New Orleans 'super fog' leaves at least two dead and dozens injured in multiple pile-ups

Sky News
Mon, 23 October 2023 


At least two people are dead and 30 injured after so-called "super fog" caused more than two dozen traffic pile-ups on a US highway.

Around 25 collisions happened on the I-55 west of New Orleans in southeastern Louisiana, St John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Mike Tregre, told CNN.

A mixture of dense fog and smoke from marsh fires combined to create the "super fog", which descended on Monday morning's rush hour, drastically lowering visibility for drivers.

Two people died, Sheriff Tregre confirmed on Monday afternoon, while fires broke out in both the northbound and southbound carriageways between Ruddock and Manchac and traffic backed up for miles in both directions.

In the northbound lanes, about three 18-wheel trucks collided and were fully engulfed in flames, Mr Tregre told TV station, WVUE.

In the southbound lanes, there were two reported multi-car pile-ups, one of which also caused a fire.

Videos taken by people on the highway showed how it had become a narrow junkyard of mangled cars and trucks, some of them burning.

One driver survived after his vehicle left an elevated section of the road, landing upside down in several feet of water below, WVUE said.

Mr Tregre said all first responders arrived on foot because the crashes left the area "completely gridlocked".

Rescue efforts, he said, "will take a while".

Parts of Interstates 55 and 10 west of New Orleans remained closed late Monday morning and the 24-mile-long causeway over Lake Pontchartrain near New Orleans was closed at times.

The National Weather Service said on social media there were several wetland fires in the region and smoke from the fires mixed with fog to create a "super fog".

Visibility was expected to improve as the fog lifted, but it was unclear how long the marsh fires, smoke from which could be seen and smelled in the New Orleans area over the weekend, would continue to affect traffic.

Several local schools cancelled classes, the Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate said.

The Blood Centre of New Orleans asked for blood donors in the wake of the accidents.

'Super fog' causes deadly 158-car pileup in Louisiana


Tony Diver
Mon, 23 October 2023 

A portion of the road caught fire and totaled a tanker truck carrying 'hazardous liquid' - Reuters

Seven people have been killed and dozens more injured after a “super fog” descended on a Louisiana highway, causing a 158-car pileup.

The fog, which is created when smoke from smouldering undergrowth mixes with cooler air and water vapour, covered Interstate 55 near New Orleans on Monday morning, reducing visibility to near zero.

State police said a major crash of more than 158 vehicles had caused a portion of the road to catch fire and totaled a tanker truck carrying “hazardous liquid”.


Seven deaths have been confirmed but police said more casualties may be discovered as emergency services comb through the wreckage. More than 25 people have been taken to hospital.

The crash took place in St John the Baptist Parish, northwest of New Orleans, on an interstate next to Lake Pontchartrain, the second largest inland saltwater body in the United States.

The road runs through a swap where smouldering material is understood to have produced smoke and water vapour, which mixed with colder air to create the “super fog”.

More than four fifths of Louisiana is currently experiencing extreme drought, which has caused dry marshland to catch fire.

According to the US National Weather Service (NWS), the smoke can be produced from “organic material such as brush, leaves and trees”, and reduces visibility to less than ten feet (three metres) when it becomes fog.

“Under light wind conditions, super fog meanders through low terrain areas such as creek beds or drainage ditches,” the NWS said.

“Super fog can be very dangerous when present over highways, and has been the cause of several large, multi-vehicle pileups.”

The service released a dense fog warning for much of southeast Louisiana, including the area between Baton Rouge and New Orleans where the crash took place.

A police spokesman said that first responders “continue to search for victims of the crash”.

“Preliminary investigation revealed that at least 158 vehicles were involved in this morning’s crash,” the spokesman said.

“That total is from both north and southbound lanes. Seven fatalities have been confirmed.

“Over 25 individuals were transported to area hospitals with varying degrees of injuries from critical to minor. Many victims sought medical assistance on their own.”

“It is possible that additional fatalities could be located.”

John Bel Edwards, the Louisiana governor, said: “The combination of wildfire smoke and dense fog is dangerous, and I want to encourage all Louisianans in affected areas to take extreme caution when travelling.”

