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volume CII summer issue 1
inside
the official student newspaper at the university of alberta
www.thegatewayonline.ca
monday, july 11, 2011
Grad student commits to hunger strike Aaron Yeo News Editor
CCIS ... the final frontier The campus observatory is getting a new home atop CCIS, and now has space to permanently house three telescopes. The Gateway checks out their new digs. Feature, Page 8
A graduate student is on a hunger strike and has been camping in front of SUB for almost two weeks, claiming that the University of Alberta refuses to take him back as a graduate student. Salah Rahmani has been trying to find a professor to be his supervisor after he transferred last fall to the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He has since been contacting professors, but has been consistently turned down. Rahmani believes that it’s because of his removal from the Department of Cell Biology last summer. “The situation is getting worse. They are not co-operating,” Rahmani said. “Some of them told me, ‘we don’t have space,’ or ‘we don’t have funding.’ ” Rahmani has spent days outside of the SUB east entrance, where he has pitched a tent. Signs say he is a victim of social undermining, dehumanization, aggression and bullying, among others, and he accuses the U of A of discrimination and “denial of opportunities.” Accompanying the signs is a list of signatures of those showing support for Rahmani. Rahmani asked some of his friends to apply to the same professors who refused him, and said they received positive and enthusiastic replies. “I found out they have hired new students. So how come they have funding for other students, but no
Aaron Yeo
LEFT BEHIND Salah Rahmani has accused the U of A of discrimination, and refusing him a PhD supervisor for months.
funding for me?” Other professors he asked exercised their right of “academic freedom,” and refused Rahmani without citing a reason. Rahmani called their actions “discriminatory” and “dishonest,” and an abuse of academic freedom. “I’ve contacted other departments as well, but unfortunately I still couldn’t find any supervisors,” he explained. Vice-dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Rene Poliquin
said that the faculty has been working on his case and are trying to find a solution, though he is concerned for Rahmani’s well-being. “I hope he’s alright. A hunger strike is a very serious thing,” Poliquin said. While standing outside SUB, Rahmani said he also saw Associate Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research Joanna Harrington and Safe Disclosure and Human Rights Advisor Wade King, who both assured him that they wanted to find a solution as soon as possible.
Rahmani was originally in the Department of Cell Biology until he was removed last summer. He had complained to the department after a faculty member on his supervisory committee allegedly made racist comments directed at him. The department chair Richard Rachubinski then allegedly asked Rahmani to sign an apology letter to the university for the accusations, but he refused, and was asked to leave the department. Please see Strike Page 3
Ex-dean on leave after allegedly plagiarizing speech Aaron Yeo News Editor
Compulsion never smelled so good Teatro La Quindicina’s newest play offers an irresistible theatrical experience, rich with witty writing and ace acting. A&E Page 10
Following allegations of plagiarism, Philip Baker has resigned from his position as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta, but will retain his position as a faculty member. Baker gave a speech at the faculty’s graduation banquet in June, which contained striking similarities to one given by Atul Gawande, which was published in the New Yorker, and is available online. The key phrase that gave it away for those in attendance was the “velluvial matrix,” a term that Gawande had fabricated to illustrate that doctors are always afraid of not knowing the latest medical vocabulary. When Baker used the same phrase,
it caught some people’s attention, and the news spread through the crowd via text messages and emails, and later through Facebook. Students present at the speech described Baker’s speech as almost identical to Gawande’s, with only small changes such as substituting the University of Alberta for Stanford. Over the following weekend, Baker sent an apology email to the graduating class, and said he made the mistake of not properly attributing parts of his speech. “When I was researching for the speech, I came across text which inspired me and resonated with my experiences,” Baker wrote. He also said that he’d apologized to Gawande, and that the Stanford doctor was “flattered” by his use of the speech.
The University of Alberta launched an investigation after receiving formal complaints, and within a week of the speech, Baker tendered his resignation. “As dean of the faculty, this incident made it difficult for him to maintain his moral authority,” University President Indira Samarasekera said in a press conference on June 17, explaining that Baker will continue as a faculty member after he returns from a four-month leave of absence. Baker and Provost and VicePresident (Academic) Carl Amrhein met the day earlier, where Amrhein requested that the dean give his resignation. Samarasekera said that the decision was mutually agreed upon as being beneficial to all the parties involved.
“[Baker] will retain his faculty position, following a brief administrative leave, with assignments consistent with his academic expertise,” Samarasekera told reporters. “A resignation from a senior position as dean is a very serious step.” Samarasekera said that the investigation is still ongoing, and any further outcomes are considered a separate matter. “I think that with anything like this, one lets the process unfold,” she said. Vice-dean of Faculty Affairs Verna Yiu will serve as interim dean until the university finds a replacement for Baker. The university will follow regular procedures in the search for a new dean, which according to Samarasekera, is a process that usually takes nine to 12 months.
2 News The Gateway www.thegatewayonline.ca monday, july 11, 2011 volume CII summer issue 1 Published since november 21, 1910 Online-Only Edition ISSN 0845-356X Suite 3-04 Students’ Union Building University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2J7 Telephone 780.492.5168 Fax 780.492.6665 Ad Inquiries 780.492.6700 Email gateway@gateway.ualberta.ca
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monday, july 11, 2011
www.thegatewayonline.ca
Researcher explains the anti-bully mindset Siwei Chen News Staff
Destructive and inappropriate behaviours like sexual harassment and racism aren’t that different from junior high bullying, according to a University of Alberta psychologist who says we can learn from students who stand up for their peers. Last Thursday, Shelagh Dunn, an educational psychologist at the U of A, presented her findings from her interviews with nine junior high students who have stood up to bullies, called upstanders, as opposed to bystanders, to discover how they handle this prevalent problem. “In Canadian studies, at school, about a third of students have experienced bullying, with 90 to 98 per cent saying they’ve witnessed bullying,” Dunn said. She noted that this problem ranges from the stereotypical physical assault to gossip and cyber bullying, which can include threatening messages, non-consensual forwarding of personal emails, and the creation of false profiles including false information about a certain student. Dunn spoke to students who reported the use of a variety of strategies for handling these problems, such as supporting the target, confronting the bully, and seeking external help. “It was not just knowing what to do, but also how to do it. These students had good social judgment. Most of them know when things are serious enough to get involved or too serious so they need more help,” Dunn said.
Dunn said the concept of appropriate social judgment is a common reason to why other students and even teachers have trouble identifying bullying and taking action. “They told me that a lot of the time, the school played the role of the bystander,” she said. Dunn cited a number of risks associated with interfering with bullying. First, upstanders can be physically hurt, replacing the target being bullied. They may also risk social injury — intervening can tarnish their reputation. The situation may also be too ambiguous, and potential upstanders are afraid of being embarrassed if the situation was not as serious as they had believed. Lastly, even if there was no fear of risk, sometimes they simply do not know what to do. Although the strategies the junior high students employed seem straightforward, they were at times quite sophisticated. For example, confrontation of the bully could involve an extensive process of befriending the person to earn their trust before explaining to them the emotional consequences of their actions. “There was a confidence in these students. They came from all different peer groups, not just the student council types. They had confidence in not being afraid to be different and confidence in their decision making,” Dunn said. Unfortunately, some of these students were also ambivalent about the effectiveness of their actions. “It was frustrating [for them] to stand up for someone just to come back to school the next day and see
Kaitlyn Menard
GET UP, STAND UP Psychologist Shelagh Dunn presented her results from interviewing junior high students who stood up and confronted bullies.
it happen again and again,” Dunn added. Support from staff such as anti-bullying campaigns was viewed positively, and students could reportedly see the impact of those programs. Dunn stressed the importance of assessment in order to implement change in an environment. Once people know what they are dealing with, they can handle the situation appropriately.
Beyond the microcosm of the junior high, Dunn believed that other “social evils” in the form of sexual harassment and inequality can be handled similarly. Bullying appears wherever people get together, Dunn notes, and it spans all age groups, even found in retirement homes. She encouraged the education of upstanders, showing people how to intervene, as a way to motivate change in the community.
STREETERS When was the last time you had something stolen? As you may be aware, mosquitoes have been stealing our blood.
