“ has all the marks of [Catherine] Hardwicke as a director [said Halsall]: sprawling soft-focus tree sequences, slow-motion dream sequences, the fetishization of extreme angst among teens (those exchanges between Peter and Henry are just too funny), and her man-candy shots.

…. I agree that it had no irony, and therein lies the missed opportunity of the film.

…. I enjoyed Julie Christie – the linking of the grandmother with the wolf for much of the film was one of the more intriguing details. Too bad they didn't pursue this. Unfortunately, Red Riding Hood neither rethinks nor revises the fairy tale. It was gory, but if it wanted to produce a gory version of the tale, it could have been even more gory!

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile , 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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Official estimates suggest 10,000 people have died, although the police chief of the hard-hit Miyagi prefecture said this week he expects the toll to exceed that in his region alone. Official numbers released Wednesday confirm 4,314 deaths and 8,606 still missing. The National Post’s Aileen Donnelly asked , professor in 91��ɫ’s Disaster & Emergency Management Program, how death tolls are estimated and recorded after a catastrophe and why the figures vary.

Q: How are death toll estimates determined?

A: Estimates come through computer models, or through expert judgment. In Japan they have a system called the National Disaster Information System that has all the information about population and infrastructure in different parts of the country. As soon as something happens, they can run the model and figure out how much damage and how many potential losses they might have…. As time goes on, the model could become better by receiving actual or real information, for example, the exact magnitude of the earthquake. When [computer modelling] is not available, like in developing countries, what they do is they rely on expert judgment, [which] is not as accurate.

Q: How do experts estimate deaths without a computer model?

A: Rapid assessment is usually based on several factors: the population in the area that has been impacted and the damage or loss ratio for different earthquake magnitudes. This is a ratio they use for the number of casualties per different [earthquake] magnitudes in different physical environments. In Japan, another factor they often use is a ratio of number of fatalities to number of injured people. [The ratio there] is about 45, which means for every 45 injured people, you will have about one dead person…. These are the factors experts use. These are based on past experience, the existing population number and the building type and structure they have in the area. [Experts] might not need to go into the field to figure out how many people have been killed. They usually use the knowledge that they have about the area. But, by going there, it helps to make the estimate closer to the actual number.

Q: Why do you think the Japanese government has avoided releasing estimates?

A: Having an accurate estimation of dead people is not going to do a lot at this point. And that is probably why [the government is sticking] with the actual [count of] bodies. From an emergency management point of view, we look for the survivors and find out what their needs are and how we can help them…. I think people are cautious about providing numbers [now] because it’s not only an earthquake, it’s not only a tsunami, it’s a combination of different hazards hitting the country at the same time. Plus, we have the evacuation going on for the nuclear issues.

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Since 2000, the amount of start-up financing provided by traditional sources in Canada, including private equity and labour-sponsored funds, has significantly dropped. Predictably, the total pales in comparison to the United States, a much more welcoming environment for small business. Canada's Venture Capital and Private-Equity Association reported the industry raised less than $1 billion in venture funds in 2009 compared to $3.9 billion in 2001. And the credit crunch has left Canadian banks even more risk-averse when it comes to small-business loans.

That has left private investors, or so-called "angels," to pick up the slack. Even then, jaded entrepreneurs quip, the best chance of striking a deal is an appearance on "," CBC's hit television show that brings them face-to-face with potential investors.

But Matthew McGrath, president of Toronto-based P2P Financial Inc., has a plan to help venture capital in Canada get back on its feet. Last September, the former Royal Bank vice-president launched P2Pfinancial.ca,a virtual marketplace that brings together accredited well-heeled individuals with would-be entrepreneurs seeking capital usually in the range of $25,000 to $1 million.

. . .

, a professor of finance and entrepreneurship [and Ontario Research Chair in Economics and Cross Cultural Studies] at 91��ɫ University's Schulich School of Business, says businesses such as P2P will play an increasingly important role in venture-capital markets, particularly as they develop and become better established. As they do, capital flows should free up and new mentoring relationships will be fostered between experienced business leaders and budding entrepreneurs.

"The importance of the angel investment market is huge and cannot be overstated," Cumming says. "Without it, the number of new successful innovations and patents generated in the country will remain well below potential."

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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The federal government brought in new regulations last July effectively banning phosphorus in most household cleaning products, such as dishwashing and laundry detergents. The new rules prohibit the manufacture and import of these products containing phosphorus beyond 0.5% by weight. Similar regulations in the United States banned the chemical in 17 states.

