Weekly News Recap: January 12, 2024

Weekly News Recap: January 12, 2024

A B.C. conservation group says it has purchased exclusive hunting rights to a quarter of the Great Bear Rainforest on the province's north and central coast to protect wildlife there. (Florent Nicolas/Raincoast Conservation Foundation)

If conservation of natural resources goes wrong, nothing else will go right. -- M. S. Swaminathan

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • This therapist is creating an inclusive mixed martial arts studio in Prince George (CBC) PRINCE GEORGE STORY I heart this. "The founder of a mixed martial arts (MMA) studio in Prince George says she wants to introduce therapy and trauma-informed teaching methods for women, gender-diverse and neurodiverse people. Nicole Sawin, founder of Connection Martial Arts, says access to an inclusive martial arts community has been lacking in the northern B.C. city."

  • VIDEO: #TheMoment Montreal teens saved a couple from drowning in Barbados (CBC) MONTREAL STORY #Heroes "Two Montreal teenagers, Zoe Meklensek-Ireland and Emma Bassermann, are being hailed as heroes after they jumped in the water to save a couple from drowning in Barbados."

  • New program trains barbers as mental-health first responders for Black communities (Globe and Mail) TORONTO STORY #Brilliant "Niaimani Thomas’s passion for cutting hair began 'back home' in Jamaica. [Now] she says she sees some clients weekly, and like many barbers and hairdressers, has built deep relationships through her practice. It’s that barber-client rapport that Self Care Through Hair, a new initiative from Black Mental Health Canada (BMHC), is trying to leverage. Through the program, BMHC provides mental-health training to barbers and hairdressers."

  • This Labradoodle ate $4K in cold, hard cash. Most of it came back out (CBC) Cecil!! "Carrie Law was working from home [...] when she heard her husband shouting in a panic: 'Cecil ate the money!' Cecil is the Pittsburgh couple's beloved pet Labradoodle. And the money was $4,000 US in crisp $50 and $100 bills, withdrawn earlier that day and set aside on the counter to pay for a landscaping project. Now the couple is withdrawing the cash again — but not from the bank."

  • ‘Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go’ Turns 50 (New York Times) I could not part with my Richard Scarry. Too many memories of me and my young children. "We thought children’s books would be easier to lose, but Basha’s edit came to a full stop when she discovered our battered copy of 'Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go.' Back in 1974, invited by his publisher to do a 'car and truck' book for boys, Scarry 'gave it a little thought — and an impish wink,' his son, Huck, writes in an afterword to the new 50th anniversary edition. 'He knew that cars and trucks were fun not only for boys but also for girls … as well as parents, grandparents and babysitters.' "

  • Writing in two directions (MIT Technology Review) #Palindrome Very cool. "When I was a teenager in South Jersey and getting a driving lesson from my dad, he casually mentioned that I should look in the rearview mirror every now and then to see what was going on behind me. To borrow an expression from my Italian grandmother, I remained with my mouth open—that is, I was astonished. How was it possible, I wondered, to look in front of me and behind me at the same time? In that instant, I probably knew that I would very soon become a passionate nondriver, but I couldn’t have imagined that I would find my calling doing the very thing I thought impossible: looking forward and backward simultaneously."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Did You Know Vivo is Home to Calgary’s First Indoor Park? (Avenue Calgary) CALGARY STORY Finally! Someone is doing a story on this fantastic park! ViTreo is proud to have played a small role in getting this project off the ground. #SoCool. "The new 19,500-square-foot indoor park supports this mission by providing everyone with a comfortable space to stay active regardless of the weather. The park includes fitness areas, green space, picnic benches and more, all in a well-lit, beautifully designed space. Done in partnership with Dialog, the Vivo expansion also includes notable additions like a six-lane pool, a fitness centre, yoga studios, a spa with steam and sauna facilities, a tinkering lab, a research centre and more."

  2. Bowled over: Why some Canadians are feeling duped by their breakfast cereal (CBC) CANADIAN STORY [Last] month, he picked up Kellogg's Vector. Bold lettering on the box declares that it has 'high protein' — more specifically, that it 'provides 13 g of protein' per serving. '[It's] actually pretty high for a breakfast cereal. That's why I bought it,' said Bennett, who lives in Chilliwack, B.C. He felt good about his choice — until he noticed the fine print on the box one morning during breakfast." Thanks to Katia Asomaning, Recap Editor, for sharing this story."

  3. 2023 was the hottest year on record — by a long shot (CBC) CALGARY CONTENT Um, I am pretty sure it is 1.5 C that we are trying to avoid...1.48 C seems pretty close. "After a year of record-breaking wildfires across Canada and the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth, it likely comes as no surprise that 2023 was the hottest year on record. According to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), 2023 was 1.48 C warmer than the pre-industrial average from 1850-1900, beating out 2016's record of 1.25 C."

