A Bit More Detail

• blogTO notes that yesterday was a temperature record here in Toronto, reaching 12 degrees Celsius in the middle of February.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the pleasure of using old things.


• Joe. My. God. notes the death of Roe v Wade plaintiff Norma McCorvey.


• Language Hat notes that, apparently, dictionaries are hot again because their definitions are truthful.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money considers if the Trump Administration is but a mechanism for delivering Pence into power following an impeachment.


• Steve Munro notes that Exhibition Loop has reopened for streetcars.


• The NYRB Daily considers painter Elliott Green.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes that North Carolina's slippage towards one-party state status is at least accompanied by less violence than the similar slippage following Reconstruction.


• Window on Eurasia warns that Belarus is a prime candidate for Russian invasion if Lukashenko fails to keep control and notes the potential of the GUAM alliance to counter Russia.

• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling notes the early Soviet science fiction genre of the "Red Pinkerton".


• blogTO notes higher passenger densities on Toronto ferries.


• Centauri Dreams considers gravitational wave astronomy.


• Crooked Timber argues that personality emulations will not take over.


• The Crux looks at the perchlorate salts covering the Martian surface.


• Dangerous Minds shares a vintage Robert Crumb cartoon mocking Donald Trump.


• Steve Munro notes the unwarranted controversy over repairs on the 512 St. Clair line.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer reveals his true feelings for Canadians by proposing Canada annex a post-Brexit UK.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell celebrates Georges Lemaitre, developer of the Big Bang theory.


• Towleroad looks at out queer Lebanese band Mashrou Leila.


• Window on Eurasia notes falling remittances from Central Asians working in Russia.

Transit aficionados waiting by the Distillery Loop Saturday morning got a chance to ride the first new TTC streetcar route in 16 years.

The 514 Cherry made its first trip around 10 a.m., heading north on Cherry St. before turning west on King St. E. and trundling along to Dufferin St., before ending up at the Dufferin Gate Loop.

Passengers who hopped on the streetcar’s inaugural run rode for free —including those waiting at stops along the way. A few of the TTC’s old streetcars were also brought out of retirement and put on display at the Distillery Loop for the launch event.

Service on the 514 route is expected to run every 8-9 minutes during peak commuting times, seven days a week. Off-peak wait times will be about 15 minutes or less, said the TTC in a release. Regular service starts Sunday.

The TTC’s hosting a community event to celebrate the TTC’s 514 Cherry streetcar route, the first new streetcar route in Toronto in 16 years, this Saturday, June 18 at 10 a.m.

The new service officially starts the next day, Sunday, June 19.

Mayor John Tory, the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission Councillor Josh Colle, Julie Dabrusin, MP for Toronto-Danforth, and other municipal, provincial and federal officials to launch the new service at Distillery Loop on the east side of Cherry Street south of Mill Street.

After official remarks, you can ride a new low-floor Toronto Flexity car along all or part of the route free of fare.

The Flexity car will travel the entire route to Dufferin Gates Loop and return to King Street and Sumach Street picking up passengers along the way for a special free trip.

Government aid for Bombardier would be “a slap in the face” for Toronto, unless the company can first sort out problems bedevilling the streetcars it is building for the city, Toronto Transit Commission chair Josh Colle said.

Mr. Colle said Wednesday that he wants to see tangible change from the company, not just promises that it will do better, before Ottawa seriously considers opening its purse strings.

The Montreal-based firm is angling for $1-billion in federal support to help its troubled aerospace division and its C Series jet program. The two sides remain in talks, and it’s not clear how close they are to a deal. At the same time, the company’s rail division has fallen woefully behind its promises for delivering on a 204-vehicle streetcar contract for Toronto – an order that happens to come in at about $1-billion.

The delays around Toronto’s streetcar order are also leading to mounting concern at the regional transit agency Metrolinx, which is worried about getting its 182 vehicles in time to launch various light-rail lines, an order worth $770-million. Bombardier has not yet delivered the prototype vehicle it promised to give to Metrolinx last year, and time is beginning to run short to work out bugs and produce the fleet required to operate the new transit lines.

[. . .]

“For me, as a resident of Toronto, as a transit user, as a citizen, then when you also read at the same time that there’s potential federal money going out the door, I would just think that their ability to deliver to Toronto and Ontario would have some bearing on that,” Mr. Colle said Wednesday.

