[PHOTO] Some photography links: CONTACT, Christopher Porter, Don McCullis, Antanas Sutkus, Laos

• NOW Toronto profiles some eye-catching exhibits part of the Contact Photography Festival.
• Toronto Life profiles some recently recovered photos by Christopher Porter dating from the 1990s.
• The NYR Daily took a look at the war-themed photographs of Don McCullin, here.
• The NYR Daily examines the work of Antanas Sutkus, who began his work in Soviet Lithuania.
• These images of the legacies of the Vietnam War in Laos, decades later, are stunning. VICE has them.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Architectuul celebrates the life and achievements of furniture designer Florence Basset Knoll.
• Bad Astronomy notes the remarkably detailed 3d simulation of a solar flare.
• At Crooked Timber, John Holbo engages with Corey Robin’s article in The New Yorker on the question of why people moving politically from right to left are less prominent than counterparts moving from left to right.
• Far Outliers takes a look at the rise and the fall of the international silk trade of China, from Roman times to the 20th century.
• At The Frailest Thing, L.M. Sacasas writes about the importance of listening to observers at the “hinges”, at the moments when things are changing.
• Internet geographer Mark Graham links to a new chapters making the argument that cyberspace is not a novel new territory.
• Language Log takes a look at a possible change in the representation of vocal fry as demonstrated in Doonesbury.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the background to the possible 2020 presidential bid of ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz.
• Marginal Revolution’s Alex Tabarrok looks at a history of Aleppo that emphasizes the ancient city’s history of catastrophes.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes issue with an online map highlighting factory farmers created by pressure group Aussie Farms. How meaningful is it, for starters?
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the timetable of the introduction of syphillis to Poland-Lithuania in the 1490s.
• Window on Eurasia looks at Russian population prospects, noting the low fertility among the small cohort of women born in the 1990s.
• Arnold Zwicky starts by sharing beautiful paintings and photos of tulips, and ends with a meditation on Crimean Gothic.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Charlotte, Baltimore, Wasaga Beach, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Macau

• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps takes a look at the regularity, and otherwise, of different cities’ street grids.
• CityLab notes how the city of Baltimore is suing Big Oil over the effects of climate change, including flooding.
• The Lake Huron resort community of Wasaga Beach turns out to have strong connections with the Lithuanian-Canadian community.
• CityLab takes a look at the love food critic Jonathan Gold expressed for the city of Los Angeles in his writing.

The SCMP notes that the British government in the 1980s was so opposed to Hong Kongers gaining the right to live in the UK that they tried to get Portugal to strip full citizenship from eligible Macanese.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Utrecht, Vilnius, Saint-Louis, Sydney

• For perhaps understandable political reason, Québec premier Philippine Couilllard wants Bombardier to get the Montreal metro renewal contract. Global News reports.
• Utrecht, Noisey notes, has a thriving black metal scene worthy of extended exploration.
• The bohemian enclave of Užupis, in the middle of the Lithunian capital of Vilnius, is starting to face pressure from gentrification. Politico Europe reports.
• Ciku Kimeria at Okay Africa makes the case for the old colonial capital of Saint-Louis, in Senegal, to become a major destination for international tourists.
• The Guardian profiles a serious proposal to split Sydney into three different cities, each with its own development needs, to better manage the wider conurbation.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Crooked Timber’s John Quiggin considers imaginable ways to get carbon dioxide in the atmosphere down to 350 ppm by 2100.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the tenuous nature of the upper-middle class in America. How is downwards mobility to be avoided, even here?
• Imageo shows the growth of a sunspot larger than the Earth.
• Language Hat shares the story of how Manchu script came to be.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that the working poor need protection from arbitrary and always-changing work schedules.
• The LRB Blog notes the geopolitical scramble at the Horn of Africa, starting with bases in Djibouti.
• The NYR Daily engages with an intriguing exhibition about the relationship between Henry James and paintings, and painting.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw engages with the classic 1937 Australian film, Lovers and Luggers.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money notes that one benefit of the trend towards greater informality in fashion is that time has been freed up, especially for women.
• Peter Rukavina writes about his new Instagram account, hosting his various sketches.
• Unicorn Booty notes the continuing problems with Germany’s adoption laws for same-sex couples.
• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at how the Polish president saved the independence of Poland’s courts with his veto.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Russia is trying to mobilize the ethnic Russians of Lithuania, finally.

[OBSCURA] On that graffiti showing Putin and Trump kissing in Lithuania

The above wall, this photo taken by the Associated Press’ Mindaugas Kulbis, has gone viral. This is a fantastic image that gets right down to the fundamental similarities between Russia’s actual and America’s potential leaders. Timothy Snyder’s NYR Daily post of last month goes into detail about this odd couple, and what attracts them to each other.

It is not hard to see why Trump might choose Putin as his fantasy friend. Putin is the real world version of the person Trump pretends to be on television. Trump’s financial success (such as it is) has been as a New York real estate speculator, a world of private deal-making that can seem rough and tough—until you compare it to the Russia of the 1990s that ultimately produced the Putin regime. Trump presents himself as the maker of a financial empire who is willing to break all the rules, whereas that is what Putin in fact is. Thus far Trump can only verbally abuse his opponents at rallies, whereas Putin’s opponents are assassinated. Thus far Trump can only have his campaign manager rough up journalists he doesn’t like. In Russia some of the best journalists are in fact murdered.