Compiled and photographed by Aaron Yeo and Matt Hirji
David McBean Physics Alumni
design@gateway.ualberta.ca | 492.6647
Brett MacGillivary Science IV
Fahad Safi Science Alumni
Serena Westad Pharmacy III
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colophon Gateway
The is created using Macintosh computers, HP Scanjet flatbed scanners, and a Nikon Super Cool Scan optical film scanner. Adobe InDesign is used for layout. Adobe Illustrator is used for vector images, while Adobe Photoshop is used for raster images. Adobe Acrobat is used to create PDF files which are burned directly to plates to be mounted on the printing press. Text is set in a variety of sizes, styles, and weights of Fenice, Joanna, Kepler and Whitney. The Manitoban is the Gateway’s sister paper, and we love her dearly, though “not in that way.” The Gateway’s games of choice are Infamous and Medal of Honor: Airborne.
contributors
Alana Willerton, Evan Daum, Andrew Jeffery, Jacquelin Gregoire, Tyler Hein, Carole Yue, Hayley Dunning, Lance Mudryk, Evan Mudryk, Paul Cresey, Rachel Singer, Nermeen Yousef, Kaitlyn Menard, Siwei Chen Skybox by Dan McKechnie
A bunch of cables were stolen from my friend’s car, that we were using for DJing. It was just after a show, too.
I’ve never had anything lost or stolen. [Never?] Never. [Your virginity?] I definitely, definitely gave that away.
I had my heart stolen by a magnificent man named Hazem Shoblak.
I had climbing shoes stolen last weekend. I left them at the bottom of the mountain, and I went up, and came back down, and they were gone. It was very sad. It was probably the sasquatch. Probably bears too.
The Gateway
News
volume cii summer issue 1
Researcher goes undercover into world of bodybuilding Alex Migdal Staff Reporter
Lianne McTavish has always had an affinity for working out, but it wasn’t until this past year that she traded in her books for bleach blonde hair, rock hard muscles, and manicured nails to live the amped-up life of a bodybuilder. McTavish, a professor of the history of art, design, and culture at the University of Alberta, underwent months of gruelling training and dieting in order to achieve a bodybuilder physique. Since her research focuses on the history of the body, she decided to take an “embodied” approach and immerse herself in the world of bodybuilding. “A lot of feminist work on bodybuilding [...] talks about it as a kind of way of controlling or managing the body,” she said. “What I’m doing is actually in keeping with contemporary feminist scholarship.” Her 30-hour-a-week training and dieting regimen culminated at the Northern Alberta Bodybuilding Championships held on June 4, where she participated in the women’s figure category. Exhausted from a lack of sleep and food, McTavish describes the week of the competition as her lowest point and says being on stage was “not fun at all.” “The body that’s pictured in those images of me on stage is kind of an impossible body that I probably had for two days because it’s dehydrated, it’s leaned out, it’s exhausted, it’s tanned, it’s machined,” she said. “It’s never going be like that again.” McTavish noticed that by conforming to the societal norm of beauty — the blonde hair, thinner body, and revealing clothing — she was treated differently. For example, she wasn’t charged at airports when her luggage was overweight. “It’s not that I’m good-looking, it’s not that,” she explained. “It’s that I visibly try to conform to the dominant norms of feminine beauty. That’s it, that’s all you need to do. You make the effort and you will be rewarded socially, whether consciously or unconsciously by other people.” McTavish chronicled her bodybuilding journey under the guise of Feminist Figure Girl, a witty and often explicit blog. As her research progressed, she realized that she
Supplied: David Ford
would have to reveal her identity in order to get the credibility and attention that she wanted. Despite some harsh criticism, the response that she has received will also be used for her research. McTavish doesn’t take the negative comments personally since she believes they’re not truly directed towards her, but towards her bodybuilding persona. “When people to respond to it, negatively or positively, they’re responding to a representation, and that representation isn’t me,” she said. “However they respond, it reveals something about them. It has nothing to do with me.” However, McTavish worries that
Supervisors meeting turned down halfway Rahmani Strike Continued From Page 1
Rahmani then filed a complaint to the Alberta Commission of Human Rights, which then contacted the U of A for conciliation. The Gateway was unable to contact the university on the status of the complaint as of press time. While he was able to temporarily continue his studies without a supervisor, he needs to join a lab to do any research required for his medical degree. Rahmani has been on the hunger strike since June 27 and says he will continue until his issue is properly addressed by the university and he can continue his studies.
A settlement has finally been reached in the salary negotiations between the academic staff and the administration at the University of Alberta. The agreement marks the end of months of difficult negotiations between the two parties, which culminated in the Association of Academic Staff: University of Alberta (AASUA) requesting to go to arbitration over the matter back in March. Three months later, before the arbitration process was completed, the settlement outlines a salary increase for academic staff of 1.75 per cent for the first year and two per cent for the second year. The AASUA had originally requested 3.5 per cent increases for both years, while the board had proposed 0.5 per cent for the first year
the media attention and her blog may change the way students now view her as a professor. “That’s all out of the window now, isn’t it?” she said. “I think I’m just going to make it clear when I’m teaching that I’m professional and this is what I’m going to be like in the classroom. “I think that this way of creating knowledge will continue to inform my research. I don’t think I’ll ever stop with this more popular, engaged kind of research now that I’ve done it.” With the bodybuilding competition past her, McTavish is ready to resume teaching in September after being on sabbatical this past year. She will also share her experience in an upcoming book. and 1.5 per cent for the second. The settlement also includes increases in academic benefits and pensions. While the request for a third party to settle negotiations signified the two parties’ discord at the time, they eventually came to a tentative agreement among themselves, prior to the arbitrator’s final offer. The tentative agreement was brought to a vote by the AASUA membership in late June, with 90 per cent of the members voting in favour. With the agreement now ratified, it will form the basis of the compensation structure for the next two years. The parties released a mutual statement saying they believe the agreement “serves the interests of both parties and will set the stage for continued dialogue between the association and university administration on other matters of mutual concern.” This was the first time negotiations led to arbitration since 2000. —Alex Migdal, Staff Reporter
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Science & Technology
monday, july 11, 2011
www.thegatewayonline.ca
U of A neuropathic pain research earns nationwide recognition Rachel Singer News Staff
Two members of the University of Alberta’s Department of Pharmacology have been recognized for their achievements in brain pain research with Neuropathic Pain Research Awards. The awards are given out annually by Pfizer Canada to fund and support research. Peter Smith and Bradley Kerr were named as two of the five recipients this year. Peter Smith was awarded for his work with capsaicin, the chemical that makes spicy food simulate heat, and how it interacts with the drugs pregablin and gabapentin, which are commonly used to relieve pain. For these drugs to work, they have to get inside cells — a difficult task — and they can also get into other nerves that are not just for pain, resulting in drowsiness and other complications. “Capsaicin is actually an active ingredient in hot chilli peppers. [...] It chemically activates the heat receptors, so your body hasn’t actually got hotter; the heat receptors have just been stimulated which activates the sweating reflex,” Smith explained. When capsaicin acts on nerves it opens up certain channels in the cell membrane, such as a channel called TRIP-V1 which is associated with pain nerves. With capsaicin they become wide enough to allow the drug (gabapentin or pregablin) into the cell which increases their efficiency. “We put tissue cultures of spinal cords from rats in a dish, and we can put gabapentin on them and show that it reduces their activity, but if we put gabapentin and capsaicin together it
Rachel Singer
BRAIN PAIN Pfizer recognized Smith (left) and Kerr (right) for their research.
works way better,” Smith said. With the award from Pfizer, Smith plans on doing more experiments to further evaluate how capsaicin potentiates the effects of gabapentin, which could help increase gabapentin’s effectiveness against neuropathic pain. Kerr was recognized for his work done on mice that have a similar disease as humans with multiple sclerosis, known as EAE mice. Traditionally, EAE mice are used to understand paralysis, weakness, and other physical defects that are associated with MS. Kerr uses them to look at things such as chronic pain, anxiety, and depression, to try to understand how these neuropathic behaviours work. “We took our EAE mice and what we found is that you get really significant changes in the levels of all different neurotransmitters, but really what is interesting for us was that the big ones that you think of in terms of pain and cognitive impairments — serotonin, norepinephrine, and the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA — all of these drop really quite dramatically in mice
with the disease,” Kerr explained. To further understand these neurotransmitters in chronic pain, depression, and anxiety, Kerr has been working with Glenn Baker in the Department of Psychiatry, to see which neurotransmitters play a critical role. Using specific drugs, Kerr was able to increase the levels of specific neurotransmitters in the EAE mice and then test them to see if certain behaviours changed. “We can give our mice a certain drug and we can elevate quite dramatically [their] serotonin levels, and then we can run the mice through our behavioural tests and see if that affects their pain sensitivity or not,” Kerr said. With the award, Kerr plans to test using different drugs to elevate the amount of each neurotransmitter, and try to isolate or identify which of the transmitter systems is important to the changes in pain, depression, anxiety, and other conditions. Both Kerr and Smith hope their research will lead to clinical trials and help people with neuropathic pain.
