Carnivorous plant that consumes baby salamanders found in Ontario park

SCIENTISTS NAME IT AFTER DOUG FORD  FORDCONSUMESONTARIONS

A juvenile spotted salamander is seen inside a pitcher plant in this undated photo (Patrick D. Moldowan)

Christy Somos, CTVNews.ca Writer@C_Somos

Published Tuesday, June 11, 2019 6:15PM EDT 
Last Updated Tuesday, June 11, 2019 7:20PM EDT

Canadian researchers have discovered that carnivorous pitcher plants in Ontario’s Algonquin Provincial Park are feeding on baby salamanders in addition to their regular diet, believed to be a first in North America.

Their paper, published in the Ecology journal, details how testing showed that 20 per cent of pitcher plants surveyed in the park contained at least one salamander.

Carnivorous plants tend to populate nutrient-poor environments, and in southern Ontario that means bogs. The bell-shaped pitcher plant is a common sight in Algonquin, as are the yellow-spotted salamanders.

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A juvenile yellow-spotted salamander is seen in this undated photo (Patrick D. Moldowan)

What surprised the researchers was how long it took for anyone to discover what was happening.

“The Wildlife Research Station near the bog has been there for 70 years,” said research paper co-author Alex Smith a biology professor at the University of Guelph, in an email to CTVNews.ca.

“So the surprise was that we discovered such a new case of plants eating vertebrates involving such a well-known species in such a well-known space.”

Smith, along with PhD candidate and co-lead author Patrick Moldowan of the University of Toronto, say that their discovery means that “plants eating vertebrates may be more common than [we] once thought.”

Most carnivorous plants are thought to eat invertebrates and arthropods, such insects and arachnids, although a species of pitcher plant in a remote part of the Philippines was found to catch rodents as large as rats. 

Smith and Moldowan are testing three hypotheses on how the pitcher plants attract the salamanders: that the juvenile salamanders fall into the bog plant haphazardly, that the salamanders are drawn to the pitcher plants as a place to hide or that the presence of the extra insects (which the plant is feeding on) draws them in.

Smith and Moldowan are also studying how the salamanders die and break down inside the plants. 

“The salamanders may simply drown if they cannot climb out of the pitcher, [or] the pitcher itself may contain some digestive enzymes for a high acidity or temperature or some combination of these that kills and then breaks down the… juvenile salamander,” says Smith.

“There is also a whole community of other organisms living in the pitcher that may break down this larger animal in small chunks that the plant can then begin to absorb.”

Smith says it “seems to lake less than two weeks” for the salamanders to decay.

The study “suggests there is still much more for us to learn from…the common things we share the planet with, let alone species we haven’t named yet,” says Smith.

ANIMAL TALES

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Calgary dairy producer has licence suspended by Canadian Food Inspection Agency

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has suspended the licence of a Calgary milk producer.

The Safe Food for Canadians licence of Mother Dairy, located on 47th Street N.E., was suspended May 21 for failing to identify hazards, having a lack of appropriate equipment and failing to implement a preventive control plan and document a food complaint process, according to a release.

There is no food recall associated with the suspension.

According to its website, some of the products the company produces include paneer (Indian cottage cheese), desi ghee (clarified butter), whipped butter, plain yogurt (Punjabi dahi), and lassi (sweet and salted).

The suspension can be lifted if CFIA believes corrective measures have been taken. If corrective measures are not taken within 90 days, the licence can be cancelled.

UCP AND CALGARY OIL COMPANIES GIVE WORKERS DAY OFF TO PROTEST

Pro-energy rally in Calgary draws thousands of pipeline supporters

Published Tuesday, June 11, 2019 6:41AM MDT 

A pro-pipeline group claims a noon-hour rally on Tuesday in support of the oil and gas industry is one of the largest in Canadian history.

Canada Action, a non-partisan group, says at least 4,000 people attended the event at the Stampede grounds. 

(EP NOTE WHENEVER A GROUP CALLS ITSELF NON POLITICAL OR NON PARTISAN THEY ARE RIGHT WING HIDING THEIR AFFILIATION)

The rally coincided with the 51st annual Global Petroleum Show and was in anticipation of next week’s federal cabinet decision on the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project.

SO IT WAS A PROMO FOR A TRADE SHOW EP

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Organizers say about 4,000 people showed up to send a message to Ottawa.

