Cookbook steeped in rich history, Brampton Guardian

Spice & Kosher - Exotic Cuisine of the Cochin Jews  By Bala Menon, Kenny Salem and Dr Essie Sassoon

ByAshley Goodfellow, Brampton Guardian, Oct 24, 2013

BRAMPTON— Spice &  Kosher: Exotic Cuisine of the Cochin Jews, is not your typical cookbook— but its recipe is simple.
Take one-part history, one-part tradition, one-part religion, a whole lot of food, let it simmer and serve to the masses.
It’s a book about the preservation and significance of a specific cuisine from the dying community in Cochin, India.
That’s what sparked Brampton resident Bala Menon, along with co-authors Dr. Essie Sassoon and Kenny Salem, to share the historical significance of Cochin’s cuisine. continue reading Brampton Guardian

On the same shelf:

• New Book On Cochini Jews Is Full Of Flavour | Weekly Voice
• The Jews of Cochin and two men's quixotic quest | Toronto Star
• Spice & Kosher: serving up the Cochini Jews' story | South Asian Focus ...

By SUNIL RAO
Staff Writer, South Asian Focus, Print Edition:  Nov 21 2013, volume: 7 issue: 47
Ever heard of ‘Cochini Jews’? No? Yet they continue to reside in the original, white-walled streets of Jew Town — even if there are just eight among them there around the synagogue today, all elderly.
And GTA residents Bala Menon and Kenny Salem — both originally hailing from Kerala in India — are determined to keep the Cochini Jews story alive.
Their quest has today resulted in a book, ‘Spice & Kosher: Exotic Cuisine of the Cochin Jews’, written jointly by Menon and Salem, along with Dr Essie Sassoon, a Cochini Jew, and today living in Ashkelon, Israel.
The book contains some 200 recipes — and, through the recipes, seeks to outline the history of the Jews of Cochin.
“It’s such an important part of India’s history and Kerala’s heritage,” says Menon. contiue reading southasianfocus.ca

Doctor Who's Canadian connection

• Doctor Who's Canadian connection - The Record therecord.com
• Google Doodle celebrates 'Doctor Who', not JFK -- Friday's doodle on Google.ca celebrated 50 years of the television, Timmins Press
• Play the Doctor Who 50th anniversary Google Doodle here
• Doctor Who's Canadian connection Toronto Star  
• Dr. Who gets a UK Google doodle. Where's our Whodle? The Christian Science Monitor
• Watch Doctor Who in Canada - Where to Watch & Schedule | Doctor ...  
• Doctor Who – A Global Phenomenon: Part 2 Canada  
• Google Doodle Honors Doctor Who, Except In U.S. Because Of John F. Kennedy Assassination

World’s Biggest Bookstore closes February, sold to developer

Cole family is selling World’s Biggest Bookstore, a Toronto landmark since 1980, to developer behind the Four Seasons Hotel and Liberty Market Lofts.

By: Francine Kopun Business reporter, Published on Thu Nov 21 2013 thestar.com

Extract:

It’s not actually the world’s biggest bookstore. There is a Barnes & Noble in New York City that is more than twice as large. But it still houses a vast number of books, including a wall of Shakespeare, a wall of poetry and another dedicated to Manga. It has long rows of fiction, including a Star Wars section.

And, like Sam the Record Man, which closed in 2007, and Honest Ed’s, which has been sold to a Vancouver developer, the World’s Biggest Bookstore was a brash, quirky retailer that for a long time anchored Toronto’s retail landscape.

Drew McGowen, vice-president of real estate and development for Indigo Books & Music Inc., said the store was at the end of a lease and the company could not afford the new rent. 

