otter

Key details

When his colleague arrived, he discovered 40 red-bellied black snakes - four of which gave birth to more live young once he had placed them in a removal bag.

Red-bellied black snakes are one of the most common venomous species in Australia but have not caused any human deaths on record.

The five adult and 97 baby snakes are currently under quarantine and will be released into a national park once the weather cools.

We’re excited to announce that the new and improved IPT, powered by CIRA’s Net Good program, is now available for everyone to use. We’d like to extend a big thank you to all the members who participated in our IPT beta testing. Your feedback has been invaluable to improving this free service for all Canadians.

What it is:

This free, Canadian-based tool allows you to measure your internet’s actual performance in real network conditions, representing Canadians’ internet experience in real-time.

https://www.cira.ca/en/net-good/internet-performance-test/

Welcome to CIRA’s new Internet Performance Test!

• Test your internet connection’s performance
• Confirm that your current internet speeds align with your service plan
• Help build a better internet in Canada

Source: https://www.nwf.org/Home/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2022/Dec-Jan/Animals/News-of-the-Wild

How pikas weather the winter

Plateau pikas (above) spend their entire lives in high-altitude, treeless terrain across parts of Asia where few other mammals ever venture. In a 13-year study on China’s Qinghai–Tibetan plateau—known as “the roof of the world”—biologists with the Chinese Academy of Sciences investigated how these small cousins of rabbits can survive without hibernating in habitats where winter temperatures often plummet to minus 20 degrees F. Using special devices that measure internal body temperature, the researchers checked daily energy expenditures for 156 wild pikas during summer and winter. They discovered that the animals reduce their metabolisms by about 30 percent during the cold months, in part by lowering their body temperatures several degrees overnight. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team reports that the animals also rely on an abundant—and unexpected—food source: the feces of domestic yaks. “It massively reduces the amount of time pikas need to spend out on the surface,” says co-author John Speakman, an ecophysiologist at Scotland’s University of Aberdeen who participated in the project. Pikas are more abundant, the scientists note, in parts of the plateau where the long-haired yaks also are more prevalent.

When: Wed, Feb 5, 2025, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Cost $0.00

Where: Dunbar Community Centre 4747 Dunbar St, Vancouver, BC, V6S 2H2

Dunbar Earthquake and Emergency Preparedness (DEEP) invites you to a 1-hour talk on Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 7pm at the Dunbar Community Centre (room 202). John Halldorson, a founding member of DEEP, will talk about individual, family and neighbourhood disaster preparedness.

After a disaster, when emergency services are overwhelmed, help from your neighbours may be the only help immediately available. You will receive information and a workbook to help you and your neighbours:

• identify the resources you have in your neighbourhood to respond in an effective and timely way after a disaster; and
• locate your neighbourhood’s gas meters so you can quickly shut off leaking gas to reduce the threat of fire engulfing your homes.

You will also learn the important items you should have in your Grab & Go kit.

Please register for this in-person talk [in the link above].

Projection mapping is the process of calibrating a digital projection to align with a three dimensional surface. The Shape Mapper library is useful if you have a 3D model of the object you want to projection map

I've mostly seen it used for art installations, but there's likely more to it than I am familiar with

I didn't copy in the updates this time because there are so many, and I can't tell what's important since I haven't tried this one out yet. See the link above for the changes :)

More info for those that aren't familiar

Calibre, while a fantastic tool for its age, has several problems when containerised, including its reliance on a KasmVNC server instance for the UI, which is near impossible to use on mobile and is relatively resource-heavy if you're running a small, lower power server like I am.

For many, Calibre-Web has really swooped in to save the day, offering an alternative to a containerised Calibre instance that's resource-light and with a much more modern UI to boot.

However, when compared to full-fat Calibre, it unfortunately lacks a few core features leading many to run both services in parallel, each serving to fill in where the other lacks, resulting in an often clunky, imperfect solution.

Goal of the Project 🎯 Calibre-Web Automated aims to be an all-in-one solution, combining the modern lightweight web UI from Calibre-Web with the robust, versatile feature set of Calibre, with a slew of extra features and automations thrown in on top.

Article Author: Andrew Allison, Philosophy PhD Student, University of Calgary

Excerpt from article: (emphasis mine)

The independence of central banks from the democratic process has been a bedrock of economic policy for decades. The Bank of Canada is no exception, maintaining distance from elected officials to ensure monetary policy is free from political pressures.

However, a clear division between central bank and government could be tested with Mark Carney, former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England who’s running for leadership of the Liberal Party and, in turn, the role of prime minister.

His bid raises concerns about how central bank independence might be perceived under a Carney-led government. Could his tenure as a central banker result in the Bank of Canada’s independence being clawed back? After all, he has demonstrated his ability to manage monetary policy at the highest levels.

The answer, if we want to preserve the economic benefits of central bank independence, is clear: the Bank of Canada’s independence must be preserved. And Carney, who has championed the importance of politically neutral monetary policy, would likely agree.