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Looter-Slasher Is Not a Genre. OR IS IT?
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
We predict the winners and definitively name a “new” sub-genre.
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A Plea to Consider Mayo, From a Mayo Hater
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
Mayonnaise is best when you don’t realize you’re eating it.
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The ‘System Shock’ Remake Demo Shows Its Development Is Back on Track
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
The Steam Games Festival gave us a welcome glimpse into a remake that once seemed doomed.
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Twitter Bug Notifies People When They Get Added to ‘Private’ Lists
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
A strange bug allows some people who get added to a “private” list to know they are on that list.
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Racist Memes Could Be the Key to Convicting a White College Student of Stabbing a Black Man to Death
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
Prosecutors are trying to prove Sean Urbanski’s mind had been poisoned by racist memes.
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Ukraine: Can We Get That Meeting With Trump or Is Now a Bad Time?
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
This is starting to get very awkward.
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Apple’s $52,000 Mac Pro Is Not a Very Good Cheese Grater
Posted December 13, 2019 by Jason Koebler
Let’s try cooking with computers.
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New Film Dark Waters Shines Light on Chemical Pollution History in Ohio River Valley
Posted December 13, 2019 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 8 mins
Dark Waters, the new film starring Mark Ruffalo as attorney Rob Bilott, is set in the Ohio River Valley city of Parkersburg, West Virginia — a place about 150 miles downstream from where Shell is currently building a sprawling plastics manufacturing plant, known as an “ethane cracker,” in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
Ruffalo’s film, directed by Todd Haynes, debuted to critical acclaim, earning a Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating of 91 percent, with The Atlantic calling it a “chilling true story of corporate indifference.”
While much of Dark Waters, as the title suggests, centers on contaminated water, the story of perflouroctanic acid (PFOA), the Teflon-linked chemical at the heart of the film, is also a story about air pollution. And as much as the film looks back to history, DuPont’s pollution — and the company’s decades-long cover-up — may gain new relevance as the chemical industry plans a multi-billion dollar expansion, fed by fracked fossil fuels, along the banks of the Ohio.
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Teen Activists Couldn’t Ignore the ‘Morbid Symbols’ All Over the UN’s Climate Conference
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
Security formed a “human chain” to kick activists out, and Qatar was handing out dates, individually wrapped in plastic.
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COP25: Over 40 Gulf State Delegates Are Current or Former Employees of Fossil Fuel Companies
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 3 mins
Gulf states have sent at least 42 current or former employees of the fossil fuel industry to the UN climate summit in Madrid as part of their official delegations, DeSmog analysis shows.
More than half of the delegation from Kuwait and almost a third of Saudi Arabia’s representatives attending the Madrid meeting, known as COP25, are associated with the oil and gas industry. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar collectively sent at least 16 delegates associated with the fossil fuel industry.
Many of these affiliations were not declared on the official preliminary delegate list, provided by the UN.
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COP25: Anger Over Lack of Action for Vulnerable States as Climate Talks Conclude
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 5 mins
Climate activists have found plenty to be angry about at this year’s UN climate talks, which are scheduled to conclude in Madrid tonight. From youth groups to indigenous people, civil society has been more riled than in previous years, as the disconnect grows between momentum on the streets and the slow progress of the negotiations.
“It’s like two parallel worlds,” says Sara Shaw, part of the Friends of the Earth International delegation at the meeting, known as COP25. “It’s so stark, the contrast between climate breakdown, the potential of massive expansion of fossil fuels, using markets to game the system, the access polluters have to these talks when civil society is really marginalised. I think it’s just coming together in a huge amount of frustration at the injustice of it all.”
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#352 Successfully regifting a present to someone who actually wants it
Posted December 13, 2019 by Anonymous
What do cellophane-wrapped mugs of mini candy canes, Season 3 of Mr. Belvedere on DVD, and framed photos of someone else’s dog have in common? They’re just what we never wanted. But that’s okay, that’s okay — because someone else might! Yes, now it’s time for some Regifting Magic, people. It’s time to regift like […]
The post #352 Successfully regifting a present to someone who actually wants it appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Airlines Now Have to Pay You Up to $1,000 if They Delay Your Flight
Posted December 12, 2019 by Anonymous
Don’t get too excited though, there’s a giant loophole that could keep you from ever seeing any money.
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Argentina Wants a Fracking Boom. The US Offers a Cautionary Tale
Posted December 12, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 13 mins
Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez takes office in the midst of an economic crisis. Like his predecessor, he has made fracking a centerpiece of the country’s economic revival.
