Marc Montgomery, Lynn Desjardins, Levon Sevunts, Marie-Claude Simard

The LINK Online May 4-5-6, 2018

Your hosts for show 301, Levon, Marie-Claude, and Marc (Video of show at bottom)

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CALL FOR GENERAL STRIKE IN ARMENIA

Supporters of Armenian opposition leader Nikol Pashinyan react, after his bid to be interim prime minister was blocked by the parliament, during a rally in central Yerevan, Armenia, May 1, 2018. (Gleb Garanich/REUTERS)

Ongoing protests against the Armenian Prime Minister’s plan to amend the constitution and hang on to power eventually forced him to resign

But those widespread protests are now continuing, This time it’s because the charismatic leader of the protest movement who was the only candidate to act as interim Prime Minister has been blocked by the ruling party.

There are calls for a general strike and further unrest is likely. Levon spoke to Anna Simonian, a former Armenian communications expert and blogger who settled in Montreal six years ago.

INTERNET MEDICAL DRUG SEARCHES  AND CLAIMS OF SIDE EFFECTS

Where people had greater access to websites about side-effects of statins, there were more reports of intolerance to the drug.

Researchers have come up with some interesting statistics. It seems that people who do online searches into the side-effects of medicines are more likely to report intolerance. They’re calling it the “nocebo” effect, the opposite of “placebo” effect. The latter is when someone is given a sugar pill which has no effect but told its medicine. Because they think it’ll make them feel better, they do feel better.

The study involved people in 12 countries where people reported intolerance to statins. In countries with more websites on the subject, the intolerance reporting was higher.

Lynn spoke to Dr. Baiju Shah, an endocrinologist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto and senior investigator of the study.

FASTER, INEXPENSIVE WAY TO PROTECT PROPERTY FROM FLOOD WATER

Protecting property from rising flood water is a slow, labour intensive , and expensive prospect with the typical response of sandbagging. A Montreal engineer has a much better way. Photo:Mike McArthur/CBC

The eastern maritime province of New Brunswick, especially around the city of Saint John, is currently experiencing record flood levels. Flooding from increasingly heavy rains is becoming more common around the world. Recently western Germany had heavy rain causing floods.

These tend to cause massively expensive losses to homes and buildings. The usual defence to protect property from rising water is to erect sandbag barriers, a slow labour intensive and expensive process that is A professor at a Canadian university has come up with what appears to be a more effective barrier that is faster to erect and remove, cheaper, and uses barriers readily available in every city.

Marc spoke to Amar Sabih (PhD, PEng), a course lecturer and academic staff at McGill University in Montreal.

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