A Bit More Detail

• Centauri Dreams notes a strange corridor of ice beneath the surface of Titan, a possible legacy of an active cryovolcanic past.


• D-Brief notes one study suggesting that, properly designed, air conditioners could convert carbon dioxide in the air into carbon fuels.


• Dead Things reports on the discovery of an unusual human skull three hundred thousand years old in China, at Hualongdong in the southeast.


• Gizmodo notes the identification of a jawbone 160 thousand years old, found in Tibet, with the Denisovans. That neatly explains why the Denisovans were adapted to Tibet-like environments.


• JSTOR Daily examines Ruth Page, a ballerina who integrated dance with poetry.


• Language Hat shares a critique of a John McWhorter comment about kidspeak.


• Victor Mair at Language Log shares a well-researched video on the Mongolian language of Genghis Khan.


• Paul Campos at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how Donald Trump, in his defiance of investigative findings, is worse than Richard Nixon.


• James Butler at the LRB Blog writes about the bombing of London gay bar Admiral Duncan two decades ago, relating it movingly to wider alt-right movements and to his own early coming out.


• Marginal Revolution's Tyler Cowen notes a recent review article making the case for open borders, disproving many of the claims made by opponents.


• Paul Mason at the NYR Daily explains why the critique by Hannah Arendt of totalitarianism and fascism can fall short, not least in explaining our times.


• Corey S. Powell at Out There explains how, and why, the Moon is starting to get serious attention as a place for long-term settlement, even.


• Emily Lakdawalla at the Planetary Society Blog explores the fund that she had in helping design a set of scientifically-accurate building blocks inspired by the worlds of our solar system.


• Drew Rowsome reports on the new restaging of the classic queer drama Lilies at Buddies in Bad Times by Walter Borden, this one with a new racially sensitive casting.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel considers the massive boom of diversity at the time of the Cambrian Explosion.


• Towleroad features the remarkable front cover of the new issue of Time, featuring Pete Buttigieg together with his husband Chasten.


• Window on Eurasia considers if the new Russian policy of handing out passports to residents of the Donbas republics is related to a policy of trying to bolster the population of Russia, whether fictively or actually.


• Arnold Zwicky considers the various flowers of May Day.

• Is the culture of the Canadian navy that much of an obstacle to the retention of personnel? Global News reports.


• That Chemi Lhamo, a Tibetan-Canadian student who was elected student president of the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, has come under attacks coordinated through Chinese social media on account of her heritage is disturbing. CBC reports.


• A successful Nova Scotia chocolatier founded by Syrian refugees is set to take on new refugee hires. The National Post reports.


• Pankaj Mishra writing at The New York Times is, perhaps unkind but not wrong, in suggesting that the bad habits of Britain's imperial elites are finally rebounding on Britain in this mismanaged Brexit.


• Andrew Gallagher writes at Slugger O'Toole about the impossibility of Ireland ever having good boundaries through any imaginable partition.

• Reddit's unresolvedmysteries highlights a historical conundrum: Who were these hundreds of people from all over Asia who died in a remote district of the Indian Himalayas centuries ago?


• Smithsonian Magazine notes why 18th century Europeans prized even wildly inaccurate maps and images of colonial cities in the Americas.


• J.M. Opal's argument at The Conversation that the United States, dominated by a rigid oligarchy, is as unreformable as 18th century Britain is depressing.


• The suggestion of Dan Malleck at The Conversation, looking back at the Ontario pre-Prohibition history of unregulated alcohol sales, that the Ford deregulation of marijuana sales might be short-sighted, seems plausible.


• George Dvorsky at Gizmodo shares the latest evidence that pre-contact Easter Island did not undergo a great violent collapse, with no signs of a major conflict.

• Suggestions that the family of Canadian hero Terry Fox have Métis ancestry and can claim Métis identity are, among other things, timely. The Globe and Mail reports.


• National Observer notes the growing foothold of First Nations businesses in Canadian cities.


