Over The Edge
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UNBC’s Independent Student Newspaper est. 1994
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Volume 21, Issue 8
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Free overtheedgenewspaper.ca
January 12, 2015 ote-newspaper@unbc.ca
uring the aftermath of the January 7 attacks on Parisian newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, I cannot help but reflect on the importance of journalism. Over the Edge is about to attend a national conference to learn about the blood, sweat, and tears that goes into print media around the world. This publication has (for years) been the subject of ridicule by UNBC students. In spite of this, we have had various
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Next deadline: January 21, 2015
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Every year, we provide employment as editors, designers, and managers to students with a passion for journalism and are always looking for motivated individuals to work and volunteer in our collaborative environment. Over The Edge offers competitive advertising rates for space in our print publication as well as online.
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Over The Edge is the University of Northern British Columbia’s independent student newspaper. Our office is located on the 2nd floor of the NUSC building in room 6-350. We are an equal opportunity publication which represents students in the UNBC and Prince George community. Our publication supports student writing by welcoming news, arts, sports, culture and opinion articles, as well as photography, comics, and creative writing submissions.
If you are interested in supporting international journalism, we recommend Reporters without Borders, an organization sanctioned by the UN.
Following the attacks on Charlie Hebdo,
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Over The Edge
there has been a lot of talk about freedom of the press and freedom of speech. We live in a place where it is fairly easy for you to take advantage of that. Thank you, for giving us this opportunity to write at you.
teams of dedicated people working to bring you UNBC’s news since 1994, and we plan on continuing. Over the Edge is so grateful for the fact that we live in a place that gives us the right and ability to print pretty much whatever we want in a student-run, student-funded publication. Feel free to take advantage of this by sending us your own content.
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UNBC Life News from NUGSS Angela Kehler President | NUGSS
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here is an old saying (or possibly a country song) that goes along the lines of “how can I miss you if you won’t go away?” This is precisely how I feel about Prince George--I am happy to live, work, and study here, but it is necessary to leave town periodically in order to continue appreciating it. Getting away for the holidays allows us to face the new semester with new energy and bravery. There is lots to look forward to in January:
Winterfest and Neon Ski-On (January 23 and 24) and Green Day (January 27). NUGSS is also raising funds to support a free day of transit during the Canada Winter Games, so stay tuned for opportunities to contribute to the cause!
most rewarding experience I have had at UNBC, and I recommend trying it out.
January is also the time to begin thinking about elections, coming soon to your friendly neighborhood student society. NUGSS elections will be held in March, giving you an opportunity to elect a new board for next year or possibly run for a position yourself! Serving on NUGSS is one of the
Winter update: NBCGSS Rahul Poojary Acting President | NBCGSS
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irst of all I would like to wish all the students, faculty, and staff a very happy New Year on behalf of the Northern British Columbia Graduate Students’ Society (NBCGSS) at UNBC. My name is Rahul Poojary and I am the Acting President at NBCGSS. I was elected in October 2014, and I am happy to have a great team to work with, including the executive and council members of the graduate society. Together we have set out to achieve some new goals for this academic year in order to take the graduate society to greater heights. One of our primary goals has been to increase visibility of the graduate society. As part of this initiative, we produced our very first NBCGSS clothing; hoodies with the NBCGSS logo embroidery on the sleeve which reads ‘UNBC Grad’. Our second goal for this year is to make graduate students aware of all the services that are available to students through the society. If you are a graduate student, then you can take advantage of all
the great events that are being put up this year by our Director of Student Affairs. One of them was our Annual Semi-Formal Graduate Ball, which was a great success; we will also be having a bowling night this month,
and our annual ski-trip will be coming up soon. The other services that are available to students from the graduate society are 250 free print outs every semester, and free desk space to carry out their research.
In these ways, the graduate society tries to help its students with their research and gives them opportunities to come out to events to relax and have fun in a stress free environment outside of their research. As another initiative towards community service, the graduate student society is proud to continue its Annual Blanket Drive. At the graduate society it is our belief that all graduate students at the university are part of a society, a family, a community which we have to take care of and provide services for. So as the first step towards this, we have placed two gift-wrapped boxes outside the NBCGSS Office (7-168), and I would take this opportunity to request that you donate blankets and clothes to less fortunate people who need it the most and encourage your family and friends to do the same so that together we can give back to the community. With this note I would like to wish all the students good luck for this semester. Play hard, study harder, and dream big!
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UNBC Life k. Buchanan | Blogspot
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Prince George: a year of celebration
Kelley Ware Multimedia Coordinator
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here are many enormous, once-in-alifetime events happening in the next several months here in Prince George. Pacific Western Brewing even released a pretty tasty new beer – the German-styled Festbier – to help us celebrate. If you have not heard of any of these events, you may have been living under a rock. Nevertheless, each of them is too significant not to mention so here are the events to watch out for in Prince George in 2015: Canada Winter Games – February 13 to March 1 Held over our extended Reading Week, Prince George will be host to over 2,400 young athletes from all over Canada. Competitions range from traditionally winter sports such as hockey, alpine skiing, and curling , to summer sports such as archery, synchronized swimming, and squash.
