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The author reports that U.S. Centers for Disease Control officials are concerned by evidence suggesting Clostridium difficile is spreading out of hospitals and into the community. Cases have already penetrated communities in Quebec, Canada. Massive overuse by hospitals of a class of antibiotics known as fluoroquinolones favored the genetic selection of a tougher form of the bacterium. Hospital spread and case studies are discussed.

The article reports on the allergy epidemic. The Western world has seen an exponential increase in the number of children affected by allergies. Scientific speculation attributes the rise to a hypoallergenic world that leads the body to attack "hostile" intruders like milk. Anaphylactic shock can be deadly to many. Antihistamine sales increased by 15% from 2001 and many people who suffer from allergies carry EpiPens, containing epinephrine, with them at all times.

The article discusses the outlook for an avian influenza epidemic and the public fear that is being generated. The world's leading flu experts, including the World Health Organization, are warning that avian flu could become an apocalyptic nightmare. This month, Ottawa will host a major international conference to discuss preparations. Helping to accelerate bird flu mania is a growing band of flu bloggers--techno-agitators and armchair epidemiologists who see each new flu report or update as a call to arms, and use their blogs as a medium to inform and scare the daylights out of each other. There is a tremendous amount of hysteria for something that hasn't even happened--and may never happen. Fear has become the epidemic--and safety, or our perceived lack of it, an obsession. Perhaps what's most unsettling is that the definition of what it means to be safe keeps changing. This minute, it means having an ample supply of Tamiflu. Experts are saying that when an outbreak occurs, there will be a critical global shortage of the drug. Governments and multinational corporations are frantically stockpiling it. Ordinary North Americans and Europeans have taken to creating survivalist flu blogs and building their own anticipatory stashes. In Canada, people can't rely on their doctors to give it to them for pre-emptive use because Tamiflu is only licensed by Health Canada for use as a treatment of flu infections that have actually set in. So, in recent months, dozens of websites like Canadian Drug Delivery have sprung up to offer Tamiflu by circuitous means. Bioethicists point out that hoarding a drug that is in precious supply globally poses a bit of a dilemma. It may very well sit unopened in medicine cabinets until well beyond its expiry date--while people in high-risk parts of the world scramble to get their hands on a single pill.

This article focuses on the trend in the food industry for adding nutrients to products to appeal to health-conscious consumers. Beverage maker Smart (fx) is just one player in a huge new business trend -- foods and drinks with special qualities designed to appeal to health-conscious consumers. All across the food industry, from fledgling firms to giant conglomerates, companies are finding new ways to cook up increasingly exotic -- and supposedly healthful -- things to feed us. They're hoping consumer unease about genetically modified Frankenfood, mad cow disease, irradiation and bovine growth hormones will drive a new market in health-oriented foods. But are these new additive-laden "superfoods" the nutritional nirvana their proponents claim them to be, or are they simply another marketing ploy? Within the industry, they're known as "functional foods," edibles enhanced with various substances that supposedly boost the original food's basic nutritional value and -- it is hoped -- reduce the consumer's risk of chronic disease. But all this new science raises an enormous potential for, on the one hand, misleading claims by manufacturers and, on the other, rampant skepticism among consumers. Federal regulations allow manufacturers to make one of only five generic health claims on their product labels. Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle takes time and effort. Given our chicken-finger-licking, remote-control ways, and our stubborn reluctance to follow Canada's Food Guide to Healthy Eating, magic-bullet solutions to our health problems are awfully tempting. Hence the hype around functional foods, says Bill Jeffery, national coordinator of the Centre for Science in the Public Interest in Ottawa, a consumer advocacy organization. The new superfood makers say they have their consumers' health in mind, but they're facing a determined, skeptical opposition as they try to improve their foothold in Canada.

