Issue 6 - Jan 16 2018

Volume January

the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent community paper

Since 1978

XL

Issue VI 16th 2018

Masthead

the crisisrk

Covers Ashima Kaura

the newspaper University of Toronto’s independent student paper since 1978 Editor-In-Chief Alina Butt Managing Editor Natalia Herran Senior Copy Editor Rebecca Gao Assistant Copy Editor Erica Sung Business Manager Kelly Chan Public Relations Coordinator Gabbi Gard Design Editor Rel Ryann Visual Content Editor Noah Kahansky Online Editor Hilary Lo News Editor Noah Walker Comment Editor Maxim Basu Music Editor Chantel Ouellet Arts Editor Joyce Wong Mascots Honeybee, Flora and Fauna, Miguel and Paco Contributors Zeynel Akkus, Maxim Basu, Fraser Allan Best, Alina Butt, Manjiri Deshpande, Ashima Kaura, Felix Kwong, Anna Bianca Roach, Noah H. Walker, Carsten von Wersebe, Joyce Wong All U of T community members, including students, alumni, faculty, and staff are encouraged to contribute! the newspaper is published by Planet Publications Inc., a non-profit corporation

thenewspaper.ca

256 McCaul St. Suite 106 Toronto, ON M5T 1W5

we would like to dedicate this issue of the newspaper to

PAUL MORABITO who has been a major source of support for our student publication and the reason we have been able to stay in production for so long

The 40-Year-Old Newspaper a reflection upon a student publication’s mid-life crisis

by The Newspaper

This year, we turned 40 … and so the age of our supposed youth ends, and a period of mid-life crisis begins.

To be clear, there is no “real” crisis. Student publications seem to exist in a state of suspension, lifted up and held in place by the university and its various institutions, organizations and actors.

Student publications are a part of campus life, a traditional activity preserved through the work of students who are, above all, there for the experience of it all.

While being an independent publication does complicate our enactment of this tradition, even we can rely on some fixed sources for life. The desire for an experience like that of working with a newspaper has kept publications like the newspaper going for longer than we could imagine. That’s how, when it comes to thinking about our mid-life crisis, it is in a way more imagined than anything else.

Still, it’s fun to be dramatic every once in a while, right?

The decline of print media has been a sticking point in everyone’s heads for years now. Despite the increasing sense of difficulty attached to being a part of a print publication, the newspaper has still been able to create an experience that attracts business partners too. It is true, though, that recently it has proven harder for this publication to get more than enough businesses interested in advertising with us.

But that doesn’t really mean our mid-life crisis has to do with our lack of financial accomplishment. the newspaper has always been a student publication that prides itself less on its financial status—if not on its lack of financial status—and more on the space it creates for students to express themselves. In terms of creative accomplishment, recently has never been better for us.

Having just turned 40, that feeling of crisis reinvigorated the newspaper’s need to prove its mettle.

We have continued to see promising growth in our close and tight-knit ranks, and had an amazing time producing some very, very good-looking and goodreading issues this year.

With just a few more months to go, we want to go further. As of now, things are working out very nicely, and we are ready to make the last few issues of this year some of the finest that you will see on stands this year.

At the same time, as the harbingers of print media’s death recommend that, yes, we are going to focus more on our online presence. However, in true fashion for the newspaper, giving into the sense of crisis has less to do with our ties to such feelings and more to do with wanting to expand and build ourselves out even further.

So, as always, we’ll end like we have every year since 1978. Doing our own thing, all while you little punks think you own this town.

Of course, I’m sure some of you were expecting to see what a caricature of a 40-year-old student publication looks like.

You’ve come to the right place.

NEWSPAPER SEEKS READER 40, PAPER, TORONTO looking for any ASL of reader so long as you are willing to see me for who I really and fully am. I’m okay with being left on read, but please pass me on if you can. xoxo - tn the newspaper can be found squatting in the corners of buildings all around campus.

It usually sits on top of other papers that took its spot on the stands while it was away, eyeing them with suspicion and derision. It occasionally tries to wave at passerby’s, a little bit hopefully and a lot more nonchalantly, showing off its cover.

After all, it is used to being quickly picked up and opened, then given a once-over before being tossed into the gutter. Life can be tough.

Is Shah Rukh Khan a Zero?

