Image for the day

Resolute Bay by Yann Arthus Bertrand

The Path of Protest

Arab spring:

an interactive timeline of Middle East protests

This is a screen shot. For the interactive version, go here.

Harper could stack Supreme Court

Upcoming Supreme Court of Canada retirements make this a very important federal election

Charlie Smith, Georgia Straight: The next prime minister of Canada could be in a position to appoint four Supreme Court of Canada justices. The nine-member court's mandatory retirement age is 75, and four will reach this milestone by the end of 2015. Morris J. Fish will be the first to turn 75... Ian Binnie and Louis LeBel will be 75 in 2014, and Marshall Rothstein reaches that age [on] 2015.

For years, conservatives have wanted to rein in the Supreme Court of Canada, which has issued numerous decisions over the years that have enraged right wingers. Those rulings include striking down Canada's abortion law, 'reading in' sexual orientation to the list of equality rights guaranteed under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and requiring that the Crown provide full disclosure to the defence in criminal cases.

In 2000, University of Calgary professors Ted Morton... and Rainier Knopff wrote a book called The Charter Revolution & the Court Party, which alleged that 'university-based intellectuals' had embarked on an 'astoundingly successful strategy' to promote an activist, rights-based agenda through the courts... Morton and Knopff, along with future prime minister Stephen Harper, were among six Albertans who signed [the] famous 'firewall letter' in 2001...

If Harper were to win a majority government on May 2 and later stack the court with judges who share the views of right wingers... this could have profound ramifications on the future of Canada.

Image source here.

Canada-US border 120 million years old

Geological record surprisingly mirrors today's Canada-U.S. border

Postmedia News: Two scientists probing the ancient foundations of the Rocky Mountains have discovered -- to their great surprise -- that today's Canada-U.S. border also marked a clear geological dividing line during a key phase of the continent's formation more than 100 million years ago.

'The modern political boundary between the United States and Canada originated roughly 200 years ago,' states the summary of a study co-authored by geologists Andrew Leier of the University of Calgary and George Gehreis of the University of Arizona. 'However, it appears that even as much as 120 million years ago, rivers and sediments in the two regions developed their own distinct characteristics.'...

'Sand grains made of the mineral zircon show that Cretaceous sediment in the United States has a clear 'American' signature, whereas that in the Canadian Rockies has a different and definable 'Canadian' signature.' observed the researchers, whose study is published in the journal Geology...

The tiny zircons used to profile strands of sandstone on either side of the border not only showed that the rocks are different in each country, Leier added. 'Rivers were flowing out of these Cretaceous mountains, from west to east,' he noted. 'The second implication of the data is that the rivers that flowed from the mountains in the United States stayed in the U.S., and those in Canada stayed in Canada... 'There is no evidence that rivers were crossing what is today the border.'

Image source here.

UN for small farmers, not corporate ag

Groundbreaking New UN Report on How to Feed the World's Hungry: Ditch Corporate-Controlled Agriculture

Alternet: 'To feed 9 billion people in 2050, we urgently need to adopt the most efficient farming techniques available. And today's scientific evidence demonstrates that agroecological methods outperform the use of chemical fertilizers in boosting food production in regions where the hungry live,' says Olivier de Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Agroecology is more or less what many would simply call 'organic agriculture,' although important nuances separate the two terms.

Used successfully by peasant farmers worldwide, agroecology applies ecology to agriculture in order to optimize long-term food production, requiring few purchased inputs and increasing soil quality, carbon sequestration and biodiversity over time. Agroecology also values traditional and indigenous farming methods, studying the scientific principles underpinning them instead of merely seeking to replace them with new technologies. As such, agroecology is grounded in local (material, cultural and intellectual) resources...

'We won't solve hunger and stop climate change with industrial farming on large plantations.' Instead, it says the solution lies with smallholder farmers.'... The report calls for investment in extension services, storage facilities, and rural infrastructure like roads, electricity and communication technologies to help provide smallholders with access to markets, agricultural research and development, and education... It notes the importance of providing farmers with credit and insurance against weather-related risks...

When asked to provide more detail about crop breeding, De Schutter... noted that genetically engineered crops not only carry environmental risks, but are also 'associated with unsustainable farming practices and with a worrying concentration of the seed industry... Rather than treating smallholder farmers as beneficiaries of aid, they should be seen as experts with knowledge that is complementary to formalized expertise.'

