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Astronomers receive an unusual radio signal: ‘like a heartbeat’

Canadian researchers have received strange signals from deep space using a radio telescope. You can only guess at the source.

Abigail Anderson July 26, 2022 

An unusual radio signal from a distant, distant galaxy has baffled astronomers. The signal was detected by a group of Canadian and American researchers using the Chime Radio Telescope in western Canada. Scientists use the instrument to search for so-called fast radio bursts – explosions of extremely high-energy radiation that, according to current knowledge, last a few thousandths of a second at most. However, the received signal now lasted more than three seconds, about 1,000 times longer than usual – and this is not the only special feature of the detector.

“Within those three seconds, there were waves of radiation that occurred with impressive regularity every few milliseconds,” says MIT astronomer Danielle Mitchell. “Like a heartbeat, thump, thump, thump. It’s the first time we’ve had such a repeat signal.” The signal traveled several billion light-years away on its way to Earth, and researchers can only speculate where it came from.

A radio signal can help measure the universe

“There aren’t many things in the universe that emit regularly repetitive signals,” explains Danielle Mitchell. “For example, we know from pulsars and magnetars in our galaxy, which rotate very quickly and emit combined radiation like a lighthouse. So this new signal could come from a pulsar or a hyperactive magnetar.” The researchers now hope to receive more regular signals from the source. Signals can act like clocks and help astronomers, for example, accurately measure the expansion of the universe.

“This discovery raises the question of exactly where this signal comes from and how we can use it for further space exploration,” says Danielle Micheli. “In the future, telescopes could pick up thousands of fast radio bursts every month, and then we’ll find more of these regularly recurring signals.”

Apple reminds book sellers about new tax regulations in British Columbia

Filipe Espósito
- Jul. 26th 2022 


Apple on Tuesday sent a reminder to sellers of books with content available in the Apple Books Store about new tax regulations in the Canadian province British Columbia. Remittances for book sales in Canada were reduced by a 7% provincial sales tax (PST) on Apple’s commission for publishers based there.

As detailed by the company in a note emailed to book sellers seen by 9to5Mac, Apple Canada now collects and remits the tax to the Ministry of Finance in British Columbia. Previous to this change, which began to take effect on July 1, 2022, the responsibility for collecting the PST was with the sellers, not the marketplaces.

For this reason, starting in August, British Columbia-based book publishers will see details about this tax in the Payments and Financial Reports section of iTunes Connect – which is the platform for managing songs, books, and movies sent to iTunes Store and Apple Books Store.

As explained by Simply VAT, “online sellers will no longer need to register for PST in British Columbia unless they carry out taxable activities other than retail sales on a marketplace.”

Apple also notes that there’s also the 5% goods and services tax (GST) in addition to the PST in Canada. You can read the full email below:

In accordance with tax regulations in British Columbia, as of July 1, 2022, remittances for sales on the Book Store in Canada are reduced by a 7% provincial sales tax (PST) on Apple’s commission for publishers based in British Columbia. Apple Canada collects and remits the tax to the Ministry of Finance in British Columbia on your behalf. Starting in August, this tax will appear on your tax on commission statement in the Payments and Financial Reports section of iTunes Connect.

Please note that the PST is in addition to the 5% goods and services tax (GST) that’s currently deducted from your commission.

If you have any questions, contact us.

More details about these changes can be found on the iTunes Connect website.

Alex Jones must pay for Sandy Hook falsehoods, parents’ lawyer says as defamation trial begins

FILE PHOTO: U.S. House panel probing Capitol riot holds hearing in Washington

By Jack Queen

Tue, July 26, 2022 

(Reuters) -U.S. conspiracy theorist Alex Jones led a "vile campaign of defamation" when he falsely claimed the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax, a Texas jury was told on Tuesday, but a lawyer for Jones said his client already had paid a price.

Attorney Mark Bankston, representing the parents of slain 6-year-old Jesse Lewis, made the accusation at the start of a jury trial to decide how much Jones must pay for spreading falsehoods about the killing of 20 children and six staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

Jones, founder of the Infowars radio show and webcast, had asserted the mainstream media and gun-control activists conspired to fabricate the tragedy. He had said the shooting was staged using crisis actors but later acknowledged it took place.

“Mr. Jones was continually churning out this idea that Sandy Hook was fake,” Bankston told jurors. He said Jones and Infowars were responsible for the “most despicable and vile campaign of defamation and slander in American history.”

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, Jesse's parents, are seeking $150 million in compensatory and punitive damages for what they say was a campaign of harassment and death threats by Jones’ followers.

Federico Reynal, an attorney for Jones, acknowledged that Infowars had spread false information but said his client had a right to question mainstream narratives on his show. He said Jones had lost millions of viewers since being deplatformed on social media in 2018.

“He regrets what he did, and he’s paying a price for it,” Reynal said.

Judge Maya Guerra Gamble in Austin, Texas, who is overseeing the trial, issued a rare default judgment in 2021, finding Jones liable without a trial after he flouted court orders and failed to turn over documents.

The defamation suit in Texas, where Infowars is based, is one of several brought by families of victims who say they were harassed by Jones’ followers and suffered emotional distress after he claimed the shooting was staged.

Jones and his company Free Speech Systems LLC are the defendants in the case.

The damages trial follows months of delays. Three entities related to Infowars filed bankruptcy in a since-dismissed case. The families of the Sandy Hook victims had said the bankruptcy was a sinister attempt by Jones to shield his assets from liability stemming from the defamation lawsuits.

