It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, November 08, 2021
Original Apple built by Jobs and Wozniak auctioned
There were only 200 Apple-1 computers made, a handful of which have come to the market over the last decade, including this one, which sold at auction in New York in 2014
TIMOTHY A. CLARY AFP/File
Issued on: 09/11/2021 -
Los Angeles (AFP) – An original Apple computer, handbuilt by company founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak 45 years ago, goes under the hammer in the United States on Tuesday.
The functioning Apple-1, the great, great grandfather of today's sleek chrome-and-glass Macbooks, is expected to fetch up to $600,000 at an auction in California.
The so-called "Chaffey College" Apple-1, is one of only 200 made by Jobs and Wozniak at the very start of the company's oddessy from garage start-up to megalith worth $2 trillion.
What makes it even rarer is the fact it is encased in koa wood -- a richly pattinated wood native to Hawaii. Only a handful of the original 200 were made in this way.
Apple-1s were mostly sold as component parts by Jobs and Wozniak. One computer shop that took delivery of around 50 units decided to encase some of them in wood, the auction house said.
"This is kind of the holy grail for vintage electronics and computer tech collectors," Apple-1 expert Corey Cohen told the Los Angeles Times. "That really makes it exciting for a lot of people."
Auctioneers John Moran say the device, which comes with a 1986 Panasonic video monitor, has only ever had two owners.
"It was originally purchased by an electronics professor at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California, who then sold it to his student in 1977," a listing on the auction house's website says.
The Los Angeles Times reported the student -- who has not been named -- paid just $650 for it at the time.
That student now stands to make a pretty penny: A working Apple-1 that came to the market in 2014 was sold by Bonhams for more than $900,000.
"A lot of people just want to know what kind of a person collects Apple-1 computers and it’s not just people in the tech industry," Cohen said.
Eighty-five percent of the Cuban economy is in the hands of the one-party state
YAMIL LAGE AFP/File
Havana (AFP) – Private business owners in Cuba urged US President Joe Biden to lift economic sanctions against the communist island in an open letter published on Monday.
While 85 percent of the Cuban economy is in the hands of the one-party state, there are more than 600,000 private sector workers, mainly in the tourism and services industries recently authorized to register small and medium enterprises.
But the coronavirus pandemic and sanctions tightened under former US president Donald Trump has hit Cuba with its worst economic crisis since 1993, with 250,000 small businesses folding in recent months.
"We call upon you to reflect on the impact of your administration's current policies towards Cuba, which are significantly harming our businesses and families," said the letter with 247 signatures.
"Through our businesses, we are working to build a strong economic future for our families so that enterprising Cubans do not feel the need to emigrate in order to have rewarding work and economic prosperity."
Cuba has been under US sanctions since 1962, but the private sector saw a brief boom during a period of political rapprochement under the US administration of Barack Obama.
Biden had promised during his election campaign to reverse certain sanctions toughened under Trump, but Cuba was expected to implement human rights reforms in return.
After a government clampdown on recent protests, the United States has announced further sanctions on individuals over alleged rights abuses.
Cuban authorities have been accused by rights watchdogs of regular human rights abuses, including arbitrary detention of dissidents, unfair trials and infringements of freedom of speech and assembly.
France, US commemorate centenary of historic Marie Curie visit Lucie AUBOURG Mon, 8 November 2021, Marc Joliot, great-grandson of Marie Curie, at a Washington DC event in honor of the French scientist (AFP/Brendan Smialowski) In 1921, the celebrated French scientist Marie Curie made a six-week trip to the United States, where she visited the White House and received from the hands of the president himself a very unusual gift: a gram of radium.
At the time, the radioactive element was extremely hard to extract from minerals and could cost more than ten times as much as a diamond of the same weight. Yet its study was key in the development of treatments for cancer.
Thanks to fundraising organized by US journalist Marie Meloney, who had interviewed Curie, the radium was offered for free and the researcher was invited across the Atlantic to receive it.
That anniversary was marked in an event Monday at the French embassy in Washington, DC, which was attended by relatives of both Curie and Meloney.
"I am very glad that this story can be passed on to future generations," said Marc Joliot, Curie's great-grandson and a researcher himself.
In May 1921, Curie, who had already been awarded the Nobel prize in both chemistry and physics, set off for the United States on the Olympic, the sister ship of the Titanic, in the company of her two daughters, Irene and Eve.
During her journey, she visited major universities, gave lectures and visited a radium factory in Pittsburgh. THE WORKERS WERE WOMEN WHO PAINTED RADIUM ONTO WATCH FACES
She met President Warren Harding, who handed her the key to the safe that contained the gram of radium. It had cost $100,000, a sum collected almost entirely through donations from American women.
"Today's radiotherapy devices are the direct result of the work of Marie Curie, who discovered radioactivity," said Thierry Philip, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institut Curie, which is also celebrating its 100th anniversary.
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How the French ‘great replacement’ theory conquered the far right
Mon, 8 November 2021
Contentious Fox News host Tucker Carlson often refers to it live on air. It propelled a white nationalist to commit the 2019 terrorist attacks on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, killing 51 people. Now, it’s resurfacing in its country of origin, where far-right pundit Eric Zemmour is propagating the theory on TV and social media. But what is the great replacement conspiracy theory and how did it originate?
“Account suspended.” Two bold words that decorate Renaud Camus’ Twitter profile, blocking his access to the platform he uses to engage in political debates and advance his beliefs. Though arguably not as internationally known as Albert Camus, the theories that author Renaud Camus has written about have travelled far.
