In The News

Inspirit Foundation hosts ChangeUp conference

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

MASS LBP is currently assisting the Inspirit Foundation in hosting their first national conference —ChangeUp 2015— here in Toronto. This conference will bring together 80 people who are working in communities across Canada to bridge cultural divides and build inclusive communities.

As part of the conference, Inspirit will be hosting two very special evening events with prominent Canadian changemakers. Each is working in different ways at the vanguard of social and policy change.

We would like to extend an invitation to each of these events to you and your circle of friends and colleagues.

Reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people:
You can look forward to a conversation between Truth and Reconciliation of Canada Commissioner Dr. Marie Wilson and Indigenous elder and author Lee Maracle. Together they will discuss the Commission’s recent findings and the prospect for reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living in Canada. (Thursday, 17 September 2015, 7:30pm - 9:00pm)Get your tickets here.

The role of protest in tackling systemic racism:
Journalist and activist Desmond Cole and former Toronto Mayor and former Ontario Human Rights Commissioner Barbara Hall will discuss the role of protest and human rights in tackling systemic racism. Cole's recent cover story in Toronto Life, “The Skin I’m In,” has sparked renewed discussion and debate about the controversial practice of police 'carding' racial minorities. (Friday, 18 September 2015, 7:30pm - 9:00pm) Get your tickets here.

Ticket prices are $10 or pay-what-you-can.

University of Toronto study shows infants prefer nice voices

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

It might not be news to parents, but the Wall Street Journal has taken note of a University of Toronto study, which found that infants less than a year old make up their minds about people based on the tones of voice they use – and remember those preferences. The study used a combination of puppets speaking a variety of phrases in happy or irritated tones, and then tested the same voices coming from plain paper cups. The infants in the test showed a marked preference for the puppets that spoke in pleasant tones, but weren’t swayed by nice-sounding inanimate objects. Moreover, they remembered the human-looking puppets who spoke pleasantly, and were drawn to them even after they shifted to a neutral tone.

Read the full story here.
Source: The Wall Street Journal

A long Weeknd of acclaim for Toronto's latest export

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

In the music press, Toronto's own Abel Tesfaye – better known as the increasingly famous The Weeknd – has been attracting big-ticket reviews and comparisons to A-listers like Taylor Swift. More prominent than ever after performing for a global audience on MTV’s VMA awards last weekend, and basking in the glow of “Can’t Feel My Face,” a tune that might well have been the song of the summer, Tesfaye is becoming Toronto’s latest global export. In a music column, Slate magazine compared him to Swift and Carly Rae Jepson, noting the resurgence of 80’s pop in their work. And the Los Angeles Times devoted a full review to his latest album, “Beauty Behind the Madness,” calling it “an impressive and revealing new album full of expertly crafted pop songs with clear-cut commercial goals.”

Read the stories here and here.
Sources: Slate; The Los Angeles Times

Toronto's third base is off-base

Wednesday, September 02, 2015

Baseball fever has gripped Toronto, with the Blue Jays division-leading winning streak raising hopes of a long-awaited return to the World Series. But the New York Times is looking at Toronto baseball for another reason: The quirks of its third base. The Rogers Centre features a rare playing surface for baseball players – artificial turf. It turns out the once-famous “astroturf” can cause balls to roll to an unexpected stop when they reach the outfield – except when the turf settles and hardens, and then balls skip and move faster. “Sometimes it’s going to be fast, sometimes it’s going to be slow,” Blue Jays third-base coach Luis Rivera tells the Times. “When is that? I won’t tell you, but I know when. I’ll let the other team find out.”

Read the article here.
Source: The New York Times

University of Toronto researchers hone in on 3D camera technology

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The New York Times reports on a new 3D camera technology that's come from researchers at the University of Toronto, in conjunction with colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University. Cameras that sense depth have been on the market for years - take Microsoft's Kinect camera, for instance - but they don't work in bright light. Now, the researchers have devised a new generation of depth-sensing cameras that use only the light they need to calculate distances, by illuminating their target with laser light. As a result, they can accurately map the contours of an object they're looking at, be it something as simple as a ball or - or as detailed as a human face.

Read the full story here.
Source: New York Times.

Study points to the emotional intelligence of happy couples

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

New York Magazine has reported on an unusual study about marital happiness conducted by University of Toronto researchers.

Researchers studied the brain activity of long-married women, with an average age of 72, while they watched videos of their husbands recalling emotional memories. But there was a catch: The videos were deliberately mislabeled, so the husbands were said to be recalling a sad memory while visibly laughing, and vice-versa.

The results showed that the women's mental activity spiked when their husbands seemed inexplicably happy - but not when they were inexplicably sad (or at least no more than they did when watching similar videos of strangers). The study points towards the emotional sensitivities that lead to lasting marriages. As the article notes, "this neatly complements other past research showing, for example, that people who are unable to differentiate their partners’ emotions from their own (they assume they’re the same), tend to be viewed by their partners as more controlling and smothering."

Read the whole story here.
Source: New York Magazine

U of T professor shares wisdom on "voyeur-�exhibitionist relationship�

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The New York Times has profiled one of Toronto's lesser-known cultural leaders: Stéphane Deschênes, a senior figure in the International Naturist Federation, "a sort of United Nations of nudism."

Deschênes teaches at the University of Toronto (which is everywhere in the news this week), and runs a nudist colony on the outskirts of the city. In the piece, "How to Be Naked In Public," Deschênes describes ways of getting comfortable with naturism - starting with going in the buff in the comfort of your own home, and getting used to that before venturing into the outdoors. He also suggests watching out for the scourge of "phantom clothes" - the fleeting sensation that, even after years of committed naturalism, you're still wearing clothes when you're not.

