March 3, 2011 - A

the

SHEAF The u of s student newspaper since 1912

Photo by Pete Yee

Lolcats and porn: Isn’t the Internet great?

• A18

opinions

Sheepdogs on the cover of the Rolling Stone?

• A11

ARTS

Basketball teams heading to the Final Four • A8

sports

news

Canadians can’t say ‘Rrrroll up the Rrrrim’ • A5

3 march 2011

• volume 102 • issue 25 • www.thesheaf.com

A2 •

NEWS

Editor-in-Chief: Ashleigh Mattern, editor@thesheaf.com Production Manager: Tannara Yelland, layout@thesheaf.com News Editor: Victoria Martinez, news@thesheaf.com Associate News Editor: Kevin Menz, news@thesheaf.com Photography Editor: Pete Yee, photo@thesheaf.com Graphics Editor: Danielle Siemens, graphics@thesheaf.com Arts Editor: Holly Culp, arts@thesheaf.com Sports Editor: Dorian Geiger, sports@thesheaf.com Opinions Editor: Tomas Borsa, opinions@thesheaf.com Copy Editor: Greg Reese, copy@thesheaf.com Web Editor: Ishmael N. Daro, web@thesheaf.com Ad & Business Manager: Shantelle Hrytsak, business@thesheaf.com Contributors: Darren Dupont, Max Cranston, Karol Kudyba, Nicole Barrington, Matthew Stefanson, Aren Bergstrom, Thilina Bandara, Laura Champ, Blair Woynarski, Daryl Hofmann, Shira Fenyes, Devin R. Heroux, Laura Alford, Andrew Glum, Richard Wong, Cole Hogan, Dustin Harrison, Ben Fawcett Board of Directors: Jordan Hartshorn (Chair), Chantal Stehwien, Blair Woynarski, Alex MacPherson, Robby Davis

Office Numbers: General 966-8688 Advertising 966-8688 Editorial 966-8689

Corporation Number #204724 GST Registration Number 104824891 Second Class Mailing Registration. #330336 The Sheaf is printed at Transcontinental Printing Ltd. 838 56th St. Saskatoon, SK Circulation this issue: 5,000

The Sheaf is a non-profit incorporated and student-body funded by way of a direct levy paid by all part- and fulltime undergraduate students at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S).

Membership in the Society is open to undergraduate students at the U of S, but all members of the U of S community are encouraged to contribute to the newpaper. Opinions expressed in The Sheaf do not necessarily reflect those of The Sheaf Publishing Society Inc. The Sheaf reserves the right to refuse to accept or print any material deemed unfit for publication, as determined by the Editor-in-Chief. The Sheaf is published weekly during the academic year and monthly from May through August. The Editor-in-Chief has the right to veto any submission deemed unfit for the Society newspaper. In determining this, he/she will decide if the article or artwork would be of interest to a significant portion of the Society and benefit the welfare of Sheaf readers. The Sheaf will not publish any racist, sexist, homophobic, or libelous material.

Photo by Pete Yee Explore the unusual side of Saskatoon with our special supplement in section B.

U of S students recovering

Students found in rubble of New Zealand earthquake

The earthquake in Christchurch levelled half the city.

KEVIN MENZ Associate News Editor Two University of Saskatchewan students are recovering in a hospital after being seriously injured in an earthquake that shook Christchurch, New Zealand, on Feb. 22.

According to the Globe and Mail, Jenna Benoit, 21, and her boyfriend Patrick Lee, 22, were walking on Columbo Street when the earthquake hit and trapped them under a collapsed two-story brick building.

Nearby residents pulled the severely injured pair out of the debris.

Lee suffered a skull fracture, breaks in his spine, neck and arms. Benoit, whose injuries are considered less severe, suffered a fractured skull, spinal fractures, a lacerated liver and a broken foot.

According to witnesses, Lee was disoriented when he was freed from the debris. He kept calling for Benoit and was reluctant to go to the hospital because he thought she was still

REPORT

F R O M

STUDENTS’ COUNCIL

VICTORIA MARTINEZ News Editor February 17, 2011

SGM March 3 Vice president external Blair Shumlich invited students to come talk to him about his quest to eliminate the external job.

Referencing the little work his portfolio demands on his time, he told councillors, “Come speak with me sometime. As I’ve said, I’ve got a lot of spare time.”

Place Riel update Microwaves are still a long way off for Lower Place Riel, since there are no plug-ins for them. So, after the construction is over, it’s likely

Wine is good for friendship

Seven local restaurants are supporting the Saskatchewan Association for Community Living through wine sales this month.

Bliss Fine Foods, Truffles Bistro, The Ivy, Calories, Souleio, The Spadina Freehouse and 6Twelve will be donating proceeds from all wine sales to the “A Toast to Friendship” campaign throughout March.

The money will go to the University of Saskatchewan Best Buddies program, which pairs an individual with an intellectual disability with a U of S student.

The organization’s mission is to harness those friendships to help individuals become more integrated in the community.

The pairs spend time together at least twice a month, and there are various group events throughout the year. photo by Dave Manthei/Flickr

stuck under the debris.

The rescuers managed to get Lee into the back of a pick-up truck and transferred him to the hospital. Benoit was transferred to the hospital in a separate vehicle.

The Edmonton Journal spoke with both students’ parents about the incident and reported that Lee underwent surgery Feb. 23 to remove bone fragments from his skull that had been putting pressure on his brain.

Patrick’s father Larry Lee was able to speak to Patrick the day after the surgery.

“We just spoke to him briefly.

He was very incoherent. He doesn’t know what’s happened.

He’s quite confused,” said Larry.

He said that Patrick has no recollection of where he was or what he was doing when the earthquake occurred.

Benoit’s parents were able to talk to her the day after the incident, reported the Globe and Mail.

“It was a very big relief,” said Jenna’s father Chris Benoit.

“Once Brenda Lee [Jenna’s mother] heard Jenna’s voice it was

just a God send.”

The Edmonton Journal also reported that both the Lees and the Benoits flew to Christchurch this past weekend. Both emphasized their appreciation for how the incident has been handled, including the great care their children have received and the strong support they’ve received from the community.

However, they are especially grateful for the people who rescued their children.

“All we know is that we’re very, very grateful that somebody found them as quickly as they did. They were some of the first casualties who were brought to Christchurch hospital, and they’ve been there since very early after the earthquake took place,” said Larry.

Patrick and Jenna have been in New Zealand since November and had planned to return home in August.

More than 100 people have been killed in the quake and approximately 240 more are missing.

that they’ll be put in on the North East end.

Over the break, some fire rated windows were installed in the Murray Building, but the rest will be installed on Sundays throughout March. None of Upper Place Riel can be opened to the public until the installations are completed.

Leon Thompson agreed to follow up on the cameras.

Library theft concerns Indigenous Students’ Council representative Jared Brown said he had heard about two recent major thefts at the library, one of a computer, and another of a computer, wallet and iPod. “I shouldn’t have to be scared to go to the bathroom and worry if my stuff is still there,” said Brown.

Brown’s main question was why there were no cameras on upper floors of the library.

“This is a multimillion dollar institution… this is incomprehensible to me,” he said.

Vice president student affairs

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

Social Justice Centre The Social Justice Centre adhoc committee, charged with determining the viability and importance of creating such a centre, did not find its creation vital. Galen Richardson, one of the committee members, told council that “things didn’t line up with the mandate and the needs.”

They sent a needs survey to 20 campus clubs, to which four groups replied. Some interpreted the response as a sign of apathy towards the centre, though Richardson said it could be a simple matter of having contacted the wrong groups.

The clubs saw the centre as an opportunity to create a solid volunteer base, enhance the student experience and to bring social justice issues, as well as a peer support opportunity, much like other centres.

Money to make things look good and do other stuff good too The provincial government announced $65 million in new funding for the U of S Feb. 24.

The Health Sciences Building expansion will receive $50 million of that funding. This will go directly to the continued construction on two wings of the facility. $20.7 million will go towards repairs and maintenance at post-secondary schools across the province. The U of S alone stands in need of $617 million in deferred maintenance.

A final $5.7 million will be put towards the completion of the International Vaccine Centre on campus. InterVac should open late this year.

Swiss Chalet debuts Rotisserie Chicken Channel Distilling the food network down to its most primal essence, the Rotisserie Chicken Channel will show nothing but rotating rotisserie chickens 24/7, hoping to tap into both the stoner and spinning food enthusiast markets alike.

The channel, which is only available to Rogers subscribers, launched Feb. 28 and will be on air until the end of May. Tune in long enough, and a promotional code will appear on screen allowing the viewer to claim an online coupon, presumably for cheaper chicken. Animal activists have yet to react to the commercial, probably because they don’t have TVs. Boo hippies. Hooray chicken!

News •

thesheaf.com/news

THAT Just Happened puts a new spin on flash mobs

A3

Supporting diabetes research and the food bank with flair LAURA CHAMP News Writer Wandering through the Arts Building, you may have noticed stacked cans and a crowd in early December, or clothes and a crowd in February. The Learning Communities at the University Learning Centre were behind the antics.

The ULC works hard to enhance the undergraduate experience of University of Saskatchewan students.

Starting in 2007, the ULC began offering a Learning Communities program. The program, which relies on the work of student volunteers, brings together first year students in term one who share a common set of two or three classes. During term two, the program is interest-based and open to all undergrads.

Megan Marcoux, a Learning Communities coordinator at the ULC, explained that the idea of giving back to the community is central to the Learning Community program.

“We want to provide opportunities for students to get involved in their campus, local and global communities,” she said.

To further this goal, participants in the Learning Community program have developed a unique way to raise money for two important charities: the food bank and the Canadian Diabetes Association.

A “flash mob” is a sudden gathering by a group in a public

Runaway shopping cart mobbed by students for good!

place, during which time the group performs an unusual act and quickly disperses.

Based on this concept, Learning Communities communication coordinator Brea Lowenberger and PALs Jared Kroeger and Ashley Sproat developed THAT Just Happened, a series of fundraising events on campus.

Marcoux explained that the events organized by THAT Just

Happened are more purposeful than your everyday flash mob.

“We took the idea from flash mobs and altered it a bit. It’s kind of the same idea but with more organization and a specific goal or outcome,” she said.

The first flash mob-esque event organized by THAT Just Happened was “Flash Mob Thursday —1 minute, 1 can of food!” The event took place

supplied

between classes at the bottom of the Arts Building ramp on Dec. 2 and was well-received. Students were urged to mass-invite friends, peers and colleagues via Facebook, email and text.

Sleepily wandering the halls between classes, many students likely wondered what was going on, as those participating in the events were encouraged to do so with panache. Students were

encouraged on the Facebook event page to “Walk and drop your can with a little dance move, a flourish, or just a big smile and keep on truckin’.”

The second event, “The Heart of Fashion Friday — 1 minute, 1 clothing donation” took place on Feb. 18, outside of Arts 146.

Because it took place the last Friday before reading week, attendance was slightly down.

However, Marcoux says the event “was really fun. We had music playing, the red carpet rolled out. People modeled the donated clothing — it was basically a ‘community-building, awareness-raising’ dance party in the middle of Arts.”

Marcoux says that while there are no immediate plans for another THAT Just Happened event, the goal is to have one event per term in the future, organized and executed by the PALs. Within the smaller learning communities, students have the opportunity to learn from peer mentors and receive support from professors, alumni and the ULC, while also contributing to the greater good.

Anyone interested in becoming a PAL for Learning Communities or other ULC programs should visit shf.me/ulcpals or the LC website at usask.ca/lc.

Budget cuts spell out dismal future for sessionals

Fine arts and humanities town hall discusses future of departments BLAIR WOYNARSKI and ASHLEIGH MATTERN News Writers A fine arts and humanities divisional town hall meeting Feb. 17 discussed the impact of recent university budget cuts on the fine arts and humanities departments.

Vice dean of humanities and fine arts David Parkinson began his address by saying that the departments were in the later stages of serious budget cutbacks and funding reallocation.

Budgets are tight in the departments. One of the first things to get slashed was sessionals: budget allocations in each department for sessionals have been reduced from $700,000 to $300,000 per annum. Next on the chopping block are most likely certain senior programs, though it hasn’t been officially decided which classes to cut.

In a later interview, Parkinson said the reduction in budget allocations for sessionals could mean offering fewer classes.

“It means the faculty have to teach more classes, in a nutshell, and it also means that we have to be very, very strategic to identify the classes which we know are going to fill in the first place but also identify the best use of our teaching

resources that are available,” Parkinson said.

“It probably means fewer classes but it’s also a way of saying that we’re really working hard to make sure the ones that are offered are the right ones.”

Faculties themselves received little notice of the meeting and alerted their students as quickly as possible Thursday morning. Arts 212 was selected for the meeting, but after well over 100 people elbowed their way inside, it was moved to Arts 143.

The funding discussion committee had come to its conclusion only the week before.

Parkinson said the short notice was due to their desire to discuss the situation with students before the break.

Some students were concerned as this was the first time they had heard of the plans to cut money from the departments, but when interviewed, Parkinson insisted conversations about these decisions have been ongoing for the past three years.

At the town hall, Parkinson gave a passionate defence of the departments, saying that the university should be prepared to run a deficit to maintain the quality of education. In order to justify that, however, these departments need to

increase enrolment. The trade-off is that it will shift increasing attention to lower-year classes, taking resources away from senior-level classes.

Parkinson said that some trimming of upper-level programs in the fine arts and humanities needed to happen, and that there were a number of degree programs that had not seen more than 10 graduates in five years.

Several students challenged this statement, citing programs that require small classes to function, such as the drama department’s design program. They stressed that the number of graduates does not necessarily reflect the quality of the course. Parkinson agreed.

The majority of audience members expressed the same sentiment, that students had enormous faith in the quality of their program and their professors, and are already working with limited resources and inadequate facilities, they did not know what more they could sacrifice.

When interviewed, he said that cuts to upper-year programs are a concern because “it’s not anyone’s wish to cut those courses.”

“How do we go about ensuring the survival of a really good array of fourth year courses?” he said.

“One of the things I said during the

town hall was that we’re looking at very different models of financing for our higher-enrollment courses so we can actually build a little bit of revenue and help to sustain our senior offerings where we have fewer students.”

