[CAT] Shakespeare, furled

[NEWS] Four #caturday cat links: evolution, catnip, feral cats, New Glasgow

• Smithsonian Magazine notes evidence that cats have grown physically in size over time, beating the trend among domesticated animals.


• Mother Nature News looks at what elements of catnip actually attract cats.


• The New York Times features an article about how feral cats can be adopted as outdoor mousers, working cats.


• Brendan Ahern writes about the rehousing of a feral cat colony living in an old steel mill in New Glasgow.

[PHOTO] Looking southwest, Yonge-Dundas Square

[PHOTO] Three photos of lights on Church Street

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers, in the light of potential climate change extinction, the definitions of habitable exoplanets. Do we assume life to be too flexible?


• D-Brief notes that the Dawn probe found evidence of organic compounds, amorphous carbon, on the surface of Ceres.


• Lauren Madden at the Everyday Sociology Blog urges people to resist the impulse to misclassify the causes of mass shootings as senseless randomness.


• Hornet Stories takes a look at Jobriath, the man who for a brief time in the mid-1970s was an out queer rock god, on what would have been his birthday.


• Imageo notes that anthropogenic climate change risks plunging the global climate back to the heat and high sea levels of 50 million years ago, to the Eocene.


• JSTOR Daily notes how the fairy tale stereotype of the passive female character was created by moral reformers following the Protestant Reformation.


• Language Hat notes the Ao language, created by utopian early 20th century dreamers from Lithuania's Jewish community as a universal method of communication.


• Mark Liberman at Language Log notes the emergence and evolution of the word "biomarker" over the past half-century.


• Simon Balto at Lawyers, Guns and Money writes about a frightening encounter on a night out with his partner with an aggressive person who kept calling him a "snowflake". What does this, the embrace of this word as a supposed critique, say about racism and conservatism in the United States now?


• The LRB Blog notes the prosecution of the Stansted 15 for blocking a deportation of refugees on terrorism. What does this say about the administration of justice and borders in the United Kingdom now?


• Marginal Revolution notes that, in China, scientists convicted of fraud will face serious hits to their social credit ratings.


• The NYR Daily takes a look at the "toxic femininity" of women on the American far right.


• Roads and Kingdoms looks at the struggle of Mayan peoples in Guatemala to secure their land claims in the face of commercial agriculture.


• Daniel Little at Understanding Society takes a look at how government enacts policy, not doing so as a unified whole at all.


• Window on Eurasia notes the deep hostility of Lukashenko in Belarus to any talk of deep integration with Russia, something he sees as tantamount to Belarus' annexation into Russia.


• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the remarkable steel-banded sculpture of Fernando Suárez Reguera, and of sculptors like him.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: GO Transit, rent, land transfer tax, books, Viaduct

• Transit Toronto notes that GO Transit has introduced regular weekday train service to Niagara Falls.


• Average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto has hit #C 2260. blogTO reports.


• Revenue from the much-needed land transfer tax that supplies City of Toronto budgets is below expectations, the Toronto Star reported.


• NOW Toronto shares a list of the most-borrowed books from the Toronto Public Library system in 2018.


• Spacing celebrates the 100th anniversary of the Prince Edward Viaduct, also known as the Bloor Street Viaduct, arcing across the Don River.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Mississauga, Montréal, New York City, Winnipeg, Tijuana

• After consultation with indigenous groups, Mississauga is removing all Indigenous symbols from sports teams and facilities. blogTO reports.


• This Huffington Post Québec article, in French, notes that Montréal can make a very good case for again supporting a major league baseball team. The Expos may return.


• VICE notes that the idea of legalizing marijuana sales in New York State, and of devoting the funds raised from marijuana taxation to rebuilding the New York City subway station, is becoming popular.


• The latest redrawing of provincial electoral boundaries in Manitoba leaves the growing metropolis of Winnipeg with one seat more and rural Manitoba with one seat less. Global News reports.


• Laura Agustín reports on the experiences of a volunteer lawyer working with the Central American migrant caravan in Tijuana, here.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Moncton, Toronto drag queens, Pete Shelley, refugees, zines

• A new LGBTQ lounge is set to open up in Moncton, filling a much-needed niche in the nightlife of the city, nay region. Huddle Today reports.


• Toronto Life shares some photos of eight top Toronto drag queens.


• NOW Toronto takes a look at the out queer life of musician Pete Shelley.


• Hornet Stories notes the growing difficulties LGBTQ refugees face getting asylum around the world, even with ostensibly pro-LGBTQ countries.


• Hornet Stories looks at how queer zines continue to thrive.