IN THE NEWS

Rule of thumb on Pakistan: never try to predict anything

Al-Jazeera’s Imran Khan is filing some incredible stories out of Pakistan in regards to the current anti-terrorist operation and exodus of refugees. Here’s another of a town that attempted to take on the Taliban on its own. Surprise! It’s amazing to see the pendulum swing of support to the government’s side in such a short period of time. Such is Pakistan, about as predictable as a minefield. Who would have thought that a Pakistani newspaper would shout out a headline like “Crush ‘em!” in support of the army? Kudos to Gen. Kiyani for managing to appear in the headlines for the right reasons. If Zardari’s plan of negotiating a peace agreement only to show Pakistanis that militants don’t honour them was actually intended, then I guess he can have a biscuit too.

Speaking of Pakistan, Wasim Akram tips the team to win the Twenty20 World Cup in England this summer. Thanks Wasim, except for the fact that I’d rather swine flu reach this team before any whiff of expectation. If someone could hypnotize them into thinking these were all a bunch of pointless charity matches, they’d win the whole damn thing without blinking.

Toronto the good, the bad, and the ugly

“The Beaches” is now changed to the more straight-forward “The Beach”, marked by the first of Toronto’s new street signs. Now whenever we say “I’m going to the beach” we can have that awkward exchange of “No no, THE beach” “What beach though?!”. This is what happens when you put the decision to name an area to that area’s residents. Good job guys. Back to the signs though.. can those things look any more sterile and plastic? This city’s aesthetics are so conservative and sterile, it grosses me out sometimes. What’s the point of showing off a diverse city when we can’t even commit to diverse street signs?

Toronto chief of police Bill Blair’s brilliant handling of the Tamil street protests of 2009 has landed him a five-year extension. Love to see the good guy get his reward.

To end on a sad note, one of this country’s greatest architects, Arthur Erickson, passed away on Wednesday. Check out this brief gallery the Toronto Star put together of some his work.

NOT IN THE NEWS

What’s one way to make public transportation more attractive? Turn the bus stops into crazy-looking futuristic thingies that you feel cool just standing in. Yee.

What do you do when you find like $8 million CDN in your bank account by accident? JUST TAKE IT AND GO. Sometimes you just gotta take the low road. And yes, I did mean to do that in the Russell Peters voice. :)

I thought this court’s ruling was amusing on the significance of Facebook friends. “Indeed, “friendships” on Facebook may be as fleeting as the flick of a delete button.”

Loved this brilliant ad illustrating the power of the Internet in bringing human rights abuses to light. Ogilvy has some creative mofos working at their joints.

Wish you knew when a good time was to head to the washroom during a movie? Set your watch and note the time from this brilliant little website.

And finally, I freaking hate it when I copied something, forgot about it, then copied something else and lost my first copy forever AND EVER. Luckily I found THIS. Bless programmers who just want to make this world a little happier.

Also just haaad to post this highly inappropriate video just because the girl’s voice is so freaking cute. I hate the preview images on these YouTube videos too. Like right now this looks like a softcore porn site. Oh well, nothing worse than whatever’s in a Bollywood movie. Dude’s dancing is pretty epic too, won’t lie.

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

Doors Open Toronto is this weekend. Lots of great opportunities to walk into buildings you normally wouldn’t (or even be allowed to).

UFC 98. I have a birthday party that night so I might have to pull some scams to watch this one live. Otherwise I’ll just ignore all of my text messages and download it once I get home.

The Canadian Pakistanis for the Arts are having their first meeting on Sunday afternoon in Oakville, which I will probably attend. Let me know if you’d like more information.

Mmmmkthxbai,

Popularity: 8% [?]