Blinded by the light

You didn’t make it through the ‘70s without hearing Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life. It spent 10 weeks at #1 on Billboard in ‘77, more than any other single throughout the decade. Emotional and moving, it was one banger of a ballad. 

When someone lights up your life, it’s typically meant in a figurative way, but it turns out there could be a more literal meaning. A new study suggests that living bodies actually emit a faint light, one that appears to go out with death.

That’s right, you shine ;)

(Love nostalgia? Play today’s trivia below for a chance to win a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card!)

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Celebrating 1000 Issues 🥳 

We’re giving away a $1000 Amazon eGift Card to celebrate our 1000th issue. Vote in today’s poll to earn an entry into the giveaway (you can also go back and vote in any of the polls since May 1st to gain additional entries—voting closes at midnight tonight). The winner will be drawn tomorrow, May 15th!**

Shout out to Zenbev for sponsoring our milestone 1000th issue and giveaway.

Skateboard or roller skates—you kept moving ‘til the streetlights came on. Now sleep feels like another task on your list. Zenbev helps reset your natural melatonin rhythm with clean, clinically backed ingredients. Use code STAKE20 for 20% off. Keep rollin’, but with better sleep.

IN THE NEWS

Honda postpones Ontario EV plant

Last year Honda announced a $15 billion overhaul at its Alliston, Ont. manufacturing plant, and yesterday it announced it will be postponing those plans.

The auto maker was set to retool its existing plant in Alliston to help streamline the process of manufacturing electric vehicles, on top of building a brand new battery-making facility next door.

Due to the slowdown in the North American market for electric vehicles and the lacking infrastructure to facilitate a resurgence, Honda says those plans are now on the shelf.

“The company will continue to evaluate the timing and project progression as market conditions change,” Honda spokesman Ken Chiu said in a statement Tuesday.

At the time the project was announced, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford were on-hand to announce both their governments were committing $2.5 billion in tax subsidies to help finance the project.

Ontario Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli’s spokeswoman Jennifer Cunliffe said the government remains in close contact with Honda to ensure the project does eventually go on as planned.

“Our government will continue to fight every single day to protect the progress we have made in our auto-manufacturing sector and secure good-paying jobs and support for workers and their families,” Fedeli spokesperson Jennifer Cunliffe said in a statement.

TRAVEL

Canada/U.S. travel declines again

According to Statistics Canada, land travel between Canada and the United States plummeted in April, falling for the fourth consecutive month on a year-over-year basis.

The number of Canadians that returned from travelling to the U.S. by vehicle was 1.2 million, down 35.2% from the year before.

Air travel was also down, dropping just under 20% compared to last April, with just 582,737 flying into the United States and coming back.

The trend is noticeable going the other way as well. Americans returning to Canada by car fell 10.7%, with 820,700 trips, compared with April of 2024, and just 289,300 flew into Canada, down 5.5%. Both have also now fallen for three consecutive months.

The data paints the statistical picture motivating yesterday’s story about Congress considering a bill that would help entice Canadians to resume travelling regularly to the United States by extending the visa-free period from six months to eight months.

GOVERNMENT

Driving in Ontario? Fewer tolls and cheaper gas coming

Highway 407 is a toll route that runs through southern Ontario from Burlington to just east of Oshawa at Highway 35/115.

Ontario premier Doug Ford announced yesterday that starting on June 1, tolls will be removed from 407 East, the section of the highway between Brock Road in Pickering and Hwy 35/115.

On top of that, Ford announced the reduction of the provincial gas tax, that was introduced in 2022, will be made permanent.

“I know that families and business owners are worried about rising costs, especially as U.S. tariffs threaten to raise the price of everyday essentials,” Premier Doug Ford said in a statement.

“That’s why we’re cutting the gas tax permanently and taking tolls off Highway 407 East, and that’s why we’ll always keep looking for ways to put more money back into the pockets of Ontario families.”

The government says the elimination of tolls on 407 East will provide relief for drivers on both the 407 and 401, saving money for 407 drivers and time for 401 drivers who would otherwise be staying clear of the toll route.

WHAT UP WEDNESDAYS

ALS study leads to revolutionary new treatment

Researchers at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have developed a helmet that those suffering ALS can wear which helps feed medicine for their condition directly into their brain using low-dose ultrasound.

The helmet is currently being used as part of a trial run to see if progress of the fatal disease can be slowed in the six trial patients.

