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Toronto to Become One Huge Hotspot
8127972 writes "The Toronto Star is reporting that Toronto Hydro is about to announce plans to make all of Toronto Canada a huge wireless hotspot. The project could go live as early as this fall and hopes to bring low cost Internet access to millions of Toronto citizens. In the process it will challenge the Canadian telcos for a share of the $8 billion (CDN) a year wireless market."
That's an awfully generous description of what government would be doing. It's the only "challenger" which has men with guns who will force people to pay, whether they use it or not. Pretty big advantage...
...just kidding - I realise it couldn't spread that far. Now, Etobicoke - *they* have something to cheer about!
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
What $8 bln CDN /yr wireless market? I live in Canada and there aren't any public wireless providers that I've heard of, though Bell/Rogers are planning to develop one. Do they mean like, cell phones? Or selling wireless routers?
I've heard that Calgary, Alberta is looking at doing the same. Various companies in town have been asked to present proposals, ranging from cellular companies, telcos, isps, and tech firms. One of the latter I'm familiar with has proposed a cisco mesh solution using new aerospace gear. The plan is to use this network for emergency services and the like, at first anyway. Streaming video form security cameras to a squad car at 120mph for example. That = challenging for 802.11.
My name is coaxeus, and I approve this message. In fact, I think it is awesome.
... and we can spy on you easier. Great.
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
Well, I spent a week in Toronto once. There were seemingly a lot of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks every night. I'm not sure there is a better social service than making sure they have wireless Internet.
Maybe it would be more efficient to say who is not going to be one giant hotspot.
I guess the CN tower kind of out does the linksys router +3dB antenna...
I guess I assumed this was a municipal project. Never mind!
So I could walk around town using my voip phone instead of a cell phone? Maybe just my PDA with a VOIP client? GoogleTalk for all local calls!? w00t!
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
I've got no knowledge in wireless networking, but to me this statement says that the wireless signal distance is no greater than the distance between five lamp posts; and that, given this, those areas without lamp posts (unpopulated areas) will not receive any coverage? Am I understanding this correctly?
In any event, it would be a luxury to visit Toronto and have wireless in populated areas.
For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother.
I didn't know they had guns in Canada...
nothing
This is the same company that went to the regulators and begged to have a "debt repayment" charge added to every consumer regardless if you were part of the original debt problem. Imagine being able to charge customers for your incompetance and making it clear you were doing so!
You may think that having Toronto as one huge hotspot, and I might even think it was cool too if these weren't true:
1. It's illegal to go off the grid.
2. I'm paying for Toronto Hydro's "debt" which consisted of millions of dollars in self-appointed executive bonuses, even when they had severly unbalanced budgets.
3. Toronto Hydro has blocked a lot of "green" ideas, every step of the way. Including subsidies to alleviate power problems.
4. We pay almost almost 10.00 per kw solar power/panel to make sure it's not a viable option.
5. Powering your house by Wind Power is illegal through "sound governance bilaws" even though the noise is quieter than an air conditioner.
6. They artificially "Froze" prices because of public pressure only to raise prices overall to MORE than it would have cost in the first place.
End Rant. Sorry, but it seems like a really cool thing, but like every other cool thing, this will come on the backs of those consumers who have no other choice but to allow them to spend money frivilously.
Yes I have options to go to "brokers", yes I have options to go "all gas", but when I investigated thouse routes, believe it or not, Toronto Hydro was the lesser of all evils.
Yo Grark
Canadian Bred with American Buttering
"Toronto to Become One Huge Hotspot"
Oh, one big "hotspot," so that's what they call them these days!
Such an odd people, those Canucks...
Disclaimer: I kid! I kid! Living within 100 miles of the border, I've learned to appreciate the exchange rate and advantages of Canadian currency in vending machines. GO CANADIAN WOMEN HOCKEY!
and look forward to discussing Curling, Beer, and Hockey with them.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
This is sooo not off-topic.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
As a corporate security guy working in Toronto, I'm not happy to read that Comrade Miller is going to make life that much more difficult for me. Thanks to this initiative, there will be a wireless network running (our building is right downtown) that users can switch to whenever they feel like accessing something that our content filters reject!