It was in his 2011 book “Le Grand Remplacement” that he first coined the term “the great replacement”, which became a rallying cry for the far right worldwide.
Though he refuses to admit his words incite hatred or violence, this is precisely why Twitter suspended his account at the end of October. Less than a week later, on November 4, Camus was tried for a second time in the southwest of France for inciting racial hatred after posting offensive comments on Twitter in 2019.
He has appealed a January 2020 verdict against him, and the court's decision will be announced on January 20, 2022. For now, his two-month prison sentence has been suspended.
‘Camus didn’t invent anything’
Rooted in racist nationalist views, the great replacement theory purports that an elitist group is colluding against white French and European people to eventually replace them with non-Europeans from Africa and the Middle East, the majority of whom are Muslim. Renaud Camus often refers to this as “genocide by substitution”.
Notions of the theory date as far back as 1900, when the father of French nationalism Maurice Barrès spoke about a new population that would take over, triumph and “ruin our homeland”.
In an article for daily newspaper Le Journal, he wrote: “The name of France might well survive; the special character of our country would, however, be destroyed, and the people settled in our name and on our territory would be heading towards destinies contradictory to the destinies and needs of our land and our dead."
At the time Barrès was writing, “anti-Semitism was extremely mainstream”, says Dr. Aurelien Mondon, a senior lecturer of politics at Bath University in an interview with FRANCE 24. “Barrès spoke about the idea of racial purity,” he says, which is why the theory of population replacement became so popular among the Nazis, for example.
But after World War II, the French far right needed a new discourse to move back into the mainstream. Shifting away from biological racism towards cultural racism, the replacement theory gained ground in the 1970s and 1980s.
“The Nouvelle Droite (New Right) and some French intellectuals were trying to find ways to move away from the margins,” Mondon says. Over the years, these ideas spread among the far right, which was becoming more and more mainstream in France, eventually paving the way for Camus to publish his book on the topic without being disregarded as too radical.
“Camus didn’t invent anything,” Mondon explains. “He put concepts together and coined the phrase, but his theory is part of a much broader context that contributed to the reshaping of the far right [in France].”
Dodging the racism bullet
The replacement theory has made its way all around the world, becoming very popular among identitarian movements in Europe and the alt-right in the US. For Mondon, this was made possible by the way the far right adapted their stance on racism. Rather than speaking of racial or ethnic hierarchies, the discourse focussed more on cultures and cultural power.
In a recent interview on French right-wing TV channel CNews, Camus claimed his theory wasn’t about race but about defending civilisation. “Racism is still a taboo in our societies,” Mondon explains, “Nobody wants to admit that they’re racist and nobody wants to be called a racist.”
“The people who watch that interview and who may fall for this moral panic, this idea that they’re going to be replaced ethnographically,” he says, “don’t want to be called racist and will say they’re defending civilisation.”
In the end, this works in their favour, because “it makes people feel good about themselves while allowing them to be prejudiced and racist, all while protecting their own privilege,” according to Mondon. The end game
Camus has also sided with Eric Zemmour, a far-right pundit who is expected to announce his candidacy for the upcoming French presidential elections. In fact, Zemmour has long been inspired by Camus and has propagated the replacement theory in his own books, “Le Suicide Français” (The French Suicide) and “Destin Français”(French Destiny). “67% of French people think the great replacement isn’t a fantasy, whether you like it or not. #Facealinfo #JeSoutiensZemmour” But while Zemmour has made openly homophobic claims, Renaud Camus had a brief history as a gay icon in the 1970s and 1980s. He wrote for the French LGBT+ weekly magazine Gai Pied as a columnist and published an autobiographical novel in 1979 called “Tricks”, which gave detailed accounts of one-night stands with men in nightclub bathrooms and grimy apartments across the US and Europe. This unholy alliance is also key to understanding how theories like the great replacement spread so easily. “People in the far right are happy with contradictions,” Mondon says. “People who are deeply anti-Semitic can ally with people who are Jewish because they share the same Islamophobia and that trumps it all.”
For the far right, being contrarian is a strength, not a weakness. “It shows that they are willing to go beyond these contradictions to win on the racialist agenda,” Mondon explains. “This is the end game for them.”
So despite the fact that the great replacement theory is conspiratorial, seeing as only 9.6 percent of the French population was made up of immigrants in 2018, it is a tool to get into a position of power. And for someone like Zemmour, that is the end game.
'Menstrual poverty': Brazil tampon row gets political
The founder of the NGO One By One Teresa Stengel (L) embraces Vanessa Moraes as she distributes sanitary pads, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (AFP/Mauro PIMENTEL)More
Aline AZEVEDO Mon, November 8, 2021, 7:01 PM·3 min read
Vanessa Moraes lives in a Rio de Janeiro slum, works multiple jobs to support her two sons and barely scrapes by on welfare.
So buying tampons and pads each month is hardly a top priority.
Like millions of women across Brazil, Moraes improvises with whatever she can when she gets her period -- a long-taboo topic that took a political turn last month when President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed legislation to provide free menstrual supplies for the poor.
"Pads are expensive, so we use a piece of cloth, a pillowcase, a diaper, whatever we can," says Moraes, whose sons are aged 11 and 12.
Her eldest, Hugo, has cerebral palsy, and has to wear diapers.
"Whenever one of my son's diapers breaks, I think, 'Oh, I'll use that for a pad,'" Moraes tells AFP.
The tall 39-year-old demonstrates her technique, tearing the elastic strips off each side of a diaper, opening the absorbant middle and adding a piece of scrap cloth to make it more effective.
