Rendering vs. reality. pic.twitter.com/pEEqnc9g5s
— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) December 5, 2017
It’s a reminder perhaps of how chancy it for us to try to hang onto the past that the newly-installed Sam the Record Man sign is but a shadow of the 1960 glory of Yonge Street and the vinyl records sold there. In fact, the sign is a ghostly imitation of the original because the background is missing. The video tweeted by Jonathon Goldsbie records this shortfall. Below is the real thing.
Google says it will pull its YouTube video service from Amazon’s Fire TV and Echo Show devices in a nasty fight between the big boys of consumer tech that leaves consumers in the crossfire. The decision to block YouTube is in retaliation for Amazon’s refusal to sell some Google products that compete with Amazon gadgets. That includes Google’s Chromecast streaming device, an alternative to Fire TV, and an internet-connected speaker called Home, which is trying to catch up to Amazon’s market-leading Echo. Amazon’s high-end Echo Show has a screen that can display video. The power being thrown around by these two giants is the type of conduct that has some talking about the need to break them up by way of anti-trust action.
Please take a look at the posters here for events and opportunities in our neighbourhood in coming days.
Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22) will try to stop the purchase of a small strip mall plaza on Danforth Rd. which the TTC thinks would be just perfect as the home of a power station on the $3.35 billion one-stop subway to Scarborough. Mr. Matlow is a determined foe of this project (and he is right). But political expediency has gathered great strength to waste money in the name of subway equitability. “I am going to be asking about whether or not it is premature, to once again be spending money on a project that has not been approved by council”, Matlow said December 5 as quoted by the Scarborough Mirror.
Reporter Natalie Wong of Bloomberg News says Wednesday in the Toronto Star that Rogers Communications is considering selling assets such as the Toronto Blue Jays or its interest in cable company Cogeco Inc. to free up capital for other investments. Wong quotes chief financial officer Tony Staffieri. The Toronto-based telecommunications giant wants to get more value for the assets, though no deal is imminent
ROGERS CENTRE NAMING RIGHTS?
Late in October former player and sportswriter Bob Elliott said the company was considering selling the naming rights to the Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome). That possibility has met silence from Rogers The late Ted Rogers would not have liked his name coming down from that landmark. But Rogers president Joe Natale cannot be indifferent to the $800 million the Bank of Nova Scotia has paid for the right to put its big red logo up on what is now the Air Canada Centre.. .
The International Olympic Committee has banned Russia from competing at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, following a vote Tuesday. Russia, it is reported, won’t quietly digest the IOC’s ban and walk away. Vladimir Putin has said that this is a US attempt to thwart his reelection next year. National TV has vowed not to cover the games. Russia might refuse to permit its athletes to compete as private citizens, a concession the IOC offered to clean Russians.
PUNISHMENT FITS THE CRIME
In Ottawa, Canadian curlers were on the ice as the news broke. The CBC says that Marc Kennedy, who won Olympic gold in Vancouver in 2010 as a member of the Kevin Martin team, said: “This is a punishment that fits the crime but I’m surprised. I didn’t think they would do it. Good for them,” Kennedy said. “It’s been proven it was state-sponsored and they should be punished accordingly. I’m 100 per cent in support of the decision.”
Toronto Police have received judicial authorization to name and show a picture of a 15-year-old boy wanted in relation to reckless shooting at a home on Woodfield Rd. in east Toronto north of Gerrard St. The name and picture of the youth may be seen at the police website. This occurred Sunday and two other teens are already in custody.
The development of two retirement homes on the site of historic buildings on Laird Drive south of McRae Dr. has been featured in Urban Toronto. The City fought this development as first submitted but ultimately lost at the Ontario Municipal Board. A revised plan calls for the retention of the structure of the historic Durant Building. The original plan to make one of the buildings a condominium has been replaced as well with more rental for seniors. The two buildings will now have 248 rental units The Durant Building was the office building of Durant Motors Canada and later (in 1960) occupied by the Metro Toronto Separate School Board. .OMB okays 146/150 Laird, saves old Durant building
At 30,000 square feet, the new Starbuck’s in Shanghai will be the largst in the world. Beats the pants off the little coffee beanery at Bayview and Belsize. Check it out. Then, an utterly charming City News story from the bakery where the Maple Leafs were making a giant cookie to give to Santa. Sure. Below that, the effort to stop the transfer of a Victoria Cross won in 1944 out of the country. The issue has cogent arguments on both sides. Finally, great fun as British kids are asked to judge the “Tiny Turner” on the eve of the awarding of the prestigious Turner Prize for Art.
Personal trainers at GoodLife Fitness in Toronto, Ajax and Peterborough have voted to ratify the first union contract in the fitness industry. Last year some 650 trainers in the three cities formed the first fitness professionals’ union in North America. It is part of the Workers United Canada Council and its website says it represents about 100,000 people Canada and a similar number in the US working in fields related to garments and apparel, plastics, auto parts and industrial manufacturing; transportation, warehousing, and distribution, retail, food services, hotels and hospitality, cleaning services. fitness industry and healthcare and social services. No details were released, but Danesh Hanbury, a personal trainer and bargaining team member from Toronto’s Yonge and Dundas club, told Canadian Press found agreement on major issues of paid sick days, unpaid work and what he called “favouritism by management.”
Scotiabank says it has bought a nearly 70 percent interest in Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria, S.A. (BBVA) of Chile for $2.9 billion. Scotia says it intends to merge BBVA Chile with its existing Scotiabank Chilean operations, subject to regulatory approvals. Chile’s Said family, which owns 31.62 per cent of BBVA Chile, has waived its right of first refusal to acquire the share being sold to ScotiaBank, but is willing to spend up to $650 million to own up to 25 per cent of the combined business when Scotiabank Chile and BBVA Chile are merged. When the deal was announced last week, Scotiabank said the transaction is in line with its goal of increasing scale within the Chilean banking sector and the Pacific Alliance countries.
SCOTIA IN THE CARIBBEAN
Travellers to the Caribbean are familiar with the presence of Scotiabank there. BNS has been part of the Caribbean and Central America region since 1889. The first office was in Kingston, Jamaica to support the rum, sugar, and fish trade. Now it has operations in 25 countries, including affiliates. It has operations in Central America in Costa Rica, Belize, Panama and El Salvador.
