| Price check foils Flaherty's rant against retailers
OTTAWA, TORONTO Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says he got ripped off when he bought the latest Harry Potter book, paying 20 per cent more at an Ottawa retailer than the price listed at a Washington, D.C. store he visited last weekend. "Now, is that a fair price differential?" he asked yesterday at a news conference, holding up a book he said cost him $36 before tax in Canada but sold for only $29.74 (U.S.) south of the border. .
Childrens' Clothes, Gas Stoves and "Polos"
The influence of American culture in China is clear, from conversations about the very popular Prison Break to the plethora of KFCs and McDonald's. As many people in China have embraced a more consumer culture, American-style malls have grown up in cities. In Beijing and Shanghai we were shown large malls with American, European and Chinese stores. The prices were generally lower than the same item would be at the same store in the U.S., but much more expensive than goods outside the malls. Man on horseback.: A vendor in Beijing's famed Silk Market directs a frustrated glance at Sun Editor in Chief Jonny Lieberman '08 as he looks at her merchandise. Photo: Matt HintsaThe Silk Market in Beijing, one of the only places we heard a significant amount of English around us in China, is filled with floor after floor of vendors selling knock-off goods – from $4 "Polo" shirts to $10 "silk" dresses.
Your Strange Medical Symptoms Solved
You're showering after a workout at the gym when you notice something strange. There's a weird rash on your leg, a bump on your navel or maybe just a couple of indentations on your nail. It definitely isn't normal. But is it a sign of something serious? Knowing what your body is trying to tell you isn't easy, especially when it comes to more unusual symptoms like these. In some instances, such as a proclivity for sneezing when exposed to sunlight, there's nothing to worry about. It's simply a reflex. A diagonal crease on your earlobe, however, could be a signal that you're at an increased risk for coronary heart disease or diabetes. In Depth: Your Strange Medical Symptoms Solved But putting off dealing with what's wrong has inevitable costs, whether it's the loss of precious time that could have been spent fighting an aggressive disease or $260 billion in lost productivity; this is the estimated annual price tag of health problems among working-age Americans and their families, according to a 2005 study by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation for health care research.
Coming Soon: SR to Release E-mail Exchanges ... (Not so fast...)
Update: After reviewing the messages and our options (none good), we've decided not to post the messages. Here's the situation: Of the 50 messages, a few have explicit photos embedded in the message. We can't publish those photos (one shows a toddler's penis). We also have a strong ethical policy against blurring or otherwise manipulating photos. Some of the messages are completely innocuous. The rest of the messages only refer to attachments. Those attachments are explicit, so we can't publish them. We've also gone through each message to blur e-mail addresses for privacy reasons. So, if we don't publish any of the explicit images, and we refuse to blur, crop or otherwise alter them, all we're left with is a bunch of forwarded messages that say things like "take a look at this!" We decided that did not advance the story in any significant way.
A coarser world invades mall life
At 2 o'clock on a Friday afternoon at Arundel Mills mall, sun streamed through the skylights illuminating the vast food court. Snacking shoppers filled fewer than half of the brightly hued chairs. And in the relative quiet, the Winter family of Friendship Gardens had a peaceful lunch.
"We're a mall family," said Bill Winter, 33, a truck driver. "We come here and just wander. It's a place where you can take your children, out of the weather, and they can run around. You can get some exercise, have something to eat, have some family time."
Four hours later, after darkness had blanketed the food court skylights, Arundel Mills had become a busier, louder - and considerably younger - place.
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