“IT’S A SHAME” Marchese supports sessional lecturers p. 2
ZOMBIES GOBLINS AND GHOULS, OH MY! INSIDE
the newspaper
University of Toronto’s Independent Weekly
Vol. XXXII N0. 9
U of T students Trick or Eat ANDREW GYORKOS
HELENE GODERIS
For many university students, Halloween is more about dressing up in sexy iterations of iconic horror staples than anything else. The time when we could
innocently suit up in ghastly attire and go door-to-door pestering the neighbours for sweets may have passed, but Meal Exchange, a student-run charitable initiative, allows magnanimous students with a fondness
for Halloween to dress up in costume and hit the streets with their Trick or Eat program. “Trick or Eat happens on Halloween, and it gives university students the excuse to go trickor-treating again, but with a twist,” said Tala Khoury, coordinator of Meal Exchange at the St. George campus. Instead of collecting candy, students gather canned food and other non-perishables by going door-to-door in the residential areas around campus and in the Annex. This year’s proceeds will be donated to the Fort York Food Bank. As Meal Exchange’s major fundraiser, Trick or Eat rolls costumes, candy, and charity into an annual event. Last year, its 5,991 participants raised nearly nearly $23,000 and ac-
UTSU stages ‘die-in’ TOMASZ BUGAJSKI Any pedestrians walking past the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities on Thursday, October 29th will bear witness to a morbid scene. Students ambling the premises will fall down “dead” as part of a staged “die-in,” protesting Continued on page 3
Continued on page 3
October 29, 2009
the science Tim Ryan talks arachnids, post-coitus We all have our specific preferences when it comes to after-sex rituals. Personally, I love a good spoon (I call big spoon!), but some prefer the opposite, choosing to rollover and fall asleep immediately thereafter. Those with nicotine addictions will enjoy a relaxing cigarette, some will instantly crave a shower. I’ve heard tales of men getting up to raid the fridge while watching sports highlights, conversely, I’ve heard about career-driven women who turn to their Blackberry postmating. And none of these address the messy world of one-night stands. One ritual that we thankfully pass on (although I’m sure it exists on the internet somewhere) is sexual cannibalization. The Redback spider, indigenous to Australia and similar in appearance to the Black Widow, is one of only two animals worldwide in which the smaller male actively assists the female in sexual cannibalization during which the male maneuvers his body over the female’s mouthparts. But researchers at the University of Toronto Scarborough have recently published an article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B where they elucidate the competitive logistics of this event. The duo, Ph.D. candidate Jeffrey Stoltz and associate
professor of integrative behaviour and neuroscience, Maydianne Andrade, present data that show the females have a “courtship threshold” of approximately 100 minutes which intruding males can manipulate in an effort to poach a potential mate. Competitions were set up where ‘resident’ males courted females past the 100 minute threshold after which ‘intruding’ males were introduced. They found that the intruders were able to easily poach the courted female and mate with them, all while getting themselves off the after-sex menu. This finding demonstrated two novel characteristics of the event, firstly, that smaller, weaker males can slip by and mate successfully, acting like a parasite on the hard-work of the first male. Secondly, it shows the female’s inability to distinguish her source of courtship thus rendering her mate selection skills relatively useless. This paper represents one of the few instances where the theory of female choice via thresholds has been quantified. It is also the first to show the males of a species manipulating the female’s selection process to hijack mates from competitors. Life would be so much easier for us human males if things worked the same way. I’ll admit I’m not one for approaching women; I just wish I could develop a method like this to manipulate female selection without getting slapped. PHOTO: Ken Jones