In good hands

They never had a #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, but Thompson Twins were an essential part of the ’80s. With synth-tastic tunes like Lay Your Hands on Me, you wanted to join hands with them and belt it at the top of your lungs. 

Fave artists aside, there’s probably no one you’d rather join hands with than family. Well, the Japanese Hand-in-Hand House might be the perfect place for that. The magical site boasts six distinct cottages, joined ‘hand-in-hand’ by the roof.

Umm…hold me now ;)

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

IN THE NEWS

Trump’s auto tariffs a confusing but “direct attack”

Prime Minister Mark Carney is off the campaign trail after U.S. president Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday to impose tariffs on automobiles not made in America starting next week.

Trump has been looking for ways to change the topic of conversation all week after news broke that top secret American war plans were shared with the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic in a Signal chat group.

The auto tariffs have partially done the trick, though yesterday’s stock market activity suggested investors aren’t convinced such tariffs will actually be imposed on April 2, the president’s so-called “liberation day.”

The order itself was confusing, and a fact sheet issued by the White House suggested only the materials that auto parts are comprised of would be tariffed, while duties on the actual parts would likely be delayed.

Carney called the executive order a “direct attack” on Canadian workers, and said, “we will defend our workers, we will defend our companies, we will defend our country and we will defend it together.”

The PM was in Ottawa meeting with his cabinet yesterday, a meeting he said the day before that he and his team anticipated would probably be necessary at some point, even before Trump issued his most recent executive order.

CONSUMER

Catching the eye to court the Canadian consumer

Crosby Foods was founded in New Brunswick in 1879, making it about as Canadian as a Canadian company can get.

Selling molasses for 145 years, the company is looking to catch the eye of consumers wanting to buy Canadian as relations grow more turbulent with the United States.

However, it can’t put “made in Canada” labels on its products.

“We have zero choice in the matter, because our fancy molasses, which is the primary grade of molasses that we import, is a direct product of sugar cane, and we can’t grow sugar cane in Canada.” said James Crosby, president and great-great-grandchild of the company’s founder.

As a solution, the company’s packaging will soon feature a “Proudly Canadian” label on its front, along with the year of its founding.

The move is being made in lockstep with the shift in consumer sentiment since U.S. president Donald Trump made Canada a target of a trade war that he continues to escalate. Many Canadians are now looking for ways to exclusively buy domestically-made products.

Food executives across the country expect this behaviour to remain the norm, even once tensions cool between the two once-inseparable nations.

“It’s by far the most dramatic and swiftest shift I’ve seen in consumer behaviour,” said Peter Chapman, founder of consulting firm SKUFood and a former Loblaw executive.

AI

Criminals + AI = digital Wild West

Canadian police are warning of a new threat in the form of cybercriminals “jailbreaking” AI models in order to tear down their safeguards and repurpose them for criminal activity.

A decade ago, you could buy a “jailbroken” phone on the black market, meaning the phone was no longer tethered to the wireless carrier that issued it, and it could be used to carry out activities not possible while still on the carrier’s proverbial leash.

Cybercriminals are now attempting similar feats, but with large language models themselves, circumventing the safeguards built into the original structures.

“There are also these LLMs that cyber criminals themselves build,” said Chris Lynam, the director general of the RCMP’s National Cyber Crime Coordination Centre. “There is this…whole underground cybercriminal community that operates on forums, but they also operate on platforms like Telegram.”

One example of this was a jailbroken version of ChatGPT that was used by a car bomber in January to procure weapons and ammunition to blow up a Tesla in front of the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

Jailbreaking AI is now being commercialized on the dark web, and the RCMP says it’s monitoring areas where it’s being peddled, but also admits law enforcement agencies and legislators aren’t agile enough to stop it before it becomes more prevalent.

FEASTING FRIDAYS

A new superfood?

A new study conducted by researchers at Sapienza University in Rome analyzed the contents of olive mill wastewater (OMW), the bitter and smelly byproduct left over after squeezing the oil out of olives. They found it may be among the healthiest foods on the planet.

OMW is typically discarded because of its bitterness and stench, but a long history of Mediterranean cultures using the product for natural healing got the scientists curious.

