[PHOTO] Heading under the bridge, Bathurst north of Dupont

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Centauri Dreams and The Dragon's Tales look at the cryogenic prebiotic chemistry of Titan.


• Dangerous Minds notes that a restored version of David Bowie's film The Man Who Fell to Earth will be hitting theatres in fall.


• The Dragon's Tales looks at how some archeologists are successfully identifying individual makers of Harappan seals.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog looks at disabilities and relationships.


• The LRB Blog notes Tony Blair's close relationship with the United States.


• Marginal Revolution looks at how New York City librarians once received their own apartments.


• Steve Munro looks at the TTC's air conditioning problems.


• Torontoist satirizes the visitors of Trinity Bellwoods Park.


• Window on Eurasia claims the Russian Far East is deteriorating.

[URBAN NOTE] On a potential northward expansion of the Yonge subway line into Richmond Hill

blogTO reported that Richmond Hill would like the Yonge subway extended north from Toronto. Steve Munro's post "York Region Wants a Subway, Overstates Available Capacity" is not encouraging about the sense of this.

The current 2015 demand is shown as higher than the actual capacity (31.2k vs 28.0k) based on the level of overcrowding now experienced on the line. The light blue dotted line shows the capacity before the new signal system is activated, and the solid blue line shows the added capacity. Even this will not be sufficient to handle the projected growth to 2031 absent other changes.

The TYSSE and other changes are expected to shift 1,300 per hour from the Yonge line, and a further 4,200 would be attracted by GO/RER. This mostly, but not completely, offsets the anticipated growth so that by 2031 the “base case” demand is 32.3k, slightly higher than the demand today, but in less crowded conditions thanks to more trains/hour.

The Yonge North extension adds only 2,400 peak hour passengers and brings the line up to 96% capacity. Note that this is the peak hour average, and there will be some overcrowding due to variations over the hour.

This leaves no room for growth, but it also shows the paltry additional demand expected on a very expensive subway extension. Indeed, this makes the Scarborough extension to STC positively shine by comparison with 7,300 peak hour riders. The projected demand on the Richmond Hill line appears to be lower than the existing ridership of the SRT!

More, including spirited discussion, is at Munro's blog.

[WRITING] "Sigmoid", by Peter Watts

Peter Watts has a wonderful, terrible short story up at his blog.

I cried for the Chimp, once.

I was there for his birth. I saw the lights come on, listened as he found his voice, watched him learn to tell Sunday from Kai from Ishmael. He was such a fast learner, and an eager one; back then, barely out of my own accelerated adolescence and not yet bound for the stars, I felt sure he’d streak straight into godhood while we stood mired in flesh and blood.

I didn’t feel the slightest hint of envy. How could I? He seemed so happy: devoured every benchmark, met every challenge, anticipated each new one with a kind of hardwired enthusiasm I could only describe as voracious. Once, rounding a corner into some rough-hewn catacomb, I came upon a torrent of bots swirling in perfect complex formation: a school of silver fish, in the center of Eri‘s newly-seeded forest. The shapes I glimpsed there still make my head hurt, when I think about them.

“Yeah, we’re not quite sure what that is,” one of the gearheads said when I asked her. “He does it sometimes.”

“He’s dancing,” I told her.

More there.