We should probably breathe.

via David Mack’s great article and good reminder for us on Egypt, on ForeignPolicy.com :

Given the high degree of euphoria and romanticism in the coverage by both Western and Arab media of recent popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, it would be useful for everyone to take a few deep breaths and remind ourselves that revolutions often look very attractive in the beginning. Then they usually go through some really bad periods; the French reign of terror and the decade of political turmoil that followed, the crushing oppression of Soviet communism in Russia, and the unfinished misery of Iranians.

I would like to be optimistic, and there are some positive signs in Tunisia and Egypt. Both countries have strong traditions of national pride, histories of constitutionalism, cultural riches, and a middle class of educated men and women. So far, the armed forces in both countries have shown a degree of professionalism and discipline that have earned the respect of both popular forces and key civilian government institutions. Both have had respectable economic growth rates at a time of global economic distress. Regrettably, however, there are also major factors working against a happy outcome in the next several years.

 

Toronto mayoralty race.

In the words of Toronto psychogeographer (barf title) Shawn Micallef:

The true believers behind candidates, as well as ideologues and utopians, who would not benefit from strategic voting will tell you it’s a bad idea. Sure, it’s depressing and it breeds political cynicism like nothing else. It’s awful, not being true to what both your heart and mind is telling you. But then there’s reality: across the political spectrum, we’re left with candidates who haven’t excited us. The left-of-centre Miller regime put its succession faith in weak candidates who either committed spectacular political suicide or have failed to grab the wider public’s attention, and the right-of-centre haven’t been able to field a candidate who they could fully get behind (this is why John Tory’s name was tossed into the ring over and over).

So, who to endorse in this critical but meh-inspiring election? Vote for number two. That is, whoever is polling behind Ford on election day is who I’ll vote for. Then I’ll go say a little prayer, take a walk, and remind myself why we’re called Toronto the Good. With the anti-Ford vote at risk of being split, this is the only way to coalesce the opposition votes. It’s not pretty. A smart city like Toronto deserves better and it feels hard to do, but anything else leads to a split.

Should have voted in the advance polls last weekend, I hear voting takes awhile with the electronic ballots.  Either way, I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Micallef.  It breaks my valves a little bit, but I’m voting head and not heart for the election.  Polls are showing the majority of Mr. Smitherman’s support comes from the exact same place.  Toronto deserves better, but at least we can coast.

Late September links.

I have Twitter now, so if you follow me (you probably don’t), then these links are like… so 5 minutes ago.

News and Politics

• Massachusetts school proves large classes can still mean improved student performance – [NYT]
• Drug decriminalization in Portugal – many think it’s working – [Time]
• Friedman: China is spending $25B on highspeed rail and biotech.  The US spends $25B on Afghanistan – [NYT]
• A primer on the U.N.’s Millenium Development Goals – [GOOD]

Science

• What happens if you put your hand in the Large Hadron Collider? – [YouTube]
• Why the brain doubts foreign accents – [Scientific American]
• Hand sanitizers will not keep you from getting sick – [Salon]

Food

• The lowdown on foodie elitism
• How food writers got High Fructose Corn Syrup wrong (aka stop the fearmongering) - [Atlantic]

Environment

• Interview: Bjorn Lomborg, the “Skeptical Environmentalist” – [NewScientist]
• Beautiful maps of race and ethnicity in big American cities (and see the divisions) – [Flickr]
• Evergreen BrickWorks opens in Toronto – [Star]

Late July links.

Toronto

• 2010 Nuit Blanche program released – [NuitBlanche]
• Vaughan – gridlocked in suburbia – the worst [worst) - [National Post]
• Best cheap drinks in Toronto – [BlogTO]
• Giambrone vs. Presto cards – TTC and Metrolinx argue over future transit payment systems – [Toronto Life]
• Little Italy gets a hookah bar- [BlogTO]
• Bixi Bash hopes to get itself off the ground in Toronto – [blogTO]
• Toronto: mobile app centre of the universe – [Toronto Life]
• Toronto lands a big NYC chef – and the s-storm begins – [JamesChatto]
• Toronto through the eyes of mayoralty candidate Sarah Thomson – [blogTO]
• How to be cool in Toronto – have a 416 number – [Star]

Food

• Grilling corn on the BBQ – [NYT Mark Bittman]
• How to make perfect ribs – [Toronto Life]
• 13 of Toronto’s best doughnuts - kind of disappointing, almost all super high end spots – [Toronto Life]
• More on the raw milk debate – the adventurous flavour purists vs. the milk lobby

Politics/News

• The Tea Party is Perverted and Irrelevant - [Matt Taibbi - Rolling Stone]

Miscellanium

• Where do currency symbols come from? – [Slate]
• Are we naturally lazy? – Happier when busy but inclined towards laziness – [via NYT]
• Watch Jack White butcher Beatles tune “Mother Nature’s Son” in front of Obama and McCartney - but all the Jack White disciples will love his “unique style”. [Pitchfork]
• One cup of coffee per day ok for pregnant ladies – [CBC]
• E-book sales outpace hardcovers at Amazon – [CBC]
• Bill Murray GQ Interview – [GQ]

Jarvis bike lanes.

