[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Matt Thompson at anthro{dendum} writes about the complex, often anthropological, satire in the comics of Charles Addams.
• Architectuul looks at the photography of Roberto Conte.
• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes a new computer model suggesting a supernova can be triggered by throwing a white dwarf into close orbit of a black hole.
• D-Brief notes how ammonia on the surface of Pluto hints at the existence of a subsurface ocean.
• Bruce Dorminey notes how the bombardment of Earth by debris from a nearby supernova might have prompted early hominids to become bipedal.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that NASA has awarded its first contract for its plans in lunar space.
• Far Outliers notes the reactions, within and without the Soviet Union, to the 1991 Soviet coup attempt.
• Matt Novak at Gizmodo’s Paleofuture notes how, in 1995, Terry Pratchett predicted the rise of online Nazis.
• io9 notes the impending physical release this summer of DVDs of the Deep Space Nine documentary What We Left Behind.
• JSTOR Daily suggests some ways to start gardening in your apartment.
• Victor Mair at Language Log claims that learning Literary Chinese is a uniquely difficult experience. Thoughts?
• The NYR Daily features a wide-ranging interview with EU official Michel Barnier focused particularly, but not exclusively, on Brexit.
• The Planetary Society Blog notes that an Internet vote has produced a majority in favour of naming outer system body 2007 OR10 Gonggang.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer considers the possibility that foreign investors in Mexico might be at risk, at least feel themselves at risk, from the government of AMLO.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress archives spreadsheets.
• Van Waffle at the Speed River Journal looks at magenta spreen, a colourful green that he grows in his garden.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how we on Earth are carelessly wasting irreplaceable helium.
• Window on Eurasia refers to reports claiming that a third of the population of Turkmenistan has fled that Central Asian state. Could this be accurate?

[PHOTO] Boundary helix, Church and Wellesley

[PHOTO] Three photos of the tomatoes of Pusateri’s

[PHOTO] Blossoms on Church Street, above Maple Leaf Gardens

[NEWS] Five JSTOR Daily links: Blaschka glass, Priestley, crime, Humphrey, writing

• JSTOR Daily looks at the remarkable glasswork of the Blaschka Invertebrate Collection.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the political radicalism of inventor Joseph Priestley.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Midwesterners responded to the 1930s craze of bank robberies with their own improvised systems in the face of police failures.
• JSTOR Daily explains why Hubert Humphrey, despite his conventional strengths, was not going to be a winning Democratic candidate for President.
• Austin Allen writes at JSTOR Daily about the complicated aesthetic and political radicalism of W.H. Auden, George Orwell, and James Baldwin.

[URBAN NOTE] Five links on cities: housing, public space, Millennialks, mass transit, beauty

• Increasing the housing supply will not necessarily decrease inequality. CityLab reports.
• American cities need more public spaces, for the health and well-being of all. The Atlantic reports.
• Having large populations of educated Millennials is a good problem for cities. Bloomberg reports.
• Atlas Obscura profiles some cool systems of mass transit from around the world.
• CityLab observes how beauty in a city can boost its growth.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kitchener-Waterloo, Bowmanville, Kingston, Laval, Québec City

• Grand River Transit, in Kitchener-Waterloo, is running a contest giving a winner a chance to ride the first Ion train. Global News reports.
• Can the eastern GTA city of Bowmanville get included in Metrolinx’s plans for GO Transit expansion? Global News reports.
• Kingston, Ontario, is preparing for a new tourist season, capitalizing on its many museums and history sites. Global News reports.
• Le Devoir reports a new REM train station in Laval might be in a flood risk area.
• This year, Québec City is trying to balance the needs of tourists and residents in Vieux-Québec. CTV News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: food, McDonald’s, cell phones, cricket, renoviction

• NOW Toronto notes that poor and racialized people in Toronto find it difficult to access healthy food.
• blogTO observes that the McDonald’s at King and Dufferin has installed blue lights in washrooms to try to discourage the shooting up there of heroin.
• The TTC is set to offer cell phone service in some downtown tunnels. blogTO reports.
• Perry King at Spacing reports on how Toronto needs to expand its facilities for the growing number of players of cricket.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto reports that the owner of 795 College has been fined $C 135 000 for the renoviction of prior tenants.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Centauri Dreams reports on how dataset mining of K2 data revealed 18 more Earth-sized planets.
• Crooked Timber speculates on how Clarence Thomas might rule on abortion given his public rulings.
• D-Brief observes that some corals in Hawaii appear to thrive in acidic waters. Is there hope yet for coral reefs?
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about how sociology and history overlap, in their subjects and in their methods.
• Far Outliers examines how the last remnants of Soviet power faded quickly around the world in 1991.
• Gizmodo looks at how an image of a rare albino panda has just been captured.
• Joe. My. God. notes how Christian fundamentalists want to make the east of Washington State into a 51st state run by Biblical law.
• JSTOR Daily notes how trees can minimize algae blooms in nearby water systems.
• Victor Mair at Language Log takes issue with problematic pop psychology regarding bilingualism in Singapore.
• Lawyers, Guns, and Money takes issue with trying to minimize court decisions like (for instance) a hypothetical overthrow of Miranda v. Arizona. (Roe v. Wade is what they are concerned with.)
• The NYR Daily looks at the short storied life of avant-garde filmmaker Barbara Rubin.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why we can never learn everything about our universe.
• Towleroad notes that downloads of the relationship app Hinge have surged after Pete Buttigieg said he met his now-husband there.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Ukraine is seeking to have the Kerch Strait separating Crimea from adjacent Russia declared an international body of water.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at what famed gay writer John Rechy is doing these days.

[VIDEO] “Operation Jane Walk”

Operation Jane Walk from Leonhard Müllner on Vimeo.

Via The Atlantic, I came across “Operation Jane Walk”, a 2018 video by Leonhard Müllner and Robin Klengel that uses the setting of an apocalyptic Manhattan in the 2016 video game Tom Clancy’s The Division to engage in a sort of Jane’s Walk in a virtual city. Their narration does a cool job of exploring the urban history of 20th century New York, its evolution and change in the globalized world.