Phosphorus in certain detergents and cleaning products softens water, reduces spotting and rusting , holds dirt, and increases performance. But it is also a plant fertilizer, Prof. Molot says, meaning when it enters a lake, it causes massive amounts of algae to grow.

"When the algae die, they sink to the bottom of the lake and are consumed by bacteria. In the process, these bacteria consume all the oxygen, leading to the asphyxiation of fish," Prof. Molot said.

The chemical also causes algal blooms -- massive green blob-like growths -- which can raise pH levels in water to toxic levels and block water intake pipes. Prof. Molot says dirty dishes are a small price to pay for preventing the spread of phosphorus.

"Either the public pays huge amounts of money to remove the phosphorus at the end of the pipe, or it can choose the cheaper alternative to reduce the amount of phosphorus going into our sewers in the first place," he said. "If I have to pay a little more for a greener detergent, even if it means it doesn't clean the way it used to, I'll put up with it."

Molot has published on , most recently in February 2010. His research is funded by the (NSERC).

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin

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The process takes anywhere from six months to 15 years.

A new law passed this year, Bill C-11, is expected to expedite applications and reduce the current wait-list of about 55,000 claimants. Canadian refugee claimants either stay with family or friends, at homeless shelters or, if the government considers them a security threat, in jail. The onus is on the claimant to prove that he or she faces persecution in the country of origin. Rejected applicants are deported, though many stay in Canada illegally.

The country is on track to receive about 20,000 refugee claims in 2010. Canada once accepted as much as 89 per cent of the applicant pool but now admits half that.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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On the surface, the ban was about animal welfare. But more than anything, it was about Catalonia asserting its identity as distinct from greater Spain.

“A Catalan nationalist movement emerged in the 1850s,” says Adrian Shubert, a historian in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. “The Catalans saw themselves as more sophisticated, more European, [and] more advanced economically than the rest of the country.”

And the future, to the Catalans, was to be European, and being European meant no more bullfights. Bullfighting was a symbol of Spanish backwardness, of barbarity, a tradition unbecoming a progressive people…. Goya celebrated it in paintings. Federico Lorca, the poet, embraced it with verse. Lorca was executed during the Spanish Civil War, a bloody conflict that ended with the dictatorship of General Francisco Franco.

“Franco detested the Catalans,” Shubert says. “He saw them as separatists and a threat to the unity of the Fatherland.”

Under Franco, the Catalan language was banned in public, and banished from media. Nationalism went underground and wouldn't emerge again until after the general's death in 1975.

Almost four decades later, a new civil war is being waged in Spain, and the first casualty is bullfighting. The debate that ended the blood sport played out in Catalonia's legislature for several months. Biologists, veterinarians, philosophers, writers — bullfighters — all were invited to address the politicians before the crucial ballot was cast. And when the votes were tallied, bullfighting, and the Spain behind it, was defeated 68-55.

The complete article is available on the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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The immediate issues are the impacts of this trend. For one, the politicization of corporate governance has become a preoccupation for boards, arguably at the expense of other significant issues. Another is the fact that the process is now fuelled by a thriving cottage industry that has evolved around shareholder voting. This raises concerns about the separation of voting from investment decision-making, the delegation of the former to proxy advisory firms and the manner in which that process may serve to exacerbate short termism in corporate decision-making (measuring performance in, at best, annual cycles).

Somewhere along the line (in our rush to pile on new corporate governance standards) purpose and process have become divorced. The irony is that, even as we impose ever-increasing accountability requirements, public distrust in the efficacy of the system continues to escalate.

Waitzer's complete article is available on the .

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Michol Hoffman and James Walker, professors of sociolinguistics in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS), studied individuals in Toronto's Chinese and Italian communities. They compared them with people of British and Irish descent to learn whether ethnic identification affects how they speak Canadian English and adopt ongoing changes to the language.

Shopping on Toronto's Spadina Avenue. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Rather than study the effects of ethnicity per se on language, they looked at the effects of ethnic orientation in the study, “Ethnolects and the City: Ethnic Orientation and Linguistic Variation in Toronto English”, which appears in the journal .

“We recognized that individuals may have different attitudes and orientation toward the values and characteristics that are associated with their ethnic group,” said Hoffman. “So we asked them a number of questions to measure how much they identify themselves as belonging to a certain group. For example: Do you watch TV in Italian or English? Did you grow up in a neighbourhood that was predominantly that ethnicity? Are most of your friends of that group?”

