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- Guelph will be holding an open house to see what development will replace the Dolime Quarry. Global News reports.
- The town of Innisfil has extended its Uber subsidy program for people in need of transit. Global News reports
- Archeologists in Montréal have found a mass grave of Irish famine victims. CTV reports.
- The Québec town of Asbestos is changing its name so as to avoid the link, in English, with the toxic mineral. CTV reports.
- A subway, alas, would be too big for Québec City. Streetcars would work better. Le Devoir reports.
- Can a hyperloop be built to plug Edmonton together with Calgary? Global News considers.
- Richmond, British Columbia, has unveiled a cultural harmony strategy to help its diverse population get along. The National Post reports.
- People in Montréal will have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to walk over the Champlain Bridge, scheduled for demolition in the near future. Global News reports.
- The Conversation looks at the mass tourism, after Joker, directed towards a flight of stairs in The Bronx, and what this means for cities.
- CityLab notes the deep upset of the numerous and influential Kurds of Nashville with Trump.
- CityLab looks at how a Chicago magazine reflects the gentrification of large parts of that metropolis.
- Guardian Cities takes a look at what maps of Victorian London, mapping disparities of wealth and social dysfunction, reveal about the city now.
[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links
Nov. 2nd, 2019 06:32 pm- Jamie Bradburn shares photos from his neighbourhood's East Lynn Pumpkin Parade, here.
- Sidewalk Labs is going to release details of all the data it wants to collect. The Toronto Star reports.
- NOW Toronto reports on the controversy in the NDP riding association for Parkdale-High Park over the nomination, here.
- There is a napping studio in Toronto, offering people the chance to nap for 25 minutes at $10 per nap. The National Post reports.
- CBC reports on a film about Little Jamaica, a neighbourhood along Eglinton Avenue West that might be transformed out of existence, here
- Daily Xtra looks at the legacy of the Meghan Murphy visit to Toronto.
- Spacing notes that the Toronto Reference Library has a large collection of Communist newspapers available for visitors.
- The idea of Metrolinx paying for the repair of damaged Eglinton Avenue does make a lot of intuitive sense. CBC reports.
Tags:
- CTV News notes that election day is here in Canada.
- CTV News shares a list of answers to frequently asked questions about #elxn43 requirements.
- Philippe Fournier at MacLean's notes that #elxn43 is shaping to be perhaps the most uncertain federal election in Canada since 1979, at least.
- Kai Cheng Thom at Daily Xtra addresses the despair of a voter wondering if they should vote at all. Even in dark times, there must be some room for hope, for creative responses.
- Andrew Coyne at the National Post points out the obvious, that Canadians should not feel smug about dysfunction in the US and Britain.
- Chris Selley at the National Post argues against electoral reform.
- CBC shares stories of Syrian refugees, now citizens, voting for the first time in #elxn43.
- The diffusion of extremist sentiments in Canada in the past few years is a real concern. NOW Toronto has it.
- This CBC opinion suggests that expatriates from Canada, non-resident in the country, should not have a right to vote.
- Andrew Scheer, once notable for his vocal support for Brexit, is now much quieter about the issue. CBC reports.
- Peter Henderson at NOW Toronto argues that Ed the Sock has become the voice of a responsible conservatism.
- The claims of Andrew Scheer that the political party that wins the most seats gets to form the government in the Canadian system are obviously wrong. Global News has it.
- Who, exactly, forms the middle class in Canada, that demographic that Trudeau and Scheer have been claiming to address? CBC reports.
- Why not build a public beach in the Montréal neighbourhood of Lachine? Global News considers.
- The Vietnamese cuisine of New Orleans does look good. VICE reports.
- CityLab describes an effort to build a smart city in Berlin, in Siemensstadt. I wish Berliners better outcomes than what Toronto seems to be getting in the Port Lands.
- Guardian Cities reports on what seems to me to be a terrible plan to flood the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf in Turkey for dams.
- Saša Petricic at CBC looks at how the political consensus in Hong Kong has broken down, perhaps irretrievably.
Tags:
- Drew Rowsome reviews the offerings at the Toronto Queer Theatre Festival, here.
- blogTO notes the displeasure of the Junction at the removal of a wooden train platform, become a community hub, for condo construction.
- Bloor West Village, blogTO notes, hosts a museum--newly reopened in a new location--devoted to the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.
- Jamie Bradburn looks at vintage Toronto ads, these from the parties contending 1926 federal election.
- In this long-form CBC feature, Ioanna Roumeliotis writes about the new things the TTC is doing to try to prevent suicides on the subway tracks.
