Results tagged “science”

                     

Do you want to spend an intimate afternoon in a dark room with some strangers? How intimate do you want to get? Try deep under somebody's skin. Literally.

The future of the historic David Dunlap Observatory in Richmond Hill could be decided in a hearing that wraps up today. The University of Toronto sold the 190-acre property to a developer last summer, who told a Conservation Review Board hearing yesterday that their plans for the site preserve the three historic buildings but don't include a public park. At the other extreme, the Richmond Hill Naturalists want to see the entire site preserved as a park, research facility, and operating museum. Coming up the middle is the town of Richmond Hill, which wants to set aside the forested western half of the property that includes the buildings while allowing development on the eastern half. The Observatory's rich history and importance to the town as a large greenspace in the middle of suburbia should all but cinch the case for preservation of a significant portion of the site.

Riding the rocket is a routine event for most of us, a mundane part of our daily schedules that doesn't get a whole lot of attention. But at least for the next month, some imaginative physicists want to take the edge off our collective tedium and sprinkle a bit of cosmic wonder through our otherwise boring commutes. This year is the International Year of Astronomy; to celebrate, a series of posters is going up on the TTC which aims to engage our curiosity about the very nature of the universe itself. The campaign is part of an initiative called CoolCosmos, and consists of five posters that offer whimsical tidbits of information about astronomy, couched in terms that those of us who never ventured past grade 11 physics can still understand. It’s an endearingly nerdy campaign, and the most compelling use of TTC ad space we’ve seen since Poetry on the Way got us pondering the merits of blank verse while stalled on Bathurst.

Walking down Queen West can be an obstacle course. We've got to navigate the hazards of traffic, meandering pedestrians, and patches of ice at the same time as car stereos, bits of overheard conversation, flashing signage, and the temptations of shop windows all fight for our attention. The chaos of street life can be lively and invigorating, even comforting. Yet a new study from the University of Michigan (as reported by Jonah Lehrer in the Boston Globe) concludes that streets like Queen West are hard on our brains.

The Engelhard diamond. Photo by Rick Sheridan/American Museum of Natural History.

Senior firefighter Robert Leek died yesterday and Sunrise Propane company employee Parvinder Saini is still missing following yesterday's explosions and blaze at a fuel facility near Wilson and Keele. Many residents were able to return to their homes on Sunday evening, though up to 3,000 residents were prevented from doing so because of concerns over asbestos.

In the most important news story of the day, two people have been arrested in the mysterious case of Huckleberry, the dog who vanished from outside a Yonge Street bakery and was returned after his owner offered a $15,000 reward. Police haven't said whether they believe Huckleberry was in on the caper.

The amount of events this week are bursting at the seams. Keep Toronto Reading is kicking it into full gear this month with various readings across library branches, Lit Lunches, and various One Book events. There are just too many to list here. Visit the KTR calendar to see all event details and plan out your literary excursions. And if you have any kids, you can join Gisèle from TVOKids for various library tours, as well as kids' events at the ROM and Science Centre.

TTC subways twice as costly to build as Madrid's. And they got tapas while they were building it.

While we're on the subject of TTC maps (as we often are), we might as well include the most wildly ambitious one of all. Reader Ryan Felix sent us his subway map, which he describes as a "fantasy map of the TTC" in 2050. Felix says it was "created in hope to influence people to become pro-transit, and to give a vision that Toronto can have a world-class transit system."

Left to right: TTC market research director Mike Anders, TTC Chair Adam Giambrone, irate civil engineering Engineering Science student Ryan Campbell, and Giambrone executive assistant Kevin Beaulieu.

Just in case this is something you like to be reminded of, you're going to die someday. The good news is that day is likely to be further off than ever, because average life expectancy in Canada has risen, with a baby born in 2005 likely to live to 80.4 years of age. On the other hand, who wants to be an 80-year-old baby?

Waves eroding the tip of the Toronto Islands. A project to keep it from eroding will cost around $14 million, thus reminding us all once again that attempting to combat the effects of Mother Nature is a horribly costly experience, as anybody who has ever bought a jar of Oil of Olay knows full well.

Who knew there was a connection between the TTC and the Titanic, and not just that both are often associated with the words "transportation" and "disaster" (ba-dum-bum)? An exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre features four Toronto streetcar tickets salvaged from the world's most famous shipwreck by a 1987 expedition.

It might be time to cut back on the brews. Fox News is reporting that old beer fridges, which one in three Canadians keep in their houses, are remarkably inefficient and "contribute significantly" to global warming.

