Weekly News Recap: December 8, 2023

Weekly News Recap: December 8, 2023

From left, Sue Riddell Rose, Jim Riddell, Lynne Riddell, Brenda Riddell. Jonathan Ferguson for OWN.CANCER campaign

You can be sad. You can go there. But you can’t stay there. Try to set your intention to get through the day and be as present as you can be. -- Heather Jose (cancer patient)

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO: Vancouver non-profit offers holiday portrait sessions to unhoused people (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY This warms my heart. "The Union Gospel Mission provided professional hair, make-up and holiday photo sessions to people experiencing homelessness, poverty and addiction during its annual Help Portrait event."

  • VIDEO: Polar Bear at the Calgary Zoo Gives Little Girl a 'High Five' (Parade Pets) CALGARY STORY Polar bears are just plain cool. "Polar bears are an animal that we can really only admire from afar. Most often, they live in the wild, in places that aren't populated by a lot of people. But when they're part of a conservation initiative at the zoo, we get an incredible opportunity to see them up close."

  • VIDEO: From the forest to the fireside, this Indigenous chef is exploring traditional cooking (CBC) CANADIAN STORY Yes, we had a similar story last week but, honestly, it's too good not to share. "Ray Bear says food is the base of every culture – and Indigenous people lost a lot of that history to Canada’s residential schools. The Cree chef took CBC Nova Scotia News host Amy Smith foraging near Asitu'lisk, formerly Windhorse Farm, to talk about his spin on traditional Indigenous cuisine."

  • VIDEO: Become a garbage-picking raccoon in this new — and extremely Toronto — game (CBC) TORONTO STORY Lolz. "A new video game called 'Trash Panda' lets players roam the streets of Toronto as the city’s unofficial mascot — a raccoon. Metro Morning host David Common spoke with creator and developer Jason Leaver about reaction to the game, and what comes next."

  • Principal adopts student who was sent to his office (Good Morning America) #LoveIsEverywhere "A family in Kentucky will celebrate their ninth Christmas together this year as a family of three after an adoption that began in the most unlikely of places. Jason Smith, a school principal for 14 years, met his daughter, Raven Whitaker-Smith, in 2015 when she was sitting outside his office after being suspended from the sixth grade."

  • Detroit's newest road can charge electric cars as they travel on it (Axios) We dreamed of this in engineering school. #TresCool "How it works: When an EV equipped with an approved receiver nears the in-road charging segment, the road transfers electricity wirelessly through a magnetic field. The electricity is then transferred as energy to the vehicle's battery. It works whether the vehicle is parked (static charging) or moving (dynamic charging)."

  • ‘I was told not to make eye contact with Tom Cruise’: meet the world’s most prolific film extra (The Guardian) Quite the life. "As Jill grew busier, her husband Geoff, an accountant by training, noted down her gigs in date order, up to that record-breaking 1,951st appearance. This is the list she refers to now to jog her memory on specifics, such as how many Carry On films she worked on ('Oh, about 80%), the on-set mood during the very first episode of EastEnders ('It was a party scene in the Old Vic and the producer wanted her dog Roly to be in it'). Or the title of her very first gig, a 1963 film called Just for Fun, which might serve as the motto for her entire career."

  • These penguins take 10,000 little naps a day — seconds at a time (NPR) Um...ya. So, what's the big deal? I have been doing this for years (grin). "Similar to the book Everyone Poops, most animals sleep. Scientists have studied everything from mice to fruit flies in the lab to get a better understanding of what happens when animals sleep — and why so many do it. However, gathering data on how animals sleep in their natural habitat has always been tricky and hard to do. But scientists did just that with wild chinstrap penguins in Antarctica. In doing so, researchers found birds in the nesting colony took over ten thousand microsleeps throughout the day – amounting to a whopping 11 hours of sleep."

  • VIDEO: A soldier in Vietnam and a girl wrote letters. Decades later, they finally met. (The Washington Post) Yep, made me cry. "Col. Ned Edward Felder was serving in Vietnam when he was surprised by a care package from a stranger. It wasn’t the contents that touched him; it was the idea that someone had taken the trouble to send it. Alone in the midst of a war thousands of miles from his own home and family, the kindness felt enormous."

  • Red Lobster’s endless shrimp deal was too popular, company says (CNN) Oops but good news for all of us who had our fill of the wee shrimpies. "It was a simple plan. Business tends to slow down at Red Lobster locations during the third and fourth quarters, so its parent company, Thai Union, launched a new promotion. For $20, customers could eat as much shrimp as they wanted. The promotion has been a tradition at the chain for more than 18 years, but in June the company announced that endless shrimp would become a permanent fixture on the menu. 'We knew the price was cheap. But the idea was to bring more traffic in the restaurants,' Thai Union CFO Ludovic Garnier said in an earnings call earlier this month. Turns out the plan turned out a little too well, the company said in its third quarter earnings. More customers took advantage of the seafood chain’s 'Ultimate Endless Shrimp' than expected — the key reason for the chain’s roughly $11 million loss in the third quarter of 2023."

