October 19, 2011

The Ωmegawww.theomega.ca

Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student NewspaperOct. 19, 2011

Attendance doesn’t reflect the show....we hope 7

WolfPack Sports 11

Kamloops gets in on the “occupy” movement

3 PHOTO BY MARVIN BEATTY

Heroes hosts and the fans win out. 6

October 19, 20112

I received our first real “let-ter to the editor” this week, and as such I feel that I should re-ally make some room for it even though we don’t get enough of them regularly enough to make it even a semi-regular section.

I should elaborate a bit before you get to it.

This letter wasn’t really a “let-ter to the editor” but rather a let-ter to you — my fellow students — and as it shares my own edito-rial thoughts on the matter being discussed, I thought it right to de-

fer most of my editorial space to another anonymous source who shares this view and has phrased it so eloquently.

I will comment on the piece it-self after its conclusion—as I’m sure you were all hoping to read my words at some point today, right?

Without further ado, I give you the Omega’s first “letter to the editor,” and I thank the anony-mous source out there who pro-vided it.

“Dear classmates,

“I love coming to class. I love sitting in lecture and listening to the professor speak. I enjoy par-ticipating in hands-on exercises. I love hearing your perspectives and insights. I have gotten to know a number of you and I quite enjoy your company.

“Unfortunately, the things that I love about coming to class are often ruined by the inconsiderate actions of others.

“To all my classmates who deem it necessary to chat online for the entirety of class, at least try typing quietly. The noise of you hammering away on the key-board is not helping me absorb the professor’s lecture. It’s actu-ally giving me a headache. If you

wouldrather spend class time chat-

ting online, I have a suggestion for you: stay at home. Don’t dis-turb my learning experience. Don’t disturb the learning expe-rience of any of your classmates. I won’t speak for anyone else, but I will venture a guess that they don’t appreciate inconsiderate individuals interfering with their learning experience.

“I realize that some students take notes using Microsoft Word; that is acceptable. But when I see you talking to friends on your so-cial media page, that is where my tolerance ends.

“To all my classmates who would rather watch YouTube vid-eos while classmates give presen-tations, don’t be rude. Your class-mates gave you their undivided attention when you nervously stumbled through your presenta-tion. The least you can do is show the same respect that your class-mates gave to you. It’s just com-mon courtesy.

“To all my classmates who would rather have their own indi-vidual discussion rather than par-ticipate in the group discussion, please choose to gossip on your own time. I appreciate chatting with friends, in fact I love talk-ing with my friends. My issue is

that I do not appreciate it when your chat time interferes with class discussion.

“When I have difficulty hear-ing the class discussion because you are having a loud and un-related personal chat, there is a problem.

“In conclusion, all that I am asking for is a little respect for our shared learning environment. I probably sound like a grumpy, old, high-strung keener, and feel free to think of me in that way if you wish. All I want is a class-room learning experience free of

distractions and interruptions where fellow students respect one another. I don’t think that should be too much to ask.

“See you in class.“Sincerely,“Eager but frustrated in 3rd-

year”

Dear “Eager but Frustrated,”

I hear you, my friend. These people — while I’m sure they know somewhere inside them-selves that they are annoying the people around them and simply do not care — clearly don’t un-derstand that it’s not only their own educational goals that they are hindering with their self-entitled and arrogant behaviour,

but the goals of others who are attempting to better themselves in attending a post-secondary in-stitution, as well.

If they did know that, they would obviously cease these ac-tions, right?

Because knowing you’re an-noying (and not caring enough about people to spare them your presence) is one thing — being a hindrance to others’ development is quite another.

So to them I say this:Now you know this is what you

are.Go home and play your Face-

book games and Skype with your girlfriend.

Because it’s obviously more important than your own devel-opment as an academic — and we’ve already established that you’re more important than any-one else.

If anyone else wants to chime in on this topic, head over to theomega.ca and comment on this piece (won’t likely be up un-til evening sometime), check out our new Facebook page and drop us a line there, or follow us on Twitter @TRU_Omega

Or, as always, you can drop me a line at:

[email protected].

Deferring (most of) my time for a worthy cause

Mike Davies Editor-in-Chief

Editor’s Note

Editorial

Sports can sometimes deal the cru-ellest blows to people’s careers and lives.

That’s the way it sometimes goes. That’s why we play and why we

watch. Clichés like “what

lies ahead” and “any given Sunday” nev-er tire in the sports world, because they are constantly appli-cable.

On any given Sun-day, a life can be turned upside down.

Sunday, Oct. 9, wearing the TRU Wolf Pack uniform with pride, Tyler Lowey was at bat, facing a pitcher from the Douglas Roy-als in an exhibition game.

The pitch came to-wards him – a high fastball – and he wanted a piece of it.

He swung and the ball fouled off the bat and it hit his face, smashing his right eye.

He will have one eye for the rest of his life.

As a result, Lowey will have a glass eye surgically placed.

The injury has forced him to leave school for the year, after just starting his third year in the bachelor of jour-nalism program.

I was lucky to meet Tyler right be-fore the incident.

Him being a third year journalism student and me being a fourth year, I was happy to meet someone like Tyler who shared my enthusiasm for

sports. We also both cheered for Calgary

no matter how bad things looked for them.

We were in Carlos O’Bryans and we talked sports for an hour.

He said he was in-terested in helping me with broadcasting Wolf Pack basketball and volleyball games and I was stoked.

We then talked about the MLB play-offs.

I told him the De-troit Tigers had the right stuff to win a World Series.

He didn’t agree and now the Tigers are out. I should have lis-tened to him.

When I returned from the Thanksgiv-ing weekend to hear

what had happened; I felt completely sad for Tyler.

He is a thoughtful and intelligent guy, why did this have to happen to him?

