September 22, 2003
It should come as no surprise that Harry Potter is the biggest publishing phenomenon of our time and is distributed in more than 200 countries around the world. At this rate, Harry will soon outsell the Bible.
The Canadian edition, published by Raincoast Books, is the only version of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix to be printed on ancient forest friendly paper (100 percent post consumer recycled, processed chlorine free paper) internationally.
"By printing Harry Potter on Ancient Forest Friendly paper, Raincoast Books is turning the page on ancient forest destruction and working a little magic of their own for the world’s ancient and endangered forests. We look forward to seeing publishers in other countries follow the lead of their Canadian colleagues," said Nicole Rycroft, Campaigns Director of Markets Initiative.
Says the author J.K. Rowling herself, "The forest at Hogwarts is home to magical creatures like unicorns and centaurs. Because the Canadian editions are printed on Ancient-Forest Friendly paper, the Harry Potter books are helping to save magnificent forests in the muggle world, forests that are home of magical animals such as orangutans, wolves and bears. It’s a good idea to respect ancient trees, especially if they have a temper like the Whomping Willow.
Nanny state comes to class
Ontario Liberal leader Dalton McGuinty is not the only one trying to bring school children under the management of the Nanny State.
California will become the first state to ban soft drink sales to elementary and junior high school students, and to require board approval of other junk food vending contracts, as it tries to take a leadership role in fighting childhood obesity.
Our responsibility to children is not only to educate them, but also make sure they are as healthy of mind as they are of body," Gov. Gray Davis said as he promised to sign the measures.
Davis sounds very much like Ontario’s Dalton. Both are Liberals, but we can’t really say who started to copy whom.
The election-bound Davis cited recent "startling" statistics showing many children are overweight or obese, and at increased risk for developing Type 2 diabetes.
Bidwell Junior High School principal, Rob Williams, estimated the school’s annual income from soda sales at $7,000 per year. The money from vending sales goes into a student activities account. The machines were not turned on until 1:30 in the afternoon.
The amount of soft drinks, candy, or salty snacks sold in schools amounts to an average of about one of each per child per week, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association’s survey of its members.
"Just restricting the sale of soda, we’re not solving the problem," said Sandra Larson, western director of the national organization and administrator of the California Automatic Vendor’s Association.
Combating obesity means changing children’s diet and activity levels at school and away, she said. "The solution to the obesity problem is not banning a particular product or how it’s sold."
When McGuinty and Davis were lads, they passed up the potato chips for leafy greens, scorned french fries, and if they smoked, they did not inhale.
Dead wildlife on their heads
There will be "no more dead wildlife on their heads" is how Fur-Bearer Defenders acting director Leslie Fox envisions the Canadian RCMP of the future. Targeted in an international campaign by animal-rights activists, the Mounties are currently testing a synthetic alternative to the muskrat hat they’ve been wearing since 1933.
The stetson hat worn by the Mounties on postcards is just part of their official dress-up ensemble. The flap-eared fur cap is everyday headgear while they’re out on duty in harsh Canadian winter.
An experiment now underway in the RCMP’s Ottawa-based equipment branch should ultimately prove whether faux fur is as warm as the real thing, and whether synthetics create more allergies than fur.
"We’re in the process of testing alternative materials," said RCMP spokesman Sergeant Jocelyn Mimeault, while making it clear that unless a replacement is proven to be as effective as genuine fur, there will be no change from the muskrat hats.
For their part, activists with the B.C.-based Fur-Bearers Defenders accuse the RCMP of tacitly supporting "inhumane" methods of harvesting muskrats.
So far, the Mounties get to keep their underwear, since flannel has not as yet been declared a toxin.
Asteroid gazing
Given the success of Hollywood hysteria, some people have asteroids on the brain.
Astronomers have been night sky gazing for the past decade. Their mission: finding near-Earth objects at least one kilometer across.
While the possibility of impact has sent Hollywood into ecstasies, and justified environmentalists calling for global environmental catastrophe, researchers have been warning us not to overlook smaller objects that can blindside us and wreak real havoc. Adding to angst are some military analysts who warn us that such a collision could be mistaken for a nuclear attack and trigger a response.
Researchers are currently laying plans to begin tracking the movements of smaller objects, perhaps as early as 2008.