Dvorak mentioned something in one of his columns sometime last year. Philadelphia was going to create a huge hotspot until the big boys got wind of what was going on. How did they deal with it? PAC -> State Legislature -> PAC -> Governor.
Bing Bang Boom.
Any towns or cities wishing to create a hotspot has to make it known publicly and give the commercial entities some time to decide what they want to do; i.e. right of first refusal, with a fourteen month window.
This is OTTOMH, but it's very close to what was reported.
I'm waiting to see how long it takes before VOIP are put into a similar position to where they cannot economically compete and will have to sell out to standard telcos. Or, standard telcos are provided some extra benefits in order to compete. I would view the 911 issue was one of the first arrows out of the quiver. Certain exceptions aside, nearly all monopolies were the result of gov't intervention "in the olden days" - ensuring they had enough of a market to remain competitive. These people are like Microsoft: they don't want to play second fiddle to anyone under any condition.
We're going to have to deal with something similar here in Indiana. Legislation has passed permitting telcos to compete head-to-head with cable systems. The issue was never raised, as most stats are not. 95% of the households in the US with access to cable have no choice regarding which cable provider. The cable lobbies said the telcos would only go after affluent markets (well, duh!) for better features and for some reason, that's not fair. The telcos said in competitive markets, cable prices easily dropped 25%. "Why would you want to pay 25% more for what you're already getting?" Boffins will observe a 25% discount is not the same thing as a 25% increase over the 25% discount. The telcos also promised "everyone who chooses the telco option plus those who subscribe to cable when that's the only [ground] option will have lower prices". That's a heck of a guarantee. I'd love to challenge them on a panel and ask them, "If that's not the case within five years, are you willing to pull out? If not, then why did you make that promise?"
This is just one more reason I need to move to Canada. As if I needed a reason.
The author noted that the project will bring low-cost internet to millions in Toronto. Toronto has about 2.5 million people. In 2000 (latest year I could find statistics), over 60% had internet access. I would think that number would have increased substantially in the last five years. Even in the poorest 5% of homes, 10% had internet access in 2000. That's likely grown as well. Frankly, if you don't have net access in Toronto, it's probably because you don't want it. Toronto Hydro's initiative might be great for mobile computing, and could spawn some new applications, but to think that Toronto has millions of people who are starved for net access is laughable.
This is a great idea.
1. Move to Toronto
2. Fire up packet sniffer of choice
3. Sniff a few million packets full of sensitive personal and financial data
4. ???
5. Profit!
These types of stories pop up on Slashdot once in a while... "City X to implement citywide wireless". I was just wondering what other cities have announced such plans. Which ones actually have working systems today?
SlagheapFirst against the wall when the revolution comes
But will the hotspot be strong enough to reach Detroit?
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
What should we, Ontario Hydro - a Crown corporation, do with our money? Invest it into a project that looks like it could generate a lot of revenue, or should we give it all away to shelter homeless people?
Definitely homeless people!
Okay, done that. Time to get back to our wifi project! What, people living under the poverty line? Check! Abused children? Check! 5000 other interest groups? CHECK!
Wow, 500 years later, after taking care of all those poor people, we can finally move onto our wifi project? Wait, what do you mean, taxes were supposed to take care of those projects instead of the corporation's money? Damn! I wish somebody told us about this first!
Guess what bud, not every organization's priority out there is to first shelter homeless people. Should we also put all road improvement projects on the hold too until all homeless people are off the streets?
MetroFi is just completing the rollout of citywide free wireless service for
Sunnyvale, California. Here in the heart of Silicon Valley. There are no
commercial wireless offerings that I know of, so there is no loss to the
ISP industry.
Also here in Silicon Valley, dsl is slow ( phone wires are old everywhere)
cable is the only real option and there are no plans for FIOS here either.
So I say to the greedy ISP's:
Suck It!
Oh, Toronto is a hot spot. The PanChinese lands an asteriod on the city in Scardown by Elizabeth Bear.
... Now you can just pop on the WiFi network to see how badly your team is losing at any given moment! Go Sens!
I Like Pie...
Think you mean Ontario Hydro - not Toronto Hydro. TH merely bills you.
FAQ here
"... will challenge the Canadian telcos for a share of the $8 billion (CDN) a year wireless market."
