#epoch toronto

[treleaven]

Hello Faun Elisabeth Kley & Scott Treleaven

July 18 - September 7, 2024 COOPER COLE, Toronto, Canada

"Friends for many years, Kley and Treleaven share a fascination for epochs and historical communities that have regarded beauty and decoration as vital components of human flourishing and social reform. The exhibition features five of Kley’s signature black and white ceramic vessels, alongside a new body of works on paper by Treleaven, created in tandem with his ongoing ‘new pagan paintings’ series..."

https://coopercolegallery.com/exhibition/2024-elisabeth-kley-scott-treleaven-hello-faun/

[andronetalks]

Delta Offers $30,000 To Each Passenger Aboard Plane That Crashed, Flipped In Toronto

Zero Hedge by Tyler DurdenFriday, Feb 21, 2025 – 11:30 AM Authored by Kimberly Hayek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), Delta Air Lines is offering US$30,000 to each of the 76 passengers aboard the plane that flipped upside down while landing at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on Feb. 17. Read more…

[zov911]

Title: Maximizing Potential: Top Video Marketing Strategies for Canadian Construction Companies As a savvy Canadian construction company looking to elevate your business, there's no argument against the potent role video marketing has in eloquating your story in today's fast-paced digital landscape. In the grand tapestry of trade, harnessing the power of video marketing isn't merely a savvy move—it's a must, eh? Welcome to the era of digitization—an epoch where video marketing strategies take centre stage and enable Canadian construction companies like yours to reach new heights, eh? ##1. Showcasing Your Construction Prowess One of the captivating charms of video content is its ability to vividly demonstrate your craftsmanship. Pictures and wordy descriptions deliver a one-dimensional communication flow. But video content—oh, it creates an immersive experience. Harness your team's artisan skill sets, show the step-by-step building process or a time-lapse transformation of an ordinary site into an architectural marvel. Let your unique Canadian craftsmanship shine and resonate across the Great White North. ##2. Client Testimonials and Case Studies Dazzle your audience with glowing client testimonials and case studies, converted into compelling video narratives. There’s no denying the appeal of an authentic Canadian rave review describing why your construction company outpaces the competition. ##3. Virtual Tours and Walkthroughs As we doff our hard hats in admiration of our unlocked potential, let's glide through our completed projects with virtual tours. Let them feel as though they’re meandering through the space—whether it's a high-rise in downtown Toronto or a quaint cottage nestled in the Rockies. ##4. Safety and Educational Videos By having safety and educational videos, you position your company as one that values its workforce's safety and continually educates them. This initiative reflects positively on your brand and ensures customers you adhere to the highest professional and ethical standards. ##5. Harness the Power of SEO In the vast tundra of the internet, stellar video content without search engine optimization (SEO) is like a Canadian winter without snow—almost unthinkable! Remember to optimize your video content with relevant keywords, video descriptions, and meta tags. This way, search engines won't leaf your content behind. ##6. Cross-Platform Sharing Consider your video marketing strategy as a Canada-wide road trip, stopping at every social media platform on the map. From the Twitter trail to the LinkedIn landscape, broadening your distribution channels enhances your content's reach and maximizes your potential engagement. In conclusion, video marketing bends no knee to conventional marketing in modern Canada. It's a powerful tool that gifts Canadian construction companies a medium to transcend traditional boundaries and reach dizzying new heights. Remember, friends—when executed right, video marketing strategies don’t merely build businesses; they construct legacies, eh? So, roll up those flannel sleeves and start investing time, creativity, and stick-to-itiveness in the modern world of video marketing. Your construction company's future, towering tall against the Canadian skyline, depends on it. Case Study: Pinnacle Construction's Success with Innovative Video Marketing Strategies Tailoring this article to Pinnacle Construction, a thriving Canadian construction company, we'll explore how it successfully implemented and optimized its video marketing strategies. They were not initially aware of the potential impact of digital transformation in their field. However, once they maximized the opportunities offered by video marketing, they saw a significant increase in brand awareness, prospect engagement, and overall return on investment. 1. Leverage Storytelling Through Video: Pinnacle Construction started by focusing on its unique narrative. They created emotive, high-quality video content that holistically represented their brand's journey, values, and capabilities.

