[URBAN NOTE] Some Saturday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers the possibility that our model for the evolution of galaxies might be partially disproven by Big Data.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly reports how she did her latest article for the New York Times.
• Centauri Dreams notes the beginning of a search for habitable-zone planets around Alpha Centauri A and B.
• The Crux looks at how the skull trophies of the ancient Maya help explain civilizational collapse.
• D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting that our humble, seemingly stable Sun can produce superflares.
• Dead Things reports on the latest informed speculation about the sense of smell of Tyrannosaurus Rex.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares the NASA report on its progress towards the Lunar Gateway station.
• Gizmodo looks at the growing number of China’s beautiful, deadly, blooms of bioluminescent algae.
• io9 reports that Stjepan Sejic has a new series with DC, exploring the inner life of Harley Quinn.
• JSTOR Daily looks at an example of a feminist musical, the Chantal Akerman The Eighties.
• Language Hat links to a review of a dystopian novel by Yoko Tawada, The Emissary, imagining a future Japan where the learning of foreign languages is banned.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reiterates that history, and the writing of history, is an actual profession with skills and procedures writers in the field need to know.
• Liam Shaw writes at the LRB Blog about how people in London, late in the Second World War, coped with the terrifying attacks of V2 rockets.
• The Map Room Blog links to a new book, Wayfinding, about the neuroscience of navigation.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution reviews a Robert Zubrin book advocating the colonization of space and finds himself unconvinced.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the ancient comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko explored by the ESA Rosetta probe.
• Roads and Kingdoms provides tips for visitors to the Paraguay capital of Asuncion.
• Peter Rukavina reports that, on the day the new PEI legislature came in, 105% of Island electricity came from windpower.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel argues that, in searching for life, we should not look for exoplanets very like Earth.
• Strange Company shares another weekend collection of diverse links.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little shares the views of Margaret Gilbert on social facts.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Kadyrov might dream of a broad Greater Chechnya, achieved at the expense of neighbouring republics.
• Arnold Zwicky considers some superhero identity crises, of Superman and of others.

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: Ainu, Mayan cards, food culture, hip-hop, translation

• Japan Today notes that the Ainu, the indigenous people of the northern island of Hokkaido, are set to be recognized by the Japanese government as indigenous.
• Atlas Obscura looks at the decks of Mayan playing cards created by the Soviet Union.
• The Conversation reports on how Indigenous food cultures in Canada can be used to better understand the environment and its changes.
• Brielle Morgan at The Discourse reports on the Indigenous, political hip-hop of Diana Hellson.
• CBC reports on the experiences of Priscilla Bosun, official Cree-language translator in the House of Commons.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers, in the light of potential climate change extinction, the definitions of habitable exoplanets. Do we assume life to be too flexible?
• D-Brief notes that the Dawn probe found evidence of organic compounds, amorphous carbon, on the surface of Ceres.
• Lauren Madden at the Everyday Sociology Blog urges people to resist the impulse to misclassify the causes of mass shootings as senseless randomness.
• Hornet Stories takes a look at Jobriath, the man who for a brief time in the mid-1970s was an out queer rock god, on what would have been his birthday.
• Imageo notes that anthropogenic climate change risks plunging the global climate back to the heat and high sea levels of 50 million years ago, to the Eocene.
• JSTOR Daily notes how the fairy tale stereotype of the passive female character was created by moral reformers following the Protestant Reformation.
• Language Hat notes the Ao language, created by utopian early 20th century dreamers from Lithuania’s Jewish community as a universal method of communication.
• Mark Liberman at Language Log notes the emergence and evolution of the word “biomarker” over the past half-century.
• Simon Balto at Lawyers, Guns and Money writes about a frightening encounter on a night out with his partner with an aggressive person who kept calling him a “snowflake”. What does this, the embrace of this word as a supposed critique, say about racism and conservatism in the United States now?
• The LRB Blog notes the prosecution of the Stansted 15 for blocking a deportation of refugees on terrorism. What does this say about the administration of justice and borders in the United Kingdom now?
• Marginal Revolution notes that, in China, scientists convicted of fraud will face serious hits to their social credit ratings.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at the “toxic femininity” of women on the American far right.
• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the struggle of Mayan peoples in Guatemala to secure their land claims in the face of commercial agriculture.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society takes a look at how government enacts policy, not doing so as a unified whole at all.
• Window on Eurasia notes the deep hostility of Lukashenko in Belarus to any talk of deep integration with Russia, something he sees as tantamount to Belarus’ annexation into Russia.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the remarkable steel-banded sculpture of Fernando Suárez Reguera, and of sculptors like him.

