Government should 'grow up' on climate change, scientist says

A group of 12 prominent Canadian climate scientists called out the federal Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver on his support for the expansion of oil infrastructure in a letter released today.

The scientists wrote that building pipelines and developing fossil fuel production delays the transition to an economy that relies less on oil and gas.

The scientists urged Oliver to move away from the high-carbon approach that will lead to climate warming of more than 2 C.

"If we invest in expanding fossil fuel production, we risk locking ourselves into a high-carbon pathway that increases greenhouse gas emissions for years and decades to come," wrote the group that includes Mark Jaccard of B.C.'s Simon Fraser University, Gordon McBean of the Centre for Environment and Sustainability at Western University in London, Ont., and David Keith, a Canadian who is teaching public policy and engineering at Harvard University.

The group went on to say that if Canada wants to avoid dangerous climate change it "will require significantly reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and making a transition to cleaner energy."

"I'm not arguing necessarily for totally closing down the tarsands. I just think they ought to be more responsibly developed and in a way that is compatible with properly addressing climate change," said John Stone, one of the signatories and a geography and environment professor at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Stone said the country needs to have a proper discussion about energy policy and the way forward.

Need for balance

Keith was blunt in his assessment of the Canadian government's stand on climate change and resource development. He wants the government to "grow up" and represent the two important but very different needs of the country.

"They need to balance the long-term environmental risks and the benefits to Canadians ... not using the atmosphere as a waste dump for carbon. And they need to balance that against desire in current laws, for companies to export oil," Keith told CBC News.

"Those are two different goals. They are somewhat contradictory but an adult government needs do to that in a serious way. And I don't hear it."

Oliver is travelling through Europe this week as part of a campaign to promote the country's resources and to convince the European Union not to discriminate against Canadian oil by labelling it dirtier than other fuel.

Chris McCluskey, a spokesman for Oliver, said it's unrealistic to think the world can move off oil.

"Cutting off oil production would create great economic hardship, especially for the poorest nations who already suffer from an energy deficit," McCluskey said. "Indeed, one and half billion people are now without electricity. We have an obligation to responsibly develop our resources, protect the environment, create economic growth for Canadians and share our energy with the world."

Letter to Joe Oliver

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Farmers reaping big rewards from new smartphone apps

When Andrew Campbell wanted to check out how well wheat planted on his family's farm last fall was coming out of dormancy this spring, the southwestern Ontario farmer turned to a tiny high-tech tool to help track the crop's progress — his phone.

Smartphone in hand, Campbell marked GPS points in an app, creating a quick and easily accessible record of places in the field near Appin, Ont., that might be prime spots for soil or insect problems as the wheat grows over the next few months.

Andrew Campbell checks over wheat starting to green up, and makes GPS marks where there may be a need to go back later in the growing season to check for soil or pest problems. (Courtesy Andrew Campbell)

As a tech-savvy young farmer, the 27-year-old Campbell has eagerly embraced smartphone technology. He sees it having great potential to help Canadian farmers, and ultimately to produce food more safely and efficiently for Canadian consumers.

"Before too long, a smartphone is going to be how a farmer runs their operation," says Campbell, who also manages his own new media consulting firm.

"I've got a neighbour that's got video cameras installed in their barn. He can pull it up on his phone and check calving pens and the barnyard.

"If he's away, if he's got a day job, too, he can check in at lunchtime and send somebody if there's a problem."

The latest technological transformations in Canadian agriculture see producers using their smartphones to run everything from robotic milkers to wind machines that churn up the air in an attempt to thwart extreme weather in vineyards.

Up-to-date statistics are few and far between, but Campbell says it's "not too far-fetched to believe" that more than half of Canadian farmers are now carrying a smartphone everywhere they go.

Scarce apps

The agricultural sector's use of apps is growing rapidly, after a slightly slower-than-average uptake compared to mobile technology use in other types of business. Campbell says phone apps are appealing for farmers because of the instant access they provide to information and communication, whether from the barn, the field or on the road.

But finding farming-related apps for those devices hasn't been easy.

One of the problems is that farmers are a relatively small market for apps, since they represent only two per cent of the Canadian population. App developers were caught, Campbell suggests, waiting to see which smartphone platform — Android, BlackBerry or iPhone — was going to win favour with a critical mass of farmers.

Things are, however, starting to change.

"In the last 12 months — really the last six months, over this winter — more and more apps have rolled out on a fairly regular basis that are looking to make big strides in the way farmers use information," says Campbell.

Ones that deal with crop scouting — checking to make sure fields aren't subject to any threats from weeds or insects, for example — have proved particularly popular.

It's also an international trend, with apps popping up for farmers everywhere from Australia to the United States.

Filling a void

Still, agriculture apps are anything but a dime a dozen, and for one Cape Breton farmer, that void became the motivation he needed to make his own.

Chris van den Heuvel spent 12 years working as a software developer before he and his wife took over her parents' dairy farm.

"When the opportunity to came up to buy the farm from my wife's parents, we were looking for software that would just help us analyze the efficiency of the operation … and there wasn't any," he says.

"We were looking for something that didn't just focus on cows but focused on the cropping, focused on the heifer-raising and all of that. Once I couldn't find anything, I said here's an opportunity … to make something up."

Van den Heuvel says there was some trial and error in the development of his app, and he's still putting finishing touches on it before taking it to market.

The app, which helped him see how much it was costing to produce every litre of milk, has been an "eyeopener" on his own farm and led to changes in what he gives his cattle to eat (feed bought from a mill is out, high-moisture corn is in).

He's talked to consultants and industry experts who have told him a dairy farmer with a 75-cow herd could reap a $7,000 net profit through efficiency gains using the app he developed.

Van den Heuvel hopes to find a cross-country market for his as-yet unnamed software. He says its potential extends beyond any one farmer's individual operation because it allows them to compare their operations with those of other app users.

Good bugs

Another app developed at the University of Guelph aims to help soybean growers deal with soybean aphids, a tiny pest that can wreak havoc on the crop.

Rebecca Hallett, an associate professor in Guelph's school of environment science, led the creation of Aphid Advisor.

The app was developed at a cost of about $35,000. It helps growers determine if they need to take action against the tiny pests, and whether natural enemies in the field (good bugs like lady beetles) might be enough for a farmer to control the problem, rather than turning to an insecticide.

Aphid Advisor, an app developed at the University of Guelph. aims to help soybean growers deal with soybean aphids, a tiny pest that can wreak huge havoc on the crop. (Courtesy R.H. Hallett)

"One of the most important things it does is to simply remind people and make them aware that there are beneficial insects in their fields that are helping them out," says Hallett.

"Just [being] aware of their presence may help to alter practices so growers take into account more of the conservation of natural enemies, which can also help to limit outbreaks of pests."

Last year was the first full growing season the app was available, and Hallett estimates about 600 growers have downloaded it, with "generally positive" feedback.

'Cheaper, safer product'

While farmers can gain immediate benefit from their smartphones and the burgeoning app market, the impact such technology holds could extend beyond the field or barnyard.

Van den Heuvel sees a "two-fold" benefit to the ways technology is transforming agriculture.

"It helps us develop and grow a better product by becoming more efficient, and thus we can keep costs down and ultimately keep it cheaper for the consumer.

"But it's also really helping us create safer product as well," he says, citing the potential, for example, of a robotic milker sensing through a cow's temperature that the animal is sick.

"You can … isolate that cow, and you don't have to be treating by antibiotics…. You keep all of that stuff out of the food chain, so really the advantages I see are a cheaper, safer product for the end consumer."

Campbell also sees "multiple impacts" from the advances in communication and mobile technology.

"While Canadian products are among the safest in the world, consumers continue to demand more in the way of checks and audits along the food chain. These devices will make it easier to follow some of the certification programs."

Family farms are also continuing to grow in size, and Campbell says managing them requires a "high degree of detail and efficiency" that smartphones make possible.

Smartphones also allow easy access to social media tools such as Twitter, something Campbell says can help in reaching out to consumers or giving them the opportunity to ask farmers questions about production.

Mobile technology also allows the farmer to break free of cables and cords and notebooks, "to the point that we are going to be able to run farms and access more information than ever before on a device that fits in our hand," says Campbell.

"I know my grandfather, as he watches us, he's amazed with just what we're capable of now doing and looking up and sending compared to when he was starting farming."

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Turning video gamers into the ultimate drone pilots

Video game players may be the ideal candidates to operate military drones, suggests a study. Problem is, they're so conditioned to non-stop action while playing games that they're prone to boredom in real-life scenarios, said associate professor Missy Cummings, who has studied how to improve drone pilots' performance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"When the workload is high the best drone operators are those that are video gamers because they know how to handle all of the multitasking," said Cummings, pointing to studies that have shown the adeptness of video gamers as drone operators.

"So you want people who really perform under a high workload, which are gamers — but 90 per cent of the time nothing is happening and you need a completely different skill set to (handle) that."

Distractions needed

Cummings said her research team found that in order to do their jobs, drone operators needed some distractions to manage boredom in down time, including playing with their smartphones, using laptops, reading magazines, eating or sleeping.

