ISIS recruitment Campus forum held after former student recruited by terror group

Longboarding parkIt’s being called a world’s first – find out what local boarders think

CAMPUS TUNESTRUSU’s Tunes Against Tuition concert reviewed + JULY TALK Q&A

Volume 24 – Issue 2 www.truomega.ca Ω @TRU_Omega September 10, 2014

THE KAMLOOPS LONGBOARDING PARKIT’S BEING CALLED A WORLD’S FIRST

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Smokers get designated areas around campus

Terror group recruiting is a “war of ideas”Forum held to discuss terror group’s recruitment after former TRU student joins ISIS

After a CBC article uncovered that a former TRU student had apparently gone to fight with ter-ror group ISIS, a TRU professor is asking why it happened and what can be done to stop it from hap-pening again.

In his search for answers and in an attempt to start a dialogue, TRU political science professor Derek Cook held a forum on ISIS recruiting in the West on Thurs-day, Sept. 4. Cook is also the chair of the TRU Faculty Association’s human rights committee.

Collin Gordon, a TRU student up until 2009 and former member of the WolfPack men’s volleyball team, recently made headlines for joining ISIS alongside brother Gregory.

It was suggested to Cook by the university that his forum not focus on Gordon, citing privacy con-cerns.

ISIS has been justifying violence

and mass murders as part of a re-ligious ideology, when really, Cook said, it ’s a political ideology.

Before opening the room to feedback and questions from at-tending students, faculty and pub-lic, Cook aimed to disillusion the extremist group’s use of religion in order to gain followers.

“The main thing I’d like to em-phasize is that the story they’re being given – the inducements for joining – it’s a con. It’s a pho-ny story. It’s not as advertised and people need to know that and this group needs to be confronted for what it is,” Cook said.

“So how is it that so many West-ern young people are joining them? Someone suggested that Western culture advocates violence; we see violence all around us. These peo-ple are simply reflecting our cul-ture back at us.”

ISIS has used online propaganda on social media as a way to recruit. The access to that information may be doing more than just informing young people, which is a concern to Annie St. John-Stark, chair of

the philosophy, history and politics department.

“The Internet and social media make it very clear to us when we wouldn’t have had it clear to us 30 or 40 years ago on what is going on. I think that, in a sense, encour-ages the attractiveness,” St. John-Stark said. “I think that that type of access may be in general princi-pal a good thing that we can look at all of that. I’m not sure if there’s a way to stop that connectivity.”

“The question is if we can get into the dialogue and see if we can steer people susceptible to ISIS propaganda in a different direc-tion, to show them that they are being conned,” Cook responded.

Gordon’s Twitter account shares a glimpse into the extremist cul-ture in 140 characters or less. A tweet dating back to October 27, 2011 said “Am doing color com-mentary for the @TRUWOLF-PACK Kamloops Volleyball Home Opener this Friday Na-tion wide broadcast on canadawest.tv!”

In April 2012 he be-gan to quote the Qu-ran, the religious text of Islam. On August 21, 2014 he tweeted “10/10. The video of James Fo-ley losing his neck is the perfection of ‘Terrorism’. #IS #JamesFoley #Ca-liphate #Iraq #Sham #Gaza #FreeGaza,” referring to the Aug. 19 murder of U.S. journalist James Foley.

The person using Gordon’s Twit-ter account has responded to those who tweet to him, and follows six other active accounts consistently tweeting similar radical messages.

In an interview with CBC, Cook said that those attempting to com-municate with Gordon over social media should be aware, as it may

not be him. “If we tried to persuade him to

come back, what would happen? He’d be killed,” Cook said. “Unfor-tunately, he’s lost.”

Whether the account remains Gordon’s personal account or is being used by ISIS, his story has created recent media waves. Does

this coverage combat ISIS recruit-ment propaganda, or encourage it?

TRU journalism professor Alan Bass believes that the line between reporting and aiding the spread of propaganda can be a difficult one to find.

