Some in this city believe they’re the “envy” of the rest of Canada.
City bureaucrats will fan out across Toronto this summer to analyze the angle of the sun at different times of the day, measure the amount of direct or reflected sunlight and assess the “quantity and usability” of shade in parks, playgrounds and pools.
The “shade audits” are part of a pilot project authorized by city council this week that could soon result in Toronto regulating shade.
As a casual visitor to Tranna ( forced, not by choice ) I cannot believe what that place has devolved into. Many who live downtown never see the light of day because they live in condos that are directly connected to a rabbit-like warren that takes them to the subway. There they disembark and ride the elevator to their workplace. Shopping for groceries etc. can also be done underground. What a way to live!!
As an exemplification of the Tranna’s citizens attitude, I recently had to meet with a mid-level official from a Federal Government Agency on an issue of a criminal nature. She refused to leave the city for this meeting ( out of Tranna was the main venue for this issue ) as she stated she would not feel safe going outside of the city.
Jesus in a Jazz band!!
toemax
“””””Wouldn’t be complete study, we also need to know how many times there will be a lunar eclipse in Toronto.”””””
it’d be better if they did a LOONEY eclipse study
Malcolm many natives of Turona have never been outside the city limits, then again they think they are the center of the Universe.
Now I’m a suspicious person, perhaps this shade retarded stuff is just a guise to get our little girls to wear Burkas and viola shade problem solved? There are parts of Turona that are totally and completely Islamic Enclaves, scary stuff.
Toronto is NOT Canada.
It’s just a collection of multiculti ghettoes where 52% of the population did not even live in Canada 13 years ago.
It’s the perfect legacy of Trudeau’s open door immigration policy — and they mostly vote Liberal.
When it’s hot and sticky here in the City that Many Love To Hate, the smog covering is more than enough shade.
Since so many like to diss Toronto, do you at least loathe the Leafs and support the only teams that matters, the Montreal Canadiens???
This is silly. Clearly a revenue neutral sunlight tax or a cap and trade system is required here. Provinces that have a sunlight excess can purchase shade credits from large centers that have extra shade. This won’t actually reduce the amount of sunlight provinces like Saskatchewan horde, but it is revenue neutral so it’s okay. Okay!
I guess Mr..Burns was on to something, socialists like Lisa Simpson must let the private sector take its natural course, and it will solve problems like excess sunlight because the market will demand it.
GYM: “it’d be better if they did a LOONEY eclipse study”
…bingo! Did you also get my mushroom study double entendre? You know, kept in the dark, fed lots of, uh, stuff.
Sorta like GIGO.
On the very rare occasions I ponder Toronto. The Single biggest image I have of is a monster slowly like lava, eating up Southern Ontario entire. On great urine drenched concrete habitat for indigents. The suburbs where once cities, now just gated communities if there lucky. If not its Bum land for them as well.
As well pictures of poor immigrants dance in my head like old flicks of NY tenant buildings & sweat shops. Call it multicultural than like magic you have “Toronto the Pure”. Pure BS of course.
Anybody out there remember Rae Days? The whole frickin’ PROVINCE used to be run by these Dipper imbeciles. Now at least we’ve got them walled up in Hogtown.
When skin cancers are discussed in the MSM, the vast majority are the totally harmless basal cell carcinomas and a smaller fraction are squamous cell carcinomas which can spread to the rest of the body so they need to be taken seriously. What never seems to get any press is that the chances of one developing melanoma is inversely proportional to sun exposure and most melanomas occur on non-sun exposed areas of skin. Most patients I see are concerned about melanomas.
Vitamin D is the key factor here and, unless you happen to live in a sunny part of the country not yet influenced by the sunscreen lobby (like the southern interior where I now practice) you have a 90% chance of being Vitamin D deficient. In Vancouver I was amazed at the number of patients who I found to have undetectable Vitamin D levels and I’ve given up measuring them in anyone at my new practice location if they looked tanned as they were about 3-4X higher than Vancouver levels.
Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with a host of cancers and increased pain sensitivity (which is likely why I have a fraction of the requests for narcotic painkillers now than I did in Vancouver). The only reason for someone to use sunscreen is if they are unable to tan or if they are worried about photoaging of the skin. In that case they should take a minimum of 2000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily.
People with dark skin need a lot more sun exposure than people with white skin and this is the reason that black men have double the rate of prostate cancer in Canada compared to Africa.
What struck me as very absurd is that when I’d ask people in Vancouver if they regularly used sunscreen, the answer was inevitably yes (even if it was overcast and threatening to rain outside). In my southerin interior sunny practice of the moment I’ve found a total of 3 people (out of >1000) who admit to using sunscreen. Interestingly, I used to see a lot more skin cancers in Vancouver.
From the results of the vote on sunshelters of the TO city council one can infer that about 93% of TO city councillors are morons. Is this representative of the overall population?
Why can’t they just wear a mask like I do?? Seriously, I spent some time in Australia. They have a “UV Rating” on shades. That was 5 years ago!! And TORONTO thought they had the patent on smoked glass!! Ha Ha !!
Is there no end to stupid.
No, but massive tax cuts might limit it.
Toronto becomes more hilarious as time passes.
Good place to boycott.
I have a proposal for Toronto City Council that would immediately double the amount of shade that every female Tranna resident generates.
It sounds as though the council of the center of the known universe is on to something.
You may have read a story about Orpheus in the underworld.
One description of the Elysian Fields was that there was peace and harmony and the deceased wandered about the fields without worry hither and yon.
In one story, Orpheus pronounced that the permanent shade as it were, was, though depressing to him and that one day in the upper world was worth a thousand in the underworld, it did not matter to the residents.
Seems some apparatchiks and bureaucrats have endless source of ‘sheet’ to throw around willy-nilly in hope that politicians catch some, which politicians will invariably do, to be seen as advanced, even if advanced in their collective ‘sheet’.
The next step should be to have playgrounds in something like empty home depot store or maybe underground by the local subway stops, that should be a lifetime job for a few thousand in the bellybutton of the universe.
It would employ potentially the whole city since the children would grow up to be depressed by the shade and darkness and of course would need social programs to make them happy even if for a fleeting moment at a time. They, the children of course would need various and sundry other services that obviously Alberta could afford to supply.
Oh crap. If Calgary alderman Druh Farrell sees this, she is immediately going to demand a shade audit here. This looniness is exactly her cup of tea and to her anything that’s good for Toronto is good for Calgary (thanks to youse guys, we are going to lose our Weed n Feed too).
Loki, thanks for your comments about Vitamin D. Canadians can’t possibly get all they need from sunshine and the amount in milk is negligible. I have put my whole family on Vitamin D – only 1000 iu’s per day but now I am going to have every one increase to 2000. Growing up, I was taught that in anything but minuscule amounts, Vitamin D was toxic. But not as toxic as city councils (and I don’t think it matters where you live).
“Toronto is NOT Canada.”
Sadly, this has become true. Thirty years ago I used to enjoy visiting Toronto. Now, on the rare occasion I find myself there, I don’t even recognize it. This Miller guy must be a real freak!
Seachange, if you live somewhere sunny and your family is out for >30 minutes/day sans sunscreen, you don’t need Vitamin D in the summer. Definately something to take from October to April though. When buying vitamin D, make sure it is D3. Most vitamin suppliers have stopped selling vitamin D2 (which can be toxic if you take too much and is also the form of vitamin D in milk). If a Vitamin D bottle is not labelled as D3 don’t buy it. I personally take 2000 IU of D3 daily but the amount is very individual and I’ve seen patients whose vitamin D blood levels haven’t budged after a few months of 2000 IU of D3 daily. There’s a minority medical opinion that people might need 10,000 IU daily, but I’d suggest getting frequent monitoring of blood 25 hydroxy vitamin D levels for anyone who decides to go to that dose. The cod liver oil that a previous generation used to get contained a generous dose of Vitamin D3.
