BRRRRR

Feels like Antarctica: Polar vortex brings frigid temperatures to Alberta

Digital Writers
Mon, December 5, 2022 
The Weather Network

Feels like Antarctica: Polar vortex brings frigid temperatures to Alberta

Parts of Alberta will see dangerously-cold temperatures this week as the polar vortex spreads frigid air southwards over the province through Tuesday.

To put this chill into perspective, globally, the coldest temperatures ever recorded on Earth have been in Antarctica.

"Although Antarctica is currently experiencing its "summer," temperatures at weather and research stations along the coast are sitting at balmy single digit highs," says Kelly Sonnenburg, a meteorologist at The Weather Network. "Meanwhile, at the South Pole weather station, temperatures are stuck in the -30s, with wind chills in the -40s.

Antarctica temperatures

WATCH: Know the four P's of frostbite and what the risks are

Click here to view the video

For Alberta, a dangerous cold will envelop the region into Tuesday morning where temperatures for the northern half of the province will drop below -30°C.

Communities such as Edmonton could see temperatures bottom out at -35°C into early Tuesday morning! Wind chills are forecast to be bitter, making things feel even closer to the -40s.

Frost bite can occur within minutes under these conditions, so residents are urged to take the necessary precautions to limit exposure to the extreme cold.

Tuesday temperature values

"The good news is, this extreme cold is forecast to be temporary as temperatures will jump back up to near seasonal for Wednesday and the lobe of the coldest air migrates east," Sonnenburg adds.

Polar vortex set to bring dangerously cold weather to the Prairies

Digital Writers
Sun, December 4, 2022

Polar vortex set to bring dangerously cold weather to the Prairies
Click here to view the video

Another severe-cold outbreak is on the way for the Prairies this week, courtesy of the polar vortex.

The Arctic air will plunge south across the region with high temperatures in the mid-20s and low temperatures down into the minus-30s. Wind chills will also be extremely cold, making for potentially hazardous conditions.

Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin, especially with wind chill. If it's too cold for you to stay outside, it's too cold for your pet to stay outside.

Visit our Complete Guide to Winter 2022/23 for an in-depth look at the Winter Forecast, tips to plan for it, and much more!

Part of the polar vortex will be branching off and diving south across the Prairies on Monday. The origins of this coldest lobe of Arctic air can be traced back to the North Pole. Extreme cold warnings are likely to be issued.

TEMP  PATTERN

Some of the coldest temperatures on the planet have been reported here in Canada recently, thanks to the positioning of the polar vortex. However, this Arctic blast will become more widespread and will be felt by many more Canadians this week.

PR COLD TUES WINDCHILL

Tuesday's forecast temperatures and wind chills could become some of the coldest values that several major cities have seen so far this season.

On Tuesday, Calgary, Alta., is forecast to be -20°C with a wind chill of -29.

The good news is this dangerous cold will be short-lived as it's on the move and not entirely locked into place. By Wednesday, a fast-moving upper ridge from B.C. will drastically warm Alberta by more than 20 degrees and bring an end to the severe cold.

An upslope flow will bring a dusting of snow to western and southern Alberta late Monday through Tuesday.

Giant seaweed farm in the middle of the ocean aims to be a global carbon sink

Isabella O'Malley, M.Env.Sc
Sun, December 4, 2022 
The Weather Network

Giant seaweed farm in the middle of the ocean aims to be a global carbon sink

Data overwhelmingly confirms that rising greenhouse gas emissions are locking us into a scenario of destructive climate chaos, which is motivating scientists and companies to invent ambitious carbon capture solutions.

One concept from Seafields Solutions looks to utilize some unlikely real estate by developing a giant seaweed farm in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean capable of capturing a gigatonne of carbon dioxide annually.

This England-founded company aims to be on the frontlines of the “ocean-based agricultural revolution” by scaling the farm to 60,000-square-kilometres within the North Atlantic gyre, where it will swirl around and largely stay in place.

The planned location for the giant seaweed farm. (Seafield Solutions)


In an interview with The Weather Network, John Auckland, Director and Co-Founder of Seafields Solutions, explained that not only is removing carbon from the atmosphere an urgent issue to mitigate severe impacts from climate change, but the seaweed can be used to create sustainable products like biofuel and bioplastic.

Sargassum is a type of seaweed that was chosen by the company based on its high capacity to store carbon in its biomass, free-floating nature, and ability to double in size every two weeks.

Once the sargassum is grown to a certain size it will be harvested and compressed into bales that are destined for the bottom of the ocean. Seafields Solutions refers to these bales as “carbon batteries” because once they are sunk, the carbon that is trapped within them will remain at the bottom of the ocean and out of the atmosphere for thousands of years.

The compressed Sargassum becomes a "carbon battery" and sinks to the bottom of the ocean. (Seafield Solutions)

Offshore testing is ongoing in St. Vincent to see if the company can be the first to domesticate Sargassum. After the company has proven that the seaweed can grow within the offshore barrier, the next phases will involve testing the bailing and sinking methods and providing evidence that leaving the bales at the bottom of the ocean has no environmental impact.

