[URBAN NOTE] Ten Toronto links

• blogTO reports that Presto machines on TTC vehicles are regularly falling out of service because they need to be emptied of coins, here.
• CBC reports that Ontario Place might well accumulate a spa under Ford government auspices, here.
• NOW Toronto argues that new Ford changes to social housing, including zero-tolerance on fighting, will worsen the plight of residents.
• ACORN is leading a protest in Weston by tenants against allegedly neglectful landlords. CBC reports.
• Residents of a Roncesvalles apartment block are contesting their landlord’s reclassification of their complex as a tourist-oriented property. The Toronto Star reports.
• What will become of the Ontario Science Centre, 50 years old? The Toronto Star reports.
• That average monthly rents for a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto are now hitting $C 2500 is terrifying. The Toronto Star reports.
• Users of the Scarborough RT may find themselves riding buses instead of the RT (or a subway) for a good long while. The Toronto Star reports.
• Toronto is doing its best to preserve its biodiversity, particularly in its ravines. The Toronto Star reports.
• Transit Toronto notes that, in exchange for Toronto accepting the Ontario Line, Ontario will not try to upload the TTC.

[NEWS] Five JSTOR Daily links: hobos, bird green, Ireland linen, Frank Lloyd Wright, photosynthesis

• JSTOR Daily looks at how early 20th century Americans facing underemployment and persecution under vagrancy laws organized themselves, ultimately creating the Hobo College of Chicago.
• JSTOR Daily explains how the green that we think we see in the feathers of some birds actually is not really there.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how the Napoleonic Wars helped transform the linen industry in Ireland, not least by drawing women into the workforce.
• JSTOR Daily looks at how Frank Lloyd Wright was decidedly unhappy with the mass produced Taliesin Line of homewares made in the 1950s.
• JSTOR Daily looks at the amazing potential of artificial photosynthesis, particularly as a source of fuel.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: Hamilton, Halifax, London, Helsinki, Rustavi

• Some new high-rise housing developments in Hamilton are lacking in permits. Global News reports.
• Halifax is currently undergoing public consultations to see what is to be done with a statue of controversial British governor Cornwallis. Global News reports.
• Guardian Cities looks at how the ring-tailed parakeet has come to thrive in its adopted home of London.
• Guardian Cities reports on how the city of Helsinki has solved its problem with homelessness by automatically giving people in need housing.
• Open Democracy looks at the Georgian city of Rustavi, during the Soviet era dependent on a single industry like many others and left to cope with the collapse of this economy in the post-Soviet era.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: food, McDonald’s, cell phones, cricket, renoviction

• NOW Toronto notes that poor and racialized people in Toronto find it difficult to access healthy food.
• blogTO observes that the McDonald’s at King and Dufferin has installed blue lights in washrooms to try to discourage the shooting up there of heroin.
• The TTC is set to offer cell phone service in some downtown tunnels. blogTO reports.
• Perry King at Spacing reports on how Toronto needs to expand its facilities for the growing number of players of cricket.
• Samantha Edwards at NOW Toronto reports that the owner of 795 College has been fined $C 135 000 for the renoviction of prior tenants.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: cemetery parks, alcohol, floating cities, homeless, sanctuary cities

• JSTOR Daily looks at how, in the 19th century, many cities made their cemeteries into parks.
• Guardian Cities considers which city in the world is the hardest-drinking one.
• CityLab notes that building cities is not going to be the answer to global warming.
• The Conversation looks at the demographics of the homeless of North America.
• The threat of Donald Trump to send undocumented immigrants to sanctuary cities in the United States has widely noted. Maybe this actually might be a good solution? Global News reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links: 1 Yorkville, Davenport Village, Meridian, homelessness, Pride, art

• Urban Toronto notes that 1 Yorkville is nearing completion.
• Urban Toronto notes the plans for the massive redevelopment of Davenport Village, north and west of Dupont and Lansdowne.
• The Sony Centre is now going to be called Meridian Hall, thanks to the Ontario credit union of the same name buying the name rights. blogTO reports.
• This story of a tenant who was deprived heating by her landlords’ neglect is appalling. I hope things get fixed quickly for her. Global News reports.
• Declan Keogh reports in NOW Toronto that the funding problems of Pride Toronto are linked to the police ban enacted in 2016.
• This Nicholas Hune-Brown feature at Toronto Life about the crisis of homelessness in Toronto is terribly compelling in sharing these stories.
• This Toronto Life feature on the installations on the seventh floor of the Hudson’s Bay makes this place very visit-worthy.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