The town hall was primarily used as an airing of grievances.

The vice dean came under fire with complaints about budget cuts and faculty reductions, though he frequently expressed solidarity with the audience.

The town hall was not a place for strategy or financial prediction,

but rather the opening of a dialogue between different levels of the university.

“I actually thought we had a great discussion,” said Parkinson, “and that students were totally committed to having a real dialogue about this, and there were some first rate suggestions coming out of that meeting from students which will have direct impact, certainly, in my way of thinking.”

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A4 • News

Saskatoon taxi regulations implemented

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

City should lightly regulate the industry: transportation expert DARYL HOFFMANN News Writer After over 60 years of operating independently, the Saskatoon taxi industry now finds itself under the city’s regulations.

Over the course of 2011, the City of Saskatoon and members of the industry will work together to implement a handful of policies to improve safety and customer service.

“

We obviously want what’s right for the industry, but ultimately regulating the industry is going to increase the costs.

Troy Larmer

Sharing taxi stands! Regulatory boards! Unthinkable atrocities!

claims that the stands belong to

United Group them, as they have been paying general manager the city for use of the stands

These include mandatory English training and testing, and age-limits on vehicles. The city will also establish a Taxi Review Board to handle licensing duties and serve as an external body to oversee the industry.

On top of those changes, as of March 1, the on-going controversy over taxi stand ownership will find some closure. The downtown stands were previously contracted out to the companies, but will open up for a trial period to all companies. The United Group

privately for more than 40 years.

The new regulations stem from concerns over the cloudiness surrounding the city’s taxi industry, a public service that both citizens and visitors of Saskatoon rely on, especially in the winter.

There are three registered broker companies that licence cabs in the city: United, Saskatoon Radio Cabs and Comfort Cabs. Besides having to run a record check on employees, each company is left to set their own driver and vehicle standards.

In 2010, the city called on Tennessee-based urban transportation expert Ray Mundy to conduct an in-depth analysis on the current condition of the

industry. His report to City Council emphasized that it is in the public’s interest that the city “lightly” regulate the industry, and gave several recommendations for the future.

Primarily, Mundy suggested the city establish a Taxi Regulatory Board that “would not be a decision-making body but rather an advisory board.”

He also suggested phasing in regulation on fleet age, driver appearance, the installation of incab cameras and opening up taxi stands to more companies. Almost all the recommendations have now passed through Council.

United Group president Scott Suppes views any regulation from an external body as interference.

“To say that a level of government should mandate

photo by Pete Yee

these things as well as creating an office in charge of enforcing these changes is taking away the right of a company to manage itself accordingly,” he said.

It remains unclear if private broker companies are actually capable of monitoring themselves.

Horror-stories involving broken-down taxis, thefts and angry drivers are common around Saskatoon.

In one instance, University of Saskatchewan commerce student Sarah Romanuck got into a dispute with a driver after he refused to make two stops in one trip. She and a friend eventually had to pay for two separate trips, and when they asked for his name the driver became distressed and locked them in the vehicle.

Eventually the police came to

the scene, but they recommend against filing charges against the driver.

“I was talking to the officer and this type of thing has been happening a lot lately with taxi drivers... Since it was just our word versus his, they felt it would not hold up in court,” Romanuck explained.

The Taxi Review Board could be used to hear cases like Romanuck’s. Implementation of the Board is scheduled to happen

by Dec. 31, 2011, however, some councillors are still unconvinced of the need to form a regulatory committee at this time.

“Personally, I am in complete favour of it,” said Ward 1 councillor Darren Hill. “I think a committee comprised of stake holders from the industry, the city, as well as the general public would be a great body to look at issues particular to the taxi industry.”

With only three more recommendations yet to be approved by the city, United Group general manager Troy Larmer promises they will not stop lobbying.

“We obviously want what’s right for the industry, but ultimately regulating the industry is going to increase the costs.

The regulations imposed are not solving the problems of trying to decrease wait times and increase the level of service. They just cost the tax-payer.”

City administration will continue to review the final three recommendations regarding service delivery, monies investigation and lease agreements, while the Taxi Regulatory Board remains greenlit, barring no set backs before 2012.

Oxfam challenges you to use just 25 litres of water a day Campus club promoting solidarity with developing countries, with environmental advantages to boot NICOLE BARRINGTON News Writer The Oxfam campus club will be promoting events throughout March to help bring attention to water shortages around the world.

For three days of the month, each club member and willing participants will only use 25 litres of water a day for drinking, bathing, cooking, washing and cleaning — everything.

The goal is to simulate the daily reality of 1.1 billion people who have inadequate access to water and to reduce individual water consumption.

YMCA Peace Medal recipient and University of Winnipeg graduate Kevin Freedman started the challenge in Winnipeg in 2007.

He took his own 25 litre challenge for a month, and it has expanded internationally since then.

To promote the water challenge, the campus Oxfam group will be handing out pamphlets and setting up a blog to share their “struggles, successes, frustrations, water

saving tips and anecdotal stories,” said event coordinator Michelle Thompson.

Every Tuesday of the month, Oxfam will have a table set up in the Arts Tunnel or the International Student and Study Abroad Centre office to raise interest in the cause, and hopefully inspire others to try out the challenge as well.

Thompson believes the emphasis should be on the individual change.

“Donations to reputable organizations like Oxfam are great, but what we really need is for people to change their way of life,” she said.

For this reason, Oxfam will be encouraging “water pledges” more than monetary donations.

While 25 litres of water a day may seem like more than enough, it’s a lot less than one would think.

In fact, 25 litres of water is the equivalent of two toilet flushes, maybe four on a low-flush model.

Estimates vary, but according to Environment Canada, the average Canadian uses 330 litres of water per day. This is twice as much as

Europeans, who use on average 150 litres of water a day. In developing countries, the average person uses 20 litres of water per day.

For people in developing countries, a water source may be within one kilometre of where they

“

Many Aboriginal communities right here in Saskatchewan also do not have access to clean drinking water.

Michelle Thompson

Event coordinator

live. For most, the water source is an average of six kilometres from home. Transporting water is a daunting endeavour for millions of women, who spend up to several hours in one day collecting water.

Surprisingly, this is not just an issue in developing countries.

“The most obvious examples of those who struggle with drought and regular access to water are perhaps Oxfam’s partners in East Africa, namely in Ethiopia and Somalia,” according to Thompson.

“However, many Aboriginal communities right here in Saskatchewan also do not have regular access to clean drinking water.” Thompson believes facts like these need to be communicated in order to “bring the issue back home.”

“This should be a concern for all,” Thompson added.

Additionally, March 10 is BottledWater-Free Day, which is directly related to responsible water usage, and another cause that Oxfam will be support throughout the month.

“Choosing to drink water from

the tap rather than bottled water is perhaps the easiest way to save water and help our environment.”

Not only does drinking bottled water mean depletion of fresh water from isolated resources, but also excess water and oil use that is needed to create, package and distribute the bottles.

Although the recycling aspect of bottled water may seem like a redeeming quality, it still requires energy (more water and oil). In addition, many large companies that produce bottled water have terrible histories of human rights abuses.

“There are so many reasons why it makes logical sense to switch to drinking water from the tap using your reusable and safe water bottle.”

Overall, the club hopes to inspire change and encourage people to experience this “unique but realistic” challenge.

For tips and stories on the challenge, the blog for this event is at shf.me/oxfamchallenge.

News • A5

thesheaf.com/news

Less than half of Canadians can roll their Rs

Despite Tim Horton’s suggestions otherwise, we are woefully unskilled at saying rrrolling the rrrim SHIRA FENYES News Writer The coffee is steaming and the cups are stacked — stacked against our odds.

Tim Horton’s 25th annual Roll Up the Rim to Win has coffee lovers lined up, purchasing an excess of large double doubles in hopes of being one of the one in six winners of a free honey glazed donut.

This year, however, Canadians are rolling up their rims with an added trill. Despite the campaign’s focus on rolling Rs and rims simultaneously, a new Harris/Decima study revealed that only 56 per cent of Canadians can successfully pronounce the rolled R or “alveolar trill.” Maybe not all of us are destined to be Spaniards.

While some seem to be born with the ability, the idea of this natural skill is a myth, explained Bronwyn Stoddard, a former University of Saskatchewan linguistics student and

former Sheaf copy editor.

According to the U of S alumnus, there is no genetic correlation to the R rolling ability. The alveolar trill can be challenging to many but can be learned by all.

“I have successfully taught a few people to do it,” she explained, “so experience demonstrates that it is not an impossibility to learn the trick.”

Certain people are more apt to learning the technique than others.

The study reveals that Quebecers are the R rolling champions of Canada.

According to Stoddard, the trill is a common feature of certain foreign tongues like the Czech language, for example. In fact, the Czechs have a method to teach children who cannot yet pronounce the sound that colours their language. But if Czech children can learn it, why do so many Canadian adults find the trill so difficult?

“The letter R is a fickle creature,” Stoddard laughs. There are thousands of ways to approach it; R

pronunciation can vary even within one language. Nowhere in Canadian English do we find this in our “mental glossary of sounds.”

Nonetheless, this sophisticated sound has somehow managed to grab the interest of Canada’s trademark coffee company.

“They probably did it to draw attention to the campaign by making it sound unusual or exotic,” Stoddard guessed.

And the Harris/Decima study lends some credence to that idea.

The study shows that Albertans more than people from any other Canadian region find the rolled R a “sexy” dialectic feature. Maybe there’s something ironic about the exotic sound that grabs our attention during a season that is hardly alluring by the time March rolls around.

Whether it’s the catchy purr or the $1.29 gamble, Canadians love to “rrroll up the rrrim.”

Rrrrrrrrrrrr. Sort of.

photo by Leo Reynolds/Flickr

Transforming downtown parks for more vitality Planner in residence Cynthia Nikitin on how to build a great public space VICTORIA MARTINEZ News Editor Cynthia Nikitin, the vice president for downtowns with Project for Public Spaces, graced the Mendel Art Gallery March 2.

Nikitin was in town as part of the University of Saskatchewan department of urban planning and resources’s brand new Planner in Residence program. Her free public lecture focused on enhancing the city through green spaces.

The Kinsmen Park is one of the city’s target areas, including the Mendel Gallery building, since the gallery is moving to the River Landing Pavilion.

“Great cities are increasingly known for their great parks and public spaces,” said Nikitin. She’s seen first hand how a park can transform a city — she’s been doing this for 19 years.

She described the process of creating a successful green space as being like the stone soup allegory. You know, the story where someone says they want to make stone soup, and put a stone in a boiling pot of water.

“That first person says, ‘Know what would be really great?

Carrots,’ so someone brings in carrots… People just contribute to

direction, she suggested simply examining how people would like to use a space. Finding one person interested in teaching something, from yoga to painting, could help focus the creation of a new park area.

She cited the example of a park in upper Houston she worked on. The green space was near a farmer’s market tucked into an inconvenient location, so they moved the farmer’s market into a pavilion in the park. However, the market only ran twice a week, so they included an upper level for classrooms for community members to use throughout the week. Next, they integrated the concept of urban agriculture into a seasonal restaurant.

“You just start triangulating uses. It just starts building,” Nikitin emphasized. She cautioned, however, that it was important to focus on the specifics of community contributions.

Cynthia Nikitin keeps spaces energized.

this to make something great.”

As a planner, she works to be that person with a stone.

“We facilitate and translate the sharing of ideas,” said

photo by Pete Yee

Nikitin. Often, groups involved in community revitalization vary from museums to corporate entities.

To give Saskatoon’s parks

Interested in learning about journalism?

Writing for the news section is the best place to start.

News volunteer meetings Wednesdays 1:30 p.m.

108 MUB (upstairs from Louis’) with Senior News Editor Victoria Martinez and Associate News Editor Kevin Menz news@thesheaf.com

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“If someone feels unsafe, is that because of poor lighting?… Is it because of the eight lane road nearby?” A great downtown will identify the specific problem, and create “a concept plan that’s not pie in the sky,” she said.

A space like Saskatoon’s downtown would benefit from the synergic relationship between industry and community. Between arts groups and business, as long as the community voice is heard and translated correctly, the downtown park could inject the core with new energy.

To hear more ideas from Cynthia Nikitin, see “Changing attitudes can shape a city” on B1 as part of our special Saskatoon supplement.

A6 • News

Poetic justice: Saskatoon’s prison literature

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

Book provides creative outlet for Aboriginal inmates at local correctional facility DORIAN GEIGER News Writer It’s rare that people can tap into the artistic dimensions of a prison inmate’s mind.

Now Creative Escape: Stories and Art from Prison, a publication from the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre, is altering this reality.

Creative Escape began in 2010 as a writing contest for Aboriginal and Métis inmates at the Saskatoon Provincial Correctional Centre. Since then, its contributions have been transformed into a 27-page booklet of vibrant writing and art.

The content ranges from the harsh street life of Saskatoon — drugs, violence and gangs — to the sorrows associated with being locked away from loved ones.

Given the colourful array of artists the contest has unearthed, SPCC First Nations and Métis community and cultural coordinator Diann Block says she is planning to make Creative Escape an annual publication.

“They can be honest on paper and get their feelings out,” said Block. “I encourage the men to journal as well.

It’s hard for many of them, as there is no personal privacy. Projects like this give the men positive recognition — they are used to only getting negative recognition.”

“7 Eleven Stranded,” a poem by inmate-writer Cory Cardinal, was the contest’s first place winner. Cardinal presents his work through the eyes

Inmate-writer Cory Cardinal proudly displays “Creative Escape.”

of a homeless panhandler outside a bustling Saskatoon 7-Eleven.

“I long to sit / At the table of plenty / And eat the delectable food / Of wellbeing / I crave for a drag / From

photo by Diann Block

the cigarette of happiness,” Cardinal writes.

The striking juxtapositions in the next stanza are the most poignant component of his work. “Instead...

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News Editor, Associate News Editor, Arts Editor, Opinions Editor, Sports Editor, Production Manager, Photography Editor, Graphics Editor, Copy Editor and Web Editor.

If you are interested in covering student issues at the University of Saskatchewan, or thinking of a career in journalism (radio, print or television), photography or graphic design, journalism schools look more favourably upon those who have about any of these term positions.

