Parasites seize control over animal and human behaviour

Parasites can invade animals, including humans, and control their behaviour from the inside. But this also means parasites may be able to teach us how to control our own brains and treat neurological diseases, a new documentary shows.

An ant from the rainforests of Brazil that has been overcome by a lethal fungus. The fungus grows a tall stalk out of the ant's head so that its spores can be spread to the rest of the colony. (David Hughes/CBC)

​"If a parasite can hijack a rat or a caterpillar because it knows what to do with the brain chemistry, or it knows what to target, it can do that to us too," said David Wells, producer of Invasion of the Brain Snatchers, which airs on CBC-TV's The Nature of Things tonight at 8 p.m.

"As we start to understand our brains as biochemical machines, and that we're not any different than other creatures, it is very unsettling to a lot of people."

Guided by scientists from North America and Europe, Wells portrays the effectiveness of animal mind-control by parasites.

In the coastal estuaries of California, a small flatworm forms cysts on the brain of a tiny killifish and forces the fish to turn its white belly up towards the sky in order to attract hungry birds. After all, the flatworm wants to end up in the bird so that it can finish its life cycle.

'We want the ick factor to trigger people's curiosity.'- David Wells, producer of Invasion of the Brain Snatchers

Ants in the Brazilian rainforest climb up the stalks of plants over their colony when they are infected by a fungus, latch on to the underside of leaves, and die. When the fungus matures, a large mushroom grows out the back of the ant's head and spreads fungal spores over the ant colony.

A rat that loses its fear of cats on busy city streets puts its own life in great danger. Infection by Toxoplasma gondii causes a "fatal feline attraction" in rats, according to Joanne Webster at Imperial College in London, England. This parasite not only removes fear from rats, but they become strongly attracted to the smell of a cat.

The really surprising revelation is that Toxoplasma gondii can, and does, infect humans as well. 

"As many as a billion adults are (currently) infected with Toxoplasma," said Wells.

This parasite may be causing people to be a little bit more impulsive or spontaneous, but its effects are hard to characterize.

The filmmakers push the boundaries of the ick factor in this film, said Wells, enticing you to keep watching and asking viewers, "You think that was something? Wait until you see what we've got next." 

The black spots on the brain of a killifish are cysts that are caused by a parasitic flatworm. (Kelly Weinersmith/CBC)

The film isn't intended to be alarmist, he added.

"We wanted the 'ick factor' to trigger people's curiosity," said Wells. "These parasites are doing things (with the brain) that we just can't do."

This film reminds us that parasites have co-evolved with humans, and that they might already have the key to unlocking the secrets of the brain and the key to treatments for neurological disorders like depression.

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Google asked U.S. coast guard to keep mum on barges

How badly does Google want to keep under wraps a mysterious project taking shape on a barge in San Francisco Bay? Badly enough to require U.S. government officials to sign confidentiality agreements.

At least one U.S. Coast Guard employee has had to sign a non-disclosure agreement with the internet giant, said Barry Bena, a coast guard spokesman who was later instructed not to talk to the media about the project because of "commercial confidentiality."

Another person who would only identify himself as an inspector for a California government agency had to do the same.

USA Today and the San Jose Mercury News reported that the coast guard confirmed that they had visited the barge on Wednesday but could not say why other than to specify that it was not for a fire or medical emergency.

Several coast guard representatives told the papers they had been instructed by supervisors not to discuss the project.

"Once the project is completed, we will be releasing information," Lt. Joshua Dykman told the San Jose Mercury.

Four barges registered

Moored in the shadow of the Bay Bridge off Treasure Island, a former military base, the nondescript barge is stacked several storeys high with white shipping containers, and sprouts what appear to be antennas on top. The hulking structure, half shrouded in scaffolding, has stirred intense speculation in the Bay Area since reports of its existence surfaced late last week.

The floating structure docked at Portland Harbour in Portland, Maine looks to be composed of about 63 shipping containers welded together, a local newspaper reported. (Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald/Associated Press)

Technology website CNET theorized that the vessel might be a floating data centre that will house banks of computers. Google was granted a patent in 2009 for just such a floating data centre, the site reported.

Local TV station KPIX said the barge is intended to serve as a floating retail store for Google's Glass wearable computer device — although its external appearance, at least thus far, doesn't suggest such a purpose.

Adding to the mystery, a second similar barge was spotted in Portland, Maine. A total of four barges have been registered to a Delaware corporation called By and Large LLC, an apparent nod to the fictitious company Buy and Large from the hit animation film WALL-E. 

The barges are registered under the names BAL0001, BAL0010, BAL0011 and BAL0100, the numbered portions of which, observers speculate, likely refer to the binary code equivalents of "one," "two," "three" and "four." Two are in the San Francisco area — one of which houses the shipping-container structure — one is in Portland and the fourth is so far unaccounted for.

Google itself is keeping mum, refusing even to acknowledge its affiliation with the vessels.

Coast guard is 'fully aware' of what's on barge

On the east coast, a spokesman for the local coast guard told the Portland Press Herald newspaper that work on the Maine barge will begin after its San Francisco counterpart is complete. Ensign Connan Ingham​ told the paper that coast guard officials had been asked by the barge owner not to talk about it but that "they are fully aware of what's on that barge."

The paper dispatched reporters to the Portland Harbour to get a closer look at the barge docked there and reported that the structure on the barge appears to be composed of 63 metal shipping containers welded together.

"The structure is four containers high, four containers wide and four containers long," the paper reported. "One container is slanted at a 45-degree angle to create a ramp​. 

"There are doors on each of the upper three floors on both ends of the structure. There are also narrow windows. It's possible to look through some of the windows and see windows on the other side, indicating that the sides of some of the containers have been removed to create open floor space."

The structure was assembled in New London, Conn., according to the paper, and its journey to the harbour was documented in a photo posted on Facebook by the company whose tugboat towed the barge into the harbour.

Spent year preparing project

Secrecy is a standard business practice in Silicon Valley, where technology companies such as Apple go to great lengths to keep their latest gadgets under wraps and a constellation of blogs compete to reveal highly prized details.

'It was a phenomenal production. None of them would tell us anything.'- Bob Jessup, construction worker

But the concealment effort surrounding the barge is in another league. Chain-link fences and security guards encircle a pier and a couple of nearby buildings on the island, which sits between San Francisco and Oakland.

A California state inspector, who said he had business in the hangar-like Building 3 where some of the early construction took place, told Reuters he had to surrender his mobile phone and sign a confidentiality agreement in order to enter.

A close-up of the structure docked at Treasure Island in San Francisco, which is protected by chain-link fences and security guards. (Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)

Bob Jessup, a construction company superintendent who works in a building across the street, said Google spent the past year working on the project. He said the company fenced off a wide area and brought in at least 40 welders a day, who worked around the clock and refused to say a word.

"They wouldn't give up any of the information," Jessup said. "It was a phenomenal production. None of them would tell us anything."

He said they worked on the inside and the outside of the shipping containers, outfitting them with electronics — "very hush hush" — and then loaded them onto the barge with a crane. They put sides on the containers, with glass windows in some of them. They had to weld them very precisely so they could stack, Jessup recounted.

Jessup said he could not imagine that Google would try to use the floating vessel as a retail outlet. "Who's going to want to climb up in there?" he asked. "It's really ugly."

Barge will need permit if it stays

Some nearby property on Treasure Island has been subleased to the same firm to which the two barges are registered. Representatives of By and Large could not be reached for comment.

Larry Goldzband, the executive director of the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, told Reuters his agency has had several meetings with Google officials about the barge in recent months. Yet, the company provided little information other than telling him that the vessel will be used for "general technology purposes," he said.

Google "could not give us a specific plan of any kind," not even whether they intended the barge to move or stay in one place, Goldzband said. If the barge remains in place for an extended period of time after its construction is completed, it will require a permit from the BCDC, he said.

"We've asked counsel to get us as much information as soon as they can, so that we can continue the discussion," Goldzband said, referring to Google's law firm.

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Smartphone, tablet use now allowed during takeoff in U.S.

U.S. government safety rules are changing to let airline passengers use most electronic devices from gate-to-gate.

The change will let passengers read, work, play games, watch movies and listen to music.

The Federal Aviation Administration says airlines can allow passengers to use the devices during takeoffs and landings on planes that meet certain criteria for protecting aircraft systems from electronic interference.

Most new airliners are expected to meet the criteria, but changes won't happen immediately. Timing will depend upon the airline.

Connections to the internet to surf, exchange emails, text or download data will still be prohibited below 10,000 feet. Heavier devices like laptops will have to be stowed. Passengers will be told to switch their smartphones, tablets and other devices to airplane mode.

And cellphone calls will still be prohibited.

In Canada, federal rules on portable electronic devices state that the devices aren't permitted for use when they might "impair the functioning of the aircraft's systems or equipment," but that they can be used with the permission of the operator of the aircraft.

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Great white shark tracked to waters off Newfoundland

Researchers are tracking the movements of a great white shark that has made its way to Placentia Bay, in southern Newfoundland.

A group called Ocearch first caught and tagged the shark off the coast of Florida, naming it Lydia.

