[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Architectuul looks at the Porto architectural project Critical Concrete, here.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares the evidence for our galaxy having experienced a phase as a quasar a quarter-million years long some 3.5 million years ago.
• Author James Bow celebrates the end of his publicity tour for The Night Girl, including a controversy over cover art featuring the CN Tower.
• Robert Zubrin at Centauri Dreams considers how we could detect energy from artificial singularities used for power and propulsion. (Is this how we find the Romulans?)
• The Crux considers whether or not the new proposals for more powerful supercolliders in China and Europe are likely to produce new discoveries.
• D-Brief explains why older generations so often look down on the young: The elders idealize their younger selves too much.
• Dead Things notes new evidence, in the tracks of trilobites moving in line 480 million years ago, for early life being able to engage in collective behaviour.
• io9 interviews Kami Garcia about her new YA book featuring venerable DC character Raven, remaking her for new readers.
• The Island Review interviews David Gange about The Frayed Atlantic Edge, his book account of his kayak trip down the western coasts of Britain and Ireland.
• JSTOR Daily explains why Martin Luther King Jr. thought so highly of jazz.
• Eleanor Penny argues at the LRB Blog against taking Malthus, with his pessimism trending towards a murderous misanthropy, as a prophet for our times.
• The NYR Daily looks at the play American Moor, which touches on the efforts of black actors to engage with Shakespeare.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new film The Flick, an old to old-style movies and theatres.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map depicting Hutterite migrations across early modern Europe.
• Starts With A Bang shares new speculation that some evidence for dark matter might actually be a mistake in measurement.
• Strange Maps notes the now mostly submerged continent of Greater Adria.
• Window on Eurasia shares a suggestion that the deep Russophilia of many ordinary people in Belarus might support union with Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the different meanings of “unaccompanied”.

[URBAN NOTE] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers the possibility that our model for the evolution of galaxies might be partially disproven by Big Data.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly reports how she did her latest article for the New York Times.
• Centauri Dreams notes the beginning of a search for habitable-zone planets around Alpha Centauri A and B.
• The Crux looks at how the skull trophies of the ancient Maya help explain civilizational collapse.
• D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting that our humble, seemingly stable Sun can produce superflares.
• Dead Things reports on the latest informed speculation about the sense of smell of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares the NASA report on its progress towards the Lunar Gateway station.
• Gizmodo looks at the growing number of China’s beautiful, deadly, blooms of bioluminescent algae.
• io9 reports that Stjepan Sejic has a new series with DC, exploring the inner life of Harley Quinn.
• JSTOR Daily looks at an example of a feminist musical, the Chantal Akerman The Eighties.
• Language Hat links to a review of a dystopian novel by Yoko Tawada, The Emissary, imagining a future Japan where the learning of foreign languages is banned.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reiterates that history, and the writing of history, is an actual profession with skills and procedures writers in the field need to know.
• Liam Shaw writes at the LRB Blog about how people in London, late in the Second World War, coped with the terrifying attacks of V2 rockets.
• The Map Room Blog links to a new book, Wayfinding, about the neuroscience of navigation.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution reviews a Robert Zubrin book advocating the colonization of space and finds himself unconvinced.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the ancient comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko explored by the ESA Rosetta probe.
• Roads and Kingdoms provides tips for visitors to the Paraguay capital of Asuncion.
• Peter Rukavina reports that, on the day the new PEI legislature came in, 105% of Island electricity came from windpower.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel argues that, in searching for life, we should not look for exoplanets very like Earth.
• Strange Company shares another weekend collection of diverse links.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little shares the views of Margaret Gilbert on social facts.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Kadyrov might dream of a broad Greater Chechnya, achieved at the expense of neighbouring republics.
• Arnold Zwicky considers some superhero identity crises, of Superman and of others.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait reports on a dwarf galaxy collision with galaxy NGC 1232, producing waves of X-rays.
• The Toronto Library’s The Buzz highlights a collection of books on LGBTQ themes for Pride month.
• Centauri Dreams looks at studies of the circumstellar disk of HD 163296.
• D-Brief reports that plastic debris may have contributed to a die-off of puffins by the Bering Sea.
• Bruce Dorminey shares an image of a rich star-forming region in Cepheus taken by the Spitzer telescope.
• Imageo reports how smoke from wildfires in Canada have covered literally millions of square kilometres of North America in smoke.
• io9 notes how, in the limited series Doomsday Clock, Doctor Manhattan has come to a new realization about Superman and the DC multiverse.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Luddites are now fashionable again, with their critiques of technology.
• Language Log reports on a unique whistled version of the Turkish language.
• Lawyers Guns and Money takes a look its different writers’ production over its 15 years.
• Emannuel Iduma writes at the NRY Daily about the young people, lives filled with promise, killed in the Biafran War.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There has an interesting idea: What items of food do the different planets of the solar system resemble?
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks at the many stupidities of the new Trump tariffs against Mexico.
• Peter Rukavina celebrates the 20th anniversary of his blog.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on the exceptionally isolated galaxy MCG+01-02-015, in a void a hundred million light-years away from any other.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the changing politics and scholarship surrounding mass deaths in Soviet Kazakhstan in the 1930s. https://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/05/debate-on-mass-deaths-in-kazakhstan.html
• Arnold Zwicky looks at flowers coloured magenta in his California.

