News

Sherry Schiff

As every proud new mom or dad (or older brother or sister) knows, a new baby means lots of diapers – 15 to 18 every day! The television is full of ads promising longer protection for grandma’s antique sofa, a new form fit without "the bunchies", and even colour coded diaper: pink for girls and blue for boys. Recently, concern has been expressed over the diaper issue and as with any issue close to the heart, especially one involving children, the arguments have become fairly heated. Why all the concern about diapers?

Chris Fordham

Do you ever wonder where the salt you sprinkle on your dinner or the salt they spread on the roads in the winter comes from? How about the origin of the agricultural fertilizer potash? They both some from geological deposits which are derived from the evaporation of large volumes of seawater; table salt is a mineral known as halite (NaCI) and potash is another type of salt known as sylvite (KCI).

Perhaps you felt it, perhaps you didn’t. The seismic waves from the November 25^th, 1988, earthquake passed beneath the feet of everyone reading this article, but your reaction would have depended on a number of factors, chief amongst them being your distance from Chicoutimi or Jonquiere, Quebec. That being equal, your reaction would have depended on the nature of the ground beneath you, and your "coupling" to that ground– That is, it would have varied if you were walking, riding in a car, living in a single or multistory building, in bed, in the bath, and so on.

P.F. Karrow

Rick Borchelt, NRC News Report, 38(2), 8; 1988

Introduction

Manitoulin Island is reported to be the world’s largest freshwater island, being approximately 180 km long and 80 km wide. The Ojibway believe that Manitoulin Island was the home of Gitchi Manitou or the Great Spirit who inhabited its misty coves and tree-covered bluffs. Seventeenth century visitors included Champlain, Joliet, Marquette and LaSalle and the island soon formed part of the voyageur trade route to the west. The great Spirit would scarcely recognize his home today.

David Keys, The Independent, 16 August 1988

Most of north Britain appears to have been rendered uninhabitable more than 3000 years ago by a catastrophe resembling the "nuclear winter" that some scientists believe would follow a nuclear war.