This photo, viewable in the stream of local Flickr user Peter S, is of a fetching cheetah in the Toronto Zoo.
Pictures of other wildcats also residing in that facility are also viewable, as are many others--go, see.
Part of the fun of this photo comes from the sandwiching of layers of neighbourhood and pop-cultural identities.
sevres-babylone's photograph--taken by "the traffic lights at Borden; right near the Bellevue Ave fire station, a couple of blocks east of Bathurst", right about here--was taken in Little Italy, the erstwhile heart and historic nucleus of Toronto's Italian Canadian community. The Madonna? An iconic element of the Roman Catholicism of the southern Italians who settled in this neighbourhood after the Second World War, a badge of identity. Back in the 1950s, one only would have hoped that College Street would have found a Madonna.
Now? College Street, no longer much of a Little Italy, is increasingly becoming another club district. Madonna? She's a pop star of the past, this image on a torn placard taken from the cover of her 1986 album True Blue.
College Street still has its Madonna; but what a College Street, and what a Madonna.
[Biologist Luke Rendell of Scotland’s University of St. Andrews] and his collaborators, including biologists Hal Whitehead, Shane Gero and Tyler Schulz, have for years studied the click sequences, or codas, used by sperm whales to communicate across miles of deep ocean. In a study published last June in Marine Mammal Sciences, they described a sound-analysis technique that linked recorded codas to individual members of a whale family living in the Caribbean.
In that study, they focused on a coda made only by Caribbean sperm whales. It appears to signify group membership. In the latest study, published Feb. 10 in Animal Behavior, they analyzed a coda made by sperm whales around the world. Called 5R, it’s composed of five consecutive clicks, and superficially appears to be identical in each whale. Analyzed closely, however, variations in click timing emerge. Each of the researchers’ whales had its own personal 5R riff.
‘This is just the first glimpse of what might be going on.’
The differences were significant. The sonic variations that were used to distinguish between individuals in the earlier study depended on a listener’s physical relationship to the caller: “If you record the animal from the side, you get a different structure than dead ahead or behind,” said Rendell.
But these 5R variations held true regardless of listener position. “In terms of information transfer, the timing of the clicks is much less susceptible” to interference, said Rendell. “There is no doubt in my mind that the animals can tell the difference between the timing of individuals.”
Moreover, 5R tends to be made at the beginning of each coda string as if, like old-time telegraph operators clicking out a call sign, they were identifying themselves. Said Rendell; “It may function to let the animals know which individual is vocalizing.”
Audio: From a 2008 study of overlapping codas in pairs of sperm whales. One animal produces 1+1+3, the apparent group-level identifier. Both then produce overlapping 4R codas. After that, the first whale continues with 4R, while the other switches to 1+1+3. Finally, both make 1+1+3. The full meaning of such exchanges remains unclear, but they appear to reinforce social bonding.
Rendell stressed that much more research is needed to be sure of 5R’s function. “We could have just observed a freak occurrence,” he said. Future research will involve more recordings. “This is just the first glimpse of what might be going on.”
A military force from Bahrain's Gulf neighbors entered the tiny island nation Monday in an apparent attempt to restore order as anti-government demonstrations escalate.
The Bahrain Defense Force confirmed the arrival of military units from a special Gulf Cooperation Council security force. The Council is a regional economic and military alliance comprised of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Oman.
A Saudi official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, told the Associated Press that the force would secure key buildings. The U.S. Embassy in Bahrain advised American citizens to stay in their residences.
Protesters who have been calling for democratic reforms have successfully shut down large swaths of Manama, the capital city, and Bahraini security forces have fought back with teargas and rubber bullets. Pro-government civilians have in some cases attacked protesters with sticks, knives and swords; the protesters have responded with rocks and other objects, witnesses have said.
Witnesses in Manama said that most downtown businesses were closed Monday.
Authorities in Saudi Arabia, which is connected to Bahrain by a causeway, have looked at its smaller neighbor with growing nervousness, fearful that a victorious Shia majority in Bahrain could embolden Saudi Arabia's own Shiite minority in nearby oil-rich Eastern Province. They are also worried about Iran exploiting the situation off their coast, although American officials have said that they do not believe Iran has been involved in the Bahrain protests.
