Why I oughta...

Like most dads, Fred Flintstone occasionally flipped his lid. A brutal day at the quarry followed by traffic would drive him up the wall. Then came the familiar muttering—’Bricka racka frack’, or whatever the hell he was saying 🤣

You probably used to have tons of fun getting your tongue tied up trying to imitate Fred cursing. Still a fan of tricky phrases? Researchers have experimented and actually determined the most difficult tongue twister. Find out here!

Just don’t get too twisted ;)

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

Regulations threaten healthcare

There’s been lots of talk about how Canada’s internal trade barriers often result in cross-border commerce because it’s less restrictive than the barriers set up between Canada’s provinces and territories.

Now the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) is weighing in on the regulatory environment of medical licensing. The restrictions have resulted in real challenges for doctors. When patients were evacuated from Yellowknife to B.C. during 2023’s wildfires, the Yellowknife doctors were not able to care for the patients once they landed because they weren’t licensed to practice in B.C.

A 2022 survey of the CMA’s membership found 95% of doctors in Canada would support a “pan-Canadian licensing program” that would “represent a path to a more unified and efficient health-care system,” according to the CMA.

“Most people in Canada can live and work anywhere in the country and provide the service that they’re trained to do, anywhere in the country,” says CMA president Dr. Joss Reimer. “We’d like to see the same for doctors.”

ECONOMY

Inflation ticks back up

Statistics Canada released economic data yesterday, revealing Canada’s consumer price index (CPI) rose to 1.9% in January, up from 1.8% in December.

While still below the Bank of Canada target of 2%, economists have said if the federal government hadn’t stopped collecting sales taxes for two months, prices actually would have risen 2.7% compared to a December reading of 2.3%.

In that sense, most are in agreement that the BoC will hold its overnight rate at 3% when it meets again on March 12.

“I think what’s really the key here is that some of the core measures of inflation, again, were a little bit hotter than maybe the Bank of Canada would like to see,” said CIBC senior economist Andrew Grantham.

While the threat of American tariffs still looms, Grantham says trade tensions between Canada and its southern neighbour notwithstanding, he expects inflation to remain elevated above the 2% target for the next month or so, giving BoC governor Tiff Macklem reason to pause the central bank’s ongoing series of rate cuts.

GOVERNMENT

Competition Bureau investigates rent prices

The Competition Bureau confirmed it’s looking into allegations that Canadian corporate landlords are leveraging a platform that uses AI to artificially raise rent prices by sharing sensitive market information with other landlords.

The software in question is currently the subject of a lawsuit in the United States, the plaintiffs for which are the U.S. Justice Department and several state attorneys-general.

Called Yieldstar, it was created by Texas-based RealPage and allows landlords from different markets to input proprietary data that only they have access to in order to collude with other landlords to drive prices higher.

The Competition Bureau has potentially been investigating its use in Canada since October, but only confirmed the investigation the other day. Details, however, were not provided.

Liberal leadership candidate Chrystia Freeland’s campaign released a statement, saying, “big corporate landlords are using AI to analyze renters’ information to collude, set rates, and squeeze renters. My government will ban this practice outright.”

Three of the defendants named in the American lawsuit are subsidiaries of Brookfield Asset Management, the bank Freeland’s competitor, Mark Carney, was chair of until January.

Carney’s campaign has declined requests to comment on the ongoing investigation.

WHAT UP WEDNESDAYS

NASA fires up X-59 engine

After months of tests, NASA finally fired up the engine of its X-59 aircraft, which is built to reach supersonic speeds without releasing the loud and sometimes destructive crack known as a sonic boom.

When an object pierces the sound barrier, that crack noise isn’t just loud, but has historically resulted in property damage when the aircraft is flying over human-occupied territory, most commonly in the form of shattered windows.

The United States banned non-military supersonic flight over land in 1973, and the last commercial supersonic aircraft was the Concorde, which last flew in 2003.

X-59 is a testament to human engineering, built in a way that compresses the noise while still reaching the thrust and velocity required to pierce the sound barrier (767 mph or Mach 1).