Chris Fischer, the founding chairman of Ocearch, said he was surprised to track the one tonne, 4.3-metre-long great white up to Newfoundland waters.

"We thought the sharks might take us north, and this is actually the first one to do that, so for me I was thrilled," Fischer said.

"I don't know if she's going to go from Newfoundland over to Sable Island, is she going to go to Halifax? Is there a key part of the breeding cycle in Canada for great white sharks? I don't know. It just makes me feel like we're on the cusp of learning some new things and new areas that we have to investigate."

Fischer hopes tracking the travel patterns of the sharks will help researchers learn more about them.

"One of our big problems is we have a lack of data. We don't know where the breeding sites are, we don't know where the nurseries are, we don't understand their entire migratory path," he said.

"We're trying to collect that data so we can put a comprehensive management plan in place for them."

Shark researcher Ian Hamilton, who works at Memorial University in St John's, said the presence of a great white off the island's coast isn't a surprise.

"People have probably been swimming and boating in Newfoundland for hundreds of years with these animals in the water around without knowing it," he said.

"So it may bring a little bit of, you know, that Jaws fear back. But that's some of the myth we're trying to dispel."

Researchers believe the large seal population may be what attracts the sharks to the area, but they say there's still too much unknown about them to know for sure.

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Asian carp have reproduced in Great Lakes watershed

Scientists said Monday they have documented for the first time that an Asian carp species has successfully reproduced within the Great Lakes watershed, an ominous development in the struggle to slam the door on the hungry invaders that could threaten native fish.

An analysis of four grass carp captured last year in Ohio's Sandusky River, a tributary of Lake Erie, found they had spent their entire lives there and were not introduced through means such as stocking, according to researchers with the U.S. Geological Survey and Bowling Green State University.

Grass carp are among four species imported from Asia decades ago to control algae and unwanted plants in controlled settings such as sewage treatment lagoons. They escaped into the wild and have spread into the Mississippi and other rivers and lakes across the nation's heartland.

Of greatest concern in the Great Lakes region are bighead and silver carp, prolific breeders that gobble huge amounts of plankton -- tiny plants and animals that are vital to aquatic food chains. Scientists say if they gain a foothold in the lakes, they could spread widely and destabilize a fishing industry valued at $7 billion.

Researchers spent the summer of 2013 sampling the Great Lakes in search of Asian carp DNA.

Grass carp are less worrisome because they eat larger plants instead of plankton and don't compete with native species, although they could harm valuable wetland vegetation where some fish spawn.

But because all Asian carp species require similar conditions to reproduce successfully, the Sandusky River discovery suggests it's likely that any of them could spawn there and in many other Great Lakes tributaries, said Duane Chapman, a USGS fisheries biologist and member of the research team.

"It's bad news," Chapman said. "It would have been a lot easier to control these fish if they'd been limited in the number of places where they could spawn. This makes our job harder. It doesn't make it impossible, but it makes it harder."

The Obama administration has spent nearly $200 million to shield the lakes, focusing primarily on an electrified barrier and other measures in Chicago-area waterways that offer a pathway from the carp-infested Mississippi River watershed to Lake Michigan. Critics say more is needed and are pressing to physically separate the two systems.

Army Corps report coming

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is scheduled to release a report in coming months on a long-term solution.

John Goss, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality's Asian carp program, said sterile grass carp have been found in the Great Lakes for years. But the discovery that they can reproduce within the watershed "reinforces why we must continue to execute the aggressive strategy to keep silver and bighead carp out of the Great Lakes that we have been pursuing for the past three and a half years," he said.

A commercial fisherman captured four small grass carp from the Sandusky River in 2012. Chapman and his colleagues determined they were at least a year old and could become spawning adults.

The scientists also examined bones in the fishes' heads called "otoliths" that indicate the chemistry of the waters they've inhabited, and they compared them with otoliths of farmed fish. The analysis confirmed the grass carp were hatched through natural reproduction in the river.

To spawn successfully, Asian carp need rivers of a certain length with currents that keep their eggs drifting long enough to hatch. Researchers are fine-tuning computer models that can determine the likelihood that a particular river is suitable.

'Many more reservoirs at risk'

A few years ago, scientists believed that perhaps two dozen rivers in the Great Lakes watershed offered good spawning habitat. But the grass carp analysis and other recent findings suggest the number may be considerably higher, Chapman said. He and others are developing a list.

"It also means that many more reservoirs in the United States are at risk of Asian carp establishment," he said.

The Sandusky River has about 15 miles of flowing waters accessible to the grass carp -- a shorter stretch than experts previously believed necessary for spawning.

"This is further evidence that we can't underestimate the flexibility that Asian carps have to become acclimated to and even adapt to environments outside their native range," said Reuben Goforth, a Purdue University scientist who has studied the carp but wasn't involved with the USGS project.

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Google Glass now available by invitation

Google Glass had previously been available for $1,500 to just 10,000 people selected to take part in the Google Glass "explorer" program. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Google is relying on a little social networking to put its internet-connected glasses on the heads of more people.

The expanded sales of the device known as Google Glass will come as part of an invitation-only program announced Monday.

The roughly 10,000 Glass owners who began testing the device earlier this year will each be allowed to invite up to three people to buy the device. The early Glass users are primarily computer programmers and winners of an online contest conducted earlier this year.

The recipients of the invitations will have to pay $1,500 apiece for Glass, which works like a smartphone except that it's worn on the head like a pair of spectacles. The device includes a speaker, a hand-free camera and a thumbnail-sized display screen attached to the frame above the right eye.

Google Inc. still plans to release a less-expensive model of Glass next year. The precise pricing and timing of the mass-market version still hasn't been determined.

Relying on the early users of a test product to gradually widen the audience is a familiar strategy for Google. The Mountain View, California, company did something similar in 2004 after it released Gmail, its free email service.

Glass already has generated concerns among critics who worry that its hidden camera could invade the privacy of people who don't realize that video or pictures are being taken of them. Others are concerned that Glass will thrust more technological distractions into society by making it even easier for people to be online at all times.

Google says it believes Glass will promote more meaningful interaction by giving people less reason to glance down at a smartphone screen every few minutes.

As part of Glass' expansion, Google is giving the early testers the option to exchange their current device for an improved version. The updated model includes an ear bud for better acoustics and will work on prescription frames.

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Avalanche beacon phone apps risk lives, experts say

The Canadian Avalanche Centre is warning backcountry enthusiasts about new smartphone apps that claim to help save lives in an avalanche.

According to the centre, three European companies have begun advertising different apps you can download onto a phone or other handheld device, which they say can help find people buried in an avalanche.

But Gilles Valade, executive director of the CAC, says there are a number of problems with the companies' apps, and compatibility with other avalanche transceivers and the frequency ranges used top the list.

The 3 apps identified by CAC:

• iSis Intelligent (Mountain) Rescue System
• Snog Avalanche Buddy
• SnoWhere

"Not only are these new apps incapable of connecting with other avalanche transceivers, they are also incompatible between themselves, so one type of app can't find another," he said in a written statement.

A bigger problem may be the fact that the apps don't use the international standard transmission frequency for avalanche beacons, 457 kHz, which was chosen because it isn't deflected by trees and rocks and transmits well through dense snow.

"WiFi and Bluetooth signals are significantly weakened when passing through snow, and easily deflected by the solid objects we expect to see in avalanche debris," Valade said.  "And the accuracy of a GPS signal is nowhere near the  precision required for finding an avalanche victim."

The Canadian Avalanche Centre is warning backcountry users to avoid substituting three new smart phone apps in the place of using a professional avalanche transceiver or beacon. (The Canadian Press)

Valade told CBC News that people who head into the backcountry thinking that one of these apps will substitute for an avalanche beacon are playing with their lives.

"Most of our phone apps, if they fail to do what they are supposed to do, it's an inconvenience. In this case, your life might depend on this app that is not designed to be an avalanche transceiver."

The apps cost only a fraction of the price of a professional avalanche beacon, and Valade said these companies are specifically targeting young people for sales.

Valade also said that cell phones are nowhere near as durable as professional avalanche transceivers, and their batteries aren't as reliable.

Martyn Strybos, a developer in the Netherlands who created one of the apps, disputes the Canadian Avalanche Centre's claims.

Strybos told CBC News that his app is currently free works just as well as a transceiver and the Canadian Avalanche Centre is welcome to test it.

He said a lot of skiers head to the backcountry with nothing at all, because transceivers are so expensive, and his app can help fill that need.

"We can wish that people buy beacons. But they just don't. So we just have to face the fact they don't and all of them are wearing smartphones, so tomorrow they can be protected in one certain way," Strybos said.

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Canadian researchers use bees to drop pesticides on crops

The survival of the struggling bee population could soon be doubly important to agriculture.

While bees pollinate crops, Canadian researchers have found they can also be used to control pest insects and manage disease by dropping off pest control agents while they work.

"We thought we can give added value to the bees by having them deliver microbial control agents," said Les Shipp, a federal senior research scientist based in Harrow, Ont., outside Windsor.

Shipp found that bees leaving their hives could be forced to walk through a tray of organic pest controls. The pest control sticks to the bee's legs and hair. Through pollination, the bees then deliver a fungus, bacterium or virus to its intended destination.