Moraes lives in Complexo do Alemao, a sprawling "favela" on Rio's north side.
Much of her income from her jobs as a waitress and school-bus driver goes to caring for Hugo.
Even with the 1,100 reais ($200) she receives in government assistance each month, the family barely gets by, she says.
A pack of tampons or pads ranges in price from three to 10 reais in Brazil -- a sum Moraes simply can't afford.
Brazil, a country of 213 million people, has an estimated 60 million women and girls who get their period each month.
An estimated 28 percent of poor women suffer what is known as "menstrual poverty", meaning they are unable to afford basic hygiene products.
Forced by necessity, they have found myriad solutions to deal with their periods: pieces of bread, cotton, paper or the "paninho" (little cloth), a piece of fabric that is washed and re-used.
But a lack of menstrual supplies keeps one in four girls home from school each month, according to a recent report by a United Nations Foundation program called Girl Up.
- 'Matter of public health' -
Moraes gets assistance from One by One, a local charity for impoverished disabled people and their families.
The organization provides equipment such as wheelchairs, as well as food and basic goods -- including menstrual supplies.
Fifteen-year-old Karla Cristina de Almeida, another beneficiary, shares her monthly package with her sister -- when they can.
"Sometimes we have one pack, sometimes we have none. When we don't have any, I don't even leave the house. So I miss school," she says.
Women lined up at One by One's recent handout of menstrual supplies.
One, Miriam Firmino, 51, remembered coming of age using a "paninho" -- an experience she wants to spare her three daughters.
"To be able to afford tampons, we have to find them on sale. When we can't, we get by however we can," she says.
The problem has only grown worse with the coronavirus pandemic, whose economic fallout has hit hardest among the poor.
"With the pandemic and the economic crisis, a lot of the mothers we help tell us they've gone back to using 'paninhos,' paper, cotton or other materials when they menstruate," says One by One president Teresa Stengel.
"They often complain of injuries and infections. Menstrual poverty is a public health problem."
Vanessa Moraes, 39, shows how she uses a diaper and a towel as a substitution for a sanitary pad (AFP/Mauro PIMENTEL)
- Bolsonaro veto -
The issue became a topic of national conversation in October when Bolsonaro signed a bill into law promoting "menstrual health," but used his line-item veto to block its promise of free menstrual supplies for more than five million low-income women and girls, arguing there was no funding for it.
The move has fueled scathing criticism of the far-right president, who has often been accused of misogyny and anti-women policies.
In response, Rio city hall and several other state and local governments have started giving out free tampons in public schools.
"My school has done more for Brazil than Bolsonaro. They gave out three packs of tampons to every girl," quipped one Twitter user.
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Alberta NDP Opposition wants immediate funding for daycare operators during COVID-19
EDMONTON — Alberta’s Opposition says the province needs to dip into surplus budget funds to allow child-care program operators to keep their doors open during the pandemic.
NDP critic Rakhi Pancholi estimates the Children's Services Department has about $70 million in unspent funds because lower subsidies are going to care centres, a result of reduced capacity due to COVID-19.
Pancholi says that money needs to be spent now because many operators are facing serious financial hardship and may have to shut down as other COVID-19 support programs end.
“I've heard from countless child-care programs that are on the brink of closure,” Pancholi, accompanied by some child-care centre operators, told a news conference Monday.
She said operators are still feeling the pinch as parents remain hesitant to return children to care centres or are either working from home or unable to afford care.
“Child-care operators are still experiencing the impacts of the pandemic, but now without the supports that came from the pandemic,” said Pancholi.
Heather Ratsoy, an Edmonton daycare operator who was with the NDP at the news conference, said numbers at her downtown centre have dropped considerably because businesses have closed or employees are working from home.
“We are unable to meet our monthly expenses like rent, salaries and so on,” said Ratsoy.
“(We) are in dire need of financial assistance from the province.”
UCP MINISTERS BOYCOTT MSM Children’s Services Minister Rebecca Schulz was not available for an interview but her office, in a statement, said "We are seeing enrolment numbers going up, which means that more parents will be accessing the subsidy programs and expenditure costs will rise.
"And with almost five months left in the fiscal year, it’s premature to comment on unused funds." Schulz also announced that $15 million of bilateral child-care money from the federal government will be used to help support daycare workers through COVID-19.
“This funding will help strengthen child-care programs that support children and their families in this province every day,” Schulz said in a news release.
The government said the $15 million will be used “for COVID-19 relief to further support operators as quickly as possible.”
It also announced that $19 million in previously announced federal funding has now been delivered to assist in attracting and retaining daycare staff.
Pancholi labelled the announcement a last-minute, ineffective deflection given that the bilateral money comes with rules that can’t address the immediate crisis.
“The UCP hastily reannounced existing federal funding from the long-standing bilateral agreement, most of which cannot be used by providers to pay operational costs like rent or wages,” said Pancholi.
She renewed her call for Schulz to conclude a deal with the federal government on its multibillion-dollar $10-a-day child-care initiative.
Ottawa announced a $30-billion, five-year plan in the spring to craft partnerships with provinces, territories and Indigenous communities for universal child care — the cornerstone of a plan to help families and get the economy moving.
The plan aims for a 50-per-cent cut in fees, on average, by next year and $10-a-day care in five years.
Most provinces and Yukon have signed on, but Alberta and Ontario remain among the holdouts.
Schulz has said Alberta is seeking a deal that recognizes the large percentage of for-profit care centres in the province and one that respects the diversity of choice for child care.