“Where that line is drawn of-ten depends on the gravity of the news event itself. However, I sus-pect mainstream media has virtu-ally no impact on whether or not

a young person (and let’s keep in mind we’re talking about a very small number of people) decides to travel halfway around the world to become a fundamentalist killer,” Bass said via email.

Greater influences might be targeted messages being delivered through fundamentalist-controlled

social media and Inter-net recruiting sites, he added.

The forum ended with a message from Cook in reflection of our own po-litical system.

“It has to be more than a military response. It has to be a fight of be-lief systems. It has to be showing young people who want to do some-

thing about injustice that their concerns are recognized,” Cook said.

“This is a war of ideas. And it needs to be taken on by those who engage in ideas, like universities and colleges, so that we can stop the tide of young people who are headed towards ISIS,” Cook said. “Once they get under ISIS, they do what they’re told or they get killed.”

Ashley WadhwaniISSUES EDITOR Ω

TRU has changed its policy on smoking on campus to restrict smok-ers to nine designated areas.

The policy went into effect on Sept. 1, and restricts smoking to ar-eas outside of Arts & Education, the Campus Activity Centre, House of Learning, the human resources building, the library, Old Main, the science building, new residence and trades. Smoking outside of these des-ignated areas will not be permitted. Locations were chosen “based on volume, proximity to building en-trances, and time allowances between classes,” according to a TRU press release.

“To fulfill its responsibility to pro-vide a safe and healthy environment, TRU endeavors to control and re-duce exposure to harmful substances by restricting tobacco use on the Uni-versity’s property,” the policy reads.

The revised policy is the prod-uct of a committee “representing a

cross-section of students and em-ployees from all areas” that has re-ceived the support of TRUSU.

Respiratory Therapy students and TRU Wellness were also involved in the policy’s creation. Beginning on Sept. 11, Respiratory Therapy stu-dents will be at Tobacco Education kiosks around campus taking feed-back on the new designated areas and their locations.

The Omega first reported on Ja-nine Chan’s efforts to bring designat-ed smoking areas to TRU in January. That report cited two studies con-ducted by TRU that showed support for the change. The first was a 2009 survey that showed a majority of the 549 responses wanting a smoke-free environment implemented. In 2011, another survey showed that 71 per cent of 370 respondents wanted to see a change to TRU’s tobacco use policy.

In 2013, TRU was the recipient of the B.C. Champions for Tobac-co-Free Living Award, presented by the B.C. Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation.

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Those lighting up will have to find one of nine designated smoking areasSean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Derek Cook called ISIS’s recruiting attempts a “con” based on a “phony story” at the Sept. 4 forum held at TRU. (Ashley Wadhwani/The Omega)

On the left is an image uploaded to Collin Gordon’s Facebook page on April 12, 2014. On the right, Gordon’s WolfPack headshot taken when he came to TRU from SAIT to play volleyball in 2008. (Facebook, TRU Athletics)

“Once they get under ISIS, they do what they’re told or they get killed.”

Derek Cook, TRU professor, political science

This map, provided by the university, shows the locations of all nine of the designated smoking areas.