So Canadian telcos will lose about 7 bucks and a nickel in US dollar.
...Dog River Saskatchewan?
I've found wireless network service in the following places:
* Rogers, Bell and Telus all offer hotspot service in addition to their cellphone service. I hooked up at a truck stop in Regina.
* West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton provides hotspot service. Some small town high schools connected to Supernet in Alberta have wireless access.
* Hotspots are provided by either telcos or Airport Authorities at international airports across Canada. I've seen service in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Toronto and Montreal airports myself so I think it's a standard thing everywhere now.
* In Alberta, there is a company called "community networks" that provides high-speed internet to farms and villages all over ther province.
Sounds like a pretty large wireless market to me...
This quip about government funded libraries was NOT meant to be taken as a serious proposition as most people seem to be taking it. The parent I original responded to implied that a government funded city wide wireless network was unfair to the competition because a government with guns forced you to pay for it even if you don't use it. I don't agree and used the example of taking away funding for public libraries to illustrate my point that such reasoning is, well, unreasonable. So lets all read a little more before jumping to conclusions, mmmmkay?
"To lead the people, you must walk behind them"
I live in a small village in Germany. Some weeks before I did a test.
I've passed all main roads with my PDA and a WiFi scanner. From around 200 hotspots (mainly home users), ~150 were were Open (no WEP or other encryption) and free to use.
Well in Yellowknife we have a wireless WiMax network provided by SSI Micro.
http://www.ssimicro.com/article20040324.php
I know... not WiFi... but it is wireless, and it does blanket the whole city.
Sounds a lot like NB Power (New Brunswick Power). The executives goof up a deal to buy Orimulsion from Venezuela, costing the company 100 billion dollars. And what happens? The executives get huge bonuses and severence pay, the company/province is billions in debt, and the consumers are expected to pay for it, to the tune of a 13.6% rate hike!
I believe in publicly run monopolies on services like power and water, but I also believe that the people in charge should be held accountable for their actions, and not be appointed there as paybacks to political favours.
Curious.. does it operate as one huge-ass LAN? Could you play a network game with your buddy across the city, using this wireless network?
That's about the most key point that I'd be interested in seeing in a citywide wireless network...
AFAIK we were the first city in NA to impliment it.
NO registration required (though you must agree to the EULA at sign on), and the city actually makes money from the ancillary services the municipal network provides to companies. A win-win in my book.
Yellowknife is considered a city because it's a capital ... though we only have like ~20,000 people... a company called SSI Micro has basically blanketed the city with WiFi...
http://www.ssimicro.com/
Yay we're on the bleeding edge North of 60!
I remember a friend of mine once told me how one of his friends got stuck in downtown Toronto (lives in a suburb called Brampton) so he ends up pan handling for some change to get home.
Turns out the money's so good he ends up staying an extra day and comes home with like $150! He was a teenager back and it's a lot of money for a teenager even by today's standards.
Getting purchasing to buy it is a different story on the other hand.
One wonders why the nation's capital, our beloved ugly-ass tourist purgatory OTTAWA, never gets these cool things. Hell, I can't even get decent 100mbit, I have to source it from Toronto.
Government here is stunting progress, because it offers a thick cushion of bureaucracy and drives the sharper minds away to.. you guessed it.. Toronto.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
8 billion CAD at today's conversion (March 6th, 2006) is: 0.877586
:)
So 8 billion x 0.877586 is: $7,020,688,000 USD just over 7 billion.
So they're going after a 7 billion USD market.
Oh, wait... that was a RED spot...
Slashdot: news from nerds.
Well, what the heck else do you expect people to do there in the winter?
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
Well, I spent a week in Toronto once. There were seemingly a lot of homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks every night. I'm not sure there is a better social service than making sure they have wireless Internet.
Seriously, Toronto is a Utopia compared to the homeless problem in Detroit. All cities have homeless people... And no amount of social services can solve the problem. Some cities need more social services though.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Is that $8 bln CDN is equivalent to about five bucks USD.
I'm not sure where you got that idea from. "Typically" implies majority. The truth is a number of homeless about equal to the mentally ill do not like shelters because they are afraid of them. (I say this from having worked at CMHA.)
