So many people are trying to register their phone numbers on the federal do-not-call list, the website has crashed and the phone lines have a constant busy tone.

Commenters to CBCNews.ca expressed frustration at not being able to get through, but not all of them were surprised at the breakdown.

"It appears the do-not-call registry site was so popular it brought down their server. I am getting … page cannot be displayed errors," wrote Alienc, of Riverview, N.B.

The popularity of the list was not unexpected. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has projected that of Canada's 27 million residential phone lines, which include cellphone numbers, 16 million would be on the do-not-call list within two years.

Read full story.

Besides registering for this list, what do you do to avoid telemarketers? Share your tips

Saskatchewan can no longer be considered just a have-not province of seemingly endless farmers' fields, the premier of the Prairie province said Monday as he appealed to workers to head west to find jobs.
"It's not just a great place to make a living — it's a great place to make a life. That's our message when we're here."

Strong commodities markets and an abundance of natural resources like potash and uranium are boosting Saskatchewan's economy, and now the province is attracting residents instead of losing them, as has been the trend over the past 20 years.

In his speech, Wall sprinkled in some little-known facts about his province: it sells more oil to the United States than Kuwait, and Saskatchewan uranium provides six per cent of America's electricity.

Wall's government is hoping to woo laid-off workers from Ontario's battered manufacturing sector. Saskatchewan politicians brought 50 companies from the Prairie province to Toronto for the country's largest job fair, which starts Tuesday.

There are an estimated 10,000 unfilled jobs in Saskatchewan.

Read the full story.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/09/30/ont-sask.html

What would it take for you to move to Saskatchewan?

If you have stories or advice when it comes to the financial turmoil, we want to hear from you.

Read related stories:
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Paul Newman, the blue-eyed leading man who starred in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and gained notoriety for his philanthropic work and love of racing, died Friday at 83 after a long battle with cancer.

He died at his farmhouse in Westport, Conn., surrounded by friends and family.

Newman was nominated six times for an Academy Award before he took home the best-actor honour for The Color of Money (1986). Story

What did Paul Newman mean to you?

Canada's fertility rate reached a 10-year high in 2006, when women aged 30 to 34 had more babies than women aged 25 to 29 for the first time, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Women in Canada continue to postpone childbearing. Over the last 20 years, the average age of women giving birth rose from 27.0 to 29.3, the agency said.

Read full story

What are the Pros and Cons of waiting later in life to have kids?

Thousands of bewildered commuters in downtown Toronto were forced above ground late Thursday afternoon when two cables fell on the track at Eglinton station and knocked out the subway signal.

The failure closed the Yonge subway line between Lawrence and Bloor stations just as the rush hour commute was beginning around 5 p.m.

"The best description I can give you is I haven't seen anything like this probably since 1993 when the Blue Jays last won the World Series," the CBC's John Lancaster reported from Yonge Street, referring to the thousands of fans who flocked to the lengthy north-south strip after the Toronto baseball team's win.

"That's how many people are walking up and down Yonge Street now without a ride home."

Read the full story

Were you stranded downtown last night? How did you get home?

Tropical storm Kyle has gained strength while swirling in the Atlantic Ocean and is slowly moving north, reports the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

Kyle's maximum sustained winds increased to about 96 kilometres per hour by early Friday in the Atlantic Ocean. It's about 820 kilometres southwest of Bermuda, where a tropical storm watch has been issued.

Forecasters said the storm could become a hurricane by Saturday as it moves north at about 20 km/h.

The National Hurricane Center is also warning the northeastern United States and the Canadian Maritimes to watch the storm as it progresses over the next few days.

Kyle is expected to reach the Maritime provinces by Sunday with rains and strong winds until Monday.

Read full story

If you live in the Maritimes how are you preparing for Kyle?

Send us your pictures as Kyle comes ashore.

PETA says it wants world famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

The idea got a cool reception Thursday from Ben & Jerry's officials, the company's customers and even La Leche League International, the world's oldest breast-feeding support organization, which promotes the practice — for babies, anyway.

Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA, acknowledged the implausibility of substituting breast milk for cow's milk, but said it's no stranger than humans consuming the milk of another species.

Read full story

What do you think of PETAS stunts - are they achieving their goals or just drumming up press?