Single-day passes for these events are a reasonable $20. The opening ceremonies at the CN Centre on the evening of February 13 will be a little more extravagant: tickets are $100. However, the opening ceremonies will be televised on a national broadcast. If sports are not your idea of fun, other events will also be occurring over the same time. The Coldsnap Festival has partnered with the Canada Winter Games and is sure to provide phenomenal entertainment. The schedule will be finalized as part of the Canada Winter Games 2015 mobile app launch on January 13. Some bands have already been confirmed, including A Tribe Called Red, Alex Cuba, Delhi 2 Dublin, King Crow, and Rosewood’s Diary. For a list of bands, you can visit canadagames2015.ca/artists/artists. Prince George’s 100th Anniversary – March 6 The City of Prince George was incorporated on March 6, 1915. That means the city will be in celebration mode all year long. The
Mayor’s Volunteer Banquet will be held at this time, celebrating Prince George’s most hardworking volunteers who make our community great. There have already been a couple of events to lead up to this celebration; however, most will be taking place in warmer months after the official anniversary day. More events will likely pop up soon, since the City of Prince George has a grant program and committee dedicated to developing events for the centennial. Keep your eyes open, this is sure to be exciting. The 25th Anniversary of the University of Northern British Columbia – June 22 On June 22nd 1990, the Provincial Legislature passed Bill 40. Known as the UNBC Act, the passing of the bill officially created UNBC. The Prince George campus officially opened its doors in August 1994 when Queen Elizabeth II came to Prince George to open the new university. However, some students began taking classes in 1992 with the QuickStart program, which meant that
six students graduated in May before the campus opened. Events have been occurring on campus since the beginning of the fall 2014 semester and they will continue throughout the winter 2015 semester. UNBC has launched a challenge: 25 Hours for the 25 Years. The university is challenging students to pledge on the 25th Anniversary website to complete 25 hours of volunteering before June 22. As the website says: “As an institution we aim to make a difference in our communities, through teaching, research and service. As students, staff, faculty and graduates, you all help us achieve this goal, and much of it is done through volunteer engagement in your community. The 25 Hours for 25 Years program is designed to challenge all members of the UNBC community to embrace the value of service and to spend some time making a difference wherever, however you can.” Pledge to volunteer at unbc. ca/25/volunteer-challenge
UNBC Life
Commitfit Kayla Kilba Team Member
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t’s that time of year again where many are off to a running start with their New Year’s resolutions, but how do you plan to carry out yours? The choices and indulgence made over the holidays or past year often influence one’s choices and goals come New Years. It’s easy to come up with resolutions. A couple years ago, I was unhappy with my body and my health, so my goals quickly became tailored to exercise and eating well. Let’s be honest: the hard part isn’t coming up with goals, but sticking to them. In nursing school we are taught to make SMART goals for our clients--specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. So this New Years aim to make SMART resolutions. Your resolution(s) should be specific. For example, let’s say you want to lose weight. There is nothing wrong with that goal, but how will you accomplish this? Perhaps we could dial in on it a bit more-in order to lose weight I will specifically go to the gym. Now we need to make it measurable--this year I will lose 10 pounds by going to the gym at least three times a week. Is this attainable? Yes. You should feel challenged by the goal, but it should remain realistic. It is good to set a time frame to accomplish this goal; perhaps you may want to lose 10 pounds in the first four months ensuring your goal is timely as well. There is nothing wrong with making long term goals, but it is a good idea to break those goals up in to smaller parts to avoid unrealistic expectations of yourself. Start small and take baby steps along the way. Rather than angrily ingesting celery while you regret throwing out all of your junk food, try having treats in moderation. You will be amazed at how little changes can yield great results. Above all else, the smaller steps you take the smoother it will become a habit. The challenge with New Year’s resolutions is that people try to fully
adapt their life to fit their goal rather than adapting the goal to fit their lifestyle. The beginning can be the hardest, so here are some healthy tips: -Craving sweets? Freeze grapes, or any fruit, and snack on those, tastes like candy! -Substitute your cream and sugar with almond milk and Stevia. -Eat your carbohydrates during the day instead of late at night. -Try to have 5-6 smaller portioned meals throughout the day versus three large. -Water is your friend! So carry a water bottle on you (depending on my training I drink anywhere from 3.5-8 L a day!) -Add lemon (cucumber, mint, strawberries, etc) to your water to satisfy other beverage cravings. -Don’t skip breakfast, and incorporate protein (my favourite is plain oatmeal with a scoop of protein powder, or eggs on the side). -Prepare your meals or snacks the night before so there is no excuse for the lack of lunch the next day and the consequent pit stop at McDonalds. -Use plain Greek yogurt to dip your veggies instead of dressings. Being fit and healthy takes commitment, dedication, and persistence, but with SMART goals and baby steps it can be achievable. Who’s to say New Year’s is the only day you can make goals and start fresh? Recognize that New Year’s is just a day like any other day on the calendar. Don’t wait another year to try again. Reevaluate your goal, identify what worked and what caused you to fail, and remold the goal as necessary and then try again! Who cares about the New Year, because tomorrow’s always a New Day!
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UNBC Debate Society at the world championships Colin Slark Team Member
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he UNBC Debate Society did not return from the 2015 World Universities Debating Championships (WUDC) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, as world champions. However, against stiff competition from the likes of Yale and Oxford they still managed their best ever point total at the annual competition. Over the winter break, the UNBC Debate Society sent 5 of their members to WUDC to join the approximately 1200 people that were in the Malaysian capital for the championships hosted by Universiti Teknologi Mara. Molly Fredeen and Ahsen Chaudhry comprised one debate team while Terrance Badham and Ed Quinlan made up another. Imogen McDonald participated in the competition as a judge to round off the largest contingent that UNBC has ever sent to a WUDC. Over December 29, 30, and 31, UNBC’s teams participated in 9 grueling debates against universities from all over the world. These debates were comprised of four teams per match, with two teams each being on the side for or against any given topic. This year’s competitions included questions regarding terrorism in Syria, urbanization in developing countries, and the ethics surrounding the research and development of moral enhancement drugs. Through several phases of arguments and statements based on the British Parliament debate method, points are awarded to teams for the persuasiveness of their arguments. UNBC recorded 12 points this year and won 3 rounds, up from their previous best of 10 points. Fredeen and Chaudhry also made it into the top half of the table for individual points. This improvement was achieved despite having to face off against some of the strongest debaters in the world. In UNBC’s very first round, they had to debate
against the University of Sydney, whose team ended up becoming the world champions. Teams were only given their debate topics 15 minutes before the start of a debate and were not allowed to use the Internet during that time, so advance preparation was key to success. The team, selected during last year’s Winter semester after the 2014 WUDC in Chennai, India, had to keep on top of current events from all over the world to make sure they would be able to debate any possible topic that might come up in the competition. “If you read The Economist every week and National Geographic and listen to CBC Radio, you would be relatively prepared,” said team member Molly Fredeen. According to Fredeen, you need a broad picture of the world going into WUDC, needing to pay attention to well-publicized events like the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, but also lesser-known events like the recent presidential elections in Brazil. She says that paying attention to current events helps her be a better debater, and through the process of observing the world and participating in competitions she has found out what she really cares about, helping her direct her studies into areas she is passionate about. “[Debating] is not all just for show, it proves to be useful,” she added. UNBC’s improved record is also remarkable because of the difficulty the society’s members have in getting practice. To attend any kind of debate tournament, it is a minimum 8-hour drive or a plane ride away. One of UNBC’s teams ended up tied in points at WUDC with a team from UBC, even though UBC’s debate society has many more members and more access to tournaments where they can hone their skills. Next year’s championships will be held in Thessaloniki, Greece, and will be hosted by the University of Macedonia. The UNBC contingent will be chosen this semester and will start to prepare all over again so that they can challenge the world and improve on their past performances.
