December 6, 2012

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the newspaper

The University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly

Since 1978

VOL XXXV Issue 14 • December 6, 2012

Mayor’s ‘stay’ dulls quality of City Hall theatre

Ford retains mayoralty, most interesting outcome scenario negated Yukon Damov Mayor Rob Ford was the source of some comparatively unexciting news yesterday. His legal saga could have taken an unlikely turn into the realm of sheer contrivance but instead he was granted the “stay” anticipated by most legal experts. This decision

avoided altogether the most undesirable potential outcome of Ford’s latest political mishap.

In her verdict in Wednesday’s hearing, Ontario Superior Court Justice Gladys Pardu decided that three criteria were met in the affirmative: “Is there a serious issue to be heard? Will there be irreparable harm if a stay is

not granted? Does the balance of convenience and the public interest justify granting a stay?”

This most recent decision in Magder versus Ford means that Ford will remain Mayor pending the outcome of his appeal case, which begins January 7.

The decision represents a minor victory in what has oth-

Campus history just a click away New website serves as ‘one-stop’ for U of T history

Isaac Thornley November 26 saw the launch of Heritage University of Toronto, a new website designed to serve as the ‘one-stop’ online resource for U of T history. The project is an ongoing collaborative effort across the three U of T campuses between several U of T archives, library, and information services organizations.

Plans for the site began in the spring, when U of T’s president David Naylor expressed the need for a singular, all-encompassing website that could provide the public with a full picture of U of T history.

With the tagline “Our Ongoing History in Images, Texts, and Rich Media,” the project centers

on the notion of a shared, collective U of T history, both in presentation and approach. The public is welcomed to the site and encouraged to share any tidbit of U of T history they might have.

University archivist Loryl MacDonald emphasized the breadth of the website’s scope, explaining, “When developing the site we wanted to make sure that [contributors] understood that it’s not one top-down history, but rather it’s about all of us. By all of us we mean faculty, staff, and students as well.”

MacDonald also acknowledged that the project did not make any specific plans with regards to the representation of the university or to the construc-

tion of a U of T identity. Rather, the content on the site has been added more out of practicality.

“What was uploaded were actually things that researchers had already requested, items that were already publicly available. With that said, these items clearly are things that people have come into the archives and hunted down. They do tend to be sort of a hit list.”

This hit list includes many of the great alumni of U of T: Margaret Atwood, Banting and Best, and Marshall McLuhan, all of whom are proudly displayed in slideshow sequence on the home page.

Representing the student history at U of T, however, is

cont’d page 2

erwise been an exceptionally rough patch for the mayor since he lost his conflict-of-interest case on November 26. Losing the case immediately put his mayoralty in jeopardy; the verdict would have had him removed from office on Monday.

Had he not been granted the stay, the city would have been

plunged into a crisis, with one particularly troubling possible outcome.

Pardu decided against the alternative reality where Ford loses the stay hearing and leaves office on Monday. In this alternative reality city council

cont’d page 2

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would then be forced to decide within sixty days whether to hold a by-election or appoint a replacement. In the worst-case scenario, council appoints a new mayor and Ford wins his appeal case after the new mayor is installed. The result: Toronto ends up with two mayors.

This compromising scenario was already unlikely, but incidentally it would also have been in the spirit of stopping the “gravy train.” An appointment would save the taxpayers the roughly $7 million it costs to hold a by-election.

If Ford should lose his ap-

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Editor-in-Chief Cara Sabatini

Design Editor Samantha Chiusolo

Managing Editor Helene Goderis

Web Editor Joe Howell

News Editor Yukon Damov

Comment Editor Dylan Hornby

Associate News Editors Sebastian Greenholtz Emerson Vandenberg

Contributors

Illustrations Editor Nick Ragetli

Suzanna Balabuch, Bodi Bold, Yukon Damov, Sinead Doherty-Grant, Jon Dundas, Sydney Gautreau, Sebastian Greenholtz, Dylan Hornby, Odessa Kelebay, Amanda Lynne-Ballard, Maj Major, Zach Ouellette, Nick Ragetli, Kelsey Stasiak, David Stokes, Isaac Thornley, Emerson Van-

The culture shock of a Montreal convenience store is a rite of passage for many of Ontario’s 18 year-olds. Encountering an aisle filled with all kinds of beer and wine, right next to two-litre bottles of Coke and bags of Doritos, always seemed a distant dream for Ontarians--until now.

