Culture: Okay, It's Spring

What appeared to be some kind of blue-eyed grass was found in the Lambton Woods area of Toronto, Ontario on 14-April-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Officially, it's been spring for almost a month now. However, until very recently, it pretty much looked like winter to me. I didn't see much green, and only a few very precocious trees looked like they were even thinking about blooming. There were no flowers noted along the Humber River when I took a walk last Sunday. I mostly stayed inside as spring showers and clouds seemed to dominate the weather.

As the clouds cleared again today, I decided to head down to the Humber River and was surprised by how many signs of spring had appeared since Sunday. My first official flower picture of 2010 presented itself with some sort of blue-eyed grass or a related species was found in the Lambton Woods. Several trees that looked pretty gray on Sunday were later found to have sprouted white blooms.


A male Northern Cardinal was found along the Humber River Trail on 14-April-2010

The red-winged blackbirds have been out in large numbers for some weeks now, but some stay here essentially year-round so that wasn't terribly interesting. What surprised me is that a few paces from the flowers, I saw a male Northern Cardinal not far away. While I have seen males before, and gotten pictures of females, this was my first real chance at a photograph of a male. It didn't turn out well as he rapidly took off, but it was a sure sign of spring that the Cardinals are back.


The final Milton Line GO train of the day crossed the Humber River in Toronto, Ontario near sunset on 14-April-2010

One of my purposes in walking this part of the Humber is to take railroad pictures, and throughout the winter many of the Milton Line GO trains go by in the dark. Traditionally, the day that I can photograph the final train, which passes about 19:12, marks the real beginning of spring in my mind. Today, the train passed right as the sun shone directly on the Humber River bridge.


Canadian Pacific "Expressway" train #124 crossed the Humber River on 14-April-2010, its first recorded crossing in daylight of the year

I started thinking that the only sign of spring I hadn't seen was the eastbound Canadian Pacific Expressway train which only reliably passes in the daylight during the longest days of the year. As I walked out after seeing the GO train, I noted an eastbound signal lit at Humber on the north track. I went back to my old favorite photo location, and what showed up but an early-running Expressway.

There's no question about it--all the signs are there. It's spring.

Heritage: Lusty Lady to Clothe

The marquee of the Lusty Lady on First Avenue in Seattle, Washington was partially hidden during construction on 14-March-2006 that marked part of its decline. The picture was taken near an entrance to the Seattle Art Museum.

TORONTO, ONTARIO - One of the interesting aspects of visiting downtown Seattle, Washington in recent years has been the Lusty Lady. Located across the street from the Seattle Art Museum and adjacent to the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel, it has long appeared way out of place. Yet, its marquee was regarded affectionately by locals for its suggestive puns. A certain well-known local talk show host has claimed he knows people that would go to the Seattle Art Museum just as an excuse to check out the marquee.

Amongst the creative sayings to appear over the years were "We takeoff more than Boeing," "All Clothing 100 Percent Off," and "Out with the old, in with the nude." The marquee even inspired a blog site to "review" its messages. (The popularity of the puns in Seattle was to me yet more evidence that Seattle is really a Canadian city that just happens to be located south of the border.) The marquee phrases could originate with any staff member or even passers-by who stopped to make a suggestion--if it was used, they would receive a Lusty Lady t-shirt.

Yet, that fun is to come to an end. As reportedly widely but most skillfully by Erik Lacitis of the Seattle Times, the Lusty Lady will close in about two months. Apparently many more people enjoy the marquee than partake in the peep shows, especially since the closure of the once-adjacent headquarters of Washington Mutual. (I didn't know if the Lusty Lady was a strip club or even just a plain bar with an adult sense of humor; I was quite surprised to read it could earn enough money at that location as a twelve-booth peep show.) Income is reported to be down 60% since it peaked in 1998. The Lusty Lady is yet another victim of the financial crisis in the United States, and to a lesser extent the Internet.

Seattle's Museum of History and Industry claims it would "likely accept" the marquee if it were donated. The owners of the Lusty Lady, who share profits with the performers, have not yet stated their intention. Even if the marquee does survive at a museum, First Avenue in Seattle will never be quite the same. A lot of people will be watching for the last pun.

Culture: Losing Science

TORONTO, ONTARIO - I often cite Russia as the potential future of the United States if corporatist policies are allowed to dominate by both conservatives and liberals. The economic problems in Russia are not so much socialist policies--though the government has a close hand in many companies--as they are problems of lack of competition. Because large companies--usually backed by the government--so dominate market segments, there's really no chance at innovation by small companies; they would be crushed by the dominant companies.

Whether one believes that as a possible future in the United States or not, there's a new cautionary tale out of Russia. The Christian Science Monitor noted in a recent article that scientific research in Russia has slowed significantly. The amount of peer-reviewed papers being published by Russian authors is now not much more than one-tenth of that of the United States, less than one-third of that of China.