Trying to come to terms with when your big hero feels oh-so-small What better way to start off a new day in a new year than clicking on a teaser trailer for the newest from the King of Bollywood? The answer is literally any other way.

For a while now, when a fan of Shah Rukh Khan goes to click on something, like the minute-long video for the upcoming movie Zero (2018), she has to hold herself back—from being too excited, but also disappointed.

This might be out of the blue for a lot of you… for most of you. You may not know who Shah Rukh Khan is, or have ever even seen a Bollywood movie. However, there’s a timeless, placeless mortal anxiety tied to what I’m going to talk about that anyone can relate to. And besides that, Shah Rukh Khan is on our cover, and why that is worth explaining.

As a turn-of-the-century brown girl who grew up watching Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan is my main man. He has been the romantic hero of my life from the moment my ammi took me in a car seat to the theatre up until now, when I’m 21 and unsuccessfully trying to convince my boyfriend to go to Cineplex with me to stare and listen for 144 glorious minutes.

by Alina Butt and Ashima Kaura

But this teaser trailer was something else. Loud and colorful word art blasts across the screen, calling him crazy, romantic, wild and so on—and then out walks Shah Rukh Khan in his underclothes… all four feet of him.

Nevermind that Shah Rukh Khan is already a short man (last I saw, he was 5’5”), for this movie he is going to be digitally altered to exhibit characteristics of dwarfism. The only other detail available about the movie is that his love interest will be a woman with an intellectual disability.

Hmm. So Shah Rukh Khan walks out into a ballroom where taller people are dressed up to the nines in glittery clothes and jewelry, and then he starts to dance wildly. All eyes are on him. The trailer makes quite the spectacle out of dwarfism, using it as a means to tease and attract the audience. It feels a bit wrong, and I’m concerned about how these plot devices will play out in the movie’s treatment of the characters.

Whatever is going on with Zero, one thing is for sure— it’s tired. It’s going to be just another disappointing return from Shah Rukh Khan that I will halfheartedly

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watch because I love him and am still trying to cling to my memory of him.

After all, in recent years he hasn’t had a hit as big as Aamir Khan or Salman Khan have. I get the deal with Aamir Khan, he’s an artisté who makes quality movies.

But Salman Khan? He’s always seemed so … thick.

And he’s been convicted of killing someone.

Unfortunately, none of this is new for those who try to support Shah Rukh Khan today. He’s at his worst when he tries to harken back to and even replicate the romantic figure he played best in his 30s. The past year brought us Jab Harry Met Sejal (2017), an absolutely painful movie to sit through. But I did, I did it. Even earlier, there was the cringey and flat Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012).

Yet every so often Shah Rukh Khan returns with a movie that gives a glimpse into what he could be doing— something different and greater than his tried-and-true formula for the romantic hero, which is now showing its cracks as his face begins to age.

He is now 52, yet he never looked better than when he was playing a caring therapist in Dear Zindagi (2016) or a mature ex-lover in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) (a cameo, but a great moment nonetheless). Far and away, his role as an intelligent and brave alcohol bootlegger in Raees (2017) created a truly great and enjoyable movie for everyone to see.

He has had some hit-or-misses, mostly considered as such because they try to capitalize on the nostalgia surrounding his persona and success. There’s the nonetoo-shabby Fan (2016), where he plays a famous actor being stalked by a lookalike fan, and Dilwale (2015), a fun romp that doesn’t take itself too seriously in its celebration of his famous onscreen coupling with Bollywood actress Kajol.

After spending some time amongst the flora and fauna, like stepped-on cigarettes and the morning’s snow slush, it begins to fade and crease. One of its contributors might chance upon it and cast a sympathetic glance before continuing on, thinking awkwardly about their own copy of the newspaper tucked away at home, becoming jaundiced in a warm, dark space.

Some of his movies take the silliness too far, like Chennai Express (2013) and Happy New Year (2014). But hey, even superstars are allowed to have fun, right? He’s a fun guy. Haven’t you see his TEDx Talk? Never have I seen so much ambivalence, with people not knowing how to handle his playful narcissism. As a fan, I’d like to give it to him. It’s funny. He even acknowledges he is at some impasse, some point of midlife crisis, but I don’t think that sentiment has translated into awareness in his work just yet.

