[PHOTO] Ten photos from St. James Town, Toronto

The high-rise towers of St. James Town, a neighbourhood inspired by Le Corbusier just southeast of Yonge and Bloor, might have a bad reputation stemming from the towers' substandard construction and the poverty of the neighbourhood. The towers themselves can still look quite stunning, against the background of (for instance) a drizzly day and a cloudy sky.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Language Log argues that, despite a lack of official or public support, Cantonese remains the dominant language of Hong Kong.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money makes the case for the global relevance of the Cranberries' song "Zombie."


• Marginal Revolution seems to like the end results of Canada's immigration system.


• The NYR Daily notes that, even after ISIS, Iraq will be beset by multiple ethnoreligious crises.


• Out There's Corey S. Powell interviews an astronomer about the very strange Przybylski’s Star, rich in rare radioactive elements.


• Savage Minds considers the decolonization of anthropology in the context of Iraq.


• Arnold Zwicky considers the surprisingly deep historical resonance of the loon in Canada.

[URBAN NOTE] Five links about Toronto, from old TTC cars to Island architecture to the Palace Arms

• Steve Munro shares some vintage photos of TTC streetcars from Canada's centennial in 1967.


• Spacing Toronto's Chris Bateman describes how the Toronto Islands became a test-bed for architectural modernism.


• Global News notes the proposal for a hovercraft service across Lake Ontario, connecting Toronto with Niagara.


• The Toronto Star's Emily Mathieu notes that a Kensington Market apartment complex made into a ghost hotel has been temporarily shut down by Airbnb.


• NOW Toronto's Paul Salvatori has a touching photo essay on the Palace Arms, a soon-to-be-gone rooming house at King and Strachan.

[ISL] Six links on islands, from contested geopolitics to environmental changes to Villiers Island

• In Toronto, the new Port Lands plan imagines a new island, Villiers, at the mouth of the Don.


• Brexit means, among other thing, that the EU is no longer supporting the UK on the Chagos. The Economist reports.


• VICE notes that people on Mauritius fear extensive fish farming will also boost the shark population offshore.


• The Independent notes that tides and currents have created a new sand bar-cum-island more than 1 km long off of North Carolina, Shelly Island.


• The National Post notes that sub-Arctic Vardo Island, in Norway, has moved on from its fisheries to become a NATO outpost set to watch Russia.


• Carmela Fonbuena reports for The Guardian from Thitu Island, a Filipino-occupied island uncomfortably near a Chinese base in the contested South China Sea.