[PHOTO] E Condominiums, Yonge and Eglinton, looking up

The E Condominiums tower on the northeast corner of Yonge and Eglinton is taking shape.

[PHOTO] Barosaurus rising (@amnh)

This is (part of) the other half of the dinosaur fossil display in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda of the AMNH, a barosaurus rearing up against an allosaurus attacker. As the museum website notes, this Barosaurus display is made of replica bones; the real fossils could not support the weight needed to be mounted.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

• anthro{dendum} shares an essay by digital ethnographer Gabriele de Seta on the pitfalls of digital ethnography, on the things not said.


• The Boston Globe's The Big Picture shares photos taken in the course of a mission by dentists to provide care to rural Jamaica.


• Centauri Dreams examines the TRAPPIST-1 worlds in depth, finding that TRAPPIST-1e seems to be the relatively most Earth-like world there.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that British banks are cracking down on the use of cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin.


• Gizmodo suggests the Chixculub impactor that killed most of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous may also have played havoc with fragile tectonics of Earth. Responsibility for the Deccan Traps?


• Lawyers, Guns and Money wonders if the Democratic Party risks getting steamrollered over DACA.


• At Lingua Franca, Geoffrey Pullum dissects the claims that an orca capable of mimicking human words can use language. The two are not the same.


• The NYR Daily looks at the origins of the American system of higher education in the wealth generated by slavery.


• Towleroad notes that Bermuda has ended marriage equality. Boycott time?


• David Post at the Volokh Conspiracy is decidedly unimpressed by the behaviour of Devin Nunes.

[URBAN NOTE] Four Toronto links: Scarborough subway costs, Bombardier streetcars, HQ2, North York

• Former chief planner Jennifer Keesmaat leads the chorus, Jennifer Pagliaro notes, arguing in favour of a full disclosure of Scarborough subway costs before the election. The article is over at the Toronto Star.


• blogTO notes that Bombardier has come up with new proposals to accelerate streetcar construction for Toronto. I suspect few Torontonians will believe in these.


• A meeting of Justin Trudeau with Amazon's CEO is tied to the Toronto bid for HQ2, the Toronto Star reports.


• An asphalt plant in North York is meeting protest from neighbours, residential and commercial, over its pollution, reports the Toronto Star.

[URBAN NOTE] Six city links: California, Toronto, Vancouver, Saint John, LA, NYC, Philadelphia

• Wired notes a bill proposed at the state level in California to force cities to provide affordable and accessible housing through non-NIMBY zoning.


• The Toronto and Vancouver housing markets, perhaps uniquely among the markets of Canada's major cities, are not seeing as much new supply as others. The Globe and Mail reports.
• 
  
• The population of Saint John, New Brunswick, has fallen by a quarter since 1971. The city government wants to change this, somehow. Global News notes.


• VICE reports a new census of homelessness in Los Angeles, amid fears of locals that prior estimates might be undercounts.


• The mystery of what happened to Princess Pamela, a famous soul food cook whose Harlem restaurant was famous to those in the know, is explored in this thought-provoking essay.


• At Slate, Annie Risemberg explores how old connections to Liberia and ethnic restaurants helped a corner of southwestern Philadelphia become "Little Africa", a destination of note for West African immigrants.

[NEWS] Seven links on borders: Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan, Ontario, New York, Europe, NAFTA, Colombia

• Relations between Alberta and British Columbia, regarding the latter province's disinterest in hosting a pipeline for Albertan oil, are not good at all. The National Post looks at things.


• Things aren't good between Alberta and Saskatchewan, either. The

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[MUSIC] Kate Bush, "Moments of Pleasure"

If I have one regret about my visit to New York City last month, it was that I was not able to witness the truth of a lyric from Kate Bush's 1993 song "Moments of Pleasure", "The buildings of New York/Look just like mountains through the snow". It just happened to be too warm for snow, that's all.

Watch on YouTube

"Moments of Pleasure" is one of the songs off of her The Red Shoes, Bush's last album for twelve years. It's quieter than some of the other songs on that album, certainly quieter than her higher-profile hits of the 1980s like "Running Up That Hill." It's a song about Kate, the person, remembering the time she spends with the people she loves including the people who have passed. I love the first four lines.

I think about us lying
Lying on a beach somewhere
I think about us diving
Diving off a rock, into another moment

The line about New York City comes at the end of a longer verse, of an imagined encounter with someone dear who is doing poorly in a New York winter. He's beloved, he's doing badly and nearing death, it's cold out, but still, this is a precious moment spent with someone cherished.

On a balcony in New York
It's just started to snow
He meets us at the lift
Like Douglas Fairbanks
Waving his walking stick
But he isn't well at all
The buildings of New York
Look just like mountains through the snow

Just being alive
It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time
Just let us try
To give these moments back
To those we love
To those who will survive

"Moments of Pleasure" ends on this sadly nostalgic note, Bush remembering the people she lost starting first with her mother. (Hannah Bush had not died when the song was written, but she was ill and was approaching death.)

And I can hear my mother saying
"Every old sock meets an old shoe"
Isn't that a great saying?
"Every old sock meets an old shoe"
Here come the Hills of Time

Hey there Maureen,

Hey there Bubba,
Dancing down the aisle of a plane,

'S Murph, playing his guitar refrain,

Hey there Teddy,
Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road,

Hey there Michael,
Do you really love me?

Hey there Bill,
Could you turn the lights up?encountered the photographic works of Nan Goldin. This song tries to carry out that vision in musical form, and does so superbly. Kudos, Kate.