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Yahoo
9 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Archaeologists Found a Slab in the Middle of Nowhere—With the Lord's Prayer Carved in It
Here's what you'll learn when you read this story: A rock carving discovered in the Ontario backcountry started a search for the meaning and history of the site in 2019. The carving features what experts now believe to be an 1800s runic interpretation of the Christian Lord's Prayer. The find may be traceable to an employee of the Hudson's Bay Company. In 2018, the toppling of a tree near the township of Wawa, Ontario, revealed a rectangular piece of bedrock (about four feet by nearly five feet) etched with 225 symbols alongside a depiction of a Viking longboat. Eventually, a local historian came across the odd finding—now known as the Wawa Runestone—and reported the find to the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Education (OCARE). You can see the stone here. The team at OCARE, led by archaeologist Ryan Primrose, decided to keep the stone concealed from the public until they could gather more details about its origin. And now, they're finally talking about the object for the first time. 'Well, it's certainly among the least expected finds that I think I've encountered during my career,' Primrose told the CBC. 'It's absolutely fascinating.' Initial research, according to an OCARE statement, showed that the carving was likely written in Futhark characters—a runic script once used in northern Europe and Scandinavia. This led some experts to think that the carving must have been completed as far back as the Viking era, especially considering the second carving of a boat (which resembles a Viking longboat, contains about 16 occupants, and is flanked by several crosses or stars) found adjacent to the script. Primrose, it turns out, was wise to hold off on publicly announcing it as a Viking-era find. In 2019, he brought in Sweden-based expert Henrik Williams, professor emeritus at Uppsala University, to consult on the site. Williams confirmed that the inscription was runic, but disagreed that it was Viking in nature. Williams said that the runic writing was a version of the Christian Lord's Prayer, which had been carved in Futhark. 'The text conforms to the Swedish version of the Lord's Prayer used from the 16th century and is written using a variation of the runic translation developed by Johannes Bureus in the early 17th century.' OCARE stated. 'It must have taken days and days of work,' Williams told the CBC. 'They are really deeply carved into the rock. Someone must have spent a couple of weeks carving this thing.' While tough to pinpoint, OCARE researchers believe the inscription itself dates to the 1800s. Williams believes the creator of the carving had to come from Sweden, and as Primrose researched the history of the area, he found that the Hudson's Bay Company hired Swedes in the 1800s to work at remote Canadian wilderness trading posts—including the Michipicoten post, located not far from the Wawa carving, the CBC reported. Whether this was a popular religious site—the inscription was found under soil after the tree fell, and no other artifacts have been found nearby—or the work of a single person toiling alone is still a question. But with this announcement, many other questions have been answered. 'Canada now has a total of 11 objects claimed to bear runes but only five in fact do so, and three of those constitute modern commemorative inscriptions,' Williams wrote in an OCARE report. 'The Wawa stone is Ontario's first with actual runes, the longest runic inscription of any on the North American continent […] and the only one in the world reproducing the Lord's Prayer.' You Might Also Like The Do's and Don'ts of Using Painter's Tape The Best Portable BBQ Grills for Cooking Anywhere Can a Smart Watch Prolong Your Life?
