What happens to dead things The end is nigh Learn what happens

Transcription

griff [grif] n.(19th c. slang) a tip; reliable news
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
www.thegriff.ca
Volume IV, Number 18
What happens to
dead things
Learn what happens
to you once maggots
get a hold of you.
page 5
The Laws of
Thermodynamics
explores questions of
life, death, afterlife and
time.
page 8
MADISON KERR/THE GRIFF
The end is nigh
‘Dragon’ dinosaur discovery
www.thegriff.ca
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U of A PhD student key writer in recently published paleontology article
MANAGING EDITOR
Angela Johnston
780.497.5412
[email protected]
All Editors: 780.497.4429
NEWS EDITOR
Danika McConnell
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OPINIONS EDITOR
Marc W. Kitteringham
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ARTS EDITOR
Stephan Boissonneault
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Animated reconstruction of Qijianglong, chased by two carnivorous dinosaurs.
SPORTS EDITOR
Kyle Muzyka
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PHOTO & GRAPHICS EDITOR
Madison Kerr
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ONLINE EDITOR
Daren Zomerman
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COPY EDITOR
Emily Jansen
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CONTRIBUTORS
Parvin Sedighi, Jake Pesaruk, Tim Rauf,
Avi Azarov, Jordan Gill, Ana Holleman,
Tamanna Khurana, Tomas Acuna,
Amanda Ozga, Courtney Bettin,Robert
Copithorne, Michael Chau, L.A. Bonté,
Zach Tennent (CUP), Rainer Kocsis
(CUP)
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Jake Pesaruk
Writer
A discovery made in southern China
outside the city of Qijiang has ties to
Edmonton.
The discovery was a new type
of dinosaur that was named Qijianglong, which translates to “Qijia
Dragon.”
Although the initial discovery
and removal of the bones was successful, the dinosaur remained unclassified for some time.
It was not until recently that a
team of paleontologists finally categorized the new breed of dinosaur.
The size of the dinosaur was
roughly 15 meters (49 feet) and was
believed to have roamed the earth
160 million years ago.
“It was so enormous that they
built a museum to put all the bones
in,” said Tetsuto Miyashita, current
PhD student in biological sciences
at the U of A and research member.
Qijianglong has remained in
this museum in the town of its discovery for several years, yet there
was no official discovery of which
species it belonged to.
It was not until Miyashita was
called to China for a conference that
he was invited to look at the bones.
“A local contact in China
showed me the bones and after thoroughly going over them, I noticed
some characteristics that made it
different from anything I’ve seen before,” said Miyashita.
According to Miyashita’s discoveries, the neck bones had interlocking joints and air pockets that
were used as a form of support for
the neck.
“We noticed that this wasn’t
just a long-necked dinosaur but belonged to a different species than
suspected altogether,” said Miyashita.
The category of dinosaur that
Qijianglong belongs to is called Mamenchisaurus. These species of dinosaur have very long necks that
LIDA XING/SUPPLIED
take up about half of the body. However, they are different than most
long-necked dinosaurs and are specific to Asia.
What puzzled Miyashita is that
there is no evidence of this species
invading other countries.
“It is strange they never migrated because having a long neck is
quite an advantage,” said Miyashita.
Miyashita explained that this
discovery was important in the scientific community.
“With this discovery of Qijianglong, we now have help to discover
new things from other types of species that are categorized as Mamenchisaurus,” said Miyashita.
When going into detail about
his time spent with the bones of Qijianglong, Miyashita explained how
there are certain types of skills one
must have to classify species correctly.
“Having visual information as
well as a keen tactile sense is important and eventually all the informa-
tion you gather gets stored in your
head,” said Miyashita. “There were
about a hundred bones and I measured every one of them.”
After all of the information on
Qijianglong was gathered, Miyashita became one of the key writers
in the manuscript that was submitted to the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The initial draft was
submitted in 2012 but it wasn’t until
recently that it was published.
“It took about a year to write the
manuscript, took roughly another
half a year to submit it and then another year of waiting,” said Miyashita. “However, the excitement peaks
right after you hit ‘submit draft’ on
your computer.”
After the publication of the
manuscript pertaining to the classification of Qijianglong, Miyashita
did not expect the public response to
be what it was.
“I’m very surprised. I didn’t
think this many people would be interested in a dinosaur. It is a little
overwhelming.”
When asked about the work he
does in paleontology, Miyashita
compared it to playing sports. “You
have the most fun when you’re out
playing in the field. You’re doing
what you love. You’re doing your
work.”
Though this discovery was made
some time ago and that actual classification took awhile to be known
to the public, the importance of Qijianglong has been solidified among
paleontologists and will help in the
understanding of more species of dinosaur.
Although the excitement has
kept Miyashita busy, he has no plans
of slowing down.
“This is just one of my projects.
On my computer I have a file that
has 20 active projects. I have one of
them down, 19 more to go.”
Letter from the editor
Angela Johnston
Managing editor
It is with a heavy heart and deep regret that I write this apology to you, our readers, for plagiarized material recently published by the griff.
On Feb. 3, our editors were proofreading and fact checking articles prior to sending the Feb. 4 edition to the printer, and we discovered that one of
our volunteer writers had plagiarized material in two articles that we were preparing to publish. We immediately removed them from the page layout
and began to look through the same writer’s articles that we had published in previous editions.
Upon further inspection, I discovered that three other articles from the writer contained plagiarized material and had been recently published
by the griff: “CODE 15 opens door for open data” (published online on Jan. 27, 2015 and printed on Jan. 28), the portion of “Weird-Ass Animations”
featuring Bojack Horseman (published online on Jan. 12, 2015 and printed on Jan. 14), and “Stephen Poloz on working for free” (published online on
Nov. 16, 2014 and printed on Nov. 19).
The writer plagiarized from approximately a dozen online sources, ranging from news articles to web comments. Since this discovery, the writer
has been reprimanded and dismissed from the griff. We have removed the articles from our website in order to reduce the injury to the publications
and authors from which this writer plagiarized. The published articles remain in our print and PDF editions.
This violation of ethics is being taken very seriously by the griff. While our editorial team has always strived to ensure that our facts are accurate
and our words are original, we will be taking further measures to prevent future errors. Plagiarism prevention is complex, but I would recommend the
Poynter article “10 ways to prevent plagiarism, fabrication at college newspapers (and in any newsroom)” if you would like to read more on this topic.
As stated in the article, campus newspapers like the griff face a unique set of hurdles. We have a rotating volunteer base that features writers from different educational backgrounds, and we run on limited resources.
Our editors offer one-on-one instruction when necessary, and we have tried to maintain an open-door policy in the newsroom. We encourage writers to approach us with any questions about the writing process, since everyone has a unique level of experience. We try to offer detailed story pitches
and information, and a minimum of three editors review articles prior to publication. Beyond these steps and other attempts we have made to maintain
our editorial integrity, we will now be offering more workshops and materials to assist our writers in producing their work.
On behalf of our editorial team, it is with utmost sincerity that I apologize to our readers, to our other volunteers, to the writers whose work was
plagiarized, and to anyone else who has been affected by the acts of plagiarism committed by our former writer. We cannot change what has already
happened, but I promise you that we will do everything in our power to prevent future instances of plagiarism.
For the students. • By the students.
NEWS EDITOR
Danika McConnell
[email protected]
news
Marika Anthony-Shaw and Will Butler discussing their experiences with Partners in Health and the creation of Plus One.
MAX ATCHISON/THE GRIFF
Arcade Fire and global awareness
Top Canadian band shares history of Partners in Health and their organization Plus One
Danika McConnell
News Editor
Aligned with Global Awareness
Week at MacEwan and part of the
SAMU Speaker Series, Will Butler and Marika Anthony-Shaw of
Arcade Fire visited campus to discuss their organization Plus One
and how their humanitarian work
all began on Feb. 5.
“My engagement with Haiti
dates back to the early days of Arcade Fire,” said Butler.
Frontwoman of the band Régine Chassagne, although born in
Montreal, is of Haitian descent.
“The band comes from that
foundation, comes from Régine’s
family, which became me and Win’s
family, which became the band’s
family,” said Butler. His brother,
frontman Win Butler, has been
married to Chassagne since 2003.
Butler noted the importance of
the band’s song “Haiti,” which has
been played at nearly every show
of the band’s since their Funeral
Tour began in 2003 for their debut
album.
“By the time ‘Haiti’ was on Funeral … we played a lot of shows,
and by the time the Funeral Tour
was wrapping up, we realized that
we no longer needed day jobs,
which was really invigorating,”
said Butler. “We had time and ability and resources to do something
instead of a day job.”
Through this success and connection to Haiti, the band sought
out ways to best help the work already being done within the country.
During this time, the direction ultimately came from Will and
Win’s mother, who passed along
a book called Mountains Beyond
Mountains, a story about the work
of Dr. Paul Farmer and his journey toward creating better health
care in Haiti through the founding
and development of the non-profit
health care organization, Partners
in Health (PIH).
“It’s an incredible book and it
feels funny to be like, ‘This book
that really changed our lives’, and
I think it’s easy to kind of say these
things,” said Anthony-Shaw. “But
profoundly, the story of Dr. Paul
Farmer, and since then the friendship that we have with Dr. Paul
Farmer and all the other people
that work at Partners in Health,
has really been something quite
foundational for us as people and
the band as an organization.”
“
I think for us, what we
realized is the power
of our community, not
just as a band, but also
with our audience ...
- Marika Anthony-Shaw
violist for Arcade Fire,
founder and president
of Plus One
Anthony-Shaw expressed the
interest she gained from reading
his academic books in university.
Both Anthony-Shaw and Butler, alongside the rest of the band,
noted the connection they found
with the young Dr. Paul Farmer in
his discoveries and what he aspired
to bring to the Haitian people with
health care with the “depth of justice that he seeks out in the world.”
“What he learned from his journey is … you need care, and these
people had no purpose, so he created purpose around health,” said
Anthony-Shaw. “Suddenly, the
community was taking care of
each other and they had an economy around health — and that was
a really impressive thing.”
Identifying the charity concerts they have participated in as
Arcade Fire, Anthony-Shaw and
Butler expressed how they tend
to be “phenomenally inefficient,”
as for the most part, proceeds have
to go out to people being paid, marketing, and onward.
The band members found them-
selves on a journey to find a way to
contribute in a larger way with a
more substantial impact.
“It was just a really revolutionary, punk rock, single-focus vision
and we were like, ‘Hot damn, sign
us up!’” said Butler. “We found this
organization Partners in Health
and we said, ‘How can we not halfassedly help them? How can we
help Partners in Health with our
whole ass?’” laughed Butler.
Instead of previous established
initiatives in the music industry,
the band wanted to create a “forever plan” with PIH.
From there, Scott Rodger, the
manager of Arcade Fire, came up
with the concept of $1 per ticket
going toward PIH.
“That’s a lot of money every
night — it was like $2,000 and you
got to tell [the] audience, ‘Because
we are doing this tonight together
because we all got out of our houses and came and experienced this
thing in this little community, we
are doing something together,’”
said Anthony-Shaw.
From there on, as the band’s
fan base expanded and they could
fill arenas, the money being raised
show after show expanded exponentially. Since 2007, a dollar
per ticket from each of their own
shows has gone toward PIH.
At this time, no one in the band,
Chassagne included, had visited
Haiti.
“And then, we wanted to deepen that relationship, we wanted
to go to Haiti, not just to see Partners in Health at work, but to see
the country — to engage with the
people that engage with the arts,
who engage with the music,” said
Butler.
Chassagne and Win Butler had
gone in 2008, and the band followed
by planning a trip there for Feb. of
2010.
However, on January 2010, the
horrible earthquake leveled Portau-Prince, the capital and largest
city of the nation, killing hundreds
of thousands and destroying gov-
ernment infrastructure of a country that was showing hopeful
improvement in not only its physical development, but within its
health and social issues.
“The Haiti we went to in 2011,
16 months later, was a very different Haiti than we planned on seeing, because the Haiti in 2010 was
remarkably on the up-and-up,” said
Butler.
This visit represented the difference between hearing about
these disasters and actually witnessing the aftermath of them.
Despite the tremendous loss
and dire situation the country
had found themselves in, Anthony-Shaw noted the outlook of the
Haitian people that were found in
a position of rebuilding their lives
and nation.
