A Bit More Detail

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes a team of students who caught footage of the August solar eclipse from a high-altitude balloon.


• D-Brief notes the discovery that the early Moon apparently had a very thin atmosphere for tens of millions of years.


• The Dragon's Tales links to Elon Musk's descriptions of his space ambitions.


• Hornet Stories notes that many on the alt-right are upset that game Wolfenstein is all about shooting Nazis.


• The LRB Blog notes the almost ridiculous irony of Conservative Theresa May wearing a bracelet with the image of radical leftist Frida Kahlo.


• Russell Darnley looks at efforts to get Singapore restaurants to shift away from using environmentally damaging palm oil.


• The NYR Daily looks at the overwhelming power of the NRA in the modern United States.


• The Planetary Society Blog considers ways we can do SETI better by having a less Eurocentric understanding of our own history.


• Window on Eurasia wonders if Uzbekistan and Kyrgzystan could solve border issues through swapping enclaves.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell looks at the corrosive effect of Bannon, and journalistic culture generally, on politics.

• Centauri Dreams celebrates the science behind Cassini.


• Crooked Timber's Henry Farrell is breaking from Harvard's Kennedy Centre over its revocation of an invitation to Chelsea Manning.


• The Crux points to the ways in which the legacy of Cassini will still be active.


• D-Brief notes that some tool-using macaques of Thailand are overfishing their environment.


• Hornet Stories notes the eulogy given by Hillary Clinton at the funeral of Edie Windsor.


• Inkfish notes one way to define separate bird species: ask the birds what they think. (Literally.)


• The LRB Blog notes the recent passing of Margot Hielscher, veteran German star and one-time crush of Goebbels.


• The NYR Daily notes the chilling effects on discourse in India of a string of murders of Indian journalists and writers.


• At the Planetary Science Blog, Emily Lakdawalla bids farewell to the noble Cassini probe.


• Roads and Kingdoms notes a breakfast in Bangladesh complicated by child marriage.


• Towleroad notes an Australian church cancelled an opposite-sex couple's wedding because the bride supports equality.


• Arnold Zwicky notes the marmots of, among other places, cosmopolitan and multilingual Swiss canton of Graubünden.

• James Bow writes about the latest computer purchase he has made.


• Far Outliers notes the scarily minimalist goals of the American occupation in early post-war Japan.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that The Nation is not exactly covering itself in glory with its pro-Putin coverage of late.


• Drew Rowsome quite likes the new musical endeavours of Adore Delano.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how stars--and which stars--make elements heavier than iron.


• Transit Toronto notes the impending partial resumption of streetcar service on Queen Street.

• NOW Toronto notes the huge impact of the departure of Jennifer Keesmaat on the city of Toronto. Who will be next?


• At Spacing, John Lorinc notes that Lilie Zendel, head of Street ART Toronto, is leaving her successful public art job behind.


• Julien Gignac writes about Andrew O'Connor's pirate radio broadcasting, based from Parkdale.


• On how St. James Cathedral preserves in its archives a guest book signed by Diana, Charles, and their children.


• Why, as Canadaland reports, would The Globe and Mail get rid of Tabatha Southey and Leah McLaren? (And keep Margaret Wente?)

• As VICE notes, it is terribly frustrating that we still have to fight to make sure others do not lie about our queer lives.


• Julia Carpenter at the Washington Post

• Anthropology.net notes on how a fossil tooth led eventually to the identification of the fourth Denisovan individual known.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about reasons for people to travel solo.


• The Dragon's Tales' Will Baird notes that the INF Treaty is on the verge of collapse.


• Mathew Ingram uses a recent GIF of Trump with the Polish president's wife to show how these lie and mislead.


• Joe. My. God. notes a sharp collapse in London's LGBT venues--more than half in the past decade!


• Marginal Revolution reports on British actors who take up tutoring as a second job to support their careers.


• The NYR Daily takes a look at the latest concerns of South Koreans regarding their northern neighbour.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw takes issue with proposed Australian government surveillance of the local Internet.


• Progressive Download's John Farrell dissects the origins of the false claim that Copernicus was a Catholic priest.


• Unicorn Booty has a fantastic interview with a scholar, Jamie Bernthal, who makes a case for queer content in Agatha Christie.


• Window on Eurasia notes that methane bubble explosions in Siberia could wreck Russian pipelines.

The non-profit publication is the brainchild of Toronto writer, publisher and musician Dave Bidini, and sparked, in part, by his 2015 writing trip to the Northwest Territories, where he spent the summer working at The Yellowknifer.

"I was reinvigorated by that experience," he told CBC Toronto.

Bidini — who's beloved in Canada for his years with the Rheostatics — wondered if a hyper-local newspaper could flourish in Toronto's west end, where he's been living for 23 years in the house he bought from his grandmother.

"I've seen the west end evolve as a social organism, I suppose. It's a pretty interesting time here. You blink, and there's something new and different," he mused. "I wondered about the ability of a newspaper to sustain here, and to illuminate that evolution."

[. . .]