This article focuses on the number of Canadians who are fans of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Nascar). Mucker Chambers from Saint John, N.B., made the 12-hour pilgrimage to the Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa. With the start of the race less than 12 hours away, there didn't seem much point in sleeping. Up went their Canadian flag. It would be "awesome" if NASCAR came to Canada, Chambers says. "I mean these guys take our hockey players, right? Why not bring the racing to us?" A lot of Canadian NASCAR fans have the same thing on their minds, wondering when the continent's premier stock-car racers will head north. Because right now NASCAR, firing on all cylinders, wants to grow the Canadian market. Landing a Nextel Cup event, NASCAR's premier series, is a long shot. But the Busch Series, the No. 2 circuit in the U.S., is looking a lot more promising. NASCAR oversees three national series: Nextel, Busch and another called Craftsman, for trucks. In March, Busch staged a race in Mexico City, the first NASCAR-sanctioned contest outside the United States that counted toward its driver championship. "I don't know why the hell we don't race in Canada," says Rusty Wallace, the veteran Nextel driver for the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. "We're already at Michigan International Speedway." So, in Canada by when? "Oh boy," sighs Robbie Weiss, NASCAR's Los Angeles–based managing director of international operations. "Hard to say. You'd like to think by 2007." NASCAR's Nextel Cup calendar is packed, though, and Canada's window of opportunity, because of the weather, is tight: only June, July and August. In Canada, NASCAR is the No. 1 televised motorsport. This year's Daytona 500, the Super Bowl of stock-car racing, drew an average of 506,000 viewers per minute on The Sports Network, more than double the 240,000 who watched when TSN last televised the contest two years ago.

Highlights several Canadian people and things worth celebrating in light of Canada Day. Popularity enjoyed by junior hockey after the National Hockey League ended its 2004-05 season; Recommendation to visit the Canadian War Museum as part of celebrating Canada Day; Decrease in the value of the Canadian dollar known as the "Loonie"; Estimated number of whooping cranes world wide, noting some of the endangered species were hatched at the Calgary Zoo using artificial insemination; Canadian actresses that can be seen on prime time television in America; Statistics indicating the success of Tim Hortons' coffee shops; Level of foreign aid from Canada to the region affected by 2004's Indian Ocean tsunami; Details of the breakthrough's at Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg related to the treatment of Ebola and Marburg viruses; Appreciation of the book "Three Day Road," by Joseph Boyden; Assessment of the bipartisanship in the Canadian government; Appreciation for behavioral neuroscientist Brenda Milner.

This article discusses the popularity of tanning despite the fact that it can be dangerous to one's health. The Canadian Dermatology Association says, "No tan is a good tan," since all exposure to solar radiation—whether from the sun or a tanning lamp—damages the skin to some extent.Young people, especially, have re-embraced tanning with a vengeance, heading to tanning salons and, in warm weather, soaking up the sun. Last month, the American Academy of Dermatology released a survey indicating 79 per cent of youths between 12 and 17 know suntanning can be dangerous. And 81 per cent recognize that sunburns during childhood up the risk of skin cancer. Yet 60 per cent said they burned last summer. It gets worse: while more than a third of those surveyed said they knew someone who had skin cancer, almost half said people with tans look healthier. A new generation of bronzed entertainment and beauty icons is making the tan chic again. Meanwhile, recent medical reports about the benefits of sun exposure have people taking off their sun hats and scratching their heads. Some recent studies associate ultraviolet light with a decrease in certain cancers. For many sun-worshippers, fed up with being told what they do is bad for them, that news has virtually wiped out two decades of warnings about the dangers of tanning. It hasn't always been like this. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, pale was in. European women would casually twirl frilly parasols to shield themselves from the sun, notes Stephen Katz, a sociology professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in Canada, accounting for one-third of all diagnoses of the disease, with 82,400 cases forecast for this year. Even when people put on sunscreen, they often don't put on enough to get the desired SPF rating. That's why Canadian dermatologists have upped their recommendation of SPF 15 to SPF 30.

This article focuses on Matthew Bendoritis and how he has survived despite being diagnoses with the same osteosarcoma that killed runner Terry Fox. It started with a sudden bolt, shooting down his right leg like an electric shock. His parents, Mark and Margita, booked an appointment with their family physician. Matt might have an infection, the doctor told them -- but there was a chance it could be cancer. Even before performing a biopsy, a surgeon in Edmonton gave them the dreaded diagnosis: their oldest son had malignant bone cancer. Matt, who turns 17 in April, was afflicted with the same osteosarcoma that killed Terry Fox in 1981. Like Fox, Matt suffered through an amputation of his right leg, although in his case an ingenious but oddly disfiguring surgical procedure saved a good part of the limb. Three times, the bone cancer has come back, and each time Matt's fought it off. Osteosarcoma typically strikes children and young adults. No one knows why, but scientists think it is somehow connected to the rapidly dividing cells associated with the body's growth spurts. In the mid-1980s, after Fox's death, clinical studies began showing that chemotherapy, when coupled with surgical removal of the tumour, greatly increased the survival of patients with bone cancer.Fox's Marathon of Hope, which began in St. John's, Nfld., 25 years ago, is one of the reasons for improved survival in many cancers. Matt's surgeon used an innovative technique known generically as a hip rotationplasty, first described by Dr. Winfried Winkelmann in West Germany in 1986. Overall, though, progress in treating osteosarcoma has slowed considerably since chemotherapy was added to the arsenal in the 1980s. "

