President Trump took a short break this week from strengthening ties with China, Canada, England, Germany, France, Mexico, NATO and the UN to clarify his deterrence policy of frightening potential illegal immigrants by caging their children like stray dogs. Trump…

After a lot of pinching, tweezing, and biting out pops that annoying little sliver of wood, leaving behind only a tiny, satisfying puncture hole. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Subscribe to my Youtube channel —

The post #800 Finally picking that tiny splinter out of your finger appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Read time: 4 mins

Read time: 3 mins

An aerial survey of southern Hudson Bay has found that the previously stable polar bear population is now in decline, with fewer cubs surviving their first year. (Photo: Martyn Obbard)

A population of polar bears in southern Hudson Bay that was previously considered stable has declined by 17 per cent in five years, new research has found.

The findings come from an extensive 2016 aerial survey of southern Hudson Bay covering an area of more than 5,000 kilometres. Compared to an equivalent study in 2011, polar bear numbers had dropped by almost a fifth.

HMCS Haida has been docked in Hamilton Harbour since 2002. Last month, she was named the ceremonial flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy, an honorary title recognizing her performance in three wars. (Photo: Photo: Laszlo Varga/Wikimedia Commons)

She was called “Canada’s fightingest ship” because, during her 20 years of service, HMCS Haida destroyed and sank more enemy tonnage than any other warship in the history of Canadian naval combat.

Now, she has been honoured for her proficiency and performance. Late last month, Haida became the very first ceremonial flagship of the Royal Canadian Navy.

The story of what made Haida a legendary warship dates back to the height of the Second World War.

More than one person shared this “Commentary” published last week by The Chronicle Herald entitled,

“Keep Canadian juice on the table for better health“

It was written by Pierre Turner and it asserted that 100% fruit juice is a source of essential nutrients and phytochemicals and that by extension juice is

“essential in helping to treat or reverse some of our leading causes of death, including heart disease, type 2 diabetes and hypertension.”

The commentary goes on to talk about how juice helps combat food insecurity, that it’s nutritionally equivalent to fruit, and that the food guide is going to explicitly encourage people to consume moderate amounts of ice-cream and bacon, but to avoid juice, and that these recommendations in turn will worsen Canada’s rates of diabetes, obesity, and heart disease.

Now as ridiculous as the piece is, it’s not particularly surprising given the author is vice-president Quality, Sustainability, Research and Development at Lassonde Industries. It even says so at the end of the piece.

Want to take just one guess as to what Lassonde Industries produces?

So did The Chronicle Herald, who reports in their Vision statement that they’re proud of their integrity, get paid for this juice industry advertorial disguised as opinion, and was this just an example of their promise to,

“innovate to remain a relevant and competitive channel for advertisers to reach their consumers.”?

Or was this just poor judgement?

Either way, publishing industry talking points as if they’re thoughtful commentary does a disservice to readers, who instead should be taught to eat their fruit, not drink it, and also that the World Health Organization, Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and more all recommend explicitly limiting fruit juice’s consumption. Yes, if people followed these recommendations it would be decidedly bad for the juice industry, but why that’s a concern of The Chronicle Herald (unless they’re being paid), is beyond me.

       

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• If You Need Proof The Food Industry Doesn’t Care About You, Look No Further Than Smuckers “No Sugar Added” Jam

 

Ever tried to turn on someone else’s TV? Brother, we both know that’s a tough slog, probably involving a couple of these fine moves: 1. The Brand Name Match-Up. You stare at three identical-looking black remotes on their coffee table and play Sherlock by matching brand names. You eye the Panasonic logo in the corner […]

The post #801 When you know your remote control so well you don’t need to look at the buttons appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Ottawa, ON – Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, will deliver remarks to supporters at the Laurier Club Summer Reception and Garden Party, an annual Liberal donor appreciation event, in Ottawa on June 18th, 2018. The Liberal Party of Canada has committed to the strongest standards in federal politics for openness and […]

Photocredit: Lloydminster Little Theatre It’s Patrick Ross’ birthday today. He is 37. More than seven and a half years ago, I wrote about what proved to be the initial chapter of a seemingly never-ending legal saga. My friend Robert Day,…

The first website I ever visited was Yahoo.com. The whole sordid affair went down in the mid-90s on a school trip to the Science Center. While other kids from our class learned how paper was made or watched Imax films about the Amazon, my friends and I raced to a dim room at the back […]

The post #802 Watching something download super fast appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Triumph of Death by Bruegel the Elder

Ed Yong, in The Atlantic, with his sobering thoughts on what will happen when the next big plague hits.

