Research demonstrates that dogs, cats and others release the same hormone that humans do when they’re in love; a blond man once convinced British intellectuals he was Asian and had been kidnapped from Taiwan; to deal with the climate crisis, we have to change our way of thinking. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.

Dogs (and Cats) Can Love
Neurochemical research has shown that the hormone released when people are in love is released in animals in the same intimate circumstances.

The Fake ‘Asian’ Who Fooled 18th-Century London
George Psalmanazar, a blond-haired man with blue eyes, convinced English intellectuals that Jesuit priests had kidnapped him from the savage island of Taiwan.

Has Manhattan Become Too ‘Manhattanized’?
There’s a word to describe the worrying phenomenon of cities getting too dense and tall: Manhattanization.

A 2016 Olympic Aquatic Event Site Has 195 Times the Safe Amount of Sewage in the Water
Tall and tan and young and lovely, the girl from Ipanema goes … “Ew, what’s that smell?”

The Change Within: The Obstacles We Face Are Not Just External
The climate crisis has such bad timing, confronting it not only requires a new economy but a new way of thinking.

Academic Publishing: Something’s Gotta Change
Imagine you’d been told that the biggest name academic in a particular field had just published a new book. How much would you expect to pay to buy it?

What Use Is Playing the Long Game When the Arc of the Universe Feels So Frighteningly Short?
If you spend any time keeping up with the news on climate change, or even just looking at the occasional graph or two, it’s hard not to come to the reasoned, scientific conclusion that we are, in fact, totally fucked.