Both bumblebees and honeybees have successfully distributed the fungus Beauveria bassiana to greenhouse sweet peppers and field canola. The fungus kills pests like whiteflies, aphids and Lygus.

According to Shipp, the Beauveria bassiana spores attach to the body of the pest, germinate and penetrate the body of the insect, eventually killing them.

Bees are forced to walk through a tray of organic pesticide when they leave the hive. (Courtesy of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada)

"We've been able to use these to control pest and fungal diseases. We're able to reduce some diseases by 80 per cent," Shipp said.

The method is called "bee vectoring." Research was initiated at the University of Guelph years ago and continued in Harrow.

Bee vectoring of Beauveria bassiana received government approval in early 2013. Interest in the method is growing.

'Excitement' among greenhouse owners

Leanne Wilson, science co-ordinator for the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers, said bee vectoring was emphasized at the Canadian Greenhouse Conference in Niagara Falls earlier this month.

"There was a lot of excitement about it. I think it's definitely a growing option," Wilson said.

She said greenhouse operators currently spray their peppers for pests. Bees already pollinate the greenhouse crops, so giving them double duty would save operators time and money..

"For larger greenhouses of, say, 50 acres, that's a lot of area to cover [with spray]," Wilson said.

Another advantage is that the bees deliver the pest control directly to the flower Sprays on the other hand cover the entire plant, from flower to leaf to stem.

According to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the benefits of vectoring biological insecticides with bees include:

• Use of reduced-risk pest control products to control insects and diseases that are potentially devastating to greenhouse crops.
• Considerable savings in labour costs for greenhouse operators.
• Targeting of very small volumes of product precisely to where it is needed, so less product is used.
• Environment benefits, as the bio pesticide replaces older chemical pesticides.

'Hope it reduces spray'

"They're out there working seven days a week. You're getting continuous introduction of control agents," Shipp said. "If you sprayed, you're only spraying at one point in time, but the bees are there constantly delivering this.

"I wouldn't look at it as a silver bullet. It's another tool to control pests and diseases. We hope it drastically reduces sprays."

The cutting-edge research led to the creation Bee Vectoring Technology in Brampton, Ont. According to Bloomberg, Bee Vectoring Technology was purchased last month by CT Developers, a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Bee Vectoring Technology is actively working across Canada to produce and commercialize the new pest management technologies.

A call to Bee Vectoring Technology wasn't immediately returned.

Shipp said bee vectoring can be used on indoor and outdoor crops, including strawberries, sunflowers, blueberries, canola, peppers and tomatoes.

"There's work being done now on outdoor crops, and the potential there is huge," Shipp said.

Is using bees to deliver organic pesticides to crops a good idea?

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Canadians spent $18.9B online in 2012, StatsCan says

Canadians spent $18.9 billion online for goods and services in 2012, a 24 per cent jump from 2010, the last time Statistics Canada conducted a survey.

Fifty-six per cent of internet users said they purchased goods or services online last year, compared to 51 per cent in 2010, spending an average of $1,450 over about 13 transactions, according to the federal agency.

Younger Canadians were more likely to shop online. Sixty-seven per cent of internet users between age 25 and 34 made purchases from the web.

Travel remains the most-shopped item online, with 58 per cent of Canadian web users paying for hotels, airline tickets or rental cars. Event tickets were the second-most shopped, with 52 per cent buying online. 

However, online shopping remains a small part of the total retail economy, accounting for just four per cent of total retail sales of $470 billion last year.

A report released earlier this year suggests Canadian retailers are running out of time to launch online stores.

The survey, conducted by the U.S.-based Forrester Research, said 25 per cent of online sales in Canada already go through international sites, with consumers citing high prices and shipping costs for avoiding Canadian online retailers.

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Eastern Arctic temperatures likely at 120,000-year high

Melting ice caps on Baffin Island have exposed evidence suggesting that average summertime temperatures in the Eastern Canadian Arctic are higher than they've been since the beginning of the last ice age 120,000 years ago.

The study shows current temperatures are "well outside the range of natural variability now," said Gifford Miller, from the University of Colorado, Boulder, who led the study, in an interview with CBC News Friday.

"And so… there's really nothing left but greenhouse gases to explain why the warming is occurring."

Previously, some scientists thought it was possible that current Arctic warming might be within the range of natural variability, and that the Arctic may in fact have been warmer than it is now during the Early Holocene, shortly after the end of the last ice age 11,700 ago. At that time variations in the Earth's orbit meant the amount of solar energy reaching the Northern Hemisphere was about nine per cent higher than it is now, leading to a 5,000-year warm period that peaked around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, Miller said.

However, the analysis by Miller and his colleagues suggests that average temperatures never got as high as they are now in the area of Baffin Island that they studied. The study was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

As ice caps today recede, like this one nicknamed Sputnik, they expose dead plants killed long ago when the ice cap formed and encased in the ice ever since. (Gifford Miller/University of Colorado, Boulder)

The researchers gathered dead moss that had been exposed by melting of the ice caps, and used radiocarbon dating in an effort to find out how long the moss had been buried in the ice before that. Radiocarbon dating can only be used to determine when an organism had been alive within the past 50,000 years. In the case of the moss, the researchers hit the 50,000-year limit, which meant that the moss had been buried since the middle of the last ice age. And since the ice almost certainly didn't melt during the ice age, it had probably been there since the beginning of the ice age, 120,000 years ago.

Miller said he and his colleagues had specifically chosen a flat area for their study so that any ice loss would have to be due to melting and not erosion. The researchers were also able to calculate maximum thickness of the ice based on the local topography. With that information, they calculated that had it been as warm at any point during the Early Holocene as it is today, within 100 years, the ice would have melted enough to expose the moss. The fact that this never happened suggested that it never got that warm.

In fact, evidence from ice cores collected in nearby Greenland suggest that summer temperatures in the region haven't been as warm as they are now for 120,000 years.

Another interesting finding of the new study was that from 5,000 to 500 years ago, average summer temperatures in the region cooled about 2.7 C — about double what most climate models show.

Miller said that suggests the models may underestimate the huge temperature swings in the Arctic relative to other parts of the world when the average global temperature changes. The Arctic is thought to respond more strongly because effects of warming are amplified by the large-scale melting of Arctic ice in forms such as sea ice and ice caps.

"Maybe the future warming estimates for the Arctic are still underestimated," Miller added.

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New environmental review rules anger oilsands critics

Many oilsands projects will not have their potential environmental impacts reviewed by the federal government under updated rules announced today, environmentalists warn.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency released lists Friday outlining changes to the types of resource development and infrastructure projects that will routinely require a federal environmental assessment. The federal review is intended to look at possible environmental impacts under federal jurisdiction, such as impacts on waterways or greenhouse gas emissions.

One concern that environmentalists have with the new rules is they won't require environmental reviews for a growing type of oilsands development.

In-situ oilsands developments — projects where the oil is melted directly out of the ground rather than being mined and then processed later — were not specifically addressed in the previous list of projects requiring federal environmental assessments, said Keith Stewart, climate and energy campaign coordinator and energy policy analyst for the environmental group Greenpeace. And now, they are not included in the new list of projects requiring them.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's announcement lists the types of projects that once required a federal environmental assessment that no longer do, including:

• Groundwater extraction facilities.
• Heavy oil and oilsands processing facilities, pipelines (other than offshore pipelines) and electrical transmission lines that are not regulated by the National Energy Board.
• Potash mines and other industrial mineral mines (salt, graphite, gypsum, magnesite, limestone, clay, asbestos).
• Industrial facilities (pulp mills, pulp and paper mills, steel mills, metal smelters, leather tanneries, textile mills and facilities for the manufacture of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pressure-treated wood, particle board, plywood, chemical explosives, lead-acid batteries and respirable mineral fibres).

The government also released a list of projects that did not specifically require a federal environmental assessment before but now do, including:

• Diamond mines. 
• Apatite mines.
• Railway yards; international and interprovincial bridges and tunnels.
• Bridges that cross the St. Lawrence Seaway.
• Offshore exploratory wells.
• Oil sands mine expansions.

The government said the changes were made so that the agency's work is focused on "major projects" that have the "greatest potential" to generate negative environmental impacts under federal jurisdiction, such as impacts on waterways, and other projects would not be "unduly burdened" with extra work.

A leak at the Primrose Lake oilsands project had released an estimated 1.5 million litres of bitumen into the environment as of the end of September. (Reuters)

The federal government heard from a wide range of stakeholders, including industry and environmental groups, before deciding what would be covered under the new rules.

Stewart said that while the government acknowledged environmental groups' concerns, it did not make changes based on those concerns.

Most notably, he said Greenpeace is concerned about the lack of routine environmental assessments of in-situ oilsands developments. He noted that this type of project is the source of a huge bitumen leak Northern Alberta. As of the end of September, the leak near Cold Lake had already released 1.5 million litres of bitumen – a mixture of oilsands, heavy crude and water into the environment. The Alberta government has ordered the project operator, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., to drain two-thirds of a lake in an effort to stop the leak.

Stewart said 80 per cent of known oilsands deposits are so deep that they are only accessible with in-situ technology.