When not out and about, the newspaper can usually be found back in the office it calls a home of its own. There, it is piled and stacked up to the neck in itself, and feels quite like a hoarder. Boxes of past papers remind it of wilder, and definitely more frivolous, days.

But Shah Rukh Khan, I am in the full throes of that midlife crisis for you. There is nothing I would love more than to return to how it was when I was younger and every time I saw you on my screen was a pure and unironic pleasure.

The office tends to be filled with the sound of an old and slightly obscure record playing quietly while the newspaper clears empty beer bottles off of the round table. Here or there, the slightly dusty floor has seen a half-hearted sweep with the wrong side of a push broom. This is all done while staring out the window and waiting for another meeting to start.

And I think that’s the crux of it. We’re getting older and having to face that he’s getting older, and I just don’t think he’s ready to accept that he is yet. We’ve seen him dip his toes into what it must be like to become older, but he isn’t quite there yet. It’s hard to stop feeling like a hero, and I get it. In an increasingly tired world, we’re all just running on nostalgia anyways.

There in the streets, the newspaper meets its maker, returning once more to the earth from which its pulp was harvested and pressed into paper.

4

the crises

the resolutions

New Year ... New Crises

(resolutions)

I want to be a more thankful person. I acknowledge that I have a lot material things, but that’s not what I mean. I want to devote more attention to being thankful for things that are immaterial. While I could mean this in a unique way about being thankful for the role of others in my life, I instead mean it rather narcissistically. Each person I come across exerts some little bit of influence on me. This may not be in an overt way, but something I’m realizing more as I get older is that my personality inevitably becomes an amalgamation of the personalities of the people I spend time with (in addition, of course, to my parents). I want to be more aware and gracious in accepting this as a reality, rather than seeing it as a drain on my individuality.

Moreover, I want to think in a way that acknowledges that I can’t squarely take credit for my good traits (an idea I’ve already pettily embraced when it comes to my bad qualities). Realizing that the fatal flaw to most resolutions is in their implementation—with many of them being so abstract as to be meaningless (see: “i’m going to be more positive” said by a perennial grump)—I have a plan to make this concrete enough to be attainable. Each day, I plan to pick one friend, and a particular quality in them, and try to embrace the positive influence they have on me. Stripped down, this just means waking up, and thinking of a friend who has a positive influence on me. From there, I will at the very least be primed to think about them—and this quality—throughout the day. Although, I concede that this part of the plan may dissolve from neglect. This plan also falls at the feet of the much-maligned trope that resolutions are unavoidably narcissistic and self-serving, but I suppose I can’t expect to be an exception to this. Then again, I guess that’s what’s at the core of this resolution; to stop being so hard on myself and admit that other people—my friends, I mean—have qualities that I wish were mine. fraser allan best

I usually don’t make any resolutions for the new year and didn’t this time around either… until just the other day when a man asked me for money. He claimed to have just had his belongings stolen. He was from PEI and a few dollars short from being able to get to his destination, St. Thomas.

He was willing to sell his iPod for his $11 fare. With the opportunity thrust upon me, in a sheer moment of humanity I offered him the money, but when I checked my wallet I saw I had no coins or smaller bills, so I handed him $10.

That’s the most money I have ever given a stranger in such a situation who has asked. Sometimes the year changing from one to the other is not enough to get someone to make a resolution. It’s more about the everyday (coupled, of course, with the impetus of being asked to contribute to the newspaper on the subject) that helps me realize some resolutions. So that makes this my resolution, to start to give more when asked. felix kwong

I just wanted to smoke more weed in the new year. Weed used to be incredibly not enjoyable for me. I mostly started smoking in my first year of university and between the wack-ass weed we were getting from whatever Chestnut Residence dealer and seshing with kids who I would never see or talk to again after my first year, I was constantly plagued with nausea and paranoia. Maybe because I’ve built up a higher tolerance or maybe because my housemates get better weed from dispensaries or maybe because I do really like my housemates, I actually enjoy smoking weed now; I no longer get the nausea or paranoia.

Instead, I find myself at peace when I’m stoned, watching horror movies with my friends, while simultaneously pounding a whole container of kimchi jjigae in my face.

It’s a source of happiness after a long day that I could see becoming a part of my daily routine. I guess in the grander scheme of things, my new year’s resolution is just that— trying to be happier.

For many people, a new year brings anticipation over the aspirations set forth in the first months of winter.

