[PHOTO] Tigers roar

Tigers roar
Originally uploaded by rfmcdpei

These two porcelain statues, just two of many statues displayed in just one of the religious-themed stores on Bloor east of Dufferin catering to a Roman Catholic audience, caught my attention.

[DM] "On Prince Edward Island's recent migration-driven population growth"

I've a post up at Demography Matters describing the surprising extent of Prince Edward Island's success in attracting international immigrants. Go, read.

[URBAN NOTE] On the new Yonge/Bloor pedestrian scramble.

Last year, I blogged about how the intersection of Yonge and Dundas streets was going to become a pedestrian scramble, a "pedestrian crossing system that stops all vehicular traffic and allows pedestrians to cross an intersection in every direction at the same time." There was some concern about how well that would work, if there would be accidents or confusion, but everything seems to have worked out nicely. Now, long-considered plans for a similar system at Yonge and Bloor have came to fruition at 10 o'clock this Friday past. The new reality is here.

On the corner of Yonge and Bloor streets, four mysterious boxes hang from the traffic light poles, wrapped in burlap and fastened with bailer twine. Tonight, workers will come and paint new white lines on the asphalt, leading kitty-corner to the opposite sides.

Then at 10 a.m. tomorrow, a technician will cut the twine, flick a switch and turn the corner of Yonge and Bloor streets into a "scramble" intersection. Forty times per hour, all automobile traffic will come to a halt, allowing pedestrians 25 seconds to cross in any direction-- even diagonally.

That works out to about 17 minutes per hour taken away from cars using the intersection.

At present, about 25,000 to 30,000 vehicles cross Yonge and Bloor during the business day; the same number as pedestrians who cross. The city, however, wants to encourage people to walk, bike and take transit, and discourage people from driving cars, says Bruce Zvaniga, the city's manager of urban traffic control.

"It's difficult for people to give up habits that we've had for a long time," Mr. Zvaniga says. "Toronto has been a city where motorists are dominant for a long time. We want to use these intersections to have people think about alternate ways of moving around the city. There really isn't enough room for everyone to hop in a car and move around the city."

Torontoist captured the new intersection's start.

At 10:01 a.m. this morning, one of the five green-jacketed police officers standing on the corners of Yonge and Bloor walked confidently but carefully into the middle of the road. The traffic lights at the intersection had just been deactivated, and were now blank, and, after stopping cars in all directions, he waved one direction of cars through, then stopped it, then waved through the other. It was a brief moment of forced acclimatization for the drivers and reassurance for the pedestrians waiting on the tips of the corners: another officer a few minutes earlier had joked to pedestrians that "you don't want to be the first one to be hit by a car." A second later, the traffic lights were all back on, a solid red for all drivers in all directions, and the little stickmen beamed white from every pedestrian signal box. Inside a stopped van, one male driver gestured to his female passenger back and forth across the intersection in front of him, explaining what this all was, and the pedestrians followed his lead.

Bloor and Yonge is now the city's second intersection in as many years to do the Barnes Dance (or scramble, or have a pedestrian priority crossing)—the first permanent installation was at Yonge and Dundas, last August. The news broke in the Star only this Wednesday, and on the first crossing, eager media almost outnumbered eager pedestrians: the first victims claimed by the new intersection were nearly a camera operator and journalist who lingered right in the middle well after the flashing orange hand had turned solid.

The intersection of Bloor Street West and Bay Street is apparently set to become the next scramble intersection in a year's time. While the scramble intersections might slow down the vehicular traffic that's always going to be there in large volumes, thank you very much Mr. Zvaniga, it will make my life as a pedestrian somewhat easier.

[NEWS] A news link roundup

Sometimes when links accumulate too much they just need to be posted all at once. This may become a regular Monday feature, who knows?

• Gilbert Casasus at Marianne2 notes (in French) that Germany is now seeing net emigration, with Switzerland being a major destination and with East Germans being especially likely to leave.


• Silicon India observes that over 2003-2008 remittances sent by Keralan guest workers in the Middle East have risen by 135%, with the United Arab Emirates emerging as a major target and with Muslim Keralans providing a disproportionately large share of remittances.