"Yesterday, Environment Canada released report which projected that by 2020, this type of oilsands development will be generating more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the Maritime provinces put together today," he added.

"They're exempting themselves from environmental oversight over what's going to be the biggest source of new pollution in the country in coming decades."

The group that represents oilsands producers said developments will still face provincial environmental reviews.

"The province still has a mandate to do an assessment, so this eliminates two layers of doing the same thing — the provincial government will still do its review and it will be equally as comprehensive," said Geraldine Anderson from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. 

While acknowledging that provincial environmental assessments will still be required for some projects, Stewart calls the permitting process for in-situ oilsands development in Alberta "a rubber stamp."

In 2012, the federal government announced a major overhaul of the federal environmental assessment program, introducing fixed timelines for major projects and reducing the number of departments and agencies that can do environmental reviews from 40 to just three.

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Wikipedia launches 'sockpuppet' probe into edit-for-pay users

The non-profit organization that operates Wikipedia is investigating claims that as many as 12,000 pages appearing on the free encyclopedia website have been edited by a public relations firm.

Wiki-PR sells itself as "the easy way to accurately tell your story on Wikipedia" and claims to know enough about the rules governing the free online encyclopedia to prevent administrators from reversing its edits.

The Wikimedia Foundation recently suspended more than 250 alleged "sockpuppet" user accounts, named for a style of marketing that specializes in reputation management, and suspected of manipulating Wikipedia pages for a price — although it's not clear if these accounts are associated with Wiki-PR.

For the most part, anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, but additions or changes tend to be published or approved by a group of administrators.

U.S.-based Wiki-PR offers to create, edit and manage pages on Wikipedia, and media reports say it's getting around the administrators.

For more on this story, listen to the Day 6 interview with freelance journalist Simon Owens, who has been writing about Wiki-PR for the Daily Dot.

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World's first Bitcoin ATM goes live in Vancouver next week

The world's first Bitcoin kiosk, made by Robocoin, begins operation in Vancouver next week. (Robocoin/Canadian Press)

What's believed to be the first Bitcoin ATM in the world will go live next week in Vancouver, operated by Nevada-based Robocoin and Vancouver's Bitcoiniacs.

Mitchell Demeter, co-founder of Vancouver bitcoin trading company Bitcoiniacs and part-owner of Robocoin, has invested in five such machines to be placed across Canada.

Bitcoins are an emerging digital currency that isn't controlled by any authority such as a central bank. It's an idea that is moving into the mainstream, despite the scandal surrounding Silk Road, an anonymous online marketplace for illegal drugs and other illicit goods that used Bitcoins.

Silk Road was shut down and its owner arrested on narcotics charges earlier this month.

The new ATM, to operate near downtown Vancouver coffee house Waves, will trade Canadian dollars for online Bitcoins. Users are required to do a palm scan and are permitted to exchange up to $3,000 per a day.

Canadian cash is exchanged  on Canada's VirtEx exchange for Bitcoins, which are then entered in your online bitcoin wallet. Transactions will be anonymous.

The palm scan is to limit people to less than $3,000 worth of transactions, and avoid tangling with Canada's anti-money-laundering laws, says Demeter, who adds that he believes he is complying with all Canadian laws

Bitcoins currently trade for close to $200, but have swung widely in value from $13 to $250 in the past year. Until now, most have been traded person-to-person in individual transactions or through various unregulated exchanges that exist mostly online.

Last year, a bitcoin exchange in Europe, Bitcoin-Central, was authorized to operate as a bank.  Robocoin, which showed the ATMs at a California conference earlier this year, says the Vancouver ATM is the first to begin operation.

Bitcoiniacs says it's eyeing major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Ottawa for the other four machines, to come in December.

"Basically, it just make it easier for people to buy and sell Bitcoins and hopefully will drive the adoption of Bitcoin, and make it more accessible for people," Demeter told CBC News.

Bitcoins are mathematically generated through a series of commands executed by computers in a peer-to-peer network. The process is called Bitcoin "mining" and is set up so that the total number of Bitcoins that can ever be generated is limited to about 21 million.

While some have doubted Bitcoin's validity and others have raised concerns that the unregulated currency is being used for nefarious means, a U.S. judge ruled last month that Bitcoin, which has been around since 2009, is a real currency.

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Eastern Arctic temperatures likely at 120,000-year high

Melting ice caps on Baffin Island have exposed evidence suggesting that average summertime temperatures in the Eastern Canadian Arctic are higher than they've been since the beginning of the last ice age 120,000 years ago.

The study shows current temperatures are "well outside the range of natural variability now," said Gifford Miller, from the University of Colorado, Boulder, who led the study, in an interview with CBC News Friday.

"And so… there's really nothing left but greenhouse gases to explain why the warming is occurring."

Previously, some scientists thought it was possible that current Arctic warming might be within the range of natural variability, and that the Arctic may in fact have been warmer than it is now during the Early Holocene, shortly after the end of the last ice age 11,700 ago. At that time variations in the Earth's orbit meant the amount of solar energy reaching the Northern Hemisphere was about nine per cent higher than it is now, leading to a 5,000-year warm period that peaked around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago, Miller said.

However, the analysis by Miller and his colleagues suggests that average temperatures never got as high as they are now in the area of Baffin Island that they studied. The study was published this week in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

As ice caps today recede, like this one nicknamed Sputnik, they expose dead plants killed long ago when the ice cap formed and encased in the ice ever since. (Gifford Miller/University of Colorado, Boulder)

The researchers gathered dead moss that had been exposed by melting of the ice caps, and used radiocarbon dating in an effort to find out how long the moss had been buried in the ice before that. Radiocarbon dating can only be used to determine when an organism had been alive within the past 50,000 years. In the case of the moss, the researchers hit the 50,000-year limit, which meant that the moss had been buried since the middle of the last ice age. And since the ice almost certainly didn't melt during the ice age, it had probably been there since the beginning of the ice age, 120,000 years ago.

Miller said he and his colleagues had specifically chosen a flat area for their study so that any ice loss would have to be due to melting and not erosion. The researchers were also able to calculate maximum thickness of the ice based on the local topography. With that information, they calculated that had it been as warm at any point during the Early Holocene as it is today, within 100 years, the ice would have melted enough to expose the moss. The fact that this never happened suggested that it never got that warm.

In fact, evidence from ice cores collected in nearby Greenland suggest that summer temperatures in the region haven't been as warm as they are now for 120,000 years.

Another interesting finding of the new study was that from 5,000 to 500 years ago, average summer temperatures in the region cooled about 2.7 C — about double what most climate models show.

Miller said that suggests the models may underestimate the huge temperature swings in the Arctic relative to other parts of the world when the average global temperature changes. The Arctic is thought to respond more strongly because effects of warming are amplified by the large-scale melting of Arctic ice in forms such as sea ice and ice caps.

"Maybe the future warming estimates for the Arctic are still underestimated," Miller added.

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New environmental review rules anger oilsands critics

Many oilsands projects will not have their potential environmental impacts reviewed by the federal government under updated rules announced today, environmentalists warn.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency released lists Friday outlining changes to the types of resource development and infrastructure projects that will routinely require a federal environmental assessment. The federal review is intended to look at possible environmental impacts under federal jurisdiction, such as impacts on waterways or greenhouse gas emissions.

One concern that environmentalists have with the new rules is they won't require environmental reviews for a growing type of oilsands development.

In-situ oilsands developments — projects where the oil is melted directly out of the ground rather than being mined and then processed later — were not specifically addressed in the previous list of projects requiring federal environmental assessments, said Keith Stewart, climate and energy campaign coordinator and energy policy analyst for the environmental group Greenpeace. And now, they are not included in the new list of projects requiring them.

The Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency's announcement lists the types of projects that once required a federal environmental assessment that no longer do, including:

• Groundwater extraction facilities.
• Heavy oil and oilsands processing facilities, pipelines (other than offshore pipelines) and electrical transmission lines that are not regulated by the National Energy Board.
• Potash mines and other industrial mineral mines (salt, graphite, gypsum, magnesite, limestone, clay, asbestos).
• Industrial facilities (pulp mills, pulp and paper mills, steel mills, metal smelters, leather tanneries, textile mills and facilities for the manufacture of chemicals, pharmaceuticals, pressure-treated wood, particle board, plywood, chemical explosives, lead-acid batteries and respirable mineral fibres).

The government also released a list of projects that did not specifically require a federal environmental assessment before but now do, including:

• Diamond mines. 
• Apatite mines.
• Railway yards; international and interprovincial bridges and tunnels.
• Bridges that cross the St. Lawrence Seaway.
• Offshore exploratory wells.
• Oil sands mine expansions.

The government said the changes were made so that the agency's work is focused on "major projects" that have the "greatest potential" to generate negative environmental impacts under federal jurisdiction, such as impacts on waterways, and other projects would not be "unduly burdened" with extra work.

A leak at the Primrose Lake oilsands project had released an estimated 1.5 million litres of bitumen into the environment as of the end of September. (Reuters)

The federal government heard from a wide range of stakeholders, including industry and environmental groups, before deciding what would be covered under the new rules.

Stewart said that while the government acknowledged environmental groups' concerns, it did not make changes based on those concerns.