There is talk of good grades and goals regarding each person’s physical fitness that, at times, are unrealistic.

The underlying commonality shared between all people on New Year’s Eve, however, is the general sense of hope.

Now, as I am turning twenty this year, a few things became shockingly clear to me that instilled not hope but terror. I will be twenty. My net income is under ten grand. I do not understand how to move from my position to that of my parents’. Then the world just fell apart. noah walker

joyce wong

I don’t have enough resolve about being able to do this to feel like it’s a resolution, but I hope that this year is when I finally start to write again. I have made multiple half-assed attempts to do so.

I have been writing a lot for others. For school, for the newspaper, for future me to look back wistfully at what is supposed to be the prime of my youth. That last one is a reference to my stint with journaling at the start of university. I figured it might be a good way to rebuild the habit of writing every day, and for a while I did well at writing my every day down on paper… but it quickly became apparent I wasn’t doing this for fun or for myself.

The last time I wrote for myself was in high school, back before I was paralyzed by intrusive thoughts about how other people will receive it, if it be accepted or if it bring me success. I worry about being a woman of color writer who is only really experienced in and comfortable with writing from an ambiguous (often the presumed male, white) point of view. It used to be that all I needed to be creative was to feel good about what I wrote, and then I was confident.

Now I worry about making sure it looks a certain way, and meets someone else’s standards for creativity and correctness.

Maybe it will take some reflection first—not about what I’m doing wrong, but why what I have done is a deliberate choice trying to make a right—and then I’ll be able to get back to it again and write. alina butt

5

(crises)

The last digit of the year inches closer towards the completion of a decade, I inch closer to the completion of Sex and the City. The clock strikes 12 o’clock issuing kisses for some and crises in others. Unfortunately, I belong to the latter category. It is not that this year has been void of happy moments or successes. Rather, it is the method of celebration riddled with incongruous conventions that induces this crisis. On the eve, you get intoxicated, make new friends (i.e. your toilet bowl) and have wild night, presumably at least as you cannot remember most of it, but the morning after you construe mature goals meant to enhance your lifestyle and future prospects. Is it alright that I celebrated it solitarily on a couch, drinking pineapple juice, sending no New Years wishes, posting no story and making no resolutions? Am I New-Years-Eve-ing wrong?

Perhaps, I’ll wait for February, and celebrate the Lunar New Year instead, where no kisses are issued and hopefully no crises either. manjiri deshpande

My housemates and I decided to throw a house party. We had never really thrown a full blown house party before so we thought why not New Year’s, right? You guessed it: it blew up in our faces. My friend told me the next day that he overheard someone say, “Wow this party’s so great; no one knows each other.” It was a good description of the situation; my housemates and I did not know most of these people. Our housemate had a friend unknowingly ask him if he was going to go to this house party that she heard about—yep, it was our party. In the end, there were probably seventy to eighty people in the house. And an hour after the ball dropped, lo and behold, our landlord showed up. There’s actually a hilarious video from my housemate filming the sea of heads in our kitchen, all the while “SAID LITTLE BITCH YOU CAN’T FUCK WITH ME” is blasting, when a short, middle-aged Asian man walks into the shot.

After our landlord showed up, the cops showed up, putting an effective end on our party.

One word of advice that a family friend had told me was that the party does end. It is fun to be your in your twenties with little to no care about responsibilities, but it doesn’t last forever; the party does stop and you don’t want to be the last one there. The way my New Year’s Eve panned out was an all too literal portrayal of his point. After everything had settled, our landlord was gone. The cops were gone. I sat there on my porch with a bad feeling in my stomach. It might have been the various swigs of lukewarm champagne from strangers but I’m fairly sure it was the realization of a couple things: I am twenty-one. I am about to graduate in a couple months. I do not know what I am going to do. I do not have an internship or job awaiting me. I still haven’t even updated my resumé. What am I doing here? What am I going to do? joyce wong

Nowadays, it’s really hard to sustain a sense of crisis.

There are passing moments when I feel the omnipresence of the quarter-life crisis creeping by, poking, prodding, and interrogating my life up until this point. Mostly when I’m not doing much of anything—when exams are over and school’s out, or I’m squished against the window while sitting on a bus or streetcar.

I’m aware of everything I have accomplished as well as what I have not, and it doesn’t make a lick of difference.

