Bestsellers

By Brian Bethune - Thursday, March 17, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Top-selling fiction and non-fiction titles (week of March 14th, 2011)
Fiction

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LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST)

Cannon in Cairo

By Paul Wells - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 7:42 PM - 25 Comments

The foreign minister visited Egypt today and came bearing modest and probably useful gifts. I have hoped such a visit would happen, so good on Lawrence Cannon for going to the place where, arguably, a disproportionate share of Northern Africa’s hopes and dangers reside.

Cannon says he saw “a genuine and authentic push toward real democracy.” As his boss has sometimes noted, that can be messy. This Saturday Egyptians will vote on interim constittuional amendments on the way to legislative and Presidential elections and, it is hoped but not yet certain, the establishment of some kind of constituent assembly to write a new constitution. The amendments face a rough ride. I see no evidence that Cannon expressed a preferred outcome for Saturday’s vote. That’s the way it should be too. We can provide resources that help Egyptians make decisions, but they must be Egyptian decisions.

Today’s action by the minister wasn’t much, but in the middle of a crazy busy week, when Cannon could have concentrated on Libya to the exclusion of everything else — or cut ribbons in the Outaouais — he put Canada’s foot in the door as a modest ally for real change in Egypt.

New power line could help prevent meltdown

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 5:15 PM - 4 Comments

Electricity could be restored soon at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, now that the construction of a new power line is almost complete. Restoring power at the plant would reduce the threat of a meltdown by restoring electricity to the reactor cooling systems. But even with electricity restored, the potential for a meltdown is still very real. High radiation levels have kept workers from preventing rising temperatures, said U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief Gregory Jaczko, and water from the fourth reactor had almost completely evaporated, leaving the exposed fuel rods to get hotter. TEPCO spokesman Hajime Motojuku, however, said conditions at the fourth reactor were stable. The 50 to 70 technicians and workers who are working around the clock to prevent the meltdown have become folk heroes to the Japanese people as they watch the nuclear crisis unfold, the CBC reports.

CBC News

Japan's nuclear crisis explained

By Jason Kirby - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 4:07 PM - 13 Comments

1. Have Japan’s Fukushima reactors melted down?

In short, no, though it is believed several reactors have suffered partial meltdowns. There’s a vast difference between those two scenarios.

A partial meltdown occurs when the fuel rods that contain the uranium are damaged or partially break down. When nuclear fission occurs, it produces extreme energy and heat. For that reason the rods are kept submerged in water. When everything is working correctly, the rods heat the water, which produces steam that then powers turbines to create electricity. But in three of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, water levels have fallen, exposing the fuel rods. If the heat rises to around 1,200 degrees Celsius, the material the rods are made of—zirconium—begins to break down, and some radiation is released. At several points during Japan’s nuclear crisis the rods have been fully exposed, despite the efforts by operators to pump in cold seawater. Given the high radiation levels around the reactors, it’s believed a partial meltdown has most certainly occurred, though it’s not known how badly damaged the rods are at this point. (Also note, as the zirconium degrades it releases hydrogen. It was the hydrogen that ignited and caused at least three explosions at the plant—and not, importantly, a full blown nuclear explosion.)

A full meltdown is far, far worse. For that to happen the rods would have to be exposed for several hours. The zirconium would then melt away and the uranium fuel pellets inside the rods would fall to the floor of the reactor. As the temperature rose higher, they’d then form a molten mass that could melt through the heavy steel and concrete containers surrounding the reactor. Once loose, they would unleash massive amounts of radiation into the environment.

2. What are spent fuel pools, and why is everyone suddenly worried about them?

The spent fuel pools are where fuel rods are stored after they’re removed from the reactors. As with the fuel rods in the reactor, the spent fuel needs to stay submerged in cold water or it will heat up. What’s happened is that, with nearby fires and the heat given off by the spent fuel rods, the water temperature has been rising. If the water boils off, and the rods are exposed, they could meltdown. Unlike the fuel rods in the reactors though, the spent fuel rods don’t have steel and concrete enclosures. If the heat damages the rod casings, they could catch fire and spew radiation into the atmosphere. Experts are warning that the spent fuel pools may pose the biggest radiation threat at Fukushima.

