Edmonton’s weather is slowly getting warmer allowing more and more people to begin heading outside and enjoy the outdoors.  However, those lovely little critters are also going to be out and about, that’s right the mosquitoes are back! 

To help limit the number of mosquitoes, Edmonton’s pest management has started spraying for the insects.  On April 6th air and ground crews began spraying areas of highest risk, mainly standing pools of water. The mosquitoes have four stages in their life cycle: egg, larva, pupa and adult.  This cycle from egg to adult can take as long four months to as short as four days.  By spraying the larva before they get a chance to develop further pest control hopes to limit the numbers of mosquitoes in Edmonton. 

“We have a number of different crews going out and treating habitat where mosquito larva are developing.  Ah so we target those aquatic habitats which is where the larva are more highly concentrated in number and generally the only thing living in most of these sort of temporary habitat is the mosquito larva,”  said Mike Jenkins – Biological Sciences Technincian 

The ground crews carry an air blower strapped to their backs, which allows them to control the flow and direction of the chemical.  With this spring’s dry start Edmonton’s pest management is hoping for a reduced mosquito population, although nothing is certain. 

Edith Schaeffer has always had a passion for gardening.  She gardens over an acre of land in Lacombe County.  Edith even teaches gardening classes to almost 25 students on her farm.  She teaches them how to plant, maintain and harvest their very own vegetables.  She also has a herd of beef cattle, two llamas and two cats.  Now this is a tall order for any person to balance, but Edith does all this from a wheelchair.  Edith’s legs are both amputated from the knee up.  But her passion is still alive and well when it comes to gardening.

She explains as she looks at her empty garden. “When you see a patch like that, you just know I need to get out into it.” 

Edith knew this year was going to be a challenge, so she called the University of Alberta mechanical engineering program to see if they could help.  She got in touch with Curt Stout, in January.  He informed her that students were picking their yearly projects, and to make a list of what she wants the wheelchair to have.  She did get a call back, and four students want to take on the challenge of building her a one of a kind wheelchair. 

Nick named the “Loam Ranger” the unit is estimated to be $250,000.  All the material, and time put into the project will be donated.  The students say the hardest part of the design is measuring the density of fresh soil.  The design will have tracks like a tank, and have a chair that will lower right to the soil level so that Edith will be able to pick and plant her own vegetables.  She is very happy with the students,

“They’re doing a fantastic job, they’re thinking of things I wouldn’t have.”

Edith feels the machine will give her freedom in not only the garden, but will give her back her independence around her whole farm.  She hopes the machine will be ready in time to use this year, but the chances are slim.  The students estimate that it will be ready just after this summer.

The Edmonton Police West Division welcomed and encouraged the input of local area residents this past Wednesday.  The meeting looked at crime prevention, criminal trends and other issues in the area.  Residents and business owners were invited to ask questions and comment on the proceedings of the meeting.

“Tonight’s a great opportunity for us to get together with the residence of West Division,” says Superintendent Neil Dubord, “to understand exactly what some of their concerns are, and understand as well, what’s working well within their communities making it a safer place to live, work and play.”

One topic that hit close to home with many was the operating of a new hemp shop that opened recently across the street from the local elementary school.  Many residents feel it is out-of-place and should be moved.

“It’s just way to close for comfort,” says Laurel Hawkswell, a concerned parent and the Vice-President of the Community League.  Hawkswell feels the community is affected by the business operating.  She now goes elsewhere for items that she used to pick up at the local corner store, simply because she and others in the neighbourhood feel uncomfortable.  ”In a perfect world, I would like the shop to move.”

Laurel does see both sides to the story.  ”They have as much right as anybody else to open a business, I just don’t think it’s in the appropriate place.”

The meeting covered the concerns of other residents in the area.  Issues that were not dealt with at the meeting were given special attention after it was over.  Many resident and police officers stayed later to discuss these issues and hopefully find a way to satisfy them. For more details and other information about the West Division, visit the Edmonton Police Website.

A new way of fitness is grabbing the attention of women across Edmonton.  Aradia Fitness, which opened in 2003, focuses on not only getting you in shape, but also teaches pole dancing classes. 