One small spoke for Toronto. One small leap for simple ideas?  muh.  Jarvis got a bike lane today, going from 5 lanes to 4.   We’ll see how it goes, but I think it will be nice for those cyclists.

ergo de facto, I’m your boss.   Capacity 2,100.  Busiest traffic much less.  Even with margins of error, still looking good.  Numbers don’t politicize, you disappointingly poor mayoralty candidates you.

via Twitter @larrylarry.

mid-July links.

Environment

• Learn more about the eco-fee – It’s not a tax, it’s run by an arms length organization, no money to government – [Globe]
• New rules threaten future of US wood waste biomass power industry – [NYTimes]
• Arid Australia turns to desalination plants for water supply, despite costs - environmentalists often seem to omit desalination from their brains when it comes to the “water crisis”- [NYTimes]
• NYC launches a large tap water promotion campaign – [NYTimes]

Food

• How to make béarnaise sauce – Everyone has their own tricks w french sauces – [Globe]
• Take a (food) day trip to Beamsville – [TasteTO]
• Servers can now type in orders to the kitchen on their iPhones – [TorontoLife]
• David Lee from Nota Bené discusses ‘terroir’ for vegetables – [Globe]
• Linking the farmers to the foodies – [Globe]

News/Politics

• Learn more about your new DJ Governor General – I bet lots of Waterlooians have stories, I’ve had many solid interactions with him as a semi-official UW apologist (aka student ambassador) – [Globe]
• Learn more about why Harper deserves credit for making his Governor General search non-partisan – Canada 1 – [Globe]
• Don’t mess with the census, statisticians tell Tories – [Globe]
• The federal government is senseless on the census - [Globe ed.]
• Huffington Post’s advice to American jobless – move to Canada – [Globe]
• Tim Hudak cops out – [Globe]
• Kabul rocked by guitars – [Globe]

Life

• The true cost of living in the city vs. the suburbs – [NYTimes]
• Wedding expenses that aren’t worth it – [NYTimes]
• The paradox of parenting – parents are less happy than non-married peers – [NYT Freakonomics Blog]
• Gen-Y’s tough choice between entrepreneurship and corporate world - [Globe]
• You can be too rich – [Globe]

Toronto

• TTC Stations could get cell service – [CBC]
• City of Toronto makes an excellent road construction (interruption) map
• Bellevue Cafe – 3 guys who make crazy, disparate, but tasty sandwiches - [NOW]
• Susur Lee’s new Toronto restaurant - [Toronto Life]
• Toronto road tolls go from abhorrent to approved: how’d that happen? - [Toronto Life]
• Ideas for Toronto: Personal Rapid Transit – [Spacing]

Science

• Laws of hurricane power discovered – [New Scientist]
• Mass transit encourages exercise and weight loss – [New Scientist aka Duh! Aficionado magazine]
• Prozac prawns, cocaine crabs, trace elements of drugs in our waste water - [New Scientist]
• Learn more about what’s

HST mud.

You just noticed gas is 10 cents more.  You’re probably pissed.  Maybe you’ve seen the list.  The list of what’s getting taxed and what’s not.   Gas realistically should cost way more anyway, because (almost always) the environmental costs are externalized.

Before you go on an Atlas Shrugged tirade, know some things.  Based on reductions in your income tax (which we probably didn’t notice), the nominal HST rebate cheques, and upcoming HSTness, the burden on the average consumer is minimal.  Rich people will pay more, boo hoo.  It’s true that some new costs are burdened on the consumer’s shoulders.  However, lower income status Ontarians will face the smallest brunt.

The thing that really rubs wrong is how Ontario PC leader Tim Hudak is vehemently opposing the HST.  This guy is supposed to be a pro-jobs, pro-business, economy-centric conservative.  When economists from around the world believe it’s the best way to maintain competitiveness and help Ontario businesses, completely inane politicization ensues.  Don’t tell me you’re an NDP man of the people Mr. Hudak.  He is disagreeing simply because political parties should never actually agree right?   The infuriating, terrible 2s, GOP method of NO.

