Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
When we think of medieval friars, we may well picture Robin Hood's jolly Friar Tuck, known for his rotund figure and love of food and drink.
But it turns out some of these monks were full of more than just cakes and ale.
According to a study released on Friday, Augustinian friars in medieval England were nearly twice as likely to suffer from intestinal parasites as other people, despite most monasteries being equipped with washing facilities -- a rarity for ordinary citizens.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge's Department of Archaeology excavated the remains of 19 friars from the grounds of a former Augustinian friary in Cambridge, England.
By comparing soil samples taken from around the pelvises of the friars and 25 townspeople of low socioeconomic status from the same 12th-14th-century era, the researchers were able to compare the prevalence of parasites in people with vastly different lifestyles, according to the study, published in the International Journal of Paleopathology.
The analysis revealed that 11 of the friars (58%) were infected with worms, compared with just eight of the locals (32%).
The percentage of parasitic presence in locals was as expected, similar to that found in previous studies on European medieval burials, but the researchers said the infection rates from the former friary remains are high.
"The friars of medieval Cambridge appear to have been riddled with parasites," Piers Mitchell, the study's lead author, said in a press release.
It's the first time anyone has tried to work out how common parasites were in people with different lifestyles from the same medieval town, he added.
Researcher Tianyi Wang, who did the microscopy to find the parasite eggs, said the most common species found was roundworm, followed by whipworm, both of which are spread by "poor sanitation."
Although the friars had access to latrines and washing facilities -- usually with running water, though this has yet to be confirmed at the Cambridge site -- the researchers suggest the stark difference in the infection rate must be due to differences in dealing with human waste.
"One possibility is that the friars manured their vegetable gardens with human faeces, not unusual in the medieval period, and this may have led to repeated infection with the worms," Mitchell explained.
Compared with the privy -- pretty fancy by medieval standards -- to which monks were accustomed, ordinary people had to make do with a cesspit, a simple hole in the ground.
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Three bodies recovered in an area of Baja California are likely to be those of the two Australians and an American who went missing last weekend during a camping and surfing trip, the state prosecutor’s office said Saturday.
Almost a week after all London Drugs stores across Western Canada abruptly closed amid a cyberattack, they began a "gradual reopening" on Saturday.
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.