[PHOTO] Three photos of Yonge and Sheppard, North York, Toronto

The towers of North York along Yonge Street, around Sheppard station, are imposing, potentially a secondary nucleus of high-rise growth and densification outside of the downtown. Some of the towers, like the Emerald Park Condos, are particularly striking for passersby.

[PHOTO] Five photos of Islamic artifacts from the Met (@metmuseum)

The Met has plenty of gorgeous artifacts from throughout the Middle East: painted glass bottles, file tile mosaics, and more.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• At Anthrodendum, Elizabeth Marino takes issue with what she identifies as the naively and fiercely neoliberal elements of Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now.


• Anthropology.net's Kambiz Kamrani takes a look at an innovative study of the Surinamese creole of Sranan Tongo that uncovers that language's linguistic origins in remarkably fine detail.


• Architectuul examines the architecture of Communist-era Hungarian architect István Szábo.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the nearly naked black hole at the heart of galaxy ZwCl 8193, 2.2 billion light-years away.


• The Big Picture shares photos from the 2018 Paralympics in South Korea.


• Gerry Canavan has an interesting critical take on Star Trek: Discovery. Is it really doing new things, or is its newness just superficial?


• Centauri Dreams considers the impact the spectra of red dwarfs would have on biosignatures from their worlds.


• Russell Darnley takes a look at Australia's Darling River, a critical watercourse threatened by extensive water withdrawals.


• Inkfish notes that patterns of wear on the tusks of elephants indicate most are right-handed.


• Joe. My. God. links to a study suggesting a relationship between Trump rallies and violent assaults.


• JSTOR Daily links to a paper examining why people drink Guinness on St. Patrick's Day.


• Language Hat takes a look at the use of Xhosa as the language of Wakanda.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money mourns Alfred Crosby, the historian whose work examined the epidemiological and ecological changes wrought by contact with the Americas.


• The Map Room Blog links to a map showing indigenous placenames in Canada.


• Marginal Revolution suggests AI will never be able to centrally plan an economy because the complexity of the economy will always escape it.


• In the aftermath of the death of Stephen Hawking, Out There had a lovely idea: what nearby major stars emitted life than arrive at the moment of his birth? Hawking's star is Regulus, and mine was (nearly) Arcturus.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel examines Stephen Hawking's contribution to the study of black holes.


• Supernova Condensate shares a list of moons, fictional and otherwise, from Endor on down.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: pandas, rail, transit funding, real estate, police

• CBC, among others, bids goodbye to the pandas of the Toronto Zoo, here.


• blogTO notes the extended hours of operation of the Union-Pearson Express and of the GO Transit rail network.


• Steve Munro is not impressed by the extra funding given to Toronto transit for a few reasons.


• May Warren notes that four thousand people applied for a lottery for 59 affordable units in Regent Park, over at the Toronto Star.


• The Toronto Star notes that John Tory has called for a limited external review of police in the context of the Church-Wellesley disappearances.

[URBAN NOTE] Five cities links: Vancouver, Derry, Tehran, London, Kumamoto

• Global News reports on how municipalities in the Metro Vancouver area have arranged to pay for new transit.


• Slugger O'Toole has a multi-part investigation looking at why Derry, second city of Northern Ireland, is so poor. The first part is here.


• Bloomberg notes that the real estate market in Tehran is definitely not friendly to hopeful buyers.


• VICE reports on how activists in London turned an empty home into a homeless shelter.


• The Finger Post's David Finger shares photos of his recent visit to Kumamoto.