Blame it on the nitrogen
The aftermaths of nitro-cocktails make hangovers seem like a gift
By Kristina Charania
Photos by slgckgc
When you walk into your first Monday morning lecture with a raging headache and a gymnastic stomach (the only acrobatic part of your body) you’ll obviously blame it on the alcohol: the vodka, the henny, the blue top, and the liquid nitrogen.
Yes, liquid nitrogen. That’s right. Don’t worry, though — Jamie Foxx didn’t see that coming, either.
Here’s the 411: when a few drops of liquid nitrogen are added to a drink, they release plumes of hazy vapour that make any plain margarita look like a misty bonsai tree. That might sound like a sexy little concoction to you now, but you’ll be rethinking your woefully deluded opinions after it causes your stomach to literally explode.
Sadly, this isn’t a figment of your worst nightmare. According a recent online publication for The Daily Mail, 18-year old Gabby Scanlon was enjoying her birthday at a wine bar in Lancaster and chugged two Nitro Jagermeisters to celebrate — this quickly turned sour when she began experiencing breathlessness and intolerable stomach pains. She was then sent to a nearby hospital where doctors diagnosed her with a perforated stomach that was leaking acidic gastric juices with a severity that required specialists to remove nearly all of it. Scanlon now faces a lifetime of specialized treatment, and a severely restricted diet.
Naturally, this will sound like nonsensical rubbish until you understand how liquid nitrogen functions. It’s a cryogenic fluid — this means that it exists naturally at temperatures cold enough to freeze your finger on contact and cause it to fall off your hand. This makes the substance handy as a coolant or preservative for biological samples like umbilical cords. It also has its uses in food processing: if you were around for SFU’s Week of Welcome, you may have noticed that liquid nitrogen was used to freeze ice cream doled out to students. And yet, unlike our friend Gabby Scanlon, stomachs campus-wide were left intact and unscathed.
This mystery isn’t really a mystery at all; it’s just science. High school science teaches us that matter has three states: solid, liquid and gaseous. A liquid needs to be heated to boiling in order to vaporize. Liquid nitrogen’s boiling point is -196 degrees Celsius, but upon becoming gaseous, it expands to almost 700 times its liquid volume. Although the boiling off process for liquid nitrogen is rapid, it’s very likely that Scanlon guzzled her nitro-infused cocktails much quicker than your average alcoholic. Therefore, the nitrogen didn’t have enough time to vaporize before the drink entered her system. Considering that our body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius — way above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen — her stomach perforation was caused by the huge expansion of the liquid into a gas. Two nitro-jagers quickly expanded into 1400 jagers — not the kind of Jagerbomb you want on Friday night.
This doesn’t mean that you should abstain from suspiciously steamy alcoholic beverages and nitro-popsicles, though. It’s really as simple as letting your edibles sit for a few minutes. However, if your concerns are insurmountable, stick with capped Red Racer beers and homemade highballs — you just can’t know how well-trained a bartender is in using liquid nitrogen, or how much of it is left in what you’re about to consume. Obviously, you’re always better off safe than sorry.
The divisive nature of perception
Every culture and creed has extremists; why does the media focus on a select few?
By Mohamed Sheriffdeen
Image by Ben Buckley
On the morning of Oct. 9 a Taliban gunman stopped a school bus full of children in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. He climbed aboard and ordered, “Who is Malala Yousafzai?” Malala, age 14, stood up and identified herself. She was promptly shot in the head.
You’ve no doubt heard the story. An activist for women’s rights in the secular Muslim nation, Yousafzai was taken to a hospital in Peshawar where doctors removed the bullet and have stabilized her condition. She is a recipient of the National Youth Peace Prize condemned to death by radicals for “promoting Western culture in Pashtun areas.” If she survives, they have vowed to finish the job.
Deservedly, the Taliban has been eviscerated in global media in language plain and colorful. A dangerous tipping point, however, comes when commenters on Western outlets associate extremist principles with all Muslims. Such blanket condemnations are as divisive and damaging as the Taliban itself. People have always used suppression and misinterpretation of knowledge to further personal agendas and consolidate power; this phenomenon is not unique to the Middle East.
