March 21, 2012

VOLUME 21 ISSUE 24 March 21, 2012

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Three Indian festivals in one 4

Kamloops Film Festival wraps up

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Hockey team comes up short 13

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G VOTE!

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IMAGE BY DAVIES/KERGIN

TRU’s Independent Student Newspaper

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March 21, 2012

News

Post-recession, it’s an ‘uphill battle’ for young people seeking jobs: study hit 65, many older workers are either returning from or delaying retirement to remain in the workforce. There has even been a “surge” in job creation for older workers post-recession, as 400,000 new jobs overall have been created for workers over 25 since before the recession began.

Leanne Ashworth, co-ordinator of the Concordia Student Union Housing and Job Bank said many graduates return for help, desperately seeking work.

“We ask them, ‘What do you want to do?’ And they’ll say, ‘Anything.’”

To Iris Unger, these dismal numbers also echo what she sees as executive director of Youth Employment Services (YES), a career and business resource centre in Montreal.

“There’s a lot of young people out of work, and we’re seeing a lot more of them at the centre,” said Unger, who says pressure to find a job post-graduation from family and friends can take a mental toll on job seekers. “We’re seeing a big increase in young people getting stressed about the employment situation.”

Recently, the federal government slashed $6.5 million in funding for youth summer job programs, closing down job centres and moving many resources

Sarah Deshaies

CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

MONTREAL (CUP) — With 2012 convocation only weeks away, future graduates are looking at a grim job market as young workers have been the worst affected by the past recession, according to a recent study by TD Economics.

The 2008 recession hit young workers hard: workers under 25 held more than half of the 430,000 jobs that were lost over the recession, though they represent one-sixth of the labour force.

Those between the ages of 20 and 24 have fared better than those in the 15 to 19 bracket, but job recovery is still dismal for all young workers though the recession has ended. And 175,000 young workers have left the labour market since the start of the recession — meaning they just Graduates are now competing with their peers and older workers for few jobs.

stopped looking. Youth unem ployment now stands at 14.5 per —PHOTO BY SARAH DESHAIES cent, double that of the regular Overall, “it’s not easy for young teer a few hours a week to get your formation online rather than at population. people to make it these days,” Fong foot in the door and gain expericentres.

This is a trend that accompaUnger criticized this justifi- conceded. So what does a young ence, while supporting yourself at nies economic slowdowns, said cation, saying that the govern- person with a newly-minted diplo- another job.

Francis Fong, economist and Unger added that it’s also crument should have also consulted ma do? author of the study, pointing to Having a online resume, like a cial to find a supportive network of resources like YES, and not just similar situations in the ‘80s and students. Hunting online for jobs LinkedIn account, is a good call, family and friends so you don’t sink ‘90s. is not a sure-fire way to get hired, but don’t job hunt exclusively on- into a funk.

“Young people have always And if you don’t find your dream line. Instead of emailing out dozshe said. taken the brunt of And it will ens of faceless CVs, make yourself job straight out of school? The rethese economic likely take a known to potential employers by port warns that not finding work afdownturns,” exfew more years using “hidden connections” like ter graduation “erodes a graduate’s plained Fong. before the la- networking, volunteering and in- skills and competitive edge,” and “The challenges can lead to people taking “lesser” bour market re- ternships. that this generation “People need to be trying as jobs, taking a hit to their income balances itself. faces are unique in Past studies many different things as possible over the years. that ... not only are Sometimes, it’s okay to settle have shown that and having face-to-face connecyou facing comit can take up tions with employers instead of just for what you can get, according to petition from your to 10 years for firing things off on the Internet and Ashworth, but it’s also important to own age cohort

—Francis Fong young workers never talking to someone,” Ash- keep your eye on the prize. [and] people who “Find a survival job, keep your to regain their worth explained. lost their jobs dur“The main way to get a job is spirits up and try to focus on the ing the recession ... you’re facing online. The office of Human Re- footing in the economy after a recompetition from a lot of older sources Minister Diane Finley cession, according to Fong. And through networking, which means long-term search, as well,” saod defended the decision, saying those who graduate in a recession getting out of the house,” Unger Ashworth. “Don’t feel like you’re workers who are now retired.” stuck there forever, but get your Though Canada’s baby boom that young people they surveyed stand to earn less income, a gap agreed.

One option is to offer to volun- needs met first.” generation has just started to said they were seeking out in- that only closes several years on.

“It’s not easy for young people to make it these days.”

TRU students to budget meeting: Improve transit Devan C. Tasa Ω Contributor

TRU students at a Mar. 13 City of Kamloops budget consultation meeting asked council to improve transit by accepting 8,197 additional service hours offered

by B.C. Transit.

Antoine Ste. Marie, a TRU student, told the meeting that the current bus services didn’t serve the needs of students well.

“I often miss a class,” Ste. Marie said. “When [one of my evening] classes ends, I have to make a mad dash to catch the bus.”

Transit was the dominant issue at the meeting, which was organized to discuss police, fire and legislative services, as well as city development and transportation.

Among the approximately 80 people present were around 10 students and four TRUSU staff.

Many of those students had to leave the meeting early in order to catch the last bus home.

The most consistent requests were for evening and weekend service, as well as improvements to routes one and two, which serve the North Shore, and route eight which connects the TRU area with downtown.

Adding the extra service hours would cost an extra $223,000 this year and $675,000 next year.

Some participants expressed concern that accepting the hours would force the city to choose between raising taxes on property owners and raising transit fees.

“Will the university students be willing to increase the amount they pay for the U-Pass?” Coun.

Nelly Dever said.

TRUSU VP external Jordan Harris says the U-Pass is set to inf lation and won’t change if services are increased.

Harris suggested to the meeting that the city phase in the additional hours over a period of three years.

“It would bring in new transit service and help students but it will also lessen the burden for

taxpayers as well,” he said.

“I know that’s a major issue.”

City of Kamloops transportation planner Erin Felker warned that there was no guarantee that B.C. Transit would be able to offer the same amount of hours over three years because the province only gives enough funding to plan for a year in advance.

The TRU students remaining at the end of the meeting hoped that council chose to improve bus services.

“They have the guaranteed hours, so I’d hope they implement those,” said Ste. Marie.

TRU student Kevin Pankewich wants council to think longterm, as he says more transit will reduce pollution.

He said he hopes council will implement the suggestions from the meeting.

“I expect it to be and if not that would be a reason for dissent,” he said.

Harris says the student presence was effective in lobbying for improved transit.

“It was a great opportunity for

Part of the student contingent at the transit meeting.

(LEFT TO RIGHT) Tim Norman, Colin Macedo, Dustin McIntyre, Kailey Colonna, Jordan Harris and Kevin Pankewich.

students to come out and voice their opinion and thought on transit and the future of transit in Kamloops,” he said. “There were a lot of good voices out there.”

—PHOTO BY DEVAN C. TASA Council will review the feedback on the budget it got from the public at a meeting on Mar. 26 and make a final decision on Apr. 3.

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The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

THE

MEGA

www.theomega.ca

March 21, 2012

Volume 21, Issue 24

Published since November 27, 1991

editorialstaff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Mike Davies

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Editorial I’m very sorry about how you’ll feel after this

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Amrita Pannu

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Editor’s Note Mike Davies Ω Editor-in-Chief By the time this publication hits the stands of TRU, and goes up online at theomega.ca, Graham James will have been sentenced for his guilty plea (filed in December) for numerous and repeated sexual assaults against children.

In a way I’m glad I can’t know the sentence before I write this editorial, because there’s no way it will truly be justice, and those of you sensitive to “obscene” language wouldn’t get through the piece.

You might not anyway — this piece is going to have some appalling concepts in it. Wait—there was one back there already, wasn’t there?

I will repeat this, just so there’s no confusion about the actual facts.

James pleaded guilty to numerous and repeated sexual assaults against children.

Still reading? Not disgusted enough yet? I’ll try harder — not that I’ll have to.

Let’s continue with a few more interesting (and disturbing) facts: James pleaded guilty in 2007 to sexually assaulting a child and was sen-

tenced to three and a half years in jail. While serving that sentence he was charged and pleaded guilty to another sexual assault on a 14-yearold boy, which occurred in 1971.

Six months was added to his sentence.

He was released after serving a total of 18 months and issued a lifetime ban from coaching in Canada by the Canadian Hockey Association.

Did you just puke a little?

Are you revolted because James was these children’s hockey coach, in parts of Canada where hockey is very seriously considered a way out, and these children’s hopes and dreams for the future were tied directly to the sport in which James was their leader, mentor and role model?

Are you appalled that he served 18 months in jail for sexually abusing children?

Or are you disgusted because it was so long between the atrocities and the public being made aware of them?

Maybe because you suspect many other deplorable things may have happened over the years — things that no one besides the victims will ever know about?

There was at least one.

An anonymous victim filed a civil lawsuit against James in 2003, and the case was settled out of court.

Oh, by the way, after being released from prison in 2000 after serving all 18 months of his sentence for raping children, since he couldn’t coach hockey in Canada, he went to Spain, where he continued to coach young boys, including the country’s national team.

Are you seriously able to keep reading this? Good for you. I’m hav-

ing trouble writing it, but I’ll fight through it as long as you’ll stay with me. Allow me to continue for those of you still along for this (hopefully) gut-wrenching ride.

In 2007, James applied for and was granted a pardon by the National Parole Board of Canada.

Go ahead and read that last line again, I’ll wait.

This pardon was not disclosed to the media or the public. It prompted outrage and parole reform when it came to light years later.

A few weeks ago, the Chief Justice of Canada came to campus to speak on ways that the Canadian justice system has failed Canadians.

I can’t help but feel she may have missed a few facets of that failure.

As I sat at my computer this morning, the day before the newest sentencing of Graham James, checking my news feeds as I often do, I read a piece published by the Canadian Press (CP), published just this morning (Mar. 19, 2012), which spurred this editorial in the first place.

The lead (the opening line, for those of you not fluent in journalistic language) of the CP article I’m referring to reads as follows: “A Manitoba judge says allowing cameras to broadcast the sentencing of disgraced former hockey coach Graham James for sexual abuse would turn the highly charged case into a spectacle and could violate the sex offender’s privacy.”

