[PHOTO] Looking at Six Points intersection, Etobicoke: south, east, west, north

The famously complex Six Points intersection, where Bloor Street West meets with Dundas Street West as that artery arcs down from the north and the two intersection with Kipling Avenue, is set for a thorough redevelopment. It's about time, development issues aside. How can drivers even navigate this intersection? Self-driving cars should be tested here.

[PHOTO] Four photos of Central Park in January

Even in winter, the care taken by the designers of Central Park in creating an urban wilderness is obvious.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait tells us what tantalizing little is known about Proxima Centauri and its worlds.


• Centauri Dreams imagines that, for advanced civilizations based on energy-intensive computing, their most comfortable homes may be in the cool dark of space, intergalactic space even.


• D-Brief notes an effort to predict the evolution of stick insects that went in interesting, if substantially wrong, directions.


• Mark Graham notes that, in the developing world, the supply of people willing to perform digital work far outweighs the actual availability of jobs.


• Mathew Ingram announces that he is now chief digital writer for the Columbia Journalism Review.


• JSTOR Daily explores how consumerism was used, by the United States, to sell democracy to post-war West Germany.


• Language Hat explores the script of the Naxi, a group in the Chinese Himalayas.


• Paul Campos considers at Lawyers, Guns and Money the importance of JK Galbraith's The Affluent Society. If we are richer than ever before and yet our living standards are disappointing, is this not the sort of political failure imagined?


• Russell Darnley takes a look at how the death of a community's language can lead to the death of that community's ecosystem.


• Jason Davis at the Planetary Society Blog considers the possibility of the ISS being replaced by privately-owned space stations.


• Dmitry Ermakov at Roads and Kingdoms shares some photos from his ventures among the Finno-Ugric peoples of Russia.


• Peter Rukavina shares a black-and-white photo of Charlottetown harbour covered in ice.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the point that cancelling NASA's WFIRST telescope would kneecap NASA science.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: TTC, Sonja Bata, St. Lawrence Market, Yorkville, Bloor Street West

• blogTO shares, from r/Toronto, a fantastic map imagining a Toronto densely covered with all sorts of mass transit routes, from subways and streetcars down to ferries. Beautiful.


• This city ombudsman's inquiry as to why TTC fare inspectors seemingly assaulted a black teen is certainly needed. CBC reports.


• The recent death of Sonja Bata, among other things founder of the excellent Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, has been noted locally. Global News reports.


• Delayed by archeological work, the North Building at St. Lawrence Market is projected to cost in excess of 100 million dollars. The Toronto Star reports.


• A proposed new condo tower on Yorkville's Prince Arthur Avenue, projected to rise nearly two dozen stories in a definitely avant-garde style, is unpopular among future neighbours. CBC reports.


• At Toronto Storeys, Christopher Hume considers facadism. When does it work? Where has it worked in Toronto?


• At NOW Toronto, Samantha Edwards takes a look at six new housing developments along Bloor Street West, stretching from Jane through High Park North all the way to Dufferin.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Niagara Falls, Brantford, Regina, Tofino, Port Moody

• Why are the falls at Niagara Falls so famously compelling, even lethally seductive for some? Some human brains might be confused by the immensity. The National Post reports.


• The extent of the flooding in Brantford, inland from Hamilton on the Grand River, is shocking. The Toronto Star reports.


• The Saskatchewan capital city of Regina turns out to be the McDonald's breakfast capital of Canada. Global News reports.


• This essay in The Globe and Mail by Greg Blanchette looking at the rental housing crunch in the small Vancouver Island town of Tofino describes what's frankly a terrifying situation.


• If not for the fact that the CP Railway owned no property locally, the Vancouver suburb of Port Moody could well have become Canada's biggest west coast metropolis. Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, Berlin, Amsterdam, Istanbul

• What does the impending demolition of the venerable Union Carbide tower, at 270 Park Avenue, to make way for a new ultratall skyscraper say about changing New York City? New York reports.


• The South China Morning Post observes how the cities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou, though still behind Hong Kong, are starting to advance past it as a result of these cities' sustained investment in innovative technologies.


• Aldi in Berlin will apparently build affordable student housing on top of at least some of its new discount food stores in Berlin. Bloomberg reports.


• This VICE article looking at the lives of lonely people in Amsterdam, many newcomers, is affecting.


• The Crisis Group looks at how Syrian refugees, of diverse ethnicities and religions, are finding a new home in the multiethnic Istanbul neighbourhood of Sultangazi.

[NEWS] Five notes about migration: Albania, Venezuela, Latvia, Namibia and East Germany, Yunnan

• This report from the Osservatorio Balcani e Caucaso noting the sheer scale of emigration in parts of rural Albania, proceeding to the point of depopulating entire territories, tells a remarkable story.


• This opinion suggesting that, due to the breakdown of the economy of Venezuela, we will soon see a refugee crisis rivaling Syria's seems frighteningly plausible.


• Politico Europe notes that, in the case of Latvia, where emigration has helped bring the country's population down below two million, there are serious concerns.


• OZY tells the unexpected story of hundreds of young Namibian children who, during apartheid, were raised in safety in Communist East Germany.


• Many Chinese are fleeing the pollution of Beijing and other major cities for new lives in the cleaner environments in the southern province of Yunnan. The Guardian reports.