Jones, who was present in the courtroom, is set to face trial in September in a similar defamation suit in Connecticut state court, where he has also been found liable for defamation in a default judgment.

The Sandy Hook gunman, Adam Lanza, 20, used a Remington Bushmaster rifle to carry out the massacre. It ended when Lanza killed himself with the approach of police sirens.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Howard Goller)

Detective: Alex Jones 'most dangerous' type of attack denier

FILE - Infowars host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones speaks outside of the Dirksen building on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 5, 2018. Jury selection is set for Monday, July 25, 2022, in a trial that will determine for the first time how much Jones must pay Sandy Hook Elementary School parents for falsely telling his audience that the deadliest classroom shooting in U.S. history was a hoax. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Jim Vertuno, The Associated Press
Published Tuesday, July 26, 2022 

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The detective who led the investigation into the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School attack testified Tuesday that there are three types of people who deny that it happened and harass the victims' families: the mentally ill, those who believed bad or incomplete information, and those who knew the truth but twisted it for their own “power or money.”

Investigators put conspiracy theorist Alex Jones in that final group.

“They were the most dangerous. That's where we put Alex Jones,” Connecticut State Police Detective Daniel Jewiss told the jury on the first day of testimony in a Texas trial to determine how much Jones, who hosts Infowars, owes for defaming the parents of one of the children who died in the deadliest school shooting in American history.

“It's absolutely horrific the amount of trauma they've had to endure in the wake of having lost a loved one,” said Jewiss, who called supporting the Sandy Hook families the “most honorable” thing he's ever been part of.

Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, whose 6-year-old son Jesse was killed in the attack on the Newtown, Connecticut, school, are seeking $150 million for emotional distress and reputational damage that Jones caused them, and more money in punitive damages, their lawyer, Mark Bankston, told the court during his opening statement as Jones looked on, shaking his head at times.

Jones repeatedly “lied and attacked the parents of murdered children” when he told his Infowars audience that the shooting was a hoax, Bankston said. He created a “massive campaign of lies” and recruited “wild extremists from the fringes of the internet ... who were as cruel as Mr. Jones wanted them to be” to the families of the 20 first-graders and six educators who were killed, the lawyer said.

Jones tapped into the explosive popularity of Sandy Hook conspiracy stories that became an “obsession” for the website, even years after the shooting, said Bankston, who played video clips of Jones claiming on his program that the shooting was a hoax and “the whole thing was completely fake. ... It just didn't happen.”

Anticipating that Jones' lawyers would argue that what Jones said about Sandy Hook was speech protected by the First Amendment - Jones arrived at the courthouse wearing tape over his mouth with the message “Save the 1st” printed on it - Bankston told the jury, “This has nothing to do with the Constitution. Defamation is not protected by freedom of speech. ... Speech is free, but lies you have to pay for.”

During the defense's opening remarks, Jones' lawyer Andino Reynal called Jones one of the “most polarizing figures in this nation,” who made statements about Sandy Hook “that we don't dispute were wrong.” But he said Jones has already been punished for those statements when he was kicked off of Facebook, YouTube, Spotify and Twitter for violating their hate speech policies.

Jones has “already been cancelled” and lost millions of dollars, said Reynal, who called on the jury to limit the damages to $1.

Reynal painted a picture of a talk show host who “tries to give an alternative view” but who was duped by some of his guests.

“Alex Jones was wrong to believe these people, but he didn't do it out of spite. He did it because he believed it. ... He believed a citizen has a right to get on Infowars and talk about what their questions are,” Reynal said.

He also called the case an important one for free speech.

“I believe in his right to say it, and I believe in every American's right to choose what they watch, and listen to, and believe,” Reynal said.

Between the two sides' opening statements, Jones stepped outside of the courtroom to rant to reporters, calling it a “kangaroo court” and “show trial” that was an assault on the First Amendment. He didn't return to the courtroom for the afternoon start of testimony, which included Infowars producer Daria Karpova taking the stand.

Jones' media company designated Karpova to testify about Infowars' audience reach, and some of the video produced by the website after the Sandy Hook shooting. The trial took a break for the rest of the day before she finished planned testimony.

The jury could deal Jones a major financial blow that would put his constellation of conspiracy peddling businesses into deeper jeopardy. In addition to being banned from major social media platforms, he claims he's millions of dollars in debt - a claim the plaintiffs reject.

The Texas court and another in Connecticut found Jones liable for defamation for his portrayal of the Sandy Hook massacre as a hoax involving actors aimed at increasing gun control. In both states, the judges issued default judgments against Jones without trials because he failed to respond to court orders and turn over documents.

In total, the families of eight Sandy Hook victims and an FBI agent who responded to the school are suing Jones and his company, Free Speech Systems.

Jones has since acknowledged that the shooting took place. During a deposition in April, Jones insisted he wasn't responsible for the suffering that Sandy Hook parents say they have endured because of the hoax conspiracy, including death threats and harassment by Jones' followers.

Jones claimed in court records last year that he had a negative net worth of $20 million, but attorneys for Sandy Hook families have painted a different financial picture.

Court records show that Jones' Infowars store, which sells nutritional supplements and survival gear, made more than $165 million between 2015 and 2018. Jones has also urged listeners on his Infowars program to donate money.

The tribal began Monday in Austin, Texas - where Jones lives and broadcasts his show - following months of delays. It also comes about two months after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which is about 145 miles (235 kilometers) southwest of Austin. It was the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook.

A STUDY OF STUDIES IS MERELY ANECDOTAL
Highly potent weed creating marijuana addicts worldwide, study says

The potency of marijuana has been increasing every year since the 1970s, studies have found.

