[URBAN NOTE] Ten JSTOR Daily links (@jstor_daily)

• JSTOR Daily considers whether koalas are actually going extinct, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the life and accomplishments of Alexander Von Humboldt, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how a move to California doomed the Oneida Community, here.
• JSTOR Daily considers how the genetically diverse wild relatives of current crops could help our agriculture, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the devastating flood of Florence in 1966, here.
• JSTOR Daily points out there is no template for emotional intelligence, here.
• JSTOR Daily explores some remarkable lumpy pearls, here.
• JSTOR Daily notes an 1870 scare over the future of men, here.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the staging of war scenes for the 1945 documentary The Battle of San Pietro, here.
• JSTOR Daily considers the bioethics of growing human brains in a petri dish, here.

[CAT] Seven #caturday links: Lil Bub, Pallas cats, Smudge, adoptions, expressions

• This Wired obituary for Lil Bub, arguing that the time for the Internet to be a place fo whimsy is over, does make me sad.
• Norwegian forest cats look amazing! The Dockyards has photos.
• The Pallas cats newly in the Calgary Zoo are, rightfully, becoming big hits. Cottage Life has more.
• Ottawa cat Smudge, already a meme hit, has become a celebrity. CBC Ottawa has more.
• Unsurprisingly, cats bond with their owners in the same sort of way as dogs and even human infants. More here.
• Happily, record numbers of cats are being adopted from shelters, given new homes. Global News reports.
• Some few people are apparently good are deciphering the expressions of cats, 15% of the total in one study sample. VICE reports.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomy notes the very odd structure of galaxy NGC 2775.
• Dangerous Minds reports on the 1987 riot by punks that wrecked a Seattle ferry.
• Bruce Dorminey reports on a new suggestion from NASA that the massive dust towers of Mars have helped dry out that world over eons.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at how changing technologies have led to younger people spending more social capital on maintaining relationships with friends over family.
• This forum hosted at Gizmodo considers the likely future causes of death of people in coming decades.
• In Media Res’ Russell Arben Fox reports on the debate in Wichita on what to do with the Century II performance space.
• Joe. My. God. reports on the decision of Hungary to drop out of Eurovision, apparently because of its leaders’ homophobia.
• JSTOR Daily reports on the debunking of the odd theory that the animals and people of the Americas were degenerate dwarfs.
• Language Hat reports on how the classics can be served by different sorts of translation.
• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money considers how Trump’s liberation of war criminals relates to folk theories about just wars.
• The LRB Blog reports from the ground in the Scotland riding of East Dunbartonshire.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting that, contrary to much opinion, social media might actually hinder the spread of right-wing populism.
• The NYR Daily looks at the nature of the proxy fighters in Syria of Turkey. Who are they?
• Drew Rowsome interviews Sensational Sugarbum, star of–among other things–the latest Ross Petty holiday farce.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why we still need to be able to conduct astronomy from the Earth.
• Strange Maps explains the odd division of Europe between east and west, as defined by different subspecies of mice.
• Window on Eurasia notes how Chinese apparently group Uighurs in together with other Central Asians of similar language and religion.
• Arnold Zwicky explores the concept of onomatomania.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomer notes a new study explaining how climate change makes hurricanes more destructive.
• Centauri Dreams shares a mosaic photo of the sky with Alpha Centauri highlighted.
• The Crux shares a paper explaining why the bubonic plague rarely becomes mass epidemics like the Black Death of the 14th century.
• D-Brief notes the new ESA satellite ARIEL, which will be capable of determining of exoplanet skies are clear or not.
• Gizmodo consults different experts on the subject of smart drugs. Do they work?
• JSTOR Daily explains why Native Americans are so prominent in firefighting in the US Southwest.
• Language Log looks at evidence for the diffusion of “horse master” between speakers of ancient Indo-European and Sinitic languages.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the election of Chesa Boudin as San Francisco District Attorney.
• The LRB Blog considers the apparent pact between Farage and Johnson on Brexit.
• Marginal Revolution looks at a paper examining longer-run effects of the integration of the US military on racial lines in the Korean War.
• The NYR Daily looks at how Big Pharma in the US is trying to deal with the opioid epidemic.
• The Signal explains how the Library of Congress is expanding its collections of digital material.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains how future generations of telescopes will be able to directly measure the expansion of the universe.
• The Volokh Conspiracy explains why DACA, giving succor to Dreamers, is legal.
• Window on Eurasia notes that, after a century of tumult, the economy of Russia is back at the same relative ranking that it enjoyed a century ago.
• Arnold Zwicky reports on an old butch cookbook.

