York experts comment on Ticketmaster scams and public safety related to the Eras Tour, authoritarianism and division in the U.S., the K’ëgit totem pole and more
As Peel Regional Police warn of ongoing scams targeting concertgoers in the GTA, Professor Evan Light talks to Toronto Star about online security for fans trying to protect their Ticketmaster accounts, especially as Swift’s six concerts in Toronto began. Light says the first way to protect yourself is to use complex and unique passwords on all your accounts. “If people have passwords that are memorable, they are passwords that are easily hackable,” says Light.
Professor Jack L. Rozdilsky offers public safety tips for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour to InsideHalton.com. “At the end of the day, no matter what the province of Ontario or City of Toronto or Rogers Centre does for safety, you’re responsible for your own safety,” he says. “Being safe at a concert means tempering one’s excitement with a dose of caution.”
In an op-ed for The Conversation, Professor Emeritus Daniel Drache and a co-author write about what President Donald Trump’s comeback means for his unique brand of nationalist authoritarianism. “Trump’s victory shows just how weak and lacklustre the centre has become in comparison to surging extremism,” writes the co-authors. “The Republican machine has grasped an essential truth: parties must redefine their centre of gravity with the shifting of the Overton window of political acceptability, which holds that the centre is not fixed forever; it is simply a gauge of the new extremes.”
With polls showing that Americans are concerned about the lack of civility in politics following the 2024 election, Professor Raymond Mar speaks to Deseret News about how to demonstrate empathy, kindness and understanding with someone who votes differently. “The foundation of empathy has to be a willingness to listen to other peoples’ experiences and to believe they’re valid,” says Mar. “You don’t have to deny your own experience to accept someone else’s.”
Professor Ann Marie Murnaghan speaks to My Bulkley Lakes Now about her research on the K’ëgit totem pole, and the Wet’suwet’en delegation that traveled from B.C. to Paris to reconnect with the pole over 85 years after it was removed from their community and shipped to France.
The national chief of the Assembly of First Nations says the International Criminal Court should investigate the disappearance of Indigenous children from Canadian residential schools. Speaking to CBC, Professor Heidi Matthews says the case could face admissibility hurdles as the ICC is meant to be a court of last resort, to be used when domestic jurisdictions are unwilling or unable to genuinely carry out their own investigations or prosecutions. Canada could argue that it has a well-functioning legal system, and there hasn’t been an effort to shield any individuals from criminal responsibility, says Matthews.
Professor Elizabeth Clare speaks to Science News about Environmental DNA or eDNA. All living beings constantly shed bits of DNA, left behind from skin, scales, hair, urine, feces, pollen, and more. Clare says eDNA has “changed everything” about how scientists study biodiversity and conservation. “It widens your time window of detection,” says Clare. “eDNA is more like a footprint, and footprints last longer than the animal or the plant.”
The carbon footprint of hydrogen gas is not as small as proponents argue. Speaking to Hakai Magazine, Professor Mark Winfield weighs in on hydrogen gas becoming a fuel of choice. According to new research, hydrogen’s climate friendliness depends on many factors, including where and how the hydrogen is produced. Winfield says the study reinforces the warning already being sounded by many scientists and environmentalists about green hydrogen. “We should do direct electrification where we can and only bother with hydrogen if there is a good use case that makes sense,” says Winfield.
Research out of York has found that late natural menopause may be a risk factor for asthma, potentially due to prolonged estrogen exposure. “Clinicians should be mindful of asthma risks in postmenopausal women, especially those with later onset of menopause,” doctoral student Durmalouk Kesibi tells Healio.
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