• The Portugal News reports that Chinese trade with Lusophone countries fell by 34% in the first half of 2009, with trade with its most important Lusophone partners Brazil then Angola falling the most. In addition, efforts to promote trade between Lusophone countries aren't working.


• Loro Horta in Thailand's The Nation comments on the long-term consequences of an increasingly close Sino-Brazilian relationship on the wider Americas.
National Geographic News' Brian Handwerk reports on new research suggesting that large differences between juvenile and mature dinosaurs may have led to a misidentification of juveniles as separate species.

• National Geographic News also reports that, for a variety of reasons, indigenous peoples are suffering more at a per capita rate from swine flu than the general population.


• Wired Science's Alexis Madrigal covers the news that some space scientists would like to dispatch a probe on a return mission to a Martian moon, carrying life, in order to see whether or not life could survive in space and panspermia would be possible.


• The Times Online reports on the latest effort by the (disputed) heir to the French throne to try to reestablish the French throne in the face of general disinterest.

[LINK] "Loonie hovers near 97 U.S. cents"

Again?

The Canadian dollar extended gains to hit a new one-year high against the U.S. dollar as oil prices surged and in the wake of strong Canadian jobs data late last week.

The Canadian dollar rose has high as 97.39 U.S. cents early Tuesday morning, and was trading around 97.15 U.S. cents at 8:10 a.m.

The Canadian dollar continued to get a boost from strong demand for oil and other commodities, as well as Canada's relatively robust economy compared to its still-ailing neighbour to the south.

As long as U.S. policymakers keep interest rates near zero, the Canadian dollar and many other currencies such as the euro are likely to keep on their upward trajectory, with the loonie possibly reaching parity with its U.S. counterpart by the end of the year, currency analysts said.

"The rebound in commodity prices in general has been really helpful to the Canadian dollar," said Andrew Wilkinson, senior analyst at Interactive Brokers Group in Greenwich, Connecticut. "It's also benefited from U.S. dollar weakness based on the fact that U.S. policymakers have rolled out a red carpet of easy money as far as the eye can see."

The strong Canadian dollar won't do good things for exporters, the overwhelming majority of which send their goods to the United States, but at least Canada's economy isn't nearly as dependent on a weak currency as the Italian economy is. Right?

[LINK] "Gagauzia, Land of the Straight-Nosed Turks"

Strange Maps has uploaded an interesting map of Gagauzia, an autonomous if territorially fragmented territory in southern Moldova mostly populated by--unusually enough--Christian Turcophones.

[W]hile the Moldovans were busy maintaining that they are not Romanian, some of their countrymen were keen to stress that they are not Moldovan. As with most post-soviet national identities, Moldova’s was based on the dominant ethnicity, leaving minorities wondering what they were doing in a state run by Moldovans and for Moldovans. This spurred two separate autonomist movements.

The mainly Russian region of Transnistria has seceded with support of the Russian army, and is maintained by it in in a state of phantom-nationhood. Its obscure history – and especially its strange shape – has been described on entry #311 of this blog. Another, more amicable path towards autonomy was achieved by the Gagauz, a tribe of Turkish-speaking orthodox Christians whose homeland, in the south of Moldova, received a degree of autonomy – and the promise of independence, if Moldova chooses to (re)unite with Romania.

Where the Gagauz came from, is unclear. Local historians have listed over 20 different theories on their origins. There is even uncertainty about the origin of the ethnonym itself. ‘Gagauz’ might mean ’straight nose’, it possibly refers to the Oghuz tribe, or it could be a reference to Kaykaus II, a Seljuk Sultan who settled in the area. Wrapping this riddle in a mystery is the fact that, before they migrated from Bulgaria to areas vacated by the Nogai tribe in present-day Moldova, Gagauz referred to themselves as “old Bulgars” or “true Bulgars”. The question whether the Gagauz are turkified Bulgars or christianised Turks is hardly trivial – we are, after all, in the Balkans – but very difficult to answer.

