Comet ISON not dead yet

At least part of comet ISON likely survived the comet's graze past the sun Thursday, a new scientific analysis shows, despite initial widespread agreement that the comet had likely been fried to bits.

"Late-night analysis from scientists with NASA's Comet ISON Observing Campaign suggest that there is at least a small nucleus intact," NASA reported in a news release Friday morning, adding that the latest news was "continuing a history of surprising behaviour" for the comet.

The nucleus is the loosely packed ball of frozen gas, rock and dust that makes up the core of a comet. As a comet moves close to the sun, that material vapourizes and spews from the surface, creating a bright "coma" or atmosphere that can expand into a long tail.

On Thursday, numerous solar observatories were pointed at ISON as it passed within 1.6 million kilometres of the sun at 1:37 p.m. ET.

In the four hours afterward, it could not be seen on the other side of the sun by either NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft or by ground-based solar observatories, leading may scientists to suggest that the comet had likely been destroyed by the sun's heat during its close encounter.

The European Space Agency (ESA) officially declared the comet dead on Twitter.

However, a bright streak of material was seen on the other side of the sun in images captured by the ESA and NASA's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory "later in the evening," NASA reported.

Initially, NASA solar physicist Alex Young told The Associated Press that the streak was most likely just a trail of dust.

However, instead of fading, that trail appeared to get brighter Friday, suggesting "at least some small fraction of ISON has remained in one piece," U.S. navy solar researcher Karl Battams wrote on his blog.

The ESA also backtracked on its declaration, tweeting Friday morning, "Well well, it seems reports of comet #ison's demise have been greatly exaggerated!"

ESA comet expert Gerhard Schwehm later tweeted that from his initial look at the SOHO images, the comet's nucleus has "mostly disintegrated," but more analysis was needed.

Battams also cautioned on his blog that even if a solid nucleus remained, it might not survive for long.

Researchers were still not sure why many solar observatories were unable to see the comet after its close encounter with the sun. 

A post on the website of ESA's Proba 2 satellite Friday suggested it was possible that ISON:

• Didn't release enough material to be visible because it wasn't close enough to the sun to cause enough heat and evaporation.
• Wasn't made up of the right ingredients – for example, it didn't contain enough iron – to glow in the colours that the Proba 2 satellite could see.

Comet ISON is unique and has been of great scientific interest because it is the first sun-grazing comet ever observed from the Oort Cloud, a vast region of comets and debris near the edge of the solar system, far beyond the outermost planets. It is also one of the largest sun-grazing comets ever observed.

Another view from SOHO's C2 chronograph shows Comet ISON appearing bright as it streams toward the sun (right). it can be seen as a dim streak heading upward and out in the left image. The comet may still be intact. (ESA/NASA/SOHO/Jhelioviewer)

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Feds to monitor social media round-the-clock

Big Brother is watching you — on just about every social-media platform you can imagine.

Tweets, public Facebook posts and YouTube videos could soon be subject to round-the-clock scrutiny by the federal government, a procurement document posted this week by Public Works and Government Services Canada suggests.

Welcome to media monitoring in the 21st century, when simply leafing through a stack of newspapers in the morning is about as antiquated as, well, newspapers.

'On one level, there is a creepiness factor to this, but then on another level, it's open data, it's open information.'- Mark Blevis, digital public affairs analyst

The federal government is seeking a firm that "continuously monitors social media content on a daily basis in near real time and (can) provide web-based, online media metrics and reporting capabilities."

That includes combing through "blogs, micro-blogs, social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter, forums and message boards, traditional news websites and comment sections, media sharing websites (videos, photos and user-generated content websites including YouTube)."

The contractor is also being asked to keep tabs on English- and French-language internet news sites and blogs.

Tone and reach

The document specifies that the contractor must be able to provide the service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Part of the job will be to gauge the sentiment and tone of posts and to determine their reach.

The social-media monitoring service must also come with the ability to filter searches by country, language and key words.

The work, which appears to be on an as-requested basis, runs from next February until January 2019.

Digital public affairs analyst Mark Blevis of FullDuplex.ca said it's not unusual that a government would want to know what people are saying, although he concedes some might find that thought disconcerting.

"On one level, there is a creepiness factor to this," Blevis said in an interview.

"But then on another level, it's open data, it's open information. If it's publicly accessible, why should the government have any less privilege accessing it than anyone else in the public eye?

"What they do with it is going to be the big question."

'Early warning system'

Social media can act as an "early warning system" to alert authorities to major disasters, Blevis said, just as it can be used to track public opinion.

"It depends on the intent. Is it creepy? Yeah, for the vast majority of the public it will seem creepy because the sense is the government is looking over their shoulder," he said.

"But another part of me feels that this is a recognition that this where the conversations are happening now, and they're happening in plain view."

Public Works wasn't immediately available to comment.

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Oldest Buddhist shrine found at Buddha's birthplace

A shrine consistent with the story of the birth of Siddhartha Gautama, the Lord Buddha, has been uncovered within a later shrine long thought to be his possible birthplace.

The teachings on which Buddhism, a world religion with an estimated 500 million followers, is based are said to have originated with Buddha.

According to an inscription on a pillar erected by the Mauryan Emperor Asoka in 249 BC, Buddha was born in 623 BC in Lumbini, Nepal, although his birth date varies from 800 BC to 400 BC in other accounts. Buddhists believe that his mother had been on her way to her parents' house to give birth, but that she stopped in Lumbini along the way, and ended up giving birth while clinging to a tree in the gardens.

Now, archaeologists at Lumbini have uncovered the oldest known Buddhist shrine, dating back to the 6th century BC. And evidence suggests that it was originally built around a tree.

"It can be no mere coincidence that what we have is one of the earliest known Buddhist shrines at Lumbini, which is focused around a tree," said Robin Coningham, an archaeologist who helped make the discovery, in an interview with CBC's Quirks & Quarks that airs Saturday.

"It's one of those rare occasions where actually you get belief, tradition, archaeology and science all beginning to come together."

Buddhist monasteries and shrines have long existed in Lumbini, the oldest known being Emperor Asoka's pillar, dating back to the 3rd century BC.

Lumbini, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is also home to the Mayadevi Temple, which is popular with Buddhist pilgrims and houses the archaeological remains of earlier temples inside it.

Coningham, a professor in the department of archeology at Durham University in England, was part of an archaeological team tasked with seeing how the infrastructure of the temple could be upgraded to accommodate the million pilgrims that visit every year without damaging the archaeological remains.

The team first worked on the visible remains of a brick temple inside the modern temple, and were puzzled by a void in the middle that had no brick or tile.

An idol of Buddha is silhouetted at the Tibetan Monastery in Lumbini, which is the birthplace of Buddha, according to an inscription on a 3rd century pillar at the site. (REUTERS)

Digging below that temple, they found the remains of an earlier brick temple, with the same void in the middle.

Finally, at the very bottom, they hit yellow clay with very visible post holes, along with burnt charcoal suggesting that the very oldest structure had been made of wood. It too had the void in the middle.

"The central area was open to the sky," Coningham told Quirks & Quarks host Bob McDonald. "It had never been covered, even in the earliest occupation."

Sinuous patterns in the soil suggested that tree roots had once wound through.

"Then it began to be absolutely clear what we had found," Coningham said. "What we had were a series of shrines, all built around a tree… For many Buddhists, this will be a confirmation of their beliefs."

Radiocarbon dating of the charcoal suggested that the original wooden shrine was built in the 6th century BC.

For Coningham, that means a "very real" Buddhist cult existed at Lumbini even then.

The results of the research were published in the December issue of the journal Antiquity.

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Watchdog calls for ban on government use of instant messages

Canada's information commissioner, Suzanne Legault, recommends in a special report to Parliament that specific controls be placed on instant messaging to preserve government records and respect the access to information law.

The report says access to instant (text) messages sent and received by ministers' office staff is at particular risk. 

"While technology is a powerful tool for innovation, its use must not infringe on the right of Canadians to know what government is doing and to hold it accountable for its decisions," Legault said in a statement.

Her report investigated the use of wireless devices and instant messaging in 11 federal institutions. It found there were approximately 98,000 BlackBerrys issued and that the instant messages, commonly called "PINs," that are sent and received on those devices are automatically deleted, usually after 30 days.

"After investigating the use of wireless devices and instant messaging ... I have concluded that there is a real risk that information that should be accessible by Canadians is being irremediably deleted or lost," Legault said.

And the report says the risk of lost information is even greater now that Treasury Board secretariat has proposed new policies that would allow instant messages to be deleted after only three days.

Disable instant messaging

Legault recommends a government-wide policy that would see instant messaging disabled on all government-issued wireless devices, with few exceptions. As well, she argues government departments should set up a way to automatically back up all messages.