  4. Tiger Woods, Nike to split after more than 27 years (CBC) The end of an era. Nothing lasts forever and every day has an ending. Thanks for the memories Tiger. "Tiger Woods is no longer a Nike athlete after 27 years, ending a partnership between the swoosh and golf's biggest star and raising questions about the future of both in the sport. Woods in a social media post thanked Nike co-founder Phil Knight for his 'passion and vision' that brought Nike and the Nike Golf partnership with Woods together."

  5. The Great Cousin Decline (The Atlantic) I heart cousins. "The average number of cousins is declining in the U.S. and much of Europe, and the same trend is predicted to hit other parts of the world in the coming decades. American families are shrinking in general, but with cousins, that drop happens at a dramatic scale."

  6. Dr. Verna Yiu hopes AHS experience will shape next generation of U of A students (CBC) EDMONTON STORY Verna, you are the best. Congrats. "The doctor who led Alberta Health Services (AHS) through the COVID-19 pandemic has taken on a new role at the University of Alberta. Dr. Verna Yiu, who served as president and CEO of AHS from June 2016 to April 2022, has been appointed as the university's provost and vice-president academic. She's served as interim provost since July 2022."

  7. Has Gratuity Culture Reached a Tipping Point? (New Yorker) A truly fantastic article on tipping. Be warned, if you want to listen to it, it's a 31-minute listen but...oh so worth it. "Before screens, tipping, like a marriage proposal, was a private affair. Tips can reveal hidden values or the rumblings of the subconscious. A waitress’s breast size, for instance, correlates positively with tip size. 'Mad Men”-era husbands tipped more when dining with someone else’s wife than with their own. The grief-inflected gratitude of the post-pandemic period introduced new tipping behaviors. Etiquette experts studied the so-called guilt-tip boom."

  8. This AI Trained on the Life Events of Every Person in Denmark. It Can Now Predict Their Future. (Singularity Hub) This is either super awesome or the end is nigh. "The possibility of mapping out someone’s entire life in advance is both exciting and scary. A new artificial intelligence trained on the personal data of every person in Denmark can do just that."

  9. Lululemon founder faces backlash for blasting company's diversity, inclusion efforts (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY What is up with this guy? So brilliant at building a world-class company and yet... "Lululemon founder Chip Wilson is again facing criticism for his latest remarks regarding the company's diversity and inclusion efforts. In a recent article by Forbes, Wilson objected to the company's use of models with a range of body types, whom he said looked 'unhealthy,' 'sickly' and 'not inspirational.' "

  10. Conservation group buys out hunting rights in B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest to protect wildlife (CBC) BRITISH COLUMBIA STORY Hey, Duck's Unlimited does it for the hunters... #JustSayin "A conservation group says its latest purchase of exclusive hunting rights in a British Columbia rainforest is a major step toward protecting the area's wildlife, but hunters say the move is an 'abuse' of the licensing system. The Raincoast Conservation Foundation, based in Sidney, B.C., said [...] that it raised $1.92 million over two years to buy the rights from hunters that cover roughly a quarter, or 18,000 square kilometres, of the Great Bear Rainforest on the province's north and central coast."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. My 4 Favorite Landing Page Resources (Benjamin Watkins) Great resource.

  2. The best ways to help homeless people (VOX) One of the most thoughtful and humane articles I have read in a long time.

  3. How to think before you speak, online and off (VOX) A miss manners for the Internet.

  4. A guide to difficult conversations for people who hate confrontation (VOX) I suck at difficult conversations. This is SO helpful.

  5. ‘Indigenizing’ universities means building relationships with nations and lands (The Conversation) CANADIAN STORY A must read if you are involved in, care about, or want to work on truth and reconciliation in an authentic way.

  6. 16th-Century Beauty Secrets, Revealed (New York Times) I just read a biography of Leonardo Da Vinci so this fits. Makeup is not new. A quote from 1598: "If one sees a poor woman who has six pennies to her name, four of them are on her face."

  7. To Own the Future, Read Shakespeare (Wired) For those science snobs who think the humanities are a waste of time, oops.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Zekelman Foundation donates $1M to Windsor's Safety Village (Windsor Star) WINDSOR STORY "The Stephanie and Barry Zekelman Foundation has announced a million-dollar donation and partnership with The Safety Village — a local not-for-profit that runs safety and injury-prevention education programs for youth in Windsor-Essex."

  2. South Okanagan charity gets $4M donation, largest in its history (Infotel) SOUTH OKANAGAN STORY "A South Okanagan charity has received the largest donation in it's history. John Pankiw has given $4 million to the Community Foundation of the South Okanagan Similkameen making his donation the largest the foundation has ever received."

  3. Shohei Ohtani and Dodgers donating $1 million to support victims of Japan's earthquakes (NBC) "Shohei Ohtani and his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are making donations in support of the victims of earthquakes that struck western Japan on New Year's Day."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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