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SFU Pipe Band returns as world champions
The beauty of friends with common interests
BC honours Dr. Gail Anderson, forensic entomologist
Understanding seasonal affective disorder
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THE PEAK PUBLICATIONS SOCIETY
NEWS
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OPINIONS
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FEATURES
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Granville Street pedestrian zone closes with DJ festival
A beginner’s mind challenges the Western education system
The value of studying insects, as told by a forensic entomologist
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ARTS & CULTURE
Junyi Ji’s paintings ask us to be patient and slow down
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READ THE PEAK Pick up paper copies at any SFU campus Find extended, cited, and web-accessible articles at the-peak.ca Download digital issues at issuu.com/peaksfu
ABOUT US
The Peak is SFU's weekly student newspaper published every Monday, by students, for students. We’re funded by a student levy and governed by a Board of Directors. Any SFU student can apply to become staff. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, as well as style, grammar, and legality. We also reserve the right to reprint submissions at any time, both in print and on web. We will not publish content that is sexist, racist, or otherwise prejudiced.
SPORTS & SCIENCE Spotlight on SFU Ultimate Frisbee Club
HUMOUR
Your complaints about limes on lime radio!
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TERRITORIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We acknowledge that The Peak’s office is located and our paper is produced, distributed, and read on the unceded Coast Salish Territories of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), xwməθkwəy̓ əm ̓ ̓ ̓ ̓ (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ̓ (Tsleil-Waututh), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), qʼʷa:nƛʼən (Kwantlen), qicəy (Katzie), sc̓əwaθən məsteyəxʷ (Tsawwassen), Qayqayt, and Semiahmoo Peoples. Unceded means that this land was never surrendered, relinquished, or handed over in any way. We recognize that the unceded land that we occupy includes not only the Lhuḵw’lhuḵw’áyten (Burnaby Mountain), but extends to the land occupied by the Vancouver and Surrey campuses.
Contribute to The Peak ! SFU students can contribute and get paid for work that is published in The Peak! Email us at promotions@the-peak.ca to learn about writing, illustrating, or taking photos for us!
NEWS
September 14, 2026
NEWS
One of the things that has been very prominent about the SFU Pipe Band over generations is this feeling of family. RO B M AC NE I L · S F U P IP E BA N D P R ES ID E N T
NEWS
Granville Street’s back, baby! We’ve seen that since FIFA ended. DAV E K E R S H AW F EST IVA L O R GA N IZE R A N D OWN E R O F CA BA N A N IG H TC LU B
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OPINIONS
Opinions Editor Maria Fernanda Osorio Arredondo · opinions@the-peak.ca
September 14, 2026
OPINIONS
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ARTS & CULTURE
September 14, 2026
The Book Nook The superb speculative fiction of China Miéville ARI ELE P U RVE S · SF U STUD E NT
An ocean of soil, inhabited by mammoth creatures. A vanished squid in formaldehyde. A man in a bottle. Aliens driven mad by miscommunication. The end of the world.
railsea. Is it truly infinite? I especially liked the setting’s creativity and delighted in the descriptions of riding the rails, imagining giant creatures breaching the earth like whales in the ocean.
Sitting in a comfortable chair with a cup of tea, I enjoy losing myself in China Miéville’s peculiar writing. The British author’s novels swoop through inventive stories with bizarre characters, their style utterly captivating! I have read three of his books so far, each one drawing me into their web, and plan to read many more.
Kraken (2010)
Railsea (2012) I first encountered Miéville’s work in 2024 while searching for a new audiobook. The synopsis of Railsea hooked me instantly. A retelling of Herman Melville’s classic Moby Dick, authored by someone with a nearly identical surname? It seemed like a strange coincidence. Like Melville’s original tale, Railsea follows the hunt for a majestic white beast, but with several fantastical changes: a great white mole tunnels through the earth beneath the railsea, a vast network of winding train tracks. A surprising discovery made by the protagonist Sham, working aboard a moletrain, sets off a hunt to determine the nature of the
Reading Railsea set me on a journey to discover Miéville’s other books. I chose Kraken next, a mystery of supernatural occurrences beginning with the disappearance of a preserved giant squid from the museum where Billy works. He is quickly trapped in an unfamiliar world; a conspiracy of a squid-worshipping cult, paranormal police, and inhuman beings, all with conflicting goals for the specimen. Billy learns to navigate the horrors around him, aided by a cultist, an ancient Egyptian spirit who flits between statues, and an ordinary woman. I really loved the character interactions and found the plot so compelling that I reread it this summer — a rare thing for me!
