In The News

TRIUMF, a laboratory that studies nuclear and particle physics in partnership with York University and the University of Toronto, have announced a "new breakthrough in understanding neutrinos - nature's most elusive particles," says an article that appeared on Space Daily. 

 

Neutrinos have perplexed scientists for their ability to change from one form to another as they travel, but TRIUMF researched Michael Wilking said there is "definitive proof" of "a new type of neutrino oscillation in which muon neutrinos transform into electron neutrinos," Space Daily writes. 

 

The discovery is the result of an experiment known as the international Tokai to Kamioka (T2K) collaboration, which investigates how neutrinos change form as they travel.

This particular transformation, of muon to electron, had not been conclusively observed before. The fact that it now has is considered a major milestone. The transformation was observed when a "beam of muon neutrinos" was produced "in the J-PARC accelerator facility in Tokai, Japan. The neutrino beam is monitored by a nearby detector complex ND280 (much of which was built in Canada) and aimed at the gigantic Super-Kamiokande (SK) underground detector in Kamioka, 295 km away."

 

An analysis of data revealed that there were more electron neutrinos than what would be expected had the protons not transformed. "This T2K observation is the first of its kind to explicitly see a unique flavor of neutrinos appear at the detection point from a beam initially consisting of a different type of neutrino," Space Daily writes. 

 

The article credits York University for its "significant contributions to this historic result." York monitored the rate of neutrino production at the J-PARC facility, as well as the rate these neutrinos interacted in the nearby T2K detector complex. 

 

York University professor Sampa Bhadra, York PhD graduate Vyacheslav Galymov, graduate student Elder Pinzon, research associate Mark Hartz (University of Toronto), mechanical engineer Mircea Cadabeschi (who built mostly at U of T), graduate student Patrick de Perio, are credited as key figures in the discovery. 

"This form of transformation is sensitive to matter-antimatter asymmetry in the universe," says Bhadra in the article. "What can be more exciting that studying a particle that may hold the clue to our very existence?"
 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Space Daily

 

After four years of calling Vancouver home, the Canadian Videogame Awards is moving to Toronto for its 2014 presentation. 

 

"This is a truly Canadian show, celebrating the exceptional talent in our country, and from the beginning we have said we would like to hold the CVAs in cities across Canada. We are excited to be in Toronto for the 2014 show Gregory Spievak, CEO of Reboot Communications and Co-Founder of the Canadian Videogame Awards, says in an article that ran this week in Market News. 

 

"We have developed wonderful relationships with studios across the country and are delighted with the warm welcome Toronto has given us so far."

 

The event recognizes Canadian talent in categories such as Game of the Year, Best Technology, Best Game Innovation, Best Console Game and more. 

 

A venue and date have yet to be chosen, but organizers confirm the fifth annual awards will take place in Toronto sometime next April. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Market News

 

The term "fruits of labour" took on new meaning for a Scottish woman who was so inspired by a fruit bouquet she saw while visiting Toronto, she just had to go home and start her own business.

 

But first, Ally Thornton had to learn how to carve the bouquets she fell in love with. She extended her visit to Toronto and took an adult learning course in fruit carving. An article that ran in the Herald Scotland doesn't mention where she took the course, but there are a number in the GTA including Edible Glamour, Art Chef, and Golden Chef, to name a few. 

 

The Edinburgh-based Apeeling Fruit Bouquets has been commissioned for fruit displays at numerous weddings and corporate customers, and is now in talks with a catering company at the upcoming festival season. 

 

"I'm loving it. It's great being your own boss," she says in the article. "I've turned a hobby into a business."

Thumbnail photo: The Watermelon Festival Dipped Bananas from Edible Arrangements.

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Herald Scotland 

 

For 33 years, the AHS Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Challenge has promised a $250,000 prize to the first human-powered helicopter capable of a total flight time of more than 60 seconds, reaching a height of more than three metres, and staying within a 10x10 metre box.

 

In April, the race was on between two teams. Last month, the Toronto-based engineering startup AeroVelo took the prize after its human-powered helicopter hovered for 64 seconds and reached an altitude of 3.3 metres. 

 

In an article that appeared on Dezeen, Mike Hirschberg, the executive director of the American Helicopter Society, called the feat "an incredible accomplishment." He went on to say, "For a third of a century, the AHS Sikorsky Prize has eluded the best minds and technology available. The technological and theoretical advancements achieved in pursuit of our challenge have been astounding."

