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What is ‘science,’ anyway?

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As the Manitoban’s new Science Reporter, I figured it might be a good idea to find out what “science” actually is. Ok, so I know the sorts of things I’d like to write about: biology, evolution, cognitive and neuro-science, geology, anthropology, etc., and I have an idea of what people mean when they talk about “science.” I even directly participate in the scientific process as a graduate student and research assistant in the department of psychology (though some might attempt to argue with the inclusion of psychology as a science.) Still, I wanted to know specifically what it is that unifies the wide assortment of topics and practices that seem to fall under the banner of “science.” I decided to ask University of Manitoba philosopher of science Rhonda Martens how she would define it.

“One could write a book [. . . or series of books] on this question,” she answers, assuaging my growing insecurity about the ostensibly obvious and simple question. According to Martens, historical understandings of science have included practices such as magic and astrology in addition to practices that we currently think of as scientific. She does not believe that this means we are simply more rational today than our medieval counterparts, but rather that the unsuccessful elements have been lost as more successful methodologies have replaced them. In regards to a current definition of science, “it is extremely difficult to come up with a definition that includes all of the practices that we think of as science while excluding those that we think of as non-sciences,” she asserts.

To this end, Dr. Martens uses a tactic which is typical of philosophers trying to get their students engaged in and knowledgeable of the topic at hand. She asks for their ideas about how science is defined, and then politely shoots them all down with counter-examples. For instance, some students suggest that science involves the use of the experimental method, to which she reminds them of observational studies within fields like astronomy.

“The process continues similarly for any other suggestions they offer. The word ‘science’ refers to an extremely diverse set of practices,” she summarizes, “and most philosophers of science today no longer focus on theorizing about science as a whole. Instead, we tend to focus on a particular area of science.”

While there may not be one single entity we can clearly label “science,” all scientific theories do have at least one thing in common: they are falsifiable. This idea was put forth by famous philosopher Karl Popper in the 1930s and has gained widespread acceptance throughout the scientific community. “Pretty much every scientist I know likes Karl Popper and his ideas about falsificationism,” Martens confirms. “Popper argued that theories which can’t be proven wrong can’t be properly tested,” she points out. This means that a scientific theory must specify some evidence that, if encountered, could disprove it. For example, the theory “all swans are white,” is technically a scientific theory since we can specify exactly what it would take for this theory to be disproven — namely, a non-white swan. “For another kind of example,” Martens continues, “I can offer a theory that is consistent with all possible evidence, past, present and future, that we might encounter. The theory is, “everything is the way it is because God made it that way.” Now this theory might be true, but since there is no possible observation that might show it to be false, it can’t be put to a hard test.”

For instance , one might think that the fossil record disproves the theory that everything is the way it is because God made it that way. However, proponents of the “God theory” could simply argue that God put those fossils there to test our faith. Similarly, any evidence encountered can be assumed to be God’s doing, precluding any possibility of falsifiability.

Freudian psychoanalytic theory is also notorious for its lack of falsifiability, and these inauspicious beginnings may account for psychology’s current struggle for acceptance as a science. Any evidence that could seemingly contradict Freudian theory — for example, a male patient who is claiming not to be in love with his mother — was somehow interpreted and manipulated so as to be consistent with Freud’s theories. In this case, and many others, claiming that the patient was simply in denial tended to serve this purpose. Again, this is not to say that Freud’s theories aren’t true. It may very well be the case that the Freudian conceptualization of psychology is completely accurate. We just can’t test it scientifically.

Falsifiability specifies a criteria, or necessary condition, that a theory must meet in order to be scientific. While this gives us information as to how scientific theories are generated, it doesn’t help us define what it is that scientists, as a group, actually do or what unites their practices under the same title. While this definitional task may be insurmountably difficult (as Dr. Martens indicates), looking at the benefits and outcomes of the scientific process makes it relatively easy to at least comprehend why scientists do what they do.

Generally speaking, each scientific discipline helps us to appreciate the world in more detailed, nuanced and accurate ways. It helps overcome our limited perceptive abilities and cognitive biases to gain this improved understanding of life, the universe and everything. With these understandings come practically applicable, technological advances in medicine, environmental protection, psychological sciences and many other fields. From DNA re-sequencing to analyses of consumer spending habits, science is an incredibly varied and indisputably beneficial discipline. It just stubbornly refuses to be defined.