Oh, thank you, Judge Catherine Carlson! We’d hate to have this man’s privacy violated, wouldn’t we?

If you’ll all excuse me now, I have to go get this taste out of my mouth.

I hope you do too. editorofomega@gmail.com

Take care of your community—no matter what you consider it to be

Who is in your community?

Is it your family and friends or the classmates and faculty you interact with every day?

Do you consider just the TRU campus your community, the city of Kamloops, or the world?

If you are thinking about volunteering and helping those in need, it could be your neighbour who is close to losing his home or a major famine affecting thousands in the Sudan.

The “Stop Kony 2012” campaign created by Invisible Children has received many fans and its share of criticism over the last two weeks.

Since the video was uploaded to YouTube Mar. 5 it has received over 81 million views.

Whether or not you agree with it, it has brought awareness to issues occurring millions of miles away from us and encouraged people to educate themselves on the topic.

Developing World Connections is an international nonprofit organization — with an office in Kamloops — that offers short-term international volunteer trips between two to four weeks in length.

Each year, different trips are

co-ordinated to communities in the developing world, such as an upcoming one to Cambodia this June.

Know Your Community Amy Berard

A group of TRU students will be helping to build ‘dream homes’ for families chosen by the community. No experience or training is necessary.

You just need to visit their website: developingworldconnections. org to sign up to help.

This could be an opportunity for you to become more familiar with poverty in an international setting.

United Way is an international organization, but each office operates to help the people within their region. All of the dollars and efforts raised in the Thompson Nicola Cariboo region stay here at home.

So while the “Stop Kony 2012” campaign may be a hot topic for discussion among your friends, hopefully it encourages you to explore the many social issues around the globe and decide what is important to you.

What matters is that you find your passion and the people you want to help.

Where they live or who they are should not matter.

So sign up for an international volunteer trip, visit a local soup kitchen, or cover the town with KONY 2012 posters on Apr. 20.

Either way you are making a difference.

We all have our own communities – global and local. The important thing is that we take care of one another.

Amy Berard is a TRU business student and the campus liaison for United Way. To get connected with the community, email her at youth@unitedwaytnc.ca.

If a tree burns in a swamp, does anyone care?

Gerald Jacobs

The Manitoban (U of M) WINNIPEG (CUP) — This year, one of the oldest living organisms in the world caught fire and burned to death. “The Senator” was the nickname given to a cypress tree that had been living in a Florida swamp for the last 3,500 years. It was 38.1 metres tall, and had a girth as wide as two men’s full arms’ lengths.

Until that day, it had been considered the fifth-oldest tree in the world, and the largest tree of its kind in North America.

What I find sad is just how little attention this story received. I understand that indifferent reactions might be attributed to a lack of reflection on how long 3,500 years is, but the apathy permeating our culture really gets to me. And historical apathy is particularly galling.

I’d like to take a moment to explain to you why this is a legitimate tragedy.

3,500 years ago, the Greeks were just starting construction on the Parthenon, and the Pyramids at Giza were still a relatively new sight. The Egyptians were thanking Anuket for the fertile Nile floodplain and praising Horus for making them the most innovative kingdom on Earth. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic Ocean, a little sprout took root in the middle of a swamp and decided to stick around for a while.

Fast forward 700 years, and that little sprout was probably around 16.8 metres tall and something like middle-aged in cypress-years. Back on the other side of the planet, industrious Romans had started building a city. Another 300 years later, the first public law — the foundation for the later Roman Constitution — was introduced to the Roman Republic in the form of the Twelve Tables, around the time when Socrates was a young man in Athens. Our cypress had reached its average life expectancy of 1,000 years.

Another 1,000 years later, the ancient Greek civilization had long been swallowed by the Roman Empire, which had only recently collapsed itself. Our tree was now twice as old as it could have ever expected to be, much larger, and frequently utilized by local Indigenous groups as a landmark for navigation.

Yet another 1,000 years passed. Our tree had survived three millennia of fires, earthquakes and hurricanes. It had witnessed untold ages of American First Nations, and seen the European colonization of America and everything that followed, bad and good — from the impact of colonialism on the First Nations to humans walking on the Moon.

As old empires died and new ones reshaped the face of the Earth, this tree grew without interruption for three times as long as it ought to have.

Had we awoken that Monday to find that the Washington Monument, a national symbol of American achievement, had spontaneously caught fire and collapsed, much of the world would have been in shock. Had one of the Great Pyramids — international symbols of human achievement — suddenly collapsed, we would have collectively wept for the loss. But a 3,500 year-old tree transcends human achievement. It is a natural monument to life itself, a symbol of all the aeons — of a time before man could throw a spear or hammer stone or attach symbolic meaning to the things he or she produced.

This giant passed with just a whisper.

I’m not saying people need to start worshiping trees as gods or change their lives in any appreciable way. I just wish that if all you had to say about this event was, “It’s not news; it’s only a damn tree,” you’d take a very brief moment to understand what it meant, both in terms of nature and history.

A monument need not be man-made to be meaningful.

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March 21, 2012

News Three Indian festivals rolled into one

Rang De Basanti celebration sees over 350 people enthusiastically covered in coloured dust to celebrate spring Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

On Mar. 16, the TRUSU India Club hosted Rang De Basanti at the TRU Gymnasium.

Rang De Basanti is a celebration of three traditional Indian festivals: Holi, Vaisahki and Ram Navami.

Holi and Ram Navami are Hindu religious celebrations while Vaisahki is a Sikh harvest celebration. The TRUSU India Club has rolled these three celebrations into one and named it Rang De Basanti, or Colours of Spring.

The night was highlighted with Bollywood and Bhangra dances as well as musical performances. Finally, attendees celebrated Rang De Basanti by playing with colours. Famous in India, playing with colours is the signature of the event. Participants dig into containers of coloured dust and proceed to cover one another in vibrant pinks, yellows, greens, reds and blues.

While Kamloops’s Indian community had a strong representation at the event, Rang De Basanti also brought out TRU students, staff and Kamloops community members from a wide range of other ethnic backgrounds.

“I love it,” said Salman Almashari, a computer science student from Saudi Arabia. “I just learned something new about the

Indian culture.”

It is quite the sight to see hundreds of people run around throwing neon colours at one another.

By the end of the night, not only was the entire f loor of the TRU Gymnasium covered in coloured dust, but so was everyone in attendance.

If someone spotted you without a speck of dust on you, chances are you were soon covered from head to toe.

“I enjoy so much the colour everywhere,” said Turki Hafez, an English student from Saudi Arabia. “You can’t see something like this in Canada for culture, or in my country, Saudi Arabia; just for Indian people.”

Approximately 370 people attended this year’s event, including notable guests such as TRU president Dr. Alan Shaver, Kamloops city councillor Nancy Bepple, Kamloops – North Thompson MLA Terry Lake and Kamloops – Thompson – Cariboo MP Cathy McLeod.

“We had about 400 people last time and this time we were expecting a little more,” said Bikram Singh Bathh, president of the TRUSU India Club.

Bathh believes that part of what contributed to the event’s lower attendance this year was the fact that it had to be moved at the last minute from Mar. 2 to Mar. 16.

A complication with funding was

Tax time again Brendan Kergin Ω News Editor

With April comes tax season.

The end of school is crashing down on students and it’s not the best time to add pressure, but the federal and provincial governments want their cut soon.

Apr. 30 is the official deadline to get taxes in.

If they don’t make it in on time it may mess with your GST/HST credits or other tax-related payments.

Jordan Harris, TRUSU VP external, says the student union is offering a computer application students can use to complete and submit their taxes on their computer.

“It is utilized now during tax season. You go on this tax service called UFile,” said Harris.

The income tax service is one

of the products the Canadian Federation of Students helps provide for student union members.

Students can go to the TRUSU desk in the Independent Centre for a post card with instructions on how to use the service.

There are also a variety of options for in-person help, such as Liberty Tax Services or H&R Block though these services aren’t funded by the student union and therefore will cut into your rebates.

Students generally receive some funds back from the government after completing all their tax forms due to tuition and book credits and generally falling below the minimum income line, so it is recommended that you start getting those documents in order.

So get to the TRUSU membership desk and take advantage of the free tax software to get started.

Sign up on

www.dealmate.ca brought to you by

The celebration of Holi, Vaisahki and Ram Navami all come together in Rang De Basanti, which took place in the TRU Gymnasium on Mar. 16.

a part of what pushed the event back, according to Bathh.

“Everything else was amazing,” Bathh said. “[Rang De Basanti] is our biggest event.”

Tickets to this year’s event were $17 for students and $34 for non-students.

Once inside the festival, attendees were privileged to take

part in an extensive Indian buffet featuring cuisine provided

by Satya Asha Restaurant and Sweets, who came all the way from Surrey, B.C. for the event.

Rang De Basanti isn’t the last opportunity for students to get their fill of Indian culture on campus this academic year.

The TRUSU India Club will be

—PHOTO BY TAYLOR ROCCA hosting a Bollywood film night paired with an Indian community kitchen on Mar. 23.

The TRUSU India Club is regarded as one of TRU’s most active student clubs.

For more information on upcoming events, visit their Facebook page at www.facebook. com/trusuindiaclub.

Services offered vs. fees paid Your student union offers many services that students are paying for without taking full advantage of

Brendan Kergin Ω News Editor

During the TRUSU AGM in January, the cost of services provided to students versus what actually gets used was brought up multiple times.

Full-time students pay $414.63 in student union fees per term according to tru.ca.

However this does include fees that the TRUSU simply administers and does not collect and use for its own operations such as a fee for The Omega, CFBX and the Canadian Federation of Students (CFS).

A base of $95 is collected by the TRUSU. For students who wish to opt out of the Health and Dental plan

offered, there is a big savings of $248.

Transit is the next biggest hit in terms of fees at just under $50.

The rest of the fees are comparatively minor, with the CFS fee next highest at $8.16 a term.

Dustin McIntyre, TRUSU VP internal, says that the fees are fair when broken down into the variety of services students have available.

He suggests that while some services are available for niche groups, it’s important they’re available, such as graduation gown rentals or the tutor registry.