These videos did not explicitly promote their services but instead, built a relatable brand image that resonated deeply with their audience. Advice: Emphasize storytelling over explicit promotion in your videos. Make the audience feel more connected to your brand and understand your value propositions effectively. 2. Educational Videos: Recognizing the common lack of construction knowledge, Pinnacle Construction introduced a series of educational videos called 'Project Breakdown.' These provided insights into various construction processes, techniques, and safety measures. By doing so, they simultaneously showcased their expertise and played a role in community education. Advice: Use educational video content to boost your standing as an industry expert and contribute to wider public understanding. 3. Amazing Drone Footage: With the blessing of drone technology, Pinnacle Construction showcased their work in progress and completed projects. This helped their potential clients visualize the high standards and efficiency of their work, thereby driving credibility and business inquiries. Advice: Adopt drone footage in your video marketing strategy. It provides an immersive experience with your projects, making an impression on potential clients. 4. Client Testimonials: Pinnacle Construction also integrated video testimonials from satisfied clients into their marketing strategy. These reviews provided authentic, third-party validation of their service quality, leading to increased trust and confidence in potential clients. Advice: Gather video testimonials from satisfied clients to serve as authentic and powerful proof of your services. 5. Regular Professional Video SEO: Pinnacle Construction understood the power of SEO to attract organic traffic. They implemented keywords about Canadian construction companies, optimized video descriptions, titles, and tags, and used effective CTA within video content to drive conversions. Advice: Regularly update your video SEO practices to stay relevant and increase your online visibility. Pinnacle Construction's thorough approach to video marketing yielded tangible results. They reported a 70% increase in website traffic and a 30% boost in client inquiries and conversions, cementing the pivotal role of well-executed video marketing strategies for Canadian construction companies. Their success is a vivid demonstration of the article's core message: maximizing potential through top video marketing strategies can drive unprecedented growth for Canadian construction companies. Such practical examples and advice add to the real-world applicability and resonance of the article, enabling Canadian construction companies to chart a successful path in video marketing. "Don't miss out on maximizing your firms potential! Leverage top Video Marketing strategies specially designed for Canadian Construction Companies. Take the first step today towards unparalleled business growth. Click here to discover how!" Start Your Digital Transformation Now! "According to a recent study by HubSpot, about 72% of customers would prefer to learn about a product or service via video. Considering this, harnessing the power of video marketing stands as a critical strategy for Canadian construction firms looking to expand their outreach and communicate effectively with their potential clients."

[mobilizemusic]

Evening Kisses (Remixed)

Launched in summer 2012, Mobilize's "Evening Kisses" arose from a conceptual idea that saw a six track EP launched in tandem with a six-part Particles Guest mix series. Particles now revisits four of Mobilize's original tracks with remixes from the cream of talented producers from across the globe.

From the populous Indian continent, Vinayak Karkthikayan has become a widely respected figure under his Vinayak^A production guise. Since his first work for Baroque, a slew of subsequent releases including the full-length 2012 album "Lonesome Train" on Wind Horse Records, the immense "You May Sit and Wonder" on Dopamine, and "Sands of Goa" on Mesmeric, have seen Vinayak's career rise ever upward. Taking his unique approach to "Evening Kisses", Vinayak^A has transformed Mobilize's original into a rippling rhythmic triumph complete with atmospheric echoes of his home in the shape of haunting vocal cuts and tribal percussion. A series of lilting lead lines and pads further add to the wonderful sensation of an intriguing odyssey through sound.

Dutch master craftsman, Exoplanet, has consistently performed feats of ingenuity with the rich and colourful sound palette at his disposal. One of Particles most prolific artists, 2012 saw the scintillating "Synthetic Evolution" and magical "Minsdtream" EPs, while 2013 saw impressive interpretations of the latter from Verve and Verche in a January remix EP as well as a guiding hand on the tiller of Sed Project's album, "The End" for Proton Music. Taking a typically unique approach to Mobilize's "Freedom", Exoplanet's soundstage is full of breathing pads, twinkling synths and an array of lo-fi sampled effects that would grace the works of Holger Czukay and Can. This married to an immaculate sense of rhythm and programming skills marks "Freedom" as something special.

From the Silk Sofa artist roster, Canadian, Harold-Alexis first caught the ear of Jay Epoch with his beautifully organic sounding and best-selling remix of DJSaint's, "Souls" on the Gorm Sorensen run label. 2011 marked the launch of Toronto resident's career with the stunning "The Ocean's Feedback" supported by James Warren in his "Visceral" project. Remixing "Sad Bisco" here, Harold-Alexis has made subtle and clever use of Mobilize's track components, maintaining the rhythmic vibrancy of the original while adding numerous layers of trademark melodic sheen over proceedings to present an impressive remix.

Owen Ear, from the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk is also a regular contributor to the Silk Sofa portfolio with a penchant for subtle, crisp percussion and startling melodic sensibility. With almost 50 releases for the likes of Easy Summer, Terminal 01 and Cartoon Fresh, Owen's original productions for Silk Sofa have seen support from Solarstone, cementing his reputation for unparalleled melodic verve on releases such as "The Crowd" and "Alone" EPs. His remix of "Ocean of Love" continues this rich vein of form with an interpretation of rare beauty and poise. Emotive strings, and shimmering motifs juxtapose effortlessly against angular and distorted percussive hits while a deep growling bass line and a broken bear further provide a sublime aural experience.

Mobilized by stunning remixes from three continents, "Evening Kisses" is still illuminating the night sky.

