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[BLOG] Some Friday links
Dec. 6th, 2019 04:48 pm- Architectuul looks at the Portuguese architectural cooperative Ateliermob, here.
- Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at how white dwarf WD J091405.30+191412.25 is literally vapourizing a planet in close orbit.
- Caitlin Kelly at the Broadside Blog
explains - Centauri Dreams looks at the slowing of the solar wind far from the Sun.
- John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the gap between ideals and actuals in the context of conspiracies and politics.
- The Dragon's Tales reports on how the ESA is trying to solve a problem with the parachutes of the ExoMars probe.
- Far Outliers reports on what Harry Truman thought about politicians.
- Gizmodo reports on a new method for identifying potential Earth-like worlds.
- io9 pays tribute to legendary writer, of Star Trek and much else, D.C. Fontana.
- The Island Review reports on the football team of the Chagos Islands.
- Joe. My. God. reports that gay Olympian Gus Kenworthy will compete for the United Kingdom in 2020.
- JSTOR Daily looks at how early English imperialists saw America and empire through the lens of Ireland.
- Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money does not like Pete Buttigieg.
- The LRB Blog looks at the London Bridge terrorist attack.
- The Map Room Blog shares a map of Prince William Sound, in Alaska, that is already out of date because of global warming.
- Marginal Revolution questions if Cuba, in the Philippines, is the most typical city in the world.
- The NYR Daily looks at gun violence among Arab Israelis.
- The Planetary Society Blog considers what needs to be researched next on Mars.
- Roads and Kingdoms tells the story of Sister Gracy, a Salesian nun at work in South Sudan.
- The Russian Demographics Blog shares a paper noting continued population growth expected in much of Europe, and the impact of this growth on the environment.
- Strange Maps shares a map of fried chicken restaurants in London.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel explains why a 70 solar mass black hole is not unexpected.
- John Scalzi at Whatever gives his further thoughts on the Pixel 4.
- Window on Eurasia notes that, last year, 37 thousand Russians died of HIV/AIDS.
- Arnold Zwicky starts from a consideration of the 1948 film Kind Hearts and Coronets.
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- environment,
- european union,
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[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links
Nov. 28th, 2019 02:57 pm- Google has apologized for the negative shade its image search cast on Scarborough with a Twitter thread. Global News reports.
- The National Post looks at the story of the architecturally remarkable Integral House, on sale for $C 21.5 million.
- South Indian Dosa Mahal, a beloved Bloordale restaurant apparently displaced by landlords, has found a new home. blogTO reports.
- The infamous Parkdale McDonald, at King and Dufferin, has officially been closed down, relocated. blogTO reports.
- The Ontario Cannabis Store is experimenting with a same-day delivery program. NOW Toronto reports.
- Lia Grainger writes at NOW Toronto about how poor city planning has resulted in multiple dangerous intersections. (I know of two in my broader neighbourhood.)
[URBAN NOTE] Six Toronto links
Nov. 12th, 2019 05:35 pm- blogTO notes the maps made by artist Peter Gorman showing the strange intersections of Toronto.
- This imagining of a wholly pedestrianized lower Yonge Street looks attractive. blogTO has it. <
- Jamie Bradburn tells how couples in Toronto during the Second World War expressed their love, here.
- This condo at 701 Dovercourt Road looks amazing. blogTO reports.
- Toronto Pearson Airport failed in its obligation to provide services for French-language travelers, the Official Languages Commissioner has ruled. CTV News reports.
- So-called "unicorn poutine" is offered for sale at a north Toronto restaurant. Global News reports.
[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links
Nov. 6th, 2019 05:31 pm- A new project hopes to revitalize the Golden Mile of Scarborough, along Eglinton Avenue. The Toronto Star reports.
- blogTO looks at how IKEA is going to be opening a new smaller store in downtown Toronto in the next two years, here.
- blogTO looks at a plan to make 80 Bloor Street West, in Yorkville, into a golden skyscraper 79 stories tall.
- Sadly, Chick-Fil-A at Yonge and Bloor still has long lines. blogTO reports.
- Radheyan Simonpillai reviews the new Kevin Donovan book The Billionaire Murders, looking at the unsolved killings of the Shermans in 2017.
[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links
Oct. 26th, 2019 06:13 pm- blogTO looks at the Toronto of the 1950s, when Highway 2--Lake Shore and Kingston Road--was the way into the city.
