[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: NASA climate, Starlink, CO2 on the seabed, moving Earth, neutrino beams

• Evan Gough at Universe Today notes that the long-term climate predictions of NASA have so far proven accurate to within tenths of a degree Celsius.
• Matt Williams at Universe Today notes how the launching of satellites for the Starlink constellation, providing Internet access worldwide, could be a game-changer.
• Eric Niiler at WIRED suggests that Texas–and other world regions–could easily sequester carbon dioxide in the seabed, in the case of Texas using the Gulf of Mexico.

Matteo Ceriotti explains at The Conversation how, as in The Wandering Earth, the Earth might be physically moved. https://theconversation.com/wandering-earth-rocket-scientist-explains-how-we-could-move-our-planet-116365ti

• Matt Williams at Universe Today shares a remarkable proposal, suggesting Type II civilizations might use dense bodies like black holes to create neutrino beam beacons.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: food, McDonald’s, cell phones, cricket, renoviction

• NOW Toronto notes that poor and racialized people in Toronto find it difficult to access healthy food.
• blogTO observes that the McDonald’s at King and Dufferin has installed blue lights in washrooms to try to discourage the shooting up there of heroin.
• The TTC is set to offer cell phone service in some downtown tunnels. blogTO reports.
• Perry King at Spacing reports on how Toronto needs to expand its facilities for the growing number of players of cricket.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto reports that the owner of 795 College has been fined $C 135 000 for the renoviction of prior tenants.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes about the importance of seeing the world from new angles.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber suggests that, worldwide, coal is becoming increasingly closely associated with corruption.
• D-Brief looks at a study drawing on Twitter that suggests people will quickly get used to changing weather in the era of climate change.
• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about a family trip during which he spent time listening to sociology-related podcasts.
• Far Outliers notes the life-determining intensity of exam time for young people in Calcutta.
• io9 notes that, finally, the classic Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode “Once More, With Feeling” is being released on vinyl.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how medieval Europe regulated the sex trade.
• Language Hat looks at how anthropologists have stopped using “hominid” and started using “hominin”, and why.
• Language Log considers the difficulty of talking about “Sinophone” given the unrepresented linguistic diversity included in the umbrella of “Chinese”.
• Marginal Revolution suggests there are conflicts between NIMBYism and supporting open immigration policies.
• At Out There, Corey S. Powell interviews astronomer Slava Turyshev about the possibility not only of interstellar travel but of exploiting the Solar Gravity Lens, 550 AU away.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 9 mission.
• Towleroad notes that Marvel Comics is planning to make its lead character in the Eternals gay.
• Daniel Little at Understanding Society examines how the human body and its physical capacities are represented in sociology.
• Window on Eurasia notes the growth of the Volga Tatar population of Moscow, something hidden by the high degree of assimilation of many of its members.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes, in connection to Huawei, the broad powers allotted to the British government under existing security and communications laws.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at anteaters and antedaters.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the good news: The Andromeda Galaxy will collide with the Milky Way in 4.5 billion years, not 3.9 billion!
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that a new Chinese ground station built in Argentina has not made the promised outreach to locals, with no visitors’ centre and rumours aplenty.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog explains the importance of doing literature reviews.
• Far Outliers notes the Pakhtuns, a Muslim ethnicity of the British Raj in what is now Pakistan noteworthy for being a major source of recruits in the Indian Army.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing notes Iris Murdoch, particularly her emphasis on learning as a process of engaging with something greater on its terms.
• Gizmodo reports on how space sciences appreciate the work done by the noble rover Opportunity on Mars.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century African-American artists have represented Haiti in the works.
• Language Hat takes note of some of the mechanisms by which linguistics can neglect the study of indigenous languages.
• Language Log takes a look at the Latin motto of the University of Pennsylvania, a source still of unintentional humour.
• Marginal Revolution takes a look at the high levels of dysfunction in Nigeria, from fighting between herders and farmers to the incapacity of the national government.
• The NYR Daily takes a look at the concept of internal exile, starting with Russia and spiraling out into the wider world.
• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a payphone that is one of the few remaining used artifacts of old Island Tel.
• The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper considering the demographic peculiarities of the societies of the semi-periphery as contrasted to those of the core.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the surprisingly large amount of information astronomers will be able to extract from the first image of an Earth-like exoplanet.
• Window on Eurasia notes that North Caucasians in Russia no longer stand out as having higher-than-average birth rates in Russia.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: listening phones, HIV denialism, Euncie Foote, nuclear war, asteroids

• This alarming VICE report notes the ways in which our phones–and other mobile devices, I’m sure–are in fact listening to us.
• This distressing story looks at how HIV denialism has become popular among many Russians, and the terrible toll this belief system inflicts on people victimized by it (children, particularly).
• Smithsonian Magazine notes how the 1856 discovery of the greenhouse effect created by carbon dioxide by pioneering scientist Eunice Foote was overlooked because she was a woman.
• The detonation of more than 100 substantial nuclear weapons, this report notes, would doom civilization through climate change and agricultural collapse. Motherboard has it.
• Asteroids in orbits linked to that of the Earth would be excellent first targets for asteroid mining, Universe Today reports.