The Buzz at the Toronto Public Library bids farewell to V.S. Naipaul.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at ultra-hot Jupiters, gas giants orbiting close enough to their star that water in their atmosphere breaks down and rubies rain down from their skies.
• The Crux explores the pathways among neurons that transform experiences into memories.
• D-Brief notes that, according to a study of mice, the more fit a person is the better they will shiver.
• Karen Sternheimer at the Everyday Sociology Blog notes how the shift to a cashless economy leaves people who don’t have access to good-quality financial services marginalized. How can they function if they lack access to a bank account?
• The Finger Post praises Tokyo’s Narita airport, among other things for offering excellent Japanese food.
• Russell Arben Fox at In Media Res considers the evolution of the Mormons of the American West as a distinctive voting bloc.
• Lucy Ferris at Lingua Franca talks about language learning, in the light of an American state governor’s campaign against French language instruction, as something that can open up new possibilities and perspectives.
• Bill McKibben at the NYR Daily argues that the best political response of Americans to Trumpism and its environmental outrages is to vote Democratic in the upcoming midterms.
• The Planetary Society Blog’s Emily Lakdawalla notes the postponement of the launch of the Indian Chandrayaan-2 Moon probe to the start of January 2019, for technical reasons with the probe and its launcher.
• Drew Rowsome notes the homophobic censorship by Facebook of non-explicit LGBTQ content like his.
• Peter Rukavina flowcharts the evolution of different Charlottetown coffeeshops, by location and by owners, over the past few years.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel notes evidence that the first stars in the early universe formed around 250 million years after the Big Bang.
• Window on Eurasia notes that Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have just engaged in a swap of territories, the better to create a coherent frontier between the two neighbours.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• The Broadside Blog’s Caitlin Kelly talks about some of the less visible heroes of journalism, of support staff and the like.
• Centauri Dreams takes a look at astrophysicist Adam Frank’s thoughts on extraterrestrial civilizations in the past, on “exoarcheology”.
• D-Brief notes SIMP J01365663+0933473, a rogue superjovian planet 20 light years away with a powerful magnetic field and possibly even a major moon.
• Hornet Stories notes (possibly unfair) criticism of the Provincetown AIDS Memorial by Masha Gessen, who wishes it had more recognition of specifically gay victims and of the community’s anger.
• JSTOR Daily takes a look at the challenges faced by the Outer Space Treaty, fifty years old and facing unprecedented challenges of a militarized space.
• Erik Loomis writes at Lawyers, Guns and Money about the need for the left to articulate a coherent and serious agenda on global trade.
• The Map Room Blog notes that the US military has told its personnel to turn off their portable devices’ geolocation in sensitive areas.
• Marginal Revolution notes that, in some cities, people have begun to sleep rough in all-night McDonald’s restaurants on account of the lack of affordable housing.
• Drew Rowsome interviews some of the actors involved in the queer play Box 4901, a new SummerWorks play written by playwright and novelist Brian Francis. Sounds exciting!
• The Speed River Journal’s Van Waffle writes about how cicadas are important to him, and why.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel warns that Project Starshot and like interstellar propulsion methods, which would project engineless starships at relativistic speeds, could endanger life–and people–on the planets that these starships investigated.
• Strange Maps’ Frank Jacobs notes/u> some people in the Turkish province of Batman want to bring their province’s borders in line with those of the character.
• Arnold Zwicky shares Arthur’s photo of the tasteful rainbow poles at the entrance to Montréal’s Beaudry Métro station, in the heart of the Village gay.

[NEWS] Five notes on food: pork in Germany, California agriculture, NL clam, Maine lobster, food box

• Pork consumption in Germany is dropping, a consequence of changing demographics and changing dietary preferences. Bloomberg reports.
• Raids on illegal immigrants by ICE have the potential to badly hurt agriculture in California. Bloomberg reports.
• The story of how an effort to open up the Arctic surf clam fishery of Newfoundland, particularly to natives and non-natives alike became a big mess is sad. The National Post reports.
• Apparently, to cope with injuries and chronic pain, the lobster fishers of Maine are coping by using heroin. Is this going on in Atlantic Canada, too? VICE reports.
• Things like the Trump plan to substantially replace fresh foods with boxed non-perishable goods in food stamp problems have happened to Native Americans already. The dietary and health consequences are significantly negative. NPR reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Canada city links: Saint John, Montréal, Hamilton, Calgary

• The rest of Saint John, New Brunswick, to have the provincial government authorize a study on municipal amalgamation has been turned down. Global News reports.
• Some old cars from the Montréal Métro are going on display as part of two exhibits. Global News reports.
• Montréal ranks second in a ranking of the top cities for millennials, all things considered. (Toronto is in the top 10.) Global News reports.
• A crackdown on payday loan establishments in Hamilton has been followed by a request that banks and other traditional lenders please consider their payday clients. Global News reports.
• Quite honestly, the argument made here that Calgary is destined to host the 2026 Olympics is actually convincing. Global News reports.