Recently, the PC opposition has come out in support of doing just that, and, frankly, it’s about time. Our alcohol sale laws have the reputation of being strict and inconvenient. Did you know that up until the 60s, we licensed alcohol drinkers in Ontario the same way we li-

cense drivers?

In this province, we can only buy alcohol in two ways: through the crown-run Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) or through private monopolies such as The Beer Store.

These stores offer major inconveniences for customers due to their limited locations and short hours. If you run low on beer at a party, you have no options.

On the other hand, corner stores are open longer, and are literally everywhere.

On top of this, The Beer Store is entirely controlled by Labatt, Molson and Sleeman, three major Canadian breweries that enjoy a monopoly on beer sales

denberg, Rhiannon White

Editorial: 416-593-1552 thenewspaper@gmail.com www.thenewspaper.ca

the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a nonprofit corporation.

All U of T community members, including students, staff and faculty, are encouraged to contribute to the newspaper.

ODESSA KELEBAY

Copy Editor Sydney Gautreau the newspaper 1 Spadina Crescent Suite 245 Toronto, ON M5S 1A1

Check out the site at http://www. heritage.utoronto.ca.

12-11-05 11:20 AM

the newspaper is the University of Toronto’s independent weekly paper, published since 1978.

VOL XXXV No. 14

Photo Editor Bodi Bold

peal, it will force city council to appoint a mayor or hold a byelection, in which Ford would be allowed to run to regain his mayoralty. If this happens, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday would become interim mayor.

Within 165 days, or five-and-ahalf months, Toronto would go to the polls: sixty days to decide election day, sixty days until nomination day, and forty-five days for campaigning.

If Ford should win his appeal in January, Toronto saves $7 million and regains Mayor Ford. For now, Ford is left to preside over 2013 budget deliberations while mulling on his future.

understandably more of a challenge. Students come and go at U of T, and a lot of them. As a result, the site’s content seems to reflect the more permanent aspects of U of T history: its architecture, its most famous alumni, and its most significant intellectual achievements.

As the project matures we should expect to see far more contributions from UTM and UTSC, as well as a more diverse array of media employed; right now the site has only eight videos uploaded, for example. The bulk of the site’s content is currently photographs from the University Archives. Despite the challenges in creating a students’ history at U of T, the possibilities offered by the site, particularly the feature of allowing anyone to share a piece of history, bode well for the future.

Opinion: a case for cases in the corner store Dylan Hornby

Arts Editor Sinead Doherty-Grant

from “history”

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December 6, 2012

in the province. Not only is this inconvenient, it hurts the ability of Ontario’s many small craft breweries to compete. How can Ontario’s local brewers compete and grow when they can only sell their products through international booze giants?

If we allow privately owned stores to sell beer and wine, however, there must be strong regulation. The LCBO may be a business, but it is also a government entity. That means that checking for ID must be standard protocol in the LCBO, up to the age of 25. If someone doesn’t have proper identification, they can’t buy it. Although we have ID laws for corner stores that sell tobacco as well, there is a reason we see teenagers smoking daily.

Corner stores do not always live up to the law, and this could become a serious problem if alcohol was introduced without properly enforced expectations.

Yes, there is definitely a strong case to sell alcohol in private businesses, but we must ensure that it doesn’t make it easier for young people to buy it. If Ontario permits alcohol licences for corner stores, it should be hard to get and easy to lose.

David Stokes The fastest and most powerful supercomputer in Canada is housed in a U of T facility. Built

by IBM, the new supercomputer is made up of 40,000 processors, which gives it a processing power equivalent to three million smartphones, or 6,500 highperformance laptops, and making it among the most powerful computers in the world.

The new supercomputer is part of a joint ownership consortium between U of T, its affiliated research hospitals, and a number of other Ontario universities. Federal funding was also supplied, and the aim is to

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ODESSA KELEBAY

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turbo-charge the research climate in Ontario, spur advancements in industry, and help the region enter the next generation of its knowledge-based economy.

A supercomputer is defined as a machine that operates at the current limit of computational power. This electronic behemoth is a pivotal research tool in a new era of scientific endeavour, where paradigmchanging discoveries lie buried in oceans of data. And U of T’s foray into supercomputing has already been a proven success.

U of T’s supercomputer center, which also houses Canada’s second largest supercomputer, is a major processing centre for data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland.

The LHC causes over 40 million

New Supercomputer not evil villain, actually very helpful U of T’s new supercomputer doesn’t fly but may help bring science to new heights particle collisions per second, and the LHC runs all day, each day, for one year. This generates trillions of pieces of data, the analysis of which would require scientists to sit around and wait a few thousands of lifetimes if they used a normal computer.

