[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.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the German city of Nordlingen, formed in a crater created by the impact of a binary asteroid with Earth.
• Centauri Dreams reports on the possibility that the farside of the Moon might bear the imprint of an ancient collision with a dwarf planet the size of Ceres.
• D-Brief notes that dredging for the expansion of the port of Miami has caused terrible damage to corals there.
• Dangerous Minds looks at the last appearances of David Bowie and Iggy Pop together on stage.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that China is on track to launch an ambitious robotic mission to Mars in 2020.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog talks about what sociological research actually is.
• Gizmodo reports on the discovery of a torus of cool gas circling Sagittarius A* at a distance of a hundredth of a light-year.
• io9 reports about Angola Janga, an independent graphic novel by Marcelo D’Salete showing how slaves from Africa in Brazil fought for their freedom and independence.
• The Island Review shares some poems of Matthew Landrum, inspired by the Faroe Islands.
• Joe. My. God. looks at how creationists are mocking flat-earthers for their lack of scientific knowledge.
• Language Hat looks at the observations of Mary Beard that full fluency in ancient Latin is rare even for experts, for reasons I think understandable.
• Melissa Byrnes wrote at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the meaning of 4 June 1989 in the political transitions of China and Poland.
• Marginal Revolution notes how the New York Times has become much more aware of cutting-edge social justice in recent years.
• The NYR Daily looks at how the memories and relics of the Sugar Land prison complex outside of Houston, Texas, are being preserved.
• Jason C Davis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at the differences between LightSail 1 and the soon-to-be-launched LightSail 2.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer looks in detail at the high electricity prices in Argentina.
• Peter Rukavina looks at the problems with electric vehicle promotion on PEI.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at when the universe will have its first black dwarf. (Not in a while.)
• Window on Eurasia suggests that Belarusians are not as interested in becoming citizens of Russia as an Internet poll suggests.
• Arnold Zwicky highlights a Pride Month cartoon set in Antarctica featuring the same-sex marriage of two penguins.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven cities links: Montréal;, Québec City, Saint John, Moncton, D.C., Dallas, …

• CBC Montreal reports on how a downsizing Montréal-area convent recently put on a very large yard sale.
• Will the staged construction of a tramway in Québec City lead to the partial completion of that project? CBC examines the issue.
• The New Brunswick city of Saint John recently celebrated its Loyalist heritage. Global News reports.
• The new community garden in Moncton sounds lovely. Global News reports.
• CityLab notes the sad precedent of the privatization of an old Carnegie Library in Washington D.C. into an Apple Store.
• CityLab considers if cycling can make inroads in pro-car Dallas.
• Open Democracy examines the controversy surrounding the contested construction of an Orthodox church in Yekaterinburg.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Brooklyn and Queens, Calgary, El Paso, Sheffield, Nairobi

• Curbed looks at what is happening with the proposed new streetcar route connecting Brooklyn and Queens.
• Urban farm Grow Calgary has found a new home in the southeast of that city. Global News reports.
• The claim of Donald Trump that Texas border city El Paso was a criminalized disaster spinning out of control is, of course, provably wrong. VICE has it.
• This Guardian feature shares the responses of readers to an article looking at the decline of the high street of the English city of Sheffield.
• CityLab looks</u at the impact of terrorism on Nairobi, at the growing presence of elements of security theatre on the street and at the targeting of ethnic Somalis in Eastleigh.

[URBAN NOTE] Six city links: Oshawa, Saint John, Manhattan, Surat, Tokyo, Austin

• After GM’s closure in Oshawa, the National Observer wonders if Oshawa can pivot over to perhaps take advantage of opportunities in the green economy.
• Will Saint John, New Brunswick, be able to break out of its long decline and find a new raison d’être? Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities takes a look at the new super-tall luxury towers, homes to the rich, dotting–disfiguring?–the Manhattan skyline.
• Guardian Cities looks at how the Indian city of Surat, endangered by flooding from sea and river, is trying to adapt to its environment.
• Even as the overall population of Japan continues to decline, the population of Tokyo continues to grow through net migration, Mainichi reports.
• The Texas capital of Austin, CityLab reports, is trying to create new institutions and structures to help connect older and younger generations.

