[NEWS] Twenty news links

• NOW Toronto looks at the Pickering nuclear plant and its role in providing fuel for space travel.
• In some places like California, traffic is so bad that airlines actually play a role for high-end commuters. CBC reports.
• Goldfish released into the wild are a major issue for the environment in Québec, too. CTV News reports.
• China’s investments in Jamaica have good sides and bad sides. CBC reports.
• A potato museum in Peru might help solve world hunger. The Guardian reports.
• Is the Alberta-Saskatchewan alliance going to be a lasting one? Maclean’s considers.
• Is the fossil fuel industry collapsing? The Tyee makes the case.
• Should Japan and Europe co-finance a EUrasia trade initiative to rival China’s? Bloomberg argues.
• Should websites receive protection as historically significant? VICE reports.
• Food tourism in the Maritimes is a very good idea. Global News reports.
• Atlantic Canada lobster exports to China thrive as New England gets hit by the trade war. CBC reports.
• The Bloc Québécois experienced its revival by drawing on the same demographics as the provincial CAQ. Maclean’s reports.
• Population density is a factor that, in Canada, determines political issues, splitting urban and rural voters. The National Observer observes.
• US border policies aimed against migration from Mexico have been harming businesses on the border with Canada. The National Post reports.
• The warming of the ocean is changing the relationship of coastal communities with their seas. The Conversation looks.
• Archival research in the digital age differs from what occurred in previous eras. The Conversation explains.
• The Persian-language Wikipedia is an actively contested space. Open Democracy reports.
• Vox notes how the US labour shortage has been driven partly by workers quitting the labour force, here.
• Laurie Penny at WIRED has a stirring essay about hope, about the belief in some sort of future.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Some of the apartments hit by the Gosford apartment fire have been repaired and opened to their tenants again. Global News reports.
• Steve Munro maps the 70 O’Connor bus route in action as a case study, here.
• Condo developers have created the new neighbourhood of “West St. Clair West” out of, among other established neighbourhoods, Carleton Village. blogTO reports.
• The plans for the controversial new Pharrell Williams condo development at Yonge and Eglinton look interesting. blogTO shares.
• Should Toronto have free public mass transit? NOW Toronto makes the case.
• Brian Doucet at Spacing Toronto takes a look at the Toronto CLRV streetcars in their North American context, here.
• The repeated flooding of the Toronto Islands, as NOW Toronto points out, surely demonstrates the reality of climate change for Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Innisfil, Buffalo, Ottawa, Montréal, Winnipeg, Amsterdam, Singapore

• The town of Innisfil is looking forward to some very futuristic developments. Global News reports.
• Jeremy Deaton at CityLab reports on how, buffered by the Great Lakes, Buffalo NY may end gaining from climate change.
• The Ottawa chain Bridgehead Coffee has been sold to national chain Second Cup. Global News reports.
• Many of the more eye-raising installations in the Gay Village of Montréal have since been removed. CTV News reports.
• Warming huts for homeless people in Winnipeg were torn down because the builders did not follow procedures. Global News reports.
• Open Democracy looks at innovative new public governance of the city budget in Amsterdam, here.
• Singapore, located in a well-positioned Southeast Asia and with working government, may take over from Hong Kong. Bloomberg View makes the case.

[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.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Architectuul looks at the winners of an architecture prize based in Piran, here.
• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes the wind emitted from one distant galaxy’s supermassive black hole is intense enough to trigger star formation in other galaxies.
• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber pays tribute to Jack Merritt, a young victim of the London Bridge attack who was committed to the cause of prisoner rehabilitation.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the history of French pop group Les Rita Mitsouko.
• Bruce Dorminey reports on the European Space Agency’s belief Earth-observing spacecraft are needed to track ocean acidification.
• The Dragon’s Tales reports on the consensus of the Russian scientific community against human genetic engineering.
• Far Outliers reports on the first ambassador sent from the Barbary States to the United States.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the life of pioneering anthropologist Franz Boas.
• Language Log shares images of a bottle of Tibetan water, bought in Hong Kong, labeled in Tibetan script.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money rightly assigns responsibility for the terrible measles outbreak in Samoa to anti-vaxxers.
• The LRB Blog notes how tree planting is not apolitical, might even not be a good thing to do sometimes.
• Marginal Revolution reports on a paper suggesting that food tends to be better in restaurants located on streets in Manhattan, better than in restaurants located on avenues.
• Justin Petrone at north! shares an account of a trip across Estonia.
• The NYR Daily looks at the photography of Michael Jang.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw continues to report from Armidale, in Australia, shrouded in smoke from wildfires.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the early days of the Planetary Society, four decades ago.
• The Russian Demographics Blog looks at how centenarians in Sweden and in Denmark experience different trends in longevity.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on the accidental discovery of the microwave background left by the Big Bang in 1964.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little looks at the increasingly poor treatment of workers by employers such as Amazon through the lens of primitive accumulation.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the small differences separating the Kazakhs from the Kyrgyz.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a dance routine, shown on television in France, against homophobia.