• Keiran Healy suggests much of Apple's opposition to the FBI's demand it decrypt a terrorist's phone has to do with its need to establish itself as a reliable and trustworthy source of hardware.


• Joe. My. God. notes that WWE wrestler Dave Bautista takes Manny Pacquiao's homophobia poorly.


• Language Hat links to this 2008 map showing lexical différences between Europe's languages.


• Language Log notes the politicized position of minority languages in China.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money is unimpressed? with Amitai Etzioni's call for genocide in Lebanon.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer, looking to Ecuador, notes that international arbitration awards do matter.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw is unimpressed by Australia's reaction to the Syrian refugee crisis.


• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of Charlottetown transit's new maps.


• Transit Toronto notes the delivery of the TTC's 16th streetcar.


• Window on Eurasia notes the weakness of the Russian opposition, particularly in relation to Chechnya's Kadyrov.

• blogTO notes the TTC's commitment to imrprove the 501 Queen streetcar.


• The Dragon's Gaze notes one white dwarf that has the debris of a planetary system about it and looks at a brown dwarf with detectable clouds.


• Far Outliers notes how, in 1988, Armenia-Azerbaijani disputes over Karabakh started destabilizing the entire Soviet Union.


• Language Hat considers what a language is.


• Language Log considers the linguistic effect of Reddit.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money mocks George Lucas' statement comparing his sale of Star Wars to Disney to white slavery.


• Marginal Revolution notes that Ontario is a very highly indebted subnational jurisdiction indeed, though much of this has to do with the fiscal elements of Canadian federalism.


• The Planetary Society Blog examines the findings from Ceres.


• The Russian Demographics Blog notes the hardening of Europe's borders.


• Transit Toronto notes that TTC has its thirteenth new streetcar and reports on the rollout of PRESTO.


• Towleroad reports on a legal challenge in Hong Kong to that jurisdiction's ban on same-sex marriage.


• Window on Eurasia notes the winddown of many of Russia's business dealings with Central Asia.

• blogTO notes that all TTC streetcars will support Presto by the end of the year.


• Crooked Timber continues its examination of Piketty's thoughts on inequality and social justice.


• The Dragon's Tales reports on German surveillance of Germany's allies.


• Joe. My. God. notes the support of the Pope for the anti-gay marriage movement in Slovenia.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the fundamental economic problems with law school.


• Marginal Revolution notes that genetic testing may be coming to the business floor.


• The Russian Demographics Blog maps population change in Poland over 2002-2011.


• Strange Maps shares a map predicting the liklelihood of white Christmases in the continental United States.


• Torontoist notes the need not to forget non-heterosexual Syrian refugees.


• Window on Eurasia looks at continued Russian emigration from Tuva.

• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly talks about the importance of people who believe in you.


• The Dragon's Tales notes a surge in gun sales after the San Bernardino shooting.


• Joe. My. God. and Towleroad write about ending PrEP profiteering.


• Language Hat talks about Mancunianisms.


• Language Log describes the odd but evocative language used to talk about pollution on Chinese social networks.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money seems unduly wedded to Venezuela's Chavismo.


• Justin Petrone talks about how compact the Baltic States actually are.


• Transit Toronto talks about the 1995 retirement of the PCC streetcar.


• Window on Eurasia is not hopeful about the consequences for a breakdown of the Putin consensus and speculates about the future of Russian statehood in the light of Soviet dissolution.

• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper considering rates of water loss in a moist greenhouse world's atmosphere.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that leftists in Catalonia blocked separatists from forming the government.


• Far Outliers notes Persian cultural influence in the South Caucasus, among Christian and Muslim cultures alike.


• Joe. My. God. notes that the Catholic cardinal of the Dominican Republic insulted the gay American ambassador in a manner combining homophobia with misogyny.


• Language Log notes the growing multilingualism of Hong Kong, beyond Chinese languages.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money responds to a feminist criticism of Jessica Jones, and notes it is entirely possible to respond to a feminist criticism without sending death or rape threats.


• Towleroad notes the publication, by the Russian edition of Maxim, of a list of gay respected by the magazine.


• Transit Toronto notes that you only need proof of payment to board streetcars by any door.


• Window on Eurasia notes a move in Russia to undermine that country's ethnofederalism, to the demerit of minority peoples like the Tatars.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell notes how the old habit of the Enlightenment to organize museums by curiosities does not work if you use artifacts from indigenous peoples in the mix.