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C A N A D I A NCOMMUNITYNEWSPAPERAWARD 2013

I have always thought that there is more crossover than we might assume between art and science, and that interesting things happen when the two fields collaborate on a project. A couple of recent arts events have led me to revisit the idea that art and science aren’t mu-tually exclusive. I think that we all understand this in some way, but it’s not until you listen to a scientist and a cellist give you a genetics lesson that it be-comes very apparent.

At TEDxVancouver, Jennifer Gardy and Peter Gregson dis-cussed the origins of culture and why we are genetically disposed to creativity, through the study of other species, such as the zebra finch. One would think that a finch raised in iso-lation, never hearing birdsong, would not be able to produce

its own song. In fact, the finch is able to sing, but it doesn’t sound as good as his parents. However, as Gardy explained, after about five generations of raising offspring in isolation, the finch’s song sounds just like the that of finches raised in the wild. The birdsong evolves all on it’s own and it seems to be an innate ability in their DNA.

The DNA responsible for this phenomenon used to be called junk DNA, but has since been renamed regulatory DNA, and it seems that this is what gives humans the ability to evolve complex creativity. It’s fasci-nating to think that this extra DNA, which performs no obvi-ous function, is responsible for the most beautiful works of art.

Gregson — an accomplished cellist and composer — is inter-ested in data sonification, the pro-cess of turning data into sound or music. He has taken genetic data, translated it into musical

notation, and has transformed it into a beautiful piece of music.

This may all sound a bit bi-zarre, but he’s not the only art-ist working with science. Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin re-cently brought his new work Quantum to The Dance Cen-tre. This work was inspired by Jobin’s residency at the Euro-pean Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The choreography explores forces such as gravity, time, and space, and American composer Carla Scaletti’s elec-tronic score incorporates data from the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.

Jobin was part of the Col-lide@CERN artist residency pro-gram, where he spent several months immersed in the world of scientists at CERN and their study of the origins of the uni-verse through the Large Hadron Collider. Inspired by particle physics, his work ultimately ex-plores the idea that we are held together by quantum forces.

Art and science are fascinat-ing fields of study in their own rights, but when they come to-gether, we can push our knowl-edge even further and make all kinds of amazing discoveries.

3FIRST PEEK October 27, 2014

4 news editor Leah Bjornson associate news editor Melissa Roachemail / phone news@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560

NEWS October 27, 2014

The superpowers of heroes such as Spiderman, Captain America, and the Hulk have be-come a frequent sight in movies and TV shows, but new technol-ogy may mean that you could see them in your day to day life, sometime in the near future.

A paper recently released by Stephen Hsu, a professor of theoretical physics at Michigan

State University, asserts that by tweaking our genomes, we could make humans drastically smarter. He explained that by modifying gene variants, human intelligence could be increased to 10 times what it is now.

The paper has inspired re-newed discussion in the aca-demic community around the issue of genetic modification and how it might be used to give people ‘superhuman’ powers.

Last week, a man who had been paralyzed for two years walked again following a trans-plant to his spine. The treatment involved the injection of olfactory ensheathing glial cells (OEGs) into the man’s spine, which were able to create new nerve cells and repair damaged ones.

Michel Leroux, professor in SFU’s Department of Molecu-lar Biology and Biochemistry, acknowledged the uses of stem cell technology: “It’s simply

basic biological principles that multicellular animals, such as us, employ to grow from a sin-gle cell to an adult.”

However, he speculated that, “we will require 50 plus years to get closer to really understand-ing mechanisms at the molecu-lar level inside our cells.”

Human engineering is not just limited to comic books anymore. John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2012, discovered that adult cells can be repro-grammed back into stem cells.

These stem cells can then be pushed to develop into a huge variety of adult cells: skin, bone, muscle, or even nerve.

The technique, called induc-tion of pluripotency, has made previously impossible therapies a reality. A short list of exam-ples includes repairing damage to the heart after a heart attack, creating new insulin produc-ing cells for diabetic patients, and even constructing a kidney from scratch.

Such advances in the use of genetic engineering are remi-niscent of a ‘healing factor’ that allows superheroes like Wol-verine and Deadpool to heal their injuries supernaturally fast. When asked whether re-programming a human’s body like this would ever be possible, Leroux suggested that it repre-sents a logistical challenge.

“The main issue there is de-livery,” he said.

Currently, there are many methods for modifying cells’ behaviour, but most involve somehow getting foreign genes

into the cell. There is even a ‘gene gun’ currently on the mar-ket, which fires DNA-coated gold particles into cells. Despite the innovation, physically get-ting DNA into many cells in a living organism is extremely difficult, at least for now.

Gene editing tools like CRISPR — clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats which take advantage of natural DNA repair machin-ery to engineer the genome — might mean that scientists are that much closer to giving hu-mans supernatural healing or amplifying the abilities that we already have. For instance, in-fants under a year old that have lost a finger tip can regener-ate the finger, much like how a salamander can regenerate a lost limb.

Leroux explained that the excitement behind CRISPR is due to its incredible versatility and that “remarkably, it works in everything that’s been tried.”

However, with these power-ful tools also come ethical chal-lenges. Leroux had his own opin-ions on the matter. “Personally, I could say that if you know that your children will have a partic-ular genetic disorder and you’re able to fix that, I think that’s ok,” he said. “So is that where you draw the line? You can pre-fix problems but you can’t enhance existing traits.”

For good or bad, Marvel or DC, the capabilities to engineer superhumans are already here.

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5NEWS October 27, 2014

Last Wednesday, October 22, SFU Woodward’s hosted a panel discussion on the book, Red Skin, White Masks: Reject-ing the Colonial Politics of Rec-ognition, written by Glen Sean Coulthard, an assistant profes-sor in the First Nations Studies Program and the Department of Political Science. Accord-ing to the event description, the book challenges the “now commonplace assumption that settler-colonization can be reconciled through a pro-cess of cultural recognition and accommodation.”

SFU Surrey hosted its 7th an-nual Diwali event at Surrey’s Crown Palace Banquet Hall on Tuesday, October 21. The event celebrated Indian culture and attempted to engage with the local South Asian community.Over 300 South Fraser busi-ness, government and com-munity leaders, as well as SFU alumni, faculty, students, and staff attended the dinner.

A lecture by Brown Univer-sity’s Rebecca Schneider on October 22 discussed contem-porary performance-based art alongside Paleolithic cave art, exploring performance as a historical artifact. Schneider asked questions such as: How long is the live? How live are the dead? And why are these ques-tions surfacing now?

Build SFU offered students the opportunity to take a nap on couches, hammocks, and actual beds in a makeshift ‘nap zone,’ which was set up in the Forum Chambers during the afternoon of October 20.

Entitled Build SFU’s Nap Zone, the event was held in order to give students “a taste of what’s to come in 2017.”

The Student Union Build-ing, slated to finish construc-tion in 2017, will contain a so-called ‘napping room.’ Build SFU has regularly referenced the planned space in their project documentation and promo-tional materials.

“Students are one of the most sleep deprived demographics of the population,” said Ross Mac-Millan, consultation coordinator for Build SFU. “Part of our man-date for the [SUB] is to facilitate overall health and wellness, and students have been very inter-ested in the idea of the nap room.

“It was not us that proposed [the nap room]; it was SFU stu-dents. They have been bringing it up during consultations ever since we started the project,” MacMillan said.

Adam Potvin, VP finance for the SFSS, acknowledged that the event was designed to pro-mote the planned SUB space, but added that it was also a mental health initiative.

“The idea had stemmed from an initiative about getting enough sleep,” Potvin said. “We ended up collaborating with a bunch of people like HiFIVE and Health and Counselling. It was appropriate to pursue something, and what better way to do so than to create a nap room.”

The napping space in the Forum Chambers during the event was unlit, with a projec-tor displaying visuals of oceans on the wall. Relaxing music played quietly in an otherwise silent room. Build SFU person-nel were on scene to manage the nap-takers.

Although the room was con-figured as such for this event, the SUB nap room will be a little

different. “The nap room in the SUB will have furniture that is comfortable, but [it] will not be beds,” Marc Fontaine, general manager of the project, said. “They will be more like comfort-able couches or day beds.”

Despite the differences, Fon-taine emphasized that the event reflected the spirit of the future napping space.

“Today’s event serves two pur-poses. First, to indicate that there will be a napping space in the SUB. Second [. . .] to promote the

fact that sleeping and proper rest is important for wellness,” said Fontaine. “The space in the SUB will be a bit different from today, but the motivation is the same.”

Despite indications that the event was well received, some concerns were raised by students. Amelia Hill, a third year political science student, brought up the issue of hygiene.

“I’m concerned that it will not be sanitized enough [. . .] People drool, they smell, and they don’t shower. It could be gross,” said Hill. “It could be wonderful; it has potential to be really great. But it has got to be clean.”

On these concerns, Fontaine responded, “Just like lounges on campus are cleaned regularly, the nap room will be maintained by the custodial staff. I cannot comment on the details since the project is still under develop-ment, but it is something we are keeping in mind.

At the Simon Fraser Student So-ciety’s (SFSS) Annual General Meeting (AGM) last Wednesday in the SFU Theatre, students voted in favour of a special reso-lution which will allow the soci-ety to obtain a loan for the Stu-dent Union Building (SUB).

The students also approved an addition to the by-laws that will en-sure that the Build SFU levy, which will be used to pay back any loan

related to the project, will not be cancelled before the loan is repaid.

The AGM was the first since 2008 to reach the necessary quorum of 250, with over 400 students pres-ent and many more lined up out-side the theatre. “It’s a huge accom-plishment,” Chardaye Bueckert, SFSS president, said of the turnout. “I just want to thank all the students who came out. That was really fan-tastic to see.”

This AGM was particularly im-portant because, under the Society Act, the issuance of any debenture by the SFSS must be approved by its membership. If the AGM had failed to meet quorum, or if the mo-tions hadn’t passed, the SFSS would have had to hold a Special General Meeting (SGM) in January to ask the same questions of the membership, delaying the construction of the SUB significantly.