ALBERTA HOLDING OUT FOR HOME RUN DAYCARES AND BABA CARE $$$$$
Between 1929 and 1931, in Manchuria’s rural province of Shinmin, 2 million Korean migrants operated their own autonomous anarchist region. Villagers set up their own form of government through assemblies and councils, which oversaw “agriculture, education, finance, military affairs, and health.”
Despite organizing a militia, the self-governing communities were ultimately unable to defend themselves against attacks by Japan and the Stalinists.
NOV 8 INDIGENOUS VETERANS DAY He spent 4 years as a WW II prisoner of war. Then, this Métis veteran enlisted again
The family of veteran Urban Vermette hopes a recent award will not only honour his life but also serve as a reminder of the sacrifices made by Métis who served in the Canadian military.
Vermette, who was Métis from Prince Albert, Sask., served overseas twice. First, during the Second World War, where he spent nearly four years as a prisoner of war (POW) in Hong Kong and Japan. Five years after returning home, Vermette re-enlisted to serve in the Korean War.
He died in 1984 at the age of 64. Last week, he was honoured posthumously by the South Korean government with an Ambassador of Peace medal "for overcoming pain and suffering" as a POW prior to re-enlisting to join the Korean War.
The medal, which is given to veterans of the Korean War, was presented by Consul General Deuk Hwan Kim during a ceremony in Hamilton, Ont.
"It is a tremendous honour," said Vermette's son, Donald, who attended the ceremony along with his cousins, Harvey Vermette and Albert Vermette. They proudly wore their Métis sashes.
The medal presentation came just days before Indigenous Veterans Day, which is observed every Nov. 8 as a way to separately honour Indigenous contributions to Canada's military service.
"Up until the 1970s, being called a Métis in Saskatchewan was a bad word," said Albert Vermette.
"We believe as Métis people, we have to honour our heritage also. This is the way we show respect not only to our culture, but to the Aboriginal people that gave so much in the wars."
It is not known how many Métis and Inuit served in uniform,partly because there was no formal identification process at the time.But, we do know that at least 3,000 members of First Nations enlisted when the Second World War began.
Brothers served in Second World War
Urban Vermette was born in 1922, the youngest of his siblings. He enlisted in the Saskatoon Light Infantry on his 19th birthday, following in the footsteps of his older brothers Walter and Delore.
All three of them served overseas during the Second World War.
"The brothers joined with the intent in helping their family," said Albert Vermette.
Urban Vermette was a private in the Winnipeg Grenadiers, 1st battalion. He was among 1,975 troops known as "C" Force when the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada out of Quebec City were deployed to Hong Kong in 1941 to reinforce the British colony. It would be the first place Canadians engaged in a battle during the Second World War. The vast majority of the troops had never seen combat before. On Dec. 8, 1941, Japanese forces invaded and overran Hong Kong's defences in 17 days, killing 290 Canadians.
Vermette and another Métis solider from Prince Albert, Sask. — Robert Parenteau — were among those captured on Christmas Day.
Vermette spent nearly four years in four different POW camps. He spent two years in Hong Kong, including at Sham Shui Po Camp, before being sent to Japan on Jan. 19, 1943. There, he endured brutal conditions, starvation, and forced labour.
The POWs were liberated in August 1945 after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki forced Japan's surrender and ended the war in the Pacific.
Returning home
Newspapers at the time said Urban Vermette was the first POW to return home to Saskatchewan. He was 23 years old.
The family kept clippings from stories written about his arrival.
"It's all like a dream," Vermette was quoted saying in the Sept. 18, 1945, issue of the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.
He recounted being experimented on for new treatments of tuberculosis, and working in a shipyard to help to build freighters. Prince Albert citizens turned out "en masse to welcome" him home, according to a report from the Regina Leader Post.
He re-enlisted in 1950
Five years later, he re-enlisted and served with Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry, 3rd Battalion, as part of the Canadian Army's contributions to the United Nations operations in Korea. He served from Aug. 9, 1951, to June 25, 1953. Details about his time there are scarce.
Vermette rarely talked about his war-time experiences with his family. The family said they found out more about his military service after his death through photos and newspaper clippings.
But his daughter, Judy Vermette, said his experiences caused him life-long struggles.
"My dad really suffered post traumatic stress syndrome," she said.
"He was a good man. He went through a difficult time in his life and it carried through with him until the day he passed."
Physical and mental tolls
The family said Vermette's health started to fail at an early age due to the malnutrition he suffered during his 44 months in captivity.
"It took a toll on him," said Donald.
"The mental fatigue on the young men that went overseas, they were never the same when they came back." Urban's nephew, Albert Vermette, expressed similar sentiments about his own father. While Urban Vermette fought in the Pacific, his older brother, Walter, battled on the beaches of Normandy.
"A bomb exploded close to him and he laid on the beach for three days," said Albert Vermette of his father, Walter.
The Vermette brothers' mother received a missing in action letter about Walter, although he was later found alive.
He had suffered shrapnel wounds but went on to fight in Belgium, France, and Germany.
"When he came back ... he never he never carried a gun again. He refused to go hunting. I had to learn from my cousins," said Albert Vermette.
Métis military contributions
Several hundreds of Indigenous people signed up to serve in the Korean War, according to Veterans Affairs Canada. Many were veterans of the Second World War, which ended five years earlier.
The Hong Kong Veterans Commemorative Association (HKVCA), which is made up of families of members of "C" Force, is hoping to shed light on how many Second World War Hong Kong veterans were Indigenous.
