The Globe and Mail: Stan Koebel jailed for his part in Walkerton tragedy

The Globe and Mail: Stan Koebel jailed for his part in Walkerton tragedy

By Allison Dunfield

Stan Koebel, former manager of the Walkerton utilities commission, was sentenced to a year in jail Monday for his part in the water tragedy that killed seven people in May, 2000, closing what many hope to be the final chapter in the saga of the devastating E.coli outbreak.

His brother, Frank Koebel, who was Walkerton's water foreman during the time of the outbreak, was sentenced to nine months of house arrest.

The judge, Mr. Justice Bruce Durno of Ontario Superior Court, said that he did not sentence Stan Koebel to jail time to appease those in the community who wanted a scapegoat for the tainted water tragedy, but rather, because of some of his actions, such as faking water reports and failing to initially disclose problems with the water to officials.

"The offenders are not being sentenced for being the cause of the Walkerton water tragedy," Judge Durno told a packed courtroom.

However, he acknowledged the ongoing suffering that has resulted from the E. coli bacteria which poisoned the water system in 2000.

"No sentence I could impose, can assuage the enormous losses," Judge Durno said.

The Koebel brothers, who ran the system during the outbreak of E. coli more than four years ago, were charged with public endangerment, fraud and breach of trust. However, during a plea bargain in November, they pleaded guilty to risking public safety by failing to monitor and treat the water properly. The charge, formally called common nuisance, carries a two-year maximum jail sentence.

After the sentencing, which took nearly two hours, Stan Koebel's lawyer, Bill Trudell, told reporters outside the court house in Walkerton that he believes his client is a decent man who made a mistake.

"This is a man of moral fibre, and during that period of time there was a blip in it, but I don't think anyone would doubt that he's ethical," Mr. Trudel said.

He said Stan Koebel has an "incredible spiritual connection and strength" that has helped him get through the years since the tragedy.

"From a personal point of view, I like this man.... I've been doing this for 32 years, and I have very seldom seen the dignity that I see with Stan Koebel so that's a bit frustrating," Mr. Trudell said.

He added: "For those who are still angry at him, I think Stan Koebel will say, 'I hope that you can forgive me sometime'--but people have to form their own judgments of what happened."

Crown attorney David Foulds, who spent years prosecuting the case, told reporters after the sentencing that although the jail term closes the final chapter in the town's devastating event, it's not a joyful occasion.

"I don't think anybody can be happy in this case. The tragedy for the community, for the victims--there are things that will take years to recover from."

Mr. Foulds said he believed Judge Durno did a good job in explaining why Stan Koebel deserved jail time.

And the sentenced served to send a larger message, Mr. Foulds said.

"I think it sends a sharp and clear message that if you are employed in an occupation of any kind where public safety is affected, that if you don't perform your legal duties according to law, there's a real risk that you can be sentenced to jail."

Tom Pearson, whose mother was one of the seven who died as a result of the contaminated water, said he felt the judge did the right thing.

"I believe that the judgement was well-considered, and yes, I believe that justice was served."

But another victim, Art Jefford, whofell ill from the bad water, told reporters that, the brothers got off too lightly.

Charlie Bagnato, mayor of the nearby Municipality of Brockton, told CBC Newsworld that the sentece is a "relief" and will help the community move forward. "I would never want to have had that job, but i think it was fair," Mr. Bagnato said of Judge Durno's sentencing of the two brothers.


Earlier this year, in court, Mr. Foulds had argued that Stan Koebel should receive the maximum sentence for his part in the incident.

But Mr. Trudell asked for a conditional discharge for his client, as did Frank Koebel's defence lawyer Michael Epstein.


Stan Koebel, 51, was in charge of the city's utilities during the E. coli outbreak of May 2000. Frank, 46, was the city's water foreman. The devastating illness that swept the city while the brothers were in charge not only killed seven people but also sickened 2,500 others. Some are still suffering the long-term effects of E. coli.

Because of the high-profile nature of the case and the far-reaching effects of the tragedy, changes have been made to the Ontario water system and to other water facilities in Canada.

The Globe and Mail: Bunnyfascist meets the mistletoe molester

The Globe and Mail: Bunnyfascist meets the mistletoe molester

By Oliver Moore

Those worried about the state of the Queen's English have a new place to propose words, argue their meaning and discuss whether they should enter the official lexicon.

HarperCollins launched the "Living Dictionary" Thursday, an on-line forum where word-lovers and creative souls can spar over the definitions of words and phrases such as bunnyfascist, Ingerland, drink-and-dial and Mistletoe Molester.