Argentina has some of the largest natural gas and oil reserves in the world and “possibly the most prospective outside of North America,” according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. If some other country is going to successfully replicate the U.S. shale revolution, most experts put Argentina pretty high on that list. While the U.S. shale industry is showing its age, Argentina’s Vaca Muerta shale is in its early stages, with only 4 percent of the acreage developed thus far.
The country feels a sense of urgency. Declining conventional production from older oil and gas fields has meant that Argentina has become a net importer of fuels over the past decade. Meanwhile, Argentina’s economy has deteriorated badly due to a toxic cocktail of debt, austerity, inflation, and an unstable currency.
For these reasons — a growing energy deficit, a worsening economic situation, and large oil and gas reserves trapped underground — there is enormous political support for kick-starting an American-style fracking boom in Argentina.
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#353 Seeing Christmas trees through front windows
Posted December 12, 2019 by Anonymous
AWESOME! Photos from: here, here, here, here, here, and here — Check out my podcast 3 Books —
The post #353 Seeing Christmas trees through front windows appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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COP25: Climate Science Deniers Attend on Behalf of Trump-Affiliated Lobby Group
Posted December 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 4 mins
A US thinktank with close ties to Donald Trump has obtained accreditation for a delegation of climate science deniers to the UN summit currently underway in Madrid.
Organisations accredited to attend on behalf of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received significant funding from oil giant ExxonMobil and the Koch family, include the UK’s Centre for Policy Studies, the Chicago-based Heartland Institute and the European Institute for Climate and Energy.
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COP25: Polluting Companies Blamed for Slow Progress at UN Climate Talks
Posted December 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 4 mins
Big polluters are to blame for slow progress in the annual UN climate negotiations in Madrid, Spain, according to activists — with several companies sponsoring the talks in exchange for tax breaks.
Sponsors of the talks, known as COP25, include the electrical utilities company Iberdrola, which produced 24.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, and Endesa, which through its operations produced 61.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to analysis.
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Help us choose the cover for Can Geo Kids More Ultimate Animals
Posted December 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Help us choose the cover of our upcoming special issue, Can Geo Kids More Ultimate Animals. 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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#354 When the neighbor shovels your tiny little patch of the sidewalk
Posted December 11, 2019 by Anonymous
Sidewalks bring us together. Fences split yards, lawns divide homes, and invisible property lines are scribbled on dusty blueprints in city archives. But somehow those little strips of concrete tie us all together and connect the dots between our lives. It’s a beautiful moment when a friendly neighbor shovels the snow off of your walk […]
The post #354 When the neighbor shovels your tiny little patch of the sidewalk appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Can someone tell me what is going on in Alberta?
Posted December 10, 2019 by Anonymous
I don’t really follow Alberta news, but the constant “cut, cut, cut” and “whine, whine, whine” I am hearing from there recently is getting chaotic.
Does the Alberta UCP government have any idea what it is doing?
They are supposedly going to reduce surgical wait times by paying for more private surgical facilities, but at the same time they are cutting back on primary care doctors and eliminating nursing positions.
They cut taxes for corporations, at the same time as they are nickle-and-diming drug coverage for dependents of seniors – people who don’t have a lot of other health insurance choices – and forcing school boards to use maintenance funds to maintain teaching staff levels — a trade-off that isn’t going to work more than once.
Premier Kenney seems to be furious at PMJT because supposedly Alberta is paying more in equalization than he thinks is fair – except no provincial taxpayers “pay” for equalization, its a federal transfer program and anyway Canada is using the 2009 Harper formula which was apparently fine with Kenney until now. Of course, Alberta is now losing jobs – 18,000 in November alone, the highest monthly job loss in Alberta history.
Why, if this keeps up, maybe they’ll be entitled to equalization payments too! (Side note: I will never forget how upset and appalled the Toronto-centric media were when Ontario actually qualified for equalization because of the 2009 downturn – complaints heard again when Ontario stopped being entitled to the payments in 2018.)
Why, if this keeps up, maybe they’ll be entitled to equalization payments too! (Side note: I will never forget how upset and appalled the Toronto-centric media were when Ontario actually qualified for equalization because of the 2009 downturn – complaints heard again when Ontario stopped being entitled to the payments in 2018.)
Kenney doesn’t seem to have the capacity or the will to put together the kind of government stimulus and employment programs that have been used in the past to counter economic downturns and job losses — which don’t even yet include the companies that are not moving there because of the Wexit stupidity.