Shelters aren't hotel rooms. You have 20 - 30 packed into a room (within fire limits) and you rarely get a secure locker to put your belongings in. Also, in the cases where you do, it isn't a valet. No one is there to make sure you aren't persuaded to open your locker.
The available options are quite poor. I'm not saying they need Royal York treatment here. But a better option with some high guarantees of safety will see a number going to shelters during the cold winter months. It is a measure of a society's progress when you see how cities treat their most vulnerable. Toronto does a horrible job and too many people think, 'If they just try, they'll be fine.' It is a serious problem with difficult but attainable solutions - if we want it.
Jeez, where have you been these last few years. The loonie's worth about .88 cents American.
Thus $8 Can ~ $7 U.S.
Toronto has become a very dangerous place in parts. Gang shootings are commonplace. Many within the city blame blacks from Detroit smuggling weapons in.
Whoa, when I read that headline, I thought someone had discovered an earth-impacting asteroid... Now I find it's just some boring old WiFi setup which will become congested in short order.
At least an asteroid would melt the winter snows. Wait, perhaps all that RF energy will do the same.
How is a true statement a troll?
In Pittsburgh, PA the government has been busy tossing old women into the streets and taking their homes,
all because granny can't pay for the tripled taxes and new stadiums.
The sheriff has been busy taking more homes away from
families in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006 than back when the steel mills closed.
Explain to this 5 year old boy why armed men chasing his family out of his home is 'Just a Troll'.
He lived through it.
If this were really the case, we'd see a LOT MORE people out there begging rather than working at their crappy $10/hour jobs.
You are just spreading the conservative lies that the poor on the streets are lazy scammers. They are mentally ill. Not smart. Not rich.
Meh.
...its students to stay clear of Southern Ontario because of dangerous wireless waves which will invade the brain and cause cancer.
Meh.
I live in Kitchener, which is only about 100 km out of Toronto toward Detriot and I really don't think we'll be able to get it here.
Meh.
That's a lot of money for most people in canada when you consider that's tax free. I also think how much you take home depends on what type of homeless person you are. If you're a scummy annoying person you probably don't make as much as the "seems okay" sort of person. If you play decent music you might make more too. Think the bag pipers outside the Eaton center were making a lot of money. Then again I'm not sure they were even homeless, but they looked sort of "displaced" .
I always leave some American money just to let them know "we're watching" =P
If it's in Canada, wouldn't it be called... err... a ColdSpot?
That's because of bilingualism. In order to work for the Federal Government, you have to be bilingual. This eliminates the 90% of Canadians who don't speak French. (Harper's victory meant that for the first time in FORTY YEARS we finally had a Prime Minister who wasn't from Quebec. (Joe, John and Kim notwithstanding.)) Thus, my government ends up hamstringing itself, eliminating 90% of the population from participation in the civil service. It's completely retarded.
Low cost wireless access only 10 cents a minute!!*(&@*(!! WOW
I'll beleive it when I see it when its run by one of the greediest fucked up companies in canada, the electrical companies , these places shit money and burn it, and then just charge the poor suckers who have no choice double rates for 'delivery' and whatever the fuck charges.
I don't expect it to be anything that anyone not making 80k+/year will be tempted to use, or those that are already using cell phone wireless and paying out the nose for it, it will be cheaper than cell phones, but waaaaay more expensive than say you at home connection...
P.S. FREE HOTSPOT = GOOD
overcharged fucked up shitty crap high prices HOTSPOT = BAD BAD BAD BAD as now they can fight any 'free' hotspots and say your 'stealing' from them.
There's actually money to be made based on the perception that there's not. A friend who lived near me was in his early 20's and started squeegeeing in Toronto (before it was banned). It was enough (and more fun) than his lovely job at a law office.
I'm not saying all, or even most, people are doing well for themselves, because by golly, I'd hope many would find help. There are facilities available to people- we have shelters with lots of room all over Toronto, and yet people stay on the street- be it due to pride, information, or more. Police go around during 'cold spells' and bring them in. Many of those on the street don't want to be helped, or they'd seek the help offered to them.
