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a, Baseball, Sports

2014 Major League Baseball Season Preview

by Mayaz Alam, Wyatt Fine-Gagne, Remi Lu, and Elie Waitzer on

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American League

East

1. Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox look poised for another deep playoff run after bringing home the hardware last year. Centre-fielder Jacoby Ellsbury left for the greener pastures of Yankee Stadium, but with the addition of Grady Sizemore and the emergence of Jackie Bradley Jr., the Sox won’t regret letting Ellsbury walk. Expect the 21-year-old Xander Bogaerts to flourish at shortstop and for Boston’s deep lineup to carry them late into October— and maybe another World Series— if the pitching staff stays strong.

2. Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays have been a model of excellence for small-market clubs since 2010. The quirky Joe Maddon has been a proponent of extreme defensive shifts and statistical analysis to make sure that the Rays are always competitive. The offence is getting better, and Wil Myers should take another step in his development at the plate after a phenomenal rookie campaign last season. David Price returns to captain one of the league’s premier pitching staffs, and if Evan Longoria stays healthy, the Rays look to be set for another 90+ win season.

3. New York Yankees 

The Yankees expect to field an Opening-Day lineup without a player under the age of 30—and with age comes injury. Although the Yankees stole Jacoby Ellsbury from the Red Sox, their biggest deal brought in 25-year-old Japanese pitcher Masahiro Tanaka on a seven-year, $155 million contract. With Mariano Rivera enjoying retirement and Derek Jeter announcing that this will be his last season in Yankee pinstripes, the evil empire’s dominance is squarely coming to an end.

4. Baltimore Orioles

The Baltimore Orioles are certain to impress fans with a plethora of powerful bats in their lineup this year. The burning question for the Orioles is what to expect from Chris Davis after the 28-year-old burst onto the scene with 53 homers last year. The Orioles added Ubaldo Jimenez this off-season to help shore up a weak pitching staff, but Jimenez is one of the league’s most inconsistent pitchers. The addition of Nelson Cruz should add even more power to an already-loaded lineup, but iffy pitching could be this team’s downfall. Expect the Orioles to miss the post-season in an incredibly tough AL East division.

5. Toronto Blue Jays

The Toronto Blue Jays didn’t change much this off-season after an embarrassing, injury-ridden 2013 campaign. Nonetheless, Canada’s team is talented and has the potential to do some damage. Unfortunately, with an aging Jose Bautista in right field, an injury-prone Jose Reyes, and a very questionable pitching staff, the team looks to be in for another sub-par season with John Gibbons behind the bench. Expect Colby Rasmus to have a phenomenal season on a contract year, while RA Dickey should bounce back after a disappointing 2013 season. Ultimately, the Jays will struggle early and eventually blow up the team before the July trade deadline.

Central

1. Detroit Tigers

Gone is Prince Fielder and his oversized contract; welcome Ian Kinsler, an All-Star second baseman. With the swap, the Tigers’ lineup shouldn’t miss a beat and should continue to smash the baseball. First baseman Miguel Cabrera is coming off of two straight MVP trophies and doesn’t look like he’s about to stop—he has hit .337/.425/.612, with 156 homers over his past four years. On the mound, Detroit brings back two Cy Young-winning flamethrowers Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander, who will both look to continue their success. This team is built to win now and should return to the playoffs.

2. Kansas City Royals

With just two seasons above .500 in the past 19 years, the Kansas City Royals have not been the standard for a successful MLB franchise. However, the positive is that one of those winning seasons happened last year, with the majority of that roster returning this season. The Royals have a balanced lineup that is surprisingly dangerous, and welcomes the addition of Norichika Aoki and Omar Infante to the first two spots to provide speed and contact. James Shields anchors an otherwise-mediocre rotation that could stand between the Royals and a playoff spot.

3. Cleveland Indians

Fans from the most unlucky sports city in the United States have found a bright spot with the Indians. Former Red Sox Manager Terry Francona came in last season and changed the culture of the organization, bringing with him championship experience. The initial results were promising, with Cleveland making the playoffs, and the lineup that powered them to success returns this season primarily intact. No batter averaged above .300, but the Indians get on base and have the power to bring runners home. Scott Kazmir and Ubaldo Jimenez are gone from the rotation, leaving Justin Masterson as the only proven starter—a problem that could prevent them from advancing far in the post-season if they get there at all.

4. Chicago White Sox

2005 must be starting to feel like 1917 for baseball fans from the south side of Chicago. Eighty wins might be the team’s ceiling, and a playoff appearance is out of the question. The biggest addition this past off-season was Cuban defector Jose Abreu, who brings a reputation of light-tower power. Injuries have robbed the Sox’s rotation of any consistent production behind left-hander Chris Sale. However, building blocks are in place, and Chicago could be just a year or two away from making noise in the post-season.

5. Minnesota Twins

Even if the Twins see solid production from sluggers Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, they lack depth throughout the rest of their roster. A lacklustre starting rotation, coupled with a mediocre bullpen will make things difficult for Minnesota. Unlikely sources will need to step up if the Twins have any chance in the Central.

West

1. Oakland Athletics

The A’s are the winners of two straight division titles, and will be the favourites in 2014 despite a pitching rotation filled with new faces. Bartolo Colon left as a free agent, Brett Andersen was traded, Jarrod Parker is out for the year following Tommy John surgery, and A.J. Griffin is starting the year on the DL. Despite this, General Manager Billy Beane has created a roster that just keeps winning, by exploiting every loophole imaginable. The team will need strong defence, but a third straight AL West title could be in the cards.

2. Texas Rangers

Texas made plenty of noise this off-season, with numerous changes to its offensive core. The team’s biggest move was shipping franchise mainstay Ian Kinsler to Detroit for slugger Prince Fielder. This, combined with the signing of Shin-Soo Choo will give the Rangers much-needed power from the left-handed side of the plate. Injuries mean that a couple of pitchers will start the season on the DL, but once healthy, the pitching staff should be quite good. Manager Ron Washington has been promising during his tenure with the Rangers, and should lead another talented and determined ball cub.

3. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Success for the Halos this year depends more on how their returning players can bounce back than the contributions of new additions. Mike Trout should deliver another MVP-calibre season, but the Angels will be in trouble if Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton—who are making more than $40,000,000 combined in 2014—can’t improve on their disappointing 2013 campaigns. The Angels are talented, but their talent needs to return to form. If they are able to do so, a playoff spot is not out of the question.

4. Seattle Mariners

All eyes will be on newcomer Robinson Cano this summer in the Emerald City. Cano left the Yankees to sign a 10-year, $240 million mega-deal with the Mariners this off-season. There will be serious pressure on Cano to perform. The move signaled that Seattle is serious about competing, but wins are far from a guarantee. The offence’s success depends heavily on whether former top prospects like Justin Smoak and Dustin Ackley can finally put it together. Pitching and defence shouldn’t be an issue in the Mariners’ cavernous stadium.

5. Houston Astros

Houston was little more than a punch line in 2013, and not much has changed thanks to its commitment to a long-term building process. Casual baseball fans likely won’t recognize a single name in either the Astros starting lineup or pitching staff. Catcher Jason Castro provides the lone bright spot after finishing 2013 among the league’s best.

 

National League

East

1. Washington Nationals

After a disappointing 2013 campaign saw the Nationals finish well out of playoff contention, GM Mike Rizzo went out and pulled off the heist of the off-season, trading away a few odds and ends for control-specialist Doug Fister. The addition of Fister strengthens an already-potent rotation that includes Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez, and Jordan Zimmerman. The Nationals’ batting order will remain largely unchanged on paper, but offensively, time is their best friend. The Nats should cruise to the division title this season, and Bryce Harper has the potential to take home the NL MVP.

2. Atlanta Braves

The usually self-reliant Braves were forced to spend on the inconsistent Ervin Santana after losing what seems like their entire 2013 rotation to injuries over the off-season.  With pitchers Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy out for the entire season, the Braves will have to rely on promising youngsters Julio Teheran and Alex Wood to anchor the team. Now for the good news: if B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla are able to find even a semblance of their former selves this season, the Braves would suddenly find themselves with one of the scariest lineups in the division. Don’t count the Braves out this season.

3. New York Mets

Bartolo Colon will play his first full season of National League ball after signing a two-year, $20 million deal with New York this off-season. This may have been GM Sandy Alderson’s shrewdest acquisition so far; the former Cy Young winner posted a sparkling 2.65 ERA over 190 innings for the A’s last season, despite throwing his fastball a whopping 84 per cent of the time. Clearly, he knows something we don’t. If Ike Davis can stay healthy for the whole season, and catching prospect Travis d’Arnaud breaks out, look for the Mets to make a run at the second Wild Card berth.

4. Miami Marlins

The Marlins aren’t going to finish anywhere near the top of the NL East this year, but they’re going to be a fun team to watch. Giancarlo Stanton will most likely be traded at some point before the deadline, but until then, tune in to watch him crush monstrous home runs with nobody on base. Things look brighter for the Fish on the mound.  Last year, we saw Jose Fernandez dominate the league at age 20, to the tune of a 2.19 ERA over 28 games. With elite pitching prospect Andrew Heaney in the pipes, look for the Marlins’ rotation to make some noise this season.

5. Philadelphia Phillies

Things don’t look too good for the Phillies this season. They’ll open the year with All-Star Cole Hamels on the disabled list, and a rotation full of question marks. Offensively, the lone bright spot will be the development of Dominic Brown, who finally broke out last season with 27 home runs and a promising eight steals. Hopeful fans shouldn’t bet on resurgences from veterans Jimmy Rollins or Chase Utley. Speed doesn’t age well, and historically, players entering their age-35 seasons don’t put up big numbers. If you’re a true Philly fan, hope that GM Ruben Amaro Jr. blows up the roster this year in exchange for a few prospects.

Central

1. St. Louis Cardinals

What more can be said about the Cardinals? Every year they come into the season looking decidedly average, and every year audiences somehow continue to watch Cardinal baseball well into October. This year, the strategy will rely a little less on luck; after all, a team can’t be expected to hit .330 with runners in scoring position two years in a row. With highly-touted rookie Kolten Wong getting the start at second base, and top-hitting prospect Oscar Taveras expected to break into the Majors this season, the Cardinals are only getting younger and scarier.  This is a team that has no weaknesses.

2. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pirates rode NL MVP Andrew McCutchen’s bat to their first playoff appearance in 20 years last season. At 27 years old, McCutchen is only now entering his prime.  The duo of Pedro Alvarez and Neil Walker combined for 52 home runs last season and represent a dynamic scoring threat in the heart of the order. If Starling Marte—recently locked up to a six-year extension—can prove that last season’s breakout was for real with another all-star calibre season, this club should capture another Wild Card spot in 2014.

3. Cincinnati Reds

Las Vegas has the Reds finishing second in the division, but Joey Votto’s super-human abilities may not be enough to see this team to the playoffs. The rotation— topped by the one-two punch of Johnny Cueto and Homer Bailey—remains fearsome, and rookie pitcher Tony Cingrani should fill in nicely for the departed Bronson Arroyo. However, the loss of Shin-Soo Choo and his .423 on-base percentage leaves a huge hole at the top of the lineup.  Unless Brandon Phillips and Todd Frazier overachieve their projections significantly, the Reds are going to be stuck with a lacklustre offence beyond Votto and Jay Bruce.

4. Milwaukee Brewers

It’s hard to know what to expect from Ryan Braun this season., following his 65-game suspension. However, even if a clean Braun returns and posts a 40/40 season, the fact remains that the rest of the Brewers offence is anemic— just look towards the first base platooon of Mark Reynolds and Lyle Overbay. The pitching staff looks solid, with sleeper Marco Estrada sliding in at the fourth starting spot, and the bullpen is deep and talented. Barring breakout seasons from Khris Davis and Carlos Gomez, however, this squad is destined for mediocrity.

5. Chicago Cubs

It’s not going to happen this year. Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro are likely the only hitters on the Cubs being drafted in fantasy leagues this season, and both have failed to live up to their potential thus far. Both players, however, are just 24 years old. The rotation may feature a few established names, but the Cubs’ Opening Day lineup doesn’t have a player over 30 years old. With Cuban defector Jorge Soler almost ready to bring his raw power to the team, the Cubs should see their team improve slowly but surely over the coming years.