The online services are one area McIntyre would like to see used more often.

While the book exchange and

housing registry are relatively popular, the tutor registry and many other services are underused.

While student fees are often a contentious issue on campus, discussion is often limited to the annual general meetings.

Editor’s note: The Omega is looking to talk to students about their views on the value of the fees paid — positive and negative — and their experiences using those fees. Contact us at b.kergin@gmail.com or editorofomega@gmail.com with your opinions, and watch for Omega examinations of the services offered versus fees paid over the coming weeks.

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The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

News A little bit of history Allison Declerq Ω Contributor

Did you know we have an observatory on campus?

Located on the top level of the International Building, this observatory is actually the second built on campus, and was constructed in 2005. Its history is a fraction of its predecessor’s, which was built in 1971 and once stood where the new observatory and International Building are now found.

In 1971, with a go-ahead from Cariboo College, Roland Cobb, a now-retired professor, together with a number of student volunteers, built the first observatory for the newly established astronomy courses. With $2,000 for materials, they did the construction themselves due to a lack of further funds.

In Striving Ahead - 25 years at Cariboo, a collection of views from professors on various aspects

of college life at the time, Cobb’s entry describes the event of constructing the observatory. Not only did Cobb’s volunteers fail to show up at first, when the cement truck arrived it backed into the foundation and skewed it.

The group also had to dig a trench for the electrical wire from near Old Main to the observatory by hand. On the last day of classes in 1971 the first observatory was completed and in 1972, after their return from the winter break, it began operating.

The observatory once stood on a hill, nestled among the shrubs and far from the rest of campus activity.

At the time Old Main and the cafeteria were the only major buildings on campus; the other buildings we use today didn’t exist yet.

“I was actually worried about my female students walking to it alone,” Cobb remarked as he remembered the observatory. “There

The dome on top of the International Building that looks like an astrological observatory? Yup, that’s what it is, and it used to be a stand-alone structure in the same location.

—PHOTO BY MIKE DAVIES

was no real walkway to it.”

The first observatory housed a 12-inch Newtonian-style reflector telescope: a massive cylinder that directed the light collected from a large primary mirror at the bottom to an angled secondary mirror that in turn directed the starlight to an eyepiece on the side.

With the installation of the new six-metre-high dome on the International Building in 2005, the old telescope was set away in storage and a new, more modern one installed.

Featuring a Gemini GoTo positioning system, the new telescope is a smaller 14-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain reflector telescope, which means it directs the light from the primary mirror to a straight secondary mirror that directs the lights straight though the bottom — through a small hole in the primary mirror. The eyepiece is located at the bottom rather than the side of the cylinder that houses the mirrors. With the push of buttons the new telescope can be directed to celestial objects.

Joanne Rosvick, a professor at TRU, was a prominent figure in sharing the facility with members of Kamloops and TRU in 2009, the year of astronomy. There was an open house viewing night and various tours held for school groups and clubs. In 2010 Rosvick led tours for clubs and students in her first-year astronomy course.

As well as Dr. Rosvick, Mark Paetkau and Collin Taylor also use the telescope.

If anyone is interested or has any questions about the observatory, Taylor is open to inquiries. His office can be found in the Science Building or he can be reached at his email ctaylor@tru.ca.

Post-secondary presidents claim B.C. budget will mean service cuts for students In a letter to the Minister of Advanced Education, university presidents oppose cuts Arshy Mann

CUP Western Bureau Chief VANCOUVER (CUP) — B.C.’s university and college presidents believe that service cuts will come if the provincial government cuts funding to post-secondary education.

A letter signed by the the presidents of the 25 publicly funded universities and colleges in B.C. argues that it is “unrealistic to assume that the [funding] reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”

This contradicts the government’s claim that the $70 million funding gap can be overcome through administrative savings and that neither student services nor research would be affected.

“It is critical for [the] government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” reads the letter addressed to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto.

The letter also expressed worries that post-secondary was the only sector that received an overall funding reduction.

“We are very concerned that the provincial government is not aware of the measures the postsecondary sector has undertaken in the last number of years in response to significant cost pressures and no increases in institutional operating grants.”

The presidents did, however, praise the government for providing more money for capital maintenance and that the overall funding would stay stable for the next year.

Michelle Mungall, the NDP’s critic for advanced education, stressed the importance of the letter.

“This is unprecedented,” she said. “This has never happened before in B.C.’s history, where all of the presidents of public post-secondary institutions come together in a unified voice to express their dismay and what I interpret as their lack of confidence in the Liberal government and the minister.”

She also argued that the because the letter was sent out on Feb. 28, seven days after the budget announcement, it indicated a lack of consolation between the ministry and the institutions.

SEE FUNDING p. 6

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March 21, 2012

News In case you missed it, Kergin’s got you covered: Things you probably didn’t see happening around you last week Brendan Kergin Ω News Editor

Global • Chevron oil executives Prosecutors in Brazil are pursuing charges against a group of Chevron executives after another leak from an oilfield off the coast of Brazil. The group, including one Canadian, has been barred from leaving the South American country. The area where the seepage is reported had a leak in November as well.

Read more at bbc.co.uk/news.

• Syria It’s still a country on fire. While it hit the big news agencies a couple of weeks ago when two “Western” journalists died, possibly targeted by the Syrian government forces, there are still people dying in the streets. However, there has been a turn, as explosions have recently rocked buildings associated with President Bashir al-Assad’s regime. On top of the fact his country is nearly into open warfare in some areas, Assad also has to deal with the fact his email was hacked and embarrassing private messages were shared with the world. Not a good week to be a Syrian dictator.

Read more at dailymail.co.uk.

National • Concordia Concordia University out of Montreal just got busted down a few pegs. Quebec’s Ministry of Education levied what is essentially a fine against the university after it came to light that the administration had given out $3.1 million to six former administrators as part of their retirement packages. The school will receive $2 million less next year from the province. The

issue was brought to light as Quebec is going through some turmoil over rising tuition and a frosty relationship between their provincial government and student lobbyists.

Read more at cupwire.ca.

• Puppet rap/Twitter battle A pair of rapping puppets briefly caught the attention of Canadian political pundits late last week.

This may be jumping in midstream, but it’s worth it. A group led by Kai Nagata of the Tyee news website created a rap, with puppets, parodying Sun Media pundit Ezra Levant and Ethical Oil’s Kathryn Marshal’s support of Alberta’s oil sands. They posted it this week and Twitter lit up. While many politically-oriented Twitter accounts weighed in to some degree, the main event was Levant and Nagata going after each other’s journalism cred, with Levant asking how Nagata was funded and Nagata pointing out Levant’s past as a lobbyist for cigarette giant Rothman’s.

Read more at mntreal.openfile. ca.

Provincial • Victoria homelessness The province’s capital is starting to look at some dollar figures associated with its homelessness issue. A coalition of governments, agencies and community groups has put together a report outlining the creation and upkeep of homes for 1,500 people. The price tag? $110 million plus $13.7 million for continued use. While this may seem expensive, the cost can be spread around a variety of levels of government, and it does provide 1,500 with a chance to get off the street, giving them a healthier, more dignified life and a chance to pursue more ambitious goals than shelter each night.

Read more at solvehomelessness.ca.

•Harry Bloy The one MLA to support Christy Clark in her successful bid for the premier’s job has somewhat betrayed her trust. In a scandal involving a forwarded email, Burnaby-Lougheed MLA Harry Bloy has resigned from his cabinet minister post. The email in question originated from a journalist investigating private post-secondary company the Eminata Group. Bloy originally got the email from Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto. The questionable judgement comes into play with what Bloy did with it. He shared it with reps from the Eminata Group, the group being investigated by the journalist.

Read more at thetyee.ca.

Local • Catharine Pendrel

Next year’s Omega staff recruitment will be starting soon!

Keep your eyes on the paper if you think you’d like to be on the team in 2012/13

ocation v n o C tion & n Deadline a u d a r G atio Registr rch 31, 2012 is Ma

Mountain biker Catharine Pendrel, who’s been calling Kamloops home lately, just took home the bronze in a World Cup race in...South Africa. Ok, so not the most local stor y ever, but it is a local girl. She’s hoping to be in BETTER for m later in the season, which will probably include a stint at the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Read more at winnipegfreepress.com.

• KIB name change The Kamloops Indian Band is going to need to order some new business cards. The federal gover nment has off icially replaced the KIB with Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc in their books.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the original name of the First Nation of this area says the website tkemlups.ca. The name means the Tk’emlúps par t of the Secwépemc nation.

Read more at tkemlups.ca.

MC115979

FUNDING...from p. 5 “Should n’t [Minister Yamamoto] have worked with the instit utions on this ver y issue before the budget was developed rather than just telling them what’s going to happen and leaving them feeling like they’re out in the cold and not involved?”

Mungall has has been calling for the minister’s resig nation for the past week in the wake of a pr ivate email f rom a repor ter to the minist r y about an education consor tium leaking to the head of that organization.

She said that this let ter will simply add f uel to that f ire.

“W hat both issues highlight is the inabilit y for this minister to do her job.

“She has broken the relationship with public post-secondar y [instit utions].”

In the let ter, the post-secondar y presidents also state that the gover n ment’s mandates around collective bargaining are going to place f ur ther pressures on universit y f inances.

The provincial gover n ment has inst r ucted universit y and colleges that are undergoing collective bargaining with any of their employees that they can only raise wages or benef its if those increases are offset by savings found elsewhere in the instit ution.

Rober t Clif t, the executive director of the Confederation of Universit y Facult y Associations of B.C. (CU FA) said that the expectation that universities and colleges will be able to f ind savings for both the

provincial gover n ment and for unions is going to create st r ife dur ing negotiations.

“This is the f lexibilit y you’ve given us, and then you remove all the f lexibilit y,” he said of the gover n ment’s proposal.

“Now I doubt we’re going to see facult y at the research universit y marching the picket line over this, but what happens is that thing that just keeps eating away at the desirabilit y of B.C. as a place to [work].”

