The story told by the Inter Press Service's Mario Osava, describing how the Ecuadorian capital of Quito will be transformed through gentrification following subway construction, sounds sadly familiar.

Success can kill, when it comes to cities. Spain’s Barcelona is facing problems due to the number of tourists that it attracts. And the historic ( Read more... )

• Beyond the Beyond notes that electronic newspapers just don't work.
• blogTO notes that the Eaton Centre's HMV is closing.
• Crooked Timber notes that it will be shifting to moderated commenting.
• D-Brief notes a new sharp image of Eta Carinae.
• Dead Things notes that some monkeys are apparently making stone tools.

• Crooked Timber's John Holbo considers the problems of some Americans with modernity.
• Kieran Healy reports on Apple sales trends through to January 2016.
• Language Hat considers the etymology of "Iona".
• The Map Room Blog links to speculation that GPS and mobile maps are eroding humans' ability to track things.
• Marginal Revolution questions why there is a ( Read more... )

• Keiran Healy suggests much of Apple's opposition to the FBI's demand it decrypt a terrorist's phone has to do with its need to establish itself as a reliable and trustworthy source of hardware.
• Joe. My. God. notes that WWE wrestler Dave Bautista takes Manny Pacquiao's homophobia poorly.
• Language Hat links to this 2008 map showing lexical différences ( Read more... )

The Inter Press Service's Patricia Grogg notes how Cuban immigration issues are becoming noteworthy across Latin America, as Cubans seek to reach the United States while they can.

The crisis that has broken out at several border crossings in Latin America as a result of thousands of Cubans attempting to reach the United States has revived a ( Read more... )

Bloomberg View's Justin Fox writes, with charts, about the slow economic growth over Latin America over the past century. Only Chile shows signs of converging strongly and consistently towards high-income levels.

[E]vident in [Hans] Rosling’s animations is the great breakout to much-higher living standards that the U.S., Canada, Western Europe, ( Read more... )

Juan Pablo Spinetto and Anatoly Kurmanaev of Bloomberg write about how Chinese investment is coming to play an increasingly critical role in many South American economies, particularly the radical and oil-dependent Venezuela and Ecuador.

The worst commodities rout in six years is opening the door for China to increase its influence in Latin ( Read more... )

• 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 ( Read more... )

Walking north on Roncesvalles Avenue with a friend, we came across a small store enthusiastically advertising the Andean pseudocereal quinoa in all of its diversity.


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• Bag News Notes examines the use of a stock photo of some Dutch immigrant youths to illustrate a variety of different alarming articles.
• Crasstalk's Maxichamp introduces readers to the Port Chicago disaster during the Second World War, which incidentally led to a notable civil rights case.
• Daniel Drezner didn't find many surprises with the terms of ( Read more... )