https://libcom.org/library/calgary-1919-birth-obu-general-strike-eugene-plawiuk
THE CCF THE ORIGINAL REFORM MOVEMENT - OoCities
www.oocities.org/capitolhill/5202/ccf.htm
EMMA GRANEY
Updated: May 6, 2019
Monday, May 06, 2019
ANCIENT METEOR CRATER IN NORTHERN ALBERTA
HOTCHKISS STRUCTURE
by: Charles O’Dale
- Type: Complex
- Age (ma): 120-330a – MISSISSIPPIAN
- Diameter: 3.9 km
- Location: N 58° 49′ W 118° 16′ (approximate)
a Determining the timing of this event is poorly constrained stratigraphically since the Gething-Debolt unconformity marks a nearly 200 million-year gap in the geological record in this area.
Uniquely identifying this structure as an impact structure is a difficult task since
there are no wells penetrating the disturbed rocks of the structure.
there are no wells penetrating the disturbed rocks of the structure.
The Hotchkiss structure, located near the Chinchaga river, is an anomalous feature that has been observed on seismic data. The structure bears many of the diagnostic features of a complex impact crater. The structure is 3.9 km across and is buried approximately 1000-m below the surface. There are few wells in the area. Also in the area are a number of kimberlite pipes that are of considerable economic interest to local mining companies. The presence of these pipes, however, complicates the interpretation of this feature as an impact structure.
The Hotchkiss structure exhibits many features, including evidence for a central uplift, large-scale faulting at the rim and in the central uplift, a breccia infill, and a continuation of the disturbance to depths in excess of 1500-m below the top of the feature. The structure also obeys many of the scaling relationships relating to impact features. At the time of formation between 120 and 330 million years ago, the original size of this structure is estimated to have been 3.9 km in diameter by 480 m in depth. At the end of the modification state, the transient cavity had a diameter of 2.26 km and was about 630 m deep. (Mazur 1999)
2-D seismic data interprets the current extent of the feature and its preerosional dimensions. The current size of the area of disturbance is 3.5 km across and 400 m thick. Using scaling relations, the Hotchkiss structure is estimated to have been 4.5 km in diameter and 500 m deep at the time of formation between 120 and 330 million years ago (Mazur, Stewart and Hildebrand, 1999).
This is typical northern Alberta geology around the buried Hotchkiss structure.
References
[see – METEORITE]
Mazur M.J. The Seismic Characterization of Meteorite Impact Structures, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Calgary Alberta (1999)
Mazur M.J. The Seismic Characterization of Meteorite Impact Structures, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Calgary Alberta (1999)
Michael J. Mazur and Robert R. Stewart, Interpreting the Hotchkiss structure: A possible meteorite impact feature in northwestern Alberta CREWES Research Report — Volume 10 (1998)
THE PHANTASM OF ALBERTA SEPARATISM RAISES ITS UGLY HEAD WITH UCP
RECENTLY GLOBAL TV INTERVIEWED BARRY COOPER A PROFESSOR EMERITUS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY.
RECENTLY GLOBAL TV INTERVIEWED BARRY COOPER A PROFESSOR EMERITUS FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY.
Don’t write off Western anger as ‘alienation’ — it runs a whole lot deeper: Calgary professor
It's not alienation, its abuse towards Western Canada: Cooper | Watch News Videos Online
Barry Cooper from the University of Calgary joins Mercedes Stephenson to discuss why, if the concerns of Alberta separatists aren't addressed, there will be a ...
Barry Cooper: Separation has become a real possibility, thanks to Ottawa’s abuses
The Canada option: Is it still viable for AlbertaSeparation has become a real possibility thanks to the abuses and injustices imposed by Ottawa, writes University of Calgary political science professor Barry Cooper. Updated: December 17, 2018
Dr. Cooper as he is known sometimes, is the highest paid academic in Alberta, his salary dwarves his colleagues at the U of C, because he is the leading light of the Right Wing in Canada, he gets grants and foundation funding.