3. What are the Japanese doing to deal with the crisis?

Plant operators have tried several things to cool down the reactors. The first step was to pump fresh water into the reactors, since the cooling system was no longer functioning. Unfortunately there were valve malfunctions, so workers have since been pumping seawater and boric acid into the reactors. The boric acid helps slow nuclear fission.

Unfortunately high radiation levels have made it dangerous for workers to fight several fires that have broken out at the plant. The Japanese government considered using helicopters to fly above the fires to disperse water and boric acid over the plant, but that mission was aborted due to safety concerns. Ground crews now plan to use water canons to spray water onto the fires and reactors.

4. How long could this go on?

Days or even weeks. The good news is the reactors have been shut down. Immediately after the earthquake hit, control rods were automatically inserted into the reactor, which had the effect of disabling the fission process. But unlike a light bulb that gets switched off right away, the reactor core remains extremely hot. At the same time byproducts of the fission process continue to decay, giving off heat. If the normal cooling process had continued to function, within 24 hours the temperature of the core would have cooled dramatically and been well on the way to achieving the necessary “cold shutdown.” But the earthquake knocked out power to the cooling system, while the tsunami right afterwards destroyed the backup diesel generators. Now some experts believe it could take weeks for operators to fully gain control of the reactors.

5. Weren’t the reactors built to withstand major earthquakes? How did this happen?

Japan’s nuclear plants are built to withstand earthquakes of 7.5 magnitude, but the quake that hit last Friday ultimately measured 9.0. Given the quake was far stronger than what the plant was built for, it’s remarkable it held up as well as it did. But the designers had not accounted for a tsunami measuring nine meters high to hit the plant after a quake. As well prepared as Japan was for either a massive quake or massive tsunami, the nuclear plants were not designed to withstand both.

6. How bad is the radiation?

At this point the real danger is limited to the immediate vicinity of the reactors. Radiation levels at the plant hit between 600 and 1000 millisieverts (mSv) at different times before falling. Millisieverts measure the rate at which radiation is absorbed by the body. Anything over 100 mSv in a year can lead to elevated cancer risks, and being hit with 5,000 mSv over just a few hours is fatal.

But again, those readings relate to the area right by the reactors. The further away you are, the exposure levels begin to drop fast. The people most at risk at this point are the 50 workers who have stayed behind to try get the reactors back under control. Meanwhile in Tokyo radiation levels at their highest never reached above 1 microsievert per hour (1 mSv is 1,000 microsieverts), far less exposure than a person receives with a full body CT Scan or x-ray.

7. Are people in North America, particularly along the west coast, at risk?

No. Even if there were a massive burst of radiation from the plant, health experts say it would take roughly a week to cross the Pacific Ocean and by then the radioactive particles would be dispersed in the atmosphere. Despite that, pharmacies in B.C. have been cleaned out of potassium iodide tablets as people have begun stockpiling them. (Iodide pills blocks the body from absorbing radioactive iodine.) As such, Dr. Perry Kendall, B.C. provincial health officer, has recommended that “pharmacies do not dispense or stockpile potassium iodide tablets.”

International pedophile ring busted by international police

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 3:52 PM - 9 Comments

Two Canadian men face pedophilia-related charges after a police probe of a global pedophile ring based in the Netherlands resulted in the arrest of 184 suspects from 13 countries. Philip Publuske, 40, of Waterloo, ON, and John William Lapage, 68, of Abernethy, Sask., were each charged with possessing and distributing child pornography using an online forum based in Amsterdam. The forum had up to 70,000 members, and 670 suspects have been identified around the world. The investigation, codenamed Operation Rescue, has resulted in the rescue of 230 children in more than 30 countries. Rob Wainwright, the director of Europol, said this online network was “probably the largest online pedophile network in the world.”