Students had the opportu-nity to voice their opinions about the Build SFU special resolution and the addition to the by-laws. Most of the students who spoke asked for clarification regarding the student levy to be used to pay for the building, as well as how space will be allocated inside of the building.

Clayton Gray, a fourth year criminology student, raised con-cerns that the finished SUB will be owned by SFU and not the SFSS. “I’d just like to make sure that ev-erybody here is aware that, if it’s analogous to taking on a mort-gage, then we’re taking on a mort-gage for the university,” he said.

After the discussions, students voted in favour of the special reso-lution with 328 votes in favour and 26 in opposition. They also voted in favour of the addition to the

by-laws with 283 votes in favour and nine in opposition.

The AGM addressed other regu-lar business, including the receipt of reports from the board of directors, VP finance Adam Potvin on the so-ciety’s finances, and the auditor, as well as the appointment the same auditor for the following year.

Former SFSS president, Jeff Mc-Cann, the proud father of the SUB and Stadium projects which began in 2012, had this to say: “The AGM turnout and margin of yes votes cast is an incredible demonstration of support for Build SFU. Credit to the current board and Marc Fontaine for their efforts and success at this pivotal moment in SFU history.”

Smiling, Bueckert summed up how she felt the AGM went: “We’ve set a high bar, and we’re going to need a bigger room for next year.”

6 NEWS October 27, 2014

Being a video game ‘zombie’ could be healthy

A new study conducted at Ryerson Uni-versity suggests that playing video games before meals contributes to lower calorie intake for teenage boys.

According to nutrition professor Nick Bellissimo, when the subjects, who ranged from nine to 14 years old, played Angry Birds, they consumed, on average, 50 fewer calories than when they didn’t have any screen time.

The study concluded that after 30 min-utes of gaming, the kids both ate less and were in a happier mood, which further contributed to their desire to eat less.

With files from Ryerson University

Student residences hotbed for unsolicited form of trick or treating known as ‘break-and-enters’

Fanshawe College students are in danger of losing more than just miniature versions of candies this Halloween. According to Lon-don Police, there has been a 60.8 per cent increase in residential break-and-enters in the neighbourhood containing the school’s student residences in the past year.

The main items that have been targeted by thieves have not been little Snickers or Starburst, but electronics such as mobile phones and laptops.

Police have recommended that students keep their doors locked and windows closed, as those are the main points of entry for thieves, as well as humans in general.

With files from The Interrobang

UBC Theatre and Film sells old costumes for Halloween

Students looking for unique disguises to wear this October 31 were invited to Freddy Wood Theatre last Wednesday for priced-to-clear costumes, courtesy of UBC’s Film and Theatre program.

From vintage bling to corseted Shake-spearian dresses, all items were under $10; the sale helped to reduce the department’s inventory as well as raise funds for upgrades to their costume shop.

Some of the more outlandish costumes — such as a ghost getup from their produc-tion of Ubu Roi that is supposed to evoke the sense of a “loutish royal glutton on the prowl” — were up for a separate silent auc-tion during the sale.

With files from The Ubyssey

Experts, innovators, and artists gathered at venues throughout the city last week to discuss the im-plications of innovation at SFU’s third annual Community Summit.

Hosted by SFU Public Square, this year’s summit, titled, “Inno-vation: The Shock of the Possi-ble,” explored the impact of new ways of thinking on the most important social, environmental and economic issues in British Columbia, Canada, and beyond.

In an editorial published in the Vancouver Sun, SFU president Andrew Petter explained, “Inno-vation is not just about techno-logical developments, although there are groundbreaking exam-ples of technological advances to celebrate. Innovation also refers to new ways of imagining our

society, of reconfiguring our de-mocracies, and of reinvigorating our social contract.”

The week kicked off on Oc-tober 19 with the Young Innova-tors Crawl, which invited com-munity members to explore studios and open houses of local innovators under 30.

“We didn’t want to have just another youth conference where young people are just discuss-ing what innovation is,” Shauna

Sylvester, the executive director of SFU Public Square told the Van-couver Sun. “We wanted to look at how they’re innovating.”

Later that evening, oppor-tunities for innovation were explored at RISE, a competi-tion addressing sea level rise in Metro Vancouver. Teams were invited to pitch their ideas for how people in the area can “adapt and thrive — faster than the waters that surround us.”

Teams competed for a $35,000 grand prize, pitching their ideas to a panel of experts from the govern-ment, the media, and academia.

On a similar topic regarding an uncertain future, Ray Kurzweil, director of engineering at Google, and Richard Florida, a world-renowned urban theorist, joined forces at the Queen Elizabeth The-atre on Wednesday night for a talk titled, “Will Innovation Save Us?”

One of the talks that was most relevant to SFU students con-cerned the production, adop-tion, and use of open textbooks at post-secondary institutions. The province has already in-vested $2 million dollars to date in the BC Open Textbook project, which creates free open source textbooks for the most popular courses in the province.

Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) president Chardaye Bueck-ert, who was on the discussion panel for the event, spoke to its value: “It’s good to hear about the various developments that are going on in open source and what [students] can do to advocate for the use of them in their own class-rooms, and how to engage in con-versations with their professors in a way that’s productive and en-courages them to get involved in the movement.”

Other events included a dis-cussion on how to make Metro Vancouver a zero waste city, and a presentation on the viability of values-based businesses.

Overall, the week provided an opportunity to connect SFU students with faculty mem-bers as well as with innovators in the greater community and beyond, an effort that mirrors SFU’s commitment to being an engaged university.

Bueckert commented on the significance of that effort: “In-stead of having our university as a bit of an ivory tower, it’s more out there and engaging with the public.”

7NEWS October 27, 2014

A feminist theatre company in Calgary is taking back Halloween from what they consider to be an oversexualized costume industry.

The group, Urban Curvz, is holding an event on October 31 called Take Back Halloween, which “promotes the opportu-nity for all genders to make and wear costumes that are empow-ering, clever and diverse.”

The organizers were in-spired to launch the campaign after they spotted a sexy leop-ard costume geared towards three-year-olds in a costume shop window.

“When we saw that [. . .], the artistic director of Urban Curvz and I thought, ‘You know what, this is a problem for all ages,’” said Pam Rocker in an interview with the Calgary Eyeopener. “And

this is something that we want to take back by having something like a feminist costume contest where you actually have to be creative and think about things that don’t gender stereotype and that maybe actually empower women.”

Some of the plans for the event include a feminist cos-tume contest and a patriarchy haunted house, which will il-lustrate the spooky side of gen-der issues.

In the description for their Halloween event, the organiz-ers defined feminist costumes as costumes that do not appropri-ate cultures, are not racist, and are not misogynistic, while at the same time are not slut-shaming.

“We are not saying that if you want to be a sexy nurse that’s bad, but we want to pro-vide an alternative to some-thing that isn’t gender stereo-typing,” said Rocker.

The group also acknowl-edged that it is not only women and girls, but people of all gen-ders who are victims of this oversexualized holiday.

“There is also a ‘mac pimp daddy’ costume for eight-year-old boys [. . .] I also saw a sexy Bert and Ernie and a sexy pizza slice,” explained Rocker.

Gals and ghouls looking to don feminist costumes this Hal-loween can reference Suzanne Scoggins’ costume guide, Take Back Halloween, which markets itself as “a costume guide for women with imagination.”

Created in 2011, the guide is divided into four categories: Glamour Grrls, Goddesses and Legends, Notable Women, and Queens. Costume ideas include Athena, Josephine Baker, Au-drey Hepburn, and Jane Austen.

In addition to providing viewers with ideas from diverse backgrounds, the guide offers

tips for creating these costumes at a reduced cost.

The guide, as well as the event, aim to deconstruct and dispose of the harmful gender stereotypes surrounding this holiday and to make it more friendly and accessible to the whole gender spectrum.

Rocker concluded with her hopes for the event: “Awareness doesn’t have to be a drag and that’s really important to us, so we want it to be an exciting night for people.”

This year, Halloween night is going to look a little different for children in the Nunavut village of Arviat.

The Hamlet of Arviat has issued a public notice advising against trick or treating, as there have been more than the average number of polar bears spotted in and around the village in recent years.

As an alternative to the night’s door-to-door festivities, there will be an indoor event for children held at the community hall with activities

such as face painting and a haunted house. They also hope to provide a shuttle bus to and from the event as a further safety precaution.

The public notice read, “It was clear that the majority of

people liked the idea of provid-ing a safer environment for kids to celebrate Halloween.”

The village is located about 250 kilometres north of Churchill, Man-itoba — another city that deals with

the dangers of bear activity in late fall, when the bears are waiting to start the seal hunting season once Hudson Bay is frozen over.

“Picture 1,200 kids going door-to-door in Arviat in the middle

of polar bear season,” said Steve England, Arviat’s senior adminis-trative officer.

“It’s a pretty obvious conclu-sion of what tragedies could come out of that. We’re just trying to safeguard the younger population by offering an alternative.”

Some have attributed the rise in bear activity near Arviat this year to the reduction of the polar bear harvest number — this winter, Cree and Inuit hunt-ers are limited to 45 instead of 60 bears in Nunavut, Ontario, and Quebec.

In the past, Churchill has man-aged to keep trick or treaters safe with a helicopter warning to scare the polar bears off, as well as with consistent bear patrols, equipped with noisemakers, cracker shells, and rubber bullets.

These safety measures were even reflected in the costume choices in Churchill; mayor Mike Spence explained: “No-body dresses up as seals. Nobody dresses up as polar bears here.”

 

8 opinions editor Adam Van der Zwanemail / phone opinions@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560October 27, 2014OPINIONS

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The rapid spread of the Ebola virus has undoubtedly become one of the worst epidemics in recent history, claiming the lives of thousands in West Africa. Ironically though, as victims fall prey to the outbreak thousands of kilometres from our borders, Westerners over here in ‘prosper-ity-land’ are left shaking in their boots. After all, it could be any day now that a weary traveller fresh from disease-ridden Sierra Leone steps foot on Canadian soil, thus sounding the alarms for terrified public health officials to race over and quarantine the hell out of that poor individual.

