toadlane - July 2015

OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF WATERLOO CO-OPERATIVE RESIDENCES INCORPORATED

cover by Prasanna Wijayakoon

July 2015

toadlane

toad illustrated

this month

toad illustrated 01 this month 02 from the editor 03 call for submissions 04 opinion 05 aunt agony 05 society & culture 07 mitochondrial dna in solving crimes 07 good will hunting and social control 09 one sick ass wolverine pastel 11 film club talk 14 THE WORLD 15 food & drink 17 30 second breakfast 17 15 minute recipes 18 no-bake strawberry pie 20 health & beauty 21 getting sleep 21 hacking sleep 22 toad illustrated outro 28

editor: carlos medina \ layout manager: carlos medina \ cover: prasanna wijayakoon \ toad illustrated: anjana babu, prasanna wijayakoon \ toadlane contributors: anjana babu, grace tang, rachel lui, carlos medina \ volunteer contributors: prasanna wijayakoon, kaustav haldar, samantha ward, anonymous \ cec advisor: hayley press

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from the editor Dear Reader,

Thank you for stopping by and checking out our latest issue of toadlane magazine! This month we continue to tap our community for insightful and entertaining articles in a broad range of subjects that make up our lifesyles. We’ve added a health & beauty section this month, with a focus on sleep since exams are apon us! Also, we continue our Aunt Agony column in the opinions section. If you have any questions for Auntie, you can head over to askauntieagony.blogspot.ca and hit her up! She will respond in the next issue of toadlane.

Crucially, I have added my editorial policy below. I have put much thought into it. It dictates the content direction for toadlane under my editorship. It is not a set of rules, it is a way of thinking. If you have any questions about it, or my selection of articles in toadlane, I will be more than happy to explain myself in the next issue’s opinions section.

Co-operatively yours, Carlos Alberto Medina Editor, toadlane magazine EDITORIAL POLICY - TOADLANE MAGAZINE - JULY 2015 - EDITOR: CARLOS MEDINA

Communication is a funny thing; it is special and unique when it truly works. The social position you and I all share is our position in time on this world right now. We are globalizing rapidly and our actions and reactions, our triumphs and troubles, largely are due to to the fact that we are a compository mess of cultures colliding. We often celebrate this difference; bravo. But we also struggle with it.

Cultures contain different organs that compose the whole. There are organs describing how that culture eats, or makes its living, or how individuals interact with one another other, or how it creates its deeper more intimate laws and conventions, and relationship with its creation and justification. As we globalize, we have to come to terms with the differences between these vital bodies. They struggle. they rationalize, they reform, and they become new iterations of themselves within a new culture. I say lets get on another level here. Ethnicity, Ability, Sexuality, heck, personhood (for all you budding Androids/Cyborgs/ETs out there trying to be down with us) as a whole does not limit or diminish the purpose of this endeavour; that is, the creation of and communication within a community.

I offer that this magazine be a place to communicate at any level available to us, but only if it is framed in the following context: We are observant of other’s unique identities and we don’t ignore our differences, but we don’t reduce an individual or a group of people’s perspectives, because we recognize the relativity of our own understanding. With this being the context, I ask you entrust in me the management of content in this, your own toadlane magazine.

Co-operatively yours, Carlos Alberto Medina Editor, toadlane magazine

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request for submissions Dear Members, I officially invite you to submit your work/research/art/insights for the next issue of our very own toadlane magazine. Every submission earns you 5 PI bucks!!

SUBMISSION DEADLINE FOR OUR NEXT ISSUE IS:

FRIDAY AUGUST 21

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I am looking for a wide range of submissions. These can be: - Opinion pieces about contemporary local or international events - Travel Pieces whether it be travel tips or photo journals of your travel adventures - Opinions on technology and/or devices, tech companies, or anything tech related - Thoughts and reviews on entertainment (Film, Fashion, Music, Event Reviews) - Language studies: Submit mini lessons in a language you know!

- Art Work: Submit your creative writing, images of your art/photography, comics - Student survival tips: got any advice for your fellow students? Let us know what you know!

- Recipes of your favorite dishes: show us pics of your food and give us your recipes.

- School papers! If you have written a really interesting paper in school that you want to share.

Please feel free to submit an abridged version that will still be captivating and informative!

Where should you submit your article? Got any questions??

Contact me at toadlane@wcri.coop Cooperatively yours, Carlos Alberto Medina Editor, toadlane Magazine

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opinion Advice from Aunt Agony Got an issue? Ask auntie!

Send us your personal problems and have auntie fix everything! *Please note we are not responsible for consequences of listening to auntie… unless it actually works!

Reader Asks: Dear Auntie Agony, I want to change majors and I’m in third year already. Basically I’d be throwing away a lot of courses, and my family would be disappointed. Also I’d be going off stream with so many friends I made in my cohort. I just feel it would have a big impact. But I don’t see myself doing my current direction of studies in the future.

Auntie Agony says: I understand your dilemma. If it helps, you could consider taking a term off and considering all your options. You need to do what makes you happy despite what your family thinks. You’re doing to be stuck with a career choice that you’re not going to be happy doing and you don’t want be to stuck in a situation like that.

Weigh out your pros and cons and factor out your friends. You’ll make new friends in your program so don’t worry about that. Like I said, if you think this is what’s going to make you happy, don’t let anything stop you.

Reader Asks: Dear Auntie Agony, I feel indifferent towards almost everything. Personally I don’t find it worrying or distressful in the slightest, but it’s beginning to cause problems when dealing with other people and their “feelings”. Apparently saying, “well that’s what people do.

Death is as much a part of life as life itself” is a little bit insensitive. So advize me, how do you guys fake your emotions?

Auntie Agony says: You don’t sound indifferent at all. If you were, you wouldn’t give a shit about other people and their feelings. You sound like an angst-ridden 15 year old who is trying too hard.

