Dallas Road cliffs. Photo © Stewart Butterfield, via flickr and Creative Commons

We live in a part of the world many other people envy us for. We have ocean, mountains, beach, forests, a pretty darn awesome year-round climate for a place just south of the 49th parallel, and a number of big-town services and restaurants for what is, in many ways, a small town.

And on one of those perfect summer or fall or spring or even winter days, you just have to stop and say to yourself, “Seriously, why do I live in such a hell-hole? Let’s just stop the clock, and the moon and the stars and sun, and hold this moment. Forever.” More »

Ferry pulling out of Tsawwassen. Photo © Richard Eriksson, via flickr and Creative Commons; justagwailo.com

The Queen of Oak Bay ferry joins a long, illustrious list of vessels used for marine research off our coast. The B.C. Ferries vessel was recently outfitted with scientific instruments to sample ocean-surface and atmospheric conditions as it travels its Horseshoe Bay, West Vancouver–Departure Bay, Nanaimo run.

The scientific equipment was added during a $7.7-million upgrade that began last November, and was provided by Ocean Networks Canada, a University of Victoria-based marine observatories network. More »

Zombies. Photo © Gianluca Ramalho Misiti, via flickr and Creative Commons; www.facebook.com.grmisiti

Nature Boy lurches into the kitchen. Flu-ridden, his eyes are puffy and bloodshot, snot bubbles at his nostrils, and he breathes noisily through his mouth.

“Can I get you something?” I ask.

He reaches towards me, croaking something.

“I’m sorry, did you just say ‘brains’?”

_______________

Infectious disease plays a starring role in popular culture. More »

Vancouver sunrise. Photo © Tucker Sherman, via flickr and Creative Commons

The hottest, driest summer on record for British Columbia ends this week, three weeks after the first substantial rains in months cleared the air. We will, however, be paying for this past summer for years to come.

Wildfires cost the province more than $260 million so far this year, well over the $63 million allotted. Even though B.C. posted a budget surplus this spring, belts across government will tighten to cover the unplanned-for extra expense. We’ll pay for that when we access programs and services. More »

Walking to school. Photo © Elizabeth, via flickr and Creative Commons; Table4five.net

Most of the kids walking down my street to the nearby high school this past week travelled in groups of two, three or four, with occasional outliers making their way solo. Of the elementary-school kids passing by, most walked with adults or were delivered to the school door in the family minivan.

Recently, in the U.S., young kids playing or walking outdoors without attending adults have prompted calls to police and child services.

The incidents have sparked discussion around the world about parenting styles. Is granting kids a measure of trust and responsibility a form of neglect? Does coddling kids lead to maladjusted adults? More »

Photo © r. nial bradshaw, via flickr and Creative Commons; rnialbradshaw@yahoo.com

Today, the email from a commemorative-days website announces, is Read a Book Day.

Our protagonist lights mental fireworks. “Hooray! A day devoted to conspicuous reading pleasure.”

Then she notices the email’s next line. Today is also Fight Procrastination Day.

Her heart clenches. Our protagonist’s preferred avoidance of unpleasant tasks includes burying herself in a good book.

Her frontal lobe tries to reconcile the mixed messaging and replan her day. Should she read? Or should she stop procrastinating and write a newspaper column?

She sighs. Perhaps today was designed for those who usually seek to avoid reading books.

Tomorrow, the email continues, is Buy a Book Day. More »

Back-to-school shopping Photo © USAG - Humphreys

Next week, routine and structure will descend upon households with members who attend school.

Some parents may agree with a certain office-supply mega-retailer that this is the most wonderful time of the year. Applying the Christmas tune to the back-to-school season is appropriate. The National Retail Federation ranks Back to School next to Christmas for foot traffic and sales. A federation survey indicates U.S. families plan to spend $68 billion ($Cdn 89 billion) on binders, paper, clothing, school-related electronics, and college-dorm furnishings this year, compared to $600 billion ($Cdn 786 billion) spent last November–December.

Crudely recalculated for Canada’s population and declining dollar value, that’s $9.8-billion injected into Canada’s retail economy. More »

Sea-floor sediment core, on deck. Photo © NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory

My grandmother died 23 years ago this week, just shy of her 100th birthday. During her life, she pioneered a homestead with her father and brothers, farmed large tracts of land with her husband, built two family homes, raised 12 kids, and fed her umpteen grandchildren countless farm-fresh meals of traditional French cuisine.

The broad brushstrokes of her life that I know are supplemented by a few stories and a handful of photographs.

When I visited her in her final weeks, I marveled at the map of her life that was her face. If only there was a way to read a person’s history in crow’s feet, wrinkles, wattles and jowls.

One can do that, to a limited extent, by scanning their bones and chemically analyzing their hair, but both of these records of a person’s diet, activity, health and environment extend only a short time into the past. Hair grows at a rate of about one centimetre each month, and is cut regularly. Few people tolerate the hassle of Rapunzel-like dos these days. Bone, too, regenerates constantly, with new cells replacing old. Researchers estimate the bone in humans is gradually replaced every seven or so years. More »