As you feel the moisture freezing on the inside of your cheeks, your breath visibly smoke around your sentences and public transport skid to a halt while you wait in -4 degrees, you might be thinking: How do people cope when it’s -40?!
Copyright © 2012 Montreal Underground & J. Winberg
Well, that’s the point, people don’t. Montréal is host to the world’s largest underground city, RÉSO; there are malls, museums, hotels, 30 cinemas, multi-storey houses, offices and a music arena, all built underground just so Montrealers don’t have to face the uninhabitable weather. In fact, most of Montreal is accessible from the 20 miles of subterranean cityscape. Fascinating ey? When atrocious weather batters our small island I don’t think we should be looking to Germany, with their stalwart public transport, or Japan with their heated pavements. Montréal really is the year-round city.
“If you live and work in the underground city, there’s no need to ever emerge from below. To some, that may seem a bit strange, but for Montrealers, who have to endure harsh winters, it’s been a godsend.” www.aviewoncities.com/montreal/reso.htm
If you’re sat there thinking erm it’s quite maritime-ly pleasant in the UK again right now, aren’t blogs supposed to be constantly on the pulse of humanity?? They are, but my research and even posting my blog was impossible for 24 hours due to the online activism from Wikipedia, WordPress and others yesterday. Nice to see folks. For the British audience, just be thankful we don’t have to think about what SOPA/PIPA is. To find out more, check out this great article on Al Jazeera by a very clever media buff from MIT: www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/01/2012115121928594335.html
Geog Blog 
The only thing I knew about Montreal until today is that they speak French there, they constantly threaten to leave Canada and everybody moves house on the same day of the year. It’s suddenly become a lot more interesting 🙂
Although OT, PIPA/SOPA is a matter of importance outside of the US beause while we may not have representation over the passing of laws which govern the Internet, we are still impacted by those laws because the core infrastructure of the Internet is still under US government control. PIPA/SOPA must be cited as why there is an urgent need to remove this control from any one country, or preferrably any country.