[PHOTO] Me at 22 (#meat20)

Low-resolution as it is, I think that this photo’s flaws does a great job, if inadvertently, of exposing who I was at that time (September 2002) and in the years before. (I took this photo from my archived personal website, here.

I had only come out to myself in February of that year. That only came out at the end of a long process of very careful development that I did not recognize at the time. Me at 20 was 60 pounds heavier than me as of this picture (30 pounds heavier than I am now). I was hiding, from myself, from others within my carapace of flesh, to an extent that I was literally not capable of understanding.

There are certainly things that I wish I had done better; hindsight exists. Still: That me at 20 did as good a job as he could of surviving, and deserves credit for that. Me at 40 would not have existed without his efforts. I’m grateful for how I survived me at 20; I’m grateful to have been able to become me at 40.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Charlie Stross at Antipope shares an essay he recently presented on artificial intelligence and its challenges for us.
• P. Kerim Friedman writes at {anthro}dendum about the birth of the tea ceremony in the Taiwan of the 1970s.
• Anthropology net reports on a cave painting nearly 44 thousand years old in Indonesia depicting a hunting story.
• Architectuul looks at some temporary community gardens in London.
• Bad Astronomy reports on the weird history of asteroid Ryugu.
• The Buzz talks about the most popular titles borrowed from the Toronto Public Library in 2019.
• Caitlin Kelly talks at the Broadside Blog about her particular love of radio.
• Centauri Dreams talks about the role of amateur astronomers in searching for exoplanets, starting with LHS 1140 b.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber looks at what is behind the rhetoric of “virtue signalling”.
• Dangerous Minds shares concert performance from Nirvana filmed the night before the release of Nevermind.
• Bruce Dorminey notes new evidence that, even before the Chixculub impact, the late Cretaceous Earth was staggering under environmental pressures.
• Myron Strong at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about how people of African descent in the US deal with the legacies of slavery in higher education.
• Far Outliers reports on the plans in 1945 for an invasion of Japan by the US.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing gathers together a collection of the author’s best writings there.
• Gizmodo notes the immensity of the supermassive black hole, some 40 billion solar masses, at the heart of galaxy Holm 15A 700 million light-years away.
• Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res writes about the issue of how Wichita is to organize its civic politics.
• io9 argues that the 2010s were a decade where the culture of the spoiler became key.
• The Island Review points readers to the podcast Mother’s Blood, Sister’s Songs, an exploration of the links between Ireland and Iceland.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the claim of the lawyer of the killer of a mob boss that the QAnon conspiracy inspired his actions. This strikes me as terribly dangerous.
• JSTOR Daily looks at a study examining scholarly retractions.
• Language Hat shares an amusing cartoon illustrating the relationships of the dialects of Arabic.
• Language Log lists ten top new words in the Japanese language.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the dissipation of American diplomacy by Trump.
• The LRB Blog looks at the many problems in Sparta, Greece, with accommodating refugees, for everyone concerned.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper suggesting the decline of the one-child policy in China has diminished child trafficking, among other crimes.
• Sean Marshall, looking at transit in Brampton, argues that transit users need more protection from road traffic.
• Russell Darnley shares excerpts from essays he wrote about the involvement of Australia in the Vietnam War.
• Peter Watts talks about his recent visit to a con in Sofia, Bulgaria, and about the apocalypse, here.
• The NYR Daily looks at the corporatization of the funeral industry, here.
• Diane Duane writes, from her own personal history with Star Trek, about how one can be a writer who ends up writing for a media franchise.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections considers the job of tasting, and rating, different cuts of lamb.
• The Planetary Society Blog looks at a nondescript observatory in the Mojave desert of California that maps the asteroids of the solar system.
• Roads and Kingdoms interviews Eduardo Chavarin about, among other things, Tijuana.
• Drew Rowsome loves the SpongeBob musical.
• Peter Rukavina announces that Charlottetown has its first public fast charger for electric vehicles.