Graduate student one step closer to finding cure for cardiovascular disease Rachel Singer News Staff
A doctoral student at the University of Alberta has made a discovery that could lead to a cure for a disease which usually leaves approximately three years of life once diagnosed. Gopinath Sutendra has been researching pulmonary arterial hypertension, a disease characterized by excessive cancer-like growth of the cells in the pulmonary vessels of the heart, which provide blood to and from the lungs. These vessels end up getting blocked, resulting in right heart failure. Previous research by Sutendra’s lab supervisor Evangelos Michelakis, a cardiologist and researcher at the U of A, has shown that mitochondria — organelles inside cells that produce energy and regulate cell death — are suppressed in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension, leading to excessive growth. Sutendra’s major discovery expanded on Michelakis’ work by finding a potential explanation of why the mitochondria are suppressed in pulmonary arterial hypertension, and possibly other diseases such as cancer, which is also characterized by excessive growth. “We showed that mitochondria forms a general unit with another organelle known as the endoplasmic reticulum,” Sutendra said. “What we found was that in pulmonary arterial hypertension, in the proliferative smooth muscle cells, the
Nermeen yousef
mitochondria-ER unit is disrupted [...] which explains potentially why the mitochondria are suppressed in this disease.” The other major finding was that a protein known as Nogo is the main culprit in the disruption of the mitochondria-ER unit. “Nogo is a protein that can regulate the shape of the ER. And so by increasing the expression of Nogo we can change the shape of the ER and by changing the shape of the ER we can change its interaction with the mitochondria,” Suntendra explained. When the ER is in a state of stress, a certain transcription factor, which is a protein that can increase or activate the expression of other proteins, leads to an increased expression of Nogo. As a result, when there is lots of Nogo in the cell, the ER changes shape and the mitochondria-ER unit is disrupted. Sutendra also examined mice that
expressed different levels of Nogo. “Mice [in which] we genetically knocked out this protein didn’t develop pulmonary arterial hypertension; [...] we compared them to their litter mates who had the protein, and they got a very severe form of the disease,” Sutendra explained. He was then able to get blood samples from patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and see whether they had elevated levels of Nogo. “And in their serum what we saw was, in fact, that this protein was really high and therefore it could potentially be a biomarker for this disease,” Sutendra said. As a result of Sutendra’s findings, Michelakis’ lab is now looking at different therapies that could target Nogo or other proteins that affect the activities of Nogo in the hopes of finding a therapy to treat patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Opinion Shuttle successor nowhere in sight IT’S A SHAME WHEN SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY take a back seat to political and economic realities, but that’s exactly what happened last week. Friday marked the final mission of the ground-breaking NASA shuttle program with the last launch of Atlantis, ending 30 years of regular trips into orbit, and plunging the future of manned American space flight into uncertainty. Former U.S. President George W. Bush announced an end to the funding of the shuttle program in 2004, saying that the moon would be the focus of future manned NASA missions. In 2010, President Barack Obama changed the focus again, and while he introduced a vague goal of building a new heavy lift rocket in 2015, he cancelled the plans that were underway for Constellation, which would have reused ideas from the shuttle and Apollo programs to take astronauts into orbit, and help establish a long term presence on the Moon. The shuttle program admittedly had its shortcomings. It was developed to provide an affordable alternative to wasteful one-trip rocketry, but turned out to be more expensive than originally predicted. On average, factoring in maintenance costs, each launch came to about $1.5 billion. But that’s the cost of discovery, and if you want science to move forward, governments need to fund such programs, even when they’re expensive. The shuttle program has also received criticism following accidents resulting in the tragic loss of two crews — Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Of course, it is horrible that these tragedies occurred, but NASA learned from both of them, and went on to develop better and safer shuttles in the future, which is surely what the crews who lost their lives would’ve wanted. The program wasn’t perfect, but it still served space exploration in a tangible, important way, proving to be a reliable means of getting astronauts, satellites, and other scientific equipment into orbit. The real tragedy is that there is no clear successor to the program. Now, NASA will have to rely on Russian spacecraft for accessing the International Space Station, which comes at a cost of about $753 million a year. Dates and the frequency of missions will have to be negotiated, and control over equipment, training, and how many astronauts can go will be lost. In addition, upkeep for the ISS, including supply runs, will fall to the Russians or the Japanese. The idea is for NASA to rely on the Russians until the private sector steps up and develops low-orbit launch vehicles, who will then rent them to NASA. But it’s unlikely that the private sector is going to be able to develop a launch vehicle any cheaper than NASA was able to: while there are undoubtedly unnecessary bureaucratic costs, the worry is private companies would be tempted to start cutting corners. Kieran Carroll, past president of the Canadian Space Society, was quoted in the Toronto Star as saying, “People in the civil service necessarily avoid risk. They order a lot of extra work to be done to get rid of every conceivable hazard.” When talking about human lives, we should get rid of every conceivable hazard despite the cost. Assuming that the private sector will take over safely and cheaply, is a big mistake. NASA will continue to exist, but with their funding seriously slashed. Congress is debating cutting $2 billion of their funding in the upcoming U.S. federal budget. They’re supposed to be focusing on the development of deep space rockets, but with such a great cut in funding, invaluable other programs are on the chopping block. The James Webb Space Telescope, intended as a modern successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope, is the next project in danger of cancellation in the name of money. Hundreds of employees face layoffs with the end of the shuttle program. and considering the constant changing of goals and budget cuts, the morale of the organization is likely at an all time low. Despite talk from the government about continuing space exploration, the end of the shuttle program is crippling for NASA and for an era of scientific discovery in North America. If the United States wants to remain a leader in the field of space exploration and help drive a new generation of space flight, it’s time they commit to a noteworthy goal. The Presidency of the United States has in the past committed to do things not because they are easy, but because they are hard. Nowadays, when hard things are expensive, it’s become too easy to cancel them.
Alexandria eldridge Editor-in-Chief
Ross Vincent
from the
web
Approval voting better than first-past-the-post RE: (“New option off the port bow,” Ryan Bromsgrove, April 7) What we need as citizens is a fairer election system. The plurality system (aka firstpast-the-post, FPTP) has been scientifically shown to be among the worst possible voting systems ever conceived. For proof, see rangevoting.org , as one example. There are many alternatives that would provide much better democracy, including rank methods and rating methods. The simplest and most effective alternative is approval voting. The voter simply checks all of the candidates that she approves of. The ballot is a check-box form, instead of a radio-button form. Being forced to choose only one candidate (when there are three or more to chose from) is a very broken system, and that is a mathematically provable fact. The current method prevents you from fully expressing your opinion, and causes the votes to be split between similar candidates — even if they are a more agreeable choice to the majority of the voters. If you have no suitable candidate in your riding, why not go out and spoil your ballot — vote for more than one of the fringe candidates, and write in
“Use Approval Voting!”.
“Approval Voting”
Via Internet
Empathy for dean is clear class privilege RE: (“Dean under investigation after alleged plagiarism,” by Aaron Yeo, June 14) Blatant hypocrisy and convenient contrition aside, I think the plagiarism by the Dean of a faculty to a public address in front of students and families reflects not only academic dishonesty, but tremendous hubris and social disconnection on the part of the man who thinks that he could actually pass off a famous and unique speech as his own. Perhaps what is just as revealing are the profs and elites who are going on record to stand by the dean [and] empathize with him. When you peel through their thin rhetoric, all they seem to be saying is that because of his position and status, he should be given a pass — its just people of power sticking up for their own kind and reflects a sense of class entitlement to rise above the rules they enforce against others with vigor. They all say they do not condone what he did, yet none of them are prepared to say openly that it was wrong and deserves an severe sanction, even though they surely know themselves how they feel about and deal with students in a similar predicament and the
character inferences they draw from such incidents. Plagiarism is, in pith and substance, a core issue of academic integrity. Academic integrity is practised through rule of law. Rule of law is supposed to apply to and protect everyone, unless there is a prior and express exemption. Is that the case? Professors and students are supposed to be judged on the ideas they develop and apply — students are supposed to be learning content and behavior that professors and deans supposedly have mastered and demonstrated. If the Dean is allowed to be exonerated from the plagiarism charge after due process on the basis of his status, one has to ask how that principle can be fairly applied to students too — it means that there is some plagiarism that is permissible, and the Dean should at least explain to students in a follow -up address to students and families what types of plagiarism are acceptable. At least this might teach us all something useful about the utility/ futility of plagiarism and its relationship to academic and class privilege going forward. That’s some expert academic advice most of us would like to hear and learn from.
