[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that mysterious Boyajian’s Star has nearly two dozen identified analogues, like HD 139139.
• James Bow reports from his con trip to Portland.
• Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog notes the particular pleasure of having old friends, people with long baselines on us.
• Centauri Dreams describes a proposed mission to interstellar comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov).
• The Crux notes how feeding cows seaweed could sharply reduce their methane production.
• D-Brief notes that comet C/2019 Q4 is decidedly red.
• Bruce Dorminey notes a claim that water-rich exoplanet K2-18b might well have more water than Earth.
• Gizmodo reports on a claim that Loki, biggest volcano on Io, is set to explode in a massive eruption.
• io9 notes that Warner Brothers is planning a Funko Pop movie.
• Joe. My. God. notes the claim of Donald Trump that he is ready for war with Iran.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how people in early modern Europe thought they could treat wounds with magic.
• Language Hat considers how “I tip my hat” might, translated, sound funny to a speaker of Canadian French.
• Language Log considers how speakers of Korean, and other languages, can find word spacing a challenge.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the partisan politics of the US Supreme Court.
• At the NYR Daily, Naomi Klein makes a case for the political and environmental necessity of a Green New Deal.
• Peter Watts takes apart a recent argument proclaiming the existence of free will.
• Peter Rukavina tells how travelling by rail or air from Prince Edward Island to points of the mainland can not only be terribly inconvenient, but environmentally worse than car travel. PEI does need better rail connections.
• The Russian Demographics Blog examines how different countries in Europe will conduct their census in 2020.
• Window on Eurasia shares the arguments of a geographer who makes the point that China has a larger effective territory than Russia (or Canada).
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at a 1971 prediction by J.G. Ballard about demagoguery and guilt, something that now looks reasonably accurate.
• Arnold Zwicky considers models of segregation of cartoon characters from normal ones in comics.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: GTA, Montréal, Portland, Berlin, Seoul

• Sean Marshall at TVO notes the limited, if real, potential of a new ride-sharing app to bridge the transit gap between Kitchener-Waterloo, Guelph, and Hamilton in the west of the Golden Horseshoe.
• CBC Montreal notes delays in the renovation of the Biodôme.
• CityLab notes that in Portland, Maine, volunteering can help one get access to affordable housing, literally.
• CityLab notes how the government of Berlin is set to intervene directly in the housing market to ensure affordability.
• Guardian Cities looks at how Seoul is set to redevelop the districts once at the heart of the South Korean economic miracle.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa and Sault Ste Marie, Québec City, Vancouver, Edinburgh, Sydney

• Sault Sainte-Marie hopes to recruit former GM workers from Oshawa to live in that less expensive city, Global News reports.
• Robert Vandenwinkel at HuffPost Quebec makes the case for Québec City not developing a tramway but rather a subway.
• Daily Hive notes that the British Columbia government has increased its funding into research into a high-speed rail link connecting Vancouver to points south.
• CityLab notes that Edinburgh is imposing a tourist tax.
• The Guardian shares images of some of the rejected designs for the famous Sydney Opera House.

[NEWS] Five links on cities: Vancouver, Edmonton, Portland, Hull, central and eastern Europe

• A new housing policy in Vancouver will focus, among other things, on underused and housing in well-off neighbourhoods. Global News reports.
• Can Edmonton’s Accidental Beach survive? Maybe, if federal regulation and the ever-shifting waters of the North Saskatchewan River permit. Global News reports.
• Daily JSTOR links to a collection of articles explaining just how the Oregon city of Portland became a hipster mecca, here.
• Alec Charles’ examination of the English city of Hull, a British City of Culture that is not only marginalized from mainstream Britain but at odds with the world (strongly pro-Brexit and all), is provocative. The article is here.
• Politico.eu notes how the failure of central and eastern European cities to pick up new EU agencies after Brexit underlines, for many, their continuing marginalization in Europe.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• The Dragon’s Tales’ Will Baird speculates that life on Mars, which plausibly got started earlier thanks to quicker cooling, was devastated by multiple devastating impacts.
• Far Outliers’ Joel examines the 11th century of Constantinople and Venice, a relationship that was shifting as Venice gained strength.
• Geocurrents takes a look at religious diversity in Ethiopia, making the interesting point that in addition to Christian-Muslim conflict there is also conflict between Ethiopian Orthodox Christians and Protestants.
• The Inuit Bikini Monster notes that a cat in Mexico is running for a mayoral position.
• John Moyer makes the point that fantasy literature isn’t necessarily escapist, not least because terrible things happen.
• Language Hat notes that, for plausible and understandable reasons, the phrase “a sight for sore eyes” is starting to refer to something bad.
• Marginal Revolution wonders whether traditional dress in the Gulf States is a marker of identity, and to what extent.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer thinks that Edward Snowden made a good choice by seeking refuge in Ecuador, a sufficiently democratic and low-crime Latin American polity.
• Torontoist notes that Toronto city police is trying to work on improving the relationship with Somali-Canadians after the recent raid.
• Towleroad notes that late gay writer John Preston has given the Maine city of Portland a new slogan.
• The Volokh Conspiracy talks about rising nationalism among Burmese Buddhists. Sadly, many commenters talk about how Muslims must be controlled.
• Window on Eurasia notes the ongoing demographic issues of Russia and Belarus.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Acts of Minor Treason’s Andrew Barton profiles the light rail mass transit system of Oregon’s city of Portland. Promising, the MAX seems to be.
• blogTo shows its readers where to find abandoned TTC buses and subway cares (near the Wilson Subway Yard in east-end Toronto, it turns out). Photos!
• Centauri Dreams takes another look at the prospect of Earth-like worlds orbiting post-main sequence white dwarfs. They may be rare, but they may also be easy enough to detect.
• Daniel Drezner rounds up academic responses to Mitt Romney’s claim that Israeli wealth and Palestinian poverty can be explained by “cultural” differences. Fail, yes.
• Eastern Approaches takes a look at the Czech heritage of Madeleine Albright in the context of her new biography.
• Marginal Revolution examines the consequence of the trade-off in Japan to maintain a strong currency to support its graying population at the expense of domestic industries.
• This Savage Minds post taking a look at the failings of Mark Regnerus’ post on same-sex parenting is worth reading.