Reader Asks: Dear Auntie Agony, How do you react when someone exposes you to a loved one by something you’ve said 2 years ago. When you told that person in confidence and they said they would never say a word to no one because you were like a sister to them.

I want to be angry, I want to lash out and I want to expose this person so much but I can’t. I just cannot bring myself to do it. I hate the fact that it happened to me I feel broken, I would never want anyone else to experience this pain and I feel it will makes things worse.

My relationship is over because of this bastard.. Feels like I’ve lost everything Auntie Agony says: That’s what I call a reality check. I’ve had similar things happen to me. This is something you have to deal with immediately for yourself because if you don’t, it will turn into bitterness, and you won’t be able to move on. You’re basically creating a negative spiritual energy. It builds up and will cause more drama.

The way you deal with it is acceptance.

Dealing with it is called a penance. It’s a personal fault that you have to accept.

You have to accept that you’ve made a mistake. You have to forgive yourself that you made a mistake. You can’t move past it or even forgive the other person if you can’t forgive yourself first. If you can forgive yourself and realized that yes you fucked up and yes you will deal with it by accepting that you fucked up and will just have to live with it and move on, then you won’t be able to get past the pain of betrayal you feel.

It’s hard for people to do this because it’s so easy to blame the other person. It’s so easy to point the finger at someone else. It’s so easy to do that but that’s because that’s a natural defense. Our mind can’t handle the real truth of the matter. The only way we move past that is if we think beyond ourselves. You have to think objectively, as if you were another person, looking at the situation. You will see that you aren’t the victim. You’re just as much of a perpetrator as the person that betrayed you.

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Instead of spending so much time thinking about them and even the loved one you lost, think about how much better your life will be once you can move past them and start over. You know what that’s called?

That’s called personal growth. It’s part of becoming a mature and wise adult. You can do it. Do something that will energize you to get past this, take a nature walk, sit down and reflect at the water or whatever it is that you do.

Reader Asks: Dear Auntie Agony.

Why do girls go mental over Kim Kardashian. It’s so annoying. There are so many better looking women in the world.

Is it because of her lame ass stupid show that makes all the girls want to be like her? Isn’t she like 4ft 11 & has had several surgeries? Is this the standard set for today’s people? Another one is Nicki Minaj.

Fucking hell, that thing is like one giant jacket potato covered with cheese. She sounds like a twat and looks like a cartoon from Toy Story. I miss the days when women had some class. Nowadays everyone wants to be a skank.

Auntie Agony says: She’s relatable. I have to give her credit for creating a business empire for herself.

It was always the skinny white girl thing in the media and now it’s the curvy exotic look. America is 50% minorities. Climbing stat across the world. If you notice now, stuff heavily in the media is about relating to everyone from Drake to Kim K. 15+ years ago it was about good vibes and being happy, 30+ years ago it was that elusive, mysterious Hollywood glamour that was unattainable but a dream. Now, with the net and twitter, it’s about what everyone can do. Mediocrity sells, because it gives people hope!

As for Nicki, she’s very successful from her work. She’s making a shit ton of money, so she’s doing something better than I am.

Rachel Lui:

Carlos Medina:

Guinea pigs are Pets

Guinea pigs are Food

One day, there was a therapy dog event on campus. After that event, I came home and really wanted something fluffy to play with and so a few days later, I brought some guinea pigs home! As I started introducing them to some of my friends, many of them would joke about wanting to eat them as apparently they are a delicacy in South America.

There were two types of responses: those who joked about barbequing them and those who cringed at the thought of it. I didn’t understand why anyone would want to eat such cute animals? This got me thinking about how culture and differences in perception greatly influence the perceived use of day to day items. In Canada it is not the norm to eat guinea pigs whereas in South America, it is and has been the social norm for a while now. My conclusion? The ones that joke about eating the guinea pigs are probably delusional or creating a “reality” for themselves to live in. As I looked through pictures, I realized that my guinea pigs greatly resemble behaviours of a university student. Here were some of my ideas:

“I just want to sleep and stay like this forever” “I’m trying to get out of bed, I promise, see? At least my paw is out”

The face of every student when the prof explains a concept in class

“Free FOOD!”

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I recently read an article about a Peruvian man in Brooklyn, NY who had the police called on him because he was roasting a guinea pig on a park barbeque. People didn’t like how the man, so innocently and happily, was roasting the juicy rodent on a spit over the public cooking area. It’s funny, I never thought of eating guinea pigs, but after seeing a photo of this man happily making his meal in the park on a sunny saturday morning, I just couldn’t help but agree with him; yeah, that looks like good eating!

Appearenty guinea pigs are common meat in much of south america; something which is not shared with the rest of latin america (furry little guys like those would never survive the wilds of central america, bish plz we don’t has that.) In the USA guinea pigs are not prohibited to eat, but I did some research and in Canada it is prohibited. : ( Do I want to run to a pet store, buy a guinea pig, and make it my next dinner?

Maybe. But I will follow the rules for now. I mean the whole idea of prohibiting this animal from being eaten is totally bogus. It’s all about people’s perspective on what is a pet, and what is food. Of course it sounds mean to kill a guinea pig, gut it, skin it, and roast it on a stick over a fire. But hey’ y’all like bacon right?

What do you think a pig goes through to go from a stinky, happy, mud buddy in a farm pen to the sizzling salty treat you stick in your mouth every morning?

society & culture

genome. This is why maternal relatives may have the same mtDNA or similar mtDNA (due to mutations) so it’s not completely unique to an individual.

