There's no place here for junk food; all athletes will strive to reach peak physical condition at just the right moment by carefully monitoring everything they eat and drink.

Devil May Care

Rhapsody launched an online music store today that it hopes will loosen Apple's grip on the online music market.

This weekend (June 21 and 22), there will be many opportunities to commemorate National Aboriginal Day. Here’s a selection; for a comprehensive list, visit Indian and Northern Affairs Canada’s website.

It’s never over until the fat lady sings—or the lawyers get involved. CBC announced today in a media release that it has brought in Gord Kirke, a well-known sports and entertainment lawyer, to act as an intermediary in negotiations over CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada theme song.

We Are Now Beginning Our Descent

The band who made the music that became North America’s soundtrack to summer has announced two dates at the River Rock Show Theatre on September 26 and 27.

For the fifth year in a row, British Columbia had the worst child poverty rate of any province in Canada in 2006, according to the latest Statistics Canada numbers.

Short of unusual gift ideas for the women in your life? Then look no further than the China Vagina Collection.

Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist known as the father of LSD, has died aged 102.

An Apple store has been confirmed as coming to the Pacific Centre in Vancouver, a retail development that should delight geeks and iPod lovers throughout the city. However, we can't give a date for when the red tape will be cut and shoppers allowed in. According to Simon Atkins at Socratic Communications, who handles PR for the company in Canada, Apple does not comment on future store openings, and only makes an announcement shortly before a store opens. So, until that

Cricket's new big-bucks tournament, the Indian Premier League, will be televised live in Canada on the Asian Television Network.

Graham Clark, one of the rising talents in Vancouver's standup circuit and voted number two in the city in the Straight's 2007 best of issue, triumphed in the Yuk-Yuk's nationwide Laugh-Off on April 13.

Wen Wei Dance has won the 10th annual Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, a real coup for the B.C-based dancers and their choreographer, Wen Wei.

Wen Wei Dance has won the 10th annual Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, a real coup for the B.C-based dancers and their choreographer, Wen Wei.

The sun may be out and the mercury rising, but a new game from Nintendo may keep thousands inside for the summer.

Another two-under-par round of 70 from Stephen Ames kept him near the top of the leaderboard at the halfway stage of the US Masters in Augusta, Georgia.

A two-under-par round of 70 was good enough to see Canada's Stephen Ames tied at sixth, just two shots off the lead after the first round of the US Masters. The first year's golf major saw beautiful springlike conditions at Augusta, Georgia, but no player broke from the pack to tame the course. Even Tiger Woods, winner of seven out of his past eight tournaments, found the going tricky,

The launch of a new brand of toothpaste in Malaysia has been met with uproar, with consumers calling it crude. The Consumers Association of Penang told the New Straits Times that Oral-Me had sexual connotations.

Russia has a new range of delicate candy babies on the market. Pink and in painstaking detail, these chocolates look ready for human consumption.

A webcam has been set up at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops to monitor the progress of a nest of great horned owls on the campus.

Vancouver multidisciplinary artist Eric Metcalfe has been named one of eight winners of the 2008 Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts.

Neil Aspinall, an old school pal of the Beatles who went on to manage their Apple Corps music business for nearly 40 years, has died in New York City of lung cancer. He was 66.

Jennifer Aniston's rumoured new boyfriend Brian Bouma helps take the load in Vancouver's movie industry as a key grip. According to OK! magazine, the two are meant to have met on the still in-production set of Aniston's new movie, Traveling, which is scheduled for release later this year. In the film, she plays a woman who falls in love with a widowed self-help guru (Aaron Eckhart).Ironically, this comes shortly after stories in the U.K. media linking Aniston with her Traveling costar.

By Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden. Random House, 211 pp, $28, hardcover

Jamie Lee Hamilton, local blogger and sex-trade activist, says that Mayor Sam Sullivan's recent acceptance of open nominations to be the Non-Partisan Association's 2008 mayoral candidate has turned up the pressure on the NPA board. "The NPA board, stacked with Sullivan supporters, will need to move quickly to address this major incongruency," Hamilton wrote on her blog, Oldtown News

It was a top weekend for the Vancouver-shot movie Juno, which culminated in a golden statue on Sunday night at the 80th Academy Awards for best original screenplay for Diablo Cody, the former stripper turned screenwriter.

Sometimes the proof of the pudding is not just in the eating; it’s whether you can still look back fondly on your meal 12 hours later. Romantic dinners, sumptuous sushi, and even humble sandwiches have all been ruined by food poisoning, which can lead to stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Promoting Healthy Living: A Multicultural Health Fair on February 23 at the Croatian Cultural Centre (3250 Commercial Drive) aims to encourage a hale and hearty lifestyle among B.C.'s multicultural communities. There'll be more than 40 exhibitors and health information in eight languages, plus live entertainment, multicultural cooking demonstrations, a children's activities corner, as well as raffles and prizes.

By Bernhard Schlink. Translated by Michael Henry Heim. Pantheon Books, 260 pp, $28, hardcover

Mario Vargas Llosa's latest novel, about a lifelong multifaceted sexual obsession, is yet more proof a Nobel lit prize is overdue

Yet despite the encroaching darkness, there's still an alarming number of pedal-pushers who think hitting the road in dark clothes and no lights at 5 pm in the rush-hour traffic is a good idea

Adera's latest residential project is a model of how to create housing with a small ecological footprint.

Don’t pine for needles Fed up with buying a Christmas tree every year? Then perhaps a 48-inch-high Gold Crazy Weave Tree ($30) or a 32-inch Sequin Tree ($60) from Pier 1 Imports (various locations, www.pier1.com) will put an end to those needles getting stuck in your socks.

Take a walk on the wild side and hunt down some quail, pheasant, or even partridge at a butcher. They’ll be lean and local, too; most of the game birds available are raised in captivity in the Fraser Valley. The taste is, well, gamier, and all "have a lot more flavour than chicken, on par with duck. Even the little quail has great flavour," says chef Jeff van Geest on the phone from the busy kitchen at Aurora Bistro. "Farmed game birds are less full-flavoured than wild ones, for sure, and quail has a finer texture to it. When you get to the colour of the meat, they’re all darker than chicken."

Goat cheese is one of our fastest-growing product categories, and for those searching out new tastes or those suffering lactose intolerance or other milk allergies, goat's milk (and sheep's milk) is a break from the daily rind.

7 tips to help you stay healthy this winter.

By Alice Sebold. Little, Brown; 291 pp; $28.99; hardcover

The benefits of breast-feeding are well documented: they include reducing the risk of developing diabetes, high blood pressure, eczema, and asthma, as well as high cholesterol later in life, according to the BC HealthGuide. But many moms struggle to stick with it because of a lack of community support. On Saturday (September 29), a Breastfeeding Challenge–to launch World Breastfeeding Week–takes place at locations in Vancouver, Abbotsford, Langley, North Vancouver, and Richmond to promote the healthy