three wise monkeys

17-year-old finds bacteria combination that breaks down plastic bags in months
Jul 01, 2008 01:17 PM
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Kristine Owram
THE CANADIAN PRESS

As jurisdictions across Canada take action to ban the use of landfill-clogging plastic bags, which can take up to 1,000 years to decompose, an Ontario high school student has discovered a way to break down the pesky plastic in a matter of months.
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Electricity, public transit and household goods and services to cost more by year’s end
May 29, 2008 04:30 AM
Romina Maurino
THE CANADIAN PRESS

Consumers feeling the impact of high oil prices at the pumps may be in for new headaches this year as soaring energy prices drive up the cost of everything from airline tickets to dry cleaning, couriers and diapers.

High oil prices, which have already boosted the price of gasoline, fertilizers and food, may hit Canadians in new areas, according to economists.

An initial wave of increases could expand to the price of public transportation as well as household goods and services as diverse as home-cleaning services and diapers, said Adrienne Warren, an economist at Scotiabank.

“Through the summer and into the fall, we’ll probably see increasing pressures on a wider range of goods outside of transportation such as air fares and train fares, to consumers goods in your grocery stores and your department stores.”

These “rely on distribution and manufacturing that are energy-intensive and that will put more pressure on the retailers to pass the costs that they’re facing on to the consumers,” Warren said.

While the price of a big-screen TV is unlikely to change because such electronics are often manufactured outside of Canada and benefit from the strong loonie, services such as dry cleaning, carpet cleaning, car rentals and couriers could all increase.

“A large part of their costs comes from transportation, going from home to home, or energy use,” she said.

Yesterday, Dow Chemical Co. became the latest company to announce price increases because of the high cost of energy. The Michigan company, which makes chemical, plastic and agricultural products, said it had seen a fourfold increase in the price of raw materials over the last six years.

Dow’s announcement came a day after Nova Scotia Power said it applied for a rate increase of just under 12 per cent. The province’s electric utility said it needed the extra money to cover soaring fuel prices.

Earlier this month, Air Canada and WestJet imposed domestic fuel surcharges that would add $90 a round-trip for flights of more than 1,601.6 kilometres each way.

Also, Kimberly-Clark Corp. said it would raise prices for its Huggies diapers, Pull-Ups training pants, Cottonelle and Scott bathroom tissue, Viva towels and Kleenex facial tissue by as much as 8 per cent.

But it’s still too early to be stockpiling any goods just yet, TD economist Craig Alexander maintained.

“Up to this point, we really haven’t seen the traditional pass-through that has been characteristic during previous oil price shocks,” he said. “Markets have been very competitive, and so as a result, businesses have not been willing to pass along the end result to the consumer.”

Doug Porter, a senior economist at the Bank of Montreal, said inflation on consumer goods has thus far been “relatively limited.”

“For some of the price increases to stick, you’d need solid underlying economic momentum, which I don’t think is a given in Canada, and certainly not in the U.S. over the next year,” Porter said.

“But we’re at risk, if oil prices continue moving higher, of it becoming a little bit more of a serious inflation risk.”

Source: The Toronto Star

May 27, 2008 04:30 AM
Cara Anna
Associated Press

BEIJING–Parents whose only child was killed or maimed in China’s earthquake would be allowed to have another, officials who administer the country’s one-child policy in part of the disaster zone said yesterday.

Couples whose only child was killed, severely injured or disabled in the quake can get a certificate allowing them to have another child, said the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee, which oversees the policy in the capital of Sichuan province.
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Many experts think low-cut necklines on well-endowed women are plain distracting
May 14, 2008 04:30 AM
Diana Zlomislic
Living Reporter

In his essay, “A Brief History of Cleavage,” the American poet Wayne Koestenbaum raves about a woman’s décolletage as a “sign of sophistication . . . a gift.”
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Many stores in the U.S. are limiting bulk sales of some kinds of the grain as supply fears leap

Apr 24, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle
business reporter

In another sign the global food crisis is hitting North American consumers, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says it is limiting sales of some kinds of rice at many Sam’s Club warehouse-style stores in the United States due to “recent supply and demand trends.”

Sam’s Club customers can buy up to four bags of jasmine, basmati and other white long-grain rices, Wal-Mart said yesterday.
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Canadians can expect to pay more at grocery stores as higher feed costs advance through the food chain

Apr 25, 2008 04:30 AM
Dana Flavelle
business reporter

Canadian consumers can expect to see more price hikes in food amid global shortages of basic grains and soaring fuel costs, more food industry executives are warning.

“These are stunningly challenging and unique times,” Michael McCain, president and chief executive officer of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., said at the company’s annual meeting in Toronto yesterday.
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Health Canada expected to label chemical they contain – bisphenol A – a dangerous substance

Apr 15, 2008 08:15 PM
Brenda Bouw
THE CANADIAN PRESS

VANCOUVER–Three of Canada’s major retailers said today they are pulling plastic water and baby bottles that contain the controversial chemical bisphenol A, in anticipation of Health Canada labelling it a dangerous substance.
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Mar 31, 2008 04:30 AM
Martin Knelman

STRATFORD

A recent cover of The New Yorker magazine depicted Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton sharing a bed, both drowsily reaching for the same fabled red phone at 3 a.m. The image gave one hilarious answer to the question of who would be better equipped to handle the ultimate crisis call. Why couldn’t they share ultimate responsibility at the White House?

Almost as ludicrous, it strikes me, was the notion that several people could share the job of artistic director of the Stratford Festival. But that is what the festival announced, in 2006, with no joke intended.
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Riots over rising grain prices are ripping through the developing world and the United Nations warns there’s worse to come. Was Malthus right? Are we getting too numerous to feed ourselves?

Apr 12, 2008 04:30 AM
Lynda Hurst
Feature Writer

The warning bells are ringing, furiously.

This week, food riots paralyzed Haiti, with angry marchers outside the president’s palace shouting “We are hungry!” Five people were killed in the chaos.

In Egypt, a 15-year-old boy was shot and killed this week in two days of violence over food shortages. Last month, a two-week protest at government-subsidized bakeries ended with the deaths of 10 Egyptians in clashes with police.
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Apr 09, 2008 04:30 AM
Antonia Zerbisias

If you think that some of the Bush administration’s conservative politics – and Orwellian moves – in the U.S. can’t affect Canada, then you have some research to do.

Ten days ago at the University of California in San Francisco, librarian Gloria Won was running through POPLINE (POPulation information onLINE), billed as “the world’s largest database on reproductive health.” Maintained by Baltimore’s Johns Hopkins University, and freely available to medical schools, health organizations and the public, it is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
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