Weekly News Recap: October 16, 2026

Weekly News Recap: October 16, 2026

SAIT president and CEO David Ross said the investment will allow the school to move from its existing work in unmanned systems toward a permanent facility dedicated to the field.

The reason some portraits don’t look true to life is that some people make no effort to resemble their pictures. -- Salvador Dali

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO: Grandmother of 12 holds plank for 5 hours in new world record attempt (ABC) #Wowzers I am not sure I can plank for five minutes. "A grandmother of 12 is being credited for breaking her own Guinness World Record for a woman holding a plank move for the longest time period. DonnaJean Wilde made her potential record-breaking attempt at the Huntsman World Senior Games in Utah this week and completed a plank hold for five hours."

  • Animals crossing: the simple solution to stop roadkill in the Amazon (The Guardian) #ThisIsCool "Installation of eight canopy bridges in Alta Floresta has enabled 15,000 safe crossings by animals including spider monkeys and marmosets – and more bridges are planned elsewhere."

  • VIDEO: Bryan Reisberg's New York City dog backpack rides help shelter pups find homes (ABC) What a great idea to encourage adoptions. "What started as a way for Bryan Reisberg to carry his dog around New York City has grown into a business, an online following and a mission to help shelter dogs find homes. Reisberg has completed more than 55 adoption rides, taking dogs that are up for adoption around the city in a backpack and sharing their outings online. The rides have drawn smiles, selfies and attention from passersby while putting the dogs in front of a much larger audience."

  • Teen Knew She Had a Long-Lost Sister Somewhere. They Found Each Other Facing Off at Softball Game: ‘No Way’ (Exclusive) (People) "Samantha Rensvold grew up knowing she was adopted — and she eventually found out that she had a younger sister somewhere out there, too. But since her younger sister’s adoption was closed, she had no idea where to begin looking for her. However, in a twist the 19-year-old student didn’t see coming, the mystery was unexpectedly solved during a softball tournament in Montana. [As] Rensvold was in the middle of a game, her teammate noticed that a player from the opposing team bore a striking resemblance to the teen athlete."

  • These Professionals May Be the Best Kept Secret in Elder Care (New York Times) #UnsungHeroes "Independent certified professionals like Ms. Martinelli used to be known as geriatric care managers. That’s what I called the people who helped my 88-year-old father make the 125-mile move from his apartment to a continuing care community near me, and later helped my disabled sister transition from her home to an assisted living facility. I also used words like 'godsend' and 'indispensable.' After the moves, the care managers kept tabs on both my father and sister monthly and eased my fears that something urgent might strike the moment I left on a vacation or a work trip."

  • Food bank founder honoured for 19 years of helping residents (St. Albert Gazette) ST ALBERT STORY Way to go Suzan! Well-deserved. "A local champion in the fight against hunger said strong community relationships are the keys to addressing the root causes of food insecurity in the city. The Saint City Rotary Club presented St. Albert Community Village and St. Albert Food Bank founder Suzan Krecsy with a $3,000 cheque [...], recognizing her work supporting residents facing challenges beyond food insecurity. Krecsy also received a certificate of appreciation for her presentation to the club. In her honour, Rotary International will make a donation to its PolioPlus Program, a worldwide initiative aimed at eradicating polio. For 16 years, St. Albert’s Community Village has been helping residents deal with problems that go far beyond putting food on the table, offering social work, rental assistance, housing support, financial literacy, and other services under one roof."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Lunchbox Theatre Finds a New Home (Avenue Calgary) CALGARY STORY Great move! (Pun intended) "Work-from-home and productivity culture has changed many things about today’s workforce, including how people take lunch breaks. Nowadays, if a person takes one at all, they’re likely just taking a few minutes in the middle of the day to eat at their desk. But 50 years ago, many downtown office workers stepped out to watch a mid-day theatre show. 'The vision that was there when Lunchbox started in 1975 to present theatre to downtown office workers on their lunch breaks, it’s just not really the reality anymore,' says Bronwyn Steinberg, Lunchbox Theatre’s artistic director."

  2. Canadian investor, philanthropist Stephen Jarislowsky dies at age 101 (CBC) CANADIAN STORY A giant in investing and in philanthropy. RIP Mr. Jarislowsky, we will not see your like again. "Canadian investment manager, ethical business proponent and philanthropist Stephen Jarislowsky has died. He was 101. Jarislowsky, who was born in Germany in 1925, founded Jarislowsky Fraser & Co. from scratch in 1955 and built the Montreal firm into what was at one point Canada's largest pension fund manager. After working in Kingston, Ont., Montreal and New York, he returned to Montreal to found his eponymous firm with $100 of his money and $50 from a partner." RELATED: Statement on the Passing of Stephen A. Jarislowsky

  3. White House investigating Alina Habba’s claim that $6 million donation went missing under Ric Grenell’s leadership at Kennedy Center (New York Post) "WASHINGTON — A bitter feud has erupted among President Trump’s close allies as Alina Habba, his former personal attorney who served as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, accuses ex-intelligence director and diplomat Ric Grenell of failing to deposit millions of dollars donated by her Turkish billionaire husband to the Kennedy Center."