Hope, heartbreak after Hong Kong court decision on LGBTQ partnerships


Holmes CHAN
Tue, 24 October 2023 

Wedding photos of Henry Li and Edgar Ng show the couple holding hands, surrounded by friends -- the freeze-frame of joy a contrast to the men's struggle for LGBTQ rights 

(ISAAC LAWRENCE)

Wedding photos of Henry Li and Edgar Ng show the couple holding hands, surrounded by beaming friends -- the freeze-frame of joy a contrast to the two men's struggle in Hong Kong for LGBTQ rights.

Ng had launched legal bids in 2019 demanding equal treatment for same-sex couples on public housing and inheritance -- a fight continued by his husband after Ng's suicide a year later.

The LGBTQ community has seen incremental legal victories in finance hub Hong Kong since the mid-2000s, winning in the Chinese city's courts on targeted issues ranging from visas to taxes.

But same-sex marriage remains out of reach -- a painful jolt of reality for Li when the Hong Kong morgue refused to let him identify Ng's body.

"They were telling me that my husband was not my husband and that I was nobody," Li, 37, told AFP. "I couldn't react. I froze."

In a decision in September, Hong Kong's top court ordered the government to create an "alternative framework" within two years that recognises same-sex couples' legal rights.

However, the judges also unanimously declared marriage "confined to opposite-sex couples".

The decision was met with guarded optimism and an undercurrent of grief in the former British colony, according to eight people who spoke to AFP.

Li said he was "a bit disappointed", but hopes Hong Kong comes up with a framework that covers "growing up, growing old, illness and death".

Showing photos in his home, Li said after their 2017 London wedding, Ng had insisted they hold a Hong Kong ceremony -- even convincing a church to let them walk down the aisle.

"He was a brave person... He rightly said our marriage was open and aboveboard," Li told AFP. "More members of Hong Kong's LGBTQ community are waiting for their rights and identity to be respected."

- 'Needs of the minority' -

Semi-autonomous Hong Kong has seen increasing support for same-sex marriage, a stark contrast to mainland China where stigma is widespread and the LGBTQ community has alleged a growing crackdown.

In the case decided in September, prominent activist Jimmy Sham had argued the city's ban on same-sex marriage violated his right to equality.

"So many people, including Jimmy Sham, have been pushing forward (LGBTQ rights) to where we are today," said Annie Chau, co-founder of "Butterfly", a social network for the lesbian community in Hong Kong.

Hong Kongers are now more open about their sexual orientation "in their workplaces and families", she told AFP, adding that Butterfly's forum topics used to revolve around unpleasant experiences, but recent users talk about marriage, starting families and retirement.

"I think (September's court decision) is a big improvement," Chau said.

But the community is not immune to the changing political climate -- rights advocacy has partly gone underground since Beijing imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020, following huge and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests.

"It's tougher for the public to see the needs of the minority," she said, noting the relative lack of media coverage of Sham's case.

Also a pro-democracy activist, Sham has been behind bars since 2021 pending trial for alleged national security crimes. He declined to comment.

Angus Leung, who in 2015 challenged the city's restrictive policies on spousal medical and tax benefits, said he felt Sham's lawsuit "came too soon".

"Of course after he filed it, we hoped he would win. But in the end you could see same-sex marriage was dismissed."

Leung's case had a happier ending -- the highest court in 2019 ruled that denying spousal benefits to same-sex couples breached Hong Kong's anti-discrimination laws.

But the court process was stressful for the couple, who now live abroad.

"We knew that if the outcome was negative, I would become a tool for the government to dismiss future cases," Leung told AFP.

- Double lives -

Hong Kong officials have declined to comment on next steps after September's ruling, while the Department of Justice has asked the court for flexibility on the two-year timeline, a legal source told AFP.

Ben, 53 -- who has been with his partner since the 1990s -- said he had little confidence Hong Kong's pro-Beijing legislature would come up with a "reasonable" framework.

"Hong Kong still has a long road ahead," said Ben, using a pseudonym.

For some, progress has come too late.