Now- squeegeeing:
4 washers (can rotate with helper for a break)
1 helper (gets water, supplies, food, etc)
** assuming an equal cut for everyone
Timing of light: 45 seconds, 0.75 minutes
Cars serviced per light per side: 4 (2 people)
Cars serviced total: 8 (4 people)
Average revenue per car: $1.50
Average revenue per light: $12.00
Light changes per hour: 80
Revenue per hour: $960
Hours per day: 8
Revenue per day: $7,680
Equal cut per person: $1,536
Days per week working: 6
Per person, per week: $9,216
weeks worked per year: 50 (2 weeks vacation)
per person, per year: $460,800
TAX FREE
Expenses:
5 buckets, public bathroom for water (maybe arrangement with local business to supply), squeegee, bag for money- lets say $250/yr
That's some pretty good profit- $460,000+ * 5 people = $2.3Million
when you see the word 'Linux', drink!
then go apply for your canadian visa...
What better way to get your kickbacks then make everyone compete for the equipment supply, network management contract.
Hell...I'd be looking to making a backroom non-compete deal with Ted Rogers or Mike Sabia to kill the plan before it goes too far.
We use Exchange/Outlook with a simple policy that helps us manage message storage issues. Exchange servers automatically delete messages aged past 60 days. If a user wishes to retain the message past this, they can configure auto archiving in Outlook to archive messages past 45 days. This retains a local copy of the message on a users computer, thus forcing them to self manage. Our mail admin supports about 5000 users on Exchage/Outlook and this policy has never been considered obtrusive or in any way limiting productivity.
is about to announce plans to make all of Toronto Canada Contrary to popular (i.e. American) belief, Canada is not ONE BIG PROVINCE! Toronto is on ONTARIO, which is in Canada. Sheesh. How about we start saying "Seattle, USA" or "Salt Lake City, America"?
...at least that is my prediction.
Two converging factors are going to be a big positive net for rural communities. At the same time Verizon Wireless, Sprint, and Singular are all rolling out high speed connectivity through EVDO (or similar) offerings, big cities are breaking into the hotspot world, and other carriers are planning rollouts via powerlines and other schemes -- some really unusual ones like airships floating around and so on.
While its true that none of these are starting in rural communities and working IN toward the cities, a side effect of the increased competition in cities is that is is (or I think it is) putting more and more pressure on the cell carriers to roll their services out to the countryside much sooner and at much lower cost than previously planned.
They (the cell carriers) are quickly going to find that their "market differentiator" is going to once again be the ubuiquity of their service compared to the city wifi clouds. If your market strength is ubiquity, you'll spend more money making sure you cover more remote places. Hence, soon we'll have at least dsl comperable speeds available on EVDO cards in much more rural locations.
Sure, I know Verizon Wireless has "plans" to cover their whole digital area with EVDO. Let me tell you that it is a SLOW plan from the perspective of those of us who live in the sticks.
FWIW, I have an EVDO card in my laptop for when I travel, and find it HUGELY useful at airports, park benches, and even hotel rooms in most major cities now. Its about comperable to DSL -- maybe a little higher latency. Upload speed is much reduced compared to download speed of course. They don't want people uploading content or streaming media -- they want you buying videos.
Still, its often more reliable and faster than a hotel network. Just not at home. At home, its about dialup speed until they get EVDO turned on out here.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Living in Toronto, I can't wait. I have always thought that Toronto lacked the kind of nightlife and thrills that say a Miami beach has... I am looking forward to people driving down the street in hot custom cars, the girlies walking around in sexy outfits... the glamour and nightlife. It is great that the people in the majors office have finally come to their senses and realized that we need to make this city HOT! Hell yeah.
Oh wait, they are talking about wireless internet, aren't they? Come on guys, I can just steal that from my neighbor!
about corporate emails.
Having lived in both Detroit and Tornto, I can tell you the homeless problem in Detroit isn't as bad as Toronto.
The last census count of homeless in Detroit was 1,300... with advocacy groups saying the population is closer to 10,000. Toronto, according to it's last homeless report card had 3,300 - 34,000. (counting homeless is hard, that is why there is the huge range in numbers). But the comparison is consistant no matter how it is estimated: 1,300 low estimate for detroit, 3,300 low estimate for Toronto. 10,000 high estimate for Detroit, 34,000 high estimate for Toronto.
