Layers of meaning

You gotta admit that K-tel made a pretty convincing case for its food chopper—aka the Blitzhacker—back in the day. That simple tool really seemed like the answer for every job in the kitchen. Bye bye onion tears, hello tears of joy 😂

K-tel chopper aside, you probably still find yourself fighting back tears when cutting onions the old fashioned way. Fortunately, a team of researchers from Cornell has determined once and for all the best way to cut onions with minimal tears.

Almost makes you wanna… ;)

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

IN THE NEWS

Consumer Price Index falls

The Bank of Canada will have its hands full in two weeks when it decides its next policy maneuver, after Statistics Canada revealed the consumer price index fell to 1.7% in April.

After a March reading of 2.3%, the 0.6 percentage point decline was driven heavily by the axing of the consumer carbon tax by Prime Minister Mark Carney shortly before the election.

Economists polled by Reuters anticipated an April reading of 1.6%, further muddying the waters about what to expect of inflation moving forward, particularly as tariffs sink further into the economy.

The majority of the decline was felt at gas pumps, where prices fell 18.1% year-over-year. Grocery prices, on the other hand, have now outpaced broader headline inflation for three straight months. They were up 3.8% in April, compared to a March reading of 3.2%.

The BoC’s policy rate has been held at 2.75% for several straight meetings, with Governor Tiff Macklem saying in April that the central bank’s governing council needed more time to assess the impact of American tariffs and Canada’s retaliation to them. Leadership will meet again on June 4 to make their next decision.

ECONOMY

Tariffs taking bigger bite

According to Loblaw chief Per Bank, U.S. president Donald Trump’s tariffs are taking their toll, with the effects only appearing blunted because of “stock market exuberance” and snap American trade deals like the ones announced with the U.K. and China.

“While the tariff situation might be improving between the U.S. and other countries, that’s not yet the case here in Canada,” he said in a LinkedIn post. “In fact, we’ll be facing a large wave of tariff-related increases in the weeks ahead.”

The real on-the-ground effects of tariffs are yet to come with groceries, he noted, saying that even though Loblaw initially aimed to limit the impact to 1,000 of the roughly 80,000 items Loblaw sells, that number could rise as high as 6,000.

“We’ll continue to do our best to help customers make informed decisions and in co-operation with our vendors to look for more Canadian and non-U.S produced products where at all possible,” he said.

Similar sentiments were expressed late last week by Walmart’s CFO, John David Rainey.

“If you’ve not already seen it, it will happen in May and then it will become more pronounced,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg.

MEDIA

CBC gets a little more runway

Earlier this year it looked like a foregone conclusion that the Conservative Party would form the next government, leading many to believe there was a real probability the CBC was set to be defunded.

After the shocking Conservative collapse and the election of a strong Liberal minority government, the CBC can likely breathe an 18 month sigh of relief, according to Jessica Johnson, a senior fellow at McGill University’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy

“I do think that the Carney victory has secured the future of the CBC for now, at least as long as they’re in power,” she said.

The CBC has been the object of Conservative ire for years, given its perceived lean toward the left in its news and opinion coverage, and in the fallout of the network suing the Conservative Party in 2019. While there’s no evidence of any collusion between the national broadcaster and any political party, Prime Minister Mark Carney did propose making the corporation’s funding statutory, making it more difficult to cut off.

Johnson has found in her research that Canadians are feeling stronger about the importance of CBC/Radio Canada these days in light of economic aggression from south of the border. 45% of people she surveyed consider CBC even more important now as a way of preserving national identity.

Experts believe the Liberal minority government could easily fall within 18 months, giving the CBC a year and a half to figure out its future, even if a government less interested in its survival were to form.

WHAT UP WEDNESDAYS

Want to live longer? Get gardening

Stake covered the rapidly rising trend of chaos gardening the other day, and whether you’re sowing chaos or just sowing seeds the traditional way, research suggests gardening is a good way to help you live longer.

