[NEWS] Fourteen links

• By at least one metric, New Brunswick now lags economically behind a more dynamic Prince Edward Island. CBC reports.
• NOW Toronto looks at toxic fandoms. (“Stanning” sounds really creepy to me.)
• This CityLab article looks at how the particular characteristics of Japan, including its high population density, helps keep alive there retail chains that have failed in the US.
• MacLean’s looks at Kent Monkman, enjoying a new level of success with his diptych Mistikôsiwak at the Met in NYC.
• Can there be something that can be said for the idea of an Internet more strongly pillarized? Wired argues.
• I reject utterly the idea of meaningful similarities between Drake and Leonard Cohen. CBC did it.
• Toronto Life looks at the life of a Hamilton woman hurt badly by the cancellation of the basic income pilot, here.
• Inspired by the death of Gord Downie, Ontario now has the office of poet-laureate. CBC reports.
• Is Canada at risk, like Ireland, of experiencing two-tier health care? CBC considers.
• A French immigrant couple has brought the art of artisanal vinegar to ile d’Orléans. CBC reports.
• Shore erosion is complicating the lives of people along Lake Erie. CBC reports.
• MacLean’s notes how Via Rail making it difficult for people without credit cards to buy anything on their trains, hurting many.
• Michelle Legro notes at Gen that the 2010s is the decade where conspiracy culture became mainstream.
• This essay by Robert Greene at his blog talking about what history, and historians, can do in our era is thought-provoking.

[NEWS] Five links about water: Indus River, Great Lakes, underwater, Comet 67P, snowball exoplanets

• The Inter Press Service reports on how the Indus Delta in Pakistan needs more water to survive, here.
• People and businesses living on the shores of the Great Lakes are having a hard time dealing with the high water level. CBC reports.
• Scientists exploring the deeps of the ocean found a ravaged underwater mountain range had restored itself. VICE reports.
• Universe Today notes< an astrophotographer found a chunk of ice orbiting Comet 67P in images from Rosetta.
• Evan Gough at Universe Today notes a study suggesting that snowball exoplanets might actually be good hosts of life.

[URBAN NOTE] Eight Toronto links: neighbourhoods, housing, mass transit, Great Lakes

• I do agree with the argument of Emma Teitel in the Toronto Star that, between the east and the west of Toronto, the west is the more snobbish. (West-ender, here.)
• blogTO notes that home prices in Toronto are ridiculously out of the reach of average millennials.
• Is multi-generational housing the solution to the housing shortage in Toronto? The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto Life profiles</u. the photos taken by Jesse Colin Jackson of the now-demolished Regent Park building of 14 Blevins Place.
• The story of the terrible, expensive architectural problems with the TTC’s Pioneer Village station is appalling. The Toronto Star reports.
• Steve Munro notes how the TTC is decidedly unhappy with the failings of Presto.
• Christian Mittelstaedt writes at NOW Toronto about how the flooding of the Toronto Islands this year can be traced, in part, to problems with how Canada and the United States jointly manage the Great Lakes.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Ottawa, Amsterdam, Madrid, Yerevan

• Kingston, Ontario, is currently doing its best to cope with flood risk from the rising Lake Ontario. Global News reports.
• MacLean’s reports on an appalling expansion of the iconic Chateau Laurier in Ottawa.
• CityLab reports on how Amsterdam is trying to avoid being overwhelmed by tourism.
• Guardian Cities reports on how the new government in Madrid plans to scrap a low-emissions zone because of a belief that congestion is a Madrid tradition.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares some tips for visitors to Yerevan.

[URBAN NOTE} Seven Toronto links: Lake Ontario, UP Express, Rail Deck Park, Google, TTC, Doors Open

• Reddit’s r/toronto shares this photo of the level of Lake Ontario having risen above the level of the boardwalk at HTO Park. Are we in for another year of flooding, on the Toronto Islands particularly?
• This CBC Toronto article from a week ago notes how Lake Ontario is getting close to 2017 levels.
• Changes in the Presto system have left many people who use the Union-Pearson Express to commute in a financially costly situation. CBC Toronto reports.
• This court case, besides setting boundaries on what planning boards can and cannot do, will also determine the fate of the Rail Deck Park. I hope it will survive. The Toronto Star reports.
• Stefanie Marotta at the Toronto Star reports on a Jane’s Walk led by MP Adam Vaughan and Bianca Wylie of the waterfront, inspired by their criticism of the Sidewalk Labs plans.
• Shazlin Rahman writes at Spacing about the prejudices that push Muslim women away from the TTC, and what can be done to protect these women.
• Urban Toronto shares the news of Open Doors 2019 in Toronto on 25 and 26 May, with more than 150 buildings being opened to the public.

[PHOTO] Niagara Falls map of the Niagara-Haldimand section of the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail

This map of the Niagara Peninsula, located outside of the Niagara Falls Transit Terminal on Erie Avenue, highlight this region’s component of Ontario’s Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. This section of the trail hugs the coasts of lakes Ontario and Erie and the Niagara River in between.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Charlie Stross hosts at Antipope another discussion thread examining Brexit.
• Architectuul takes a look at five overlooked mid-20th century architects.
• Bad Astronomy shares a satellite photo of auroras at night over the city lights of the Great Lakes basin and something else, too.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the directions love has taken her, and wonders where it might have taken her readers.
• Centauri Dreams reports on the Hayabusa 2 impactor on asteroid Ryugu.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the claims of Steven Pinker about nuclear power.
• D-Brief notes the detection, in remarkable detail, of a brilliant exocomet at Beta Pictoris.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility that China might be building a military base in Cambodia.
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the importance of small social cues, easily overlookable tough they are.
• Far Outliers notes the role of Japan’s imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, in post-war Japan.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing writes about the potential inadequacy of talking about values.
• Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting the surprising and potentially dangerous diversity of bacteria present on the International Space Station.
• Mark Graham shares a link to a paper, and its abstract, examining what might come of the creation of a planetary labour market through the gig economy.
• Hornet Stories takes a look at Red Ribbon Blues, a 1995 AIDS-themed film starring RuPaul.
• io9 notes that Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke are co-writing a Pan’s Labyrinth novel scheduled for release later this year.
• Joe. My. God. notes a new study suggesting 20% of LGBTQ Americans live in rural areas.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the Bluestockings, the grouping of 18th century women in England who were noteworthy scholars and writers.
• Language Hat notes an ambitious new historical dictionary of the Arabic language being created by the emirate of Sharjah.
• Language Log examines, in the aftermath of a discussion of trolls, different cultures’ terms for different sorts of arguments.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how early forestry in the United States was inspired by socialist ideals.
• The Map Room Blog links to a map showing the different national parks of the United Kingdom.
• Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, noting the new findings from the Chixculub impact, notes how monitoring asteroids to prevent like catastrophes in the future has to be a high priority.
• The New APPS Blog explains how data, by its very nature, is so easily made into a commodity.
• The NYR Daily considers the future of the humanities in a world where higher education is becoming preoccupied by STEM.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews Bear Grylls about the making of his new documentary series Hostile Planet.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw considers the pleasures of birds and of birdwatching.
• Jason C. Davis at the Planetary Society Blog noted the arrival of the Beresheet probe in lunar orbit.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new amazing-sounding play Angelique at the Factory Theatre.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes a paper that makes the point of there being no automatic relationship between greater gender equality and increases in fertility.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress has made use of the BagIt programming language in its archiving of data.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel comes up with questions to ask plausible visitors from other universes.
• Strange Company notes the mysterious deaths visited on three members of a British family in the early 20th century. Who was the murderer? Was there even a crime?
• Towleroad notes the activists, including Canadian-born playwright Jordan Tannahill, who disrupted a high tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London over the homophobic law passed by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei.
• Window on Eurasia notes rising instability in Ingushetia.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that the British surveillance of Huawei is revealing the sorts of problems that must be present in scrutiny-less Facebook, too.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Wasaga Beach, Montréal, Barcelona, Narva, Luanda

• The question of how to develop, or redevelop, the Georgian Bay resort town of Wasaga Beach is ever-pressing. Global News reports.
• Le Devoir enters the discussion over the Royalmount development, arguing that the city of Montréal needs to fight urban sprawl.
• Guardian Cities reports on the efforts of Barcelona to keep its street kiosks, home to a thriving culture, alive in the digital age.
• The New York Times reports on how the government of Estonia is trying to use pop culture to help bind the Russophone-majority city of Narva into the country.
• This Guardian Cities photo essay takes a look at how the Angolan capital of Luanda, after a long economic boom driven by oil, is rich but terribly unequal.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the magnetic fields of super-Earths, and the impact of these on potential life.
• D-Brief reports on the corporate partners selected to accompany NASA on its return to the Moon.
• Bruce Dorminey reports on the claim of astronomers to have identified four extrasolar objects already in the solar system.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog pays tribute to long-time contributor Peter Kaufman, now departed.
• JSTOR Daily asks why Americans, and others, eat three meals a day.
• The LRB Blog reports on the underlying factors behind the gilets jaunes protests in France against higher fuel taxes.
• Language Hat links to a fascinating essay about the persistence of individuals’ first languages.
• Neuroskeptic takes a look at possible hacks to the human mind, in the light of a recent announcement of human genetic engineering. What will become possible? What will be done?
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that Triton, not Pluto or Eris, is the largest world of the Kuiper Belt.

Strange Maps shares a remarkable map of Lake Michigan made solely with a typewriter.

• Daniel Little at Understanding Society ruminates on the thought of Scott Page regarding social modeling.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the history of the letter “Ё” in the Russian language.
• Arnold Zwicky starts from the idea of green flowers to take a look at unusual greenery generally.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani looks at the classical Mayan trade in pets, dogs and cats particularly.
• Dangerous Minds shares some vintage cheesecake ads for video and arcade games from 1980s Japan.
• Dead Things considers an examination of the thesis that the fabulous horns of some dinosaurs were used as sexual signals.
• Hornet Stories nominates some queer people to get stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• JSTOR Daily tells the story of Bobbi Gibb, the woman who in 1966 crashed the Boston Marathon.
• Language Hattells of Toty Samed, an Angolan musician who writes songs not in the now-dominant Portuguese but in his ancestral Kimbundu.
• Steven Attewell at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the ways in which the metaphor of mutants has been used by Marvel Comics to explore themes of racism and marginalization.
• At the LRB Blog, Matthew Porges notes how European Union opposition to the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco is counterbalanced by the need to keep Morocco as a partner.
• r/mapporn shared a beautiful map of the Great Lakes, Nayanno-Nibiimaang Gichigamiin or “The Five Freshwater Seas”, from the Ojibwe perspective.
• The Map Room Blog shares Christian Tate’s transit-style map of Middle Earth.
• Marginal Revolution links to an essay arguing against the United States’ dropping the penny and the nickel, on the grounds that these expensive coins are loss-leaders for currency generally.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at early 20th century Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyan, a man whose influence is visible in the Putin era.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the eye-catching male photography of Ekaterina Zakharova.
• David Post’s analysis at the Volokh Conspiracy of the contract between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump is a must-read.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian government has failed to cultivate soft power, or wider influence, in the West.