He was interviewed giving succour to the so called Separatist streak in right wing Alberta politics. Now along with being a founding member of the Calgary School of Right Wing Politics he is also a Pro Oil Climate Change Denier with his foundation the Friends of Science.
Cooper is also an advocate for private schools, charter and vouchers schools developed under the Klein government. This was aimed locally at the Calgary education market more than it was for the rest of the province, where the dominant board the CBE was not quick to adapt to the reform change movement in Education, unlike the Edmonton Public School Board, so the right wing push for Charter schools was big in Calgary.
The so called separatism is also known as Firewall Alberta which Cooper, Flanagan and the Calgary School sold Harper on prior to his becoming PM.
Alberta Separatism Not Quite Stamped OutSee:
It originates in Alberta not in the dirty thirties but the early 1980's in the last days of the Lougheed government, with the Western Canada Concept (WCC) of rightwhingnut lawyer and defender of fascists Doug Christie. The WCC won a seat in a red neck rural riding, and had an MLA in the Alberta Legislature giving them some political credibility, some, enough for Lougheed to use them as a whipping boy against Ottawa. Which Ralph Klein continues to do today. Any time things got a little outta hand between the Liberals in Ottawa and the Alberta Government the bugaboo of Alberta Separatism would be raised. Clever ploy that.The reality is that during the 1980's two major right wing populist parties began in Alberta, both anti-semitic, white power, anti-biligualism, pro religious fundamentalist, pro Celtic Saxon peoples (code for White Power) anti immigrant anti multiculturalism, today add anti-gay. These were the WCC and Elmer Knutsens Confederation of Regions Party. The CRP did not win seats in Alberta but in New Brunswick, as a right wing backlash to that provinces French majority.Ironic eh.
Social Credit And Western Canadian Radicalism
The history of Alberta Alienation and the autonomous farmer worker resistance to Ottawa
Rebel Yell
Historical Memory on the Eve of the Election
Calgary Herald Remembers RB Bennett
Canada's First Internment Camps
They are called the Chicago principles.1
Hailed by Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides and others as the “gold standard,” they were developed by the University of Chicago in 2014 to demonstrate a commitment to free speech on U.S. college campuses.
But some worry they don’t allow universities to distinguish between groups or individuals who want to speak on campus, be it a flat-earth society, racists or a celebrity.
The UCP did not grant Postmedia an interview with Nicolaides.
However, in an emailed statement, he said applying the principles would ensure Alberta post-secondary institutions are competitive with those in the United States.
‘A crass political gesture’
The move echoes a recent edict by Doug Ford’s Ontario government.
Professor Sigal Ben-Porath, a University of Pennsylvania free speech scholar, helped Ontario institutions develop Ford-mandated policies.
Many ended up simply penning a policy saying they supported the Chicago principles, Ben-Porath said, despite the fact the policy cannot apply in Canada as it does in the States because of our hate speech laws.
Ben-Porath supports free speech, and thinks reasoned, adult conversations and guidelines are useful for campus administrators.
She doesn’t like speech codes, lists of acceptable words or academic censorship, and thinks navigating controversial ideas is — and should be — part of post-secondary civic education.
But she doesn’t think blunt instruments cut it.
“We are serving more and more diverse students…. (and) we need to be thoughtful in the ways in which we organize the environment in which they are learning,” she said.
“The Chicago principles have very little to do with any of that, because they don’t actually let you think as an institution what your values are, what your norms are, what is your history, what is the population that you’re serving.”
Gyllian Phillips, Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations president, watched the Ford policy roll out in her province. She called it an unnecessary, “crass political gesture.”
Like Alberta post-secondary institutions, Ontario universities are already governed by a host of regulations including hate speech laws, academic freedoms in collective agreements and student codes of conduct, Phillips said.
‘A very problematic precedent’
Then there are the funding implications.
Ford’s government decreed that any post-secondary institution failing to implement free speech policies could be fiscally punished.
Similarly, U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order in March to bar post-secondary institutions from federal funds if they restrict free speech.
Trump’s action drew a swift rebuke from University of Chicago president Robert Zimmer, a fierce defender of the principles developed by his university.
