I’ll admit it, I underestimated the Internet meme. Like most young adults of my generation, I’ve spent hours upon hours cheerfully observing the various online phenomena du jour. From Lolcats to the Harlem Shake and everything in between, I’ve watched meme culture—enabled by the rapid technological advancements of the last[Read More…]
Opinion
Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.
Rise of the apps
Apps are transforming the world. If 10 years ago was the dotcom boom; today is the app boom. Being up to date with apps is especially important from a university perspective for two reasons. First, we need to find a job upon graduation. Apps can improve the processes of an[Read More…]
Time to leave TaCEQ
Last week the Regroupement des étudiants de maîtrise, diplôme et doctorat (REMDUS), the postgraduate student association of the Université de Sherbrooke, took the initial step towards leaving the Table de concertation étudiante du Québec (TaCEQ), a provincial federation of student associations of which the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU)[Read More…]
The most wonderful time of the cinematic year
There is a buzzing excitement that accompanies otherwise regular movie outings during this time of year. The experience becomes fraught with glowing expectations, brought on by compulsive IMDb-monitoring, the constant bombardment of film posters, and the onset of awards season. Just last week saw the announcement of the 2014 Oscar[Read More…]
Water under the bridgegate
In our time of disillusionment with public figures, it can seem of no surprise when politicians put their personal interests ahead of the interests of the people that they are representing. This is what happened in the so-called “bridgegate” scandal, when New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s administration inconvenienced thousands of [Read More…]
York accommodation quandary highlights institutional failure
Religious freedom is one of a host of rights, like freedom of speech and freedom of association, that are protected as “Fundamental Freedoms” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Like those rights, the neat ideal of religious freedom is frequently confronted with the messy reality of its implementation.[Read More…]
Crowdsourcing Innovation
I watched a man drive a hovercraft last week. The vehicle cruised over the San Francisco Bay, churning up a bed of bubbles as the crowd cheered. He sat behind the steering wheel, thousands of miles away from me and my computer screen. The man’s name is Matthew Riese, and[Read More…]
The silly, sordid story of salt
After spending the winter holidays in Toronto with a Christmas ice-storm generously donated by Jack Frost himself, I felt meteorologically prepared to start the semester at McGill; I was wrong. When I heard the sound of rain the morning of January 6, I uttered two words: Vatican cameos; watch out![Read More…]
Bookstores not to blame for high textbook prices
A week into my second year at McGill, I was apoplectic. My books for the first semester cost me nearly a thousand dollars—a sum unheard of for an Arts student. The text for my introduction to Chinese culture class, a fairly thin paperback, was nearly $200 alone. Like most students[Read More…]
Give students a say in student services surplus
At the end of last semester, an unexpected surplus was announced in the Student Services contingency fund, to the tune of $5 million. In the coming weeks and months, Deputy Provost (Student Life and Learning) Ollivier Dyens will be faced with the decision of how to allocate these funds. Although[Read More…]