Mitochondrial DNA Analysis: A tool for solving forensic cases Grace Tang, toadlane contributor

There are a few reasons why mtDNA is so useful in solving forensic cases compared to normal DNA. First of all, mtDNA exists in high amounts and can be found on almost every cell of the human body, making it easy to find. Another reason is that there are higher copies of mitochondrial DNA sequences in the mitochondria; thousands of copies compared to nucleic DNA. These characteristics make mtDNA very useful when analyzing old remains and evidence lacking nucleated cells, such as, bones, teeth and hair pieces. The analysis is typically used as a last resort, on samples that can’t be analyzed through other techniques. Typically, nuclear DNA samples are commonly analyzed by the RFLP (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) or STR (Short Tandem Repeat) methods. These tests look at specific regions that are unique to an individual in the nuclear DNA. If four or 5 regions match, the person can be easily identified. However, these tests require complete nuclear DNA samples. In cases with missing or degraded samples, mitochondrial DNA analysis is one of the only ways of finding the identity of a person. That’s why the analysis of mitochondrial DNA is so valuable to solving many forensic cases.

DNA Analysis is one of the most important tools available today for identifying and solving forensic cases. The process involves examining specific areas of human DNA to find missing people or to identify an individual. Mitochondrial DNA analysis is a specific kind of DNA analysis that has helped solve many genetically related problems after being discovered in the late 1990’s. This type of DNA analysis is extremely useful with certain types of DNA samples and can be used in combination with other evidence for identification purposes. Mitochondrial DNA analysis has been used for a wide range of cases such as missing children, homicide/ murder, and accident victims. It can also be used for historical and archaeological identification as well; in important cases like the identity of the Romanovs (the last royalty of Russia) and the preserved 6000 year old body of Otzi the Iceman.

Normal DNA, also known as Deoxyribonucleic acid, is located within a cell’s center, the nucleus. Two copies of nuclear DNA can be found: one from the father and the other from the mother. Nuclear DNA remains unique to individuals, because it’s inherited from both parents, (with the exception of identical twins).

Mitochondrial DNA (or mtDNA) is found within the organelles called the mitochondria and it differs from normal DNA in a few ways. Unlike normal DNA within a cell nucleus that is passed from both parents to an offspring, mitochondrial DNA is inherited maternally (only from the mother). At fertilization, the male’s mtDNA information is deleted from the offspring’s

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One of the most popular methods of obtaining mtDNA is by the dHPLC (Denaturing High-Performance Liquid Chromatography) method. They’re one of the most versatile technologies for the analysis of genetic variation. The high sensitivity of the process has placed the technology at the forefront of mitochondrial analysis. The dHPLC process is important

in the initial step of the analysis. When a sample is first obtained, the cellular mixture is exposed from the sample to a mixture of special organic chemicals that separate the DNA from other biological material, like proteins. The chromatography technology is used to help with the separation of the mtDNA. This technology lets scientists separate the mtDNA from the other substances present in the sample.

vided by mtDNA analysis isn’t as complete as some nuclear DNA tests, they’re often the only information that examiners can gather from degraded evidence.

The development of forensic mitochondrial analysis over the past two decades has been very helpful to many cases in the past and there is hope that they’ll continue to provide more useful information to forensics field in the future.

After obtaining the mtDNA, the popular PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction sequencing) is often used for analyzing and zooming in to take a look at a specific region. After boiling, extracting and purifying the mtDNA samples (usually by dHPLC), PCR reagents are added to the sample. Then they can be loaded onto an automated DNA Sequencer, which will amplify one or more copies of an mtDNA section across several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a particular DNA sequence.

Most people own a unique pattern of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are areas unique to them in their mtDNA. Forensic scientists then amplify the special regions of the mtDNA (usually HV1 and HV2), and compare single-nucleotide differences to a reference to identify between individuals.

Bibliography Boswell, B. Callery, P. Gannett, P. Haining, R. Sanga, M. Tirumalai, P. Tracey,T. (2006). dHPLC method for Forensic DNA Analysis. Retrieved February 10, 2011, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/ pdffiles1/nij/grants/213893.pdf Brown, M. (2009). DNA Forensics. Retrieved February 2, 2011, from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/ elsi/forensics.shtml Conners, L. (2008). MtDNA and emerging forensics tools. Retrieved Feb. 6, 2011 from http://www.bioforensics.com/conference08/mtDNA_YSTR/index.html

With advances in technology, many new analysis methods are emerging and they’re very important to the advancement of forensics. Many new research projects are being developed to preserve copies of the mtDNA of interest, as well as to refine the profiling process.

DDC Forensics. (2008). Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA). Retrieved February 8, 2011, from http://www.forensicdnacenter.com/mtdna.html Dolan. (2011). Genetic Origins, Mitochondrial Control Region.

Retrieved February 9, 2011 from http://www.geneticorigins.org/ mito/mitoframeset.htm Explore DNA. (2011). Mitochondrial DNA. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://www.exploredna.co.uk/mitochondrial-dna-analysis.html

One example of new technology available today is Parallel Sequencing. Parallel Sequencing is a technique that is especially helpful for comparing several different copies of mtDNA. It requires no prior knowledge of the mtDNA sequence and involves minimal labor. The machine provides genetic information that can be graphed and easily compared. Parallel Sequencing is also a good tool for looking at heteroplasmy, or mtDNA mutations that can occur in individuals. This technology can also be used in combination with PCR or other technologies to derive quality results.

Foster, R. (2010). Forensic Science. Retrieved February 75, 2011, from http://www.forensicprofiles.com/dna.html Huang, T. & Tang, S. DNA heteroplasmy using Parallel Sequencing, Retrieved Feb. 7, 2011 from http://www.biotechniques. com/BiotechniquesJournal/2010/April/Characterization-of-mitochondr ial-DNA-heteroplasmy-using-a-parallel-sequencing-system/biotechniques-197512.html Illumina, (2011). Genome Analyzer IIx. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from http://www.illumina.com/systems/genome_analyzer_iix.ilmn Isenberg, A. (2002). Forensic mitochondrial DNA analysis: A different crime-solving tool. Retrieved February 13th, 2011, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/213893.pdf

In conclusion, mitochondrial DNA analysis is a very valuable forensics tool that can be used in a variety of areas. The future of DNA analysis looks promising as techniques for smaller and more accurate tests have become available. While the information pro-

Wells, H. (2010). Mitochondrial DNA Analysis. Retrieved February 12, 2011, from http://www.enotes.com/forensic-science/mitochondrial-dna-analysis

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A Bergerian Perspective of Good Will Hunting Rachel Lui, toadlane Contributor

“Good Will Hunting” as Will seems to be trapped within the social forces of the lower working class life that he lives in. Having grown up in an environment that pressures Will to reject his potential success he believes that those who are successful lack originality, which is something he greatly values. Social Control is defined as “various means used by a society to bring its recalcitrant members back into line” (Berger, 68).

