[PHOTO] Three photos of Peakes Wharf, Charlottetown

Charlottetown Harbour at Peakes Wharf is a success. Once a half-abandoned industrial zone more notable for oil drums, it now looks actually pretty.

[PHOTO] Six photos of Kew Gardens, Toronto

Toronto's Kew Gardens, in the Beaches with Queen Street East to the north and Lake Ontario to the south, is a lovely park in summer, dense with greenery and people.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Centauri Dreams shares, from JPL, the schedule for Cassini in its last days of existence. Goodbye, dear probe.


• Dangerous Minds shares some classic illustrations from a Persian book called Lights of Canopus.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper suggesting that gas giants can stabilize debris disks.


• Far Outliers shares excerpts from the diary of a Japanese soldier fighting in New Guinea in the Second World War.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the real suffering that high rents impose on the poor in American cities.


• The Map Room Blog shares some nice X-ray maps of New York City subway stations.


• The Planetary Society Blog shares more vintage Voyager photos of the outer solar system: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune ...


• Roads and Kingdoms tells of the marvelous cookies made on the dying Venetian island of Burano.


• Drew Rowsome considers, at length and with personal references, the differences between "art" and "porn". NSFW.


• Understanding Society considers the latest thinking on causal mechanisms in modern sociology.


• Window on Eurasia wonders if non-Russian languages in Russia are attacked out of anxiety over Russian's own decline, and speculates that if integration of mostly Muslim immigrants goes poorly in Moscow, the city could get locked in sectarian conflict.

[URBAN NOTE] Five notes about culture: Jennifer Keesmaat, Lilie Zendel, pirate radio, Diana, G&M

• NOW Toronto notes the huge impact of the departure of Jennifer Keesmaat on the city of Toronto. Who will be next?


• At Spacing, John Lorinc notes that Lilie Zendel, head of Street ART Toronto, is leaving her successful public art job behind.


• Julien Gignac writes about Andrew O'Connor's pirate radio broadcasting, based from Parkdale.


• On how St. James Cathedral preserves in its archives a guest book signed by Diana, Charles, and their children.


• Why, as Canadaland reports, would The Globe and Mail get rid of Tabatha Southey and Leah McLaren? (And keep Margaret Wente?)