They’re being given immunoglobulin, a therapy that helps reduce inflammation, which was used to treat ALS in several failed 1990s studies. Doctors later determined less than a fraction of 1% of the drug cleared the blood-brain barrier.

That’s where the helmet comes in, which sends ultrasound pulses to specific parts of the brain to clear room for the therapy.

“You can have very precise control of the exposures, and it’s tailored to the patient. Each location of the brain gets the right exposure, and there’s no other device that can do that,” said Kullervo Hynynen, a neuroscientist at the Sunnybrook Research Institute, who spent two decades designing the helmet.

70-year-old Bill Traynor—who spent his life skydiving, scuba diving, skiing, and playing tennis before his diagnosis—was the first patient to undergo helmet tests, and with the assistance of an MRI and a biomarker in the medicine, the researchers determined the helmet effectively opened small areas of the blood-brain barrier to deliver his medicine.

Over the next several months, further tests and analyses will be conducted to determine the efficacy and success rate of the helmet.

TECH

Cuts like a knife

Samsung revealed its S25 Edge the other day, and it’s so thin, it could arguably be used to cut like knife (well, a dull one anyway).

At just 5.3 mm thick (thin?), the phone itself is almost as thin as the USB-C port used to charge the phone.

According to Gizmodo’s Raymond Wong, “the S25 Edge has a 120Hz 6.7-inch AMOLED display, a dual-lens camera system with a 200-megapixel main lens and 12-megapixel ultra-wide lens, and a 12-megapixel selfie camera. It’s also as durable as any other premium phone, with an IP68 rating for dust and water resistance.”

It also comes with Galaxy AI, a suite of generative artificial intelligence features spread throughout the phone, such as “Now Brief,” which creates notifications and reminders automatically based on what you allow the phone to know about your behaviour, and “Drawing Assist,” which can turn simple sketches drawn on the phone into detailed images.

The phone’s 256GB version starts at US$1099, while the 512GB version will go for a crisp $1,219.

CURIOSITIES

Humanoid robot could beat you at ping pong

Engineers at MIT developed a robot that can hit and return ping pong balls with pinpoint accuracy and challenging speed.

The robot is only comprised of a human-like arm, and is attached to the end of the table. It’s aided by several cameras around the room that allow it to estimate the speed, trajectory, and spin of a ball coming at it, and then return serves with one of three types of swing—loop, drive, or chop—and spin.

“If you think of the spectrum of control problems in robotics, we have on one end manipulation, which is usually slow and very precise, such as picking up an object and making sure you’re grasping it well. On the other end, you have locomotion, which is about being dynamic and adapting to perturbations in your system,” said MIT graduate student David Nguyen.

“Ping pong sits in between those. You’re still doing manipulation, in that you have to be precise in hitting the ball, but you have to hit it within 300 milliseconds. So, it balances similar problems of dynamic locomotion and precise manipulation.”

ENTERTAINMENT

Madonna mini-series in the works

After years in development, a musical biopic on Madonna was scrapped in 2023, but the now-66-year-old queen of pop remained committed to having her life portrayed on screen one way or another.

It seems the star is getting her wish, with Deadline announcing Madonna will partner with Netflix to have a multi-part limited series developed to tell the story of her life.

It doesn’t yet have a title, but it will reportedly be directed by Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy, who’s also busy with the recently reported development of LucasFilm’s Starfighter, starring Ryan Gosling.

“I want to convey the incredible journey that life has taken me on as an artist, a musician, a dancer – a human being, trying to make her way in this world,” Madonna said in 2020, when the script she’d co-written for the biopic was still fresh and expected to be turned into a movie.

“There are so many untold and inspiring stories and who better to tell it than me. It’s essential to share the rollercoaster ride of my life with my voice and vision.”

Madonna wrapped up her 80-date Celebration tour last year, which sold 1.2 million tickets in near-record time, and grossed $225.4 million.

STAKE TRIVIA

Cutting deep

Not every great song is a top 10 hit, and some of the best tunes aren’t even released as singles. That’s right folks, we’re talking about the deep cuts 😎 

Whether they’re a little lesser known, or more literally deeper tracks on a record, today’s trivia is all about the deep cuts! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be notified tomorrow afternoon—keep an eye on your inbox!*

Have a great day ahead Staker!

Today’s issue written by Michael Cowan, Joey Cowan, and Maureen Norman.


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.

**SEE FULL 1000TH ISSUE GIVEAWAY RULES HERE.