Take this statement made by Mitt Romney on Oct. 10 at the Virginia Military Institute: “I believe the leader of the free world has a duty . . . to use America’s great influence . . . to shape events in ways that secure our interests, further our values, prevent conflict, and make the world better — not perfect, but better.” Romney, and innumerable politicos before him, insists America is the pre-eminent nation and moral authority on the planet. It doesn’t matter that its global standing has been eroded by internal accusations of an illegal war and a poor credit rating. But this tired, retrograde imperialist perspective is regularly trotted out during election cycles, preying on a jingoistic sense of cultural superiority for votes.
If the world’s perception of all Americans was painted by KKK propaganda — violent, alcoholic, hate-mongering people with a white-supremacist agenda — would it be accurate? Most Americans today disavow the Klan as fanatics intent on racial enslavement. But theirs was common policy in Western nations for hundreds of years. One hundred and fifty years elapsed before America granted women equal political status. In Canada, the remorseless and systematic genocide of First Nations culture was official policy just 50 years ago. Islam is labeled a “religion of the sword” by Christians whose papacy led bloody wars into sovereign nations claiming the supremacy of its religious views. Whither morality then?
Of course, we live in modern times. But these Islamophobic knee-jerk responses separate us from the enlightenment we aspire to. Constructing barriers based on political, religious, social and cultural leanings ensures no one occupies a position of absolute good. Finger-pointing, distrust and hate simply deepens divisions.
All Muslims don’t condone the actions of misguided individuals who believe violence against innocents ensures passage to Heaven — this guarantee isn’t in the Qura’an. However, the Holy Book affirms: “Verily, those who have believed and (those who were) Jews and Christians and Sabians, those who believe in Allah and the Last Day and act piously, there is for them their reward with their Lord. Neither shall any fear obsess them, nor shall they grieve. (2: 62)” How many fanatics acknowledge this?
The psychopaths don’t represent us. Remember Malala — her spirit and efforts cannot be isolated from the thinking of all Muslims, nor should they be homogenized with the Taliban’s and other dictatorial regimes. Their beliefs are not mine. I am a Muslim. So is Malala. And so are a billion other flawed, but inherently good, human beings.
Latent misogyny gets conflated with bullying on the internet
Amanda Todd’s death is more than just case of schoolyard bullying
By Karolina Pol
Image by Ben Buckley
When I learned about the suicide of a girl from my own neighbourhood I was completely caught off guard. Once I got my head around the facts I was heartbroken, then offended, then furious.
Like Amanda Todd, most of us have a few memories from our youth that we would rather leave in the past. For girls, these moments typically involve booze and boys: that skimpy Halloween costume you felt no shame wearing to the school dance, or that time you drank way too much before heading to that house party so you could finally muster up the confidence to flirt with that guy. Even the amount of eyeliner past-you is sporting in those freshman photos is enough to make you cringe.
All teens experience self-consciousness in their middle and high school years, but for young women, this self-consciousness is especially tied to gender and sexuality, which are especially important in defining who they are in the eyes of society. Girls don’t partake in sexual behaviour they might later regret because they want to be objectified and embarrassed. Rather, they do to gain praise when they feel most desperate for acceptance: adolescence. Some studies suggest that more than 70 per cent of American female college students have regretted a sexual activity they’ve partaken in at least once in their short lives.
From a very young age our culture constantly communicates to women (perhaps most subtly and persuasively through visual portrayals, be it on the daily news or at the local football game) that we are valuable to the extent that we are desirable to men. If we want to be heard, we’ve got to be seen. Not convinced? Think of the number of enhancing products that women are expected to use on a daily basis: bras, makeup, razors, perfume . . . all to transform us from what we really are into what we are expected to be if we want to feel appreciated and, ironically, respected (even female politicians have to be “properly” groomed to be taken seriously).
Instead of conflating this tragic event into another classic case of bullying and cordially moving on, we should look at its unique details and truly take the opportunity to learn from it. It’s a bit idealistic to speak of ending bullying if we don’t acknowledge the issues that actually fuel it in the first place; clearly, gender inequality is one of them (recent cases aimed against LGBT youth further exemplify this). Amanda Todd was a girl looking for approval the way she was taught to go about it. Her nightmare experience was facilitated by all of us, by virtue of our culture, and its disgusting misrepresentation of what it means to be a woman. We owe it to her to acknowledge this and work towards a future where girls don’t see their sexuality as the only avenue for acceptance.
