[AH] Five r/imaginarymaps #alternatehistory maps: Turks, Prussia, Prussia-Poland, Austria, Bavaria

• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines the creation, via migration in the 13th century, of a Turkic Christian minority akin to the Gagauz concentrated in northwestern Germany. Nice map, if questionable borders.
• What would have happened if, as nearly occurred in 1762, Prussia was crushed by its neighbours and divided? r/imaginarymaps shows the outcome.
• Could there ever have emerged, after the partitions of Poland, a dual-nation kingdom of Prussia-Poland? r/imaginarymaps shows this country.
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a southern Germany unified under Austria, separate from the sphere of Prussia in the north.
• Could a union of Bavaria with the German-speaking lands of Austria after 1919 have worked? r/imaginarymaps shows it.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how TESS detected a star being torn apart by a distant black hole.
• Centauri Dreams’ Paul Gilster looks at the past and future of the blog.
• Crooked Timber takes on the sensitive issue of private schools in the United Kingdom.
• The Crux considers the question of why women suffer from Alzheimer’s at a higher frequency than men.
• D-Brief notes a study suggesting that saving the oceans of the Earth could reduce the effects of global warming by 20%.
• Bruce Dorminey considers a paper suggesting that, if not for its volcanic resurfacing, Venus could have remained an Earth-like world to this day.
• The Dragon’s Tale notes that NASA will deploy a cubesat in the proposed orbit of the Lunar Gateway station to make sure it is a workable orbit.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at Soyuz T-10a, the first crewed mission to abort on the launch pad.
• Gizmodo reports on a paper arguing that we should intentionally contaminate Mars (and other bodies?) with our world’s microbes.
• io9 looks at how Warner Brothers is trying to control, belatedly, the discourse around the new Joker movie.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how, in industrializing London, women kidnapped children off the streets.
• Language Hat links to a page examining the Arabic and Islamic elements in Dune.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at a new documentary examining the life of Trump mentor Roy Cohn.
• The LRB Blog looks at how BBC protocols are preventing full discussion of public racism.
• The Map Room Blog looks at different efforts to reimagining the subway map of New York City.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper claiming that increased pressure on immigrants to assimilate in Italy had positive results.
• The NYR Daily looks at the background to George Washington’s statements about the rightful place of Jews in the United States.
• Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the political explanation of the massive increase in the planetary defense budget of NASA.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the Rocky Horror Show, with its celebration of sexuality (among other things).
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers why there are so many unexpected black holes in the universe.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps examines why Google Street View is not present in Germany (and Austria).
• The Volokh Conspiracy reports on a ruling in a UK court that lying about a vasectomy negates a partner’s consent to sex.
• Window on Eurasia notes the controversy about some Buryat intellectuals about giving the different dialects of their language too much importance.

[NEWS] Five cultural links: Hitler, Internet, Nova Scotia roads, BC gangs, Pontic Greek

• The BBC takes a look at Pontic Greek, a Greek dialect that survives precariously in exile from its homeland in Anatolia.
• Klaus Meyer writes at The Conversation about how Hitler, in his rise to power, became a German citizen.
• Low-income families in the Toronto area face serious challenges in getting affordable Internet access. CBC reports.
• Jeremy Keefe at Global News takes a look at Steve Skafte, an explorer of abandoned roads in Nova Scotia.
• In some communities in British Columbia, middle-class people have joined criminal gangs for social reasons. CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Winnipeg, Vancouver, Stockholm, Vienna, Mariupol

• The salvaging and restoration of the Fortune Block in downtown Winnipeg is a victory indeed for preservationists. CBC reports.
• One hopes that Vancouver manages to settle on a plan for revitalizing its West End beaches. Global News reports
• Guardian Cities suggests that Stockholm has done a good job of keeping a proper work-life balance for its residents.
• Guardian Cities reports on the specific contributions of women to modern Vienna.
• Open Democracy reported before the Ukraine elections from the Donbas front line city of Mariupol, seeing how exhausted the locals were.

[AH] Five #alternatehistory maps from r/imaginarymaps: Germany, Britain, Africa, Japan, Iran

• r/imaginarymaps imagines a Germany united along religious lines, Protestant areas falling under Prussia and Catholic ones under Austria.
• Reddit’s imaginarymaps imagines a republican Great Britain. When could republicanism have taken off in the British Isles as a whole?
• Reddit’s imaginarymaps shares a map of a former Portuguese colony of Zambezia, a Lusophone nation stretching from the Atlantic at Namibia east through to Mozambique.
• This r/imaginarymaps map, imagining a Japan (and northeast Asia generally) split into sheres of influence by rival European powers, treaty ports and all, surely describes a worst-case scenario for 19th century Japan. How likely was this?
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines an Iran that, following a 9/11-style attack by Lebanese terrorists in Moscow, ends up partitioned between Soviet and US-Arab spheres of influence.