Roger Pritchard
Via Internet
University’s plan not good enough RE: (“U of A unveils long-term
expansion plan,” by April Hudson, April 7) If they actually succeed in this (while they are currently asking departments to cut courses/sections/etc. in a bid to save money), it will be too little, too late for some of us. I’m a 4.0 student who is leaving U of A because I’m tired of the huge classes. Even when I make an effort to go to a prof’s office hours and try to get to know them, it’s an incredibly difficult undertaking, because the profs teaching so many students, whether it’s in one section, or multiple sections of the same course. So I will be transferring to an Ontario university where the class sizes are smaller and where I know I’ll feel more like a person and less like a number. As for not displacing Canadian students, by bringing in more international students, that’s essentially what they are doing, since class sizes will be even larger, and it will be even harder to get to know a prof.
”A Student Who is Leaving”
Via Internet
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Opinion
monday, july 11, 2011
www.thegatewayonline.ca
Forget book buyback: sell straight to your fellow students for cash Alana Willerton
T
his summer, my mission was simple: sell my textbooks and earn back some of the money I had spent on them. Many students take advantage of the buyback services at places like SUBTitles and it is true that it’s quick and easy. The problem is that they won’t give you nearly as much for your books as they’re worth. My own hopes for an end-of-semester windfall were dashed when I was offered mere pocket change for my books, threatening to turn my buyback into a giveback. My mission took me to SUBtitles, where I learnt that they would pay up to 50 per cent of the original price for particular textbooks. What they didn’t say is that chances were good that I’d actually only receive a fraction of that.
I understand that you can’t receive the full 50 per cent of a book’s original price for every single one you bring in, but less than 20 per cent is never worth it, especially considering the price they will slap on it and sell it to the next chump. Of the 11 books I brought in, only six were eligible for buyback. My buyback grand total for the six books they would take? A mere $40.75, after an initial investment of almost $300. It didn’t matter that they were in near-perfect condition, or that there was no incessant highlighting to be found on any of the pages. I was being offered less than 20 per cent of what I had originally paid — take it or leave it. Needless to say, I left it. It’s ridiculous that buyback is even considered a viable option for selling textbooks. I understand that you can’t receive the full 50 per cent of a book’s original price for every single one you bring in, but less than 20 per cent is never worth it, especially considering
the
Marble
Pedestal As a scientist, you’re constantly asked to justify your research. Why is breeding fruit flies important? So what if we don’t find the Higgs Boson? Why should my taxes fund a gigantic robotic arm attached to the International Space Station? That’s where dinosaurs come in. Because when it comes to dinosaurs, the public agrees. Think about the first time you watched Jurassic Park. I was seven, and I laughed when the T-Rex chomped the guy off the crapper. Some scientist spent their entire life figuring out that the T-Rex had the most powerful bite force ever known, all so I could enjoy watching its jaws rip through some
Dan McKechnie
EASY MONEY Selling directly to students will earn you more than buyback.
the price they will slap on it and sell it to the next chump. In theory, buyback is a good idea; it’s a service for students who want to get rid of their books quickly and get some money back in the process. But the reality is that even when they’re willing to buy back your books, you’ll be lucky if you get a quarter of what you originally paid. With five of my books not available for buyback, I was left with another option: consignment. I could set a price for my books that was around 75 per cent of the new textbook price, and leave them for a year in the hopes that someone would buy it. But here’s the thing about consignment. Sure, you stand to make decent money, but you also could have to wait up to a year to see a penny of it. Even then, there’s a chance that no one will buy your textbook at all and then you’d just be back to square one. Worse, by the time you get it back, there may well be a new edition on the market, making your copy impossible to get rid of. The only surefire way to make sure
you get what your books are worth is to set your own price. By posting flyers by classroom doors or by finding friends who’ll need your old textbooks for future classes, you control just how much money you’ll be getting for your books. By doing this, you can get more than 50 per cent for your books and your buyer can get theirs for less than they would if they’d bought it off consignment, or otherwise used, from a bookstore. Everybody wins. In the end, I found a friend who was willing to buy my Psychology textbook for 60 per cent of what I originally paid for it, which is still cheaper than what they would pay for it off of consignment. The money I stand to make off that one textbook sale is more than I would’ve made off all six of my books, had I decided to sell them to SUBtitles. So, don’t waste your time with buyback or consignment; there are students out there who want your books — and they’re willing to pay a whole lot more for them.
lawyer’s flesh. Awesome. Oh sure, knowing the bite force of T-Rex helps us figure out whether he was a predator or a scavenger. But really, what use is that other than for pitting the Tyrant Lizard King against other, more ferocious dinosaurs? With the tireless dedication of kids who never grew up, we now know the Spinosaurus and Gigantosaurus could have kicked Tyrannosaurus’ ass. Dinosaurs are researched for the joy of finding new levels of coolness. There’s a palaeontologist working to restore raptor characteristics to chickens; creating a Chickenosaurus, complete with long tail, teeth and talons. Dr. Jack Horner has written a book about evolution, development, and the implications of the Chickenosaurus, and wants nothing more than to lead one out on stage before he gives another Powerpoint presentation.
So I urge you, budding scientists of the university, whatever you are studying, link it in some way to dinosaurs. Your six-year-old nephew won’t turn his nose up when you start spouting words like “medullary tissue” and your mom won’t hesitate to tell strangers on buses that you study Stegosauruses. Your hipster friends will probably still tell you dinosaurs are too mainstream, but screw them; you’ll be the one hitching up a Triceratops and riding that magnificent beast right onto a marble pedestal, where it so rightly belongs.
H ayley Dunning The Marble Pedestal is a semi-regular feature where a person or group who does something particularly noteworthy and awesome is elevated temporarily to a pedestal of prose and praised.
The Gateway
Opinion
volume cii summer issue 1
Nothing wrong with voluntary prayer at our public schools Ryan Bromsgrove
T
he Toronto District School Board is allowing an imam into Valley Park Middle School to lead voluntary prayer sessions. While there are definitely instances where the presence of religion in public life should provoke justifiable outrage, this is not one of them. Provided that no student is required to attend, and that the school is not spending any money on such programs, donating a little space is a reasonable accomodation for the 300 Muslim students who attend Valley Park. No, we shouldn’t build mosques within our public schools, but it’s not objectionable for an imam to lead Muslim students who have elected to attend the service, one day per week, on school property. The outrage against Valley Park Middle School for allowing this is, as is to be expected, absolutely hysterical. It ranges from claims that this is the first step to implementing Sharia law on all Canadians, to an imposition of Muslim culture on unwilling students, to the logical next step apparently being that female teachers will be required to wear the hijab. Believe me when I say that if any
“The outrage against Valley Park Middle School for allowing this is, as is to be expected, absolutely hysterical. It ranges from claims that this is the first step to implementing Sharia law on all Canadians, [...] to the logical next step apparently being that female teachers will be required to wear the hijab.” of these things actually happen, I will be on the front lines against them. However, until slippery slope arguments magically gain validity, this “go be Muslim somewhere else” attitude has to stop. If we force Muslim students to be Muslim somewhere else, they’ll still be Muslim. They’ll still want to seat the girls behind the boys during prayer, and many of us will continue to feel uneasy about that sort of thing. But they’ll remember that they were made to leave what should be the welcoming atmosphere of a school, and shuttled somewhere else because they wanted to practice something so important to them that it’s a part of their identity. The other children who stay behind will remember how all the strange Muslim children had to keep leaving to do something so weird and alien that it cannot take place anywhere near them. It’ll only strengthen the cultural divide that produced the ignorant, childish outrage expressed against Valley Park in the first place. There’s one valid concern that some have expressed. The sessions are partly in Arabic, and the school doesn’t monitor what is said. Oversight should be put in place to
ensure that what is preached is appropriate. There are many things wrong with some varieties of Islam that are not simply matters of a difference in culture. The possibility does exist that students may be taught some of these things — but it’s a possibility, and hardly a given. To call for a total shutdown of the program because something bad might happen at some point is short-sighted. It’s easy to say that religion should have absolutely nothing to do with any public school in any degree anywhere in Canada ever. But when something as simple of this could solve a problem for up to 300 students, it’s not “bowing down” to Islam to drop that dogmatic stance in favour of practicality. Let religious kids pray in schools. They’re going to do it anyway, so we might as well try to minimize its interference with their education. And if you care about the kids being indoctrinated into religion, try to figure out how to convince parents to not bring their kids up religious in the first place. Until then, I’ll take a public school with optional prayer over a fully religious school with unescapable religion classes and a free pass to teach whatever it wants any day.
