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Inaugural Toronto Black Film Festival announces line-up

The Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF) has released the line-up for it's first festival taking place February 13-17. The festival was designed to "celebrate diversity within the black community through films that matter," a press release announcing the line-up said.
 
The festival launches with a screening of Nairobi Half Life at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. It's about an aspiring actor from Kenya who dreams of becoming a success in "the big city," but his life takes an unexpected turn when he gets caught up in a world of small-time crooks. The film was Kenya's choice for the 2013 Oscars, but it didn't make the short list for best foreign language film. 
 
"2013 commemorates the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's 'I Have a Dream' speech and also marks the second term of the First American Black President, Barack Obama. We couldn't think of a better year to inaugurate the Toronto Black Film Festival (TBFF)," said Fabienne Colas, President and Founder of the Festival, in the release.
 
The release continues:
 
"Building on the three year relationship between Global Montreal and the Montreal International Black Film Festival, TBFF connects black films to viewers of all colours and ethnic origins. We recognize the differences that make us unique and celebrate the shared values that bring us together. Films illuminate, entertain and invite audiences to see the world from another person's experience. Coming together through art allows members of all cultural communities to better understand one another." 
 
Read the full release and list of participating films here.
Original Source: Newswire.ca

Ritz-Carlton Toronto makes Cond� Nast Traveler's Gold 2013 list

Conde Nasté has taken note of Toronto's Ritz-Carlton hotel, recognizing it as one of the world's best hotels on 2013's Gold List. It was the only Toronto hotel to make the list. 
 
Here's what the magazine said on its website:
 
"This 'stylish, cutting-edge' hotel -- opened in 2011 between Toronto's theater and financial districts and near the CN Tower -- 'lives up to the hype.' Rooms are 'gorgeous, with amazing beds,' contemporary furnishings, heated floors, and either city or water views from the floor-to-ceiling windows. Toca has a walk-through pastry corridor, a glass-encased cheese cave, and a menu focusing on Canadian-raised and -grown ingredients. Deq has a patio and open-air firepit. 'The spa is a dream,' with 'fabulous treatments' like a regenerating facial therapy using Clarins products as well as a saltwater pool. 'Staff go way above and beyond.'"
 
Check out the full list of Canada's 2013 Gold hotels here.
Original Source: Condé Nast Traveler

Is today's BlackBerry 10 launch the start of RIM's comeback?

Research in Motion is unveiling its highly anticipated BlackBerry 10 at six consecutive launch events across the world today, including one here in Toronto.
 
Leading technology reporting site Mashable thinks the new BB10 could be the start of the biggest comeback story in technology's history. The Waterloo company's shares continue to climb as buzz over the BB10 and RIM's new CEO Thorsten Heins escalates. 
 
Mashable lists BlackBerry's 80 million current service subscribers, rising stocks, a strong developing nations, business, the recently announced SuperBowl ad, and the change of charge as reason's for BB10's potential comeback.  Reporter Lance Ulanoff writes RIM isn't being taken as a "joke" anymore. 
 
He's weary of RIM's disappointing products of the past. The article cites that the PlayBook had some major flaws, but notes that RIM used that as inspiration when developing its new touch-screen device. Artist renderings of the new design are being compared to Apple.
 
"It could be the start of one of the biggest comebacks in tech history, as stunning a turnaround as Steve Jobs engineered for Apple in the late 1990s. Admit it, it seems possible now, doesn't it?"
 
Read the full story here.
Original Source: Mashable

New Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne turns heads in US

Ontario has elected its first female and openly gay Premier Kathleen Wynne and the Washington Blade was quick to notice. 
 
"Wynne, a former Ontario education and aboriginal affairs minister whom voters first elected to the provincial legislature in 2003, will be among the handful of lesbians around the world who have achieved prominent political office. These include Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn."
 
The Blade interviewed Helen Kennedy, executive director of the LGBT advocacy group Egale Canada.
 
