Scent-sational

That Pepé Le Pew was perpetually smitten. Persistent and charming (ok, maybe a little obnoxious and aggressive), he couldn’t help himself from chasing tail. Unfortunately for his love life, his scent was too much to bear 🤭

Our sense of smell plays a big role in guiding our actions, and not just when we encounter skunks. A new study has shown that even the first whiff we get of new people has a big influence on whether we'll befriend them. 

Hmmm, whiff on a list? ;)

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

WEEKLY POLL

What are we thinking?

IN THE NEWS

Bank of Canada holds steady

After seven consecutive rate cuts that began in June of last year, the Bank of Canada held its policy rate yesterday, keeping it at 2.75% as the country faces considerable uncertainty about the economy moving forward.

BoC governor Tiff Macklem made it clear the U.S. trade war, and its almost-daily twists and turns, were a key factor in the decision to pause.

“The dramatic protectionist shift in U.S. trade policy and the chaotic delivery have increased uncertainty, roiled financial markets, diminished global growth prospects and raised inflation expectations,” he said at a press conference.

Planning monetary policy in a protectionist environment is particularly difficult, given a trade war’s ability to stoke inflation and economic contraction. Typically, a central bank will raise the policy rate in response to the former, and lower it in response to the latter. With both prospects likely at the same time, Macklem insisted the BoC must wait for a better understanding of where the economic headwinds may blow.

“The future is no clearer. We still do not know what tariffs will be imposed, whether they’ll be reduced or escalated, or how long all of this will last,” he said.

GOVERNMENT

Canadians anxious about Old Age Security

A recent survey conducted by Bloom Finance found 61% of Canadian seniors depend on Old Age Security (OAS) and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) as their primary sources of monthly income.

Given the promises being made by political leaders during the election campaign, there will likely need to be spending cuts elsewhere in order to pay for various proposals, such as increased defense spending, housing, infrastructure projects, and tax cuts.

In response, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP) is sounding the alarm, saying the pension plan is “a lifeline under threat.”

“It is the first place the government will look for savings—threatening Canadian seniors’ ability to live with dignity in retirement,” CARP wrote in a statement.

“OAS is more than a monthly cheque. It’s a promise—a promise that Canada will protect its older adults from poverty and neglect. CARP is demanding that this promise be kept.”

Think tanks and various economists and experts on the matter have recently proposed changes to the plan that would either alter the size of benefits, or change the age requirements in order to spend more effectively and save where possible.

The Liberal government agreed to a 10% increase for seniors over 75 in 2022, but have stood in opposition to a Bloc Quebecois proposal that would give the same raise to seniors between 65 and 74.

CANADA

Canada tops TikTok’s “relocation” trend

Financial services company Remitly conducted a study into a TikTok trend in which content is posted about a country in an effort to pitch that country as a place people should move to.

It looked into hashtags that participated in the trend, and found #MoveToCanada and #ExpatInCanada were by far the most popular ones.

In total, there were 16,523 posts with at least one of these hashtags, compared to the next most popular relocation spot, Spain, which got 9,915.

It’s not necessarily the case that the whole world believes Canada is the top spot to relocate to, but it certainly speaks to the pride Canadians and those living in Canada have in their country these days.

There’s been a passionate and sizeable wave of patriotism passing through the Great White North for most of 2025, as its citizens dig their heels in and “put their elbows up” in defense of the country’s identity, history, and sovereignty.

While Canadians have mostly been known for politeness in recent times, the world is being reminded these days of the country’s even longer-standing core characteristic: toughness.

THIRSTY THURSDAYS

Coffee, but make it physics

The global supply of arabica beans is being threatened constantly by poor weather conditions, causing the price of coffee to skyrocket.

In response, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study on how to make the perfect cup of coffee using as few beans as possible, zeroing in on a concept they call “extraction efficiency,” which deals with the interaction of water and coffee grounds at the molecular level.

“When you’re brewing a cup, what gets all of that coffee taste and all of the good stuff from the grounds is contact between the grounds and the water,” said coauthor Margot Young. “So, the idea is to try to increase the contact between the water and the grounds overall in the pour-over.”

