[PHOTO] Three photos of a sunny winter's day in Dovercourt Village

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Dangerous Minds takes note of a robot that grows marijuana.


• The Dragon's Tales has a nice links roundup looking at what is happening with robots.


• Far Outliers notes the differences between the African and Indian experiences in the Indian Ocean islands of Mauritius and the Seychelles.


• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing recovers a Paul Goodman essay from 1969 talking about making technology a domain not of science but of philosophy.


• JSTOR Daily notes the mid-19th century origins of the United States National Weather Service in the American military.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the extent to which Jared Kushner is not an amazingly good politician.


• The Map Room Blog notes artist Jake Berman's maps of vintage transit systems in the United States.


• The NYR Daily examines The Price of Everything, a documentary about the international trade in artworks.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw wonders how long the centre will hold in a world that seems to be screaming out of control. (I wish to be hopeful, myself.)


• Drew Rowsome reports on a Toronto production of Hair, 50 years young.


• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps shows maps depicting the very high levels of air pollution prevailing in parts of London.


• Window on Eurasia <a href="http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/black-january-in-baku-time-and-place.html'><U>remembers</u></a> Black January in Baku, a Soviet occupation of the Azerbaijani capital in 1990 that hastened Soviet dissolution.</li> </ul>

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: winter, TTC, Regent Park, Scarborough

• Toronto has been intensely cold this weekend past, continuing today. I can say, from my fortunate position, that it has at least been beautiful, bright blue skies and clean white snow. CBC reports.


• Transit Toronto examines the press reports about plans for accelerating Downtown Relief Line construction.


• CBC Toronto reports on how parents in Regent Park find local community rec programs are being overwhelmed by non-residents, people from other neighbourhoods.


• Aparita Bhandari at The Discourse writes about problems with the Scarborough Health Network.


• CBC interviews TTC users in Scarborough to see what they would want from the TTC. Do they even want a subway, and why?


• Jennifer Pagliaro at the Toronto Star seems skeptical of the idea that land sales above the Scarborough subway extension could provide a substantial contribution to funding, given construction patterns and land prices.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New York City, Vancouver, Fukushima, Palermo

• CBC reports on the new book of unofficial Montréal mascot Ponto.


• This CityLab article looks at Co-op City, an affordable housing complex in the Bronx, and what it has to offer.


• This proposal from Vancouver to give kids free transit and subsidies to low-income adults makes perfect sense to me.


• Scientific American notes how many refugees from Fukushima, facing economic pressures, have been forced to return to communities they feel unsafe in.


• This SCMP feature looks at how Asian immigrant shopkeepers in Palermo have been successfully resisting the mafia.

[NEWS] Five Indigenous links: Akwesasne, Kahnawake, Thunder Bay, totem poles, gay and Heitsluk

• The Walrus reports on the exceptional difficulty of travelling within the Akwesasne reserve, split between Canada and the United States and even Ontario and Québec.


• This Global News feature takes a look at the survival of traditions, and their evolution, in Kahnawake.


• This Toronto Star report tells of Indigenous complaints about continuing police racism in Thunder Bay.


• NHL-themed totem poles actually are a thing, Global News reports.


• The Discourse shares the story of out gay Heiltsuk man Steven Hall.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: gay and Catholic, 1970s Moscow, Australia beaches, Paradise Garage, bars

• The Conversation notes the dangers facing LGBTQ students and staff in Catholic schools in Canada.


• Deutsche Welle shares the story of how the Soviet Union in the 1970s hosted a delegation of visiting gay activists from Berlin.


• The Guardian reports on how LGBTQ people in Australia have found it difficult, even unsafe, to enjoy that country's beach culture.


• VICE shares photos from New York City's Paradise Garage, taken in the 1970s.


• Hornet Stories takes an extended look at the reasons, good and bad, for the decline of gay bars.

[NEWS] Five science links: redwood clones, rhea of Germany, Pescadero Basin, deep biosphere, climate

• Motherboard looks at how some ecological activists are cloning the stumps of dead redwoods to produce new trees.


• Rheas imported to the north German plains from South America are thriving, possibly even becoming indigenous. Well done! Deutsche Welle reports.


• Motherboard reports on the unique oceanic ecologies found in the upside-down lakes of the Pescadero Basin.


• The sheer mass of the deep biosphere underneath the Earth is immense, greater than that of humanity. Universe Today reports.


• The Conversation notes how we can use archeology to understand the impact of climate change.