Since researchers hope to wrap up current search efforts aimed at one kilometer and larger hazards by 2008, "now is the right time to begin looking at the next steps," says Richard Binzel, a planetary scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass.
According to Peter N. Spotts, staff writer, Christian Science Monitor, "While movies such as Armageddon and Deep Impact have spun cinematic yarns of some of the biggest collisions one might imagine, researchers point to the smaller and more numerous objects that can pose significant hazards. For example, some 50,000 years ago, an iron meteor estimated at 60 meters in diameter smashed into Arizona, gouging out a crater one-kilometer (0.62 miles) across and 200 meters deep.
"In 1908, a 50-meter object exploded in the skies over Siberia, flattening trees for 25 kilometers in every direction. By comparison, the Mt. Saint Helens eruption in 1980 flattened trees up to 30 kilometers away. Though Lilliputian by cosmic standards, such objects carry the punch of 10- to 15-megathon hydrogen bombs, equal to some of the largest nuclear tests, and thousands of times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan.
Astronomers watching the skies make some startling discoveries. Last month, for example, astronomers discovered a space rock they dubbed 2003 QQ47. Initial calculations suggested it had a small, but potentially worrisome, probability of striking earth in 2014. After additional observations over the next 24 hours, astronomers revised the estimate, eliminating the object as an immediate threat. But the initial announcement triggered Armageddon-like headlines, touching off a debate among key members of the asteroid-hunting community about the hazard scale they devised to communicate such risks.
"Asteroids and comet hazards are estimated based on the likelihood that an object presents a danger sometime during the next 100 years," said Spotts. "Thus, if the new survey detects these smaller potential hazards well in advance of a likely collision, there’s an excellent chance they could be deflected", says Donald Yeomans, an astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasedena, Calif., and vice-chairman of the panel that produced the report.
"The team estimates the cost of the new search effort between $236 million and $397 million.
The holier-than-thou ELF mentality
In the United States, SUVs are so popular, they now account for more than half of new car sales that average fuel efficiency reversed a long-term trend by starting to drop beginning in 1987.
But the perceived "Me-and-my-SUV" society could be hoofing it soon.
What kind of world would it be if someone set your car ablaze because it guzzled too much fuel? A better one, argues the Earth Liberation Front, a loosely organized ecoterrorist organization that seems hell bent to rid the planet of SUVs.
Film stars get to tool around freely in SUVs. The little guy pays a much bigger price.
Activist attacks on SUVS are getting bolder. ELF members spray-painted environmentalist graffiti such as "gross polluter" and "fat, lazy Americans" on 30 sport utility vehicles at two car dealerships, and set fire to a third on Aug. 22. Several SUVs and 20 Hummer H2s were destroyed. On Sept. 2, 22 more SUVs were trashed at a Houston car dealership. (Police have arrested a man in connection with the California incident).
Ecoterrorism expert Bron Taylor, of the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, says that ELF believes "that ecosystems have an inherent worth that cannot be judged in relation to human needs, that human actions are bringing the earth towards mass extinctions, and that political action is insufficient to bring about the wholesale changes needed."
In other words, if you keep an SUV in your driveway because you must ferry your four teenaged sons off to hockey practice, you shouldn’t have had four sons, and they shouldn’t be playing hockey. And if your mother in law has worrisome chest pains, you had better rush her off to hospital emergency in a gas-respecting Volkswagon.
According to Ted Rall, the award-winning author of the graphic travelogue To Afghanistan and Back, "Taken at face value, most Americans agree with the…elves."
"A Los Angeles survey found that, even among conservative Republicans, two out of three people believe that the environment is more important than property rights, corporate profits, or even creating jobs.
That leaves consumers and dealers as the principal targets of radical environmentalists like the ELF. The idea is to make SUVs as unfashionable, and as scary to own, as fur became after the PETA-inspired spray-paint attacks of the `80s. In an ideal world, American consumers could be convinced to do the right thing through an appeal to logic with public service messages like the What Would Jesus Drive? TV campaign, but the kind of people who would buy a car that increases the risk to other motorists in an accident can’t be reasoned with. They’re selfish and stupid. It’s unfortunate that drivers must worry that their SUVs are being targeted by insulting stickers and Molotov cocktails, but one thing’s for sure: It couldn’t be happening to a more deserving group of people.