[PHOTO] Approaching storm in the Annex, looking east

Last night's rain clouds were spectacular.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• io9 shares photos of Kazakhstan's capital of Astana.


• Anders Sandberg links to a recent discussion of a paper he co-authored on the ethics of augmentation.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper analyzing the density of different Kepler-discovered exoplanets that determines that worlds more than 2.5 times the diameter of Earth are likely to be mini-Neptunes.


• The Dragon's Tales notes evidence for global cooling following the Chixculub impact that ended the Cretaceous, tracks the spread of farming from the Neolithic Fertile Crescent, and observes Russia's withdrawal of a particular rocket engine from use by the United States.


• Discover's Imageo blog shares maps of what the world will look like when the West Antarctic sheet melts.


• inuit panda scarlet carwash notes the happy reunion of a cat separated from his owners three years ago by the Japanese earthquake with said.


• Language Log links to a paper suggesting that the location of letters on a standard QWERTY keyboard influences the way we see the words these letters make up.


• Registan warns that it looks as if Kazakhstan won't be able to balance Russia off with China and the United States now.


• Torontoist shares pictures of the Game of Thrones expedition in town.


• Towleroad notes that disgraced NBA team owner Donald Sterling's interview with Anderson Cooper went terribly for him.


• The Volokh Conspiracy links to a Michael Totten essay making the point that Cuba is actually a very repressive society.


• Window on Eurasia notes that some Karelians want greater autonomy for their Russian republic.

[LINK] "Sears Canada may be sold by U.S. parent"

CBC's report doesn't surprise me at all, given the closure of the chain's flagship store in the Eaton Centre earlier this year. (My photos of the store's final day are here.)

Sears is considering selling part or all of its Canadian operations after struggling to restructure the business for the past several years.

Shares in Sears Canada rose almost five per cent on Wednesday with news that Sears Holdings Corp. intends "to explore strategic alternatives including the potential divestiture of its remaining shares in Sears Canada and/or the sale of Sears Canada as a whole," the company said in a statement.

The holding company controls its namesake stores, but also operates numerous Kmart locations. It owns a controlling stake of 51 per cent of the Canadian operations of Sears.

[. . .]

Mark Satov, founder of Satov Consultants Inc. in Toronto, said he’s been expecting this announcement.

“They’ve been underinvesting in their brand for a very long time and they can only do that for so long before it’s not relevant,” Satov said in an interview with CBC’s Lang & O’Leary Exchange.

[LINK] "Now Putin Has to Figure Out What to Do With the Separatists"

Joshua Yaffa's Bloomberg BusinessWeek article makes the point that, from Russia's perspective, having the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk (and perhaps others) break away to join the Russian Federation isn't an optimal outcome. Keeping them inside Ukraine would be much preferable for Russian interests in wider Ukraine.

I wonder if, depending on what public opinion is in this eastern Ukrainian regions, Ukrainians hoping for European integration might do better to let these regions separate from Ukraine and enter the Russian sphere,

For starters, Putin has “no appetite or readiness to absorb eastern Ukraine,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. Moscow does not relish the idea of being responsible for the region’s disaffected coal miners and Soviet-era industrial infrastructure. Nor does it want to bear the costs of a civil war among the local population—or even worse, find itself in the quagmire of a real war if the Ukrainian army were to resist Russia’s land grab. It also wants to avoid the hardship of sectoral economic sanctions that the U.S. and European Union would introduce if Russia were to invade or annex Ukraine’s eastern regions.

Instead, Trenin explained, the Kremlin would like to exploit the uncertainty and instability of eastern Ukraine to ram through its ultimate, and most important, strategic aim: a so-called “federalization” plan that would see eastern regions handed a wide degree of autonomy, thus keeping the country from moving closer to the EU or NATO and ensuring a powerful countervailing voice for a pro-Russian elite. With these interests in mind, Russia views Ukraine’s eastern territory more as a bargaining chip than as a potential territorial acquisition. In future rounds of negotiations with the Ukrainian government and Western officials, the Kremlin can wield the unresolved status of eastern Ukraine and the appeal by the separatists to join Russia as an ever-present threat: Give us what we want, or we’ll break Ukraine apart. If no grand bargain can be found, or if Russia decides it prefers permanent instability in Ukraine to a diplomatic solution, the Kremlin could keep eastern Ukraine as a perpetually contested territory, a grander version of the political and security headache posed by the breakaway republic of Transnistria.