West Australian
a day ago
- Business
- West Australian
Raymond Da Silva Rosa: Universities win support of the public by pursuing shared goals
Australian universities are often accused of being run like for-profit corporations — a charge that is only half-accurate. US economist Gordon Winston aptly described universities as part-car-dealer and part-Church, devoted partly to commerce and partly to ideals that lend it support from stakeholders. An effective combination of commerce and ideal principles is what enables universities to survive for centuries. The pure pursuit of for-profit commerce is too risky in the long run. During lean periods, it is the support of stakeholders who share the university's vision that allows it to survive. Two examples: the once great for-profit Hudson's Bay Company, founded in 1670, filed for bankruptcy in March 2025; in contrast, Harvard University, founded a few decades earlier in 1636, is still going strong, fortified by a US$53 billion ($81.6 billion) endowment made possible via generous donations from stakeholders who support its ideals. UWA's founding in 1911 shows the importance of shared vision. It wasn't the opportunity to make a profit that prompted the establishment of WA's first university. Rather, it was that the great and the good of Western Australia, including Sir John Winthrop Hackett, then-editor and owner of The West Australian, who wanted a university that reflected the State's ambitions. These ambitions are what prompted Thomas Walker, the-then WA minister for education, to urge his fellow inaugural UWA Senate members in 1912 to '… do things on a scale worthy of our great destiny!' Hackett provided essential funding that seeded UWA's endowment. Given their hybrid nature, an ongoing challenge for universities is knowing when to act like a charity and when to behave like a for-profit entity, with considerations such as efficiency in operations taking precedence over ideals. It's easy to get the balance wrong, particularly when the impact of misjudgment doesn't show up in the near-term. Research is one area where universities are at risk of imitating for-profit entities too closely. Managing research activity by using a measure such as the number of publications produced over a set period may appear reasonable to establish accountability and spur performance, but is misguided when pursuing high-impact research. To be clear, the principle 'publish or perish' has long applied to academics in universities. Historian Steven Turner says that as far back as 1737, a report that the professors at the university in Frankfurt-an-der-Oder were unknown because they published nothing resulted in a command from Berlin to the academics to begin writing. The issue is evaluating quality. University ranking systems, based mostly on research published in prestigious 'hard-to-get-into' academic journals, have made it easy for university managers to use these publications as a measure of productivity and quality. The problem is that prestigious journals favour conventional wisdom when accepting papers. Mostly, it's OK because conventional wisdom is mostly right. The drawback is that radical ideas, which happen to be correct, risk getting rejected. Famously, UWA's Barry Marshall and Robin Warren took years to convince a sceptical medical establishment that gastritis and peptic ulcers were due to stomach infection caused by the bacterium helicobacter pylori. Fortunately, they persisted and weren't sacked for research underperformance in the interim. It's straightforward to improve a chronically unproductive research team by managing them via the numbers. It's much harder to develop a high-performance culture that identifies talented people and promotes risk-taking and persistence. In such an environment, breakthroughs won't appear on schedule. There will be many failures and an occasional large triumph. Fine judgment, not numbers, is the key to high performance research management. Universities win the support of the public not by wholesale adoption of the methods of industry but by pursuing shared goals. Universities can't be held to account too closely and will often disappoint, but in the long run it is vital they win the trust and affection of the community that supports them. It's tricky work. Winthrop Professor Raymond Da Silva Rosa is an expert in finance from The University of Western Australia's Business School
Toronto Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- Toronto Sun
Retailers are in trouble and there's more to come, experts say
Published Jun 18, 2025 • 5 minute read Store closing signage at the Hudson's Bay Company flagship store at Queen and Yonge Sts. in Toronto on May 28, 2025. HBC is closing all stores on June 1. Photo by CYNTHIA MCLEOD / TORONTO SUN The fall of Hudson's Bay and Saks Fifth Avenue Canada may give the impression that one of the hottest trends this year is the distressed look, but retail and insolvency experts say the company's demise is part of a now-annual pitter-patter they expect to continue. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Since the COVID-19 pandemic, they've seen hundreds of retail businesses reach the brink every year. As a result, some restructured, others reduced their store count — and many closed for good. What they've observed mirrors federal government data showing insolvencies and bankruptcies in the retail sector have been rising over the past four years after a roughly 25-year decline. The latest data comes from April, when Canada recorded 56 insolvencies and 46 bankruptcies. A month earlier, the Bay filed for creditor protection, making it one of four retail companies that sought a reprieve in the first quarter of the year. 'The Hudson's Bay Company … was kind of like a big flag for everyone and I think is setting the expectation that retailers are in trouble and there's more to come,' said Michael Basso, a partner in business restructuring and turnaround services for accounting firm BDO Canada. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Experts, including Basso, say the trend is a reflection of many businesses that haven't been able to catch a break between the slow rebound from the health crisis, see-sawing consumer demand and a global tariff war. 'A lot of them have been just barely staying afloat since the pandemic … so when the tariffs happened, they probably just couldn't withstand one more thing at that point,' said Dina Kovacevic, editor of Insolvency Insider, a Canadian newsletter detailing bankruptcy and creditor protection news. This year's onslaught has not just toppled Canada's oldest company, Hudson's Bay, but also left shopping districts without Montreal apparel business Frank and Oak and farm goods store Peavey Mart. Ricki's, Cleo and Bootlegger-owner Comark Holdings Inc., Vancouver clothing brand Oak + Fort and eyewear chain Hakim Optical got in on the action as well, filing for creditor protection and beginning restructurings. