Weekly News Recap: April 21, 2023

Weekly News Recap: April 21, 2023

Peter Stoicheff, president of the University of Saskatchewan. (Dulce Abela/650 CKOM)

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. -- Winston S. Churchill

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO #TheMoment a N.L. town renames its local arena to honour Special Olympian (CBC) NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOUR STORY This is how you build community and celebrate those who have made a difference. "Community hero and Special Olympian Mike Austin attends every event at the arena in Lewisporte, N.L. Watch his heartwarming surprise when the town renamed the arena in his honour." #TheMoment

  • VIDEO: 1,000-year-old canoe recovered from N.C. lake moves Waccamaw tribe members to tears (CBC) #Wow "When Michael Jacobs first laid eyes on a canoe his ancestors expertly crafted a millennium ago, he says he 'couldn't do nothing but cry.' Jacobs is the chief of the Waccamaw Siouan Tribe in southeastern North Carolina, where a team of archaeologists and tribe members and local residents recently pulled a 1,000-year-old canoe from the water. 'For the Creator to allow us an opportunity to actually handle and touch our history is just a blessing. I mean, it's overwhelming,' Chief Jacobs told As It Happens host Nil Köksal."

  • VIDEO: New Heritage Minute profile of B.C. town highlights history of South Asian Canadians for first time (CBC) PALDI STORY #Beautiful "A new Heritage Minute shines a light on a South Asian community established in British Columbia's Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island more than a century ago. Heritage Minutes, produced by non-profit Historica Canada, are a series of 60-second short films that depict significant people, events or stories in Canadian history. This one tells the story of Palidi, B.C., located west of Duncan, through the lens of Punjabi immigrant Bishan Kaur. Bishan is the wife of Mayo Singh, who founded Paldi in 1917, and over the course of a minute, viewers see her years-long transformation into a community leader."

  • Is cribbage too antiquated to survive this digital world? Players and board collectors sure hope not (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT "Is time running out on cribbage, a card game invented by poet and soldier Sir John Suckling in the 17th century, or can a generation infatuated with social media and technology be lured to play a game that literally uses a wooden board and pegs? Those who love the card game are hopeful its legacy lives on in more ways than just in the back of an old dusty cupboard."

  • #TheMoment an ice cream man realizes serving his customers is the real treat (CBC) TORONTO STORY #MakesMeSmile (and want an ice cream) "After nearly 60 years, a Toronto ice cream man says serving his customers still tastes as sweet as it did in the 1960s. Despite his long career he has no plans to quit, and says he’ll keep serving up ice cream as long as he is standing."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Business Awards Gala honours women entrepreneurs, raises more than $1 million for non-profit work (Calgary Herald) CALGARY STORY Congrats to Sue Riddell Rose, Manjit Minhas, Kelly Schmitt, Sippy Chhina, and Mark Brown. "The Business Awards Gala hosted by Axis Connects [brought] together more than 1,300 business leaders, community builders and government officials from across the province to celebrate leaders who have positively affected their community and the economy, while committing to the advancement of women and diverse professionals in business."

  2. U of S kicks off $500-million fundraising campaign (CKOM) SASKATOON STORY #Congrats "The University of Saskatchewan has officially kicked off a massive fundraising campaign. Peter Stoicheff, the university’s president, said the $500-million campaign is the largest the university has ever embarked on, and also the largest seen in the province. 'It represents our ambitions to be a university that stands for excellence,' he said. [...] So far, more than $322 million — 65 per cent of the campaign goal — has been raised as part of the 'quiet' phase of the campaign."

  3. A Better World completes largest student trip in Kenya; opens new classroom (Red Deer News Now) RED DEER STORY Love this. "Not only has the local non-profit A Better World (ABW) just completed their largest student trip, but the group was able to fundraise double their initial goal. [Each] student had to raise $4,000 for their travel expenses and $500 to sponsor the building of a school classroom, for a total of $10,000, allowing the students to be invested in making a difference."

  4. ‘Economic engine’: U of A contributes $19.4 billion a year to Alberta’s economy (Folio) EDMONTON STORY "The University of Alberta generates $19.4 billion a year for the province’s economy, contributing more than five per cent of Alberta’s GDP — the equivalent of the provincial health care and social assistance industry or the revenue from 84 thriving Edmonton Oilers NHL teams — according to a new economic impact study. The study also shows that every dollar the province invests in the U of A brings a return of $4.80."

  5. VIDEO: Rare hybrid solar eclipse delights sky watchers (CBC) #Beautiful "Under a cloudless sky, 20,000 eclipse chasers crowded a tiny outpost to watch a rare solar eclipse plunge part of Australia's northwest coast into brief midday darkness on Thursday while temporarily cooling the tropical heat."

