By Jacob Samuel at The Daily Snooze
Where are they now: Sept 17, 2012
Ever wonder what happened to those celebrities who were everywhere back then, but have since fallen off the face of the earth? Well, stop asking yourself stupid questions and find out where they are — now!
Bigfoot
Formerly popular cryptic beast
Although Bigfoot was a star in the 20th century, making appearances in blurry photographs in all the most respected tabloids, he mysteriously fell off the world’s radar aroundthe same time that autofocus became a standard camera feature. Nowadays he’s become somewhat of a recluse, rarely appearing in public and spending most of his time at his Area 51 Ranch.
Carmen Sandiego
Elusive video game character
Sandiego spent her most prolific years on the lam as the ringleader of V.I.L.E., a criminal organization dedicated to tricking kids into learning about geography. Where in the world is she now? In 2005 Carmen was finally brought to justice for her crimes and is currently serving a life sentence at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women in Clinton, New Jersey.
Your Pokemon cards
Remember, you even had that shiny Gyarados
You probably haven’t thought about them for years, but I’m sure that all your totally rad Pokemon cards are just the way you left them: in mint condition and ready to be sold for so much money! I mean, what a great investment! Oh shit. . . never mind, they’re all worthless . . . and your mom gave them away at a yard sale . . . and you’re not going to be able to pay off those student loans now. . . . Oh well, at least you’ve still got that Beanie Baby collection: that must be worth a ton by now!
By Brad McLeod
Blackout: The serious and deadly nature of concussions
By Sheldon Kenny (The Sheaf)
Illustration by Brianna Whitmore (The Sheaf)
This past November I lost my brother Lyndon Kenny to suicide.
Lyndon was a very good hockey player: the Brandon Wheat Kings of the Western Hockey League drafted him, and he was not only a highly-skilled defenceman and strong skater, but also the toughest person I have ever known. His ability to scare opponents and produce game-changing hits and fights was unparalleled for someone of his age.
Unfortunately, this enforcer style of play made my brother vulnerable to multiple concussions and, therefore, more susceptible to depression.
Enforcers are the designated tough guys on a hockey team. Players in this role often struggle with depression, not only because they suffer numerous and severe head injuries, but also because they must deal with the pressure of fighting almost every game in order to keep their spot in the lineup.
Lyndon was no exception.
My brother became addicted to alcohol and drugs at an early age. His addictions carried on through most of his life, despite multiple stints in rehab centres.
He was not the kind of drug addict we see on T.V., though; he hardly let it show in his personal life. He was the most loving and caring person I knew, and was constantly looking out for others.
He struggled to explain his problems to our family, however, and for a long time he turned away from those closest to him — ever the archetypal tough guy, he tried to cope with his struggles alone. It was only recently that Lyndon came to understand that he needed help. He began to open up to our family, and made an effort to guide me down a better path of life than the one that he had taken.
He had been free of drugs and alcohol for two months before he took his own life on Nov. 1.
The depression and anxiety proved too much for him.
Only a few weeks before his death, Lyndon left a comment on a sports medicine website indicating his struggles:
“I’m 27 and have been on a serious decline since [my] early to mid- teens,” my brother wrote. “I have had hundreds of blows to [the] head since I was around five. Most occurred from my reckless style of hockey throughout my teens. Here’s a list of symptoms I have: lack or loss of knowledge, insight, judgment, self, purpose, personality, intelligence, opinion, reasoning, train of thought, motivation, relationships, thinking, humour, ability to process information and learn, organize, planning, communicating, finding speech, decision making, visualizing, interest, sensitive to sound, ears ring, trouble sleeping, head aches, PCS [Post Concussion Syndrome] etc.”
Lyndon’s comment ended with an appeal: “Protect yourselves and loved ones! What a scary situation. I feel so bad for my family.”
His final wish came in the form of an unsent text message intended for me. Lyndon wanted to have his brain donated to research at the Boston University School of Medicine, so we could have the answers he had sought for years.
Concussed
A concussion is defined as a short-lived loss of brain function due to head trauma. A direct blow to the head is not required to sustain a concussion; any sudden and jolting motion to the body that causes the brain to move around inside the skull can do the same.
For a concussion to occur, the brain must bump against the skull, which can cause bruising. In some cases, the brain will rotate inside the skull, and when it rubs against the bony surface of the skull, it can shear off brain nerve fibres. In all cases, there are no visible injuries to the brain that are detectable by an MRI or CT scan.
In addition to the blurry vision, dizziness, and confusion, symptoms can include: difficulty sleeping, a sensitivity to noise and light, nausea, ringing in the ears, trouble concentrating, difficulty tolerating alcohol or stress, difficulty speaking, long- or short-term memory loss and a decreased sex drive.