Culture
Cirque de Soleil
Kelley Ware Multimedia Coordinator
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ravelling with 18 semi-rigs full of gear and equipment, Cirque du Soleil’s touring arena show Dralion stopped Prince George from December 31 to January 4. Dralion is the first Cirque du Soleil show to be performed in Prince George and, unsurprisingly, it sold out nearly every performance. Dralion lived up to the reputation of Cirque du Soleil, and did not fail to amaze and entertain the audience for the duration of the 90-minute show. The show began with a trio of clowns surprising the audience in tuxedo-inspired costumes. They began the performance as the last of the audience trickled into their seats, misdirecting guests and speaking to each other in a made-up language. Eventually they pulled a member of the audience to the stage to read rules and safety directions, subjecting the victim to acts of physical comedy. The clowns came back on stage sporadically throughout the show, offering both laughs for the audience and time for other performers to change backstage. They also brought a level of dissonance to the production, standing in stark contrast to the serious nature of the show. Nearly every time they came back onstage, they pulled the same member of the audience up. Eventually it became obvious that he was actually a planted member of the
production. This is probably the only real part of the show that I was unhappy with since, like revealing how a magic trick is done, part of the illusion was destroyed. However, it also allowed him to take a final bow with the rest of the performers, something that was clearly deserved. The remainder of the show was a fusion of acrobatics, music, and visual poetry. Dralion is not simply a circus act; it is a play without words where everything is full of symbolism and meaning. Combining elements of traditional Chinese circus with its contemporary Western counterpart, Dralion is all about the merging of East and West, both in acrobatics and philosophy. Eastern philosophies of harmony, balance, and the passage of time play prominent roles, but are also merged with Western philosophies on nature. Man and nature merge into something extraordinary. Even the name of the production reflects this: the Eastern dragon and Western lion merge to create the Dralion, which is both a portmanteau of the words for the title, as well as a physical entity that appears in an act inspired by Chinese lion and dragon dances. Several key characters come to act as guides and key players to the story of Dralion. Four of these characters represent each of the four elements: Azala for Air, Gaya for Earth, Oceane for Water, and Yao for Fire. Each have a different colour and a cultural inspiration for their costume to reflect these differences.
Yao is dressed in red, with a clear Chinese influence; Oceane looks like an Indian goddess in green; Gaya wears ochre and African-inspired pieces; and Azala is adorned in blue and looks similar to a European ballerina. Most of them--with the exception of Azala who plays out a love story with an amazing partnered aerial act--do not do any significant performances, opting instead to guide the audience while acrobats perform around them: Oceane dances as trampoline performers do spectacular walk-climbing and aerial stunts. Likewise, Yao waves a flag while acrobats tumble and jump over it and others perform with 25-foot bamboo poles. The acts alone are incredible and extremely diverse. There was a traditional juggling act fused with modern dance. One can only imagine that juggling six balls while moving your body in serpentine movements is just as difficult as it sounds. Aerial hoops produced gasps from the audience as the performer balanced from her neck suspended twenty feet above the ground. Performers stunned the audience as they dove through growing towers of spinning hoops. A lone acrobat performed on a crossed wheel--two metal rings crossed at a certain degree to allow it to spin and roll--even more amazing once you learn that the crossed wheel was the performer, Jonathan Morin’s, own invention. Finally, pyramids of performers skipped rope. Watching a dozen people stacked on top of each other and jumping over the same rope was the lively conclusion
the show deserved. The merging of these dazzling acts with the story of Dralion elevates the show to something beyond a normal circus performance. It becomes something magical, something that only Cirque du Soleil could possibly dream up. Another stunning part of Dralion is the amount that happens on stage at the same time. The depth of the show is spectacular. Even when amazing acrobatic acts are happening, there are still performers in either the foreground or background to keep the stage feeling alive. As well, all the music of Dralion is live. The stage has a built-in band. Likewise, two characters in the greater story symbolized harmony in the between the elements through live song, singing in a language created solely for Dralion. They were otherworldly in not only their voices, but their costumes as well. Dressed first in white feathers and then in gold, they constantly had an ethereal presence on stage. The show itself seemed to come alive because of this use of depth. Rather than individuals being part of a show, each performer seemed to be part of a greater whole: something with a purpose. This only helped to make the message of harmony come alive. Every little piece of Dralion was expertly crafted and performed. It dazzled and amazed everyone who was fortunate enough to see it. While it may be sad to see the show go, Prince George was lucky to host Dralion before their final bow.
Culture
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Help Stave Off Boredom 5 lesser-known scifi movies Colin Slark Team Member
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here are a lot of science fiction movies, many of them bad. Fewer of them are good movies. Some of them have been consigned to the bottom of sale bins where they will languish for eternity, being discounted into oblivion. During an expedition into a deep, dark pile of five-dollar schlock, in-between a copy of Sharknado 2 and a low budget rip-off of last summer’s Hollywood blockbuster, you could find a gem of a movie that could take you to planets or realities previously unknown to humanity. Here are 5 lesser-known science fiction movies to help stave off boredom. The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1982): Buckaroo Banzai is a rock star, a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon who has developed a machine that can enable a vehicle to travel through solid matter. Unfortunately, this device opens portals to the 8th dimension and the evil Red Lectroids are trying to steal
the device in order to get back home. It sounds silly (and frankly it is), but it has loads of charm and a great cast that includes people like Peter Weller, John Lithgow, Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd. Dark City (1998): An amnesiac man wakes up in a dingy hotel room to the sound of a ringing phone. He answers and hears a voice that tells him to get out fast. Looking over, he finds the corpse of a brutally murdered woman lying on the floor. As he is darting out of the hotel, he is pursued by a group of mysterious strangers, and while attempting to flee from them, he discovers that he has telekinetic powers. This man runs through a city that is ever-changing in strange ways and experiences night in perpetuity. The big stars of Dark City are its art direction and setting, which really sell the city as a big, dark, confusing place. Dredd (2012): In the future, humanity has survived a nuclear war. Vast stretches of the Earth have been turned into wastelands, and most of the remaining human population
has been concentrated into impossibly large Mega Cities. Order is kept in these cities by the Judges, individuals who have been granted the power to act as a police force with the authority to pronounce and carry out sentences in the field. One of these Judges, named Dredd, is carrying out a field examination for a cadet Judge when they are locked inside an apartment tower with a small army of bloodthirsty drug dealers. Visceral and quite violent, Dredd is one of the most faithful comic book adaptations ever made, especially when compared with the truly terrible Sylvester Stallone film from the nineties inspired by the same series. Slaughterhouse-Five (1972): This adaptation of the classic science fiction novel about a man unstuck in time was so well done that the book’s author Kurt Vonnegut reportedly said it was flawless. Billy Pilgrim is a man that experiences the events of his life in a supposedly random order from his time in an alien zoo on the planet Tralfamadore to surviving the firebombing of Dresden during the Second World War. Slaughterhouse-Five
is a great story about how death does not invalidate the life that came before it. Moon (2009): Sam Bell is the lone caretaker of a moon base that harvests a certain material that is sent back to Earth for use in energy production. One day near the end of Bell’s three-year term on the Moon, something goes horribly wrong when he leaves his base to investigate a broken rover. He wakes up in the base’s medical bay and is told by the base’s AI that he has been in an accident that has affected his short-term memory. Bell returns to work, but has a suspicion that something has gone horribly wrong. Beautifully directed by first-time director Duncan Jones and capped off by a great performance from Sam Rockwell, Moon is one of the most interesting science fiction movies in recent memory. If you are looking for a short-term portal to a different time, dimension, spheroid, or reality, you could do far worse than watch one of these movies.