Sometimes I contemplate feeling bad about it, but I don’t have the energy to get too far with it. The real crisis is not in feeling, but in not feeling. I would rather just watch some TV, or scroll through Reddit. I’m okay.

Inside of me, there’s a well from which an ambiguous sense of drive and decorum spring, so I end up getting things done. In return, I get a vague sense of accomplishment… which is different than fulfillment. I have a lot of questions, but the universal (and cliche) Crisis of Man is something that bores the best of us, so I won’t take it further. But you tell me, what to do about something that’s subtle, but still so pervasive? alina butt

6

the bandwagons

the politics

On Sunday, January 7, Oprah gave a speech at the Golden Globes after being given the Cecil B. de Mille Award. This speech quickly gained a lot of traction, raising questions as to her potential candidacy for the Presidency in 2020.

The speech itself was very much a political one, discussing the #metoo movement and explaining that “speaking your truth” is a vital and powerful tool for social change. Oprah used the story of Recy Taylor as an example. Taylor was a black woman who, after being raped in 1944, went to Rosa Parks to seek out justice but unfortunately never got any. She remarked that the oppressive culture run by “brutally powerful men” has come to an end, or as she put it, “their time is up!”

Finally, she ended on a positive note by calling out to young girls, telling them that a “new day finally dawns,” and enlisting the efforts of women who tell their stories and men who dare to listen.

woman herself, and standing behind what she says, she stands in sharp contrast to Trump, making her seem like a perfect fit to run against Trump in 2020.

OPRAH: the next billionaire president?

The current President and much of his staff have no political experience and limited credentials for their positions. From Jared Kushner, the President’s son-inlaw and now Senior Advisor without any credentials or experience, to Scott Pruitt, who is the head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) despite having connections to the coal industry and having shed doubt on the reality of Climate Change, these filled positions still seem vacant.

The greatest issue with Trump is the clear lack of experience and expertise that he and many of his staff possess. Compared to the previous administration, this deficit in experience and credentials is glaring. In the Obama Administration, Obama himself had been both a senator and a Harvard Law Professor, while Gina McCarthy, the head of the EPA, was a fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Oprah may be able to put competent people in office, but that can only take her so far. Her obvious lack of experience in politics is reason enough to think twice before we all jump on the Oprah 2020 train. We should value reliable, experienced and trustworthy politicians, and realize that their expertise means something important.

With Donald Trump as President, many Democrats are eagerly looking forward to the 2020 elections. Potential candidates have, however, been scarce. Two popular figures on the left are Senator Bernie Sanders and previous Vice-President Joe Biden, but they’re both aging out since they’re in their 70s. Others, such as Senator Elizabeth Warren, are also prominent, but for some Democrats, her politics are far too left-leaning. They may all still be viable candidates, but none as of yet stand out as an obvious choice for the Democrats in 2020.

Given Oprah’s fame in the media, her speech excites many Democrats at the prospect of her running for office. She is a self-made billionaire with firm Democratic convictions. Her speech shows that she was in complete solidarity with the women of the #metoo movement, and she defends the media as being of great importance. Considering the many misogynistic and racist comments Trump has made and his anti-media stance, seen in his famous “fake news” attacks on CNN and the New York Times, Oprah would be more than just a breath of fresh air for many Democrats. Being a black

lives on a daily basis.

by Carsten von Wersebe

Despite Oprah being a negation of Trump in many ways, she does resembles him in one very important way: they both lack any political experience. As many clamor on about Oprah’s potential as a potential candidate, they forget what the job of President entails. The expertise required comes in large part from experience.

We should desire experienced and intelligent people in office, as they make choices that can affect millions of

Despite all the excitement, we should really look at the problem with our valuation of political expertise—it’s being shunned in favour of fame. It no longer seems to matter whether a presidential candidate has a long political track-record or is just starting out in politics.

Many are anxious to find a Democratic candidate for 2020, and I can sympathize with the sentiment, but it would be a mistake to jump at any popular figure without noticing their obvious flaws.

Oprah may have given a great speech at the Golden Globes, but a good speech cannot make up for her lack of experience, and it shouldn’t.