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Several framed their troubles around the COVID crisis or pointed the finger at U.S. President Donald Trump's penchant for tariffs, but Kovacevic said 'the retail industry has been struggling for some time.' 'Tariffs may have been the final nail in the coffin but to put all or even most of the blame on tariffs wouldn't be fair,' she said. 'It's been a perfect storm of things beyond the retailers' control.' For many, the problems started long ago. When some shoppers moved online, many retailers misjudged the moment. They either didn't focus on e-commerce enough or leaned too far into it, cannibalizing their brick-and-mortar business. Others had a product mix that wasn't enticing customers away from competitors or pushing them to spend as their expenses rose. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. When the pandemic arrived, it magnified these issues and caused some companies to rethink their entire business models, only for new tariffs to emerge and take aim at their supply chains and pricing. The succession of troubles left companies taking on more and more debt to cover bills like rent, which in some cases, had become insurmountable. 'We in the insolvency community call it a reckoning of zombie companies,' said Kovacevic. Read More Zombie companies are businesses so unable to generate enough revenue to operate the business, they rely on debt to stay alive. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The number of Canadian zombie firms has been rising over the past few decades, with recent studies showing that the country's share could potentially be the highest in the world, researchers from Statistics Canada and the federal Department of Finance concluded in 2023. Basso attributes some of the increase to the loans and other financial support the federal government offered during the pandemic to companies that might not have been able to borrow that money. 'They had issues before the pandemic and would otherwise have gone down or been forced to restructure during the pandemic,' he said. 'The loans I think helped them have a chance to continue but are now saddling the balance sheets with debt … they have no ability to pay off.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Such situations have driven many companies to their death. Others have looked for a way forward through the court system or businesses like Gordon Brothers, which are involved with appraisals, liquidation, fundraising and restructuring. At the start of the month, Gordon Brothers helped Canadian home goods and accessories retailer Linen Chest secure $35 million in credit to increase its 'liquidity and support future growth.' In December, it gave $120 million in financing to Toys 'R' Us Canada Ltd., which has been closing stores and building play centres at others. What all the companies Gordon Brothers has dealt with lately have in common is that the dynamics of their business — from supply chains to consumer demand — are 'changing much more quickly' than before the pandemic, said chief transaction officer Kyle Shonak. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'There's a lot of variables out there and unfortunately, there's no silver bullet for any of it,' he said. Some, like furniture businesses, have a glut of inventory from the pandemic, when people were feverishly revamping homes. As demand dropped, they didn't curtail production. Now, they need Gordon Brothers to help them offload pieces they have, ideally for the most money possible while setting up the business to avoid falling into the same trap again. At the same time, these companies and others are looking to Gordon Brothers to help them evaluate whether they have to raise prices or move production, storage or distribution of their products to cope with current tariffs or other crises that could be on their way. Gordon Brothers can help clients identify which of their products are less tariff prone or drum up financing to help those needing to switch manufacturers, but Shonak said, customers ultimately pay the price. 'The consumer at the end of the day is the one that pays for a lot of this stuff as it passes its way through the chain, but it affects everyone,' he said. Sunshine Girls Sunshine Girls Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs NHL
Global News
3 days ago
- Business
- Global News
Time capsule inside St. Albert Hudson's Bay store donated to local museum
On June 1 Hudson's Bay stores across Canada closed for good – including the one in St. Albert, Alta. 'It was mixed emotion actually,' said Muna Abdulhussain, who worked at the Bay for 15 years. 'It was sad, very emotional to see our customers. We had very loyal customers there and built a good relationship with them.' On that final day, staff — past and present — opened a piece of history stored in the wall; a time capsule from 1995. It was supposed to be opened in 2045. 'When we opened the frame there was a hole in the wall, and they grabbed the box and there was a key attached already,' Abdulhussain explained. Get breaking National news For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen. Sign up for breaking National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy 'They opened that box (and) it was just like opening a treasure.' Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "They opened that box (and) it was just like opening a treasure." Story continues below advertisement The capsule contained an array of memories — staff names, pictures from the company's 325th anniversary, a catalogue, newspaper, a comic book about Hudson's Bay, an Eagles CD and two cassettes: The Lion King soundtrack and a Tragically Hip album. View image in full screen St. Albert Hudson's Bay time capsule. Global News 'Right away, the employees at the store and the store manager decided that this is really something that shows the history of The Bay in St. Albert,' said Musée Heritage Museum curator Martin Bierens. Hudson's Bay staff made the decision to donate it to the Musée Heritage Museum in St. Albert. 'It's not too often we get a time capsule, so this is a unique donation,' Bierens said. 'Capturing the end of the Hudson's Bay Company is very important for our museum. The Hudson's Bay Company has had an influence within our community since the founding of the community that became known as St Albert.'
