Stretching
Even if all you want to do is stay curled up in the fetal position, stretching can be an excellent way to lessen cramping. During menstruation, the cervix stretches slightly to allow the endometrium – the blood vessel-rich lining – to shed. This is believed to cause some of the cramping women often experience. Stretching can stimulate circulation and oxygen flow, and can help ease the pain in the muscle. Making time for a daily stretch can also help ease the leg cramps that are also common during menstruation.

No alcohol, but plenty of water
Drinking water is good for the body at any time, but it’s particularly crucial during your period, and drinking a minimum of eight glasses a day is recommended. Water helps transport nutrients to the cells and aids in their absorption, correcting any imbalances in hormonal levels related to the menstrual cycle. Water also helps decrease the bloating you might experience by minimizing the body’s salt retention.
Conversely, it is wise to stay away from alcohol during your period. It dehydrates the body, which – as anyone who’s ever experienced a hangover knows – can cause fatigue, migraines, and muscle cramps. During menstruation, this can exacerbate the existing discomfort. Alcohol can also disrupt sleeping patterns, increasing fatigue.

Limit your caffeine
Caffeine is a diuretic, a drug that increases the rate of urination, and its consumption stimulates the excretion of important nutrients. If you feel anxious and irritable during your period, caffeine can also aggravate these feelings.

Increase your iron intake
The loss of blood during menstruation doubles your daily requirement of iron, and an iron deficiency can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and irritability. Foods such as lean red meat, dark poultry, lentils, spinach, and almonds are high in iron, but since the recommended intake during menstruation is a minimum of 18 milligrams, an iron supplement might also be recommended.

Stop smoking
Smoking further reduces the body’s iron intake, and affects nutrient absorption. Cigarettes also cause the levels of estrogen present in the body to fluctuate, and can interfere with your menstrual cycle. Because of these effects, smokers are more likely to experience abnormal bleeding or amenorrhea – the absence of a period in a woman of reproductive age.

Have some magnesium and vitamin B6
Both magnesium and vitamin B6 help smooth out the contractions of the uterine wall and can lessen the bloating, swelling, and tenderness felt in your muscles. Magnesium also helps regulate activity in the nerves and muscles, decreasing the chance of cramping. Good sources of magnesium include artichokes, black beans, whole wheat flour, and almonds. Vitamin B6 can be found in baked potatoes, bananas, chick peas, and sunflower seeds.

Lots of ibuprofen
Ibuprofen relieves cramping by limiting the body’s production of prostaglandins, the hormone-like substance that helps the uterus contract and expel its lining. Prostaglandins are naturally high during menstruation and can cause the extreme pain known as dysmenorrhea. Doses of ibuprofen under 200 milligrams can be purchased without prescription and are usually potent enough for most period-related cramping.

Raspberries
If you want to take a more natural route, raspberry leaves have been known to serve as an alternative to medical solutions. The leaves can help regulate the menstrual cycle, and can decrease the occurrence of both amenorrhea and dysmenorrhea. The raspberry fruit will also alleviate cramps. Raspberries have antispasmodic properties that smooth muscle contractions and lessen the associated pain. They are also high in fiber content, and a diet high in fiber will decrease the hormonal imbalances in the body, keeping menstruation stable and painless. Fruits and vegetables are also a good way of sating your appetite without making you feel sluggish.

While these recommendations should be enough to eliminate most of the pain felt during menstruation, if you still suffer from severe cramping, talk to your doctor. The pain could be a sign of underlying conditions such as thrombosis, embolisms, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, or ovarian cysts.

The post Oh, the monthly pains appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Though still new, pole sports have been steadily gaining mainstream recognition as a legitimate form of fitness training. Dominic Lacasse, circus artist and current holder of the world record for longest human flag, wrote in an interview with The Daily that the sport is becoming “more and more known and popular,” adding that dancers, circus artists, athletes, and gymnasts are all among those adopting the pole.

According to the Pole Fitness Association (PFA), pole dancing refers to the more artistic discipline – the one that most resembles the routines performed in bars and clubs. Pole fitness, on the other hand, focuses more on building strength and conditioning. But it is pole sports that many hope the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will consider for inclusion in future competitions. Combining acrobatics and dance moves, pole sports focuses on technique and execution, and bears a resemblance to both figure skating and gymnastics.

Maiko Starr, a Montreal-based PFA accredited instructor agrees that the community is growing and expanding to include different types of people, including men. According to Starr, the presence of men in the pole sports community may have a legitimizing effect serving to distance the discipline from the more stereotypically sexualized pole routines. Lacasse points out, however, that male participation is still more common in disciplines like parkour or the Chinese poles – two parallel vertical poles used in circus acts – than the single vertical pole.

Even so, Lacasse is quick to note that while pole fitness is now practiced worldwide, it is still relatively new in Quebec.

It is precisely because the sport is so new that its admittance into mainstream sports culture may be hindered. There currently exist few concrete regulations for pole sports, and Lacasse notes that the lack of organization will need to be overcome. “The sport doesn’t need to change, but they need to put in place rules [for the] routines, costumes, and judging,” he wrote. Even the terminology and definitions of the sport remain unclear.

In order to help facilitate the transition into a global standardized sport, several governing agencies have been set up to oversee various aspects of pole sports. The International Pole Sports Federation (IPSF) oversees the Olympic effort, while other organizations like the Pole Dance for Fitness Instruction Commission (PFIC) offer certification for experienced instructors. The PFA, meanwhile, is responsible for universalizing terminology and judging criteria.

