We still have time to act by approving and quickly producing rapid tests in Canada by the tens of millions
By John Adams and Kashif Pirzada Macdonald-Laurier Institute Canada’s ongoing failure to effectively control the spread of COVID-19 reflects increasing failures by governments to coordinate with one another and to respond quickly and effectively to new developments and scientific advances. This is abundantly clear in the self-harm inflicted by our original difficulties in sourcing of…
Good leaders respect themselves and others, listen, celebrate differences of opinion and understand that winning means creating circumstances where everyone benefits
Many people have criticized Donald Trump’s actions in recent months, yet he still received more votes than any losing presidential candidate in American history. Many clearly think he’s a great leader. Perhaps Trump is the Vince Lombardi of presidents. The legendary football coach is known for having said, “Winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.”…
In creating a program that could play the ancient Chinese board game Go – the aim of which is to surround more territory than the opponent – researchers at DeepMind fed their machine learning system a diet of about 30 million Go moves and set it against the one opponent it couldn’t beat: itself. Thousands of…
We are beginning a serious transformation from fossil-fuel transportation to electric vehicles
Canadians generally have no idea that Tesla’s fancy battery technology has mostly been developed in Halifax. Dalhousie University has partnered with the American electric vehicle (EV) manufacturer and created what’s commonly referred to as the Tesla Dalhousie battery lab. The new 4680 dry-cell battery is going into Tesla vehicles sometime between February and April 2021.…
It’s easy to get caught up in a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, but that won’t help you conquer the year ahead
It’s no secret that life can be tough. And there are a lot of distractions lately that can feel like they’ll prevent you from going after big dreams and big goals. Some of you may not even have set new year’s resolutions. It’s easy to get caught up in a sense of hopelessness and helplessness,…
In December 2019, I wrote a column arguing that United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson was shaping up as a genuinely consequential politician. And the recent announcement of a new trade deal between the U.K. and the European Union bears that out. First, though, a clarification of terms. Declaring someone as consequential isn’t necessarily an…
Designing soundscapes for everything from music therapy in hospitals to community building
A new, state-of-the-art sound laboratory at the University of Alberta will help advance innovative research in audio design and sonic experience – everything from music therapy for hospital patients to soundscapes in gaming to understanding how sound creates community. Called Sound3 Lab – to denote the three areas of sound art, sound health and sound…
By Thomas York Research Associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy In light of the mainstream media coverage of riots and protests in the U.S. in recent months and the questionable claim by some in the media that the riots were “mostly peaceful protests,” the distinction between violent and peaceful protest is worthy of examination. In…
In the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused significant dislocations to Canadian economy and society. However, as we look to the international sphere, the pandemic has accelerated a number of long-standing trends, while introducing several new challenges. Over the past decade, we have witnessed the fragmentation of political, economic and military arrangements that underpinned the…
Elon Musk’s Starlink low Earth orbit (LEO) network has been awarded US$885 million over 10 years to build out rural internet access in the U.S. This was the fourth largest amount awarded under the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF). Testing of preliminary Starlink service recently began. This is a billion-dollar (almost) vote of confidence in…
By John Adams and Kashif Pirzada Macdonald-Laurier Institute Canada’s ongoing failure to effectively control the spread of COVID-19 reflects increasing failures by governments to coordinate with one another and to respond quickly and effectively to new developments and scientific advances. This is abundantly clear in the self-harm inflicted by our original difficulties in sourcing of…