3The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 2

The Omega

www.truomega.ca

/TRUOmega

@TRU_Omega

Thompson Rivers University’s Independent Student Newspaper

Published since November 27, 1991

EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

NEWS EDITOR

ISSUES EDITOR

ARTS EDITOR

SPORTS EDITOR

SCI-TECH EDITOR

COPY EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

Sean Brady@iamseanbradyeditor@truomega.ca

Alexis Stockford@AlexisStockfordnews@truomega.ca

Ashley Wadhwani@ashwadhwaniissues@truomega.ca

Kim Anderson@K_AndersonSaysarts@truomega.ca

Tayla Scott@taylascott3sports@truomega.ca

Vacant

Rachel Wood@rachelwooodcopy@truomega.ca

Carli Berry

Want to contribute? Email editor@truomega.ca

PUBLISHING BOARDEDITOR-IN-CHIEF

INDUSTRY REP

FACULTY REP

STUDENT REP

STUDENT REP

STUDENT REP

Sean Brady

Christopher Foulds

Charles Hays

Travis Persaud

Adam Williams

Hugo Yuen

LETTERS POLICYLiterary and visual submissions are welcomed. All submissions are subject to editing for brevity, taste and legality. The Omega will attempt to publish each letter received, barring time and space constraints. The editor will take care not to change the intention or tone of submissions, but will not publish material deemed to exhibit sexism, racism or homophobia. Letters for publication must include the writer’s name (for publication) and contact details (not for publication). The Omega reserves the right not to publish any letter or submitted material. Opinions expressed in any section with an “Opinion” label do not represent those of The Omega, the Cariboo Student Newspaper Society, its Board of Directors or its staff. Opinions belong only to those who have signed them.

COPYRIGHTAll material in this publication is copyright The Omega and may not be reproduced without the expressed consent of the publisher. All unsolicited submissions become copyright The Omega 2014.

Cariboo Student Newspaper Society(Publisher of The Omega)

TRU Campus House #4900 McGill Rd, Kamloops, B.C. V2C 0C8

Phone: 250-828-5069Advertising inquiries:

accounts@truomega.ca

PUBLISHING

EDITORIAL & OPINION

Sessional faculty can’t be the solution

We all want an affordable edu-cation, but the overuse of sessional faculty just can’t be the answer. It only leads to a poorer quality ed-ucation and unfair working condi-tions for those who teach us.

Your favourite professor has taught the classes you’re taking for years. Not only does she know what she’s talking about, she knows how to teach it and cater to your learn-ing needs. She’s the most valuable piece of the puzzle in your learning. Every year, however, she has to re-apply for her own job because she’s a sessional faculty member. This year, the university has decided not to renew her contact. Now what?

It’s a situation that can lead to stress from students and professors alike, and it’s one that can greatly affect the quality of education, and it happens all the time.

“The reality for many is having to reapply every term for a course they may have taught for years. Often they don’t know with any certain-ty from one semester to the next whether they’ll have a contract at all,” Moira MacDonald wrote in a Jan. 13, 2013 feature for University Affairs.

Last year, TRU cut approximate-ly 60 per cent of its sessionals in the faculty of arts, citing a drop in enrolment.

Michael Crawford, a full-time social work instructor, said in an April 2014 interview with the CBC that sessional faculty are be-ing referred to almost like retail clerks, hired only to cover demand at peak times.

Crawford also noted that retired tenured faculty are being replaced by sessional faculty.

I almost understand TRU’s ac-tions here. They’re facing dwindling government funding and have to make up the difference somewhere. But again, this can’t possibly be the solution. What would happen if TRU ended up as a revolving door for sessional faculty? Knowing your stuff is all well and good, and I don’t distrust the qualifications of sessionals, but what about the wis-dom? Where does the continuity come from?

Two students also spoke with the CBC about the cuts at TRU, in-cluding how it affected their ability to graduate on time and receive a quality education.

“We’re seeing a 28 per cent de-crease in the sessional staff in up-per level credits, which means these students are going into their final year of education excited to gradu-ate, and we are having to draw out our degrees for 3-4 years just to get the credits to graduate,” Casey Helgason said.

“We have four tenured profes-sors, currently. As of this fall one of them is going on maternity

leave and her classes are just being dropped and other teachers are be-ing expected to pick up the slack for that. I have two classes I was going to take next year and they’re just not available anymore,” Bray-don Wilson told CBC.

At the end of the 2014 winter semester, when students found out that TRU had decided not to renew the contract of political sci-ence professor Robert Hanlon, a petition was posted around cam-pus asking for signatures. The pe-tition asked TRU to overturn the decision to “keep political science a healthy and educational depart-ment” and it was signed “Political Science Students.”

The petition appears to have worked, as Robert Hanlon is list-ed as teaching four courses in the 2015 winter semester.

The voice of students may have played a part in the case of this pro-fessor, but what can be done for the rest? Students aren’t typically aware of the employment situations of their profs, so how can always be expected to know what’s going on?