Any undergraduate student may apply for an editorial position.

All positions are term positions running from May 1, 2011 until April 30, 2012*.

Remuneration for most will start in September of 2011**. * Some may be asked to volunteer time from May 1, 2011 until August 31, 2011 ** Determined by the Board of Directors Submit your résumé and cover letter together in a sealed envelope to:

Hiring Committee The Sheaf Publishing Society Room 108 Memorial Union Building 93 Campus Drive Saskatoon, SK S7N5B2 All applications must be received by Tuesday, March 15th @ 3:00 PM Please note: Not all applicants will be granted interviews.

A short list of former Sheaf Editorial Staff Name

Where are they now?

Jason Warick

-The StarPhoenix

Veronica Rhodes

-Regina Leader-Post

Lucas Oleniuk

-The Toronto Star

Brooks DeCillia

-CBC Radio

David Hutton

-The StarPhoenix

Christine Otsuka

-Meetings & Incentive Travel Magazine

Nicole Lavergne-Smith

-CBC Radio-Canada

Rory MacLean

-The StarPhoenix

Wendy Gillis

-The Toronto Star

Jeremy Warren

-The StarPhoenix

I pick the butts of anger / And grind passers for change / So I can phone / Pride my only friend / But only depression is home / And hangs up on my only call.”

Reached via email from the SPCC last week, Cardinal said his contributions to Creative Escape “came from the worst time in my life but brought the absolute best out of me.” Cardinal describes himself as “a poetic street soldier who has triumphed over the toilsome gutter of street life.”

“Right now my life is very turbulent. I am a very transient individual. I struggle with a lot of dysfunctions; my writing is a reflection of that. Deep, painful, poetic,” added Cardinal.

There is more to Cardinal’s background than just a life of crime — he’s also a talented, resilient writer.

Prominent Aboriginal authors Maria Campbell, Tomson Highway and a myriad of others overcame similarly difficult circumstances in their literary journeys. Cardinal could very likely fall into this category too.

The momentum behind Creative Escape has been mounting; the work has even found its way into the hands of Saskatchewan’s Minister of Justice. In the isolated setting that engulfs Cardinal, prison bars weren’t enough to keep the buzz surrounding the project out of ears’ reach.

“I am surprised it got the reaction it did. I was hearing about it [Creative

Escape] from Prince Albert to Regina.”

Cardinal’s poetic voice is one of many featured in Creative Escape.

Illustrations of wildlife also nicely compliment the poetry. A series of hand-sketched portraits depicting a dazzling female stranger locking eyes with a male companion are among the most moving of the book’s art.

Block believes Creative Escape is of paramount importance. The initiative diminishes the stereotype labeling the inmates as onedimensional, immoral individuals.

Creative Escape personifies their existence amidst a justice system that has forgotten them.

“The general public need to see inmates as people, not just as cons.

We have so many talented writers, artists, craftsmen, etc. in our centre, each with a unique story to tell,” added Block.

The SPCC has begun a lending library and currently Block is trying to recruit experienced writers and poets to come work with inmates directly. Block is optimistic the program will see considerable growth in years to come.

“I would love to see a project like this at all of our adult and young offender facilities in Saskatchewan and across Canada,” she added.

Contact Diann Block at diann.block@gov.sk.ca if you are interested in a copy of Creative Escape.

Tech launch group

Focus on media innovation from universities MAX CRANSTON News Writer Started last summer, TandemLaunch Technologies is on a mission to help university researchers, professors and students incubate ideas and find industrial buyers for their innovations in the multimedia sector.

“We provide university inventors everything they need to commercialize their ideas,” said TandemLaunch CEO Helge Seetzen TandemLaunch shows no preferences or dividing lines between stakeholders. They aim to work with “dedicated and highly skilled inventors and investors with a keen interest in commercializing the technology,” according to their website.

“If the project seems viable to us, we start working on it along with the inventor to develop the project,” TandemLaunch project manager Alexander Junk explained.

The company’s primary focus is the consumer electronic market with a special interest in video and audio encoding and transmission. They also work with 3D and touch screen development and screen projection, among other things.

The company is interested in ideas with protectable intellectual property, which means that they can secure a patent for the idea. The prototypes for their projects have an overall budget of less than $1 million.

Seetzen has a history of producing quality ideas into money-making projects: he’s previously worked as the director of technology at Dolby Canada, and various other tech development companies.

While he was still in school,

Seetzen worked to commercialize display technologies developed at the University of British Columbia.

With the technology, known today as a “local dimming LED TV,” Seetzen co-founded BrightSide Technologies, which he later successfully sold to Dolby for a high return at reportedly over $28 million U.S. — with a substantial portion of the proceeds going to professors, students and schools, including UBC. Seetzen is a regular speaker at universities, and his message to students is clear: get started now, while you’re still in school — don’t wait for a degree to start building a business.

“There’s no better time to do it,” said Helge.

“You’re surrounded by world experts, cash for research funding is available, you have no financial obligations, flexible schedules, nothing to lose. It’s good for you and even if it fails, it will help you later. It certainly worked for me.”

TandemLaunch has worked on projects with schools, students and professors in Montreal, Vancouver, Germany and the United States.

They also offer many challenging opportunities for interns and co-op students.

The nature of their business enables students to have a significant impact on the success of individual projects and companies as a whole.

The company is looking to work with students from computer science, physics, mechanical and electrical engineering, information technology and commerce backgrounds.

If you have projects or inventions ideas they can be submitted to projects@tandemlaunchtech.com

thesheaf.com/news

Curing Saskatchewan’s doctor shortage

News • A7

Why doctors are finding it hard to make small-town Saskatchewan home IRYN TUSHABE The Carillon (University of Regina) REGINA (CUP) — The doctor shortage in rural Saskatchewan has reached critical levels, and the province is doing everything it can to attract and keep physicians in smaller towns.

Alison Thompson is a secondyear medical student at the University of Saskatchewan. She is also president of the Student Medical Society of Saskatchewan.

She thinks many doctors are fleeing from the province’s small centres because of two issues — recruitment and retention.

“Saskatchewan actively recruits doctors from abroad. Therefore we tend to get lots of international graduates. I definitely know that some come and just find that it is not a good fit and is quite different from where they originally practiced,” she said. “Others, after coming to Saskatchewan, find other locations to practice that are more financially lucrative, offer more practice flexibility, or include work in a larger centre.

Saskatchewan has one of the highest rates of medical graduates practicing in other provinces.

“A major competitor in this respect are provinces like Alberta and British Columbia, which offer more pay both in residency training and as a practicing physician,” Thompson continued. “A major

Doctors are getting the fuck out of the province. Shit.

issue right now is the resident’s contract with the government — negotiations are ongoing, and students definitely think having a contract is a factor in where they choose to do their residency.”

Thompson plans to stay and work in Saskatchewan when she graduates because she was born and raised here. Her family lives in the province as well.

She notes that a small number of students may not wish to stay in Saskatchewan due to a dislike of the place itself, but believes that many

students can be convinced to stay.

“I don’t think our medical graduates and physicians are leaving the province because they do not want to be in Saskatchewan, period. I think they leave because the province is not doing everything it can to make Saskatchewan as attractive as other locations. This includes everything from quality of training, workplace environment, salary, housing and much more,” said Thompson.

Thompson would also like to see competitive salaries and a contract

Profs fight for wages at U of W

Winnipeg sees post-secondary labour disputes

The U of W’s Wesley Hall.

TANNARA YELLAND CUP Prairies & Northern Bureau Chief

Members of the University of Winnipeg’s faculty association voted down a four-year collective agreement with the university on Feb. 16.

Over 400 employees at the University of Winnipeg, most of them professors and librarians, have been without a collective agreement with their employer for almost a year. Their last contract ran out in March 2010.

Talks between the faculty association and the administration began in October, and have been “very active” since then, said Dan Hurley, U of W associate vicepresident of external affairs.

photo by paperandglue/Flickr

Neither side would say much about the substance of their negotiations, as they have agreed “not to negotiate in the media,” Hurley said. He declined to comment on what was causing the negotiations to continue for so long.

The agreement the association voted down last week would have involved a two-year wage freeze. After the first two years, wages would have gone up 3.2 per cent and 3.3 per cent in the two following years.

Hurley said the two sides intend “to get back to the table soon” and continue negotiations. The faculty association has not yet voted on strike action.

Manitoba’s capital city was home to the Winnipeg General

Strike of 1919, a historic event that garnered international attention and became a flashpoint for frustrated workers across the nation.

Almost the entire working population of Winnipeg walked off the job between May 15 and June 26, and the strike culminated in a clash between police and citizens that is now known as “Bloody Saturday.” Two strikers died and many more were injured as Royal Northwest Mounted Police charged the thousands-strong crowd firing guns and beating strikers.

Winnipeg schools have seen significant labour turmoil in recent weeks, too. The University of Manitoba narrowly avoided a strike in the second-last week of February. Late in the night on Feb. 15, 269 of the 533 U of M employees that are part of the Canadian Auto Workers Local 3007 cast ballots and approved a contract by 76 per cent, mere hours before their walkout was scheduled to begin.

In contrast to the vote on the contract, 86 per cent of the membership voted in favour of striking.

The vote meant that the U of M did not see an interruption in food and custodial services. Workers voted in favour of the contract in order to avoid a strike, but are largely unhappy with it. They will not see a pay raise until the third year of their contract, when they will receive a 2.9 per cent raise.

photo courtesy The Carillon

in residency.

“We also used to have a competitive edge in the sense that we did not have to pay back our student loans until after residency, and this recently changed,” she said.

“The government created a short-term plan; however, a longterm plan for residents and student loan payment deferral would give Saskatchewan that edge, given that an average Canadian medical student comes out of school with approximately $150,000 in debt...

Money does make a difference.”

Saskatchewan’s Medical Association, which advocates for a quality healthcare system in the province, has put some measures in place to retain physicians who might be leaving due to poor compensation for their work.

“We are trying to get parity with other provinces so that at least that is less of a factor for them to leave,” said Dr. Guruswamy Sridhar, SMA president.

“On top of that, we are promoting collegiality with our colleagues in the rural and urban areas to increase support. So, from the medical association perspective, we are looking at some programs that will probably help us to support them so that they feel part of our community and that is very important,” Guruswamy added.

Thompson acknowledges there are many changes being put in place, both by the students themselves and the provincial government to make Saskatchewan a more attractive place to practice.

“Students have actually met with the Physician Recruitment Agency of Saskatchewan to discuss our ideas and we hope this agency is able to make positive changes to Saskatchewan practice. As students, we have asked to have our rural exposure enhanced, as many students find the variety in rural practice very desirable along with the sense of community,” she said.

Want some volunteer experience to pad your resume while applying for summer jobs?

Volunteering for the Sheaf is quick, painless and maybe even fun!

There are only five issues left until the end of the Sheaf’s 2010-11 year, so volunteer while you can.

For more information, email editor@thesheaf.com, or visit thesheaf.com/volunteer.

www.saskcancer.ca

research treatment prevention early detection

School of Radiation Therapy The Saskatchewan Cancer Agency invites you to consider a career in radiation therapy.

Radiation therapists are important members of the healthcare team in treating cancer.

They plan, deliver and provide care and education to people receiving radiation therapy.

If you are interested in building a career that combines patient-focused care with leading-edge technology, the Saskatchewan School of Radiation Therapy invites you to apply to become a part of this exciting and rewarding field. The next class will begin on August 15, 2011.

The Saskatchewan School of Radiation Therapy offers selected candidates a 25-month Radiation Therapist diploma program. This includes a didactic affiliation with CancerCare Manitoba and Red River College that requires students to attend two fourmonth terms in Winnipeg. Clinical competency is attained at the Saskatoon Cancer Centre and the Allan Blair Cancer Centre in Regina.

Minimum requirements: Successful completion of 30 credits of undergraduate university classes including: English – 3 credits, Psychology or Sociology – 6 credits, Physics – 6 credits, Anatomy & Physiology – 6 credits and Statistics – 3 credits. For specific course requirements please visit our website at www.saskcancer.ca under “Our Programs.”

Successful applicants will have a good background in the sciences, strong technical skills and the ability to work with care and precision. Patience, tolerance as well as strong interpersonal and teamwork skills are important to have.

If you are interested in applying please submit a resume, a covering letter indicating which clinical site is preferred and original transcripts of post-secondary education, no later than March 31, 2011 to: Cheryle Thompson, Human Resources Consultant, Allan Blair Cancer Centre, 4101 Dewdney Avenue, Regina, Saskatchewan S4T 7T1 For more information visit our website at www.saskcancer.ca or contact one of the program/site coordinators: Regina: 306-766-2220 Saskatoon: 306-655-2715

A8 •

Sports

the Sheaf • 17 february 2011

Huskies women’s basketball will host Final Four History-making team sweeps opponents TANNARA YELLAND Layout Manager It was a bloody two-day battle but the Huskies women’s basketball team emerged victorious over the University of Calgary Dinos in their opening playoff series.

In a move that surprised few, the nationally top-ranked Huskies maintained their unprecedented 22-game winning streak, sweeping the University of Calgary Dinos Feb. 25 and 26 in the quarterfinals of the Canada West playoffs. The Huskies won 76-68 and 75-64 over the weekend.

Thanks to their first round sweep, the Huskies will host the Canada West Final Four for the first time in the program’s history March 4 to 5.

“We’ve had some amazing leadership passed on to us, and now that we have five fifth-years we’re hoping we can pass it on,” said Huskies fifth-year point guard Jill Humbert.

“The fact that we’re making a mark on our program is an amazing accomplishment.”

Katie Miyazaki paced the Dogs with 22 points on Feb. 26, while Humbert led the charge on Feb. 25 with 19.

The game on Feb. 25 was barely a contest at all; after conference scoring leader Kim Tulloch knocked down a three-pointer to

Huskie Jill Humbert fucks Michelle Lang up!

photo by Pete Yee

close out the opening quarter, the Huskies already possessed an 1812 lead.

And they continued to build on that lead for the rest of the game.

Play got rougher into the third quarter as the Dinos struggled to put up points. That rough style continued on into the next game.

