[NEWS] Six technology links

• Carl Newport at WIRED argues that past generations have never been as suspicious of technology as we now think, here.
• Anthropologist Darren Byler at The Conversation argues, based on his fieldwork in Xinjiang, how Uighurs became accustomed to the opportunities of new technologies until they were suddenly caught in a trap.
• James Verini at WIRED notes how the fighting around Mosul in the fall of ISIS could be called the first smartphone war.
• National Observer looks at how Québec is so far leading Canada in the development of clean technologies, including vehicles.
• VICE reports on how a Christian rock LP from the 1980s also hosted a Commodore 64 computer program.
• Megan Molteni at WIRED looks at a new, more precise, CRISPR technique that could be used to fix perhaps most genetic diseases.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Ryan Anderson at anthro{dendum} looks at the unnatural history of the beach in California, here.
• Architectuul looks at the architectural imaginings of Iraqi Shero Bahradar, here.
• Bad Astronomy looks at gas-rich galaxy NGC 3242.
• James Bow announces his new novel The Night Girl, an urban fantasy set in an alternate Toronto with an author panel discussion scheduled for the Lillian H. Smith Library on the 28th.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the indirect evidence for an exomoon orbiting WASP-49b, a possible Io analogue detected through its ejected sodium.
• Crooked Timber considers the plight of holders of foreign passports in the UK after Brexit.
• The Crux notes that astronomers are still debating the nature of galaxy GC1052-DF2, oddly lacking in dark matter.
• D-Brief notes how, in different scientific fields, the deaths of prominent scientists can help progress.
• Bruce Dorminey notes how NASA and the ESA are considering sample-return missions to Ceres.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
• The Dragon’s Tales looks at how Japan is considering building ASAT weapons.
• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the first test flights of the NASA Mercury program.
• Far Outliers looks how the anti-malarial drug quinine played a key role in allowing Europeans to survive Africa.
• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox considers grace and climate change.
• io9 reports on how Jonathan Frakes had anxiety attacks over his return as Riker on Star Trek: Picard.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the threatened banana.
• Language Log looks at the language of Hong Kong protesters.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how a new version of The Last of the Mohicans perpetuates Native American erasure.
• Marginal Revolution notes how East Germany remains alienated.
• Neuroskeptic looks at the participant-observer effect in fMRI subjects.
• The NYR Daily reports on a documentary looking at the India of Modi.
• Corey S. Powell writes at Out There about Neptune.
• The Planetary Society Blog examines the atmosphere of Venus, something almost literally oceanic in its nature.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money considers how Greenland might be incorporated into the United States.
• Rocky Planet notes how Earth is unique down to the level of its component minerals.
• The Russian Demographics Blog considers biopolitical conservatism in Poland and Russia.
• Starts With a Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers if LIGO has made a detection that might reveal the nonexistence of the theorized mass gap between neutron stars and black holes.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps looks at Marchetti’s constant: People in cities, it seems, simply do not want to commute for a time longer than half an hour.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little looks at how the US Chemical Safety Board works.
• Window on Eurasia reports on how Muslims in the Russian Far North fare.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at cannons and canons.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New York City, Brussels, Baghdad, Hiroshima

• The National Observer notes that Montréal authorities have warned against people going to flooded areas to take selfies.
• CityLab notes the plans of Columbia University in Manhattan to become a new much denser neighbourhood, and the concerns of non-university neighbours.
• Feargus O’Sullivan notes at CityLab how congested Brussels is gradually becoming car-free.
• Ozy llooks at the underground nightclubs and music halls of the young people of Baghdad.
• Sean Marshall, reporting from his recent trip to Japan, explores post-war the streetcar system of Hiroshima with photos of his own.

[NEWS] Five links on politics: 2020 US, Middle East, Spain, Turkey, Latin America

• New York Magazine is quite right to note that a 2020 reelection of Donald Trump would be a catastrophe for, among others, Democrats.
• Iran and Turkey are the obvious winners from the disarray in Iraq, among other Middle Eastern countries. Open Democracy reports.
• The Spanish situation is deteriorating, between the growth of separatism in Catalonia and far-right populism elsewhere. Open Democracy reports.
• Is Latin America a region adrift in the world? Open Democracy reports.
• Ozy notes the rapid growth of the influence of Turkey, culturally and politically, in Latin America.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares stunning photos of the Triangulum galaxy.
• The Crux notes how innovative planning and recovery missions helped many NASA missions, like the Hubble and Kepler telescopes, improve over time.
• Sea stars on the Pacific coast of North America, D-Brief notes, are starting to die out en masse.
• David Finger at the Finger Post shows his readers his recent visit to the Incan ruins at Ollantaytambo, in Peru.
• Gizmodo notes how astronomers accidentally found the dwarf spheroidal galaxy Bedin I a mere 30 million light years away.
• JSTOR Daily notes the new evidence supporting the arguments of W.E.B. Dubois that black resistance under slavery helped the Confederacy lose the US Civil War.
• Language Hat notes the discovery of a new trilingual inscription in Iran, one combining the Persian, Elamite, and Babylonian languages.
• Language Log notes the impending death of the Arabic dialect of old Mosul, and notes what its speakers are said to talk like birds.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns, and Money thinks that if Cary Booker does not win the Democratic nomination for 2020, he will at least push the discourse leftwards.
• Marginal Revolution notes new evidence that the post-1492 depopulation of the Americas led directly to the global cooling of the Little Ice Age.
• Neuroskeptic considers the ways in which emergence, at different levels, could be a property of the human brain.
• The NYR Daily features an excerpt from the new Édouard Louis book, Who Killed My Father, talking about the evolution relationship with his father over time.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw muses on the potential for a revival of print journalism in Australia.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews journalist Jason Rezaian on the subject of his new book about his long imprisonment in Iran.
• Drew Rowsome writes about how censorship, on Facebook and on Blogspot, harms his writing and his ability to contribute to his communities.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel writes</a about how galaxy clusters lead to the premature death of stellar formation in their component galaxies.
• Window on Eurasia notes a new poll from Ukraine suggesting most Orthodox Christians there identify with the new Ukrainian national church, not the Russian one.
• Arnold Zwicky talks about language, editing, and error.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New York City, Mexico City, Tijuana, Mosul

