The McGill Tribune Vol. 25 Issue 4

é

M c G ill

OPINION: Guh? Two new talking heads?

C u rio s ity d elivers. V o l. 2 5 Issue 4

A&E: Don't throw these guys back.

T r ib u n e T h u rs d a y , S e p te m b e r 2 0 , 2 0 0 5

PUBLISHED BY THE STUDENTS' SOCI E T Y OF MC G I L L UNI VERSI TY

Please hang u p l­ a n d t r y y o u r c a ll a g a in — D a w s o n

H a ll

c u ts p h o n e and c o u n te r h o u rs ROBERT CH URC H

___

This w e e k th e Arts and Science Student Affairs Office in D aw son Hall will institute new operating hours at th e advising desk, and som e students are concerned ab o u t th e apparent cut in services.

D aw son Hall, w hich provides schedules advising and assigns space for both th e Arts and Science faculties, will n o w provide counter service only in th e m orning, follow ed by p hon e service in th e afternoon. T h e counter will be staffed from 9 a.m . to 1 p.m . M o n d ay to Friday, and p hon e lines will b e open from 1 p.m . to 5 p.m . Students will have to choose which suits their schedules better and plan accordingly.

An e-m ail notification th a t students received W e d n esd ay did n o t offer a reason for th e changes, saying only that “this m easure is neces­ sary in order to continue to provide [students] w ith efficient service."

H enry Leighton, associate dean o f science for student affairs, said that th e changes w ere necessary d u e to a shortage of resources in the office.

"The resources th a t th ey have in th e office are such th a t th ey could not d o all th e other things that n eed to b e done in th e office and keep th e current hours," said Leighton. "There are

so m e personnel issues, which I can't go into detail about, but it's som ething w e 'v e d o n e very reluctantly. The office is just overtaxed at th e m om ent."

Leighton could not say w h eth er th e resource shortage is related to current university funding issues.

"I couldn't c o m m e n t on that, th e funding as a w hole," he said. "All sectors of th e operations of th e university are being affected."

A Daw son Hall em p lo yee w ho did not wish to b e identified views th e changes positively.

"It's enabling us to get m ore w ork d o n e for th e students."

Adrian Angus, Arts Undergraduate Society vice-president academ ic, said that AUS was not notified prior to th e changes.

"This was just done," he said. "W e w eren 't told, and w e're going to question this w ith th e fac­ ulty."

Angus questioned th e m ove at a tim e w hen student societies, particularly th e AUS, have been trying to im prove th e advising process at McGill.

"It looks to be a step backward and w e w ant to know why, because it could be they have a very good reason for this," he said. "W e're very con­ c e rn e d ... At th e next m eeting with th e faculty w e 're going to be asking w hy this happen ed and h o w this is going to help students. Right n o w it seem s problematic." ■

Native student w oes ROBERT CHURCH A N D JAMES G O TO W IE C The sound o f drum beats filled the air Thursday as th e First Peoples' House hosted its fourth annual p o w w o w on Low er Field.

"W e have a nice gathering here,"

indigenous studies research. "W e w a n t to create an aw areness of indigenous stud­ ies and student services at McGill and encourage m ore native youth to choose McGill."

T h e FPH was conceived to provide a com fortable environm ent for students w h o have left their h o m e com m unities to

or of

s th e d em ise of th e hum an close at hand? D o you w a n t to live forever w ith robots in y o u r blo o d stream ?

Read Features to learn m o re ab o u t applied robotic technologies and A.I. a n d w h a t th e y m e a n for hum ankind to d a y ... and tom orrow .

I species

See WHAT

This W eek in McGill Athletics Fri., Sept.

23

Martlet ( 7 pm) & Redmen Soccer ( 9 pm) vs Sherbrooke

Sat., Sept.

24

Redmen Football vs St-Francis Xavier

1

pm

Sat., Sept. 25 Martlet Lacrosse vs Queen’s (11 am) & vs Toronto (3 pm) (Lower Campus) Sun., Sept 25 Martlet Lacrosse vs Brock 1 pm

Tues., Sept.

27

Redmen Hockey vs UQTR 7 pm

w w w .athletics.m cgill.ca or (5 1 4 ) 3 9 8 -7 0 0 3 for inform ation * A dvance student ticket sales at S a d ie ’s

news EXCLUSIVE I NT ERVI EW

The man w e love to hate R o d d i c k G a t e s p r o t e s t o r is k e e p i n g u p t h e f ig h t . W e w a n t t o Since he first appeared in June 2004, Lloyd Davidson has become a fixture at McGill's Roddick Gates. Students angered by his inflammatory signs, protesting what he terms his "wrongful dis­ missal" from the Montreal hospital where he worked, complain that his messages are anti-Semitic and offensive. McGill Security officials have said their hands are tied, since Davidson is not technically on McGill property. The dedication Davidson displays— he appears with a sign almost every weekday— prompted the Tribune to chat up the infamous and, as many have said, irrational, protestor.

Also

George

Bush

dent. I don't want to endanger anyone, especially students.

H ave you ta k e n legal action against th e hospital?

I wouldn't. I don’t take people to court, it's part of my beliefs. That's why I'm here. The scripture says you have to combat evil if there's no contrition.

W hy have you chosen M cG ill's R oddick gates as yo u r place of protest?

S o m e p e o p le have la b e le d you an a n ti-S em itic. H o w w o u ld you respond to th a t accusation?

If you were Jewish, I would tell you that the Jews are the antiSemites because Christ is the King of the Semites. How can they embrace Christians when they don't believe in the Trinity?

W h o d o you m o st adm ire?

Christ.

w hy.

McGill is affiliated with the Jewish General Hospital, where I worked.

I've also been going to the Israeli Embassy.

N a m e : Lloyd Davidson B irthplace: Jamaica Favourite fo o d : Fruit Favourite colour: Navy blue and white Age: "Under 50, above 48."

Jesus

know

and

Nelson

Mandela.

A re you e m ployed ?

H o w lo ng have you b e e n he re protesting?

I'm a writer. I'm employed.

Fourteen months.

W h e re d o you w ork?

W h at do you h o p e to accom plish?

I'm employed, that's it. I'm a homeowner.

To get the truth to come out about my experience at the hospital pertinent to my wrongful dismissal, and also to enlighten the glob­ al Jewish community of the virtues of Christianity.

D o you th in k you are m a k in g a difference?

D o you have a fam ily?

I have four children in their twenties and my wife is a bookkeeper.

D o es y o u r w ife s u p p o rt you an d your cause?

Oh, yeah, for sure. People have taken hundreds, if not thousands of pictures of me and my signs.

Oh yeah, she's a Christian.

H o w m a n y signs do you have?

As long as it takes.

H o w lo n g w ill you be here?

As I'm inspired by God, I change my signs. I have about eight. I make sure I have nothing that would be a detriment to a Jewish stu­

VLADIMIR EREMIN

Traci Johnson

k

won't be so easy come January.

SPEAKERS O N C A M P U S

An old conflict through a new lens E x a m in in g t h e a r c h i t e c t u r e o f t h e I s r a e li-P a le s tin ia n JAMES G O TO W IE C Israeli architect and human rights advocate Eyal Weizman came to McGill's School of Architecture Tuesday to present his view on the intersection of human rights, politics, warfare and architecture. The lecture focused mainly on the nature of walls and the role of architecture in the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Weizman began by exploring the nature of walls as purely physical objects and how the Israeli Defense Force has in recent years modified its tactics to deal with urban warfare. He screened interviews with IDF generals who talked about the evolving interpretation of a city's "inverse geometry."

'That comes to mean a kind of inside-out inversion of the city. You walk through the private spaces, you do not enter the public spaces," he said. "You would not walk through the street, you would not enter the yard, you would not use the staircase-you would completely create a new circulation system through [the city]," he said.

Weizman pointed out that this tactic is not new. He took his audience through a recent battle in Nablus, showing how IDF forces cut through homes to avoid narrow alleyways and open streets and, by extension, ambush. He pointed out that while Nablus was not like the 2002 battle in Jenin, where war crimes were self-evident because the destruction was so visible, there was a "violation of similar degree, but conducted almost invisi­ bly."

"If the city is the world of the wall... the destruction of the city happens here through the transgression of that order," he said. "Through entering into the private spaces of the Palestinians... that destruction is much more invisible."

Moving on from the nature of walls, Weizman briefly exam­ ined how architecture was adapting to the nature of the conflict.

VLADIMIR EREMIN

Eyal Weizman: not for walls...or against them

He showed pictures of the Jenin refugee camp after it had been rebuilt and pointed out that the ground floors of all the houses had been pushed back from the street, leaving the top floors as large overhangs, to allow room for tanks to roll through.

'You see the way in which political decisions end up in a very small architectural detail," he told the audience.

Weizman then discussed the larger walls under construction Israeli settlements in the West Bank. He did not come out in favour or against the walls, but instead discussed some of the misconceptions about them.

d is p u te "The wall embodies the whole nature of flexibility," he said.

"Its very path is a diagram of political forces pulling on its two sides."

Weizman said that when the process of drawing the path of the wall started, it looked very different than it does today. He said that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon originally wanted the wall to contain every settlement and separate them completely from the Palestinian-controlled areas, but the pressure from activists, international organizations and other countries were too great. The wall went from being a single continuous object to a series of walls.

'The more the international community managed to push the path of the wall, the more it fragmented and the more of these enclaves were left," he said. "Those settlers were promised to be inside the wall, so they are inside the wall. But the wall is no longer a single object."

These various enclaves of Israeli territory needed to be con­ nected through bridges and tunnels to form a contiguous zone, which has led to a new interpretation of borders as three-dimen­ sional. Weizman showed pictures of Israeli bridges passing over valleys under Palestinian control, and said that the border between the two territories was recognized as the joint between the road itself and the column supporting it.

Weizman concluded his talk by saying that a lot of these three-dimensional borders are not feasible, since there is really just a "fantasy of separation."

"Perhaps the conflict does not have a territorial solution," he said. "One may think about neutrality, joint citizenship or a single state, for a place that cannot simply be divided."

Rami Abou-Khalil, U3 Architecture and an organizer of the lecture, thought the talk was well received.

'The interest for me was the fact that he really considered the ethical aspects of architecture," he said. "It's a crazy context, and it's not easy to respond to contexts like that." ■

th e mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05) new s

CAMPUS

3

CAMPUS BUZ Z

W h a t d iv e r sity ?

N a tiv e s tu d e n t e n r o lm e n t r e f l e c t s la c k o f r e c r u it in g Continued fro m cover

the past month to decide on a recruitment strategy.

'The exact initiatives that we will be pursuing over the next year or the next few years we haven't estab­ lished yet," he said.

The university's 2003 Annual Report identified the goal of making McGill "a prime destination for abo­ riginal students, and a welcome home once they arrive."

McGill may actually begin to fol­ low through on that commitment.

Hollywood film producer and McGill graduate Jake Eberts, whose credits include Chariots of Fire and The March of the Penguins, recently donated in excess of $600,000 to McGill with the goal of supporting and expanding indigenous studies.

The endowment will fund entrance bursaries for First Nations students as well as help integrate indigenous stu-

come to university.

"Since I got here," said Chantelle Richmond, third-year Ph.D. Aboriginal Health, "First Peoples' House has been a home away from home."

Richmond, who is a member of the Ojibway nation, said that since the relatively small number of native students at McGill come from all over Canada, the FPH is something that they all have in common, despite their diverse backgrounds.

Richmond's assessment of the number of native students currently studying on campus is correct.

Waneek Horn-Miller, director of the First People's House, estimates there are fewer than 30 native students enrolled at McGill.

"There is no actual native recruitment program yet," she said.

"Native students who are here just sort of "A lo t o f o th e r universities actively re c ru it end up here." n a tiv e students. T h e U n iv e rs ity o f To ro n to , But Howard Tontini, McGill's director Q u e e n 's , Trent, a n d e v e n C o n c o rd ia , w h e re of recruitment, said that th e re a re o v e r 200 n a tiv e students. I th in k it hasn't traditionally th a t M c G ill has just a b it to le a m a n d a little been the university's responsibility to recruit b it o f c atch in g u p to do." native students.

—W a n e e k H o r n -M ille r "Most of the C o o rd in a to r, First P eoples' H o u se recruitment and the ini­ tiatives towards First Nations and all dents into the Montreal community.

Aboriginal people is really through Horn-Miller characterized the First People's House," he said. McGill's current efforts at recruiting "We will contribute financially to the native students as inadequate, but actual recruitment initiative and in has hope that the endowment will terms of advertising... we will lend change that. our expertise."

"Obviously [current efforts] are Horn-Miller said that compared not nearly enough," she said. "This to other universities across Canada, endowment has put the issue on the McGill does little to expand native forefront at McGill and is helping to study opportunities. develop and indigenous studies pro­ "There's a lot of work to do. A lot gram. I think this is a wakeup call." of other universities actively recruit Doxtater agreed that McGill native students. The University of must do more in the area of indige­ Toronto, Queen's, Trent, and even nous studies research and Inuit Concordia, where there are over 200 teacher training. native students. I think that McGill "The best university in the coun­ has just a bit to learn and a little bit try has to have the best indigenous of catching up to do." studies program," he said.

Tontini said that meetings have —Additional reporting taken place between Horn-Miller and

by Traci Johnson officials in the Registrar's office over

Dawson Hall reaction S tu d e n ts s h a r e th e ir th o u g h ts o n th e

c u t s i n D a w s o n ’s h o u r s

M a x R eed, S tuden ts' Society vicep re s id e n t university affairs:

"Seeing as we're trying to revamp the advising process, we want more access and people to help students rather than less, and we think that the university has to make sure Dawson Hall is properly staffed."

S ara h K e h o e , Sociology:

U3

H is to ry

and

"It would be frustrating if you want to see someone when the office is closed, but I don't really care myself.

I think maybe at the beginning of school it's a bad thing to do, but in the middle of the semester it doesn't really matter."

Students in the newly created Bachelor of Arts and Science pro­ gram will be getting a new student society to complement their degrees.

The Bachelor of Arts and Science Temporary Associative Representational Department, offi­ cially abbreviated as BASTARD, will be charged with representing the needs of the growing number of of BASc. students. BASTARD President Kaveh Afshar did not comment on the unusual name, saying only that he was not responsible for choosing it "The point of this organization is to get these guys together," said Afshar.

He added that the unusual name will be valuable for gaining attention on campus.

K

a

t

e

H udson, U3 Biology:

"It sucks that you can't go in the after-

4 years now and I'm honestly not surprised. Very typical for McGill to do.

E dw in P alm er, U1 C hem istry:

"It's inconvenient but if s not like they didn't warn us. They've e-mailed us and posted signs. Whatever, I was

"The hours are terrible. I had no idea either. I've checked m y school e-mail account about once since I've been a McGill student.

—Alex Wagner, U2 Arts

n o o n ,

Junaid S uvhan, U 2 Arts an d U 2 Science:

drunk last night and I didn't make it here before 1. I'm just going to go bang on doors around the building until I find a drop box. I'm not very well versed on how the bureaucracy works here."

"It's just kind of stupid because McGill has a reputation for bureau­ cracy and this just makes that image worse. It's just creates more red tape for everything you want to get done.

It's only open from 9 to 1 and it's pretty stupid. I came here on Friday and they had a sign saying that they close at 3. Now they've removed that sign and it says they're only open until 1 o'clock. I've been at McGill for

"Students work; students have differ­ ent schedules. Dawson Hall is some­ where a lot of people have to go, and [the service reduction] is making something that could take five min­ utes into somethat that will take two hours. There are already lines, and there's only so much you can accom­ plish on the phone."

because that's obviously when every­ body's going to go. It does seem kind of ridiculous."

A lex W agner, U 2 Arts:

"The hours are terrible. I had no idea either. I've checked my school e-mail account about once since I've been a McGill student. I fully came here ready to drop off a form that needs to be in today. Hopefully I can figure out an alternative and drop it off some­ where else."

Lisa S m ith , U 3 Arts:

"It's a bit impersonal, but I'm not sure the quality of service has changed at all. I came to Dawson Hall to make a transcript request and I was told there was a cut off at the line at 1

w

D eb o rah Gregory, Arts a lu m n a

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T o m o r r o w 's P r o f e s s io n a ls A p p ly T o d a y !

L...........................................

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A p p ly o n - l i n e !