Working the land around us—whether it’s for gardening, landscaping, farming or ranching—can help maintain cognitive function, and somewhere between work and a hobby, it’s sometimes referred to as a “green prescription” or “nature prescription.”

"Nature prescriptions can increase physical activity and social connection while reducing stress, which have multiple positive knock-on effects for blood pressure, blood sugar control and healthy weight, reducing the risk of diseases that can lead to dementia," says Melissa Lem, a family physician based in Vancouver and researcher at the University of British Columbia. "We all know that more physical activity improves mental and physical health, but gardening supercharges those benefits.”

Another study measured the cognitive abilities of participants between 11 and 79 years old, and found those in their later years who regularly participate in gardening activities maintain cognitive function later into life.

"Engaging in gardening projects, learning about plants and general garden upkeep involves complex cognitive processes such as memory and executive function," said Janie Corley, the study's lead researcher, in a press release.

SPACE

NASA warns of blackouts

The Sun is getting quite active with solar flares and the most active part is currently moving to face towards Earth. NASA is warning of potential blackouts across the planet as increased solar activity overwhelms electrical systems.

“Solar storms typically begin when these twisted magnetic fields on the sun get contorted and stretched so much that they snap and reconnect (in a process called magnetic reconnection), releasing large amounts of energy,” the space agency said.

Electrical systems on Earth get overwhelmed by these events because solar flares can disturb Earth’s magnetic field. At their peak, solar flares can cause what are called coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which happen when electrically charged solar particles pass through Earth’s atmosphere.

Solar flares have several categorizations, including A, B, C, M, and X, which go in order from weakest to strongest. A solar flare classified as X2.7 was recorded on May 14, just ahead of the period during which the Sun’s most active region will face towards Earth, prompting NASA’s warnings for potential blackouts around the world.

CURIOSITIES

Want to debate AI? It might win

A new study published in Nature Human Behaviour found AI like OpenAI’s GPT-4 can beat humans in a debate when they have access to information like the human’s gender, age, education, employment, ethnicity, and political affiliation.

Researchers at EPFL in Switzerland, Princeton University, and the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Italy conducted the study, recruiting 900 humans, and having them participate in debates against GPT-4, or against each other.

When given the demographic information listed above, the AI was found to be 64.4% more persuasive than their human opponents, but when not given the information, GPT-4’s responses weren’t any more persuasive than the humans’.

Furthermore, when enabled to personalize its arguments to directly persuade a single person, the AI became 81.2% more likely to change a person’s mind compared to a human in a person-to-person debate, fueling concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence on the internet and social media in particular.

“In the context of persuasion, experts have widely expressed concerns about the risk of LLMs being used to manipulate online conversations and pollute the information ecosystem by spreading misinformation, exacerbating political polarization, reinforcing echo chambers and persuading individuals to adopt new beliefs,” the researchers wrote.

MUSIC

Jim Morrison grave statue found after 37 years

Jim Morrison was buried in 1981 in Paris after he tragically passed away in the City of Lights at the age of 27.

One night eight years later, a bust of the iconic singer was stolen from his gravesite, likely by two thieves using a moped to lift the nearly-300-pound statue.

After 37 years, during a search ordered for an unrelated reason, French authorities recovered the missing artifact.

“During an investigation conducted by the Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade of the Directorate of Judicial Police of the Prefecture of Police, under the authority of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, this iconic symbol for the singer's fans was recovered,” an official statement read, also noting it had been a “chance discovery.”

Benoit Gallot, the cemetery’s curator, said he had not been contacted by French police and isn’t sure if the bust is going to be returned to the spot it was stolen from all those years ago.

Authorities are likely hesitant, given the controversial—though unsurprising—history of the gravesite, including repeated vandalism of Morrison’s headstone, and a riot that broke out during a fan pilgrimage to the site for the 20th anniversary of the Doors singer’s death.

STAKE TRIVIA

Rollin’ the dice

When you were growing up, there was nothing more fun (and more frustrating) than playing boardgames with your family 😂 

Do you know your Scrabble tiles? Remember the Monopoly board? Find out with today’s trivia! 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.