Drone use by the American military to strike against terrorists is controversial, particularly when there's collateral damage. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press)"When you distract yourself, you're basically revving up your brain," Cummings said. "We need to figure out is it possible to let people have some level of distraction but still keep them engaged enough so that when an alarm goes, for example, or when that plane does enter the sector they respond appropriately."

Cummings said she and her team are looking at whether technology can be used to control distractions, such as a small vibrating device that would "give you a little buzz."

"Can we actually take people who are very prone to boredom and actually improve their performance by using some technology to get them to re-engage?"

Personality makes a difference

Cummings said the only personality trait the studies found to help predict who will be better drone operators was conscientiousness. Those who scored high on conscientiousness did better when the environment became boring.

But she said it's difficult to say if a conscientious drone operator would be effective in a military setting and would have any unease about firing a missile.

"The U.S. military does not currently assign people to jobs based on personality traits. This is definitely an area that needs more research," she said.

Drone use by the American military to strike against terrorists is controversial, particularly when there's collateral damage.

Margaret Somerville, a professor at the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law in Montreal, said drone operators are not in danger of being killed and don't directly see their victims.

"To what extent are they becoming more like automatons and less like human beings making decisions," said Somerville, "and hopefully taking into the account the ethics of what they're doing."

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Scientist Nikola Tesla's lab purchased for science center

A community group that raised $1.3 million in a six-week online fundraising effort has purchased a laboratory once used by visionary scientist Nikola Tesla.

"We're feeling very excited and gratified that we've reached this milestone," said Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, on New York's Long Island. Her group announced last week that it had finalized the purchase of the Tesla lab and property for $850,000.

Tesla was a rival of Thomas Edison who imagined a world of free electricity. He conducted experiments in the early 20th century at his laboratory in Shoreham, about 105 kilometres east of New York City.

Volunteers have struggled for nearly two decades to raise money to acquire the property with limited success.

Their effort got a jolt of support last summer from Seattle cartoonist Matthew Inman, a Tesla fan who started promoting a fundraising effort on his website, theoatmeal.com.

33,000 donors from 108 countries

Within six weeks, they had raised more than $1.3 million from 33,000 donors in the U.S. and 108 countries.

Tesla abandoned the lab in 1917. For many years it was a photo chemical processing plant; in 1993, officials determined that the property's groundwater had been polluted with cadmium and silver. A remediation effort overseen by state environmental regulators was completed last year.

Alcorn said that the purchase of the property was a key first step but noted much work needs to be done before the group can realize its goal: "to create a fitting memorial to Tesla and a science center to benefit the entire world."

She estimated another $10 million will be required to renovate the property, which is overrun with brush and includes several dilapidated buildings in the complex that will likely need to be demolished.

Alcorn said her group's first priority is to secure the property from further vandalism. Additional fundraisers are being discussed, but Alcorn had no specific details.

Among Tesla's accomplishments were developments in alternating current and research in the creation of wireless communication and radio. Born to Serb parents in modern-day Croatia, he died in New York City in 1943.

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Little dome-headed dinosaur discovered in Alberta

A newly identified species of dome-headed dinosaur roughly the size of a large dog once roamed southern Alberta, a team of Canadian scientists announced Tuesday.

The discovery of the Acrotholus audeti touched off further investigation that suggested the world's dinosaur population was more diverse than once believed.

Details of the study were published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.

A nearly perfectly-preserved specimen of Acrotholus audeti, including this skull dome, was found by University of Toronto graduate student Caleb Brown on the property of an Alberta rancher in 2008. (Brian Boyle/ROM)Study lead author David Evans, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Royal Ontario Museum, said Acrotholus' comparatively diminutive size belies its scientific importance.

The two-legged plant-eater stood no higher than an adult human's knee and weighed only 40 kilograms, measurements similar to a German shepherd or other large-breed canine.

Evans, however, said the animal has become an important puzzle piece for those committed to mapping out the rise and fall of the dinosaur.

"We actually don't have a very good record of dinosaurs from North America, or even the world, as a whole through this interval...around 85 million years ago," Evans said in a telephone interview. "So we went to the areas that exposed the sediments trying to find the fossils that would help fill in that gap in our knowledge."

Researchers were guided in their quest by an early discovery made by museum staff in the late 1940's, Evans said.

Researchers unearthed a partial fossil of a dinosaur featuring a thick dome of solid bone over its eyes in the Milk River formation of southern Alberta, but found the sample had deteriorated too far to be of much use.

Present-day researchers had better luck in 2008 when they came across a nearly perfectly preserved fossil on the land of a southern Alberta cattle rancher.

Evans said he was stunned to discover an intact specimen, explaining scientists are rarely afforded the chance to study smaller dinosaur skeletons.

"The species representation of small animals is generally poorer than large animals because the bones of small ones are more susceptible to carnivores and weathering processes," he said. "The bones of small animals tend to get destroyed before they enter the fossil record."

Dome helped preserve fossil

The skeletal characteristic that helped preserve the fossil was ultimately the one that gave the species its name. Acrotholus is derived from the Greek words for "high dome" and describe the 10-centimetre bone mass on the animal's head.

This pile of rocks in the Milk River Formation of southern Alberta marks the exact spot where the most complete specimen of Acrotholus was found. (David Evans/ROM)The distinctive skull formation, which places Acrotholus within a group of dinosaurs known as pachycephalosaurs, also opened the door to a wider investigation of dinosaur diversity, Evans said.

He and his team examined all 600 of the pachycephalosaur specimens discovered to date in order to determine how many subspecies there were within that group. The team concluded there were at least 16 varieties of animals featuring the distinctive dome, including Acrotholus.

Evans said the findings challenge stereotypical images of dinosaurs as mammoth creatures running roughshod over all smaller species. The study of pachycephalosaurs alone, he said, suggests the dinosaur population was more diverse and complex than conventional wisdom suggests.

"The only reason we know that pachycephalosaurs were so diverse is because of these domes which seem to be preferentially preserved in the fossil record," he said. "And so if other dinosaur groups are anything like pachycephalosaurs, they were probably a lot more diverse too. This has implications for how you reconstruct the diversity of particular dinosaur communities through time."

An exhibit featuring the Acrotholus fossils will go on display at the Royal Ontario Museum later this month.

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Julie Payette on Hollywood's space stories

Canadian astronaut Julie Payette is a sci-fi fan who usually cuts space movies some slack in terms of plausibility. (Graham Hughes/Canadian Press)

When Hollywood sends gritty miners to alien planets or blue collar oil-rig workers into space, it doesn't bother Canadian astronaut Julie Payette. "It's when the laws of physics are completely broken... then I'm a bit of a critic," she said, laughing.

Payette plans to discuss realism and implausibility in moviedom's depictions of space, science and technology as well as the teamwork and resilience of astronauts on Wednesday in Toronto, at a special screening of Ron Howard's Apollo 13. It's part of an ongoing TIFF Lightbox series matching memorable films and related experts.

Moonraker was a film that got under the skin of Montreal-born Payette, who flew in missions aboard the space shuttles Discovery and Endeavour and was the first Canadian astronaut to help construct the International Space Station.

"It's totally impossible!" she recalled repeatedly telling her son, who was watching the James Bond classic alongside her. His response? "Mama, it's a movie!"

TIFF's choice of Apollo 13 is fitting since it was TV coverage of the Apollo missions that inspired a young Payette (and others of her generation) to become astronauts, she said.

"It's hard to portray, but Apollo 13 is about as close as it gets [to reality]... They even went as far as using an airplane to create a few seconds of floating" for the actors, Payette pointed out. The true weightlessness of space is a marvel that's nearly impossible to replicate on Earth and which Hollywood has trouble portraying accurately, she added.

That said, she usually tries to cut filmmakers some slack. Payette and her NASA colleagues just laughed, for instance, when Michael Bay's Armageddon depicted a band of misfit oil drillers sent into space to save the world after brainy astronauts fail.

Though she's got her own impressive story, the humble Payette says she can't imagine a movie being made about her life, let alone who might play her in the hypothetical biopic. She'd much rather see a film made about Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, she said.

Still, the self-described sci-fi aficionado says she might consider making a cameo appearance, given the right project.

"I'm excited that Star Wars is being revived again," Payette admitted.

She's also a Star Trek fan. "I'd love to serve on the Enterprise," she added, laughing.

TIFF Lightbox continues its special subscription series Books on Film, Food on Film and Science on Film through May and June, with experts including Law & Order: SVU producer Ted Kotcheff (The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz), filmmaker Deepa Mehta (Midnight's Children), food activist Anita Stewart (Food Inc.) and science-fiction author Robert Charles Wilson (Forbidden Planet).

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Canada drops out of race to tap methane hydrates

Canada is abandoning a 15-year program that was researching ways to tap a potentially revolutionary energy source, just as Japan is starting to use the results to exploit the new fossil-fuel frontier: methane hydrates.

Methane hydrates are crystals full of methane gas found both offshore and under the permafrost. Low temperatures and high pressure cause methane and water to crystallize into ice-like deposits.

