[URBAN NOTE] Ten city links: Laval, Calgary, Vancouver, Cleveland, Machu Picchu, London, Görlitz …

• The Québec city of Laval now has a cemetery where pets can be buried alongside their owners. CBC reports.
• Talk of Alberta separatism has already cost Calgary at least one high-profile non-oil investment, it seems. Global News reports.
• A new piece of public art in Vancouver, a spinning chandelier, has proven to be a lightning rod for controversy. CBC reports.
• Guardian Cities looks at the continuing fight against lead contamination in Cleveland.
• Machu Picchu was built in a high remote corner of the Andes for good reasons, it is being argued. The National Post reports.
• Wired looks at how rivals to Uber are currently fighting for dominance in London, here.
• Guardian Cities shares a cartoon history of the birth of Nairobi, here.
• The east German city of Gorlitz offered interested people one month’s free residence. The Guardian reports.
• JSTOR Daily notes that Hong Kong was born as a city from refugee migrations.
• Is Tokyo, despite tis size and wealth, too detached from Asia to take over from Hong Kong as a regional financial centre? Bloomberg View is not encouraging.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New York City, Espíritu Pampa, London, Skopje

• People around Beaudry station in Montréal, in the middle of the Village gay, are preparing for that station’s protracted shutdown. Global News reports.
• I, for one, approve entirely of the idea of a squirrel census in New York City’s Central Park. Global News reports.
• This report in the Guardian on the lost Inca city of Espíritu Pampa, famed for its resistance to the conquistadors and only recently uncovered, tells an amazing story.
• CityLab notes how non-Londoner British often feel shut out by the high cost of living and lack of affordable housing in London.
• This CityLab article takes a look at the modernist architecture in the North Macedonian capital of Skopje, largely rebuilt after a devastating 1960s earthquake.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthro{dendum] considers drifting on roads as an indicator of social dynamism, of creative reuse of road infrastructures by the young.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares photos of the Christmas Tree Cluster, a portion of NGC 2264.
• Centauri Dreams notes how the strange polar orbit of GJ 436b indicates the presence of a neighbouring exoplanet so far not detected directly.
• Crooked Timber considers the import of perhaps racist codings in children’s literature.
• D-Brief examines how NASA is trying to quietly break the sound barrier.
• Bruce Dorminey suggests building a Mars-orbit space station makes sense for us as our next major move in space.
• Hornet Stories shares the story of queer male Lebanese belly dancer Moe Khansa and his art.
• Language Hat notes how one student made substantial progress of decoding the ancient khipus, knotted string records, of the Incan civilization.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the obvious point that opioids actually do help people manage chronic pain effectively, that they have legitimate uses.
• Allan Metcalf at Lingua Franca talks about some of the peculiarities of English as spoken in Utah.
• Noah Smith at Noahpinion argues the disappearance of the positive impact of college on the wages who drop out before completing their program shows the importance of higher education as a generator of human capital, not as a simple sort of signal.
• The NYR Daily looks at some particularly egregious instances of gerrymandering in the United States.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer examines the origins of street violence as a political force in modern Argentina.
• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the Seoul neighbourhood of Haebangchon, “Little Pyongyang,” a district once populated by North Korean and Vietnamese refugees now becoming a cosmopolitan district for people from around the world.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the origins of the atoms of our body in stellar catastrophes detectable from across the universe.
• Strange Company notes the case of Catherine Packard, reported dead in 1929 but then found alive. Whose body wasit?
• Towleroad reports a study suggesting same-sex relationships tend to be more satisfying for their participants than opposite-sex relationships are for theirs.
• Window on Eurasia notes how a Russian Orthodox group is joining the fight against Tatarstan’s autonomy.