[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Anthropology.net notes a remarkably thorough genetic analysis of a piece of chewing gum 5700 years old that reveals volumes of data about the girl who chew it.
• ‘Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen writes an amazing review of Cats that actually does make me want to see it.
• Bad Astronomy reports on galaxy NGC 6240, a galaxy produced by a collision with three supermassive black holes.
• Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog writes about the mechanics of journalism.
• Centauri Dreams argues that the question of whether humans will walk on exoplanets is ultimately distracting to the study of these worlds.
• Crooked Timber shares a Sunday morning photo of Bristol.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that India has a launch date of December 2021 for its first mission in its Gaganyaan crewed space program.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the Saturn C-1 rocket.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers if the vogue for minimalism meets the criteria to be considered a social movement.
• Far Outliers ?notes how, in the War of 1812, some in New England considered the possibility of seceding from the Union.
• Gizmodo looks at evidence of the last populations known of Homo erectus, on Java just over a hundred thousand years ago.
• Mark Graham links to a new paper co-authored by him looking at how African workers deal with the gig economy.
• io9 announces that the Michael Chabon novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is set to become a television series.
• Joe. My. God. shares a report that Putin gave Trump anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories.
• JSTOR Daily considers what a world with an economy no longer structured around oil could look like.
• Language Hat takes issue with the latest talk of the Icelandic language facing extinction.
• Language Log shares a multilingual sign photographed in Philadelphia’s Chinatown.
• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the document release revealing the futility of the war in Afghanistan.
• The LRB Blog looks at class identity and mass movements and social democracy.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution suggests that, even if the economy of China is larger than the United States, Chinese per capita poverty means China does not have the leading economy.
• Diane Duane at Out of Ambit writes about how she is writing a gay sex scene.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on “OK Boomer”.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Mexican chef Ruffo Ibarra.
• Peter Rukavina shares his list of levees for New Year’s Day 2020 on PEI.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map indicating fertility rates in the different regions of the European Union.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how quantum physics are responsible for vast cosmic structures.
• Charles Soule at Whatever explains his reasoning behind his new body-swap novel.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Paris show the lack of meaningful pro-Russian sentiment there.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell talks about his lessons from working in the recent British election.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at a syncretic, Jewish-Jedi, holiday poster.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Ottawa, Kingston, Winnipeg, Bristol, Dessau

• The LeBreton Flats in Ottawa are now planned to experience a phased development. Global News reports.
• Kingston has recently celebrated the 175th anniversary of its brief history as capital of Canada (the Province of Canada, to be precise). Global News reports.
• The Independent reports on the comeback story of Winnipeg.
• Guardian Cities shares some of the different unfulfilled proposals for the development of the English city of Bristol.
• CityLab reports from Dessau, the eastern German city literally made by the Bauhaus school.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Richmond and Vancouver, San Jose, New York City, London, Bristol

• Vancouver and its neighbor, Richmond, have each opted to adopt very different policies towards marijuana sale and use. The National Post reports.
• CityLab notes the efforts of San Jose to build affordable housing for its teachers, and the opposition of many residents to this seemingly sensible move.
• Guardian Cities shares a beautiful series of photos looking at the New York City skyline over time.
• Metro reports that the opening of the first restaurant in London of Filipino fast food chain Jollibee’s saw huge lines.
• Open Democracy features a fascinating interview on the subject of the English city of Bristol, as a place of creative resistance.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• blogTO shares photos of Yonge and Dundas in the grimy 1970s.
• The Big Picture shares photos from a Tibetan Buddhist assembly.
• Crooked Timber shares a photo of Bristol’s floating bridge.
• The Dragon’s Gaze reports on an estimate of the number of extraterrestrial technological civilizations.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes an atlas of drought in Europe.
• Geocurrents examines the fallacy of environmental determinism.
• Joe. My. God. notes how open travel between the European Union and Ukraine has been endangered by the failure to protect gay employment.
• Language Hat links to an essay by a feminist talking about what it is like to live in a language environment, that of Hebrew, where everything is gendered.
• Language Log engages with fax usage in Japan and notes rare characters in Taiwan.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the plight of the dying steel town, all the worse because it was evitable.
• Marginal Revolution has a bizarre defense of Ben Carson.
• The Russian Demographics Blog and Window on Eurasia report on a rectification of the Russian-Chinese frontier.
• Window on Eurasia is critical of village values in Russia, and notes the return of ISIS fighters to Azerbaijan.