"There's no point in coming out now, I'll keep on pretending. After all, I'll die soon," said Pat, a 76-year-old retiree who has hidden his two-decade-long relationship from his family.

Thirty years ago, he might have longed for marriage, he said.

"But now I've walked such a long road, I've adjusted to my life."

hol/dhc/sco

Do ‘emergent’ abilities hint AI is about to become smarter than humans?

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Mon, 23 October 2023 

Are emergent AI abilities a sign AI will soon be smarter than us? (Getty) (imaginima via Getty Images)

One of the aspects of artificial intelligence which has excited experts is so-called ‘emergent abilities’, where large AI models suddenly gain skills they are not supposed to have.

These skills can range from doing multiplication to doing common-sense reasoning to being able to guess a movie title from a series of emojis.

None of these are things the AI has been designed to do, and some experts have suggested this could lead to the emergence of greater levels of ability in AI systems - or even the arrival of an AGI (an Artificial General Intelligence, capable of human-like reasoning).

Microsoft researchers suggested that OpenAI’s’ GPT-4 showed ‘sparks of artificial general intelligence’ and claimed that the AI could ‘solve novel and difficult tasks…without needing any special prompting’.

Emergent abilities appear only in large models (such as GPT-4, the model behind the paid version of ChatGPT) and have fascinated researchers.

But do these abilities mean that an artificial general intelligence is around the corner, with all that might mean for the human race?

What are emergent abilities?

Yahoo News spoke to AI expert Caroline Carruthers, Chief Executive at Carruthers and Jackson and a former Chief Data Officer for Network Rail.

Carruthers said: "An emergent capability is something we didn't expect from one of the AI models.

"We might have trained it for a particular model to solve a particular problem. And it can suddenly and unexpectedly solve a different problem that we didn't expect it to be able to."
Why are people interested?

People are fascinated by emergent abilities because we still know relatively little about how models like ChatGPT arrive at the answers they do, Carruthers says.

"Our understanding is still pretty imperfect," Carruthers says.

She said, "Depending on how complex your question is, it can be a little bit like a ‘black box’ where we don’t understand how it got to the answer.

"The more complex the question, the harder it is to figure out. That’s why I don’t recommend using Generative AI for anything you have to explain."
Is this a sign of human-like intelligence?

But the emergent abilities of AI are not a sign that the software has started to think or evolve under its own steam, Carruthers says.

"Personally, I think it’s a little like human instinct," Carruthers says. "In the same way as my instincts can take over when I have done something similar before, it’s just a pattern that is recognised.

Does OpenAI's GPT-4 show 'sparks' of human-like intelligence? (Getty Images) (SOPA Images via Getty Images)

"I think emergent AI is similar: somewhere in there, we have given it a capability: there’s something familiar enough for it to develop that skill. At the moment, we still don’t understand how it’s doing everything."

Research by Stanford experts earlier this year suggested that ‘emergent’ abilities were a ‘mirage’ and that their appearance depended on how performance was measured.

But Carruthers says that the more we understand about how emergent models arrive at their conclusions, the more we will be able to get out of them.

"At the moment, we are being limited by our own imagination,’ she says. ‘It is pushing our understanding as much as we are pushing it. It is an incredible time for our development, as well as the development of AI."

UK
Labour's Lisa Nandy responds to backlash over Keir Starmer's comments on Israel's siege of Gaza

Ellen Manning
Updated Sun, 22 October 2023 

Lisa Nandy said she understands why the Labour party has faced a backlash from Muslim members over Sir Keir Starmer’s comments on Israel. (Getty) (Ian Forsyth via Getty Images)

Labour shadow minister Lisa Nandy has spoken out in the wake of the backlash from Muslim members over Sir Keir Starmer’s comments on Israel.

Labour councillors have quit and the party has faced criticism after Starmer appeared to suggest in an LBC interview that "Israel does have that right" to cut off power and water to Gaza.

Amid the backlash, he later clarified that he was referring to Israel’s right to defend itself.