“The bales sink from the surface down to a depth of 4,000 metres in seven hours. That means it's moving so quickly that it's very difficult for an animal to eat it on his way down, and that's also quite important,” explained Auckland.

Staff testing and monitoring the grow of Sargassum. (Seafield Solutions)

The team is also designing “pipes” that will transport cold, low salinity, high nutrient water from a depth of 350 metres to the surface where it can be used by the growing seaweed. This water transport does not need any energy input, but Auckland notes that even though the pipe technology has been around for several decades, they still have to be tested and scaled in an economically viable way.

The seaweed farm will not be an autonomous operation — approximately 2,000 onsite staff will work in three-month cycles while living in “terrestrial, city-standard facilities and homes.”

“It's like building the International Space Station in the middle of the ocean,” said Auckland. The company hopes that this employment opportunity could appeal to those in the offshore oil and gas industry that are interested in the sustainability sector.
Watch below: Why billions of snow crabs are missing from the Bering Sea

Click here to view the video

Given the novelty of such an expansive carbon sink, Auckland said that there are hopes for potential tourism.

“Victor Smetacek, our visionary founder talks about the ‘Republic of Sargassum’ being a tourist destination. People will want to come and see this golden rainforest that stretches as far as the eye can see. It's going to be beautiful and really quite a meaningful tourism [opportunity],” said Auckland.

Auckland says that the Sargassum can be used to make sustainable alternatives to fossil fuel-based products, such as biofuel, bioplastics, and emulsifiers.

“The cosmetics industry is absolutely dependent on oil because they need emulsifiers, which make oil mix with water. It’s absolutely essential in a lot of cosmetic products and our food,” Auckland explained.

“Our partners, CarbonWave, managed to create an emulsifier from Sargassum, the first potentially commercially viable alternative to a fossil fuel-based emulsifier. So we can soon start supplying that to the cosmetics industry.”

Dr. Mar Fernández-Méndez, lead scientist, analyzing the growth rates of Sargassum samples. (Seafield Solutions)

As with any initiative that is in the developmental stages, Auckland acknowledges that headwinds lie ahead.

“We could be blocked from doing it. There could be regulation that comes in that stops us from being able to operate in the mid-ocean international waters. There's currently no regulation that legally stops us, but there are some frameworks within international policies that we would have to adhere to,” said Auckland.

Other potential hurdles could be the perceived environmental impact of a giant 60,000-square-kilometre seaweed farm. Although the company’s research indicates that the project would have very little negative impacts, there are neighbouring ecosystems that will require environmental assessments and monitoring.

The commercial viability is also a top priority, which Auckland say carries “incredibly low” risk because all aspects of this initiative integrate proven concepts and technologies.

The company has a goal of raising £5 million in seed round funding by early 2023 and then another £20 million to reach a stage where the seaweed farm is functioning and available for carbon credit investments. Auckland estimates that it will take about a decade before the seaweed farm is operating at the scale of capturing one gigatonne of carbon annually.

“What we're finding is that of investors really understand that the open ocean has a huge amount of space and potential. So that conviction is really quite strong and carries us quite far,” concluded Auckland.

Thumbnail image: A mat of wild Sargassum growing in the ocean. (Seafield Solutions)

Saskatchewan population surpasses 1.2-million milestone


Mon, December 5, 2022

Premier Scott Moe announced via Twitter Saturday morning that Saskatchewan's population had surpassed 1.2 million. 

(Alexander Quon/CBC News - image credit)

As of Dec. 5, there were 1,200,083 people living in Saskatchewan, according to Statistics Canada's population clock.

Saskatchewan accounts for three per cent of the national population. It ranks sixth in provincial population size, trailing Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and Manitoba.

Saskatchewan's population grew by 6,465 people during the second quarter of 2022, the province's largest jump in any three-month period since Statistics Canada started releasing quarterly population counts in 1971.

That population growth was driven by immigration. Net international migration added 7,365 people to the province.

However, during that same quarter, Saskatchewan had more people leaving for other provinces than coming in from them. From April 1 to July 1, 6,992 people moved from other provinces and territories to Saskatchewan — mostly from Ontario, Alberta and B.C. — but 8,940 people did the opposite, for a net loss of about 2,000.

At the start of the third quarter in of 2022, there were 1,194,803 people living in the province, 13,310 more than the start of the third quarter in 2021.

The province's population grew by 153,572 residents from 2001 to 2021, according to Statistics Canada census data. That is a 15.7 per cent increase.

The Government of Saskatchewan hopes to have 1,400,000 people living in the province by 2030.

REPATRIATION PAYMENT
Assembly of First Nations chiefs to vote on $20B child welfare deal

Mon, December 5, 2022

Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archibald speaks during the AFN's last annual general meeting in Vancouver on July 5, 2022. (Darryl Dyck/Canadian Press - image credit)

Assembly of First Nations chiefs are expected to hold votes this week that could affect the fates of tens of thousands of people waiting on a $20 billion child welfare settlement agreement reached with the federal government.

Two competing resolutions are expected to hit the floor at the annual December special chiefs assembly in Ottawa — one to officially support the deal, the other to renegotiate it.