Instruments such as violence and ridicule are ways used to bring those who have deviated from society’s norms back to doing or acting in a way that is socially accepted. In extreme cases of deviation, therapy may be used to shape those who are outliers of society’s norms back to what is socially accepted. Though it may be argued that humans have the ability to think outside of these norms, as Berger describes it “And this trick is performed by making these grooves appear to the individual as the only possible ones.” (Berger, 87) Will may think he is making his own decision, while it is clearly shown that he is trapped within the social norms of where he is at the time. Working anywhere beyond a low pay job seems unattainable to him until he is forcibly introduced to a new social location.

The film Good Will Hunting written by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck follows the life of Will who is portrayed as one who has been greatly shaped by his past circumstances. Will has intelligence beyond measure but instead of using it to its potential as many would see it, the film begins with Will working at a university as a janitor. As the story progresses Will’s character develops into an individual recognizing his potential and beginning to achieve to what the world sees as success. Though this film offers the explanation that Will was shaped greatly by his past, Berger’s “Invitation to Sociology” offers a different perspective. Instead of being shaped by your past, the Sociological Perspective offers a different view of why the story unfolds the way it does. Change in character is brought on only with a change in social location, because humans don’t challenge social norms unless there are others that are like-minded. A change in social location results in a change in identity which is in turn greatly shaped and sustained by society.

The way Will interacts with his changing environment is shown through role theory, as described in Berger’s book. A role is defined as “a typified response to a typified expectation” (Berger, 95). In his old social location he is expected to be the one that does not do well in the eyes of society so he responds in that way.

This contrasts his new location that Professor Lambeau introduces him to in which Will is expected to play the role of one who is successful in the corporate

Social location describes the certain location of a person at a time, defined as “to be at the intersection point of social forces” (Berger, 67). The social location of a person greatly influences ones’ thoughts, character and morals. Unless one is able to get out of a certain social location, they are essentially trapped to only know the ways that the forces around them have instilled upon them. This is shown in the film

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more in that social situation he accepted the implications in conforming to the norms of that location. “roles are played without reflection, in immediate and almost automatic response to the expectations of the situation” (Berger, 135-136). In the beginning, Will was completely set on not changing, but as he was integrated within another set of social norms, he started to accept the changes. Will’s character started out resistant to change, but as time went on with the adjustment and acceptance of his new location his thoughts and actions changed completely. In turn, the role that he “played” became his new identity.

world. Berger explains: “Normally, one becomes what one plays at” (Berger, 98). At first, there is a role clash between who he wants to be and who others expect him to be, but as time progresses he becomes accustomed to the person everyone expects him to be, and in turn finds his identity in that new person. When Will finally realized he had potential and could do something with it, he let go of what was holding him back and took the risk of being outside his comfort zone.

Had Will not been put in a new location, he would not have changed into who he became. “Identity is not something ‘given’ but is bestowed in acts of social recognition” (Berger, 98). His identity is not self-made but rather given to him through the day by day interactions over time in each social location. Furthermore, as he continues to play this role, the fact that everyone continues to acknowledge this role further sustains and enforces this as a new identity to him.

The change brought out in Will was not from letting go of his past mistakes, but rather through the interactions of others that changed and sustained this new found identity.

Social location does indeed have a huge impact on ones personality and identity. The movie “Good Will Hunting” shows Will as one who is stubbornly set on his way of living in the beginning, completely rejecting anything outside of what he grew up knowing. As time progresses and he begins to be integrated within a new social location, social interactions begin to change his mindset, how he acts and thinks about situations, and eventually creates a completely new identity from the one he had known previously. When Will tried to deviate from the norm in the new location, his actions and thoughts were rejected countless times, which resulted him learning to change his attitude. Over time, Will learns to play the role that those around him expect of him, instead of stick to the core values he originally held throughout his life. As a result, his character that he had held on to for so long was changed, due to a simple change in social location. All of this attributed to the fact that the more he played this role that at first seemed so foreign to him, the more his identity changed. It eventually became not just a role he played, but part of who he was. This all displays the immense power of social control, and how society can change and shape the identity of even the seemingly most stubborn and persistent people.

Some may say that the turning point for Will is after Sean repeatedly says to him “It’s not your fault”, until Will comes upon that realization. Though this may be partially true, Interpretive Sociology may give another account to explain this change. “each social situation is sustained by the fabric of meanings that are brought into it by the several participants” (Berger, 126). Though Will may not know at the time, every single counselling session is one that has been shaped by generations and generations of what society has made of a counsellor to patient relationship.

Will’s change is simply a result of the norms of what a counselling session has been shaped into by society over the generations.

Social reality also has its impact on Will; the circumstances in which he was raised led him to think that going anywhere beyond his current position was attainable. “‘Bad faith’ is to pretend something is necessary that in fact is voluntary” (Berger, 143). Initially, when Will is first introduced to the new social location in the movie, he keeps the mindset that he will never move forward. Even though it was completely realistic at the time due to his intelligence, Will refuses to accept it because he had the mindset that it was necessary to stay in the current position he was at, at the time. As he began integrating himself

Works Cited: Berger, Peter L. Invitation to Sociology; a Humanistic Perspective. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963. Print.