The Trump order would interfere with the ability of universities to address free speech on their own, Zimmer wrote in a public message to his campus, and would set “a very problematic precedent.”
“It makes the government, with all its power and authority, a party to defining the very nature of discussion on campus,” he wrote.
Nicolaides wouldn’t say whether his government will financially penalize institutions that don’t adopt the principles, saying only the policies would give students and faculty “strong protection with respect to freedom of speech, which is essential to the academic experience.”
Tying funding to performance
The UCP has also promised to “measure labour market outcomes of post-secondary programs to identify the correlation between provincial subsidies and economic returns for taxpayers.”
A similar scheme under Ford tied 60 per cent of provincial funding to performance measures like graduate employment and pay, which Phillips worries will set in motion an “unprecedented” change.
“Instead of universities working together to build different regional or research based or education-based needs for the province, it creates winners and losers,” she said.
“The idea that we should turn universities into competitive entities absolutely ignores the reality that each university is autonomous, it’s different, it serves different populations, it has a different reason for existing.
“If they’re used to peg universities against one another, it’s not going to go well for the system as a whole.”
When asked via email if any post-secondary funding will be tied to labour market outcomes, Nicolaides didn’t answer.
“By working closely with our partners at universities and colleges, we will ensure that we meet the demands of the labour market in this province,” he wrote.
When Postmedia asked Jason Kenney during the election if the UCP would tie university funding to performance measures, he said “it’s not our intention to cut funds.”
Universities mum
The policy direction under the UCP is part of an increasing incursion into higher education by Alberta governments.
Take the NDP’s tuition freeze, which left universities scrambling to make up a funding shortfall; MacEwan University president David Atkinson likened it to “being stoned to death with popcorn.”
Jolene Armstrong, president of the Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations, worries that tying funding to labour market outcomes could damage education programs.
“I just don’t understand the sociological data that would be used to indicate that would be a good way to fund any program,” she said.
“I would guess that’s the intention, to try to reduce funding obligations on behalf of the government … but universities have already experienced a reduction in government funding.”
The presidents of Alberta’s two largest universities — David Turpin at the University of Alberta and Ed McCauley at the University of Calgary — both said it’s too early to comment on UCP post-secondary policy.
However, Turpin said the sector is “a key part of the economic engine of this province, providing the educated workforce and research needed for job creation, economic development and diversification.”
1.The So Called University Of Chicago Principles Are Based On The
Fact That U Of C Is As Right Wing Economic And Political Departments As You Can
Get
Home To The Likes Of Leo Strauss And Former Nazi Judge Carl Schmidt,
Fascist Romanian Mircea Eliade, And Of Course Who Can Forget The Chicago School
Of Economists Hayek, Mises, Etc.
In Alberta The Graduates Of The Chicago Poli Sci Department Program Created Their
Own Program At The U Of Calgary Called The Calgary School
You Can Read About Them Here
It Led To The Creation Of The New Right In Canada, The Reform Party, The
Alliance, Then The Conservative Party Of Stephen Harper. Academics Like Barry
Cooper, Tom Flanagan, etc Were The Masterminds Behind The Rise Of The Right In Canada.
So You Can Imagine the Kind Of Principles These Will Be
" … 'The government rolled this out with much less detail than you would expect given the magnitude of the change they're contemplating,' said Alex Usher, president of Higher Education Strategy Associates, a Toronto-based consulting firm.
Usher supports the principle of performance-based funding.
'It gives governments and taxpayers a sense that [universities and colleges] are spending money to a purpose,' he said in an interview.
'We've got $5 billion in public money going into the province's universities and colleges and I think people like to know that there are certain objectives that are being accomplished with that money.'
The issue, said Usher, is whether the metrics are well-designed.
'I don't think we know enough about the program yet to be able to say that with confidence one way or the other,' he said.
The ministry briefing document shows that starting in the 2020-21 academic year, 25 per cent of provincial grants to post-secondary institutions (about $1.27 billion) will be 'performance/outcomes-based funding.'
That will rise by 10 percentage points each year, until 2024-25, when it peaks at 60 per cent ($3.04 billion).
