Forty-three per cent of Canadians say science is a ‘matter of opinion’
(via Vice)
In a new survey, nearly half say the science of global warming is unclear.
‘Alarm bells we cannot ignore’: World hunger is rising for the first time this century
(via The Guardian)
The number of hungry people in the world has increased for the first time since the turn of the century, sparking concern that conflict and climate change could be reversing years of progress.
BC woman who challenged right-to-die laws gets medically assisted death
(via CBC News)
One of two British Columbia women challenging the federal government's restrictive law on medically assisted dying has been able to end her suffering with the help of a doctor.
Luxury condos for supercars in supposedly impoverished Richmond, BC? I’m sure this is fine
(via South China Morning Post)
As Metro Vancouver suffers through a full-blown housing crisis, a new property project is set to accommodate the playthings of the ultra-rich.
Is Facebook silencing Rohingya reports of ethnic cleansing?
(via The Daily Beast)
Rohingya activists — in Burma and in Western countries — tell The Daily Beast that Facebook has been removing their posts documenting the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya people in Burma (also known as Myanmar). They said their accounts are frequently suspended or taken down.
Equifax to reveal Canadian impact of data breach this week as executives face insider trading probe
(via the Toronto Star)
The company has said a massive cyberattack in the summer may have compromised the personal data of 143 million Americans and an undisclosed number of Canadian residents.
Art of the steal: How Trump boosted his book sales and gamed the New York Times best-seller list
(via The New Republic)
Donald Trump’s proudest accomplishment — next to his high-rises, his golf courses, and his daughter Ivanka — is his book, Trump: The Art of the Deal.
Just a heads up: A Christian ‘researcher’ says the rapture starts this Saturday
(via Huff Post)
There’s yet another doomsday date approaching, with some claiming that the rapture will start on Saturday.
These 240-year-old nautical maps show coral loss is much worse than we knew
(via the Washington Post)
Between 1773 and 1775, George Gauld, a surveyor with the British Admiralty, immortalized the coast of the Florida Keys in ink. Though his most pressing goal was to record the depth of the sea — to prevent future shipwrecks — Gauld embraced his naturalist side, too. He sprinkled his maps with miscellany that later charts would omit: where sea turtles made their nests, or the colors and consistency of sand.
The Calgary Flames want half a billion dollars from taxpayers: Just say ‘No’
(via Maclean’s)
The shakedown arguments made by sports teams and other businesses are always the same, and don’t stand up to scrutiny.
Coca-Cola sucks wells dry in Chiapas, forcing residents to buy water
(via Salon)
The water is disappearing in San Felipe Ecatepec, an Indigenous town three miles outside of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
Health Canada trans fat ban will take effect next year
(via CBC News)
Artificial trans fat will finally be off our plates, Heart & Stroke says, nearly 12 years after the move was recommended to the federal government.
Toni Morrison on ‘the colour fetish’
(via The New Yorker)
In literature, colorism is so very available — it is the ultimate narrative shortcut.
How big business got Brazil hooked on junk food
(via the New York Times)
As growth slows in wealthy countries, Western food companies are aggressively expanding in developing nations, contributing to obesity and health problems.
When disability movies become inspiration porn
(via The Walrus)
TIFF debuts Breathe and Stronger flub their chance to show the reality of disabled lives.
Mike Huckabee and the rise of Christian media under Trump
(via The Atlantic)
The former Arkansas governor has a new television show on Trinity Broadcasting Network, and a powerful first guest.
China’s CNOOC cancels Aurora LNG project in BC
(via The Globe and Mail)
China’s CNOOC Ltd. has cancelled a liquefied natural gas project planned for northwest British Columbia.
Has the UN Climate Assessment Process become obsolete?
(via Inside Climate News)
Issuing massive IPCC climate change reports every seven years is too slow at a time when constant updates are needed to keep pace with science, some scientists say.
‘Exceptionally serious’: Report says half of Canadian wildlife declining
(via CTV News)
An extensive survey of 903 species of Canadian birds, fish, mammals, reptiles and amphibians over more than four decades has found that half of them are in serious population decline.
Where are Canada’s missing electric cars?
(via DeSmog Canada)
The race is on for electric vehicle supremacy.