Despite the roughhousing, the Huskies entered the fourth frame with a comfortable 16-point lead.

Both games had unusually high numbers of fouls: Tricia Carriere and Jana Spindler each racked up four fouls in the first installment of the series. Dinos Tamara Jarrett and Megan Lang received five fouls each the next evening. The total fouls for each team exceeded 20 during the second game.

Both games saw third quarters in which an abundance of foul calls were made as play got ever more aggressive.

It was a desperate situation for the Dinos, as they fought frantically to continue their season.

Even Dinos head coach Shawnee Harle had to concede the Huskies’ supremacy. “We knew we were over-matched,” she said after Saturday’s game, “but if you’re willing to go fight the fight, you have a chance. We had some chance here — a very slim chance, mind you, but some.”

But the Dinos were unable to do anything with that opportunity and

now the Dinos will not advance to the Final Four. Meanwhile, the Huskies’ opening round playoff success last weekend means they will host the tournament.

Despite their continued dominance, Humbert says the Huskies have work to do. The Dogs need “to get a bit hungrier” if they are to match or best their third-place finish at last year’s nationals.

If the Huskies win the Canada West Final Four they immediately qualify for the Final Eight March 18 to 20 in Windsor. However, anything lower than a top-place finish means the Huskies will have to punch their ticket via various regional tournaments held across the country March 11 and 12.

The Huskies open the Canada West Final Four with a semifinal bout against the upstart University of Fraser Valley Cascades at 6:15 p.m. March 4. UFV finished seventh in the Canada West standings before upsetting secondranked University of Winnipeg in the opening round of the playoffs. Third-seed Regina meets fourth-ranked Alberta in the other semifinal at 8 p.m.

The gold medal game tips off at 7 p.m. on March 5, while the bronze medal match is set for 5 p.m. All games take place at the PAC.

Huskies heading to Final Four The reigning national champs prepare to depart for UBC DEVIN R. HEROUX Sports Writer Former Huskies men’s basketball head coach Greg Jockims was at the Physical Activity Complex Feb. 26 to watch game two of the Canada West quarter-finals against the University of Regina Cougars.

You could tell it was killing him not to be on the sidelines prepping the Green and White for another national title playoff run.

“It didn’t bother me during the season, but now that it’s playoff time it’s hard to be sitting in the stands,” said Jockims. “I talk to the team often, though, so I feel close to it still.”

Jockims took a year leave of absence and having just won a national title it seemed like the right move. But now with the Huskies looking poised for another strong post-season run, Jockims is having second thoughts. Can you blame him?

Let’s be honest; there was no way Regina was going to win a game this weekend in the first round of Canada West playoffs.

Besides, earlier in February the Dogs beat up on the Cougars to the tune of 104-76 and 110-83.

It wasn’t much better this past weekend only this time the playoff losses by Regina were seasonending. After the initial weekend loss of 98-75 the Huskies set their sights on a weekend sweep, and did just that the following night

with a 92-75 victory.

On Feb. 25 the Huskies were lead offensively by the local fifth product Rejean Chabot who cashed in for 29 points. Canada West scoring leader Jamelle Barrett racked up 23 of his own points to help the cause. But perhaps most impressive was Nolan Brudehl’s Huskies’ playoff record-setting performance; the Bishop James Mahoney graduate had 22 rebounds, the most in Huskies playoff history. It all tallied to be a dominating 98-75 win.

“

Sure, they can win it all again.

Greg Jockims

Former Huskies head coach

Saturday night was much of the same for the high-flying Huskies, however, it took them a while to find their offensive rhythm. It wasn’t until a dominating third quarter that saw the Huskies outscore Regina 31-15 that allowed head coach Barry Rawlyk and company to breathe easy.

Again, led by the offensive attack of Jamelle Barrett with 30 points and Rejean Chabot with 24 points, the Huskies ran away with a 92-75 win. Michael Lieffers was big on the boards with 10 rebounds.

So now the Huskies find themselves in familiar territory, joining UBC, Alberta and Trinity Western in the Final Four. The Dogs will take their No. 3 ranking in the country to Vancouver, just like they did last year when they won the Canada West title.

There are two tickets to the CIS championship on the line for the top two of four teams.

A win on March 4 against Trinity Western University and the Huskies are headed back to the championships. A loss means they’ll be homeward bound.

In their only two meetings this season the Huskies and Trinity Western split their games with their last encounter being an impressive Huskies win 101-93.

And what about Jockims? What does he think of his former team’s chances?

“The biggest thing is that there are still a lot of guys on this team that know how to win,” said Jockims. “Sure, they can win it all again.”

Sports • A9

thesheaf.com/sports

U of S football players recognized by CFL Three Huskies have been selected to attend CFL evaluation camp DARREN DUPONT Sports Writer Three draft-eligible members of the Saskatchewan Huskies football team will put their skills on display this weekend at the Canadian Football League evaluation camp held in Toronto from March 4 to 6.

Receivers Jade Etienne and Braeden George along with linebacker Peter Thiel will represent the Huskies at the evaluation camp in front of CFL coaches, general managers and scouts who will evaluate the prospects ahead of the 2011 Canadian Draft on May 8.

Etienne is the highest rated of the three players at No. 15 on the recent list of top prospects published by the CFL’s Scouting Bureau in December. Players

at the camp will try to improve their stock ahead of the next top 15 prospects list which will be published in April prior to the draft.

Etienne is coming off a career year with the Huskies catching 28 balls for a league-high 721 yards and six touchdowns in seven regular season games, earning him first-team all-Canadian honours.

Braeden George caught 26 passes for 270 yards and three touchdowns this past season for the Huskies. Last May, George shone as member of team West in the annual East-West Bowl leading all receivers with eight grabs for 132 yards and the team’s lone touchdown in a 12-9 loss.

Peter Thiel, the third member of the Huskies invited to participate in the evaluation camp, is coming off a stellar season of his own.

George powers by defence.

photo by Pete Yee

The third year Huskies linebacker was in on 31 tackles and recorded one quarterback sack through six games with the Dogs.

Canada West will be well

Dropping the mitts

represented at the camp as a total of 12 players from Canada West teams will be in Toronto looking to impress, including three Calgary Dinos who are all ranked among the top 15 prospects by the CFL’s Scouting Bureau. Slotback Anthony Parker (ranked third), wideout Nathan Coehoorn (ranked seventh), and running back Matt Walter (ranked 14th) rank among the top prospects along with Alberta kicker Hugh O’Neill (ranked 11th).

Regina’s Marc Mueller is one of only two CIS quarterbacks who will make the trip to Toronto. Last year three CIS quarterbacks were invited, including current Toronto Argonaut Danny Brannagan of Queen’s.

Of the 53 participants attending the camp, a whopping 83 per cent will be Canadian Interuniversity

Sport student-athletes.

The 2011 evaluation camp begins on the Friday afternoon with player arrivals and team interviews. Strength and flexibility will be tested on Saturday at the Park Hyatt Toronto Hotel and the weekend will finish up on Sunday on the football field at Varsity Centre at the University of Toronto.

Does fighting still have a place in hockey?

TRISTAN WOODSWORTHLINAS The Muse (Memorial University of Newfoundland) ST. JOHN’S (CUP) — Fighting in the National Hockey League has always been a hot topic for sports analysts. In recent years, the discussion has intensified in the post-lockout era with communication and a new understanding of concussions.

The game of hockey is slowly changing its ways to protect its athletes, with a large emphasis being placed on head injuries. For even longer than the NHL, the junior ranks have been effecting change to prevent trauma to the heads of young athletes.

Only since the NHL lockout during the 2004-05 season have concussions really been accepted as not only a viable injury, but the worst type of injury.

During the ’90s, players competing in the playoffs could take a hit that had obviously concussed them, only to return to the game later because it was the manly and courageous thing to do.

When New Jersey Devils defenceman Scott Stevens floored the then Mighty Ducks of Anaheim forward Paul Kariya in the 2003 Stanley Cup finals, for example, he came back to score the winning goal of the game.

But perhaps this concussion was the reason his career has been derailed ever since.

Stars like Sidney Crosby miss 20 games in a season, with no timetable for a return, all due to concussions that probably would have gone unnoticed, or at least unmentioned, by the players.

With this in mind, the issue of fighting in hockey has hit another level of scrutiny amongst fans and analysts alike.

In the wake of the 2009 death of Don Sanderson, a senior hockey player in Ontario, the question has been posed frequently: Does fighting belong in hockey in this day and age?

There are those who enjoy the

heart and the energy that fighting brings to the game, as well as the policing that goes behind the scenes of these teams. On the other side of the coin, there are those who see it as a barbaric ritual that has no place in a sporting event, especially not one where there are no safeguards to prevent serious injury.

Since 2005, fighting majors have skyrocketed from 466 to 714. This year, there have already been 497 fights in the NHL after 60 games. That’s a pace for about 690 fights over the course of the season.

While fighting has decreased in the last two years — albeit minimally — it has otherwise seen an increase year by year since the lockout.

Due to the instigator rule — a rule that penalizes the player who purposely seeks out a fight — there has also been a giant leap in planned fights that take place right after the whistle.

There are mixed reactions to these fights, as a lot of true-blue hockey fans see them less as a part of the game and more for the sake of getting it over with.

The NHL has come to a crossroads with regards to where fighting stands in the grand scheme of the game. Is it okay to let junior and minor-league players think fighting is the way to deal with problems on the ice?

Does it affect someone’s attitude toward adversity off the ice?

Don’t get me wrong; I would be a very sad individual if I couldn’t check out hockeyfights.com for the latest tilt. However, I have a feeling that if it’s not taken out completely, there will soon be big restrictions on the methods of fighting and their place in the game.

Board of Governors’

Annual Public Reporting

You are invited to attend the University of Saskatchewan Board of Governors’ fifth annual public reporting.

Friday, March 4, 2011 at noon Convocation Hall

Everyone is encouraged to attend.

Peter MacKinnon, President

Vera Pezer, Chancellor

Nancy Hopkins, Chair

Art Dumont

Linda Ferguson

Grit McCreath

Garry Standing

Chris Stoicheff

David Sutherland

Susan Milburn, Vice-chair

Greg Smith

www.usask.ca/boardofgovernors

A10 • Sports

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

Annual Motorsports Spectacular puts on a loud show Monster trucks dazzle, but motocross is the true star ASHLEIGH MATTERN Editor-in-Chief Holding my nephews’ hands tight, my sister-in-law and I headed toward the familiar Credit Union Centre for an altogether unfamiliar event: monster trucks.

“

While I’m still not convinced running over broken-down cars in a very big truck qualifies as a sport, motocross clearly does.

No one in our little group had ever seen a monster truck, let alone been to an event dedicated to them. As we settled in with our overpriced snacks, I quickly realized monster trucks weren’t the only machines on display.

For the next three-plus hours, the annual Auto Trader

The track before the mayhem started.

Motorsports Spectacular treated us to not only monster trucks, but motocross arenacross, motocross freestyle, a demolition derby, the “Canadian Tuff Truck Competition” and quad racing.

But first we were introduced to the main attraction of the show.

The monster trucks themselves were treated with as much respect, if not more, than the drivers. The colourful names of the trucks included Maniac, Jurassic Attack, Western Renegade and California Kid. Our favourite ended up being

California Kid. The driver was a guy in his early 20s from California, and he was reckless on the track. More than once during the monster truck freestyle, we all gasped as we were certain he would flip over backwards.

But to what extent is this event a show?

A fight broke out between the captains of the two quad racing teams (one team from Toronto and one from Saskatoon), but it was clearly choreographed. It lead to a rematch between the two teams, which — surprise! — the

photo by Ashleigh Matter

Saskatoon team won.

Often the event seemed to have a professional wrestling feel to it; these guys may be athletes, but they were really just putting on a show for the kids. And man, were there kids!

My very rough guess was that there was a 1:1 kid to adult ratio.

They were everywhere. And they seemed to love the little Cat machines cleaning up the tracks between events as much as the big show.

While I had a good time, I had no intention of writing a

sports article. If The Sheaf’s sports editor had asked me to write something before I went, I probably would have replied, “Monster trucks aren’t a sport!”

While I’m still not convinced running over broken-down cars in a very big truck qualifies as a sport, motocross clearly does.

Despite the draw from the shiny bigness of the monster trucks, I was more impressed by the motocross racing. Watching them calmly fly over the big jump, take the turns at terrifying speeds to wipe out hard only to hop back on their bike again got me interested in the sport. A quick search lead me to the Saskatoon Track N Trail Motocross Club, which hosts a track south of Saskatoon for motorcycling and ATV riders.

According to their website, the tracks are home to many events, including provincial championship races. They’re 2011 season hasn’t started yet, but if I took anything away from the Motorsports Spectacular, it was that motocross racing is sweet — it’s definitely worth finding time to check out some of their races this summer.

Huskies what’s up

CanWest and CIS championships for Huskies track and wrestling MAX CRANSTON Sports Writer

Track and Field

Jan 2011

The University of Saskatchewan’s track and field team competed at the Canada West Track and Field Championship Feb. 25 and 26 held at the University of Manitoba’s Max Bell Fieldhouse. The team earned a total of 17 medals over the course of the weekend.

The Huskies excelled at throwing events throughout the meet. Taryn Suttie defended her Canada West gold medal by throwing 15.13 metres in shot put — the furthest thrown in the CIS this season. Teammate Breanne Rak won silver with a throw of 13.07 metres. Suttie also won gold in weight throw, after hurling 18.07 metres. Kristen Mackie won a bronze in weight throw after throwing 15.39 metres.

Andrew Smith grabbed a silver medal with his 15.87 metres in the weight throw. Smith continued on day two, with a strong shot put throw of 18.71 metres to shatter the previous CIS record of 17.63 metres. Nolan Machiskinic took a bronze in the men’s shot put with a throw of 15.40 metres.

The Huskies also nabbed two medals in women’s pole vault.

Meghan Richey cleared 3.56 metres for the silver medal and Teresa Hill vaulted 3.46 metres for the bronze. Taylor Petrucha improved upon his own conference pole vault record set in 2010 at 5.21 metres, after jumping 5.22 metres and winning gold. The Huskies men swept the pole vault

event; Lane Britnell won a silver with 4.52 metres and Paul Selzer took bronze with 4.32 metres.

