Going to work this morning in the early hours of The Storm of the Century, I had to take a (company-funded) cab to work, as the subway doesn't start until 9 a.m.

The driver claimed to never have been up to McCowan and the 401 before.

He blanched at the thought of taking the Gardiner/DVP/401 route*. My thinking was the big roads were more likely to be plowed. They were, although what practical difference that actually made will be an object of intense debate among traffic historians in the years and decades to come.

* I'm reminded of this snippet of dialogue from The Matrix Reloaded:

Link: Sir, are you sure about this? The freeway, I mean. It's dangerous, in 14 years of operating, I've never seen...
Morpheus: Link, what did I tell you?
Link: Yes sir, I do, sir, Winsor[?] overpass, I'll be ready for you.
Morpheus: Good man.
Trinity: You always told me to stay off the freeway.
Morpheus: Yes, that's true.
Trinity: You said it was suicide.
Morpheus: Then let us hope that I was wrong.

My guy rarely got over 40 km/h, and was easily the turtle of the road. Thing is, I drove up to CTV two weeks ago when we had another storm, and saw vehicles spinning out all over the place. That didn't happen this time.

When we got to CTV, the guy apologized, saying the car was out of alignment, and that prevented him from reaching breathtaking speeds like 50 or 60 km/h (I'm paraphrasing for dramatic effect).

On the way home, the SRT was dead between Scarborough Town Centre and Kennedy Station. Then I read the subway was down between Warden and Victoria Park stations.

I phone a cab. I'm told it will take an hour.

After more than an hour, I spend 40 minutes trying to reach the cab company (I got disconnected twice).

The company tells me it has no cabs in the vicinity of CTV, and can't say when one will show up. The company agent helpfully says to phone other cab companies and just take the first one.

Just before 6 p.m., the magic call comes. A cab has materialized.

Shortly before 7 p.m., I get downtown, a mere three hours and change after I was off shift.

At Ossington Station,  I hear a message that the subway is now down between Woodbine and Kennedy, which means the virus is spreading.

Hopefully the Better Way will be more functional tomorrow.

From the BBC:

Kenya's state-run broadcaster is biased in favour of President Mwai Kibaki in its coverage of this month's elections, the electoral commission says.

Samuel Kivuitu condemned the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC) for not providing equal coverage to all presidential candidates.

"KBC has let us down as tax payers," Mr Kivuitu said.

"In an election year reporting should show competition, it cannot be that others are so stupid that they have nothing which can not be reported."

Officials at KBC have not responded to the accusations.

From the BBC:

A French journalist has been abducted in northern Somalia by unidentified gunmen, sources say.

"He was abducted this morning at around 1100 (0800 GMT). The journalist arrived in Bosasso yesterday," a humanitarian worker told AFP news agency on Sunday.

French media named the victim as Gwen Le Gouil, a cameraman. It is not clear for which organisation he was working.

He was apparently in the semi-autonomous Puntland region for a story on human trafficking.

A look at the ridiculous blurring of lines between human and critter as some people continue to anthropomorphize man's best friend, and what the social implications are.

From the NYT:

Deeply concerned about the prospect of failure in Afghanistan, the Bush administration and NATO have begun three top-to-bottom reviews of the entire mission, from security and counterterrorism to political consolidation and economic development, according to American and alliance officials.

The reviews are an acknowledgment of the need for greater coordination in fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, halting the rising opium production and trafficking that finances the insurgency and helping the Kabul government extend its legitimacy and control.

Taken together, these efforts reflect a growing apprehension that one of the administration’s most important legacies — the routing of Taliban and Qaeda forces in Afghanistan after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — may slip away, according to senior administration officials.

Unlike the administration’s sweeping review of Iraq policy a year ago, which was announced with great fanfare and ultimately resulted in a large increase in troops, the American reviews of the Afghan strategy have not been announced and are not expected to result in a similar infusion of combat forces, mostly because there are no American troops readily available.