Dumpster diving an impractical approach to eradicating waste
You can't fight waste by eating it
Spoiled eggs. Rusty apple cores. Bags of dog crap. Not the archetypal items found in the aisles of your local grocery store. Unless of course, your local grocery store happens to be a dumpster.
Like Instagram, sushi and Buddy Holly glasses, the dumpster diving fad has taken the world by, er, garbage. When I asked my cousin – a budding garbage gorger – to explain the appeal of digging through people's bagged unwanteds, he launched into a diatribe about consumers, capitalists and any other right-wingers "responsible" for the mounting piles of wasted food across the globe.
He was right about one thing. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, worldwide we waste "1.3 billion tons of food produced for human consumption per year."
Should schools be required to teach about domestic violence?
Alberta has high rates of family abuse but issues aren't part of core school curriculum
Alberta has one of the highest domestic violence rates in Canada. But discussions about domestic violence aren't mandatory in schools – even though some experts say they should be.
According to the most recent Statistics Canada reports available, Alberta had the second highest provincial rate of self-reported violent victimization of women in 2009. And, in 2010, it had the third highest rate of family violence among the provinces.
Experts interviewed believe domestic violence can be reduced by educating youth – changing their attitudes and perceptions about healthy relationships and violence against women.
Have you done ear candling?
The Calgary Journal's Conor Mahoney tries alternative procedure to ‘clear your head’
"Face down!" she says, giggling.
An unlikely statement for me to hear from anyone – let alone my mother. Now she's flicking a Bic lighter – jeez. She looks at me in this weird way like this is my cue; she's ready to be "Dr. Mom" once again.
She begins to cut a hole in a paper plate then rests it on the left side of my face. This is necessary for ear candling as it prevents ashes from getting on your face. Mom smiles at me like she did when I was five, you know, like, when it was her job smile at me like that.
She inserts the wickless candle in my ear. Meanwhile I'm L-shaped over our kitchen countertop in northwest Calgary.
Westgate's Community Cook
Elsie Janes creates a sense of community in Calgary through her homemade cinnamon buns
The smell of fresh buns wafts in the air as 80-year-old Elsie Janes opens the oven in her Westgate home. The batch that's baking is for my grandmother, who is one of the many neighbours that Janes treats to her homemade cooking on a daily basis.
It seems like a simple gesture — bringing your neighbour a plate of cookies — but Janes says it's her way of creating a sense of community in a neighbourhood that has been rocked by change over the last decade.
Located in southwest Calgary, Westgate recently welcomed the west leg of the LRT. The 45th Street station now borders on their once quiet neighbourhood. Several of Janes' old neighbours have moved away because of it.