That’s sports. An inch to the left or right and history can be re-written.

Without a doubt in my mind, or others who know Tyler, such as his teammates, classmates, teachers, coaches and family, we know he will get through this harsh accident and come out on top. I look forward to hearing Tyler’s name one day in the sports reporting business.

I know he will come back to TRU and f inish the Journalism program and still be one hell of a ballplayer.

We’re rooting for ya, Ty.

Nathan CrosbySports Editor

Nate’s News

Sport is a cruel mistress sometimes: a tribute to Tyler Lowey

EDMONTON (CUP) — People who ride the bus think they’re so important.

They listen to music at levels more appro-priate for space shuttle launches, they talk at comparable decibels and they act like they own the place.

Someone has to take them down a peg. That’s why, the second after I graduate, I’m

applying to be a bus driver.I want to make a difference in my commu-

nity. I may not be as nice, cheerful and helpful as the bus drivers that you’re accustomed to, but my buses will run quickly and efficiently.

Since I’m the pilot of this loser cruiser, it is literally my way or the highway.

Don’t like my laws? Walk, or wait 20 min-utes for the next bus.

My first rule is that I don’t stop. That doesn’t mean I won’t pick you up or

drop you off, but in order to run at maximum efficiency, I’ll have to make rolling stops.

Sorry, grandma: you’re going to have to push that walker a little faster if you want to get on this bus.

This also means you’ll have to jump when you want to get off. Make sure to tuck and roll; I wouldn’t want my passengers to get hurt.

My second law — no talking. No talking to me, no talking to your friends,

no talking on your cell phone. No talking, period. People talk too much these days. The last thing I need to hear at 8 a.m. while

I’m hungover and trying to steer the bus are the shrill voices of people yakking about pointless bullshit.

I need to concentrate on the road. I’m the only one who can talk, and only so I can yell at other vehicles or passengers on my bus.

The third rule is the most important: there’s no music allowed on my bus.

It’s not that I hate all music.

I just hate your music. And my tastes are better than yours. In the wider system, every time you get on a

bus you hear someone’s crappy music blasting out of their headphones.

The volume is dangerous for those people’s ears and it makes the trip unpleasant for the other passengers.

To make the ride more enjoyable, I’ll have my tunes playing out of the speakers on the bus.

That way my passengers can be exposed to some good music for once.

I hope my arts degree will make me quali-fied enough to meet the meticulous standards for bus drivers.

Not just anyone can do it, you know.I know my rules may seem severe, but I

promise they’re fair. People need limits, and after a couple trips

with me, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.

You’ll probably want to shake my hand and thank me for making the bus a better place.

But remember, there’s no talking allowed.

Get off my bus Someone has to take transit riders down a pegThe Gateway (U of A)Darcy Ropchan

The BCTransit bus on campus last month encouraging being environmentally friendly doesn’t really represent the attitude of the people you have to deal with when you ride. —Mike Davies

publishingboardEDITOR-IN-CHIEF * Mike DaviesBUSINESS MGR * Natasha SlackINDUSTRY REP * Mike YoudsFACULTY REP * Charles HaysSTUDENT REP* Sadie Cox

letterspolicyLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in the Letters & Opinion section do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

copyrightAll material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright Omega 2010.

October 19, 2011 3

THE MEGA

October 12, 2011 Volume 21, Issue 7

Published since November 27, 1991

Cariboo Student Newspaper Society(Publisher of The Omega)TRU Campus House #2

Box 3010, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 5N3Phone: (250)372-1272

E-mail: [email protected] Enquiries: managerofomega@gmail.

com(Correspondence not intended for

publication should be labelled as such.)

editorialstaff

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFMike Davies

[email protected]/250-372-1272

BUSINESS MANAGERNatasha Slack

[email protected]

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITORCory Hope

SPORTS EDITORNathan Crosby

Copy EditorLarkin Schmiedl

Photo EditorCory Hope

News EditorBrendan Kergin

www.theomega.ca

omegacontributors Darcy Ropichan, Marvin Beatty, Trevor Chalifour, Jenny Lu, Lee Richardson

Want to get involved in covering campus news?Apply to contribute to the Omega.

“Occupy Kamloops” is touted as a peaceful social movement in solidarity with “Occupy Wall Street.”

It was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. on a cool, crisp morning last Saturday Oct. 15 in front of the Kamloops Public Library on Vic-toria Street.

As of 10:45 a.m. a small white f lag was the only visible sign of the demonstration.

The lone sentinel holding the f lag aloft was Daniel Herman, a TRU psychology student.

Others had apparently arrived earlier than Herman, but decided to search for cardboard to make signs.

This low-key start was perhaps a bit unexpected, given that just two hours earlier the Facebook page promoting the demonstra-tion had 168 “Likes” and over 360 “People talking about this.”

But then, social movements have never been predictable.

Over the next half-hour, partici-pants began to trickle in as diverse as the autumn leaves dancing across the sidewalk.

College students appeared with signs promoting peace, climate and employment issues.

Older couples and small groups joined together, voicing their opin-ions on the widening gap between the rich and poor.

One man wore a sign calling for the demise of the Canadian Wheat Board, while others sat, cross-legged, quietly taking it all in.

Despite the apparent lack of any coherent agenda, one thing was clear: all were there to align them-selves with the efforts of those

participating in “Occupy Wall Street,” “Occupy Canada” and other “Occupy” movements taking place across the world.

These events, initiated by the Canadian-based Adbusters, are designed to bring people togeth-er to discuss concerns, generate consensus and build a movement that may usher in new financial and social models.

“There is too much power in the hands of too few people,” Her-man said.

Seemingly in agree-ment was 42-year-old Cam MacQuarrie, who raised a large sign above his head that read “Greed Kills.” MacQuarrie believes like many gathered, that the corporate elite are taking too much of the world’s wealth.