"We don't want any children left behind," said Judy Wilson, kukpi7 (chief) of the Neskonlith Indian Band and secretary-treasurer of Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs.

WATCH | First time chiefs vote on $20B deal

Wilson is seconding a resolution moved by Council Chairperson Khelsilem of the Squamish Nation in British Columbia to compel the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) to return to the negotiating table with Canada.

If passed, the resolution would force the AFN to drop its appeal of October's Canadian Human Rights Tribunal decision rejecting the multi-billion dollar deal reached between Ottawa and the AFN and call on the federal government to do the same.

"That's really essential in ensuring we don't have to come back again for another court action," Wilson said.

'A golden opportunity to get it right'

The settlement agreement — which would resolve two class-action lawsuits — includes a clause that requires the tribunal's approval before it can be sent to Federal Court for a final sign-off.

The class action lawsuits were launched after the tribunal ruled Ottawa discriminated against First Nations children by underfunding on-reserve child welfare services, and ordered Ottawa to provide compensation to children and families affected by the system.

A separate resolution, moved by Chief Patsy Corbiere of Aundeck Omni Kaning First Nation in Ontario and Chief Bob Gloade of Millbrook First Nation in Nova Scotia, calls on chiefs to stand by the final settlement agreement.

The votes offer AFN chiefs their first opportunity to have an official say on the deal, which was finalized between the AFN and federal government last summer.

Ka’nhehsí:io Deer/CBC

First Nations child advocate Cindy Blackstock said she welcomes the debate. She filed the original human rights complaint with the AFN in 2007 accusing Canada of underfunding the on-reserve child welfare system.

"This is a golden opportunity to get it right," said Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada.

Blackstock said the chiefs have a chance to preserve the best parts of the agreement while expanding compensation in areas where it fell short.

The deal excludes payments for children removed from their homes and placed in non-federally funded placements, and the estates of deceased caregiving parents and grandparents.

It also provides less money than the tribunal ordered Canada to pay to other victims of underfunded First Nations child and family services.

But the final settlement does guarantee $40,000 to each child removed from their homes, communities and families — and possibly more than the tribunal ordered, depending on the severity of harm experienced.

"There's lots of good things in that final settlement agreement," Blackstock said.

"But you can't have a final settlement agreement that is supposed to be justice for victims that disentitles some victims."

Justin Tang/Canadian Press

The resolution by B.C. chiefs also calls on the AFN to bring Blackstock into the negotiation talks.

Right now, she is involved only in discussions about another pool of $20 billion for long-term reform of the on-reserve child welfare system.

Parties considering whether to drop CHRT approval requirement

When asked for her views on the compensation deal, AFN National Chief RoseAnne Archibald deferred to the AFN's child welfare portfolio holder, Manitoba Regional Chief Cindy Woodhouse.

"First Nations have driven this process and I think First Nations' rights need to be respected," Woodhouse said.

"There's some confusion out there and I think we really have to bring it all together and have a fulsome discussion on the issue."

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

The parties involved in the final settlement agreement are thinking about decoupling the settlement from the tribunal by removing the clause that requires its approval, CBC News has learned.

If that happens, and if the chiefs vote to stay the course, then Ottawa and the AFN can proceed to seek the Federal Court's approval of the agreement while proceeding with a challenge of the tribunal on a separate legal track, according to sources who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

For Grand Chief Jerry Daniels of the Southern Chiefs' Organization, the focus is on making sure children are looked after and the people who are entitled to compensation get it.

"I don't think you can ever compensate (for) the loss," Daniels said.

"We can start somewhere and we've got to continue to work from there."

CANADA'S DOMINION VS. FOX & CO.
Defamation Suit Against Fox Grows More Contentious

Jeremy W. Peters
Sun, December 4, 2022 

Fox Corporation Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chairman of News Corp Lachlan Murdoch (L) and his wife Sarah arrive in the Booksellers area of the White House to attend an Official Visit with a State Dinner honoring Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in Washington, DC, on September 20, 2019

(Photo by Alastair Pike / AFP) 

Lachlan Murdoch, CEO of Fox Corp., is expected to be deposed Monday as part of a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News for amplifying bogus claims that rigged machines from Dominion Voting Systems were responsible for Donald Trump’s defeat in 2020.

Murdoch will be the most senior corporate figure within the Fox media empire to face questions under oath in the case so far. And his appearance before Dominion’s lawyers is a sign of how unexpectedly far and fast the lawsuit has progressed in recent weeks — and how contentious it has become.

Fox and Dominion have gone back and forth in Delaware state court since the summer in an escalating dispute over witnesses, evidence and testimony. The arguments point to the high stakes of the case, which will render a judgment on whether the most powerful conservative media outlet in the country intentionally misled its audience and helped seed one of the most pervasive lies in American politics.

Although the law leans in the media’s favor in defamation cases, Dominion has what independent observers have said is an unusually strong case. Day after day, Fox hosts and guests repeated untrue stories about Dominion’s ties to communist regimes and far-fetched theories about how its software enabled enemies of the former president to steal his votes.