Chloe Dykstra, in Medium, writes about her years of emotional and sexual abuse at the hands of her then partner.

Olga Khazan, in The Atlantic, with her masterful must read story covering why being black in America is hazardous to your health.

       

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Sure, maybe the collar’s stretched out, the iron-on’s wearing off, and a moth chewed a few holes in the back, but how good does that translucent, tight-fitting second skin feel when you squeeze into it and rock it down the street? AWESOME! Photo from: here — Follow me on Twitter —

The post #803 Your favorite comfortable T-shirt that’s probably the oldest one in your closet appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Read time: 10 mins

Cheerios stick together due to surface enery

The inside story of the New Horizons mission to Pluto

Incan surgeons showed remarkable skill at making holes in people’s skulls

The strategy behind the fastest punch in the animal kingdom

Is the Northern cod comeback stumbling?

Human activity is turning more animals into night-owls

A replica of Iron Man’s suit is one of dozens of examples of armour through the ages on display now at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. (Photo: Katherine Lissitsa)

When Frederick Stibbert inherited his grandfather’s fortune on his 21st birthday, he started filling his home with antiques in the hopes of making it into a museum one day. Two centuries later, Italy’s Museo Stibbert houses his impressive collections of art, weaponry and armour — the latter of which recently travelled from Florence to Ottawa.

Read time: 7 mins

Believe it, folks: I went to the gym last Saturday. Yes, flabby belly, spaghetti-thin arms, bright white sneakers and all. Though it may surprise you, I am not a walking talking hulk of a man. No, I’m a scrawny knee-pushups kind of guy who spends more time taking sips of water, talking to the maintenance […]

The post #804 Gym pain aka Gym burn aka Hot muscles appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Read time: 12 mins

Mobile research labs operating in the vicinity of Cambridge Bay, Nunavut. (Photo: Arctic Research Foundation)

In Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, innovative mobile research laboratories are adding a new dimension to Arctic science — and could improve communications and safety for Inuit hunters.

Des laboratoires de recherche mobiles exploités à proximité de Cambridge Bay (Nunavut). (Photo : Arctic Research Foundation)

À Cambridge Bay, au Nunavut, des laboratoires de recherche mobiles novateurs ajoutent une nouvelle dimension à la science arctique et pourraient améliorer les communications et la sécurité pour les chasseurs inuits.

In late March, the Fort McKay Métis reached a $1.6 million deal with the Alberta government to purchase 133 hectares of land which they had previously leased from the province — the first Métis community to do so. (Photo courtesy Fort McKay Métis Group Ltd.)

A Métis community in northeast Alberta that recently purchased its land from the province says the move was intended to ensure that members of the community will have a place to call home for generations to come.  

In late March, the Fort McKay Métis reached a $1.6 million deal with the Alberta government to purchase 133 hectares of land which they had previously leased from the province.

Fort McKay Métis president Ron Quintal says the purchase of land for a Métis community by the community is the first of its kind in Canada.  

I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Fred (co-owner/chef at Montreal’s Joe Beef, Liverpool House, Le Vin Papillon, and Mon Lapin) since we met on a panel during the 2012 Trottier Symposium. One of the things I never did, but always wanted to, was ask him to let me know when his friend Anthony Bourdain was coming to town as I, like it seems everyone, found Bourdain’s authenticity and manner intoxicatingly cool. I didn’t ask because it would have been the opposite of cool to do so, I’d have been comparably, insufferably, boring, and it would have overstepped our friendship, and so too, when I heard the news of Bourdain’s death, and my mind immediately turned Fred, and I wondered what his thoughts were and how he was doing, I didn’t feel it would be appropriate for me to add to his likely large pile of inquiry. All that said, he contacted me a few days later with some dark reflections, and I think they’re very much worth reading, even if they may shine a light on things in a manner that is unsettling. People, and life, are complicated.