[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.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Anthrodendum features a guest post from editors introducing a series on fieldwork and trauma.
• Crooked Timber’s John Quiggin takes a stab at trying to define neoliberalism as an ideology, not just a catch-all phrase.
• The Crux looks at desalination, a difficult process that we may need to use regardless of its difficulty.
• D-Brief notes that narcissism is linked to lower levels of stress and depression.
• Jezebel notes the return and legacy of Bratz dolls.
• Joe. My. God. shares the Sam Smith cover of the Donna Summer classic “I Feel Love”, along with other versions of that song.
• JSTOR Daily considers if graphene will ever become commercially usable.
• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an analysis warning about commercial debt. Another 2008?
• Marginal Revolution points to some papers suggesting that cannabis usage does not harm cognition, that the relationship is if anything reversed.
• Daphne Merkin at the NYR Daily looks back at her literary life, noting people now gone.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the new Daniel MacIvor play Let’s Run Away.
• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at how the Trump Administration lost two cases against sanctuary cities.
• Window on Eurasia considers, briefly, the idea of Gorbachev giving to Germany Kaliningrad, last remnant of East Prussia.
• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative looks at the rises in health spending directed towards young people. Is this a warning sign of poor health?
• Arnold Zwicky looks at Gaysper, and then at other queer ghosts.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Citizen Science Salon highlights Australian Michelle Neil, here.
• Ingrid Robeyns argues at Crooked Timber that the idea of punitive taxation of the superrich is hardly blasphemous.
• The Crux looks at the ongoing debate over the age of the rings of Saturn.
• io9 notes the sad death of Aron Eisenberg, the actor who brought the character of Nog to life on DS9.
• JSTOR Daily shares a debate on the ego and the id, eighty years later.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Mitch McConnell may have started the movement of Elizabeth Warren towards the US presidency.
• The Map Room Blog takes a look at the credible and consistent mapping of Star Wars’ galaxy.
• The NYR Daily looks at Springsteen at 70 as a performer.
• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of a New England forest in fall.
• The Volokh Conspiracy notes a sticker that straddles the line between anti-Muslim sentiment and misogyny, trying to force people to choose.
• Window on Eurasia notes the strong anti-Russian sentiment prevailing in once-independent Tuva.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• 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.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports suggestions the bizarre happenings at Boyajian’s Star could be explained by an evaporating exomoon.
• Centauri Dreams looks at how the crowdsourced evScope telescope is being used to support the Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojans.
• The Crux explains the phenomenon of misophobia.
• D-Brief shares suggestions that an asteroid collision a half-billion years ago released clouds of dust that, reaching Earth, triggered the mid-Ordovician ice age.
• Dangerous Minds shares video of a perhaps underwhelming meeting of William Burroughs with Francis Bacon.
• io9 makes the case for more near-future space exploration movies like Ad Astra.
• Joe. My. God. notes a Trump retweeting of the lie that Ilham Omar celebrated on 9/11.
• JSTOR Daily notes how fire could destroy the stressed rainforest of the Amazon.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how few judges in the US have been impeached.
• The LRB Blog looks at how the already tenuous position of Haitians in the Bahamas has been worsened by Dorian.
• The Map Room Blog looks at the importance of the integrity of official maps in the era of Trump.
• Marginal Revolution looks at the political importance of marriage ceremonies in Lebanon and Gaza.
• Drew Rowsome interviews the Zakar Twins on the occasion of their new play Pray the Gay Away, playing in Toronto in October.
• The Russian Demographic Blog shares statistics on birthrates in the different provinces of the Russian Empire circa 1906.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on the first experiment done on the photoelectric effect, revealing quantum mechanics.
• Window on Eurasia looks at growing anti-Chinese sentiments in Central Asia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at “The Hurtful Dog”, a Cyanide and Happiness cartoon.

[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?