People suffering the after-effects of concussions can also exhibit changes in behaviour including aggression, stubbornness, anxiety, and depression. These effects may be noticed for a week or more after a concussion, but with Post Concussion Syndrome, one might deal with the effects for months, depending on the severity and treatment of the concussion.
With each concussion suffered, it becomes easier to sustain another, and with multiple concussions, the symptoms and side effects become more obvious.
With repeated head injuries, one can develop CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy).
Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy
Lyndon was adamant that he suffered from CTE.
He knew everything about it and the pursuit of the answers he needed led him to many medical professionals who could have helped him. However, he was extremely frustrated by every doctor’s complete refusal of his claims, and he was angry with himself because he felt like he could not explain to them exactly how he was feeling.
It has recently been released that legendary professional hockey players Bob Probert and Derek Boogaard both suffered from extreme cases of CTE, which is no doubt a consequence of their roles as enforcers.
When a team needs something to give them a momentum boost, enforcers are counted upon to go out and get a big hit, or to get in a fight. This physical playing style leads to more blows to the head, resulting in a higher rate of concussions.
While we have yet to hear the results of the tests performed on Lyndon’s brain at the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy in Boston, looking back at all the conversations we had and the symptoms he listed makes it obvious that he had in fact battled with CTE for a long time.
CTE is a degenerative brain disease most commonly found in athletes who have a history of repetitive brain trauma. It is a variant of dementia with symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s — mainly memory loss, aggression, confusion and depression — and may appear months or years after initial trauma; unlike Alzheimer’s, however, it does not develop genetically.
There is some uncertainty about the number and severity of concussive injuries it takes to develop this brain deterioration, and how long it takes symptoms to start developing.
Upon studying the brains of deceased individuals, researchers have diagnosed CTE as black spots on the brain tissue, which is the build-up of an abnormal protein called tau. Poor recovery from a head trauma is linked to this protein when excess of it is found in the fluid surrounding the brain.
Sadly, there is no known way to reverse the effects of concussions. Even sadder is the fact that CTE can only be diagnosed after death.
As of 2009, only 49 cases of CTE have been researched and published by medical journals. However, the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, founded in 2008, recently began a clinical study of over 150 former NFL athletes aged 40–69 and 50 athletes of non-contact sports of the same age, all of whom are still alive and participating in sport. The goal of the study is to develop methods to diagnose CTE before death, which can hopefully lead to a cure in the future.
The Future
After witnessing my brother go through what he did, all I want is to see a higher level of understanding of concussions. They are deadly.
The cultures of all sports, not just hockey, need to change to adjust for this growing problem. Most importantly, the stigma of being the one to leave a game due to a concussion needs to stop because, in hindsight, the ones who take a step back and admit that there is something wrong are the tough ones.
I would be lying if I said I was not scared for myself.
I’ve played a lot of hockey in my life, have suffered a number of hard hits to the head and have been knocked unconscious twice.
In the past few years I have dealt with depression and anxiety and, although it can’t be proven, the fact that they may be a result of my concussions is a very real possibility.
I have also started to notice that I am dealing with some of the same symptoms that my brother felt he was experiencing. I have noticed a loss of personality, intelligence, motivation, and humour. My ability to learn and communicate has decreased and I have had trouble sleeping.
I hope for my own and my family’s sake that I am simply reacting to the loss of my brother, but right now, I cannot be certain.
Intolerance and division: the agenda of the P.Q. minority government?
Canadian politics taking a turn for the undemocratic
By Kai Yang Shiao
Photos by Ben Buckley
Although it failed to win a majority of the seats in the National Assembly (provincial legislature of Quebec) the pro-independence Parti Quebecois (P.Q.) managed to obtain a plurality, and thus form a minority government. This is disturbing, as the party was able to achieve this electoral outcome with 31.94 per cent of the popular vote despite the troubling tone of its campaign rhetoric. A closer examination of its various proposals demonstrates that the minority mandate is effectively giving the P.Q. the green light to pursue discriminatory policies.
During the campaign, the P.Q. asserted itself as the guardian of the secular nature of Quebec society. Its official view was that the Government of Quebec must never adopt an official religion, and remain completely neutral. According to party leader Pauline Marois, in its first 100 days in office, her party would introduce a bill designed to better protect this principle by banning religious symbols from being worn in government offices. While the proposal may at first seem to strengthen secularism, a further look at the other provisions contained within the same proposal would actually undermine this principle. By exempting those wearing a Christian cross from the proposed bill, the P.Q. is implicitly sending the message that it prefers those belonging to the Christian faith over Quebeckers’ other faiths.