Extensive media coverage has left frightened Canadians in a state of paranoia. But what we Westerners must realize is that the only outbreak we’ll be falling prey to is that of anxiety bordering on hysteria.

In many respects, it’s become the media’s duty to shroud for-eign epidemics in a certain melo-drama. This isn’t to belittle the

fact that, since March, over 4,700 people have been killed by the virus, it’s to say that our nation’s perception of this issue, through the corporate lens of the news, has been vastly misinformed.

Yes, Canadians should be worried about the possible in-troduction of the disease to the country — after all, it only makes sense — but what we should be even more worried about is how our news coverage is currently skewing the issue through too much speculation and too few facts.

Currently, our nation’s pre-cautionary measures regarding a Canadian Ebola outbreak are sturdy. Apart from sending out 800 vials of experimental vac-cines to the World Health Orga-nization last Monday, the Pub-lic Health Agency of Canada has placed two large groups of epi-demiologists and other experts ‘on call’ in Winnipeg and Ottawa.

In addition, quarantine of-ficers have been stationed at six major airports across the coun-try, while Prime Minister Stephen Harper recently announced an

intensive Ebola-preparedness plan with Nova Scotia Health.

Needless to say, the only people at risk of contracting the virus would be those health officials in direct contact with a patient. Similar to the swine flu pandemic in 2009, our na-tion’s extensive security measures would ensure that such a patient is under quarantine within minutes, and everyone outside the quaran-tine zone would be kept safe.

It’s a shame that the media has spewed out so much editorial com-mentary on how Ebola has the po-tential to wipe out our nation — a commentary further amplified by activists and politicians. It’s ironic

that, while Obama cautions his American herd to “not give in to hysteria or fear,” Harper proclaims to the True North that a great threat is upon us, stating that due to glo-balized travel, foreign issues “could arrive at our shores very quickly.” Apart from playing Mr. Obvious, Harper has needlessly ingrained a bloated issue into our collective Canadian psyche.

Statements such as these have even influenced us to con-sider unnecessary measures to prevent the spread of the virus. Some officials have suggested that Canada close borders to people traveling from anywhere

in Africa — an enormous conti-nent where those living on the Eastern side have even less a chance of contracting the virus than Europeans. These irrational notions could cause us to turn away almost an entire continent of comparatively healthy people.

While it’s human nature to fear what we do not understand, our fears are simply a product of misinformed speculation. I hope I’m not the only individ-ual who’d like a little more light shed on the realities of the issue, rather than some Hollywood drama concocted by corporate conjurors to make a dime.

If there are 200 things that I love, razor blades and apples have got to be two of them. If you ask me, nothing keeps your face smoother than a razor and nothing goes bet-ter with a razor than a razor blade. Some might even say

that the blade is the most im-portant part of the razor and you know what, I’m not going to argue with them.

As for apples, they’re one of the best fruits out there. They’re sweet and tasty and, in my opinion, the best food

you’re going to find to bob for. They say having one a day keeps the doctor away, but if you’re like me you’ll want to see a doctor everyday, just so you can show off how healthy you are from eating wall of those apples!

Now, as much as I love both razor blades and apples indi-vidually, I absolutely hate it when they’re combined and given out on Halloween. I know that most people think it’s just a fun prank and will tell me to lighten up (“it’s trick-or-treat

not treat-and-treat, man!”) and maybe I’m just old fash-ioned, but if it causes internal bleeding, I think that’s going too far for a trick.

Razor blades are for your face, not your stomach. There’s no hair in there that

needs trimming. So knock it off people who hide razor blades in apples — you’re disappointing every kid who can’t wait to bite into that juicy apple they see in their candy bag, next to all that awful junk food!

9OPINIONS October 27, 2014

Halloween, the best holiday in existence, is officially upon us. As children, we would dress up, shout at people’s doors, and de-mand chocolate from strangers. Now that we’re older, dressing up for Halloween has changed ever so slightly.

For many who wish to dress up, Halloween costumes are a source of body stress. There is so much pressure to have the perfect costume, and to have the perfect body to execute it. ‘Body policing’ is prevalent during Halloween, and can be very destructive to a person’s well being.

Surprisingly, Urban Diction-ary provides the best definition of body policing, calling it “[t]he practice of policing one’s phys-ical appearance because it does not conform to social norms, or is not deemed appropriate for a

particular setting.” Body polic-ing happens constantly, espe-cially to women.

My first experience with body discrimination occurred while I searched for my current Ginger Spice costume. With-out the tightest mini-skirt, the costume would not be perfect, and the search was much more difficult than I had anticipated. After searching two malls worth of stores, I still hadn’t found what I was looking for.

My stress-levels were al-ready a little too high, when I received a comment from a random stranger with regards to my body. The moment was quick and I smiled, nodded, then swore not so quietly under my breath.

When a stranger tells some-one that they are a little too chunky to be Ginger Spice, their implications are clear. Thank you, random woman, for implying that I am too fat to pull off my favourite Spice Girl. Thank you for ruining this cos-tume for me. I have witnessed my body change over time, and I know how much chocolate I have consumed in my life. But, this does not give anyone the right to tell me how my body looks, or what parts of it I can show off.

This practice is prevalent across today’s culture, and the fact that beauty is so narrowly defined does not help mat-ters. To take on the identity of another person or character

should be fun and creative. But, depending on the costume, Halloween has consistently shifted ‘dress-up’ from fun to unnecessarily critical.

Nothing beneficial comes from the expression of unproductive and abusive opinions. With the po-tential to cause mental and even physical illness, comments such as this are an enormous issue for anyone who does not fit into main-stream ideals of beauty.

My body is not on display for random strangers, or even the peo-ple I love, to comment on. I under-stand what is right for my body and others should not feel so entitled to their opinions on it. While everyone has personal preferences as to what they find attractive, these prefer-ences should not be forced upon in-dividuals as the ‘proper’ way to be.

Sooner or later, these ideals are internalized and become de-structive. People become dam-aged, which causes them to moni-tor or change their beliefs about who they are. Halloween is about dressing up, being silly, and hav-ing fun, and isn’t about changing who we are and what we look like to appease others. I am confident with who I am, so please, let me let me rock my mini mini-skirt with-out feeling guilty about it.

Because climate change is a fairly recent issue, it has been difficult to arouse the public’s interest enough to reverse the trend. During my high school years in Hong Kong, students would occassionally be exposed to discussions on this issue. An article from Rabble suggests that “education about climate change must become front and

center in our curriculum at all levels of schooling and across disciplines” — a statement with which I agree immensely.

As unpleasant as it is to admit, climate change is one of the most serious crises we face on this planet. It is no longer an issue that troubles only a few countries; the issue has now quickly come to affect almost every part of the world. If we do not act quickly, future genera-tions will suffer.

Climate change issues cannot be solved in a short period of time, therefore, the education of future generations is an essential element in building a sustainable future.

One of the problems with current climate change

education is that it’s introduced too late in the school curricu-lum. In elementary school, these issues are barely touched upon, and only in high school is the subject really introduced. It is best to start educating stu-dents when they are young, in order to successfully encourage them to change their attitudes and behaviours.

Unfortunately, I find that some teachers do not have adequate knowledge on the issue, and are therefore unable to enlighten stu-dents fully. Furthermore, educa-tors must be passionate about what they teach their students. A real interest in a certain situation would do wonders in influencing students’ perceptions.

Sadly, during my high school days, climate change talks could be dull. Teachers tended to bom-bard students with scientific re-search — statistics, graphs, charts, and quantitative facts — that did little to arouse student interest.

An interactive learning ap-proach may be a useful alternative in educating students on climate change. Innovative, hands-on ac-tivities would be a decent method to use on children.

Point blank, while we may have yet to come up with some truly effective methods that will motivate people to participate in a viable climate change solu-tion, education and awareness for our future generations is where it starts.

Carbon dioxide levels have almost doubled in the past 60 years, global sea levels have risen about 17 centimetres in the last century, and extreme weather is occurring all over the world. As everyone is responsible for the environment, we must invest our time, money, and interest in rais-ing our future generations to be globally empathetic, innovative individuals who will build our sustainable future.

Dear SFU Undergraduate Students,

Thank you for making the 2014 Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS) Annual General Meeting a success!

We are ecstatic to report that this year’s Annual General Meeting was one of the most successful in its history. Students have resoundingly endorsed the financing of a new Student Union Building and Stadium.

A total of 469 Society members attended this year’s Annual General Meeting, nearly double what is required for quorum. In years past, the SFSS has struggled to obtain quorum at this very important meeting. We are immensely proud of our members for taking ownership of the SFSS and the Build SFU project.

We wish to thank the volunteers and staff who worked so diligently at making this year’s meeting such a success. Most importantly, we wish to thank all those students who attended!

The attendance level was substantially higher than what we anticipated based on turnout levels from previous Annual General Meetings. Thank you to all those who waited patiently to enter.

Chardaye  BueckertPresident - Simon Fraser Student Society

11OPINIONS October 27, 2014

Almost every undergraduate, at one point, asks the following question: is university worth it? I myself have spent more than a few hours over the last sev-eral years pondering this. But what does it mean for some-thing to be worth it? Monetary return? Experiential value? Or is it merely another check we all feel must be crossed off before entering adulthood?

The answer to this question is all of the above. We’d all like a higher salary and to experi-ence all of the joys of university life. Most commonly, we want to cross this task off our list, and move on. The question then is, does university actually get you any of these things?

From a monetary perspec-tive, let’s assume you graduate at the age of 25 and you work for at least another 40 years. Having

gone through post-secondary education, how much more money would you need to make in order to break even?

Simply combine the cost of your tuition, the opportu-nity cost you incur by attend-ing school, and the interest on your student loan repayment. By my estimate, if you’re an un-dergraduate, your total cost will never be over $75,000. Now you may find this number rather staggering. You may question what job you could possibly get upon graduation that could jus-tify such an expenditure. The answer, surprisingly, is just about any.

Assuming you have the next 40 years of work to break even, and assuming that you will work full-time each year, you would need to make an average of 97 cents more per hour — than what you would have made without your degree

— post-university for your degree to have been worth it. Some might argue that you won’t even be able to make that much more, being perpetually underqualified due to your lack of work experience.