- Dangerous Minds shares vintage demo recordings from Lee Hazlewood, here.
- NOW Toronto looks at the influence of the Massive Attack album Mezzanine on the Toronto music scene, here.
- NOW Toronto reviews the new Lana del Rey album, Norman Fucking Rockwell.
- NOW Toronto looks at the One Love Festival, expanding the connections of the Toronto scene to Caribbean music.
- Towleroad shares a lyric video for the new Pet Shop Boys single "Dreamland", with Olly Alexander of Years and Years.
- Tracey Lindeman writes at CityLab about how Montréal is trying to keep the redevelopment of the Molson-Coors Brewery site from killing the Centre-Sud.
- In the Montréal neighbourhood of Park-Extension, evictions--renovictions, even--are on the rise. Global News reports.
- Lac-Mégantic now has a train depot that bypasses the heart of this traumatized community. CBC Montreal reports.
- Halifax is now celebrating the Mosaic Festival, celebrating its diversity. Global News reports.
- Jill Croteau reports for Global News about Club Carousel, an underground club in Calgary that played a vital role in that city's LGBTQ history.
- This business plan, aiming to bypass long lineups at the Edmonton outpost of the Jollibee chain, is ingenious. Global News reports.
- The Iowa town of Pacific Junction, already staggering, may never recover from a recent bout of devastating flooding. VICE reports.
- Avery Gregurich writes for CityLab about the Illinois town of Atlas, a crossroads seemingly on the verge of disappearing from Google Maps.
- The proposal for Metropica, a new sort of suburb in Florida, certainly looks interesting. VICE reports.
- Guardian Cities shares a cartoon looking affectionately at Lisbon.
Tags:
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Aug. 29th, 2019 10:04 am- The Buzz shares a TIFF reading list, here.
- Centauri Dreams notes the growing sensitivity of radial velocity techniques in finding weird exoplanet HR 5183 b, here.
- The Crux reports on circumgalactic gas and the death of galaxies.
- Dead Things notes the import of the discovery of the oldest known Australopithecine skull.
- Dangerous Minds reports on pioneering 1930s queer artist Hannah Gluckstein, also known as Gluck.
- Gizmodo notes that, for an unnamed reason, DARPA needs a large secure underground testing facility for tomorrow.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how Jim Crow laws affected Mexican immigrants in the early 20th century US.
- Language Hat looks at a new project to study Irish texts and language over centuries.
- Language Log shares some Chinglish signs from a top university in China.
- Lawyers, Guns and Money shares an interview with Jeffrey Melnick suggesting Charles Manson was substantially a convenient boogeyman.
- Marginal Revolution shares a paper suggesting marijuana legalization is linked to declining crime rates.
- Susan Neiman at the NYR Daily tells how she began her life as a white woman in Atlanta and is ending it as a Jewish woman in Berlin.
- The Planetary Society Blog looks at Hayabusa2 at Ryugu.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel celebrated the 230th anniversary of Enceladus, the Saturn moon that might harbour life.
- Window on Eurasia notes how global warming is harming the rivers of Siberia, causing many to run short.
Tags:
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- berlin,
- blogs,
- books,
- california,
- china,
- chinese language,
- crime,
- diaspora,
- enceladus,
- english language,
- environment,
- evolution,
- extraterrestrial life,
- germany,
- glbt issues,
- global warming,
- health,
- history,
- ireland,
- japan,
- judaism,
- language,
- libraries,
- links,
- mexico,
- migration,
- oceans,
- oddities,
- popular culture,
- popular literature,
- primates,
- public art,
- racism,
- russia,
- saturn,
- siberia,
- sociology,
- space science,
- united states
- The BBC takes a look at Pontic Greek, a Greek dialect that survives precariously in exile from its homeland in Anatolia.
- Klaus Meyer writes at The Conversation about how Hitler, in his rise to power, became a German citizen.
- Low-income families in the Toronto area face serious challenges in getting affordable Internet access. CBC reports.
- Jeremy Keefe at Global News takes a look at Steve Skafte, an explorer of abandoned roads in Nova Scotia.
- In some communities in British Columbia, middle-class people have joined criminal gangs for social reasons. CBC reports.
- Peterborough is facing a serious shortage of housing. Global News reports.
- In Kingston, the restoration of the Bellevue House that was home to John A MacDonald continues. Global News reports.
- The federal government will provide funding for the new streetcar route in Québec City. CTV News reports.
- Will the Detroit television documentary series filmed by Anthony Bourdain see a release? One hopes.
- Richmond, a Vancouver suburb home for decades to a substantial diaspora from Hong Kong, is deeply affected by the ongoing protests there. The Toronto Star reports.
