Column

FILE - A worker wheels equipment past the famous Hollywood sign as preparations continue on March 8, 2023, for the 95th Academy Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/J. David Ake, File)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Stunt performer changed Hollywood from the shadows

You’ve seen Yakima Canutt and his work, but not known it was him on screen

 

The Pacific Spaceport Complex located near Kodiak, Alaska. (Courtesy photo / Alaska Aerospace Corporation)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Where are the aliens?

The Drake Equation and Earth’s history as a big ball of goo

 

FILE - Tucker Carlson, host of “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” poses for photos in a Fox News Channel studio on March 2, 2017, in New York. A racist text message from Tucker Carlson is what helped drive the commentator’s ouster from Fox News, The New York Times reports. The Times says that in a text uncovered as part of a recent defamation lawsuit, the former Fox host lamented how supporters of former President Donald Trump ganged up to beat a protester. “It’s not how white men fight,” Carlson wrote. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Supposing versus finding out

News is better than opinion, but less popular

 

BC United leader Kevin Falcon. (Wolf Depner/News Staff)

PAINFUL TRUTH: What’s in a party name?

BC United just the latest party to represent the centre-right over 80 years

BC United leader Kevin Falcon. (Wolf Depner/News Staff)
B.C.’s Minister of Labour Harry Bains is the MLA for Surrey-Newton. (Photo: flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos)

Painful Truth: Wages need to keep rising

Sure, wages are up, but the cost of living is still going up faster

B.C.’s Minister of Labour Harry Bains is the MLA for Surrey-Newton. (Photo: flickr.com/photos/bcgovphotos)
Strathcona Dam. BC Hydro photo

PAINFUL TRUTH: Bitcoin mining ban needed

A waste of power as we decarbonize our economy

Strathcona Dam. BC Hydro photo
Members of Canada’s technology sector say they’re worried the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank will have a chilling effect on investments in their sector. A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking past a Silicon Valley Bank Private branch in San Francisco, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Arguments against optimism

We’re going to keep blowing up the economy every five years forever

Members of Canada’s technology sector say they’re worried the collapse of the Silicon Valley Bank will have a chilling effect on investments in their sector. A pedestrian carries an umbrella while walking past a Silicon Valley Bank Private branch in San Francisco, Tuesday, March 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Photographer Arlette Hatcher captured this image of the Applewood Valley Granfondo that started at the Eagle Acres farm near Fort Langley on Saturday, June 4. (Langley Advance Times files)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Fear of weight loss drugs

Being thin isn’t a virtue – it’s mostly luck and privilege

Photographer Arlette Hatcher captured this image of the Applewood Valley Granfondo that started at the Eagle Acres farm near Fort Langley on Saturday, June 4. (Langley Advance Times files)
Cocaine – still illegal. (Black Press Media files)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Face value is not enough

A press release about legal cocaine quickly took on a life of its own

Cocaine – still illegal. (Black Press Media files)
Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange as the Federal Reserve makes an announcement regarding interest rates in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Seth Wenig

PAINFUL TRUTH: Finance has become very weird

Financial engineering is where the money’s at, even if it doesn’t make sense

Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange as the Federal Reserve makes an announcement regarding interest rates in New York, Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Seth Wenig
A Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle is displayed during the California Air Resources Board (CARB) 50th Anniversary Technology Symposium and Showcase in Riverside, California, on Thursday, May 17, 2018. Bloomberg photo by Dania Maxwell

PAINFUL TRUTH: Best technology is boring

Cool, sexy technology turns out to be mostly an annoyance

A Tesla Model 3 electric vehicle is displayed during the California Air Resources Board (CARB) 50th Anniversary Technology Symposium and Showcase in Riverside, California, on Thursday, May 17, 2018. Bloomberg photo by Dania Maxwell
As the cost of food continues to rise, grocery chains in Canada are reportedly making record profits. It’s time for the CEOs of these companies to explain themselves, says the federal New Democratic Party. (Unsplash photo)

OFF TOPIC: Bread or cake, the rising cost of food is giving me indigestion

How do grocery chain CEOs square skyrocketing prices with massive profits?

As the cost of food continues to rise, grocery chains in Canada are reportedly making record profits. It’s time for the CEOs of these companies to explain themselves, says the federal New Democratic Party. (Unsplash photo)
Maybe if we painted double-decker buses red it would help? This bus was used to promote the film “To Sir With Love” at a previous St. George’s Motoring Show held by the Langley Area Mostly British (LAMB) car club at the historic Fort Langley Community hall. (Langley Advance Times files)

Painful Truth: What’s the magic carrot to lure us out of our cars?

I believe in public transit, but I still own a car

Maybe if we painted double-decker buses red it would help? This bus was used to promote the film “To Sir With Love” at a previous St. George’s Motoring Show held by the Langley Area Mostly British (LAMB) car club at the historic Fort Langley Community hall. (Langley Advance Times files)
Office towers, condos and apartment buildings are seen in downtown and the West End of Vancouver, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

PAINFUL TRUTH: The internet made us small

Being online is a new way of feeling alone in the crowd

Office towers, condos and apartment buildings are seen in downtown and the West End of Vancouver, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Jessica Peters is a reporter at the Abbotsford News.
Jessica Peters is a reporter at the Abbotsford News.
A dump truck works near the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta on June 1, 2014. Thirteen years after Canada first signed an international agreement to eliminate “inefficient” government subsidies to the fossil fuel sector, and four years since launching a peer review with Argentina to identify what subsidies exist, the federal government is still working to define what an inefficient fossil fuel subsidy actually is. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson

PAINFUL TRUTH: Change is coming, ‘just’ or not

If you fight the just transition all the way, you’re going to lose

A dump truck works near the Syncrude oil sands extraction facility near the city of Fort McMurray, Alberta on June 1, 2014. Thirteen years after Canada first signed an international agreement to eliminate “inefficient” government subsidies to the fossil fuel sector, and four years since launching a peer review with Argentina to identify what subsidies exist, the federal government is still working to define what an inefficient fossil fuel subsidy actually is. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson
Toy robot on a desktop, man working on the computer in the background. Symbol for artificial intelligence, chatbots or social bots and algorithms

PAINFUL TRUTH: AIs and the age of digital lying

We made computers that are more like people – they make stuff up

Toy robot on a desktop, man working on the computer in the background. Symbol for artificial intelligence, chatbots or social bots and algorithms
Jessica Peters is a reporter with the Abbotsford News, and an invasive cervical cancer survivor.

OPINION: Cervical cancer awareness didn’t seem important to me, until it was

January is cervical awareness month and a time to understand how devastating the disease really is

Jessica Peters is a reporter with the Abbotsford News, and an invasive cervical cancer survivor.
Traffic backed up in Langley. (Langley Advance Times files)

PAINFUL TRUTH: We live at the mercy of the auto century

Everything has the cost of cars buried in it

Traffic backed up in Langley. (Langley Advance Times files)
(Langley Advance Times files)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Back on the economic roller coaster

Property prices are going to be a little unstable, maybe for longer than we’d like

(Langley Advance Times files)