[PHOTO] Eight photos of HTO Park, Toronto

On a sparklingly hot Sunday, I joined a crowd of other people enjoying the sun of HTO Park down by the water. It was glorious.

[PHOTO] Fields of Cavendish, PEI

Cavendish's Friendly Lane, a street meandering off of Route 13 just east of the intersection with Route 6, is most famous as the street home to Canadian senator Mike Duffy, he who had been acquitted of charges of misusing public funds and of misrepresenting his residency on the island. There are other things to Friendly Lane, like nice views: if one looks to the east, across the green fields with cylindrical bales of hale stretching down to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, one would scarcely be displeased. It would be a nice place to live, at least in summer when the Gulf is not ice and the cold winds would not be blowing onto shore.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes that asteroid 2006 VW139 is not just also a comet but a binary object, too, while Centauri Dreams also reports on 288P. (Multiple names, here.)


• D-Brief reports on a study intended to answer the question of whether or not our galaxy is normal.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to one paper suggesting TRAPPIST-1 might provide a threatening environment for its planets, links to another simulatingthe environments of TRAPPIST-1 planets to find d most likely to be Earth-like, and links to another finding that panspermia between the different planets of TRAPPIST-1 would be quite easy.


• At A Fistful of Euros, Douglas Merrill notes one study of AfD voters finding former non-voters contributed most to its vote surge.


• Hornet Stories notes an anti-gay "Straight Lives Matter" gathering in Australia that got only 30 protesters.


• The Map Room Blog links to a crowdsourced map showing earthquake damage in Mexico.


• The New APPS Blog considers Foucault and Marx and their thinking about spare time, and its reduction to capital.


• The NYR Daily looks at the recent German election and the rise of the AfD.


• The Planetary Society Blog looks at a proposal for a solar sail deployment on the new Deep Space Gateway station.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel has a fairly critical, but I think ultimately hopeful, review of the first episodes of Star Trek: Discovery.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that the latest Trump travel ban has many of the same fatal flaws as the others.


• Arnold Zwicky notes the Instagram account "Boys With Plants."

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: rent control, Toronto Islands, 401 Richmond, amalgamation

• The Ontario government is not backing down on rent control despite impending conversions of real estate to condos.


• blogTO notes this last heat wave has made the Toronto Islands superb, at last. I visited Sunday--visit while you can.


• The 401 Richmond arts centre is getting tax relief, letting it function as a home for culture in a booming downtown.


• Christopher Hume argues amalgamation, by undermining old power structures, made progress in Toronto impossible.

[NEWS] Six LGBTQ links: United States, Egypt, nu disco, Patrick Kelly, Alan Cumming, Will & Grace

• Apparently the Trump Administration has ruled that LGBTQ people are not protected under US bias legislation.


• Quartz reports Egyptian fans of Lebanese indie group Mashrou' Leila have been arrested for waving the rainbow flag.


• This summer, Sophie Kemp at VICE celebrated the liberatory queer reality of nu disco.


• VICE reports on the life and achievements of gay African-American fashion designer Patrick Kelly.


• Hornet Stories shares Alan Cumming's argument that it's not a privilege to share queer stories, but instead a responsibility.


• An In Style author describes how, now that he's out of the closet, he is going to actively watch the new Will & Grace.