Canada's Information Commissioner is calling for instant messaging to be disabled on most government mobile devices and for more stringent rules around archiving of text messages. (Graeme Roy/Canadian Press)

And she says the Access to Information Act should be amended to require government officials create records documenting their decisions.

The impetus for her investigation was a complaint to her office about an email received in which one government official asked another to use a "pin" instead of email to communicate.

But, in an interview with CBC News, Legault said it is impossible to determine if government officials are using instant messaging on purpose, to get around access laws.

"I am very concerned because whether people were to do it deliberately or not, the fact is we will not be able to investigate it and we will not be able to find out," she said. "As it stands, there is a significant risk that requesters' rights will not be respected under the act."

NDP MP and ethics critic Charlie Angus said the government likes the use of instant messages precisely because they are not stored or easily tracked.

"The only reason for ministerial staff or government employees to be using instant messenger instead of email is because they know what they are doing is wrong and they don't want it recorded," he said.

Government response disappointing

The president of the Treasury Board, Tony Clement, does not agree with the recommendations and has declined to implement them.

"I really think that's a nonsensical recommendation by the information commissioner, with all due respect," said Clement on Parliament Hill. "The solution to an issue is not to ban the use of instant messaging."

Clement said there are clear rules that if the instant message is to do with government business, it must be archived. If not, it can be deleted.

But Legault says in her report the government shouldn't be relying on individual employees to take the initiative to back up and store messages, especially as several departments conceded that staff are not just using instant messaging to have informal conversations, but rather to conduct government business.

"I am extremely disappointed by the government's response. I am totally for the use of new technology, but we really have to do that in the context where we respect the laws of Canada," she said.

Most expenses outside of scrutiny

Legault said a "gaping loophole" in federal legislation allows Senate and House of Commons administration to elude proper scrutiny.

Speaking about the Senate scandal on CBC News Network's Power and Politics, Legault said most expenses from parliamentarians fall outside the scope of the Access to Information Act. 

"If the House of Commons and the Senate administration was covered by the Access to Information Act, at least Canadians could have made requests for all of the emails and all of the text messages and all of the PIN-to-PIN messages related to any kind of expenses within the House and the Senate," she told Power and Politics host Evan Solomon. "The way things stand now with the Access Act, that's not covered by the Act."

Legault would not comment directly on the case of Benjamin Perrin, the former counsel for the Prime Minister's Office who is named in RCMP documents released last week related to the deal between Nigel Wright and Senator Mike Duffy. Those documents suggest that Perrin's emails were deleted or destroyed after he left the PMO.

But Legault flagged another problem with records that are deemed to be "transitory" and therefore aren't kept. Right now, the government is functioning on an "honour system" in terms of what is preserved and what is purged, she said.

"I never comment on specific cases just in case we have complaints in our office," Legault said. "That being said, the obligations in the government, and that includes ministers' offices and the prime minister's office, is any record of business value must be preserved."

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Meteor confirmed as cause of loud boom in Quebec, Ontario

 It's now confirmed: the loud boom and flash of light many people spotted Tuesday evening from Montreal as far west as Ottawa was a meteor entering the earth's atmosphere.

Researchers at the University of Western Ontario said the rock from space passed over Montreal at around 8 p.m. from north to south.

They were able to confirm the phenomenon by sounds from shock waves picked up by acoustic ground sensors around Montreal and upper New York state.

NASA's Meteor Environment Office had been searching for footage of a meteor captured by its cameras, but cameras were obscured by thick clouds.

Geologist Richard Herd, a retired curator of the National Meteorite Collection for the federal government, said all indications suggested it was a meteoroid. That's a rock from space that passes through the Earth's atmosphere.

"It came in very rapidly...and so that's indicative. There was some ballistic shock from this thing, which is typical even of a small object," Herd said.

Despite the loud noise it generated, researchers say the meteoroid was probably no bigger than a basketball.  

So far, no one has reported finding any fragments of it on the ground.  

Why does a meteor make a sonic boom?

• After orbiting the sun for billions of years, meteors will sometimes pass close enough to the Earth to enter its atmosphere.
• The friction from the atmosphere will immediately start to burn the meteor at a temperature of thousands of degrees.
• As it passes through the atmosphere, the meteor travels faster than the speed of sound, and that's what creates the sonic boom we hear below. 

Source: Robert Rutledge, McGill University physics professor

WATCH: Meteor explained by Chris Hadfield

​Loud bang scared residents

Natasha Raynor, who lives in Pincourt on Montreal's West Island, told CBC's Daybreak that she heard the boom Tuesday night while playing outside with her son.

Raynor said the flash came from high in the sky, followed by a boom that was louder than thunder.

"I had just brought my son out in the snow ... I saw a big flash, a blue flash," Raynor said. 

"I thought that it was a transformer that blew and then I heard the boom ... I didn't realize how scary it was until my son jumped into my arms." 

Quebec provincial police said they received several calls about the incident, and had no reports of explosions or fires.

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Comet ISON may have survived sun encounter

A comet that gained an earthly following because of its bright tail visible from space was initially declared dead after essentially grazing the sun. Now, there is a silver of hope that Comet ISON may have survived.

New images, basically faint smudges on a screen, being analyzed Friday showed a streak of light moving away from the sun that some said could indicate it wasn't game over just yet.

"It certainly appears as if there is an object there that is emitting material," said Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Basically a dirty snowball from the fringes of the solar system, scientists had pronounced Comet ISON dead when it came within 1.6 million kilometres of the sun Thursday.

Some sky gazers speculated early on that it might become the comet of the century because of its brightness, although expectations dimmed over time. But it wouldn't be all bad news if the 4.5-billion-year-old space rock broke up into pieces, because some scientists say they might be able to study them and learn more about comets.

The European Space Agency, which had declared ISON's death on Twitter late Thursday, was backtracking early Friday, saying the comet "continues to surprise."

Comet ISON was first spotted by a Russian telescope in September last year, and became something of celestial flash in the pan this week for its vivid tail — visible by the naked eye — and compelling backstory of impending doom.

The comet was two-thirds of a mile wide as it got within 1.6 million kilometres of the sun, which in space terms basically means grazing it.

NASA solar physicist Alex Young said Thursday the comet had been expected to show up in images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft at around noon eastern time (1700 GMT), but almost four hours later there was "no sign of it whatsoever."

Images from other spacecraft showed a light streak continuing past the sun, but Young said that was most likely a trail of dust continuing in the comet's trajectory.

However, instead of fading, that trail appeared to get brighter Friday, suggesting that "at least some small fraction of ISON has remained in one piece," U.S. Navy solar researcher Karl Battams wrote on his blog. He cautioned that even if there is a solid nucleus, it may not survive for long.

Two years ago, a smaller comet, Lovejoy, grazed the sun and survived, but fell apart a couple of days later.

"This is what makes science interesting," said Fitzsimmons, who specializes in comets and asteroids. "If we knew what was going to happen, it wouldn't be interesting."

ISON's slingshot toward the sun left astronomers puzzled and excited at the same time.

Made up of loosely packed ice and dirt, the space rock came from the Oort cloud, an area of comets and debris on the fringes of the solar system.

This image from NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory shows the sun, but no Comet ISON was seen. A white plus sign shows where the Comet should have appeared. (Image Credit: NASA/SDO)

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Science of homosexuality explored in new doc

If natural selection favours individuals who leave behind lots of descendants, why do homosexuals exist?

Filmmaker Bryce Sage, who describes himself as "openly gay and proudly flamboyant," set out to answer that question in his new documentary, Survival of the Fabulous, which airs Thursday at 8 p.m. on CBC-TV's The Nature of Things.

The film follows Sage on a humorous, personal journey that takes him around the world to talk with scientists who are researching topics ranging from the neuroscience of gay sheep to the effect of birth order on your odds of being gay.

Sage also examines the nature and nurture components of his own life by visiting his family in Port Hope, Ont.

Sage spoke to CBCNews.ca about the experience of making the film and what he learned about the science of homosexuality.

As part of the film, Sage (second from right) visited his parents and his older brother in Port Hope to learn more about nature and nurture in his formative years. (CBC)

What made you interested in making this film?

Well, I guess, ever since I came out of a closet in a small town where it's not the idealized environment to be different and all that, I've always wondered, "Why is anyone gay?" Because if we're born this way, which I feel like I was, then why would something that makes you so unlikely to reproduce exist to begin with? It doesn't seem to make any natural sense.

That's a very scientific question.

Yes. I've always been obsessed with genetics, even though I ended up choosing a path in film. Ever since I saw Jurassic Park, I wanted to be a genetic engineer so I could make dinosaur; or I particularly wanted to make half-human, half-animals. But a wise guidance counsellor told me that's not very likely, the mad scientist route is not really a career option. So they encouraged me to go into storytelling instead.

But that lingering question of what makes us who we are, that question of nature versus nurture has always been something that fascinated me.