• Montréal mayor Valérie Plante outlines how, in the face of provincial government cuts to immigration in Québec, her city will continue to welcome immigrants and promote their integration, over at CTV.
• Gothamist shares the argument of new MTA transit head Andy Byford to New York City’s city council there that the city simply must spend $US 40 billion to keep the MTA running.</li.
• CityLab looks at how access to water is a major political issue in Mexico City, one that local community groups are acting upon.
• The Central American refugees in Tijuana, CityLab reports, are facing an increasing number of issues, including deteriorating conditions and local hostility.
• A VICE interview suggests that the city of Mosul, eighteen months after ISIS, is in such a poor state of repair that a resurgence of the Islamic State is possible.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Smiths Falls, Montréal, Paris, Detroit, Mosul

• The small eastern Ontario town of Smiths Falls has been saved by a marijuana production boom that has brought hundreds of jobs to the community. The National Post reports.
• This Montreal Gazette article takes a look at the background behind the strong economic growth recently displayed in Montréal.
• CityLab looks at how Paris, under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, is preparing for global warming.
• Tom Perkins at The Guardian reports on how hopes for a redevelopment of downtown Detroit have been hindered, a supposed new core being transformed into a sea of parking lots.
• Stewart Bell at Global News reports on the sorry state of the city of Mosul after the end of ISIS.

[CAT] Five cat links: Port Hope, napping, cats vs. rats, Persian leopards, Gornick and Lessing

• The small Ontario town of Port Hope has a cat café now, the Toe Beans Cat Caf○, open six days a week and housing cats looking for new homes. Global News reports.
• This story of a Wisconsin man, a senior citizen, who comes in to a cat shelter to play and nap with the cats, is adorable. Global News reports.
• Sarah Zhang at The Atlantic notes a new study in New York City that has found that city’s stray cats seem not to hunt adult rats. The rats are, simply, too big.
• Erica Gies at The Crux describes the struggle to protect the Persian leopard of the Zagros Mountains, in the heart of divided Kurdistan.
• Over at the NYR Daily, Vivian Gornick considers, in the light of the writings of Doris Lessing, her experiences living with cats. What sorts of beings are they? What do they think? How accurately do we observe them?

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Anthropology.net shares in the debunking of the Toba catastrophe theory.
• Architectuul features Mirena Dunu’s exploration of the architecture of the Black Sea coastal resorts of Romania, built under Communism.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of sleep hygiene and of being well-rested.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the filaments of Orion, indicators of starbirth.
• Centauri Dreams notes how solar sails and the Falcon Heavy can be used to expedite the exploration of the solar system.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of debris marking the massive flood that most recently refilled the Mediterranean on the seafloor near Malta.
• Lucy Ferriss at Lingua Franca uses a recent sickbed experience in Paris to explore the genesis of Bemelmans’ Madeline.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money noted recently the 15th anniversary of the American invasion of Iraq, trigger of a world-historical catastrophe.
• The LRB Blog hosts Sara Roy’s defense of UNRWA and of the definition of the Palestinians under its case as refugees.
• The NYR Daily notes how the regnant conservative government in Israel has been limiting funding to cultural creators who dissent from the nationalist line.
• Roads and Kingdoms uses seven food dishes to explore the history of Malta.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why, even though dark matter is likely present in our solar system, we have not detected signs of it.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines the field of machine learning, and notes the ways in which its basic epistemology might be flawed.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the dropping of the ethnonym “Mongol” from the title of the former Buryat-Mongol autonomous republic sixty years ago still makes some Buryats unhappy.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Toronto Fast Food, Presto, Toronto Days, photos, history

• Toronto Fast Food is apparently a thriving emerging restaurant chain in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Erbil. Daily Hive reports.
• The TTC has suspended the installation of new Presto gates on account of widespread and apparently systemic flaws with their technology. Amazing. The Toronto Star reports.
• Shawn Micallef writes about Toronto Days, a marvelous exhibit of vintage photos taken in the Toronto of the 1980s and the 1990s, over at the Toronto Star.
• This NOW Toronto feature contrasting some of the oldest photos taken of the Toronto skyline with photos taken at those locations in our era shows the scale of our city’s growth.
• Elizabeth Berks and Richard Longley write at NOW Toronto about how, at the dawn of photography, Toronto was not only a much smaller city than it is now but a much narrower one, too.