[URBAN NOTE] Seven Toronto links

• Urban Toronto looked at indigenous uses being proposed for the West Don Lands, here.
• That Toronto has become a major hub for Shopify is a significant economic factor. Global News reports.
• There will be an emergency exercise held at Union Station. Global News reports.
• Transit Toronto notes the opening of a new York Regional Transit bus hub at the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.
• Transit Toronto shared video of a recent TTC public art project, “A Streetcar Called Toronto”, here.
• Venerable Toronto movie rental store Videoflicks will be closing. blogTO reports.
• The Evergreen Brickworks in the Don Valley will be hosting a winter village this season. blogTO reports.

[PHOTO] Leonard Cohen, “Happens to the Heart”

Pitchfork, among others, notes the release of a video for a new Leonard Cohen song, “Happens to the Heart” off of the posthumous album Thanks for the Dance. Both song and video are beautiful; recommended.

[VIDEO] Crossing the Bloor Viaduct, facing south

[VIDEO] Fountain lights changing colour, Yonge-Eglinton Centre

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• Bad Astronomer Phil Plait reports suggestions the bizarre happenings at Boyajian’s Star could be explained by an evaporating exomoon.
• Centauri Dreams looks at how the crowdsourced evScope telescope is being used to support the Lucy mission to the Jupiter Trojans.
• The Crux explains the phenomenon of misophobia.
• D-Brief shares suggestions that an asteroid collision a half-billion years ago released clouds of dust that, reaching Earth, triggered the mid-Ordovician ice age.
• Dangerous Minds shares video of a perhaps underwhelming meeting of William Burroughs with Francis Bacon.
• io9 makes the case for more near-future space exploration movies like Ad Astra.
• Joe. My. God. notes a Trump retweeting of the lie that Ilham Omar celebrated on 9/11.
• JSTOR Daily notes how fire could destroy the stressed rainforest of the Amazon.
• Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Guns and Money notes how few judges in the US have been impeached.
• The LRB Blog looks at how the already tenuous position of Haitians in the Bahamas has been worsened by Dorian.
• The Map Room Blog looks at the importance of the integrity of official maps in the era of Trump.
• Marginal Revolution looks at the political importance of marriage ceremonies in Lebanon and Gaza.
• Drew Rowsome interviews the Zakar Twins on the occasion of their new play Pray the Gay Away, playing in Toronto in October.
• The Russian Demographic Blog shares statistics on birthrates in the different provinces of the Russian Empire circa 1906.
• Starts With A Bang’s Ethan Siegel reports on the first experiment done on the photoelectric effect, revealing quantum mechanics.
• Window on Eurasia looks at growing anti-Chinese sentiments in Central Asia.
• Arnold Zwicky looks at “The Hurtful Dog”, a Cyanide and Happiness cartoon.

[VIDEO] Walking across the last crossing at Yonge and Eglinton in the pouring rain

Walking home from work an hour ago, I was drenched by the rain. Yonge and Eglinton saw the rain dancing off the pavement.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Toronto Coach Terminal, food banks, dogs, TTC, parties

• Tanya Mok at blogTO shares a vintage short film from 1970 at the Toronto Coach Terminal, “Depot.”
• The shortages of food in Toronto food banks are terrible. CBC Toronto reports.
• Dogs will be free to swim in select City of Toronto swimming pools this weekend. CBC Toronto reports.
• I will have to look for these TTC floor stickers installed at St. George station. blogTO reports.
• Richard Trapunski leads a roundtable discussion at NOW Toronto about the challenges facing party promoters in a gentrifying Toronto.