Sage travelled around the world, talking to researchers such as Anne Perkins of Carroll College in Helena Montana, who studies the brains of homosexual domestic rams. (CBC)

It sounds like you were asking a number of questions in your film. What was the first one you set out to tackle?

I've always felt in my gut, in my heart that I'm born gay. But as science says, you can't just take something for granted. So the first big question is: Are we actually born gay? If, in fact, you are born gay, what is making you gay? Do genes play a role? Is it hormones? Is it a natural part of development in that genes don't even have an influence? Overarching all of this I had very simple questions that I didn't realize were a lot more loaded and a lot more complicated.

What do you mean they were a lot more loaded and complicated?

Well, I still can't say definitively that yes, we are born gay. Most of the evidence seems to indicate that there is a very high degree of likelihood that we are born gay. For example, one of things in the doc is we have our brain bombarded by male and female erotica to see what's going on while we're in an MRI. And the parts of the brain that are activating are parts that — the limbic system, the hypothalamus, things like that that — tend to be  pretty developed by the time you're born. They're not as malleable as other parts of the brain.  But even if that is true, it doesn't necessarily say for certain that one is born gay.

Long story short, I think as a non-scientist, when you have these sets of questions, you very quickly realize that science is just so much more complicated than you thought —  that there's very rarely a case of black and white answer, it's usually a lot more grey.

You had a lot of weird studies in the film. Which one did you think was the strangest?

I guess the one that felt the weirdest was probably the brain MRI. It's beyond my understanding to know that you can tell from looking at four-second images exactly what's going on in the brain. I couldn't feel a remote bit of erotic pleasure whatsoever during the entire experience. But somehow they're able to register that in the brain.

What was it like?

It's like you're in this tube that couldn't be more claustrophobic. You're trapped inside this magnetic thing. You're fearing for your life. The sound is this blaring buzz and kind of ringing sound that you hear the entire time. It's about the most undesirable context you could possibly be in.

And then you see just little flashes of pornographic material. And I can tell just by looking at it OK, yeah, it's a hot guy or it's a  woman. But either way, it's not like I'm even remotely capable of being turned on physically by this. But I guess somehow, just in registering the image, that's enough.

What made it so important for you to make the documentary so personal?

The reason I felt the need to be personal is this subject is so important. If you can prove that sexuality is not a choice, it's as much a part of us as our gender or race is, it's completely unchangeable, there's no doubt in my mind that discrimination would go away. That's almost essential to that happening.

But if you do just the talking head doc, the only people that watch it are the people that already believe. But I feel like you've got to be almost subversive with your politics.

So by putting myself in the story, it makes it a lot more fun, it makes it a journey, it makes it more entertaining. It's almost like, what's that song from Mary Poppins? "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine goes down."

You feature quite a few Canadian researchers in your film. Were you surprised that so many Canadians were studying gay-ness?

Yeah, that was certainly interesting. Where it may not be so much of a surprise is that Canada is one of the most progressive places when it comes to sexuality and the freedom that gay and lesbian people have in comparison to other countries like the States. And from what I've since learned talking to the scientists, it's a lot easier in Canada to get funding for scientific research into this kind of thing than it is in the United States, where it is still quite a controversial subject matter.

What was the most surprising thing you learned over the course of your research?

Probably one of the most surprising things was that a lot of people assume that … genes would code for homosexuality, that they make you gay. But they're actually more a code for attraction for men. And it just so happens when men get these genes, they are gay, but if women have these genes, they actually become more attracted to men, as opposed to making them lesbians.

I guess that's something that's not obvious. You'd assume that gayness in men and women might be kind of the same process.

Yeah, we don't feature lesbians in the documentary at all because, according to the science, what causes and influences sexuality in men is very different from what causes and influences sexuality of women.

We felt like we'd better not to muddy the waters by trying to address both when it's such a complicated subject matter to begin with. That would be the sequel, right?

You mention that everything ended up being a lot more complicated than you thought. In the end, did you feel like you got enough answers?

Can I move on?

[laughs]

Definitely, I  know from all the evidence I gathered, and all the scientists I talked to that all of these things help to explain why homosexuality survived. I'll never know within my lifetime exactly what made me gay. But I certainly feel like I have enough. Even in this greyness, I have enough of an understanding that there is biology to explain who we are and we did not make a choice.

Click here to view the trailer on a mobile device

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Baby dinosaur skeleton found intact in Alberta

An extremely well-preserved baby dinosaur skeleton has been discovered in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta.

The fossil is extremely rare, as it's the smallest intact skeleton ever found from a group of horned plant-eating dinosaurs known as ceratopsids — a group that includes the iconic triceratops.

"There's nothing else like it that I know of," said Don Brinkman from the Royal Tyrrell Museum. 

It's believed the creature, measuring 1.5-metres long, was about three years old. They determined it was a Chasmosaurus belli, which was common in the area.

Excavation site on the side of a hill in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park shows general features of the region. (Courtesy of Philip J. Currie, Robert Holmes, Michael Ryan Clive Coy, Eva B. Koppelhus)

Because it had no bite marks or trace of injury, researchers think it wandered into a stream, drowned and was covered in sediment where it lay undisturbed for about 70 million years.

Brinkman said usually small bones get washed away and scattered, but this discovery was preserved because it was buried right at the time of death before any of the soft tissue had rotted away.

"It's as close as you can get to a dinosaur mummy," he said.

Philip Currie, a paleobiologist at the University of Alberta, first found what he thought was an exposed portion of turtle shell on a hillside in the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After digging a bit, he discovered it was the "frill" or decorative bone at the back of the head of the ceratopsids.

The skeleton is almost complete and intact, so much so that even the skin with its tiny rosette pattern left an impression in the rock, says Currie. However, sometime in the past, a sinkhole opened underneath the fossil and the forelimbs were lost.

The find will help paleontologists determine how these plant-eaters grew and the skeleton will also help identify and place numbers of individual fossilized bones recovered over the years.

A hammer helps put the size of the partially-uncovered fossil into perspective. (Courtesy of Philip J. Currie, Robert Holmes, Michael Ryan Clive Coy, Eva B. Koppelhus)

Currie says they have already been able to determine from this find that head frills change in chasmosaurs as they mature into adults over a 20-year period.

Because the body and leg proportions don't change much from juvenile to adult, researchers say adults probably didn't move fast and the young didn't have to run to keep up.

By contrast, the juveniles of predatory dinosaurs like T-rex have disproportionately long legs in order to keep up with adults.

Adult chasmosaurs were a medium-sized dinosaur weighing from two to three tonnes and measuring about five metres.

The skeleton is now part of the University of Alberta's collection and will be part of several research projects in the years to come.

The discovery was made in 2010, but was recently made public.

"In general you want to make sure what you talk about is correct before you send it to the public," said Brinkman, adding researchers wanted it vetted by the scientific community before presenting it to the world.

Dinosaur Provincial Park is a two-hour drive southeast of Calgary.

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Comet Ison's risky encounter with sun approaches

If the stars align, a large comet rocketing towards the sun will be putting on a show to delight more than just the world's astronomers.

The comet Ison has been on stargazers' radar since late last year when it was seen hurtling towards the sun and showing every sign of passing very close to the centre of the solar system.

Those predictions will come to pass today at around 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. eastern time, when Ison is expected to be just 1.2 million kilometres from the sun.

Astronomers say the intense heat from its brush with solar energy may cause Ison to disintegrate in mid course. If it survives intact and begins its trajectory away from the sun, however, experts said sky watchers may have a lot to look forward to in the coming weeks.

Paul Delaney, professor of physics and astronomy at Toronto's York University, said Ison's size and proximity to the sun could usher in a spectacular light show for those willing to wake up early and examine the pre-dawn skies.

Comets are little more than vast chunks of rock that fall towards earth from the outer solar system. Delaney said that within the centre of those rock masses is a nucleus of volatile material that reacts to heat.

While several dozen comets travel near Earth every year, Delaney said many of them don't come within close range of the sun. Those that do, he added, are often too small to become visible to the naked eye.

Ison appears to be a different beast, he said, explaining that a comet becomes visible when the material contained in its nucleus becomes heated and begins emitting gas.

"The comet becomes surrounded by this sort of gas cloud, and this gas cloud can end up being literally tens of thousands of kilometres in diameter," Delaney said in a telephone interview.

"It can trail material behind it for literally millions of kilometres, meaning that we've now got this object which has got a very large surface area to reflect light. And that's what gives us a really terrific show here on Earth."

Comets that pass close to the sun — often known as sun-grazing comets — are often too small to have much impact for stargazers, he said.

But Ison itself has a nucleus of approximately two kilometres wide, making it comparatively large for one with such close proximity to the sun.

Ison's relative size means it's likely to produce a similarly large gas cloud, Delaney said.

