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Can You Go to Canada If You Have a DUI?
Almost 7 years ago, while going through some personal issues, I made a terrible mistake and ended up being convicted of driving under the influence (DUI) in the State of California. It was a dark period in my life, but I have moved on and learned my lesson. This spring, however, my intoxicated driving conviction […]
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‘It’s Possible’ Missing Teens and Slain Tourists Are Connected, BC Police Say
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
Police gave an update on the murder of Chynna Deese and Lucas Fowler, the disappearance of teens Kam McLeod and Bryer Schmegelsky, and the dead man found near the teens’ burning truck.
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Leaked Emails Show Frantic Response to Border Patrol Data Breach
Posted July 22, 2019 by Joseph Cox
The emails show that CBP didn’t know what was in the Perceptics breach until weeks after the media initially reported it.
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Buying Abortion Pills Online Is Overwhelmingly Safe, But Maybe Illegal in the US
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
There’s plenty of evidence that most online retailers are selling the real thing.
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Under Trump, 26% of Climate Change References Have Vanished From .Gov Sites
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
A new report documents two years of science being scrubbed from government websites.
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Large American Cities Are Leaking Twice as Much Methane as We Thought
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
Leaky pipes are likely sending methane-rich natural gas into the atmosphere where it contributes to climate change, a new study has found.
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How the Hell Did an Uneaten In-N-Out Burger End Up on the Street in NYC?
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
The beloved West Coast chain has no locations east of the Mississippi, and yet a fully intact Double Double mysteriously appeared in Queens.
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The Nine Worst Ensemble Movies of All Time
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
From ‘Rat Race’ to ‘Movie 43’ and beyond.
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Internal Documents Show Why the NYPD Tries to Be ‘Funny’ Online
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
Documents obtained by Motherboard show that NYPD social media officers are explicitly instructed to “be funny” in order to “build trust” on official social media channels.
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Our Galaxy As We Know It Was Created by Galactic Cannibalism 10 Billion Years Ago
Posted July 22, 2019 by Becky Ferreira
The European Gaia spacecraft unveils new details about a cataclysmic collision in our galaxy’s distant past.
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The Next Recession Could Arrive Before the End of Trump’s Term, Says Elizabeth Warren
Posted July 22, 2019 by Harry Cheadle
The 2020 candidate has some dire warnings about the economy.
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#456 When your friend returns the book they borrowed and they actually read it
Posted July 22, 2019 by Anonymous
Man, I’m a master of the Ghost Loan. This is where I borrow someone’s favorite book and them promptly leave it on my shelf for months without touching it. Sure, I see it, I look at it, I think about it, I want to read it, but I just… don’t. And then I keep it […]
The post #456 When your friend returns the book they borrowed and they actually read it appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Database Reveals How Much Pollution Big Oil’s Top Execs Are Responsible for Each Year
Posted July 21, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 6 mins
Thanks to recent analysis, we now know how much of global greenhouse gas emissions big oil companies like Exxon and Shell are responsible for. But it’s easy to forget that behind these corporate behemoths are powerful individuals, making decisions about where the companies should drill next.
And thanks to a new database, we can now pinpoint how much of the companies’ pollution each executive is accountable for.
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Trump’s Drilling Leases on Public Lands Could Release 4.7B Metric Tons of Carbon
Posted July 20, 2019 by guest
Read time: 3 mins
By Julie Conley, originally published on Common Dreams
A national conservation group revealed Wednesday that President Donald Trump’s drilling leases on public lands could lead to the release of more carbon emissions than the European Union contributes in an entire year.
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Saturday Stories: Racism, Serena Williams, and Climate Change
Posted July 20, 2019 by Yoni Freedhoff
Ariel Sobel, with a great piece in Jewish Journal, on how fighting anti-semitism with racism doesn’t actually fight racism but rather hijacks real concerns about anti-Semitism to promote other prejudices and in so doing, destroys Jewish credibility
Serena Williams, in Harpers, with just a fabulous first person essay on why she’ll never stop speaking up in the face of injustice.
