Weekly News Recap: December 22, 2023

Weekly News Recap: December 22, 2023

Pope Francis at the Vatican last year. The decision to allow blessings was based on his “pastoral vision,” officials said. Credit...Andreas Solaro/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The happiness that everyone desires, for that matter, can be expressed in any number of ways and attained only if we are capable of loving. This is the way. It is always a matter of love; there is no other path. -- Pope Francis.

SOME GOOD NEWS

  • Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex Couples (New York Times) Go Pope Francis! "The Vatican said that Pope Francis had allowed priests to bless same-sex couples, his most definitive step yet to make the Roman Catholic Church more welcoming to L.G.B.T.Q. Catholics and more reflective of his vision of a more pastoral, and less rigid, church."

  • Feel You with Me in Spirit, Heavenly Wishes 2023 ... (Fan Ho Photography) Some truly stunning photos.

  • VIDEO: Squirrels just wanna have fun: Thieving rodents steal outdoor lights in East Vancouver (CBC) CANADIAN CONTENT #MerryChristmas "Some East Vancouver residents say they're losing bulbs on their outdoor lights to the thieving rodents, who experts say also enjoy gnawing on the chewy cables. Hastings-Sunrise resident Karyn Lam says she caught squirrels in the act on her surveillance camera [...] after noticing about a dozen bulbs from her outdoor string lights had gone missing."

  • Birders atwitter as rare summer tanager makes flashy first-ever appearance near Victoria, B.C. (CBC) VICTORIA STORY Drat! Missed the big find. "For avid birder Ann Nightingale it was a dilemma of the best and worst kind. Last month, she was staking out a bird feeder in North Saanich on Vancouver Island hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare pygmy nuthatch that had been spotted in the Greater Victoria area for the first time in 40 years. That's when someone sent her a photo of an even rarer bird — a flaming red summer tanager — that had just been snapped a few kilometres away."

  • Canadians on Survivor are smart, strategic — and underestimated, ex-champ says (CBC) CANADIAN STORY "When Erika Casupanan of Toronto won the popular reality TV game show Survivor in 2021, she did it by flying under the radar, and working in the shadows. 'I really brought in my experience as being an underestimated Asian woman who went through the corporate world and so many professional settings where no matter how capable I was, people really wanted to underestimate me" said Casupanan, winner of Survivor's 41st season. 'I thought, OK, you know what, I'm going to take that and use that to everybody else's downfall.' And she did — outlasting other competitors, winning the $1 million prize and earning the title of sole survivor. The win made her the first Canadian to ever win the CBS reality game show, even though Canadians have only been allowed on the show for just a couple seasons."

  • VIDEO: Why this Edmonton family spent almost half a year getting ready for Christmas (CBC) EDMONTON STORY Clearly, this is a bit of an addiction. "It's a miniature Christmas village that runs on big holiday spirit. For Alberto Esguerra, building this winter wonderland means creating something that makes him and his family happy."

  • VIDEO: A change of heart — literally — moved this couple to renew their wedding vows (CBC) LABRADOUR STORY #Sweet "He proposed to me before the transplant and he said, 'If I get through this, marry me again,'" Bonita Pelley told CBC News at the ceremony. "And here we are, and this is 24 years later and we are so grateful."

  • Brutus is gone, but pet's owner says 'my heart feels fulfilled' after campaign gave him a loving sendoff (CBC) REGINA STORY RIP Brutus. "Brutus was a terminally ill Rottweiler in Regina that became a local sensation for a campaign Yahnke started to get him 1,000 pets from people before he died. The two of them were stationed at the Pet Valu in Southland Mall, where passersby could give Brutus a pet."

  • Ojibway translation of 1st Star Wars movie on the horizon, with auditions in Winnipeg next year (CBC) WINNIPEG STORY This is cool. "The first film in George Lucas's popular sci-fi series introduces many of the beloved characters, including Jedi knight Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo and his Wookiee co-pilot Chewbacca. It's only the second time the original Star Wars has been officially translated into an Indigenous language."

  • In a First, Nations at Climate Summit Agree to Move Away From Fossil Fuels (New York Times) It's a start. #Finally "For the first time since nations began meeting three decades ago to confront climate change, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a global pact that explicitly calls for 'transitioning away from fossil fuels' like oil, gas and coal that are dangerously heating the planet."

TOP TEN STORIES OF THE WEEK

  1. In case you weren't aware, outdoor cats are stone-cold killers (CBC) But we still love both of ours. "There are differing opinions on cats' personalities and behaviour: They're affectionate, they're aloof, they love you, they hate you. Then there's the undeniable fact of what they become when left to roam free outside: indiscriminate, stone-cold killers. A new study has found cats roaming free prey upon almost any animal, reptile, insect, and amphibian around the world – their hunting so prolific and so successful, the authors found, that it poses a legitimate threat to global biodiversity."

  2. No storybook ending for Life Savers fans this Christmas (CBC) CANADIAN STORY #EndOfAnEra "Each Christmas for the past four decades, Mel Campbell, 71, has bought the Life Savers Sweet Storybook for his daughters' stockings. When his three grandchildren were born, he started doing it for them too. Now, for the first time in all those years, Campbell hasn't been able to find the rolls of hard candy packaged in a little cardboard book — in recent years sold in Canada under the name 'Fun Books' — and he's worried it will mark the end of a longstanding holiday tradition."