“There’s something, there’s a
spirit and a pride and a tenacity
and a determination to every single person I have ever met in Haiti, and Haitians not in Haiti, that
is just so powerful and that to me
has just been such a lesson,” said
Anthony-Shaw.
Sharing her experience and
her shift in perspective, AnthonyShaw explained the importance of
expanding paradigms and the willingness to hear more than one side
of a story.
“It’s beautiful. It’s not just
devastation, there’s a lot of hope,
there’s challenges.”
After returning, the band realized more had to be done than just
a dollar a ticket.
“I think for us, what we realized
is the power of our community, not
just as a band, but also with our audience, and also with our friends,
and also with more than that,” said
Anthony-Shaw. “That what we
have been able to accomplish all together with this community, that
we’ve been so fortunate to have
around us has been tremendous
and that we can do more.”
Continuing on with this realization, Arcade Fire has moved forward with outreach at their shows.
“It’s really about the collective impact of all of us doing something together,” said Marika.
According to plus1.org, the
organization has raised over
$2,000,000 dollars from 203 shows
in 22 countries alongside 2,000 volunteers. It is also emphasizes that
the organization’s “administration
is supported by private philanthropy which enables [them] to ensure
every “+1” dollar raised goes directly to support its recipient organizations.”
Since Arcade Fire’s beginnings
and finally making their contributions officially through creating
Plus One, bands The National,
Vampire Weekend, Arkells, Local
Natives and Stars have also joined
the movement by contributing
to charities and organizations of
their choice.
Anthony-Shaw, who is not only
the founder but president of Plus
One, recognized that although not
everyone can contribute on the
same platform as Arcade Fire and
the previously stated bands, “the
real ingredient is to care just a teeny bit and to implicate it into the
decisions you make.”
“How you choose to talk about
a certain story is a really good
start,” said Anthony-Shaw. “And if
you don’t know how to talk about
it, learn how to talk about it.”
“Engage with it in a way that
feels natural, and feels real,” said
Anthony-Shaw. “The learning and
the education is the helping part,
because you’re going to become active in your own way.”
Touching on Global Awareness Week, Anthony-Shaw expressed the importance of staying
informed and how individuals need
to find their sense of placement on
a global scale — your life choices
and values play a part in what’s important.
“Partners in Health famously
have no exit strategy — the goal is
to go out of business,” said Anthony-Shaw. “We don’t have an exit
strategy with Haiti.”
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3
news
KURT NORDSTROM/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
Challenging binge-drinking culture
University of Saskatchewan awareness group abstained from drinking all of January
Rainer Kocsis
The Sheaf (University of Saskatchewan)
Throughout Jan, binge drinking
awareness group What’s Your Cap?
(WYC) has been asking students at
the University of Saskatchewan to
re-evaluate their alcohol consumption.
“Thinking About My Drinking,” WYC’s student-led campaign,
follows five U of S students who
have pledged to “go dry” for an entire month. The students were
asked to keep track of how sobriety affects their social life, physical
health, spending habits and academics.
The event kicked off on Jan. 7
in Upper Place Riel when Annie
Stadnyk, Kehan Fu, Kyle Martin,
Marek Antia and Dani RobertsonBoersma began their one-month
drinking hiatus. Students were invited to meet the participants as
well as make their own pledges if
they wished.
Robertson-Boersma, one of
WYC’s founding members and current graduate advisor, cited physical well-being as her motivation to
make the pledge.
“I’ve been working on the whole
‘healthier lifestyle’… I’ve noticed
how normal alcohol is within sports
teams, or at least the ones that I’m
on,” said Robertson-Boersma in a
Facebook post. “It isn’t out of place
to go for drinks before or after the
game, which makes you think how
ironic it is. You play sports to stay
fit, but then have a pint or two,
which can sometimes defeat the
purpose.”
Robertson-Boersma, now working towards a master’s degree in sociology, began WYC — previously
the U of S Student Binge Drinking Initiative — in 2011 after taking Colleen Dell’s addictions class.
Dell, a professor in the department
of sociology, still works closely with
the organization.
The pledges have been cataloguing their experiences in sobriety on
WYC’s Facebook page.
“Waking up Saturday and Sunday, I noticed that I had way more
energy,” said Antia, a fourth-year
psychology student. “I was way
more productive throughout my
weekend and I’m feeling great going into the really busy week ahead.
I guess I could describe my overall
state at this point as being way more
clear headed, focused and maybe
even a little happier throughout
my day. I definitely came out of this
weekend feeling way more rested as
well.”
Reactions from friends and fam-
ily ranged from supportive to disdainful.
“It was very tough to not drink
when everyone wants you to have
a drink with them or take shots…
Everyone was pretty upset that I
wasn’t drinking and wanted me to
quite badly,” said Martin, also a student of psychology. “I just drank
Red Bull so I had something in my
hands which probably ended up not
being the best thing for my body…
I also saved probably $15 to $20 on
a case of beer to pre-drink at the
house then I would have probably
ended up spending another $20 to
$30 at the bar on drinks, so that’s
nice.”
Thinking About My Drinking
was designed to examine the factors that cause students to binge
drink. Robertson-Boersma said participants have “started questioning
their own behaviors for the better.”
“The experience definitely
made me appreciate the clarity of
mind that comes with sobriety,” said
Fu, a political studies major. “How
often do we use alcohol as an excuse
to address our insecurities or to find
some measure of satisfaction with
our mundane lives? And let’s be
clear, I still love my malt whisky and
pale lagers. But I think I’m learning
to appreciate drinking without taking it for granted.”
The mandate of WYC is to “give
everybody the tips and tricks to safe
and healthy drinking,” said market
research coordinator Kara Leftley.
Leftley is a third-year commerce
student majoring in management.
Each year, WYC collects data
on the drinking rates of U of S students. This year the group used
PAWS to conduct an online study.
“This is the first year that we’ve
done it online,” said Leftley. “I’m
going to compare the data on how
much people drink on campus and
see if we’re improving or getting
worse year to year.”
So far, WYC’s findings show
that 25 per cent of students overconsume, while another 25 per cent
of students do not drink alcohol at
all.
The group is also hoping to publish their results in the U of S Undergraduate Research Journal.
Though for the most part, Leftley
said, the group’s goal is “to get the
information out in a fun and accessible way.”
WYC is run entirely by undergraduate and graduate students
at the U of S, although the group
frequently collaborates with the
Canadian Centre on Substance
Abuse, the Saskatchewan Ministry of Health, the Saskatchewan Liquor and Gaming Authority, Peer
Health Mentors and the Saskatchewan Prevention Institute.
The initiative has inspired other campuses across Canada to begin similar campaigns and WYC
has given talks in Vancouver, Edmonton and Halifax. The group has
published a guide online for anyone
wanting to create programs like
WYC elsewhere.
In Sept, WYC hosted the “toilet campaign” which aimed to raise
awareness about binge drinking via
brightly-coloured toilets stationed
around campus that contain facts
about over-consuming alcohol.
The group also collaborates closely
with St. John’s Ambulance to provide therapy dogs for students, citing high stress levels as a prevalent
cause of binge drinking.
On an ongoing basis, WYC allows students to make Party Smart
pledges, which are simple actions
that students can take to drink
more responsibly such as planning
a designated driver or prioritizing
studying before drinking.
Although Leftley is not participating in Thinking About My
Drinking, says she has noticed a
significant decline in her drinking since she started working with
WYC. The group recommends a
maximum of 10 drinks per week for
women and 15 for men.
MSO expanding along with campus
Danika McConnell
News Editor
With a decade complete with
growth and expansion, the Muslim
Students’ Organization (MSO) at
MacEwan has no plans of slowing
down.
Celebrating World Hijab Day,
which took place on Feb. 1., the
SAMU club celebrated on Feb. 6
with panel discussions, a bake sale,
henna artists and, “Try on a Hijab”
photo booth and clothing sales.
MSO hosts these events in order
to fund their largest annual event, Islam Awareness Week.
Prior to World Hijab Day festivities and fundraising, the club hosted
a hot lunch with vegetarian falafels.
“We did it so that [when] you
buy a sandwich, a second one gets
donated to Hope Mission,” said Sabriya Sroujie, president of the MSO.
“It was … hitting two birds with one
stone — we were getting money for
Islam Awareness Week and the sandwiches went to Hope Mission.”
Beginning as an active member
in her first year at MacEwan and
continuing on as secretary, then the
first Sisters’ Head of Affairs and now
the president of the club, Sroujie
4
has been able to see the club change
throughout the past four years.
In the last 10 years, the MSO has
expanded from an executive team
of four to seven in order to suit the
needs of members.
“We [saw] that the group, the
community here, was growing a lot
so we needed someone designated to
work with a lot of the issues or concerns and stuff like that,” explained
Sroujie, in regards to the club’s need
for both a Sisters’ Head of Affairs
and Brothers’ Head of Affairs.
Although the group is currently
referred to as MSO, the club stands
as a part of a much larger association within North America.
“Our real name is the MSA,
which is the Muslim Students’ Association … Every university across
North America has an MSA,” said
Sroujie. “Even if you go to the U of
A or if you go to NAIT, there’s MSA
there, too.”
In its beginnings, the club was
unable to use the abbreviation MSA
because at the time, MacEwan’s students’ association had already taken the name, prior to changing it to
SAMU.
With a larger, more established
MSA located at the U of A, Sroujie
noted that both clubs like to come
together from time to time.
“We often like to collaborate on
certain small events,” said Sroujie.
“Just because the [MacEwan] club
is just starting to go out of its comfort zone.”
“The MSA at U of A is very established,” said Sroujie. “They’re really, really, really big.”
According to the U of A’s Muslim Students’ Association website,
their campus group was founded in
1982.
Sroujie hopes that one day the
Edmonton campus groups can come
together for Islam Awareness Week.
With both groups being busy
with their own campus initiatives,
the groups are still able to keep in
touch with ease.
“A lot of our former MSO members, when they transferred to the
U of A, they joined the MSA,” said
Sroujie. “So there’s that connection.”
By fostering these connections
and reaching out to the student
body, the MSO hopes for yet another
successful Islam Awareness Week,
which will take place in mid- March.
“We’re really open. We love to
clarify any questions.”
MSO’s bake sale beside the SAM Centre at CCC.
MADISON KERR/THE GRIFF
news
Maggots: your corpse’s recycler
Professor shares importance of decomposition and why we aren’t surrounded by dead things
Emily Jansen
Copy Editor
Ever wondered where dead things
go? Soil ecologist Jeffrey Newton
(Phd) seeks to discover the secrets
of decomposition.
On Feb. 3, Newton enthusiastically presented his research
on decomposition to an audience
of MacEwan students and faculty over the lunch hour. Luckily,
no meals were ruined by the topic and the presentation elicited
more than a few laughs, despite its
less-than-savoury subject matter.
“
If there was one word
I could use to describe
decomposition,
the word would be
‘maggots’
- Jeffrey Newton
Newton began the seminar
with a discussion about the ironic beauty in death and decomposition.
“Things do need to die for other things to live,” he stated simply. “In this day and age, people
see science as something cold and
calculating and often lacking creativity. I see it very differently.”
With the typical image of
“death” in mind, Newton proceeded to turn the usual perspective on
its head. Without the necessary
process of decomposition, in Newton’s terms, we’d be “climbing over
piles of dead bodies.”
He explained that decomposition, in the sense that we imagine
it, doesn’t occur as often as commonly thought. This is due to the
large amount of animals who are
carrion eaters. Because so many
creatures are willing to consume
cadavers, it’s rare for us to see
dead animals other than roadkill.
Often, death is about consumption, not natural decomposition.
“There’s lots of animals out
there that you don’t even realize
are actually scavengers … This is
happening all the time, you just
don’t see it.”
Using his research in the field
as an example of natural decomposition, Newton traced the stages of decomposition and the many
hidden processes going on simultaneously once an animal has
died. Put into terms of stages,
Newton explained that during the
early decomposition stage, in the
first few days of death, the cadaver becomes bloated as the internal
organs release gas. Soon after, the
first decomposers arrive on the
scene for the active decomposition stage: flies.
Flies are first on the scene.
Their goal is to lay their eggs in
the decomposing cadaver’s orifices, such as the eye sockets or
nostrils. Those eggs become maggots, which do the heavy work of
decomposition. Essentially, maggots take care of everything soft
inside the body, such as the organs and muscle tissues, leaving
behind only the skin, hair or fur,
and bones.
