Mar 22, 2012

Here is the much-talked-about TED talk on inequality given by Nick Hanauer.

Mar 1, 2012

How a few choice words can change worlds within and without • by Geoff Olson   • The world appears to be on a knife-edge again, with leaders from Tel Aviv to Tehran playing out idiotic games of brinkmanship better suited to pre-war Europe than the whistle-blowing world of WikiLeaks and Anonymous. To write about poetry in this context may seem...

Mar 1, 2012

by Helen Papaconstantinos BA, CNP, RNCP • Could Canada’s younger generations be expected to live shorter lives than their parents because of obesity? It is a chilling thought, but over the last 25 years, Statistics Canada reports have shown a considerable increase in the percentage of children and adolescents who are overweight and obese. At the root...

Mar 1, 2012

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people's briefing note on prescription drugs • Psst. Hey kid, try one of these. It’s really good stuff. Thus goes the standard pitch of the schoolyard pusher, selling the benefits of the product – so to speak – and expanding his market. What he seeks is a happy client who will hopefully come back for more....

Mar 1, 2012

An interview with retired economist Reimar Kroecher by Joseph Roberts • At press time on February 24, the Calgary Herald published an article by Rebecca Penty entitled “Transport Canada approves Enbridge’s supertanker routes.” Penty notes: “The federal department determined three shipping routes proposed by Enbridge are...

Mar 1, 2012

by Ken Peters • Just so we are clear, I love the planet and believe we are fast destroying it. I believe that debating global warming is a brilliant piece of sleight-of-hand by business. We used to just call it pollution and it was clearly bad; now they’ve got us debating global warming while we continue to rape the land and foul the oceans worse...

Mar 1, 2012

How Wall Street & the Fed fleeced the U.S. by Senator Bernie Sanders • As a result of the greed, recklessness and illegal behaviour on Wall Street, the American people have experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Millions of Americans, through no fault of their own, have lost their jobs, homes, life savings and the ability to...

Mar 1, 2012

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • It’s been 20 years since Canada’s East Coast cod fishery collapsed and we still have no recovery target or timeline for rebuilding populations. That’s just one finding in a damning report from a panel of eminent Royal Society of Canada marine scientists. “Sustaining Canada’s Marine...

Mar 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead   • On March 17, it will be six months since the beginning of Occupy Wall Street and the subsequent cascade of grassroots occupations that followed across the Western world. Two local filmmakers who have been documenting the Occupy movement – from the Arab Spring, through Zuccotti Park to the Vancouver Art...

Mar 1, 2012

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young “What you think of me is none of my business.” – Terry Cole-Whittaker • It is amazing when we stop to think how much of our culture is based on what people think of us or more importantly what we think they think of us or what we want them to think of us. Fashion magazines, beauty products,...

Mar 1, 2012

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot According to Carolyn Steel, author of Hungry City: How Food Shapes our Lives, supplying cities with food is one of the most important issues on the planet. Her TED lecture starts off showing how people living in cities in the past used to feed themselves and what happened when cities expanded. As cities grew, food production...

Mar 1, 2012

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina • The kitchen has traditionally been the heart of the home, a powerful space to generate physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. – Chef Joseph Forest • Some of us follow recipes to the letter. If directions say to whisk the sauce and we have a fork but no whisk, we turn to another recipe. Others refer...

Mar 1, 2012

by Mac McLaughlin • Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra Scorpio | Sagitarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces Our great nation came into existence on July 1, 1867. The planetary positions on that day portray what we’re all about. Our strengths and weaknesses stand out clearly and our national or collective karma can be read by those...