Currently, only 1.2 per cent of college funding and 1.4 per cent of university funding is tied to outcomes ...
Usher has seen details of the metrics and describes them as mixed. He said some are 'badly designed or just plain stupid' and puts the community/local impact metric in that category.
'If you really want to rig something so that Nipissing comes out well, just hand them the money, don't pretend it's a performance indicator.' NIpissing University is located in North Bay, the smallest Ontario city with a university.
One of the government's own agencies is advising it to choose the metrics carefully.
The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO) was created by the province to assess post-secondary institutions on a range of measures. In a paper published last week, HEQCO says the performance-based metrics must be 'meaningful and informative.'
'Meaningful performance measurement must focus on impact and outcomes,' write the authors, led by HEQCO's president and chief executive Harvey Weingarten.
'What or how much have students learned, and what is the economic and social impact of the institutions and a well-educated province?'
The report says the key outcomes to be measured should be based on the priority goals for higher education, as identified by government policy ...
The Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) is raising concerns about the plan, calling it 'a drastic move towards tying funding to performance outcomes.'
The move will 'create inequities and slowly but certainly undermine the integrity of Ontario's postsecondary education system,' OCUFA says in a new post on its website.
'This is something that's being used a lot in a number of different states in the U.S. and nowhere is there any research to suggest that it improves education,' said the association's president, Gyllian Phillips, in an interview …"
Geologist who discovered oldest water on Earth wins top science award
Research could help advance our search for life on other worlds like Mars
· CBC News · Posted: May 06, 2019
Barbara Sherwood Lollar is the recipient of the 2019 Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal
or Science and Engineering for her work on ancient Earth water. (Martin Lipman/NSERC)
Because she studies ancient water on Earth, Barbara Sherwood Lollar is usually looking down, but her work is also making her look to the stars.
Sherwood Lollar, an earth sciences professor at the University of Toronto, has won the prestigious Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering for her work on ancient Earth water and for advancing the search for life on other worlds. The award is handed out each year by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Humans have long wondered if we're alone in the universe. Mars has always been an appealing candidate for extraterrestrial life, but in recent years, scientists have begun to look at moons — specifically, Europa, a moon around Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon around Saturn
Why the change in direction? The maxim in the search for life has always been: follow the water.
While not identical, both Europa and Enceladus are similar, in that they both have icy crusts under which astronomers believe are large bodies of water. It's also believed Enceladus may have hydrothermal vents, which are areas of heated, mineral-rich water. The moon is even spewing water vapour into space.
Because she studies ancient water on Earth, Barbara Sherwood Lollar is usually looking down, but her work is also making her look to the stars.
Sherwood Lollar, an earth sciences professor at the University of Toronto, has won the prestigious Gerhard Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering for her work on ancient Earth water and for advancing the search for life on other worlds. The award is handed out each year by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).
Humans have long wondered if we're alone in the universe. Mars has always been an appealing candidate for extraterrestrial life, but in recent years, scientists have begun to look at moons — specifically, Europa, a moon around Jupiter, and Enceladus, a moon around Saturn
Why the change in direction? The maxim in the search for life has always been: follow the water.
While not identical, both Europa and Enceladus are similar, in that they both have icy crusts under which astronomers believe are large bodies of water. It's also believed Enceladus may have hydrothermal vents, which are areas of heated, mineral-rich water. The moon is even spewing water vapour into space.
Enceladus, a moon around Saturn, sprays water from its underground
ocean into space. (NASA/JPL)
Sherwood Lollar has been studying ancient water below the Earth's surface in mines on the Canadian Shield and around the world. Determining the chemistry of that water could be used to study moons like Europa and Enceladus.
"One of the major themes of planetary science is that we use the Earth to understand processes that might be going on on other planets," Sherwood Lollar said. "And so the work we do … has direct relevance for what we do when we go out to search for processes on other planets."
Digging deep
In 2016, she and her team of scientists found what was believed to be the oldest water on Earth, estimated to be two billion years old. The discovery earned her NSERC's John C. Polanyi Award.