This article focuses on the development of drugs and therapies to fight cancer. There are more than 200 different types of cancer affecting humans, and scientists expect no single cure will ever be found. In 1998, Patrick Lee, working out of the University of Calgary, published a groundbreaking study which showed that a common cold virus, called the reovirus, is capable of killing cancer cells. In the process, he helped open what is fast becoming the newest front in the war against one of the world's most deadly diseases. The problem is it takes only a small amount of virus to cause a cold, but, to treat cancer, hundreds of millions of viral particles have to be injected into the bloodstream or the tumour itself. On the survival front, the broad prognosis today is much improved over a generation ago, especially for women with breast cancer and men with prostate cancer, two of the most common forms of the disease. The same holds true for a variety of other cancers, including melanoma, Hodgkin's disease and cancer of the uterus, cervix, thyroid, testis and male bladder. There are only a handful of these medications approved for clinical use in Canada, though others are being tested in trials. Iressa, as well as earlier drugs like Gleevec (for chronic myeloid leukemia), target a chemical receptor called EGFR that helps the cancerous cell grow and spread. Herceptin, also a targeted monoclonal antibody, is used to treat breast cancer. However, in 2000, Genentech, Herceptin's manufacturer, wrote health-care providers to warn them of 62 post-marketing reports of serious adverse reactions, including 15 patients who died, some after experiencing an acute reaction in their lungs. INSETS: TRACKING TUMOURS WITH A FORENSIC MIND;THE ODDS;THE BIG ONES;BREAKING THE CHAIN

This article focuses on the revolution in Ukraine and the controversy surrounding the Ukrainian presidential runoff vote in 2004. It was like old times--a Russian leader warning the West to stay out of his country's sphere of influence, an American president vowing that the will of the people must be heard. As the dispute over the Nov. 21 Ukrainian presidential runoff vote continued, and as opposition supporters took to the streets by the hundreds of thousands, George W. Bush promised that the United States would closely monitor any new balloting. But Vladimir Putin said hands off, even as he waded deep into the issue by rejecting the notion of a repeat runoff--an idea supported by opposition leader and presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko and European Union mediators. Putin said such a vote could produce another disputed result, prolonging the standoff between Yushchenko's movement and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, outgoing President Leonid Kuchma's handpicked candidate and the man openly supported by Putin. Tent City sprang up in the heart of downtown Kiev in the immediate aftermath of the country's profoundly flawed runoff presidential election on Nov. 21. INSETS: UKRAINE'S TIME OF TROUBLES;A COLOURFUL CAST.

This article discusses the issue of importing Canadian prescription drugs to the United States and its impact on the presidential elections in November 2004. It's been running since the summer in U.S. newspapers and magazines and is based on what happened when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration replied to spam from a website offering prescription savings from north of the border. Therein lies the strategy of the big pharmaceutical companies, the FDA and the Bush administration. Question the safety of importing Canadian prescription drugs, and question it often--and protect a U.S. market worth a whopping US $200 billion a year, even from their own increasingly irate citizens. Staunching the flow of cheaper brand name drugs from Canada--where they can cost up to 80 per cent less than in the U.S. because of federal regulations here and the weaker Canadian currency--is good only for short-term profits, argues Rost. Opening the market further to U.S. states, or even the Costcos and Wal-Marts of the world, adds MacKay, would be ruinous for exporters because Canada simply doesn't have enough drugs to supply that kind of surge in U.S. demand.

This is an article that focuses on the security plan of Greece to be put into place for the 2004 Summer Olympics. I was standing outside the unfinished Olympic Stadium in Athens, talking with two Australian tourists, when three cop cars pulled up and blocked the road. An hour later, at another entrance to the venue, I was alone and had just taken a picture of the stadium when the same cop showed up. They've created the Olympic Advisory Group, a task force that includes counterterrorism experts from Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Israel, Spain, and the United States. The road between Athens and Marathon--on which competitors will, yes, run the marathon--is still being paved. Louis Lahaie, the liaison officer for the Canadian Olympic Committee and Sports Canada in Athens.