Review: The Interview Nahid Taheri Team Member
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fter all the attention surrounding The Interview, I was very interested in watching it. However, it quickly became clear that it was not worth the attention. The Interview not only fails to accomplish its mission--to tell jokes--but also lasts too long and veers off in too many directions. The story of how an entertainment reporter (James Franco) and his producer (Seth Rogen) get an opportunity to interview Kim Jong Un does not translate into a quality
comedy. The CIA convinces the guys that they need to take out Kim Jong Un. It could have been an entertaining political satire, but the entire film instead consists of stupid, cheap humour. A lot of speculations were made when Sony got hacked, and it was reported that North Korea was behind it. Honestly speaking, if it had not been for all the controversy, it would have seen less success. The movie is in no way perfect and, apart from a funny little girl singing about how much she wanted the USA to die horribly, it has little merit. The Interview | Sony Pictures Entertainment
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Culture
Send in the Sequels: what to be excited for in 2015 Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens | Lucasfilm
Laura Mooney Team Member
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ith 2014 now looming distantly behind us, movie buffs everywhere can set their sights towards the upcoming plethora of feature films in 2015 that bombard us with the promise that they will be the ‘must see’ flick of the year. Along with the bursts of originality that do occasionally pop-up in the film industry, there is also the dreaded array of sequels to many classic features that will no doubt attempt to dominate the box office. Luckily, 2015 appears to be a promising year for sequels that not only look entertaining, but are also films that audiences have actually been asking for. Here are a few of those upcoming remakes and sequels that you should fork over the horrendous theatre ticket price for. Mad Max: Fury Road: The first addition to the George Miller cult classic franchise in over thirty years, Mad Max: Fury Road looks to be a sequel (though some investigators will argue that it is a prequel) that will be deemed a definite must see for 2015. Although it was known that this film was in the works for a fair amount of time, it was
not until the theatrical trailer was released and obliterated everyone’s expectations, that everyone began to take notice. It is a rare moment when a mere film trailer not only manages to make audiences excited for the film, but also makes disorienting joyrides through the desert surrounded by psychopaths look like a good time.
its way to the big screen. But after years in production, Jurassic World will finally be released summer of 2015. It has been an unbelievable fourteen years since moviegoers last received a glimpse at the Jurassic universe, and judging by the film’s trailer, Jurassic World will be filled with even more action, excitement, and, of course, dinosaurs.
The film takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where life as we know it has fallen into chaos, and those who hold the last remaining resources control and terrorize those without them. Starring Tom Hardy (The Dark Knight Rises), and Charlize Theron (Snow White and the Huntsman) as the enigmatic heroes, Fury Road has rapidly jumped to one of the most anticipated sequels/prequels to be released this year, and so far looks to live up to the hype.
Starring Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), this sequel takes place years after the events of Jurassic Park, in which the park has become a fully functional tourist destination. However, patrons of the park are getting tired of the same old boring dinosaurs, and, in order to stay in business, the park’s scientists create new hybrid creatures. Naturally, not all goes as planned, and the dinosaurs soon follow in the path of their destructive ancestors. While it remains to be seen if the special effects and story will retain the same quality as the original film, Jurassic World is a must see for anyone who enjoyed the previous movies.
Jurassic World: If someone were to compose a list of the most demanded movie sequels, Jurassic World would without a doubt be at the top. For years, there has been speculation surrounding this anticipated addition to the popular franchise. From casting issues to director switches, it seemed as though Jurassic World would never make
Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens: It is impossible to mention movie sequels in 2015 without bringing up Star Wars, and to say that people are excited for this film
would be the biggest understatement of the century. Although it was assumed that the Star Wars film franchise was done in 2005 with the release of Revenge of the Sith, its revival came when Disney purchased the rights to Lucasfilm, a move that both delighted and terrified fans, gaving renewed life to the series. With just the release of the film’s trailer, people have analyzed, criticized, and theorized about every single frame. Some fans have even gone so far as to tattoo images of some of the newly redesigned characters onto themselves, permanently declaring their support for the new film. So yes, people are excited. Although the trailer did not reveal much about the storyline of The Force Awakens, it did show beautiful landscapes, some interesting changes, and director J. J. Abrams’ trademark style. The film looks as though it will deviate just far enough from the original series’ to ensure that it is not considered a carbon copy, but only time will tell as to whether it lives up to the legacy that the original Star Wars has created. Regardless, The Force Awakens should be on the top of everyone’s must see sequel list for 2015.