West

1. Los Angeles Dodgers

One of the biggest headlines during the off-season came from the Dodgers when they signed Clayton Kershaw to a seven-year, $215 million contract extension. Kershaw’s average annual salary of $30.7 million is the highest in baseball history, and the left-hander will be key to any success the Dodgers have this season. Offensively, look for Matt Kemp to bounce back after starting the season on the disabled list, and for Yasiel Puig to keep on electrifying the big leages. The Dodgers will also rely on a deep lineup to recover from the team’s disappointing NL Championship Series loss last season.

2. San Francisco Giants

Pablo Sandoval will be key to San Francisco’s upcoming season. The 27-year-old infielder will be playing for a new contract this year, and after making headlines with his off-season weight loss, may be set to put up big offensive numbers. The Giants constantly have live arms in their rotation and this year there are five capable starters to test batters across the league. San Francisco struggled with its offence last season, and will need to impress if they hope to return to the World Series after last year’s sub-par finish.

3. Arizona Diamondbacks

With Patrick Corbin’s season-ending elbow injury, the Diamondbacks will need to rely heavily on pitching prospect Archie Bradley if they are to experience any success this season. Beyond Bradley, Arizona has only Brandon McCarthy, Mark Trumbo, Trevor Cahill, and a handful of decent players to rely on. Corbin’s injury is a huge hit to the Diamondbacks’ playoff hopes. Arizona may have to bank on the luck of the wildcard this season to experience the playoffs.

4. San Diego Padres

Key off-season acquisitions for the Padres included Joaquin Benoit and Alex Torres, who will help shore up San Diego’s bullpen. Jedd Gyorko and Yonder Alonso are two other players to keep an eye on this season, with both athletes entering the beginning of their prime. Gyorko’s penchant for home runs will be a much-needed boon for the Padres, who currently have a roster riddled with injuries and PED suspensions. San Diego will have to rely on its young players to step up if they are to experience any success this upcoming season.

5. Colorado Rockies 

Colorado boasts a heavy lineup this season, with Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, and Nolan Arenado leading the Rockies. The team will look for Arenado to take the next step, with the already spectacular third-baseman showing promising signs of a powerful bat. Pitching prospects Jonathan Gray and Eddie Butler are exciting young arms who could help the Rockies in a playoff push. With a competitive NL West, Colorado’s season could go either way. The team’s success will depend on the health of their big stars and the potential of their pitching prospects.

a, Opinion

An open letter to the new student representatives

by Lauren Konken on

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Welcome to the fold—or should I say, welcome to student politics at McGill.

Some of you may be new to this process, and some of you may be veterans; but either way, you’re now involved in the decision-making process within this university. Some of you have more power than others in that you have direct access to the administration, principal, and deans. Some of you have more indirect clout, with relationships to your respective department chairs, field coordinators, and support staff. No matter which level of student governance you find yourself in, you have some tie to the administration. Do not, for one second, take this link—or the potential for one—for granted. This is the key to student governance at all levels. As representatives—myself included as outgoing vice-president academic of the Political Science Students’ Association—we have a voice; and when we are united, we are powerful. Our input is heard.

It’s no secret; many of you ran for your position to improve your resume. You might have also thought to yourself, wouldn’t it be great to have access to some serious money to plan killer events for your friends? You might be in it for nothing, but I beg you to reconsider, and realize that your position is one that can enact real change. I urge you to realize that your position is not meant for you. You are there for the people you represent, be it a small department or the entire student body. You are their voice.

Some departments, faculties, and even SSMU itself are set aside from the administration they’re supposed to work alongside. Some are further removed from the students they represent. This is a two-way street that has been ripped apart by bitter politics and poor decision-making in the last two years, if not longer.

Rebuilding the bridges between the student body and the administration should be your priority. This might sound vague and ambiguous, but consider it: you should be a known face to your direct superior. You should be a name on an email your department chair knows; you should be able to show up at a key decision maker’s office and talk to them; you should also hold office hours or be otherwise approachable by students. As representatives, you are the bridge between two groups of people who believe they have two very different visions for this university. The administration believes in a top-down approach; student representatives, bottom-up. It is your job to help both sides realize that these aren’t mutually exclusive: we need both, and the dynamism that can arise from working in concert would prevent future gridlock and repeated gaffes as we’ve seen in the past term

We as an institution can only move forward if SSMU reaches out to the faculty associations, and beyond that to the departments at the grassroots level, and vice versa. We all have our connections, no matter the level at which we function in student politics. Many of the poor decisions this year have been made because of a disconnect between the various levels of student governance. The faculty associations are out of touch with the needs and direction of their departments, as are the departments with the inner workings of SSMU decision-making.

Success in an educational facility such as McGill is universal; it applies to everyone and comes at no one’s expense. We can be successful if we stop viewing ourselves as separate bargaining parties engaging in zero-sum game negotiations. We all have a lot to give, we all have different resources, and together, we can represent a united front on issues such as course cuts, budget cuts and union negotiations if we remain engaged with the issues.

The year has been long and difficult, particularly in recent weeks. It will not get easier. We all have important choices to make, no matter the level of student governance we work in, but if we make them in an informed united manner we will be able to move forward productively. This starts with the terms you are about to begin as student representatives on May 1st. Hit the ground running, stand united on all issues facing McGill and reach out to your counterparts. Throw out notions of a hierarchy in student politics, engage with the stakeholders, and use the varied levels of access we have in student representation to accomplish the real, much-needed change that McGill deserves.

a, Features

Game of phones: Tinder

by Max Berger on

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Swipe right, swipe left.

This isn’t Mr. Miyagi’s new mantra in the latest Karate Kid sequel, but if you’ve used the mobile app Tinder, it may resonate with you as a mantra of sorts. Perhaps you’ve opened up Tinder on your phone before, only to realize 10 minutes later that you’ve slipped into a hypnotic, meditative cycle of swiping that you hadn’t planned on doing at all—perhaps even wondering: “What was I doing here in the first place?”

For all intents and purposes, Tinder is a social discovery app. The homepage of its website affirms this with their confident slogan: “Tinder is how people meet. It’s like real life, but better.” But once you move past the vagueness of an umbrella-term like “social discovery,” there is a more concrete reality that exists—one that the creators of Tinder don’t seem to acknowledge.