What the fuck, or the Stitzer Effect

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Most of us can relate to uttering the odd expletive after accidentally stubbing a toe, hammering a finger or encountering some other form physical pain (such as listening to “Hero,” by Mariah Carey).

An excellent example of this comes from the hilarious 40-Year Old Virgin scene where Andy Stitzer (played by Steve Carell) attempts to get his chest waxed and can’t help but offer a barrage of astounding profanity at the tiny, unassuming aesthetician each time she removes a strip of wax. “Youuuuuuu fucker!” he screams after the first one. “You shithead! I hate you soooo much!” after the next.

Interestingly, a recent study in the journal NeuroReport suggests there may actually be a good reason to do this. To the credit of potty-mouths everywhere, swearing may actually help reduce pain.

Lead author Richard Stevens measured how long subjects could hold one of their hands fully submerged in a bucket of ice water. He asked half of the participants to repeat a swear word (ex. “shit”) and the other half to repeat a neutral word (ex. “table”).
Those instructed to swear were able to hold their hands in the water for an average of 40 seconds longer than those who did not swear. Amazingly, they also reported feeling less pain during the procedure.

Based on these results, Stephens hypothesized that swearing induces the “fight-or-flight” response which is responsible for the experience of lessened pain via increased epinephrine. Specifically, subjects who were allowed to swear felt more like they were retaliating against an attack than those who were not allowed to swear. This perceived fight situation caused the release of epinephrine (or “adrenaline”) in swearers, which is a chemical that decreases the physical sensation of pain, and allows animals to fight off attackers with more stamina.
This hypothesis was not directly tested in the study; however it would explain why subjects who were allowed to swear experienced significantly increased heart rates compared to those who did not swear. Increased heart rate is another consequence of epinephrine production.
Why would we consider swearing to be a type of attack? Could it be that swearing is a form of emotional aggression? Eminent linguist Steven Pinker thinks so. He notes that swear words tend to deal with taboo subject matter, such as religious concepts, sexual depravity, bodily excretions, and tend to evoke negative emotions in listeners. Thus, to swear is to create an unpleasant image in the mind of another, as a sort of “psychological punch.”

In fact, swearing is often completely devoid of any actual semantic meaning. Consider the literal meaning of the expression “close the fucking door!” As Pinker points out, “it is not as if the door is engaged in copulation at that moment,” yet we intuitively understand what is being said. We know that the statement has both literal and emotional content. The point was not simply to request that the door be shut, but to additionally convey displeasure at the incompetent person who forgot to shut it.

Pinker hypothesizes that many such expressions did make semantic sense at one time, but that as the emotional content in swear words becomes diluted, they tend to get replaced with stronger terms. For example “close the damned door” does have a distinguishable literal meaning. However, with the decline of religion, the term “damned” lost much of its sting and got replaced with more impactful terms at the expense of syntax.

Like Stephens, Pinker feels that swearing is rooted in our evolutionary history. “I suspect that swearing taps into a defensive reflex in which an animal who is suddenly injured or confined erupts in a furious struggle, accompanied by an angry vocalization, to startle and intimidate an attacker,” he said in an interview with Scientific American.

To support this hypothesis, Pinker points to evidence that evolutionarily older brain structures involved in emotion (namely, parts of the limbic system) seem to play a large role in the act of and perception of swearing. Patients with damage to areas of the brain related to higher order processing, as well as to complex thought and language abilities, maintain the ability to swear even though they may not be able to say anything else. Some patients with damage to the limbic system are unable to swear even though they maintain otherwise normal speech abilities.
Additionally, brain studies show that when confronted with a swear word, parts of the limbic system, particularly the amygdala, become activated. These areas also become active when we are confronted with other emotionally-charged stimuli (such as an angry face or sabre tooth tiger), which supports the “emotional punch” theory of swearing.

While swearing may be designed to produce a negative emotion in its target, it also seems to, at least in the case of Richard Stevens’ study, decrease the perception of pain, which, if you’re being attacked by a giant sloth, is arguably a good thing. However, swearing is also thought to serve many other purposes besides simple pain reduction in our culture. For example, a 2007 British study by professor Yehuda Baruch of the University of East Anglia found that swearing tends to boost workplace morale by allowing employees to vent their frustrations and create a sense of camaraderie. Primatologist Frans De Waal argues that swearing may even decrease acts of physical aggression by allowing angry individuals to vent their irritation vocally rather than physically.

