News roundup, 1 May 2024

- Pierre Poilievre was ejected from the House of Commons by the Speaker for unparliamentary behaviour; the Conservative caucus then walked out in protest. This is unlikely to hurt the Tories, of course; the kind of people who go for them are essentially the adult version of children who get diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, so they'll see their conduct as heroic.

- Donald Trump has been fined $9,000 for violating a gag order intended to protect jurors and witnesses from being outed to his jackals. Now I realize that many suspect that Trump isn't as rich as he says he is, but I'm pretty sure that $9,000 is still pretty insignificant to him. That said, the judge did warn that the next time a jail sentence is possible, so there's that.

- The protest encampment at McGill University in Montreal by pro-Palestinian activists continues. Police called to the scene by the university say that "no crime is being committed" and that it is a civil matter; however, two students are asking a judge for an injunction to prohibit the organizations involved from protesting within 100 metres of university property. They allege that the organizations are creating an "environment of hate" which makes it "uncomfortable" to attend class. The activists are calling for the university's endowment fund to divest from companies that are involved in Israel, but some say that may be difficult because many of the investments are not direct but are instead in index funds, the composition of which is constantly changing. Meanwhile in New York City, the protesters at Columbia University, making similar demands, have gone a lot further and are potentially being treated a lot more harshly, with mass arrests and possible expulsions.

- An American diplomat has resigned from the State Department in protest over the government's handling of the Israel-Palestine situation.

- Zhang Yongzhen, the Chinese scientist who sequenced the genome of the COVID-19 virus, has been barred from his own lab by the government. Officials say that the lab is being renovated and was closed for "safety reasons", however Zhang says that no alternative location for the ongoing research was provided until the eviction, and that the location that was offered afterwards is unsuitable. This appears to be just the latest in a long series of roadblocks being placed in the way of his research.

- The federal government plans to force staff to return to the office 3 days a week; this is tentatively scheduled for September. The unions say they were not consulted on the matter, and that even with the existing flexible work arrangements staff often say they're going into the office just to participate in virtual meetings anyway. Doug Ford thinks it's a great idea though.

- The Canadian Medical Association is claiming that the proposed changes to capital gains taxes in the budget may drive people out of the profession; others say that this is nonsense.

- Municipal leaders in Alberta are very concerned about proposed legislation that would give the provincial cabinet the authority to dismiss councillors and repeal bylaws. There is particular concern since cabinet discussions are subject to secrecy laws, meaning elected councillors could potentially be removed from office without the public knowing why.

- Manitoba's Minister of Education, Nello Altomare, is investigating the move by Hanover School Division to give trustees the final say in the hiring of gym and music teachers. Activists are calling for the removal of the trustees who put forward the proposal.

- A passenger on a NCN Thompson Bus Lines coach on the way from Winnipeg to Thompson had to take control of the bus after the driver apparently fell asleep at the wheel. The driver wanted to resume the journey as if nothing had happened, but the passengers weren't having any of it.

- Some stores are backing away from the push towards self-checkout. Seems that between the folks who find it annoying and alienating to use, the folks who object to it on the grounds that it will kill jobs, and the folks who see it as an opportunity to steal, it's maybe not as good a business move as all the consultants told them it would be.

News roundup, 30 April 2024

- The ridiculous size of the top-selling American vehicles is a product of decades of faulty regulation. A big part of the problem is that American vehicle safety ratings, unlike those in other countries, don't take into account the safety of anyone who isn't actually inside the car, and this leads to a sort of arms race of larger and larger vehicles. Unfortunately fixing the matter now will not be easy, since the major US automakers make a lot more profit on those big monstrosities than on smaller cars - and Michigan is a critical swing state.

- McGill University, dealing with an encampment of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, is threatening to "consider other options" if the protesters don't leave. University officials claim to have video evidence of "people using unequivocally antisemitic language and intimidating behaviour" but have not responded to CBC's request for a copy of the video. Members of Independent Jewish Voices participating in the process deny having seen such behaviour (though admittedly drawing the line on this matter is not always easy).. Meanwhile in the US, mass arrests are already happening, and students are being warned that they could face suspension or worse, but the protesters at Columbia aren't backing down. Perhaps activists at different schools should be coordinating, so that students protest at schools they don't attend to avoid that risk.

- Shared Health is dropping masking requirements for visitors to healthcare facilities in Manitoba, though not for staff. One wonders if this isn't partly motivated by a desire to prevent unruly behaviour.

- Health Canada is evaluating the exemption given to BC to allow it to effectively decriminalize hard drugs; meanwhile the province is backing off on allowing public consumption following a backlash from the public, though possession in private spaces will be permitted.

- The US National Weather Service is warning that this summer could be an extremely hot one.

- The World Health Organization is increasingly concerned about the rise in measles cases around the world, from 170,000 cases in 2022 to over 320,000 in 2023. Vaccination rates for the disease are now back to 2008 levels.

- On another alarming public health note, an explosion of avian influenza in cattle is causing concerns in the US, and a lack of surveillance in Canada means we have no idea how prevalent it is on this side of the border.

Could life exist on Mars?

It seems there are places on Earth as inhospitable as Mars, yet life exists there:

Researchers at McGill's department of natural resources, the National Research Council of Canada, the University of Toronto and the SETI Institute have discovered that methane-eating bacteria survive in a highly unique spring located on Axel Heiberg Island in Canada's extreme North. Dr. Lyle Whyte, McGill University microbiologist explains that the Lost Hammer spring supports microbial life, that the spring is similar to possible past or present springs on Mars, and that therefore they too could support life.

The subzero water is so salty that it doesn't freeze despite the cold, and it has no consumable oxygen in it. There are, however, big bubbles of methane that come to the surface, which had provoked the researchers' curiosity as to whether the gas was being produced geologically or biologically and whether anything could survive in this extreme hypersaline subzero environment. "We were surprised that we did not find methanogenic bacteria that produce methane at Lost Hammer," Whyte said, "but we did find other very unique anaerobic organisms -- organisms that survive by essentially eating methane and probably breathing sulfate instead of oxygen."

From ScienceDaily. However, there's a caveat here; while those conditions allow life to exist, it's possible that more hospitable conditions are required for the origin of life (hard to say, of course, since we've never seen it happen). The microbes discovered by these researchers may well have invaded from elsewhere.