Sandee LaMotte
CNN
Published July 26, 2022 

Higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC -- the part of the marijuana plant that makes you high -- are causing more people to become addicted in many parts of the world, a new review of studies found.

Compared with people who use lower-potency products (typically 5 to 10 milligrams per gram of THC), those who use higher-potency cannabis are more likely to experience addiction and mental health outcomes, according to the study published Monday in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

Scientists have established a "standard THC unit" of 5 milligrams of THC for research. That amount is said to produce a mild intoxication for nonregular users.

"One of the highest quality studies included in our publication found that use of high potency cannabis, compared to low potency cannabis, was linked to a four-fold increased risk of addiction," said study coauthor Tom Freeman, a senior lecturer in the department of psychology and director of the addiction and mental health group at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom, in an email.

In the United States, about 3 in 10 people who use marijuana have cannabis use disorder, the medical term for marijuana addiction, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease and Prevention.

The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction found a 76% rise in people entering treatment for cannabis addiction over the past decade, "while cannabis potency continued to rise during the same time," Freeman said.

In addition, "a report by the United Nations found that in the past two decades, the proportion of people seeking treatment for cannabis addiction has risen in all world regions apart from Africa," he said.

UNLIKE CLINTON OBAMA INHALED

A YEARLY RISE IN POTENCY

In a gram of herbal cannabis, the dried and harvested tops of female marijuana plants that are typically smoked, THC concentrations increased by approximately 2.9 milligrams each year, according to a 2020 study by Freeman and his team at the University of Bath.

In cannabis resin, the sticky brown sap on the plant from which extracts and concentrations are made, THC levels increased by approximately 5.7 milligrams each year from 1975 to 2017, the study found. Concentrated products can reach extremely high levels of THC.

This yearly rise in potency may not be clear to consumers, experts fear. While looking at a product label might tell a person the "precise potency" of THC in a store where marijuana is legally sold, "people buying cannabis illegally may not be able to access reliable information about the potency of the product they are using," Freeman said.

"However, certain types of cannabis are typically more potent than others -- cannabis extracts are typically more potent than cannabis flower," he added.

While people do try to adjust their consumption when the potency of their cannabis varies, "such as by adding less cannabis to their joint or inhaling less deeply," these efforts fail to completely work, Freeman said. That means "higher potency products still deliver a larger dose of THC to consumers than lower potency products," he said.

MENTAL HEALTH AFFECTED

As marijuana became more potent, cases of marijuana-associated psychosis rose, the review found. Psychosis is a "loss of contact with reality" that can be characterized by hearing voices and having delusions, Freeman said.

"The evidence linking cannabis potency to addiction and psychosis was very clear," he said.

High-potency weed users appear to have a significant increase in the likelihood of developing generalized anxiety disorder than those who smoke less robust strains of marijuana, a 2020 study had found.

However, the new review of studies found a "more varied" connection between the increase in marijuana potency and depression and anxiety, "meaning that the impact is unclear for these other mental health outcomes," Freeman said.

BECAUSE OF LEGALIZATION OF BOTH MEDICAL AND RECREATIONAL POT SCIENCE CAN STUDY IT

THEIR EVIDENCE SHOWS INCREASED USAGE OF POT DUE TO LEGALIZATION

NEW POT HEADS FREAK OUT BECAUSE OF INEXPERIENCE WITH POT

END OF STORY

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In fighting gun crime, Canada has an American problem

Demonstration of technology at Canadian border crossing in Windsor, Ontario

A combination handout photo shows a drone and a couple of the 11 handguns which the drone was carrying, after it was found in a tree in a backyard near Port Lambton, Ontario



Wed, July 27, 2022 
By Steve Scherer and Anna Mehler Paperny

OTTAWA/TORONTO (Reuters) - A Texas man bought dozens of guns from licensed dealers in the state before illegally reselling at least 16, U.S. officials say. Twelve were traced to crimes committed in America. The other four were traced to crimes in Canada.

The case of the 31-year-old, indicted last month on charges that could see him jailed for years, illustrates the leading role the Lone Star State now plays in the smuggling of guns used for violence in Canada, and how firearms tracing can help combat that trade.

Canadian police chiefs say such cases also show the limits of their government's domestically focused policies to fight gun violence, such as a freeze on handgun purchases, when it has the world's largest civilian gun market on its doorstep.

"We really think that restricting lawful handgun ownership doesn't meaningfully address the real issue, which is illegal handguns obtained from the United States," said Evan Bray, police chief in Regina, capital of Saskatchewan province.

Canada's gun homicide rate in 2020 was an eighth of the rate in the United States, where rules on buying firearms are looser, but it's higher than the rates of many other rich countries and has been rising, according to data from Statistics Canada.

Exclusive data obtained by Reuters for Ontario, Canada's most populous province, shows that when handguns involved in crimes were traced in 2021, they were overwhelmingly - 85% of the time - found to have come from the United States.

Furthermore, 70% of all traced guns used in crimes in Ontario came from the United States, while so far this year the U.S. share has risen to 73%, according to the data from the Ontario police's Firearms Analysis and Tracing Enforcement (FATE) program.

Ontario is the only province with a special tracing program that seeks to identify the source of all guns used in crimes, said Scott Ferguson, head of FATE. The rest of Canada traced only 6%-10% of guns involved in crimes, according to 2019 data from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), a federal agency.

On Monday, the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police called on the federal government to make the tracing of crime guns mandatory across Canada.

"I'm confident that we'll be making steps in that direction," said Bray, who co-chairs the association's special committee on firearms.