Bidini's vision for the newspaper is a visual and literary representation of "that feeling you get when you're wandering home one night and you find yourself up an alley you haven't traveled through before."

Already, he's joined by deputy editor Melanie Morassutti and senior editor Susan Grimbly, both formerly of The Globe and Mail, and has an advisory council assembled with notable names from the city's arts and culture scene, including Grid founder Laas Turnbull and J-Source managing editor H.G. Watson.

In a response to a reader question on Twitter earlier this week provoked by Toronto Sun columnist Tarek Fatah’s comments on the Quebec City mosque shooting, Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale described the Sun as publishing, beyond a decent sports section and solid tabloid-style news coverage, “the country’s worst opinion writers.” While readers can debate Dale’s use of “worst,” the current crop of Sun columnists continues a long tradition of deliberately provocative writing that has shaped the paper since its inception in 1971.

It’s a tradition that hasn’t always landed on the right side of history. To be fair, flipping through the back pages of any newspaper exhumes opinions which would be questionable today. Skeletons among the Toronto press range from George Brown’s attacks on Irish immigrants during the early days of the Globe to unflattering descriptions of minorities in the Star which matched the prejudices of the day.

But the Sun has always stood out for its unapologetic view of the world, which grew from cockiness as the new kid on the block and its ability to connect with its conservative readership. It played upon fears of outsiders, and earned its stripes as a dedicated Cold Warrior by labeling opponents as evil Communists/Marxists/socialists/bleeding hearts/etc.

During the 1970s and 1980s the Sun’s biases regarding anyone who wasn’t white provoked consternation among minority groups, which nearly caused the City to pull its advertising from the paper. An extensive report by the Urban Alliance on Race Relations published in 1987 pulled few punches in its analysis of the paper’s stances: “The sheer volume of racial stereotypes, racism, scapegoating, and the presence of statements that may elicit fear and hatred against racial minorities can leave little doubt that there is considerable prejudice and racism directed toward non-whites and ethnic minorities within the pages of the paper.”

Let’s be blunt: the Sun was intolerant toward homosexuals during the 1970s and 1980s. From cartoonist Andy Donato’s frequent limp-wristed depictions of gays to editor Peter Worthington’s threat following the 1981 Bathhouse Raids to expose names of anyone rounded up in subsequent police scoops, there was no sympathy to anyone who wasn’t heterosexual.

Perhaps the most homophobic of the lot was Queen’s Park columnist Claire Hoy. In piece after piece, Hoy depicted homosexuals as sad, pathetic creatures. He was convinced that there was an agenda by homosexuals to gain access to classrooms to convert innocent children to their perverted lifestyle. “It is not true that homosexuals want simply to be left alone to do whatever it is they do to each other,” he wrote in January 1978. When a “Gaydays” celebration was held later that year, he wondered why “more Torontonians don’t let them know they’re not welcome here” and when people would “wake up and realize the danger of keeping silent in the face of this creeping, crawling sickness in our society?”

• blogTO notes that Uniqlo will be giving away free thermal clothing tomorrow.


• James Bow shares his column about the importance of truth.


• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares with us her mid-winter walk.


• Centauri Dreams reports about cometary water.


• Dangerous Minds shares German cinema lobby cards from the 1960s.


• Language Hat talks about dropping apostrophes.


• Language Log reports about lexical searches on Google.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money reports on the latest from Trump.


• The NYRB Daily shares a review of an Iranian film on gender relations.


• The Power and the Money's Noel Maurer notes the ongoing gas price protests in Mexico.


• Spacing links to some articles about affordable housing around the world.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes Germany's abolition of a law forbidding insults to foreign heads of state.


• Window on Eurasia suggests that stable Russian population figures cover up a wholesale collapse in the numbers of ethnic Russians, and looks at the shortages of skilled workers faced by defense industries.

1. Lack of shame is a political stun gun: Public officials caught in lies usually duck, weave and when pressed, apologize. Trump is remarkably Ford-like in his ability to boldly lie and shrug off unwelcome facts, dumbfounding reporters. Your only defence is to keep asking key accountability questions over and over and over, wherever you can, and refuse to let him dictate the story. After the Star revealed Ford was impaired at a military ball, I had to interrupt softball questions after a “Key to the City” ceremony in 2013 to ask him if he was battling alcoholism.

2. Don’t count on your competitors: Freezing out and even demonizing specific media outlets while giving preferred access to rivals is effective — divide and conquer works. It’s great that a Fox anchor stuck up for CNN, but don’t expect mass boycotts or co-ordinated demands for equal access by competitive media outlets covering the biggest newsmaker in the world. When Ford froze out the Star, some rivals helped informally, passing on press releases or notices of events when they remembered. Others actively took advantage of our disadvantage.

3. Being blackballed has its benefits: As Bob Dylan sang: “When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.” Most great stories come from sources and documents, not news conferences and press releases. While it was inconvenient and unfair to be cut off from mayoral communications, it was also incredibly freeing not to have to worry about keeping the pipeline open More importantly, the flow of leaks and brown envelopes increased amid the Ford Freeze because we were seen as the outlet holding him to account. Also, some politicos felt sorry for us.