The Procrastination Station

At the G20 Summit meeting on June 26 and 27, the world leaders will talk about world economics. The yellow lines on the map shows where a gigantic fence is going. More details about the security zoning at the Toronto Star.

So I just heard that the G20 Summit in Toronto is apparently a big deal…(honestly, I’ve seen the articles in the Metro newspaper for a while, but the headlines made me think it was just some sort of global warming discussion, and obviously sudoku was way more interesting) I know it is a big deal when my friends tell me “they have the week off during the G20″. (I coulda swore they worked 7 days a week!) Anyway, that lead me to do a Google search to find out what the G20 ordeal is all about.

Word is that Canada spent $1.1 billion on facilities and security for G20 and G8. (Japan G8 2008 was $381 million, United States G20 2009 was $18 million) Most of the money goes towards security costs. They have to fly in RCMP officers from all over the country to keep people out of the danger zone…

As a solid Torontonian who could care less about the G20, I just had a few questions:

Why is the G20 in Toronto?
It seems like a bad idea to put it in the busiest city in Canada, then spend a billion dollars to evacuate it. I’ve asked about 20 people on MSN, and about 20 of them are against the G20 in downtown Toronto. So what are the advantages of having it here?

What exactly are the G20 protesters protesting about?
I mean, do the world leaders even know that you spray-painted some ATM machines? I don’t think they would even care if you robbed a couple of banks. Rich people don’t use ATMs. They tell their assistant, who calls some people, who then calls a manager, who then tells their employees to prepare a room/car/sandwich/etc!

Why not have a G20 webcam meeting?
Imagine 20 faces on a single monitor (or 20 faces on twenty 3D TVs). It would be cheap with zero chance of assassination. Also a much better use of technology than giving sound cannons to people that are trigger-happy with their tazers.

I think that if the meeting was really that important, they wouldn’t have time to plan it for months and billions of dollars. Obama would just call up Harper and say “Yo, what’s up H-man! We have to do a conference call right now with Iceland because their volcanoes are costing us some dough!”

omg, Taco Bell $2 Combos in the US! A medium drink, a bag of Doritos, and your choice of Chicken Burrito, Double Decker Taco, Gordita Supreme or 5-Layer Burrito.

Too bad in Canada, we are still going to have to break a 10 for the same combo.

Now there are three great reasons to move to the States:
1. McDonalds $1 McChickens (not the subpar Jr. Chicken McNugget on a bun for $1.39 in Canada)
2. KFC Bunless burger
3. and now, Taco Bell $2 Meal Deals

How can you possibly beat that deal? It’s like diarrhea for half the price! But personally, I am still most down for that bunless burger.

A huge ass fire broke out in Waterloo this morning at 5:30am. If you were planning to go to Mel’s Diner, Mr. Sushi, Caesar Martini’s, Tabu, or Sugar Mountain for lunch (or ever again), think again. That student plaza between Waterloo and Laurier is completely destroyed!

Was it arson by a disgruntled student? Or a mere electrical mishap? Police are still looking for more clues. Just check out the images of the fire.

Caesar Martini’s with some fire action in the background.

Nooooooo, Mel’s Diner on fire!

Nooooooo, Mel’s Diner after fire!

And some student’s amateur video of the Waterloo Fire

Mr. Sushi was one of my favorite places to eat. And Mel’s is always good after alcohol. Can’t say I’ve ever been in Sugar Mountain though (if they build a McDonald’s to replace it, I’d be happy). And no comment on Tabu, other than they probably “accidentally” caused the fire on purpose. All the good times at the plaza will now just be a good memory.

Waterloo Record – Fire destroys businesses in Waterloo plaza
CTV – Fire rages over Waterloo student hub

Did the wall above/beside Salad King just collapse? All I know is that the door is on the left side of the restaurant (where the lineup usually extends outside the restaurant) and those windows look really familiar. In fact, the only thing missing is their sign….

