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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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#676 A perfect squeegee job with no streaks
Posted October 21, 2018 by Anonymous
Drive that steaming rustbucket up to the gas station and let’s get down to business. Folks, you know it and I know it: perfect squeegee jobs are hard work. You’re a pro wiper if you master these top five tricks: 1. Liftups. Not everyone has the moxy to wipe under the windshield wipers but that’s […]
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Is Climate Science Denial Leading to Human Rights Violations, Asks Philippines Commission
Posted October 20, 2018 by guest
Read time: 3 mins
By Kert Davies, Climate Investigations Center. Originally posted on Climate Investigations Center.
As climate change liability — who is to blame — increasingly lands in courtrooms around the globe, the Philippines Commission on Human Rights is taking a different and unique approach, investigating climate change impacts as a human rights infringement. The commission has held a series of hearings this year to investigate the role of fossil fuel companies (also known as “carbon majors“) in causing climate change, concealing climate science, delaying policy solutions, and facilitating the climate crisis of the Filipino people.
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#677 When you’re awkwardly standing by yourself with a full cafeteria tray of food and then suddenly spot your friend waving at you in the distance
Posted October 20, 2018 by Anonymous
The dreaded Cafeteria Standalone. Blue plastic tray wobbling in both hands carrying a big rolling glass of iced tea and a heavy ceramic plate loaded with steaming roast beef, wet mashed potatoes, and bland baby carrots, you exit the cafeteria line and glance at the full crowd in front of you. It’s the high school […]
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Michael Palin wows audiences with tale of HMS Erebus
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Michael Palin speaks about his new book, a history of the polar exploration vessel HMS Erebus, at The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s new headquarters at 50 Sussex Dr. in Ottawa on Oct. 19, 2018. (Photo: Ben Powless/Can Geo)
He opened with a few jokes, of course.
Like how Graham Chapman, his fellow member of Monty Python, once quipped of Regina’s location, “Why didn’t they put it over there?” Or how John Cleese, another of his Python collaborators, recently tweeted “As you probably know, Michael Palin has written a book about a famous wreck. Having seen him recently, I assume it’s an autobiography.”
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The Trump Administration’s ‘Dishonest’ Attack on Fuel-economy Standards
Posted October 19, 2018 by guest
Read time: 7 mins
By John R. Platt, The Revelator. Originally posted on The Revelator.
A former EPA engineer calls it “the most spectacular regulatory flip-flop in history.” Other experts say the resulting emissions increase would bode ill for the planet.
The Trump administration’s plan to freeze fuel-economy standards is “the most spectacular regulatory flip-flop in history,” says a retired EPA engineer who helped to develop the new standards under the Obama administration.
“These standards weren’t going to be the ultimate solution for solving the climate problem, but they were a very, very important first step,” says Jeff Alson, who retired this past April after a 40-year career at the EPA. “That’s why this delay is so risky to us.”
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Beer shortages could be a result of climate change thanks to barley crop failures
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
As the climate gets warmer cold beer could be rarer
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A dung beetle’s genital worms will help care for its offspring
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Sexually transmitted worms make excellent babysitters for dung beetle offspring
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A meat eater chooses a side of seagrass – this shark’s an omnivore
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Not just ravenous meat-eaters: This shark is an omnivore
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Rain, spiders and bears are all part of discovering Canada’s backcountry biology
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Taking stock of alpine species in our country while we have a chance
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Why you don’t go momentarily blind when you blink
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Why you don’t miss a thing when you blink
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Why don’t we sneeze when we’re asleep?
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Why don’t we sneeze when we’re asleep?
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#678 Sneaking cheaper candy into the movies
Posted October 19, 2018 by Anonymous
Contraband candy tastes better. Here’s how to make the magic happen: Step 1: Bag Up. Large purses come in handy here. Ladies, pull out the fattest potato sack you got and sling it across your shoulder with pride. For everyone else, you can try a bulky backpack or shopping bag. Business folks can pull off […]
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Liberals nominate Mary Jean McFall as new Team Trudeau candidate for Leeds–Grenville–Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes
Posted October 18, 2018 by Liberal Party of Canada
Brockville, ON – On Thursday, local Liberals in Leeds–Grenville–Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes were joined by the Hon. Lawrence MacAulay and Mark Gerretsen to nominate Mary Jean McFall, a devoted community advocate, lawyer, and former City Councilor, as the Team Trudeau candidate in the upcoming federal by-election. “We are thrilled to have Mary Jean McFall […]
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Congressman Asks Gas Industry to Join Him as ‘3 Percenters,’ Fails to Mention Movement’s Ties to White Supremacists
Posted October 18, 2018 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 9 mins
Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana arrived at this year’s Expanding Global Gas Infrastructure seminar with a message.
