[PHOTO] “Jesus Saves”, take 2

This is the second time that I have taken a photo of the “Jesus Saves” sign at Faith Impact Ministries on 1780 St. Clair Avenue West; the first take is here. The starkness, of the sign as much as the message, is eye-catching. What, I wonder, will it look like come lush warm green summer?

[PHOTO] Our Mother Mary in blue, Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church (1515 Queen Street West)

I was walking last weekend west past Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Church, in the west of the neighbourhood of Parkdale, when I saw this statue of the Virgin Mary. I had wanted to take a photo of the tatue, framed so nicely by the window behind it and with a coat painted in an earnest sky blue, for aesthetic reasons. I also recalled the old tradition of asking the Virgin Mary to intercede with Christ for mercy in–for instance–times of plague.

This image has turned out to become one of my most popular photos on Instagram, largely because of apparently Lebanese users finding the image via hashtags.

[BLOG] Five JSTOR Daily links (@jstor_daily)

• JSTOR Daily provides advice for users of Zotero and Scrivener, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at instances where product placement in pop culture went badly, here.
• JSTOR Daily considers the import of a pioneering study of vulgar language in the context of popular culture studies, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the–frankly terrible–policies of managing rival heirs in the Ottoman dynasty, here.
• JSTOR Daily looks at generational divides on religion in the England of the early Protestant Reformation, here.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer considers how a stellar-mass black hole of 70 solar masses got so unaccountably huge.
• Alex Tolley at Centauri Dreams considers the colours of photosynthesis, and how they might reveal the existence of life on exoplanets.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares some links on humans in the Paleolithic.
• Jonathan Wynn at the Everyday Sociology Blog considers the scripts of jokes.
• Gizmodo reports on the repurposed China-Netherlands radio telescope operating from an orbit above the far side of the Moon.
• JSTOR Daily considers the political rhetoric of declinism.
• Language Log considers the controversy over the future of the apostrophe.
• James Butler at the LRB Blog notes a YouGov prediction of a Conservative majority in the UK and how this prediction is not value-neutral.
• Marginal Revolution shares a paper from India noting how caste identities do affect the labour supply.
• Ursula Lindsay at the NYR Daily considers if the political crisis in Lebanon, a product of economic pressures and sectarianism, might lead to a revolutionary transformation of the country away from sectarian politics.
• Jim Belshaw at Personal Reflections looks at some of the many complicated and intermingled issues of contemporary Australia.
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on the latest projects funded by the ESA.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel shares ten beautiful photos taken in 2019 by the Hubble.
• Strange Company reports on the strange unsolved disappearance of Lillian Richey from her Idaho home in 1964.
• Window on Eurasia shares a Russian criticism of the Ukrainian autocephalous church as a sort of papal Protestantism.
• Arnold Zwicky considers the positive potential of homoeros.

[PHOTO] “Jesus Saves”, St. Clair Avenue West

[BLOG] Some Sunday links

• Architectuul visits the studio of Barbas Lopes Arquitectos in Lisbon, here.
• Bad Astronomer takes a look at a new paper examining the effectiveness of different asteroid detection technologies, including nuclear weapons.
• Centauri Dreams reports on a new study suggesting potentially habitable planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B, smaller of the two stars, could suffer from rapid shifts of their axes.
• John Quiggin at Crooked Timber argues some polls suggest some American conservatives really would prefer Russia as a model to California.
• Bruce Dorminey notes the discovery, by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, of 27 supernova remnants in our galaxy.
• The Dragon’s Tales shares a collection of links about stealth aircraft, here.
• Gizmodo notes a new study suggesting that DNA is but one of very very many potential genetic molecules.
• Language Hat shares a reevaluation of the Richard Stanyhurst translation of the Aeneid, with its manufactured words. Why mightn’t this have been not mockable but rather creative?
• Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money celebrated the 50th anniversary of the takeover of Alcatraz Island by Native American activists.
• Chris Bertram writes at the LRB Blog, after the catastrophe of the Essex van filled with dozens of dead migrants, about the architecture of exclusion that keeps out migrants.
• Marginal Revolution shares a comment looking at the fentanyl crisis from a new angle.
• Jenny Uglow writes at the NYR Daily about a Science Museum exhibit highlighting the dynamic joys of science and its progress over the centuries.
• Personal Reflections’ Jim Belshaw takes a look at the question of how to prevent the wildfires currently raging in Australia. What could have been done, what should be done?
• The Planetary Society Blog reports on proposals from China for two long-range probe missions to interstellar space, including a Neptune flyby.
• Drew Rowsome reviews the wonderfully innocent Pinocchio currently playing at the Young People’s Theatre.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the evidence for the universe, maybe, being closed.
• Window on Eurasia notes that the Alexandria Patriarchate is the next Orthodox body to recognize the Ukrainian church.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at irregular versus regular, as a queer word too.