CBC Story – Toronto – Wall of Downtown Building Collapses
CTV Story – Brick Wall Collapses on Downtown Sidewalk

Darn, that’s one of the best restaurants downtown too! Cheap, quick, and good Thai food =(

Update, my bad. Its right beside Salad King!

CTV Helicoptor Picture of the collapsed wall

Bottled water is a $60 billion dollar industry, but why?

- Tap water is almost free while bottled water is $1-2/liter (more expensive than gas!)
- 40% of bottled water is actually just bottled tap water.
- Tap water is tested for E.coli, while bottled water is not.
- Water bottle production uses oil (enough to fuel 1 million cars for a year)
- Water bottle production uses 3 times the amount of water that actually fills the bottle.
- Only 20% of water bottles get recycled, producing 3 billion pounds of garbage a year.

I will admit that I have some water bottles…which I use to fill with tap water! Hell ya! I’m all about the cheapness. Why pay for water when it is free?

Can people actually taste a difference? I sometimes add a teaspoon of sugar to my tap water and it becomes way better than normal water.

I used to boil my water, but then I saw the light. Unboiled water might be slightly worse than boiled water. But Coke is like 100x worse, and I drink that stuff like water!

Toronto’s Humane Society President Tim Trow was arrested during a surprise raid.

After reading a couple of the articles on the matter, it seems like the guy is guilty of “NOT killing suffering animals”. There was something wrong with their policies on Animal Euthanasia.

When to put down an animal is a very sensitive subject. How much suffering must an animal be going through before it is justified? How do you measure how much the animal is actually suffering? In some cases, an animal may be asking or even begging to be put down, yet it is illegal.

Getting arrested was a little extreme. I don’t think the current Humane Society administration is doing that bad of a job. They are overloaded with animals that no one cares about. If people actually cared so much about the animal’s suffering, why don’t they just adopt them? Because…the majority of the people don’t care. They would rather go out to a dog breeder or pet store and buy premium pure bred dogs.

If I were in charge of the Humane Society…
We would have monthly cleansing programs. At the end of every month, whatever is left in the cages would be destroyed. If you are not a fan of feeding the poor, then we bury all the bodies in the same hole. Whoever cares enough to save these animals facing imminent death, please come adopt them about 1 week before the end of the month. But don’t worry if you are late, there will be a new shipment next month.

Fire the overpaid vets and force them to be overpaid doctors. Because there is actually a shortage of human doctors. (Really, try to find a new family doctor and you will see what I mean.)

Unfortunately, I am probably the worse of them all. I am just a downright animal hater! When I see people walking around with a dog, I see people carrying a loaded gun which they have no control over. If that possibly rabies infected dog suddenly jumps at your neck, what can you do to protect yourself? It’s not like you can walk around with your finger on the pepper spray trigger. And if you kick the killer dog, you are going to be hanging with Tim Trow in jail!

Canada was told to stop using a batch of swine flu vaccines. They also declined to say how many doses have already been administered.

Let’s take a look at the numbers:
- The batch contains 170,000 doses.
- 1 in 20,000 get anaphylactic reactions. 5x higher than the 1 in 100,000 that was expected.

Logic tells us that they need to administer at least 100,000 doses before they can figure out the 5x reaction rate. For the people that don’t believe me, here is an example:
- 20,000 injections, 1 reaction: “Now we expect the other 80,000 injections to go smoothly.”
- 50,000 injections, 3 reactions: “Something might be wrong, but is the reaction rate 6x what it should be?”
- 80,000 injections, 3 reactions: “Ok, nothing is wrong and the 2 extra cases were just unlucky”
- 100,000 injections, 5 reactions: “Darn, 2 cases might be a fluke but we can’t pull that off with 4 cases.”

Why can’t we know how many doses were already used? It seems like it should be public knowledge! There’s no shame in telling us that more than half the batch has already been administered. But how safe is a vaccine if they are at least 500% off their reaction rate guess? Note that 5 years down the road, they might find out that the vaccinated patients have an increased rate of…cancer.

