Yesterday evening, I joined the Toronto Public Space Committee's Guerrilla Gardeners on a seedbombing outing to try to bring out a little bit more of the 'park' in Parkdale. Dozens of pre-made "seedbombs" (mixed local flower seeds with soil wrapped in biodegradable plastic bags) were thrown alongside train tracks and onto a strip of neglected ground between a chain-link fence and graffiti-heavy wall.

Russians know it as Cosmonautics Day, the official celebration of the first manned space flight in April of 1961 by Yuri Gagarin.

While the original Soviet success no doubt impressed the globe it was also something to be hated, feared and rejected by people on this side of the ocean (Pacific, or Atlantic, or Arctic).

The cold war space race days have moved into history (for now), but even still it might not quite be Dubya's favourite holiday.

Regardless, Yuri's Night is now an international celebration not only of Commie Cosmonautics, but of the first HUmanned space flight and what it meant for the whole human race.

I may have been missing out, but the only Yuri's Night event I can recall in Toronto in previous years was extremely small and low-key.

This year, however, Newmindspace has managed to get the Ontario Science Centre on board as host of the celebration, which will be happening April 5th.

The other day, I was on YouTube and came across this video about UNICEF's Tap Project, a minimum-cost fundraising campaign that was started last March in New York City.

Restaurants across NYC signed up to offer $1 glasses of tap water to customers on March 22, world water day, with the proceeds going towards providing clean water to children in areas of the world without proper access. I liked the idea, but didn't think to follow up on the mention that it would be expanded to other places this year.

Yesterday in Union station, however, I noticed the Tap Project logo and realized all the Harvey's employees were wearing Tap Project t-shirts, so I went in and bought a cup of water.

Click through for my review (ha, ha) and details on the Tap Project in Canada.

Thursday, a group of 35 University of Toronto students organized a protest in Simcoe Hall, outside the president's office, seeking to speak to president David Naylor about current tuition fees and about a planned increase they wanted to see dropped.

Perhaps they were also on some level hoping to get in on some of the sit-in success at York last week, but this situation ended quite differently.

Video of what some students are describing as police brutality after the jump.

Last Thursday, York University's Sustainable Purchasing Coalition student group organized a protest rally in Vari Hall, home to what many students see as a blur of protests and petition tables.

For the most part, although they do call some attention to the whichever issues are at hand, these setups are largely seen as a quirky part of York's culture. Only those with particular interest or time to spare will stop to read, discuss or sign anything, and it has become largely accepted that all you can hope to accomplish is raising awareness.

However, after the SPC rally, the organizers sought to deliver a 1000-signature petition to university president Mamdouh Shoukri demanding that the university ensure that products for York are not produced through human and worker rights abuses. After 3 years of attempting to negotiate a No Sweat policy, the SPC wanted immediate action to be taken to get York, at a minimum, up to par with U of T and Ryerson in this respect.

When the students were told the president was unavailable to see them, they decided to stay and stage an old-fashioned sit-in outside his office.

Tonight, the Ontario Science Centre will once again be hosting their free monthly "Sci Fri" Friday night event in their Weston Family Innovation Centre.

Aimed at teenagers and university students (14 - 24 year olds only), Sci Fri nights include a DJ/band crew, special guests, a variety of activities, games and contests and environmentally-conscious food (hopefully better than the typical fast food and food court stuff the OSC sells).

Music is provided by combination DJ crew / live band Quadrasonic, who are actually my main reason for being interested as they combine turntablism with the incorporation of instruments to create a sort of fusion jam band.

However, although the combination of DJs and the OSC will consistently set off murmurs about the Science Centre raves of the 1990's in many circles, Sci Fri is not quite there yet. The events, far from running all night, begin at 7 p.m. and end by 10 p.m.

This month's theme is space, with special guest Anousheh Ansari, private space explorer.

(Photo: Bubble Kiss in the Weston Family Innovation Centre by Chris Orbz.)