Spin me right round

Many a ’70s household with a record collection would’ve had one of these babies. The Discwasher was ideal for keeping your vinyl gunk-free. And if it was your older brother’s kit, you knew to steer clear of that hidden compartment 🤣

Lots of that vinyl probably came from Columbia Records, especially if you were a member of the Columbia House mail order club. From tapes, to vinyl, cassettes, and CD’s, the company shaped how people buy and listen to tunes for decades.

They sold walls and walls of music ;)

(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

Auto carve out not enough: Trudeau, Ford

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed yesterday that the United States would carve out the auto sector from 25% tariffs imposed by the United States earlier this week, delaying its inclusion for a month.

Speaking from the White House Press Briefing Room yesterday, she said the delay would be in line with legal stipulations outlined in the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

“We are going to give a one-month exemption on any autos coming through USMCA,” Leavitt said.

“But at the request of the companies associated with USMCA, the president is giving them an exemption for one month so they are not at an economic disadvantage.”

Those companies were later confirmed to be Stellantis, Ford, and General Motors, all of whom have a significant presence on both sides of the border, particularly in southern Ontario.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ontario premier Doug Ford said they remain aligned, and have no intention of pulling back on the Canadian response to Trump’s broad round of tariffs.

“I spoke to the prime minister earlier. We’re on the same page, zero tariffs, and we are not going to budge,” Ford said. “We aren’t going to buckle down. Let’s move forward to the USMCA deal, or CUSMA deal, or NAFTA, whatever you want to call it, and let’s start moving forward. But we will not budge. Zero tariffs. And that’s it.”

GOVERNMENT

CSIS outlines Arctic vulnerabilities

Canada is an enormous country, with little control over its Arctic region, according to a vulnerability brief produced by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Called “Issues & Vulnerabilities in Canada’s Arctic”, it outlines the threats the region is facing today, and the ones it’s likely to face in the near and long-term future.

The region is strategically valuable for its shipping lanes, its vast access to salt and fresh water (as glaciers melt), the vastness of the land itself, and the abundance of mineral, oil, and gas deposits.

“Threat actors could leverage resource exploitation to gain persistent access to remote and strategically valuable territory,” the brief says.

Here are some of the other vulnerabilities listed in the document, as outlined by CTV News:

• The difficulty and expense of fixing vulnerabilities in crucial telecommunication systems in the North can create serious cybersecurity risks;

• Places suitable for building deepwater ports in the Arctic are attractive to foreign actors who seek control of strategic shipping locations, and creating unofficial ports of entry to Canada could undermine border security;

• Adversaries might make substantial investments, ostensibly to remedy energy supply-chain disruptions in the North, but “with ulterior motives”;

• The presence of hostile-state armed forces could lead to militarization of the Arctic, driving geopolitical tensions that might lead to conflict.

SCAM

Dozens charged in scam targeting grandparents

Over 20 Canadians were arrested and charged for their roles in a three-year-long elaborate and sophisticated fraud operation in which they’d call elderly people in Vermont and 40 other American states posing as relatives. They’d say they were in legal trouble and needed bail money, and then other suspects would take over, posing as lawyers with instructions on where to send the money.

The money would be delivered to the suspects, converted into Canadian dollars, and the victims would be left to fend for themselves.

The suspects mostly carried out their operation in Pointe-Claire and Vaudreuil-Dorion, west of downtown Montreal. Among them was Ricky Ylimaki, who was found in a van with multiple cell phones and call lists of elderly Americans. Over 20 other suspects were found in call centres in the act of targeting victims in Virginia.

The scam lasted for three years and yielded over $21 million. All suspects have been arrested, except for 38-year-old Gareth West, a.k.a. “Buddy” and “Muscles” of Burlington, Ont. and 35-year-old Jimmy Ylimaki a.k.a. “Coop” of Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot, Que. who remain at large.

THIRSTY THURSDAYS

Not so light after all, Crystal

Kraft Heinz is entering the alcohol space, taking its Crystal Light powdered beverage into the hard seltzer market to get even more eyeballs on the popular brand.

According to the CPG giant, 20% of those who already buy Crystal Light are believed to use the powder as a mixer for alcoholic beverages of their own.

