Lights out, and no corn for you!

TORONTO - Millions of people across Canada and around the globe are expected to turn out their lights Saturday evening to raise awareness about pollution and global warming in an initiative known as Earth Hour.

It will be hard to get by without electricity for an hour, but I intend to tough it out by the warmth of a pile of burning tires.


DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The price of corn could either stabilize or continue to soar depending on how much corn American farmers choose to plant this season.

Yeah, you all laughed when I started hording Doritos, but who’s laughing now?

No one wants to say it, but the next time you go for a corn cob pipe, it might not be there.

Plagues, Canadian Institutions, and fat lazy gorillas

OTTAWA - Industry Minister Jim Prentice says he won't approve the sale of iconic Canadian space technology, the 'Canadarm', to a major American arms-maker unless it has a "net benefit" to Canada.

The financial gain would have to be considerable, he argued, to compensate for the trouble of having to re-write all of the Canadian edition Trivial Pursuit questions that include it in some way, let alone the social studies textbooks.


CHICAGO - In the face of mounting research on wild animals' food needs, today's zoo staffers are trying new feeding tricks to keep their lions and tigers healthy and happy, with fewer sugary snacks.

In a more advanced tactic, zoos in LA are training keepers to ridicule the animals until they develop anorexia.


RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Snakes — including one 10-foot anaconda — are increasingly invading the eastern Amazon’s largest city, driven from the rain forest by destruction of their natural habitat, the government’s environmental protection agency said Tuesday.
Government spokespeople downplayed the issue, noting that "It's not an actual plague until there are frogs and/or locusts."

Cocaine, and powerful sex messages

Coca plantations and a cocaine laboratory have been found for the first time in a Brazilian part of the Amazon rainforest, provoking worry that if there was not an immediate crackdown, it might even become a new source of deforestation.

So do your part: make sure your dealer is pushing fair trade, sustainably produced cocaine, or take your business elsewhere.



A University of Calgary scientist will receive more than $1 million over the next seven years in his bid to determine whether chemical messages transmitting sexual attraction can be harnessed to repair brain-cell damage and give back the disabled use of their limbs.

Here’s hoping it can, because otherwise it’s just cruel to get a bunch of people who can’t move, really turned on.