[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about what goes into her creation of comfortable outdoor spaces. (I approve of the inclusion of blue; green is also nice.)


• D-Brief notes that the strong stellar winds of TRAPPIST-1 means that the outermost worlds are best suited to retain their atmospheres and host Earth-like environments.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that Russia has shown video of its latest crop of doomsday weapons.


• Joe. My. God. notes the duet of a German astronaut on board the ISS with Kraftwerk.


• JSTOR Daily considers if fear of race mixing, and of venereal disease, were important factors in the British Empire's abolition of slavery in 1833.


• Language Log notes differential censorship in China aimed at minority languages, using some books to be shipped from Inner Mongolia as an example.


• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that Russian support for Trump was less a well-thought plan and more a desperate gamble with unpredictable and largely negative consequences for Russia.


• The LRB Blog notes the perception by Proust of time as a dimension.


• The Planetary Society Blog notes how the Apollo missions helped clear up the mystery of the origins of the Moon.


• Window on Eurasia notes how the Donbas republics are inching away from Ukraine by seeking associations with adjacent Russian regions.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Danforth, #MeTooandthearts, Kensington Market, Yorkville, HomeShare

• The murder of two young people and wounding of more than a dozen in a shooting on the Danforth is shocking. CBC reports.


• CBC reports on a timely new exhibition at the ROM, #MeToo & The Arts.


• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto notes how plans to transform the old Fairland grocery store on Augusta into a big nightclub threatens the nature of Kensington Market.


• blogTO notes that the mist gardens of the Four Seasons Toronto on Yorkville Avenue are open to the public and free.


• The new City of Toronto program HomeShare, getting older residents to rent out unused rooms to younger tenants (often students), is one creative response to the crises of affordable housing and aging. The Toronto Star reports.

[NEWS] Five mixed links: medieval cockatoos, Indonesia, Morocco and the EU, White Helmets, Hllywood

• If an Australian cockatoo did appear on a 13th century European map, this hints at a history of medieval interaction with Australia as yet untold. The Guardian reports.


• The effects of a powerful Indonesia--an Indonesia likely to emerge through decades of steady growth--on Australia, to say nothing of its Southeast Asian neighbours, seems to be systematically missed. ABC reports.


• Mohammed Ben Jelloun's Open Democracy article, looking at the surprisingly close relationship of the Sherifian kingdom with the European Union and the impact on domestic dissent, is a must-read.


• Canada, thankfully, is taking in hundreds of Syrian White Helmets and their families as refugees. CBC reports.


• This r/mapporn post sharing a map depicting the different California locales used by Hollywood in the 1920s as stand-ins for foreign locations is classic.

[NEWS] Five marijuana links: Ontario Cannabis Store, Toronto usage, mental health, history, edibles

• The question of what will become of the Ontario Cannabis Store, apparently dormant and with only four locations picked a few months before opening, needs to be answered. Global News reports.


• Joseph Hall reports on a new study, map included, demonstrating that cannabis usage in Toronto is concentrated in wealthy regions of the city. (That arrests happen elsewhere is, sadly, not surprising.) The Toronto Star has it.


• Michael Mui reports on how cannabis usage has been linked with mental health issues, including psychotic outbursts and even schizophrenia. The Toronto Star has it.


• Catherine Carstairs at The Conversation examines how, over the 1960s and 1970s, the baby boomers took marijuana from obscurity to mainstream recognition.


• Sylvain Charlebois at The Conversation looks at the issues facing the food industry, and government regulators, as cannabis edibles strain to get onto the market.

[URBAN NOTE] Five links on cities: cemeteries, language, NUMTOTs, neighbourhoods, Yugoslavia

• Atlas Obscura notes, unsurprisingly, that some cemeteries in the United States were used as parks. Why not? These can be lovely green spaces. Just look at Toronto's Mount Pleasant and Prospect cemeteries.


• Meg Holden at The Conversation takes a look at the language, the grammar of thought, used to praise cities this day. Have we gone too far away from the skepticism of earlier decades?


• The Guardian Cities reports on NUMTOTs, "New Urbanist Memes for Transit-Oriented Teens", the Facebook group oriented to young urbanist fans that is hugely popular. (I've joined, I admit.)


• Open Democracy carries French-Iranian sociologist Farhad Khosrokhavar article on "jihadogenous urban structures", on neighbourhoods which can alienate young people to the point of supporting Islamist terror.


• Guardian Cities shares photos of some of the bold concrete architecture developed in Yugoslavia.