On Sunday, shadow international development minister Lisa Nandy was asked if she understood why some Muslim Labour members felt alienated by Starmer's comments, telling the BBC: "I completely understand why people in the Muslim community are in extraordinary amounts of pain right now and heard those words and felt very concerned, and I’m glad that we’ve clarified that, I’m glad that we’ve been consistent about that."

Asked if the Labour leader would apologise, she said: “We can’t apologise for holding a position that we’ve never held.”

She repeatedly declined to say whether she believed Israel had broken international law by laying siege to Gaza.

What did Keir Starmer say?

Keir Starmer grilled on the UK's support for Israel by LBC's Nick Ferrari at the party's conference in Liverpool.

During the interview, the Labour leader was asked if "cutting off power, cutting off water" was appropriate as a response to attacks by Hamas.

Sir Keir replied: "I think that Israel does have that right... It is an ongoing situation. Obviously, everything should be done within international law."

Several Labour councillors quit over his remarks - including Amna Abdullatif, the first Arab Muslim woman elected to Manchester City Council, Russell Whiting in Colwick, Nottinghamshire, and Mona Ahmed, a Labour councillor in Kensington and Chelsea.



Oxford City councillors Imogen Thomas, Edward Mundy, Paula Dunne, Duncan Hall, Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini and Jabu Nala-Hartley quit the party on Friday

The councillors said in a statement: "At a time when it’s been crucial to call for an immediate ceasefire and a de-escalation, and to insist Israel abides by international law, Keir Starmer and the shadow foreign secretary (David Lammy) have instead endorsed collective punishment, blockade, siege and mass civilian casualties.

"As Starmer has said ‘Israel has that right’ to continue deadly attacks on Gazans. This is complicity in war crimes."

The Labour leader has insisted that he did not mean to imply that Israel would be justified to cut off power and water to Gaza.
Antisemitism in the Labour Party

The Labour Party has faced ongoing criticism about antisemitism in the party, but Starmer has been found to have taken steps to rid the party of it.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a formal investigation in 2019 into the party - which was then led by Jeremy Corbyn - to determine whether it had discriminated against, harassed or victimized people because they are Jewish.

In October 2020, it served the Labour Party with an unlawful act notice, after its investigation found the party responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination, which meant it was obliged to produce an action plan to prevent similar acts happening again.

In February this year, the equalities watchdog found that the party had made sufficient changes to rid its ranks of anti-Semitism.

At the time, Starmer said: "Today is an important moment in the history of the Labour Party. It has taken many, many months of hard work and humility to get here."

"We can say firmly, proudly, confidently: The Labour Party has changed ... Under my leadership there will be zero tolerance of anti-Semitism, of racism, of discrimination of any kind."

The Labour leader also said his predecessor - who was suspended from Labour in 2020 - would not stand for re-election as a Labour Party candidate, telling reporters: "Jeremy Corbyn will not stand for Labour ... What I said about the party changing, I meant we are not going back."

Greta Thunberg removed from Israeli curriculum over Gaza support


Jorg Luyken
Mon, 23 October 2023

Greta Thunberg, right, calls for 'justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians'

Israel has announced that it will remove all references to Greta Thunberg from its school curriculum, after the Swedish climate activist expressed support for Gaza.

The Israeli education ministry said Ms Thunberg had disqualified herself from “being an educational role model” after she was photographed last week holding up a sign that read “stand with Gaza”.

“Hamas is a terrorist organisation responsible for the murder of 1,400 innocent Israelis, including children, women, and the elderly, and it has abducted over 200 people to Gaza,” said the ministry.

“This stance disqualifies her from being an educational and moral role model, and she is no longer eligible to serve as an inspiration and educator for Israeli students.”

On Friday, Ms Thunberg, 20, posted a photo of herself and three other activists on Twitter, with all but one holding pro-Palestine signs.

Her remarks sparked a swift backlash from Israeli climate activists, who accused Ms Thunberg of damaging their movement.

In an open letter to Ms Thunberg published over the weekend, more than 100 Israeli activists said they were “deeply hurt, shocked and disappointed” at her “appallingly one-sided, ill-informed, superficial” understanding of the conflict.