To summarize, it would seem that swearing is more natural than your elementary principal would have had you believe, and in the right context, could even be beneficial. So the next time you’re getting your chest waxed, drop a heavy object on your foot or are for some inexplicable reason forced to watch Nancy Grace, don’t forget to try out some of your favourite profanities.

Musical Memory

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On a cold October night years ago, my friend and I were excited to finally see Pennywise in concert. The opening band was Ignite, some hardcore group from Orange County. When Ignite finished their set, my friend complimented them on their rendition of “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” which resulted in an invitation to watch Pennywise from the side of the stage.

Fast forward to the next day. A few of us meet up with Fletcher and Randy from Pennywise for a bite to eat at Hy’s. The city had just had its first snowfall, and they were looking for something to do. For some reason we thought: since it’s freezing cold outside, maybe they’ll appreciate the faux-tropical paradise that is Club Regent, right? Anyway, after getting in touch with the rules on the gamesys casino sites, we walked into the casino and headed straight for the bingo tables. Fletcher and Randy bought a few bingo dabbers and we were set. I explained that this is Winnipeg bingo — troll dolls and all — and people take this game dead seriously here. We didn’t win.

I decided to have a garage sale a couple weekends ago. Going through my stuff, I happened upon the beloved bingo dabbers from that night. I admit — putting them up for sale was a difficult decision. They were dear to my heart, but I knew they’d be better off in a home where they would be appreciated. And, moreso, I don’t even play bingo. I ended up selling them for 25 cents each to a woman who, most likely, has a troll doll to go along with them.

(Re)manufactured landscapes

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What do trees torn down by a devastating storm and a dilapidated North End street have in common? Placed side by side at Gallery One One One, in the work of William Pura and Grace Nickel, they don’t seem like an odd pairing at all.

The exhibition is part of a series in the gallery showcasing work done by University of Manitoba School of Art faculty members over the summer. “We want to let people know what our faculty members do as artists,” explains Cliff Eyland, director of the gallery and professor of painting. “We have a closing for these shows in September when students are back, so they also get a chance to see work by the faculty.”

Grace Nickel’s installation of porcelain trees, titled Devastatus Rememorari, reflects her impression of Hurricane Juan’s destruction of Point Pleasant Park in Halifax in 2003. Certainly, seeing trees that one might have been scared to climb as a child taken down so easily by a storm was a devastating sight.

“I was entirely unprepared for the shock I experienced upon entering the park for the first time,” said Nickel, who created the piece as a graduate student at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, “I had been told by someone well-meaning that I wouldn’t notice the destruction, but the level of devastation was stunning, even three years after the hurricane.”

From a distance, the porcelain trees appear to be covered in bark, but a closer look reveals intricate detailing composed of text containing the words “Devastatus Rememorari” (Devastation remembered) written over and over. The text serves as decoration, while symbolically creating a new type of skin or bark growth.

“There is also the connotation of initials carved into trees, leaving a mark of identity and human presence, and also references to the text typically found on memorials and monuments,” explains Nickel.

Adjacent Nickel’s work is William Pura’s Logan Avenue photographs, documenting the notorious North End street. What first piqued the artist’s interest was the street’s lack of commercial frontage which so often acts as a shield to residential areas.

“In a way, Logan Avenue is stripped bare so that as you go from the oldest part of the city to the river, all the way out to the airport, and you see the layers of the city like the layers of an onion,” said Pura, “I’m no urban planner, but what got me interested were these strange combinations of buildings and relationships that you don’t find anywhere else.”

Although primarily a painter, Pura used digital photography to capture images of homes that look liveable or even beautiful, such as a quaint house glowing with Christmas lights, alongside bleak images of industrial wastelands.

Each photo reflects a clear human presence without actually showing any people. For Pura, this was a conscious decision, as he didn’t want the photos to be anecdotal. He said the absence of people “allows (viewers) to fantasize about what’s going on in these homes. We can create in our own minds a kind of narrative (for them),” he explained.

The approach presented its own kind of challenge, however. “When I was doing the photographs on Logan avenue, occasionally I was photographing somebody’s house and they’d come out, and there’s an awkward situation right there [ . . . ] ‘What do you think you’re doing?’” recounted Pura.

On the surface one could sum up the connection between Pura and Nickel’s work to broken trees and broken-down homes looking somewhat similar. But the deeper connection lies in how each artist has documented very different landscapes, each as devastatingly tragic as they are beautiful.

