The success of and interest in Toronto breweries has taken off as the push to eat and buy local food has branched into the beverage industry. With big names like Steam Whistle and Mill St. battling it out with emerging brands like Great Lakes, the industry is seriously booming in this city.

What is this? Is it: a. an underground moon base; b. a strange Japanese children's TV programme; c. two vacuum-cleaner attachments in a pistol duel, or; d. the new design for Steeles West Station on the Spadina subway extension?

Today's Events

For the second year in a row, readers of the alt-weekly that we have never written anything critical about, not even once, have voted Torontoist Toronto's Best Blog. Aw shucks, NOW readers, thanks. We accept.

Wuh-hoa! Fans of top-notch investigative reporting need not look any further than the Star's front page, above the fold, today. The newspaper has apparently managed to get its hands on a classified photo of Omar Khadr in Afghanistan that appears to exonerate the Guantanamo Bay detainee and former child soldier in the murder of American soldier Christopher Speer. The magic photo itself, however, is conspicuously missing from the Star's coverage, which might raise a few eyebrows. Will this be enough to change Ottawa's longstanding policy of being cool with letting Khadr rot in an inhumane prison and then go to hell? If today's story holds together, there's bound to be some heat on the government—but maybe Stephen can cool things down with another Beatles cover.

CITIES: Artscape, MaRS, the Martin Prosperity Institute, and the City of Toronto have collaborated to create the Creative Places + Spaces conference (on today and tomorrow)—apropos, since this year’s theme is all about the power of creative collaboration. The conference begins this morning with two very exciting keynote speeches: Richard Florida discussing the collaborative city and the global shifts that are shaping future economies, and Sir Ken Robinson presenting ways of making collaboration a habit to ensure successful innovation. The two will then sit down together for a panel discussion. The day closes with an hour-long schmooze session reception. The Carlu (444 Yonge Street, 7th floor); 9 a.m.–6:30 p.m.; $350 (full day package), $150 (student full package), $95 ("Brown Bag" pass—balcony only).

Here's my question—since the rush-hour crowding at St. George is verging on the very dangerous, why not put the moving sidewalks back in at Spadina and promote the use of Spadina as a transfer station?

Wanted: a good home for a down-on-its-luck newspaper box for a defunct newspaper. It's been living on the streets for five months and deserves to reside inside a warm house with a loving family during the coming winter.

It's sick season again, but in the wake of scary-sounding names like swine flu and H1N1, there is increased skepticism around the subject of vaccination. Anti-vaccination activists claim that the materials used in vaccines may cause autism, Guillain-Barré syndrome, and even—in the case of the HPV vaccine—cervical cancer, and that their widespread promotion is motivated by corporate profiteering. Vaccination proponents say that the fear-mongering anti-vaccination campaigns are rooted in bad science and misinformation, and that the increasing hysteria is leaving schools and workplaces alarmingly vulnerable to serious, often life-threatening diseases. In some facilities, like hospitals, seasonal vaccination is mandatory, and while the vast majority of medical and science professionals say that the safety of vaccination is not even worth debating, there are still people who are convinced that vaccines are nothing but trouble.

Toronto's undead community is set to rise up for the second time in less than seven days.

Today's Events

There are many of you who have been following the whole illegal-signs debate raging though our (not so) newly amalgamated city on the edge of your seats. Really; it's terribly riveting. Okay, so for those of you who haven't, we covered it in quite some detail here. And here. And we even gave it a Nuit Blanche slant here, because that's just how we roll. Anyway, it looks as though City Hall has released the final draft of their new sign by-law and billboard tax. This basically means that all illegal signs (and billboards without permits) will enjoy some pretty hefty fines. Which, in theory, and like many by-laws, means that Toronto stands to make a serious killing if they'd only go after the myriad perps responsible for this blight upon our fair city. In theory, communism works. In theory.