• blogTO looks at deserted Mirvish Village.
• Crooked Timber reenages with the Rachel Carson and DDT myth.
• The Crux looks at the Mandela Effect, exploring false memories.
• Dangerous Minds makes the case for the musical genius of Bobbie Gentry.
• From the Heart of Europe's Nicholas Whyte recounts his visit to Albania's bunker museum.

Business Insider's Christopher Woody reports on what sounds like a disastrous first phone call between Trump and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, filled with insults and threats up to and including a threat to invade Mexico. I would hope that someone around Trump would prevent him from going nearly so far, but I fear that some people around ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes that Uniqlo will be giving away free thermal clothing tomorrow.
• James Bow shares his column about the importance of truth.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly shares with us her mid-winter walk.
• Centauri Dreams reports about cometary water.
• Dangerous Minds shares German cinema lobby cards from the 1960s.

• Beyond the Beyond links to a US military science fiction contest.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly notes that journalism is meant to offer criticisms of the president.
• Crooked Timber has an open forum about the inauguration.
• Dangerous Minds shares photos from seminal 1980-era London club Billy's.
• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper reporting on a ( Read more... )

The National Post carried Mike Blanchfield's Canadian Press article reporting that, if Trump lived up to his rhetoric and did withdraw from NATO, Canada will have to increase its spending and its presence significantly. Canada's development into a larger military power would certainly be a major shift.

Canada will have to contribute more to NATO ( Read more... )

• blogTO shares photos of Toronto streets in the 1960s, cluttered by signage.
• Crooked Timber and the LRB Blog respond to the death of Fidel Castro.
• Far Outliers looks at the exploitative but functional British treatment of servants.
• Language Hat notes the insensitivity of machine translation and examines the evolution of the Spanish language.
• Lawyers, ( Read more... )

Torontoist's David Wencer describes how Sunnybrook Military Hospital came to be.

In 1928, the City of Toronto received an enormous gift: Sunnybrook Farm. The farm was a reported 70 hectares of mostly undeveloped land located just north of the city limits, stretching from Bayview to Leslie across a picturesque section of the Don River. The donor ( Read more... )

• Antipope shares a guest essay by an author pointing out how duelling was a social plague.
• 'Nathan Smith's Apostrophen shares an essay noting that being a Donald Trump supporter who reads gay romance is a contradiction.
• Beyond the Beyond notes new European Union interest in defense integration.
• blogTO reports that a Torontonian designed the new ( Read more... )

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• blogTO shares the new face of the Broadview Hotel.
• The Broadside Blog's Caitlin Kelly writes about the joys of the unscreened life.
• Dead Things reports on a study suggesting that although humans are violent by the standards of mammals, we are among the least violent primates.
• The Dragon's Gaze reports on the discovery of five sizable planets orbiting ( Read more... )