Journalism is a dirty word
Journalism isn’t as respected a profession as it used to be, but who’s to blame?
By Daryn-Wright
Photos by Mark-Burnham
When did we first begin to lose trust in the media? Was it when rags like The National Enquirer started running stories about finding Jesus’ death shroud, or when newspapers started including celebrity breakups in their arts and entertainment sections?
Over the past 30 or so years, the public’s trust in journalism has declined rapidly. I find this troubling, especially because the main function of the media has, in the past, been to act as a people’s watchdog of governments and institutions. Gone are the backslapping times of Watergate, when Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein blew open the scandal, forcing Nixon to resign. Investigative journalism no longer connotes imagery of trench coat-laden men meeting in a dark parkade. Now, it means dirty paparazzi digging through garbage cans and reporters harassing grief-stricken rape victims.
When did journalism become a dirty word? Reporters were once highly respected, considered heroes for finding the dirty bits of governments and dismantling them with words. With novels like 1984, where the media serves as propaganda, and the advent of reality TV, the media’s reputation has shifted into something deceitful and dishonest. The problem, as I see it, can be broken down into a problem of bias and lack of ethical restraint.
When we are fed information on the war in the Middle East, or even the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in ’99, we are only receiving one side of the story, and that side is often censored. When large corporations back publishing houses, a story that reflects badly on that corporation is likely not going to make it to print. Likewise, the concentration of media ownership means that there are few individuals and organizations owning large shares of media outlets, resulting in a trickling down of biases. A conservative corporation is likely to impose their conservative viewpoints on the newspapers and magazines that are run under their ownership. This is problematic.
How have we strayed so far from the days of Woodward and Bernstein? The modern individual wants flash and tidbits of information that he can digest during a 15-minute lunch break. The sensationalistic approach to people’s public lives are a result of the demands of the public: people would rather read about the lives of celebrities than about the breakdown of foreign governments. This is a generalization, of course, but it is a cause for alarm when sensationalism goes beyond celebrity gossip and makes its way into mainstream media. It becomes a problem when we begin to believe that the private lives of individuals should be made public. There is a difference between exposing the wrongdoings of the institutions that govern us and the exploitation of victims of war.
If mainstream media is riddled with bias and reporters toe the line of ethics on a regular basis, then our job as readers and viewers is to be highly discerning. This requires constant corroboration with multiple sources in order to find any kernel of truth in what we are given by the media.
We’ve gone from trusting journalists to provide us with inside information on corrupt governments, to considering them worse than the government officials who conceal scandals. I think there’s a problem here, and I long for the responsible reporting days of yore.
Vancouver International Writers Festival marks 25 years
Writers Festival bring out a plethora of talented authors.
By Monica Miller
Photos by Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival
October marks many things: the changing of the seasons, harvest vegetables, Halloween, midterms, and the annual Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival. This year the festival celebrated its 25th anniversary from Oct. 16–21, 2012 with authors from near and far, and a variety of events in different formats. Prize-winning author and SFU alumnus Annabel Lyon described the event as a “taste menu” for the listener. Lyon says her favourite type of event, as a reader, is one where there are multiple authors and you get the diverse flavours of many writers.
One such flavour is Sandra Djwa, a prize-winning author and professor emeritus of English at SFU. Her latest book is a biography titled Journey with No Maps: A Life of P.K. Page. Djwa met PK Page in April 1970 when she invited Page to read at a first-year poetry class she was teaching at SFU. This was Page’s first public reading. “She was such a fine poet and became quite influential.”
Djwa was part of two panels at the 2012 Writers Festival; one was titled Telling True Lives and featured another biographer, Joanna Dreyton.
“I think what Telling True Lives means in a larger sense,” explains Djwa, “is that biographers have to choose what to put in when the subject matter is sensitive, and what to leave out when there is too much [information] or subject constraints.” In Djwa’s case, Page invited her to write the biography in the late 1990s, and they conducted many interviews, resulting in a plethora of information. Unfortunately, PK Page passed away in January 2010 at the age of 93, but Dwja had the permission of her estate to publish the biography.
