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Over The Edge

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Volume 20, Issue 3 overtheedgenewspaper.ca

October 2, 2013 ote-newspaper@unbc.ca

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News Escape From Earth: The Curiosity of Mars Nicole Halseth News Editor

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ccording to their official website, NASA is currently advertising positions in a bed-rest study paying $18, 000 USD ($18, 509 CAD) for a person to stay in bed for 70 days at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The successful applicant would be able to move around in bed, send texts, watch television, work, and even exercise on special equipment, so long as they stay in bed to do it. NASA has even devised a way for the participant to shower and go to the bathroom without leaving the bed.

During this time, the study participant will be subjected to 16 hours of daylight and 8 hours of night, as well as constant monitoring of biological processes and overall health. The purpose of this experiment is to test the effects of microgravity on the human body, and to measure the effects of weightlessness during space-flight on astronauts’ bodies. The bed is tilted so as to imitate the effects of microgravity on the body.

The study will be preceded by a

period of 13-21 days where the participant will be able to move about the facility freely, and it will be followed by a 14 day recovery period where the participants will again be allowed to move about freely. Whether or not the $18, 509 is worth the potential long-term health effects of a

One of these treks may be the proposed upcoming ‘mission to Mars’.

This ‘mission to Mars,’ aptly called the Mars One mission, began preparations in 2011 and was launched in New York in April. Run by the Dutch Mars Project, the Mars One

spacesafetymag

70-day bed stay is up to the applicant, but the study remains open. Applicants who wish to participate in the study must be physically and mentally able to deal with 70 days in bed, so they must pass both a psychological evaluation and a physical screening. This research has the potential to benefit many on long-term space treks in the future.

mission aims to establish a permanent colony on Mars by 2023. Though there is no guarantee that applicants will be able to return to Earth after departure, there have nonetheless been a rush of volunteers. These volunteers include people from all over the world. The first round of applications was closed early in September. According to an article

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on the BBC website, out of 202,586 total applicants 24% are from the United States, 10% are from India, and 6% are from China.

Over the next two years, a committee will narrow this applicant pool down to around 40 people who will spend seven years of full-time training for the journey. These colonists will face numerous hardships, such as the potential for radiation poisoning, and other known and unknown complications. Despite the hazards, the pull of Mars and outer space seems to be worth the risk for thousands around the world.

It is for this reason that research such as the NASA ‘bed-rest study’ is so crucial. It will be increasingly important to predict and prepare for complications in long-term space travel as the Mars mission comes closer to fruition.

Would you volunteer for a one-way ticket to Mars? Let us know what you think on twitter: @OVERtheEDGEunbc or on facebook: Over the Edge Newspaper.

Syria’s Developments the length of the document, and the fact that it must first be translated before analysis. However, members of the OPCW technical secretariat are working diligently.

BBC World News

Nicole Halseth News Editor

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evelopments continue hard and fast in regards to the conflict in Syria.

month. The UN later confirmed that the nerve gas “sarin” had been used on 21 August in an attack on Ghouta, though it does not confirm responsibility for the attack.

After the recent creation of a joint US-Russian deal aimed at stopping the use of chemical weapons within the country, Syria has begun submitting details of its chemical weapons to a Hague-based oversight committee, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

Though Syrian president Bashar alAssad blamed rebel groups for the attack, it seems he is complying with the demand to relinquish control of all available chemical weapons. The OPCW expects more data about Syria’s chemical weapons to be submitted in the next few days.

This action was necessitated by reports of alleged chemical attacks against civilians, condemned by the UN as a war crime and inciting calls to military action spearheaded by the US last

According to Michael Luhan of OPCW, this list is only a first step. The situation is currently being reviewed and examined by OPCW experts.

Challenges to this process include

In the US-Russian deal, reached last Saturday in Geneva after a long period of conflict between the two countries regarding the use of chemical weapons in Syria and what action to take, Syria was given a deadline of 28 September to submit a comprehensive list of its chemical weapons. The list must include the names and quantities of chemical agents used, types of weapons, as well as where and how these chemical weapons are developed, produced and stored within the country.

Under the joint deal, this report will be followed by on-site inspections and the complete destruction of all production equipment, to be completed

by November. Should Syria refuse to comply with these demands, the agreement could be enforced by a

UN resolution, along with sanctions or military force. The ultimate goal of the deal is the destruction of all Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014.

The OPCW is expected to have a timetable for overseeing the execution of this process soon, which will then be endorsed by the UN Security Council.

A meeting between top members of the OPCW, which was supposed to go forward before the end of September to create this timetable, was postponed without an official reason. However, this meeting is still expected to be rescheduled as soon as possible.

Though it is unlikely that this recent submission to OPCW complies with all the details stipulated in the USRussian deal, coupled with the fact that Syria ratified the OPCW charter last weekend, it is a good indicator that the ruling Assad regime is willing to cooperate with international authorities. This will hopefully result in a decrease in civilian casualties and injuries in the future.

News

4 Dr. George Iwama | UNBC

How Canadian is Quebec?

Nicole Halseth News Editor

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anada’s eastern provinces have engaged in a political tug-of-war over the proposed Quebec Values Charter.

On Thursday, Liberal MPP Monte Kwinter proposed a motion that promises Ontario will never place restrictions on people expressing their religious beliefs publicly. This is a direct response to the Quebec Values Charter. According to an article published on the Globe and Mail website, this legislative resolution “implicitly condemns the Parti Québécois’ proposed secular charter.”

The motion passed in legislative assembly with unanimous support by all parties, with 82 votes to 0.

The Quebec Values Charter raised heads recently, with its focus on restricting public forms of religious expression. This includes forbidding the use of turbans, hijabs or large crosses in public. Currently, under a five-year clause, Montreal would be exempted from the Parti Québécois’ proposed Charter of Quebec Values.

This compromise comes after several prominent institutions and all city and suburban mayors in Montreal came out publicly against the Charter, stating they wish to extend the exemption clause permanently. However, the PQ has made it clear that Montreal will not be exempt forever, and that it is willing to fight to bring Montreal into the fold.

It seems that Montreal is not the only one to raise objections to the proposed Charter within Quebec.

Several key individuals, institutions, and religious organizations, such as Quebec’s Catholic bishops and the Jewish General Hospital, have expressed their disapproval for the Charter and state that it is simply unfeasible.

According to Mr. Kwinter, it was necessary to create his Ontario bill because new immigrants to Canada may not always know the distinction between Ontario and Quebec. As such, this new reactionary motion clarifies the right to openly practice one’s religion in Ontario and may help

dispel doubts otherwise.

In a statement, Mr. Kwinter expands on this belief, saying “When they hear that one province is doing something, they assume that Canada is doing it and it sends a negative image.” He continues with “there is a reaction of people who are saying, ‘Is that going to happen in Ontario?’ And all we’re trying to do is reassure them that we would not support anything that would in any way put our ethnic communities, our cultural communities at risk in the way they’re being put at risk in Quebec.”

As many citizens of Quebec already do not support the Quebec Values Charter, Mr. Kwinter does not believe his rebuttal will spur negative relations between the two eastern provinces. In the statement, he explains “it doesn’t worry me, because I don’t think it will be an issue province to province…it’s an issue between a particular government that has a policy that is under severe examination right across the country and within Quebec.”

The proposed Charter of Quebec Values will have important ramifications, not just for Quebec but for Canada as a whole. Should the Charter pass, it will set a precedent for potential future motions, both in Canada and around the world. It will also demonstrate to the international community exactly how ‘multicultural’ Canada has become.

In many ways, Mr. Kwinter may be right in that regard. Exactly how much about Canada does the rest of the world really know? Will they be able to distinguish between Quebec, and Canada as a whole? Though Quebec may not always wish it, they are a part of Canada and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. As such, they are ambassadors of Canada to the international community. This proposed Charter is not representative of Canadian values (as they have traditionally and legally been presented). It is not even representative of the values of the people of Quebec.

It is representative of the values of a minority government; a small fraction of the population. It will, however, hurt many people, and that is not very ‘Canadian’ at all.

Iwama Stepping Down Nicole Halseth News Editor

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Winter Games and UNBC’s 25 year anniversary coming in 2015, Iwama felt it was important to give sufficient time for UNBC to find a steady replacement, as the university will likely be very active in these events.

In 2009, Iwama was appointed to a five year term as president of UNBC, with the contract ending in June 2014. Within the contract it was also stipulated he be allowed one year paid research leave. As such, Iwama will still be available at the university while a UNBC committee searches for a replacement.

Iwama may not be continuing as president, but he does plan to continue doing his research and work at UNBC. In fact, he may indeed become one of the active professors here, meaning you could be taught by the former president of the university in the next few years.

he UNBC community will feel the loss of Dr. George Iwama, as he did not renew his contract to continue as president for a second term.

Though he was offered another term here, Iwama politely refused. In an article on the Prince George Citizen website, Iwama said that he would not take the second term in order to "spend more time with family and to return to [his] other loves: science and research," but that he is “still in awe of what has been created here and I feel privileged to have contributed to the development of this fantastic university."

He also goes on to say that, of all his past positions at various institutions across the country, "the team I work with at UNBC is the best."

The decision not to continue with a second term was unveiled at the beginning of the academic year for two main reasons. As the search for a replacement could take up to a year, it was important to time the arrival of a new president and leaving of Iwama with the typical school cycle.

