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  • Claire Messud writes at the NYR Daily about two art exhibits concerned with borders.

  • Caitlin Chandler writes at the NYR Daily about the state of the experiment of Germany with mass reception and integration of refugees.

  • The NYR Daily explores the modern Russian history of state-sponsored murder outside of its frontiers.

  • Moroccan writer Hisham Aldi writes at NYR Daily about his relationship with Paul Bowles.

  • The NYR Daily reports on a remarkable exhibit at the Barbican in London of notable nightclubs in 20th century culture.

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  • Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.

  • Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.

  • John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.

  • Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.

  • The Dragon's Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.

  • Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.

  • Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn't this have been not mockable but rather creative?

  • Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.

  • Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.

  • Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.

  • Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.

  • Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?

  • The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People's Theatre.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.

  • Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.

  • Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.

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  • Matt Gurney wonders if the losses of votes for the Conservatives in the Greater Toronto Area will doom Andrew Scheer, over at the National Post.

  • Jamie Bradburn took a look at the opening of the Ontario Science Centre, here.

  • Spacing shares an argument for density transition zones in Toronto, here.

  • The Village Idiot Pub in Toronto, across Dundas from the AGO, will rebrand itself the Village Genius. Global News reports.

  • Queen and Coxwell will soon host some new affordable housing. Global News reports.

  • The closure of a flea market on Old Weston road, a year after a tragic shooting, is a shame. The Toronto Star
  • I am going to see at least some of the works in this year's Toronto Biennial. NOW Toronto reports.

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  • Drew Rowsome reviews the offerings at the Toronto Queer Theatre Festival, here.

  • blogTO notes the displeasure of the Junction at the removal of a wooden train platform, become a community hub, for condo construction.

  • Bloor West Village, blogTO notes, hosts a museum--newly reopened in a new location--devoted to the poetry of Taras Shevchenko.

  • Jamie Bradburn looks at vintage Toronto ads, these from the parties contending 1926 federal election.

  • In this long-form CBC feature, Ioanna Roumeliotis writes about the new things the TTC is doing to try to prevent suicides on the subway tracks.

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  • CBC Toronto bids farewell, fittingly at TCAF time, to the iconic Jason Loo Toronto comic series The Pitiful Human-Lizard.

  • At blogTO, Tanya Mok reports on the resistance of tenants at 54-56 Kensington Avenue to an illegal eviction order by their landlord.

  • The Toronto Star reports on a new matchmaking event intended to connect future roommates to each other.

  • Kevin Ritchie at NOW Toronto reports on how a new pricing scheme for the AGO, including a $35 annual pass for people over 25, reflects a push to try to get more people into museums.

  • Glenn Sumi writes at NOW Toronto about the increasingly steep price of ticket prices for live theatre in Toronto.

  • Toronto Life shares photos from an exhibit, by Patrick Cummins and Ivaan Kotulsky, of Queen Street West in the 1980s and 1990s.

  • Richard Longley writes at NOW Toronto about the emptying of an old warehouse of collectibles and oddities on Wabush, part of the decline of old storied Toronto.

  • Toronto Life shares more photos from outdoor market Stackt, at Front and Bathurst.

  • Steve Munro starts to analyse traffic patterns on the 501 Queen streetcar, looking first at the Neville Loop end.

  • NOW Toronto is one of a few news sources to report on Scarborough writer Téa Mutonji and her new short story collection Shut Up, You're Pretty.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait notes the many galaxies in the night sky caught mid-collision.

  • Centauri Dreams reports on the plan of China to send a probe to explore near-Earth co-orbital asteroid 2016 HO3 and comet 133P.

  • Gizmodo reports, with photos, on the progress of the Chang'e 4 and the Yutu 2 rover, on the far side of the Moon.

  • Joe. My. God. notes that Bill de Blasio hopes to ban new steel-and-glass skyscrapers in New York City, part of his plan to make the metropolis carbon-neutral.

  • JSTOR Daily notes a critique of the BBC documentary Planet Earth, arguing the series was less concerned with representing the environment and more with displaying HD television technology.

  • Language Hat notes the oddities of the name of St. Marx Cemetery in Vienna. How did "Mark" get so amusingly changed?

