Chasser, pour avoir la conscience tranquille

Vanessa Ahing a été végétarienne pendant plus de quatre années. Par refus de l’industrie de la viande qui, à son avis, est cruelle et nuit à l’environnement. Pourtant, un bon steak lui manquait. Pour réconcilier conscience et palais, un choix nouveau s’imposait...

Un soir de septembre, 2013, Vanessa Ahing rentrait de la campagne, où elle avait abattu son premier chevreuil. Souvenir de l’enseignante de 31ans: “J’étais toute seule. J’avais suivi une formation de chasse pour femmes, organisée par la Manitoba Wildlife Foundation. Mon chevreuil, coupé en quarts, était dans un sac de hockey dans le coffre de ma Honda Civic. C’était mon premier animal. Je voulais vivre l’expérience complète de la chasse. Donc pas question pour moi d’aller chez un boucher. D’ailleurs, j’étais étudiante. Je n’avais pas le fric pour me payer un tel service.

“Je me demandais comment j’allais faire pour préparer cette viande. Je n’ai pas été élevée dans une famille de chasseurs, ou même de jardiniers. Mes parents n’étaient pas prêts à avoir un chevreuil chez eux. Et moi, je vivais dans un petit appartement pour célibataires au centre-ville de Winnipeg.

“Il était tard. Trop tard pour dépecer l’animal tout de suite. Alors, j’ai ouvert les fenêtres de mon appartement. Je me suis endormie dans mon sac de couchage. Le lendemain, j’ai tapé ‘Comment couper de la viande de chevreuil’ sur YouTube. Et je me suis mise à l’œuvre.”

Investors behaving badly

Finance professor Chi Liao’s background in mathematics often comes in handy in her line of work.

After all, both corporate and investment finance are built upon numbers. Yet financial reporting — balance sheets and cash-flow analysis — is not her area of interest.

In fact, her expertise has less to do with the numerical side of money and more to do with how our emotions affect how we manage our hard-earned cash.

“I’ve always been fascinated by people-watching and why it is we do what we do,” says Liao, who studied mathematics and finance before completing a PhD in behavioural finance from the University of Toronto in 2014.

Locals find loophole in laws of physics

A University of Winnipeg scientist leads an international team of researchers who may have found a loophole in the laws of physics.

Magnetricity could have practical applications down the road to store data in computers or conduct electricity, said U of W chemistry Prof. Chris Wiebe.

"All of magnetic (knowledge) is based on 'You can't have a single pole,' " explained Wiebe, a graduate of the U of W and Transcona Collegiate. There is always a north pole and a south pole, and a single pole cannot occur naturally.

So say the laws of physics, but...

Screwworm fly detected in Texas decades after cattle threat was largely eradicated in US

The New World screwworm fly has reached south Texas, the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed Wednesday, the first time in decades that the parasite with flesh-eating larvae has threatened the nation's cattle industry and only the third time it's appeared in the U.S. in that time.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the case was in a 3-week-old calf in La Pryor, Texas, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from the Mexico border. Texas State Veterinarian Bud Dinges said he has established a 12-mile (20-kilometer) quarantine zone, prohibiting the movement of any warm-blooded animal — including pets — outside that zone without an inspection.

Rollins said there have been no other detections of the fly in the U.S., and officials were quick to say that while the fly’s larvae are a threat to livestock production, they don’t infest food. Properly treated, even the infested calf should recover, Rollins said.

Rollins, U.S. and Texas agriculture officials, and cattle industry leaders have been sounding public alarms about the fly’s movement across Mexico for more than a year, spurred on by memories of it causing tens of millions of dollars of losses — potentially billions in today’s dollars — before its eradication in the 1970s.

Lumi the lynx finds new home at Assiniboine Park Zoo

An orphaned and disabled lynx has found a new home at Assiniboine Park Zoo.

Premier Wab Kinew was on hand Wednesday morning to welcome Lumi the lynx and announce a $650,000 grant for the wildlife rehabilitation centre that rescued it.

Lumi was helped by the Wildlife Haven Rehabilitation Centre as a baby last year after its mother was killed in a dog attack. Lumi entered its public enclosure at the zoo for the first time Wednesday after receiving medical treatment at its health centre since March.

“What a beautiful animal,” said Kinew, as he and a zoo official let the wildcat out from a crate into the public habitat.

Heat wave leaves schools sweltering

Classes are being cancelled as thermostats spike — up to 42 C, in one case reported to the teachers union — in schools without building-wide air conditioning.

Meteor as heavy as an elephant causes widespread speculation across New England

When the double boom rang out in New England over the weekend, shaking homes and sending pets fleeing, questions started flooding social media.

“Did anyone else hear that boom?”

“Anyone feel that?”

NASA let people know over the weekend that the cause of the commotion was a meteor, but on Monday they revealed even more stunning details.

Smart planting

A garden may look effortlessly beautiful, but as with other facets of life, beauty is often shaped and cultivated.

