Old man is assaulted in dispute over tree

A middle-aged man resorted to property damage and assault because he didn’t like his neighbour’s tree.

An apparent argument between neighbours over a tree ended with an elderly Toronto man in critical condition and another man in custody on Thursday.

Police say the two neighbours in Etobicoke, in the west end of Toronto, had been feuding for months. But the fighting boiled over Thursday in the dispute over the branches of a tree on the elderly man’s property that were hanging into the younger man’s yard.

Witnesses say the younger man, 48, ripped the branches down and threw them onto the property of the 74-year-old man. Then there was a confrontation between the two.

According to reports from the scene, the elderly man was assaulted, thrown into a door and gagged with leaves.

“My father came outside and the wife was yelling and the husband jumped over, took some of the leaves and started trying to shove it down my father’s throat and then threw him through the front door,” said the older man’s daughter.

She said the dispute about the tree had been going on for a long time.

The elderly man was taken to hospital with no vital signs, but was revived on the way to the hospital. He is still in critical condition.

The 48-year-old was taken away in handcuffs. Charges are pending.

Meet a professional organizer

Sandy Wright of WrightEdge Solutions says,

“Here’s a description of my typical workday.

• During a first session, which is 2 hours, I interview the client as to the organizing goals, barriers and others who may share the space.
  
• I tour the area to understand the living style and get a feeling for what might or might not work.
  
• During that session a plan is developed and at least one element is begun. Subsequent followup is discussed and scheduled if appropriate.
  
• Followup sessions are usually 1-2 hour work sessions with my providing a session log with ‘homework’ to be done by the client and suggested products.”

(Link)

Ex-Mormon on polygamy

C. L. Hanson, the author of Letters from a Broad, explains why she touches on Mormon polygamy in a sub-plot of her novel:

Since Exmormon is about the mainstream LDS church, some might object to the fact that I included a significant sub-plot involving modern-day polygamy, which the mainstream church has disavowed.

But the specter of polygamy still haunts the mainstream church. It affects people who are raised in the LDS church — even far from Utah — as they learn that the early Latter-day prophets taught polygamy as an eternal principle and taught that not only is there polygamy in the afterlife but that God Himself is probably a polygamist. The manifesto putting a stop to the practice of polygamy did not address the doctrinal questions.

Family matters

My cousin is visiting. She’s helping me with my taxes, which have to be filed tomorrow. And she’s exhibiting many of the classic symptoms of a budding science writer or medical editor. We shall see…

Dinner with science bloggers!

…and real scientists, in town for the American Society for Microbiology general meeting. I was honoured to be invited. Larry Moran and Tara Smith organized a dinner of science bloggers previously acquainted only over the Web. We met at the University of Toronto. The picture shows some of us sitting on the steps in front of the Medical Sciences Building: Larry Moran of Sandwalk, Jonathan Badger of T. Taxus, Andrew Staroscik of Mixotrophy, Tara Smith of Aetiology, and John Logsdon of Sex, Genes, and Evolution. Chris Condayan, the ASM public outreach manager, was off recording an interview with Eva Amsen of Easternblot. (He interviewed several people for a podcast on the ASM’s Web site.)

Eight of us walked down to Baldwin Street for Indian food and a long, chatty, interesting dinner together. The food at Matahari restaurant was both good and unfamiliar. I had a good time and I think everyone else did, too. Here’s

• Larry’s “Bloggers in Toronto”
• Tara’s “Science Bloggers storm Toronto!”
• Jonathan’s “Mini-blogger convention at ASM 2007″

"Dinosaurs Make an Impression"

Speaking of Kevin Padian, as I just did in the “Macroevolution primer,” here’s a tidbit from the past.

The cover article for Nature (May, 1999) describes how StudioTools^TM computer modelling and design software from Alias|wavefront is used to analyze dinosaur tracks and to explain a mysterious, apparent “spur” mark in each track, sometimes supposed to be from a “reversed hallux” or backward-facing toe.

At that time I was at Alias|wavefront helping to document a new version of StudioTools^TM. I attended a talk by the author, Kevin Padian. He described how used the software was used to model a mud surface and a dinosaur’s foot, then trace its motion in three dimensions, discovering that the “spur” was an artifact of how the foot entered the mud. I’m pretty sure that our resident scientist, Bill Buxton, found the research opportunity and donated a copy of the software.

See also “How Dinosaurs Walked the Walk.”

Related book: It’s ten years old, but the Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs, edited by Philip J. Currie* and Kevin Padian,** still looks very interesting.

*Curator of Dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta
**Professor of Integrative Biology and Curator of Lower Vertebrates in the Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley

"Evolution" wall

Thanks to PZ Myers for pointing out this lovely series of graffiti–not scientifically acurate but nifty and thought-provoking.

Who is Sarah O’Keefe?

Sarah O’Keefe founded Scriptorium Publishing to help companies develop and deliver high-quality documentation for high-tech products (and to subsidize her chocolate habit). She offers consultation on issues such as structuring a product library and identifying the best tools and strategies for a company’s documentation process and has coauthored a few books including FrameMaker 7: The Complete Reference. A FrameMaker Adobe Certified Expert (ACE), CTT+ Certified Professional, and all-around tool expert, Sarah teaches a number of Scriptorium Publishing’s classes on topics like FrameMaker and XML and Structured Authoring.

Who does what around the house?

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning. The wife said, “You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don’t have to wait as long to get our coffee.” The husband said, ” You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee.” Wife replies, “No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should make the coffee.” Husband replies, “I can’t believe that, show me” So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says
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…”HEBREWS”

What to recycle

It bothers me every time I visit Orange County, California: out of habit I collect the papers, cans, and bottles when tidying but there’s no recycling program! After years of landfill-reduction programs, I’ve been trained.

This is one internal recycling program for a Government of Ontario office building. As well as the recycling, there are small bins where employees can dump food scraps for the composting program.