O M SA S

w w w .o u a c .o n .c a /o m s a s /

O n ta r io M e d ic a l S c h o o l A p p lic a t io n S e r v ic e

September 15, 2005: Last day for registering for on-line applications October 3, 2005: Application Deadline

w w w .o u a c .o n .c a /o ls a s /

O LSA S

O n ta r io L a w S c h o o l A p p lic a t io n S e r v ic e

N E W S BRI EF B.A.Sc. students' society: BASTARDs

o'clock... and they pointed me to the phone in the lobby. Now I have to fax in one request, drop off a letter for another request and e-mail for another. I think that maybe my prob­ lems may have been taken care of more quickly [if there had been counter service], because now I have to come back again."

Members of the BASTARD soci­ ety will also automatically be mem­ bers of AUS and SUS. Afshar claims that having a student society specifi­ cally for students who are already a member of two others is not redun­ dant, due to the special nature of the BASc. degree.

Students' Society Vice President University Affairs Max Reed agreed with Afshar, but cautioned the BASTARDs about their unusual choice.

"They should be careful that it may offend someone," he said.

Both Reed and Afshar, however, felt that the name of the society mat­ tered less than the impact that such a society may have on campus and its ability to unite students with spe­ cial obligations.

—Robert Church

November 1, 2005: Application deadline - First year May 1, 2006: Application deadline - Upper years TEAS

w w w .o u a c .o n .c a /t e a s /

T e a c h e r E d u c a tio n A p p lic a t io n S e r v ic e

December 1, 2005: Application deadline

w w w .o u a c .o n .c a /o r p a s /

ORPAS

O n ta r io R e h a b ilit a t io n S c i e n c e s P r o g r a m s A p p lic a t io n S e r v ic e

(Audiology, Occupational Therapy Physical Therapy/Physiotherapy Speech-Language Pathologtf

January 16, 2006: Application deadline ONTARIO UNIVERSITIES' APPLICATION CENTRE

f

CENTRE DE DEMANDE D'ADMISSION AUX UNIVERSITÉS DE L'ONTARIO .

170 R esearch Lane G u e lp h O N N 1G 5 E2 h ttp ://c e n tre .o u a c .o n .c a

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CAMPUS

news | 20.9.05 | the mcgill tribune

STUDENT

Infectious learning

Student-run w eb service helps peers save m oney

N ew

cou rse on

in te r n a tio n a l

h e a lth a n d d is e a s e le a v e s s t u d e n t s ‘i t c h i n g ’ f o r m o r e

B o o k s F o r S c h o o l.c a m a k e s c r o s s - c o u n t r y MEGAN BRIGGS

te x tb o o k

e x c h a n g e a r e a lity

MARIT MITCHELL Shelling out hundreds of dollars for new textbooks is no longer the only option for students, thanks to Webbased services like BooksForSchool.ca. The site enables students from across Canada to buy and sell their used textbooks for much better prices than their campus book­ stores offer.

The idea for the Web site arose in 2003 when three Toronto students, two at York University and one at Ryerson University, became exasperated with the poor buyback prices offered at their campus bookstores. They launched BooksForSchool.ca as a way to connect stu­ dents with the books they need without a middleman taking a commission.

"It's a similar situation to tuition increases," said Mike Levine, a fourth-year Ryerson student and CEO and co­ founder of BooksForSchool.ca. "Students are paying such high prices for their education, they'll go anywhere other than the bookstore to find a better deal. Being students [ourselves], we go through the same issues other stu­ dents do with regards to textbooks. It's not fair anymore.

This is our way of fighting back."

With several thousand members already and hun­ dreds more joining every day, it seems other students feel the need to fight back, too.

"The response has been incredible," Levine said.

"Some members have sold as many as 10 texts in a week."

Besides its function as a literary marketplace, the site places a strong emphasis on networking and developing relationships with other students in similar academic pro­ grams. Underclassmen can connect with older students who provide insight and advice on courses or programs, and members can create profiles and share information.

This information is intended to establish a level of trust between buyers and sellers, and dispel some of the skepticism surrounding online exchanges.

"One of the problems [with buying and selling online] is that you don't know what you're dealing with," said Levine. "On the profile page, students can upload a picture and provide their first and last name. There are added levels of trust."

Registration on the site is free, and students can specify an asking price and post a picture of their book.

Once a price has been agreed upon, it is up to the ven­

dor to ship the book to the buyer. Textbooks are never physically in the possession of anyone at BooksForSchool.ca.

While there are a few advertising banners on the site, it is mostly funded by the founders themselves. They are currently looking for sponsors so the emphasis can remain on keeping prices low for students.

Students' Society Vice-President University Affairs Max Reed applauded the online exchange.

"I think that any Web site that helps students save money on books is a fabulous idea and should be encouraged," he said.

Neither Reed nor SSMU President Adam Conter believe that Web sites like BooksForSchool.ca detract from internal initiatives such as last week's SSMU book drive.

"With our proximity to our students and our experi­ ence," said Conter, "every year the book drive will improve, as it did this past year."

According to Adrian King-Edwards, co-owner of The Word Bookstore at 469 Milton, sites like

"Students are paying such high prices for their education, they'll go anywhere other than the bookstore to find a better deal."

—M ike Levine, BooksforSchool.ca CEO

BooksForSchool.ca and the McGill Classifieds are not dis­ couraging students from selling back texts to their local bookstores. He said the number of students selling text­ books has increased in recent years.

"There are many ways to sell your textbook," KingEdwards. said. "The advantage here is that students can get cash immediately."

The Word buys books at 40 to 50 per cent of the price at the McGill Bookstore, then re-sells them at 60 to 70 per cent of the retail price. While students don't get to name their price, they enjoy the security of a face-to-face deal and a sure sale.

King-Edwards said that unlike a Web site, "we take [the books] back if [students] drop the course or there's something wrong. I've heard some sad tales of students convincing other students that the edition they have is the right one for the course when if s not." ■

news A re you always butting into yo u r friends' business, but don't enjoy the beating that follows?

Coiffure

W ednesday, 5 :3 0 p.m .

Shatner 110 new s@ m cgilltribune.com

Coalition.

Featuring guest speakers from a "This course is taking an activism perspective. variety of disci­ Not just education, but a whole different take plines including on H IV and our interaction with it as anthropology, social studies Canadians, and medicine, —Justin Noble, IDS the course addresses global health issues— par­ ment of Social Studies and ticularly HIV and other infectious dis­ Medicine and receiving approval from department chair Allan Young eases.

The seminar is not yet a per­ were the final stages in the course's manent course offering at McGill, creation.

The student-initiated seminar but is for now a pilot to test out the focus on its various themes and par­ focuses on four themes in its study ticipatory approach to international of international health issues: AIDS and infectious diseases, education health issues.

Beveridge and Baird proposed and prevention, humanitarianism the course to the administration and and intervention, and social inequal­ collaborated with faculty members ity. Guest speakers from related dis­ ciplines helped set the content of in designing it. the course and recommend read­ "The course came about from the students themselves who recog­ ings for students, Minn said. In addi­ nized that this is something that tion, the class works together on a they wanted in their curriculum," group project that encourages said Claudia Mitchell, a professor of activism beyond the classroom.

Student response so far has Social Studies and Medicine who co-instructs the course with PhD been positive.

"The course is taking an student Pierre Minn. "Many of the activism perspective," said class students... wanted to focus more on some of the issues that they had member Justin Noble. "Not just been dealing with in other courses education, but a whole different but in a more focused way before take on HIV and our interaction with it as Canadians." ■ they graduated."

QUOTABLE "What I want to tell you is

Pierre

I made mistakes, things I regret.

Barber

clearer than that."

Yes, I consumed. I can't be

You are welcome to visit us at our new location: 5 00 S H E R B R O O K E W E S T

LOTO QUEBEC BUILDING (Between Aylmer and City Councillors)

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W rite for News!

Undergraduate students Bri Beveridge and Steve Baird found something lacking in their course calendars last year-so they set out to fix it Contemporary Issues in International Health, a new interdis­ ciplinary seminar, was added to the department of Social Studies of Medicine this year thanks to the efforts and initiative of student members of the McGill Global AIDS

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— André Boisclair, candidate for leadership of the Parti Québécois, responding to questions regarding his alleged cocaine use as a provincial cabinet minister under former premier Lucien Bouchard in the 1990s.

(514) 844-1837 S pecial p ric e fo r stu d e n ts w ith I.D .:

S h a m p o o in g , C u t & B lo w d r y

According to Beveridge, the process of implementing the course was smooth due to the high demand for classes that address international health issues. The fac­ ulty and administration responded enthusiastically to her proposal, she said.

After meeting with International Development Studies chair Myron Frankman to go over the steps necessary to introduce a new course, Beveridge was put in touch with Mitchell, who immedi­ ately came on board. Finding an open class slot under the depart-

BY T H E N U M B E R S $ 1 ,0 8 2 .0 8

14

* 14 :

The amount of money raised by the Arts Undergraduate Society thus far for Hurricane Katrina relief through bake sales, loonle lines and

BUSINESS HOURS: Mon: 8:00am to 3:00pm Tlies to Fri: 8:00am to 6:00pm Saturday: 8:00am to 3:00pm

samosa sales. AUS Vice-President External Jacob Itzkowitz said that fundraising efforts will be ongoing.

th e mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | new s

5

CITY

Omni Hotel staff ready for w ork T w o -m o n th

s tr ik e c o m e s t o

a c lo s e

RITA KREYNIN

Employees of the Omni Hotel wrapped up a two-month strike this morning, as stipulated in an agreement reached Friday evening between their union and hotel representatives.

The new labour agreement, which was ratified with 95 per cent worker support, includes a wage hike of 11 per cent over three years, improvements to the pension plan and an increase in group insurance levels. This agreement reflects similar negoti­ ations that were undertaken between CSN and other Montreal hotels during the summer.

About 175 Omni housekeeping and other employees had been posted at the comer of Peel and Sherbrooke daily since the strike began July 15.

Represented by la Confederation des Syndicates Nationaux, employees of the Omni Hotel say they were forced to strike due to serious problems with Omni management, which they described as "grievances mismanaged." Sergio Esquievel, an employee of 25 years, said that complaints were repeatedly ignored and loyal employees routinely disrespected.

'You see the rage in us," he said. "It's not at all about money or benefits-rather, they treat us like dirt and we will not tolerate it any longer."

One grievance Esquievel cited was the frequent changing of staff schedules without employee consent. Housekeeping employees once signed a letter attesting grievances, which he said management ignored.

Hotel representatives declined requests to comment.

Tensions began to escalate in April, when numerous hotels in Montreal signed new contracts ensuring staff rights, an agree­ ment the Omni Hotel chose not to take part in.

The strike had been ongoing, rain or shine, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. everyday. Each employee demonstrated up to 20 hours per week, allowing him or her time to work another job if so desired. One striker who wished to remain anonymous said that

These striking w o rk e rs w ill no lo n g e r b e a fix tu re a t S h e rb ro o ke an d Peel.

while the union still paid him minimum wage while on strike, he has lost between $7,000 and $8,000 in wages and tips.

Negotiations between the hotel and its CSN employees finally began to make real progress with last week's arrival of the Omni Hotels president and other top management representa­

tives.

Before the strike ended, Esquievel indicated that employees would not back down.

"We want our jobs back, but only with respect and dignity...

We demand a contract that ensures us these rights." ■

This year, the SSMU will work hard to inform you of the latest developments in McGill's undergraduate community. Expect a SSMU half-page every second week in the

Following the phenomenal success of the Return of Jazz last Wednesday, Gert’s is making Wednesday night Jazz Jam a new old tradition.

Featuring theJake Henry Quartet, music will start at 10 and keep going through the night.

ERIC VAN EYKEN, VP OPERATIONS

Come on out on Wednesday September 28 from 5:30-7:00 at the Lev Buckman Council Room on the second floor of Shatner, and eat and share your beefs.

(Vegetarian options provided)

If you are interested in raising money to help find acure, email pres@ssmu.mcgill.ca, and get involved with the SSMU Shave to Save.

SSMU

Movies in the Park Keep an eye out for posters around campus to find out what movies will be playing and when. I’ll give you a hint... it will be Incredible!

Movies in the Parkwill be running from September 20th till the 22nd. Movies start at 8:30 so come early to get agood seat on lower field.

Charity A quick reminder that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. See what it will take to shave your presi­ dent’s head, make him look like a fool, and raise money for a good cause!

on page 5 .

Jazz : An old tradition in the remaking

Is McGill perfect?

Have a beef with McGill? Come chow down on some smoked meat sand­ wiches and tell us what you would improve about McGill. The SSMU is launching its submission to the Principal’s Task Force on student life and student learning and we want your opinion!

Tribune,

SnowAP: Help needed !

Attention to all students: the SSMU is now calling for applications for positions at SnowAP, the winter ver­ sion of the open air pub (OAP), which is so excellent.

ROZ FREEMAN, VP COMMUNICATIONS & EVENTS

Positions available include: Volunteer Manager and Assistant Manager ; Promotions Manager and Assistant Manager ; Bar Manager (x 3 ) and Assistant Manager (X 3) : Music Technician, Staff and Barids/Musical Talents.

Please email or drop off your resume and cover letter to Vice-President Communications and Events Roz Freeman

by Friday September 23rd, 2005.

BILLBOARD

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NASA presented plans to the White House and Congress last week for a manned return to the moon by 2018. The plan involves reusing old Apollo equipment as well as the space shuttle. • Police in AWwwfli Misp* Richmond, BC raided two houses in the Vancouver sub­ urb last week and seized enough chemicals and equip­ ment to make ecstasy pills with a street value of more than v i t , wJl perjV 2300-million dollars. • The Centre for Addiction and Mental ■ uUnY . Health released its 2004 Canadian Campus Survey, reveal^ ! } ,s , ing that fewer students are smoking, but more are engaging , i 'n harmful drinking practices. Thirty-two per cent of under4,! grads reported binge drinking. That represents approximately OTIlC.pîM 100,000 students across Canada. • The Montreal Canadiens lie u* are getting a new mascot. Youppi! was the Expos mascot Nf i k h*<U’ before the baseball team moved to Washington, and is com­ ing out of retirement to entertain fans at the Bell Centre. • The Chivas Regal Scotland team clinched their second King's Cup if Elephant Polo title Sunday. That's right, we said elephants. The : tlj fé Wives annual charity game raises money for Thailand's National Ik «en Elephant Institute. Elephant polo is played on a field 330 feet by 200 feet, roughly one-third the size of a horse polo field.

A game has two seven-minute halves— known as chukkasW y 1, with a 15-minute halftime, and three elephants form a team. u tm e tts » • The Chinese government is considering passing a law to I k nil pH jail those caught cheating on exams-for up to seven years.

I*. i M<l ,’ J'' It Makes expulsion seem light by comparison. • Also in pj.c mu „ China, a restaurant near Shanghai was fined and closed ( for illegally selling dishes made of endangered tigers.

■ 1 **** The restaurant soon reopened, however, when it was R ifs e tlftte ip v discovered that the tiger stir-fry on the menu was actu;y :| 4i,!|( ally donkey meat, marinated in tiger urine. Tiger *

A tte n d la w s c h o o l in C a n a d a and the U n ite d S ta tes Earn two degrees: • an L L .B . fr o m th e U n iv e rs ity o f O tta w a ; a n d • a J.D. fr o m M ic h ig a n State U n iv e rs ity C o lle g e o f Law .

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opinion

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JO N A T H A N KLEIN

P a r r y a n d Thr us t

P r o te s tin g : o r

S ly g u e r illa t a c t i c ta c tic

f o r g o r illa s ?

GENEVIEVE JENKINS A N D ROBERT CHURCH She says: The ability to protest has long been the single means of free speech available to those who have been denied power by the majority.

Protests have marked every advance of human rights in North America since the beginning of the 20th century.

Would women have the right to vote if not for the suffragettes? Would blacks be able to eat in the same restaurants, go to the same schools or sit in the same part of the bus as whites in the US if they had not protested for their rights? Would the world ever have heard the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. if the March on Washington had been halted in favour of sit-down negotiations? With whom would these African-Americans have sat down to discuss their grievances if they had not protested for their simple right to sit down beside a white man?

Clearly, protests are a necessary part of the demo­ cratic process.

S he rebuts: Taking a seat at the table is

all well and good for those able to com­ municate in the same language as the highly educated, business-sawy individ­ uals who hold the reins of power. For many peo­ ple, however, this is not an option and never will be. It is a privilege retained by a select elite. How, then, can the rest of the population contribute to the conversation at this table?

The only means, although ineffective in some instances, is protest. Protest gives public voice to the complaints of the greater population, thereby alerting the media to the cause and spurring a chain of communication, eventually leading to a conversation among those who do have the privi­ lege to be seated at the table.

H e says: Let's get one thing straight before going on: I'm not saying that protests are completely meaningless.

