Friday, June 30, 2017

Happy 150th Birthday Canada!!

Canada 150. Canada's birthday. The sesquicentennial. There must be 150 ways to name 2017, but what are we talking about exactly? Well, that depends on how you look at it.

The year 2017 marks 150 years since Confederation. Or rather, what we've come to call Confederation.

Canada is actually a federation, but the term Confederation caught on in the in the 19th century and it stuck — we've named squares and bridges after it, we refer to the "Fathers of Confederation" (and the Mothers too!), and the word has come to represent the country and the events that created it.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

The summer solstice is upon us: 7 things to know about the longest day of the year

Why do we have a summer solstice, anyway?
Updated by Brad Plumer and Brian Resnick

The summer solstice is upon us: June 20th and the 21st will be the longest days of 2017 for anyone living north of the equator. If pagan rituals are your thing, this is probably a big moment for you. If not, the solstice is still pretty neat.

Technically speaking, the summer solstice occurs when the sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Cancer, or 23.5° north latitude. In 2017, this will occur at exactly 12:24 am (Eastern) on the 21st. (But we can celebrate on either day.)

Below is a short scientific guide to the longest day of the year (though not, as we’ll see, the longest day in Earth’s history — that happened back in 1912).

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Trump: US Withdraws from Climate Change Agreement - Paris


Trump is pulling the U.S. from Paris Agreement: ‘I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris’

Story Credit: Michael Walsh - Yahoo News.
8 Minute Read

President Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change Thursday afternoon. He described the move as a reassertion of American sovereignty.

Trump, who has dismissed climate change as a hoax, made the announcement that he will start the process of removing the U.S. from the international climate accord intended to limit the increase in average global temperature to below 2°C.