Despite the push for homogenization, many people, even those working in the industry, remain unaware of the distinctions. Starr wrote that she doesn’t believe the sport will be differentiated from its artistic and erotic counterparts as long as certain practices, such as wearing high heels in competition, are allowed. “They are banned from my studio, so are boas and we sell yoga tank tops, not G-strings… It’s not pole fitness if you do it with a boa around your neck.”

According to KT Coates, executive vice president of the IPSF, “pole sports is not pole dancing, the same as BMX biking is not the Tour de France. Both originate from using the same apparatus but are completely different.” She further stressed the difference by stating, “pole sports is acrobatic, not erotic.”

“What we do has nothing to do with what happens in strip clubs,” said Starr. “That would be comparing the way your neighbour mows his lawn to what a professional landscaper does. In strip clubs, most dancers will walk around the pole not caring. What we do is closer to the circus.”

But Julie Paillé Dowell, a Montreal pole instructor and Quebec representative on the PFIC Board of Commission, believes that “the image we project through advertisement, the quality of our instructors, and our teaching method will slowly change people’s minds about pole dancing.”

“This conception does affect us a lot,” wrote Starr, “and I can’t wait to see more and more people being informed about how efficient of a workout pole [sports] actually is… Pole [sports] may have started from a dark background, but it is something different completely.”

With the regulation and standardization of the sport, which are required by the IOC for participation in the Olympic Games, many hope that pole sports will soon be a step closer to inclusion in the Olympic Games. Coates writes that once a stable federation is put in place and standardized competitions are run, the IPSF can then submit its efforts to the IOC, who would then vote on the sport’s inclusion.

Coates feels strongly about pole sports’ place in the games. “What we do requires a great deal of dedication, technique, training, and skill, just like any other gymnast or ice-skater. We feel that pole sports should be recognized for what it truly is: a beautiful and inspiring thing to see. The highest recognition you can get is inclusion in the Olympics, so why settle for anything less?”

Both Starr and Lacasse agree, feeling that it would definitely help the sport. “Why not?” wrote Lacasse “It’s a very spectacular discipline that demands a lot of training, a lot of physical and artistic qualities.”

But Paillé Dowell is not so eager about the sport’s inclusion in the Olympic games. “It will be a form of recognition, but personally I’m not so warm about that idea,” said Paillé Dowell. “If it goes to the Olympics, pole dancing will be very codified. The artistic and the freedom of expression will be lost. Now, pole dancing is at a new beginning, the art can explode in every direction…I like the freedom of creation more than the code system of the Olympics.”

The process for inclusion in the Olympic Games usually takes between seven and twelve years, and the IOC only allows three test sports to appear at a time. If successful, pole sports could become a permanent fixture at the games, though Lacasse acknowledges that getting into the Olympics, “is a long process and it will not be tomorrow that it will happen.”

Even so, Coates remains optimistic. “We are a very long way off from this, but Rome wasn’t built in a day. We believe [pole sports’ inclusion] will be either in 2016 or 2020, as we [still] need to prove ourselves as an authentic sport.”

The post A new spin on pole sports appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Though not a psychologist, Watson nevertheless went on to say in an interview with the Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa…because all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”

These comments caused outrage and Watson, considered one of the most prominent scientific figures of the late 20th century, was forced to resign from his position as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

His views, though not supported by concrete research, are far from new or unique. Racial anthropology – a term used to denote the use of the scientific method to research differences between races – grew to prominence in the second half of the 19th century. The practice – closely associated with European imperialism, slavery, and eugenics – was popular, and the argument that people of African heritage belonged to a different species was heavily relied on during the 1857 Dred Scott U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined that people of African descent were not protected by the Constitution.

Racial anthropology, termed scientific racism by critics, was formally denounced after the Second World War. Even so, the “science” has since been used to further the racist beliefs of individual researchers. In 1994, Richard Hernstein, a Harvard Univesity psychology professor, and Charles Murray, a political scientist from the American Enterprise Institute, published their best-selling book The Bell Curve. Not submitted for peer review, the controversial book claimed that intelligence was primarily based on genetics, and by extension race.

However, according to Thomas Shultz, professor of Psychology at McGill, the reasoning behind research of this kind is flawed. In an email to The Daily, he wrote, “in the old days, researchers tried to figure out, for intelligence and other interesting traits, how much of that trait is due to genetics and how much to environment.”

“A common strategy,” he continued, “was to examine the correlation in IQ between pairs of people representing various degrees of genetic relationship.” The strongest comparison was between genetically identical twins and unrelated people, and often “there was an independent factor contrasting pairs of people who are reared apart versus together in the same family.”

Shultz added that “a typical finding was that about eighty per cent of the variation in IQ was due to heredity and twenty per cent to environment. A big problem with this conclusion is that you have dramatic differences between levels of genetic relationship and rather small differences between levels of environmental variation.”

Shultz went on to say that since adopted children were often placed in families similar to their natural parents, “monozygotic twins reared apart did not necessarily have very different experiences.” The fact that environmental differences, and therefore their measurable effect, could be so small indicates that, according to Shultz, “such research designs favour genetics over environment and thus cannot decisively assess the relative contributions of heredity and environment.”

Though the belief that race dictates intelligence is still held by some today, Frances Aboud, another McGill Psychology professor, is hopeful. “You can always find someone who wants to uncover an evolutionary or genetic basis for intelligence, but more researchers and educators are interested in discovering how to promote learning,” she said. “There is no serious scientific debate about this any more.”

Although both Shultz and Aboud believe that we have seen the last of racial anthropology, the scientific community should be wary of prominent figures like Watson, who do nothing but validate racism and further stigmatize people who are already victims of discrimination.

The post Masked racism appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The chairs, along with many other products, were built according to a principle called “cradle to cradle,” a philosophy that aims to fundamentally challenge the relationship we have with Earth.