Alexander Cohen, director of communications for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, said the government is aware of the importance of tracing guns. "We know that more must be traced, which is why budget 2021 invested C$15 million ($11.7 million) to improve the RCMP's gun-tracing capacity," he added.

Yet the method has its own limitations: The Ontario data shows police were unable to trace almost half the firearms they tried to track last year, for reasons including obliterated serial numbers and the lack of a national registry for long guns.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government introduced new legislation in May to fight gun violence, including the freeze on handgun purchases and a ban on sales of large-capacity magazines. But mandatory tracing is not part of it.

The announcement came in the wake of mass shootings south of the border - in Uvalde, Texas and Buffalo, New York. The toll of gun violence was felt closer to home this week when an attacker shot four people in British Columbia, killing two.

Mendicino told Reuters the government had Canada's specific circumstances in mind with the May measures, citing "alarming statistics around increases in handgun violence," specifically the rising firearm homicide rate.

"We came to the judgment that a national handgun freeze would be the fastest and most effective way to reverse that trend," Mendicino said.

TEXAS CONNECTION 'SHOCKING'

The Canadian firearms homicide rate has been rising: 2020 and 2017 are tied for the highest since at least 1997, according to Statistics Canada. In 2020, gun murders accounted for close to 40% of the country's 743 homicides, while more than 60% of gun-related violent crime in urban areas involved handguns.

Canada's 2020 firearm homicide rate was 5.6 times that of Australia, according to each country's government statistics. The Canadian rate was also five times that of Germany in 2010, and 2.5 times the rate of the Netherlands, according to a 2016 comparative study published in the American Journal of Medicine.

Ferguson's team at FATE takes serial numbers and runs them through databases in Canada and, if nothing comes up, in the United States.

Texas has become the top U.S. source of crime-involved guns traced in Ontario, with 150 firearms counted last year - five times the 30 identified in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), citing FATE numbers. Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Oklahoma round out the top five.

The southern U.S. state has some of the most lenient gun-purchasing laws in America, according to the ATF's Texas office in Dallas.

Tracing by Canadian authorities provides key intelligence to the ATF, which can then investigate and prosecute buyers of firearms that are subsequently sold illegally or smuggled, said Chris Taylor, ATF attache at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa.

The agency opens about 120 investigations per year in the United States on the basis of guns traced from crimes in Canada, with more than 90% originating from Ontario, Taylor said. The number of cases is rising, with the ATF opening more than 180 probes since October thanks to Canadian tracing, he added.

Jeff Boshek, ATF special agent in charge of the Dallas field division, said he and colleagues were stunned when tracing data started showing that Canada was a growing destination for guns from Texas.

Boshek said that an estimated 30% of all guns purchased in Texas and then traced to crimes committed abroad are linked to Canada, "which is shocking to me" because only a few years ago 100% were linked to crimes in Mexico. Boshek said the Dallas ATF office is currently investigating many traces Canada flagged.

Where Texan smugglers might double their money on a handgun sold in Mexico, they earn 10 times the price of the handgun in Canada, the agent added.

A GLOCK FOR C$8,000

Gun smuggling can be lucrative: A typical Glock handgun trafficked from the U.S. costs between C$6,000 ($4,603) and C$8,000 in the Toronto area, Ferguson said, some 10 times more than its $500 purchase price south of the border.

It is also busy: The number of firearms Canada seized at the border more than doubled last year to 1,110 from 495 in 2020 - the highest total since at least 2016, according to numbers provided to Reuters by the Canada's Border Services Agency.

This year is on track to be almost as high, with 523 firearms seized as of the first week in June.

Gun violence in Toronto, Canada's most populous city, reached a 15-year high in 2019, with 492 incidents involving firearms, according to police data. That number fell the following two years but 2022 is on track to rise once again.

In Winnipeg, which had the highest firearm homicide rate of any major Canadian city in 2020 - at 1.32 per 100,000 - police have a firearms investigation and analysis section to trace guns involved in crimes.

They can use bullet casings to trace a gun from a Winnipeg shooting to crimes elsewhere, according to Winnipeg Police Inspector Elton Hall, who called the technique a "game-changer."

AN 'UNWINNABLE FIGHT'

Tracing is far from infallible, though: Last year 1,173 guns - about 47% of all those Ontario tried to track - could not be traced at all, up from about 28.5% in 2018. Apart from Canada's lack of registry for long guns, 3D-printed guns and those with serial numbers that are too damaged cannot be traced.

Toronto Police Detective Sergeant Andrew Steinwall, who has been investigating gun crime in Toronto for more than 15 years, sees efforts to combat gun smuggling as an "unwinnable fight."

"We don't have the resources to seize every gun in this country that's come in illegally," he said.

Smugglers are resourceful: In May, a drone carrying handguns believed to be from the United States got caught in a residential backyard tree in Ontario's Port Lambton, just across the St. Clair River from Michigan.

"A drone, a gas tank, an unsuspecting mule ... these guys will find a way to get these guns over the border," Steinwall added. "The demand is here."

($1 = 1.2874 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Steve Scherer in Ottawa and Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Denny Thomas and Pravin Char)

A spot in Alberta named the "most epic" camping location in Canada

Laine Mitchell
Jul 25 2022, 

Pierre Leclerc/Shutterstock

Alberta is chalked full of gorgeous spots to enjoy nature, and a spot in our Rockies has been crowned the “most epic” place to camp in Canada.

Scouts Canada interviewed 46,704 members to reveal the cream of the crop when it comes to the truly spectacular spots to camp in the country.