Cutting out the middle man in cases like this is is a tried and true strategy, as evidenced by the other concoctions made official on the market. Jack and Coke? RTD cans of the stuff can be found in liquor stores everywhere. Similar mixes have hit shelves in recent years as well, including SunnyD Vodka Seltzer, Pepsi’s Hard Mtn Dew, and Vita Coco’s partnership with Captain Morgan.

“With tens of millions of social media videos showcasing creative ways to mix Crystal Light into cocktails, creating a delicious lower-calorie vodka refresher was a natural step for us,” Jeremy Kross, director of beverage mixes at Kraft Heinz, said in a statement.

“We’re bringing fans a ready-to-drink version in a new format—now with a light, refreshing twist—offering the same signature flavors they know and love.”

PSYCHOLOGY

You got this 💪

One of the most common goals people have for themselves is fitness-related, and it’s also the most common goal people fail to achieve, often due to an underlying cause known as a lack of self-efficacy.

Self-efficacy boils down to having faith in oneself. Not just believing you can accomplish a goal, but knowing you will accomplish it is a consequence of high self-efficacy.

Some people may be more prone to this trait than others, but regardless of where you start, it still needs to be fostered; nobody is really born knowing they’re going to climb Mt. Everest.

Fostering self-efficacy is a trick of the trade, and to pull it off requires pulling off several smaller tricks. Among them is celebrating small victories; if you want to run a marathon, you have to congratulate yourself for even starting to train for one. Then you have to celebrate all the milestones on the way to eventually finishing the race.

You also have to choose your role models carefully; watching others do what you want to do yourself is a good way to convince yourself you can and will do it, too.

Visualizing success is a big one, but also visualizing failure—you have to know where the landmines are buried, and be able to weather a blockade as if it were a speed bump on the road to victory.

SPACE

ISS may be too clean

It’s news that would send Rosie ‘round the bend. The International Space Station might be too clean.

Astronauts tend to develop immune-related conditions like cold sores, rashes, fungal infections, and even shingles. The researchers that recently published a paper on the topic think this may be due to a lack of microbial diversity in the ISS typically found in water and soil that would help strengthen the human immune system.

“Future built environments, including space stations, could benefit from intentionally fostering diverse microbial communities that better mimic the natural microbial exposures experienced on Earth, rather than relying on highly sanitised spaces,” said Rodolfo Salido of the University of California, San Diego and a co-author of the paper.

The astronauts swabbed 803 surfaces on the ISS and gave them to the researchers to analyze. They found that while the area wasn’t completely devoid of microbes, it was lacking the type typically found in soil and water, and only contained those that come off human skin and waste.

“There’s a big difference between exposure to healthy soil from gardening versus stewing in our own filth, which is kind of what happens if we’re in a strictly enclosed environment with no ongoing input of those healthy sources of microbes from the outside,” said Prof. Rob Knight, a microbiologist at the University of California, San Diego and a senior author on the paper.

MUSIC

Hall and no Oates

Daryl Hall made it crystal clear in a recent statement on the matter: there will never be a reunion with John Oates.

Hall filed a lawsuit in Nov. 2023 to prevent Oates from selling his stake in the catalogue the two wrote together, and also obtained a temporary restraining order. Oates was attempting to sell his half to Primary Wave Music, a move Hall said would violate the terms of their business agreement.

The ongoing litigation was made public a year ago, and though the dust has somewhat settled, the hate the two have for each other at this stage in their careers isn’t withering, with a reunion fully off the table.

"That ship has gone to the bottom of the ocean," Hall recently told The Times. "I've had a lot of surprises in my life, disappointments, betrayals, so I'm kind of used to it."

Oates doesn’t appear to disagree, though seems to have taken the emotion out of it and is happy that part of his life is behind him.

"As far as I'm concerned, I've moved on," Oates told Rolling Stone last year. "I feel like I have a new lease on my creative life."

STAKE TRIVIA

Another question in the game

There’s no denying that Pink Floyd is one of the most influential bands in the history of modern music. And it just so happens that today is the birthday of their guitarist, singer, and songwriter David Gilmour.

To celebrate we’ll be looking at all things Floyd with today’s trivia! Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card ;)

Winner will be announced tomorrow—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.