Probing this deep allows Sherwood Lollar and her team to find out how life could thrive in these conditions. In particular, she wants to know: "What are they living off of?"
Her interest in the subject began when she was finishing high school. Scientists were just beginning to understand the nature of life in some of the deepest parts of the oceans, including around hydrothermal vents, which she found fascinating.
Sherwood Lollar has been studying ancient water below the Earth's surface in mines on the Canadian Shield and around the world. Determining the chemistry of that water could be used to study moons like Europa and Enceladus.
"One of the major themes of planetary science is that we use the Earth to understand processes that might be going on on other planets," Sherwood Lollar said. "And so the work we do … has direct relevance for what we do when we go out to search for processes on other planets."
Digging deep
In 2016, she and her team of scientists found what was believed to be the oldest water on Earth, estimated to be two billion years old. The discovery earned her NSERC's John C. Polanyi Award.
Probing this deep allows Sherwood Lollar and her team to find out how life could thrive in these conditions. In particular, she wants to know: "What are they living off of?"
Her interest in the subject began when she was finishing high school. Scientists were just beginning to understand the nature of life in some of the deepest parts of the oceans, including around hydrothermal vents, which she found fascinating.
This graphic illustrates how Cassini scientists think water
interacts with rock at the bottom of the ocean of Saturn's
icy moon Enceladus, producing hydrogen gas. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Scientists were surprised to discover that some life didn't need the process of photosynthesis to live; that the chemistry of water-rock reactions could provide the energy needed for microbes to survive.
While hydrothermal vents are interesting places to study chemical processes taking place that provide habitability for life, Sherwood Lollar isn't looking there. Instead, she's concentrating on cooler regions like the Canadian Shield. This ancient rock doesn't experience shifting plates that tend to generate heat around hydrothermal vents, yet there is still chemistry taking place in the water that's under the rock.
Her work could help astrobiologists and astrophysicists search for life in cooler places in the solar system, including Mars. Just last year, a team of Italian scientists published a paper that suggested there was a lake below the planet's southern polar ice cap. For many, the question this raised was whether the region was habitable.
"One way of looking at Mars is that it looks like the Canadian Shield … in the sense that it is all ancient, billion-year-old rock on the surface," Sherwood Lollar said. So her work here on Earth will likely be used in the search for life on Mars.
The European Space Agency's Mars Express has used radar signals bounced through
underground layers of ice to identify a lake of liquid water buried below the planet's south pole.
(ESA/NASA/JPL/ASI/Univ. Rome)
Sherwood Lollar said she's immensely honoured to receive the Herzberg Medal.
"We use the word humbling, but it really is the only word to describe [it]," she said.
BLOGHydrothermal vents found on Mars raise hope in search for life
Erosion on Mars reveals ice, moves boulders
She looks forward to continuing her work, and to the search for life beyond Earth. And she's happy that we're rethinking how we find that life.
"When we go to the icy planets, the ocean worlds, those places are very, very cold. But we would be wrong to think about them as geologically inactive," she said.
"Anywhere where you've got gradients, between hot and cold — even if it's between cold and colder — you still have the potential for chemistry to be taking place. And this causes us to open our thinking a bit, to think outside the box about the nature of what can sustain habitability."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Mortillaro
Senior Reporter, Science
Nicole has an avid interest in all things science. As an amateur astronomer, Nicole can be found looking up at the night sky appreciating the marvels of our universe. She is the editor of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the author of several books.
Sherwood Lollar said she's immensely honoured to receive the Herzberg Medal.
"We use the word humbling, but it really is the only word to describe [it]," she said.
BLOGHydrothermal vents found on Mars raise hope in search for life
Erosion on Mars reveals ice, moves boulders
She looks forward to continuing her work, and to the search for life beyond Earth. And she's happy that we're rethinking how we find that life.
"When we go to the icy planets, the ocean worlds, those places are very, very cold. But we would be wrong to think about them as geologically inactive," she said.
