York expert Kinnon MacKinnon is featured in the New York Times, and more
Professor Kinnon MacKinnon’s pursuit of better data on detransition through the DARE study research is highlighted in The New York Times.
Professor Patricia Lakin-Thomas talks to The Jerusalem Post about daylight saving time and ongoing concerns about its impact on public health. Lakin-Thomas says Daylight Saving Time is shown to contribute to higher numbers of car accidents, heart attacks, strokes, and workplace injuries. The time is long overdue to make the pause from daylight saving permanent, she adds.
In an op-ed for The Conversation, Professor Jack L. Rozdilsky gives public safety tips to Swifties attending Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which has six shows in Toronto starting Nov. 14. Toronto’s mayor has expressed confidence that the shows will be safe, and that comprehensive security measures will be in place. “In addition to preparing for fun, spend a little time considering concert safety tips which stress situational awareness,” writes Rozdilsky. “If you see something, say something. If something does not seem right to you, it probably is not right.” Rozdilsky is also quoted in an article about the safest places to find yourself in a nuclear attack published in The Week.
If you see something, say something. If something does not seem right to you, it probably is not right.
Rozdilsky writes in The Conversation
Ontario grocery stores are saying the new bottle return requirements may make it impossible to participate in Premier Doug Ford’s expansion of alcohol sales. Sebastian Prins, the director of government relations for the Ontario section of the Retail Council of Canada, says the majority of the larger stores are planning to add alcohol sales at locations within five kilometres of a Beer Store, meaning they aren’t obligated to accept empties right away. The Canadian Press reports that Prins is working with a York University professor to assess the costs and logistics.
Professor Dennis Pilon weighs in on a report shelved by Mayor Oliva Chow that recommended Toronto city councillors receive a raise of more than 22 per cent to bring them in line with other municipalities. He says it’s important for elected officials to earn “sufficient” salaries to compensate them for their work and ensure that it’s not only the rich who can afford to run for office. However, Pilon says that councillors voting on whether to increase their own pay is a clear conflict of interest. Professor Joe Mihevc, who served on council for nearly three decades until 2018, tells Toronto Star that councillors are “absolutely” underpaid, estimating that between city hall meetings on weekdays, and community events on evenings and weekends, most regularly work 12-hour days. In a separate op-ed on the subject, Mihevc writes about why politicians deserve a pay raise. “Residents need to know when they are asking too much of a politician to both work long and often difficult hours and then also to accept a smaller salary,” writes Mihevc for Toronto Star. In an article for CBC, Mihevc weighs in on the mayor facing political and economic challenges as the city puts together its 2025 budget. He says Chow will need more help from both Queen’s Park and Ottawa to balance the books next year.
Professor Robert Savage comments on a new survey that found university students studying to become teachers could correctly answer only 60 per cent of the questions on phonics. Savage says the results show a structural issue across institutions. “If teachers know only 60 per cent of the correct responses, then they can only teach with 60 per cent accuracy to their students at best. So, it clearly does have impacts,” he says.
Professor Sean Tulin weighs in on dark matter which may account for roughly 85 percent of the universe’s mass. The case for the existence of dark matter goes back to the 1930s when astronomers analyzed the rates at which galaxies rotate and found there isn’t enough visible matter to account for the observed spin rates. For the last few decades, the leading theory has been that this unseen substance is made up of weakly interacting massive particles or WIMPs. “I think WIMPs are falling out of favour,” Tulin tells Smithsonian Magazine.
Daydreaming in the Solar System: Surfing Saturn’s Rings, Golfing on the Moon, and Other Adventures in Space Exploration, a new book by professors John E. Moores and Jesse Rogerson invites readers to take a voyage through space with a “behind the science” look at what’s possible. “We paired really interesting places with really weird things to be doing there,” Rogerson tells CTV News. “Golfing on the moon, that was sort of a natural one because a human has golfed on the moon before. Mars has really interesting clouds, so we have cloud watching like you’re at a picnic. We imagine what it would be like to be doing a cave dive on this moon of Saturn. It was totally an imagination run wild where we were imagining ourselves, or some astronaut, doing some weird activity in some weird place and how the physics of the place would affect the activity.”
Alumna Hortense Anglin, 87, received a standing ovation from guests and fellow graduates on Oct. 17 as she walked across the stage to receive her bachelor’s and was congratulated by the platform party at York’s in-person fall convocation. CP24 interviewed Hortense Anglin about her experience as a mature student, and CTV News wrote about her accomplishment.
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