[pullquote]“I think what Telling True Lives means in a larger sense,” explains Djwa, “is that biographers have to choose what to put in when the subject matter is sensitive, and what to leave out when there is too much [information] or subject constraints.”[/pullquote]
“I’m really quite honoured to be involved [in the Writers Fest].” As a reader, Djwa hoped to meet some of her favourite authors such as Louise Penny, Margaret Atwood, Gordon Vincent, and Donna Morrissey. She describes it as a “good energy” at the Writers Fest, and it allows her to “recharge the literary batteries.”
Susan Juby, graduate of the Masters of Publishing in 2002, participated in a panel with Susin Nielsen about adapting for film and television. Nielsen adapted Juby’s bestselling young adult series Alice, I Think into a popular television series and is now working on Juby’s 2010 title The Woefield Poultry Collective. While participating at the festival, Juby was also working on a webisode for The Writers Life, an “undignified look at a writer’s life,” and credits the Writers Festival with having “great audiences” and “great writers.”
Annabel Lyon, 1994 SFU graduate with a BA in philosophy, echoes those sentiments. Her debut novel The Golden Mean was nominated for every major Canadian literary prizes, and although she’s worked in many genres, Lyon has returned to historical fiction for her latest novel. One panel Lyon was on, featured four other novelists who also focus on fiction past. They discussed how each novelist brings the past to life, researches stories, and uses archival material.
As a reader, Lyon was interested in attending David Chariandy’s conversation with Zakes Mda. These well-known In Conversation events are intimate one-on-one experiences with a room full of people. Chariandy teaches in the department of English at SFU, and says Mda’s memoir, Sometimes There is a Void, is “a profound, inspiring, and often wonderfully funny memoir about growing up in a tumultuous and rapidly changing South Africa.” Chariandy emphasized his long-time interest in contemporary English literature beyond North America and the UK — and many of the Writers Festival events fit that bill perfectly.
If you were unable to catch an event at the 25th annual Vancouver International Writers & Readers Festival, there’s always next year, so mark your calendar.
Grandma Lo-Fi, Iceland’s oldest cult hero
70-year old woman decides it’s never too late to start making music.
By Azaria Sabrina
Photos by Vancouver International Film Festival
The phrase “it’s never too late to start” suddenly gains new meaning. Grandma Lo-Fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigridur Nielsdottir tells the story of a woman who started making music at the age of 70. In the span of seven years, Nielsdottir produced 59 albums, more than 600 songs, and dozens of colorful, hand-drawn album covers. Her creative process was all done in her own living room with the help of tape recorders, keyboards, and some wild creativity: she used aluminum foil, kitchen appliances, and toys for added sound effects. Soon after she started releasing her albums, Nielsdottir became a cult icon among Icelandic musicians, inspiring young and old artists alike.
The documentary is as endearing as Nielsdottir herself. At the start of the film, Nielsdottir showed black and white pictures of her childhood, looking back on her days in Denmark and remembering her first love. These scenes, and the use of Super 8 and 16mm film cameras, give the film a nostalgic, familiar feeling. Occasionally colorful, moving paper cutouts are added for visual effects, and although it makes the film look like an amateur work, the effect is charming and whimsical. Some collages by Nielsdottir are also featured as a backdrop for young Icelandic musicians who cover her songs in scenes of the film.
As a documentary, the film misses some important elements. There is not a lot of background history on Nielsdottir’s life, and her rise to fame is only covered for a minute or two. It is, however, a very personalized account of her music-producing days. Grandma Lo-Fi shows a very happy woman in her old age, doing what she wants to do and feeling content about it. In the past decade, Sigridur Nielsdottir has inspired not only Icelandic musicians, but the whole world as well. It’s a pleasure to be able to see this: proof that it really is never too late to do what you’ve always dreamed of.
Main Street is the solution to a bland wardrobe
Here is your guide to some of the best vintage and local boutiques in the city.