“This is a very different kind of case,” said David A. Logan, dean of the Roger Williams School of Law, who has argued in favor of loosening some libel laws. “Rarely do cases turn on a weekslong pattern of inflammatory, provably false, but also oddly inconsistent statements.”

Dominion, in its quest to obtain the private communications of as many low-, mid- and high-level Fox personnel as possible, hopes to prove that people inside the network knew they were disseminating lies. Fox hopes to be able sow doubt about that by showing how its hosts pressed Trump allies for evidence they never produced and that Dominion machines were vulnerable to hacking, even if no hacking took place.

The judge, Eric M. Davis, has ruled in most instances in Dominion’s favor, allowing the voting company to expand the pool of potential evidence it can present to a jury to include text messages from the personal phones of Fox employees and the employment contracts of star hosts such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, along with those of Suzanne Scott, CEO of Fox News Media, and her top corporate managers.

Dominion has conducted dozens of depositions with current and former network personalities, producers, business managers and executives. The people questioned come from the rungs of middle management at Fox News headquarters in Manhattan to the corner office in Century City, Los Angeles, where Murdoch oversees Fox Corp. and its sprawling enterprise of conservative media outlets.

The fight over depositions has intensified in recent weeks as lawyers for the two companies sparred over whether Hannity and another pro-Trump host, Jeanine Pirro, should have to sit for a second round of questioning about messages that Dominion obtained from their phones as part of the discovery process. Fox lawyers have argued that the hosts should not be compelled to testify again, citing the legal protections that journalists have against being forced to reveal confidential sources.

The judge ruled that Dominion’s lawyers could question both Hannity and Pirro again but limited the scope of what they could ask. Pirro’s second deposition was late last month; Hannity’s has yet to be scheduled.

Fox has accused Dominion in court filings of making “escalating demands” for documents that are voluminous in quantity, saying it would have to hire a second litigation team to accommodate such a “crushing burden.” (The judge has largely disagreed.)

In a sign of the simmering tensions between the two sides, Fox lawyers have asked the court to impose tens of thousands of dollars in sanctions against Dominion. Fox has accused the voting machine company’s CEO, John Poulos, and other senior company officials of failing to preserve their emails and text messages, as parties to a lawsuit are required to do with potentially relevant evidence.

After Dominion filed its lawsuit in March 2021 — claiming that Fox’s coverage of its machines not only cost it hundreds of millions of dollars in business but “harmed the idea of credible elections” — many media law experts assumed this case would end like many other high-profile defamation cases against a news organization: with a settlement.

Fox News has a history of settling sensitive lawsuits before they reach a jury. In the past several years alone, it has paid tens of millions of dollars in claims: to women who reported sexual harassment by its former CEO, Roger Ailes, and by prominent hosts including Bill O’Reilly; as well as to the family of Seth Rich, a former Democratic Party staff member who was killed in a robbery that some conservatives tried to link to an anti-Clinton conspiracy theory.

But a settlement with Dominion appears to be a remote possibility at this point. Fox has said that the broad protections provided to the media under the First Amendment shield it from liability. The network says it was merely reporting on Trump’s accusations, which are protected speech even if the president is lying. Dominion’s complaint outlines examples in which Fox hosts did more than just report those false claims, they endorsed them.

“This does not appear to be a case that’s going to settle — but anything can happen,” said Dan K. Webb, a noted trial lawyer who is representing Fox in the dispute. “There are some very fundamental First Amendment issues here, and those haven’t changed.”

In a statement, Dominion said the company was confident its case would show that Fox knew it was spreading lies “from the highest levels down.”

“Instead of acting responsibly and showing remorse, Fox instead has doubled down,” the statement said. “We’re focused on holding Fox accountable and are confident the truth will ultimately prevail.”

The judge has set a trial date for April. A separate defamation suit against Fox by the voting company Smartmatic is not scheduled to be ready for trial until the summer of 2024.

Part of the reason Fox executives and its lawyers believe they can prevail is the high burden of proof Dominion must reach to convince a jury that the network’s coverage of the 2020 election defamed it. Under the law, a jury has to conclude that Fox acted with “actual malice,” meaning that people inside the network knew that what they were reporting was false but did so anyway, or that they recklessly disregarded information showing what they were reporting was wrong.

That is what Dominion hopes to show the jury with the private messages it obtained from a several-week period after the election from Fox employees at all levels of the company. Very little is known publicly about what those messages could contain.

In addition to arguing that its coverage of Dominion was protected as free speech, Fox argues it was merely covering statements from newsmakers. “There is nothing more newsworthy than covering the president of the United States and his lawyers making allegations of voter fraud,” a spokesperson said.

Fox’s lawyers are also planning lines of defense that they hope will dent Dominion’s credibility, even if that means leaning into some of the conspiracy theories that are at the heart of Dominion’s case. They may argue, for example, that it was plausible that the machines had been hacked, pointing to questions that were raised by at least one independent expert about whether the software was secure.

As part of their fact-finding, Fox lawyers sought information from a University of Michigan computer scientist who wrote a report this year saying there were vulnerabilities in Dominion’s system that could be exploited, even though there is no evidence of any such breach.