"[This] revolutionizes the way words are collected and enter the dictionary -- throwing open the doors of language research and recording to embrace words from anybody and everybody," the editor of the project said in a statement.

"So start writing, start talking, start adding your words to the site and start shaping the future of English dictionaries."

The concept might not satisfy the purists but it should provide more solace than the current ritual of muttering and complaining at the annual announcement of the latest words to be added to the world's leading English-language dictionaries.

The process is at its heart democratic. The latest word to be added is langer, Irish slang for idiot, drunk or penis that was fast-tracked into the dictionary after a vigorous campaign by its Hibernian advocates.

"I have never seen such passion about a single word before," said Jeremy Butterfield, editor of Collins Dictionaries. "This is exactly what the word exchange was built for and we are awed by the positive response we have had from Irish word fans."

There are only a couple of hundred words on the site so far. There are no agreed-upon pronunciations and many of the words have only a single proposed definition. But some have sparked lively exchanges.

One person broached the opinion that mingetastic means "delightful in a sexual context." While no one has taken up cudgels over that word, the definition flies in the face of those on the site who argue that a ming is an "ugly or unattractive" person. The latter ties in nicely to the proposed definition for beer goggles as a "drink-induced state" that leaves the opposite sex more attractive.

The debate can go in several directions, as demonstrated by the person who pondered whether a man can be a ming and the one who suggested that beer goggles really does need a hyphen.

The process is unlikely to satisfy everyone. Although languages are organic and have evolved over the centuries to suit the needs of their speakers, the process is apparently painful for some.

Just this week there was a flurry of hand-wringing as the electronic edition of the Oxford dictionary announced that it would add the words hoochie and crack ho. Officials at the venerable dictionary were unapologetic.

"For most of the last century, African-American vernacular has been the driving force in American slang," explained Jesse Sheidlower, North American editor of the dictionary.

"We put in words that have currency. If the word is slang, it doesn't matter. If that word is being used, our responsibility is to put it in."

The Globe and Mail: Toronto police to face gay-sensitivity training

The Globe and Mail: Toronto police to face gay-sensitivity training

By Kirk Makin

Toronto — All current and future Toronto police officers will be given gay and lesbian sensitivity training under an unprecedented settlement of litigation that erupted after a controversial bathhouse raid in 2000.
The Toronto Police Service will also pay $350,000 to a group of lesbian complainants, The Globe and Mail has learned. The money will go toward specific charities and to cover legal fees.

The unique settlement ends one of the most controversial events in the fitful history of relations between Toronto police and the city's thriving gay community.

Under the deal, everyone on the 7,260-member force -- from rookie constables to the chief of police -- will be required to take training that pays particular attention to searches involving the gay, lesbian and transgendered communities.

The agreement was approved in camera by the Toronto Police Services Board yesterday and is expected to be finalized today.

The settlement of the civil suit will not be complete until it receives court approval.

"It feels like the end of a very long journey," said J.P. Hornick, one of the complainants. "It has been a gruelling process. On a personal level, I would have to use the word vindication.

"The sensitivity training will happen at all levels -- not just officers on the beat, but the top brass as well," Ms. Hornick said. "The larger battle here is for the police to understand the community they serve. That is the most important and exciting part for me."

On Sept. 14, 2000, several police officers raided a special event known as the Pussy Palace, a lesbian bathhouse, in which 355 scantily clad women were gathered.

When the party was in full swing, two female police officers first slipped inside to check for possible liquor violations, then quickly summoned five male officers.

The officers allegedly entered private rooms and lingered in areas where the patrons' nudity was most evident, including "the sling room" and "the photo room."

Complainants alleged that their feelings of violation and intimidation were akin to being strip-searched.

The Toronto Women's Bathhouse Committee launched a human-rights complaint, and several of its members also initiated a $1.5-million class-action lawsuit.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission announced last fall that it would hold a rare public hearing into the incident -- apparently the first time police had faced a hearing over alleged misconduct in carrying out their duties.

The inquiry could have taken up to two years and involved testimony from dozens of witnesses.

As part of the pending settlement, the complainants have agreed to drop the human-rights complaint and their lawsuit against the Toronto Police Services Board.

Hart Schwartz, director of legal services for the rights commission, said last night that he could not comment on any settlement until it has been finalized.

A lawyer for the complainants, Frank Addario, said he was not authorized to comment. Lawyers representing the police were also unavailable for comment.

