[PHOTO] Disco ball in the corner, Church Street

We can all shine once we get into the light.

[PHOTO] Seven photos from Amazon Books on West 34th Street, NYC (@amazonbooks)

One place in New York City that I was very curious to see was an Amazon Books, most specifically the chain's newest New York City location (opened in August of last year) on West 34th Street opposite the Empire State Building. I have been an intermittent customer of Amazon for almost fifteen years. What would a bricks-and-mortar location look like, especially one wholly Amazon in origin and not a recently bought chain with an established identity like Whole Foods?

It turns out that it looks a lot like an established high-end bookstore. All the books were facing out, with no spines that I could see, each book being classified not only by genre but by online ratings. The electronics section was large and abundant, with plenty of Kindles and Alexas on display. This translation of the online bookstore into the physical world seemed pretty faithful, actually. The store's most visible problem to me is that its paper shopping bags dissolve far too quickly in the rain.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• Crooked Timber links to John Quiggin's article in the Guardian about how formerly public companies should be renationalized.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that Lockheed has just signed a $US 150 million dollar contract to deliver a 60 kilowatt laser weapon to the US navy by 2020.


• Hornet Stories ranks the different performances at last night's Grammies, giving Kesha top placing.


• JSTOR Daily looks back to contemporary coverage of the 1918 flu epidemic. How did people react, how did they cope?


• Language Hat looks at a multilingual comic by Japan-born artist Ru Kawahata, Stuck in the Middle.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money suggests that, rather than hoping for Trump to perform to minimal expectations in the upcoming State of the Union address, it might be more profitable (and enjoyable?) to wait for the inevitable meltdown. What will it be?


• Marginal Revolution notes a proposal in Rotterdam for police to arrest people wearing expensive clothes and jewellery and, if they cannot explain where they got them, confiscate them. Of course this policy could not be misused.


• Towleroad notes that drag queens have quit Burkhart's, a prominent gay bar in Atlanta, in response to that bar's owner's racist and alt-right statements on Facebook.


• Paul Cassell at the Volokh Conspiracy argues Judge Rosemarie Aquilina was entirely correct in allowing all the victims of Nassar to speak at sentencing.


• Window on Eurasia notes that radical Islamists are increasingly using Russian to communicate, not the traditional languages of Russia's Muslim populations. Linguistic assimilation does not equal cultural assimilation.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: Spadina Line 40th, King Street, tourism, Andrew Johnston

• Transit Toronto celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Spadina Line, western leg of Line 1.


• The Globe and Mail hosts an article suggesting ways to make the King Street transit experiment work better.


• David Rider notes that Toronto is becoming a major international tourism destination, attracting sizable contingents of visitors from around the world, over at the Toronto Star.


• Over at NOW Toronto, Toronto comedian Andrew Johnton explains why, given the collapse of the (English Canadian) media ecosystem, if he has have a chance of earning a living from his career he has to go to the United States.

[NEWS] Five Canadian politics links: Doug Ford, Liberals, Ontario, Québec, Greens, green economy

• Doug Ford is running for the leadership of the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. This is make or break time for the struggling Ford dynasty; let's unite to keep him out of the premier's office. CBC reports.


• Former PC leader Patrick Brown's chief of staff is now working for interim party leader Vic Fideli. The Toronto Star reports.


• Chantal Hébert warns the Liberals governing Ontario and Québec to not take too much comfort from the chaos besetting their opponents. The Toronto Star has it.


• The Green Party on Prince Edward Island is thriving, levels of popularity reaching those of the Progressive Conservatives there. CBC reports.


• Canada, one source argues at the National Observer, is not doing enough to prepare workers for the shift to a green economy.

[ISL] Five Prince Edward Island links

• News that lobsters experience pain when lowered into boiling water will have implications for the Island. CBC reports.


• The National Post reports on a Legion hall in Tignish that shamefully refused a Sikh man entry on account of his headdress.


• Happily, shipments of The Globe and Mail's Saturday edition to Prince Edward Island have resumed. CBC goes into detail.


• The Prince Edward Island government has contracted with three companies to grow three million grams of marijuana for local sale. CBC reports.


• The University of Prince Edward Island will be offering a two-year Master's program in tourism. CBC reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five links on the Church-Wellesley serial killer

• This is appalling news. Two of the names of the people McArthur is charged with murdering aren't names I'd heard mentioned before in connection with disappearances. How many dead are there? CBC reports.


• CBC is entirely justified in asking why, for at least a half-dozen years before this summer, gay men of colour were disappearing without any noticeable police response.


• The sufferings of the friends and family of the victims are foremost in my mind, but I can also imagine how the friends and family of the accused are responding to the news. The Toronto Star interviewed McArthur's sister last week.


• The Globe and Mail was able to determine that McArthur had links to four of the men who disappeared.