Fifteen thousand years ago, humans walked across the Bering Strait from Asia to North America. How, you ask, did humans walk across an 80-metre-deep body of water? It was not a biblical miracle; it was because the strait was dry. Sea level was more than 100 metres lower than it is today. All that water was locked in the ice that covered much of the planet at the time.
What was to become Calgary, Alberta, a city...
Am I a bad person for getting excited by the discovery that the 2020 data was available in the Alberta Death database? I was anxious to dive into the information that could put that strange year in context, and perhaps shed some light on what to expect going forward. Mixed messaging, alarming on all sides, had been propagated throughout 2020 by all types of media; headlines and commentators gravely reporting the latest cluster of...
Since the COVID vaccines were first given emergency approval in the United States, Canada, and much of the world, the question of their effectiveness has been top of mind. We showed that vaccine effectiveness (VE) is part of the rational decision to vaccinate or not in this article, Prisoner’s dilemma and vaccination as it helps define the utility of vaccinating. Most recently, we discussed the VE against severe outcomes in Alberta, Canada, for the booster (3 doses), 2...
The news media are variously reporting that Justin Trudeau has “declared a state of emergency”, “invoked the Emergencies Act”, “enacted autocratic emergency powers”, “declared martial law”, “suspended civil liberties”, along with other colourful descriptions of the Canadian prime minister’s recent announcement of the federal government’s latest response to the so-called Freedom Convoy protests occurring in Ottawa and elsewhere across the country.
What he has actually done is to declare a “public order emergency” under Canada’s Emergencies Act. This has...
In this evaluation of COVID-19 boosters, we take a deeper look into the effectiveness of each dose of mRNA vaccine in December of 2021 and January 2022 in Alberta, Canada. As discussed in this article – Ontario vaccine effectiveness nosedives amid surge in new cases – this time period is during the dominance of the Omicron variant.
We showed in this article The best missed prediction: disease severity 50% lower than we predicted that the Omicron variant appeared to...
Although new cases of COVID in Canada and the United States are dropping, as of January 31, 2022, the United States had 29,124,466 reported active cases of COVID, and Canada had 209,358 active casesMoreover, a tremendous number of booster doses of COVID vaccines have been delivered to address this surge in new cases. The United States has delivered 88.15 million doses of the booster, while Canada has delivered 15.59 million doses.All of these boosters...
Unless you were born before 1875, you have most likely been affected by the digitization of music at some point in your lifetime. From iPhones to bluetooth speakers, to car stereos, the ability to convert an analog wave into a series of 1s and 0s is a process that almost resembles magic. How does this magic work? How is it possible to harness vibrations in the air and convert them into electrical signals? To...
The dramatic eruptions of southern Pacific volcano Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai in mid-January reminded us that the Earth is a very dynamic place, where sudden events can create incredibly hostile environments and major damage.
While this event took many people by surprise, the volcano has been sporadically active since 2009, when eruptions first created a small island as the volcanic cone emerged from the sea. Satellite imagery has traced Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai’s history since then, but most...
Our principles are never more tested than when we are angry, scared, or frustrated. After all, it is easy to speak high-mindedly when in comfort and security. Principles are only tested under stress, and our society in general is under stress now. Well-understood bioethical values are being cast aside by politicians, some media, and the public in the harmful and destructive stigmatization of the unvaccinated.
This has taken the form of restrictions on freedom of...
Modern humans have, through their daily activities, been liberating carbon at a furious pace. By “carbon”, I specifically mean carbon dioxide, or CO2, which is a naturally occurring gas molecule made up of one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms. Growing concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere accelerated due to human activities have been linked to unwelcome climate changes, and there have been considerable political and scientific efforts to reduce these concentrations.
The CO2 molecule
As detailed...
