Just Plain Trick

Spotted this unusual car in the parking lot of a nearby grocery store. Apart from its psychedelic pink color, the most noticeable thing was its ridiculously low ground clearance. With its body almost touching the ground, it seemed impossible to be driven even over a short distance.

I was in a bit of a hurry so I left without waiting for the owner and see the car in action. But a little googling reveals that it is a custom-built car that employs a dynamic hydraulic lift system. With a push of a button, the entire vehicle can gain respectable ground clearance and can be driven safely.

Just Plain Trick is the auto customization shop in Arizona, the USA that specializes in such modifications.

Ice Cream Lane Murals

The lane between Kelvin and Trent Avenues in East York is called Ice Cream Lane after a nearby Ice Cream factory outlet. There are a few graffiti murals here that represent the work of local artists.

This last mural behind the St Clair Ice Cream Ltd outlet at 2 Kelvin Avenue, honors Nahom Berhane, an Eritrean community leader of the area who was slain in 2014.

Bird Yoga

In a deep meditative state doing yoga

Why do birds stand on one leg while resting?

Apparently, it is a strategy to minimize heat loss. Their legs are unfeathered, so by tucking up one leg, they can reduce the heat loss by half. They also puff up their feathers for the same reason.  

It is possible that some one-legged yoga poses may have their origin related to this avian adaptation.

Ring-billed Seagulls

Ring-billed Seagulls are a familiar sight during summer months all over Canada. They are named after the black rings around their beaks. They are also notorious for stealing unguarded food and attacking other birds for the same purpose. In winter, they migrate to the warmer climate in the south. 

The second picture is of a first-year juvenile as it has a little bit gray feathers on its back while the remainder consists of brown dots and streaks. 

Pigeons Folks of Danforth

This huge flock is a permanent fixture at the Shoppers World, Danforth. Dozens of birds are always present on the northern side of the parking lot. They usually roam between the Victoria Park Subway Station and the Gerrard Street area. By my count, the entire flock may consist of up to five hundred birds, maybe more. They are very gregarious and don't mind being photographed at close quarters.

Seicho-No-Ie Church

This beautiful and unusual building is located in East York near Victoria Park and Danforth. The main hall of the building is a huge right-angle triangle. Seicho-No-Ie is a new age religion that combines the basic elements from Buddhism,  Shintoism, and Christianity. I visited this church once before in 2013.

A penny for your thoughts

I saw this black squirrel standing in the middle of Kalvin avenue, oblivious of the surrounding, doing some introspection, I guess. She was completely frozen in place but my camera click disturbed her train of thought. She looked at me for an instant and then ran up to a nearby tree. I wonder what was going on behind those black bubble eyes. 

Squirrels certainly do have a notion of the future. That is why they obsessively hoard nuts for the coming winter. But do they reminisce about the past or question their life choices from time to time as we do. That is true for all non-human minds on earth. We have just started to understand the intricate working of the human grey matter.  It would be fascinating when we will be able to peer into such alien intellects.

The Trash Panda Encounter

Found a Raccoon in our green garbage bin today. I am not sure whether it got trapped into the bin overnight or was just taking a siesta but it doesn't seem to be in a mood to leave. After some lengthy negotiations, hallow verbal threats, and pleading, I decided to tilt the bin at an angle. Then after little more encouragement, it jumped out and walked away in a leisurely manner.

Raccoons are nocturnal animals and remain active throughout the night in our area. In the evening, one can see them climbing roofs, hedges, and trees. I tried many times before but was never able to get a worthy picture. They are shy and don't like being photographed either. They are sometimes lovingly referred to as Trash Pandas due to their pandas like eye markings and affinity to the trash. 

There is a house in our neighborhood, at the edge of a ravine, that feeds them regularly in the evening. Perhaps this one belonged to that friendly group or was suffering from some existential crisis, I don't know. But this one certainly seemed a bit sad to me.  

… of rainbow dreams and butterfly wings

After yesterday’s sun rainbow experience, I dreamt about a much bigger and brighter rainbow the night after. It was quite a profound experience as I kept wondering in the dream that what are the odds of experiencing such spectacular phenomena in quick succession. I also remember a lot of colorful butterfly wings but I am not sure that whether these images were from an actual dream or some factual memory got inserted into that experience later on. 

Now that is the problem with dreams. Since these occur completely inside our minds without any input from our senses, we tend to forget about them rather quickly. 

A while ago, while reading a book, I suddenly experienced a rush of memories. Soon I realized that these were not related to a real place or experience. These were about a city in my dreamscape. Then there was I place where I use to go for long walks in my dreams. These places were a bit similar to the real places in my life but also quite different. 

Would we ever be able to record our dreams and share them like our stories and musings? 

It turns out that we are on the way to achieve just that. There is a TED Talk by Mary Lou Jepsen from 2013, in which she talks about a couple of cutting-edge brain studies. With the help of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging), it was proved that the brain scans of a person looking at an image and thinking about the same image were virtually identical. The researchers were able to infer rudimentary images and videos from the scanned fMRI databases at that time. 

Technology has improved considerably since then but still, there is a lot to be accomplished. A Progress of many folds is required to truly capture human thoughts and reflections. But scientists believe that in a future not so distant, we might be able to "dump our ideas directly to the digital media" and communicate without the barriers imposed by languages. That would certainly unleash an era of human creativity, unprecedented in our collective history. 

Once we are able to capture the dreams and channel thoughts, directing them subtly towards a particular narrative, would be a rather trivial task. After all, a number of us are able to do so during Lucid Dreaming states. 

... and that would be an ultimate virtual reality (VR) experience.

A Sun Rainbow

A Sun rainbow or halo is formed when there are high cirrus clouds passing in front of the sun. The interaction of light and hexagonal ice crystals in the clouds produce this beautiful optical phenomenon. These are not rare but can be easily missed, as in our daily modern lives we usually don't look up. It is also a transient phenomenon. This one appeared today afternoon at around quarter to four and vanished in a few minutes as strong winds hurried the clouds away.