[NEWS] Five SF links: the novella, Kubrick on 2001, Supergirl vs Superman, TV fans, past writers

• Jason Kehe at Wired suggests that now is the time of the science-fiction novella, not least because of their compact size.
• Esquire links to a video in which Stanley Kubrick gives his definitive interpretation of the ending of the movie version of 2001.
• Alex Cranz at io9 makes the argument that Supergirl, as an adult immigrant to Earth trying to find her way in an unknown world with great recent shows, resonates more deeply with the Super mythos than a more confused Superman.
• Jessica Wong at CBC reports on how campaigns by devoted fans can save cult SF television shows like the Toronto-filmed Shadowhunters.
• James Nicoll at Tor, looking back to the 1970s, uses a Judy-Lynn Del Rey anthology series of the era to highlight some noteworthy authors.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Detroit, Metropolis, Seattle, Foster City, Kigali

• If ever I make it to Detroit, the John K King bookstore would surely be a must-visit. Atlas Obscura reports.
• Metropolis, Illinois, is celebrating Superman. Where better to do so? Wired reports.
• Seattle, like so many cities around North America, is apparently facing a gentrification that makes it increasingly uncomfortable for too many. Crosscut has it.
• The San Francisco Bay area community of Foster City faces imminent danger from rising sea levels. CBC reports.
• Decades after the horrors of the mid-1990s, dogs in the Rwandan capital of Kigali are starting to be treated as potential pets again. National Geographic reports.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the wonders being witnessed by the Dawn probe in orbit of Ceres.
• Centauri Dreams notes the potential of effectively immortal interstellar probes.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of some genetic origins of loneliness.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog notes the connections and potential conflicts between concepts of race and the British royal family.
• Far Outliers shares the first part of the summary of an article examining contact between African and Japanese mercenaries in early modern Asia.
• Gizmodo wonders if Uranus’ large axial tilt can be explained by some sort of massive collision.
• Hornet Stories likes the way that Pose, a show set in queer communities in New York City in the 1980s, deals with HIV.
• In the aftermath of the tumult regarding the New York Times’ coverage of Batman and Catwoman, io9 offers the paper some tips on covering pop culture.
• JSTOR Daily shares a paper noting how and why, in belle époque Chicago, immigrant communities often sponsored Fourth of July celebrations.
• Language Hat deals with the convention of many writers in English to italicize foreign words. Why do this, again?
• Jonathan Freedland at the NYR Daily considers the import of the Fourth of July for the United States in 2018.
• Science and Food looks at liquid nitrogen gastronomy.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers if the universe might be headed for a big rip.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers, in the context of ‘Oumuamua, the import of shads and axis ratios. What does it suggest about the processes by which planetary systems form?
• The Dragon’s Tales notes a report suggesting that Russia is not at all likely to legalize bitcoins.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell takes a look at Article 63, the German constitutional article that governs the selection of the Chancellor.
• The Frailest Thing quotes a passage from Jacques Ellul about the adaptation of humans to a mechanized world.
• Hornet Stories notes that out actor Russell Tovey is set to play the (also out) Ray in the Arrowverse, an anti-Nazi superhero from an alternate Earth.
• Language Hat tells the story of Lin Shu, an early 20th century translator of European fiction into Chinese whose works were remarkably influential.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money is amused by the story of a young university student who has used basic knowledge of Foucault to play with his family’s household rules.
• The LRB Blog notes the very awkward, and potentially fatal, position of the Rohingya, caught between Burma and Bangladesh.
• The Map Room Blog links to a talk recently given on fake maps, on maps used to lie and misrepresent and propagandize.
• The NYR Daily meditates on the precocity and the homoeroticism inherent in the Hart Crane poem “The Bridge.”
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that we can see, so far, only a surprisingly small fraction of the observable universe. (So far.)
• The Volokh Conspiracy celebrates the many defeats of Trump as he fights against sanctuary cities as a victory for federalism and against executive power.
• Window on Eurasia notes a poll suggesting that, after 2014, while Crimeans may feel less Ukrainian they do not necessarily feel more Russian.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look, linguistically, at an Ian Frazier phrase: “That is aliens for you.”

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• D-Brief notes that the opioid epidemic seems to be hitting baby boomers and millennials worst, of all major American demographics.
• Hornet Stories shares one timetable for new DC films following Justice League.
• Joe. My. God. notes a case brought by a Romanian before the European Court of Justice regarding citizenship rights for his American spouse. This could have broad implications for the recognition of same-sex couples across the EU, not just its member-states.
• Language Hat reports on a journalist’s search for a village in India where Sanskrit, ancient liturgical language of Hinduism, remains the vernacular.
• The Map Room Blog links to a review of an intriuging new book, Nowherelands, looking at ephemeral countries in the 1840-1975 era.
• The NYR Daily looks at the textile art of Anni Albers.
• The Planetary Society Blog explores the navigational skills of the Polynesians, and their reflection in Moana.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the widespread jubilation in Zimbabwe following the overthrow of Mugabe.
• Rocky Planet notes that Öræfajökull, the largest volcano in Iceland if a hidden one, has been showing worrying signs of potential eruption.
• Drew Rowsome reports on House Guests, an art installation that has taken over an entire house at Dundas and Ossington.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the story of how the quantum property of spin was discovered.
• Window on Eurasia suggests new Russian policies largely excluding non-Russian languages from education are causing significant problems, even ethnic conflict.
• Arnold Zwicky considers music as a trigger of emotional memory, generally and in his own life.

[NEWS] Three Justice League notes: box office, shared universe, Ezra Miller

• I have to say that the argument of Steven Zeitchik that DC Comics may not be able to sustain its shared universe, given the apparent underperformance of Justice League, is not obviously wrong. I do think DC is now getting it, mind. His article is hosted at the Toronto Star.
• Scott Mendelson argues that, if Justice League performs well enough later on and/or internationally, the film could still be viewed as a worthwhile investment in the individual characters and later films. Tis article is over at Forbes.
• Pop Sugar notes that Ezra Miller, fresh from an excellent performance in Justice League as the Flash, is set to become the first out queer actor to headline an action film.