While he was unsure of staying on scene all day to support the cause, he feels it’s im-portant to participate and send a message of solidarity to those struggling to make ends meet.

The mixed demographics were not surprising to 22-year-old TRU international student Gemma Benet-Navarro.

“Lots of ages are representa-tive of this movement,” she said, “Let’s talk, step-by-step on mak-ing things better.”

By 11:15 a.m. approximately 30 people were in attendance and a gentleman rose to explain how “general assemblies” of this type usually operate.

Topics included the use of hand

signals and the “public voice” or “human microphone”: measures designed to try and overcome the need for sound equipment.

A public address system was one of the first things suggested when the crowd began to merge but was quickly voted down given the size of this particular gathering.

By 11:30 a growing slate of speakers were taking turns dis-cussing various issues.

Some received respectful hand signals of support, while oth-ers were simply shouted down by those they intended to generate support from.

At 11:32 someone yelled, “We’ve got company!” as two uniformed members of the RCMP walked past.

The officers brief ly spoke to a lone security guard at the entrance to the library but were gone within

minutes.At 11:40 Donovan Cavers, a can-

didate for the upcoming City of Kamloops council election, made a brief 15-minute appearance but did not speak.

When asked of his reasons for attending, he simply said he “just came to check it out.”

By noon about 70 people had converged, far short of the appar-ent interest indicated on Facebook.

Someone in the crowd began a discus-sion of moving to an-other area that would be more easily occu-pied for a longer pe-riod of time.

The ensuing debate resulted in the major-ity deciding to begin marching and chant-ing through down-town.

With the assembly now somewhat frac-tured, the gathered media also began to divide.

At 4 p.m. fewer than 10 occupiers remained in front of the library.

At 10:16 p.m. the Occupy Kam-loops Facebook page showed an update that seven people planned to continue the occupation over-night at Spirit Square.

At 11:45 p.m. the @occupyka-mloops Twitter account had gar-nered the support of 24 followers but had only tweeted once.

Day one of Occupy Kamloops left participants and observers pondering what was achieved and what day two might bring.

All we really know at this point was that it was indeed peaceful.

Social movement comes to Kamloops

Omega ContributorMarvin Beatty

The gathering at the “Occupy Kamloops” event was a peaceful one. There was even a poll taken about whether they should have voice amplification. Clearly the “Occupy” issue is not as agressive here as it is in some regions, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an important discussion. —Marvin Beatty

“There is too much power in the hands of too few people.” —Daniel Herman, “Occupy Kamloops” supporter

“Occupy Kamloops” supporters take to Victoria Street

News

October 19, 20114

Oh, university life: party, drink, study, read, read some more, then party again, and ter-ror cram. Many have learned this from previous years at univer-sity, and most know what comes with the gig.

With age comes many added stresses, and eating healthy and regularly are two simple ways to increase energy and lose some unnecessary weight without hav-ing to change the way you live.

Aging students like most oth-ers struggle from fat and choles-terol complications.

Greg Kozoris, an exercise physiologist and certif ied strength and conditioning spe-cialist, explains that, “fat intake, sugar intake and carbohydrate intake after hours where you’re not going to utilize those in-takes,” are things to avoid.

The body relies on two things: nutrition that is being digested from recently eaten foods or drinks and from stored nutrition or unhealthy stores like fat.

“Fresh is always best,” said Kozoris, “things like whole grains, vegetables sliced up, anything non-processed.”

Most people think that not eat-ing a meal equals more stored energy used.

But by starving oneself of nutrition the body will trigger your system to use little amounts of energy, be-coming generally slower and sleepier.

The body will try to compensate and hoard enough food to last until it receives more nutrition.

With irregular eating patterns the body can only do so much.

Since it does not know when it will be fed next, this process continues.

Starving oneself or de-priving the body of nutri-tion is counter-productive in losing weight.

The idea is to consume small amounts of food more frequently so the body will not need to store energy.

Kozoris suggests four small meals a day is best and if attending class or on the go, that people try to “bring something from home.”

Most people’s solution to their lack of nutrition is to f ill the void with another stimulant like coffee or other caffeinated prod-ucts.

Kozoris said caffeine “sup-presses hunger” and creates awareness of the body and mind but doesn’t allow for proper nu-trition.

“One caffeine drink a day” is generally a rule according to Kozoris.

He says to make sure to “hy-drate with two to three litres [of water] a day to f lush the sys-tem.”

Choosing a piece of fruit or

some type of nutritious food that will deliver the body natural nutrition like vitamins, miner-als and other types of healthy supplements the body needs is a better choice than coffee.

“Kick start the metabolic rate so your basal metabolic rate,

burning calories at rest, is a lot higher,” said Ko-zoris.

Food in the morning is the best way to wake up the metabolic system, for without food the sys-tem acts like it would if someone were asleep or starving.

The body will burn less fat and rely on a smaller amount of en-ergy causing the body to struggle from insuf-f icient nutrition.

Morning is not a good time for someone to cov-er his or her restlessness with a caffeinated prod-uct--remember healthy foods f irst and last.

Consume healthy foods regularly to avoid large time gaps between meals where the body can store food.

Consistent eating pat-terns will eliminate the

need for fat deposits. Keep that basal metabolic

rate going and lose fat while you learn!

Rejuvenate with Nutrition Omega ContributorTrevor Chalifour

Life & Community

Community Calendar

Wednesday, Oct. 19

-Heroes Live Concert Series.Show starts 8 p.m.$5 Dollars cover.

See all this empty space in the events

calendar? There’s no way that there’s nothing

happening this week,

but you didn’t tell

us about it, so we can’t

tell everyone else.

Hopefully you learn from this

and get your events to us so we can share them

with the people who

might attend.

