BIDDEFORD, Maine — Canadians are known as friendly folks, but these crabby brutes migrating from Canadian waters to coastal Maine are better suited for the hockey rink.

Green crabs from Nova Scotia are the same species as their cousins that already inhabit Maine waters, but are ornerier and angrier, threatening to accelerate harm to the coastal ecosystem by gobbling up soft-shell clams and destroying native eel grass, a researcher said.

The docile green crabs shrink from a threat, while the newcomers are more apt to wave their pincers and charge.

“What we’re seeing is this insane level of aggressiveness,” said Markus Frederich, a professor at the University of New England.

New level of aggressiveness

They’re each genetically distinct.

The new crab variant that originated in northern Europe is hardier and adapted to colder water than the more docile crab, which originally came from southern Europe.

Green crabs, even the docile ones, are considered a scourge that can devour soft-shell and juvenile clams. They can destroy eelgrass that provides a hiding place for juvenile sea creatures.

But the Canadian crabs take it to a new level.

Louis Logan, a University of New England graduate student, had the unpleasant task of labelling the crabs captured from Nova Scotia waters for the research.

The crabs were in no mood for games.

At a distance of 1.5 metres, the pint-sized brutes, which measure 10 to 12 centimetres across, assumed a fighting posture. Those that grabbed him were in no hurry to let go.

“Any time I went down to grab one they went to grab me instead,” he wrote in an email.

One of them, in particular, would jump out of the water in its frenzy to attack.

In the lab, researchers unleashed both types of crabs on a bed of eelgrass in a saltwater pool, and the difference was stark. The Canadian invaders shredded the eel grass like Edward Scissorhands in their efforts to scarf down marine organisms seeking refuge, Frederich said.

The first round of study focused on 200 crabs from Canada, and will be published in coming months.

Further studies will focus on whether a specific gene plays a role in the aggressiveness or if a factor called hybrid vigour is in play, he said. The hybrid vigour theory suggests that crabs could be more aggressive as they establish themselves, but will mellow out later.

The quarrelsome newcomers currently comprise only about 2 to 3 per cent of green crabs crawling on the ocean floor off Maine, but those numbers are certain to grow, Frederich said.

“It will be an entirely different ball game,” he predicted. “It’s just a question of when more of the crabs come and out-compete the Maine green crabs.”

The docile green crabs have been around for more than a century in New England waters, but they’ve emerged as a major problem as the Gulf of Maine has warmed. The feistier crabs arrived off Nova Scotia in the 1980s, and currents brought their larvae southward into New England waters.

Eventually, the newcomers will move farther southward. “We can’t do anything about it,” he said. “The only thing that we can do is learn how to live with it.

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EA’s new battle royale shooter Apex Legends has reached 25 million total players since its debut last week.

An update on the official EA website from Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella announced the news of the milestone, which also notes that the game hosted two million concurrent players during its peak over the weekend.

During its first three days, Apex Legends drew in 10 million players, 2.5 million of which were during the first day.

The update also touches on a few upcoming events for the game including the Twitch Rivals Apex Legend Challenge, Valentine’s Day celebrations, and the commencement of the first season.

The Twitch Rivals Apex Legend Challenge will run on February 12 and 19, and will feature some of the most popular Twitch streamers competing in game.

Valentine’s Day will see specially themed loot available for a limited time and March will ring in the beginning of Season One.

Despite some people missing older school battle royale games, we think it’s pretty great according to our Apex Legends review in progress.

If you want some help becoming a champion of the arena, make sure to check out our Apex Legends wiki which includes supply crate locations, best squad combos, and 26 essential tips.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly compared Apex Legends’ total player count to Fortnite’s concurrent player count. IGN regrets this error and the above article has been updated.

Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN who likes to play Lifeline. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Listen: David Lewis-Peart reflects on the need for a conversation about Black men. Music: Driftnote. Audio editing: Omar Rivero. Audiograms: Al Donato.

In process. Ever-changing. Vulnerable. Sensitive. Confusing. Loaded. Beautiful. Evasive.

Policed.

Fragile. Diverse. Dynamic. Persecuted. Constrained. And, misunderstood.

These are just some of the responses I received when I asked the not-so-simple question: What is Black masculinity?

My name is David Lewis-Peart, and nearly a year ago, I was invited to write a short article for HuffPost Canada about this very topic.

The plan was, I would speak to a small group of men in the Black community from across a spectrum of experience, and write up a tidy summation. Well, a couple interviews gradually became 12, and what began as an assumedly easy dive became a rather deep one fairly quickly. A year later, here we are.

We need to talk about masculinity, and how it’s experienced by Black men, in a fulsome way. For me, this exploration is not an impersonal one. As a queer Black man, I too have been sitting with these same questions recently, and how my own notions of Blackness and manhood, both conscious and unconscious, find life in myself, my work and my world — in both helpful and not-so helpful ways.