Directed by Jay Epoch AandR by Marina Gerardi Masters by Cid Inc., Exoplanet, Owen Ear Designed by Ben Mautner Text by James Warren

released June 26, 2013 by Particles

[laresearchette]

This Video Not Available in Your Country: Friday Canadian Lineup (Times Eastern):

WHERE CAN I FIND THOSE PREMIERES?: RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE (Out TV) 8:00pm/(Crave 2) 9:00pm

WHAT IS NOT PREMIERING IN CANADA TONIGHT? THE PRISON CONFESSIONS OF GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD (Premiering on January 08 on Lifetime Canada at 6:00pm) ANCIENT ALIENS (TBD - History Canada)

NEW TO AMAZON PRIME CANADA/CBC GEM/CRAVE TV/DISNEY + STAR/NETFLIX CANADA:

AMAZON PRIME CANADA LOL: LAST ONE LAUGHING FRENCH CANADA (Season 2) FOE JAMES MAY: OUR MAN IN INDIA

CBC GEM DI RAY SCARBOROUGH

CRAVE TV ANGRY NEIGHBORS ANTHROPOCENE: THE HUMAN EPOCH BEEBA BOYS BOLLYWOOD/HOLLYWOOD BREAKFAST WITH SCOT DADDY DAY CARE DECISION TO LEAVE ELLA ENCHANTED HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER VACATION JOY RIDE JUST GO WITH IT PARASITE THE PIRATES! BAND OF MISFITS RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE (Season 16 Premiere)

NETFLIX CANADA GOOD GRIEF GYEONGSEONG CREATURE PART 2 (KR) MAN ON THE RUN

2024 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP (TSN/TSN4) 9:00am: Bronze Medal (TSN/TSN3/TSN4/TSN5) 1:30pm: Gold Medal

NHL HOCKEY (SNWest/SNPacific) 7:00pm: Chicago vs. Devils (TSN3) 10:00pm: Jets vs. Ducks

PWHL HOCKEY (SNEast/SNOntario) Toronto vs. New York

NBA BASKETBALL (SN Now) 7:30pm: Thunder vs. Nets (TSN2) 7:30pm: Knicks vs. 76ers (SN/SN1) 10:00pm: Raptors vs. Kings (TSN2) 10:00pm: Grizzlies vs. Lakers

DR. DEATH (Global) 8:00pm (SEASON PREMIERE): In 2012, Dr. Macchiarini performs a breakthrough thoracic surgery, but some colleagues in Sweden question his science; in the present, Macchiarini operates on Hannah and becomes romantically involved with Benita, a news producer covering the surgery.

MILLION DOLLAR ISLAND (Discovery Canada) 8:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): A hundred people are dropped on an uninhabited tropical island, where they need so survive for two months. Upon arrival, each contestant is given a numbered bracelet worth $10,000 so the 100 bracelets together are worth $1M. (Netherlands)

ABOUT THAT (CBC) 8:30pm: Andrew Chang expands the understanding of the stories everybody's talking about.

TRANSPLANT (CTV) 9:00pm: Bash and Mags support each other through new challenges while treating an older couple who show up at the hospital glued together; Theo is called out by Liz Bergeron about his repeated inability to follow hospital rules.

OWN CELEBRATES THE NEW COLOR PURPLE (OWN Canada) 9:00pm: Oprah Winfrey goes behind the scenes of the upcoming "The Color Purple," reflects on her role in the original story, and talks with Fantasia, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, H.E.R., Colman Domingo and Corey Hawkins from the new film.

BUILDING OUTSIDE THE LINES (Magnolia Canada) 9:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): An unexpected ask from an old friend prompts father-daughter builders Cappie and Alex to turn a shipping container into a luxurious sauna; a cherished teacher's wish results in a custom-built fire pit space.

JOY RIDE (Crave) 9:00pm: Follows four Asian American friends as they embark on an epic, no-holds-barred journey of bonding, belonging and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.

THE SUMMIT AUSTRALIA (Discovery Canada) 9:30pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Jai Courtney sends 14 Australians on the adventure of a lifetime: a pulse pounding trek to the top of a mountain with a million dollars cash stuffed in their backpacks with the mysterious 'The mountain's Keeper' on their tail.

LITTLE BIRD (CTV) 10:00pm (SERIES PREMIERE): Bezhig Little Bird and her sister and brother are ripped away from their mother by police and child welfare agents to be put up for adoption by white families; 18 years later, Bezhig doesn't quite feel a sense of belonging in her comfortable life.

CRIME BEAT (Global) 10:00pm: An elderly Mississauga woman is found dead beside Christmas presents she'd been wrapping; within hours of the discovery, investigators receive a call from Niagara police about the attempted murders of two people living an hour away.

[dertaglichedan]

Pro-Vaccine Journalist Who Called for Punishment For Refusing Jab Dies Suddenly

Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A Canadian journalist who took strong positions in support of COVID-19 vaccines—including calling for vaccine passports and terminating police officers who refused the jab—has died suddenly.

Ian Vandaelle, a 33-year-old business journalist who worked at the Financial Post and earlier at BNN Bloomberg, was declared brain dead and taken off life support earlier this month, his partner, Stephanie Hughes, said in a post on X.