Recently as I lost a friend, we all lost a hero. Most struggle to grasp why our culinary knights while basking in praises and porcine dripping can still pay rent on such a dark den within the tenements of their souls. Here is a short tale of how and why based on my livings.

There is an ancient proverb that say’s that war killed many folks but not nearly as much as the table!

The chubby teen didn’t attend prom, for a slew of made up reasons, mostly because he was a chubby teen. He failed at getting shit done although all the while labelled as somewhat a genius, I could extend, explore and extrapolate on the topic and throw his parents and teachers into the crosshairs of his own failure, but he pays a good chunk of cash weekly to decipher what is etched deep in the confines of his “why”.

School, life and jogging were arduous tasks that he fractioned into infinite parts of bearable duration, hoping that soon enough more had passed than remained to come, until it was over for good. Until someone told him that cooking might be what he was chasing since his early days, and whatever academic pursuit that stood in his path should be dropped out of, wise words.

Time spent cooking, the coup de feu, the dinner rush, there was no “prior”, there was no later, all the boxes on the list; checked! The shrieking grind of the dot matrix printer sounded to him like a cheer from his corner-man, 45 veal chops to prep, 45 veal chops to cook, 45 veal chops to re-order, bliss! Nothing left undone, forgotten, no neglected to-do’s . Everything tasted great, when he left, surfaces were clean and reeked appropriately of bleach.

The pudgy teen had fun, but he couldn’t find sleep, 44 chops were great but the 45th was a bit rough, perhaps he who ate it didn’t know real veal from tenderize Tyson shit!? The waiter dropped the wrong knife? Or the supplier sent us shit calf! Anyway, he rehearsed the shit stew he will lay thick onto the innocents. He fell asleep, but printer woke him up, there was no printer.

55 veal chops, 75 veal chops, 90 veal chops; the pudgy teen is a warrior, a hero, his skin now bears the seared branding of his culinary kin. The printer still shrieks at 4 am but he doesn’t hear it because he hopped along with the tribe for some beers, a lot of them.

He missed the shriek of the printer, but the calls he didn’t, he got up, sobered up and went, he picked up his tribe-mates, from the ground they fell on, from jails and from the psych wards.

Now half an hour after the printed used to buzz, he would expects the phone to bling, most of the time it doesn’t, when it doe’s he’s there in an instant to sanitize the grounds and heal the troops after the bloodbaths. Sometimes it rings and it’s just bad news, but he’s not going back to bed; overdoses and murder suicide are no lullabies.

The beers, Jagger bombs and Player lights no longer dampen the bleeps of the 4 am calls, furthermore, it sorts of make you tired. Cocaine is conveniently priced and packaged, it certainly doesn’t mute the rings, but the buzz generated by this circle jerk of tongue chewing dick heads redoing the world with false promises effectively muffles it.

Among the fans of pudgy teen’s veal chop are a few doctors, and pudgy teen, not completely honest, opens up about his anxiety and his inability to sleep. Sure, he omits a few details; the thefts, the betrayals, the powders and the liquids. After all the life of a chef without the inclement add-ons it’s harsh enough to legitimize a Xanax script!

Solace! The beer numbs the anger of the night’s mistakes, the vodka catalyses the beer’s effect, but cocaine is there to help you go further, Xanax will soon shield the rising sun, awesome.

Most of his culinary heroes count their achievements in vintages and grams, anyways, he looks up to them, they seem happy doing it, he will get there someday, just has to dial in the dosage.

He misses the phone calls, fish didn’t come in, later that night, 5 or 6 veal chop sucked. Of course, it not his fault, he’s not cooking them anymore, using the people skills he learned however he could, he addresses the situation, a dish basket nearly misses his head, later the dishwasher stabs a happy go lucky manager with a bottle.

Pudgy kid took from his paycheck to pay the night chef on site, so the House could serve Grey Goose until 3am.

Earlier that night, a food writer managed to snatch a table at 9:30, between the Buddha Bar replays and the budding DJ remixes of U2. Not glorious, it’s obvious. Will be either stars in print or stars on pills.

Pudgy teen worked long shifts so now another voice joined the choir of screams, he’s never home, leaves too early and can’t stop looking at his phone. But he’s a cool dude now and he drinks champagne, he’s an epicurean Mohican, not a trashy line cooks that drinks beer, he tells himself that.