There have been significant, historic achievements made through the use of protesting, and it has certainly worked as a powerful mecha­ nism of social change. For the most part, however, those days are over.

The decision-making power now lies in the hands of a few powerful, inaccessible people who do not feel the same pressure from protesting that was felt in the past. Even the most cold and insen­ sitive members of the "establishment" will be pro­ tected by our modern system of law enforcement, such as at G-8 summits. To effect real change by these types of government and business officials, one must move off the street, put down the card­ board sign decorated with Crayola markers and enter the much more complicated realm of nego­ tiation. Sitting down at the table is far more valu­ able in today's society than standing on the curb.

□

H e responds: It's true that many peo­

ple in society will never have the oppor­ tunity to participate in such discussions; the accessibility and means to achieve the educa­ tion necessary to constructively contribute are sim­ ply not there. There are some, however, who do get the opportunity to contribute: NGOs and civil rights groups have most often taken this role.

While protests have occasionally contributed to the cause, they have more often than not been detrimental to it. Who wants to agree with (and assist) a group that becomes violent and breaks the law? If protestors would only realize that they could get far more done by peaceful, intelligent and— most importantly— public campaigns, they could gain valuable moral high ground and force change from the inside out. ■

For many Arts students, science is nothing more than a subject you were forced to study in high school, in which the teacher wrote some nonsense sym­ bols on the blackboard to be copied, memorized, regurgitated on the exam and promptly discarded. Science seems like an impossible jumble of abstract concepts linked together by just enough mathemat­ ics to keep things from getting too under­ standable. It is as though a gang of dead guys with names like Newton, Kelvin and Coulomb got together one night and invented a bunch of complicated equa­ tions designed solely to keep you up all night learning them.

People seem to have an unwavering belief that deep and esoteric knowledgefar beyond their comprehension— is need­ ed to solve scientific problems and under­ stand scientific concepts. This erroneous view of the nature of science tends to cause those who aren't heading for a career in the field to avoid learning about sciences, even those that directly affect their lives (like nutrition and pharmacolo­ gy) and those that inform important social and political issues in the world (like stem cell research and global warming).

But before Arts students— forced by the demands of the freshman program to take some chemistry and physics cours­ es— start to cry into their textbooks upon seeing the structure of a molecule, they should know this: science is not about complexity. Indeed, the goal of science is exactly the opposite.

This lesson is equally applicable to those in the Faculty of Science, as a com­ mon stumbling block to understanding a scientific topic is the assumption that its problems are complex. But science strives to simplify, not complicate, our picture of the universe. Take, for example, the ongo­ ing search for a Grand Unified Theory in physics, the so-called "Theory of Everything." This theory, when discovered, will unify the four fundamental forces that govern our universe (gravity, electromag­ netism, and the weak and strong nuclear

forces) into a single universal force. We don’t know what the theory will say, but the fact that many great minds have searched long and hard for something so elusive illustrates the scientific communi­ ty's drive for ideas that explain the work­ ings of nature using as few principles as possible.

All this is not to say that science is easy. As a physics student, I have certain­ ly seen my fair share of techniques and ideas that seem impossible to understand, much less to apply. And scientific research is full of false starts, dead ends and "back to the drawing board" moments. But diffi­ culty is not the same as complexity.

Strange new possibilities, which may be hard to understand and counter-intuitive, are continually investigated because they actually reduce the apparent complexity of nature.

Even if non-Science students lack the People seem to have an unw aver­ ing belief that deep and esoteric know ledge.Js needed to solve sci­ entific problems. motivation or acumen to delve deeply into the intricacies of scientific theories, the basic concepts are certainly within their grasp. If you can understand Chaucer or market analysis, you can certainly compre­ hend the rudimentary workings of the atom, evolution and mechanics. And knowledge of the basics of major scientif­ ic ideas goes a long way toward making informed decisions on the scientific issues— like the debate over intelligent design— that are continually coming to the forefront of societal discourse.

So while this notion of the simplicity and applicability of science may not pro­ vide much comfort while struggling with biology homework. But hopefully, Science students will bring it to bear on their work in the field, and Arts students will remem­ ber it next time a science-induced panic attack comes on. ■

In t h e Ri ght

G o v e r n o r

g e n e r a l: s y m p a th y

fo r

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d ia b le

LEIGH ASLATEEI Despite the storm of controversy surrounding Prime Minister Paul Martin's decision to recommend a Quebec sepa­ ratist sympathizer for the highest office in the land, the plans to install Michaëlle Jean as Canada's newest governor-general on Sept. 27 have not changed.

Canadians are, perhaps, rightfully apathetic about this issue by now. After all, how can anyone stand to hear about a Liberal blunder so seemingly trivial in the wake of Adscam and an ignored Parliamentary vote of non-confidence? That said, this is a matter of national identity, so let me refresh your memory with respect to Jean and her husband, filmmaker Jean-Daniel Lafond.

In Lafond's 1991 film, La manière nègre, Pierre Vallières, a founding member of the terrorist Front de libération du Québec, contends, "Not only should Martinique proceed to independ­ ence, but to revolution-as Québec should as well!" Jean then adds, "Yes, independence isn't given, it's taken." Such a state­ ment is rather unsettling, coming from a woman whose man­ date will include promoting Canada abroad and honouring Canadians at home.

Lafond, however, is the one with real chutzpah. The soonto-be His Excellency directed another documentary entitled La liberté en colère, which was a reunion of former FLQ members reminiscing about happier times. For this production, Lafond col­

laborated with Francis Simard, who was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the murder of Quebec provincial cabinet minister Pierre Laporte during the 1970 October Crisis. It wasn't enough for Lafond's films to legitimize a radical, terrorist cause— a murderer like Simard had to profit from it. Nothing, though, stings me as much as Lafond's comments from a book about La manière nègre in which he wrote, "So, a sovereign Québec? An independent Québec? Yes, I applaud with both hands."

If Jean's guilt by association isn't enough, there are other compelling reasons to reject her appointment. The.governorgeneral is supposed to be non-partisan, but Jean's devotion to the Lib-left agenda matches that of any of her former colleagues at the CBC. For instance, she made a documentary on Cuba that fawns over the decades-long rule of communist dictator Fidel Castro. Surely your run-of-the-mill Cuban refugee, clinging to a makeshift escape raft in the ocean, doesn't share the documen­ tary's passive acceptance of Castro's forced labour camps. And did I mention that Jean and Lafond are both loyal citizens of France? There's something demoralizing about the de facto head of state and commander-in-chief of the Canadian armed forces pledging allegiance to another nation.

The blame for this embarrassing lack of foresight in choos­ ing a nominee, lies, of course, with the prime minister. Martin

was oblivious to Jean and Lafond's separatist allegiances and was so intent on leveraging Jean as a political asset that he did­ n't conduct a background check. The prime minister calculated that choosing a Radio-Canada journalist with a high profile in Quebec would play well with his left-of-centre big city base, and would hopefully wrest votes away from the Bloc Québécois.

But at a time when— according to a recent poll commis­ sioned by the Western Standard—at least one-third of Western Canadians want "to explore the idea of forming their own coun­ try," our governor-general needs to be someone who can com­ mand respect across the nation. Instead, Martin has made a political power play, misusing the non-political pulpit of a historic institution, and it has downgraded a symbol of our national her­ itage.

Jean's response to the controversy, which was to affirm her— and, laughably, Lafond's— '“commitment" to Canada without addressing the allegations against them, has done little to quell a feeling among many Canadians that she is unfit to serve.

Meanwhile, Martin has so far passed up the opportunity to do the right thing and ask her to resign. Instead, he had this to say on the matter: 'There is no doubt in my mind that her devotion to Canada is long-standing and resolute." I don't know about you, but I'm not sold. ■

The

the mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | o p in io n

M c G ill

9

EDITORIAL

T r ib u n e Curiosity delivers.

Editor- in-Chief Liz Allemang editor@mcgilltribune.com Managing Editors Jennifer Jett Andrew Segal seniored@mcgilltribune.com Production Manager Lara Bekhazi production@mcgilltribune.com News EDrroRS Robert Church James Gotowiec Niall Mackay Roberts news@mcgilltribune.com Features Editors Genevieve Jenkins Lise Treutler features@mcgilltribune.com A&E Editors Ben Lemieux Melissa Price arts@mcgilltribune.com Sports Editors David Blye Adam Myers sports@mcgilltribune.com Photo Editors Lukas Bergmark Vladimir Eremin photo@mcgilitribune.com Copy Editor Traci Johnson copy@mcgilltribune.com Design Editors Tiffany Choy Spenser Sproul design@mcgilltribune.com Advertising Manager Paul Slachta advmgr@ssmu.mcgill.ca Pubusher Chad Ronalds

W h o you gonna call? N o o n e b etw een 9 and I "You are by nature much better at advising others than yourself.

I draw my proof from deeds, not words."

—Aeschylus Most of us have no expectation that McGill will hold our hands as we go through our three or four years here, and, by and large, we like it that way. We came to university as a first step to mak­ ing it on our own in the world, and we don't need to be treated like children. But even without being our crutch along the way, we would at least hope that, when we're drowning, McGill would throw us a life preserver.

The university equivalent of going under is being overwhelmed by a torrent of course deci­ sions, major and minor choices, and paperwork.

While struggling to keep our heads above water, we seek out what should be that floating ring buoy in the dark abyss, academic advising.

Unfortunately, hard as we swim against the cur­ rent, it remains just out of grasp.

Given the difficulties many students already experience in getting help with anything academ­ ic, it seems implausible that McGill would decide to further limit the availability of the employees at Dawson Hall, who provide many valuable aca­ demic services. Yet, as of yesterday, counter serv­ ice is only available from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and phone service is offered exclusively from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., apparently because of a shortage of resources in the office. This decision— in addition to creating red tape where none was before at a school that -already scores terribly in terms of bureaucracy and student satisfaction— just makes an already daunting process one that even fewer will undertake, with disadvantaged students being the result.

By now, even if you're in first year, you've no doubt heard some advising horror stories: stu­ dents forced into classes they didn't want to take, told the courses were necessary when in fact they weren't; those forced to drop electives only to later find out they were eligible to register; and

people who wait in line for hours only to be told they were in the wrong place all along. Finding actual, practical help at McGill is like navigating the Labyrinth while wearing a blindfold.

Students in their first year, the ones perhaps most in need of advising and a welcoming pair of McGill arms to embrace them, constantly walk out of Dawson Hall defeated. In 2002, there were just six first-year advisors for more than 1,700 Arts and Science entrants during the busy add/drop peri­ od, the time when students most need to be seen but can rarely be squeezed in. And when students do manage to see those who can help them, either at Dawson Hall or in their depart­ ments, they're often told to find the information themselves in the course calendar or on a Web site. If it were that easy, we wouldn't be seeing an advisor in the first place. Clearly, we're confused and looking for guidance— is it too much to ask that advisors help us out in this regard?

This problem isn't exclusively endemic to the Faculty of Arts. Engineering students have an advi­ sor in their Student Affairs office that they are not allowed to even see. Instead, they must submit their questions for her on a piece of paper, she writes a response, and they go back and pick it up.

Have a follow-up question? Take another sheet.

It's not surprising, then, that many students just forego advising entirely, coping on their own.

And while this can certainly be done, come fourth year, it's always nice to have someone double­ check that you're actually going to be able to grad­ uate. But by this time, students have developed such an aversion to seeking out help that they don't even bother.

Contrast this situation with those of students at other schools, like the University of Toronto, where students have individual advisors who will look at their grades and suggest courses based on

Tribune O ffices Editorial. Shatner University Centre, Suite 110, 3480 McTavish, Montreal Q C Tel: 514.398.6789 Fax. 514.398.1750 Advertising. Brown Student Building, Suite 1200, 3 6 0 0 McTavish, Montreal Q C H3A

1Y2 Tel. 514.398.6806 Fax. 514.398.7490

D A R K

H U M O U R

A student puzzles over the course calendar on the phone with the staff at Dawson Hall— while stand­ ing in the lobby of Dawson Hall— because the staff at Dawson Hall refused to actually see her. Be proud, McGill: that's bureaucracy at work!

OF F T H E B O A R D

Frat boys belong in high sch ool AD A M MYERS

Contributors Mohit Arora Leigh Aslateei Charlie Blore Megan Briggs David Brodkey Robin Edgar Daniel Gartner Jonathan Hanson Adam Heller Matt Kerbel Jonathan Klein Rita Kreynin Catherine Lemery Daniel McQuillan Marit Mitchell Julia Raponi Julia Shonfield Christine Urquhart

what the student wants to do. That"s what advis­ ing should be about: having someone who knows the system and can help you work within it, instead of trying to work against it.

Having more effective advising and making helpful staff more available has been time and again cited as a priority by students. With that being the case, McGill should cough up the money to redress the problem of the lack of resources in Dawson Hall, even if it has to be taken from other areas. Although McGill doesn't have to hold our hands, someone could still throw us a life preserver, or at least pick up the phone regardless of the time of day. ■

Every year around this time, I feel terrible for the poor froshees led astray by the promise of fra­ ternity rush.

Beer, barbequing and trips to strip clubs are all paid for by the frat to entice these new and vulner­ able students into pledging. But the rushees don't realize that this month of partying is not a proper assessment of fraternity life. It is with this— and the Tribune's recent articles extolling the virtues of Greek life— in mind that I feel the need to weigh in on the awful experience that is being in a frat.

From the moment that pledging starts, it's all downhill. The friendly brothers turn into the frat jerks that they really are, making sure that the next eight weeks are the worst of your university experi­ ence. As a former brother in a prominent fraternity at this university, I experienced first-hand what goes on behind the scenes.

Pledge is a very strange experience. For two months, the frat brothers make the pledges' lives a living hell. They expect the newbies to commit all their free time to the frat, and they haze their soonto-be-brothers, forcing them to drink until they puke. Why this is enjoyable for 20-year-old univer­ sity students. I'll never understand; there have to be

better ways for them to spend their time.

As soon as pledge ends, the newly initiated brothers are suddenly expected to be friends with the very people who ruined their first semester.

Why would someone want to hang around with people who would violate him in terrible ways?

Among the many false assumptions held by frater­ nities, this is the most egregious. I grew to despise my fraternity: by the time I was initiated, I never wanted to see anyone involved again.

Many people associate joining a fraternity with paying for your friends. However, this is not the case; rather, so many different cliques exist within fraternities that it's impossible. By no means was I friends with the majority of people in the fraternity.

Many of the brothers were part of a pre-existing group of friends who came to McGill from high school, and they had no interest in branching out.

Meanwhile, the intra-frat politics made everyone who was not in this circle feel out of place. This fac­ tion was basically a frat within the frat.

A friend of mine recently rushed for a fraterni­ ty and didn't receive a bid. He was told that he did not fit the image of this particular fraternity, and that he wasn't “cool" enough for their exclusive club. It

says a lot about frat brothers when they exclude people in order to keep the high social status of their group; you'd expect that type of attitude at a high school, not a university.

As a result, a lot of people who don't J t the prototypical "cool frat guy" image are ignored and it becomes the hat’s loss. God forbid they add a little intellect to the group, lest it hurt the image of the macho tough guys in the frat. My friend is better off now, after not being bid on, because people with this degenerate attitude are not the type that I would want anyone I know associating with.

So to first-years, before making the decision to rush, make sure you know what you're getting into.

Rushing is an intense process run by guys who feed their egos by making others do stupid and embar­ rassing things. And for those willing to stick out the bad times for the promise of being a big man on campus, be forewarned that, at McGill, wearing let­ ters will not magically cause hotties to jump into bed with you.

The biggest mistake I made during my threeplus years at university so far was joining a fraterni­ ty. The best decision I made was quitting. ■

The McGill Tribune is an editorially a u to n o m o u s new spaper published by th e S tudents' Society o f McGill University, in collaboration w ith th e Tribune Publication Society. All letters m ust include contributor s name, program and year and contact info rm a tio n . S ubm issions m ay be sent by e-m ail to le tters@ m cgilltribune.com . Any m aterial judged by th e Tribune Publication Society to be libellous, sexist, racist h om ophobic o r solely prom otional in nature w ill n o t be published. The Tribune reserves th e right to e d it all contributions. Editorials are decided upon and w ritten by th e editorial board. All other opinions are strictly those o f th e author and do not necessarily reflect th e o p in io n s o f th e McGill Tribune, its editors o r its staff. Please recycle th is newspaper. For general inquiries, please contact info@ m cgilltnbune.com .