The association has a call-out for families to come forward and identify Indigenous veterans as a part of a new recognition project. One of the challenges is that there was no formal identification on government records for Métis soldiers.
"We just don't know how many Métis were involved in the Armed Forces in the world wars or other conflicts," said Pamela Poitras Heinrichs, a HKVCA member.
"I'm hoping [with] our little project that maybe we'll start to learn."
Her father, Ferdinand (Fred) Poitras, a Métis veteran from St. Vital, Man., was a member of the Winnipeg Grenadiers.
The association is aware of about a dozen Indigenous Hong Kong veterans but she suspects there are far more. "I look at it as a very small step in the reconciliation process," said Poitras Heinrichs.
"It's important that my father and the other Indigenous veterans receive recognition for it and that people know their history."
For the Vermette family, they hope days like National Indigenous Veterans Day will continue to recognize and remember their stories.
"[The day] instills into us that these soldiers, these Aboriginal soldiers, are not forgotten and the families are not forgotten," said Albert Vermette.
NO PSYCHIATRIC TIME?!23 SKIDOO
Man who's sorry for burning B.C. Masonic buildings gets 2.5 years with time served
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia provincial court judge has sentenced a man who set fire to three Masonic buildings to 40 months in prison.
Minus time served, Benjamin Kohlman's sentence amounts to about 2 1/2 years in prison. The 43-year-old man pleaded guilty in September to arson charges for setting three fires within an hour of each other, two in North Vancouver and one in Vancouver.
Judge Laura Bakan said she accepted Kohlman was sorry for his actions and offered her hope that he would be able to deal with his addiction issues while in prison. The court heard the fires caused more than $2.5 million in damage, including the complete loss of the Masonic hall in North Vancouver.
Both Crown counsel and Kohlman's defence lawyer told the court he targeted Masonic buildings in an attempt to stop the "Illuminati using mind control" and voices directed him to start the fires.
Crown attorney Jonas Dow had asked for a prison sentence up to five years, while the defence called for a two- to three-year sentence.
Kohlman's lawyer, Jessica Dawkins, told the court her client set the fires early in the morning so no one would be harmed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2021.
The Canadian Press
Terrifying 3-Foot Scorpion Which Skewered Prey With Spines Found in China
Researchers in China have found the fossilized remains of a fearsome sea scorpion. The creature grew to over 3 feet in length and had an enlarged back limb covered with an arrangement of spines used for ensnaring prey.
The new creature is part of the mixopterid family of the eurypterids, a group of species known for their specialized front arms or "pedipalps." This family of sea scorpions more closely reflects what we think of as the traditional image of a scorpion, with a large tail and enlarged front claws, and this creature is no exception.
This mixopterid, which has been named Terropterus xiushanensis had front arms covered in spiny protrusions. These appendages were likely used as a "catching basket" used to ensnare prey. Its fearsome enlarged "tail" was tipped with a spear-like appendage.
The three Terropterus fossils discovered, one complete and two incomplete, indicate that the creature could grow to over 3 feet long. This large size is also something that is characterized by other mixopterids.
The team that discovered the eurypterid, the formal name for a sea scorpion, believes that it could have been a top predator in the shallow waters of South China between 444 and 419 million years ago.
This coincides with the Silurian period in Earth's history. Though Eurypterids first enter the fossil record in the Ordovician period between 485 and 445 million years ago, they increased in diversity significantly in the Silurian period. The creatures would be completely extinct by the Permian period of Earth's history, which began 300 million years ago.
Terropterus xiushanensis recently discovered in fossils discovered in China may have been a fearsome predator in shallow waters around 440 million years ago.NIGPAS
The discovery is an important step in establishing the diversity of creatures that existed during the Silurian period. Currently, very few large predators have been found in the shallow seas of China that existed during that period.
"Our knowledge of mixopterids is limited to only four species in two genera, which were all based on a few fossil specimens from the Silurian Laurussia 80 years ago," said doctoral researcher Wang Bo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang Bo is one of the authors of a paper discussing the discovery published in the journal Science Bulletin.
The fact that the fossil record contains such pristinely preserved appendages is important in the discovery of the diverse morphological characteristics of the ancient mixopterids.
Terropterus is the oldest example of a mixopterid discovered and the first of this class of sea scorpion found that would have swum the seas of Gondwana, the supercontinent that broke apart around 180 million years ago.
Four other examples of mixopterid species, described by the paper's authors as "bizarre animals" have been discovered from the Silurian period, but these existed in the Pangea landmass of Laurasia, made up mostly of what is now North America.
The team hopes that future research in Asia may uncover more mixopterids and even additional groups of eurypterids.
Eurypterids seen swimming in a group in a stock illustration. Researchers have discovered a new species of Eurypterid or sea scorpion which could have dominated the shallow seas of China around 440 million years ago.AUNT_SPRAY/GETTY
Nevado del Ruiz volcano (Colombia): continuing ash emissions, ashfall reported in nearby towns
Mon, 8 Nov 2021, 05:0505:05 AM | BY: MARTIN Gas and ash emissions from Nevado del Ruiz volcano yesterday (image: SGC) Images of ashfalls by local people in Manizales and Villamaría towns (image: SGC)The activity of the volcano is characterized by continuous ash emissions over the past few days. The local observatory recorded a seismic signal associated with constant emissions of ash and gas at the summit vent, but at higher intensity than usual. Ash plumes rose about 1,640 ft (500 m) above the summit and drifted into various directions, but most often W-NW direction during the past few hours. Soon after eruptions, a mild rain of ash fall set in, occurring in the Manizales and Villamaría towns including La Nubia airport that has been threatened by ash on the runway. The alert level for the volcano remains at "yellow". Source: Servicio Geológico Colombiano volcano activity update 7 November 2021
Edmonton Elks go winless at home this season, fall 19-17 to Saskatchewan Roughriders
Edmonton Elks' Walter Fletcher (25) holds on to the ball after being tackled by Saskatchewan Roughriders' Loucheiz Purifoy (5), right, and and Deon Lacey (45) during second half CFL action in Edmonton on Friday, November 5, 2021 (The Canadian Press/Amber Bracken).
