World
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, the longest-serving justice on the court, is dead.
Scalia was found dead Saturday morning at a ranch outside of Marfa, Texas, where the justice had been hunting quail. The death was of natural causes, according to federal officials.
A priest has been called to Marfa to provide for the deceased.
Scalia served as justice on the Supreme Court since 1986 when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. He was 79 when he died.
Joggers and festival-goers will convene again this year for the world’s first night running music festival. The event will take place in 35 locations around the world, including two Canadian cities and dozens of U.S. cities.
The 2016 Night Nation Run now has over one million registered members.
On the night of the event, runners will dress up in bright colors and don glow-in-the-dark and illuminated items. Check-ins start at 5:30 p.m. The pre-party will begin at 7:30 p.m.
The run — along an illuminated 5 kilometer course — will be accompanied by live music, lights and lasers, and will start at 8:30 p.m.
At the end of the run, a party will be held for the runners, featuring fog, lights, cyro, confetti guns, and giveaways, besides the music — including a surprise headliner DJ.
The run will happen in Toronto on July 23 and Vancouver on August 6.
Tickets for the event cost $70, but early bird prices of $35 are available until February 12. Tickets include a T-shirt, race bib, and glow necklace, besides admission to all of the night’s events. Kids under 8 years old are free when they accompany a paying adult.
Proceeds from event tickets will go partly to fund the charity organization Stand Up To Cancer.
Night Nation Run is reminding all participants to bring a copy of their confirmation email to the event for faster processing.
By Andy Stern
A new development in Vancouver is getting a city first: a shared swimming pool with a glass bottom. Underneath the glass floor panes of the pool is a drop of 200 feet.
The architects of Concord Pacific’s upcoming building — called the ARC after its distinctive shape — are sacrificing residential space for iconic impact. It is estimated that the space unused inside the building’s “arc” would be worth millions if developed into dwellings, but in order to create a distinctive impression the company is forgoing the revenue.
“What we realized is that there’s an opportunity here where if we actually have these two towers that are in fact connected at a higher level, we could put the amenity up there and all the residents from their homes could go up and enjoy the views and outlets from this higher level amenity,” said Concord Pacific Senior Vice President Peter Webb.
In order to manage the “arc” structure, the building will include giant steel and concrete beams that will be made at the building site. Glotman Simpson Engineers will undertake the engineering work for these elements as well as the 60 foot horizontal span that will sustain the pool area.
“In this particular case we really challenged our office and went back and forth with Walter and with Peter to try and create a space that gave them what they wanted, which was this really cool clear span space that’s high, that has the ability to put a pool in it, between the beams,” said Principal at Glotman Simpson Geoffrey Glotman. “And to do that overall was a really interesting, exciting opportunity for us.”
By Andy Stern
Images: Concord Pacific
In the first month of 2016, Islamic attacks in 23 countries took the lives of at least 1,508 people and injured 1,714 others, according to Islamic violence watch group The Religion of Peace.
Among the 138 attacks that took place in January, 38 were suicide blasts.
Since the World Trade Center attack in 2001, when TROP began its count, there have been 27,712 attacks that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths around the world.
Read more: Islamic Extremists Killed 27,000 People In 52 Countries In 2015
This article has moved to our new website: Iceland’s Pirate Party Increases Election Poll Lead
Canada’s TD Bank has raised fees in several areas this year, including significant charges for things that were free before.
The cost to withdraw cash from non-TD Bank ATMS has risen 50 cents to $2.00, but perhaps most significant are the completely new fees:
Interac e-Transfers, which were a free service with TD Bank, now cost $5 each. It will also cost $5 to deposit a post-dated check, which was free before.
Also, TD Bank’s tax-free savings accounts previously allowed free transfers to other banks. Now those transfers will cost $75 plus tax.
The bank has also added insufficient funds fees, whereas before such fees were not applicable.
The changes will take effect March 1, according to a TD Bank customer email sent out this week.
By Andy Stern
The Globe and Mail has caused a court “book of record” to be released from the Vancouver court in which a trial against a Chinese Vancouverite accused of spying for China is taking place. The most recent development: Two unnamed co-conspirators in the case have been found to be Chinese soldiers.
Allegedly, Su Bin, a 50-year old entrepreneur living in Vancouver, helped the Chinese cyper-spying operation steal American fighter jet plans by providing focus for the hacking efforts of the Chinese soldiers. This help was documented in intercepted emails, according to the court documents.
In the trial, based on a U.S. charge, the two Chinese soldiers were referred to only as “unindicted co-conspirators” “affiliated with mulitiple organizations and entities.” No mention was made that they were tied to the Chinese army.
