On Friday, the celebrity website TMZ posted images of Justin Bieber holding what looks to be a hand-rolled marijuana joint…. The question is really not “why,” though, but what – what’s next for the squeaky-clean Christian boy wonder whose image may be sullied by his association with the West Coast party set?...“He does have to grow up,” says music business veteran Alan Cross, “and develop an image beyond the guy who appeals to the screaming 14-year-old girls,” adds Alan Middleton, marketing professor at York University, in The Globe and Mail Jan 7. “Maybe it’s time to take a low profile and reposition himself to an audience not dependent on allowances they get from their parents toward older teens who really spend money.” Read full story.
Ask a vision expert: Will we ever get used to the hobbit’s higher frame rate?
Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – shot and projected at 48 frames per second, twice the traditional number – has drawn a lot of irritated muttering and heavy thoughts about the limits of perception and “the way our brains see things,” reported Vulture Dec. 19….But why does it all appear so odd, so abnormal? To find out, Vulture asked Rob Allison, professor of computer science and engineering at York University, who specializes in human perceptual responses and stereoscopic vision. Read full story.
Technology the backbone of Liberal hopeful’s platform
For Liberal Party of Canada leadership candidate George Takach, senior partner at McCarthy Tetrault and adjunct professor at York University's Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Brantford's PC Museum was the perfect spot to speak about the information technology planks of his platform, reported the Brantford Expositor Dec. 20. Read full story.
The rise of South Korea and lessons for Canada
“A Korean wave is sweeping the world. The secretary-general of the United Nations is Korean, the head of the World Bank is a Korean-American. ‘Gangnam Style’, a song by the Korean rapper Psy, has become the most watched video on YouTube.[...]What are the lessons for Canada from Korea’s rapid rise on the world stage?” asks Thomas Klassen, York University political science professor, in the Toronto Star Jan. 8. Read full story.
Zillidy: An unusual way to earn extra Christmas cash
It’s that crunch for operational cash that Steven Uster a – Toronto-based investment banker – hopes will spell success for his recent endeavor, Zillidy. Equal parts pawn shop and lender, the service gives clients cash in exchange for physical assets, such as jewelry, luxury watches and precious metals….“It’s more like an emergency repair kit than it is an ongoing form of funding,” says Steve Pulver, professor of entrepreneurship at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in the Toronto Star Dec. 21, adding that “alternate forms of financing are always good for entrepreneurs.” Read full story.
Sold-out Shen Yun ‘spectacular’, says author/professor emerita
Shen Yun Performing Arts’ sold-out opening night show at the Living Arts Centre showcased excellent dancing, according to author and accomplished Professor Emerita Evelyn Kallen….She is currently working with the dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies at York University and others in the Faculty’s Human Rights & Equity Studies program to create a new department at the university. “We are trying to expand the human rights component, hopefully eventually getting a department of human rights,” she said in the Epoch Times Dec. 21. Read full story.