David Corn, in Mother Jones, on the unique burden of being a climate scientist.
Photo By Edwin Martinez – https://www.flickr.com/photos/rhythmstrip/9630755847/, CC BY 2.0, Link
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America’s Big Bet on Selling Fracked Gas to China and the World
Posted July 19, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 8 mins
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is getting a lot of attention these days, with U.S. producers making major investments in the infrastructure to produce and export LNG to China and the rest of the world for the next several decades.
That’s despite LNG looking like a big bet that may not ever pay off.
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Canadians helping save coral
Posted July 19, 2019 by Anonymous
A diver checks on a coral “tree” in one of the Coral Restoration Foundation’s nurseries in the Florida Keys (Photo: Neha Acharya-Patel)
Hello from south Florida! If you didn’t read my previous article, I’m the 2019 North American Rolex Scholar of the Our World Underwater Scholarship Society. As part of my scholarship, and as the first Canadian scholar, I’m sharing insights from my work and travels this year with Canadian Geographic.
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#457 That tiny little hole at the top of your sink that prevents it from overflowing
Posted July 19, 2019 by Anonymous
Let’s face it. We’re all idiots who love cranking taps and have no idea when reckless shaving and face-washing shenanigans might flood our bathroom floors. Thanks for watching our backs, little hole. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Check out my Youtube channel —
The post #457 That tiny little hole at the top of your sink that prevents it from overflowing appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Photos: Best Wildlife Photography 2020
Posted July 18, 2019 by Anonymous
A collage of images featured in Best Wildlife Photography 2020. (Clockwise from top left: Michael Winsor/michaelwinsor.ca, Richard Eckert/reckert.smugmug.com, Anthony Bucci/@abucci_photography, Anthony Bucci/@abucci_photography, Michelle Valberg/michellevalberg.com, Canadian Geographic, Éric Deschamps/natureenvue.com, Benjamin Poudou)
Photography is my passion and it also happens to be part of my role as creative director for Canadian Geographic magazine. I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to work with some of the top wildlife and nature photographers in Canada and to showcase their finest work in special photography issues, such as Best Wildlife Photography 2020, on newsstands now across the country.
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Revealing Canadian Geographic’s September/October 2019 cover
Posted July 18, 2019 by Anonymous
Any of the three mountainscapes that went head-to-head-to-head in the September/October cover vote — one from northern Labrador and two from west-central Yukon — would make a magazine cover with stopping power. These locations, featured in the issue in this year’s edition of the “Ultimate Canadian geography quiz,” are among the most beautiful in the world, to be sure, but hardly among our country’s most visited places.
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The math behind China’s fight against HIV
Posted July 18, 2019 by Anonymous
Dr. Yiming Shao (in suit) and two other doctors speak to an HIV-AIDS patient at a hospital in Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture in 2009. (Photo: Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention)
In China’s Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture, a series of programs born from mathematical modelling have provided a valuable sociomedical lifeline to a region hit hard by the HIV epidemic. Part of an ongoing series of stories about innovative projects in the developing world, a partnership between the International Development Research Centre and Canadian Geographic.
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Latest Gulf Storm Brings Tough Choices for Residents of Disappearing Isle de Jean Charles
Posted July 18, 2019 by Julie Dermansky
Read time: 9 mins
While most of Louisiana was spared Barry’s wrath last week, Isle de Jean Charles, a quickly eroding strip of land among coastal wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico, was not. A storm surge swept over the island, about 80 miles southwest of New Orleans, early in the morning on July 13 before Barry was upgraded from a tropical storm to a category 1 hurricane.
On July 15, I met with Albert Naquin, Chief of the Isle de Jean Charles Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Tribe (IDJC) and Wenceslaus Billiot Jr., the Tribe’s deputy chief, to travel to the island and assess the damages. That afternoon, we made our way through the receding waters that still covered Island Road, the only route connecting the island to the mainland. Days after the storm, some parts of the road on the island were still submerged in three feet of water.
