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  • Anthropology.net notes a remarkably thorough genetic analysis of a piece of chewing gum 5700 years old that reveals volumes of data about the girl who chew it.

  • 'Nathan Burgoine at Apostrophen writes an amazing review of Cats that actually does make me want to see it.

  • Bad Astronomy reports on galaxy NGC 6240, a galaxy produced by a collision with three supermassive black holes.

  • Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog writes about the mechanics of journalism.

  • Centauri Dreams argues that the question of whether humans will walk on exoplanets is ultimately distracting to the study of these worlds.

  • Crooked Timber shares a Sunday morning photo of Bristol.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that India has a launch date of December 2021 for its first mission in its Gaganyaan crewed space program.

  • Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina looks at the Saturn C-1 rocket.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers if the vogue for minimalism meets the criteria to be considered a social movement.

  • Far Outliers ?notes how, in the War of 1812, some in New England considered the possibility of seceding from the Union.

  • Gizmodo looks at evidence of the last populations known of Homo erectus, on Java just over a hundred thousand years ago.

  • Mark Graham links to a new paper co-authored by him looking at how African workers deal with the gig economy.

  • io9 announces that the Michael Chabon novel, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, is set to become a television series.

  • Joe. My. God. shares a report that Putin gave Trump anti-Ukrainian conspiracy theories.

  • JSTOR Daily considers what a world with an economy no longer structured around oil could look like.

  • Language Hat takes issue with the latest talk of the Icelandic language facing extinction.

  • Language Log shares a multilingual sign photographed in Philadelphia's Chinatown.

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the document release revealing the futility of the war in Afghanistan.

  • The LRB Blog looks at class identity and mass movements and social democracy.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution suggests that, even if the economy of China is larger than the United States, Chinese per capita poverty means China does not have the leading economy.

  • Diane Duane at Out of Ambit writes about how she is writing a gay sex scene.

  • Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on "OK Boomer".

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews Mexican chef Ruffo Ibarra.

  • Peter Rukavina shares his list of levees for New Year's Day 2020 on PEI.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a map indicating fertility rates in the different regions of the European Union.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how quantum physics are responsible for vast cosmic structures.

  • Charles Soule at Whatever explains his reasoning behind his new body-swap novel.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Paris show the lack of meaningful pro-Russian sentiment there.

  • Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell talks about his lessons from working in the recent British election.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at a syncretic, Jewish-Jedi, holiday poster.

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  • Bad Astronomer considers how a stellar-mass black hole of 70 solar masses got so unaccountably huge.

  • Alex Tolley at Centauri Dreams considers the colours of photosynthesis, and how they might reveal the existence of life on exoplanets.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares some links on humans in the Paleolithic.

  • Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the scripts of jokes.

  • Gizmodo reports on the repurposed China-Netherlands radio telescope operating from an orbit above the far side of the Moon.

  • JSTOR Daily considers the political rhetoric of declinism.

  • Language Log considers the controversy over the future of the apostrophe.

  • James Butler at the LRB Blog notes a YouGov prediction of a Conservative majority in the UK and how this prediction is not value-neutral.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a paper from India noting how caste identities do affect the labour supply.

  • Ursula Lindsay at the NYR Daily considers if the political crisis in Lebanon, a product of economic pressures and sectarianism, might lead to a revolutionary transformation of the country away from sectarian politics.

  • Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections looks at some of the many complicated and intermingled issues of contemporary Australia.

  • The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest projects funded by the ESA.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares ten beautiful photos taken in 2019 by the Hubble.

  • Strange Company reports on the strange unsolved disappearance of Lillian Richey from her Idaho home in 1964.

  • Window on Eurasia shares a Russian criticism of the Ukrainian autocephalous church as a sort of papal Protestantism.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the positive potential of homoeros.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait observes that a team may have discovered the elusive neutron star produced by Supernova 1987A, hidden behind a cloud of dust.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber shares a photo he made via the time-consuming 19th century wet-plate collodion method.

  • Drew Ex Machina's Andrew LePage looks at the Apollo 12 visit to the Surveyor 3 site to, among other things, see what it might suggest about future space archeology.

  • Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the story of rural poverty facing a family in Waverly, Ohio, observing how it is a systemic issue.

  • George Dvorsky at Gizmodo looks at how Mars' Jezero crater seems to have had a past relatively friendly to life, good for the next NASA rover.

  • Joe. My. God. reports on the latest ignorance displayed by Donald Trump Jr. on Twitter, this time regarding HIV.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how Climategate was used to undermine popular opinion on climate change.

  • Language Hat links to an article explaining why so many works of classical literature were lost, among other things not making it onto school curricula.

  • Language Log shares a photo of a Muji eraser with an odd English label.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests Pete Buttigieg faces a campaign-limiting ceiling to his support among Democrats.

  • The LRB Blog argues that Macron's blocking of EU membership possibilities for the western Balkans is a terrible mistake.

  • The Map Room Blog shares a map depicting regional variations in Canada towards anthropogenic climate change. Despite data issues, the overall trend of oil-producing regions being skeptical is clear.

  • Marginal Revolution links to a paper examining the slowing pace of labour mobility in the US, suggesting that home attachment is a key factor.

  • Frederic Wehrey at the NYR Daily tells the story of Knud Holmboe, a Danish journalist who came to learn about the Arab world working against Italy in Libya.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why thermodynamics does not explain our perception of time.

  • Understanding Society's Dan Little looks at Electronic Health Records and how they can lead to medical mistakes.

  • Whatever's John Scalzi shares a remarkable photo of the night sky he took using the astrophotography mode on his Pixel 4 phone.

  • Window on Eurasia shares an opinion that the Intermarium countries, between Germany and Russia, can no longer count on the US and need to organize in their self-defense.

  • Arnold Zwicky shares a photo of his handsome late partner Jacques Transue, taken as a college student.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a study suggesting the Milky Way Galaxy took many of its current satellite galaxies from another, smaller one.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks of the importance of having dreams.

  • Centauri Dreams shares a study explaining how the debris polluting the atmospheres of white dwarfs reveals much about exoplanet chemistry.

  • D-Brief notes that the intense radiation of Jupiter would not destroy potential traces of subsurface life on the surface of Europa.

  • Dangerous Minds looks at the strange musical career of Vader Abraham, fan of the Smurfs and of the Weepuls.

  • Aneesa Bodiat at JSTOR Daily writes about how the early Muslim woman of Haajar inspires her as a Muslim.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how an influx of American guns destabilizes Mexico.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the American abandonment of the Kurds of Syria.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how many mass protests are driven by consumer complaints.

  • The NYR Daily has an interview with EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, on the future of sovereignty.

  • Strange Company looks at the Dead Pig War between the US and the UK on San Juan Island in 1859.

  • Towleroad features the defense of Frank Ocean of his PrEP+ club night and the release of his new music.

  • Understanding Society looks at the sociology of norms.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests Russia and Ukraine each have an interest in the Donbass being a frozen conflict.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at the weird masculinity of the pink jock.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how a photo of the Large Magellanic Cloud makes him recognize it as an irregular spiral, not a blob.

  • Centauri Dreams celebrates the life of cosmonaut Alexei Leonov.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber takes issue with one particular claim about the benefits of war and empire.

  • The Crux looks at fatal familial insomnia, a genetic disease that kills through inflicting sleeplessness on its victims.

  • D-Brief looks at suggestions that magnetars are formed by the collisions of stars.

  • Dangerous Minds introduces readers to the fantasy art of Arthur Rackham.

  • Cody Delistraty considers some evidence suggesting that plants have a particular kind of intelligence.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes the expansion by Russia of its airbase in Hneymim, Syria.

  • Karen Sternheimer writes at the Everyday Sociology Blog about the critical and changing position of libraries as public spaces in our cities.

  • Gizmodo looks at one marvelous way scientists have found to cheat quantum mechanics.

  • Information is Beautiful outlines a sensible proposal to state to cultivate seaweed a as source of food and fuel.

  • io9 notes that, in the exciting new X-Men relaunch, immortal Moira MacTaggart is getting her own solo book.

  • JSTOR Daily notes how the now-defunct Thomas Cook travel agency played a role in supporting British imperialism, back in the day.