Newton said, “If there was
one word I could use to describe
decomposition, the word would be
‘maggots.’”
As decomposition takes place
in stages, the typical array of decomposers do their dirty work
during specific periods of time.
While flies, maggots and other
small insects arrive early, bigger
insects such as moths, beetles and
even butterflies tend to show up in
the later stages of decomposition.
Each species of decomposer, Newton explained, occupies a “niche”
timeline. The whole process happens relatively fast — depending
on environmental conditions,
within a few days of death the
corpse can be skin and bones.
While most species of beetles exploit the presence of maggots on decomposing corpses as
food — maggots are an excellent
source of food, according to Newton — there is one in particular
that takes a different approach
to decomposition. Known as the
burying beetle, a paired male and
female will dig underneath the
fresh corpse of a small animal,
such as a mouse or bird. After the
cadaver sinks into the ground, the
beetles create a type of crypt, preserving the corpse with the help
of antimicrobial saliva. Using
the slowly decaying body as both
a food source and a family home,
the beetles proceed to lay their
eggs and raise their young.
To illustrate this intriguing
life cycle, Newton displayed a video of two burying beetles digging
around a small mouse while he answered questions.
After the presentation, when
questioned about how he would
choose to handle his own death
and inevitable decomposition,
N e w t o n h ap p i -
ROBERT COPITHORNE/THE GRIFF
ly said, “Drop me in the ground.
Plant a tree.”
The conversation quickly
turned to the idea of green burials and natural, organic deaths,
something that Newton supports
and believes will become more
commonplace in the future. Newton closed with noting that despite
human attempts to slow decomposition or to preserve what is dead,
nothing can last.
“So far … humans have not
found a way to permanently stop
decomposition … At the end of the
day, no matter what you try, what’s
going to happen will happen.”
HUH?! HEADLINE
OF THE WEEK
“
How Jack White waged
war with a college
newspaper
over guacamole - vocativ.com,
Feb. 6
and lost
MY_AMII/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
5
arts
ARTS EDITOR
[email protected]
No misfortunes in Butt’s comedy
and although he can’t remember
quite when he played it, he remembers “having a good time.”
Butt first became interested in
comedy when he was a child.
A 12-year-old at the time, Butt
was “instantly” drawn to stand up
after seeing a comedian on television.
“
There’s a lot of wiggle
room in the English
language to play with
words a lot, and I really
have fun with it.
- Brent Butt
Canadian Comedian
Brent Butt loves to play with language when it comes to his comedy sketches.
Ana Holleman
Writer
On Wednesday, I sat alone in my
room with a phone by my hand.
It was about 4 p.m., and I was
more than just a tinge nervous.
Phone calls are hard enough
for me, but this one was on a completely different level from the av-
erage call.
Then, at 4:01 p.m., the phone
rang.
“Hello?” I answered.
“Hello,” replied the voice on
the other end.
“Is this Anastasia?”
“Yeah,” I said. With that, I was
talking to Canadian comedy icon
Brent Butt.
KRIS KRÜG/FLICKR
Butt, known for his stand up
comedy and his sitcom Corner Gas
(which spawned its own featurelength film: Corner Gas: The Movie), is set to perform at St. Albert’s
Arden Theatre.
By all accounts, he’s looking
forward to the set.
“I’m all for it,” says Butt.
He’s played the Arden before,
“After I saw that guy on TV, I
went up to my mother and basically told her I was going to be a stand
up comedian,” he explains. “So it
was immediate for me.”
Rather than delving into what
he terms “bad comedy” (comedy that benefits from “other people’s pains and misfortune,” he
explained), Butt keeps his comedy
inoffensive.
One topic he enjoys using in
his work is language.
“I think the English language
is a lot of fun,” says Butt. “There’s
a lot of wiggle room in the English
language to play with the words a
lot, and I really have fun with it ...
while I’m on stage, coming up with
stuff off the cuff and while I’m sitting down, writing and preparing
the material, I like playing with
the language. ”
Butt says that this wordplay is
something the comedians he enjoys watching — figures like Louis C.K., Patton Oswalt and Ivan
Decker — also engage in.
Despite being a fixture of the
Canadian comedy landscape with
his stand up and his projects like
Corner Gas, Butt doesn’t believe in
the notion of “Canadian comedy.”
“I hear people talk about it; I
don’t know what that is,” says Butt.
He points out that Canadian
comedians Decker and Russell
Peters are very different in their
approach to comedy, noting the diversity of the Canadian scene.
He goes on to explain that
while some of his material is “Canadian-centric,” as he puts it, (having episodes of Corner Gas about
hockey or curling), this doesn’t
limit the scope or the appeal of
comedy.
Case in point: a Swedish Corner Gas fan once told Butt the
show reminded him of his hometown in Sweden.
“All over the world, people are
more the same than they are different,” says Butt.
Sequelitis: Too many sequels?
Jake Pesaruk
Writer
Sequels: They’re everywhere. At
this rate we should not be so surprised.
The film industry has become
an industry of sequels and remakes. This is a common formula
that many filmmakers are accepting. Is this a bad thing? No, not really.
Sequels have been around
long before film was even an artistic medium.
There are even sequels of certain religious texts. A sequel is
just the continuation of an ongoing story.
Or is it? Yes and no. It boils
down to the conceptualization of
whatever plot you are creating.
Some people create a story
with the intent to create an ongoing narrative.
If we’ve learned anything in
the last few decades, it’s that most
sequels — not all, but most — are
made to cash in on the popularity
of their predecessors.
Which brings us to a sequel
brought to you by the creative
mastermind behind Family Guy,
Seth MacFarlane. That movie is
Ted 2.
For those of you who remember, Ted was a movie that came out
in summer 2012. And for the most
part it was what you’d expect.
It was a situational comedy
with an anthropomorphic teddy bear that incorporated either
6
Ted 2 is a prime example of how the movie industry is being taken over by cash grab sequels.
flashback humour or a joke every 30 seconds hoping that one of
them would stick and make you
laugh.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
It is pretty much the formula for
most of MacFarlane’s works.
However, the original Ted was
not a horrible movie. Critics and
fans gave it moderate praise — key
word here being moderate.
So if it was a comedy that
was just “okay,” with no grand
schemes behind it for an ongoing
story, why the hell does it need a
sequel?
You could argue that any sequel is unnecessary. But let us not
forget that some sequels hold up to
their original counterparts.
Yet, those that hold up are usually made with the intent to carry
on the story introduced in the first
film.
Those we can say are the sequels that make sense, because
MIKI YOSHIHITO/FLICKR
you as the audience member
wants to know what happens next.
On the other hand, in films
like Ted, Horrible Bosses and The
Hangover, the stories concluded in the first movies with all the
loose ends being tied up.
We get the typical “happily
ever after,” roll credits, yada yada
ending, and we expect to be done
with these characters.
This does not happen as often
as it used to, and when a lacklus-
tre sequel is made it ends up ruining the integrity of the original.
A prime example is Anchorman 2.
The original Anchorman has
been considered by many a comedy classic and even those who
don’t like Will Ferrell have given
this comedy its due credit.
So why was a sequel made? To
build up hype because the first one
was so loved? That is the most reasonable answer.
In reality, the biggest reason
these movie sequels are made is to
cash in.
Remember all of those Dodge
truck commercials with Ron Burgundy? As well as the Anchorman
brand scotch?
These are just a few examples
of the rampant advertising that
was implemented with the film’s
release.
Sequels are not going away.
They are, in all likelihood, the
reason that people keep going to
theatres. That and overpriced popcorn.
So should we keep handing
our hard-earned dollars over to
money-grubbing Hollywood producers?
Well, that is entirely up to you,
the viewer.
If you think a movie sequel is
worth your time, then by all means
go see it. Just don’t expect quality.
It’s not like the Godfather Part 2
had Pepsi endorsements attached
to it.
arts
Wednesday, Feruary 11, 2015
Go on a date with a viral video
Since this thing is older than
the internet itself, there is no real
way of knowing how many times
these videos have been seen. The examples I found online were roughly in the 2 million viewer range,
and were uploaded in 2006. The
creator of the videos doesn’t have
a YouTube account, so even those
numbers could be way off. You can,
however, find the original website
from 2003 with the original 25 videos. Another thing about these videos is that there have been a bunch
of people who have made their own
videos since and it is hard to tell
which are “legit.”
The G.I. Joe PSAs are some of
the earliest viral videos out there,
and definitely some of the weirdest.
- Marc Kitteringham
Maybe go on a date with your favourite viral video this Valentine’s Day.
Youtube is 10 years old this Valentine’s Day. The griff decided
to revisit some of the viral videos that took Youtube to where
it is today.
“Chocolate Rain”
100,571,442 views on Youtube
“Chocolate Rain” is an insanely
popular music video created by and
featuring the vocals and instrumentation of musician Tay Zonday.
It likely had its origins as a reflective statement looking upon the
various atrocities that have been
committed against the black community in the past, as well as the
way some people continue to sweep
these human rights violations under the carpet.
Instead of focusing on a message that encouraged social justice,
however, viewers were more captivated by the strange-looking dude
sweating profusely while uttering
over and over the same “Chocolate
Rain,” line. Interspersed sporadically throughout the video is a random jump to an upside-down shot of
Zonday performing the piano music
that plays in the background.
As well as these questionable
camera shots, due to Zonday’s constant habit of ducking away from
the microphone to take a breath
before jumping back into his ballad, people found the video to be far
more hilarious than profound. As a
consequence of the humourous way
viewers saw “Chocolate Rain,” the
annotation explaining why Zonday
bobbed his head back and forth was
preserved in the vast annals of the
internet as a meme; truly the epitome of modern success.
Despite his message not quite
hitting the YouTube community as
he thought it would, at least Zonday
has been able to capitalize (careerwise) on his unintentional comedy gold, maintaining quite a large
amount of popularity on his channel seven years after the release of
“Chocolate Rain.”
In the end, “Chocolate Rain”
still holds up for those looking to
watch a weirdly entertaining, albeit incredibly repetitive, music video.
- Tim Rauf
“Pork Chop Sandwiches”
I’ve said it before. The internet is
a weird place. Particularly You-
TOMAS ACUNA/THE GRIFF
Tube — once you get into the bowels of the beast, things start to get
strange. You get stuff like YouTube
poop, 10-hour videos of almost anything, crappy Runescape videos
from 2005 and even more stuff that
I’m sure I haven’t even dug up yet.
Some of my favourite oddities
on the site are the G.I. Joe PSAs.
For those who haven’t explored the
weird side of YouTube, they are a
series of short videos of remixed
and overdubbed G.I. Joe commercials from the late ‘80s. My favourite
of these is a 42-second gem called
“Pork Chop Sandwiches.”
These PSAs predate YouTube.
Hell, they even predate the internet. According to knowyourmeme.
com, “Pork Chop Sandwiches,” and
the other videos were passed along
by people trading VHS tapes. They
eventually got put on eBaumsworld.com and then onto YouTube.
“Pork Chop Sandwiches” has
been everywhere. It has made it on
to the t-shirt of a cartoon character
from The Venture Bros. It caused
Hasbro to issue a cease and desist
letter to the creator, and in 2008 it
was mentioned by the New York
Times. All of this from a dumb little
video that makes no sense.
“Surpsrise Kitty”
She’s gotten over 75 million views
on YouTube, made it onto the Animal Channel website, and topped
the Telegraph’s “10 Ten Internet
Cats” list. We’re talking about
the “Surprise Kitty,” original, of
course. Original being the key
word, because this cute kitty named
Attila had pages of copycats, but
none nearly as amusing as her.
Unfortunately, her owner, a
British teenager named Rosa, has
never uploaded another video since
the 2009 hit, but here’s hoping it’s
because Attila got over being confused by her owner’s face. Cats are
weird.
- Tamanna Khurana
“End of Ze World”
“Hokay, so here’s the Earth … it’s
chillin.” These are the words that
you hear at the beginning of the
famed internet flash video “The
End of Ze World.” The video originally debuted back in 2003 on the
notorious internet humour site albinoblacksheep.com. Since its initial release, the video has surged in
popularity and has become one of
the most famous flash memes on the
internet to date.
What makes the video stand the
test of time is actually how clever it
is. Yes, when you boil it down to the
basics, it is just some guy using Microsoft Paint and doing funny voiceovers. However, when look at in the
context of the time it came out, it’s
really a clever jab at the Bush administration in the U.S. and the
state of the world when it comes to
nuclear warfare.
