This mural by Canadian artist Isabella Vella, built around a quote from Canadian politician Rosemary Brown, decorates the front of the Sistering women's shelter in Bloorcourt.
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?
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.
Centauri Dreams links to a paper noting that the interiors of planets play a critical role in determining planetary habitability.
Belle Waring writes at Crooked Timber about imaginative dream worlds, criticized by some as a sort of maladaptive daydreaming I don't buy that; I am interested in what she says about hers.
D-Brief notes the very recent discovery of a small tyrannosaur.
Dead Things considers the possibility that a new South African hominin, Australopithecus sediba, might actually be the ancestor of Homo sapiens.
JSTOR Daily looks at how one negative side-effect of the renewable energy boom is the mass mining of rare earth elements.
Erik Loomis writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the way in which not just history but history fandoms are gendered, the interests of women being neglected or downplayed.
Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen reports on how a new US-Chinese trade deal will not do much to deal with underlying issues.
The New APPS Blog notes the great profits made by the gun industry in the United States and the great death toll, too, associated with the guns produced.
The NYR Daily visits the Northern Ireland town of Carrickfergus, home to Louis MacNeice and made famous by violence as the whole province sits on the edge of something.
Drew Rowsome takes a look at the queer horror film The Skin of The Teeth.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains what the technical limits of the Hubble Space Telescope are, and why it needs a replacement.
Window on Eurasia notes changing patters of population change in the different regions of Russia.
Arnold Zwicky shares some photos of notable public art in Switzerland, starting with The Caring Hand in his ancestral canton of Glarus.
Reddit's r/toronto shares this photo of the level of Lake Ontario having risen above the level of the boardwalk at HTO Park. Are we in for another year of flooding, on the Toronto Islands particularly?
This CBC Toronto article from a week ago notes how Lake Ontario is getting close to 2017 levels.
Changes in the Presto system have left many people who use the Union-Pearson Express to commute in a financially costly situation. CBC Toronto reports.
This court case, besides setting boundaries on what planning boards can and cannot do, will also determine the fate of the Rail Deck Park. I hope it will survive. The Toronto Star reports.
Stefanie Marotta at the Toronto Star reports on a Jane's Walk led by MP Adam Vaughan and Bianca Wylie of the waterfront, inspired by their criticism of the Sidewalk Labs plans.
Shazlin Rahman writes at Spacing about the prejudices that push Muslim women away from the TTC, and what can be done to protect these women.
Urban Toronto shares the news of Open Doors 2019 in Toronto on 25 and 26 May, with more than 150 buildings being opened to the public.
Centauri Dreams notes the remarkable imaging of the atmosphere of HR 8799 e.
Crooked Timber starts a discussion about books that, once picked up, turned out to be as good as promised.
The Crux considers obsidian, known in the Game of Thrones world as dragonglass.
Bruce Dorminey notes that NASA is considering a proposal for a floating Venus probe that would be recharged by microwaves from orbit.The Dragon's Tales shares a report that Russia has developed a new satellite to work with a new anti-satellite weapons system.
Far Outliers notes what U.S. Grant learned from the Mexican-American War, as a strategist and as a politician.
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests, drawing from the image of M87*, that we have had a world disenchanted by the digital technology used to produce the image.
JSTOR Daily shares what critical theory has to say about the binge-watching of television.
Language Hat notes the Cherokee-language inscriptions on the wall of Manitou Cave.
Language Log considers when the first conversing automaton was built.
Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at a corner of 1970s feminism forgotten despite its innovative ideas.
Marginal Revolution considers the idea of restricting some new migrants to particular regions of the United States.
The NYR Daily explores the important new work by Igiaba Scego, Beyond Babylon.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel answers a surprisingly complex question: What is an electron?
Window on Eurasia explains why the cost of a professional military means Russia will not abandon the draft.
Arnold Zwicky explores "johnson" as a euphemism for penis.
Charlie Stross hosts at Antipope another discussion thread examining Brexit.
Architectuul takes a look at five overlooked mid-20th century architects.
Bad Astronomy shares a satellite photo of auroras at night over the city lights of the Great Lakes basin and something else, too.
The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the directions love has taken her, and wonders where it might have taken her readers.
