[PHOTO] Bloor Street 24/7 Fitness

Bloor Street Fitness and Boxing (2295 Dundas Street West) was brightly, almost gaudily, lit up as I passed by it Tuesday night at about 9:30, lights on and gloves up.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomy notes how the occultation of distant stars by nearby asteroids can help astronomers determine stars' size.


• D-Brief notes the remarkable achievements of some scientists in reviving the brains of pigs hours after their death.


• Dangerous Minds takes a look at how David Bowie got involved in The Man Who Fell To Earth.


• Dead Things looks at the recent identification of the late Cretaceous dinosaur Gobihadros.


• Bruce Dorminey notes that astronomers have determined an interstellar meteorite likely hit the Earth in 2014.


• Gizmodo reports on a very dim L-dwarf star 250 light-years away, ULAS J224940.13−011236.9, that experienced a massive flare. How did it do it?


• Hornet Stories shares some vintage photos of same-sex couples from generations ago being physically affectionate.


• At The Island Review, Nancy Forde writes about motherhood and her experience on Greenland, in the coastal community of Ilulissat.


• JSTOR Daily notes how Paris' Notre-Dame has always been in a process of recreation.


• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns, and Money notes the continuing oppression of workers in Bangladesh.


• The LRB Blog notes the flaws in the defense, and in the political thinking, of Julian Assange. (Transparency is not enough.)


• The NYR Daily reports on how photographer Claudia Andujar has regarded the Yanomami as they face existential challenges.


• The Planetary Society Blog traces the crash of Beresheet on the Moon to a software conflict.


• Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy warns against the idea of inevitable moral progress.


• Window on Eurasia notes the desires of some Russian conservatives to see Russia included in a European Union dominated by neo-traditionalists.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Neon Museum, renovictions, Y&E, ROM, Room With A View

• Jamie Bradburn was decidedly unimpressed by the Neon Museum at Junction House.


• Renovictions are a real concern for many renters in Toronto, already living on the edges of their budgets. CBC reports.


• Urban Toronto notes an interesting consolidation of two development plans into one at Yonge and Eglinton, here.


• blogTO notes how the Royal Ontario Museum is now going to offer free admission every third Monday of the month.


• Natalia Manzocco writes at NOW Toronto about how the Room With A View pop-up restaurant underneath the Gardiner Expressway ended up triggering city concerns over housing.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Niagara Falls, London, Québec City, Surrey, Onagawa

• Two British tourists were kicked out of their Niagara Falls hotel for supporting striking workers at an attached restaurant. CBC reports.


• Members of different Christian minorities from the Middle East living in London, Ontario, have united to create a new community church. CBC reports.


• Le Devoir looks at how Québec City is torn by a debate: Should it build a streetcar or a subway?


• The British Columbia city of surrey is currently rounding up its rogue peacocks. Global News reports.


• Guardian Cities reports on how the Japanese city of Onagawa, hit by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, is trying to rebuild without sprawl.

[NEWS] Five notes about fragile lifes: CHZs, endangered Ontario, glaciers, Spain, allergies

• Circumstellar habitable zones may be much narrower than previously hoped, Universe Today notes.


• NOW Toronto notes changes in Ontario law that might expose endangered species like cormorants to hunting.


• The world's glaciers have lost more than nine trillion tons of ice in the past century, Universe Today reports.


• Politico Europe notes that Spain is at particular risk of desertification as climate change proceeds.


• The Smithsonian Magazine notes that, as growing seasons extend thanks to global warming, so do allergy-causing pollen counts.

[NEWS] Five culture links: AO3, dating apps, mainstream Islamophobia, Notre Dame, Buttigieg

• That Archive Of Our Own has won a Hugo nomination is surprising, but deserved, news. Motherboard reports.


• CityLab notes that people interested in opposite-sex dating, when they make use of apps, look for people near them geographically.


• NOW Toronto looks at the extent to which anti-Muslim sentiment has made it into mainstream journalistic discourse in Canada.


• Adam Rogers writes movingly at Wired about the extent to which Notre Dame, for all of its age, is also constantly changing.


• Vox suggests that Pete Buttigieg, with his rhetoric full of hope, is trying to mobilize the same coalition of voters that saw Obama elected.

[MUSIC] Five music links: parents' music, Carly Rae Jepsen, Grimes, Mashrou' Leila, Cranberries

• JSTOR Daily notes a study examining how we can be nostalgic for the music of our parents.


• Hornet Stories notes the new album and tour of Carly Rae Jepsen.


• This Crack Magazine interview with Grimes has been getting a lot of attention, not necessarily positively mind.


• Hornet Stories highlights the innovative and queer-fronted Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila.


• Adam Wallis at Global News has an extended feature interviewing the surviving members of the Cranberries about their career and their final album, In The End.