[BLOG] Some Monday links
Jun. 17th, 2019 02:49 pm- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Westerlund-1, a massive star cluster with many bright stars in our galaxy.
- Centauri Dreams notes a finding that giant planets like Jupiter are less likely to be found around Sun-like stars.
- D-Brief notes how, in a time of climate change, birds migrated between Canada and the equator.
- Bruce Dorminey lists five overlooked facts about the Apollo 11 mission.
- The Dragon's Tales notes that the US House of Representatives has approved the creation of a US Space Corps analogous to the Marines.
- JSTOR Daily considers tactics to cure groupthink.
- Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution, looking at the experience of Hong Kong, observes how closely economic freedoms depend on political freedom and legitimacy.
- Casey Dreier at the Planetary Society Blog explains his rationale for calculating that the Apollo project, in 2019 dollars, cost more than $US 700 billion.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the star R136a1, a star in the 30 Doradus cluster in the Large Magellanic Cloud that is the most massive star known to exist.
- Window on Eurasia notes how Circassians in Syria find it very difficult to seek refuge in their ancestral lands in the North Caucasus.
- Arnold Zwicky looks, in occasionally NSFW detail, at the importance of June the 16th for him as a date.
- This 2013 Toronto Guardian article explains how the Korean community in Toronto can trace its origins to early 20th century missionaries from Canada.
- At Spacing, Daniel Panneton writes about the rise of fascism in Italian Toronto and the very different reactions to this ideology's rise.
- CBC Toronto reports on the popular new app Irish App-roved, aimed at helping new immigrants from Ireland get oriented in Toronto.
- Jacob Lorinc at the Toronto Star tells the story of Albino Carreira, a Portuguese-Canadian construction worker disabled by a construction incident in the 1990s who went on to whimsically decorate his Clinton Street home and his bug-covered van.
- The growing racialization of poverty in Toronto is a huge ongoing concern. The Toronto Star reports.
- This Shane Mitchell op-ed at Spacing warns about how plans for a new hospital in Windsor can threaten to promote sprawl.
- Debates over bike traffic laws are ongoing in Calgary. Global News reports.
- Guardian Cities looks at how the downtown of the French city of Mulhouse has been successfully regenerated.
- Guardian Cities looks at how the infamous housing estate of Scampia outside of Naples, famously derelict and a nexus for crime, is finally being torn down.
- Atlas Obscura notes an Armenian church in Dhaka, last remnant of a once-vast Armenian trading diaspora that extended out to Bengal.
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- Two British tourists were kicked out of their Niagara Falls hotel for supporting striking workers at an attached restaurant. CBC reports.
- Members of different Christian minorities from the Middle East living in London, Ontario, have united to create a new community church. CBC reports.
- Le Devoir looks at how Québec City is torn by a debate: Should it build a streetcar or a subway?
- The British Columbia city of surrey is currently rounding up its rogue peacocks. Global News reports.
- Guardian Cities reports on how the Japanese city of Onagawa, hit by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, is trying to rebuild without sprawl.
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- 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.
[BLOG] Some Thursday links
Mar. 28th, 2019 02:30 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait argues that the new American plan to put people on the Moon in 2024 is unlikely to succeed in that timeframe.
- The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly considers whether or not women should travel alone, for safety reasons. (That choice is one I've not had to make myself, thanks to my male privilege; I'm very sorry others have to consider this.)
- Centauri Dreams shares the thinking of Gregory Benford on Lurkers, self-replicating probes produced by another civilization not signaling their existence to Earth.
- Maria Farrell at Crooked Timber argues that policy-making these days is often fundamentally ill-conceived, closing off possibilities for the future.
- The Crux notes the remarkable powers of beet juice, as a tonic for athletes for instance.
- D-Brief looks at the slot canyons of Titan, bearing similarities in structure and perhaps origin to like structures in Utah.
- Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina, celebrating five years of blogging, links to his ten most popular posts.
- Gizmodo notes the creation for a list of nearly two thousand nearby stars that the TESS planet-hunter might target for a search for Earth-like worlds.
- Joe. My. God. notes that the Austrian president has confirmed the New Zealand shooter has made a financial donation to a far-right group in Austria.
- JSTOR Daily looks at Inge Lehmann, the scientist who determined the nature of the inner core of the Earth.
- Language Hat reports on a new scholarly publication, hundreds of pages long, gathering together the curses and profanities of the Middle East and North Africa.
- Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not seem impressed by the argument of Mike Lee that pronatalism is a good response to global warming.
- The Map Room Blog notes the impressive maps of Priscilla Spencer, created for fantasy books.