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#458 The rare moment when you’re on a beach by yourself
Posted July 18, 2019 by Anonymous
Enjoy the silence. Maybe you’re an early bird who goes jogging on the cool sand as the sun rises. Ocean waves quietly lap to shore together with twisted messes of dark seaweed and chipped seashells as faint orange sunbeams peek over the horizon… Or maybe you’re a sand stroller going for a quick walk around […]
The post #458 The rare moment when you’re on a beach by yourself appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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#459 Plain old forks
Posted July 17, 2019 by Anonymous
Once upon a time we didn’t have forks. Yes, our ancient ancestors were forced to scoop saber-tooth tiger brains out with twigs, hold woolly mammoth meat over the fire with spears, and eat prehistoric pies with a spoon. According to our egghead pals at Wikipedia, although the Ancient Greeks used forks as a serving utensil […]
The post #459 Plain old forks appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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‘We Can’t Sit on the Sidelines and Be Climate Deniers,’ Dominion VP Warns Natural Gas Industry
Posted July 16, 2019 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 11 mins
Donald Raikes arrived at 2019’s DUG East conference, a major shale gas industry gathering in Pittsburgh, with a mixed set of messages for his fellow fossil energy officials.
“We are faced with a lot of challenges in this industry,” Raikes, senior vice president of gas infrastructure at Dominion Energy, said. “And this morning what I plan to do is use my time to carve out a call for action for all of us. We need to be very aware of the forces that are out there and how they are coming against us.”
What sorts of forces? Raikes warned specifically about opposition from environmental groups.
But Raikes also warned that the oil and gas industry was doing itself no favors by denying that it affects the environment, and he even dipped his toes into the issue of climate science denial.
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#460 The Super Jump
Posted July 16, 2019 by Anonymous
Close your eyes and let your brain slip back … You’re a tiny tot holding big hands walking down a sandy beach. As the sun sets over the glittery water the salty ocean breeze hits your hair and your feet squish into cool sand as somebody suddenly yells out “1-2-3 Wheeeeeeeeee!” Your eyeballs pop, your […]
The post #460 The Super Jump appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Climate Litigation Has Become a Global Trend, New Report Shows
Posted July 15, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 4 mins
Originally published on Climate Liability News.
Climate change-related lawsuits, once mostly limited to the U.S., have now been filed in nearly 30 countries, targeting governments and corporate polluters, according to the latest analysis of the trend.
A new report was published this month by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. It tracks the progress of the suits — filed since 1990 — as they have expanded beyond the U.S., and predicts the trend will continue.
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Featured fellow: Johnny Issaluk
Posted July 15, 2019 by Anonymous
Issaluk in AMC’s The Terror. (Photo: Aidan Monaghan/AMC)
Johnny Issaluk hasn’t done everything, but it’s on his list. In addition to acting on screen and stage, Issaluk, who lives in Iqaluit, is also an accomplished athlete with 20 years’ experience competing in and coaching traditional Inuit games, a motivational speaker, a mentor to youth in the Arctic and beyond and The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s newest Explorer-in-Residence. He attributes his success to a lifelong desire to learn new skills and overcome his own fears.
On being a global ambassador for Inuit culture
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From The Journal Of If Only It Were That Easy: Walking To School Was Not Associated With Lower Weights In 4-7 Year Olds
Posted July 15, 2019 by Yoni Freedhoff
Walking school buses for kids are often promoted on the basis that if more kids were involved with them, their weights, fitness, and maybe even learning would improve.
Wouldn’t that be great? After all, it’s a relatively inexpensive intervention and one it seems everyone can at least theoretically get behind.
But does it work?
This is definitely not a good news story, nor frankly is it all that surprising, but here it is – recently the MOVI‐KIDS Study set out to explore whether or not there was an association between active transport in 4-7 year olds and their weights, fitness, and cognition.