According to cradle to cradle design principles, everything produced should have a function, and for Michael Braungart, a Hamburg-based chemist, this represents an opportunity to design better and safer ways of living and consuming. “Right now, it’s only organic when we’re not involved,” he explained, “and this is pretty sad.”

Braungart is also a founding member of the Environmental Protection Enforcement Agency (EPEA) and of McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), a consulting and certification firm helping their diverse clients implement cradle to cradle design.

“The existing products are amazingly primitive when it comes to health and environment,” he said. “For example, we find in Mattel toys up to six-hundred problematic chemicals. Things are never designed for children, they’re only designed to be cheap. So we really need to reinvent everything.”

The book that Braungart co-authored with architect and designer William McDonough, Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things, is an example of how regular, everyday items can be completely reinvented. The book itself does not contain any wood pulp or cotton fiber, instead it is made from plastic resins and inorganic fillers. It can be recycled in any facility with polypropylene recycling capabilities, and can be melted down and reused again and again, without losing any material quality.

Other examples of cradle to cradle product design include biodegradable apparel, non-toxic soaps, and tree-free, compostable food containers. The cradle to cradle concept, backed by McDonough and Braungart’s consulting firm, has even been applied to industries as large scale as building materials and packaging, helping negate their adverse impact on the planet.

But Braungart believes that sustainability is not the focus. “Sustainability is pretty boring. If I were to ask you if your relationship with your boyfriend is sustainable, and you said yes, I would feel sorry for you,” he said. “Sustainability is just the minimum, it’s not really attractive.” Braungart continued on to say that we should not be seeking to minimize our impact on the planet, but should instead contribute in a positive way. “Look at the cherry tree, there’s no reduction, no minimization, but everything is beneficial,” he elaborated.

With this in mind, MBDC developed an ice cream packaging that is liquid at room temperature. According to Braungart, the container is only solid when frozen. “You can just throw it away,” he said. “We put seeds of rare plants in it, so by throwing it away you can support biodiversity, and the packaging degrades within two to three hours.”

“The most critical thing is to romanticize nature,” he said. And when consumption becomes beneficial to the planet, there is no more need to minimize what we consume. “I think littering is fun,” Braungart added.

This proposed paradigm shift is slow to be adopted. “What is most challenging is that people have been trying to be less bad for so long, now it’s difficult for them to change,” adds Braungart. “[Cradle to cradle] is not only technical questions and product design questions, it’s really how humans see their role on the planet. This is really key.”

And though it seems almost utopian in nature, the cradle to cradle concept has had its fair share of criticism. The MBDC consulting firm, and McDonough in particular, have been heavily criticized for their tendency toward proprietorship. In an industry where collaboration and expansion should be the primary focus, “cradle to cradle” is a patented term. Other aspects of the business are also under heavy lock and key: this has significantly decreased the concept’s potential impact.

In its 15 years of operation, MBDC has only certified 160 products. Many of the projects undertaken never see the light of day. Several have a history of going over budget, underperforming, and never living up to their cradle to cradle claims.

Journalist Danielle Sacks wrote a 2008 expose on McDonough for the magazine Fast Company that “McDonough’s design revolution is paralyzed – and he is the paralyzing agent, unable to capitalize on his brilliant, crucial idea, but unwilling to set it free,” and this is shown by the litigious trail the cradle to cradle concept has left behind.

Critics have also argued that MBDC’s work lacks transparency. Sacks wrote that because the firm “sometimes consults for companies whose products [it’s] also certifying, the whole endeavour is conflicted, if not unethical.”

Overall, however, Braungart is optimistic about cradle to cradle’s future. “A lot of major players are really changing how they do business, [and are] making products according to cradle to cradle principles,” he said. “It’s just amazing, there are hundreds and hundreds of young scientists, engineers, and designers there to reinvent products.”

But though he feels that there are positive steps being taken, “I’m skeptical when I see how fast the destruction takes place, and I wonder whether [the changes] will be in time.” If those who want to pursue cradle to cradle goals can do so without fear of litigation, maybe they will be.

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Powell and his team found that the percentage of Americans who considered same-sex couples, – with or without children – a family has risen to 33 per cent, compared to 25 per cent in 2003. Powell also found that the legality of the relationship served to legitimize it in terms of public opinion. “One thing we found was that if you told people that a gay couple is legally married, they were much more likely to say that they count as a family [compared to] a gay couple who lives together, even if they’ve been living together for ten years,” he said in an interview with The Daily. Since same-sex marriage is legal in Canada, Powell believes that Canadians are more likely to be inclusive in their definition of family.

The attention that same-sex relationships has attracted has also helped to validate them, added Powell. “One of the factors is simply that there’s been more of a discussion regarding same-sex issues publicly. When we did our surveys in 2003, one thing that was really noticeable was that a lot of people were really uncomfortable even saying the words gay or lesbian. They would lower their voices, like it was taboo… or something bad. Ironically, even those people who were really opposed to same-sex marriage, by talking about it out loud and publicly, became more comfortable with the terms and ideas,” he continued. He further noted that the increased number of people who realized that they had gay friends and relatives further contributed to the inclusion of same-sex couples a family.

However, regardless of sexual orientation, in both the United States and Canada, unmarried or common law couples, along with single parent families, are considered to be lacking in comparison with more traditional structures. Dave Quist, executive director of the conservative research group Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (IMFC), said that “children have the best outcomes when raised by their married, biological parents.” He believes that though many varying types of family are steadily gaining recognition in Canada, “we should be striving for the ideals, rather than watering down social policies that are actually harmful to the outcomes for children.” Quist believes that when couples merely cohabit together, the children present are “less likely to thrive behaviorally, emotionally, and educationally.”