- Marginal Revolution links to a paper that examines the positions of Jews in the economies of eastern Europe, as a "rural service minority".
- The Russian Demographics Blog links to a paper noting the ways in which increased human development has, and has not, led to convergence in family structures around the world.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains how, despite the expanding universe, we can still see very distant points.
- Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps reports on the recent mistakes made by Google Maps in Japan.
- Yorkshire Ranter Alexander Harrowell explains why the United Kingdom, after Brexit, does not automatically become a member of the European Economic Area.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the different factors, often unrecognized, going onto the formation of nonsense names, like those of the characters from Lilo and Stitch.
Tags:
- agriculture,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- clash of ideologies,
- demographics,
- diaspora,
- earth,
- economics,
- european union,
- extraterrestrial intelligence,
- food,
- futurology,
- gender,
- globalization,
- google,
- health,
- humour,
- japan,
- judaism,
- language,
- links,
- medicine,
- middle east,
- moon,
- north africa,
- politics,
- popular literature,
- science,
- separatism,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- space science,
- space travel,
- terrorism,
- tourism,
- travel,
- united kingdom
- A formal inquest into the stage collapse that killed one person at a Radiohead concert at Downsview Park in 2012 is only now taking off. CBC reports.
- The May opening of a new exhibit of Robert Mapplethorpe's work at the Olga Korper Gallery, reported by NOW Toronto, is very exciting.
- blogTO notes a new graphic novel to be put out by Dirty Water Comics dealing with the anti-Semitic Christie Pits Riot of 1933.
- Queen Video's last location, in the Annex, is finally closing, with plenty of its titles now available to be bought before it shutters its doors at the end of April. Global News reports.
- NOW Toronto reports on Museum II, a show part of the Myseum Intersections Festival looking at the impact of war and trauma on spaces.
- Karon Liu, writing at the Toronto Star, explores with WeChat influencer Joanna Luo a whole universe of Chinese restaurants and social networking that was almost unknown to many Torontonians like myself.
- Montréal may yet get a new park to commemorate victims of the Irish famine of the 1840s. CTV reports.
- CityLab reports on the new spectacular Hudson Yards development in Manhattan.
- The nightclubs of Atlanta in the 1990s played a critical role in that decade's hip-hop. VICE reports.
- CityLab reports that, dealing with a housing crisis, city authorities in Barcelona have taken to finding the owners of empty buildings.
- Guardian Cities reports on how civic authorities in Copenhagen hope to create an offshore archipelago, a sort of floating Silicon Valley.
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[BLOG] Some Tuesday links
Mar. 19th, 2019 12:22 pm- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes new evidence that the Pathfinder probe landed, on Mars, on the shores of an ancient sea.
- The Crux reports on tholins, the organic chemicals that are possible predecessors to life, now found in abundance throughout the outer Solar System.
- D-Brief reports on the hard work that has demonstrated some meteorites which recently fell in Turkey trace their origins to Vesta.
- Colby King at the Everyday Sociology Blog explores sociologist Eric Klinenberg's concept of social infrastructure, the public spaces we use.
- Far Outliers reports on a Honolulu bus announcement in Yapese, a Micronesian language spoken by immigrants in Hawai'i.
- JSTOR Daily considers the import of the autobiography of Catherine the Great.
- Language Hat reports, with skepticism, on the idea of "f" and "v" as sounds being products of the post-Neolithic technological revolution.
- Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen is critical of the idea of limiting the number of children one has in a time of climate change.
- Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections reflects on death, close at hand and in New Zealand.
- Strange Company reports on the mysterious disappearance, somewhere in Anatolia, of American cyclist Frank Lenz in 1892, and its wider consequences.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel identifies five types of cosmic events capable of triggering mass extinctions on Earth.
- Towleroad reports on the frustration of many J.K. Rowling fans with the author's continuing identification of queer histories for characters that are never made explicit in books or movies.
- Window on Eurasia has a skeptical report about a Russian government plan to recruit Russophones in neighbouring countries as immigrants.
- Arnold Zwicky explores themes of shipwrecks and of being shipwrecked.
Tags:
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- bicycles,
- blogs,
- cycling,
- demographics,
- diaspora,
- disasters,
- evolution,
- extraterrestrial life,
- feminism,
- gender,
- glbt issues,
- hawaii,
- in memoriam,
- language,
- links,
- mars,
- micronesia,
- migration,
- oceans,
- oddities,
- ottoman empire,
- pacific islands,
- public art,
- russia,
- russian language,
- social sciences,
- sociology,
- solar system,
- space science,
- terrorism,
- vesta,
- writing
