A man wielding a machine gun jumped into busy traffic outside the Eaton Centre yesterday, pointing the weapon at drivers in passing cars. Police responded to a number of 911 calls, and quickly arrived on the scene only to find that the gun was fake and the man waving it around was "disturbed." Surprisingly, reports suggest that the man is not likely to face charges. I wonder if police in say, New York City would be so forgiving.

Rebellious kids in south Etobicoke should know that if they brag about their graffiti and tagging exploits on Facebook, they might be tracked down online by area residents and have their names passed on to police. The problem is that in the grand scheme of things police have bigger fish to fry than graffiti kids, and in order to press charges, they have to be caught in the act; cyber-stalking and identifying them isn't sufficient.

A Toronto woman is suing Rogers Communications for $650,000 for invasion of privacy and breach of contract, after the telecom giant's billing department made changes to her mobile phone account...which indirectly led her husband to discover her extramarital affair. She was being billed separately, in her maiden name, for her cell phone usage. But when the husband called Rogers to have all of their cable TV, net, and phone services bundled to save money, he then received her phone records and found a list of calls to her fling.

Tourism boards in Toronto and Montreal are teaming up on an "it's OK to cheat ... on your city" campaign to attract "sophisticated, urban travellers" to both cities, from both cities. Playing off the rivalry that exists between the two cities, they'll be hosting mobile confession booths here in Toronto where people will be encouraged to come clean and fess up about their love for Montreal. I'm not sure I'm feeling this one. Personally, I've never felt compelled to hide my love for Montreal or be hush about my visits to the city.

A few weeks ago, a massive patch of approximately 14,000 tulips mysteriously popped up in a Scarborough neighbourhood at Kingston Road near Manse Road, and had area residents wondering how this could have happened. The Toronto Star did some digging and discovered that the flowers are part of Toronto's Clean and Beautiful program and that the City has a special planting machine that can drop over 10,000 bulbs per hour, under sod.

And here's what blogTO was up to this weekend:

• Matthew Harris reported on the Don Valley Brickworks' transition from urban-exploring wasteland to an ecological sanctuary. Evergreen Brickworks is near complete and preparing to open to the public.
• Tomasz wrote about the "Better Ballots" initiative and how is honouring democracy by opening its mayoral debate to outsider candidates.
• Reader Ken Rosa informed us of the unfortunate fate of the historic smokestack at Lansdowne and Davenport.
• Erin spoke to the creative mind behind the Map the Path iPhone application.
• Stephen gave us a glimpse of Camp 4, a new bar on Dundas West that has surfaced in the old Fantasy Karaoke bar space.
• Roger shared photos from the Newmindspace pillow-fight slash farewell to the public space at Yonge & Eglinton.
• Tim shared a list and map of his favourite patios on Church Street.

Photo: "Toronto AM Rowing" by Wade Bryant, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.