Nice one: Equifax had ‘admin’ as login and password in Argentina
(via BBC News)
The credit report provider Equifax has been accused of a fresh data security breach, this time affecting its Argentine operations.
Why Canada needs a national school food program
(via Maclean’s)
Why, in a rich country like Canada, will so many children be sitting in their new classrooms feeling hungry this week?
Much ado about nothing: Ancient Indian text contains earliest zero symbol
(via The Guardian)
Nowt, nada, zilch: there is nothing new about nothingness. But the moment that the absence of stuff became zero, a number in its own right, is regarded as one of the greatest breakthroughs in the history of mathematics.
Are we living in the golden age of silent film?
(via the New York Times)
The summer’s hottest destination for video entertainment is a U.K.-based social media brand called LADbible. In July alone, the viral clips that churn out of its Facebook page were viewed more than 3 billion times.
National Post’s Ontario newsroom workers look to unionize
(via The Globe and Mail)
Saying they have “no other realistic option,” newsroom employees at the National Post in Ontario are working to unionize in the face of benefit-pay cuts and buyouts that they believe will threaten the quality of Postmedia Network Inc.’s national newspaper.
How humans are inadvertently hastening the extinction of Canada’s whales
(via The Walrus)
An investigation into this summer’s mysterious deaths blames our booming industries. But it isn’t too late to save the endangered mammals.
Pressure mounts on Facebook to release campaign ads bought by Russia
(via Yahoo! News)
A campaign finance reform group, accusing Facebook of being used as an “accomplice” in a Russian influence scheme, is calling on company chairman Mark Zuckerberg to reverse his position and publicly release “secretly-sponsored” Russian political ads that ran on its platform during last year’s presidential election.
Good riddance: A judge has sent Martin Shkreli to jail for Facebook post offering bounty for Hillary Clinton’s hair
(via CNBC)
An angry federal judge revoked the $5 million bond of convicted fraudster Martin Shkreli on Wednesday and ordered him jailed after ruling the notorious “pharma bro” was a danger to the public because of his offer on Facebook of cash for samples of Hillary Clinton’s hair.
The White House calls a comment by Jemele Hill of ESPN ‘a fireable offence’
(via the New York Times)
ESPN, under intense pressure again in the hypercharged terrain of social media, elicited a rebuke from a White House official on Wednesday in response to a series of tweets posted by a SportsCenter host.
‘Colin Kaepernick has a job’: Inside the past, present and future of America’s most inconvenient truth
(via Bleacher Report)
Inside the past, present and future of this country's most inconvenient truth, by way of the most controversial black man in America.
Hillary Clinton looks back in anger
(via The New Yorker)
She talks about Trump, Comey, collusion, “deplorables,” and the power of sexism.
So what exactly are impeachable offences?
(via the New York Review of Books)
Impeachment as a legal process is poorly understood.
Is Trudeau quietly turning his back on fixing Canada’s environmental laws?
(via DeSmog Canada)
Scientists and environmental groups breathed a sigh of relief when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quickly followed through on a campaign promise to modernize Canada’s environmental laws.
Heckler who hurled racist comments at Canadian Sikh politician swears she’s not racist
(via Vice)
The woman who interrupted a Jagmeet Singh campaign stop by screaming questions about Sharia law and the Muslim Brotherhood has taken to Youtube to give her side of the story, but is hardly apologetic.
Trump’s tariffs on Canadian lumber are hurting the hurricane recovery
(via Reason)
As the flood waters from Hurricane Harvey dry up, the residents of affected areas are turning to the task of rebuilding their storm-ravaged communities.
Miners who bragged about killing uncontacted Amazon tribe members are now under investigation
(via CBC Radio)
A few weeks ago, a group of gold miners were overheard at a bar in Brazil bragging about how they killed 10 uncontacted tribe members in the Amazon.
Trudeau targets Tories in gender equality remarks, saying they don’t get it
(via News 1130)
The strongest opposition to including issues such as gender equality in discussions over the North American Free Trade Agreement has come not from the United States but from within Canada, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday.
‘Middle class’ Canadians don’t understand how upper class they are
(via National Post)
The most remarkable feature of the Liberals’ Middle-Class Tax Cut is that it doesn’t help people with median incomes.