In track events, Marcia Richards won silver in the women’s 1,500 metre race with a time of 4:35.32.

The women’s 4x400 metre relay team earned a silver finishing with 3:56.94. The women’s 4x800 metre relay team finished with bronze with a time of 9:12.44.

Caitlin Warkentin ran a 9:58.10 in the women’s 3,000 metres for a bronze. Uzair Ahmed also won a bronze in the 60 metre hurdles with a time of 8.90.

The men’s contingent of the Regina Cougars won the championship title, with the Dogs finishing in fifth place. The women’s title was won by the University of Calgary team, with Saskatchewan finishing in third place.

Huskies Suttie was named 2010-11 Canada West Female Outstanding Field Performer.

Calgary’s Ammon Nelson shattered a 26-year-old Canada West record in the 300-metre dash.

Nelson ran a 37.89. The previous record was 38.07, set in 1985 by Esmie Lawrence.

Wrestling

The Huskies wrestling team competed in the 2011 CIS Championship hosted by Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

Fifth-year competitor Daniel Olver (82kg) captured a gold medal for the second year in a row. This medal capped off an undefeated season for the team captain. Olver leaves CIS

wrestling as a five-time Canada West champion and five-time CIS winner with two golds. Ryan Myrfield (72kg) won the other gold medal for the Huskies, which is his second medal in three years.

Koren Pitkethly (55kg) earned a silver medal. Natasha Kramble (51kg) and Kathleen Kent (55kg) each won bronze for the Huskies.

Hockey

The U of S men’s hockey team clinched a playoff spot with a victory over the University of Manitoba Bisons on Feb. 25. The team won 6-3 in the opening game of their weekend meeting to secure their post-season spot. Two goals from both Kyle Ross and Chris Durand, along with goals from Craig McCallum and Steven Gillen sealed the deal for the Huskies.

In the second game, on Feb. 26, the Huskies suffered a 6-2 loss.

The game was much closer than the score illustrates. Goals from Zach Sim and Chris Durand put tied the game in the second period.

The Bisons took the game from there, but the Huskies postseason appearance was already set in stone.

The Huskies travel to Calgary to meet the Calgary Dinos on March 4 and 5.

The Huskies women’s hockey team failed to make the playoff picture despite a strong year; three players have been awarded a spot on the Canada West All-Star team.

Breanne George finished with a first team spot, while Cara Wooster and Kristin Bews were announced as Second Team All-stars.

thesheaf.com/arts

Let’s make a movie!

New animation club for all students

arts Gonna buy five copies for my mother

• A11

The Sheepdogs get a shot at the cover of Rolling Stone magazine MATTHEW STEFANSON Arts Writer

A digital cartoon by Smith using the Blender software.

ASHLEIGH MATTERN Editor-in-Chief Jeff Smith is hoping to bring a little bit of Hollywood to the University of Saskatchewan.

The manager of the U of S Digital Research Centre and ex-special effects inventor has started a digital animation club for students with the goal of producing a professionalquality 3D film.

Smith — who worked on Aladdin, The Lion King, Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 — is aiming for the students to create a three-minute film. It may not sound like much, but he says they can expect it to take six months to create a professionalquality film.

“Short subject is the only one we can really hope to tackle, at least in the short term,” he explained.

“There’s a fair bit of training to teach people the elements they find most interesting. If someone wants to get involved in painting digital background, we have to get them up to the point where they can [do that].”

The Fine Arts and Humanities Digital Research Centre was created five years ago with the goal of encouraging the use of new technologies in multidisciplinary research. Smith cites digital humanities, an emerging field of research, as an example of some of the work they’re doing.

Smith explains that the humanities are starting to use computers “as more than just word processors.”

The results are interesting projects like Peter Stoicheff’s project to reorganize all the passages in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury into chronological order, or Peter Robinson’s project to annotate literary documents using social networking techniques.

With the animation project, Smith said he’s hoping to bridge the gap in the university community between “the technical people and the humanities people.”

“This is a fun environment where we can bring people from all disciplines in,” he said. “We think by doing that in a relaxed atmosphere, we’ll start talking more about various projects people are working on which will create organic relationships

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happening across disciplines.”

Right now, Smith estimates the group only has about half a dozen people, and they’re meeting rather informally until more people get involved. They’re obviously looking for computer science students to help with the technical side and fine arts students who will have skills with drawing and visual representation, but they’re also looking for musicians to write the score, writers to develop a script, drama students to design lighting and sets (“Even in computer animation there’s lighting and sets,” Smith explained), and commerce students to help market the film.

“Every discipline is required to do a decent animated film.”

He also insists that no experience is necessary to get involved.

The tools they’re using to make the film are all public domain and available on all major platforms, so students don’t have to buy expensive programs if they want to work on the project on their own time. They’re using Blender for their 3D modelling animations, Inkscape for their graphic design tool, GIMP as their Photoshop clone, and Audacity for audio editing.

Smith pointed out that not only will students learn about animation, they’ll also get exposure to video processing, audio processing and graphic design tools.

“It’s so difficult for students to get a sense of what the practical applications of what their skill sets are,” said Smith. “Even if you don’t go on to a career in animation, learning how all these media tools function [is valuable].... Whether it’s in a marketing department, or software design capacity, or working as an executive, these skills are quite usable.”

The Digital Research Centre animation club meets Thursdays at 3 p.m. in Arts 145. The DRC office is also open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. For more info, email jeff.smith@usask.ca.

It’s rare that a Canadian group earns any sort of national exposure in the U.S. It’s more rare still for them to be an unknown group from the middle of the Canadian prairies who are being given the opportunity to grace the cover of Rolling Stone.

The Sheepdogs, a wellknown Roots rock group in their hometown of Saskatoon have been entered into the Choose the Cover of Rolling Stone contest.

The web-based competition, which is currently in the first of four stages, starts with 16 unsigned groups from the U.S. and Canada, the eventual winner of which will — in addition to being the first ever unsigned group ever to grace the cover of the magazine — be awarded a recording contract with Atlantic Records.

The Sheepdogs’ bassist, Ryan Gullen is excited at the prospect of sharing a label with such past luminaries as Ray Charles and Led Zeppelin, but the group isn’t getting ahead of themselves.

“We don’t have huge ideas of being on a major label and blowing up and being the next U2,” said Gullen. “We’re keeping ourselves pretty level headed and not having big ideas.”

The real benefit of winning the competition, according to Gullen, would be the exposure.

“I think that having people in place that can expose you to the public is always a good thing.

Any situation where you can align yourself with somebody that can help get your music out there

and get some money behind what you’re doing, it’s a huge thing.”

The American market is notoriously difficult for Canadian bands to find ground in and having the promotional power of Atlantic Records behind them, the Sheepdogs could find a much larger audience, although the competition itself has already been great exposure for the group.

“Just yesterday on MySpace we had something like 23,000 plays just based on the contest,” said Gullen.

The group self-produced and recorded their last three albums, but given the chance, and with Atlantic footing the bill, Gullen said that they would be excited to bring some outside influences into the process.

“Ethan Johns is a really good producer, Paul Butler — who is in a band called The Bees from the Isle of White — we’re really big fans of their music. I think that to work with a producer who we would obviously never be able to afford, who could make our records even better — that would be a really big thing.”

The Sheepdogs are notably the only Canadian group in the competition and, considering that they don’t hail from Toronto, Montreal or any of Canada’s other musical hotspots, their presence on the list has been a surprise to many, including the group, said Gullen. “To be the only Canadian band picked is pretty crazy.”

“Being from Saskatchewan we are at a bit of a geographical disadvantage,” said Gullen. “In order for us to do things within the music industry we have to go to Toronto or we have to go to Vancouver or Montreal or down to

New York or wherever, but a band from Saskatchewan is a much more interesting story.”

The Sheepdogs are facing a wide field of competition, from their roots rock counterparts, Jamestown Revival, to MC Mod Sun. “I feel pretty strongly about our band,” said Gullen, “but there’s definitely some other bands that are going to be tough competition.”

Despite the wide variety of music represented in the contest, Gullen said that The Sheepdogs are in a good position.

“We’ve always been told that our music is accessible. We’ve played in New York and had hiphop guys just loving our stuff. I think that our music is accessible enough that a lot of people can enjoy it even if they’re not into that genre.”

The difficulty, according to Gullen, is going to be competing with those groups on the list that already have a huge fan base, but, he said, “We have an entire country behind us.”

His cautious optimism hasn’t stopped Gullen from thinking about the contest’s other big prize, a spot on the main stage at this year’s Bonnaroo festival.

“I just saw that Buffalo Springfield is playing, which would be so cool. Yeah, and then I could meet L’il Wayne and Eminem. All my heroes of the musical industry.”

To vote for the Sheepdogs go to rollingstone.com/ choosethecover and rate them five stars.

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A12 • Arts

Neeson carries Unknown

Inconsistent but entertaining thriller is tailored to actor’s strengths AREN BERGSTROM Arts Writer At some point in the last four years, Liam Neeson decided that he wanted to be an action star.

The man best known for playing Oskar Schindler in the Holocaust classic Schindler’s List transformed himself, almost overnight, into a middle-aged action star whose hulking physique and thespian acting ability make him a strange combination of sympathetic leading man and intimidating bruiser. Taken was the first of these starring action roles and Unknown is the latest.

Much like Taken, Unknown succeeds despite its many flaws, playing upon the strengths of its lead actor and its strong atmosphere to deliver an effective, if inconsistent, thriller.

In Unknown, Neeson plays Dr. Martin Harris, a botanist who suffers a car crash in Berlin and wakes up to find that his wife (January Jones) doesn’t remember him and his identity has been stolen by another man (Aidan Quinn). With the help of an Eastern European taxi driver (Diane Kruger), Harris attempts to recover his life and solve the conspiracy behind his stolen identity.

It’s a classic case of mistaken identity and the archetype of the wrong man, a film trope perfected by Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, Unknown shares more than just a passing resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock’s thrillers. Director Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan) plays upon conspiracy thriller tropes found in films like

The Man Who Knew Too Much and Hitchcock’s trademark haughty ice queens, here played by Jones, wedding them to modern thriller sensibilities from the Jason Bourne films.

The combination creates an exciting movie where mysterious agencies plan assassinations and amnesia riddles the main character.

It also creates a tonal and logical inconsistency in the film, because the classic and modern thriller conventions do not combine seamlessly. Nevertheless, the film has its highlights.

Unknown’s first two acts are strong. The film’s intriguing concept, paranoid atmosphere and various twists do much to pull the viewer in. There are some impressive car chases, influenced by John Frankenheimer’s Ronin, nifty camerawork that mirrors Harris’ fading sanity and compelling mysteries that occur before the film starts to devolve into a mindless action finale. By the time the film’s over, the only component that has been consistent throughout is Liam Neeson.

Neeson is Unknown’s main strength; it could not work without him. Besides being tailored around his specific strengths, Unknown needs Neeson’s legitimacy to ground its proceedings in a believable world and gain the trust of the audience.

Neeson has that rare quality where he seems instantly trustworthy: Much like the creators of Taken, the filmmakers of Unknown depend

upon this quality to ingratiate the audience with the character, an important aspect considering the film can’t spend time introducing the character to the audience without spoiling its later twists.

Unknown’s supporting cast is decent, if unremarkable. Diane Kruger is dependably good as the taxi driver who helps Harris uncover the truth. Without a familiarity with the character type she’s playing or her work on Mad Men, audiences will be frustrated with January Jones’ iciness in her performance as Harris’ wife, Liz, but that’s not to say her performance is bad — she is purposefully cold and distant.

Bruno Ganz (Downfall) and Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) show up in very small, interesting roles, sharing a surprisingly effective and smart scene that seems taken from great spy thrillers of the past.

As a whole, Unknown is inconsistent, but entertaining.

It marks the next step in Liam Neeson’s transformation from A-list dramatic actor to A-list action star, and although it may not be the progression from Taken that we’d hoped for, it cements Neeson’s legitimacy as one of the most compelling leading men in action films. Unknown may not reach the heights of the Alfred Hitchcock or Jason Bourne thrillers that it’s inspired by, but it is better than your average action film and certainly not disposable early year entertainment.

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

The Weakerthans

Canadians release and tour new album

The Weakerthans seize the opportunity to bare their skin.

LAURA ALFORD Arts Writer There’s a certain mythology surrounding the latest album from The Weakerthans.

Titled The Falcon Lake Incident — a reference both to the recording location and a famous UFO sighting that occurred there in the late ’60s — the album is a collaboration between the Winnipeg band and Ottawa-based singer/songwriter Jim Bryson.

The collaboration was hatched over a drunken lunch between Weakerthans guitarist Stephen Carroll and Bryson when Bryson was in Winnipeg on tour with the Tragically Hip. Within three months, the band had relocated an entire recording studio to a remote cabin at Falcon Lake, Manitoba.

And by the end of a cold week in January, they had made a record.

Though Bryson had structured the songs before they all met in the studio, the songs morphed as The Weakerthans interpreted them.

“We took what he offered us,” said Carroll. “We tried to find our way to it and to make it our own.”

The resulting album is a true collaboration, blending Bryson’s mellow singer-songwriter vibe with The Weakerthans’ alwayshyphenated mix of punk, folk, rock and pop.

“We helped in the studio, arranging, testing the songs to see what we could draw out of them with our energy and our ideas,” said Carroll.

No doubt the setting also influenced the sound and feel of the record. Falcon Lake is located in the Whiteshell Provincial Park, on the Manitoba-Ontario border.

“It was so cold. It was wonderful,” said Carroll. “It was exactly what you’d look for in a romantic Manitoba winter.

Blistering cold, clear skies, unbelievably starry nights and giant, giant bonfires.”

The setting also made for a unique recording process. Rather than going back and forth from home to the studio, both places merged for the week. Work on the record began before breakfast and continued into the wee hours of the morning. Carroll admits it was an intense process but for him it was also “loose.”

“There were no clocks,” he explained. “The clock was off so that we were just there, that’s what we were doing. We lived and breathed it for a week straight.”