Additionally, with the Canadian

During his time here at UNBC, Iwama has been active in numerous activities and has achieved a number of significant accomplishments. These include: the North-American wide sustainability award, placing UNBC on par with Harvard University for university sustainability, the relatively new bioenergy plant on campus, the establishment of a test program for block-style teaching (more intensive and fast paced than the usual methods), the approval of entry to the highest level of amateur athletics in Canada (Canadian Interuniversity Sport), the highest ranking UNBC has ever received in Maclean’s Magazine (second in its category and first in research funding), as well as being classified as one of Canada’s Greenest Employers two years running, and one of BC’s Top 100 Employers for 2012.

On behalf of UNBC, thank you Dr. Iwama, and we wish you all the best.

Culture

5

Owning a Mountain

Youth On Board

Kallie Smith Contributor

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Lina Gasser on Shames Mountain Kurt Gasser

Sarah Jackson Culture Editor

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re you looking to own a mountain?

Well, My Mountain Co-op, based out of Terrace, offers you the chance to do just that. "With everything that's happening in the world, it's a nice ray of sunshine," explains third year International Studies student, Lina Gasser, as she describes her homemountain's recent change in ownership, from being run by a corporation to being owned and managed by the local community.

The owner/operator cooperative was created in early 2011, by the non-profit society, Friends of Shames. Friends of Shames was initially formed to keep Shames Mountain open after it was listed for sale by the former owner, the Shames Mountain Ski Corporation.

Research done by Friends of Shames led to the creation of the My Mountain Co-op, which has been operating the mountain ever since. The process was, and continues to be, facilitated by contributions and investments from community members, businesses, and various levels of government.

"It's a real show of civil society," says Lina, who, along with the rest of her family, is a shareholder in the co-op.

According to the My Mountain Co-op website, the grassroots organisation is Canada's first non-profit, ski community cooperative.

The unique organisation has an equally unique story behind its creation. The Northern Development Initiative Trust states on their website that initial research into the feasibility of the organization was undertaken through partnerships between Friends of Shames, Northern Development,

Terrace Economic Development Authority, and the Co-operative development initiative in 2010. The research eventually concluded that the idea of forming a cooperative to keep the mountain open could be effective. According to articles in the Terrace Standard in the spring of 2011, the co-op struck a lease deal with the Shames Mountain Ski Corporation to take on all the unpaid royalties of the ski hill. Then in 2012, the overall sales deal was completed, when the provincial government agreed to forgive the interest portion of the royalty debt.

Lina, who grew up skiing on Shames Mountain, says that the project has really brought the community of Terrace together. Like many small northern towns, Terrace has experienced economic challenges in recent years, so this is an amazing demonstration of what communities can do when working towards a common goal.

According to the My Mountain Coop website, the organisation aims to maintain their "locally rooted but global in reach” guiding principles; affordability for users, long-term economic viability, and "...benefits for skiers and the community."

"We care about this. We want this to happen," explains Lina, "This summer they painted the outside of the lodge.

A community sponsor donated the paint, and the community painted it."

As people and communities around the world continue to experience economic and social challenges, the success of this community-based organisation stands out as an example of how to achieve goals that benefit everyone through collaboration with all sectors of society.

outh looking to make a difference in their community and build their resume should check out the series of events being hosted this fall by Board Voice and local community social service agencies. These events will enable local social service agencies to hear from youth about their ideas for contributing to agency work. The next event in this series, “Board of Directors: What are their roles and responsibilities?” will be hosted on October 1st at the AiMHi Gymnasium.

As a local youth, I am particularly excited that this event is being held in Prince George. I was recently involved with a Board of Directors made up entirely of youth, and it was a phenomenal learning experience for me. In my opinion, getting involved with a Board of Directors did more for my professional and personal development than my four years of undergraduate education.

Unfortunately, youth are often not provided with roles on Boards of Directors. Perhaps this is because youth are not seen as effective decisionmakers, or perhaps it is because youth are seen as not having the necessary experience to contribute meaningfully to an agency. Whatever the reason, I argue that when youth are excluded from involvement on the Boards of Directors, both the development of the agency and the development of youth are negatively impacted.

Agencies benefit in a variety of ways when youth are included on their Boards of Directors. Agencies benefit because they now have a more diverse set of perspectives being represented in conversations and decisions. Also, youth that get involved on Boards of Directors tend to become lifelong community participants; these youth find themselves getting involved with other Boards of Directors, experiencing a sense of ownership over

community development efforts, and encouraging others to get involved.

Not only are the youth that get involved on Boards of Directors more likely to continue their involvement, they are also more well-equipped to do so as they have acquired skills and knowledge throughout their involvement. Finally, youth that get involved on agencies’ Boards of Directors become advocates for those agencies and might help the agency reach different audiences in society.

Youth benefit from being involved as well. Participating on a Board of Directors helps youth develop skills that will make them more responsible and self-sufficient members of society.

Having Board involvement on their resume also might help youth win scholarships, get admitted into college or university, or get a job. It also helps youth to develop their professional network, and develop a sense of efficacy and social responsibility that will hopefully motivate them to continue their community involvement.

I know that my experience on a Board of Directors was life-changing, and I hope that these events encourage and prepare other youth to get involved. I also hope that this event inspires local agencies to be more inclusive of youth on their Boards of Directors because youth cannot get involved if Boards will not let them!

For more information about this innovative professional development event contact Project Facilitator, Tamara Sweet - Tamara.Sweet@alumni. unbc.ca or Dawn Hemingway, Board Voice Provincial Director and UNBC School of Social Work Chair - Dawn.

Hemingway@unbc.ca or 250-9605694. The next Youth on Board event is entitled “Voice of Youth: What we can and are Contributing.” It takes place at AiMHi (950 Kerry Street) on 15 October, and all are welcome to attend.

Culture The Real Story behind Genetically Modified Foods Sarah Jackson Culture Editor

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hat is in the food that we eat?

Where does it come from? Why did over two million people worldwide take to the streets in May of this year to march against Monsanto? These are just a few of the questions people around the globe seem to be asking themselves and one another.

It is not only activists who are asking these questions either; these persistent concerns have reverberated around the world, impacting everyone, often without them even knowing, from smallscale farmers, to government officials.

According to the Global Research website, Hungarian officials announced last May that they had burned over 1000 acres of maize after discovering that the crops had come into contact with genetically modified (GM) seeds.

In 2012, the Peruvian Times reported a ten-year ban on GM foods went into effect in Peru, the first of its kind in South America.

So what are GM foods? Why are so many people so concerned about them? According to Serena Black, a Master’s student in the Natural Resources and Environmental Science program at UNBC, we use GMOs because they have certain advantages, such as pesticide resistance, and that allows us to have the large-scale mono-crop agriculture you see in most farm photos. Serena, who is well-known for her role as the Market Manager of the University Farmer's Market (UFM), is doing a cultivar study on barley for her master's project, which involves looking at the water-resistance of hybrid and heritage plants.

Serena took the time to define a few key terms that can easily be confused in the literature and media surrounding our current food systems.

"GMO stands for genetically modified organism, meaning you input a segment of DNA into the crops; DNA that wasn't there before, and produces various traits in the plant such as pesticide resistance.�

However, the plants she is looking at in her study are not GM plants; they are in a different category altogether. "Hybrid plants, at least modern hybrids, take about eight years to select for grain. This is done by choosing different characteristics

that you're breeding forth, choosing parent plants with characteristics that you want," Serena explained. In other words, hybrid plants are bred the way people have been breeding animals for years, choosing for certain traits, such as height, colour, yield, or behavioural attributes.

She adds that, "people have been developing hybrids for years to increase yields." They do this for different reasons, including to increase disease resistance and quality.

Heritage grains have not gone through that process but they have been selected throughout history by choosing the healthiest looking seeds by hand." So if GM foods enable us to grow a lot of food without using pesticides, what is the problem?

According to Serena, who has spent a lot of time with local farmers through her work at the UFM, people have different issues with GM foods. She says that the people she has spoken to "are concerned about health implications, such as how much of the pesticide remains on the crops after they are grown." As well, she says that people have concerns about the costs of buying GM seeds, the legal aspect of a company owning DNA, and the fact that "we haven't used them long enough to understand any negative health implications."

"Almost all corn is genetically modified, and we have been consuming it for a long time without anyone knowing whether they should be concerned," she said, adding that there are a lot of different perspectives on the issue. In the local Omineca region, which includes Prince George, people see "‌canola as the main GM issue.

Everyone grows a lot of hybrids; not GMOs. But people are wondering whether the canola seeds will impact other crops. Meanwhile, the information is really unclear."

Dr. Art Fredeen, a professor of Ecosystem Science and Management on campus, took the time to outline his understanding of GM foods. He says that one main problem he sees with growing GM foods is that it disrupts agricultural patterns that, in some cases, have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Monsanto is the number one GM-producing corporation,

and their refusal to allow farmers to retain any of their seed for the next season builds dependence on the corporation and changes the culture of agriculture.

Dr. Fredeen explains that GMO companies have justified their GMOs to feed an ever growing human population.

However, GM crops are expensive, and clearly not feeding those who need it most. With respect to plant, pest, and weed control, many studies now suggest that herbicide resistant GMOs, for example, are allowing for improvements in weed control initially, but only until pests or plant weeds evolve and become resistant to the pesticides or toxins inserted by the manufacturers.

As a specialist in plant physiology and ecosystem processes, Dr. Fredeen argues "we need to

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Culture

7 accommodate nature in our lives.

Our ecosystems provide us with so many services. There are other ways to deal with pests." He expresses concern that removing biodiversity from natural systems through the use of products such as GMOs is

particularly dangerous in the face of the challenges humanity will be facing as a result of climate change.

Specifically, he questions whether the genetic homogeneity of GM crops will ultimately cripple food production in a quickly changing environment.