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ThreeLinesFree Got something that you need to get off your mind? Either email us at threelinesfree@gateway.ualberta.ca, tweet @threelinesfree, or message us at www.thegatewayonline.ca/threelinesfree Chicks that smell like curry light my fire To my chem TA who took us for drinks after our exam, you are a champ and I wish all my TA’s were as awesome as you! More farm boys please. City boys are boring! Dear man on the LRT the night of the 12th who rescued my mittens at the U of A stop. Thank you. You have no idea what that means to me. -Girl with the red & black mittens to the muscle-heads at FLC who can bench four pies but have never heard of a leg press: you look ridiculous in shorts. nice pecs tho! thanks for helping me procrastinate gateway. Dr. Kent den Heyer, you blow my mind, ilu Who the heck is Matthew Sinclair? ‘Full, head on campaign’ my ass. To my brothas, you have affected the minds of today’s youth and truly taught me about what it means to be a family and how to write a rough draft. 103 Fo-Eva! How much cooler would it have been to live in the 70’s who else is upset that the gateway is only gonna be on wednesdays next year? does that mean it’s gonna be 2x as big? And will there be a sudoku AND a crossword in each one? Sudokus are the only thing that gets me through my night classes. To the guy in Anthr 494 who thinks he knows everything, has to offer an opinion on everything and constantly interrupts... The rest of us won’t miss you. Why does a large tea at north Java Jive in HUB cost $1.55 if the same thing costs $1.30 at south Java Jive in HUB? Dear first year engineers: Get out while you still can! Run far, far away...
I don’t know why relationships have to be so exclusive. There’s so many cute boys on campus! lister, I will not be missing you. After the one day you turned allll the furnaces up down my wing, I complained, naturally. Now you have shut off my heat entirely. This is upsetting and I do not like it. I am also tired of your food and the fact that I have yet to win a car with the rollable- rim service you provide. Sad panda. My back hurts, my butt muscles are sore, need a stretch... feel like I had a crazy workout. In reality I spent all day hunched over my desk studying Not all guys cheat, right?? To the champion who handed in my astro homework so I wouldn’t have to go. Thank you! Dear Ryan. You are an enormous asshole. That is all. Are you fucking serious? Get the hell off your phone in rutherford south reading room. And while I am here- to the other assholes, stop having a conversation with half the table. You all suck at life. Fuck you engineering! I want the last 4 years of my life back. 340 girl, you’re a babe, I will always remember when I accidentally bumped your arm. I said sorry, you said it was ok. :) Dear everyone who says the word “awesome” more than once during a conversation: Be CREATIVE! I know at least 5 synonyms for it! Sincerely, an arts student
The Gateway reserves the right to edit any submissions, as well as refuse publication of any submission it deems racist, sexist, hateful, libellous, or overtly offensive. We cannot guarantee that your submission will be used (but we’ll try).
8
Feature
monday, july 11, 2011
www.thegatewayonline.ca
Eye on the Sky The Gateway tours the new home of the University of Alberta Observatory atop CCIS Words by Justin Bell Photos by Dan McKechnie
J
utting out of the southwest corner of the new Canadian Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies are three massive silos, protruding from the building like grain elevators on the fifth floor. Housed within the domes are three telescopes, which serve as the university’s window into the cosmos. After bouncing around campus and the surrounding community for the past 70 years, the University of Alberta Observatory has finally found a permanent home on top of the newest campus building. The three telescopes, which use curved mirrors to bounce light from the night sky and focus it into the eyepiece, are used less for scientific research and more for community outreach and learning. “We definitely want to have everything in one place. The three telescopes and the three domes was because it made sense that these were three things that needed to be permanently set up,” said Sharon Morsink, the defacto director of the observatory. While Morsink doesn’t hold the official title of director, the fact that she’s been around the observatory since 2000 and her seniority on campus has allowed her to become the director “by osmosis.” Her expertise and position meant she got to
help decide the look of the new facility, which she estimates added an extra $100,000 to the price tag of the building. That includes the three domes, all of the electrical systems required for each, a large outdoor observation area for the smaller telescopes the observatory uses, as well as a new indoor classroom area. The classroom space will allow people like Ross Lockwood, a physics graduate student who works as a teaching assistant at the observatory, to do more when it comes to public outreach and teaching. “I guess fundamentally, everyone seeks a purpose,” Lockwood said. “For a physicist, understanding the universe is the purpose. I think, for the most part we understand things on the macro scale. We know how cars and engines work, but we don’t know how things on the quantum level work or how [things on] the astronomical level work.” Lockwood’s grad work deals with silicone nanotubes in condensed nanophysics and how it relates to imaging. So between his grad studies and his work at the observatory, he’s bridging the two strands of the physics world. And Lockwood is excited to put his teaching experience to use at the new outreach facility at the observatory. The new indoor facilities come equipped with
projectors and seating for presentations when the weather clouds over and the stars aren’t visible. As well, the frigid temperatures of Alberta’s winters has been known to scare away potential stargazers, and the warm indoors can take anywhere between 50 and 100 interested amateur astronomers when the temperatures begin to drop. The final new addition to the observatory is a 14-inch Celestron telescope, a donation by former Edmonton Oiler owner Peter Pocklington back in the ‘80s. He purchased it to watch the passing of comet Halley in 1986, and then it sat in his home until his wife convinced him to donate it to the observatory. A special filter will be added to it to view the sun. The University of Alberta has a long history of telescopes and observatories. The first observatory on campus opened in 1943 on the current site of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium with the donation of a 12-inch telescope. That was eventually demolished to make way for the Jubilee Auditorium, and there was no place to house the telescope until a new home was built just outside Devon, near the Devonian Botanical Gardens, which opened in 1967. To bring things closer to North Campus, the 12-inch telescope was later moved on top of the
Physics Building, while a new 20-inch model, which had been built on campus by university staff, was moved out to Devon. With the demolition of the Physics Building in 2006 to make way for the construction of CCIS, the 12-inch telescope was put into storage for two years before finding a new home atop the Fine Arts Building in 2008. It would take on the name of FABservatory for the remainder of its temporary visit. That observatory location was shut down last spring, and the telescopes were moved to CCIS in May. While none of the current telescopes are high enough quality to do in-depth scientific research — the last student to use the 20-inch model for a doctorate was in 2004 — they are the perfect size for the undergraduate labs that are coming through, and the community outreach that is planned. “There’s this vast array of knowledge you can share with everybody by showing what Jupiter looks like, or Saturn,” Lockwood said. Though the observatory will be open over the summer for various summer camps, regular Thursday night observing times for the public will resume again in September after the grand opening of CCIS.
A&E
entertainment@gateway.ualberta.ca
monday, july 11, 2011
Aaron Yeo
Absurdity rules in Walterdale’s wacky world of Idiots theatrereview Village of Idiots
Written by John Lazarus Directed by Linette J. Smith Starring Matt Randolph, Gabby Bernard, Maxwell Lebeuf, Tamara Raynor-Cote, and Eric Smith Walterdale Theatre (10322-83 Avenue) Runs until July 16 at 8 p.m. $12-16 at Tix-on-the-Square
Jacquelin Gregoire
Arts & Entertainment Writer
Welcome to Chelm, a tiny Jewish village in Russia where good reason flounders and absurdity prevails. It’s a place where ridiculous things happen every day, from condemned crayfish being
drowned to garlic-ravaged schnapps being sold for the low, low price of five kopecks. The ways of the Chelmniks are not the ways of the world, but that’s quite alright by these self-proclaimed geniuses. So don’t be a schlemiel — have the sense to turn off your cell phone, because the show is about to begin and the folly is contagious. The show opens with Zalman (Maxwell Lebeuf) and Zlateh (Tamara Raynor-Cote), a pair of kooky roadside vendors selling a concoction they call “schnapps,” and talking wary traveller Yosef (Matt Randolph) into shelling out his last five kopecks to become their first customer. Despite his initial scepticism, Yosef is captivated by the two townspeoples’ naïve and unconventional antics. As a newcomer, his contrasting opinions about the world eventually earn
him the ironic title of “village idiot.” Roles are easily reversed in this town where the sane are declared insane, but with the help of Miriam (Gabby Bernard), Yosef’s sage love-interest, he learns some unexpected lessons from the people he thought lacked depth and even basic knowledge. The play’s set is a perfect parallel to the eccentric plot and characters of Village of Idiots. Featuring three houses and other random structures made of planks of wood similar to giant multicoloured Popsicle sticks, the simple scenery adds to the surrealist aspects of the play. Interactive set changes also help maintain flow and audience interest: instead of a silent transition executed by stage managers in black, it’s a treat to see one of the female ensemble members fight off a pimply, love-sick admirer with a bench as she carries it offstage.
