TORONTO, Aug. 26 /CNW/ - Today Toronto city Council passed a recommendation to increase arts funding to $25 per capita by 2013. This should result in 17.5 million dollars in additional yearly investment by 2013.
This city building decision was made possible by the hard fought billboard tax initiated in 2001 by Beautifulcity.ca -- but goes above and beyond the projected revenue. The effort was also boosted forward by an unfulfilled council decision from 2003 from the Culture Plan and recent studies showing the critical importance of increased investment in arts and culture in Toronto.
Devon Ostrom, founder of the Beautifulcity. Alliance stated: "This is an amazing day in Toronto's development. Council has fulfilled the obligation to leverage the revenue from the billboard tax revenue into the arts, build a vibrant cultural capital, put food in the fridges of thousands of artists and has given a voice to hundreds of under-served communities across the city."
Regarding the upcoming election, co-coordinator Sabra Ripley noted that, "Almost all of the front-running mayoral candidates have endorsed using the billboard tax to rejuvinate the arts and cultural industries in this city. The next step is to get out and vote, encourage others to do the same and elect arts friendly, city building politicians to make sure this decision sticks."
/ Save the Date!
Mayoral Arts Debate - Wednesday, September 29- AGO 7pm - 8:30pm Presented by Business for the Arts, in partnership with ArtsVote Toronto, the Toronto Arts Council, the AGO and Manifesto
For further information:
/ Inquiries
Sabra@beautifulcity.ca | 4169998903
julia@beautifulcity.ca | 4169281978
devon@beautifulcity.ca | skype: devon.ostrom
2010/08/04
NYC Subway Colors & Names video
Ever wonder why the A train is blue on the map but the 6 train is green?
Or why you never see an F train on a 2 train platform?
Once you learn the method behind MTA subway colors and names, the map will never look the same.
VIA
LeTrics
2010/08/02
My kind of dogs
^click images to enlarge^
Russian scientists say that Moscow stray dogs became much smarter. The four legged oldest human’s friends demonstrate real smartness such as riding the Moscow metro every morning to get from their suburban places of living to the fat regions of Moscow center. Once they arrive to the downtown they demonstrate different new, previously unseen for the dog skills. Those skills can include “the hunt for shawarma” for example, the popular among Muscovites eastern cuisine dish. This hunt scene can be seen as this:
Regular Moscow busy street with some small food kiosks. A middle-aged man buys himself a piece of hot fast food and walks aside chewing it without a rush. Then just in a second he jumps up frightened - some doggy has sneaked up on him and barked out loudly. His tasty snack falls out from his hands down to the ground and the dog gets it. Just ten minutes later, on the same place, the teen youngster loses his dinner in exactly the same manner. The modern Russian dogs are on their urban hunt.
“This method of ambushing people from their back is widely exercised by Moscow dogs”, saying A. Poiarkov, working in Ecology and Evolution Institute of Moscow. “The main point here is to define who would drop the food scared and who won’t, but the dogs are great psychologists they can do it better than us”.
Moscow ecologists think that dogs started acquiring this habits in 1990s, when the Soviet union collapsed and Moscow has fell into the hands of new class of Russian capitalists. They understood the true value of the downtown realty underestimated by previous Communist owners and became removing all the industrial complexes Moscow had in its centre to its outskirts. Those places were used by homeless dogs as a shelter often, so the dogs had to move together with their houses, so they had to learn how to travel Moscow subway - first to get to the centre in the morning then back home in the evening, just as us people.
The commercial revolution of Moscow made their usual feeding places like trash bins out of direct reach, so they had to get to know new ways of getting their piece of food. That’s how appeared those “Shawarma hunts”. Sometimes though they use more gentle methods. Young girl sits on the bench to eat her hot dog - a big cute looking dog appears from the surrounding bushes and puts her head on her knees. The girl can’t help herself sharing the hotdog with a dog.
Among some more amazing skill those Moscow dogs are the ability not to miss their stop while going on the subway train. Biologists say dogs have very nice sense of time which helps them not to miss their destination. Another skill they have is to cross the road on the green traffic light. “They don’t react on color, but on the picture they see on the traffic light”, Moscow scientist tells. Also they choose often the last or the first metro car - those are less crowded usually.
It’s funny but the ecologists studying Moscow stray dogs also tell the dogs don’t miss a chance to get some play while on their travel in the subway. They are fond of jumping in the train just seconds before the doors shut closed risking their tails be jammed. “They do it for fun, just they have enough food”, they conclude.
VIA
English Russia
and
SkyScraperCity
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