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Social media in today’s politics Grant Bachand Team Member
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n today’s highly technological era, everything is available at the touch of button. Even getting in touch with certain elected officials has become easier than ever before; at the same time there are officials who are still as inaccessible as ever. I had this realization the other day as I was commenting on an article posted by the MLA for Vanderhoof, John Rustad. Commenting on an article he had posted about global warming, I found that he was exceptionally easy to for me to get ahold of, and if I had a grievance that I wished to air I knew I could contact him. This was due to the fact that Rustand is very active on social media. On the flip side we have Dick Harris, the MP for Caribou – Prince George, who doesn’t even have a Facebook page for me to look to. If a voter wanted to talk with him, they could go down to his office or email him, but past experiences of doing those things have proved to be unfruitful, as a response (if any) has sometimes taken weeks. This got me thinking: should being a politician in the 21st century obligate you to be highly accessible and easy to contact? Should politicians start a Facebook page devoted to the purpose of keeping communication easy and simple as soon as they get elected into office? Naheed Nenshi, the mayor of Calgary, is a prime example for social media utilization, and how to do it right. During the floods in 2012, the mayor was on Twitter, contacting residents of Calgary and replying to their needs during the freak rainstorm that hit Calgary in the summer. He was coordinating rescue services and answering question of residents who were in need at a time of crisis. He has since been a great example of a politician who knows what he is doing when it comes to social media. Nenshi, @ nenshi, has 88,600 thousand likes on his Facebook page and has 209,000 thousand
followers on twitter. A quick glance at his Twitter shows retweets of missing dog posters and replies to people’s questions. Nothing is below this mayor to reply to, including one comment from a resident of Calgary asking the mayor if right hand plows would work better than their current model. This question prompted immediate response from Nenshi about a study the city had conducted on the effectiveness of the current model instead of a change. Keep in mind that this is the mayor of a city that has 988,000 people living there. Nenshi is a great example of something that all politicians should look at and strive towards when it comes to open communication between the people of a community and their leaders. Looking towards our own local government we have some who are really promising and some people who need to do some more work on their online presence. Brian Skakun seems to be one of the better city councilors at this task; his Twitter @ BrianSkakunCity has 1,388 followers, and he has a separate Facebook page that has 727 likes. Keep in mind that Brain Skakun is no newbie to the idea of open communication between city council and its community. Last winter he chimed in quiet extensively about the city’s failure to keep the streets clear of snow, even going so far as to post pictures of city equipment doing nothing while a huge dump of snow hit our city. Jillian Merrick, @newjillenium, like Brian Skakun, is excellent at social media; for a new councilor she has 698 likes on Facebook, and 484 followers on Twitter. Garth Frizzell, @ garthfrizzell, can teach all his colleagues a thing or two about social media. Leading the roster at 2,202 followers on Twitter, he knows how to use the Internet to help people stay informed. The other councilors either have
Twitter and have so few followers that it isn’t worth mentioning, or they don’t have it at all. Mayor Lyn Hall does not do a bad job on this front either; @Lynhallpg has 585 followers with whom he openly speaks and answers questions. The Nenshi model shows us that if you are going to have social media you need to be active and ensure that communication is not just a one-way street. Hall uses the Nenshi model, and has tried to structure his mayoral campaign after the example Nenshi set. Hall did a good job during the campaign of keeping up with social media, although it would appear he is slowing down a bit after the campaign. This amounts to more transparency in
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government and healthy communication between residents and local leaders. Provincial and Federal politicians could learn from the Nenshi model too. The twentyfirst century is a whole new world, and social media is a huge part of that world, so it is important that our elected officials adapt to it. Because they are representing our needs, they should easily be able to hear those needs, or what are they doing in office any way? Follow Over the Edge on Twitter @ OVERtheEDGEunbc to have up-to-date info on what’s going on in your community.
Opinions The MRA: threats, violence, and fraud in the name of human rights Andrew Kenway Team Member
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hat do the MRA, MTGTOW, Red Pillers, and Counter-Feminists all have in common? Well the last one might have given it away. Men's Rights Activists, Men That Go Their Own Way, Red Pillers (a reference to The Matrix that describes people who have woken up to reality), and Counter-Feminists all feel that men are oppressed, that Feminism has overstepped its bounds, and that women now have far more power in society than men. The distinction between the MRA and MTGTOW, of course, is probably that some thought the second name sounded cooler. Looking up both on various blogs seemed to yield few results in telling them apart. One commenter from the anti-feminist blog A Voice For Men wrote that "Feminism uses the satin glove of equality to cover the iron fist of eugenics." Yes, these people exist, and no, they're not joking. They are a variety of groups that tend to have the same super-villainesque rhetoric, the same intimidation tactics, and the same main goal: stop Feminism. There are some men's issues floating around the top of the movement's surface like a shield. Real, genuine issues, including the high suicide rate among men, or the high rate of sexual assault in American prisons, that are only used to distract from their real, often reprehensible intentions. The one thing they all share is that they are angry, they have a lot of problems with how society is supposedly giving women a definitive position of power over men, and they think Feminism is to blame. "The Sexodus", an article written by Milo Yiannopoulos for the Breitbart News Network, examines the phenomenon of young heterosexual men removing themselves from the dating scene and dedicating themselves instead to pornography and prostitution. An intriguing topic, if it did not immediately start blaming it all on women. The article is an awkwardly but confidently written tirade about how men are wising up to women's games. Yiannopoulos assures his readers that Feminism has rigged the game of dating against men. A German youngster he interviewed said "It wouldn't be so bad if we could dull the pain with girls, but we're treated like paedophiles and potential rapists just for showing interest." The fact that the German man sees girls as tools to dull the pain instead of people might have something to do with his dating troubles.The article goes on to blame Feminism for furries, liberated homosexuality, and just about everything short of global climate change. MRA's believe dating has been ruined, not by unhealthy patriarchal power structures or attitudes, but by women. Yes, it is a sentiment not unlike that of The Little Rascals, but presumably those characters grew out of their he-man woman hater's club and found something better to do with their lives than accost women to make themselves feel better. If a person's life views are comparable to the philosophy of children from an ancient cartoon, it is no surprise that their views are the only thing dated.
This brings us to a more recent website that seems to pride itself on looking sophisticated and academic (which, for an MRA website, it sort of does if you squint really hard)--A Voice For Men: Humanist CounterTheory (AVFM). The title might seem laughable, but the content is anything but. The site's founder, Paul Elam, is a men's rights activist who, while criticizing #GamerGate for being too late to hop on the anti-feminism train, revealed that he's been fighting back against the oppressive forces of female dominance for twenty-five years. Women have apparently been in control of North America since 1990. Paul Elam is a frequent contributor to his website and often intermingles attempts at sounding academic and sophisticated with insane violent tirades that contradict anything he's ever said that may not have been offensive enough the first time. One example being when he declared October “Bash a Violent Bitch Month" on AVFM. For, you know, equality. The moderate in Elam made him follow the violent fantasy by saying he does not endorse the violent actions, despite everything else he had said, because jail time was not worth it. Not because it is wrong, but because it is illegal. David Futrelle of the anti-misogynist blog We Hunted The Mammoth wrote an article on AVFM's most recent and possibly most newsworthy offence. The title "The Men's Rights Activist behind a fraudulent White Ribbon website accuses the real White Ribbon Australia of fraud" is self explanatory. Paul Elam is the activist, and he claims seizing websites with a similar name to the organization, setting up a website that appeared to be the same cause and accepting donations was seizing an opportunity, not fraud. In response to the crime being noticed, Elam claims the actual White Ribbon campaign are the real perpetrators of fraud. Elam writes that the original White Ribbon Campaign "paint[ed] a false picture of the problem, identifying [domestic violence]’s soul source as abusive men and its soul victims as helpless women." Despite Elam's supposedly certain moral stance on the subject, the donate button was removed from his phony site shortly after its discovery, while David Futrelle guesses was because AVFM was "perhaps fearing legal reprisal." Elam felt entirely justified in defrauding the charity. There has been a backlash against the feminist movement and principles long before it even got its current name. The one ray of sunshine in this is that while this is symptomatic of an awful vein of culture that reminds us why we need Feminism more than ever, these people just are not that successful. When an inability to achieve your goals is the greatest gift your community offers the world, you might want to rethink your life. However, a thankful failure to produce results does not forgive their infamous intent. The rancid little corner of the internet MRA extremists call home is more disgusting, violent, and utterly insane than the imaginary feminist illuminati supposedly pulling society's strings ever could be.
