literature

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Thursday, May 8, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday, May 8, 2014

Death of an Original Hipster

Farley Mowat, one of Canada’s best-known authors and a noted environmentalist, has died at age 92.

Mary Shaw-Rimmington, the author’s assistant, confirmed his passing to CBC News on Wednesday afternoon. Mowat died at his home in Port Hope, Ont.

Mowat, author of dozens of works including Lost in the Barrens and Never Cry Wolf, introduced Canada to readers around the world and shared everything from his time abroad during the Second World War, to his travels in the North and his concern for the deteriorating environment.

Pierre Berton 1920-2004

More than 17 million copies of his books, which have been translated into dozens of languages, have been sold worldwide. The gregarious writer was a consummate storyteller, whose works spanned non-fiction, children’s titles and memoirs.

Describing Mowat as “a passionate Canadian,” Prime Minster Stephen Harper touted the writer as “a natural storyteller with a real gift for sharing personal anecdotes in a witty and endearing way.” (Source: CBC News)

Meanwhile, we may have reached “peak beard frequency,” according to research published in the journal Biology Letters recently.

Men’s facial hair trends may be guided by Darwinian selection, researchers hypothesized. So they asked women and men to rate different faces with “four standard levels of beardedness.” The faces that were rarer were rated as more appealing. It’s an evolutionary phenomenon known as “negative frequency-dependent sexual selection.”

“The idea is that perhaps people start copying the George Clooneys and the Joaquin Phoenixs and start wearing those beards, but then when more and more people get onto the bandwagon the value of being on the bandwagon diminishes, so that might be why we’ve hit ‘peak beard’,” study author Prof Rob Brooks told the BBC.

“Peak beard” is reached when the most men in professions not usually associated with facial hear sport beards. The BBC suggests that may have happened in January when a Newsnight

Some say the Rubicon was crossed in January when Jeremy Paxman, the BBC Newsnight presenter, shaved his beard off, saying “beards are SO 2013.”

When “peak beard” frequency is reached, the pendulum swings back toward lesser-bristled chins — a trend we may be witnessing now, the scientists say. (Source: Discovery.com)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Saturday, April 7, 2007

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday, April 7, 2007 The Taming of the Queue Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has fulfilled his pledge to establish medical wait-times guarantees across Canada, but critics say the deal falls short of his campaign promise. "Today I am very pleased to announce that Minister Clement has succeeded in his mission," Harper said at an Ottawa wait-times conference. "All 13 provinces and territories have now committed to providing the first patient wait-times guarantees." The creation of a wait-times guarantee was one of the Conservatives' five priorities in the last election campaign. But the deal does not come into effect until 2010, and provinces only have to promise timely treatment in one of several priority areas: Cancer care, Hip and knee replacement, Cardiac care, Diagnostic imaging and Cataract surgeries. The Conservatives had promised in the last federal election campaign that they would ensure guarantees in all of the above areas. In the federal budget released on March 19, $612 million was set aside for the provinces and Ottawa to pay for the initiative and $30 million was set aside for wait-times pilot projects. (Source: CTV News) http://www.ctvnews.ca/critics-say-wait-times-deal-falls-short-of-promise-1.235960 editorial cartoon, 2007, Stephen Harper, Canada, William Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, Climate Change, Quebec, Stephane Dion, Danny Williams, literature, parody

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday, April 7, 2007

The Taming of the Queue

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he has fulfilled his pledge to establish medical wait-times guarantees across Canada, but critics say the deal falls short of his campaign promise.

“Today I am very pleased to announce that Minister Clement has succeeded in his mission,” Harper said at an Ottawa wait-times conference.

“All 13 provinces and territories have now committed to providing the first patient wait-times guarantees.”

The creation of a wait-times guarantee was one of the Conservatives’ five priorities in the last election campaign.

But the deal does not come into effect until 2010, and provinces only have to promise timely treatment in one of several priority areas: Cancer care, Hip and knee replacement, Cardiac care, Diagnostic imaging and Cataract surgeries.

The Conservatives had promised in the last federal election campaign that they would ensure guarantees in all of the above areas.

In the federal budget released on March 19, $612 million was set aside for the provinces and Ottawa to pay for the initiative and $30 million was set aside for wait-times pilot projects. (Source: CTV News)