[NEWS] Seven science links

• Climate change is playing a major role in the wildfires of California. Are we now in the Fire Age? Global News considers.
• The new normal of the Arctic Ocean is to be ice-free. Global News reports.
• Plants first reached land through unexpected horizontal gene transfers. CBC reports.
• Zebra mussels have made it to the Lake of the Woods. Global News reports.
• An artificial leaf that turns carbon dioxide into usable fuel is a remarkable technology. Universe Today reports.
• Earth once hosted nine human species; now it has one. What happened? National Pot considers.
• Thanks to better medical care and preventative measures, people have longer healthy lifespans than ever before. Global News reports.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the findings that the LISA Pathfinder satellite was impacted by hypervelocity comet fragments.
• Centauri Dreams reports on what we have learned about interstellar comet Borisov.
• Bruce Dorminey notes the ESA’s Matisse instrument, capable of detecting nanodiamonds orbiting distant stars.
• Gizmodo reports a new study of the great auk, now extinct, suggesting that humans were wholly responsible for this extinction with their hunting.
• The Island Review links to articles noting the existential vulnerability of islands like Venice and Orkney to climate change.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of Tucker Carlson–perhaps not believably retracted by him–to be supporting Russia versus Ukraine.
• Language Hat reports on the new Indigemoji, emoji created to reflect the culture and knowledge of Aboriginal groups in Australia.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes one of the sad consequences of the American president being a liar.
• James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the optimism of the spending plans of Labour in the UK, a revived Keynesianism.
• Marginal Revolution notes the exceptional cost of apartments built for homeless people in San Francisco.
• Strange Maps looks at some remarkable gravity anomalies in parts of the US Midwest.
• Towleroad notes the support of Jamie Lee Curtis for outing LGBTQ people who are homophobic politicians.
• Understanding Society looks at organizations from the perspective of them as open systems.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi gives a generally positive review of the Pixel 4.
• Arnold Zwicky notes the irony of sex pills at an outpost of British discount chain Poundland.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait observes that a team may have discovered the elusive neutron star produced by Supernova 1987A, hidden behind a cloud of dust.
• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber shares a photo he made via the time-consuming 19th century wet-plate collodion method.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage looks at the Apollo 12 visit to the Surveyor 3 site to, among other things, see what it might suggest about future space archeology.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the story of rural poverty facing a family in Waverly, Ohio, observing how it is a systemic issue.
• George Dvorsky at Gizmodo looks at how Mars’ Jezero crater seems to have had a past relatively friendly to life, good for the next NASA rover.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the latest ignorance displayed by Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, this time regarding HIV.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Climategate was used to undermine popular opinion on climate change.
• Language Hat links to an article explaining why so many works of classical literature were lost, among other things not making it onto school curricula.
• Language Log shares a photo of a Muji eraser with an odd English label.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests Pete Buttigieg faces a campaign-limiting ceiling to his support among Democrats.
• The LRB Blog argues that Macron’s blocking of EU membership possibilities for the western Balkans is a terrible mistake.
• The Map Room Blog shares a map depicting regional variations in Canada towards anthropogenic climate change. Despite data issues, the overall trend of oil-producing regions being skeptical is clear.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the slowing pace of labour mobility in the US, suggesting that home attachment is a key factor.
• Frederic Wehrey at the NYR Daily tells the story of Knud Holmboe, a Danish journalist who came to learn about the Arab world working against Italy in Libya.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why thermodynamics does not explain our perception of time.
• Understanding Society’s Dan Little looks at Electronic Health Records and how they can lead to medical mistakes.
• Whatever’s John Scalzi shares a remarkable photo of the night sky he took using the astrophotography mode on his Pixel 4 phone.
• Window on Eurasia shares an opinion that the Intermarium countries, between Germany and Russia, can no longer count on the US and need to organize in their self-defense.
• Arnold Zwicky shares a photo of his handsome late partner Jacques Transue, taken as a college student.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer notes a new study explaining how climate change makes hurricanes more destructive.
• Centauri Dreams shares a mosaic photo of the sky with Alpha Centauri highlighted.
• The Crux shares a paper explaining why the bubonic plague rarely becomes mass epidemics like the Black Death of the 14th century.
• D-Brief notes the new ESA satellite ARIEL, which will be capable of determining of exoplanet skies are clear or not.
• Gizmodo consults different experts on the subject of smart drugs. Do they work?
• JSTOR Daily explains why Native Americans are so prominent in firefighting in the US Southwest.
• Language Log looks at evidence for the diffusion of “horse master” between speakers of ancient Indo-European and Sinitic languages.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the election of Chesa Boudin as San Francisco District Attorney.
• The LRB Blog considers the apparent pact between Farage and Johnson on Brexit.
• Marginal Revolution looks at a paper examining longer-run effects of the integration of the US military on racial lines in the Korean War.
• The NYR Daily looks at how Big Pharma in the US is trying to deal with the opioid epidemic.
• The Signal explains how the Library of Congress is expanding its collections of digital material.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how future generations of telescopes will be able to directly measure the expansion of the universe.
• The Volokh Conspiracy explains why DACA, giving succor to Dreamers, is legal.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, after a century of tumult, the economy of Russia is back at the same relative ranking that it enjoyed a century ago.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on an old butch cookbook.

[NEWS] Five D-Brief links: Nile, apartment fungi, house plants, methane, HR 5183

• D-Brief looks at how the Nile River has kept its current course for 30 million years, here.
• D-Brief notes a study suggesting modern apartments are filled with fungi.
• House plants do not purify the air, D-Brief reports.
• D-Brief notes that 0.2% of the methane emitters in California release a third of the methane released in the entire state.
• A rocky planet in the right orbit in the HR5183 system, with a gas giant in a very eccentric orbit, could have a spectacular sky, D-Brief notes.