This article profiles Canadian comic Tom Green. When we met recently, Green was out of work, other comedians had stolen his thunder, and he'd been through a well-publicized divorce from Drew Barrymore that had left a bad taste. The New Tom Green Show debuted on MTV last June. Audience numbers in the U.S. were good to start, more than 800,000 viewers. But by the time MTV cancelled three months later, the figures had sagged to 200,000 and change. Green believes the network could have done more to support the show. But he says ultimately it wasn't a good fit given the preponderance of MTV's 12- to 18-year-old viewers. "I realized I don't want to just do some of the crazy, shock, gross stuff that I did in the beginning of my career," he says. "I want to broaden myself." But what else does Green expect to be known as? So, is Tom Green done? Seems unlikely. In January, he completed a handshake-and-autograph tour with U.S. soldiers in Iraq. He's just finished a book about his career, Hollywood Causes Cancer, due out in September, and he's writing a screenplay.

The article discusses the need to balance commerce and nutrition by finding ways to produce food without polluting it. The increasingly industrialized food chain may turn out to be the pitfall that keeps us from a long, healthy life. Giant agribusinesses pack together cattle, pigs, chickens and fish by the hundreds and thousands, necessitating the use of germ-fighting antibiotics that we end up swallowing. Growth hormones pumped into cattle raise concerns over disruption of our own hormone systems. Our fruit, vegetables, meat and milk are found to contain toxic pesticides in trace amounts. Processed meats are preserved with nitrite and nitrate salts that guard against the bacterial growth that causes botulism, but have been linked to cancer. Trans fatty acids in margarines, shortenings, fast foods and common bakery products increase the risk of heart disease. There are worries about genetically modified food and the incessant push by business to irradiate meat to sterilize it. What can the consumer do? Andrea Peart, the Ottawa-based director of the health and environment program for the Sierra Club of Canada, says buying organic foods is a start, but not the ultimate answer. "Above all else," counsels Peart, "buy local, whether it's a pig or a tomato." That supports often hard-pressed farmers and helps decentralize food production. Other food-safety options: buy meat products that are raised without antibiotics and growth hormones, and contain no dyes. Cooking a meal from scratch once in a while, if not regularly, is another not-so-revolutionary activity that many families have strayed from. Tom Manley, chairman of the Canadian Organic Growers' Ottawa chapter, thinks the family farm can be revived. The Austin, Tex.-based Whole Foods Market Inc. bills itself as the world's largest retailer of natural and organic foods and has been successful with its 149 stores in North America, including a single Canadian outlet that opened in Toronto in 2002.

This article discusses Viagra, and similar medications for erectile dysfunction. It's hard to believe you've been around more than five years. But what a half-decade it's been--from a gleam in some scientist's eye to one of the most recognizable brand names in the world, second only to Coca-Cola. Pfizer Corp. announced today that Viagra will soon be available in liquid form and will be marketed by Pepsi as a power beverage suitable for use as a mixer. One is Levitra, jointly developed by Germany's Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corp. and GlaxoSmithKline Inc. in Britain. Some observers argue Levitra's similarity to Viagra will make it hard for it to emerge from the massive marketplace shadow cast by Viagra: 130 million prescriptions for more than 20 million men worldwide since 1998. With Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, Lilly ICOS and Bayer-GlaxoSmithKline all determined to stiffen men's romantic resolve, a massive commercial thrust is underway to, um, free willy.

This article describes the pressures faced by family physicians in Canada. After your spouse and perhaps a close friend or two, your next most intimate relationship could easily be with your family doctor. A survey by "Maclean's" in partnership with "The Medical Post" reveals a vast chasm between doctors' attitudes toward themselves and their jobs, and their patients' understanding of them. By telephone, we quizzed 1,000 patients nationally on what they thought of family doctors and the care they're getting. Four out of five family docs feel their status has diminished over the past decade. While money clearly is at the root of a lot of doctor dissatisfaction, patients have a decidedly different take on that issue. And four out of five say their ability to see patients in a timely fashion has worsened over the past decade.

Our battered planet has many wounds, World Wildlife Fund Canada notes this week in its first-ever 'Nature Audit,' a 104-page document subtitled 'Setting Canada's Conservation Agenda for the 21st Century.' The wide-ranging study, borrowing from the world of accounting, tallies Canada's natural capital. It takes stock of our present-day environmental "equity," and compares what's left to the situation prior to European settlement, circa 1500-1600. The 'Nature Audit' concludes that the way we've accounted for nature in the past -- by basically ignoring its destruction -- is a recipe for bankrupting biodiversity. Still, there's room for optimism -- if we're prepared to take action. Several industries and individuals are already finding sustainable solutions to our seemingly perpetual problems. Plans for the gas pipeline in the pristine Mackenzie Valley are taking the environment and Aboriginal peoples into account as never before in this country. To build on this momentum, we have to get away from the myth that Canada is a sprawling swath of untouched landscapes. Despite repeated government promises to turn things around, the natural environment is under siege all across inhabited Canada. In the spring 2000 federal budget, then-finance minister Paul Martin asked an independent advisory body, the Ottawa-based National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, to devise indicators to track the impact that our century-old economic practices have on our natural and human assets. In a report released on May 12, the organization called on Ottawa to make profound changes to the way it keeps the books. To account for the true state of the economy, the report says, federal budgets need six additional indicators -- air pollution, water quality, wetland extent, forest cover, greenhouse gases, public education -- to add meaning to popular yet insufficient indicators like gross domestic product.