“Tinder is a social discovery platform, not just a dating platform,” wrote Tinder Cofounder and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Justin Mateen in an email to the Tribune. “All we are doing is facilitating an introduction between two people—what comes out of that introduction is entirely up to you.”

Honest as Mateen’s statement may be, it fails to address the remarkable shockwave that Tinder has sent through the world of dating and hook-ups since its launch in September 2012. Aside from all the dates and one-night stands the app has facilitated, the company is aware that at least 300 marriage proposals have been spawned from a Tinder match; that athletes at the Sochi games were using Tinder in the Olympic village to find desirable companions to spend their downtime with; or even that Sean Rad—one of Tinder’s other co-founders—is dating someone he was matched with by using his own app. The service that Mateen described as “an introduction between two people” actually does a lot more than simply introducing them: It gives them a hope—a fairly realistic one—that they’re talking to someone who finds them attractive.

The Tinder basics

Tinder facilitates its interactions with a double opt-in system that is tailored to appearance-based validation. The only people you can talk to through the app are those who have approved your profile and vice-versa. It’s a process that—aside from minimal information about someone that is hidden when their profile first appears—makes a small set of photos the sole criteria for judgment.

A swipe to the right of someone’s profile on the touch screen counts as a vote of approval, and a swipe to the left says ‘No, thanks.’ Users don’t rate each other at the same time, meaning that the fear of ‘face-to-face’ rejection is eliminated—a big part of what makes Tinder fun and stress-free to many users. If both have swiped each other right, Tinder informs them that they’ve matched and can begin communicating through the app.

We’re faced with ‘yes or no’ questions all the time in our everyday lives, often trivial ones like “Are you watching the Habs game tonight?” or “Do you want fries with that?” On Tinder, that question becomes, “Based on some very limited information and a few photos, is this someone I’d like to talk to?”

As of January 2013, Tinder had enabled over one million matches, which by December, had ballooned to 500 million. Now, the company claims to have recently crossed the billion-match threshold, continuing an exponential cycle of growth that shows no immediate signs of slowing down.

“Once Tinder’s user base started to take off, we had major scalability issues,” wrote Mateen. “In fact, we had to [restructure] the entire back-end so we could handle the growth.”

Bringing Tinder to campus

Tinder’s launch actually took place at the University of Southern California (USC), a decision that Mateen explained was in line with the marketing strategy of the app.

“We knew that if college students—who already live in a socially-charged environment—find value in the product, that everyone else would as well,” wrote Mateen. “We also knew that it would be easier to create value in a tight network where people have many friends and interests in common [….] Today we have a huge number of users in all age categories including the 13 to 17-year-old demographic.”

Although getting college students to buy into a form of technology-based dating has traditionally been very difficult, U2 Management student and Tinder user Thomas Brag pointed out that Tinder wasn’t marketing itself as a dating app.

“I think the fact that they didn’t really target themselves as a dating app might’ve been what caused [the app] to get [interest from] for the younger crowd,” Brag said. “I’m guessing that the way [Tinder] started it might’ve been what made dating online go from being un-cool to cool.”

In this ironic fashion, Tinder has broken new ground without specifically trying to do so. Without any guidance, college students—and other demographics—have implicitly harnessed the potential of Tinder as a means of improving romantic prospects in a simple, straightforward way.

“I see it as a hook-up app—that’s what I describe it as,” said Brag. “Personally, I don’t take it very seriously and I feel like [from] most people, when you ask them ‘Do you use Tinder?’ you get a laugh or something—it’s not really something serious.”

In fact, because of the high volume of profiles that a user can scan through and judge at once, the experience of using Tinder is often equated to playing a game.

“They’ve kind of ‘game-ified’ it,” explained Brag. “I think [because] you have a list of your matches, people kind of see it as your score or something [….] That makes it implicitly gameified—you want to have as many matches as possible.”

Can you judge an app by its cover?

While some may be lured by the prospect of matching with masses of people that have already validated their profile, others, like U1 Arts student and previous Tinder user Ariel Lieberman, are turned off by the app’s methods.

“The first thing you see about the person is their picture,” said Lieberman. “You don’t see their phrase or anything else about them [right away]; you judge them solely based on how they look, which, unless you’re looking for models or something, doesn’t really tell you anything.”

Mateen countered the criticisms of the Tinder swiping process’ superficiality.

“Tinder is honest and emulates human interaction,” he vouched. “For instance, when you walk into a coffee shop, the first thing you notice about [people] is their appearance—you’re either drawn to them or you’re not.”

Mateen went on to explain that even though the initial contact between two people prioritizes looks, it needs to be quickly fuelled by more than that in order to succeed.

“Once you engage in conversation, you look for commonalities such as mutual friends and common interests which help establish trust between two people,” Mateen wrote. “I suppose anyone who would consider Tinder superficial is really calling humans in general superficial.”

If we are to take Tinder for the social discovery app as the company says it is, then it shows that Tinder is factoring appearance quite heavily into the formation of relationships that may turn out to be purely platonic. When a user’s purpose on Tinder has nothing to do with finding a romantic partner, Tinder’s minimalist interface presumably offers much less value than other online methods of social discovery would provide.

Jui Ramaprasad, an associate professor of information systems in the Faculty of Management, not only graduated from the same USC campus Tinder was born at, but has also conducted extensive research in the field of online dating. She commented that Tinder’s looks-based validation doesn’t work quite the same way in a platonic context.

“If I say to somebody, ’Let’s go play tennis tomorrow’ and they say ’No,’ it’s not going to break my heart,” said Ramaprasad. “I don’t think you see as much inhibition in those kinds of things [platonically]. Sure, when you live in a new city you have to take advantage of meeting new people [through things like Tinder]. But there are many platforms out there that do that [which] have been very successful.”

Currently, the only feature on the app that gives the user any autonomy beyond the basic swiping and chatting is an option to make lists of various people that they’ve matched with, the idea being that matches can be compartmentalized into groups based on what they represent (i.e. joggers, people living in the Plateau, etc.). But on several occasions, the founders have alluded to future changes they plan to introduce to the basic Tinder interface that will make it more conducive to meeting people for specific reasons, giving users more of an incentive to turn to Tinder for something like the tennis match mentioned by Ramaprasad.