During the 20th century, the Gagauz have been independent twice, albeit very briefly. In 1906, a peasant uprising led to the Republic of Komrat, which collapsed after either 5 or 15 days (sources vary). In August 1990, Gagauzia proclaimed its autonomy, mainly in reaction to Moldova’s adoption of Moldovan as its official language. On 18 August 1991, the day of the Moscow coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev, Gagauzia proclaimed its independence. Transnistria would follow its example in September 1991. Both declarations were annulled by the Moldovan government.

While Transnistria and Moldova are still at odds with each other, Gagauzia came back into the fold. On 23 December 1994, the Moldovan parliament approved Gagauzia’s current special status. The size of the region was determined by referendum, three towns and 27 villages wanting to be included. The Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia (3) consists of four separate areas in the southern part of Moldova, near the border tripoint with Romania and Ukraine. The largest, northern area contains the region’s capital, Komrat.

It's worth noting, I think, that territorial governments controlled by ethnic minorities like the Gagauz and the Transnistrians are going to be especially skeptical of the idea of uniting with Romania, not least because they'd be that much relatively smaller in a Romanian-Moldovan state: 150 thousand people isn't a lot as things stand.

[BRIEF NOTE] MySpace versus Facebook, again

When I picked up the Globe and Mail recently, I came across Lisan Jutras' article "Is MySpace an online ghetto?", again picking up on the distinctions in social networking system usage by race as described by danah boyd that I blogged about in 2007. Lauren at Alternet tackles this in her post "Do White Teens Really Think MySpace is "Ghetto"?"

Earlier research showed that the social networking choice between Facebook, MySpace and Xanga was based on the users' race, ethnicity, and education, with Latino students trending toward MySpace, white students trending toward Facebook, and Asian and Asian-American students trending towards Xanga. Interestingly, there were no discernable social networking trends for black students.

Lauren doesn't seem to disagree with the general picture of different ethnic groups and different socioeconomic classes using different social networking sites, although she modifies this model somewhat.

I always assumed the rise of Facebook usage, at least among my friends, had more to do with usability than any other function. MySpace was created as a band promotion site, not for individuals, whereas Facebook was created for individuals to connect. And to date, MySpace seems more design and tech clunky than Facebook does -- that is, if I ignore all your invitations asking me to join your farm/restaurant/mafia ring. Nevertheless, the evidence appears to be stacking up in a way that reveals a new kind of digital divide, one in which social groups are choosing not to connect with or communicate with one another.

Jutras is critical of this idea.

What does an online ghetto look like, you may wonder. Are there graffiti and broken windows? Drug deals and sexual predators?

Well, sort of. According to Ms. Boyd, it's a community 58 million members strong and it's called MySpace. No broken windows, but broken links. No graffiti, but plenty of visual spam. No drug dealers, but, arguably, sexual predators (more on this later).

This thesis, which she first presented at the Personal Democracy Forum this summer, has only continued to gather steam since. Most recently, she gave an interview to The Root , a black-culture online magazine, that sparked a furor among its readers.

Last year, Facebook overtook MySpace in numbers of members. If you are like me, you made the switch because information was better organized on Facebook, and the layout was more conducive to clear communication. The fact that you were leaving behind a berserker aesthetic – cursors shaped like flames or hearts, layouts that take forever to load (and by forever, I mean, oh, one or two minutes), and messages wRiTtEn liKe ThIs – was a bonus. But according to Ms. Boyd, something more nefarious was going on, and that something was “white flight.”

[. . .]

Ms. Boyd came to her conclusions about MySpace – that MySpace is a digital “ghetto” populated by less-educated, lower-income non-whites – after months of research and interviews with teens across the United States. She seems to have gained inspiration particularly from this comment by some 14-year-old from Massachusetts: “I'm not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever.” Yet last year, marketers Rapleaf found that while some websites have clear racial correlations – Friendster is used primarily by Asians, while Latinos proliferate on Hi5 – MySpace has no clear affiliation.

The main difference, she notes, is that it's very difficult to physically relocate--she cites the example of moving from the South Bronx to Connecticut--but that the cost of leaving MySpace for Facebook is much lower. (Bernard Stein at the Bronx News Network takes Jutras to task for bashing his borough.)

I'm agnostic about social classes and ethnicity, although it does play a role: Orkut's huge in Brazil, French Canada was a slower Facebook adopter than English Canada, et cetera. Thoughts?