  6. 5 more downtown office towers will be converted to residential housing (CBC) CALGARY STORY #Smart "In total, the city is offering the building owners $36.3 million in incentives. The conversions will remove nearly 500,000 square feet of empty or underused building space from the market while creating 530 residential units. Five other building conversions were previously announced by the city. Mayor Jyoti Gondek said the city incentives for 10 buildings so far total about $86 million. But that money has leveraged nearly $190 million in investment from private owners."

  7. Why ditching spring cleaning could be good for you (CBC) CANADIAN STORY I completely agree. "It's a season when the compulsion to deep clean and declutter is strong within the collective psyche, driven by a mix of product advertising, tradition and a post-winter energy boost. Fifty-nine per cent of Canadians engage in spring cleaning every year, according to a 2022 Ipsos Survey conducted for cleaning supplies producer Libman Company. But this year, Vancouver mom and business owner Jenn Wint plans to skip the purge. 'If I did do it, no one would notice. So if I don't do it, no one will notice.' Wint is the author of the children's book Josie's Busy Calendar. It's about learning to prioritize mental well-being over a long to-do list, and she says deep cleaning to seasonal deadlines, with two small children in the house, is not only an extra burden but a waste of time."

  8. Famously elusive wolverine photographed in south Calgary (CBC) CALGARY STORY #SuperCool "Famously fierce and elusive, wolverines are a rare sight in the Canadian wilderness, even for researchers. As such, glimpsing one in a city the size of Calgary is almost unbelievable. Yet that's what happened Saturday in the southern outskirts of the city. Two wildlife photographers snapped images of the solitary carnivore as it darted through frozen marshland. 'It made quite a racket,' said Gordon Cooke, one of the photographers. 'I had no idea what it was until it broke out into the open and I got a couple shots of it.'"

  9. How Sweden electrified its home heating — and what Canada could learn (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT Yes please! "In the 1970s, three quarters of Swedish homes were heated with oil boilers. Today, electric-powered heat pumps have all but replaced oil in single-family homes (most multi-family homes rely on district heating). That has driven greenhouse gas emissions from oil heating of buildings down 95 per cent since 1990, according to the Swedish Energy Agency, said Martin Forsén a Swedish heating industry veteran and president of the European Heat Pump Association."

  10. OPINION LETTER: Call it what it is – Memorial University fired Vianne Timmons (Saltwire) NEWFOUNDLAND STORY "'I believe Ms. Timmons was being forced out because of some changes she tried to make at Memorial and because she is a she.'"

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Supercharge Your Personal Growth with AI-Powered Tools (Alex Northwood) More AI fun.

  2. The Best Places to Live for Millennials in 2023 (Nathan Chen) This is a great list and having been to some of these cities, they are right on the money.

  3. Punctuality: The Soft Skill To Enhance Your Career (LFulton) It really can be career limiting to be habitually late.

  4. You should write an email to a friend. Even today. (Omkar K) I am writing one later today.

  5. SpaceX: The Perfect Things Has Their Failure Tho (Lutfia Ramadhanti) Space is hard. Working out these issues now will save lives later.

  6. VIDEO: Bird by Bird with Anne (Amazon.com) This is mesmerizing to watch. And, if you are a writer or a wannabe writer, this is a must watch.

  7. VIDEO: Day at Night: Ray Bradbury (YouTube) I have always been a fan of Ray Bradbury and this books. I hope you enjoy this.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Sprott donates to WoodGreen’s Bowden Street project (Construction Connect) TORONTO STORY More of this please. "WoodGreen Community Services and the WoodGreen Foundation have announced a $4 million gift from the Sprott Foundation to kick off WoodGreen’s Unmet Needs Campaign, supporting a seniors’ affordable housing development at 60 Bowden St. in Toronto. The project will adapt the site of Danforth Baptist Church into 50 new, affordable one-bedroom and studio apartments for seniors, stated a release. The eight-storey, pre-modular complex will preserve historical architectural elements of the church, including the sanctuary, combining the traditional brick and stone towers of the church with a new mass-timber structure."

  2. Couple makes record $100M donation to MSU for scholarships (CBS) "STARKVILLE, Miss. (WJTV) – "A couple donated $100 million to Mississippi State University (MSU) for scholarships, the largest amount ever gifted to a higher education institution in Mississippi. The gift comes from Texas couple George and Kathy Bishop. The donation will go toward the George Bishop Family Endowed Scholarship that was originally established by the couple with $10 million in 2018. George, a native of Smith County, earned a degree in petroleum geology from the land-grant institution in 1958. He worked in the oil and gas industry in Louisiana and Texas before founding GeoSouthern Energy in 1981."

  3. Unlucky Investor Ron Perelman Returns With $25M Donation to Brown (Daily Beast) "Don’t call it a comeback. Fresh from a bankruptcy filing at Revlon, where he was formerly the largest shareholder, Ron Perelman has donated $25 million to establish an 'arts district' in his name at Brown University."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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