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Morning Brew: September 2nd, 2008

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / September 2, 2008

blogto morning brew airshowPhoto: "For the drop" by sjgardiner, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Tuesday September 2nd, 2008:

Toronto's urban densification, lack of green infrastructure like trees and green roofs, and our antiquated sewer systems are responsible for massive amounts of raw sewage making its way into the Great Lakes. Unfortunately our solutions (making jokes about growing a tail from swimming in Lake Ontario, and relying entirely on water treatment/filtration) aren't cutting it.

The Maple Leaf Gardens revitalization project, which involves the creation of a massive Loblaw grocery store, hasn't seen the lift of a hammer yet. Speculation that unforeseen construction challenges are the reason have been dismissed by Loblaw, who are saying that they're simply waiting for the right time to proceed.

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The Conservatives have continued to eliminate funding for Canadian arts programs, this time axing $14.5million in Telefilm's new media funding. Fiscal responsibility seems to often trump creative expression with this government (although the opposite seems to be true when it comes to Harper's seemingly inevitable calling of an October 14th federal election).

In what some are calling the final move to gain complete world dominance, Google is set to release the beta version of its own web browser called Chrome. If you want to learn more about the project, read about it (in comic book format?) and watch for the program to be available later today.

In sports, the University of Toronto Blues won their first football game since 2001, ending a 49-game losing streak by narrowly defeating Waterloo. Fans rushed the field, and players celebrated rather awkwardly because they had to wait so long to do so.

And after someone switched the coffee to decaf, our friends over at Torontoist have decided to no longer post a cheeky morning news roundup, instead opting to post newsworthy tidbits throughout the day. blogTO has been working on a similar microblogging feature (which we hope to integrate into the site soon), but we'll continue to do the Morning Brew as well.

Discussion

15 Comments

Scott / September 2, 2008 at 09:15 am
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Fiscal responsibilty is stupid. We should be taking on more debts not less; that's how you ensure that the playing field is level for both rich and poor
guy lafleur / September 2, 2008 at 09:52 am
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That's right, cutting a piddly few million spent on arts will really make a dent on that debt.

Really, cutting arts funding has little to do with fiscal responsibility. It's a cynical strategy of cutting minor things that seem elite and aloof in an attempt to play to the conservative base...it's the kind of low-minded politics that's becoming standard in Harper's Canada.
Ben / September 2, 2008 at 10:02 am
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These cuts to arts funding are most egregious. The cuts so far (by my count) are at about $45 million dollars, giving each Canadian, on average, a $1.50 expenditure savings (less than the amount of tax on a single movie ticket).

It's like Guy said.
Ryan L. / September 2, 2008 at 10:04 am
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"...instead opting to post newsworthy tidbits throughout the day."

Or when it comes to Torontoist, more likely tidbits of what the particular writer found interesting at the time such as a private conversation they overheard, some vandalism they thought was cool or a personal opinion on any particular subject.
Sean Galbraith / September 2, 2008 at 10:36 am
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Defintiely keep up the morning brew if you can. I love reading it.
RBeezy / September 2, 2008 at 11:09 am
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funny how all totalitarian states always find a way to censor or suppress the arts.
mmm / September 2, 2008 at 12:54 pm
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Anybody who stops making art because the government stops handing out grants should take a moment to look in the mirror and decide if they can honestly keep calling themselves an artist. Stop complaining, read some David Hickey, and then enjoy the fact that you won't be holding your hand out to the bureaucrats anymore. Come on Toronto, we're better than that.
Ben / September 2, 2008 at 01:54 pm
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mmm (borderline troll), there are lots of holes in your argument. Here's a sample:

Some artists work in a media that requires a lot of funding (e.g. film makers, but the list goes on). A similar case applies to scientists. Should anybody who stops doing science because the government stops handing out grants take a moment to look in the mirror and decide if they can honestly keep calling themselves an scientist?
dorkmonkey / September 2, 2008 at 04:16 pm
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i love the morning brew!!
Human Fly / September 2, 2008 at 04:16 pm
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Right on, Guy. I'd just like to add that the cuts to new media programs are also a major blow to many learning institutions like the Canadian Film Centre, the National Screen Institute and the Canadian Screen Training Centre. New media is the way of the future and to cut training programs that would make Canadian artists more competitive in the global market is short-sighted and ultimately harmful to our nation's economy and culture.
dorkmonkey / September 2, 2008 at 04:31 pm
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perhaps i am naive, but is it possible those arts programs were actually out of date? and will be replaced by something else? from the news article i can tell the highlights of the new media fund were: degrassihigh.tv website and discovery channel kids website... which i don't think is a big deal...
Eric / September 2, 2008 at 04:33 pm
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"Fiscal responsibilty is stupid"

your stupid. Why would anyone with an amount of intelligence WANT there country to be in debt? How does owing billions and billions of dollars help make our country a better place in the long run?
sniderscion / September 2, 2008 at 11:16 pm
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Maybe someone at Torontoist doesn't like getting up early?

Morning Brew is pretty high on the list of reasons I surf by here.

That's a hell of a good image today.
sniderscion / September 2, 2008 at 11:18 pm
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BTW; there's something wonky with the HTML for the header; it reads:
Morning Brew: September 1st, 2008

* Posted by Jerrold
* Filed in City
* September 2, 2008
Dave / September 3, 2008 at 01:41 am
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Oh god... Morning brew isn't early enough!...

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