[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes how evidence of exoplanets can be found in a spectrum of Van Maanen's Star taken in 1917.


• blogTO notes that Michelle Obama is coming to visit Toronto.


• Dangerous Minds notes that someone has scanned in the copies of 1980s periodical The Twilight Zone Magazine.


• D-Brief notes the tens of thousands of genders of fungus.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes a paper calculating circumstellar habitable zones and orbits for planets of binary stars.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas argues it is much too late to retroactively add ethical concerns to new technologies.


• Language Log notes the struggle of many to pronounce the name of the president of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes an alarming increase in mass shootings in the US over the past decades.


• The LRB Blog argues that a moral panic over "pop-up brothels" helps no one involved.


• Roads and Kingdoms reports on Zubaida Tariq, the Martha Stewart of Pakistan.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel likes the new Discovery episode. I wonder, though: hasn't Trek always been a bit science fantasy?
• Window on Eurasia argues Russian policies which marginalize non-Russian languages in education may produce blowback.

[PHOTO] The patriotic blue and gold, among others

I visited IKEA's Etobicoke store yesterday with my visiting parents, down at Kipling and Queensway not far from the Gardiner. There, the Swedish flag was flying proudly alongside the flags of Ontario and Canada.

By happy coincidence, yesterday happened to be Gustavus Adolphus Day, an event commemorating the Swedish king of that day celebrated in the former realms of the Swedish empire.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: the honoured dead, Cinesphere, Casey House, Quayside, Leslieviille

• Torontoist's Historicist takes a look at the issue of improving the grave of William Lyon Mackenzie in the 1930s.


• Norman Wilner celebrates the newly reopened Cinesphere, down at a reenergizing Ontario Place.


• Alex Bozikovic celebrates the beautiful new renovation and expansion of HIV/AIDS hospice Casey House.


• John Lorinc notes the many potential problems with the investments of Google's Sidewalk in Quayside.


• Vjosa Isai celebrates the 30th anniversary of a mural that helped name, and give shape, to Leslieville, over at the Toronto Star.

[URBAN NOTE] Edmonton, Dartmouth, Montréal and Valérie Plante, Trump and the Bills

• Global News notes a celebration of Harbin Gate, in Edmonton, a Chinese monument that may not be reassembled.


• Dartmouth, it's being said, is becoming the Brooklyn of Halifax. Global News reports.


• It turns out that Donald Trump was involved in the push to keep the Buffalo Bills from moving to Toronto. The Toronto Star reports.


• Chantal Hébert places the election of Valérie Plante as mayor of Montréal in the context of a backlash against elites.


• Toula Drimonis at the National Observer places the election of Valérie Plante in the context of her strengths as a believable politician.

[ISL] Four islands links: Cyprus and Northern Ireland, Fiji, Cayman Islands, New Brunswick

• Some think the Green Line in Cyprus can be a suitable model for post-Brexit Northern Ireland. So depressing. European think-tank Brughel reports.


• Fiji is already starting to see an influx of migrants/refugees from lower-lying Pacific island countries. DW reports.


• The Queen making use of Cayman Islands tax shelters only makes sense. She is queen there, after all. Open Democracy reports.


• Global News notes that a Québec family has put up for sale a private island in New Brunswick, on the Bay of Fundy.