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Weekly News Recap: November 12, 2021

Vincent Duckworth

Weekly News Recap: November 12, 2021

Marion Buller—influential Indigenous legal scholar and the chief commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)—has been named the University of Victoria’s 12th chancellor. She begins a three-year term on Jan. 1, 2022.

Whatever you lost from fate, be certain that it saved you from pain. -- Rumi

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • Calgary teen knits 105 hats for annual donation to drop-in centre (CBC) CALGARY STORY I love knitting. "For the past five years a young Calgarian has been spending hundreds of hours knitting hats to donate to one of the city's drop-in centres. [...] She started this annual donation of knitted hats as a way to do something she loved while helping others."

  • In Venezuela, a Rum Maker Offers Gangsters a Life Outside of Crime (New York Times) There is always hope. "They once used the house to hide their kidnapping victims as they awaited ransom. Now they are converting it into an office for a rum distribution business. The drastic shift by the crime boss Luis Oropeza and his gang is part of an unusual social reintegration project that has brought relative calm to the town of Sabaneta as lawlessness engulfs much of Venezuela."

  • Bay Area couple takes hilarious engagement photos at Berkeley Bowl (SFGate) These are great. "When Joey Chiang and Melody Yu were debating locations for their engagement photos, the usual scenic Bay Area spots just didn’t quite fit. Sure, the Legion of Honor and the Golden Gate Bridge are beautiful, but they weren’t special to the couple."

  • How the Maestro Got His Hands Back (GQ) "A lifetime of brutal injuries and misfortune robbed the world-renowned pianist João Carlos Martins of the ability to play his instrument. And then along came an eccentric designer and his bionic gloves."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. Two Rich Men Decided to Fund a Failing City. Some People Say They Made It Worse (Time) I have always wondered about this story. "But beyond the construction crews and new pickleball courts, a tension hums below the surface of Kalamazoo’s budget miracle. There’s a long history in the U.S. of the rich stepping in to fund cultural amenities like museums, but lately they’ve started stepping in to fund projects—in Kalamazoo and elsewhere—that have long been perceived as the government’s responsibility. It’s a scenario that critics say sets the stage for the super wealthy to control more and more aspects of public life."

  2. Employability rules: Students in Canada are prioritizing programs that offer skills training (Globe and Mail) CANADIAN STORY Colleges are now more attractive than universities. "Krysten Payne, whose father was a teacher, remembers being strongly encouraged to choose university over college after high school. Payne, 29, describes himself as someone who likes to work with his hands – his first clue that university maybe wasn’t the best route to his dream job. Still, to please his family, Payne struck a compromise with his parents. He took applied technology courses after high school at Antigua and Barbuda Institute of Technology. From there, he studied at Toronto’s Seneca College, in a transfer program that qualifies graduates for university degree programs."

  3. Calgary Zoo Foundation re-brands to reflect expanding purpose (LiveWire Calgary) CALGARY STORY I like it. "It’s a wild world out there, but not wild enough for the Calgary Zoo Foundation. The Calgary Zoo Foundation was renamed to the Wilder Institute [...] to better reflect the changing goals of the conservation organization to protect and expand biodiversity in the wild. 'This is not a revolution—this is an evolution of our conservation commitment' said Dr. Clément Lanthier, president and CEO of The Calgary Zoo, and now the Wilder Institute."

  4. charity:water and other mega-charities, we need to talk about your harmful, archaic views on overhead (Nonprofit AF) "Every year at about this time, as people become more inclined to donate to charity for the holidays, memes start floating around regarding nonprofit overhead rates. 'Don’t give to these orgs! Only 4 cents of every dollar you donate go to helping people! The other 96 cents go to mansions and truffles for their well-paid executives!'"

  5. Jewish Student Groups Criticize Oxford University’s Decision to Accept Donation From Family of Notorious British Fascist Oswald Mosley (The Algemeiner) "Jewish student groups at Oxford University strongly criticized the university’s decision to accept a donation from the family of a notorious British fascist leader, saying that it 'serves to commemorate and revere' his legacy. As originally reported in the Telegraph, Oxford received a donation of £6 million ($8.1 million) from a charitable trust that Max Mosley set up with an inheritance from his father Oswald Mosley. Oswald Mosley was the leader of the British Union of Fascists, which during the 1930s was the vanguard of the UK far-right and a strong supporter of fascist movements throughout Europe, including the Nazi party."

