South Africa's Soccer City kicks off for 2010 World Cup

The curtain will rise and fall on Soweto's for the summer 2010 World Cup

Soccer City, Johannesburg's jewel in its crown of world cup infrastructure, will host the opening match between host nation South Africa and Mexico on June 11th, and the tournament's final match.

Plan for Soccer City Stadium courtesy Joburg.za

Soccer City accents the other nine world cup pitches which will kick into action during this year's June world cup.

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The stadium was first built in the 1980s and hosted a mass rally for Nelson Mandela after his release from a 27 year prison sentence and South Africa’s 2-0 win against Tunisia in the African Cup of nations.

But South Africa partially demolished the original stadium in 2007 rebuild it at a cost of $45.7 million.

Finished just in March, the stadium looks like a canvas of rusted zinc sheets sealed to form a bowl.

Construction on Soccer City Stadium courtesy Joburg.za

The design symbolizes a calabash, a round vine vegetable that once dried and hollowed is used as a bowl or utensil. It's a staple of African rural life. The monument further symbolizes a melting pot as the calabash sits above a ‘pit of fire' that's on a raised podium and on top of which is located a ‘pit of fire'. Together the architectural imagery represents the hoped unity of Africa's many diverse cultures.

7000 tonnes of steel imported from Italy went into this masterpiece along with thousands of fibre glass concrete panels afixed in the patchwork design on its outside.

Odd glazed transparent panels also decorate its outer shell streamming in sunlight in the day and illuminating the stadium at night.

Inside an incomplete Soccer City Stadium courtesy Joburg.za

"It looks magical from a distance; it looks magical from inside, with its multiple shapes and colours soaring above your head in a curve, as you enter," said the Joburg, the city's website.

But the gleaming stadium stand in contrast to many black South Africans who still live in the low income townships of Soweto

Many of these inhabitant won't be able to afford tickets that start at $U.S. 200.

It also stands against fears that international tourists might be to afraid to come to the South African because of its high crime rate.

Soccer City fast facts

• 80 000m3 of concrete used;
• 9 000 tons of reinforcing steel used;
• 8 000 tons of structural steel used;
• 120 000m3 of soil;
• 1 350 piles driven into the bedrock;
• Some piles 1,5m in diameter, 33m into bedrock;
• Roof supported by 12 40m-high concrete shafts and 16 circular columns 1m in diameter;
• Over 2 600 construction people on site;
• 88 851 seats;
• 11 million bricks used.
  

Courtesy Joburg.org

Toronto men start clutching man bags

More men are giving their pockets a break and shouldering man bags.

Darcy Pack owner of the male clothing retailer Anti Hero said many men are opting for these bags.

The bags come in different shapes sizes and colours. They cost anywhere from $80 to $1000.

Messenger bags or satchels are coming in synthetic, cloth and leather designs. And luxury retailers such as Dolce & Gabbana and Holt Renfrew are churning them out.

A cloth Diesel messenger bag By David Thurton

Men are grabbing totes, two strap handbags as well.

Rappers like Pharrel, Lil Wayne and Snoop Dog are also sporting man purses, or murses.

"It's very acceptable. Because you got so many things on you," Pack said.

With Blackberrys, Ipods, Ipads, laptops, cameras, wallets and keys, Pack said men need more space.

It's also a fashion accessory.

"I think backpacks have that high school look said," Jin Kim, 25, with his brown checkered Louis Vuitton bag hanging across his shoulder.

"I can't wear a back pack with a dress shirt," said Byron Chae, 23, in a leather bag whose strap was studded with metal spikes.

Byron Chae and his Guess leather messenger bag By David Thurton

But despite its presence on the streets of Toronto, people still say the man bag is a woman's accessory.

Anti Hero's owner admits that these bags aren't that popular among conservative audiences.

"I don't think many construction workers are carrying their man bags to the construction site," Pack said.

Despite the man bags critics men are still clutching their bags and not letting them go.

