More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
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.
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.
As if a 4-0 Edmonton Oilers lead in Game 1 of their playoff series with the Los Angeles Kings wasn't good enough, what was announced at Rogers Place during the next TV timeout nearly blew the roof off the downtown arena.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”