[PHOTO] Backyard, past 9 pm, Dovercourt Village

[ISL] Five #islands links: Nantucket, Newfoundland, Scotland, South Goulburn, Toronto Islands

• JSTOR Daily notes</u. the unorthodox and generally unacknowledged truce struck between Nantucket Island and the British Empire in 1814, during the War of 1812.
• A visit by Anthony Bourdain had lasting effects on the culinary scene on Newfoundland. Global News reports.
• The Island Review reports on the different plans of the different islands of Scotland to commemorate the end of the First World War.
• Michael Erard at The Atlantic writes about the remarkable South Goulburn Island, an island off the coast of Australia where speakers of nine different languages co-exist in a shared passive multilingualism.
• Richard Longley wrote at NOW Toronto about the challenges faced by the Toronto Islands in the era of climate change and instability.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: Victoria-by-the-Sea, housing, PNP, Workaway, transgender licenses

• Peter Rukavina shared some images earlier this month of the PEI village of Victoria-by-the-Sea as it closes up for winter.
• CBC PEI notes that the vacancy rate for rental apartments in PEI is approaching zero, thanks to continued strong demand for housing (and, I would say, a lack of adequate building).
• Stu Neatby at The Guardian notes the continuing criticism of the Opposition parties in the PEI legislature of the ill-starred PNP immigration program.
• Millicent McKay at The Guardian writes about Ramón Velasco Alfonso, a Mexican who came to work on PEI for six months under the Workaway Program.
• PEI now offers transgender and private gender options on drivers’ licenses. The Guardian reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa, Montréal, London, Madrid, Accra

• The closure of the GM plant in Oshawa will hurt local charities. Global News reports.
• MTL Blog notes that for a variety of factors, including affordability and attractiveness, Montréal is the best city in Canada in which to rent an apartment.
• Guardian Cities reports on a project mapping reported violent crimes in early 14th century London.
• Guardian Cities reports on how the city of Madrid has today banned polluting vehicles from its downtown.
• A high rate of deadly car accidents has led, Guardian Cities reports, to mass protests in the Ghana capital of Accra.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Art Shoppe, Quayside, Villiers Island, comic books, police

• Urban Toronto shows a photo of the Art Shoppe at Yonge and Eglinton, seven years ago and now in the condo era.
• Sidewalk Labs promises to provide a substantial amount of affordable housing at Quayside. The Toronto Star reports.

<

• blogTO takes< a look at Villiers Island, set to be constructed at the mouth of the Don.
• Crowdfunding might yet deliver to Toronto a comic book library. blogTO reports.
• Pride Toronto is undertaking a cross-country study looking at ways to improve police-LGBTQ relations. The Toronto Star reports.

[BLOG] Some Friday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait looks at the black hole-powered “cooling flows” of galaxy cluster Abell 2597.
• D-Brief notes that astronomers have, at last, measured the total number of photos emitted by stars in the universe. (Roughly.)
• Dead Things notes the discovery of a tool and butchery site of ancient hominids in Algeria, at Ain Boucherit, dating back 2.4 million years.
• Far Outliers looks at a Japanese-American’s interrogation of old Okinawan classmates.
• JSTOR Daily looks at 19th century woman astronomers like Elizabeth Campbell who played a critical role in supporting their husbands’ astronomy but were overlooked.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the victims of voter fraud, the members of stigmatized minorities.
• Marginal Revolution takes a look at the doctrine of double effect as shown in the TV series Daredevil.
• The NYR Daily notes how the language of Trump reflects and fuels the fascist right.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel states the obvious: Science is not fake news.
• Window on Eurasia notes five reasons why the Russian’s military-industrial complex cannot easily catch up to the United States’.
• Arnold Zwicky takes a look at the history of Swiss Tasmania, a region in the center of the island including the Swiss-themed town of Grindelwald.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Oshawa, Simcoe County, Vancouver, Dublin, Dubrovnik

• Kyle Cicerella at the Canadian Press reports on the close link in Oshawa between GM workers and their local OHL hockey team, the Oshawa Generals. The Global News hosts the article.
• This long feature at Global News about the impact of the fentanyl epidemic in Simcoe County is heart-rending.
• VICE reports on how the May Wah SRO hotel, an affordable haven for elderly Chinese-Canadians in downtown Toronto, managed to survive the threat of gentrification.
• Guardian Cities reports on how Dublin is facing a serious homelessness crisis despite there being more than thirty thousand empty homes, held by landlord investors.
• The English-language Dubrovnik Times reports that, apparently on the basis of thriving tourism, Dubrovnik stands out in Croatia as a place that has seen population growth.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Port Lands, High Park beer, #tunnelofglam, Toronto Pride, refugees

• The project of building a new river valley in the Port Lands, at the mouth of the Don, is a breathtakingly bold vision. The Toronto Star reports.
• The High Park Zoo will be getting its own brand of beer. (Will the capybaras feature? One hopes.) blogTO reports.
• Toronto will be getting a sparkling tunnel at Yonge and St. Clair, Instagram-ready already with the hashtag #tunnelofglam picked out. blogTO reports.
• Kristyn Wong-Tam writes at NOW Toronto about why now might be time for Toronto Pride, to ensure its independence and security from threats, to break free from restrictive funding sources.
• Perhaps 40% of the people making use of Toronto shelters for the homeless are refugees or asylum claimants, a new report suggests. CBC reports.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Architectuul interviews Vladimir Kulić, curator of the MoMA exhibition Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948–1980, about the history of innovative architecture in Yugoslavia.
• The Crux takes a look at the long search for hidden planets in the solar system, starting with Neptune and continuing to Tyche.
• D-Brief notes that ISRO, the space agency of India, is planning on launching a mission to Venus, and is soliciting outside contributions.
• Drew Ex Machina’s Andrew LePage writes about his efforts to photograph, from space, clouds over California’s Mount Whitney.
• Earther notes that geoengineering is being considered as one strategy to help save the coral reefs.
• Gizmodo takes a look at the limits, legal and otherwise, facing the Internet Archive in its preservation of humanity’s online history.
• JSTOR Daily explains why the Loch Ness monster has the scientific binominal Nessiteras rhombopteryx.
• Language Hat links to “The Poor Man of Nippur”, a short film by Cambridge academic Martin Worthington that may be the first film in the Babylonian language.
• The LRB Blog notes the conflict between West Bank settlers and Airbnb. Am I churlish to wish that neither side wins?
• Marginal Revolution links to a paper noting how quickly, after Poland regained its independence, human capital differences between the different parts of the once-divided country faded.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel takes a look at what it takes, in terms of element abundance and galactic structure, for life-bearing planets to form in the early universe, and when they can form.

[PHOTO] Grey sky, Dovercourt Village