I also see how this fuller conversation requires room for nuance and complexity, candour and care, and of course, work — more work than sensational headlines and siloed and reactive commentary on social media can provide.

So, to continue the conversation, in this four-part series for HuffPost Canada, we’ll hear from a number of Black men on what masculinity means to them, what they have learned or are in the process of unlearning, and how Black manhood reimagined has presented itself in their lives and work.

Part I:

• Brandon Hay: The Space For Healing
• Jah Grey: The Sharing Of Joy
• Travoy Deer: The Need For Love

SALEM, Va. — 2009 national champion Messiah rolled to a run-shortened victory Saturday night to become the first team to reach the best-of-three championship series at the 2016 NCAA Division III Finals at the James I. Moyer Sports Complex.

The (47-4) Falcons get a day off as they await the winner of Sunday’s extra bracket game at 10 a.m. between 2015 national runner-up Texas-Tyler and St. John Fisher — the third meeting of those two squads this week.

Meanwhile, Emory and Massachusetts Institute of Technology were eliminated earlier on Saturday to drop the eight original teams to just three.

Messiah 9, Rowan 1 (6 innings)

Erin Cressman and Brooke Pompeo homered and the Falcons played great defense behind — and including — NFCA All-American Courtney Allen to oust the (41-11) Profs and assure themselves at least a national runner-up finish.

Allen allowed four hits and one run over the first 4.1 innings, benefitting from two outstanding catches in center field by Amber Bingaman. Allen herself promptly made an over-the-shoulder diving catch in center field after Madelyn Yannetti took over in the circle and Bingaman slid over to right field.

Amanda Jones had three hits, including a triple, and Cressman drove in four runs for Messiah.

Four players had one hit apiece in the loss for Rowan.

St. John Fisher 1, Texas-Tyler 0

Two-time All-American Lindsey Thayer tossed her second shutout of the day, limiting the powerful (46-5) Patriots to just three hits while fanning seven to give her 21 strikeouts for her two games Saturday. In all, Thayer made 215 pitches (150 for strikes) over 14 innings, allowing two runs and four hits.

Batterymate Karlie Neale led off the top of the seventh with a homer to left center to snap a scoreless tie.

Texas-Tyler starter Kelsie Batten, a four-time All-American, pitched plenty well enough to win, allowing just five hits over seven innings while walking none and striking out nine.

St. John Fisher 1, MIT 0

Sophomore Thayer struck out 14 in an one-hit gem to reach 750 for her Cardinal career in just her second season.

Neale had two hits, while Lauren Owens doubled in Sarah Kubik in the fourth for the game’s lone run.

Katherine Shade provided the only hit for the (34-14) Engineers with one out in the fifth and Lexi Marshall fanned four and allowed five hits in the loss.

Rowan 7, Emory 4

MacKenzie Juodaitis won her second game of the week and Allison Nolan collected her save, as the Profs set a school record for wins in a season (41) by eliminating Emory.

First team All-American Ashley DeYoung hit a game-tying two-run homer in the bottom of the first and Damariz Mercado doubled home two more in a three-run Rowan third.

Ashley Powers doubled twice among her three hits, Alyssa Pollard added two hits and Janelle Turnquest drove in two in the loss for the (46-8) Eagles.

Keep track of all the action with our NCAA Division III Softball Championship Tournament Central by clicking HERE

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The NFCA has added two new ways to recognize member coaches this year — The Humanitarian Award and the Diversity Committee Convention Grant — and now accepting nominations until August 1.

The Humanitarian Award will honor an NFCA member coach who has selflessly dedicated his or her time toward the long-term betterment of the community and/or engaged in charitable activities in the service of others.

The 2016 Diversity Committee Convention Grant covers registration for the NFCA National Convention in New Orleans and includes a stipend to reimburse up to $1,500 in travel and lodging costs for the honoree. The recipient must be a minority coach who promotes diversity, is service oriented and active in the fastpitch community.

Existing awards include the Mary Nutter Scholarship, Donna Newberry “Perseverance” Award and Easton/ Assistant Coach of the Year honors for each membership category.

For all these awards, appropriate details and supporting documentation is required to be submitted and recipients must be NFCA members. Visit NFCA.org and access application forms through your Coach’s Box.

Donna Newberry “Perseverance” Award
Recognizes an NFCA member coach who has demonstrated extraordinary strength of will and character in the fight to overcome a physical, mental, or social adversity that presented an additional challenge to the already demanding job of a coach.

Easton/NFCA Assistant Coach of the Year Award
Recognizes an assistant/associate head coach from each NFCA membership category for their tireless dedication to the sport of softball and to the continued education, growth, and development of young women both on and off the field.