A new direction for Tinder?

For the past three years, Brag has been co-developing an unfinished social discovery website called Passion Snack, which aims to connect people in Montreal based on common interests. He feels that Tinder might have a lot to gain by proactively encouraging its users to use the app for interest-based purposes in a similar fashion.

“I think that could be a good way to grow,” said Brag. “Because I feel like a lot of people who use it just want to mess around with dating and maybe get tired of it after a few weeks. So maybe that could help it grow in the future and not become a fad, because I think that it’s in risk of having that happen.”

He was also quick to provide ideas for how to possibly implement that change.

“The thing right now that’s cool is that it’s very simple to use,” explained Brag. “So if they want to add things like being able to find sports partners or start a band, they should make sure that it stays simple and maybe categorize these different interfaces.”

Lieberman said that Tinder could only succeed in this respect if it added something more substantial than photos to the swiping process.

“If you wanted to use it for [interest-based] purposes, you should be able to register as a journalist, or an artist, or a musician,” said Lieberman. “If you’re a musician, you could put up songs, and people could swipe through your songs; if you’re a journalist, people could swipe through your articles.”

Even though Tinder has maintained its idealistic stance of being a platform for any type of introduction, Ramaprasad noted that it’s more difficult to stick to that mandate as a company tries to grow, bringing up the example of Friendster, a social networking and discovery website that launched in 2002 before going offline and eventually re-launching in 2011 with more of a social gaming angle.

“Friendster tried to mix online dating with social networks,” said Ramaprasad. “That was their goal, but nobody knew it; they just thought they were a social network. Maybe it’s a bit different today, but I think that trying to have multiple identities gets a little complicated.”

She also noted that Tinder needs to think seriously about how it will generate a profit before it makes any major changes.

“[The creators] need to figure out how to monetize themselves […] based on the dating because that’s where they have the biggest market,” Ramaprasad said.

Maybe it is in Tinder’s best interests to capitalize on what users have gravitated most toward early on and corner the dating or hook-up niche, or maybe it should continue to ride the wave and experiment. In any event, they have already conquered one of an app developer’s main challenges.

“One of the biggest issues for most [online] social platforms is the chicken and the egg problem,” explained Brag. “To get users, you need users [….] The biggest problem is how to start that viral loop that causes it to spread.”

Tinder solved that problem a long time ago with its simplicity and mass appeal, bulldozing through the difficult college demographic. The users are there, but the purpose isn’t. Up until now, people have been able to make what they want out of Tinder; to play with it, use it strategically, or perhaps just to feel validated by the number of matches they have. There’s no way of knowing whether Tinder’s flame will burn out like other fads before it, or if it will end up being to social discovery what Facebook is to social networking—a platform that has been accepted by pretty much everyone with internet access. It’s a long shot, but some people forget that Tinder is essentially selling the game that Mark Zuckerberg unveiled from his Harvard dorm room.

“That’s what [Facebook] was,” said Brag. “It was a way for you to rate how people look, and Tinder is pretty similar to that concept.”

It certainly is, except it also gives you the assurance of being validated in return before you even talk to someone; and evidently, that can go a long way.

a, Joke

Researchers at McBill use embryonic stem cells to successfully clone HMB

by Jenny from the Block - Mother of Dragons on

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On Mar. 27, McBill’s Mad Scientists Lab (MSL) scrapped their plans to cure cancer butinstead developed induced pluripotent stem cells that were ultimately used to create a fully-developed clone of former McBill principal Heather Munroe-Blossom (HMB).

Aya Misou, the coordinator behind the project, explained that after many anonymous requests from members of the McBill community, she and her research team have acted on the overwhelming demand for creating an exact replica of Munroe-Blum to act as co-principal next to Suzie Forty-Hands.

“Most of those requests were very enthusiastic,” Misou said. “After publishing a paper back in September of 2013 detailing my success with cloning rodents and small domestic animals, I received loads of emails asking whether it’d be possible for humans as well. At first, I thought it was because people wanted to clone themselves, but the majority of the requests were for HMB.”

Misou explained that a lot of researchers from the MSL expressed initial doubt about cloning the former principal.

“The biggest concern was that the technology would be abused,” Misou said. “One of my colleagues worried that someone would use it to create some kind of HMB army.”

However, the team eventually conceded after receiving the 459th tweet with the hashtag #HMB2.0 from the McBill community.

“There have been a lot of challenges in the scientific world with using stem cells to their fullest potential,” Misou said. “But the demands from the McBill community to create a second HMB to have on campus was overwhelming.”

U3 Arts student and Vice President Communications of Cult #HMB Nas Talja, who was one of the many students who submitted a request, emphasized the sentiments that he and his friends felt toward having HMB back at McBill.

“We love the current principal,” Talja said. “But we also really miss the ability to refer to the principal with an acronym. It was just so much easier that way. Obviously the real HMB has moved on, but the logical solution was to just clone her so that we could have someone here who we could regularly talk about with only three letters.”

HMB’s clone has not had direct interaction with the general public yet, but Misou anticipated that those interactions are very possible within the next week. The new co-principal is presently undergoing cognitive moulding which should instill in her the very same apathy towards student issues that enchanted the McBill community for a full decade.

“The procedure went very well,” Misou explained. “My team and I fully believe that once the clone is no longer lab-bound, she will be able to promise consultation and move in the entirely opposite direction—almost as if you were speaking with the real HMB.”

Talja said he will be one of the first to make an appointment with HMB’s clone, and is expecting to wait at least a month to hear back from her office.

“We like having our voices heard, but we also miss having them ignored,” he said. “Science has really come so far. I can’t wait for the day where we’ll be able to 3-D print a version of Forty-Hands.”

This story is a work of satire and appeared as part of our April Fools Issue 2014.

a, News

Students provide feedback on proposed sexual assault policy

by Hatty Liu on

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A sexual assault policy proposed by students was the focus of a workshop last Thursday. The workshop was part of Sexual Assault Centre of the McGill Students’ Society’s (SACOMSS) annual Sexual Assault Awareness Week.

Publicized on March 21, the proposed policy was drafted by eight campus groups, including SACOMSS, the Union for Gender Empowerment (UGE), and the Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU), following McGill’s Feb. 26 Forum on Consent.