[BLOG] Five city links: Mississauga, Simcoe County, Detrroit, Burnaby, El Paso

• Hazel McCallion, the nonagenarian former mayor of Mississauga, has been appointed an advisor to the Ford government in Ontario. Global News reports.
• A Simcoe County that faces a threat of amalgamation under the Ontario provincial government is already composed of communities feeling they lack adequate representation. The Toronto Star reports.
• CityLab notes how a history of racism complicated efforts to plant new trees in Detroit.
• Douglas Todd at the Vancouver Sun notes how ethnic tensions in multicultural South Burnaby surfaced in the former Liberal candidate’s treatment of NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
• The NYR Daily looks at what is going on in and around El Paso as the Mexican-American border facing further closing.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Kingston, Montréal, Reynosa and McAllen, Sao Paulo, Dar es Salaam

• The reopening of Bellevue House, the old Kingston home of John A. MacDonald, has been delayed by Parks Canada. Global News reports.
• MTL Blog shares a video taken by two people who visited each and every one of the nearly 70 stops of the Montréal subway system in just four hours.</li.
• The mayors of Reynosa in Mexico and McAllen in the United States, sister cities on the Texas frontier, oppose policies and structures that would divide their binational community. VICE reports.
• Guardian Cities reports on the difficulties of getting accessible Internet for many in Sao Paulo.
• Guardian Cities looks on how Dar es Salaam, the emerging megacity of Tanzania, has developed an affordable and rapid bus system.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Fort Worth, Dundee, Shenzhen

• The City of Montréal is now following Québec provincial laws on flag displays, requiring the Québec flag to be flown most prominently alongside the Canadian and Montréal flags. CTV News reports.
• Former Toronto city councilor Betty Disero is now mayor of Niagara-on-the-Lake. The Toronto Star reports.
• CityLab reports on how the famously conservative Texas city of Fort Worth is now learning towards the Democratic Party.
• VICE takes a look at the reasons for the very high overdose rate among users of illegal drugs in the Scottish city of Dundee.
• Guardian Cities has a nice photo essay looking at some of the new green roofs in the Chinese city of Shenzhen.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• At Anthropology.net, Kamzib Kamrani looks at the Yamnaya horse culture of far eastern Europe and their connection to the spread of the Indo-Europeans.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the predicted collision of China’s Tiangong-1 space station. Where will it fall?
• James Bow notes a Kickstarter funding effort to revive classic Canadian science fiction magazine Amazing Stories.
• Centauri Dreams notes the impending retirement of the pioneering Kepler telescope, and what’s being done in the time before this retirement.
• D-Brief notes how nanowires made of gold and titanium were used to restore the sight of blind mice.
• Russell Darnley takes a look at the indigenous people of Riau province, the Siak, who have been marginalized by (among other things) the Indonesian policy of transmigration.
• Dead Things reports on more evidence of Denisovan ancestry in East Asian populations, with the suggestion that the trace of Denisovan ancestry in East Asia came from a different Denisovan population than the stronger traces in Melanesia.
• Hornet Stories paints a compelling portrait of the West Texas oasis-like community of Marfa.
• JSTOR Daily notes how indigenous mythology about illness was used to solve a hantavirus outbreak in New Mexico in the 1990s.
• Language Log praises the technical style of a Google Translate translation of a text from German to English.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that, under the Shah, Iran was interested in building nuclear plants. Iranian nuclear aspirations go back a long way.
• The LRB Blog looks at the unsettling elements of the literary, and other, popularity of Jordan Peterson.
• Marginal Revolution notes the continuing existence of a glass ceiling even in relatively egalitarian Iceland.
• The NYR Daily looks at the unsettling elements behind the rise of Xi Jinping to unchecked power. Transitions from an oligarchy to one-man rule are never good for a country, never mind one as big as China.
• Drew Rowsome writes about Love, Cecil, a new film biography of photographer Cecil Beaton.
• Peter Rukavina celebrates the 25th anniversary of his move to Prince Edward Island. That province, my native one, is much the better for his having moved there. Congratulations!
• Window on Eurasia looks at a strange story of Russian speculation about Kazakh pan-Turkic irredentism for Orenburg that can be traced back to one of its own posts.
• At Worthwhile Canadian Initiative, Frances Woolley takes the time to determine that Canadian university professors tend to be more left-wing than the general Canadian population, and to ask why this is the case.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Centauri Dreams analyzes the latest suggestive findings about water on potentially habitable exoplanets of TRAPPIST-1.
• A Game of Thrones-themed cat bed, as described by Dangerous Minds, is almost tempting. (Almost.)
• Hornet Stories takes a brief look at what the Nazis were like for, and did to, queers.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Texas’ secretary of state turned down an aid offer from Québec, asking only for prayers.
• Language Hat looks at the ways in which different African writers have glossed Africa in their works.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper looking at the effect that serious floods have on cities’ long-run economic growth.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw notes the discovery of sunken garum-exporting Neapolis off of the coast of Tunisia.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at the latest ventures of the Opportunity rover as winter approaches on Mars.
• Roads and Kingdoms notes the Café Touba coffee of Senegal, sign of resistance to colonialism and globalization.
• Window on Eurasia notes a proposal in Russia to memorialize Muslims who resisted changing traditional value systems.