- Jamie Bradburn takes a look at a 1950 tourist guide to Ontario, specifically focusing on its descriptions of Toronto.
- Jamie Bradburn looks at how, in the post-war era, dining at the Coxwell Kresge in-house restaurant was a thing.
- blogTO notes how many in Leslieville are unhappy with the idea of the Ontario Line being built above-ground.
- Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto notes that there is going to be a Pride rally outside of Palmerston library where Meghan Murphy will be speaking.
- Spacing looks at the connections between Nuit Blanche and the Toronto Biennial, for Toronto as an artistic city.
- NOW Toronto shares some photos of Honest Ed's in its dying days.
- Toronto Life tells the story of Peperonata Lane, a west-end laneway that took its name from a popular neighbourhood pepper-roasting event.
- blogTO notes a new movie being filmed in Regent Park, here.
- blogTO shares photos of the new Garrison Crossing pedestrian bridge, here.
- 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.
- Tracey Lindeman writes at CityLab about how Montréal is trying to keep the redevelopment of the Molson-Coors Brewery site from killing the Centre-Sud.
- In the Montréal neighbourhood of Park-Extension, evictions--renovictions, even--are on the rise. Global News reports.
- Lac-Mégantic now has a train depot that bypasses the heart of this traumatized community. CBC Montreal reports.
- Halifax is now celebrating the Mosaic Festival, celebrating its diversity. Global News reports.
- Jill Croteau reports for Global News about Club Carousel, an underground club in Calgary that played a vital role in that city's LGBTQ history.
- This business plan, aiming to bypass long lineups at the Edmonton outpost of the Jollibee chain, is ingenious. Global News reports.
- The Iowa town of Pacific Junction, already staggering, may never recover from a recent bout of devastating flooding. VICE reports.
- Avery Gregurich writes for CityLab about the Illinois town of Atlas, a crossroads seemingly on the verge of disappearing from Google Maps.
- The proposal for Metropica, a new sort of suburb in Florida, certainly looks interesting. VICE reports.
- Guardian Cities shares a cartoon looking affectionately at Lisbon.
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- The federal and provincial governments on PEI are investing millions in Charlottetown transit, substantially in vehicles. Global News reports.
- Kevin Yarr at CBC PEI reports on how housing prices in Charlottetown are rising to worryingly high levels, here.
- The Founders' Hall food market in Charlottetown looks interesting. CBC PEI reports.
- Establishing a national park reserve on the Hog Island Sandhills off northwestern PEI sounds like a good idea to me. CBC PEI reports.
- CBC PEI reports on how what was intended to be a light-hearted joke on the chalkboard of Terre Rouge in Charlottetown ended up striking a media frenzy.
- Narcity notes the sad news that the last Zellers stores in Canada, including the one in Etobicoke, will be closed by January 2020.
- Tanya Mok at blogTO looks at the successes of the Dufferin Mall.
- blogTO looks at the William Meany Maze on the Toronto Islands.
- Jamie Bradburn writes of the early history of Japanese restaurants in Toronto.
- Melanie Zettler at Global News writes about the history of the Guild Park and Gardens, in Scarborough.
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[BLOG] Some Saturday links
Jun. 8th, 2019 12:12 pm- Architectuul looks at some architecturally innovative pools.
- Bad Astronomy's Phil Plait looks at Wolf 359, a star made famous in Star Trek for the Starfleet battle there against the Borg but also a noteworthy red dwarf star in its own right.
- Centauri Dreams looks at how the NASA Deep Space Atomic Clock will play a vital role in interplanetary navigation.
- The Crux considers the "drunken monkey" thesis, the idea that drinking alcohol might have been an evolutionary asset for early hominids.
- D-Brief reports on what may be the next step for genetic engineering beyond CRISPR.
- Bruce Dorminey looks at how artificial intelligence may play a key role in searching for threat asteroids.
- The Island Review shares some poetry from Roseanne Watt, inspired by the Shetlands and using its dialect.
- Livia Gershon writes at JSTOR Daily about how YouTube, by promising to make work fun, actually also makes fun work in psychologically problematic ways.
- Marginal Revolution notes how the relatively small Taiwan has become a financial superpower.
- Janine di Giovanni at the NYR Daily looks back at the 2000 intervention in Sierra Leone. Why did it work?