The proposed policy includes provisions on campus-wide awareness campaigns and education, such as awareness training for organizers of events where high incidences of sexual assault are reported. It also calls for the policy to be made accessible online.

Students at the event asked for clarification on portions of the proposal that recommended that perpetrators of alleged sexual assault be immediately subject to measures such as suspension from campus and removal from positions of power.

“If the perpetrator is in any positions of power, [such as a] faculty member, professor emeritus, member of the administration, coach, etc., they shall be removed from it,” the document reads. “This shall be done before any legal proceeding is complete and can be done as a suspension as to not interfere with external legal process.”

Students expressed concern regarding the legality of such measures and the presumption of “guilty until proven innocent” that they seemed to carry.

In response, UGE member Kai O’Doherty clarified that the specifics of the document had yet to be determined.

“We don’t know yet what [specific measures] would look like, but [we believe] the university does have jurisdiction over what happens on campus, and can take measures like these […] so as to prevent perpetrators’ access to survivors,” O’Doherty said. “[The measures] will be made in a way that does not interfere with external legal processes.”

Another facilitator of the event, Anaïs Cadieux van Vliet, stressed the importance of these measures.

“[They] are part of making [a] sexual assault policy [that focuses] on supporting survivor experiences,” Cadieux van Vliet said.

Attendees said the workshop was useful for clarifying the intent and meaning behind the individual clauses of the lengthy policy, which stands at eight pages with an 11-page appendix.

“It’s a daunting document [on] an obviously really complicated issue, so I appreciated getting clarification on why [the terms] look the way [they do],” Lillie Fradin, U1 Arts, said. “It [became] clear to me that McGill needs a sexual assault policy that is accessible as well as functional for the entire McGill community.”

According to Cadieux Van Vliet, the students behind the policy want to expand the conversation about McGill’s services and policy procedures surrounding sexual assault.

“It’s important to have a campus-wide discussion about what good [sexual assault] services [and] policy procedures [look] like, so in order to get that conversation started, we drafted this policy [proposal],” Cadieux Van Vliet said.

The proposal most go through consultation by the Senate’s policy committee before becoming a formal policy of the university.

There is currently also an online petition asking for endorsements for the policy proposal.

a, McGill, News

Working group aims to redefine shared space for pedestrians and cyclists on campus

by Chelsey Ju on

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Cycling regulations on campus could undergo substantial changes following the work of McGill’s Cycling Working Group, which is scheduled for release in April.

The group was created in order to analyze issues regarding bicycles on campus, with the goal of devising a well-compromised accommodation for cyclists at the university.

Its creation follows widespread criticism of McGill’s current policy to prevent cyclists from using their bicycles on campus—for example, with the Milton bike gates installed at the start of the academic year.

Created in Fall 2013, the group consists of faculty, staff, and student representatives, who are developing recommendations on the subject following deliberation, consultation, and analysis of the current situation.

Martin Krayer von Krauss, manager of McGill’s Sustainability Office and chair of the Cycling Working Group, explained the criteria developed by the group to gauge options for allowing bicycles on campus.

“Must-have criteria [include] pedestrian and cyclist safety, a happy McGill community, affordability, and accessibility,” he said.

Krayer von Krauss said there are several possibilities that could align with these criteria.

“As a group we’ve applied them to three different scenarios,” he said. “[The] first [consists of] variations of a dismount policy on campus, to ensure safety of cyclists and pedestrians [….] The second deals with possibilities of a cycling path on campus [….] The third deals with a shared space approach, rather than segregating cyclists.”

Amanda Winegardner, PGSS representative to the working group stressed the importance of considering sharing of spaces on campus.

“The working group is really interested and has worked hard to consider effective sharing of campus space and inclusiveness,” Winegardner said. “A lot of time has been devoted to the discussion of multiple perspectives and the needs of different populations on campus as well as the external community.”

Harald Kliems, member of the Flat Bike Collective, a McGill student group that teaches bicycle maintenance, said cycling would always be a popular method of transportation on campus and stressed the importance of making decisions around that fact.

“I personally do hope [that] McGill is going to continue to make cycling an even better choice for getting to work,” Kliems said. “McGill already has a comparatively high percentage of its community using sustainable modes of transport to get to school or work—and we should continue to make that even better.”

According to Kliems, bike lanes are often perceived as the solution for cyclist problems, but they might not be the best in all cases.

“[Anyone who has] had a car door open in front of them while in a bike lane [or] navigated between scattered pedestrians on the Place des Arts bike lane probably concedes that [bike lanes] don’t always work well,” he said. “[It’s] important to closely analyze a given location to see if a bike lane is the right tool or if there are other, better solutions.”

Krayer von Krauss noted that the recommendations are still under discussion, but that results would be presented to Robert Couvrette, associate vice-principal university services, in the spring.

“We’re looking forward to releasing our results,” Krayer von Krauss said. “All members have been working extremely constructively to arrive at some recommendations, based on evidence and demographic representations from all areas of the community.”

a, Montreal, News

Provincial election candidates debate university funding, Charter of Values

by Remi Lu on

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The proposed Charter of Values and international student policies were at the forefront of a provincial elections debate hosted by the Post-Graduate Students’ Society of McGill University (PGSS) on March 25.

The debate featured representatives from the Parti Québécois (PQ), the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the Parti Libéral du Québec (PLQ), and Québec Solidaire (QS).

QS representative Molly Alexander emphasized that mitigating student debt and impeding private sector influence is an objective for her party.

“We wish to improve the financial assistance programs, [which means] a gradual conversion of loans to grants to help relieve the burden of debt on students,” she said. “[We’re] reviewing the criteria for financial assistance and making it easier for students to qualify.”

Liberal candidate Geoffrey Kelly criticized the current PQ government’s cuts to research funding at the university level.

“The current government announced a $250 million cut over two years, which was announced as temporary [but] those cutbacks are now permanent,” he said. “In addition, the government cut funding to research by $60 million last year, then put $6 million back and said, ‘Aren’t we generous?’ Those cutbacks mean that new funding [and] new programs are set aside, which has a direct impact on the post-graduate researchers and other people we can attract to Montreal or McGill.”

