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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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In an earlier post I mentioned that I spent the weekend in an art/science workshop on non-linear physics. I will write a bit about emergent patterns and such as soon as I get my head around what to say. For now, though, some pretty pictures (no science here, and no big claims for art neither) --- this is my gif (and some stills, above) of Zeina Khan's spinning rod of salt and sand.
Ontario is in danger of passing a mandatory helmet law for cyclists. This sucks. Helmet legislation decreases bicycle use, thereby cause big time health and safety problems. Besides that, it's parochial and insulting and sends a strong message that the government doesn't like bikes. Cyclists need better street design, side-guards on trucks, reduction in speed, bike lanes, and a political environment that welcomes the bicycle as a beneficial and progressive transportation mode. If you truly want to create a culture of safety, foster a culture of cyclists--- people who get excercise, don't pollute, and, compared to cars, hardly ever kill or injure anybody else.
From the National Post:
"At its core, I think this bill is really about creating a culture of safety in this province," [John] Milloy told a news conference.From The Hammer:
"If we can create a culture where you wouldn't think of going bicycling or skateboarding or in-line skating without wearing a helmet, I think we would have achieved success."
"We have to keep the people of Ontario safe. This is what we have to do to ensure compliance and institute a culture of safety in our province," said an unrepentant Irving Halitosis, Minister for Screwing You Over , the provincial ministry responsible for the bill's enforcement. "I mean, you can't have people running around and eating dinner without helmets on. What if a fish stick jumped up off your plate and whacked you in the forehead? It happened to me, and it's not pretty. I was off work for three months."People to contact:
Jeff Leal, M.P.P., jleal.mpp.co@liberal.ola.orgmore info at ARC
Khalil Ramal, M.P.P., kramal.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Ted Arnott, M.P.P., ted_arnott@ontla.ola.org
Ted Chudleigh, M.P.P., ted_chudleigh@ontla.ola.org
Kim Craitor, M.P.P., kcraitor.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Peter Fonseca, M.P.P., pfonseca.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Rosario Marchese, M.P.P., rmarchese@ndp.on.ca
Hon. Dalton McGuinty, Premier, dmcguinty.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org
Ted McMeekin, M.P.P., tmcmeekin.mpp@liberal.ola.org
John Milloy, M.P.P., jmilloy.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Michael Prue, M.P.P., mprue-qp@ndp.on.ca
Kathleen Wynne, M.P.P., kwynne.mpp@liberal.ola.org
Ann Stokes, Clerk, anne_stokes@ontla.ola.org
ARC (Advocacy for Respect for Cyclists), arc@respect.to
Velo Ontario, info@VeloOntario.ca
"In ordinary Newtonian fluids (those that do not exhibit shear thickening or shear thinning) the wave patterns include ones with 1-fold symmetry (stripes), 2-fold symmetry (squares), 3-fold symmetry (hexagons) as well as higher orders of symmetry."
Above quote and image are taken from the nonlinear physics pages at University of Toronto. I'm going to a workshop this weekend for artists on physics and patterns, organised by Subtle Technologies. This stuff above with patterns in liquids is the realm of Wayne Tokaruk. Michael Rogers works with patterns in chemical reactions and Zeina Khan (see image below) is the master of segregation patterns in sand. These three are all studying with Stephen Morris, who will conduct the workshop. I'll no doubt have more to report later. Cool pictures, n'est-ce pas?
When we arrived this morning, the sister, a gregarious little spitfire of a woman, was already there with her bicycle. There were about eight neighbours as well, everyone with flowers and tears. Normally we would take the street and block a lane of traffic for a minute of silence, but the sister was calling the shots and asked us to put all our bikes together on the sidewalk. I understand this impulse. Streets full of moving cars often seem inviolable, even when they have recently interrupted your life by taking away a loved one. It takes experience to know and remember that breaking into traffic flow is surprisingly easy, and claiming street space, even temporarily, is empowering.
We stood together on the corner with our sad banner ("a cyclist was killed here last week"), and held a minute of silence, watching the cars whizz by. Then the sister asked me if I would put my flowers on the fence, across the two lanes of speeding traffic. Of course I agreed, eager to violate that damned street. A few of us crossed and stood in the far traffic lane, tying up flowers to the fence. Once we had broken the seal, the sister and neighbours struck out into the road as well! We held up the banner to block the lane and diverted traffic around the scene. The mourners took their time, standing on the road to pin up flowers. The sister, crying openly now, put out candles and lit a little shrine. I felt very glad to be there, helping provide a little pocket of temporary safety, on this otherwise fatally fast street, so that a woman could mourn her sister on the spot where she died.
Afterwards we were all invited back to the apartment where the sisters lived nearby, and were served wheat cookies in the shape of tiny pigs that the cyclist had baked before she was killed by cars.