[NEWS] Five links about Canada and the future: Olympics, politics, demographics, Elizabeth II

• The Conversation suggests that blaming the 1976 Montréal Olympics for the reluctance of Canada to host an Olympics should stop.
• Is it possible that a Conservative majority government could be plausibly achieved by a breakthrough in Québec? Phiippe J. Fournier at MacLean’s considers.
• A Conservative majority government, again, is perfectly imaginable. MacLean’s reports.
• Don Pittis at CBC notes how worker shortages in Canada are leading to rising wages, in at least some areas.
• What will happen, in Canada and elsewhere, when Queen Elizabeth II dies? MacLean’s speculates.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams notes the astounding precision of the new Habitable Planet Finder telescope.
• D-Brief notes that the lack of small craters on Pluto and Charon suggests there are not many small bodies in the Kuiper Belt.
• Far Outliers notes the many and widely varying transliterations of Bengali to English.
• JSTOR Daily notes the extent to which border walls represent, ultimately, a failure of politics.
• Language Log examines the emergence of the Germanic languages in the depths of prehistory.
• Anna Aslanyan at the LRB Blog considers the eternal search for a universal language.
• Noah Smith shareshis Alternative Green New Deal Plan at his blog, one that depends more on technology and market forces than the original.
• Mitchell Abidor at the NYR Daily writes about the incisive leftism of journalist Victor Sorge.
• Out There notes the reality that the worlds of our solar system, and almost certainly other systems, are united by a constant stream of incoming rocks.
• At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla examines the data transmitted back by OSIRIS-REx from that probe’s Earth flyby.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel examines cosmic conditions at the time the solar system formed 4.56 billion or so years ago.
• Towleroad notes the censorship of many explicitly gay scenes from Bohemian Rhapsody in its Chinese release.
• Window on Eurasia looks at the many ways in which the social norms of North Caucasian men are converging with those of the average Russian.
• On St. David’s Day, Arnold Zwicky pays tribute to the daffodil and to the Welsh.

[NEWS] Five LGBT links: Freddie Mercury, Carly Rae Jepsen, Craig Russell, Toronto police, Pride

• This Daily Xtra article makes the case for Freddie Mercury as a radical, queer, brown icon.
• This CBC Arts article features six men talking about why Carly Rae Jepsen can claim such a strong fanbase in queer audiences.
• CBC Arts reintroduces readers to Canada’s first drag superstar, Craig Russell.
• Carolyn Strange at The Conversation looks at the background, recent and otherwise, behind tensions between Toronto LGBTQ communities and the police, rooted in the neglect and outright criminality of the police.
• Dorianne Emmerton at Daily Xtra argues that the Pride Toronto organization may be coming to a natural end, as its financial dependency on politicized funding means that it can no longer speak to the needs of queer and trans communities.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• The Buzz celebrates Esi Edugyan’s winning of the Giller Prize for the second time, for her amazing novel Washington Black.
• Centauri Dreams notes the unusual rings of outer-system body Chariklo.
• The Crux looks at the long history of unsuccessful planet-hunting at Barnard’s Star, concentrating on the disproved mid-20th century work of Peter Van De Kamp.
• D-Brief notes evidence that Mars knew catastrophic floods that radically reshaped its surface.
• Bruce Dorminey visits and explores Korea’s ancient Cheomseongdae Observatory.
• The Everyday Sociology Blog notes the death of long-time contributor Peter Kaufman.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing considers the things–quiet, even–that modernity can undermine before transforming into a commodity.
• Imageo notes that global warming has continued this American Thanksgiving.
• Joe. My. God. notes the sour grapes of the Family Research Council at the success of the moving film about “gay conversion therapy”, Boy Erased.
• JSTOR Daily links to a paper considering if the zeitgeist of the world is into major monuments.
• Language Log considers a news report of “arsehole” geese in Australia. As a Canadian, all I can say is that geese are birds that know they are dinosaurs.
• The LRB Blog reports from the scene of the recent unrecognized elections in the city of Donetsk, run by a pro-Russian regime.
• The Map Room Blog reports on how Atlas Obscura is exhibiting some amazing maps produced in Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper noting how black teachers can help boost achievements among black students.
• The New APPS Blog looks at how the political economy of our time combines with social media to atomize and fragment society.
• Nicholas Lezard at the NYR Daily talks about his experience of anti-Semitism, as a non-Jew, in the United Kingdom.
• Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog suggests families would do better to talk about space at Thanksgiving than about politics, and shares a list of subjects.
• Drew Rowsome talks about the frustrations and the entertainment involved with Bohemian Rhapsody.
• Window on Eurasia notes that fifty thousand ethnic Kyrgyz are being held in the Xinjiang camps of China.
• Arnold Zwicky shares some Thanksgiving holiday cartoons by Roz Chast.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Ontario PCs, Bohemian Rhapsody, Scott Thompson, Internet, Check Please!

• Ontario PCs have shamefully voted in favour of no longer recognizing gender identity. If this party, forming a government that has already invoked the notwithstanding clause, tries anything else against transgender people, let the fight start. Global News reports.
• The essay of Peter Knegt at CBC Arts highlighting problems of queer representation in Bohemian Rhapsody needs to be read. Why is so much of the queer content fictionally represented as negative?
• Peter Knegt at CBC Arts points out that Scott Thompson deserves to be recognized as a Canadian treasure.
• This Jon Shadel essay at them exploring how the Internet opened up new channels for communication and self-identification as a queer person speaks deeply to me.
• The Houston Chronicle explores Check Please, Ngozi Ukazu’s fantastic queer hockey webcomic.

[CAT] Five cat links: homophobia, perfume, tiger genetics, Japan, Freddie Mercury

• Bored Panda shares the story of a gay man in London apparently turned down as a prospective cat dad because of his sexual orientation.
• JSTOR Daily, reporting from the search for a man-eating tiger in India, notes that some perfumes apparently attract big cats (and small ones?).
• D-Brief notes findings from researchers in cat genetics that six different subspecies of tigers exist in the world today.
• Quartzy notes the story of two cats who have been trying to get into a Japanese art museum for two years.
• Vanity Fair notes how Freddie Mercury was terribly fond of his cats, devoting songs and albums to them, even.

[MUSIC] Queen, “The Show Must Go On”

Today, the news feeds remind us, marks the 25th anniversary of the death, of HIV/AIDS, Freddie Mercury. He was an inimitable talent, the vocals of one of his final songs, 1991’s “The Show Must Go On” proving this for posterity.

Mercury sings such potent lyrics so well.

Whatever happens, I’ll leave it all to chance
Another heartache – another failed romance, on and on
Does anybody know what we are living for?
I guess I’m learning
I must be warmer now
I’ll soon be turning, round the corner now
Outside the dawn is breaking
But inside in the dark I’m aching to be free!

We are all the poorer for his absence from the world.