Many would agree that the energy world has changed dramatically over the past couple of years. In early 2020, energy commodity prices, particularly oil, plummeted as response to COVID-19 devastated demand and producers could not sell their oil. Markets recovered slowly through 2021 as the world worked its way through the pandemic – then oil, gas, coal, and electricity prices exploded in 2022 as energy shortages became apparent, followed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine...
Just as the world seems to be turning the corner on COVID, suddenly the talk on the street is all about monkeypox. What is it? How dangerous is it? Is it the next COVID?
The following summary is based on information gleaned from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and the National Health Services (NHS) of the U.K.
Unlike COVID, monkeypox has been around for decades,...
Come summertime, plenty of people (including yours truly) love to get outdoors and enjoy fresh air and sunshine after being cooped up indoors all winter. But the rush to soak up nature seems to always be accompanied by a flood of warnings to cover up, use sunscreen, and limit how much time we spend exposing ourselves to the Sun’s rays. After all, we don’t want to get skin cancer!
I was shocked to learn that...
On Friday, July 22, the Alberta Court of Appeal overturned Calgary Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s conviction for contempt of court after he held church services in alleged violation of a court injunction prohibiting public gatherings that contravene Alberta Health Services’ public health orders. I mentioned Pawlowski earlier this year in an article about protests and the rule of law in the context of pandemic restrictions: Restrictions, rights, and the rule of law.
I have not seen...
Do we ever use the mathematics we learn in school? Does it matter? These questions are pondered by most students at one time or another, and perhaps surprisingly, even by mathematicians. In a paper called “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Natural Sciences” written in 1960 by physicist Eugene Wigner, the author marvels at the importance and practicality of mathematics in the physical sciences. Wigner notes that the significance of math goes far...
The Supreme Court of the United States recently released its much-anticipated decision (anticipated due in no small part to the leak of a draft opinion in early May) in the case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The decision generated elation among pro-life advocates and outrage from abortion supporters because it overruled the Supreme Court’s earlier decisions in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade and the subsequent case of Planned Parenthood of Southeastern...
A few weeks ago in BIG Media, I talked about the “Energy Transition” of the 21st century - Examining the real meaning of ‘energy transition’ in the face of undeniable historic trends. I concluded that we are not departing on a new journey to modify humanity’s energy sources, but instead that we are 200 years into a series of rapid and dramatic shifts in our energy supplies.
Until recently, energy transition has been driven by the...
This freak accident is just one of the more than 500 causes of death that are catalogued in the Alberta death database. There are 94 different types of cancer alone, causing death in Alberta. In fact, “non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma” and “non-Hodg-kins lymphoma” are two separate causes.
Any source of data that is entered manually by different people at different times with different perspectives, guidelines, judgments, attention to detail, and typing ability has this problem. It is...
I have written a lot in the last year on the so-called “Energy Transition”. In fact, it is one of my favourite subjects, and I am working with the University of Alberta Future Energy Systems Signature Area and the Canadian Society for Evolving Energy (formerly Canadian Society for Unconventional Resources) to create a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called “The 21st Century Energy Transition – How do we make it work?”. Watch for it late...
The first of this two-part series examining the repercussions of the May 13 Supreme Court of Canada acquittal of Matthew Winston Brownleft us with some understanding of the new uncertainty regarding violent crimes committed under intoxication. Part 2 investigates the number of crimes in Canada that are undertaken by intoxicated persons, what the intoxicating substances are, and the prevalence of such substance use in our population.
What are magic mushrooms?
This particular case involved the hallucinogen magic mushrooms,...