My answer would be to wait. Take that BA designation off of your resume, get a ‘basic job,’ then apply for a proper one every week. Even if it takes you years to build up the work experience needed, it will still have been worth it. Remember, post-sec-ondary education doesn’t need to make you a millionaire to have been worth it. It simply needs to make you better off than you would have been otherwise.

These ideas do not even consider the fact that univer-sity is amazing on its own mer-its, regardless of any payback. It is a time for you to be part of a community of thinkers, to become politically active, and socially mobile. To use a tired cliché, it is a place for you to discover yourself and find your academic muse. This muse, whether English or statistics, geology or acting, will inform and enrich the rest of your life. What is more, the experiences you share with your peers,

professors, lovers, and friends will stay with you forever.

When you take all of these benefits into consideration, in

conjunction with the fact that the monetary payoff is almost certain, surely your answer to my question is obvious: university is worth it.

Last week, Leader of the Opposi-tion Thomas Mulcair announced a proposal to launch a nationwide childcare program that would seek to provide affordable and quality childcare services to families across Canada. Mulcair’s announcement looked to set up what will be the NDP’s key platform issue come election time next year.

While the promise of affordable and universal childcare is an obvi-ous boon to the Canadian economy and serves to only further gender equality, the true accessibility of this plan remains unclear.

The issue of childcare is, at its heart, a gender equality issue. Too often, families are unable to either find or pay for daycare, and too often, women are expected to assume the responsibilities of primary caretakers due to

patriarchal cultural norms; thus, the government’s inaction to pro-vide such care disproportionately burdens women.

This is of particular concern considering the staggeringly high number of women pursuing post-secondary education and poised to take on leadership roles in all in-dustries in Canada. However, the realization of gender equality will be stagnant until systemic barriers to employment and career advance-ment for women can be negated by an effective childcare system.

Most importantly an effective childcare policy would be self-sus-taining. The surplus of women who would be able to enter the work-force would not only significantly grow the economy, but their in-come would also provide crucial tax revenue for the government.

In Quebec a similar childcare policy has been in place for quite

some time and the outcomes have been encouraging. Econo-mist Pierre Fortin argues that “[the] ripple effect of [women’s] employment pumped an addi-tional $5.2 billion into the Que-bec economy, boosting the prov-ince’s Gross Domestic Product by 1.7 per cent” which easily pays for the “$1.6 billion annual child-care costs” the province incurs to pay for such a plan.

One thing remains abundantly clear; the current status quo of childcare in the form of the Uni-versal Child Care Benefit makes no economic sense. One hundred dol-lars per month is not nearly enough to cover the exorbitant price of childcare (which on average can surpass $1,000 per month).

The NDP’s policy will cost $5 billion dollars a year by 2023. This policy not only subsidizes the cost of daycare to $15 a day, but also involves providing a mil-lion additional care spaces for just double that amount.

However rosy universal child-care may seem, I remain con-cerned that the NDP policy will, like the troubling majority of social policies, only be enjoyed by the most privileged groups in

our society. The policy seems to invoke a universal language but I am doubtful that such language is appropriate given the starkly different economic realities that Canadians face.

An OECD study found that in Canada “low-income, single-parent families[. . .]pay, on av-erage, 48 per cent of their net income” on childcare services. What has the NDP said as to how these families are to benefit under this new plan? Nothing. The waiting lists for these care

spaces will give no preference to families who need such subsi-dized services in order to subsist.

The blind nature of such a policy will not necessarily help to ameliorate the conditions of the most vulnerable and impoverished people in our society, which is what a truly socially minded social policy ought to do. If it fails to do so, it takes its place as just another empty political gesture and we have plenty of those in Ottawa, Mr. Mulcair.

Our very own Loch Ness Monster, the Ogopogo is a gigantic sea serpent said to live at the bottom of Lake Okanagan, just shy of Kelowna. The earli-est sightings of the sea monster date back centuries — the Okanakane tribe in the area called it Naitaka, which means “lake demon.” Oddly enough, the term Ogopogo is borrowed from the title of a 1924 music hall single which bears no mention of lake monsters or mysterious sea serpents of any kind.

Despite its monstrous size (around 40–50 feet long) and possibly prehistoric or paranormal origins, the Ogopogo is usually depicted as fairly benevolent, sometimes even friendly. It has become a local sym-bol in Kelowna and the surrounding areas, lending its name and image to restaurants, parks, corner stores, and even the logo for Kelowna’s hockey team, the Rockets.

Finding its origins in the legends of the Algon-quian peoples, the wendigo or windigo is an evil spirit who takes the form of a skeletal human. With thin, sickly skin and a wiry frame made partly of ice, the wendigo is best known for its insatiable hunger

humans who were particularly greedy or gluttonous could become wendigos themselves; other versions hold that wendigos grow larger with every human they eat, ensuring that the beast’s hunger is never

northern Canada and Alaska, where the air is as chilly as their souls.

Apart from being greedy, a human could be-come a wendigo by being possessed or by eating hu-man meat — there’s even a psychological disorder called Wendigo psychosis which refers to a human with cannibalistic urges, though it’s often dismissed as pseudoscience by modern experts. Psychology aside, wendigos are terrifying. Many legends specify that the beast doesn’t have any lips, because — you guessed it — it eats them. Urgh.

In Inuit mythology, the qalupalik is a sea creature -

sides deep within the Arctic Ocean. When venturing onto land, the qalupalik wears a traditional amauti — a heavy parka with a pouch at the front — which she uses to kidnap local children who wander off or disobey their elders.

According to the legend, qalupalik steals children -

ing hair. She’s afraid of adults, but that doesn’t stop her from snatching kids who venture too close to the shoreline. This legend has been passed on from gen-eration to generation, often told as a cautionary tale for misbehaving children.

This Winnipeg legend begins on a particularly cold winter’s evening in 1926. In a barn on the out-skirts of the city, a power cable breaks and sparks a

lives into the snowy night. Galloping into the Red River, the horses eventually freeze solid mid-gallop, heads poking out of the icy banks, their frenzied ex-pressions preserved by the ice and snow. Legend has it that, for the remainder of that bitter winter, locals would walk across the frozen Red River and visit the

chilly equine statues.Though it’s incredibly unlikely that these horses

could possibly have frozen solid whilst standing up-right, this legend has been passed on from generation to generation in Manitoba, and was immortalized in a

My Winnipeg. Science aside, it’s certainly a haunting image, those horse heads poking out of the frozen Winnipeg river.

It’s hard to think of a spookier spot than an aban-doned mental institution, and Weyburn might be one of the creepiest of all time. Built in 1921, the hospital was among the largest structures in the British Em-pire at the time, and housed upwards of 900 patients from across the country. The institution quickly be-came controversial for its inhumane practices, includ-ing lobotomies, insulin and electroshock therapies, ice baths, and LSD experiments. In fact, the use of psychedelics on patients and staff alike was so com-mon that the term “psychedelic” was coined within the hospital’s walls.

Though the hospital was closed in 1971 and re-mained mostly empty until its demolition in 2009,

-ing spectres within its decaying walls — especially

have seen a ghostly woman in high heels pacing back and forth. As the historic building has since been re-duced to a pile of rubble, we’ll probably never know for sure.

At the heart of the Rockies sits the Banff Springs Hotel, one of the oldest and most ornate resorts in Canada. Opened in 1888, the hotel is best known today for the many ghosts that supposedly haunt its hallways. The most famous of them is probably Samuel McCauley, a beloved bellman who worked at the hotel until his death. McCauley is said to have promised to one day haunt the hotel, and since his death, guests have reported instances of elevator

-ing on and off, and even a ghostly apparition helping to carry bags into hotel rooms.

The hotel’s other stories aren’t quite so pleas-ant. Among them is the mystery surrounding Room 873, which is curiously missing. It’s said that a tragic murder occurred in that room many years ago. After guests repeatedly complained of hearing screams and

and mirrors, the hotel owners boarded up the room with drywall and instructed staff never to speak of it again. If you ever get a chance to visit the hotel, ask a bellhop about spooky Room 873 — if the rumours are true, they’ll shrug it off with a scripted response that’s as creepy as the story itself.

This Winnipeg legend begins on a particularly

cold winter’s evening in 1926. In a barn on the out-

skirts of the city, a power cable breaks and sparks a

lives into the snowy night. Galloping into the Red

heads poking out of the icy banks, their frenzied ex-

pressions preserved by the ice and snow. Legend has

would walk across the frozen Red River and visit the

Though it’s incredibly unlikely that these horses

could possibly have frozen solid whilst standing up-

. Science aside, it’s certainly

-

ning below a set of railroad tracks. According to local

legend, there was once a set of houses on one side of

the tunnel, where there lived a young girl and her par-

girl was raped and her body burned, her dress caught

-

sought refuge in the tunnel, where she would sneak

-

-

-

woods where he died.

-

pahayden, the population of which is less than 500,

there’s a large rock on the outskirts of the town centre.

havoc on the world of the living.

-

called the devil’s staircase. The story tells of a callous

sea captain who cursed his crew and dared the devil to

the cliff wall. There, like at the devil’s rock, it’s said

that the hoofprints of Satan can be found.

-

Of all Canada’s provinces, Quebec’s folklore is

chasse-gal-

erie

to paddle a great canoe across the night sky to visit

their sweethearts in the city. The catch? They can’t

while riding in their fantastic boat, or else the devil

will win their souls.

pine tree, knocking all the canoers unconscious. The

14 arts editor Tessa Perkinsemail / phone arts@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560ARTS October 27, 2014

Death is not the first subject that comes to mind for an animated film, yet Jorge R. Gutierrez’s ad-venture-comedy, The Book of Life, presents the dead (and also the liv-ing) in a manner that is appropri-ate and fun for families to watch.

The film’s fascination with death makes sense in its Mexican setting, where people honour their dead ancestors on a holiday called the Day of the Dead. The movie opens on the Day of the Dead; the two rulers of the dead — La Muerte (Kate del Castillo) and Xibalba (Ron Perlman) — are wagering as to which of the two leading male characters will marry Maria (Zoe Saldana). The two young men in question are Manolo (Diego Luna), who wishes to become a musician rather than follow the traditional

path in his family of becoming a bullfighter, and Joaquin (Chan-ning Tatum), a dashing hero with a cache of medals.