Despite the

concerns expressed by Canadians in diverse sectors of society, our government has refused to label GM foods. According to the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, this refusal occurs in spite of "10 years of polling that show over 80% of Canadians want these labels," and the fact that "at least 40 countries around the world have labeling laws including [the] Europe[an Union], China and Russia."

According to the Health Canada website, "Currently in Canada, labelling is mandatory if there is a health or safety issue with a food, which might be mitigated through labelling," however, "as consumers in a free country we should have a right to know what foods have GM products,” argues Dr. Fredeen, adding that, in Canada, "Organic food usually is not GM." Dr. Scott Green, Associate Professor and ecologist at UNBC, finds it useful to examine the issue from a historical perspective. He says that how and what we eat has changed dramatically over the last fifty years.

"When I was a kid, we ate much more seasonally. And a lot of our food came from local farmers." According to Dr. Green it is important to understand that things have changed really fast "based on an economic model" that has led us to standardize almost everything.

"Food is very cross-cutting in society. It is a social thing," explains Dr. Green, whose work focuses on communities and on "understanding how people are connected to other people and to their environments." He says that in many indigenous communities, the way people view food reflects a deep connection and dependence on each other and on their environments. In contrast, in a globalized, contemporary society, he sees disturbing trends in human expressions of interconnection.

For those of us who live in "dominant western societies, food is just another commodity." He expresses deep concern with the way our society seems to centre on the consumption of goods and the idea of progress. "Right now, we're facing a crisis of identity," which he believes is tied to this focus on economic growth, above all else.

Dr. Green argues that in order for us to have a sense of meaning

honoringtheinventor.blogspot.com

and identity as individuals, we need to understand where we come from.

“We have little sense of history and tradition – those things that define who we are as Canadians, Americans, or whoever.” In his eyes, the western notion of progress at all costs, which is so inherent in modern concepts of growth and consumption of GM foods, is deeply tied to this disconnection between us and the foods that we eat.

It is this same disconnection that he believes leads to alarmingly high levels of loneliness, depression, and addiction in our society.

Dr. Green believes that it would be a powerful step towards positive change if we considered "how what we eat reflects where we live." Or in many cases how it does not. He says that in his work with communities, with farmers, with students and with the UFM, he has found that, for many people, interest in local food is often about "the chance to look the farmer in the eye; to know the person producing their food." It is about relationships. "The longing for connection is embedded in our own bones. It's innate; it's part of who we are as humans.

Perhaps it is this same innate longing for connection and understanding that has caused people all over the world to take to the streets, asking; what are we eating? Why are we eating this?

How is it affecting our lives? And is this the way we want things to be?

Perhaps it is these same questions that drive people in our own community, and many others, to seek out alternate ways of getting food, whether it is in back gardens, community plots, at community markets or from good food boxes.

The undeniable truth is this; you are not just buying bananas when you shop at the supermarket, you are choosing a way of life, and casting a vote for food and labour standards that reverberates all around the world.

For Dr. Green, he sees great hope for future change. However, his hope does not reside in the actions of governments or corporations, but from the things people living in communities are doing, the ways in which they are achieving sustainability in different contexts, and through understanding their relationships with each other and the relationships they have with their environments. “In the end, sustainability is about relationships. That’s how we’re made.”

Culture Jasmine Kirk Copy Editor

Prince George: More Than an Armpit

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rince George has been called “the armpit of BC” by many (most famously, by the radio station Rock 101 in Vancouver in 2010), assumably for the delightful mill smell that settles in the bowl early on weekday mornings.

An "urban dictionary" search of Prince George gives the town uglier titles, and longstanding residents of Prince George always seem to be complaining about the town. Why, then, are these residents still living here?

Prince George is akin to a geode-–it may seem ugly and boring on the outside, but when you spend some time cracking into the center, it reveals a complicated and beautiful center.

Or perhaps Prince George could be compared to warhead candies – the first impression is sour and really, really close to being horrible, but it becomes worth the acid-burnt tongue when you reach the sweet syrupy center. I digress; we can all admit that Prince George is kind of crappy upon first impression. The best part about it, and perhaps the most underrated, however, is the city’s parks and green spaces, which university students (when only here for a year or four) often miss out on. For a town of 71 000 people, the city offers over 1500 hectares of park and recreational space-–just make sure you keep an eye out for moose and coyote, and wear some

bear bells to keep away unwanted visitors. Go check out some of these remarkable parks: Ginter’s Meadow: Ginter’s is one of two in-town designated off-leash dog parks, but you do not need to concern yourself with a dog to enjoy the park.

You can enter from two parking lots, at the end of Massey Ave or the end of Ferry Ave, and the park stretches between these streets, all the way up the hill to the university. There are two smaller hills that can be walked, and take about 20 minutes each at an easy pace, or you can go for the long haul, and hike up to UNBC – it takes about 30 minutes to get to the top. The beautiful meadow is capped with a ruined mansion, once owned by Ginter himself. Ginter’s Meadow is especially great to see in autumn, and you will love the community feeling as you stop to chat with all the dog walkers.

Forests for the World: FFTW is a spectacular trail network that runs around Cranbrook Hill. I like to start behind Blue Spruce Campsite on Hwy 16 (it is only about six kilometers to UNBC from there), but there are beginning points from behind UNBC (the road behind the daycare will take you right there), or from atop Cranbrook Hill. There are some great features to look for; if you are feeling up to a hiking scavenger hunt, see how many water towers you can find,

or stand atop the lookout and find the natural rock wall with a homemade campsite on top. In the winter time, a great cross-country ski day trip can take you from UNBC to Otway (the Nordic Ski Club), and in the summer it takes about an hour to walk around Shane Lake. Yes, you can go to Shane Lake and appreciate beavers and swans in the daytime, and you are not required to stumble back to Res in the dark!

Cottonwood Island Nature Park: This is a favourite, but only for about nine months out of the year. The other three months of the year it is almost completely underwater, or covered in mud. You can get to Cottonwood from River Road – just go west on First Avenue downtown, and turn left before the bridge. There are beavers aplenty, and the view of the river is amazing. Cottonwood is very pretty in the summer, and is frequented by professional photography sessions year round. Make sure you check it out before everything melts!

LC Gunn Park: LC Gunn has a bad reputation, but it holds an amazing view of downtown Prince George.

If you are in town for any fireworks events, definitely check them out from LC Gunn. Following First Ave westward, LC Gunn is the first right turn after the bridge. It has multiple viewpoints, from which you can hear activity at

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Fort George clearly across the Fraser.

There are bike trails that go up the hill – they make for a great hike up, and the ride down will give you a super adrenaline rush.

Moore’s Meadow Nature Park: Moore’s used to be a glacier (that’s right, Prince George can get pretty damn cold). This makes it the perfect spot to go in the winter time. The meadow is at the bottom of Foothills, just before the river. Trails around the meadow make for a lovely hike, and the meadow is another designated off-leash dog area, with rolling grassy trails spotted with geocaches. Head down in the early evening on a hot day, and Moore’s might surprise you with an ethereal chilly mist that hovers just above the grass line around twilight.

Prince George can be more than just a stinky mill town, and if you head into the woods and enjoy some of these parks, you may be able to learn some of the other features of the town all on your own. There are hundreds more; for a list of smaller parks in your area, check out the “parks” page on the City of Prince George website. Hiking around town is a great way to shed some of that university burnout, and it is not uncommon to see students sitting in a city park with their heads down, getting some reading done as they enjoy the refreshing outdoors.

Kyle Aben: UNBC’s Own Climate Change Expert Sarah Jackson Culture Editor

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very energy revolution has brought great wealth, and we're in the middle of one towards renewable energy," explains Kyle Aben, the UNBC Program Coordinator for the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS).

PICS is a multi-university institute, housed in the UVic. It includes the research institutions UNBC, UBC, and SFU. All of these universities are, according to PICS' website, devoted to researching, monitoring, and assessing the impacts of climate change in our region, as well as assessing, developing, and promoting viable mitigation and adaptation options to better inform climate change policies and actions. The institution was formed to understand what is going on with

climate change and figure out how we can best respond to it. PICS does this through partnerships with the government, the private sector, other researchers, and civil society.

"PICS is not an advocacy group," insists Kyle. It is instead devoted to providing credible, peer-reviewed research through partnerships with universities, as well as offering online educational resources, such as the highly-viewed Climate Change 101 short courses, and the organisation's most recent climate insights: bite-size youtube videos titled "What YOU can do about climate change." In terms of research, the institution is looking at a diverse array of long-term responses and alternatives to current environmental problems, such as creating energy from ocean currents.

Having a climate change expert

on campus (in addition to the many wonderful professors who specialize in this area of research) offers a variety of opportunities and benefits for students.

Kyle can usually be found in the Green University Centre, in the Winter Garden.

Kyle says that the main thing he can offer students is access to information.

As a greenhouse gas (GHG) certified inventory quantifier, he is trained to measure carbon footprints, but is also deeply knowledgeable on other aspects of climate change. Kyle can provide references for a paper, ideas for projects, and can act as an advisor on new opportunities in forestry. As he explains, "it's not just cutting trees anymore,” there are jobs in bio-energy, waste-use, and carbon management.

"Forests suck up carbon," so treeplanting is not just a summer job anymore; it is a method of sequestering

carbon that is becoming increasingly important as our climate continues to change at a rapid pace.

He can also offer ways for us to lower our own impacts on the environment.

However, as Kyle points out, "politicians are critically important." In order for us to respond to this crisis, he believes that governments need to provide sound policies to enable businesses to cut their carbon emissions. We can only hope that the research, and education offered by institutions like PICS, will encourage policy-makers to think the same.

