[CAT] Shakespeare, unimpressed by cat videos

[PHOTO] Three photos of downtown Toronto

I liked the glimpses of the downtown skyline of Toronto that I got Thursday morning, travelling west to Hamilton down Yonge and on the Gardiner.

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Centauri Dreams considers the OSIRIS-REx asteroid probe to Bennu.


• D-Brief notes that the core and the crust of dwarf planet Ceres apparently rotate at different speeds.


• Dangerous Minds shares the early glam rock of Rick Springfield.


• Gizmodo looks at the discovery of a new, oddly faint, sort of supernova explosion, one that explains how neutron stars can ever be so close as to collide.


• JSTOR Daily examines the concept of mana, the mystical power that can be generated by the act of speech.


• The LRB Blog considers how humanity will ever be able to address the rising sea, through geoengineering or techniques still more new to us.


• Window on Eurasia wonders if Belarus is likely to be the new target of Russian expansionism.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Dupont Street, The Junction, Soulpepper, Chariandy, punk

• blogTO shares some vintage photos of Dupont Street, here.


• Toronto Life profiles the fantastic new location of Type Books in the Junction, at Dundas and Keele.


• Weyni Mangesha has been appointed new director for Toronto's Soulpepper theatre. NOW Toronto reports.


• The Toronto Public Library's Book Buzz notes that David Chariandy has won the 2018 Toronto Book Award with his fantastic novel Brothers.


• blogTO notes a new book, Tomorrow Is Too Late, that takes a look at the Toronto punk scene of the 1980s.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, Miami, Amsterdam, Doha, Macau

• The MTLBlog notes that the rainbow balls above the Village gay on rue Sainte-Catherine are being taken down, permanently.


• CityLab notes efforts to preserve the unique architecture of the shotgun homes of the 19th century settlers of Miami.


• Guardian Cities shares photos of the largest squat in Amsterdam, set for redevelopment after two decades.


• Guardian Cities reports on the extreme segregation of migrant workers in Qatar's Doha from the native population, so strict that they are even consigned to a separate shopping mall.


• Business Insider reports on the way in which the old Portuguese and Lusophone elites of Macau are being squeezed out by Chinese influence.