“The Trans Mountain expansion, while an incredibly important project in its own right, has become a symbol of the oil and gas industry and the challenges facing energy projects all over the country,” said Canada Action founder, Cody Battershill. 

“We are going to send a message that we need to support the energy sector because global oil and gas demand continues to grow and Canada needs to grow globally."

Battershill added Canada lost $40,000 per minute in 2018 due to insufficient pipeline capacity. 

Tuesday’s rally featured speeches from industry leaders, advocates and politicians, including:

• Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe
• Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage
• B.C. MLA Ellis Ross
• Ontario Minister of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Greg Rickford
• Fort St. John Mayor Lori Ackerman

The rally began at noon at the outdoor zone next to the Big Four building and was open to the public. 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney also spoke at the Global Petroleum Show at 10 a.m. before travelling to Montreal for bilateral meetings at the International Economic Forum of the Americas.

At a pro-pipeline rally in Calgary. Organizers say at least 4,000 here to give a message to Ottawa to build pipelines including #Transmountain. pic.twitter.com/5BFbkFnwzN 

— JanetDirks (@janetdirks) June 11, 2019

Thousands hear anti-Ottawa messages at pro-pipeline rally in Calgary 11

Massive show of support for oil and gas

Tyson Fedor reports on Jason Kenney’s investment message at the Petroleum Expo and the massive rally of support outside.

Thousands show up for oil and gas rally

Supporters of the oil and gas industry are protesting outside the Global Petroleum Show in Calgary, Mark Villani reports.

Calgary Board of Education proceeds with cuts despite provincial funding promise
School boards cautious despite funding pledge

The CBE says it will continue with its planned cuts despite the province’s funding commitment. Kevin Green has the latest.

The Calgary public school board is proceeding with staff reductions despite a promise from the provincial finance minister to fund rising enrolment.

Speaking in the legislature, finance minister Travis Toews said "I am pleased to announce today that increased enrolment growth will be fully funded for this upcoming year."

The Calgary Board of Education faces a $40 million budget gap, with $21 million of that driven by increased enrolment.

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The board chair admits to being surprised by the announcement, but Trina Hurdman says the board will take a wait-and-see approach as Toews announcement lacked detail. "Our education funding is a very complex process, there is a lot more than just the basic per student funding," said Hurdman. "We are waiting for further information from the province around what does our overall funding look like."

The president of the Calgary public teachers' association worries the province is playing a bait-and- switch game by announcing the enrolment funding without saying what other money it will actually cut.

"They could go and play the shell game and say we are not going to fund this or that," said Bob Cocking, ATA Local 38 president. "They could find a way to make it look like they are funding it but we are being maybe robbed in other areas."

The school board's chief financial officer says Monday's provincial announcement isn’t enough to stop the staff cuts already underway.

“We have not received anything concrete from Alberta Ed," said CBE CFO Brad Grundy. "It's basically full steam ahead with the plan we had."

The province hasn't indicated if it plans any cuts to other areas of education funding, telling CTV more details will be released in interim financing legislation in July.

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India rubbish mountain to rise higher than Taj Mahal
A noteworthy monument to 20th Century.
Taking up the area of more than 40 football pitches, Ghazipur rises by nearly 10 metres a year with no end in sight to its foul-smelling growth.
According to East Delhi's superintendent engineer Arun Kumar, it is already more than 65 metres (213 feet) high.
At its current rate of growth, it will be taller than the iconic Taj in Agra, some 73 metres high, in 2020.


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The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944

DCFTOMMY1971

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It's the story of a place called Mouseland. Mouseland was a place where all the little mice lived and played, were born and died.

Jon Stewart and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez excoriate Congress for refusing to fund healthcare for 9/11 first responders

"Sick and dying, they brought themselves down here to speak to no one. Shameful. It's an embarrassment to the country, and it is a stain on this institution," Stewart said to a half-empty congressional committee.

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Andrew Coyne: The economy is strong, but there are dark clouds opposition leaders should focus on

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/andrew-coyne-the-economy-is-strong-but-there-are-dark-clouds-that-opposition-leaders-should-focus-on?fbclid=IwAR0IGM6bG4dIB-kMl9HJt8ikgQa9LEfg-_5RuM_B6cwAbo0tbh32alH3xk8

Andrew Coyne: The economy is strong, but there are dark clouds opposition leaders should focus on. The government would rather talk about the last four years. The opposition would be doing the country a service by talking about the next 40. Good news for the economy, it is well known, is bad news for opposition parties. If you are a Conservative or New Democrat (or Green, or…), then, the news could not possibly be worse.

