[PHOTO] Four photos from the Dufferin Grove vigil

Yesterday evening at 7, I went to the Toronto Community Vigil for the victims of the recent Pittsburgh mass shooting at Dufferin Grove Park, organized by If Not Now Toronto. It was a necessary act of solidarity, gathered under the powerful yellow glow of the streetlights of Havelock Street on the eastern edge of the park and the dimmer glow of house lights in the neighbourhood beyond, a gathering-together of mourning for the dead--in Pittsburgh, in Kentucky, in Gaza--and a statement of the need to join together to resist the alt-right and white nationalism. I'm still afraid of the way the world is evolving, but I don't think I feel quite so alone.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Chris Bertram at Crooked Timber praises Candice Delmas' new book on the duty of resistance to injustice.


• D-Brief looks at how the designers of robots took lessons from wasps in designing a new robotic swarm that can pull relatively massive objects in flight.


• Dead Things notes new evidence that the now-extinct elephant birds of Madagascar were nocturnal.


• Far Outliers notes how the reeducation of Japanese prisoners of war by Chinese Communists helped influence American policy towards Japan, imagining a Japan that could be reformed away from imperialism.


• At the Island Review, Alex Ingram profiles--with photos--some of the many different people who are the lone guardians of different small isolated islands removed from the British mainland.


• JSTOR Daily notes how asteroids can preserve records of the distant past of the solar system.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money has contempt for Pence's use of Messianic Jews to stand in for the wider, non-Christian, Jewish community.


• At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen considers the consequence that a decline of art galleries might have on the wider field of modern art.


• The NYR Daily considers the lessons that Thucydides, writing about Athens, might have for the United States now.


• Anjali Kumar at Roads and Kingdoms writes about a meal of technically illegal craft beer served with raw shrimp in Bangkok.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel illustrates the six different ways a star can end up in a supernova.


• Window on Eurasia notes that official Russian efforts to reach out to the Russian diaspora do not extend to non-Russian minorities' own diasporas, like that of the Circassians of the North Caucasus.


• Arnold Zwicky, starting by noting the passing of Dorcas, she who invented green bean casserole, looks at different pre-prepared foodstuffs.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Lawrence Heights, waterfront, Distillery District, Chinatown

• Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star notes how the ongoing attempt to revitalize Lawrence Heights will try to plug that neighbourhood back into the wider city of Toronto.


• Urban Toronto notes efforts by condo designers to make the Sugar Beach towers suitable for families.


• Ontario Place would be a perfect place for a swimming pier, wouldn't it? CBC reports.


• Daily Hive notes that the Distillery District will soon house the Collège Boreal.


• blogTO notes a classic Chinatown building on Spadina Avenue that has been given a terrible makeover.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Wawa, Calgary, Mexico City, Tirana, Hong Kong

• Vice shares the photographs taken by Cheyenne Jackson of the declining, aging, northern Ontario town of Wawa. What future does it have?


• At MacLean's, Jason Markusoff looks at the diminishing support for the 2026 Olympics in Calgary. Is there any case for this?


• Guardian Cities reports on the Via Verde, the vertical gardens attached to the pillars of the Mexico City freeway system. Are they merely cosmetic?


• The continued efforts of the civic authorities in the Albanian capital of Tirana to improve life in this growing city are the subject of this Guardian Cities article.


• This SCMP article makes a compelling argument that the distinctiveness of Hong Kong, as a city not wholly of China, is inexorably declining.

[ISL] Five islands links: Ile-des-Soeurs, Barbados, Islay, Greenland, Seychelles (#islands)

• La Presse notes that ongoing contruction is making traffic to and from the heavily populated Ile-des-Soeurs, just off Montréal, very difficult.


• IPS News notes that Barbados is hoping to diversify beyond its traditional sugar cane agriculture to start tapping fisheries in the adjacent Atlantic.


• The Island Review shares the reports of Marg Greenwood around the Scottish island of Islay.


• Are the oldest fossils in the world, imprints in Greenland rocks billions of years old, actually fossils? CBC reports.


• The Inter Press Services notes that the Seychelles have issued some bonds in support of new fisheries projects.

[NEWS] Seven #Halloween links: Toronto, Fisher Rare Book Library, haunted houses, 1978, fear

• NOW Toronto shares photos from a Hallowe'en dress party held this weekend at the Toronto Reference Library.


• CBC Toronto highlights an exhibit at the Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto looking at monsters, De Monstris.


• The Crux takes a look at different Hallowe'en traditions around the world.


• JSTOR Daily takes a look at whether or not homeowners looking to sell their property have to inform buyers if the house is haunted.


• Jamie Bradburn takes a look back in time, at Toronto's Hallowe'en in 1978 as reported in the papers.


• Gerald Walton at The Conversation writes about fear, and about constructive ways to harness fear to engender positive change.