Humanitarian Award
Recognizes an NFCA member coach who has selflessly dedicated his/her time toward the long-term betterment of the community and/or engaged in charitable activities in the service of others.

Mary Nutter Scholarship
Is an educational grant awarded to an NFCA member coach who seeks and desires educational opportunity, but who requires financial assistance to cover the NFCA Annual Convention costs.

Diversity Grant
Is a grant awarded to a minority NFCA member coach who is active in the fastpitch community, is service oriented, and who promotes diversity in the sport of softball.

Metroid Prime 4’s development is restarting from the beginning with the help of Retro Studios, developers of the original Metroid Prime games.

Announced by Nintendo, the decision was made because this fourth entry “has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to the Metroid Prime series.”

Due to this reason, Nintendo has decided to have producer Kensuke Tanabe “work in trust and collaboration with the studio that developed the original Metroid Prime series, Retro Studios in the United States, and restart development from the beginning.”

Tanabe was the Metroid Prime series producer and the initial project was being over seen by him and a “talented development team,” which was not Retro Studios, and had reportedly been said to have been Bandai Namco.

Metroid 4 was announced at E3 2017 and little has been heard of it since its reveal.

The last we heard of it was in November of last year when Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aime said that “the game is well in development.”

Retro Studio’s last game was Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, and there have been reports that it was working on the rumored Star Fox racing game.

Retro Studios developed the first Metroid Prime in 2002, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes in 2004, and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in 2007.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN who is very sad about this news but is happy the original Metroid Prime developers are back on the job. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst.

The federal government’s system of tax benefits and deductions reinforces and even worsens gender inequality, with men taking 62 cents of every dollar the government spends on tax breaks, a new study argues.

But the study shows that much of the inequity is a reflection of the broader gender inequities in society — the reality, for instance, that men continue to dominate the highest-paying jobs, or that women live longer.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives looked at “tax expenditures” — the various deductions that reduce payers’ tax burdens and the benefits the government pays out to some tax-filers. There are 64 of these tax expenditures, and 45 of them had sufficient data to carry out a gender analysis, the CCPA report found.

Of those 45 expenditures, only nine of them paid out more to women than men.

The analysis even found that the popular retirement vehicles known as RRSPs may actually be a much worse deal for many women than men.

Watch: How long will it take to close the gender wage gap? Story continues below.

CCPA chief economist David Macdonald ran a gender-based analysis on Canada’s system of tax expenditures — something he said the governing Liberals largely haven’t done, despite a vow to look at policy through a gender lens.

“The tax system doesn’t get nearly the attention that program spending does,” Macdonald told HuffPost Canada.

In many cases, the disparity comes from the fact that men earn more than women, and — as earlier research from the CCPA showed — Canada’s tax breaks disproportionately benefit higher earners.

For instance, the government forgoes $755 million in revenue for the employee stock option deduction, and 77 per cent of that goes to men. Stock options are most commonly paid to upper management, so this deduction particularly helps “executives of big companies who are … dramatically more likely to be men,” Macdonald said.

Among the 100 most influential companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange, only one was headed by a woman in 2018, according to a survey from Bloomberg.

Macdonald said Canada’s tax system would “likely” be more equitable to women if it wasn’t so skewed towards tax relief for higher earners.

A raw deal on retirement plans?

Some of the ways in which the system disadvantages women may be surprising. For instance, Macdonald’s research found that registered retirements savings plans (RRSPs) may not be saving women much money on their taxes.

Men get $2.6 billion more in savings from RRSP contributions than they pay in taxes on RRSP withdrawals every year, the study found. But women pay $315 million more in taxes on RRSP withdrawals than they receive in savings from RRSP contributions.

Macdonald says there are two things going on here. One is that lower-earning women may find themselves earning a higher income in retirement, meaning the taxes on their RRSP withdrawals would be larger than the tax savings on the original contributions. The same would be true for lower-earning men.

But in some cases it’s women — who earned less than their male partners — drawing from a spousal RRSP. As women live longer than men, they will often end up paying taxes on income their male partner earned.

Macdonald found that only one tax break is explicitly targeted towards one gender: The Canada Child Benefit, which is paid out to the mother, or to just one person in a same-sex couple. Because of that — and because women are much more likely than men to be single parents — 97 per cent of the $22.6-billion child benefit is paid out to women.

The CCPA report doesn’t lay out any particular policy proposals. Macdonald described the work as a springboard for further gender-based research on Canadian taxes, and a guidepost for policymakers looking to make the tax system more equitable.

“Women tend to live longer, they work more in part-time jobs than men, they tend to be caregivers. You have tax breaks that overlap, or not, on those issues. There’s a gender dimension to it.”