When it opens on December 12, the new Peak 2 Peak gondola will whisk skiers over a 4.4-kilometre span between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains.

January feels pretty bleak as the effects of all that holiday indulgence set in. As we struggle to regain our energy, we ask ourselves again why we choose to live in this Noah’s ark of a city.

Hawaii, Bali, Fiji - these are dream honeymoon destinations. But the reality is that you may not have the time and/or money for an exotic vacation. You may be squeezing the wedding in between work weeks. Or maybe you can only sneak away for several days, and are postponing the love fest. Or you simply may want to keep the honeymoon low-key and low-budget, like your nuptials.

Muriel Arnason, 81, first woman elected to Langley Township council

"My father fucked off the morning I turned five," begins Bill Richardson's take on the Georgia Straight's annual Christmas story. Before the end, we meet the world's dirtiest woman in her double-wide, an angelic chorister whose voice never changes, and a mysterious observer with a Moleskine...

Peter and Rosemary, both from England, met at the University of British Columbia in 1960. They soon married, and both went on to work as professors of evolutionary biology at Princeton University. Now both 71, the Grants are among the most successful and important collaborations in the history of science. The Grants have produced a body of scientific research that is so exhaustive, so exacting and thorough, that many ornithologists fear it will never be replicated. The object of the Grants’ obsessions are Galápagos finches. These are the birds so closely associated with Darwin that they’re commonly called Darwin’s finches.

Postsecondary system needs quality control

Citizens are finally demanding electricity-powered cars—many years after David Suzuki bought Toyota’s first hybrid.

A new video game gives students the opportunity to explore Canadian history as they rewrite it. The History Canada Game ( www.historycanadagame.com ) is being developed by Bitcasters, a Toronto company, with financing from Telefilm Canada and with the support of strategic partnerships with Historica, Canada's National History Society, and 2K Games.

Most people don't think of Capilano College as a university. But that could change if a high-profile public-relations campaign persuades Premier Gordon Campbell and Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell to redefine the North Vancouver academic institution. In a strange twist, the premier's only sister, Catherine Vertesi, is involved in the campaign to designate Capilano College a "regional university".

Thanks to B.C.'s robust economy–and competition from the Alberta energy boom–there has never been a better time to find entry-level positions in the trades. Employers are so short of staff that they're hiring off the street–as Cheri Bowland found out when, urged on by former roommate April Crockett, she signed on with Whistler-based Alpine West Systems Electrical as an electrician's assistant.

A shortage of health professionals will create big opportunities for the children of the baby boomers.

Jamie Lee Hamilton will never forget the hatred she felt during Vancouver's first gay-pride march 29 years ago. Hamilton, then a young sex-trade worker, was part of a small group of protesters who decided to walk from Nelson Park in the West End down Thurlow Street to bring attention to the fight for equal rights.

Recently, a Vancouver Sun article revealed that the working poor are now moving into the most decent of the Downtown Eastside housing, leaving the truly abysmal rooms to the nonworking poor. According to a community worker, even the "crappiest" rooms have people in them. And according to a city official, the "renovated" rooming houses are attracting low-income service workers who in the past might have rented a bachelor suite in the West End.

Focusing our health-care system on treating problems before they arise makes medical and financial sense. So why aren’t we doing it?