Held under a special liquor permit, the Pussy Palace party was the fourth such event to bring lesbians together "to have fun and explore sexuality in a safe and supportive environment."

Police charged two organizers with six liquor violations, including three counts of permitting disorderly conduct.

In 2002, Judge Peter Hryn of the Ontario Court stayed the charges, ruling that the defendants' right to privacy had been seriously violated in a situation that involved no urgent police action.

Madam Justice Janet McFarland of Ontario Superior Court later charged a jury at a defamation trial connected to the raid, stating: "It is no part of a police officer's job to breach the Charter of Rights of any citizen. To do so is misconduct of the most serious kind."

Several officers named personally in the complaint told the rights commission that they mounted the raid after receiving two anonymous complaints alleging drug use, physical violence and inappropriate sexual activity.

Ms. Hornick said last night that she attributes the agreement to a new atmosphere on the services board created by Mayor David Miller.

"Things have changed dramatically under Mayor Miller," she said.

"Before this, there was a real reluctance by the police to look at themselves."

The Globe and Mail: Embrace creation's diversity, Nobel laureate urges world

The Globe and Mail: Embrace creation's diversity, Nobel laureate urges world

Associated Press

Oslo — The first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize accepted her award Friday to the beat of drums and dancers that broke with the usual stodgy ceremony, and urged her audience “to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder.”

But Kenyan Wangar Maathai warned that if the environment is not protected, peace would forever remain endangered.

“Today, we are faced with a challenge that calls for a shift in our thinking, so that humanity stops threatening its life-support system,” she said. “We are called to assist the Earth to heal her wounds and in the process heal our own indeed, to embrace the whole creation in all its diversity, beauty and wonder,”

“This will happen if we see the need to revive our sense of belonging to a larger family of life, with which we have shared our evolutionary process,” the 64-year-old Kenyan environmental activist said after receiving the traditional gold medal and diploma that accompanies the cash prize valued at about $1.8-million Canadian.

“You are an extraordinary example for women throughout Africa, throughout the world,” Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said in his speech.

Before she took the stage, the traditionally rigid and formal ceremony lit up with colour and sound as three African dancers and accompanying drummers pounded out a brief piece of African music that echoed off the walls of the large auditorium.

The audience included hundreds of dignitaries, including the Norwegian Royal Family. The peace prize is presented in Oslo, while the other Nobel prizes are awarded in Stockholm on the same day.

“In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other,” said Ms. Maathai. “That time is now.”

As she spoke in English, many in the crowded auditorium, flowers lining the elevated blue stage, nodded their heads in agreement.

Her selection by the five-member Nobel Committee raised eyebrows because of her environmental ties and also because of controversy over statements she purportedly made asserting that AIDS was a laboratory-created ailment loosed upon Africa by the West.

But she told Associated Press that her comments about AIDS being created to destroy Africans were misquoted and taken out of context.

In a statement released by the Nobel Committee, she said: “It is therefore critical for me to state that I neither say nor believe that the virus was developed by white people or white powers in order to destroy the African people. Such views are wicked and destructive.”

Mr. Danbolt Mjoes said the committee's decision was a logical one.

“Environmental protection is another path toward peace,” he said as told the audience about Ms. Maathai's accomplishments. “There are connections between peace on the one hand and an environment on the other in which rare resources like oil, water, minerals and timber are fought over.”

Referring to the dispute between Israel and its Arab neighbours over water as well as deforestation in the Darfur region of Sudan, he said: “Wars and conflicts certainly have other, many causes, but who would deny that inequitable distribution, either locally or internally, is relevant in this connection.”

Ms. Maathai, the first Kenyan to win the award, was selected for her role in founding the Green Belt Movement, which has sought to empower women, improve the environment and fight corruption in Africa for nearly 30 years.

A deputy environment minister in the Kenyan government, Ms. Maathai also won acclaim for her campaign to fight deforestation by planting 30 million trees in Africa.

The award committee “has challenged the world to broaden the understanding of peace: there can be no peace without equitable development; and there can be no development without sustainable management of the environment in a democratic and peaceful space,” Ms. Maathai said. “This shift is an idea whose time has come.”

The Nobel Prizes are always presented on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of their creator, Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel.