Most notably, he said Greenpeace is concerned about the lack of routine environmental assessments of in-situ oilsands developments. He noted that this type of project is the source of a huge bitumen leak Northern Alberta. As of the end of September, the leak near Cold Lake had already released 1.5 million litres of bitumen – a mixture of oilsands, heavy crude and water into the environment. The Alberta government has ordered the project operator, Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., to drain two-thirds of a lake in an effort to stop the leak.

Stewart said 80 per cent of known oilsands deposits are so deep that they are only accessible with in-situ technology.

"Yesterday, Environment Canada released report which projected that by 2020, this type of oilsands development will be generating more greenhouse gas emissions than all of the Maritime provinces put together today," he added.

"They're exempting themselves from environmental oversight over what's going to be the biggest source of new pollution in the country in coming decades."

The group that represents oilsands producers said developments will still face provincial environmental reviews.

"The province still has a mandate to do an assessment, so this eliminates two layers of doing the same thing — the provincial government will still do its review and it will be equally as comprehensive," said Geraldine Anderson from the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. 

While acknowledging that provincial environmental assessments will still be required for some projects, Stewart calls the permitting process for in-situ oilsands development in Alberta "a rubber stamp."

In 2012, the federal government announced a major overhaul of the federal environmental assessment program, introducing fixed timelines for major projects and reducing the number of departments and agencies that can do environmental reviews from 40 to just three.

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Researchers alarmed by 'puzzling' changes in resident orcas

A Vancouver Aquarium whale researcher is sounding the alarm over what he calls "puzzling" changes observed in the resident killer whale pods that live off the northern coast of B.C. and Alaska.

Dr. Lance Barrett-Lennard, a senior marine mammal scientist with the aquarium, says he fears changes in the ocean environment are prompting odd behaviour and an unusually high mortality rate, after spending the summer observing the whales aboard a research vessel.

Barrett-Lennard says one resident pod has lost seven matriarchs over the past two years, an unusually high death rate, and he's also noticed a lack of vocalizations from the normally chatty mammals.

"Resident killer whales are typically very vocal in the summer but, for the second year in a row, they have been remarkably quiet," says Barrett-Lennard

"So quiet that we often had difficulty finding them."

The lack of vocalizations was just one of three unusual changes observed by the cetacean research team. Resident orcas were also seen the past two summers travelling in small groups, farther offshore to find food — behaviour more typical in winter than summer.

At the same time, the Barrett-Lennard says the number of normally transient killer whales, also known as the Bigg's whale, has been increasing over the past 25 years. In the 1990's, resident orcas were sighted much more frequently than Bigg's orcas, but now the number of sightings is nearly equal.

"It's unclear at this point if the loss of so many matriarchs or the increase in Bigg's killer whales is having an impact on resident killer whale behaviour, but the changes we've seen over the last two years are striking and beg an explanation," says  Barrett-Lennard.

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Samsung files patent for Google Glass-like specs

Samsung's sketch shows a thumbnail-sized display over the left eyeglass. Google's eyewear, shown above, has a tiny display over the right eyeglass that shows information and websites. (Reuters)

A patent filing shows Samsung Electronics Co. is working on a device it calls sports glasses in a possible response to Google's internet-connected eyewear.

A design patent filing at the Korean Intellectual Property Office shows a Samsung design for smartphone-connected glasses that can display information from the handset.

It said the glasses can play music and receive phone calls through earphones built into the eyewear's frame. It also gives hands-free control over the smartphone.

Reminiscent of the Google Glass design, Samsung's sketch shows a thumbnail-sized display over the left eyeglass. Google's eyewear has a tiny display over the right eyeglass that shows information and websites.

It was not clear from Samsung's sketch and description whether its eyewear would be equipped with a touch control and a camera like Google Glass nor whether it would connect directly to the mobile internet or be a slave to a smartphone.

Samsung's glasses are designed to connect to a smartphone, but it wasn't clear whether the device would be able to connect directly to the internet as well.

The name and the description specify the Samsung product is designed for outdoors activities or sports.

Samsung did not respond to an email and a call seeking comment.

Google Inc. is testing an early version of Google Glass with 10,000 people in the U.S. after giving the public a first look at its internet-connected eyewear in June last year. The early version can take pictures, record videos, navigate maps and works without a smartphone.

Other tech companies are also exploring ways to bring mobile computing to everyday objects such as watches and glasses.

Samsung introduced a smartphone-connected watch called the Galaxy Gear last month. Sony also announced a smart watch.

Samsung filed the application for the eyewear design patent on March 8.

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3D printer items seized in U.K. might belong to printer, not gun

Police thought they'd made a major discovery, but they may have jumped the gun.

British officers said Friday they had seized what appeared to be gun components made on a 3D printer — then, hours later, cast doubt on the find after technology experts said photos released by police appeared to be of parts for the printer itself.

The Greater Manchester Police force initially said officers found what appeared to be a plastic magazine and trigger, along with a 3D printer, in a raid targeting criminal gangs.

The force said forensic specialists were examining the parts "to establish if they could construct a genuine device."

Police said that if the gun were viable it would be the first such seizure in Britain.

After some observers pointed out that the images released by police resembled printer parts, the force toned down its language, saying detectives were attempting to "establish exactly what these parts can be used for and whether they pose any threat."

"We need to be absolutely clear that at that this stage, we cannot categorically say we have recovered the component parts for a 3D gun," said Assistant Chief Constable Steve Heywood.

"What we have seized are items that need further forensic testing by national ballistics experts to establish whether they can be used in the construction of a genuine, viable firearm. "

After police released photos of the items like the one above, which they originally said was a 3D printed gun clip, some people expressed doubt that they were gun components, saying instead that they resembled parts of the actual 3D printer. (Greater Manchester Police/Associated Press)

A man was arrested for questioning and then released. He told Britain's Press Association news agency that he owned the premises raided by police — a model shop — and used the 3D printer to make plastic decorations and models. He said the suspected gun magazine was a spool holder and the "trigger" was another printer part.

Earlier this year a Texas company said it had successfully test-fired a handgun created with a 3D printer, and posted blueprints for the weapon online. Such printers can be paired with a home computer to manufacture objects using layers of high-density plastic.

Authorities worry the technology could allow anyone to manufacture guns that would pass unnoticed through metal detectors.

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White House security official fired for 'parody' tweets

A White House national security official was fired after it was discovered that he was behind an anonymous Twitter account that criticized the Obama administration.

Jofi Joseph was nonproliferation director on the National Security Council and was involved in nuclear negotiations with Iran.

His postings on the @NatSecWonk account, which no longer is available on Twitter, often took shots at administration policy and figures, including Secretary of State John Kerry and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, along with members of Congress.

One tweet said: "More people should be asking why John Kerry installed two former aides, both with ZERO foreign policy experience, into top posts at State."

Another tweet said: "That Obama only called Kerry/Hagel AFTER he made decision with his WH aides on going to Hill underscores how all foreign policy is WH-based." The tweet referred to Obama's surprise decision in late August to seek congressional authorization for military strikes against Syria as punishment for a chemical weapons attack in August.

Joseph could not be reached Wednesday for comment. No one answered the telephone at a number believed to be his.

In a statement to Politico, Joseph took "complete responsibility" for the Twitter feed, saying it started as a "parody account." He apologized to those he insulted.

A White House official confirmed that Joseph no longer works for the administration, but declined further comment on personnel matters.

It was not immediately clear how officials determined that Joseph was behind the Twitter account.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday he had no additional information to provide.

He said White House staffers cannot access social media sites like Twitter from the White House unless they have an official, authorized account. Carney and many other senior administration officials have official Twitter accounts and often send many tweets a day.

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U.S. tablet owners get 'free data service for life'

An Apple employee demonstrates the new iPad Mini on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. Apple unveiled a new, thinner, lighter tablet called the "iPad Air" and the iPad Mini with Retina Display, along with a slew of new Macs Tuesday at an event in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez) (The Associated Press)

Wireless provider T-Mobile will give U.S. owners of iPads and other tablet computers free data service for life as part of an effort to broaden its customer base beyond phones.

The free service would be limited to 200 megabytes of high-speed data per month — enough to upload about 800 Instagram photos or listen to more than three hours of streaming music, the company said.

T-Mobile US Inc. said the free service comes with no obligations, but the company expects people will want to buy plans for additional data once they grow accustomed to having it.

People typically buy tablet computers that access the internet using Wi-Fi only. Models with 4G LTE cellular access typically cost $100 to $130 more, but T-Mobile marketing chief Mike Sievert said many people are reluctant to purchase cellular-enabled tablets for fear they would be stuck with monthly data service costs.

By guaranteeing free data service, he said, T-Mobile is hoping to encourage people to buy LTE tablets.

Branding as 'Un-Carrier'

The latest offer, announced Wednesday, comes as the company tries to shatter longstanding industry practices and brand itself as the Un-Carrier.

In March, the company dropped conventional two-year service contracts in favour of selling phones with installment plans. In July, it introduced a program that lets people upgrade phones more frequently — up to twice a year. This month, the company eliminated data and texting fees in more than 100 countries and capped charges for international voice calls.