And though John Sandberg, associate professor of Sociology at McGill, agrees, he believes “the aspects of the general environment that tend to be associated with family structure are much more important” than the structure itself. Factors such as conflict in the home, opportunities for age-appropriate stimulation and education, supervision, and developmental planning all play a part in the welfare of the child, said Sandberg. “It also often has to do with income differences after a divorce [or] lack of secondary source supervision.”

But Powell doesn’t believe that these concerns should affect what constitutes a family. “The reality is that children are growing up in many different types of households,” he said. “Think about the implications for the child who grows up being told by others that they’re not a family. Being told that their situation’s not real, that their living situation is not authentic.”

Even Quist admitted, that “unfortunately, the ideal doesn’t always exist. Divorce does happen. Cohabitation happens. Single parent families exist.” But despite the concerns some might have regarding the relative success rates of different types of family, as Sandberg says, “having more parents in a loving household without conflict is always a good thing.”

In Powell’s research, the presence of children had a legitimizing effect on how a couple was viewed. In the 2010 survey, 100 per cent of respondents considered a married heterosexual couple with children to be a family, while 83 per cent considered an unmarried heterosexual with kids to be a family, and 64 per cent considered a same-sex couple with kids to be a family. Remove the children, and the percentages dropped down to 92, 40 and 33 per cent respectively.

Laura Scott, head of the Childless by Choice Project advocacy group and author of Two is Enough: A Couple’s Guide to Living Childless by Choice, said that these findings are representative of how couples living without children are often excluded from the general definition of family. “The perception is that they’re just a couple, not really a family,” she explained. “There’s an attitude that if you’re a [child-free] couple, it must be temporary; eventually you’ll have children.”

This perspective, Scott said, often leads to a social marginalization of couples who are childless either by circumstance or by choice. “As a childless person you become socially isolated,” she said. “Childlessness is approaching 20 per cent in women, and that’s huge. We can no longer assume parenthood for all…we need to assimilate those [child-free] couples into our society and recognize that it’s a viable life path.”

As for Canadian couples, “it’s very similar,” said Scott. “The only difference is that because there are better maternal leave policies in Canada, people wonder, ‘Well, why don’t you? You get the whole year off.’ … There’s a questioning that happens with Canadian couples, whereas most Americans understand that there is a financial burden [involved in] having a child.”

Powell is optimistic that the definition of family will continue broadening. “When we first did the surveys, it was really anybody under 30 that was open in their definitions. By 2010, it’s more like people under the age of 38. There’s simply going to be an increase of people coming of age who are going to be changing the overall tenor of the debate…so I think it’s going to keep on increasing.”

Scott agreed. “I think I do see a broadening of the definition of family, but it’s slow. It’s behind the curve based on our reality,” she says. “A married man and woman with a number of children, what we would term the traditional family, is actually a declining demographic, and trends of delaying marriage, of delaying child rearing, which is happening both in Canada and the U.S., are driving that. In our media and in our cultural portrayals of family, we can see a broad range of families, but our institutions, policies, and law haven’t caught up to that. But hopefully they will.”

But whether these changes in perception are positive is still up for debate. “Public perception and real measurable outcomes are two separate matters,” explained Quist. “I may like or prefer something, but that doesn’t mean that it is good for me or those around me. Public perception toward many things has changed over time, but that doesn’t mean that that acceptance is beneficial to all.” Sandberg, however, said its too early to tell what effects these changes will have. “There are more people choosing not to have children, more people having fewer children, more people having children in cohabiting relationships, more people having children without partners than in the past and the average age of childbearing is going up,” he noted. “Are these things better or worse? They’re just different. There are so many other variables that confound these changes that it’s hard to say.”

Families can be as varied as the individuals who make them up, and if common perceptions continue to broaden, it can only serve to legitimize the arrangements and potentially the lifestyles of those in positive family environments, regardless of their definition.

The post The ties that bind appeared first on The McGill Daily.

The researchers sequenced the genomes of the antibiotic-resistant E. coli and found that the compulsion to share the indole seemed to be an innate feature, programmed into the bacteria at the genetic level. This natural altruism, though often observed in more complex animals and even in several plant species, is not commonly associated with the bacterial world. According to Lee, though there have been cases of resource sharing found among bacteria, particularly those residing together in aggregated biofilms – layers of bacteria – there is still a tendency to “discard the idea…, expecting [the bacteria] to fend for themselves.” 
Although self-preservation is a biological imperative, “altruism is good for the survival of the species,” said Youk, and many species’ individuals will value the evolutionary fitness of their kind over their own. Kin selection, for example, refers to individuals that help their relatives reproduce successfully, even at the cost to their own personal reproduction.

Lee thinks that many aspects of his research point to kin selection, though the researchers are still exploring the possibility. The mutated bacteria’s indole production seemed to benefit those individuals in their vicinity, as well as those with common genetic material.

Regardless of the purposefulness to the individual bacteria, the altruistic strategy may shed light on how doctors can counter antibiotic-resistant bacteria, and block indole pathways.

“The work is important because it shows how such a cunning strategy develops over a period of a few days,” explained Youk.

Lee added that helping doctors’ diagnoses is “definitely the goal,” and that their methodology could be helpful, since “testing a whole population versus testing individual bacteria is not the same.” Their study and ongoing research will hopefully help physicians understand the bacteria’s behaviour, bringing them closer to determining how much antibiotic is sufficient and how to better treat patients.

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Concordia is now hosting a series of discussions focusing on bio-artistry, and the second installment, titled “Of mice and transgenic rats in art and scientific research,” further explored the influence of visual aesthetics in scientific study. The lecture featured artist Kathy High and scientific researcher Barbara Woodside, director of Concordia’s Centre for Studies in Behavioural Neurobiology.

