[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Paris, Gibraltar, Brazzaville

• Kingston is experiencing a serious housing crisis, exacerbated by the return of students to such educational institutions as Queen’s. Global News reports.
• CBC looks at how, on the eve of the federal election, issues like cost of living are big even in relatively affordable Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
• CityLab looks at controversy in Paris over the reconstruction of the Gare du Nord station, here.
• Vice shares photos of Gibraltar on the eve of Brexit, here.
• Guardian Cities shares photos of the wordless images advertising shops in the city of Brazzaville, here.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bruce Dorminey notes that NASA plans to launch a CubeSat into lunar orbit for navigational purposes.
• Far Outliers looks at an instance of a knight seeking to avoid battle.
• io9 looks at how Boris Johnson ludicrously compared himself to the Hulk.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how climate change helped make civil war in Syria possible.
• Language Hat looks at a bad etymology for “province” published by a reputable source.
• Marginal Revolution notes that the United States has had below-average economic growth since 2005. (The new average, I suppose?)
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new Stephen King novel, The Institute.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains that, with K2-18b, we did not find water on an Earth-like exoplanet.
• Strange Company looks at a peculiar case of alleged reincarnation from mid-20th century Canada.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, although North Caucasians marry at higher rates than the Russian average, these marriages are often not reported to officialdom.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the possible meanings, salacious and otherwise, of a “Boy Party”.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TIFF and transit, 311 Mildenhall Road, Galleria, 7 Labatt, NDP

• Sean Marshall takes issue with how TIFF monopolizes much of the downtown, including key arteries like King Street.
• blogTO reports on the luxurious estate of 311 Mildenhall Road, recently off the market at a price of well over $C 10 million.
• Urban Toronto shares renderings of the first phase of Galleria on the Park. Wow.
• Dozens of artists are working out of 7 Labatt Avenue, a warehouse set to be demolished. The Toronto Star reports.
• NOW Toronto reports on the mess involving the NDP in the riding of Parkdale-High Park, here.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait urges caution in identifying K2-18b, a mini-Neptune with water vapour in its atmosphere, as Earth-like.
• Centauri Dreams reports on the discovery of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), a likely interstellar comet like ‘Oumuamua.
• The Crux reports on the orange roughy, a fish commonly caught as byproduct that can live up to 250 years.
• D-Brief looks at the harm that may be caused by some insecticides to songbirds, including anorexia and delayed migrations.
• Dangerous Minds considers if David Bowie actually did burn his 360-ton Glass Spider stage prop.
• Gizmodo notes the formidable, fanged marsupials once existing in Australia.
• Imageo notes signs that a dreaded blob of hot water, auguring climate change, might now be lurking in the Pacific Ocean.
• io9 notes that Ryan Murphy has shared the official title sequence for the 1984 season of American Horror Story.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the history, in popular culture and actual technology, of the artificial womb.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how lightly the Sackler family got off for their involvement in triggering the opioid crisis with OxyContin.
• Marginal Revolution notes many companies are now seeking insurance to protect themselves in the US-China trade war.
• Tim Parks writes at the NYR Daily about how every era tends to have translations which fit its ethos.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper suggesting that immigration and immigrants do not have major effects on the overall fertility of highly-developed countries.
• Frank Jacobs notes a mysterious 1920s German map of South America that shows Brasilia, the Brazilian capital built only from 1956. What is up with this?
• Window on Eurasia reports on the negative effects of massive migration of workers from Tajikistan on the country’s women.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the remarkably eccentric orbit of gas giant HR 5138b.
• Centauri Dreams notes the impact that large-scale collisions have on the evolution of planets.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber noted yesterday that babies born on September 11th in 2001 are now 18 years old, adults.
• The Crux notes that some of the hominins in the Sima de los Huesos site in Spain, ancestors to Neanderthals, may have been murdered.
• D-Brief reports on the cryodrakon, a pterosaur that roamed the skies above what is now Canada 77 million years ago.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the political artwork of Jan Pötter.
• Gizmodo notes a poll suggesting a majority of Britons would support actively seeking to communicate with extraterrestrial civilizations.
• io9 has a loving critical review of the first Star Trek movie.
• JSTOR Daily shares, from April 1939, an essay by the anonymous head of British intelligence looking at the international context on the eve of the Second World War.
• Language Log notes a recent essay on the mysterious Voynich manuscript, one concluding that it is almost certainly a hoax of some kind.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the future of the labour movement in the United States.
• Marginal Revolution considers what sort of industrial policy would work for the United States.
• Yardena Schwartz writes at NYR Daily about the potential power of Arab voters in Israel.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections explains why, despite interest, Australia did not launch a space program in the 1980s.
• Drew Rowsome provides a queer review of It: Chapter Two.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how government censorship of science doomed the Soviet Union and could hurt the United States next.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, in the Volga republics, recent educational policy changes have marginalized non-Russian languages.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a glossy, fashion photography-style, reimagining of the central relationship in the James Baldwin classic Giovanni’s Room, arranged by Hilton Als.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: NYC and Montréal, Thunder Bay, Rouyn-Noranda, California City …

• Thanks to John for sharing me this review, by The Points Guy, of the apparently underwhelming Amtrak Adirondack track connecting New York City and Montréal. We deserve better.
• Sean Marshall shares, among other places at TVO, an account of the complex and roundabout grid of rail and bus routes he needed to take to get from Toronto to Thunder Bay.
• Graham Isador writes for CBC Arts about how the Québec mining town of Rouyn-Noranda became host to a major music festival.
• Wired reports on the deserted streets of California City, a metropolis proposed into existence in the mid-20th century that never took off.
• Can, as Bloomberg suggests, the property reforms that made it possible for people in Singapore to have secure homes be implemented in Hong Kong?

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Valley Land Trail, e-scooters, rental housing, Brooke Lynn Hytes

• The new Valley Land Trail in Scarborough looks amazing. blogTO explains.
• John Lorinc writes at Spacing about the challenges posed by the legalization of e-scooters in Toronto.
• Why are there not more apartment buildings being built in Toronto, given the pressing demand for rental housing? The Toronto Star reports.
• David Sajecki at Spacing writes about how the construction of a low-rise apartment building at 1103 Dufferin Street, one that blends seamlessly into Wallace Emerson, points the way forward for the city.
• At Toronto Life, Emily Landau profiles Toronto-born drag queen Brooke Lynn Hytes.