On Discovery Services and Search, Thus Said Stephen Abram

Stephen Abram

An important post from Dave Pattern about discovery services and search. I especially like the focus on looking at your analytics and taking them to the next level (for example cost per use of digital resources declining a lot and the ratio of physical to digital format access)... Read: Dave Pattern's Relevancy Rules

Dave Pattern says: 

OK, so why am I ranting on about all this stuff? It's simply because I've been pulling out some usage stats from our Summon instance…

• The library's print collection accounts for just 0.3% of the items, but accounts for 10.3% of the result clicks — I think our users are trying to tell us that they think our OPAC sucks and they'd rather use Summon to search for books
• 89% of the results clicked on appeared on the first page of results — as with Google, users rarely delve any further the page 1 of the results
• Only 2% of result clicks came from beyond the 4th page of the results — very few users will explore the long tail of results
• 50.5% of result clicks were for the first 4 results on page 1 — the majority of users won't even bother to scroll down the page!
• 72.3% of searches used 3 keywords or less — students are using their Google skills
• Since launching Summon, we've seen increases of 300% to 1000% in the COUNTER full-text download stats for many of the journal platforms we subscribe to — although "cost per use" can be a crude measure, we're getting much better value out of our e-resource subscriptions now.  Continue reading: Relevancy Rules in Self-plagiarism is style, Dave Pattern's blog 

On the same shelf (Discovery Services aka Federated Search):

• "For those unfamiliar with Summon  or web scale discovery services, many web scale discovery services will show items from the catalogue in the discovery search, but clicking on the result will bring you to the classic catalogue (web opac)." A survey of Library Virtual Shelves - 8 examples  
• The Ins and Outs of Evaluating Web-Scale Discovery Services   
• Discovering What Works: Librarians Compare Discovery Interface ...
• Articles on Discovery - Unified Resource Discovery Comparison
• Library Discovery Services – A Better Way to Find What You're ...
• The Truth About Federated Searching
• A Universal / Global Search Engine Remains an Elusive Target  

• Federated Search - Reading now

• Federated Search - What's in a name?

Researching American Indian ancestry, "Great Surprise" reports National Geographic

"Great Surprise"—Native Americans Have West Eurasian Origins: 

Oldest human genome reveals less of an East Asian ancestry than thought 

Extract:
Nearly one-third of Native American genes come from west Eurasian people linked to the Middle East and Europe, rather than entirely from East Asians as previously thought, according to a newly sequenced genome. continue reading: National Geographic

On the same shelf of Globalization in a global village:

• Parallels: Mesoamerican and Ancient Middle Eastern Traditions a Tradition Diane E. Wirth
• The Lost Worlds of Ancient America: Compelling Evidence of Ancient Immigrants, Lost Technologies, and Places of Power Frank Joseph 
• The Lost Empire of Atlantis: History's Greatest Mystery Revealed Gavin Menzies
• First Migrants: Ancient Migration in Global Perspective Peter Bellwood
• Kodiak Kreol: Communities of Empire in Early Russian America Gwenn A. Miller
• Reflections Of Our Past: How Human History Is Revealed In Our Genes John H Relethford
• Riddle of the Bones: Politics, Science, Race, and the Story of Kennewick Man Roger Downey
• The Real Eve: Modern Man's Journey Out of Africa Stephen Oppenheimer
• The Ancients: Investigations into the Lost Civilizations of Lemuria and Atlantis Fernando S. Gallegos
• Understanding Genes and GMOs Colin J Sanderson
• Ribbon Shirts in Rasta Colors: Native American Syncretic Musical and Visual Strategies of (Jamaican) Resistance in the Lyrical Imagery, CD Jacket Art, and Performance Costuming of Hopi/ Dine Reggae Singjay Casper Lomayesva

BioTalent Canada: high newcomer unemployment rates despite skills shortage

BioTalent Canada report indicates scientific newcomers face high unemployment, and skills shortages exist in Canada's bio-economy read the complete report

Toronto’s University attempts to help homeless people around campus

By Anthony Marchese and Aidan Slind 
Published: 3:28 am, 18 November 2013
Vol CXXXIV, No. 10 under News

As winter approaches, more of Toronto’s homeless are looking for protection from the cold, and the University of Toronto, with its large downtown campus and plenty of public facilities, provides shelter for many. continue reading