There are signs the efforts are working. In the April-June quarter, T-Mobile gained long-term, good-credit customers for the first time in at least two and a half years. T-Mobile added a net 688,000 such customers in the quarter, compared with a loss of 557,000 in the same period a year earlier.

The net increase includes 3,000, or less than 0.5 per cent, for non-phone service such as tablets. T-Mobile officials believe there's room for further growth.

All tablets eligible

All tablet computers, including Apple's iPad, Google's Nexus 7 and Amazon's Kindle Fire, are eligible for the offer as long as they work on T-Mobile's network. Sievert said most tablets do.

The new iPads announced Tuesday are universal models, meaning they will work on various LTE networks around the world. Previously, Apple sold separate models compatible with a subset of networks.

Tablet owners will need to buy a SIM card that costs about $10 US.

T-Mobile said it will sell iPads under installment plans, but people who buy tablets elsewhere will qualify as well.

The free access is limited to the United States.

For $10 a month, T-Mobile phone customers can buy an additional 500 megabytes of high-speed data in the U.S. and unlimited data at slower speeds. That plan also comes with unlimited data at the slower speeds in more than 100 countries. Non-phone customers can pay $20 a month for the same plan. There's no contract, so people can sign up for a month at a time. There are also daily and weekly options.

At rival AT&T, monthly plans start at $15 for 250 megabytes. The company recently introduced $5 day passes, which it says is ideal for travellers looking for an alternative to Wi-Fi hotspots. That's good for 250 megabytes. AT&T also has a new $25 plan offering 1 gigabyte over a three-month period. 20:20ET 23-10-13

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Inuit group calls on Canada to better fund Arctic research

Inuit leaders say they want to see more long term government support for Arctic research into issues affecting the North. 

Senior officials of the Arctic Council wrapped up three days of closed door meetings in Whitehorse on Wednesday.

"The unfortunate part is a lot of Canada's world-renowned scientists have to go to other forums to continue their work because there isn't the same commitment and dedication to continue that work to the same degree the ICC thinks there should be," said Duane Smith, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Council for Canada.

The Arctic Council is made up of Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Six organizations representing Arctic indigenous peoples, including the ICC, have status as permanent participants.

Smith's concerns were echoed by Greenland and Alaska delegates. They point to the increased economic influence of China, India, and Korea — countries newly recognized as official observers to the Arctic Council.

Patrick Borbey chaired this week's meetings.

"China, for example, already has an ice breaker, and is building a second ice breaker," he said. "Korea has an ice breaker as well and they are ready and willing to support the Arctic and the Arctic Council's work."

The Arctic Council delegates meet next in Yellowknife in March.

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Legally blind Grade 4 student sees with high-tech glasses

Emma-Rose Gibson can see clearly no more than three centimetres in front of her, but a new device is allowing the nine-year-old Ottawa girl to watch TV.

The legally blind Grade 4 student, who is diagnosed with optic nerve hypoplasia, is one of the first users of the eSight eyewear, a pair of computerized glasses officially launched Tuesday in Toronto.

The device — made by Ottawa-based eSight Corporation — ​ reconfigures images captured by its high-definition camera in a way to optimize a user's vision.

The processed images are then fed into two LED screens in front of the user's eyes.

Gibson, who has been using the device since May, said it allows her to participate fully in class and grants her a degree of mobility she didn't have before.

"When I first heard of it, I was like, 'Wow, this can actually change my life,"' she said. "I went from just seeing nothing to seeing everything in my classroom."

The president and CEO of eSight said the eyewear is mostly software-based, and can be easily upgraded over the years.

"ESight is mobile, hands-free, and can automatically process near, far and mid-range vision tasks," Kevin Rankin said.

John Rafferty, the president of the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), attended Tuesday's launch.

"It's an exciting device that can enable some people to recapture activities they haven't experienced in decades, like watching their kids play soccer or reading the Sunday morning newspaper," he said.

But Rafferty said the eyewear — which costs about $10,000 — still relies on the wearer's sight, and is designed to help those with partial sight, and not the completely blind.

eSight eyewear claims to help those who are legally blind see images through reconfiguration. (Photo courtesy of eSight)

According to CNIB, legally blind is defined as worse than or equal to 20/200 vision with correction -- a legally blind person six metres in front of an eye chart sees what a person with normal vision sees at 60 metres.

In Canada, vision worse than 20/50 with correction disqualifies people from obtaining a driver's license or restricts their driving to daytime only.

"What we're doing is optimizing that remaining sight," Rankin said. "A lot of the diseases types we work with, the eye conditions can't be improved by drugs or surgery."

Development of the device was made possible with financial support from the Investment Accelerator Fund, which is funded by the Ontario government and provides up to $500,000 in seed funding to Ontario-based technology companies.

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Facebook removes beheading video again after uproar

Facebook says it plans to take a more "holistic" look at the context surrounding a violent image or video reported by users as inappropriate.

Facebook Inc removed a video of a woman being beheaded from its website on Tuesday and said it would use a broader set of criteria to determine when gory videos are permitted on the site.

The move came a day after a public outcry over news reports that Facebook, the world's No. 1 social network with 1.15 billion members, had lifted a temporary ban on images of graphic violence.

Facebook said on Monday that gory videos, such as a video of a masked man beheading a woman in Mexico, are permitted on its site so long as the content is posted in a manner intended for its users to "condemn" the acts rather than celebrate them.

But Facebook said on Tuesday that it had decided to "strengthen" its enforcement of the policy.

"When we review content that is reported to us, we will take a more holistic look at the context surrounding a violent image or video," Facebook said in a statement.

"Second, we will consider whether the person posting the content is sharing it responsibly, such as accompanying the video or image with a warning and sharing it with an age-appropriate audience," Facebook said.

The change underscores a challenge for Facebook as it seeks to position itself as the go-to online destination where people share up-to-the-minute images and discuss breaking news events.

While Facebook polices its site to remove pornography, hate speech and other forbidden content, the company must also make a judgment about when certain grisly images, such as video of a terrorist attack, are in the public interest versus being shared for "sadistic pleasure."

Facebook acknowledged on Tuesday that its previous approach, which permitted the video of the woman's killing in Mexico to remain on its site, was flawed.

"Based on these enhanced standards, we have re-examined recent reports of graphic content and have concluded that this content improperly and irresponsibly glorifies violence. For this reason, we have removed it," the company said.

The video allegedly showing the beheading of a woman by a Mexican drug cartel was posted on Facebook in April. When some users complained about it, Facebook sent them a response saying it had reviewed the video but found it did not violate the company's community standards on graphic violence.

It later decided to temporarily remove decapitation videos that were reported by users while it reviewed its policy. 

This week, it emerged that Facebook had decided to revert to its original policy and allow the sharing of violent content.

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Digital issues critic questions Bell's data collection

Canada's official opposition critic for digital issues is questioning Bell's controversial plans for data collection.

NDP MP Charmaine Borg told CBC's Daybreak that federal privacy law requires companies to ask for consent before they collect and disclose personal information.

She said Bell isn't following that rule.

"Instead of asking people if they're okay with this disclosure to a third party, they're actually saying 'if you're not OK with it, come opt out,'" Borg said.

Bell subscribers received a letter last week telling them that beginning Nov. 16, the company will begin collecting detailed information about their consumption habits in order to offer "relevant ads."

Customers have until Nov. 16 to opt out from having their data sold to other companies. But that won't necessarily stop Bell from collecting the data, which could include web pages visited, apps downloaded and search terms.

Borg said it's unclear if the data being collected is necessary in order to provide good service, another requirement under the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).

In the short term, Borg suggested that Bell customers who are worried about the new policy to contact the company and voice their concerns. She said it's always possible that if enough people complain, the company will bow to public pressure.

Borg is also behind a bill that would allow the federal privacy commissioner more power to enforce the law.

She said right now, companies that don't follow the law only get a "slap on the wrist."

But with the changes outlined in bill C-475, Borg said companies will have more incentive to follow the law.

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Canada's privacy commissioner said the office had received several complaints about Bell's plans, and would be investigating.

Bell has refused requests for an interview, but did release the following statement. 

"The data collected relates to audiences, not to individual customers ... Bell does not disclose information about individual customers. We are committed to protecting the privacy of customers, and this initiative is fully compliant with Canadian regulations on the protection of personal information."

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Chickens pay price for 'ridiculously cheap' eggs

It is possible for a large commercial egg farm to run a humane operation and still turn a profit, animal welfare experts say.

The most important step is to get rid of the battery cages, the current industry standard in North America for laying hens.

In the European Union, as of last year, battery cages are banned because of their small size and barrenness. In Manitoba, egg producers are phasing out battery cages.

About 100 days after hatching, when they are still pullets and have yet to start laying eggs, the hens are placed into the crowded wired cages, usually arranged in very long rows often stacked one on top of the other.

Battery cages can be seen in a hidden-camera video that went viral over the weekend. The video comes from the group Mercy for Animals Canada and was recorded in the summer at Ku-Ku Farms and Creekside Grove Farms in Alberta.

Replacing battery cages

Tina Widowski, the director of the Campbell Centre for the study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, says replacing battery cages with furnished cages is the "best choice for enriching hens' lives with the least effect on the bottom line."