While lack of government funding has driven the decline in scientific output, with Russia allocating about 2% as much money as the US (on that basis, their output actually looks quite good!) for scientific research. However, the article points out that the problem is much deeper. Andre Ionin is quoted in the article as saying "the profession of scientist is not prestigious anymore, and the government does not define scientific tasks that would attract talented people." Only 1.6% of Russian students viewed science as a worthwhile career in a 2006 survey.

The money has not dried up in the United States yet, but it seems to me that the social standing of scientists and engineers has fallen. I won't rehash my own experience of watching my peers decide to pursue other professions after getting an advanced degree. Some--though certainly not all--TEA party activists have included scientists as part of the government workforce that "wastes their tax dollars," usually in the context of climate change research, the most common thing they call "junk science." Mainstream media have laid off their science reporters as they have slashed spending in general.

The Obama administration has been increasing science funding. However, as of yet there is no race-to-the-moon-style reason for the general public to get excited by science. Until we have reason to believe, like Bill Nye the Science Guy, that "science is cool," there is always the danger that the United States is just one unsympathetic administration away from heading down the road that Russia has gone in science.

Photos: Good Friday Procession 2010

The Knights of Columbus were noted on Grace Street in Toronto, Ontario during the Good Friday Procession on 2-April-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site features the Good Friday Procession. Unseasonably mild temperatures this year brought out the crowds and the sunglasses at the annual event. This year's procession was captured as it made its way from Grace Street onto Dundas Street in Toronto, Ontario's Little Italy neighbourhood on 2-April-2010.

Margin Notes: Perspective, Ghandi, Napoleon

Dan Garcia peered through the number boards of a F7 locomotive cab that he was turning into a simulator at the John Street Roundhouse in Toronto, Ontario on 10-April-2010

TORONTO, ONTARIO - While not possible to apply in all situations, I've always been a big believer that how one manages to frame a subject in a photograph is often more important than the subject itself. A classic example presented itself yesterday in a volunteer session at the John Street Roundhouse. Seeing Dan Garcia at work on the locomotive simulator has become rather routine in recent months, but seeing him through the number boards of the locomotive--that made a nice photograph.

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I haven't been taking many photographs lately, as the record temperatures of last weekend gave way not just to spring showers, but actual wind-swept snow flurries as I walked through the neighbourhood Wednesday evening. Spring tends to be the season that can't decide what it wants to do--one day it's winter, one day it's summer, but it's not very often actually spring.

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Spring may traditionally be a time of hope, but not for Arundhati Roy, a recent guest on the Open Source podcast. Amongst her profound, but not particularly inspiring, comments was "Ghandi was India's first NGO... It took a lot of money to keep that man poor."

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Sticking with history, leave it to John Yemma, editor of the Christian Science Monitor, to point out in a recent column that what I have called Glitch's Razor actually originated with Napoleon, translated as: "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence." From now on, I'll call it Napoleon's Razor.

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History sounds better than politics to me right now. Between discussions of a new Governor General in Canada, more maneuvering in the Toronto mayoral race, the recent scandal surrounding now-former Conservative cabinet minister Helena Guergis, and the prospect of a political fight over a Supreme Court nominee in the United States, I have discovered that I have no appetite for political stories at this juncture. Wake me up when a real campaign starts.

Radio Pick: Limits

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick returns to public radio. Science is one of the hardest topics to communicate to a general audience--particularly on the radio. Radio Lab found a way to talk about the scientific perspective on limitations by using very human examples, making it much more accessible in this 59-minute program.

Listen to MP3 of Radio Lab "Limits"

Heritage: Vimy Circle

TORONTO, ONTARIO - On this Vimy Ridge Day nationally in Canada, it seemed appropriate to pay a little attention to a monument to this day that was never constructed--Vimy Circle.

I first learned about Vimy Circle from "Unbuilt Toronto" author Mark Osbaldeston's presentation to the Swansea Historical Society in February. Vimy Circle, which would have been located at modern-day University and Richmond, would have been a large roundabout, surrounded by Romanesque architecture with a monument to the battle at Vimy Ridge in the center.

The latest issue of Spacing magazine included more information on Vimy Circle, which was part of a bold effort to change the street map of Toronto, including Federal Avenue from the front of Union Station up to Queen Street and several streets running at a diagonal through the city's grid. A post on the Toronto Before blog illustrates what it might have looked like, and where it might have been, though the best rendering I've ever seen appears in Spacing. It looks almost like something out of Rome or Paris, and would have lent a feeling of planned and revered civilization that Toronto sorely lacks, save perhaps at Queen's Park.

Why was Vimy Circle never built, along with all the other proposals of the day? It was put to a referendum just three months after the 1929 Black Thursday crash of the stock markets heralding the start of what became the Great Depression. Unsurprisingly in those circumstances, the referendum failed.

Yet, while Toronto does not have a Vimy Circle, events today in Ottawa prove that Vimy Ridge will not soon be forgotten in Canada.