The organizing committee for the 2010 Winter Games has applied for a trademark on two lines from Canada's national anthem, raising the possibility that they'll form the slogan for the Vancouver Olympics.

The committee requested trademarks this month on the phrase "with glowing hearts" from the English version of the anthem and "des plus brilliants exploits," which appears in the French version.

O Canada is over 100 years old and, according to the Department of Canadian Heritage, is in the public domain so may be used without permission from the government.

Hockey fans used to singing the anthem with gusto before a game or schoolchildren who sing it every morning shouldn't worry.

But if anyone tries to sell products using either phrase, the organizing committee could, and likely will, come calling.

Should VANOC be able to trademark parts of the national anthem?

Motorists in New Brunswick are being told to keep any eye out for moose wandering onto roadways because their mating season has begun.

That warning follows on the heels of three accidents involving the animals last weekend on Highway 15 that runs from Moncton to Port Elgin. There was also one crash on Highway 16 between Aulac and Port Elgin last weekend. One person suffered head injuries.

Every year more than 300 New Brunswick motorists are involved in collisions with a moose. This of course is not just a problem in New Brunswick. Wildlife and vehicle encounters are common in Canada.

Full story

Tell us your stories of accidents or near misses involving wildlife and vehicles. Do you have any tips to prevent these encounters?

Joe Soto, general manager of an advertising firm in Philadelphia, has a complicated relationship with his BlackBerry e-mail phone.

He felt "awful" and out of touch when he was without a BlackBerry for two days because his unit fell overboard when he was sailing on the Chesapeake.

At the same time, if he could turn back the clock five years, to before the BlackBerry took over corporate America, he would do it "in a minute."

"If everybody also threw their BlackBerrys away, I would too," he said, chuckling. "The only problem is, in my industry, it makes me more competitive."

A study published Wednesday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project shows that workers in general have mixed feelings about the increased use of e-mail and the internet in the last few years.

Half of the respondents who were employed and had e-mail said they check their work e-mail on weekends, and a full 22 per cent said they checked office e-mail "often" on the weekends, up from 16 per cent who said the same thing in 2002.

But 46 per cent also said these BlackBerry devices increase the demands that they work more hours, and 49 per cent said that the technologies make it harder to disconnect from work when they should be off.

Full story

Has has your BlackBerry extended your work hours?

Some energy drinks contain as much caffeine as 14 cans of Coca-Cola and have no labels warning consumers about potential health risks, say researchers with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

The scientists reviewed energy drinks and published their findings in the September issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Discovering that the caffeine content of such drinks varies from 50 to more than 500 milligrams, they argue for prominent labelling so consumers know whether they are getting a little or a lot of caffeine.

Caffeine intoxication is marked by nervousness, anxiety, restlessness, insomnia, gastrointestinal upset, tremors, rapid heartbeats, agitation and in very rare cases, death.

Read full story

Should all caffeinated drinks be labeled?

Just under half of Canadians say they pick through sidewalk discards for good free stuff, according to a survey sponsored by the classifieds website Kijiji.

And while 44 per cent of people surveyed admitted to trash-picking — or, as Kijiji would have it, "curb-mining" — one in six of those who have done it nevertheless said they didn't think it was acceptable.

The poll, carried out by Environics Research Group, also revealed that items taken include everything from furniture (52 per cent) and children's toys (20 per cent) to computers and electronics (16 per cent), and even antiques and art (22 per cent).

Nearly two in five people who trash pick said their motivation, at least part of the time, was that the goods are free, the survey found. The freebie pricetag becomes even more important among people aged 25 to 44, while those older than 55 reported they would be less likely to pick through discards just because they are free.

Read full story

Have you picked through sidewalk discards for good free stuff? Is there anything wrong with it?

Found a treasure on the sidewalk? Send us your photos

In reaction to the Conservative government's $45-million cut to arts funding, federal opposition leaders have come out swinging. NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion have both vowed to restore the funding if their parties are elected.

In a show of support for artists, Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe also are attending a Montreal concert Sept. 23 to protest the Harper government's arts policy.

Read the full story here.

Will the parties' cultural policies have any effect on the way you vote in the Oct. 14 election?

A new study says Nova Scotians are working more hours than ever as their free time shrinks.

The report, by Nova Scotia-based research group GPI Atlantic, says on average workers are putting in a month more of extra paid work time than they did 10 years ago.