Tina Widowski, the director of the Campbell Centre for the study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, says replacing battery cages with furnished cages is the "best choice for enriching hens' lives with the least effect on the bottom line." (Nancy Raulston/Courtesy Tina Widowski)

Furnished cages give a hen more than twice the space of the smaller battery cages and provide a nest, a perch and an area for scratching and foraging.

Ian Duncan, who chairs the Global Animal Partnership's welfare and farming advisory committee, supports a move to furnished cages, but says a free run or aviary system would be better still. The latter, with several levels, has been described as a condo for birds.

Duncan says these methods can be used in intensive, large-scale operations, but the bird's welfare is better. The operating costs would be higher, he admits, and the farms would then need to charge more, but he thinks consumers are willing to pay a bit more if better welfare is guaranteed.

Widowski estimates that furnished cages would increase production costs by eight per cent over battery cages and a free run system would result in a 20 to 25 per cent increase.

A study published in Australia in September looked at free-range egg farms, where chickens are allowed outdoor access. The number of free-range farms in Australia has increased 65 per cent over the last five years.

The scientists found that when the chickens go outside, they stick close to a shed or to walls or fences the scientists placed within a large enclosed area. When the walls were present, the birds would venture much further from the barn. The additional walls add a sense of protection from flying predators like eagles and hawks, and also provide environmental stimulation.

Will you pay more for eggs?

Canada is in the midst of a multi-year process of reviewing its national standards or codes of practices for the care and handling of farm animals. While these are voluntary codes, Widowski says they form the basis for legislation in a number of provinces, often included in animal welfare laws.

Animal welfare expert Ian Duncan says eggs are "ridiculously cheap" and that farmers have really succeeded at providing us with cheap food but there's a price to be paid for that and it's the animals paying that price. (Courtesy University of Guelph)

"Farm animal welfare has become a part of doing business in animal agriculture," Widowski says, adding that she paid twice as much for the free-run eggs she bought this past weekend.

"I believe that if we want animal care standards to change we have to be willing to pay for it."

But will consumers in general pay more for their eggs?

Duncan notes that eggs are "ridiculously cheap" and that farmers have succeeded at providing us with cheap food over the last 70 years or so. But there's a price to be paid for that, and he said it's the animals paying that price.

He says that if the general public could see the conditions of the hens that are kept in the battery cages, they would pay a little more for their eggs, as long as they were convinced it would improve animal welfare.

And he thinks that is beginning to happen in North America. It's already happening in Europe, he says, which on this issue he considers to be 10 to 15 years ahead.

Asking the hens

One way to work out how to improve the welfare of chickens is to ask the hens, says Ian Duncan, chair of the Global Animal Partnership.

He describes one technique for doing so. Hens have good colour vision, so he would keep them in pens with coloured nesting boxes. Once a hen began to show an interest in nesting, which it does by giving a distinct call and adopting a certain posture and looking into the nesting boxes, he would take them out of the pen.

Duncan's team would then put the hen on a runway, with a coloured nesting box at the far end of the runway.

"Birds very quickly run along the runway and go into the nest box and show very normal nesting behaviour," he says.

Tina Widowski, director of the Campbell Centre for the study of Animal Welfare at the University of Guelph, identifies additional methods for questioning hens, like giving them preference tests, where they have to make a choice, sometimes by pressing a key, or observing their stress physiology.

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Bell to start tracking mobile customers' habits

Bell mobile customers got a letter last week telling them that, as of Nov. 16, the company would begin collecting detailed information about their consumption habits in order to offer "relevant ads."

'They'll know virtually everything about you.'- Michael Geist, technology law expert

"They'll literally know what web pages you visit, which search terms you enter, where you happen to be, what apps you use, what television you watch, even your calling patterns," says Michael Geist, a University of Ottawa law professor and technology law specialist.

"They figure that level of detail will offer up the ability to have highly targeted advertising. They'll know virtually everything about you."

Customers have until Nov. 16 to opt out, but Geist says they may not be aware of what, exactly, they're really opting out of.

"As far as I can tell, when you're opting out, you're opting out of targeted ads. You're not opting out of the broader collection more generally," Geist told CBC's Daybreak host Mike Finnerty on Tuesday morning.

Philippe Viel of the Montreal-based consumer protection group Union des consommateurs puts it more bluntly.

"The only option to opt out offered is to not receive relevant ads. They're going to collect the data anyway," he says.

Bell refused an interview request, but issued this statement:

"What's new is that we're giving Bell customers the option to receive Internet advertising that's relevant to them rather than the random online advertising they're receiving now. The number of ads customers see won't increase and they can opt-out anytime by visiting bell.ca/relevantads. We're giving customers advance notice before we start offering relevant advertising on Nov. 16."

Geist says customers should be asked to opt in, rather than opt out.

"That's not what they're doing," he says. "They're forcing people to opt out, and making the default that everybody gets monitored and tracked."

Viel said that while Bell may be acting in accordance with the law, the program is not ethically sound. He says customers who aren't in agreement with being tracked don't have many options, considering leaving a mobile contract early means substantial early-termination fees.

Geist and Viel say that the monitoring, while not currently performed by other Canadian telecoms, sets a dangerous precedent. Viel says that mobile providers are prone to following industry trends, and that it may just be a matter of time before other companies start similar programs.

"This is an open invitation for law enforcement to know that they've got one of the most detailed customer profiles possible in the country," he says.

He suggests that, instead of forcing Bell's customers into being monitored, Bell should offer incentives to encourage people to opt-in as a way of sharing the economic value of the data collection windfalls.

A regular discount on customers' monthly bill in exchange for participating in the data collection would be a more appropriate course of action, Geist says.

But both he and Viel say a wider approach is needed to protect mobile users' information.

Provincial and federal regulators need to look at the ethics of this kind of data collection immediately, Viel says — but until then, Bell has no plans to put the brakes on its relevant ads project.

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Facebook drafting new violent content warnings after beheading controversy

Facebook says it's working on new ways to keep users from stumbling across gruesome content on its website following an outcry over the discovery of beheading videos on the site.

The controversy — which has drawn in British Prime Minister David Cameron — illustrates the difficulty of setting a universal standard across the one-billion-user social network.

Facebook banned beheading videos in May but recently lifted the prohibition.

The issue emerged in April after a video allegedly showing the beheading of a woman by a Mexican drug cartel was posted on Facebook. When some users complained about it, Facebook sent them a response saying it had reviewed the video but found it did not violate the company's community standards on graphic violence.

It stressed to users that people were sharing the video on the social network in order to condemn its content.

"Just as TV news programs often show upsetting images of atrocities, people can share upsetting videos on Facebook to raise awareness of actions or causes," Facebook said in a statement at the time. "While this video is shocking, our approach is designed to preserve people's rights to describe, depict and comment on the world in which we live."

It later changed its position after intense criticism from various interest groups advocating for a safer online environment for children. It decided to temporarily remove decapitation videos that were reported by users while it reviewed its policy.

This week, it emerged that it had decided to revert to its original policy and allow the sharing of violent content.

Cameron, whose right-leaning government has unveiled a range of initiatives to censor objectionable content online, said Tuesday that allowing the videos back on the site was "irresponsible."

Facebook said in a statement that it is working on ways to warn people about the content they might see.

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Purple loosestrife's climate adaptation key to its spread

The ability to adapt to drastically different climates within a short period, like decades, is a key factor that allowed the invasive species purple loosestrife to spread so widely, a new study has found. The discovery suggests we may need to alter our strategies if we want to control these new arrivals.

Scientists had long thought that the main reason some invasive species are so successful is that they typically have no natural predators in the environments where they aren't native. This theory has been backed up by evidence from experiments comparing the rates of  reproduction of invasive species exposed to predators and those who haven't been exposed.

But biologist Rob Colautti and his colleagues have found that in the case of the invasive European plant purple loosestrife it was the plant's remarkable ability to evolve quickly to adapt to different climates that was "just as strong" as the lack of predators.

The results were published this week in Science.

Purple loosestrife is a wetland plant that was introduced to the East Coast of North America during the 19th century, likely hitching a ride in soil in the ballast water of European ships. Since then, it has spread as far south as Texas, as far north as northern Ontario and Newfoundland, and as far west as B.C.

According to the Ontario's Invading Species Awareness program, purple loosestrife is a concern because it spreads quickly and grows in dense stands, reducing nutrients and space for native plants, and degrading habitat for wildlife.

Colautti, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, conducted an experiment during his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in which he transplanted loosestrife plants from Texas to Timmins, Ont., and plants from northern Ontario to northern Virginia.

Compared to the transplanted southern plants, the local loosestrife in Timmins flowered 20 days earlier. That allowed them to take advantage of the short growing season and produce 40 times as many seeds.

Similarly, when the northern Ontario plants were grown in Virginia, they produced just a 10th of the seeds that local plants produced because they flowered very early, when they were very small.

The increase in reproductive rates linked to local adaptation was comparable to that seen in the absence of natural predators.

Colautti told CBCNews in an interview that purple loosestrife has spread far and wide mostly in the past 50 years, suggesting that it evolved changes in growth and flowering patterns to adapt to different climates within just a few decades —  very, very quickly.