Jason Kenney is happy to stoke the flames of Wexit because he thinks it will help him win political points. But there are real economic consequences to Kenney promoting and indulging Alberta separatism – like a thousand jobs in downtown Calgary. #ableg pic.twitter.com/Ewu5WNAECp— Progress Alberta (@ProgressAlberta) December 9, 2019
But never mind — instead, lets everybody just trash WestJet – whose head office IS located in Calgary (at least, for now) — for insufficient loyalty to Dear Leader:
our premier just subtweeted the CEO of @WestJet over his comments on #wexitalberta in case you needed any more proof @Alberta_UCP has the same level of maturity and leadership skills as band of schoolyard bullies #cdnpoli #ableg #abpoli https://t.co/l0GM24Mos1— Bridget Casey (@BridgieCasey) December 10, 2019
If Alberta now needs more provincial revenue to support its government obligations, then first they need to implement a provincial sales tax, like every other province has done already, before they start demanding more money from the rest of Canada.
Public advised of aggressive panhandler from Alberta who will probably just spend money on corporate tax cuts #ableg #cdnpoli https://t.co/NLZ9YbyQz8— The Beaverton (@TheBeaverton) December 10, 2019
Whatever is going on in Alberta, I sure hope its not catching.
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Since Paris Agreement, Global Financial Firms Have Sunk $745 Billion into New Coal Plant Development
Posted December 10, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 3 mins
BlackRock, Vanguard, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase are among the top global financers of new coal development, according to new research presented during the United Nations climate summit in Madrid.
That research, published by the German NGO Urgewald along with BankTrack and 30 partner organizations, reveals and ranks the financial institutions sinking money into the dirtiest form of fossil fuels in the three years since the Paris Agreement was signed. The research shows hundreds of billions of dollars have flowed to 258 coal plant developers between January 2017 and September 2019 in the form of loans, investments, and underwriting. These groups clarify underwriting as the process of banks raising “investment capital for companies by issuing bonds or shares on their behalf and selling them to investors.”
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Blame Sunspots: Climate Science Denial Continues at Shale Gas Pipeline Industry Conference
Posted December 10, 2019 by Sharon Kelly
Read time: 7 mins
Last month, 11,258 scientists from virtually every country in the world published a study on climate change, writing that they collectively declared “clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate emergency.”
That comes six years after a widely cited 2013 study reported 97 percent agreement among publishing climate scientists that human activity causes climate change — a consensus that has grown stronger in the years since. John Cook, lead author of that study, described this summer a 99 percent scientific consensus that humans cause global warming.
Despite this widespread scientific agreement, shale pipeline executives attending this year’s Marcellus Utica Midstream conference last week in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, siteheard a very different message on the climate.
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London, Ont., launches project to collect hard-to-recycle plastics
Posted December 10, 2019 by Anonymous
Image: Hefty Brands
People in some parts of London, Ont., will soon be able to put hard-to-recycle single-use materials out with their regular recycling instead of throwing them in the trash.
The city is testing the Hefty EnergyBag program in nine…
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When it comes to volcano tourism, is the reward worth the risk?
Posted December 10, 2019 by Anonymous
Steam curls out of a fissure in New Zealand’s White Island volcano. The volcano suddenly erupted on Dec. 9, 2019, killing several tourists. (Photo: George Kourounis)
Earlier this week shocking news reports started to come out of New Zealand about a sudden, unexpected eruption of White Island volcano. As I write this at least six people have died, eight more are missing, and 31 are still in hospital suffering from extensive burns to their bodies, and some to the insides of their lungs, the result of inhaling hot gases and ash from the eruption. Search and rescue teams are still looking for survivors, but officials have little hope of finding anyone alive on the island.
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#355 Construction cranes with Christmas lights on them
Posted December 10, 2019 by Anonymous
They’re not selling anything. Nope, Christmas lights on construction cranes just smile down on the city and cover us all in a warm and festive light. Flickering in the sky, flashing way up high, they hug us all together in a friendly yellow glow. On top of that, it’s sort of fun thinking about how […]
The post #355 Construction cranes with Christmas lights on them appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Daughter Dearest
Posted December 9, 2019 by Anonymous
Hmmm — I’ve been saying for years that SOMEBODY in Trump’s inner circle is a Russian asset. I am convinced that someone very close to him has been feeding him all the pro-Putin and pro-Russian stuff he has been parroting since 2016, convincing him that the Russian world-view is correct, leading him to say things like how unfair it is that Russia is out of the G7, etc.