[LINK] "Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels"

Vice's Mary O'Hara argues convincingly that the legalization of marijuana would undercut both drug gangs and drug law enforcement agencies, and that it is perhaps for that very reason that law enforcement agencies like the United States' DEA oppose legalization.

VICE News talked to retired federal agent Terry Nelson, a former field level commander who worked to prevent drugs from crossing the southern border. Nelson said that before medical marijuana and state legalization in Washington and Colorado, about 10 million pounds of pot were grown in the US every year. But 40 million pounds came from Mexico.

Given the DEA’s relationship with Sinaloa, and the agency’s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.

Exact numbers on illegal drug trafficking are always hard to pin down, due to the black market nature of distribution and sales.

“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” Nelson said, “They aren’t able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.”

Seven important truths about how the world takes drugs in 2014. Read more here.

In 2012, a study by the Mexican Competitiveness Institute found that US state legalization would cut into cartel business and take over about 30 percent of their market.

Former DEA senior intelligence specialist Sean Dunagan told VICE News that, although it’s too early to verify the numbers: “Anything to establish a regulated legal market will necessarily cut into those profits. And it won’t be a viable business for the Mexican cartels — the same way bootleggers disappeared after prohibition fell.”

DEA chief of operations James Capra told senators this January that legalization "scares us" and is "reckless and irresponsible." And the agency is continuing to crack down on marijuana.

Given the DEA’s historic relationship with the Sinaloa cartel, and the agency’s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.

[URBAN NOTE] On the upcoming changes at Queen and Broadview

Torontoist was one of many sources yesterday to note that the Broadview Hotel, located on the corner of Queen Street East and Broadview Avenue towards the southern end of the neighbourhood of Riverdale and famous host to strip joint Jilly's, had been sold to developers.

Streetcar Developments—which has worked on other projects in the area—has announced that it has purchased the building, originally constructed in 1893. Jilly’s, whose lease was on the verge of expiring, will be departing, as will those who’ve made the hotel home.

Streetcar will begin by addressing “significant structural issues” and then turn its focus “to revive this building to a landmark everyone in the area can be proud of.” According to the news release, that likely won’t involve condominiums—so is the Drake Hotel poised to face some healthy east-end competition?

Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn posted a great history of the building, including its recent shift.

Jilly’s earned notoriety for its loud and public promise of “Girls! Girls! Girls!”, but it wasn’t always the dancers who drew attention. Local animal activists were horrified in December 1991 by the “Jane Jones Exotic Circus.” Ms. Jones’s striptease routines were accompanied by a boa constrictor, a python, and a 450-pound defanged Siberian tiger named Qedesh. “She brings out the animal and the tiger just lies there on the stage,” activist Liz White told the Star. “She takes off most of her clothes and kind of lies all over the tiger while a male commentator talks about how this is an endangered species. It’s unreal.” Jilly’s staff noted Qedesh was “just a pussycat.” The complaints reached city council, spurring debate on outlawing the display and ownership of wild animals.

As faded west-end hotels like the Drake and Gladstone revived in the mid-2000s, speculation about the future of the Broadview increased. Drake owner Jeff Stober fended off rumours he was interested in the property. Kamin admitted to speaking with condo developers and architects, but, as he told the National Post in 2006, “I’m at the stage in my life where I don’t want any other problems.” Articles focused on its gritty nature and the fact that it, as well as being a strip club, was home to a number of low-income tenants.

