A Few More Factlets

Wonder Woman - Factlet (10)

   If you are thinking about working out more (or even some) when the weather gets better, then this brief set of statistics may serve as an incentive. On the other hand, if you are breathing heavily after walking from the couch to the fridge, you might get depressed when reading about this woman for whom a 100-mile run is just a jaunt. She is clearly both finely tuned and named.  The stats are from here: “Woman Ultrarunners Age Like Fine Wine: Camille Herron, 40, Has Set Another World Record,” Victor Mather, New York Times, Feb. 27, 2022. On your ready, get set, go:

She has set multiple world records in open-road races and on tracks, in distances from 50 miles to races that lasted 24 hours. In 2017, she shattered the 100-mile world record by over an hour, finishing in 12 hours 42 minutes 40 seconds…

On Feb. 19, she did it again, breaking her own world record, in 12:41:11, a pace of 7:37 per mile. She also beat all the men in the race, with the first male runner, Arlen Glick, coming in about 30 minutes behind her with a time of 13:10:25.

If you are not yet impressed, she mentions at the end of the article: “I also hold the world record for 24 hours. I ran 167 miles in a day.” (about 270km).

Southern Ontario Real Estate - Factlet (11)

    If the rundown bungalow on your street is being offered for sale under a number in the high six figures, then I suppose it is reasonable to assume that the land upon which it sits is also worth a lot. This is good news for farmers, but rather bad news for those of us who enjoy eating. The raising of rutabagas looks less glamorous when one realizes that the land can produce warehouses more quickly and the yield is far, far more profitable. As I said in my earlier rant, there will soon be nothing but tarmac from Tillsonburg to Tilbury and all of southern Ontario will soon look like Toronto the Carbuncle. Here is the factlet:

"The rush is widespread, involving tens of thousands of acres of land in regions outside the Greater Toronto Area, including the Golden Horseshoe and all the way to Windsor, he adds. “Two years ago, we were talking between $300,000 to $450,000 per acre across Southwestern Ontario. Now it’s $800,000 to $1.5-million per acre."
From: "Commercial Real Estate Sees Record-breaking Canada-wide Land Rush," Wallace Immen, Globe & Mail, March 1, 2022.

If you are concerned about the loss of good agricultural land, there is an election soon. Here is a good resource produced by Environmental Defence Canada. 

WOE CANADA - Factlet (12)

   Given the focus on Identity and Indigeneity this statistic made me wonder if there will be a Canadian identity in the future, or several thousand solitudes not just two.

There are more than 630 First Nation communities in Canada, which represent more than 50 Nations and 50 Indigenous languages.
From: First Nations. 

Post Script:

   For the fine distinction between FACTLETS and FACTOIDS, new readers should see my post about GEE-GEES. 

Toronto the Carbuncle

New Nickname For Hogtown

     I suppose it is okay to pick on TO since the citizens there are feeling so good about their NBA championship team. (Although I am not sure why. There are more local fish in Toronto's Ripley's Aquarium than there are Canadian players on the Raptors, some of whom were just purchased fresh this year and will be gone by the next one.) So I am suggesting as a new nickname,  "Toronto the Carbuncle" rather than "Toronto the Pustule" since a carbuncle is bigger and worse than a pustule. It seems to me closer to the truth than "Toronto the Good". 

     The reason for this rant now is because I just ran across a rather grim assessment of Toronto offered at the turn of this century. Things have not gotten better, although I must confess that real estate prices have gone up. For involved historical and economic reasons the "Big Smoke" seems to be where many Canadians want to be and have to go since there are not many other urban options. Citizens from other countries are also flocking there and "Diversity" itself seems a big draw. For now. 

     In any case, the rather negative account below is provided by someone who was simply trying to bypass Toronto about twenty years ago. Things have not gotten better. Among the many reasons not to like Toronto is that it is a major obstacle for those who are simply trying to go someplace more desirable. 

     

    "I don't know what the upper limit of population for a functioning human society is, but I do know that Greater Toronto exceeded it long ago. The city is a whirl of people constantly crossing each other's paths, like neutrinos in a cyclotron. The pace and volume of traffic, the raw, wounded-looking land beneath the new subdivisions and shopping centers, and the general sense of noise and hurry made me feel thoroughly jangled, like a mouse caught in a bagpipe. We turned north on 404 well before the city center, trying to escape the worst of it, and maybe we did: but if so, I would not want to see the worst. The freeway ended and we found ourselves facing traffic lights. Cars shuffled and crushed between them; trucks roared and fumed. Everywhere there was new construction - new homes, new strip malls, new office buildings. This, John Hartig had told us, was the finest agricultural land in Ontario. This has not stopped people from paving it. Hundreds of thousands of acres of it. The property-rights people have clearly won the war here. They can go to bed and sleep well. I wonder what they are planning to eat."
from: Great Lakes Journey: A New Look at America's Freshwater Coast, William Ashworth, p.250. This "new look" was taken in 2000. The author had taken an earlier tour of the area in the 1980s and the result was: The Late, Great Lakes: An Environmental History. 

Sources:
Toronto has so many nicknames there is an entry in Wikipedia  for "Name of Toronto".
See also: "Top 8 Nicknames for the City of Toronto".

Post Script: 
     About the only positive economic economic news here in London is found in the real estate sector. Torontonians are selling their expensive properties to buy cheaper homes here. As a result more fine agricultural land is being paved over and there will soon be nothing but tarmac from Tillsonburg to Tilbury. It makes you wonder what we are planning to eat.
     Not only is Toronto difficult to get through, it is a rather undesirable destination. I admit that I really don't know the city well and visit infrequently. When I do, I am disappointed. Given my harsh assessment I feel compelled to undertake some field research and will visit this summer. Although the lakefront will not yet be improved by "Sidewalk Labs", some scouts from New York have suggested a visit to the Sterling Road area. I am not overly optimistic: "In Toronto, An Industrial Stretch Has Its Breakout Moment," Michael Kaminer, NYT, July 5, 2019.
"Dismissed for decades as a postindustrial wasteland, Sterling Road, a zigzagging half-mile strip of old factories and warehouses, is getting a second life. Last summer, the North American debut of a splashy Banksy exhibition in an empty warehouse there drew a global spotlight. With the arrival of Toronto’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) last fall, Sterling Road is newly hip, its appeal broadening beyond the small cadre of tuned-in artists and bohemian types who for years have had it to themselves. The street’s cavernous structures have also quickly become hot real estate."