CBC News

Coyne v. Wells on the unlikely possibility of an election

By Claire Ward - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 3:12 PM - 23 Comments

Shot and edited by Kerrin McNamara
Produced by Claire Ward

Download | Feed | iTunes

Abuse, deceit, contempt

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 2:13 PM - 114 Comments

The Liberals have released two new ads.

The second spot, featuring Michael Ignatieff with an open collar, after the jump. Continue…

Conservatives recruit top bureaucrats to aid in contempt hearings

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 2:12 PM - 36 Comments

The Harper government has enlisted 10 bureaucrats to aid Conservative ministers testifying at the House affairs committee, which will rule on whether it is in contempt of Parliament. The House affairs committee will deliberate over whether the Tories violated parliamentary rules by refusing to disclose the costs of their law-and-order legislation, and by allowing Bev Oda to mislead parliament over funding cuts to Kairos, an international aid group. The committee hearing is a result of Speaker Peter Milliken’s ruling last week that found the government had misled the House “on its face.” Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and Justice Minister Rob Nicholson will testify at the committee, but the Conservatives have also drafted top bureaucrats from the Canadian Border Services Agency, CSIS, Correctional Service of Canada, the departments of Justice and Public Safety, the National Parole Board, public prosecutions and the RCMP. Critics say the presence of the bureaucrats is an attempt to frustrate the work of the committee, which is expected to rule that the Tories are in contempt. Liberal MP Scott Brison called the move a photo-op. “Effectively the civil servants are being brought as wallpaper or a backdrop for Harper’s refusal to come clean with Parliament.” If the Tories are found in contempt of parliament, the Liberals may make a motion of non-confidence as early as March 25, which could result in an election being called.

Globe and Mail

Apathy/consent

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 12:21 PM - 21 Comments

Jonathan Malloy considers our current situation.

In the same way, we can accept the way things have evolved in Parliament; or we could attempt the arduous and perhaps futile task of somehow trying to stop the trend and turn it around. (Indeed, some experts are trying the latter by pushing for more written rules and clearer guidelines for constitutional conventions.) Our parliamentary system, like all democracies, ultimately relies on public consent. The public has looked at these issues and more or less yawned. The government may call this consent, but it is closer to disengagement, especially when we remember that fewer and fewer Canadians even bother to vote.

The bending of unwritten conventions and understandings may seem solely an academic matter with limited implications for an election. But Canadians need to take some time to reflect and inform themselves on this rule-bending, and only then can they express whether this is truly the way they want the system to work.

What happens in a nuclear meltdown

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 12:06 PM - 6 Comments

The New York Times has produced an interactive feature that demonstrates how a nuclear reactor works and what happens when it shuts down. In addition, the 3D-animated feature explains how Fukishima’s Daiichi plant’s reactors have been malfunctioning since the earthquake and tsunami damaged them.

New York Times

Japan's Internet proves quake-proof

By Jesse Brown - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 12:00 PM - 13 Comments

As silver-linings go, it may not be much; but it is remarkable to learn that Japan’s Internet barely skipped a beat after last week’s devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami and aftershocks.

Physical damage did occur to network infrastructure, but within hours the self-correcting architecture of Japan’s Internet routed around it and information flowed freely. Keep in mind that this damage coincided with a massive surge in Internet use, as users around the world suddenly began demanding live video and other data from Japan.

The catastrophe provides a valuable real-world example of how important it is for nations to invest in strong, well-planned digital networks with multiple redundancies. Japan’s Internet has long been the envy of the world.

But so what?  Given the human cost, the ongoing suffering, and the very real threat of nuclear disaster, who cares about a resilient Internet? Well, consider this:

• After the quake, as roads closed and mobile phone networks jammed up, the Internet kept the nation connected. It’s how relatives checked in on each other, and it’s helping now with relief efforts.