Through her work with transgenic rats – rodents injected with human genetic material – High aims to work through the artist’s personal hypotheses by mirroring scientific research. Her latest work, “Embracing Animal,” was part of a larger exhibit shown at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and featured a 10-month installation that created an ersatz laboratory.

The purpose of the installation was to determine if the rats could become healthy when in a new environment, regardless of their genetic predisposition to suffer from rheumatic disorders. The animals were treated with alternative medicines including homeopathy, wholesome food, and an environment specially designed to house the rats comfortably for an extended period of time.

Through this work, High also wished to reevaluate the traditional scientist-lab rat relationship, seeing these animals as research partners rather than a means to an end. Suffering from her own autoimmune disease, she empathized with the rats, stating, “We have injected human materials into them. We have a real kinship with these rats, and still they are the forgotten workers.”

However, the testing of High’s hypothesis was decidedly unscientific. There was no control group used and no comparison of data. All observation was conducted informally, and a telepathic interspecies communicator was even brought in to gauge the rats’ response to the exhibit. Even the termination of the project did not follow standard scientific practice. Whereas lab rats are generally killed, either to perform autopsies or to avoid contamination, the three rats of “Embracing Animal” lived out the remainder of their lives under the care of the museum’s nightwatchman.

The aesthetic of the installation was also a focal point, making High’s work more of a piece of multimedia art than an experiment. Banners commemorating the different varieties of transgenic rats used in laboratories were hung on the walls, and the ashes of the rats from previous exhibits were displayed in illuminated orbs, acting as a fitting memorial for the animals that make our discoveries possible.

The methodology of each discipline also differs. High states that she has a different philosophical approach to her work: “It’s as if I came at it backward, coming from my own experience and then transferring that to the research subject.” Woodside agrees, maintaining that the spontaneity and playfulness encouraged in the arts is not possible when conducting experiments: “The constraints of the scientific approach mean that you have to pre-think every step of the experiment,” and once approval has been granted, even the most minute change may mean months of paperwork.

However, both women agreed that they approach their work with the same intent, trying to understand the animal in order to better work through a theory. Both want the rats to be as healthy as possible and seek to fully appreciate the animals’ needs. “If you’re going to involve any animals in your research,” says Woodside, “you have to understand what the animal’s world is like.” This change in outlook is fully endorsed by her artistic counterpart.

But High is not the only artist borrowing scientific principles. A growing community of bio-artists continues to blur the line separating scientific inquiry and artistic expression, in an effort to enrich both fields. Science and its conclusions can validate the notions put forward by artists and, in turn, art disseminates those same conclusions to a broader audience not usually exposed to scientific findings.

The third and final installment of Concordia’s Art, Science, and Technology speaker series, entitled “Transformation and biodiversity in art and biology,” will take place March 31 at 5 p.m. at the Loyola campus.

The post Portrait of a lab rat appeared first on The McGill Daily.

Those who own one, however, will likely attest to the applications’ integral role in making the iPhone an attractive option, and perhaps some of these claims are warranted – access to dictionaries, maps, a GPS system, and games are undoubtedly useful. But like any widely used platform, the apps available quickly descend into the absurd and the just plain useless.

Langu
There is no shortage of parents who will go to any lengths to give their kids a head start in the academic world. So it makes sense that there be iPhone apps designed and marketed as learning tools. Developed by Wired.com’s Geekdad to help kids learn both English and Mandarin, Langu is a prime example. But let’s think for a second: no matter how concerned you are with your child’s intellectual development, would you really let them use your iPhone? Probably not. Would you buy them their own? Again, it’s pretty unlikely. So for crying out loud, do everyone a favour, and go buy a pack of alphabet flashcards.

Cry Translator
Continuing on with more inept parenting techniques, here’s an app that claims it can translate your baby’s every sound. Most of you will think that this is impossible, and I would agree with you. But the creators clearly don’t think so, since they’re charging $30 for it. Even though it does feature tips for calming your child, as well as an easy-to-access emergency number directory, it seems like the main purpose of this app is to reassure overly-anxious parents. You want my advice? Feed the kid, keep it clean, be attentive, and you’re good to go.

iGirl
I get it, there are some really lonely people out there – people whom I want to hug. And then there are the people who bought this app. Those people I just want to smack. iGirl is a virtual girlfriend who, according to her creators, you can have for “less than the price of a coffee or beer.” She talks! She dances! She “obeys!” You design her and you can control her. You can even “blow her, shake her, touch her and more!” I don’t know how exactly, since there is apparently no nudity, but she’s just that accommodating. Oh, and the best part? She’s multilingual. And we all know that that’s the most important thing in a virtual girlfriend.

Lightsaber Unleashed
I’ll admit, I kind of like this one. For all the geeks who used to play make-believe Star Wars – admit it, you’re one of us – who wouldn’t want to wave their iPhone around making lightsaber sounds? It tracks the movement of the phone, and makes the corresponding sounds featured in the movies. And as an added bonus, it’s free. I call being Yoda.

Puff!
There are some pervy people in the world. And some of them own iPhones. Enter “Puff!” – an app that offers access to a wide variety of interactive photographs of Asian girls, for only 99 cents. But if the target audience of this app is racial fetish aficionados, the creators fall dreadfully short of the mark. The pictures are of fully-clothed, wholesome-looking girls, and even though blowing into your phone’s microphone or rapidly scrolling your finger up and down can create a “breeze” that will lift up the girl’s skirt, all you’ll get is a little squeal and a glimpse of appropriately-sized underwear. The harder you blow, the higher the skirt goes and the louder she squeaks, but by treading the line between offensive and straight-up vulgar, this app is just plain confusing. Either way, I’m pretty sure that even if your ideal fantasy is grafting an Asian fetish onto a classic Marilyn Monroe moment, you’ll look like a fool blowing into your phone, and eventually, you’ll get bored.

