News
"Climate shifts hit global wheat yields"
By Rob Winters - Published on Friday, 06 May 2011 07:31
"Shifts in the climate over the past three decades have been linked to a 5.5% decline in global wheat production, a study has suggested.
A team of US scientists assessed the impact of changes to rainfall and temperature on four major food crops: wheat, rice, corn and soybeans.
Climate trends in some countries were big enough to wipe out gains from other factors, such as technology, they said."
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13297004
"Unemployment rate edges downward in April"
By Rob Winters - Published on Friday, 06 May 2011 07:25
"OTTAWA — Canada added 58,000 jobs to its workforce in April, bringing the unemployment rate down 0.1 percentage points to 7.6 per cent, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
The lion's share of the new jobs — 41,000 — were part-time, the agency said, though it noted that since April 2010, full-time employment has outpaced part-time, growing by 1.9 per cent versus 0.8 per cent for part-time.
"With April's slight gain, full-time employment has returned to the level of October 2008 for the first time," Statistics Canada said."
"Hang up the iPhone -here comes paper phone"
By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 05 May 2011 07:14
"Move over, iPhone; you soon could be replaced by the paper smartphone.
That's the prediction from Prof. Roel Vertegaal, director of Queen's University's Human Media Lab, who will be presenting an interactive paper computer that duplicates many of the functions of an iPhone -from making calls to playing music to sharing books -at the Association of Computing Machinery's CHI conference next week in Vancouver.
"We expect all phones to be like this within five to 10 years," said Vertegaal."
"Probe demanded after massive oil spill"
By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 05 May 2011 07:09
"Aboriginal leaders and opposition critics are slamming the response of Alberta agencies to the province's largest oil spill in nearly four decades.
Residents of nearby First Nations communities say they didn't get information soon enough and the government response to their complaints of widespread illness has been "disappointing."
NDP environment critic Rachel Notley is calling for an investigation."
Consumers need take precautions
By Rob Winters - Published on Thursday, 05 May 2011 07:05
"The final cost of the damage done by the hackers who broke into Sony's computer system last month will probably never be known, but the bill will be immense. Estimates run to more than $1 billion.
While the motive may have been theft, this crime has more in common with vandalism in that the cost to the victims vastly exceeds any financial gain for the cyber-crooks who pulled it off.
The victims include Sony, the 77 million customers whose personal information may have been compromised and the banks that issued the credit card numbers that were accessed."
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