If you would like to learn more about PICS, or climate change in general, you can stop by and speak with Kyle in room 7-232, or email him at abenk@unbc.ca. Membership is open to anyone concerned or curious about climate change at UNBC.

Culture

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Tyson Kelsall | OTE

Take Back the Night: Fight for Women’s Rights

Tyson Kelsall Volunteer Coordinator

W

omen unite, take back the night!” was chanted amongst the group of roughly 150 women and children who marched around Prince George’s downtown core on Friday 20 September. “Take Back The Night” is an annual tradition where there is tangible action to bring awareness to violence and sexual assault against women. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, 1 in 3 women worldwide have been abused or raped, and only 50% report it to the police.

Dr. Si Transken, a social work professor at the University of Northern British Columbia who read a poem to begin the walk, says the importance of nights like these rests in that, “it is a ‘herstoric[sic]’ forum in which women can feel safe, comment on the preceding year's episodes of social injustice, remind each other and the next generation of women (and men) that we are 100% sovereign Beings[sic] who deserve to walk anywhere, at any time, dressed or decorated in any fashion, and remain safe. No one is entitled to touch us or verbally harass us, regardless of whether we are wearing red, a short skirt, lipstick, etc. The famous slogan is 'No means No!'” Take Back the Night first occurred in Italy in 1976; Prince George began taking back the night in 1991.

The march holds particularly powerful in Prince George, where Macleans claimed in 2011 that the reported sexual assault rate is 84% above the national Canadian average.

Prince George is also the gateway to the ‘Highway of Tears’ where several women, most of Aboriginal descent, have gone missing or have been murdered.

As Crystal Phillips noted in the pre-march speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has recently gone against the wishes of the United Nations who recommended that Canada develop a national review to end violence against Aboriginal women.

This summer, the Canadian provincial governments, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, and Amnesty International also called on the Conservative government to fund an inquiry on missing Aboriginal women, still to no avail. The Liberals, NDP, Green Party and National Assembly of First Nations have all supported the idea of an inquiry.

Dr. Transken claimed at the march that the Conservatives’ lack of action is because of a fear of exposing some dark realities; “Harper and other conservatives like him (and there are many) realize that… collecting such data about the truths that are going on around us would necessitate him actually throwing money at doing the moral thing. The truths

that would come out include: land claims must be resolved (and thus more First Nations women would have some economic strength); policing must be expanded in numbers and in consciousness; court systems must hold abusers accountable (and provide meaningful counseling and feminist insights to perpetrators); effective transportation must be provided to isolated or rural communities so women don't have to turn to hitchhiking or riding with people who make them uncomfortable. There are also dozens of other social supports that would enhance the well-being and empowerment of First Nations women - but Harper and the other levels of government and community leaders would have to admit their mistakes, change their ideology, and part with substantive resources. They don't want to do that.”

Other speakers at the event included Frank Frederick Sr., an elder of the Lheidli T'enneh First Nation who gave an opening prayer to the occasion, Associate Professor in Social Work, Dawn Hemingway, who spoke about opening up the relatively untouched subject of violence against women aged 49 and over, and Tom Wainwright of the Northern John Howard Society, who instructed men about making anti-violence a lifestyle and take action beyond themselves. Lanna Tosoff, the coordinator for the event, acted as the master of ceremonies.

Feature The Rise of Russian Soft Power

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The

Jed Anderson Contributor

W

hile US Secretary of State John Kerry was outraged at Russia’s refusal to condone military action against Syria in September, many in the United States breathed a sigh of relief. American taxpayers, stressed after 12 years of war and thousands of dead soldiers, were hesitant to jump into a civil war with no clear endgame.

In a strange reversal of the 2003 decision, the British Conservativedominated parliament voted against a strike on Syria while France’s leftist government stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the United States in supporting punitive bombardment of Syria for the Assad regime’s alleged use of chemical weapons on its own citizens.

How bombing Syria would ease the suffering of its people or send a message to an already cornered dictator remains unclear, yet Obama’s decision to shelve plans for a unilateral strike on Syria came largely due to the deft maneuvering of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s increasing ability to use soft power on the global stage, presenting Russian interests as rational and limiting American influence, marks a shift in the global power dynamic. Russia is pouring money into its media in an attempt to sway a global conversation traditionally dominated by western voices.

In an article by Benjamin Bidder in the German publication Spiegel Online, he explained how the Russian government has created an English language 24/7 news network. Russia Today, also known as RT, has offices in Washington, DC. While American conservatives fight to keep Al Jazeera English off the airwaves, RT is already on the air broadcasting Moscow’s perspective of news to American audiences.

According to Spiegel Online, the Russian government has increased RT’s budget from $30 million to over $300 million since 2005. The channel employs over 2500 employees, with 100 in Washington alone. Putin has forbidden his finance minister from cutting the channel’s budget. In effect, the Russian government is building its own version of BBC World News.

It is difficult to criticize the obvious pro-Moscow spin of RT when it airs

alongside channels such as Fox News, CNN, or MSNBC, each with their own explicit biases.

Bidder explained that Russia decided to boost RT’s funding after Russia’s invasion of Georgia was portrayed in such a negative light by CNN and other western media sources. Its legitimacy has been strengthened in the eyes of some Americans after Larry King joined the pay roll. With a pro-Moscow 24/7 news channel on airwaves around the world, Russia is ready to fight the long war for the minds of citizens.

Instead of firing shots over the bows of American ships preparing for a strike on Syria, Putin chose to use the press. On 11 September 2013, a date which reminds Americans of the international security threats they face, the New York Times printed a column

by Vladimir Putin. Under the title, “A Plea for Caution from Russia,” Putin used a conciliatory tone to pressure American citizens not to support intervention in Syria. Buried in his letter were warnings and threats that the United Nations would be rendered illegitimate by US unilateral action, that a strike would result in increased global terrorism, that Iran might find new reason to seek nuclear weapons, and that international law would become illegitimate.

“It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it.

Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force,” Putin

wrote.

With words, Putin managed to paint his government as peaceful and conciliatory, while casting the United

States in the guise of an unchecked violent aggressor. “We must stop using the language of force and return to the path of civilized diplomatic and political settlement,” Putin added.

Using a column to speak directly to the American people is an interesting tactic for Putin. Instead of threatening a nuclear strike or a proxy war, he wrote a column to speak directly to the fears, concerns, and opinions of the public.

In his column, Putin presents Russia as a patient, caring nation. This is a significant shift from the typical Western media portrayal of Russia’s government as a cold calculating regime, bent on shoring up allied dictatorships around the world.

In his closing paragraph, Putin casts himself and Russia as Christian, and breaks the image of a singular American superpower. Using the media, Putin resurrects a multipolar world.

“It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too.

We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal,” he writes.

By telling Americans they are equals with Russia and Syria, and that they are not special, Putin is unraveling the notion that the United States has an obligation to spread democracy, even by force, and to intervene wherever it chooses in the world.

Although many expected China to be the nation that would check the United States’ international power, it appears that it is Russia – the familiar adversary of American influence.

While Putin claimed he was writing in the New York Times due to “a time of insufficient communication between our societies,” it is equally possible his actions represent a shift in Russia’s use of power. Soft power has traditionally been one of the United States’ strongest weapons abroad. But with the waning of its economic clout and the rise in global media options, a new window has opened up for actors like Russia which seek to shift opinions.

The pen, the television, the smartphone – Moscow may have discovered that these are often more powerful than the sword. Whether Russia’s growing soft power will prove to be a positive change remains to be seen. Hopefully op-ed columns and television channels will replace Bay of Pigs style standoffs and international assassinations, because for too long there has indeed been “insufficient communication between our societies.”

Meanwhile, Syria burns and bleeds.

Arts

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The Graffiti Controversy including Prince George.

s: Both photo

ney | OTE

Laura Moo

Laura Mooney Arts Editor

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hen you walk down the street on any given day, it is not uncommon to see fences, buildings, and even sidewalks dotted with a spectrum of spray paint in unrecognizable words and images. The general consensus is that graffiti is nothing more than ugly, crude vandalism to public property which express a lack of care about

one’s neighborhood or city. Is it possible, however, to have artistic graffiti, and to actually consider it to be works of art? Graffiti is slowly making its way into popular culture and can now be seen in art exhibits, but what about when it is done the old fashioned way, on a bare cement wall in the middle of a city? Slowly, the world is expressing its acceptance for graffiti as an acceptable form of art that can be displayed in public,

In order for graffiti to truly be accepted as an art form, it must first be legalized.

A number of cities around the world have taken this step and made street art legal, including Melbourne, Australia, and Venice Beach, California.

Graffiti artists, also known as taggers, are controlled by restricting graffiti to certain areas of the cities. This ensures that taggers have a safe place to go where they will not be penalized for their work. To guarantee further control, and quality control, some of the legalized areas have their own curators and review boards. These groups of people are responsible for examining the work of graffiti artists to determine whether their paintings will be welcome additions to the designated areas. With such a small legal area for the taggers to work with, there is often a lot of competition between them. This unspoken competition also ensures that the work put on the walls is the best the taggers can create, and provides the viewing

public with endless amounts of quality art which showcases exactly what one can do with a can of spray paint.

Even cities closer to home, such as Vancouver, are slowly getting on board with seeing graffiti as art.

Vancouver now has one legal area, Leeside Skatepark, where taggers can go to showcase their work. While smaller cities such as Prince George have not quite gotten on board with the idea of allowing taggers to show their work in even a legal area, we do have immense graffiti style murals that showcase the talent we have hiding in Prince George.

Whether graffiti will become a legitimate art form in the future or not, it is a uniquely beautiful way of expressing one’s inner artist. Hopefully, one day, more cities will recognize the potential of graffiti, and will follow in the footsteps of others to create areas where taggers can create art, providing points of interest and a more visually interesting city.

