[PHOTO] Queen Richmond Centre West, top to bottom, 134 Peter Street

The Queen Richmond Centre West (134 Peter Street) is a interesting building, a modern glass tower built on and around an old brick warehouse. The weight is partly supported, as noted by architects Sweeny&Co, by Mega Delta Frames visible in the photos: "After a year of research and development, the team found a solution to structurally support the new tower over the top of the existing historic structures. They designed Mega Delta Frames—using three, each is capable of supporting forces of 80,000kN. The legs of the Mega Delta Frames are pressure-filled with concrete which, in composite action with tubular steel sections, contributes to the structural capacity of the frame and further contributes to the relative slenderness of the legs. Each leg is 40-inches in diameter with a steel thickness of 2-inches. The inherent lateral stability of the Mega Delta-Frames provide the majority of the building’s structure, allowing for only a single reinforced concrete stair and elevator core to descend down through the atrium, thus providing full visual exposure."

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Apostrophen's 'Nathan Smith updates his readers about the progress of his various writing projects.


• The Big Picture shares photos from the Battle of Mosul waged against ISIS.


• Centauri Dreams notes the discovery of rogue binary planet 2MASS J11193254–1137466, two super-Jupiters by themselves.


• Dangerous Minds notes the raw photography of early 20th century New York City's Weegee.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is rightly unimpressed by the reflexive Russophilia of The Nation. Imperialism is still imperialism ...


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen strongly recommends Dali, in the Chinese province of Yunnan, for tourists.


• The NYR Daily features Masha Gessen, looking at the truth underneath the lies of Trump.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer makes a case that Macron's use of "civilizational" to describe Africa's issues might be the subject of over-quick outrage.


• Peter Rukavina describes his two weeks with a Nokia N95, without a modern smartphone. There was good and bad to this.


• Speed River Journal's Van Waffle explains, with photos, what hoverflies are and why they are so important.


• Understanding Society considers a fraught question: what paths to modernization were open for China in the 1930s, before the People's Republic?


• Window on Eurasia suggests that, in 30 years, Moscow will be a megacity with a large population of (substantially immigrant) Muslim origin.

[URBAN NOTE] Four notes on parks, from Toronto to Mississauga to Boblo Island

• Spacing notes how mapping can reveal the extent of flooding on the Toronto Islands.


• blogTO reports on Boblo Island, home to an amusement park abandoned more than two decades.


• At NOW Toronto, Richard Longley describes the wonderful scenic new Trillium Park, built on the former Ontario Place grounds.


• Global News notes how Mississauga is planning to buy old homes in Cooksville to convert into a new central park.

[NEWS] Five notes about Canada, from GG Julie Payette to lobster sent to China to Syrians in Ontario

• Paul Wells reports on the process leading up to the selection of astronaut Julie Payette as Governor-General.


• At MacLean's, Scott Gilmore notes that the reluctance of the Conservative Party of Canada to embrace gay people is a big problem.


• VICE notes that the lobster of Atlantic Canada has become a prominent feature of Canada's trade with China.


• Toronto Life shares photos from a four-day vacation of a Syrian refugee family that took them across Ontario.


• CBC notes that the tourism sector in Jasper is wanting for workers, because of low wages and a high cost of living.

[MUSIC] Moev, "Yeah, Whatever"

Watch on YouTube

"Yeah, Whatever" is the title track off of Vancouver-based Canadian electronica group Moev's 1988 album "Yeah, Whatever". Produced by the second incarnation of this band, featuring one Dean Russell as vocalist and lyricist, this song deserved wider recognition. Russell's vocals and the guitar-driven lyrics bring to mind a sort of Canadian fusion of Depeche Mode with the Smiths.

Most unfortunately, Moev and Dean Russell never got the chance to break through into the mainstream, Russell dying of HIV/AIDS in 1994 and the band subsequently splintering. What could have been--But at least we have this.