“Welcome to the war for the future of our planet,” Higgins said to the gathered officials from liquefied natural gas (LNG) firms and other fossil fuel companies.
“My role as your representative is to be not just your ally,” Higgins added, “but your warrior. Please allow the service of my office to represent the point of the spear that you wield. We’ll knock down every bureaucratic wall. We’ll kick down every federal barrier. We’ll work with you. We’ll work for you.”
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Justin Trudeau joins supporters at Team Trudeau 2019 Nomination Event with Kim Rudd
Posted October 18, 2018 by Liberal Party of Canada
Cobourg, ON – Justin Trudeau will join local Liberals for Kim Rudd’s Team Trudeau 2019 nomination event in Northumberland—Peterborough South on October 19, 2018. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal team are focused on a positive plan to strengthen the middle class, grow the economy, and make life better for Ontario families. More than 58,000 Ontarians […]
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My relationship with nature: It’s complicated
Posted October 18, 2018 by Anonymous
The Nature Conservancy of Canada’s ongoing panel discussions explore our complicated relationship with nature. (Photo: Pixabay)
Relationships have their ups and downs. Sometimes they get stale, especially when one party begins to take the other for granted. If respect isn’t reciprocal, the relationship runs the risk of morphing into a marriage of convenience, which doesn’t bode well for the long haul.
So, how do we define our relationship with nature? Are everyone’s needs being met in the human-nature coupling? We say we appreciate nature — but does that sentiment inform our treatment of it?
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#679 Sugar cereals
Posted October 18, 2018 by Anonymous
Let’s go back. Sandy pink streaks coat the sky as the sun peeks over your backyard fence and shines on the peeling linoleum of your kitchen floor. The fridge murmurs and hums, oven burners wobble and pop, as you spend a quiet moment alone with a box of sugar cereal. Let’s count down ten of […]
The post #679 Sugar cereals appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Oil-by-Rail Rises Once Again as Safety Rules Disappear
Posted October 17, 2018 by Anonymous
Read time: 6 mins
While a second oil-by-rail boom is well underway in North America, both the U.S. and Canada are taking steps that ignore or undermine the lessons and regulatory measures to improve safety since the oil train explosions and spills of years past.
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Buzzkill
Posted October 17, 2018 by Anonymous
Here’s one person who inhaled in his youth and beyond who will admit feeling uncomfortable about the legalization of cannabis, at least the way it’s being done, thought about and celebrated. I’m a child of the ‘sixties, back when a…
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On 60 Minutes Trump Says: ‘I’m Not Denying Climate Change’
Posted October 17, 2018 by guest
Read time: 3 mins
By Kert Davies, Climate Investigations Center. Originally posted on Climate Investigations Center.
Climate change is coming at Trump even as he tries like hell to avoid the subject. Record-setting hurricanes, Florence and Michael, have caused devastation across the southeast United States. Meanwhile, the grim UN IPCC “1.5 degree” report pushed climate scientists into the headlines last week while Trump was out and about, apparently unleashed, talking to media.
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One Bowl Pumpkin Chocolate Muffins (Vegan + Gluten-free)
Posted October 17, 2018 by Angela (Oh She Glows)
One thing that’s been especially hard during my recent health struggles is that I’ve had some negative feelings resurface surrounding food and restriction. Those of you who’ve been reading for years may know that one of the reasons I started blogging back in 2008 was to share my journey to health. I spoke a lot […]
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Big Oil Cheers Trump’s ‘New NAFTA’ But Mexico Could Complicate Things
Posted October 17, 2018 by Steve Horn
Read time: 5 mins
While the oil and gas industry has lauded the new trade deal that may soon replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a provision added by Mexico, along with its new president’s plan to ban fracking, could complicate the industry’s rising ambitions there.
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Cool solutions
Posted October 17, 2018 by Anonymous
A woman in Bhubaneswar’s Mahavir Nagar slum wipes cold water over her face in an effort to cool off after coming out of her home on a day when the temperature reached 42.5 C, prompting a heat wave alert in the Eastern Indian city. (Photo: Rohit Magotra/IRADe)
How researchers are finding ways to help low-income city dwellers in South Asia adapt to urban heat stress. 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.
Visit the Charting Change website to read “Cool solutions.”