It turns out the strength and quality of the coffee really has little to do with how many beans are used, but how efficiently the water is poured over them once they’re ground up.

The optimal pour? Hot water from a gooseneck kettle, poured from a “significant” height, creating what the researchers described as an “avalanche effect” that causes the water to maximally interact with the coffee ground particles.

AI

Google AI talks to dolphins

Dolphins are among the most intelligent non-human species in the world, with rigorous communication networks that, thanks to AI, humans may be able to replicate soon in order to literally talk to dolphins.

Google has teamed up with the World Dolphin Project (WDP) and AI developers to create DolphinGemma, a large-language model that functions identically to LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini, but for dolphin language.

WDP has been non-invasively studying pods of dolphins near the Bahamas since 1985, collecting information on the sounds they make towards each other, such as courtship buzzes, aggressive squawks, and “signature whistles” that serve as “name tags.”

The 40-year ongoing study has yielded enough data to build a 400-million parameter predictive model that listens to dolphin utterances, and then predicts what will be said next.

Humans have never been closer to being able to talk to animals—particularly cetaceans. On top of DolphinGemma, non-profit CETI conducted an in-depth study of sperm whales, and comprised a library of 8,000 sperm whale codas. The study provided so much insight into the how the species communicates, CETI was able to map out the equivalent of a sperm whale phonetic alphabet.

If you could talk to dolphins or whales, what would you say?

CURIOSITIES

Ken Griffey Jr. hits a homerun

In the 1990s, a headline like that would be akin to saying “the sun came up today.” However, in 2025, what could it possibly mean? You’ll have to change gears and take a look at the other hall-of-fame athlete who swung for the fences and hit a grand slam over the weekend to figure that one out.

Rory McIlroy gave the world what will go down as one of the most memorable rounds of golf in the history of the game on Sunday. A rollercoaster ride for the ages wouldn’t do justice to the ups and downs of Rory’s final round at Augusta National; if you tried to script it, Hollywood studios would have laughed you out of the room.

In that sense, it’s no surprise that when the Irishman finally sealed the deal in a playoff hole against Justin Rose to win his first Masters and complete the career grand slam, he was completely overwhelmed with raw human emotion, falling to his knees and burying his head in the sacred 18th green of Augusta National.

So what does Ken Griffey Jr. have to do with this? Well, take a look for yourself. As you can see, this is likely one of the most iconic sports photos ever taken, and the credit for taking it goes to none other than Ken Griffey Jr.

Not a bad second career for the Cooperstown legend.

MUSIC

Rock Hall fan voting down to the wire

The Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame will announce this year’s class of inductees later this month, and until April 21, fans are able to have a say in who goes in this year.

The list of nominees was published earlier this year, including Phish, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, Bad Company, The Black Crowes, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, and more.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fan vote is being led by Phish by a wide margin. The Phishheads never fail to show up for their guys, coming out in droves to cast ballots as soon as voting opened in February.

The Vermont rockers have maintained a lead the entire time, and had over 310,000 votes as of yesterday morning. Bad Company and Billy Idol were comfortably in second and third place with roughly 255,000 and 237,000 votes, respectively.

Cyndi Lauper, Soundgarden, Joe Cocker, and Chubby Checker were in fourth through seventh place, respectively

The Hall typically inducts five to seven new members each year, and though the fan voting is part of the process, it’s not all-encompassing; for example, Mariah Carey and Outkast are among this year’s nominees, and though they respectively had just under 130,000 and 100,000 fan votes yesterday, both are widely considered frontrunners to enter the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame in 2025.

STAKE TRIVIA

Sing it loud!

We’ve got something special for you with today’s quiz—for each question, we’ll give you the lyric, and you gotta guess the song 🎤 😎 

Find out well you know your ‘70s and ‘80s tunes with today’s guess the lyric trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

We’re giving the team tomorrow and Monday off so they can enjoy the long weekend with friends and family. The winner will be notified on Tuesday afternoon. Keep an eye on your inbox, and have a wonderful long weekend!*

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.