[PHOTO] Pigeon on St. Clair

Standing last Sunday on the island for eastbound streetcars on St. Clair Avenue at Dufferin Street, I saw this white-feathered pigeon calmly strutting about. Two women standing next to me threw it potato chips, quickly getting that since pigeons can’t chew they’d have to crumble the chips. The pigeon seemed interested.

[FORUM] “Magazines have finally killed blogs — but in a way you never expected”

Annalee Newitz’ io9 article analyzing the reasons for the fall of Google Reader, and the RSS standard generally, makes some very interesting points.

RSS as a format and an idea grew directly out of an internet culture that many people online today know nothing about: Usenet. The creators of RSS grew up on Usenet, and so did its earliest adopters at the turn of the century when RSS was at the height of its popularity. Usenet was a text-based publishing system that allowed people to create newsgroups, kind of like group blogs or Tumblrs, where people could swap stories, news, information, pictures, and more. Like blogs, the topics of these newsgroups ranged from kinky sex and recipes, to microchip architecture and carpentry. And the way most people read newsgroups was to subscribe to the ones they liked so that they could ignore the thousands of newsgroups that were competing for their attention.

When Usenet was eclipsed by websites in the late 1990s, people from that world — many of them programmers — wanted to bring the freewheeling, amazing discussions of Usenet to the web. And thus RSS was born. It was a way to recreate that newsgroup reader feeling for the web. People would publish to their blogs, and you’d use your RSS reader to bring all their posts into one place and read everything at your leisure, in reverse-chronological order.

But most people using the web today don’t have a history that stretches back to Usenet in the 1990s. When it comes to reading, their history is informed by two things: if they’re younger, it’s social networks like Facebook and Tumblr; and if they’re older, it’s paper magazines. And RSS is irrelevant to both experiences.

Certainly you could argue that Tumblr is basically really, really simple syndication. You find the Tumblrs you like, you subscribe to them, and poof they show up in your Tumblr profile view. Or you follow people on Facebook to get the same thing. But both Tumblr and Facebook are silos of information. RSS feeds can be generated by any publisher, from the New York Times and Blastr, to the Nature journal and your favorite obscure porn repository. Tumblr feeds come from, well, Tumblr.

In this way, reading Tumblr is a lot like reading a paper magazine. Every story in the paper version of Wired comes from Wired. It’s the ultimate information silo.

That why RSS readers were so remarkable — they let you take information from everywhere and organize it however you like. Your Wired stories were filed in the same place as your Entertainment Weekly stories. Everything was mixed together in an information jumble. Of course it was your information jumble, but it was still often confusing, and required a modicum of technical proficiency to organize and cultivate.

Information in the world of RSS is not organized into silos that resemble magazines or social networks. And RSS no longer feels like the native land of the new web generation. And by “new web generation” I mean young people entering from Facebook, and older people entering from the world of print. For this generation, Usenet is not a touchstone. And so RSS has no context, and even less meaning to them.

Agree, disagree?

[BLOG] Some Saturday links

• Behind the Numbers’ Carl Haub notes that most of the recent fall in American fertility is a consequence of falling Mexican-American fertility, with fertility in other groups remaining stable.
• Daniel Drezner is upset that, according to its star Brad Pitt, the film version of World War Z will minimize the international politics of the anti-zombie war inasmuch as those politics made the book.
• Eastern Approaches notes ongoing tensions in Slovakia over that nation’s history of collaboration with the Nazis in the Second World War.
• At Language Log, Steven Bird links to his account of how he’s using Android tablets to record the languages of indigenous tribes in the Brazilian Amazon.
• Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen thinks that Cyprus would have done better to leave the Eurozone altogether and adopt a new currency rather than stay in the Eurozone.
• The Power and the Money’s Noel Maurer is surprised that Cypriots are willing to tolerate the Euro even with the terrible costs it imposes on their economy.
• Visual Science’s Perrin Ireland documents the biosphere discovered to exist in some oceanic crustal areas.
• Window on Eurasia’s Paul Goble notes that, as a result of emigration, the once-large Russophone community of Tajikistan has almost entirely disappeared.

[PHOTO] Dovercourt below Dupont

A stretch of Dovercourt Road lined with houses.

Looking down a narrow alley on the west side of Dovercourt.