  • Language Log notes that the Oxford English Dictionary is citing the blog on the use of "their" as a singular.

  • Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers the grounds for impeaching Donald Trump.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the politics of Mozambique at the country approaches dangerous times.

  • Sean Marshall notes the southern Ontario roads that run to Paris and to London.

  • Neuroskeptic notes a problematic scientific study that tried to use rabbits to study the female human orgasm.

  • Steve Baker at The Numerati looks at a new book on journalism by veteran Peter Copeland.

  • The NYR Daily makes the point that depending on biomass as a green energy solution is foolish.

  • The Planetary Science Blog notes a 1983 letter by then-president Carl Sagan calling for a NASA mission to Saturn and Titan.

  • Roads and Kingdoms interviews photojournalist Eduardo Leal on his home city of Porto, particularly as transformed by tourism.

  • Drew Rowsome notes the book Dreamland, an examination of the early amusement park.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper considering, in broad detail, how the consequence of population aging could be mitigated in the labour market of the European Union.

  • Strange Company reports on a bizarre poltergeist in a British garden shed.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the new strength of a civic national identity in Kazakhstan, based on extensive polling.

  • Arnold Zwicky, surely as qualified a linguist as any, examines current verb of the American moment, "depose".

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes new research on where the sun is located within the Milky Way Galaxy.

  • The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers the value of slow fashion.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the different gas giants that our early methods have yet to pick up.

  • Crooked Timber shares a lovely photo looking back at Venice from across its lagoon.

  • D-Brief notes that upcoming space telescopes might find hundreds of rogue planets thanks to microlensing.

  • io9 notes that Marvel will soon be producing Warhammer40K comics.

  • The Island Review shares some poetry and photography by Ken Cockburn inspired by the Isle of Jura.

  • JSTOR Daily notes that different humpback whale groups have different songs, different cultures.

  • Language Hat tries to find the meaning of the odd Soviet Yiddish word "kolvirt".

  • Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the history of Elizabeth Warren as a law teacher.

  • Map Room Blog shares information from Google Maps about its use of data.

  • Marginal Revolution notes that in 2016, not a single child born in the United Kingdom was given the name Nigel.

  • Peter Watts talks about AI and what else he is doing.

  • The NYR Daily marked the centennial of a horrible massacre of African-Americans centered on the Arkansas community of Elaine.

  • Emily Margolis at the Planetary Society Blog looks at how the Apollo moon missions helped galvanize tourism in Florida.

  • Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money looks at the constitutional crisis in Peru.

  • Drew Rowsome takes a look at A Streetcar Named Desire.

  • Peter Rukavina looks at a spreadsheet revealing the distribution of PEI public servants.

  • Spacing reviews a book imagining how small communities can rebuild themselves in neoliberalism.

  • Towleroad shares the criticism of Christine and the Queens of the allegedly opportunistic use of queer culture by Taylor Swift.

  • Understanding Society considers, sociologically, the way artifacts work.

  • The Volokh Conspiracy argues that the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the People's Republic of China should be a day of mourning, on account of the high human toll of the PRC.

  • Window on Eurasia suggests the Russian generation of the 1970s was too small to create lasting change.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at how underwear ads can be quite sexualized.

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  • The Crux takes a look at how those people who actually are short sleepers work.

  • D-Brief looks at a study noting how the moods of people are determined by the strengths of their phones' batteries.

  • Dan Lainer-Vos at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at statistical certainty at a time of climate change.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how, and why, the New England Puritans believed human bone might have medical power.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the press coverage that created the alleged Clinton uranium scandal.

  • The Map Room Blog shares maps noting that, already, since the late 19th century much of the world has warmed more than 2 degrees Celsius.

  • Strange Company shares a diverse collection of links.

  • Daniel Pfau at Towleroad writes about possible deep evolutionary roots of homosexuality.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the Russian republic of Karelia, despite its border with Finland, suffers from repression.

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  • After Chilliwack, British Columbia, decided not to put in place a rainbow crosswalk, two residents painted their driveway in that colour scheme. The Mission City-Record reports.

  • Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, has received a substantial investment to boost LGBTQ tourism. Global News reports.