[email protected]

Seriously, this is ridiculous.

How can you possibly expect people to come to your event if you don’t even tell them it’s happening?

“ h y d r a t e w i t h t wo t o t h re e l i t r e s [of wa t e r] a d ay.”

—Greg Kozoris

Sign up on www.dealmate.ca

brought to you by

Fresh vegetables and other non-processed foods are the most easily digested ones and are therefore more beneficial for regulating intake (or prducing weight loss) than eating nothing at all. (Photo coutesy of Wikimedia Commons)

The Omega · Volume 21, Issue 7 5

News

TORONTO (CUP) – Canada’s entire education system is need of restructur-ing, according to a new report.

Released Oct. 11 by the Canadian Council on Learning, the report says that without a national regulatory com-mittee, Canada’s education system will decline, leading to a loss of economic productivity and innovation.

“They talk about the dysfunctionality of post-secondary education,” said Glen Jones, a professor at the Ontario Insti-tute for Studies in Education.

“There are some criticisms and some of them are valid, but I think it’s going too far to say that it’s dysfunctional.”

The report is likely to be the f inal pa-per released by the CCL, which is set to close in spring 2012 after federal fund-ing for the national learning organiza-tion was withdrawn by the Harper gov-ernment last year.

“Some of the comments are made with greater vitriol than have been made in the past,” said Jones. “But that doesn’t mean that they don’t say some important things.”

While acknowledging high participa-tion rates in post-secondary education and praising Canada’s teaching staff and generally well-educated population, the report “What is the Future of Learn-ing in Canada?” criticizes the lack of a federal body that sets national goals in terms in education. Currently, education issues are handled by individual provin-cial and territorial governments.

“The principal cause of the unaccept-able and deeply troubling state of affairs is that our governments have failed to

work together to develop the necessary policies and failed to exhibit the re-quired collective political leadership,” stated the report.

Another criticism revolves around re-search and development becoming a pri-ority of universities, which then often move away from delivering a compre-hensive education in favour of aiming to gain research funding from the federal government

“We have a higher education system where there are very strong incentives for faculty to attempt to become great researchers, but there are not as many incentives for individual faculty, or the university as a whole to focus on the quality of undergraduate teaching,” said Ryerson politics professor David Trick, who has co-authored the book Academic Reform.

“It’s almost as though high-quality teaching has become sort of a token as-pect of our universities, a token area that we need to reward rather than something that is as celebrated as research,” said Meaghan Coker, a University of Toronto public policy and governance master’s student.

“That small example is one of many that indicates the imbalance between re-search and teaching.”

While some universities in provinc-es like British Columbia and Alberta operate under different models, some of which put an emphasis on teaching, provinces such as Ontario have switched entirely to a university model that con-centrates on advancing research.

Report calls for drastic changes to Canadian education systemCUP Ontario Bureau ChiefLee Richardson

SEE Education PaGE 9

October 19, 20116

“Are you doing as well in your courses this semester as you had hoped?”

I ask this of many students I meet these days, particularly those in their first year.

Most look down at their feet, shuffle them self-consciously, and answer “no.”

Indeed, most students’ grades drop when they enter their first year of univer-sity.

Some studies find that stu-dents’ grades in their first se-mester are a full 10% below the grades they re-ceived in Grade 12.

There is a lot to learn about how to learn in university.

The week is divided into different chunks of time, the textbooks are heavier (both in weight and content), the classrooms are bigger, and the as-signments are more difficult.

When I think back on my first Thanksgiving weekend after starting university, I remember wishing I could rub a little vessel and have a tutoring genie emerge to help me figure it all out.

It turns out that we have a dedi-cated group of such genies here at TRU.

The Supplemental Learning

(SL) Leaders work with students registered in a set of courses that we know are particularly diffi-cult.

Each SL Leader taken one of these courses before and received an A or A+.

They are trained to help stu-dents currently registered in those course learn how to suc-ceed.

They help stu-dents work in groups to learn the material and excel at ex-ams and assign-ments.

Check out the SL website at www.tru.ca/sl to see if your courses are sup-ported by SL.

If you don’t find your course there, be sure to

check out the Writing and Math Help Centres on the second f loor of the House of Learning.

There’s another set of tutoring supports there to help you move those grades back up to where you expected them to be.

Christine Adam, TRU’s dean of students, writes a weekly col-umn on topics of interest to TRU students. You can find her in per-son in 1631 Old Main and follow her on Twitter @trudeanstudent

From the d e a n ’s

deskDean of Students

Christine Adam

Arts & Entertainment

Joey Jack, a local – let’s call him a personality – has a new band.

Anyone who was ever lucky enough to see the Sleeveless Tease in con-cert will know the charisma and at-mosphere that Jack gives off behind a microphone is enthralling, and though the big-band feel that was the sound of saxophones and trum-pets with driving bass lines and the amazing vocal attributes of the fe-male singers that were until recently a part of the group are missing from their new venture, The Crazy 88 has a show that you should definitely check out if you get a chance.

Jack realizes the new band will take some adjustment time before they are as tight-knit and clean-sounding as the Sleeveless Tease was.

“This band is under three months old and we have kinks we’re still working out, but we’re really happy to have this new project and are look-ing forward to honing the sound,” he

said.The new sound might be missing

a female voice and a saxophone, and it could certainly do without the new keyboard player behind a microphone trying to be a vocalist when they already has a perfectly good one in their frontman – but I have a feeling it will come together and be a local band that you will see around town and appreciate when you do.

The talent of not only Jack as the focus that he will always at-tract (even when he tries to defer), but also their lead guitar/trumpet player, Percy Folkard—who by the way is an outstanding example of overall musical talent — and the unquestionable drum skills of Ja-mie Abate make this a band worth seeing.