• It’s also helping to assess the damage in innovative ways, like this crowd-sourced radiation tracking project.  It will take some time for authorities to know just how real the threat of radiation poisoning is in every area of Japan, so until then, citizens are taking the matter into their own hands. Folks with Geiger counters are uploading to this Google Map.

Japan's Emperor Akihito addresses nation in crisis

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 11:06 AM - 1 Comment

In a rare TV appearance marking his first public comments since the devastating earthquake and tsunami struck Japan on Friday, Emperor Akihito expressed both worry and hope about the crisis facing his country. Saying he was “deeply worried,” Emperor Akihito urged an all-out rescue effort in the midst of a crisis that is “unprecedented in scale.” He spoke after nuclear technicians temporarily abandoned Fukushima’s Daiichi plant on Wednesday, where radiation levels spiked at 1,000 millisieverts, enough to cause temporary radiation sickness. The skeleton crew of about 50 workers were evacuated after ground radiation levels rose and helicopters dumped water on the facility. Yuhei Sato, the governor of Fukushima prefecture, criticized the handling of the nuclear crisis, telling Japan’s NHK TV that the “anxiety and anger being felt by people in Fukushima have reached a boiling point.” 140,000 people living within the 30-km exclusion zone around the nuclear plant have been told not to leave their homes.

BBC

Popular opinion: don’t vote down budget

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 10:59 AM - 49 Comments

It’s no surprise, but worth considering anyway, that a poll from Ipsos Reid finds that just 27 per cent of Canadians believe the opposition parties should vote down next week’s federal budget. Fully 40 per cent say, without knowing what will be in the budget, that it deserves to be passed. A prudent 17 per cent believe the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois should wait to read what’s in the budget before deciding. (That leaves 16 per cent with no opinion at all.) Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is slated to table his 2011 fiscal plan next Tuesday, amid fevered speculation the three opposition parties will all vote against it, felling the minority Harper government, and forcing a spring election. But just one opposition party needs to switch to the government’s side to put off the campaign to another day. While what triggers an election often seems critical at that outset, though, it’s not normally the issue that dominates the campaign debate. If not over the budget, the opposition parties could decide to force Canadians to the polls on a vote over the welter of ethics and accountability controversies now plaguing Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Vancouver Sun

This is no time for democracy

By Aaron Wherry - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:57 AM - 158 Comments

The Prime Minister explains why there cannot be another election until the world is completely free of instability.

When asked whether he was worried the earthquake will hurt this country’s economy, Harper said his first concern was ensuring the Canadian government was ready to provide any help Japan might request. He then added the fallout from the earthquake means now is no time for an election.

“All of these things should remind everybody in Canada and should remind all the parties in Parliament that the global economy remains extremely fragile,” Harper told reporters following an anti-crime announcement. ”I don’t want to predict how it’s going to unfold, I think the Japanese will find their way of coping, but the fact of the matter is this should be a wake-up that we can’t afford to take our focus off the economy and get into a bunch of unnecessary political games or an opportunistic and unnecessary election that nobody is asking for.”

The Canada bubble

By Jason Kirby with Erica Alini - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:05 AM - 48 Comments

Todd Korol/Reuters

Bob Haber and David Madani are foreigners who have spent a lot of time studying Canada. Haber, an American, was chief investment officer at fund giant Fidelity Canada for 12 years and tracked Canadian stocks from his base in Boston. Meanwhile, Madani, a New Zealander, spent a decade with the Bank of Canada as a forecaster and policy analyst. Both are outsiders with an acute understanding of the inner workings of the Canadian economy. That is where the similarity ends.