  • Erica Lenti at Daily Xtra wondered if Andrew Scheer could make a meaningful apology for his opposition to marriage equality.

  • Lauren Strapagiel at Daily Xtra is critical of efforts to find the biological basis for non-heterosexualities.

  • Marke B. at them writes about the queer potential and challenges of Eurovision.

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  • The Crux looks at the australopiths, not-so-distant ancestors of modern humans.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the interest of NASA in exploring the lunar subsurface, including lava tubes.

  • Far Outliers looks at the politicking of mid-19th century European explorers in the Sahel.

  • io9 notes that the new Joker film is getting stellar reviews, aided by the performance of Joaquin Phoenix.

  • JSTOR Daily explores how, to meet censors' demands, Betty Boop was remade in the 1930s from sex symbol into housewife.

  • Language Log reports on an utter failure in bilingual Irish/English signage.

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money shows that a history of slavery in the US (Canada too, I would add) must not neglect the enslavement of indigenous peoples.

  • Marginal Revolution notes a paper studying San Francisco looking at how rent control did not work.

  • The NYR Daily considers growing protest against air travel for its impact on global climate.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the queer romance film Bathroom Stalls & Parking Lots.

  • Window on Eurasia notes how the influence of Russia in the former Soviet Union is undone by Russian imperialism.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the striking imagery--originally religious--of "carnal weapons".

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  • That, as a new study suggests, there is no single gay gene, but rather multiple different originals for non-heterosexual sexual orientations and behaviours, makes intuitive sense to me. The Washington Post has one take.

  • Atlas Obscura looks at the history behind the stone walls of New England.
  • Justin Fox at Bloomberg examines how the once-commanding lead in incomes of the middle class of the United States over the middle classes of other countries is starting to fade.

  • CityLab looks at how, too often by design, beaches in the United States are inaccessible to mass transit. (Toronto is lucky.)

  • La Presse shares a proposal by Radio-Canada to move away from a media model of competing with other outlets towards one based on collaboration.

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  • 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 MontrĂ©al. (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?

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  • Anthro{dendum} features an essay examining trauma and resiliency as encountered in ethnographic fieldwork.

  • Architectuul highlights a new project seeking to promote historic churches built in the United Kingdom in the 20th century.

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait examines Ahuna Mons, a muddy and icy volcano on Ceres, and looks at the nebula Westerhout 40.

  • Centauri Dreams notes the recent mass release of data from a SETI project, and notes the discovery of two vaguely Earth-like worlds orbiting the very dim Teegarden's Star, just 12 light-years away.

  • Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber notes that having universities as a safe space for trans people does not infringe upon academic freedom.

  • The Crux looks at the phenomenon of microsleep.

  • D-Brief notes evidence that the Milky Way Galaxy was warped a billion years ago by a collision with dark matter-heavy dwarf galaxy Antlia 2, and notes a robotic fish powered by a blood analogue.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that India plans on building its own space station.

  • Earther notes the recording of the song of the endangered North Pacific right whale.

  • The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at the role of emotional labour in leisure activities.

  • Far Outliers looks at how Japan prepared for the Battle of the Leyte Gulf in 1944.

  • Gizmodo looks at astronomers' analysis of B14-65666, an ancient galactic collision thirteen billion light-years away, and notes that the European Space Agency has a planned comet interception mission.

  • io9 notes how the plan for Star Trek in the near future is to not only have more Star Trek, but to have many different kinds of Star Trek for different audiences.

  • Joe. My. God. notes the observation of Pete Buttigieg that the US has probably already had a gay president.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at the many ways in which the rhetoric of Celtic identity has been used, and notes that the archerfish uses water ejected from its eyes to hunt.

  • Language Hat looks at why Chinese is such a hard language to learn for second-language learners, and looks at the Suso monastery in Spain, which played a key role in the coalescence of the Spanish language.

  • Language Log looks at the complexities of katakana.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the death of deposed Egypt president Mohammed Morsi looks like a slow-motion assassination, and notes collapse of industrial jobs in the Ohio town of Lordstown, as indicative of broader trends.

  • The LRB Blog looks at the death of Mohamed Morsi.

  • The Map Rom Blog shares a new British Antarctic Survey map of Greenland and the European Arctic.