"As it rounds the sun and gets heated to nearly 2,700 degrees Celsius — it will really be roasted — all of the volatile materials trapped within have the potential of outgasing," he said. "And if that happens the comet gets bigger, the tail gets longer, and the comet gets that much brighter."

Delaney said Ison's light show won't begin for several days after it's brush with the sun — assuming it hasn't been incinerated altogether.

Canadians hoping for a glimpse of Ison can start looking for it on Saturday or Sunday morning if they're willing to train their eyes on the sky about half an hour before sunrise, he said.

Ison is likely to appear in the east as a particularly bright point of light with a trailing tail, he said, adding its visibility will improve throughout next week.

"Over the ensuing few days, the comet will climb higher and further away from the sun and into darker, background skies. And then, if Ison is going to live up to expectations, you'll see a really good show."

Click here or on the graphic below to open up a bigger version

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Meteor may have caused loud boom in Quebec, Ontario

A meteor may have been seen and heard on Montreal's West Island, the Vaudreuil region and the Ottawa area on Tuesday night, according to multiple reports.

Social media in parts of Quebec and Ontario were buzzing with reports of a loud boom on Tuesday at about 8 p.m. E.T.

Quebec provincial police said they received several calls about the incident, and had no reports of explosions or fires.

Andrew Fazekas, a spokesman for the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, felt the tremor from his home.

He told CBC it possibly could have been a shock wave caused by a meteorite entering the atmosphere. Experts will analyze the data Wednesday, to confirm whether it was a sonic boom.

Fazekas speculates that a meteor, the size of a sofa to a compact car, may have fragmented with some bits making it to the ground.

He says on his website that scientists will now comb through the reports along with any photo and video evidence in order to triangulate the trajectory of the possible meteorite.

Although the fall of a meteor can often be detected by seismographs, Earthquake Canada says it has not registered any such event.

Fazekas added this appears to be a minor event since there are no reports of damage.

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Cyberbullying bill needs 'better understanding' of young people

Justice Minister Peter MacKay has called Bill C-13, the anti-cyberbullying legislation he introduced last week, a key tool in "ensuring that our children are safe from online predators and from online exploitation."

Although child psychologists and youth activists support increased attention to this issue, they say C-13 is unlikely to stop cyberbullying.

They feel the bill follows a narrow definition of cyberbullying and doesn't address the underlying misogyny and homophobia that inspires so much online teasing.

"I would hate for the public to be misled into thinking that this is what will deal with cyberbullying, because I think it's [only] a partial approach," says Jane Bailey, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.

'I would hate for the public to be misled into thinking that this is what will deal with cyberbullying'- Jane Bailey, law professor, University of Ottawa

Bill C-13, also known as the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, is largely seen as a legislative response to the deaths of Canadian teens such as Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd, who endured years of torment online.

Under C-13, anyone who posts or distributes an "intimate image" of another person without their consent would face up to five years in prison.

According to the wording of the bill, an "intimate image" is one that "depicts a person engaged in explicit sexual activity or that depicts a sexual organ, anal region or breast."

Shifting definitions of cyberbullying

The legislation would give police enhanced powers to investigate incidents, including the ability to seize — with a court order — computers, phones and other devices used in an alleged offence.

The bill would also give law enforcement easier access to metadata, the coded information contained in every phone call or email, which has raised concerns among civil liberties groups that C-13 is giving police greater surveillance powers.

Andrea Slane, a law professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, says these new measures will help police investigate "reports of a person extorting a young person for sexual images or threatening to expose them."

The perpetrators of these sorts of offences usually do so anonymously, but Slane says this type of behaviour doesn't really describe cyberbullying, which is more about taunting than coercion, and is very much in the open online.

"When it comes to the social fallout that Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons suffered from their peers, most of the time, they knew who those people were," says Slane.

'Environment of vulnerability'

Bailey says C-13 would be more effective if the government had sought greater input from youngsters themselves.

She says that in its fact-gathering stage, the standing Senate committee on human rights "actually brought in kids to talk to them about what they thought was needed to protect them [online]."

The death of Halifax teen Rehtaeh Parsons, seen here with her mother, Leah, was one of the things that prompted the government to table anti-cyberbullying legislation.

The bottom line, Bailey says, is that the people most affected by the problem of cyberbullying need to inform the solution.

"We really need to consult the kids more often," she says.

According to the Department of Justice, the measures in Bill C-13 were based on the findings of the Cybercrime Working Group. The ministry has not specified what individuals or organizations make up this group.

The legislation was also partially informed by a Senate standing committee report on human rights released late last year.

Entitled Cyberbullying Hurts: Respect for Rights on the Digital Age, the report called on Canada to meet its obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which means taking steps to protect young people from all forms of physical and mental violence.

Understanding teens

The problem with the bill, says Bailey, is that it focuses on criminal and punitive measures instead of the attitudes and actions of cyberbullies themselves.

"We need to have proactive strategies that get at the underlying prejudices that contribute to an environment of vulnerability" to bullying, says Bailey.

Shaheen Shariff, a law professor at McGill University and director of the cyberbullying research project Define the Line, says that legislators also need to have a better understanding of how people, and especially teenagers, view and use social media sites such as Facebook.

As well, she says that not all sexually suggestive images are posted without consent or with malicious intent. Shariff says there also needs to be an acknowledgement that sexually provocative language that can seem derogatory and hurtful is often used affectionately between friends, or in hopes of gaining admiration from peers.

"A lot of time [young people] are just going to be part of a peer group and entertain each other and test the social boundaries and their sexuality," says Shariff.

Legislators need to have "a better understanding of how young people are thinking these days," says Shariff. "This has become simply part of their communication, especially when they're teenagers."

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GMO salmon criticisms 'don't merit comment'

The CEO of an American company producing genetically modified salmon eggs in eastern Prince Edward Island is brushing off criticism from anti-GMO groups.

AquaBounty announced this week it had received approval from Environment Canada to produce the eggs on a commercial scale. It had been operating as a research facility.

Critics have complained the Canadian government's approval of its hatchery in Bay Fortune, P.E.I., was done in secret without public consultation.

CEO Ron Stotish doesn't understand why risk assessments in the U.S. and Canada haven't convinced critics the fast-growing salmon can be produced safely.

AquaBounty's genetically modified fish grow twice as quickly as regular salmon. (AquaBounty)

"I think there's a simple choice here. Are you going to believe the professionals, the skilled scientists, or the people that are constantly beating the drum that there is some sort of conspiracy between the government and industry to somehow damage the environment?" asked Stotish.

"I think frankly their accusations don't merit comment."

Stotish said the P.E.I. hatchery won't scale up to commercial production unless AquaBounty gets approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its salmon there.

The salmon produced by AquaBounty grow at twice the rate of regular salmon, making them an attractive option for rearing in salmon farms. Commercial production for the company would see ship the eggs from P.E.I. to Panama to be grown into adults and harvested there.

Stotish said having Canada's approval moves the company one step closer, adding this decision came after a rigorous review.

"We are perhaps the most scrutinized facility in the history of fisheries. It's not just one or two visits for the purpose of this review," he said.

"We're visited on a continuing basis, and it's probably a dozen times a year between DFO, Environment Canada and other agencies. They examine all our procedures, they examine all of our records, they've examined the facility. And in fact, I think we may have set the standard for inspections of facilities of this type."

The latest review included a DFO risk assessment that found, with reasonable certainty, that operations at the hatchery pose a low risk to the P.E.I. environment.

The same report does note, however, that if procedures or activities change, and fish escape, that could pose a high hazard to the environment. Given that, any significant new developments at the hatchery would require another Environment Canada review.

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Ex-Nortel staff pick apart gadgets for patent violations

From his corner office, John Veschi looks out on a golf course in Kanata, Ont. But in his two years at the helm of Rockstar, the avid golfer has played the course only once.

"We've been busy," he said. "There's a lot to do."

Veschi is the CEO of Rockstar, an intellectual property licensing company created by a consortium of hi-tech companies that won the bidding war for Nortel's patents in 2011.

On Oct. 31, the two-year-old company filed lawsuits against global tech giants, including Google, Samsung and Huawei. The suits allege they use technology developed and patented by Canada's one-time tech darling Nortel, but refuse to pay licensing fees.

Rockstar has the rights to Nortel's legacy, as it owns 4,000 patents developed in Nortel labs. Rockstar's main goal is to use those patents to make money for its owners: Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and Ericsson.

'Critics allege this is a real problem.... It's gumming up the innovation system and it frustrates other companies and stifles innovation and productivity as a whole.'​- Jeremy DeBeer, University of Ottawa law professor.

Veschi is proud of what he does now, but it's not the dream he had when he worked for Nortel.

"My hope was to build a business like this and be part of the turnaround for Nortel," said Veschi, whose job was to make Nortel money by licensing the technology in its patents.

There was a lot to draw from.

