[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: demographics, Utah, Nova Scotia, Tanya Tagaq, maps

• This article at The Atlantic outlines new genetic research outlining the remarkably rapid colonization of the America by human beings.
• VICE notes the huge strides forward made by the majority Navajo in Utah’s San Juan County towards fair political representation.
• CBC notes that it will now be possible for Indigenous people in Nova Scotia courts to make use of eagle feathers for legal affirmations including oath swearing.
• In this MacLean’s interview, musician and artist Tanya Tagaq makes it clear that her goal is to help other Indigenous people struggling to recover from colonization.
• The Map Room Blog links to this map of Indigenous Canada, mapping native names and locations and population centres.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• David Price at {anthro}dendum considers, going through archival material from the 1950s, the number of radical anthropologists in the US as yet little known or unknown who were marginalized by the Red Scare.
• Centauri Dreams ruminates on a paper examining ‘Oumuamua that considers radiation pressure as a factor in its speed. Might it work as–indeed, be?–a lightsail?
• D-Brief notes the various reasons why the Chinese proposal for an artificial moon of sorts, to illuminate cities at night, would not work very well at all.
• The Dragon’s Tales touches on the perhaps hypocritical anger of Russia at the United States’ departure from the INF treaty.
• Far Outliers notes the sharp divides among Nazi prisoners of war in a camp in Texas, notably between pro- and anti-Nazi prisoners.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing revisits the original sin of the Internet culture, its imagining of a split between an individual’s virtual life and the remainder of their life.
• The Island Review welcomes, and interviews, its new editor C.C. O’Hanlon.
• JSTOR Daily explores the reasons for considering climate change to be a national security issue.
• Language Hat is enthused by the recent publication of a new dictionary of the extinct Anatolian languages of the Indo-European family.
• Language Log examines the existence of a distinctive, even mocked, southern French accent spoken in and around (among other cities) Toulouse.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the rise of fascism in Brazil with Bolsonaro.
• Roger Shuy at Lingua Franca writes about the power of correspondence, of written letters, to help language learners. (I concur.)
• At the LRB Blog, Jeremy Bernstein writes about anti-Semitism in the United States, in the 1930s and now.
• The NYR Daily examines the life of writer, and long-time exile from her native Portugal, Maria Gabriela Llansol.
• Haley Gray at Roads and Kingdoms reports on the life and work of Mark Maryboy, a Navajo land rights activist in Utah.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the Russian urban myth of blonde Baltic snipers from the Baltic States who had been enlisted into wars against Russia like that of Chechnya in the 1990s.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the classic red phone booths of the United Kingdom, now almost all removed from the streets of the country and sent to a graveyard in a part of rural Yorkshire that has other claims to fame.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Edmonton, Vancouver, St. George, Kanepi, Moscow

