For Aurora’s Nour Ghoneim, 19, the recently completed Canadian university soccer season was a chance to prove a few things, reported the Aurora Banner Nov. 22.…She copped top rookie honours on the provincial and national levels as a high-scoring newcomer for the York University Lions women’s soccer team. Read full story.
Noise kicked to back of class
Cutting-edge sound equipment has given Oakenwald School students who are hard of hearing a level playing field in loud classrooms.…Oakenwald is testing out the devices as part of a year-long study by York University in Toronto, reported the Winnipeg Free Press Nov. 23. Read full story.
Local news: Health Unit calling – area residents encouraged to give their input by taking part in monthly phone survey
Each month, the Haliburton, Kawartha, Pine Ridge District Health Unit has been conducting a phone survey in which local residents are asked information about their health behaviours, knowledge and attitudes, reported NorthumberlandView.ca Nov. 22.…The Institute for Social Research at York University conducts the survey on behalf of the local Health Unit, which then uses the results to plan programs and improve services. Read full story.
DFG establishes 23 new research training groups
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) is establishing 23 new research training groups to further support early career researchers in Germany, reported Research in Germany – Land of Ideas Nov. 23. Nine of the new groups will be international research training groups (IRTGs), which will work closely with universities in Canada, the US, China, the Netherlands and Australia. York University’s Professor Doug Crawford will be part of ‘The Brain in Action’ group. Read full story.
Maclean’s celebrates clout and commitment in the halls of power
It is with the task of uncovering and explaining Canada’s current corridors of power that Maclean’s proudly presents our first-ever Power List, featuring the 25 most important people in Ottawa.…In fact, it is not even necessary to work in Ottawa to make the Power List, reported Maclean’s Nov. 22. Two members of our list – radio host David Rutherford and oil-patch lobbyist D’Arcy Levesque – hail from Calgary.…And influential government critic Alex Himelfarb, No. 23 on the list, is director of the Glendon School of Public & International Affairs at York University. Read full story.
Rich 100: The richest Canadians in 2012
2012 has been a decidedly mixed year economically, but it’s actually been a great year for the 100 richest Canadians, reported Canadian Business Nov. 22. At number 48, Seymour Schulich, the Toronto financier famous for his education-based philanthropy – such as the York University business school that bears his name – purchased seven million shares in Birchcliff Energy Ltd. for an estimated $51.5 million in April, giving him a 27.6 per cent stake in the natural-gas-heavy company after it failed to find a buyer. Read full story.
The need for aggregate puts the GTA between a rock and a hard place
To Toronto’s high-rise condominium developers and road-construction engineers, the high-quality limestone Amabel dolostone is an invaluable ingredient in the making of superior concrete and asphalt.…Yet this precious rock is at the heart of a quarry battle of the likes never seen before in Ontario.…“I think [opposition to quarries]is escalating as the countryside becomes more gentrified, as more and more retired professional people move into this particular area,” said Anders Sandberg, a York University environmental studies professor, in The Globe and Mail Nov. 21. Read full story.
Michael’s videos: Haneke and the banality of evil
Comparing the work of Michael Haneke with that of a superficially very different director, David Lynch, York University film studies Professor Temenuga Trifonova remarked in The Quietus Nov. 22 that, “Haneke and Lynch are masters of the uncanny – particularly the uncanniness of the banal and the everyday when it is decomposed, taken out of context, deprived of motivation, purpose or function – although Lynch develops the uncanny in the direction of the surreal while Haneke takes it in the direction of the super-ordinary.” Read full story.
Caution corporate America: Canadian shoppers are a bit different
While we may look the same on the outside, Canadian and American consumers are very different in some key ways, retail experts say. “We’re more cautious. We are slower adopters of new things, new technologies, new products, than our friends down south,” said Alan Middleton, professor of marketing at York’s Schulich School of Business, in the Toronto Star Nov. 22. Read full story.
Black Friday shoppers clamour for early holiday deals
Detlev Zwick, professor of marketing at York’s Schulich School of Business, said local retailers were playing a “trial and error game” to see how much savings they needed to offer consumers. “They don’t want to offer too much because it cuts right into their margins, actually a problem US retailers are seeing as well,” said Zwick in CBC News Nov. 23. Read full story.