But streaming the data into U of T’s supercomputer centre, among others, narrowed the wait to mere months and led to the discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle, the most recent particle to be discovered. A secret of the universe, extrapolated in our neighborhood.

Supercomputers also create a whole new way of doing science by adding simulation to theory and experiment. Scientists can simulate live situations with all of their complexity, a process akin to fully controlling a slice of reality – and at hyperspeed.

Scientists expect life-changing breakthroughs in climate sci-

ence, medical research, and materials science.

The definition of a supercomputer is constantly changing; supercomputing on the whole experiences a roughly ten-fold increase in power about every three years. With this rate of advancement systems need to be routinely upgraded, which is why U of T actually has three supercomputers at present. When the previous generation machine was first installed in 2008 it was number 16 in the world in terms of processing power. This year that computer is far down the list. Even the brand-new machine has dropped one spot in only the two months since it’s been operational. It currently

sits at #68 in the world.

Because power is too expensive downtown from a crowded grid and these computers require many megawatts of electricity, U of T’s supercomputer facility is housed in a nondescript commercial building beside a car and truck rental in the town of Vaughan. The facility, including it’s 735-ton cooling unit, cost around $30 million to build. Operating costs are steep: at their peak, the two older machines use as much electricity as it takes to power about 1000 homes. In comparison, the new machine uses five times less electricity, while being approximately 30 per cent faster and 10 times smaller.

Chinese company to build world’s tallest building in 90 days Could Toronto adopt the same method?

Emerson Vandenberg Chinese firm Broad Construction Group plans to erect what will become the world’s tallest building. The monster 838-metre skyscraper in Changsha, China, will eclipse Dubai’s Burj Khalifa by about a dozen metres and will be built in only three months.

An estimated 31 400 people could live in the building, with space also reserved for a school, a hospital, offices, residences and a hotel. Designed with seventeen helipads which double as rooftop gardens, the project, dubbed Sky City 1, is aimed at being a “traffic-alleviating city in the sky,” according to Broad.

The superstructure, which will dominate Changsha’s modest skyline, is set to break records not only for height, but also for time. Utilizing a pre-fabricated design, the on-site assembly process adjoins factory-built units and fixes them together, which will result in extremely fast building speeds. Broad, who built a thirty-storey hotel in fif-

teen days in 2010, believes their technique is both environmentally friendly and much more efficient.

According to a Broad document that released the details of the project, ninety-five per cent of construction is completed in a factory beforehand, allowing five floors to be assembled per day. The rapid building may lead some to question the building’s safety, but Broad claims the edifice is strong enough to withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake.

Could Toronto’s hot construction industry utilize such a method? The city boasts 148 condo towers under construction, the most in North America by far, according to the Globe and Mail.

In light of this, U of T Professor of Architecture, Matthew Allen, believes that a building technique like Broad’s BSB modular technology may not be needed. “Buildings are already being constructed much more quickly than they were in the past, so cutting that time in half

[or 1/5 as Broad aspires] may not be necessary.”

Allen did, however, go on to address the potential for labourcost cutting through the outsourcing of the pre-fabricated parts. He claimed this could make the technique “more relevant to a city like Toronto.”

In response to the newspaper’s inquiries, Broad stated that they were “unwilling to comment as we have yet to receive a permit for the project from the Chinese government.” This has not stopped the plethora of media coverage surrounding the proposed building.

With projects like these, the hype soars higher than the project. Allen was quick to note that “this ties into another issue with buildings like these, namely, marketing.” He further posited that selling the pre-fabricated technique in a Toronto market on the basis of saved labour costs may be a contentious political issue, particularly if those saved labour hours are going to factories in China.

This photo is from the future.

Artist rendering of world’s tallest building

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THE NEWS

December 6, 2012

Women on the briefs campus, in

Can coffee kill you?

history Maple Leafs first NHL team worth $1B

Examining the potential harms from caffeine consumption

The vast majority of adults in North America consume some form of caffeine multiple times a day, many of whom do so on a daily basis. To what degree is the chemical dangerous? As U of T enters exam season and caffeine consumption skyrockets, the potential harms of the substance come into question.

A report released last week

by Health Canada showed that since 2003 three teenagers in Canada have died from energy drink consumption-related complications, and thirty-five have suffered major side effects, including amnesia.