10

o p in io n | 20.9.05 | the mcgill trib u n e

F O N C T IO N

P U

Letters to the editor O ne Stern letter Andrew Porter's column on the state of the CBC negotiations ("Damn you, CBC, you've disappointed me again," 13.9.05) betrays all too clearly the fundamental arrogance and blind nationalism that belies most Canadian sup­ port for public broadcasting.

Porter writes that, "It is time for CBC management to abandon its neo­ conservative managerial designs and treat its employees as the publicly-val­ ued contributors to Canadian history, news and sports that they are." The prob­ lem, of course, is that CBC is still very much a for-profit broadcaster. Take, for example, most of its sports department: Hockey Night in Canada and the CFL on CBC are major moneymakers. Furthermore, they are two programs (among others) that are entirely sustainable on private networks. This is proven time and again whenever Sportsnet or TSN broadcasts football or hockey.

The employees of the CBC, then, appear to have the best of both worlds.

They can pretend they provide a service that is not tenable elsewhere and should therefore be treated differently, and at the same time can produce some of Canada's most profitable programming.

For Mr. Porter's argument to hold at all, the CBC would have to a) broad­ cast only money-losing programming and b) forego private revenue. If the CBC is going to play in the private sector, it is only fair that it get to play by pri­ vate sector rules.

CAMPAGNEANNUELLE DE RECRUTEMENTUNIVERSITAIRE-

Une carrière à la m esure de vos am bitions !

Vous term inez vos études universitaires d'ici août 2006 ? Vous êtes titulaire d'un diplôm e d'étu­ des universitaires et vous étudiez toujours à tem ps plein ? Vous cherchez un em ploi stim ulant en lien avec votre dom aine d'études et vous voulez relever des défis ? Ne manquez pas la campagne de recrutem ent universitaire de la fonction publique québécoise qui se déroule du 19 septembre au 14 octobre 2005.

L'équipe de Recrutement é tud ian t Québec sera à votre université : •

le 2 2 septem bre,au Centre Mont-Royal, 3eé ta g e ,d e 1 0 h à 1 5 h Jo urné e c a rriè re p o u r les é tu d ia n ts en a d m in is tra tio n

•

le 27 septembre, à l'Atrium, de 10 h à 14 h K iosque d 'in fo rm a tio n p o u r les é tu d ia n ts en d r o it

•

le 28 septembre, pavillons McConnell et MacDonald, de 10 h à 16 h Foires des ca rrières te c h n o lo g iq u e s p o u r les é tu d ia n ts en in g é n ie rie e t in fo rm a tiq u e

Daniel Stem, BA 2005 N W AR games Just a quick thanks to Melissa Price for coming out to and having a good time at Love & the Machine on Sept. 3 ("Love.exe," 8.9.05). And thanks for the review, even if you didn't like NWAR all that much— drugged up, I can appreciate that.

I'll be the first to admit that my memory of the evening in question is a bit rough at the edges. A week or so of sleep deprivation (pre-show) followed (post-performance) by a rapid consumption of all available drink tickets will have that effect (as well as make one dance as if attacking something). But I am pretty confident that I didn't bring any of my Tibetan singing bowls to the show that night. In fact, I'm sure of it. My bowl microphone was, and still is, taped to the cymbal I was drilling into at the end of the set. You're trying to trick me, aren't you?

(T e c h n o lo g y c a re e r fa ir)

•

le 29 septembre, campus MacDonald - pavillon MacDonald Stewart Jo urné e c a rriè re p o u r les é tu d ia n ts en a g ric u ltu re , de 10 h à 14 h Séance d 'in fo r m a tio n , lo c a l 2022 (F a c u lty lo u n g e ), d e 10 h à 11 h

Pour plus de détails et pour connaître les dates des autres visites, consultez le site Internet du Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor [w w w .tre s o r.g o u v .q c .c a /e tu d ia n ts ] ou renseignez-vous auprès du service de placem ent de votre établissement.

On vous a tte n d ... à bie ntôt !

Martin King, member of NWAR Hakuna M U N A C A MUNACA would like to clarify some of the misconceptions caused by the article titled "Union complaints force change in student hiring practices" (8.9.05). The headline creates a false perception that MUNACA is behind the recent firing of the library student casuals. We would like to make it absolute­ ly clear that this is not the case. MUNACA is not responsible for instigating or carrying out what is currently happening in the libraries.

The grievances alluded to in the article were filed a number of years ago to protect positions of MUNACA members. The union had evidence that the university was using an excessive number of student casuals, taking positions that belonged to the MUNACA bargaining unit. It is our understanding that stu­ dent casuals were put in positions that had either previously been abolished or in positions that employees had retired from. MUNACA could not condone this practice and therefore took action.

MUNACA has always supported the hiring of student casuals in the McGill community. We feel that these students are a valuable resource that supplement regular staff members and help the university function more effi­ ciently and effectively. The practice also provides our students with an oppor­ tunity to make money and gain valuable work experience while they study at McGill. We feel everyone benefits from their contribution.

MUNACA sincerely regrets the current plight of student casuals at the libraries and will work with all parties involved to resolve this issue.

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campus SILH O UETTE — Outside

the

CHATTERBOX

P h ilo s o p h ic a l F ia s s e Lessons fro m an A r is to tle e x p e rt

Bubble

T h i s B u b b l e d o e s n ’t b l o w B r e a k in g c a m p u s b o u n d a r ie s GENEVIEVE JENKINS ettling into your dorm room or apartment is no reason to lose sight of everything outside the windows and doors... and yes, even outside of the student ghetto. Many of us spend our time rac­ ing from class to class, eating with friends in oncampus cafeterias, frequenting the restaurants near the ghetto, strolling Ste-Catherine or visiting the tired clubs of Crescent. However fun they may be, the tried-and-true favourites of McGillians aren't always the best ways to spend your time.

Outside the Bubble, a McGill club going into its third year of existence, is a group specializing in introducing students to new places beyond the safe, relatively controlled campus perimeter and its surrounding student-dominated neighbourhoods.

OTB president Rachel Kozlowski says, "It's a great way to meet people and it's-easy on the wallet."

With about two outings per month, OTB is an easy way for busy students to see more without a huge time commitment. Even those who want to find new things often can't find access or don't know how to get to where they want to go. OTB helps you spot interesting activities and gets you there.

OTB was named Club of the Year for 2003-04, and it's no wonder students are coming back for more. Last year, OTB kicked off with dinner and a trip to the Chinese lantern exhibit at the Botanical Gardens. Later in September, the group took a bus to Verger Boutin to go apple picking. Throughout the year, OTB took trips to the Montreal Contemporary Art Museum, Ottawa, arts and crafts night at Cock 'n' Bull, plays, movies, dinners and .comedy shows.

Kozlowski's favourite trip is the day trip to Quebec City.

"We have breakfast on the bus," she exudes, "get passes [for the winter Festival] and spend about 10 hours traveling and enjoying Quebec."

Kozlowski describes the club's executives as "laid back," and there's no doubt they are. Wth an impromptu event-planning method, execs meet, think up a fun outing and send an e-mail to OTBgroupies, who can choose if they would like to attend. OTB's popularity is growing by the year, as word spreads through the student body. "It's great," says Kozlowski, "when we have our table set up at Activities Night, people come up and say they've heard of us. I'm really proud of it."

Regardless of how long you've lived in Montreal, OTB may show you a few places you've never seen before, and you're likely to meet a whole crowd of other adventurous McGillers looking to break out of their standard weekend routine.

Leaving the ghetto doesn't mean you'll leave your social life behind: You may even enhance it, and you can always convince your other friends to join with you. If they don't, they'll probably be asking you to take them back to past OTB destinations so they

S

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W H A T ...

P hilosophy professors—d o n 't th e y all e n jo y calm , q u ie t m ornings?

Professor Gaëlle Fiasse, of both the Department of Philosophy and the Faculty of Religious Studies, joined the McGill staff roster in 2003, a year after completing her PhD in philosophy at l'Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium. Despite teaching three courses this semester, Fiasse still finds time to collaborate on various projects with l'Université de Québec à Montréal and l'Université de Montréal.

M y fa v o u rite p a rt of each day is ... the morning, especially because I like to take time for a good breakfast and think about my day.

W h at's m o st im p o rta n t to m e is ... to be faithful to who I am and the way I live, and

certainly to have wonderful friends and a job I love.

As I child, I w a n te d to b e ... a physician, because I grew up in a family where most

people were. I also thought of being a mathematician or a musician, as I play the flute and piano, but I chose philosophy when I was 15— 1suddenly had a deep certainty.

If I w e re n 't a professor, I'd b e . .. a documentary filmmaker, because I like to meet peo­

ple, and I believe that through art-beauty-you can expose a lot about the meaning of life. I think it would be a really complete job.

I d ra w in spiratio n fro m ... life and philosophical problems. I think every book and every

person can teach me something. I'm very interested in contemporary problems, but I also like ancient philosophy. I always read it while thinking of our contemporary prob­ lems.

I enjoy te a c h in g a t M cG ill b e c a u s e ... of the challenge of teaching in two faculties, and

VLADIMIR EREMIN O T B P resident K ozlow ski c ham pio ns students' rig h t to pick apples.

can get a taste of the unique entertainment.

Loving your time at McGill doesn't mean you need to spend all your time on campus. In fact, OTB thinks you'll like it more if you see how much the Montreal area has to offer.

If you have a free night in September, OTB is taking another trip to a Chinese restaurant and the "Magic of the Lanterns" at the Montreal Botanical Gardens. The October trip will include horseback riding, while November brings the more cultured outing to the ballet, "The Beast and the Beauty," and December promises an afternoon for warming frozen toes walking through the Musee des Beaux Arts. This is just the beginning... the second semes­ ter holds another four months of new and exciting adventures with Kozlowski and her ever-inventive execs. ■

OTB has lots of bitchin' events planned for this year. For more information, check out their Website at www.ssmu.mcgill.ca/OTB.

W H O ...

W H E N ...

> *. c TO u

In th e n e a r fu tu re , teach in g philo so p h y w ill b e ... similar, because we cannot do phi­

losophy by ignoring what others said before us. Doing philosophy through the history of philosophy will always be a part of our existence. But I also think we cannot learn the history while ignoring the challenges of today.

T h e w o rs t p a rt o f being a professor is ... grading, because in a sense it corrupts the

educational relationship. Say you give grades for participation. Wouldn't you like stu­ dents to participate regardless of whether credit is given for doing so? You always have students who feel they have to lean in a certain direction to get a good grade, so I enjoy those who aren't afraid to challenge me.

T h e best pro g ram on televisio n to d a y is ...

Noms des Dieux, from Belgium. They inter­ view an intellectual, like Paul Ricceur, and ask questions about the meaning of life. It can be singulier or about the different names of God, if he believes God has different faces.

If 1 could m e e t A ristotle an d ask h im o n e q u estio n , I'd a s k . .. if he could come for

dinner with me so I could ask him more questions! ■

—Compiled by Lise Treutler

W H E R E ...

C O N T A C T ... mcgillmosaica@hotmail.com

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1really like the diversity of the students. It's quite unique to teach young adults with so many different backgrounds who are eager to learn-ifs a dream to have wonderful students. Also, the way of teaching here is very different from what I knew in Europe because it involves discussion. I love having the chance to teach small seminars; it's a very unique experience.

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***See how these listings are just TOO good to be true? To avoid showing up for an event that doesn't (sigh) exist .. Submit your listings! Advertise to the masses! Give us your money!

Advertise your event! For only a toonie you can get a listing in the print and on-line editions of the Tnb. Drop by the SSMU Office (Shatner building, Suite 1200) to Dick up a form. Deadlines are Fridays at 3:30 p.m. For more information call 398.6789 or e-mail calendar@mcgilltribune.com . . . . . . . , ....

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Place the mushrooms in a baking dish and put about 2 tablespoons of water in the dish

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Bake for 15 minutes.

Note: You can use cayenne pepper instead of black pepper to add some extra spice to this recipe.

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th e mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | s tu d e n t liv in g 13

Survival in th e dark W

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e le c tr ic ity

fails

Once upon a stiflingly hot June evening, my roommate turned on the bathroom light Flash. Sizzle. Instant blackout. Suddenly, I was no longer watching an old episode of The XFiles in dim lighting, but trying to find my hand in front of my face. Determined, I found a flash­ light, cursed my new bruises and headed straight for the kitchen. Five minutes later, I was no longer proud of my skills as an amateur electrician. At the sight of neon green sparks spilling out of tiie fuse box, I loudly vetoed touching anything electrical.

S tep 1 : Call your lan d lo rd

Never one to side-step an important issue, I stumbled in darkness to dial my landlady by can­ dlelight Despite my rather incoherent attempts at a play-by-play, my landlady assured me she'd call her electrician in the morning.

Unfortunately, 10 p.m. phone calls don't always result in immediate action. For us, my call resulted in our self-dubbed "Amish week," where we lived by candlelight, cooked on our beloved, life-saving gas stove and entertained ourselves without the aid of modem media.

S tep 2 : D o n 't panic

The most imporant mission should be Operation Food Rescue: All refrigerated items went straight to the freezer, surrounded by bags of ice. Our rule for eating became: 'If you must eat, your meal must at least partially contain perishables." We devoured the ice cream instantly.

As for entertainment, my lust for life's simpler pleasures became my saving grace. I was per­

fectly happy doing needlepoint and crosswords. Cards, board games and those walks you never got around to taking before the electricity quit are equal fun for everyone!

S tep 3: W h e n y o u r ro o m m a te slips in to in san ity...

Much as I enjoyed living electricity-free, a follow-up phone call to my landlady became nec­ essary when my poor roommate began to experience CBC Newsworld withdrawal. We also decid­ ed that a candle-lit apartment was riot exactly the safest place to host a party for my rapidlyapproaching birthday. So I did what I had to do: I made the call, and the electrician came bright and early the next morning.

Try to have a flashlight-with batteries-on hand for such emergencies. Ensure that your elec­ tric company has your current contact information; this is particularly important if your landlord covers your bills. If they are holding a planned blackout which will usually last a couple of hours late at night, they should notify you with an automated message or drop a reminder in your mail­ box. If your evening of lights out is unexpected, call and report the outage to Hydro-Quebec (1800-790-2424).

Speaking from experience: Other than being a complete nuisance, a blackout or exploding electrical fun fest can also cause a power surge that will render your computer useless. Protect yourself by keeping installation software and backing up your files regularly. ■

—Lise Treutler

features W r e s t lin g w ith R o b o t s U n d e r s ta n d in g r o b o t ic t e c h n o lo g y n o w G E N E V IE V E J E N K IN S

hen Professor Gregory Dudek begins his class on mobile robotics, he displays slides of modern robot prototypes. When students see the slides, Dudek says, 'They think these real robots look so dumb and hopeless and terrible."

The fact is, robotic technology we're likely to see today isn't what most of Us have come to expect from our movie-watching, Transformer-playing experiences. Instead, it looks almost simple, with visible wires and computer chips and halting movements. On the other hand, robots have come a long way in a short period of time. Five years ago, most robots couldn't tell the difference between a black spot painted on the floor and an actual hole. Now, Dudek says this difficulty has been largely eliminated with the robots' use of lasers to measure distance. The speed with which computers shrank from room-sized monstrosi­ ties to pocket-sized playthings has the whole scientific community in a flurry about the coming "explosion" of

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"W ho doesn't w ant a jack in the back o f th e ir head fo r dow nloading MP3s?" robotics. Any seemingly minor advancement could poten­ tially signal the coming of a new age.

James Smith, PhD Mechanical Engineering, works in the Mechatronics Locomotion Lab of McGill's Centre for Intelligent Machines. His favourite projects thus far are Scout II, the first galloping robot ever to be developed, and Paw, a robot with legs and wheels, which is still "learning" to gallop. Paw will eventually be able to roll like tradition­ al robots and use its legs to climb over obstacles in diffi­ cult situations.

"There are two types of robots," Smith explains.

"There are the kinds you think of as way out there, like R2D2 and the stuff in Star Wars— some of that stuff is being done here— and the other stuff, like the cruise con­ trol in your car. You don't think about it, but it's behind the scenes in everyday life and controls everything."

It's partially this duality of practical and imagined uses that makes robotics such an interesting field. Says Dudek, "I think robotics is the coolest part of science because you get to shift between three problems: the fundamental problem of understanding human beings; the problems of

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M a n -m a d e m o v e ­ m e n t a t M c G i l l ’s C e n tr e fo r I n te llig e n t M a c h in e s B Y G E N E V IE V E J E N K IN S

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computation and the formal mathematics; and the prob­ lem of building things that go out, move about and work."

