A GTA professor says the upcoming major eclipse is quite literally a “once-in a lifetime event” as the last time it happened in the Toronto region was 1925 and the next one is expected to be in 2144.
“It’s an once-in-a-lifetime event,” Robert Cockcroft, McMaster University astronomy and physics professor told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. “It’s when you get the perfect alignment between the moon and the sun, and it’s just a coincidence they appear on the same side of the sky.”
“The sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but it’s also 400 times further away from the earth so they appear the same size so that allows periodically for the moon to cover the sun.”
A total eclipse in and of itself is not an especially rare occurrence, Cockcroft noted. In fact, it happens once every 18 months or so in various parts of the world, he said.
“If you are willing to travel to an eclipse, it’s not that rare of an event. You can get to see one every one or two years,” he said. “But for the eclipse to come to you is what makes it rare. That’s what makes it an once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
In Ontario, a total eclipse happened in 1979, but it could only be seen in the northern parts of the province. Paul Delaney, astronomer and professor at York University, chased the eclipse to Brandon, Manitoba, where it was also visible.
“I have seen three total solar eclipses and that was my second one,” he told CTV News Toronto. “It was by far the coldest. It was February and it was chilly on the roof of Brandon University, but the skies were clear. My master’s thesis was based on my observation of the sun that day.”
Back in 1925, when the last total eclipse took place in the Toronto region, Delaney said historical records show there was “surprisingly” large amounts of public engagement thanks to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which was in full swing at the time, and the University of Toronto.
“The eclipse took place shortly after a very famous solar eclipse in 1919, which basically verified the theory of relativity,” Delaney said. “So there was a lot of interest around solar eclipses in the early part of the century, even though we didn’t have social media and so on.”
“The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the University of Toronto were very, very engaged in making sure the public is safe,” he said.
The eclipse on Monday will happen at around 2 p.m., experts say. The whole occurrence takes abut two and a half hours.
“The thing that everyone is excited about is that 90 seconds in the middle at 3:18 p.m. when totality happens,” Cockcroft said. “All this excitement and work for these 90 seconds.”
The complete blocking of the sun by the moon will cause darkness for a short period of time.
Depending on the conditions and how clear the skies are at the time of the eclipse, he said, the first thing that will be noticed during totality is the solar corona, a white haze around the sun.
Delaney said he is trying to be hopeful about the weather and skies on Monday, and has been monitoring the weather forecast every hour for the last week.
“The snowstorms that you had earlier this past week in Toronto, if that had been forecast on Monday, I would have been terribly disappointed,” he said. “At the moment the forecast is iffy and so I’m quietly optimistic.
“But you have to take it with a grain of salt. Whenever you chase eclipses, solar or lunar. You’ve got to be prepared for failure from the weather.”
In 2017, a partial eclipse was visible in the Toronto area, but only around 70 per cent of the sun was covered. Monday’s eclipse is expected to have 99.9 per cent coverage.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese technology group SoftBank swung back to profitability in the July-September quarter, boosted by positive results in its Vision Fund investments.
Tokyo-based SoftBank Group Corp. reported Tuesday a fiscal second quarter profit of nearly 1.18 trillion yen ($7.7 billion), compared with a 931 billion yen loss in the year-earlier period.
Quarterly sales edged up about 6% to nearly 1.77 trillion yen ($11.5 billion).
SoftBank credited income from royalties and licensing related to its holdings in Arm, a computer chip-designing company, whose business spans smartphones, data centers, networking equipment, automotive, consumer electronic devices, and AI applications.
The results were also helped by the absence of losses related to SoftBank’s investment in office-space sharing venture WeWork, which hit the previous fiscal year.
WeWork, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023, emerged from Chapter 11 in June.
SoftBank has benefitted in recent months from rising share prices in some investment, such as U.S.-based e-commerce company Coupang, Chinese mobility provider DiDi Global and Bytedance, the Chinese developer of TikTok.