The video then brings up all of
the nations that have nukes and
how America proudly advertises
that they have more than any other
country.
The video then moves to the
main plot with the famous line:
“One day we decide those Chinese
sons of bitches are going down, so
we launch a nuke at China.” After
this incident occurs, every other
country then begins to engage in total nuclear war. However, that is not
what makes the video great. The destruction of the planet is the main
drive of this internet masterpiece,
but what makes it truly different is
its risky use of obvious stereotyping.
For the most part this video
would be viewed as insensitive, but
what “The End of Ze World” does
in just a minute and 30 seconds is
boil down the stupidity of global
conflict and poke fun at cultural extremes.
If you go in with a clear head
and take every joke with a grain
of salt, this video can make you go
from slight giggling to full on hysterical laughter.
I’ve seen people who have very
opinionated and intelligent senses of humour catch themselves on
the floor laughing to this video. It is
simple, stupid comedy in its rawest
form with a sprinkle of sociopolitical commentary on top.
And if you find yourself feeling
all huffy puffy and serious about it,
then “you can just break off and go
hang out with Hawaii … Alaska
can come, too.”
ZE END.
- Jake Pesaruk
Sitcom laughter is contagious
Ana Holleman
Writer
According to Matt Schimkowitz of Indiewire, the laugh track
was initially used to bolster the
amount of laughter that radio listeners and TV viewers would hear
when partaking of less-than-successful comedy broadcasts.
Back then, Schimkowitz says,
the added laughter was cobbled
together manually from a good
broadcast’s audio and the lesserlaughed-at broadcast’s audio. It
wasn’t until 1956 that sound engineer Charley Douglass invented
the “laff box” to accompany television sitcoms.
Since then, numerous sitcoms
have made liberal use of the technology.
So the question is, “what
Sometimes you just have to laugh.
would a show that has a laugh
track sound like without out
one?”
While online sources provide
mixed information about wheth-
*AMY&KIMBALL/FLICKR
er Friends used a laugh track or
a live audience (many comments
seem to suggest that the show used
a mix of both), some clips from the
show have been edited to remove
the laughter and posted on Youtube for audience enjoyment.
For a little experiment in audio absurdity, we can compare
a version of Friends with the
laughter omitted, followed by the
original, laughter-filled version.
Because no one appears to have
yet felt the need to scrub entire
episodes of their laughter, I ended
up watching a doctored clip from
“The One After Vegas.”
It was disturbing.
Without the laughter, Friends
comes off not as a comedy, but as a
low-quality drama.
The Joey presented in the
laughless “The One After Vegas”
came across as a calculating, manipulative hitman instead of a
bimbo ladies’ dude.
Meanwhile, Phoebe seemed
like Monica’s secretive handler.
As for the rest of the cast, it felt as
though they were all caught up in
some weird web of affairs that was
bigger than any of them.
The entire time, I could tell
where the show runners might
have inserted a laugh track (and
indeed, when I watched the original version of the clip, I was right
on all counts, and I was also treated to a handful of other moments
of awkward laughter), but none
of these moments were particularly funny.
Instead, they were disconcerting. Aside from a few of Phoebe’s
lines, which did come off as vaguely amusing, any laughter the original version got out of me were
nervous laughs.
I had seen reality. It was terrifying.
7
arts
The
end
of
the
world
is
nigh
The Laws of Thermodynamics shows the sardonic side of the apocalypse
Arts Editor
It begins with a sound. A sound
that fills the room almost immediately.
The sound is eerily reminiscent
to the sound of electricity moving
through telephone poles. That is
what the set is covered with: telephone poles. Sound designer Paul
Morgan Donald tells me it’s an arrangement of “bug-zappers and
loud subwoofers.”
This sound is heard in the beginning of Cat Walsh’s new dark
comedy The Laws of Thermodynamics.
The plot begins with a journalist named Daniel driving along a
Texas highway a mere three days
before the end of the world.
His car breaks down in an unforeseen and mysterious circumstance and he is forced to ask the
surviving locals for help. The play
takes place in a Texas prison town
called Crumb.
Crumb is inhabited by only
three people: an arsonist named
Gerry, a silent prisoner named
Curtis and a pregnant waitress by
the name of Della.
Post
Prohibition
Clown Shoes
Tramp Stamp
Belgian IPA
A Belgian IPA is kind of like a griffin — it’s a mash of two things that
really shouldn’t belong together. In
this case, it’s a Belgian-style beer
with extra hops.
Belgian beers are characterized by their yeast, which produces a
rich floral taste along with hints of
banana and clove. Pair that with a
mouthful of citrus and pine and you
Daniel is on the hunt for his
family, who he suspects is in the
neighbouring town. He wants no
part of Crumb or the people living there. After trying to leave and
venture into the next town, Daniel
keeps winding up in the same spot
he started.
Daniel becomes frustrated and
eventually asks Gerry what’s going on.
Gerry is a somewhat educated arsonist who acts as the comedic relief in the play. Constantly
contradicting himself in his thick
Texan accent, he ends his conversations by chuckling and telling
Daniel he will “see him around.”
Daniel continues to try and
leave Crumb, only to be faced with
the same outcome.
The audience quickly learns
that each character has some “unfinished business,” in the town of
Crumb.
They also learn that there is
some powerful, malignant force
that lives within the town and will
not let the characters leave until
their business is finished.
The dialogue found within the
play is quite remarkable. Conversations between characters are
have a Belgian IPA. If that doesn’t
sound appealing to you, then congratulations — you’ve passed the
sanity test and you can now get on
with your life. The rest of you, pull
up a chair and get cozy.
Clown Shoes is new to Alberta,
and part of their selection is a beer
called Tramp Stamp. It’s a cloudy,
dark orange brew with a very thin
head, which is a bit odd for the style.
Belgian IPAs usually have yeast
left in the bottle (a process known
as “bottle conditioning”), which
makes for a cloudy appearance and
allows the yeast to make as much
carbon dioxide as possible. Another
effect of bottle conditioning is usually an exploding head that simply
well thought out and full of dark
humour. The set design is full of
“theatre magic,” from the constantly moving telephone poles
to the characters disappearing
into what the audience can only
see as thin air.
The lighting is dark and ominous and,when accompanied
with the sound, sets the cheeky,
Gothic apocalypse theme of the
play.
The Laws of Thermodynamics opens up some deep questions
about human life. Some characters actually offer their insight
about the end of the world. The
play asks these questions about
life, death, the afterlife and time,
but does not overdo it.
Every conversation can be
taken with a grain of salt and is
open to interpretation.
All in all, The Laws of Thermodynamics was an enjoyable
and engaging experience. More
plays need to be this well thought
out and methodical.
They need to ask the hard
questions. In the end, the play
really makes you think. What
would you do during the end of
the world?
DAVE DEGAGNE/SUPPLIED
cannot die down. It’s annoying, but
serves a purpose.
A large head results in a powerful and inviting aroma while releasing excess CO2, which is why Tramp
Stamp is abnormal for the style.
There is a strong aroma of hops, a
little bit of bready malt, and a fair
bit of banana. But it doesn’t jump
out of the glass.
The flavour is all there. Bready
malts, pine, citrus, a bit of bubblegum and banana. Clown Shoes’s
Tramp Stamp also boasts a thick
body which retains most of the CO2.
All in all, it’s an interesting beer,
and one that should be tried at least
once before it becomes folklore.
-Daren Zomerman
DAREN ZOMERMAN/THE GRIFF
Sexual innuendo songs, come... hither
Tamanna Khurana
“She’s Thunderstorms”
by Arctic Monkeys
Marc Kitteringham
“Big Balls” by AC/DC
”I’ve got big balls.” What does that
make you think of ? Well, if you’re
Bon Scott from AC/DC, that obviously means the formal definition
of balls (ball, noun: a formal social gathering for dancing).
Of course, the raunchy rock
song from one of the biggest bands
of the ‘70s (who also spawned
songs like “The Jack,” about playing cards, “Whole Lotta Rosie,”
about ... a woman named Rosie,
and “Mistress For Christmas,”
which is not even an innuendo)
has the lead singer singing about
having big balls that bounce to the
left and to the right.
How could that be anything
but innocent? It is a simple song
about sporting festivities and
nothing more.
But if it were about more than
what it lets on, it would be thanks
to the genius of Bon Scott. He was
8
Are songs with their many sexual innuendos, encouraging sex?
a lyrical craftsman who had just
enough sly goofiness to pull of a
song like this. This kind of thing
could never be done these days,
but in the ‘70s a thinly veiled song
about the size of one’s junk was
AMANDA OZGA/THE GRIFF
definitely passable. Besides, it’s
by AC/DC. What more did you expect?
There’s an awfully large amount
of romance in the Arctic Monkeys’ fourth album, Suck It and
See, and no, that’s not what you
think it means.
The phallic-sounding album
name is actually an innocent British phrase, however, the romance
you hear in Alex Turner’s metaphors in “She’s Thunderstorms”
might not mean what you think.
First off, everything about
calling someone a thunderstorm
is sexy, and saying she’s a thunderstorm lying down and on walls
is definitely about sex.
Of course, there’s also the
line, “her motorcycle boots give
me this kind of acrobatic blood.”
If acrobatic blood is something innocent in England, please let me
know.
opinions
OPINIONS EDITOR
Marc Kitteringham
[email protected]
Meninism trivializes feminism
Meninism makes women’s rights seem like a joke
The end goal of feminism is equality, not one gender ruling above the others.
Parvin Sedighi
Writer
Imagine you’re an overworked doctor in the early 1900s, working a double shift at a hospital in an extremely
rural part of the country. There is
minimal sanitation and outside aid,
patients are everywhere you look,
and medicine is quickly and steadily
running out.
In the midst of trying to help all
these people, a young prince shows
up at your hospital and demands you
stop helping others and listen to his
difficulties. Unwillingly, you oblige,
only to realize the prince’s problems
centre around not knowing what
shade of navy he wants his new castle to be painted.
As a person fighting for gender
equality, this is what it’s been like
for me to interact with men’s rights
activists or, as they’ve so cleverly
coined themselves, meninists.
Born out of some straight white
males’ inability to shut up and listen to oppressed groups during discussions concerning social justice,
meninism first started out as a sup-
WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
“
posed movement for men’s rights,
but quickly degenerated into what
Meninism does not
campaign for men of
colour who, falling
victim to racial
profiling and systemic
racism, line the insides
of prisons in incredibly
disproportional
numbers.
every other men’s rights movement
degenerates into: mindless harass-
ment targeting women who dare ask
to be treated as humans.
Much like every other feminist,
my end goal is gender equality. Feminism has never been about one gender ruling over others, neither has it
ever been about attacking men simply because they exist. Feminism
has been, first and foremost, about
women.
Women of colour, disabled women, transgendered women, LGBT
women, and women who have been
silenced as long as gender roles have
existed have found a voice through
feminism, so it’s only fitting that
in a patriarchal society, a countermovement should surface that aims
at destroying what progress we’ve
achieved.
Meninism, on the other hand, is
not about giving a voice to the voiceless. Meninism does not campaign
for men of colour who, falling victim to racial profiling and systemic
racism, line the insides of prisons in
incredibly disproportional numbers.
Meninism is not a support system for male victims of rape who are
told repeatedly (by mostly men) that
their suffering and trauma is invalid. LGBTQIA+ men are not given
any beneficial help through meninism because meninism is not a movement it is a counter-movement.
If I wasn’t so busy being terrified of being made to live in a world
where my modest request that I be
treated with respect and dignity is
seen as something requiring debate
and arguments, I would laugh at the
levels of insecurity required to call
yourself a meninist and allegedly
fight for men’s rights, while actually just attempting to deflate feminist
arguments.
I’m an outgoing person and I socialize with many different kinds of
people, but it seems even I missed the
exact time frame when being told
women are tired of your misogynistic shit suddenly equated to being
oppressed.
And it’s not harmless. Meninism is not harmless. It trivializes the
very real, very dangerous situations
women all over the world face (I’m
not talking developing countries exclusively here, O lovers of the Western facade of equality) and makes it
all seem like one big joke.
Meninism uses humour to paint
itself as a fun joke you can use
against the big scary feminists, but
it’s a poor attempt at hiding the violent, sinister goings-on of anti-feminist circles.