Your next chance to check them out is at the Music Makes Meals fundraiser on Nov. 10 at The Blue Grotto where you can enjoy the mu-sic and support the Kamloops Food Bank at the same time.

The Crazy 88 Takes on HeroesEditor-in-ChiefMike Davies

The Crazy 88 play Heroes on Oct. 12. You should check them out and help your community at the same time on Nov. 10 for the Music Makes Meals fundraiser —Mike Davies

Want to get involved in covering campus news?Apply to contribute to

the Omega.editorofomega@

gmail.com


I go back and forth as to wheth-er or not I believe that MacArthur Island Park is actually an island, but it is definitely one hell of a park.

Found on the North Shore of Kamloops, it houses areas for more recreational activities than most places I can think of — from lawn bowling to a beautiful skate-board park to the occasional gun show held in the main building.

My disbelief in the concept of MacArthur Island being an island stems from its complete lack of being separated from the main body of Kamloops by a body of water--which is to me the defini-tion of an island.

When asked about it, the dic-tionary application on my Mac had this to say about its idea of an island:

Noun:1. a piece of land surrounded by

water.2. a thing resembling an island,

esp. in being isolated, detached, or surrounded in some way: the university is the last island of de-mocracy in this country.

3. a freestanding kitchen cup-board unit with a countertop, al-lowing access from all sides.

I’m reasonably sure that the freestanding kitchen cupboard definition could have been left out of this equation, but as the arts and entertainment editor of the Omega, I feel it is my job to report to you things exactly as I found them.

I also thought it was funny.MacArthur Island Park is less

like an island and more like a moody peninsula that sometimes finds itself detached from the

mainland. Perhaps MacArthur Island and Kamloops find them-selves in a seasonal fit of relation-ship trouble which they try to re-solve by a trial separation.

Or maybe it was named when it was discovered and that just hap-pened to be at a time when the wa-ter level was high enough that it was separated. Imagine reporting back to your boss, saying, “We have found an island and named it after you,” only to be beheaded once your boss came to have a look at it and thought you were making fun of him.

I haven’t counted how many holes of golf are available there. Nor have I counted the soccer and baseball fields. For such a small place it seems to go on for miles, and they even left room for wild-life. I’ve seen several large deer in the area, some of which almost ran through the skateboard park. I’m certain that there would have been some feelings of regret had they run through, although I’m not sure if it would have been the deer or the skateboarders that felt it.

There’s also a walking/jogging/biking path that goes around the park, and if you happen to be around N 50˚ 41’ 34.3”, W 120˚ 22’ 32.0” and find a piece of f lag-ging tape, you may have just won yourself a little something.

Of course, you’ll have to email me at [email protected] and let me know what the message on the f lagging tape says.

Please don’t remove the tape from where you found it. I’m go-ing to get out there and remove them myself after about a week to avoid the litter, but it’s not fair (or fun) for others to go out to find the geocache without having something to look for.

Omega Expeditionary Force presents: MacArthur Island ParkArts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

The students’ residence as seen from MacArthur Island Park. Yes, it’s that easy to find, and if you find this view at MacArthur Island Park first you will win the Omega’s weekly prize. —Cory Hope

Three Canadian rockabilly bands played at Pogue Mahone on Wednes-day, Oct. 12 giving an outstanding performance to a crowd that barely outnumbered the band members.

“Butch Haller and His Chester-field Ramblers” were the first to take the stage.

Butch, I was told when I walked into the bar, was the oldest living rockabilly performer still hitting the stage.

This turned out to be not entirely true.

Butch himself is actually Joel “Hooch” Parkins, the frontman for The Matadors, wearing a mask I am close to being ashamed to admit I completely bought into.

Perhaps I just couldn’t see how the lips weren’t moving properly from where I was, or maybe I just really wanted to believe what I was told I would be seeing.

No matter what though, Joel has his act down.

Much like The Matadors (as can be expected when they’re the ex-act same band) Butch Haller is part stand-up comedy routine and part

rockabilly extravaganza. Where the main difference comes

in is the songs they play.While The Matadors have sev-

eral albums of original tunes, Butch Haller and His C he s t e r f i e ld Ramblers have taken over the job of being the cover band that The Matadors started off as in 1995.

Before al-most every one of the songs they played, Butch would make the claim that he had origi-nally written it long ago, and that the songs had been sto-len from them. He would then burst into rockabilly-ballad versions of “Karma Chameleon” by Culture Club, “Creep” by Radiohead, or Wham’s “Wake Me Up Before You

Go-Go,” to name a few. The songs are beautifully cov-

ered, and entertaining beyond belief to watch.

After Butch Haller it was the Preying Saints’ turn to take the stage.

They are a more straightforward

rockabilly act hailing from Ed-monton.

Between Paul from The Ignit-ers on vocals and Greg on the up-

right bass, there is enough energy coming off the stage to appease anyone who might have been missing the standup com-edy routine in be-tween songs that Butch had brought to the evening.

And then, of course, there were The Matadors.

Not to be out-done by himself as his opening act Joel came back to the stage wearing only his shoes, sunglasses and boxer shorts; the latter dangling a large fake penis which he proceed-ed to play with for

a good portion of the show. The Matadors schtick involved

Joel routinely grabbing the wrong whammy bar while he was playing.

Of course, The Matadors aren’t known simply for their ability to make the audience and each other laugh (I don’t even know how they could continue to play, they were laughing so hard at times), but also for playing really solid original rockabilly tunes even when it ap-pears that they’re not playing for anyone.

Unfortunately acts like The Matadors stand a good chance of not being booked in town for very much longer, as the Kamloops crowds don’t seem to make it out to enough of the shows.

In fact this is the fourth show I had attended since the summer that failed to produce a crowd significantly larger than the com-bined number of the band members that showed up to play.

