Spaced out

Quirky, charming, and utterly hilarious, it was impossible not to love Mork. Robin Williams was so electric in the role, the camera crews on set could barely keep up with him. Favourite Orkan? More like favourite alien—period. Nanu nanu! 😂

The show went off the air more than 40 years ago, and we’re no closer to finding anyone like Mork. However, thanks to the James Webb Telescope, scientists recently found stronger evidence than ever of life beyond our planet! 

Any occupants out there? ;)

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

IN THE NEWS

Air Canada ordered to pay $10 million in class-action

Air Canada was ordered to pay $10 million in a class-action lawsuit by the Quebec Court of Appeal after customers claimed they were charged more than their tickets said they would be.

Air Canada showed “ignorance and laxity” according to the decision penned by Justice Judith Harvie, who drew such a conclusion after the airline decided it was exempt from a provincial portion of the Consumer Protection Act.

“The fault is serious, deliberate and affects a significant number of consumers,” she wrote. “Air Canada preferred its own commercial interests, which demonstrates recklessness and serious negligence towards consumers. It is necessary to award punitive damages to denounce this behaviour.”

The case was first brought 15 years ago, headlined by plaintiff Michael Silas of Montreal, who said his advertised ticket price didn’t include auxiliary fees, such as the fuel surcharge. A law was passed requiring such disclosures just three weeks before he purchased his ticket.

The decision likely sets a precedent when it comes to disciplining companies that continue not to be transparent about junk fees, which are now fully outlawed in Canada and must be disclosed at the beginning of a purchasing window for goods or services that have included them in the past, such as plane tickets, concert tickets, and subscriptions.

WORKING

Canada’s workers more stressed than ever

Gallup published its State of the Global Workforce Report the other day, and revealed Canadian workers are among the most stressed in the world, even though many report that they’re financially thriving.

Gallup surveyed 225,000 workers across the world, and found 33% of all respondents are “thriving,” while 58% said they’re “struggling” financially. 9% said they’re struggling so much that they’re considered “suffering.”

53% of Canadians specifically reported their current circumstances as seven out of 10 or higher, with hope for the future at eight out of 10 or higher—a combination Gallup labelled as “thriving.” 52% of Americans reported the same.

Nearly 60% of respondents in Canada said they’re stressed out “a lot of the day,” which was nearly 18 percentage points higher than the global average when it came to how many reported being stressed that often.

“We are witnessing a pivotal moment in the global workplace—one where engagement is faltering at the exact time artificial intelligence is transforming every industry in its path,” wrote Gallup CEO Jon Clifton in the report. “We stand at the edge of a new era of work.”

BUSINESS

Bell tolls for Hudson’s Bay Company

Court filings released on Wednesday night revealed Hudson’s Bay Company will now be required to liquidate all of its stores, including the six previously excluded from the process.

With the entirety of the beleaguered company’s stores facing liquidation, it’s all but certain Canada’s oldest company will go under after operating since 1670.

The liquidation is expected to be complete by June 15, leaving the company just seven weeks to find a buyer of the remaining stores to keep the brand alive. In the unlikely event that a buyer appears, the six remaining stores could have their liquidation halted, according to an affidavit signed and submitted by Adam Zalev, managing director of Reflect Advisors, HBC’s financial advisor.

The company is now looking to auction 1,700 pieces of art and 2,700 artifacts that could raise millions, including the charter that established its existence, signed by King Charles II in 1670.

The proposal to allow the auction will be decided in a court hearing, and is facing opposition from Canadian indigenous groups who believe a great deal of what could be auctioned was actually stolen from Aboriginal tribes hundreds of years ago.

FEASTING FRIDAYS

The super powers of ginger

Throwing ginger in a cup of tea is typical for those who are looking to fend off a cold, but a new study published in Cureus confirmed it has several properties that are super effective at preventing certain negative health outcomes.

“Due to the biological functions and cardioprotective properties of ginger and its constituents, it may serve as a new therapeutic agent for various CVDs (cardiovascular diseases),” the study reads.

On top of ginger in general, it contains two phytochemicals—gingerol and shogaol—that are also known specifically to possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.

