[PHOTO] Eleven photos of Ossington Avenue at night, from Dundas north to Dupont

I took a walk north along Ossington Avenue to home this night, starting with two drinks at Communist's Daughter on Dundas just west of Ossington at half past midnight and strolling om up to Dupont. It was a glorious night, just chill enough to catch one's attention while still being above freezing.

(As an aside, I really think I should do more night walking on general principle. It expends calories and generates steps, true, but more importantly it offers rare perspectives on the city.)

















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[CAT] Shakespeare amid the pillows

[CAT] Five cats links: facial expressions, Ugandan lions, Chinese leopard cats, dreams, Disneyland

• Seriously Science notes that, of course, cats do have facial expressions. It's just a matter of learning to recognize them.


• This sad story of the poisoning of lion cubs in a Ugandan park, product of growing conflict between farmers and wildlife, needs to be shared. National Geographic reports.


• Hopeful rescuers of the leopard cats of China, wild animals though they look quite like housecats, should stop and not risk separating kittens from their mothers. National Geographic reports.


• At the Chronicle of Higher Education's Lingua Franca, Allan Metcalfe shares, Caedmon-like, what he remembers of a dream he had of cats and their words.


• Aine Cain at Business Insider tells the story, and shares the photos, of the feral cats who have been invited into Disneyland to make that theme park their home.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Anthrodendum recommends design researcher Jan Chipchase's Field Study Handbook for anthropologists interested in field practice.


• Architectuul investigates strange similarities between buildings built in far-removed parts of the world.


• Centauri Dreams takes a look at TESS, the next generation of exoplanet-hunting satellite.


• Crooked Timber investigates the connections between the spiritualism of the 19th century and the fiction of the uncanny.


• D-Brief notes the many names, often delightful, that newly-discovered locations on Mercury and Charon have received.


• Cody Delistraty investigates two exhibitions of French satirists, including Charlie Hedo's Georges Wolinski, to examine the nature of satire.


• The Dragon's Tales considers the possibility of cryomagna leaving marks on the surface of Europa.


• Drew Ex Machina takes a look at the strangely alien skies of TRAPPIST-1e. What would its sun look like? How would the other planets appear?


• The Everyday Sociology Blog takes a look at the new prominence of multigenerational households in the United States. While a response to economic strains, it also looks back to past traditions.


• Hornet Stories notes how, on RuPaul's Drag Race, Monet X Change gave a decent explanation behind the surprisingly recent birth of the modern British accent.


• Imageo notes how a massive blob of warm water is rising to the surface of the Pacific.


• At In A State of Migration, Lyman Stone explores the unique population history of Maine, to my eyes easily the most Atlantic Canadian of the fifty American states.


• JSTOR Daily links to a paper exploring why modern video games can produce such rewarding experiences for players. (We can get meaning from many places.)


• Language Log takes a look at the complexity of Chinese language classifications with a song by Yishi Band. What exactly is Yibin Sichuanese?


• Lawyers, Guns and Money takes a look at an interesting question: When did Jews in the United States become white?


• The LRB Blog takes a look at the baffling reasons behind the poisoning of the Skribins with Novichok, and the science behind it.


• Marginal Revolution notes that this year, GDP per capita measured at PPP in Spain is higher than in Italy. (This probably says more about the disarray in Italy.)


• The NYR Daily shares an interesting interview with cartoonist Art Spiegelman.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw tells of his experiences on a trip to the small Australian city of Armidale, in the region of New England.


• Justin Petrone reflects on the tidy and clean, minimalist even, rural landscape of Estonia.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell notes brain scans that provide evidence of consciousness even in very young infants.


• Drew Rowsome praises the Toronto production of the musical Fun Home, based on the Alison Bechdel graphic novel. I, for one, can't wait to see it.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes that, although Proxima Centauri is far too active a star for Proxima Centauri b to be Earth-like, that world could still plausibly host life-supporting environments.


• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy suggests a recent deal at the federal level in the US between Trump and Cory Gardner has created space for states to legalize marijuana without fear of federal intervention.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Kanagaratnam, Bloordale, Bloor and Dundas, Etobicoke, Bloor West

• Fatima Syed and Wendy Gillis tell the story of Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil whose failed application for refugee status in Canada after travelling on the MV Sun Sea led directly to his death at the hands of McArthur. The Toronto Star has it.


• The developer hoping to transform the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin has opted to redesign the development following community criticism. CBC reports.


• The sheer scale of the planned development on the southeast corner of Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West is such that a new neighbourhood would come into being. Wow. The Toronto Star has it.


• The plan for SmartTrack would leave the residents of an Etobicoke development next to a GO rail yard subject to terrible levels of noise and air pollution. The Toronto Star reports.


• Is Bloor Street West going to become the next Yonge Street, an uninterrupted string of high-density development? Not without differences, at least. The Toronto Star looks at the issue.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Hamilton, Rotterdam, Hambantota, Warsaw

• In response to a desire to remove an almost bizarre controversial statue of a cow from its location in a neighbourhood in Markham, the owner has sued the city for $C 4 million. The Toronto Star reports.


• The mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, would like housing incorporated into shopping malls, to deal with issues of housing and retail in one go. Global News reports.


• Brexit threatens to decidedly destabilize the picture for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The Independent reports.


• Bloomberg notes that the controversial Chinese-owned port of Hambantota, in Sri Lanka, is doing terrible business.


• Newly-discovered documents provide confirmation of the belief that the Nazis planned to utterly destroy Warsaw. The National Post reports.

[PHOTO] Five photo links: Flickr, Instagram, cities, Tom Saint CLair, Peter Hujar

• Gizmodo has a perhaps unduly pessimistic take on the purchase of Flickr by SmugMug. I use Flickr regularly; I wish it luck.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about her use of Instagram, and about what she sees as the site's good and bad sides.


• CityLab considers the impact of Instagram, and social networking-driven photography, on the identities and representations of cities.


• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the photography of Tom Saint Clair. (NSFW.)


• Towleroad highlights a showing of the photography of Peter Hujar in New York City that I wish I could attend.

[NEWS] Three links about sci-fi and pop culture: Westworld and AI, machine learning, Janelle Monáe

• This fascinating look at Westworld takes a look at how changing representations of artificial intelligence influence storylines in pop culture, as we shift from fear of AI to potential sympathy. The AV Club has it.


• Machine learning these days is demonstrating an astounding ability to understand complex systems. Quanta Magazine has it.


• io9 notes an upcoming queer Afrofuturist film from Janelle Monáe (also starring Tessa Thompson as a love interest) that sounds amazing.