The lone good side to all this?
It’s now becoming easier and
easier to know which men I need to
stay the hell away from. Sure, meninism and its existence may be protected under free speech, but the right to
free speech doesn’t protect you from
whatever consequences come your
way as a result of being bigoted and
hateful.
Go ahead: spend $40 on a #MENINIST sweater. It’ll make my life
easier.
Ontario teaches consent to kids
New sex ed curriculum could actually change things
Tim Rauf
Writer
Many people would argue that in
order to bring about real change
in a society on a grand and powerful level, new ideas must take root
in the minds of young people. Such
an approach makes perfect sense, as
the older people get, the more they
become dead set in their opinions
and values. As a consequence of
this stubbornness we find ourselves
falling into, there is no tangible effect felt – at least not as efficiently
as when targeting younger generations.
This is why the premier of Ontario, Kathleen Wynne, recently
took steps to introduce consent
language into the sexual education curriculum, starting as early
as elementary school. Although the
desire to implement the sexual material into the education of such
young minds may seem initially
alarming, there is no great cause for
concern.
The new curriculum would not
contain anything sexual. Rather, it
would focus on body language and
signals given off by fellow students
that indicate a range of emotions.
9
It is clear that in this course of action, Wynne aims to decrease sexual aggression and help younger
generations recognize the nonverbal cues that others give off to curb
the amount of sexual assault cases
in our society.
Not only have the attempts by
Wynne’s government to modify
and update the sex ed curriculum
been thwarted by various religious
groups, but the curriculum has also
not been updated since before the
technological explosion that is the
digital age. The closer integration
of technology has changed the landscape of sex in our lives as well.
For example, one relatively new
concept that has come about is sexting, the process of sending sexually graphic messages and images to
each other.
Because of the many new factors, Wynne and others – including
current students of all ages – have
iterated just how necessary it is for
children to learn how to adapt and
deal with the exponentially growing
role of technology.
While these arguments raise a
valid point, I still find myself in a difficult position on the whole matter.
Even though there can be no argu-
Ontario premier Kathleen Wynne wants to teach consent language to students
ing that enhancing communication
skills can only be beneficial in theory, the truth of the matter is, at least
from my own personal experience,
most of the material that teachers
tried to show us in regards to health
education didn’t prove to be half as
useful as the experience gained outside the classroom. From my standing, when it comes to matters of
intimacy, there’s no efficient way
to learn such material sitting at a
desk. That type of knowledge has to
be gained through the interactions
we go through on a daily basis.
That’s not to say I’m completely
disagreeing with the changes that
Wynne is attempting to bring about;
on the contrary, the idea of creating a consent language sounds like
a fantastic way to decrease the frequency of miscommunication and
all the ugly business that comes
with it. I do, however, view the approach through a skeptical (if cautiously optimistic) lens.
ALEX GUIBORD / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
It’s possible the new curriculum may be just the prescription
our society needs to reduce the rate
of crimes committed due to lack of
proper communication. And who
knows? It could very well be that
I was just the kid who didn’t pay
enough attention in health class,
and that if the curriculum was
taught in an engaging manner, it
may actually sink into the minds
of new generations learning it in a
powerful, lasting way.
opinions
Food choices are far too limited
Its time to stop paying too much for food while at MacEwan
Breakfast club is one of the services offered to students by SAMU.
Avi Azarov
Writer
It’s lunchtime, you’re a student,
you’re hungry and you forgot to
bring a lunch. Where do you go?
Your options are limited.
Students are on the go and they
do not have the time to prepare a
well-balanced meal. Running from
one class to another leaves little
time for anything else, especially
with programs that tend to have a
heavy workload. It’s a challenge for
students to balance everything, and
when they can’t rely on the cafeteria
to provide them a healthy diet, their
overall energy, mood and metabolism may be affected, causing their
grades to suffer.
MacEwan’s food services contractor, Aramark Canada, provides
food, beverage and cleaning services to many educational institutions.
Students’ Association of MacEwan
University works with Aramark to
make improvements to their services based on student feedback. Aramark uses this feedback to change
and update menu items and services.
SAMU Vice President of Student Life Lauren Mickel encourages students to voice their concerns
to SAMU Student’s Council more
frequently. In fact, SAMU has attempted to initiate the much-needed changes to Aramark’s services.
Some of these changes include lowering food prices, permitting gift
cards and extending service hours.
Students are now able to use gift
cards and hours on campus have
been extended. Most food services stay open until 7 p.m. Monday
through Thursday while Towers on
Fourth and Towers 2 Go are open
until 9 p.m., accommodating students with night classes.
The SAMU Breakfast Club,
MARC KITTERINGHAM / THE GRIFF
held in the students’ lounge, ensures
that students get the first and most
important meal of the day. We quite
often skip breakfast because we are
in a rush to get to school or wish to
sleep in as long as possible. This service is great for busy students; it provides them with a place to hangout
between classes and makes sure that
they don’t starve themselves. There
is talk at SAMU to expand this service’s frequency to be readily available more often.
The current university food services include the City Centre Market, which provides yogurt and
freshly prepared fruit until 10 a.m.,
and a salad bar for the rest of the
day. Other food services include
Lan’s Asian Grill, Tim Hortons,
Subway, Pizza 73, Booster Juice,
Bento, Fat Frank’s, Starbucks and
Campus Convenience, providing
on-the-go freshly made sandwiches
and snacks. However, the question I
still ask myself is whether it is worth
it for me to pay $10 for two slices of
pizza or if should I go across the
street and pay $5 for a footlong sub
instead. Although it’s nice to have
a slice of pizza every now and then,
students do not want to do that at
the cost of their week’s lunch money or what may add up to their student loan money.
When I visited the cafeteria recently, I noticed that Aramark has
indeed added vegetarian and glutenfree options to the Campus Convenience store, meeting some student
demands for special diets; vegetarian, celiac, kosher and halal diets are
now being accommodated. It should
be noted that SAMU has pushed Aramark to include more options for
students who are dining on campus.
A recent addition was Lan’s Asian
Grill, which has the vegetarian vermicelli, an alternative dish for vegetarians. While it is nice to have these
authentic dishes, it can be hard to
afford for some students.
“If we see something to fix, we
let them know … students are being
heard,” Mickel said.
However, implications can arise
when private social gatherings that
offer off-campus food are held at the
university.
“This can take away from Aramark and we want to keep on good
terms with food services at the university,” said Mickel. So this means
that students are unable to buy a pizza from Domino’s for a club or a social gathering because it would take
money away from Aramark. We, as
students, may ask, “what about the
money in our pockets?”
Aramark profits from students
by raising the prices of foods. If students want a sub, they are not concerned with Aramark’s company
profit, but rather finding the least
expensive and quickest food service.
Students have to pay $7 for a 12-inch
sub on campus while they can pay
$5.25 by just going across the street.
Hope is near as the new SAMU
building is scheduled to start construction next summer; students
will hopefully be free from overpriced food, as the new building may
allow local independent businesses
to rent out the retail space and they
can offer healthier options for students. There is not much information on the specific food options
held at the new building, but SAMU
food exemptions will ensure that we
will not have to deal with Aramark
at the new SAMU building.
It seemed unreal to me that
MacEwan was one of the only universities in Canada that does not
have its own students’ association
building, according to Mickel. It’s
about time we claim independence
as students without any higher “authority” controlling every decision
that affects our lives at school, especially the most important aspect
that gets us through the day: food!
YouTube can’t compete with Super Bowl
Super Bowl’s ratings were through the roof, ruining YouTube’s chances
Jordan Gill
Writer
Another Super Bowl has come and
gone.
Every year those who don’t enjoy the actual game still tune in for
the commercials and halftime show.
While the commercials fell flat this
year (I’m looking at you, Nationwide), the halftime show featuring
Katy Perry, Lenny Kravitz and Missy Elliot was certainly entertaining.
In addition to multiple costume changes by Perry, the stage
underwent sudden changes that
brought the production level up
substantially. Perry sang many of
her hit singles, opening up with
“Roar.” Oh, and did I mention she
performed “Roar” from the top of
a giant mechanical lion?
This was a halftime show that
could be enjoyed by just about anyone, except maybe Taylor Swift
and her fans.
But this year there was a second halftime show. YouTube decided to stream its own show
to compete with Perry’s performance. Instead of intricate stages and props, YouTube stuck with
what they do best. Hosted by EpicMealTime’s Harley Morenstein,
the show featured a collection of
YouTube stars doing the types
of things we have become accustomed to seeing on YouTube channels.
The main problem with YouTube’s attempt to stage its own
halftime show is that the Super Bowl averaged 114.4 million
viewers with the halftime show
bringing in 118.5 million viewers,
according to the Nielsen ratings
Harley Morenstein hosted the YouTube superbowl halftime show.
system. Let’s put these numbers
into a little bit of perspective.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the NHL
played four games while the NBA
had only two games scheduled. All
six games ended well before the
Super Bowl’s opening kick-off.
If two major sporting leagues
have tailored their schedules
around the Super Bowl, then you
know it is making a huge impact
on viewers. No one tries to compete with the Super Bowl because
they know that it’s not going to be
GAGE SKIDMORE / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
a competition.
On any given Sunday the NFL
will draw a large number of fans.
On Super Bowl Sunday there’s just
no taking away from the allure of
the NFL.
10
feature
Six years ago, Brenda Kerber opened the Traveling Tickle Trunk to offer Edmontonians access to good quality,
safe and fun sex toys. To complement their bountiful offering of sex toys and BDSM paraphernalia, the Traveling Tickle Trunk also offers a variety of other sexual
products, such as games, videos, books, condoms, lubes,
massage oils and accessories.
Today, they also host special events and information
sessions about sex no matter your interests. Depending
on the popularity of the session, they occur as frequently
as once or twice a month, and special events happen several times a year. Every event is geared around a specific
topic, but anyone and everyone is welcome to attend, regardless of how you identify.
If you’re interested in a private party for a special occasion, the Tickle Trunk will host you at the shop or
come to you. The parties feature an hour and a half presentation, complete with sex toy demonstrations and
fun party games. All of the toys brought to your party
are available for purchase right then and there if you so
choose. You can even request specific toys for the Tickle
Trunk to bring along.
Check out the events calendar, Brenda’s blog or sex
toy information on the Tickle Trunk’s website, travelingtickletrunk.com.
11
feature
Photos by Stephan Boissonneault
Courtney Bettin
Writer
Many people have a preconceived idea of
what a sex toy shop should be. Lots of people
still avoid stores of that nature because they
feel awkward or shy about the issue. The fact
of the matter is that sex is a big part of the relationship you have with yourself and your
partner. Becoming more informed about the
products on the market to can help elevate
your sex life and give you greater satisfaction.
The Traveling Tickle Trunk is a great local sex toy shop that has a lot to offer its customers in way of products, knowledge and
support. The overall atmosphere of the store
is friendly and inclusive to anyone looking
to explore their sexuality. Brenda Kerber,
Tickle Trunk’s owner and sexual health educator, explains that she wanted to start a
business that took a new and fresh approach
to the way people looked at the sex toy industry.
“The way I wanted to do things here is
to make it a little bit different than what sex
shops have traditionally been. So the windows are not blackout. You know, it’s bright.
I wanted bright, fun colours and a bright, fun
theme so that we could have a theme of play
and exploration ... as opposed to secrecy and
naughtiness and that sort of thing, which
kind of tends to be the theme in sex shops,”
Kerber said.
There are various different products for
curious customers to explore, from vibrators
to massage oils to bondage rope, even chest
packers for transgender individuals. Everyone has the opportunity to find something
suitable for them. Nearly every product in
store has a working demo out on the shelves
so that customers can pick up the item and
get a good idea of what exactly they are purchasing.
“We have a little bit of information about
everything next to the products, so if you’re
the kind of person who’s more comfortable
shopping on your own and not asking questions, then you can get some information just
by what’s on the shelves. If you’re someone
who would like someone to show them everything and help them along, then we’re happy
to do that,” Kerber said.
Sex toys can be a great addition to any
sex life, both for couples and for solo users.
However, for anyone who does not frequent
these shops, going into one can be a bit of an
intimidating experience. Lots of people are
unsure what they are looking for or how they
can incorporate toys into what they are already doing.