And it makes sense when you look at housing costs. Housing in Detroit is cheap, housing in Toronto is expensive. My best friend purchased a house in Detroit for $100,000 that would cost $1,000,000 in a comparable neighborhood in Toronto (and no, the neighborhood isn't crime ridden, it actually has a crime rate comparible to where I live in Toronto), and that same house went for closer to $10,000 just a couple years ago - my friend just happen to buy in a housing boom. You can rent a decent enough place to live in Detroit for $150 monthly, where as good luck finding anything without cockroaches and mice for less than $800 in Toronto. So it makes a lot of sense that the homeless rate would be higher in Toronto.
You should probably check into things before you jump on with the typical Detroit hatred.
But to the point of the topic, neither Detroit, nor Toronto should be spending a cent on municiple wi-fi. Detroit isn't planning to do that I know of, but Toronto has too many yuppies who will be giddy to use their powerbook in the park to resist.
is that anything like BC bud?
But to the point of the topic, neither Detroit, nor Toronto should be spending a cent on municiple wi-fi. Detroit isn't planning to do that I know of, but Toronto has too many yuppies who will be giddy to use their powerbook in the park to resist.
Apart from the fact that this is Toronto Hydro, a separate corporation, deploying this as a revenue generating plan, your understanding of economics is terrible. So Toronto should fall behind in technology and infrastructure...to help the homeless. Well I guess they'd better boost that budget, because there's going to be a lot more homeless then.
I was already thinking this sounded like the plot of a bad catastrophe movie. Phew.
There are even more Canadians than people!
Your friend is such a goddamn slimebag!
I sometimes help people claiming they can't get home (some promise to send a check once they get home but yeah, right) trusting their assertion they actually don't have any cash and it'll be used for the intended purposes.
This punk collects (begs) beyond his actual need for what to get home just to fritter it away on one more day vacation and whatever goodies he can get once he gets home.
What a lying sack of sh....... Taking advantage of people like that. Fucker.
not that i'm homeless, but i have done various volunteer work and have been in some areas that have a lot of homeless (vancouver, bc)but it's offensive to just blanket statement that they are typically mentally ill or it's their choice. sometimes unfortunate circumstances hit people. met a lawyer that was homeless, had drinking problem, wife left, drank more, caused him to lose job, drank more at home, no income, drank more, lost house, drank more, homeless within the year it all started. just remember when you are toasty warm at home, circumstances could see you eating hot dogs out of the garbage, anyone of us. even our most successful leaders, look at Sadam, he was loved by the US, top of the world with more US cash then he knew what to do with, not so good now.
just sayin, were often not that far of as we'd like to think we were.
Toronto is hideous, people are not that friendly, if you add WiFi to the mix you'll end up with a more segregated and less participative community or maybe I'm wrong and this whole experiment will minimize Torontians apathy.
I work in a downtown tower and every time we fire up a new wireless notebook two unsecured networks are visible. TH will only be joining the club.
So in other words, you're saying that this guy lost control of his life and did what he could to escape from reality, rather than dealing with it head on. I'm sorry, but I have ZERO sympathy for someone like that. It's not like he didn't have the means to put himself on the right track. He had every opportunity and ability to do something about his situation. My wife and I have *almost* been homeless, and we both suffer from clinical depression so sometimes it's *really* hard to do what it takes to move forward with our lives. But we *still* had enough self-control and critical thinking skills to do whatever it took to get back on track. We had to take our pride and roll it in the mud, but we made it out again and we're finally starting to do well again. I used to have much more sympathy for homeless people. Then I worked in a gas station for a year, and I got to deal with these people on a regular basis. They are filthy creatures who only care about fleecing you out of whatever they can get their hands on to satisfy their craving for their chosen toxin. They are woefully dishonest, and I will never give them any kind of support again. There are lots of services available to assist the homeless. Job services, housing services... They just need to use them. These people are on the street because they either want to be, or simply arn't interested in taking control of their lives. Either way, if they can't be bothered to try, I can't be bothered to help.
http://fred-ezone.ca/
it's not city-wide, yet, but i believe that is their goal.
Trout's epitaph: Life is no way to treat an animal.
There were several weird nights where the energy changes were very noticeable, but one night in particular was extra-noteworthy.
