[PHOTO] Four photos of murals in Kensington Market, and one old fruit cart

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares images of Jupiter, imaged in infrared by ALMA.


• Centauri Dreams looks at ocean upwelling on one class of super-habitable exoplanet.


• D-Brief looks at how the Komodo dragon survived the threat of extinction.


• Far Outliers reports on a mid-19th century slave raid in the Sahel.


• Gizmodo notes that the secret US Air Force spaceplane, the X-37B, has spent two years in orbit. (Doing what?)


• JSTOR Daily looks at the economic underpinnings of medieval convents.


• Dave Brockington writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the continuing meltdown of the British political system in the era of Brexit, perhaps even of British democracy.


• The LRB Blog looks at the impact of Brexit on the Common Travel Area.


• Marginal Revolution reports on how Poland has tried to deter emigration by removing income taxes on young workers.


• Carole Naggar writes at the NYR Daily about the photography of women photographers working for LIFE, sharing examples of their work.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why time has to be a dimension of the universe, alongside the three of space.


• Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps shares NASA images of the forest fires of Amazonia.


• Window on Eurasia notes that many Russophones of Ukraine are actually strongly opposed to Russia, contrary Russian stereotypes of language determining politics.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Yorkville, Burning Man, Rol San, 29 Dufferin, Cherry Street

• The Toronto Star looks back at its coverage of Yorkville in the 1960s, back when it was a hangout spot for hippies.


• Toronto Life shares photos of some Toronto-originated artworks put up at Burning Man this year, here.


• blogTO notes that Rol San, a leading dim sum place in Chinatown, might be erased by a 13-story tower.


• The crowding on the 29 Dufferin bus produced by the CNE is something I notice regularly. blogTO reports.


• The Cherry Street Bridge, after a month, is finally going to be fixed. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Belleville, Flint, Kingston, New York City, Vancouver

• Rising real estate prices in Toronto are driving similar increases in communities far from the GTA like Belleville. The Toronto Star reports.


• VICE reports on how good food can lead the rehabilitation of Flint, Michigan.


• Kingston will take three years to build its latest bridge. Global News reports.


• Beaches like NYC's Rockaway Beach are facing pressures from climate change and from gentrification, CityLab reports.


• Many of the homeless camped in Vancouver's Oppenheimer Park are being rehoused, as part of a slow-moving campaign. Global News reports.

[NEWS] Six LGBTQ links: drag kings, lesbianism, Montréal, Jim Watson, code-switching, kids

• Drag kings definitely deserve more attention. Global News reports.


• Lauren Strapagiel writes at Daily Xtra about her experiences looking at the decline of lesbian identity as a thing, under new social and political pressures.


• Gretel Kahn wrote at CBC Montreal about the pressures faced by the gay village in Montréal. (Toronto, it turns out, provides some useful models.)


• The brave coming-out of Ottawa mayor Jim Watson in the Ottawa Citizen deserves to be celebrated. His essay is here.


• Madeleine Holden writes at VICE about the code-switching that queer people have to practice.


• This Charles Dunst article at The Atlantic, on supporting queer people as children and to let them explore their identities, leaves me shaken. How might my own life have been changed, for the better?