[PHOTO] Garden gnomes of Lansdowne Avenue

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting some hypervelocity stars were ejected from the Large Magellanic Cloud.


• Crooked Timber's John Holbo wonders how else Trump can transgress the norms of the presidency.


• The Crux notes the exceptional hardiness of the tardigrade. These forms of life might well outlive the sun.


• Gizmodo notes the evidence for a recently frozen subsurface ocean on Pluto's Charon.


• Joe. My. God. notes the Israeli government's effective, if confused, opposition to same-sex adoption.


• Unicorn Booty looks at the significant impact RuPaul's Drag Race has on music sales.


• Window on Eurasia notes how Putin's political allies have been having trouble coming up with a positive future.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links, from condo conversions to a cat park to unsafe beaches

• John Michael McGrath argues at TVO that leaving Toronto for Ontario cities with cheaper housing misses the issue of jobs. For starters.


• Michelle McQuigge looks at how the CNIB is helping make Yonge and St. Clair accessible to the blind.


• In The Globe and Mail, Erik Heinrich looks at how a mid-rise office tower at 1133 Yonge Street is being transformed into condos.


• The Toronto Star reports that the condo/hotel tower at 325 Bay Street no longer bears the name of Trump. Toronto is free!


• The end of the Palace Arms rooming house at King and Strachan, Christian Controneo notes at Torontoist, must be seen as terrible for the people who live there.
  
• blogTO notes that E. Coli levels on mainland Toronto beaches make them unsafe for swimmers. No lake water this year!


• blogTO notes that Montréal architect Claude Cormier, designer of HTO and Berczy, will next do a cat-themed park.

[NEWS] Four culture links: the Metro book fairy, Transformers, the 13th Doctor, and the alt-right

• CBC Montreal notes how Andrée Archambault has been leaving books on the Montréal Metro for commuters to find.


• CBC's Jonathan Ore notes the (perhaps surprisingly) innovative Transformers comics put out by IDW.


• At The Conversation, Una McCormack writes about how the 13th Doctor being played by Jodie Whittaker fulfills her childhood dreams.


• At The Globe and Mail, Russell Smith examines why the alt-right hates cultural experimentation and innovation so much.