Saturday, May 26, 2012Mostly Cloudy 19°C
City

Afternoon Brew: February 13th, 2008

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / February 13, 2008

20080213_mb.jpgPhoto: "_MB_4037" by blogTO Flickr pooler 9ineteen.

Your afternoon news roundup for Wednesday February 13th, 2008:

Pop quiz. A parabola with vertex (2,0) and axis of symmetry parallel to the y-axis, passes through (3,1) and (-3,t). Find the value of t. Find this difficult? A lot of Ontario high-school graduates do too (and without looking it up, I don't think I could answer this with any degree of confidence if my life depended on it).

It isn't easy being one of nearly 10,000 taxi drivers in Toronto. A collaborative report by Toronto academics points to worsening problems with work hours, pay, and abuse by customers. They work hard, folks. Be nice.

--

Former Toronto Blue Jay pitcher Roger "The Rocket" Clemens is on the stand, and throwing fastballs at the congressional hearing investigating the use of steroids and human growth hormone in Major League Baseball. Clemens insists that he's never used them, and his trainer claims he stuck him with juice many times and that he has needles with DNA to prove it. Why the US congress is wasting their time and resources to investigate doping in sport is beyond me. Shouldn't this be in baseball court or something?

Some wiseguy stole a backhoe, drove it to a coin-op car wash, and used the shovel to rip the coin bank out of the wall. He was spotted by a snowplow driver who engaged him in a low-speed chase before the wiseguy gave up and ran off only to have his footprints in the snow tracked by police, who arrested him. All allegedly, of course.

The TTC has figured out what caused the derailment of a subway car last week, and has given the media a lovely schematic to refer to while scratching their heads trying to understand it. A questionable part of the undercarriage will be replaced on all cars in the H6 fleet, as a precautionary measure.

And police have confirmed that it was in fact a student carrying a microphone tripod from Sheridan College's Media Arts program that triggered the 3h emergency lockdown. Whoooopsies.

Discussion

12 Comments

Adam Schwabe / February 13, 2008 at 01:52 pm
user-pic
Yeah I couldn't solve the parabola problem now either, but I did back in grade 12, because I studied my ass off. Still, my freshman calculus courses were my worst grades in unviersity.

Math isn't easy (nor is it for everyone). I say suck it up.
Chris / February 13, 2008 at 02:02 pm
user-pic
t=5
The article said this wasn't a finger pointing exercise, so here's some finger pointing of my own. The high schools have been under pressure to reduce drop out rates, and (at least partially) they are now reducing the demands of the courses to get students through at any cost.
Dave / February 13, 2008 at 02:20 pm
user-pic
Remember, the article stated that the students who were doing badly had taken the 'applied' stream of math as opposed to the more difficult 'academic' stream. I think that all this proves is that the 'applied' stream is useless to anyone who is hoping to persue a higher (academic) education of any sort.....which anyone in high school could have told them.
Ben / February 13, 2008 at 03:04 pm
user-pic
"Wiseguy" generally implies that the accused is involved with "the mob". A crime syndicate of car wash back-hoers would be quite funny, as far as crime syndicates go.

What is the deal with afternoon brew?
D.C. Thompson / February 13, 2008 at 03:18 pm
user-pic
Ben -- What's the deal with you being a bitch about morning vs. afternoon brew? Bloggers don't get paid much, if at all, so cut some slack, shit comes up. I'm sure they would take your monetary donation to help pay writers more, so they can cut out other stuff from their lives. But i guarantee you'd be unwilling to pay for what you're getting here.

As for congress and baseball, traditionally the national passtime/national identity. Gotta investigate the stuff that smells rotten in denmark - too close to what it means to be American to let it go unexamined.

A theory, anyway.
Aaron / February 13, 2008 at 03:24 pm
user-pic
Wow, someone got the parabola problem wrong.

The parabola is y = (x-2)^2. So t = 25.
Jerrold / February 13, 2008 at 03:24 pm
user-pic
Fear not, we haven't made any drastic changes, and the Morning Brew will continue being the Morning Brew!

Today I was unable to do the Brew in the morning because I came down with the flu and was up all night in agony. Woe is me :S
Joey "Accordion Guy" deVilla / February 13, 2008 at 04:39 pm
user-pic
I concur with Aaron: t is 25.
Jerrold / February 13, 2008 at 04:52 pm
user-pic
Correcto. t=25 :)
Sameer Vasta / February 13, 2008 at 08:26 pm
user-pic
Hope you're feeling better Jerrold!
carbomb / February 14, 2008 at 12:42 am
user-pic
What the f is a parabola ??
Glad I took art.
Norm / February 17, 2008 at 11:21 am
user-pic
I'd like fries with that, Carbomb.

Add a Comment

Other Cities: VancouverMontreal