No matter the size of the space you manage — whether it’s a large landscape or a postage-size patch — effort and strategy are required to achieve and protect the garden you create.

Wild swings in temperature, strong winds, heavy rainfall or long dry spells can disrupt the best laid plans. Whatever the weather, keep your garden looking beautiful by choosing reliable plants for areas that are at the mercy of the elements.

Practical methods that are employed early in the season will fortify your garden against water loss, improve drainage and help to maintain your garden’s beauty.

Wilderness committee draws up plan to restore Nopiming after 2025 wildfire

One year ago, wildfires severely damaged cottage communities, backcountry campgrounds and popular canoe routes in Nopiming Provincial Park in eastern Manitoba.

Manitoba Wilderness Committee campaigner Eric Reder says as the park and its boreal ecosystem recover, which will take decades, the province should embrace the opportunity to curtail industrial activity in the park and establish more robust protection for its natural and recreational assets.

“The Nopiming Provincial Park that existed prior to 2025 is gone,” a Wilderness Committee report released Thursday said. “Only an all-of-society recovery solution can bring back what we’ve lost.”

The wilderness committee says that solution involves a moratorium on new industrial activity, a commitment to conserve habitat for caribou herds, increased engagement with First Nations whose land overlaps with the park and investment in recreational infrastructure, including backcountry trails and canoe routes.

The Minneapolis immigration crackdown ended months ago. For these little kids, trauma remains

COLUMBIA HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) — The little girl approached the therapy dog outside the school library, reaching out to touch her fluffy blond coat. Social worker Nicole Herje leaned in.

"How does it feel when you pet Sage?” Herje said.

“I like it," the girl said. “In Ecuador, I had a dog.”

A few months earlier, this girl and many of her classmates at Valley View Elementary were staying off the streets to avoid the immigration officers flooding their suburban Minneapolis community. Attendance plummeted as families kept their kids from school during the Trump administration’s enforcement surge.

Think it’s hot now? The next five years will smash records, UN says

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the next five years, the Earth is overwhelmingly likely to surge again and again past the international climate threshold set as safe and shatter its hottest-year record along the way, according to new United Nations climate projections.

The World Meteorological Organization also forecasts an overheating Arctic that warms nearly 3 degrees Fahrenheit (1.66 degrees Celsius) between now and 2030 and a dangerous drought with potential wildfires for the Amazon, a crucial part of Earth's natural defenses to lessen human-caused climate change. A hotter globe from the burning of coal, oil and gas means more extreme weather including floods, droughts and heat waves, scientists said.

The projections by the U.N. climate agency and the United Kingdom's Meteorological Office said there's a 75% chance that the average global temperature between 2026 and 2030 will be more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher compared to pre-industrial times. That threshold is the agreed-upon limit of warming — averaged over 20 years — set in 2015 by the Paris climate agreement.

A U.N. science report a few years later detailed how exceeding that 1.5 mark means more likely death, danger and species loss. Even though it's only a few tenths of a degree, some of the planet's ecosystems, such as coral and glaciers, can't handle the strain.

Bear rescue takes RM to court over quarries

Manitoba’s only black bear rescue is asking the court to quash a pair of quarry approvals in the Rural Municipality of Rockwood, saying the operations will have devastating effects on its operation.

Manitoba Bear Rehabilitation Centre Inc. and its owners have asked the Court of King’s Bench to declare the RM approvals invalid. It also seeks an injunction to prevent extraction at the site, pending the court’s decision.

The application claims the limestone quarry approvals were unlawful and the municipality failed to conduct a fair, transparent, and procedurally adequate decision-making process.

In March, the RM held a public hearing for two quarry applications by Amrize Canada. Hundreds of letters opposing the operations were submitted to the RM and dozens of people attended the meeting to voice their concerns, Black Bear Rescue Manitoba co-owner Judy Stearns said at the time.

School science changes spark concerns

Calls for more teacher training, consultation and updating Manitoba’s overhauled science curriculum are growing ahead of a mandatory rollout planned for the fall.

The Education Department is in the process of adjusting what scientific concepts students must learn and experiment with between kindergarten and Grade 10.

The new curriculum calls on teachers to regularly integrate Indigenous perspectives into their lessons and focus on building scientific literacy while leaving a lot up to professional discretion.

A pair of local researchers who’ve been surveying pilot participants have found “mixed responses.”

NASA lays out moon base plans with landers, buggies and drones at the top of the list

NASA is already ordering landers, rovers and drones for a sprawling moon base, less than two months after the Artemis II's record-breaking lunar flyaround.

You should be dancing, yeah. Moving to music offers all kinds of benefits as you age

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Carol Ross can’t stop smiling at dance practice as she shouts out the steps of a routine to members of her tap and jazz troupe for women age 50 and older.

“I’ve been dancing my whole life, it’s the best,” said Ross, who founded the Rodeo City Wreckettes group 23 years ago at an age when many people are getting ready for retirement.