The GPI report found single working mothers to be the group most affected by loss of free time, which has shrunk by 2.7 hours a day or nearly 19 hours a week.

Full story

Does your life reflect the findings out of Nova Scotia?

Motorists who send text messages while driving are "significantly more impaired" than those who drive drunk, even at the minimum legal limit for alcohol, according to a British study.

The study showed that drivers' reaction times deteriorated by 35 per cent and they saw a 91 per cent decrease in steering ability.

Similar studies of drunk driving, by comparison, showed that reaction times fell by a mere 12 per cent.

The study comes on the heels of reports that texting was to blame when a commuter train slammed head-on into a freight train in Los Angles two weeks ago, killing 25 people.

Read full story

Textually impaired - do you type and drive?

Police are investigating a stabbing aboard a Greyhound bus bound for Winnipeg, an incident in which a young man was attacked by another passenger as the vehicle travelled through northwestern Ontario.

The man who was stabbed is believed to be in his 20s. He was taken to hospital Sunday afternoon with minor injuries, the Sault Star newspaper reported.

The incident comes less than two months after a Greyhound passenger beheaded Tim McLean, a 22-year-old man from Winnipeg, sparking questions about security on buses.

Full story

Are there enough security measures for bus travel? Do you feel safe taking the bus?

Downtown Montreal is going car-free for a day. Commuters in Montreal are being encouraged to leave their cars at home for the day and use public transit to mark the city's annual car-free day.

Several downtown streets were closed to traffic on Monday within a perimeter delimited by McGill College and St-Urbain streets, and René-Lévesque Boulevard and Maisonneuve Street.

Streets within the perimeter are off-limits to cars between 9:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.

The city is hosting activities throughout the day to encourage public transit use.

Can you go without your car for a day? What do you think of this idea?

Is it car-free day in your city? Send us your photos and video of the event.

Across the country there has been a stunning increase in the number of products pulled from store shelves and fast food restaurants due to contamination by a sometimes deadly bacteria. In some cases the cause turns out to be domestic as in the case of Maple Leaf foods listeria outbreak. In other cases the cause for concern is from imported food products from places like China.

Many experts are proclaiming this as proof of a long-simmering crisis in Canada's food supply.Food safety experts say that the surge reflects more testing and rsing concern about Canada's realtively lax standards for food safety.

Are you concerned about the level of food inspection in Canada? What should be done?

Checking out Ricky Gervais' latest comedy Ghost Town or watching Kiera Knightley don another corset in her latest period piece, The Duchess?

Maybe there's an indie flick under the radar you're dying to tell everyone about.

Put the movies you love and hate under the microscope and send us your reviews.

An Argentinian woman was surprised, to say the least, when her plane which she thought was bound for Sydney, Australia, landed in Sydney, Nova Scotia instead.

Monique Rozanes Torres Aguero purchased her ticket to the wrong Sydney online and only discovered her mistake once she stepped off the plane. Expecting to see the famous opera house, Aguero instead found herself in the home of the "largest Ceilidh fiddle in the world."

While she had intended to re-book a flight to Australia, Aguero has decided to enjoy the rest of her vacation in the Cape Breton area.

Read the full story.

Have you ever made a travel booking mistake? Flown to London, Ontario instead of U.K.? Tell us about your travelling mishaps.

The Toronto Transit Commission is adopting new drug-testing measures, but it has backed away from the most controversial proposal — random testing.

TTC general manager Gary Webster told the commission on Thursday that the measures, which will go into effect in a year, are necessary to ensure continued safety on buses and subways.

The union representing TTC workers was quick to attack the plan, calling it "a shameless attempt by senior management to deflect attention away from their incompetence when it comes to protecting our members' health and safety."

After a year of reviewing its employee drug and alcohol policies, the TTC concluded there was an unacceptable risk on the system, and it wasn't doing enough to deter drug and alcohol use among employees.

Read full story

Should drug testing be mandatory for public transportation employees?

Pharmacists in B.C. will have the ability to renew prescriptions, alter dosages and dispense substitute drugs without the oversight of a doctor beginning in January.

The province is following Alberta's lead, which started the practice last year as a way to increase access to medication despite the shortage of doctors.

Soon afterward, the B.C. Pharmacy Association began lobbying the provincial government to institute a similar system in B.C. The change takes effect Jan. 1, 2009.