By Caroline Brown
Photos by Caroline Brown
There are so many elements to consider when going shopping, and the last thing anyone wants to stress over is where to stop. Even though Zara, H&M and Aritzia are viable options, it is important to complement trendy pieces with eccentric ones that have interesting detailing and luxurious textures, like velvet and silk. However, these are sometimes difficult to find in a market saturated with trends and man-made fabrics. Let’s face it: clothing is expensive, and in order to find that beautiful texture at an affordable price, vintage is one of the best options. Or, if you are looking for something fashion-forward but don’t want everyone to own it, then local boutiques are your best option. For this purpose, here is a list of some of the best shops on Main Street.
At the crossroads of 28th and Main sits Woo Vintage, with a modest storefront that doesn’t foretell the treasures inside. From 80s Levis for $34, to a men’s purple velvet smoking jacket for $66, Woo Vintage meets everyone’s inner eclectic self. The store provides costumers with a great selection of mid-century clothing and accessories, with an emphasis on Hawaiian and western shirts. The selection of the latter is a great option for the fans of Isabel Marant’s fall 2012 show, which featured an American western theme. The vintage western shirts had floral embroidery on the front as well as on the collar, and ranged from white cotton for $34, to a black and gold two-toned silk for $90. The employees are friendly and passionate about the products in their store. With a great supply of clothes for both men and women, this is a store that both sexes can enjoy.
Up North on Main between 22nd and 21st is Front & Company, known for its mix of consignment and new clothing. It caters to both men and women, and also has a selection of quirky gift items. The selection of men’s clothing is vast, providing affordable staples. There is a diverse selection of plaid shirts, denim, and a cotton army trench coat for $164. The best part of the women’s section is the second hand designer clothes. While I was there I found pieces from Diane von Furstenberg, Marni, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Tory Burch and James Peace, all for under $100. In particular, a T-Alexander Wang nautical striped sweater caught my eye, selling for $58. The store also offers new clothing from brands like Pink Martini, Lovely Girl, and local brands like Push.
Across the street from Front & Company is Barefoot Contessa, the mecca for party dresses in Vancouver. The store is clean and crisp, and the clothes are divided by colour and style. Although they offer an arrangement of garments like blouses, sweaters, and pants, their greatest strength is their feminine dresses; most cost $79–110. One dress in particular had a black transparent fabric over a white slip, with a Peter Pan collar ornamented with square black sequins and a gold zipper down the back. A couple of dresses had statement collars, an ongoing trend in fashion.
Burcu’s Angels at 221 West 16th Ave is a vintage store that specializes in clothes from different decades. The philosophy behind the store is as follows: colour, texture, decadence, and magic. A sign hung high in the store epitomizes the store’s eccentricity: “I’m dreaming, I’m fancy, I’m sexy.” Personal styling at Burcu’s is one of the best in the city, and sitting on a couch in the back while they bring garment after garment out is an experience everyone should have at least once. It’s a great place for men to get well-made blazers for under $100, and for women, the sequined selection and retro jackets are a must. Even though the prices can skyrocket to well over $1,000, there is a large selection of well-made, one-of-a-kind pieces for under $100. Burcu’s has had a 17-year sale of three for two, and if money is a problem, there is always the option of raiding your grandparent’s closets.
J.K. Rowling’s second coming
Don’t expect broomsticks and owls in The Casual Vacancy.
By Ariana Trigueros-Corb, The Concordian (Concordia University)
Montreal (CUP) – Being J.K. Rowling is a trap. The hype that has surrounded her most recent publication, an adult fiction novel entitled The Casual Vacancy, is proof of how much weight lies on her shoulders.
Clearly, should Rowling want to write about anything other than Hogwarts, broomsticks, and He Who Must Not Be Named, the literary world will go wild, with critics bracing themselves in anticipation.
So it’s with a bit of reserve and much trepidation that I, like millions of others across the world, picked up a copy of The Casual Vacancy at my local bookstore on Sept. 27.
Three days later, my previously pristine copy of Rowling’s book was torn, crumpled and decorated by coffee stains, having been lugged around virtually everywhere with me for 72 hours; coffee shops, metro rides and diners included.
The book was extremely good, in a dark, sarcastic and incredibly realistic way. Rowling had me engrossed in a story that I would never have believed to be that captivating. Let’s be honest—the idea of a book revolving around the sudden death of a council member in a tiny, unknown village in England isn’t exactly everyone’s dream premise. But the citizens of Pagford prove fascinating as we are given a glimpse of their everyday lives unraveling in the throes of tragedy.