Webb said the intent would be to show that the fraud allegations “were not made up out of whole cloth.” But it was not his plan, he said, to pretend that Trump’s voter fraud falsehoods — which were the same as many of the falsehoods uttered on the air at Fox — were true. “The president’s allegations were not correct,” Webb said. He added that he planned “to show the jury that those security concerns were there and were real and added plausibility to the president’s allegations.”

After Murdoch’s deposition Monday, lawyers on both sides of the case said they expected one additional senior executive to be questioned by Dominion’s lawyers: Rupert Murdoch, chair of Fox Corp., who founded Fox News with Ailes more than 25 years ago.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

#SAVETHEMERMAIDS

Endangered Status Sought for Manatees as Hundreds Starve in Florida

The petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

contends it was an error to take manatees off the endangered list in 2017, TRUMP KILLS MANATEES

leaving the slow-moving marine mammals listed only as threatened.  They had been listed as endangered since 1973  

By Curt Anderson •

Manatees that are dying by the hundreds mainly from pollution-caused starvation in Florida should once again be listed as an endangered species, environmental groups said Monday in a petition seeking the change.

The petition filed with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contends it was an error to take manatees off the endangered list in 2017, leaving the slow-moving marine mammals listed only as threatened. They had been listed as endangered since 1973.

“The Fish and Wildlife Service now has the opportunity to correct its mistake and protect these desperately imperiled animals,” said Ragan Whitlock, attorney for the Florida-based Center for Biological Diversity.

Under the Endangered Species Act, a species is considered endangered if it is "in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range.” A threatened species is one that may become endangered in the foreseeable future.

The petition, also sponsored by the Save the Manatee Club, Miami Waterkeeper and others, contends that pollution from fertilizer runoff, leaking septic tanks, wastewater discharges and increased development is triggering algae blooms that have killed much of the seagrass on which manatees depend, especially on Florida's east coast.

That resulted in the deaths mainly from starvation of a record 1,100 manatees in 2021 and is continuing this year, with at least 736 manatee deaths reported as of Nov. 11, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The 2021 deaths represented 13% of all manatees estimated to live in Florida waters.

Placing the manatee back on the endangered list would enhance federal scrutiny of projects and issues that involve manatees and bring more resources and expertise to tackle the problem, said Patrick Rose, executive director of the Save the Manatee Club.

“Re-designating manatees as endangered will be a critical first step in righting a terrible wrong,” Rose said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has 90 days to determine whether restoring the manatee to endangered status is warranted and, if so, 12 months from the date of the petition to complete a review of the manatee's status.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in an email that officials are “aware of the petition. Service staff will review the petition through our normal petition processes."

Meanwhile, state wildlife officials say they will launch a second year of experimental feeding of lettuce to manatees that gather by the hundreds during winter in the warm-water discharge an electric power plant near Cape Canaveral.

Last year, about 202,000 pounds of mostly donated lettuce was fed to manatees under the program. But wildlife experts caution that starvation is a chronic problem that will continue to harm the manatee population without greater attention to reducing pollution.

“With astounding losses of seagrasses around the state, we need to address water-quality issues to give the manatee a fighting chance to thrive and survive,” said Rachel Silverstein, Miami Waterkeeper executive director.

Mermaid or Manatee?

April 23, 2019

Addthis Share Tools

Group of South American Manatees

Centuries ago manatees were mistaken for mermaids, the half-woman/half-fish creature of myth and legend. The confusion may seem absurd now, but back then little was known of the sea beasts that lived in the ocean (much of the ocean is still unexplored today).

The mystery of the unknown coupled with some of the manatee’s humanlike features—its ability to turn its head, the fingerlike bones in its forelimbs, its flat tail—possibly led sailors to mistake it for the mythical creature, especially from a distance.

In Homer’s Odyssey, the sirens of ancient Greece who lured sailors to their deaths were often portrayed as mermaids. In many languages, the word “siren” means mermaid—and the scientific name for manatees and dugongs is Sirenia. In the fourth century B.C., Oannes, a half-fish, half-human creature, was a Babylonian god who would leave the sea every day and return at night.

In 1493, Christopher Columbus recorded the first written account of manatees in North America:

"…when the Admiral went to the Rio del Oro [Haiti], he said he quite distinctly saw three mermaids, which rose well out of the sea; but they are not so beautiful as they are said to be, for their faces had some masculine traits."

Today, manatees face many challenges. Because of their large size and slow pace, they are easily injured or killed when caught in fishing nets or when struck by motorboats; blooms of poisonous algae are another threat. The International Union for Conservation of Nature has listed all three species of manatees as either endangered or threatened.

This Smithsonian Libraries’ GIF was made from an image of the South American Manatees in Forest and Stream, v. 29 (1887–1888). It can be found can be found in its entirety in @biodivlibrary (source: biodiversitylibrary.org).

In the age of megachurches, communion has become a big business

Ashlie D. Stevens,

 Salon
December 05, 2022

Photo by Geda Žyvatkauskaitė on Unsplash

The lights dim in the five-story, 9,100-seat sanctuary of Southeast Christian Church as the sound of a synth keyboard begins to swell. On three jumbotron-sized screens suspended above the pulpit, the verse John 15:9 is displayed: "I have loved you even as the Father loved me. Remain in my love . . ."