"While gays and lesbians have been able to legally marry across Canada since 2005, Kennedy said she expects Wynne will have an impact on other LGBT-specific issues once she officially takes office. These include reducing homophobia and transphobia within the country’s education system, tackling homelessness among LGBT youth in Toronto and other cities, improving access to health care for trans Canadians and adding gender identity and expression to the Canadian Human Rights Act."
 
Read the full story here.
Original Source: Washington Blade

Canadian editor awarded prestigious Global Indian Association award

Toronto-based editor Ravi Pandey was awarded a Global Indian Association (GIA) International Excellence Award for his, "valuable and outstanding contribution and performance in community service in Canada."
 
The chief editor of Canadian newspaper Hindi Abroad launched the publication after moving to Toronto from Delhi, where he previously worked as a prominent film journalist. Since moving to Canada, he has become known for reporting on Indian issues in a foreign setting. 
 
"The Global Indian Association (GIA) is an international platform for Overseas Indians around the world to unite together to present, share and solve the issues related to migration and work, welfare activities, co-ordination with Government of India and the Embassies of the respective countries in India."
 
"The award ceremony was held recently in Kerala and felicitated distinguished Indians around the globe for their remarkable contribution and dedicated service for the well being of Indian fraternity abroad."
 
Pandey received a traditional Indian shawl as part of his award.
 
Read the full story here.
Original source: Indian Education Diary
 

Toronto research prompts potentially groundbreaking Alzheimer's treatment

Toronto researchers have teamed up with four American medical centres in hopes of testing out a new treatment that could potentially reverse or reduce the effects of Alzheimer's disease in patients.
 
The treatment consists of stimulating the brain through electrodes that are implanted through tiny holes drilled into the skull. Called "brain pacemakers," the electrodes are thought to increase stimulation to the brain. Canadian researchers accidentally discovered the treatment back in 2003 when they, "switched on the electrical jolts in the brain of an obese man and unlocked a flood of old memories." They began to wonder what impact this could have on someone with dementia. 
 
"A healthy brain is a connected brain. One circuit signals another to switch on and retrieve the memories needed to, say, drive a car or cook a meal," the article says. 
 
"At least early in the disease, Alzheimer's kills only certain spots. But the disease's hallmark gunky plaques act as a roadblock, stopping the 'on' switch so that healthy circuits farther away are deactivated, explained Dr. Andres Lozano, a neurosurgeon at Toronto Western Hospital whose research sparked the interest."
 
The Toronto researches have teamed up with John Hopkins University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Florida, and Arizona's Banner Health System to test the treatment in 40 patients. "Half will have their electrodes turned on two weeks after the operation and the rest in a year, an attempt to spot any placebo effect from surgery."
 
In the article, patient Kathy Stanford describes how she felt good after the surgery. She attributes occasional tingling to the electrodes, which are triggered by a batter-powered generator near her collarbone. 
 
Her father Joe Jester, 78, explained the reality of the situation bluntly. "What's our choice? To participate in a program or sit here and watch her slowly deteriorate?" 
 
Read the full story here.
Original Source: Herald Sun

Local author Sheila Heti receives high praise in the UK

Sheila Heti's How Should A Person Be? was released in England this week with great anticipation. The book is one part fiction and one part memoir, providing a look into the life of a young Toronto woman's struggle with writer's block in a post-divorce art world. It's been applauded since its American release last year (it was released in Canada in 2010) -- and anticipated overseas since. 
 
In January, The Guardian named it one of 2013's must-reads. The publication describes the novel as a mix of, "real conversations and emails with bedroom confessionals, self-help mantras and doses of pure fiction, this portrait of Toronto playwright 'Sheila' and her artist friends has been characterized as 'Girls in book form.'"
 
The Guardian later likened it to Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary and Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love. Now, the publication has posted a feature with Heti praising her ability to ask tough questions and drawing further comparisons to producer/actor Lena Dunham, who explores similar topics via her hit television series Girls
 
"Like Dunham, Heti faces criticism for being part of a privileged (white) North American elite; but her writing asks important questions about roles for young women in late-capitalist society, and celebrates the power of female friendship," writes Liz Hoggart. 
 