A .I. vs. robotic te c h n o lo g y

With terms being so loosely tossed about, few of us understand the subtle differences between artificial intelli­ gence and robots. Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or robot to do something that would typically require intelligence, such as calculation. Robots do not necessarily have artificial intelligence, but must be able to sense things and act on the world. With the additional of artificial intelligence, robots become much more powerful.

W h e re y o u 'v e seen a n d used rob o tic te c h n o lo g y

Robotic technology is, as Smith said, "behind the scenes in everyday life." It's in your microwave, new vacu­ um cleaners, the cruise control of your car, furnaces and cell phones. The steady incorporation of the technology into things we use every day may herald the long-awaited 'robotic age,' but the scope of robotic technology is one of the biggest limiting factors. There are so many things being done at once that very few, if any, researchers or sci­ entists are able to understand the whole picture of robot­ ics. According to Chris Prahacs, a professional engineer working with CIM, "I wouldn't consider myself to be very knowledgeable, considering the scope of what's going on."

One of the other obstacles in bringing robots to the general public is the high cost of production. When Sony's AIBO (partially developed at McGill's CIM) hit stores, the B iologically-based robots cost to the consumer was $2,500. When you can buy a show-worthy purebred golden retriever for half of that, it's What better model for a machine than the cockroach? That's the ques­ hard to convince yourself you need a robotic dog. The tion McGill's CIM researchers asked themselves when they built RHex, a sixsuccess of the robo-dog spurred other companies to jump "legged" robotic creature also able to move in a bipedal fashion. Prahacs says on the technological toy bandwagon, producing baby the movement was inspired by the fact that the faster a cockroach moves, the dolls, such as My Real Baby, Miracle Moves Baby and My fewer legs it uses; at top speed, the cockroach is practically bipedal. A contrib­ u to r to the projects of MLL, Prahacs has also worked on AQUA, a water-wor­ Dream Baby, in rapid succession.

Toys based on robotic technology seem like a market thy robot that swims in the coral reefs off the coast of Barbados every year. test. It's as if we're being asked: Are you ready for this? For "[In some cases], robotics provided the model used to analyze biology," says the last several years, children and adults alike, from Japan Prahacs. Adds Smith, 'There is a lot of back and forth between technology to England to North America, have been more than ready. and biology."

In 2005, U.S. scientists reported an experiment of a self-duplicating sim­ The British Broadcasting Corporation reported the wild success of remote-controlled robot toys, Lego's Bionicles, ple robot and argued that self-replication need not be exclusive to biology. As in the 2002 Toy Fair. All around the world, the popularity more and more scientists make life-inspired robots, the creations are being of computer- and video-based games is growing, and an termed "biobots" for their ability to mimic the biological patterns of living crea­ increasing number of games are incorporating robotic or tures. Rather than obtaining energy through digested materials, as biological beings do, biobots create energy by chemically processing materials around virtual reality technology.

urking in a labyrinth of laboratories on the fourth floor of McConnell Engineering, you'll find the designed bodies of robots, the computer systems that give them artificial intelli­ gence and the visual sensors that give them reactive abilities.

Unlike the potentially life-threatening automatons of /, Robot, or the eerily lifelike androids of A/., these robots are a less-eye-catch­ ing but more immediate reality, the creations of over 100 mem­ bers of McGill's Centre for Intelligent Machines.

CIM was created in 1985 when four researchers from the department of Electrical Engineering saw the need for organized development of robotics technology. Since then, CIM has expand­ ed greatly: It now encompasses 18 academics, many staff mem­ bers, over 100 graduate students and 12 different labs. It's a place professional engineer Christopher Prahacs describes as "unique, dynamic and fast-paced," with day crews and night crews working on the robots at all hours.

"CIM is one of only, at the most, five laboratories in North America with this [kind of brainpower at its disposal]," says Gregory Dudek, director of CIM and the Mobile Robotics Lab, who has received much press lately from his work on AQUA, a swim­ ming, walking robot able to explore coral reefs without doing damage.

In addition, he's spent time applying to computers the con­ cept behind human's visual attraction to distractions. The result­ ing Recommendz system (recommendz.com) provides users with new movie choices based on an analysis of a few of the watch­ er's preferences. Though this may seem an idea divorced from

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robotics, it is the back and forth between immediately applicable technologies and the ultimate vision of Star l/l/ors-worthy robots that motivates many CIM studies.

While we may be picturing advanced, human-like creatures walking around and functioning like human beings, the reality of robotic technology is hardly as visually appealing. "I think the biggest misconception [about robotic technology]," says Dudek, "is that our expectations are unreasonably high." The many con­ tributors to CIM's research seem to be taking the necessary small

"I th in k the biggest m isconception [about robotic technology] is that o u r expectations are unreason­ ably high." steps to break through to the next level.

Some of those steps are being taken in CIM’s Haptic Laboratory, headed by Vincent Hayward. Haptics is the study of touch, currently being applied by Hayward and his team of grad­ uate students in a series of projects stimulating the skin to create the illusion of, say, felt fabric or a curving surface. Without actual­ ly changing the object you are touching, Hayward's crew can change, via computer, the sensation your brain experiences based on the way the skin deforms. Without changing the actual plane of your fingers' movement, the HL technology can make them feel as if they have explored the surface of an object, big or small.

the mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | features

T e c h n o lo g y sc a r e s m e ...s a y s

th e

c o m p u te r - lite r a te

augh at me if you will. Snort at my seeming hypocrisy. How can I call myself a luddite, one who opposes technological change— "progress," if you will-while reveling in the fact that I have a portable DVD player or while becoming more and more adept at QuarkXPress with each passing day?

No, I don't need to be sent to Englishlanguage rehabilitation. I am a self-pro­ fessed Luddite version 2005 and proud of it Version 2005s accept, use and may even love the technology available today, but we'd rather not see further develop­ ments— ever.

Having grown up with computers, I've become rather adept at fiddling around in cyberspace. You can find me on Facebook, LiveJoumal or in any one of the six e-mail inboxes I use regularly. Back in high school, I once uploaded a virus onto the school's entire computer system— by accident— at nine o'clock in the morning, and by noon had fixed all the damage I'd done (minus the cancelled computer science classes).

Yes, I'm a music nerd who has upgraded her stereo system two or three times in the past two years. I do enjoy the odd obnoxious ring tone on my mobile phone. And I do own a digital camera, though simply due to the fact that my mum's received so many freebies in the past few years that she was running out of people to pawn them off on.

But do not— I repeat, do nof-engage me in conversation about artificial intelli­

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gence's positive effects on the future, cloning or any of the other emerging scien­ tific breakthroughs. I'll run from you faster than I run from speeding cars while jay­ walking. It's bad enough that nuclear war­ fare was invented before I was born so that I'd have no choice but to be aware of its destructive existence!

I don't want to know about V-chips. I don't want to hear about the "wonders" of genetic engineering. Any possible future you could describe to me would result in puddlization: me, in the fetal position on the floor, trying to make the scary images go away.

I try to be open-minded; I read about new discoveries and sometimes even imagine what life would like if the results were commonplace— but the visions never last long, as my overactive imagination is more likely to turn a simple advance in computer science into flesh-eating robots than it is to stick with the actual topic at hand.

Useful as she is, when my computer gets sick and must visit the friendly folk at University Bytes, I don't miss her. I don't miss e-mail. I do miss eBay, but that's an entirely different story entitled "Addiction #34"— and I can always get my purchase fix with a dash up the street to the used CD store, using real paper money— or more often, my MasterCard-and experiencing real human interaction. ■

them. Perhaps the greatest biological study for future technology will be the human being.

Taking o v e r th e w o rld : I, R o b o t

Whenever the issue of intelligent machines comes up, many people look wide-eyed and frankly terrified at the prospect. After all, we have all heard the conjecture that robots will take over the world and eliminate the necessity of human beings. Ever since 2001: A Space Odyssey, we've seen robot-fear on the big screen. Even tech-sawy authorities on robotic technology send a tremor of fear through most of us when they prophesy an age of robot domination. Hans P. Moravec, a leader in the field of artificial intelligence from Carnegie Mellon University, published Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind in 1999, writing, "By performing better and cheaper, the robots will displace humans from essen­ tial roles. Rather quickly, they would displace us from exis­ tence."

"We use touch as a means of communica­ tion with computers," says Hayward. "We're also interested in exploring how humans actually use touch to sense their environment." From this research have come immediate technological applications in the Virtual Braille Display and con­ tributions to the ideas behind telesurgery and vir­ tually simulated surgeries.

CIM also has much to offer outside of imme­ diate applications to robotic technology. Jeremy Cooperstock directs the Shared Reality Lab at CIM and is currently working to develop videoconfer­ encing. This may sound comparatively dull at first, but when you walk into Cooperstock's lab, you’ll understand the beauty of what he and his gradu­ ate students are working on. They're attempting to eliminate the "estrangement" that seems to be created (rather than eliminated) in videoconfer­ encing by setting up whole rooms of video screen, multiple microphones, video cameras, speakers and floor sensors that allow one conference partic­ ipant to feel ground movement from the other conference location-foot stomping in an emotionally-charged meeting, for instance. The sensors are so sensitive that Cooperstock used them to feel his unborn child kicking during his wife's pregnancy.

The scale of the anticipated video conference

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GENEVIEVE JENKINS he ways in which robotic technology is contributing to human health and the extension and betterment of life are almost limitless. As early as 2000, Swedish researchers had completed a tiny microrobot able to swim through the bloodstream; in the near future, the researchers believe the robots will be able to carry single cells or bacteria to analysis stations. In 2004, Chinese scientists developed a microscopic robot capable of swimming through the human bloodstream to deliver drugs or clear out arteries. Most of this incredible technology is categorized as "nanotechnology," meaning it's being built on the scale of one billionth of a meter.

Nanotechnology is prophesied to change the face of medicine when it finally makes its widespread debut. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman's 2004 book, Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, states their belief that anyone who can live through the next 50 years will be able to live forever because of nanotechnology. While we wait around for eternal life, there are quite a few robotic technologies already here that promise to make the next 50 years a little better.

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R obot aides

With the goal of making people live better and longer, Carnegie Mellon, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Michigan worked together on a project called Nursebot. Pearl, a "mobile robotic assistant for the elderly," was successfully completed in 2002. Using the People Tracking Project, Nursebots are able to sense many people at once with laser range sensors and react to their "patients" based on any atypical movements, such as falling, which may indicate a danger to the senior.

Sensor safety

—Use Treutler BERGM&RK So wherein lies the truth of this matter? Although it's true robotic technology is advancing rapidly and robots can now perform many tasks typically completed by humans, the adaptability of human beings is likely too powerful to allow complete extinction of the species.

Rather, some researchers suggest we will be able to incor­ porate robotic technology into our bodies (think plastic surgery, only a thousand times more useful), thus allow­ ing us to improve more rapidly than robots. While you won't see the Borg of Star Trek marching down the street for at least a while, we may be taking small steps in that general direction. Our current reliance on computer tech­ nologies and the speed at which this technology is devel­ oping makes the robot revolution seem close at hand.

In a world where every other person walking down the street is physically inseparable from an iPod, Dudek laughingly asks, "Who doesn't want a jack in the back of their head for downloading MP3s?" ■

Nursebot is not the only project to use special sensory tools. Five years ago, the University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon and DARPA were working to develop technology to sense the usual activities of a person, a family, an entire household, with the goal of eventually creating in-home monitoring systems, which would automatically call for the appropriate help if something were amiss.

Surgery via ro b o tic tech n o lo g y

There are two major uses for robotic technology in surgery: surgical sim­ ulators and tele-surgery. Surgical simulators are well on their way to becom­ ing a practical reality, with McGill's Centre for Intelligent Machine's Haptic Laboratory working to create convincing touch sensations which would allow a surgeon-in-training to feel as if he or she was cutting, among other things.

By pairing a virtual visual surgical setting with the virtual feelings of touch, a student would experience surgery without the costly expenditure of a cadav­ er, a pig, or plastic organs.

Tele-surgery is a bit more complicated, given the time delay that can occur between the surgeon's instructions on one end of the line and the robot's actions, but it too is being developed for more widespread use.

"Anyway you look at it," says Gregory Dudek, director of McGill's Centre for Intelligent Machines, "there are a lot of people who think that somehow there's going to be a major life extension [due to robotic technology] happen­ ing sometime in the future." After all, we only need to make it another 50 years. ■

capabilities is staggering. Says Cooperstock, "We have a three-screen video enclosure... and [allow conference participants] to share the same virtual background, which is rendered based on where they are standing in the room."

In other words, the scene you see will move slightly as you move, mimicking the ability of human vision to shift as we move. The technology was tested in a cross-continent concert in 1999, in which a New York audience watched and heard a Montreal band. "Now, that means less," says Cooperstock, "but back then it was a huge accom­ plishment." SRL has now moved on to high defini­ tion applications in order to get a picture so clear, Cooperstock describes it as "looking out a win­ dow."

The real power behind CIM lies in the possi­ bilities arising from inter-lab cooperation. While the Mechatronics Locomotion Lab develops the robot's limbs, the Artificial Perception Lab can work on the robot's vision, the Computation, Visualization and Realization Lab can improve the robot's "brain," and the Haptics Lab can create a robotic sense of touch. The labs each contribute something unique to the development of intelli­ gent machines, some of which you may see swim­ ming in the pool or hiking Mont Royal. ■ STACI LEWIS

a&e ART

U n d e r n e o n lo n e lin e s s ln _ S ta n c e s c r y s ta lliz e s t h e is o la tio n o f u r b a n iz a tio n MELISSA PRICE Marie Maquaire's latest video art exhibition, took place in the perfect setting— a spacious oasis of a studio at 2180 rue Fullum, in a quiet and dark residential neighbourhood in the eastern part of the city. The studio, owned

by Productions Réalisations Indépendantes de Montréal, takes some time to find, but the dim streets and the emptiness of the studio provide an ideal backdrop to Maquaire's exploration of urban living. ln_Stances consists of three separate but related parts, referred to as "stances." The first, called la chute (Im m obilis), strikes the observer immediately upon entering. What at first appears, to be some sort of cascade is revealed, on closer inspection, to be composed of identi­ cal, repeating and staggered film loops of a cam­ era panning across the side of a building. The juxtaposition of the inherent solidity of the struc­ ture with the fluid motion produced by the scan­ ning is sharp; the effect must have required careful camera work and splicing. The projection of the film onto a hanging cloth screen only adds another dimension to the contrast in tex­ tures.

Stance two, called lieux publics, is sheltered in a separate, darker room. Couches face small television screens, which play seemingly end­ less footage of busy public spaces— train sta­ tions, parks and the like. The quality of the film is reminiscent of a very clear security camera: detached, impersonal and unbiased. This stance comes complete with a pair of headphones used to listen to the unintelligible, muddy hub­ bub of the crowd. Lieux pu blics gets tiresome very quickly, since it's really just a manifestation of the solitary people-watching we're all forced to do during long waits. Maquaire's point, how­ ever, is not lost— the people in the film come ln_Stances,

and go, stop to chat, drink coffee, and so on, and the viewer is completely disinterested. The solidification of the observer's experience onto a television screen drives home the isolation that paradoxically exists in heavily used areas; the difference is that on screen, we can't reach out and interact even if we want to.

The third and most entrancing piece, le p ro m en eur, is projected onto a screen on the wall, forcing one to stand in the centre of the room to watch it. This is amusing not only because you get to be in everyone's way, but also because you are forced to replicate the exact stance of the figure in the middle of the screen. This featured individual periodically changes, but each time he or she stands motionless in the centre of the foreground, looking for all the world like another viewer blocking your line of sight. In essence, that is what they are because the mysterious figures never interact with the rest of the scene— back­ drops that include busy streets, grassy knolls and tall buildings, all full of quickly moving peo­ ple. Their roles are exactly the same as the view­ er's, with the exception that they are actually part of the film. The theme presented in lieux pu blics is extended by presenting the solipsism of observation as a real presence in the work.

The fact that the people's faces are never shown begins to become unnerving, and the work leaves the viewer feeling left out and superflu­ ous.

Maquaire is a master of the placement of seemingly bland images into coherent context to make resounding statements. Her work demands contemplation and rewards with a slow realization of deep, language-transcending truths. It's more than that, even; her art lingers in one's mind, firmly entangled with the feeling of detachment that accompanies it. That, in my opinion, is the definition of great art. ■

VLADIMIR EREMIN

Down in front: Maquaire's le prom eneur.

H A N D S OF F T H E C A N V A S N o

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urricane Katrina coverage resulted in some interesting juxtapositions. Take, for example, a trio of photos that appeared on Yahoo! News on Aug. 30. Two captions beneath photos of young black men referred to them as looters or having looted grocery stores. The final photo cap­ tured a white couple "wadpng] through chest-deep water after find in g bread and soda from a local grocery store."

