[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Gatineau, Montréal, Halifax, wild turkeys and monk parakeets, Venice, Kamza

• The city of Gatineau is going to take land with constructions devastated by flooding and make it into a buffer zone. CBC reports.
• There is controversy around the idea of naming a REM station in Montréal’s Griffintown neighbourhood after Bernard Landry. Global News reports.
• Halifax has a third heritage district. Global News reports.
• The wild turkey is now thriving in many American cities, in New Jersey’s Toms River and even in Washington D.C. CityLab reports.
• The monk parakeet is thriving in European cities like Madrid and London. CityLab reports.
• The Conversation suggests that Venice may yet benefit from the attention brought to its problems by the recent flooding.
• Guardian Cities looks at the remarkably rapid construction of the city in Albania of Kamza, driven by (among other factors) remittances from emigrants.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait observes that a team may have discovered the elusive neutron star produced by Supernova 1987A, hidden behind a cloud of dust.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber shares a photo he made via the time-consuming 19th century wet-plate collodion method.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage looks at the Apollo 12 visit to the Surveyor 3 site to, among other things, see what it might suggest about future space archeology.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the story of rural poverty facing a family in Waverly, Ohio, observing how it is a systemic issue.
• George Dvorsky at Gizmodo looks at how Mars’ Jezero crater seems to have had a past relatively friendly to life, good for the next NASA rover.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the latest ignorance displayed by Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, this time regarding HIV.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Climategate was used to undermine popular opinion on climate change.
• Language Hat links to an article explaining why so many works of classical literature were lost, among other things not making it onto school curricula.
• Language Log shares a photo of a Muji eraser with an odd English label.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests Pete Buttigieg faces a campaign-limiting ceiling to his support among Democrats.
• The LRB Blog argues that Macron’s blocking of EU membership possibilities for the western Balkans is a terrible mistake.
• The Map Room Blog shares a map depicting regional variations in Canada towards anthropogenic climate change. Despite data issues, the overall trend of oil-producing regions being skeptical is clear.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the slowing pace of labour mobility in the US, suggesting that home attachment is a key factor.
• Frederic Wehrey at the NYR Daily tells the story of Knud Holmboe, a Danish journalist who came to learn about the Arab world working against Italy in Libya.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why thermodynamics does not explain our perception of time.
• Understanding Society’s Dan Little looks at Electronic Health Records and how they can lead to medical mistakes.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi shares a remarkable photo of the night sky he took using the astrophotography mode on his Pixel 4 phone.
• Window on Eurasia shares an opinion that the Intermarium countries, between Germany and Russia, can no longer count on the US and need to organize in their self-defense.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a photo of his handsome late partner Jacques Transue, taken as a college student.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Ottawa, Montréal, Val d’Or, San Francisco, Tirana

• CBC notes that some hopeful owners of cannabis shops in Ottawa who went ahead in setting up their locations without securing a license are upset with their lost investments.
• A new urban regeneration program is afoot for an east-end Montréal neighbourhood, CTV notes.
• Labour shortages in Québec have reached the point that some immigrants are searching for jobs, and finding them, in the city of Val d’Or in the Abitibi region. CBC reports.
• A San Francisco contractor who leveled a historic home in that city, without seeking authorization, has been ordered to rebuild it exactly as it once was. BBC reports.
• CityLab notes the youthful energy, and youth-led planning, that pervades Tirana, the growing capital of Albania.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Wawa, Calgary, Mexico City, Tirana, Hong Kong

• Vice shares the photographs taken by Cheyenne Jackson of the declining, aging, northern Ontario town of Wawa. What future does it have?
• At MacLean’s, Jason Markusoff looks at the diminishing support for the 2026 Olympics in Calgary. Is there any case for this?
• Guardian Cities reports on the Via Verde, the vertical gardens attached to the pillars of the Mexico City freeway system. Are they merely cosmetic?
• The continued efforts of the civic authorities in the Albanian capital of Tirana to improve life in this growing city are the subject of this Guardian Cities article.
• This SCMP article makes a compelling argument that the distinctiveness of Hong Kong, as a city not wholly of China, is inexorably declining.