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: Freenet, smartphones, exoplanet mountains, kilonova, geoengineering

• Motherboard takes a look at the Cleveland Free-Net, an early bulletin board system that was one of the first vehicles for people to get online in the 1980s, here.
• Wired hosts an article making the case that blaming smartphones for causing human problems fits in an ancient tradition of human skepticism of new technologies, here.
• Universe Today’s Matt Williams notes that upcoming generations of telescopes may be able to map mountains on exoplanets. (Well, really bumpy planets orbiting small stars, but still.)
• The kilonova GW170817/GRB in NGC 4993, nearest detected source of gravitational waves, is continuing to brighten mysteriously. Matt Williams at Universe Today reports.
• Brian Kahn at Earther notes that, although one popular theorized geoengineering method involving injecting sulfur dioxide into the upper atmosphere would greatly slow down global cooling and be good for almost all ecosystems, if it stopped rapid calamitous change would be the result.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: McMichael, Reblink at the AGO, shelters, amalgamation

• This CBC article describing the goals of the new head of the McMichael gallery, north of Toronto, is intriguing. I have to get up there!
• The ReBlink exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, using smartphone technology to reimagine select painings, is an interesting idea. I’m not sure about the execution, but props for the idea. CBC reports.
• The City of Toronto’s efforts at opening shelters against the cold for the homeless of the city have been less than impressive. Torontoist features a critique.
• At Torontoist, Michael Lapointe takes a look at the city of Toronto twenty years after amalgamation. Was it worth it? Can the city handle its challenges?

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Doug Ford, Parkdale development, TTC cell, Kaboom Chicken, 7/11

• Aaron Hutchins reports on the potential of the upcoming Doug Ford campaign in Toronto to reveal the strength, or not, of populism in Canada.
• Jesse Winter reports at The Globe and Mail on how the redevelopment of a warehouse at Queen and Dufferin, in Parkdale, is set to displace the artists and creators now based there.
• Ben Spurr notes that, although the entire TTC now has cell service, only Freedom Mobile–not any of the big three–has signed a contract to let users take advantage of this, over at the Toronto Star.
• blogTO notes that the decision of restaurant Kaboom Chicken to blame price increases on the minimum wage increase has met with a negative reaction.
• Narcity notes that some east-end 7/11 stores have shut down suddenly, apparently because of minimum wage increases.

[NEWS] Five links about communication: Ontario Internet, Mohawk, Tatarstan, Iroquois, Catalonia

• TVO notes that slow Internet speeds cause real problems for people in rural Ontario, focusing here on the southwest.
• Kelly Boutsalis at NOW Toronto reports on new efforts to revive the Mohawk language.
• At Open Democracy, Bulat Mukhamedzhanov describes how a centralization in power in Russia away from Tatarstan threatens the future of the Tatar language in education.
• Ainslie Cruickshank reports on what seems to me to be an ill-judged controversy in a Toronto school over a folksong by Iroquois poet E. Pauline Johnson, “Land of the Silver Birch,” calling it racist, over in the Toronto Star.
• This politico.eu article examining the polarized media landscape in Catalonia, and wider Spain, is disturbing. Is everyone really talking past each other?

[URBAN NOTE] Five notes: Saint John, Vancouver, Peterborough, Halifax, Point Hope

• The mayor of Saint John, in New Brunswick, wants to attract migrants from Canada’s richer but more expensive cities. Global News reports.
• Vancouver wants to keep old businesses in its Chinatown going, so as to keep as much of the old community as active as possible. Global News reports.
• Peterborough’s low-income community now has a periodical, The River Magazine, to represent their issues. Global News reports.
• Assembly of the first Arctic patrol ship in a planned program has been completed in the Halifax Shipyard. CBC reports.
• The Alaskan community of Point Hope now finds itself, at least partly because of global warming and the interests of financiers, with all of the Internet bandwidth it could ever want. The New York Times reports.