The collective bargaining agreements for the facult y associations at the f ive major B.C. research universities — the Universit y of Br itish Columbia, the Universit y of Victor ia, Simon Fraser Universit y, the Universit y of Nor ther n Br itish Columbia and Royal Roads Universit y — all expire this year.

You Must Apply to Graduate and Participate in Convocation Ceremony is open to all students who have completed their studies, paid all fees, and have applied to convocate.

Please contact your Program Advisor or the Registrar’s Office with questions about eligibility to graduate and attend convocation. > Phone: 250.828.5032

Application forms and ceremony details at

www.tru.ca/convocation

7

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

Arts & Entertainment Books will still exist though, right?

Despite many facets of intrigue missing, and characters you might not care about, The Guidestones shows how the art of storytelling may be changing.

Cory Hope

Ω Arts and Entertainment Editor Every now and again, somebody in the entertainment industry decides to try something new. And every now and again, somebody gets it right.

I won’t go so far as to tell you that I enjoyed The Guidestones, because when I lie to you I prefer it to be more blatant - like that time I saved you all from the robot insurrection. What I will say is that conceptually, The Guidestones is actually a pretty cool idea.

Part ‘Choose Your Own Adventure,’ part web TV series and part alternate reality gaming experience, The Guidestones is an enthusiastic attempt to create an interactive entertainment experience.

From my limited experience with it, however, I don’t see Guidestones being the amazing experience that it should be.

Alternate reality gaming (ARG) is an interactive story that uses the real world as a platform, while participants use various forms of media to make changes.

It has been used to promote TV shows such as Lost and movies like Cloverfield.

It has been used by people besides JJ Abrams too. Nine Inch Nails had an elaborate ARG developed by Trent Reznor that began with minuscule clues being left behind at shows or online, and culminating in a show for people who had played the game. Participants received cellphones in the mail and were told to leave them on. When the phones rang, people were told where to meet, and a school bus came to pick them up, took them to an abandoned prison where Nine Inch Nails played a private show for them.

That’s a game I can get behind, and I don’t even like Nine Inch Nails.

Guidestones, however, seems to be lacking in one critical aspect — it lacks the rabid fanbase that allows these games to work so well in other areas. Fanaticism is what makes people feel the need to find out what’s happening with their beloved characters, and that’s what makes supplemental web content work so well for them.

Battlestar Galactica had webisodes to help fill in the gaps between seasons two and three, and the webisodes were

released two per week as a lead in to the third season. They weren’t integral to the plot, but they gave more information and teased fans about what was coming up in the third season. It was the desire to know what was going on that made them worth watching, and that is where I think The Guidestones has its failing.

Conceptually, Guidestones is a fantastic idea, but having only been given a three-minute introduction to the characters and the plot, I found I just didn’t care very much about what was going on.

I will admit that I did play along, doing a Google search as the implied instructions at the beginning told me to do, but I have yet to get past the second video.

Theoretically, you are supposed to receive email links to the next videos, but the story is supposed to occur in real time, so I’m not sure what is supposed to happen next. Am I looking for a clue in the second video? Am I just waiting to receive an email for the next video?

And most importantly, at the present time I have no emotional investment in the characters or the story, I only have an interest in the idea of what the people at

The Guidestones are trying to do.

Guidestones has the potential to provide a turning point in the distribution of content for a series, and that’s really exciting.

It does leave the pivotal question though about just how it is that The Guidestones, or any future series like this will make money.

I’m not sure exactly how much money is made through advertising on YouTube, but the people at Guidestones claim they don’t sell your email address, using it only for the distribution of the

links required to watch the show. That means the advertising that would be seen on YouTube is the only place where money is made by the show.

Hopefully I get the next email that takes me to the next video and I get into the game/show/series, because I really would like to see this type of series work.

Even if this one fails, however, I think that the ground has been broken on a new form of storytelling. It might not be conventional, but it beats the hell out of watching eighteen minutes of commercials every hour.

CFBX Radio -92.5 FM, 106.1 Cable Campus/Community Radio for TRU and Kamloops Phone: (250) 377-3988 Email: radio@tru.ca Website: http://www.thex.ca Look for us on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

theomega.ca

CFBX Program Schedule for March 2012

8

March 21, 2012

Arts & Entertainment That’s what you said Dirty, dirty Sunflour Hour For this week’s issue, we patrolled the grounds looking for your answers to this question:

Did you attend the Kamloops Film Festival? If so, what film(s) did you see?

Kristy DeWolf

Lisa Hodgson

Bonnie Klohn

“I wanted to go.

“My boyfriend was actually in Afghan Luke for like two seconds in the background.

“It seemed like a really great event, but I had to work and couldn’t go.”

“I wanted to go, because I thought it would be interesting to watch some of the films.

“I looked at [the film list] and actually talked to my boyfriend about going to it, but I just had too much studying I had to do.”

“Yes. “I went to see Afghan Luke.

“I didn’t really like it that much, I think because I recognized the landscape so much so it was hard to get into the story.”

Arts (Political Science)

Arts (general)

Interdisciplinary Studies

That’s right, we’re getting you involved

To get even more involved, contact editorofomega@gmail.com

Larkin Schmiedl Ω Copy Editor

A ride through the raunchy behind-the-scenes world of a children’s puppet show, Sunflower Hour is a satirical comedy written and produced in Vancouer by director Aaron Houston.

Donald Dirk, a seedy producer, and his wife Melissa Dirk, apparent star, run a porn company, and decided a while back to brach out into children’s entertainment.

The resulting puppet show, The Sunflower Hour, is now seeking to add one more puppeteer to its team, and so the pair have decided to hold a contest to find that new special someone.

The film tracks the life and times of the four final contestants as they vie for a spot on the show. Complete with plenty of swearing, Sunflower Hour reveals four people living very dismal lives for different reasons.

By turns grisly and offensive, but always funny depending on your sense of humour, Sunflower Hour goes over-the-top and does it fairly well. The crude humour had the audience laughing boisterously; although to be fair the boisterous mood may have been helped by some of the first spring sunshine earlier in the day.

residences

enter to win an ipad 2 for attending

Not everyone was laughing, though. Kamloops Film Fest organizer Mark Wallin has received complaints directly referencing Sunflower Hour’s style of humour since it aired.

The production values of the film are not high, and this lends itself to the homemade mockumentary style the film aims to depict. The film is formatted as a series of interviews that follow the producers and contestants of The Sunflower Hour throughout the plot.

Director Aaron Houston said in a question-and-answer period following the film that the whole thing was shot on a $30,000 budget, and the whole process of making the film took only a year.

Sunflower Hour juxtaposes childrens’ innocence with adults’ brutality and immorality.

The characters are strong, and while they’re comedic, their life circumstances and families are revealed. Their motivations come across as real, and this by turn makes it funnier.

Near everyone in the film treats each other with mean disrespect, and sometimes mild violence.

Sunflower Hour is worth a watch. If you like dirty humour, it’s a laugh.

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9

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

March 8-15, 2012 Le Havre not festival’s strongest showing Plot holes and wooden acting leave Omega reviewer confused and disappointed Brendan Kergin News Editor

A Finnish f ilm taking place in France in French? This f ilm took a different path from the f irst day of production. And it shows.

Perhaps the most unique f ilm at the Kamloops Film Festival this year, it may work for some but not for others.

The plot follows an elderly man living in the coastal town of Le Havre as a shoe shiner as his wife falls ill.

A twist is added as the man takes in a young illegal immigrant and looks to send him to London where his mother is.

While there are colour trailers of the f ilm, it was black and white for the audience down at the Paramount Theatre.

This, and the lighting used at points of the f ilm, gave it a bit of a ‘40s or ‘50s feeling, which was odd.

P e r s o n a l l y, the biggest f law in this f ilm was being unable to place the period of time it takes place in.

It’s def initely post-World War Two, but that’s about all that can be said with certainty.

There are cellphones, references to what happened in the ‘50s and a band that seems straight out of the ‘70s. It seems pur posely inconsistent.

As for the ‘50s style of shooting, it works and it doesn’t.

Tr ue, it does seem to be faithful in a lot of ways in a technical sense, but cur rent f ilms and TV have the audience trained for quick transitions and shor t shots.

Lingering shots on cupboards and door ways seem to suggest a twist that doesn’t happen. The extra moment a scene takes gives a cur rent audience the sense that something else is going to happen at the end of the scene, when in fact it just moves on.

Also, the f ilm itself seems to jump for ward inconsistently.

The entire stor y takes place over a couple of weeks...maybe?

It’s never made clear.

At times these jumps also leave plot holes.

When cops ar rive at a concer t

the lead grabs a handful of cash from the ticket booth he’s been r unning and r uns off. The cash is rightfully his and it hasn’t been suggested that the concer t he’s been r unning is unlawful.

Sure, he doesn’t like the cops, but is something illicit going on?

The next scene jumps ahead to the next day, where ever yone seems to be f ine, cheerful, and forgetting that the cops may have busted up a concer t in the middle of their neighbourhood the previous evening.

Acting at the same time seems wooden, especially the diseased and possibly dying wife who shows vir tually no emotion.

Overall Le Havre is a strange f ilm that may hit the right spots with some who get it, but has plenty of f laws for people who don’t.

Editor’s note: KFF organizer Mark Wallin has since conf irmed with The Omega that the f ilm was, in fact, supposed to be in colour, but due to an unforeseeable (and unf ixable) technical diff icult y, the f ilm played in black and white at the festival.

“The issue of the lack of colour for Le Havre was a result of the projector bulb malfunction, although we did not know what was wrong at the time,” Wallin said.

“We tried to fix the problem as unobtrusively as possible while the film was going on by checking all cables, wires, etc. Once we did all that, our alternatives were to stop the film and try to figure out what happened, or run it [in black and white].

“Given the fact that we had a 9 p.m. showing and were at a loss as to what the problem was, I made the call to run it.

“In the end, it took the theatre employees until well into the morning hours to f inally f igure out that it was the projector bulb.

“There was nothing intentional about the black and white presentation, although many have commented about how it added to the overall aesthetic.”

Martha Marcy May Marlene: An Olsen has acting talent in disturbing quantities Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

Apart from having the most tonguetying name at this year’s Kamloops Film Festival, Martha Marcy May Marlene might also be in the running for the most disturbing film of the event.