Jewish-inspired clown music also plays sporadically throughout the play to give its chaotic affairs a nice finishing touch. The Village of Idiots cast also manages to turn other potentially mundane moments into a playful collision between fiction and reality. During intermission, the wall between actors and observers is temporarily broken as the now infamous Zalman and Zlateh turn to the audience as possible garlicconcoction consumers. Offers were made, but modern Canadian money just didn’t make the cut. The zealous Zlateh wasn’t going to give up, and began asking for goats and other livestock as alternate payment. The only audience member who managed to snag a sip was a pigtailed toddler — a real audience pleaser — but the otherwise obvious lack of sales led the duo
to drink their own glasses and stumble boozily away, rickety wagon in tow. Authenticity and atmosphere are maintained throughout with impressive Yiddish accents from the cast. The only noticeable inconsistency is the Rabbi (Jason Stewart), who still speaks like a true Edmontonian — save for a few phlegmy words thrown in for good measure. But it isn’t a major distraction from the play, and even adds to the comedy at times. Although Village of Idiots doesn’t contain life-changing themes or issues, it is light-hearted and spirited, played by a cast who clearly enjoy what they do. And if the loopy people of Chelm don’t tickle your fancy, you might want to go simply for the challenge of getting a glass of schnapps at intermission — but bring some creative payment, just in case.
The Burning Hell laugh through death musicpreview The Burning Hell
With Wax Mannequin and Manraygun Wednesday, July 20 at 9:30 p.m. The Haven Social Club (15120 Stony Plain Road) $12 at yeglive.ca, $15 at the door
Tyler Hein
Arts & Entertainment Staff
Supplied: Rowe MacPherson
According to Mathias Kom, the man behind the music of The Burning Hell, “dancing and smiling and crying” make up the ethos of the songs he writes. But the more you familiarize yourself with the Peterborough, Ont. band and its quirky lead personality, the more you realize that The Burning Hell is obsessed not with dancing or smiling, but with death. “All the songs are actually about death — ‘Bretton Woods’ is a song about the death of financial independence, for example,” Kom explains. “If you look hard enough, [death] is everywhere.” Death may inform most of the songs Kom writes, but he tends to be a little more optimistic in the real world. After taking a big risk with his career, The Burning Hell was born, and has now been around the Canadian music
scene since their debut album Tick Tock, released in 2006. “I quit my job as a teaching assistant because I was feeling overworked and underpaid, and decided to try taking music a little more seriously,” he says. “Now I’m overworked and underpaid again, but much, much happier.” Since then, The Burning Hell have embarked on a number of large-scale tours. They hit the road last year in Europe, making it through a 60-concert tour. They also released four more critically-acclaimed albums, the most recent being this year’s Flux Capacitor. The album marks both a musical and personal change for The Burning Hell. “Flux Capacitor is the first record where I’ve written directly about my own life,” Kom explains. “Usually I shy away from autobiography, but I wanted to try writing openly about my own experiences for once instead of just singing the same old songs about death and babies and the end of the world.” He admits, however, that not everything has changed. “I suppose the old Burning Hell themes creep in there too, they’re just disguised in songs about my first kiss or my parents.” “Instrumentally, the record is also a lot more tightly orchestrated than anything else we’ve done,” he continues. “We took a lot more time to arrange the sections — horn parts and whatnot — and in the
process I’ve discovered how much fun it is to actually rehearse before going into the studio.” And yet, despite Kom’s previous assertion that “most Burning Hell songs are in fact about death and guilt,” some still have a perception of the band as a sort of comedy-folk act — Canada’s answer to The Flight of the Conchords. This is a niche which Kom finds somewhat conflicting. “I definitely never intended to occupy any kind of niche — I just do what I do and the band does what it does and people can think whatever they want,” he says. “On the other hand, I have really mixed feelings when we get called a comedy group. The songs are funny, sometimes [...] but the songs aren’t actually that light-hearted, and the comedy isn’t the point; rather, the humour is a way of dealing with pretty intense subject matter.” “But at the end of the day, if people want to think of the band as some kind of comic novelty act, that’s okay. Maybe I should start wearing a funny hat or something.” From an outsider’s perspective The Burning Hell might be, as Kom claims, about dancing and singing and crying and babies, he also has a warning to new fans and long-time followers alike. “Don’t be fooled by the jaunty horn lines: we are very sad.”
10
Arts & Entertainment
monday, july 11, 2011
www.thegatewayonline.ca
Kaitlyn Menard
The world of Compulsion a pleasure for all the senses theatrereview The Scent of Compulsion
Written and directed by Stewart Lemoine Starring Davina Stewart, Jeff Haslam, Julien Arnold, and Vincent Forcier Runs July 7-23 at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday matineés at 2 p.m. Varscona Theatre (10329-83 Avenue) $15-27 at Tix-on-the-Square or at the door
Andrew Jeffrey
Arts & Entertainment Staff
Walking out of the Varscona Theatre is a disappointing shock for anyone leaving The Scent of Compulsion, the latest offering from the Teatro La Quindicina theatre company. Reality just doesn’t seem as charming and downright fun as the play’s world of outlandish and appealing characters. Set in 1970, the show revolves around an irresistible scent concocted by MIT professor Doctor Emmanuel
Pring (Julien Arnold) and his assistant Compulsion James (Amber Bissonnette). When the pair travel to Europe to market the scent, the two soon become entrenched in a plot of intrigue and espionage as they tangle with their buyer, a kingpin of cosmetology who will do anything to use the compelling odour for her own gain. The story becomes hilariously absurd as the outlandish characters act with odd motives — one character’s entire reason for being a part of the action seems to be out of a desire to simply avoid boredom. It might be easy to criticize Lemoine’s writing, with the various leaps of faith necessary to buy into the coincidences that bring these characters together. But this misses the point of the show: not to present a meaningful message, but rather to entertain the audience, which it does in spades. However ridiculous, the plot itself is a major strength of the show. Despite the clever writing, the absurd plot would be totally lost without the talented cast and the entertaining characters they craft. The chemistry they exhibit together keeps the audience on
albumreview Data Romance
Data Romance EP Street Quality Records
Carole Yue
Arts & Entertainment Staff
Romancing cold synthesized sounds with hauntingly beautiful vocals, Vancouver-based Data Romance creates a sound in their EP that can only be classified as otherworldly. Despite a relatively young twoyear partnership, the talent of Ajay Bhattacharyya and Amy Kirkpatrick communicates an unsettling assuredness in the merit of their own music. Each track from their eponymous EP is superbly crafted and unique, allaying
the common fear that one good single is often found in the company of five crappy ones. While a listener might attribute the lack of substandard tracks to the slow release of material from Data Romance, one listen to “Bones,” a previously released single, and their remix of the holiday carol “Little Drummer Boy” will solidify your confidence in Data Romance’s ability. Kirkpatrick’s vocals are clean and
its toes, as the actors trade witty lines devised from Lemoine’s sharp script. The comedic skills of the cast as a whole is exemplified by their ability to make the audience laugh with the simplest of movements, like the wafting of the Compulsion scent from a handkerchief or the raising of a hand to ask permission to speak in a tense situation. Jeff Haslam as the unscrupulous and mysterious antagonist Terrence is the best example of this, as his cocky, self-important demeanour and frequent vocal and physical tics provide much of the show’s energy. Energy is certainly never lacking — the plot never feels like it’s staying still for very long. The jokes fire from the cast non-stop, and Lemoine’s strong directorial skills keep the show clipping along even after what feels like long pauses between plot progression. The Scent of Compulsion is a rare combination of hilarious characters interacting within an entertaining story supported by a clever script. Lemoine’s newest offering is a treat to any audience, just as irresistible as its namesake. lingering, and while typical of the synthpop genre, are much needed in order to unify the multitude of audio textures found in a Data Romance product. Bhattacharyya’s arrangements possess the rare ability to make you introspective and extroverted simultaneously; listening to “Streetlight” stirs up the inexplicable desire to be thoughtful while executing a bit of mad dancing to the chorus’ irresistible drum and bass. It is this duality that has allowed Data Romance to gain accolades and praise from the musically elite as well as the musically indifferent. Data Romance joins the Canadian and international music scenes precocious and fully developed, with musical offerings that are accomplishing what so many artists are struggling to do: give listeners music they can dance to in their underwear when they think no one else is watching.
