[PHOTO] Four photos taken from the observation deck of the Canada Life Building

The observation deck of Toronto's Canada Life Building provides a remarkable vantage point on downtown Toronto, even now in the era of skyscrapers and condo towers everywhere.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• blogTO looks at a condo of 22 Wellesley Street East.


• Centauri Dreams considers if Enceladus may have been recently shaped by a massive asteroid impact.


• Dangerous Minds shares photos from a Florida alligator farm where children could ride the reptiles.


• D-Brief reports on the craters left by methane blowouts on the bottom of the Barents Sea.


• Language Hat notes the apparently declining diversity of English dialects in England.


• Marginal Revolution shares a nice passage arguing that reading is a cumulative process, the reader progressing the more they read.


• Spacing Toronto shares John Lorinc's thoughts on the politics of the minimum wage in Ontario.


• Torontoist notes that the Lower Don Trail is nearing completion.

[NEWS] Five links about changing world balances

• The Atlantic notes the chance that China might manage to supplant the United States under Trump as a guarantor of the world order.


• In an older article, The Atlantic noted Mexico's potential to be a spoiler for the United States. Being less wealthy and powerful than the US is not the same as not being wealthy and powerful.


• DW notes that there is the possibility of an entente between China and the EU, to sustain the multilateral order.


• Spiegel Online notes that the Turkey of Erdogan these days is starting to fall out with its NATO partners.


• Open Democracy argues the alienation of Europeans of Turkish background from liberal democracy has roots in Europe.


• Also at Open Democracy, Nick Mullens argues that negatively stereotyping Appalachians leads only to their doubling-down on coal.
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[ISL] Three notes from the flooded Toronto Islands

• Peter Goffin reports from the hauntingly empty Toronto Islands during their time of flood.


• Edward Keenan, also in the Star mourns for Torontonians who will spend most of the summer, at least, without having the Islands.


• Alison Gzowski, a resident of the Toronto Islands, writes for The Globe and Mail about how the flooding reminds her of nature's power.