[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Architectuul looks back at some highlights from 2019.
• Bad Astronomy looks at the gas cloud, red and green, of RCW 120.
• Crooked Timber looks at the dynamics of identity politics, here.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a NASA statement about the importance of understanding dust dynamics in other solar systems to find Earth analogues.
• Far Outliers looks at the problems pacifying the Chesapeake Bay area in 1813, here.
• Gizmodo looks at the most popular Wikipedia articles for the year 2019.
• io9 shares a video of images from a 1995 Akira cyberpunk computer game that never got finished.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the United States tried to “civilize” the Inupiat of Alaska by giving them reindeer herds.
• Language Hat links to an online atlas of Scots dialects.
• Language Log reports on a 12th century Sanskrit inscription that testifies to the presence of Muslims in Bengal at that point.
• Marginal Revolution notes how much Tuvalu depends on revenue from its .tv Internet domain.
• Drew Rowsome looks at the Duncan Ralston horror novel Salvage, set in small-town Canada.
• The Russian Demographics Blog looks at the strong relationship between wealth and life expectancy in France.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that, in a hypothetical supernova, all life on an Earth-like planet would be boiled alive by neutrinos.
• Strange Maps links to a graphic interface that translates a word into all the languages of Europe.
• Understanding Society looks at the structures of high-reliability organizations.
• Window on Eurasia shares a suggestion that Homer Simpson is actually the US’ version of Russia’s Ivan the Fool.

[PHOTO] Abraham Etungat, Bird of Spring

This casting of Bird of Spring by Inuit sculptor Abraham Etungat, known for his sculptures of birds with wings upswept, is a casting made in bronze from his original carving. Blogger Bill Andersen noted in 2016 that this particular casting is one of several made of the original “Bird of Spring”, produced by a foundation that wanted to spread Canadian art across the country. Ryerson University’s casting has at least two siblings, one bronze in Halifax and another bronze in Vancouver, with still another fibreglass copy in Calgary’s Connaught Park. NeaTO has a 2016 post going into more detail about the history of this particular casting.

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: Cree NHL, Mi’kmaq, US-Mexico border, Australia, reconciliation

• APTN is broadcasting NHL hockey games with Cree-language commentary, a first. Global News reports.
• New funding and authority has been given to Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq educational authority. Global News reports.
• The National Observer notes the significant damage that the Trump border wall could cause indigenous peoples bisected by the US-Mexico frontier.

A school in Melbourne, Australia, is doing interesting work trying to help Aborigine children bridge the cultural divide in their lives. The Toronto Star reports.

• Natan Obed writes in MacLean’s about how the press following Trudeau in Iqaluit failing to deal with his apology to the Inuit reflects a failed implementation of reconciliation.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul looks at the modernist works of Spanish Antonio Lamela, building after the Second World War under Franco.
• Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of life-supporting environments on Barnard’s Star b, a frozen super-Earth.
• The Crux takes a look at how, and when, human beings and their ancestors stopped being as furry as other primates.
• D-Brief notes the Russian startup that wants to put advertisements in Earth orbit.
• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the Soyuz 4 and 5 missions, the first missions to see two crewed craft link up in space.
• Far Outliers notes</a the extent to which, before the Opium War, knowledge of Chinese language and culture was kept strictly secret from Westerners at Canton.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes the ironies of housing a state-of-the-art supercomputers in the deconsecrated Torre Girona Chapel in Barcelona.
• Gizmodo notes a new study claiming that the rings of Saturn may be less than a hundred million years old, product of some catastrophic obliteration of an ice moon perhaps.
• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Pulitzer-winning lesbian poet Mary Oliver.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the rising prominence of hoarding as a psychological disorder.
• Language Hat shares a manuscript more than a hundred pages long, reporting on terms relating to sea ice used in the Inupiaq language spoken by the Alaska community of Kifigin, or Wales.
• Language Log examines the etymology of “slave” and “Slav”. (Apparently “ciao” is also linked to these words.)
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that Buzzfeed was right to claim that Trump ordered his lawyer to lie to Congress about the Moscow Trump Tower project.
• Marginal Revolution notes a serious proposal in the Indian state of Sikkim to set up a guaranteed minimum income project.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps links to a map showing visitations of the Virgin Mary worldwide, both recognized and unrecognized by the Vatican.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the continuing controversy over the identity of AT2018cow.
• Window on Eurasia suggests that Russians have more to fear from a Sino-Russian alliance than Americans, on account of the possibility of a Chinese takeover of Russia enabled by this alliance.

