[CAT] Shakespeare, reluctant poser

[PHOTO] Towers rising against evening blue, Yonge and Eglinton

[PHOTO] Rainy evening at Christie Pits

Tuesday evening the rain was coming down from the grey sky, enough to give ambiance to the end of that spring day but not enough to really get a pedestrian that wet.

[PHOTO] Sprouting garlic bulbs

It will be time to garden again, very soon. These cloves of garlic will do nicely as a first planting.

[PHOTO] Looking south on Yonge at Eglinton, past the construction

[PHOTO] Looking southwest, Spadina at King

[NEWS] Three links about sci-fi and pop culture: Westworld and AI, machine learning, Janelle Monáe

• This fascinating look at Westworld takes a look at how changing representations of artificial intelligence influence storylines in pop culture, as we shift from fear of AI to potential sympathy. The AV Club has it.
• Machine learning these days is demonstrating an astounding ability to understand complex systems. Quanta Magazine has it.
• io9 notes an upcoming queer Afrofuturist film from Janelle Monáe (also starring Tessa Thompson as a love interest) that sounds amazing.

[PHOTO] Five photo links: Flickr, Instagram, cities, Tom Saint CLair, Peter Hujar

• Gizmodo has a perhaps unduly pessimistic take on the purchase of Flickr by SmugMug. I use Flickr regularly; I wish it luck.
• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about her use of Instagram, and about what she sees as the site’s good and bad sides.
• CityLab considers the impact of Instagram, and social networking-driven photography, on the identities and representations of cities.
• Drew Rowsome takes a look at the photography of Tom Saint Clair. (NSFW.)
• Towleroad highlights a showing of the photography of Peter Hujar in New York City that I wish I could attend.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Markham, Hamilton, Rotterdam, Hambantota, Warsaw

• In response to a desire to remove an almost bizarre controversial statue of a cow from its location in a neighbourhood in Markham, the owner has sued the city for $C 4 million. The Toronto Star reports.
• The mayor of Hamilton, Ontario, would like housing incorporated into shopping malls, to deal with issues of housing and retail in one go. Global News reports.
• Brexit threatens to decidedly destabilize the picture for the Dutch port city of Rotterdam. The Independent reports.
• Bloomberg notes that the controversial Chinese-owned port of Hambantota, in Sri Lanka, is doing terrible business.
• Newly-discovered documents provide confirmation of the belief that the Nazis planned to utterly destroy Warsaw. The National Post reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Kanagaratnam, Bloordale, Bloor and Dundas, Etobicoke, Bloor West

• Fatima Syed and Wendy Gillis tell the story of Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil whose failed application for refugee status in Canada after travelling on the MV Sun Sea led directly to his death at the hands of McArthur. The Toronto Star has it.
• The developer hoping to transform the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin has opted to redesign the development following community criticism. CBC reports.
• The sheer scale of the planned development on the southeast corner of Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West is such that a new neighbourhood would come into being. Wow. The Toronto Star has it.
• The plan for SmartTrack would leave the residents of an Etobicoke development next to a GO rail yard subject to terrible levels of noise and air pollution. The Toronto Star reports.
• Is Bloor Street West going to become the next Yonge Street, an uninterrupted string of high-density development? Not without differences, at least. The Toronto Star looks at the issue.