Weekly News Recap: July 1, 2022

Weekly News Recap: July 1, 2022

Nazem Kadri holds the Stanley Cup after the Colorado Avalanche victory over Tampa Bay on Sunday. (Mike Carlson/Getty Images)

Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -- Mahatma Gandhi

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • COVID vaccines saved 20 million lives in first year, study says (PBS) #YesToScience and #ThankYOU "Nearly 20 million lives were saved by COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, but even more deaths could have been prevented if international targets for the shots had been reached, researchers reported[...] On Dec. 8, 2020, a retired shop clerk in England received the first shot in what would become a global vaccination campaign. Over the next 12 months, more than 4.3 billion people around the world lined up for the vaccines."

  • When Nazem Kadri hoisted the Stanley Cup, he lifted a whole community along with it (CBC) CANADIAN STORY Congrats to the entire Colorado Avalanche and a special kudos to the first Muslim hockey player to win a Stanley Cup #Kadri "Throughout these riveting NHL playoffs, my mind was not only on the results of the games but the impact of the winners. As the Colorado Avalanche inched closer to clinching their Stanley Cup final win, my thoughts turned to the Av's Nazem Kadri. Kadri is a Muslim man of Lebanese descent. Last month, Kadri's wife, Ashley, posted the hateful messages the Kadris are getting on an Instagram account that she runs for Jazzy, the family pet. Yes, people were sending violently racist messages to the account of a tuxedo cat."

  • 'What's more Canadian?' Banff resort to open to skiers, snowboarders on Canada Day (CBC) BANFF STORY #HappyCanadaDay "A lingering winter snowpack in Alberta's Rocky Mountains means skiers and snowboarders can spend this week — including Canada Day — on the slopes. Banff Sunshine Village opened for summer sightseeing last week, but it also plans to open Tuesday for skiing and riding until Sunday. 'We still had such a surplus of snow,' Kendra Scurfield, director of brand and communications for the resort, said Monday. 'Over 900 centimetres actually fell on our slopes this winter, which is the snowiest on record since the '56-'57 ski season — a time before snowboarding was even around.' 'When we got to the end of June with all that snow, we thought, 'Hey, why don't we see if we can open?' The resort, which hasn't opened this late in the season since 1991, will operate its Strawberry Express chairlift and groom some of the runs around it."

  • Lol, jaja, xaxa, and all the other ways people laugh around the world (Big Think) "[Laughter] is universal, but that ends when we attempt to put that sound into words. Then, as demonstrated by this map, the Tower of Babel effect kicks in."

  • Being Present Is a Choice (John P. Weiss) A powerful reminder. "Being present is a choice. My job allows me the choice, of being present in a moment of intense grief, or not. I’ll explain. I am a hospice nurse. I work in an inpatient unit, the second oldest free-standing hospice house in the nation. We take care of patients that have symptoms that cannot be relieved at home. The sickest, the most painful, or the most alone. I work 12-hour shifts. I give gallons of comfort meds. I’m sometimes exhausted beyond words, and sometimes I let my coworkers deal with emotional families. Sometimes it’s me."

  • Coach rescues U.S. artistic swimmer from bottom of pool at world championships (CBC) Talk about being present. This. This is a coach. "Andrea Fuentes prevented a tragedy at the swimming world championships with her quick reaction. The United States coach knew something was wrong when she saw U.S. artistic swimmer Anita Alvarez sink motionless to the bottom of the pool during a solo free routine on Wednesday. The fully clothed Fuentes dived in. She swam to the unresponsive Alvarez, put her arms around her, and lifted her to the water's surface, where another person helped get her out of the pool."

  • Ontario grower fixing the 'most complained about' produce item: plastic-wrapped cucumbers (Yahoo News) ONTARIO STORY This is so cool. "Dino DiLaudo stands beside a conveyor belt stacked with freshly grown cucumbers plucked from leafy, green vines that drape down from the glass ceiling of a nearby greenhouse. These cucumbers are about to go through a treatment process that will eliminate millions of tonnes of single-use plastic from the supply chain."