[AH] Five #alternatehistory maps from r/imaginarymaps: France, Austria, Slovenia, Japanese Empire

• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines an early medieval France that became not a notional kingdom but rather a decentralized empire, a Holy Roman Empire of the French Nation.
• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a greater Austria that includes Slovenia.
• A Greater Slovenia, encompassing lands from Austria, Italy, and even Hungary, is the subject of this r/imaginarymaps map.
• Could an Austria divided in the Cold War be divided like this r/imaginarymaps map?
• This r/imaginarymaps map shows a Japanese Empire that survived until 1956, encompassing much of the Russian Far East as well as Manchuria and Korea.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC, Vienna, Zed 80, Toronto of the Future

• Cameron MacLeod at Spacing considers the poor record of the province of Ontario with supporting the TTC.
• Steve Munro, writing at NOW Toronto, looks at how the cost of the TTC to the provincial government is inevitably set to climb hugely.
• blogTO shares a list of five things Toronto can learn from Vienna.
• A second arcade bar is set to open in Toronto, Zed 80 on the Danforth. blogTO reports.
• Urban Toronto notes that the latest iteration of the Toronto of the Future conference is set for the end of June.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes evidence that white dwarf Gaia J1738–0826 is eating its planets.
• Crux takes a look at the stars closely orbiting Sagittarius A* at the heart of the galaxy like relativity-proving S2.
• D-Brief notes a recent proposal for an unmanned probe to Uranus and Neptune.
• Dangerous Minds shows the eerily decomposing sculptures of Yuichi Ikehata.
• Bruce Dorminey explores the provocative idea of era in the early Moon where it was briefly habitable.
• Far Outliers explores the reasons why George Orwell has become so popular lately.
• Hornet Stories notes that Tom Daley has recently posed nude for a painting by the celebrated David Hockney.
• JSTOR Daily explores the reality behind the imminent arrival of the laser gun into militaries worldwide.
• Language Hat notes that the Austrian state of Vorarlberg sponsors an interesting contest, of performances of songs–including pop songs–in local dialect.
• The LRB Blog notes the severity of the forest fires in Greece, aggravated by climate change, systematic corruption, and recent austerity.
• The Planetary Society Blog shares photos of asteroid Ryugu taken by the Hayabusa2 probe.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on a T-bone steak heavy breakfast lasting twenty hours in Bilbao.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes a joke political party in Hungary that wants to make the country smaller.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under Moscow is caught between its Ukrainian goals and its Russian links.

[NEWS] Five notes about frontiers: South Tyrol, Brexit, Alps, eastern Ukraine, Djibouti

• Alessio Colonelli takes issue with the granting of a right to Austrian citizenship to only select residents of South Tyrol, over at Open Democracy.
• Immigration to the United Kingdom may be falling, Bloomberg reports, but this is not to the advantage of the British economy.
• Migrants trying to travel from Italy to France are unwittingly risking the terrible snow-bound conditions of the Alps. The National Post has the story.
• Bloomberg View suggests one way forward for peace in eastern Ukraine. I’m not sure, frankly, that this is a plausible path (that there are any, even).
• Politico Europe takes a look at the exceptional strategic importance of Djibouti for militaries around the world, the US and China included.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• The Big Picture shares adorable photos of baby animals.
• Multi-planet system K2-138 is one of the systems found via crowdsourcing, Centauri Dreams notes.
• I did not know that David Bowie and Brian Eno visited the Gugging mental health clinic in Austria in 1994. Dangerous Minds has the photos.
• Hornet Stories notes that Mike Pence has tried to defend himself from Adam Rippon’s criticisms by lying about his past.
• Information is Beautiful shares an infographic depicting the edit wars last year on Wikipedia.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Northern Ireland may get a referendum on marriage equality, giving it a chance to catch up to the Republic of Ireland and to the rest of the United Kingdom.
• JSTOR Daily links to a vintage article noting that trying to apply the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, which could unseat a sitting president if the president was disabled, could cause a constitutional crisis.
• Language Hat notes a study suggesting that, as humans become more sedentary, linguistic evidence suggests smell becomes less important.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders: how many films, how many novels, have been about _women_, not men, who are difficult geniuses? Where is the female equivalent of House?
• The NYR Daily examines the Afro-futurism of 20th century novelist George Schuyler and his Black No More.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers what someone would see as they descended into a black hole.
• At Towleroad, Steven Petrow tells how HIV/AIDS doctor Mathilde Krim saved his life.
• Window on Eurasia notes one, militant, response in the Donbas republics to the breakdown of the Minsk Accords with Ukraine.