[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul looks at the Portuguese architectural cooperative Ateliermob, here.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at how white dwarf WD J091405.30+191412.25 is literally vapourizing a planet in close orbit.
• Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog explains</a< to readers why you really do not want to have to look for parking in New York City.
• Centauri Dreams looks at the slowing of the solar wind far from the Sun.
• John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the gap between ideals and actuals in the context of conspiracies and politics.
• The Dragon’s Tales reports on how the ESA is trying to solve a problem with the parachutes of the ExoMars probe.
• Far Outliers reports on what Harry Truman thought about politicians.
• Gizmodo reports on a new method for identifying potential Earth-like worlds.
• io9 pays tribute to legendary writer, of Star Trek and much else, D.C. Fontana.
• The Island Review reports on the football team of the Chagos Islands.
• Joe. My. God. reports that gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy will compete for the United Kingdom in 2020.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how early English imperialists saw America and empire through the lens of Ireland.
• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not like Pete Buttigieg.
• The LRB Blog looks at the London Bridge terrorist attack.
• The Map Room Blog shares a map of Prince William Sound, in Alaska, that is already out of date because of global warming.
• Marginal Revolution questions if Cebu, in the Philippines, is the most typical city in the world.
• The NYR Daily looks at gun violence among Arab Israelis.
• The Planetary Society Blog considers what needs to be researched next on Mars.
• Roads and Kingdoms tells the story of Sister Gracy, a Salesian nun at work in South Sudan.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting continued population growth expected in much of Europe, and the impact of this growth on the environment.
• Strange Maps shares a map of fried chicken restaurants in London.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why a 70 solar mass black hole is not unexpected.
• John Scalzi at Whatever gives</a his further thoughts on the Pixel 4.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, last year, 37 thousand Russians died of HIV/AIDS.
• Arnold Zwicky starts from a consideration of the 1948 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Guelph, Innisfil, Montréal, Asbestos, Québec City, Alberta, Richmond

• Guelph will be holding an open house to see what development will replace the Dolime Quarry. Global News reports.
• The town of Innisfil has extended its Uber subsidy program for people in need of transit. Global News reports</u.
• Archeologists in Montréal have found a mass grave of Irish famine victims. CTV reports.
• The Québec town of Asbestos is changing its name so as to avoid the link, in English, with the toxic mineral. CTV reports.
• A subway, alas, would be too big for Québec City. Streetcars would work better. Le Devoir reports.
• Can a hyperloop be built to plug Edmonton together with Calgary? Global News considers.
• Richmond, British Columbia, has unveiled a cultural harmony strategy to help its diverse population get along. The National Post reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Gatineau, Montréal, Halifax, wild turkeys and monk parakeets, Venice, Kamza

• The city of Gatineau is going to take land with constructions devastated by flooding and make it into a buffer zone. CBC reports.
• There is controversy around the idea of naming a REM station in Montréal’s Griffintown neighbourhood after Bernard Landry. Global News reports.
• Halifax has a third heritage district. Global News reports.
• The wild turkey is now thriving in many American cities, in New Jersey’s Toms River and even in Washington D.C. CityLab reports.
• The monk parakeet is thriving in European cities like Madrid and London. CityLab reports.
• The Conversation suggests that Venice may yet benefit from the attention brought to its problems by the recent flooding.
• Guardian Cities looks at the remarkably rapid construction of the city in Albania of Kamza, driven by (among other factors) remittances from emigrants.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven city links: Pierrefonds, Edmundston, Saskatoon, Louisville, Belfast, Jerusalem …