“I haven’t been on Twitter for a while because my partner, @IanVandaelle, has been in the hospital since Nov. 18," Ms. Hughes wrote. "It’s with a heavy heart today that I say he was declared neurologically deceased this week and taken off life support this morning.”

Mr. Vandaelle's death—the cause of which has not been disclosed—drew an outpouring of condolences among his current and former colleagues, many of whom took to social media to praise him for attributes like being kind and smart.

"Journalism has lost a great reporter, editor, producer, mentor, and all around great guy," Ms. Hughes wrote in a post on X.

But Mr. Vandaelle's death also stirred recollections of his ardent support for the COVID-19 vaccination push.

'Bring the Carrot and the Stick'

Mr. Vandaelle's public platform as a journalist led people to take note of his social media posts, especially those related to the controversial matter of COVID-19 vaccines and Canadian government measures that pushed shots in ways that many saw as draconian.

“I, for one, advocate we bring the carrot and the stick," Mr. Vandaelle stated in a social media post in July 2021. "Incentivize getting the vaccine however we like - ice cream, lotteries, literally whatever, I don’t care - and require vaccination to do non-essential things. Wanna go to a bar to watch the game? Passport.”

Vaccine passports were introduced in all Canadian provinces in 2021, though some allowed proof of a recent COVID-19 tests instead of a passport to access non-essential services or engage in non-essential activities. They were discontinued by April 2022.

In another post from August 2021, Mr. Vandaelle urged the Toronto Police to get rid of officers who declined the vaccine: “Take the jab or resign; anything else is moral and ethical cowardice. You take an oath to protect citizens? You get vaxxed. Shameful that we have to say this.”

In November 2021, over 100 Toronto police employees who refused the jab or did not reveal their vaccination status were placed on unpaid leave. In June 2022, the Toronto Police Service ended its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for all members.

Dr. William Makis, a Canadian physician who has been critical of COVID-19 vaccine mandates and expressed concern about the safety of mRNA vaccines, wrote on Substack that he saw Mr. Vandaelle's pro-mandate social media posts as problematic, accusing him of having "supported medical fascism, tyranny and some of the worst abuses of our lifetime."

[wri227philomena]

Google+, and Other Dead Websites | Class 2

Today I Learned:

The Limits of Social Media: What Social Media Can Be, and What We Should Hope They Never Become by Sam Srauy

One of the most surprising things to come out of this reading was the revelation that Myspace grew less popular in White markets as the website gained Black users. Srauy cites Danah Boyd's work here, published in 2012, which alleges that Myspace became a "virtual ghetto" (Boyd, by way of Srauy) during this time period. Contemporary to being assigned this reading, I also came across a brief video essay about the downfall of Myspace, detailing a more recent issue with the site's infrastructure, being that almost all content posted to the cite before 2015 has been lost due to server failure. While this statement may seem like a reach, I think it is important to acknowledge that there could be a racial element to Myspace's current hardware failures, as social websites which primarily cater to white users, ie. Facebook or X, continue to see longterm support by their developers, even as the websites grow less popular in the expanding market of social media. While I feel as though it is obvious that Facebook and X court a white userbase, I do feel compelled to cite the fact that X does not moderate literal Nazis unless compelled by law in any given nation, and Facebook exports its moderation labour to subaltern nations so as to avoid paying domestic labourers. In doing so, they compel subaltern employees to sift through hate speech, gore, illegal sex acts, etc, and pay them pennies in comparison to the wage they would be compelled to pay American employees. This is all to say, I can see what Boyd is talking about with regards to the 'ghetto-izing' effects of social media, and I appreciate Srauy's furthering of the conversation on the subject.

2. Social Media: A Phenomenon to be Analyzed by Danah Boyd

Speaking of Boyd! Boyd's admiration for the social internet is clear in their writing. I especially enjoyed their utopian vision of a "chance to start anew" (Boyd, 1) with regards to the transition between the early social internet and the Web 2.0 era. In my childhood, my mother was an early adopter of remote work, and our apartment in Toronto had Internet access that was a bit more beefy than that required for casual browsing. Because of this, both myself and my sibling were acquainted with the Internet rather younger than may have been entirely appropriate, both having personal laptops in grade school (c. 2007) before that became the norm. In addition, we moved from Toronto to a more rural town in Ontario, where some of our classmates didn't have Internet at home, and whose homes were legitimately not hooked up to the appropriate hardware to be serviced by major ISPs. The birth of the social internet as a utopian project does sort of harmonize with my nostalgia for early web hubs. With that said, I feel as though Boyd neglects to predict the fall of the Web 2.0 Epoch. In seeing Web 2.0 as a golden age for social media, our current peri-Web 3.0 webspace is completely unimaginable.