Good Will Hunting. Dir. Gus Van Sant. Perf. Matt Damon, Robin Williams, and Stellan Skarsgård. Miramax Films, 1997. DVD.

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Film C l ub Talk

Musings about last month’s film series selections

THX1138 As a child going to the cinemas I’d sometimes wonder what the whole THX logo was that often played before a film. The THX logo was accompanied by what was known as the “deep note”, which helped movie theatres properly tune their sound systems. Anyway, this system was created within Lucas Film studios and was partially named after THX, the main character in this movie. This was George Lucas’ first film, written and originally filmed while he was in film school, then re-filmed as his first full length movie. It is a bit boring but I’m really all about the visual minimalist aesthetics.

Prometheus Prometheus was an interesting back story to aliens, and to human kind as well. The idea is that a superior alien race planted the seed to human life on Earth. These aliens are larger humanoid people who essentially go around planting life on different worlds. We are like their mini me’s! I’m quite interested in broadening the idea of human origins. I like the thought that Earth is part of a larger ecosystem where space debris carrying preserved genetic material, landing in just the right places, causes life in new places.

Logan’s Run The slo-mo psychedelic orgy chase scene in this film is superb. Logan’s Run is set in a post apocalyptic utopian city that often looks like a gigantic domed shopping mall. The deal is that life is perfect but everyone is young; people have crystals on their hand that change colour depending on their age. As they reach 30 their crystals turn red and they have to perform a ritual in which they have a chance to be “renewed”. Spoiler alert: they just die. And hence the story goes from utopian to dystopian. This film was released in 1976. Overall it is a bit drawn out and has terrible effects and perhaps it a better idea to read the book and use your own imagination. There is a remake in the works in which I hope will be good. Can’t wait.

Space Balls SPACE BALLS! Are you kidding me? I grew up on this. In fact as far as my experience of things, Star Wars is based on Space balls. I knew about Perri-air before I knew about Perrier. I will always associate “jamming” radar signals with raspberry jam. This is Mel Brooks’ masterpiece work of film parody in my opinion. When the space balls capture the good guys’ stunt doubles? Genius! Pizza The Hut? I think I’ll watch it again now. Bye!

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the world

Good Will Hunting is set in Boston, Massachusetts and the main character played by Matt Damon is a janitor at MIT.

The North American concept of Itailain sausage refers to a sausag with fennel or anise. It has little to d with sausages actually made in Italy

Nicki Minaj was born in St. James, Trinidad & Tobago. She’s like the go to top female rapper these days.

Since pre-columbian times guineapigs were domesticated for consumption in the Andes region of South America and are still the major source of protien there. Europeans brought them to the old world and turned them into pets... :\

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ge do y.

Tracing back the mitochondrial DNA of humans inherited directly from the maternal side, “Mitochondrial Eve�, the most recent woman from which we all descend, is said to have lived in east africa between 100200,000 years ago.

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food & drink

If you are looking for a great new breakfast idea, look no further! Breakfast is an important part of your day and should not be skipped. This recipe is easy to prepare.. good for those days you’re running late.

Studies show that eating breakfast can improve memory and alertness throughout the day. As students we often think we don’t have enough time to eat healthy and prepare our own meals. My record for assembling this meal lies somewhere around 30 seconds -- so forget the Tim Horton’s line and give this healthy alternative a shot.

Ingredients: 2.5 Tbsp Slivered Almonds 1 tsp Flax Seed 6 - 8 Dried Cranberries 1/4 cup Frozen Berries (thawed overnight) 1/4 tsp Cinnamon 1/2 cup Yogurt (Greek/plain/flavoured) or Almond Milk Optional: Other personal favourite nuts, fruits or seeds Total Prep: Serves: Directions:

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Quick, Healthy The & S e c o n d Delicious Weekday Breakfast Breakfast Samantha Ward, Guest Contributor

2 min 1

Assemble all ingredients (except the yogurt/milk ingredient) the night before and store in the fridge.

This gives time for the frozen fruit to thaw. In the morning, mix in the yogurt or milk and enjoy a delicious, healthy start to your day before hitting the books! There are many variations to this, so be creative and make it your own by adding your favourite fruits (dried/frozen/fresh), nuts and seeds or using a flavoured yogurt.

Note: This meal uses NO sugar. The fruit acts as a natural sweetener.. for all you sweet tooths. Almond milk has great nutritional value and the nuts and seeds provide you with protein to keep you going until lunch.

Stay healthy my friends.. and see if you can beat my time ;) ... and while you’re on a health binge, why not come out to fitness club?! (Mondays @ 5:30)

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3. When you’re ready to bake, simply place the marinated chicken on an aluminum lined baking tray and bake for 30 minutes, no real cooking required!

Minute Recipes

Grace Tang, toadlane Contributor

We all know that university can be stressful and time consuming. Besides, no student has the time to cook up a five course dinner when there are midterms to cram for. Here are 3 simple recipe ideas that won’t break the bank and will keep you well fed! All of these recipes don’t take more than 15 or 20 minutes to prepare and are easy to make in bulk in case you want to stock up on more food.

Fun Options: *Great to substitute with vegetables too! Bake up some zucchini or eggplant.

The recipe also works for chicken breast or wings as well! *You can pair the chicken with some veggies and/or mashed potatoes for a balanced meal!

Baked Chicken: 1. Take fresh chicken thighs or drumsticks, wash, and place in a large zip-lock bag.

Make sure the bag is large enough to fit the chicken and marinade!

2. Marinate chicken for about 3-5 hours with whatever ingredients you like! The photos are of the traditional marinade.

Traditional: ginger, soy sauce, cooking wine, scallions Teriyaki: Teriyaki sauce, garlic powder, soy sauce, dash of vinegar Honey Garlic: Garlic salt, dash of honey or sugar, bit of soy sauce or oyster sauce.

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Quick and Dirty Curry Cut up vegetables such as carrots, broccoli, potatoes and boil in a pot until soft.