Perhaps it’s merely a problem of insufficient advertising on behalf of the promoter or the venue, or maybe it’s an unfortunate matter of rockabilly being a dying scene in the Kamloops area.

Who knows?What can be said for sure is that

unless you were one of the 10 or so people in Pogue Mahone that night, you missed one hell of a show.

If The Matadors played and nobody was there to hear it, would it still have ruled?Arts and Entertainment EditorCory Hope

Butch Haller is only as old as he feels on the inside, ad it shows in his performance. —Cory Hope


October 19, 20118


MONTREAL (CUP) — I grew up playing Goldeneye and Super Mario Brothers, and, as a result, gained a small modicum of video gaming skills.

Though I enjoyed gaming, I was reluctant to admit to it, since I knew it was not a typically female activity. The rarity of women who play, or who will admit to playing, video games is just one reminder of the male domination of the video game industry.

The video game industry is com-prised of people from many differ-ent fields, such as design, music and marketing. About a third of these people come from computer science programs, where graduates are primarily male.

Addressing this skewed gen-der distribution is the subject of a joint research project between the University of Alberta’s faculty of education and its computer science program. Their research involved introducing boys, who had more experience with video games, and girls, who had less, to ScriptEase, a game design program. Their findings show that girls and boys showed equal interest in the pro-gram, despite differences in initial experience.

According to Duane Szafron, one of the paper’s researchers, it is important to have more women in the field. He believes that a greater balance between genders is neces-sary.

“The education they experience should be in a context in which they interact with as many women as men,” he said in an email. “This idea also suggests that other kinds of diversity should be present in the university [setting] to match the di-versity of the Canadian community with regards to race, religion, etc.

“Anytime someone is in a minor-ity population there is a danger that they will be treated differently by the majority and feel that they don’t belong. I believe this is currently the case for women in computing science programs. It is too easy for them to feel that they don’t belong and so too many leave the program for the wrong reasons. In some ways, the minority is self-perpetu-ating,” Szafron continued.

But there are many up and com-ing women within the gaming in-dustry. Judy Truong is a project manager in the Technology Group at Ubisoft, a video and computer game company with a development studio in Montreal.

Truong said that any female en-gineer, not just in those in the video game industry, will face male-dom-

inated environments. However, she explained that what drew her to the industry was that “the video game industry is so up-and-coming; there’s design, marketing and com-puter science aspects; there’s just a lot of possibilities.”

Szafron’s research also confirms that for many women, the lure of video games is not the enjoyment derived from playing the games, but rather the design and creation aspects of the industry.

However, according to Truong, “Many women don’t know about the industry unless they have been exposed to video games, which is not as common for women.”

For Truong, who is an occasional gamer, video games were not some-thing foreign nor unfamiliar. But even with this prior exposure, she was still surprised by the breadth of the industry. For many women, it seems that this lack of information deters those who would, if made aware of the different disciplines involved, be interested in the de-sign of these games.

Szafron and Truong agree that the best way to increase the num-ber of women in computer science is through a change in curriculum. Currently, high school computer science curricula are much less developed than those of other sci-ences, such as physics, biology and

chemistry, and vary widely from school to school.

Additionally, many universities do not allow computer science to be used for entrance credits. This means that computer science can be an afterthought for many students in high school, resulting in miscon-ceptions about the discipline.

However, Szafron believes these problems can be solved by imple-menting a course that centres around game design, where stu-dents work in project groups to cre-ate a game.

“They learn computer science

and programming concepts while they are working on it, but they have a concrete creative goal and they can discuss the artifact that they are working on throughout the term,” he said.

Truong agrees and suggested in-troducing more three-dimensional design and computer science-spe-cific courses that could be benefi-cial for all streams of engineering.

Perhaps the day will come when girls in video games won’t only bring to mind those of the animated variety.

Gender equality not present in video game industry

The Martlet (UVic)Jenny LuFemales just as interested in gaming: study

ILLUSTRATION BY Amina Batyreva/The McGill Daily


Puzzle of the Week #6 – Prime Plus

My credit union charges interest on some loans at prime plus 5%. Supposethat the prime interest rate in percent is a prime number. Obviously,prime plus 5 is not the prime interest rate. Almost always, it is not aprime number either. Why is this? What is the exception?

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The

full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next

Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <[email protected]>. Submissions by others are

also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in the Math

Centre (HL210A). Come visit: we are friendly.

On March 31, 2005 the Thompson Rivers University Act created

three governing bodies for TRU: the Board, the Senate, and the

Planning Council for Open Learning.

Please see the ‘TRU Board, Senate & Planning Council Election Procedures’ document dated January 25, 2010 for details. It is available on the TRU web site at

tru.ca. Search on ‘Elections’

The positions on the three governing bodies which need to be filled

through the election process are as follows:

Nominations: All candidates for election must be nominated in writing by

three individuals eligible to vote in the election for the candidate. Nomination

forms are available on-line at tru.ca. Search on ‘Elections’.

BoardEmployees: (One) Employee elected by and from the employees of the univer-

sity who are not TRU faculty members (3 year term)Faculty: (Two) Faculty members elected by and from all of the TRU faculty

members (3 year term)Students: (Two) Students nominated from students who are members of the TRU Student Union but elected by all TRU & TRU-OL students (1 year term)

SenateFaculty: (Two) Faculty members for each faculty or school elected by faculty

members of that faculty or school (3 year term)

The five faculties and schools for purposes of these Fall elections are:

Faculty of Arts, School of Business & Economics, Faculty of Law, School

of Nursing, School of Tourism.

