Significant Digits

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Thousands of patients

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Brachytherapy is a type of cancer treatment in which various radioactive “seeds” are placed around the tumour. The therapy is much more targeted than normal radiation therapy, and has fewer side effects. It’s no surprise that thousands of patients undergo the therapy every year. Yet many are now coming to regret this decision, due to a law passed by the Ontario government preventing those who have received the implants from being cremated. The implants have a short half-life, being completely harmless after 2 years, and even if the patient is cremated before that time, it can be perfectly safe with only the most basic of precautions. Because of the ban, patients who want to be cremated are refusing treatment, placing their lives at risk in the name of a fundamentally flawed ban. [CBC]

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2.55%

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Toronto recently passed its new budget, which included a 2.55% property tax increase to keep up with inflation. Property tax rates are the only means the city has to generate income, and Toronto’s are famously low. Mayor after mayor (including John Tory) have promised not to raise property taxes beyond what inflation demands, even as the cost of city services balloons. Toronto has a serious deficit problem, and with a 21-4 vote in favour of the status quo, City Hall has made no progress towards solving it. [CBC]

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35 Years

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For the past 35 years, Alex Trebek has been the host of Jeopardy, a trivia game show beloved by millions. Now his tenure may be coming to an end. Alex recently announced his diagnosis with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He intends to fight the disease, and will not stop filming. Godspeed and good luck.[Globe and Mail]

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1st Splashdown

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On 8 March, history was made as the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule splashed down off of the coast of Florida. The capsule, the first American spacecraft designed to carry humans since the retirement of the Space Shuttles, performed an autonomous docking with the International Space Station and then made a successful reentry carrying simulated crew and cargo. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) says that if all goes well, the first astronauts may go up as early as July. [Scientific American]

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$200 000

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That’s how much the government has allocated since 2015 to Terre Sans Frontieres, a Quebecois aid group, to provide homeopathic treatments in Honduras. Homeopathic treatments have been shown by trial after trial to be nothing more than water, with any positive effect being attributable to the placebo effect. Terre Sans Frontieres has been decried by the medical community for providing treatments with absolutely no scientific basis, and steering patients away from actual proven medications. Global Affairs Canada recently announced that the government would withdraw funding. [Globe and Mail]

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5 Years

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It’s been 5 years since the menace known as ISIS captured the Iraqi city of Fallujah, and began expanding over the Levant. Thus began their reign of terror, taking slaves, conducting genocide against the Yazidis, and destroying archaeological sites. But now that reign of terror has come to an end. Kurdish forces captured their last remaining piece of territory, the small Syrian village of Baghuz Fawqani. But though they may no longer control territory, the threat they pose is still very real, with world spanning networks of terror still in place. The battle against ISIS may have been won, but the war is still ongoing.

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2 Crashes, Universal Ban

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Two crashes in less than six months. One in Ethiopia, one in Indonesia. What do they have in common? The Boeing 737 Max, a plane now banned worldwide. In the service of profits, ill-fitting engines were shoved onto a decades old airframe. The aerodynamics were patched with gimmicky software, and the safety concerns patched by a rubber stamp from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). Because of their mistakes, 346 people are dead, and the Boeing stock is down $43B. [Vox]

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Twice the rate

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According to a recent report, Canada is experiencing global warming at twice the rate as the rest of the world, with the North reaching 3 times the global rate. You’ve probably already felt the effects, in our ridiculously wet winters of late, or seen them in the flooding wracking the country and the arctic permafrost that’s collapsing into lakes and rivers at a rate 6000% higher than usual. Time is short, and the problem is real. [CBC]

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$100M a year

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Speaking of the North, there’s one more big issue you should be aware of: food insecurity. The federal government spends almost $100M a year to subsidize food in the North, and yet prices are still intolerable for many Northerners, with prices for such basic goods as bottled water being 5-6 times higher than they are in the south. Over 70% of children in Nunavut experience food insecurity, up from 50% before the institution of the subsidies. The federal government is planning to provide an additional $15M in targeted subsidies, but until fundamental issues of infrastructure and utility costs are solved, those children will still likely go hungry. [CBC]

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815 Dead

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Cyclone Idai tore through Southeast Africa in early March, killing over 815 people in 3 countries, with the vast majority of deaths occuring in Mozambique. 98 000 people have been displaced, vast regions of the country are experiencing rolling blackouts, and 50 health centres were destroyed. That last one is especially significant, as due to poor conditions in the tent cities, a cholera epidemic is currently raging. The international community is providing aid, with groups as diverse as the USAF and the Indian Navy pitching in. However, according to the UN, 1.8M people still need help in Mozambique alone. [CBC]

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50 Murdered

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You’re all already familiar with Christchurch. You know the vicious and hateful ideology of the shooter. You know the progressive response of New Zealand’s PM. Here are some names you may not know.

Abdukadir Elmi. Abdul Fattah Kasem. Ahmed Abdel Ghani. Ali Elmadani. Amjad Hamid. Ansi Alibava. Ashraf Ali. Ashraf Al-Masri. Ashraf Morsi. Asif Vora. Atta Elayyan. Daoud Nabi. Farhaj Ahsan. Ghulam Husain. Hafiz Musa. Vali Patel. Hamza Mustafa. Haroon Mehmood. Hosne Ahmed. Hussain al-Umari. Hussein Moustafa. Junaid Kara/Ismail. Kamel Mohamad Kamel Darweesh. Karam Bibi. Khaled Mustafa. Linda Armstrong. Maheboob Khokhar. Matiullah Safi. Mohammed Imran Khan. Omar Faruk. Mohsen Mohammed Al Harbi. Mojammel Hoq. Mounir Suleiman. Mucad Ibrahim. Lilik Abdul Hamid. Abdus Samad. Musa Nur Awale. Naeem Rashid. Osama Adnan Abu Kweik. Ozair Kadir. Ramiz Vora. Sayyad Milne. Sohail Shahid. Syed Areeb Ahmed. Syed Jahandad Ali. Talha Rashid. Tariq Omar. Zakaria Bhuiya. Zeeshan Raza. Muhammad Haziq bin Mohd Tarmizi. Mohamad Moosi Mohamedhosen.

May they never be forgotten. [BBC]