November 30, 2006
Gazette #11
Music: in the ear of the listener?
My second article where the title contains a colon, and my second article where the accompaning picture is of a female celebrity. This one was weak, but i have a feeling it may be just as popular as the Hollywood Science article.
November 29, 2006
Pierre takes on the Catholic League!
Appearing in this week's Casket, Antigonish's conservative catholic influenced local paper.
RE: “Does the State Own our Children?” and “Civil rights group raises concerns about health clinics”I wish to voice my heartfelt objections to the pamphlet “Does the State own our children?” recently circulated by the Antigonish Chapter of the Catholic Civil Rights League and the interview with Mr. Donald MacLellan on page seven B of The Casket on November 22, 2006.
To begin with the leaflet, the first sentence (“The SRSB is currently debating whether parents have any rights regarding programs and medical services”) is worded as if the School board was denying parents any of their rights. The debate in place is not and has never been about stripping parents of their rights. It is about whether or not to give parents, as such, a shockingly larger amount of control over the activities of the health centres than Canadian law could ever warrant in any Canadian health institution.
Secondly, the leaflet states, “the SRSB allowed health clinics to open in schools before any plans were in place for how these clinics were to operate”. I am in no position to refute or validate the claim that the implementation of health clinics in Strait Region schools was disorganised. However, the point of contention to which the CCRL is getting is the fact that students have free and unrestricted access to healthcare professionals. What it is the CCRL is challenging is a key clause of international law (line five, Declaration of Geneva, World Health Organization, 1948). Indeed, Mr. MacLellan adds that the School Board, the owner of its schools, has every legal right to control what happens on its property. However, medical professionals have no legal right to practice outside the above-mentioned guidelines.
In closing, the sentence from the leaflet “In an open and free democratic society, we simply do not punish all for the sins of a few” contains a number of serious fallacies. First, a semantic remark. An open and free democratic society does not punish sins; it punishes crimes. Finally, an important reminder. An open and free democratic society elects the members of its school boards, just like we do, and the board concerns itself, thus abiding to the principles of democracy, with the desires and wishes of the majority and not the vociferations of the noisy minority.
Pierre P. R- Riley, Antigonish
Go get em!
The Old Country New World
Some people think that Europe can do no wrong. No music could ever be produced in England without the upmost sophistication and taste. To those people I would show this video, which will soon destroy their theory.
Peter Andre and Jordan: A Whole New World
This udder cheeseball comes from the British tabloid's number three family, after the Beckhams and the royals. A Whole New World is a classic Disney song. Why must they taint it so with their delusions of grandeur and their copycat behavior of Mariah Carey?
November 26, 2006
Dad's Purple Theatre Nightgown
Sadly, no Pierre in theatre pink and orange tights.
November 25, 2006
Happy Late Second Turkey Day!
I'm back home this weekend to see my dad in Theatre Antigonish's version of Hamlet. He plays Polonius, and he plays it very well. Pierre's also in it, as a musician. He played themes from the Holst Suite that we clarinet players have engrained in our mind from the constant practicing of that piece year after year. And he plays it in a bright hot pink and orange leotard. Dad got to wear a weird purple sleeping bag contraption with a big floppy pizzaria hat.
I though the play was really well done, and a good measure sadly, is that it was Shakespeare and I didn't feel bored at any time, though I knew the outcome (spoiler alert: everyone dies, except for one main character. I won't tell you who it is, but his name starts with H but he's not the character for whom the play is named).
Also, since today is officially one month until Christmas, I thought I'd give you a few hints as to gifts that will improve my life, if you're feeling generous:
November 22, 2006
Gazette #9 & #10 + exbf cover
The Dal Gazette Website finally updated, and to compensate for last week's article being a week late, I'll add the article that doesn't officially come out until tomorrow along with it.
It's all about the Stem Cells
My follow-up article to Hollywood Science: I felt like I didn't get enough time to explain my views on this in the previous article, so this one's just about the recent amazing developments in the field of stem cell research. The opinions that week were only about reactions to the mid-term elections in the United States: even though most students at Dalhousie are Canadian. I guess Canadian politics are just really that boring. Also, I think my editor is pretending to be a scientist in the photo that goes along with my story.
Libraries: Fortresses of Rights
I heard about this story through boingboing, and when I learned that no one was covering it, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I had a plan of attack. I was going to try to interview librarians and research the Patriot Act, but then I had other stuff to do because I'm in DISP, and reading government documents is the most pointless way to spend your time. So, sadly, much of my inspiration for this article came from the Penn and Teller's Bullshit! episode on the Patriot Act.
On a side note, if you look at the cover to the left of my article, you will see my ex-boyfriend, Andy, making a faux-tough-guy face. That made me laugh. But no offense intended. Go Andy.
Revenge of the Nerdcore
Tired of the generic crunk rap with its materialism, sexism and stupidity? Then maybe it's time for Nerdcore: the rap-music run by nerds, such as MC Hawking with his computer voice and anti-pseudoscience songs and MC Frontalot, the self-proclaimed 579th best rapper in the game. My favourite Nerdcore MC is MC Lars, who sings about the nerd life, college, and being forced to take Statistics. I can relate.
MC Lars: Space Game
The video is pretty lame. MC Lars is actually kind of cute in real life, but I hope that he doesn't appear in this video. But the song is hilarious. Or at least I thought it was the first time I heard it.
November 19, 2006
Dalhousie Reached for, Dalhousie Caught!
They won! Yesterday evening, the Dr. JH Gillis won first place in the Reach For Dalhousie Tournament! I knew they would!