Maria falls for Manolo, but the plot takes a turn when Xi-balba cunningly gets Manolo killed in order to win the bet, prompting Manolo’s journey through the Land of the Re-membered and the Land of the Forgotten. In the living world, Maria faces the hard choice of whether or not to marry Joa-quin, who would protect their town from a group of bandits threatening to invade.

One of the most impressive things about the film is its visual presentation. Every character or object in each scene is drawn with such incredible detail and vibrant colours that it truly looks as though there is a Mexican fiesta taking place on the screen.

The depiction of the world of the dead is particularly note-worthy. While the Land of the Re-membered is even more colour-ful and elaborate than the world of the living, the Land of the For-gotten provides a striking con-trast with its grey colour scheme and lack of detail.

The lead characters, specifi-cally Manolo and Maria, are un-like the archetypes historically presented in animated films. Maria’s character is refreshing in its disruption of gender ste-reotypes. She is not a damsel in distress, but is often shown to be even more courageous and physically adept at fighting than the male characters. Manolo is not a macho hero; he wishes to win the heroine’s heart through music rather than demonstra-tions of strength.

That is not to say that there are no problems with the film. The American accents of some charac-ters sound a bit jarring in the Mexi-can setting. The plot also seems to be filled with too many conflicts, such as the question of who will win Maria’s heart, Manolo’s jour-ney through the afterlife, Manolo’s

desire to choose his own life path, and the threat of invasion lingering over the town. Children, who make up a significant portion of the film’s audience, might have a difficult time following the film’s storyline.

Despite these issues, The Book of Life’s focus on Mexican folklore and its colourful visual presen-tation offer adults and children something unique and enjoyable to watch on Halloween.

If you haven’t heard of The Walking Dead, then you’ve probably been living under a rock for the past four years. The Walking Dead franchise has ex-panded into several mediums including a TV series and an award-winning video game, but it began as a comic book. The first compendium came out in May of 2009 and consists of sin-gle issues one to 48.

The narrative is fairly close to the hugely popular television se-ries, which just began its fourth season. The series begins with Rick Grimes — who wakes up from a coma to find himself in the

zombie apocalypse — and follows him as he finds his family and makes his way across the coun-try; he finally finds refuge with an old veterinarian named Hershel at a relatively secluded and self-sustaining farm.

Because the volume is so ex-pansive, I won’t get into the nitty

gritty of the plot, especially since The Walking Dead is now such a far reaching franchise and I’d be likely to spoil some aspect of the story for someone. The series is written by veteran comic author, Robert Kirkman, who has worked on other major titles such as In-vincible and Ultimate X-Men. On

paper, Kirkman hosts an impres-sive resume. He is a best-seller for multiple series, and he’s one of the five partners who own the popular publisher Image Comics.

I have to admit that the one problem I have with this graphic novel is the writing — to be more specific, the dialogue. Characters often narrate their own actions, which slows down the pace of the book, making it drag on. Many of the characters recount events that have just occurred to each other, almost immediately after they happen.

Even simple actions — like emptying out the bed of a truck before getting into it — seem to require vocal acknowledgment, usually in a dialogue between two or more characters. There is no reason for this; most readers are capable of making the connec-tion through either logic or visual cues present in the art.

The art itself is actually di-vided between two illustrators:

Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard. Moore did issues one through six, with Adlard taking over the rest. To be honest, the more dramatic and ink-heavy art of Adlard is a far better fit for this dark graphic novel, so the change was well founded.

Adlard relies on dramatic light sourcing, something com-mon among artists that spe-cialize in black and white. This style of art provides an over-all harsh aesthetic that helps to emphasize the danger and emotional turmoil present in Kirkman’s narrative. I found the art to be very impressive, and significantly less gory than the television series.

Because of the problems with the dialogue, and how persis-tent these are from issue to issue without improvement, I probably won’t be continuing this series, but I encourage fans of the show, or of zombie and horror genres in general, to check it out.

15ARTS October 27, 2014

Do you love staying up all night watching films like Night of the Living Dead, Resident Evil, or Zombieland? Do you eagerly participate in Zombie Walk every year? Are you a crazed fanatic about the things that go bump in the night, that don’t stay dead and subsist on human flesh?

If your answer to any of those questions is yes, get your ticket to Virtual Stage’s On Death’s Door: Plague of the Zombie Syndrome now! An incredibly interactive show, you’ll get to experience first hand what being chased by zom-bies in real life actually feels like.

On Death’s Door brings you on a whirlwind, high-stakes mission. All audience members are partici-pants — part of a zombie fighting team — and are immersed from the get-go: no toilet breaks, no pop-corn runs, and no intermissions.

This is not just mindless zombie chasing and non-stop running either — there’s an ac-tual plot behind it. You become a character in the story, and every action you make, every word you say, shapes the story’s conception and brings it to life. Numerous possible scenarios could happen, and they are de-pendent on the choices both you and your team members make. The talented actors must adapt to the group dynamic on the spot. While there is a gen-eral script, specific dialogue is invented in the moment to make the storytelling experi-ence run smoothly.

Participants are emailed their rendezvous point less than 24 hours before the show starts and the mission takes place on the very streets of Vancouver, amongst the uninformed, go-ing-about-their-regular-busi-ness public. But how can zom-bies be prowling around on the streets, striking fear into partic-ipants’ hearts without scaring the bejeezus out of non-paying passers-by?

I had the opportunity to in-terview Andy Thompson, the artistic director of On Death’s Door, who’s been bringing successful interactive zombie

productions to the streets of Vancouver for three years. Every year has featured a dif-ferent plot and script, and the immense planning and prep-aration for each show starts more than a year in advance. Thompson is very interested in the metaphor of the zombie, using it in the show as a sym-bol for drug addiction.

“Having been fascinated with the topic of addiction and its impact on our society, I was very keen to dive into it. It’s re-ally scary to consider that al-coholism, and other addictions, are everywhere in society, from the top judges to the lowest bottom drunks on Skid Row and everything in between. That, to me, is horror.”

The key to this production is to be low-key — Thompson would love to see excessively vio-lent scenes with an overwhelm-ing swarm of zombies, but such a

scene would call too much atten-tion to itself. As it already stands, each zombie actor has a bodyguard or other cast member in the near vicinity to make sure that they are protected in case they’re attacked.

Additionally, permits are needed to reserve sections of public space for the settings, and as always, safety for everyone — the performers, the audience and the public — is top priority. Thompson has to strike a balance between theatrical creativity and realistic limits, and from what I’ve seen, he’s a master at it. The show’s been a huge success, with participants showering the com-pany with praise and requests for a bigger, better, and more badass show each year.

10. The Innkeepers (2011)

Two hotel employees attempt to record evidence of the ghost of Madeline O’Malley, a woman whose ghost haunts the the inn. This movie is unique in that it plays with expectations of the horror genre in fascinating, frustrat-ing ways that amp up ten-sion. It leaves you anxious, and always on edge — like good horror should.

9. The Descent (2005)

Six women explore an un-mapped cave system in a film that draws on one of our most basic fears: the dark. The film is a claustrophobic, anxious ride that is pretty brutal as well. It’s not for the faint of heart.

8. Let the Right One In (2008)

A bullied child befriends a young vampire in this sur-prisingly sweet, but also frightening film. It’s a perfect balancing act of tone, not just a great horror film, but one of the best films of the last 10 years period.

7. The Awakening (2011)

A mythbuster in 1921 Britain is called into an all boy’s boarding house to disprove the children’s belief that a ghost lives there. A very old fashioned story reminiscent of some of Holly-wood’s older horror films, a lot of time is dedicated to building up a bleak tone and racking up tension.

6. You’re Next (2011)

This is a slasher with a twist: instead of a group of sexy teens being killed off one by one, it’s a family at a reunion at their large summer home. While family tensions cause drama at dinner, soon they must band together as they are picked off one at a time. It will leave you guessing at who’s next and whose faces

are behind the killers’ creepy animal masks.

5. Eden Lake (2008)

A couple attempt to camp in the English countryside and are terrorized by a group of young British hoodlums. While they start with some basic harassment and vandal-ism, the teenagers’ psychotic leader slowly starts to be-come violent with the couple. While not a traditional scary movie, it will leave you tense and ultimately horrified.

4. House of The Devil (2009)

Set in the 1980’s, a babysit-ter is recruited out of college to take care of an ailing el-derly woman who lives in a decrepit, old house. While the plot may sound basic, the film jumps between subgenres of horror with glorious aban-don, featuring satanic cults, haunted houses, slashers, and a great ’80s soundtrack.

3. V/H/S (2012)

This is an anthology film that features six creepy, inventive horror shorts, each helmed by a different director. While they fluctuate slightly in quality, they all offer something new to this often stale genre and are more than worth check-ing out.

2. REC. (2007)

A reporter is quarantined inside an apartment building infected with a zombie-like virus. The discovered-footage style of the film is used to great effect, rack-ing up tension and giving the viewer the terrifying point of view of the reporter. Bloody and relentless, the scares come fast and never stop.

1. Oculus (2014)

Mixing flashbacks with the present day, a brother and sis-ter attempt to understand what really happened when their father murdered their mother 11 years ago, seemingly under the influence of a supernatu-ral mirror. The film effectively blurs lines of reality, time, and perspective. It’s a real mind bender that will leave you with a sick feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach.

16 ARTS October 27, 2014

It’s that time of month. Hallow-een is just around the corner, and people are doing last minute runs for fake tombstones, multi-pack candy, and pumpkins. For those who don’t fancy staying at home handing out candy to children, there are certainly the scary attrac-tions, such as PNE’s Fright Night or the Metrotown Haunted House. But if you’re looking to tone down the fear factor and add a bit more comedic spice to this chilly Octo-ber air, Evil Dead: The Musical is right where you want to be.