Louis C.K. would rather ignore those assault rumours, but at this point, he can’t just let his art do the talking
(via Hazlitt)
Last week, an interviewer asked Tig Notaro about Louis C.K.’s producer credit on her series One Mississippi. “It’s frustrating, because he has nothing to do with the show,” she said. Later, she asked the interviewer whether C.K. had ever addressed the rumours of sexual misconduct first levelled against him by Gawker in 2012.
On Katherine Dunn’s long-forgotten debut
(via The Atlantic)
Katherine Dunn’s cult classic, Geek Love, has eclipsed her debut, Attic, for too long.
The push to bring home Indigenous artefacts
(via The Walrus)
How Canadian museums are working with communities to repatriate thousands of sacred objects.
The one number that shows why climate change is making hurricane season worse
(via Time)
Hurricanes Irma and Harvey have reignited discussions about the link between global warming and extreme weather, with climate scientists now saying they can show the connections between the two phenomena better than ever before.
Salt Spring Islanders vote no to incorporation
(via CBC News)
Residents on Salt Spring Island, the largest of the southern Gulf Island in B.C., have voted no to a referendum asking whether they wanted to become a municipality.
Read Jagmeet Singh’s Twitter statement about the racist intervention at one of his recent events
(via Twitter)
Jagmeet Singh’s response to a racist outburst at one of his recent events has gone viral. Read his statement on what happened.
Dear white people, wake up: Canada is racist
(via The Conversation)
Approximately 4,000 people gathered at Vancouver’s City Hall on Aug. 19 to protest an anti-immigration and anti-Muslim white nationalist rally. They far out-numbered the white nationalist demonstrators. Later, one counter-protester interviewed by CBC-TV news said: “I’ve never seen a racist.”
Myanmar has been accused of planting landmines in path of fleeing Rohingya
(via The Guardian)
Myanmar’s military has been accused of planting landmines in the path of Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence in western Rakhine state, with Amnesty International reporting that two people were wounded on Sunday.
Cuba sends hundreds of doctors to Caribbean islands devastated by Hurricane Irma
(via The Independent)
Cuba has sent doctors to several Caribbean islands ravaged by Hurricane Irma.
This journalist went undercover in temp nation
(via the Toronto Star)
Amina Diaby died last year in an accident inside one of the GTA’s largest industrial bakeries where, the company says, worker safety is its highest concern. The 23-year-old was one of thousands of Ontarians who have turned to temporary employment agencies to find jobs that often come with low pay and little training for sometimes dangerous work. The Star’s Sara Mojtehedzadeh went undercover for a month at the factory where Diaby worked.
‘The First White President’: Ta-Nehisi Coates on Donald Trump
(via The Atlantic)
The foundation of Donald Trump’s presidency is the negation of Barack Obama’s legacy.
BC Indigenous protesters build tiny homes in Trans Mountain pipeline’s path
(via the Vancouver Sun)
First Nations protesters in British Columbia are planning to place tiny homes directly in the path of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, an idea drawn from an influential Indigenous movement in the United States.
The awakening of Colin Kaepernick
(via the New York Times)
In college, Kaepernick began a journey that led him to his position as one of the most prominent, if divisive, social activists in sports.
Three Equifax managers sold stock before their cyber hack was revealed
(via Bloomberg)
Three Equifax Inc. senior executives sold shares worth almost $1.8 million in the days after the company discovered a security breach that may have compromised information on about 143 million U.S. consumers.
On Canada’s impossible acknowledgment
(via The New Yorker)
Reconciliation efforts between Canada and its First Nations citizens have stalled, repeating the cycles of overpromising and underdelivering that have marred their relationship for ages.
CanLit is a raging dumpster fire
(via The Atlantic)
We’ve all said it, heard it, or, more than likely, done both at some point in the past year and a half. In fact, it would seem that dissatisfaction with the state of CanLit, strangely enough, is the current state of CanLit.
Boy who suffered up to 100 seizures a day has none in 300 days after being prescribed cannabis oil
(via The Independent)
An 11-year-old boy who was dying from severe epilepsy has not had any seizures for 300 days since being prescribed a medical marijuana product.
Lost languages discovered in one of the world’s oldest continuously run libraries
(via Smithsonian Magazine)
The centuries-old texts were erased, and then written over, by monks at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt.