“What I suggest to most people when
they’re brand new to toys is to probably get
something that vibrates so you have the option, you can see if you like it. Get something that can do a lot of different types of
vibrations and different intensities because
we’re all different in what feels good to us,”
she said. “It’s really disappointing if you get
a toy that does one thing and you don’t like
that one thing. Then sometimes people think
they don’t like toys but it’s just that toy. It’s
not the right toy.”
It’s normal for people to feel uneasy
about using sex toys because of the taboo nature of the topic. Lots of people feel uncomfortable talking about their sex life or what
is pleasurable to them. But the more people
talk about what they like, the more advantageous it is for their relationships, and the
bigger demand society has to make products
that benefit people in the bedroom.
“I think that [the stigma] comes from
the idea that ... sex is really only one thing
and there’s a right way to do that, and that
comes out of this more conservative view of
what sex is for and who it’s for. So it’s a long
process of coming to understand that sex
is many, many, many things,” Kerber said.
“Most people are different from each other
in what’s interesting to them and even how
they value sex, what it means to them.”
This idea of what sex means was recently
extended when the book 50 Shades of Grey
became popular. Upon reading it, many people decided to get a little more creative with
their sex life and it opened up the doors for
society to start talking about the topic of
BDSM. The book depicts a sexual relationship which treads into the realm of BDSM.
However, Kerber expresses concern that the
readers are getting a misconstrued idea of
what BDSM actually consists of. The abusive tendencies of the protagonist may lead
people into following ideas that are not safe
or consistent with the intent of rough play.
“[BDSM] is a lot of things to a lot of people ... it can be all different kinds of things
but the most important part of any relationship at all, but kink in particular, is communication and consent and that’s what we
don’t have in 50 Shades,” She said. “Every
single thing is discussed beforehand and it’s
not about ‘I’m the top, I’m the dom and you
shall do what I say’ — it’s an interaction between the two and the person who is supposedly on the bottom has just as much power.”
“We have this kind of idea that if you’re
the one in control then you call all the shots
and if you’re the sub then you just lay there
and take it and that’s not how it, works at all.
It’s an ongoing communication.”
For anyone who is interested in finding
out more about sex toys or how they could
bring them into their sex life, I would strongly recommend checking out the Traveling
Tickle Trunk. The atmosphere is inviting to
people who are new or inexperienced, and
the staff is knowledgeable and looking to
help people find something that works for
them. There are so many different types of
toys that people don’t realize they have access to because they think that “sex toy” only
equals “vibrator” and that’s not the case.
Expanding one’s horizons and being
open about what is pleasurable can offer people a rewarding new facet in their sex lives.
The benefits go far beyond physical and into
emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing. Many people leave this area of their
life untapped because it is unfamiliar, but it
doesn’t need to be. Get educated and explore
what can help make your sex life the best it
can be.
12
feature
Kyle Muzyka
Sports Editor
“It’s not the sex that wrecks these
guys; it’s staying up all night looking for it.”
This quote from former New
York Yankees manager Casey Stengel, published on Nature..com,
sums up the issue most managers
have with one of the most discussed
questions in sport: should you have
sex before a big game?
There has been a lot of research
on whether there is any relation to
having sex before a game and poor
performance. Samantha McGlone
and Ian Shrier looked at three studies based on sex and sports performance, and all three studies
suggested no difference in performance between when the participants had sex prior to an activity
and when they did not.
Yet according to Time, Russia,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile
and Mexico all had bans on their
athletes having sex before the 2014
World Cup.
With no science to back it up,
why is it that teams still instil the
practice (or lack thereof) before important events?
Maybe it’s psychological.
A study published by Lysann
Damisch, Barbara Stoberock
and Thomas Mussweiler in 2010
looked at the effect of superstitions against performance in golfing, motor dexterity and memory.
Their results showed an improvement in performance when
the participants kept their fingers
crossed or were told to “break a
leg,” as opposed to when the participant did the task without any
such superstitions.
Their results suggest a link
between psychology and performance, which could mean there’s
a significant link between sex and
performance, but from a psychological stance only.
Though there are no known
studies that link the two together,
one can assume that, depending
on the athlete, sex may or may not
be the best thing for them before a
championship game.
Famous boxer Muhammad
Ali was known to have abstained
from sex six weeks prior to a fight,
for fear he would lose the built-up
testosterone if he did. American
Olympic runner Marty Liquori,
very successful in the 1970s, was
quoted as saying, “sex makes you
happy. Happy people don’t run a
3:47 mile.”
However, if results hold merit,
consider this: In the 2014 World
Cup, only two of the four teams
that were known to have a no-sex
rule made it to the top 16, with
both Chile and Mexico being
knocked out of the first round.
Conversely, Germany, a team
known not to dwell on pre-game
activities, won the World Cup,
with the Netherlands, another
team that doesn’t place such rules
on their team, finishing third.
Take that how you will, as
both Germany and the Netherlands’ programs were said to be
superior, but if results were any
sort of indication on whether sex
should be allowed, there is clear
evidence supporting the athletes’
right to choose.
As we come full circle, however, it’s important to avoid things
outside of the regular routine. If
heading to the bar and trying to
score until 2:30 a.m. is not something an athlete normally does,
maybe a good night’s sleep is
worth more than the sex they may
have.
2012PGA/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
Arts Editor
Some people tend to shiver or cringe when
they hear the words “bondage” or “BDSM”
(Bondage and Discipline/Sadism and Masochism) mentioned in conversation. It falls
into the “taboo” subject that may only be discussed through closed doors or in some deep,
dark dungeon. When it comes to your sex life,
you have to keep an open mind. Maybe being
tied up while being ball-gagged and getting
hit with a strap or paddle could be a pleasurable experience. Don’t knock it till you try
it. Various kinks and fetishes can open up a
world of unknown possibilities and dark desires. Local Edmonton dominatrix Mistress
Vikki thrives on these.
Mistress Vikki has been a professional dominatrix for 14 years now. Throughout
most of her adult life, Vikki was involved in
the BDSM lifestyle and eventually decided to
offer her skills and expertise to people who
were self-accepting of their kinks. It’s safe to
say that even after 14 years, Mistress Vikki’s
profession is anything but stale.
13
MISTRESS VIKKI/SUPPLIED
“I love my job!” said Mistress Vikki. “It allows me to do what I enjoy most: Helping people feel accepted and worthy, by doing what I
enjoy and am skilled at.”
When Mistress Vikki refers to what she
is “skilled at,” she means discipline. Or more
descriptively, “disciplinary spankings.”
These can be as simple as an over-the-knee
spanking with a strap or cane, or something
more advanced such as time on spanking
equipment in Mistress Vikki’s dungeon. She
also specializes in shibari, more commonly
known as Japanese rope bondage.
As a sadomasochist, Mistress Vikki receives a fair amount of thrill and amusement
as a disciplinarian. “I derive a great deal of
pleasure from giving pain, and from receiving certain types of pain,” said Mistress
Vikki. She also pointed out that not all dominatrices are sadomasochistic. “There are mistresses who are not sadistic, and those ladies
typically offer slave training and mild spankings.”
Role play can play a huge part in a slave/
dominatrix scenario. In Mistress Vikki’s experience, the teacher and student fantasy is
the most popular among her clients.
When it comes to her clients, Mistress
Vikki is very accepting of people’s gender
and sexuality. “As a bisexual cis female with
a gender queer adult child, I am fully comfortable with various genders and sexuality.”
In Mistress Vikki’s opinion, the BDSM
community in Edmonton is unique and very
accepting. “If you have a fetish, there is likely
a group of like-minded people in our fine city
who share your interests.”
The list of known kinks and fetishes is
a vast and ever-growing one. Mistress Vikki is also a BDSM educator/alternative lifestyle presenter within the BDSM world. As
a pro, she has held many presentations and
workshops throughout North America.
These workshops can range from topics such
as “discipline spanking and flogging 101” to
“rope bondage for beginners.”
But the mistress’s educational prowess
does not stop there. She recently released a
39-page Kindle book entitled A Submissive’s
Guide to the Professional Dominatrix: A
guide for those who seek the services of a Pro
Domme.
Mistress Vikki also has a workshop entitled “50 Shades of Reality (BDSM Primer).”
The name takes obvious inspiration from
E.L. James’s 50 Shades of Grey novel. For
Mistress Vikki, 50 Shades of Grey has had
some positive as well as negative effects within the BDSM realm.
“I am very grateful to 50 Shades, as it has
played a large role in bringing the topic of
BDSM and consent to the mainstream public. Unfortunately, it includes a great deal of
non-consensual activity and is misleading in
many ways. It is my hope that those who seek
to explore BDSM and kink seek information
in their local community and explore safely,”
said Mistress Vikki.
Mistress Vikki wants to point out that
BDSM is “not all about whips and chains.
It’s about exchanging power.” This power exchange can be a very favourable experience
for both the dominatrix and the slave. Professionals like Mistress Vikki are helpful for
people who are looking for a way to exercise
their kink. So hey, with consent, maybe break
out the handcuffs or bondage tape once in
awhile. It could be lively.
feature
ALL IMAGES SUPPLIED BY OHJOYSEXTOY.COM
Madison Kerr
Graphics Editor
Before I start my review of Oh Joy Sex Toy,
please note that this website is extremely not-safe-for-work or NSFW. It includes a
plethora of illustrated boobs, butts, genitalia and sexy sex times.
Have you ever wondered what the inside
of a sex club is like? Curious about what the
emergency contraception pill is? Or perhaps you just want to find the holy grail of
dildos? Look no further than OhJoySexToy.
com. It’s a webcomic mixed with a review
site mixed with an educational resource. Oh
Joy Sex Toy (OJST) began in April 2013 as a
passion project for cartoonist Erika Moen
and her husband Matthew Nolan and has
now become the pair’s full-time job. Just last
year, the couple launched a very successful
Kickstarter to produce their first collection
of the strips, Oh Joy Sex Toy Volume One,
which is available for purchase through
their website. I have been a fan of Erika’s
work for years, and after her time on Strip
Search (an online reality show about web
cartoonists produced by Penny Arcade), I
was eager to see what she had planned for
herself.
OJST began as a review site and has
now flourished into a sex-positive and inclusive resource for all things erotic. Something unique and interesting about OJST is
the use of “The Masturbateers” as the subjects of the comics. In the inaugural strip for
the site, Erika describes them as “fictional, gender-neutral characters who portray
the use of the sex toys that Erika and Matthew are reviewing.” Characters of all different body types and races are represented
in each of the comics. The comics also stay
as gender neutral as possible, referring to
different genitalia as their proper medical
terms without trying to paint them with a
gendered brush.
One of the reasons why Matthew is such
an important part of OJST is his ability to
review toys that Erika might not be able to
use to their fullest extent due to her lack of
penis. I should also note, however, that in almost every review Erika and Matthew try
to include what the toy was like when they
used it together, if applicable.
An important part of OJST is the educational strips. These strips include information about the basics of condoms, how
conception works, how to butt sex properly
(including their adorable mascots the Anal
Safety Snails), and many more. The wide
range of sex ed topics can be found in its
own section of the website and I highly recommend reading all of them if you have the
time.
Something else that is great about OJST
is the guests who write and draw strips for
it. Some are guest reviewers and educators,
while some guest strips are pure hardcore
erotica (which is also amazing). One of my
favourite guest strips is by Jess Fink about
her work in erotica comics. Jess discusses
her history with drawing erotica, as well as
the history of erotica itself. She also talks
about how someone interested in drawing
erotic art or comics shouldn’t feel guilty or
ashamed.
Overall, I am so glad that OJST exists. It
has taught me so much about my body and
sexuality and I think it’s an invaluable resource for sexually active people. I encourage you to check it out because I am sure
that Erika and Matthew will become the
sex educators that you wish were teaching
your health class.
14
opinions
Leave medical decisions to pros
Makayla Sault, after refusing chemo treatment, passed away from leukemia
Ateroids and anti-sickness pills are used to fight the side-effects of chemotherapy.
Parvin Sedighi
Writer
With their wild imaginations
and undeterred determination to
achieve exactly what they desire,
children’s hopes and dreams could
conjure up galaxies and build entire worlds. One second a young
girl will want to be a firefighter,
the next second a chef, and five
minutes later she will, with all her
heart, want to dedicate herself to
being the best singer in the world.
Eventually, this young girl will
grow older and pursue her dream.