Elizabeth Olsen stars as Martha, a young woman who is trying to reintegrate herself with society after living in isolation as a part of a cult.

Olsen does a remarkable job of playing the role of a young, disturbed woman who is confused and out of touch with society. Through the film, the viewer watches as she struggles to find her place while suffering flashbacks and painful memories from her past.

To say that this film made my skin crawl would be an understatement.

During flashbacks to her cult life, Martha relives being drugged and raped in a violent display of force and power by Patrick, the cult leader. The explanation she is given for having to suffer through such a traumatic and scarring experience is that she needs

to be cleansed of the toxins of her past.

As Martha’s flashbacks and memories become more intense, we witness her on the flip side of the coin as she helps administer drugs to a new young woman who has arrived at the cult’s isolated farmstead.

Throughout these flashbacks, the tormented state of Martha is deeply disturbing as she tries to find peace

living with her sister Lucy and her fiancé Ted. The patience of Lucy and Ted begins to wear thin as Martha’s state worsens. At times, it is unclear whether or not Martha’s paranoia is causing her to hallucinate or whether members of her former cult are stalking her.

This uncertainty chills the viewer as you’re left guessing right until the end credits roll.

Olsen — the younger sister of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen — turns in a chilling performance and it is safe enough to say that she has already succeeded her more famous twin sisters as far as acting talent.

Perhaps what was most disturbing about my experience was not the film itself, but the reaction of some people in the audience at the film festival.

At times when Martha is portrayed in a confused state and clearly lost in her own mind, people in the audience were laughing! I certainly wasn’t laughing and I’m not sure where to look for the humour that these buffoons found while watching the life of a tormented and abused soul trying to rediscover herself.

War, journalism and a touch of humour

Afghan Luke is a great way to wrap up a film festival in B.C.’s Interior Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

Afghan Luke tells the story of a young Canadian journalist trying to uncover the horrific stories of mutilation committed by Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan.

Overall, Afghan Luke is worth a watch. While not a full-blown war film, a drama or a thriller, it combines the elements of all three genres in an enjoyable fashion.

Nick Stahl plays Luke, an ambitious and motivated writer and photographer who is assigned to cover the war in Afghanistan by his newspaper. After coming close to fully uncovering a story about Canadian snipers mutilating their victims, Stahl is frustrated when his editor dismisses his assignment.

After being fired, Stahl scrounges enough money to travel back to Afghanistan in order to obtain the proof he needs for his story.

Shot in the interior of British Columbia, it is truly amazing at how well the filmmakers were able to convince the viewer that they were actually in Afghanistan.

Stahl’s partner-in-crime Tom, played

by Nicholas Wright, provides comedic relief throughout. When Wright’s character initially came into the picture, I was concerned that his role would be too cheesy, which would have effectively dampened the true impact the film was striving for.

Fortunately, Mike Clattenburg ensures that the audience sees just enough of Wright.

There is a fine balance between Wright’s shenanigans and the serious story that Stahl is chasing, and thankfully Clattenburg produces it.

There is a small love interest for Tom when Ali Liebert’s character is introduced. Known simply as “Miss Freedom,” the audience is never formally introduced to Liebert’s character. Her and Tom hit things off and seem to fit well alongside one another.

Unfortunately this relationship is abandoned and we never see Miss Freedom again, which is a shame because her role could have been so

much better than it was.

As a Canadian student journalist, I particularly enjoyed some of the cheeky jokes and pokes that the film makes towards the CBC. While not as heart-wrenching as recent Canadian war-influenced film Passchendaele, it is refreshing to once again see a film involving conflict that isn’t shot from an American perspective.

PHOTO CREDITS: SUNFLOUR HOUR COURTESY STEVE DEN, LE HAVRE COURTESY JANUS FILMS, MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE COURTESY BORDERLINE FILMS, AFGHAN LUKE COURTESY ALLIANCE FILMS

10

March 21, 2012

Arts & Entertainment Music Review: Trampled By Turtles’ Stars and Satellites Cory Hope

Ω Arts and Entertainment Editor The first time I went to listen to this album, I was met by a technical malfunction that irritated me more than it should have. The new Trampled By Turtles album, Stars and Satellites, was distributed for promotional use via a postcard that came with a digital download code.

I don’t think I’ve ever really had a problem with one of these codes before, but there’s a first time for everything. Fortunately, their label Thirty Tigers/RED took care of this within 24 hours of receiving an email regarding the matter, and the next time I went to download the album I didn’t have any problems at all.

There are some albums that catch on right away, and others that take time to settle in. Stars and Satellites has been an unusual experience, as the songs that I enjoyed right away I’ve been enjoying more, and the ones I didn’t like right off the bat I’ve been enjoying less and less with every listen.

The album starts off slowly, with Midnight on the Interstate, which builds upon itself beautifully, but takes its time doing so. Right when the song feels like it should be ready to take off, it’s over. The second track, Alone, suffers almost the same problem, and would be an amazing track if the first two minutes of it were to be edited away into nothingness. The tail end of this song is really good.

The end of Alone also features harmonies with other vocalists at the same time that the song picks up.

It makes me wonder if I just don’t find their vocalists suiting the music when it’s being played slowly. Any time the band picks up the pace, I

My Name Is Kay: Not even good enough to be my beer coaster Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

Trampled By Turtles’ latest effort, Stars and Satellites, shows their strengths and weaknesses. Stick to the quick ones, according to our reviewer.

—PHOTO BY PETER VAN HATTEN

enjoy it, but the slower songs, like High Water, will be deleted from my computer the moment this review is done.

The banjo and fiddle in faster tracks like Risk are amazing. They remind me of why it is I like bluegrass as much as I do. The track Sorry is another short-but-good song, fast-paced and more enjoyable every time I listen to it.

I’m not adverse to slow music. I just don’t think that Trampled By Turtles does it very well. They can pull off the slow music, but their vocals are more suited to their fasterpaced songs.

The pace of the second-last track on the album, Keys To Paradise, is about as slow as they should go. A nice, medium-paced song, capable of evoking emotion musically, it is just fast enough that the vocals are able to maintain their quality while

matching the slightly more sombre nature of the music.

While Stars and Satellites hasn’t been my favourite album of the last few months, I’ve certainly heard worse, and I wouldn’t be adverse to checking out more of their music if I was given the chance.

A final word on their website, however. Consider this one to be a word of warning. Even though the download card I was given was reloaded to allow me to use it again, it was suggested to me that I download the songs individually to avoid the same problem I had before. When I tried to do this, I accidentally downloaded the same song twice, and their website did nothing to prevent this, so I’ve only heard ten out of the eleven tracks from Stars and Satellites.

I hope the one I missed wasn’t one of the good ones.

If you don’t already know Kay’s name, she is about to remind you what it is…about 100 times too many.

Normally I am supportive of Canadian music ventures. Unfortunately when your music is licensed to Dumptruck Unicorn Entertainment, there isn’t much I can do for you other than send your EP back to the dumpster where it came from.

Kay is the latest in breakout Canadian pop Internet music disasters. Made famous by YouTube and sounding like an odd mix of Ke$ha, Nicki Minaj and The Ting Tings, Kay is not worth listening to.

Unless you are five years old.

Even then, I think most fiveyear-olds would recognize that Kay is a no-talent clown.

My Name is Kay is the debut EP for the pride of Cape Breton, N.S. The lead single off the EP is also the title track and it is even more annoying than I thought it was going to be.

“You just keep on talking,” Kay sings, “don’t know what my name is.”

Perhaps it is because I don’t care

what your name is?

Perhaps it is because you are yelling your name in my ear repeatedly and it is getting on my nerves? Perhaps it is because you haven’t done anything worthwhile that would lead people to remember who you are?

“If rhymes could kill,” Kay sings, “I would put you in a coma.”

Kay, may I ask you a favour? Just put me in a coma now. I can’t take any more.

Things don’t get better once the opening atrocity ends. The second track on the EP is M.A.J.O.R. Kay tries to convince the listener that she is m-a-j-o-r, but doesn’t explicitly state that she is a major embarrassment to Canadian music.

Thankfully she doesn’t need to explicitly state that.

It’s already apparent.

Stranger is the only track in which I could find anything redeeming about Kay. Her vocal strengths are finally apparent. It might be the best track on the EP, but Stranger isn’t good enough to make up for the trainwreck that occurred prior to it.

My Name Is Kay is only good for one thing – a coaster for your beer.

And even then, I’m not sure I would embarrass my beer by setting it on top of Kay’s EP.

11

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

Arts & Entertainment

Bambooyah! another success for American mashup duo The White Panda Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

Let me introduce you to The White Panda, a mashup DJ duo from south of the Canadian border.

With summer quickly approaching as the semester draws to a close, you best familiarize yourself with the latest and greatest in hip hop and rock mashup glory.

It can be a struggle trying to build a good playlist for your house party, kegger or backyard barbecue. Avoid “DJ Half-track” ruining your party with 30 seconds of Eminem followed by 30 seconds of Duran Duran followed by 30 seconds of Aqua by cranking up The White Panda’s Bambooyah!

For party animals more familiar with mashup all-star Girl Talk, chances are you will enjoy The White Panda just as much, if not more.

The White Panda features Procrast (Tom Evans) of Chicago, Ill. and DJ Griffi (Dan Griffith) of Los Angeles, Calif.

I first discovered The White Panda when they came to the University of Alberta (U of A) for their first-ever Canadian concert in Sept. 2010. As it stands, their show at the U of A’s Dinwoodie Lounge is still their only performance on Canadian soil. They are slated to once again rock Dinwoodie Lounge on Mar. 24.

On Mar. 13, The White Panda released their fourth mashup album, Bambooyah!

Providing listeners with 50 minutes of upbeat party tunes mashed with classic rock and pop favourites, The White Panda once again knocks the ball out of the park.

I’m not usually one for top-40 music or club beats, but when I do decide to give in to the guilty pleasure, I typically avoid original studio tracks in favour of The White Panda’s mixed and mashed party albums.

Featured on Bambooyah! are classics like Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger, Foreigner’s Cold As Ice, Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s Relax and Oasis’s Wonderwall.

