The planet Venus will cross the sun

             For those who want to see the planet Venus cross the face of the sun should do it now, because this rare spectacle won’t happen again for another century.

             This celestial phenomenon has been called the ‘transit of Venus’.

             Schools and museums are holding viewing festivities, and astronauts from the International Space Station are planning on observing the event.

             The transit will take place next Tuesday afternoon from the Western Hemisphere, and Wednesday morning from the Eastern Hemisphere.

 

            The planet Venus will appear in the form as a small dot that will glide across disk of the sun. Viewers are advised to not stare directly at the sun, and to wear protective glasses.

             The transit will last for approximately 6 hours and 40 minutes, and can be viewed from the western Pacific, eastern Asia, and western Australia.

             “Anything silhouetted on the sun looks interesting,” said Anthony Cook, astronomer of the Griffith Observatory. “Seeing Venus is extremely rare.”

             People who want to get a good view of the transit are heading to Hawaii, which is a prime viewing spot. Eclipse glasses will be handed out to viewers, so they can see the planet crossing without causing damage to their eyes.

             “There’s no one big climatic moment,” said Larry O’Hanlon, who does outreach at the W.M. Keck Observatory. “It takes longer to happen than a solar or lunar eclipse.”

             Venus transits are extremely rare sightings unlike regular eclipses. They come in pairs, and are separated by 100 years. The last one occurred in 2004, and the next pair will occur in 2117 and 2125.

             The transit in 2004 was viewed by millions, both in person and online.

Starbucks creators receive $20,000 award

The creators of the French-language film ‘Starbuck’ received the 2011 Guichet d’or award from Telefilm Canada on Wednesday, an award worth $20,000.

This annual honour went to the film’s director Ken Scott and co-writer Martin Petit, whose film garnered the highest-grossing domestic box-office sales during the previous year.

‘Starbuck’ took in more than $3.5 million at the Canadian Box Office in 2011, according to Telefilm Canada.

Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios announced last month that they are planning on remaking the francophone film with an entirely new script that will most likely set the film in New York. Scott is set to direct the remake with original producer Andre Rouleau of Caramel Films.

The creators of ‘Piche: entre de ciel et terre” were the winners of the 2010 Guichet d’or award.

Shoppers Drug Mart introduces new technology

The new chief executive officer of Shoppers Drug Mart has launched a new e-commerce initiative, an online shopping site.

Domenic Pilla said he embraces the new reality of an austere pharmacy age, and that he’s looking for ways to bolster the business. Although it has been slow to pick up on e-commerce, Shoppers and other Canadian retailers today increasingly are adding online selling to their websites, worried about being overtaken by larger foreign rivals.

Shoppers also faces competition from domestic players such as the Bay, which is ramping up its cybershopping capabilities, including for its high-margin beauty items.

In social media, Shoppers is active on Facebook and Twitter, while having launched a BlackBerry app recently after rolling out one for iPhones in 2010.

The current e-commerce test is an evolution rather than a revolution for Shoppers because it already provides free delivery in more than half of its stores, said spokeswoman Tammy Smitham.

Jennifer Hudson’s former brother-in-law gets convicted of murder

The former brother-in-law of Jennifer Hudson has been convicted of the murders of her mother, brother, and 7-year-old nephew by a Chicago jury Friday.

Hudson expressed her undisguised disdain for William Balfour when she took the witness stand and who endured weeks of excruciating testimony about the October 2008 killings, was visibly overcome with emotion as the verdict was read.

Balfour, 31, faces a mandatory life prison sentence. The jury deliberated for three days before reaching their verdict.

With no surviving witnesses to the Oct. 24, 2008, slayings or fingerprints, prosecutors built a circumstantial case against Balfour by calling 83 witnesses over 11 days of testimony.

Jennifer Hudson, who was in Florida at the time of the killings, attended every day of the two-weeks of testimony, sobbing when photos of her relatives’ bloodied bodies were displayed to jurors during the closing arguments.

Hudson, 30, rose to prominence as a 2004 finalist on the reality television series ‘American Idol’. But she became a bona fide star for her performance in the film adaptation of the musical, “Dreamgirls,” for which she won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Balfour had lived in the Hudsons’ three-story Englewood home after marrying Julia Hudson, sister of Jennifer Hudson, in 2006. He moved out in early 2008 after falling out with his wife, but witnesses told jurors he often stalked the home.

The defence tried to counter the portrayal of Mr. Balfour as an embittered husband by noting Julia Hudson continued to have sex with him until just days before the killings.