They all won full first year scholarships to Dalhousie. I don't think Pierre has any plans on attending, though.
And the reason this update is over 24 hours late is because Pierre was here until 12, then I wrote my crappy article about the Patriot act for next week's Gazette, and then I went on an unintentional walking tour of Halifax in which we bought toothpaste, detergent and salsa, and eventually ended up at the downtown library where some guy at a table behind us loudly ragged on living in Halifax, afterwards I spent three hours writing a short story about the engineers who enriched the uranium for the little boy hiroshima bomb, and then I watched the Farscape Pilot.
It was my day off.
And now I really have to start working because I have a four assignments, a bio report, two prelabs and an essay to work on next week. Not to mention studying for my first university exams. But in a month less two days, I will be back in Antigonish, and I won't have to think about DISP until January.
Oh, and FYI: I didn't end up stealing Pierre's sweatshirt because it was XXLarge and in Pierre's words: it could be used to catch wind for a sailboat.
November 17, 2006
Reach for Dal update #1
Pierre and co. are in the top eight! They've made it to the quarterfinals!
They also one first place in a preliminary online game. They won Dalhousie sweatshirts (I'm going to try to steal Pierre's).
November 16, 2006
Reaching for Dalhousie Once Again
Tomorrow morning, Pierre, Matthew Stevens, and that other guy, will represent the Regional in this year's Reach For Dalhousie. I can't wait.
I know they're going to do awesome. Reach for Dal will ask for questions covering many different sorts of intelligences, like linguistic, historical, logical, geographic, visual-spacial, etc., etc., and I really think this year's team has their bases covered. I mean, they've got Pierre, who knows more general knowledge about languages, politics, history, geography and classical music than anyone I know, and they've got Matthew Stevens, who is the Andrew Brennan of the class of 2007.
Good luck, guys! I'll be rooting for you, and I'll try to stop in and see some of your games if I have the time.
November 15, 2006
Some Doubt
Dear Mrs. Stefani,
Why must you suck so bad?
Gwen Stefani: Wind it Up
Not to be confused with the new Barenaked Ladies song by the same name.
Okay, I get it. Stefani loves fashion, yodeling, strange video concepts, and she used to be obsessed with Japanese girls (the video quality isn't that great, but if those backup dancers are harajuku girls with blonde wigs, she's up to her old infatuations). Now go back to being the leader of No Doubt.
I don't get it. Gwen Stefani is touted as being the driving force of No Doubt, holding the band together for two decades and writing most of their music. Some of my favourite songs came from No Doubt, but now that she's doing the solo act I can't stand her. Was she really Ms. No Doubt, or just the talentless figurehead?
Or, is she merely singing to the lowest common denominator in order to sell more CDs?
Gwen Stefani's latest CD, The Sweet Escape is coming out December 5, and although I own every No Doubt CD ever made, I have no doubt this one will not be part of my collection.
November 10, 2006
Gazette #8
Hollywood Science
An answer to the question of whether celebrities should act as promoters of science, and why they have such whacky scientific theories, backed up with a recent somewhat scientific study about celebrity personality.
November 06, 2006
Get out the Winter Coat
Just a few minutes ago, I saw the first snow of the winter season. It makes me all giddy inside, though I know it's just going to be a huge pain.
And I can't really get excited for nothing. Whatever snow may or may not have accumulated in the couple of minutes that it will snow this week will be gone by Saturday, which is rememberance day, because it always rains on Rememberance day. It's as if it is required. You can't enjoy Rememberance day because it is cold and wet. Those veterans have it in with mother nature.
Sam Roberts Band Concert
On Saturday evening I went to the Sam Roberts Band concert at the Cunard centre with Laird... well, he left before Sam Roberts even got on stage.
I walked for fifteen minutes to get there, then I spend over a half hour outside, waiting. Then I waited for over an hour before the concert started. At 9:15 pm, the opening act, Wintersleep started to play. I think they about 80% sucked, and a lot of the people around me started to get annoyed when they were still playing after an hour. Sam Roberts didn't get on stage until 10:45 pm.
In total, I was standing up for over five hours. Was it worth it? Of course! I was in the front row to a concert of one of my favourite bands! However, my back sort of hurt the day after from leaning on the banister in the front row, and Laird probably hates me for making him come to a concert that pretty much sucked for him.
Sam Roberts has a lot of stage presence, and the music sounds even better live than it did on the record. Here's a video I took:
Sam Roberts - Hard Road
November 02, 2006
Gazette #6
Okay, it probably seems strange that I'm posting the sixth article after the seventh article, but they didn't put last week's gazette up on the internet until tonight, and I happened to check the current issue before looking for the previous issue.
Chi Whiz
This article was aimed at tapping into and disproving the new age vital force named Chi. I think it was my most controversial article yet, and it required several edits before it was allowed to be printed. They made me tone down "There's absolutely no evidence to support the existence of vitalism" to "there's no substantial evidence to support the existence of vitalism" which, to a scientist, would basically mean the same thing, although the public might be a little more discerning.
Anyway, if you feel like reading any of the other articles in this week's Gazette, you should read Li Dong (my editor's) analysis of Harold and Kumar go to White Castle.
Gazette #7
This was my take on the first Trust in Science lecture.
November 01, 2006
Lilly Allen Makes Everything Better
I wish Lilly Allen would ome and sign and dance around campus. Then the sky would be all clear and sunny and I would get an eighty or more on my quiz.
Lilly Allen: LDN