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Wow! 29 Teams of Analysts, One Identical Data Set, One Identical Research Question, 29 Different Outcomes.
Posted October 17, 2018 by Yoni Freedhoff
This is an incredible paper, Many Analysts, One Data Set: Making Transparent How Variations in Analytic Choices Affect Results, saw 61 analysts (in 29 teams), be given the same data set meant to address the same research question (are soccer referees more likely to give red cards to dark skinned players than light skinned players).
The outcomes?
20 teams found a statistically significant positive effect, while 9 teams did not, and where effect sizes ranged (in odds-ratio units), despite all teams working from the same data set, from 0.89 to 2.93 (where 1.0 would be no effect).
Why so many differences?
Because results depend a great deal on any study’s authors chosen analytic strategy which in turn is influenced by the authors’ statistical comfort and choices and their interplay with the authors’ pre-existing working theories.
Now these results weren’t incentivized examples of p-hacking. The authors of this study point out that the variability seen was based on “justifiable, but subjective, analytic decisions“, and while there’s no obvious means with which to ensure a researcher has chosen the right methodology for their study, the authors suggest that,
“transparency in data, methods, and process gives the rest of the community opportunity to see the decisions, question them, offer alternatives, and test these alternatives in further research”.
Something all the more important in cases where authors might in fact have biases the would incentivize them to favour a particular outcome, and why I wish I was offered more in the way of stats and critical appraisal in medical school (and maybe less in the way of embryology for instance).
[Photo by Timur Saglambilek from Pexels]
Related Stories
- From The Education Alone Isn’t Enough To Change Behaviour File: Fast Food Edition
- About That New Lancet Study: Maybe Don’t Expect 9 Year Olds To Change Their Own Food Environments
- Meta-Analysis Of Low-Carb Meta-Analyses Finds The Ones Most Excited About Low-Carb Diets Are Of “Critically Low Quality”
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#680 Falling asleep right when the plane takes off and waking up right when it hits the runway
Posted October 17, 2018 by Anonymous
It’s like teleporting. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Check out my new podcast 3 Books with Neil Pasricha —
The post #680 Falling asleep right when the plane takes off and waking up right when it hits the runway appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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RCGS Resolute recommissioned
Posted October 16, 2018 by Anonymous
The RCGS Resolute sails toward port in Sydney, N.S. (Photo: One Ocean Expeditions)
With a dash of pomp, a dose of naval tradition and a healthy dollop of Cape Breton-style celebration, One Ocean Expeditions today celebrated the recommissioning of the RCGS Resolute, the newest addition to the company’s fleet of expedition cruise ships, in Sydney, N.S.
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Meet the new RCGS Resolute
Posted October 16, 2018 by Anonymous
An artist’s rendition of the new RCGS Resolute in Paradise Bay, Antarctica. (Illustration: One Ocean Expeditions)
It’s one of the more legendary and controversial moments in 19th-century polar exploration: spring 1854, and Henry Kellett, captain of HMS Resolute, is leading his men and the crews of Intrepid and Investigator by foot and sledge across Arctic Ocean ice to distant Beechey Island.
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Ground control to Commander Feustel
Posted October 16, 2018 by Anonymous
Drew Feustel records a video inside the Kibo laboratory module on the space station in late September. (Photo: NASA Johnson)
On October 4, support crews pulled Drew Feustel and his two fellow Expedition 56 astronauts out of the Soyuz capsule on the desert steppe of Kazakhstan, after their return-trip from the International Space Station — a journey that takes a few minutes longer than the drive between Calgary and Edmonton.
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#681 Photobombing
Posted October 16, 2018 by Anonymous
AWESOME!
Photo from: here, here, and here
Want to read more? Join my book club!
The post #681 Photobombing appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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On Stephen Miller and Glue Eating
Posted October 15, 2018 by bigcitylib
There has been much ridicule directed at Trump adviser Stephen Miller for an alleged childhood habit of drying glue on his arm, and then eating it . Obviously, I disagree with the guy’s politics but many people don’t realize that glue i…
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Want to Fight Climate Denial? Tell a Story
Posted October 15, 2018 by guest
Read time: 5 mins
By John R. Platt, The Revelator. Originally posted on The Revelator.
Scientists looking to communicate the truth about climate should explore the power of narrative and images.
Sometimes a polar bear is a living symbol of climate change.
Other times an image of a dying polar bear is basically raw meat for the people who want to deny the truth about global warming and demonize the scientists who are researching and communicating these important issues.