The survey revealed that 39.5% cited Alberta’s Jasper National Park as Canada’s #1 “most epic” camp destination in Canada.

When asked to name the most epic camping destinations in all of Canada, the Scouting community responded with this top five:

 Jasper National Park, Alberta – 39.5%

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, British Columbia – 34.6%

Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario – 32.9%

Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland and Labrador – 27.3%

Fundy National Park, New Brunswick – 22.5%

We mean, Jasper has been ranked as not only the best national park in Canada but one of the best in the entire world, so it makes sense it would have nabbed the top spot in this survey.

It also has the best golf course in Alberta too, according to Golf Digest.

 

B.C. park ranked among 'most epic' campsites by Scouts Canada

Called ʔapsčiik t̓ašii (pronounced ups-cheek ta-shee), the path spans the length of the national park's Long Beach region. (Parks Canada)

Adam Chan
CTV News Vancouver Island
Staff
Follow | Contact
Published July 26, 2022 

Scouts Canada recently polled thousands of its members to determine the best campsites in the country, and one Vancouver Island park made the cut.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, located on the west coast of Vancouver Island, was considered the second "most epic" place to camp in Canada, according to Scouts.

The park narrowly lost the top spot to Jasper National Park in Alberta.

Scouts Canada came up with its ranking based on a survey of its 46,704 members across the country.

The world-renowned Pacific Rim park has also been a topic of conversation for the federal government and the U.S.-based publication, Time magazine.

Parks Canada recently announced the grand opening of a new 25-kilometre walking and cycling trail in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which was completed in June at a cost of nearly $51 million.

Called ʔapsčiik t̓ašii (pronounced ups-cheek ta-shee), the path spans the length of the national park's Long Beach region. (Parks Canada)

Time magazine also named Tofino, B.C., one of the top 50 destinations in the world to visit this year, partly because of the new $51-million trail.

Pacific Rim National Park Reserve has a little something for everyone, according to Parks Canada.

Activities can range from hiking to surfing to learning more about local First Nations, including the Nuu-chah-nulth people.

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New Fossil Analysis Revealed a Four Legged Fishapod That Resembles to Tiktaalik

By Paw Mozter Jul 25, 2022 

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Online jokes about Tiktaalik roseae, the famous four-legged "fishapod" that first appeared on land 375 million years ago, have been going around throughout the epidemic. In the majority of depictions, Tiktaalik is seen sticking its head out of the water and getting ready to crawl on land as a hand out of frame threatens it with a stick or a rolled-up newspaper.

The punchline is that those of us who are weary of the modern world wish we could travel back in time and stop evolution in its tracks, saving ourselves from the current era of conflict, disease, and online memes.

Evolution of Tiktaalik

(Photo : David Clode/Unsplash)

The ancient creature's fossilized remnants have shown how prehistoric life emerged from the ocean and made its clumsy initial steps toward the development of four-legged terrestrial creatures.

The bones of Tiktaalik, a 375 million year old freshwater organism that grew to three meters long and had aquatic traits combined with others better adapted to life on land, were found to provide clues to the crucial period in the history of life.

While looking for fossils on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic in 2004, researchers made the initial discovery of Tiktaalik.

Tiktaalik was an amazing creature with a unique combination of gills, scales, fins, and lungs. It also had a moveable neck, strong ribs, and a head like a crocodile.

In study that was released in 2014, researchers provide the first description of fossils from the rear half of Tiktaalik. According to the report, the animal featured lengthy hind fins, a conspicuous hip joint, and a big, strong pelvic girdle. The beast's strong fins may have helped it move through the water, but they might also have enabled it to traverse mudflats and walk on riverbeds.

The largest discovery, according to Neil Shubin, an anatomy professor at the University of Chicago and the paper's lead author, was the size of the pelvis.

The animal's pelvis is the same size as its shoulder, so you can get an idea of how enormous it is by noting that.

It is also evident from these bones that the hind appendage was already emphasized in its transition to creatures with limbs, as per The Guardian.

Read more: Decline in Earth's Oxygen Caused by Fossil Fuels, Experts Suggest

A new discovery of a new fossil

It turned out that one of Tiktaalik's close cousins had done just that, choosing to return to dwell in the open sea rather than venture onto land, as per ScienceDaily.

Recent research from the lab of Neil Shubin, Ph.D., who co-discovered Tiktaalik in 2004, reports a fossil species that are similar to Tiktaalik but differs from it in that it was better suited to life in the water.

The Tiktaalik, which could reach a height of nine feet, was larger than Qikiqtania wakei, which was just 30 inches long.

The newly discovered fossil has fragments of the upper and lower jaws, the neck, and scales.

Most critically, it has a full pectoral fin and a humerus bone that is distinct and devoid of the ridges that would identify the location of muscles and joints on a limb designed for walking on land.

The top arm of Qikiqtania was smooth and curved, more adapted to a life spent paddling underwater.

The peculiarity of Qikiqtania's arm bones suggests that it resumed water paddling after its predecessors started using their limbs for walking.

We initially believed it may be a juvenile Tiktaalik because of its lower size and the possibility that some of those processes hadn't fully completed, according to Shubin.

It's extremely smooth and boomerang-shaped, but the humerus lacks the components that would support it thrusting up on land.

The fossil was discovered by Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, at a location about one mile east of southern Ellesmere Island in the territory of Nunavut in northern Arctic Canada, days before Tiktaalik was found.

The Inuktitut term Qikiqtaaluk or Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the area where the fossil site is located, is whence the name Qikiatania originates.