It would be easy to shrug off these particular quotations and attribute the neg­ ative response to a tremendous anal-reten­ tive attention to detail. Then again, it would also be easy to say that despite the end of overt segregation and second-class citizen­ ry nearly a half-century ago, the vast major­ ity of popular culture has taught us to think less and less of African-Americans every time we turn on the television or stereo.

The version of black culture that is being promoted and commercialized in the

H

eyes of, not simply younger, but a ll genera­ tions, is one of profoundly negative stereo­ types and behavioural models. Every top­ selling, heavily-promoted hip-hop, R&B or rap act to grace the 21st century's TV screens or airwaves is bursting at the seams with thematic references to or images of booty, bling, pimped-out, pumped-up outfits/cars/attitudes, female objectification, and the fetishization of "da gangsta lifestyle."

Granted, there will always be dignified, marquis artists such as rapper Saul Williams, whose craft is intelligent, gripping and some of the best poetry in the music industry; but let's face it, even on his best day, Williams will never out-sell 50 Gent, whose latest release is none other than a concept album about drive-by shootings (complete with screaming, hysterical bystanders) and whose claim to fame is not brains, nor wit, nor skillfully structured

lyrics, but the fact that he's been shot sev­ eral times.

The situation for African-Americans on the screen is no better. In practically any manner of film, the black male is epito­ mized by Deon Richmond's "token black guy" Malik in N o t A n o th e r Teen M o v ie : a subordinate in every respect to the (usual­ ly white) main character, a humorous tan­ gent to the narrative, a modern-day court jester whose purpose is to draw some laughs, use a few ebonies, and (if it's a hor­ ror flick) die faster than it would take the KKK to lynch him.

Aside from household names such as Denzel Washington, Sidney Poitier and Don Cheadle, how many African-American actors come to mind when grasping for a strong, eloquent, sophisticated and morally upright leading man? It boggles the mind that capable, competent dramatic and comedic actors like Dennis Haysbert and

Ernie Hudson have trouble finding work and, God forbid, a little recognition, while the likes of Marlon Wayans, Andre Benjamin, Cedric the Entertainer and others like them parade their mind-numbing antics all over the screen while the rest of us laughed along like the buffoons that we clearly are.

The role of the African-American man in most mainstream pop culture is detri­ mental to the entire black population's gen­ eral image. These albums, films and televi­ sion shows form a negative image of the black community, one that dooms AfricanAmericans to be viewed as a cluster of lust­ ful, loathsome, primal simpletons.

In the end it's no wonder, as Kanye West aptly pointed out, that George W. Bush doesn't care about black people. If you judge by the media we're consuming, the rest of us sure as shit don't. ■

the mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | a& e

M U S I C

PREVIEWS

T h row b ack : to g e th e r ,

M c G ill f a v o u r i t e r o c k s C lu b S o d a D A N IE L G A R T N E R

It was about time that Throwback played another big show in Montreal. Coming off their successful 2004 US tour, they pulled out all the stops— added instru­ ments, guest vocalists, booking the 800-seat Club Soda.

It seemed the band was planning to dominate the stage as they had done in January with a lauded release party at the Cabaret Music Hall for their full-length debut,

Border Crossing.

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Film. The New Montreal FilmFest— various ven­ ues— through Sept. 25 The first annual New Montreal FilmFest became the city's third major film festival when it began on Sunday. The almost 200 full-length fea­ tures, documentaries and shorts are mostly of Quebec and Canadian origin, but also include a respectable selection from Hong Kong, Belgium, Argentina and others. Highlights include Les poupées russes, Cédric Klapisch's sequel to his highly popular 2002 film DAuberge espagnole, and the Keira Knightly vehicle Domino, which closes the festival— but be sure to check out films flying under the radar as well. Tickets are available at the box office where films are showing, including Cinéma Ex-Centris and Cinémathèque québécoise; most public screenings are $10. For film buffs on a budget, the festival offers free nightly screenings of road-themed movies, ranging from Y Tu Mama Tambien to Thelma and Louise.Visit www.montrealfilmfestcom for more information.

tig h t a s e v e r

"It's very gratifying... being able to play a venue like Club Soda, where I'd gone when 1 first arrived in Montreal, where to this day I still go to see some of my favourite bands," lead singer/rhythm guitarist Lind said Saturday, the day after one of their biggest local shows to date. "The energy we can feed off at a place like that, when there's a crowd like there was last night..,, it's hard to beat."

Kicking off their set with a grooving, electronic open­ ing, the band deftly demonstrated one of the principle reasons for the ever-increasing buzz— they're stage tight.

Very stage tight. All accomplished musicians (and McGillians), lead guitarist Mike Libis, bassist Dee Perusse and drummer/beat boxer Micah Shapiro share singing duties with Lind. The result is an elaborate array of vocal harmonies, which has consistently given their music a rounded, united texture.

That said, the opening end of Throwback's set near­ ly failed to do justice to the reputation of a highly ener­ getic band. After an excellent rendition of Border Crossing's title track, the next few songs, none of them on the LP, were not stand-out pieces in the same respect as the instantly recognizable "Misconceptions" or "Window." The decision to launch into the show by test­ ing out new material was ill-advised— the band simply may have done better by first stoking the crowd with a few favourites, or by mixing old and new songs more evenly throughout their set.

Throwback's return to the big stage was accompa­ nied by the addition of a keyboard into their instrumen­ tation. Manned by expert pianist David Cohen and incor­ porated to complement the already solid instrumenta­ tion, the lineup's transformation occasionally backfired.

Though it added a degree of funk and plain fun to some of the acoustic stylings, when using more overtly synthe­ sized sounds, the keyboard detracted attention from Libis's strong riffwork and Lind's soaring vocals— a certain

Art. Landscape in Provence— Museum of

THROWBACKONLINE.COM T h ro w y o u r lo t in w ith T h ro w b a c k !

organic quality that has been among Throwback's more powerful assets since its inception.

But all was not lost— as the band played on, they rapidly morphed into fan favourites. Seemingly invigorat­ ed by a series of wonderfully elaborate endings, J Throwback regained both their limitless energy and audi- I ence appeal. By the time Lind opened "Picking up the Pieces," Soda's ample crowd was mesmerized anew.

From that point onward Throwback delivered, and the audience responded with near hysteria, especially after crowd favourite "Lightning," highlighted by Shapiro's seamless beat boxing, and "Nap," which proved the band's mettle as a barbershop quartet. As an added touch of innovation, the captivating Perusse, who directs | the McGill Conservatory Youth Choir, was joined by her pupils during the harmony parts in "The Television Theme Song." By the time the band closed with an enthralling cover of Scissor Sisters's 'Take Your Mama," they had accomplished their mission: they dominated.

Looking back upon Friday night's performance, Lind said, "It feels good to be able to play successfully in a city like Montreal, where there is such a buzz [about the music scene]." With a hint of satisfaction in his voice, he added, "We're starting to feel like a genuine member of the Montreal music family." ■

Information about the band, as well as music sam­ ples and copies of their debut CD, is available online at www.throwbackonline.com

Fine Arts— 1380 Sherbrooke O — Sept. 22Jan. 8 You know where it isn't muggy and gray right now? Provence. The dazzling light and varied landscapes of the Mediterranean coast have fascinated artists for centuries— and the Museum of Fine Arts displays more than 200 of their works in its exhibition "Right Under the Sun: Landscape in Provence, from Classicism to Modernism." The exhibition traces the evolution of Provençal landscape painting, featuring such masters as van Gogh, Cezanne, Monet and Renoir.

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Th eatre. Sex and la Cité— Just for Laughs

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Museum— 2109 St.-Laurent— through Sept. 25 What would the “Sex and the City” girls be like outside of New York? "Sex and la Cité," part of the Montreal GLBT International Theatre Festival, transplants the fashion-forward four­ some to our fair city, where they swap stories over poutine and plot the seduction of Francophone men. The 65-minute performance has proven a hit— it sold out Saturday night. Tickets are $12 for students. Call 574-4528.

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M usic. Les Cowboys Fringants— Metropolis— 59

Ste.-Catherine E— Sept 21 Combining elements of traditional Quebec folkloric with a modern indie-pop sensibility, Les Cowboys Fringants have quickly risen to superstar status within the province. Renowned for their catchy acoustic and string melodies, as well as their rapid-fire lyrical pacing, few Quebec live acts match Les Cowboys's onstage reputation. Touring material from their province-wide best-seller La Grande Messe, Les Cowboys Fringants promise an evening of lively, nostal­ gic folk-rock. Call 844-3500— Ben Lemieux

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MUSI C

L e ttin g o f f s t e a m U n d e r P r e s s u r e p r e s e n t s t h e b e s t in h i p h o p CATHERINE LEMERY Brother Ali and Last Emperor delivered stellar performances last Wednesday. The vibe at Les Foufounes Electriques, 87 Ste. Catherine E., alternated between a chilled atmosphere and waves of energy, as everyone present at Linder Pressure's latest presentation was hyped for a fantastic night of hip hop.

All that rapper Brother Ali had to do for the crowd to become highly agitated was step onstage. Though the female population was underrepresented at the show, and the core fan base consisted of the prototypical baggy-pants adorned, head­ bobbing white guy— decked out in an extra extra large T-shirt when he really should be wearing a medium or small— Brother Ali's performance made it clear that this wasn't just any other show.

Having made a name for himself in a variety of freestyle competitions and live performances with other artists on the RhymeSayers label, Brother Ali's greatest power rests in his abil­ ity to flow once the beats pour out onto the audience. His rhyming schemes across the instrumental stretches were per­ fectly controlled and metered, as he took the time to formulate and enunciate every syllable coherently and accurately without ever breaking away from the rhythm.

Ali's freestyles were, as always, in keeping with his solid rep­ utation, and he even turned the microphone over to a couple of audience members to give them a chance to ad-lib along with

him. This angle of the show highlighted one of the greater things about Foufounes: seeing a reputed artist play a terrific show not only becomes an amazing experience, but often a very personal one as well.

The stage is small and directly connected to the floor where the audience stands. The venue itself is dimly lit, but flares up in all directions when the music comes on. The sound system never fails to blow you away. When comparing Foufounes to the Bell Centre, or any other oversized venue with acoustics to match its barbaric, impersonal enormi­ ty, every member of the audience is reminded of why they love going to see live music. The atmos­ timmcmahan.com phere is genuine; it reflects what every person in B ro th er A li—to p of his freestylin' g a m e the crowd is feeling. On Wednesday night, that feeling came to life with Brother Ali's stellar per­ formance, Last Emperor's lyrical abilities, Skratch Bastid's mastery of these groups took the stage with great presence, contributing of the turntables and Canada's own underground hip hop to what came together as one of Foufounes' best hip hop shows. groups Flightdistance and Apt & Cosmo holding their own.

For their part, Apt & Cosmo and Flight Distance gave hope Upcoming shows to watch for include PROJECTOUR, Sept. 23 to so many artists who have taken on the challenge of actually making it in the music industry. Same as all people who share a at Metropolis, featuring Buckshot Smiff & Wesson, C.L. Smooth, passion for hip hop, Apt & Cosmo and Flight Distance have Jean Grae, Mr. Metaphor and Ryan Perfect. On Oct. 10, Les devoted many nights in their basements to putting together solid Foufounes Electriques will be showcasing Atmosphere, followed by beats and developing unique lyrical styles. Effort pays off— both Large Professor and Medaphoar on Oct 12.

ART

MUSI C

A p i c t u r e o f u t o p ia ... b u t w h e r e a r e a ll t h e p e o p l e ?

S y m p h o n y o f d e s tr u c tio n A p o c a ly p t ic a b r in g t h e n o i s e b y w a y o f t h e c e l l o JULIA RAPONI Amidst all the leather, piercings, skulls and various other metal paraphernalia, four cellists from Finland managed to kick an obscene amount of ass in front of a packed house at Spectrum Friday night. With their long hair and proclivity for synchronized headbanging, they certainly fit in with the rest of the crowd.

For those unfamiliar with the group, Apocalyptica is composed of three core members and one or two rotat­ ing members, all of whom are classically trained. While they are currently on tour promoting their latest albums, Reflections and the self-titled Apocalyptica, their main claim to fame lies in their breakthrough album, Plays

Bauhaus a rc h ite c tu re -b e a u ty a n d pa rs im o n y hard at w o rk

CHRISTINE URQUHART & JO N A T H A N H ANSO N Yigal Cawze's photographic exploration of Bauhaus architecture is haunting in its beautiful simplicity.

Bauhaus architecture, a style originating in post-World War I Germany, emphasizes the impor­ tance of functionality and clean design. Gawze's photographic exhibit focuses on opaque, asymmetrical Bauhaus buildings and their inner workings.

The school of Bauhaus architec­ ture pioneered the drive to achieve an architectural representation of "utopia." The international style first appeared in Tel Aviv in the early thir­ ties, becoming the dominant style with the exodu? of artisans from Germany. At this time, achieving utopia was a popular political and artistic theme amid the after effects of the Great War. As a child growing up in Tel Aviv, a city heavily influenced by the Bauhaus movement, Gawze was unable to truly appreciate this simple style of architecture. It was not until

Gawze's return to Tel Aviv— after studying architecture at the University of Toronto— that he learned to appre­ ciate the beauty of his home. His cur­ rent exhibit offers the opportunity to walk alongside Gawze during his return to his homeland and experi­ ence his newfound appreciation for the international Bauhaus style.

However, there is a question which lingers throughout: Where are all the people? Gawze's photographs consist almost exclusively of simple exteriors from the view of a pedestri­ an, as well as sleek, clean stairways and entranceways. All structures are shown devoid of dirt or blemish, and evoke an atmosphere of sterility. The notable lack of life, and all signs of it, leaves the viewer questioning: Is the absence of humanity a prerequisite for utopia?

The exhibit, part of a larger exhibit on Bauhaus architecture at UQAM, 1440 de Sanguinet, is locat­ ed at Monopoli Gallery, 181 SaintAntoine, running through April 10. ■

Metallica by Four Cellos.

And play it they did. In between songs from the new album, they trotted out crowd-pleasers such as "Master of Puppets," "Seek and Destroy," and "Nothing Else Matters," the latter of which had the place practical­ ly glowing with lighters and cellphones. Other standout numbers included the newer "Somewhere Around Nothing" and "Bittersweet," a video game themed song originally recorded with Ville Valo (H.I.M.) and Lauri Ylônen (The Rasmus). Joined by former member Antero

Manninen and backed by the superhuman drumming of Mikko Sirén (of the Finnish band Megaphone), the group ripped through their catalogue loud enough to shake the floor. Not content to stay on their gigantic, Gothic-looking chairs, they also periodically jumped up and danced like maniacs across the stage, cellos and all.

At one point Perttu Kivilaakso told the crowd, 'The cello is a beautiful instrument, with a beautiful sound— but that is just a myth," right before the group dove into "Betrayal." Luckily, he was lying through his teeth, as the group had the audience jumping to whatever wails and screams they could produce. Even the parents in the crowd, who looked rather uneasy as their offspring enthusiastically howled along to opener Eyes of Fire's set, got into the mood, eventually getting up and throw­ ing devil horns with the rest of the audience.

Alas, all good things must come to an end— fortu­ nately for the crowd, Apocalyptica believed in going out with a bang. With an encore that included "Enter Sandman," strains of "0 Canada" and a take on Grieg; s "In the Hall of the Mountain King" that was worthy of any mosh pit, they proved that the worlds of classical and metal are definitely not mutually exclusive. ■

APOCALYPTICA.COM Finding th e m id d le gro u n d b e tw e e n B auhaus an d b aro q u e: A pocalyptica.

th e rflcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | a& e

I M A G E S

REVIEWS

19

c o m p ile d by Ben L e m ie u x

The Dandy Warhols. Oddatorium. At a time when "indie rock" is becoming more and more of an umbrella term, The Dandy Warhols, long standing pioneers in the genre, have built an album to remind music listeners of the artistic ideals and soundscapes that perfectly define (or re-define, if you will) the increasingly ambiguous indie scene. Drawing from country, funk, even jazz influences, Oddatorium evolves, matures, reshapes itself song by song, propelling the listener through, in the truest sense of the term, a listening experi­ ence. From the acoustic twang of "All the Money or the Simple Life, Hone/' to the funked-out bass riff and gorgeously orchestrated trumpets of "Easy," Oddatorium fluctuates and remains inventive enough to keep listeners on their toes but not so esoteric as to alienate them. A real gem.