Stir in store bought curry cubes and simmer on low heat for 5 minutes or so until the cubes are dissolved Boil down the mixture for 20 minutes until curry thickens.

Easy to add in protein such as cubes of chicken or beef as well Serve on a bed of rice or noodles as desired

Pasta Cut up vegetables such as mushrooms, peppers, broccoli and sautĂŠ in a pan under low heat until cooked.

Feel free to put in Italian sausage, or chicken breast or your choice of protein.

In a separate pot, boil up your favourite pasta (try a small piece to make sure the pasta is cooked)

Incorporate the cooked pasta into the pan with vegetables Add in your favourite store bought pasta sauce, stir for 1 minute to incorporate all the ingredients, and you’re done!

Fun Options *Great way to incorporate vegetables into your diet, can use leftover veggies to make this recipe *Also, can mix sauces together! 1:1 ratio of tomato sauce and alfredo makes parma rosa pasta sauce.

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No-bake Strawberry Pie Rachel Lui, toadlane Contributor

One weekend, I went to St. Jacobs Farmers Market. For those who have been, you likely know that at the end of the day, all the vendors want to get rid of the fruit, so you are able to get cases of fruit for around $10! A few friends and I decided to buy cases of strawberries and blueberries, then realized it was a bad idea once getting home.

Don’t get me wrong, the fruit was good, but it doesn’t last long. In the race to consume it before it rots, there was one idea that came to mind: why not make pie! A few problems that I ran into: I didn’t want to buy ingredients, it was too hot to bake, and I did not want to expend much effort. I googled a recipe, and set out to make the pie. After putting in the first ingredient though, I realized that I don’t usually follow recipes, and so a pie came about.

For reference, here is the recipe that I worked from: - 1 cup sugar - 1 ¼ cup water - 2 tbsp cornstarch (can use flour) - ¼ cup gelatin - 4 cups fresh strawberries - Pie crust 1. Boil strawberries down with water until it becomes a sauce (steaming the strawberries will speed up this process) 2. Add sugar, cornstarch, gelatin until incorporated. Remove from heat, and when the mixture is cool enough, pour into the pie shell 3. Throw in the fridge and decorate as you like!

YAY PIE!

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health & beauty

Getting Sleep

Rachel Lui, toadlane Contributor

Chances are you’ve seen this chart before or some version of it. The idea of the three (social life, good grades, adequate sleep) and you can only pick two of them. A lot of the time, students will put time into social life and good grades, at the expense of sleep, thinking that it won’t be TOO harmful, and that it can be caught up on later.

Not only can you avoid all of these consequences if you sleep enough regularly, but it will also increase your productivity when you are awake.

There are many benefits to getting enough sleep such as increased alertness and focus (leading to better grades), improved memory, decreased stress, and also you’ll be less accident prone, to name a few. Not only that, but you will have a longer lifespan as well, what’s there to lose?

It has even been said that college/university students are likely the most sleep deprived group in the population. How many teenagers do you know that would be willing to go to bed if they had the opportunity to finish off some more school work, or to go out with friends? We are stuck in the mindset that the longer we are awake, the more we are able to accomplish which is terribly flawed because sleep deprivation is one of the worst ways you can harm your body. Not getting enough sleep affects every process in your body; some of which include your immune, cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and central nervous systems. Examples of the effects of damage can include memory and concentration problems, cognitive dysfunction, increased likelihood of depression, high blood pressure, heart disease and being more prone to illness in general.

Here are some tips to getting into the habit of a (relatively) normal sleeping schedule: - Set a time to sleep and wake up every morning – try to sleep within a 30 min margin of these times every day. This will help your body get into natural sleep patterns - Avoid caffeine later in the day (this includes chocolate, coffee, tea, pop) - When you are trying to fall asleep, keep electronics away from you to prevent hours wasted in bed scrolling through social media

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HACKING SLEEP: HOW TO ENGINEER AROUND SLEEP FOR EXTENDED WAKEFULNESS Kaustav Haldar, Guest Contributor

I started out in an Engineering program at a Canadian University a couple years ago. Shortly thereafter I decided I wanted to be a programmer.

Totally reasonable life choices, that came with some slightly less reasonable time demands.

medication of some sort or the other. These include Ritalin, Adderall, Vyvanse, Biphentin and many others. But they’re only so effective, and have some undesirable side effects. Hey, I’m not trying to tell you to not take drugs here, drugs are bad, you know this from the millions of dollars spent by many governments vilifying them under one undiscriminating umbrella term. No, I’m going to teach you how to intelligently use drugs to get the results you desire.

You see when you’re in an engineering program pulling all nighters to get work done start becoming fairly normal. And then if you want to become a programmer you now need to digest thousands of lines of documentation and code, which definitely doesn’t help you get all the schoolwork done in a nice timely manner. And then we compound that with the recent phenomenon of hackathons. Hackathons are 24-48hr long programming meetups where you, alone or in a team, write code hoping to create something interesting, like a mobile app, or program. As it currently stands, getting employed at a top tier tech firm is nigh near impossible for an undergraduate student without hackathon experience.

A brief primer on the brain

Hackathons are great learning experiences, you get to try new frameworks and tools with minimal risk. You see, to build something in programming, you need to understand the tools and solutions that exist in that space. To engineer a better bridge, you need to understand how bridges work and are built. So we need to understand the human brain a little bit.

Most of you should know that a human brain is a biological electrochemical system consisting of cells called neurons. Neurons connect to each other and basically store you. Who you are, your memories,

This led me to try and find some way to make it easier for myself to stay awake, and get work done.

University students are often familiar with ADHD

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your ability to add numbers, everything is stored as connections in a dense mesh of cells in your cranium.

Neurons communicate via signals triggered by electrical charges that cause chemical messengers to be released into a tiny gap in between them and accepted by another neuron on the other side.