• The Russian Demographics Blog considers the impact of space medicine, here.
• The Signal reports on how the Library of Congress is making its internet archives more readily available, here.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel considers how the incredibly isolated galaxy MCG+01-02-015 will decay almost to nothing over almost uncountable eons.
• Strange Company reports on the trial and execution of Christopher Slaughterford for murder. Was there even a crime?
• Strange Maps shares a Coudenhove-Kalergi map imagining the division of the world into five superstates.
• Understanding Society considers entertainment as a valuable thing, here.
• Denis Colombi at Une heure de peine announces his new book, Où va l’argent des pauvres?
• John Scalzi at Whatever looks at how some mailed bread triggered a security alert, here.
• Window on Eurasia reports on the massive amount of remittances sent to Tajikistan by migrant workers, here.
• Arnold Zwicky notes a bizarre no-penguins sign for sale on Amazon.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At anthro{dendum}, Amarilys Estrella writes about the aftermath of a car accident she experienced while doing fieldwork.
• Architectuul notes at a tour of Berlin looking at highlights from an innovative year for architecture in West Berlin back in 1987.
• Bad Astronomer notes that interstellar comet 2/Borisov is behaving surprisingly normally.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly writes briefly about the difficulty, and the importance, of being authentic.
• Centauri Dreams shares some of the recent findings of Voyager 2 from the edge of interstellar space.
• Crooked Timber shares a photo of a courtyard in Montpellier.
• D-Brief notes a study of the genetics of ancient Rome revealing that the city once was quite cosmopolitan, but that this cosmopolitanism passed, too.
• Dangerous Minds notes a 1972 single where Marvin Gaye played the Moog.
• Cody Delistraty looks at Degas and the opera.
• Bruce Dorminey makes a case, scientific and otherwise, against sending animals into space.
• Far Outliers looks at a 1801 clash between the American navy and Tripoli pirates.
• Gizmodo notes a theory that ancient primates learned to walk upright in trees.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the Cayman Islands overturned a court ruling calling for marriage equality.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the experience of women under Reconstruction.
• Language Hat notes the exceptional multilingualism of the Qing empire.
• Language Log looks at circumstances where the Roman alphabet is used in contemporary China.
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the forced resignation of Evo Morales in Bolivia, and calls for readers to take care with their readings on the crisis and the country.
• Marginal Revolution considers a new sociological theory suggesting that the medieval Christian church enacted policy which made the nuclear family, not the extended family, the main structure in Europe and its offshoots.
• Sean Marshall takes a look at GO Transit fare structures, noting how users of the Kitchener line may pay more than their share.
• Neuroskeptic takes a look at the contradictions between self-reported brain activity and what brain scanners record.
• Alex Hutchinson writes at the NYR Daily about human beings and their relationship with wilderness.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections considers the impact of drought in Australia’s New England, and about the need for balances.
• The Planetary Society Blog offers advice for people interested in seeing today’s transit of Mercury across the Sun.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer suggests Argentines may not have cared about their national elections as much as polls suggested.
• Peter Rukavina shares an image of an ancient Charlottetown traffic light, at Prince and King.
• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the significant convergence, and remaining differences, between East and West Germany.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at some of the backstory to the Big Bang.
• The Volokh Conspiracy suggests the Paris Accords were never a good way to deal with climate change.
• Window on Eurasia shares someone arguing the policies of Putin are simple unoriginal Bonapartism.
• Worthwhile Canadian Economy makes the case that slow economic recoveries are deep economic recoveries.
• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at how the failure of the media to serve as effective critics of politics has helped lead, in the UK of Brexit, to substantial political change.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the idea, first expressed in comics, of Russian sardines.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: National Park, Lennox Island, traffic, Charlottetown mass transit, Cornwall