Opinions 11 Nahid Taheri Team Member
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or years, engineers, scholars, and artists have been warning about artificial intelligence. Imagine a terrible, not very distant future, with robots that can do anything because we made them that way. Professor Nick Bostrom from the University of Oxford has mentioned that our world could reach its finale by creating intelligent creatures within a century. This concern has been a theme in many movies, such as The Terminator and The Matrix, in which humans battle an enemy who has the advantage of being more intelligent than them in every way. A newer version of this kind of sci-fi can be seen in Her. While a romantic relationship between a human and an operating system is not altogether horrifying, there is no doubt that real
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines | C-2 Pictures
We poor humans life machines are getting more and more intelligent. We do not need to imagine it; we can see how the human brain is performing against a computer in our daily life. Even our smartphones have the ability to work through complicated tasks in very little time. Modern technology might be our enemy, but we are proud of how smart we can make our machines. We poor humans are probably destroying our future by ourselves. It seems there should be a restriction on the development of artificial intelligence, and we should think about the potential consequences more seriously. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the Internet, famously said, “The day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The 'intelligent agents' people have touted for ages will finally materialize.”
Student to student: why gap years matter Maryna Dakhno Team Member
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owadays many students take a gap year either before or during university. Despite my parents not being very impressed with me, I did it too. Every time my teachers heard my response to the question, “how are your university applications going?” they looked appalled that I was not going to school right away. Even though they did not doubt that I would go back to university after a year, I could hear in their voices a hint of “nobody goes back to school after taking time off.” What people do not realize is that gap years are a wonderful opportunity to expand skills, make lasting connections, and explore many aspects of your life. Throughout high school, students are thrown into an environment with a pre-
determined list of required courses to learn. As graduation time nears, every one of their teachers is quietly rooting for their subject as the focus of students’ careers. Those who do are often the ones who are extremely passionate about their subject, and end up being the best teachers at the school. This is how students are easily guided into a particular area of study during high school, and may or may not fall into a trap of making the wrong career choice. Everyone sees what students are good at and assumes that is what he/she should major in. One of many things that makes gap years a very good experience is that they provides time to really learn what one is interested in. The student who decided to take time off actually has enough time to explore and re-evaluate their interests. Maybe there is a book they have been putting off
reading because of a huge assignment load, a cooking or dance class that they have had an eye on for months now, or maybe this student is dying to get their hands dirty in gardening. Sadly, the big pile of readings, assignments, and notes is too much for students to ignore. I have met students who fear they might forget what they had learned in their years of public schooling, but trust me--it will all come back to you. Fear of falling behind peers should not be another factor in staying away from taking time off. After high school, nobody stays in the same stream; some fall behind, several maintain their regular life, and there is always a group of people who will accelerate in their studies or life experiences. Students begin to notice this during their first year of university, but a lot of times are simply not well prepared for the independence.
No matter how selfish this sounds, deep down everyone knows that at the end of the day you are the one who matters. You are building a life for yourself, and maybe for your own family if you choose to have one. During a year off you can choose to take some fun classes, get a job, or go travelling without having school in your way. The beauty of this is that you can take a year off without having to re-apply to university as long as you have been registered for one of the last three semesters (unless you have officially withdrawn or have been suspended from the program). No one should ever feel rushed to do something just because it is expected of them. While it’s great to get schooling done all in one go, be comfortable in knowing that one year off probably won’t be the end of your education as you know it.
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Aboriginal women and the Canadian government James Mangan Team Member
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ndigenous women constitute an alarmingly high statistic when it comes to murdered and missing women in Canada. As the federal election approaches (expected this coming fall), Canadians can expect to hear more about the proposed national inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. Unfortunately, the current government has shown apathy towards such an inquiry. If conducted, this national inquiry is expected to find answers as to why aboriginal women tend to be higher targets for assaults and murders in Canada. Demands from Canadians for an inquiry have reached the media’s attention over the past year, with the loudest voices often emerging from Aboriginal communities. However, recent events, such as the assault on Rinelle Harper, have catalyzed the discussion to the extent that the inquiry could potentially be an issue in the next federal election. Rinelle Harper is an Aboriginal 16 year old who was severely assaulted and left to die after being thrown off of a bridge in Winnipeg last November. The tragic details
of her ordeal have encouraged communities all across Canada to rally together in favour of a national inquiry with the intention of avoiding preventable crimes being committed against Aboriginal women. This national inquiry has not gone unchallenged. Over the past 30 years, Canada has faced many constitutional battles regarding the position of “special status” held by some of Canada’s most prominent cultures. The French-Canadian culture and the Canadian-Aboriginal culture have been most active in seeking some form of special status with referendums characterizing the federal landscape throughout the first half of the 1990s. Many Canadians see a national inquiry into murdered and missing aboriginal women as an extension of this push for “special status”. This assumes that a national inquiry would prioritize the safety and well being of Aboriginal women over other women equally at risk for abuse. This is not the case, since law enforcement is bound by the law, rather than by national inquiries. A national inquiry would examine the root causes as to why Aboriginal women
become victims more so than any other ethnicity in Canada. According to an RCMPled study in late 2013 titled “Missing and Murdered Aboriginal Women,” Aboriginal women were found to be over-represented whereas the solve rates of female homicides (90%) do not differ between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal victims. Commissions and inquiries, especially those that have overwhelming public support, often hold sway in the development of legislation. A national inquiry could be the first step to enacting social reforms that could benefit all individuals, not just Aboriginal women, who are at a higher risk of being a victim of crime. Earlier this year, the Aboriginal People’s Television Network reported that RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson stated the number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women was just shy of 1200 over the past 30 years. In May 2014, the CBC reported that Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney represented the Conservative government when he dismissed the call for a national inquiry by promoting the budget bill, which included a promise of $25 million over the next five years to stop violence against Aboriginal women and girls, along
with tougher sentencing legislation. Prince George is no exception when it comes to Aboriginal women victimhood. In fact, Prince George can be seen as an example for why a national inquiry is needed. Over the past forty years, 18 women have either disappeared or been found murdered along Highway 16, 10 of which were Aboriginal. Investigations into the murders and disappearances that have occurred on this stretch of highway, dubbed the “Highway of Tears,” have never led to a murder charge, despite the heavy police-work that has surrounded the investigation at its height. Northern British Columbia should be very sympathetic to the need for a national inquiry into the high rate of crimes committed against Aboriginal women. Last month, Rinelle Harper, who survived and overcame her assault, publically announced her support inquiry into missing and murdered Aboriginal women. She was a victim of one of Canada’s paramount national issues, and understands that the first step to solving this is an examination of its root causes.