The study involved 1,159 children in Spain and they were categorized on the basis of whether the active components of their school commutes totalled more or less than 15 minutes and then tested and measured to explore walking to school’s possible impact. Heights and weight were measured, a validated cardiorespiratory fitness test was administered, as were multiple batteries of validated cognitive tests. Efforts were also made to control for familial socio-economic status, as well as of course the children’s ages and sexes.
As you might have gathered, the walkers were found to be no better off on any studied variable with the authors very plainly concluding,
“Walking to school had no positive impact on adiposity, physical fitness, and cognition in 4‐ to 7‐year‐old children.”
Too bad. Truly.
I have to say too, I did scratch my head reading the next bit of their conclusion though,
“it would be of interest for future studies to examine the intensity and duration of ACS necessary to provide meaningful benefits for health and cognitive performance.”
I can’t say I agree with them here as I’m not sure lengthy, intense, daily school commutes for 4 year olds is something we need to explore regardless of their impact on anything. Moreover, I don’t need to see “meaningful benefits” to want to continue promoting more movement and play in our children, and if we buy into the need for same, we’ll risk the cessation of programs that don’t prove themselves to provide perhaps broader reaching or more dramatic outcomes than could ever be fairly expected of them.
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#461 When you get in the car and notice someone filled up the tank for you
Posted July 15, 2019 by Anonymous
Nothing’s worse than popping into first and noticing you’re flirting with the big E. Suddenly you’re late for work, the date’s on hold, and your party’s stalled in the parking lot. Yes, jumping in a car and noticing it’s out of gas ranks pretty high on 1000 Annoying Things, that non-existent netherlist we’ve mentioned before […]
The post #461 When you get in the car and notice someone filled up the tank for you appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Saturday Stories: Doctor Patients, A Letter Written While In Line To Be Murdered In Auschwitz, And Billionaire Sean Parker
Posted July 13, 2019 by Yoni Freedhoff
Olga Khazan, in The Atlantic, with further evidence that education alone is insufficient for behaviour change with her stories on her physicians make for terrible patients.
Will Higgins, in The Indy Star, with the story of perhaps the only such letter in existence, written by Vilma Grunwald while in line to be murdered in Auschwitz’ gas chambers, and given by her to a guard who amazingly hand delivered it to her husband who was also in Auschwitz. May her memory be a blessing.
Rebecca Robbins, in STAT, with the story of billionaire Sean Parker and the incredible impact he’s having on cancer research.
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Louisiana Braces for a Storm While Weighing New Fossil Fuel Projects
Posted July 12, 2019 by Julie Dermansky
Read time: 7 mins
Yesterday, I stopped writing another story for DeSmog to get ready for what could likely become this year’s first hurricane in the U.S.
I live in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans. My home is above sea level, unlike much of New Orleans, so I’m at a much lower risk for flooding impacts than residents of a city nearly synonymous with flooding.
However, like most residents in south coastal Louisiana, I’m bracing myself for a sustained barrage from the sky, as bands of rain and wind from Tropical Storm Barry arrived in parts of the state this morning. The entire Louisiana coast could be hit with the season’s first hurricane by Saturday.
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#462 Pain
Posted July 12, 2019 by Anonymous
It’s there for a reason. Whether you’re shredding your legs on a raspberry bush, scalding your hand in hot water, or taking an arrow to the chest in the forest, I got bad news for you, brother: that’s gonna hurt. Yes, when our bodies take blows those powerful jolts make us cry salty tears, run […]
The post #462 Pain appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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The ‘Historical Jigsaw of Climate Deception’: Private Notes Show How Big Oil Spread Climate Science Denial
Posted July 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 6 mins
We’ve all heard the dodgy arguments: ‘the science is uncertain’, ‘climate change is natural, not down to humans’, ‘science has been hijacked by politics’… Now a new cache of documents sheds light on the origins of the disinformation.