No one will deny that the iPhone plays an intrinsic role in the evolution of mobile technology, but the whole concept behind the applications has become so unwieldy. There are hundreds of thousands of applications, and millions of reviews. There are even apps that help you find your ideal apps. In a situation where so many developers are vying to outdo each other, novelty becomes the best weapon, and this seems to lead to applications becoming worthless. The greatest challenge facing iPhone users today might very well be keeping their phones free of clutter.

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Dulude’s work, on display at SAS until October 31, centres on the way people relate to natural landscapes in an increasingly fast-paced and urban age. Through his art, Dulude asks if we can, while being so far removed from them, still have a relationship with forests, mountains, and meadows. Though these may seem like the tired existential queries of a philosophy classroom, in exploring the subject, Dulude creates a haunting, ethereal exhibit, beautifully enacting the fleeting connection between humans and nature.

Using multiple mediums, the exposition affords Dulude the opportunity to explore the relationship between the organic and the technological. Instead of displaying his sculptures, the viewer is only shown their depictions through photography and film, demonstrating just how removed we are from the natural world, and nature’s limited effect on distanced observers.

Dulude is fresh from a residency at the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, an experience that inspired many of his recent works. His art is partially motivated by a recurring desire to explore different materials and all their possibilities, and his current three-part exhibit is no exception.

As part of his attempt to rethink scenery and contrast the natural with the man-made, Dulude has included two photographs, “Kaleidoscopique 1 and 2”, into his exhibit at SAS. Meant to represent landscapes, these extreme close-ups of aluminum foil reflect and refract the lights of Dulude’s studio, giving the impression of fantastically coloured scenery.

Another piece, “The Invisible Bike”, is a fully functional bicycle covered in mirrors, and presents a welcome alternative to the fast-paced travel to which modern society has become accustomed. Reflecting the countryside through which it is being ridden, the bike seems non-existent, completely erasing the rider’s connection to the material world while also allowing the viewer to see through the eyes of the cyclist. Dulude says that he chooses his materials for their physical, formal, or symbolic qualities, and “The Invisible Bike” is in alignment with this opinion. The bicycle itself flawlessly represents the act of slowing down and enjoying scenery from outside a car, while still retaining its manufactured attributes.

“Foggy Mirror” – named after the phenomenon in which Highland fog is so thick that a person can see his reflection in it – is an eerie film following the twists and turns of mist and fog through an impossibly still and undisturbed scale model of a mountain range built by Dulude himself. An accompanying photograph titled “Night Hill” strengthens the recurring theme of reflection, and further emphasizes the way we look at, live in, and relate to nature.

All three works impart to us the unique way in which a sculptor interacts with landscapes. In an effort to reinvent how art depicts nature, the scenes shown are not traditional paintings or photographs, but man-made objects that Dulude hopes better represent our relationship with the natural world.

Although the artist was deeply affected by his residency in Scotland, his work remains firmly rooted in Montreal. When the Galerie SAS proposed that Dulude present his work at their space, he accepted, stating that it was rare for a private gallery to showcase multimedia art. Marc Dulude’s captivatingaddition to the Montreal art world is an intriguing step away from the hustle and bustle of the Montreal downtown.

Marc Dulude’s exhibition runs through October 31 at Galerie SAS (372 Ste Catherine O. Suite 416)

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Jeanie Riddle, director of Parisian Laundry and an artist herself, graduated from Concordia with an MFA in 2005. Her thesis work was also shown at Parisian Laundry and she quickly became its director, strongly believing in the location’s traditions. In her eyes, it is Parisian Laundry’s outstanding reputation that contributes to the MFA candidates’ experience: the exhibit allows them to “disseminate their works to a broad, diverse, and captive viewership,” and in addition gives them the benefit of Riddle’s professional advice.

According to Riddle, although the pieces shown in the exhibit all deal with different subject matter, “one still has the sense that profound research about consumerism and pop culture is at play.”

Shown alone in the basement of Parisian Laundry, the work of the Douglas Moffat can be quite hard to get to, but the climb down the stairs and walk through the low-hanging tunnel are well worth the effort, and contribute to the dramatic entrance into a room where light and sound are key elements of the installations. The most impressive of Moffat’s pieces is “The Love Song Effect,” a mix of recorded sound and video. Occupying an entire side of the room, a small speaker sits on a stool against a white backdrop reminiscent of headshots and old school photographs. From the speaker comes an eerie mix of words and music that fades in and out. Across the room is the same display, this time shown on an LCD screen supported by cinder blocks. The dual images, one real and one digital, are identical except for subtitles of the song shown on the LCD screen, demonstrating how the media through which the image is presented filters our understanding of it.

While at first Moffat’s showing doesn’t seem to be one cohesive work, he explains how the other three pieces in the room complement “The Love Song Effect,” as they all explore the “experience of a love song in a public place.” Even though there is commercial employment of love songs “toward predetermined purposes,” Moffat likes to think that “occasionally there can still be a momentary connection with a love song that undermines this structure. After all, isn’t that what love songs are for?” The love song’s triumph over mass media is amplified by the striking yet intimate structure of the room, and also seems in line with Riddle’s opinion on the artists’ concern with pop culture.

Tia Halliday’s cutout paintings also deal with the topic of love. The pieces show various bedroom scenes with a woman replacing a male partner with hot water bottles, a radiator with a man’s shirt on it, or a dog with an image of a naked man taped to it. These works spoke to me of how very false our lives have become, and how we are continually replacing reality with artificial substitutes. Interspersed within and in contrast to the ersatz love scenes were unbeautiful and asymmetrical close-up portraits, all the more real for their imperfection.