I totally gave Hudak a chance.  If he was reasonable, this would be an interesting political race.  But this HST opposition is proof that he’s exactly the worst person for the job.  When you instantly contradict yourself right out of the gate, I’m out.  Read a great Globe article on the HST here .  This is your education.  Then if you want, read why economists like it here and here.   Happy wading.

The billionaire’s pledge.

via The Guardian:

Billionaires plan to put the world to rights following secret supper - Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are among those signing up to the greatest private donation in history

… The meeting was called the “first supper”. There have been, according to Fortune, second and third suppers since then. Finally, a strategy has emerged around a “pledge” whereby billionaires who sign up promise to give away 50% of their net worth. If it works, the group will be the greatest private philanthropic effort in history.

You definitely can’t say these guys aren’t doing something with their money.  More importantly, these lords of lords are exactly the two people that need to lead this movement.   Hmm… almost exactly like China and the US not doing anything about climate change. COUGH.

Newsfeed.

Science

• Instant expert: general relativity – learrrrn Einstein. [New Scientist]
• Robb Fraley: Monsanto is a champion of healthy eating – [New Scientist]
• Check out the discovery wishlists of top scientists – [New Scientist]

Environment

• Why climate stumps even the brightest scientists – [New York Times]
• New desalination technique in Vancouver – a possibly massive step in solving global water issues – [Globe]
• There is no peak oil, but there is supply and demand – [Globe]
• The pros and cons of woody biomass – [NYT]
• The money gusher – The oil industry’s decommissioning costs will dwarf those of nuclear power. The money being made now should be put aside to meet them [George Monbiot]
• Intensive farming ‘massively slowed’ global warming – [New Scientist]

News

• Inside the temporary G20 detention centre – [blogTO]
• UW President David Johnston – Governor General rumours abound – [Globe]
• The pros and cons of a Liberal-NDP merger – [Globe]

Toronto

• The ultimate southern Ontario cottage guide – [Toronto Life]
• The man behind MaRS – [Globe]
• City plans for two new soil recycling plants – [blogTO]
• 2010 Polaris Prize long list proves that Toronto is the best – [Torontoist]
• Car sharing in Toronto – a sluggish start – [Spacing]

Music/Arts

• Has technology changed the experience of music? – [Atlantic]
• Music and speech share a code for communicating sadness in the minor third – [Scientific American]
• Interview with Sook-Yin Lee – [Torontoist]

Food

• From foodie to foodiot – [Toronto Star]
• Joanne Kates’ top 100 Toronto restaurants
• Amazing looking bites from Toronto’s best chefs at Second Harvest – [TasteTO]

This weekend.

Toronto – “a changed city”.  One side completely fueling the other.  The postitive feedback loops of completely excessive and addictive media coverage, massive government spending and isolation, and public anger.  More obvious – everyone is to blame.  A few hundred angry idiots smashing and burning.  A few hundred cops way too eager to assault and arrest.  All the while the press coverage is literally fuelling the fire with 95% chaos, 5% ACTUAL G20 policy.  And we’re all not that surprised.  Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhh sigh.

Follow Steve Paikin on Twitter, you know who he is.  The host of Ontario’s best television program, The Agenda.  One of our best interviewers/journalists.  He witnessed very undemocratic protests last night downtown.  I’m sure he’ll be throwing down on The Agenda on TVO tomorrow night.

This week’s links.

Food

• Home cooking for sale – young unemployed foodies vie for precious booths at local markets to make a buck – [NYT]
• Produce in the fridge – at long last, learn what should go in your fridge, and what should stay in the dirty fruit bowl – [CHOW]
• The dangers in deli meat – let them eat steak – [Healthzone]
• Bottled water has high level of bacteria, researchers find – [Globe]
• Barbecued meat causes cancer, so learn to bbq healthy -  it’s easy, just pair with some veg – [Toronto Life]

Toronto

• John Tory heading back into the mayor race? – the Toronto media has been going nuts hoping John Tory enters the race.  I would undoubtedly vote for this man.  That may surprise the politically minded of you bunch, but he’s a pro-transit centrist conservative.  He’s smart and he’s sensible and I really think he’d cut some of the city hall crazy – [Toronto Life]
• Torontoist’s guide to the G20 summit – [Torontoist]

Environment

• The Gulf oil spill superimposed on Southern Ontario – [blogTO]
• A carbon price as a nuclear incentive – [NYT]
• How many cancers are caused by the environment? – [Scientific American]
• Commuting statistics across Canada’s major cities – [Spacing]
• McMaster eyes world water problems – [Globe]