“Good Old Global Warming” Needs to Unfreeze Niagara Falls

The cold front did not simply affect only Toronto. It looked like all Maritime Provinces and northeastern U.S. states experienced abnormal weather conditions as well. From Halifax, Nova Scotia to Charlottesville, Virginia, temperatures caused major problems: power outages, automotive malfunctions and even a group of citizens in Newfoundland forced to shovel out a moose buried in the snow. To add to all of the chaos, Niagara Falls froze over! Although to many children, the Falls became a winter wonderland, parents and drivers had a hard time getting around the world heritage site.

In response to the cold, President Donald Trump tweeted that the U.S. could use some “good old global warming” that the nation was “going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against.” This comment parallels Trump’s sentiments well in his prior tweets, in which he stated comments such as “global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax invented by the Chinese!”

Global warming, or more accurately, climate change, is

by Noah Walker

First, let me preface this article by saying that I am not an expert on cryptocurrencies, nor do I pretend to be. Still, I would like to explore the subject to perhaps help come to a general understanding of this new fad.

Cryptocurrencies are not a new thing, despite what all the hype surrounding them may suggest, but are in fact an institution first brought up with the introduction of Bitcoin in 2009. Now, Bitcoin itself is by far and away the most famous and popular cryptocurrency available on the market, and is certainly the most valuable per unit when compared to its peers. Close behind are currencies such as Ethereum and Ripple, and with count-

“

As far as the market is concerned, Bitcoin is here to stay.

”

As far as the market is concerned, Bitcoin is here to stay.

It is essentially the gold standard in online currency and has exploded to such a point that it seems unlikely that it will lose its popularity in the foreseeable future. This, of course, does not mean its value will continue to skyrocket as it and several other currencies have done recently. It can otherwise mean that, if you want to spend the money, you can likely make money off of it.

The show hasn’t been the same since Netflix took over

by Maxim Basu

a very complex and multi-faceted issue that requires us to examine and analytically weigh different factors such as historical continuity, scientific evidence and political interests before we can jump to any rash conclusions and base foreign and domestic policies on ideologies.

In addition, “abnormally” warm ocean temperatures from the Pacific Ocean caused a jet stream over eastern Canada and the U.S.—which is bound to happen again—causing cold air to “bulge” northward. The result was a deep freeze.

Opponents of climate change argue that the twoweek deep freeze did not have anything to do with the warming of the planet or human activities. For instance, Climate Central, a Princeton University flagship union, have stated that shifting air patterns over the Arctic are more responsible than anything else for the abnormal winter temperatures this year: “We conclude that this was all but an exceptional two-week cold wave in the area in the current climate.... Cold waves still occur somewhere in North America almost every winter.”

Debate on the causes of the cold front are neverending, yet I believe that human beings had a role to play in what we experienced and will likely experience again.

Human pollution and release of greenhouse gases are increasing at an unprecedented rate. Developing nations are most responsible for such increases in pollution because of the transnational factories that operate there, pumping out toxins at an accelerated speed.

Conversely, studies supporting climate change theory have suggested that humans are partly responsible for the two weeks of hell we all experienced. For example, the WIRES Climate Change national journal at Rutgers University concluded that “very recent research does suggest that persistent winter cold spells … are related to rapid Arctic warming, which is, in turn, caused mainly by human-caused climate change.”

The authors of the journal warned that “persistence” was key as they expect record-breaking temperatures to occur less often in the coming decades, yet with greater longevity.

A brief (but necessary) education on cryptocurrency

To make it easy, let’s begin with the first question. A cryptocurrency is a type of digital asset that can be used for anonymous online transactions as well as other forms of online trading. These transactions occur on a secure system for moving money, being sent between addresses that make it nearly impossible to traced, as they are composed of 30 seemingly random characters.

Transactions made are irreversible, non-refundable, and uninsurable. The funds for these currencies are locked in a public key cryptography system that shows all transactions as they happen, always. The public nature of these transactions is where the power of the currency comes from as all transactions are trusted as real money due to the fact that it is pure investment.

Still, it is important to remember that cryptocurrencies are the modern online equivalent to gambling and should be treated as such. It is not uncommon for the value of a currency to rise or drop 10 per cent in a day, and return to what it was on the next. It is a risky game that some people have had the luck to make a lot of money off of. Yes, there are ways to read the markets since they are available for public examination as mentioned before, but the market is always volatile. Instead of “Where should I invest?” the question should really be, “Is it worth investing?”