Evil Dead: The Musical, pre-sented by DSR Productions,

returns to Vancouver this Hallow-een for some frightful delights. In-spired by Sam Raimi’s cult movie series of the same name, it plays out the story of five college stu-dents who spend what is, for most of them, their last, fateful night in a cabin in the woods. The entire world’s fate rests on the shoulders

of Ash, a simple, apparently very horny, S-Mart Housewares em-ployee. No pressure, man.

Evil Dead takes a lot of the com-mon stereotypes that we see in horror movies, especially the bad ones, and makes fun of them very blatantly, effectively subverting these cliches. That’s part of what

made the show such a riot for ev-eryone — it addresses completely ridiculous tropes in horror movies that don’t often fool us anymore. The running joke lies in the charac-ters’ simultaneous awareness and obliviousness of themselves and their situation. On top of an am-bitious script, the show’s slapstick humour is spot on.

It is pretty obvious that this was not a Broadway show, and isn’t supposed to be. Some of the dialogue that was supposed to be funny fell flat, and certain scenes of acting and dancing were bor-derline sloppy. Nonetheless, it was clear that the actors and ac-tresses had heart and were genu-inely dedicated to putting on a great show. With songs like “What the F*CK was that?” and “All the men in my life keep getting killed by Cadarian Demons!” the show pretty much speaks for itself.

The show is fabulously unique in one aspect — its famed Splatter Zone. DSR Productions

encourages people to come to their show decked out in full cos-tume and live it up just as much as their dancing dead. For audi-ence members who don’t mind getting wet and dirty, this is definitely for you. If you’ve ever wanted personalized attention from a bunch of zombies and their flying guts, snatch up those splatter zone tickets now — it’s only for the first row in the the-atre. Don’t make the mistake of settling for general admission like I did; I had to watch envi-ously from the fourth row as people in the front were bom-barded by zombies and soaked with zombie blood.

Judge Dee’s Chinatown Haunted House, presented by Seven Ty-rants Theatre, is a theatrical ex-perience through the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens in the dark bluish hue of night. Revolving around the life and death of Judge Dee — the Chinese equivalent of Sher-lock Holmes, a detective who had a penchant for putting crim-inals behind bars and upholding justice — this Halloween attrac-tion is definitely not your typical haunted house.

Whereas in a standard haunted house you merely walk, stumble, or scream your way through tight, indoor spaces designed to psy-chologically torture you, this Chi-natown haunt features the extra element of storytelling. Besides having to concentrate on not tripping over your feet — which your fright has suddenly turned into violently flopping fish — and

making sure nobody’s sneaking up behind you about to cut off your kneecap, your already short-cir-cuited brain has to go into over-drive and focus on an unraveling storyline as well.

It was certainly interesting to see the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden bathed in such a dark halo and mist. This experience gives partici-pants a different perspective on the gardens than what its normal daylight hours allow.

I visited the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden earlier in October on a lovely sunny day, and it was a classical vista taken right out of China, authentic in every way; you felt as if you’d traversed the space between Vancouver and China in one footstep. The real world dripped into the pond and cast a parallel universe into its depths, where koi spun and weaved languidly. Transformed into a haunted house though, with cackling creatures around every corner, it is infinitely more creepy than tranquil.

Judge Dee’s is a unique Hal-loween attraction, but as much as I appreciate the fact that ac-tors actually have to enact a script rather than just drool and growl

and shriek, I think it is not entirely accurate to advertise this attrac-tion as “Vancouver’s only haunted house not suitable for children,” or even as a haunted house for that matter. While it did have its scares, I definitely would not peg it as a goosebump-inducing, knee-quivering, lip-biting, terrifying experience — and this is coming

from a girl who loves scary movies but cannot watch them alone.

I’ve been to my fair share of haunted houses and this is by far one of the mildest I’ve seen. I suppose the scares lie more in the evocation of Judge Dee’s ad-ventures, which eventually ended in his assassination, and is thus a decidedly more sophisticated

Halloween experience for the dis-cerning individual.

17sports editor Austin Cozicaremail / phone sports@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560SPORTS

October 27, 2014

SFU marched to their second vic-tory of the season off of a dominant second half, defeating Great North-west Athletic Conference rivals, the South Dakota School of Mines (SDSM) Hardrockers, who are ranked seventh in the conference.

Quarterback Ryan Stanford had his first start in three weeks, as head coach Jacques Chapdelaine started backup Tyler Nickel the last two games. Throwing for 372 yards, and going 28 for 36 on pass attempts, Stanford proved that he is still the team’s go-to quarterback.

In spite of the end result, the first half exposed some Clan weak-nesses, with the team down 31-26 at halftime. Scoring was not an issue, but defensive lapses were.

SFU won the coin toss to start, and elected to receive. However, a fumble gave the ball to the Hardrockers, who promptly opened up the scor-ing with a touchdown. Although they answered back quickly with a field goal and touchdown for a momentary lead, the Clan never seemed in control.

The tide began to turn for SFU at the end of the second quarter, as Cole Tudor ran the ball in for

a touchdown with 39 seconds left in the half — only down by five points, this play set the tone for SFU’s second half teardown of South Dakota.

The beginning of the sec-ond half mirrored the start of the game, but this time in the Clan’s favour: SFU middle line-backer Jordan Herdman sacked Hardrocker quarterback Tren-ton McKinney, forcing a fumble, which led to a Clan touchdown 1:04 into the half.

With the touchdown, SFU took the lead, at 32-31, which they would keep for the rest of the game. The Clan did not allow the Hardrockers a single point more, shutting them out to a score of 27-0 in the half.

In the third quarter alone, SFU scored 20 straight points, with wide receiver Lemar Durant tak-ing in the second and third touch-downs of the quarter.

He nearly made it three straight touchdowns at the start of the fourth quarter — catching a 30-yard pass from Stanford — but SFU took a penalty on the play and it did not count.

As a testament to the Clan’s play, Justin Buren made up for the mistake, catching a 35-yard touchdown pass, notching the final points of the game, with the score at 53-31.

The Hardrockers did not throw in the towel, though, and appeared to be making their way to their first touchdown of the half with 60 yards in a single drive, but Tolbert forced a fumble, which Jordan Herdman recovered, sealing the win.

Jordan Herdman once again led the team in tackles with 12.5, while Tudor and Stephen Spagnuolo led the team in rushing yards with 96 and 86 yards respectively.

One of the highlights of the game was Justin Buren, who re-placed injured wide receiver Kyle Kawamoto the previous weekend; he put up a stellar performance, notching 123 receiving yards, and two touchdowns, leading the team.

“We knew Justin [Buren] was a very capable player in training camp, he just didn’t have a lot of experience, which he is gaining rapidly now,” said Chapdelaine. “The last couple of weeks have been very good for him.”

Chapdelaine attributed much of his team’s second half resurgence to the previous weekend’s loss to Divi-sion I Idaho State Bengals.

“We just executed honestly,” he explained. “We played a very tough opponent last week, and although the score did not flatter us, we learned a lot of things in that game that we did not apply in the first half. In the second half, it was important for the guys to apply what we had learned, how we had gotten better.”

Chapdelaine stressed the need for greater consistency from the team: “We need to be better at understanding the lit-tle details of the game. This is not high school football; guys have got to prepare in a way I don’t think they have [. . .] in the past.”

Although their overall re-cord is 2-5, the Clan are now 2-1 in the GNAC, and move to third place in the conference.

SFU Hockey won in a shootout 5-4 against first place Trinity Western University (TWU) at home Saturday, October 18. SFU outshot TWU 42-27, and scored three straight goals after surrendering the first goal of the game. TWU battled back to tie the game and take it to a shootout. The Clan are second in the league, sitting at 3-2-0, with one of those losses against TWU the night before.

The Clan women’s wrestling team opened their season with a 36-9 victory against Wayland Baptist University in a dual meet held in Plainview, TX. SFU won eight of the 10 matches to notch the victory.

SFU’s golf teams played on October 20 and 21, as the men headed to Monterey Bay, CA, while the women headed to Victoria, BC to play at the Vikes Invitational. Both teams placed third, with freshman Kylie Jack leading the women’s team, coming in seventh. These tournaments wrapped up the teams’ fall seasons.

SFU’s men’s soccer team de-fended their way to a 1-0 win over the North Nazarene Cru-saders. Captain Jovan Blago-jevic scored his 13th goal of the season in the eighth min-ute, which ended up being the game winner. Callum Whittaker was ejected from the game in the 53rd minute, which forced the team, al-ready under pressure from the Crusaders, to play with one less man. The Clan are now 7-4-2 overall, and 5-3-2 within the conference.

SFU ended up with the victory on Thursday night, but it was a nail biter right down to the last second.

Playing against the Seattle Pacific University (SPU) Falcons, the Clan had many opportuni-ties to end the game, but they had a hard time finishing, and the Falcons were relentless.

“[SPU] played very well ac-tually. They kept going and they were doing everything right and blocking us, so props to them, but I’m glad we came out on top,” said outside hitter Mack-enzie Dunham.

SFU started out the game with four straight points, including two back-to-back kills by Kelsey Robinson, and won the first set 25-17. Robinson had seven kills in just the first set.

The second set did not go as smoothly for the Clan, with the Fal-cons notching the first two points. SFU had a hard time defending against SPU’s attack, as they often seemed to be too spread out.

The Clan would surrender the set to the Falcons, before taking the third by a score of 25-17.

Now leading the game two sets to one, SFU jumped out to the early lead in the fourth, with Robinson’s 13th kill opening the set. SPU, however, took the lead quickly, eventually gaining a five-point lead to make it 10-5. The Clan took back the lead, however, by scoring six straight points.

SFU eventually took a sizable seven-point lead, bringing the

score to 21-14, and looked primed for the victory. The Falcons would claw back, however, and with the help of a five-point streak, win the set, forcing the fifth set.

The Clan once again jumped out to the early lead, up three points 13-10. SPU fought back once again to tie it 13-13, but SFU finally mustered up the strength to finish the game with a kill by Christine Howlett, which ended the set 16-14.

“I was very relieved when we pulled that one out,” said Dun-ham, who had 12 kills, tied with Howlett for the second-most kills to Robinson’s 19. “We worked very hard as a team and some-times you just need to give it a little more just to keep ahead.”

