Pleiades

Enra is a Japanese dance troupe that combines light, music and technology with performance art.

In Celebration of Soccer

Canadian filmmaker Guillaume Blanchet featured himself in this short movie about a magic soccer ball that transports him to a different place each time he juggles it.

Filming took place in Canada, the US, France, Greece and Morocco.

Blanchet says, "Along this great journey, we have come to witness the universality of football, as we discovered new places, and new people. This film (and the original songs that were written for this occasion) is both an animated postcard of what friendship, resilience and freedom is about, and a celebration of the greatest game of all."

An Apple a Day

Here are some ideas of what to do with your daily apple.

Visualization of Tweets by Sunrise

Thinking that daylight is starting very early these days. #Midsummer

Celebrate Pride

World Pride is coming up soon in Toronto. This Yorkville branch of the Toronto Public Library is all ready.

And here's something to think about:

Playful Doodles

Incorporating Everyday Objects

Lyme Warning

That's a deer tick. It's only about the size of a sesame seed and it might be carrying Lyme Disease, an illness that is becoming more and more common in Southern Ontario. Because Lyme Disease is relatively new to our area, doctors are often slow to diagnose it after a person has been infected.

The best policy is to check yourself, your kids and your dog for ticks after working or playing outside in the garden or in tall grassy or forested areas. Check everywhere, including under arms and in the groin. When you find a tick, remove it carefully with tweezers right next to the skin, so that no part of the tick remains in the body.

The proper technique for tick removal includes the following:

• Use fine tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible.
• Pull backwards gently but firmly, using an even, steady pressure. Do not jerk or twist.
• Do not squeeze, crush, or puncture the body of the tick, since its bodily fluids may contain infection-causing organisms.
• After removing the tick, wash the skin and hands thoroughly with soap and water.
• If any mouth parts of the tick remain in the skin, these should be left alone; they will be expelled on their own. Attempts to remove these parts may result in significant skin trauma.

The tick needs to be attached and feeding for 24 to 48 hours in order to transmit disease, so don't panic if you have to remove a tick, but make sure you do that check and get it before it has a chance to do the damage.

 

This is the classic "bulls-eye" rash that 80% of people develop if they have been infected with Lyme Disease. The other 20% of people may not get any rash at all. Early symptoms of the disease include feeling awful, debilitating fatigue and joint and muscle pain. Get yourself to a doctor if you suspect you might have Lyme Disease and insist on being taken seriously! The latter stages of the disease don't bear thinking about. You should leave the doctor's office with a script for antibiotics. 

The Magical World of the Snail

Now that spring is in full swing and summer is becoming more than a figment of our imaginations, we are out in the garden and noticing some of the smaller creatures enjoying it too.

 Vyacheslav Mishchenko is a Ukrainian photographer who specializes very small elements of the outdoor world. Here are a few of his amazing images of snails.











There are many more photos on Vyacheslav Mishchenko's website and on his Facebook page . They will apparently be available for sale online - not sure about the price (translation issues)

Moo!

This picture was recently tweeted. Do you think it was photoshopped?

Royal Flush