One of the members of the worship team, a man in a white T-shirt and silky tan bomber jacket, brings the microphone up to his lips and launches into a heartfelt rendition of "Simple Kingdom," a contemporary Christian song released in 2022 by the husband and wife duo Bryan and Katie Torwalt.

His voice is backed by light bass plucks, piano chords in the key of C and the crinkle of thousands of tiny plastic wrappers being peeled back. This is what communion sounds like in many churches across the U.S. today.

Southeast Christian Church, which has been operating in Louisville, Ky., since 1962, has been the country's fourth-largest church since 2019, according to the bimonthly evangelical magazine Outreach, which annually lists the 100 largest and fastest-growing churches in America. Under the Southeast umbrella, there are nine campuses across Kentucky and Indiana with a cumulative weekly attendance of about 23,000 people, most of whom take part in weekly communion.

. . . the crinkle of thousands of tiny plastic wrappers being peeled back. This is what communion now sounds like in many churches across the U.S.

While the sacrament of communion or the Eucharist — which is present in many Christian denominations and involves consuming bread and wine in remembrance or exaltation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ — has shifted in presentation and delivery over the centuries, most contemporary churches have similar systems.

Parishioners may be called to the pulpit to receive bread or a wafer from a church leader and to drink from a common cup of wine or — in the case of some more conservative denominations — grape juice. Alternatively, deacons may pass around a tray of wafers or small hunks of bread, followed by small disposable cups of juice. This is a common enough approach that most religious goods stores carry specific communion trays with slots for 1-ounce cups.

However, in the age of megachurches — as well as that of a global pandemic, which caused many churches to reconsider the sharing of bread and use of a common cup — an alternative delivery system for the Eucharist has increased in popularity in recent years. And it's something of a booming business.

These days, when attendees enter Southeast, they're guided to a row of long tables filled with small, plastic two-packs of wafers and juice. These aren't a new product, but they have been primarily used to deliver the sacrament to individuals who are hospitalized or otherwise infirm, or when worshiping outside the walls of a physical church. When indicated by leadership from the pulpit, worshipers serve themselves and eventually dispose of the cups and wrappers in the large recycling cans that are now stationed outside the sanctuary doors.

It's arguably more efficient than more traditional deliveries of the sacrament, and it reduces close person-to-person contact in the time of COVID-19. However, it's also more expensive.

While Southeast Christian Church didn't respond as to which brand of communion packs it uses by press time — or how much the sacrament costs it on a week-to-week basis — several of the most popular companies that make them, such as TrueVine and Fellowship Cup, price their products similarly.

A box of 500 communion packs from TrueVine, for instance, costs just under $150. That means that serving 23,000 attendees, as in the case of Southeast Christian, would cost about $6,900 every week. Compare that to the cost of a box of 1,000 individual communion wafers from Broadman Church Supplies, which is available for $18.99 on Amazon.

This is a wildly different budgeting reality than those experienced by most small to midsize churches.

Episcopal priest Kira Schlesinger has led two churches, including a small church in Nashville with an average Sunday attendance of 75 people, as well as a midsize church in San Francisco with a weekly Sunday attendance of about 150.

"At my church in Nashville, we had a bread guild who made the communion bread every week, so our only costs were the wine," Schlesinger wrote to Salon Food. "I don't think it was broken out in the budget, but we'd buy large bottles of Taylor port [which cost about $15] whenever we needed them — maybe every two to three months. At my current church, we just returned to the common cup after doing wafers only since we regathered in person."

Schlesinger's current annual budget for the sacrament is $4,000, but that also includes purchases such as candles, linens and vestments. Within her denomination, specifically, using the popular plastic communion packs would be at odds with environmental concerns that she and her congregation hold.

However, as The Christian Chronicle reported in 2021, for many churches, the "rip and sip" communion cups may be the new normal.

"Before COVID-19, 21st Century Christian — a major source of communion supplies to Churches of Christ — sold the 'rip and sip' communion cups to only two congregations that used them weekly," Cheryl Mann Bacon wrote for the outlet.

Others would order small boxes for hospital visitation or homebound members, according to Matthew McInteer, CEO of the company, based in Nashville, Tenn.

"We couldn't get them from suppliers fast enough."

"Come March 2020, we sold more in two weeks than the entire previous year — a 16-fold year-over-year increase," McInteer told The Chronicle. "We couldn't get them from suppliers fast enough."

Surveys of church members conducted by both The Christian Chronicle and The Jenkins Institute, a ministry based in Nashville, found that many attendees were apathetic to the shift to "rip and sip" communion. It didn't augment, nor did it distract from, the experience.

Meanwhile, McInteer said many of his customers have indicated that they may keep purchasing communion packs at current levels for the foreseeable future.

"We've definitely talked to a lot of customers who have said, 'We may end up using these forever,'" he told The Chronicle. "But they are more expensive, and they don't taste very good."