To hack it, we will either have to use electro-magnetic phenomenon or chemicals. Wearing a magnet on my head doesn’t seem too attractive so instead let us enter the wonderful world of neuropsychopharmacology.

- the brain also does housekeeping and maintenance, flushing out by products of cellular function and rearranging neuron formations.[1]

Not sleeping at all for an extended period can have dire consequences, even death. At the end of the day, sleep is necessary, but that doesn’t mean we can’t engineer around having to sleep every night.

Wakefulness and receptors

There are 3 main receptor types that I’ve identified that have something to do with wakefulness. Since many chemicals can affect the same receptor and the receptors often have subtypes these 3 receptor types provide a nice framework to reason about hacking sleep and chemical targets. I came to this hypothesis by looking at the mechanisms of actions of a plethora of drugs which are known to affect wakefulness.

These are the adrenergic, dopaminergic and adenosine receptors.

Synapse Right so about those chemical messengers:

Well they’re called neurotransmitters. There’s oh so many of them. Their release is usually mediated by electricity in the neuron itself (keep this in mind, it’ll come up later). After crossing the tiny gap, which is also called the synaptic cleft, these little guys fall into receptor sites. Think of it as a jigsaw puzzle, a specific shape of receptor goes with a specific shape of neurotransmitter. But there are man made chemicals as well that can fit into the receptor and cause interesting effects since they have somewhat similar shapes to the neurotransmitters. Not all these neurotransmitters lock into receptors, some is sucked back into the neurons via recovery vents. This is called reuptake.

Now we know a bit about the brain but what about sleep?

Sleep has a myriad of purposes, so I do not recommend long periods of severe sleep deprivation.

These include: - muscle recovery and repair - formation of long term memories

I should mention that sleep is complex, so is the human brain, and other neurotransmitters like serotonin and glutamate also play a part. For a purely curious mind I recommend reading “Neuropharmacology of sleep” on NCBI. Dopamine receptors

Dopamine

Ah yes dopamine, many of you have probably heard of it. Its responsible for reward motivated behavior. If you study hard and get those grades for yourself and it makes you feel good, well its the dopamine. Too much dopamine and you’ll be lazy and not want to do anything, too little and you’ll get bored, yawn, maybe fall asleep(anyone else have 8am engineering lectures?). It plays a very real role in sleep.[2][3]

You will usually have too little dopamine try-

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ing to pull all nighters. We’ll be looking at drugs that increase dopamine concentrations in the brain and supplements that are easily metabolized to it to prevent depletion. You also want to block its reuptake to maximize signaling strength. Dopamine reuptake inhibitors, precursors or anything that increases dopamine transporter activity causing it to release more is your friend.

Adrenergic receptors

Adenosine receptors

Epinephrine

These guys are responsible for triggering your adrenal system. The whole fight or flight response.

If you over stimulate them well you’ll be panicky, anxious, paranoid your heart will explode from the excessive beating. But a small amount can do wonders for alertness and wakefulness. One should note that drugs that target the dopamine and adrenergic receptors can sometimes be found under the category of monoaminergics on online retail sites.

Drugs:

Adenosine

Alright, time for the fun stuff. I didn’t just almost put you to sleep droning on about receptors and what not for nothing. Time to teach you how to hack around the biological need for regular sleep. I can’t talk about all the drugs since new ones come out pretty often, but you can identify drugs that’ll work based on the receptors and underlying systems they target. For the best results we want drugs that have different mechanisms of actions on these systems stacked together.

Less people have probably heard of this one, but almost all of you have exploited this poor guy in the past. Ever drink coffee? Green tea? Energy drinks? This is the main target for all of those.

You see as you get sleepier, this pesky little molecule called adenosine builds up in your brain as a breakdown product of ATP (Your cells generate energy via the ATP->ADP reaction). It binds to its namesake receptor, which in turn triggers some very calming effects like slowed heart rate, reduction in dopaminergic signalling, muscle relaxation etc. All effects we don’t want. So we drink coffee, which blocks these receptors, preventing adenosine in our brain from getting in and triggering its effects. So what you need are adenosine antagonists.

Amphetamines

Adderall

Ritalin

Remember those drugs kids at school take we talked about earlier? Adderall etc.

They’re amphetamines or amphetamine derivatives, all of them, and share similar mechanisms of actions. They work mainly on the dopamine and

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adrenaline systems.

half the dose or less the next time. a 10% constant boost is better than a 20% boost followed by a 80% degradation.

By increasing DAT (dopamine transporter) activity they cause your neurons to dump more dopamine into the presynaptic cleft. It works in the same way on the adrenergic system and also triggers similar effects on a myriad of other neurotransmitters like acetylcholine, glutamate and serotonin.

The brotherhood of Modafinil

But there’s other drugs that can be acquired cheaper and without legal restrictions which have the same mode of action. They can often be found in supplements for weight lifting as stimulants or pre-workouts.

Modafinil

For example one drug that is rather easy to get at bodybuilding and supplement stores is Ephedrine. Its similar to amphetamine in structure and affects the dopaminergic and adrenergic systems just like the most popular ADHD medication. It doesn’t work quite as well though.

Now lets consider a slightly more exotic drug.

Modafinil. This guys been around for a long time and the militaries around the world love it. I just found out my home nations (India) air force includes it in contingency plans. Brilliant! Soldiers that don’t need to sleep. Now if only they could find planes that didn’t fall out of the sky on a regular basis.[6]

But these amphetamine derivatives also have a dark side.

First off if you take too much your neurons will fry themselves. Remember how I mentioned neurotransmitter based transmission is triggered by electric currents in the cells? When a super excited neuron dumps a ton of dopamine, the tiny electric charge causing it is enough to damage it, permanently. But then it cascades, and the next neuron in queue attempts to pass on the signal, frying itself in the process and so on and on. Don’t worry, there’s millions of them, or actually do worry a little bit. Neurons are easily excited, and like a very very old man with a myriad of health problems, too much excitement can and does kill it.[4]

Modafinil works via the dopaminergic and adrenergic systems.[7]

It works as a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, which means stronger signals due to more dopamine in the presynaptic cleft, ad it increases norepinephrine levels in the synaptic cleft in a similar way to amphetamines.

