[NEWS] Twenty news links

• NOW Toronto looks at the Pickering nuclear plant and its role in providing fuel for space travel.
• In some places like California, traffic is so bad that airlines actually play a role for high-end commuters. CBC reports.
• Goldfish released into the wild are a major issue for the environment in Québec, too. CTV News reports.
• China’s investments in Jamaica have good sides and bad sides. CBC reports.
• A potato museum in Peru might help solve world hunger. The Guardian reports.
• Is the Alberta-Saskatchewan alliance going to be a lasting one? Maclean’s considers.
• Is the fossil fuel industry collapsing? The Tyee makes the case.
• Should Japan and Europe co-finance a EUrasia trade initiative to rival China’s? Bloomberg argues.
• Should websites receive protection as historically significant? VICE reports.
• Food tourism in the Maritimes is a very good idea. Global News reports.
• Atlantic Canada lobster exports to China thrive as New England gets hit by the trade war. CBC reports.
• The Bloc Québécois experienced its revival by drawing on the same demographics as the provincial CAQ. Maclean’s reports.
• Population density is a factor that, in Canada, determines political issues, splitting urban and rural voters. The National Observer observes.
• US border policies aimed against migration from Mexico have been harming businesses on the border with Canada. The National Post reports.
• The warming of the ocean is changing the relationship of coastal communities with their seas. The Conversation looks.
• Archival research in the digital age differs from what occurred in previous eras. The Conversation explains.
• The Persian-language Wikipedia is an actively contested space. Open Democracy reports.
• Vox notes how the US labour shortage has been driven partly by workers quitting the labour force, here.
• Laurie Penny at WIRED has a stirring essay about hope, about the belief in some sort of future.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares images of galaxy M61.
• Centauri Dreams looks at a proposal for the Solar Cruiser probe, a NASA probe that would use a solar sail.
• D-Brief notes the discovery of bacteria on coasts which manufacture dimethyl sulfide.
• Bruce Dorminey writes about some facts about the NASA X-15 rocket plane.
• The Dragon’s Tales reports on the strange nuclear accident in Nyonoksa, Russia.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the recent uncovering of the ancient Egyptian city of Heracleion, under the Mediterranean.
• Language Hat looks at 19th century standards on ancient Greek language.
• Language Log notes an ironically swapped newspaper article subhead.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the role of Tom Cotton in the recent Greenland scandal.
• Marginal Revolution glances at the relationship between China and Singapore.
• The NYR Daily looks at how the car ride played a role in the writing of Jacques Lacan.
• The Russian Demographics Blog shares an index on state fragility around the world.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why Jupiter suffers so many impacts from incoming bodies.
• John Scalzi at Whatever reports on what seems to have been an enjoyable concert experience with Iron Maiden.
• Window on Eurasia reports a claim that, with regards to a border dispute, Chechnya is much more unified than Dagestan.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait looks at the strange galaxy NGC 5866.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly looks at some of her prep work when she covers a news story.
• Centauri Dreams considers the idea of using the Earth itself for gravitational lensing.
• D-Brief notes a newly-discovered fossil parrot from New Zealand, a bird nearly one metre in size.
• Far Outliers looks at the values of cowrie shells in 19th century central Africa. What could they buy?
• Gizmodo notes the limited circumstances in which IMDb will allow transgender people to remove their birth names from their records.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the abortive American state of Franklin.
• Language Hat notes a 19th century Russian exile’s experience with the differences between Norwegian and Swedish.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes, after Epstein, the incompetence that too often characterizes American prisons.
• Marginal Revolution notes the importance of slavery in the history of Venice.
• The NYR Daily notes how W.H. Auden was decidedly unimpressed by the Apollo moon landing, and why.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the import of astronomers’ discovery of an ancient early black hole.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs shares a vertical world map from China.
• Understanding Society’s Daniel Little considers how competent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission actually is.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the internal divides of Russia.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy Phil Plait notes that the location of the Apollo 12 Ascent Module on the Moon may have been found.
• Kieran Healy writes about how he uses scripts to produce animated graphics illustrating charging patterns of baby names over the 20th century in the United States.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Japan has been cleaning up Tohoku after the Fukushima disaster.
• Language Hat looks at an upcoming book project taking a look at how different languages written in the Arabic script interact with each other.
• Abigail Nussbaum at Lawyers, Guns and Money, looking at “The Bells”, makes the case that this episode’s solution to the issues of Daenerys was probably the best one that could be devised within Game of Thrones’ self-imposed limitations.
• The NYR Daily looks at the trial in Israeli military courts of Palestinian activist Issa Amro.
• Jason C. Davis notes at the Planetary Society Blog that the Lightsail 2 spacecraft is scheduled for a June launch.
• Peter Rukavina reacts, with eventual cool printings, to the Fluxus movement in mid-20th century art.
• Strange Company shares the story of pioneering Edwardian parachustist Dolly Shepherd.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society shares his 1970s proposal for a Marxist philosophy of the social sciences.
• Window on Eurasia notes that the GULAG system was a net loss for the Soviet economy, costly and employing workers at low productivity levels. (Bringing it back would be a mistake, then.)
• Arnold Zwicky shares some wonderful photos of some remarkable lilies.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Charlie Stross hosts at Antipope another discussion thread examining Brexit.
• Architectuul takes a look at five overlooked mid-20th century architects.