“Studies found that OMW is loaded with polyphenols, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds, and though these compounds are also present in olive oil, they’re in much smaller amounts,” says Pamela Tambini, MD, an internal physician and medical director at Engage Wellness. “Scientists essentially realized that what was once considered waste could actually be a super-concentrated health booster.”

Long story short, OMW is incredibly healthy. The contents it appears to be loaded with are helpful for reducing inflammation, promoting heart health, boosting cognitive function, and even preventing the growth of cancer cells.

The researchers recommend consuming OMW as a straight shot if you can get your hands on a bottle, and if you can’t handle the bitterness, simply mix it into a juice, smoothie, or even salad dressing.

HEALTH

More potential keys to longevity

Staying on the topic of foods that can promote health in a shockingly effective way, let’s turn to Maria Branyas, the American-Catalan supercentenarian who was the oldest living person before dying last August at 117 years old.

Researchers studied her intensely, analyzing her genes, saliva, tissues, stool, habits, etc. They used karyotyping to evaluate her chromosomes, determining she had certain genetic variations equivalent to hitting the genetic jackpot, allowing her cells to epigenetically behave as if she was much younger than 117 when she died.

But she also made simple dietary choices that seemingly promoted the super health of her microbiome, a healthy bacteria cluster that lives in the human gut. Specifically, she loved yogurt, and had three servings a day for as long as she could remember.

On top of yogurt, she also unsurprisingly adhered to the Mediterranean diet, had good sleeping habits, socialized regularly with friends and family, and kept her mind sharp with hobbies like reading, playing with her dogs, and gardening.

“The picture that emerges from our study,” the researchers wrote, “shows that extremely advanced age and poor health are not intrinsically linked and that both processes can be distinguished and dissected at the molecular level.”

SPACE

See ya soon, STEVE

A private crew of four rookie astronauts will board the Fram2 SpaceX Dragon crew vessel as early as Monday to embark on an unprecedented mission that will include orbiting the Earth at an inclination no mission has attempted before.

The mission’s purpose is to pass over Earth’s north and south poles in order to study the phenomenon known as STEVE (Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement), or more commonly known as the aurora borealis and aurora australis.

Satellites typically orbit most of the Earth, but stay clear of latitudes above 51.6 degrees north or south of the equator. Radiation exposure is much more dangerous near the Earth’s poles, and manned missions have kept away for that reason since human space flight began, with rare exception.

“This new flight trajectory will unlock new possibilities for human spaceflight and provide a deeper understanding about our planet and its polar regions,” a Fram2 news release read, according to Florida Today. “With the exception of the Apollo lunar missions, the North and South Poles have not been fully visible to other astronauts in orbit, including those onboard the International Space Station.”

The crew will also attempt to grow a crop of oyster mushrooms in an effort to determine the feasibility of astronauts being able to self-sustain on future missions to the Moon and Mars.

MUSIC

Court denies AI injunction request by record labels

Several record labels filed suit against Anthropic in Oct. 2023, a company whose chatbot, Claude, bases its user responses off of song lyrics—songs which are often owned by such publishers.

Concord, ABKCO Music & Records, and Universal Music alleged Claude would respond using phrases identical or nearly identical to the lyrics of songs they owned the rights to. They alleged this practice was in violation of U.S. copyright law.

U.S. District Judge Eumi Lee didn’t necessarily disagree in principle, but said the publishers failed to properly scope their claim when they couldn’t definitively list the songs that should’ve been included when considering injunctive relief.

“Publishers’ counsel could not say how many songs would be subject to the injunction,” Lee wrote. “Moreover, the injunction would apply to songs that Publishers currently own and to an unknowable universe of songs that they may acquire while the injunction is in place.

“Publishers would also ‘update’ the list to add or remove songs as necessary. Publishers did not offer a concrete or definitive way for Anthropic—as the party subject to the injunction and the legal repercussions of a violation—to ascertain its parameters or comply with its terms.”

STAKE TRIVIA

All aboard!

Soft rock, smooth jazz, high-quality production—that’s how we described this kinda music back in the ’70s and ’80s. Today, it’s known as yacht rock 😎 🚢 

From Hall & Oates to Steely Dan and beyond, we’ll be quizzing you on the classics, so set sail with us for today’s yacht rock trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be announced on Monday—keep an eye on your inbox!*

Have a great weekend, Staker!

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


*SEE FULL STAKE TRIVIA CONTEST RULES HERE.