My Vaccine Herding Solution
I’ll call this the “vaccine herding solution.” Simply put, you encourage all the sheep to take the vaccine as quickly as possible, while avoiding it yourself. Once the majority of people are vaccinated, they cannot carry the swine flu virus anymore and your chances of catching it are minimal. And if you were so unlucky to still catch it, what are your chances of dying from the swine flu?…probably less than your chances of dying from a coconut falling and hitting your head.

And so, the vote was in favor of the fare hike. The TTC fare price will be $3 starting in January 2010. Not much of a surprise here.

Now, I am forced to share some secret techniques that some people use to save money on TTC.

Pay the fare in dimes, nickels, and pennies
Just grab a handful and put it in the collection box. Those lazy attendants won’t stop you. For the few that do, just ask them how much you are short by. Make those guys actually do some work.

Pay with a dime instead of a token
When the change box has change and tokens, throw in a dime. I don’t need to explain this one, I’m sure everyone here has thought about it before.

Sell TTC transfers
Get a whole bunch of transfers at the subway station, and when you get to the transfer point, start selling your transfers for like $1. The people that were going to pay cash fare or use a token would gladly buy a transfer. Chances are that the bus will be late anyway, so you might as well capitalize on the waiting time.

Photocopy a TTC monthly pass
Color photocopy one of those monthly passes and put the piece of paper in an old wallet. If you want, you could also get a blank BestBuy giftcard and glue your photocopy onto the card. Flash it to the bus drivers and toll collectors and see if they notice. If you want something more high end, I hear you can get some “exact” replicas for 20 bucks.

Please note that these plans are not recommended and I don’t support such underhand tactics. I am just saying that some people might use these methods and easily get away with it. But you should definitely pay the full fare price. Cheating the system only hurts other riders, especially the ones who are willing to pay fare hikes.

TTC fares are soon to be raised to $3, with no planned increase in service. The Torontonians are furious and plan to protest! The plan is to NOT take the TTC on Nov 13, 2009. With enough people boycotting the TTC on that day, it will let them know of our dissatisfaction and spark debate over this highly controversial fare hike. Join the 6000+ others who will not take this sitting down (on a TTC seat) If you have nothing better to do, get involved and come to the Fare Discussion Meeting.

Nov 13, 2009 – Fare Protest
Nov 19, 2009 – Fare Discussion Meeting
Jan 3, 2010 – New Fare Effective Date

I am attending this event, though it is going to be as useless as trying to bargain with an automated token dispenser. In fact, they already reduced the number of tokens you can buy at one time. You’re only allowed to buy 5 tokens, instead of the usual 10, because they are worried about people hoarding tokens. People are buying lots of tokens and they “don’t” want that? The only reason I can think of is that fare hike has already been decided and the “fare meeting” is merely there to pretend they are listening.

TTC has a monopoly on the only cheap method of transportation. They could raise the fare to $4 and nobody can do anything about it. Let’s face it, the majority of TTC riders are poor, being more environmentally friendly, or reducing traffic congestion. As long as it is cheaper than owning a car or taking a taxi, people are going to take the TTC regardless of the price.

The government should just tax gasoline another 2%. Less drivers means less traffic, less smog, less potholes to fix, remaining drivers get to their destinations faster, and more money to the TTC. The TTC union should also be abolished and everyone with an over-sized paycheck takes a pay cut or a pink slip. The bus drivers get paid close to what they deserve, but the fare collectors can easily be replaced by a McDonald’s cashier for 1/3 the wage. As for the people running the whole thing, they should all be fired and replaced by people who actually care and are willing to take up the position for minimal salary.

They changed the name of my favorite airport in Toronto. It used to be call the Island Airport, or the City Center Airport. Now it is known as the great Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport. This change took place on November 10, 2009.

It is named after William Avery Bishop, the top Canadian pilot from World War 1. Apparently they guy is pretty famous, as this is the second airport he has named after him. The new name is quite catchy, but a bit long. I think I’m just going to call them Pearson Airport and Bishop Airport from now on.