When the Champagne swells his forehead a bit too much he moves to craft beers and small batch spirits, helping the small farms and artisans in the process. He makes wise decisions, socially inclined choices of intoxicants. He drinks from magnums to lower his bottle count, lays down early, or so he was told.

But he’s not cooking 45 chops a day anymore, there’s no ways he could. People who flock in love him for who he has become, a legendary glutton, an emotional cesspool of epic proportions who turned to wheat grass and one liners to limp his way thru service.

He stacks fatty cuts, and metaphors, skillfully intersects them with meaty opinions, he gets quoted by media folks.

Pudgy kid is grown up, mostly happy now, but still stuck; between wine soaked layers of truffles, pills and crafty banter.

       

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• Fred Morin, One Of Canada’s Most Celebrated Chefs, On Bringing Back Home Economics

 

Crack open a fresh box and get ready for a neuron-splattering headrush. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Follow me on Facebook —

The post #805 The nostalgic smell of crayons appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

It’s probably in the medium-term interests of most Canadians to keep as closely to the current NAFTA arrangement as possible, because the Canadian economy is locked-in to the presupposition of expanded free trade with the USA. So it makes…

Read time: 7 mins

Saguenay, QC – Justin Trudeau, Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, and Sophie Grégoire Trudeau will join liberal candidate Lina Boivin in Chicoutimi—Le Fjord on Thursday, June 14, 2018. “Justin Trudeau and I are the only team that have a positive plan to strengthen our middle class, stand up for local jobs, and provide […]

University at Buffalo PhD candidate Alia Lesnek at a sampling site on Suemez Island, Alaska. (Photo: Jason Briner)

A team of researchers from the University at Buffalo has unlocked a new theory about the first human migration to the Americas: it m…

Would you believe me if I told you that, before today’s post, I had two other recipes written, photographed, and ready to share…only to scrap them at the last minute?! I think I was cursed these past couple weeks because I just couldn’t develop a recipe that I could 100% get behind. I have to […]

Cover options for the July/August issue of Canadian Geographic. Option one won with 43 per cent of the audience vote. (Photos, left and middle: The Calgary Stampede; right: Jenn Fast/Canadian Geographic)

“Oki [hello]. I am from the Land of the Blood Tribe-Blackfoot Confederacy. It is a real privilege to have a Blood Tribe member on the cover of Canadian Geographic! May the Wilderness Angels be with you always and forever.” 

In case you’re not familiar with it, the Alliance For A Healthier Generations is the name given to the partnership program founded between the American Heart Association, The Clinton Foundation, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with pretty what at first glance looks like pretty much every food industry corporation on earth.

The Alliance’s stated mission is,

“to create healthy changes that build upon one another and create a system, a nation, that makes the healthy choice the easy choice“

So what are some healthy choices according to the Alliance’s Amazon based,

“One Stop Shop for Healthier Generation vetted Smart Snacks and products for students in and out of school“?

Here are some select choices:

How is it possible that the American Heart Association, The Clinton Foundation, and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation would describe a child washing down a bag of Doritos or a Pop-Tart with a can of Diet Coke as them consuming a Smart Snack?

Anyone?

(My answer of course is because the Alliance For A Healthier Generation is a partnership with the food industry whose job is to promote sales, not to protect health, but as to why these particular products were deemed Smart, and the larger question of why partnering with the food industry was a thought to be a thoughtful plan, there you’ve got me)

       

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Because they can walk, fly, and swim. Ducks 3, humans 2. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Follow me on Instagram —

The post #806 Plain old ducks appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

These four young geographers will represent Canada on the world stage at the 2018 International Geography Olympiad in Quebec City.

For the first time ever, Canadian students will have a chance to test their geographical knowledge and skills against some of the world’s best and brightest young geographers when Canada hosts the 15th annual International Geography Olympiad this summer.

You know the one. The cap is long gone, the end is chewed up, but that trusty ballpoint, she keeps flowing like Niagara Falls. Loyal, failsafe, and inky to the bone, that one really good pen might be stashed on top of the fridge, deep in a dresser drawer, or down at the bottom of […]

The post #807 Your Keeper Pen appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.

Read time: 11 mins