THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.

THE UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN’S MAIN CAMPUS IS SITUATED ON TREATY 6 TERRITORY AND THE HOMELAND OF THE MÉTIS.

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  • By January 22, 2012

    If you’re as careful with your money as I am, you will choose to walk some distance to find your own bank’s ATM in order to avoid being charged fees just to access your own funds.

    However, there are days when the weather is horrible, or you don’t have time, or there are just no ATMs from your bank within walking distance. That’s when you’ll find yourself staring at the ATM, annoyed with the fees. These fees are unfair because they disproportionately hurt low-income individuals like students.

  • Complaining about the weather: our provincial pastime

    By January 20, 2012

    When it comes down to Saskatchewan winters, there really is no pleasing us prairie folk.

    According to the annual Weather Outlook released in November by The Weather Network, we were expected to experience “below normal” temperatures in Saskatoon this winter — although up until the heavy snowfall we received last weekend, we have felt nothing but wondrously warm temperatures.

  • Mood disorders and the creative mind: does mental illness lead to creative insights?

    By January 20, 2012

    Aristotle once said that “no great genius ever existed without some touch of madness.” People are rarely surprised when they hear an artist took copious amounts of drugs or committed suicide. And when it happens, the media loves to mythologize that artist as “a misunderstood genius.” As a result, we end up thinking that creativity and mental illness are inevitably linked.

    Perusing my bookshelf and music collection, I do see overwhelming evidence that artists are more susceptible to mood disorders. But are their illnesses making them creative, or are mood and creativity not causally linked; or could mood disorders actually stifle creativity?

  • When you know it will find you: how to make Google work in your favour

    By January 19, 2012

    Sometimes I envy all the Lisa Smiths and Mark Williamses of the world. Your dull and generic names protect you from the all-seeing eye of Google. To an employer, a search of your name may just prove an exercise in tedium as millions of your generically-named brethren are displayed. Your cookie cutter names shelter your awkward drunk Twitter updates and DeviantArt page of “artistic” macro photography.

    I’m not that lucky.
    Google my name and you only get me. And speaking as someone who learned to build websites at an early age and possibly once had a thing for fan fiction — don’t judge me — that’s a damn dangerous thing. I’ve learned some tricks for keeping my online entity clean; for my fellow uniquely-named users, these may prove invaluable.

  • I’m sorry, I don’t believe in resolutions

    By January 13, 2012

    As I venture into another semi-productive academic term, I am once again forced into the post-holiday banter with “insert name here” acquaintances. Now I can handle the occasional “Did you go back home for the break?” or “Did you get any good presents?” But it’s the question “So what’s your new year’s resolution?” that I find most irritating. This is when our mouths go dry and we meticulously pick our minds to come up with a perfect answer to such a question.

  • Why it’s hard asking out someone from class

    By January 12, 2012

    “I’m only here for the girls.” I’ll never forget reading this graffiti on my desk years ago. It was like some great poem; phrased with elegant simplicity and delivering a telling message about the human condition.

    Our classes are filled with attractive, intelligent and — most importantly — available students. It’s one of the major perks of attending university. But from my personal experience, it’s actually quite difficult asking out classmates.

  • Standoff with Iran over nuclear program could lead to conflict

    By January 12, 2012

    U.S. presidential candidate Mitt Romney has described Iran as “the greatest threat that the world faces over the next decade.” Surprisingly this is the first time that I have agreed with something a Republican candidate has said in as presidential campaign.

    For numerous years, Iran’s continuing development of a nuclear program has been cause for concern to the international community, with condemnations coming from the EU, U.S. and Canada, among others.

  • A tattered web: how censorship could cripple the Internet

    By January 11, 2012

    The web’s hyperlink structure works kind of like the synapses in your brain, or the blood vessels in your circulatory system. Everything is interconnected, designed to pass information back and forth, sometimes in multiple directions simultaneously. It can be mind-bogglingly complex but it works because there are relatively few blockages. People can traverse the web how they see fit.

    But imagine what would happen if massive swaths of these connections suddenly blinked offline. This is the risk posed by the Stop Online Piracy Act, a bill introduced in the U.S. Congress in October of last year that is scheduled to be voted on by Jan. 24 this year.

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