Northwest corner of Dovercourt and Dupont, looking north at the train tracks.

[LINK] “Why the Gay-Marriage Fight Is Over”

Writing in the News Desk blog of The New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin argued that the Defense of Marriage Act banning the recognition of same-sex marriages by the American federal government is doomed because the homophobic animus behind it is recognized as wrong.

About midway through the argument, Paul Clement, who was representing the House Republicans and defending DOMA, was cruising along. He was portraying DOMA as almost a kind of housekeeping measure, designed to keep federal law consistent across all fifty states. As Clement told it, there was almost no ideological content to the law at all.

Then Justice Elena Kagan swiftly and elegantly lowered the boom on him. She said, “Well, is what happened in 1996—and I’m going to quote from the House Report here—is that ‘Congress decided … to express moral disapproval of homosexuality.’” A collective woo went through the audience. Kagan had the temerity to tell what everyone knew to be the truth—that DOMA was a bigoted law designed to humiliate and oppress gay people.

Clement, an eloquent advocate in oral arguments, was reduced to stammering like Ralph Kramden. He said that was not enough to invalidate the law: “Look, we are not going to strike down a statute just because a couple of legislators may have had an improper motive.” But suddenly it was clear. No one could deny that there was an improper motive—anti-gay prejudice—underlying DOMA.

But the second key moment illustrated the difference between 1996 and 2013. Toward the end of the argument, Roberts asked Roberta Kaplan, the lawyer for Windsor, “You don’t doubt that the lobby supporting the enactment of same sex-marriage laws in different states is politically powerful, do you?” Kaplan—somewhat improbably —denied it. Roberts fought back: “As far as I can tell, political figures are falling over themselves to endorse your side of the case.”

But Roberts was right on both counts—that the gay-rights movement is politically powerful and many politicians have been lining up to support same-sex marriage. Roberts was raising the point to argue that gay people no longer needed the protection of the courts. They could take care of themselves in the rough and tumble of politics. In this Roberts was half right. Gay people now can take care of themselves—but they also suffer under the yoke of discriminatory laws like DOMA.

[LINK] “The Brains of the Animal Kingdom”

In a thoughtful article published last Saturday by the Wall Street Journal, primatologist Frans de Waal makes the point that the latest generation of tests of animal intelligence were revealing that many species–chimpanzees, elephants, and others–were much more intelligent in certain domains that we suspected. Badly-designed tests which sought to measure the intelligence of these species by the very parochial standards of human beings were at fault. (Conversely, in many cases human intelligence may have been overestimated.)

For years, scientists believed [elephants] incapable of using tools. At most, an elephant might pick up a stick to scratch its itchy behind. In earlier studies, the pachyderms were offered a long stick while food was placed outside their reach to see if they would use the stick to retrieve it. This setup worked well with primates, but elephants left the stick alone. From this, researchers concluded that the elephants didn’t understand the problem. It occurred to no one that perhaps we, the investigators, didn’t understand the elephants.

Think about the test from the animal’s perspective. Unlike the primate hand, the elephant’s grasping organ is also its nose. Elephants use their trunks not only to reach food but also to sniff and touch it. With their unparalleled sense of smell, the animals know exactly what they are going for. Vision is secondary.

But as soon as an elephant picks up a stick, its nasal passages are blocked. Even when the stick is close to the food, it impedes feeling and smelling. It is like sending a blindfolded child on an Easter egg hunt.

What sort of experiment, then, would do justice to the animal’s special anatomy and abilities?

On a recent visit to the National Zoo in Washington, I met with Preston Foerder and Diana Reiss of Hunter College, who showed me what Kandula, a young elephant bull, can do if the problem is presented differently. The scientists hung fruit high up above the enclosure, just out of Kandula’s reach. The elephant was given several sticks and a sturdy square box.

Kandula ignored the sticks but, after a while, began kicking the box with his foot. He kicked it many times in a straight line until it was right underneath the branch. He then stood on the box with his front legs, which enabled him to reach the food with his trunk. An elephant, it turns out, can use tools—if they are the right ones.

While Kandula munched his reward, the investigators explained how they had varied the setup, making life more difficult for the elephant. They had put the box in a different section of the yard, out of view, so that when Kandula looked up at the tempting food he would need to recall the solution and walk away from his goal to fetch the tool. Apart from a few large-brained species, such as humans, apes and dolphins, not many animals will do this, but Kandula did it without hesitation, fetching the box from great distances.

