[PHOTO] Grid Condos under construction, Jarvis and Dundas

[PHOTO] Human Structures, Jonathan Borofsky

Human Structures, a sculpture by Jonathan Borofsky, is a relatively new addition to Plaza33 outside Penn Station on Seventh Avenue, part of an effort to make this space more friendly to the many pedestrians who walk through it.

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• Charlie Stross at Antipope tells us how bizarre he finds reality, in its content and in its delivery. Certainly, it undermines for him the utility of the storytelling methods he first used.


• Centauri Dreams notes a new effort to separate superjovian planets from brown dwarfs, suggesting the dividing line between planetary and stellar formation is drawn at 10 Jupiter masses.


• Dangerous Minds praises St. Vincent, aka Annie Clark, as a brilliant musician and live performer who should be seen on her most recent tour.


• Hornet Stories talks about the way out queer male pop musicians, like Casey Spooner and Frank Ocean, are becoming more out about their sexuality and their forthright self-presentation in ways traditionally limited to use by women.


• JSTOR Daily suggests that, in Indonesia, post-Suharto trade liberalization has led to a direct surge in men smoking cigarettes.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money links to an article suggesting how the 19th century American perception of China as a trade partner was driven by a romanticism.


• Washington D.C., Marginal Revolution reports, stands out as a city where economists far outnumber clerics.


• Roads and Kingdoms considers the difficulty of being a vegetarian or vegan in the Nigerian metropolis of Lagos.


• Drew Rowsome praises Liminal, the new biography by Toronto playwright and general creator Jordan Tannahill.


• At Strange Maps, Frank Jacobs shares an infographic illustrating the various investments and projects of Elon Musk.


• Towleroad links to a trailer for the new version of classic gay play Boys in the Band, starring out stars. This is going to be an interesting show, I think, especially as it is updated (and as it might not need updating).


• Window on Eurasia notes the deep hostility of some Russians to the permanent settlement of immigrants--Central Asians here, also Chinese--in rural Russia, in the iconic village. I have to saying, knowing what I know about PEI, this sounds a bit familiar.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto transit links: shutdowns, future maps, ridership, King Street, North Korea

• Transit Toronto shares a list of planned partial shutdowns for the Toronto subway in 2018, and makes the point this is good: This way, they can much-needed maintenance.


• blogTO shares a future map of Toronto transit links, this one by the TTC highlighting its own dreams and hopes, many of which are planned and even funded already. I like this one.


• Steve Munro at Torontoist considers whether or not the TTC can meet its goal of increased ridership, given (among other things) bottlenecks in service.


• Ben Spurr notes the hope of the TTC that the King Street pilot project can be replicated elsewhere in Toronto, over at the Toronto Star. Queen Street seems one likely corridor for this to me.


• Ben Spurr and Alanna Rizza report that Metrolinx, of all agencies, was apparently recently subjected to a cyberattack from North Korea. The Toronto Star has the report.

[NEWS] Five links in memory of Ursula K. Le Guin

What can be said of the passing of Ursula K. Le Guin yesterday but that it has left the world absent a literary voice it needs?

• Cheryl Eddy at io9 pays tribute to Le Guin, noting her recent activism against "alternative facts."


• Crooked Timber pays tribute to Le Guin, noting a blog symposium there that had never quite come off.


• JSTOR Daily notes Le Guin's prescient criticism, in 1975 (!), of a science fiction that was much too retrograde, looking back to past empires and not forward. (That such could also be misogynistic was not a surprise.)


• At Whatever, John Scalzi links to his Los Angeles Times tribute to Ursula K. Le Guin. Her influence is everywhere, he points out, in the rising generation of writers.


• At Wired, Jason Kehe notes Ursula K Le Guin's power to imagine alternative worlds, future difficult for others to imagine.

[NEWS] Four queer links: healthcare, SOGI, citizenship, apps

• Robbie Gonzalez at Wired notes how new Trump Administration measures supposedly guaranteeing "religious freedom" and abandoning data collection will hurt queer people in the US seeking healthcare.


• Dennis Altman at The Conversation argues that "SOGI", for "Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity", is a more useful acronym than "LGBTI ..."


• Towleroad notes a new lawsuit in the United States intended to ensure that children of queer couples born abroad can automatically claim American citizenship.


• Alex McKeen notes critics of the Bruce McArthur serial murder investigation who suggest police have been much too quick to warn about online apps, perhaps neglecting other ways people get in touch, over at the Toronto Star.

[NEWS] Five culture links: archeology in Canada, Baker Boy, Threads, Ukrainian churches, Kanopy

• Archeology in Canada is starting to take a leading role in the reconciliation process with First Nations. The Globe and Mail reports.


• Baker Boy, an Australian Aborigine rapper from the Milingimbi community, is becoming a star with his raps in his native Yolngu Matha language. (Touring with 50 Cent is an achievement.) Australia's SBS carries the story.


• Threads, the infamous 1984 British film depicting the aftermath of nuclear war, is coming to Blu-ray. VICE's Motherboard reports.


• Andrei Fert writes at Open Democracy about how, after the appalling refusal of a priest in a Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox church to preside over the burial of a toddler baptized into a Kyiv-aligned church, that whole denomination is coming into disrepute.


• blogTO notes the introduction, by the Toronto Public Library, of a new video streaming service, Kanopy, offering more than thirty thousand movies free to members.