Brass Eye is hilarious, and available online [Sound of Young America via Good Evening]

Ruffians to annoying kids listening to music on the TTC: use headphones, or get yourself stabbed. [CBC]

Prius too small as T.O. limo - "Green Limousine Inc., can currently operate [its] "green" limo service in Ajax and Pickering, but not in Toronto, where a bylaw that stipulates vehicle size, trunk space and passenger legroom restricts the use of the most popular and energy-efficient hybrid cars." [Toronto Star]

The facade of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheium is cracking like crazy [New York Times via Kottke]

Ontario to ban 'old' lightbulbs - "The Ontario government said Wednesday it plans to ban the current bulbs and what it calls other inefficient lighting technologies by 2012 in an effort to reduce the province's electricity consumption and lower the greenhouse gases that cause global warming." [Toronto Star]

Why do we live in houses, anyway? - "The idea of urban houses spread to the British Isles thanks to England's strong commercial and cultural links with the Netherlands. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Britain adopted the row house in many guises, as Georgian crescent, middle-class terrace, and workingmen's row. It has been estimated that, by the beginning of the 20th century, nine out of 10 dwellings in England and Wales were row houses." [Slate]

AOL News, of all places, has obtained two one-act plays allegedly written by Virginia Tech mass-murderer Cho Seung-Hui.

Couch Entitlement - "Although men in many rich countries do not work less than women, they do enjoy about 20 to 30 minutes more leisure per day (over an hour more in Italy) because they spend less time on sleep and other biological necessities. Men spend almost all of this additional leisure time watching television" [Slate]

The Kaye Effect

Most Azuredly

Azure is an art, architecture, and design magazine published in Toronto (but with international coverage). Based on the website, it looks promising; however, with teasers instead of full articles, it's hard to say for sure.

Woah

Officials: Gunman dead after bloody campus rampage - "At least 33 people, including a gunman, were killed Monday during shootings in a dorm and a building housing classrooms at Virginia Tech, university officials said... The killings mark the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, surpassing attacks at Columbine High School in 1999 and at the University of Texas in 1966" [CNN]

Let it all hang out

"This Thursday is [US] National Hanging Out Day, a project which aims to promote energy conservation by encouraging you to hang the laundry out to dry. By simply switching to solar and wind power, using a highly unique infrastructural improvement called a 'clothesline,' it is estimated the U.S. could trim 3-4% of it's energy usage overnight." [The Examining Room of Dr. Charles via ScienceBlogs]

To Fight Global Warming, Some hang a Clothesline - "That simple decision to hang a clothesline, however, catapults me into the laundry underground. Clotheslines are banned or restricted by many of the roughly 300,000 homeowners’ associations that set rules for some 60 million people. When I called to ask, our Rolling Hills Community Association told me that my laundry had to be completely hidden in an enclosure approved by its board of directors...

Looking for fellow clothesline fans, I came across the Web site of Alexander Lee, a lawyer and 32-year-old clothesline activist in Concord, N.H. [who] sponsors an annual National Hanging Out Day on April 19. He plans to string a clothesline at the State House in Concord, N.H., this Saturday as part of a Step It Up 2007 rally on climate change, where he will hang T-shirts and sheets with the slogan “Hang Your Pants. Stop the Plants.” " [New York Times]

Landlord licensing in works to force fixes at 'appalling' apartments - "Moscoe said he plans to introduce a licensing scheme to force landlords to clean up their buildings based on the model followed for restaurants.'We inspect restaurants periodically. If there's a problem, it gets inspected monthly until it gets cleaned up,' said Moscoe." [CBC]

Lenders Sought Edge Against U.S. in Student Loans - "In a fierce contest to control the student loan market, the [US]’s banks and lenders have for years waged a successful campaign to limit a federal program that was intended to make borrowing less costly by having the government provide loans directly to students." [New York Times]

Rental realities - "The tenant reports posted on a new ratings website suggest that some Toronto apartments are crawling with unsought guests, guileful supers and nightmarish neighbours." [Globe and Mail]

Toronto Life Acquires Naming Rights to Downtown Toronto Entertainment Complex - "The new world-class entertainment complex opening in downtown Toronto will be named Toronto Life Square. Developed by PenEquity Management Corporation and referred to as Metropolis during initial construction, the multi-use complex is scheduled to open in phases, beginning fall 2007." [CCN Matthews (press release)]

U of T to divest $10-million in tobacco stock - "As of Dec. 31, 2005, the school's investment arm held about $10.5-million of tobacco industry stock, investments that included $4.6-million in Japan Tobacco, $4.5-million in Altria Group Inc., and $1.4-million in Rothmans Inc." [Globe and Mail]

Will it blend? Glow sticks!