In honor of the late David Wake, a renowned evolutionary scientist from the University of California in Berkeley, the species name wakei was given.

Tiktaalik and Qikiqtania are just somewhat older than one another. According to the team's examination of its position on the evolutionary tree, it, like Tiktaalik, is situated close to the oldest known organisms with finger-like digits.

Qikiqtania had a distinctive pectoral fin that was more suited to swimming, but it wasn't fully fish-like.

Different from the jointed, muscled legs or fan-shaped fins we see in modern tetrapods and fish, its curving paddle form was a distinctive adaption.

The Qikiqtania demonstrates that some species continued on a different course that eventually didn't work out, contrary to the common belief that animals developed in a straight line from their primordial beginnings to some living creatures today.

Drum circle participants 'obstructed and harassed' lifeguards on Vancouver beach, park board says

This photo shows a crowd gathered for the weekly drum circle on Third Beach in Vancouver's Stanley Park (Credit: LeonWang/Shutterstock.co)

OMG STILL GOING SINCE I LEFT IN '72
Lisa Steacy
CTVNewsVancouver.ca Reporter
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Published July 27, 2022

Lifeguards have stopped patrolling a Vancouver beach on Tuesday nights because the crowd at a weekly drum circle has become unmanageable and unsafe, according to the park board.

The move was announced in a tweet, the board saying the decision to halt patrols at 7 p.m. was necessary to ensure the safety of lifeguards and followed an "incident" at Third Beach in Stanley Park earlier this month.

"All those who attend the drum circle are being warned of the risks associated with unsupervised swimming," the tweet continued.

TWEET EMBED: In an email, a spokesperson provided more details. On July 12, guards pulled an unconscious person out of the water and performed first aid until an ambulance arrived.

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"At the time of the incident, it is reported the number of people at Third Beach exceeded 4,000," the statement reads.

"Other lifeguards on site reported they were obstructed and harassed by individuals in the crowd, both physically and verbally, as they attempted to reach the unconscious individual."

The weekly gathering was described as an "unsanctioned and unpermitted event" that has been drawing increasingly large and unruly crowds to the waterfront in recent weeks. The park board spokesperson said it has gotten to the point where rangers and lifeguards can’t ensure their own safety or the safety of the people participating in the drum circle.

The Vancouver Park Board will be meeting with the police department and city protective services to "establish a coordinated approach and long-term strategy to manage the congregation of large crowds and associated bylaw infractions."

Canada’s fossil-fuelled sprint away from climate safety

By Barry Saxifrage | Analysis, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 27th 2022

#2052 of 2053 articles from the Special Report: Race to a Safer World

Fossil fuel buring keeps rising in Canada, and Canadians now burn more per person than any of our peers in G7 and European Union nations.

Burning fossil fuels is the root cause of climate breakdown, ocean acidification and the choking air pollution that is killing millions every year.

For more than 30 years, Canada has been promising to do its part in solving these crises by reining in our hugely oversized fossil fuel burning. Instead, we keep cranking up the amount we burn. That's according to the data in the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

This data also shows that Canada is dragging its feet on expanding climate-safe and less-deadly energy sources that we need to switch to — like hydro, nuclear, wind and solar. As a result, fossil fuels’ formidable lead in Canada’s energy use keeps growing.

Canadians now burn more fossil fuels per person than any of our peer nations in the wealthy Group of Seven (G7) or the European Union. And while nearly all these nations have managed to reduce their climate pollution since 1990, Canada hasn’t. We still emit far more.

Canada’s multi-decade failure to reduce fossil fuel burning has left Canadians and our economy increasingly exposed to the rapidly metastasizing climate crisis.

To illustrate Canada’s ever-growing fossil fuel problem, I’ve created a series of charts using the latest BP energy data.

Burning up

My first chart lets you compare Canada’s energy use last year to what we used back in 1990, the year Canada first promised to reduce climate pollution.

Back then, Canadians burned seven exajoules of fossil fuels.

(Note: An "exajoule" (EJ) is an energy metric used by BP and others to compare different sources of energy. It is roughly equal to the energy from burning 163 million barrels of oil.)

Over the next 30 years, instead of reducing our carbon burning as promised, we kept cranking it up. Last year, we burned nine exajoules worth of fossil fuels — two more than in 1990.

For scale, the combined nations of Central America currently burn about one exajoule worth of fossil fuels each year. So, Canada has increased its fossil fuel burning by two Central Americas worth since 1990. That’s the path to a chaotic climate future, not a safe one.

The chart’s green bars show how much climate-safe energy Canada uses. This increased by just one exajoule — only half as much.

Canada’s multi-decade failure to reduce fossil fuel burning has left us and our economy increasingly exposed to the rapidly metastasizing climate crisis. #ClimateCrisis #cdnpoli #FossilFuels @saxifrages writes for @NatObserver

Fossil fuels are pulling away

As my next chart highlights, fossil fuels' already formidable lead over cleaner alternatives has grown even larger.

Back in 1990, fossil fuels had a three exajoule lead over climate-safe energy sources in Canada. Now, the gap has grown to four exajoules.

Three decades ago, the climate task facing Canadians was to eliminate seven exajoules of fossil fuel energy. That’s a lot of energy to replace or cut back. But back then, we also had several decades ahead of us to engineer a graceful energy transition.

Instead of acting, Canada burned up precious decades while making the problem even larger. Today, Canadians face a much larger task — eliminating nine exajoules per year worth of fossil fuels. And we have far less time remaining to do it. The climate crisis is now hammering away with increasing fury on our communities, food supply, security, economy and the rich ecosystems we cherish and depend on.

