[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Dangerous Minds points readers to Cindy Sherman’s Instagram account. (“_cindysherman_”, if you are interested.)
• Language Hat takes note of a rare early 20th century Judaeo-Urdu manuscript.
• Language Log lists some of the many, many words and phrases banned from Internet usage in China.
• The argument made at Lawyers, Guns and Money about Trump’s many cognitive defects is frightening. How can he be president?
• The LRB Blog notes that many traditional Labour voters, contra fears, are in fact willing to vote for non-ethnocratic policies.
• The NYR Daily describes a book of photos with companion essays by Teju Cole that I like.
• Of course, as Roads and Kingdom notes, there is such a thing as pho craft beer in Vietnam.
• Peter Rukavina notes</a. the genetic history of mice in New York City and the beavers of Prince Edward Island.
• Towleroad notes a love duet between Kele Okereke and Olly Alexander.
• The Volokh Conspiracy seems unconvinced by the charges against Kronos programmer Marcus Hutchins.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links, from Ken Pagan to real estate to Leslie Street Spit to Blockobana

• This U>long-form CBC article looking at Ken Pagan, the man who became infamous through his beer can toss, has insight.
• I like Christopher Hume’s article describing changes of zoning around apartment highrises, to allow shops.
• John Lorinc’s suggestion that taxes collected from foreign buyers be put towards social housing is provocative.
• Robert Zunke is the man, sometime construction worker, assembling shrines on the Leslie Street spit.
• Torontoist describes Blockobana, the queer black space at this year’s Toronto Caribbean Festival.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Crooked Timber’s John Quiggin considers imaginable ways to get carbon dioxide in the atmosphere down to 350 ppm by 2100.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the tenuous nature of the upper-middle class in America. How is downwards mobility to be avoided, even here?
• Imageo shows the growth of a sunspot larger than the Earth.
• Language Hat shares the story of how Manchu script came to be.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that the working poor need protection from arbitrary and always-changing work schedules.
• The LRB Blog notes the geopolitical scramble at the Horn of Africa, starting with bases in Djibouti.
• The NYR Daily engages with an intriguing exhibition about the relationship between Henry James and paintings, and painting.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw engages with the classic 1937 Australian film, Lovers and Luggers.
• Noel Maurer at The Power and the Money notes that one benefit of the trend towards greater informality in fashion is that time has been freed up, especially for women.
• Peter Rukavina writes about his new Instagram account, hosting his various sketches.
• Unicorn Booty notes the continuing problems with Germany’s adoption laws for same-sex couples.
• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at how the Polish president saved the independence of Poland’s courts with his veto.
• Window on Eurasia suggests Russia is trying to mobilize the ethnic Russians of Lithuania, finally.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links, from Stepgate to Emanuel Jaques to mass transit

Torontoist’s feature on how Stepgate went viral internationally is a mustread.
• The National Post covers a disturbing report about claiming a police officer maimed a teenager. If the Toronto police have been actively trying to cover up criminal assault by one of their members …
• Global News notes that Metrolinx has opted to remove Bombardier for consideration in operating GO Transit.
• A high-speed ferry link between Toronto and Niagara–St. Catherine’s–is imaginable. Economically viable? The Globe and Mail reports.
• Simon Lewsen describes in The Globe and Mail how the 1977 murder of Emanuel Jaques led, eventually, to the transformation of Yonge Street.

[PHOTO] Four photo links: the perils of Instagram, doctored photos, pre-AIDS NYC and the Rust Belt

• I have limits as to what I will do to get a great photo. The limits of others may be more elastic, too much so even. VICE warns against this excessive dangerous.
• Lifehacker shares some quick tips to people looking for obvious signs of a photograph being doctored.
• These obviously NSFW photos from pre-AIDS New York City by Alvin Baltrop capture the ephemeral scene beautifully.
• Niko Kallianiotis’ photos of small-town Rust Belt Pennsylvania are evocative. I recognize this kind of landscape.

[NEWS] Seven links, from drugs in Germany to dolphin cuisine to dual nations in Australia

• Johann Hari writes for Open Democracy about what may be the beginning of the end of the drug war in Germany.
• I am not in agreement with Joseph Couture’s argument in NOW Toronto that the Internet has ended gay communities. (Convince me.)
• Samantha Edwards reports in NOW Toronto controversy regarding the Parkdale feminist street art event. Was it really intersectional?
• James Cooray Smith wonders–or “wonders”–why some Doctor Who fans are so upset with a woman portraying the Doctor.
• In MacLean’s, chief Perry Bellegarde argues that more Canadians should be concerned with the too-many deaths of young First Nations people in Thunder Bay.
• The National Post tells the story of how Australian senator Larissa Walters had to unexpectedly resign her position on account of her Canadian birth.
• Via James Nicoll, a paper claiming evidence of human presence in northern Australia, in Madjedbebe, 65k years ago.
• National Geographic tells of the peculiar way some Gulf of Mexico dolphins prepare their catfish. Is it cultural, culinary even?

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• io9 notes that Livejournal’s mascot Frank the Goat has made one last appearance, thanks to his creator.
• James Bow announces that, after a month of writing and family, he’s back to his blog.
• Joe. My. God. notes that the far-right AfD in Germany is trying to stop marriage equality.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money rightly does not understand what people mean by talking of a Trump administration “failing”. It can still wreak terrible damage.
• The Map Room Blog shares a lovely map of the Arctic circumpolar region of the Earth.
• Marginal Revolution notes that tourism has become the dominant growth sector of the Greek economy.
• Savage Minds shares Taylor R. Genovese essay invoking and exploring the magic and ritual of human spaceflight. (More to come.)
• Understanding Society considers and approves of the idea of a guaranteed minimum income, necessary supplement in a time of scarce good jobs.
• Unicorn Booty notes the many ways in which Trumpcare will leave queer LGBTQ people worse off.
• The Volokh Conspiracy’s Dale Carpenter again engages, after Texas’ ruling, with the idea of equality for all married couples.
• Window on Eurasia notes that only a small fraction of Russia’s planned spending on the Arctic has actually materialized.