[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer notes the latest news on interstellar comet 2/Borisov.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly emphasizes how every writer does need an editor.
• Centauri Dreams notes how the gas giant GJ 3512 b, half the mass of Jupiter orbiting a red dwarf star closely, is an oddly massive exoplanet.
• Gina Schouten at Crooked Timber looks at inter-generational clashes on parenting styles.
• D-Brief looks at the methods of agriculture that could conceivably sustain a populous human colony on Mars.
• Bruce Dorminey argues that we on Earth need something like Starfleet Academy, to help us advance into space.
• Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how the socio-spatial perspective helps us understand the development of cities.
• Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res listens to the Paul McCartney album Flaming Pie.
• io9 looks at Proxima, a contemporary spaceflight film starring Eva Green.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the intense relationship between the US and Saudi Arabia began in, and reflected, the era of Jim Crow.
• Language Hat notes a report suggesting that multilingualism helps ward off dementia.
• Language Log takes issue with the names of the mascots of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the emergence of a ninth woman complaining about being harassed by Al Franken.
• Marginal Revolution links to a new paper arguing that the Washington Consensus worked.
• The NYR Daily shares an Aubrey Nolan cartoon illustrating the evacuation of war children in the United Kingdom during the Second World War.
• At Out of Ambit, Diane Duane shares a nice collection of links for digital mapmakers.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at how the European Space Agency supports the cause of planetary defense.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Kenyan writer Kevin Mwachiro at length.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on how a mysterious fast radio burst helped illuminate an equally mysterious galactic halo.
• Strange Company reports on the mysterious and unsolved death in 1936 of Canadian student Thomas Moss in an Oxfordshire hayrick.
• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps notes how Mount Etna is a surpassingly rare decipoint.
• Understanding Society considers the thought of Kojève, after Hegel, on freedom.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the falling numbers of Russians, and of state support for Russian language and culture, in independent Central Asia.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how individual consumer responses are much less effective than concerted collective action in triggering change.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on some transgender fashion models.

[NEWS] Five links about Canada and the future: Olympics, politics, demographics, Elizabeth II

• The Conversation suggests that blaming the 1976 Montréal Olympics for the reluctance of Canada to host an Olympics should stop.
• Is it possible that a Conservative majority government could be plausibly achieved by a breakthrough in Québec? Phiippe J. Fournier at MacLean’s considers.
• A Conservative majority government, again, is perfectly imaginable. MacLean’s reports.
• Don Pittis at CBC notes how worker shortages in Canada are leading to rising wages, in at least some areas.
• What will happen, in Canada and elsewhere, when Queen Elizabeth II dies? MacLean’s speculates.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Québec City, Fort Lee, Vancouver, Paris and Saint-Denis, Sutera

• Le Devoir wonders if excessive tourism will make Vieux-Québec unlivable for locals.
• Sam Sklar at CityLab, native of the New Jersey community of Fort Lee, wonders when it will burst out from the shadow of New York City.
• The question of how Vancouver in the era of legalization will celebrate 4/20 remains actively contested. The National Post reports.
• CityLab reports on how the 2024 Paris Olympics may help regenerate Saint-Denis.
• The story about how resettled refugees helepd revive the Italian town of Sutera, on the island of Sicily, needs to be better-known. VICE reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Windsor, Québec City, Calgary, Tokyo, Tijuana

• Low-lying Windsor, Ontario, faces the prospect of serious flooding that might be alleviated if old features of the natural landscape like trees and wetlands were restored. CBC reports.
• Robert Vandewinkel at Huffington Post Québec makes an argument for a subway system for Québec City.
• Jason Markusoff at MacLean’s, noting the referendum vote in Calgary against hosting the 2026 Olympics, suggests this vote can be best sign as a sign of this city’s maturity and confidence, that Calgary does not need the Olympics to be successful.
• The Diplomat notes how costs for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have ballooned, despite promises of an affordable Olympics.
• VICE notes the plight of the Central American refugees gathering at Tijuana, unlikely to gain asylum in the United States.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Calgary, London, Amsterdam, Dakar

• In remembering Stan Lee, CityLab points to the evocative image of New York City that he and Marvel Comics created.
• Global News notes that Calgary is approaching the day of its referendum over the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Calgarians, vote against the idea.)
• Guardian Cities shares these images depicting what London would look like if any number of plans for new architectural wonders had come to pass.
• CityLab notes how community activity helped reclaim Zeedijk street in Amsterdam.
• Guardian Cities shares photos of the final days of the traditional fish market in the Senegalese capital of Dakar.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Churchill, Calgary, New York City, Beirut, Jaywick Sands