This isn’t the usual sight you would see for getting in shape, but if you want a unique workout this is the place to get it.  Aradia Fitness, located on Jasper Ave., provides women a chance to get in shape, and have fun while doing it.  Krystal Wall, who was a Medical Radiation Technology Instructor at NAIT, is now the owner of Aradia Fitness.

Wall said, “I got involved with Aradia Fitness because I wanted to take a sensual fitness workout class.  In Vancouver they were offering pole dancing.  So I went to Vancouver to take a pole dancing class, and found it extremely empowering as well as a good workout, and all those things.”

Aradia is becoming a hot commodity around Canada and the USA.  Girls 18 and older can test out this new form of fitness to try to get in touch with their sexy side. 

“The age range can range from 18 to 75…all over the map.  The majority of our girls is probably between 25 and 55,” said Wall.

With small class sizes, and hands on instruction Aradia combines mixing strength, toning, cardio, and stretching all in one workout.  Natalie Dinsdale, an instructor and Lead Choreographer for Aradia Fitness at the Edmonton Taboo Show, describes how a typical class would start off.

“Normally we have two instructors.  We’ll have one instructor take the ladies through a floor workout, which includes a warm-up, lots of warming up through our hips, work on movement, hip circles, isolating our upper body.  Then we go into some upper body work so some sexy push-ups, and other moves based on pilates that have that sexy edge to them.  We also do a lot of stretching to work on our flexibility, prevent injuries and then we also do a lot of ab workouts.”

Ashley Reeves who was a Program Assistant for the MRT program at NAIT is now a student at the fitness club.  She describes why she has made the switch from the gym to pole dancing.

“I find with pole dancing I’ll come back to classes because your learning something new every week.  Where as I know what to expect from the gym…I know there’s a bike, I know there’s an eliptical, and I know that’s what I have to do.  Where as coming back to classes it is different every week.  You never know what to expect.”

For you girls out there, this may be the place you want to check into if you’re looking for a change in your workout style.

• Eyestrain
• Headaches
• Blurred Vision
• Dry and Irritated Eyes
• Neck and/ or Back Ache
• Light Sensitivity
• Back Pain

When will it end? Taking a leap from a standard tube TV, to a HD flat panel LCD was enough for most people. Now consumers won’t even have to leave their house to experience the breathtaking 3D visuals that they would normally have to see in movie theatres. 3D television has arrived and it’s here to stay.

It’s only been a handful of years since the release of flat panel LCD and plasma TVs, and already the television industry taken a huge stride forward by introducing a three dimensional viewing experience. When the first batch of LCDs came onto the market, consumers had to shell out about $30,000 to get their hands on them. Now the average LCD costs a fraction of the price at around a $1,000 and is a far superior product than the first generation of LCDs. Thankfully if you want to be one of the first to experience 3D television in the comfort of your own home, you won’t have to pay as much as a family sized sedan to do so.

A 40″ 3D TV will cost about $2,500 on average, but in order to view the 3D image you have to be wearing a special set of 3D glasses, which cost just under $500 per set. So if you have a large family, experiencing 3D TV is going to get pricy really quickly. 3D TVs won’t put as much of a strain on consumers wallet as the first generation of LCDs, but the technology is still quite expensive. The bottom line is, the option to upgrade is now available to the consumer.

It’s official. According to the calendar, spring has now officially arrived. Unfortunately, this also means the arrival of hay fever season which is bad news for those with allergies.

Allergic reactions are caused when the body’s immune system interprets something to be a threat (even when it shouldn’t be). And once the body has decided this, any contact with the substance will result in a reaction that depending on the severity of  the allergy, could result in various ways from mild swelling to death.

Common Allergies include:

-Peanuts

-Animal Hair

-Pollen

-Dairy

Lindsay Berg is a NAIT student with several such allergies including: cats, snow mould, and dust.

“Unless there’s a lot of it [dust, cat hair], then it doesn’t really bother me,” says Lindsay when asked about the severity of her allergies.