With the victory, the Clan move from fifth place to fourth place in the Great Northwest Ath-letic Conference (GNAC) with a conference record of 7-4 and 13-6

overall. The seven conference wins are a best for the Clan — whose record was six last season — and they still have seven games left to improve that tally.

 

18 SPORTS October 27, 2014

When you think of quidditch, you probably think of the fic-tional game in Harry Potter, with magic and flying brooms — a dif-ficult, if not impossible, game to play in reality.

But it’s real, having been adapted into an ac sport some-times referred to as muggle quid-ditch. Although it deviates slightly from the game in the books and movies — primarily in that you can’t fly and that the snitch is car-ried by a person, a snitch runner — it’s actually fairly faithful. Play-ers still carry around broomsticks, for instance (even though they are clearly not used to fly).

For some, the game’s basis on Harry Potter and the whole run-ning around carrying a broom-stick between your knees thing scares them off, or they dismiss it as ‘nerdy.’

Da Huang initially had some of these reservations: “At first I saw their club days [booth] in the AQ and I thought that this might be some kind of Harry Potter fan club, because there was [. . . a] guy carrying a broom and walking around.

“I do really like Harry Potter myself, but at the beginning, to be honest, I was kind of worried about how my friends [would] look at me because it sounds a little bit nerdy.”

However, it didn’t take him long to get into the game, and see it as a legitimate sport: “After a scrimmage, at the end of practice, this idea was just wiped out of my mind, as [I thought], ‘Oh damn, I’m almost dead from that game.’ I was taken down to the ground by another bulky player, like in rugby [and] the broom I was using back then broke into two pieces.

“It may look silly at first, when you’re running around riding a broom, but later people realize how intensive and com-petitive it is.”

He explains, “Fifty per cent of the reason I play this sport is

because I’m a Harry Potter fan, the other 50 per cent is that, as an ath-lete, I really enjoy competing with my teammates and other schools.

“[It’s] competitive, it requires a lot of teamwork and that’s why I like this sport.”

Da admits to some difficulty when explaining the sport to his friends, saying, “A typical con-versation would be like: ‘I have a practice today,’ ‘What practice?’ ‘Quidditch,’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘I just told you last week!’ ‘Oh yeah, that Harry Potter thing,’ “You should come with me,’ ‘Alright, I’ll try [sometime] later.’”

Despite the initial challenge of encouraging his friends to try the sport, after actually watching him play, their atti-tudes changed. “I convinced some of them to come and watch our game against UBC in the summertime and after that they were all like, ‘Wow, that’s way more intensive than I imagined.’”

In the game itself, Da is a chaser — the quidditch equivalent of a forward. His job, more or less, is to score. He describes himself as a high energy player; he refers to his intensity on the field, saying that he “yells all the time” to help motivate the team. He explains that his teammates sometimes say that another ego comes out of him when on the field.

He fits into SFU’s balanced game plan — in contrast to that of UBC, which he alleges focuses more on size and tackling — as a more agile and sneaky scorer, who uses speed to outwit the competition and put the quaffle (the ball) in the hoop.

Da’s athletic interests are not limited to quidditch, though; he enjoys playing many sports, in particular soccer and bas-ketball, and these games often seep into his quidditch play: “I found that I can use my experi-ence from other sports [. . .] to use in quidditch.

“[For example] I use the post move from basketball in quid-ditch to get rid of a defender,” he explains. “The overall size of the [field] in soccer [helped me realize] that I need to be aware all the time where my teammates are, where the defenders are, where the golden snitch is.”

Although he was not one of the founding members of the SFU’s quidditch team, the SFU Marauders, he is now one of

the more senior players on the team, and in a position of lead-ership. Looking at the team, which started only one year ago, he sees a bright future.

“We are a new club com-pared to other universities in North America and in Canada, such as UBC — they all have longer histories than us, but we have been improving very rap-idly,” he said. “We’ve been to several tournaments and actu-ally did not bad.

“I’m proud of my team and happy to be a part of it.”

r

19SPORTS October 27, 2014

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The women’s soccer team suffered a 2-1 defeat last Thursday night, at the hands of the Central Wash-ington Wildcats (CWU). The Clan

were looking to improve on their 2-8 conference record, seventh in the GNAC; they were up against a Wildcat side that was 5-3-2 in conference play so far this season, good for fourth in the conference.

Needless to say, it was an im-portant game for SFU, as Cen-tral Washington is one of the teams that they are chasing to get into the top four and qualify for the year end GNAC champi-onship tournament.

The first half started off great for SFU. In the fifth minute, Si-erra Leung had a perfect chance at the side of the six-yard box to give SFU an early lead, but missed the net.

It would be Central Washing-ton who would get on the board first on a strange play. Goal-keeper Priya Sandhu charged out to play the ball, but as she did, it bounced off of her and right to Wildcat midfielder

Mackenzie Nolte, who easily put the ball into the back of the net.

In the 30th, SFU’s Mikaela Guerriero was left unmarked near the penalty spot, and had a glorious chance to tie the game, but her shot just missed the right post.

The second half started off well for the Clan, courtesy of midfielder Elishah Jilling, scor-ing within the first 10 minutes, with a great shot from just out-side the box that curled into the top left corner.

There was hope at this point that SFU could muster a draw, or even a win, but it was short lived. Off of a long free kick, the ball sailed towards CWU’s Nolte, who

got a free header that hit the right post. She then collected the re-bound and shot it into the empty net for a goal that turned out to be the game winner.

You can chalk this loss up to SFU’s lack of composure with the ball, which was needlessly passed right to an opponent too many times. In addition, the ball was also kicked up the field to where the Clan were outmanned when the easy pass was available, far too often.

Assistant coach Lee Tregon-ning believes that this can be fixed, but it will take time: “[Composure] comes with con-fidence. We’re a new coaching staff and almost half of a new team. The season is only three months long and it’s going to take a lot longer than three months to get [the team] set. The more they play together, the more they train together, the composure comes then.”

A recurring theme in SFU athletics is that of a team steadily working to become championship contenders, after having to rebuild for the NCAA; the men’s basketball team can be counted among them.

However, according to head coach James Blake, they are not looking to recapture past glory, as many other SFU teams are, but are looking towards new territory — simply to make the playoffs.

“Our journey has been different than [that of] a lot of teams at Simon Fraser; we’re a program that in 50 years has never won a conference title,” explained Blake. “So our goals are maybe not that of the swimming team that has won national titles, or of the softball team that has won na-tional titles, our goal is to get to that conference tournament.”

The coach notes that this is not a fast process, and must be ap-proached with patience: “What peo-ple do a lot of the time is skip steps, and we really haven’t skipped steps. We take little steps and make sure

we’re competing, and evaluating our talent properly in the offseason.”

Those steps include recruiting, especially as the team only has three returning seniors this year. Blake hopes to continue to develop the Clan’s offensive game, having been outscored on average by 2.3 points per game last year.

“We [want] to bring in other players who are able to close that gap, that point differential, we had two losses last year by one point,” he said, referring to losses to West-ern Washington University and University of Alaska-Anchorage, who were first and second in the conference. “We’re right there, we’re two points away, and this year’s job is to close that gap.

“The emphasis in recruiting this year was that we need to shoot the ball a little bit better from the pe-rimeter, we’re really going to speed

the game up, shoot more three point shots, spread the game out even more.”

Returning seniors and team captains Sango Niang and Justin Cole will help drive this offensive shift. Niang led the team in scoring with 392 points last season, averag-ing 16.3 points per game, while Cole led the team in both field goals at-tempted and made, making 135 out of 279 attempts.

“Their primary roles this year as seniors are to be leaders, as cap-tains, not only in scoring, but [. . .] they’ve got to do all the things in practice, in the weight room. They need to show they can [. . .] lead this young team to where we need to be, to get to that next level,” said Blake.

Rounding out the team is a sizable number of freshmen and sophomores, making for a notably younger team than last year. Join-ing them are a number of Division I transfers, including Hidde Vos and Michael Harper.

The team will look to improve on their conference record, in which they went 3-15 last season. Despite the low number of con-ference wins, they performed well outside of conference, losing only one non-conference game, exclud-ing their exhibition games against Division I teams.

20 DIVERSIONS / ETC October 27, 2014

1- Fearsome6- Capital city of West-ern Samoa10- Box14- Pond scum15- Cast16- Deal (with)17- Springs18- Nae sayer?19- ___ Lang Syne20- Burning22- Registered24- Curve26- Japanese dressing gown27- Eyelash cosmetic31- Discount rack abbr.32- Play chords33- Brainy bunch36- San Francisco’s ___ Hill39- Alum40- Strong blue cotton fabric41- PBS science series42- Univ. aides43- Scuffle44- Satisfies45- Brief instant46- Liken48- Sickness at the stomach

51- Supplement, with “out”52- Aromatic bark54- Hitching posts?59- Primates with short tails or no tail60- Songwriter Jacques62- Stories63- Describes a gently cooked steak64- Greek letters65- Great Lakes tribes-men66- Coup d’___67- Spellbound68- Peruses

1- Room in a casa2- Musical staff sign3- I’ve Got ___ in Ka-lamazoo

4- ___ Nui (Easter Is-land)5- Polite agreement6- Sighs of relief7- Dark purple8- Satirical dialogue9- Unselfish concern10- Graduated11- Young fowl12- Cop ___13- Comic Foxx21- Drift, make a mis-take23- Gumbo ingredient25- Humped ruminant27- High-ranking NCO28- Gillette brand29- Ladies of Sp.30- Cow chew34- Compass dir.35- Bridget Fonda, to Jane36- ___ chance!

