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Not finished with Earth

Well, damn. Seems we’ll be stuck on this spinning rock in space a while longer: humanity’s best shot at escape died a heavenly death this week. NASA announced it can’t fix the broken Kepler Spacecraft, tasked with solving an earth-shaking question, “Are Earths in the habitable zone of stars like our sun common or rare?”  Escape has been our thing for a while now. The Kepler mission (“A Search for Habitable Planets”) was just the latest. There was Icarus, of course. There are multiple religious or superstitious versions of an afterlife. There was the euphoria over the Age of Flight, illustrated in this

Media “vultures” and Mandela

About “media vultures.” Shame that bad behaviour by some media, and bad communication by those in charge, has become the story in Nelson Mandela’s fraught days.Nelson Mandela belongs not only to his relatives. Around the world there’s a sense of held breath and tight hearts. That outpouring of care needs respecting, by acknowledging our stake in his being and keeping us posted. I’d say he chose to give himself to the world. He is not a private family man, even now.But having been in packs of journalists, I’m also painfully aware of the ugly pack mentality – of the hyena-like

Behind the mask

By Deborah Jones As of today, it’s illegal in Canada to wear a mask during a riot or unlawful assembly. Under Bill C-309, just passed, conviction of breaking that law carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.  Mixed thoughts. First, a 10-year sentence, even if rarely imposed, is just crazy. Second, I think if citizens of a democracy have a point to make, under *most* circumstances we’re honour bound to stand up and be counted – in public, by identifying ourselves. Democracy can’t function otherwise.Third, in countries lacking rule of law, it might be impossible to protest governments or private corporations (think

The real “climategate” scandal isn’t scientific, it’s journalistic

By Chris Wood I can’t speak with authority on science. But after 35 years and a score of honours for documentaries, articles and books, I do know a thing or two about journalism. So I’ll let the academy decide whether the email behind ‘climategate’ exposed any scientific fraud. But I can say this: The real scandal here isn’t scientific. It’s journalistic. Under prominent bylines I read that the emails exposed man-made climate change as (a partial list): “the biggest fraud in history” (David Warren, the Ottawa Citizen); “one of the biggest scientific scams of our time” (Charles Adler, blog); “the biggest scientific hoax

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