The entire report, 'Agroecology and the Right to Food' is available here.

Image source here.

Evidence of people in Americas 15,500 years ago

Humans in North America earlier than thought

CBC News: The recent discovery of ancient tools in a Texas creek bed shows human settlers arrived in North America about 2,500 years earlier than originally believed... 'We have found evidence of an early human occupation... 2,500 years older than Clovis,' [said] Michael waters from Texas A&M University. The Clovis people -- once thought to be the continent's oldest human culture -- go back to about 13,000 years ago, which would make these newly discovered artifacts about 15,500 years old. Details of the excavation are published in the journal Science.

For many years, the Clovis people were thought to have arrived here from Northeast Asia by crossing the Bering Land Bridge, which once connected Asia and North America... But no Clovis technology has been found in Northeast Asia... Meanwhile, the Texas excavation has revealed blades, scrapers and choppers in the 20-centimetre layer of earth below where Clovis artifacts had previously been found.

Settlers came to N. America thousands of years earlier

The Toronto Star: North America's first settlers have long been believed to have arrived from northeast Asia... down through the ice-free corridor in Canada. But at 15,500 years ago, said Waters, the two ice sheets were merged. 'giving credence to the idea that people came along the coast... Tied up in those bones is a lot of evidence of where these people came from. We can begin to mesh the archaeological evidence with the genetic evidence.'

The new cache of tools, studied since their discovery in 2006, represent a lightweight 'mobile tool kit' used by hunter-gatherers who could pack them up and move... The site produced a 'continuous record' of people coming back season after season, said Waters... 'These tools are recognizably different from highly distinctive Clovis tools, although they do share some similarities... Clovis tools could have evolved' from them. That would make Clovis tools North American-born.

The artifacts woud have been 'maybe 5 per cent of the material culture these people had. All of the clothing, the hats, the perishable objects, the wooden tools, are all gone. Using techniques developed in the last 20 years, scientists were able to date the tools, said Steven Forman of the Luminescence Dating Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois. 'The possibility is that pre-Clovis is all around us, but we just can't recognize it yet,' he said.

Image source here.

Salmon feed the forest

Health of salmon run affects ecosystem of forest

Globe and Mail: When bears, wolves and other animals drag salmon carcasses from spawning streams they cause an intricate chain reaction that changes the nature of the surrounding forest, according to new research from Simon Fraser University. Plant species that efficiently take up nitrogen from the decomposing bodies of salmon flourish -- and soon there are more song birds, drawn by the dense growths of wild berry bushes and prolific insect hatches.

The change is so dramatic, according to the research done in one of the largest field studies on salmon in the world, that it is possible to look at the forest in a watershed and tell how well the associated salmon run is doing... In addition to looking at plant species, Prof [John] Reynolds said it is important to consider the physical characteristics of a stream as well, because animals avoid fishing in places where getting out of the water with a salmon is difficult because of steep banks.'...

Starting in 2007, a team of 10 researchers began examining 50 relatively small watersheds in the Great Bear Rainforest, a vast area of old growth forest on British Columbia's wild Central Coast. Prof. Reynolds said the area was chosen because there has been little human impact on the watersheds. 'That area is mostly without roads... it is the last place that hasn't been logged,' he said...

The research findings support another recent paper, by Prof. Reynolds and Rachel Field, which found that song bird density and diversity is linked to the size of salmon runs. That paper looked at estuaries and concluded that 'breeding birds may benefit from residual salmon-derived nutrients in landscapes adjacent to spawning grounds and that this trend extends... well beyond the salmon spawning season.'

Image: BC salmon play hidden role in coastal forest ecology

Organized religion on the way out in Canada

God keep our land? The math is against it

Postmedia News: Religion may be on the road to extinction in Canada -- mathematically speaking, that is. Traveling with us are Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

A study presented... at the American Physical Society meeting in Dallas noted a steady rise in the percentage of those countries' residents who claim no religious affiliation, and explained how social factors could help push religion toward the dustbin of history.

Richard Weiner, a University of Arizona researcher and one of the study's authors, explained the formula's conclusions. 'There'll be a continuing loss of membership among people that identify themselves as belonging to a religion. Over time, we could reach a time where society is dominated by people who claim religious non-affiliation,' he said...

