A Bit More Detail

• 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.

• Them notes the transphobia involved in novelist E.J. Levy's apparent determination to note define 19th century doctor James Barry as a trans man in an upcoming novel.


• Hornet Stories notes the long history of support of Madonna for LGBTQ people and causes, from the 1980s on.


• Them tells the story of trans writer voice actor Maddie Blaustein, perhaps most famous for voicing the character of Meowth from Pokémon.


• VICE reports from Wilton Manors, the Florida town where all the government officials are LGBTQ.


• The coming-out of YouTube star Lilly Singh as bisexual is huge news, for South Asians and the wider community. (How To Be A Bawse is a great book.) VICE Congratulations! has it.

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the bizarre extrasolar visitor 'Oumuamua, as does Centauri Dreams, as does Bruce Dorminey. Yes, this long cylindrical extrasolar visitor swinging around the sun on a hyperbolic orbit does evoke classic SF.


• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture shares some photos of autumn from around the world.
  
• D-Brief examines how artificial intelligences are making their own videos, albeit strange and unsettling ones.


• Dangerous Minds shares some Alfred Stieglitz photos of Georgia O'Keefe.


• Daily JSTOR takes a look at the mulberry tree craze in the United States.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper examining at water delivery to terrestrial planets in other solar systems. Worlds with as little water as Earth are apparently difficult to produce in this model.


• Hornet Stories profiles the gay destination of Puerto Vallarta, in Mexico.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the new vulnerability of Haitian migrants in the United States.


• The LRB Blog notes the end of the Mugabe era in Zimbabwe.


• The NYR Daily features a stellar Elaine Showalter review of a Sylvia Plath exhibition at the Smithsonian National Picture Gallery.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw reports on how the production of New England Cheese reflects the modernization of Australian agriculture.


• Roads and Kingdoms reports on the awkward position of Rohingya refugees in India, in Jammu, at a time when they are facing existential pressures from all sides.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel shares twenty beautiful photos of Mars.


• Towleroad shares a fun video from Pink, "Beautiful Trauma", featuring Channing Tatum.


• The Volokh Conspiracy notes that a Trump executive order threatening sanctuary cities has been overturned in court.


• Window on Eurasia notes one study claiming that the children of immigrant workers in Russia tend to do better than children of native-born Russians.

• Acts of Minor Treason's Andrew Barton reacts to the series premiere of Orville, finding it oddly retrograde and unoriginal.


• Centauri Dreams shares Larry Klaes' article considering the impact of the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet on science and science fiction alike.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper wondering if it is by chance that Earth orbits a yellow dwarf, not a dimmer star.


• Drone360 shares a stunning video of a drone flying into Hurricane Irma.


• Hornet Stories celebrates the 10th anniversary of Chris Crocker's "Leave Britney Alone!" video. (It was important.)


• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders if 16 years are long enough to let people move beyond taboo images, like those of the jumpers.


• The LRB Blog takes a look at the young Dreamers, students, who have been left scrambling by the repeal of DACA.


• The Map Room Blog notes how a Québec plan to name islands in the north created by hydro flooding after literature got complicated by issues of ethnicity and language.


• Marginal Revolution notes the rise of internal tourism in China, and soon, of Chinese tourists in the wider world.


• The NYR Daily has an interview arguing that the tendency to make consciousness aphysical or inexplicable is harmful to proper study.


• Roads and Kingdoms has a brief account of a good experience with Indonesian wine.


• Yorkshire Ranter Alex Harrowell links to five reports about Syria. They are grim reading.

The YouTube stars are setting up in one of two studios at the new YouTube Space Toronto, a creative incubator for online stars. The first Canadian location, located at 230 Richmond E behind George Brown College’s School of Design, is one of just nine global YouTube Spaces that include Tokyo, Berlin, Sao Paulo and Mumbai. The first one opened in Los Angeles in 2012.

“Toronto is a phenomenally creative city,” says Chris D’Angelo, the head of production and programming for YouTube Spaces. “It was important to have a large collaborative open space where our creators could come together. Community is a very big part of YouTube.”

The space was designed by George Brown students, with local elements added throughout. A red and grey pixelated print in the front entrance was apparently inspired by TTC streetcars. In another room, Toronto artist Alex Currie, who's better known as Runt, has painted a replica of his famous Lee's Palace mural. There is a lounge, event area, a foyer with a bar and two film studios. “You can take part in classes, and connect with other YouTube creators. We look at your subscriber count and try to offer the right help and solution, depending on what level you’re at.”

To that extent, the film studios – including professionally-built sets, cameras and lighting equipment – are free to use, but only open to YouTube stars with at least 10,000 subscribers. That isn’t a problem for the Domestic Geek, which boasts nearly a quarter million subscribers.

“I started the Domestic Geek just over two years go to share my passion for food with the world,” says Toronto’s Sara Lynn Cauchon. “I usually make cooking videos in my home kitchen, but it’s so cool that now I can come to the YouTube Space and film and collaborate with other creators here.”

Cauchon uploads several videos to her YouTube channel each week and has gotten more than 40 million views. Previously a broadcaster and TV host, she now runs the Domestic Geek as her full-time job. “You’re looking at the next generation of entrepreneurs,” she adds. “I think this space will help new creators evolve their channels. It’s really exciting stuff.”

