BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There is something that makes adults uneasy about a child playing alone. A kid absorbed in something private at a playground edge, a bedroom door closed for an afternoon. These scenes have a way of triggering concern. Are they OK? Do they need something? Should someone go and join…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM New Mexico just became the first state to hold Meta financially liable for harms to children’s mental health. The total bill is now $942m. The new ruling, handed down last week on Thursday, added $567m to the $375m penalty imposed in March, when a jury found the company knowingly…
If you’ve spent time outside in virtually any part of Canada this summer, you’ve likely been choked by wildfire smoke. But just how harmful is that smoke? Is it similar to inhaling, say, second-hand cigarette smoke, or is there something even more sinister wafting in those fumes? Researchers are trying to find out. “You’d think…
Winnipeg-based autonomous welding robotics company TetraGen Robotics has raised $1.8 million CAD in seed round funding. The news: The funding comes via an oversubscribed round led by Calgary’s StepChange Capital, with participation from Vancouver’s Emend Vision Fund, a VC firm with a focus that includes industrial modernization. TetraGen did not disclose cheque sizes or additional…
Kitchener-Waterloo-based AI research startup Transformer Lab has launched what co-founder and CEO Ali Asaria said is “the most ambitious thing I’ve ever been a part of.” For the past two years, Transformer Lab’s four-person team has been quietly working to fully automate the research process. “We see this as the next revolution, the one that…
There’s a peculiar new sight along Cameron Street, the arterial road of Cannington, Ont. In a courtyard beside the old Cannington Convenience lies what looks like a big, glowing phone booth sitting atop a stone bench. “Having these spaces within these communities, big or small, I think, are really essential as we electrify our systems.”…
After discovering a large deposit and drilling Canada’s first-ever natural hydrogen well, Saskatchewan mining company Max Power is using AI to expand and commercialize. The news: The Regina-based company is advancing commercialization of Canada’s first facility at a natural hydrogen well, after discovering the system late last year. The mining company is using proprietary AI…
After reports that Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX is scaling back its rideshare program, Canada’s space industry could be faced with either turbulent clouds or a silver lining on its route toward the stars. “The industry hasn’t been investing in medium-lift, because everyone thought SpaceX had it solved.” Hugh Kolias,Canada Rocket Company SpaceX, which recently…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Did you know that every time the brain learns something, it changes physically? A study in PLoS Biology is the first to track exactly what those changes are, and found two separate processes happening at different speeds and in different locations, and that the tool most researchers have been…
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM Here’s some food for thought: for students, free lunch ends when school does. For the millions of children who rely on subsidized cafeteria meals during the year, nothing automatically fills that gap in June. On July 1, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that $189 million in Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer…