Joe Biden apologizes to Barack Obama for pushing gay marriage support

After pressuring President Barack Obama to declare his support for same-sex marriage, Vice-President Joe Biden apologized on Wednesday in the Oval Office.

The apology came shortly before Obama sat down in an interview in which he told Americans that he now supported same-sex marriage.

The vice-president expressed remorse and regret for declaring his support for same-sex unions ahead of Obama, according to a person familiar with the exchange, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversation.

Without approval from the White House, Mr. Biden declared on a talk show that he was “absolutely comfortable” with same-sex married couples having the same rights as heterosexual married couples.

Obama said he always planned to talk about his personal views on gay marriage before his party’s convention in early September. And he said he wasn’t angry when told by aides that the vice-president had spoken out.

“Would I have preferred to have done this in my own way, in my own terms, without I think, there being a lot of notice to everybody? Sure,” Obama said. “But all’s well that ends well.”

Universal flu vaccine on the way

University of British Columbia researchers say they’re making headway on developing a universal flu vaccine they hope will eliminate the need for seasonal inoculations.

Led by Professor John Schrader, director of the university’s biomedical research centre, the team found that the 2009 H1N1 “swine flu” vaccine triggers antibodies that protect against a multitude of influenza viruses, including the lethal avian H5N1 “bird flu” strain.

What’s new is that the research team found that the 2009 pandemic H1N1 vaccine attacked a part of the virus — its Achilles heel, so to speak — that did not mutate, ultimately neutralizing the entire virus.

The new discovery could pave the way to developing universal flu vaccines within three years and be so effective they would control strains that won’t be emerging for years in the future.

The research team also consists of scientists from The University of Ottawa, The University of Toronto, the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency and the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control.

Parents start petition to fire schools

Parents in southern California want to fire their kids’ school and they’re about to pull the trigger.

Desert Trails Elementary is one of the worst-performing elementary schools in the state, with two-thirds of its students reading or writing below their grade level.

Under California’s 2010 “parent trigger” law, parents at a chronically failing public school have the unprecedented power to fire teachers, replace the principal, make the school a charter school or shut it down entirely if more than 50 per cent of them sign a petition.

There are well-meaning parents on both sides, but the petition has created “really bitter and hard feelings all around”.

 

 

Even though Obama’s support, gay marriage a distant dream

China’s government considered homosexuality a mental disorder until 2001. Mobs in Senegal have disinterred bodies of men they believed were gay and dragged them through the streets. In Egypt, laws prohibiting “shameless public acts” have been used to imprison gay men.

In China, “the government treats homosexuality like it does not exist,” said Xiong Jing, an activist who volunteers in gay support groups in Beijing.

Xiong welcomed Obama’s support for gay marriage, but cautioned that legalizing it in China would be unrealistic and impossible.

Homosexuality also remains taboo in India, despite large gay pride parades recently in New Delhi and other big cities. Only this year, the government accepted a court ruling that struck down a British colonial-era law banning gay sex, and the Supreme Court is now hearing appeals.

“Barack Obama is an ethical man and a philosophically confused man,” said Peruvian congresswoman Martha Chavez, a member of the conservative Catholic Opus Dei movement. “Marriage is a natural institution that supports the union of two people of different sexes because it has a procreative function.”

Maple Leafs manager plans to rebuild team

In a post-season news conference, Brian Burke, president and general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team, announced he is planning to revamp the team for next year.

Burke expressed his disappointment over the team not making the playoffs this year, saying that he intends to make the team “bigger and stronger.”

“I was in the playoffs seven straight seasons before I got here,” he said. “This has been agonizing. I’m sure you can see it in my face.”

“I haven’t slept in a month, two months,” he continued. “If fans think they’re disappointed, I can assure you the general manager is more disappointed.”

Burke said he still believes in the team, mainly James Reimer, Phil Kessel and the leadership of Dion Phaneuf.

“It’s hard to see a positive when you have the finish we had,” he said. “There are some positives, some building blocks.”

“The pieces you need, the Phil Kessels, the Jake Gardiners, the Dion Phaneufs, the second line,” he continued. “All those things have been put in place. That’s what can’t be overlooked as you dissect the season. Even a season that’s marked by failure, I think we’re going in the right direction. It’s very hard to see that today.”

Burke feels that the Maple Leafs could have the playoffs last year and this year. He said he’s not interested in the team making the playoffs unless it’s part of a championship.