Archive
Strange Sounds On Radio Over Powers Every FM Channel…HAARP?
In (Northern Ontario Canada) My radio was picking up some kind of frequency on every channel I went on 14/05/2012 from 10:00PM – It went on for hours… I was at my camp in the middle of the woods with nothing to interfere with my radio… What ever it was, it was powerful enough to take over every FM signal… H.A.A.R.P maybe? (High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program)
Permafrost thaw will speed up global warming, study says
A polar bear wanders along the Hudson Bay. New research suggets that permafrost soils in Canada’s Arctic are melting at a rate that will significantly speed up global warming. (iStock)Permafrost soils in Canada’s Arctic are melting at a rate that will significantly speed up global warming, according to new research from the University of Victoria.
The study, published this week in Nature Geoscience, predicts that the thawing permafrost will release between 68 billion and 508 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere by the year 2100.
As a result of those carbon emissions, researchers say the Earth’s temperature will rise by more than 0.5 C by the end of the century.
Although seemingly insignificant, that amount is in addition to the two degrees the Earth’s temperature is expected to rise because of global warming from industrial sources.
Andrew Weaver, a climate scientist at the University of Victoria and one of the study’s authors, warns that once the planet warms by more than two Read more…
Canada Launches Its Own Virtual Cash, Called MintChip
Next time you visit Canada, you might use digital currency to purchase your poutine, using something called MintChip backed by the Canadian government. The Royal Canadian Mint announced it’s getting rid of the penny and starting a new e-currency instead, and it wants the software community to help develop it.
The government just launched the MintChip Challenge— which was apparently so popular it’s already fully registered — to seek new digital payment apps for this new virtual currency. The idea is sort of a hybrid, combining the convenience of electronic transactions and the anonymity of cash. It will work via SD cards, but it will have no personal information or bank account data associated with it (so they say). It’s sort of like BitCoin but with actual, government-backed value.
The four-month contest includes 500 developers who will build apps that can demonstrate MintChip’s value. They’ll have to work on a variety of smartphone and desktop browsers. The prize: Solid gold wafers and coins worth about $50,000.
Its anonymity is a pretty unique idea. Other electronic payment systems — PayPal, Square, NFC-enabled phones, etc. — all connect to a person’s credit card or bank account. But cash is a great equalizer; you don’t need to have good credit to use it. MintChip would enable the same type of low-cost transactions for which you’d normally use cash. A Canadian banking group called Interac estimates that small-value transactions under $20 are worth $90 billion to the Canadian economy, the Toronto Star reported.
MintChip still has some kinks to be ironed out, including privacy, security of the currency and other questions. But it’s certainly an interesting concept.
[via Slashdot]
Bill Would Allow Total Surveillance of all Canadians
JASON MAGDER
THE MONTREAL GAZETTE
February 14, 2012
Police will get much easier access to the web-surfing habits and personal information of all Canadians if a new law – expected to be introduced in the House of Commons next week – passes.
Privacy watchdogs caution if the so-called Lawful Access law is passed, it would give police access to webbrowsing history and sensitive personal information, and would grant greater permission to track the cellular phones of suspects – much of it without the requirement of a warrant.
The bill, which is on the order paper for this week, would require Internet service providers and cellular phone companies to install equipment that would monitor users’ activities so that the information could be turned over to police when requested.
It would also grant greater permission to law enforcement authorities to activate tracking mechanisms within cellphones so they can follow the whereabouts of suspected criminals. If there is a suspicion of terrorist activity, the law would allow such tracking to go on for a year, rather than the current 60-day limit.
This isn’t the first time this law has been introduced. The most recent incarnation of the Lawful Access bill died on the order paper when the federal election was called last year.
With the Keystone Pipeline Stalled, Canada Turns to China
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| Canada plans to expand oil shipments from Alberta to British Columbia, in order to increase trade with Asia.(AP Photo) |
On Wednesday, U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration denied the application for the Keystone XL pipeline, running from Canada’s tar sands to the U.S. Gulf coast. The proposed 1,700-mile-long pipeline would cost $7 billion and channel up to 830,000 barrels of crude oil per day from Alberta to Oklahoma and Texas. Environmentalists raised concerns about the route of the pipeline, which would cross the ecologically delicate Sandhills wetland region, and could endanger the water reserve in the Ogallala Aquifer. In a statement, Obama said that the U.S. State Department did not have enough time to consider the application due to a February 21 deadline set by Congress. TransCanada, the company proposing the pipeline, can resubmit an application, with a route that would avoid the environmentally sensitive region. The 2012 U.S. elections also played a role. Nicole Spencer, director of energy policy at Council of the Americas, said: “[It’s] possible that once the (rather unusual) fervor over the pipeline has had a chance to wind down and the elections have passed, cooler heads will prevail.” With Keystone delayed, Canada—the United States’ top energy supplier—could seek a Read more…
‘Unprecedented’ ozone hole opens over Canadian Arctic
Euan Rocha / Reuters
A view of the tundra landscape in Nunavut, at the rim of the Arctic Circle.
A massive Arctic ozone hole opened up over the Northern Hemisphere for the first time this year, an international research team reported Sunday.
The hole covered two million square kilometres — about twice the size of Ontario — and allowed high levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation to hit large swaths of northern Canada, Europe and Russia this spring, the 29 scientists say.
The discovery of the “unprecedented” hole comes as the Canadian government is moving to cut its ozone monitoring network.
Environment Canada scientist David Tarasick, whose team played a key role in the Read more…
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