"Anywhere where you've got gradients, between hot and cold — even if it's between cold and colder — you still have the potential for chemistry to be taking place. And this causes us to open our thinking a bit, to think outside the box about the nature of what can sustain habitability."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Mortillaro
Senior Reporter, Science
Nicole has an avid interest in all things science. As an amateur astronomer, Nicole can be found looking up at the night sky appreciating the marvels of our universe. She is the editor of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the author of several books.
2 Indigenous leaders explain why they are on opposing sides of the Trans Mountain debate
By Amanda Connolly National Online Journalist (Politics) Global NewsThe expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline remains a point of contention for many Canadians.
But there is also division on the issue within one key group of stakeholders in the project — Indigenous Canadians.
READ MORE: Trans Mountain pipeline still top priority for feds despite deadline extension, says transport minister
Over recent weeks, those differences of opinion regarding how — or if — the project should proceed have come under the spotlight, after the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs issued a letter critical of the plan by the Indian Resource Council of Canada to purchase a 51 per cent stake in the expansion project.
In that letter, Chief Kukpi7 Judy Wilson, secretary-treasurer of the B.C. Union of Indian Chiefs, wrote along with Grand Chief Stewart Phillip that the expansion project is not viable because of opposition to it from other First Nations communities along the proposed route, and also stressed it wasn’t worth the money.
WATCH BELOW: Protesting grandpa climbs tree to stop Trans-Mountain pipeline
“There are good reasons why Kinder Morgan chose to walk away from this project and you should carefully consider them before investing your Nation’s money,” she wrote in the open letter to other First Nations leaders. “We believe that the government has clearly overstated both and their decision to invest in this project was clouded by their short-term political needs.
“We urge you not to make the same mistake and to carefully consider the enormous environmental, social, legal, and political ramifications before committing to this project,” the letter continued, arguing the pipeline could become a “stranded asset” as oil sector giants like Shell, Cononco-Phillips, and Statoil sell off their holdings.
Speaking on the West Block, Wilson reiterated those concerns, arguing that “as long as there is one nation saying no to the pipeline, it cannot be built.”
But Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi said the opposite in an interview with the West Block earlier this year, stressing no one community will have a veto.
WATCH BELOW: No community will have veto over Trans Mountain expansion, Sohi says
Stephen Buffalo, president and CEO of the Indian Resource Council, however, argued that the project and its potential revenues could offer a valuable means of investing in communities that are underfunded by the federal government.
“How we get out of poverty, how we adjust those social issues in our communities, is looking at investments such as this as infrastructure,” he said.
“So when the federal government purchased the TMX [Trans Mountain expansion project], it presented an opportunity — a door — for our First Nations to look at possibly owning the pipeline.”
READ MORE: Jason Kenney cites ‘deep frustration’ as Alberta’s ‘turn off the taps’ law proclaimed
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government purchased the existing Trans Mountain pipeline and associated infrastructure one year ago for $4.5 billion.
That came after Kinder Morgan walked away from its plans to triple the capacity of the pipeline through an expansion.
Fierce opposition has dogged the project since the start, with environmental advocates arguing the risk of a spill along B.C.’s coast is just too great.
And although the expansion was approved federally in 2016, the NDP and Green Party coalition in B.C. has repeatedly taken steps to block the project.
Construction is currently stalled, though, because of a Federal Court injunction last summer that said there was inadequate environmental assessment of the marine impacts of the project and not enough Indigenous consultation.
WATCH BELOW: New Alberta premier talks about “turning off the taps” for B.C.’s gas supply
While the additional environmental assessment has since wrapped up, renewed consultation with the 117 Indigenous communities along the pipeline route continues.
Buffalo said he trusts the federal government under Trudeau as a partner in the project and that things in Indigenous communities cannot continue as they are.
“We need to find balance between economic development and environmental conservation. You look around this area,” said Buffalo, who is a member of the Samson Cree Nation of central Alberta and whose organization is based on the Tsuu T’ina Nation in southwestern Alberta.
“Look at the water. You know that that’s paramount for First Nations and that’s for everyone. But in the same sense, we can’t continue to live in the conditions that our communities are in.”
The federal government last month pushed its deadline for making a decision on the future of the project.
The new date for a decision is June 18.
© 2019 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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