MISSAE NOIR

Ex-priest pleads guilty to obscenity after filming threesome on church altar

By Snejana Farberov

A disgraced Louisiana Catholic priest has pleaded guilty to a felony obscenity charge for filming a threesome with two dominatrices on a church’s altar.

Travis Clark got a three-year suspended prison sentence for engaging in the unholy trinity, along with three years of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine, reported the Advocate.

A representative of the Archdiocese of New Orleans was present in court and signed off on the sentence after Clark entered his plea Monday.

The 39-year-old was serving as pastor at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River when one night in September 2020, when a passerby noticed that the lights were on inside the church.

When the witness peered through a window, he saw a half-naked Clark having a sex romp with two women in corsets and high-heeled boots atop the altar.

Travis Clark, 39, a former Catholic priest from Louisiana, pleaded guilty Monday to felony obscenity for having a threesome on top of a church altar in 2020.Pearl River Police

A person walking by Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Pearl River one night spotted lights inside and looked through the window to find the cleric having a sex romp with two dominatrices. Fox8

Police officers who were called to the church discovered a tripod-mounted camera that had been recording the sick romp.

Sex toys and stage lighting were also found at the scene.

Cops determined that everything that went on that night was consensual, but arrested the randy clergyman and his two scantily clad companions on obscenity charges because they were in view of the public

.

Clark, who was defrocked after his arrest, was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and a $1,000 fine.

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Off

Mindy Dixon 

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Off

Melissa Cheng 

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Off

The two professional dominatrices, Mindy Dixon and Melissa Cheng, pleaded guilty in July to misdemeanor counts of institutional vandalism and were slapped with two years of probation.

On the eve of the incident, Dixon had reportedly bragged on social media that she was going to “defile a house of God.”

The desecrated altar was burned in the aftermath of Clark’s “demonic” conduct, according to the archbishop of New Orleans, and a new altar was consecrated in November 2020.

Clark, who was ordained in 2013, was defrocked shortly after his arrest. He has paid restitution to the church in the amount of $8,000.

Louisiana Ex-Priest Pleads Guilty to Felony Obscenity Following Threesome on Church Altar

Court documents show the police seized sex toys, stage lights, and two recording devices.

By Lorena O’Neil

A former Catholic priest who was caught having a threesome with two dominatrices on the altar of a Louisiana church pleaded guilty to felony obscenity on Monday.

Travis Clark, 39, was arrested in 2020 after a passerby claims he saw the light on in a Pearl River church and walked up to witness Clark and two women filming themselves having sex on the altar. Court documents show the police seized sex toys, stage lights, and two recording devices: a tripod-mounted camera and a cell phone.

The Times-Picayune reports that Clark will serve three years of supervised probation and pay a $1,000 fine. The felony institutional vandalism charge against him was dropped.

News of the threesome took the small town of Pearl River by storm when it made headlines in 2020. Archbishop Gregory Aymond called Clark’s behavior “deplorable” and said his “desecration of the altar in the church was demonic, and I am infuriated by his actions.” Aymond had the altar removed and set it on fire. (That same month, another priest in the same archdiocese was credibly accused of molestation, and while he was eventually removed from public ministry, Aymond notably did not call him demonic.)

The sex workers, Mindy Dixon and Melissa Cheng, were also arrested and experienced online harassment. Dixon released her “official fucking statement” on Twitter with a devil GIF and told harassers it was absurd trying to shame her with scripture and tell her she’s going to burn. In a GoFundMe to help pay her legal fees, Cheng pointed out that “all parties involved were consenting adults.”

The witness who called the police on Clark and the two women in Sept. 2020 said he saw the (now former) priest partially naked on the altar, half-dressed in his priestly attire, with the two dominatrices in corsets and high-heeled boots. Clark also allegedly defecated on the carpet. The witness took a video, which he later showed to law enforcement.




The three adults initially faced two felony charges (obscenity and institutional vandalism), but the women entered a plea agreement with the state in July of this year, to a misdemeanor count of institutional vandalism. They agreed to testify for the prosecution in Clark’s trial. Judge Ellen Creel gave them each a suspended sentence and two years of supervised probation.

Clark’s lawyer told Creel on Monday that the ex-priest shouldn’t have to serve active probation. “In this situation it’s an incredibly specific set of facts and conditions that seem very unlikely to ever happen again,” said Michael Kennedy. He then said the two sex workers, who both live out of state, are more likely to repeat the offense.

Creel said she did not want to treat the three adults differently and maintained that Clark should serve active probation.

The newspaper reports Clark is scheduled to appear in civil court in January for a permanent injunction that aims to prohibit him and his codefendants from profiting from the sex acts.

#ABOLISHTHESENATE
UK's Labour vows to abolish House of Lords
Agence France-Presse
December 05, 2022

With around 800 members, Britain's House of Lords is the world's second-biggest legislature © Ben STANSALL / POOL/AFP

Britain's opposition Labour party vowed on Monday to scrap the unelected and "indefensible" House of Lords as part of a constitutional revamp to redistribute economic growth after Brexit.

Labour looks set to take power in the next election, due by January 2025, streaking far ahead of the governing Conservatives in opinion polls after a tumultuous period politically and economically.