Canadians are more than ready for summertime, when the living is, well, easier. We've grudgingly learned to live with the viral scourge from China called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) as it landed a body blow on the health-care system and our economy. As the weather warms, the backyard and the lakeshore by the cottage could become hazardous to your health. Mark Little was one of the 307 confirmed victims of the West Nile virus in Ontario last year, a figure some experts consider a gross underestimate. Seventeen Ontarians are known to have died. Quebec, the only other province hit hard, had 16 cases and one death, while Alberta reported treating two patients who contracted West Nile outside its borders. An emerging and poorly understood health threat in North America, West Nile put Little, a fit, then 37-year-old electrician in the Lake Erie town of Port Colborne, out of commission for a month. Authorities in Ontario were saying West Nile affected mainly the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. Diseases like West Nile used to fall under the heading of geographic medicine, says Dr. Kevin Kain, director of the Centre for Travel and Tropical Medicine in Toronto. West Nile turned up in birds, mosquitoes, humans and horses in parts of New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Maryland by late 1999.

As Canadians anguish over how to protect themselves from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), health authorities take note of what went wrong. All around Hong Kong, people go about their business in masks. The economy's losing tens of millions of dollars, commuters shun public transit and the World Health Organization (WHO), in a rare move, says stay away unless a visit is absolutely necessary. One high-rise apartment tower has been emptied, its residents quarantined in special camps built on the outskirts. The city is trying to come to grips with SARS, the mysterious ailment, likely viral in origin, that had stricken 761 people there, and 2,354 in 18 countries worldwide, by last week, killing at least 85. As labs worldwide--including Health Canada's maximum-security facility in Winnipeg (page 24)--pressed the search for the cause of SARS, the WHO maintained a global health alert, calling for any patient with atypical pneumonia to be isolated and imploring a jittery world to be watchful. In Canada, another global hot spot with more than 180 suspected and probable cases and eight deaths (with a ninth under investigation) by the end of last week, health authorities stress that the risk to the general population is extremely low. There are no non-urgent transfers of patients between health-care facilities, and in the Toronto region, elective surgeries are cancelled and some clinics closed. INSET: HOW A NEW DIESEASE STALKED THE GLOBE.

Claire Lewis, the daughter of John and Brenda Lewis, experienced eye problems and headaches.The following week, a neurosurgeon told the family Claire's problem was a benign tumor at the base of her brain, near the pituitary gland. While there were risks, there was also the strong expectation that the surgery would leave Claire completely cured. In fact, it was a success. But then Claire's caregivers at Hamilton's General Hospital, and in particular those at McMaster University Medical Centre's paediatric intensive care unit, committed a series of errors while she was recovering under their watch, after which Claire died. Administrators and staff at Hamilton Health Sciences did not meet with the Lewises until four months after Claire died. Six months after she died, the hospital took responsibility for Claire's death and wrote the family an apology. Middle managers told the couple the hospital's death review committee had concluded that Claire died from complications associated with the operation.The Canadian government was expected to form a national quality commission on health care in time to receive the safety report, says Dr. John Millar, a committee member and a vice-president at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). Dr. Philip Hébert, a family physician and bioethicist at the Sunnybrook & Women's College Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, says the country's medical colleges and some hospitals are struggling to develop better safety policies. Since Claire died, the administration has taken several steps--medical records must now travel with patients; staff have been re-educated regarding DDAVP use and electrolyte balance; transcribed drug orders must be word perfect; staff have been urged to pay closer attention to family concerns; senior administrators are to be advised as soon as possible of events involving unexpected harm or death.

Presents the results of a national survey of health problems in Canada. Rates of mental illness; Rise in asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis; Epidemic levels of obesity; Incidence of pain and discomfort; Alcohol consumption; Number of Canadians who rated their health as excellent or very good; Increase in life expectancy; Possibility that life expectancies may begin to decline after decades of improving health care; Money that Canadian are willing to spend for their health; Air quality; Life expectancies for rich people.