Nortel research and development

Year after year, Nortel and its predecessor, Bell Northern Research, spent billions on research and development.

Rockstar won the bidding war for the patents after Nortel declared bankruptcy, and is now suing several companies that they claim used Nortel's inventions without paying.

Rockstar's chief technology executive, Gillian McColgan, remembers a company far ahead of the curve, always anticipating where technology would go.

"Having spent 25 years at Nortel, you can look back far enough and see that things you worked at in the very early years as a junior engineer have now gone gangbusters and become where the industry is."

Nortel built a precursor to the iPhone, for instance. The Orbiter, with a touch screen that's now commonplace, was presented in the 1990s but never produced for the market.

Patents auctioned off

By 2009, Nortel was filing for bankruptcy protection. Its business — and its patents — would be divvied up and sold.

A small team within Nortel, led by Veschi, was convinced the patents were valuable, and that the money could only be unlocked if the intellectual property were sold as a package.

They went on the road to convince potential buyers of the patents' worth.

Nortel's bankruptcy proceedings

• Nortel filed for bankruptcy protection on Jan. 14, 2009.
• Auctions to sell off Nortel's businesses and patents brought in approximately $7.7 billion US.
• Hearings to allocate money in the estate to creditors are expected to begin in spring 2014.
• Fees to lawyers and others working on the bankruptcy passed the $1-billion US mark in November 2013.

The auction opened June 27, 2011, with Google bidding $900 million. The price soared. The Rockstar consortium of Apple, Microsoft, Blackberry, Sony and Ericsson won, paying $4.5 billion.

Nortel's four business lines had brought in $3.2 billion, combined.

"The fact is there's an extra $4.5 billion in the estate to be divided up," said McColgan, who is proud of what the team did, especially for Nortel's pensions. "Ultimately, when all the squabbling ends, when all the lawsuits end, some of that money will flow down to the people we worked with."

Searching for patents

When the patents moved to the new company, the employees went with them. They knew each patent's story and its inventors.

To figure out if a modern day gadget infringes on an old patent, Rockstar staff pick it apart in a reverse-engineering lab, and then Rockstar builds a case.

It filed a lawsuit in Texas on Oct. 31 alleging Google's technology for matching relevant advertising to a user's search terms was actually patented by Nortel. 

Another claim, against Samsung, centres on technology used in Galaxy smartphones and tablets.

The companies being sued are competitors of Rockstar's owners, but Veschi insists U.S. Department of Justice rules prohibit those owners from having a say in who Rockstar targets.

Company says it's not a 'patent troll'

Rockstar's business model is a contentious one. Critics use the term "patent troll" for a company that produces no products, but exists to make money off licensing patents or winning lawsuits.

An employee of Rockstar works in the reverse engineering lab where he checks out new products to see if they violate any patents.

In the United States, especially, companies that use weak patents to send patent infringement notices to dozens of small companies in an attempt to extract financial settlements have caused debate.

"Critics allege this is a real problem," explained Jeremy DeBeer, a law professor at the University of Ottawa who specializes in intellectual property. "It's gumming up the innovation system and it frustrates other companies and stifles innovation and productivity as a whole."

But Veschi argues Rockstar is not a patent troll. Rockstar's patents are of a strong pedigree and the company assembles strong proof before claiming patent infringement, he said.

"There's lots of people who have paid substantial amounts of money for licences, and there's other people who haven't. And it's not fair for them to quote-unquote free ride," said Veschi. "They'll use your [intellectual property] as long as they can get away with it."

Canada and the United States have strong innovation, because they have strong systems for protecting inventors and patents, Veschi argued. He sees Rockstar as the next chapter in the Nortel story, one that proves the importance of its intellectual property.

"I don't think a week goes by where they don't find another patent in the portfolio and say, "Holy moly, look at this patent," said Veschi. "At some point, we'll have found the last golden nugget. But it feels like that's a long time away."

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BlackBerry says 3 more executives are out

BlackBerry's chief marketing, technical and operating executives all left the company on Monday.

BlackBerry's chief operating officer, chief technical officer and chief marketing officer are leaving the company, the Waterloo, Ont.-based smartphone maker said in a release today.

COO Kristian Tear and CMO Frank Boulben are leaving the company, effective immediately, the company said Monday. 

BlackBerry also announced that James Yersh will replace Brian Bidulka as CFO, although the latter will stay with the company in an advisory role.

Yersh has been with BlackBerry since 2008 and was previously the company's comptroller and in charge of compliance issues.

The company also announced that long-serving board member Roger Martin, dean of the University of Toronto's business school, has stepped down.

The changes come as BlackBerry reworks its operations in an effort to reduce costs and downsize amid deepened financial losses.

During the past few months, the company has announced that it will lay off 40 per cent of its staff, or about 4,500 employees

The executive departures, however, are the first since John Chen was named chair and interim CEO earlier this month.

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1 million Xbox One consoles sold on 1st day

Microsoft Corp. says it sold over 1 million of its new Xbox One game consoles within 24 hours of their launch in 13 countries this past Friday. (The Associated Press)

Microsoft Corp sold over 1 million of its new Xbox One game consoles within 24 hours of their hitting store shelves on Friday, on par with Sony Corp's PlayStation 4 despite launching in far more countries.

The new console, which launched in 13 countries, set a record for first-day Xbox sales and is currently sold out at most retailers, Microsoft said in a statement.

Sony said it sold 1 million PS4 units in 24 hours after launching Nov. 15 in just the United States and Canada. The PS4 expands to other regions, including Europe, Australia and South America, from Nov. 29. It then hits Japan in February.

Microsoft is locked in a console war with Sony this holiday season. The software giant hopes the Xbox One not only entices gamers but attracts a broader consumer base of TV fans and music lovers with its interactive entertainment features and media apps.

"We are working hard to create more Xbox One consoles," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing and strategy at Xbox.

Robert W. Baird & Co analyst Colin Sebastian has said he expects shipments of 2.5 million to 3 million units for both the Xbox One and PS4 in the fourth quarter.

Both the PS4, priced at $400 in the Canada, and the Xbox One, with a price tag of $500, offer improved graphics for realistic effects, processors that allow faster game play and a slew of exclusive video games.

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Stealing cable and WiFi? New cyberbullying law isn't just about child porn

When Justice Minister Peter MacKay unveiled the federal government's proposed cyberbullying law on Wednesday, he touted it as a necessary tool to combat the often hurtful spread of intimate images. To emphasize the underlying point, he made the announcement during national Bullying Awareness Week.

But legal experts were left wondering why a piece of legislation that is meant to rein in online tormentors is also taking on terror suspects and people who steal cable TV signals.

"There is a much larger agenda at play here," says Rob Currie, director of the Law and Technology Institute at Dalhousie University.

Under the banner of anti-cyberbullying measures, the government is "trying to push through a number of things that have to do with law enforcement but nothing to do with cyberbullying."

Among other things, these new measures include giving police easier access to the metadata that internet service providers and phone companies keep on every call and email.

MacKay has acknowledged that law enforcement did not have the tools to prevent the deaths of Canadian teens such as Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd, who endured years of torment online. C-13 would give police a greater ability to investigate incidents of cyberbullying by giving courts the right to seize computers, phones and other devices used in an alleged offence.

5 years in prison

Under the proposed legislation, anyone who posts or transmits an "intimate image" of another individual without that person's consent could face up to five years in prison.

Leah Parsons, mother of the late Rehtaeh Parsons, the Nova Scotia teen who died following a suicide attempt, is greeted by Justice Minister Peter MacKay as they attend a roundtable discussion on cybercrime in Halifax in October. (Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)

​

MacKay said C-13, also known as the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, reflected the government's commitment "to ensuring that our children are safe from online predators and from online exploitation."

Since introducing the bill, MacKay has said that C-13 is also meant to update the Criminal Code to reflect modern communications such as email and social media.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony says that it is a necessary step, given that some aspects of the Criminal Code pertaining to communications still refer to outmoded technologies such as telegrams.

"I don't know what the [government's] motivation is, but there is a logical theme to all of this, in the sense that it's trying to modernize [the code] for the digital age," he says. 

Currie, however, raises concerns about the breadth of C-13, which not only addresses cyberbullying, but also gives police heightened powers of surveillance to track terror suspects as well as individuals who use computer programs to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service.

Currie likens the omnibus nature of C-13 to Bill C-30, also known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, which was introduced in February 2012 by then-public safety minister Vic Toews.

"It was supposed to be all about [fighting] child porn, but it had all kinds of other stuff in it," Currie says.

The 'other stuff'

That other "stuff" included lawful access provisions, which would force internet service providers to hand over customer information to police without a warrant. This led to a public outcry and the government's abandonment of the bill.

Although C-30 was ostensibly killed in 2012, Michael Geist, a cyber-law expert at the University of Ottawa, says that the government has been inconsistent about its position on some of the key issues surrounding lawful access to private communications.