"Some people say it's so feminine and so gay, but I don't care," said Chae, 23.

Facebook Limbo: Private space or digital commons?

Experts are unsure whether millions of Facebook accounts globally are private or public spaces.

“There’s no well defined legal answer,” said Professor Avner Levin, director of Ryerson University’s Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute.

Levin said that laws haven’t evolved fast enough to provide sufficient answers.

Avner Levin, head of Ryerson University’s Privacy and Cyber Crime Institute.

That’s why a Swiss bank fired a woman who called in sick when bosses discovered she was on Facebook instead of at work.

“The company says it followed a simple logic: that those who are well enough to use Facebook with a migraine are well enough to work with a migraine,” the BBC News reported.

Regulations policing social networks at universities also follow as society is unable to clearly say whether their Facebook profiles are private property.

Popular social networking site Facebook.

Some courts, Levin said, have ruled that once someone has as many 600 friends on Facebook, their profile becomes public domain.

However, Levin said, a user’s number of friends shouldn’t define whether their profile is public information. Rather, the way information is posted and the access users grant to others determines whether their profile is private or public.

“If you don’t restrict your privacy settings you might as well just write a blog,” Levin said.

WEB ALLOWS "SCHLUBS" TO COMPETE WITH BIG MEDIA

The internet makes anyone a journalist and shatters the traditional media’s monopoly on news.

Tony Veltri is the best example of this. He’s editor, reporter and designer of the New Tecumseth Free Press Online.

He was first a writer for the Alliston Herald before he was fired for insubordination.

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MAP OF NEW TECUMSETH, Ont., courtesy Google.

It was then the internet arrived.

“I had a flash about how great an idea it would be to publish a newspaper in every sense of the word except it would be online,” Veltri said.

Veltri launched his website then reporting council and school borad meetings, crime and court stories and other local news. He also started some investigative reporting.

Screen shot of madhunt.com

“I'm a one man band really, going on a full 11 years which makes my site older than Google and the Time Warner AOL merger,” he said.

Veltri said his operation could never exist if it wasn’t for the world wide web.

“The internet is the great equalizer. Because a schlub like me working from home can compete mano a mano with the Metroland chain of newspapers and make a solid go of it. And it doesn't cost a fortune to do it,” Veltri said.

PRISONS DON’T WORK: JOURNALIST SAYS

Toronto's prison system is becomming overloaded and a waste of tax dollars says Toronto Star Journalist Jim Rankin, yesterday.

"It's just easy to build a prison. We're spending a lot of money on police. That's more police and more salaries," Rankin told a lecture hall of journalism students at Ryerson University.

Students listened to how the award winning journalist developed the Star's web feature Crime and Punishment.

The project shows for approximately every prisoner in jail the federal government spends $250 a day. And the province spends $160.

His work maps communities with the highest incacerations.

"It's where single mothers live. It's where high rates of diabetes occurr. It's where they have the lowest levels of eductaion."

Salaries for lawyers, courts, judges, police and maximum security prisons could be spent on other social services.

"We havem't put more social workers in schools. Instead we're putting more police officers."

ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION

· Reduce poverty and school dropout rates.

· Invest in comprehensive childhood development initiatives.

· Make housing affordable.

· Increase access to health care and rehabilitative programs.

· Reduce incarceration rates, partly through alternatives to jail, and direct savings to neighbourhoods with a high number of offenders.

Source: thestar.com

Toronto's breweries are must sees on any tourist's itenarary.

The Distillery District attracts many visitors each year. Englishmen James Worts and William Gooderham opened the facility in 1831. And at one point it brewed almost half of Ontario's total alchohol production.

Many other breweries dot Toronto. Underneath the CN Tower sits Steam Whistle Brewing. The brewery only began in 1998 after three brewers decided to open the business when they just lost their jobs.

The city produces many beers, including pilsners, lagers and stouts. Most beers are made from water, malted hops and yeast. However, Toronto beer manufacturer Cool Beer makes one of its beers from British Columbia’s finest hemp.