The soundtrack from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey spins on the turntable at the Modern Hotel in downtown Boise, Idaho on Wednesday, March 26, 2008, where members of the Vinyl Preservation Society of Idaho meet once a month to promote the listening to vinyl records over the more modern music on CD's and iPods. (AP Photo/Troy Maben)
AP Photo/Troy Maben
If you have a stereo set-up at home, you’ll know that there’s a special input for your turntable labelled “phono.” You can’t just plug it into, say, an auxiliary input. If you can use an aux input for everything else, why not your turntable?
Because in order to play back vinyl correctly, it has to go through something called a “phono stage.” Vinyl has limitations when it comes to storing very low frequencies and very high ones. To counteract that, records are pressed with the bass turned down and the treble turned up per something called the RIAA equalization curve. Upon playback, the phono stage reverses that curve, boosting the bass by a specific amount and reducing the treble, thereby achieving the tonal balance of the original recording.
The RIAA curve may help explain why it feels better to listen to vinyl than a digital recording.
Don't miss the Kingston Symphony Association Volunteer Committee's upcoming Vinyl Records Sale, which opens on Thursday, October 24, 2019 at 4 p.m. From pop rock to blues, classical to jazz, folk to dixieland, we have albums to satisfy everyone’s musical taste. For this sale, we will see the return of the Platinum Lounge, which will feature some rare and collectible items. We also have a great selection of CDs, DVDs, and equipment. SALE DATES & TIMES: Thursday, October 24 | 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, October 25 | 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, October 26 | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, October 27 | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. LOCATION: Kingston Symphony Warehouse | 785 Sir John A. Macdonald Boulevard, Unit 7A LP PRICING: Thursday | $6 each Friday | $4 each Saturday | $2 each Sunday | $1 each PLATINUM LOUNGE | Various Prices CD & DVD PRICING: Thursday | $4 each Friday | $3 each Saturday | $2 each Sunday | $1 each
File photo
A vinyl record features a continuous groove that begins on the outer edge and spirals in toward the label. How long is that groove? It depends on how much music is on the side of a record, but a general length is somewhere around 500 metres.
How wide is that groove? Anywhere from 40 to 80 microns, which can also be expressed as 4 one-hundredths to 8 one-hundredths of a millimetre. That’s about the width of a human hair.
There are a couple of oddball exceptions to this. For example, in 1973, Monty Python released an album called Matching Tie and Handkerchief. One side of the record secretly had two spiral grooves side by side. Depending on when you dropped the needle, it caught one groove or the other, resulting in completely different audio. Imagine trying to figure out why that side of your record was different when you went to play it.
There is concern today over the possibility one of Kelowna's most popular recreation areas will no longer have someone on-site 24-hours a day. The long-time caretaker for Knox Mountain Park is retiring and while the City is assuring the public that services will be maintained, not everyone is convinced. Klaudia Van Emmerik reports.
Concerns are growing over the future of the live-in caretaker position at Knox Mountain Park in Kelowna, B.C.
The city is reviewing the position as longtime caretaker Mark Goddard prepares to retire later this year.
Among the considerations is no longer having a caretaker living on the mountain, which is troubling news to many people who use the park or live near it.
“I think it’s very important that somebody is up here, ultimately important,” said Nancy Spencer, who hikes in the park almost daily.
The on-site caretaking position was established more than 20 years ago.
The city-owned cabin at the summit has been home to the park’s caretaker for more than two decades, when the on-site caretaking position was first established.
The caretaker helps oversee the popular park and monitor it around the clock.
Spencer believes having someone living in the park provides an important layer of oversight, particularly when it comes to responding quickly to fires or suspicious activity.
Residents living near the 385-hectare park share those concerns, pointing to things like security and fire watch as reasons for keeping an on-site caretaker.
“People are in there with motorbikes, homeless population, encampments, those types of things,” said Dan Brown, president of the Clifton Magic Neighbourhood Association.
“So the community overall, in general, is concerned that without having somebody present, those things will kind of go unchecked.”
The City of Kelowna says it is not eliminating oversight of the park but is instead reviewing how those services should be delivered in the future.