The model predicts that for societies in which the perceived utility of not adhering is greater than the utility of adhering, religion will be driven to extinction,' the study said... Weiner speculated that... 'People no longer see the slate of benefits as being as great as they probably did 100 years ago. It's become less socially useful.' Daniel Abrams, one of the study's co-authors, used a similar model in 2003 to predict the decline of the world's lesser-spoken languages.

Related: Which region of North America is most religious? Least?

Image: BBC News, 'Religion may become extinct in nine nations'

Graph: Harper's budget priorities

From Enough Harper

Radiation Dose Chart

By XKCD. View the full chart here.

His disclaimer:

I'm not an expert in radiation and I'm sure I've got a lot of mistakes in here, but there's so much misinformation out there that I figured a broad comparison of different types of dosages might be good anyway. I don't include too much about the Fukushima reactor because the situation seems to be changing by the hour, but I hope the chart provides some helpful context.

Canada's 'global treasure' of freshwater

Canada urged to protect water in boreal forests

Postmedia News: 'Canada has the unrivalled opportunity to protect the world's largest intact freshwater ecosystem and the responsibility to enact sound conservation and sustainable development policy to safeguard the boreal forest,' says the International Boreal Conservation Science Panel, composed of leading scientists from Canada and the U.S.

The 76-page report, entitled A Forest of Blue: Canada's Boreal Forest, the World's Waterkeeper (.pdf), is published by the Pew Environment Group, a U.S.-based non-profit group... It says that Canada's boreal forest contains 25 per cent of the world's wetlands, more surface water than any other continental-scale landscape. The forests also hold an estimated 147 billion tonnes of carbon -- that's equivalent to more than 25 years worth of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

The boreal... is a 'vital bulwark; against the global loss of biodiversity, provides irreplaceable food and cultural benefits, and 'ecosystem services,' says the report... There are more than 3,000 abandoned mines in the boreal... 'Many continue to leak toxic byproducts into surrounding waters.'... More water diversion occurs in Canada than in any other country... More than 155,000 active and 117,000 abandoned oil and gas wells exist in Canada's boreal... Alberta's oilsands gets special attention for destruction for destruction of wetlands, lowering water tables, and generating contaminants...

The report calls for reform of mining legislation and hydroelectric policy and creation of a national strategy that stipulates no net loss of wetlands and peatlands. It also calls for protection and conservation of the entire Mackenzie River watershed...

'It is imperative that the world recognize and protect the fresh water that is left,' ecologist Stuart Pimm, at Duke University, said in a statement released with the report. 'Canada has an extraordinary opportunity that does not exist anywhere else in the world to keep its aquatic ecosystems intact and to create a positive ripple effect on the land, animals, birds and people who depend on these resources.'

Image source here.

Day and night in balance, once again

Happy Equinox! Welcome, Spring.

Image sources here and here.

'Extreme supermoon' full at perigee tonight

'Supermoon' to loom large on Saturday

CBC News: Earth's closest celestial neighbour will appear to loom larger and brighter than usual on Saturday night, as astronomers anticipate a cosmic event called an 'extreme supermoon.' Scientists say the natural phenomenon -- in which the moon reaches its closest point to this planet -- will cause abnormally high and low tides worldwide.

The occurrences, technically known as 'lunar perigees,' were previously visible in 1955, 1974, 1992 and 2005. But what makes this one particularly special is that it coincides with a full moon, which hasn't happened since 1993... The full moon should appear to be about 15 per cent larger and up to 30 per cent brighter than usual on Saturday evening... Stargazers are advised to check it out around sunset, when it's closest to the horizon.

The average distance between the Earth and the moon is about 383,000 kilometres. The full moon on March 19 will be about 356,000 kilometres away.

Image source here.

'It can't be helped'

A reader writes to The Daily Dish:

When I talk to my friends and family in Japan today about their situations, they all used the same expression, "Shikata ga nai," (仕方がない, "it can't be helped") ... Some things are simply beyond our control, and we can only find strength to suffer through them... That leads to another concept in Japanese culture of gaman (我慢, loosely, "endurance" or "perseverance"), of putting up with something unpleasant without complaint. Being known as gamandzuyoi (我慢強い, a compound of gaman and tsuyoi, the word for "strong", meaning having a high capacity for this endurance) is highly valued... Each person feels a duty to struggle on, and that they don't really have the right to complain, since someone else inevitably must have it worse.

Image source here.