“Most of the time we just drive through it and we ignore it, but it’s a little like holding a mirror up to ourselves and saying this is our world,” said Pura of the connection, “In that sense they’re both documenting part of a landscape that we all know.”

The exhibition runs until Sept. 18. Gallery One One One is located in the Fitzgerald Building at the University of Manitoba.

The light of the world

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When various medieval mountebanks and oddballs assembled “Cabinets of curiosities,” wooden boxes of things like mummy body parts, paintings of people with deformities, and narwhal tusks, they probably didn’t realize the enduring significance. Indeed, the mish-mashed collections of items from the natural and artificial worlds were essentially the first museums, and, moreover, forged a spirit of representational free-play that continues to permeate art today.

The emphasis, of course, then and now, is on representation, on the illumination of the world in otherwise darkened times. Michael Joyal is a local mixed media artist whose own shadowbox arrangements include ephemera like “shells, jars of liquids, Japanese lanterns, [his] cousin’s wisdom teeth, and a pair of pliers” amongst other contemporary curiosities.

“‘Cabinets of curiosities,’ that’s a great title. I might have to steal that for a show in the future”, Joyal said with a laugh, “Yeah, what I do is take artificial items like your pair of pliers, and mix them with seashells or tree branches, and throw them in a box , really to get a reflection on ‘what we live in.’”

Exactly which dark corners of existence Joyal is throwing light on, however, is up for our interpretation. “It’s all about story building,” he said, “The box is the page, and, yeah, I fill it with items that reflect something. But more important is letting people stand outside of it and build their own story or interpretation out of it.”

One undeniable thematic trope that permeates Joyal’s work is the negotiation of new landscapes, unsurprising since he was born in Northern Labrador, raised in Fort McMurray, formally educated at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and ended up in Winnipeg only four years ago.

“Coming into different places is always interesting, and everyone knows that Winnipeg has a huge cultural background, which is daunting. You know, nobody says ‘OK, here’s how you find out where all the artists are, and what they do.’” Joyal said, “So a lot of the work I’ve done recently is just finding out who I am here and what kind of work I want to do here.”

Trinity: Painting, Drawing, and Collage, showing this month at Cre8ery Gallery, represents nothing less than Michael Joyal’s formal introduction to the local arts community. And, as its title suggests, the exhibition has much more to offer than just weird stuff in boxes. Indeed, Trinity explores vast intersections of mediums and materials. One particularly predominant motif is comic book-inflected illustration, a key formative influence that Joyal has, at times, had to fight to retain.

“I took a lot of my comic book influences into [Nova Scotia College of Art and Design] and it didn’t go over all that well amongst the institution.” he said, “It’s not really accepted like it is now, as a new art form. In retrospect, it was a good thing, it taught me to fight for what I believe in.”

Joyal has spent virtually all of his time in Winnipeg pouring out what he “believes in” onto canvases, as well as into boxes. Over four years, he has managed to accrue an impressive array of work, almost two dozen of which will be on display at Cre8ery. What occupies Joyal now is the nervous awareness that inevitably presages the unveiling of such enterprises.

“I want to be known among my fellow artists as someone who is out there, who is a serious artist.” Joyal said with a palpable stir, “After spending four years in a 12 feet by 12 feet room just creating, it would be the greatest thing if someone who I don’t know came out, saw the work, and came away with a new outlook on something.”

It’s a hopeful sentiment that should resonate with anyone who has ever created in one form or another; with anyone who has known the vast anticipation felt upon emerging from that “12 by 12 room,” that maddening cell of creation, and into the light of the world, with something of themselves to share.

“Trinity: Painting, Drawing, and Collage” opens Sept. 10th and runs until Sept. 29 at Cre8ery Gallery, second floor, 125 Adelaide St.

This means GWAR

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I had a feeling Antarctica was a bad place to visit; it’s hard to travel through, there aren’t many tourist attractions, and it is now where I have been captured by its only man-thing residents, GWAR. Many know GWAR as a popular metal band famous for gory live shows, but I now know them as monsters who have chained me to a rock and begun removing parts of my body for their amusement.

So that the history books record me as an ever-diligent reporter, I used what may have been my final painful moments to ask GWAR’s lead singer, Oderus Urungus, a few questions. “Dive right into this!” Oderus proclaimed, a reference to me as a sort of living buffet, but I took it as the green light to speak. I broke the ice by recalling a previous encounter in which GWAR’s guitarist, Balsac, stole my friend’s hotdog, ate half, then autographed it.