In actuality, Lindsay considers herself lucky when compared to friends of hers who are considerably worse off. One friend, she says, has a particularly bad peanut allergy that could potentially result in death with enough exposure.

Now food allergies like this can sometimes be outgrown. But allergies to inhalants tend to be lifelong. Fortunately there are ways to lessen the effects.

Despite not being too serious, Lindsay’s allergies can result in discomfort, mainly shortness of breath. With this in mind, she keeps a breathalyzer handy and takes the occasional dose of Reactin; an allergy relief medication.

Lindsay will find the current outbreak of snow mould in our city annoying, but knows that it’s all just a part of the transition into summer.

by Ian Willard

The streets of Edmonton are about to get a whole lot faster. With the recent announcement of Race Week 2010, Edmonton’s racing community has more than just the Honda Indy to look forward to this coming summer. Race Week 2010 is a month-long series of events designed to promote the local racing community and gain some awareness. Race week spokesman Richard Skermer expects the event to be a fixture in summers still to come.

“It’s repeatable, we expect this event to grow and be around for a long time, and it’s adaptable, it’s not dependent on any one event. It can keep going and new events can be added.”

The month-long series of events begins in late June and runs all the way through to the end of July with the headline event being the Edmonton Honda Indy. On top of the Indy, Race Week will involve many other events, motorized events such as the Aviation museums “Airfest” and the Super Cruise on July 18 in which hundreds of cars will be involved in a procession down Anthony Henday Drive. Non-motorized events such as the Soap Box Derby down Victoria Hill Park are a good way to involve the whole family agrees Tom Hendirks

“The idea is to be family friendly, very affordable… inexpensive or free and for everybody to have a really good time while making Edmonton a fun place to be”

On top of the events taking place, Race Week 2010 is a good way for car clubs and enthusiasts to branch out to an array of people and bring about more knowledge towards Edmonton as a racing community and the city as a whole.

Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre presents a great American  play “The Glass Menagerie.”  This drama was written by Tennessee Williams, and is based loosely on his family life.  

The basic story line is the character Amanda Wingfield is obsessed with finding the perfect husband for her daughter.  Her son Tom wants to run away and find an adventure of his own, but won’t leave his sister behind unmatched.  Together Tom and his mother embark on a journey of finding a match for Laura, which could be difficult given her delicate nature.  Through this process, dreams will be crushed, and hearts broken.

The cast has a few familiar faces in it.  Tom is played by Shaun Smyth, and Fiona Reid plays Amanda, (both from “Rock ‘n’ Roll,” ).  Jennifer Mawhinney plays Laura, Christopher Schulz as Jim, and Peter Christeas plays the role of Khalid.

Director, Tom Wood, played Tom Wingfield in a high school play, and in different productions later on in his life.  But Wood wasn’t happy with how they turned out.  As a director,  he hopes to make it less soft and romantic, and bring viewers more vigor and danger at the Citadel production.  Wood is impressed with the early success the drama has already had her in Edmonton:

“We’ve had three wonderful previews and the audience has stood, and have really enjoyed it.  It’s a great story I’m hoping people will take that away with them.”

Citadel Artistic Director Bob Baker feels that  Wood’s “passionate direction breathes fresh and relevant life into this great dramatic work of art.” 

“The Glass Menagerie” opens April 1st, and will run until the 18th.

The Edmonton Food Bank is one of Canada’s first food banks and they are the longest running food bank in Canada.  It all started as grocery stores around the city were getting rid of extra produce, the food bank decided to pick it up and distribute it to Edmonton’s less fortunate families that were not able to provide for themselves.

“We started is 1981,” says Debbie Theuss, Community Relations Manager for Edmonton’s Food Bank.  “And we’re still here and again unfortunately that need is still there and sometimes growing.”

Edmonton’s Food Bank is always in need of food donations and volunteers. 

Debbie also mentioned that monetary donations are always appreciated as the Food Bank is always low on something.  They use the funds to purchase items that will nutritionally balance the hampers.

If you would like to donate your time, non-perishable food items, or money, please visit Edmonton’s Food Bank website.