[NEWS] Six cetacean links

• Apparently upwards of 95% of dolphins are right-handed. Global News reports.
• A dead sperm whale has been found in Scotland, choked on a hundred kilograms of plastic waste. CBC reports.
• Tracking the heart rate of a blue whale is something that we can do. CBC reports.
• Nearly a hundred cetaceans held in a Russian facility seem to be doing well after being released to their ocean home. CBC reports.
• The policies of Elizabeth Warren could, if she was elected, impact the seafood industry of Atlantic Canada. (As, I think, they should.) CBC reports.
• Whale populations can, if we treat them well, help save the climate from catastrophe. VICE makes the case.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: National Park, Lennox Island, traffic, Charlottetown mass transit, Cornwall

• The Prince Edward Island National Park, unsurprisingly, was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Global News reports.
• The Mi’kmaq community of Lennox Island lost large amounts of frozen lobster after Hurricane Dorian. CBC PEI reports.
• Peter Rukavina has mapped the busiest and sleepiest roads on PEI, here.
• Growth in ridership on Trius Transit in Charlottetown continues to outpace expectations, CBC PEI reports.
• The work that the Charlottetown suburb of Cornwall is doing, diverting the Trans-Canada Highway to build a Main Street, is authentically exciting urbanism. CBC PEI reports.

[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.

[ISL] Five #islands links: St. Vincent, Orkneys, Hong Kong, Kiribati, Manus

• The Inter Press Service reports on efforts to keep the fisheries of St. Vincent active, despite climate change.
• This Guardian report on the sheer determination of the librarians of the Orkneys to service their community, even in the face of giant waves, is inspiring.
• I am decidedly impressed by the scope of the Hong Kong plan to build a vast new artificial island. The Guardian reports.
• This Inter Press Service report about how the stigma of leprosy in Kiribati prevents treatment is sad, and recounts a familiar phenomenon.
• That Behrouz Boochani was able to write an award-winning book on Whatsapp while imprisoned in the Australian camp on Manus island is an inspiring story that should never have been. CBC’s As It Happens reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Calgary, London, Amsterdam, Dakar

• In remembering Stan Lee, CityLab points to the evocative image of New York City that he and Marvel Comics created.
• Global News notes that Calgary is approaching the day of its referendum over the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Calgarians, vote against the idea.)
• Guardian Cities shares these images depicting what London would look like if any number of plans for new architectural wonders had come to pass.
• CityLab notes how community activity helped reclaim Zeedijk street in Amsterdam.
• Guardian Cities shares photos of the final days of the traditional fish market in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.

[ISL] Five islands links: Ile-des-Soeurs, Barbados, Islay, Greenland, Seychelles (#islands)

• La Presse notes that ongoing contruction is making traffic to and from the heavily populated Ile-des-Soeurs, just off Montréal, very difficult.
• IPS News notes that Barbados is hoping to diversify beyond its traditional sugar cane agriculture to start tapping fisheries in the adjacent Atlantic.
• The Island Review shares the reports of Marg Greenwood around the Scottish island of Islay.
• Are the oldest fossils in the world, imprints in Greenland rocks billions of years old, actually fossils? CBC reports.
• The Inter Press Services notes that the Seychelles have issued some bonds in support of new fisheries projects.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Manhattan, La Tabatière, Dunkirk, Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne

• Derek Thompson at CityLab writes about how, despite or even because it is so wealthy, real estate costs in Manhattan are so high as to drive out the sorts of mixed and eclectic neighbourhoods that Jane Jacobs loved.
• The town of La Tabatière, on the fisheries-dependent Lower North Shore of Québec, has transitioned to the growing of honeyberries after the local fish plant closed down. CBC reports.
• Guardian Cities notes how free local transport in the French city of Dunkirk has had a major effect on locals’ lives.
• CityLab takes a look at the stunning black-and-white photographs taken by Pascal Greco of the concrete towers of Hong Kong.
• Slate responds to the new plan of the Australian federal government to limit inflows of immigrants to Sydney and Melbourne, instead trying to distribute them more evenly around the country.

[NEWS] Five notes on food: pork in Germany, California agriculture, NL clam, Maine lobster, food box

• Pork consumption in Germany is dropping, a consequence of changing demographics and changing dietary preferences. Bloomberg reports.
• Raids on illegal immigrants by ICE have the potential to badly hurt agriculture in California. Bloomberg reports.
• The story of how an effort to open up the Arctic surf clam fishery of Newfoundland, particularly to natives and non-natives alike became a big mess is sad. The National Post reports.
• Apparently, to cope with injuries and chronic pain, the lobster fishers of Maine are coping by using heroin. Is this going on in Atlantic Canada, too? VICE reports.
• Things like the Trump plan to substantially replace fresh foods with boxed non-perishable goods in food stamp problems have happened to Native Americans already. The dietary and health consequences are significantly negative. NPR reports.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that the measured rate of the expansion of the universe depends on the method used to track this rate, and that this is a problem.
• On Sunday, Caitlin Kelly celebrated receiving her annual cheque from Canada’s Public Lending Program, which gives authors royalties based on how often their book has been borrowed in our public libraries.
• In The Buzz, the Toronto Public Library identified five books in its collection particularly prone to be challenged by would-be censors.
• D-Brief suggests that, if bacteria managed to survive and adapt in the Atacama desert as it became hostile to life, like life might have done the same on Mars.
• Far Outliers notes the crushing defeat, and extensive looting of, the MOghul empire by the Persia of Nader Shah.
• Hornet Stories looks at the medal hauls of out Olympic athletes this year in Pyeongchang.

Imageo notes satellite imagery indicating that fisheries occupy four times the footprint of agriculture. Aquaculture is starting to look like a necessary idea, I think.

• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox praises Porch Fires, a new biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, for its insights on Wilder and on the moment of the settlement of the American West.
• JSTOR Daily notes how, in the 19th century after the development of anesthesia, the ability to relieve people of pain was a political controversy. Shouldn’t it be felt, wasn’t it natural?
• Language Hat links to an article taking a look behind the scenes at the Oxford English Dictionary. How does it work? What are its challenges?
• At Lingua Franca, Roger Shuy distinguishes between different kinds of speech events and explains why they are so important in the context of bribery trials.
• The LRB Blog shares some advice on ethics in statecraft from the 2nd century CE Chinese writer Liu An.
• J. Hoberman at the NYR Daily reviews an exhibit of the work of Bauhaus artist Jozef Albers at the Guggenheim.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares an anecdote of travellers drinking homemade wine in Montenegro.
• Drew Rowsome interviews Native American drag queen and up-and-coming music star Vizin.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how star S0-2, orbiting so close to the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, will help prove Einsteinian relativity.
• Vintage Space explains, for the record, how rockets can work in a vacuum. (This did baffle some people this time last century.)
• Window on Eurasia suggests that, on its 100th anniversary, Estonia has succeeded in integrating most of its Russophones.

[ISL] Five Prince Edward Island links

• News that lobsters experience pain when lowered into boiling water will have implications for the Island. CBC reports.
• The National Post reports on a Legion hall in Tignish that shamefully refused a Sikh man entry on account of his headdress.
• Happily, shipments of The Globe and Mail’s Saturday edition to Prince Edward Island have resumed. CBC goes into detail.
• The Prince Edward Island government has contracted with three companies to grow three million grams of marijuana for local sale. CBC reports.
• The University of Prince Edward Island will be offering a two-year Master’s program in tourism. CBC reports.