Every generation is having fewer children than the one before it, leaving fewer and fewer people to care for us in our increasingly long lives. It is a crisis we ignore at our own peril. John Ibbitson is a writer-at-large for The Globe and Mail. His latest book is Empty Planet: The Shock of Global [...]
Month: January 2020
What do Antarctic explorers, a major national telco, and mental health have in common?
Excellent articles and so well said by both, I hope many more can read this. I have grappled with stability most of my life and that is difficult to admit.
Now that I look at this title I can see that I’ve set myself up for some wrong answers! So, no, the answer is not that anyone skiing to the South Pole (and then climbing the highest mountain in Antarctica) must have a mental health issue. And, no, the answer isn’t that anyone who thinks that there are not hidden charges and changes behind the “deals” the telcos advertise must have a mental health illness. Not that those aren’t reasonable answers! But in this case, the Antarctic explorer, who I’m proud to say is a local Fredericton man, and Bell Canada have both committed to helping make a huge difference in our awareness and support for mental health.
I am one of the lucky ones who has not struggled with a mental health issue … so far. Not only do statistics show that in any given year 1 in 5…
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The World of Sky Hunters (2 images)
Wow, such a magical creature and so fascinating.
Magical Elements Nature Photography
Dragonflies, known as sky hunters because they catch 95% of their prey midair have been around for over 310 million years, long before the existence of dinosaurs. The first dragonflies had a wingspan from two to three feet, other than that they were the same as the modern day variant.
Beautiful, delicate and colorful, these insects are predatory in nature with a voracious appetite. Because they need plenty of nutrition for their large bodies, they prey on and hunt anything they can overpower including mosquitoes, bees, flies, moths, wasps and butterflies, even one of their own, Dragonflies have a well-earned reputation as cannibals.

Dragonflies have colonized every continent including the Sahara desert. They have astonishing flying skills, flying forward at approximately 35 miles per hour, they can even hover in mid-flight for almost one minute and rotate 360 degrees in place. Moreover, they can fly backwards with similar swiftness. Dragonflies can fly as…
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Wordless Wednesday – what are we doing to our planet? | Jan 22/20
There is beauty and joy at the end of life, too.
Thank you Sarah for a truly wonderful article which really helps me to continue my work here helping to establish a Hospice. This really helps to give the work a much more human voice. Sarah Gray Contributed to The Globe and Mail Published January 1, 2020 Updated January 1, 2020 Illustration by Mary Kirkpatrick First [...]
Kindness, compassion, and post-truth
This should provide some grist for discussions.
My philosophy discussion group is “studying” Post-Truth this term. More often than not we’re exploring a philosophical topic where the ideas are so challenging (along with the writing) that we spend ages trying to make heads or tails of what the philosopher is saying. (It’s really way more fun than it sounds!) In this case, however, it is painfully clear. There’s nothing difficult to understand about what post-truth is; the difficult thing is figuring out just how we can get past it.
Post-Truth?! What is that, anyway, yet another catch phrase of our times, like fake news and hoaxes? When are we going to get past this strange world of alternate universes? Well, it turns out that Post-Truth really is an accepted and accurate term to describe the world we now find ourselves in. The mainstream news sources that people used to count on for thorough investigative reporting (the most…
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God and good
excellent ideas here and definitely some further reading.
Struggling through the brainache of what is it all about soon leads you on to the subject of God, and what constitutes a good life. This is another source of brainache, but fortunately there is a guide, in the form of Keith Ward’s book God, subtitled A Guide for the Perplexed.
Why did I read such a book, published as it was in 2002? It was actually a posthumous present from friend Chris Lyons, who died 3 years ago now. A wonderful part of Chris’s funeral was the opportunity to select one of the books from his extensive library as a gift. Browsing through the books available I was drawn to this one by Keith Ward, who is variously described as priest, philosopher and theologian. I had some years previously seen Keith give a stimulating talk at a Mystics & Scientists conference.
My conclusion
Keith Ward…
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In climate push, Microsoft to erase its carbon footprint from atmosphere
Stephen Nellis and Jeffrey Dastin Reuters Published 1 day ago Microsoft President Brad Smith announces the company's plans to be carbon negative by 2030 and to negate all the direct carbon emissions ever made by the company by 2050 at their campus in Redmond, Washington, U.S., Jan. 16, 2020. LINDSEY WASSON/Reuters Microsoft Corp on Thursday [...]
How can climate change not be the main goal of all countries in 2020? Canada?!
Australia is burning. California’s been burning. British Columbia’s been burning. Portugal’s been burning. This summer, the Arctic broke records for wildfires in Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and Siberia. In the Arctic! We’ve seen storms more volatile and ferocious than ever before, bringing destructive flooding. Massive glaciers and ice sheets melting at unheard of rates. Threat of coastal flooding of epic proportions. Island nations fearful of being swallowed up by rising seas in the foreseeable future. What could possibly be more important to every country and every political leader than addressing climate change?
You got it, money. Not the money needed to make radical changes. Not the money needed to support innovation in developing new sustainable energy sources. Not the money needed to incentivize people to embrace new technologies free of fossil fuels. No, it’s all that money flowing from fossil fuel-based industries that decision makers are loath to give up…
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Canada Declares Peace
Thanks Paul for giving this incident the gravity it deserves.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Normally you would find a satirical article here. In this case, it would attempt to skewer the fetishization of war so banally common in the world today – and which this week tragically cut short the lives of 176 innocent people – by juxtaposing it against a more hopeful way out of the cycle of violence. That of peace.
There would be fictional quotes from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and thinly veiled disgust for the chest-beating of U.S. President Donald Trump, and Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The article might conclude with a bitter statement from an average person, asking what war has done for them lately; or a final word from Trudeau, underscoring that while Canada is angered, and deeply hurt, it will not perpetuate the endless cycle of violence.
But we aren’t going to do that. Because the people who were on…
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