The Globe and Mail-obtained court documents show that the two had been explicitly referred to as “two Chinese military officers.” The two Chinese soldiers have also been identified by U.S. authories, according to the documents, although the names are not revealed by the Globe-obtained documents.
By Devon James
Read more: Chinese soldiers implicated in U.S. military hacking case
A Repsol fracking operation was ordered to shut down this week after an earthquake shook the region around Fox Creek, Alberta.
The earthquake measured 4.8 on the Richter scale — large enough to rattle pictures handing on walls, according to Fox Creek mayor Jim Ahn, who reported that he thought a truck had rolled by his building when the 1.5-second earthquake took place.
That was enough, though, for Alberta Energy Regulator to shut down the Repsol Oil & Gas site 35 kilometers north of the town.
The province’s energy regulator shuts down any fracking site when there is an earthquake of 4.0 or greater magnitude in the area.
Scientists will now investigate whether fracking was the cause of the earthquake. If confirmed to be the cause, the quake would be the largest found to be caused by fracking in Canada.
Currently, the largest fracking-caused earthquake in Canada is a 4.6 magnitude quake that took place in northeastern B.C. last summer.
By Andy Stern
BCIT is providing a power-nap room, hoping to allow some of their students — already sleeping in other parts of the school — to boost their energy levels.
The sleep room, launched Monday, is available to book for hour periods between 12:30 and 5 p.m. four days per week — Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Students can check bed availability at any time on the university’s online portal.
There are 10 beds in the low-lit room — which is also a racquetball court — and a station where students can pick up clean pillow cases and sanitizer. Students are required to spray and wipe the vinyl beds after use.
The nap room has a set of rules provided by the BCIT Student Association. Cell phone noise and talking is prohibited in the nap room and beds are not allowed to be pushed together.
The room was initiated after BCIT authorities noticed students sleeping all over the campus and realized that their students must be very tired. In addition to the benefits of alertness during classes, the school also hopes to cut down on driving accidents. Many BCIT students commute to the university from significant distances.
The new nap room will be available to students for one booking per week “to start,” according to the BCITSA, and they have plans to eventually allow one booking per day.
BICTSA
Photos: BCITSA
In the previous year, Islamic violence took the lives of over 27,000 people and critically injured another 26,000, according to an extremism watch organization that tracks Islamic attacks. 2015’s attacks took place in 52 countries worldwide, and included 475 suicide attacks.
The Religion of Peace, an organization that collects information about attacks motivated by Islamic ideas and tallies various statistics, published their yearly figures Friday on their website.
The December figures — 225 deaths and 273 critically injured in 47 separate attacks, brought the totals for the 2015 year to 27,435 deaths and 26,144 critically injured in 2,849 separate attacks in 52 countries.
The numbers provided by TROP are actually lower than what the total deaths would be, the organization’s editor Glen Roberts told The Speaker, because the organization relies on news reports for their tallies. Not all deaths are reported in the news, and deaths that occur after news has been published are usually not included.
The numbers have remained fairly consistent since TROP’s first entries, which date back to the September 11 attacks on the Twin Towers in 2001.
Read more: Islamic terrorists have committed 25,000 separate violent acts worldwide
“It looks like there have been only 12 days since the beginning of 2005 without at least one Islamic attack,” Roberts noted.
There are an average of 5 separate attacks every day that result in at least one death, motivated by Islamic ideas, according to TROP. The numbers tallied do not include deaths like honor killings, although the group does monitor these incidents as well.
Sources: TROP
Bangkok Metropolitan Police have announced a “New Years Gift” to the city: traffic tickets will be reduced to just 100 baht starting today.
The gift has a serious side: the metro police are dealing with a massive backlog of unpaid traffic tickets. Because the repercussions associated with not paying these tickets are usually insignificant, many people simply leave them unpaid.
The gift doesn’t extend to all offenders, however. Traffic crimes that affect other people are not included in the deal. These crimes include DUIs, illegal parking, and driving on sidewalks.
However, crimes such as not wearing a helmet on a motorbike or not wearing a seatbelt in a car are eligible, so long as the fine was originally for less than 1,000 baht.
The traffic fine promotion will end Jan. 15, 2016, after which time all traffic fines will return to their regular rates.
By Andy Stern
For plotting to blow up an in-session Parliament, Polish former university professor Brunon Kwiexien has been sentenced to 13 years prison.
On Monday a Polish court handed down the sentence to the former Krakow University of Agriculture chemistry professor.
Kwiecien, 48, an unaffiliated nationalist, cited as motives for the crime, planned in 2012, a belief that his country was headed in the wrong direction and the issue of what he referred to as foreigners holding government positions.
Kwiecien did not deny his plans when arrested.
When the police were tipped off, they found four tonnes of explosives in a car which Kwiecien planned to use to kill the president, prime minister and others during a hearing on the budget.
By Andy Stern