April 9, 2007

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SCIENCE

THE WOMAN WHO WAS ALWAYS FALLING DOWN

CHERYL SCHILTZ feels like she’s perpetually falling. And because she feels like she’s falling, she falls. When she stands up without support, she looks, within moments, as if she were standing on a precipice, about to plummet. First her head wobbles and tilts to one side, and her arms reach out to try to stabilize her stance.

NATURE

MAN VS. NATURE

What happened inside the owl cage at the Moscow Zoo? What’s known is this: Alexander Luparev, 32, was found dead in his underwear inside a cage home to a Siberian owl. Luparev’s clothes were strewn around the cage, along with some vodka, and he was found lying in a pool of blood beneath the bird.

BUSINESS

Ottawa’s auto rebate runs a little rough

The EcoAutO Rebate Program, introduced in the federal budget last week to reward some Canadians for buying new environmentally friendly cars—and penalize others for choosing gas guzzlers—is taking a hit from auto analysts and carmakers alike. By BARBARA RIGHTON

NATIONAL

Tearing down Canada’s ’welfare wall’

When former U.S. president Bill Clinton promised to “end welfare as we know it” during the 1992 election, he wasn’t just talking about his own country. His plan to reduce welfare rolls by encouraging greater workforce participation was copied in Canada as well. By PETER SHAWN TAYLOR

NATIONAL

CONDOS BEAT CASH

By 7 a.m. on a still-dark, chilled Alberta morning, they have already begun to gather—first two, then four, then eight, until, an hour later, two dozen men stand at the corner of Calgary’s Centre Street South and 12th Avenue, stamping their sneaker-shod feet for warmth. By NICHOLAS KÖHLER

THE BACK PAGES

FINALLY, A BOOK ABOUT...GOD PLAYING DICE

Uncertainty (Doubleday) by David Lindley traces the birth of modern science’s most important finding: Werner Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle. In 1927, the German physicist proved that in many experiments, information in one area is only gained at the cost of losing it in another.

MAIL BAG

IT’S TUESDAY, March 20. Maclean’s arrives at my local post office. Reaching into my mailbox, I remove it amid other mail and head for my van. Once I am seated, I do a quick mail sort that displays the cover of the March 26 issue. As a retired serviceman, I find the photo of Cpl. Michael Barnewall overwhelming.

SCIENCE

THE SECRET TO NOT LOSING YOUR MARBLES

Doris Howard, a 79-year-old former psychologist, has lived in the Heritage Retirement Community—set in a stately Tudor-style brick mansion in San Francisco’s Marina District—for almost seven years. Fast-talking and quintessentially plucky, Howard is what the staff call a high-energy resident: a dedicated community volunteer, a member of the art committee, an avid reader, and editor of the in-house newsletter, Happenings. By LIANNE GEORGE

MACLEAN’S BESTSELLERS

Fiction LAST WEEK (WEEKS ON LIST) 1. SHOPAHOLIC & BABY 2(4) by Sophie Kinsella 2. THE NINE LIVES OF CHARLOTTE 5(2) TAYLOR by Sally Armstrong 3. HELPLESS by Barbara Gowdy 3(4) 4. THE POST-BIRTHDAY WORLD (1) by Lionel Shriver 5. YSABEL by Guy Gavrlel Kay 1(12) By BRIAN BETHUNE

April 22007