[PHOTO] Looking south upon Bartlett Avenue from above

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• The Crux looks at Henrietta Leavitt, the astronomer who helped measure the size of the universe.


• D-Brief notes that the Chang'e-4 rover has briefly woken up to conduct science on the Moon before returning to hibernation.


• Gizmodo notes that an ancient feather thought for generations to belong to Archeopteryx actually belongs to a different feathered animal.


• JSTOR Daily notes the importance of protecting wild plants related to major foodstuffs, like coffee, from extinction.


• Language Hat links to a chart depicting the evolution of alphabets from the original Proto-Sinaitic.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money explores the bizarre scandal surrounding Virginia governor Ralph Northam. (I think him badly compromised, myself.)


• Marginal Revolution looks at the reasons for the unexpected flight of capital from emerging economies. (Insecurity seems to be one cause.)


• The Planetary Society Blog shares some galactic astrophotography of Adam Block.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the importance of continuing to try to answer the big questions of science.


• Window on Eurasia notes the emergence in Russia of people who reject Russian statehood and instead claim Soviet legitimacy, echoes of sovereign citizens and Reichsbürger of Germany.


• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the idea of alphabetic order, starting with the question of how to learn it.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Toronto Coach Terminal, Metrolinx, TTC and subways, tech

• Christopher Hume at the Toronto Star writes movingly about the neglect of the beautiful Toronto Coach Terminal. This building deserves better.


• Ben Spurr at the Toronto Star notes the willingness of Metrolinx to turn customers' Presto data over to the police, even without warrants.


• Transit Toronto notes that surveying for the extension of the Yonge subway line north from Finch has begun.


• Metrolinx has gone on the record as saying that the Downtown Relief Line, relieving pressure on the Yonge line, must open before a northwards extension of Yonge into Richmond Hill. The Toronto Star has it.


• The Globe and Mail reports that, after rising numbers of suicide attempts, the TTC is going to redouble anti-suicide measures.


• Toronto is becoming a growing centre of the tech industry, the Toronto Star reports, tech sector growth driving the wider provincial economy.

[URBAN NOTE] Six city links: Oshawa, Saint John, Manhattan, Surat, Tokyo, Austin

• After GM's closure in Oshawa, the National Observer wonders if Oshawa can pivot over to perhaps take advantage of opportunities in the green economy.


• Will Saint John, New Brunswick, be able to break out of its long decline and find a new raison d'être? Global News reports.


• Guardian Cities takes a look at the new super-tall luxury towers, homes to the rich, dotting--disfiguring?--the Manhattan skyline.


• Guardian Cities looks at how the Indian city of Surat, endangered by flooding from sea and river, is trying to adapt to its environment.


• Even as the overall population of Japan continues to decline, the population of Tokyo continues to grow through net migration, Mainichi reports.


• The Texas capital of Austin, CityLab reports, is trying to create new institutions and structures to help connect older and younger generations.

[NEWS] Five space links: Mars, Titan, Kepler-107, Eta Carinae, SDSS J1206+4332

• Smithsonian Magazine notes that the country of Georgia has embarked on research to try to find a grape vine capable of surviving and producing wine in the Martian environment.


• The dense nitrogen-methane atmosphere of Titan may be a process of the hot core's impact on Titan's organic compounds. Science News reports.


• Space notes how the odd densities of two of the planets in the Kepler-107 system may indicate some massive impact on the past.


• Universe Today notes that a dust cloud obscuring the brilliant Eta Carinae is moving away from our field of view, making Eta Carinae brighter and easier to study.


• Universe Today notes that double quasars like SDSS J1206+4332 can help reveal the speed of the expansion of the universe.

[NEWS] Five links on dollar stores

Back in 2012, one of the then-newest outposts of the Canadian Dollarama chain of dollar stores opened up last summer on the western fringes of The Annex, in a location at Bloor and Bathurst formerly belonging to music store Sonic Boom. (Sonic Boom's landlords apparently wanted too much rent, so the store moved into a corner of Honest Ed's just a block away before later moving on to Spadina.) This store's front windows had been covered with paper while the merchandise and equipment were being moved into this store in June, but some of it had been torn away.

This new store's opening marked, for me, Dollarama's successes: from a single store in eastern Québec two decades ago, Dollarama has become a national store with nearly a thousand stores open across Canada. The chain's sustained high growth has been traced by some to a pretty good business model: efficient management, well-trained staff, and a careful management of product to include only the sorts of products that will actually sell to its target markets. Since this particular store's opening, it has consistently done very good business.

As it happens, dollar stores like Dollarama are becoming major sources of controversy. Yes, they allow people access to inexpensive goods including food, but do they provide good-quality food? More, what about the labour market niches they fill? Do they offer affordable wages, or do they just accentuate inequality?

• The new online store of Dollarama allows customers to buy many goods in bulk, CBC reports.


• Quartz looks at how the growth of dollar stores in the United States--and Canada too, doubtless--reflects growing inequality of income at the levels of individual workers and neighbourhoods.


• Newsweek looks at how dollar stores find a niche in poor neighbourhoods in the United States, displacing grocery stores.


• CityLab looks at how dollar stores can contribute to food deserts.


• Todd Schoepflin at the Everyday Sociology Blog looks at dollar stores in the lens of growing inequality, of income and of choice, in the United States.