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Needle-free blood testing: faster and less expensive Jesmeen Duo Team Member
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o you hate blood tests? Even better, do you have a crippling phobia of needles, causing you to avoid them at all costs and consequently get dirty looks from healthcare professionals? Well, the future is near. Needle-free blood tests are already here. The company is called Theranos, and the CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, made the 2014 Forbes 400 list. As Forbes reported, Holmes and her company recently developed a way to conduct the full range of medical tests from just a pinprick, and a tiny drop of blood. That’s right-no more needles, pain or bruises! It’s also incredibly inexpensive. To give you an idea, their website gives estimations for various tests. A test for iron (a common one for anemia screening) is $4.45 with Theranos; a conventional test for iron is about $55 according to the American company Health Testing Centers. Due to its simplicity, Theranos testing can also potentially reduce the number of medical errors and results are fast. No wonder Theranos has grown into a multibillion dollar company over the past ten years. But how does this process work? When (lucky) Americans go into their local Theranos clinic for a blood test, the technician will apply a warm wrap to their hand to increase blood flow to the area and draw a few droplets of blood from the capillaries at the end of their hand. This sample is put into what Holmes calls a ‘nanotainer’. Then this sample gets sent off to the lab, where Theranos’ pride and joy--their patented microfluidic technology--can react with multiple analytes (the specific substance in the blood that is being measured/tested) in a single sample with several reagents. These reactions yield detectable signals that
can be measured in the lab to determine quantities of a substance in the blood. That may seem like a bunch of mumbojumbo, but at the end of the day, a patient’s data is ready to go, faster and easier than ever before. Holmes emphasizes the fact that her company, located in Silicon Valley, is not only in the field of medical engineering, but also keeps an emphasis on technology. She maintains that the patient should have better access to information and should have full ownership over the data concerning their body. Unlike conventional medical companies, Theranos has a leading edge in the way of technology. For example, they can send a patient’s results wirelessly to their cell phone, rather than waiting weeks for paperwork. All these positive things about Theranos have many clamouring for it. However, there is a small section of people who have taken pause and considered what other kind of practical implications this kind of revolutionary nanotechnology could have. As the San Francisco Business Times reported, the board at Theranos has a curiously large number of military personnel on it, which begs the question: is Theranos on the lookout for ways to apply their technology on the front lines? Even more curiously, Theranos is notorious secretive, ignoring inquiries about what they are currently working on and reportedly even avoiding benign questions about Holmes’ age in the past (she is 29 years old). Theranos is obviously an intriguing company, their technology even more so. It cannot be argued that, whatever way Theranos chooses to go in the future, their next move could change the world; but to what end remains to be seen. In the meantime, we’d like to see Holmes work on a way of applying her nanotech to flu shots!
Safer travel: the Hyperloop Mani Samani Team Member
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hat is the fastest way you can get from Prince George to Vancouver, never crashing and immune to weather, in about 40 minutes at a price of $20 for a one-way trip? Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX has revealed a solar-powered, city-to-city elevated transit system. The idea is a “hyperloop” that transports passengers in a capsule enclosed inside of steel tubes. Musk describes his design as a shotgun with the tubes running side by side for most of the journey and closing the loop at either end with a speed of 800 miles per hour. Hyperloop will be fundamentally different. It uses twenty-first century technologies to move you from city to city safely and without delay, while reducing aviation’s environmental impact. The whole system would be powered by solar panels installed on the tubes that effects on reducing fuel usages, emissions, and noise as well as reducing travel time. We are fast approaching a global air transport crisis, as more need to travel faster and farther than ever before. Today’s aircrafts will not be able to cope with ever-increasing numbers of passengers and cargo for local and overseas travels. The high-tech alternatives, such as rocket ships and space planes we have been promised, are still in the realms of science fiction. Airasia’s QZ8501 crash in the final days of 2014 was terrifying, disconcerting,
and sadly fatal for the 162 passengers and crew on board. When travelling by air, you expect safety and convenience at a reasonable price and without delays. For many years, airplanes have been the safest way to get to your destination. According to The New York Times, a traveler could statistically fly every day for 123,000 years and still be safe. Although travel death statistics have promised that airplanes are the safest transit vehicle, fatal air accidents are still taking a huge number of lives every year. Based on statistics published on PlaneCrashInfo.com, 2014 recorded the highest number of mortality in four years. Demand on aviation services has never been higher, and it is growing at a phenomenal rate, but the current air traffic system is at its limit. Flying from airport to airport takes longer today than it anytime in the past decade because of congestion on the ground and in the sky. This amount of air traffic has a huge impact on the environment. The David Suzuki Foundation published an article stating that aviation has a disproportionately large impact on the climate system, which accounts for four to nine percent of the total climate change impact of human activity. We need a clean method of high-speed transportation. The good news is it is already happening. The distance between where we are and where we want to go shrinks every day as new technology is put into place. As these new capabilities become more pervasive, travel prices are going to drop.