  • Marginal Revolution notes how non-religious people are becoming much more common in the Middle East, and makes the point that the laying of cable for the transatlantic telegraph is noteworthy technologically.

  • Noah Smith at Noahpionion takes the idea of the Middle East going through its own version of the Thirty Years War seriously. What does this imply?

  • The NYR Daily takes a look at a Lebanon balanced somehow on the edge, and looks at the concentration camp system of the United States.

  • The Planetary Society Blog explains what people should expect from LightSail 2, noting that the LightSail 2 has launched.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw points readers to his stories on Australian spy Harry Freame.

  • Rocky Planet explains, in the year of the Apollo 50th anniversary, why the Moon matters.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews, and praises, South African film Kanarie, a gay romp in the apartheid era.

  • The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper examining the relationship between childcare and fertility in Belgium, and looks at the nature of statistical data from Turkmenistan.

  • The Strange Maps Blog shares a map highlighting different famous people in the United States.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why different galaxies have different amounts of dark matter, and shares proof that the Apollo moon landings actually did happen.

  • Towleroad notes the new evidence that poppers, in fact, are not addictive.

  • Window on Eurasia warns about the parlous state of the Volga River.

  • Arnold Zwicky takes an extended look at the mid-20th century gay poet Frank O'Hara.

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  • Architectuul takes a look at "infrastructural scars", at geopolitically-inspired constructions like border fences and fortifications.

  • Centauri Dreams notes what we can learn from 99942 Apophis during its 2029 close approach to Earth, just tens of thousands of kilometres away.

  • D-Brief reports on the reactions of space artists to the photograph of the black hole at the heart of M87.

  • Dangerous Minds shares the first recording of Frank Zappa and Captain Beefheart.

  • The Dragon's Tales notes that Germany has begun work on drafting laws to cover space mining.

  • Gizmodo reports on what scientists have learned from the imaging of a very recent impact of an asteroid on the near side of the Moon.

  • io9 makes the case that Star Trek: Discovery should try to tackle climate change.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Verizon is seeking a buyer for Tumblr. (Wouldn't it be funny if it was bought, as other reports suggest might be possible, by Pornhub?)

  • JSTOR Daily reports on a 1910 examination of medical schools that, among other things, shut down all but two African-American medical schools with lasting consequences for African-American health.

  • Language Log asks why "Beijing" is commonly pronounced as "Beizhing".

  • Simon Balto asks at Lawyers, Guns and Money why the murder of Justine Ruszczyk by a Minneapolis policeman is treated more seriously than other police killings, just because she was white and the cop was black. All victims deserve the same attention.

  • Russell Darnley at Maximos62 shares a video of the frieze of the Parthenon.

  • The NYR Daily responds to the 1979 television adaptation of the Primo Levi novel Christ Stopped at Eboli, an examination of (among other things) the problems of development.

  • Peter Rukavina is entirely right about the practical uselessness of QR codes.

  • Daniel Little at Understanding Society points readers towards the study of organizations, concentrating on Charles Perrow.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the argument of one Russian commentator that Russia should offer to extend citizenship en masse not only to Ukrainians but to Belarusians, the better to undermine independent Belarus.

  • Arnold Zwicky shares photos of some of his flourishing flowers, as his home of Palo Alto enters a California summer.

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  • JSTOR Daily looks at the myth that land ownership was not present in pre-Columbian Indigenous cultures in the Americas.

  • CBC takes a look at Indigenous traditions of astronomy.

  • JSTOR Daily looks at how white female reformers of the early 20th century US tried to repress the sacred dances of the Pueblo peoples, and why.

  • CBC had a great feature about how Cree doctor James Makokis uses Indigenous perspectives to treat his trans clientele.

  • This report about MakadeMigize Clothing, a company created by a Manitoba family whose clothes are inspired by Indigenous languages. Global News covers the issue.

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  • CBC reports on the controversies surrounding the creation of a loonie one-dollar coin celebrating the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.

  • Daily Xtra reports on the consequences of the election of Jason Kenney and the rise of the UCP to power in Alberta for LGBTQ people.

  • This VICE interview with Queer Eye subject Jess Guilbeaux on her experiences being black and lesbian in Kansas is inspiring.

