Blame the victim (again and again)

Even when the circumstances in pedestrian deaths clearly point to driver error, Toronto police don’t hesitate to point the finger at the person who wasn’t behind the wheel of the vehicle: Sgt. Tim Burrows said the victim was crossing slightly west of the crosswalk at the intersection. “It’s difficult to determine who is at fault,”continue reading

Authenticity watch: the child-like child

A proud parent of a four-year-old, from a nauseating story about parents who tweet as their preschoolers: “Roan’s all about superheroes and Scooby Doo and running around in his jammies. He’s still maintaining his child-like innocence so it’s fun to portray that sometimes.”

Reds

A few random notes on recent red experiences: 2006 Farina Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso “Le Pezze” ($14.95, 13.5%). This is currently available at Vintages though stocks in Toronto Central are starting to get low. A good value on a $15 red, with a very fruity red berry nose with a hint of sandalwood and spice.continue reading

Ontario VQA 2008

2008 was a rather cool summer in Ontario (though not as bad as 2009), and I was curious how the wines would turn out. The answer so far, interestingly, is pretty well, at least as far as the whites are concerned. The great bargain of the Ontario wine world, as far as I’m concerned, continuescontinue reading

Ah, science.

The BMJ’s Christmas issue is full of goodness as usual. Ingested foreign bodies and societal wealth: three year observational study of swallowed coins Objective: To examine the relation between coins ingested by children and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. But sadly, for it would’ve made a fine headline had the results been different, Conclusion: Therecontinue reading

Interesting example

Another day, another woe-is-Gen Y story. In all seriousness, Canada’s poor mechanisms of getting new graduates into the workforce are an ongoing problem. But this latest story on the front page of the Report on Business isn’t particularly compelling: Elizabeth Adams, 24, knows all about timing. She recently graduated with a fine arts degree andcontinue reading

Contagion risk (non-flu version)

Business reporters fell over each other today in an effort to categorize the impact of Dubai’s announcement that it was implementing a six-month “stand-still” on the debt of the real estate arm of its conglomerate Dubai World, essentially asking debtholders to hold onto bonds past maturity. Complicating the efforts of reporters to put the storycontinue reading

Well, THAT’ll fix the recession

Funding one (1) 26-week internship is now worthy of a Federal press release: Government of Canada helps post-secondary graduate gain work experience in aquatic research The Mersey Tobeatic Research Institute will receive $14,189 for its Aquatic Health Researcher project through the Career Focus program of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy. This funding willcontinue reading

Perpetuating inequality

David Cay Johnston on why the government’s lack of interest in cracking down on Canadian users of tax havens is a problem: “If the current law does not give the government the investigative tools to find wealthy and sophisticated tax cheats, then those tools need to be provided. Otherwise, you have a de facto policycontinue reading