 

Last year, AeroVelo co-founders Todd Reichert and Cameron Robertson raised more than $34,000 via Kickstarter to build Atlas, a helicopter powered by a single person riding a bike. The team broke the record at an indoor soccer stadium in Toronto on June 13. The feat was made possible with help from "passionate" volunteers largely consisting of University of Toronto engineering students, as well as funding from academic and corporate sponsors. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: Dezeen

 

Toronto artists Metric and METZ, as well as Hamilton-based Whitehorse, are among the 10 artists shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize. The picks for this year's award were announced at a ceremony yesterday at the Drake Hotel in Toronto.

 

"It's an interesting breakdown every year," Steve Jordan, the founder and executive director of Polaris, says in an article in Rolling Stone. 

 

Polaris is a not-for-profit that honours one band or artist each year with a prestigious $30,000 award designed to celebrate diversity and creativity within Canadian music.  Albums are nominated and judged by a series of panelists, with the finalist being announced at a gala in Toronto on September 23. 

 

"It goes all over the map, but more importantly people really listen to each other in the internal discussions, even the ones who don't weigh in and aren't vocal," Jordan continues. "People still hear the arguments; they still hear someone's passion for a record that they may not themselves understand. It's an unseen benefit of Polaris is the openness we're instilling in the music media in Canada. People are really seriously considering their ballot every time they vote."

 

Eligible albums must have been released between June 1st, 2012, and May 31st, 2013. Runners up will receive $2,000. The awards have been given out annually since 2006, with past winners including Owen Pallett, Feist, and Arcade Fire.

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Rolling Stone

 

Umbra, the Toronto-based manufacturer of design-driven household products, is set to open a new free-standing retail location in China at the heart of Shanghai's Jinqiao Mall. 

 

The 1,700-sq.-ft. concept store will sell many of the company's trademark décor items, including kitchen and bath accessories, photo displays, and clocks. Umbra currently retails in 118 countries, but "few customers have any idea of the number of products we make," Les Mandelbaum, president and co-founder of Umbra Ltd., said in an article in Home Accents Today, "so an Umbra free-standing store is the best way to demonstrate this."

 

The Canadian company has existed for 33 years, with its flagship location located at 165 John St. in Toronto. It is impossible to miss with its bright pink panels. 

 

"We are thrilled to be opening our new store in China," said Paul Rowan, co-founder and vice president of inspiration, in the article "Our designers hail from around the world, which has helped us create a truly international style. We hope that we'll be as popular here in China as we are in over 100 other countries."
 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Home Accents Today

 

Now Magazine has announced the winners of its annual Best of Toronto list, a series of picks voted on by readers that includes categories ranging from best pizza to best city councillor.

 

Of particular interest to Yonge Street readers:

 

Best MP: Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) 

Best councillor: Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) 

Best park: High Park

Best new restaurant: Hoof Café (923 Dundas West) 

Best activist organization: LEAF, Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests 

Best youth organization: Supporting Our Youth soytoronto.org

Best pool: Sunnyside Pool (1755 Lake shore West) 

Best locally made beer: Duggan’s #9 (75 Victoria St.) 

And because we mentioned it, best pizza: Pizzeria Libretto (221 Ossington Ave.) 

 

The full list can be found here. 

Original source: Now Magazine

In what Running Magazine described as an "age-defying spectacle at Toronto's Varsity Stadium," a group of four Canadian runners in their 80s set a new age-group world record in the men's 4x800m relay at the Ontario Masters Championships on Saturday.

 

The four runners--80-year-old Ray Wardle, 83-year-old Bill Thompson, 82-year-old (and multiple world record holder) Ed Witlock, and 84-year-old Earl Fee (who holds 56 age-group world records)--set a time of 14:24, beating the previous record of 16:01, which was set by Australians in 2010. 

 

It was Witlock's quick feet that sealed the deal, to which Fee, who had been predicted to run the fastest in the group, joked, "I can't keep up with Ed. He's two years younger than me."

 

Watch a video of Witlock handing the baton to Fee, which the commenter describes as one of the "the greatest exchanges in track history," below.
 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Running Magazine

 

Affordable dedicated desk space, craft beer on tap, and a community of tech startups and freelancers are just some of the reasons why Techvibes thinks Project RHINO is the best co-working space in the city.

 

Located at 73 Bathurst Street (at King), Project RHINO opened its doors in August 2011 and now houses 22 companies.

 

“When we were crafting this idea we said 'lets create the kind of space that we would have wanted,' and that’s what led to our founder-friendly approach," co-founder Neil Martin told Techvibes. 