The Edmonton Elks will finish a CFL season without a win at home for the first time in the team's 72-year history.
Despite a furious fourth-quarter rally, a 19-17 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday condemned the Elks (2-9) to an 0-7 record at Commonwealth Stadium in 2021,which is an infamous achievement in a year when the team also rebranded with a new name.
AND THAT'S ALL WE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT
COP26: Fossil fuel industry has largest delegation at climate summit
ALBERTA LETS BIG OIL TALK FOR IT
By Matt McGrath
BBC Environment correspondent
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country, analysis shared with the BBC shows.
They found that 503 people with links to fossil fuel interests had been accredited for the climate summit.
These delegates are said to lobby for oil and gas industries, and campaigners say they should be banned.
"The fossil fuel industry has spent decades denying and delaying real action on the climate crisis, which is why this is such a huge problem," says Murray Worthy from Global Witness.
"Their influence is one of the biggest reasons why 25 years of UN climate talks have not led to real cuts in global emissions."
About 40,000 people are attending the COP. Brazil has the biggest official team of negotiators according to UN data, with 479 delegates.
The UK, which is hosting the talk in Glasgow, has 230 registered delegates.
So what counts as a fossil fuel lobbyist? Global Witness, Corporate Accountability and others who have carried out the analysis define a fossil fuel lobbyist as someone who is part of a delegation of a trade association or is a member of a group that represents the interests of oil and gas companies.
Overall, they identified 503 people employed by or associated with these interests at the summit.
They also found that:
Fossil fuel lobbyists are members of 27 country delegations, including Canada and Russia The fossil fuel lobby at COP is larger than the combined total of the eight delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the past 20 years
More than 100 fossil fuel companies are represented at COP, with 30 trade associations and membership organisations also present
Fossil fuel lobbyists dwarf the UNFCCC's official indigenous constituency by about two to one
According to Global Witness, IETA is backed by many major oil companies who promote offsetting and carbon trading as a way of allowing them to continue extracting oil and gas.
"This is an association that has an enormous number of fossil fuel company as its members. Its agenda is driven by fossil fuel companies and serves the interests of fossil fuel companies," Mr Worthy said.
"What we seeing is the putting forward of false solutions that appear to be climate action but actually preserve the status quo, and prevent us from taking the clear, simple actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground that we know are the real solutions to climate crisis."
The IETA says it exists to find the most efficient market-based means of driving down emissions. Members include fossil fuel companies but also a range of other businesses.
"We have law firms, we have project developers, the guys who are putting clean technology on the ground around the world, they're also members of our association as well," says Alessandro Vitelli, an IETA spokesman.
"We're not coming to a shuddering halt today and tomorrow, and suddenly there's going to be no emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels."
"There is a process to transition that's under way, and carbon markets are the best way to make sure that transition takes place."
Campaign groups argue that the World Health Organization didn't get serious about banning tobacco until all the lobbyists for the industry were banned from WHO meetings. They want the same treatment for oil and gas companies at COP.
"The likes of Shell and BP are inside these talks despite openly admitting to upping their production of fossil gas," said Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory, who were also involved in the analysis.
"If we're serious about raising ambition, then fossil fuel lobbyists should be shut out of the talks."
The BBC asked the UN body responsible for accrediting delegates about its procedures, but has not received a reply.
Hydrogen will play a critical role in Canada's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, according to two reports from the University of Calgary released on Thursday.
The reports explore how energy produced from hydrogen can be used to help bridge today's fossil fuels-based systems and complement renewable power sources like wind and solar.
"We know now that energy efficiency is a key strategy, clean electrification is a key strategy, but they're not enough together," Chris Bataille, an industrial decarbonization specialist and one of the reports' authors, told CTV News Edmonton.
"We know we need to switch to other fuels and biofuels and a couple of other things," he said. "But hydrogen is a key strategy as well."
Bataille said hydrogen can do a lot of the same things natural gas can, but can be made using two clean methods.
"You can make it from methane and bury the CO2 underground, or you can make it from clean electricity using electrolysis."
The Simon Fraser University adjunct professor said Alberta industries like chemical production, fertilizer production and upgrading of crude oil would be the first practical applications for hydrogen technology.
"But eventually you want to start thinking about taking it into the electricity sector," said Bataille. "Blending it with natural gas in the combustion turbines that are used to make electricity and eventually completely switching them."
ALBERTA ADVANTAGES
One of the two reports that were co-authored by Bataille states that "Alberta has many advantages that make hydrogen feasible as a pathway to decarbonizing its power grid." "First, the steam and combustion turbines that are powered by natural gas today to produce electricity in Alberta can be adapted to use hydrogen. Second, Alberta has vast amounts of natural gas that can be used to produce hydrogen, and ample geology for underground carbon capture and storage for the greenhouse gases emitted in producing hydrogen," the report reads in part.
