[URBAN NOTE] Four articles about changing Toronto neighbourhoods, and Hamilton as Brooklyn

• NOW Toronto recently had a cover article looking at the history of the Annex’s Brunswick House, now converted to a Rexall. Could it have been the Bloor’s equivalent to the Drake?
• The Toronto Star reports on growing tensions in Parkdale over the Metcap rent strike.
• NOW Toronto looks at how artists are starting to take over the Galleria Mall, to imagine what could be.
• NOW Toronto suggests that Hamilton could, maybe, be about to evolve into the GTA’s equivalent of Brooklyn.

[NEWS] Some Wednesday links

• Bloomberg looks at the recent surge of Chinese investment in Southeast Asia.
• Culture.pl looks at why Nietzsche falsely claimed Polish ancestry.
• Foreign Policy suggests that this is a new age of German prominence in the West.
• The New Yorker finds Amazon’s new brick-and-mortar bookstores lacking.
• The Toronto Star shares claims that learning a second language provides mental benefits.
• Universe Today notes the discovery of potentially habitable super-Earth Gliese 625 b.
• Vice’s Motherboard notes how the popularization of ayahuasca-driven spirit quests has actually hurt traditional users.
• Vox notes the latest Russia-Ukraine history fight on Twitter.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• blogTO suggests the Port Lands might become an artists’ hu8b.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about the complexities involved with managing feelings.
• Centauri Dreams talks about different methods of near-term interstellar travel.
• Joe. My. God. notes that Nordic prime ministers have just trolled Trump’s bizarre orb-based photo op.
• Language Hat shares some interesting claims about standard Finnish as a neutral dialect.
• The Planetary Society Blog talks about the latest stages of the Dawn mission to Ceres.
• Peter Rukavina looks at the end of Charlottetown’s Founders’ Hall.
• Torontoist examines Ontario’s impending $15 an hour minimum wage.
• Window on Eurasia reports on the latest disputes between Russia and Ukraine on their shared history.

[PHOTO] Nine photos of 1 Spadina Crescent on Doors Open

1 Spadina Crescent, an address located on a roundabout in Spadina Avenue just north of College, is a handsome Gothic Revival building now home to the University of Toronto’s John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture. On the final day of Doors Open, the newly renovated building’s doors were opened to the public to tour, through galleries and up stairs and towards all of the spectacular vistas this building’s locations provide.

[URBAN NOTE] Five links on the situation of the flooded Toronto Islands

• The Globe and Mail examined the unique real estate market on the Toronto Islands, with lower places but also fewer buyers.
• The Toronto Star reported that carp have taken over the baseball field at Gibraltar Point.
• The Toronto Star reports on a peacock that has escaped Centreville Farm to become the islands’ mascot.
• The National Post reported on how the Toronto Islands’ businesses have all been shut down by the flooding.
• blogTO noted that Water Taxi Now is offering tours of the flooded islands.

[URBAN NOTE] Four links about the problems of mass transit planning in Toronto

Steve Munro calls for an honest public review of what Toronto actually does need insofar as mass transit is concerned.

Torontoist is justly critical of a one-stop Scarborough subway extension that will help make mass transit there worse.

Spacing’s John Lorinc is critical of plans for mass transit expansion that do not respond to existing issues.

The Toronto Star notes that Union-Pearson Express ridership is up but also notes that it remains heavily subsidized.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Anthropology.net and D-Brief reported on possible progress in decrypting the Inca’s khipu, knotted cords.
• Far Outliers looks at the history of vagabondage in 19th century Siberia.
• Language Hat notes the 1993 death of the last Ubykh.
• Language Log shares a multilingual sign warning against eating contaminated shellfish.
• Marginal Revolution shares Tyler Cowen’s praise of Switzerland.

[PHOTO] Spadina and College, under the wires

The mesh of streetcar wires overhead is particularly dense at Spadina and College, on the border between Chinatown and Kensington Market and the University of Toronto.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Centauri Dreams describes a new type of planet, the molten hot rubble cloud “synestia”.
• Far Outliers describes the Polish rebels exiled to Siberia in the 19th century.
• Language Hat looks at words for porridge in Bantuphone Africa.
• Language Log examines whistling as a precursor to human language.
• The LRB considers the new normal of the terrorist state of emergency.
• Marginal Revolution notes the weakness of the Indian labour market.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer tries to explain to Uruguayans how Donald Trump made his mistake on the budget.
• Savage Minds remembers the late anthropologist of Polynesia and space colonization, Ben Finney.
• Towleroad examines the rather depressing idea of a porn-dominated sexuality.
• Understanding Society examines Hindu/Muslim tensions in India.
• Window on Eurasia reports on the weakness of Belarus’ opposition.
• Arnold Zwicky talks about Arthur Laurents.

[PHOTO] Four photos of the Doors Open Toronto ’17 Lego Exhibit

It’s not inaccurate to say that a big part of the reason I did Doors Open yesterday was because of the TTC-themed Lego exhibit at the Toronto Railway Museum, in Roundhouse Park. The amount of work that went into the details of these models, some of them working miniatures, is impressive.