Last December, Haber’s new book, Go Canada: The Coming Boom in the Toronto Stock Market and How to Profit From It, hit bookstores. Haber, who now runs his own investment firm in Boston and manages a series of Go Canada funds for Toronto-based Canoe Financial, has emerged as one of the most enthusiastic proponents of Canadian investments at a time when the world can’t seem to get enough of us. With Canada’s strong economy and wealth of resources, Haber predicts the S&P/TSX Composite Index could double to 30,000 points within 10 years. “Global growth and all the free money out there are coming together and investors are realizing the best place in the G7 for them to put their money is Canada,” he says. “Things are in gear for Canada to really outperform.”

Madani’s outlook couldn’t be more different, though it tends to get drowned out amid the Canuck euphoria. Last fall, he joined Capital Economics, a prominent U.K. investment research firm, to cover the Canadian market from Toronto. He says the boom in commodities is due for a reversal. More importantly, Canada’s red-hot housing market has soared into the danger zone. By his estimates, house prices are set to plunge at least 25 per cent, and will drag the economy down with them. “Housing has gotten crazy, it’s a bubble,” he says. “These things always have an unhappy ending, and Canada is not going to be any different.”

Continue…

How to get groceries for (almost) free

By Julia Mckinnell - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 37 Comments

Getty Images; Istock; Photo Illustration By Bradley Reinhardt

Yes, it is possible to cut your grocery bill to pennies, according to a stay-at-home mom from Boston. In Kathy Spencer’s step-by-step guide, How to Shop for Free: Shopping Secrets for Smart Women Who Love to Get Something For Nothing, she outlines how to whittle a $384 grocery bill down to $5, using a combination of manufacturers’ coupons and in-store promotions.

“I strongly suggest getting over any lingering coupon phobias,” Spencer advises bargain hunters. “I want you to think of those little squares of paper with the bar codes on them as cash. Personally, I can’t look at them any other way because using them has saved me, on average, over $60,000 a year.”

On the downside, shopping for free takes time. “I set aside several hours a week to collect online coupons, scan circulars and hit the stores. To me, this is time well spent considering, on average, I spend $20 a month on groceries. That’s right – twenty bucks. I bet that’s less than you paid for your last manicure.”

The weekend edition of your local newspaper is a good place to start looking for coupons. “They’re in that bundle of glossy inserts jammed in the middle of the paper. That’s your cash allowance for the week, so don’t throw it away.” In addition, Spencer tells readers to start visiting gas stations and convenience stores late on Sunday night or early Monday morning. “Most stores will let you remove the coupon insert from any unsold Sunday newspapers before they’re picked up on Monday morning and returned to the distributor.” Coupons can also be printed from websites such as Coupons.com.

Once you’re grocery shopping, look for “peelies”—coupons attached to items. “Don’t be fooled,” she writes. “You don’t need to buy the product to get the peelie.” Also, “look for tear pads, pads of manufacturer coupons within the stores.”

One time, Spencer used PetSmart coupons to score 40 bags of dog food for nothing. “Shoppers, that’s a $500 value. Since getting Harry, our yellow Labrador retriever, nearly four years ago, I’ve only bought dog food once—and he eats the good stuff.”

The key to these kinds of savings is to use store coupons along with manufacturers’ coupons. “Combining coupons, or stacking, can be an exhilarating high, and once you get the hang of it, you’re likely to feel like you’re on a winning streak at the blackjack table.”

Although many people believe coupons are mainly for processed junk food, Spencer says this is a myth. “I can’t tell you how often I’ve been greeted in public with something like, ‘You’re Kathy? I thought you’d be heavier and more grandmotherly.’ Translation: fat and nearly dead,” she writes. “News flash: not all deals apply to junk food or crap. I regularly have rows and rows of Healthy Choice soup cans lining my shelves and countless organic food items in my refrigerator.”
To get coupons for organic products, it’s best to go directly to your favourite brand or product website, she writes. Also, Whole Foods puts out a monthly newsletter with “high-value printable coupons.”

For beginner savers, start slow, she advises.  Head to the store with a notepad and pen, “scan the aisle for things priced under one or two bucks and write down these things.” Next, “go home and try to find coupons for these items from your coupon stash that will make those items free.”