• Repair to the railroad that provided the only land connection of Churchill, Manitoba, to the rest of Canada has finally been repaired, and the first train in a year has come in. CBC reports.
• Jason Markusoff at MacLean’s notes that city council in Calgary salvaged the city’s 2026 Olympics bid, for now.
• CityLab notes an experiment with commercial rent control in New York City, in an effort to prevent the collapse of the small and independent retail sector.
• As the trash disposal crisis in Beirut continues, CityLab notes that poor children in the Lebanese capital are trying to scavenge from the city’s waste.
• The SCMP notes the unhappiness of the people of the English village of Jaywick Sands that an old image of their community was used in an American attack ad.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Wawa, Calgary, Mexico City, Tirana, Hong Kong

• Vice shares the photographs taken by Cheyenne Jackson of the declining, aging, northern Ontario town of Wawa. What future does it have?
• At MacLean’s, Jason Markusoff looks at the diminishing support for the 2026 Olympics in Calgary. Is there any case for this?
• Guardian Cities reports on the Via Verde, the vertical gardens attached to the pillars of the Mexico City freeway system. Are they merely cosmetic?
• The continued efforts of the civic authorities in the Albanian capital of Tirana to improve life in this growing city are the subject of this Guardian Cities article.
• This SCMP article makes a compelling argument that the distinctiveness of Hong Kong, as a city not wholly of China, is inexorably declining.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Pittsburgh, Saskatoon, Atlanta, Calgary

• CityLab takes a look at how Montréal took care of the problem of an excess of raccoons in that city’s Mount Royal Park, particularly around the Camillien-Houd lookout.
• CityLab takes a look at the city-defining design of Pittsburgh-based architect Tasso Katselas.
• The Yellow Quill First Nation is setting up an urban reserve in the city of Saskatoon. Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities looks at the roots of the black art renaissance in Atlanta.
• Joe McFarland at Global News argues that, particularly with its skepticism over the 2026 Olympics, Calgary is starting to retreat into an anti-development mood.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Canada city links: Saint John, Montréal, Hamilton, Calgary

• The rest of Saint John, New Brunswick, to have the provincial government authorize a study on municipal amalgamation has been turned down. Global News reports.
• Some old cars from the Montréal Métro are going on display as part of two exhibits. Global News reports.
• Montréal ranks second in a ranking of the top cities for millennials, all things considered. (Toronto is in the top 10.) Global News reports.
• A crackdown on payday loan establishments in Hamilton has been followed by a request that banks and other traditional lenders please consider their payday clients. Global News reports.
• Quite honestly, the argument made here that Calgary is destined to host the 2026 Olympics is actually convincing. Global News reports.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that the measured rate of the expansion of the universe depends on the method used to track this rate, and that this is a problem.
• On Sunday, Caitlin Kelly celebrated receiving her annual cheque from Canada’s Public Lending Program, which gives authors royalties based on how often their book has been borrowed in our public libraries.
• In The Buzz, the Toronto Public Library identified five books in its collection particularly prone to be challenged by would-be censors.
• D-Brief suggests that, if bacteria managed to survive and adapt in the Atacama desert as it became hostile to life, like life might have done the same on Mars.
• Far Outliers notes the crushing defeat, and extensive looting of, the MOghul empire by the Persia of Nader Shah.
• Hornet Stories looks at the medal hauls of out Olympic athletes this year in Pyeongchang.

Imageo notes satellite imagery indicating that fisheries occupy four times the footprint of agriculture. Aquaculture is starting to look like a necessary idea, I think.

• At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox praises Porch Fires, a new biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser, for its insights on Wilder and on the moment of the settlement of the American West.
• JSTOR Daily notes how, in the 19th century after the development of anesthesia, the ability to relieve people of pain was a political controversy. Shouldn’t it be felt, wasn’t it natural?
• Language Hat links to an article taking a look behind the scenes at the Oxford English Dictionary. How does it work? What are its challenges?
• At Lingua Franca, Roger Shuy distinguishes between different kinds of speech events and explains why they are so important in the context of bribery trials.
• The LRB Blog shares some advice on ethics in statecraft from the 2nd century CE Chinese writer Liu An.
• J. Hoberman at the NYR Daily reviews an exhibit of the work of Bauhaus artist Jozef Albers at the Guggenheim.
• Roads and Kingdoms shares an anecdote of travellers drinking homemade wine in Montenegro.
• Drew Rowsome interviews Native American drag queen and up-and-coming music star Vizin.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how star S0-2, orbiting so close to the black hole at the heart of the Milky Way Galaxy, will help prove Einsteinian relativity.
• Vintage Space explains, for the record, how rockets can work in a vacuum. (This did baffle some people this time last century.)
• Window on Eurasia suggests that, on its 100th anniversary, Estonia has succeeded in integrating most of its Russophones.