Western researcher specializes in probiotics, the next big thing

Wed, March 12, 2008
By MARY-JANE EGAN, SUN MEDIA

For 25 years, a London microbiologist has been trying to convince a dubious world that some bacteria are good for you.

“This is why we’re alive, because we have bugs in the gut that keep us alive,” says Gregor Reid, a professor of microbiology at the University of Western Ontario.

Where are the good things grown in Ontario?

Wed, March 12, 2008
By HANK DANISZEWSKI, SUN MEDIA

The slogan is Good things Grow in Ontario.

But finding those good Ontario-grown products in your supermarket is getting tougher.

The rising value of the Canadian dollar means food manufacturers find it easier to go global when they buy and process products.

Viewpoint - ‘Smasher’ Harper joins the Philistines of history

By Oliver Whitehead

The Harper government’s latest move to deny support to film and television programming that it deems offensive is an assault on the values of civilization.

As such, of course, it is nothing new; the Harper Conservatives have merely taken their modest place in a long but dismal line of authority figures whose fear and suspicion of the power of creativity has stifled the expression of original ideas for centuries.

Is the pursuit of higher education taking a toll?

Wed, March 5, 2008

By RANDY RICHMOND, SUN MEDIA AND NEWS SERVICES

Students attend an engineering class yesterday at the University of Western Ontario. (Morris Lamont, Sun Media)

Your kids may not be smarter than you, but chances are they have more education, or will.

In London, as in the rest of Ontario, more people aged 25 to 34 have university degrees than those over 55.

Coal mining ravages Appalachia mountains

They’re ripping the tops off mountains in West Virginia coal country to feed our insatiable appetite for power. It’s cheaper that way. And the trees and the animals and the flooding? It may not be pretty, but we’ve got all those dishwashers to run

Feb 23, 2008 04:30 AM
Catherine Porter
Environment Reporter

CHARLESTON, WEST VIRGINIA–When you flick on the lights this evening, think of Kayford Mountain. Or what was Kayford Mountain, but now is a sprawling, muddy, trembling construction site 100 metres below Larry Gibson’s home.

Three years ago, Gibson hunted wild boar here, picked gooseberries and peaches, and sat under the shade of white oaks and hickories so thick he couldn’t see the sky.

“Now, you can see the sky below your feet,” Gibson says.

In the land of the Iron Chef

MARK SCHATZKER
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
February 9, 2008 at 12:00 AM EST

The Globe and Mail

TOKYO —

Not a single grain of wheat flour goes into the noodles at the Tokyo soba shrine — I mean restaurant — called Kikouchitei. The noodles are hand-cut from freshly rolled dough containing buckwheat and only buckwheat.

If that doesn’t strike you as unusual, then there’s something you should know about buckwheat dough: It is the world’s most temperamental substance. Without the glutinous binding properties of wheat, the dough becomes so prone to shredding that learning how to make it takes a staggering three years of training — after which one attains the status of “soba master.”

Bars join forces to fight rowdies

Wed, January 16, 2008
New organization represents downtown watering holes
By JOE BELANGER, SUN MEDIA

London’s downtown bar owners have banded together help quell problems with rowdy customers in the core.

And the recently formed London Bar and Entertainment Association is also looking for help from police, London Transit and the city.

“We’re trying to create a safe and vibrant atmosphere for everyone in the core,” said president Mark Serre, manager at GT’s.

Group to protest ‘homophobic’ transplant ruling

It all began when Canadian Blood Services banned gay men from donating blood.
By JOHN MINER, SUN MEDIA
Wed, January 16, 2008

A London gay activist group is ramping up its campaign against Canadian Blood Services and hospital organ transplant programs for restrictions on donations from men who have sex with men.

Salmonella could forfeit student’s year

As the number of salmonella cases linked to a university eatery grows, one father is seeking legal advice over the effect of the illness on his daughter.

“She is no shape to go back. It knocked her for a loop,” said the Toronto father, who asked not to be identified.

Semi-identical twins discovered

Scientists have revealed details of the world’s only known case of “semi-identical” twins.

The journal Nature says the twins are identical on their mother’s side, but share only half their genes on their father’s side.

They are the result of two sperm cells fertilising a single egg, which then divided to form two embryos - and each sperm contributed genes to each child.