The White Panda brings something to the table for everyone, with current top-40 hits like Britney Spears’s ‘Til the World Ends, Foster the People’s Pumped Up Kicks and Rihanna’s We Found Love.

They even manage to sneak in a few other rock hits like the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Tell Me Baby, Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down and The Gorillaz’s Feel Good, Inc. Hip hop heroes Jay-Z and Snoop Dogg also find their way onto Bambooyah! while R&B zero R. Kelly weasels his way into the mix.

The highpoint of the album comes when the soothing guitar of Tom Petty’s Free Falling is laid underneath Notorious B.I.G.’s Mo’ Money Mo’ Problems.

It’s a combination that most music aficionados would cringe at the thought of, but The White Panda brings together two of music’s most inf luential artists in fine fashion.

Once again bringing together two vastly different artists, The White Panda mashes together Adele’s soulful Rolling in the Deep with Avicii’s Swedish house track, Levels.

Bambooyah! is available online for free. Visit thewhitepanda.com or their Facebook page for more details.

Also available for free download from The White Panda is 2009’s Versus, 2010’s Rematch and 2011’s Pandamonium. Each album features 50 to 60 minutes of nonstop party rock.

Consider the music for your backyard summer party season locked in once you have Bambooyah! blasting through the neighbourhood. Hit play and let The White Panda take care of the rest.

—IMAGE COURTESY THE WHITE PANDA

Canadian Music Corner Taylor Rocca Ω Roving Editor

Audio/rocketry is a five-piece Canadian folk-punk outfit hailing from Edmonton, Alta.

With a unique mix of folkcountry and upbeat punk sounds,

Brendan Kergin Ω News Editor

audio/rocketry wins listeners over with catchy folk tunes led by quick-paced guitar that gets you bouncing your foot to the beat.

The band also makes use of the oft-unappreciated harmonica.

This earns them instant brownie points in my books.

Singing about experiences such as harvest on the prairies and the always-popular adolescent heartbreak, audio/rocketry has a blatantly obvious Canadian inf luence throughout its discography.

The band has released three albums to date.

2009’s Buskin’ Songs with audio/rocketry features 11 songs including Stompin’ and Strummin’ and Next Stop, Corona Station, a song about a well-known train platform in Edmonton.

Eastward + Onward was re-

leased in 2010 and features 14 songs including Athabasca Roll and Hallelujah Halifax!

The band’s most recent release is 2011’s Piloting a Vehicle of Audible Expression.

This album shows the band’s maturity and also signifies a much crisper and professional sound. It features the heartwarming and inspiring Boundless Rocketeers and the heartbreaking Only Gets Better.

Audio/rocketry just wrapped up a Canada-wide winter tour. If they return to your town in the future, I highly recommend that you do your best to get out to the show.

All three of audio/rocketry’s albums are available for free streaming at www.audiorocketry.bandcamp.com.

Follow them on Facebook for up-to-date tour information.

Bruce Peninsula is one of the most unique bands in Canadian indie music right now.

While they sometimes shift into the realm of soft and melodic folk rock, they really come alive with the percussion-heavy multivocal tracks.

This is a very technical way of describing a visceral and gripping style of music.

It’s not punk, but it has that energy and wild abandon at times.

It also feeds off the driving folk sound English folk/country darlings Mumford and Sons employ.

That’s not to say Bruce Peninsula is anything like Mumford.

With 10 musicians, a number of which lend their vocals to sweeping almost choral arrangements,

this is a big rampaging sound that can be stripped down in the middle of a song to a much smaller, more raw sound.

We can expect these guys to take a shot at making an impact as well.

With one of their leaders in remission from cancer, they’re back at work right now. They’re based in Toronto and so it may be difficult for them to tour out here, but they can be heard on CBC Music or on YouTube in an interview on Q (the CBC radio show which posts some parts of its show online).

Song to check out - Crabapples.

Visit bruce-peninsula.com for news on the band and a chance to hear some of their tracks.

Kergin and Rocca think they’re qualified to critique Canadian music because they have a radio show. Think you can do better? Contact Mike at editorofomega@gmail.com with a couple-hundred words on a lesserknown Canadian band and get in the Canadian Music Corner!

Time to buckle down, folks!

Only a few weeks before final exams.

Don’t forget that you need to apply for graduation before the end of March if you want to wear a fancy gown and hat for convocation!

12

March 21, 2012

Life & Community

An open letter to TRU students: Community Calendar Why you SHOULD vote, and vote “NO” in this TRUSU election

Joseph Jack Ω Contributor

Do you know how many people are running for president of TRUSU? One. Do you know how many people are running for vice-president internal?

One. It’s the same for each other available position.

In fact there is only one slate running in the election (voting starts today BTW).

Did you even hear about the Thompson Rivers University Student Union election happening today?

No? You’re not alone.

In fact, over the past few days I’ve asked over 250 students from all walks of life about the upcoming election and the answer was always the same: “There’s an election?”

Only one person I asked knew about the election, and she is the dean of students.

Yes, you see friends, there is an election being held today and tomorrow to elect a new council to provide you with the same platitudes as councils have for decades.

Every year we hear some bullshit from the candidates about how they want to engage the student population more and lobby governments to drop fees and provide free education, and what sort of success have they had?

Regarding engaging the student population: I’m sure that the vast majority of you use Facebook and some of you may use Twitter. Many students use these methods to share information with each other in a way that is much different than reading a newspaper or looking for posters amongst the clogged poster

boards shilling everything from old clothes to Christianity.

TRUSU has a Facebook account (which has 1,400 “likes” as of the time of writing) and a Twitter account @trusu15 with about 150 followers (a quick glance shows that most of their followers are business people or politicians). Do you know how many posts on both of these very popular and widelyused social media outlets were related to the opening of nominations for the election happening today?

Twitter: zero.

Facebook: one, last Tuesday telling students that nominations were closing in 24 hours.

We all have email and must provide an address to TRUSU to receive the yearly planner.

TRUSU sent out an email at the end of February and do you think it mentioned something as important as the election?

NOPE, but you are encouraged to make TRU bottled-water-free.

How many posters were put up?

Their constitution (err, OUR constitution) says that a minimum of 25 posters should be placed to promote it. How many did they put up?

Does it even matter? We were too busy looking at the flashier posters (if we even still look at posters at all).

It would have been great to see more about the election in The Omega but the way the election was set up made it nearly impossible to cover it.

The paper comes out on Wednesdays, and the nomination process opened and closed on a Wednesday. The all-candidates forum is held on a day that prevents The Omega from actually writing a story about what the positions of the candidates are.

Regarding the drop fees cam-

paign: Has your undergraduate tuition gone down? The Student Union has said many times that tuition has gone up by over 200 per cent over the years. What successes can they report?

If they’re so gung-ho about lowering fees, why did they double student union fees a few years ago?

They like to report about how often and how loudly they lobby governments, why the hell don’t they apply that same level of gusto in getting the word out about the election?

Now they can tell you that they promoted the election on their website. When you visited the site you saw a single line at the bottom left hand side of the site that read: “2012 General Election.”

Voter apathy plagues all democracies and lower voter turnout nearly always re-elects incumbent governments.

It’s time to change that at TRU. If you didn’t know about the election, don’t simply continue to ignore democracy. VOTE NO to all of the candidates.

Send a message to TRUSU that their inability to actually promote important events (other than barbecues and trips they take on your dime to rally for “lower fees”) is an insult to student democracy and democracy as a whole.

Our federal government sends our troops in harm’s way to defend and promote democracy abroad while we allow it to rot and fester on our shores.

Enough is enough.

Get out and vote! Vote NO to all TRUSU candidates. Let’s have a real election with real choices.

If the members of incumbent political party “Your Vote = Your Voice” have any integrity, they would demand another, well-promoted, election.

Wednesday, Mar. 21

• President’s Lecture Series presents: Kartikeya Sarabhai discussing “Sustainability in India: Learnings and Challenges” 7 p.m.

Grand Hall, CAC

Thursday, Mar. 21 • Overcoming Injustice in Cambodia: guest speaker Mam Sambath 11:30 a.m.

TRUSU Boardroom • Electric Six plays Cactus Jacks Nightclub Tickets available at Montain High Pizza

Friday, Mar. 22 • Gaining the Edge: Exploring Aspects of Tourism in BC with Richard J. Porges 11:30 a.m.

CAC 130

• Honouring Our Tiny Tots Traditional Pow-Wow 2012 7 p.m.

TRU Gymnasium • Deadline to register for the 2012 TRU Student Leadership Conference.

Contact Alana Frymire at afrymire@tru.ca $10/student (includes lunch)

Tuesday, Mar. 27 •Arts Show & Tell (with free food!)

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

CAC 314 (CURA offices, top floor) Know of upcoming events the student body should be aware of?

Get them in the calendar for free!

Contact: editorofomega@gmail.com “Community calendar” in the subject line will help ensure they get to the campus community.

Sikh temple may help save on food bills Guneet Singh Ω Contributor

Is your food bill cutting deep into your budget?

Amber Inglis, a fourth-year science student, feels she sometimes overspends on her food. “$200 plus is what it takes me to get a healthy diet every month. And this amount means I am cooking on my own,” Inglis said.

Spending money on groceries is essential but students have to make sure the money they are putting in is keeping them healthy.

Third-year business student Manas Sanan says he is not happy with the money he spends on food.

“My grocer[y] bill is overwhelming. Last time I counted it was crossing $300, so now I don’t think much over it. But it’s indeed expensive,” Sanan said.

The Sikh temple in Kamloops has become an essential resource for many TRU students with free meals which help students maximize their savings.

Pavendeep Singh Gill, secretary of the executive committee at the Sikh Cultural Society in Kamloops said offering free meals to everyone means equality for all.

“As the management committee, our goal is to maintain the teachings of our gurus within the operations of the Sikh temple,” said Gill. “In par-

ticular to the service of Langar [communal meal], our first guru, Guru Nanak Dev Ji implemented equality of all people and Langar was one of the ways to uphold this very important principle.