They represent an unexploited source of energy estimated to be larger than all the world's known coal, oil and gas reserves combined.

Offshore hydrates can be formed in large white clusters, but it is more common to find them mixed in sand on the ocean floor. (Courtesy Scientific Party, RV Atlantis/Alvin Expedition)

Methane is considered to be cleaner than other fossil fuels, and if methane is used instead of oil and coal, significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could be achieved.

Producing gas from hydrates could also avoid the water pollution issues connected with the extraction of shale gas through "fracking" techniques. The environmental impact of methane production has yet to be completely assessed, but researchers say they expect the issues would be comparable to those of offshore conventional natural gas production.

Canada and Japan have been partners in the quest to extract methane from hydrates. Since 2000, Natural Resources Canada has invested more than $16 million in the venture. Japan spent around $60 million between 2002 and 2008 to finance production tests in the Canadian Arctic.

On March 18 this year the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corp. reached a milestone, successfully completing a test to produce methane gas from offshore hydrate formations for the first time, using extraction techniques pioneered in Canada.

Despite the success, Canadian federal funding from Natural Resources Canada for research into exploiting methane hydrates was cut as of March 31 — just a couple of weeks after the offshore production tests in Japan. The ministry told CBC News the decision was made in 2012.

Enormous potential

Canada has confirmed reserves of methane hydrates in the Mackenzie River Delta, the Arctic Archipelago and along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.

According to a 2012 study from the University of Alberta and the Geological Survey of Canada, the total amount of methane gas in Canada is measured in trillions of cubic metres. Estimates put methane hydrates at anywhere from two to 30 times the amount of conventional natural gas present in the country.

In spite of that potential volume, the recent technological breakthrough permitting deposits to be tapped, and a successful research record, Canada has lost interest in commercializing this vast source of energy.

Paul Duchesne, manager of media relationships for Natural Resources Canada, told CBC News in an email that growing interest in shale gas and low prices for conventional sources of natural gas make energy from methane hydrates non-competitive.

"As a result, additional research into gas hydrates … [is] not a current priority," he wrote.

Other countries are still pursuing hydrate research. Last year, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said that methane hydrates "could potentially yield significant new supplies of natural gas and further expand U.S. energy supplies." He compared the current methane hydrate research to the long-term research investments that paved the way for the shale-gas boom. The U.S. conducted production tests in Alaska in 2012.

In March 2012, a German-Taiwanese venture was launched to study the methane resources in the South China Sea.

Norway, South Korea and India are also involved in ongoing hydrate research.

Lowering the pressure

A lot of research has been necessary, because harvesting energy from methane hydrates is tricky.

Michael Whiticar, a professor of biochemistry from the Earth and Ocean Science Department at the University of Victoria, says that hydrates store large amounts of gas in a relatively small area. One cubic metre of hydrate can hold around 160 cubic metres of methane and 0.8 cubic metres of water.

'This recent success of the Japanese is actually quite a success for Canada, because together we worked hard over more than a decade to prove these techniques and to understand the science behind it.'—Scott Dallimore, Geological Survey of Canada

Even so, they're hard to get at. Whiticar explains that offshore hydrates can be formed in large white clusters, but it is more common to find them mixed in ocean sand, like "sugar mixed with the sediments."

Canada has been involved with research to develop extraction techniques since 1998, when the Mallik Methane Hydrate Site was set up in the Mackenzie River delta, 130 km north of Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

Scott Dallimore, a research scientist at the Geological Survey of Canada in Sidney, B.C., says the first projects involved taking core samples from the permafrost to study the characteristics, behaviour and availability of methane hydrates.

In 2002, an international test project was set up in Mallik using a technique that heated the methane hydrate layers to release the gas. It failed, but at the same time, other tests that reduced the pressure in the layers did work.

To extract the gas using this approach, it is necessary to drill until a deep layer rich in methane hydrates is found. Then water is pumped out to lower the pressure, disintegrating the crystals and releasing the methane.

In 2002, an international test project was set up produce gas in Mallik using a technique that heated the methane hydrate layers to release the gas. It failed, but at the same time, other tests that reduced the pressure in the layers did work. To extract the gas using this the pressure-reduction approach, it is necessary to drill until a deep layer rich in methane hydrates is found. Then water is pumped out to lower the pressure, disintegrating the crystals and releasing the methane. (Courtesy Geological Survey of Canada)

A new, full-scale test using pressure reduction was done at the Mallik site in 2007 and 2008. This time, Canadian and Japanese researchers were able to successfully extract methane gas over the course of five days.

After Mallik, Natural Resources Canada continued to fund follow-up analysis of the data and technical and environmental aspects of production. Japanese researchers took that knowledge and have adapted it to their offshore conditions.

During six days of operation in March this year off the southern coast of Japan near the Mie and Aichi Prefectures, the Japanese produced 120,000 cubic metres of methane gas. That's about 10 times as much as the previous test in Canada.

"This recent success of the Japanese is actually quite a success for Canada, because together we worked hard over more than a decade to prove these techniques and to understand the science behind it," Dallimore says.

Strategic direction

Despite the success of the program, as of April, Canada is no longer financing further research into gas recovery from methane hydrates.

Some Canadian research projects are continuing to explore the oceanographic and climatic role of methane hydrates, but none is focused on using them as an energy source.

The Mallik drilling well is known as being the production site of the first constant stream of natural gas from Methane Gas Hydrates. (Courtesy Geological Survey of Canada)

"The course of our research had reached a natural conclusion, we demonstrated that gas hydrates could be produced," Dallimore says.

The next step would have consisted of a long-term production test, which could last from six months to one year, and then full commercial production.

"My hope is that at some point someone might turn to Canada and evaluate the site we worked at," Dallimore says.

While Canada has decided it isn't feasible to make further investments in the field, methane hydrate research is strategic for Japan. Exploiting the abundant methane hydrate deposits near its coast would allow Japan to end its foreign energy dependency, with enough recoverable gas to meet its power demands for 100 years.

Japanese researchers are working toward establishing commercial extraction operations for some of these deposits by 2019.

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How do you fight back against online defamation?

A CBC Go Public story about a B.C. teacher who has been victimized for two and a half years by a cyberstalking ex-girlfriend demonstrates the inherent difficulties in removing defamatory material from the web.

"Mark Twain said a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on, and he was speaking long before the digital age," says Karen Eltis, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. "Today, it's even more of a problem."

'Mark Twain said a lie can make its way halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to put its shoes on, and he was speaking long before the digital age. Today, it's even more of a problem.'— Karen Eltis, University of Ottawa law professor

Eltis says that in most cases like this the victim is looking to "contain the damage." But she warns that even if you successfully sue someone, as the B.C. teacher did, it doesn't mean you'll be able to scrub the offending material from the World Wide Web.

While teaching in Malaysia several years ago, Lee David Clayworth dated a woman named Lee Ching Yan. After they broke up, the woman started posting slanderous material about him on websites, suggesting, for example, that he was a pedophile and that he was having amorous relations with his students.

He sued her in Malaysia, where she was found guilty of defamation and ordered to pay Clayworth the equivalent of $66,000 in damages. The Malaysian judge also ordered search engine providers Google, Yahoo and Bing to block Clayworth's name from being searchable.

But due to differing international interpretations of cyber-law, a Malaysian judge cannot compel a company in California to remove offensive material, and so Clayworth's name continues to come up in search engine results.

Clayworth, who now lives in Vancouver, says the online harassment continues to this day.

Search engines unwilling to 'arbitrate'

Matt Earle, president of Reputation Guard, a Toronto-based firm that helps clients improve their online standing, says that because search engines exist to index material on other sites they don't have a mechanism for dealing with defamation.

"The reality is they won't arbitrate decisions about this," says Earle.

A better chance of getting results, Earle says, is directly approaching the sites where the offensive material is posted.

He says that sometimes, simply sending a "nice email" that explains why you feel you are being libelled is enough to compel a site to remove the material.

But Earle warns there are a number of sites, like the ones where Clayworth was defamed, "that are set up on a borderline-extortion business model." They charge money to remove defamatory material, he says.

Eltis says that sending a cease-and-desist letter to the site in question is the next obvious step, followed by the threat of legal action. But if the site is based outside of Canada, the problem becomes one of legal jurisdiction.

As Halifax internet-law expert David Fraser points out, American-based sites are subject to U.S. law, which protects freedom of expression and does not hold them responsible for content posted by their users.

It's possible to still sue them, says Eltis, but it first requires a process of determining which jurisdiction will hear the case, and that process can be drawn out and costly.

For several months after the cyberstalking began, Lee David Clayworth said he started every day by checking to see what defamatory material his ex-girlfriend had posted about him overnight. (CBC)

Not only that, but if a person is being libelled on numerous websites, the way that Clayworth has been, suing every single one of them might ultimately be futile unless you have the patience and the financial means to see it through.

The most immediate outlets available to individuals are social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, where they can attempt to defend themselves against malicious falsehoods, says Katie Clark, a national leader for crisis and risk at Edelman Canada.

