Weekly News Recap: May 16, 2025

Weekly News Recap: May 16, 2025

Bill Gates is the world's 13th richest person today, with a net worth of over $112 billion. / Photo: Reuters

He enters the port with a full sail. -- Virgil

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • VIDEO: Dance Your PhD winner channels his inner Kylie Minogue to explain food science (CBC) I love this team! "After Sulo Roukka finished defending his PhD in 'the usual way,' he didn't quite know what to do with himself. So he dressed up like a chili pepper and made a dance video about it. The University of Helsinki food scientist is this year's winner of Science magazine's annual Dance Your PhD contest, which has academics ditch their lab coats for latex to explain their complex dissertations with movement and song."

  • Buford, dog who rescued 2-year-old boy lost in Arizona wilderness, is showered with gifts (Today) #Hero "The dog that led a 2-year-old boy to safety after he spent a night alone in the Arizona wilderness last week is being praised for his heroism with an influx of gifts from strangers. Scotty Dunton, who owns the 6-year-old Anatolian Pyrenees named Buford, said gifts have been arriving at his doorstep since Boden Allen’s rescue."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. VIDEO: Pope Leo identifies AI as a main challenge for humanity (CBC) "Pope Leo XIV has laid out his vision for his papacy, identifying artificial intelligence (AI) as one of the most critical matters facing humanity and vowing to continue in some of the core priorities of his predecessor, Pope Francis. But in a sign he was making the papacy very much his own, Leo made his first outing since his election to a sanctuary south of Rome that is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and is of particular significance to his Augustinian order and to his namesake, Pope Leo XIII."

  2. VIDEO: Several conferences relocate north of the border as Canadians refuse to travel to the U.S. (CBC) CANADIAN STORY I know how they feel. I also did not attend my International conference. "After U.S. President Donald Trump took office, sociologist Travers — who goes by one name — nixed plans to attend the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport (NASSS) conference in Seattle this November. Travers, a full professor at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C., is the president-elect of NASSS. But as a trans person, they are wary of visiting the U.S. at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back transgender rights."

  3. 5 million and counting? StatsCan model suggests Alberta has hit population milestone (CBC) ALBERTA STORY #Wowzers "Late Sunday night, ATB's chief economist Mark Parsons was watching his phone screen, waiting for a Statistics Canada computer model to predict that the province had its fifth millionth resident. At 11:18 p.m., Canada's population clock estimated that an immigrant arrived in Alberta, nudging the population to that new landmark number. It's a provincial milestone, Parsons said."

  4. VIDEO: Ontario faces new push to eliminate hospital parking fees, but policy questions remain (CBC) Hospitals in Ontario collectively charge in the range of $100 million annually in parking. "When Marie Grgic's mother was diagnosed with uterine cancer, she said her father had to use his retirement funds to finance costs related to her treatment. Cancer costs the average patient nearly $33,000, which includes out-of-pocket expenses and lost income, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. 'The cost of cancer is parking, it's the care, it's the hospital visits, it's the hospital beds, the medication,' Grgic said."

  5. All living things emit a ghostly GLOW that vanishes when we die, scientists reveal (Daily Mail) EDMONTON STORY And here I thought this was all 'woo-woo'. "Mystics and spiritualists have often claimed they can see a glow of mysterious light surrounding living creatures. Now, scientists have discovered that there may be some truth to their claims. Researchers from the University of Calgary in Canada have found that living things produce a faint ghostly glow."

  6. VIDEO: Bill Gates pledges almost all his multi-billion-dollar fortune to charity (Global News) Let's see where he spends his grants. "Billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates — the 13th-richest man in the world — says he will donate 99 per cent of his remaining tech fortune to the Gates Foundation, which is set to shutter in 2045, earlier than initially planned. Gates’ current assets are valued at $113.5 billion USD, according to Forbes. His pledge is among the largest ever made, surpassing those of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie, when adjusted for inflation. Only Berkshire Hathaway investor Warren Buffett’s promise to donate his earnings, currently estimated by Forbes at $160 billion, may be larger depending on stock market fluctuations."