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US Oil Exports Are Exceeding Almost All Predictions—Thanks to Fracking
Posted October 15, 2018 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 mins
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in September that crude oil exports are continuing to set records, mostly due to the fracking boom in the Permian Basin, in Texas and New Mexico. June exports hit a record 2.2 million barrels per day, while the monthly average was up almost 80 percent for the first half of this year compared to the same period last year.
And crude oil exports are supposed to double by 2020, according to the San Antonio News-Express. That’s a lot of oil — and almost all of it is fracked.
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From The Education Alone Isn’t Enough To Change Behaviour File: Fast Food Edition
Posted October 15, 2018 by Yoni Freedhoff
Two weeks ago I gave a talk at Ottawa’s 6th Biennial Championing Public Health Nutrition Conference. I was part of a group of speakers talking about the how can it possibly not be published yet new Canada Food guide.
I was struck, both during the other presenters talks, and during the question and answer period, how focused people were on how the Food Guide will be utilized by individuals.
In my opinion, as a direct tool, it pretty much won’t be. That’s not to say it can’t or won’t have an impact on Canadian dietary patterns (it will by way of its impact on policy), nor that a person who picked it up couldn’t choose to follow it, but rather speaks to the simple fact that education alone doesn’t seem to be enough to change behaviour. Because time and again we learn that education, even when tied to terrifying events like heart attacks, doesn’t seem to be able to consistently lead people to sustain consequent lifestyle changes, nor does genetic knowledge of specific disease risks.
The reasons why are likely myriad, but probably boil down to a combination of normal human nature and change being difficult, along with the impact of a person’s food environment and social determinants of health.
For a food related example of this, take this recent paper regarding perceptions about the consumption of fast food. In it, among many other statistics, the authors note that 73% of weekly fast food consumers reported that they believed fast food wasn’t good for them.
When it comes to behaviour change, knowledge alone does not seem to correlate particularly strongly with power.
Related Stories
- About That New Lancet Study: Maybe Don’t Expect 9 Year Olds To Change Their Own Food Environments
- Meta-Analysis Of Low-Carb Meta-Analyses Finds The Ones Most Excited About Low-Carb Diets Are Of “Critically Low Quality”
- There’s No Realistically Prescribable Amount Of Exercise That Will By Itself Lead To Useful Weight Loss, But That Doesn’t Mean You Shouldn’t Exercise!
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#682 When the boss goes home early
Posted October 15, 2018 by Anonymous
This allows you to work extra hard in a quiet setting and get your projects done very quickly. Or just leave early, too. AWESOME! Photos from: here Join my book club! — Follow me on Facebook —
The post #682 When the boss goes home early appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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#683 Finding a container with last night’s leftover restaurant dinner in your fridge
Posted October 14, 2018 by Anonymous
Scope this scene. End of the meal at the back of a dimly lit restaurant, your belly bursting with bowls of bread, free soda refills, sugary salad, and half a giant stir-fry, you’re thinking twice about the waiter’s offer to wrap up your meal. After all, the thought of one more forkful of soy-sauce drenched […]
The post #683 Finding a container with last night’s leftover restaurant dinner in your fridge appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Saturday Stories: Labour Antisemitism, The Name Of The Dog, And a Risk Conundrum
Posted October 13, 2018 by Yoni Freedhoff
Man Booker prize winner Howard Jacobson, in The Atlantic, with perhaps the definitive piece on Jeremy Corbyn and Labour’s antisemitism.
Taimer Safder, in The New England Journal of Medicine, with a lovely read about the name of the dog (do read this one before it disappears behind a paywall).
Lisa Suennen, in Venture Valkyrie, on the conundrum of divergent ways to evaluate cardiac risk that span from biology to social determinants of health.
[photo by Alexandru Rotariu via Pexels]
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#684 Being so excited you leave your bike helmet on
Posted October 13, 2018 by Anonymous
Do you ever see kids on the playground with their bike helmets on? Sometimes you spot them riding up to the sandy lots with heads full of steam and eyes staring forward with steely determination. They are on a mission to get some playing in, buddy. And nothing’s going to get in their way. Nope, […]
The post #684 Being so excited you leave your bike helmet on appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Cannabis and the brain: the knowns and the big unknowns
Posted October 12, 2018 by Anonymous
What we know and don’t know about how cannabis affects us
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What’s in a pot plant? Exploring the genes of your favourite ganja
Posted October 12, 2018 by Anonymous
Cannabis botany: what’s really behind the labels