“Every visitor is welcome to the Sikh temple [Sikhs and non-Sikhs] and all are offered this vegetarian meal. After everyone has been served the meal, anyone is allowed to take [more of] the food back home. We also make sure no food goes to waste and encourage people to take food freely.”

Second-year computer science student Ashnav Kumar says visiting the Sikh temple ensures his savings on food.

“My monthly food budget is around $80. Being at the temple every Sunday serves me two ways,” according to Kumar. “First, I feel mental peace and inner strength by worshipping, and next the healthy food which I bring back to my home helps me in cutting down on groceries.”

The temple is open to all people in Kamloops.

“The Sikh temple does not discourage anyone from having the food or taking it with them as this would defeat the entire purpose of Langar,” Gill said.

So if you feel you are overspending on your food and groceries you may want to visit the Sikh temple at 700 Cambridge St. in Kamloops on Sunday afternoons.

Some of the ladies enjoy their meal. Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike are invited for Langar every Sunday afternoon, and can take as much food home with them as they can.

—PHOTO BY SAMANTHA GARVEY

13

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

Sports

Improbable Vikes win BCIHL Championship Nathan Crosby Ω Sports Editor

The buzz around the Kamloops Memorial Arena leading up to the provincial collegiate championship was all about who of the three favourites would win it all.

Would it be the two-time consecutive defending champs from SFU? Would it be the physical second-place Okanagan College Coyotes? Or would it be the hometown TRU Wolf Pack looking for redemption from coming so close the last two years?

Those were the top three seeds.

No one said a peep about Victoria.

“That’s exactly where we wanted to be,” Victoria head coach Harry Schamhart said.

After the championship overtime thriller on Mar. 18, the Vikes were the only team left standing, defeating SFU 4-3 mere seconds into overtime.

Victoria’s run started by winning two of their three round robin games by shoot out. They entered the tournament as the fourth seed and finished the regular season with more losses than wins. In their second game of the qualifying rounds, they lost six-foot-three, 225-pound forward Cam McWilliam to a broken arm.

Still, no team could stop the Vikes from claiming their third BCIHL title in six years.

“The boys have played unbelievable hockey for the last three weeks and I’m just so happy it paid off for us,” Vikes goalie Jason Margolus said.

Five minutes into the second period of the championship

game, a speeding Christopher Hoe of SFU came barrelling down the slot and pulled a Pavel Datsyuk-like one-hander on Margolus. The Vikes goaltender sprawled himself out and made a crucial save that inspired a Victoria comeback, being down 2-0 at that point.

“Jason stepped up beyond what anybody thought he could do,” coach Schamhart said.

“Here’s a goalie that’s been out of hockey for a few years, we ran into some injuries and luckily enough he was going to the University of Victoria and we got him to come back out and look what he did in this tournament.”

Margolus became one of the most lovable players of the tournament with his brilliant performances twice against SFU and Okanagan College. He was money in the shoot out and made the saves when it mattered.

His parents f lew in from Vancouver at the beginning of the tournament and were full of energy after four days of hardfought hockey. They cheered proudly and waved signs saying “Mar-goal-less.” Once their son picked up his gold medal, he screamed into the microphone, “I love you mom.”

It was Dustin Taylor, a forward from Airdrie, Alta., who finished off SFU moments into overtime.

He broke fast down the ice after the SFU defence bobbled the puck and the fans in Memorial Arena didn’t have enough time to warm their hands before jumping up in jubilation.

“Words can’t describe it. It feels unreal, I don’t know what else to say,” Taylor said with a huge smile on his face after fin-

Members of the Victoria Vikes line up to accept their gold medals after their championship win over Simon Fraser University Mar. 18.

—PHOTO COURTESY TRU ATHLETICS

ishing the game with two goals and one assist. Taylor was also part of the Victoria penalty kill that helped jolt the Vikes offence after killing an important SFU power play in the second period.

It was a quiet SFU dressing room following the loss. Most players hadn’t removed their equipment 20 minutes after receiving their silver medals.

“Our guys made mistakes that cost us goals,” SFU head coach Mark Coletta said.

“I think we won the first period, they won the second period, and the third period was pretty tight.”

SFU went up 2-0 in the first period with goals from Bill Smith and Todd Fletcher and the Vikes got a wakeup call during the first intermission.

“We told the boys there are no super stars on this team, everybody on the ice has a job and they have to perform that job and nobody can quit,” coach Schamhart said.

The Vikes’ power play, which was ranked second-last during the regular season, scored one minute and 16 seconds into the second period. SFU responded with Colton Graf one-timing a saucer pass from Christopher Hoe to go up 3-1.

Victoria started to aggressively challenge SFU stalwart goalie Graeme Gordan and with 26 seconds left in the period, the Vikes’ Brent Sutherland scored, bringing his team within one.

Four minutes into the third, the Vikes caught SFU on an oddman rush and captain Doug Ev-

ans put home a pass from Dustin Taylor to tie the game.

It went back and forth for the rest of the period but 60 minutes solved nothing.

There was a brief delay when the tournament officials had to clarify to the teams what overtime rules were to be used. There would be no f lood until after a 10-minute overtime.

No f lood was needed at all.

Taylor’s instant goal had the Victoria bench jumping up and down hysterically in celebration.

After pictures and passing the trophy around, the team packed up and left. They had to make it back to Vancouver that night to catch the ferry.

It would be a ferry ride the gentlemen from Victoria would never forget.

Championship not in the cards for WolfPack hockey Nathan Crosby Ω Sports Editor

The third-seeded Wolf Pack had dreams of beating rival SFU in the finale after two years of placing second to the Clan, but some things just aren’t meant to be.

The Wolf Pack went 1-2 in the BCIHL championships, which they hosted at Memorial Arena from Mar. 14 to 18, and it was good enough for fourth place.

It was SFU that put the nail in the coffin in an early Friday game, winning 3-0 and leaving seven TRU players in their final year of competing without that desired championship. TRU would not advance to championship for the first time in three years.

“Certainly can’t question the player’s efforts, they gave it all they had and I’m extremely proud of them,” Wolf Pack head coach Don Schulz said.

This wasn’t coming from a coach not speaking from the heart.

Coach Schulz fought hard to appear strong when the media met up with him moments after failing to make it to the big game.

The emotional coach spoke genuinely about his players who he had come to love in just his first year with the program.

“These are guys that have poured their heart and soul into

the program and all the off-ice stuff that they do,” he said.

“Our leadership group was second to none. I just wish we could have brought home a championship for them.”

WolfPack centre David Gore (Photo courtesy of TRU Athletics)

It was an elimination game on Friday between SFU and TRU. It was surprising to many that SFU had lost the previous night to Victoria, yet the atmosphere in Memorial Arena on a late afternoon seemed more like a championship game environment.

The Wolf Pack skated onto the ice to the sound of “Where the Streets Have No Name.”

The public address announcer fired up the crowd with the starting lineups and the old Memorial

Arena had come alive. The tension mounted as O Canada was sung perfectly and Wolf Pack defenceman Cody Lockwood shifted on his feet.

The ‘Pack’s first good opportunity came in the first period when their crafty forward, Jose Reyes, burst down on a breakaway, beating SFU goalie Graeme Gordon but not beating the top-right corner crossbar.

The noise it made never seemed to leave the walls of the arena after the play and TRU couldn’t find a way to score before time ran out.

“It’s a tough way to go out knowing that we battled hard,” WolfPack forward David Gore said.

“It’s not that we didn’t want it, that’s for sure.”

With over a minute to play in the first period, SFU sniper Ben Van Lare opened the scoring and it proved to be the winning goal. The ‘Pack had its chances, but nothing went in.

This was the same TRU team that averaged 4.3 goals a game over the 24game schedule, scoring 104 times in the regular season.

Meanwhile, SFU was cranky from losing its previous game to Victoria in a six-round shootout and tried its best to throw the ‘Pack off its game; SFU pest Kyle Leung finished most of his shifts with something to chirp at the TRU bench.

“They seem to have our number and it’s definitely a rivalry, but it would be nice to start winning some of these big rivalry games,” Gore said.

If the shots don’t get through, they can’t go in the net. TRU was ousted from the tournament by bitter rivals SFU in part because of blocked shots like this one.

—PHOTO BY CORY HOPE

The host Wolf Pack walked away from the BCIHL tournament earlier than expected, much to the dismay of players in their last year of eligibility: Cody Lockwood, David Gore, Jassi Sangha, Andrew Fisher, Dylan Becker, Kyle Allen and Thomas Gobeil.

One bright spot was coach Schulz’s eagerness to admitting he would like to continue his coaching position with TRU hockey.

“I intend on being back, we got a good thing going here, [Chris]

Hans and I have been busy recruiting and we want to build on this program,” he said.

After the loss, the Wolf Pack dressing room was as still as a funeral.

Not much was said as coach Schulz made his way around the room shaking the hands of his players while quiet murmurs echoed through the basement of old Memorial Arena.

“I told them that sometimes hockey can be a cruel game,” he said.

14

March 21, 2012

Science & Technology Dwarfing the Madagascan Dwarf Chameleon Newly discovered chameleons among smallest reptiles in the world Gerald R. Jacobs

The Manitoban (U of M) WINNIPEG (CUP) — As we move deeper into the 21st century, we look further and further away from home for the scientific discoveries that shape headlines and shake our collective understanding of biology.

From investigating water on the Moon, to hypothesizing about methane-based, hydrogen breathing life forms thriving in the liquid methane oceans of Saturn’s moon, Titan, to scrutinizing the 2,326 (and counting) exoplanetary candidates catalogued by the Kepler Mission for other Earth-like planets, astrobiologists have diligently carried on the cosmic search for new How many chamelions can dance on the head of a match? forms of life.

At least one, now that we know about the Brookesia minima With all the glamour that goes with the hunt for extraterrestrial family.

—IMAGE BY KARA PASSEY life, we sometimes forget there’s unknown life right here at home, “The island of Nosy Hara ing of a dwarf, when an already just waiting to be discovered.

On Feb. 14, a paper describ- where B. micra occurs has a sur- miniaturized species moved ing four new species of leaf- face mainly made up by rocky, from one island to another, chameleon native to Northern unforested terrain unsuitable for much smaller one.

