It would start with tapping fingers on my bar, as the house music blared its inane, sometimes nonsensical, lyrics. The hands would be fidgety, the muscles straining for something to press against. Then his legs would start bopping and his face would start working and he’d launch into a violent dance. The shirt would come […]
Out of 20 million premature and underweight babies born each year, four million die. Most are in developing countries. Solving this problem is not just a short-term humanitarian effort, it also constitutes low-hanging fruit in the international development field. When infant mortality goes down, we tend to see population sizes decrease as well. Poverty can […]
If anything bolsters our instinctive revulsion to game-changing technology, it’s that so much of it makes us physically queasy. Much of our experienced technology involves sensory conflicts that inadvertently activate an ancient digestive reflex. Since the first mariner failed to find his sea legs, the story of human limit-pushing has been one big barf-fest. There’s […]
As a frequent flyer I have begun to be able to spot those airline passengers who have not yet twigged to the cabin crew’s role. A flight attendant could give you a more accurate figure, but I’d guess roughly a tenth of passengers think the plane is equipped with on-board waiters. A small paradigm shift […]
The first major warning sign came in 2006, shortly after Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper first ascended to power. The office of the National Science Advisor was to be phased out. It was a blunt and open declaration of what would come to be called, in environmental writer Chris Turner’s new book, Canada’s War on […]
“So, this goes…under the bra?” I stare dubiously at the hard plastic bowls. “Yup,” says the 27-year-old Black Irish firefighter who somehow strikes me as unlikely to know, even though it is he who handed them to me in a sealed package upon which he has printed my name. The trouble is I already have […]
Canada’s oil sands region has been gaining international recognition as a monstrous environmental liability, its vast tailings ponds made beautifully ghastly by Ed Burtynsky’s aerial photography. By some measures, though, Canada’s most polluted site is located less than three miles from where I put my son to bed, with a cup of tap water, every […]
“You are a moss. Describe your experiences.” – British Columbia Grade 11 biology question Education is a notoriously faddish field, prone to continual quackery. One moment kindergarteners are being streamed by achievement level, and the next we’ve swung into play-based high school teaching methods. Science education is no exception. In September 2014, Saskatchewan high school […]