Hoggart interviews Heti and asks her about growing up, the inspiration for her book, and just how her life has changed since the book took off. Unlike the praised colloquial narrative, Heti's answers don't resonate as inspiring, but they do offer a look into the mind of one of Canada's fastest rising authors. Most interesting is Heti's response to Hoggart's question about character Sheila realizing she is in a destructive relationship with a man named Israel. 
 
Heti tells her, "She eventually gets out of it, but I wanted to show her lose control; it's also part of her fantasy of wanting other people to tell her how to be -- she thinks Israel is going to be this promised land and it turns out to be a place of real destruction and pain."
 
Read the full story here.
Original source: The Guardian

Controversial BC homeless program comes to Toronto

Toronto chef Rodney Bowers is taking a bite out of a controversial new program designed to give homeless and in-need people access to food through tokens that can be used at participating restaurants. 
 
The program is the vision of Vancouver's Save on Meats owner Mark Brand, who created the token program to, "help Downtown Eastsiders get a helping hand without handing them money they might spend on drugs or booze." Now, he's met with chef Bowers, owner of Toronto restaurants Hey! and Hey Meatball!, to discuss bringing the program to Toronto. 
 
People can buy tokens at participating restaurants and then hand them to a homeless or needy person who can then redeem it for a sandwich. 
 
"I'm really excited about it," Brand told the Province. "People are doing better, they're eating better. I do believe we're doing a good thing."
 
Not everyone agrees. Brand says it didn't take long for the program to receive criticism. Despite this, he says it's already a success. In one week, 800 tokens were redeemed, including 150 tokens on December 27. He says many people received these tokens as Christmas presents from strangers. The program is highly praised by community organizations such as the Vancouver Women's Health Collective who use the tokens as icebreakers during community outreach initiatives.
 
Bowers hopes to offer a similar program here in Toronto by late spring or early summer. Yonge Street will follow-up. 

Read the full story here.
Original source: The Province

City of Toronto website named one of the best in the world

The City of Toronto's website has been named one of the best municipal websites in the world, according to the Digital Governance in Municipalities Worldwide report released yesterday.
 
The City of Toronto's website ranked first in content and second overall behind Seoul, South Korea's municipal website. Toronto improved from tenth place to second in the 2009 report for digital governance. It was the third most usable municipal website in 2011, but did not make the top 10 cut in privacy and security or social engagement. 
 
The average score for digital governance in municipalities throughout the world is 33.76. In 2011, Toronto's score was 64.31. Toronto is now the top ranked city website in North America, switching places with New York City who dropped to ninth. 
 
"The ranking reflects Toronto’s efforts to improve its e-governance, particularly in content, usability, and services," the report says.
 
"For usability and services, it provides a consistent navigation bar system, font color, and formatting.  Clear forms and advanced search tools have made it easier to use; related information online helps residents pay taxes, tickets, and utilities; and guidance is available for users to apply for permits and licenses. Additionally, users can submit their feedback or complaints by email or phone to further improve the performance of government. These improvements make the usability and services areas of Toronto’s website more convenient and comprehensive."

The report is a collaboration between the EGovernance Institute at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey Campus at Newark and the Department of Political Science, Kent State University.
 
Read the full report here.
Original source: Digital Governance report
 

Broken Social Scene to reunite for summer concert

Local indie music legends Broken Social Scene are set to reunite for a huge performance following an indefinite hiatus that lasted just over a year. The band is returning to partake in the Field Trip Music and Arts festival, a summer festival celebrating the tenth anniversary of the band's record label, the Toronto-based Arts & Crafts. 
 
"Field Trip was built around the themes of discovery and community," said Jeffrey Remedios, who co-founded A&C with BSS main men Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning. "In addition to world-class musical performances, the festival will incorporate local art, gourmet food and unique elements of Toronto's proud culture. Field Trip is a celebration - not just of Arts & Crafts' 10-year anniversary and our artists - but of Toronto, of community and perhaps above all else, of the collaborative spirit." 
 