DIY tutorials and healthy-cooking videos are just a sampling of Toronto’s online talent. A handful of YouTube stars hanging out in the space that day ranged from relationship experts (Ask Kimberly) and fashion gurus (AnthonyDelucV), to vegan chefs (Edgy Veg) and science educators (AsapSCIENCE).

[H]ere’s a television ad, produced by my longtime friend and former business partner David Moses, that ran on the CBC in the mid 1990s. It was an ad most remarkable for the fact that despite having seen in dozens of times, it was only years later that I realized it was an ad for Boyles Optical[.]

To this day I have no idea whatsoever how David managed to convince Ron that producing a minute-long noir drama set in abandoned buildings down by the docks was exactly what his optical business needed. But he did. And it aired.

Irish disco chanteuse Róisín Murphy is back with her first official extended release in 7 years! Since 2007's Overpowered LP, she has released a smattering of singles and guest vocals, keeping rabid fans like myself chomping at the bit for any Róisín that we could get. May 28th marks the date that her new Mi Senti EP is released, and as the name may allude, it's an Italian-language effort containing 5 covers of Italian pop songs and one original track. Roisin has showed her chops for doing cover songs in the past, with a cover of Bryan Ferry's 'Slave to Love', used in a 2008 Gucci campaign. For 'Ancora Tu', a 1976 hit by Italian singer Lucio Battista, Roisin adds in her signature moody electronic sound and almost spooky background vocals to reshape the song into something that is purely her own.

• The Dragon's Tales links to a private proposal for the ESA to launch
• The Everyday Sociology Blog's Peter Kaufman finds sociology and mindfulness meditation quite compatible.


• Far Outliers takes a look at the instability of the post-Ottoman Arab kingdoms of the Middle East.


• Joe. My. God. notes that AIDS denialists are trying to shut down YouTube commentary on their ideas by claiming copyright on videos referenced in these commentaries.


• Marginal Revolution notes that Spain is now partaking in the European Union-wide market for health care services.


• Personal Reflections' Jim Belshaw observes that, perhaps contrary stereotypes, his Australian region of New England had a very large Chinese population.
  
• J. Otto Pohl notes how the social geography of Accra, Ghana's capital, has changed and not changed over time.


• The Planetary Society Blog features a guest post from Bill Dunford talking of various missions sent to our sun.


• The Volokh Conspiracy announces a week of posts on the position of sharia law in the United States.


• Window on Eurasia notes that Ukrainian Orthodox (Kyiv Patriarchate) as well as Ukrainian Catholics are opposed to Russia, and quotes statistics (the high number of .ru-registered websites outside of Russia, the high Kazakh birth rate, conspiracy theories about Ukraine) which suggest things might be problematic for Russia.

Mayor Rob Ford admits he was drinking alcohol Monday night just two months after he swore he had a "come to Jesus" moment and given up booze.

Ford's confession came after a new video surfaced online that showed him slurring his words, swearing and complaining about Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair at Steak Queen restaurant in Etobicoke. Just two months earlier, Ford publicly stated he had sworn off drinking after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine while in a "drunken stupor." The mayor's sobriety pledge came after police confirmed they had obtained the video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine.

The mayor arrived at City Hall around 2:15 p.m. on Tuesday and left just after 4:30 p.m. - admitting he was drinking the night before as he left his office.

"Yes, I was," Ford said at City Hall when asked if he was drinking on Monday night. "A little bit, yeah."

"I was with some friends. What I do in my personal life and my personal friends, that's up to me. It has nothing to do with you guys. It's on my own time."

Ford said no repeatedly when he was asked if he did any drugs on Monday night or drove to the restaurant.

"I was there, I met some friends … that's how I speak with some of my friends," he said. "I don't think it was discriminative at all."

He ignored questions about his promise to quit drinking or when he started drinking again.

"That's it," Ford said as he got on the elevator to go to the City Hall parking garage.

Throughout much of the minute-long video, titled "New Video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Drunk, Swearing in Jamaican Patois," Ford attempts to use Jamaican slang, using the word "bumbaclot" — profanity in patois — at least four times.

The mayor admitted he was drinking alcohol. "A little bit, yeah," he told reporters. He had pledged numerous times he does not drink anymore, after revelations in 2013 of his crack use while in office.

When asked if his Jamaican accent was offensive, he said no. "I met some friends. If I speak that way, that's how I speak with some of my friends and no, i don't think it's discriminative at all," he said. "It's my own time."

Ford would not say who drove him to the Steak Queen.

"They're chasing me around five months. They're counter surveillance me. He's hiding here. He's hiding here. F--k off," said Ford in the video, apparently talking about the police surveillance on him and his friend and driver Alexander (Sandro) Lisi in the summer of 2013.

Toward the end of the clip a bystander says, "This guy deserves to be better than Stephen Harper." Ford replies, "I am a straight-up guy. Who goes to TCH, Jane town, and Jane and Finch?"

The video ends with Ford getting takeout food, saying "I'm a straight-up guy," while staff compare him to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.