Proof Positive: Mars Once Had Water, Researchers Conclude

Proof Positive: Mars Once Had Water, Researchers Conclude

Global Assessments Of Biodiversity Argue For Expansion Of Protected Areas In Key Regions

Global Assessments Of Biodiversity Argue For Expansion Of Protected Areas In Key Regions

Researchers Trace How Virus That Causes AIDS Spreads Following Oral Exposure

Researchers Trace How Virus That Causes AIDS Spreads Following Oral Exposure

The Globe and Mail: Sleep the weight off

The Globe and Mail: Sleep the weight off

By André Picard

Want to lose some weight? Try hitting the snooze button next time the alarm clock rings.New research suggests that rising levels of obesity are due, at least in part, to chronic sleep deprivation, which is endemic in the work-obsessed Western world.
Two new studies, published today, show that too little sleep can lead to higher levels of a hormone that triggers appetite, and lower levels of a hormone that tells your body it's full and has enough fuel.

The result: The less you sleep, the more you eat -- and the more weight you gain.

"Our results demonstrate an important relationship between sleep and metabolic hormones," said Dr. Shahrad Taheri, clinical lecturer in endocrinology at Bristol University in Bristol, England.

"In Western societies, where chronic sleep restriction is common and food is widely available, changes in appetite-regulatory hormones with sleep curtailment may contribute to obesity."

In the paper, published in the medical journal Public Library of Science Medicine, researchers speculate that sleep loss has an impact on several hormones related to appetite and food intake. They said two such hormones -- ghrelin and leptin -- are thought to play a role in the interaction between short sleep-duration and high body-mass index (an approximation of body fat based on height and weight).

Ghrelin, which is primarily produced by the stomach, triggers appetite in humans: The more ghrelin you have, the more you want to eat.

Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells, tells the body that its energy stocks are low and that there is a need to consume more calories. Low leptin levels are a signal for starvation and increased appetite.

Dr. Taheri and his colleagues found that people who normally slept for five hours nightly produced 14.9 per cent more ghrelin than those who slept for eight hours. They also produced 15.5 per cent less leptin. The results held regardless of gender, eating patterns or exercise habits.

"It was quite amazing that a hormone can track a person's self-reported amount of sleep so well," said Dr. Emmanuel Mignot, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., and a co-author of the study. "The effect must be very strong to appear in [this entire] population," he said.

Dr. Mignot said while the link between hunger hormones and sleep has been demonstrated before in the lab, this is the first time the correlation has been demonstrated in a large number of people in the general population.

The research was conducted on 1,024 volunteers from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort, a long-term study of people with sleep disorders that began in 1989.

Participants, who were aged 30 to 60, underwent nocturnal polysomnography (a test during which a number of physiologic variables are measured and recorded during sleep), and blood sampling once every four years. They also reported on their sleep habits every five years through questionnaires and six-day sleep diaries.

According to background material in the research paper, during the past 50 years the time people spend sleeping has dropped an average of two hours a night because of increasing demands, pressures (work, school, family), and the availability of new technologies (television, computer games and the Internet).

A second, unrelated study, published in today's edition of the Annals of Internal Medicine, also found a link between sleep and hunger hormones. Researchers at the University of Chicago took 12 healthy young men and allowed them to sleep only four hours nightly.

The result, after only two nights of sleep deprivation, was a 28-per-cent increase in ghrelin and an 18-per-cent drop in leptin. In addition, participants reported not only being hungrier, but craving calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods such as chips and cookies.

About 48 per cent of Canadian adults are overweight, according to Statistics Canada.

The Globe and Mail: Ouch! Researchers tackle Tintin's traumas

The Globe and Mail: Ouch! Researchers tackle Tintin's traumas:

By André Picard
Tuesday's Globe and Mail

The swashbuckling comic-book hero and boy-journalist extraordinaire Tintin is ageless, and now researchers know the reason why.
It appears that his perennially prepubescent look is due to a growth-hormone deficiency and hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, conditions likely brought on by repeated blows to the head.

"We believe that the multiple traumas Tintin sustained could be the first case of traumatic pituitary injury described in the literature," said Claude Cyr, an associate professor of medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke in Sherbrooke, Que.

His lighthearted research is published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal's annual holiday edition, which has a tradition of diagnosing fictional characters with real medical conditions.

In the course of Tintin's 23 published adventures, the character lost consciousness at least 50 times, including 43 incidents in which he suffered a severe blow to the head.

Between 1929 and 1973, the boy reporter was hit with a rake, a brick, a whisky bottle, an oar, a giant apple, a camel femur, a block of ice, and countless punches and clubs.

Tintin was choked, thrown down stairs, tossed from a train, poisoned with chloroform, mauled by a lion, shot and hurled a great distance by an explosion, events that may have also caused neurological damage.

The unlikely result was that in 46 years of active publication, and for decades since, he has not aged a wit.