Embassytown (2011)
Two distinct societies share the planet; the humans in Embassytown and the Ariekei who speak “Language,” each entity speaking with two voices simultaneously. Despite humans knowing how to interpret and replicate “Language,” the Ariekei cannot understand them. When a grave miscommunication endangers their coexistence, Cho undergoes a barrier-breaking journey to save life as she knows it. This book spoke to my interest in languages and how societies relate to each other, because of the unique challenges faced by the world’s characters. Besides, science fiction is my favourite, and Miéville’s particular take on it is unlike anything I have read before! Miéville excels at unexpected imagery and is a delightful author for anyone seeking an extraordinary story. His writing is eccentric and meandering, using neologisms (invented words) for the new ideas introduced, winding towards unexpected conclusions. Consider one of these reads if you appreciate innovative, abstract concepts woven together into compelling and satisfying tales.
Most recently, I picked up Embassytown. The story follows Avice Benner Cho, a human raised in the furthest outpost in the known universe.
Nutritious Nibbles
REHA N A HAYAT P EA K ASSO C I ATE
Baked pasta
As we go back to school and gradually find less time to prepare home-cooked meals, I wanted to share my family’s recipe for making a low-cost and easy pasta, with a relatively light taste profile. I encourage you to share this delicious yet simple dish with your loved ones. This recipe makes at least two servings. Ingredients: • • • • • • •
1 packet of dry pasta 1 block of cheddar cheese 1 jar of your choice of tomato sauce 1 bag of spinach Ground beef to your liking 1 chopped onion 1 tablespoon of cooking oil
Instructions: 1. Boil the dry pasta in a pot that is half-filled with water on the stovetop for 20 minutes, or until boiling point is reached. 2. Cover the pasta in the pot and let it rest for another 20 minutes before draining the water. 3. Using a separate pot, place in a tablespoon of cooking oil. Then, put in ground beef that was thawed beforehand. Break the ground beef
into smaller pieces and sautée the beef for a few minutes. 4. Next, add in the spinach, chopped onion slices, and the tomato sauce into the pot containing the ground beef. Stir all these ingredients together. 5. In the end, the ground beef should look well done, the spinach should become wilted and darker, and the onion slices caramelized. These signs show that the ingredients were cooked correctly in the sauce. 6. Prepare an oven tray, and add in the wet pasta noodles. Sprinkle some grated cheddar cheese on top. Then, add in the sauce. Place this tray into the oven; let it bake at 350 degrees for around 40 minutes (for extra crispiness). Once that is done, your pasta is ready! 7. Alternatively, if you don’t have an oven, you can also choose to heat up the pasta together with the rest of the ingredients in the same pot on the stove top. If you are looking for a healthy, affordable, and quick meal as a student navigating the busy fall term, pasta just might be the perfect fit for you. Not only are the ingredients easy to get your hands on, you can make larger portions of this dish for meal prep —- a solid choice for a student with so many other commitments!
PHOTO: Bon appétit / Pexels
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Arts & Culture Editor Phone Min Thant · arts@the-peak.ca
ARTS & CULTURE
ARTS & CULTURE
A Life in Plein Air “advocates for the irreplaceable value of painting from life,” with paintings created over the past year.
ARTS & CULTURE
It’s kind of a saviour for people with disabilities that you can still do art.
SPORTS & SCIENCE
September 14, 2026
SPORTS & SCIENCE
I’ve been playing with these guys for like three years now so being able to build on these past years and then go and win a tournament with them was surreal. ANANT ANE JA · P R ES ID E N T O F T H E S F U U LT IM AT E F R IS B E E C LU B
SPORTS & SCIENCE
People living further north of the equator may be more likely to experience SAD during winter because daylengths shorten.
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HUMOUR
Humour Editor Mason Mattu · humour@the-peak.ca
September 14, 2026
HUMOUR
MOST REQUESTED LIME
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Business Manager Yuri Zhou · business@the-peak.ca
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