Are viral videos the future of fundraising?

York University marketing Professor Alan Middleton said some campaigns can’t be made to go on forever…. Celebrities showing “everyday human characteristics,” the slower month of August (meaning there are fewer events and causes competing for people’s attention) and the humorous, self-deprecating nature of the Ice Bucket Challenge all contributed to its success, he said in the Financial Post Aug. 18. “In order to get another spike, after they’ve done follow-up, they’ll need to do something else that gets that degree of attention.” Read full story.

Canada’s second thoughts on F-35 Lightning show concerns about plane’s high cost
The cost has been a big issue, and there was also “concern here in some circles that the F-35 was the anointed choice without having gone through the formality of a competitive process,” said Martin Shadwick, a Canadian defense analyst and a professor at York University, in The Washington Post Aug. 18. Still, he said, “My personal anticipation is that we’ll still buy.” Read full story.

Lac-Mégantic report likely to focus on safety protocols, regulation
Mark Winfield, an expert on safety regulations who teaches at York University in Toronto, said he hopes the Transportation Safety Board report includes a look at how Transport Canada could have missed – or failed to act on – the risks associated with the rapid increase in crude-by-rail traffic over recent years. “Everything that’s happened has been sort of ex post facto. It’s all been after Lac-Mégantic. It’s been the right moves, but why did 47 people have to die in order for this to happen?” said Winfield in The Globe and Mail Aug. 18. Read full story.

Is Google the new Berkshire Hathaway?
“Warren Buffett is famously uninterested in modern technology, and yet Google Inc. is acting very much like a modern day Berkshire Hathaway, the firm he took control of 50 years ago that has outperformed the S&P 500 over every five-year interval since,” wrote Paul Barter, who teaches technology strategy in the MBA program at York University’s Schulich School of Business, in The Globe and Mail Aug. 18. Read full story.

Canada’s space program is gradually building space mission operations capability
The Technologies and Techniques for Earth and Space Exploration program, a six year grant, is part of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s Collaborative Research and Training Experience Program…. The program is led by Western’s Centre for Planetary Science and Exploration Associate Director Gordon Osinski as the principal investigator, with co-investigators from the University of Toronto, York University, Queen’s University, Memorial University and the University of British Columbia, reported SpaceRef Canada Aug. 18. Read full story.

Cotler, Fodden honoured by CBA
The Canadian Bar Association honoured former justice minister Irwin Cotler and blogger Simon Fodden with its president’s award last week, reported Law Times Aug. 18…. Outgoing CBA President Fred Headon honoured Fodden, an academic who helped found Osgoode Hall Law School’s program in poverty law at Parkdale Community Legal Services and creator of the Slaw blog. “Not content to just retire after a long and distinguished academic career, he showed us how to innovate,” said Headon. Read full story.

Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift perfume sales drop, dragging Elizabeth Arden to its biggest ever quarterly loss
Alan Middleton, who once counted Elizabeth Arden as a client when he worked in advertising and is now a marketing professor at York University, said the perfume industry is extremely competitive, with a few big names like Chanel No. 5 consistently dominating sales. But he also said young people may not be wearing fragrances as much as their baby boomer parents did, and the popularity of the products is being challenged by scent-free policies in workplaces and other public spaces, reported the Financial Post Aug. 19. Read full story.

Fil-Canadian youth’s English fluency, hard work not enough for upward mobility – study
In his study, “Understanding Intergenerational Social Mobility: Filipino Youth in Canada,” York University geography professor and Centre for Asian Research director Philip Kelly wrote: “Canadian research on intergenerational social mobility has shown that there is considerable upward mobility among children of immigrants. However, there are some groups that are exceptions to this overall pattern. Filipino youth present a double anomaly: they are less likely to hold a degree than either their parents or their peers in other racialized groups,” reported Inquirer.net Aug. 14. Read full story.

Studies show the one thing you should look for in a significant other
There are rows of books on the topic, and there are studies out there that show reading can be the one thing that can make for a better relationship, reported KCBD Aug. 13. But a York University and a University of Toronto study aren’t talking about better marriage books, they’re talking about fiction. Read full story.

Canada’s controversial engagement in Honduras
After Honduras’ controversial 2009 coup, nearly every country denounced the removal of the democratically elected president. However, Ottawa remained silent and the Canadian media hardly reported on the political crisis. According to Professor Tyler Shipley at York University in Toronto, Canadian reporters waited over twenty-four hours to report on the issue, even as international media immediately flooded into Honduras to report on the coup, reported Honduras Weekly Aug. 13. Read full story.

Netnography and digital records: An interview with Robert Kozinets
Online communities, and their digital records, can be rich source of information, invaluable to academic researchers and to market researchers. In this installment of the Insights Interviews series, I’m delighted to talk with Robert V. Kozinets, professor of marketing at York University in Toronto and the originator of “netnography,” reported the Library of Congress Aug. 13. Read full story.

Does the caveman within tell you how to invest?
“My co-authors and I recently published a paper proposing a rational theory of human behaviour that helps explain both the ‘Sell in May, then go away’ effect observed in risky stock markets and an opposing seasonal cycle observed in safe treasury bond markets,” wrote University of Toronto Professor Lisa Kramer in Psychology Today Aug. 18…. The study, “Seasonally Varying Risk Preferences: Theoretical Foundations for an Empirical Regularity,” co-written by York University Professor Mark Kamstra, was recently published in the Review of Asset Pricing Studies. Read full story.