Read the rest here.
Source: New York Times.

Canada is officially so great that it's scary

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Is Canada the true threat facing America in the 21st century? That's what The Guardian's Sportsblog argues, with its tongue at least partway into its cheek.

The blog takes note of two Toronto products that are menacing their southern counterparts: The resurgent Toronto Blue Jays, who have found themselves on a roll. Then there's the recent dual of diss tracks between Toronto hometown hero Drake and Philadelphia's Meek Mill, which by popular consensus Drake roundly won.

"If Donald Trump truly wants to “Make America Great Again,” he must turn his squinty gaze to the north, to Canada, to America’s true threat," writes the Guardian.

Read the full story here.
Source: The Guardian

Toronto tops ranking of world's most liveable cities

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Toronto has hit the top of another international ranking - this time in Metropolis. The urban-oriented publication has just released a ranking of "The World's Most Liveable Cities" – and it puts Toronto at the top of the list. Writing about the winning city for the magazine, Toronto Star columnist Chritopher Hume cites recent achievements like the city's revitalized waterfront, its Tower Renewal scheme, the Regent Park renewal program, and the new express train to Pearson Airport as things that will make "one of the most livable cities on earth even more attractive."

Read the rest here.
Source: Metropolis.

Toronto's Latin American restaurant scene is on the rise

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

The Chicago Tribune has written about Toronto's growing Latin American food scene. Observing that Toronto's cuisine has gone from predictible to lively in a short period of time, the Tribune visits Steve Gonzalez, the owner of Valdez on King St. West, which offers his interpretations of Latin American food - including quesadillas with eggplant and artichoke, and "a briscuit-endowed mofongo." The piece also recommends Albert's Real Jamaican Food and the Peruvian El Fogon, both on St. Clair. And then, of course, there's Kensington Market, which the author describes as "more of a state of mind than a market." Fair enough.

Read the full story here.
Source: The Chicago Tribune

New York Times turns spotlight on Toronto pop singer, The Weeknd

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Scarborough-bred musician The Weeknd finds himself the subject of an extensive New York Times magazine profile by music critic Jon Caramanica, which dares to ask whether the 25-year-old born Abel Tesfaye is poised to become “the biggest pop star in the world.”

When summing up the artist's mounting legacy, Caramanica writes:

As he sees it, he is walking in the footsteps of artists of previous eras who, from an R.&B. foothold, rocketed into the stratosphere. So it didn’t come as a surprise when Tesfaye was visibly (and uncharacteristically) thrilled to relate the story of how he first met the legendary producer Quincy Jones. The two were at a club called Drai’s in Las Vegas, where Tesfaye performs frequently. The owner introduced him to Jones, 82 years old but still spry enough for the club. The two sat down next to each other. ‘‘He knew about me,’’ Tesfaye said, beaming. ‘‘You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face.’’

Read the full story here.
Source: New York Times

Norm Kelly's Twitter account goes international

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

A source of growing local amusement since early 2014, the Twitter account of avuncular, right-leaning city councillor Norm Kelly has recently attracted international attention. Because this is Toronto, the focus comes courtesy of Drake—or, more specifically, Kelly taking to Twitter to wade into the local rapper's feud with Philadelphia rapper Meek Mill. After Meek Mill accused the Toronto hip-hop artist of hiring a team of ghostwriters to pump out his lyrics, Kelly tweeted that Mill was “no longer welcome in Toronto.”

This, as Time points out, is in contrast with the polite reputation that Canadians have abroad.

Read the full story here.
Source: Time.

Chatter mounts around a Toronto Olympics bid

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Toronto has a fever, and the cure might be...hosting the 2024 Olympic games? While that remains a matter of local debate, outsiders are beginning to speculate as to what that would mean for the rest of North America.

The Associated Press reports: "North America has not hosted a summer games since 1996 in Atlanta, and from an American perspective, it would still feel like “home country games” with the Canadian government picking up the bills."

Toronto lost to Beijing for the 2008 Olympics, and to Atlanta for 1996. Canada spent $2.5 billion CAN organizing the Pan Am Games.

Read the rest here.
Source: Washington Post

A very Kanye controversy

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

Hip-hop superstar Kanye West is performing at July 26 closing ceremony of the Pan American Games, and some Torontonians are not pleased that a non-Canadian artist was chosen for the headlining honour. The overwhelming patriotism of Canadian music fans in Toronto and beyond has launched a petition to ban West from the performance, which had already garnered over 40,000 signatures by July 17. It's also attracted international media attention and, frankly, bemusement. Our maple leaf-shaped hearts are, apparently, quite cute on our sleeves.

Read the full story here.
Source: Entertainment Weekly.

Women's baseball makes historic Pan Am debut

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

As Toronto hosts the largest and most diverse Pan American Games to-date, history is quietly being made. This week marked the first time women's baseball was played in a large, multi-sport event.

The New York Times reports:

There was no live television coverage at the debut, and perhaps only 200 fans saw the first pitch as American left hander Sarah Hudek threw a ball just off the plate to open the game against leadoff hitter Astrid Rodriguez of Venezuela.

"To be here, this is awesome. This is it," said American player Malaika Underwood. "It doesn't matter that we're not on TV. I mean the fact we are out here is the point. When we look back at this, I think we'll appreciate the magnitude."

Read the full story here.
Source: New York Times