 

"There's also the culture aspect. You work hard, you have fun, it's affordable and it opens the doors to a wider array of people."

 

Martin and his business partner Jeff Howard were working on their first startup in Toronto fresh out of graduating from Queen's University when, "a faded sign in the window of an old building across the street" caught their attention, the article reports. 

 

The co-working space has not been without its struggles, including, at one point, tenants moving out en masse. Within six months, things turned around and Project RHINO now has plans to expand to 5,000 square feet, encompassing the building's entire fourth floor.

 

"You have to take risks," Martin says in the article. "We decided if we're going to do this, lets do it well. I had this eureka moment where I thought if we're going to run a co-working space it’s not going to be this side project. It’s going to be the best god damned working space in Toronto."

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Techvibes

 

The UK is looking to Canada as a model for successful social finance initiatives, according to an article that appeared in the Guardian. Specifically, Canadian social innovators are turning to community bonds, which allow lenders to earn back the principal amount lent plus interest within a set number of years.

 

The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI)'s community bond program, which promised lenders principal plus four per cent interest returned within five years, is looked at as a prime example. When CSI was expanding to a new location, it was able to secure the bulk of its financing through loans, but still needed to cover an additional $2 million. This is where the bond came in, allowing the organization to raise the remainder of the funds.

 

"Based on the success of the community bond and a desire to mobilise money for socially innovative projects, other organisations have created their own bonds," the article says. "In December of 2011, the YWCA Toronto issued a $1m community bond to fund 300 affordable housing units for women and children. Purchased by the Muttart Foundation, the bond carries a 10-year term and pays 4% interest annually. Community bonds are also used for financing local solar energy projects and food markets."

 

The article also goes into some detail about recent Canadian government initiatives that have inspired UK Prime Minister David Cameron to help similar projects move "full speed ahead" in the UK. He recently made numerous related announcements, including tax breaks for social investment, the Social Stock Exchange, and more than the equivalent of $400 million in funding to help "communities buy local assets such as pubs, shops, and community centres."

 

Read there full story here. 

Original source: The Guardian

A new Toronto-based online-only accelerator aims to help entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground through self-directed and live courses. AcceleratorU is an extension of many of the local accelerators that have launched in Toronto since 2011, but it is "designed to fill the gap left by the model those programs follow" co-founder Simon Brightman told IT Business. 

 

The article continues: "By offering online courses that are open to anyone globally, the program doesn’t uproot part-time entrepreneurs trying to hold down a day job or require anyone to move to participate in the program. There are a lot of great startups in Canada that aren’t getting picked up by accelerator programs, Brightman says."

 

AcceleratorU also offers an online venture program, a seven-week program "designed to help entrepreneurs take ideas and turn them into products. The live program includes 28 hours of 'classroom training' and includes support from experienced entrepreneurs. The discounted cost is $297 and an interview chat is required for the admissions process," the article says.

 

Courses, webinars and programs range in price and sometimes go on sale. There are also a select number of free opportunities. 

 

The venture program is largely catered to startups that haven't been able to get into accelerators. Brightman told IT Business, "If you've been doing this on your own and you're stuck, this is what we'd like you to consider."

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: IT Business

Toronto-based writer and organizer Dave Meslin recently wrote an article for the Sydney Morning Herald discussing his views on the powers of crowdsourcing. 

 

Crowdsourching, which involves seeking knowledge and opinions from the general public, "flips hierarchy on its head, transforming ordinary people into active participants in the creation of culture, art, and even public policy. It creates a role for you and I to play in fields that used to be exclusive to a small few," he says. 

 

Meslin is no stranger to crowdsourcing. In one example outlined in his piece, Meslin discusses how governments often put out calls for public opinion, but these are frequently overshadowed or easily missed due to the public's own busy lives and oversaturated media clutter, and, worse, to the poor designs, legal jargon, and tiny fonts common with these notices.  

 

He wondered what could make these notices stand out more and decided to crowdsource his answer and put a "call for submissions" out on his blog encouraging graphic designers to create a "better, bolder and brighter public notice."

 

"The results were spectacular. The submissions were captivating and bold, easy to read and included encouraging phrases like 'Your voice matters' or 'We want to hear from you.' It was inspiring to see what was possible," Meslin writes.

 

Meslin was in Sydney, Australia speaking on the topic at a public discussion. The state of New South Wales is actively seeking to take advantage of crowdsourcing. "With a focus on public engagement and the creation of a Community Participation Charter, the government is making a clear commitment to crowdsourcing innovation and empowering citizens to find their voice, and to use it," Meslin writes.