Earlier this year, then justice minister Rob Nicholson pledged that the government "will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30."

Still, Andrea Slane, a law professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, says C-13 is in many ways "identical" to its failed predecessor — though one of the key differences is that C-13 emphasizes judicial oversight.

For the most part, the new bill still observes "the checks and balances around what judges are meant to do to make sure warrants are issued" where they are supposed to be.

That said, one thing the new bill does is allow ISPs to voluntarily give customer information to police without civil or criminal liability, Slane points out.  

"That's the one that's most sticky for me," she says, because it was this kind of legislation that led to widespread surveillance in the U.S.

Geist says C-13 gives police greater access to metadata, which is the information that ISPs and phone companies keep on every call and email, and he adds that in some ways metadata can be more revealing than the substance of a phone call or email.

Metadata will enable police to pinpoint a suspect's "geographic location. It will tell who they were talking to, it will tell what device they were using," Geist told CBC.

Currie says that, within C-13, there are proposed amendments to other acts, including the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, which allows Canadian police to gather evidence on individuals in Canada because a foreign state has requested it.

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's privacy commissioner, has not had a chance to examine the bill. But her office released a statement to CBC saying C-13 "appears to be a complex bill, and we will be examining all of its privacy implications and preparing to provide our full analysis and recommendations before the parliamentary committee that will be studying the legislation."

Currie acknowledges that the bill strengthens many of the law enforcement tools needed to stem cyberbullying. But he takes issue with the sheer size of the legislation.

"This government has a history of introducing large omnibus bills that have all kinds of stuff in them – unrelated things all under the banner of one legislation," he says.

"The problem with that is it inhibits democratic debate. There are lots of evidence-gathering tools here that we need to have a debate about."

With files from Alison Crawford

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What today's forensic science would say about JFK's murder

The assassination of U.S. president John Fitzgerald Kennedy is remembered today, 50 years after the deadly shooting, in part for the conspiracy theories surrounding it and the possibility of a second shooter in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald, who was charged with the murder.

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur looked into how modern ballistic science and technology would have helped solve the mystery of who shot JFK and whether they could be applied to the forensic evidence that still exists. 

Today, techniques such as multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) can help trace the path of the bullet to estimate the shooter's angle and distance from the victim, and to determine whether a wound was due to the exit or entry of the bullet. Other strategies such as using a "frangible ballistic head" to recreate crime scenes can also help find out "whodunnit."

But the JFK assassination didn't have these modern techniques and cannot benefit from them now with conclusive proof. Instead, Kachur found, scientists are left with lively and thorough debates in the literature about the metallurgy of the bullet casings, computer simulations of the path of the "magic bullet" and continual analysis of grainy video footage from that fateful day. 

The evidence doesn't point to Lee Harvey Oswald having a partner, Kachur discovered, nor does it conclusively prove he acted alone.  We may simply never know.

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Ancient palace wine cellar held sophisticated vintages

Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a Canaanite palace in Israel, and chemical analysis shows this is where they kept the good stuff.

Samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets, researchers said.

"It's not wine that somebody is just going to come home from a hard day and kick back and drink," said Andrew Koh of Brandeis University. He found signs of a blend of ingredients that may have included honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and cinnamon bark.

The discovery confirms how sophisticated wines were at that time, something suggested only by ancient texts, said Eric Cline of George Washington University. He, Koh and Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa in Israel spoke to reporters Thursday before their work was presented Friday at a meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

The wine cellar was found this summer in palace ruins near the modern town of Nahariya in northern Israel. Researchers found 40 ceramic jars, each big enough to hold about 13 gallons (49 litres), in a single room. There may be more wine stored elsewhere, but the amount found so far wouldn't be enough to supply the local population, which is why the researchers believe it was reserved for palace use, Cline said.

The unmarked jars are all similar as if made by the same potter, Yasur-Landau said. Chemical analysis indicates that the jars held red wine and possibly white wine, Koh said. No liquid was left, and he analyzed residues he had removed from the jars.

Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania, an expert in ancient winemaking, said the discovery "sheds important new light" on the development of winemaking in ancient Canaan, from which it later spread to Egypt and across the Mediterranean. He said the chemical analysis would have to be published before the ingredients of the wine could be assessed.

Curtis Runnels, an archaeologist at Boston University, called the finding significant not only in showing the sophistication of the wine, but also in suggesting that it was meant specifically for palace use. He noted that the chemical analysis showed each jar held wine from the same recipe, showing the "consistency and control you'd expect in a palace."

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Stealing cable and WiFi? New cyberbullying law isn't just about child porn

When Justice Minister Peter MacKay unveiled the federal government's proposed cyberbullying law on Wednesday, he touted it as a necessary tool to combat the often hurtful spread of intimate images. To emphasize the underlying point, he made the announcement during national Bullying Awareness Week.

But legal experts were left wondering why a piece of legislation that is meant to rein in online tormentors is also taking on terror suspects and people who steal cable TV signals.

"There is a much larger agenda at play here," says Rob Currie, director of the Law and Technology Institute at Dalhousie University.

Under the banner of anti-cyberbullying measures, the government is "trying to push through a number of things that have to do with law enforcement but nothing to do with cyberbullying."

Among other things, these new measures include giving police easier access to the metadata that internet service providers and phone companies keep on every call and email.

MacKay has acknowledged that law enforcement did not have the tools to prevent the deaths of Canadian teens such as Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd, who endured years of torment online. C-13 would give police a greater ability to investigate incidents of cyberbullying by giving courts the right to seize computers, phones and other devices used in an alleged offence.

5 years in prison

Under the proposed legislation, anyone who posts or transmits an "intimate image" of another individual without that person's consent could face up to five years in prison.

Leah Parsons, mother of the late Rehtaeh Parsons, the Nova Scotia teen who died following a suicide attempt, is greeted by Justice Minister Peter MacKay as they attend a roundtable discussion on cybercrime in Halifax in October. (Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)

​

MacKay said C-13, also known as the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, reflected the government's commitment "to ensuring that our children are safe from online predators and from online exploitation."

Since introducing the bill, MacKay has said that C-13 is also meant to update the Criminal Code to reflect modern communications such as email and social media.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony says that it is a necessary step, given that some aspects of the Criminal Code pertaining to communications still refer to outmoded technologies such as telegrams.

"I don't know what the [government's] motivation is, but there is a logical theme to all of this, in the sense that it's trying to modernize [the code] for the digital age," he says. 

Currie, however, raises concerns about the breadth of C-13, which not only addresses cyberbullying, but also gives police heightened powers of surveillance to track terror suspects as well as individuals who use computer programs to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service.

Currie likens the omnibus nature of C-13 to Bill C-30, also known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, which was introduced in February 2012 by then-public safety minister Vic Toews.

"It was supposed to be all about [fighting] child porn, but it had all kinds of other stuff in it," Currie says.

The 'other stuff'

That other "stuff" included lawful access provisions, which would force internet service providers to hand over customer information to police without a warrant. This led to a public outcry and the government's abandonment of the bill.

Although C-30 was ostensibly killed in 2012, Michael Geist, a cyber-law expert at the University of Ottawa, says that the government has been inconsistent about its position on some of the key issues surrounding lawful access to private communications.

Earlier this year, then justice minister Rob Nicholson pledged that the government "will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30."

Still, Andrea Slane, a law professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, says C-13 is in many ways "identical" to its failed predecessor — though one of the key differences is that C-13 emphasizes judicial oversight.

For the most part, the new bill still observes "the checks and balances around what judges are meant to do to make sure warrants are issued" where they are supposed to be.

That said, one thing the new bill does is allow ISPs to voluntarily give customer information to police without civil or criminal liability, Slane points out.  

"That's the one that's most sticky for me," she says, because it was this kind of legislation that led to widespread surveillance in the U.S.

Geist says C-13 gives police greater access to metadata, which is the information that ISPs and phone companies keep on every call and email, and he adds that in some ways metadata can be more revealing than the substance of a phone call or email.

Metadata will enable police to pinpoint a suspect's "geographic location. It will tell who they were talking to, it will tell what device they were using," Geist told CBC.

Currie says that, within C-13, there are proposed amendments to other acts, including the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, which allows Canadian police to gather evidence on individuals in Canada because a foreign state has requested it.

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's privacy commissioner, has not had a chance to examine the bill. But her office released a statement to CBC saying C-13 "appears to be a complex bill, and we will be examining all of its privacy implications and preparing to provide our full analysis and recommendations before the parliamentary committee that will be studying the legislation."

Currie acknowledges that the bill strengthens many of the law enforcement tools needed to stem cyberbullying. But he takes issue with the sheer size of the legislation.

"This government has a history of introducing large omnibus bills that have all kinds of stuff in them – unrelated things all under the banner of one legislation," he says.