"And third, in periods where the province’s renewable energy sources produce excess electricity, that power can be used to produce hydrogen, which can be stored for later use when renewable energy is less available."
In June, a major hydrogen production company, Air Products Inc., signed a memorandum of understanding with all three levels of government to invest $1.3 billion to build a net-zero hydrogen energy complex just east of Edmonton.
The site would produce hydrogen-fueled electricity and liquid hydrogen for international markets.
According to Air Products Inc., if all goes to plan, the "landmark" site would be operational by 2024. PROVINCIAL PROJECTS
Last year, the Alberta government released its plan "to become a global supplier of clean, responsibly sourced natural gas," with its Natural Gas Vision Strategy.
The province's strategy includes the goal of exporting hydrogen globally by 2040.
"Absolutely critical in my mind to a clean and stable transition for Alberta and Saskatchewan is get your fugitives under control," said Bataille.
"It's the methane that's leaking at the well, that's leaking from the pipelines, that's being flared and incompletely combusted."
Bataille pointed out that methane that is not combusted is a 30 to 100 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
He said the process of reducing methane emissions is labour intensive but technically speaking easily done.
"One of the key things the Alberta government could get into right away, probably fairly uncontroversially, is to dramatically reduce those fugitives."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderso
YOUR PENSION AND MINE
McAfee to be taken private by investor group that includes CPPIB in $14-billion deal
McAfee Corp said on Monday a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Advent International will take the cybersecurity company private in a $14-billion deal.
The deal comes as a pandemic-driven shift to remote working and a rise in cyber attacks have spurred demand for antivirus and digital security software.
The company, founded by U.S. technology entrepreneur John McAfee in 1987, was the first to bring to market a commercial antivirus. Intel bought it in 2011, when McAfee himself no longer had any involvement.
In the last few years, McAfee has strengthened its main cybersecurity software business that focuses on retail via price increases, new partner programs and good retention rates. As part of the transaction, the investor group will acquire all outstanding shares of McAfee common stock for $26 per share in an all-cash deal that values McAfee at about $12-billion on an equity basis.
The purchase price represents a premium of 22.6 per cent over McAfee’s closing share price of $21.21 on Nov. 4, the last trading day before the Wall Street Journal reported about the deal talks.
Shares, of the San Jose, California-based company, which made its market debut last year, were down more than 3 per cent at $25.36 in premarket trading, slightly below the offer price.
In a similar deal in August, U.S. cybersecurity company NortonLifeLock Inc had agreed to buy London-listed rival Avast Plc for up to $8.6-billion to create a leader in consumer security software.
The Advent-led consortium also includes private equity firms Permira Advisers LLC, Crosspoint Capital Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board among others.
Goldman Sachs & Co LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co LLC are the financial advisers to McAfee.
In taking action on climate, this Arctic community wants to be a beacon to the world
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Yukon town that is seeing effects of climate change
Old Crow, Yukon, population 250, is located 130 kilometres above the Arctic Circle. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
In Old Crow, the Yukon's northernmost community, some freezers still hum, even in late October.
That's odd. Typically, the appliances, which sit on porches, are plugged in during the summer but unplugged when it gets colder, as the frigid air does the work of refrigeration, averting the need to rely on expensive electricity.
The problem is, it isn't sufficiently cold yet.
When an Old Crow resident tells this story around a fire at a mountainside camp, the Vuntut Gwitchin elders standing nearby nod. They know all about the freezer situation.
There is snow everywhere here, 130 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, but by their standards, not much. It's cold, but not cold enough.
WATCH | How Old Crow is dealing with climate change:
A remote First Nation north of the Arctic Circle, Old Crow is seeing how climate change is impacting its landscape and wildlife populations. But the small community has big ambitions and vows to be carbon neutral by 2030. 7:58
The Porcupine caribou they rely on to hunt have returned, but the herd is late and there don't seem to be many of them in the area right now. It's not at all like those years when the mountains looked alive, there were so many caribou up there.
The caribou that have recently shown up dig through the snow for the nutritious lichen they crave and find some of it trapped under ice. This isn't good. The ice only forms because the weather has been warm enough for rain or wet snow, which eventually freezes. Snowfalls pile on top, but that ice has done damage by locking the lichen in.
Of course, the caribou can get through it with their snouts and hooves, but it takes energy they are trying to conserve. The hunters and elders in the area figure the caribou might move on to more fruitful feeding grounds.
A solitary caribou is seen on a mountain in Old Crow in late October. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
This is the reality of the North in a changing climate. The Arctic is warming at a rate of two to three times the rest of the world, and while the signs of it may seem invisible to an outsider, they are disturbingly clear if you call Old Crow home.
'The ice is not safe to go on'
Seventy-five-year-old Elizabeth Kaye lives here and says it is deeply changed.
"I am excited to know that the caribou is here," she said. "But that excitement also changed for me because I waited so long and I should have already been done working with the caribou, all stored away and moving onto the next [task], which for me is ice fishing.
Old Crow resident Elizabeth Kaye, 75, says that by October, she is usually ice fishing. But this year, 'Here I am, still waiting.' (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
"But I can't go. The ice is not safe to go on. Way back, I used to go ice fishing in October. And here I am, still waiting."
What is especially worrying about changes in the North is a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. The more the Earth warms, the more it leads to conditions that cause additional warming.
Fabrice Calmels, research chair in permafrost and geoscience at Yukon University in Whitehorse and a collaborator on the Polar Knowledge Project, explains it this way:
"Sea and glacier ice, which used to reflect and send back solar heat energy, are melting. Therefore, more heat energy is absorbed by areas previously covered by ice, which results in additional warming. It is why if you [put] two cars under the sun, one being white, the other being black, you feel that the black one is much warmer."
