[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: McMichael, Reblink at the AGO, shelters, amalgamation

• This CBC article describing the goals of the new head of the McMichael gallery, north of Toronto, is intriguing. I have to get up there!


• The ReBlink exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario, using smartphone technology to reimagine select painings, is an interesting idea. I'm not sure about the execution, but props for the idea. CBC reports.


• The City of Toronto's efforts at opening shelters against the cold for the homeless of the city have been less than impressive. Torontoist features a critique.


• At Torontoist, Michael Lapointe takes a look at the city of Toronto twenty years after amalgamation. Was it worth it? Can the city handle its challenges?

[ISL] Five links on islands: Puerto Rico, Japan, Newfoundland, climate change, Koh Pich

• New York Magazine carries this article looking at the dreadful aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and the lagging response of government (American, mainly). Heads should roll.


• Japan Times carries an article looking at the various strategies used by different Japanese islands and archipelagoes to try to resist depopulation. Some work better than others.


• Could the outposts of Newfoundland benefit not from consolidation and planned depopulation, but from planned resettlement? The precedents from Ireland and Italy are interesting, at least. CBC reports.


• The Inter Press Service notes that climate change, including rising sea levels and growing storms, will hit smart island nations badly.


• Morgan Fache at Roads and Kingdoms reports on how Koh Pich, "Diamond Island", offshore of Phmon Penh, has been emptied of its population of fishers to make way for an elite real estate development.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: culture, Internet, chosen families, Moe Khansa, homophobes

• Peter Knegt shares some upcoming highpoints for LGBTQ culture in 2018, over at CBC.


• This Justin Saint article at Daily Xtra looking at how the queer Internet has lost much of its promise to become a medium for rage and worse is distressing.


• VICE talks about the particular, often underrated, importance of chosen families for queer people.


• VICE takes a look at controversial gay Lebanese belly dancer Moe Khansa.


• Morgan Thomas at VICE tells how a road trip visiting different American homophobic groups has left her less convinced than before that dialogue could change their minds.