  • Language Log looks at how terms for horse-riding might be shared among Indo-European languages and in ancient Chinese.

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the grounds for the workers of New York's Tenement Museum to unionize.

  • The NYR Daily notes the efforts of Barnard College Ancient Drama, at Columbia University, to revive Greek drama in its full with music and dance, starting with a Euripedes performance.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares some iconic images of the Earth from space for Earth Day.

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  • Jamie Bradburn was decidedly unimpressed by the Neon Museum at Junction House.

  • Renovictions are a real concern for many renters in Toronto, already living on the edges of their budgets. CBC reports.

  • Urban Toronto notes an interesting consolidation of two development plans into one at Yonge and Eglinton, here.

  • blogTO notes how the Royal Ontario Museum is now going to offer free admission every third Monday of the month.

  • Natalia Manzocco writes at NOW Toronto about how the Room With A View pop-up restaurant underneath the Gardiner Expressway ended up triggering city concerns over housing.

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  • The Toronto Star looks at how buildings destined for demolition for condos are, in the interim, enjoying some innovative alternative uses.

  • CBC Toronto takes a look at the efforts of photographer Jon Simo, owner of Neon Demon Studios, to preserve and promote neon signs. (I went to the pop-up museum this weekend; photos to come.)

  • Toronto Life shares old photos of the Drake Hotel predating its transformation into a west-end hub.

  • blogTO lists the best, and the worst, Pizza Pizza locations in Toronto.

  • blogTO shares photos of Let's Survive Together, the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror room bought by the AGO for its permanent collection.

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  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait shares Johannes Kroeger's image of the median Earth.

  • The Crux considers when human societies began to accumulate large numbers of aged people. Would there have been octogenarians in any Stone Age cultures, for instance?

  • The Dragon's Tales considers Russia's strategy in Southeast Asia.

  • Alexandra Samuel at JSTOR Daily notes that one way to fight against fake news is for people to broaden their friends networks beyond their ideological sympathizers.

  • Language Log, noting a television clip from Algeria in which a person defend their native dialect versus standard Arabic, compares the language situation in the Arab world to that of China.

  • Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen explains how the Tervuren Central African museum in Brussels has not been decolonized.

  • The Planetary Society Blog explores the ice giants, Uranus and Neptune.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why, in current physics, the multiverse must exist.

  • Strange Company explores the strange disappearance, in the Arizona desert in 1952, of a young couple. Their plane was found and in perfect condition, but what happened to them?

  • Strange Maps reports on the tragic migration of six Californian raptors, only one of which managed to make it to its destination.

  • Towleroad reports on the appearance of actor and singer Ben Platt on The Ellen Show, talking about his career and coming out.

  • Window on Eurasia notes the apparently widespread mutual dislike of Chechens and Muscovites.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the French Impressionist artists Pierre Puvis de Chavannes and Suzanne Valadon, with images of their art.

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  • Architectuul looks back at its work over 2018.

  • Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait reflects on an odd photo of the odd galaxy NGC 3981.

  • The Crux tells the story of how the moons of Jupiter, currently enumerated at 79 and including many oddly-shaped objects in odd orbits, have been found.

  • Gizmodo notes how some astronomers have begun to use the precise rotations of neutron stars to calibrate atomic clocks on Earth.

  • Keiran Healy shares a literally beautiful chart depicting mortality rates in France over two centuries.

  • Hornet Stories notes that, two years after his death, the estate of George Michael is still making donations to the singer's favoured charities.

  • At In Media Res, Russell Arben Fox celebrates the Ramones song "I Wanna Be Sedated".

  • Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how unauthorized migrants detained by the United States are being absorbed into the captive workforces of prisons.

  • Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution approves of the Museum of the Bible, in Washington D.C., as a tourist destination.

  • The NYR Daily looks at soccer (or football) in Morocco, as a badge of identity and as a vehicle for the political discussions otherwise repressed by the Moroccan state.

  • Roads and Kingdoms reports on the paiche, a fish that is endangered in Peru but is invasively successful in Bolivia.

  • Peter Rukavina makes a good point about the joys of unexpected fun.

  • The Signal reports on how the American Folklife Centre processes its audio recordings in archiving them.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel debunks some myths about black holes, notably that their gravity is any more irresistible than that of any other object of comparable mass.