“Ginger has anti-inflammatory effects which help lower inflammation throughout the body, and decreased inflammation of the blood vessels helps improve blood pressure regulation and prevents plaque buildup in your arteries,” says Rohit Vuppuluri, DO, an interventional and vascular cardiologist at Chicago Heart and Vascular Specialists. 

It also helps with the experience of aging at the cellular level. Its natural antioxidant compounds can help fend off free radicals, molecules that destroy cells and DNA.

Most research has found the ideal dose of ginger is 500 milligrams per day in order to extract its most beneficial properties.

SCIENCE

Uhhh…what?

According to several scientists who are experts in consciousness research, the state our minds get in when they completely “blank out” should be seen as its own state of consciousness altogether, rather than a break from one.

The study was inspired by a conference on a similar topic three years ago, and the researchers say blanking out is similar to the state the mind enters in meditation. It’s not the same as when our minds wonder, though.

“Cognitive scientists have begun to recognize that individuals may also experience moments of blankness during wakefulness in their everyday life,” says Athena Demertzi, director of the Physiology of Cognition lab at the University of Liège.

“Meanwhile, in the field of sleep and dreaming research, special categories of dreams, such as so-called ‘white dreams,’ where individuals recall having dreamt but cannot retrieve any content, have drawn increasing attention.”

After reviewing 80 separate research papers that analyzed the state of mind of the volunteers that participated, Demertzi and her team arrived at their conclusion.

“Mind blanking is real, it’s not just a matter of forgetting or a failure to report. At times during the day, our stream of thoughts can simply stop, leaving us with the experience of thinking about nothing,” she said. “In our review, we show that mind blanking is not merely a subjective impression or an illusion. It corresponds to a distinct brain state, one that differs from those associated with the experience of specific mental content.”

CURIOSITIES

Manners costing OpenAI millions

Generative AI is a glutton for energy, and energy costs money. According to OpenAI chief, Sam Altman, just having polite manners with ChatGPT costs a fortune.

“Tens of millions of dollars well spent—you never know,” he said in a post on X replying to a user asking what costs OpenAI has incurred by users saying “please” and “thank you” to the LLM chatbot.

A generative AI chatbot doesn’t just answer questions, but will adapt to the way you speak. If you’re short and pointed with your requests, it will give you the answers you’re looking for and little else; if you’re conversational, it will be conversational, and even communicate in a similar way to your conversational style; if you have manners, it will, too.

In fact, according to Kurtis Beavers, a director on the design team for Microsoft Copilot, politeness "not only ensures you get the same graciousness in return, but it also improves the AI's responsiveness and performance."

According to a survey conducted by tech radar, 67% of American users of AI are polite, and 71% are in the U.K. Canada wasn’t included, but the answer likely exceeds 100%.

MUSIC

Pink Floyd’s Pompeii concert hits the silver screen

In 1972, Pink Floyd’s iconic performance at Pompeii was captured on film, and 53 years later, it’s returning on the big screen—the very big screen.

Once thought lost, the 35mm film of the show was recently found in five “dubiously-labelled cans” in the Pink Floyd archives. It was restored by hand, and as of yesterday, it’s available in select IMAX theatres.

The audio was restored by Steve Wilson, who’s become known for his revisiting and remixing of classic progressive rock ‘n roll music.

"It was quite a basic recording. There really were only four mono feeds—one drum feed, one bass feed, one guitar feed, one keyboard feed. A lot of what you're listening to on the original performance is just four channels," he said on a recent UCR Podcast. "Now, they did do some overdubbing later in Paris and of course, there are the vocals occasionally, but they're not a very vocal-heavy band at this point in their career. It's mostly instrumental.”

"So you're listening essentially most of the time just to four channels, and it's like, 'Well, what am I going to do with that in Dolby Atmos and spatial audio? So I did my best," he continued. "I took the view that it should be a fairly dry up front sound. I spent a lot of time removing things like distortion, tape hiss, level fluctuations, trying to EQ the sounds to sound as golden and as clear as possible without making them sound too modernized or anything like that.”

STAKE TRIVIA

Who you gonna call?

Long before our phones were smart, we actually used them to call people 😂 

Between different songs and movies, there’s quite a bit of pop culture that references phones for their intended use. That’s our topic for today, so dial T for today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be announced on Monday afternoon—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.