[PHOTO] Window of bric-a-brac, Armstrong at Dufferin

This window of an abandoned shop, on Armstrong at Dufferin, has been the same since at least 2015, abandoned porcelains looking forlornly out. What change have they seen outside?

[PHOTO] Sunflower with bee, Dupont Street

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reports on the fragility of asteroid Ryugu.


• Centauri Dreams looks at the JUICE probe, planned to explore the three icy moons of Jupiter.


• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber reports on the fact that Jimmy Carter was warned in the 1970s about the possibility of global warming.


• D-Brief notes that the Earth might not be the best world for life, that watery worlds with dense atmospheres and long days might be better.


• Jessica Poling at the Everyday Sociology Blog writes about the construction of gender.


• Far Outliers looks at the Nigerian city of Agadez, at one point a sort of port city of the Sahel.


• Gizmodo asks a variety of experts their opinion on which species is likely to be next in developing our sort of intelligence. (Primates come up frequently, though I like the suggestion of bacterial colonies.)


• JSTOR Daily looks/a> at the genderless Quaker prophet Publick Universal Friend.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money comments on the interview of Amy Wax with The New Yorker.


• Marginal Revolution shares the enthusiasm of Tyler Cowen for Warsaw and Poland.


• Peter Pomerantsev writes at the NYR Daily about how the alt-right has taken to culture-jamming.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes the exceptional power of cosmic rays.


• Window on Eurasia shares the lament of a Chuvash writer about the decline of her people's language.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Wallace Emerson, Dosa Mahal, Popeyes, Sam McBride, #nuitblanche

• Toronto Life reports on the successful conversion of a corner store in Wallace Emerson into a $C1.3 million home, here.


• Bloordale's Dosa Mahal restaurant, sadly, is facing closure in the face of landlord pressures. blogTO reports.


• Popeyes in Canada lacks the chicken sandwiches that have gone viral in the US, and many in Toronto are unhappy. blogTO reports.


• Jamie Bradburn reports on how, in 1936, mayor Sam McBride lay in state at Old City Hall.


• NOW Toronto reports on the plans for Nuit Blanche 2019, here.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Montréal, Ottawa, Québec City, Los Angeles

• Hamilton, Ontario, leads the country in reports of hate crimes. The National Post reports.


• Cyclists are 42 times as likely to be ticketed for traffic violations in Montréal than in Toronto. CTV News reports.


• CBC considers if the city of Ottawa loosened unduly its requirements for its new light rail networks.


• A new report suggests that economics of a central Canadian high-frequency rail route would work better if Québec City was not included. CTV reports.


• CityLab looks at nostalgia in Los Angeles for that city's old comprehensive paper map, the Thomas Guide.

[NEWS] Five cultural links: Hitler, Internet, Nova Scotia roads, BC gangs, Pontic Greek

• The BBC takes a look at Pontic Greek, a Greek dialect that survives precariously in exile from its homeland in Anatolia.


• Klaus Meyer writes at The Conversation about how Hitler, in his rise to power, became a German citizen.


• Low-income families in the Toronto area face serious challenges in getting affordable Internet access. CBC reports.


• Jeremy Keefe at Global News takes a look at Steve Skafte, an explorer of abandoned roads in Nova Scotia.


• In some communities in British Columbia, middle-class people have joined criminal gangs for social reasons. CBC reports.

[AH] Five r/imaginarymaps #alternatehistory maps: Polabians, Huguenots, Malays, Finland, Ireland

• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines the survival of a Slavic people of east Germany to nation-statehood, not the extant Sorbs but the more obscure Polabians.


• Was there ever a possibility, as imagined in this r/imaginarymaps map, of a Huguenot polity forming and seceding from France?

This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a decidedly different Malay world, with a fragmented Indonesia.

• This r/imaginarymaps map imagines a Finland that grew sharply, to include much more of Karelia and even North Ingria.


• What would have come if, as suggested here, Northern Ireland had been repartitioned in the 1920s, most of the west and south passing to independent Ireland?