Focuses on obesity among children and camps for overweight children in Canada. Way that obese children are insulted and hurt by their peers; Percentage of boys and girls in Canada who are overweight; Diseases such as diabetes which can affect obese children; Way that children may lose weight, including watching less television and playing outside more.

Presents the fourth annual 'Maclean's' ranking of healthcare services in Canada, which includes data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information on where Canadians are most likely to survive a stroke. Discussion of how the health regions are divided into three categories for analysis, including communities with medical schools and rural communities; Suggestions for improving health care. INSETS: HEALTH CARE'S VITAL SIGNS;HOW THE RANKING WAS DONE.

Discusses chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Symptoms of CFS, including chemical sensitivities; Frustration of CFS patients; Opinion of many that CFS is entirely psychological; Gender differences; Diagnosis of the syndrome; Possible treatments for the disorder; Profiles of CFS patients.

Discusses Friesens Corp., Triple E Canada Ltd, and C.P. Loewen Enterprises Ltd. in rural Manitoba that were started by Mennonite families. Discussion of the Mennonite faith, which grew out of the Anabaptist reform movement with a focus on charity and the community; Reputation of the faith as generating talented and hard-working people; Details on Friesens publishing company, Triple E gas company, and window constructor Loewen; Ethnic diversity of the companies.

Discusses life expectancy and quality of life for elderly Canadians. Development of a disability-free life expectancy by the Canadian Institute for Health Information and Statistics Canada; Social conditions, such as education, employment, and poverty which contribute to life expectancy; Efforts of people to stay healthy and able-bodied, including homeopathic treatments; Causes of elderly disability, including heart problems following a heart attack.

Focuses on the terrorist attack of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington D.C. Account of engineer Charles Bull, who worked on the 73rd floor of the North Tower; Description of the attack by hijacked airplanes by Patrick Zinzius; Impact of the attacks on the United States; Speculation on how the U.S. will seek retribution; Possible suspects; Details of the investigation; Hope that some survivors will be found in the wreckage in New York.

Discusses Canadarm2, also known as Space Station Remote Manipulator System. Importance of the robotic arm to the International Space Station; Explanation of how the arm works and its mobility; Canadian involvement of the International Space Station.

Discusses cell phone usage in Canada. Prediction that the popularity of cell phones is growing; Technological advances; The use of cell phones is social settings; The hazards of driving while speaking on a cell phone. INSETS: ANSWERING THE CALL;Brains and cells, by Mark Nichols.

Offers information on Hotline Connect, a computer software application by Hotline Communications Ltd., which can upload and download large Internet files, and has the ability to chat in real time simultaneously. How to obtain Hotline Connect; How the application can obtain pirated software and pornography; Creation of the software by Adam Hinkley; Dangers for children. INSET: Pirate Central, by Robert Scott.

Discusses the potential takeover of Canada Trust (CT) by Toronto Dominion Bank (TD). President and chief executive officer of CT Financial Services Inc. Edmund Clark; His views on the importance of customer service; Worry that customer service will decrease after the merger; Need for British American Tobacco PLC and Imasco Ltd. stockholders to approve the offer because they control CT; TD chairman Charlie Baillie; Finance Minister Paul Martin's approval needed. INSET: Wooing the consumer.

Focuses on employment in Canada as of May 31, 1999. Importance of feeling challenged and making an impact on a person's job satisfaction; Reasons for ambivalence and discontent, including stress; Details of a study by Aon Consulting Inc., an international human resources consulting firm, on the attitudes of employees; How employers can improve work conditions and satisfy employees; Comments from Caroline Armstrong and others.

Reports on the bidding scandal surrounding International Olympic Committee (IOC) members over the award of 2002 Winter Olympics to Salt Lake City, Utah. Other investigations taking place into the Salt Lake City bid; Allegations that IOC members were offered bribes in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for the 1992 Summer Games; How Canadian Richard Pound, IOC executive vice-president, promises to end the graft and underhanded deals.

Discusses the crash of Swissair Flight 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia. Investigation of the crash; Details on victims; Efforts of area residents to search for survivors; Background on the Boeing MD-11 aircraft; Search for reasons for the crash which is daunting. INSET: A terrible toll.