[NEWS] Five indigenous links: Frank Lloyd Wright, Ulama, Arielle Twist, Mahpee Wampanoag, Manitoulin

• Karim Doumar at CityLab looks at how artist Clarissa Tossin used video and dance to engage with the Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock House, inspired by Mayan models.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the historical background of the Mesoamerican ball game Ulama, currently undergoing a revival.
• Trans Cree writer Arielle Twist talks about the dangers of love over at CBC Arts.
• VICE reports on how the Mashpee Wampanoag, the tribe that welcomed the Pilgrims to New England, is at risk of losing what remains of their land.
• Jennifer Yang writes at the Toronto Star about vicious anti-native rumours on Ontario’s Manitoulin Island that pitted white students against indigenous ones.

[NEWS] Five First Nations links: Mi’kmaq, Ojibway, Robert Lepage, Maya blue, Indigi-Con

• This canoe-building exercise using traditional Mi’kmaq techniques in Nova Scotia’s Kejimkujik Park sounds fascinating. CBC reports.
• This beadwork drawing from the Ojibway tradition recently on display at a Montréal exhibit is beautiful. CBC reports.
• Rick Salutin at Rabble engages with the controversy surrounding two Robert Lepage theatrical shows recently cancelled due to cultural appropriation controversies, here.
• The pre-conquest Maya developed a particular shade of blue all their own, unrecognized until now by outsiders. BBC reports.
• Indigi-Con, a First Nations-themed comic con held by the Oneidas of the Thames River, was a success, with preliminary hopes to hold another one next year. Global News reports.

[NEWS] Five First Nations links: Assembly of First Nations, Hurons, British Columbia, Mayans, Navajo

• The Discourse makes the suggestion that opening up elections of the Assembly of First Nations to all people of official status would be a great advance for democracy.
• Le Devoir reports on archeological explorations of L’Ancienne-Lorette, an ancient Huron settlement now in the middle of Quebec City.
• An ancient First Nations settlement in British Columbia is set to become a classroom for future generations. The National Post reports.
• Open Democracy notes how Mayan women in Central America fight to get recognized as creators of indigenous goods, and compensated accordingly.
• The New Yorker explores the extreme cyclists of the Navajo Nation, for whom their sport is a way to engage with their ancient homeland.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Anthropology.net’s Kambiz Kamrani looks at the classical Mayan trade in pets, dogs and cats particularly.
• Dangerous Minds shares some vintage cheesecake ads for video and arcade games from 1980s Japan.
• Dead Things considers an examination of the thesis that the fabulous horns of some dinosaurs were used as sexual signals.
• Hornet Stories nominates some queer people to get stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
• JSTOR Daily tells the story of Bobbi Gibb, the woman who in 1966 crashed the Boston Marathon.
• Language Hattells of Toty Samed, an Angolan musician who writes songs not in the now-dominant Portuguese but in his ancestral Kimbundu.
• Steven Attewell at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the ways in which the metaphor of mutants has been used by Marvel Comics to explore themes of racism and marginalization.
• At the LRB Blog, Matthew Porges notes how European Union opposition to the annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco is counterbalanced by the need to keep Morocco as a partner.
• r/mapporn shared a beautiful map of the Great Lakes, Nayanno-Nibiimaang Gichigamiin or “The Five Freshwater Seas”, from the Ojibwe perspective.
• The Map Room Blog shares Christian Tate’s transit-style map of Middle Earth.
• Marginal Revolution links to an essay arguing against the United States’ dropping the penny and the nickel, on the grounds that these expensive coins are loss-leaders for currency generally.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at early 20th century Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyan, a man whose influence is visible in the Putin era.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the eye-catching male photography of Ekaterina Zakharova.
• David Post’s analysis at the Volokh Conspiracy of the contract between Stormy Daniels and Donald Trump is a must-read.
• Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian government has failed to cultivate soft power, or wider influence, in the West.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly considers the quiet power of the candle.
• The Dragon’s Gaze links to a paper examining horseshoe patterns in protoplanetary disks.
• The Dragon’s Tales looks at the impact of human civilization on the Amazonian rain forest and looks at the negative impact of a 6th century volcanic eruption on the Maya.
• Language Log notes that “dumpster fire” is the American Dialect Society’s word of the year for 2016.
• Towleroad notes Kiesza’s new single.
• Transit Toronto notes service changes for the TTC.
• Understanding Society looks at the Black Panther movement.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell examines the irresistible force of negative campaigning.