"Even though he has reached adulthood, Tintin has no beard or grey hair, and he exhibits no sign of pubertal development," Dr. Cyr noted.

The researcher noted that Tintin also suffered from "delayed statural growth" (he is about the same height as an average seven-year-old) and an apparent lack of libido.

"Throughout his adventures, he has no girlfriend or marriage plans to curtail his activities," Dr. Cyr said.

The research was conducted by Dr. Cyr and his two sons, five-year-old Antoine and seven-year-old Louis-Olivier.

The boys systematically pored through the 16 Tintin books they owned, identifying pictures in which Tintin tombait dans les pommes (literally, "fell into the apples," a French expression for having lost consciousness).

The mean time of loss of consciousness was 7.5 comic-book frames; on average, 7.5 objects (usually stars and candles) revolved around Tintin's head after he had been clocked, according to the research team.

The researchers noted that one shortcoming of their study was an inability to perform brain imaging to confirm the diagnosis. But, according to researcher Louis-Olivier: "That's alright."

Tintin first appeared in the weekly children's newspaper Le Petit Vingtieme, on Jan. 19, 1929. The character's creator was Georges Rémi, the Belgian artist better known as Hergé.

The strips were collated into book form, books that have sold more than 200 million copies worldwide. Before his death in 1983, Hergé demanded that no new adventures of Tintin be published posthumously.