  • AUDIO: 'A story of hope': Scientists find elusive golden mole for the 1st time in 87 years (CBC) Found! At last! "When a group of conservation scientists set off in search of a long-lost species of South Africa moles in 2021, their colleagues warned them not to get their hopes up. After all, the last time a scientist had seen a De Winton's golden mole was in 1936. What's more, the critically endangered species dwells entirely underground, and is extremely difficult to distinguish from other types of golden moles who share its habitat. But now, the team from the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) and the University of Pretoria have confirmed the elusive creature lives on. "

  • New webcam installed in Seaport Village (Fox News) If you love San Diego (and I do), this is a wonderful addition to the screens. "A newly installed webcam is capturing real-time views of the eastern end of San Diego Bay. San Diego Web Cam, a popular YouTube channel that features livestreaming views of downtown and the bay from multiple cameras, announced that the latest webcam is now live. Located at Mike Hess Brewing in Seaport Village, the San Diego Bay East webcam marks the 10th of its kind in the surrounding area."

  • VIDEO: Mating dance of sea fireflies is 'the coolest fireworks show that you've ever seen' (CBC) #Spectacular "Nicholai Hensley has spent countless hours standing waist-deep in pitch-black waters off the coast of Panama, watching thousands of tiny sea creatures perform dazzling displays of bright blue light. The creatures — each the size of a sesame seed — belong to a recently discovered species of ostracod, also known as sea fireflies, whose males lure potential mates with a synchronized dance powered by iridescent mucus."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Former governor general, TV host Adrienne Clarkson inducted into CBC News Hall of Fame (CBC) CANADIAN STORY I once had the privilege of working with her on a project for the PPCLI. Congratulations and...well deserved. "Former governor general and longtime CBC journalist Adrienne Clarkson has been inducted into the CBC News Hall of fame, becoming the 10th inductee since the honour was established. Clarkson's induction comes after a decades-long career in both journalism and government — including co-host of CBC's The Fifth Estate current affairs program beginning with its first season in 1975, and being appointed the first racialized governor general in Canadian history — and she has an ongoing presence as a writer and cultural commentator in the Canadian media landscape."

  2. Taylor Swift makes history as Time's Person of the Year for 2023 (CBC) #Boom "Taylor Swift is in her Person of the Year Era.... again. Time has named Swift Person of the Year for 2023. The achievement is an historic one, making her the first woman to appear twice on a Person of the Year cover since the franchise began in 1927, according to Time. Swift was also named Person of the Year in 2017, when she was recognized as one of the Silence Breakers, a group the magazine identified as vital to the #MeToo movement and inspired women to speak out about sexual misconduct."

  3. Experimental implant could make live-saving diabetes treatment more widely available (Eureka Alert) CANADIAN CONTENT I had the rare privilege of working with Dr. Shapiro when I worked in medicine at the UofA. Today, as a diabetic, I am superman. "A cross-border collaboration between researchers at the University of Alberta and Cornell University has successfully created a device which, once implanted under the skin, can secrete insulin without triggering an immune response. In a paper published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, the scientists, led by James Shapiro, at the U of A, and Minglin Ma of Cornell, report the device could someday make transplants of insulin-producing cells more accessible — and safer — for those living with diabetes."

  4. Want to own the world's largest hockey stick? This B.C. community wants to talk (CBC) COWICHAN VALLEY CONTENT Hockey stick anyone? "Vancouver Island's Cowichan Valley Regional District wants to know who is willing to take a shot at owning the world's largest hockey stick. It says the more than 62-metre wooden stick and puck that has been attached to the east side of the Cowichan Community Centre in Duncan — about a 60-kilometre drive northwest of Victoria — for the past 35 years needs more than a new tape job. The regional district says the glue structure holding the giant Douglas fir replica stick together has decayed and must be removed to protect public safety."

  5. Harvard Gutted Initial Team Examining Facebook Files Following $500 Million Donation from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Whistleblower Aid Client Reveals (Whistleblower Aid) #Ugh "Harvard University dismantled its prestigious team of online disinformation experts after a foundation run by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated $500 million to the university, a whistleblower disclosure filed by Whistleblower Aid reveals. Dr. Joan Donovan, one of the world’s leading experts on social media disinformation, says she ran into a wall of institutional resistance and eventual termination after she and her team at Harvard’s Technology and Social Change Research Project (TASC) began analyzing thousands of documents exposing Facebook’s knowledge of how the platform has caused significant public harm."