Multiple introductions boost evolutionary speed

He said there is some evidence that this rapid adaptation ability may be "fairly common" among invasive species, especially those that have spread over a large area.

In fact, the way such species were introduced to North America from other continents may have helped them gain their unusual evolutionary speed. Similar to the pattern seen in many invasive species, genetic analysis of purple loosestrife suggests it was introduced to North America multiple times from different parts of Europe and Asia, which would boost the amount of genetic variation in the North American plants.

"One prediction we might make is that species with higher genetic variation for those traits that are important for local adaptation should evolve faster and spread faster," Colautti said.

The findings of the study have a number of implications for controlling the spread of invasive species.

For one thing, Colautti said, it suggests that limiting the number of times an invasive species is introduced may help prevent it from gaining the genetic diversity needed to spread quickly.

It also suggests that strategies for controlling an invasive species should take into account different populations adapted to different climates, rather than just treating them as a single species.

For example, to control the spread of purple loosestrife, two European beetles that eat the plant's leaves were introduced to North America by the U.S. and Canadian governments in 1992.

Strategies must target distinct populations

Colautti said to maximize their effectiveness, control programs that use beetles need to ensure the insects are feasting at the right time to damage seed production for a given population of loosestrife.

"I think there might be ways to improve them by taking into accounts those differences… among populations," Colautti said.

In theory, he added, the plants' genetic diversity could even be used against them, by transplanting northern plants south and southern plants north. That would introduce "maladaptive" genes for flowering and growth rates that are "wrong" for the climate into local populations.

Another thing that the study's findings suggest is that purple loosestrife will be very resilient to climate change, and that a warmer climate could help it expand its range even further.

"As bad as some of the climate predictions are," Colautti said, "the difference between Texas and Northern Ontario is much larger than the difference from current climate to future climate."

The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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Cow burps tapped for fuel

Argentine scientists have found a way to transform the gas created by the bovine digestive system into fuel, an innovation that could curb greenhouse gases that cause global warming.

Using a system of valves and pumps, the experimental technique developed by Argentina's National Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) channels the digestive gases from bovine stomach cavities through a tube and into a tank.

The gases — which otherwise are commonly known as burps, or "eruptos" in Spanish — are then processed to separate methane from other gases such as carbon dioxide.

Each cow emits between 250 and 300 liters of pure methane a day, enough energy to keep a refrigerator running for 24 hours. (REUTERS)

Methane is the main component of natural gas, used to fuel everything from cars to power plants.

"Once you get it compressed, it's the same as having natural gas," said Guillermo Berra, head of INTA's animal physiology group.

"As an energy source it is not very practical at the moment, but if you look ahead to 2050, when fossil fuel reserves are going to be in trouble, it is an alternative," he told Reuters.

Each head of cattle emits between 250 and 300 liters of pure methane a day, enough energy to keep a refrigerator running for 24 hours.

Argentina is one of the world's top beef exporters, with around 51 million heads of cattle. Gases emitted from those animals account for 30 percent of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions, according to INTA, with methane having 23 times the global warming effect as carbon dioxide.

"This is also a way to mitigate that," Berra said.

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Facebook service restored after disruption

Facebook users had temporary problems adding posts Monday morning, but the problem has been fixed.

Facebook users are able to add posts again after worldwide service disruptions ended this morning. 

Service was back up by 10:15 a.m. ET, users reported on Twitter and other networks.

Earlier in the day, users reported error messages when trying to post status updates, photos and other items; click "like"; or send messages on Facebook. 

The website "downrightnow.com," which tracks user-reported online service outages, said Facebook was experiencing a "likely service disruption."

Around 9 a.m., Iain McKenzie, European communications manager for Facebook, acknowledged via Twitter that Facebook was aware of problems posting to the site and was looking into it.

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Lunar eclipse, meteor shower treat Canadians this weekend

Two cosmic events, a penumbral lunar eclipse Friday and a meteor shower on Sunday, are making for an interesting weekend in Canadian skies.

Sunday night to dawn on Monday will be the peak of the Orionid meteor shower. 

"In the darker hours, look towards [the constellation] Orion the hunter, generally in the southeast sky" and it will appear that meteors are coming from Orion's club, said Colin Haig, vice-president of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

The meteor shower will peak at 10 to 20 meteors per hour just before dawn on Monday, according to Earthsky.org. Unfortunately, the brightness of the full moon will make the meteors difficult to see for most Canadians. 

Though the moon will detract somewhat from that cosmic show, it provided one of its own earlier this weekend.

Just before 8 p.m. ET Friday, the bottom half of the full moon was darkened by the Earth's shadow during the penumbral lunar eclipse.

The Earth's shadow has two distinct regions: A very dark, central region called the umbra, and a diffuse outer region called the penumbra.

The penumbra caused the moon to get dimmer Friday night until about two-thirds of the moon was cloaked in shadow at 8:50 p.m. People in Eastern Canada could see the entire event, weather permitting, but it was well underway at moonrise for those in Central and Western Canada. The penumbral eclipse was subtle but still noticeable to anyone who stopped to take a look.

Even subtle eclipses can "help people understand that our solar system is in motion," Haig said. "It's a fairly rare event, a couple times a year at best and it happens in a matter of a few hours."

People in Eastern Canada will be able to see the entire penumbral lunar eclipse, but it will be well underway Friday night at moonrise for people in Central and Western Canada. (Fred Espenak/Royal Astronomical Society of Canada)

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Purple loosestrife's climate adaptation key to its spread

The ability to adapt to drastically different climates within a short period, like decades, is a key factor that allowed the invasive species purple loosestrife to spread so widely, a new study has found. The discovery suggests we may need to alter our strategies if we want to control these new arrivals.

Scientists had long thought that the main reason some invasive species are so successful is that they typically have no natural predators in the environments where they aren't native. This theory has been backed up by evidence from experiments comparing the rates of  reproduction of invasive species exposed to predators and those who haven't been exposed.

But biologist Rob Colautti and his colleagues have found that in the case of the invasive European plant purple loosestrife it was the plant's remarkable ability to evolve quickly to adapt to different climates that was "just as strong" as the lack of predators.

The results were published this week in Science.

Purple loosestrife is a wetland plant that was introduced to the East Coast of North America during the 19th century, likely hitching a ride in soil in the ballast water of European ships. Since then, it has spread as far south as Texas, as far north as northern Ontario and Newfoundland, and as far west as B.C.

According to the Ontario's Invading Species Awareness program, purple loosestrife is a concern because it spreads quickly and grows in dense stands, reducing nutrients and space for native plants, and degrading habitat for wildlife.

Colautti, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of British Columbia, conducted an experiment during his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in which he transplanted loosestrife plants from Texas to Timmins, Ont., and plants from northern Ontario to northern Virginia.

Compared to the transplanted southern plants, the local loosestrife in Timmins flowered 20 days earlier. That allowed them to take advantage of the short growing season and produce 40 times as many seeds.

Similarly, when the northern Ontario plants were grown in Virginia, they produced just a 10th of the seeds that local plants produced because they flowered very early, when they were very small.

The increase in reproductive rates linked to local adaptation was comparable to that seen in the absence of natural predators.

Colautti told CBCNews in an interview that purple loosestrife has spread far and wide mostly in the past 50 years, suggesting that it evolved changes in growth and flowering patterns to adapt to different climates within just a few decades —  very, very quickly.

Multiple introductions boost evolutionary speed

He said there is some evidence that this rapid adaptation ability may be "fairly common" among invasive species, especially those that have spread over a large area.

In fact, the way such species were introduced to North America from other continents may have helped them gain their unusual evolutionary speed. Similar to the pattern seen in many invasive species, genetic analysis of purple loosestrife suggests it was introduced to North America multiple times from different parts of Europe and Asia, which would boost the amount of genetic variation in the North American plants.

"One prediction we might make is that species with higher genetic variation for those traits that are important for local adaptation should evolve faster and spread faster," Colautti said.

The findings of the study have a number of implications for controlling the spread of invasive species.

For one thing, Colautti said, it suggests that limiting the number of times an invasive species is introduced may help prevent it from gaining the genetic diversity needed to spread quickly.

It also suggests that strategies for controlling an invasive species should take into account different populations adapted to different climates, rather than just treating them as a single species.

For example, to control the spread of purple loosestrife, two European beetles that eat the plant's leaves were introduced to North America by the U.S. and Canadian governments in 1992.

Strategies must target distinct populations

Colautti said to maximize their effectiveness, control programs that use beetles need to ensure the insects are feasting at the right time to damage seed production for a given population of loosestrife.

"I think there might be ways to improve them by taking into accounts those differences… among populations," Colautti said.

In theory, he added, the plants' genetic diversity could even be used against them, by transplanting northern plants south and southern plants north. That would introduce "maladaptive" genes for flowering and growth rates that are "wrong" for the climate into local populations.

Another thing that the study's findings suggest is that purple loosestrife will be very resilient to climate change, and that a warmer climate could help it expand its range even further.

"As bad as some of the climate predictions are," Colautti said, "the difference between Texas and Northern Ontario is much larger than the difference from current climate to future climate."

The research was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

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