“That’s kinda the way you act when you have a bear trap for a face. He’s got severe inadequacy issues,” Oderus explained, “The truth of the matter is that his face is located where his scrotum is and his scrotum is located where his face is.”

Oderus then settled into a cozy chair, noshed on one of my vital organs, and spoke at length about his crack addiction.

“It’s not really a problem, it’s just the way I am,” he confessed, “The word crack appears on the new record about 800 times, but there’s worse things I could be into. I could be Republican.”

Oderus had started to open up about his personal life. I was winning his favour. I knew this was a chance to save my life by bringing up their new album. Oderus raised himself with a laboured grunt and then, with great pride, explained to me that Lust in Space, the new album, has rendered them “aerodyte” and “positively voluminous.”

With every inch of my remaining body I believe that Lust in Space is the greatest record ever produced. Indeed, it is the first GWAR record to crack the Billboard top 100 chart in its debut. Oderus feels they are still improving, stating that the band are “eternal and immortal and have forever to work on (their) chops.”

Oderus then raised his mighty sword aloft and moved it in a semi-circular motion, as he regaled me with tales of journeys to the planets “Flab-Quarve-7,” “Metal-metal land,” “The Wide World Of Sports,” and “Scumdogia.” Surprisingly, despite being well-travelled and into gigantic monsters, he claims to have never visited Japan.

“It’s for the stupidest reason, too.” he explained with frustration, “They just keep lying about where it is. That’s what kept us out of Canada for so many years. A lot of people thought we were banned, [but] it was just bad directions.”

GWAR has, of course, now made many trips through Canada, and will be invading Winnipeg again this year once the snows of December have arrived.

“A couple of tours ago we started leaving a string everywhere we went, like Theseus and the Minotaur in the labyrinth of King Minos. We follow the one that says ‘Canada‘ to get back.” he explains.

What terrified me about Oderus now was not that he was coming to my home town, but that he was literate. I was shocked. Oderus then explained that the string was in fact a part of former GWAR member Slymenstra Hymen’s tampon. I was not as shocked to hear Oderus say this.

Oderus now seemed to take a shine to me. His minions began to attach cybernetic replacements for my body parts which he had feasted upon earlier and tells me, “You’re obviously a very smart human, you’ve realised that Lust in Space is the greatest fucking album we’ve ever done. You know that you still have to die horribly, [but] closer to the top of the heap.”

Relieved, I can now prepare for GWAR’s arrival at the Garrick Centre on Dec. 5, an occasion Oderus says he will use for “urinating on everyone.” Oderus then hurled me back home with a final point to ponder — “For the common man, just knowing that somewhere out there, GWAR is doing something extremely horrible, it gives people hope.”

Vandals and thieves and bears, oh my!

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Vandals and thieves of the Enchanted Forest should watch their backs; there is new competition in town. Police officials responded to a call from the Bear family, who reported a break-in by a golden-haired, Caucasian female, fleeing the scene of the family’s nearly demolished home.

The incident happened just yesterday at the Bears’ cave not too far south of Grandma’s house in the Enchanted Forest in a land far, far, away. The Bridge Troll confirmed that he saw a young girl, Goldilocks by name, wandering through the woods towards the Bears’ cave. Crime scene investigators have determined through DNA analysis that when Goldilocks reached the cave, she moved first to eat the Bears’ breakfast of porridge that they had left to cool while they went for a walk. Goldilocks seemed to have preferred the youngest Bear’s porridge, it being the only one to have been completely eaten. The suspect then moved about the house in a rampage, messing furniture and breaking chairs. She was discovered when the Bears came home early to find her passed out in Baby Bear’s bed. Police are saying that alcohol was not a factor.

One officer comments, “She was fully aware of her actions, and knew of the crimes she had committed. Why else would she flee the scene?”

Why indeed? It would appear that the suspect had a personal vendetta against the youngest Bear family member, Baby Bear. His was the porridge fully eaten, his favorite chair was broken to pieces, and she was found sleeping in his bed. The source of this personal hatred is still under investigation.