A brief closure in November 2013 for renovations renewed interest in the Broadview’s future. Councillor Paula Fletcher moved a motion at Toronto and East York Community Council to assess the possibility of a heritage designation. (The site was listed in 1975.) Yet the National Post’s Peter Kuitenbrouwer felt secure that Jilly’s would serve patrons for years to come: “As long as I live, Toronto will never again grant a licence to a strip club. Grandfathered strip clubs cling jealously to their status.”

The views expressed by the Toronto Star's Christopher Hume--that this building will be transformed in the manner of the Drake and the Gladstone--seem entirely right.

Jilly’s occupies the ground floor of a four-storey building, the New Broadview Hotel, that has been a landmark since the early 1890s. This wonderful Romanesque Revival heap was designed in the same spirit as Old City Hall. At first it appears imposing, even dour, then suddenly, smiling, you notice the fabulous terracotta panels of animals and story book figures that decorate the exteriors.

Few buildings in the city are as fanciful, even fewer take such delight in the details of their own materiality or architecture. Though the hotel has suffered many indignities over the years, it remains the most important structure in the area, let alone corner.

When word came that Streetcar Developments has bought the building, most assumed it was to turn it into a condo. Worse things have happened, but the company says no, it thinks otherwise.

Though what will come to pass has yet to be determined, the purchase will be cheered throughout the east end. Jilly’s is a relic of an earlier Toronto. It’s not that men have lost interest in naked women, but the male gaze is so easily satisfied today, and so distracted; strip clubs seem unnecessary, almost obsolete.

For the yuppies now fully ensconced in the vicinity, Jilly’s is an embarrassment, a ghastly reminder that until fairly recently this was a part of town unabashedly rough around the edges.

But that’s not the whole story, either. As the building stock on Queen east of Broadview makes clear, in 19th{+ }century Toronto this was a street where property owners hired the best architects available — including E.J. Lennox, best known for Old City Hall and Casa Loma — and used the finest materials.

The gentrification of Queen East is well underway, of course, but the New Broadview Hotel will be its most visible manifestation so far. Because of its location, it is both a landmark and a gateway to the east end. Its potential is huge.

[LINK] "The CBC Wants to Cancel Your Favourite Shows"

Barry Kiefl's Huffington Post article about how the CBC's decision to transfer funds from existing programs to new services is fundamentally wrong-headed.

The president of CBC, Hubert Lacroix, made the announcement in a recent speech: "If we can't generate new revenues or our funding model doesn't change, we'll need to take existing dollars away from services we're currently offering, to pay for those we need to be offering in the future." He also makes a very good case for why Canada needs a public broadcaster. I feel for Mr. Lacroix. He is faced with a financial conundrum that seems unsolvable. But he must tread carefully and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

The problem with planning for 2020 is that no one knows what the future holds. Five years ago there was no such thing as an iPad, the smartphone had just been introduced and Netflix delivered movies by mail. Technology is changing so rapidly, the best laid plan is to not commit past the current year but be nimble, allow creative people to take control and respond to new inventions as they are introduced.

Besides, most of the cool new technologies don't impact the way traditional radio and TV content is made but rather affect how content is distributed. Netflix figured this out and produces original series such as Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, series that could run on any TV network. Similarly, the music and the podcasts we stream from the internet are basically the same content that we consume on the radio. CBC bureaucrats, who have been called much worse here, need to be wary of the 'Steve Jobs syndrome' which convinces them they have the insight of Mr. Jobs.

The truth is that traditional radio and TV have not been replaced by the internet or other new technologies but instead have maintained their central role in our lives. Traditional TV viewing levels have, if anything, increased slightly in recent years. This is partly the result of improvements in picture quality (HDTV) and the inherent quality of programming. We are in the golden age of TV. Internet TV services, such as Netflix, are adding to our viewing time but mostly with old TV programs and movies.

Radio listening levels have waned slightly but CBC Radio's audience share has grown in the past decade. CBC presented the chart below to a Senate Committee earlier this year. Of the four CBC/SRC Radio services all but CBC Radio 2 increased audience substantially in the past decade. Radio 2 tried and failed to attract a younger audience, as radio listening by young people is in decline.