  4. VIDEO: Joni Mitchell becomes a U.S. citizen, 'a journey that began 62 years ago' (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT "More than six decades after leaving Canada, legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell has officially become a U.S. citizen. The 82-year-old artist shared the news on Instagram and X [...] posting a photo and video from her naturalization ceremony. In the image, Mitchell is seen smiling and wearing a red beret and sunglasses, holding a small American flag with stars and stripes pinned to her cardigan. The second slide shows a video of her being applauded as she steps forward at the ceremony."

  5. Does Cracking Your Knuckles Cause Arthritis? The Research Is Clearer Than The Myth (Study Finds) "Doctors who studied the habit in 1990 wrote that the arthritis link had long been considered 'an old wives’ tale' with no experimental support behind it. Starting with their study of 300 patients, researchers have tested the idea several ways. They have compared hand X-rays of crackers and non-crackers, measured grip strength and swelling with examiners kept unaware of who cracked, and watched a knuckle crack inside an MRI scanner. None of the human studies has found that habitual cracking raises the risk of hand arthritis. One older finding, that crackers had weaker grips and more hand swelling, was not reproduced in a smaller, blinded study. And imaging suggests the pop itself comes from a pocket of gas forming in the joint fluid."

  6. VIDEO: How effective are Arc cards for Edmonton transit riders? (CBC) EDMONTON STORY One of them is me losing the cards #LOL "The City of Edmonton is diving into ways to improve the Arc card system for transit. As the CBC’s Tristan Mottershead reports, the city found a handful of pressing issues."

  7. VIDEO: He spent years cataloguing orca families' unique dialects. Now you can hear them (CBC) BRITISH COLUMBIA STORY Fascinating. "John Ford has dedicated his life to studying the orcas of the West Coast and their iconic calls. Now, more than 45 years after he began recording and cataloguing them, a unique online database is allowing anyone to get an earful. The new tool is raising hopes that sharing the information could help detect the animals and protect them from vessel strikes."

  8. VIDEO: Canada can't launch rockets on its own. A handful of companies want to change that (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "As the only G7 nation without its own launch capabilities, Canada is eager to have a Canadian-made rocket. A handful of Canadian companies are racing to give the country its own way to space as quickly as possible — at the same time that some SpaceX customers worry the industry giant could soon give fewer rides into orbit. But the rocket companies are working to complete an expensive task under a tight deadline and ever-changing government priorities, making the journey to space anything but simple."

  9. VIDEO: This rare David Bowie self-portrait is going up for auction (CBC) "Turn and face the strange: Ch-ch-changes could be coming to your living room wall. A rare signed David Bowie self-portrait is going up for auction and it's even got his handprints — though it'll cost you a pretty penny. The piece, made by the singer in 1996, is going to the market for the first time as part of Sotheby’s Modern British and Irish Art Day Auction [...] It's estimated to sell for between £35,000 to £55,000 (roughly $66,000 Cdn to $104,000 Cdn)."

  10. VIDEO: Calgary mayor signs memorandum of understanding with nonprofit chamber (Global News) CALGARY STORY Way to go Mayor Farkas. "It's being described as the first memorandum of understanding of its kind in Canada, as Calgary's mayor promises to work more closely with the nonprofit sector."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. The Reverse Calendar: Empty It First, Then Fill It (Lili K Gunawan) This is a great practice. I use it myself.

  2. A Simple Mental Model for Making Better Decisions (Darius Foroux) Some great tools for making decisions.

  3. The Disease of Optionality: Why Smart People Stay Poor (John) Hmmm...now I know!

  4. Why “Any Questions?” Is the Worst Way to End a Board Presentation (Marybeth Hazeldine) Another great tip for making your presentations better.

  5. I was ready to give up on digital note-taking completely until this happened… (Sam J Proctor) This is something I have long struggled with.

  6. Stop Building A Second Brain And Do This Instead (Leandro Guarnieri) Ugly is ok, but...start.

  7. 6 Lifts for Strength Training You Can Do Even If You’re Busy. (Sean Veaux) For those wanting to get even stronger.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. ‘Act of healing’: Church’s donation to help Grandmother of Juneteenth amplify Black voices (Deseret News) Nice work LDS. "Not many people get to celebrate a $3 million gift on their 100th birthday. It was enough to make Opal Lee get up out of her wheelchair and dance [...] while a crowd sang her a specialized Southside Fort Worth version of 'Happy Birthday.' The Grandmother of Juneteenth rejoiced because the major donation by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the combination of twin aspirations, the planned National Juneteenth Museum and a FamilySearch-powered Genealogy Center inside that will give voice to more Black families."

  2. VIDEO: SAIT announces $30M gift for new autonomous aviation park in Calgary (CTV) CALGARY STORY "A $30-million gift from Calgary philanthropist David Bissett will help the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT) build a new facility aimed at training the next generation of workers in the rapidly developing autonomous aviation industry. The Bissett Autonomous Aviation Park is being planned as a dedicated space for students and industry partners to train, test and develop remotely piloted and autonomous aircraft."

  3. Late philanthropist, family fill Harvest’s Empty Bowls with record-setting $5-M donation (Winnipeg Free Press) WINNIPEG STORY #Woot "It was a record-breaking night for Harvest Manitoba made possible by a genuine Winnipeg hero and his family. The organization’s annual Empty Bowls Celebrity Auction Dinner [...] raised $6.5 million to support Manitobans facing hunger and food insecurity. And it was a $5-million legacy donation from late city philanthropist Doug Harvey and his family that will see the event go down in the history books as the largest gala fundraising total ever recorded in Manitoba."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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