[PHOTO] Twenty-six more photos of the Toronto Zoo (@thetorontozoo)

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: signs, real estate and bigotry, live music venues, saunas

• Gilbert Ngabo makes the case for 2017 being the year of the sign--or rather, years of signs--for Toronto, over at the Toronto Star.


• Bigoted restrictive contracts for real estate were a real thing in mid-20th century Toronto. The Toronto Star reports.


• At least some live music venues in Toronto are doing OK. The Toronto Star reports.


• Zosia Bielski reports on, and reviews, some of the Russian-style saunas brought to the GTA by immigrants from the former Soviet Union, over at The Globe and Mail.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares one picture of a vast galaxy cluster to underline how small our place in the universe is.


• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture shares some photos of Syrian refugee families as they settle into the United States.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the Dragonfly proposal for a Titan lander.


• The Crux notes the exceptional vulnerability of the cultivated banana to an otherwise obscure fungus.


• Bruce Dorminey notes NASA's preparation of the Clipper mission to investigate Europa.


• The Frailest Thing's Michael Sacasas takes a look at the role of surveillance in the life of the modern student.


• Hornet Stories has a nice interview of Sina Grace, author of Marvel's Iceman book.


• Joe. My. God. reshared this holiday season a lovely anecdote, "Dance of the Sugar Plum Lesbians."


• JSTOR Daily took a look at why Americans like dieting so much.


• The LRB Blog considers the Thames Barrier, the meager protection of London against tides in a time of climate change.


• The Map Room Blog notes the digitization of radar maps of Antarctica going back to the 1960s.


• Marginal Revolution seems cautiously optimistic about the prospects of Morocco.
  
• Russell Darnley at maximos62 is skeptical about the prospects of the forests of Indonesia's Riau province.


• Stephanie Land at the NYR Daily talks about how she managed to combine becoming a writer with being a single mother of two young children.


• Out There argues a lunar fuel depot could help support crewed interplanetary exploration.


• Science Sushi notes genetic evidence the lionfish invasion of the North Atlantic off Florida began not with a single escape but with many.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the argument an unmanned probe to Alpha Centauri could have significant technological spinoffs.


• Supernova Condensate makes the point, apropos of nothing at all, that spaceship collisions can in fact unleash vast amounts of energy.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, while Kazakhs see practical advantages to cooperation with Russia, they also see some problems.