SoftBank’s financial results tend to swing wildly, partly because of its sprawling investment portfolio that includes search engine Yahoo, Chinese retailer Alibaba, and artificial intelligence company Nvidia.
SoftBank makes investments in a variety of companies that it groups together in a series of Vision Funds.
The company’s founder, Masayoshi Son, is a pioneer in technology investment in Japan. SoftBank Group does not give earnings forecasts.
Shopify Inc. executives brushed off concerns that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump will be a major detriment to many of the company’s merchants.
“There’s nothing in what we’ve heard from Trump, nor would there have been anything from (Democratic candidate) Kamala (Harris), which we think impacts the overall state of new business formation and entrepreneurship,” Shopify’s chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister told analysts on a call Tuesday.
“We still feel really good about all the merchants out there, all the entrepreneurs that want to start new businesses and that’s obviously not going to change with the administration.”
Hoffmeister’s comments come a week after Trump, a Republican businessman, trounced Harris in an election that will soon return him to the Oval Office.
On the campaign trail, he threatened to impose tariffs of 60 per cent on imports from China and roughly 10 per cent to 20 per cent on goods from all other countries.
If the president-elect makes good on the promise, many worry the cost of operating will soar for companies, including customers of Shopify, which sells e-commerce software to small businesses but also brands as big as Kylie Cosmetics and Victoria’s Secret.
These merchants may feel they have no choice but to pass on the increases to customers, perhaps sparking more inflation.
If Trump’s tariffs do come to fruition, Shopify’s president Harley Finkelstein pointed out China is “not a huge area” for Shopify.
However, “we can’t anticipate what every presidential administration is going to do,” he cautioned.
He likened the uncertainty facing the business community to the COVID-19 pandemic where Shopify had to help companies migrate online.
“Our job is no matter what comes the way of our merchants, we provide them with tools and service and support for them to navigate it really well,” he said.
Finkelstein was questioned about the forthcoming U.S. leadership change on a call meant to delve into Shopify’s latest earnings, which sent shares soaring 27 per cent to $158.63 shortly after Tuesday’s market open.
The Ottawa-based company, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, reported US$828 million in net income for its third quarter, up from US$718 million in the same quarter last year, as its revenue rose 26 per cent.
Revenue for the period ended Sept. 30 totalled US$2.16 billion, up from US$1.71 billion a year earlier.
Subscription solutions revenue reached US$610 million, up from US$486 million in the same quarter last year.
Merchant solutions revenue amounted to US$1.55 billion, up from US$1.23 billion.
Shopify’s net income excluding the impact of equity investments totalled US$344 million for the quarter, up from US$173 million in the same quarter last year.
Daniel Chan, a TD Cowen analyst, said the results show Shopify has a leadership position in the e-commerce world and “a continued ability to gain market share.”
In its outlook for its fourth quarter of 2024, the company said it expects revenue to grow at a mid-to-high-twenties percentage rate on a year-over-year basis.
“Q4 guidance suggests Shopify will finish the year strong, with better-than-expected revenue growth and operating margin,” Chan pointed out in a note to investors.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
TORONTO – RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust says it has cut almost 10 per cent of its staff as it deals with a slowdown in the condo market and overall pushes for greater efficiency.
The company says the cuts, which amount to around 60 employees based on its last annual filing, will mean about $9 million in restructuring charges and should translate to about $8 million in annualized cash savings.
The job cuts come as RioCan and others scale back condo development plans as the market softens, but chief executive Jonathan Gitlin says the reductions were from a companywide efficiency effort.
RioCan says it doesn’t plan to start any new construction of mixed-use properties this year and well into 2025 as it adjusts to the shifting market demand.
The company reported a net income of $96.9 million in the third quarter, up from a loss of $73.5 million last year, as it saw a $159 million boost from a favourable change in the fair value of investment properties.
RioCan reported what it says is a record-breaking 97.8 per cent occupancy rate in the quarter including retail committed occupancy of 98.6 per cent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 12, 2024.