Caffeine is naturally found in substances like coffee, tea, cocoa, and guarana. It increases blood flow and stimulates the central nervous system, muscular system, and the heart. While it causes positive effects of alertness, it also has the potential to create harm.

The Mayo Clinic, a top US medical research and practice group, explains on its website that “moderate doses of caffeine — 200 to 300 milligrams (mg), or about two to four cups

of brewed coffee a day — aren’t harmful” but it also warns that “[h]eavy daily caffeine use — more than 500 to 600 mg a day — may cause insomnia, nervousness, restlessness, irritability, stomach upset, fast heartbeat, [or] muscle tremors.”

Professor of Physiology Leeana Aarthi Bagwath Persad at the South African University of Pretoria, has reviewed lab research on the effects of caffeine and has accordingly expanded the list of possible side effects to include deficits in learning, anxiety and panic attacks, hallucinations, and caffeine dependence. While the latter may seem the most common, researchers rate the actual number of persons addicted to caffeine quite low.

Less precise but perhaps more telling than lab research, the people employed to serve coffee witness the effects of caffeine dependence first-hand. Byron, a barista at a coffee shop on Yonge St. said, “You can just tell when someone’s addicted to coffee, they come back for 2 to 3 refills in a single sitting.” He notes a marked increase around exam time and even recalls times

when “people get really irritated waiting in line, frustrated about having to wait for their coffee fix.”

Melanie, a Starbucks barista, explains, “We have daily regulars whose names I know and drinks I know and they usually get a daily espresso or americano, the regulars come in multiple times a day and get espressobased drinks. There are people who come in two to four times a day.”

A student herself, Melanie also turns to caffeine to cope with school. “Two venti coffees and four espresso shots over a 12-hour shift...I have so many projects due, I have to drink that much coffee!”

The increased prevalence of energy drinks is the most pressing issue addressed in studies and news sources alike. These drinks contain much higher amounts of caffeine than coffee, as well as large amounts of sugar and other chemicals that can potentially cause health problems.

International news source Reuters reported that the US Food and Drug Administration is reviewing a case of a fourteen year old girl who died after consum-

ing two cans of the energy drink Monster in one day; the large amounts of caffeine, combined with a pre-existing heart condition that gave her thin blood vessels, caused a rupture.

Caffeine-expert and U of T associate professor Ahmed ElSohemy, told U of T news, “[L]ots of things — like coffee — can be bad for some conditions and some individuals but good for others in moderation. But the high levels and high concentrations of caffeine in these products [energy drinks] — which also tend to be very high in sugar — have absolutely no health benefit.”

Unless you have another health concern that may be complicated by the effects of caffeine, a moderate amount is safe to get you through exam time.

Consider coffee or tea as safer alternatives to energy drinks, and try to get the required eight hours of sleep as often as possible. *the newspaper staff consumed a total of 3038 mg of caffeine during production nights this semester.

You’re welcome.

Forbes has ranked the Toronto hockey squad as the most valuable NHL franchise. They are the first team in the league to reach the one billion dollar mark. The NY Rangers rank second at $750m and the Montreal Canadiens come in third at $575m.

Despite the average team value being up 18 per cent to $282m this year over last, disparity in the league remains the core issue in this season`s work stoppage. The top three teams represent 82 per cent of league income, while 13 out of 30 teams are losing money.

Full-day kindergarten working, study claims

A U of T study has analyzed Peel region students who participated in the fullday kindergarten program and noticed an increase in vocabulary, reading, and number knowledge compared to those that did not. These conclusions represent the year-2 findings of the study aimed at observing students from JK to grade three. The full day kindergarten program was introduced to some schools in Ontario starting in 2010 with an eye to all schools by 2014.

Charitable Gates supports engineer’s toilet

BODI BOLD

Sebastian Greenholtz

The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has donated $2.2m to a U of T engineering team building a waterless toilet for the developing world. Using a sand filter and UV disinfection technology, the prototype bath fixture disposes waste hygienically without using any liquid. The Gates foundation awarded the money to several research teams who participated in their Reinventing the Toilet Challenge.

-Emerson Vanderberg

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THE DEBATE

A hard cell Motion: Canadian convicts should get to work Prison labour dates back to the 1820s in the United States, where the incarcerated produced goods for the public sector, helping governments cover prison costs and companies make profits. After slavery was abolished following the US Civil War in the 1860s, prison labour was contracted out to private companies for resource extraction, which fueled industrialization throughout the country. Today, prisoners are still employed in almost every state in various public and private enterprises, making money for governments and corporations alike. With such benefits possible, should Canada adopt prison labour to fill in budgetary gaps?