[NEWS] Five notes about migration: Albania, Venezuela, Latvia, Namibia and East Germany, Yunnan

• This report from the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso noting the sheer scale of emigration in parts of rural Albania, proceeding to the point of depopulating entire territories, tells a remarkable story.
• This opinion suggesting that, due to the breakdown of the economy of Venezuela, we will soon see a refugee crisis rivaling Syria’s seems frighteningly plausible.
• Politico Europe notes that, in the case of Latvia, where emigration has helped bring the country’s population down below two million, there are serious concerns.
• OZY tells the unexpected story of hundreds of young Namibian children who, during apartheid, were raised in safety in Communist East Germany.
• Many Chinese are fleeing the pollution of Beijing and other major cities for new lives in the cleaner environments in the southern province of Yunnan. The Guardian reports.

[NEWS] Four geopolitics links: democracy, Trump and China, India and Pakistan, western Balkans

• The suggestion by David Moscrop, at MacLean’s, that between the rise of authoritarian China and the Trump ascendancy in the US, liberal democracy may face particular peril this year seems worryingly plausible.
• Evan Osnos at The New Yorker looks at how the savvy Chinese government is taking advantage of Trump’s incapacities.
• This DefenseOne essay arguing that India is facing a point where it is unable to defeat Pakistan in conventional battle is worth noting.
• This B92 essay arguing that the European Union should make special provisions for the western Balkans to avoid their protracted decay outside of the Union convinces me, at least.

[NEWS] Four LGBTQ links: Chechnya, Albania, families

• CBC shares the story of Maxim Lapunov, a surviving victim of Chechnya’s gay pogroms who escaped to Canada.
• Kristi Penderi writes about his LGBT activism in Albania made a difference, even though he had to eventually leave.
• Jessie Randall writes about her struggles to become an aspiring young mother as a coupled lesbian.
• Naveen Kumar at VICE shares stories of gay men who donated sperm to lesbians and helped create new families.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Crooked Timber links the near-criminal destruction of Grenfell Tower with Thatcherism’s deregulations and catastrophes.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes that TRAPPIST-1e is slated to be among the first observational targets of the James Webb Space Telescope.
• Far Outliers shares Edith Durham’s account of an exciting St. John’s Day in Albania in 1908.
• Language Hat looks at a passage from Turgenev.
• What, the LRB wonders, will Emmanuel Macron do with his crushing victory after the parliamentary elections, too?
• Marginal Revolution wonders to what extent is Germany’s support for Nord Stream consistent with Germany’s concerns over NATO and Russia.
• Ed Jackson’s Spacing Toronto article about the need to preserve queer public history in Toronto is a must-read.
• Torontoist’s Alex Yerman notes the new activity of the Jewish left against a conservative establishment.
• Window on Eurasia suggests that modern Russia is repeating the Soviet Union’s overmilitarization mistakes, only this time with fewer resources.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Centauri Dreams looks at two brown dwarf pairs, nearby Luhman 16 and eclipsing binary WD1202-024.
• D-Brief notes a study suggesting panspermia would be easy in the compact TRAPPIST-1 system.
• Far Outliers notes the shouted and remarkably long-range vocal telegraph of early 20th century Albania.
• Language Hat links to a fascinating blog post noting the survival of African Latin in late medieval Tunisia.
• The LRB Blog notes the observations of an Englishman in Northern Ireland that, after the DUP’s rise, locals are glad other Britons are paying attention.
• Marginal Revolution notes a study suggesting that refugees in the US end up paying more in taxes than they receive in benefits.
• Spacing reviews a fascinating-sounding new book on the politics and architecture of new libraries.
• Understanding Society examines the mechanisms through which organizations can learn.
• Window on Eurasia talks about the progressive detachment of the east of the North Caucasus, at least, from wider Russia.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Crooked Timber enthuses over the remixing, or remastering, of arguably the Beatles’ most iconic album.
• Far Outliers notes the Albanian language’s alphabet struggles in the wider geopolitics of Albania.
• Joe. My. God. notes an American soccer player opted to quit rather than to wear a Pride jersey.
• Language Hat notes a new online atlas of Algonquian languages.
• The NYRB Daily argues that Theresa May’s election defeat makes the fantasy of a hard Brexit, at least, that much less possible.
• Window on Eurasia notes Russia’s concern at the dissipation of the prestige of its language and script in its former empire, especially in Ukraine.