38th Annual Toronto International Film Festival Nahid Taheri Contributor

T

he thirty-eighth annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, between 5 and 20 September 2013. TIFF is one of the most prestigious events of its kind in the world. This year a total of 366 films from 70 different countries were screened, including 146 world premieres. Given that TIFF lacks a jury and is non-competitive, regular awards handed out at other festivals for categories such as "Best Actress" or "Best Film" do not exist at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The major prize, the People's Choice Award, is given to a feature-length film with the highest ratings as voted by the TIFF-going populace. TIFF also presents seven other awards for People's Choice Best Documentary, People's Choice Best Midnight Madness film, Best Canadian Feature, Best Canadian First Feature, Best Canadian Short Film, FIPRESCI's (the International Federation of Film Critics) Special Presentation Winner, and FIPRESCI's Discovery Section Winner.

A People's Choice Award was

allocated to 12 Years a Slave, which was directed by Steve McQueen.

12 Years a Slave is a 2013 historical drama film based on the autobiography Twelve Years a Slave

by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. 12 Years a Slave is based on an incredible true story of one man's fight for survival and freedom in the United States. It is a remarkable story that has rightfully drawn a lot of attention. McQueen, with help of his talented cinematographer Sean Bobbitt, elegantly present the brutality of the institution of slavery in an unfussy and stark manner that lets the full horror of slavery unfold fully in the minds of its audience without pulling on any sentimental strings. It is not flashy, but it is effective.

The Square won the People's Choice Award for a documentary. This film is an Egyptian-American documentary film

by Jehane Noujaim, released in 2013, which depicts the ongoing Egyptian Revolution of 2011 from its roots in Tahrir Square. The film records that, for more than two years, Egyptians have turned out in massive numbers to occupy Cairo's Tahrir Square and demand change from their leaders.

12 Years a Slave, winner of TIFF People’s Choice newsfiber.com

During the many dramatic shifts over that time, director Jehane Noujaim and her crew have captured what has happened in the square through the eyes of several young revolutionaries.

They range in background from poor to privileged, and secular to religious. These multiple viewpoints are revelatory whether these events have been followed closely or not at all.

Why Don't You Play in Hell? won the People's Choice Award for Midnight Madness. This is a Japanese film directed by Sion Sono, an action film based on a screenplay written 15 years ago. Sono's Why Don't You

Play In Hell? is absolutely mad. It is every insane urge and image that Sono has had banging around in his head unused over his career distilled down and splashed on screen in all its absurd - and frequently very bloody - glory.

Although this festival is important for directors and producers, most of them are waiting for the next Oscars or Golden Globes. These festivals are essential to become famous and they add a brilliant experience to their background. The Toronto International Film Festival is a first step towards greater fame.

Art Laura Mooney Arts Editor

Harry Potter Gets A Spin-off! ... Sort Of

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otterheads rejoice! On 12 September 2013, J.K. Rowling, along with Warner Brothers pictures, announced that they were not done with the wizarding world just yet.

Rowling announced plans to adapt the short anthology of magical creatures entitled Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a full-length movie with the aid of the same production company that helped bring the Harry Potter world to life.

Although many fans of the series jumped to the conclusion that this was going to be a prequel to the beloved Harry Potter series, Rowling stands firm in saying that this will only be an extension of the wizarding world, simply because the events unfold nearly 70 years before Harry is even born. The book itself is mentioned numerous times throughout the Harry Potter series, having been assigned as one of the required textbooks for the young witches and wizards,

and is essentially an anthology of all recorded magical creatures.

This news of the film adaptation comes as an immense surprise for fans seeing as the book was written back in 2001, and was such a small project compared to the mass success Rowling had with the Harry Potter series.

Rowling originally wrote the anthology for the Comic Relief charity, and although it did not reach the success of her more famous books, she still ended up raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for needy children all over the world.

Rowling plans to have the film based around the life and adventures of its author, Newt Scamander, as he travels the world searching for all of the magical creatures hiding in the deepest, darkest corners of the wizarding world. Scamander also spent a few years as the headmaster of Hogwarts, which of course set off the many rumors that Albus Dumbledore

would be making an appearance in the film, but Rowling has yet to comment on that speculation. However, since the book has a preface by Dumbledore himself, it would seem more than likely that the legendary wizard will make some sort of an appearance.

The film will also mark Rowling’s debut as a screenwriter, with Warner Brothers allowing the author to have complete control over the project, and truly allowing her to fully express her vision and bring it to life. Rowling has said, according to an Entertainment Weekly interview that, in reference to Newt Scamander, “I liked him so much that I even married his grandson, Rolf, to one of my favorite characters from the Harry Potter series, Luna Lovegood.” Due to her already immense interest in the Scamander character, Rowling could not have imagined anyone else writing his story.

The adaptation of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them into a feature

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film also creates the question among fans as to whether or not other textbooks and series within the Harry Potter universe will also be eventually adapted into movies. The possibilities are endless, with the inclusion of Gilderoy Lockhart’s complete series of novels accounting his preposterous adventures, and the accompaniment to Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, entitled Quidditch Through the Ages. Many fans are not so secretly hoping that this initial adaptation will lead to a whole new series of spin offs based in the Harry Potter universe.

Although there is no set date yet for production to begin, the fact that this has been announced brings hope to all those who thought their journey through the wizarding world was over. It will provide us with a whole new outlook on the universe that J.K. Rowling created, and hopefully will mean that we will still be able to look forward to many more movies about wizards, magic, and magical creatures

t: r A t s o L e h t er of

Rat

We Found A Lovebird

Thomas Pleiss

Jasper Dark Sky Festival

Laura Mooney Arts Editor

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f you are searching for the perfect excuse to get away for a weekend before things get really hectic with midterms and essays, look no further than a few hours east of Prince George in Jasper, Alberta, for the third annual Dark Sky Festival. For one weekend Jasper National Park will showcase their own dark sky reserve, an area dedicated to preserving the clarity of night skies, and will hold the festival to display stargazing at its finest. The festival promises spectacular views of far off galaxies and stars like you have never seen before. Your experience begins by being taken

to one of the many observation sites around the park, including the Athabasca glacier and the Jasper airfield. The Dark Sky festival is a fantastic place to view the Northern Lights, meteor showers, and even the occasional comet, and with the assistance of a guide, you can even find galaxies that are millions of light years away. The experience of standing with only the night sky and the wilderness surrounding you is the perfect way to unwind and de-stress. It is also a great way to see the universe in a way those who live in light polluted cities are not used to. The Dark Sky Festival runs from 25 October to 27 October in Jasper, Alberta.

Laura Mooney Arts Editor

4/5

f autumn ever required a musical persona, We Found A Lovebird’s newest EP, entitled Let’s Start the War would be the perfect fit. This indie Vancouver band has been showing up on independent music sites for the past while, and has certainly made an impression on this reviewer. With a truly heartfelt sound, each song is rich with a passion and emotion that can only be reserved for those who have truly lived a full life. From the initial strum of the title track, “Let’s Start the War” to the bass-line driven “Northwest on Southwest Avenue”, the boys from We Found A Lovebird possess a maturity

and profoundness not often heard in the pop-punk scene. The EP as a whole has a sound one could equate with an early 1990’s rock vibe, combined with the nostalgic sound of what could only be described as being similar to the Beach Boys. On top of their great sound, the fact that they include a theremin as one of their primary instruments should be enough to convince anyone to give We Found A Lovebird a chance. Although the band is still just finding their footing in the music industry, their sound is pure and honest, and is a great addition to any music collection.

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Art

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Culture: Top Three Games to Play Before They Become Movies W

hen it comes to turning a popular video game into a film, the majority of the time, the film is a mere shadow of what the video game was. This can be due to leaving too much of the storyline out, casting actors who do not fit the role, or Laura Mooney attempting to create a story out of something that was best left alone. With few exceptions, most video game based films are best left to what they were intended to be; a game. The film industry nevertheless continues to press forward in an attempt to adapt Arts Editor anything from any popular medium. This article will examine the top three games, all speculated to be made into a film within the next few years, that you should play and experience for yourself before the film industry has a chance to get their hands on yet another amazing video game.

1

World of Warcraft – There have been endless rumors surrounding the film adaptation of one of the most played games in the world, from Colin Farrell being offered the lead role, to a secret teaser being shown at Comic Con 2013. The rumors have been vague and varied, but it finally looks as though there is one piece of information that is set in stone; production for the Warcraft film will begin January 2014. The original game, released in 1994, takes place in the world of Azeroth, where a great war between humans and Orcs is raging. This is only the beginning of the ever-expanding World of Warcraft, with new continents and races introduced to this high fantasy universe over the years. What will be interesting with the film adaptation is exactly how much of the Warcraft universe they will include.

The sheer vastness of the games will make it difficult to include everything, so the filmmakers may choose to only focus on the original storyline of the war between humans and Orcs. If that is the case however, it only provides a better argument as to why one should play the game before seeing the film. While the human and Orc war is a pivotal event in Warcraft, it is only a small fraction of everything that has been put into the game. In order to fully appreciate the game, it is definitely worth giving it a try before the film adaption is forced to narrow it down to one singular event.

