January 2012 Archives

When I go to a wedding, I'm thrilled to bask in the happiness of the event. The flowers, the dancing and the smiles on the couple's faces when they see each other down the aisle. Everything looks absolutely perfect. But, how much does it cost for a wedding day to be "perfect"? There is a trend starting where weddings are costing almost as much as a mortgage and couples are putting themselves in debt so their special day can be the best. This issue is important because a special day should not be so stressful. It should be a day of celebration, not a balance statement of 20,000 dollars.

Source:boncyboutique.com

How interested would you be in kicking back and watching a movie if I were to tell you that it:

A) is a documentary,
B) has no dialogue (and the scraps of spoken language that can be heard aren't subtitled),
C) is not narrated, and
D) will last for more than an hour ?

Some of you might already be hooked--and some of you might be feeling your 'fight-or-flight' instinct kicking in nice and strong. But before those of you who belong to this second group give in to the overwhelming desire to flee, take a deep breath and read on. It's possible that you may yet change your minds.

By Meghan Denison

Marriages were thought to have emerged so families and clans could come together and prevent severe feuding, which was very common. Viking wedding festivities were a lengthy affair involving much rowdy feasting, music and drunkenness, which depending on the wealth of the families, could last up to a month!

The guests got a good deal. The festivities for free and they received a gift as well for their attendance and did not have to reciprocate on this generosity.

Wedding dresses were often made of white wool, quite simple in appearance, and perhaps the bride had made it herself in anticipation of the big day. Although the dress itself was traditionally simple, there was also a highly complicated knot tied in the sash holding it up, to tease the groom and test his patience on the wedding night (Jack).

Meghan Denison

During the summer months, between May and September, I work as a pit crewmember for my uncle. It's a lot of fun and I have the opportunity to meet a lot of people. Everyone is nice and all of the racers bond as a family. I decided to interview the coolest racecar driver I know: Nathan Blok.

Nathan Blok was born on April 27th, 1994 and is currently racing in Formula 1600 with my uncle. This year he came first in the Formula 1600 Quebec championship. He also finished on the podium at almost every single race, coming in first, second or third. I've hung out with him on multiple occasions at the races and he always has a smile on his face. At the age of six years old, actually two days past his birthday, his ten-year-old cousin decided to take him go-karting and enrolled him in the race. Nathan won.

Flickr, 2012

Although the federal government of Canada permits abortion, members of the Canadian public should become knowledgeable enough about abortion to make a decision for themselves on whether or not abortion should be permissible. The following report will examine abortion's political history, fetuses' developmental stages, and current abortion methods.

Figure 1. There is continuous development from conception onward.
Curious Expedition; Young skeletons at different stages of development,
Flickr, 26 Jan. 2009. Web. 27 Sept. 2011

Significant biological and observational evidence indicates that human life begins at conception. If the unborn are alive, equal worth should be attributed to them as to newborns. However, the Canadian government does not legally protect these unborn individuals. In the same way, proponents of abortion assess the worth of a fetuses' life by measures that are not accepted as determiners of a newborn child's worth, such as lack of physical or cognitive ability. It is imperative that the standards for measuring human value and worthiness of legal protection are applied consistently; otherwise, decisions made concerning the rights of the unborn will be built on faulty rationalizations.

Flickr, 2012

Resources Reserved for Pregnant Women

Montreal, Quebec--November 2, 2011--Many women present financial limitations as their main reason for having an abortion. For example, surveys by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that feeling financially unprepared constitutes one of the top-two reasons American women abort a pregnancy [1]. Since material resources can factor so strongly into a woman's decision to have an abortion, becoming aware of the resources available in one's own region is imperative.

He's not the drug dealer you see on Cops hustling on the streets of L.A. He's actually the complete opposite. I sit down with John DiGenova at his home in Beaconsfield near Montreal on a casual Tuesday night. He and I are in his kitchen drinking coffee after a hearty dinner. He is a tall man with a large build; his dark black hair and olive skin are strong indicators to his Italian heritage. We talk about how the pharmacies are doing briefly before the interview and he is in good spirits.

The Other Life

Are you an athlete, but stuck working a job or going to school? No sweat, you are going through what many athletes experience as they make their way to the top. Some athletes like Tobias Eberhard of Austria and Bulgaria's Nina Klenovska hold the job of police officers, which helps pay for their way to the Olympics (China). This is something that many athletes have in common. Hockey players in the 1940s had day jobs and then played hockey in the evening. Although the circumstances were different, hockey players during that time worked day jobs because it contributed to the war effort.

Figure 1: USA vs. Canada game
Source: Innsbruck 2012

 

by Avalon Moore

This past summer if you were in or around Montreal, or even if you were elsewhere in Canada, you may have heard about Heather Mattingsley, the Montreal mother who was asked by the province of Quebec to take a maternity test to prove that her newborn infant was in fact her own child. The government refused to issue a birth certificate until they felt certain of the newborn's parenthood. Heather Mattingsley's daughter was six months old by the time her existence was legally recognized by the province.

Why was Mattingsley's claim to her child so disputed by the government? It all came down to her choice of health care providers.

Are you looking for a new way to get around in the city streets during the winter? Maybe taking the metro when it's -20 C gets you down--maybe you hate that feeling of walking down those steps into that disgusting haze of heat, struggling to remove your scarf, hat, mitts, and coat while rushing to get the next train. Walking might not be your best option either--it's so slow, and once December hits how often are you going to want to take a forty minute walk to school?

Your new mode of transportation may very well be winter biking! At first, it might sound crazy (maybe you've sat on the bus, watching through the window as a guy rides by through a snowstorm looking like an alien with his goggles and balaklava, and wondered what kind of drugs he's been smoking), and let's face it, it might be a little crazy. But it's also a great way of getting some exercise through the cold-and-lazy season, and being on a bicycle in Montréal, even in the winter, usually means that you're going to spend less time traveling (if you aren't going too far) than everyone who is stuck in traffic or waiting around in the metro. As an extra bonus, it saves you the money that you would have been spending on your opus pass or gas for your car.