Amidst the wide variety of installations, other pieces that immediately attract attention are Dominic Papillon’s sculptures and Amélie Guérin-Simard’s mixed-media pieces, which offer several colours, textures, and concepts that will keep you fascinated and occupied. My favourites were Papillon’s giant cloaked mouse, “Geist,” and Guérin-Simard’s three-dimensional mosaic, complete with a fake moustache.

Clement Yeh and Meghan Price add other media to the already diverse exhibit. Yeh’s most striking pieces are four large inlaid woodworks named after various local institutions: Nettoyeur, Delicatessen, Restaurant, and Club de Danseuses. Together, the sculptures give the impressive appearance of three-dimensional neon signs that would be hung above the businesses they were named after. Meghan Price’s “Imitative Systems Analysis: Acting like starlings” uses copper wire, knitting, weaving, and needle lace to create beautiful designs that spiderweb across the white wall.

Whether you would like to support the work of fellow students or would just like to see some quirky, thought-provoking art dealing with such topics as love, reality, urbanity, and the media’s influence on the public, Collision 5 will not disappoint. Between Price’s wire birds, Guérin-Simard’s masterful recycling of beautiful, disused objects, and Moffat’s comments on romance, Collision 5 brings the best of contemporary art to the table.

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Torres, who came to meet me as I entered the centre, is a kind-looking man with a ponytail of frizzy hair and round glasses à la John Lennon. In addition to holding a Masters degree in Fine Arts, he really did look the part of the artist-carpenter as he showed me around in jeans and work boots. Hailing from Argentina, Torres has lived in Montreal for the past five years and his entire approach to art since then has been based on such concepts as space, exile and memory.

In Continente, Torres uses earth-filled wooden casts strewn across the room to depict the effect that displacement and reminiscence have had on him. Although the interactive exhibit had not yet been finished when I visited, it was still possible to see how Torres planned to use the enormous casts to convey his ideas on immigration. It was perhaps a personal reaction, but the warm, bright light, combined with the smell of earth and wood did lend a feeling of nostalgia to the gallery.

Speaking French with a thick Argentinean accent, Torres tells me that his inspiration did indeed come from his immigration, specifically the problems concerning identity and culture. “The earthen casts are a sort of metaphor,” he told me. “I employ traditional Latin American construction techniques but the material, the earth, is universal; it represents me.” To Torres, it is the act of making a cast that symbolizes the displacement of travel, although the lighting, layout, and smell also play important roles in the exhibit, determining how viewers will interact with it while contributing to the contrast between wood and earth, past and present.

Perfectly melding space and art is a distinct priority for Torres, as he tailors each show based on the specific venue he uses. When asked why he chose the MAI, he responded that he found its architecture exciting and was “very drawn to the structure of the place.” He was also very much attracted to the openness and lighting of the space and the possibilities that these characteristics offered him. Another factor that immediately appealed to Torres was the multicultural profile of the MAI, as he felt it lent itself to his transnational themes.

He also told me how this exhibit compared to his previous work. “Each exhibit is a consequence of the previous one,” he said. “It’s an evolution of art and images. I take the conclusions I’ve formulated from the previous exhibit, my reflections, as well as feedback that I’ve gotten and I use them in the next exhibit. I continue the evolution.” Two of these exhibits, En trànsito and Nomade, were both recently shown in Montreal, where Torres has been steadily gaining recognition.

Whether interested in contemporary art or not, I would suggest paying this exhibit a visit, to walk through the displays and venture into the mind of a displaced man.

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This unusual postmodernist book follows the story of Dr. Leo Liebenstein, a psychiatrist who believes that the woman he is living with is not his wife, Rema, but a perfect double unaware of her replacement. In his search for answers, he teams up with his patient, Harvey, who has convinced himself that he has the ability to control the weather, and is working as a secret agent for the Royal Academy of Meteorology. Together they attempt to locate the missing Rema and stop the Royal Academy’s nemeses, a group of deviant meteorologists by the name of the 49 Quantum Fathers, from disturbing regular weather patterns.

Although unconventional in its approach to the topics of sanity, reality, and perception, Atmospheric Disturbances is a beautifully written tale of a man willing to take his convictions as far as necessary in order to find comfort and the one he loves. The book’s style is perhaps better suited to a short story as the diagrams, photos, and scientific definitions included tend to detract from Galchen’s effortless prose.

However, overall the novel does get its message across, showing us exactly how difficult love is to maintain. Leo’s unwillingness to love this new Rema exaggeratedly depicts how couples often grow apart. He often states that the doppelganger is “not the woman I married,” mirroring the usual sentiment expressed when one’s partner seems to change.

The first-person narration of Atmospheric Disturbances further blurs the line between Leo’s adventures and reality, as he often juxtaposes intelligent scientific observations against anecdotes on chimp-human hybrids, waitresses’ waists, and canine emotions.

Although endearing, Leo’s consistent denial of his own insanity and pseudo-logical search for his missing wife do become tiresome. However, just when it seems like the character has alienated himself from the reader with his ongoing and upbeat commentary, Galchen ends with a chapter heartbreaking in its calm resignation.

With its charming style and beautifully tragic theme, Atmospheric Disturbances is well worth the read and certainly worthy of the recognition it has been given.

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Pederasty – the instance of erotic relationships between adult men and adolescent boys – was seen in Ancient Greece as a desirable instructional practice, implemented to teach the youth cultural, civic, and moral values. The relationship, either platonic or sexual, was seen as a perfectly acceptable social institution, and was practiced by several other peoples, including the Celts and other Germanic tribes.