Note: Under section 8(2)(g) of the TRU Act, only members of the above faculties and schools are eligible to vote for, and be elected as, faculty representatives on Senate in the Fall election. Representatives from the other faculties and schools were elected in the Win-ter election. Faculty members at the Williams Lake Campus will vote with the faculty or school with which they are most closely aligned. Non-instructional faculty who do not report to a faculty or school can be nominated and vote as part of the employee position on

the Board and the support staff position on Senate.

Students: (Four) Students nominated from and elected by TRU & TRU-OL

students (1 year term)

Support Staff: (Two) Support staff, elected by the support staff (3 year term)

Teaching Staff Open Learning: (Four) Members from the teaching staff in

the Open Learning Division, elected by members of the teaching staff in the Open

Learning Division (3 year term)

Planning Council for Open Learning

Students: (One) Student nominated from TRU-OL students and elected by both

TRU and TRU-OL students (1 year term)

Teaching Staff Open Learning: (Two) Members from the teaching staff in

the Open Learning Division, elected by members of the teaching staff in the Open

Learning Division (3 year term)

The timelines for the 2011 elections are as follows: October 3, 2011 – The Voters’ Lists are available for inspection at the TRU Reg-

istrar’s Office in Kamloops and Williams Lake.October 3 to October 24, 2011 – Nomination period: All nomination forms must

be submitted to the Registrar by 4:30 p.m. on October 24, 2011. The Registrar will acknowledge receipt of all nomination forms from nominees.

November 22 to December 5, 2011 – Voting period for online secret balloting: Voting will close at 4:30 p.m. on December 5, 2011. All online ballots must be sub-mitted and paper ballots received in the Registrar’s Office by the close of voting.

No ballots will be accepted by the Registrar after the close of voting.

December 9, 2011 – Announcement of results on the TRU website and by e-mail Proposed Meeting Times (subject to change):

Board – meets 5 times per year with some additional committee meetingsSenate – the fourth Monday of each month, 4:30-6:30 pm, except in July and

AugustPlanning Council for Open Learning – meets 2 times per year - dates and times

to be determined Meeting Attendance for TRU Employees and Students:

Meetings will take place in Kamloops. For those not in Kamloops, teleconfer-ences will be used and in person attendance will be arranged when necessary and

appropriate.

Elected representatives will commence their term in office in January

2012. questions and requests for nomination papers:

Nomination papers are available on-line at tru.ca (search on Elec-

tions), or from the TRU Registrar’s Office: in Kamloops or (Phone:

250-828-5032) or e-mail ([email protected]); for the Williams Lake

Campus (Phone: 250-392-8000).

“We’ve often talked about f inding bal-ance between the two,” said Ontario Un-dergraduate Student Alliance president Sean Madden.

“Several of our policies are on quality of education, specif ically advocating for quality of teaching, transparent teach-ing and teaching development to become a larger part in a professor’s professional career progression.”

According to Jones, however, the major problem with Canada’s education system is a lack of available relevant data, which is needed before changes in policy can be achieved.

“We are behind many of our peers, and by that I mean many other Western de-veloped countries that have much better data about how their educational system is going,” said Jones, who added that the amount of data the government has re-garding its education system is not enough to develop effective policy analysis at the provincial and territorial level.

“We need to know more about post-sec-ondary education,” said Jones.

“But it’s diff icult to deal with because there [are] very few political advantages in investing in data.”

While the report calls for the formation of a national body to reform the country’s system, Jones states that apart from a need for the federals to collect more in-formation about the national educational infrastructure, such a reform might not be necessary.

“Many of the problems involve issues that can be done at the provincial level or territorial level, so I agree with the prob-lems — I guess I disagree with their solu-tions,” Jones said.

“But I think people have to take a step back and realize that in order to get poli-cies that work, you really do need to make that investment in data and the public infrastructure that collects this informa-tion and allows for that analysis, and then you can have an informed public policy debate.”

Education SyStEm rE-Port.... continuEd From PaGE 3

News

NEWOMEGASOCIAL MEDIA!Twitter:

@TRU_OMEGAKeep up to date with

what we’re doing, or talk

directly at us....if email isn’t you’re

thing

October 19, 201110

Across

1. Brewski5. Orange juice factor9. Bow13. Certain surgeon’s “patient”14. Celebes beast15. Anoint16. Romantic setting17. Dock18. Carpentry grooves19. Come down hard22. Cleaning cabinet supplies23. Absorbed, as a cost24. Yugoslavia, now28. Plant fuel32. 86 is a high one33. Aspersion35. Not just “a”36. Pot of gold site?40. Golf term41. Quite a stretch (var.)42. Seize forcibly (old word)43. Indiana town46. Finn’s friend47. 1969 Peace Prize grp.48. The Amish, e.g.50. 1952 musical58. Convex molding59. Music genre60. Annul61. Locks up62. Fashion63. Auction cry

64. Bow65. Increase, with “up”66. “Trick” joint

Down

1. Ado2. “Major” animal3. Kosher ___4. Caught in the act5. Yellow fruit6. Bind7. Fertile soil8. Legal prefix9. Wreath for the head10. Completely fix11. Blockage12. Pianist, Dame Myra15. Build on20. Precipice21. Lagos currency24. Hex25. “It’s a Wonderful Life” role26. Isuzu model27. “You stink!”28. Make, as a CD29. Cornered30. Treat rudely, in a way31. Ratty place33. Abandon34. “Seinfeld” uncle37. Claw38. About to explode

39. “What’s ___?”44. Pooh’s pal45. Hodgepodges46. Drag48. Condescending one49. Chopin piece50. Hit51. “Terrible” czar52. Canceled53. Doctrines54. Dry biscuit55. Soon, to a bard56. Doing nothing57. Central point

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last week’s answers

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Anyone notice anything strange about the sudoku? Email editorofomega@gmailcom and tell me about it.