In response, PQ candidate Evelyne Abitbol referenced her party’s actions as a response to the Liberal government’s proposed university tuition increases in 2012.

“Under the Liberal government, Quebec lived the worst social crisis in recent history,” she said. “The Liberals wanted to impose an […] increase in tuition fees. Since we formed the government, we abolished the abusive increase in fees, and the higher education summit allowed [us] to re-establish the dialogue, and to settle down the social crisis.”

The representatives also discussed their parties’ policies on international students, in light of the deregulation of six additional programs by 2015: administration, computer science, engineering, law, mathematics, and pure sciences.

All candidates agreed on the importance of international students in Quebec, but defended the fee increase and stated the difficulty in balancing the benefits of international students with the costs of hosting them.

“The tuition fees, even with the increases, compare very favourably to other industrial countries,” CAQ Candidate Joseph Dydzak said. “Quebec taxpayers subsidize [foreign students] to the tune of $318 million. On the other hand, the international students bring over $8 billion to the Canadian economy. So we have to balance the tuition fees with the social and economic advantages of having international students here.”

The debate also touched upon the PQs’ proposed Quebec Charter of Values and its controversial limitations on civil servants’ ability to wear religious symbols.

Abitbol defended her party’s policy.

“Students should not fear the charter,” she said. “They are not touched by the proposed measures [….] Students would be able to act as they would the day before.”

Alexander, however, argued the charter did in fact have an effect on students.

“The problem is that [the charter] will not affect [students] in university; it will affect them when they try and get a job in public service,” she said.

Secretary-General of the PGSS Jonathan Mooney said he felt the event was a success.

“I thought there was some very intense debate about the Charter of Values,” said Mooney. “I was very happy that the [PQ] sent a candidate to discuss that here with the anglophone students. I’m really pleased that we were able to see that debate go forward. I was also glad we were able to raise some issues relevant to McGill about international students and about the tuition paid and health coverage of international students.”

The provincial election will take place on April 7.

a, McGill, News

Fortier talks McGill priorities with student media

by Cece Zhang on

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Since she began her job last September, Principal Suzanne Fortier has spent almost seven months getting to know the people, places, and challenges of McGill as a university. Last Friday, the Principal met with student journalists from The Tribune, The McGill Daily, and le Délit to speak on the university’s accomplishments and her goals for its future.

“I’ve spent most my time on the campus of McGill, to hear what were people’s goals, aspirations, frustrations, [and] criticisms on issues, so I could get a sense of what are the things we need to do,” she said. “My goals in the first year were to immerse myself and be part of the community, and start building relationships with the community that were based on trust and respect.”

Fortier emphasized the importance of recent strategic plans in the areas of academic goals, research, sustainability, and diversity.

“A lot of groundwork has been done, and I feel like we should use that and move to action,” she said. “My priorities are the community’s priorities.”

The principal said she has five key priorities for McGill, including improving the learning environment, promoting research, and increased interconnectedness with other universities and alumni. She also emphasized the need for improvements to administrative processes and the campus—in both physical and digital infrastructure.

“We’re not where we need to be; we don’t live in the digital world here at McGill,” Fortier said. “We need to make progress in the number of classrooms that are well equipped digitally, [and] to also make progress in terms of our library.”

Regarding the current political uncertainty facing Quebec leading up to the provincial election, Fortier expressed confidence in McGill’s strong institutional identity and cultural diversity—especially in the face of the Parti Québécois’ proposed Charter of Values.

“It [is] an important part of who we are not only to be welcoming, but to be promoting cultural diversity on our campus,” she said.

Fortier was optimistic about the provincial government’s planned re-investment in universities next year, but she emphasized that the provincial election means that McGill cannot count on having this money.

“Some of the money we were hoping to invest was in the area of advising, since that’s an area [where] the community feels we need to have more resources,” she said. “We were working on an agreement with the government, but now with the election nothing has been confirmed. Not a single university has a signed agreement at this point; we have to wait to make the firm plans until the elections are done. C’est la vie.”

The principal also briefly discussed the actions the university has taken to combat sexual assault, in light of the recent court case against three McGill athletes accused of sexual assault. However, she emphasized that it is a complex topic.

“I don’t want to respond to that specific case, which is a very complicated one,” she said. “We need to continue having these discussions, no matter how difficult they are. We need to take concrete steps. We cannot take extreme positions too fast, because we’re getting into complex territory here.”

a, Opinion

Do we still need Canadian content requirements?

by Julie Vanderperre on

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We need more Canadian porn.  That is, according to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the government agency known for imposing strict requirements regarding the amount of Canadian-produced, written, or otherwise Canadian-made content that is aired on TV or radio. The aim of the CRTC is to ensure that Canadian programs get enough airtime, and that foreign, (notably American), TV shows and music do not dominate Canadian airwaves.  Latest on their list of crackdowns is the porn industry.  Specifically, the CRTC is demanding that three X-rated cable channels, AOV Adult Movie Channel, AOV XXX Action Clips, and AOV Maleflixxx, must meet their required 35 percent Canadian programming and 90 percent closed captioning minimums, or risk getting their licenses revoked. The Canadian content requirements, or CanCon regulations, as they are commonly called, are known to be harsh and, at times, nonsensical, but the recent demands of the CRTC have achieved a new level of absurdity.

The regulations in question are aimed at adult cable TV channels.  But with a nearly unlimited supply of Internet porn available at the click of a mouse, how many Canadians are actually paying to watch their porn on TV? Trying to regulate TV porn is futile, considering how many other sources of pornography are available.

Of course, the wealth of online sources of entertainment from around the world is surely a struggle facing the CRTC’s attempts to protect all Canadian sources of entertainment, not just porn. Online platforms for entertainment and music, such as YouTube, Netflix, and unauthorized downloading infringe upon the ability of the CRTC to achieve their goals in many other areas of entertainment. There are, admittedly, still some areas in which the CRTC has significant influence. Some examples of successful CanCon programs include popular shows, such as “Trailer Park Boys” and “Degrassi”.  However, online access to practically any program or clip from around the world makes the work of the CRTC largely ineffectual. Specifically, though, the immense use of Internet porn over any other viewing platform makes the porn industry one of the least logical areas of entertainment to attempt to regulate.