Spearheaded by Rony Bruell, founder of the Israeli Forum of Women in the Environment, the letter bemoaned the fact that her stance on Israel comes in “complete contrast to your ability to deep dive into details and get to the bottom of complex issues”.

In an apparent response to the outcry, on Saturday Ms Thunberg moved to denounce Hamas’s attack.

“It goes without saying – or so I thought – that I’m against the horrific attacks by Hamas,” she said.

The controversy came after the Friday’s for Future movement, kick-started by Ms Thunberg’s school strikes in 2018, was criticised at the start of this year when its official Twitter account called for an end to Israel’s “apartheid,” saying “Yalla intifada!”

“We as Fridays for Future, as an anti-colonial, internationalist climate justice movement, stand united on the side of Palestinians and the Palestinian Resistance against these inhumane crimes,” said the movement.

Scottish Water workers could go on strike after talks fail


Sarah Ward, PA Scotland
Mon, 23 October 2023

Workers at Scottish Water could go on strike after pay talks failed.

The publicly-owned utilities company has had the same pay structure for 21 years and has been designing a new one, but unions GMB, Unite and Unison have voted to strike after lodging objections.

After two days of talks with Acas failed, Scottish Water is now looking at minimising disruption if strikes go ahead.


Unison regional organiser Emma Phillips said bosses were “behaving like Victorian Mill owners”, after the results of a ballot.

Conciliation talks with unions ended without agreement over enhanced proposals on an annual pay award and a modernised pay and grading structure, to deliver an in-year wage rise of at least 8% for employees.

The proposals included a transformed grading structure which would offer clearer routes to future pay progression for the 4,000 employees.

The unions accused the utility firm of acting like a “rogue employer” after combining an annual pay offer with a restructuring of salaries and grades, which, they say, will limit the wages of many lower-paid workers in the years ahead.

A contingency planning management team at Scottish Water is looking at service requirements for any periods of industrial action.

Scottish Water’s chief operating officer, Peter Farrer, said: “We are bitterly disappointed at this outcome.

“We put what would by any measure, especially in a public sector context, be an exceptional proposal on the table, which had been improved during the course of negotiations.

“We have always wanted to do the right thing for our employees.

“We are also surprised this proposal isn’t being taken to union members which was something we requested happen.

“We now need to plan for a period of industrial action to ensure we can maintain services for our customers and do the right thing for them too.

“Planning for that scenario now is the responsible course of action.

“We are closely examining every aspect of our service which could be impacted.

“We will do so whilst remaining 100% committed to seeking agreement and a way forward which avoids industrial action.

“It is something we would always want to avoid.

“The door remains open to discussion and agreement despite the Acas process coming to an end.

“We do not want customers to experience any disruption to their supplies or services and will do all we can to minimise that risk.

“Maintaining public health and protecting the environment are key factors for us.

“We are working to do all that we can so we can make sure clean water supplies and effective waste water treatment services run to the high standard people in Scotland expect should we see any days of industrial action activity.”

Jagmeet Singh calls for more food, housing support from federal gov't during Iqaluit visit

CBC
Sat, October 21, 2023


Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says the Liberal government isn't doing enough to address cost of living challenges in Nunavut.

He made the comments on Friday in Iqaluit after meeting with Nunavut Premier P.J. Akeeagok and other MLAs.

He will also be attending current NDP MP Lori Idlout's expected re-nomination ceremony Saturday evening.

The NDP are calling for immediate transfer of $500 million to support the Nunavut 3000 strategy, which aims to build 3,000 housing units by 2030.

They are also looking for the Liberal government to provide more funding for community housing providers.

In the latest budget, the government committed $4 billion over seven years to implement an urban, rural and northern Indigenous housing strategy. Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal has said that a "carve out" of that funding would be dedicated to the territories.

Kyle Allen, spokesperson for Northern Affairs Minister Dan Vandal, said the federal government has made "record investments" toward closing the housing and infrastructure gap in the territory.

Nutrition North reform

Along with housing, Singh was focused on addressing the high cost of food in the North.

He wants to see an excess profit tax on big grocery stores and reforms made to the Nutrition North program.