Health Minister George Abbott stressed that in B.C. the pharmacists' new power applies to routine renewal of prescriptions for conditions such as high blood pressure that don't require people to see a doctor each time.

Read full story

Should pharmacists be able to renew and alter prescriptions without a doctor?Are their risks to patients? How will this lighten the load of our medical system?

Super Chicken strutted a step closer to the dinner table Thursday.

The U.S. government said it will start considering proposals to sell genetically engineered animals as food, a move that could lead to faster-growing fish, cattle that can resist mad cow disease, or perhaps heart-healthier eggs laid by a new breed of chicken.

"Genetic engineering of animals is here and has been here for some time, " said Larisa Rudenko, a science policy adviser with the FDA's veterinary medicine centre. "We intend to provide a rigorous, risk-based regulatory path for developers to follow to help ensure public health and the health of animals."

Reaction from consumer groups was mixed. On one hand, they welcomed the government's decision to regulate genetically altered animals. But they cautioned that many crucial details remain to be spelled out. For example, the FDA does not plan to require in all cases that genetically engineered meat, poultry and fish be labelled as such for consumers.

Full story

Would you eat genetically engineered animals?

Seven years after the death of writer Douglas Adams, a new scribe has been hired to update his The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series.

Irish children's writer Eoin Colfer, creator of the bestselling Artemis Fowl novels about a teenaged criminal mastermind, has been hired by Adams's publisher Penguin to create a sixth book in the Hitchhiker's Guide series.

Consumers who redeem money-saving coupons in stores face a "shame stigma" that may extend to people standing in line nearby, Canadian researchers suggest.

Marketing professors Jennifer Argo of the University of Alberta and Kelley J. Main of the Asper School of Business theorize that the act of redeeming coupons elicits a stigma-by-association phenomenon, in which the person redeeming the coupon and those around them are perceived as being "cheap."

Argo said coupon redemption rates tend to be low, with use tallying a modest two per cent in the U.S. The researchers suggest the modern consumer tends to prize status and luxury over thrift.

Read full story

Do you use coupons and what is your perception of those who do?

Canadian officials plan to begin negotiating a deal to integrate Canada's economy with the 27 nations of the European Union. Preliminary talks are set to begin at a summit in Montreal three days after the federal election.

Proponents, including all of Canada's major business-lobby orginizations are, in favour of the deal because it would open the door to 500 million people.

If the deal is successful, Canada would be the first developed nation to have open trade relations with the EU.

What do you think. Should Canada expand our trade beyond NAFTA and start dealing with the EU market?

In an effort to get kids exercising, many parents are enrolling their children in fitness centres or buying child-sized equipment for a workout more gruelling than ballet or Little League but cheaper than hiring a personal trainer.

Last year, 1.3 million children ages six to 11 were members of a health club, according to the International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association. And as of April, a quarter of IHRSA member clubs surveyed had children's programs. At Action Kids Fitness Center, with two locations in California, children can take a 40 to 45-minute circuit training workout with resistance machines and cardio stations, including stationary bikes that connect to PlayStation 2.

But while experts agree that any fitness is better than nothing, they aren't so sure this is the answer.

Children should be outside interacting with other children, not playing video games in a musty basement, said Tony Sparber, who runs New Image Weight Loss Camps.

Read full story

How do you get your kids to exercise?

Bell Canada Inc. has been illegally charging ExpressVu television customers a monthly late fee, an Ontario court has ruled in a case that has implications for other service providers.

In a ruling released late Monday, Ontario Superior Court Justice Paul Perell found the company's $25 late fee — which is tacked on top of interest charges — was illegal under the Criminal Code.

The company has been charging the fee to about 33,000 of its 1.7 million ExpressVu satellite customers each month, according to court documents.

The class-action lawsuit was filed in 2005 by Peter De Wolf, a resident of Braeside, Ont., near Ottawa.

De Wolf said he paid the fee 10 times between January 2001 and May 2006 and, coupled with interest charges, it totalled more than 60 per cent of his bill, an amount that is illegal under federal law.

De Wolf's lawyer said the decision was a big win for consumers.

"It's going to have implications well beyond this particular service provider charging late fees," she said. "We're aware that Bell ExpressVu's competitors engage in the same practice.... We certainly know the late fees levied are comparable."