3. Five Reasons Why Google+ Died by Steve Denning

This article details five missteps in Google+'s operation as a social medium. "Spamming Grandma for Cash", "Believing it's own mission statement", "Listening to it's employees, not it's customers", "A Frontal Attack on an Established Network", and "Failure to Offer Something Genuinely New". As mentioned above, I was one of very few students in my elementary school to have home internet access, alongside a personal computer. Because of this, I was one of very few people in my IRL social circle to adopt Google+, though I had been using YouTube on my home computer frequently. I think that this is most of what led to my personal dissatisfaction with the platform: there was simply nobody on there. Denning says it best, "Libraries are wonderful things. But libraries have never been popular or profitable." Google+ lacked cool-factor. Something I learned from this article was that Google had attempted to get into the social media game before Google+, through services such as Orkut, established in 2004, Google Wave in 2009, and Google Buzz in 2010. The fact that I had been entirely blind to these platforms until reading Denning's article speaks both to the service's profound failure, but also Google's ability as a corporate power to clean up their mistakes and launder their image through the control of information in all other aspects of the social internet.

4. Lecture - Part 1, Feeling Outdated

I didn't realize that four years could cause such a rift in experience between my classmates and I. During these first two classes, as students were polled on their internet use, I realized just how behind the times I am, but also how behind the times I was during the same years they were discovering new social networks. For me, I adopted Facebook as soon as I could make an account--much to the chagrin of my mother, who had forbidden me from using FB until I was of the appropriate age as per Facebook's use guidelines at the time 😬. Even during the contemporary years, I never adopted Kik, and as such, can only know about how horrible that app was second-hand, from both the stories of my underclassmen as it happened in high school, and now, from students in this lecture who were able to back up those old stories. In this class, it surprised me how much of a market share Snapchat and WhatsApp still have! I always put Snapchat in the same boat as YikYak--a proximity-based social media that had chat rooms you could only access if your phone's telemetry detected you were in a specific location, which, looking back, was an insane premise for an app. All to say, I am glad that this class has broadened my horizons in terms of a more rounded view of tastes on the social internet.

5. Lecture - Part 2, Apple's 1984 Commercial

This commercial is absolutely insane. Like, the textual anti-facism, the sub-textual feminist messaging, given that the revolution is embodied by a woman. We discussed in this lecture, about the rise of different political movements in the age of computing, but this is such a particular and textural experience. It's the aping of anti-corporate politics in the pursuit of capital. It's the horrid mutation of Apple's brand identity away from a praxis of individuality, and toward a Big Brother, deep-state control over all of their customer's biometric data. It's the censorship of the word 'fuck' in all Apple product's autocorrect to 'duck'. I have never read Orwell's novel in full, but I have been compelled to study fragments of the work during lectures, and I feel as though this use of Orwell's text as inspiration for marketing material is just mind-boggling. Apple's product freeing the corporate slaves--reminding one of Engel's "you have nothing to lose but your chains"--and yet simultaneously, the knowledge of Apple's supply chain, and how we later studied in this lecture the modern production chain surrounding the iPad, where women who were producing the components had never seen the finished product, and had certainly never used one. It's all very fucking fraught, is what I'm getting at.

Anyway, that's that on that!

TLDR: White racists actively destroy platforms rather than integrate them, Web 2.0 was beautiful while it lasted, and Google has a history of creating--and then rapidly erasing--their failed social experiments. Corporate greed will never allow revolution to come from the mouth of capital.

[queen-street-news]

New Post has been published on https://bloornews.com/blog-toronto/canadian-pastor-convicted-of-inciting-mischief-in-trucker-protests-facing-up-to-10-years-prison/

Canadian Pastor Convicted of Inciting Mischief in Trucker Protests Facing Up to 10 Years Prison

By Allan Stein from

Pastor Artur Pawlowski’s troubles with the Canadian authorities began long before his sermon to commercial truckers encouraging their peaceful defiance against what he thought were “oppressive” public health mandates for COVID-19.

In 2005, he began serving and ministering to downtown Calgary—Alberta’s poor and downtrodden. “In other words, feeding the homeless and praying for them, which is now illegal,” he described to The Epoch Times in a telephone interview while under house arrest in Calgary following his court conviction in May for inciting mischief and violating his release conditions.

The police eventually showed up at Mr. Pawlowski’s church, telling him he couldn’t feed the homeless by law. Neither was he allowed to assemble or preach in public.

Such actions are also illegal and punishable with tickets, fines, and even jail time.

He added that tensions with the authorities had reached the point where police showed up at his church weekly.

During the pandemic, he received 40 tickets for COVID-19 violations, including one for a Christmas celebration he said drew a response from over 100 police officers, 52 police vehicles, as well as anti-terrorism units.

Over 300 Citations Between 2005 and 2015, Mr. Pawlowski said he received over 300 citations for refusing to stop preaching, feeding the homeless, and doing what he thought was helpful to those in need.

He was arrested and charged in 2006 for reading the Bible in public, and considers being the first Canadian to receive a COVID-19 ticket for feeding the homeless a badge of honor in what he’d say was righteous defiance.

“I asked them a simple question: ‘What do you think will happen to the homeless if we kick them out of shelters and shut down soup kitchens?'” he said of his efforts.