The Gateway
Arts & Entertainment
volume cii summer issue 1
11
Duke Nukem’s action hero antics get stale After a wait of almost two decades, the vulgar shooter franchise has surpassed its shelf life gamereview Duke Nukem Forever
Developed by 3D Realms (additional work by Triptych Games, Gearbox Software, and Piranha Games) Published by 2K Games Available on PC, XBox 360, PS3, and Mac
Ryan Bromsgrove Opinion Editor
The United States government figured out how to put a man on the moon faster than the developers of Duke Nukem Forever managed to make their video game. Originally announced in 1996, the game became as famous for its promises of being groundbreaking as it did for being ridiculously late. After 15 years of development, you’d expect it to be the single most badass first person shooter ever released — and not the painfully average game that it is. The story is the pinnacle of simplicity. Twelve years have passed ingame since Duke Nukem 3D, and the same aliens that Duke fought then have returned to Earth to steal all the women. Duke has to fight his way through an infested Las Vegas, drive a monster truck outside of the city to the Hoover Dam, and finally close the aliens’ portal to save the day. Stories were never important for shooters when Duke Nukem Forever was but a twinkle in a developer’s eye. What always set the series apart was the actual character. An
over-the-top parody of action heroes, Duke was famous for using lines like, “I’ll rip your head off and shit down your neck,” and then actually following through. While the trademark deep voice of Duke’s actor, Jon St. John, is as good as ever, he now also occasionally meets other human characters to talk to. But his one-liner style often makes the dialogue awkwardly one-sided, and some of the other voice acting is just plain annoying. Duke’s character has also been extended beyond simple dialogue. Now a celebrity, many of the locations the player visits in Las Vegas are Duke-themed, from the Duke Dome, beneath which the aliens have established a hive, to the Duke Burger, a restaurant.
After 15 years of development, you’d expect [Duke Nukem Forever] to be the most badass first person shooter ever released — and not the painfully average game that it is. The pervasiveness of the character of Duke throughout the city nicely complements the game’s take on regenerating health: the Ego mechanic. The game is all about Duke, making it fitting that when you take a hit, you lose
ego rather than health. When you hide for long enough, it goes back up. When you interact with certain in-game objects, you increase the maximum ego. The regenerating health system of modern shooters often draws criticism, but there is something intrinsically satisfying about throwing a frisbee off the top of the Duke Burger, and then hearing the short guitar riff that indicates you’ve just earned an extra chunk of health. What ultimately prevents the game from rising above mediocrity is the most important part: the shooting. The
enemies are solidly old-school. They’re plentiful and unrealistically dumb as shit, designed to be blown away by an unbelievably plentiful arsenal of weapons. The game also buys into the more modern trend of allowing the player to hold only two weapons at a time, plus grenades. This limits the fun of mindlessly blowing away enemies by constantly forcing the player to leave the fun weapons behind. It never makes the game frustratingly bad, but it quickly turns it into a long sequence of shooting the same dumb bad guys with the same shotgun and machine
gun combo. Duke Nukem Forever has its moments, just not enough of them. Credit has to be given to Gearbox for taking what the original developers came up with and turning it into a coherent, functional game. Unfortunately, the game’s long-delayed release means that anything truly groundbreaking that was ever in there lost its relevance long ago. The ego mechanic and the character of Duke traipsing through Las Vegas shine, but not strongly enough to justify the rest of the game’s absolute blandness.
Sports
sports@gateway.ualberta.ca
monday, july 11, 2011
The tangled web of courting a student-athlete Matt Hirji
Sports Editor
When Marcus Johnstone arrived on the pitch for his first day of the Golden Bears soccer team’s training camp last summer he had everything going for him. An athletic, albeit undersized striker, Johnstone was hailed as an integral piece of the team’s line-up even before he arrived for his rookie year as a Golden Bear. Len Vickery and coaching staff breathed a collective sigh of relief the day when Johnstone ran his first lap around the Bears training grounds. But the sense of comfort didn’t originate from Johnstone’s impressive physical condition or accurate kick. Just getting him to Edmonton was an accomplishment Recruiting a promising athlete in the CIS and courting their commitment to an athletic program is a difficult and complex process. Competition between teams jostling for prospective stars can lead to tense moments. Monetary incentives are a scarce commodity. Timelines are short. For Vickery, while last year’s acquisition of Johnstone was a major victory for his program, he knows all too well the logistical nightmare that he will continue to face in order to continue to bring more of the country’s best athletes to his program. “It’s almost a case where you don’t really know your team until you show up to the first day of training camp. We’re starting right away here and I have high school students desperately trying to hear from the university about whether they’re in or not,” Vickery said. Every year, 23 Golden Bears and Pandas head coaches are given the task of attracting a fresh batch of first-year varsity athletes to revitalize their program and give their team an opportunity for future growth. Assessing and deciding whether or not to pursue an athlete is just a minor piece in the process. Everything from simplifying the academic admissions process to assisting prospective student-athlete to find a place to live must be handled with a fine-toothed comb. It’s a grueling task and the stakes are high. As Vickery asserts,
Matt Hirji
BLANK CANVAS Despite the lack of varsity sports this summer, coaches are working behind the scenes to fill their rosters with the best varsity athletes available.
successful recruitment is an absolute necessity in assuring the long-term vitality of a varsity program. “It is a process. It’s not a simple case anymore of identifying a player, make the player a presentation, and make him commit to the program. If it was that easy it wouldn’t be a process, it wouldn’t be a craft,” Vickery explained. “Attracting the top players is much more competitive. So all the key elements have to be there. And don’t even get me started about scholarships.” It’s understandable that Vickery is reluctant to dive into the realm of money, as navigating the choppy and complex waters of athletic scholarships in Canada is something he grapples with every day. While full-ride scholarships are out of the question at the CIS level,
Vickery and his coaching counterparts at the U of A are able to offer up to 70 per cent of the costs of all their athletes’ tuition and mandatory fees. These types of scholarships can be the deciding factor for convincing athletes like Marcus Johnstone to suit up in a Green and Gold uniform. With an understanding of how important scholarships can be to a student-athlete, Vickery spends countless hours attempting to fundraise the money he needs to attract and retain the best. But Vickery and the other varsity coaches of the Green and Gold can’t do it alone. Acknowledging the importance of monetary funding, the Golden Bears and Pandas athletics administration plays a key role — devoting a fulltime administrator to the cause. “For students, finances are
obviously going to be a major part of their decision on what school they are going to attend and compete for. It is just one part, but it’s also a very significant part,” said Financial Aid & Sports Administration Associate Director Kate Spriggs.
to make their decision, we want to be as competitive as possible on that front,” Spriggs added. Vickery admits that it may have been the academic scholarship that the U of A offered Johnstone last year that ultimately swayed the blooming
“It is a process. It’s not a simple case anymore of identifying a player, make the player a presentation, and make him commit to the program. If it was that easy it wouldn’t be a process, it wouldn’t be a craft.” Len Vickery Head Coach, bears Soccer
“To have quality programs that are successful, it’s all about having the best athlete. So if scholarships and financial security is what is going
student to represent the Golden Bears for his varsity career, which is why Vickery will continue to devote effort to recruitment this summer.