But Clark warns that engaging the issue this way might actually embolden the stalker further.

'Burying' bad content

Another PR strategy is to try to influence search engines. If a negative story is coming up in the top five search results for your name, one of the most effective strategies is to try to overwhelm the search engines with positive material about you, says Barbara Jesson, president of Jesson + Company Communications, a Toronto-based public relations firm.

For example, if you're being defamed as a criminal, you could choose to emphasize your positive achievements, such as notable career accomplishments or charitable work.

One of the ways an individual or company can influence search engine results is by publishing new and positive content in a variety of places, because search engines tend to place more recent stories higher in its search results.

Jesson says another strategy is search engine optimization (SEO), which is a tactic used by most websites of loading up their stories with the best possible search terms in order to ensure they appear at the top of search engine results.

"Our solution has often been just to bury the [bad] results, because you can't win when you're playing with someone who is irresponsible and malicious," says Jesson.

Earle says that another possibility is to address the allegations head-on by posting a statement or rebuttal on a third-party website.

Finding credible news sites

The ideal situation, Earle says, is to somehow manage to get a trustworthy news source to listen.

Most online readers are savvy enough to know the difference between an unsavoury, gossip-mongering site and a credible news source, he says.

Referring to Clayworth's story, Earle says, "People will read it and think, OK, CBC — [it has] editorial standards, quality, someone had to research it. The CBC's not just going to write anything."

But even if a spiteful story is buried online, it's still there – and could be dug up by a potential employer doing a cursory online background check.

Clark says that if you're applying for a job, it's wise to acknowledge, and disavow, nasty material about you that might be on the web.

"Prospective employers are looking at information online, so if there's information online that is disparaging or says something that you don't want, transparency is probably always the best option," says Clark.

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National Research Council now focused on serving business

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The Harper government wants the National Research Council to focus more on practical, commercial science and less on fundamental science that may not have obvious business applications.

Gary Goodyear, minister of state for science and technology, said at a news conference Tuesday that the council will concentrate on industrial research, new growth and business development.

Council President John McDougall says his agency will work with businesses to develop technology that will benefit the country, while leaving basic research to academic scientists.

In the process, he says, the council will be more streamlined, efficient and functional.

Goodyear says innovation is the key to the future and the council has a key role to play.

He says the new focus will overturn an introverted culture in the research council, which has led it away from supporting industry.

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Low water levels in Great Lakes cause concern

Historically low water levels in the Great Lakes may seriously impact the environment and consumers.

Water levels in some of the Great Lakes have dropped to the lowest levels in decades, reports CBC's Aarti Pole, and experts say these steep drops are due to a lack of precipitation and warm weather.

Less ice during the winter increases evaporation, said John Nevin of the International Joint Commission, which is tasked with assisting the Canadian and U.S. governments in finding solutions to problems in waters that lie along or flow across the border.

"Evaporation is actually the number one cause of water loss in the Great Lakes," he said.

In addition to adverse effects on the ecosystem, such as areas where fish spawn along Georgian Bay and Lake Huron drying up, the low water levels can impact the economy.

Boats can't be fully loaded if the water they're in isn't deep enough. This increases the cost of shipping and directly impacts consumers.

"You can see it in the grocery store," said Angus Armstrong, the Toronto Port Authority's harbour master and chief of security.

He said cement, asphalt and bulk goods such as sugar all move through ports.

Those in the tourism industry are also facing challenges.

Low water levels in Lake Huron have caused officials to postpone ferry service until at least Friday, May 10. The ferry service usually runs between Manitoulin Island, Tobermory and Bruce Peninsula.

"I'm very upset. I don't have a livelihood," said Nancy, who owns a hotel along Lake Huron and is already feeling the financial repercussions of the delayed ferry service.

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Federal government looks for next great invention

The federal government wants to tap the skills of obscure basement inventors and turn their tinkering into innovative consumer products.

A new survey for Industry Canada has found that almost 13 per cent of Canadians are so-called "private innovators," who have improved on consumer goods or created new products in the last three years.

Recent research in the United States and elsewhere has found similar numbers of ordinary basement tinkerers, regarded by some as a talent pool that consumer-products firms need to harness to find fresh profits.

"The consumer innovations uncovered by researchers abroad arise in many sectors, including software, gaming, sporting equipment and automotive," says an Industry Canada description of the survey project.

"Consumers either freely shared their innovations with other consumers or with producers, or carried on as entrepreneurs themselves."

A landmark 2011 research paper by lead author Eric von Hippel, an MIT professor in Cambridge, Mass., argued that consumer-products companies need to pay more attention to these amateur inventors.

"Companies will have to help their own product developers look at consumer-developed innovations with new eyes — not just as poorly engineered amateurish efforts," says the paper.

History is full of consumer innovations that went from obscurity to millions of dollars of sales in short order.

Among them, the dishwasher, invented in 1886 by a wealthy matron in Illinois who wanted to avoid the chipped dishware that was the inevitable result when her servants did the washing. Josephine Cochrane made extra dishwashers for friends, and eventually created a company that became part of Whirlpool Corp.

Skateboards began as roller-skate wheels nailed to boards by teenagers, a home-grown product later adopted and improved by manufacturers for profit.

Industry Canada paid $80,000 to a survey firm, Ekos Research Associates Inc., to determine how many Canadians were themselves making the products of tomorrow in their workshops. Ekos then interviewed some 1,000 so-called consumer innovators.

The report, delivered in March, found that Canada's basement inventors are primarily young males with degrees in science or technical disciplines.

Basement inventors

Those who immigrated were more likely to have come from the United States or South Asia. Most worked alone. Almost nobody patented their inventions, but created products solely for their own use.

"The majority of consumer innovators have developed a product that is essentially the same in functionality as other similar products or services that are available in the market (40 per cent) or an improvement to something that already exists (28 per cent)," says the report, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"Most consumers developed their innovation in a relatively short period of time, averaging 30 hours, and six in 10 spent money to develop their innovation."

The report does not describe individual inventions, but notes most of them were household fixtures and furnishings, followed by sports equipment and products for children or education.

The least common types were medical products and computer software.

Parallel surveys in the United States, Japan and Britain have found demographic similarities with Canada's innovators.

The range of amateur products in those three countries was broad, from a rice pressure-cooker that is used in a microwave oven, to a line of clothing that can be put on and taken off using one hand, for an amputee.

Companies that in the past have protected their products by resisting tampering will have to learn to invite potential improvements by consumers, argues the von Hippel research paper.

"Microsoft first deplored the hacking of its Kinect product by users seeking to use it in new ways," it says of the motion-sensing device for game consoles.

"Then, within days, it reversed course and applauded those same users — recognizing the potential for mutual gains."

Von Hippel, who founded the field 35 years ago, said in an interview that consumer innovators represent a "form of market failure."

"They are inventing for themselves. They get a direct return. But then they have a view of others who might benefit from their innovation as an externality."

Unlike consumer-products companies, "they don't have an inbuilt incentive" to spread the benefits, said Von Hippel.

Governments need to create regulatory environments that encourage innovations, such as allowing unlicensed users access to some radio spectrums to experiment, he said. And some web sites, such as www.thingiverse.com, can act as marketplaces for basement inventions.

But change will not come overnight as researchers are still measuring the phenomenon and its economic potential, von Hippel said.

Industry Canada has said the Ekos survey is part of a larger project to encourage product development through consumer-innovators, including "framework laws, expenditure programs and regulatory-standards systems."

Spokesman Michel Cimpaye said in an email the department "intends to benchmark the Canadian results to similar surveys carried out in other countries."

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Teacher 'powerless' to stop ex-girlfriend's cyberstalking

A Vancouver teacher says his career has been derailed by an ex-girlfriend who won't stop posting countless defamatory and offensive comments about him on the web.

"I feel not only shut out of my own profession — but any job I apply for," said Lee David Clayworth, 35, who has applied for several teaching jobs since January, with no positive response.

He believes prospective employers are turned off by the web postings. "This is a dark place. It's a very, very dark place to be … and I am powerless."

For several months after the cyberstalking began, Lee David Clayworth said he started every day by checking to see what defamatory material his ex-girlfriend had posted about him overnight. (CBC)

He said he's been cyberstalked relentlessly for 2½ years, despite a court ruling ordering the material be removed and his ex-girlfriend jailed for contempt of court.

"The secondary part of it — where the court order is enforced — people just ignore it," he said.

Clayworth is a Canadian who dated a woman named Lee Ching Yan for several months while he was teaching in Malaysia in 2010.

Theft, hacking and harassment

After they split up, she broke into his apartment and stole his laptop and hard drive, along with other personal belongings.

She then hacked into his email account and sent messages to all of his contacts — posing as him — talking about how he had sex with underage students.

"Little did I know, this was just the beginning of this campaign of harassment and cyberstalking," said Clayworth, who has several glowing references indicating he is an exemplary teacher.

"The support I received from my [former] school, from colleagues, from students, from my principal, from my deputy principal was incredible."