News

• World power = the English language – [Globe]
• We can’t afford to live in health care denial – [Globe Editorial]
• Plan B – skip college – [NYT]
• Buzz Hargrove: ‘Globalization is largely a fraud’ – [Globe]

Science

• Wind turbine link to ill health lacks proof: report – [CBC]
• Synthetic bacteria genome takes over cell – Craig Venter goes nutbars – [NYT]
• Music listeners like harmony’s math – [Scientific American]
• Mining garbage  for tomorrow’s metals – [New Scientist]

• The taste of tiny: putting nanofoods on the menu – [New Scientist]
• Eat bacteria to boost brain power – [New Scientist]

• Tacit knowledge – you don’t know how much you know – [New Scientist]
• ‘Light from sound’ could spot cancers and terrorists – [New Scientist]
• Magnetic Hill mystery solved? – [Globe]

Newspages.

I’ve decided my links are the best on this side of Somerset.  Happy reading.

Toronto

• Banksy comes to Toronto, people deface his loveliness – [Torontoist]

• Toronto the good?   Try great – [Globe]

• Markham votes to build over “best farmland in Canada” – [Toronto Life]

• Bixi Toronto bike sharing program starts May 2011 – [National Post]

• Human towers – NFB documentary project showcase Toronto’s high rises - [Eye Weekly]

• TTC wants you to meet your new ride – [Spacing]

• Turning the Gardiner Expressway into a park – an idea becomes safe for Toronto when New York does it first – [Toronto Life]

• Richard Florida – 10 things I can’t live without – [Toronto Life]

Energy/Environment

• U.S. Climate bill arrives in Senate – cap and trade by 2025.  Yay?  – [Scientific American]

• Securing the smart grid – [Scientific American]

• Privacy concerns surround Ontario’s Smart Grid plan – [CBC]

• Environment backlog puts Jim Prentice at risk of contempt charge – [Globe]

• Google’s energy foray: what’s up? – [New York Times]

• Protesters ask for wind turbine moratorium – [CBC]

• Polluted water kills more than all violence: UN – [Globe]

• Cactus gum could make clean water cheap for millions – [New Scientist]

Science

• Did humans and dogs become domesticated together? – [Globe]

• What are dark matter and dark energy? – [HowStuffWorks]

• Southpaws – the evolution of handedness – [New Scientist]

• Water ice found on the surface of an asteroid for the first time – [Scientific American]

TV/Music

• CBC execs head to L.A. to poach Canadian writers – [Toronto Life]

• Watch Conan’s visit to Google Headquarters – [Gizmodo]

• The Guardian profiles Brian Eno – [Guardian]

Politics

• Anti-consumer copyright bill on way: expert – [CBC]

• Liberals, Tories agree: MP expenses aren’t for the public to see – [Toronto Life]

• Liberals promise national food policy – [CBC]

• All the Obama 20-somethings – [New York Times]

• Electoral dysfunction: why democracy is always unfair – [New Scientist]

• Beating up the CBC is like beating up a sick puppy – [Globe]

Food

• The man who is responsible for your love of the cheap Malbec Fuzion – [Globe]

• Mark McEwan tapped to be head judge of Top Chef Canada – [Toronto Life]

• The rebirth of booze – [Toronto Life]

man towers

A new NFB documentary project looks at our neighbours in the sky

Conrad Black’s mayoral endorsement.

[photo via limepunch]

From jail, Conrad Black discusses our fair city of Toronto.  Read the article here, it’s very interesting.  He talks about Toronto’s sheer lack of drama – no bloody wars, no hosts of genocide, no tea parties (real or bastardized).  Of course this is mostly a fantastic thing, but some would argue it makes Toronto seem forgettable, normal, bland.  Even as a modern city, it’s still up against some unforgettable players.

So Connie writes an article about  Toronto’s mayoral race… !  Who knew that the Toronto mayoral race was such a big deal.  This is as dramatic and scandalous as small-scale politics can be.  Local media covers the mayoral race multiple times each day.  They’ve been doing it for at least a few months and will continue until the end of the year (!!).  National elections get 2 months of coverage.  I get it though – this person is in charge of a multi-billion dollar organization.  A CEO’s pipe dream.  The intensity from such a local entity.  Only one debate has been staged, yet polls have been going for months.  We know nothing about these candidates, but somehow people have made up their minds months before the election.