[NEWS] Some Wednesday links

• Bloomberg talks about Poland’s problems with economic growth, notes that McMansions are poor investments, considers what to do about the Olympics post-Rio, looks at new Japanese tax incentives for working women, looks at a French war museum that put its stock up for sale, examines the power of the New Zealand dairy, looks at the Yasukuni controversies, and notes Huawei’s progress in China.
• Bloomberg View is hopeful for Brazil, argues demographics are dooming Abenomics, suggests ways for the US to pit Russia versus Iran, looks at Chinese fisheries and the survival of the ocean, notes that high American population growth makes the post-2008 economic recovery relatively less notable, looks at Emperor Akihito’s opposition to Japanese remilitarization, and argues that Europe’s soft response to terrorism is not a weakness.
• CBC notes that Russian doping whistleblowers fear for their lives, looks at how New Brunswick farmers are adapting to climate change, and looks at how Neanderthals’ lack of facility with tools may have doomed them.
• The Globe and Mail argues Ontario should imitate Michigan instead of Québec, notes the new Anne of Green Gables series on Netflix, and predicts good things for Tim Horton’s in the Philippines.
• The Guardian notes that Canada’s impending deal with the European Union is not any model for the United Kingdom.
• The Inter Press Service looks at child executions in Iran.
• MacLean’s notes that Great Lakes mayors have joined to challenge a diversion of water from their shared basin.
• National Geographic looks at the elephant ivory trade, considers the abstract intelligence of birds, considers the Mayan calendar’s complexities, and looks at how the young generation treats Pluto’s dwarf planet status.
• The National Post notes that VIA Rail is interested in offering a low-cost bus route along the Highway of Tears in northern British Columbia.
• Open Democracy notes that the last Russian prisoner in Guantanamo does not want to go home, and wonders why the West ignores the Rwandan dictatorship.
• TVO considers how rural communities can attract immigrants.
• Universe Today suggests sending our digital selves to the stars, looks at how cirrus clouds kept early Mars warm and wet, and notes the discovery of an early-forming direct-collapse black hole.
• Variance Explained looks at how Donald Trump’s tweets clearly show two authors at work.
• The Washignton Post considers what happens when a gay bar becomes a bar with more general appeal.
• Wired notes that the World Wide Web still is far from achieving its founders’ dreams, looks at how news apps are dying off, and reports on the Univision purchase of Gawker.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• blogTO notes that April has been the snowiest month this year.
• D-Brief notes that we are on the verge of a literal explosion in gravitational wave astronomy detection.
• The Dragon’s Tales examines Maya water management.
• Far Outliers notes the 1709 rescue of Alexander Selkirk from a desert island, one of the inspirations behind Robinson Crusoe.
• Geocurrents speculates that Crimean Tatars may follow North Caucasians in supporting radical Islam.
• Joe. My. God. notes that a Republican co-sponsor of an anti-trans law has been quarantined as a danger to female co-workers.
• Language Hat examines how one language deals with the representation of time.
• The Map Room Blog links to a beautiful topographic map of Mars.
• Marginal Revolution links to a new book by Joel Kotkin that seems somewhat anti-cities.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer wonders if Irish independence could have been avoided.
• Peter Rukavina contrasts and compares public spending and revenues on Prince Edward Island in 1915 versus 2015. The changes–particularly the increases–are notable.
• Une heure de peine looks at the idea of the insider, in French.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Eastern religions are now seen as threatening by some Russians and looks at the construction of Russian influence networks in France.