"The problem with that is it inhibits democratic debate. There are lots of evidence-gathering tools here that we need to have a debate about."

With files from Alison Crawford

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

What today's forensic science would say about JFK's murder

The assassination of U.S. president John Fitzgerald Kennedy is remembered today, 50 years after the deadly shooting, in part for the conspiracy theories surrounding it and the possibility of a second shooter in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald, who was charged with the murder.

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur

CBC science columnist Torah Kachur looked into how modern ballistic science and technology would have helped solve the mystery of who shot JFK and whether they could be applied to the forensic evidence that still exists. 

Today, techniques such as multi-detector computed tomography (MDCT) can help trace the path of the bullet to estimate the shooter's angle and distance from the victim, and to determine whether a wound was due to the exit or entry of the bullet. Other strategies such as using a "frangible ballistic head" to recreate crime scenes can also help find out "whodunnit."

But the JFK assassination didn't have these modern techniques and cannot benefit from them now with conclusive proof. Instead, Kachur found, scientists are left with lively and thorough debates in the literature about the metallurgy of the bullet casings, computer simulations of the path of the "magic bullet" and continual analysis of grainy video footage from that fateful day. 

The evidence doesn't point to Lee Harvey Oswald having a partner, Kachur discovered, nor does it conclusively prove he acted alone.  We may simply never know.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Ancient palace wine cellar held sophisticated vintages

Scientists have uncovered a 3,700-year-old wine cellar in the ruins of a Canaanite palace in Israel, and chemical analysis shows this is where they kept the good stuff.

Samples from the ceramic jars suggest they held a luxurious beverage that was evidently reserved for banquets, researchers said.

"It's not wine that somebody is just going to come home from a hard day and kick back and drink," said Andrew Koh of Brandeis University. He found signs of a blend of ingredients that may have included honey, mint, cedar, tree resins and cinnamon bark.

The discovery confirms how sophisticated wines were at that time, something suggested only by ancient texts, said Eric Cline of George Washington University. He, Koh and Assaf Yasur-Landau of the University of Haifa in Israel spoke to reporters Thursday before their work was presented Friday at a meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

The wine cellar was found this summer in palace ruins near the modern town of Nahariya in northern Israel. Researchers found 40 ceramic jars, each big enough to hold about 13 gallons (49 litres), in a single room. There may be more wine stored elsewhere, but the amount found so far wouldn't be enough to supply the local population, which is why the researchers believe it was reserved for palace use, Cline said.

The unmarked jars are all similar as if made by the same potter, Yasur-Landau said. Chemical analysis indicates that the jars held red wine and possibly white wine, Koh said. No liquid was left, and he analyzed residues he had removed from the jars.

Patrick McGovern of the University of Pennsylvania, an expert in ancient winemaking, said the discovery "sheds important new light" on the development of winemaking in ancient Canaan, from which it later spread to Egypt and across the Mediterranean. He said the chemical analysis would have to be published before the ingredients of the wine could be assessed.

Curtis Runnels, an archaeologist at Boston University, called the finding significant not only in showing the sophistication of the wine, but also in suggesting that it was meant specifically for palace use. He noted that the chemical analysis showed each jar held wine from the same recipe, showing the "consistency and control you'd expect in a palace."

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New cyberbullying law has 'larger agenda,' expands police powers

When Justice Minister Peter MacKay unveiled the federal government's proposed cyberbullying law on Wednesday, he touted it as a necessary tool to combat the often hurtful spread of intimate images. To emphasize the underlying point, he made the announcement during national Bullying Awareness Week.

But legal experts were left wondering why a piece of legislation that is meant to rein in online tormentors is also taking on terror suspects and people who steal cable TV signals.

"There is a much larger agenda at play here," says Rob Currie, director of the Law and Technology Institute at Dalhousie University.

Under the banner of anti-cyberbullying measures, the government is "trying to push through a number of things that have to do with law enforcement but nothing to do with cyberbullying."

Among other things, these new measures include giving police easier access to the metadata that internet service providers and phone companies keep on every call and email.

MacKay has acknowledged that law enforcement did not have the tools to prevent the deaths of Canadian teens such as Rehtaeh Parsons and Amanda Todd, who endured years of torment online. C-13 would give police a greater ability to investigate incidents of cyberbullying by giving courts the right to seize computers, phones and other devices used in an alleged offence.

5 years in prison

Under the proposed legislation, anyone who posts or transmits an "intimate image" of another individual without that person's consent could face up to five years in prison.

Leah Parsons, mother of the late Rehtaeh Parsons, the Nova Scotia teen who died following a suicide attempt, is greeted by Justice Minister Peter MacKay as they attend a roundtable discussion on cybercrime in Halifax in October. (Andrew Vaughan / Canadian Press)

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MacKay said C-13, also known as the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, reflected the government's commitment "to ensuring that our children are safe from online predators and from online exploitation."

Since introducing the bill, MacKay has said that C-13 is also meant to update the Criminal Code to reflect modern communications such as email and social media.

Toronto internet lawyer Gil Zvulony says that it is a necessary step, given that some aspects of the Criminal Code pertaining to communications still refer to outmoded technologies such as telegrams.

"I don't know what the [government's] motivation is, but there is a logical theme to all of this, in the sense that it's trying to modernize [the code] for the digital age," he says. 

Currie, however, raises concerns about the breadth of C-13, which not only addresses cyberbullying, but also gives police heightened powers of surveillance to track terror suspects as well as individuals who use computer programs to gain unpaid access to WiFi or cable TV service.

Currie likens the omnibus nature of C-13 to Bill C-30, also known as the Protecting Children from Internet Predators Act, which was introduced in February 2012 by then-public safety minister Vic Toews.

"It was supposed to be all about [fighting] child porn, but it had all kinds of other stuff in it," Currie says.

The 'other stuff'

That other "stuff" included lawful access provisions, which would force internet service providers to hand over customer information to police without a warrant. This led to a public outcry and the government's abandonment of the bill.

Although C-30 was ostensibly killed in 2012, Michael Geist, a cyber-law expert at the University of Ottawa, says that the government has been inconsistent about its position on some of the key issues surrounding lawful access to private communications.

Earlier this year, then justice minister Rob Nicholson pledged that the government "will not be proceeding with Bill C-30 and any attempts that we will continue to have to modernize the Criminal Code will not contain the measures contained in C-30."

Still, Andrea Slane, a law professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, says C-13 is in many ways "identical" to its failed predecessor — though one of the key differences is that C-13 emphasizes judicial oversight.

For the most part, the new bill still observes "the checks and balances around what judges are meant to do to make sure warrants are issued" where they are supposed to be.

That said, one thing the new bill does is allow ISPs to voluntarily give customer information to police without civil or criminal liability, Slane points out.  

"That's the one that's most sticky for me," she says, because it was this kind of legislation that led to widespread surveillance in the U.S.

Geist says C-13 gives police greater access to metadata, which is the information that ISPs and phone companies keep on every call and email, and he adds that in some ways metadata can be more revealing than the substance of a phone call or email.

Metadata will enable police to pinpoint a suspect's "geographic location. It will tell who they were talking to, it will tell what device they were using," Geist told CBC.

Currie says that, within C-13, there are proposed amendments to other acts, including the Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters Act, which allows Canadian police to gather evidence on individuals in Canada because a foreign state has requested it.

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's privacy commissioner, has not had a chance to examine the bill. But her office released a statement to CBC saying C-13 "appears to be a complex bill, and we will be examining all of its privacy implications and preparing to provide our full analysis and recommendations before the parliamentary committee that will be studying the legislation."

Currie acknowledges that the bill strengthens many of the law enforcement tools needed to stem cyberbullying. But he takes issue with the sheer size of the legislation.

"This government has a history of introducing large omnibus bills that have all kinds of stuff in them – unrelated things all under the banner of one legislation," he says.

"The problem with that is it inhibits democratic debate. There are lots of evidence-gathering tools here that we need to have a debate about."

With files from Alison Crawford

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Neutrinos from deep space detected on Earth

High-energy subatomic particles called neutrinos from beyond our solar system have been detected on Earth for the first time ever.

The researchers involved say the discovery opens up a new area of astronomy and has the potential to answer a question that has puzzled astronomers for a century: Where do cosmic rays come from?

"It really is the dawn of a new field," said Darren Grant, a University of Alberta physicist, who was part of an international scientific collaboration called IceCube that reported the recent detection of 28 extremely high-energy neutrinos in Antarctica that are thought to have come from space.

The results were published online Thursday in the journal Science.

Astrophysicists had theorized that extremely high-energy extraterrestrial neutrinos – more energetic than any produced on Earth or by the sun - would be blasted out by the same catastrophic events in deep space that are thought to generate cosmic rays.

Now, Grant says, scientists have finally detected some.

"They're the highest energy neutrino events that have ever been measured… It's proof that they came from outside the Earth."

