[PHOTO] Two photos from Everywhere Maps & Globes, 5160 Dundas Street West

One of the things I was shown in Islington-City Centre West by my friend Ted was Everywhere Maps & Globes at 5160 Dundas Street West. This map and globe store was unfortunately closed--a sign on the door suggests that the storefront is now only open when clients come by appointment--but the maps displayed on the front window were enticing. These two offer views, of the western GTA framed around Burlington and Hamilton and of the northwest of Toronto, that aren't necessarily that common. They show the extent to which maps can frame reality.

And, shown reflected in these photos, beyond the window frames, is Dundas Street West as it runs through an ever-changing west-end neighbourhood of Toronto.

[PHOTO] Looking towards The Beresford, West 81st Street

On this beautifully clear blue-skied winter day in January, the towers of The Beresford stood out wonderfully, as if it was a Georgian castle standing watch at the edge of Central Park.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Kambiz Kamrani at Anthropology.net notes that lidar scanning has revealed that the pre-Columbian city of Angamuco, in western Mexico, is much bigger than previously thought.


• James Bow makes an excellent case for the revitalization of VIA Rail as a passenger service for longer-haul trips around Ontario.


• D-Brief notes neurological evidence suggesting why people react so badly to perceived injustices.


• The Dragon's Tales takes a look at the list of countries embracing thorough roboticization.


• Andrew LePage at Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the most powerful launch vehicles, both Soviet and American, to date.


• Far Outliers considers Safavid Iran as an imperfect gunpowder empire.


• Despite the explanation, I fail to see how LGBTQ people could benefit from a cryptocurrency all our own. What would be the point, especially in homophobic environments where spending it would involve outing ourselves? Hornet Stories shares the idea.


• Imageo notes that sea ice off Alaska has actually begun contracting this winter, not started growing.


• JSTOR Daily notes how the production and consumption of lace, and lace products, was highly politicized for the Victorians.


• Language Hat makes a case for the importance of translation as a political act, bridging boundaries.


• Language Log takes a look at the pronunciation and mispronunciation of city names, starting with PyeongChang.


• This critical Erik Loomis obituary of Billy Graham, noting the preacher's many faults, is what Graham deserves. From Lawyers, Guns and Money, here.


• Bernard Porter at the LRB Blog is critical of the easy claims that Corbyn was a knowing agent of Communist Czechoslovakia.


• The Map Room Blog shares this map from r/mapporn, imagining a United States organized into states as proportionally imbalanced in population as the provinces of Canada?


• Marginal Revolution rightly fears a possible restart to the civil war in Congo.


• Neuroskeptic reports on a controversial psychological study in Ghana that saw the investigation of "prayer camps", where mentally ill are kept chain, as a form of treatment.


• The NYR Daily makes the case that the Congolese should be allowed to enjoy some measure of peace from foreign interference, whether from the West or from African neighbous (Rwanda, particularly).


• At the Planetary Society Blog, Emily Lakdawalla looks at the many things that can go wrong with sample return missions.


• Rocky Planet notes that the eruption of Indonesian volcano Sinabung can be easily seen from space.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how the New Horizons Pluto photos show a world marked by its subsurface oceans.


• Window on Eurasia notes that, although fertility rates among non-Russians have generally fallen to the level of Russians, demographic momentum and Russian emigration drive continue demographic shifts.


• Livio Di Matteo at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative charts the balance of federal versus provincial government expenditure in Canada, finding a notable shift towards the provinces in recent decades.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell makes the case, through the example of the fire standards that led to Grenfell Tower, that John Major was more radical than Margaret Thatcher in allowing core functions of the state to be privatized.


• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at some alcoholic drinks with outré names.