• Bad Astronomy shares a satellite photo of auroras at night over the city lights of the Great Lakes basin and something else, too.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the directions love has taken her, and wonders where it might have taken her readers.
• Centauri Dreams reports on the Hayabusa 2 impactor on asteroid Ryugu.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the claims of Steven Pinker about nuclear power.
• D-Brief notes the detection, in remarkable detail, of a brilliant exocomet at Beta Pictoris.
• The Dragon’s Tales considers the possibility that China might be building a military base in Cambodia.
• Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the importance of small social cues, easily overlookable tough they are.
• Far Outliers notes the role of Japan’s imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, in post-war Japan.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing writes about the potential inadequacy of talking about values.
• Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting the surprising and potentially dangerous diversity of bacteria present on the International Space Station.
• Mark Graham shares a link to a paper, and its abstract, examining what might come of the creation of a planetary labour market through the gig economy.
• Hornet Stories takes a look at Red Ribbon Blues, a 1995 AIDS-themed film starring RuPaul.
• io9 notes that Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke are co-writing a Pan’s Labyrinth novel scheduled for release later this year.
• Joe. My. God. notes a new study suggesting 20% of LGBTQ Americans live in rural areas.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the Bluestockings, the grouping of 18th century women in England who were noteworthy scholars and writers.
• Language Hat notes an ambitious new historical dictionary of the Arabic language being created by the emirate of Sharjah.
• Language Log examines, in the aftermath of a discussion of trolls, different cultures’ terms for different sorts of arguments.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how early forestry in the United States was inspired by socialist ideals.
• The Map Room Blog links to a map showing the different national parks of the United Kingdom.
• Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, noting the new findings from the Chixculub impact, notes how monitoring asteroids to prevent like catastrophes in the future has to be a high priority.
• The New APPS Blog explains how data, by its very nature, is so easily made into a commodity.
• The NYR Daily considers the future of the humanities in a world where higher education is becoming preoccupied by STEM.
• Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews Bear Grylls about the making of his new documentary series Hostile Planet.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw considers the pleasures of birds and of birdwatching.
• Jason C. Davis at the Planetary Society Blog noted the arrival of the Beresheet probe in lunar orbit.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new amazing-sounding play Angelique at the Factory Theatre.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes a paper that makes the point of there being no automatic relationship between greater gender equality and increases in fertility.
• The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress has made use of the BagIt programming language in its archiving of data.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel comes up with questions to ask plausible visitors from other universes.
• Strange Company notes the mysterious deaths visited on three members of a British family in the early 20th century. Who was the murderer? Was there even a crime?
• Towleroad notes the activists, including Canadian-born playwright Jordan Tannahill, who disrupted a high tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London over the homophobic law passed by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei.
• Window on Eurasia notes rising instability in Ingushetia.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that the British surveillance of Huawei is revealing the sorts of problems that must be present in scrutiny-less Facebook, too.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Architectuul profiles the construction of the Modern Berlin Temple built to a design by Mies van der Rohe in 1968.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the beauty of galaxy M61.
• D-Brief notes new evidence that Mars sustained rivers on its surface at a surprising late date.
• Gizmodo notes a theory that the oddly shaped ring moons of Saturn might be product of a collision.
• Hornet Stories suggests/u> that recent raids on gay bars in New Orleans might be driven by internecine politics within the LGBTQ community.
• Joe. My. God. notes that a court in the Cayman Islands has recently legalized same-sex marriage there.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the origins of the Chipko activists of 1960s and 1970s India, whose tree-hugging helped save forests there.
• Language Log notes the story of Beau Jessep, who got rich off of a business creating English names for Chinese children.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money, looking at the introduction of public healthcare in Saskatchewan and wider Canada, notes the great institutional differences that do not make that a close model for public healthcare in the US now.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the close relationship over time between population growth and economic and technological change.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews documentary filmmaker Nadir Bouhmouch about a Amazigh community’s resistance to an intrusive mine on their territory.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes, correctly, that one reason why Ukrainians are more prone to emigration to Europe and points beyond than Russians is that Ukraine has long been included, in whole or in part, in European states.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes that we still do not know why antimatter does not dominate in our universe.
• Understanding Society features a guest post from Indian sociologist V.K. Ramachandran talking about two visits four decades apart to one of his subjects.
• Vintage Space makes a compelling case for people not to be afraid of nuclear rockets in space, like the vintage never-deployed NERVA.
• Window on Eurasia takes issue with the bilingual radio programs aired in Russian republics, which subtly undermine local non-Russian languages.
• Arnold Zwicky starts with lilacs, which include hybrids tolerant of the California climate, and goes on to explore lavender in all of its glories, queer and otherwise.