Lee Ching Yan was found guilty of contempt of court, for continuing to harass Clayworth with online postings after a court ruled they were defamatory. (CBC)

Court documents show Yan retrieved nude photos of Clayworth that were in his computer — pictures she had taken — and posted them on several sites.

She's also placed hundreds of comments on various social media sites, accusing him of disgusting, even criminal, behaviour.

"I did a Google search of my name and I saw profiles listed saying … I am a psychopath, I am a child molester, a pedophile, I am involved with my students and so on — and then that just steamrolled," said Clayworth.

"I remember waking up in the morning and going online. Two hundred new postings would be there from throughout the night. And the things they said were the most hurtful."

Useless court rulings

He sued Yan in Malaysia, where the judge found her guilty of defamation and ordered her pay him the equivalent of $66,000 in damages. However, the harassment didn't stop.

"We'd both be in court for proceedings and, you know, four hours later, she would be at it again. Online, posting stuff," said Clayworth.

The judge then ordered Yan imprisoned for contempt of court — for continuing her smear campaign — but she left the country. Clayworth believes she's now in Australia.

"Everything that was digital and saved in my life — whether it was in the hard drive or laptop — is just at the disposal of this woman," said Clayworth, who returned to Canada in January when his contract at the Malaysian school ended.

"It will never stop … it will go on and on. It's been almost 2½ years now."

The court also ordered search engine providers Google, Yahoo and Bing to block Clayworth's name from being searchable, but that has also proved unenforceable.

He's sent the court order to all three companies, but said he's had no positive response.

"There are people out there who could help me out and I've been through the proper channels to be helped out. And people just ignore it."

Go Public contacted the search engine providers, but only Google sent a response.

Google no help

"Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web. Users who want content removed from the internet should contact the webmaster of the page directly," said spokesperson Wendy Bairos.

"We do not remove content from our search results, except in very limited cases such as illegal content and violations of our webmaster guidelines."

This posting labelling Clayworth a 'horny teacher' was just one of hundreds the court found Yan was responsible for. (CBC)

When Yan was told the Malaysian court deemed the postings were illegal, Bairos suggested that didn't make any difference.

"Again, even if we did remove the name it would not make the content disappear from other places on the web, since Google's search results are a reflection of the content and information that is available on the web."

Clayworth said he's also tried to get the posts removed from various websites, with limited success. Some sites didn't respond, while others were helpful.

The manager of one site — liarsandcheaters.com — got very upset when Clayworth complained to the site's web host company, which then shut it down temporarily.

"Do you really want to start a war with a website that sometimes gets over [20,000] visits a day?" wrote the manager.

"You may send the court order. However, because of you, we are relocating to Germany so it must be from a German court. That was your choice. In the meantime … the post will remain permanently for the rest of your life."

Even when websites have taken the offensive posts down, Clayworth's ex-girlfriend simply puts them back up, he said.

Authorities outpaced

Lawyers and police told Go Public there is little recourse for victims in Clayworth's shoes, because his court orders are from Malaysia.

Halifax internet law expert David Fraser pointed out that American-based service providers and websites are governed by U.S. law, which protects freedom of expression and does not hold them legally responsible for content users post.

"These companies have a very large user base and have a large number of complaints, many of which are frivolous, and they have to filter through them."

He said sites often do remove posts voluntarily, but in most cases only a U.S. judgment forces them to do it.

Lawyer David Fraser says internet service providers do take offensive posts down voluntarily, but if they are based in the U.S. they often won't honour foreign judgments. (CBC)

"If it's a judgment that is contrary to U.S. public policy … you may be completely out of luck," he said. "They will tend to err on the side of leaving it up because they are going to err on the side of freedom of expression."

Fraser said he has never heard of a search engine blocking someone's name from being searchable, as the court ordered Google and others to do in this case.

Clayworth also went to Vancouver police, hoping it could get Interpol involved, to eventually get an international arrest warrant issued for Yang.

Det. Mark Fenton told Go Public the best they could do is initiate a whole new investigation and — if they could get the Crown to approve a charge — issue a Canada-wide warrant for Yan's arrest.

That wouldn't help Clayworth, though, because Yan is not in Canada. "The authorities really aren't interested," he said.

Fenton said police share his frustration. He said the numerous legal and jurisdictional obstacles they face make it almost impossible to help victims of internet harassment, even when both parties are in Canada.

"The internet and society has moved at such a fast pace, that government and law enforcement are unable to keep pace," said Fenton. "This is a huge mess … and it feels awful."

As bad as it is for him, Clayworth feels worse for young people — like his former students — who are increasingly victimized.

"I know what it was like to walk into school as the teacher who has got this going on — so for a teenager I can only imagine," he said.

"Now, the internet is like a hunting ground, basically. Where you can just throw anybody you want up there that you don't like and let the whole world rain down on them. It's an insane concept."

Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public

Follow @CBCGoPublic on Twitter

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Canada wrestles with bee-killing crop pesticides

Canadians beekeepers, farmers and regulators are wrestling with how to protect bees from popular pesticides that were partially banned in Europe this week.

The European Commission announced Monday that it would go ahead with a partial two-year ban on three kinds of neonicotinoid pesticides that have been linked to bee deaths. The pesticides are used to coat most commercial corn seeds and protect them from pests such as seed-eating insects.

Canadian government scientists have found evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides were linked to mass bee deaths during the spring corn planting in Ontario and Quebec in 2012, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency confirmed in a report.

To ban or not to ban?

That has some people, such as Dan Davidson, president of the Ontario Beekepers' Association, calling for the use of the neonicotinoid pesticides to be restricted in Canada also.

"I think the best for beekeepers would be a ban," he told CBC's The Current. "We have to call for replacement of these chemicals. We won't be able to keep going on if they continue to be used at the rates they're being used now."

The environmental advocacy group Sierra Club Canada is similarly calling for a Canada to take the pesticides off the market until they have been proven safe.

However, Kevin Armstrong, a farmer who grows corn, wheat and soybean south of Woodstock, Ont., said neonicotinoid pesticides are essential for protecting corn seeds and seedlings during their crucial first month.

"It is a kind of insurance policy for us," he told The Current. "The vigour of the whole plant is assured for the whole season."

Armstrong said neonicotinoids are largely responsible for a 15 per cent increase in Ontario corn yields over the past 15 years, and so a ban on them could cause a significant loss. A loss of 10 per cent translates into about $100 an acre, he said. If Ontario farmers plant 2.3 million acres of corn as expected, that could amount to a $230-million loss.

"It works out to a significant economic setback for us."

2012 mass deaths unprecedented

Mary Mitchell, director-general of the environmental assessment directorate with Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency, said neonicotinoid pesticides have been registered in Canada for 10 to 15 years and mass bee deaths linked to them had never been reported before last year.

"So we do think the weather may have been a factor," she said, noting that it had been an unusually early, warm dry spring.

She said regulators are working to prevent that happening again, but she did not mention any talk of restrictions on the use of the pesticides.

Instead, she said the government is encouraging farmers to communicate better with beekeepers and to using planting equipment that minimizes the production of dust, which is thought to be a major way bees are exposed to the pesticides.

The government is also working with the agricultural industry on ways to get the pesticide coating to stick better to the seed so it can't come off and harm the bees.

Tracy Baute, who leads the field crop entomology program at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, said more studies are underway to find out exactly how bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides.

However, in the meantime, she recommends that farmers:

• Let nearby beekeepers know when they are planting so the beekeepers can move hives if necessary.
• Consider planting in the early morning or the evening, when bees are less active.
• Consider using seeds that aren't treated with pesticides in fields at a lower risk of attack by pests.

The reports of mass bee deaths in Ontario and Quebec in 2012 took place around the time that two scientific studies were published showing that bees can be harmed by even low levels of neonicotinoids.

Many bee species have been declining in North America and Europe, and some have even gone extinct or are believed to be close to extinction. Meanwhile, honeybees have been reported dying or disappearing en masse since 2006. In addition to pesticides, there is evidence that fungi, viruses, or parasites may play a role.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cannibal sharks eat siblings in utero

For sand tiger sharks, a deadly kind of sibling rivalry begins even before birth — and that's bad news for many would-be shark dads, a new study suggests.

While most sharks have multiple babies or "pups" at once, sand tiger sharks only give birth to two at a time — one from each of their two uteri. That's because the pup in each uterus has already eaten all the brothers and sisters that shared the womb with it — a phenomenon known as embryonic cannibalism.

"These guys have killed even before they're born," said Demian Chapman, who led a recent study on the sharks' mating system.

Sand tiger sharks are closely related to great white sharks and grow up to three metres in length.

Typically, a female sand tiger shark mates with multiple males and becomes pregnant with around six or seven embryos in each uterus, Chapman told CBC's Quirks & Quarks in an interview that airs Saturday.

But once the largest embryo reaches the size of 100 millimetres — about five months into the 12-month pregnancy — it breaks out of its egg capsule.

"And then it starts to go out and actively hunt and kill the other embryos," Chapman said

As soon as it has consumed all the siblings accessible to it, the pup spends the rest of the pregnancy eating unfertilized eggs that have accumulated in the uterus. When the two remaining pups are born, they are each a whopping one metre in length.

