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Eulogy for a friend - Linda Crane

Linda Ruth (Crane) Williams  September 17,1952 - February 13, 2021 Hello Friends.    Stephen Weir here, I am writing to you today (September 17, 2021) from Toronto. In my heart of hearts I wish I could be there with all you to celebrate the life of Linda Williams but I unfortunately can’t. Although my soul says go, my body doesn’t agree.  I am currently receiving Chemotherapy at home and in Sunnybrook Hospital. I know Linda, my friend, my confidante, my associate, my employer and sometimes my employee, would forgive my absence. And while Linda would be the first to tell me to just get better and not worry about her, I know that she is also wagging a cosmic finger at me and reminding me of that old adage we both adhered to – The show must go on. And if Linda were alive at today’s tribute it would indeed be a show planned with military precision. Alphabetical guest lists. Parking information. Canapé’s. Drinks. Nothing would be left to chance. Somehow I am sure she would also make sure it

American Public Library of Science’s PLOS One publishes Canadian researcher Dr. Krissy Doyle-Thomas

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  New Canadian Study by Dr. Krissy Doyle-Thomas looks at if pain can be detected in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders by just looking at their brain.       By Stephen Weir    A new peer-reviewed study by Canadian researcher and professor   Dr. Krissy Doyle-Thomas titled “ Investigating Sensory Response to Physical Discomfort in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy” has just been published   by the American Public Library of Science’s   PLOS One   peer-reviewed open access scientific journal.     This ground-breaking study looks at how well a portable, inexpensive, brain imaging tool was in measuring discomfort in children with ASD, without the children having to say they were uncomfortable. There is not a lot of published research in this area. However, such research can have a major impact on clinical care for people with communication challenges. Dr. Doyle-Thomas   is one of the first researchers to explore the use of Near-Infrared Spectro

Litton’s Law – Give a terrorist dynamite and he/she will do something stupid.

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SMALL THINGS MATTER Litton’s Law – Give a terrorist dynamite  and he/she will do something stupid.  CBC Nonfiction February 28, 2021. By Stephen Weir   All the Canadian terrorists I’ve known turned out to be idiots. No let me go one step further. They are all fucking idiots with blood on their hands.   I am talking about the uber cool revolutionaries who somehow hit the wrong targets, cripple the wrong people and always always get caught. Oh yes, I almost forgot, they always get forgotten by everyone but the people who bled in the streets.   I studied the terrorists who took out the plant where my office was some 39 years ago. There were five of them. I won’t mention them by name.  They were the King of the World types who eagerly traded in their personal Titanic for bad music and 550 lbs of  dynamite.   Canada’s first home-grown English speaking terror cell destroyed a West Coast Hydro installation, stole a load of mining dynamite and came to Toronto to change the world.  They might h

Where is the Hoopla for a groundbreaking Black curated exhibition at the AGO in Toronto

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  A Caribbean Art Exhibition Of Epic Proportion Opens Friday At The AGO.  Only the Hoopla Is Missing By Stephen Weir Curse the Toronto Covid shutdown.  This Friday there should be balloons, fireworks, and revellers in the street to mark the opening of Caribbean-centric art exhibition the likes Canada has not seen before. But, the reality of the age is that on Friday morning the  Art Gallery of Ontario  will quietly open its Dundas Street front doors on the exhibition  Fragments of Epic Memory , a detailed exploration of the complex history of the Caribbean in this made-in-Toronto major exhibition.   The big show is an amalgam of a huge collection of historic photographs of 19 th  and early 20 th  century life in the Caribbean displayed beside contemporary Caribbean Canadian artists including  Ebony Patterson, Rodell Warner, Sandra Brewster  and  Zak Ové.  The black and white photographs many dating back to the 19 th  century (and many never seen in public), are from the recently acquir
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Exhibition has a month ending run at the Pilot Photographer, Artist and Filmmaker Jenny Baboolal Will Be Forever Young. By Herman Silochan   A lovely little art show and reception at the Pilot Bar on Cumberland Street, just off Yonge, in Toronto was held on Tuesday night.  Missed it? Show was stay up until the end of August. Jenny Baboolal  the Trinidad artist and photographer showed off some of her delightful collection. Born in Trinidad but now living in Toronto, she has been amassing quite a portfolio, and of which many hanging in the Pilot are for sale to the public. At the Pilot - artist  Jenny Baboolal - photo Herman Silochan   Here is a sample of what was shown on display Tuesday night. She has concentrated on  Children in Carnival , the portraiture transferred to canvas and which makes for excellent display. All the subjects are from Carnival in Trinidad, not the Toronto Carnival. In two of the photos, are of the images on the wall with some fans in attendance. They are part of