 

Read the full article here. 

Original source: The Sydney Morning Herald

The latest batch of inductees into Canada's Walk of Fame were unveiled Tuesday morning and include Toronto producer Bob Ezrin and activists Craig and Marc Keilburger among the honorees. 

 

"To be eligible," says the CBC, "Walk of Fame candidates must have been born in or spent their creative or formative years in Canada. They must have achieved a minimum of 10 years of success and developed a recognized body of work that has had a significant influence on Canada's cultural heritage."

 

Here's what the CBC says about each inductee:

 

Bob Ezrin: For more than 50 years, Toronto-born music and events producer Ezrin has worked with a wide range of acts — from Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper to Lang Lang, K'naan and Taylor Swift. Most recently, his credits include producing the Jay-Z doc Fade to Black, folk icon Pete Seeger's 90th birthday concert and the Juno-winning charity fundraiser track Raising Flag.

Marc and Craig Kielburger: The Toronto-area Kielburger siblings are human rights activists, authors, columnists and entrepreneurs who co-founded Free The Children, the world's largest youth-driven charity and provider of schools and education to children in eight developing countries. The pair have also created social awareness programs to engage youth in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

 

 

 

Alan Thick: A former TV writer and TV theme composer-turned-Emmy-nominated actor, Thicke is best known for his 1980s stint as the patriarch of TV's Growing Pains. Originally from Kirkland Lake, Ont., the actor has continued with a host of TV and film appearances, including in How I Met Your Mother and That's My Boy, turned up on theatre stages and penned books as well as a popular online column.

 

Read the full story here. 

Original Source: CBC

Nick Saul, president of Community Food Centres Canada and former manager of Toronto community food bank the Stop, penned a piece for the Guardian detailing his observations on what makes a food bank successful. The key ingredient, he says, is "food banks need to feed people's hope and purpose, not just their hunger."

 

Saul has been looking at Britain's food bank situation with growing concern that they're falling victim to a problem he feels has affected Toronto, but that is shifting here. He says it's the construed notion that simply providing food is enough, when the larger issues of people's value of worth need to also be addressed. 

 

"In 1998, when I took over The Stop, a small, under-resourced food bank in a low-income neighbourhood in Toronto, it was like hundreds of other makeshift, church-basement charities popping up across the country. Lineups wound out the door. When you got to the front, you were handed a hamper of largely unhealthy processed food – corporate castoffs – intended to last a few days. It was a place where people kept their eyes on the floor and checked their dignity at the door," Saul says. 

 

"In our community, we didn't buy the rhetoric that there was no better alternative for those who fall through the cracks of our country's fraying social safety net. So we created programmes at The Stop that meet people's immediate food needs, but also allow them to be active participants in their own lives and neighbourhoods."
 

Saul writes about how the Stop built "a community food centre with shared gardens, community kitchens and dining; nutrition initiatives for low-income, pregnant women; after-school workshops for children; and affordable, fresh market stands." He says they started looking at food as a tool to build health and began changing the perspective of food's role in the lives of those in need. 
 

"We've created allies in the farming, restaurant, gardening, middle-class foodie and social justice worlds, and, instead of applying a new plaster every day, we're building organizations that reflect the healthy, dignified, inclusive future we want to see."

 

The piece offers an interesting take on food banks in Toronto, while also commenting on food banks overseas. He says still work needs to be done.

 

"By making people think the problem is dealt with--the hungry fed--they let us and our governments off the hook for finding real economic and social policy--based solutions to this growing problem."

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: The Guardian

The majority of Canadians looking to spend Canada Day elsewhere are headed to Toronto, according to a survey conducted by Hotwire.com. The survey looked at concentrated hotel bookings in North America and rounded up the top 10. 

 

Toronto consistently holds the top spot in part amplified by Pride, according to an article that appeared on GlobalNews.ca summarizing the results. But Vancouver has been growing steadily since the Olympics, climbing to second place. Followed by Ottawa, Montreal, New York City, playoff cities Boston and Chicago, then Niagara Falls, Calgary and Halifax in that order. 

 

"While some travellers are hopping over the border to visit big U.S. cities, the majority of them are taking advantage of low prices domestically to celebrate Canadian patriotism," Pierre-Etienne Chartier, Vice President of the Hotwire Group, said in a press release. 

 

Read the full story here. 

Original source: Global News