[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait notes the first time that an exoplanet, HR 8799e, has been directly observed using optical interferometry.
• Centauri Dreams notes the possibility, demonstrated by the glimpsing of a circumplanetary disc around exoplanet PDS 70b, that we might be seeing a moon system in formation.
• The Citizen Science Salon looks what observers in Antarctica are contributing to our wealth of scientific knowledge.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares links to articles looking at the latest findings on the Precambrian Earth.
• The Frailest Thing’s L.M. Sacasas writes about his ambivalent response to a Twitter that, by its popularity, undermines the open web.
• Gizmodo notes that NASA is going to open up the International Space Station to tourists.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how croquet, upon its introduction in the 19th century United States, was seen as scandalous for the way it allowed men and women to mix freely.
• Shakezula at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the unaccountable fondness of at least two Maine Republican legislators for the Confederacy.
• Marginal Revolution suggests that the economic success of Israel in recent decades is a triumph of neoliberalism.
• Stephen Ellis at the NYR Daily writes about the gymnastics of Willem de Kooning.
• Drew Rowsome profiles out comic Brendan D’Souza.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the still strange galaxy NGC 1052-DF2, apparently devoid of dark matter.
• John Scalzi at Whatever shares his theory about a fixed quantity of flavor in strawberries of different sizes.
• Window on Eurasia looks at a contentious plan for a territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

[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.

[NEWS] Five Internet links: Geocities, Livejournal, Tumblr, Quora, predictions

• CityLab takes a look at Geocities, one of the first online platforms for websites, looking at how it tried to create and maintain online neighbourhoods.
• Ars Technica looks at the promise–sadly unfulfilled–of pioneering blogging platform Livejournal. It really could have been a contender.
• Think Progress notes, more than a month after the purge by Tumblr of NSFW blogs, the far right remains active there.
• This Huffington Post India article looks at the rising presence of pro-Hindutva answers put forth by Indian users on Quora.
• Ars Technica notes that researchers can now, even if you do not actively participate on social media, predict what your content would likely be.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: #ScienceDaddy, Tumblr, Pride Toronto, Canadian Pride Citation, SF leather

• them interviews</u. Troy Lee Hudson, the engineer working on NASA’s InSight Mars who has gone viral as #ScienceDaddy, letting him talk about Mars and about being an out scientist.
• Stefanie Duguay at The Conversation writes about how the new Tumblr ban on NSFW content will harm young LGBTQ people, by depriving them of community and information.
• Rinaldo Walcott at Daily Xtra makes the case for downsizing Pride Toronto to better fit community needs and desires.
• The Canadian federal government has created a new Canada Pride Citation, available to present and past LGBTQ employees of the federal government, including many who were persecuted for their sexual orientation. Global News reports.
• them reports on how gentrification in the leather community in San Francisco impacts the wider city.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: St. Michael’s, 650 Parliament, TTC, Norm Kelly, Toronto 2033

• Robyn Urback writes at CBC Toronto about the, sadly, unsurprising scandal at St. Michael’s College School regarding the abuse and sexual assault of students.
• Many of the tenants displaced by the 650 Parliament Street fire will find themselves homeless very soon, if they cannot find a way to pay for their unwanted hotel stays. CBC reports.
• The CodeRedTO report on the TTC makes the point that mass transit in Toronto is vulnerable, particularly needing secure funding and more effective governance. CBC reports.
• blogTO takes a look at what is next for politician and Twitter star Norm Kelly, after he lost his seat in the Toronto elections.
• Spacing announces its upcoming launch of its first fiction anthology, Toronto 2033, in an event next week in the Junction.

[NEWS] Ten links on the centenary anniversary of the end of the First World War (#ww1)