- Jamais Cascio at Open the Future looks back at a 2004 futurological exercise, the rather accurate Participatory Panopticon. What did he anticipate correctly? How? What does it suggest for us now to our world?
- The Planetary Society Blog notes that LightSail 2 will launch before the end of June.
- Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel looks at how the discovery of gas between galaxies helps solve a dark matter question.
- Strange Company shares a broad collection of links.
- Window on Eurasia makes the obvious observation that the West prefers a North Caucasus controlled by Russia to one controlled by Islamists.
- Arnold Zwicky takes a look at American diner culture, including American Chinese food.
Tags:
- architecture,
- artificial intelligence,
- asteroids,
- astronomy,
- blogs,
- economics,
- evolution,
- futurology,
- genetics,
- geopolitics,
- globalization,
- human beings,
- links,
- north caucasus,
- physics,
- politics,
- popular culture,
- popular literature,
- psychology,
- restaurants,
- russia,
- scotland,
- social networking,
- space science,
- space travel,
- star trek,
- taiwan,
- technology,
- united kingdom,
- war,
- west africa,
- youtube
- Transit Toronto notes that both the Eglinton Crosstown yards and Lower Bay station were open this weekend past for Doors Open. I got to see both!
- Urban Toronto looks at the newly revealed Eglinton Crosstown vehicles.
- blogTO observes the rapid flooding faced not only by the Toronto Islands but by the waterfront generally.
- blogTO reports on the exciting possibility of a ferry connecting Etobicoke, at Humber Bay Shores, to the downtown.
- Building a linear park over the subway trench between Davisville and Eglinton stations in midtown Toronto is an idea that appeals to me. blogTO reports.
- NOW Toronto reports on a slew of original coffee shops around Toronto, including a laundromat hybrid on Dufferin.
- Urban Toronto celebrates the Ron Arad sculpture Safe Hands at One Bloor East.
- This blogTO ranking of the best and the worst McDonald's restaurants in Toronto makes sense to me.
- I look forward to what an audit of the campaign finances of alt-right poster child Faith Goldy's mayoral campaign will reveal. The Toronto Star reports.
- This article at TVO notes that cuts in school lunches for needy children in Toronto should not necessarily be blamed on the Ford government.
- Urban Toronto looks back at Yonge and College before yet another of the intersection's transformations.
- This initiative by a Scarborough church to rebuild itself in such a way as to create affordable housing for its neighbourhood is certainly innovative. The Toronto Star reports.
- This imagining of what Eglinton Avenue West will look like after LRT construction is done is actually pretty compelling. blogTO has it.
- Union Station renovations might actually be complete by the end of 2020. Global News reports.
- Highway 401 is being widened in the GTA to allow for recent increases in traffic. blogTO reports.
- Queen Street West is getting a cookie dough cafe. blogTO reports.
- The Meadoway, a vast linear park connection downtown Toronto with Scarborough, looks fine in this imagining. CBC Toronto has it.
- 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.
- blogTO shares a new map depicting prices for new homes at different stations on the GO Transit network, here.
- This real-estate ad offering an actively used office as someone's home for a mere $C 1695 a month is ridiculous on so many levels. The Toronto Star reports.
- Transit Toronto notes that GO Transit has dropped fares on trips shorter than 10 kilometres while raising them for longer trips.
- 98% of the material used in these modern houses worth $C 1.7 million is made of recycled materials. The Toronto Star reports.
- The irony of a posh pop-up restaurant being created underneath the Gardiner Expressway while, just a bit to the east, homeless people living under the highway were driven from their shelter, is shocking. CBC reports.
- Edward Keenan notes at the Toronto Star, drawing from an analysis of TTC budgets by Steve Munro, that things are not likely to get better for riders on the Bloor-Danforth line for at least another decade.
- blogTO notes a protest of vegans outside of Queen Street West butcher shop Cumbrae's, the protesters pretending to sell dog meat.
- Gilbert Ngabo writes at the Toronto Star about the mystery regarding the ownership of two Parkdale restaurants which loudly claim not to be part of the unpopular Vegandale.
- Priyanka Vittal writes at NOW Toronto about how it might make sense for Toronto to sue oil companies for the costs of global warming-related environmental disasters.
- Toronto Life notes the hyperrealistic city scenes of oil painter Peter Harris.
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