For one Ontario girl, the opportunity to grow older and prosper
is no longer a possibility. Makayla
Sault, an 11-year-old who suffered
from acute lymphoblastic leukemia, died in January as a result of
a stroke the doctors believe was
caused by the return of her illness.
Sault was in remission after
receiving 12 weeks of chemotherapy treatments at McMaster Children’s Hospital. The length of her
chemo sessions, however, was not a
decision made by her doctors.
In the spring 2014, acting upon
Makayla’s request, her parents
DAVE CAMPBELL / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
withdrew her from McMaster hospital, opting to use traditional aboriginal treatments to help their
sick child. Her death came nine
months after her last chemotherapy session.
McMaster hospital contacted
authorities in hopes of legally forcing Sault back into chemotherapy,
but Ontario courts ruled in favour
of the Sault family, stating they reserved the right to use indigenous
methods of healing, CBC reported
on Jan. 19.
Upon her death, the Sault family released a statement citing the
12 weeks of chemotherapy Makayla received as the reason for her
stroke, according to The Toronto
Star on Jan. 21.
According to the National Cancer Institute, 80 per cent of people
with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Makayla’s age group are expected to survive the illness after
receiving treatment. The question
then becomes: Why was the senseless death of a child not prevented
by those who are equipped to do
just that?
Canadian hospitals boast some
of the most advanced technology
available to health care providers
today, but it seems eight to 12 years
of gruelling work put into becoming professional caregivers does
not provide their doctors with the
right to use this technology for bettering the health of their patients.
I am in awe. A young girl died of
an illness that was relatively treatable, through a method that has repeatedly been proven to work, and
I am in awe.
There is no doubt that in certain aspects, a parent will know
what is best for his or her child.
A medical situation is not one
of them. Listening to an ill child
about how her treatment should
go when this child is in pain and in
desperate want of relief, and then
acting on this child’s wishes, is not
only absurd but horribly irresponsible.
Stranger still is that, according
to The Globe and Mail, the Saults
elected to take Makayla to a health
resort in Florida run by a man with
no medical credentials whatsoever. How this resort fits into a tradi-
tional aboriginal healing method
has yet to be understood.
In December 2014, former employees of the resort (including a
doctor) filed a lawsuit against it,
claiming they were unfairly fired
for questioning the ethics and legality of the treatment administered at the resort according to
The Toronto Star.
Of course, Makayla’s parents
are not the only ones who failed
to distinguish between real, proven medicine and traditional methods that can be classified as shaky
at best. The Ontario judge’s ruling
in favour of the Sault family leaves
much to be desired.
The relationship between aboriginal communities and the Canadian government has always
been a strained one, so it’s possible to see where this judge was
drawing his motivations from.
But that doesn’t justify infusing
life or death rulings with politics
that, in the end, will continue to be
strained, and not because of medical rulings (see the response to the
hundreds of missing and murdered
aboriginal women across the country).
Ultimately, medical professionals have authority for a reason. No
parent wants their child to suffer,
but most parents don’t understand
medical procedures well enough to
be the ones making life-altering decisions for their children.
You wouldn’t allow a chef to
write a security program for the
national bank; don’t allow people
without any professional training
to make medical calls for their sick
children.
Bill C-51 is Canada’s Patriot Act
The new anti-terror bill infringes on Canadians’ rights
What’s
Left
Marc W. Kitteringham is the
griff’s political columnist.
Each week he takes apart a
current political issue, and
gives his opinion from an
alternative point of view.
I remember learning about the
Patriot Act in high school. I was
reading George Orwell at the time,
listening to Rage Against the Machine and feeling angsty, so when
my social studies teacher brought
up the Patriot Act, all it did was
make me feel good to not be living in a society where Big Brother
watches everything, and that I was
glad my rights were protected by
my government.
Well, guess what.
After the attacks on Parliament Hill in November, Canada
soon will have its own anti-terror
law that puts a large amount of
power into the hands of the government and away from the peo-
15
ple it is sworn to protect. This bill,
which doesn’t have a doublespeak
name like the American version,
is called Bill C-51. It would the
Canadian Security Intelligence
Service (CSIS), a civilian organization, an excessive amount of
power, including the power to disrupt communications and get permission to do anything in their
power to protect national security.
This means that they can go above
and beyond the law whenever they
see fit to do so.
In theory, this bill is directed at
thwarting terrorism. And in that
sense I agree with it. Terrorism is
the biggest plague of the 21st century. The actions carried out by individuals and groups in the past 10
years have been abhorrent and disgusting. However, becoming a police state because of it is not the
answer.
The last time Canada authorized new security powers was after 9/11. The attacks on that date
were acts of war against our allies,
and were extremely close to Canadian borders. This makes sense.
Before that the War Measures Act
was put in place after a Quebecois
Marxist group, the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ), bombed
the Montreal Stock Exchange and
kidnapped British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Minister
of Labour Pierre Laporte. This
was a group of militants who attacked many targets in Montreal
and terrorized the city. This too
made sense.
The War Measures Act was
repealed after the crisis was over
and Canadians’ rights were reinstated. Now, however, this Bill
C-51 is a permanent revoking of
our rights that came from two
murders labeled as terrorist attacks. In both cases, the attackers in 2014 were mentally ill and
had criminal pasts. They just happened to agree with the ideas of a
separate terrorist organization.
The new legislation gives the
government the power to arrest
people who show signs that they
“may” commit an act of terrorism.
This could be anyone. It could be a
misinformed teenager who makes
a bad joke on the internet, it could
be a mentally unstable person who
is looking for help in any way they
can get it. It outlaws the production of propaganda, which is defined as any kind of sign or writing
that in some way promotes terrorism. Now any kid with an internet
connection and a bad sense of humour can be instantly detained by
CSIS (read: thought police).
The only silver lining of this
cloud is that the bill isn’t officially
passed yet. It still has to go before
the House of Commons, where it
will be furiously debated, I’m sure.
So for now we still do have rights.
There is still free speech and we
don’t have to worry about CSIS
tapping our phones just yet. But
those rights might not be around
for long, so we should enjoy them
while we can.
Big Brother is finally going to
start watching Canada.
sports
SPORTS EDITOR
Kyle Muzyka
[email protected]
MacEwan solidifies second place
Griffins take two from UBCO Heat, look to tidy up game versus Mount Royal before playoffs
Kyle Muzyka
Sports Editor
MacEwan University’s women’s
basketball team cemented their
second-place finish this past weekend, completing the sweep against
the UBCO.
With the victories, the women
secured second place in their division, where they will use their
final weekend to gear up for their
first-ever playoff berth.
The Griffins went into the
weekend having to take at least
one game from the Heat, who are
a grossly underrated team, considering their record.
The team from the Okanagan
put off a great effort against the
first-place Thompson Rivers Wolfpack just two weeks prior, and
lost two close games against the
third-place UFV Cascades last
weekend.
MacEwan knew to not take
the team lightly, despite their 4-12
record.
As expected, the Heat came
out guns blazing on Friday night,
with MacEwan only able to match
their play at times.
The Heat kept up with MacEwan in the first quarter, exchanging baskets right until the final
second, where MacEwan guard
Brittani Blake stole the ball and
scored from beneath the basket.
As the many posters around
the school said, there was a pep
rally on Friday night, and the
crowd showed up halfway through
the second quarter, and with them
came a semi-periodical “Let’s go
Griffins” chant.
Fortunately for MacEwan, the
antics from the crowd would only
get louder.
The crowd was yelling and
screaming for Griffins forward
Kelly Fagan, specifically in the
second quarter where she pulled
down a slew of offensive rebounds, trying desperately to put
one in or draw a foul. She did neither, but the crowd was behind
her either way.
Despite the chants, MacEwan couldn’t channel the newfound energy onto the court, and
trailed the Heat by six points into
the half.
Things started to turn around
for the Griffins in the beginning
of the second half, with Fagan
leading the way.
She scored eight points for the
Griffins in a span of two minutes,
tying the game up at 37 apiece.
The teams would trade baskets a
few more times before MacEwan
jumped ahead to a six-point lead
at the end of the third quarter.
The Heat weren’t going away,
however, capping a 15-4 run to tie
the game with only a minute left.
MacEwan’s Kayla Ivicak put
her team out in front by two with
only 49 seconds left, but UBCO
managed a steal with 30 seconds
left, making the basket and tying
the game at 67. The Griffins took a
16
Forward Kayla Ivicak lines up for her second foul shot on Friday night.
timeout, with one possession left
on the clock.
MacEwan had been controlling the rebounds all night, finishing the night 52-24.
It was especially important in
the final seconds, as Megan Wood
pulled down an offensive rebound
and drew a foul with five seconds
left.
Wood went to the line, game
tied, with two foul shots.
She was 83 per cent from the
free throw line on the night, and
needed to hit at least one to put
her team in front.
She missed both.
However, teammate Ivicak,
in the reoccurring theme on the
night, put back an offensive rebound, winning the game 69-67.
Fagan led the way on the rebounding side, posting 20, including 11 offensive rebounds, tying a
Canada West record. She added a
team-high 22 points.
“She kept shooting. I told her,
I said, ‘tonight, you’re going to
have to keep shooting the ball’
and she did what she was asked,”
Head Coach Rob Poole said.
Fagan has struggled from the
floor at times, but it’s apparent he
has faith in his forward. She shot
48 per cent from the floor on Friday night.
Saturday saw more of the
same in terms of rebounding
for the Griffins, except this time
MacEwan took the lead and nev-
er let go.
Kendall Lydon played well on
Saturday night, scoring 25 points,
including shooting 80 per cent
from the three-point line.
She also pulled down nine rebounds.
“Where we have an advantage is second and third chances,”
Poole said.
“If you can control the boards
like we did, it’s going to be tough
to beat us.”
MacEwan won each quarter
over the Heat on the strength of
Lydon, Wood and Fagan. Wood
had a game-high 26 points, while
Fagan had a double-double with
12 points and 13 rebounds.
No one was particularly impressive on the other side of the
court, with Heat guard Claire Elliott making the best case. She
shot 63 per cent from the floor,
with a team-high 13 points.
The Griffins have secured second place in the Explorers Division, but will look to start the
playoffs off right with two games
against the 6-12 Mount Royal
Cougars.
MacEwan has beaten them
twice already, with a largely balanced offence within the starting
five being a key factor.
The games are in Calgary Feb.
13 and 14, with tipoff scheduled
for 6 and 5 p.m., respectively.
Guard Kari Kubinec dribbles up the court. The pink
ball was in honour of the CIS’S Shoot for the Cure.
sports
Men
earn
first
sweep
of
season
Last home weekend filled with dunks, drunks and the UBCO Heat getting skunked
Kyle Muzyka
Sports Editor
The men earned their first sweep
of the season in their secondlast weekend, playing some of
the most consistent basketball
they’ve played all season long.
In what was Lee Danderfer’s
last home appearance, the men
took two from the UBC Okanagan Heat on Feb. 6 and 7.
Danderfer struggled from
the three-point line all weekend
long, hitting just 13 per cent of
his shots. However, with veteran
point guard Thomas Jereniuk on
the sidelines, the ball-handling
was split between Danderfer,
Denzel James and Deonte DoslovDoctor.
This meant that even though
Danderfer may have struggled
shooting, he was distributing the
ball quite well. He tallied 12 assists on the weekend, where he
would normally average about six.
Friday’s match saw each team
exchange baskets, specifically in
the first quarter. Doslov-Doctor,
a first-year player, set the tone for
the Griffins early, knocking down
a three-point shot in the early going.
Doslov-Doctor garnered his
first start on Friday night, and cited his hard work as his reasoning
for getting the start.
“I came into the season not
even getting one minute for the
first home game,” Doslov-Doctor
said, mentioning his teammates
Kenny Johnson and the injured
Jereniuk as players he learned a
lot from.
His play also received positive
reviews from his teammates.
“I think our offence was balanced because Deonte did a great
job today,” Keith Gerdes said.
Three Griffins tallied over 14
points, with Gerdes leading the
way at 17.
Second quarter saw MacEwan jump out to a bit of a lead,
with Gerdes leading the way. This
was highlighted by an uncontested dunk by Gerdes, who got both
a rise out of the crowd and out of
the referee. He received a technical foul on the play for hanging on
the rim too long.