2

Assassin’s Creed - This wildly popular historical game has had movie chatter around it for years now, but within the past few months the details have started to leak; production is rumoured to begin soon. However, the question still remains of whether a game as complex as Assassin’s Creed can really be translated into film. Featuring a non-linear storyline, the game revolves around Desmond Miles, a bartender who is kidnapped by an evil industry and forced into a machine called the Animus, which allows him to recall the genetic memories of his ancestor, Altair Ibn-La’Ahad. The industry’s intention is to use Desmond/Altair to gain knowledge of the whereabouts of items called Pieces of Eden, which would ultimately allow for complete control over humanity…and these are only the basics of the game. Featuring millennia old feuds, alien-esque races, and even biblical figures, Assassin’s Creed has an insanely complex storyline that would take some expert screenwriting abilities to express it fully on the big screen. With rumours floating around that Michael Fassbender (Prometheus, X-Men: First Class) will not only be producing the movie but also playing the lead role of Desmond/Altair, it sounds as though they are off to a good start, but only time (and the hardcore fans) will tell if the game will be successfully portrayed in film. In the meantime, it would be best to play this intricate game before seeing the film, even if it is just to gain a better understanding of the Assassin’s Creed universe. The film’s projected release date is 2015.

3

Need for Speed - Even though making a movie about street racing may seem a bit used up by this point (thanks, Fast and Furious franchise), when you look at the film trailers, video game adaptation or not, it looks like Hollywood has done a pretty good job. Originally released in 1994, the basic premise for Need for Speed the game has always remained the same; race hot cars, win the race, and do not get caught by the police. While the game has maintained the simplest of storylines, the film branches out a bit, expanding the Need for Speed universe by exploring the men behind the wheel. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) is cast as a wrongfully convicted mechanic who is hell bent on getting revenge against the man who convicted him. The film focuses on his cross-country road trip to gain justice, and, of course, driving some amazing cars. Even though the film does look like an exciting action flick, nothing compares to playing this old school racing game for oneself. Some of the best features of the game include getting to unlock and customize cars you would only drive in your wildest dreams, all while trying not to completely destroy them while evading hoards of police cars. So while the Need for Speed film’s release date is fast approaching, set for early 2014, it will be interesting to see if the filmmakers are able to live up to the notoriety the game has achieved over the years, and we will have to determine if the film can be any better than driving down the virtual streets in your own customized Lamborghini Diablo.

W

hile video game adaptations do not exactly have the best track record for being all that great, with some of the best video games being turned into movies in the upcoming years one can only hope that the film industry has learned from their own mistakes, and will actually listen to what their audiences want.

Nevertheless, it is still suggested that you take the time to play these great games before the movie versions come out, so that you can really appreciate them in the medium they were intended to be experienced.

An Uneven Playing Field

McMaster currently gives out the most AFAs in Ontario Gabriel Cousineau | McMaster University

Sports

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Shelby Blackley National Sports Editor | CUP

C

onsistently, athletic programs across Canada are searching for means of making their respective school competitive, but also trying to maintain a common ground between athletics, academics and financial stability.

Enter athletic financial awards, or AFAs. These awards are given out throughout the Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) to student athletes at the 55 universities across Canada, and are useful in the recruitment, retention and financial aid of the student athletes.

“There are a lot of layers to the scholarships,” Peter Baxter, director of athletics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., said. But where does the money come from? What limitations are there? There are certain rules and components of the student-athlete’s academic and athletic lives that help determine which athlete will get funded and what sport receives the most.

The CIS rules: As per CIS regulations, there are a

few requirements that must be met in order for a student athlete to receive an AFA or athletic scholarship. Firstly, the student has an “excellence in performance” that the school wants to bring in for the upcoming year, according to Drew Love, director of athletics at McGill University in Montréal, QC. As well, student athletes entering university from high school must have at least an 80 per cent average to receive an AFA in their first year. If this is achieved, depending on the budget of the particular school and sport, then a nomination process will be completed. In order to be eligible to have the scholarship continue, the student athlete must maintain an average of 65 per cent or higher in their university studies.

For everywhere in Canada except Ontario, this AFA can dramatically vary.

A student entering can receive no financial aid in way of an AFA or athletic scholarship, all the way up to getting their full tuition and compulsory fees paid for. “We follow the CIS rules with respect to continuation of

a scholarship, which is a C+ average and with the entering awards that’s 80 percent,” said Love. “And then there is a requirement to retain that C+ average to have [the scholarship] continue in the following year.”

For most schools, the athletics department must also comply with their respective awards office.

Depending on which requirements are most restrictive, the AFA could be altered. “We comply with [University of Alberta’s] award policy as well as CIS award policy, so generally speaking, whichever is more restrictive, which is usually the CIS regulations,” said Katie Spriggs, associate director of athletics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Alta. Every university in Canada is encouraged to comply with CIS rules and regulations when it comes to athletic scholarships in order for the student athlete to receive the money. However, not every institution follows the same rules, and not everywhere in Canada has the same tuition fees.

Odd one out While the rest of Canada works on the

same general rules outlined by the CIS, the province of Ontario works a bit differently.

Between the Ontario university presidents and the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) conference, there were revisions made to the scholarship protocol. The two major differences are that Ontario university student athletes must keep an average of 70 per cent throughout their tenure at the respective university, rather than 65 per cent like their country counterparts, and also that they can only receive up to $4,000 rather than the entire tuition and fees. According to Statistics Canada, for the 2012-13 academic year, tuition in Ontario was $7,180.

The highest AFA in Ontario then would leave over $3,000 up to the student to cover on their own. The tuition average of Canada as a whole is $5,581. “Our AFAs are so much different than the rest of Canada,” Jeff Giles, director of athletics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., explained. “We are at a significant disadvantage in Ontario. So, in many cases, we give

Sports out $4,000 more than we probably should.” According to Baxter, the Ontario university presidents believed that the Canadian cut off was too low for proceeding athletes, so they raised it to 70 per cent. “That’s the benchmark and it’s 70 per cent as you go through. The rest of the country is 65 [per cent], which is the CIS rule.

But it’s the Ontario presidents that said the academic standard of 65 is not good enough,” he said. Both Baxter and Giles expressed that due to the restriction of $4,000 given to a potential athlete, this causes issues in recruitment in Ontario. “You can only give them the most you can give them,” Giles said. “Often that’s the situation and it comes down to where do you really want to go to school?”

Currently, according to Giles and the 2011-12 AFA report, McMaster University sits with the highest total AFA equivalency provided in the OUA, with an equivalency of 66.9 per cent.

“If you look, we are now number one in Ontario for AFAs. And that was a decision we made two years ago,” Giles said. “We wanted to up our game in terms of compete-level and we wanted to recruit better, and in order to recruit better, we had to give out more AFAs.”The next highest university in Ontario is the University of Windsor with 61.7 AFA equivalency provided. Laurier provides 43.0, according to the AFA report.

The lowest university in Ontario is Trent University, who only provided 0.7 AFAs in the 2011-12 documented year. “It’s an uneven playing field, and so it’s very frustrating, but all we can do is be competitive within Ontario and let the rest of the country do what they do,” Giles said.

15 sport étudiant du Québec (RSEQ), the Université Laval in Laval, QC, provided a total of 67.2 AFAs in 2011-12, while the Université du Québec à Montréal in Montreal, QC gave only 11.1 AFAs. McGill University gave out 56.9 AFA equivalencies; however, according to Love, McGill also has 29 varsity teams.

In the Atlantic University Sport (AUS) conference, there is an even larger skew between the highest and lowest AFAs given out. Acadia provided the most AFAs in 2011-12 with 72.6, while Mount Allison University in Sackville, NB, gave out only 10.3. Finally, in the Canada West University Athletics Association (CWUAA) conference, the numbers are substantially higher. The University of Manitoba, as mentioned, gave 123 AFAs last year, while the lowest, Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops, BC, provided 24.2.

While these numbers are dramatically skewed, it is important to remember that athletic scholarships can be as much as full tuition and as little as a small margin of the full tuition, depending on the school. Kevin Dickie, director of athletics at Acadia University in Wolfville, NS., John Richard, director of athletics at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, NB, and Love all mentioned that at least half of their student athletes receive some form of AFA. “And again, the level of the AFA would be all over the map, right from a nominal amount right up to full tuition and fees, which is obviously the most you can award under the CIS regulations,” Richard said.

But while most schools can confidently say that their AFA amount reaches 50 per cent of their student athletes, most cannot say the same about the distribution between genders.

Comparing the country: Depending on the area and conference of the school, total AFAs can be incredibly skewed. According to the 2011-12 AFA report, the university that provided the highest total AFA equivalency in Canada was the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, MB, which provided 123 AFAs in 201112. As mentioned earlier, the lowest came from Ontario’s Trent University, which provided only 0.7 AFAs. By conference, the numbers are a bit closer.

Gender imbalance: According to the 2011-12 AFA report, a lot of schools do not provide the same athletic funding to both males and females. Some schools have the issue of dealing with the high demands of a varsity football team, while for others it depends on the personal team budget and how they allocate it. According to Baxter, naturally the CIS tries to get as close to a 50 per cent split of funds between males and females. “When you distribute it, it has to go between a ten per cent window,” Baxter said.

In the OUA, as mentioned, McMaster University provided the most AFAs with 66.9 and Trent supplied the lowest, against with 0.7. In the Réseau du

However, the AFA report displays incredibly skewed ratios. “We try to keep it balanced between male and female, and some of us do a better

job of that than others,” Giles said.

“Because [McMaster has] football, it adds a real challenge for us.”

Currently, the AFA equivalency ratio — in percentage — at McMaster is 63 per cent to 37 per cent in favour of males. Laurier’s ratio is 56 per cent to 44 per cent, also in favour of males. The biggest issue in distributing the funds equally is football. Football naturally has about 90 student athletes, with about 47 receiving some type of funding, and is one of the biggest recruiting classes and sports in the CIS. As a result, a large portion of AFAs and athletic scholarships are put toward football. In fact, according to the second portion of the AFA report, the total dollar value in 2011-12 toward men’s football was $2,082,623. The average award value of a football AFA recipient was approximately $3,568 — the highest of all sports in the CIS. The next closest dollar amount in athletic scholarships provided is men’s hockey at $1,752,211.