Read full story

Are you being charged other fees that you feel are illegal or unjust?

Some high school students are making money by selling junk food out of lockers at their Burnaby school despite a provincial ban on junk food sales now in effect in all B.C. schools.

The three Grade 11 students — who asked to be identified only as Weeman, The Fern and Goggles — told CBC News they made more than $200 in the first week of school by bulk-buying candy and chocolate bars, then selling them at a profit.

The thriving underground trade doesn't just rely on word of month, Weeman said. Along with business cards, they have a Facebook page on the social networking website listing available products.

Full story

Is this entrepreneurial spirit or should they be shut down?

People exposed to years of low levels of bisphenol A, a chemical commonly found in plastic food containers, may be at higher risk of developing heart disease and diabetes — the first such finding in humans — U.S. researchers reported Tuesday.

BPA makes plastic hard and shatterproof. The chemical is used to line cans and is found in water bottles and baby bottles, as well as consumer products like CDs.

Those with the highest levels also had 2.4 times the odds of Type 2 diabetes compared to those in the lowest quintile, after adjusting for age and sex.

Also, higher BPA concentrations were linked with "clinically abnormal" concentrations of liver enzymes that are a marker for liver damage.

Read full story

What have you done to get rid of Bisphenol A around your house and will you do more?

Many elementary students in Nova Scotia are struggling with math, the latest assessments show.

The Department of Education released 2007 assessment results on Monday, including a breakdown of how each school fared.

The results show that about one-third of Grade 3 students failed to meet expectations in understanding basic math concepts.

Full story

Are your kids having trouble with math? What are you doing to help?

One in five day cares in Charlottetown either refuses or is reluctant to take children with life threatening allergies, a CBC survey has found.

Kim Doyle's son, Nicholas, is highly allergic to peanuts. Eating just a trace can send him into anaphylactic shock, making it difficult to breath and possibly causing his blood pressure to drop so severely his heart stops.

Doyle visited 10 daycares before finding one she said made her feel comfortable.

The first thing Doyle asked potential daycares was, "Do you take children with life-threatening allergies?"

"Some were just, flat out, no we don't," said Doyle.

Read full story

How hard is it to find daycare services for children with allergies?

About 400 students at Bishop Allen Academy in Etobicoke are being temporarily relocated to a downtown school because of mould.

The entire Grade 10 class is moving from Royal York Road to Bathurst Street and Bloor Street because mould was found in four portable classrooms this summer.

Bishop Allen relies on portables to help accommodate a large portion of its 1,400 students. And the high school is an example of what can happen when mould gets into a building.

As a precaution a total of 20 portables will be demolished and replaced at a cost of about $2 million.

What's the state of your school's portables?

A new Ipsos Red poll suggest Canadians hate doing laundry and when they do get around to it, they do it badly.

30 per cent of Canadians admit they only get around to it when they've run out of clean underwear. And once they get the piles into the machines, nearly 25 per cent of Canadians confess they've left their clothes in the washer or dryer for days before tending to them, suggests the poll.

The survey of 1,012 Canadian homeowners, conducted by Ipsos Reid on behalf of GE Appliances, revealed a few secrets about the relationship Canadians have with their laundry. Twenty-seven per cent of poll participants said they put everything in the dryer, even if the label said not to.

Read full story

Do you think laundry skills have disappeared? With all of those extra symbols and instructions, is it just too complicated? Is there a chore you like less than laundry?

A controversial new Canadian cookbook, titled Fat: An Appreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipes, is taking the low-fat diet to task, and asking if many of society's current health woes are not actually the result of our reduced intake of butter, lard, suet, chicken skin and other animal fats.

"You can't be alive without fat," says author Jennifer McLagan, whose 2005 cookbook Bones won a James Beard award.

Read full story

Does fat get a bad rap? Is lean actually mean to our bodies?

Canadian and U.S. stocks fell sharply at the opening of trading Monday as the bankruptcy filing by U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and cascading fears about the stability of other major financial institutions rattled global markets.

In Toronto, the S&P/TSX composite index was down 402.59 points to 12,366.99 within minutes of the beginning of the trading day.

On Wall Street, shares of financial services companies led the market's dive and stoked worries about the economy and the corporate profit outlook.

Full story

Are you making any financial changes because of the latest market turmoil?