Study Suggests Nutrient Decline In Garden Crops Over Past 50 Years

Study Suggests Nutrient Decline In Garden Crops Over Past 50 Years

The Globe and Mail: The Walkerton survivors

The Globe and Mail: The Walkerton survivors

By Anthony Reinhart
From Saturday's Globe and Mail

Walkerton, Ont. — Their house is a handsome split-level, aglitter with Christmas lights every bit as pretty as the neighbours', set off beautifully by the early-December snow.
Inside, at the kitchen table, Trudy and Wayne Fraser can take pride: Shilo, their eldest daughter, just married and began a teaching career; Alyssa is engaged and off at college; and Brandon, the last one at home, is well on his way to becoming an electrician.
The Frasers are as close a family as you're going to find, but far from the image reflected in their shiny surfaces. They are Walkerton survivors, and for some, survival is proving to have long-term consequences.
”Life never did go back to normal,” said Alyssa, 21. ”We had to adapt to a new ‘normal' life.”
For Alyssa, Walkerton's water is now a life sentence. She is one of those who continue to suffer — 500 people in Walkerton now have chronic diarrhea and about 100 have kidney damage. She has lost one-third of her kidney function and suffers from high blood pressure. She takes medication daily and faces an uncertain future.
To those who weren't here when the water went bad in May, 2000, Walkerton is now an aging media drama; its newsy nickname, ”tainted water tragedy,” growing tired with use.
This week, as Stan and Frank Koebel pleaded guilty to the only criminal charges laid after seven people died and 2,300 became ill from E. coli poisoning, big-city reporters swept back into the quiet town of 5,000 for what seemed like a final act.
Instead, they swallowed hard as 13 people – including Alyssa Fraser and her mother – filed before Mr. Justice Bruce Durno to read accounts of grief, anger and continuing struggles with health problems, almost five years on.
”I continue to suffer every day in some way or another,” said the young Ms. Fraser, who spent four weeks in a London, Ont., hospital, two of them in critical care where she skirted death more than once.
Among the hardest-hit Walkerton victims, she is rare for her age; just 17 when hemolytic uremic syndrome, the most severe form of E. coli infection, took over her body. Others were typically much older or far younger.
As a result, ”she has grown old beyond her 17 years,” her mother, Trudy Fraser, told the court.
In interviews with The Globe and Mail the day after court hearing, the usually private family shared further details that offer a glimpse into their ordeal.
In the fall of 2000, months after the water crisis and Alyssa's brush with death, the Frasers received another shock when Shilo, then 20, fell ill with severe stomach cramps. Doctors initially tied her condition to stress, but after two years of recurrent pain and diarrhea, a specialist diagnosed ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome, connected to the E. coli outbreak.
On their own, both of Shilo's conditions are incurable and hard to treat; together, they're even worse, since they call for opposite amounts of fibre in the diet.
Now 24 and in her first year of teaching in Hanover, near Walkerton, she not only faces the stress of a new career, but the prospect of having to dash out of class to use the bathroom, and a future clouded by a heightened risk of colon cancer.
”Before, I used to be perfectly healthy,” she said this week. ”Now, I never know.”
Alyssa, who lost one-third of her kidney function to HUS, is resigned to a lifetime of daily medication to combat high blood pressure, which could prevent her from having children, and complicates treatment for minor ailments that others take for granted, such as colds.
William Clark, who heads a long-term health study of Walkerton victims, is optimistic that medication will prevent further loss of kidney function for those who suffered damage, and negate the need for transplants down the road.
Alyssa Fraser was more guarded, saying the only guarantee her doctors will provide is that her kidneys will never improve.
That sense of uncertainty only deepens when she thinks of her older sister's delayed reaction to the outbreak, and whenever something goes wrong in her own body, as it did two weeks ago.
She suffered an unexplained fainting spell at her apartment in Kitchener, Ont., where she attends college, and spent the night in hospital.
Every day, while dressing in the morning or getting ready for bed at night, her scars remind her of the chest tube they inserted just behind her ribcage, and the intravenous lines in her wrists and inner thighs.
The stretch marks on her back and hips recall the 50 pounds in fluid she gained, then lost again, from her slender, 110-pound frame over those first few weeks.
”They're really noticeable, and they really bug me,” she said.
Less noticeable, but perhaps just as powerful, is the burden of trauma Walkerton survivors carry in their minds.
In her own court statement and in an interview later, Betty Lou Bushell painted several disquieting vignettes of how the crisis has affected her granddaughter, Courtney, who turned 8 just a couple of weeks before E. coli nearly killed her.
One afternoon, months after Courtney was released from hospital, her grandmother arrived at her school to take her and older sister Brittany home with her, because the girls' parents had come down with strep throat.
Courtney began yelling, ”Is E. coli back?” as Mrs. Bushell fought off tears.
Two years later, Courtney was riding in her grandparents' pickup truck during a heavy rainstorm, like the one experts had cited as a cause of the water crisis by washing manure into a town well.
”A huge splash came over the hood of the truck,” Mrs. Bushell said, ”and Courtney yelled, ‘We have to boil the water!'”
On arriving at her grandparents' home, the girl paced up and down their driveway in frustration until her grandfather calmed her down and put her to bed. Mrs. Bushell, meanwhile, went off to bed in tears.
The Frasers, too, have dealt with the subtler after-effects of their ordeal, from an abiding apprehension over possible future health problems, to a fear of insensitive treatment from people who don't know about their experience.
Several times, from Brandon's hockey games to out-of-town social engagements, they've fought to contain their rage in the face of jokes about Walkerton's water.
Others will say things like, ”So, you're the ones we have to blame for the costs of our new water systems.”
Alyssa and Shilo, meanwhile, avoid telling people where they're from, to avoid the awkward question that always follows: ”Do you know anyone who was sick?”
”I may look okay walking down the street,” Alyssa said from her home in Kitchener, ”but there's a lot of problems they can't see.”
As numerous as their problems are, the Frasers have done their best not to dwell on them; recent family photos still show smiles all around, and their comments this week were their first public statements.
They spoke out of a need to let people know that Walkerton, for some, is anything but a fading news story.
”You can't ever get away from it,” Trudy Fraser said. ”That's just the way it is.”

Getting A Whiff Of Speciation By Reinforcement

Getting A Whiff Of Speciation By Reinforcement

Circadian Rhythms

Circadian Rhythms: "suprachiasmatic"

The SCN nucleus is found in the hypothalamus.

Peripheral Timekeeping: Mammalian Cells Outside The Brain Have Their Own Circadian Clocks

Peripheral Timekeeping: Mammalian Cells Outside The Brain Have Their Own Circadian Clocks

Suprachiasmatic nucleus is a tiny cluster of brain cells "required for expression of circadian rhythms in mammals.

What is its relationship to the pineal body?

Say Goodbye To Rudolph, Other Reindeer If Global Warming Continues

Say Goodbye To Rudolph, Other Reindeer If Global Warming Continues

Temporary Weight Gain Over The Winter Holidays... Might Be A Good Thing

Temporary Weight Gain Over The Winter Holidays... Might Be A Good Thing

pineal body

pineal body

The "third eye" in lower vertebrates is the predecessor of a small mammalian gland that secretes melatonin, which regulates circadian rhythm. Melatonin production occurs at night, induces sleep. Light suppresses melatonin production.

Light Therapy. Introduction, Bright Light Therapy, Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, integrative medicine

Light Therapy. Introduction, Bright Light Therapy, Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, alternative medicine, complementary medicine, integrative medicine

Melatonin: "the chemical expression of darkness."