[PHOTO] Eleven photos of the Tunnel of Glam, Yonge and St. Clair (#tunnelofglam)

Last night, I went with a friend down to Yonge and St. Clair to take a look at the Tunnel of Glam. An eighty-foot tunnel lined with 14 million reversible sequins at 1503 Yonge Street, the Tunnel of Glam us certainly eye-catching. It was still reasonably full of visitors at 8 o'clock, taking in the spectacle in the warm winter air.

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• John Holbo at Crooked Timber considers the different sorts of lies, and different sorts of lie-telling, in politics.


• The Crux looks at how scientists try to explain language as a product of evolution.


• D-Brief notes new evidence that the bubonic plague devastated Neolithic Europe five thousand years ago.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that the United States has given Russia 60 days to fall in compliance with the INF Treaty.


• Keiran Healy describes how he used programming to make a map of Canada showing not just provinces but census divisions.


• Lyman Stone at In A State of Migration shares with readers his family's trip this spring to Germany and Denmark. (Photos are included.)


• JSTOR Daily notes the circumstances of the accidental invention of the terrarium in mid-19th century Britain, creating protected environments in a time of growing pollution.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the simultaneous dependence and devastation that marks the relationship of West Virginia to the coal industry.


• Marginal Revolution notes parenthetically how Somaliland stands out from the rest of Somalia in that one clan--the Isaaq, here--dominates.


• Christopher Benfey at the NYR Daily considers, using examples from the Bible and Frost and MacBeth and Pound, the idea of one being blind to metaphor.


• Starts With A Bang's Ethan Siegel notes how dark energy was proven to exist.


• Window on Eurasia notes how most Ukrainians, while skeptical of their country joining the European Union, want a European-style state.


• Arnold Zwicky considers different saints and different kinds of bears.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: office budgets, St. James Town, 1887, Christmas Market, Kringlewood

• Toronto city council has boosted office budgets to try to compensate for the increased workloads that have come about as a result of the expanded wards. The Toronto Star reports.


• Many people in high-rise St. James Town are concerned by the possibility of a new high-rise condo tower, 50 stories high, in their neighbourhood. The Toronto Star reports.


• Jamie Bradburn takes a look at how, in the run-up to Christmas in 1887, the Toronto press was covering the holiday season.


• VICE sent one of its journalists out for an entire day to the Christmas Market in the Distillery District. What effect did it have on them?


• Inglewood Drive, in midtown Moore Park, has embarked again on its street-long Christmas decoration. blogTO reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five city links: New York City, Edmonton, London, Rio de Janeiro, Addis Ababa

• The Strand bookstore in New York City is seeking to avoid being granted heritage status, in order to avoid the complications which could drive it out of business. The Guardian reports.


• The City of Edmonton, post-2014, will not regain previous levels of per capita wealth until the 2030s. The Edmonton Journal reports.


• Henry Wismayer has a heart-felt essay at Medium talking about how a London plunged into the heart of a turbo-charged capitalism is becoming increasingly inhospitable for the non-rich. Grenfell Tower beckons on the horizon.


• Guardian Cities shares photos of the homes taken over by squatters in Rio de Janeiro.


• The National, from the UAE, praises the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa as not just a regional hub but as a worthy tourist destination in its own right.

[ISL] Five #PEI links: Province House, City Cinema, Joseph Glass &Jews, wind energy, Borden-Carleton

• Peter Rukavina shares a photo of Province House in Charlottetown now hidden by its exoskeleton for much-needed repairs.


• CBC PEI reports on the bid of the PEI Film Society to take over City Cinema, the only independent cinema in Charlottetown.


• CBC PEI reports on the work of Joseph Glass to document the Jewish history of Prince Edward Island.


• Skinners Pond is among the locations being studied for new wind energy plants, CBC notes.


• Will the Confederation Bridge fabrication yards at Borden-Carleton be turned into a solar farm, as the PCs propose? CBC goes into detail.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Atlanta. My.Kali, cross-dressing, Glennda Orgasm, Pride Toronto

• This Guardian Cities article asks, rhetorically, if the LGBTQ community of Atlanta has a problem with racism.


• VICE tells the story of pioneering Jordan-based LGBT magazine My.Kali, the first in its country.


• Taylor Hosking at VICE writes about how cross-dressing on Hallowe'en, for her as a queer cis black woman, was a perhaps unexpectedly powerful experience.


• Mark Simpson praises Glennda Orgasm, the drag journalist persona of his friend Glenn Belverio. Is it time for her to come back?


• Florence Ashley argues at NOW Toronto that Pride Toronto is too corporatized to be salvaged, and that it would be best to start fresh.