Discusses how seven nuclear plants have been shut down in the wake of a stunningly critical study in Canada. Impact of the report, written by a six-member team of United States nuclear experts led by Carl Andognini; Examples of allegations in the report involving seven of Ontario Hydro's 19 CANDU reactors; Resignation of Ontario Hydro Chief Executive Officer Allan Kupcis.

Discusses the reunion in 1997 of singer Joni Mitchell with Kilauren Gibb, the daughter that Mitchell gave up for adoption in 1965. The difficulties that Gibb and her adoptive parents have encountered since the revelation that Mitchell was the girl's mother; Dealing with the media; Gibb's meeting with her biological father, Brad MacMath; The circumstances surrounding Mitchell's giving up the child for adoption; How the mother and daughter found each other.

Discusses circumstances surrounding the ice storm that struck Canada on January 5, 1998. How the cities of Montreal, Ottawa and communities from Kingston, Ontario to Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley resembled battle zones; The power failures at the hospitals, the failure of traffic lights, the closing of the subway system, and the radio and television station's loss of their broadcast signals; One of the greatest ironies of the storm. INSET: Blame it on El Nino, by Mark Nichols.

The article discusses the European debt crisis and the European Union countries' efforts to stop the country of Greece's debt from spreading to several other countries including Portugal and Spain. It is suggested that there are political, economic, and cultural problems across Europe despite the prosperity for the European Union. The unemployment rates and government deficits of the European Union countries are discussed.

The article reports on the pros and cons of the Calorie Restriction (CR) diet. CR suggests a drastic reduction in daily caloric consumption can curb age-related chronic diseases and increase longevity. Scientific studies and evidence both for and against CR are presented. Some researches say the benefits of CR have not been proven in humans. Tests measure biomarkers like temperature and insulin levels. Topics discussed include starvation, metabolic changes, and eating habits.

This article presents information about the increasing popularity of professional paintball competitions. The sport has been on TV for years, though shows have tended to be short-lived and promoters have had to pay for air time, rather than the other way around. But recently, the 24-team World Paintball League beat out competing leagues and pulled off a marketing coup. It signed a 26-week deal to broadcast its tournaments on Chicago-based Superstation WGN.

The article ranks universities in Canada and focuses on the University of Waterloo which retained its number one position on the Comprehensive Ranking list. Waterloo is internationally recognized for the unparalleled success of its more than 100 undergraduate and graduate co-op programs, which place more than 11,000 students in paying jobs with roughly 3,500 employers annually. President David Johnston notes that Waterloo accounts for 22 per cent of all the technology-transfer companies spawned by research at Canadian universities, and in its brief history has created more than 250 companies. One of the most dramatic success stories belongs to Mike Lazaridis, the university's chancellor who once studied engineering at Waterloo, and, most notably, invented the BlackBerry and founded Research in Motion Ltd. Waterloo was good to Lazaridis, and he's shown his gratitude, donating $50 million to his alma mater's Institute for Quantum Computing. Other universities included on the list are Victoria, Guelph, Simon Fraser, and Memorial.

The article discusses perfluorochemicals (PFC) and mentions entrepreneur Tyler Bradley who owns Hillbilly Wax-Works in New Westminster, B.C. Bradley considered using PFC in his business, but was astounded by the extent to which these man-made chemicals pollute the air and water, so he makes his waxes out of hydrogenated vegetable glycerides. Several PFCs, including perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA, a soap-like substance used to make such everyday items as Teflon cookware and the plastic insulation that covers computer wires, are now being looked at closely by government regulators. To deal with the broad health concerns, Health Canada, Environment Canada, the European-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are all investigating PFOA and some of its related compounds. In North America, PFCs come mostly from Delaware-based E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., better known as DuPont. It has the exclusive U.S. manufacturing rights for PFOA. But these chemicals have also become a peculiarly Canadian problem. For one thing, "the Arctic is the most contaminated place in the world that we've observed," says Scott Mabury, professor of environmental chemistry at the University of Toronto. What's more, he adds, "The vast majority of research has all been done at Canadian universities." What this research, and that of others, is showing is that in addition to humans, PFOA is found in the blood of Arctic polar bears, Mediterranean dolphins, and cormorants on Lake Winnipeg. In fact, says a 2003 report by the Environmental Working Group, "as more studies pour in, PFCs seem destined to supplant DDT, PCBs, dioxin and other chemicals as the most notorious, global chemical contaminants ever produced."