Despite this bit of progress, the problem seems to be one that isn’t going away. As of Sept. 8, there are 46 job postings for sessional faculty at the TRU campus in Kamloops. Compare this with 19 non-session-al faculty currently being hired.

Let’s hope this isn’t a good indi-cator of where things are going.

editor@truomega.ca

Overuse of sessional faculty can’t be the answer to creating opportunities for an affordable educationSean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Burger King - Tim Hortons merger causes national culture shock

Canadians from Beaver Creek, Yu-kon, to Cape Spear, Nfld., have been tak-ing long, deep looks into their morning coffees as news of the Burger King-Tim Hortons merger has hurtled the nation into a major identity crisis.

The merger comes at a time when Hockey Night in Canada no longer airs on the CBC, the country’s largest export is Rob Ford news stories, and pleases and thank-yous are down more than 70 per cent nationwide.

“Tim Hortons used to be a place that embodied everything about small-town Canada and quintessential Canadian values,” said Andre Deveraux, a U of O sociology student and part-time Star-bucks barista. “It was the easiest answer to the question, ‘What is Canadian?’ Now it’s just another coffee chain.”

He continued, “It’s one thing when you culturally dominate our film, music, television, automotive, fast-food, news, clothing, retail chains, and technology industries, but coming after our national coffee is crossing the line.”

The Burger King-Tim Hortons merg-er is another sad chapter in a series of de-fects and defeats Canada has suffered at the hands of corporate America, on par with the departures of Wayne Gretzky, Paul Anka, the Montreal Expos, and Ryan Reynolds’ abdominals.

Rumours continue to circulate about the changes that could be coming to the Canadian institution, including the be-loved “double-double” order switching from “two cream, two sugar” to “two sug-ar, two cream.”

“What about the health impact?” asked Deveraux. “Timbits, danishes, and honey crullers are one thing, but now I hear they’re experimenting with Reese’s cups. Where does it end?”

The menu isn’t the only cause for con-cern among Canadians.

“It’s a question of sovereignty,” said U of O political science professor Jan-et Mackenzie. “They could have sent a burger ambassador, a burger minister, or even a burger lieutenant governor, but they sent a monarch instead—a clear challenge to our national autonomy.”

“Burger King has been in Cana-da since 1968 and that’s ample time to learn our ways and customs,” Mackenzie added. “It’s quite possible that this cor-porate invasion will be so seamless that average Canadians won’t even notice it’s happened, and by then it may already be too late.”

Further research reveals that foreign operatives have been cultivating Tim Hortons for nearly two decades.

The iconic Canadian company was purchased by the Canadian-esque, if American-owned, fast food chain Wen-dy’s in 1995, and sold its centralized baking operation, Maidstone Bakeries, to Swiss investors in 2010. Admittedly these Swiss investors hail from a nation that shares several Canadian values, in-cluding choice of flag colours, so many will be able to at least pretend that Maid-stone is still a Canadian-owned compa-ny.

Since Tim Hortons holds more than 60 per cent of the Canadian coffee mar-ket, Burger King has plans to expand the quaint Canadian company into an inter-national coffee chain.

“It’s manifest destiny for the 21st cen-tury,” said Mackenzie. “You think you’re entering a nice Canadian store and then bam—you’re hit with an Angry Amer-ican Whopper right between the eyes.”

Ryan MalloughTHE FULCRUM (CUP)

Viewers of the celebrity award show double-header in late August will surely have a lot to say about what went down, but perhaps most important to the conversation is how the VMAs and Emmys con-tributed to the conversation around feminism.

Let us remind ourselves what the VMAs were like last year. Miley Cyrus. Robin Thicke. Foam fingers. Twerking. It was embarrassing, to say the least. Flash forward to this year, and we have Beyoncé accept-ing her 2014 MTV Video Vanguard Award and making a whole other statement.