On Aug. 9, Mr. Pawlowski, a native of Poland and an acolyte of the “Solidarity Movement,” could receive up to 10 years in prison for the charge of “inciting mischief” during Canada’s nationwide trucker protests last year.

The protests rose in response to the public health rules of Canada’s Trudeau administration, sparking a massive “Freedom Convoy” from like-minded residents that threatened to bring the nation’s economy to a halt unless COVID-19 restrictions that were also impacting the economy and mental health were lifted.

Response to Government Overreach As a Christian minister, Mr. Pawlowski said he believed he was waging a spiritual battle against “government overreach” during the pandemic, even if it means he has to pay fines, get arrested, or go to jail.

On Feb. 7, 2022, at the border crossing blockade in Coutts, Alberta, Mr. Pawlowski told a crowd of commercial truckers, “It’s about time for Canadians to rise up and start roaring.”

“For the first time in two years, you’ve got the power. They’ve got the guns, yes—it’s all useless when you all rise up. There is no tyrant big enough that can stop [the] masses.”

Canadian authorities arrested and charged him with inciting mischief and interfering with essential infrastructure under Alberta’s Critical Infrastructure Defense Act of 2020.

The Critical Infrastructure Defense Act “protects essential infrastructure from damage or interference caused by blockades or similar activities, which can cause significant public safety, social, economic and environmental consequences.”

“Of course, if you listened to my service, you will know that I said no guns, no swords, just stand for God and human rights during my sermon three times,” he said of the accusation.

Mr. Pawlowski said he spent 50 days in prison, mostly in solitary confinement surrounded by concrete cells, before he was placed in maximum security and a psychiatric ward without evaluation.

The court found him guilty of inciting mischief in May. Judge Gordon Krinke placed him under 12-hour daily house arrest until his sentencing date.

Months later, he is “still under house arrest in Calgary,” he said.

Belief on Trial “I am the first Canadian where my sermon and speech were on trial. Everything was about what I said. The lawyers argued what I meant. It was a charade, a show trial—a joke,” Mr. Pawlowski said.

“I was not allowed to say a word as they debated what I said and what I meant. They couldn’t agree on the wording.”

Mr. Pawlowski said he is also the first Canadian citizen charged with eco-terrorism in the history of Canada.

“And now, the judge ruled I am the first Canadian ever to be found guilty of inciting mischief and eco-terrorism,” Mr. Pawlowski said. “The Canadian courts are upside down. I am a political prisoner. It has nothing to do with law and order,” he expressed.

Mr. Pawlowski told The Epoch Times he had received offers of money and government positions in exchange for his silence, but he’s “not for sale.”

“I have seen this movie before” under communism in Poland, he said. “It does not end well.”

[xtruss]

A skeleton of the newly described bat species Icaronycteris gunnelli unearthed at a site in southwestern Wyoming and now located at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Photograph By Royal Ontorio Museum

​52-Million-Year-Old Bat Skeletons are the Oldest Ever—and Tell a ‘Really Weird’ Tale

The discovery of a new prehistoric bat species sheds light on the origins of these flying mammals—and raises questions about how they developed the ability to echolocate.

— By Jay Bennette | April 12, 2023

The oldest bat skeletons in the world have been identified as a new species, helping scientists fill in the spotty fossil record of these flying mammals and providing new clues about how they evolved. Both skeletons were recovered from an ancient lakebed in southwestern Wyoming, a site that preserves an entire subtropical lake ecosystem and surrounding forest from about 52 million years ago.

The newly discovered bat, Icaronycteris gunnelli, weighed only about 25 grams, roughly as much as five marbles. It had already evolved the ability to fly and likely had developed the capacity to echolocate. The small bat probably lived in the trees surrounding the lake, flying over the water to hunt insects, says Tim Rietbergen, an evolutionary biologist at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands and lead author of the study describing the species in the journal PLOS ONE.

Today bats are among the most successful animals on the planet, with more than 1,400 species accounting for one-fifth of all mammal species. They live on every continent except Antarctica, and they are often critical to ecological stability, providing key functions such as pollination, seed dispersal, and insect population management.

The cliff face of a quarry is dotted with information signs for tourists to read as they ascend the stairs.

Flights of stairs lead to the preserved rock of an ancient lakebed in Wyoming's Fossil Butte National Monument. The newly described bat fossils were found just outside the park on private land. Photographs By National Park Service

Despite the ubiquitousness of bats, scientists know very little about their origins. The skeletons from Fossil Lake, the name of the preserved lakebed in Wyoming, date to the early Eocene epoch. At that time, global temperatures were on the rise and mammals, insects, and flowering plants were rapidly spreading and diversifying. These bats look remarkably similar to modern bats, with elongated fingers to hold wing membranes.

“The thought is that … bats originated from some sort of small, insectivorous mammals that were probably arboreal,” says Matthew Jones, a paleontologist at Arizona State University and one of the authors of the study. “But there’s a lot of those,” he adds, pointing out that we don’t know which ones may be related to bats. “Most of them are only known from isolated teeth and jaw fragments.”

