[PHOTO] Three photos of the condo towers of Lake Shore Boulevard

The condo towers along Lake Shore Boulevard, west of the Humber, really do stand out, for their density and for the eye-catching design of some.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul considers the humanizing potential of brutalism in the context of a London filled with impersonal skyscrapers.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the ways the habitable-zone super-Earths of K2-18 reveal our solar system to be exceptional.


• Centauri Dreams notes evidence for active plate tectonics in the ice crust of Europa, suggesting an ocean being replenished with nutrients and possibly suitable for life.


• D-Brief notes the sourcing of the iron in the artifacts of the Bronze Act in meteorites.


• Daily JSTOR reports on how Hollywood coped during the Red Scare of the 1950s.


• Dangerous Minds notes the exciting discovery of tapes recording Devo jamming with David Bowie and Brian Eno.


• Cody Delistraty considers if the restitution of artworks looted from once-colonized territories might not be a cheap substitute for deeper changes.


• Language Hat shares a student essay comparing, during the First World War, the United States' campaign against German and the German campaign against French.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money argues against a British nostalgia for monarchy and empire that overlooks the real injustices perpetrated at Britain's imperial peak.


• Lingua Franca notes the remarkable power of the #metoo movement.


• The LRB Blog notes the exceptional complexity of the issue of Jerusalem, especially after Trump's actions.


• The Map Room Blog shares links to a variety of maps of the Halifax Explosion and its effects.


• The NYR Daily looks at some of the legacies of the Salvadoran civil war.


• Peter Watts makes an argument in favour of the dystopia in contemporary science fiction.


• The Planetary Society Blog's Emily Lakdawalla reports that South Korea is planning its first Moon expedition for 2020.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that Argentina, at its peak, offered as good or even better chances for social mobility for immigrants than the United States.


• Peter Rukavina shares a photograph showing the electronic system used by defunct Charlottetown nightclub Myron's for dispensing drinks.


• Towleroad reports on one consequence of Australia's acceptance of gay marriage: Will Calvin Harris remix the Spice Girls song "2 Become 1", as he promised?


• Window on Eurasia shares a list of eight reasons explaining why Finland was unique in the former Russian Empire in maintaining its independence from Moscow.

[ISL] Four islands links: Puerto Rico, Ireland, Prince Edward Island, Okinoshima

• The New York Times suggests that the proper death toll from Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico alone may be more than a thousand, not the official toll of 62.


• Mary Fitzgerald at Open Democracy looks at how Ireland, North and South, may have fatally undermined the May government and the Brexit project.


• Tamara Khandaker at VICE reports the predictable news that Prince Edward Island plans to permit the legal sale of marijuana through stores run by the monopolistic liquor corporation, like the larger Ontario.


• Jonathan Kaiman reports on Okinoshima, a sacred island in Japan whose keepers fear increased attention will threaten the location's very nature.

[URBAN NOTE] Four city links: Kingston, New York City, Los Angeles, Beijing

• Kingston is currently in the process of planning for two tall high-rises to be built in what seems to be near the heart of the downtown. Global News reports.


• The question of how New York City will deal with the extended shutdown of the L Train seems, from this account, to have scarcely been answered. VICE reports.


• The defenses of Los Angeles' Getty Museum against wildfires are impressive, though I certainly still fear for the art inside. New York reports.


• The displacement of poor people, often rural migrants, from their Beijing neighbourhoods is a sad story. The Guardian reports.

[NEWS] Three science links: bitcoin and the environment, Halszkaraptor escuillei, ocean worlds

• GRIST points out that the massive growth in electricity consumption in bitcoin mining is starting to have an impact on the overall global environment.


• CBC reports on the analysis of the fossil of Halszkaraptor escuilliei, a dinosaur that evokes a contemporary heron more than anything else.


• Universe Today reports on a study suggesting that worlds like Europa and Enceladus, with habitable oceans located beneath icy surfaces, are far more common than Earth-like worlds in conventional circumstellar habitable zones.