• MacLean’s a href=”https://www.macleans.ca/multimedia/the-memory-remains-capturing-the-echoes-of-the-first-world-war/”&gt;highlights the photos of Peter MacDiarmid, literally blending archival photos of locations of note to Canada in the First World War with contemporary photos of those same areas now.
• Patrick Chovanec at the NYR Daily talks about what he learned of the First World War, its contingencies and its uncertainties, through following a day-by-day Twitter account of the war.
• Robert France at The Conversation writes movingly about the utter waste of the First World War, something made worse by the inability of some of us now to understand its lessons against war.
• David Elstein at Open Democracy looks at failings in the BBC coverage of the First World War, particularly in its representations of other countries’ actions.
• Craig Gibson at NOW Toronto remembers the life of his grandfather William Gibson, maimed and shortened by the First World War.
• J.L. Granatstein writes in MacLean’s about the many changes imposed on Canada by the First World War, everything from industrialization to ethnic conflict to a new place in the world.
• France Inter writes about the 140 thousand Chinese workers who came to western Europe during the First World War to relieve shortages of labour, even to the trenches.
• Wawmeesh Hamilton writes at The Discourse about the many Indigenous veterans and victims of war, including the First World War. Were–are–their sacrifices honoured by other Canadians?
• George M. Johnson at The Conversation writes about how, for many British writers, their work helped them and their society start to heal from the losses of the First World War.
• Window on Eurasia shares the warning of Russian historian Leonid Mlechin that the world seems to have learned nothing from the negative lessons of the nationalist fanaticism, the desire for revenge, engendered by the First World War.

[NEWS] Five language links: Arabic, Cantonese, French, Inuktitut, Spanish

<uL

The Economist looks at the low profile of the Arabic language, arguing one factor lies in its division into multiple very distinctive regional dialects.

The SCMP reports on the differences between the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and that spoken in Malaysia.

CBC PEI reports on how French-language schools on the Island need more supporting in integrating students whose main language is not French.

CBC North takes a look at the Twitter account of Angus Andersen, where he shares one Inuktitut word a day.

Slate asksa question: Will Spanish-language songs make it into the Great American Songbook?

[NEWS] Five sci-tech links: moon landers, opioids, Fitbit, Tumblr and Twitter, Mars soil

• D-Brief looks at the new moon landers being discussed at NASA.
• Vox notes the shortage of organs available for transplant in the United States is being eased by the donations of young people who overdose on opioids.
• Lisa Carver at The Conversation notes the potential pitfalls that would come from insurance companies wanting their clients to wear fitness trackers like Fitbit.
• This article at The Outline praising the advantages Tumblr has over Twitter makes a few good points.
• Universe Today notes that imitation Mars soil is now for sale.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: violence, mass media, Vegandale, fentanyl, Twitter, Silver Dollar

• This story about the assault of a photographer for the Toronto Sun by protesters highlights something alarming. The Toronto Star reports.
• NOW Toronto highlights the role played by the Toronto Sun in putting forth an alt-right-tinged view of the Danforth shooting.
• Natalia Manzucco at NOW Toronto looks at the continuing issues, economic and otherwise, surrounding “Vegandale”.
• Fentanyl is killing people in Toronto, including teenagers. Toronto Life reports.
• The Toronto Public Library is inviting people on Twitter to collaborate in writing a book. Global News reports.
• Will the Silver Dollar Room return, in any form? The Toronto Star reports.

[NON BLOG] On focus and fragmentation

I have been feeling more than a bit fragmented, more than a bit caught up in a mass of details which need to be attended to but cannot be properly done on account of their sheer number, for some time. My laptop’s hard drive malfunction didn’t help, although the prospect of having much of my data lost permanently is hardly cherry. (At least my photos, my main work, are in the cloud.) The state of the world, similarly, has done something of a number on me, even before the recent election of Ford as premier here in Ontario. Underlying all that, I suppose, is a state of frustration at the way things are going in–among other things–my creative life.

I have been thinking about my recent essay on the need to cultivate our gardens. I like having my gardens in order, coherent and organized and with some goal. My virtual gardens, similarly, should be nicely ordered. It is just that, the way the online world has evolved, that coherence is hard to find. This blog, for instance, is hardly a full representation of what I do. My Twitter account, perhaps sadly, with its links to my photos on Instagram if not Flickr, is probably the best way to keep track of me. But then, even ignoring the gated gardens of Facebook, there is still so much else there. Over at Quora I have been a prolific writer, with my answers coming up in genera Internet searches but not otherwise, not on a platform that is easy to interact with for people not on that site. Medium promises–ever promises?–to be a place for long form writing, but then, what do I write? There is so much to write about, and there is so so very much about the rest of life that is not writing, that I do not know what to do.

I do not know quite how to go from here. Finding a focus–perhaps several focuses–is key to making any headway, to feel as if I’m not trying to shovel away all the shifting sands of a dune. I want something solid I can build on. I wonder if I’m overthinking this: Is it just a simple matter, I wonder, of picking things and sticking with them?