"We shouldn't put the savings in the pockets of the already highly profitable grocery stores," he said. "The savings should go to the families, the people who need it."

Nunavut's food insecurity rate is 57 per cent, compared to 12.7 per cent nationally, according to Food Banks Canada.

"We've bolstered the Nutrition North program and increased the number of Northern and remote communities eligible for the rebate that helps bring the price of groceries and other basic necessities down," said Allen.

He added the federal government also helped develop the Harvesters Support Grant to incentivize residents to practice traditional harvesting

Why is the English language packed with nautical slang?


CBC
Updated Sun, October 22, 2023 

Britain’s Royal Navy boasted almost 800 ships at the peak of the Napoleonic Wars and employed hundreds of thousands of sailors. Painting by Nicolas Cammillier, 1809. (Pegli Maritime Museum)

Britain’s Royal Navy boasted almost 800 ships at the peak of the Napoleonic Wars and employed hundreds of thousands of sailors. Painting by Nicolas Cammillier, 1809. (Pegli Maritime Museum)

By and large, I'm pretty even keeled, but I sometimes go a bit overboard when in hot pursuit of a linguistic loose end — in this case, how so much nautical jargon has managed to work its way into our everyday speech.

The English language is chock-a-block with words and idioms deriving from life at sea. Don't believe me? I've italicized every phrase in this article that originated among sailors.

Take my first sentence above. A versatile captain can navigate either by the wind or large of the wind. A vessel on an even keel (the centreline of its hull) sails steadily, without listing to either side. A rope whose end is left loose instead of being securely tied can foul up a ship's rigging or sails.

Newfoundlanders and Labradorians may be more likely than most to fathom the maritime origins of expressions like these thanks to our long local history of seafaring. Many of us still have at least a passing familiarity with the jibs, bows and sterns that feature in sayings like the cut of your jib, a shot across the bow and from stem to stern.

Seafaring idioms aren't restricted to seafaring cultures, though. They're in wide use everywhere English is spoken, from the American Midwest to the Australian Outback. So how did they become such a mainstay of our vocabulary?

In the 18th and 19th centuries, port cities were bustling centres of activity where sailors mingled freely with landsmen. Illustration by Thomas Rowlandson, 1811. (Royal Museums Greenwich)
Britannia rules the waves

English is an island language.

Nowhere in Britain is farther than a two-day horseback ride from the sea, and, while the ocean may once have isolated Britons from their neighbours on the European continent, it eventually became the artery connecting them to the rest of the world.

By the height of the Age of Sail in the early 1800s, the number of sailors in the Royal Navy was equivalent to about two per cent of the British male population.

Many men signed on voluntarily, drawn by the promise of three square meals a day and a share of their ship's prize money. Others were pressed into service, kidnapped off the streets of port cities by press gangs and forced to enlist.

King William IV served in the Royal Navy from the ages of 13 to 25, earning him the nickname the Sailor King. He was noted for his salty language. Portrait by Sir Martin Archer Shee, ca. 1800. (National Portrait Gallery)

Naval service cut across the social hierarchy, bringing men from a wide range of classes into close quarters with one another. Seamen generally hailed from the working classes and officers from the professional and upper classes. Aboard ship, all had to learn a new way of speaking.

"Sailors' talk," wrote merchant seaman and nautical novelist W. Clark Russell in 1883, "is a dialect as distinct from ordinary English as Hindustani is, or Chinese."

At sea even familiar words took on new meanings, making the speech of sailors almost incomprehensible to landsmen.

Here, the devil was the longest seam in the hull, and when you were assigned to caulk it you had the devil to pay. The cat o' nine tails, the infamous instrument of punishment, was wielded only in the open air because below decks there wasn't enough room to swing a cat.

Besides navy men, merchant sailors and fishers, longshoremen and dock workers, coast dwellers, sailors' families, and anyone who travelled by sea would have been exposed to this Jackspeak — the lingo of British Jack Tars.
Sailors in popular culture

The large number of Britons in contact with sailors must have gone some way to popularizing seafaring jargon, but a second factor gave Jackspeak an even bigger boost.