MMPissed off / PR me a river

This column by Ian Urquhart ran in dozens of local papers owned by the Star today:

Electoral reform: The good, the bad, the ugly - "Last weekend, the citizens' assembly on electoral reform, which has been meeting regularly with little or no press scrutiny, voted to back an electoral system called "mixed member proportional," or MMP. The system is used in Germany, New Zealand, and a few other places..." [Toronto Star]

Despite the headline and a few rhetorical flourishes at the start and finish, the article is really just a one-sided review of all of the potential drawbacks of an MMP system with absolutely no reflection on the flaws of the present system. It pains me to say this, because his reporting on many other aspects of provincial politics is usually pretty solid, but I swear he's written exactly the same anti-electoral reform screed at least a dozen times in the past few years, adopting the same pretense of dispassionate analysis each time. Here's another recent piece on the citizens' aseembly; most of the others I'm thinking of are hidden inside The Star's pay-for-access archive.

I wish I knew more about Mr. Urquhart's personal political views, because my working theory is that partisan Liberals and Conservatives are pleased as punch with the status quo because, even though they may lose and have no power whatsoever, the promise of eventually having total power on the basis of a minority popular vote share is just too tantalizing a possibility. New Democrats, just as obviously, are sick of being marginalized as "fringe" radicals despite the substantial support of the public.

The overall impression one gets from his clippings on the subject is that, like a few other people I know, he is perfectly willing to admit and accept that first-past-the-post is undemocratic; but, what the heck, it sure is convenient and stable! He also fears the decline of "broad based" (read: brokerage, rule-at-any-cost, promise-whatever-it-you-must, i.e. Liberal and Conservative) parties in favour of "fringe" (read: issue-based, principle-driven) parties, and then audaciously claims that minority coalition government is an "oxymoron" despite decades of solid historical counterexample from countries using various forms of PR.

I'm sick of hearing the establishment viewpoint echo back and forth in the press, tempered only by a few dissenting letters to the editor. Wouldn't it be more interesting to find out what the majority of Ontarians -- the disaffected, cynical, politics-is-just-BS crowd that grows bigger every year (for good reason!) -- think about the relative merits of illegitimate yet convenient winner-take-all majorities versus highly representative but tricky and compromise-producing minorities? Or for serious, informed debate on the subject from expert scholars who've devoted their professional lives to the topic?

If people who have seriously weighed the issues were given a public platform, rather than written off as naive, unrealistic wonks, electoral reform might have a chance. But of course, that's not the point. Ontario's Liberals, just like BC's Liberals, designed the citizens' assembly process to fail. With the help of this sort of punditry, it almost certainly will.

Pranktastic

Most years, ThinkGeek wins the trophy for cleverest April Fools gag. This year, they pushed out an email full of BS products, including this stellar widget ("SnūzNLūz"):

People who enjoy sleeping in are cowering in fear all across the globe - it's finally true, when you snooze, you lose! The principle is simple. The SnuzNLuz securely connects via WiFi to your online bank account, and donates YOUR real money to an organization you HATE when you decide to snooze! [more]

This is actually a really, really good alarm clock idea. Better, even, than the design school thesis-type prototypes that bubble up now and then, like the alarm clock that rolls off your bedside table and under the bed so you have to chase it to turn off the siren, or the one that dangles from a string above your bed and winds it self up higher and higher with each successive snooze until you have to physically climb out of bed.

Edit: Neat, Gizmodo agrees.

More pedestrian Sundays!

Spacing says Kensington's wicked awesome Pedestrian Sundays concept is having two babies: one named Baldwin, and another called Mirvish.

This is great news. I had never been to Baldwin Street before Dave started working there, and now it's one of my favourite parts of the city. The hippy factor there is a little lower than in Kensington, but still pretty substantial. As for Mirvish, well, I'll reserve judgment for now.