[PHOTO] Quatro (1991), at One Queen Street East

The mobile Quatro, made of stainless steel by William B. Martin in 1991, hangs above the escalators connecting to the Queen subway station in the lobby of One Queen Street East, at the corner of Yonge and Queen. John Warkentin's 2010 book Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto goes into detail about this work, about how its brilliant rings of steel reflect the light at this street corner.

[PHOTO] "Poem", Charles Simic

American poet Charles Simic's two-stanza poem "Poem" features in the MTA's Poetry in Motion program. These verses are set against the abstract ink drawings of Derek Lerner; the resulting work can be viewed in full here.

[BLOG] Some Thursday links

Anand Pandian at anthro{dendum} considers Ursula K Le Guin from the perspective of an anthropology doing fieldwork in cultures very different from their own.

Anthropology.net notes the discovery, in India, of Levallois stone tools dating 385 thousand years, long before the entry of Homo sapiens into the area.

Bad Astronomer Phil Plait shares video, assembled by an amateur astronomer, of the ongoing expansion of debris around the Crab Pulsar.

Centauri Dreams reports on the discovery of organic molecules in the Magellanic Clouds.

D-Brief describes the orca Wikie, who learned six words, while Language Log is skeptical of the idea that Wikie's ability demonstrates anything about the orca capacity for language.

Cody Delistraty links

Drew Ex Machina describes the politics and technology that went into the launch of Explorer 1, the United States' first satellite.

JSTOR Daily examines the question of why children and teens in the United States convicted of crimes can face such long periods of imprisonment in jail.

Erik Loomis at Lawyers, Guns and Money argues that, sometimes, dialogue is not enough to reach one's opponents.

The LRB Blog considers the apocalyptic imagery tied up in the flooding of the Seine, in Paris.

The Planetary Society Blog celebrates the 14 years of operation of the Mars rover Opportunity, and the science that has come from it.

At Speed River Journal, Van Waffle celebrates the many things that we can learn from trees.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Daniel Rotsztain, Coffee Time, museums, King Street, Medieval Times

• Metro Toronto reports on the efforts of Daniel Rotsztain to explore Toronto through overnight Airbnb stays in different neighbourhoods.


• blogTO reports that the famous (infamous?) Coffee Time at Dupont and Lansdowne has closed down! More tomorrow, I think.


• The Museum of Contemporary Art on Sterling Road, in the Junction, is scheduled for a May 26 opening. NOW Toronto reports.


• Apparently some people are protesting the King Street transit project by playing street hockey in front of the streetcars. blogTO reports.


• Global News notes that Medieval Times, the Toronto theme restaurant, is going to have a ruling queen this year instead of a king.

[NEWS] Five LGBTQ links: Josh Weed, James McCourt, Upstairs Inferno, PrEP, Hall of Justice

• NewNowNext notes the divorce of out gay Mormon Josh Weed from his wife, after they realized their marriage wasn't working. To his belated credit, he seems to be quite upset at the way that his personal story was used to justify homophobia.


• At The New Yorker, Michael LaPointe celebrates James McCourt's 1993 novel about the AIDS epidemic, Time Remaining.


• Towleroad notes the odd and harmful refusal of the Publix grocery store chain to let its insurance companies cover Truvada prescriptions, for PrEP.


• Drew Rowsome reviews Upstairs Inferno, a recent documentary about a fire in a New Orleans gay bar in 1973 that killed dozens and its aftermath.
  
• R.M. Vaughan reports for The Globe and Mail about the new Hall of Justice poster program in Toronto, aimed to popularize LGBTQ heroes.

[NEWS] Some sci-tech links: DNA tests, stars, Europa and Enceladus, driverless trucks, Voynich

• Bloomberg notes the impending commercial introduction of DNA tests that can be used to recommend particular diets for customers.


• The Gaia satellite found a vast cluster of stars hidden by our bright neighbour Sirius. Universe Today reports.


• Icy worlds like Europa and Enceladus, famous for their subsurface water oceans, might have surfaces too fluffy for probes to land safely. Universe Today reports.


• The introduction of driverless trucks at the Suncor tar sands developments in Alberta will save on wear and tear, but will also cost 400 jobs. The Toronto Star reports.


• This claim that University of Alberta researchers have decrypted the Voynich manuscript and found it written in a variant of Hebrew seems, perhaps, optimistic. The National Post reports.