Results tagged “rice”

       

There was a movie that played at Hot Docs called Reporter. It was about Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times columnist who globetrots to the sites of the world's worst humanitarian disasters in an effort to provide original reporting that will draw attention to crises of which very few people are aware. Most interestingly, Kristof stays up to date on all the latest psychology literature on the subject of compassion; he is obsessed with crafting stories that will move his readers to action. Anyone can write something that will prompt people to respond "oh, that's a shame" before moving on; it takes a special talent to rouse a readership to demand change or intervention or support. What has been concluded from various experiments is that humans' innate capacity for sympathy is extremely limited: we are more likely to be affected by the suffering of an individual than that of a group. Kristof therefore tends to focus on very particular tales of one person's exceptional affliction.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

It's Boxing Day! Go spend money! If you don't, Canada's economy will suffer and it will all be your fault! You probably don't even own all the seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD yet, do you? You slacker.

Microsoft has agreed to buy 1.6% of Facebook for $240,000,000, giving the social networking site a valuation of around $15 billion. The deal is good for both parties, with Bill Gates finally hanging out with the cool kids, and 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg getting to throw an awesome kegger.

Brooklyn indie buzz band Bishop Allen play Lee's Palace this Thursday night. Their music is infectiously catchy with great pop hooks. If you're looking for a frame of reference, one music blogger described their sound as "a mix of the brainy lyrics of The Talking Heads and the stripped-down guitar work of the Violent Femmes." Their records are on regular rotation on the iPods of several Torontoist staffers. We can't get enough of them.

Our title this week of course refers to Catch and Release, a film which has been so endlessly trailered on TV (and we don’t even watch that much) that Torontoist feels like we could recite the whole bloody film right now. “The man I was going to marry is dead! I’m sitting wearing my wedding dress and moping – it’s a girl thing! Kevin Smith is fat and talentless, but friends with Ben Affleck so he can be in this! I’ve fallen in love with you now, sexy and stereotypical unshaven male lead! The End!”

Starting today, you must have a passport to fly from Canada to the U.S. If you're dead set on clearing customs, it might be best to leave your anti-Bush shirts at home.

Toronto can't seem to keep its trash out of trouble. Those giant sidewalk trash bins aren't generating enough in ad revenue to honour their $1-million-a-year payout to the city, so now what? Well, bids for Toronto's street furniture contract are still being accepted. The winning companies will be supplying garbage bins, bus shelters and bike racks for no cost, but will reap the benefits of the "furniture"'s potential adspace.

Condoleezza Rice promises to "look into" why Maher Arar is still on an American terrorist watchlist. Remember when you were at work and someone at work kept stealing your yoghurt and you were pissed so you went to your supervisor and complained and he said he'd "look into" it? This is kind of like that, except Maher Arar is probably a lot less important to Condoleezza Rice than yoghurt is.

Think the World's Biggest Bookstore. Scratch that - think of a bookstore of free books that is as big as the world.

Friday, we caught the 9:15 pm show of at the Bloor Cinema.

Jane Pitfield is opening a campaign office in the Junction area, close to Mayor Miller's High Park home. Both campaigns are gearing up for the fall and raising money. Mayor Miller is going grassroots and offering anyone who puts up raises $100 for his campaign an "I <3 David Miller T-Shirt." Oh we want one of those.

Everyone goes wall-to-wall covering this weekend's arrest of 17 men on terrorism charges. The Globe plasters the fact that the alleged bombers targetted the Peace Tower in Ottawa. One of the other potential targets was the CN Tower and the Sun and CP points out that it would've been hard to topple the CN Tower. The TTC wasn't a target but the Transport minister assures us that we're all safe.

Like anyone else, Torontoist can't help but be occasionally overwhelmed by the traumatic events in other areas of the world. This week is obviously one of those occasions. Our thoughts are in Louisiana.

Torontoist will attempt to put the current state of Canadian-US foreign relations into perspective. As earlier reported, Canada’s refusal to participate in the President’s Missile Defense Shield, has led to a variety of fallouts - leaving the situation in a bit of disarray.