Centauri Dreams reports on the Hayabusa 2 impactor on asteroid Ryugu.
John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with the claims of Steven Pinker about nuclear power.
D-Brief notes the detection, in remarkable detail, of a brilliant exocomet at Beta Pictoris.
The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility that China might be building a military base in Cambodia.
Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the importance of small social cues, easily overlookable tough they are.
Far Outliers notes the role of Japan's imperial couple, Akihito and Michiko, in post-war Japan.
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing writes about the potential inadequacy of talking about values.
Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting the surprising and potentially dangerous diversity of bacteria present on the International Space Station.
Mark Graham shares a link to a paper, and its abstract, examining what might come of the creation of a planetary labour market through the gig economy.
Hornet Stories takes a look at Red Ribbon Blues, a 1995 AIDS-themed film starring RuPaul.
io9 notes that Guillermo del Toro and Cornelia Funke are co-writing a Pan's Labyrinth novel scheduled for release later this year.
Joe. My. God. notes a new study suggesting 20% of LGBTQ Americans live in rural areas.
JSTOR Daily takes a look at the Bluestockings, the grouping of 18th century women in England who were noteworthy scholars and writers.
Language Hat notes an ambitious new historical dictionary of the Arabic language being created by the emirate of Sharjah.
Language Log examines, in the aftermath of a discussion of trolls, different cultures' terms for different sorts of arguments.
Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how early forestry in the United States was inspired by socialist ideals.
The Map Room Blog links to a map showing the different national parks of the United Kingdom.
Alex Tabarrok at Marginal Revolution, noting the new findings from the Chixculub impact, notes how monitoring asteroids to prevent like catastrophes in the future has to be a high priority.
The New APPS Blog explains how data, by its very nature, is so easily made into a commodity.
The NYR Daily considers the future of the humanities in a world where higher education is becoming preoccupied by STEM.
Corey S. Powell at Out There interviews Bear Grylls about the making of his new documentary series Hostile Planet.
Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw considers the pleasures of birds and of birdwatching.
Jason C. Davis at the Planetary Society Blog noted the arrival of the Beresheet probe in lunar orbit.
Drew Rowsome reviews the new amazing-sounding play Angelique at the Factory Theatre.
The Russian Demographics Blog notes a paper that makes the point of there being no automatic relationship between greater gender equality and increases in fertility.
The Signal looks at how the Library of Congress has made use of the BagIt programming language in its archiving of data.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel comes up with questions to ask plausible visitors from other universes.
Strange Company notes the mysterious deaths visited on three members of a British family in the early 20th century. Who was the murderer? Was there even a crime?
Towleroad notes the activists, including Canadian-born playwright Jordan Tannahill, who disrupted a high tea at the Dorchester Hotel in London over the homophobic law passed by its owner, the Sultan of Brunei.
Window on Eurasia notes rising instability in Ingushetia.
Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes that the British surveillance of Huawei is revealing the sorts of problems that must be present in scrutiny-less Facebook, too.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows four different images of nearby stellar nursery NGC 1333.
Centauri Dreams looks at the hot Saturn TOI-197, and the way it was detected.
D-Brief notes how galaxy NGC-1052 DF2 has been confirmed as the second galaxy apparently lacking in dark matter.
Gizmodo notes new confirmation, from an orbiting probe, that Curiosity detected methane emanating from Mars back in 2013.
Hornet Stories tries to correct some misconceptions about the Burning Man festival.
The Island Review links to a New York Times profile of post-Maria Puerto Rico.
Joe. My. God. notes that Martin Shkreli has been tossed into solitary confinement.
JSTOR Daily notes the work of psychologists in the 1930s US who profiled individuals who did not fit the gender binary. Would these people have identified themselves as trans or non-binary now?
The LRB Blog notes the fondness of Jacob Rees-Mogg for extreme-right German politicians from the AfD.
Language Log shares a written ad in Cantonese from Hong Kong.
Lawyers, Guns and Money compares China now to the Untied States of the past, and finds interesting correspondences.
Marginal Revolution notes the deep and significant commitment of China under Mao to providing foreign aid.
Out There notes that, while dark matter is certainly real, "dark matter" is a poor name for this mysterious substance.
Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the challenges to be faced by Hayabusa 2 when it fires a sampling probe into asteroid Ryugu.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers how into the universe a spaceship could travel if it accelerated consistently at one gravity.
Strange Company examines the life and adventures of Jeffrey Hudson, a royal dwarf in 17th century England.
Daniel Little at Understanding Society builds on the work of V.K. Ramachandran in considering the ethics of development ethnography.
Window on Eurasia notes the new identification of Azerbaijanis as victims of genocide by neighbours, and what this means for the relations of Azerbaijan.
Arnold Zwicky has fun, in a NSFW fanfic way, with figures from comics contemporary and old.
Centauri Dreams considers the possibility of carbon dioxide being a biosignature in the atmospheres of exoplanets.
D-Brief notes the discoveries of Hayabusa2 at asteroid Ryugu, including the possibility it was part of a larger body.
Gizmodo links to a new analysis suggesting the behaviour of 'Oumuamua was not so unprecedented after all, that it was a simple exocomet.
JSTOR Daily looks at Agnes Chase, an early 20th century biologist who did remarkable things, both with science and with getting women into her field.
Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to a new article of his analyzing the new aircraft carriers of Japan, noting not just their power but the effective lack of limits on Japanese military strength.
Marginal Revolution notes the substantial demographic shifts occurring in Kazakhstan since independence, with Kazakh majorities appearing throughout the country.
Neuroskeptic considers if independent discussion sections for online papers would make sense.
The NYR Daily shares a photo essay by Louis Witter reporting on Moroccan boys seeking to migrate to Europe through Ceuta.
Roads and Kingdoms has an interview with photographer Brett Gundlock about his images of Latin American migrants in Mexico seeking the US.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explores the mass extinction and extended ice age following the development of photosynthesis and appearance of atmospheric oxygen on Earth two billion years ago.
Window on Eurasia notes that, in Karabakh, Jehovah's Witnesses now constitute the biggest religious minority.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes new evidence that the Pathfinder probe landed, on Mars, on the shores of an ancient sea.
The Crux reports on tholins, the organic chemicals that are possible predecessors to life, now found in abundance throughout the outer Solar System.
D-Brief reports on the hard work that has demonstrated some meteorites which recently fell in Turkey trace their origins to Vesta.
Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog explores sociologist Eric Klinenberg's concept of social infrastructure, the public spaces we use.
Far Outliers reports on a Honolulu bus announcement in Yapese, a Micronesian language spoken by immigrants in Hawai'i.
JSTOR Daily considers the import of the autobiography of Catherine the Great.
Language Hat reports, with skepticism, on the idea of "f" and "v" as sounds being products of the post-Neolithic technological revolution.
Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen is critical of the idea of limiting the number of children one has in a time of climate change.
Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on death, close at hand and in New Zealand.
Strange Company reports on the mysterious disappearance, somewhere in Anatolia, of American cyclist Frank Lenz in 1892, and its wider consequences.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel identifies five types of cosmic events capable of triggering mass extinctions on Earth.
Towleroad reports on the frustration of many J.K. Rowling fans with the author's continuing identification of queer histories for characters that are never made explicit in books or movies.
Window on Eurasia has a skeptical report about a Russian government plan to recruit Russophones in neighbouring countries as immigrants.
Arnold Zwicky explores themes of shipwrecks and of being shipwrecked.
JSTOR Daily considers what Audre Lorde predicted about the future of weather disasters from her 1989 experience on St. Croix with Hurricane Hugo.
JSTOR Daily considers the radicalism of Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
JSTOR Daily notes the endangerment of the pangolin by environmental destruction and smuggling.
JSTOR Daily considers some struggles facing linguistic prescriptivists.
Alexandra Samuel writes at JSTOR Daily about the sorts of predictions that science fiction can make, not so much about specific technologies as possible futures.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how the dinosaurs seem to have been killed off 65 million years ago by a combination of geological and astronomical catastrophes.
Centauri Dreams examines Kepler 1658b, a hot Jupiter in a close orbit around an old star.
The Crux reports on the continuing search for Planet Nine in the orbits of distant solar system objects.
D-Brief notes how researchers have begun to study the archaeological records of otters.
Cody Delistraty profiles author and journalist John Lanchester.