Thanks, Loki! That is really helpful advice and I hope all readers here will also take heed. I checked and the stuff I have is D3 – a combination of dumb luck and a responsible pharmacy – and I am grateful to you for advising me about it. We’ll stick to the winter months with it.
I was definitely a victim of cod liver oil but, ingenious as my mother was in hiding it, I learned several even more ingenious ways to avoid it!
Thanks again.
Maybe McGuinty and Dion can come up with a UV tax.
If the council simply mandated bicycle helmets covered in tin foil for pedestrians, several problems could be solved at the same time:
1. An increase in shade.
2. A reduction in global warming by reflecting those evil sun rays.
3. Reduction in head injuries caused to pedestrians by cars.
4. The alian thought rays will also be stopped along with the evil Sun Rays.
With the addition of a propellor and generator on the hat, a significant renewable source of electricity will be created.
Rob C, yes I heard about that outbreak of gun-club vendettas.
Thanks for the info Loki. Much appreciated.
Regards,
Pat
A UV tax? Shhh! Don’t give ’em any ideas. Late to the thread here, but a SHADE audit?? I think we’ve stumbled onto the real reason the Leafs haven’t made the finals in 40 years. If you wear the jersey, you’re admitting that you represent this booby hatchery.
Sir Noel Coward was wrong: not just “Mad Dogs and Englishmen” go out in the mid-day sun.”
Nope, Toronto bureaucrats do it too. And, judging from their madness, they’ve definitely spent too much time in it.
It won’t be long until it will be mandatory for all children, both male and female living in Toronto to wear burkas. If it saves just one childs life. (sigh)
Just returned from a wedding this past weekend in Kansas City and boy was it hot there with a strong sun beating down. The american heartland was a wonderful place to visit with a clean, graffiti free downtown with wonderful restaurants, parks and pubs. Our hosts were from a large farming family whose matriarch just passed away at 104, still sharp as a tack. Lots of kids of all ages at the wedding of over 300 people, which was refreshing to see.
All the older daughters reaching into their 80’s had beautiful pale skins as they all avoided the sun during the hotest part of the summer by dressing for it. Everyone looked healthy and were some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. Family came first and it showed. Some of the guys looked like farmers with wrinkled necks as they worked hard on their huge farms.
Drove around a bit and was impressed. Out here America looks prosperous and strong. Nobody I spoke to liked Obama as they were strong Republicans and hated socialists.
Great contrast with leftist Toronto, would have loved to see these farmers and hard working business people’s expression on our councillors trying to regulate shade, unreal.
Yeah, Toronto sucks! We’re awesome!
Nevermind that the notion of a shade audit was pioneered and is widely used in Australia and NZ, who know a thing or two about skin cancer, as a small but valuable part of much broader cancer strategies. Forget that it’s been refined and used by such a-hole losers as the Canadian Cancer Society, the American Cancer Society, the CDC, the National School Board Association, etc. Ignore that virtually all urban parks in N. America were/are created through deliberate landscape design, including conscious planning of shade canopies (NYC’s Central Park, the most frequently used city park on the continent, being but one prominent example).
Who cares?! Free opportunity to bash “socialist” Toronto? Time to get our hate on!
“Just returned from a wedding this past weekend in Kansas City”
Go Chief Go
ESP alert….
Brett Favre is traded to Kansas City; or, Brett Farve returns to GB and Aaron Rogers is traded to KC for Brody Croyle.
“Nevermind that the notion of a shade audit was pioneered and is widely used in Australia and NZ”
If Australia and NZ jumped off a bridge…
Hmmm, now I am confused, why would a Country that has 6 – 8 months Winter want to regulate Sunshine ?
,
People,people. C’mon!! All that they are doing is making sure there is enough shade for the “Religion of Peace” followers when they demand burkhas of all the females in TO. You know. Sorta like the frogs did for the Nazis in Pareee!!!
Regulating the amount of sun striking anything is absurd, except a negative.
A source of a certain vitamin.
Has benficial properties to alter bowel disease.
I just do not get it.