[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Edmonton, Vancouver, St. George, Kanepi, Moscow

• The City of Edmonton is considering the idea of intentionally creating a beach for sun-seekers on the North Saskatchewan River after last year’s happy accident. Global News reports.
• There is controversy in Vancouver over the idea of investor immigrants gaining voting rights in the city. Global News reports</u..
• The Utah conurbation of St. George faces real problems of water scarcity. CityLab reports.
• The Estonian municipality of Kanepi has made the leaf of the cannabis plant its logo. CityLab reports.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the symbolism behind the vast and impressive Moscow subway system, here.

Advertisements

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #yongeandstrong, Bloordale, rental housing crisis, Green Line

• Toronto Life has a nice photo-heavy feature sharing the experiences of some of the witnesses and survivors of the North York van attack.
• NOW Toronto reports on the discontent of Bloordale residents with the latest proposal for development on the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin.
• Prices for rental housing continue to rise beyond the city of Toronto, in the wider GTA. CBC reports.
• The idea of a crisis of affordability for Toronto renters, with one-quarter having to pay half or more of their income in rent, is very real. The Toronto Star reports.
• Public consultation on the plan for a Green Line network of parks, extending from Bathurst Street up to Earlscourt Park, will close on Friday. Submissions can be made here.

[ISL[ Five islands links: Devil’s Island, Hainan, Hashima, Newfoundland, global warming floods

• Business Insider shares some haunting photos of the old French prison island of Devil’s Island, in French Guiana, here.
• China is authorizing a horse lottery for its tourist-heavy southern tropical island of Hainan. Bloomberg reports.
• National Geographic shares photos of Japan’s Hashima Island, once a densely inhabited industrial conurbation and now at risk of succumbing entirely.
• A fixed link between the island of Newfoundland and the Canadian mainland–more precisely, a rail link connecting the Northern Peninsula to a new route on the adjacent Labrador shore–may well be a viable proposal. CBC reports.
• The worsening of wave-induced flooding on tropical islands might well make very many uninhabitable, by contaminating their water tables. National Geographic reports.

[ISL] Five Island links: Mi’kmaq UPEI, old-style boats, economic split, global warming, LGBTQ

• CBC reports how the Mi’kmaq flag now flies high, and permanently, above the campus of UPEI. Well done!
• An eastern PEI shipbuilder is creating an old-style wooden boat using traditional methods. CBC reports.
• The division of PEI into two zones for employment insurance purposes, between greater Charlottetown and the rest of the Island, can be unfair to people in Charlottetown. It also reflects real economic divisions in the province. CBC reports.
• When Atlantic Canada’s summers become as hot as Ontario’s thanks to global warming, I wonder what Ontario’s will be like? Global News reports.
• A recent conference in Charlottetown featured long-standing Island activists Jim Culbert and Nola Etkin, explaining their queer lives in the province. The Guardian reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Niagara Falls, Seattle, Boston, Toronto vs Montréal

• VICE notes that Airbnb is also having a negative impact on certain neighbourhoods in New York City.
• It may be necessary to put up barricades at Niagara Falls, but it’s still sad. CBC reports</u..
• Is Seattle the latest city at risk of being priced out of range of most locals? This Seattle Times opinion piece makes the case.
• This Toronto Life ad suggesting things to do in a four-day stay in Boston makes that city look wonderful. One day …
• Why not write an opera about the hockey rivalry between Toronto and Montréal? CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Hamilton, Rotterdam, Hambantota, Warsaw

• In response to a desire to remove an almost bizarre controversial statue of a cow from its location in a neighbourhood in Markham, the owner has sued the city for $C 4 million. The Toronto Star reports.
• The mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, would like housing incorporated into shopping malls, to deal with issues of housing and retail in one go. Global News reports.
• Brexit threatens to decidedly destabilize the picture for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The Independent reports.
• Bloomberg notes that the controversial Chinese-owned port of Hambantota, in Sri Lanka, is doing terrible business.
• Newly-discovered documents provide confirmation of the belief that the Nazis planned to utterly destroy Warsaw. The National Post reports.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase’s Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.
• Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.
• Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.
• D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.
• Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo’s Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.
• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?
• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.
• Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul’s Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.
• Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.
• At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)
• Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?
• The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.
• Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)
• The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.
• Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.
• Progressive Download’s John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.
• Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can’t wait to see it.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.
• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.