“We’re not reducing services to Knox Mountain Park,” said Thomas Martin, urban forester with the City of Kelowna. “We are actively trying to increase services.”
Martin said the review is focused on determining whether a live-in caretaker remains the most effective model.
“We have to look at that. Is it a position that is needed to be in the park full time, or is it a position that is off site? So that’s something that’s under review,” Martin said.
According to the city, Knox Mountain Park has expanded significantly over the years, both in size and in the number of visitors it receives. Officials say the park has outgrown the caretaking model established more than two decades ago.
“What historically might have been one person’s capability of looking after a small trail network in a smaller park is now quite a large trail network across a larger park,” Martin said.
Despite the city’s review, some park users argue that no alternative can replace the security and reassurance provided by an on-site presence.
“People really do like using that park and so I think it’s just a big shock, a big change to kind of contemplate the park manager won’t be there,” Brown said.
The current caretaker is expected to remain in the role until the end of October while the city continues its review.
Benadryl is pictured at a home in North Vancouver, B.C., Monday, November, 11, 2019.
Jonathan Hayward, The Canadian Press
Quebec is proposing new restrictions on Benadryl and other medications containing diphenhydramine as their sole active ingredient.
Under a draft regulation recently published in the Gazette officielle du Québec, those products would no longer be available on pharmacy shelves and would instead be kept behind the counter.
The medications would still be available without a prescription, but pharmacists would be required to record sales in a patient’s file.
The proposed restriction is currently the subject of a public consultation.
The measure was recommended by a Quebec coroner last year following the overdose death of an 18-year-old.
The teen died of acute diphenhydramine poisoning at his home in St-Mathias-sur-Richelieu.
On the morning of Dec. 11, 2023, the man was found by his mother in his bed, unconscious and laying on his back. Toxicological analysis found the man had a lethal level of diphenhydramine in his blood. The drug is the sedating ingredient in some over-the-counter antihistamines including the brand Benadryl, among others.
The coroner found the circumstances surrounding the death raise questions about the uncontrolled availability of a potentially lethal over-the-counter substance. He noted there is consensus about the risks of poisoning among scientific bodies, but it’s not stored behind the counter.
“I cannot understand why the sale of diphenhydramine is not better controlled,” coroner Vincent Denault wrote at the time. “I can’t understand why diphenhydramine is available over the counter, especially since Gravol, which also contains diphenhydramine, isn’t available.”
Denault noted it wasn’t the first time deaths have occurred due to the drug. The coroner has already weighed in on three previous Quebec investigations.
There was an uptick around in 2020 after the so-called Benadryl TikTok challenge on social media invited users to consume large quantities of medication tablets containing diphenhydramine.
“The deaths of children have put a face to this dangerous trend,” Denault wrote. “The scientific literature confirms that diphenhydramine is consumed in high doses for its euphoric and hallucinogenic effects, and that people have used it to commit suicide.”
Denault’s recommendation was for the provincial office of professions to take steps to amend regulations involving the sale of medicinal products, to classify diphenhydramine intended for oral administration in a section that requires more management by pharmacists.
That management would include creating a file, noting the sale and carrying out a pharmacological study of the file.
The BC Nurses' Union is escalating job action this week. Members are on the picket line outside the province's largest hospital as of Tuesday morning and say they plan to add more locations later this week. Ben O'Hara-Byrne has the details.
B.C.’s nurses hit the picket lines at Vancouver General Hospital shortly after dawn on Tuesday, which is the first time they’ve done so in the province since 1989.
“It’s historic; certainly there is a lot of jubilation. I think nurses are feeling very inspired by the support but, at the same time, this is a solemn day, that nurses have to be on the picket line instead of at a bedside with a patient,” Adrienne Gear, president of the BC Nurses’ Union, said at a rally.
The BC Nurses’ Union began job action last Thursday after two-thirds voted to reject a deal with the B.C. Health Employers Association.
The deal included a 12-per cent wage increase over four years, improved benefits, additional funding for minimum nurse-to-patient ratios and improved violence prevention measures.
But experts say the B.C. government finds itself in a difficult spot.
“That’s the real constraint on the government,” Hamish Telford, a political science professor at the University of the Fraser Valley, said.
