[ISL] Five islands links: Toronto Islands, Cape Verde, Iceland, Ireland, Hainan

• blogTO shares ten facts about the Toronto Islands.
• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the experience of eating Cape Verdean cachupa in Lisbon.
• The SBS reports on the facts making Iceland arguably the best country on the Earth in which to be a woman.
• This extended Politico Europe article examining the consequences of a united Ireland, and the lack of preparation for such a now imaginable possibility, is still worth reading.
• Is Hainan emerging as a test-bed for more liberal policies for China? QZ reports.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the concept of the “Clarke exobelt”, a hypothetical ring of space stations in synchronous orbit of a planet that might be detectable across interstellar distances.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers the new American phenomenon of millennials moving back home with their parents.
• Far Outliers shares the second part of an an article summary on African and Japanese interactions in early modern Asia.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at “precisionism”, an art movement in the early 20th century United States that looked to the machine for inspiration.
• Language Hat shares a poem by the late great Ursula K Le Guin, “Dead Languages.”
• Lawyers, Guns and Money, looking at the anti-Uighur police state that China has established in Xinjiang, points out that there are many ways in which American hegemony can be followed by something worse.
• The LRB Blog looks at how many documents vital in understanding the history of Iraq have been removed from the country or destroyed altogether. How will Iraqis be able to understand their history without them?
• The New APPS Blog takes a look at a newly released Foucault lecture from 1978, “Analytic Philosophy of Politics”.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports from Mars, enveloped by a planet-wide dust storm that might endanger the intrepid rovers.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at an exciting new film biography of Vivienne Westwood.
• Strange Company tells a story of a 19th century insurance fraud rooted in murder.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shares an old tourist map of Maine noting how many placenames from around the world are in that state.
• Towleroad shares a lovely ad from Ireland’s Dublin Bus company featuring fathers picking up their gay children to take them to Pride. Wow.

[ISL] Five islands links: Malta, East Timor, Choctaw, Ireland, April Fool’s Day

• Malta, it seems from this New Statesman take, is facing serious problems of corruption through its role in international finance.
• The establishment of a new maritime border between Australia and East Timor threatens Australia’s borders with adjacent Indonesia. ABC reports.
• Ireland has established a scholarship program for Choctaw students as a sign of thanks for Choctaw aid during the Irish Potato Famine. The Irish Post reports.
• This Slugger O’Toole article suggests that the disparity in living standards and income between the Republic and Northern Ireland is not nearly so vast as GDP would suggest.
• The Map Room Blog shared this Ordinance Survey’s April Fool’s Day joke, of a fake but realistic island.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: All in the Family, hair salon, Northern Ireland, tourism, John Constantine

• Hornet Stories notes how All in the Family was path-breaking with its depiction of a gay character on TV back in 1971, here.
• Making more LGBTQ-friendly hair salons is a worthy goal. The Globe and Mail reports.
• Northern Ireland may yet achieve marriage equality in the near future. Hornet Stories reports.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs shares this useful map depicting which countries are, and are not, safe for LGBTQ tourists, here.
• The representation of out bisexual DC character John Constantine on Legends of Tomorrow is interesting, and hopeful. The Atlantic looks at this.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that environmental change in Kenya may have driven creativity in early human populations there.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how astronomers use stellar occultations to investigate the thin atmosphere of Neptune’s moon Triton.
• Centauri Dreams notes how melting ice creates landscape change on Ceres.
• D-Brief suggests that supervolcanoes do not pose such a huge risk to the survival of humanity, in the past or the future, as we thoughts.
• Dangerous Minds shares Paul Bowles’ recipe for a Moroccan love charm.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog investigates the transformation of shopping malls and in the era of Amazon Prime.
• At In Medias Res, Russell Arben Fox engages with Left Behind and that book’s portrayal of rural populations in the United States which feel left behind.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Roman Catholic nuns on the 19th century American frontier challenged gender norms.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money is critical of Tex-Mex cuisine, calling it an uncreative re-presentation of Mexican cuisine for white people in high-calorie quantities.
• The NYR Daily shared this thought-provoking article noting how Irish America, because of falling immigration from Ireland and growing liberalism on that island, is diverging from its ancestral homeland.
• Drew Rowsome reviews The Monument, a powerful play currently on in Toronto that engages with the missing and murdered native women.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes, in a photo-heavy post, how galaxies die (or at least, how they stop forming stars).
• Towleroad shares a delightful interview with Adam Rippon conducted over a plate of hot wings.
• Window on Eurasia shares an alternate history article imagining what would have become of Russia had Muscovy not conquered Novgorod.
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative notes the very sharp rise in public debt held by the province of Ontario, something that accelerated in recent years.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests, in the era of Cambridge Analytica and fake news, that many journalists seem not to take their profession seriously enough.

[URBAN NOTE] Five cities links: Vancouver, Derry, Tehran, London, Kumamoto

• Global News reports on how municipalities in the Metro Vancouver area have arranged to pay for new transit.
• Slugger O’Toole has a multi-part investigation looking at why Derry, second city of Northern Ireland, is so poor. The first part is here.
• Bloomberg notes that the real estate market in Tehran is definitely not friendly to hopeful buyers.
• VICE reports on how activists in London turned an empty home into a homeless shelter.
• The Finger Post’s David Finger shares photos of his recent visit to Kumamoto.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At Anthrodendum, Elizabeth Marino takes issue with what she identifies as the naively and fiercely neoliberal elements of Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now.
• Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani takes a look at an innovative study of the Surinamese creole of Sranan Tongo that uncovers that language’s linguistic origins in remarkably fine detail.
• Architectuul examines the architecture of Communist-era Hungarian architect István Szábo
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the nearly naked black hole at the heart of galaxy ZwCl 8193, 2.2 billion light-years away.
• The Big Picture shares photos from the 2018 Paralympics in South Korea.
• Gerry Canavan has an interesting critical take on Star Trek: Discovery. Is it really doing new things, or is its newness just superficial?
• Centauri Dreams considers the impact the spectra of red dwarfs would have on biosignatures from their worlds.
• Russell Darnley takes a look at Australia’s Darling River, a critical watercourse threatened by extensive water withdrawals.
• Inkfish notes that patterns of wear on the tusks of elephants indicate most are right-handed.
• Joe. My. God. links to a study suggesting a relationship between Trump rallies and violent assaults.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper examining why people drink Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day.
• Language Hat takes a look at the use of Xhosa as the language of Wakanda.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money mourns Alfred Crosby, the historian whose work examined the epidemiological and ecological changes wrought by contact with the Americas.
• The Map Room Blog links to a map showing indigenous placenames in Canada.
• In the aftermath of the death of Stephen Hawking, Out There had a lovely idea: what nearby major stars emitted life than arrive at the moment of his birth? Hawking’s star is Regulus, and mine was (nearly) Arcturus.
• Marginal Revolution suggests AI will never be able to centrally plan an economy because the complexity of the economy will always escape it.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines Stephen Hawking’s contribution to the study of black holes.
• Supernova Condensate shares a list of moons, fictional and otherwise, from Endor on down.