Far Outliers reports on the terrible violence between Hindus and Muslims preceding partition in Calcutta.
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing suggests the carnival of the online world, full of hidden work, is actually an unsatisfying false carnival.
Hornet Stories reports that São Paulo LGBTQ cultural centre and homeless shelter Casa 1 is facing closure thanks to cuts by the homophobic new government.
io9 reports on one fan's attempt to use machine learning to produce a HD version of Deep Space Nine.
JSTOR Daily takes a look at the increasing trend, at least in the United States and the United Kingdom, to deport long-term residents lacking sufficiently secure residency rights.
Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the literally medieval epidemics raging among the homeless of California.
Marginal Revolution considers how the Book of Genesis can be read as a story of increasing technology driving improved living standards and economic growth.
The NYR Daily interviews Lénaïg Bredoux about #MeToo in France.
The Planetary Society Blog considers the subtle differences in colour between ice giants Uranus and Neptune, one greenish and the other a blue, and the causes of this difference.
The Speed River Journal's Van Waffle shares beautiful photos of ice on a stream as he talks about his creative process.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers what the universe was like back when the Earth was forming.
Window on Eurasia reports on a statement made by the government of Belarus that the survival of the Belarusian language is a guarantor of national security.
Arnold Zwicky was kind enough to share his handout for the semiotics gathering SemFest20.
Them notes the transphobia involved in novelist E.J. Levy's apparent determination to note define 19th century doctor James Barry as a trans man in an upcoming novel.
Hornet Stories notes the long history of support of Madonna for LGBTQ people and causes, from the 1980s on.
Them tells the story of trans writer voice actor Maddie Blaustein, perhaps most famous for voicing the character of Meowth from Pokémon.
VICE reports from Wilton Manors, the Florida town where all the government officials are LGBTQ.
The coming-out of YouTube star Lilly Singh as bisexual is huge news, for South Asians and the wider community. (How To Be A Bawse is a great book.) VICE Congratulations! has it.
Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the newly-named Neptune moon of Hippocamp, and how it came about as product of a massive collision with the larger moon of Proteus.
Centauri Dreams also reports on the discovery of the Neptune moon of Hippocamp.
Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes how the attempt to revoke the citizenship of Shamima Begum sets a terribly dangerous precedent for the United Kingdom.
D-Brief notes new evidence suggesting the role of the Deccan Traps volcanic eruptions in triggering the Cretaceous extinction event, alongside the Chixculub asteroid impact.
Far Outliers notes the problems of Lawrence of Arabia with Indian soldiers and with Turks.
L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing takes issue with the state of philosophical contemplation about technology, at least in part a structural consequence of society.
Hornet Stories shares this feature examining the future of gay porn, in an environment where amateur porn undermines the existing studios.
JSTOR Daily considers the spotty history of casting African-American dancers in ballet.
Language Hat suggests that the Académie française will soon accept for French feminized nouns of nouns links to professionals ("écrivaine" for a female writer, for instance).
The LRB Blog considers the implications of the stripping of citizenship from Shamima Begum. Who is next? How badly is citizenship weakened in the United Kingdom?
Marginal Revolution notes the upset of Haiti over its banning by Expedia.
The NYR Daily notes the tension in Turkey between the country's liberal laws on divorce and marriage and rising Islamization.
Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the moment, in the history of the universe, when dark energy became the dominant factors in the universe's evolution.
Towleroad remembers Roy Cohn, the lawyer who was the collaborator of Trump up to the moment of Cohn's death from AIDS.
Understanding Society's Daniel Little takes a look at Marx's theories of how governments worked.
Window on Eurasia looks at the existential pressures facing many minority languages in Russia.
The BBC considers what the science fiction we prefer to read says about us.
Arkady Martine at Tor considers the ethical dilemmas of Farscape protagonist John Crichton, reminding me again that I should watch this series, some time.
James Nicoll at Tor lists five classic SF novels examining anthropogenic climate change.
Alison Flood at The Guardian reports on the overlooked 1918 novel What Not by Rose MacAulay, a work that may have influenced Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Adrian Lee at MacLean's considers what the three dystopian films of Blade Runner, Akira, and The Running Man, all set in 2019, have to say about the year as it was imagined and as it exists.