[PHOTO] Gourds for sale at Pusateri's

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait considers nearby galaxy NGC 6744, a relatively nearby spiral galaxy that may look like the Milky Way.


• D-Brief notes the remarkable ceramic spring that gives the mantis shrimp its remarkably powerful punch.


• Far Outliers notes how the north Korean port of Hamhung was modernized in the 1930s, but also Japanized, with few legacies of its Korean past remaining.


• Joe. My. God. notes how the Trump administration plans to define being transgender out of existence. Appalling.


• Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes the ways in which the Internet has undermined the traditions which support American political institutions. Can new traditions be made?


• Lawyers, Guns, and Money notes how the Trump's withdrawal from the INF treaty with Russia on nuclear weapons harms American security.


• Rose Jacobs at Lingua Franca writes about ways in which derision, specifically of other nationalities, enters into English slang.


• Marginal Revolution notes that, in an article surveying the Icelandic language, a report that sales of books in Iceland have fallen by nearly half since 2010.


• The NYR Daily looks at two recent movies, one autobiographical and one fictional, looking at dads in space.


• Jason Perry at the Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest imagery of the volcanoes of Io.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the possibility that time travel might not destroy the universe via paradoxes.


• Window on Eurasia suggests that the experience of post-Soviet Estonia with its two Orthodox churches might be a model for Ukraine.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Jennifer Keesmaat, rent, Parkdale, TTC, public art

• Chris Selley at the National Post writes about the transformation of Jennifer Keesmaat from city planner to politician. (Vote for her today!)


• blogTO notes that Toronto is now the most expensive city in Canada for renters.


• Liam Barrington-Bush at NOW Toronto notes how, in the absence of any effective city leadership, people in Parkdale are taking it upon themselves to keep their neighbourhood affordable despite gentrification pressures.


• Steve Munro explores the question of why TTC ridership has stagnated, if not fallen, in the past few years.


• Sarah Ratzlaff has posted a stirring manifesto at Spacing calling for more public art in the City of Toronto.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Richmond and Vancouver, San Jose, New York City, London, Bristol

• Vancouver and its neighbor, Richmond, have each opted to adopt very different policies towards marijuana sale and use. The National Post reports.


• CityLab notes the efforts of San Jose to build affordable housing for its teachers, and the opposition of many residents to this seemingly sensible move.


• Guardian Cities shares a beautiful series of photos looking at the New York City skyline over time.


• Metro reports that the opening of the first restaurant in London of Filipino fast food chain Jollibee's saw huge lines.


• Open Democracy features a fascinating interview on the subject of the English city of Bristol, as a place of creative resistance.

[NEWS] Some international links: Koreas, eastern Europe, Brazil, Ireland and England, Canada

• This sad SCMP article takes a look at the struggles of North Korean defectors on arriving in South Korea, a competitive society with its own values alien to them.


• This Open Democracy book review asks what went wrong in eastern Europe, that illiberalism became so popular. (Of note, I think, is the suggestion that Western definitions have changed substantially since the 1990s.)


• The rise, in the person of Bolsonario, of fascism in Brazil is the subject of this stirring Open Democracy feature.


• This New York Times opinion piece by an Irish woman living in England touches upon the ways in which Brexiteers' blithe dismissal of Ireland and Irish needs are starting to make many 21st century Irish angry with their eastern neighbour, again.


• MacLean's notes how the legalization of marijuana in Canada came about as a consequence of the recognition by Justin Trudeau of the unfairness of the old regime.