President Putin, who is an intelligent and penetrating judge of men, especially men with masculinity issues, has quickly drawn the correct conclusion. In the past he has done well for himself by recruiting among politicians who exhibit greater vanity than decency, such as Silvio Berlusconi and Gerhard Schröder. The premise of Russian foreign policy to the West is that the rule of law is one big joke; the practice of Russian foreign policy is to find prominent people in the West who agree. Moscow has found such people throughout Europe; until the rise of Trump the idea of an American who would volunteer to be a Kremlin client would have seemed unlikely. Trump represents an unprecedented standard of American servility, and should therefore be cultivated as a future Russian client.

(Needling at least one homophobe is, I think, a bonus.)

The Associated Press carried an article explaining why the Vilnius eatery Keulė Rūkė commissioned this work.

Restaurant owner Dominykas Ceckauskas said Saturday the presumptive U.S. Republican presidential nominee and the Russian president both have huge egos “and they seem to get along pretty well.”

He said the image is “an ironic view of what can be expected.”

Local artist Mindaugas Bonanu created the wheat paste poster for the eatery in the capital Vilnius on Friday. It’s on the outside of the Keule Ruke restaurant— Lithuanian for “Smoking Pig” — along with the text “Make Everything Great Again” — a play on Trump’s slogan “Make America Great Again.”

Ceckauskas said the poster was a nod to a 1979 photograph of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev kissing East German ally Erich Honecker on the mouth — once a customary greeting between Socialist leaders. The iconic shot was later painted on the Berlin Wall.

The only downside that I can see is that, if Trump actually does get elected, Lithuania could be in for hard times. Offending two narcissists is risky enough when only one actually could have power over your country.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• blogTO notes that Canadian Backpackers Hostel is set to close down to make room for condos.
• Centauri Dreams looks at ways to use the Earth’s transit of the Sun to find potentially watching extraterrestrial civilizations.
• Dangerous Minds notes the human zoo.
• The Dragon’s Gaze looks at the packed planetary system of young HL Tauri.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that primates in North America were not outcompeted by rodents.
• Geocurrents maps the substantial progress in development seen in Brazil.
• Language Log notes intriguing research suggesting some songbirds have a capacity for grammar.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the environmental injustice of hog farms.
• Marginal Revolution notes it is now possible to get loans with negative interest rates in Germany.
• Rachel Kessler reflects on otherness and the need for empathy in the works of Octavia Butler.
• The Russian Demographics Blog commemorates the first mention of the name “Lithuania” in March 9, 1009.
• Torontoist debates Ontario’s funding of the Catholic separate school system.
• Transit Toronto looks at the latest plans for Smartttrack in Toronto.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• blogTO identify five neighbourhoods in downtownish Toronto with cheap rent.
• The Dragon’s Gaze notes one paper suggesting Earth-like worlds may need both ocean and rocky surfaces to be habitable.
• The Dragon’s Tales reports that Pluto’s Sputnik Planum is apparently less than ten million years old.
• Geocurrents begins an interesting regional schema of California.
• Language Log notes a Hong Kong ad that blends Chinese and Japanese remarkably.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that societies with low inequality report higher levels of happiness than others.
• The Map Room points to the lovely Pocket Atlas of Remote Islands.
• Marginal Revolution wonders why Amazon book reviews are so dominated by American reviewers.
• Savage Minds considers, after Björk, the ecopoetics of physical geology data.
• Window on Eurasia “>commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Vilnius massacre.
• The Financial Times‘ The World blog looks at Leo, the dog of the Cypriot president.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams reports on the non-existence of Alpha Centauri Bb.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the exciting new findings from Pluto, including news that it supports a subsurface ocean.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the power of student protests at the University of Missouri.
• Joe. My. God. notes the promise of anti-viral injections in treating HIV.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money reacts to a historical student of slavery in the US urban south.
• Marginal Revolution notes the slow pace at which US immigration records are being digitized.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer notes that before 1960, contrary to the current trend, African-Americans with identifiably African-American names did better than average.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the size of Poland-Lithuania in 1635.
• Towleroad notes how a photo of Justin Trudeau with the same-sex family of Scott Brison went viral.
• Transit Toronto looks at the upcoming TTC open house on the 12th.
• Window on Eurasia notes that North Caucasians have reason for protest apart from ethnicity and suggests Russian regionalism is not related to ethnicity.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• 3 Quarks Daily hosts an essay by one Akim Reinhardt talking about the history of the Oglala Sioux.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly shares her personal credo.
• Crooked Timber notes the various concerns of different societies in the past over migration.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper suggesting that O and B-class supergiants do not destroy their protoplanetary discs.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes the French development of hypersonic weapons.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers the question of infamy. To what extent should people responsible for horrors be studied?
• Geocurrents maps some innovative Wikipedia maps of world religion.
• Language Hat reports on new Chinese borrowings from Japanese.
• Language Log notes the apparently strong preference for pinyin input in writing Chinese electronically.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the complexity of colonialism in naming a sports team in Oregon the “Pioneers”.
• Marginal Revolution describes how one Turkish economist disproved his father-in-law’s involvement in an alleged coup conspiracy.
• The New APPS Blog looks at the philosophy job market.
• Strange Maps shares some beautiful watercolour maps of the world’s divides.
• Supernova Condensate points out how very small our civilization’s electronic footprint is.
• Towleroad links to one defense of Danny Pintauro’s coming-out as HIV-positive.
• Transit Toronto notes the threatened TTC lawsuit against Bombardier and notes the refurbishing of some older streetcars.
• The Volokh Conspiracy reports on why a Pennsylvania court refused to recognize a Saudi custody order on the grounds of its inconsistency with American public policy.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Russia does not own the Russian language, looks at Armenia’s intake of Syrian refugees, suggests the Russian intervention in Syria is not supported by Russia’s neighbours, and looks at how Belarus is using Lithuanian and Latvian ports instead of Kaliningrad.