Investors can roll dice on emerging technologies that may or may not shape future, portfolios’ net worth

We live in hyperstitious times.

A philosopher named Nick Land coined the word hyperstition in the 1990s, describing the sense of living today in science fiction of the past.

Investors may have that same sensation, given the dominance of artificial intelligence in their portfolios.

Yet AI is arguably more than an advanced chat-bot/search engine. It is “the fabric that’s binding” together a lot of other science fiction-like technologies, moving them closer to viable commercialization, says Mickey Ganguly, associate portfolio manager for the CIBC Technology Innovation Fund.

Humanoids dance and thread needles as Japanese robotics developers look to outdo Chinese

TOKYO (AP) — Mechanical hands dexterous enough to thread a needle, childlike dancing robots and adult-sized ones to help with deliveries were on display Thursday as the Humanoids Summit Tokyo opened.

Among the dozens of companies taking part, including well-known players like Boston Dynamics and Toyota Motor Corp., the big stars now were clearly the Chinese.

Chinese newcomers, like Booster Robotics and LimX Dynamics, took the technology initially developed in Japan and the U.S. and fine-tuned it, often for cheaper mass production. It’s a repeat of what happened in other Japanese industries, from consumer electronics to cellphones and electric vehicles. In humanoids, Japan was initially ahead but then failed to produce major commercial solutions.

Tim Hornyak, author of “Loving the Machine: The Art and Science of Japanese Robots,” who was at the event, categorized it as the so-called “Galapagos syndrome,” referring to how innovative Japanese products evolve in isolation and end up not translating for the international market.

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.

Snowbirds aerobatic team grounded until early 2030s while new planes purchased

MOOSE JAW -

Canada’s famous military aerial ambassadors – the Snowbirds – will soon be grounded.

Defence Minister David McGuinty announced Tuesday that after this upcoming season, the nine-jet aerobatic team will be mothballed until the early 2030s.

The pause is to allow the team’s signature but aging CT-114 Tutor jets to be replaced by the CT-157 Siskin II.

U.S. says it’s pausing long-standing military board with Canada

WASHINGTON - The U.S. undersecretary of defence for policy said Monday that the United States is pausing a long-standing military board, claiming "Canada has failed to make credible progress on its defense commitments."

In a post on social media, Elbridge Colby said his department is pausing the Permanent Joint Board on Defense "to reassess how this forum benefits shared North American defense."

The board was established in 1940 and is an advisory forum for U.S.-Canada bilateral defence co-operation.

Colby said the United States "can no longer avoid the gaps between rhetoric and reality" in the post, where he shared a link to a transcript of Prime Minister Mark Carney's January speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Federal government dismisses calls for radar sites to remain as farmland

OTTAWA - The federal government has rejected calls from some residents in southern Ontario to find other spots to set up planned Arctic over-the-horizon radar installations in order to preserve farmland.

Parliament received a flurry of petitions in recent months criticizing National Defence for buying up plots of quality farmland near Barrie, Ont., for the new radar system, and calling on Ottawa to register the land under an agricultural trust.

The government says the long-range radar, a $6 billion project to modernize Norad surveillance equipment, will make detecting threats in Arctic airspace faster and easier.

The federal government bought 288 hectares of land in Clearview Township, west of Barrie, for an antenna receiver site, upsetting local residents. It also acquired land for a transmitter site in Kawartha Lakes, about 70 km north of Oshawa, Ont.

Manitoba Construction Career Expo draws students from across province with goal of ‘AI-resilient’ career options

More than 1,200 students from across Manitoba hammered nails, operated miniature machinery and even tried their hand at masonry at a hands-on career fair organizers called a pitch for the “AI-resilient” jobs of the future.

The Manitoba Construction Career Expo has been organized by the Winnipeg Construction Association for more than 15 years. As Canada’s career landscape has changed for youth, there’s been an increasing interest in logging out of the virtual world and finding a more tactile profession, said Darryl Harrison, the association’s director of stakeholder engagement and advocacy.

“There’s a lot of opportunities in construction, whether you pursue an apprenticeship or take another path toward the industry, but it generally leads to well-paying jobs and it leads to a career that we’re now calling AI-resilient,” Harrison said at the event at Red River Exhibition Place on Wednesday.

“There’s a lot of careers where it’s questionable what the impact of AI will be, and we will always need hands-on work sites to build the buildings that we need.”

Astronomers believe they’ve detected an atmosphere around a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — A new study suggests that a tiny, icy world beyond Pluto harbors a thin, delicate atmosphere that may have been created by volcanic eruptions or a comet strike.

Just 300 miles (500 kilometers) or so across, this mini Pluto is thought to be the solar system's smallest object yet with a clearly detected global atmosphere bound by gravity, said lead researcher Ko Arimatsu of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

“This is an amazing development, but it sorely needs independent verification. The implications are profound if verified,” said Southwest Research Institute's Alan Stern, the lead scientist behind NASA's New Horizons mission to Pluto and beyond. He was not involved in the study.

The finding offers fresh insight into our solar system’s farthest, coldest objects in a region known as the Kuiper Belt. Researchers used three telescopes in Japan to observe the object in 2024 as it passed in front of a background star, briefly dimming the starlight.