Labour leader Keir Starmer promised "the biggest ever transfer of power from (the UK parliament in) Westminster to the British people", arguing that many voters in 2016 opted to quit the European Union because of a sense of lack of democratic control.

The party's blueprint for reform, drafted by former prime minister Gordon Brown, envisions new devolution to the UK's regions and countries including Scotland, where the nationalist government is pressing for a new referendum on independence.

Brown, who led the successful 2014 campaign for his fellow Scots to stay in the United Kingdom, proposed greater devolution, with the Edinburgh parliament included in international agreements that involve Scottish areas.

Addressing an audience in Leeds, northern England, Starmer said a "failure of economic growth over the past 12 years" under Conservative rule was caused in part by the UK failing as a whole to power growth, relying too much on London and southeast England.

The blueprint is not yet Labour policy. It now goes to a public consultation, with agreed changes set to be incorporated into the party's next election manifesto.

Starmer said he hoped to push through the eventual reforms within the first five years of a Labour government, possibly including the redeployment of 50,000 civil service jobs out of London.

Tackling widespread public disgust with perceived malpractice in parliament, the proposals would clamp down on MPs holding second jobs and create a new anti-corruption commissioner.

The 40-point plan's centerpiece is to scrap the upper house of parliament in its current guise -- which is a mixture of political appointees, hereditary peers and Church of England bishops.


"I think the House of Lords is indefensible. Anybody who looks at the House of Lords would struggle to say that it should be kept," Starmer told BBC television.

"So we want to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with an elected chamber that has a really strong mission."

Brown proposed a new assembly comprising members drawn from the UK's regions and countries -- a "smaller, more representative and democratic" chamber, although details will be left to the consultation.


© 2022 AFP

Blinken warns incoming Netanyahu govt against settlements, annexation

Agence France-Presse
December 05, 2022

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, seen in March 2021 during a visit to Alaska (AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed Sunday to oppose Israeli settlements or annexation in the West Bank, but promised to judge Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's incoming government by actions and not personalities.

Netanyahu is expected to return to power after sealing a coalition deal with the extreme-right movements including Religious Zionism, which will be given a post in charge of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Speaking to J Street, a progressive pro-Israel US advocacy group, Blinken offered congratulations to the veteran Israeli leader, who has clashed with previous Democratic administrations in Washington.

"We will gauge the government by the policies it pursues rather than individual personalities," Blinken said.

But he said President Joe Biden's administration would work "relentlessly" to preserve a "horizon of hope," however dim, for the creation of a Palestinian state.

"We will also continue to unequivocally oppose any acts that undermine the prospects of a two-state solution including but not limited to settlement expansion, moves toward annexation of the West Bank, disruption to the historic status quo of holy sites, demolitions and evictions, and incitement to violence," Blinken said.

Blinken said that the Biden administration will insist on "core democratic principles including respect to the rights of LGBTQ people and the equal administration of justice for all citizens of Israel."

The far-right groups in Netanyahu's coalition will include Noam, whose leader Avi Maoz is staunchly opposed to LGBTQ rights.

Netanyahu quickly said that Jerusalem's Pride march will continue, contradicting Maoz who has vowed to cancel it.

Religious Zionism's leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is expected to have a key role, is a staunch advocate of Jewish settlements and used to hang in his living room a portrait of Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian worshippers at a Hebron mosque in 1994.

The November 1 election was Israel's fifth in less than four years and came after the collapse of a motley coalition that tried to keep out the scandal-plagued Netanyahu.

© Agence France-Presse

Florida Gov. DeSantis: West Bank ‘Not Occupied Territory’
by Andrew Bernard


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a crowd at the US Embassy in Israel on May 28, 2019. 

Photo: Governor’s Press Office.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Saturday told the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) leadership conference that the West Bank was “disputed,” not “occupied,” territory.

“I don’t care what the State Department says, they are not occupied territory, it is disputed territory,” DeSantis said of the West Bank, which he referred to as Judea and Samaria. “Because we understand history, we know those are thousands of years of connection to the Jewish people.”

The status of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza has been a point of contention in US foreign policy in recent years. For decades, the State Department referred to them collectively as “occupied” territories until the Trump administration removed that designation from annual human rights reports and other statements. The Biden administration resumed referring to the West Bank as occupied, citing longstanding bipartisan precedent. Israel disputes the characterization.

DeSantis’ keynote address to the RJC’s annual leadership conference in Las Vegas follows his nearly 20-point reelection in the Florida governor’s race and speculation that he will run for the Presidency in 2024. DeSantis touted policy successes that benefited Israel and the Jewish community in Florida including improved Holocaust education standards, legislation to combat antisemitism on college campuses, and recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Other speakers at the conference included former US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, incoming Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and former President Donald Trump, who announced his 2024 candidacy last week. Speaking remotely on Saturday, Trump said if the 2020 election result had not been a “sham” and he had remained president, then Saudi Arabia and the Palestinians would have joined the Abraham Accords that normalized relations between Israel, the UAE, and Bahrain, and were later joined by Morocco. “We could have truly had peace in the Middle East,” Trump said.