“In my defence, if I didn’t
hang onto the rim, I would have
fallen on my face,” Gerdes said,
laughing. Either way, it showed
the resiliency of the team, as they
refused to let a technical foul get
the best of them. They scored
on the very next possession, and
built a seven point lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, the Griffins were taking open shots,
but could hardly find the net. It
wasn’t until the final minutes of
the quarter when they started to
rack up some baskets, spearheaded by a Danderfer three-point
play.
The lead increased to 10 by
the end of the third, setting the
tone for the final quarter.
The fourth quarter saw shooting guard Denzel James start to
take the game over, highlighted by
a massive dunk that turned into a
potential three-point play, though
Forward Harrison Lane drives the basket on Friday night.
he could not convert on the foul
shot. Regardless, it hyped up the
increasingly excited crowd, and
Forward Denzel James looks down the court. He acted as point guard at times, distributing the ball
well and turning it over few times on Friday night.
allowed MacEwan to continue
their momentum.
They never looked back, cruising to a 82-70 victory.
“[This was] most complete
team effort for the entire game,”
Head Coach Eric Magdanz said,
referencing his team’s lack of
ability to play a complete 40 minutes. Often they’d get off to slow
starts and have to come from behind to have a chance at winning
the game.
“It’s a big turning point for
us.”
In a previous weekend versus
the Heat, the teams split the twogame series, and with a win on
Friday night, the Griffins looked
to sweep a team for the first time
in their brief CIS history. It would
also mark the first time the team
will have strung together two victories.
Saturday’s match was a little
more of what the Griffins were
used to, which in this case was
rather unfortunate.
The first half saw the two
teams keep up with one another, with MacEwan having a fourpoint lead.
However, the familiarity of
letting a game slip came back to
MacEwan in the third quarter,
getting outscored 23-11 in the
third quarter.
The Heat held a 14-point lead
in the third quarter, and it was going to take a rally from MacEwan
to come from behind and win the
game.
Fortunately, also in MacEwan
fashion, they did make a comeback, and ended up winning the
game 62-59.
The momentum was undoubtedly in the Griffins’ favour in the
fourth quarter, after another
Gerdes dunk allowed MacEwan
their first lead in the fourth quarter. It was part of an 11-3 run that
pushed the Griffins ahead of the
Heat, and on to take both games
in a weekend for the first time this
season.
Coach Magdanz noted the
crowds, specifically on Friday
night, as a motivation to play well.
“It’s always fun for athletes to
play for big crowds, especially athletes at this level,” he said.
Though the men have been
eliminated from playoff contention, this weekend and the next
against Mount Royal is huge for
the team, as they want to send off
Lee Danderfer on the right note,
as he will not be returning this
next season.
The last time these teams met,
they split games, which were both
close. Mount Royal upset the firstplace UFV Cascades on Feb. 1,
which means MacEwan may have
to step up to compete with the
Cougars.
A lot of positive things came
out of this weekend for the men,
and they will continue to try to
improve every game as they begin
to prepare for the next season.
Tipoff for the games on Feb.
6 and 7 are scheduled for 8 and 7
p.m., respectively.
17
sports
Is college football too dangerous to exist?
Report claims average football hit comparable to crashing a car at 40 km/h
Zach Tennent
The Sheaf
University of Saskatchewan
With the Super Bowl taking the
spotlight, former Chicago Bears
coach Mike Ditka failed to make
headlines after publicly stating
that he would not want his children to play football.
In an interview, Ditka admitted to realizing that the sport was
far too hazardous, calling its longterm effects on the brain devastating and claiming, “the risk is worse
than the reward.”
Ditka is not the first person
to criticize football’s brutality.
Author and journalist Malcolm
Gladwell has compared the impact
of an average football hit to crashing a car at 40 kilometres per hour
into a brick wall and letting your
head hit the dashboard.
Citing that this impact occurs
30 to 40 times in a football game,
Gladwell argues that no helmet
can protect against repeated blows
of that magnitude.
Even the NFL recently acknowledged that around one-third
of former players are expected to
develop “long-term cognitive issues” and at a strikingly younger
age than the rest of the population.
I see no problem with grown
men and women playing professional tackle football and being
handsomely compensated for it,
just as I see no problem with anyone who willingly works any hazardous job. What I do take issue
with, however, is college football.
In the 2013-14 fiscal year, the
Canadian government provided
$12.2 billion — nearly five cents
per tax dollar — to post-secondary
institutions and social programs.
Additionally, the majority of the
University of Saskatchewan’s
yearly operating budget comes
from provincial grants.
Likewise, student fees at the
U of S this year include a charge
of $39.27 each term for athletics.
While this money is allocated to
Imagine crashing a car at 40 km/h and hitting your head on the dash 30-40 times. That’s comparable to an
average football game, according to author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell.
all Huskie Athletics programs on
campus, football is one of the bigger ones.
Since the university operates
thanks to considerable tax assistance, the public should not be
footing the bill for what is ultimately a very harmful and hazardous activity. Similarly, as
university students seeking a
higher education, we should not
be funding a spectator sport where
concussions are next to inevitable
and long-term brain damage and
cognitive disability are rampant
consequences.
I understand that playing for
the Huskies is not a one-way ticket
to playing professional football —
far from it. Four years of football
at a university level would certainly not be as damaging in the long
run as an entire career’s worth of
play. That said, four seasons with
10 or so games in each would still
involve enough hits to do serious
lifelong damage to one’s brain.
It comes down to a simple logic: an institute of higher learning
should not be encouraging any recreational activity this hazardous,
nor should it be furthering young
men on a path towards such a dangerous profession.
JOHN MCSTRAVICK/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS
Once again, I recognize that
for many players college football is
just a pastime. For many students,
it’s also a means to learn teamwork
and life skills and to keep physically active.
While these are all legitimate
and realistic benefits of playing
football, they are far from exclusive to the sport. There’s just as
much to gain from Huskies basketball or soccer and far less to sacrifice mentally.
It’s a matter of safety. Students’
and taxpayers’ money should not
be supporting a university sport
that is inextricably connected to
young men hitting their heads and
receiving concussions.
In truth, the same arguments
against tackle football in universities are applicable to public high
schools as well.
As I said, there’s nothing
wrong with someone wanting to
be paid to play football if they understand and accept the risks involved.
However, when educational institutions are using funding and
student fees to set people on a path
towards brain damage, we deserve
better.
Average pitcher sets arbitration standards
Feb. 11, 1974: management cites spike in oil prices as reasons for arbitration with player
Kyle Muzyka
Sports Editor
Dick Woodson isn’t a name you hear
when talking about baseball greats.
His 3.47 earned run average would
rank him 406th all-time, and that’s
if he maintained the same average
through 1,000 innings pitched.
Needless to say, he’s considered
to be mediocre.
However, one thing he will be remembered for is his successful arbitration case against his team — the
Minnesota Twins — marking the
first time the new policy was used to
settle a wage disagreement between
a player and a team.
Arbitration is, in its broadest
definition, having a third-party
make a decision between two opposing sides. In sports, it’s particularly
18
useful considering these teams and
players are looking to make/keep
as much money as they can, within
reason.
It was during the 1974 off-season, and Woodson was coming off
a relatively mediocre year. His ERA
was up to 3.95, a 123-point increase
from the previous season, but he
pitched like a middle-of-the-rotation pitcher, and the Twins were
looking to resign him.
They planned to offer him
$23,000, according to Woodson
himself via the Twins Trivia website. Woodson, however, felt he was
worth more than that.
In his previous season, Woodson held a sparkling 2.72 ERA, and
threw nine complete games for the
Twins.
This, along with his middle-of-
the-pack statistics the following
season, prompted him to ask for
$30,000.
According to Twins Trivia, however, it wasn’t Woodson’s stats that
caused the difference in offer.
“All they talked about was the
price of oil because 1974 was when
the first oil crisis took place. They
kept bringing up how the fans
would not attend the games because
they could not afford the price of
the gas to drive to the stadium,”
Woodson recalls, according to the
interview. The price of a barrel of
oil had increased to three times the
amount it was in the previous year,
up to $11.65 per barrel.
Today, it’s $58 per barrel.
The price wasn’t a large ask, either, considering the average salary
for a major leaguer in 1974 was over
$40,000, according to the Economic
History website. His stats suggested
he was an average player at the very
least.
However, Calvin Griffith, owner
and general manager of the team,
never had much faith in Woodson,
and refused to budge past $23,000.
Arbitration was called in to settle
the case.
Eventually, Woodson was
awarded his $30,000, and was asked
why he didn’t ask for more by the arbitrator.
He very well could have received
more had he asked for it, considering his play.
It’s easy to imagine an arbitration hearing causing a lot of rifts
between players and teams.
When one gets the desired outcome, the other is generally not hap-
py. This was the case in the first-ever
arbitration hearing, as Griffith and
Woodson’s relationship was even
further wrecked.
Woodson said that Griffith “was
quoted as saying that in spring
training, that he would never pay
me that money [the $30,000], that
he would trade me before he would
ever pay me on that contract.”
He was dealt to the New York
Yankees later in the year.
His ERA skyrocketed to 5.07
that season, and that was the last
season Woodson played in the majors. Perhaps Griffith had pegged
Woodson correctly.
Either way, the duo set the tone
for arbitrations in the future, although now parties are separated
by millions of dollars, and not thousands.
advertisement
“I don’t always
sell Hondas with just
$
40 weekly payments.
But when I do, I do it
at GoHonda.ca”
Jay Maroney
The Most Interesting
Car Dealer in the World
Check out our special student offer
at GoHonda.ca/grad
Address: 10220 – 184 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T5S 0B9 | Phone: 1.888.993.0961
19
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Meet new people. Eat great food.
Join us on
February 11th, 2015
•
For free hot breakfast
•
9 a.m. - 11 a.m.
Students’ Lounge, 7-297
Want more info?
[email protected]
20
•
780.633.3163
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NOMINATIONS
NOMINATIONS
HELP SHAPE YOUR FUTURE AT MACEWAN. NOMINATE THE NEW EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
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21
diversions
Camera Slide by Michael Chau
Filbert Comics by L.A. Bonté
Horoscopes
Madison Kerr
Substitute Horoscopist
Aries (March 21 to April 19)
This week’s answers lie within a box of Kraft Dinner.
Capricorn (Dec. 22 to Jan 19)
Make sure to eat a lot of kale and quinoa this week. Your digestive system isn’t feeling trendy enough and will begin to
lash out.
Taurus (April 20 to May 20)
Make sure to google the guacamole recipe that belongs to
Jack White. Make this for your valentine and you WILL get
laid.
Aquarius (Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
The events of the next week are going to play out a lot like the
film Drive, so make sure to don your favourite driving gloves
and hide a hammer in your glove box, just in case.
Gemini (May 21 to June 20)
Don’t be discouraged if your cat is your valentine this year.
It’s just a stupid consumer holiday anyway and your kitty
will appreciate the extra cuddles.
Pisces (Feb. 19 to March 20)
Kanye made a stir at the Grammys this week. If you want to
make a topical joke, try to interrupt someone while they are
making a speech at your next opportunity. Unless it’s your
meemaw’s funeral. Don’t do it.
Cancer (June 21 to July 22)
You’re okay. You’ve got this.
Leo (July 23 to Aug. 22)
It’s time to invest in a new sex toy. Your hand just isn’t cutting it anymore...
Cute photo time!
22
Virgo (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
It’s time that you realize that you don’t actually increase
your odds of winning Roll up the Rim by buying more coffee.
Libra (Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
You may think that reading these horoscopes will unlock
some hidden truth about your week. You are wrong. The
truth was inside you all along.
Scorpio (Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
If you are single, try to avoid Sam Smith’s album this weekend. If you are not, you should listen to Sam Smith’s album
this weekend.
Sagittarius (Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)
Reading week is almost upon us. My advice to you is to try
and get all of your schoolwork done as early in the week as
possible to optimize your week off. Or you can do what I am
going to do and wait until Sunday night to even crack open
those textbooks. Shitheads unite!
Tambako The Jaguar/Flickr Creative Commons
diversions
“What are you really excited for right now?”
“I’m super excited to be graduating. It
seems very surreal and I think after being
in university for 5 years that the light at the
end of the tunnel is getting brighter and
brighter. I’ve accompished a huge chapter
in life!”
Inspired by Brandon Stanton’s blog Humans of New
York, every week we take intimate portraits and uncover
personal stories of the inhabitants within MacEwan’s halls.
23
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24

What happens to dead things The end is nigh Learn what happens

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