The discover y of the smallest Madagascar was published in the chameleons, which are conPLoS ONE — an open-access fined to a few canyons where chameleon in the world rides on online scientific journal from trees are growing, and this is the heels of a paper published a the Public Library of Science clearly below 50 hectares — month earlier in the same jour— by a team of German scien- much, much less than one square nal, describing the smallest tists. The species described are kilometre,” co-author Miguel frog — and possibly, at seven part of a clade of diminutive Vences, a professor for zoology millimetres long, ver tebrate — ground chameleons catalogued and evolutionary biology at the in the world, found in Papua under the group Brookesia min- Technical University of Braun- New Guinea by an American research team. ima — more commonly known schweig, told The Manitoban.

Asked about the possibility A member of the team conas the Madagascan Dwarf Chameleon — and have been given ducting the initial research on of discovering future miniaturthe names Brookesia micra, B. B. micra, Vences noted that al- izations of species, Dr. Vences confidens, B. tristis and B. des- though the distribution range of wrote: “Yes, small animals are all animal groups has a tendency likely to be overlooked, so it perata.

The discovery of a new spe- to ref lect their physical size: might well be that other tiny cies is hardly shocking news to “the extreme microendemism species of amphibians, reptiles modern biologists — recent esti- found in these and some other or f ish are still awaiting discovmates suggest that 86 per cent of species, especially in northern er y.”

Although B. micra’s name all land species and 91 per cent Madagascar, seems to be excepwas given to ref lect its diminuof all marine species yet await tional.” tive size, the other discovery and dethree chameleon spescription, culmicies were named to nating in approxref lect their respecimately another tive ecological situa1,200 years worth tions and denote conof job stability cer n on behalf of the for taxonomists. researchers for their These new chahabitats, “conf idens” meleons have atmeaning “conf ident” tracted internain Latin, “tristis” tional attention meaning “sad,” and for their size and “desperatus” meanhabitat. ing “desperate.”

The approBrookesia conpriately named

is lucky Brookesia micra —Dr. Miguel Vences f idens enough to f ind its — a derivation of range within a wellthe Greek word According to genetic re- preser ved and diff icult-to-ac“mikros,” meaning “small” — has become particularly popular. search, B. micra may have oc- cess nature reser ve, offering With males reaching a maxi- cupied this remarkably small a degree of protection to the mum snout-vent (from the tip of habitat for more than 10 million species. B. desperata, on the other hand, has seen its habitat the nose to the base of the tail) years.

Despite the public’s focus on develop a number of human-inlength less than 20 millimetres, B. micra is, to date, the small- B. micra, the other described f luenced environmental issues, est known species of chameleon, species are not ver y much larg- while the entire known range and one of the smallest reptiles er, having snout-to-vent lengths of B. tristis has been subject of 23, 29, and 30 mm for B. con- to deforestation and ecological in the world.

An image of a juvenile stand- f idens, B. tristis and B. despe- damage.

“The habitat of tristis and ing quite comfortably on a rata, respectively.

The researchers believe this desperata is being slashed and match-head has recently taken miniaturization to be the result bur ned for f irewood and local the internet world by storm.

Occurring in only two locations of “Island Dwarf ism,” an evolu- agriculture,” said Dr. Vences.

“Since these animals depend on the island of Nosy Hara, just off tionar y phenomenon attributed the northern coast of Madagascar, to the limited resources avail- on the leaf litter and the shade “mikros” is equally apt as a de- able on an island — in B. mi- of big trees, they are in immicra’s case, possibly the dwarf- nent danger.” scriptor of the chameleon’s range.

“...it might well be that other tiny species of amphibians, reptiles or fish are still awaiting discovery.”

Simon Fraser University research team finds potential treatment for Alzheimer’s Researchers hope their solution will slow or stop the disease altogether Alison Roach The Peak (SFU)

BURNABY, B.C. (CUP) — A research team at Simon Fraser University has created a treatment that may slow down or even prevent Alzheimer’s disease.

David Vocadlo, a chemistry professor at SFU and Canada Research Chair in chemical glycobiology, led a team of seven researchers on the project.

Vocadlo specializes in the structures and roles of carbohydrates in biology, bringing him to this project and breakthrough.

The team’s paper, “Increasing O-GlcNAc slows neurodegeneration and stabilizes tau against aggregation,” has been published in the latest edition of Nature Chemical Biology.

It’s known from previous research that the impaired use of glucose in the brain is an early feature of Alzheimer’s.

This decreased ability to use sugars in the brain potentially leads to clumping of a protein called “tau.”

According to Vocadlo, it is this clumping of tau that causes the death of neurons in the brain, the process that leads to these impairments. This degeneration causes many different brain diseases and deficiencies such as motor control impairment, dementia and Alzheimer’s.

The SFU team has been working since 2008 with the basic idea that they could chemically boost sugar levels in the brain to lessen or eradicate the development of these problems.

Two researchers in the study, Scott Yuzwa and Xioyang Shan — both of whom were graduate students at the time of the study — discovered that an inhibitor that the team created slows down

this removal of sugars from the tau protein. This compound inhibited O-GIcNAcase and increased tau O-GlcNAc, slowing down the formation of these clumps and the resulting neuron death.

The research team completed an eight-month trial, in which several mice were fed the inhibitor while the rest of the mice were not.

After the trial period it was found that the mice who had been treated showed significant improvement in the health of their brains; an average of 50 per cent improvement.

The mice that were treated had 40 per cent more neurons in their spinal cord, better motor control, and had lost less weight and muscle than their untreated counterparts. Basically, the results showed that the degeneration of their brains had been greatly slowed down.

“I think this could lead to therapeutics that slow down the progression of Alzheimer’s,” said Vocadlo of the results.

The SFU team is interested in following up on their previous study to find a stronger treatment that might eradicate the disease entirely in mice.

For now, the goal is to work to improve these results, which may require more knowledge on the specific processes at play.

Vocadlo is quick to point out that while this breakthrough has been made, it’s still unknown what causes the decreased ability to produce glucose in the brain.

“We need to know at a more specific level what’s going on ... We need to understand the process with the sugars better,” he said.

“The key is to be digging in a new area, to be exploring new things. What’s cool isn’t what we know, but what we don’t. There’s so much more that remains.”

Puzzle of the week Puzzle of the Week #19 – Prime Sums Taking all of the prime numbers up to some prime, there is a pattern in the sums. Odd and even sums alternate with each additional prime considered. Is this a coincidence?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net>. Submissions by others are also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in the Math Centre (HL210A). Come visit: we are friendly.

15

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 24

Coffee Break 3 9

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15. ___ Domingo 16. Word waiters write 17. “Forget it!”

18. Anesthetized 19. Express excitement 22. ___ Bowl 23. “___ Baby Baby” (Linda Ronstadt hit) 24. Don’t hold back 28. Inner ear part 32. Ancient Greek theater 33. Shiftless 35. “Dig in!”

36. Wait on demanding diners, maybe?

40. Age or cube 41. Georgetown athlete 42. Threadbare 43. Attack 46. Savory bit 47. Hindu month 48. Cat chat 50. Lights may do this during a storm 58. Pre-migraine sensations 59. Egyptian god

60. Bin brand 61. Refuse 62. Kind of store 63. Names 64. Transmitted 65. Cicatrix 66. “The ___ have it”

31. ___ alcohol 33. Religious image (var.)

34. V-___ 37. Elected 38. Displeased expression 39. Propel, in a way 44. Directed skyward 45. Upchucks 46. Lame joke 48. Ape 49. Bowel flusher 50. In things 51. Artificial bait 52. “Pumping ___” 53. Physics units 54. Computer info 55. Not bad 56. Craving 57. Make a dinner salad

Down 1. Cutting remark 2. Aviation acronym 3. By way of, briefly 4. “___ Angel” 5. Prepare to strum 6. In conflict with, with “of” 7. “Big ___” (Notorious B.I.G. hit) 8. Fishing, perhaps 9. Mohandas Karamchand ___ 10. Change back 11. Hasenpfeffer, e.g.

12. Game ender, perhaps 15. Sweat 20. Fine dinnerware 21. Eminent 24. Large-eyed lemur 25. Bring out 26. Article of faith 27. Lowe or Reiner 28. Arm bone 29. Popular mints 30. Caffè ___

O Y E Z

D O D O

O R E O

R E N M I M A E N A L I B Z O D I E N E S E R A P Z I P P A N E L P O S E S N O T

C A I N S I A D I A C H A D O I Y Z E R S

G L U G S

P U T Z

N A S A

S A L T Y

O W L S

O H I O

O B O E P I H E A C Z E Y B B O L O I Z N E D

S N A P S P A V I N G

C I N E M A

A X I L

N I S I

T E E N

S P L O O I A L D I S N O G Y S A

H O T L Y

Y E S E S

T E R N

S L E D

LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

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March 21, 2012

TRUSU Membership Advisory

ELECTION NOTICE POLLING WILL TAKE PLACE ON Wednesday, March 21st, 8:00AM-8:00PM & Thursday, March 22nd, 8:00AM-4:00PM in the Students’ Union Building The following members were nominated for the vacant positions as listed below: President

Women Students’ Representative

• McIntyre, Dustin | Your Vote = Your Voice

• Moulton, Alexandra | Your Vote = Your Voice

Vice President External

Representative – Graduate Studies

• Robinson, Dylan | Your Vote = Your Voice

• Hutfluss, Kathleen | Your Vote = Your Voice

Vice President Finance

Representative – Arts, Science, Education, and Advance Technology

• Spence, Jeromy | Your Vote = Your Voice

Vice President Internal • Bahabri, Trad | Your Vote = Your Voice

Aboriginal Students’ Representatives • Guishon, Nolan | Your Vote is Your Voice

• Douglass, Leif | Your Vote = Your Voice

Representative – Business & Economics, and School of Tourism • Macedo, Colin | Your Vote = Your Voice

International Students’ Representative

Representative – Social Work, Nursing, Trades, and Division of Student Development

• Patel, Parth Mukesh | Independent

• Skagos, Olivia | Your Vote = Your Voice

For more information contact the chair of the Electoral Committee at elections@trusu.ca

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