Beyoncé made the news by flash-ing the word “FEMINIST” behind her as she stood there with her hands on her hips, hair blowing in the wind machine, while she performed a snippet of “***Flawless.” The song features a sampling of writer and ac-tivist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TEDxEuston speech, “We should all be feminists.” Like many others, if it wasn’t for “***Flawless,” I would not have found Ngozi Adichie and broadened my knowledge on the subject of gender justice, so I thank her for that.

Beyoncé’s media team was smart to have her husband and daughter join her on stage to shun away her supposed divorce rumours. But what it also achieved was a projection of herself as an independent, feminist woman who still feels comfortable

in the traditional maternal role.Jump to the next day at the Em-

mys. Not even 12 hours later we have Sofia Vergara on a rotating pedestal, who along with American journalist Glenn Greenwald, spoke for a pseudo-PSA about diversity in the media.

Jokes aside, the display of Vergara promotes sexism in the entertain-ment industry, rather than changing it. On the contrary, Vergara dis-agreed.

She told Entertainment Weekly, “I think it’s absolutely the opposite. It means that somebody can be hot and also be funny and make fun of herself.”

But this is not the case for Ver-gara’s skit. It is not like we cannot joke about feminism – we certainly can. Despite its attempt at humour, Vergara and Greenwald’s skit was tawdry and in poor taste regard-ing diversity. As the viewer, it was extremely uncomfortable to watch her be spun around for us to view all

her assets ever so slowly pretending to be the Male Gaze. There can be other ways of entertaining people, besides pretending to be oblivious. This style is quite tiresome.

Celebrity culture has finally en-tered the feminist conversation. As the Guardian‘s Jessica Valenti wrote, “Feminism is no longer ‘the f-word,’ it’s the realm of cool kids: Beyoncé, Lena Dunham, Amy Poe-hler, Kerry Washington, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt all call themselves feminists.” Recently, Christina Hendricks of Mad Men collaborat-ed with the White House and Fun-ny or Die to spread awareness about the wage gap for female employees. Celebrities are continuing to spread feminist messages.

Let’s hope those messages are a proper representation of feminism, rather than vanity and objectifica-tion in disguise. Celebrity gossip certainly isn’t the best way to talk about it—but at least it gets the conversation going.

Jessica EritouTHE FULCRUM (CUP)

The ups and downs of celebrity feminism

Raz Birkshaw Photo

4 September 10, 2014ARTS

From behind his sunglasses, Cory Myraas of Windmills opened up the annual Tunes Against Tuition concert at TRU on Saturday, Sept. 6.

Windmills performed for a small crowd, at first (at one point it was a lone fan in front of the stage). As the show went on, more students flocked to hear what the commotion was.

Myraas’ performance style is unique. He strikes a note with his gui-tar, drums, or keyboard and that note loops, creating a seamless, flowing and complete sound. What begins as a single note transforms into a medley of sounds that flows like a river.

Anyone who wasn’t dancing to “Face to a Name,” wasn’t paying at-tention. Myraas tells a story involving liquid courage and becoming James Dean. His vocals began repeating and looping along with the notes, creating a hazy, foggy feeling that mirrored the story told in his song. His vocal ability was most notable during his version of Coldplay’s “Clocks.”

For his entire set, Myraas made the stage his own. Between swap-ping instruments and commanding the attention of the audience, Myraas demonstrated why Windmills works and why he is able to continue as a thriving and charismatic one-man band.

Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk came charging in, tambourines in hand, after Windmills left the stage with a request for everyone to join them and dance.

Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk consists of Lauren Mann on lead vocals, piano and ukulele; Jay Christ-man playing drums and guitar; Jessica Christman playing bass and additional keys; Josh Akin playing electric/acous-tic guitar; Zoltan Szoges playing addi-tional keys and percussion; and Ham-mer Clark, the front of house tech.

The Calgary, Alta. natives kicked off their set with “Through Your Eyes,” “Let’s Make Our Escape,” “Over Land and Sea” and “Dance With Me.”

The six-piece folksy indie band held the students of TRU in the palm of their hands while they played their in-novative and emotionally-charged set.