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Dylan Hornby

Sebastian Greenholtz Call me radical, but I see prisoners not as pawns in a larger economic-justice partnership, but as human beings who, mostly because of social factors are compelled to commit crime. The concept of justice has moved in the late-20th and 21st centuries from a notion of punishment-- Hammurabi’s “eye for an eye”--to a rehabilitation approach that recognizes that many criminals have significant capacity to improve their lives if given the right opportunities.

For this reason, many prisoners have access to psychological counseling and certification programs. Rather than giving

RHIANNON WHITE

^^ prisoners “something to do,” prison labour is exploitative and detracts from the rehabilitative aspects of criminal justice.

In the United States, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported about 2.3 million people currently in jail, amounting to over 1 in every 100 adults imprisoned according a report from the Pew Center on the States. This large population makes a cheap and easily controlled labour force for corporations who strive to maximize profit benefit from no unions, no benefits, no health care, and extremely low wages for inmates. For example, as reported by Reese Erlich in the TV program “We Do the Work,” state convicts get paid $2.05 an

hour to assemble parts for Honda, $5.20 less than the federal minimum wage; only 35 cents actually go to the prisoners, the rest goes to the state to help cover incarceration costs.

The labour-intensive jobs of manufacturing parts or stamping license plates do not train inmates to a higher skill level, and having a criminal record itself inhibits job prospects. A study

by Pew Charitable Trusts found that “past incarceration reduced subsequent wages by 11 percent, cut annual employment by nine weeks and reduced yearly earnings by 40 percent.”

And forget about organization. Inmates in Georgia complained in 2010 of being violent-

On the subject of penal labour, it’s critical to make the distinction between re-introducing punitive labour activities, such as breaking rocks in the hot sun, and employing convicts through non-punitive labour.

The idea of chaining prisoners together for intense, often dangerous physical labour is a cut above slavery, if not its modern equivalent.

On the other hand, Government-controlled penal labour has proven to be an efficient, productive and popular idea in many countries. According to Statistics Canada, it costs Canadian taxpayers an average $86 000 dollars a year to incarcerate a male prisoner, and over $150 000 to incarcerate a female prisoner. As more prisons become overcrowded, these costs can only be expected to rise. It only seems fair that if we are footing the bill for adequate living conditions for criminals, taxpayers do expect something in return.

In countries such as the United States, many industries have profited from investing in the high-quality, yet inexpensive goods produced by prison factory workers. Considering the fact most businesses look for cheap goods, prisons offer a domestic and even moral alternatives. After all, would you rather see businesses invest in factories overseas that main-

ly beaten by guards after going on strike for receiving such little pay, or sometimes none at all.

The strike, which mobilized across racial lines (it’s hardly a secret that the criminal justice system targets black and Latino men disproportionately), was called off after only six days because of the violence.

Finally, prison labour harms job prospects for non-incarcerated workers. A New York Times article from 2011 reported many states using prisoners to work in what would otherwise be public sector or privately contracted jobs, such as cleanup on highways, repairing water tanks, or painting vehicles. Because prison labourers can be paid sub-

tain horrible working conditions for innocent, poor and often child workers, or from convicted criminals who are repaying their debt to society by working?

The Sociology Review in France even found that penal labour can have a positive psychological effect on convicts by removing the mundane and repetitive patterns of prison life. By keeping them occupied, productive, and offering compensation for good work and behaviour, we reduce the potential for antisocial and violent behavior that often occurs during incarceration.

These days, prisoners are often put to work in menial tasks such as cleaning, sewing mail bags, or ironically sewing flags of their own home country, such as in Brazil. However, we have also seen opportunities to expand their work into skilled areas. The United Kingdom for example has created labour in areas such as metal fabrication, furniture making, desktop publishing and even engineering.

Not only do these skills benefit society, they can also be used by prisoners to gain employment and help transition to a normal life once they are released. If Canada wants to help rehabilitate prisoners instead of ruining their lives, giving them a job opportunity is an important first start.

minimum wage, workers who try to compete in these fields will not only see fewer jobs in a tight market but are forced to take lower pay.

Canada has an impressive record in the labour movement; minimum wage is nearly $3 higher and national unionization rates are as much as 10 per cent higher. Canada obviously cares about workers outside prisons. But if we have basic morality, if we believe in payment for work done, if we believe that prisoners are human beings and most can be reintegrated into society after incarceration, we will reject the exploitative economic strategy to keep prisoners as modern-day slaves.