The City of Toronto is considering everything from a tax to an outright ban on objects like paper coffee cups, fast-food containers and plastic bags that clog the recycling system.

By 2010, Toronto wants to send only 30 per cent of its garbage to landfill sites.

But to achieve that goal, the city says, it needs to limit the garbage that takes up a lot of space — and that means reducing Styrofoam cartons, plastic bags and the ubiquitous paper coffee cup.

Among the proposals is adding a levy to coffee cups, or banning them altogether.

Read full story

How would you cope with a coffee-cup ban in your community?

A minor-league football coach in Winnipeg has been suspended after he outfitted a 10-year-old quarterback's helmet with a wireless communication device.

An official noticed the coach of the St. Vital Mustangs was communicating from the sidelines with his quarterback on the field using a Bluetooth-equipped cell phone during a game on Aug. 24.

The coach has been suspended for two games, and the Mustangs had to forfeit that game, which they had won, said Rob Berkowits, executive director of Football Manitoba.

Read full story.

What's the most devious or creative thing you've seen a coach do to win a game?

While U.S. officials are telling Houston-area residents to stay put and wait while Hurricane Ike passes over the city, mandatory evacuations have been ordered for surrounding coastal areas.

As of Friday morning, the storm was centred about 370 kilometres southeast of Galveston, moving to the west-northwest at close to 20 km/h. Ike was a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds that had increased slightly to near 165 km/h, and is expected to strengthen throughout the day.

Read full story.

Are you a Canadian in the Hurricane ke hot zone? Do you have friends or family in the storm's path?

We'd like to hear from you. Share your stories below.

Send us your Ike photos.

Motorists in many cities in Canada received a sharp surprise early Friday when they discovered the price of gasoline had risen by as much as 13 cents a litre.

Liberal MP Dan McTeague, a critic of the oil industry, said he cannot recall a time when gasoline prices rose by so much in such a short period of time.

McTeague said "there is no justification" for Friday's increase. He said the four main Canadian oil companies are taking advantage of motorists.

Does such a sudden hike indicate a need for a gasoline ombudsman, as suggested by NDP Leader Jack Layton?

Full Story

It's pink shirt day today at some Nova Scotia schools. It all started last year when two Nova Scotia students turned the tide against the bullies who picked on a fellow student for wearing pink.

The victim — a Grade 9 boy at Central Kings Rural High School in the small community of Cambridge — wore a pink polo shirt on his first day of school. Bullies harassed the boy, called him a homosexual for wearing pink and threatened to beat him up, students said.

Two Grade 12 students — David Shepherd and Travis Price — heard the news and decided to take action.They went to a nearby discount store and bought 50 pink shirts, including tank tops, to wear to school the next day.

READ MORE.

Send us your pink shirt photos

What creative ways of dealing with bullies have you seen put into practice?

According to a Canadian-led study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, many people with osteoarthritis benefit as much from physiotherapy and mild pain relievers as they would from arthroscopic surgery.

The study concluded that routinely practised knee surgery is ineffective at reducing joint pain or improving joint function in people with osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis, affecting one in every 10 Canadians and 27 million Americans.

Read full story

Have you had knee surgery to improve joint function? Did it help? Are there particular exercises or remedies you use to ease pain?

Tell us your story.

The world's biggest physics experiment has succeeded in its first major test as a beam of protons was successfully fired all the way around a 27-kilometre tunnel beneath the Swiss-French border.

The protons travelled the full length Wednesday of the $3.8-billion Large Hadron Collider that scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe. There was a series of trial runs.

Scientists hope to see what the components of atoms are made of by smashing them together.

Last week the safety assessment group for the LHC published a review that dismissed fears that the collider would create universe-gobbling black holes or anti-matter destroying the Earth.

Read full story

Are you concerned about the experiments? Is this the end of the world as we know it, or do you feel fine?

Almost nine in 10 Canadians would tell their employer if they were mistakenly overpaid by 50 per cent, according to a survey sponsored by ADP Canada.

That number drops slightly if the overpayment was just 25 per cent or 10 per cent, the poll shows.

The younger you are, however, the less likely you would be to report an overpayment. Twenty-four per cent of people between ages of 18 and 29 say they would keep quiet.

There were regional differences, with Atlantic Canadians being the most honest. About 95 per cent would come forward if overpaid, according to the poll.