A 5.4 per cent unemployment rate, the lowest since at least 1976 (and probably since the 1960s)? Poverty, on Statistics Canada’s Low Income Cut Off measure, at 7.8 per cent, also the lowest since 1976, and maybe ever? Median family incomes, after tax, at an all-time high, up by one-third after inflation since 1997? Woe is us!

Of course, much of this reflects long-term economic trends — 10 years without a recession will do that. But some of the numbers have turned particularly positive on the present government’s watch. The number of those employed up by more than a million since 2015? The number of children in poverty down by nearly a third in just their first two years in office? Great news — unless you’re an opposition MP.

How much of the economic news can fairly be attributed to the government of the day is open to question. The drop in child poverty is almost certainly related to the enriched Canada Child Benefit the Liberals brought in early in their tenure. As for the rest, well, the best you can say is they didn’t actually prevent it.

But as opposition critics are quick to blame every bit of bad economic news on the government, so by the rules of the political game the government gets to claim credit when times are good. Mind you, all of this good economic news has not stopped the Liberals from falling 20 points in the polls over the last two and a half years.

But give it time. By October memories of the SCN-Lavalin affair, which killed off a nascent Liberal recovery, will presumably have faded. At some point you have to think the economy will start to weigh in their favour. Only twice in our history have one-term majority governments been defeated, in 1878 and 1935. In both years, significantly, the economy was in depression.

What’s an opposition leader to do in the face of such rotten (from his perspective) luck? In his recent “vision” speech on the economy, Andrew Scheer attempted to argue the economy was not in as good shape as the facts would suggest, appealing instead to how Canadians “feel” about it. “The economic indicators might say one thing,” he told his Toronto audience, “but the human indicators,” by which he appeared to mean polls, “say something entirely different.”

“Two-thirds of Canadians,” he said, “feel (they) can’t pay their bills,” as if it were a mere footnote that, objectively, most of them can. “Everything keeps getting more expensive,” he complained, “but earnings aren’t keeping up.” Well, not quite: median hourly wages are up by about nine per cent since October 2015; consumer prices are up seven per cent. That’s not great, but it’s not necessarily the stuff of election defeats, either.

Still, there are some genuinely cloudy linings to go with all the silver, if opposition politicians are willing to look. The latest employment numbers out of the United States are far less positive, raising the chances of a recession that would surely spill over into Canada. The NAFTA deal is no sure thing, even now, with Donald Trump’s sudden threat to impose tariffs on Mexican imports.

Here at home, uncertainty over pipelines and other energy projects and the loss of Canada’s corporate tax rate advantage have made for a weak investment climate. Growth all but stalled in the fourth quarter of 2018, and is now projected at just 1.3 per cent after inflation for 2019. That’s not the bad news, however. The bad news is that the economy is not expected to grow much faster for years, indeed decades after that.

And that’s the point. Our current prosperity, while real, is blinding us to the quite severe economic challenge facing us in the longer term. The name of that challenge: population aging. The story is familiar enough. With the baby boomers reaching retirement age, more workers are leaving the work force than entering it.

Already we are at 17 per cent of the population over the age of 65. By 2035 that will have hit 25 per cent. Where not long ago there were five workers for every retiree, by then the ratio will have fallen nearer to 2:1. The fiscal implications are grim, especially for the provinces — most of the projected increase in costs will be for health care — and especially for those provinces, such as Newfoundland and New Brunswick, with disproportionately elderly populations.

As it is, the Parliamentary Budget Office projects some of the provinces will be facing debt-to-GDP ratios in excess of 100 per cent by 2042, 200 per cent by 2067. What happens when their young people, looking ahead to the massive tax hikes these imply, decamp, accelerating the debt spiral?

There’s only one way to avoid this fate: to put productivity on a permanently higher growth track, with a view to ensuring the next generation or two are so much wealthier than we are that they can afford to pay the crippling costs of our health care. That means getting started now, in order to harness the arithmetic of compounding to the cause.