Another failed experiment with elephants involved the mirror test—a classic evaluation of whether an animal recognizes its own reflection. In the early going, scientists placed a mirror on the ground outside the elephant’s cage, but the mirror was (unsurprisingly) much smaller than the largest of land animals. All that the elephant could possibly see was four legs behind two layers of bars (since the mirror doubled them). When the animal received a mark on its body visible only with the assistance of the mirror, it failed to notice or touch the mark. The verdict was that the species lacked self-awareness.

But Joshua Plotnik of the Think Elephant International Foundation modified the test. He gave the elephants access to an 8-by-8-foot mirror and allowed them to feel it, smell it and look behind it. With this larger mirror, they fared much better. One Asian elephant recognized herself. Standing in front of the mirror, she repeatedly rubbed a white cross on her forehead, an action that she could only have performed by connecting her reflected image with her own body.

The whole article makes for fascinating reading.

[LINK] “Say We Really Do Bring the Passenger Pigeon Back From Extinction — Then What?”

Wired Science’s Greg Miller makes the point in connection with passenger pigeons, but relevant for other species, that simply cloning a recently extinct species back into existence won’t necessarily make it viable in the wild. All sorts of critical environmental and genetic traits won’t be copied–how will a species of cloned neonates learn to live in the wild? How can they, without viable parent figures? And what about their environment, which by definition had changed sufficiently to make their species non-viable in the first place?

“Everything we know about species and individuals tells us that we’re a lot more than our genes,” said David Blockstein of the National Council for Science and the Environment.

For one thing, an animal’s genes are influenced by its environment though chemical changes to DNA that affect how genes switch on and off.

Those “epigenetic” changes may be a crucial part of what gives a species its unique characteristics, but the epigenetic profile of a bird created in a lab would never be the same as that of a bird raised in a flock by its natural parents, Blockstein says.

Conservation biologist David Ehrenfeld of Rutgers University is skeptical too. ”Let’s say we could create a passenger pigeon with the same DNA and the same epigenetic marks,” he said. “That doesn’t make it a passenger pigeon.”

Ehrenfeld and others say passenger pigeons were perhaps the most social birds that have ever existed, living in flocks of hundreds of thousands. “They needed enormous populations to nest properly and repel predators,” Ehrenfeld said. Their behavior, as much as their DNA, defined the species.

[CAT] “Quebec zookeeper expected to live after tiger attack”

CBC reports that a zookeeper mauled by a Siberian tiger in Québec’s Zoo sauvage de St-Félicien is expected to live.

The 51-year-old man was cleaning the inside of the enclosure before 9 a.m. Thursday when a female tiger at the St-Félicien wild zoo attacked him.

He sustained injuries to his neck but was conscious when he was rushed by ambulance to the hospital in Roberval, about 25 minutes south of St-Félicien.

Normally, the zoo’s Siberian tigers — two males, one female and two cubs — are kept in their nighttime enclosure while their daytime pen is cleaned.

The zoo is investigating why that wasn’t the case this morning, and are waiting to speak with the zookeeper, who was the only witness.

[. . .]

Paramedics were able to attend to the victim after the tiger left the area on its own.

Zoo officials said the tiger was put into an isolation pen, and is not expected to be put down.

All this is good, but there have been several incidents in Canada of interaction with Siberian tigers ending badly–see this 2009 non-fatal mauling in Calgary and a 2010 fatal mauling in Ontario for recent examples. I do wonder about safety precautions.

[BRIEF NOTE] On the Richard Kachkar case, mental illness, and crime in Canada

The criminal case of Richard Kachkar, who went on a spree with a snowplow in January 2011 that saw Toronto police officer Ryan Russell killed, came to an end when a jury came to the conclusion that Kachkar was not criminally responsible on the grounds of mental disorder. Understandably, his survivors are unhappy.

Kachkar ran barefoot from the Good Shepherd homeless shelter on Queen St. E. and stole an idling snowplow from in front of a Regent Park Tim Hortons, taking it on a demented joyride and killing the promising officer.

Early Wednesday afternoon, a jury of six men and six women found Kachkar, 46, not criminally responsible by way of mental illness for Russell’s death.