Once you’ve mastered saving 20 per cent off your total grocery bill, Spencer writes, “aim lower. If you saved 20 per cent in January, challenge yourself to save 30 per cent in February. My personal grocery goal is [to spend] four bucks a week, $16 a month.”

Spencer, who has four kids, explains, “We live in a 2,800-sq.-foot colonial-style home on nearly three acres of land. We drive vehicles we paid for in cash. Our oldest is in college, and we have no credit-card debt. My husband works for the city making $45,000 a year. And yet to take a walk through our house, and sit down at our dinner table, you’d never know that, on paper, we’re considered low income. We live a life of abundance because I’ve discovered the secret to shopping for free.”

Would Picasso have sold online?

By Joanne Latimer - Wednesday, March 16, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 2 Comments

Getty Images; Robert Cadloff; Nicholas Di Genova; Alex Mcleod; Indigo; Photo illustration by Taylor Shute

Vancouver artist Indigo quit her secretarial job last year, and has been able to support herself thanks in part to income generated on Cargoh.com, a Canadian-based website for buying and selling art. Robyn McCallum’s work was spotted on Eyebuyart.com, prompting her inclusion in an exhibition at Toronto’s Drake Hotel. And Montreal photographer Robert Cadloff makes more than 200 sales a month on Etsy.com, earning “just a little less” than he did in engineering. “Ten years ago, this kind of career change and all the sales wouldn’t have been possible,” says Cadloff. “You needed to schlep your portfolio around to galleries and beg people to exhibit your work. I wasn’t born with that pushy gene.”

Luckily for Cadloff, and a growing number of artists—both emerging and well-known photographers and painters looking to further raise their profile and tap a new market of less-affluent collectors—selling art online is gaining momentum. New Yorker Jen Bekman is credited with starting the trend in 2007 when she launched 20×200.com—her site features limited-edition prints and photographs starting at $20. Others have instituted a similar curatorial policy. Claire Sykes, co-founder of Toronto-based Circuitgallery.com, says she “keeps the quality high” by featuring prints of established Canadian contemporary artists, including Robert Bean and Andrew Wright. “Earlier sites were more like clearing houses,” she says, “and artists were worried, quite rightly, about damaging their reputations by being associated with uncurated spaces and cheaply produced prints.”

Continue…

The Online TV Future Is Now! Or Next Year

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 6:41 PM - 7 Comments

This has to be considered worth a link: Netflix is outbidding HBO and AMC for David Fincher and Kevin Spacey’s remake of the British series House of Cards, which has already been picked up for more episodes than all the BBC series based on that character (a Richard III-esque Tory minister) combined. This is Netflix’s move into original programming, which we all had to know was coming — to the U.S., anyway; who knows about Canada — but which obviously is big news now that it’s actually been announced. Already the Deadline comments section is filled with dreams of a future without executive interference, where the magic of the internet will bring uncompromised, sure-to-be-taken-seriously programming directly to the consumers.

I don’t want to sound flippant about this. I think we have to assume that, somehow or other, streaming will eventually displace much of the regular TV model. TV isn’t like radio, which you can leave on while you’re driving without crashing the car, and it’s not an outing like going to the movies. Much of the TV experience can be replaced by the same thing in a more convenient (i.e. on-demand) form, and if something can be replaced it probably will be. It’ll take a long time, but it’ll happen. Other preliminary thoughts:

1) For now, Netflix is explicitly basing its original programming on the HBO model: make your money off movie reruns and put some of that money into very prestigious original content that is all but guaranteed to get good reviews. It’s not taking on broadcast TV exactly, not yet, and for now it almost seems like this could be another step in cable networks fighting over a shrinking pie — HBO has the most to fear from Netflix and its “premium content.” Broadcast will take it on the chin too, but not as immediately, and will still have that weird advantage of being the closest thing to a mass-audience world while cable and online fight over the niche markets.