Two of the neutrinos had energies above a whopping petaelectron volt. That's 125 times the 8 teraelectronvolt energy of the record proton collisions generated by world's biggest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, and billions of times the energy of neutrinos produced by the sun.

Cosmic ray mystery

Cosmic rays, discovered more than a century ago, are extremely high-energy radiation that travels through space and strikes the Earth. Astrophysicists have theorized that they might be produced by extreme catastrophic events in deep space, such as supernovas, black holes, pulsars, or galactic nuclei — the merger of two black holes.

The IceCube detector is a block of extremely clear ice one cubic kilometre in size and 1.5 to two kilometres below the surface. The ice is embedded with 5,160 sensors which were lowered in strings into the ice during construction of the detector. (Image courtesy of Jim Haugen, IceCube/NSF)

But it's hard to determine the origin of cosmic rays because they are made up of charged particles and therefore are deflected by magnetic fields that send them on a circuitous path through space.

Consequently, "everything we know about the universe at the moment is from studying photons" or light, said Olga Botner, an Uppsala University researcher and the official spokesperson for IceCube, in an interview with Science.

Light generally travels in straight lines, but can be blocked matter such as intergalactic dust, or altered in certain ways - for example, its colour may be affected by certain things.

On the other hand, neutrinos have little mass, no charge and interact very weakly with matter, meaning they can theoretically journey billions of light years to the Earth without slowing, stopping or touching anything.

"It really makes them an ideal messenger particle," Grant said.

That means the space neutrinos recently detected by IceCube are almost exactly as they were when they were produced and carry "pristine" information about the event that produced them.

They also likely point directly back to their source — also a likely source of cosmic rays — even if it is millions or billions of light years away.

Creating a skymap

The IceCube researchers have started creating a sky map of the directions that the high-energy neutrinos came from.

So far, while they cluster in certain areas, they don't yet pinpoint specific locations in the sky. Grant said that will happen as IceCube gathers more data.

This is the remnant of Kepler's supernova, the famous explosion that was discovered by Johannes Kepler in 1604. Catastrophic cosmic events such as supernovas are thought to generate high-energy neutrinos and cosmic rays. (Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/NCSU/M.Burkey et al; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech)

"Then you turn to your favourite astronomer and you say what's in the sky? What's there that could produce these high energy events?" he said.

"That will give us the first definitive identification of what's causing the production of these particles."

That may also provide clues about the origin of the high-energy cosmic rays, which likely originate from the same events.

The reason why neutrinos from space have never been found before is that they are very hard to detect, partly because they rarely interact with anything.

Researchers needed a huge detector in order to increase the chance of interaction with such rare neutrinos.

One cubic kilometre detector

IceCube is a block of extremely clear ice one cubic kilometre in size and 1.5 to two kilometres below the surface, where it is very dark and high pressures keep the ice clear and bubble-free. The ice is embedded with 5,160 sensors that detect very faint amounts of light.

Very rarely, neutrinos will interact with the ice itself as they pass through the detector. When that happens, Grant said, they produce a charged particle such as an electron. Typically, light travels fastest in a vacuum and more slowly in ice. But a particle produced by a neutrino interacting with the ice travels faster than the typical speed of light in ice.

When it does that, a burst of blue light, known as Cherenkhov radiation, is produced. Grant described it as "almost the optical equivalent of sonic boom."

The higher energy the neutrino, the more ice it lights up, and a high-energy cosmic neutrino lights up "an enormous amount of the detector." In fact, a large detector is also needed to capture all of the energy from a single neutrino of this kind.

The IceCube collaboration first looked only for neutrinos above 1 petaelectronvolt and detected the two most energetic neutrinos in April 2012. They then went back and searched through their data and found 26 of slightly lower energies, but above 30 teraelectronvolts that were detected between May 2010 and May 2012. While some of these less high-energy neutrinos may have been produced by cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere, the calculations suggest that most of them likely came from space.

The data was analyzed in such a way as to exclude, as much as possible, neutrinos that didn't come from space and other types of particles that may have tripped off the detector.

Canada played a key role in the study by crunching data with a federally funded computer cluster at the University of Alberta called Westgrid.

"One hundred per cent of our reconstructions and simulations were run there, and without it, I don't think we would have been able to do all of the work that was required," said Nathan Whitehorn, a researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who had presented the preliminary results at a conference in May.

The IceCube collaboration includes 250 physicists and engineers from Canada, the U.S., Germany, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, the U.K. and Korea. The detector cost $279 million US ($290 million) and was completed in December 2010, but had already started collecting data before completion.

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Microsoft's Xbox One hits store shelves

And now it's Xbox's turn.

Microsoft's new Xbox One console went on sale today, one week after the release of the rival PlayStation 4.

Microsoft says the supply of the new $499 consoles is its biggest ever. But with record pre-orders — more than double those of the Xbox 360 back in November 2005 — the consoles may be hard to find.

"We expect the demand to be really high through the holiday (season)," said Craig Flannagan, director of marketing Xbox for Microsoft Canada.

Flannagan says the new console ups the ante on both games and the multiplayer experience, with improved match-making.

"We've made a lot of improvements to that Xbox Live service that our 360 owners already know and love," he added.

There are 48 million Xbox Live subscribers around the world.

Games remain the prime Xbox One draw, although the console offers a wide menu of entertainment around them.

"We've taken games to the next level," Flannagan said. "They look amazing, they play amazing."

Flannagan points to launch titles such as Forza Motorsports 5, a lush racing game. The launch offerings also include Dead Rising 3, the latest instalment of the zombie franchise from Capcom Vancouver, and the new Ryse: Son of Rome from the developer Crytek.

There is also buzz about the first-person shooter Titanfall, due out in the spring from Respawn Entertainment, formed by Jason West and Vince Zampella who were the co-founders of Infinity Ward and creators of the Call of Duty franchise.

"Many people will say that's the most anticipated title. It won a lot of awards at E3," said Flannagan.

Microsoft has also expanded the non-game experience. You can watch live TV on the console, switching back and forth between gaming and TV. You can even have TV on the screen while playing a game.

The Xbox One is billed as an all-in-one entertainment device, but designed to allow gamers to keep playing their game while watching TV or listening to music, Microsoft says. (Associated Press)

"Even the entertainment that we've built, we've built with the gamer in mind so they can always be playing their game while they watch TV, while they watch a movie, while they listen to music, while they surf the web," said Flannagan.

TV on the 360 was on demand or streaming, depending on what app was used. Xbox One takes the feed from your TV provider into the console, which is then plugged into the TV.

Game DVR on Xbox One allows you to record game play and share it with your friends.

An improved Kinect sensor, which allows gamers to use gestures and voice to interact and give commands, is now part of the console and not an extra.

The new PlayStation arrived a week earlier and $100 cheaper. But Flannagan believes Xbox One's entertainment value still leads the way.

The Xbox One console will not play Xbox 360 games, however. Flannagan says a healthy menu of 360 games will continue to be produced as Microsoft looks to service its 76 million-plus installed base.

Titanfall will be also available for the 360 when it comes out. But Ryse is just for Xbox One.

The original Xbox was released in 2001.

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Volcano raises new island in Pacific's 'Ring of Fire'

A volcanic eruption has raised an island in the seas to the far south of Tokyo, the Japanese Coast Guard and earthquake experts said.

Advisories from the coast guard and the Japan Meteorological Agency said the islet is about 200 metres in diameter. It is just off the coast of Nishinoshima, a small, uninhabited island in the Ogasawara chain, which is also known as the Bonin Islands.

The approximately 30 islands are 1,000 kilometres south of Tokyo, and along with the rest of Japan are part of the seismically active Pacific "Ring of Fire."

The coast guard issued an advisory Wednesday warning of heavy black smoke from the eruption. Television footage seen Thursday showed heavy smoke, ash and rocks exploding from the crater, as steam billowed into the sky.

A volcanologist with the coast guard, Hiroshi Ito, told the FNN news network that it was possible the new island might be eroded away.

"But it also could remain permanently," he said.

The last time the volcanoes in the area are known to have erupted was in the mid-1970s. Much of the volcanic activity occurs under the sea, which extends thousands of metres deep along the Izu-Ogasawara-Marianas Trench.

Japan's chief government spokesman welcomed the news of yet another bit, however tiny, of new territory.

"This has happened before and in some cases the islands disappeared," Yoshihide Suga said when asked if the government was planning on naming the new island.

"If it becomes a full-fledged island, we would be happy to have more territory."

The Japanese archipelago has thousands of islands. In some cases, they help anchor claims to wide expanses of ocean overlying potentially lucrative energy and mineral resources.

Japan has plans to build port facilities and transplant fast-growing coral fragments onto Okinotorishima, two rocky outcroppings even further south of Tokyo, to boost its claim in a territorial dispute with China.

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