The Pussycat Dolls. PCD. Perhaps it's just an innate character flaw, but I've recently recognized that I tend to be unnecessarily harsh with certain artists and albums without having the decency or consideration to put myself in the shoes of the hundreds of thousands of people who do see positive or redeeming qualities in the aforementioned works.

Thus, 1 have decided to write the following review from the perspective of the average, run-of-the-mill Pussycat Dolls enthusiast. *ahem*

Fear ca m e full circle w h e n The Ring Two's S am ara crashed M cG ill's Shaughnessy C up G a m e on Sept. 1, distributing g lo w -in -th e -d a rk bracelets a n d leaving a trail o f red rings b e h in d her. T h e D V D is in stores now .

So like, I bought the new pcd album tihs week and let me tell you it is toaatally wicked! I love all the songs sooo much, because they all make me believe in my own, personal girl power! Woot! I also hoove busta Rhymes's appearance on the album. He is by far one of the better (if not the better) rap­ pers out there, maybe in ALL of america actually and he should be more on the next album!!! Not that it wasn't already really really good on its own, you know?

I knew I would lowe this album before it even came out (III), you know, because a song from it has been playing all the time on teh radio and its really good because its all like “don't cha" and me and my friend Kandy did a dance to it at the school talent show and it totally was wicked because the energy of the song is great and it ispired us to dance the best we could because thats really waht the pcd is all about, its about making yourself the best girl you can bell! loll!! that is why I like them sooo much all the time. Because its an album that can inspi­ er you to be better at things, like wearing short skirts and parading your ass around live performances and music videos as if you're doing nothing short of waiting for your nextjohn to run train on you... I mean... Hihi, like its one of thos e albums that deals weH with the issueses of being girls, when you think about it. because it isnt always easi and pcd make me feel moure comfurtabel about myself as a person who also happens to be a girl!!! loll!!

DVD-The Ring Two. Though not as inherently, skin-crawlingly spooky as its predecessor, the second installment in the Ring series is by far the more visually striking picture. Using awk­ ward filming speeds, bleak and desolate imagery, impeccable set design, and eye-popping visual effects, The Ring Two has much more substance than the average horror flick.

The narrative chronicles, once anew, the transdimensional struggle of Rachel Keller and her son Aiden against the ghastly, demonic Samara, who seems to have found a way back into the real world from the depths of pur­ gatory. In order to save her son from the clutches of the well-dwelling, havocwreaking apparition, Rachel must dig into the torturous past and family history of her foe in order to uncover the secrets of her nature.

The DVD boasts a plethora of interesting special features, including several short "making-of" documentaries detailing the intricacies of special effects shots, makeup artistry and the evolution of Samara's character from Japanese Ringu icon into Hollywood horror success. The prize-winning centrepiece, however, is Rings, a short film produced by action/sci-fi heavyweight Walter Parkes that chronicles the seven days during which Samara's first victim, Jake (portrayed by Ryan Merriman), documents the taxing, mind-altering visions brought on by The Ring's otherworldly hex. Filled with haunting imagery and a taut, engrossing narrative, Rings is unquestionably on par with the feature.

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sports F O O T B A L L — M O N T R E A L 46, R E D M E N

5

C a r a b in s le a v e R e d m e n s in g in g le s B le u s W ith

s ix p la y e r s s u s p e n d e d , M c G ill d r o p s t o C H A R L IE B L O R E

In a bit of pathetic fallacy, the Redmen football team's for­ tunes against Montréal seemed inextricably linked to the situa­ tion in the heavens. During the dry first half, McGill was able to keep itself afloat. But when the rain began to fall after the break, the Redmen's chances were washed away.

The Carabins scored 28 second-half points on a wet Saturday afternoon at CEPSUM on their way to a dominating 46-5 victory over the still-winless Redmen.

Adding to McGill's woes was the fact that nine players in last week's game against Laval did not dress, six because of sus­ pension. Among that group were five starters, including all-con­ ference quarterback Matt Connell and leading receiver Greg Hetherington. They were banished to the sidelines for violating team rules, reportedly for hazing.

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0 -3 fo r th e se a so n

First-year pivot Michael Ghorayeb was solid enough in replacing Connell, going 21 of 33 for 237 yards, but he also threw two interceptions.

"I made some rookie mistakes," said Ghorayeb, who also fumbled on his own four-yard line, leading to a Carabin TD. “I expected to play a bit better, but hopefully I won't make them again."

One such error occurred on the second series of the game when McGill, facing third-and-inchës, opted to keep the offence on the field. But a miscalled play, in which Ghorayeb threw the ball rather than running with it, led to a Redmen turnover on downs, and the Carabins capitalized, scoring a touchdown on the resulting drive. Head Coach Chuck McMann blamed the failed attempt on miscommunication.

"1 had called a quarterback sneak," he said. 'The quarter­ back misread the signal."

McGill came close to responding two series later, after Ghorayeb completed a 49-yard bomb to wide receiver Christian McGuire. This led to a successful field goal by Robert Eeuwes, however, there was a Montréal penalty on the play; the Redmen chose to take the points off the board and accept the penalty.

The Redmen moved into the red zone before facing another thirdand-inches situation, but Montréal again held firm, stop­ ping Ghorayeb in his tracks.

The McGill defence responded, though, forcing the Carabins to concede a safety, which brought the Redmen to within 13 points at 15-2. But this was as close as McGill would get, as Montréal would kick a field goal before halftime to make the score 18-2.

■ ...-i_-_~ ~___________ __

ANDREWD0BR0W0LSKY, McGILL ATHLETICS C arabins p o u n d e d th e ball a t M c G ill in w h a t tu rn e d o u t to b e a lo ng, w e t afte rn o o n .

R ain a p a rt

falls,

Redm en

fall

When the skies opened up

in the third quarter, the Carabins took advantage, exploding for 23 points and putting the game out of reach. With the rain com­ ing down, it became extremely difficult for the McGill offence to move the ball.

"It's hard to explain sometimes," McMann said. "We came out and the rain had picked up. Then we had a kick-off and not a very good return and then a penalty, so it put us in a hole. I think that was a little bit of a letdown for everybody."

Wide receiver Erik Galas himself was one of the few bright spots for the Redmen. With Hetherington out, he responded to the challenge, making eight catches for 78 yards.

"I think the rain affected it big time," said Galas. The ball was really wet, and by midway through the third quarter, it was just unthrowable."

"I was replacing one of the best receivers in the confer­ ence," Galas said. "It's pretty hard to fill his shoes, but I did my best."

The main problem for the McGill offence, though, wasn't the play of the receivers or even the quarterback. According to third-year guard Ben Walsh, it was their inability to get points out of drives which stalled in the opposition's territory.

"Our quarterback had an incredible game as far as making completions and making big plays," Walsh said. "We just need­ ed to close every drive and I think that's what we’re not doing right now."

Additionally, the defence struggled all afternoon, giving up a number of big plays, including a 67-yard pass to Olivier Pellerin that set up a Carabin touchdown. It also failed to put pressure on Montréal quarterback Jonathan Jodoin, who went 11 for 16, racking up 285 yards and a touchdown. The running game was equally productive for the Carabins, totalling a com­ bined 172 yards on the ground. McMann attributed the defence's struggles to a lack of experience.

"We were quite young," he said. "I know that two of our starting linebackers were probably 17 or 18 years old.

"We'll improve for next week. We'll have all our starters back so I think we'll be more productive. We'll be a lot sharper on both offence and defence," he added.

The season continues for the Redmen on Saturday, when they host the 2-0 St. Francis Xavier X-Men in an interlocking game with Atlantic University Football Conference. Though a return to Molson Stadium should help the Red 'n' White, they cannot afford any more mistakes, lest they start the season 0-4 for the first time under McMann's tenure. ■

T H E RED Z O N E G o

a h e a d ...b la m e

t this point, it's an all-but-undeniable truth in NFL circles that Bill Belichick is one of the great­ est NFL coaches of all time, if not the outright number one.

And while its true that Belichick has won three Super Bowls in the past four seasons and— even without former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis and departed defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel— defeated the revamped Oakland Raiders on opening night, what people tend to forget is that as head coach of the Cleveland Browns, his record was a dismal 36-44. Meanwhile, Belichick also coached an underachieving Pats team while Drew Bledsoe was at the helm, and only started to win once Tom Brady came along.

The Belichick example proves that wins and losses in sports are about the personnel on the field, not the side­ lines. Coaches take too much credit for winning, and sim­ ilarly, too much blame when things go sour.

Other examples of this occurence in the NFL include the case of Mike Shanahan. The Denver Broncos' head man was on top of the world at the end of the 20th cen­ tury, winning two straight Super Bowls. Then came John

A

it o n

th e

coach

Elwa/s retirement and Terrell Davis' career-ending injury, and the Broncos' lost their first four games of the season following the title game wins. The team has not regained its swagger since. With lesser personnel like running back Tatum Bell and quarterback Jake Plummer, Shanahan can­ not recapture the winning formula.

But this phenomenon isn't only restricted to football.

Look at Lenny Wilkens, the winningest coach in NBA his­ tory— and also the losingest. Wilkens has seemingly been the product of his players since the dawn of time. For instance, with four players scoring 17-plus points per game in 1989, Wilkens' Cleveland Cavaliers won 57 games. My sister could have coached them to that figure, and she turns 15 in January. Conversely, Wilkens' 2003 Raptors never had a hope of getting off the ground, and the result would have been the same if Pat Riley had been in charge. With a roster filled with superstars like Jelani McCoy, Nate Huffman, Maceo Baston and Mamadou N'Diaye, Lenny took a lot of heat for a lost cause, and that's just not kosher.

Lest you think these to be isolated examples, there are more. Joe Gibbs, a Hall of Fame football coach, won

MATT KERBEL

three Super Bowls with Washington in the 1980s and now coaches a Redskins' team that features a quarterback carousel and is coming off a last place campaign. Or the 1994 and '95 Chicago Bulls? Why did they, despite Phil Jackson's presence, not ride the success of the previous three NBA championships into better showings on the court? Two words: Michael Jordan. And how about hockey guru Glen Sather, who won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers in the 1980s, on a team anchored by Wayne Gretzky? Recently, his chances have been thwart­ ed by an aging and overpaid New York Rangers roster.

In each case, success as well as failure is determined by the makeup of the team roster; coaching is very rarely a factor that can turn a bad squad into a good one.

Replace Dennis Erickson of the San Francisco 49ers with Vince Lombardi and 2004's result would have been the same: a two-win season. Teams win championships based on players' performances, and the good ones deliv­ er. In the meantime, coaches receive too much credit for the good fortune of the general manager providing them with a good roster and too much blame when mediocre players don't get the job done. ■

P R O F I L E —

R E D M E N

the mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | sports 2 1

L A C R O S S E

Mason building a lacrosse foundation

G im m e som e M o

A m e rica n sta r and c o m p a trio ts head n o rth w a rd A D A M MYERS

the motions. In order to advance we need to work hard, but I think we do have talent."

Lacrosse may be Canada's national sport, but don't try to tell that to any of the American players on the Redmen, especially not Eli Mason.

Mason, a second-year midfielder from Guilderland, New York, heads a strong international contingent on this squad. He and several other Americans have come to Canada to try to bring McGill a Canadian University Field Lacrosse Association title.

Coming to Canada to play lacrosse was a tough choice for Mason, who turned down the chance to play for Division-1 NCAA teams. Mason received an aca­ demic scholarship from Lafayette University in Pensylvania and believes he would have walked onto the lacrosse team. However, when the opportunity to come to McGill arose, he couldn't pass up the chance.

"My sister told me about McGill and when I decid­ ed to come up and visit I had already gotten in," he says. "[Head] Coach (Tim Murdoch] was very interest­ ed in having me come once I got in. He showed me Montreal, the program and what they were all about."

Hailing from the lacrosse hotbed that is the Northeastern US, Mason's decision to attend McGill was made easier by the large number of Americans the team was recruiting.

"Both of our coaches are American," he notes.

"Last year, we had guys from New York and Maine. This year we have guys from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maryland. So we are definitely very American and that affects the way we play."

The influx from south of the border means the team brings the American style of lacrosse— a more skillful game— to the field. Mason points out that Americans cultivate their abilities at a younger age, and that their program emphasizes strengthening both your left and your right hands. This gives American players twice as many opportunities to shoot, and more shooting means more scoring, giving McGill a good chance to do some damage in the CUFLA. "If we work hard, we will earn wins," Mason says.

"We have to go out and everyone needs to contribute, individually show up on time and not just run through

Recruiting from the Northeastern US has undoubtedly provided the Redmen with an advantage over other Canadian schools that do not actively do so.

But it isn't always easy to convince players to come up north, as the schools in the NCAA offer more incen­ tives than those in Canada "In Canada, lacrosse is important; however, it1s on the side," says Mason, noting that he's able to devote time toward a degree in English Literature while play­ ing for the Redmen.

This illustrates one of the main differences between us and our neighbours to the south.

Canadian schools offer an intensive three-month sea­ son, while the US programs run year-round. But NCAA lacrosse requires a major time commitment from the players, which causes many American players to seek out Canadian universities.

"McGill offers an excellent alternative to some of these players academically, in terms of getting an excellent education and playing some very competitive lacrosse," says Murdoch, who hails from the US and played college lacrosse at Princeton. "We are actually the only team in Canada right now recruiting extensive­ ly across the Northeastern US." McGill hopes that this new approach will help them out of the basement of the CUFLA. After last year's 1-7 campaign, the coaches made sure to bring in more Americans, and this year's team shows the fruits of that labour, with 22 out of the 34 players on the team from the States. This represents the highest number of imports ever for a McGill team, and it is quite an accomplishment for a program that only got off the ground in 2002.

In the meantime, Mason is looking forward to turning things around this year. He is excited, knowing how much his countrymen will help improve a squad that struggled last season.

And so long as Mason is interested in winning, it couldn't matter less where he's from. ■

Y an kees' loss is R e d m e n 's a d v a n ta g e

Eli M a s o n an d his troops rallied against C a rle to n on S aturday, b u t th e e ffo rt fell short.

F AS T F A C T S — ELI M A S O N Jersey no.: 11 Position: Midfield Height: 5'9" Weight: 180 lbs Year of Eligibility: 2 Course: U 1 EnglishLit. Hometown: Guilderland, New York Last Team: Guilderland H.S. Years with Redmen rugby: 2004, 2005

D a

b est band

in

d a w o r ld M O H IT ARORA

n Friday night, I found myself in the upper bowl of the Air Canada Centre, peering down at the greatest band in the world.

The ageless Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry, who make up the titanic Irish foursome known as U2, rocked 18,000 Torontonians with a potent selection of songs from their 25-year, 12-album discography.

They also called B.B. King at his home to wish him a happy 80th birth­ day, flashed Paul Martin's telephone number onscreen and pulled a local band onstage to play a song during their second encore.

Needless to say, it was a fantastic show that confirmed their reputa­ tion as one of the best live acts in history.

In the days following the show, I found myself searching for appropriate superlatives and analogies to describe the band to my friends, and it got me thinking: if U2 was a sports team, which one would it be?

Considering its place in music history, U2 inspires thoughts of powerhouse teams like the 1976 Montreal Canadiens or the 1927 New York Yankees. However, the squad that stuck out in my mind was'the Chicago Bulls from 1996 through 1998, during their second run of three straight NBA championships.

If you think about it, the parallels are pretty striking. Just like U2 is fronted by über-star Bono, the Bulls had Michael Jordan serve as their go-to-guy. Both of these intrepid superheroes had spectacular sidekicks helping them along the way— Edge on lead guitar for U2 and Scottie Pippen at small forward for Da Bulls. Finally, U2’s rhythm sec­ tion, with Adam Clayton on bass and Larry Mullen Jr. on drums, is as unheralded as Chicago's stellar supporting cast of Dennis Rodman, Ron Harper and Toni Kukoc. Hell, you could even make a case for manager Paul McGuinness drawing parallels to Bulls head coach Phil Jackson.

But the similarities don't end there. Not only are the people that make up the band strikingly similar to those of the basketball team, their respective paths to the top are equally alike, too.

When Michael Jordan entered the NBA, his high-flying athleti­ cism and highlight reel slams were unlike anything people had ever seen before. The man was simply a revelation, and everyone who saw him was left agog at the things he could do on the court.

The same can be said of U2. When they first caught people's attention, it was their energy and passion on stage that couldn't be ignored. They simply blew audiences away.

Just picture Jordan dunking from the free throw line or Bono waving a white flag onstage, and you know exactly what I mean.