Paternity testing

Chapman and his colleagues were curious as to how embryonic cannibalism affects the paternity of the surviving pups, given that the mothers tended to mate with multiple males.

The researchers collected 15 pregnant female sharks that got tangled in nets intended to protect beach-goers from sharks in Richards Bay, South Africa. Five were in the early stages of pregnancy, when they had multiple pups. DNA testing showed that at that stage, the pups almost always had at least two fathers.

The 10 remaining pregnant sharks were in the later stages of pregnancy, when only one pup remained in each uterus. In this case, DNA testing showed that they were full siblings with the same father. That suggests other males may have successfully impregnated the female, but didn't get pups to show for it in the end.

In a paper published this week in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers suggested that embryonic cannibalism may increase the probability that the females give birth to the offspring of "competitively superior males" even if they were unable to determine which males those were prior to mating or to stop other males from mating with them.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Welcome to the 'dark web,' a haven for illegal trafficking

The so-called "dark web," a shadowy part of the internet you haven't likely visited and won't find using Google, has become an online haven for anyone looking to buy or sell drugs, weapons or other illegal goods. And it's leaving law enforcement stumped.

One of the most well-known examples is a website similar to eBay called Silk Road, where, instead of electronics and household goods, users buy and sell street drugs such as ecstasy and magic mushrooms.

Like many sites on the dark web, Silk Road isn't indexed by commonly used search engines and is difficult for everyday internet users to access. It's also been operating with relative impunity for the past two years despite reaching sales of $1.2 million US per month in 2012, according to one estimate by Nicolas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

In recent days, Silk Road has reportedly come under repeated denial-of-service attacks, which involve overloading a site with web traffic. While there has been speculation that law enforcement may be behind those attacks, many other observers point to the possibility of a virtual turf war in the growing online market for illicit drugs.

A new competing site called Atlantis, which offers cheaper prices for drug dealers to list their goods, is trying to capitalize on Silk Road's misfortune. As one announcement on the popular social news site Reddit says: now is the "Perfect Time to check out the new Atlantis Marketplace," with Silk Road out of the picture.

Criminal haven

Drugs aren't the only illicit goods bought and sold through such obscure websites. Stolen credit card information, malicious software, guns and even explosives are on offer for the right price.

"Unfortunately a lot of the stuff we deal with is child pornography," said Det. Sgt. Eugene Silva, who is with the technological crimes unit of the Waterloo Regional Police.

Investigating child pornography sites can be difficult because they tend to relocate across international borders, hopping from one server to another to elude law enforcement officials, he said.

"It could be in some Asian country today, and in a week's time it's somewhere in Russia or the Netherlands," Silva said.

Police scouring the dark web as part of criminal investigations have the added hurdle of dealing with the Tor network, which is a technology that Silva admits has stymied his three-person unit.

The Tor network operates on the ".onion" domain and allows users to surf the web with much greater anonymity, making it harder to track a person's online communication or which sites they visit. Sites like Silk Road also tend to use virtual alternatives to conventional money like Bitcoin, which can be more difficult to trace.

If a suspect is using the Tor network, Silva said, he and the two detectives he commands will try to track them elsewhere on the web by searching for clues that might help identify the person on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.

Bright side of anonymity

But the dark web isn't all bad, said Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor with British-based internet security firm Sophos.

Wisniewski acknowledged that criminals use secretive websites for all kinds of nefarious ends, but he points out that other groups including political dissidents and journalists also benefit from the anonymity the dark web offers.

"You start thinking about the people who are trying to report on what's happening with [President Bashar] al-Assad in Syria," he said by phone from New York.

"If you're on the ground there as a journalist or even as a civilian blogger, and you want to get the word out about whether the government really is using poison gas on its own citizens, that is a very difficult thing to securely communicate inside of a war-torn country or a dictatorship, without knowing that you're going to lose your own head," he said.

Being able to communicate anonymously can help elude pro-government hackers trying to root out anyone who is sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and protect journalists trying to report on the war.

Then there are those in conflict-free countries who simply use the dark web because they want to do whatever they can to protect their online privacy and minimize the chances of being spied on, Wisniewski said.

"There really isn't anything wrong with that," he said. "There's compelling need for it."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Canada wrestles with bee-killing crop pesticides

Canadians beekeepers, farmers and regulators are wrestling with how to protect bees from popular pesticides that were partially banned in Europe this week.

The European Commission announced Monday that it would go ahead with a partial two-year ban on three kinds of neonicotinoid pesticides that have been linked to bee deaths. The pesticides are used to coat most commercial corn seeds and protect them from pests such as seed-eating insects.

Canadian government scientists have found evidence that neonicotinoid pesticides were linked to mass bee deaths during the spring corn planting in Ontario and Quebec in 2012, Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency confirmed in a report.

To ban or not to ban?

That has some people, such as Dan Davidson, president of the Ontario Beekepers' Association, calling for the use of the neonicotinoid pesticides to be restricted in Canada also.

"I think the best for beekeepers would be a ban," he told CBC's The Current. "We have to call for replacement of these chemicals. We won't be able to keep going on if they continue to be used at the rates they're being used now."

The environmental advocacy group Sierra Club Canada is similarly calling for a Canada to take the pesticides off the market until they have been proven safe.

However, Kevin Armstrong, a farmer who grows corn, wheat and soybean south of Woodstock, Ont., said neonicotinoid pesticides are essential for protecting corn seeds and seedlings during their crucial first month.

"It is a kind of insurance policy for us," he told The Current. "The vigour of the whole plant is assured for the whole season."

Armstrong said neonicotinoids are largely responsible for a 15 per cent increase in Ontario corn yields over the past 15 years, and so a ban on them could cause a significant loss. A loss of 10 per cent translates into about $100 an acre, he said. If Ontario farmers plant 2.3 million acres of corn as expected, that could amount to a $230-million loss.

"It works out to a significant economic setback for us."

2012 mass deaths unprecedented

Mary Mitchell, director-general of the environmental assessment directorate with Health Canada's Pest Management Regulatory Agency, said neonicotinoid pesticides have been registered in Canada for 10 to 15 years and mass bee deaths linked to them had never been reported before last year.

"So we do think the weather may have been a factor," she said, noting that it had been an unusually early, warm dry spring.

She said regulators are working to prevent that happening again, but she did not mention any talk of restrictions on the use of the pesticides.

Instead, she said the government is encouraging farmers to communicate better with beekeepers and to using planting equipment that minimizes the production of dust, which is thought to be a major way bees are exposed to the pesticides.

The government is also working with the agricultural industry on ways to get the pesticide coating to stick better to the seed so it can't come off and harm the bees.

Tracy Baute, who leads the field crop entomology program at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, said more studies are underway to find out exactly how bees are exposed to neonicotinoid pesticides.

However, in the meantime, she recommends that farmers:

• Let nearby beekeepers know when they are planting so the beekeepers can move hives if necessary.
• Consider planting in the early morning or the evening, when bees are less active.
• Consider using seeds that aren't treated with pesticides in fields at a lower risk of attack by pests.

The reports of mass bee deaths in Ontario and Quebec in 2012 took place around the time that two scientific studies were published showing that bees can be harmed by even low levels of neonicotinoids.

Many bee species have been declining in North America and Europe, and some have even gone extinct or are believed to be close to extinction. Meanwhile, honeybees have been reported dying or disappearing en masse since 2006. In addition to pesticides, there is evidence that fungi, viruses, or parasites may play a role.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cannibal sharks eat siblings in utero

For sand tiger sharks, a deadly kind of sibling rivalry begins even before birth — and that's bad news for many would-be shark dads, a new study suggests.

While most sharks have multiple babies or "pups" at once, sand tiger sharks only give birth to two at a time — one from each of their two uteri. That's because the pup in each uterus has already eaten all the brothers and sisters that shared the womb with it — a phenomenon known as embryonic cannibalism.

"These guys have killed even before they're born," said Demian Chapman, who led a recent study on the sharks' mating system.

Sand tiger sharks are closely related to great white sharks and grow up to three metres in length.

Typically, a female sand tiger shark mates with multiple males and becomes pregnant with around six or seven embryos in each uterus, Chapman told CBC's Quirks & Quarks in an interview that airs Saturday.

But once the largest embryo reaches the size of 100 millimetres — about five months into the 12-month pregnancy — it breaks out of its egg capsule.

"And then it starts to go out and actively hunt and kill the other embryos," Chapman said

As soon as it has consumed all the siblings accessible to it, the pup spends the rest of the pregnancy eating unfertilized eggs that have accumulated in the uterus. When the two remaining pups are born, they are each a whopping one metre in length.

Paternity testing

Chapman and his colleagues were curious as to how embryonic cannibalism affects the paternity of the surviving pups, given that the mothers tended to mate with multiple males.

The researchers collected 15 pregnant female sharks that got tangled in nets intended to protect beach-goers from sharks in Richards Bay, South Africa. Five were in the early stages of pregnancy, when they had multiple pups. DNA testing showed that at that stage, the pups almost always had at least two fathers.