The 10-track album was released in October. Now, Jim Bryson and The Weakerthans are touring across

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this fine land to promote the record.

So far, the band has played several shows in Ontario and one in Montreal. When I talked with Carroll, he was at his home in Winnipeg on a short break from the tour. With Bryson in the mix, he said, The Weakerthans are playing different venues with a different vibe.

Things got interesting when I asked Carroll if his guitar style changes under a different songwriter.

“It does a little bit,” he answered hesitantly, “but I try and not make it change.” Jokingly, he added, “I try and make him change. I definitely push it to go towards the rock side and I make it happen. I have to play to the band but I definitely am probably pulling more than anybody else to make it rock.”

The push-pull between different styles gives the album depth and should make the live concert a dynamic event. On the album, the poles might be represented by the punky, guitar-heaviness of “Up All Night” and the reflective “Freeways in the Frontyard” with its beautiful harmonies and steel guitar. Somewhere in the middle are tracks like “Kissing Cousins” and “Fell off the Dock,” where the songs move ahead while leaving room for a guitar riff or horn line to complement Bryson’s clever but always down-to-earth lyrics.

“It’s a good push-pull that’s the fun part of it all,” said Carroll.

“We kinda mix it up. There’s really stark acoustic moments where Jim will just do a song by himself sometimes,” he said, describing the live concert. He added, “We have a lot of punk rock heritage. I like the fact that we’re interjecting that periodically in these songs.”

I ended the interview asking what is next for The Weakerthans.

Carroll said the band will focus on writing for its next record after John K. Samson releases the third in his series of solo 7-inches later this year.

Not a band to rush the songwriting process, Carroll explained, “We’re constantly working on something. There’s constant communication every day.

Our lives are intertwined in ways I don’t think we at all expected when we started the band.”

The thought of the band’s earliest days closed the interview with a nice realization.

“Wait. What day is it today?” he asked as though he hadn’t thought of it until then. “The 23rd?!” The Weakerthans have been making great Canadian music for 14 years.

Arts • A13

thesheaf.com/arts

From the scrap heap: Showgirls So bad it’s good, but still kind of bad BLAIR WOYNARSKI Arts Writer My ongoing journey into the world of poorly received movies could not hope to gain credibility until I stopped by this gem.

Showgirls: 4.1/10 on the Internet Movie Database, 16 per cent on Metacritic, 12 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes and a name that still raises eyebrows and elicits sneers whenever it is mentioned.

Indeed, very few films can match its legacy for critical evisceration.

With that reputation as my starting point, it was difficult to know how to prepare myself.

In the end, I was left perplexed because I could not really decide just how bad it was. There is some good material at its core: a perverse sort of Cinderella story and an unflinching look at the hypocrisy of “show business,” yet it feels like it was penned by someone who spent a couple minutes inside a strip club and just guessed how they were operated.

If there was one word I would use to describe this movie, it would be “inexplicable.” Nothing on screen seems to have any logical basis for happening.

Early on, we see our protagonist arrive in Las Vegas, pump a slot machine twice before winning the jackpot, immediately spend all

her winnings, get mistaken for a hooker, discover her suitcase is missing, and then suddenly finds herself living in another woman’s trailer.

The story — if you need a refresher — begins with Elizabeth Berkley as Nomi Malone hitchhiking to Las Vegas, but who has her suitcase stolen by the good Samaritan who gives her a lift.

Stranded, she meets Molly, who invites Nomi to stay with her.

Nomi gets a job stripping at a grungy club called The Cheetah, but is taken by the glitz of the topless cabaret at the Stardust Hotel.

Nomi happens to catch the eye of the Stardust’s leading lady Cristal Connors (a slightly terrifying Gina Gershon) and entertainment director Zach Carey (Kyle MacLachlan), and she finds herself competing for a spot in the Stardust’s “Goddess” show in a Kafkan audition sequence that leaves us with the impression that Broadway is populated by those who couldn’t cut it as Vegas showgirls.

Predictably, Nomi becomes more ruthless as she attempts to claw her way up the showbiz ladder.

A little less than halfway through the movie, there is a scene with the showgirls getting in costume before their show,

when suddenly a group of monkeys intrude upon the change room. The monkeys are eventually rounded up and never have any significance. I find that this scene sums up the whole movie quite well.

One of the most infamous elements of this movie is the nudity. There is a lot of it.

Elizabeth Berkley spends a large portion of her screen-time in various states of undress. Given the subject matter, it makes sense, but what is curious is that while a lot of the film is nude, very little of it is actually sexual.

The ostentatious showcase of the performers’ bodies mostly comes off as hollow and vapid.

An early scene of a nude lapdance is not at all sexually charged, like it reasonably should be, but characterized by bitterness and voyeurism.

The now-notorious pool sex scene is one of the most hilarious and least erotic instances of any sexual interaction in film history: it consists of Elizabeth Berkley frantically flopping backwards on the water with her legs wrapped around Kyle MacLachlan who, unless he is the most wellendowed man in the world, is quite obviously not even close to making genital contact.

But all things considered, it works. The movie isn’t sexy and

Dialogue-driven masterpiece

it isn’t glamourous, and there is no reason it should be. It strips off the veneer of this tawdry Vegas show business and reveals something dirty and ruthless.

This is reinforced by the utter vacuousness of the stripping. But I may be giving the film too much credit.

The premise works, but there is a pervasive ineptitude.

Performances are outlandish and lacking in logical consistency.

Elizabeth Berkley can only seem to express emotion through a staccato flailing of her limbs.

She spends the first half of the movie storming off angrily and the second half looking cold and bitchy. Gina Gershon has a very unnerving sexuality underneath her and demonstrates fiery attraction to Nomi, though we are never sure why. Gina Ravera as Nomi’s friend Molly plays a genuine mix of innocence and attitude and spends most of her screen-time pretending she’s in a better movie.

Characters come and go

without accomplishing anything, including one potential-but-notquite love interest who appears to work every job in Las Vegas.

Plot points show up out of nowhere and are very hastily resolved. Plus, the script gets hooked on odd obsessions, like the fact that showgirls eat brown rice and vegetables, or how Nomi mispronounces Versace (a genuinely good joke until it got pounded into the ground).

In the end, it falls somewhere between “so bad it’s good” indie cheese and big-budget selfindulgent flops. Is it a bad movie?

Yes. But despite its copious flaws, it is legitimately entertaining. You get invested in Nomi’s struggle, while periodically stopping to laugh at the absurdity of what is happening on screen, and are left with a very pessimistic image of Vegas in particular and showbiz in general, which I can only assume is the point. But then the cute and contrived ending reminds you why you started laughing in the first place.

February 28th and April 18th, 2011

The Sunset Limited is elegant, thought-provoking ANDREW GLUM Arts Writer and Sheaf Delivery Boy Those who feel that all of the 2010 Oscar award-winners were mediocre at best will have some solace in HBO’s recently released The Sunset Limited.

It may seem strange that a made-for-TV movie could surpass everything adorned with the eminent golden statue, but there are many factors that make The Sunset Limited both unique and of top-shelf quality.

For one, it was written by Cormac McCarthy, author of the novels The Road, No Country for Old Men and the highly praised Blood Meridian. The difference with The Sunset Limited is that it is not simply another case of someone else’s film adaptation of McCarthy prose — this screenplay was actually written by McCarthy (technically, he adapted his own stage play for the screen).

If a screenplay written by America’s best living novelist is not enough to intrigue, there is more. Tommy Lee Jones not only co-stars alongside Samuel L. Jackson, but he also directs. Having only directed two other films, both of which are unremarkable, he has truly outdone himself with this project.

Realistically, The Sunset Limited probably didn’t really need a director in the usual sense.

A film which is so extremely dialogue-driven that it takes place only in one room with only two characters probably only needs

Goddamnit Sam, don’t look at me like that!

two talented, experienced actors who can hammer it out together.

And these two actors do hammer it out quite nicely. It is refreshing to see Jackson performing in a film that isn’t a complete waste of his talent.

While it is impressive that he can make even a piece of garbage like Snakes on a Plane watchable, it is preferable that he connect his acting ability with an equally notable script.

The most impressive aspect of the film, however, I’ve already hinted at: how dialoguedriven it is. As film technology progresses, it becomes more and more rare to see films focus primarily on dialogue. Instead, most contemporary films focus on visual effects, and while this is not inherently bad, the visual effects too often lack any symbolic connection to the given film’s theme or content, and serve only as a kind of decoration, culminating in a final product that will be completely forgotten within a year.

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While there are many films that could be deemed “dialoguedriven,” those that really challenge themselves in this regard are usually limited in the amount of different settings, and avoid flashbacks.

The Sunset Limited is outstanding in this regard: it is literally just two men talking in one room for an hour and a half, and yet it is constantly interesting.

I think one would have to go back to the 1957 film 12 Angry Men to find something of comparable quality that takes place in just one room (one could make an argument for the film versions of Samuel Beckett’s plays, but that’s a whole different discussion).

While a unique form is not enough in and of itself to make a good film, it is the thoughtprovoking content, elegant writing and skilled acting that combine to make The Sunset Limited such a beautiful work.

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A14 • Arts

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds won’t disappoint Pit iconic characters against each other in game perfect for casual and seasoned gamers RICHARD WONG Arts Writer

Whoa, did that guy just fart?

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Have you ever wondered who would win in a fight between Halle Berry and Kristin Kreuk?

No? Okay then, how about their big screen counterparts, Storm of X-Men and Chun Li from Street Fighter?

With Marvel vs. Capcom: Fate of Two Worlds, you can now find out who would win a fight between these two violent vixens as well as many other iconic characters.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3 pits Marvel Comics’ most legendary heroes and villains against the most famous figureheads of Capcom’s storied gaming history.

Household names such as Spider-man, Iron Man, The Hulk, Ryu, Chun Li and many more are all available for players to indulge their pugilistic desires with. The game’s roster is easily one of its very best attributes. To say watching Captain America slug it out with Wolverine is glorious would be a colossal understatement, and wielding Thor’s fabled hammer Mjolnir is the epitome of awesome.

The three on three 2D fighting format returns once again and the action is lighting fast as the franchise’s reputation for being a visual spectacle remains intact. Simply put, this game looks great. Character models are implemented with a cell shaded style designed to mimic comic book art, and their threedimensional nature makes them really pop off of the twodimensional fighting plane.

Adding serious visual flare is the fact that the screen is constantly alive with superb animation, whether it be from the characters or the environment itself. Fantastically rendered characters and incredibly flashy special moves will have players smiling ear to ear.

It is a shame, then, that there is a little more to the title than its basic arcade and versus modes.

While it allows players to focus on the incredibly hectic fun at hand, it would have been nice to see a little more variety in the available gameplay modes.

While Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a fighting game, the in-game violence is quite tame and the fisticuffs never result in anything more than anguished faces as characters fall down. This is as family friendly as a fighting game is going to get. While there is a time and place for realism in gaming, eliminating the graphic nature of the violence suits the style of this particular title, and it allows players to concentrate on the task of vanquishing their foes without any dark undertones, keeping the mood light and fun.

Fireballs will fly and deft uppercuts will be thrown as you attempt to find the optimal trio with which to dole out damage amongst the large and varying cast of characters.

The control setup in the Marvel vs. Capcom series has traditionally been one of the most intricate in all of gaming. With dozens of different moves and

combos for each character and each of these moves having their own specific input scheme, past installments have made the series somewhat inaccessible to casual fans.

However in an effort to cater to the more nonchalant crowd, Fate of Two Worlds introduces a brand new control scheme called Simple Mode. With this new mode players can pull off jaw dropping special moves and spectacular combos at the push of a button.

While this new mode could cause the competitive play — both online and off — to become unbalanced, Capcom has smartly toned down the potency of characters in Simple Mode. As well, the move sets are limited in this mode and players will still need to become versed in the game in normal mode, steep learning curve and all, to get the most out of each character.

A bit of an oversight then that there is no true in-game tutorial.

Still, Simple Mode is a valuable addition that will help players who are new to the series to not feel entirely left out in the cold.

“

Fireballs will fly and deft uppercuts will be thrown as you attempt to find the optimal trio with which to dole out damage amongst the large and varying cast of characters.

This places Marvel vs. Capcom 3 in the very rare position of being a game that will satisfy the most hardcore of gaming fans while at the same time being a fantastic option as a casual pick up and play title.

The gameplay is flashy, fast and extremely fun, and when combined with the wide spread appeal of the game’s characters, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is easy to recommend to everyone except those who dislike things that are awesome. It can both satisfy the hardcore gamer inside of you while also being the pull out and play focus of any casual get together.

Whether you’re in it for the super beings of the Marvel Universe, or the Legends of Capcom’s incomparable history, this is a title that will draw the eyes of fans from across many different genres and they’re not going to be disappointed by what they see.

Arts • A15

thesheaf.com/arts

Of Advantage and imagery

The Rural Alberta Advantage don’t need to name-drop to make Canada feel like home JOSH O’KANE Canadian University Press

digitally on Feb. 22, is an obvious companion album to Hometowns, but showcases lyrical maturing.

The straight-up name-dropping of geographical references — think “Swap Garneau for Dundas” — are all but gone, but it’s still quintessentially an album about the Canadian landscape.

The album, like its predecessor, is raw and emotional, weaving love stories both real and imagined into the Albertan landscape.

“The Breakup” reveals its source material in its name, but feels all the more real when it adds to that pain the feeling of being stuck in Fort McMurray when the summer dies. “Tornado ’87” is a semantic follow-up to Hometowns’ “Frank, AB,” this time swapping a rockslide for an urban tornado. Both blend the narrative of an Albertan tragedy with a heart-wrenching love story that can twist your emotions no matter where you were during the disasters.

In Departing, you also find an ongoing theme of Canadian winter:

TORONTO (CUP) — Songs can take you places. You can wake up in a Soho doorway and a policeman might know your name. You can feel the Illinoise. You can wonder what the hell you’re doing drinking in L.A. at 26. You can discover that sleepy London town is just no place for a street-fighting man. And I suppose you can let Will Smith welcome you to Miami.

But how often do you find yourself running back to Saskatoon? Seeing constellations in Bobcaygeon?

(We’ll ignore that night in Toronto.)

