[PHOTO] Shakespeare, regarding

[PHOTO] E Condos at street level, Yonge and Eglinton

Construction at the E Condos site at Yonge and Eglinton continues. Progress has been made since my photo post of the 5th of June.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Antipope's Charlie Stross fears the arrival of fascism in Britain after the murder of Jo Cox.


• Centauri Dreams reports on SDSSJ1043+0855, a white dwarf apparently consuming a rocky planet.


• The Crux notes discussion of terraforming Mars.


• The Dragon's Tales notes the revealing result of a study of the crops that ancient Indonesians brought to Madagascar.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog considers hierarchy has manifested in a dance competition being filmed for television.


• The LRB Blog considers the state of Algerian and Arab-language literature.


• The Map Room Blog maps migrant deaths in the Mediterranean.


• Marginal Revolution notes the collapse of coal companies in the United States.


• The Power and the Money notes that Puerto Rico is not a colony of the United States.


• Savage Minds considers at length the situation of Crimea and of Crimean Tatars.


• Window on Eurasia wonders if the West is forgetting about Ukraine.

[NEWS] Some Saturday links

• Bloomberg notes Venezuela's hopes for an oil price at $US 50, looks at Labour keeping the current London mayor's seat, observes the vulnerability of Afghan refugees in Pakistan, and warns of a possible drought in the US Corn Belt.


• Bloomberg View notes the continuing fragmentation of the Orthodox Church, and suggests Putin might accept a partial ban on Russian athletes at the Olympics.


• CBC looks at Russia's state-supported soccer hooliganism.


• MacLean's notes Florida theme parks' concerns re: alligator attacks, and notes how homophobia complicates the grieving process for survivors of the Orlando shooting victims.


• National Geographic looks at the logic chopping behind South Korea's whale hunt, and observes that some coral reefs have coped.


• The National Post notes Russia's professed interest in improved relations with Canada.


• Open Democracy frames the Orlando shooting in the context of an international campaign by ISIS.


• The Toronto Star suggests Portugal's decriminalization of drugs is a model for Canada.

[URBAN NOTE] "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paddles the Rouge in Scarborough"

The Scarborough River reports on the visit of the prime minister and his family to the Rouge Park. I really do have to go see it. (Also, I'm sure his unspoken invocation of the image of his father the canoeist is at least partly intentional.)

"You elected a paddler as your prime minister."

Justin Trudeau stood in Scarborough's Rouge Park, just before canoes were to hit the water in the third-annual Paddle the Rouge fundraiser, and praised his government's recent move to protect the park.

"It's pretty amazing, It's something that needs protecting," he said.

"We introduced legislation to the Rouge National Urban Park act, changes that will see ecological integrity as the top priority" for the park, Trudeau said.

He was referring to his Liberal government's rewriting of the law governing the park, announced last week by federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.

[URBAN NOTE] "TTC launches new 514 Cherry St. streetcar route"

The Toronto Star's Brennan Doherty describes the impending start of the 514 Cherry, Toronto's first new streetcar route in 16 years.

Transit aficionados waiting by the Distillery Loop Saturday morning got a chance to ride the first new TTC streetcar route in 16 years.

The 514 Cherry made its first trip around 10 a.m., heading north on Cherry St. before turning west on King St. E. and trundling along to Dufferin St., before ending up at the Dufferin Gate Loop.

Passengers who hopped on the streetcar’s inaugural run rode for free —including those waiting at stops along the way. A few of the TTC’s old streetcars were also brought out of retirement and put on display at the Distillery Loop for the launch event.

Service on the 514 route is expected to run every 8-9 minutes during peak commuting times, seven days a week. Off-peak wait times will be about 15 minutes or less, said the TTC in a release. Regular service starts Sunday.

[URBAN NOTE] "Family, friends of people killed by Toronto drivers blast city's safety plan"

The Globe and Mail's Oliver Moore reports on the families and friends of dead cyclists and pedestrian and their upset with the city's plans for their safety.

In the wake of two more pedestrian deaths, family and friends of people killed by Toronto drivers went to City Hall to urge politicians to move faster to reduce the danger.

The city rolled out a new road-safety plan on Monday, but faced immediate criticism for setting a goal far more modest than some other cities. Within hours, top politicians were promising to accelerate their efforts. The official plan remains unchanged, though.

“We need to make bolder moves, and it has to happen faster than maybe, you know, the politicians are planning,” said David Stark, whose wife, Erica, was killed in 2014 by a woman who drove her minivan onto the sidewalk.

