[PHOTO] Broken streetcar shelter at Yonge and College

The TTC streetcar shelter at Yonge and Carlton, opposite College Park, saw some vandalism late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, when someone broke a panel of glass in the shelter all over the street and sidewalk.

[PHOTO] The flags of Canada's provinces and territories, Borden-Carleton

The flags of all 13 of Canada's provinces and territories, alongside the flag of Canada itself, fly next to the on ramp for the Confederation Bridge in Borden-Carleton.

[BLOG] Some space-related links

• Anders Sandberg notes how the book and film 2001 are touchstones still for what we might fear of our future.


• Centauri Dreams touched on quite a few issues while I was offline, noting a proposed solar-sail probe to Halley's Comet, notes the positive implications of geysers and liquid water for life on Enceladus, notes the exceptional distance of exoplanet Kepler-421b from its star and precisely measures the size and orbit of Kepler-93b and looks at the dryness of hot Jupiters and studies the misaligned gas discs of the stars of binary HK Tauri, and looks at ways to keep Earth-like planets orbiting red dwarfs habitable for hundreds of billions of years.
  
• The Dragon's Gaze notes that Gliese 1214b is an evaporating hot Neptune, looks at the search for rogue exoplanets in the Pleiades, mourns the non-existence of Gliese 581g and Gliese 481d, points to evidence that X-ray source IGR J17361-4441 was blocked partially and briefly by an exoplanet, looks at the search of exoplanets around nearbuy red dwarf stars, links to a reexamination of some Kepler exoplanet candidates and their stars by the Hubble space telescope, and notes that most worlds more than 1.6 times the radius of Earth are likely to be Neptunes.


• At The Dragon's Tales, the planet-reshaping impacts of the Late Heavy Bombardment on the early Earth are noted, as are forces acting on solar sails, as is a proposal to use the Voyager 1 spacecraft's movements and signals to look for distant planets, as is a paper suggesting that Titan's inner sea is as salty as the Earth's.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes (1, 2, 3) the Rosetta spacecraft's rendezvous with its target comet, notes a conference examining the habitability of Mars, looks at an odd mountain on Vesta, and links to an inventive revisiting of Venera images of the Venus surface.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell celebrates the ESA's Georges Lemaître ATV, named after a Belgian cosmologist of note.

[BLOG] Some politics-related links

• 3 Quarks Daily links to an essayist wondering why people talked about Gaza not the Yezidis as a way to dismiss Gaza.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly notes how Americans subsidize Walmart's low wages by givibng its employees benefits.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that Chinese plans to reforest Tibet could accelerate the dessication of its watershed since trees suck up water, observes the existence of a new Chinese ICBM and links to a report of a Chinese drone, notes that the ecologies of Europe are especially vulnerable to global warming owing to their physical fragmentation, and notes that Canadian-Mexican relations aren't very friendly.


• Eastern Approaches notes Russia's reaction to the shootdown of the MH17 flight over eastern Ukraine and observes the issues with Poland's coal industry.


• Geocurrents' Martin Lewis calls for American military intervention to protect the Yezidis from genocide.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the plight of the Yezidi, examines the undermining of liberal Zionism, wonders how Russian relations with Southeast Asia will evolve, and after noting the sympathy of some Americans on the left for Russia analyses the consequences of a Russian-Ukrainian war.


• Marginal Revolution wonders if Russia's food import ban is a sign of a shift to a cold war mentality, notes the collapse of the Ukrainian economy, wonders about the strategy of Hamas, and comments on the weakness of the economy of Ghana.


• The New APPS Blog comments on the implications of the firing of American academic Steven Salaita for his blog posts.


• The Pagan Prattle looks at allegations of extensive coverups of pedophilia in the United Kingdom.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw notes the decreasing dynamism of the ageing Australia economy.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer doesn't think there's much of a crisis in Argentina following the debt default, notes ridiculous American efforts to undermine Cuba that just hurt Cubans, examines implications of energy reform and property rights in Mexico, has a good strategy shared with other for dealing with the Islamic State.


• Understanding Society's Daniel Little contends with Tyler Cowen's arguments about changing global inequality, and studies the use of mechanisms in international relations theory.


• The Volokh Conspiracy touches upon Palestine's case at the ICC against Israel, looks at Argentina's debt default, and wonders if Internet domain names are property.


• Window on Eurasia has a huge set of links, pointing to the rivalry of Russian Jewish organizations in newly-acquired Crimea, looking at Ukrainian ethnic issues in Russia, suggests that the Donbas war is alienating many Ukrainians in the east from Russia, notes Islamization in Central Asia, suggests that Russia under sanctions could become as isolated as the former SOviet Union, suggests Ukrainian refugees are being settled in non-Russian republics, wonders if Ukraine and Georgia and Moldova will join Turkey as being perennial EU candidates, suggests that Belarusians are divided and claims that Belarusian national identity is challenging Russian influence, looks at the spread of Ukrainian nationalism among Russophones, looks at the consequences of Kurdish independence for the South Caucasus, and notes that one-tenth of young Russians are from the North Caucasus or descend from the region.

[BLOG] Some culture-related links

• James Bow celebrates his fourth published novel.


• blogTO celebrates WiFi in Bay station and shares old pictures of the Junction.


• Speed River Journal's Van Waffle examines the question of what caused new pollution in Lake Erie.


• Spacing Toronto examines again the controversy over a billboard apparently unauthorized at Bathuest and Davenport.


• Torontoist links to a project mapping specific songs to specific places on the map of Toronto, observes after Cheri DiNovo turmoil in the post-election Ontario NDP, and notes Dr. Barnardo's Home Children as well as the complex life of possibly-lesbian Mazo de la Roche.


• Transit Toronto's James Bow approves of Steve Munro's post suggesting that underfunding and neglect will soon cause serious harm to the TTC and its riders.

[BLOG] Some Canada-related links

• James Bow celebrates his fourth published novel.


• blogTO celebrates WiFi in Bay station and shares old pictures of the Junction.


• Speed River Journal's Van Waffle examines the question of what caused new pollution in Lake Erie.


• Spacing Toronto examines again the controversy over a billboard apparently unauthorized at Bathuest and Davenport.Torontoist links to a project mapping specific songs to specific places on the map of Toronto, observes after Cheri DiNovo turmoil in the post-election Ontario NDP, and notes Dr. Barnardo's Home Children as well as the complex life of possibly-lesbian Mazo de la Roche.


• Transit Toronto's James Bow approves of Steve Munro's post suggesting that underfunding and neglect will soon cause serious harm to the TTC and its riders.