[PHOTO] Twenty photos of Yonge Street during Open Streets (#openstreetsto)

Sunday saw Open Streets Toronto come into play for the second time, closing off huge chunks of Yonge Street (and Bloor to the west and east of Yonge, too). Sunday afternoon was bright and blue, a perfect day for people to promenade down from Bloor to College, looking at the streetscape and taking in the day's activities.

[PHOTO] Green Gables House, Cavendish, PEI, as seen from the east

Notwithstanding this summer's drought, the lines to see Green Gables House are eternal.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthrodendum offers resources for understanding race in the US post-Charlottesville.


• D-Brief notes that exoplanet WASP-12b is a hot Jupiter that is both super-hot and pitch-black.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining various models of ice-covered worlds and their oceans' habitability.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the value placed by society on different methods of transport.


• Far Outliers looks at how Chinese migrants were recruited in the 19th century.


• Hornet Stories notes that the authorship of famously bad fanfic, "My Immortal", has been claimed, by one Rose Christo.


• Marginal Revolution notes one explanation for why men are not earning more. (Bad beginnings matter.)


• Peter Watts has it with facile (and statistically ill-grounded) rhetoric about punching Nazis.


• At the NYR Daily, Masha Gessen is worried by signs of degeneration in the American body politic.


• Livejournal's pollotenchegg maps the strength of Ukrainian political divisions in 2006 and 2010.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer is afraid what AI-enabled propaganda might do to American democracy in the foreseeable future.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes an enjoyable bagel breakfast at Pondichéry's Auroville Café.


• Drew Rowsome celebrates the introduction of ultra-low-cost carriers for flyers in Canada.


• Strange Company notes the 19th century haunting of an English mill.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Crimean Tatars, and Muslims in Crimea, are facing more repression.

[URBAN NOTE] Four notes about the changes and failures of Toronto: food banks, sidewalks, transit

• Visits to food banks in Toronto have returned to Great Recession levels, Global News notes.


• Torontoist notes that the reluctance to build sidewalks in lower-density areas has serious negative consequences.


• The photos blogTO shares of some Toronto intersections a century ago are remarkable. (There was nothing at many.)


• Jennifer Pagliaro states the obvious in the Toronto Star: mass transit planning is driven by short-term political convenience, not long-term planning.

[URBAN NOTE] Four notes about changing cities in Canada: Hamilton, Edmonton, Cornwall, Antigonish

• Hamilton's Christ Church is striving for continued viability, in part through selling off vacant land for condos. Global News reports.


• Edmonton's Accidental Beach, a byproduct of construction berms on the North Saskatchewan River, has gone viral. Global News reports.


• Meagan Campbell of MacLean's looks at how the refugee crisis did, and did not, effect the garlic festival of border city Cornwall.


• The successful integration of a Syrian refugee family of chocolatiers in the Nova Scotia town of Antigonish is nice. The Toronto Star carries the story.

[NEWS] Four environment links: disasters, Tibetan soil flowing, lobsters, flooding

• Naomi Klein argues that this summer, of wildfires and disasters, marks an environmental turning point.


• National Geographic shares stunning video of defrosting Tibetan soil flowing.


• This dumping of illegally harvested lobsters as garbage on land in Nova Scotia is a terrible waste. CBC reports.


• Can we limit urban flooding only if we force landowners to contribute to the costs of stormwater infrastructure? MacLean's makes the case.