Ms. Stark was one of more than 160 pedestrians killed in Toronto since 2011. A Globe and Mail investigation published on Saturday found that victims were disproportionately seniors and that one in seven of the people killed were not on the road when they were hit.

On Tuesday, another person was killed on the sidewalk. A 38-year-old woman was hit in the early afternoon by an SUV whose driver went off the road near the Rogers Centre. About 10 hours later, a 63-year-old man was killed while trying to cross Lawrence Avenue west of McCowan Road.

The latest fatalities were the 18th and 19th of 2016, putting the year on pace to be the worst in more than a decade. Against this backdrop, the group of people representing both pedestrian and cyclist deaths gathered to urge quicker action.

[URBAN NOTE] "Putting Scarborough subway claims to the test"

At the Toronto Star, Jennifer Pagliaro and Ben Spurr take issue with claims that the Scarborough subway extension makes sense, going point by point.

Is a subway needed for the number of riders expected?

The claim: On CBC’s Metro Morning, Tory said: “The real point is that Scarborough is the only part of our city that does not have its city centre connected by higher order transit — a subway.”

For years, especially during the Rob Ford era, advocates argued a high-capacity subway is the best way to make that connection, and anything else would be less than Scarborough “deserves.” That argument was bolstered when staff suddenly offered an updated ridership projection in July 2013: 14,000 riders at peak hours — enough to just barely justify a subway’s higher capacity.

The facts: Ridership and capacity aren’t the only important factors in deciding choice of transit, but they do help determine the best value for money.

The more recent projection of 7,300 peak riders is lower than what was expected for the seven-stop LRT (8,000); lower than the TTC’s original projection for a three-stop subway (9,500); and little more than half of the 2013 projection of 14,000.

The one-stop extension could open in 2023. It’s projected to hit 7,300 riders by 2031 at best. And just 4,500 new daily riders would be drawn to the subway if it replaces the current Scarborough RT.

The ridership projection shrank with shifting plans for the overall transit network. Tory’s heavy rail SmartTrack plan, tied to GO Transit expansion plans, was designed to run parallel to the subway line, with stations just kilometres apart. Staff then removed two stations from the subway plan, avoiding duplication with SmartTrack and reducing costs, but leaving just one new station for subway riders.

The TTC says the Bloor-Danforth subway is currently running at capacity, at just under 26,000. With plans to upgrade signalling — which would allow for frequent trains — capacity could grow to almost 33,000 by 2031, when the subway would already reach into Scarborough.

But with 7,300 peak riders, trains would be 80 per cent empty between the Scarborough Town Centre and Kennedy station. Even an LRT — with a maximum capacity of 15,000 — would be half-empty on that part of the route at rush hour.

They go into the claims at great length.

[MUSIC] On the import of the Kirsten Dunst cover of "Turning Japanese"

Dangerous Minds' Martin Schneider posted a remarkable music video, Kirsten Dunst's cover of the Vapors' "Turning Japanese".

At the “Pop Life: Art in a Material World” exhibition that ran at London’s Tate Modern in 2009, there appeared an unusual video in which a major movie star vamped and pouted in the middle of a busy Tokyo thoroughfare while singing the Vapors’ surprise 1980 hit “Turning Japanese.” (You have probably heard the song on the radio countless times if you don’t also recall its use in comedy classics like Sixteen Candles and Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion.)

The video showcased Kirsten Dunst, a multi-million-dollar Hollywood star best known for her appearances in the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man franchise. It was directed by McG (Charlie’s Angels, Terminator 4: Salvation) and produced by prolific Japanese pop artist Takashi Murakami, whose signature “superflat” style involves heavy use of turbo-sexualized images of women dressed up as little girls and women with exaggerated cleavage. Basically, Murakami’s work is like an overdose on the saccharine and cartoonish side of Japanese sexuality.

True to form, in the video Dunst is wearing a neon blue wig, pink high heels, and revealing blue tights and is toting a parasol worthy of Penelope Pitstop herself. The video was shot in the hectic boulevards of Akihabara, a crowded and pulsating shopping neighborhood in Tokyo where electronics and video games are available.

"Kirsten Dunst - Turning Japanese (HD)" (Watch on YouTube)

I actually quite like this, video and song and Murakami's effort all.

[FORUM] What will you be doing this weekend?

Will you be quiet and staying at home, or will you be out and about? If the latter, what will you be doing?

Let's share.