Daily Mirror
4 days ago
- General
- Daily Mirror
Mystery of 200-year-old runes found in Canada finally cracked
The runes, numbering 255 in total, were discovered in 2018 when a tree fell and exposed a carefully carved inscription in Ontario, Canada, just 155 miles from the US border Archaeologists have finally cracked a 200 year old code etched into a remote Canadian rock, leaving researchers gobsmacked. The 255 enigmatic symbols were unearthed in 2018 when a tree toppled over and revealed a meticulously carved inscription near the small town of Wawa in Ontario, just 155 miles from the US border in Michigan, according to MailOnline. Now, after years of scrutiny, archaeologist Ryan Primrose from the Ontario Centre for Archaeological Education has disclosed that the markings are actually the Lord's Prayer - penned entirely in Swedish using ancient Nordic runes. The religious message was an unexpected discovery in the Canadian wilderness. However, further probing unveiled that Swedish workers had once been enlisted by the Hudson's Bay Company to staff isolated trading posts in the 1800s - suggesting one of them as the probable author of the carving. With no other artefacts discovered at the site, experts reckon it may have served as a modest outdoor place of worship for the Scandinavian settlers, reports the Express. During the 19th century, the Hudson's Bay Company - a massive British fur trading network - was expanding swiftly across North America. To staff remote locations in Canada's interior and the Pacific Northwest, they frequently turned to recruits from Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. What is the mysterious slab Mystery surrounds a stone slab found in Manitoba, Canada, featuring ancient carvings within a precise square border three feet by four. Accompanying the inscriptions is an image of a boat circled by 16 figures - thought to represent Swedes travelling to Canada long ago. Primrose shared with CBC that the slab seemed purposefully buried. "There were ruins covered by about six inches of soil," he recounted. Although the wear on the stone hints it might hail from several centuries past, evidence points to Swedish speakers in the area just two centuries ago. Henrik Williams, emeritus professor at Uppsala University, Sweden, highlighted the rarity of runic inscriptions: "Any runic inscription is rare. Someone put all this effort into this particular text and you wonder why. The mystery does not decrease just because of its age." Emphasising his caution, Primrose revealed his delay in announcing the find until the translation was certain. "This is certainly among the least expected finds I have encountered in my career," he conceded. What is The Lord's Prayer? The Lord's Prayer is familiar to Christians worldwide, found in the New Testament in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:2-4, summarising vital Christian teachings from begging for daily bread to the significance of pardon and eschewing sin. In the early Christian tradition, it was imparted to new converts and recited during worship. Over time, it became a central part of liturgy across all major branches of Christianity - Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant - earning itself the nickname of the perfect prayer. Translated into numerous languages, the version of the prayer found in Canada is in Swedish, reflecting both religious devotion and cultural identity. Although the Bible was translated into Swedish in 1541, scholars suggest that the use of runes in this inscription might have been a way to honour Scandinavia's linguistic heritage - a remarkable fusion of faith and history etched into stone, waiting to be discovered.