The highest women’s sport is women’s basketball, which received $1,241,575 in AFAs in 2011-12. “The greatest difference is, if you took men’s hockey and men’s football out [of Alberta], we’d be skewed in favour of women,” Spriggs explained. “But we’ve had our men’s hockey and football teams for over 100 years.” Alberta’s ratio in the 2011-12 report was 63 per cent to 37 per cent in favour of males.

However, Spriggs also explained that the Alberta’s athletics department is working toward finding a solution to the major skew. “We’re doing some internal proactive measures [to bring it even]. We’re dedicating some funds that would be otherwise open to all to women; also we’ve had some fundraising initiatives for female athletes.” At McMaster, Giles is even considering adding a new program on the women’s side just to even out the skewed funds toward the men. The total dollar amount in 2011-12 for men was $7,432,486, while the total dollar amount for women was $5,299,704.

The biggest gender imbalance in the AFA funds, however, was reported from Laval University. In 2011-12, Laval’s ratio was 80 per cent in favour of men and only 20 per cent in favour of women. This could be attributed to the use of recruitment tools at Laval, especially for their consistently dominant football program. “The

other consideration in sports is that you’re going to get a return on your investments,” Dickie said. “You can’t be all things to all people; dollars are hard to come by.” “It depends on the sport.

In some cases you don’t have to offer a lot of AFAs to get the best athletes and in some cases you do. It depends sport by sport,” Giles echoed.

However, there are a few schools that reported not having an issue with the gender imbalance. Most notably was Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., which was reported perfectly even at a 50 per cent balance in 2011-12. Queen’s was the only school to be entirely even in the CIS. The next closest was Ryerson University in Toronto, Ont., which has a 51 per cent to 49 per cent ratio in favour of females — one of very few in the CIS. Recruitment and retention: Although there are still issues for universities to figure out when it comes to allocating funds from athletic scholarships, all athletic directors agree that they are significant tools for recruitment in athletics. “It’s significant for sure and it’s a constant challenge for us and most schools in Canada,” Richard said. “Obviously we’re all striving to continue to grow our athletic awards and I think it’s important that we do because the student athletes are spending so much time doing it,” Love said.

As tuition in Canada continues to increase, so does the demand for athletic scholarships and AFAs. Athletes work to maintain their scholarships to play at a reputable school, which puts money towards its athletics. According to Spriggs, the majority of recruitments can decide what school they’d like to attend when they’re told “up front what to expect.” This could mean their expected amount in money, the added bonus of staying local or a use of funds in retention methods. “[Alberta is] in favour of using athletic scholarships as a means of supporting student athletes,” she said. But, as Giles put it, these AFAs and athletic scholarships come down to one thing for both the student athlete and the university athletics program — success.

“Like most schools, we play CIS sports to compete and do well, you don’t compete to be average,” he said. “So if increasing AFAs for a coach that says they’ll do better and recruit better and have a better performance, then we can do that.”

Active Culture Accross the Globe

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Sports

Giridhar Krishnan Sports Editor

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ports are a universal staple across cultures and are played around the globe. People might wonder why we should know about alternative sports, as there are already sports which are followed passionately in Canada.

Widely followed sports, however, may have migrated or been adapted from other countries. According to Statistics Canada, in 2005, the most popular sport was golf. This was immediately followed by ice hockey, soccer, and gymnastics.

Asia: China boasts being the world leader for biggest population, and it may be surprising to some that soccer is the most popular sport. Looking at China’s history, most people would expect the martial arts or Olympic sports, such as ping pong or badminton, to be the most popular. The origin of soccer, according to FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Soccer Association), is believed to be traced back to around the second and third centuries BCE in China, where it was a military exercise. The Chinese men’s soccer team has never been impressive on the international scale; the last time the men qualified for the World Cup was in 2002, but the team finished goalless, losing all three group matches.

The Chinese women’s soccer team has been much more successful, finishing second in the world championship in 1999. Unfortunately, the women’s team did not get much support from spectators, and could not qualify for the 2011 World Cup. Although they are not the most popular, ping pong, badminton, and martial arts are also followed by a majority of the Chinese population.

India comes second in terms of population, and is famous for its rich heritage. The sports culture of India dates back to the Vedic era, a period

in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. Many sports such as polo, archery, and chess are believed to have originated in India and then migrated to other parts of the world.

Field hockey is widely considered the national sport of India. In the past, the field hockey team dominated, winning gold medals consistently at the Olympic level. Unfortunately, the class of players went on to deteriorate and, since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, the field hockey team has yet to gain a medal.

The most popular sport in India is cricket. Cricket was introduced to India during the British colonial rule. The first ever first class match in India was between the cities of Madras and Calcutta in 1864. Cricket has, over the years, become a craze in India. India may be one of the very few countries in the world which has a greater number of cricket viewing audiences than soccer. India won the 1983 and 2011 Cricket World Cups. The local league tournament called IPL (Indian Premier League) brings in reputed players from around the globe and is eagerly followed by spectators.

In Pakistan, cricket is also very popular.

It is common to see amateur cricket played in the streets of Pakistan.

Pakistan has been successful at the international level, winning the 1992 Cricket World Cup. Squash and hockey are also quite popular in Pakistan. Even though cricket tops the list, these sports are also encouraged to a considerable extent. Pakistan was part of India before partition, and their cricket roots come from the British rule in India.

In Bangladesh, another country of large population in Asia, the official national sport is kabbadi. Cricket, however, is most popular in the streets; the national cricket team is fondly nicknamed “the Tigers” by media and spectators. Soccer was popular

in Bangladesh until they went on to win the international cricket council trophy in Malaysia in 1997. Soccer was eventually neglected by the government and authorities due to the popularity of cricket. Recently, the nation has seen golf and floor hockey gain popularity.

Japanese sports culture has interesting trends. Japan’s national sport is sumo wrestling, but the most popular sports in the country are baseball and soccer.

The Japanese national soccer team is very successful, qualifying consistently for the World Cup from 1998-2010.

The women’s team is the current world champion, having won the 2011 World Cup in Germany. Soccer has consistently gained popularity in the last few years.

Indonesia can boast of repeatedly winning gold at the Olympic level in badminton. Badminton players are highly reputed, and are in a dedicated training atmosphere as they currently practice for the 2014 Olympics.

According to the Indonesian Sports and Recreation website, soccer is again the most popular sport, despite the lack of success by the national team. The Indonesian Premier League, with local teams participating, has a lot of support. Traditional games such as Pencak Silat (martial art of Indonesia) and the game of Sepak takraw (a combination of soccer and volleyball) are quite popular too.

The rest of the world: Brazil is the only country with a topten population in South America. To most people, Brazil (and the rest of South America) represents soccer. The achievements of Brazil in soccer include winning five World Cups, and never failing to qualify. Brazil also boasts one of the most successful volleyball teams. It is claimed that soccer came to exist in the samba streets of Sao Paulo thanks to a young boy called Charlie.

Charlie’s father sent him to England for

school, where he learned soccer and gained prowess in the game. When he returned to Brazil, he showed his friends a soccer ball and a rule book.

His friends started playing, and the game came to be followed by all with interest. The Herald Scotland disputes this claim though, stating that Thomas Donohue, a working-class technician from the southside of Glasgow, was the one who introduced soccer to Brazil.

Nigerians devote their time to physical activities such as archery, and wrestling. Since 1952, Nigeria has taken part in the Olympics, and their athletes have amassed recognition for their nation, primarily in boxing. As in most of the globe, the most popular sport in Nigeria is soccer; they started playing in 1949. Currently ranked at the thirty-sixth spot in the FIFA rankings, Nigeria is a competitive team in major tournaments. Nigeria has introduced a large number of world class players to the soccer community.

Popular sports in Russia are basketball, ice hockey, figure skating, soccer, and bandy. Bandy is a traditional sport referred to as Russian hockey, which is influenced by ice hockey and soccer.

It is a sport which attracts spectators in large numbers. Figure skating is one of the most popular sports in Russia. In every winter Olympics from 1964 to 2006, Russian pairs have won gold in events like pair skating and ice dancing. The long winning streak came to an end when a Chinese pair won a gold medal in 2010.

The world is filled with diversity, and it is obvious how this diversity can be easily transferred into the world of sports. If you ever get the chance, take the time to ask someone what their favourite sport is and where they believe it to have originated; you may be surprised by where many sports developed, and how they came to be so popular today.

UNBC Life

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Club Spotlight:

UNBC’s Northern Research Group

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Jed Anderson Contributor

he 2013/2014 academic year is shaping up to be an exciting time for the members of UNBC’s Northern Research Group (NRG). The NRG is a club for students from both science and arts-based programs. “It’s interdisciplinary… it’s graduate and it’s undergraduate,” said club president Alycia Mutual, who came to Prince George from Calgary to pursue an interdisciplinary master’s degree. Her research is focused on the north.

The university website states, “UNBC is a university both in and for the North.” UNBC has a mandate to serve the needs of northern BC. As a result, northern-based research is

Kelley Ware Finance Manager

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a common interest for many students at UNBC. The NRG helps provide a forum for students to discuss and share their research interests. The club also works to help students connect with an international community of northern academics from across the world.

Next year, the club will help host two major conferences at UNBC: The University of the Arctic’s Governor’s Meeting, and the International Arctic Social Sciences Association (IASSA) conference. The NRG will be represented at the student committee for the University of the Arctic (UArctic).