[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• The vicious homophobia exhibited by TCDSB trustee Mike Del Grande is, IMHO, another reason to defund public Catholic education in Ontario. Global News reports.
• The CCLV streetcars of the TTC are set to be pulled by the end of November. Global News reports.
• The Scarborough Bluffs are set to see some worthwhile investment. blogTO reports.
• CBC notes growth in food bank usage in Toronto and Mississauga.
• Presto users are being mischarged based on GPS mistakes. CBC reports.
• Renovictions have spiked 300% over the past four years. blogTO reports.
• The cost of rent continues to grow in Toronto. blogTO reports.
• A new project hopes to make Yonge and Eglinton less congested. The Toronto Star reports.
• New regulations about Airbnb should make the real estate market easier for renters. NOW Toronto reports.
• Owing to family request, a new street in Etobicoke will not be named after former Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Global News reports.

[PHOTO] “Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus”

This phrase painted on the playground pavement of Toronto St. Paul VI Catholic School on Laughton Avenue, in Carleton Village, caught my eye. (The fence enclosing the words also helped.)

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Bad Astronomer notes the circumstances of the discovery of a low-mass black hole, only 3.3 solar masses.
• Crooked Timber shares a photo of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
• The Crux looks at Monte Verde, the site in Chile that has the evidence of the oldest human population known to have lived in South America.
• The Dragon’s Tales notes that Russia may provide India with help in the design of its Gaganyaan manned capsule.
• L.M. Sacasas at The Frailest Thing talks of his work, including his upcoming conference and his newsletter, The Convivial Society. (Subscribe at the website.)
• Gizmodo shares the Voyager 2 report from the edges of interstellar space.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the East India Company and its corporate lobbying.
• Language Hat shares an account from Ken Liu of the challenges in translating The Three Body Problem, linguistic and otherwise.
• Language Log looks at the problems faced by the word “liberation” in Hong Kong.
• Dan Nexon at Lawyers, Guns and Money looks at the implications of the surprising new relationship between Russia and the Philippines.
• Marginal Revolution seems to like Terminator: Dark Fate, as a revisiting of the series’ origins, with a Mesoamerican twist.
• Sean Marshall announces his attendance at a transit summit in Guelph on Saturday the 9th.
• Garry Wills writes at the NYR Daily about his experience as a man in the mid-20th century American higher education looking at the rise of women.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel looks at the strangely faint distant young galaxy MACS2129-1.
• Window on Eurasia considers the possibility of Latvia developing a national Eastern Orthodox church of its own.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait shares images of Jupiter, imaged in infrared by ALMA.
• Centauri Dreams looks at ocean upwelling on one class of super-habitable exoplanet.
• D-Brief looks at how the Komodo dragon survived the threat of extinction.
• Far Outliers reports on a mid-19th century slave raid in the Sahel.
• Gizmodo notes that the secret US Air Force spaceplane, the X-37B, has spent two years in orbit. (Doing what?)
• JSTOR Daily looks at the economic underpinnings of medieval convents.
• Dave Brockington writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the continuing meltdown of the British political system in the era of Brexit, perhaps even of British democracy.
• The LRB Blog looks at the impact of Brexit on the Common Travel Area.
• Marginal Revolution reports on how Poland has tried to deter emigration by removing income taxes on young workers.
• Carole Naggar writes at the NYR Daily about the photography of women photographers working for LIFE, sharing examples of their work.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel explains why time has to be a dimension of the universe, alongside the three of space.
• Frank Jacobs of Strange Maps shares NASA images of the forest fires of Amazonia.
• Window on Eurasia notes that many Russophones of Ukraine are actually strongly opposed to Russia, contrary Russian stereotypes of language determining politics.