Now 87, Ross and her husband and lifelong dance partner John, also 87, have long known what more older adults are now discovering: Moving to music is one of the best ways to stay healthy. Medical professionals say it doesn’t matter if it’s Western line dancing, ballroom steps, salsa, tap, Zumba at the gym, or with a group like the Wreckettes.

“Dancing is one of the most powerful activities for older people,” said Julio Loya, a nurse and geriatric program coordinator at the Tucson Medical Center.

Winnipeg pair look to launch EyeMirage device for sale in Canada in fall, with eyes to follow on international markets

By winter, a pair of Winnipeg entrepreneurs aim to have portable vision and concussion-screening products circulating Canada.

“Designing a device that is portable, affordable and AI-based and smartphone-based is a puzzle,” Dr. Behzad Mansouri said, a prototype of the device on the desk in front of him at the Brain, Vision and Concussion Clinic off St. Anne’s Road on Monday.

He’s a neuro-ophthalmologist at the clinic. He’s also the co-founder of Neuroptek, the medical technology company behind headsets meant to help diagnose concussions and other vision and neurological injuries and disorders.

The products look like virtual reality headsets. Instead of games, users take visual tests they’d find at a doctor’s office. They might try to read letters or identify colours.

Brazilian government commits $617.5M to Amazon ecological investment

SAO PAULO (AP) — The Brazilian government said Monday it has committed 3.1 billion reais ($617.5 million) to foster ecological investment in the Amazon region, as part of a plan to expand a federal program known as Eco Invest that was announced during last year’s COP30 — the annual United Nations climate summit it hosted last year.

The resources are expected to go toward businesses that support sustainable tourism, improve infrastructure in the Amazon and expand the “bioeconomy” — the so-called economic activity based on natural resources that preserves the forest.

The model uses a blended finance approach in which the National Treasury lends funds to banks at an annual rate of 1%. In return, banks must mobilize at least four times that amount in private investment, with foreign investors accounting for at least 60%. So far, the program has committed 140 billion reais ($28 billion) in combined public and private resources.

The National Treasury allocated 3.1 billion reais ($617.5 million) Monday and eight banks committed another 10.1 billion reais ($2 billion) in the latest auction of the Eco Invest program, the Ministry of Environment said.

Manitoba doctors support provincial government’s proposed social media ban

WINNIPEG - The negative effects social media has on children and youth's mental and physical health is outweighing other health concerns like substance use and injuries prompting some Manitoba doctors to support a ban on these sites, a new report has found.

Doctors Manitoba, the organization representing roughly 5,000 physicians and students in the province, surveyed its members and found that social media and excessive screen time pose significant risks to the mental health, sleep and robust development in children and youth.

Of the 242 physicians who completed the survey, 90 per cent supported a ban on social media sites and artificial intelligence chatbots for children.

"The findings are quite clear. Doctors believe social media, screen time and chat bots are among the top risks to children's health and well-being, ranking higher than even smoking, drinking, injuries and sedentary lifestyles," Dr. Alon Altman, president of Doctors Manitoba, told reporters on Monday.

Proponents of solar power push for provincial infrastructure investment to boost grid resilience

In the early 1970s, licence plates were stamped with the slogan “Sunny Manitoba” — a nod to long summer days, crisp blue winter skies and frequent sun dogs reflecting off of blinding white snow. While the slogan later changed, Manitoba’s ranking as Canada’s second-sunniest province has not.

Despite that sunlit reputation, solar power — one of the most-developed renewable energy sources — makes up just a small fraction of the province’s electricity grid.

“It’s extremely marginal, especially when you compare to other jurisdictions like Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said James Wilt, policy development manager at Climate Action Team Manitoba.

Manitoba boasts a predominantly emissions-free grid, with 97 per cent of its power generated by a network of hydroelectric dams. But the provincial utility, Manitoba Hydro, has forecasted that its once-abundant renewable energy source will soon fall short. There is growing demand for power amid the electrification of sectors like transportation and heating, and the rapidly growing interest in developing electricity-hungry data centres. Combined with more unpredictable water levels owing to climate factors like extreme drought, it’s all prompted the utility to warn that capacity could run out as soon as 2030.

Number of new measles cases trending down in Manitoba

Manitoba’s number of new confirmed measles cases is trending downward, but it’s still difficult to predict when the outbreak could end, a top public health official told the Free Press Friday.

Vast marine conservation reserve, bigger than P.E.I., to protect B.C. central coast

An enormous national marine conservation reserve is being established on British Columbia's central coast, spanning an area larger than Prince Edward Island.

The protected area, named Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon, is the result of an agreement between six coastal First Nations and the provincial and federal governments.

An official says the area is around 6700 sq. km and will be operated by Parks Canada along with its Indigenous and federal partners.

The reserve is within the Great Bear Sea, a diverse marine ecosystem that covers more than half of B.C.'s coast and includes glass sponge reefs, salmon, killer whales and migrating humpbacks.