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THE ARTS

December 6, 2012

Are video games art?

MoMA acquires 14 video games, sparks debate over what constitutes art Nick Ragetli On November 29, the Museum of Modern Art in New York announced that they will have a new and arguably unusual collection to feature video games.

The collection is not slated to appear in the museum until the spring of 2013 but has already caused some controversy in the art world.

The MoMA plans to expand their first acquisition of 14 video games to include a total of 40 different titles. It currently contains, among others, Tetris, Pacman, Sim City 2000 and Portal.

Although the MoMA is not the first to present video games in a museum, Felan Parker, a current teacher of Cinema studies at Innis college and PhD student in the cultural legitimation of digital games as art, affirms they offer legitimacy to the industry and to those who believe them to be art due to its influence as an institution. The Smithsonian

likewise displayed a selection of games, yet their requirements are based upon public voting rather than curatorial selection.

Felan Parker describes the MoMA’s acquisition of video games as another step forward towards the form being considered art. Parker describes the MoMA’s selection of indie and art games (Passage, Flow and Canabalt) as “edgier,” and more identifiable with popular culture than those chosen by the Smithsonian. According to Parker, the games are not only meant to bring people into the museum, but to elevate their status as a “current” institution.

The MoMA based its selection process on the elements of interactive design found within the game. Outlined by the museum’s Department of Architecture and Design, the elements range from the behavioural responses elicited from players, the overall aesthetic qualities and design, the

space in which they exist, and the way in which time is constructed.

Film critic Roger Ebert staunchly opposes the idea that video games might be considered an art form, and suggests they are no more an art form than a chess game.

Determining whether objects are art, to him, is a matter of personal taste. In an April 16 post on the Chicago Sun-Times blog, Ebert argued, “No one in or out of the field has ever been able to cite a game worthy of comparison with the great poets, filmmakers, novelists and poets.” Additionally, Ebert questions, “Why are gamers so intensely concerned, anyway, that games be defined as art?”

Parker finds the idea that museums have legitimated video games as an art form to be of considerable benefit to the industry. Not only do the artists and producers benefit from the exposure, there is also a monetary recompense from having your artwork presented

in a museum.

Parker suggested the MoMA’s controversial collection may further the efforts of other museums to acquire similar collections for the sake of being “current.”

In response to the efforts of Ebert to dissuade the public from acknowledging games as art, Parker makes one last stance.

These games have been collected due to their interactively designed elements, and are not the conventional art that Ebert argues these games must defined through. Parker agrees that displaying video games in a museum does not automatically make them art, but that institutional recognition plays an important role in the process.

Screenshots from the MoMA’s recently acquired collection : Flow (top), Myst, Pacman

Play drives plight of taxi drivers home Jon Dundas Many students need to take a cab now and again. Whether this is due to the understandable need to get to or from downtown quickly, or because you left the bar past 2 AM and you have class the next morning, you the student reader will find the play Fare Game an artful, honest, and well researched look at the situation facing those who take us through Toronto.

Theatre Passe Muraille’s latest production is a play presented as a documentary. The three actors collectively narrate background history, the present situation and relate first person anecdotes. In addition to presenting and acting, all three performers conducted and shot footage of interviews with cab drivers. These interviews are recreated through live monologue and footage projected on stage.

The performance also effectively uses song, dance, and abstract choreography. The only props used are four tires; it is minimalist but effective.

The action is framed within a dramatic presentation that makes full use of block-like steps to recreate the city skyline. The lighting is subtle but effective; it complements the set and focuses the audience’s attention on the actors’s performance.

The production also uses the projector to show videos of the taxi drivers themselves.

The videos show their stories, their views, and footage of their speeches at governmental hearings and protests. According to the creators, this was done because they wanted the drivers to speak for themselves. It worked wonderfully and really drove the cabbies’ plight home.

Those with an interest in talking to their cab driver get a

AMANDA LYNNE-BALLARD

Fare Game presents earnest portrayal of taxi drivers in Toronto

Fare Game creators Khalil Talke, Alex Williams, Ruth Madoc-Jones and Marjorie Chan. firsthand account of this profession’s plight in the city; the information presented in the play reflects the reality they face daily. They’ve had enough of minimal job security, often unsafe work conditions, and outrageous hours. The play successfully explains the is-

sues cab drivers face by allowing the cab drivers tell their stories in their own words.