Read full story

What about you. Would you report an overpayment to your employer?

Richard Monette, the longest-serving artistic director of the Stratford Festival, has died at the age of 64, CBC News has learned.

Monette retired from the festival in August 2007 after 14 seasons that included the addition of a fourth theatre, an acting school and a financially profitable operation.

Monette was born in Montreal on June 19, 1944, and graduated from Concordia University in that city.

Share your memories of Richard Monette the artistic director of the Stratford Festival.

As far as political action goes, there's power in numbers and nowhere is it easier to amass those numbers than online.

Just ask Jim Prentice, who delayed the introduction of the controversial copyright reform legislation, Bill C-61, thanks to an opposing Facebook group boasting 90,000+ members. Or talk to Rogers who know a thing or two about the internet's power of persuasion. Earlier this year, an online petition complaining about high data plans and unwieldy contracts tied to the release of the iPhone, caused the telecommunications company to lower their prices in advance of the product's launch.

University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist, who spearheaded the group against Bill C-61, calls this phenomenon "Facebook activism." Read full story

Have you ever signed an online petition or voiced your frustration on the web? What causes are important enough for you log-on and sign-up?

Fredericton councillors may have moved in the right direction by altering a bylaw amendment that limits where dogs can be walked, but some pet owners are still concerned the rules are too broad.

The amendment will ban dogs from sports fields, swimming areas and playgrounds owned and operated by the city. In its original form, the amendment would have left the door open to a ban on dogs in municipal parks, which created protest among some of the capital's pet owners.

Under the new bylaw, pet owners will still be able to walk theirs dogs in parks and on public pathways but pets won't be able to run loose in areas where children are playing.

Coun. David Kelly said the bylaw will be used to keep dogs off sports fields being used by children.

City staff will now have to determine the fines for breaking the bylaw, Kelly said.

Where should pets be allowed? Does the ban go too far?

A high school in Prince Edward Island is asking the provincial government to ban the sale of high-caffeine drinks because students are drinking them at unhealthy levels.

Similar bans have been raised in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, where schools would like to keep the drinks off of school property. In Michigan, a Republican lawmaker said last month he would sponsor a bill outlawing the sale of energy drinks to minors.

In Souris, P.E.I., a CBC television reporter spoke with several students who said they downed the caffeinated drinks with the regularity many adults save for coffee.

"It gets you going in the morning," said one young man. "I drink it pretty much just for the energy rush," added Grade 9 student Malcolm Coady.

Read full story

What do you think? Should the sale of high-caffeine drinks be banned from schools?

A Winnipeg architect says his latest project is making a big difference in his neighbourhood: he's given people who live on the streets near his inner-city office a place to relieve themselves.

Wins Bridgman recently moved his firm to a renovated building at the corner of Higgins Avenue and Main Street. He noticed a strong smell of urine in the area, where homeless people who live or spend time had no access to a toilet.

Bridgman wanted the city to build public washrooms near his firm, but says the city encountered some logistical problems.

So he and the Downtown Business Improvement Zone set up two portable toilets on the corner. A few weeks later, he said, the difference is noticeable.

It cost $700 to rent the two portable loos for three months, including the cost of biweekly cleaning, Bridgman said, a cost he considers well worth the result.

Police and BIZ patrollers check the restrooms regularly to ensure they aren't being used for illegal activity, he said.

Should we provide free public washrooms?

The softening real estate market that's driven down home prices in the Lower Mainland is spreading to the B.C. Interior, experts say.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver reported Wednesday the average price of a detached home in the area fell 4.3 per cent over the summer, down from record highs set in May, the result of more houses being put on the market and fewer people buying.

Those in the industry say the slump is now being felt as far away as the scenic town of Kimberley, nestled in the mountains of B.C.'s Kootenay region.

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Have you noticed real estate prices falling where you live?

A swelling number of individual Canadians overwhelmed by their debts pushed bankruptcies up 17.2 per cent in July compared with a year earlier.

The Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcies said Friday there were 7,908 bankruptcies in July, up from 7,478 in June and 6,747 in July 2007.

The pain was concentrated among individuals, as personal bankruptcies were 6.3 per cent higher than in June and 19 per cent higher than in July of last year.