Feds to hike max fine for airlines abusing passenger protection regulations to $1M

OTTAWA - The federal government plans to quadruple to $1 million the maximum fine for airlines that repeatedly violate passengers' rights.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon said fining airlines is a last resort but the current system isn't working.

The Canadian Transportation Agency, which handles passenger complaints, is facing a backlog of more than 97,000 cases.

"The system is broken. Decisions by the Canadian Transportation Agency can take years. This is not acceptable. Canadians deserve better," MacKinnon said Friday at a press conference in Ottawa.

Hanwha offers made-in-Canada military vehicles if it wins submarine deal

OTTAWA - South Korean defence manufacturer Hanwha says it's ready to build military vehicles in Canada in a partnership with the domestic auto sector, including mobile howitzers, rocket launch systems and infantry vehicles.

But that's only if it wins its bid to construct the Royal Canadian Navy's next fleet of submarines.

Hanwha said Wednesday it would forge a joint venture with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association to create a Canadian entity that would build a range of vehicles.

"It's not a secret Canada asked … 'Could you please take a look at the auto industry and understand what you can do?' They're under a tremendous amount of stress," said Glenn Copeland, CEO of Hanwha Defence Canada.

Military hits 30-year recruitment high but still falls short on key trades

OTTAWA - The Canadian military just had a banner year for recruitment — but not enough for the defence minister to declare an end to what his predecessor called a personnel "death spiral."

Military recruitment hit a three-decade high when the Canadian Armed Forces brought in 7,310 new members over the past year, Defence Minister David McGuinty said Monday.

That's 600 more than the previous year, when the military brought in 6,710 recruits.

McGuinty touted a surge in enlistment applications Monday morning — just hours before a House of Commons committee heard testimony about how the Canadian Armed Forces has struggled to keep applicants from dropping out of the recruitment process.

In praise of the deliberately slower lane

Before I begin this story, I should first confess that I once suffered from a serious affliction — that nasty urban disease known as road rage.

‘Extraordinary’: Back on Earth, Jeremy Hansen describes his long journey in space

HOUSTON - When Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen first floated to the window after the Orion capsule's bone-rattling launch into space early this month, what he saw and felt left him grasping for words.

He saw the sweep of the ocean first, and then, drifting into view, the rich, dusty red of Australia. And behind it all was the vastness of space, with the edge of Earth's atmosphere shining like a bubble of blue glass in the black.

"It was pretty extraordinary," Hansen told The Canadian Press at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston Thursday.

The enormity of what Hansen and his Artemis II crewmates experienced is still settling in a week after they returned to Earth, splashing into the Pacific Ocean following a 10-day lunar fly-around.

Boeing commits $36M for Winnipeg projects

Canada’s next Air Force planes will be built with the help of a burgeoning workforce: robots.

Tesla leader believes Shanghai factory operations will play a role in robot mass production

SHANGHAI (AP) — A Tesla Inc. leader said Tuesday he believes its Shanghai factory operations will help resolve the challenges in achieving mass production of the company's humanoid robots as the U.S. electric vehicle giant pivots to robotics.

Wang Hao, Tesla's vice president, said the Shanghai facilities, like other Tesla factories, will contribute after the company enters an era of robots.

Wang, who also serves as president of Tesla China, told reporters on a government-organized tour of one of its Shanghai factories that CEO Elon Musk once noted having production at scale is a critical challenge in manufacturing humanoid robots.

Wang said he believes the Shanghai manufacturing arm “is a golden key to solving this challenge," but did not specify how the operation will support the company's robotic business.

Manitoba students’ science projects aimed at eye health, wildfire prevention take top marks

More than 350 students in grades 4 to 12 took part in MSSS, the province’s largest annual science event, at the University of Manitoba.

Artemis II astronauts make long-distance call to the space station as they head home from the moon

HOUSTON (AP) — Still aglow from their triumphant lunar flyby, the Artemis II astronauts made more history Tuesday: calling their friends aboard the International Space Station hundreds of thousands of miles away as they headed home from the moon.

It was the first moonship-to-spaceship radio linkup ever. NASA's Apollo crews had no off-the-planet company back in the 1960s and 1970s, the last time humanity set sail for deep space.

"We have been waiting for this like you can’t imagine,” Artemis II commander Reid Wiseman called out.

For Christina Koch on Artemis II and Jessica Meir aboard the space station, it marked a joyous space reunion despite being 230,000 miles (370,000 kilometers) apart. The two teamed up for the world's first all-female spacewalk in 2019 outside the orbiting lab.

In pictures: Artemis II crew captures eclipse, Earthrise, far side of moon during lunar flyby

NASA released new photos Tuesday captured by the Artemis II astronauts.

Artemis II’s lunar fly-around and intense observation period lasted seven hours.

A total solar eclipse greeted the three Americans and one Canadian as the moon temporarily blocked the sun from their perspective.

Venturing as close as 4,067 miles (6,545 kilometers) to the gray dusty surface, the astronauts zipped through a list of more than two dozen photo targets, using powerful Nikon cameras as well as their iPhones to zoom in on impact craters and other intriguing lunar features.