canada
hrynyshyn | April 23, 2009... you could be in for a surprise. If, that is, you're not up on the latest climate research. Figuring out what role the forests will play in the Earth's climate regulating mechanisms have long proved more than a little tricky. And it just keeps getting more complicated.
Back at the turn of the century, for example, it was widely assumed that heavily forested countries would be in an enviable position when it comes to calculating net carbon emissions. Canada went to Kyoto negotiations in 2001 arguing that it should get credit for maintaining its vast boreal forests, because "everyone knows…
amillikan | April 13, 2009
Researchers in Canada are contemplating a recent report that suggests it is more expensive to review and reject applications for small baseline grants than to simply provide the grant without conducting a review. According to this study, if the review process was eliminated, the Canadian government could save money while funding the projects of every qualified applicant of baseline grants. Bora from A Blog Around the Clock speculates that foregoing review could promote "truly innovative science," and discusses the feasibility of implementing such a plan in the U.S.
Related ScienceBlogs Posts…
pontiff | February 23, 2009Quantum computing continues to grow in Canada. Congrats to the IQC at the University of Waterloo who now, truly are the center of the quantum computing universe:
With matching funds from the province of Ontario and RIM founder Mike Lazaridis, University of Waterloo's Institute for Quantum Computing will receive $150 million to build a research facility and attract talent
Canada will become home to the largest concentration of quantum computing talent in the world, thanks to $150 million in funding from government and the founder of Research In Motion Ltd.
The 2009 federal budget plan…
illconsidered | December 1, 2008"While we have been working on the economy, the Opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters," Harper said. "They want to take power, not earn it.
"
So says Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada
Of course, if the will of the voters had really been for him to govern they would have given the Conservatives a majority. Given they did not get that majority, a coalition government is hardly undemocratic! This quote is from this story here. According to this bit of good news, there is a real possibility of a…
grrlscientist | July 29, 2008tags: Canadian Apology, humor, politics, streaming video
This streaming video shows a truly Canadian apology for all the "wrongs" they have commited towards the U.S. [2:27]
grrlscientist | July 27, 2008tags: researchblogging.org, Bombus impatiens, Bumblebees, pathogen spillover, epidemiology, pollinating insects, greenhouses
Common Eastern Bumblebee, Bombus impatiens.
This species is often relied upon to pollinate commercial food crops,
such as tomatoes, that are often grown in agricultural greenhouses.
Image: Wikipedia Commons [larger view].
A mysterious decline in North American bumblebee populations is apparently the result of "spillover" of pathogen-infected commercial bumblebees, Bombus species, from agricultural greenhouses where tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are commonly grown…
tlambert | October 11, 1994C. D. Tavares writes:
Go check out the effect of your lovely gun controls on your suicide
rate. Suicide by gun went down. Suicide by other means went up
precisely enough to compensate.
Not true. See Am J Psychiatry 151:4 606-608 (1994).
Abstract:
" To assess the impact of the 1978 Canadian gun control law on suicide
rates in Ontario, the authors compared firearm and non-firearm suicide
rates for 1965-1977 with those for 1979-1989. There was a decrease in
level and trend over time of firearm and total suicide rates and no
indication of substitution of other methods. These decreases may…
tlambert | October 15, 1993Greg Booth said:
A 1976 study put guns in 40% of Canadian households.
An Angus Reid poll in 1991 put the number at 23%.
The 1989 International Crime Survey gave 29%
From Phil Ronzone's rkba.002 (US rates converted to rate per 100,000)
from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Statistical Abstract of the United
States: 1989 (109th edition.) Washington, DC, 1989.
and Canadian rates from the Canadian Centre for Health Information.
Year US accident rate Canadian accidental rate.
1969 1.139 0.63
1970 1.174 0.61
1971 1.136 0.66
1972 1.163 0.47
1973 1.235 0…
tlambert | September 30, 1993Canada. Gun law in 78.
Homicide rate (per 100,000 population)
74-78 2.7 3.1 2.9 3.0 2.8 average 2.9
79-83 2.7 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.7 average 2.6
(a t test on the statistical significance of the difference of the means gives p=.01)
Thomas Grant Edwards said:
From "Gun Control and Rates of Firearm Violence
in Canada and the United States" by R.J. Mundt, in Canadian
Journal of Criminology, Jan. 1990, p. 137:
"The mean rate [of homicide] for Canada from 1974-1978 was 2.7,
compared to a post-1978 rate (through 1988) of 2.6. One could
admit the possibility that this decline resulted from the 1977…