The situation that faces taxi drivers has come to a head and their resulting frustration is evident. Still, progress is underway to resolve their woes, and the play is an excellent work that represents the issue

artistically with unabashed sincerity. While it may not be an issue that crosses the minds of students on the way home from the bar, taxis are a relevant and integral part of transportation in this city. Fare Game tells a story worth hearing.

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THE ARTS

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Condoms, art in the right place

WTF TO DO THE FILM What? Pleasure Dome Presents : Magic Kingdoms *An investigation through film of our relationships to cultural iconography Where? CINECYCLE | 129 Spadina Ave When? Dec 7 at 7PM $$ FREE

Dignitas Youth art installation supports AIDS awareness Over 700 condoms were pinned up to spell AIDS in an interactive art installation on Wednesday, December 4 at the Medical Sciences building in support of World AIDS Day. Created by Dignitas Youth, an organization that works to promote HIV/AIDS awareness and education, the installation will be on display Thursday at the Gerstein Library. People are encouraged to take a condom from the display, which would eventually reveal a hidden message.

In an interview with the newspaper, Yi-Min Chun, President of Dignitas Youth, explained the that idea behind the installation was very symbolic. The removal of the condoms was twofold. Taking a condom was both a symbol of supporting the cause, as well as an act of preventing its further spread.

“If everyone starts taking one [a condom], then what you’re left [with] is just like a white, blank slate,” says Chun. It was

ODESSA KELEBAY

Odessa Kelebay

Dignitas Youth members left to right: Cameron Chisholm, Yi-Min Chun, Shruti Kharadi and Nelson Hu assemble art installation at Fitzgerald Building, December 4. a symbolic gesture of eliminating the global epidemic.

Chun is very optimistic about finding a cure, but laments that government cuts are inhibiting progress in the field. She said, “In my opinion, we are getting there, but we just need a little bit more time.”

Chun believes that HIV/ AIDS is at the root of many other important social issues, such as poverty. She says, people with the disease “stay in poverty because they just can’t afford this medical care.” Finding a cure to AIDS could help eradicate other social problems.

When asked why a condom

art installation, Chun cleverly said, “I think U of T wants to be provoked.” She explains that student groups at U of T are always putting on bake sales, selling food and ribbons, but “I think students are excited to see new things.” It’s projects like these that catch people’s attention, and hopefully affect change.

The goal of the project was “doing something else, trying to make a statement, but really try[ing] to use that statement to bring home a message,” says Chun.

She says the installation “definitely generated a lot of attention” and believes that it was more effective than just

handing out condoms on the street. She claims, “Using that kind of artistic approach is a little bit more powerful […] and not something you normally see around U of T campus.”

On Wednesday, 200 condoms were taken from the installation at the Med Sci lobby. Dignitas Youth decided to move the installation to the Gerstein Library on Thursday because they thought it was a higher traffic area. Chun said that if there were still condoms left at the end of the day, they’d leave the installation up until Friday in the new location.

Support the cause on Thursday, December 6 from 10am to 4pm in the Gerstein Library.

THE EXHIBIT What? Annual Proof Sale + Open House Where? OPEN STUDIO | 401 Richmond St W, Suite 104 When? Dec 6 from 6-9PM, Fri – Sat and Tues – Sat 12-5PM Pieces range from $50- $300 What? Works on PaperGroup Show Where? MARK CHRISTOPHER GALLERY | 1594 Queen St W When? Opening: Dec 14 at 7PM | Show runs until Jan 5/13 | Gallery hours Wed Sun 1130AM - 5PM $$ FREE THE LECTURE What? What? Pascal Beausse *Lecture with International Curatorial Resident for JMB Gallery + Hart House Where? HART HOUSE MUSIC ROOM | 7 Hart House CircleWhen? Dec 12 at 7PM $$ FREE THE EVENT What? City of Craft 2012 *Holiday craft show featuring 70 venders on queen west Where? GREAT HALL | 1087 Queen Street West When? Dec 8 at 11-6PM and Dec 9 at 11-5PM $$ FREE - Kelsey Stasiak

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, a stunning visual epic Cinematography and strong acting from little known star make blockbuster a must see Sinead Doherty-Grant If you have read Yann Martel’s 2001 novel, Life of Pi, you may well encounter the usual “but the book was better than the movie” syndrome. Certain nuances of a well-conceived written thought are inevitably lost when translated into a fleeting expression on screen.

However, adventures, sagas, and fantasy novels lend themselves more readily to visual interpretation. Life of Pi is no exception.