However, the rise of Judeo-Christian values, notably the condemnation of sodomy, led to a change in mores, and pederasty became increasingly uncommon. It was only in 1886 that the study of pedophilia began, with Viennese psychiatrist Richard von Krafft-Ebing and his work Psychopathia Sexualis.

In literature, too, pedophilia has become a common theme. Present as early as the 14th century in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, pedophilia also depicted in works such as Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Norwegian Wood,/i> by Haruki Murakami, and several of Shakespeare’s sonnets, and Goethe’s “Marienbad Elegy.”

Two of the most famous works of fiction prominently featuring pedophilia are, of course, Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice and Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita. Both these novels have garnered international recognition and popularity, and gained classic status.

Death in Venice tells the story of Gustav von Aschenbach, an ascetic middle-aged author who, after a chance encounter, decides to go on sabbatical. Aschenbach finds himself in Venice, and soon notices a beautiful Polish youth by the name of Tadzio. Slowly, as the plot unfolds, Aschenbach’s obsession causes him to forsake his former asceticism and controlled nature in favour of one more passionate and youthful. However, this emotional awakening ultimately results in a loss of dignity and Aschenbach’s death.

Similarly, Nabokov’s Lolita also tells of an emotional awakening. After failing to consummate a childhood relationship with a young girl named Annabel Leigh, Humbert Humbert, the protagonist, becomes obsessed with “nymphets,” or girls between the ages of nine and 14 possessing an ethereal quality that he finds pleasing. After meeting Dolores Haze, known throughout the novel as Dolly or Lolita, he sees Annabel in her, and falls in love with the 12-year-old shortly thereafter. The rest of the novel then describes the growth and eventual failure of their relationship.

Regardless of the awakening experienced by both protagonists, neither Lolita nor Death in Venice were intended as promotions of pedophilia. Aschenbach eventually loses all the self-control he once prided himself upon, and Humbert Humbert often begs the reader to understand that he is not proud of his actions and regrets effectively robbing Lolita of her childhood.

Although both novels have sparked controversy since their publication, the key to their success may very well be this indirect criticism of pedophilia. Regardless of the pederasty of antiquity, pedophilia remains a social taboo, unimaginable to many of us.

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Recently, in an effort to reach a wider range of students, the McGill Libraries bought an island on Second Life and created an information center offering direct access to librarians. This information centre is currently being advertised on the McGill Library web site. While the thought of using an avatar to visit an online world didn’t particularly intrigue me, I was curious as to why McGill would choose to open up a library specifically on Second Life. I thought I’d keep an open mind and give it a try.

My first order of business was creating an avatar. Thinking I should probably come up with some wickedly cool name, I end up with Aly Mirajkar. The only reasonably normal-looking body option available came in a hideously pink dress. Even better.

After getting used to the controls and getting a kick out of the “fly” command, it was time to explore. Opening the map, I typed in “party” and several variations of “Party Island” pop up. After several attempts resulting in my avatar bouncing off an invisible barrier surrounding a log cabin (apparently I was not welcome at this particular gathering) and dancing alone in the middle of a dance floor complete with glowing skulls and columns of flames, I still hadn’t come across any other avatar, and decided to change tactics. Hoping that “Vancouver Island” would yield better results, I typed my hometown into the map, only to be teleported into a shopping complex, once again completely vacant.

The first store I entered featured questionable bits of leather modelled by all-too-realistic looking male mannequins; the second, a wide variety of rainbow flags. Not exactly like the real Vancouver Island, granted, but this escape from reality is one of the major selling points of Second Life.

But why would McGill want to be a part of the network? In order to find out, my next stop in this strange island-world was the library and cybertheque. Surprise, surprise, there was no one to be seen. Not even a librarian. After a quick look around, I picked up my free McGill t-shirt, put it on overtop of my revolting pink dress, and decided that I’d had quite enough online fun for a good long time.

The next day, I had better luck tracking down a librarian in person. Louise O’Neill, the Associate Director of Library Technology Services, is one of the librarians involved in the Second Life project and seems to be enjoying this new method of offering library information. “It’s a bit experimental,” she says. “We’re having fun with it, trying different things. The librarians are still getting used to working in that kind of an environment. It’s very, very different, providing services for somebody who looks like a blue dragon.”

When asked why the librarians had decided to create a McGill library information centre on Second Life, O’Neill replied that McGill was not the first school to be doing something of the sort in an effort to reach library users. “There is a movement among libraries in North America to offer library services in virtual environments,” she added. “We’re past the day when we expect everybody to come to the library to get service. We like to be where our users are.” In an effort to make the library available anytime, anyplace, the librarians decided to get creative and build a virtual library.

However, the demand for such a library doesn’t seem to be very high. Aside from the lack of activity during my visit, few McGill students seem to even be aware of the school’s presence on Second Life. The librarians aren’t too worried, though. “The project is still in the early stages, so we haven’t had too much traffic, but we haven’t been advertising it too heavily either,” said O’Neill. “We have had a few visitors, [but] not all of them are from McGill, because anybody can visit us.” According to the Second Life librarians, a variety of users in need of answers seek out the McGill library, including those interested in bilingual help. “So we have had visitors, but from all over. We’re going to use it as a tool.”

If this project succeeds, McGill Libraries will be looking into other development projects on Second Life in the New Year, including access to Archives Canada. “Hopefully we’ll be in a better position to offer information services there on a regular basis. We’re also hoping to make parts of the island available to other departments.”

If a virtual information centre can succeed in bringing people to the library, it could mean that more alternative teaching methods may soon be on the way. For now, however, the librarians are simply trying to ensure that people have a good experience in the library. As O’Neill explained, “We’re having fun and we’re inviting students to have fun with us.”

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