Occasionally, Trump has actually done something anti-Russian, like announce new sanctions in retaliation for assassinations – maybe when the asset is out of town and isn’t whispering in his ear. But then later Trump will almost always reverse himself and change his mind, indicating that the asset continues their subversion.
I have not been able to believe that Trump himself is the asset — he isn’t smart enough and his lies are often too self-delusional to be the kind of conscious falsehoods that a Russian asset would need to promote.
So now maybe we are finding out who the Russian asset might be: maybe its Ivanka.
Reaching out to someone like Steele and trying to develop/maintain a relationship w him is the kind of thing one might do if you were a Russian asset. https://t.co/IrKOQ60KwM— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) December 9, 2019
NEW via @thamburger @PostRoz: Ivanka Trump was personal friends with former British spy Christopher Steele, according to person familiar with the situation https://t.co/h21YbomZO3— Matea Gold (@mateagold) December 9, 2019
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Carbon Majors Can Be Held Liable for Human Rights Violations, Philippines Commission Rules
Posted December 9, 2019 by guest
Read time: 5 mins
By Isabella Kaminski, Climate Liability News. Originally published on Climate Liability News.
The world’s biggest polluters could be held legally liable for their contributions to climate change, a major national inquiry into the links between climate and human rights has concluded.
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#IfYouServeItWeWillEatIt Vegetarian Conference Food Nudge RCT Edition
Posted December 9, 2019 by Yoni Freedhoff
As I’ve noted before (usually in the context of soda and junk food) if you serve it, we will eat it, even if the ‘we’ are a bunch of medical or dietetic professionals.
But what happens if you serve healthier fare? And what happens if you give people a little nudge towards it?
A recent study sought to explore that and prior to 3 conferences, randomized attendees into receiving one of the following two options to consider for their lunch choices
Group 1 (this was the non-vegetarian default ask): At the conference a non-vegetarian buffet will be served for lunch. Please state here if you would like to have a vegetarian dish prepared for you: __________________________________.
Group 2 (this was the vegetarian default ask): At the conference a vegetarian buffet will be served for lunch. Please state here if you would like to have a non-vegetarian dish prepared for you:__________________________________.
You know what happened next.
At all 3 conferences, whatever was highlighted as the default lunch option was chosen by the vast majority for lunch.
At the first conference, the vegetarian choice increased from 2% to 87%. At the second conference it increased from 6% to 86%. And at the third conference it increased from 12.5% to 89%.
You know what would have certainly led to even higher numbers? No non-vegetarian options. And to be clear, I’m not suggesting vegetarian diets are a panacea, there are plenty of unhealthy vegetarian foods, but this simple study illustrates the power afforded to conference organizers in terms of what’s being served and how it’s being presented to attendees. The same of course would be true of any venue where meals and/or snacks are presented.
Given we eat what we’re served, it seems to me to be a straightforward expectation, at least for medical and dietetic conferences, that we’re served healthy options.
[Thanks to my friend and colleague David Nunan for sharing this study with me, and you should follow him on Twitter if you don’t already]
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#356 Wearing your boyfriend’s sweatshirt and it smells like them
Posted December 9, 2019 by Anonymous
Ripped sleeves, tattered collars, and faded prints tossed in crumpled piles on the bedroom floor hold meaningful memories of tender touches. Twisting on the couch for a movie, stirring over the stove at dinner, or napping together in the park … all come together to fan the flames of your heart. Tossing on your boyfriend’s […]
The post #356 Wearing your boyfriend’s sweatshirt and it smells like them appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Saturday Stories: Chaos, Hatred, And Ethos
Posted December 7, 2019 by Yoni Freedhoff
Joshua Hammer, in GQ, writing on chaos at the top of the world.
Bari Weiss (and whether you loathe her or not everyone should read this harrowing article), in the New York Times, on how the global surge in Jew hatred should not be written off as isolated incidents of bigotry.
Rachel Laudan, in The Hedgehog Review, on the establishment of a modern culinary ethos.
(photo source)
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EPA Watchdog: White House Blocked Part of Truck Pollution Investigation, Caused Lack of Public Information
Posted December 6, 2019 by guest
Read time: 4 mins
By Jordan Davidson, EcoWatch. Reposted with permission from EcoWatch.
