[PHOTO] 10 Yarmouth Road, Seaton Village

While heading to a friend's place for a very enjoyable evening's dinner and a movie, I passed by the nearby 10 Yarmouth Road. This residential address in the neighbourhood defined by Wikipedia as Seaton Village recently became world-famous as the home of Prince Harry's future spouse Meghan Markle. Markle rented this home for several years while acting on Toronto-based show Suits. With her departure, the house--initially bought for $508,000 in 2007--went on the market again for a mere $1.395 million. One news source claims the house found a buyer within a week.

[PHOTO] Three photos taken around the Great Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art (@metmuseum)

The Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Fifth Avenue is a vast space welcoming visitors inside. I'd wanted to photograph it, but the size of this space and its layout is such that I could only photograph select portions.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• At Anthropology.net, Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that Australopithecus africanus suffered the same sorts of dental issues as modern humans.


• Architectuul considers, in the specific context of Portugal, a project by architects seeking to create new vehicles and new designs to enable protest.


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at HD 34445, a Sun-like star somewhat older than our own that has two gas giants within its circumstellar habitable zone. Could these worlds have moons which could support life?


• James Bow celebrates Osgoode as Gold, the next installment in the Toronto Comics anthology of local stories.


• At Crooked Timber, Henry Farrell in the wake of Italian elections revisits the idea of post-democratic politics, of elections which cannot change things.


• D-Brief notes that monkeys given ayahuasca seem to have been thereby cured of their depression. Are there implications for humans, here?


• Dangerous Minds notes the facekini, apparently a popular accessory for Chinese beach-goers.


• Imageo notes the shocking scale of snowpack decline in the western United States, something with long-term consequences for water supplies.


• JSTOR Daily notes a paper suggesting that the cultivation of coffee does not harm--perhaps more accurately, need not harm--biodiversity.


• Robert Farley at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the potential of the United States to start to extricate itself from the ongoing catastrophe in Yemen.


• The NYR Daily features an interview with photographer Dominique Nabokov about her photos of living rooms.


• Drew Rowsome writes a mostly-positive review of the new drama Rise, set around a high school performance of Spring Awakening. If only the lead, the drama teacher behind the production, was not straight-washed.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel makes the case that there are only three major types of planets, Terran and Neptunian and Jovian.


• Towleroad notes the awkward coming out of actor Lee Pace.


• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative suggests one way to try to limit the proliferation of guns would be to engineer in planned obsolescence, at least ensuring turnover.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell U>notes that one of his suggestions, ensuring that different national governments should have access to independent surveillance satellites allowing them to accurately evaluate situations on the ground, is in fact being taken up.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: real estate, Public Space Incubator, Miniso, transparency

• Joe Castaldo at MacLean's considers if, with more stringent rules on development and mortgages and foreign ownership, the real estate boom in the Greater Toronto Area might be ending.


• Apparently instances of owners evicting tenants on the grounds that they would like to use these spaces for themselves are on the rise. blogTO reports.


• blogTO notes a new institution in Toronto, the Public Space Incubator, that will provide funding to individuals and groups with innovative ideas as to what can be done with public spaces in the city.


• Japanese-themed Chinese discount store chain Miniso will be opening a new location in the Eaton Centre. blogTO reports.


• Edward Keenan makes the argument that more transparency is needed in Toronto politics, the better to ensure a better understanding by the public as to how the political process works, over at the Toronto Star.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Halifax, Hamilton, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Damascus

• Matthew McClearn describes the exceptional vulnerability of Halifax to sea level rise, and the apparent lack of significant preparation for this event, over at The Globe and Mail.


• In the wake of a Black Bloc-style attack on businesses in Hamilton's Locke Street, business owners say this isn't the first time this has happened in recent months. CBC reports.


• VICE reports on the nostalgia pervading the few surviving video stores of Los Angeles.


• Mini Montgomery at Washingtonian notes how conservatives in Washington D.C. are finding dating more difficult these days, what with liberals and Democrats turning them down.


• The highly selective devastation being visited on parts of Damascus is going to leave irremediable scars. The National Post reports.

[NEWS] Five notes on food: pork in Germany, California agriculture, NL clam, Maine lobster, food box

• Pork consumption in Germany is dropping, a consequence of changing demographics and changing dietary preferences. Bloomberg reports.
  
• Raids on illegal immigrants by ICE have the potential to badly hurt agriculture in California. Bloomberg reports.


• The story of how an effort to open up the Arctic surf clam fishery of Newfoundland, particularly to natives and non-natives alike became a big mess is sad. The National Post reports.


• Apparently, to cope with injuries and chronic pain, the lobster fishers of Maine are coping by using heroin. Is this going on in Atlantic Canada, too? VICE reports.


• Things like the Trump plan to substantially replace fresh foods with boxed non-perishable goods in food stamp problems have happened to Native Americans already. The dietary and health consequences are significantly negative. NPR reports.