[NEWS] Five science links: Gulf of St. Lawrence, ocean uranium, chimpanzees, parrots, Lunar Gateway

• The study of the changing environment of the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence is explored in this article, over at Global News.
• A new process for extracting uranium from seawater makes nuclear energy still more viable. Forbes has it.
• A recent study of chimpanzee groups in central Africa has found evidence of regional variations in their material culture. Phys.org has it.
• Opium poppy farmers in India are forced to defend their fields against parrots addicted to their crops. VICE reports.
• CBC explores the Lunar Gateway project that Canada is newly involved in.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New York City, Vancouver, Fukushima, Palermo

• CBC reports on the new book of unofficial Montréal mascot Ponto.
• This CityLab article looks at Co-op City, an affordable housing complex in the Bronx, and what it has to offer.
• This proposal from Vancouver to give kids free transit and subsidies to low-income adults makes perfect sense to me.
• Scientific American notes how many refugees from Fukushima, facing economic pressures, have been forced to return to communities they feel unsafe in.
• This SCMP feature looks at how Asian immigrant shopkeepers in Palermo have been successfully resisting the mafia.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber suggests that the planet Earth, judging by the progress of space travel to date, is going to be the only planet our species will ever inhabit.
• D-Brief notes surprising new evidence that maize was domesticated not in Mesoamerica, but rather in the southwest of the Amazon basin.
• Dangerous Minds notes the penalties proposed by Thomas Jefferson in Virginia for buggery, sodomy, and bestiality.
• Earther considers the extent to which Thanos’ homeworld of Titan, whether the Saturnian moon or lookalike world, could ever have been habitable, even with extensive terraforming.
• Hornet Stories notes the interesting light that a study of ideal penis sizes among heterosexual women sheds on studies of sexuality generally.
• JSTOR Daily takes an extended look at how the sharing economy, promoted by people like Lawrence Lessig and businesses like Airbnb, turned out to be dystopian not utopian, and why this was the case.
• Victor Mair at Language Log reports on controversy over bread made by a Taiwanese baker, and at the language used.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the latest proof of the decline of Harper’s as a meaningful magazine. (Myself, I lost respect for them when they published an extended AIDS denialist article in 2006.)
• Allan Metcalfe at Lingua Franca celebrates, using the example of lexicographer Kory Stamper’s new book, how the blog helped him connect with the stars of linguistics.
• Katherine Franke at the NYR Daily notes pressure from Israel directed against academic critics in the United States.
• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog notes how the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has picked up InSight hardware on the surface of Mars below.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes how NASA is running short of Plutonium-238, the radioactive isotope that it needs to power spacecraft like the Voyagers sent on long-duration missions and/or missions far from the sun.
• Window on Eurasia notes how, based on an excess of deaths over births, the population of Crimea will decline for the foreseeable future.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at some examples of the anaphora, a particular kind of rhetorical structure.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Detroit, Calgary, Tijuana and San Diego, Kathmandu, Chernobyl

• CityLab looks at how, facing the impending closing of a General Motors plant that brutally displaced and mostly destroyed the (mostly) Detroit neighbourhood of Poletown, there is question about what to do with this space. Can Poletown live again?
• Taylor Lambert at Sprawl Calgary writes about how Calgary is learning to adopt Indigenous names for its growing communities and roads, and more, how Calgary is learning to do so respectfully.
• Guardian Cities notes the extreme sensitivity of the binational conurbations straddling the US-Mexico border in the Californias to the possibility of border closures.
• Guardian Cities notes how people in Kathmandu, struggling to rebuild their homes after the 2015 earthquake, are now facing terrible levels of debt.
• The Guardian reports on a remarkable rave/art party held in Chernobyl not far at all from the ruined reactor.