[PHOTO] Old vitrolite tiles of College Station, 2019

Four years after I first saw the old green vitrolite tiles of College Station, I saw them again last night.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait urges caution in identifying K2-18b, a mini-Neptune with water vapour in its atmosphere, as Earth-like.


• Centauri Dreams reports on the discovery of C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), a likely interstellar comet like 'Oumuamua.


• The Crux reports on the orange roughy, a fish commonly caught as byproduct that can live up to 250 years.


• D-Brief looks at the harm that may be caused by some insecticides to songbirds, including anorexia and delayed migrations.


• Dangerous Minds considers if David Bowie actually did burn his 360-ton Glass Spider stage prop.


• Gizmodo notes the formidable, fanged marsupials once existing in Australia.


• Imageo notes signs that a dreaded blob of hot water, auguring climate change, might now be lurking in the Pacific Ocean.


• io9 notes that Ryan Murphy has shared the official title sequence for the 1984 season of American Horror Story.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the history, in popular culture and actual technology, of the artificial womb.


• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at how lightly the Sackler family got off for their involvement in triggering the opioid crisis with OxyContin.


• Marginal Revolution notes many companies are now seeking insurance to protect themselves in the US-China trade war.


• Tim Parks writes at the NYR Daily about how every era tends to have translations which fit its ethos.


• The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper suggesting that immigration and immigrants do not have major effects on the overall fertility of highly-developed countries.


• Frank Jacobs notes a mysterious 1920s German map of South America that shows Brasilia, the Brazilian capital built only from 1956. What is up with this?


• Window on Eurasia reports on the negative effects of massive migration of workers from Tajikistan on the country's women.

[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links: Y&E, shuttle, 1929 Labour Day, Liberty V, Port Lands, Chick-fil-A

• Will a pedestrian death at Yonge and Eglinton lead to an easing of the nightmare for people faced with Eglinton Crosstown construction? blogTO ,a href="https://www.blogto.com/city/2019/09/yonge-eglinton-construction-pedestrian-nightmare/">reports.


• An automated shuttle is set to pilot in 2020 in east-end Toronto. Global News reports.


• Jamie Bradburn writes about the Labour Day celebrations in Toronto in 1929, here.


• blogTO notes the construction of a much-needed pedestrian bridge in Liberty Village, here.


• Guardian Cities notes official skepticism in Toronto over the Sidewalk Labs proposal in the Port Lands, here.


• Andrew Wheeler, writing in the Toronto Star, notes that the appearance of institutionally homophobic Chick-fil-A just a few minutes walk from Church and Wellesley, poses a threat that needs to be fought.

[VIDEO] Walking across the last crossing at Yonge and Eglinton in the pouring rain

Walking home from work an hour ago, I was drenched by the rain. Yonge and Eglinton saw the rain dancing off the pavement.

"Walking across the last crossing at Yonge and Eglinton in the pouring rain" (Watch on YouTube)

[PHOTO] Rain-soaked selfie in the mirrored subway door, Davisville station