Goldilocks fit the Bears’ description of a white female about 5’2” with long golden locks of hair. She was found this morning by police officials at the hideout of the notorious criminal known only as Red Riding Hood, who has been known to bootleg cookies across the forest and assassinate wolves. When the Police interrogated Goldilocks, the only thing she had to say in her defense was “I was hungry and sleepy.” She is currently under psychiatric evaluation. Goldilocks has been charged with breaking and entering, robbery of porridge, vandalism, leaving the scene of a crime, and bed theft, which will earn her a penalty of 75 years in prison or working bridge tolls. Her trial will be tomorrow at 1 p.m..

Doer steps down as premier

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Gary Doer announced last week that he was stepping down as the premier of Manitoba after 10 years in office and was named Canada’s next ambassador to the United States.

The end of Doer’s 10 years in office comes not long after students learned of the end of the 10-year tuition freeze that was in place during much of Doer’s time as premier. During the past 10 years, the freeze overshadowed Doer’s post-secondary education policies and brought the government as much criticism as it did support.

Richard Sigurdson, political science professor and dean of Arts at the University of Manitoba said that the guiding principle of the Doer government in terms of post-secondary education was access and that this idea dominated all of his government’s decision making.

“They tended to focus on access primarily as a financial matter and hence the policy of freezing tuition for almost the entire time of Mr. Doer’s premiership,” said Sigurdson.

MLA Gerald Hawranik, Progressive Conservative advanced education critic, said that it was this same tuition freeze policy that while receiving much support from students, left universities inadequately funded and reduced the quality of education in Manitoba.

“After that many years of tuition freezes and under funding, I think the end result is that universities may never catch up with all those years of cut backs and neglect. We have not kept pace with universities across the country,” said Hawranik.

Hawranik criticized old laboratory equipment, larger class sizes and noted that in 1999, tenured professors taught 60 per cent of students and more recently numbers have decreased to 44 per cent.

“The reality is the students are the loser. You might have more money in your pocket when you graduate but if you don’t have the quality of education you need, what good is that?” he said.
Diane McGifford, advanced education minister said that the Doer government has increased funding every year and recognize that universities cannot operate if they do not have the financial support. She noted that student participation has increased by 35 per cent since 1999 and that this increase must be taken into consideration.

“Universities complain [about] the tuition freeze but I think we also have to remember that they received a greater amount of gross dollars in tuition because there were so many more students there. They will say more students are more cost but there is also the economy of scale. It is cheaper to educate, per student, 20 students than 10.”

She said that since Doer was elected, $700 million in capital support has been directed to post-secondary education and bursaries have increased to over $8 million. She noted that the tuition tax rebate program will return 60 per cent of eligible tuition fees to graduates who live and work in Manitoba.

“The premier has always been quite adamant, right from 1999 when we were elected, that [we] cannot have a sound economy without a sound post-secondary system,” said McGifford.
Sigurdson said the Doer’s government saw it as important to open up opportunities for non-traditional learners whose participation in post-secondary education was traditionally quite low. This included the construction of the University College of the North; a post-secondary institution with campuses located in northern Manitoba and designed to reflect aboriginal culture.

He said that post-secondary education infrastructure improvements supported by Doer government were often overshadowed by the tuition freeze noting recent developments at the University of Winnipeg, Red River College and the University of Manitoba.

“I think if you compare the Doer government to some of the contemporary governments in the country, there perhaps wasn’t as much of a focus on the need to expand graduate education. The Ontario government, [as well as those in] Saskatchewan and Alberta, decided Canada is not educating its fair share of graduate students and we need to put more money into graduate education. That didn’t really happen in this province,” said Sigurdson.

According to Sigurdson, the current trend seen in Manitoba NDP post-secondary policies will not change as Doer steps down. He said that what may be lost with a new party leader is Doer’s effective intergovernmental relations.

“While the policies of the NDP may not change, it’s not evident that we’re going to get an individual on top who’s as effective as Mr. Doer was in advancing the cause of partnership with federal government in the post-secondary education sector.”

Local Briefs

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U of M names honorary degree recipients

At the 42nd fall convocation, John Lau and Andrew Bjerring will receive honorary degrees from the U of M.

John Lau is president and CEO of Husky Energy, one of Canada’s oil and gas firms. Lau is responsible Husky’s corporate direction, vision, strategic planning as well as corporate policies, and is a member of the company’s board of directors.

Andrew Bjerring is a founding member of the board of CANARIE Inc., Canada’s advanced research and innovation network that allows scientists to manage, analyze and exchange large volumes of data. He currently chairs the advisory board for the Institute for Information and Technology at the National Research Council of Canada.

