Victoria Times Colonist – Page 2

We obsess over celebrities’ tribulations and ignore widespread horrors

The killing of Cecil the Lion by big-game hunters in June outraged the world.

Thirteen-year-old Cecil lived in Hwanga National Park, Zimbabwe, where he was a major attraction for wildlife tourists. He may have been lured out of the park prior to being killed.

Yet this is one animal, albeit a charismatic, celebrity critter. Thousands of wildlife crimes occur every year. The World Wildlife Fund estimates, for example, that customs officials intercept ivory from only about 11 per cent of the 50,000 African elephants poached every year.

Here in B.C., officials have helped uncover some wildlife crimes recently. More »

Poppies stay in style year round

11. November 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Folio, Keiran's World, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: Christmas, fashion, Hallowe'en, November 11, Poppy Campaign, poppy pins, Remembrance Day, Royal Canadian Legion, season, Victoria Times Colonist

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/columnists/monique-keiran-wearing-a-poppy-is-never-unfashionable-1.2106214

I recently visited the Jimmy Choo and Christian Laboutin footwear displays in a much-trumpeted Lower Mainland department store.

When a staff person approached me, I expected the usual “Can I help you?” Instead, the young man gestured at the poppy on my lapel. “This is the earliest I’ve ever seen anyone wear one of those,” he said. More »

Subjective time moves at its own pace

08. November 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: biological clock, Einstein, internal clock, neuroscience, psychology, relative time, subjective time, Victoria Times Colonist

Time runs differently when you're vacationing in Paris. Sculpture at Gare St-Lazare, Paris. Photo © David McSpadden, via flickr and creative commons

‘When I play Candy Land with my five-year-old, time creeps,” she says. “A game lasts only 10 minutes, but it feels like two hours to me.”

My friend is describing her experience of subjective time. The clock in her phone steadily marks the minutes, no matter what she does. Yet while she plays Candy Land— a board game that requires no reading, minimal counting skills, and is popular with young children—her brain measures time in a decidedly Dali-esque way. It perceives each second as stretching and warping around the experience of the game. Compared to the experience of time during the game, she finds time compresses and races before and after playing.

“My daughter finds the 10 minutes flash by like lightening.” More »

Pace of modern communications outstrips what the modern human brain evolved to deal with

Social media have democratized publishing. Now, anybody can spontaneously share their thoughts, opinions, photos, witticisms and criticisms, as well as what they ate for breakfast, with the world.

This accessibility has permitted new voices to emerge, quiet voices to be heard, and the previously unspoken to be said. More »

Erosion inevitable on park’s sea-side cliffs

26. October 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Hiking, In the Field, Science Scribe, Vancouver Island, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: change, Clover Point, Dallas Road, Dallas Road cliffs, erosion, Finlayson Point, geology, history, Ross Bay Cemetery, Victoria BC, Victoria Times Colonist

Dallas Road cliffs. Photo © Stewart Butterfield, via flickr and Creative Commons

We live in a part of the world many other people envy us for. We have ocean, mountains, beach, forests, a pretty darn awesome year-round climate for a place just south of the 49th parallel, and a number of big-town services and restaurants for what is, in many ways, a small town.

And on one of those perfect summer or fall or spring or even winter days, you just have to stop and say to yourself, “Seriously, why do I live in such a hell-hole? Let’s just stop the clock, and the moon and the stars and sun, and hold this moment. Forever.” More »

BC Ferries vessels join illustrious list of ships used to study B.C. waters

The Queen of Oak Bay ferry joins a long, illustrious list of vessels used for marine research off our coast. The B.C. Ferries vessel was recently outfitted with scientific instruments to sample ocean-surface and atmospheric conditions as it travels its Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver–Departure Bay, Nanaimo run.

The scientific equipment was added during a $7.7-million upgrade that began last November, and was provided by Ocean Networks Canada, a University of Victoria-based marine observatories network. More »

Infectious disease plays starring role in pop culture

Zombies. Photo © Gianluca Ramalho Misiti, via flickr and Creative Commons; www.facebook.com.grmisiti

Nature Boy lurches into the kitchen. Flu-ridden, his eyes are puffy and bloodshot, snot bubbles at his nostrils, and he breathes noisily through his mouth.

“Can I get you something?” I ask.

He reaches towards me, croaking something.

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘brains’?”

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Infectious disease plays a starring role in popular culture. More »

We’ll pay for summer drought for years

20. September 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: 14 Column Inches, Vancouver Island, Victoria Times Colonist · Tags: agriculture, aquifer, British Columbia, crops, drought, forests, infestation, shellfish ban, shellfish fishery, summer, urban forest, Victoria Times Colonist, water, water restrictions

Dry forest, South–Central Interior. Photo © Jennifer C., via flickr and Creative Commons

The hottest, driest summer on record for British Columbia ends this week, three weeks after the first substantial rains in months cleared the air. We will, however, be paying for this past summer for years to come.

Wildfires cost the province more than $260 million so far this year, well over the $63 million allotted. Even though B.C. posted a budget surplus this spring, belts across government will tighten to cover the unplanned-for extra expense. We’ll pay for that when we access programs and services. More »

Keiran's World