  7. Why the federal cap on international students has hit Alberta — even though it still has room (CBC) ALBERTA STORY "Given the way the new federal rules allocated study permits to each province, however, Alberta was actually allowed to admit more international students in 2024 than it had in 2023, while the number of newly issued permits in Ontario and B.C. was curtailed. The allocation for Alberta was boosted again for 2025. In other words, while Ontario and B.C. are bumping up against the federal cap, Alberta still has room. Yet while it could welcome more international students than ever before, the number of new study permits that took effect in 2024 actually declined by about 10 per cent compared with the previous year. Leaders of Alberta post-secondary institutions say they've seen even bigger declines in study-permit applications in 2025, as they believe the new federal rules have discouraged many would-be international students from even applying. And, they say, the implications for institutions that have come to rely on these students could be significant."

  8. Alberta Theatre Projects reports losing ‘significant funds’ to online third party (Canadian Fraud News) CALGARY STORY #Eek "Alberta Theatre Projects (ATP) says it was the victim of bank fraud, the company stated on Friday. ATP said it discovered on Monday it had lost 'significant funds' after a third party accessed its financial accounts between April 24 and 28. The Calgary-based company quickly worked to immediately protect its accounts, it said. On Saturday, Calgary police said the exact amount that ATP lost is still unclear, but police noted it could total more than $1 million. No customer, donor or subscriber information was accessed in the incident, ATP said."

  9. WestJet suspends 9 U.S. routes due to lower demand (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "WestJet announced in April that it would add new domestic routes within Canada and make it easier to connect with flights to Europe. The changes come as fewer Canadians travel south amid trade-related tensions, and as U.S. president Donald Trump continues using annexationist rhetoric toward Canada, which he has repeatedly said should be the 51st state."

  10. McMaster University study links ultra-processed food to range of health risks (CBC) HAMILTON STORY "New research out of McMaster University in Ontario has directly linked consumption of ultra-processed foods – a category that includes not just traditional junk foods, but items marketed as healthy as well – to several health issues. The paper was written by McMaster University kinesiology researchers and published in the peer-reviewed journal Nutrition and Metabolism [...] The researchers found that consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) was linked with correlating levels of high blood pressure and cholesterol, and was not affected by an individual's age, size and level of activity."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Never Skip This Step Before Tossing Potatoes In The Microwave (The Takeout) An awesome way to cook crispy microwave potatoes.

  2. Keg Vs Cask Beer: What's The Actual Difference? (The Takeout) Which are you?

  3. What is triple sec? The underrated hero of your favorite cocktails (The Manual) I heart triple sec.

  4. Becoming good at something (UX Design) There is a difference between experience and reflected expertise.

  5. Finding My Fighting Words: How I Learned to Have Uncomfortable Conversations (Human Parts) I have high EQ but only low to average AQ.

  6. Google’s 69-Page Prompt Engineering Masterclass: What’s Inside (Coding Nexus) This is a must read for anyone writing AI prompts.

  7. I Doubled My Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in Less Than 2 Months — Here’s How (In Fitness And In Health) HRV might be my most important health metric.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. IWK receives $2 million donation to establish Breast Health Research Unit (The Laker News) HALIFAX STORY "IWK announced they would be creating a new unit for Breast Health Research. This was made possible by a $ 2 million gift from the J & W Murphy Foundation."

  2. The two million dollar donation lighting up a world of possibility for aspiring electricians (BCIT) "Long-time BCIT donor Mott Electric announced a two-million dollar commitment towards an extension of BCIT’s Burnaby campus electrical building. BCIT President Jeff Zabudsky unveiled the newly named 'Mott Electric Pavilion' alongside the design of the building at a press conference [...] According to WorkBC, there are more than 3,000 forecasted job openings over the next ten years for electricians in the province of British Columbia."

  3. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine receives $1-million donation from Hill’s Pet Nutrition (UCalgary) CALGARY STORY "The University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) has received a generous $1-million donation from Hill’s Pet Nutrition, Canada. This substantial contribution will establish a new nutrition-focused professorship, making nutrition education an integral part of the formal curriculum and supporting the position for a decade. "

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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