At first glance there isn’t really a clear answer to that question, but some reflection may help shed some light.

I have a friend who invested $400 into Ripple and proceeded to make $3,200 on that money this past semester. Ripple has since fallen in the new year, but is looking to make a turnaround. As a result, he has lost money that he had gained, but is still in the black. I have another friend who has bought small amounts of Bitcoin when he can and has seen steady increases in profit. If the market should crash, he will likely lose a lot of the money he has made due to the high cost he has had to buy Bitcoin at. Ultimately, it is at the investor’s discretion whether it is a good or bad idea.

For now, the market looks promising for cryptocurrencies. For many coins, the value is low and now is the time to buy. For others, the good times are here to stay, at least for a little while. At the very least, becoming educated on the subject is a positive thing, as real money is being made and lost every day. The inherently confusing nature of it all seems to have kept many people away for a while, but it’s likely you already know someone that has cryptocurrency, and that number is likely to grow. As more and more people subscribe to the idea of an online currency, many more will likely follow suit, confounding my mind, as I sit here between two papers and the hopelessly far away end of term just wondering how nice it would be to get rich quick.

Black Mirror is cracked, but not broken

The politics of climate change during the coldest winter we’ve seen in decades.

Although Canadian winters are already known for their longevity and extremity, this winter has exceeded all of our expectations. After New Year’s Eve, Toronto was hit by temperatures which felt like -40 degrees Celsius, the coldest in over 40 years. The Weather Network’s guru Chris Scott warned city dwellers to “buckle up because it looks like a stormy winter.” He was not kidding.

A Study in Green

less others at a distance, it is difficult to determine which currencies are worth investing in and which are mere trends, ultimately leading to two main questions: “What is a cryptocurrency?” and “Where should my money go?”

7

The net effect of our activities is that climate will occur differently in various parts of the world. In response to Donald Trump, I would say that climate change does not uniformly warm the planet, with warm temperatures being witnessed all over the globe. Some parts of our world will experience excruciatingly hot summers while others, such as North America did this year, will see abnormally cold winters.

This is not good news. What is most important now is that we as a species educate ourselves on the matter and regardless of our political and scientific views come to agree that less pollution is better for our climate and humanity.

“OMG! Did you see Black Mirror? It was amaaazing! It was just… I can’t describe it.

Mind-blowing.”

That’s the gist of most of the comments I have been seeing on social media ever since the release of the long-awaited fourth season of Black Mirror. The show came back after a long promotional campaign by Netflix, who uploaded teasers for weeks without ever mentioning the release date. I was definitely one of those who waited patiently for the new season to be released.

Sadly, the show left me quite disappointed for one very big reason.

Before complaining, I should say that Black Mirror, in many ways, is one of the most remarkable shows that have been released in the last couple of years. Each episode was directed and played by different directors and cast. While the TV anthology is not a new concept and has actually been seeing a resurgence as of late, Black Mirror is unique in its application because no matter how different, all episodes share a technologically-induced dystopian near-future, creating a compelling overarching theme.

So what’s the problem then? Well … the short answer: Capitalism did it again and killed creativity.

To draw that out, consider this. In 2015, I watched the first episode of Black Mirror. I could have finished the first two seasons that day, but instead spent countless hours digesting what I had just seen during late night conversations with friends.

by Zeynel Akkus

This was how sky-high the expectations were for the new seasons and how satisfying the show was to me in terms of ideas, emotion, perspective and empathy.

Here’s the thing: after the second season’s Christmas special, “White Christmas”—which is THE greatest episode of Black Mirror ever—the show simply settled and kept reusing the same ideas without adding anything new.

a VR simulation, thereby keeping them “alive.” This technology is the same, or at least extremely similar, to the technology that is used in “Black Museum” to eternally punish a prisoner’s consciousness via a hologram.

And so on and so on...

Let’s take a quick look at the best episodes of the last season based on their IMDB ratings:

2011: 1st season (3 episodes) 2013-14: 2nd season (4 episodes - including one Christmas special) 2015: Netflix purchases the show 2016: 3rd season (6 episodes) 2017: 4th season (6 episodes)

“Hang the DJ”: 9.0/10 “Black Museum”: 8.8/10 “USS Callister”: 8.4/10 They are all quite good episodes individually. If previous episodes of Black Mirror did not exist, these episodes would be even better. However, what we’ve seen so far in season four are copy-and-pastes of the same ideas (with tiny modifications) again and again. Two of these episodes,”Black Museum” and “USS Callister,” focus on the “cookie” technology that was introduced in “White Christmas,” which was released four years ago. What differences does this new “cookie” have?

