[PHOTO] Towers of Yorkville, noontime

The light yesterday at noontime, in the Yorkville that is now a burgeoning high-rise district, was gorgeous.

[PHOTO] Towers of Yorkville (1), Google Photos' take

My Google Photos app yesterday offered up an interesting edit of the first photo in my Yorkville series, intensifying the blue sky into surreality and bringing out the sunlight that much more.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Architectuul profiles architectural photographer Lorenzo Zandri, here.


• Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait notes a new study suggesting red dwarf stars, by far the most common stars in the universe, have plenty of planets.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares 11 tips for interviewers, reminding me of what I did for anthropology fieldwork.


• Centauri Dreams notes how water ice ejected from Enceladus makes the inner moons of Saturn brilliant.


• The Crux looks at the increasingly complicated question of when the first humans reached North America.


• D-Brief notes a new discovery suggesting the hearts of humans, unlike the hearts of other closely related primates, evolved to require endurance activities to remain healthy.


• Dangerous Minds shares with its readers the overlooked 1969 satire Putney Swope.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that the WFIRST infrared telescope has passed its first design review.


• Gizmodo notes how drought in Spain has revealed the megalithic Dolmen of Guadalperal for the first time in six decades.


• io9 looks at the amazing Jonathan Hickman run on the X-Men so far, one that has established the mutants as eye-catching and deeply alien.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the Pentagon has admitted that 2017 UFO videos do, in fact, depict some unidentified objects in the air.


• JSTOR Daily looks at the origin of the equestrian horseback statue in ancient Rome.


• Language Log shares a bilingual English/German pun from Berlin.


• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money reflects on the legacy of Thomas Jefferson at Jefferson's grave.


• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution looks at a new book arguing, contra Pinker perhaps, that the modern era is one of heightened violence.


• The New APPS Blog seeks to reconcile the philosophy of Hobbes with that of Foucault on biopower.


• Strange Company shares news clippings from 1970s Ohio about a pesky UFO.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why the idea of shooting garbage from Earth into the sun does not work.


• Frank Jacobs at Strange Maps explains the appearance of Brasilia on a 1920s German map: It turns out the capital was nearly realized then.


• Towleroad notes that Pete Buttigieg has taken to avoiding reading LGBTQ media because he dislikes their criticism of his gayness.


• Arnold Zwicky looks at diners and changing menus and slavery.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: fall, Danforth church, 51 Metcalfe, No Name, Toronto Zoo

• blogTO notes that this fall in Toronto is likely to see erratic temperature swings.


• This sign on the lawn of a church on the Danforth warning off trespassers might have a defensible rationale, but it still seems off to me. The Toronto Star reports.


• This rental at 51 Metcalfe Street does seem sad to me. blogTO describes it.


• I rather like this No Name mural. blogTO shows it.


• As argued here at the Toronto Star, the Toronto Zoo probably should also be understood as one of the key elements of Scarborough.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Montréal, New Orleans, Berlin, Hasankeyf, Hong Kong

• Why not build a public beach in the Montréal neighbourhood of Lachine? Global News considers.


• The Vietnamese cuisine of New Orleans does look good. VICE reports.


• CityLab describes an effort to build a smart city in Berlin, in Siemensstadt. I wish Berliners better outcomes than what Toronto seems to be getting in the Port Lands.


• Guardian Cities reports on what seems to me to be a terrible plan to flood the ancient settlement of Hasankeyf in Turkey for dams.


• Saša Petricic at CBC looks at how the political consensus in Hong Kong has broken down, perhaps irretrievably.

[NEWS] Five links about aging, poverty, and inequality

• Is the argument of Piketty that billionaires should be taxed out of existence for the benefit of all really as bad as this columnist thinks it? Bloomberg has it.


• I do agree with this Open Democracy column suggesting a badly-handled guaranteed minimum income scheme could be a disaster.


• It is a sad irony that the stresses of poverty have been confirmed to accelerate the aging of poor people. VICE reports.


• Exercise plays a key role in helping slow down the aging process. The Conversation reports.


• Vox looks at claims of supercentenarians, and finds that poor record-keeping if not outright fraud is responsible for many.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Chilliwack, Moose Jaw, Scheer, gay gene, Eurovision

• After Chilliwack, British Columbia, decided not to put in place a rainbow crosswalk, two residents painted their driveway in that colour scheme. The Mission City-Record reports.


• Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, has received a substantial investment to boost LGBTQ tourism. Global News reports.


• Erica Lenti at Daily Xtra wondered if Andrew Scheer could make a meaningful apology for his opposition to marriage equality.


• Lauren Strapagiel at Daily Xtra is critical of efforts to find the biological basis for non-heterosexualities.


• Marke B. at them writes about the queer potential and challenges of Eurovision.