Self-control is difficult. If you've ever been on a diet, then you know how hard it is to stay on track. You try to be good but at some point the voice saying "no" gives up. That's when eating just one cookie becomes the whole bag and a bucket of fried chicken. It's disheartening to try not doing something, but then end up doing it anyway. New research from the University of Toronto suggests the...

Dr. David Evans is an Associate Curator in the ROM's Vertebrate Paleontology department. Upon assuming the job in May, he was assigned the task of finding a flagship sauropod specimen to display in the museum's upcoming exhibit (opening December 15) within the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Little did Evans know that he didn't have far to look. While on a scouting trip to Wyoming, the bone buff came across an article by noted sauropod expert...

We love the television advertising campaigns the WWF comes up with, and their latest is no exception. The ad does provoke some important questions, however, about the ability (or lack thereof) of individual action to create adequate change without government intervention. The first panel at yesterday's GreenTOpia launch dealt with this extensively. Keith Stewart (coincidentally, a campaigner with WWF) explained that even though he's taken extensive personal action (he has solar panels on his house,...

Meghan Provost at Queen's University has conducted a study testing correlations between women's fertility and the sexual signals that they give off by their walks. Surprisingly, women who were at the most fertile periods of their menstrual cycles had the least "sexy" walks (according to the male volunteers who rated them), with smaller hip movements and knees closer together. This would seem to contradict recent research that suggests men are more attracted to ovulating...

Microsoft has agreed to buy 1.6% of Facebook for $240,000,000, giving the social networking site a valuation of around $15 billion. The deal is good for both parties, with Bill Gates finally hanging out with the cool kids, and 23-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg getting to throw an awesome kegger.

The After Dark Film Festival! Happening all week! The only film festival where Uwe bloody Boll could have his film accepted! We talked about it here! Check it out!

Provincial and federal elections in Canada are largely determined by quirks of geography. That is, the number of seats each party receives in the legislature is rather independent of the popular vote and has more to do with the way people of particular political leanings are concentrated (or not) within arbitrarily-drawn districts. This makes pre-election polling an interesting exercise in extrapolation; a particular percentage of popular support could translate into quite a range of possible seat totals. Most polls, therefore, gauge public opinion well enough, but are unreflective of the reality of our electoral system.

Last Monday was not just the start of the Ontario general election campaign—it was also the beginning of a campaign to change the way we elect our representatives to Queen's Park. On October 10th, Ontarians will vote on a proposal by the Citizens' Assembly (a randomly-selected group of 103 Ontarians) to switch to a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system, similar to that used in some other countries including Germany and New Zealand.

John Tory says any religious schools must stick to the Ontario curriculum or lose their funding. Thus, creationism would not be allowed to be taught as science. That having been said, non-religious faith-based teaching (like "the invisible hand of the market can fix all economic problems" or "one day the working class will rise up and create a proletarian utopia") is fine!

The CNE adds "you are here" stickers to its guide maps. No, really. Apparently this is a news story. And you thought journalism was hard and required a degree or something.

Nerds rejoice! It’s here! Well, it will be! Soon! Fan Expo Canada sets down at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre Friday, August 24, opening at 4 p.m. and running until 6 p.m. on Sunday (regrettably not straight). Hosted by the sometimes questionable Hobby Star Marketing, the three-day event is home to a series of mini-expos relating to comics, science fiction, horror, anime, and gaming, and features enough guest appearances to keep the World of Warcraft player in your life erect for months. Of all the visiting celebrities, which run from the B-list right through to remedial math class, those not to be missed include the original Batman, Adam West; horror godfathers Dario Argento and George Romero; and David Prowse, the man behind the Vader suit for Star Wars episodes four through six. For ticket info and detailed schedules for each day, visit the Expo’s official website.

As mentioned in last week's ad, the Canadian National Exhibition took a break during World War II. Once the war was over, the existing buildings were modernized to prepare for the Ex's return. "From acting as a depot through which passed thousands of young Canadians to the theatres of war," noted a Toronto Telegram editorial, "it now reverts to its role as the window through which the world may glimpse the peacetime strength and wealth of the country in all its amazing variety."

They’re trying to hypnotise us, people. They’re trying to brainwash us and subdue us by bombarding the television with adverts and by using the media to confuse us, and they’ll never stop… Until Superbad is the number one movie this weekend.

This week Torontoist decided to work out for itself exactly when The Simpsons was good. Because it’s just been so long, so depressingly long, since we’ve seen a episode that didn’t make us want to open a vein. Seriously. Using the powers of science (well, Wikipedia) we’ve decided it was good between seasons three and ten, peaking in (roughly) season seven.