The navy sent gangs of toughs into port cities to capture men and force them to enlist. The perfect mark was someone with previous sailing experience on merchant ships or fishing vessels. Etching by John Barlow after Samuel Collings, 1790. (Royal Museums Greenwich)

The heyday of sailing happened to coincide with a boom in English literature. Over the course of the 18th century, newspaper and magazine publishing flourished, and the novel came into its own as a literary genre.

The romance and perils of life at sea provided rich source material for authors, and tales like Robinson Crusoe (1719), The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748), and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1798) were met with a groundswell of popular interest.

Authors peppered their prose with nautical terms to add realism to their work. For readers, the strangeness of the language seems to have been part of the appeal.

Jackspeak was like a riddle to be solved. It could hide thrilling racy undertones or dangerous criticism of authority. It could also be used to comedic effect, as it was in satirical cartoons of the day.

Cartoon sailors applied Jackspeak to anything and everything. Here, the man on the left is saying: 'Hollo, you Swab, lay to a bit, can’t you? I’ve lost part of my upper rigging, and the vessel’s firing signal guns of distress.' Etching by Piercy Roberts after George Murgatroyd Woodward, ca. 1775-1815. (Royal Museums Greenwich)

Cartoon sailors applied Jackspeak to anything and everything. Here, the man on the left is saying: 'Hollo, you Swab, lay to a bit, can’t you? I’ve lost part of my upper rigging, and the vessel’s firing signal guns of distress.' Etching by Piercy Roberts after George Murgatroyd Woodward, ca. 1775-1815. (Royal Museums Greenwich)

As nautical language became more recognizable ashore, it lent itself to metaphor. Landlubbers couldn't use the terms in their original context and so applied them to new situations.

A lifeline, originally a rope for sailors to hang onto in rough seas, became any type of help received at a critical moment. Leeway, the extent a ship drifted away from the wind, became any degree of freedom in time, space or action. A kink, or twist in a rope, became an eccentricity and, later, an unconventional sexual preference.

Today our language is laden with maritime imagery, a legacy of English's island origins and the appeal of a footloose life at sea.

From cheers at the Brier to songs for the Raptors, this MUN researcher is studying the sounds of sports

CBC
Sat, October 21, 2023 


Bouncing balls, blowing whistles and roaring crowds are all sounds you may hear at a sporting event.

For Jordan Zalis, a PhD candidate in ethnomusicology at Memorial University, it's music to his researching ears.

Along with being a music lover, he's also a huge fan of sports. What we hear while watching sports says a lot about who we are as a society, he says.

"One of the the really interesting ideas has to do with sports ability to reproduce ideas from romantic nationalism," told CBC News.

"You have a team you're a fan of. You wear the same colours. You have your turf, you have away games, but you celebrate."


Brad Gushue won the 2017 Brier in St. John's. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)

For Zalis, it's not just sport — he sees it as theatre.

"What sport teaches us is that it's totally normal and totally acceptable to get along with perfect strangers and wear the same colours and cheer for people we don't know in a simulated battle at Centre Court."

When the crowd is cheering, Zalis said, there can be a visceral sense of oneness in a room uniting complete strangers. It's something he says is almost like a religion, as in the French sociologist Émile Durkheim's theory of collective effervescence.

"People being together in close proximity, believing the same thought, participating in the same actions. And it gets you to this point of almost ecstasy," said Zalis.

His interest in the sound of sports started in high school, when his school in Winnipeg got a new pep band for football and basketball games. From there, he says, he started looking into the history of marching bands and the military, and was fascinated by the group solidarity that music created.


Zalis is currently writing about the Toronto Raptors for his thesis. (Submitted by Jordan Zalis)

He sees stadium anthems like We Are the Champions as having those same effects.

In 2017, he and fellow researcher Diego Pani studied the sounds of the Tim Hortons Brier in St. John's. Zalis remembers the moment when he, along with thousands of people in the crowd, were yelling at the final rock being thrown by curler Brad Gushue.

"Isn't this one of the only times in our lives where this completely irrational behavior [is justified]? I'm screaming at an inanimate object to do something. But I really, really believe it will help," said Zalis. "The Brier was an incredible experience and study object."