  • Strange Company shares the contemporary news report from 1878 of a British man who binge-drank himself across the Atlantic to the United States.

  • Window on Eurasia reports on a proposal in the fast-depopulating Magadan oblast of Russia to extend to all long-term residents the subsidies extended to native peoples.

  • Arnold Zwicky reports on another Switzerland-like landscape, this one the shoreline around Lake Sevan in Armenia.

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  • The Art Gallery of Ontario has gotten its Infinity Room! Global News reports.

  • The rehabilitation and renovation of 2 Queen Street East will be a high-profile project. The Globe and Mail reports.

  • Steve Munro continues to examine the relative speeds of the 504 King and 501 Queen streetcars, here.

  • This warning from the TTC union that Presto cards are too failure-prone to be able to properly take over from the Metropass in January makes me, a TTC user, worry. The Toronto Star reports.

  • Toronto doctors can now issue their patients prescriptions to visit the ROM. blogTO reports.

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  • Sean Marshall maps out the Toronto election, focusing on the concentrated regional support of Jennifer Keesmaat (in the west downtown) and Faith Goldy (in some suburbs).

  • Toronto Life shares some photos from the new Museum of Illusions.

  • CBC Toronto notes Mayor John Tory's interest in appointing a transit czar to try to push things through an increasingly complicated transit environment in Toronto.

  • Ben Spurr at the Toronto Star reports on how the TTC is making use of "gap trains" to alleviate overcrowding.

  • Urban Toronto takes a look at the new Art Shoppe condo towers at Yonge and Eglinton, rising more than two dozen stories over midtown.

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  • Steve Munro takes a critical look at the idea of an uploading of southern Ontario mass transit to a broader regional board, a Superlinx.

  • The Toronto Star reports on the funeral ceremony given to Dean Lisowick, victim of the Church and Wellesley serial killer.

  • Toronto's ravine system and its inner harbor are on the verge of ecological collapse, with invading species of plant and animal life taking over. The Toronto Star reports that the ravines and inner harbour of Toronto are about to collapse environmentally under invasions.

  • blogTO shares photos of what Danforth Avenue looked like in Toronto, starting before its big 20th century boom.

  • The Art Gallery of Ontario already has a page up of its crowdfunding effort to buy one of the Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirror rooms, here.

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  • Hamilton City Centre, a large complex in the heart of downtown Hamilton housing shops and offices, is up for sale. Global News reports.

  • CTV News reports on how some patients in Montréal can get free passes to local museums on the grounds of their positive health effects.

  • There is ongoing controversy in Québec City regarding a proposal to build a 65-story tower in this old French colonial capital. Will it boost the city's development or detract from its prospects? Global News carries the article.

  • The new Central Library in Calgary looks spectacular. Well done! CBC reports, with photos.

  • The City of Vancouver, the mayor-elect notes, is not going to go to great lengths to close unlicensed marijuana shops. CBC reports.

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  • Shawn Micallef asks, reasonably, if Toronto can become more colourful, over at the Toronto Star.

  • NOW Toronto looks at a new art incubator at Queens Quay and Jarvis.

  • blogTO reports on a new Museum of Illusion set up in the downtown. I'm interested.

  • Aparita Bhandavi at The Discourse talks about the stereotypes that others, including other Torontonians, have about Scarborough.

  • Vice reports on the ridiculous challenges that people seeking apartments in Toronto have to meet to have even a chance--a chance, note, not a guarantee--of having affordable housing.

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  • Bad Astronomer Phil Plait takes a look at the unusual object BST1047+1156, possibly a gas cloud or a faint galaxy.

  • Keith Kintigh at The Crux takes a look at the poor preservation of critical archeological data, the sort of basic information that would allow much to be reconstructed by future generations.

  • D-Brief notes that, with global warming, tropical cyclones are moving poleward.

  • Dead Things notes how the diversity of some styles of ancient tools found in Texas hint at possible pre-Clovis migrations to the Americas.

  • JSTOR Daily makes the case for lowering the voting age in the United States to 16, on the grounds of the reality of the many 16- and 17-year-olds who prove they can engage with the political process.

