[LINK] Some Friday links

[rfmcdonald]

• blogTo reports that some Torontonians were sad that the Westboro Baptist Church hadn't shown up to meet their counterprotest, held outside of a building staging the premiere of a play mocking said cult. Joe. My. God reports that one group of WBC members sent to Manitoba to protest outside of the funeral of Tim McLean, a young man recently butchered on a Greyhound busy, on the grounds that this proves Canada's depravity, has already been intercepted.


• Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting that our planetary system is quite unique in having a relatively large and rocky body enjoying a stable orbit, and that emerging planetary systems with disks of debris of wildly varying masses and compositions can produce any number of wildly different planetary systems.


• Far Outliers carries some interesting posts, like one on the Roman Catholic Church as a NGO during the Second World War and another on Armenian diaspora information networks from the 17th through the 19th centuries.
  
• Strange Maps hosts a map showing the malign efforts of the One World Government to keep the world under control through divide and conquer, through sending the Americna military to points elsewhere to enforce law while sending the Belgians to the Midwest, among other nations and other destinations.


• Finally, Tim Harford reports on a recent study claiming that the institution of same-sex marriage in much of western Europe has reduced syphillis rates sharply, "by creating legal and financial incentives as well as social norms similar to those associated with heterosexual relationships."