[pullquote]Three days later, my previously pristine copy of Rowling’s book was torn, crumpled and decorated by coffee stains, having been lugged around virtually everywhere with me for 72 hours; coffee shops, metro rides and diners included.[/pullquote]
The novel starts out with councilman Barry Fairbrother passing away suddenly on the eve of his wedding anniversary. Initially shocked with grief, the citizens of Pagford quickly move to replace him on council and a controversial election ensues. Meanwhile, the previous ally of the deceased finds herself more alienated than ever. And so, as we flip the pages, tensions and secrets arise, in a way that echoes a combination of Desperate Housewives and Shameless.
Rowling shows us, yet again, that she has a profound understanding of human existence. Humour is doused with crudeness. I blitzed through chapters, anticipating the slew of revelations to come, the same way I had dashed through the last Harry Potter book, wanting to know if Voldemort had prevailed. It’s suspense, but not in the classic sense.
For anyone that has read the Harry Potter series, this is an unexpected (and maybe even unpleasant) wake-up call. The charm that surrounded Hogwarts and its easy-going, comical characters that we would have loved to meet, was addictively pleasant.
You’ve been warned: there will be drugs, depression and all-out despair. Does that make the book any less of a page-turner? Not a bit.
U of A website goes viral exposing casual homophobia
Website keeps track of homophobic tweets, with a live feed and counter
By April Hudson
EDMONTON (CUP) — A new website from the University of Alberta’s Institute for Sexual Minority Studies & Services has gone viral in less than a week, in an attempt to spread awareness of homophobic language.
The website, nohomophobe.com, tracks the tweets of people using the phrases “faggot,” “no homo,” “so gay,” and “dyke” — some of which have been tweeted more than 2,000,000 times since July 5. Kristopher Wells, assistant professor and associate director for the institute, launched the website on Sept. 26 in order to address what he calls “casual homophobia.”
In a matter of days, the website had hundreds of thousands of hits, and, as word began to spread, so did the message Wells is trying to get across: it’s time to stop tolerating homophobic language.
“This kind of casual homophobia is just no longer acceptable in our society. And that’s the primary objective of our campaign, is to call attention and ultimately extinguish the use of these harmful words,” he said.
“People need to stand up and account for their own conduct. We can’t make people change, but what we can do is try to raise that critical awareness to help them think twice before they use this kind of language without thinking that it causes harm.”
The most common use of casual homophobia, according to the website, is the word “faggot” — which has been used more than 2.5 million times.
“That’s not a word that’s used in too many positive contexts,” Wells said.
In light of social ignorance, Wells says the website is designed to reflect back the damaging uses of homophobic words in society.
“We know that the use of homophobic language still remains one of the few acceptable forms of discrimination in our society,” he said.
“It’s happening virtually every second of every day — you can’t even keep up with the number of tweets that are scrolling through the website. And that website is pulling in tweets from all over the English-speaking world, so it’s not just Alberta, that’s not just Canada or the United States.”
The website is designed to show all tweets carrying those key phrases, but Wells acknowledges context matters — something the website can’t track.
“Context matters — it always matters. That old nursery rhyme your parents used to tell you, that sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me, is wrong. Words do hurt. Words have the power to shape identities,” he said.
“We don’t accept the fact that these words are harmless. What these words do, no matter who’s using them, is serve to reinforce stereotypes that are used as powerful weapons to defile and further marginalize gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.”
He added that an overwhelming majority of feedback so far has been positive — so much so that other groups have approached him asking to add sexist and racist terms, as well as terms discriminating against people with disabilities.
“I think people have seen the power of this kind of innovative campaign that blends together social media and public education,” he said.
“It’s surprising that a little website made here in Alberta, which some have often called the Texas of the North, with very conservative social values, could generate this kind of worldwide interest.”
Wells said there are plans for a television commercial to support the website, and also posters that will be hung in bus shelters around the city.
“They all serve the same purpose — to get people to the website to engage in conversation. It’s breaking the silence around these issues and talking about the impacts of casual homophobia that will end it,” he said.