Calmels studies permafrost thaw in Old Crow, which over the years has hosted climatologists, hydrologists and permafrost researchers. He says there are sensors throughout Old Crow evaluating the extent of the permafrost thaw. It is mapped, too, in order to measure and rank the risk in building on that land.
The scientists and the community work in concert to find ways to adapt and mitigate the effects of warming, but the data only backs up the experiences of people who have lived on the land.
Declaring an emergency
The elders appreciate the scientific work, but none of them standing around that crackling fire, waiting for the hunters to secure the caribou, need an international conference like COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, to tell them the gravity of climate change.
The still-open water, thawing permafrost and eroding shorelines — which make some waterways inaccessible — offer evidence that screams at them.
This is why Old Crow has had it. More than fatigue, there is fear in waiting for the world's largest carbon emitters to care enough to act.
So in May 2019, the young chief, Dana Tizya-Tramm, declared a climate emergency, making this one of the first Indigenous communities to do so.
WATCH | Old Crow chief wants to inspire global climate action:
Turn captions Old Crow Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm talks to Adrienne Arsenault about his passion for fighting climate change and why he thinks if his Yukon village can promise to be carbon neutral by 2030, larger communities can too. 6:18
If you read the declaration, Tizya-Tramm says, "it's not asking anyone for anything. It's putting the world on notice at any table we sit at, internationally through the Arctic Council, nationally with the prime minister, regionally, climate change is going to be the No. 1 issue driving the conversation."
Once the declaration was issued, the First Nation got to work. For one thing, it pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030.
On the face of it, that seems a bit of a lofty, unreachable goal. Tiny Old Crow, 250-people strong, is a fly-in community that relies on diesel being flown in several times a year. The fuel the community needs to power the diesel generators every year produces emissions equivalent to 500 transatlantic flights.
Tizya-Tramm wants to find a way to turn off the generators for good. A solid start is the 2,000-panel solar project that sits alongside treasured berry patches. For a place with 24-hour sunshine in the summer, this has enormous promise.
Tizya-Tramm says it is the largest solar project in the North. When it turned on this summer, it enabled the community to turn off the diesel generators for the first time in nearly 50 years. Over the course of a year, that solar project will save 189,000 litres of diesel fuel.
Turning to the sun
The solar panels sit right outside the window of elder Lorraine Netro.
She used to have a clear view of the berry patch, which provided more than cranberries and blueberries — the act of picking is important culturally, physically and mentally. Looking at those huge solar panels, which now displace a little bit of the patch, took some getting used to, Netro admits.
The solar panels that the community recently installed will meet a quarter of its energy needs. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
"But we had to make that decision. As elders in this community.... How are we going to be part of this [climate] solution?"
Acting in the common good is a huge motivator for Vuntut Gwitchin and their chief, who wants their work to signal what is possible to everyone else.
"If my community with a single solar project can satisfy one quarter of our energy needs, if 250 people in a small village 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle can displace 189,000 litres of diesel fuel of their own volition, then we're showing community is where the strength is," he said.
The community is also about a year into a feasibility study on whether wind can help supply more power during the darkest winter months.
Then, there is the willow shrub, which seems especially fond of climate change. Thanks to warmer, wetter weather, it is growing taller and thicker than anyone ever remembers.
This poses a curious problem. The shrub chokes trails for animals and people, blocks access to berry patches and may be another contributor to shifting caribou migration patterns.
These willow shrubs have the potential to become a major energy source for people in Old Crow. (Jared Thomas/CBC)
The shrub is a pain. But in it, Old Crow also sees opportunity.
Hunter and Deputy Chief Paul Josie, standing next to a shrub growing taller than him, says it happens to be an excellent biofuel. It grows so quickly that it can be harvested three or more times in seven-year cycles.
"It means putting it through a chipper and drying it to produce energy and heat," he said.
Aiming for a 'ripple effect'
This is where the wheels of leadership go into overdrive. There are willow shrub fuel projects elsewhere in the North and across the continent, so why not Old Crow?
What if, Chief Tizya-Tramm wonders, these projects can do more than cut down on the need for greenhouse gas-emitting diesel energy? What if they can bring jobs and income for the community?
"Instead of youth delivering newspapers like you might see in a neighbourhood in the city, our youth will be harvesting our willow species to burn in our incinerators," he hypothesized.
"Our solar panel project alone is generating about $410,000 dollars a year through a disruptive business model through our electricity purchase agreement with the local utility. Where we used to export that money, we're now bringing it back into the community."
To fight climate change, deputy chief Paul Josie wants to keep the community's traditional ways alive while looking to new, sustainable technologies. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
Tizya-Tramm was invited to COP 26 but didn't go. The last time he went to a COP conference, he left early, feeling the voices of Indigenous people were marginalized. This time around, he sent a video instead.
"We can't give our power to any politician, to any CEO, to anyone," Tizya-Tramm said, capturing the essence of his message. "This is a time when we must embody and take our power as a household, as a family, as a community."
Tizya-Tramm and Josie both recently had baby daughters, and they keep their little ones and their futures in mind all the time. The challenge is how to keep the traditional ways alive, helped along with new, sustainable technology.
"I want to have all those cultural traditions ingrained in [my daughter's] life," Josie said with a smile. "We want to make these changes to start the ripple effect."
Eighty-five percent of the Cuban economy is in the hands of the one-party state 