Business bankruptcies were down 1.9 per cent from June and 6.4 per cent below the level of July 2007.

Has the economy become your number one issue in the upcoming election?

What do humans do for the Earth's biosphere that isn't about humans?

That's the question Les Knight, spokesman for the whimsically titled Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, wants you to answer.

To be a volunteer means deciding not to have children. For VHETM believers it's a decision for the planet, for species that aren't human, for frogs and lowland gorillas, polar bears and albatrosses.

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Knight, a substitute high school teacher in Oregon, made that decision some 40 years ago. Is he serious? Should humans really try to make themselves extinct?

Tell us what you think - what do humans do for the Earth's biosphere that isn't about humans?

The question of political experience has become a catchphrase during the U.S. presidential election.

Both the Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama have both been accused of lacking experience.

Wednesday night's address at the Republican convention by Sarah Palin followed a fiery speech by former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani, who slammed Obama for his lack of experience.

"He is the least experienced candidate for the president of the United States in at least the last 100 years. This is not a personal attack. It's a statement of fact — Barack Obama has never led anything. Nothing. Nada," Giuliani told a screaming crowd.

Palin also took aim at Obama over questions raised about her experience.

"Since our opponents in this presidential election seem to look down on that experience, let me explain to them what the job involves," she said in the prepared text of her speech, taking aim at Obama, who worked as a community organizer in Chicago as a young man.

"I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities."

What do you think? How important is political experience in the run for elected office?

The Green party said Wednesday it's ready to go to court if a consortium of television networks doesn't include party leader Elizabeth May in leaders' debates which will air nationally in advance of the expected October federal election.

The party is giving the consortium "the chance to do the right thing" by including the Greens in the debate, former party leader Jim Harris said at a news conference Wednesday.

"For the sake of democracy, she has to be included," he said. "Electors have a right to know where the Green party stands."

If their demand is rejected, the Greens will lodge a complaint with Canada's broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission, he said. If that fails, the Greens will ask for a judicial review as a last resort.

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Should the Green party be allowed in national leaders debates?

As late summer rolls into fall each year, the Canadian film festival season gets underway, bringing the latest, greatest and most hyped movies from around the globe to movie fans across the country.

Just as soon as Montreal's World Film Festival comes to a close, the glitzy Toronto International Film Festival rolls out its red carpet. Fast on TIFF's heels are Halifax's Atlantic Film Festival, the Calgary International Film Festival, the Vancouver International Film Festival and Montreal's Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be in Windsor, Ont., on Wednesday to announce a financial aid package to help reopen Ford's mothballed Essex Engine Plants.

News reports also say a General Motors plant in St. Catharines, Ont., is in line for $80 million in federal money, and an announcement is expected soon.

About 900 people were thrown out of work last fall after the shutdown of the Ford plant, which produced V-6 engines.

Harper's aid package is expected to include tax credits to help Ford retool the plant to build engines that are more fuel efficient.

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Do spending announcements prior to an election sway your vote?

Industrialist Thomas J. Bata has died in a Toronto hospital at age 93, an official from the Thomas Bata Foundation said Monday.

Born in what became the Czech Republic, Bata — the son of the founder of the company — expanded the business in Canada, opening a plant in Batawa, Ont., and building a Canadian retail chain that had 250 stores in the 1980s.

Toronto is home to the Bata Shoe Museum, a four-storey structure with 10,000 shoes.

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What is Thomas J. Bata's legacy?

SMS (Safety Management Systems), the shorthand Transport Canada uses to describe its new approach, makes the aviation industry responsible for implementing systems designed to ensure safe air travel in Canada. Under the concept, the federal department will do fewer direct safety audits of air carriers, instead keeping watch over safety checks done by the airlines themselves.

In a spring report, federal Auditor General Sheila Fraser examined Transport Canada's march toward fully implementing its air safety management system. The report uses the following example to define the safety management system:

"For example, instead of conducting an inspection to assess whether the tires in the aircraft landing gear are sufficiently inflated, Transport Canada will assess whether a company has the systems in place to ensure that the tires are inflated, following up if necessary.

The goal is to make companies more accountable for the management of risks. Transport Canada will still be accountable for safety oversight. The department maintains that safety management systems will allow more thorough identification and resolution of potential safety problems, making the transportation system safer."

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How safe do you feel when you fly on a Canadian airline?