November 16, 2021

November 16th is the 320th day of 2021. There are 45 days remaining until the end of the year.

The Salvation Army Red Kettle campaign begins on Thursday.

The funds raised directly will support local families and children in need.

Volunteers are needed – Contact the Salvation Army at CKSalvationArmy.org or call 519-354-8353.

Seventeen new positive COVID-19 cases reported Monday by Chatham-Kent Public Health.

There were 21 resolved cases, the total active case count locally drops to 48.

Ontario reported 552 new cases. The 7-day rolling average has risen again, now at 573, increasing from 476 recorded one week ago. The GTA continues to be a hot spot along with Muskoka and Windsor-Essex.

Russia blew up one of its own satellites with a missile yesterday. Now the debris is threatening the Space Station and all seven astronauts on board. That includes four Americans, one German, and two Russian cosmonauts.

They had to rush to their two escape pods yesterday morning, just in case the station got hit. Even a tiny piece of debris could be devastating, because everything up there is moving so fast, up to 17,000 miles an hour, or ten times faster than a bullet.

At least 1,500 pieces of debris large enough to be tracked are now circling the Earth, and come back around every 90 minutes or so. There could be hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces too, so the crew isn’t out of the woods yet.

The real-life astronauts should be okay. The station can adjust its orbit a little bit when necessary. The crew left their escape pods after they passed the debris field for a third time, about two hours after it all started.

If you think this sound familiar, it’s almost the exact premise of the 2013 film Gravity with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. There was more debris in that movie, but it started the same way – Russia destroying one of its own satellites with a missile.

The flag of France has a different look; slightly.

President Emmanuel Macron has switched to using a darker navy blue on the official French flag, replacing the previous brighter shade.

This actually happened last year with no fanfare. The President wanted to bring back the navy blue flag, a symbol of the French Revolution. Both the dark navy and lighter shade of blue have been used for years. In 1976, the brighter blue was added to match the blue on the flag of Europe.

The Detroit Tigers got a jump on the offseason by signing a pitcher Monday.

Eduardo Rodriguez, a 28 year old lefty, has signed a 5 year contract for $77 million.

The Tigers were expected to be aggressive this winter in moving closer back to contention after a surprise 77-win season. Adding Rodríguez appears to be the first of several big moves.

Categorised in: 5 Things You Need To Know

This post was written by Chris McLeod