• The City of Edmonton is considering the idea of intentionally creating a beach for sun-seekers on the North Saskatchewan River after last year’s happy accident. Global News reports.
• There is controversy in Vancouver over the idea of investor immigrants gaining voting rights in the city. Global News reports</u..
• The Utah conurbation of St. George faces real problems of water scarcity. CityLab reports.
• The Estonian municipality of Kanepi has made the leaf of the cannabis plant its logo. CityLab reports.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the symbolism behind the vast and impressive Moscow subway system, here.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthro{dendum] considers drifting on roads as an indicator of social dynamism, of creative reuse of road infrastructures by the young.
• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares photos of the Christmas Tree Cluster, a portion of NGC 2264.
• Centauri Dreams notes how the strange polar orbit of GJ 436b indicates the presence of a neighbouring exoplanet so far not detected directly.
• Crooked Timber considers the import of perhaps racist codings in children’s literature.
• D-Brief examines how NASA is trying to quietly break the sound barrier.
• Bruce Dorminey suggests building a Mars-orbit space station makes sense for us as our next major move in space.
• Hornet Stories shares the story of queer male Lebanese belly dancer Moe Khansa and his art.
• Language Hat notes how one student made substantial progress of decoding the ancient khipus, knotted string records, of the Incan civilization.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the obvious point that opioids actually do help people manage chronic pain effectively, that they have legitimate uses.
• Allan Metcalf at Lingua Franca talks about some of the peculiarities of English as spoken in Utah.
• Noah Smith at Noahpinion argues the disappearance of the positive impact of college on the wages who drop out before completing their program shows the importance of higher education as a generator of human capital, not as a simple sort of signal.
• The NYR Daily looks at some particularly egregious instances of gerrymandering in the United States.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer examines the origins of street violence as a political force in modern Argentina.
• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the Seoul neighbourhood of Haebangchon, “Little Pyongyang,” a district once populated by North Korean and Vietnamese refugees now becoming a cosmopolitan district for people from around the world.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes the origins of the atoms of our body in stellar catastrophes detectable from across the universe.
• Strange Company notes the case of Catherine Packard, reported dead in 1929 but then found alive. Whose body wasit?
• Towleroad reports a study suggesting same-sex relationships tend to be more satisfying for their participants than opposite-sex relationships are for theirs.
• Window on Eurasia notes how a Russian Orthodox group is joining the fight against Tatarstan’s autonomy.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Andrew Barton quite approves of the Helsinki Metro.
• Anthropology.net notes the complexity of the peopling of Eurasia, over hundreds of thousands of years and with multiple human populations.
• Daily JSTOR has an insightful take on the fiction of the free market, looking back to Peter Drucker.
• Far Outliers notes that the role missionaries played in the development of area studies.
• At A Fistful of Euros, Alex Harrowell takes a look at the complexities of the latest Brexit negotiations, concentrating on the DUP and Ireland.
• At The Frailest Thing, Michael Sacasas notes the addition of a Paypal option alongside Patreon and asks for feedback.
• Hornet Stories notes that the Gengoroh Tagame manga My Brother’s Husband is set for a television adaptation.
• Language Log takes a look at the complexities surrounding a piece of Maoist rhetoric. Did Mao actually say that the Chinese people stood up at Tiannamen in 1949?
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the rhetoric surrounding parkland in Utah. Who is it being protected for, and what do these people have to gain from the despoliation?
• Marginal Revolution looks at a study of Switzerland suggesting that clear boundaries have helped maintain communal peace there.
• At the NYR Daily, Tim Parks has a lovely essay exploring the importance of the translator as a sort of secondary creator.
• Window on Eurasia looks at Tatarstan, and argues post-Soviet governments there made a mistake by concentrating on parallel Tatar and Russian cultures, as opposed to propagating Tatar language and culture for all.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests that, in British political life, there are two working cultures, politicians who derive authority from merit and politicians who derive authority from brilliance. Guess who fares worse?

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomy shares photos of the ripple made by moon Daphnis in the rings of Saturn, as does the Planetary Society Blog.
• The Broadside Blog questions whether readers actually like their work.
• Centauri Dreams notes evidence for the discovery of a Jupiter-mass planet in the protoplanetary disk of TW Hydrae.
• Dangerous Minds links to the 1980s work of Lydia Lunch.
• Far Outliers reports on how the Afghanistan war against the Soviets acted as a university for jihadists from around the world.
• Kieran Healy looks at some failures of Google Scholar.
• Language Hat reports on a fascinating crowdsourced program involving the transcription of manuscripts from Shakespeare’s era, and what elements of pop history and language have been discovered.
• The LRB Blog compares Trump’s inauguration to those of Ronald Reagan.
• The Map Room Blog links to an exhibition of the maps of Utah.
• Understanding Society reports on a grand sociological research project in Europe that has found out interesting things about the factors contributing to young people’s support for the far right.
• Window on Eurasia reports on instability in the binational North Caucasian republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, describes the spectre of pan-Mongolism, and looks at the politicization of biker gangs in Russia.