GM yawns at Facebook’s $104 billion IPO

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No one is saying that the Facebook Initial Public Offering (IPO) is pure expectation but there’s enough scepticism out there to make the future of the IPO seem at least a little uncertain. General Motors decision to stop advertising on Facebook is being described as a  wake-up call for the No. 1 social network. Do the people who use it really care about buying stuff off Facebook? Some media experts say they probably do but they have to be targeted better.  There are billions of young users and even children buy things. Generally it seems too early to know if the site will take off as an advertising platform. One executive said there’s a lot of potential but it’s not a slam-dunk.

Northern boys winners at science awards

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Mark Lievonen, president of the vaccine manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur Limited, is seen with Northern Secondary School students Daniel Zhang and Alexander Tigert as they receive third prize in the company’s Science Challenge for high school students. The two Grade 12 boys used genetically-modified Baker’s yeast to create a novel environment for testing the effects of drug treatments for depression and anxiety. They shared a $3000 prize. Quite impressive.

CIBC moves Laird branch to Leaside Village at Esander Dr

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The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce will move to airy new premises in Leaside village, Laird Drive and Esander Drive. The bank will move from the venerable old brick building at 180 Laird (at McRae) a building that dates from the 30s. It is apparently going to be put up for sale. Some months ago we speculated that CIBC might be trying to find its way out of the old building. It sits on land which, if the City buys it, will permit a much better traffic flow at the corner. The new branch is announced to open on Monday, August 27, 2012, and work is going on furiously, as it is everywhere in Leaside Village.

An interesting bit of history is found over the door of the CIBC branch at 180 Laird Drive at McRae. It’s the coat of arms of the bank that built and owned the branch, the Imperial Bank of Canada. The Imperial merged with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in 1960. Dating apparently from the 30s, the well-preserved lion rampant on the crown continues to look fresh as it graces the little branch. Both the Imperial and the Commerce were very old when they merged. They were both founded in Toronto in the 1870s. The branch at 180 Laird is of interest now as CIBC intends to move to a new branch in Leaside Village. Will they take the coat of arms with them?

Silver coins, bars stolen on Laird Drive

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Police are keeping quiet about the value, but there has been a robbery of precious metal from All Canadian Self Storage at 1 Laird Drive. The  break in occurred  between 2106 hours on March 7, 2011 and 1830 hours on May 11, 2012 when entry was gained into the premises by forcing a door.  The thieves may have known where they were going as they found and took “a quantity of silver coins and bars.”

Reckless sulky race on Irish highway

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In Canada we would call it criminal negligence.  It is astonishingly reckless behaviour by men of the Irish Travellers culture as they race two sulky horses down a highway near Cork. There are harrowing scenes as police (the Garda) try to stop this race and other Travellers in cars weave through traffic shouting encouragement and jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of motorists. The tape is long but has been watched by nearly 200,000 people in four days. It’s worth watching as an insight into group conduct. Note the gathering of men at the end arguing over the outcome of the race. The video was shot by one of the Travellers and is said to have been re-recorded by a YouTube user in order to make sure it didn’t get pulled down.

Premium Outlets mall to be built near us

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SmartCentres, owner of the properties on Laird Drive, is a partner with Simon Property in the U.S, to build the first Premium Outlets mall in Canada at a location in Halton Hills, near Oakville. Ground has already been broken on Toronto Premium Outlets which will mirror the many Premium Outlet malls across the U.S.  The site is adjacent to Highways 401 and 427 and is designed to draw traffic which might otherwise head to Buffalo. They are betting however that it will do a lot more than that. SmartCentres is an aggressive Canadian company with shopping centres nationally but it pales in size to the enormous assets of Simon Property. With 363 properties (a few are shown on the map) it has 5,000 employees and leases some 264 million square feet of retail space. 

Time cover a disservice to 3-year-old boy

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There is much discussion of breast feeding and the benefits it brings to children who keep at it longer.  What everyone should ponder is the social impact not of breastfeeding but of being displayed on the cover of an international magazine as Time showed him. And it’s no good to say this view is prudish.  For this lad one really must wonder whether the nutritional benefits of  breastfeeding will be worth the cruel ridicule he may well face in just a year or two. Got a view? Leave a comment.  Mostly Media

Yahoo boss fired: Some might call it lying

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Yahoo has ended the brief tenure of its latest chief executive over a false biography of him in a regulatory filing spiraled into a major embarrassment for the ailing Internet company and a big victory for an activist investor. Scott Thompson, whom Yahoo hired as CEO in January, agreed to resign over the weekend after the company’s board obtained evidence that contradicted his claim of innocence about his misstated academic record, people familiar with the matter said. In particular, an executive-search firm provided Yahoo with information that appeared to show Mr. Thompson years ago had knowingly claimed he had earned a degree which he hadn’t. Today it’s reported Thompson has said he had thyroid cancer.  .