This article discusses the efforts of Canadian health minister Ujjal Dosanjh to put an end to the Internet pharmaceutical industry in Canada. Despite recent and mildly conciliatory words about not wanting to put the kibosh on a $1-billion-plus business, Dosanjh has made it abundantly clear in the past month he is prepared to take on Canada's Internet pharmacies. Canadian companies selling prescription medication to U.S. patients they've never seen is unethical, argues Dosanjh, and could lead to drug shortages and cost increases in Canada. He's mulling the creation of a registry to track drugs that are running low. His all-out offensive follows Bush's visit to Canada in early December, when the President raised the issue of Canadian drugs undercutting U.S. retailers with Prime Minister Paul Martin. If the Internet drug trade went under in Canada, up to two million Americans would find themselves without a ready source of affordable medicines. Because of government price controls here, the same drugs from Canadian pharmacies -- many originally shipped north from their U.S. manufacturers -- can cost anywhere from 40 to 80 per cent less than from their U.S. counterparts. Manitoba employs the most Internet pharmacy workers in the country, with other provinces -- primarily British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick -- bringing the total number of workers nationwide to about 4,000. Early this month, the Commons Standing Committee on Health requested the health minister not act until committee members had a chance to study the Internet pharmacies, which, despite their name, do the vast majority of their business by fax, phone and the mail. For workers in the business, the uncertainty is taking its toll.

This article focuses on the revolution in Ukraine and the efforts of young people in support of the uprising. In Kiev's wired world of the Orange Revolution, there's Ukraine's darling--Ruslana, the one-named singing sensation who won the 2004 Euro Idol competition. She's appeared onstage with opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, and dropped in on Tent City, the student squatters' camp in the middle of Khreshchatyk Street in the downtown core. Ruslana was what the Orange Revolution and the momentarily sagging Yushchenko forces needed. Radio Kiev set up a tent outside the mayor's office, in front of Tent City. What success this peaceful revolution has had so far is in measure due to people like Vasyl Boychuk, the 38-year-old "commandant" of a student camp hunkered down in a park next to the Rada.

This is an article that focuses on the baby boomer generation and how they may deal with old age, which could leave them in nursing homes and assisted living facilities.Despite a Richard Simmons-like zeal for physical perfection, baby boomers are going to--horror of horrors--die. But what may be worse for them is that, before they do, crumbling bodies or failing minds will betray a significant number, landing them in institutionalized long-term care. Despite its considerable impact on consumerism, politics, pop culture--just about everything, really--the boom doesn't seem to handle death all that well. Patricia Raymaker, who stepped down as the chairperson of Health Canada's National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA) in August, wonders whether baby boomers will rally to the cause of seeing to their own humane demise.

This article presents observations of a group of Canadian army reservists on a weekend training exercise. There's nothing quite like the deafening rat-tat-tat bursts of machine-gun fire to focus your attention. Kris Karpinski had ordered his men--and three women--to hold their fire until he started the ambush with a burst from his own rifle. Today there are more reservists serving Canada overseas than at any time since the Korean War: 276 in Bosnia, 119 in Afghanistan, and a handful in missions in places like Sierra Leone and Congo. The training exercise began on a Friday evening, with about 30 infantry members assembled at the Moss Park Armoury in downtown Toronto, home to the 48th Highlanders. Raymond Morrell, 28, seated on the floor in the armoury's parade hall, looked up from a ration serving, or individual meal packet in army bafflegab, and tried to explain what he was doing. The practice mission required the platoon to attack an observation post, then move on to the bridge The platoon spotted an enemy truck, but seemed to be intent on creeping off into the woods away from the vehicle. I decided, inexplicably, it would be all right to wander over and fraternize with the enemy. The next thing I knew I was under attack.

Looks at World Youth Day, which was held in Toronto, Ontario in 2002. Pilgrims which arrived in Toronto from a number of countries; Journey of Pope John Paul II to Toronto for the event; Opposition to the church from groups such as Challenge the Church.

Focuses on the rise in methadone-related deaths in Ontario. Concerns of Dr. James Cairns, Ontario's deputy chief coroner, over the growing numbers of youths who are using methadone; How Cairns is investigating deaths involving methadone; Expansion of Ontario's methadone program for drug addicts; Background on methadone and its risks; Accounts of methadone-related deaths.

Examines the telecommunication industry in Canada as of August 2001. Success of iMagicTV Inc., which offers video-on-demand television services; Trend of companies attempting to offer several services over a single network, for a single bill; Outlook for the industry.

Reports on the Canadian video game industry as of June 2001. Projected growth of the video game market which will be caused be the release of the Nintedo GameCube and the Microsoft Xbox; Focus on Silicon Knights, a Canadian video game developer; Outlook for the industry.