More importantly, the proposal indicates a strong desire to use the legal authority of the state to ensure the favourable treatment of Christians over all other religious communities. Such a proposal, if enacted into law, would further divide, rather than unite, a province that has already seen heated battles between federalists and separatists. The proposal to extend the jurisdiction of the existing language law Bill 101 will further exacerbate this by reigniting tensions between the anglophones and francophones after years of relatively peaceful coexistence between the two groups.
The language debate was brought into the spotlight once again as Pauline Marois recycled the decade-old myth that French was on the decline in the province. While statistics show that the opposite is true, an appeal to emotion was evidently effective in attaining considerable electoral success. This formed the basis of the P.Q.’s attempt to provide the justification for its proposal to further marginalize the use of English in a province where its status is already in a fragile state. Under a P.Q. government, Bill 101 would be extended to ban francophones and allophones (mother tongue is neither English nor French) from attending English-language CEGEPs (pre-university colleges). By depriving its citizens of the freedom to choose the language of instruction at the university level, the proposal represents an unnecessary intervention by the state. Furthermore, this raises a question: once the ban on English-language CEGEPs is enacted, will the same be done for their university counterparts, including the world class McGill University?
The open use of divisive tactics to stir up tensions to achieve political desires has no place in a modern, multicultural, and tolerant Canada. Rather than giving votes of confidence to the party, it should have been shunned and sidelined in Quebec politics.
Who needs feminism?
By Lana Friesen
SFU needs a feminist campaign.
Not because SFU is crawling with sexists, but because many people are afraid to identify themselves as feminists. Given that feminism has a fundamental focus on equality, it is surprising that so few people on a Canadian university campus support it.
I don’t want to just deem this situation crazy and leave it at that. I want to invite people to profess themselves as feminists, and to actively discourage another anti-feminist backlash. I have not yet taken a GSWS course, and a past version of me may have hesitated to write this article before doing so. But feminism (or any issue of equality, at that) should not be limited to those who have studied it and know the differences between the different waves and theories of it.
Without an all-encompassing idea that can describe modern feminism, the label should lend itself to a variety of people with a variety of viewpoints — so long as their viewpoints are in line with the value of equality.
Below are some of the common excuses that people use for not calling themselves feminists.
a) The “I don’t know a woman’s/a discriminated woman’s plight” argument:
I have heard this argument first-hand from a friend who refused to call himself a feminist. He thought it would be offensive to women if he claimed to empathize with their plight, just as he would be offended if someone of different circumstances claimed to understand his experiences. The problem here is the expectation that all feminists have homogenous experiences of discrimination, and that other marginalized groups can’t identify in the same way. Although experiences between people belonging to different groups differ, even within in the groups themselves, this is not reason enough to refrain from calling yourself a feminist. Feminism may focus on experiences, but it can also focus on values. So long as the drive for equality is there, different experiences — or lack thereof — should not prohibit someone from calling himself a feminist. Furthermore, feminist concerns include a variety of issues that include other genders, including the gender roles that face men.
b) The “I don’t want to be confused with those bitchy dykes who hate men” argument:
There is just as much variety among GLBTQ people as there is among heterosexual people. To worry about being mistaken for a person of a different orientation exhibits some homophobia. We want to broaden the application of the term “feminist” and break stereotypes that are wrongly perceived. It is not inherent to feminists (nor to lesbians, for that matter) to hate men. Feminism is about furthering the rights of women, not about hating those that aren’t women. So wear your label with pride.
c) The “I hold very specific feminist views and don’t want to be mixed up with other feminists of other views” argument:
A movement cannot progress without the active participation of those concerned. If you feel that other feminists misuse the label and don’t represent your experience or your values, then speak up — and not just in a backlash. Make sure your idea of feminism is being represented. This is an important part of ensuring that the term “feminism” includes what you espouse as well. If you don’t agree with everything that this term includes, that’s no reason for your contribution be left unheard. By professing your views, the discussion can stay relevant to your concerns. You just have to be patient and open-minded to participation.
The recent “Who Needs Feminism” campaign that began at Duke University addresses this issue. The social media campaign has attracted a variety of people from different backgrounds, and continues to build its online presence. It was started by a group of women’s studies students at Duke. “[It] is reclaiming feminism as an umbrella for dialogue on issues that affect all of us,” Rachel Seidman — visiting lecturer to the responsible group of students — said of the campaign. The image of the umbrella perfectly describes the new usage of the term “feminist:” those concerned with a variety of issues and coming from diverse viewpoints, who can proudly fit together under this umbrella term. Seeking to eradicate the myth that feminism is now irrelevant, obsolete, or outdated, this new direction of feminism is just what we need: to keep the conversation going, and to take it to new levels and new issues via new mediums like Facebook and Tumblr.
The movement has grown, and on Sept. 6 and 7, students at SFU held a discussion on the topic: Who Needs Feminism? After hearing other stories from feminists who attended the campaign at SFU, the need for this campaign was more strongly and sharply felt.