“We have successfully progressed through our engine ground tests as we planned,” said Raymond Castner, X-59 propulsion lead at NASA’s Glenn Research Center, in an agency release. “We were getting smooth and steady airflow as predicted from wind tunnel testing. We didn’t have any structural or excessive vibration issues. And parts of the engine and aircraft that needed cooling were getting it.”

TECH

AI shows signs of ageing

An observational study published recently in the medical journal BMJ suggests AI-driven large language models and chatbots, just like humans, can experience cognitive impairment with age.

The researchers were curious to see how effectively AI-driven tools could be used for clinical diagnoses, and tested publicly available tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Sonnet using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), a test typically relied on to test for Alzheimer’s or dementia in humans.

MoCA tests for executive function, attention, memory, spatial skills, and language abilities, and requires a score of 26 out of 30 to pass. The strongest score captured by the LLM tools was ChatGPT-4’s 26 out of 30, but older models like Gemini 1.0 LLM scored 16 out of 30.

"These findings challenge the assumption that artificial intelligence will soon replace human doctors," the study's authors wrote in the paper, "as the cognitive impairment evident in leading chatbots may affect their reliability in medical diagnostics and undermine patients' confidence."

In their paper, the authors reiterated that the MoCA results were only observational, and critics have gone so far as to say the study was flawed in that it “anthropomorphized” the tools it was testing.

Still, the authors maintained the results suggest such tools should maybe not be used for critically important tasks like medical diagnoses.

CURIOSITIES

Have scientists found the abyss?

In 2021, Czech speleologists (those that study caves) working on a set of underground hot spring systems in Albania found an abyss nearly 400 feet beneath the surface that ultimately turned out to be holding the largest thermal lake ever discovered.

“[Following] the high column of steam coming out of the limestone massif, we managed to find an abyss over a hundred meters [328 feet] deep,” Marek Audy, a speleologist and head of the Neuron Atmos Expedition that made the discovery, said in a Neuron Foundation statement. “We called it Atmos. At the bottom, we discovered a strong thermal inflow and a vast lake.”

They didn’t have the funding initially, but several years later, the Neuron Foundation provided what the scientists needed in order to get closer to the natural source of the hot springs they’d discovered years prior. With the requisite funding and instruments needed to measure the lake, they got to work.

According to a statement from Neuron, “it measures 453 feet (138 meters) in length, 138 feet (42 meters) in width, and boasts a total circumference of 1,131 feet (345 meters).”

It’s loaded with minerals, but don’t be fooled—if exposed to oxygen, its mineral content would cause the lake to oxidize and turn into sulfuric acid.

MUSIC

Ozzy shares farewell details

The Prince of Darkness shared details on SiriusXM’s Ozzy Speaks about his upcoming performance this summer, clarifying that he’ll be playing with Black Sabbath at Birmingham’s Back To The Beginning festival, but won’t be on stage for the entire concert.

"I'm not planning on doing a set with Black Sabbath, but I am doing little bits and pieces with them," Ozzy said. "I am doing what I can, where I feel comfortable."

The show was announced a couple weeks ago, and will take place at Villa Park in Birmingham, England on July 5, the town from which Black Sabbath originated in the late 1960s.

"I am trying to get back on my feet," Osbourne added. "When you get up in the morning, you just jump out of bed. I have to balance myself, but I'm not dead. I'm still actively doing things."

The godfather of heavy metal has been in poor health for years after a lifetime of substance abuse, and was even diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2020. He hasn’t played a full show since 2018, but says he’s grateful to still be alive and able to do what he can.

"I have made it to 2025. I can't walk, but you know what I was thinking over the holidays? For all my complaining, I'm still alive," he said. "I may be moaning that I can't walk, but I look down the road and there’s people that didn't do half as much as me and didn't make it."

STAKE TRIVIA

Hit me with your ’70s hits

Did you know that 1974 and 1975 are tied for having the most Billboard Hot 100 #1 hits? So many great singles were coming out, there was almost a new top song every week!

You probably heard each of those tracks at some point on your transistor radio, so why not see how well you know them with today’s trivia? Complete the game and earn a shot at a $25 Tim Hortons eGift Card!

Winner will be notified tomorrow—keep your eyes 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.