Broken Social Scene is a band that refuses to use the term "supergroup," yet members have included the Grammy-nominated Feist, Stars' Amy Millan, and Emily Haines from Metric. BSS has been nominated for five Juno Awards and took home alternative album of the year in both 2003 and 2006. The band has also received two Polaris Music Prize nominations celebrating artistic mastery for its most recent offering, Forgiveness Rock Records. The band's impact on Toronto's music scene has been documented in the book This Book is Broken (2009) and the subsequent independent film This Movie Is Broken (2010), directed by Bruce McDonald. 
 
News of the band's reunion is receiving coverage across North America. The band announced the hiatus after performing a final show on Nov 8, 2011 in Rio de Janeiro.
 
The festival takes place Saturday June 8 at Fork York and Garrison Common in Toronto. It will feature performances from Feist, Bloc Party, Ra Ra Riot, Cold Specks, Jason Collett, Timber Timbre, Zeus and other indie bands. Tickets go on sale today. 
 
Read the full story here.
Original Source: SPIN

Toronto Solar Ship could revolutionize access to critical medical supplies in remote areas

A Toronto company hopes to transform the way critical medical and hospital supplies are delivered to remote areas in the world through its unique solar-powered airship. It's been a dream of Canadian entrepreneur Jay Godsall since he was in high school and now, thanks in part to an in-progress crowd-funded IndieGoGo campaign and potential support from investors, the project is finally taking off.
 
Thirty years in the making, the aircraft is Toronto-company Solar Ship's most important innovation. It's a hybrid between a bush plane and an airship, powered by solar panels, lifted by helium, and designed to access hard-to-reach places, "where roads don't exist and planes can't land." 
 
The company has built four prototypes since 2009, but the real mission of the IndieGoGo campaign is to establish enough funding to begin delivering medical supplies to villages in Cape Town, Africa. The company is seeking $1 million through crowd-funding and investors to cover the costs of medical supplies, aircraft development, and training.
 
“Airships are older than radios, older than automobiles,” Godsall told BBC, “but no one has quite had the mission to do something like this with one.”
 
There is some backlash. The crafts are expensive and a worldwide helium shortage may cause problems, the BBC article says. In addition, these aircrafts may not be well received in communities unfamiliar with giant hovering aircrafts. “The eastern Congo is not a place you can just pull up in your hospital ship," Dr. Amy Lehman, founder of Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic, an organization that uses small boats to supply medical treatment around the great lake, including eastern Congo, told BBC. 
 
Despite this, Godsall claims the company has funding should the IndieGoGo campaign prove ineffective (at press time, the campaign had raised just under $7,000). He says the company's persistence is the key to its success. “We build em’, fly em’, build em’ and fly em’, and now, we’ve nailed it.”
 
Read the full story here.
Original source: BBC

One of 'Canada's Most Powerful Women' opens Washington office

Former Canadian Competition Commissioner Melanie Altken has rejoined law firm Bennett Jones LLP to set up a Washington office for the Toronto-based firm. 
 
Reporter William McConnell writes, "in an interview, Aitken said the increasing prevalence of cross-border deals makes this the right time for her firm to set up an office in Washington. 'I've long believed that there is a real opportunity for a Canadian firm to have a presence in Washington, particularly in the antitrust area. This is a terrific opportunity and I'm glad we're going to be first,' she said."
 
The Competition Act and competition law, sometimes called antitrust law, is designed to prevent anti-competitive practices in the marketplace by promoting the efficiency and adaptability of the Canadian economy, expending opportunities for Canadian participation in world markets while also recognizing the role of foreign competition in Canada, ensuring that small and medium-sized enterprises have equitable opportunity to participate in the Canadian economy, and by providing consumers with competitive prices and product choices. 
 
Altken was named one of Canada's Most Powerful Women in 2012, as well as one of Canada's most influential lawyers in 2011 and 2012 by the Women's Executive Network. She's been recognized as a leading competition/antitrust lawyer by various other organizations as well. She was a partner at Bennett Jones before joining the Competition Bureau in 2005. While there, she played a role in crafting important amendments to Canada's competition law. 
 