  • This Radiichina article, noting American concerns over Chinese ownership of Grindr, looks on China's similar and arguably more successful app Blued.

  • This fascinating Vox article by Emily Sandalwood looks at how the Wachowskis represented the trans experience in the Matrix trilogy.

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  • That Archive Of Our Own has won a Hugo nomination is surprising, but deserved, news. Motherboard reports.

  • CityLab notes that people interested in opposite-sex dating, when they make use of apps, look for people near them geographically.

  • NOW Toronto looks at the extent to which anti-Muslim sentiment has made it into mainstream journalistic discourse in Canada.

  • Adam Rogers writes movingly at Wired about the extent to which Notre Dame, for all of its age, is also constantly changing.

  • Vox suggests that Pete Buttigieg, with his rhetoric full of hope, is trying to mobilize the same coalition of voters that saw Obama elected.

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  • Helen Armstrong at NOW Toronto writes against the crude repression, well short of constructive regulation, facing sex workers in Toronto.

  • Donovan Vincent at the Toronto Star notes the Toronto controversy around the idea of having houses with two front doors, including one for a basement unit. Why must that unit's residents be hidden?

  • blogTO notes the utter absence of the Eglinton East LRT in the new Toronto transit plan.

  • Steve Munro considers the poor state of planning, and funding, for Line 1 of the subway.

  • Toronto Life goes back more than a century to take a look at the many discarded plans for subways. Is it comfort, at least, that the lack of good planning is a trait apparently inherent to Torontonians?

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  • 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.

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  • Bad Astronomy notes a push by astronomers to enlist help for giving trans-Neptunian object 2007-OR10 a name.

  • Centauri Dreams reflects on M87*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of M87 recently imaged, with its implications for galactic habitability.

  • Crooked Timber is right to note that Kirstjen Nielsen, architect of the cruel border policies of Trump, should not be allowed to resume a normal professional life.

  • The Crux looks at the Event Horizon Telescope Project that imaged M87*.

  • D-Brief notes that one-quarter of Japanese in their 20s and 30s have remained virgins, and explains why this might be the case.

  • Far Outliers notes the process of the writing of U.S. Grant's acclaimed memoirs.

  • Mark Graham highlights a BBC documentary, one he contributed to, asking if artificial intelligence will kill global development.

  • Gizmodo explains why the image of black hole M87* does not look exactly like the fictional one from the scientifically-grounded Interstellar.

  • Hornet Stories explains the joys of Hawai'i in fall.

  • io9 notes that the new Deep Space Nine anniversary documentary is scheduled for a one-day theatrical release. (Will it be in Toronto?)

  • JSTOR Daily makes the point that mass enfranchisement is the best way to ensure security for all.

  • Language Hat looks at the kitabs, the books written in Afrikaans using its original Arabic script kept by Cape Malays.

  • Language Log notes, with examples, some of the uses of the words "black" and "evil" in contemporary China.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the point that having a non-octogenarian president is a good idea.

  • Marginal Revolution shares the thoughts of Samir Varma on the new technologies--better computers, faster travel, artificial life--that may change the world in the near future.

  • The NYR Daily explores the subversive fairy tales of 19th century Frenchman Édouard Laboulaye.

  • The Planetary Society Blog notes the sad crash of the Beresheet probe on the surface of the Moon.

  • Drew Rowsome engages with the body of work of out horror writer John Saul.

  • Peter Rukavina maps out where Islanders will be voting, and the distances they will travel, in this month's election.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel engages with the possibility that we might be alone. What next? (Myself, I think the idea of humanity as an elder race is fascinating.)

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at the sort of humour that involves ambiguous adverbs.

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  • The Guardian reports on the confidence of PEI Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker that the April election on PEI is for his party to win.

  • This guide to the wild orchids of PEI sounds very useful. CBC reports.

  • I wish the team at PEI comics group Sandstone Comics the best as they prepare their issues of original material. CBC reports.

  • The costs of anti-HIV drug regimen PrEP are now being covered on PEI for members of at-risk groups. CBC reports.

  • The Guardian features an interview with 80-year-old Charlottetown cobbler David Currie about his life and his career six decades long.

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