Sports

Wolf Pack hockey head coach Don Schulz wanted his players to forget about their two losses in eastern Washington and his team responded with a statement win at their home opener.

TRU’s explosive offence held up to a late charge from the Trinity Western Spartans to win 5-3 at the Memorial Are-na on Oct. 14.

Coach Schulz was happy with his team’s effort and said it was good to get the first win despite giving up a four-goal lead.

“We took the foot off the accelerator at the end,” he said.

“We got a little complacent after that long power play in the second period and we seemed to lose that sense of urgency, but it was a deserved win and nice to win in front of the home town crowd.”

TRU outshot the Spartans 20-13 after the first period and at one point in the sec-ond period had a 4-0 lead over the visi-tors.

The Spartans weren’t doing themselves any favours in the penalty box, tallying 43 penalty minutes and giving the Wolf Pack plenty of time to work on their power play.

Coach Schulz said he had been preach-ing to his players since day one about keeping their composure and it gave TRU’s special teams a chance to build chemistry.

“Actions speak louder than words, if

they want to chirp, we’ll let the score-board do the talking for us,” Schulz said.

After weekend play, Jassi Sangha’s seven goals and three assists now lead the team for points.

“I didn’t play too well in Washington so I wanted to do more tonight, do the little things and it worked out,” Sangha said.

Sangha’s second goal came on a dump-ing play in the third that was mishandled by the Spartans goaltender.

“I don’t know what happened there, Tonello just dumped it in and the goalie was about to cover it and I didn’t know if I was going to slash him or not, I didn’t want to take a penalty.

“I poked it, it went in and I was looking at the ref to see if I got a penalty and he signalled a goal.”

It was Tonello’s earlier goal in the game that put the ‘Pack up 4-0 that turned out to be the game winner.

TRU’s sharp offensive play and the Spartans lack of discipline got the Memo-rial Arena crowd hyped up.

“We love playing in front of our fans, they get riled up and make a lot of noise when we score.

“We look forward to our home games,” Sangha said.

Riley Wall got the start in net for the Wolf Pack over Shane Mainprize, ending certain speculation of who Schulz was go-ing to turn to for the home opener.

Wall stopped 27 of 30 Trinity Western shots.

All three goals from the Spartans were

scored by Trevor Beaupre. Mick Ludvig not only contributed a goal

to the evening, but was making highlight real plays, including a toe-drag around a Spartans defenceman that got big ap-

plause from the crowd.The ‘Pack finished the weekend at .500

with a 5-1 road win in Langley over the Spartans the next day, concluding the home and home weekend series.

Sports EditorNathan Crosby

WolfPack hockey wins home opener

The only Canadian to win an Olympic medal and a Grey Cup came to Kam-loops to talk about his “why?”

Ask Bob Molle what he thinks is his greatest accomplishment and he won’t say his two Grey Cup rings as an of-fensive lineman with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or an Olympic silver medal in wrestling at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles.

He won’t say it was f inishing a tri-athlon and an Ironman competition and publishing his f irst motivational guid-ance book; he will say his greatest ac-complishment is his family.

“My passion has always been about goal-setting,” he said.

“People always come to me and ask ‘How do you stay motivated?’ or ‘How do I do this,’ or ‘How do I do that,’ and they are always worried about the ‘how.’ The ‘how’ is the easy part, it should be, ‘Why are you doing it?’”

Molle said the philosophy of goal-setting is f lawed because people make that mistake of not knowing why they are doing something.

He is on a Western Canada tour in conjuncture with the release of his new book, Get Comfortable Being Uncom-fortable, a book about goal-setting and personal achievement.

Molle spoke to an audience at the Kamloops convention centre on Oct. 18, telling his listeners to focus on the “why” instead of the “how” when set-ting life’s goals.

At 6’6, 240 lbs. and with a voice that booms deep enough to split the Earth open, Molle certainly has a presence when he enters a room.

But even this giant had to f ind a ‘why’ if he wanted to achieve his list of goals.

“It was recognition or lack thereof. I was upset that I wasn’t recognized in high school in Saskatoon, and I walked out.”

Maybe anger was part of Molle’s drive to prove his doubters wrong.

He then went to SFU on a football and wrestling scholarship.

“My wrestling coach sat me down and said, ‘What are your goals?’ I said, ‘I want an Olympic medal and a Grey Cup.’ He said ‘okay, let’s go.’”

By the time he was 24, he had both.Molle got his silver medal in the 100

kg weight class of the 1984 Olympic

wrestling matches, losing in the f inal to American Bruce Baumgartner.

He was part of the 1988 and 1990 Grey Cup champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers — the second time as their captain.

Now retired from football, Molle’s ‘why’ is as strong as ever.

“I know what my ‘why’ is; I got three kids and they are what I live for,” he said.

“I always wanted to experience ev-erything I could in life.

“My best man was Steve Rodehuts-kors.

“I won two cups with him, I played beside him. We won the Grey Cup and hugged each other out in the middle of the f ield like two big bears.

“At 43, he passed away with cancer and I thought we’d hang out the rest of our lives.”

Rodehutskors’ death made Molle re-alize there are no guarantees in life and has been driving him since to live his life without worrying about his age.

The glory of championship rings and Olympic medals can take people far, but what takes them further is their knowl-edge and ref lection of why they did it. Molle wants people to just ask them-selves “why?”

Sports EditorNathan Crosby

Find your personal “why?”

Former CFLer Bob Molle stopped by the Kamloops Convention Centre on Oct. 18 to share his wisdom with fans old and new. (Photo courtesy of Bob Molle)

David Gore (Right) and Andrew Fisher (left) celebrate the WolfPack’ssecond goal of the night. TRU improved to 2-2 on the season with a winat home and on the road against the Trinity Western Spartans. —Nathan Crosby

October 19, 201112

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October 19, 2011