“Fashion and attitudes have moved,” says Alan Middleton, a professor of marketing in York’s Schulich School of Business, about the new batch of beer commercials featuring babes in bikinis. “We’ve gone through a period where you just couldn’t use overtly pretty bodies because you were going to get dumped on by everybody. And that’s pretty well gone now,” he told Globe and Mail advertising columnist John Heinzl in a May 9 story about beer marketing.
Tip for long life? Don’t be poor
In Roy Romanow’s acceptance speech – printed in The Globe and Mail May 9 – of the International Foundation’s Public Service Award in Ottawa May 8, the head of the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada listed best tips on how to live a long and healthy life. At least one tip comes from a study carried out by Dennis Raphael, health policy and management professor at York’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies: Don’t be poor. Rich people live longer than poor people and they’re healthier at every stage in life. The study, said Romanow, showed that of all of the years of life lost in Canada before the age of 75, about 23 per cent can be traced to differences in income.
Scientist among first to study ozone layer
Harold Schiff was one of the founding fathers of modern atmospheric science, said the Toronto Star in a tribute May 9 to the late York University professor emeritus following his death March 31. In the ’70s Schiff co-authored a seminal book on the ozone layer, laying bare the controversy for the general public. He taught at McGill University, launched York University’s science department, consulted with governments and mentored several generations of scientists, said the Star. The respected academic was passionate about music and art, enjoyed golfing, skiing and flying his own plane and loved to laugh – especially at himself. “He had 5,000 stories to tell you and 1,001 jokes,” said his wife Daphne, a natural sciences professor at York.
Mom says so, that’s why! A salute to motherly advice
Motherly advice doesn’t get its due. It deserves more respect and more weight in the public world, says Andrea O’Reilly, professor of women’s studies at York and president of the Association forResearch on Mothering, which has 500 members worldwide, reported The Edmonton Journal May 9. She was referring to those wise words that stay with you: “procrastination is the thief of time” or, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all,” and whatever you do, “never let them see you sweat.”
Drug benefits overstated
Dr. Joel Lexchin, health policy and management professor at York University’s Atkinson Faculty of Liberal & Professional Studies, said he hopes a study on media coverage of new drugs will help journalists report on new medications, reported The Vancouver Province May 9. A study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that articles in Canada’s 24 largest dailies about five major drugs launched in recent years more often emphasized the benefits of new drugs, yet paid little attention to possible harms.
Developer has strong ties to Tories
In 2000, Mario Cortellucci donated $100,000 to the Canadian Alliance under then-leader Stockwell Day, according to Robert MacDermid, political science professor in York’s Faculty of Arts. He was quoted in a Toronto Star story May 9 about the wealthy Toronto developer at the centre of a political storm over the sale and revitalization of the Adams Mine pit as a landfill site. Opposition Liberals say Cortellucci and his business partners are being given a sweetheart deal to buy the land in exchange for years of faithful, and expensive, donations to the Tory party.
Andrina Lever joins University Board
York President and Vice-Chancellor Lorna R. Marsden and University Board of Governors Chair Marshall Cohen announced the appointment of Andrina Lever to the York University Board of Governors May 9 in The Globe and Mail. Lever is the founder and president of Lever Enterprises. A barrister in England and Wales and a barrister and solicitor in Victoria, Australia, she has a BA from Texas Tech University and a law degree from Polytechnic of Central London. In 1998, Lever was appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada as a representative to the APEC business advisory council (ABAC), where she chaired the SME (small- to medium-sized enterprises) task force and now co-chairs the capacity-building working group. She is also the honorary consul for New Zealand. Having worked in more than 40 countries, Lever brings 30 years of international business experience to York.
On air
- Martin Shadwick, defence analyst at York’s Centre for International & Security Studies, was interviewed May 7 regarding the proposed missile defence system for North America, on syndicated local radio programs in Calgary, Victoria, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and regional radio in Saskatchewan and Quebec.