“I’m sure they’d love to give nurses a better deal, but if they do, they have to give everyone the same deal, at least on wages, and the money just isn’t there.”
Nurses now plan to expand picket lines, including to Surrey Memorial Hospital on Thursday, due to what they say is employer intimidation
“Nurses have come forward to say they are being threatened with discipline, warned their professional licences could be at risk and pressured to perform non-nursing duties or work unauthorized overtime despite the union’s lawful job action directives,” the union said in a release on Tuesday morning.
The Hospital Employers Association says maintaining safe patient care is key and denies the accusation.
“Employers are not directing employees to perform work outside their role, qualifications, professional scope, or collective agreement obligations,” the organization states.
“Health care is in crisis; nurses have been using their voice, they’ve been raising concerns for years and nobody is listening, and now the nurses of B.C. are on a picket line. Like, what’s it going to take to wake up, people,” Gear said at the rally.
Contract talks between the two sides have resumed.
The floodwaters have receded but there is a long cleanup ahead, as the town of Tofield, Alta., located about an hour southeast of Edmonton, recovers from the stormy weather in late June that Mayor Adam Hall said dumped about 20 cm (8 inches) of rain on the area.
On Sunday, July 5, the town’s state of emergency was finally allowed to expire.
“The water that was south of the tracks has mostly receded around the businesses there. Pockets of water here and there, but for the most part that water is gone now,” said Hall.
“We’re just seeing movement of water mostly on the west end of town coming from the county. The creeks are full and they’re flowing, but they’re going where they’re supposed to be going which is good.”
The mayor of Tofield expects the cleanup from the flooding to take months.
Global News
Hall says the town has received a lot of help from CN, which supplied six industrial pumps to the town, as well as lots of support from surrounding communities.
While there is one walking trail that was badly damaged, Hall says the town’s infrastructure, including the sewer system, did “fine” during the storm.
“There are a few roads that needed to be fixed that head out to the lagoon that we have. Definitely out in the county, there’s some rural roads that need to be fixed, but here in town, it’s mostly just local businesses that are either cleaning up, local residents that are cleaning up,” Hall added.
The owners of Tofield Packers, seen here near the peak of the floodwaters, estimates they used over a thousand sandbags to keep the rising waters at bay.
Global News
One of those businesses is Tofield Packers which was completely surrounded by the floodwaters.
Jill Lungal, who owns the meat packing business, along with other family members spent three days piling sandbags around the perimeter of the building and trying to fend off the rising waters.
In the end they were successful — except for “a little water in the back.”
“We had sandbags all the way around our building. We had multiple sump-pumps, pumping water away from the building,” Lugal said.
“So we were kind of on a hamster wheel for a couple of days there trying just to keep it out of the building.
“We were just really battling to keep the water obviously out of the coolers, out of the drains, that kind of thing. That would have been a big deal for us. That would’ve caused us a lot of grief. I feel like we were very lucky.”
After health inspectors game the owners the go-ahead, Lungal said they were back in business within a few days.
So far, the only damage appears to be to the parking lot.
“The parking lot’s obviously a little rough and the asphalt — that kind of thing. That stuff’s not easy enough to fix, but it can be fixed. I’d rather that than the inside of the building.”
While the floodwaters have largely receded, the piles of sandbags outside Tofield Packers is evidence of the fierce battle area residents were forced to fight against the rising waters.
Global News
Lungal, like the mayor, says those in the community who were affected by floodwaters have a lot of people to thank.
“Friends, family, community members, customers that just showed up with either pumps or sandbags or just two hands and two feet, willing to do whatever and that definitely saved us,” Lungal said. “It’s a miracle our building is is OK.”
While the mayor expects it will take several months before everything is cleaned up and repaired, he says the city is already discussing what preventative measures — like installing culverts and other changes to infrastructure — can be made to prevent such flooding from happening again.
Brian Paisley, the founder of the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival seen in this undated photo. Brian Paisley died Thursday in Mexico, where he was spending his retirement, after a long struggle with pneumonia.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival
The founder of North America’s longest-running Fringe theatre festival and a celebrated advocate of storytelling has died.