These days, he's researching the sounds of one of the biggest sports teams in North America — the Toronto Raptors. The lead question for his latest work is, "What does basketball sound like?"

While the answer can be different for everyone, Zalis says, ultimately the sound of the Raptors is a choreographed theatrical experience.


The scoreboard at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto encourages fans to 'get loud.' (Submitted by Jordan Zalis)

"If you look at everything that goes into this carefully curated spectacle with brilliant media and communications, people and artists and brand managers, graphic designers, sound designers — there really is a coherent branding and a coherent experience." said Zalis.

"The moment you set foot in the arena, it's like Disney World," said Zalis "From the sounds, to the sights, to the smells of everything that you're going to experience the moment you engage in this massive world of pro sports."

And Zalis says it's not just the pro leagues that play into this sensory experience either.

"If you go to a a kids' basketball game, you're going to hear music in the arena now, or in the community centre too."

U.S. FDA advises against consuming oysters imported from P.E.I. due to potential contamination


CBC
Sat, October 21, 2023



The United States Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers not to eat some oysters from Prince Edward Island due to the possible presence of salmonella and E. coli.

An advisory issued on Friday instructs restaurants and retailers not to serve or sell oysters from Future Seafoods, Inc. of Bedeque, P.E.I., harvested from area PE9B and shipped on Oct. 10.

The oysters were exported to Florida, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

"Contaminated oysters can cause illness if eaten raw, particularly in people with compromised immune systems," the advisory reads.

"Food contaminated with Salmonella and E. coli may look, smell, and taste normal. Consumers of these products who are experiencing symptoms of salmonellosis or E. coli should contact their healthcare provider and report their symptoms to their local Health Department."

Future Seafoods, Inc. has not initiated a recall.

The FDA is awaiting further information on distribution of the oysters harvested, according to the advisory, and will continue to monitor the investigation and provide assistance to state authorities as needed.

Atlantic hurricanes rapidly churning into intense storms over warming water, study finds


CBC
Sat, October 21, 2023 


The list of destructive post-tropical storms and hurricanes which have tracked through Atlantic Canada over the past few decades is an increasingly lengthy list.

From Juan in 2003, Igor in 2010, Dorian in 2019 and Fiona in 2022, plus the many other damaging storms that have moved through, this region is certainly in a period of high tropical-storm activity.

In the cases of Igor, Dorian and Fiona, these are storms that "rapidly intensified" from Category 1 hurricanes into major Category 3 or 4 hurricanes as they tracked through the Atlantic Ocean.

This rapid intensification of hurricanes and how it relates to climate change and our warming oceans has been a topic of much discussion over the past few years. Now, new research shows that swift acceleration in the power of storms is indeed on the rise in the Atlantic Ocean.

The study published this week in the journal Scientific Reports shows that tropical storms or Category 1 hurricanes are now more than twice as likely to rapidly intensify to major hurricanes within a 24-hour period.



The study's author, Andra Garner, a climate scientist at Rowan University in New Jersey, looked at 830 tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean dating back to 1971.

Garner found that from 2001 to 2020, there was an eight per cent chance of storms strengthening from a Category 1 to a Category 3 or higher within just 24 hours.

By comparison, from 1971 to 1990 there was only a three per cent chance storms would rapidly strengthen within that time frame.

This rapid intensification is most problematic when the storms are near land. Even a few days from landfall, however, it can make forecasting more difficult for meteorologists and make planning more challenging for emergency management officials.

Garner's study also found that hurricanes are now more likely to strengthen rapidly off the east coast of the U.S., the Caribbean Sea and tropical eastern Atlantic, compared to the historical 1971-1990 timeframe.


A chart of monthly sea surface temperatures (SST) in the North Atlantic. Normal temperatures are indicated by the 0 line. Red lines mark above-average temperatures. (University of Maine)

The study notes that warm sea surface temperatures are "a vital energy source for intensifying tropical cyclones."

This suggests that human-caused warming is already leading to storms that strengthen much faster than earlier, it conclude