  • The World’s Fastest Electric Ferries Are Coming to Stockholm (Bloomberg) #GoElectric "Stockholm is set to experiment with new electric passenger ferries that could make commuting along its waterways just as fast as — and altogether greener than — driving by car. Currently the world’s fastest electric passenger vessel, according to the Swedish company that makes it, the Candela P-12 will start serving a passenger route between central Stockholm and the suburban island of Ekerö in 2023."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Four Calgarians appointed as members of the Order of Canada (Calgary Herald) CANADIAN STORY Dr. David Lynch was my first boss in fundraising. He is one of four deans I have worked alongside in my career as a fundraiser. Before today, two of them wore Order of Canada pins on their lapels. Today, Dr. Lynch joins them. Congrats to David and to all of the recent appointments. "Gov. Gen. Mary Simon announced the new appointments and promotions Wednesday morning, as part of a tradition to honour people whose work and service shape Canadian society. The Order of Canada is one of the country’s highest honours and more than 7,600 people have been invested into the order since its creation in 1967."

  2. Lowering the Flag: Dr. Frederick Otto (The Quad) EDMONTON STORY Dr. Otto was dean of engineering for four of my five years as a student in the Faculty. More than that, Dr. Otto and Helen were friends to all of us on the UofA Hybrid Electric Vehicle Project. Dr. Otto joined our team in Dearborn Michigan and was there to watch us win the 1993 HEV Challenge. As a University of Michigan graduate, Dr. Otto was especially proud to be there with us. RIP Dr. Otto. We will not see your like again. "The University of Alberta banner is flying at half-mast from June 27–30, 2022 in remembrance of Dr. Frederick Otto, Professor Emeritus, former Dean, Faculty of Engineering and former Chair of the Department of Chemical Engineering. Dr. Frederick Otto passed away on May 1, 2022."

  3. Baby mammoth found trapped in ice in Canada (The Goa Spotlight) YUKON STORY All babies are beautiful, even those that are 30,000 years old. This is an incredible find. "It could have been just another ordinary day at work. But in the middle of the day, a team of Canadian miners came across something beyond curious: the excavator was no longer hitting just boulders, but a 30,000-year-old woolly mammoth calf. The ice age animal was found under the permafrost of the Klondike region of the Yukon. [...] The area where the mammoth was found belongs to the Tr’ondek Hwech’in First Nation. Because of this, the researchers gave the cub the name Nun cho ga, which means 'big baby animal' in the Han language, spoken by native peoples."

  4. Tim Hortons suspending World Juniors sponsorship over Hockey Canada’s response to sexual assault allegations (The Globe and Mail) CANADIAN STORY "Tim Hortons is suspending its support of the IIHF World Junior Championship and plans to re-evaluate its sponsorship of Hockey Canada, over the organization’s response to allegations that eight Canadian Hockey League players sexually assaulted a young woman in 2018 after a Hockey Canada gala."

  5. Why Indian immigrants' 1st names sometimes end up as XXX on Canadian passports (CBC) CANADIAN STORY #Ugh We need to do better. "Safa Khan didn't think her Canadian passport would prove to be such a hassle when she first moved from Delhi to London, Ont., nearly 10 years ago. Khan received her Canadian passport earlier this year, with her full name — first, middle and last — shown as Safa Jamaluddin Khan printed in the surname field. Her first name on the official document reads XXX."

  6. One of the Senate’s staunchest charitable sector advocates, Terry M. Mercer, retires (AFP Global) CANADIAN STORY Congratulations and thank you Terry. You have served our country and our profession. We look forward to spending time with you in your next adventure. "After 19 years, The Honourable Senator Terry M. Mercer has retired from the Senate of Canada on his 75th birthday, May 6, 2022. From the outset, he was an advocate for the charitable sector—working hard to convince his colleagues of the importance of its work and the impact it has on Canadians, from the programs it provides to the jobs it generates."

  7. 'We wanted people to feel like they belonged': Rural Alberta churches celebrate 2SLGBTQ Pride (CBC) ALBERTA STORY More please. "Rev. Robin King took over a church in Bashaw, Alta., and desired to make the congregation more inclusive. His initiative helped spread love even further. 'Jesus never talked about tolerating people. He just talked about loving them and accepting them for who they are,' King said. Many churches throughout rural Alberta are striving to become more accepting of the two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community — cohorts of people who have historically been discriminated against by those of the Christian faith."