On the same shelf:

• Utah librarians team with homeless shelter to help families

Ranking of Canadian Universities in Webometrics

Ps. See the all ranking charts and a complete list of all Canadian Universities and Colleges, here

World Rank	University
16	University of British Columbia
24	University of Toronto
72	McGill University
77	University of Alberta
83	Simon Fraser University

On the same shelf:

• Glassdoor's top 10 universities to work in 2013
• The A-List 

Resources for Canadian Stock Investors -- Annotated list of books

Info courtesy:  Stock Investing For Canadians For Dummies  Andrew Dagys  and  Paul Mladjenovic (4th edition, 2013: pp. 331-332)

Book Description

Master the basics of stock investing? Easy.If you want to learn how to profitably invest in stocks, this is the book for you. This updated new edition of Stock Investing For Canadians For Dummies offers straight answers and simple advice for any Canadian who wants to take control of his or her portfolio. With practical guidance on making wise investments in any market—even today's uncertain one—this plain-English guide covers unique investment segments, how to invest in different market situations, and real and recent examples on what to invest in and when. With fully updated references and resources, this is the perfect stock investing guide for beginners.

• Updated to include the latest information on the current stock market, as well as fresh case studies
• Written by expert authors—one an accountant and the other a certified financial planner and investing consultant
• Ideal for novice investors and those planning for retirement  
• Paperback: 384 pages; Publisher: For Dummies; 4th Revised edition edition (2013); 
• ISBN-10: 1118478096 / ISBN-13: 978-1118478097

Readings:

• The ETF Book: All You Need to Know About Exchange-Traded Funds  Richard A. Ferri (2009) "Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are revolutionizing the investment industry. From their introduction in 1993, ETFs have expanded exponentially over the past fifteen years"
• The Intelligent Investor: The Classic Text on Value Investing  Benjamin Graham (2005) "The greatest investment advisor of the twentieth century, Benjamin Graham taught and inspired people worldwide. Graham's philosophy of "value investing" -- which shields investors from substantial error and teaches them to develop long-term strategies -- has made The Intelligent Investor the stock market bible ever since its original publication in 1949."
• Crash Proof 2.0: How to Profit From the Economic Collapse  Peter D. Schiff and John Downes (2011) -- "A fully updated follow-up to Peter Schiff's bestselling financial survival guide-Crash Proof, which described the economy as a house of cards on the verge of collapse, with over 80 pages of new material"
• The Collapse of the Dollar and How to Profit from It: Make a Fortune by Investing in Gold and Other Hard Assets  James Turk and John Rubino (2008) -- "The dollar is in trouble. Its value on foreign exchange markets has been falling for the past six years, and now its gradual decline is about to become a rout."
• How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett: Profiting from the Bargain Hunting Strategies of the World's Greatest Value Investor  Timothy Vick (2000) -- "How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett sticks to the basics: how Buffett continually finds bargain stocks passed over by others. Written by an actual financial analyst who uses Buffett's strategies professionally"
• Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits and Other Writings (Wiley Investment Classics)  Philip A. Fisher (2003)
• Elliott Wave Principle: Key To Market Behavior  A.J. Frost and Robert R. Prechter (2005) -- "A Great Classic for Three Decades: Now In Its 10th Edition, Consider What This "Definitive Text" Offers You Take a moment to look over your books about investing. Have any of them given you a successful method for making profits and reducing risks? Is there even one such book that has proven reliable over the years?" 
• Forbes Guide to the Markets: Becoming a Savvy Investor [Paperback] [2009] (Author) Forbes LLC, Marc M. Groz  (2009) -- ""
• Fundamental Analysis For Dummies  Matt Krantz (2009) -- "What's the key to multibillionaire Warren Buffett's five-decade run as the most successful investor in history? Fundamental analysis. Now, Fundamental Analysis For Dummies puts this tried and true method for gauging any company's true underlying value into sensible and handy step-by-step instructions.."