.
• This call for the world to respond to the horrors in Syria, shared at the NYR Daily, is likely to fall on deaf ears.
• At Strange Maps, Frank Jacobs shares some maps showing areas where the United States is truly exceptional.
• Supernova Condensate notes how nested planetary orbits can be used to trace beautiful spirograph patterns.
• Window on Eurasia notes how no one in the Soviet Union in 1991 was prepared to do anything to save the Soviet Union.

[PHOTO] Looking west across Turtle Pond, Central Park

[PHOTO] Five photos from the GW General Store, Distillery District (#gwgeneral)

The GW General Store, on Tankhouse Lane in the east of the Distillery District, is a fun antique store with a broad collection of eye-catching items, from old books and dolls to vintage typewriters and violins. The store’s Instagram account is here.

[NEWS] Five language links: Inuktitut, Icelandic, Ladino, Spanish, isiXhosa

• I entirely agree with the argument of Aluki Kotierk, writing at MacLean’s, who thinks the Inuit of Nunavut have been entirely too passive, too nice, in letting Inuktitut get marginalized. Making it a central feature in education is the least that can be done. (Québec-style language policies work.)
• Although ostensibly a thriving language in many domains of life, the marginalization of the Icelandic language in the online world could be an existential threat. The Guardian reports.
• As part of a bid to keep alive Ladino, traditional language of the Sephardic Jews, Spain has extended to the language official status including support and funding. Ha’aretz reports.
• A new set of policies of Spain aiming at promoting the Spanish language have been criticized by some in Hispanic American states, who call the Spanish moves excessively unilateral. El Pais reports.
• isiXhosa, the language of the Xhosa people of South Africa, is getting huge international attention thanks to its inclusion in Black Panther. The Toronto Star reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Montréal, Hong Kong, Paris, Narva

• Hornet Stories has a list of some of the key LGBTQ destinations in New York City. This is something for my next trip, I think.
• Robert Everett-Green writes about the transformation of Montréal’s Viauville, once a model neighbourhood funded by 19th century cookie magnate Charles-Théodore Viau, over at The Globe and Mail.
• Hong Kong is exceptionally pressed for space for housing, making land for commerce all the more difficult to come by. Bloomberg reports</u/.
• France is planning to make a suburban wasteland in the northeast of the conurbation of Paris over into a vast forest. CityLab reports.
• DW reports on how, one hundred years after Estonia first became independent, the country’s Russophones, particularly concentrated in the northeastern city of Narva, are now engaging with (and being engaged by) the wider country.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Vimy Ridge Avenu, Community Housing, GO Transit, Toronto police

• The midtown Toronto street formerly known as Vimy Ridge Ave was renamed in 1928 because that First World War battle simply had not penetrated the Canadian consciousness. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto Community Housing is going to sell off high-value real estate it owns while apparently not inconveniencing its tenants. The Globe and Mail reports.
• Metrolinx is still going to approve two new GO Transit stations, Kirby and Lawrence East, despite apparent political interference. The Toronto Star reports.
• It did take the murder of well-connected, out, white Andrew Kinsman to get police to take the idea of a serial killer seriously. What police told the family of Abdulbasir Faizi is unforgiveable. Global News reports.
• Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders is lying about the lack of active community concern about the possibility of a serial killer at work in Church and Wellesley, and is underplaying the incompetence of Toronto police and his own role. What else can we say? The Globe and Mail covers this.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that the measured rate of the expansion of the universe depends on the method used to track this rate, and that this is a problem.
• On Sunday, Caitlin Kelly celebrated receiving her annual cheque from Canada’s Public Lending Program, which gives authors royalties based on how often their book has been borrowed in our public libraries.
• In The Buzz, the Toronto Public Library identified five books in its collection particularly prone to be challenged by would-be censors.
• D-Brief suggests that, if bacteria managed to survive and adapt in the Atacama desert as it became hostile to life, like life might have done the same on Mars.
• Far Outliers notes the crushing defeat, and extensive looting of, the MOghul empire by the Persia of Nader Shah.
• Hornet Stories looks at the medal hauls of out Olympic athletes this year in Pyeongchang.

Imageo notes satellite imagery indicating that fisheries occupy four times the footprint of agriculture. Aquaculture is starting to look like a necessary idea, I think.

• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox praises Porch Fires, a new biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, for its insights on Wilder and on the moment of the settlement of the American West.
• JSTOR Daily notes how, in the 19th century after the development of anesthesia, the ability to relieve people of pain was a political controversy. Shouldn’t it be felt, wasn’t it natural?
• Language Hat links to an article taking a look behind the scenes at the Oxford English Dictionary. How does it work? What are its challenges?
• At Lingua Franca, Roger Shuy distinguishes between different kinds of speech events and explains why they are so important in the context of bribery trials.
• The LRB Blog shares some advice on ethics in statecraft from the 2nd century CE Chinese writer Liu An.
• J. Hoberman at the NYR Daily reviews an exhibit of the work of Bauhaus artist Jozef Albers at the Guggenheim.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares an anecdote of travellers drinking homemade wine in Montenegro.
• Drew Rowsome interviews Native American drag queen and up-and-coming music star Vizin.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how star S0-2, orbiting so close to the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, will help prove Einsteinian relativity.
• Vintage Space explains, for the record, how rockets can work in a vacuum. (This did baffle some people this time last century.)
• Window on Eurasia suggests that, on its 100th anniversary, Estonia has succeeded in integrating most of its Russophones.