37- Above38- Not acid40- 12th month of the year41- Doze43- City near Phoenix44- Ore refinery45- Evening47- River to the Volga48- Try to bite49- The end of ___50- Artery that feeds the trunk52- Word following child, day, or devil-may53- Type of tide55- Shipping deduction56- Inter ___57- Oboe, e.g.58- Flat sound61- D-Day craft

FREE CLASSIFIEDS are available to SFU students for personal use. 30 words maximum. Drop by The Peak offices in MBC 2900 to submit your ad, or go to our website: www.the-peak.ca or email: classifieds@the-peak.ca. One ad per person. All others: $12 + GST per week, prepaid, for 30 words. Each additional 10 words: $1 + GST. Five ads or more for the special price of $8 + GST per ad. Cash or cheque only please.Make cheques payable to: Peak Publications Society, mail with the ad, attn: Business Manager.

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Join  CJSF  90.1  FM  as  a  volunteer  and  take  a  45-­minute  orientation  tour  

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1st  Friday  of  the  month  at  3pm2nd  Tuesday  at  4pm3rd  Thursday  at  3  pm4th  Wednesday  at  6:15  pm Hope  to  see  you  there!

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21humour editor Jacey Gibbemail / phone humour@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560HUMOUR October 27, 2014

Then: The one day of the year where the rules just didn’t apply. You dressed up as your favourite Star Trek captain (or whatever normal people dress up as) and went around your neighbour-hood knocking on doors de-manding candy/chocolate/chips from people you barely knew.

Now: This one’s actually pretty much the same as when you were a kid. Except the trick is that the club you just waited out-side of for two hours isn’t going to be fun. And the treat is food poisoning from the McDonald’s you visited on your way home. Happy Halloween, everyone!

Then: Pumpkin from the super-market: $3. Carving knife and scooping spoon: $6. Runny, half-working Sharpie felt pen from your enterprising older brother: $10. Seeing how innapropriate you could make your Jack-o-Lantern before your friend’s mom yelled at you: Priceless.

Now: Enter the ‘Drunkin.’ This frat-boy-meets-Pinterest innovation involves a hollow mini-pumpkin and cheap, watered-down lager. Thought to be invented by a health conscious Quidditch player, this trend is typically employed by indi-viduals who want to get their daily recommended amount of Vitamin A while they party.

honest songza playlist

22 HUMOUR October 27, 2014

Police are warning trick or treaters about a particularly uninspiring batch of candy corn that could pose a risk to children’s taste buds.

“No one is in immediate dan-ger of being disappointed,” police announced to candy enthusiasts earlier this week, “but we are moni-toring things closely. We’re taking a ‘better safe than bummed out’ approach to the situation. Anyone with any information about the subpar candy corn should contact us immediately.”

The candy has already disap-pointed Vancouver teens Trevor Smith and Todd Chan, and police are saying similar incidents could be on the horizon.

According to a police report, Smith and Chan purchased the

alleged candy corn from a bulk aisle at Superstore. Instead of just being content with how average the candy was, the youth told police that they were unsatisfied with how bland it tasted.

“At first we thought it tasted like regular candy corn, which I guess tastes like sugar but not as good,” Smith recounted to The Peak. “After a couple of pieces, neither of us were really feeling it though. I still have most of the bag so I might just give the rest to my parents. I’d feel bad just throwing it away.”

A junk food belonging to the ‘sweet’ family, candy corn is a popular treat for this time of year — which police say makes it especially prone to disappointment.

“People get excited that they can buy candy corn in stores again and

they immediately think back to eat-ing it when they were kids. When people are nostalgic, they’re more susceptible to be underwhelmed by something. Just because a candy is seasonal doesn’t mean it can’t be mediocre.

“It’s Halloween, so of course people are going to be hopped up on Tootsie rolls, miniature chocolate bars, and anything

else they can get their hands on. It’s important that people are aware of what kind of candy they’re ingesting so this doesn’t happen to them.”

The situation is similar to an in-cident in 2012, where police issued an advisory on all Sun-Maid Rai-sins, after reports flooded in about raisins that were drier and more stale-tasting than usual. Sun-Maid

representatives responded by say-ing that that’s just how raisins are supposed to taste and the allega-tions were eventually dropped.

Until more is revealed about the dispiriting candy corn batch, police are advising trick or treaters to stick with candies that they already know will be disappointing, like Almond Joys or those little suckers with the shitty gum in the middle.

There’s no doubt about it: Octo-ber is the scariest time of year around SFU. With the fog rolling in and Halloween drawing near, the time to affright the people you love is optimal. Ghosts and ghouls might do the trick, but drawing on some utilitarian fears works even better. Here are a couple of soon-to-be classic pranks you can try out yourself!

Prank #1: Have a person spend four to five years of their life in post-secondary and then release them into the job market. There’s nothing more petrifying than not being able

to find a job in your field of study. For bonus marks, make sure they’ve accumulated a lot of debt in the process. Spoooooooky.

Prank #2: Be a woman walk-ing alone down the street, pref-erably at night. Nothing says terror like having to always be aware of your surroundings in case someone tries something. Try adding revealing clothes and the consumption of drugs

or alcohol to the mix. Remem-ber to have people blame you more for inviting the attack on yourself. Terrifying!

Prank #3: Dismiss some-one based entirely on their age. If they’re younger than you, say they just don’t know any better. If the person is older than you, tell them they’re out-of-touch with the world and imply they might be senile. Blind ageism in

an otherwise progressive time can be downright bone-chilling.

Prank #4: Remind someone, preferably one of your single friends, that no one loves him or her. Dying alone and forgotten feels fan-flipping-tastic. You can emo-tionally cripple and terrify anyone with the strike of a single sentence.

Prank #5: Make any coffee or tea drinker believe that their drink of choice has been out-lawed, then watch the life drain from their eyes. The coffee and tea addicted generations of today need something in their lives to help them function. With the temperatures drop-ping and rainy days becoming more frequent, the need for comforting warm drinks will in-crease their petrified reaction. For those master pranksters out there, wait until finals start and caffeine is at its highest value.

These are just some of the things you can use to instill fear into the heart of any millennial. Your victims will not just be momentarily hor-rified, you’ll get to the heart of any person. Their current anxieties and fears will run rampant for much longer than just Halloween. So, go forth and frighten!

23October 27, 2014HUMOUR

24 LAST WORD features editor Max Hillemail / phone features@the-peak.ca / 778.782.4560 October 27, 2014

W hen was the last time you rolled up your sleeve and gave blood? Just re-

cently? Back in high school? Never? Don’t feel badly if you’re not a

regular donor — Canadian Blood Services reports that only about four per cent of eligible donors in Canada give blood, and Vancou-ver’s track record is even worse at just two per cent. These statistics are indicative of our current pre-dicament: Canada is experienc-ing its biggest blood shortage in six years.

Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is urging anyone able to donate blood to do so, in order to build their stock. But even when the do-nation rate isn’t this low, the CBS is always in need of a little extra red. After all, blood can only be safely stored for 35–42 days after collection; that means new donors are always needed to keep stocks full. If all Canadians stopped do-nating blood entirely, the existing stock would only last for about four days.

Blood donation has a long and interesting history. In terms of public health as well as scientific progress, transfusion is among the most important discover-ies of the past few centuries. The

first successful transfusion was performed in 1665 by physician Richard Lower, who saved his ail-ing pet dog by transferring blood to it from other canines.

Though later transfusions were performed between hu-mans and animals such as sheep, the first successful human-to-human blood transfusion did not happen until 1818, less than two centuries ago. Almost 100 years later, the three basic hu-man blood types — A, B, and O — were first identified.

This was a game-changing discovery — knowledge that blood could be classified by its antibodies (ABO) and antigens (positive or negative) dramati-cally increased the success rate of transfusion, and led to the sav-ing of thousands of lives. If you

don’t know your own blood type, ask your doctor (or your mom). It might just save your life one day.

So why is blood transfusion so important? Statistics show that someone in Canada needs blood every minute, and around half of Canadians have reported either themselves, family members, or friends needing blood at one point in their lives.

A normal human body con-tains about 10 units of blood at 500 ml, or just under one pint, per unit. Just one unit of blood — the stan-dard amount donated — can help save three lives. As an added cool factor, the donated ‘blood’ which modern doctors use is actually just certain components of blood, namely red cells, plasma, and platelets, each of which is used to help patients suffering vastly dif-ferent ailments. This is the reason that three different lives can be saved with each single donation.

So, who is being helped by the blood you give? As it turns out, pretty much everyone. Among the more common recipients of blood transfusions are car accident vic-tims; premature infants and chil-dren being treated for cancer, anaemia, or heart surgeries; wom-en suffering complications from pregnancy; severe burn victims;

surgical and cancer patients; and those with blood disorders, who often need to receive new transfu-sions every month.

People who know very little about the process often ask wheth-er or not it’s complicated. It isn’t — the whole process, from the moment you walk into the clinic to the moment you leave, takes about an hour. When you arrive at the clinic, you will go through registration, a medical history check, and after a quick physical, the blood donation process will begin.

The actual donation usually lasts around 10–12 minutes. Af-ter that, you can help yourself to snacks and refreshers in the clinic! If you’re feeling really gen-erous, a healthy Canadian can le-gally give blood up to seven times in a single year. That’s 21 saved lives per year, making you pretty much an unofficial superhero.

To debunk a few common myths about the donation pro-cess, read on: it’s absolutely safe and only sterile needles are used; it doesn’t pose any significant risk to your health; and no, it doesn’t hurt that much. Barely as much as a pin prick.

If you’re at least 17 years old and weigh at least 110 pounds,

you’re allowed to donate blood about once every two months. The best place to donate is the Canadian Blood Services; you can either book an appointment or just walk into the clinic during their open hours. The two clinics closest to SFU are located in Sur-rey near Guildford Town Centre and in Vancouver next to the BC Women’s Hospital.

While most of us are keenly aware of the importance of blood donation, many people remain reluctant to take action — we’re lazy, busy, or just too nervous around needles. To be honest, I’m not a regular donor myself; the first and last time I gave blood was in high school. However, writing this article has reminded me of the feeling of reward that comes from doing a good deed for others.

I’m encouraging everyone like me to stand up and donate blood again. This Halloween, why not do away with the fake blood and give donation a shot? It’s one of the easiest and most painless ways there is to save lives, and it feels good to know that you’re making a contribu-tion to the health of those across the country. It doesn’t matter what your blood type is — only that you’re the giving type.

Why you should give blood this season

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