[PHOTO] Ten photos from Dressing Toronto (#dressingtoronto)

The Fashion History Museum, based in Cambridge, had for the month of November a pop-up at the Toronto Media Arts Centre, Dressing Toronto. This show took a look at the history of readymade fashion in Toronto from the 19th century on, concentrating particularly on the era of mass shopping and named designers that began after the Second World War. This exhibit certainly got me interested in what else the Fashion History Museum has to offer.

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait, looking at the Moon, considers what a "small" crater is.


• Citizen Science Salon looks at Amino Labs, a start-up that aims to enable people--even children--to use simple kits to engage in bioengineering.


• Crooked Timber notes that the collapse in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies means good things for the global environment.


• The Crux considers the extent to which gender--gender identity, gendered roles--is unique to humans.


• A Fistful of Euros considers the generalized extremism of the "filets jaunes" of France and where this might lead that country.


• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing shares the skepticism of Jacques Ellul in a "technical" humanism, one that seeks to ameliorate the details of a dehumanizing life.


• Gizmodo considers how we can start preparing for the risks of powerful artificial intelligence to humans, even potentially existential ones.


• The Island Review interviews Nancy Campbell, a writer concerned with the islands and cultures of the Arctic like Greenland.


• Language Hat considers the idea of "efficient languages". What does this idea even mean?


• Language Log considers the potential impact of making English an official language on Taiwan.


• The LRB Blog considers the political future of France.


• Window on Eurasia notes how many people in Kyrgzystan are becoming angered by China's Xinjiang policies.


• Arnold Zwicky considers St. Bernard, in connection with dogs and otherwise.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: #AGOInfinity, 2 Queen Street East, TTC, ROM

• The Art Gallery of Ontario has gotten its Infinity Room! Global News reports.


• The rehabilitation and renovation of 2 Queen Street East will be a high-profile project. The Globe and Mail reports.


• Steve Munro continues to examine the relative speeds of the 504 King and 501 Queen streetcars, here.


• This warning from the TTC union that Presto cards are too failure-prone to be able to properly take over from the Metropass in January makes me, a TTC user, worry. The Toronto Star reports.


• Toronto doctors can now issue their patients prescriptions to visit the ROM. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Detroit and Windsor, Africville, New York City, Calgary, Shenzhen

• The TVO show The Life-Sized City is spotlighting the revival of the binational conurbation of Detroit and Windsor. The Windsor Star reports.


• Owners of a house that is a rare survival of Africville, currently in Lower Sackville, are seeking heritage status for this building. CBC reports.


• VICE reports on how New York City is preparing for the L train shutdown.


• Students seeking to set up Gay-Straight Alliances in Calgary Catholic schools are reportedly being hindered, even harassed, by hostile administrators despite provincial policy. Global News reports.


• This SCMP article suggests Shenzhen is a popular destination for daytrippers from Hong Kong, for people who seek a Hong Kong experience at affordable prices.

[NEWS] Five politics links: Weimar violence, Nazi bios, Russia, US military, Ontario under Ford

• Open Democracy notes how the unrestrained and unpunished violence of the far right helped doom the Weimar Republic.


• VICE reports on a remarkable project, wherein an American in the 1930s solicited and received explanations from Germans as to why they became Nazis. (The letters' language echoes.)


• This Adnan Khan interview at MacLean's with Russian expert Bobo Lo puts forth the origins and prospects of the Russian challenge to the world order.


• Given the growing problems of the United States, the fact that American military power versus China or Russia cannot be guaranteed is something Canada needs to take into account. CBC reports.


• Stephen Maher at MacLean's makes the point that, with the casual corruption of the Doug Ford government, it is as if Ontario is living a Dukes of Hazzard episode.

[NEWS] Five links about populations: Franco-Ontarians, Acadians, American whites, Brexit, Belgium

• CBC reports from a Franco-Ontarian youth gathering, in Ontario's easternmost and Francophone-majority Prescott-Russell, where young Francophones are responding with defiance.


• This Acadie Nouvelle opinion piece suggests that, to deal with the problems of the Acadians of the Maritimes, they should collectively seek some sort of autonomy across provincial frontiers.


• This New York Times article noting the questionable nature of the census estimate that white Americans were bound to be a minority soon, and this projection's political consequences, is worth reading.


• Brexit is incompatible with a liberalized immigration policy in the United Kingdom; left-wing Brexiters should know better. Politics.co.uk has it.


• CBC notes how Belgium, dealing with the election of its first black mayor and a revamping of a museum devoted to Central Africa, is starting to deal with its racist past.