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: demographics, Utah, Nova Scotia, Tanya Tagaq, maps

• This article at The Atlantic outlines new genetic research outlining the remarkably rapid colonization of the America by human beings.
• VICE notes the huge strides forward made by the majority Navajo in Utah’s San Juan County towards fair political representation.
• CBC notes that it will now be possible for Indigenous people in Nova Scotia courts to make use of eagle feathers for legal affirmations including oath swearing.
• In this MacLean’s interview, musician and artist Tanya Tagaq makes it clear that her goal is to help other Indigenous people struggling to recover from colonization.
• The Map Room Blog links to this map of Indigenous Canada, mapping native names and locations and population centres.

[NEWS] Five language links: Arabic, Cantonese, French, Inuktitut, Spanish

<uL

The Economist looks at the low profile of the Arabic language, arguing one factor lies in its division into multiple very distinctive regional dialects.

The SCMP reports on the differences between the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and that spoken in Malaysia.

CBC PEI reports on how French-language schools on the Island need more supporting in integrating students whose main language is not French.

CBC North takes a look at the Twitter account of Angus Andersen, where he shares one Inuktitut word a day.

Slate asksa question: Will Spanish-language songs make it into the Great American Songbook?

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: Okichitaw, Nunavik, Cree, architecture, Tŝilhqot’in

• This CBC feature on the Indigenous martial art of Okichitaw, and of leading teacher George Lepine, is fascinating.
• Facing an intensified suicide crisis among its young, Nunavik is looking for a way forward. CBC reports.
• Chelsea Vowel at CBC writes about how giving her children Cree names is a profound act of reclamation.
• NOW Toronto takes a look at the emergent field of indigenous architecture.
• National Observer reports on what Justin Trudeau learned from a recent meeting of apology and reconciliation with the Tŝilhqot’in of British Columbia.

[NEWS] Some First Nations links: bigotries, Montréal plaques, High Arctic yarn, Abenaki

• The startling anti-native racism demonstrated in a series of tweets by retired Brock University professor Garth Stevenson may see him stripped of any continuing affiliation with that university. CBC reports.
• SBS notes how Canadians Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern, visiting Sydney, set to engaging in racist slander against Australian Aborigines.
• The Bank of Montreal has just replaced plaques, on its headquarters at the Place d’Armes, commemorating the death in battle there of an Iroquois chief. I actually saw these in place on my recent visit, just days before these went. CBC reports.
• New findings suggest that, if yarn technology did diffuse in the High Arctic in the Norse period, it came from the Inuit to the Norse and not the other way around. Global News has it.
• Ici Radio-Canada reports on a new dictionary of Abenaki that might yet help save that indigenous language.

[NEWS] Five First Nations links: NunatuKavut, Spadina, Arctic education, Gwich’in food, Haida manga

• The Canadian federal government is moving to recognize the Inuit of NunatuKavut, in southern Labrador. Global News reports.
• I wish I had seen this billboard downtown on Spadina Avenue. CBC reports on this indigenous anti-racism initiative.
• Creating Arctic universities with services catering to each of the three northern territories would have positive implications for education, not least among native groups. Global News reports.
• The Discourse reports on how, for the Gwich’in of the Northwest Territories, turning to native foodstuffs is not only key to cultural revival but also the only economically viably way they have to eat.
• At The Conversation, Marie Mauzé takes a look at the innovative Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas and his creation of the new artform of “Haida manga”.

[NEWS] Five indigenous peoples links: Tunirrusiangit, Florida, history, knowledge, Uruguay Charrua

• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto writes about Tunirrusiangit, the new Inuit art exhibit playing at the AGO, here.
• National Geographic reports on the discovery of the royal home of a Floridian king known for opposing Spain.
• An app that tells one about the indigenous history of the place where one lives is really quite useful. Yes Magazine has it.
• Smithsonian Magazine examines the question why it takes so long for scientists to verify indigenous knowledge, here.
• This Stephanie Nolen report from The Globe and Mail takes a look at the struggle of descendants of the Charrua, the indigenous people of Uruguay, to gain official recognition.