I still am a Toronto outsider.  This city is funny.  One quickly realizes that the cosmopolitan stoplight has only been switched on this city for a small period of time.  Truly the understudy of Montreal in the 70s, eventually booming from manufacturing, and here we are.  Still in an imperfect state of city adolescence.  Numbing GTA sprawl, mediocre transit, the worst commute time in the world, impossibly expensive housing, and few memorable public spaces.  5 million people in a sea of grids and elegies to concrete.

But.  Amazing neighbourhoods, real diversity, life-altering food, some of the world’s best rock band exports, enlightening cultural events, and a growing sense that citizens can truly build a better city.   Yes bike lanes, yes Transit City, yes MaRS.  The one complaint I have about all of these great things is that most people don’t even think about these cultural amenities, let alone take advantage of them.  They take none of the good, and are forced to take all of the bad.  The lines, the rudeness, the congestion.  People are so driven to elbow through the masses just to get home that they’ve exhausted themselves, without the reserves to dust off and sharpen the elbows again to actually enjoy what the city has to offer.  That’s not just Toronto, I’m guessing that’s almost all big cities.

Anyway.  I have no idea who I’m voting for, and I’m very happy about that.

Adult talk media.

[photo credit: Megan O’Toole, National Post]

Canadian-borne conservatized talk media. Guilty pleasure. As an altruistic guy, this common sense revolution free-market individualism is a worthwhile exercise for my way of swamping through the centrism gray.

CFRB 1010 AM Talk Radio.  John Tory and his 5 pm rush hour show.  See some of his political errors online, and see one side.  Hear his 9-5, sensible conservative views for the other.  The key to hearing a reasonable conservative is when he or she is pro-transit expansion. I value having the conversation about limited government and privatizing almost everything.  We may disagree, but both sides get to learrrrrrrrrrn.  You want to have strong arguments for your beliefs, this is your life. !

I think the Michael Coren show is undoubtedly worth watching – not for his insufferable guests, but for him as the fibrous moderator.  Religious and (but?) often sound, except his distaste for Romeo Dallaire.  That’s a bit extreme, although one should question Dallaire’s new cushy senator job.  Coren asserts he doesn’t look left or right, but up… ?  Don’t get me wrong, everyone should like Jesus.  Just maybe not a whole powerful institution with infallible leaders and a very mixed track record.

Given that statement, it is unsurprising my favourite guest is Justin Trottier.  He’s the head of the Centre for Inquiry, a science/logic/reason/secular humanism organization.  He embodies the ethos very well, and he doesn’t overly judge agnostics.  Aggressively curious agnostics are the only reasonable ones in the religion debate anyway.  Maybe I’m just reflecting.

Toronto/Canadian media is funny to look at.  Even Classified mentioned amateur media in his awful O’Canada song.  Now being in Toronto and listening to local media for almost a year, I can start to feel the big city bubble slowly starting to smother.

The link assault.

Toronto

• Inside the Toronto Coffee Conspiracy – [Globe] – Indie cafes join forces.

• Toronto given strong credit rating: Miller dodges money management – [National Post]

• Renting in Toronto – from modest to magnificent – [Globe]

• Margaret Atwood’s Twitter Page

• John Tory to moderate first of three TTC town hall meetings – [Globe]

• Toronto’s water main mess – [Toronto Life]

• Subway etiquette primer – dos and don’ts of the TTC – [National Post]

• Toronto sewer explorers get arrested – [Toronto Sun] – I shouldn’t be sad about this, but I am sad about this.

• Toronto braces for G20 logistics crunch – [Globe]

Food

• Unearthing the sex secrets of truffles – [NYTimes]

• Revolutionary modern kitchen eliminates the need for pots and pans – [MailOnline]

• Junk food and cocaine pretty much the same thing – [Toronto Life]

• Senegalese man given the title of making ‘the best baguette  in Paris’ – [Globe]

• The pros and cons of induction cooking – [NYTimes]

Science/Environment

• The science of climate change: the clouds of unknowing – [Economist] – Thanks be to Eric.

• Earth struck by most powerful space storm in years – [New Scientist]

• New “gene bandage” rejuvenates wasted muscles through mutations – [New Scientist]

• Coal fuels much of the “Internet cloud”: Greenpeace – [Globe]

• Incineration – a recycling killer? – [Star]

News/Politics

• I’m with the intolerant Quebecers – [Maclean's]

• Three lessons Liberals should learn from Montreal – [Globe]

• Mile End – Montreal’s neighbourhood – [Globe]

• Many homeowners should have rented – [Globe]

Music

• Hear Thom Yorke’s new band, Atoms for Peace – [Spin]

• Watch Wilco do a Take-Away Show – [Pitchfork/Blogotheque]

• Read an interview with The National and their new record, High Violet - [The Quietus]