The 10 remaining pregnant sharks were in the later stages of pregnancy, when only one pup remained in each uterus. In this case, DNA testing showed that they were full siblings with the same father. That suggests other males may have successfully impregnated the female, but didn't get pups to show for it in the end.

In a paper published this week in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers suggested that embryonic cannibalism may increase the probability that the females give birth to the offspring of "competitively superior males" even if they were unable to determine which males those were prior to mating or to stop other males from mating with them.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Welcome to the 'dark web,' a haven for illegal trafficking

The so-called "dark web," a shadowy part of the internet you haven't likely visited and won't find using Google, has become an online haven for anyone looking to buy or sell drugs, weapons or other illegal goods. And it's leaving law enforcement stumped.

One of the most well-known examples is a website similar to eBay called Silk Road, where, instead of electronics and household goods, users buy and sell street drugs such as ecstasy and magic mushrooms.

Like many sites on the dark web, Silk Road isn't indexed by commonly used search engines and is difficult for everyday internet users to access. It's also been operating with relative impunity for the past two years despite reaching sales of $1.2 million US per month in 2012, according to one estimate by Nicolas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

In recent days, Silk Road has reportedly come under repeated denial-of-service attacks, which involve overloading a site with web traffic. While there has been speculation that law enforcement may be behind those attacks, many other observers point to the possibility of a virtual turf war in the growing online market for illicit drugs.

A new competing site called Atlantis, which offers cheaper prices for drug dealers to list their goods, is trying to capitalize on Silk Road's misfortune. As one announcement on the popular social news site Reddit says: now is the "Perfect Time to check out the new Atlantis Marketplace," with Silk Road out of the picture.

Criminal haven

Drugs aren't the only illicit goods bought and sold through such obscure websites. Stolen credit card information, malicious software, guns and even explosives are on offer for the right price.

"Unfortunately a lot of the stuff we deal with is child pornography," said Det. Sgt. Eugene Silva, who is with the technological crimes unit of the Waterloo Regional Police.

Investigating child pornography sites can be difficult because they tend to relocate across international borders, hopping from one server to another to elude law enforcement officials, he said.

"It could be in some Asian country today, and in a week's time it's somewhere in Russia or the Netherlands," Silva said.

Police scouring the dark web as part of criminal investigations have the added hurdle of dealing with the Tor network, which is a technology that Silva admits has stymied his three-person unit.

The Tor network operates on the ".onion" domain and allows users to surf the web with much greater anonymity, making it harder to track a person's online communication or which sites they visit. Sites like Silk Road also tend to use virtual alternatives to conventional money like Bitcoin, which can be more difficult to trace.

If a suspect is using the Tor network, Silva said, he and the two detectives he commands will try to track them elsewhere on the web by searching for clues that might help identify the person on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.

Bright side of anonymity

But the dark web isn't all bad, said Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor with British-based internet security firm Sophos.

Wisniewski acknowledged that criminals use secretive websites for all kinds of nefarious ends, but he points out that other groups including political dissidents and journalists also benefit from the anonymity the dark web offers.

"You start thinking about the people who are trying to report on what's happening with [President Bashar] al-Assad in Syria," he said by phone from New York.

"If you're on the ground there as a journalist or even as a civilian blogger, and you want to get the word out about whether the government really is using poison gas on its own citizens, that is a very difficult thing to securely communicate inside of a war-torn country or a dictatorship, without knowing that you're going to lose your own head," he said.

Being able to communicate anonymously can help elude pro-government hackers trying to root out anyone who is sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and protect journalists trying to report on the war.

Then there are those in conflict-free countries who simply use the dark web because they want to do whatever they can to protect their online privacy and minimize the chances of being spied on, Wisniewski said.

"There really isn't anything wrong with that," he said. "There's compelling need for it."

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Welcome to the 'dark web,' global bazaar for illegal goods

The so-called "dark web," a shadowy part of the internet you haven't likely visited and won't find using Google, has become an online haven for anyone looking to buy or sell drugs, weapons or other illegal goods. And it's leaving law enforcement stumped.

One of the most well-known examples is a website similar to eBay called Silk Road, where, instead of electronics and household goods, users buy and sell street drugs such as ecstasy and magic mushrooms.

Like many sites on the dark web, Silk Road isn't indexed by commonly used search engines and is difficult for everyday internet users to access. It's also been operating with relative impunity for the past two years despite burgeoning sales. It saw sales of $1.2 million US per month in 2012, according to one estimate by Nicolas Christin, associate director of the Information Networking Institute at Carnegie Mellon University.

In recent days, Silk Road has reportedly come under repeated denial-of-service attacks, which involve overloading a site with web traffic. While there has been speculation that law enforcement may be behind those attacks, many other observers point to the possibility of a virtual turf war in the growing online market for illicit drugs.

A new competing site called Atlantis, which offers cheaper prices for drug dealers to list their goods, is trying to capitalize on Silk Road's misfortune. As one announcement on the popular social news site Reddit says: now is the "Perfect Time to check out the new Atlantis Marketplace," with Silk Road out of the picture.

Criminal haven

What's at stake in the virtual turf war is a growing online market for illegal drugs. But those are far from the only illicit goods bought and sold through myriads of websites that are inaccessible to the average web user and that in many cases go to extensive lengths to protect the anonymity of their customers.

The Silk Road site uses Bitcoin, a virtual alternative to conventional money that's difficult to trace. It also operates on a Tor network, which makes it harder to track a person's online communication or which sites they visit.

Endangered species are another category of illegal goods commonly bought and sold on the dark web, which also hosts commerce for computer viruses, stolen credit card information and guns, among other things.

"Unfortunately a lot of the stuff we deal with is child pornography," said Sgt. Eugene Silva, who is with the technological crimes unit of the Waterloo Regional Police.

Many websites that host child pornography will regularly migrate across international borders, hopping from one server to another to elude law enforcement officials, he said.

"It could be in some Asian country today, and in a week's time it's somewhere in Russia or the Netherlands," Silva said.

Police scouring the dark web as part of criminal investigations have the added hurdle of dealing with Tor networks, which is something Silva admits has stymied his three-person unit.

If a suspect is using a Tor network, Silva said, he and the two detectives he commands will try to track them elsewhere on the web, searching for clues that might identify the person on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites.

Bright side of anonymity

But the dark web isn't all bad, said Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor with British-based internet security firm Sophos.

Wisniewski acknowledged that criminals use secretive websites for all kinds of nefarious ends, but he points out that other groups including political dissidents and journalists in war zones also benefit from the anonymity the dark web offers.

"You start thinking about the people who are trying to report on what's happening with [President Bashar] al-Assad in Syria," he said by phone from New York.

"If you're on the ground there as a journalist or even as a civilian blogger, and you want to get the word out about whether the government really is using poison gas on its own citizens, that is a very difficult thing to securely communicate inside of a war-torn country or a dictatorship, without knowing that you're going to lose your own head," he said.

Being able to communicate anonymously can help elude pro-government hackers trying to root out anyone who is sympathetic to the Syrian opposition, and protect journalists trying to report on the war.

Then there are those in conflict-free countries who simply use the dark web because they want to do whatever they can to protect their online privacy and minimize the chances of being spied on, Wisniewski said.

"There really isn't anything wrong with that," he said. "There's compelling need for it."

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P.E.I. fossil footprints could be 290 million years old

A geology student from Halifax is investigating a set of fossil tracks he found on the South Shore of P.E.I. that may be 290 million years old.

Matt Stimson and Danielle Horne found the prints on a rock on the shore near Belfast Highland Greens golf course. They were looking for fossils along the shore, but never expected to find anything as impressive as what they uncovered.

Matt Stimson and Danielle Horne pose with the fossil trackway they found on P.E.I.'s South Shore, estimated to be 290 million years old. With them is resident Dennis Halliday, who helped them recover the find. (Submitted by Matt Stimson)

"We both got very excited, as a paleontologist, you know hollering like a kid in a candy store opening a Christmas present or something," said Stimson.

Stimson says the prints look like they may have been made by an amphibian, or a reptile, or something in between. He estimates the prints were made 290 million years ago.

Even at that age, these would not be the oldest footprints Stimson has dealt with. Though he is still a student, Stimson has already received credit in a scientific journal for his work on a 315-million-year-old trackway found in Joggins, N.S.

This recent find still needs to be curated and studied in depth before anything can be determined for certain, said Stimson.

Belfast Highland Greens general manager Keir White says prehistoric footprints aren't the usual find along the golf course's shoreline.

"Find lots of golf balls," said White.

"One thing that is unique about this place is they are the highest cliffs on P.E.I. At one point off our course, it's 160 feet (50 metres) high. There's lots of erosion. So that sort of unearths things like this."

This would not be the first trackway of this age found on the Island, but Stimson said this would only be the third documented discovery.

He hopes to research the prints and publish the findings with help from other experts. He is now trying to find out what the provincial rules are about fossils and what can happen with them.

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DFO gets F in free expression from journalism group

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has been given an F in an annual Canadian press freedom report card.