An important factor to keep in mind is that it’s a low affinity binder, which means: - It works slowly (expect 2 hrs) - Its mild (you won’t necessarily feel it, but trust me, when it’s 4am and you look around and everyone but you is yawning, you’ll know it worked) - It won’t prevent you from falling asleep if you really want

Secondly, regular use of ADHD medication can and does cause a dependency. So you’ve effectively given yourself ADHD and can’t really function without it.[5]

Third, amphetamine use severely drains your neurotransmitters. You need to replenish them. Keep reading and I’ll tell you how. They also cause stress and fatigue in the underlying systems, namely the adrenergic and dopaminergic systems and to a lesser extent the serotonergic system.

But modafinil is hard to get (impossible in Canada) and expensive, so let me present to you the list of alternatives:

So if you feel burnt out afterwards, try taking

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as the enzyme activity increases. Not as effective as modafinil since a lot of it is destroyed in the metabolic process.

CRL-409,40

CRL-40,941

CRL-40,940 (Fimodafinil)

AKA FlModafinil (or Bisfluoromodafinil), current heavyweight champion of the modafinil alternatives world. Basically modafinil with fluorine added to it. Fluorine increases bio-availability of the drug by increasing its lipophilicity (It crosses the blood brain barrier easier since it’s more fat soluble)[8] Recommended dose is 50-100 mg, up to 200mg if you plan on staying up for 48hrs.

Hydrafinil

CRL-40,941 (Fladrafinil)

AKA Fladrafinil (or Bisfluoroadrafinil) I recommend you do not take this. Its basically adrafinil with two fluorine molecules and all anecdotal reports say it doesn’t work very well. If you do try it, write to us and tell us how it went!

Modafinil and it’s derivatives is a lot safer than amphetamines and stimulants like Adderall, but still don’t take a massive dose. I can tell you from personal experience that staying awake for 3 days in a row isn’t fun.

Good ol’ cuppa joe

Hydrafinil

Some people absolutely love this stuff. The name is a marketing play and the molecule itself doesn’t have much in common with modafinil.[9] Though common criticisms are that it looks funny, clumps easily and has a very short duration of effect.

Adrafinil

Caffeine

Adrafinil

So far we’ve targeted the dopaminergic and adrenergic systems. Lets look at adenosine real quick.

Your best bet, and cheapest, is to simply drink a cup of coffee.

This guy gets metabolized to modafinil in the liver. A strange queasiness might be felt in the liver

Many in the nootropics community love a little bit of l-theanine with their coffee, feel free to try

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that if coffee makes you too jittery.

But don’t drink too much coffee. It’ll backfire.

If you drink large amounts of coffee continuously, your brain reacts by upregulating adenosine receptors on the neuron heads and by increasing the amount of adenosine in your brain, and this causes you to be constantly sleepy, tired and require coffee to barely function at baseline. If you’re at a hackathon, hold up on the coffee till it’s near the end and you absolutely can’t function without it. I found myself continuously getting addicted to coffee, requiring it to just stay awake and then going through a painful withdrawal/cleanse, so I switched to green tea.

There are more powerful and targeted adenosine receptor blockers though they arent very well known or easily found. These belong to the Xanthine family of molecules. Write to us if you have any hands on experience with them, we’d love to interview you.

of your brain. It’ll also help you get over writers block if you feel incredibly fatigued before you can afford to sleep properly.

And finally eat something, even if you’re not hungry from all the stims in your body. I’m not going to go into dieting and what proper foods are. But hopefully you know this part.

Best of luck with your endeavors, whatever they may be. And remember I’m not a doctor and even if I was, you take advice from a stranger on the internet at your own risk.

Next time I’ll look at some more novel ways of promoting alertness, concentration and wakefulness via some not commonly targeted receptors.

Recovery “But I feel like shit after pulling all nighters or going to hackathons!” Well duh, what’d you expect to feel like? A million bucks?

Here’s what happened, your brain depleted a ton of its neurotransmitters thinking your thoughts.

Energy stores are also depleted. I highly recommend a dopamine precursor afterwards or even as part of your drug stack.

NALT is a crowdpleaser in that category. The main part of those four letters is the T, and it stands for tyrosine. Tyrosine is readily metabolized to dopamine. Dopamine is further metabolized to norepinephrine which you depleted stressing your adrenergic system. Bam! Two birds, one stone. Mice treated to have extra dopamine also have a stronger reaction to modafinil and caffeine and ended up recovering better from sleep deprivation than untreated mice.[10] So what about the adenosine we blocked?

Well there isn’t much you can do about that.

Take a nap, even if it’s a quick 10-30 minute nap or you just close your eyes and think about stuff during your waking stint. It’ll flush some of the adenosine out

References: Harvard Medical School website on sleep: http://healthysleep.med.harvard.edu/healthy/matters/benefits-of-sleep/why-do-we-sleep Dopaminergic role in regulating neurophysiological markers of sleep homeostasis in humans Sebastian C. Holt et al The Journal of Neuroscience: http://www.jneurosci.org/content/34/2/566.short Smart Drug smarts episode on Ritalin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-13rAg4108g Modafinil Encyclopedia of pharmacology: http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-64227772-6_370-2#page-1 IAF crashes: http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-here-s-a-list-of-iaf-accidents-that-took-place-in-the-last-one-year-1973075 Fluorine use in pharmaceuticals: http://www.halocarbon.com/halocarbon_media/BenefitsToAddingFluorine-cphishowdaily.pdf Hydrafinil: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S0960894X12004702 Neuropharmacology of sleep NCBI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3026477/

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toad illustrated

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