If government regulators are expending effort to ensure that the few people in Canada who are subscribed to cable TV porn are getting their required amounts of locally sourced erotica, it is fair to assume that the regulations are less concerned with providing viewers with domestically produced porn, and more interested in ensuring that Canadian porn producers, actors, and directors have adequate access to the porn market. The battle is not about preserving Canadian culture, but limiting the amount of foreign competition in the industry in order to make it easier for Canadian “artists” to make it in the pornography business. But when promoting Canadian pornographers becomes a priority, the general motives of CanCon are brought into question. If reform of the porn industry is really a priority, there are more urgent matters at hand than ensuring that enough Canuck pornographers have access to the airwaves.  Increasing the number of women directors, or addressing issues of violence and consent on sets, for example, are issues worth more attention.  Of course, these are not matters under the CRTC’s jurisdiction, but maybe that’s just another reason why they should leave porn alone.

a, Opinion

Sultan of the Turkish Republic?

by Dan Lombroso on

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On March 30th, Turkey will go to the polls in nationwide municipal elections. After a summer of anti-government protests, an economic downturn, and a corruption scandal implicating prominent members of the ruling party’s inner circle, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a polarizing figure in Turkish society. Although he does not face re-election until 2015, these local elections are widely seen as a referendum on Erdogan’s vision for the Turkish Republic.

In interviews with a broad segment of Turkey’s population, voters expressed their sentiments towards Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the lead-up to the local elections. Due to fears of a government backlash against critics, the subjects of these interviews preferred only to disclose their first names.

Özge, a biology teacher at an Istanbul public high school, says she worries about the direction of the country under continued AKP rule. “The AKP wants to make Turkey look like it was before Ataturk – an Eastern country with no reference to a Western country and no democracy,” she said over tea at a Turkish restaurant. “What I want, and what many people want, is secularism.”

Her concern is a common one among the secular population in Turkey. Erdogan was raised in Kasımpaşa, a religious, working-class neighborhood along Istanbul’s Golden Horn, and has long supported the introduction of Islam into politics. Early on as prime minister, he was careful to balance the country’s secular political culture with the desire of many for a more sharia-based state. Now, many secular Turks worry that this delicate balance has shifted in the direction of Islamism.

Seljuk, a former member of Turkey’s Communist Party, jailed from 1982 to 1992 for voicing his beliefs, was more critical of the AKP’s authoritarianism than its Islamist agenda. “Erdogan plays a game,” he said from the offices of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, where he is a volunteer. “[Erdogan] is not a person who is really for democracy. He uses democracy to get what he wants. So he’s a fascist.”

When asked about the specific policies that make Erdogan fascist, Seljuk pointed to the lack of freedom in the press. “The newspapers in Turkey are not journalism anymore,” he said. “Erdogan chooses what they write. This is not normal for a democratic country.”

According to the 2014 Journalists Without Borders Freedom of Press Index, Turkey ranks 154th in the freedom of its press, below countries such as Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan. It is a source of much amusement here that during the height of the Gezi Park protests last summer, CNN Turk broadcast March of the Penguins rather than footage of the demonstrations.

More recently, Erdogan vowed to “wipe out Twitter,” following the release of audiotapes on the social media site that implicate his regime in wide-scale corruption. In the conservative city of Bursa, where AKP support is high, Erdogan proclaimed to a crowd of supporters that he is not concerned about the inevitable backlash from the West after his banning of the social media site. “I don’t care what the international community says at all,” he yelled in a fiery speech. “Everyone will see the power of the Turkish Republic.”

Hülya, a women’s rights activist for the CHP, says she is disgusted by Erdogan’s crackdown on the media. “When I see this sort of behavior, I think that Erdogan is a dictator, like Hitler was for Germany,” she said in response to a question about Erdogan’s censorship policies. “I don’t want my children to ask me one day: What have you done with our country? How could you have let Erdogan do that?”

The problem for those like Hülya, Seljuk, and Özge is that while Erdogan is altering Turkey’s political culture, away from secularism and toward authoritarianism and Islamism, he is making these changes within a democratic system in which he enjoys broad support. The Western media often neglects just how popular Erdogan is in Turkey. The AKP’s pro-development agenda, paired with its social conservatism and conciliatory attitude toward the Kurdish minority, has won the party support from all segments of Turkish society.

Yavuz, a religious conservative who works as an umbrella salesman in the  vibrant Istanbul neighborhood of Besiktas, said that he supports the AKP because of its social agenda. “In the university dorms, the boys are separated from the girls. That is how it is supposed to be. I don’t want my sister to stay in the same apartment with a strange guy. Would you want that?”

Cengiz, a restaurant owner of Kurdish descent, is more interested in the way in which the AKP has improved the situation for the Kurdish minority. “Before the AKP, the situation of the Kurdish people was so bad. I was not allowed to speak Kurdish in public. It was forbidden.” Now, he says that the rights of Kurds have improved significantly. According to Cengiz, these changes are “because of Erdogan.”

Although the majority of secular Turks do not support the AKP, some more concerned with the economy are willing to make an exception. Since coming to power twelve years ago, Erdogan has improved the country’s notoriously bad infrastructure, slimmed its bloated bureaucracy, liberalized trade, and achieved an eight percent average growth-rate per year. These feats earned the AKP some support among the secular upper-middle class.

Furkan, a student in electrical engineering at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul, finds himself in this demographic. “Turkey has changed a lot in the past twelve years,” he said nearby the Besiktas ferry. “[Erdogan] has so many projects that he plans and succeeds in. For example, in 2002 the streets were shit, but now have a look. They are beautiful, like the Autobahn.”

When asked how these economic or social successes justify Erdogan’s undemocratic behavior, Muhammad, a student at an Istanbul university he would not disclose, preferred to dwell on the pragmatic. “Look, for the last 12 years, the rule was good. That is what matters.”

As voters go to the polls next Sunday, they will have to weigh the AKP’s economic success against its growing authoritarianism, corruption, and Islamism. Many say this election is one of the most important in years.

—Dan Lombroso is a McGill student abroad at Bogazici University in Istanbul. To see his conversations with over thirty different Turkish citizens about the upcoming elections, visit his photoblog Voices of Istanbul. If you are a Turkish citizen interested in taking part in the project, you can contact him at [email protected]. 

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