The club also hosts Polar Day at UNBC each year, an event where students share their research and guest speakers are invited to speak at the

university about issues affecting both polar regions. Mutual pointed out that 2014 is the Year of the North at UNBC, making next year’s polar day particularly relevant.

The club is not all serious academics though. Opportunities exist for students to socialize and connect during pub meets and trail talks. The NRG hosts nature walks with local experts on forest ecology and history, providing students with a mixture of education and recreation.

“We show movies. We have a snowcone maker,” said Mutual. The club recently acquired a snow-cone maker to lend its events a northern-themed treat.

Members of the NRG are often active with connected organizations. The local student representative for the Association of Polar Early Career Scientists (APECS) is a member of the club, as is UNBC’s UArctic liaison.

Previous UArctic liaisons have had opportunities to travel to places such as Russia, Finland, and Manitoba.

Mutual noted that next year’s liaison will attend a meeting in Iceland.

Undergraduate and graduate students interested in BC’s north, Canada’s north, or the polar regions are welcome to join the NRG or attend club events. The club is planning a trail walk for October in the local forests, mostly likely followed up with a trip to a pub.

or Kelley’s “Korner:” notTo Tablet to Tablet?

s I write this, I am experimenting with a new electronic toy. I decided that I finally deserved a Windows tablet to replace my netbook.

New toys are always fun, and adults like us can enjoy ours almost as much as children do. If you are anything like myself, you go through phases of selfargument before you can justify the purchase.

The first phase: desire. The thing you have always been using, the netbook, the cell phone, the camera... it is just not good enough anymore. You can no longer be happy with what you have; you want more. The envy and desire swirling within your very being is a result of the consumer society we live in. You are not stupid, however. You want something new, but you cannot just dive into it blindly.

This brings us into phase two; research.

We're students! Research is part of our daily experiences, it comes naturally.

Your Internet history begins to fill with Google searches of every alternate device. You begin to evaluate what will best fit your needs and your budget.

The third phase is the decision. Is it worth it? This is the phase I stayed in for a long time. I debated back and forth between WANTS and NEEDS. This phase has only two outcomes; you forget about it, or you go for it.

Phase five: you've got a new device, be excited about it! You get to make it your own, learn how to use it, and customize it. You can add whatever apps you want, figure out how your operating system works, and show

off your brand new device. You are definitely not regretting spending the money yet, because your device is just so awesome, and you want to tell everybody about it. Unfortunately, this show-and-tell leads to the final phase.

Phase six: judgement. You've shown all your friends, and for some reason they do not care. When I began showing off my Window's tablet, proud of the functionality of Office, the large screen, and the reasonable price, I had to bear the wrath of the MacHeads, who did not see that I got the exact product I wanted.

Unfortunately, with almost any product you get, the MacHeads are going to mock you; even if you get the wrong Apple product.

Shelley Termuende | OTE

How do you like your Learning Space?

Angela Kehler Dr. Heather Smith, the Acting Director Academic Representative|NUGSS of the Centre for Teaching, Learning

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he Teaching Space Optimization Committee (TSOC) was formed in 2011 to address concerns and make changes related to the use of teaching space on the Prince George campus of UNBC. This committee is chaired by

and Technology, and includes faculty representatives, facilities reps, as well as a student rep.

TSOC wants your feedback!

The committee has made a list of

recommended changes for classrooms at UNBC. These recommendations include changing tablet desks to 4-foot tables, combining multiple small classrooms to make one larger classroom, and limiting class sizes in the smaller library classrooms.

TSOC also continues to debate the

contentious issue of whiteboards versus blackboards!

For a full list of recommendations and to voice your opinion, check out the TSOC blog: http://blogs.unbc.ca/tso/.

Let the committee know what your needs are in your learning environment.

UNBC Life

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Future Under the Magnifying Glass Mani Samani & Nahid Taheri Contributors

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r. George Jones, a senior lab instructor in UNBC’s physics department, sat down with two Over the Edge volunteers to answer our questions about the future.

Part 1: Time Machine

large errors (11 kilometers per day!) in positions predicted by GPS devices would accumulate.

Question: How about travel to the past?

Question: Can we travel to the future?

Answer: In theory, yes. According to the theory of relativity, one can suppose an astronaut leaves Earth, travels at 99.9% the speed of light, and returns to Earth. If the astronaut ages ten years during the trip, the Earth and the people on it will have aged 224 years, so the astronaut will have traveled into the future! I might be dead and my grandchildren might be alive. That is clearly allowed with the laws of physics and we have measured it small amounts of time travel. In fact, this is taken into account whenever we use GPS. GPS satellites orbit about 20,000 kilometers above the earth. Due to their orbital speed and height, clocks on these satellites run at different rates than identical clocks on the Earth. If this were not taken into account,

Answer: We just do not know.

Stephen Hawking wrote a famous paper in 1992 in which he called the "Chronology Protection Conjecture," what he said would make the world safe for the historian. History would not be screwed up as long as there is no time machine. This is a standard paradox; what if one goes back in time, and one kills your grandmother before your parents were born? How is that possible? If we do not have time machines we do not have paradoxes like that. So Stephen Hawking’s 1992 conjecture proves that we do not have time machines. However, using space-time wormholes, backwards time travel may be possible. In Einstein’s theory of general of relativity, space-time is warped.

Space-time wormholes first generated substantial interest in the physics community in 1988. Physicists soon realized that if space-time wormholes exist, then they could be used to create time machines. We, however, currently have zero experimental evidence for space-time wormholes. In 1992,

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Stephen Hawking showed that quantum theory might prevent the formation of time machines by creating a burst of very high energy radiation just before any time machine forms, thus destroying the apparatus. In 1997, further work suggested that a full quantum theory of gravity is needed to resolve these questions.

Question: Is there any investigation into travelling to the future?

Answer: One has to travel very fast in order to do this. We have not travelled nearly fast enough to verify this. You have to travel near to the speed of light which is 300,000 km/s. What is the fastest speed a human being has ever gone with respect to the earth?

I think it is 11 km/s, which is not very much compared to the speed of light, and this was the speed achieved by the humans when they went to the moon. We really have not travelled fast enough with humans. We just have not done that, and there is not anyone even close to doing that; not in the next fifty years, or even in the next five hundred years. I do not think we can get to the future like that. However we have some very accurate clocks, such as atomic clocks. In 1971, scientists put an atomic clock in two airplanes, and flew them in different directions around the world. The clocks were synchronized, and when the planes landed, there was a measurable difference in the readings!

Question: If we had the ability to travel into the future, what destination should we travel to?

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Answer: Destination is not important.

Just the fact that you can go and come back; the speed related to us on the earth is important.

Question: When you look at the sky you look at the history, so is it possible to look at the past?

Answer: It is possible to look at the history of stars, but not the history of humans. For example when you look at the sun we are looking at it as it was eight minutes ago; when we look at the next near star we see it as it was four years ago; when we look at a star from another galaxy we see it as it was millions or billions of years ago.

We cannot see ourselves in the same context. Going back to the question: in theory, in some universes, yes. If the universe is closed, and if the universe expands not too slowly and not too quickly, we can see all the way in the universe, and can observe an image of the Earth in the distant past. There are no paradoxes associated with this. We do not know if our universe is closed, and our universe seems to be expanding too quickly for this to happen. We cannot be completely sure that the universe’s rate of expansion will not slow down in the future.

Question: Could you please introduce some more references for if anyone would like to read more about this topic?

Answer: There are two books which are not just for physicists; everybody can read them. They are Time Machines by Paul J.Nahin and Time Travel and Warp Drives by Allen Everett and Thomas Roman. There is also a less accessible book titled Lorentzian Wormholes by Matt Visser.

Coffee Break

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Across 1- Fool; 5- What’s left; 9- Diminutive being of folklore; 14- Suit to _ _ _; 15- Switch ending; 16- Causing goose bumps; 17- Celestial body; 18- Large village; 19Spoil; 20- Short-tempered person; 22- Where junk may be held; 24- Extraterrestrial; 26- Yes, to Yves; 27- Occur; 30- Infinite time; 35- Bottomless gulf; 36German Mister; 37- Exultation; 38- Craggy hill; 39- Dancer Duncan; 42- Nav. officer; 43- Paradise lost; 45- Sect; 46- Fable; 48- Resound; 50- Emphasis; 51- “… _ _ _ the cows come home”; 52- Mead subject; 54- Taro; 58- Relate; 62- Moral precept of conduct; 63- Object of devotion; 65- _ _ _-European; 66- Peter of Herman’s Hermits; 67- Songwriter Bacharach; 68- Draft classification; 69- Supermodel Cheryl; 70- Cpls.’ superiors; 71- Snack; Down 1- Cummerbund; 2- Sock _ _ _ me!; 3- Crux; 4- Possibly; 5- Keep possession of; 6- Eat into; 7- Plant; 8- Heaps; 9- Circuitous way; 10- Eroding; 11- “Tosca” tune; 12- Circular band; 13- Celebration; 21- Varnish resin; 23- It’s human; 25- Teases; 27- Misanthrope; 28- Dwelling; 29- Funeral fires; 31- Horse’s gait; 32- Actress Graff; 33- Camp sights; 34- Approvals; 36- _ _ _ monde; 40- Climb; 41- Role player; 44- Naught; 47- Speech; 49- Sisters’ daughters; 50- Separates metal from ore; 53- Nautical direction; 54- Fender bender; 55- Yours, in Tours; 56- Foot covering; 57- Pen points; 59- Part of A.D.; 60- Mid-month times; 61- Flood survivor; 64- Made a hole;