Meeting future loves down at Halifax’s Khyber? It’s pretty rare that a Canadian song tries to float you down the river to the Musquodoboit Harbour.

“

Edenloff and the RAA have taken the notion of place in song and found a way to Canadianize it, to make it feel natural without feeling cheesy.

Every song represents a time and a place, but some are more lyrically explicit about it than others. Nailing down a definitive place to a song can make it feel more real and more relatable, while romanticizing the place at hand. It makes people who’ve never left America pine for London or Berlin. It made Morrissey want to throw his arms around Paris.

It makes 17-year-olds want to move to the smog-filled, dream-shattering hole of Los Angeles, for some reason.

But songs don’t often make you pine for Canada. Canadian cities are

RAA on a ramble in the bush.

photo by Vanessa Heins

highly regarded for their scenes. For instance, Montreal’s music scene is highly romanticized. And there are endless numbers of quintessentially Canadian bands playing quintessentially Canadian styles of music. It’s more rare, though, for Canadian pop and rock music to perfect the romanticized inclusion of Canadian geographic imagery.

Enter the Rural Alberta Advantage.

Their name, an adapted age-old marketing slogan for our oiliest province, evokes a Canadian-ness that’s so pure it’s almost cheesy. The respect they pay to the geography and imagery of the Great White North is anything but cheesy, though.

The RAA, as they’re affectionately known, paint a picture of the Canadian landscape with a truly emotional brush.

Songwriter and frontman Nils Edenloff grew up in Fort McMurray,

AB, went to school in Edmonton and now lives in Toronto. All three of these places play important roles in his songwriting. In the RAA’s debut album, Hometowns, Edenloff contrasted images of youth in Alberta with life in Toronto, with countless direct references in homage to each place.

Hometowns pulses with Canadianness. Mixing love stories, breakup stories and memories of home with one particular theme familiar to many young Canadians — the move from home to the big city. Forget a small-town girl living in a lonely world; Edenloff will tell you the story of his lonely and dark apartment in Toronto’s west end. It’s a resonating theme — New Brunswick, my home, is nowhere near Alberta, but hearing about Edenloff’s adaptation to Toronto hits me hard.

The RAA’s Departing, released

cfcr weekly top ten 1. The Sheepdogs — Learn & Burn — Self-Released

6. Hey Rosetta! — Seeds — Sonic 7. Braids — Native Speaker — Flemish Eye

2. The Dears — Degeneration Street — Dangerbird 3. The Rural Alberta Advantage — Departing — Paper Bag 4. Yukon Blonde — Yukon Blonde — Bumstead 5. The Black Keys — Brothers — Nonesuch

8. Shotgun Jimmie — Transistor Sister — You’ve Changed

Ice, cold and finding someone to keep you warm from it — and then losing that person altogether.

And the music? The RAA are more than just lyrically powerful, but they’re a little more subdued this time. Drummer Paul Banwatt forces the band ahead with staggering momentum in many songs, just like he did on Hometowns, but none of them have the same adrenalinesurge rise-and-fall that the RAA’s last album provided. That’s not necessarily a negative, though. It could very well be another sign of the young band maturing. The music is still pretty good.

Edenloff and the RAA have taken the notion of place in song and found a way to Canadianize it, to make it feel natural without feeling cheesy.

While bands like the Tragically Hip have always blended Canadian-ness into rock songs, they’ve always been quintessentially Canadian. The RAA pull off their Canadian-ness in a way that feels universal.

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A16 •

Opinions Advice by Andy

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

With Dr. Andrew Rothchild, MA, DSW, D.Phil, PsyD

Dear Dr. Andy, My boyfriend and I have been dating for a while now and this is our first year together outside of high school. The problem is that I never get to see him. We both grew up in a small town and now I’m going to school here while he is working out in Alberta.

Even when we both have time off we still only get a day or two together. It’s not that I specifically wanna be with other guys, but it’s hard being in a long distance relationship and I feel like I might be wasting my time. What should I do? I love him but it seems like it might not be worth trying to make this work.

—Lonely and Lustful Dear Lonely and Lustful, First off, you said in your question that2828 youSheaf havead-4-FA.pdf been together for some time and that

1

you love him. This is all well and good. But — and mind you this is a pretty big but — you also said that you were only a year out of high school. In other words, you don’t know diddly-poop about love or any other life matters.

As far as your sentiments toward your soulmate are concerned, you’re wrong. The reason you are feeling like you need a change isn’t because of the distance between you and your star-crossed lover; it’s because you have probably just hit 19 and are starting to realize how popular a girl can feel at the bar. These feelings are completely normal. When you’re being showered with attention for sharing your high school glee club stories, it’s easy to feel like you need something new.

I say you roll with it. You’re young. Live a little! Now is the time when you should be out there testing the waters! You will have plenty of years to settle into the passion/loveless marriage/divorce cycle like the rest of us — for now, cherish your youth and sample from every jar like a kid in a candy store. Or perhaps more aptly, a girl in a sausage shack.

Don’t fret: while missionary with your high school lover can be great and very rewarding (take it from me and Wooderson*) it can also cause you to miss out on fantastic new so now is the 2/25/11 11:25things, AM time to find out what it is you want

from life.

Who knows? You may come to realize that what you really need is a burly, slightly older, handsome doctor for an in-depth physical.

So I think you should crush down a bottle of Alizé, Facebook-dump your long distance dead weight and hit the town. And remember: you can always call me for a check up at 882-5961. *If you had to follow this footnote, you clearly have some gaps in your education. Wooderson is the champ from Dazed and Confused who remarked “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

Dear Dr. Andy, I have been trying to get in shape since the new year and I’m not seeing any really good results.

I’ve managed to drop 10 pounds pretty quickly but now I’m having trouble building more muscle or losing any more weight.

I’m pretty good about going to the gym at least a few times a week and I lead a pretty healthy life, but it seems like my training regime just isn’t working anymore.

I’m a pretty big guy to begin with (6’2 and about 200 lbs) and I’m fine with that — I’d just like to get a bit of definition for the coming thaw. I’m starting to get really discouraged and am

beginning to wonder if I shouldn’t I be considering supplements or something like that? Any advice would be helpful.

—Average Build Dear Average Build, I think what you have here is an all too common problem: You’ve hit a plateau.

You have been working out diligently and your body has become accustomed to the new lifestyle, so your once visible progress has suddenly stopped.

This is the point where most people get depressed and give up, not knowing that the solution to this problem is surprisingly simple: You just need increase the intensity of your workout!

You are no longer pushing your body like you were when you started, so you’ll need to increase the pace/weights you are using to really “feel the burn.”

At least, that’s the chump’s way of doing it. Do you really think I would recommend you to persevere and work harder? Hell no. You are already depressed about your lack of results with the effort you are putting in, so would I really spit in your face and tell you to work harder, not smarter?

Not if I wanted you to succeed, I wouldn’t!

That’s why I’m going to let you in on the real solution: Horse steroids. You may be a little

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wary about this idea, but read the following excerpt from one of my many totally legitimate medical books: “Equipoise (boldenone undecyclenate) was created specifically for racehorses to increase performance during training phases. Equipoise increases red blood cell production, thereby increasing oxygen uptake.”

“Created specifically for racehorses.” Yeah, that’s right — fuckin’ racehorses! You will get so juiced using this stuff that soon enough you’ll be sprinting the Kentucky Derby with an 80 pound dwarf on your back!

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking (you don’t get a doctorate of psychology for nothing): “But Dr. Andy, I heard animal steroids can cause problems if they are used by humans.” You know what I say to that? You’re right. But are you saying that you wouldn’t downsize your boys a wee bit in order to rip phone books in half? Of course you would.

Stop your whining, quit working out like a wuss and steal your ex’s credit card and order yourself a five gallon pail of thoroughbred muscle magic. I look forward to seeing you ‘roid rage your way through nerds on your way to the Redbull fridge.

One love.

thesheaf.com/opinions

A blatant display of unaccountability

Opinions • A17

Evasion and finger pointing in Oda scandal call government’s credibility into question COLE HOGAN Opinions Writer Unless you are well versed — well, even slightly versed — in Canadian politics, you probably have no inkling as to who Bev Oda may be, or why you should care.

Bev Oda is a Conservative Member of Parliament and a member of the cabinet as the Minister for International Cooperation. Still not ringing any bells?

Oda has recently been the focus of much criticism and media attention for scribbling the word “not” onto the 2009 recommendation that Kairos, a church-funded development charity, be given $7 million dollars in funding. Although officials had already signed in favour of the recommendation, Bev Oda scrawled the now infamous “not” into the text, thereby denying Kairos federal funding.

Oda has stated that declining funding to Kairos was not politically motivated, but a decision made by her officials at the Canadian International Development Agency.

Last December in the House of Commons, MPs asked Bev who wrote the “not” on the document.

At that time she claimed that she was unaware of who had written the “not.” But two weeks

letters

Dear Sheaf,

I was much chagrined to discover some misinformation as well as some important omitted information in your article concerning STIs. Genital warts are caused by HPV; i.e. if you spread these you could give your partner cervical cancer.

The Gardasil vaccine can prevent its spread, though it is currently only available to women. Creams such as podophyllin and imiquimod take six weeks of daily application to see an effect. Warts might also be controlled via cryotherapy (yes, you can get liquid nitrogen sprayed on your junk), acid, excision or laser ablation.

Syphilis: Not everyone develops neurological symptoms of syphilis, and even when they do, specific symptoms can vary.

Tertiary manifestations also include cardiovascular effects, and “gumma” — destruction of particular organ tissue. First line therapy is penicillin. If you’re allergic, life will be a bit trickier for you. Unless you’re pregnant or have tertiary symptoms, in which case, life will be very, very tricky for you.

Herpes: Good news! These can be spread just by close contact. And

ago she admitted in the House of Commons that she had told someone to write “not” on the document, stating that it was meant to reflect her opposition to the funding.

But why would Oda oppose to the funding for Kairos? If the officials in her department had agreed to the funding, why would she, in such an odd and dramatic fashion, go against the majority opinion? Are there not proper channels to go through when these disagreements emerge? Is conduct of this sort amongst our government officials acceptable?

I cannot imagine an individual flippantly objecting to funding agreed upon by officials in her own department. What could possibly be gained by this decision, and if not for political reasons, what was the motivation behind it? Beyond who actually wrote “not,” who told Bev Oda to write “not”? Even further, what if someone told Bev Oda to tell someone to write “not”?

Are you tired yet? This is not a matter of $7 million, or the legitimacy of Kairos. It is a matter of misleading the House of Commons and blatantly skirting accountability.

This reminds me of the ’80s electronic game Simon, which had four coloured buttons which flashed in a randomized sequence, after which the player had to reproduce that order by pressing the buttons.As the game increased those cold sores — yeah, they’re mouth herpes. Although oral herpes is typically HSV type 1 and genital is type 2, type 1 can migrate south. So think before that special someone with a cold sore tries to head on down south of the border.

The article discussed some common STI’s, but there are ever so many more to be aware of, such as chancroid, public lice, scabies, hepatitis B, and lymphogranuloma venereum. There are also several other infections that are associated with lovin’, such as epididymitis, pelvic inflammatory disease, genital ulcer disease, prostatitis, vaginosis, candidiasis and trichomaniasis.

You can consult with a nurse at the Sexual Health Clinic on Idylwyld (655-4642) for more info.

Kimberly Hagel Dear Sheaf, I am a regular reader and bigtime fan. However, I feel that the Sheaf is getting soft on semantics, and I can’t stand idly by while this happens.

My discomfort began on Jan. 20 with Andrew Arguin’s deplorable use of the word “decimate” in his article “Uninspiring Contenders for Super Bowl XLV.” The word “decimate” has Latin roots, and

“

While attention has begun to intensify on the issue, Bev Oda has been hiding behind her fellow Conservative Members of Parliament in the House of Commons.

literally means, “to destroy one tenth of.” This makes sense, having the prefix “deci.” Unfortunately, in our increasingly etymologically apathetic society, “decimate” is being used synonymously with the word “annihilate.” Apparently, if something is done wrong enough times, it becomes right by way of precedence. In this case, the repeated, excruciating misuse has resulted in a selection of dictionaries changing their definition of “decimate” to something more like “annihilate.”

I would have let you off the hook once, but B.J. Bodnar and Tomas Borsa have both used this word in recent articles, neither time to describe the destruction of onetenth of something. The otherwise great writing of the Sheaf’s talented contributors is being tainted by this linguistic plague.

What’s next? The amalgamation of there, their, and they’re to make it easier for people? I hope not.

I believe the Sheaf should be a cornerstone of appropriate word use at this university, and no one, perhaps with the exception of Dale Judd, should be misusing words in this contributing-to-the-downfall-ofsociety-as-we-know-it way.

in difficulty, the number of buttons to be pressed did as well.

Think of the Canadian public as Simon, and Bev Oda as the player in charge of pressing the right buttons. Despite being unable to correctly produce a single button in this sequence, Simon is allowing the player to continue.

Why hasn’t Simon declared Game Over?

The ruling Conservative government has refused to release the costs of their corporate tax cuts and their justice legislation.

They have also refused to answer MP order paper questions, blocked Access to Information requests and have refused to disclose any information regarding the perimeter security deal being negotiated with the United States.

This debacle is just another instance of our secretive, opaque, minority government at work.

House Speaker Peter Milliken said, “Any reasonable person confronted with what appears to have transpired would necessarily be extremely concerned, if not shocked, and might well begin to doubt the integrity of certain decision-making processes.” I can comfortably say that people are past the point of beginning to doubt the integrity of deliberation — or lack thereof — that we are seeing within the processes of government.

While attention has begun to intensify on the issue, Bev Oda has been hiding behind her

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fellow Conservative Members of Parliament in the House of Commons. After a recent eye surgery, Oda also took to wearing sunglasses in the House. Nothing says transparency like wearing dark sunglasses indoors.

The PM and John Baird have been unyielding in their support of Oda and her actions, while the opposition has called for Ms. Oda’s resignation, petition and all. The 23, 956 signatures on the petition suggest that Canadians are not forgetting about this issue, and I am certain this will continue to be an issue in Question Period after the break.

The parliamentary committee that Oda misled asked Speaker Milliken to judge whether she was in contempt of Parliament.