The impacts will keep growing more dangerous until we’ve eliminated all fossil fuel burning.

Coal gains squandered

There is one form of fossil fuel that Canada has acted on — coal burning in power plants.

This effort was led by Ontario with its Cessation of Coal Use Regulation back in 2007. The provincial government calls this the "single largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction action on the continent." It remains Canada’s biggest climate success so far.

But, as this next chart highlights, all of Canada’s hard-won climate progress from coal cuts was wiped out four times over by our huge surge in oil and gas burning.

For those who like geeky details, coal burning declined by 0.7 EJ, while oil and gas burning surged by 2.7 EJ.

One step forward, four steps back.

On the positive side, Canadians are close to eliminating coal-burning power plants. Less than half an exajoule of coal burning remains. And Canada has laws on the books to shut down most of that.

But the flip side is that Canada has now played its coal card and, yet, fossil fuel burning continues to rise.

To make any meaningful climate progress now, Canada must make large and rapid cuts in our oil and gas burning. These now total 95 per cent of our fossil fuel burning.

However, Canada has been green-lighting economic and climate policies that do the opposite. Both oil and gas burning have risen relentlessly in Canada. Both hit all-time highs in 2019.

Global speed bumps

So far, the only thing that has slowed down Canada’s fossil burning has been two major global crises.

In 2009, the sudden global financial meltdown turned down Canada’s fossil burner — for a single year. And in 2020, the global COVID pandemic did it again.

But even these global crises were just temporary speed bumps in Canada’s determined acceleration off the climate cliff. In both cases, fossil burning rebounded strongly the next year.

In fact, it took just one year for Canada's fossil gas burning to erase the pandemic dip and surge to a record high in 2021.

Both these global economic crises also put a damper on Canada’s climate-safe energy. According to the BP data, Canada’s climate-safe energy peaked in 2017 and has been struggling through years of decline since.

Overall, though, Canada’s energy trends have been remarkably stable since 1990. Fossil fuel burning keeps rising. And it keeps rising much faster than climate-safe energy. The gap between climate-safe energy and climate-destructive energy keeps growing larger. And the amount of fossil fuel burning that Canadians must eliminate to preserve a livable climate keeps growing larger as well.

There is no sign in this data that Canada is turning the corner on its fossil fuel addiction.
Super burners

So far, we’ve looked at the total fossil fuel burning in Canada.

Another revealing comparison I found in the BP data is in the amount of fossil fuels burned per person.

My next chart shows fossil fuel burning per capita among Canada’s peers in both the G7 and the European Union. Combined, these 31 nations hold more than half the world's wealth, produce half the global GDP, and emit a third of the climate pollution.

Where are Canadians?

Fossil fuel burning per capita in G7 and EU nations. Data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022.

Yep, sadly, we are in first place — burning the most per person.

Canadians now burn nearly four times more fossil fuels per person than the global average; triple the French or British; and more than twice as much as the Germans and Japanese. Heck, even the Americans now burn less per person than we do. They used to burn a lot more than we did, but even the land of Trumpian climate denial and yahoo oil cowboys now burns less than us.

And, of course, all our oversized fossil fuel burning comes with oversized heaps of climate pollution.
Climate rogue

My final chart shows the climate progress these same nations have made since 1990.

Green bars show reductions in climate pollution. As you can see, nearly all our peers in this group have reduced their emissions. Not Canada. We are one of the few climate rogues — still polluting more.

Climate pollution changes from 1990 to 2020 in G7 and EU nations. Data from each nation's National Inventory Report to the UNFCCC.

The Europeans have cut their climate pollution — by a third.

The British have cut their climate pollution — in half.

We’ve cranked ours higher. Is this really who we want to be?

If Canadians ever want to get off our treadmill of rising fossil fuel addiction and endless climate failure, we could adopt the same carbon budget policies that have been working so well for our Commonwealth peers in the U.K.

At this point, we know what works and what doesn’t.

Continuing with climate arson isn't our only option. We can choose a different and more hopeful path.

July 27th 2022

Barry Saxifrage
Visual Carbon Columnist
@bsaxifrage

Comments

David Huntley | 12 hours ago

I do not know how to explain why Canada is doing so badly except that there must be corruption in the Cabinet.

f nordvie | 9 hours ago


5 years ago, Ontario was ahead of its schedule, to reach 2030 goals.
And none of its work, or Quebec's, or BC's, or anyone else's, counted for a dawdly-doo in the federal figures, because they were all wiped out by the petro industries in AB and SASK.

And then we got Doug Ford. I don't say "we" elected Doug Ford, bc I played no part in that.

James S | 9 hours ago


Isn't a very large portion of Canada's consumption of fossil fuels related to a very small number of industries, including oil and gas extraction/refining, cement production, and to a lesser extent steel and aluminum smelting? These per capita charts suggest that 'ordinary' Canadians are doing all that burning which I don't believe is the case. At the same time, it's a well known fact that Canadian domestic consumption is much higher than Scandinavian domestic consumption, and so 'ordinary' Canadians have much in the way of improvements to make. However, while the climate doesn't care about who is producing carbon, I think we need to keep the record straight as to the fact that key industries in Canada who are mostly international conglomerates with widely held international shareholdings, are the ones that are putting these big numbers on the backs of ordinary Canadians. It is these same companies, as well as the Canadian Banks that keep the country's carbon output high while lobbying our so-called democratic representatives to allow them to keep making money at the expense of our climate futures.