Likewise, it wasn't until Jordan's Bulls finally beat the Detroit Pistons' "Bad Boys," and U2 outperformed The Police at Live Aid that they reached the pinnacles of their respective professions.

After a few years on top, though, both decided it was time for a change. Jordan headed to baseball and U2 headed to the PopMart tour, where, to put it kindly, both underachieved for the first time in their careers. Both inevitably returned to their places atop the pan­ theon, getting there in a different way than they had the first time.

From '96 to '98, the Bulls toned down their act a little. Jordan didn't go to the hoop as much, instead he reinvented himself as a jump shooter and more-than-occasional passer. Chicago started to employ the extremely efficient triangle offence, and won games sim­ ply by executing better than their opponents.

Meanwhile, Bono, like Jordan, has changed his approach. Instead of overpowering audiences like he did 20-plus years ago, he deftly employs his magnetism and charisma to engage the crowd (and try to save the world while he's at it). He also relies on the rest of the band a lot more, and the Vertigo Tour has seen Edge, Adam and Larry reach new heights.

However, don't make the mistake of thinking that because Jordan and Bono scaled back their individual performances, it sig­ naled any sort of decline. Just like when a flu-stricken MJ poured in 38 points in game five of the 1998 NBA finals against the Utah Jazz and then sank the series-winning shot the next game, Bono captivat­ ed the Toronto crowd when he sang the operatic solo "Miss Sarajevo," originally performed by Luciano Pavarotti.

Now, of course, I wasn't thinking about all this while I was watch­ ing the show. It was only afterwards that I tried to ponder how to describe the brilliance of my favourite band. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls are the best analogy I can come up with because, much like how the Bulls were vastly superior to the rest of the NBA, U2 can't be compared to its contemporaries. It's not even fair to call U2 a dynasty, really. The band is simply in a league of its own. ■

O

22

sports | 20.9.05 | th e mcgill trib u n e

C R O S S - C O U N T R Y — Mc GI LL OPEN

M c G ill p o u r s it o n a t M o u n t R o y a l m e e t B o t h R e d m e n a n d M a r t l e t s f in i s h s e c o n d in r a i n - s o a k e d e v e n t AD AM HELLER

Jeff M c C a b e leads th e R e d m e n to a second place finish in th e first m e e t o f th e season.

A stronger and more experienced McGill Redmen cross-country team did not show any signs of rust in its season debut, placing second at the McGill Open meet atop a wet Mount Royal on Saturday morning. The McGill women also performed well in their race, taking second place after the University of Western Ontario claimed the top spot by virtue of a tiebreaker.

The relatively short, rain-slicked course— which was four kilometres for the women and six for the men— pro­ vided for some interesting tumbles across the finish line.

Neal Holtschulte from Williams College took first place for the second year in a row with a time of 18 minutes, 50 seconds.

"Our coach told us to take it conservative on the first loop," Holtschulte said. "But I wanted to get out real quick then ease into it, slowly catching people on the second and third loop."

Holtschulte and the other runners seemed to be aided by the cool weather, which was a nice change from recent soaring temperatures. The new Mount Royal course, adjusted because of construction this past year, also seemed to be popular with the competitors.

"It's really nice to have those three consecutive laps when you don't know the course," said second place fin­ isher Stephen Wills of Williams. "It's really easy to break it down, it's like running a mile every lap."

McGill runner Jeff McCabe finished in third place with a time of 19:03, while Stephen Douglas placed fifth.

Despite it being the first race of the year, it was any­ thing but a training run, and the McGill runners were sat­

isfied with the meet.

"That was a total race," said McCabe, who dashed across the line only thirteen seconds behind the winner.

McCabe, Douglas, Pat McAuliffe (12th), Tony Orth (20th) and James Young (21 st) rounded out the McGill scores, leaving the Redmen with 61 points, good enough for second place. Western took the overall competition, finishing with just 45 points.

On the women's side, McGill's Lauren White placed fifth with a time of 14:48, and she was quickly followed by followed by teammates Jane Cullis in sixth, Elspeth McGregor in seventh, Genevieve Jenkins in tenth and Anna Potapov in 19th. The Martlets combined for 41 points, the same total as Western, but finished second as Western's top individual finshed second, besting White.

The Mount Royal meet marks the beginning of a fre­ netic cross-country season. The team races almost every week for two months and will be in London, Ont. next weekend for the University of Western Ontario Invitational, which features some of the best competition in Canada.

Guelph, Windsor, Calgary and Dalhousie are the top teams nationally; meanwhile McGill will be keeping an eye on their provincial rivals from Laval and Sherbrooke.

Head Coach Dennis Barrett is optimistic, pointing to both women's and men's finishes on Saturday as an indi­ cator of their potential.

"It's a good way for them to start and to get their feet wet," he said. 'Today was a good starting point and hope­ fully they can keep up the same pace.”

Fifth-place finisher Douglas was also confident about the squad's chances this season.

'The guys' team didn't lose anyone from last year," he said. "We're only getting stronger." ■

S O C C E R — M A R T L E T S 2, U Q T R 0

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The Martlets began their quest to return to the national championship during a rain soaked evening last Friday, at Molson Stadium against the Université du Québec à Trois Rivières Patriotes.

In a scrappy affair, the Martlets proved too strong for the Pats, tallying a 2-0 victory. With wins like this, the Martlets squad is looking more like last year's CIS silver medalists squad.

Although victorious, Martlets' Head Coach Marc Mounicot was none too pleased with his team's perform­ ance in and around the Patriotes' penalty area. He refused to blame his team's inability to work together up front on the weather.

"We had a lot of difficulties creating chances, and good chances," he said. 'The strikers are very young and it shows. The first touch isn't there."

McGill capitalized on one chance early, before the game turned into a midfield battle. Rookie Vanessa Salasky fired the eventual game-winner at the thirteen-minute mark. She was very excited to get her first regular-season goal with the Martlets.

"We've had a lot of preseason games to get ready," she said. "But it gets you pumped up to score."

However, after Salask/s strike, the finishing just was­ n't there. The Red 'n' White continued to march forward, but could not capitalize once they were within striking dis­ tance. This was especially frustrating for the Martlets, given that UQTR's defence was far from imposing.

McGill's constant attacking combined with the

Martlets' prowess in the back gave McGill goalkeeper Victoria Villalba what amounted to a 90-minute nap.

Villalba saw no shots on goal and very few runs into her domain. The stalwart defending of Katherine Rogers, Catherine Scott, Captain Shari Fraser and Sarah Chan put the Martlets in control of their own end throughout the match.

Despite looking uncertain on offence for long periods of the game, McGill came away with all three points.

Rookie Magalie Kolker sealed the result in the 80th minute, out-jumping the UQTR keeper to head in the insurance marker.

B etter p e rfo rm a n c e ex p e c te d in th e fu tu re

Neither the players nor their their coach seemed par­ ticularly thrilled with the result despite the positive out­ come on the scoreboard.

"We're happy, but we have a lot to work on," Salasky said. "We're not satisfied."

'The objective of this weekend was to start with two wins. But I am not veiy satisfied with this performance," Mounicot added. "We controlled the game well from the back, but nothing was happening in the last twenty yards of the field.”

Regardless of how it happened, the Martlets began their "Quest for the Wesf with the win. Though the team is young, practice and playing together will work out the kinks and undoubtedly lead to better communication and chemistry for this talented squad. As the season progress­ es, they can look forward to victories that even Coach Mounicot would be proud of. ■

th e mcgill trib u n e | 20.9.05 | sports 2 3

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A R O U N D THE HORN

com piled by D A V ID BLYE and A D A M MYERS

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V -B all M a rtle ts spike a b ronze

STANDINGS W

FOOTBALL

T

L

PTS

LAVAL

3

0

0

6

CONCORDIA

3

0

0

6

MONTREAL

2

1

0

4

SHERBROOKE

1

2

0

RUGBY (M )

W

L

T

PTS

McGILL

3

0

0

6

BISHOP'S

1

1

0

2

CONCORDIA

1

1

0

2

ETS

0

1

0

0

SHERBROOKE

0

1

0

0

2

McGILL

0

3

0

0

BISHOP'S

0

3

0

0

O N DECK M artlets H o c k e y -Q u e b e c A valan ch e @ M cG ill, Friday, 5 :3 0 p.m ., M c C o n n ell A rena

The Martlets don't have an automatic bid to the national champi­ onships this year, so they have to improve on last year's secondplace finish in the QSSF if they hope to make an impact come March. An early gauge of the team's ability will come Friday against the Avalanche, a pro team in the National Women's Flockey League.

M artlets S o ccer-S herbrooke @ M cG ill, Friday, 7 p.m ., M o ls o n S tad iu m

Though they won twice last weekend, the defending conference champions were not pleased with how these games transpired.

Look for them to take out their frustrations on the Vert et Or. R e d m e n S o ccer-S herbrooke @ M cG ill, Friday, 9 p.m ., M o ls o n S tadium

After a pair of wins to open the season, the Redmen look to con­ tinue playing well under new Coach Philippe Eullaffroy.

R e d m e n Football-St. F-X @ M cG ill, Saturday, 1 p.m ., M o ls o n S tad iu m

After a two week exile, the Redmen return to Molson Stadium des­ perately seeking a win. They'll have their hands full against a tough St F-X squad, who are fresh off their upset win over Saint Mary's.

CFL- W in n ip e g @ M o n tre a l, S unday, 1 p.m ., M o ls o n S ta d iu m , on RDS

The Als look to rebound from their 27-26 defeat last weekend at the hands of the undefeated BC Lions. But don't count out Winnipeg. After last week's 37-21 road win over Ottawa, the Bombers are looking to start a late push for the playoffs.

NFL-New England @ Pittsburgh, Sunday, 4:15 p.m. on CBS The Pats and Steelers clash in a rematch of last year's AFC Championship. Thus far, the Steelers have looked solid, while the Pats looked sloppy against the Panthers last Sunday. This one could come down to coaching.

TH IS WEEK IN McGILL SPORTS HISTO RY Saturday, Sept. 22, 2001 First-year football Coach Chuck McMann recorded his first-ever victory. After an 0-2 start, McMann led the Redmen to a 24-7 win over the Bishop's Gaiters. The Redmen would win four of their next five games to finish the season with a 5-3 record, and would claim the Dunsmore Cup after Laval was forced to forfeit it Friday, S ep t. 2 4 , 2 0 0 4

The Martlets Rugby squad ruins homecoming for Bishop's, dominating the Gaiters 68-0, extending the Martlets undefeated streak to 45. Much was made of this game as it was believed that Bishop's had improved significantly and could possibly challenge the Marlets. Clearly this was not the case, as McGill brushed aside the Gaiters en route to their sixth consecutive QURL title.

RUGBY (F)

L

W

T

PTS

M cG ILL

3

0

0

6

LAVAL

2

1

0

4

OTTAWA

1

1

0

2

SHERBROOKE

0

2

0

0

CONCORDIA

0

1

0

0

BISHOP'S

0

1

0

0

BO X SCORE

R e d m e n Soccer m an ag es tw o -w in w e e k e n d

M c G ill U n iv e rs ity 5 vs. U n iv e rs ité d e M o n tré a l 4 6 S ept. 17, 2 0 0 5 a t C E P S U M S ta d iu m

SCORING SUMMARY First Q u a rte r

Montréal - 1PT J-L Lamarche Montréal - TD J. Jodoin 5 run (J-L Lamarche convert) 7:29 Montréal - TD J.F. Vibert 4 run (J-L Lamarche convert) 7:45 S eco nd Q u a rte r

McGill - Safety (TEAM conceded) 3:42 Montréal - FG J-L Lamarche 17 12:40 Third Q u a rte r

Montréal - TD J. Mroue 1 run (J-L Lamarche convert) 2:03 Montréal - Safety (TEAM conceded) 2:56 Montréal - TD O. Pellerin 25 pass from J. Jodoin (J-L Lamarche convert) 12:26 Montréal - TD Y. Beriault 58 run (J-L Lamarche con­ vert) 14:14 Fourth Q u a rte r

McGill - FG R. Eeuwes 34 4:29 Montréal - FG J-L Lamarche 20 12:55 Montréal - Safety (TEAM conceded) 14:41 Score by Quarters McGill Montréal

McGill came away with a bronze medal from the Montréal Carabins invitational women's volleyball tourna­ ment held this weekend.

The Martlets won three of their five matches, includ­ ing a 3-0 sweep over Toronto in the bronze medal round.

The set scores were 29-27,27-25 and 25-18. McGill also blanked Waterloo and College Bois de Boloigne by iden­ tical 3-0 scores. The Martlets had previously been defeat­ ed by Montreal and Laval.

Jennifer Thomson was named to the all-tournament team. The first-year power hitter from Rosemere, who played for Quebec at last summer's Canada Games, racked up 59 digs, 56 kills, five aces, two stuff blocks and an impressive 2.5 (out of 3) passing ratio.

The team is off until the Winnipeg Invitational, Sept.

30 to Oct. 2.

12

3 4 Score

0 2 0 3- 5 15 3 23 5 - 46

The McGill Redmen soccer team began the Philippe Eullaffroy era in style, coming away with a pair of confer­ ence victories. On Friday night, midfielder Jamie Scholefield's strike was the difference, as the Redmen bested the UQTR Patriotes 1-0 in a scrappy, yellow-cardfilled affair.

On Sunday, the Redmen pummelled cross-town rivals Concordia 8-0. Juan-lgnacio Zavagno led the way with a pair of goals. Other scorers were Alec Milne, Jamie Scholefield, Dan Jones, Tom Rigby, Vaughn Richards and Elias Gedamu. The result was the most lopsided soccer score ever for McGill against Concordia, easily topping the previous record, a pair of 4-1 playoff wins for the Redmen in 1980 and 1982. Flowever, it was short of the school record for a regular season game, which was set in a 12-0 victory over Macdonald College in 1960.

The shutout was shared by freshmen keepers Matt McNevin, who received credit for the victory after playing the first half, and Olivier Boulva.

R ugby M artlets re m a in p erfect

First Year winger Melany Waring scored three tries as McGill shellacked the Ottawa Gee-Gees 40-0 at McEwen Field on Sunday. The win extended the Martlets unde­ feated streak in Quebec conference play to 52-0-1 over the last eight years.Marie-Josée Blais, Laura Belvedere and Julianne Zussman rounded out the try scorers, with Sandra Simpson of Beaconsfield adding 10 points on five con­ versions.

The Martlets have outscored opponents by a lop­ sided 231-7 margin this season. The win improved them to 3-0 as they head into their first away game of the sea­ son, against Sherbrooke on Saturday.

Furious lacrosse co m eb ack falls short

Attendance: 3,962

SPORTS TRI VI A c o m p ile d by Jo n ath an K le in

In honour of the start of the NFL season, answer these questions related to NFL players who have gained fame in ■ ; other areas as well.

I H 1. Which Giants linebacker broke former Washington QB and current ESPN analyst Joe Theismann's leg in 1985? ’

The Men's lacrosse team opened their season last Saturday with a home game against Carleton. The Ravens led for most of the game although McGill clawed their way back, only to see time run out in the 13-12 loss. Zach Eddel led the way for the Redmen, totaling three goals and an assist. Nate Roeder and Alex Silverman chipped in with two goals each. The game was played under a torrential downpour, causing several mis­ takes by players on each team. McGill will look to regroup this weekend when they embark on a threegame road trip.

S o m e tim e s w e m a k e m istakes

In the article concerning the McGill Redmen vs.

Concordia Stingers game, we mentioned that Kamaal Flicks fumbled a kickoff. In fact, Flicks did not play, and we apologize for our mistake. We had received the infor­ mation from the QUFL website.

2. Which wide receiver, whose number 80 is the only number ever retired by the Seahawks, served as a US I t Congressman from Oklahoma from 1994 to 2002?

3. Which Miami Dolphins running back, the 1973 | Super Bowl MVP, later became a commentator on j

S p o rts W r it e r s

W a n te d

American Gladiators?

Friday, S ept. 2 4 a n d S unday Sept. 2 6 , 1 9 9 8

First-year Martlets soccer coach Marc Mounicot led the women to a two-victory weekend. On the Friday, the Martlets thoroughly destroyed Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières 11-0, while on the Sunday, the Martlets defeated Université du Québec à Montréal by the more reasonable score of 2-1.

These wins would be part of a trend, as the Martlets would go on to take the 1998 QUSL Championship.

4. Former Raiders tackle Gene Upshaw is currently the ' executive director of which labour organization?

5. Nicknamed "Whizzer," which Steelers and Lions run­ ning back succeeded Charles Whittaker on the US Supreme Court in 1962?

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