  • At Lawyers, Guns and Money, Erik Loomis takes a look at the importance of fire as an element of the environment in the western United States, something at once feared and appreciated.

  • The Map Room Blog highlights Navigating New York, an exhibition of ephemera (maps, tools, and others) relating to the New York City transit system running at the excellent New York Transit Museum.

  • Scientist Conor Nixon writes at the Planetary Society Blog about a recent expedition to the glaciers of Iceland, looking for environments analogous to Europa's.

  • Drew Rowsome reviews, and praises, the new LGBTQ anthology, Dark Rainbow: Queer Erotic Horror.

  • Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the early universe, where supermassive stars led to the formation of supermassive black holes.

  • Window on Eurasia shares an argument that, after about 2000, the lived experience of millions of Russians with life elsewhere in Europe made it impossible to continue to imagine "Europe" as separate from Russia, even contrasting with Russia.

  • Nick Rowe at Worthwhile Canadian Initiative considers the extent to which a job seeming to be useful would have greater appeal than a less useful but higher-paying job.

  • Arnold Zwicky considers the origins of the Turkish taffy of his youth.

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  • Saadia Muzaffar, a member of the advisory board to Sidewalk Labs, has resigned, expressing concern over the plans for the waterfront of Toronto. CBC reports.

  • Edward Keenan is right to argue that making mass transit in Toronto free is a good goal, whether or not it can be implemented now. The Toronto Star has it.
  • While I do not live in Dufferin Grove, this neighbourhood does neighbour me and I do visit it regularly. I'm glad that it has ranked so highly on one international ranking of neighbourhoods. blogTO reports.

  • Toronto Life shares some photos from the inside of the completed Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. I'm glad to see that the promise I glimpsed on Doors Open has been fulfilled. I can't wait to visit!

  • John Lorinc at Spacing >U>imagines what Jane Jacobs would do in Toronto now, faced with the Ford government. Certainly, he argues, she'd prepare for a long fight; certainly she would lead a civic resistance.

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  • Eszter Hargittai at Crooked Timber shares a painting from an exhibit of Star Wars-themed art near the Swiss city of Lausanne.

  • D-Brief notes that scientists claim to have detected the gamma-ray signature from SS 433, a microquasar in our galaxy 15000 light-years away, as the black hole at its heart was eating a star.

  • Language Hat takes a look again at the history of Chinook Jargon, the creole that in the 19th century was a major language in northwestern North America.

  • Marginal Revolution notes that, in contemporary Scotland, a castle can be less expensive than a bottle of good single malt whiskey. What societies value varies over time.

  • At the NYR Daily, Molly Crabapple tells a personal story of the history of the Bund, the Jewish socialist and nationalist union once a power in central and eastern Europe but now gone.

  • Drew Rowsome praises the Paul Tremblay horror novel Disappearance at Devil's Rock.

  • Towleroad shares a great new song from Charli XCX featuring Troye Sivan, the nostalgic "1999".

  • Window on Eurasia notes that some question whether the 1944 annexation of Siberian Tannu Tuva into the Soviet Union, thence Russia, was legal or not.

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  • Hornet Stories tells of George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham, lover to King James I.

  • The Daily Beast reports on the remarkable films showing ordinary LGBT lives as far back as the 1940s, recovered by filmmaker Stu Maddux.

  • Radio Canada International reports on exciting plans to fundraise for a new museum to LGBTQ history in Canada based in Ottawa.

  • Hornet Stories shares photos from Carnival in gay mecca Provincetown.

  • Ashleigh Rae-Thomas writes at Daily Xtra about the importance of creating and maintaining queer spaces at Toronto's Carnival.

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  • Claude Cormier, creator of the unforgettable 18 nuances de gai installation on rue Sainte-Catherine in Montréal, wants to take his work down at the end of the year. Ici Radio Canada reports.

  • Bisexual men are less likely to come out of the closet than their gay counterparts, sadly. Attitude notes.

  • Them reports on what sounds like an amazing David Wojnarowicz exhibit at the Whitney.

  • CTV News reports on a recent trans rights march in Montréal, centered around a call for changes in documentation.

  • Laurie Penny at The Baffler positions the new Queer Eye for the Straight Guy as a sort of therapy for straight guys left behind by economic and cultural shifts.

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