The integrity of the Parliament has been questioned by the Prime Minister’s decision to keep Oda around and someone needs to be held accountable for these actions.

Information needs to be disclosed.

The process that would lead to a decision on this issue could be lengthy and by the time a conclusion is reached, we could be at the polls. If this is the case, all we can hope is that Canadians are aware that the government in place has withheld information from Canadian citizens, condones misleading the House of Commons, and has acted without the best interests of Canadian citizens in mind.

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A18 • Opinions

The Internet: Lolcats, porn and revolution

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011

The most important technological advance since the printing press— and it’s still only a toddler DUSTIN HARRISON Opinions Writer Few inventions have had such a wholly transformative effect on the course of history as the printing press.

Its invention in the middle of the 15th century caused an irrevocable shift in humankind’s conceptualizations of self and world.

It single-handedly allowed us to quickly and easily disseminate ideas to an audience much broader than our previous means of scribbling things down and shouting at each other had allowed for. This took access to information and ideas out of the hands of the very few and put it into the hands of most.

And as we know, knowledge is power, so as people became more literate they also became more liberated.

Over the next few centuries, as the circulation of mass-produced written works grew, so too did the collapse of churches, monarchies and other traditional institutions. Where would the Reformation have been without Luther posting his Ninety-Five Theses to the doors of All-Saints’ Church in Wittenberg? Where would the American and French Revolutions have been without the dissemination of the ideas in the works of Locke, Montesquieu, Voltaire and others?

Could the Scientific Revolution have taken off as it did without the collaboration afforded by having copies of theories and data massproduced and distributed? I’m inclined to think things might’ve turned out a bit differently.

Why are cats so popular on the internet? Cuz they can’t scratch you and don’t smell like pee.

And as far as the printing press has taken us, the Internet is poised to take us even further. You and I are in the early stages of history’s next greatest era, the start of which has been catalyzed by the Internet. What the printing press did for the written word, the Internet has done for all other forms of information.

With every tap on our smartphones and click of our computers we are ushering in the next phase of human history. For as great as the printing press was, it was limited in

its capacity to affect change due to the physical limitations of storing and moving books, newspapers and magazines.

The Internet does not have this limitation; it is a near-infinite space for storing information. Not only that, we can store more than just the written word. As long as we can digitize it, we can store nearly any form of content and communication on the Internet.

More importantly, however, is that the Internet is free and open to all

photo by cougirl94

in its entirety. All that is required is the technology to access the Internet — which is becoming cheaper and more readily available every moment — and the freedom to use that technology. Considering it’s taken us barely two decades to get just under two billion people online, I’d say we’re fairing pretty well in doing that.

And yet, in terms of public usage, the Internet is still in its infancy.

We’re still just cutting our teeth, barely getting over the funny pictures of cats, and yet we’re already starting

to see the Internet drastically change how we operate and see ourselves in the world.

Why should I limit myself to local retailers when I have access to buy what I want from anywhere in the world at the best price? What use are broadcast networks, radio stations and music channels when I can go online and access any movie, show, song or video I want to, whenever I want to? As a business owner, what use are marketers and advertisers for me if I can connect to my clients directly through social networking and social coupon sites?

Probably the most poignant example of how the Internet has changed the way we act and think of ourselves as individuals in the world is provided by Wikileaks.

By making available the war logs and diplomatic cables of the United States military and government, a handful of informants and a guy with a website have been able to thwart the diplomatic efforts of the United States of America.

Setting up a website and submitting something to a website are both easily within the grasp of most people. That is to say, the United States of America — arguably the wealthiest and most powerful political entity of all time — had its wrists slapped by a handful of people no more special than you or I. If this is where we are after only two decades and with only a minority of people online, I am left wondering where we are going to be after two more decades of experience, with the majority of the world’s population on the Internet.

Don’t use ‘rape’ casually

Getting beaten in Warcraft is not the same as being sexually assaulted ADAM PRICE Nexus (Camosun College) VICTORIA (CUP) — Some words and phrases make the transition from subculture to popular culture; a classic example is Shakespeare’s “fashionable.” But some words should remain rarely used. “Rape” is one of those words.

“Rape” is now a word heard weekly, if not daily, and often with casual indifference to mean something other than sexual

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assault. This is highly problematic.

Popularization of the word can be traced back to the gaming phrase “pwned” and gaming subculture in the early 2000s.

Warcraft III birthed the word, a typo of “owned,” but didn’t popularize it; the highly influential first-person shooter Counterstrike did.

“

Words have tremendous power, but if rape victims don’t have exclusive ownership of the meaning of the word “rape,” they don’t have power over it.

By the time Halo 2 and Counterstrike Source arrived in 2004, some people in the gaming community used the words “pwned” and “raped” frequently and interchangeably. “You just got pwned” meant the same thing as

“you just got raped.” Within the context of the games, “rape” meant that a player beat his or her victim rather mercilessly and with little effort.

“Rape” has moved from a gaming-subculture phrase to mainstream vernacular, and this must stop. A rape victim goes through an extreme amount of physical and emotional stress, to say the least. This stress is commonly compared to that of post-traumatic stress disorder.

Having a rape victim’s experiences equated to minor, everyday hardships is completely unjust, if not an irresponsible comparison.

People argue that they don’t use the word “rape” intending sexual abuse. People that argue this also argue the difference between what rape means and what they really meant, but the use of the word normalizes sexual abuse. It dulls the meaning.

Casual use of the word further demonstrates dominion over women by males, who do the majority of raping. If everyone uses the word “rape,” the meaning changes to accommodate a variety of uses.

Words have tremendous power, but if rape victims don’t have exclusive ownership of the meaning of the word “rape,” they don’t have power over it.

Opinions A19

thesheaf.com/opinions

Proposed social justice centre is exemplary A long-time Saskatonian and former USSU executive member lends support BEN FAWCETT Opinions Writer As the former USSU vice president of student affairs, a University of Saskatchewan student for six years and a resident of Saskatoon for the past 25, I feel it necessary to comment on the recent proposal to establish a USSU Social Justice Centre.

To my understanding, social justice is a relatively loose term used to define the amalgamative goal of eliminating systemic racism and poverty, establishing

equal opportunity for all human beings and protecting human rights. The University of Saskatchewan currently contains myriad student organizations that work — sometimes together, but largely disjointedly — toward the realization of social justice in general. A USSU Social Justice Centre could fulfill a much-needed role on campus as an overarching entity that not only fosters collaboration among independent student organizations, but also provides necessary resources to promote and encourage student participation within such groups.

Furthermore, the necessity of peer support services for students who have been subjected to ethnic or cultural discrimination and/ or blatant racism is apparent at the U of S as its international and Aboriginal student populations continue to grow. The VP student affairs is currently delegated this responsibility alongside other issues that permeate the sphere of social justice; however, the portfolio is so diverse and open-ended that a Social Justice Centre would likely compliment the work of the VP student affairs, not detract from the position’s vigour.

A USSU Social Justice Centre could also serve as an essential link between the U of S student body and the greater Saskatoon community. Some may argue that the USSU is not mandated to address issues that do not directly pertain to students at the University of Saskatchewan. However, almost all of us are part-time citizens of Saskatoon and it doesn’t take a genius to realize that systemic injustices are prevalent within our city, province and country.

Moreover, in an increasingly globalized milieu, we must acknowledge the interconnectedness

and interdependencies between and among all human beings on Earth. It is fundamentally our duty as students of higher education and future social, political, economic and environmental stewards to confront issues of social injustice.

As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” For these reasons I fully support the inception of a USSU Social Justice Centre and commend the USSU Executive and Student Council for considering this project.

I’ll take that electric car now, please

Charging stations for electric cars should be as numerous as gas stations are today RACHELLE STEIN-WOTTEN The Navigator (Vancouver Island University) NANAIMO, B.C. (CUP) — It’s 2011 and many citizens of the world have taken great strides in order to reduce their carbon footprint by taking action and giving the one-two to climate change.

Individuals are composting and recycling, using less paper and plastic, buying organic and generally using their purchasing power to make the statement that yes, they’ve heard the call and are ready to turn the bus around.

Metaphors aside, it’s safe to say that most people in the Western world have made small household and lifestyle changes that together have made a positive impact.

What’s even safer to say is that they are now ready to make big changes, changes that people have been told will make a colossal difference to the future of the planet — namely, transportation.

In the U.S., automobiles are the second-largest source of carbon dioxide pollution, creating almost 1.5 billion tons of CO2 annually.

And with almost 17 metric tons of CO2 per capita, Canada’s statistics aren’t much further off.

Obviously everyone can’t travel by bike or bus, and personal vehicles have become an integral part of the way people live in North America. The good news is that there is a viable alternative to

Your new favourite reason to be environmentally conscious.

the internal combustion engine: Electric cars.

Most of the world is addicted to oil. But just like a nicotine addiction, one way to ease the transition is to replace it with something less harmful. Many ex-smokers become perpetual gum chewers. So oil addicts can replace their gasoline-fuelled cars with electric ones and not worry about spewing out CO2. The best part about such a replacement is

that nothing is lost. Everyone can still drive a car.

Electric cars these days are just as fast and comfortable, and can even be just as luxurious as their gasoline counterparts. And best of all more options are coming out every day. Nissan recently came out with the Leaf, a fully electric, five-passenger car. The Leaf has been shown at auto shows across Canada in the last year and is expected to hit the market shortly.

supplied

Tesla Motors out of California has two fully electric luxury vehicles, including the Roadster, which has been out since 2008. The sports car reaches 96 km per hour in 3.6 seconds and can go 394 km per battery charge — not too shabby.

The cars are out there, ready for the taking, and in all likeliness there’s a line-up of buyers, too. What comes next is the infrastructure.

The idea with electric cars is

you will be able to have a special plug installed in your home to recharge your battery, but a battery charge doesn’t last forever, and if someone is doing more than short city trips, there need to be battery charging stations, just the way gas stations are scattered around now. And if more of our energy production comes from renewable sources like wind and solar, we could take a huge bite out of carbon emissions.

This is where governments and corporations come in. Consumers may be more than willing to purchase electric cars, but if the infrastructure isn’t available to use the vehicles in a comfortable and convenient way, no one is going to bite. It’s a push and pull relationship, except that only one side seems to be responding.

The government pushes individuals to embrace a greener lifestyle and to buy items like electric cars. Individuals then push back at the government to make that feasible, but it’s not happening. At this point, what’s holding back progress is government bodies not responding to demands. So take a hint, governments — it’s time for you to react to your surroundings. And what clean, healthy surroundings they could be.

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A20 • Opinions CAMPUS CHAT

“None of your goddamn business.”

the Sheaf • 3 march 2011 WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?

“Defiling exhumed corpses.”

“Life is a vacuum. It sucks.”

-Lyle Goldie

-Gyrom Lomiguen

-Jeffrey Seckinger

FAKE NEWS OF THE WEEK Protests break out in South Korea Sparked by protests in the Middle East, protestors in South Korea are now taking to the streets — the digital streets, that is.

South Korean gamers in the lucrative World of Warcraft (WoW) ‘raid’ industry have been holding online rallies calling for better loot and increased gold. These rallies intensified Tuesday when the crowd became violent, taking control of 6 guild houses.

One of the most vocal leaders of the protest — Level 80 Paladin “1337n00bSlayaAZN” — claims that he and his fellow gamers are subject to poorer drops than those in the rest of the world simply because they have 18 hours a day to play.

They are demanding that Blizzard, creators and moderators of WoW, repeal these unjust regulations or further violence will follow.

Blizzard officials have denied that there has been any unfair tampering with Korean game mechanics but did threaten that “while we have not yet ordered the use of force [to quell the riots], not yet ordered one arrow to be fired … when we do, everything will burn.”

Designer drug sweeps North America College kids across North America have found another way to get high, this time using bath salts.

The act of “cramming” — where an individual inserts handfuls of bath salt into the anal cavity — has grabbed hold of the student population across Canada and the United States, with experts predicting that 85 per cent of post-secondary students have experimented with

sodium suppositories, which are inexpensive but highly-addictive.

“I’ve been crammin’ for years now,” said one unidentified teenager from Michigan. “It’s cool, but it chaps you up a bit, and then when you get a cut, it gets painful.”

Reports say ‘cramming’ leads to a sense of extreme paranoia — but it’s popularity is soaring due to it’s marketing as a “study drug.”

“In 25 years of teaching, my student’s marks have never been better,” explained one U of S professor. “I know it can cause chafing, but I say, keep crammin’!”

Campaigns have been launched to have the salts removed from shelves, however bath salt lobbyists insist their product is intended only to be used for “ a relaxing and cozy bath.”

Regulations banning the substance are expected to be passed by early next year.

“A big, home-made, loaded burger on a toasted, buttered bun so juicy it drips onto your hand. Mmmmmm.”

-Joffrey Larocque

Straight talk With Dale Judd Dale Judd is a concerned parent of two U of S students.

As the Sheaf is a student-run newspaper, Dale’s views are intended to provide an alternative perspective on events on and around campus, and do not reflect those of the Sheaf.

Hey folks, Dale here.

Lately I seen prices at the pump gettin’ higher ‘n higher everyday — a guy’s shellin’ out almost a buck twenty fer a scoop of regular!

Thing I heard is there’s some lady named Lidya way out in the Middlegoddamn-East pullin’ strings. Can’t these folks mind their own business fer once? Hell, just last week a guy’s

trying to catch some ‘chel and ‘stead all I get is channel after channel of loudmouths in Egypt runnin’ around fer some sorta foreign festival.

Thing I wanna know is how’s this gonna affect our farmers?

Next thing you know this Lidya character’s gonna be putting her hands elsewheres too. Tell ya what, if a guy sees a sleeve of Skoal goin’ fer more than 25 a piece, a guy’s takin’ to the streets.

And so long as we’re on the topic of womenfolk, what in the name of Jehovah is this I seen about some Carnival of Sex goin’ around campus?

Gimme a goddamn break here folks.

I’m all for a Carnival of Marriage or what have you — but next thing a guy knows he’ll be gettin’ a call that one a the kids has gone and got herself a bun in the oven at a Satanic mass put on by the USSU.

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