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Rogers and the NHL: a half-season report card Colin Slark Team Member
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he 2014-2015 NHL season is nearly at its midpoint. There have been very few surprises in store for Canadian hockey fans, unless you are surprised that Edmonton can actually play that poorly. However, there is one thing that Canadian hockey fans are still getting used to: the Rogers takeover of NHL TV broadcasts. Last year, Rogers signed a 5.2 billion dollar, 12-year deal with the NHL to be the exclusive broadcaster of NHL games in Canada. The way this country watches hockey has changed, but not necessarily for the better. No matter what channel you used to watch hockey on, the on-air talent should be familiar to you. Much of CBC’s talent made the jump to the Sportsnet-run broadcasts, along with a couple of guys from TSN. As a result, there is a massive pool of analysts at Rogers’ disposal. In fact, there are far too many analysts at Rogers’ disposal. During a typical Hockey Night in Canada broadcast, they seem to want to get an
opinion from absolutely everyone. Rogers is ruining the ability for its analysts to provide insightful commentary, because no one has a chance to fully voice a thought before their turn with the conch shell is over. Coach’s Corner is shorter because of this, and a visibly frustrated Don Cherry grumbles about how he keeps getting cut off, which honestly is more entertaining than listening to his rambling about how things happened back in his day. The presentation of games under the Rogers’ regime has been mixed. There is a real sense that work has been done to make some games as appealing as possible for viewers, while some games feel as though they were abandoned and left to die. Hockey Night in Canada games on City TV and CBC are the best presented. They have the best in-game commentators, the best analysts, good picture quality, and high quality sound. As soon as you turn to Sportsnet, things start to go downhill. When I watch Sportsnet, I get screen tearing and choppy sound that I just don’t get on any other channel, sports
or otherwise – this may be an issue with my service provider, so experiences may vary. The Sportsnet regional broadcasts (the games that are not on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays) feature a wide range of commentators that are frequently listless and unfamiliar with the teams they are talking about. There are some pairs of commentators that are clearly more suited to talking about certain teams, but the problem of needing to give all of their large staff airtime creeps in once again, which leads to mismatches. The regional broadcasts also feature much more advertising, leading to annoying ads being superimposed over the glass behind the nets as well as awkward advertising copy being forced upon commentators as they call a game. It is painful to hear a couple of men try and fail to organically bring up the subject of their favourite Kraft cheeses and its myriad of uses in everyday dishes during a slow moment. This was present in Sportsnet games before Rogers’ takeover, but it now contrasts with the national broadcasts where it is not as prevalent.
For a Prince George resident watching hockey, I really hope you are a Canucks fan. With a basic cable bundle, a Canucks fan in PG will probably be able to watch all 82 Canucks games this season. If you follow a team that is not the one from British Columbia, be prepared for blackouts on many weekday games. There are possible solutions for diehard fans, but that involves paying over 200 dollars for an extra cable package or an Internet service. If you don’t want to fork over the additional cash, enjoy the dull occasional FloridaBuffalo game that is not blacked out. That all being said, this is only the first year of Rogers’ control of Canadian hockey broadcasts. There is room to improve if they can remove some of their excess baggage and be more consistent from game to game. However, if they are unable or unwilling to put effort into their presentation, be prepared for a long eleven and a half years until the next time hockey rights are up for grabs.
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IIHF World Junior Championships: four stories you may have missed Brady Stark Team Member
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his year’s World Junior Hockey Championship was a spectacle to behold. The best young hockey players in the world invaded Toronto and Montreal to showcase their skills and represent their countries in one of the grandest stages in sports. There were some big high points for Canadian hockey fans, such as the tournament being held in Canada, or Canada winning gold. The thing that made the 2015 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIFH) U20 World Junior Championships truly remarkable, however, were the many stories that it produced for the hockey fan to gorge on during its twoweek run time. Let’s take a look at the stories that made us either bang our heads against a wall or filled our hearts with pride and joy. 1) Denmark’s First Win The Danes have been featured in the World Junior Championships eight times. That’s a minimum of 32 games played, yet they had never won a single contest. All that changed on December 30 when they suited up to play the Swiss in the last round robin game. Denmark was never quite good enough to be a real challenge to other teams, but in the 2015 tournament they had two secret weapons. Oliver Bjorkstrand, the best young player that Denmark has produced in some time, got the Danes on the map after falling behind 2-0 midway through the first period. In the second period, Denmark unleashed their second weapon. The power play for Denmark was a variable that a lot of the teams in the tournament got stuck on, as 6 of their 9 goals came on the PP. The power play again struck at the heart of the Swiss late in the third period shootout. It was again Bjorkstrand who sealed the deal for Denmark as they celebrated their first ever win in style.
2) US ousted in the Quarter-Finals Team USA steamrolled through most of their opponents in the round robin play, with only one loss (to Canada) on New Year’s Eve. The Russians swarmed the US defenders with their relentless speed and puck handling skills as they jumped out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back. The US did everything they could to advance to the next round of the tournament, but unfortunately ran into a goaltender that was on top of his game. Igor Shestyorkin saved 39 of 41 American shots, to secure the win for his country. 3) Montreal disappoints In a surprising turn of events, the IIHF announced before the gold medal game that Montreal was not selling out most of their games. This story is particularly shocking considering that a smaller town in Malmo, Sweden, last year was sold out for every game. Montreal has been home to some amazing events and some electrifying crowds, but their reputation took a huge step back with its lack of support for the young players in the tournament. In an interview with TSN, Rene Fazel, the president of the IIHF, explained how disappointed he was in the city of Montreal. During the interview, he was asked if the IIHF was considering taking away the 2017 World Juniors from Montreal even though they are slated to cohost it with Toronto. Fazel explained that even though the IIHF was not happy, the mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre, apologized for the poor attendance and explained an action plan that would help boost the numbers in 2017. It was one of the only blemishes on the tournament held in Canada, but one that cannot be swept under the rug. 4) Soltes and the Slovakians capture Bronze Slovakia seems to really like playing in Canada. 16 years after capturing the bronze
medal, when the tournament was held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the Slovakians beat team Sweden to bring home the bronze medal. It was clear to all those who were watching the game that the Slovaks wanted to win much more than Sweden. Team Slovakia jumped to an early 1-0 lead courtesy of a rocket shot from current Prince George Cougar, David Soltes, the only player to represent the Cougars in this tournament. Shortly after, the Slovakians struck again as Sweden didn’t know what hit them. Sweden would get a goal midway through the first frame as a sensational passing play culminated in an easy shot for Toronto Maple Leafs first round pick, William Nylander. The odd part about Sweden’s
first goal was the fact that Nylander never even celebrated after scoring. In the third period every fan in the stadium got to see a piece of World Junior history as the Slovakians scored two more times off Shalicky and Koys, while Denis Godla continued his superhero play in net, turning away all attempts the Swedes had at a comeback. Much like Winnipeg in 1999, team Slovakia won as the crowd roared loud and proud for the underdog. Soltes and company would come back home with a bronze medal around their necks and a confidence that will hopefully take Cougars to the playoff promise land.
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Students in politics Grant Bachand Team Member
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ver the Edge attended the swearing in of the new and returning faces to council. Though it is far too early to determine the gains that students will get from this council, one thing is clear: students had an impact on this election...
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