2) I have no idea what the future of TV will be like, but the two basic laws of entertainment — raising money entails compromise; 90% of everything is crap — suggest that a change in model will not lead to a huge overall improvement in quality. However, when a content provider gets in the game for the first time, there’s sometimes a seeming violation of Sturgeon’s law, as some of the best people in the business flock to that provider with ideas that couldn’t get made before. Being almost a pre-packaged property, House of Cards is not that good an indicator of what kind of producer Netflix will be; the interesting thing will be to see whether they attract any Sopranoses or Mad Mens, the kind of projects that got made soon after HBO and AMC got interested in the original drama business.

3) Ian Richardson was awesome in the original BBC trilogy of House of Cards miniseries. I wonder if the U.S. remake will keep the device of talking to the viewers.

Live updates from Japan

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 6:22 PM - 0 Comments

Wireless customers can text ASIA to 30333 to donate $5 to earthquake relief efforts. 100% of all donations will go to the Canadian Red Cross Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami fund.

Radiation levels drop at Fukushima nuclear plant

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 5:27 PM - 2 Comments

A magnitude-6.1 earthquake shook an already beleaguered Japan on Tuesday, just as radiation levels at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant fell from their harmful levels following a series of explosions and a fire. There were no immediate casualties reported after the quake. The epicenter of the latest quake was located in Shizuoka prefecture, approximately 180km southwest of Tokyo, and shook many of the capital’s high-rise buildings. Shizuoka’s Chubu Electric Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant reported no immediate problems and is operating normally.

At the Daiichi plant in Fukushima, ocean winds are blowing radiation away from the plant and over the Pacific. But the situation remains tense after several explosions released radioactive material into the area. Following the explosions, radiation doses of 400 millisierverts per hour were recorded (1,000 millisierverts causes temporary radiation sickness). Later, the reading dropped to 0.6 millisierverts per hour. The International Atomic Energy Agency has criticized the Japanese government and Tokyo Electric Power Co for a lack of transparency and communication as technicians struggle to prevent a meltdown. “The communication needs to be strengthened,” said the IAEA’s Yukiya Amano. “I have asked the Japanese counterparts to further strengthen and facilitate their communication.”

BBC News

CBC News

Bahrain declares state of emergency

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 4:30 PM - 5 Comments

Bahrain has declared a state of emergency after at least two people were killed during anti-government protests in the Shia suburb of Sitra outside the capital, Manama. The order by Bahrain’s king will be effect for three months and authorizes “the commander of Bahrain’s defence forces to take all necessary measures to protect the safety of the country and its citizens.” The announcement comes a day after hundreds of Saudi troops were sent to help Bahraini authorities protect government facilities amid escalating protests against the country’s monarchy.

Al Jazeera English

Bodychecking leads to more injuries among hockey-playing kids: report

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 4:15 PM - 10 Comments

Canadian researchers have found that when hockey players as young as nine years old were allowed to body check, more injuries occurred than when body checking was only allowed in older divisions. During the 1998-1999 season, Hockey Canada permitted body checking in the Atom Division (the rule has since been reversed). The result, according to a study published in Open Medicine, was an increase in the risk of a body checking injury, with the most common being to the shoulder, arm, head and neck. Lead investigator Dr. Michael Cusimano says: “In Canada, hockey is a sport with great potential to increase the health of individuals; however, it is clear that the risks of body checking far outweigh any potential benefits.”

Open Medicine

Have the events in Japan changed your view of nuclear energy?

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 4:13 PM - 55 Comments

On the importance of words

By Aaron Wherry - Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at 3:53 PM - 120 Comments

I am out of Ottawa for a few days and mostly without proper Internet access so I missed the Contretemps Trudeau and don’t now have time now to sufficiently sort through the ensuing panic and scorn. Here though is Justin Trudeau’s Twitter feed. Make of it what you will.

In other news, the latest edition of the citizenship guide includes a full sentence on gay rights.