• Identity is becoming complex in an increasingly multiethnic and intermixed Canada. The Globe and Mail reports.


• Québec companies are turning to some of the incoming wave of asylum seekers from the United States in the search for workers. CBC reports.


• The Toronto Star profiles two Tibetan-Canadians who are fulfilling their childhood dreams by heading off to be educated as dentists.

• Naomi Klein argues that this summer, of wildfires and disasters, marks an environmental turning point.


• National Geographic shares stunning video of defrosting Tibetan soil flowing.


• This dumping of illegally harvested lobsters as garbage on land in Nova Scotia is a terrible waste. CBC reports.


• Can we limit urban flooding only if we force landowners to contribute to the costs of stormwater infrastructure? MacLean's makes the case.

• In The Globe and Mail, Marcus Gee looks at how the new high-rise CityPlace district, on the waterfront, is becoming a neighbourhood.


• Steve Munro celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Spadina streetcar, here and here.


• Justin Ling at Vice reports on the new disappearances of queer men in Toronto that have left the community on edge.


• At the Toronto Star, Ben Spurr notes that the bike route at Bathurst and Adelaide, overcrowded, is going to be improved.


• Aeryn Pfaff describes at Torontoist the historic and continuing important of Hanlan's beach for the queer community of Toronto.


• Tenzin Nawang Tekan describes the importance of the mono for Tibetans and Tibetan-Canadians, starting in Parkdale.

• Centauri Dreams looks at the SPECULOOS red dwarf observation program.


• The Crux examines VX nerve agent, the chemical apparently used to assassinate the half-brother of North Korea's ruler.


• Dangerous Minds shares photos of the inhabitants of the Tokyo night, like gangsters and prostitutes and drag queens.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money examines Donald Trump's tepid and belated denunciation of anti-Semitism.


• Language Log looks at the story of the Wenzhounese, a Chinese group notable for its diaspora in Italy.


• The LRB Blog looks at the by-elections in the British ridings of Stoke and Copeland and notes the problems of labour.


• The Map Room Blog shares a post-Brexit map of the European Union with an independent Scotland.


• Marginal Revolution reports that a border tax would be a poor idea for the United States and Mexico.


• The NYRB Daily looks at the art of the medieval Tibetan kingdom of Guge.


• Otto Pohl notes the 73rd anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Chechens and the Ingush.


• Supernova Condensate points out that Venus is actually the most Earth-like planet we know of. Why do we not explore it more?


• Towleroad notes Depeche Mode's denunciation of the alt-right and Richard Spencer.


• Whatever's John Scalzi considers the question of feeling empathy for horrible people.


• Window on Eurasia notes the thousands of Russian citizens involved with ISIS and examines the militarization of Kaliningrad.

In this way, the October visit of the Dalai Lama – who was the main star of the 20th edition of the Forum 2000 conference, founded by late President Vaclav Havel – was also a test of Havel’s legacy in the former Czechoslovakia. That humanitarian approach is today confined to almost hidden corners of the local political scene, only revived from time to time by small groups, usually consisting of NGO activists, and lately by Kiska. In mainstream politics, it gets almost completely forgotten.

Lastly, the episode illustrates in broader strokes the emerging relationship between Central Europe and China. For the last couple of years, China has crafted its policy toward Europe, and the weak and often Eurosceptic Central European governments have seemed an ideal gateway for Chinese money and political influence. China could thereby reach the wider European Union, which, due to the refugee crisis and Brexit, looks weaker than ever in the last 20 years.

The job, however, isn’t easy for Chinese diplomats in Prague, Bratislava, or Warsaw (the Dalai Lama also briefly visited Wroclaw, without meeting any government official there). They have to exert maximum effort, show off their supposed powers to influence investment, and gain leverage over local politicians. But the real work in leaning on the locals is done by the businessmen who have cultivated business and political ties in China as relations have warmed. That’s not so tough when the United States, a traditional ally, seems so far off, the EU looks to be in disarray, and Russia plays old, familiar Soviet power games.