Instead of “cookie,” the multiplication of the human consciousness and its transmittance is called “Infinity” in “USS Callister” and “monkey” in “Black Museum.”

I know it’s getting boring comparing every episode to the Christmas special, but you can see similar incidents in other episodes. Another great episode “San Junipero” (Season 3) revolves around the idea of the consciousness of a dead person being transferred into

I would like to draw a brief chronology to help me get to my point.

I am not going to shit on Netflix since they play a significant role in providing opportunities for low-budget content creators and support a variety of great projects that normally might not have had the chance to come to life. But on this specific subject, when I look to see who holds the responsibility for the reason that the creativity of Black Mirror has been dying out over the last two seasons, I look at the involvement of Netflix.

Perhaps it is because of being less selective about stories now that they can produce more and more, rather than pursuing uniqueness, content quality or something else.

And yet, the newer episodes of Black Mirror are still better than other shows. I just hope Netflix will take some serious steps to save one of the greatest TV shows from getting ruined. Otherwise, it will likely leave the art piece that is Black Mirror with less and less to be talked about.

newsletter n anna bianca roach 2:40am on a thursday “dear blank, i’m writing to tell you i’ve finally carved out a small corner of the universe for myself. i live above an italian restaurant and my stairwell smells like onions. i have a fire escape like the ones in the movies we used to watch about life in america. the streetcars sound stringy here, like they’re going home to someone. my bedroom window lets onto a cinema, and a sign that reads FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICHES in large, gaudy letters. it’s easy to listen to the people walking in the street; and there are always people on the street. it feels a little voyeuristic but it’s nice to hear what life sounds like. on nights like tonight when i remember how small my life is, i like to watch the people here work, like ants, to build a space they love. since i’ve started writing you, i’ve watched two men change the lettering on the marquee: today it reads ‘the beautiful anonymous.’ here, i am neither beautiful nor anonymous. the family who runs my bodega knows my name. my butcher knows my name. sometimes, it feels like the streets themselves know my name: i have a life here that finally fits me. my name is so loud here it is deafening sometimes. i’ve started dancing most days: it helps me make sense of the loud things. like my name, like the house music my downstairs neighbor plays, like the feeling you get when the language you spoke with your mother stops coming easy. when i first moved in, only one of the neon lights spelling out the name of the cinema had gone out, so that it read R YAL. one by one they all went out until it just read Y. even so, they are bright red and when they come on they flood my room with the same warm light sunsets sometimes make back home when they set the whole sky ablaze. my heart has settled here, and i think i will start writing again. the last time i saw our city, the restaurant i used to go to with my grandmother had been taken out and renamed HOT SUGAR. what is that place like now? did you ever learn the server’s name? love always, A” i wonder what loneliness tastes like. i used to think it tasted like the bottle of shitty white wine i drank alone in a dorm room. but now i think maybe it tastes like the smell of the candle you burn at almost 4am when you’re writing to an imaginary friend in a hometown where nobody misses you. the desks in my elementary school had a shelf under them where we were to keep our things; my knee was always bruised from bouncing up against it. that nervous energy has evolved: instead of causing light bruises, today it sometimes chokes my throat and makes me run anywhere that is far. anywhere that is away. the dancing helps, it gives the jitter a body to live out. tonight i found an empty laundromat, full of life but not in the way summertime patios are full of life. full of the forgotten socks my neighbors will look for in a week’s time. dreary and tired way you only get in cities like this one. music was playing softly from faded speakers and there was space and the street was empty so i danced: this is when i felt the city open, it said welcome, you are in my guts now. someone looked through the window and when they came home i hope they told their sister: ‘it was midnight and i saw a girl dancing alone in a laundromat.’ i think blank would be proud of me for taking a quiet moment and making it mine. i am proud of me for that. the big letter Y has started flickering too and the lightbulbs around the FRIED CHICKEN SANDWICHES have gone out and i still feel like running but this time i might have to stay put. my feet hurt and i don’t know if it’s from dancing or trying to grow roots into concrete.