Stratfor declares “The GCC countries have made their countermove to Iran’s destabilization campaign and are doing so with apparent U.S. backing.” Reuters says differently. So does all the supporting evidence. Over the weekend, Defense Secretary Gates visited Bahrain. There he said, in no uncertain terms, that the United States wants the Khalifa family to accept a constitutional monarchy.
The problem is that the royal family is split. The King’s uncle, and Prime Minister since 1971, is the unofficial head of the hardliners. (He may have ordered the first attack on the Pearl Roundabout.) The Crown Prince is the leader of the liberal faction in the family, and he has been pro-active in apologizing for the deaths of protesters on national television and meeting with opposition groups throughout the crisis. The King is the moderate caught in the middle. That internal jockeying has made managing the protests more difficult.
This morning, however, the situation got infinitely worse. The Sunni deputy chairman of Bahrain’s Parliament, Abdel al-Mowada told Al Jazeera: “It is not a lack of security forces in Bahrain, it is a showing of solidarity among the GCC. I don’t know if they are going to be in the streets or save certain areas ... [but protesters] blocking the roads are no good for anyone, we should talk. The government is willing to get together and make the changes needed, but when the situation is like this, you cannot talk.” The GCC troops, then, are there to clear off the streets.
The opposition is less than thrilled. Wifaq described the arrival as a “blatant occupation” and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights declared, “This is an internal issue and we will consider it as an occupation.” It’s hard to overemphasize the power of the word “occupation” in Arab politics, given its ties to the Palestinian Territories and Iraq.
[. . . T]he Saudi decision just put two cornerstones of American policy in contradiction. The Saudi alliance has been a cornerstone of U.S. policy since 1931. The hosting of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain has, since 1971, run a close second. The Naval presence, however, requires Bahrain to be stable, under whatever form of government. American policy in Bahrain has recently moved towards support for a full constitutional monarchy as the best way to preserve stability. But the creation of a constitutional monarchy conflicts with what Riyadh considers to be a core interest.
Intervention is a bad short term solution to a long term problem. Even under the rubric of the GCC, the arrival of foreign troops en masse is a profoundly bad idea. Bahraini politics have had a violent undercurrent for the past decade, and the citizenry is not going to take kindly to foreign forces clearing the streets. It raises the stakes between the King and the opposition, and may give the conflict a more overtly sectarian cast. It also adds to the pressures pushing the opposition towards republicanism. Moreover, the economy of Bahrain is going to take a serious hit with Saudi tanks in the streets, and given that it’s mostly financial services and petroleum refineries, it’s much more vulnerable to a collapse in foreign confidence than elsewhere. Third, the move is going to encourage Iran to get involved involved. The former has longstanding territorial disputes with Bahrain and may take the chance to take a swipe at those and claim responsibility for the Shia opposition (which is currently fiercely anti-Iranian).
Far from a clever countermove against a nefarious Iranian scheme, Riyadh has just made a touchy situation significantly worse. An optimistic view has the liberal forces in Bahrain using the breathing spell to create a constitutional democracy. Saudi fears of dominoes prove unfounded, and everyone relaxes. A pessimistic view has GCC troops shooting Shia in the streets. In that case, Iranian covert operations would in fact have a opening, and the United States would once again find itself trapped on the side of the villians. The Saudi coordination of several longstanding U.S. Gulf allies against US policy interests is going to require substantial finesse from Washington.
Bailão was born in Portugal but grew up as a teen in Ward 18. She attended West Toronto Collegiate and then the University of Toronto to study sociology and European studies.
Between 1998 and 2003 she worked for Toronto city councillor Mario Silva, also of Portuguese background and now a federal MP for the riding of Davenport, giving her valuable experience with City Hall. Bailão ran for City Council for the first time in 2003 against Giambrone but lost by more than 10 per cent.
Despite the efforts during the campaign of local documentary filmmaker Scott Dobson to highlight Bailão's reliance on developers for campaign contributions, a strong desire for change helped her take the Ward 18 seat from Giambrone's former executive assistant. Soon after being elected, Bailão reversed Giambrone's hated parking ban along much of Dundas Street.
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