Daily Shizu (neither a daily nor a shizu)

Sometimes I give up trying to formulate themes for the swirl of distractions and curiosities of my consciousness.

There are serious national issues, like that Canada is at "grave risk" if a national disaster strikes. (CBC) There are serious global issues, like that arctic ice in 2008 melted away to its second-most summer loss on record. (Van Sun) And with the rising cost of current energy sources, cities are looking at interesting alternatives, like Saint John exploring geothermal energy for city buildings. (CBC) And Moncton is looking to convert the methane gas produced by landfill into power. (CBC) Between these alternative-energy ideas and this new machine that clears CO2 from the air (Van Sun), we almost have this "global warming" problem all cleared up! (Not.)



There are rising international issues, like Russia stating it is their duty to their descendants (as for Canadians, it is ours) to exert control over their arctic region and resources. (Van Sun) But the discovery of ancient Yukon ice offers some interesting information, like temperatures in the world have been warmer than they currently are at least twice. (Van Sun)

(Here are some great historical photos of the arctic, from the National Maritime Museum's flickr stream.)

In other prehistory news, apparently after almost everything got wiped out (remember those dinosaurs?) life survived in a prehistoric seabed survival zone that is now part of Canada... what can we say but Canada saves life on Earth! (Van Sun)

Since we're on science and history at the moment, apparently genetic evidence suggests the emergence of agriculture in prehistory took longer than previously thought. (Science Daily)

And these just sort of caught my eye:

Researchers are studying whether or not the "out-of-body" experience reported by the "back from the dead" set is an actual phenomenon. (CBC)

A probe is going to fly by the planet Mercury, which has hardly been visited by space probes at all! We don't even have 100% of the surface mapped. (Van Sun)