  6. Movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground gaining momentum in Canada and abroad (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "The movement to keep oil and gas in the ground has reached Canada, as Quebec joined the Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance this week — becoming the first North American member of a new group being launched at the United Nations climate conference in Glasgow that wants to phase out the production of oil and gas. It comes after the Quebec government committed to permanently ban all oil and gas exploration and extraction within the province, closing the door on the future exploitation of a significant amount of natural gas reserves that could supply the province with its own energy for decades — and providing a model for other provinces to follow."

  7. Enrolment drops in N.L.'s oil-focused engineering programs; students in it for change (CBC) NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR STORY "Newfoundland and Labrador's post-secondary institutions are seeing a steep drop in enrolment in oil-focused engineering programs as the province's offshore oil industry tries to claw its way out of a downturn. And many of those who have enrolled say they did so because they want to bring change to the industry in the era of climate change."

  8. Burnaby students rescind hunger strike threat after SFU commits to divestment of fossil fuels (Burnaby Now) BURNABY STORY "SFU students demanding university administrators commit to full divestment from fossil fuels are not going to move forward with a planned hunger strike. Students were set to begin the hunger strike [...] but withdrew when the university released a statement where they said they are committing to full divestment from fossil fuels by 2025. The students gave the university an ultimatum a month ago."

  9. Renowned Indigenous jurist and alumna Buller named UVic chancellor (CBC) VICTORIA STORY Great move UVic! "Marion Buller—influential Indigenous legal scholar and the chief commissioner of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG)—has been named the University of Victoria’s 12th chancellor. She begins a three-year term on Jan. 1, 2022. Buller is a member of the Mistawasis Nêhiyawak, a Cree First Nation in Saskatchewan. A longtime advocate for Indigenous issues and rights, in 1994 Buller was the initial First Nations woman to be appointed as a judge in British Columbia."

  10. Canadian Medical Association's first Indigenous president preparing to make change (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "The first Indigenous president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association is hoping to change the culture of medicine in Canada. Dr. Alika Lafontaine grew up on Treaty 4 territory in southern Saskatchewan. He is of Cree, Anishinaabe, Métis and Pacific Islander ancestry. Lafontaine is now working an anesthesiologist in Grande Prairie, Alta. He wants to improve health-care accessibility for Indigenous people."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. From inbox-zero to todo-list-zero (Practical Empathy) Are your to-do items "unfunded" mandates?

  2. Make Learning a Part of Your Daily Routine (Harvard Business Review) Daily learning is one of my superpowers.

  3. How to Get More Work Done Using the Zeigarnik Effect (Start It Up) I have found that just getting something started means it will often get done.

  4. A No-Equipment Move to Wake Up Your Glutes and Abs (Better Humans) My glutes and abs are likely the my weakest muscle group.

  5. I Tried Day Batching. It Changed My Life. (Better Humans) This is a cool concept. I have dabbled with it. I need to do more.

  6. I Started Blocking My Calendar For Six Days In 2020, And This Is What I Achieved (Anshul Kumar) Absolutely a must for me.

  7. These Four 1000+ Page Books Are Worth Every Second Spent Reading Them (Books Are Our Superpower) 3 of these are on my bucket list.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. New Kamloops hospital tower named after Gaglardi family following $15M donation (Kamloops Infonews.ca) KAMLOOPS STORY "A name was chosen for the new patient care tower at Royal Inland Hospital this week. The tower will be named the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower after their foundation donated $15M towards the building. Heidi Coleman, the CEO of the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation, said the donation was the biggest the hospital has ever received."

  2. College of Pharmacy renamed after $50 million philanthropic donation (The Daily. Wildcat) "The University of Arizona has renamed the College of Pharmacy to the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy after a $50 million donation by alumnus, entrepreneur and philanthropist R. Ken Coit."

  3. Vancouver Art Gallery receives $100M donation from Audain family for new building (CBC) VANCOUVER STORY #Boom "Vancouver's Audain family has donated $100 million toward the construction of the Vancouver Art Gallery's new building, a gift that's billed as the largest ever given to a gallery in Canada."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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