The melting conditions have made things slick in upper Rosedale. As a result, the 82 Rosedale bus is cancelled Saturday morning. That’s the line that snakes around nice streets like Scolfield Ave. and MacLennan Ave. then loops back to the Rosedale station along Crescent Rd.
Keep kids out of the Don ravines as snow melts
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It’s only good practice to keep the kids away from running water for the next few days. The thaw is expected to cause at least some localized flooding. Check your drains and catch basin, if you have one. You know the drill.
Gripping video of escape from small plane crash
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This video of a small plane crash into coastal waters in Hawaii is no like no other you have seen. You would never know from the events recorded here that a woman died in the crash. She was Loretta Fuddy, 65, the state’s health director. It is the intense activity of passengers as they grapple with life jackets and calmly struggle to escape that seems so improbable. Ferdinand Puentes, 39, was on the 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan and captured the footage of passengers’ bracing for impact moments before the plane crashed into the water Dec. 11. The plane departed from Molokai, Hawaii, bound for Honolulu with nine people on board.
ABCs of the 97 Yonge bus service not for kids
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The familiar 97 bus which used to take passengers all the way up Yonge Street from downtown to Steeles Ave has been turned into a kind of alphabet soup by the TTC. They say it is for a good cause. There is serious construction on north Yonge. The changes are intended to make things run smoother. But it means the 97 bus no longer turns into St. Clair Station. Last Monday the TTC split the 97 into two separate north and south services. Buses on the northern section now operate from Steeles Avenue to Lawrence Station via Yonge Street, on a 97C (Steeles-Lawrence Station) branch. On the southern section, seven day a week service is now operated on the 97A (Davisville Station-York Mills Station via Yonge Blvd) branch. Monday-Friday peak period service will be operated on the 97B (Queens Quay-York Mills Station) branch. Service between Davisville Station and St Clair Station, which previously operated in the midday from Monday to Friday has been removed. Service levels will change slightly. An apple for the teacher please. TTC map.
Escalators at York Mills Station
Still on Yonge Street, Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) is passing on a TTC note that both escalators at York Mills subway station are out of service until the Fall for renovation. Oh joy! The old trundlers have passed their 25-year life and need an overhaul.
Toronto Zoo has happy lowland gorilla event
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| Ngozi with her newborn |
Happy times at the Toronto Zoo a Ngozi, a western lowland gorilla, has given birth to a baby overnight Thursday. Mom and baby are both healthy and are doing well. The father of this newborn, whose gender has not been determined, is Charles. The zoo says this is Ngozi’s second birth; her son Nassir was born in September 2009. Ngozi arrived at the Toronto Zoo from the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle in 2008, specifically to breed with Charles. Their newest baby is the 10th of this endangered species to be sired by Charles and born at the Toronto Zoo. “There has been a decline in wild populations of gorillas worldwide because of hunting, disease and habitat loss, according to the zoo’s curator of mammals. The zoo said western lowland gorillas are found in the rain forests of Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. An adult male can weigh 200 kg and adult females about 100 kg. Females mature at about eight years old, but typically don’t breed until they’re 10. They usually give birth to a single baby, after an average gestation period of 265 days. With the new unnamed baby’s arrival, the zoo is home to seven gorillas: three adults and four youngsters.
“Toronto Eaton Centre” reinforces its name
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Further to our post about the Eaton Centre’s new billboard campaign to capture the Twitter generation comes the release of a statement and video (right) which seeks to reinforce the name of the mall. After all, in the demise of Eaton’s, and Sears short-lived successor of the same name, the image of the Eaton Centre has become a little fudged. Now Owners Cadillac Fairview are out to make you remember (and like) Toronto Eaton Centre. The Toronto is an addition to the name so proudly broadcast in the halcyon days of the shopping mecca (left)
Target Corp. insists no Canadian card data stolen
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Target Corporation revealed today that many more people in the U.S. have been victimized by the electronic theft of data from its credit card sales system. But Target maintains that no Canadian customers were involved in this theft because its Canadian arm uses a separate credit car acquirer. CTV
Perils of the season as woman knocked down
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A woman lies on the cold and frozen surface of Macpherson Ave. near Yonge Street Wednesday after she was bumped by a car while walking on the road. It appears she was on the road because the sidewalk was too icy. It is a peril of the season and despite warming temperatures conditions are still tricky. She was taken to hospital by ambulance to be checked out. Much of Ontario will climb out of the deep freeze this weekend, with some places forecast to see daytime highs above 5°C. “A deepening low pressure system will approach southern Ontario this evening and move north of the regions Saturday,” said Environment Canada in a special weather statement early Friday. “Several weather typeswill occur before rain spreads across the region.” Light snow picked up across southern Ontario early Friday, resulting in slick and slow conditions for the morning commute. Photo: Yonge and Roxborough News correspondent WilliamCanada loses estimated 45,900 jobs in December
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Canada lost an astonishing 45,900 jobs in December and the unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent from 6.9 percent. It is a statement not just about the economy — and what’s going on — but about the hopeless capacity of economists to estimate anything. It is said the country created 14,200 jobs. This is about the number that was expected. On the facts, it means the people charged with calculating such things missed the loss of nearly 32,000 jobs. The process in its present form seems worthless. Reuters
Clinic chose citrus theme for window contest
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Uptown Chiropractic was doing its bit for the Mount Pleasant Village BIA Window Wanderland Contest. As the genial Dr. Dawn Azzopardi recalls, the practice has an orange theme in its colour scheme. With the aggregation of lights and some Sunkist offerings from the local grocery, the Uptown gang came up with “Orange You Glad It’s Christmas?” It was a worthy contender and earned its second place ranking among the winners. That name is good for half the points all by itself. Other winners shown here are Vegan food shop Bello Bio (first) with a lovely table setting and The Little Dollhouse (third) for its creation of a charming winter scene. Bello Bio is located at 511 Mt. Pleasant Rd., Uptown Chiropractic at 645 Mount Pleasant and The Little Dollhouse at 612 Mt Pleasant Rd. All windows. Photos Mt Pleasant BIA
York U online student “can’t meet with women”
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Laugh, scream or cry. Maybe all three as a religious student at York University gets the school to permit him to somehow carry on his instruction without being in contact with women because of his beliefs. From the story written by James Bradshaw it is clear the university is utterly conflicted by this unnatural request. We say unnatural but there are probably better words to describe it. The pertinent technical point here is that the person in question enrolled for an online course never thinking, presumably, that he would have to attend a meeting with other online classmates. We foolish Canadians might call it teamwork. In future, it may be possible for the university to skirt such requests by making it clear that there will be some mixed company required as part of the course. James Bradshaw
Jersey betrayal of trust a lesson to all in politics
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| Click to enlarge |
It is among the most naked betrayals of trust seen in modern politics. The organized campaign by those working for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to shut down traffic lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish a mayor who did not endorse Christie. The appalling emails are here. Click to enlarge and read. One of the conspirators confesses to feeling badly for the kids stranded in traffic on their way to school. The callous response from another perpetrator of this scheme says they are just the kids of our opponents. Christie ventured on Thursday into the town at the heart of a political scandal, offering a personal apology to the bustling, upscale community at the foot of the George Washington Bridge. Christie made the 70-mile (112 km) trip to Fort Lee from the capital of Trenton, where earlier in the day he held a news conference announcing the dismissal of a top aide, who critics say helped orchestrate massive traffic jams at the busy commuter bridge to exact political revenge against the town’s mayor.