• The Prince Edward Island National Park, unsurprisingly, was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Global News reports.
• The Mi’kmaq community of Lennox Island lost large amounts of frozen lobster after Hurricane Dorian. CBC PEI reports.
• Peter Rukavina has mapped the busiest and sleepiest roads on PEI, here.
• Growth in ridership on Trius Transit in Charlottetown continues to outpace expectations, CBC PEI reports.
• The work that the Charlottetown suburb of Cornwall is doing, diverting the Trans-Canada Highway to build a Main Street, is authentically exciting urbanism. CBC PEI reports.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: transit, housing, Founders’ Hall, Hog Island Sandhills, Terre Rouge

• The federal and provincial governments on PEI are investing millions in Charlottetown transit, substantially in vehicles. Global News reports.
• Kevin Yarr at CBC PEI reports on how housing prices in Charlottetown are rising to worryingly high levels, here.
• The Founders’ Hall food market in Charlottetown looks interesting. CBC PEI reports.
• Establishing a national park reserve on the Hog Island Sandhills off northwestern PEI sounds like a good idea to me. CBC PEI reports.
• CBC PEI reports on how what was intended to be a light-hearted joke on the chalkboard of Terre Rouge in Charlottetown ended up striking a media frenzy.

[ISL] Four #PEI links: Lupins, politics, elections, Pride

• CBC Prince Edward Island looks at the famous lupins of Prince Edward Island, here.
• There were mixed emotions, CBC Prince Edward Island reports, as non-residents of the Abegweit First Nation at Scotchfort were allowed to vote in band elections for the first time.
• Politicians report that, notwithstanding the lack of a formal agreement, right now it looks as if the minority Conservative government could last until 2023. CBC PEI has it.
• The raising of the pride flag in Charlottetown follows reports of homophobia outside of the capital, as small towns like Alberton refused requests. The Guardian reports.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: Airbnb, Charlottetown Mall, Crapaud, Région Évangéline, seaweed pie

• CBC Prince Edward Island notes the proportionally extreme impact of Airbnb on the very tight housing market in Charlottetown.
• The Guardian notes the redevelopment of the Charlottetown Mall will see new stores and several hundred new housing units.
• Peter Rukavina reports on his successful electronic mapping of every building in the community of Crapaud.
• CBC Prince Edward Island notes that a move to amalgamate the predominantly Francophone and Acadian west-end Région Évangéline into a single municipality has halted.
• Atlas Obscura reports on the PEI dish of seaweed pie, made from Irish moss, once in the community of Miminegash and now available at the Canadian Potato Museum in O’Leary.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: MMP, election, Vaisakhi, apartments, cannonry

• In a guest opinion at The Guardian, Stephen DeGrace makes the argument for PEI to vote for a mixed-member proportional electoral system at the end of April.
• 14 thousand voters, 13% of the electorate, cast votes in the advance polling on PEI. CBC PEI reports.
• CBC PEI reports that the Sikh holiday of Vaisakhi was widely celebrated by the Island’s growing Sikh community.
• The Guardian notes the creation by Charlottetown of a registry of secondary and garden suites, the better to grapple with the housing crisis.
• Peter Rukavina links to Harry Holman’s blog post explaining why there is a cannon lodged in the sidewalk at Queen and Grafton.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Detroit, New York City, Mumbai, Stratford

• La Presse interviews one owner of a calèche, an iconic horse-and-carriage from Montréal, who claims that an impending ban will be devastating.
• blogTO notes the possibility, in the early 2020s, of a new passenger rail route connecting Toronto to Detroit.
• CityLab takes a look at The Shed, the performing arts centre in the controversial Manhattan development of Hudson Yards.
• Bloomberg makes the argument for India to create a purpose-built financial centre for Mumbai.
• Stu Neatby at The Guardian looks at the shortage of rental housing in the growing Charlottetown PE suburb of Stratford.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: PEI Greens, orchids, Sandstone Comics, PrEP, David Currie

• 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.