  6. Vancouver adds electric fire truck to its fleet (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY This is supercool. "The City of Vancouver has added an electric fire engine to its fleet in a move it says will help reduce overall carbon emissions. The Austrian-built Rosenbauer RTX pumper truck will be stationed at Firehall No. 1 in the city's Strathcona neighbourhood. Fire chief Karen Fry says it is the first electric fire truck to be put into service in Canada. 'This is the first electric fire truck in Canada and the second in North America,' she said during an interview with CBC's On The Coast."

  7. Sandra Day O’Connor, First Woman on the Supreme Court, Is Dead at 93 (New York Times) RIP Justice O'Connor. You paved the way and we will not see your like again. "Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman on the United States Supreme Court, a rancher’s daughter who wielded great power over American law from her seat at the center of the court’s ideological spectrum, died in Phoenix. She was 93."

  8. Salvation Army sues Manitoba family services agencies after allegations unmarried moms coerced into adoptions (CBC) MANITOBA STORY "Two years ago, a proposed national class action lawsuit filed against the Salvation Army alleged the Canadian charity took advantage of unmarried soon-to-be mothers who lived in the organization's maternity homes — and allegedly coerced them into placing their newborns up for adoption. Now, a Manitoba lawsuit filed by the Salvation Army alleges that in that province, it's some child and family services agencies who bear responsibility for any coercion during adoptions. The Governing Council of The Salvation Army in Canada — the charity's legal entity — is suing multiple child and family services agencies, which it says oversaw adoptions in Manitoba and 'owed a duty of care' to the pregnant women who lived at the homes."

  9. VIDEO: Airlines may start charging you for this … (CBC) #Aaahh #Crap "Airline industry insiders say passengers have become carried away with carry-on baggage, leading to costly delays. That’s prompting calls to change how airlines charge for this."

  10. Almost half of Gen Z Canadians support paying for healthcare (Edmonton City News) CANADIAN STORY I heart Gen Z. They will save us all. "A new report shows that more than 40 per cent of young Canadians support paying for healthcare services. An interesting survey result as the young adults CityNews spoke with at the University of Alberta say it’s a hot button issue for them. 'That’s a bit surprising to me. I though it would have expected it to be the opposite to be honest,' said one U of A student. One University of Alberta student say healthcare is on his mind when he goes to the polls. 'Especially since the last election. I’m definitely more of a publicly funded access for all kind of person. So it’s a bit of a hot issue I guess.' "

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Turning the Future into the Past (Roger Martin) I am going through a very curious phase where I am trying to find ways to best become an amateur futurist (I am pretty good now but I need to get better). This article helps.

  2. The best Canadian fiction of 2023 (CBC) Perfect for Christmas, right? The New York Times recently had a list of the top ten books for 2023. I ordered the entire list for my wife as a Christmas present (she never reads this recap).

  3. Steal these guidelines for your next meeting (Jackie Colburn) Some cool stuff here including for virtual meetings.

  4. Strategy vs. Goals (Alexis Savkin) Not the same. But, you know that.

  5. The 1st (and Greatest) Victory in Life — Plato (Personal Growth) Thomas Oppong is a prolific writer on Medium but, for whatever reason, I rarely quote him. This time, he captured me.

  6. The Best Life Lessons From the Pandemic (Mark Manson) What were your lessons?"

  7. Why Capitalize “Indigenous”? (Sapiens) My friend, mentor, and colleague, Jennifer Johnstone reminded all of us in a recent meeting in the U.S. that Indigenous always needs to be capitalized. In case you are wondering why, here is one really great article that talks about it.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Canadian-Israeli Sylvan Adams pledges $100m ‘to strengthen Israel’s south’ (Jewish News) CANADIAN STORY "A Canadian-Israeli philanthropist has pledged one of the largest donations of its kind to Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU).

  2. Riddell family makes $25M OWN.CANCER gift to advance groundbreaking cancer immunotherapy research and biomanufacturing (UCalgary) CALGARY STORY Wonderful! "A multimillion dollar gift from a Calgary family to the OWN.CANCER campaign will support new cancer immunotherapy research and treatment development through the creation of the Riddell Centre for Cancer Immunotherapy at the University of Calgary’s (UCalgary) Cumming School of Medicine, Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre and Alberta Children’s Hospital — advancing the goal of making Calgary home to some of the best cancer research and care in the world. "

  3. Borealis Philanthropy awards $5.4 million to BIPOC newsrooms (Philanthropy News Digest) "Borealis Philanthropy has announced grants totaling more than $5.4 million to 58 organizations to help ensure that Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Asian people have access to the news and information they need to navigate geographies and social systems."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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