The 42nd fall convocation takes place Wednesday, Oct. 21 and Thursday, Oct. 22, 2009.

Manitoba Hydro warns customers of phone scam

Manitoba Hydro has warned its customers of a phone-based scam targeting its customers, reported CBC news.

Solicitors have called a number of residents and offered a device the caller claims will reduce electricity bills by 40 per cent.

According to Hydro spokesperson, Glenn Schneider, the solicitors identify themselves as people who work for Hydro, or that the device they are selling is Hydro approved.

Schneider said the solicitors are not associated with Hydro and, as far as the company knows, the device does not even exist.

He said police are currently investigating the situation.

Asper to teach law at U of M this fall

David Asper will take on a full-time teaching position at the University of Manitoba this fall, reported Canada.com.

Asper, executive vice-president and director of media company Canwest Global, will teach a pair of courses as a full time law professor and is assured that the new position will not interfere with his current corporate and community responsibilities.

“If you talk to the people who know me and my work day, it usually starts around 4:30 a.m. and ends 18 hours later. I’ve always done that. It’s how I fit everything in. I’m the kind of person who needs to have the beaker filled up. I’m no good with idle time,” said Asper to Canada.com.

Although he will begin teaching his first-year criminal law class next week, Asper’s appointment will not become official until the University’s board of governors approves it during a meeting later this month.

Greyhound Canada plans to cancel service in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario

Greyhound Canada announced last week that it will need $15 million in public funds and an end to regulatory red tape or else it will discontinue operations in Manitoba and northwestern Ontario, according to the Canadian Press.

The company announced that it will discontinue service in Manitoba in 30 days, service in northwestern Ontario by Dec. 2 and is reviewing routes in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, the Yukon and the Northwest Territories.

According to a company spokesperson, current regulations force Greyhound to make routes available to unprofitable stops in rural Canada that can no longer be supported by its more profitable routes, bus parcel operations and other money sources.

The company has asked for a $15 million subsidy so it can break even on unprofitable routes over the next year.

International post-secondary briefs

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Graduates having a hard time finding jobs after degree

Roughly 19 per cent of graduate students are having trouble finding graduate level jobs, reported the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) in the Guardian.

HESA also explained that roughly one in 10 graduate students have been unemployed at least once in 2005 when the study started.

The Guardian reported, “Of 41,395 graduates who left university in 2005, [ . . . ] 23.9 per cent were not in full-time paid work. A further 2.6 per cent were unemployed. The survey found that, overall, 88.9 per cent were in employment of some kind three and a half years after leaving university.”

The Guardian also reported that HESA’s figures also indicate that men earn £2,000, or about $3,515, more on average than women three-and-a-half years after graduating.

Oxford disowns conservative organization for racist joke

Oxford University has officially disowned one of Britain’s oldest student organizations after a racist joke surfaced at one of the associations meetings.

The group formerly known as the Oxford Conservative Association had the right to use the Oxford name removed after candidates for executives were asked to recite the most offensive joke they know, reported the Mirror.co.uk.

According to the Mirror, the association has to “improve conduct,” and, as punishment, is not allowed to recruit students when school starts. Only after changes are made will the ban be removed.

University of California president under pressure

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a huge majority of the University of California’s 10 campuses voted no confidence to the current U of C president Mark Yadoff.

According to the Chronicle, “The vote of no confidence is just one sign that employees are unhappy. Faculty members from every campus except UCSF are also calling for a system-wide walkout on Sept. 24.”

“We do not have confidence in the current leadership,” Tanya Smith, an editor at UC Berkeley and a spokeswoman for the University Professional & Technical Employees, told the Chronicle.

Some executives at the U of C feel the vote is pure publicity for the staff at U of C.

Universities seeing massive numbers in first year drop outs in South Africa

University Students in South Africa have been dropping out of their first year of university like it was going out of style, reported the University World News (UWN).

According to the UWN up to 40 per cent of first students will drop out because of poor financial situations.

The UWN stated, “Financial difficulties among the country’s large pool of poor black students are, unsurprisingly, largely to blame — ‘first generation’ students from low-income, less educated families are the most likely to drop out.”

The UWN also reported, “The study performed by the Human Sciences Research Council also found that, on average, only 15 per cent of students finish their degrees in the allotted time.”

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