In addition to rating the survey participants’ ethnic orientation, the researchers took note of their ethnicity, generation and sex. First-generation Italian- and Chinese-Canadians, whose first language is Italian and Cantonese, respectively, scored highly on ethnic orientation, expressing stronger affiliation to their ethnic group. There was some transfer from the first languages in the first generation, but it does not appear to persist in the second and third generations: linguistically, younger Italian- and Chinese-Canadians who are native speakers of English appear to pattern after their British/Irish-Canadian cohorts.

“The biggest difference between ethnic groups is the rate at which they use linguistic features, such as dropping the 't' or 'd' from certain words, for example pronouncing 'told him' as 'tol’ him', and the degree to which they participate in an ongoing change in vowel pronunciation by Canadians, so 'bit' sounds more like 'bet', 'bet' sounds more like 'bat', and 'bat' sounds more like 'bot',” said Walker. “However, when we look beyond rates of use to the linguistic structure, we find more similarities than differences. Given that the differences we see among ethnic groups are more a question of degree than of kind, we think they may be strategically adopting them − or not adopting them − to express their values and identity.”

Whether these particular linguistic differences are introduced through transfer from other languages in the first generation or already exist in Canada when they arrive, there is evidence that second- and third-generation speakers adopt them and use them intentionally, Hoffman and Walker said. They are further testing this idea by examining other phonetic and grammatical features, as well as collecting further data from the Greek, Portuguese and Punjabi communities. The results of their research should inform public debate about the impact of ethnolinguistic diversity on Canadian English.

The study was covered in the; James Walker also spoke about the study on CBC Radio’s “Here & Now” program June 8.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Debate ran late into the night at this week’s council meeting and drew a series of eleventh-hour deputations in support of freezing development in the foodbelt, a 2,000-hectare swath of farmland stretching north of Major Mackenzie Drive toward the Oak Ridges Moraine.

But councillors ultimately voted 7-6 in favour of a staff-recommended model that would contain 60 per cent of new development within the current urban boundary and allow the rest to spread north.

“I feel bamboozled. I feel that democracy took a black eye,” said , an environmental studies professor at 91��ɫ who has launched an academic alliance for agriculture. The compromise, he said, “is sort of like, OK, we know we’re not doing the right thing, but just [we’re going] to sugarcoat it so you have this little morsel."

The complete article is .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer.

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It’s not all love in the avian world, where divorce, child abandonment and marrying up are part of everyday life.

, to be published in Canada this week, dispels the lovebird myth that birds pair up for life, and paints a picture instead that includes adultery and the pursuit of comfort.

“In terms of top 10 myths about birds, the permanent pair bonds that we think about, that does occur for some birds, but for most of the little songbirds that we studied, no,” said Stutchbury.

The book draws on 20 years of research from radio tracking and DNA testing and shows male Acadian flycatchers fertilizing females far away from their home nests, and female blue-headed vireos premeditating divorce by checking out new mates before they abandon their young.

Stutchbury, who has studied dozens of songbird species in Canada, the United States and Panama, said shorter summers may drive females to leave their nests before their young are fully fledged so they can quickly find new mates and lay more eggs. That leaves the males to feed the hungry chicks on their own.

Males can triple or quadruple their reproductive success by fertilizing neighbouring females, but only “mates” care for the young, and some are none the wiser. “They can’t tell when the egg hatches whether it’s theirs or not,” she said. “They have no way to know.”

Divorce is surprisingly common among birds, and most live with one partner for only a few months or years. Divorce rates range from 99 per cent in the greater flamingo to zero in the wandering albatross.

The wrote:

Who knew birds could be so bad?

A new book from Bridget Stutchbury shows they cheat on each other, and their relationships often end in divorce. As well, some parent birds favour one offspring over another. “There are a number of theories about why birds go their separate ways,” Stutchbury said in a release about her book The Bird Detective.

“One hypothesis is that birds that are genetically or behaviourally incompatible separate when both can benefit from finding a new partner.” Another theory is birds, like humans, realize they can do better: One initiates divorce for selfish gain, leaving its former partner high and dry.

The 91��ɫ biology professor – who was a 2007 Governor General’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction finalist for her book Silence of the Songbirds – and post-doctoral student Bonnie Wolfenden looked at how female Acadian flycatchers were being fertilized by neighbouring males who lived hundreds of metres away.

“We had the genetic evidence of their infidelity, but we never did catch a female sneaking away from its nest. It turned out to be the males making clandestine visits to the females,” Stutchbury said.

Stutchbury, who is among 91��ɫ's Distinguished Research Professors, is a faculty member in the in 91��ɫ’s . She holds a .

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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