• Ending free coffee for municipal employees in the Québec community of Pierrefonds created massive controversy. CBC reports.
• The mayor of the Francophone city of Edmundston in New Brunswick has encouraged immigrant Québec students hurt by immigration changes to come to his community. CTV News reports.
• The price of crystal meth in Saskatoon is apparently as low as $3 a bag. Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities notes how Louisville, low on trees, is trying to regreen the city as a way to deal with rising temperatures.
• Open Democracy considers if the DUP is about to lose its strongholds in Belfast.
• Guardian Cities looks at the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Kafr Aqab, a place where Palestinians can access their metropolis (and their partners).
• CityLab shares photos of the wonderful new public library of Helsinki.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams notes how gas giants on eccentric orbits can easily disrupt bodies on orbits inwards.
• Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber suggests that the political culture of England has been deformed by the trauma experienced by young children of the elites at boarding schools.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the haunting art of Paul Delvaux.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the work of Tressie McMillan Cottom in investigating for-profit higher education.
• Far Outliers looks at Tripoli in 1801.
• Gizmodo shares the Boeing design for the moon lander it proposes for NASA in 2024.
• io9 shares words from cast of Terminator: Dark Fate about the importance of the Mexican-American frontier.
• JSTOR Daily makes a case against killing spiders trapped in one’s home.
• Language Hat notes a recovered 17th century translation of a Dutch bible into the Austronesian language of Siraya, spoken in Taiwan.
• Language Log looks at the origin of the word “brogue”.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the payday lender industry.
• Marginal Revolution notes a new biography of Walter Raleigh, a maker of empire indeed.
• The NYR Daily looks at a new dance show using the rhythms of the words of writer Robert Walser.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at how, in a quantum universe, time and space could still be continuous not discrete.
• Strange Company looks at a court case from 1910s Brooklyn, about a parrot that swore.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes an affirmative action court case in which it was ruled that someone from Gibraltar did not count as Hispanic.
• Window on Eurasia notes rhetoric claiming that Russians are the largest divided people on the Earth.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at lizards and at California’s legendary Highway 101.

[AH] Six #alternatehistory maps from Reddit: Irish, Canada, Alaska, Russia, Prairies, South Africa

• This r/mapporn map shows the scale of the collapse of Irish as a spoken language across most of Ireland. Was this avoidable?
• This r/imaginarymaps map shows a Canada where the 1837 rebellions were successful, with an autonomous Upper Canada and a Lower Canada with a Patriote state. Doable?
• This r/imaginarymaps map depicts a common alternate history trope, that of an independent but culturally Russian Alaska. What would it take for this to happen?
• This r/imaginarymaps map depicts a world where Eurasia, from Germany to Korea, was dominated by a successfully industrializing Russian Empire. Was this common fear of the belle époque actually achievable?
• This r/mapporn map shows the different proposals for different territorial configurations of the Canadian Prairies. (I like the ones with north-south divisions.)
• Was a single South Africa covering most of British Southern Africa with relatively liberal racial policies, as Jan Smuts wanted, actually achievable? r/imaginarymaps hosts the map.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Architectuul looks at the Porto architectural project Critical Concrete, here.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares the evidence for our galaxy having experienced a phase as a quasar a quarter-million years long some 3.5 million years ago.
• Author James Bow celebrates the end of his publicity tour for The Night Girl, including a controversy over cover art featuring the CN Tower.
• Robert Zubrin at Centauri Dreams considers how we could detect energy from artificial singularities used for power and propulsion. (Is this how we find the Romulans?)
• The Crux considers whether or not the new proposals for more powerful supercolliders in China and Europe are likely to produce new discoveries.
• D-Brief explains why older generations so often look down on the young: The elders idealize their younger selves too much.
• Dead Things notes new evidence, in the tracks of trilobites moving in line 480 million years ago, for early life being able to engage in collective behaviour.
• io9 interviews Kami Garcia about her new YA book featuring venerable DC character Raven, remaking her for new readers.
• The Island Review interviews David Gange about The Frayed Atlantic Edge, his book account of his kayak trip down the western coasts of Britain and Ireland.
• JSTOR Daily explains why Martin Luther King Jr. thought so highly of jazz.
• Eleanor Penny argues at the LRB Blog against taking Malthus, with his pessimism trending towards a murderous misanthropy, as a prophet for our times.
• The NYR Daily looks at the play American Moor, which touches on the efforts of black actors to engage with Shakespeare.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new film The Flick, an old to old-style movies and theatres.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map depicting Hutterite migrations across early modern Europe.
• Starts With A Bang shares new speculation that some evidence for dark matter might actually be a mistake in measurement.
• Strange Maps notes the now mostly submerged continent of Greater Adria.
• Window on Eurasia shares a suggestion that the deep Russophilia of many ordinary people in Belarus might support union with Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at the different meanings of “unaccompanied”.