  8. $650K donated to Big Brothers Big Sisters Calgary to promote mentorship among youth (Global News) CALGARY STORY Congrats to Bigs and thank you to the Canadian Progress Club. "Big Brothers Big Sisters of Calgary and Area received its single largest donation in the agency’s history, $650,000 [...] The organization said the money will go toward matching more young people with mentors, assisting with staff supports, and creating more experiences for matches."

  9. Canada needs 5.8 million new homes by 2030 to tackle affordability crisis, CMHC warns (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) says 3.5 million more homes need to be built by 2030 to reach affordability. The agency released a report [...] explaining the need for a different approach to the housing supply shortage at a time of rising demand and affordability concerns. 'Increasing supply will be difficult. Critically, increasing supply takes time because the time to construct is significant, but so is the time to progress through government approval processes,' the report reads. 'This delay means that we must act today to achieve affordability by 2030.'"

  10. Nurses are fighting to have Muzzo name removed from Ontario Hospitals (blogTO) ONTARIO STORY "A campaign is in motion to have the Muzzo family name removed from hospitals in the province following the suicide of Edward Lake, whose three children and father-in-law were killed by drunk driver Marco Muzzo in 2015."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. How To Stop Wasting Your Time (Personal Growth) The current priorities stickie is genius. No, not your priorities for the day but your priorities for this time in your life.

  2. I Lost 100 Pounds With This Daily Routine (Brother Tramaine) I am struggling to lose 30 lbs. This might help.

  3. Why Productivity Kills Progress and How to Be Effective Instead (The Ascent) I so needed to read this right now. I have been caught in the more is better trap for a while now.

  4. 10 Sites Every Marketer Should Know (The Marketing Blend) I am particularly a fan of AdAge, Adweek, and the Verge.

  5. 10 Best Books On Productivity That Will Change Your Life in 2022 (Piyush) I have read and re-read #1, #2, #4, and #9 throughout my life. I really need to read the rest, especially, #3.

  6. 10 Key Strategies to Achieving a Work-Life Balance In Your Busy Schedule (The Startup) Limiting your desires down to one at a time is a big a-ha for me.

  7. Ring the Blue Cow Bell: Words of Advice to Those Who Manage Major Gift Officers (AFP Global) We are not doing this anywhere near enough. Fundraising is hard. Let's start celebrating the wins more and more loudly.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. $11M donation 'an incredible opportunity' for researchers studying rare genetic condition (CBC) TORONTO STORY What a wonderful gift. "A Toronto hospital network is celebrating an anonymous $11-million donation aimed at helping researchers understand a rare condition. Neurofibromatosis (NF) comes from a genetic mutation that causes tumours to grow on a person's body to varying degrees. The money is going to the neurofibromatosis clinic at the University Health Network (UHN) — the first clinic of its kind in Canada."

  2. Toronto receives largest arts-related donation ever to create waterfront art trail (CTV) TORONTO STORY #Wow More gifts like this please. "A new waterfront public art trail is coming to Toronto thanks to a $25 million donation - the largest arts-related gift the city has ever received. The Pierre Lassonde Family Foundation offered the donation for the trail, which will be located in parks at Villiers Island in Toronto’s Port Lands. [...] The Lassonde family’s donation includes $10 million to commission two landmark permanent art works and up to $15 million to create a new non-profit organization that will manage the art trail."

  3. U of T receives $7-million gift to usher in a new era of performance and music education at the Faculty of Music (UToronto) TORONTO STORY "A generous gift from Ian Telfer and Nancy Burke will support the construction and ongoing operations of a beautiful and innovative new venue for the university’s renowned Faculty of Music. This gift is the largest ever received by the faculty, and one of the most significant in support of music in this country. The Jay Telfer Forum – named in honour of Ian Telfer’s late brother, musician and screenwriter Jay Telfer – will provide Toronto’s arts and culture sector with a much-needed mid-sized performance venue, where some of Canada’s most inspiring music students can develop their talents and scholars can exchange musical ideas."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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