"She put together a successful litigation record, enhanced relationships with government agencies in the U.S. and other countries and helped cooperation among enforcement authorities around the world with active participation in the International Competition Network and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

"She will manage the Washington office and serve as co-chairwoman of the Bennett Jones' Antitrust and Competition practice, advising Canadian and foreign clients on issues arising for those carrying on business or investing in Canada."
 
She is a 1991 graduate of the University of Toronto Law School.

Read the full article here.
Original source: The Deal
 

InteraXon debuts mind-control technology at CES

Toronto-based company InteraXon has been making waves this week down at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas – brainwaves, that is.
 
The company released its first consumer product the Muse Brain Health System, a brainwave-enabled headband and application system that simultaneously strengthens the cognitive and emotional parts of your brain through mental exercise. The headband measures brain activity during customized training exercises, allowing the user to gage how well their brain is performing and ultimately enhance their brain health.
 
“With over 70 percent of all doctor and hospital visits being due to stress-related illnesses we wanted to design a brain health system that helped both the cognitive and emotional,” Ariel Garten, Founder and CEO at InteraXon, says in the article. “So many brain trainers focus on the cognitive aspects of the mind, but the emotional side is just as crucial. There needs to be a balance for you to have a healthy mind. We’re very excited to showcase our technology at CES.”
 
The headset will be available for purchase later this year and will retail at $199. 
 
Read the full article here
Original source: San Francisco Gate

Winterlicious, Fashion Week, draws for Toronto tourism

2013 is shaping up to be a good year for city tourism as publications across the globe hype city happenings as fuel for making Toronto a hot vacation destination. 

"Toronto is a fantastic city to visit at any time of the year, but you might want to plan your holiday to Canada to coincide with one of the destination's most popular events. There is plenty going on in Toronto whichever month you travel," the travel site says. 

It lists Winterlicious, World MasterCard Fashion Week, Luminato and the Toronto International Film Festival as reasons to come to the city. 

Up first:

"Winterlicious is well worth putting at the top of your itinerary… With the city being very multicultural, you can be sure you'll get the chance to try dishes from around the world."

Read the full story here.
Original Source: Travelbite UK

 


Sound of a city

The Toronto Symphony Orchestra recently asked composer and musical innovator Tod Machover to not only direct and curate its annual New Creations Festival for 2013, but also compose an original piece. He sat down with Smart Planet to discuss A Toronto Symphony: Concerto for Composer and City, a partnership between Machover and the people of Toronto. 
 
The symphony will premier on March 9, 2013 and will feature what Machover calls a 'mass musical collaboration' between more than 10,000 Toronto-based contributors.
 
"I thought, Could you make a situation where quite a lot of people who don't know each other can come together to have this type of experience? Could I invite the entire city of Toronto to take this basic theme of a portrait of a city -- a sonic portrait of Toronto -- and make a piece with me? I'm trying to set up a situation where it ends up being a piece of music that none of us could have done alone, but I take the responsibility of being the leader, which means if it stinks at the end people can throw tomatoes at me."
 
Machover is no stranger to innovative composure and is known as the grandfather of Rock Band and Guitar Hero. The "hyperinstruments" he designed for Prince and Yo-Yo Ma in the 80's inspired the video games. He has been a professor at the MIT Media Lab since its inception in 1985. His robotic opera, Death and the Powers, was a Pulitzer Prize finalist last year. 
 
The New Creations Festival piece was a new creative process for Machover.
 
"In this case, I thought of the musical story of the piece and the shape of it. I knew I wanted the piece to be like someone coming into the city of Toronto, getting to know it, figuring it out and seeing the parts of it come together. I knew that process, which was very much the composing process, was also going to be the structure of the piece."
 
"It's important that it ends up being a piece of music people simply want to listen to and that creates an emotional effect and speaks for itself, but I also hope it's something that everybody who participated feels like it's theirs somehow -- including me. If it feels like something we all made and that none of us could have made without each other, that would be a great success."

Read full story here.
Originalsource: Smart Planet


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