In another verse of a now familiar refrain, a fossil fuel industry group in the 1990s publicly promoted arguments to undermine confidence in climate science while internally acknowledging their products where driving up temperatures.
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#463 The sound of the cork popping
Posted July 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Last year my friend Baxter popped a champagne cork off his head. Yes, he bent over the bottle, gritted his teeth and twisted, and managed to shoot that cork like a speeding bullet right smack off his forehead. He stared up with his mouth forming a giant O of shock as bubbles foamed up and […]
The post #463 The sound of the cork popping appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Help us choose the September/October 2019 Canadian Geographic cover!
Posted July 10, 2019 by Anonymous
Help us choose the cover of our upcoming issue of Canadian Geographic. Vote Now!
And don’t forget to sign up to always be notified by email when covers are being voted on!
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Man on the moon: celebrating Buzz Aldrin
Posted July 10, 2019 by Anonymous
Astronaut Buzz Aldrin walks on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969, during the Apollo 11 mission. Mission commander Neil Armstrong snapped this photograph with a 70mm lunar surface camera. (Image: NASA)
In 1969, Buzz Aldrin stepped out of a spacecraft and saw the Earth as a bright blue sphere more than a quarter of a million miles away. I was 32 years old and obsessed with the unfolding story of humans landing on the moon. As a freelance journalist for the Toronto Telegram, I was at Cape Kennedy to witness his fiery departure on a vertical cloud of rolling thunder. For me, Apollo 11 was the event that defined the century.
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#464 When characters in a movie visit a place you know in real life
Posted July 10, 2019 by Anonymous
What a trip. It’s always a big moment when the flickering screen features one of these special scenes: 1. The Hometown Spotlight. This is when the characters come visit the city you live in. Nope, don’t matter if it’s terrorists fleeing the country, teen lovers filling gas on a road trip, or Batman batflying around […]
The post #464 When characters in a movie visit a place you know in real life appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Bipartisan Group of Governors Pushes Back on Big Oil, Tells Trump Admin to Halt Clean Car Rollbacks
Posted July 9, 2019 by Ben Jervey
Read time: 6 mins
As the Trump administration scrambles to formalize its rollback of clean car standards, 24 governors are telling the President to pump the brakes on the proposed rule. The governors have signed a letter, as reported this morning in The New York Times, Associated Press, and Bloomberg, requesting that the administration reconsider the rollback of fuel efficiency and emissions standards, and to honor California’s authority under the Clean Air Act to write its own standards, which other states are allowed under the law to sign onto.
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David Attenborough Calls on Voters in US and Australia to Respond to Climate Science Denial Among Leaders
Posted July 9, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 2 mins
Veteran broadcaster David Attenborough has expressed his disappointment at the rise of climate science denial in the US and Australia and called on voters to respond.
Referencing the rise of climate science denial in some countries while giving evidence to a committee of MPs in the UK, Attenborough said he was “sorry that there are people in power and internationally, notably the United States, but also in Australia” where “those voices are clearly heard”. He said he hoped the “electorate will actually respond” to public figures that promote climate science denial.
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‘Bomb Trains,’ a New Book on the Deadly, Ongoing Threat of Oil by Rail
Posted July 9, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 7 mins
On July 6, 2013, a train hauling crude oil from North Dakota’s Bakken region derailed in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, resulting in fires and explosions that killed 47 people and wiped out a large part of the small Canadian town’s center. At the time I was living in Albany, New York, which had become a major distribution point for Bakken oil delivered to the Port of Albany in mile-long trains like the one that devastated Lac-Mégantic. In the six months following the deadly disaster, several more trains of Bakken oil derailed and exploded across North America.
As the risk of these oil trains became very apparent, I began investigating how the trains could be allowed to travel through communities like mine in Albany and started publishing my findings here at DeSmog. Now, just after the six year anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic disaster, I have compiled all of that research into the new book Bomb Trains: How Industry Greed and Regulatory Failure Put the Public at Risk.