Although the federal government as a whole received a C-, Fisheries and Oceans Canada was singled out "for its zeal in muzzling scientists and keeping critical research findings from Canadians," said a news release from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Thursday.

The organization, which advocates for the rights of journalists and media workers to express themselves, released the annual report card in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day, which takes place Friday.

The report accompanying the report card said DFO received the failing grade because:

• It did not allow scientist Kristi Miller to speak to the media about her work on salmon diseases for two full years after the research was published.
• It is one of the departments under investigation by the information commissioner for allegedly muzzling its scientists.
• It was singled out for "severe limits on publication" that could prompt scientists in other countries to pull out of collaborations with Canadian scientists.

A more detailed article in the report said that as of January, DFO scientists have been told they must now get departmental approval to submit research to science journals and the department has the power to pull scientific articles that have already been accepted for publication. It also has proposed confidentiality provisions "that, for the first time" would apply to non-government and non-Canadian research collaborators.

"The Harper administration isn't the first government to try to massage the message," wrote Ottawa journalist Bob Carty, author of that section of the report.

"But in my experience, it's never been this bad. Some journalists have given up even trying to get a comment from a federal scientist in Canada — it's easier to call someone in the U.S. or the U.K."

Communicating science 'a priority,' DFO says

In response to the report, Barbara Mottram, press secretary to Fisheries Minister Keith Ashfield, said in a statement that "communicating its science is a priority for Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and the department's record is solid."

Mottram added that the department responds to about 380 media calls per year, publishes weekly science feature stories on its website, and releases science advisory reports "documenting our research." The reports provide updates on individual fish and shellfish stocks, ecosystems and habitats.

In the case of Miller, Mottram said she was not allowed to speak about research published in 2011 in order to "protect the integrity" of hearings later that year at a public inquiry into the 2009 collapse of the Fraser River sockeye salmon stocks. However, she said the written report, published in the journal Science, was widely available.

Other organizations graded in the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression report included:

• The Access to Information program, which got a D-, up from F in past years. That was due to " a very slight increase in completed federal ATI (access to information) requests and a slight decrease in the number of requests denied for security reasons."
• The federal government overall, which received a C-. CFJE praised the government for withdrawing its controversial internet surveillance bill. However, the group criticized the government for its suspension of Justice Department lawyer Edgar Schmidt for claiming that the government's way of judging whether legislation was consistent with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms was illegal.
• The Supreme Court, which got a C, down from B+ last year. CFJE said the court broke no important ground this year, unlike last year when it made some significant rulings about free expression.
• The Parliamentary Budget Office, which got an A for "its contribution over the past five years to the discourse in Canada bout access to information, transparency and accountability of government."

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DFO scientist amazed by 'extreme' ocean temperatures

A federal scientist based in Nova Scotia says ocean temperatures off the East Coast of Canada were about two to four degrees above normal in 2012, setting record highs.

"On average, it's probably three to five times the normal variability. So it's quite extreme," said Dave Hebert, a Canadian scientist at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Halifax.

His American counterparts at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in the U.S. reported sea surface temperatures on the northeastern shelf in 2012 averaged 14 C, the highest temperature recorded in 150 years.

"It's basically the same here," said Hebert.

"Surface, right to the bottom. All across the Scotian Shelf. It's in the Bay of Fundy and in the Gulf into the St. Lawrence."

"The amazing thing is, it is such a large extent. It goes all the way down to North Carolina and all the way up to Labrador," Hebert said.

Given the unusually warm, dry and storm free summer in 2012, the high surface temperatures may not be a surprise.

"The big question is why is the bottom water so warm," said Hebert.

Potential explanations could include the Gulf Stream hugging the coast or a change in the circulation of the Labrador Current, which brings colder water south.

Hebert said it's too early to say whether the recent trend of warmer ocean temperatures is part of climate change.

DFO studying climate change

This week, he returned from a 24-day survey off Canada's East Coast on board the research vessel Hudson. Water temperatures in April had cooled and returned to normal, he says.

"It will be really interesting to see how it goes this summer...to see if it goes up and stays up," he said.

One of the consequences of warmer water is a rise in the sea level, threatening coastal communities.

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is in the midst of a five year $148-million study on climate change, including its effects on fish and its impact on coastal communities.

Scientists want to know whether it's driving some fish northward.

"As the ocean warms, water expands and global sea level will rise," said says Blair Greenan, a research scientist at DFO.

"That is one of the factors that is playing into changing sea levels in this region."

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Starving Virginia colonists turned to cannibalism

Scientists revealed Wednesday that they have found the first solid archeological evidence that some of the earliest American colonists at Jamestown, Va., survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism.

For years, there have been tales of people in the first permanent English settlement in America eating dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes and shoe leather to stave off starvation. There were also written accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archeologists had been skeptical of those stories.

But now, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and archeologists from Jamestown are announcing the discovery of the bones of a 14-year-old girl that show clear signs that she was cannibalized. Evidence indicates clumsy chops to the body and head of the girl, who appears to have already been dead at the time.

Smithsonian forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley said the human remains date back to a deadly winter known as the "starving time" in Jamestown from 1609 to 1610. Hundreds died during the period. Scientists have said the settlers likely arrived during the worst drought in 800 years, bringing severe food shortages for the 6,000 people who lived at Jamestown between 1607 and 1625.

'World of miseries'

The historical record is chilling. Early Jamestown colony leader George Percy wrote of a "world of miseries," that included digging up corpses from their graves to eat when there was nothing else. "Nothing was spared to maintain life," he wrote.

In one case, a man killed, "salted," and began eating his pregnant wife. Both Percy and Capt. John Smith, the colony's most famous leader, documented the account in their writings. The man was later executed.

"One amongst the rest did kill his wife, powdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was known, for which he was executed, as he well deserved," Smith wrote. "Now whether she was better roasted, boiled or carbonado'd [barbecued], I know not, but of such a dish as powdered wife I never heard of."

Archeologists at Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia were somewhat skeptical of the stories of cannibalism in the past because there was no solid proof, until now.

"Historians have questioned, well did it happen or not happen?" Owsley said. "And this is very convincing evidence that it did."

Owsley has been working with William Kelso, the chief archeologist at Jamestown, since their first burial discovery in 1996.

Remains of 14-year-old girl discovered last summer

The remains of the 14-year-old girl, named "Jane" by researchers, were discovered in the summer of 2012 and mark the fourth set of human remains uncovered at Jamestown outside of graves. Her remains were found in a cellar at the site that had been filled with trash, including bones of horses and other animals consumed in desperation, according to archeologists.

Numerous small knife cuts and punctures in the mandible of Jane of Jamestown are seen during a news conference at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

The discovery detracts from the happier mythology of John Smith and Pocahontas that many associate with Jamestown. The vice-president of research at nearby Colonial Williamsburg, which oversees excavations of the original Jamestown site, said visitors will have a fuller view of a terrible time in early American history.

"I think we are better served by understanding history, warts and all, because I think it gives us a better understanding of who we are as a people," James Horn said.

Owsley, who has also done forensic analysis for police investigations, examined the girl's remains and how the body had been dismembered, including chops to the front and back of the head. The girl was likely already dead at the time. There was a cultural stigma against killing someone for food.

But it was clear to Owsley immediately that there were signs of cannibalism.

"This does represent a clear case of dismemberment of the body and removing of tissues for consumption," he said.

It was the work of someone not skilled at butchering, Owsley said, indicating a sense of desperation.

The bones show a bizarre attempt to open the skull, he said. Animal brains and facial tissue were desirable meat in the 17th century.

The archeologists are publishing their findings in a new book but decided against waiting to announce the discovery.

The human skull will be placed on display at Jamestown, and a sign will warn visitors of the room's content. At the Smithsonian, curators will display a computer-generated reconstruction of the girl's face in an exhibit about life at Jamestown.

Owsley said archeology is helping to fill in details from a time when few records were kept — details that won't likely be found in history books.

Bones will be displayed

Kelso, whose archeology team discovered the bones, said the girl's bones will be displayed to help tell a story, not to be a spectacle. Through the remains, scientists traced her likely origin to the coast of Southern England.

"We found her in a trash dump, unceremoniously trashed and cannibalized, and now her story can be told," Kelso said. "People will be able to empathize with the time and history and think to themselves, as I do: What would I do to stay alive?"

At Jamestown, officials removed a large tarp covering the site where the remains were found for visitors to see. Tourists were told Wednesday of the discovery.

"Oh, wow," said Kim Reyes, who was on a field trip escorting fourth grade students from Alexandria, Va. "We all know the harsh conditions they were here in, but I didn't think it was that bad."

Pam Nagle's mouth dropped when she heard the announcement. The Charlottesville, Va., resident was visiting Jamestown with her children, ages seven and 10, and her in-laws. Nagle said she had never heard any mention of cannibalism at Jamestown before.

"I was really curious whether it was pre- or post-mortem. I was really glad he said post-mortem," she said. "There was a level of desperation, but maybe perhaps it wasn't as severe as it could've been."

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