“My students are convinced that reclaiming the word ‘feminism’ is key to any future progress on important issues concerning women — and to gaining greater acceptance and equality for everyone,” Seidman wrote recently. “They want to reach out to a wide variety of people, including those who have never before identified as feminists, and increase their sense of comfort with the word itself.”
Photos by Lana Friesen
“Translink, pretty much nazis at this point,“ man who forgot U-Pass reports
Article by Gary Lim
Photo by Mark Burnham
Last Friday, 23-year-old history major Travis Owens reported that TransLink, the public transportation company that services the Greater Vancouver region, had reached a level of infamy comparable to that of the German paramilitary forces of World War II. He cited increasing ticket prices and excessive wait times at Station Bay Five at Renfrew Skytrain Station, where he takes the bus home.
This public statement came after a period of escalated tensions, when Owens, who failed to pick up his U-pass at one of the dispensaries located on campus, attempted to board the Expo Line Skytrain from King George, only to be asked for his fare card. Sources indicated this is “total bullshit, because it was like Sept. 3 and the only reason I was on the Skytrain was to pick up the stupid U-Pass in the first place.”
According to eyewitnesses, these tensions exploded when Owens was forced then to return to the ticket-vending machine and purchase an adult two-zone pass for $3.75. During his ride up the escalator and wait on the platform Owens went on, drawing further comparisons between TransLink and the facilitators of the slaughter of six million Jews in the flawed pursuit of racial purity, and shouting about how much they generally suck to anyone within earshot.
Initially just calling the group “lazy and greedy,” he segued to other flaws about the company, denouncing the lack of late-night Skytrain service and calling the transit police a bunch of jack-booted thugs who failed to treat riders with the respect they deserve. Not unlike the Shutzstaffel and the series of brutal pogroms instigated against the Jewish people, continued Owens.
“It’s like this, you can practically see the Surrey campus from the Skytrain, and I told the guy that I just needed to take the train two stops and pick up my pass. But all he said was ‘tough.’ I mean, how do you even reason with that?” said Owens. “You can’t. It’s unreasonable. Unreasonable like the campaign of censorship in Germany enacted by the Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Gobbels. Exactly like that,” he added.
“Also, all this construction for the Faregate project. It’s ludicrous how far they’ll go to squeeze a few more pennies out of us. Who know how much longer these faregates will make our commutes? It’s not like the lines at Production and Commercial aren’t already long enough,” he posited.
When The Peak contacted TransLink for a response to the scathing remarks, the mass transportation company expressed sympathy for Owens’s circumstances, but firmly maintained its stance that anyone riding the bus, Skytrain or SeaBus is required to provide valid proof of purchase when asked.
TransLink also assuaged worries that the new Faregate® system, currently in construction, would result in any delays and missed trains. On the contrary, the regional transportation giant expects drastically reduced wait times, especially with the co-implementation of the new mandatory identification armbands for all riders.
Horoscopes: Sept 17, 2012
Aries (March 21— April 20)
The average person swallows 10 spiders a week in their sleep. Looks like you’re going to have an above-average week!
Taurus (April 21 – May 21)
They say that life imitates art; someone is going to cut off your arms.
Gemini (May 22 – June 21)
Chance circumstances will cause you to meet the man (or woman) of your dreams. Your 9th
grade math teacher, naked and losing his teeth.
Cancer (June 22 – July 22)
The stars are too busy fusing elemental hydrogen into helium to deal with your shit this week.
Leo (July 23 – August 22)
Due to a clerical error, the horoscope for all Leos last week was actually intended for Sagittarii.
Please adjust your futures accordingly.
Virgo (August 23 – September 23)
There’s no time to explain! Get in the van!
Libra (September 24 – October 23)
With Mars’s influence strong in your sign this week, and the moon waning in Jupiter, now is
definitely the time to invest in foreign grain.
Scorpio (October 24 – November 22)
They say that genius is 99 per cent perspiration, one per cent inspiration, but no one ever said it
while wading through ankle-deep puddles of sweat. Get yourself checked out.
Sagittarius (November 23 – December 21)
CORRECTION: In last week’s Sagittarius horoscope, the word “cough” should have read “brain
aneurysm;” we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
Capricorn (December 22 – January 20)
Unable to cope any longer with the pressures of Life, you finally decide to end it all this week. You
also decide to end your Men’s Health and Esquire while you’re at it.
Aquarius (January 21 – February 19)
Sorry to say, but it’s not your heart of gold that your blind date is interested in as much as your
kidneys of reasonable health.
Pieces (February 20 – March 20)
Tragedy befalls you this week in a cruel twist of fate. Also your nipples.
By Gary Lim
