Smart drugs: on the path to perfection

The Times Online has published a piece about the development of a new drug that will enhance memory retention in healthy individuals. The drug developed by Astra-Zeneca, Targacept, and Epix Pharmaceuticals is designed to ameliorate the symptoms of Alzheimer’s but researchers are interested in marketing a milder version as a “life-style” pill.

Students and professionals are [...]

Big-hearted bus drivers

It’s been almost four months that I’ve lived here in Vancouver. Long enough to get mistaken sometimes for a local and asked directions. Not long enough to be able to give the directions.
I’m still new enough to notice the little differences—things that make Vancouver different. I’m no public transit connoisseur, but I have ridden buses [...]

Lives Were Around Me (and David McIntosh, too)

What is theatre without a stage?
Well, in the case of David McIntosh’s latest creation Lives Were Around Me, it’s a one-of-a-kind guided exploration of history and storytelling in Vancouver’s historic city centre.
Every Tuesday until the end of February, three audience members at a time are invited to reconsider their understanding of the Downtown Eastside and [...]

Delusions, Worries, and Buses

There probably is no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.
These words have been emblazoned on hundreds of buses, all at the behest of a young blogger at the Guardian. The campaign, soon joined by Oxford evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, placed over 800 of these messages on buses in the UK.
The attention received by [...]

$33.325 billion

That’s how much money the Government of Canada spent in 2007-2008 paying off interest charges on the federal debt.  Thanks to lower interest rates and the budget surpluses of the past decade, that number is considerably reduced from the high of over $49 billion in 1995-96.  But it’s still nearly $1000 per person [...]

Revenge May Not Taste So Sweet

Russia’s announcement this week that it was shelving plans to deploy missiles in Kaliningrad could signify a welcome change in global nuclear politics.  Russian President Dmitri Medvedev had threatened to install them within spitting distance of Bush’s proposed missile defence system in Poland and Czechoslovakia, the day after Barack Obama won the election.  A [...]

Keep the pay-equity safety net

I can’t say I’ve been a huge fan of Jack Layton as of late, particularly when it comes to his response to the federal budget. However, I am glad he brought up Budget 2009’s section on women’s pay equity court challenges in question period today.

‘Til debt do us part

The Federal budget survived its first round in the House of Commons as Bloc Quebecois sub-amendment was rejected, while Ignatieff wanted to sleep on it and deliver his verdict today. The media portrayed mixed reaction from groups, individuals, economists and businesses.
Tories struggled to remain in power by calling it an action plan for “extraordinary” times, [...]

Doctor, heal thyself

When Dr. Scott M. Davis was 31 years old he lost half of himself. His twin brother, Jonathan, died of AIDS. Dr. Davis was so grief stricken he could not grieve. Instead he numbed himself with sedatives which were at the ready. He started having the chronic pains that his brother suffered in his illness. [...]

Resurrecting the landline

It’s Saturday morning. I peek outside the curtain. Everything’s grey, dank, and cold. A typical winter’s day in Vancouver.
I growl under my breath because today is grocery day and I hate grocery shopping in the rain.
So I trudge out into the wetness and decide to call a friend en route. We chat, and I mostly [...]

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