The jury had begun deliberating Monday afternoon.

As the six men and six women filed into the courtroom at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Christine Russell bent forward, looking down. She held the same position after the verdict was delivered, and didn’t rise as the jury left.

[. . .]

Outside court, Russell told reporters there is “zero closure” for her family, as they will have to go each year to Kachkar’s ORB hearings, “for the rest of my life.”

“We’re heartbroken. I believe that Ryan deserved a lot better than this. He was killed in the line of duty. Nothing changes that,” she said.

She addressed some remarks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “I know you’re listening,” she said, adding she will advocate hard for his government’s Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, which will create a high risk offender designation, imposing restrictions on people who have committed violent crimes, among other reforms.

I’m not of the opinion that the purpose of the criminal justice system should be to deliver closure to survivors of violent crime, at least not to the point where it’s elevated above the basic principle of doing justice. The evidence presented in court that Kachkar was psychotic at the time of the episode was convincing, both the anecdotal reports of his actions and multiple assessments by psychiatrists. A jury decided fairly. The terms of Kachkar’s detention, which will see him kept in detention until such time as it is safe for him to reenter society–if ever–strike me as sufficiently stringent.

The case speaks to the weakness of Canada in the realms of the mentally ill and their interactions of society. Unfortunately, it’s likely to be used in ways that won’t make things better.

Sgt. Russell’s widow, Christine, said she was “heartbroken” by the verdict, which will see Mr. Kachkar detained and treated in a hospital instead of receiving a jail sentence, and she challenged the government to take action.

“I believe Ryan deserved better than this,” she told reporters. “Stephen Harper, I know you’re listening.”

“And there is something out there called Bill C-54 that’s trying to amend some of the not criminally responsible rights. I’m going to advocate for that very hard.”

The bill would allow a judge to designate someone found not criminally responsible for a crime as “high risk” if the judge determines there is a significant threat to the public. The designation would increase the time between reviews of the individual’s detention and prevent the person from being considered for release at all until a judge revokes the “high risk” status. The individual would have very limited opportunities to leave custody on a temporary pass.

[. . .]

Forensic psychologists and mental-health experts say the review boards that consider whether to release someone found not criminally responsible for a crime already consider public safety carefully. And they worry the legislation promotes an erroneous view of the risk that a mentally ill individual who commits a crime will re-offend after treatment.

Research suggests there is very limited risk that someone found not criminally responsible will go on to commit another crime.

C-54 is not a solution.

[URBAN NOTE] “Don Bosco parents discuss if they want Ford to continue coaching football”

The report, carried by Metro Toronto and composed by the Torstar News Service, that Toronto mayor Rob Ford might be removed from his position as coach of Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School‘s Don Bosco Eagles football team, could be personally quite devastating to the mayor. (It’s been noted in the past that he spends almost as much time as football coach as he does being mayor, see here and here.)

It’s also unsurprising: both the Toronto Star and the Toronto Sun have carried reports that parents and staff at Don Bosco are upset with Ford’s portrayal of students at the school as being one football team away from becoming juvenile delinquents. The media spotlight put on the school, likewise, is apparently unappreciated by many.

He has a history of sometimes characterizing the school in an unflattering light and his actions often put students and staff under a harsh glare.

So parents from Don Bosco Catholic Secondary — the Etobicoke school some parents says is too-often described as “Rob Ford’s” — met Tuesday night to discuss whether the costs outweigh the benefits of having the high-profile mayor as their football coach.

[. . .]

The TCDSB launched an investigation earlier this month into statements Ford made about the school during an interview with Sun News — including that some students would have “no reason to go to school” if not for football.

“You can’t tell them to get an education. But I use the football as a carrot,” he said.

Following the broadcast, a “significant” number of teachers signed an anonymous letter sent to senior board officials — saying Ford’s comments were “disgusting” and depicted the school in a “demeaning way that was filled with untruths” — prompting the board’s investigation.

[. . .]

While [Teresa Bridport, vice-chair of the school’s parent council] acknowledged that may be cause for concern at Tuesday’s meeting, the problems with Ford stem back to the previous football season, she said.

“Just the chaos it created in our school to have the mayor as our coach, how disruptive it was, for the administration, staff, for the teachers, for the students, just because he’s such a high profile person now — it certainly puts our school under a microscope.”