Feb 8, 2012

If you could gain a decade or more of healthy years to your life, wouldn’t you grab the chance? “It’s the simple things that can make the biggest difference,” says Heart and Stroke Foundation lecturer Dr. Clyde Yancy, adding that up to 80 percent of premature heart disease is preventable. His prescription for more quality years of life:...

Jan 6, 2012

by Kit Wong   In Chinese Mythology, the Dragon has always been an auspicious sign. Its symbolism is often related to or signifies Heavenly Energies and Imperial Decrees or both. The Belief that there are four Dragon Kings in the four corners of the World, charged with regulating the flow of water, in the form of rainfall, rivers, lakes, streams, and even...

Jan 5, 2012

Article and artwork by Colette Stefan   On January 23, 2012, we move out of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit into the prosperous and fertile Year of the Dragon. Dragons represent potent and benevolent power as the ultimate ruler of all the elements, embodying primordial power as a catalyst for change and transformation, wisdom, infinity, longevity and...

Jan 5, 2012

Kids can’t be kids anymore? by Bruce Burnett, CH   There’s a popular T-shirt that reads, “I don’t have ADHD, I’m just ignoring you.” We all know that ADHD is no laughing matter, yet, as with much humour, there’s a grain of truth in the joke. It’s axiomatic that Americans are addicted to pharmaceutical drugs....

Jan 5, 2012

From The Big Chill to boxed sets and beyond by Geoff Olson   It's extraordinary how potent cheap music is. - Noel Coward Nostalgia strikes when you least expect it. You’re sitting in a café putzing away on your smart phone when some long-forgotten tune comes on the radio in the background. Suddenly, you’re caught in a Proustian...

Jan 5, 2012

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki   The federal government has announced an exciting NIMBY project. It will put nature in millions of backyards by establishing Canada’s first urban National Park in the country’s largest urban area. Nestled in the east end of the Greater Toronto Area, Rouge National Park will be unlike any other. It won’t...

Jan 4, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead   Two films due to open this month bring the wizardry of digital cinema to the arthouse with stunning results. Firstly, there’s Wim Wenders’ Pina 3D, a portrait of the work of the celebrated German choreographer Pina Bausch (due out January 27). Pina was a film that almost didn’t get made. On June 30,...

Jan 3, 2012

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina   In creating recipes, it is my great pleasure to collaborate with expert chef Joseph Forest; the process allows me to improve my sensory awareness of food, something dietitian training didn’t include. During our exchanges, Joseph has become fascinated with the field of nutrition, which I bring to the table, and our...

Jan 3, 2012

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot Rebecca Hosking grew up on a beef and dairy farm in Devon where she fell in love with wildlife and then went on to become a wildlife filmmaker. With her father and uncle both beyond retirement and struggling to keep the farm going, Rebecca decided to return to her roots and take over the operation of the farm. There was...

Jan 3, 2012

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young Back in the 1970s, Jonas Salk wrote a little book called The Survival of the Wisest. This was a shift from the older paradigm of “survival of the fittest.” The concept of the fittest surviving was based on strength, force, aggression, competition and win/lose. In order to survive and thrive, Salk proposed there...