Geoffrey Pounder | 7 hours ago


"Canada's overall emissions growth over the 1990 to 2020 period was driven primarily by increased emissions from oil and gas extraction as well as transport."
"In 2020, the oil and gas sector and transport sector were the largest GHG emitters in Canada, accounting for 27% and 24% of total emissions, respectively."

Buildings, electricity, heavy industry, agriculture, "waste and others" (light manufacturing, construction, forest resources, coal production) account for the remainder. These five categories average around 9% (range: 7-12%).
"The Heavy industry sector consists of emissions from mining, smelting and refining, pulp and paper, iron and steel, cement, lime and gypsum, and chemicals and fertilizers."
Cement accounts for less than 2% (10-11 Mt) of Canada's total 730-740 Mt.
ECCC: Greenhouse gas emissions
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environment...

Ultimately, just about all this economic activity is driven by consumption, i.e., by consumers here and abroad. Industry does not exist for its own sake. No consumers, no industry.
Cars, light trucks, motorcycles, bus, rail and aviation account for 13% of total emissions. Not including the upstream gas and diesel production upstream to fuel them.
Fossil fuels power our cars, natural gas heats our homes, agriculture puts food on our table, forestry provides our lumber and paper products, etc.

Dorothy Henaut | 5 hours ago


Our government certainly has the power to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industries, which is a major factor in the fact that Canada is a rogue nation, perhaps even the worst rogue nation with regard to fossil fuels and bringing on climate Armageddon.

The only reason I can see that the Trudeau government is subsidizing the ridiculous carbon capturing and opening up more oil fields in the Atlantic and elsewhere is that he lives in a millionaire‘a bubble and his reality has very little to do with the real world that is rapidly burning up.

The day when federal ministers are willing to have lunch with citizens groups and climate activists the way they do with petroleum CEOs there might be some changes.

Meantime, Trudeau’s name is going to go down in history as the man who made Canada a rogue nation that largely affected the demise of the natural world as we know it, as well as an inestimable number of people in the world. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn’t think if that.

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By John Woodside | News, Energy, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 22nd 2022

How Canada’s UN climate boss Catherine McKenna plans to fight greenwashing

Canada’s former environment minister is going after organizations whose resolve doesn’t match their rhetoric on climate change.

By David Paterson
Tue., July 26, 2022

Earlier this year, scientists reported some relatively good news in the fight against climate change. A study in the journal Nature found that emissions-reductions pledges following last fall’s COP26 climate summit would keep global warming to two degrees Celsius — if they came to fruition.

But since then, the backsliding has begun. In the face of soaring fossil fuel prices, Joe Biden urged oil companies to increase production and California started to effectively subsidize gas for drivers. The European Union made the scientifically dubious choice to sometimes classify natural gas as clean energy. And in Canada, the federal government approved a $16-billion oil drilling megaproject off the coast of St. John’s run by Equinor, a Norwegian energy company.

The gulf between words and deeds is not new. Climate vows have been made and broken (including by Canada) since at least the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit back in 1992. But as scientists warn that serious emissions cuts must be made in the next 10 years pressure is growing for mechanisms to hold governments and corporations to their promises.

“Greenwashing just creates cynicism,” says Catherine McKenna, the former Canadian environment minister who helped negotiate the Paris agreement. “It rewards the bad guys. If you’re a company that doesn’t want to act, you just join on this net-zero pledge and you get to coast along.”

This spring, the United Nations tapped McKenna to head up an expert panel on net-zero pledges. The group has been charged with addressing what the UN calls the “deficit of credibility” and bringing clarity to murky waters with a set of standards for climate promises from non-state entities, such as businesses and city governments.

The scale of the challenge was laid out recently by Carbon Market Watch, an environmental advocacy group. It analyzed the net-zero commitments of 25 of the world’s largest companies and found that most fall a long way short of reaching zero. It calculated that the actions promised would trim companies’ emissions by only 40 per cent on average and many cuts won’t happen for 20 or 30 years. The authors concluded that executives were “leaving the burden squarely on the shoulders of future generations.”

The report highlights several accounting techniques deployed by corporations to reduce the apparent size of their environmental footprint. Even Ikea, which is widely recognized as being well-intentioned on environmental issues, counts the solar panels it sells to customers and the carbon in some of its furniture toward its own reduction targets.

McKenna says that businesses are genuinely confused about how to assess their environmental impact and there is demand for a fair set of rules that everyone plays by. “If you’re decarbonizing your business, that’s hard. And if you’re doing that while your competitor isn’t, that’s not good news for you,” she says. “I hear from lots of folks saying, ‘Tell us what we need to do, how we need to report and make sure everyone has to do this’.”

One idea that McKenna’s panel will consider is linking progress on net-zero targets to executive compensation, which she says could “make sure that everyone’s paying attention.”

Alongside business, the panel will also look at how cities are approaching net-zero commitments. Local governments are increasingly being seen as important players on climate change, particularly in countries like the U.S. where action at the national level has stalled.

But McKenna says city managers struggle to find room in stretched budgets for items like new low-emission busses.

“I think we need to recognize that cities do need the support, often of the state, and that it can be very challenging if you are in a big city where you’re also dealing with poverty.”


Finding solutions to problems like this will occupy the panel for months. But, as António Guterres, the United Nations’ outspoken secretary general pointed out, time is not on our side.

“The world is in a race against time,” he said in a recent speech. “We cannot afford slow movers, fake movers or any form of greenwashing.”

Hear more from Catherine McKenna on the third episode of the new MaRS podcast Solve for X: Innovations to Save the Planet.

David Paterson writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.