After bats appear in the fossil record, they quickly spread around the world. The most ancient bat teeth and jaw bones found so far are roughly 55 million years old. Incomplete specimens from Portugal and China predate the newly described skeletons by a few million years. Scientists don’t know where bats first appeared, though it was likely in Europe, Asia, or North America before the animals spread to the Southern Hemisphere.

“It’s kind of a mystery,” says Alexa Sadier, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the new study. “We don’t have any transitional forms.”

Small Clues

Rietbergen first saw one of the skeletons of Icaronycteris gunnelli in 2017 when he was scrolling through Facebook. “I was like, hmm, this looks a little bit different,” he says.

After asking for some measurements of the fossil, which had been found at a private quarry and was listed for sale, he reached out to Nancy Simmons, a bat expert at the American Museum of Natural History. She agreed with him that it looked like a new species, and AMNH bought the fossil for its collections.

In addition to analyzing the new fossil, the study team reexamined bat skeletons that were already in museum collections. They found another fossil of I. gunnelli that had been acquired by the Royal Ontario Museum in 2002 and was originally classified as the related species I. index.

Top: A male stingray known as Asterotrygon maloneyi from Fossil Lake in Wyoming. The ancient lake supported a thriving ecosystem of fish and other aquatic life, while the surrounding forest was filled with insects, reptiles, mammals, and birds. Bottom: An ancient palm frond from Fossil Lake. The presence of palm trees indicates the area had a much warmer and wetter climate 52 million years ago, similar to the Gulf Coast of the United States today. The specimen is approximately two meters long and is on display at the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum in New Mexico. Photographs By National Park Service

The two skeletons look similar to modern bats, but there are subtle differences. “One thing that stood out for me in the first place,” Rietbergen says, “was the robustness of the bones, especially the hind limbs.”

Most bats today have thin, light bones that make them better suited for flight. The thicker limbs of I. gunnelli may indicate that the species retained some traits of its evolutionary predecessors, such as stronger legs for climbing trees.

The bat also had a claw on its index finger as well as its thumb, while most modern bats have only thumb claws to dangle from as they sleep—another hint that bats from this time may represent the last phases of a transition from climbers to specialized fliers.

The picture gets more complicated when considering a larger bat species from a different genus that also lived at Fossil Lake around the same time, Onychonycteris finneyi. This bat had a claw on each finger and relatively short wings, suggesting it got around by climbing and a fluttering method of flight. Based on the size and shape of its inner ear, O. finneyi was probably not capable of echolocation, unlike I. gunnelli and I. index. Scientists originally considered O. finneyi to be evidence that flight had evolved in bats before echolocation.

But an analysis of the evolutionary relationships between these three bat species from Fossil Lake, as well as other fossil and living bats, found that I. gunnelli and I. index were most closely related to O. finneyi rather than to other echolocating bats. That “is really unexpected and really weird,” Jones says.

“We have in the fossil record a non-echolocating bat that’s most closely related to a group of echolocating bats,” he says. But he noted that this is also true for present-day flying foxes, a group of large fruit-eating bats that cannot echolocate but are most closely related to a group of bats that can. “There’s possibly multiple origins of echolocation or there’s multiple losses of echolocation among even these earliest bats,” Jones says, “which is really, really bizarre.”

Untangling the Past

Complete bat skeletons from the Eocene are rare, and Fossil Lake in Wyoming is one of the only places they have been found. The warm, wet forests that bats lived in were poor environments for preserving their small bones. Only when the bats were quickly buried, such as after sinking to the bottom of a deep lake, have their entire skeletons been preserved.

A few million years after the appearance of bats in southwestern Wyoming, several species lived near a similar lake ecosystem in Germany—and these later animals looked even more like modern bats.

Scientists believe that advantages such as flight and echolocation would have helped bats spread and diversify rapidly. The mammals may have adapted to nocturnal lives to avoid competition with or predation by birds—but when this transition occurred is unclear.

Genetic research has shed little light on the direct ancestors to bats. Instead, studies of DNA have revealed that bats belong to a superorder of mammals called Laurasiatheria, which includes other insectivores such as shews and moles. But it also includes animals that outwardly seem to have no relation to bats. Among them are whales; ungulates like horses, rhinos, and hippos; and the order carnivora, which includes cats, dogs, and bears. Surprisingly, all these animals are more closely related to bats than rodents.

“If you look at the DNA, we get, like, hoofed animals as the closest relatives, which is crazy,” Rietbergen says. “There’s something going on there.”

To fill in the gaps, and possibly even discover the immediate ancestor to bats, scientists are hoping to find more skeletons.

“The more we will find, the more we’ll better understand about how many species of bats were there at that time, how different they were, how diverse they were,” UCLA’s Sadier says. And maybe, searching deeper in time, we will even find the “transitional forms that we are all hoping to find one day.”

[cicadascreaming]

Dr. Lorne’s range of facial expressions are more of a range from concerned, to deeply concerned, to mental screaming.

[twisted-glowstone]

Moderator for MC’s blog here:

I’ve been away for some time, due to personal life issues that happen from time to time. 