I was in the living room around 8:00 in the PM, and the ambient energy started doing something very weird. You could feel it through your whole body, making your breathing quick and your head buzz. I was trying to get a grip on it when my girlfriend came into the room and demanded to know what kind of place I'd brought her to; she's energy sensitive to levels far beyond my own and when stuff like that starts, she flinches. It kept up for hours.
We tried to sleep, but it was impossible. I tried rasing an energy bubble around myself as per my limited chi-training, and I think that might have helped a bit, but not enough to make any real difference. After an hour of feeling shitty, I got the bright idea of escaping to ground level to see if it was any better down there. Nope. Then we went underground to the pool in the basement.
Whew. Instant relief! --You could feel the buzz reduce dramatically in intensity the moment we stepped out of the elevator. It was like being able to breathe again, a weight lifted. . , all of that. It was still there, but so far reduced that you could ignore it.
We spent the next couple of hours in the pool and the gym, and we had the whole facility to ourselves. It was really nice.
The moment we went back upstairs, though, wham! Right back into the middle of it. Ugh. It's hard to describe to people who have never spent time doing any energy awareness work, but it was like that feeling you get when you're leaning in close fiddling with the cable connection behind an active television. You don't know what it is exactly, but you can definitely feel something. Only this was stronger and vibrating; it seemed to put a pressure on your brain, in around the temples and eyes, and all through your heart and chest area. It's hard to describe, but it was quite unsettling.
We didn't sleep much, and felt very trapped; like trying to escape physical pain. Then around 6:00 AM, it shut off, and the ambient energy shit of the city dropped back to its normal state, (not that there really is one; while I was in town, it changed flavors several times, and also did so region to region. The nicest area was East of the Don Valley. It's like they let things be on that side of the city).
Anyway, at around 6:00 AM, when that really shitty buzz stopped, it was a major relief. I let out a deep breath and fell asleep for a couple of hours before the jack-hammers started up. (Construction crews doing work in the street.)
Toronto would be a reasonably nice town without all the weird shit being done to it. I can't stand that place. It's not healthy. I don't know anybody living there who isn't experiencing some kind of fucked up health or stress problem.
-FL
Dude, the Dark Ages called - they want their "science" back.
Big cities don't even need the *country* name. Fashion houses and publishers have for years just listed the city: Paris - New York - London - Tokyo. It's nice to see Toronto join that list over the past few years.
(And yes, of course there is more than one place named 'Toroto' just as there is more than one Boston, London, or Paris).
Just because you're ignorant doesn't mean you're smart.
Having to point this out should serve as an illustration. You might try doing some research, (other than watching TeeVee), before you let the gas out of your mouth. You'll be better respected and drool less. Win, win.
btw, SNL called; they said you can keep their lame joke and thanked you for not crediting them.
-FL
I rarely have cash to spare, but have offered to use my plastic to buy someone gas, food, or a bus ticket - and suprise suprise, have been turned down.
Well actually he wasn't my friend (he was a friend of a friend's), and if anyone I know pulled that kind of shit I'd let them know it's just not cool.
I was once suckered in giving like $5 on my way out of a club (King & John area). The way the guy did it was, he was actually dressed decent, wearing a leather jacket and he told me this story where he lost his wallet and didn't have money for gas...so I ended up giving him $5, and only afterwards my girlfriend was like "Why the hell did you give him that money?" Being a little naive I should have seen through the scam, but at the same time she should have helped me by telling him to fuck off. I'm glad she didn't though because now I *never* give money to homeless people. There are two types of homeless: Mentally disturbed/challenged, and lazy...and I'm sure 0.1% good honest people that just had really bad luck, but they're a rarity.
Thanks for the list, but you forgot one!
Here's the Toronto Hydro Telecom website, so you can go see for yourself.
If you download the coverage map, you can see that the zone is going to stretch between Spadina (east) and Yonge Street (west), and from Bloor Street (north) to Lake Ontario (south).
Since a good number of the people out there ask for money so they can get something to eat, I'd say the results show a lot of dishonesty.
So, if a complete stranger proffers you a sandwich, will you eat it? Homeless people get beaten and worse every so often, so I wouldn't put it past people to put poison and razor blades into such sandwiches. If you want to make an objective study, offer to buy a meal at a nearby restaurant.
My other body is also not wearing any.