Morning Brew: April 2nd, 2008

Woo! I took that photo, thanks.

From the article re 287 people arrested:

"Project Revival focused on low-level crack dealers, hookers and panhandlers."

I love how the media calls these same people "homeless" when it feels they are in need, but calls them "panhandlers" when they're busted.

Refillable Glass Bottle > Tetra Pak > Standard Glass Bottles.

While Tetra Paks may be inferior to refillable glass bottles, they are by far superior to the standard wine bottles filling most of LCBO's shelves. Anybody who tells you otherwise hasn't done their homework.

This group says that you have to look at the big picture. That plastic, paper and aluminum all create pollution. Except they miss a HUGE part of the big picture in their accusations.

1) Glass weighs significantly more. When those bottles are shipped, that significant extra weight means significant carbon emissions. That includes the trips the glass takes to the recycler after (None of which ends back in the wine bottles anyways).

2) Glass takes up more room. Round things take up more space for less volume, especially when the round thing has an extended neck filled with mostly air. TetraPaks use close to 100% of the space they occupy. That means fewer trucks transporting more wine (And less carbon).

3) Glass is fragile, therefore boxes the bottles are shipped in have to be designed accordingly. Ask anyone who has moved in recent years where the best place to get boxes from? The LCBO, that's where. Why? Because the boxes are built strong, with more material, often with inserts to separate the bottles. To ensure the corrugated cardboard is strong enough for the task, the material has to have more virgin fibre than most post consumer boxes. TetraPaks themselves support the weight so the shipping boxes require less material with higher recycled content and no inserts.

4) Glass doesn't get recycled back into bottles. I'm sorry, but it's true. Sure, the bottles are recycled, but the vast, vast majority of bottles are made from new glass. Why? 1) Recyclers have trouble separate glass colours. 2) Most wine doesn't originate here in Canada. It gets bottled in Europe, South Africa, Austrailia, etc. ie: We collect more glass than our wineries produce. Much of it just ends up in landfill. Few people want mixed coloured glass to meet the supply. AND glass production ALSO causes a lot of pollution.

When we're talking about mass, glass production pollution is far far worse than the pollution created by the smaller amounts of paper/plastic/aluminum that a tetra pak requires.

Not to mention that tetrapaks, believe it or not, are better for wine (unless you plan on aging it yourself...but who honestly does that)

My main concern would be whether you can keep a Tetra Pak for two or three years and have the wine age the same as it might in a bottle.

I'm no snob but (ie. cork over screw-top) I'm not willing to sacrifice quality either.

Are you friggin kidding me?!

They want to ban homework cause it interferes with holidays?!!

If the board is noticing how test scores are lower and participation and overall knowledge is dropping how does this help at all?!

Seems to me like the board needs to take another look at its goals...are they there to EDUCATE or to provide a free ride.

@ A|Layton:

While putting a total ban on homework over the holidays seems a little silly, I've definitely seen cases of elementary-aged kids developing pretty severe anxiety over the amount of homework they have to complete in one night. Homework is important and should never be done away with completely, but for someone in grade three, play is just as important and often teachers are already overloading at that age.

Why are teacher's overloading? I suspect it is because: 1) The amount of curriculum they are expected to cover is too much, so they download what they can't do in class onto the kids at home 2) Because the year-long joke that is teacher's college doesn't adequately prepare them for their classes.

This whole homework debate is a "treat the symptom, not the cause" situation, as I find are most education-related news stories I come across.

Kids would still be able to do homework regularly, they're only banning homework given out on holidays. Holidays are holidays for a reason. While you're out at a cottage and want a quality family time, you wouldn't want your kids to be doing math would you?

I've always figured that if teachers can't teach students for the 8 hours they have them every day, they can't be too good at their jobs. Lowering the amount of home work makes sense to this 26 year old, though, I never did any and managed an 80-95ish average from highschool through university, so maybe I'm biased. Still, if kids really are doing two extra hours of work when they get home that's gotta be bad for burn out rates. Kids should be able to spend their time playing, interacting, and enjoying their childhood. Imagine if you had to do an extra few hours of work everytime you came home from your 9-5?

For those that do already, well, you can't possibly enjoy it... amirite?

As for the cops getting the drugs and hookers out of the Church/Seaton area, well, at least when they're there you know what areas to avoid (or visit, depending on what you want). Kicking them out will be better for THAT neighborhood, but who knows where they'll end up next. The devil you know... meh, I'm in the Beaches, doubt they'll take the 501 for a half hour to hook on Wineva.

Re: Ford

Using any amount of logic, "Asian" should be considered more offensive then "Oriental." But its all just arbitrary labels anyway that we're far too obsessed over. Does using "Asian" over "Oriental" really change anything? Does it make everyone more equal? Does using a label taken from the largest continent on the planet - encompassing everything from Japan to Russia to India to Israel - and using it to refer specifically to a group of cultures all located in the East really make sense?

We're all nuts, and Ford will be an ass anyway.

Kids don't spend 8 hours a day in school. The base day is often less than 7. Deduct from that an hour at lunch, recess or time between classes and you get closer to five.
Never doing your homework is not an option anymore as grades are increasingly based on completed homework assignments, not just tests on knowledge you were supposed to learn from the homework. If you don't do your homework, you can't get an 80+ ever.

@Japhet

Most wines these days are designed to be consumed shortly after the time of purchase. Aging these wines and you risk ruining them.

Sure, there are wines out there that are suited to aging, but I would think for the vast majority of the population, tetraPaks are not only suitable, but a better method of storing their wine.

I know Ryan but I'd still dig a comprehensive breakdown.

Ry-tron, the curriculum has changed significantly since you've been in school! My 14 year old sister is a great student but was always complaining about the hours of homework she had when she was in elementary school.

Regarding your comment "With the minimum wage being raised by 75 cents for a grand total of $8.75 an hour low-income earners now only have to work 12 hours per day to reach the much-vaunted $100-per-day mark. Baby-steps.."

I'm not going to sit here and bitch and moan, but if people are tired of making minimum wage,why should it be on the backs of harder working people who have taken the time (and debt load) to attend school in order to achieve a better education? If you are tired of making minimum wage, get off your ass, stop being an artist, and go get a real job!

I want my wine in a bottle. With a punt. And a cork. And I don't want to open it for another 4 years. :)

So, Dan, those PhDs and university graduates from other countries who are working minimum wage are doing so because they want to, right?

Also I find it hard to believe that *everyone* who works for minimum wage is an artist and/or lazy ass. Nice understanding of the whole social-economic structure of society you have there...

Geez Dan, I never was a lazy artist 'cos I worked my way through art school and past graduation. In fact, I often work late into the night doing my art in my spare time and I still manage to function during the day.

How is the minimum wage being raised going to affect "harder-working people"?

Ryan l>:

Regarding glass ending up in landfills, you did not mention one very important point: GLASS IS NON-POLLUTING.

Glass is made of fused sand. Dump it in a landfill and it becomes sand again in a few centuries, or smash it up a bit and it becomes sand again within your lifetime.

And during the time a glass bottle spends in a landfill, nature considers it to be just another rock. For all intents and purposes, that's what it is.