I’ve been building on my humble little server, and for those who LARP at Epoch Toronto, I’ve been re-constructing a map of our campsite that we rent, which is Blue Springs Scout Reserve - Ebor Park.

I’‘m hoping to eventually make a walkthrough of the site, to make it easier for newer players (or scouts) to get to know where the major buildings are so they don’t get lost, and help players on where good places to camp might be

Here’s a screencap of only a small part of the build, featuring the main campsite’s building.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Democracy’s Foremost Stalwarts Unite Against Common Foe,” Toronto Star. August 15, 1941. Page 3. ---- INTREPID, WISE, BROAD-VISIONED ARE THESE LEADERS OF THE WORLD --- These are rugged men, whose earnestness stands out on every face. They are gathered in mid-ocean to speak with each other of world defence against history’s most formidable, most maniacal tyranny. They have spoken, since this photograph was made, and their leaders and ours have announced to the entire world the results of their foregathering. And with that pronouncement the encroaching tyranny has been shaken. Now it is up to all the millions who look to them for leadership to redouble their already vigorous efforts. President Roosevelt, and Prime Minister Churchill (seated) are surrounded by their army and navy chieftains (from LEFT); Harry Hopkins, lease-lend administrator; W. Averell, lease-lend co-ordinator in London; Admiral E. J. King, commander of the Atlantic fleet; Gen. Geroeg Marshall, U.S. army chief of staff; Gen. John G. Dill, chief of the Imperial British staff; Admiral Harold R. Stark, chief of U.S. naval operations; Admiral Sir Dudley Pound, first sea lord of Britain.

“British and U.S. Warships Figure In Epoch-Making Conference,” Toronto Star. August 15, 1941. Page 3. ---- ROOSEVELT AND CHURCHILL MEET ABOARD H.M.S. PRINCE OF WALES AND U.S. CRUISER AUGUSTA These are the two Churchill-Roosevelt meeting ships. On board were conferences that set a new mark in discussions between the heads of nations. One meeting was on H.M.S. Princes of Wales (LEFT), a new British battleship which took part in the destruction of the Bismarck. Another meeting of the series which produced the world-moulding statement of victory aims took place on board the United States cruiser Augusta, on Saturday night, may have been resumed there later.

[dertaglichedan]

'Godfather Of AI' Speaks Out: AI Capable Of Reason, May Seek Control

Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A leading mind in the development of artificial intelligence is warning that AI has developed a rudimentary capacity to reason and may seek to overthrow humanity.

AI systems may develop the desire to seize control from humans as a way of accomplishing other preprogrammed goals, said Geoffrey Hinton, a professor of computer science at the University of Toronto.

“I think we have to take the possibility seriously that if they get smarter than us, which seems quite likely, and they have goals of their own, which seems quite likely, they may well develop the goal of taking control,” Hinton said during a June 28 talk at the Collision tech conference in Toronto, Canada.

“If they do that, we’re in trouble.”

Hinton has been dubbed one of the “godfathers of AI” for his work in neural networks. He recently spent a decade helping to develop AI systems for Google but left the company last month, saying he needed to be able to warn people of the risks posed by AI.

While Hinton does not believe that AI will innately crave power, he said that it could nevertheless seek to seize it from humans as a logical step to better allow itself to achieve its goals.

“At a very general level, if you’ve got something that’s a lot smarter than you, that’s very good at manipulating people, at a very general level, are you confident that people stay in charge?” Hinton said.

“I think they’ll derive [the motive to seize control] as a way of achieving other goals.”

AI Now Capable of Reason

Hinton previously doubted that an AI superintelligence that could match humans would emerge within the next 30 to 50 years. He now believes it could come in less than 20.

In part, he said, that is because AI systems that use large language models are beginning to show the capacity to reason, and he is not sure how they are doing it.

“It’s the big language models that are getting close, and I don’t really understand why they can do it, but they can do little bits of reasoning.

“They still can’t match us, but they’re getting close.”

Hinton described an AI system that had been given a puzzle in which it had to plan how to paint several rooms of a house. It was given three colors to choose from, with one color that faded to another over time, and asked to paint a certain number of rooms in a particular color within a set time frame. Rather than merely opting to paint the rooms the desired color, the AI determined not to paint any that it knew would fade to the desired color anyway, electing to save resources though it had not been programmed to do so.

“That’s thinking,” Hinton said.

To that end, Hinton said that there was no reason to suspect that AI wouldn’t reach and exceed human intelligence in the coming years.

“We’re just a big neural net, and there’s no reason why an artificial neural net shouldn’t be able to do everything we can do,” Hinton said.

“We’re entering a period of huge uncertainty. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen.”

Read more here...

[harvestheart]

This beautifully timed photograph shows the moment an African elephant appears to pose for a photograph in front of a double rainbow.

Jeffrey Wu, a professional wildlife photographer from Toronto, Canada, was filming a documentary on the plains of Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya when storm clouds gathered.

(Epoch Times)