Paisley, a screenwriter, author and playwright, launched the festival in Edmonton 45 years ago.
“All hearts are feeling his loss,” said Murray Utas, the festival’s artistic director, in a Tuesday interview.
“There’s 30-plus festivals that are happening today across North America that are directly related to us at Edmonton and the philosophy that was founded by Brian.”
His death comes about a month before the 10-day festival in August. Utas said Edmonton’s theatre community is set to commemorate his life during the event.
“Now that we’ve lost who we lovingly (called) Father Fringe, (the festival) becomes more intentional about looking at what is in the true fabric of this beautiful event that happens every year.”
Born in 1946 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Paisley grew up in Vancouver. Later in Edmonton, working as an artistic director, he was approached by city officials with a request to use leftover funding for something meaningful.
“Then he came up with what he coined as sort of an absurd idea of where anyone can be an artist and we let artists without gatekeepers tell their stories,” Utas said. “He honestly didn’t think it was going to work.”
Utas said Paisley loved storytelling and was inspired by the work being done by artists with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, known as the largest event of its kind in the world.
“He loved the idea of what stories meant and how they were woven into the journey of who we are,” Utas said.
“(He believed) if we aren’t telling stories, recording our stories or making the stories stay alive, community isn’t as healthy as it could be or thrives in the way that it could.”
Paisley was named a member of the Order of Canada in 2010.
In 2023, he received an honorary doctorate of letters from the University of Alberta for his impact on Canada’s arts community.
He’s also a member of Edmonton’s Arts and Culture Hall of Fame.
His passion and the work of those he inspired have kept the festival alive, Utas said, and the Edmonton festival has also been a blueprint for other theatre festivals held across North America.
“He said the audience was so much larger than what he expected (at the first fringe festival) and the bigger surprise is that they’re still here,” Utas said.
“It amazes him that you throw a party and years later it’s still going on and they just won’t go home.”
Utas said Paisley was also a blunt person and didn’t mince words.
“He never stopped being unapologetically himself, and I don’t know that there’s many people in the world that get to say that.”
In a statement, the Edmonton festival said Paisley left an indelible mark on Canadian theatre and art.
“Thank you, Brian, for reminding us that imagination can change a city – and that the most extraordinary stories often begin with one beautifully impossible idea.”
“We’ll carry it forward.”
The effect of a mechanical issue at BC Ferries' Langdale terminal continues to be felt by those who rely on the route between the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver. As Jordan Armstrong reports, many have been left scrambling to book a sailing in spite of some vessels leaving with empty space.
The effect of a mechanical issue at BC Ferries’ Langdale terminal continues for those who rely on the route between the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver.
Many people told Global News they have been left scrambling to book a sailing, despite some vessels leaving with empty space.
“I planned yesterday to go. Nope, can’t go yesterday; I have to make a reservation,” passenger Breanda Houle said.
“Luckily, I got one today.”
Only the main deck of the ferry is being loaded at Langdale. The upper deck remains empty, meaning sailings are crossing without up to 125 additional cars.
This is because the lone working berth at the terminal is single level.
In a statement on Tuesday, BC Ferries said: “Our terminal teams are working hard to make the best use of every available space while continuing to leave sufficient space to accommodate customers travelling under Medical Assured Loading (MAL) and the Travel Assistance Program (TAP), as well as other essential travel.”
France Merrick works at Mike’s Place Gelato in Gibsons.
“Our biggest issue is we can’t go to town to get our supplies,” she said, adding that if they can’t get supplies, it will hurt their business.
“How about if the provincial government takes it back? Take it back, it’s our highway. Stop these stupid full reservation things,” she added.
Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Randene Neill said she knows everyone is frustrated.
“I can’t imagine how difficult this is,” she said.
“We need to do something to ensure safe, reliable and affordable ferry service.”
Neill said crews are working around the clock to fix the damaged berth and BC Ferries hopes to have an updated repair timeline on Wednesday afternoon.
The mayor of Gibsons is urging BC Ferries to reverse course on its mandatory reservations for Langdale.
“It’s kind of chaos right now,” Silas White said.
“I’ve even heard from people who are stuck on the other side and they’re seeing there’s no availability for them to get back.”
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