Morning Brew: H1N1 Claims Two Young Lives, Leafs Finally Win a Game, Kensington Cat Burglar, The New National, No Garbage Fee Hike
Photo: "munch" by christian jackson, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Still not convinced? A young girl in Cornwall with no known pre-existing medical conditions died of H1N1 this weekend, and new reports suggest that a 13-year old boy died here in Toronto as well. I'm not for pushing the fear agenda, but I'm also not engaging in increasingly pedantic arguments about the vaccine. I'm simply getting it as soon as I can, and hoping that it protects me and those around me.
The Leafs have won their first game of the season. I got a giggle out of ivortossell's tweet: "Pity about the Leafs. The only thing they could have excelled at was failure, and they blew that too." We'll see how they fare on the rest of this 5-game road trip.
A cat burglar appears to be targeting single women's homes in Kensington Market. Ground-floor dwellers in the sketchy neighbourhood really shouldn't be leaving windows and doors unlocked.
In school news, the fate of some 37 low-enrollment schools in the city is going to be decided soon. Amalgamation makes a lot of sense, because it'll allow for a better allocation of resources and will save money, but having to travel farther to school will not be fun for parents and students.
City council voted down Mayor Miller's proposal to increase garbage collection fees, instead opting to offset the increase by using a portion of the money saved during the summer municipal workers' strike. Although it's a symbolic gesture (given that it amounts to about $5 per household), I'm glad we're not paying a little more when we got far less.
And the CBC unveiled the new and improved version of The National last night. The most obvious changes include a standing and roving (rather than sitting) Peter Mansbridge, lots of in-studio monitor picture-in-picture style lead-ins, and sleek new graphics. While the changes didn't fully impress some folks, I like the changes... and am especially glad to see that they are still allowing viewers to watch the entire program online every night.
Comments (22)
Ouch... I am sure some people aren't going to appreciate you using "sketchy" to describe their neighbourhood.
If it's their neighborhood, they'll probably have spent enough time there to realize that it's pretty sketchy.
When you walk down the street at 7pm on a weeknight and are solicited to buy drugs three times from three different people, you know you're in a sketchy neighbourhood.
King/Jameson is sketchy. Allan Gardens and past the St. Clair/Runnymede railway are sketchy, as is a lot of Sherbourne. Kensington isn't: I lived there for 2 years and never really saw anything that made me cringe (besides some people's outfits, hey-o!).
That said, I'd make sure my ground-level apartment were secure regardless of where in Toronto I was.
the news said it was NEAR kensington. king and jameson is not sketchy, its an old run down neighbourhood and there may be some weird looking fellas and bums but it never bothered me.
"northwest of Dundas Avenue West and Bathurst Street"
Hmmm we can say "in Little Italy" or "close to Kensington Market".
Which sounds more sketchy? GO WITH THAT.
IT WILL PLEASE JOE PANTALONE.
who cares if other people appreciate it or not.. if it is sketchy, it is sketchy! even rosedale is sketchy if you are not on the right block...
Does he (let's face it we're pretty sure on the gender) count as a cat burglar if he is coming in on the ground floor?
As to the locality just don't say it's near Chinatown or you'll have Adam Vaughan on your racist racist ass.
You mean like being solicited for a flu vaccine?
How are the arguments against the vaccine pedestrian? I assume this is how you meant the word pedantic seeing as the other definitions don't fit in this context. I agree some of the objections border on silly but there are many good reasons to investigate for oneself whether they would take the vaccine or not. In fact it shows a herd mentality on your part by regurgitating the rather pedantic line "I'm simply getting it as soon as I can, and hoping that it protects me and those around me". You are having a virus injected into your body in the hopes it can protect you? I don't admonish anyone to get or not get the vaccine but to diminish the concerns of others merely because you don't feel they are correct is ridiculous. There is a lot of evidence of people getting sick and expiring after the mass H1N1 flu vaccine project in 1976 in the USA, and not from the flu but from the vaccine. The USA has paid out over $1.794 billion in compensation through the national Vaccine Injury Compensation program since 1989. Additives such as Thimerosal which is ethyl mercury can be dangerous to our health. One can go to the CDC site and see in past years in the USA people got the measles even after being vaccinated (82% in '95 for example). The testing groups that I have read about for the vaccine have been very small and seem to lack control subjects. The list of concerns goes on. One only needs to remember how many other drugs that were touted as safe and fine for us turned out horribly wrong (Thalidomide and Rofecoxib for two).
In short, there are good reasons to debate the efficacy and safety of these vaccines before injecting them. It has been shown that assurances of safety and efficacy can be dead wrong or intentionally misleading. Big Pharma doesn't care about your health and so needs to be viewed with suspiscion. I am not advocating or down-playing the H1N1 vaccine but I want to know more for myself. Who are you to dismiss such concerns?
Amen, Alogon.
I really hope that more people learn to do their own research when it comes to their health and decisions regarding such. It is your body and you have a responsibility to know your rights and reasons.
I'm not saying that I agree or disagree with vaccination programs, BUT you should never base your decision to do so solely because a specific governing body says so.
Don't let Jerrold's crap get you excited. He believes in the system, you can tell from his articles and comments, and he expects to use it to do well. I am sure this gig is some kind of resume-padding for him. The man is 100% Toronto, and thinks the rest of us are cranks for having thoughts of our own.
Actually... I believe in sound science, am only certifiably 65.6% Toronto, and tend to prefer interacting with people who have thoughts of their own.
Screaming "H1N1" in a crowded theatre? Isn't this from the same blogger who called the RCMP's release of Toronto 18 terrorist bomb evidence videos "alarmist"?
oh my god we're complaining about free health care. Seriously, what is wrong with people? We complain and bitch about everything and now we're convinced its about consipracies and propaganda? Get the freaking shot and if you don't care about yourself, at least have some concern for the people around you, i.e. the unfortunate ones who's body's arn't strong enough to fight off the virus. People one hundred years ago would die (literally) for this type of medicine and we're going to shrug it off because we have google therefore we don't need experts? I trust the thousands of men and women who devote their lives to saving people. Serioulsy, do you think the public health staff have nothing better to do then sit around and say how can we create fear and push hidden agendas? Do you think they want to be spending time away from their families so they can work long hours to make sure selfish people get their vaccination?
"A cat burglar appears to be targeting single women's homes in Kensington Market. Ground-floor dwellers in the sketchy neighbourhood really shouldn't be leaving windows and doors unlocked."
Yes. But how about people really shouldn't be going into others' homes uninvited?
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