[PHOTO] Four drawings by Aba Bayefsky of Yonge subway construction, 1949 (#tdgallery)

The TD Gallery at the Toronto Reference Library downtown has a nice little show on, Toronto Revealed, featuring artworks depicting the Toronto streetscape from the mid-20th century up to the present. Most of the works are paintings--good paintings, I might add--but my attention was particularly caught by a set of four drawings, in pen and ink, done in 1949 by Aba Bayefsky, depicting the construction of the Yonge line.

[PHOTO] Four photos of blue artifacts from the Middle East at the met (#metmuseum)

Blue is my favourite colour, and blue also happens to have been a popular colour in the art of the Middle East. I found myself homing in on artifacts tinted in this shade.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthropology.net's Kambiz Kamrani notes evidence that environmental change in Kenya may have driven creativity in early human populations there.


• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shows how astronomers use stellar occultations to investigate the thin atmosphere of Neptune's moon Triton.


• Centauri Dreams notes how melting ice creates landscape change on Ceres.


• D-Brief suggests
  
• Dangerous Minds shares Paul Bowles' recipe for a Moroccan love charm.


• The Everyday Sociology Blog investigates the transformation of shopping malls and in the era of Amazon Prime.


• At In Medias Res, Russell Arben Fox engages with Left Behind and that book's portrayal of rural populations in the United States which feel left behind.


• JSTOR Daily looks at how Roman Catholic nuns on the 19th century American frontier challenged gender norms.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is critical of Tex-Mex cuisine, calling it an uncreative re-presentation of Mexican cuisine for white people in high-calorie quantities.


• The NYR Daily shared this thought-provoking article noting how Irish America, because of falling immigration from Ireland and growing liberalism on that island, is diverging from its ancestral homeland.


• Drew Rowsome reviews The Monument, a powerful play currently on in Toronto that engages with the missing and murdered native women.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes, in a photo-heavy post, how galaxies die (or at least, how they stop forming stars).


• Towleroad shares a delightful interview with Adam Rippon conducted over a plate of hot wings.


• Window on Eurasia shares an alternate history article imagining what would have become of Russia had Muscovy not conquered Novgorod.


• Worthwhile Canadian Initiative notes the very sharp rise in public debt held by the province of Ontario, something that accelerated in recent years.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell suggests, in the era of Cambridge Analytica and fake news, that many journalists seem not to take their profession seriously enough.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC, parliament, Queens Quay, Jordan Peterson

• Christopher Hume's sarcastic "praise" of the TTC as the better way since it gives people plenty of time to sit and do nothing, over at the Toronto Star, is notable.


• Steve Munro takes a look at service on the 501L bus route on Queen west to Long Branch.


• John Lorinc writes at the Toronto Star about the discovery of Ontario's first parliament beneath a car lot at Front and Parliament, and what people are doing to publicize knowledge of this site.


• The TTC will be putting up a gate at the Queens Quay subway tunnel after yet another driver drove their vehicle into the streetcar route.


• Vinay Menon's extended take in the Toronto Star on Jordan Peterson is weirdly compelling. What will Peterson do next?

[NEWS] Five Canada politics links: expat voting, Doug Ford, Québec and Ontario, populism, austerity

• CBC makes a case for expat voting for Canadian citizens living abroad.


• Trish Audette-Longo at National Observer notes the refusal of Doug Ford to explain his claim that Ontario is giving California $C 469 million under cap and trade.


• Jim Stanford argues at The Globe and Mail that Doug Ford's budget proposals would lead to an economy-crippling austerity.


• Kelly McParland thinks that, although Québec has much healthier public finances than Ontario, in both provinces the governing Liberals are set for a defeat.


• Martin Regg Cohn, writing at the Toronto Star, thinks this election could turn into a contest between the populism of Doug Ford and the progressivism of the Liberals and NDP, and that things aren't looking good for the latter.

[NEWS] Seven LGBTQ links: Love Simon, Toronto, recipes, Italy, former Soviet Union, Obama

• NOW Toronto gives a glowing review to Love, Simon, one that praises the film for its quality and for its importance.


• CBC reports on how Toronto police seem to have badly mishandled Abdulbasir Faizi.


• The inquiry into the alleged McArthur murders most definitely should be independent of police chief Saunders. NOW Toronto reportsA.


• This story of how a recipe for pickled cucumbers survived the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s is powerful. Taste Cooking has it.


• The way in which LGBTQ rights became a hot political issue in the recent Italian elections is not good. Open Democracy reports.


• The politicization of homophobia across the former Soviet Union is horrible. Open Democracy reports.


• Why do so many people on the American right insist that Obama is gay? VICE reports.