Former hoop stars team up for a full court press for your tastebuds Alana Willerton Sports Staff
When most basketball players hear the term ‘press’, they think of the offensive basketball strategy. When two former CIS hard-court stars, Scott Gordon and Gavin Fedorak, hear it, they think sandwiches. Pressed sandwiches, that is. Former Golden Bears basketball captain Gordon and former CIS Academic All-Canadian Fedorak are co-owners of Press’d, a local sandwich shop that has crowds willing to endure long lunch-time lines for a taste of one of their sandwich creations. Still, the former Golden Bears didn’t always have sandwiches on the brain. It wasn’t until several years ago when they traveled to Phoenix with the U of A basketball team that they discovered their destiny. It came in the form of Dilly’s Deli, a sandwich company that baked their own fresh bread daily and
used only fresh vegetables, meats, and cheeses in their sandwiches. According to Gordon, Dilly’s Deli quickly became the focal point of their trip. “I think we were there for about four or five days, and we ended up going back [to Dilly’s Deli] every single day because they were so good,” Gordon says. “That experience just stuck with us. We never forgot about that place.” Four years later, Gordon and Fedorak were both anxious to start a business of their own. The two friends began toying with the idea of opening a fitness school or Yoga studio downtown until Dilly’s Deli crossed their mind once again. They invited Fedorak’s brother to join in their business endeavour and the rest is history. Today, Press’d has adopted many of the characteristics of the deli in Phoenix they once idolized. The bread is baked fresh daily, and all the
“A lot of people talk about eating healthy and have to resort to fast food because there’s no other option, there’s no alternative.” Scott Gordon Bears Basketball Alumni
vegetables, meats, and cheeses are sliced every morning to keep them as fresh and healthy as possible. Because Fedorak and Gordon are former CIS athletes, they identify personally with the desire for healthy alternatives, and believe that the public does as well. “A lot of people talk about eating healthy and have to resort to fast food because there is no other option, there’s no alternative,” Gordon
explains. “Some of the healthy options out there, [like] Subway, I think people are getting a little bit sick of. People eat it three or four times a week and it’s good, but you can only eat so much of it.” Luckily for Press’d, they have the opposite problem: people can’t seem to get enough of their sandwiches. With the grand opening of their second location just days behind them, Gordon hopes that another location near the university is in their future. “If the right opportunity came up, we’d be all over it,” Gordon says. “Especially because we have a lot of roots over at the university and we very much understand the market at the university and what university students are looking for.” In the meantime, they have their hands full with the locations already up and running. Without much opportunity to take a time out,
Gordon and his two partners handle every aspect of the business from taking orders at the till to doing all the accounting and marketing. In fact, it’s not uncommon for any of the three co-owners to be at the helm of the sandwich-making line on any given day. But where does their drive come from? Ultimately, Gordon credits their time spent as Golden Bears for developing their hard work ethic early on. “One of the main things [Fedorak] and I talk about is that we know no matter how hard it gets, the three of us have all been running lines for five years and we’ve had our coaches kick the shit out of us,” Gordon says. “We know that we’re hard working individuals, so as far as putting in the work that it was going take to get something like this going, we were pretty comfortable that we were going be able to do that.”
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Ross Vincent
‘The Duck’ deserves his induction Clare Drake’s snub at this year’s Hockey Hall of Fame ceremony was an insult not only to the hockey legend, but also to the great game he revolutionized Evan Daum
Sports Commentary
H
e’s been called hockey’s quiet revolutionary, a leader, and an innovator. But he won’t be called a Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, at least not this year. Longtime bench-boss Clare Drake, who amassed 697 wins over his 28 season coaching career with the Golden Bears, was among those in contention to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the class of 2011. But the powers that be snubbed Drake, announcing in late June that this year’s inductees would be without any builders — those who have contributed to the growth of hockey and helped develop the game. If ever there’s been a person worthy of entrance into the Hockey Hall of Fame as a member of the builders category, it’s Drake. Just ask one of the 33 people that put their name and testimonials behind the legendary coach in the case for awarding him with hockey’s highest honour this year. Drake was not the only one overlooked in the builders category, with famed Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero and three-time NHL coach of the year Pat Burns also being denied a spot in the Hall. While the omission of Burns and Shero were by far the
most publicized exclusions this year, Drake’s absence is the most egregious. Burns and Shero’s impact on the game is at best equal to, and by no means greater than that made by the Green and Gold coach lovingly nicknamed ‘the Duck.’ Don’t believe me? I don’t blame you, but how about taking someone else’s word for it.
Drake is among a small group of individuals whose legacy we witness every time we watch a hockey game. The strategies he installed while coaching the Green and Gold have come to define the modern game. As current Saskatchewan Huskies head coach Dave Adolph summed up in his support for Drake, “[t]he game we see on TV most nights is Coach
Drake is among a small group of individuals whose legacy we witness every time we watch a hockey game. The strategies he installed while coaching the Green and Gold have come to define the modern game. Mike Babcock, the illustrious coach of both the Detroit Red Wings and for Canada’s 2010 Olympic gold medal team in Vancouver, speaks of Drake in high regard, placing the legendary Bears coach in a category reserved for a select few. Babcock ranks Drake with the likes of two of the greatest coaches of all time – Scotty Bowman, and legendary basketball coach John Wooden, both men who have gotten their due. “I was fortunate enough to meet John Wooden when I coached in Anaheim, and I’ve had the great privilege to work with and learn from Scotty Bowman since I joined the Red Wings. Clare Drake is a leader and builder of the same stature as those two men,” wrote Babcock in his support for Drake’s Hall of Fame bid.
Drake’s game. His strategies are now referred to as systems.” But while 2011 marked the first time a bona fide push had been made to see Drake inducted into the Hall, the fact that one of the game’s greatest visionaries didn’t get the nod signals yet again that the selection process for hockey’s greatest honour is hit or miss at best. With a coaching resume that includes six national titles at the university level, guiding Canada to it’s first Spengler Cup championship, leading the Edmonton Oilers for a year in their WHA days, and a stint in the NHL as an assistant with the old Winnipeg Jets — just to name a few — the coach known affectionately as ‘the Duck’ deserves to finally land in the Hall.
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A rose by any other name is just plain horrible at hockey The Winners and Floods didn’t make the moniker cut of the newest NHL franchise in Winnipeg, but here’s what should have Sports staff
Group Commentary
When breaking ground on a newly minted sports franchise, the name is everything. Pick a good one; your team is destined to win championship after illustrious championship. But pick a bad one; prepare yourselves for years of torment and humiliating winless seasons. And while the Winnipeg Jets may have harkened back to their roots when they decided the name of their re-welcomed franchise, The Gateway’s sports staff put their heads together to provide some even better options.
Wind. It might sound a little odd at first, but the NHL needs more difficult-to-use non-plural team names like the Minnesota Wild and the Colorado Avalanche. Wind is also an environmentally-friendly, renewable energy source, and from the spirit that Manitoba’s capital has been showing in support of their freshly-returned franchise, the city has been bringing an energy all their own. But how well this new franchise will fare in the modern NHL is the real question on everybody’s mind. Wind can be swift and strong, but could also be light and pitiful — we don’t know what to expect. This is exactly the same as predictions for next year’s Winnipeg team. Their season could be a powerful gust, or it could be a unnoticeable breeze for all of their opponents. Everyone can make predictions about their success, but it’s about as useful and insightful as weather forecasts.
Aaron Yeo Winnipeg Wind Winnipeg is reputed for being the “Windiest City in Canada,” so what better way to solidify that title than in a hockey team? The Winnipeg
Matt Hirji
welcoming the beloved Winnipeg Jets back to their hometown after a 12-season layover in Atlanta: “Let’s name them the Weakerthans.” But Winnipeg’s newest hockey franchise should have been named the Weakerthans. The moniker may not boil up the same feelings of aggression and power that teams like the Red Wings or Lightning are privy to. Granted, the name may even be the least imposing, menacing, or intimidating sports team on the planet. But in terms of cultural relevance, naming the team the Winnipeg Weakerthans can’t be beat. A moniker that pays homage to one of the great musical exports that Winnipeg has to offer, The Weakerthans are an alternativepop outfit that formed just two years prior to when the original Jets left town in the late ‘90s. Their music has the unique ability to narrate the worldview of their home, and even discuss the inferiority complex that has riddled the Winnipeg for decades. So why not pay raise a glass and pay tribute to “One Great City.”
Winnipeg Weakerthans
Andrew Jeffrey
Here’s a pitch you likely wouldn’t have heard from hockey fans thrilled with the idea of
Hockey
Winnipeg Golden Boys fans
all
across
Canada
seemed
unanimous in their opinion that the only possible name for Winnipeg’s hockey team would be the Jets. However, they’re clearly missing the opportunity to bestow a far more fitting nickname on their team. Inspiration should be taken from the statue that stands atop the Manitoba Legislative Building: The Winnipeg Golden Boys. Yes, this gold-plated statue is perfect for the new team. The similarities to the city’s hockey situation are endless. With the strong support for an NHL return to Winnipeg, it could be said that this team is the metaphorical Golden Boy of Canadian hockey right now. Also, just as the statue had to be taken down for repairs due to rust, the Jets had to be taken out of Winnipeg years ago to repair the metaphorical rust of losing seasons and dismal on-ice results. Most of all, just like the Golden Boy is purportedly a symbol to take pride in, but in actuality is more a symbol of excess that doesn’t serve any purpose, Winnipeg’s new team may seem like a symbol of hope that Gary Bettman and the NHL executive care about giving Canadian fans what they want. In reality, these fans may soon realize that their team will be a largely winless symbol of failure, opposite to what many of them are hoping for.
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volume cii summer issue 1
pop and ice cream by Lance and Evan Mudryk
the unconscious kind by Paul Cresey
municipal happenings by Bill Benson
Comics & Classifieds
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