[PHOTO] Looking southeast, Yonge and Eglinton

[PHOTO} Artifacts of Melanesia at the Met (@metmuseum)

The Met's collection of Pacific Islands art is gorgeous.

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[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares some stunning photos of the polar regions of Jupiter, from Juno.


• Centauri Dreams notes speculation on how antimatter could be harnessed for space propulsion.


• D-Brief notes how nanotechnological design is used to create tools capable of extracting water from the air above the Atacama.


• Russell Darnley notes the continuing peat fires in Sumatra's Riau Province.


• The Dragon's Tales notes evidence of an ancient cultural diffusion, from Copper Age Iberia, apparently not accompanied by gene flows.


• Mark Graham links to a paper he co-authored looking at the viability of online work as an option, or not, in the Global South.


• Hornet Stories notes an upcoming documentary about Harlem fashion figure Dapper Dan.


• JSTOR Daily notes the surprising controversy around the practice of keeping crickets as pets, for entertainments including music and bloodsports.


• Language Log looks at the extent to which Xi Jinping actually has been identified as a Tibetan bodhisattva.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which Mexican society has also experienced negative effects from NAFTA, in ways perhaps not unfamiliar to Americans.


• Lingua Franca considers the usage of the term "blockbuster".


• Neuroskeptic notes a new paper suggesting there is no neurogenesis in adult humans.


• The NYR Daily features an eyewitness description of a botched execution in Alabama. This one does indeed seem to be particularly barbaric.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes the rise of dictatorship worldwide.


• Roads and Kingdoms

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[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: budgets, mass transit, Google, public space, cherry blossoms

• Steve Munro at Torontoist notes the serious medium-term budget problems likely to face the city of Toronto.


• Oliver Moore notes the new federal/provincial partnership that will make $C 9 billion available for mass transit in Toronto, including a priority for funding the Downtown Relief Line. The Globe and Mail has it.


• There are risks that come with inviting Google to become part of the infrastructure of Toronto. The Toronto Star reports.


• Gilbert Ngapo notes that people have until the end of the month to send proposals to the Public Space Initiative. More places like the Bentway would be lovely. Metro Toronto has it.


• I will, of course, be there in High Park to watch the cherry blossoms. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Hamilton, London, Detroit and Windsor, Vancouver

• Toronto Life takes a look at the new Aaniin community centre in Markham.


• The Tower, an anarchist centre in Hamilton, got vandalized in turn after a spate of pointless anarchist vandalism on Locke Street. CBC reports.


• Will the city of London get plugged into a high-speed rail route? One only hopes, and in the interim, one plans. Global News reports.


• Making the border crossing between Detroit and Windsor a model for Ireland post-Brexit is a terrible idea. CBC reports.


• Can Vancouver help solve the problem of housing for the young, including students, by having them rent rooms from compatible older folks? Global News examines the proposal.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Toronto, Daniel Mallory Ortberg, Melvin Iscove, Michelle Visage, drag kings

• People interviewed by front-line police regarding the Church-Wellesley serial killer affair suggest that, if there was any problem, it was certainly not with the sensitive and informed front-line officers. The Toronto Star reports.


• Heather Havrilesky at The Cut interviews Daniel Mallory Ortberg and, in so doing, celebrates his outing himself as trans.


• The medical license of Dr. Melvin Iscove, who as a psychiatrist practiced conversion therapy without quite admitting to it, has been suspended following findings that he had sex with his male patients. The Toronto Star reports.


• In a wide-ranging interview, E. Alex Jung talks with Michelle Visage about RuPaul's drag ace, her life, and the changing lines between gay and trans, gender and sexuality, that she has seen since the 1980s, over
  
• Hazel Cills at Jezebel takes a look at drag kings. I'd not heard of them in a while: What are they doing? What is this genderbending cultural form evolving into? They need more prominence.

[NEWS] Five music links: Annie Lennox, Stevie Nicks, Solange, Kate Bush, iPod

• Raju Mudhar and Ben Rayner share their list of the top 100 songs related to Toronto, over at the Toronto Star.


• Charlotte Gush at VICE shares her insightful interview with Annie Lennox. I did not know that she had been recommended to become a teacher, for instance. More here.


• Drew Rowsome engages with the new autobiography of Stevie Nicks, Gold Dust Woman.


• Kristin Curry links to a profoundly interesting interview with Solange about her art and her identity, over at VICE.


• I rather like this Emma Madden guide at VICE to the music of Kate Bush, guiding listeners through her various moods and themes and styles.