[PHOTO] Paul Kane House among the condo towers

With plans for a mixed-use condo tower more than forty stories high on the northwest corner of Church and Wellesley, Paul Kane House will be completely surrounded by high-rise towers. This space, with its grassy lawn, will become that much more important, as an exception to the high-density downtown.

[NEWS] Four miscellanea: Amazon Cyber Monday, American education, Texan bridges, climate reporting

• Amazon shipping centres in the Greater Toronto Area are preparing themselves for Cyber Monday tomorrow. The Toronto Star reports.


• The disdain for higher education reported by the National Post in many parts of the United States is positively alarming. Where will American human capital come from without this? More here.


• Two private owners of bridges on the US-Mexican border fear the consequence of NAFTA failing on their business. The Toronto Star reports here.


• Mike De Souza reports on the fact that he, writing for the National Observer, was the only Canadian journalist covering the recent Bonn climate change summit. His article is here.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Crooked Timber takes a quick look at the role of the shadow in art, here.


• Daily JSTOR notes that, in the 18th century, the punch favoured by partiers was often put up against the tea favoured by the more civilized.


• Language Hat notes that the British Library has preserved the only surviving copy of Il Kaulata Maltia, the first Maltese-language journal.


• Marginal Revolution notes a new study examining if easier divorce leads to assortative mating.


• Justin Petrone at north! celebrates his life in November in Estonia.


• Rocky Planet notes that Indonesia's Mount Agung is experiencing volcanic eruptions of lava.


• Window on Eurasia suggests that Putin's Russia is trying to get Ukraine to take over Donbas on disadvantageous terms.

[NEWS] Five links about technology and culture: Android, Firefox Quantum, dark web, music, brain

• This Techcrunch report noting the collection of location data by Android, even if location services are disabled, is alarming. (I'm mostly joking when I say I want the drones to be able to find me.) More here.


• This Wired report on Firefox Quantum makes this browser sound interesting, here.


• News of a dark web version of Wikipedia is good for those who are concerned about Internet freedoms. More here.


• Transcranial magnetic stimulation sounds very much like one of those experiences I would like to experience first-hand. More here.


• The destructive impact of streaming not just on the income of musicians, but on their creative projects--often transcending single songs--is something raised in this Noisey article, here.

[NEWS] Five notes about migration: United Kingdom, Vietnam, Canada, North Korea, Atlantic Canada

• This examination by Bendetta Rossi of the ways in which immigration, in the context of the United Kingdom, has to remain an option even in the Brexit era is compelling. Open Democracy has more here.


• This Nicolas Lainez study suggesting that Vietnamese migrants in the United Kingdom rescued from exploitative conditions might be made the worse off by the rescue, plunging them and their backers into debt, is distressing. How should they be helped? More here at Open Democracy.


• Nicholas Keung describes how Canadian meat packers want their foreign labour forces to enjoy permanent resident status, so that they can have access to stable and reliable populations of workers. The Toronto Star has it.


• Mary Ormsby describes how North Korean migrants in Toronto are facing the risk of deportation, to South Korea. More here, at the Toronto Star.


• The Canadian federal government and Atlantic Canadian provincial governments have introduced a new program to try to direct more immigrants to the east coast. The Toronto Star has the article.