• Bloomberg notes a report of Egypt's discovery of the wreckage of the crashed EgyptAir jet, reports on the visit of a IMF team to Mozambique, and looks at Vietnam's success in capturing Southeast Asian trade with the European Union.


• Bloomberg View notes that Donald Trump's candidacy can mean bad things for the Republican Party.


• CBC looks at how a top export from Tibet is a parasitic fungus, and looks at controversy over a CSIS evaluation of diaspora communities and terrorism.


• MacLean's looks at the wife of the Orlando shooting.


• The National Post notes the retraction of an ASEAN statement about maritime borders with China.


• Open Democracy carries an ill-judged radical Brexiteer's statement. All I can say is that socialism in one country is not likely, certainly not with the Tories in charge.


• The Toronto Star notes the fears of tax authorities that Conrad Black might abscond without paying his taxes.


• Universe Today notes the discovery, in a Swedish quarry, of a type of meteorite no longer present in the solar system.


• Wired reports on the second LIGO discovery and notes the import of The Onion in times of trouble.

The OFT runs two distinct operations: a farmers’ market, where exclusively local growers hock their produce, and a warehouse market offering imported fruits and vegetables from around the world. Only legally registered businesses can buy and must pay a nominal fee for use of the facility. Sellers are charged rent by the OFT, with famers’ market access wide open and available by the day, and warehouse market tenants locked into long-term leases currently holding a robust zero per cent vacancy rate.

Prices at the OFT are informally set to a daily price list made available by the U.S. Department of Agriculture; they fluctuate based on customer demand and vendor supply, with factors as seemingly innocuous as a Loblaws’ flyer promotion depleting inventory levels and pushing up the going wholesale rate. Each vendor issues a single weekly invoice for all purchasing activity, with payment due to the OFT. Once received, the money is doled out accordingly, allowing sales floor deals to be struck in quick succession without concern for the cumbersome exchange of physical cash.

[Bondi Produce]does the bulk of its business with grocery stores and restaurants—the former favouring a sharp cost and commanding a lower per-case purchasing price in exchange for a much higher sales volume, and the latter emphasizing quality and paying a higher per-case price due to the comparatively small size of their orders. Exact numbers are kept close to the chest, though gross margins tends to blend out at about 15 per cent, depending on what is being bought and sold—a $17 purchase is resold for $20, generating $3 of gross profit, and putting the volume necessary to run a financially sustainable business into mind-boggling focus.

Stop and consider the salad in your sandwich, the berry in your smoothie or the saag in your paneer. If you didn’t grow that piece of leafy green yourself, or buy it directly from a farmer at your local farmer’s market, chances are it would’ve been handled by a line of workers employed at the Ontario Food Terminal.

Until recently, Thupten Nyendak could’ve been one of them. He worked full-time for Fresh Taste Produce, one of the distribution companies (called “warehouse tenants”) at the Ontario Food Terminal. Since April 21, Nyendak and 13 of his colleagues have been on strike, protesting low wages, lack of job benefits and workplace harassment. They have been bargaining for a first contract since November.

[. . .]

Before they joined the Teamsters back in October, Nyendak says Fresh Taste workers who complained about being shortchanged on hours worked or requested a pay raise would be told by management "to walk. There are many other Tibetans like you outside, they’d tell us," says Nyendak.

Because he was one of the more vocal employees, Nyendak says he tolerated less of this kind of treatment, letting management know whenever they crossed the line. His confident personality is one of the reasons his colleagues appointed him union steward.

Then there is Zaheed Shamshadeen. Originally from Guyana, he is one of the three non-Tibetans among striking workers at Fresh Taste. He has been an employee at Fresh Taste for 18 years, starting at $12 an hour. He has been earning $14.50 an hour for the last eight years.

“They treat me like shit,” says Shamshadeen, who is reluctant to speak at first. Nyendak encourages him. “Zaheed, tell them how they bully you.”

“They call me names,” Shamshadeen says. He looks downcast.