The Trump administration pushed through an exemption to clean air rules, effectively freeing heavy polluting, super-cargo trucks from following clean air rules. It rushed the rule without conducting a federally mandated study on how it would impact public health, especially children, said the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Inspector General Charles J. Sheehan in a report released yesterday, as the AP reported.
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The Royal Canadian Geographical Society announces new Vice-Patron
Posted December 6, 2019 by Anonymous
Royal Canadian Geographical Society CEO John Geiger and Society board Vice-President Wendy Cecil flank Lord Martin Rees as he accepts the role of Vice-Patron. (Photo: Can Geo)
As it celebrates its 90th anniversary, The Royal Canadian Geographical Society is ramping up the “royal.”
On Dec. 5, 2019, Lord Martin Rees, the renowned cosmologist, astrophysicist and British Astronomer Royal since 1995, accepted the honorary position of Vice-Patron with the Society from its Chief Executive Officer John Geiger and board Vice-President Wendy Cecil in London, U.K. Rees also becomes an honorary RCGS Fellow.
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#357 When that baby screaming on your flight finally stops
Posted December 6, 2019 by Anonymous
Look, I love babies. Sure, we laugh, high five, sing songs, and play cars. We talk, read books, dream dreams, and stare at stars. But one thing we agree to disagree on is proper behavior on overnight transatlantic flights. Me, I like sleeping. Them, they like screaming for hours on the lap beside me. Generally […]
The post #357 When that baby screaming on your flight finally stops appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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Sailing around the world for ocean plastic
Posted December 5, 2019 by Anonymous
Sheri Bastien paddles off Hoddevika on the west coast of Norway. (Photo courtesy Sheri Bastien)
Sheri Bastien is a Canadian public health researcher at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås. Soon she’ll be setting sail as part of eXXpedition, an all-female around-the-world sailing expedition that aims to study and raise awareness of plastic pollution and toxins in the oceans. She spoke to Canadian Geographic about what she hopes to accomplish on her leg of the trip.
What is eXXpedition all about?
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#358 When you sneeze and fart at the same time so nobody notices the fart
Posted December 5, 2019 by Anonymous
It’s like getting away with something illegal. AWESOME! Photo from: here — Check out my new book You Are Awesome —
The post #358 When you sneeze and fart at the same time so nobody notices the fart appeared first on 1000 Awesome Things.
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BP Challenged On Adverts That ‘Mislead Consumers’ Over Polluting Portfolio
Posted December 4, 2019 by Anonymous
Read time: 4 mins
Environmental lawyers have made a formal complaint against oil giant BP, claiming its latest advertising campaign is misleading consumers about its commitment to tackling climate change.
The challenge, filed today by legal campaign group ClientEarth, is the first time a complaint has been made about a fossil fuel company’s alleged greenwashing under international corporate rules.
ClientEarth has also launched a petition calling for a ban on all fossil fuel advertising unless it comes with a tobacco-style health warning.
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Canadian Geographic’s best maps of 2019
Posted December 4, 2019 by Anonymous
“I wisely started with a map, and made the story fit.” So once famously said author J.R.R. Tolkien of Lord of the Rings fame. I was reminded of his position on the importance of cartography in storytelling while I was doing research for “Map quest,” a feature exploring the amazing mapping connections in video games that I wrote for the July/August 2019 issue of Canadian Geographic.
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“Send us your money and everything will be just fine”
Posted December 4, 2019 by Anonymous
I’m very glad to see that Canadian authorities are taking these scams seriously: A Burnaby, B.C., man has been identified as a suspect in an RCMP investigation into organized crime groups;accused of scamming Canadians by posing as Canada Revenue Agency…
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#359 The wind
Posted December 4, 2019 by Anonymous
I’m listening to the wind, to the wind at my soul. Where it comes from, where it goes, well … who really knows. All I know is that the wind is a great part of life for a few big reasons: 1. Helps plants make love. Roots twist and tie bushes and trees into forest […]
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Hearts in the Ice: History and culture
Posted December 3, 2019 by Anonymous
Relics from past eras, such as this fishing boat on the shore of Spitsbergen, are common reminders of Svalbard’s long history. (Photo: Tanya Kirnishni/Canadian Geographic)
The ice-covered archipelago of Svalbard, located high above the Arctic Circle, is home to thousands of polar bears—in fact, there are more polar bears than people! But beyond the splendour of Svalbard’s wilderness, the archipelago also has a rich history of exploration, hunting, scientific research, and industrial development that has shaped its people and landscape.