  3. Alberta's renewable energy pause could become lingering stumble, observers say (CBC) ALBERTA STORY #Ugh "It was just supposed to be a pause, a breather for an overburdened regulator and concerned public to catch up with an industry growing beyond expectations. But for those who study the renewable electricity industry, as well as for those in it, the six-month moratorium on project approvals slated to come off in February could turn out to be a crucial stumble that costs Alberta its lead, perhaps forever."

  4. VIDEO: A volcano is erupting in Iceland, and it's pretty stunning to watch (CBC) [Fountains] of orange lava shot into the darkened sky from a fissure in the ground. Iceland, which sits just below the Arctic Circle and above a volcanic hotspot in the North Atlantic, has about 20 hours of darkness a day in December. Icelandic broadcaster RUV showed a live feed of the eruption on its website, as Christmas carols played in the background."

  5. 'My way of giving back': Police officer on Alberta First Nation force proud to serve his community (CBC) TSUUT'INA STORY "Const. Kenny Big Plume knows the snow-covered roads running through the Tsuut'ina reserve like the back of his hand. Big Plume, 33, was raised by his grandparents on the First Nation, which butts up against the southwest edge of Calgary. Six years ago, he became a member of the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service, one of three First Nation forces in Alberta."

  6. Reddit's r/AmItheAsshole community is thriving, ready and willing to pass judgment (CBC) Lolz. "In 2013, Marc Beaulac was facing a dilemma at work: there was an office conflict brewing over the thermostat, between the men who wanted it turned down and the women who wanted it higher. He felt that because the men were stuck wearing suits, the women should just dress warmer. But it left him wondering if maybe he was in the wrong. So he turned to the online discussion website Reddit and created a forum, known as a subreddit, where he explained the situation and then asked a simple question: Am I the asshole?"

  7. Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast, other stars mourn Andre Braugher on social media (CBC) A great actor. I remember him from Homicide: Life on the Street. RIP Mr. Braugher. We will not see your like again. "The Brooklyn Nine-Nine cast mourned co-star Andre Braugher on social media as other tributes poured in for the veteran TV actor, who died Monday at the age of 61 following a brief illness."

  8. City committee looks at designating Plaza Theatre as municipal heritage resource (CBC) CALGARY STORY We love the Plaza! "The City of Calgary's infrastructure and planning committee is considering designating the Plaza Theatre in the northwest neighbourhood of Kensington as a municipal heritage resource [...]. The historic independent theatre in Calgary's Kensington district was originally built as a car garage in 1928."

  9. VIDEO: Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids hopes to raise $1M (CTV) CALGARY STORY ViTreo is proud to have worked with BB4CK on a number of engagements. "A Calgary charity is hoping to raise $1 million this holiday season in an effort to keep up with increasing demand and rising food costs. Brown Bagging for Calgary's Kids(BB4CK) feeds more than 6,500 kids lunch every school day, but officials with the organization say they're seeing a hundred or more children entering the program every month. BB4CK executive director Bethany Ross says the agency distributes meals to children in more than 75 per cent of Calgary schools."

  10. The ‘big lie’ of borders addressed in speaker series (Lethbridge Herald) CANADIAN STORY #BordersAreStupid "What do the Suez Crisis, troubles in Ireland, Indo-Pakistani conflict and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have in common? Borders. These examples, like many international conflicts throughout history, were and are– at their core– about national land ownership and territory rights, upheld by invisible, manmade boundaries."

SEVEN LIFE AND CAREER HACKS

  1. Why I Am Always So Calm; How & WHY You Should Too (Better Advice) I aspire to always be calm. I am a work in progress.

  2. How I Turned My Company’s Docs into a Searchable Database with OpenAI (Toward Data Science) I am working on this as a project for ViTreo. This how-to is quite detailed.

  3. Create For No Other Reason Than To Make Your Soul Grow (Writers' Bloke) Having just finished Walter Isaacson's biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, I am in total agreement.

  4. What Strategy Questions are You Asking? (Roger Martin) As with many things, the questions are the most important.

  5. Enhancing Focus and Productivity: The Power of Mindfulness at Work (StoicinkUS) This will likely help my goal of calm (see above).

  6. The Power of Pen and Paper: Leverage Journaling to Supercharge Your Time Management (Kara Troester) I am leaning more and more to pen and paper...at least for some things.

  7. The best Canadian nonfiction of 2023 (CBC) CANADIAN STORY *Some great finds in here. I am especially intrigued by Races, Truth Telling, and Doppelgänger.

TOP THREE GIFTS OF THE WEEK

  1. Couple honours late sister with historic $10M donation to cancer care in Simcoe Muskoka (Global News) BARRIE STORY "A couple who lost a loved one to cancer are honouring their loved one in a big way, with a record-setting donation to the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre to expand the local cancer centre. Catherine and David Hudson have pledged a record-setting $10 million to Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre’s Keep Life Wild campaign."

  2. Policaro Group donates $1M to SickKids Foundation (Canadian Auto Dealer) TORONTO STORY "The Policaro Group recently announced that its foundation donated more than $1 million to the SickKids Foundation, headquartered in Toronto, Ont., bringing much-needed medical care to children in the area."

  3. Western receives $8.5M donation for hearing implant research (Windsor News Today) LONDON STORY As someone who suffers from hearing loss, I am all about this. "Western University has been given a multi-million dollar donation to further its research into hearing implants. MED-El, an Austria-based hearing implant company, has given the post secondary institution $8.5 million for the work. Western matched the donation to establish two new endowed research chairs – one in neurotology and translational hearing innovation and the other in auditory biophysics and engineering."

LAST WEEK'S MOST POPULAR STORIES

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