Ang Lee has a history of directing sweeping emotional sagas. Lee’s stunning vistas in the recent 2005 Brokeback Mountain attest to his uncommon ability to convey human emotion through nature, a lost art in Hollywood film, where

poor acting, flimsy plot, and uninspired directing are often concealed by a heady dose of sex and violence.

Ang Lee’s Life of Pi falls nothing short of his previous films and proves to be masterpiece of emotional scope and truly awe inspiring natural beauty.

Although we fear for Pi’s survival as he clings to his raft in the company of a Bengal tiger, we cannot help but be a bit envious of his 24 hour access to a limitless ocean horizon, where weather patterns merge together in the distance, jellyfish become a sea jewels at night, and pink clouds reflect in the still water to create a single sky on which Pi’s boat appears to float.

While three-dimensional

films have the tendency to rock and jolt the viewer into the throes of something like seasickness, Life of Pi manages to use the effect beautifully, despite most of the film occurring at sea. Sitting close to the front of the movie theatre, the huge screen envelopes, plung-

ing the audience into a vast sea of pacific creatures that threaten to jump right out of the screen as they swim into the camera.

Visual beauty and crisp cinematography imbue Li of Pi with epic emotional grandeur, but much of this effect would

fall flat if it were not for the raw humanity of Suraj Sharma, the young actor who plays Piscine. Commanding most of the film’s screen time, Sharma fully embodies Piscine, expressing his inner dilemmas, fears, strengths, and follies as if they were his own. Although he is blessed with handsome features and a gentle face, it is the clarity of his dramatic portrayal that colour his expression and truly captivate.

Go out and see Life of Pi and make sure you watch it in 3D, as this effect is used wisely and greatly enhances the experience. The presence of fluid acting, emotional scope, and topnotch cinematography make this a rare blockbuster that is worth the movie theatre price.

^ THE END

Queen of the Fleet

Folk ensemble performed last weekend at the newspaper headquarters. Visit thenewspaper.ca to watch the second installment of the One Spadina Sessions.

THEVIDEO

8

December 6, 2012

Dear Suzie

Of rice and roommates: How to deal with awkward friendship situations Dear Suzie, I told my friend I was allergic to rice because she kept trying to feed me this super-disgusting rice pudding dessert she’s really proud of. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings so I lied. Now, whenever we eat out together, which is pretty often, she never lets me eat rice! She even tells our servers before we order that I’m deathly allergic. I feel so guilty.

Should I own up or keep up the charade?

Sincerely, Riz-diculously Guilty Dear Riz-diculously Guilty,

Franny Rutchinski, Gemma Warren, Raffa Weyman, Leah Hunter perform at 1 Spadina

The next time a rice-eating situation presents itself, tell your friend that you are actually not allergic. Her mind will no doubt shift to thoughts of that rice pudding of hers, in which case you can explain that the dessert did a number on your digestive system. It’s a lie, but a small one that will keep your friend from asking for any more (gross) details. Apologize profusely, and in the future, remember that you should always try to be honest from the very beginning.

Sincerely, Suzie

“

“

ZACH OUELLETTE

Your sign-off name is amazing, and so is your sense of protectiveness.

In trying to be a good friend and not hurt anyone’s feelings, you created a bizarre situation for yourself. Normally, I would advise you to reap what you’ve sown and keep up the farce, but I just remembered that Japanese food has a lot of rice in it and we can’t starve you of that, so here is what I think you should do.

Got a question for Suzie? Submit it anonymously at the n ewspaper.ca in the blue box

the campus comment

the newspaper asked: should alcohol be available for purchase at convenience stores in Ontario?

BARBARA Human Biology, 3rd year “Yes, because the LCBO is making too much money. It’s not fair for small businesses.”

MIKE Philosophy, 4th year “Yes., because the governent has no business regulating any product on the market.”

ANDY Art Sci, 4th year “No. It’s going to target a specific neighbourhood, particularly inner cities in Toronto. They have their own problems at the moment and they don’t need another one. Keep it as it is.”

GREG Works at Sid Smith “Yes. I don’t drink, but why not, people should have access to what they want.”

GIANCARLO History, 3rd year “Yes. It’s more convenient. As long as it’s properly regulated.”

ODESSA KELEBAY

Elaine Sociology and Economics, 3rd year “Yes. They’re called convenience stores for a reason. Alcohol needs to be convenient. Why should cigarettes be allowed to be sold?”