Mann possesses a remarkable vocal range that can be both delicate and wispy and then suddenly shift to strong and powerful. For part of the show, she used a classic, old-fashioned micro-phone. Rarely was Mann just singing. She rotated between playing the piano, strumming the ukulele and vocals.

The most impressive aspect of their performance was their ability and de-sire for audience involvement. Near the end of their set, Szoges began tossing out tambourines, small noisemakers and a cowbell to the crowd. Before any of the fans knew how to react, he re-appeared, this time with an enor-mous drum he handed down to the crowd. He then tossed out an armful of drumsticks.

The crowd reacted with pure, child-like joy and began striking the drum to the beat of their stunning finale, “How it Goes.” Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk finished their set and left the audience cheering, ecstatic and want-ing more.

Canadian indie-rockers July Talk brought TRU a show unlike any oth-er. Lead singers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay acted out a romantic rela-tionship on stage. There was constant flirting and playfulness throughout the performance that ranged from locking eyes to Dreimanis biting Fay’s shoulder.

July Talk thrived off of energy from the audience. Fay even took off her high heels and leapt down into the audience, all while singing the song “Let Her Know.” Audience members clapped and whooped as Fay sang and danced with them before returning to the stage.

Members of the band include sing-ers Peter Dreimanis and Leah Fay, guitarist Ian Docherty, bassist Josh Warburton and drummer Danny Miles.

The fashion ensemble of the band was basic, with Dreimanis and Fay wearing contrasting black and white colours that stood out from the rest of the band’s black outfits. This may have been to reinforce the actors’ on-stage relationship.

The 13 songs performed were a mix of new and old, ranging from hits like “Guns + Ammunition,” “Paper Girl” and “Summer Dress” to a newer song, “Blood and Honey” that has yet to be released.

It was not the first time July Talk played at TRU. In 2012 they per-formed at Tunes Against Tuition with the Arkells, Young Pacific and Good For Grapes. Early in the show, Drei-manis told a story of the last time July Talk was in Kamloops. It involved Dreimanis falling asleep after a party in a pile of puppies, which received ri-otous laughter from the audience.

After the last song, audience mem-bers screamed for an encore and were rewarded with “Black Lace,” a song that Fay joked was sexy and wished the audience a very sexy time in school.

IN REVIEW: TUNES AGAINST TUITION 2014

ACT ONEWINDMILLSKim AndersonARTS EDITOR Ω

Kim AndersonARTS EDITOR Ω

Carli BerryCONTRIBUTOR Ω

ACT TWOLAUREN MANNAND THE FAIRLY ODD FOLK

ACT THREEJULY TALK

All photos by Kim Anderson/The Omega

5The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 2 NEWS

After the concert I lingered around in hopes of getting five minutes of face time to chat with July Talk. They did not disappoint me. In-between snacking on fruit, tortilla chips and hummus, they answered my questions.

Q: You guys put on an incredi-ble show. The audience participa-tion factor is huge. So, Leah, did you plan to jump down there?

Leah: I just felt like doing it. It ’s not a thing that we ever think about. It would be so boring if we just went up there and did the same thing every night. We are a band that believes in that. We don’t try to miss notes or words, or plan that. But the spontaneity and rawness is something that we thrive on and something we need.

Peter: We want to create an en-vironment where the audience isn’t just watching us. We are watch-ing them a bit. They are under as much pressure as we are. When-ever that tension is created they

aren’t in this safety net. We’ve all gone to shows where you can sit in the back of the room and not really be noticed. For us, we want to have that feedback and partici-pation from all of them.

Q: If you couldn’t be musicians, what would you end up doing?

Peter: I’d be making films.Josh: A filmmaker as well. That

may still happen. Danny: I did paramedics in

school. Leah: I’d be working in the

realm of contemporary dance, or choreographing hip-hop videos. Because that’s where the money is.

Ian: I’d be doing the same thing, but more ballet oriented. No, I have no idea. I’d probably have to be making music.

Q: Your lead vocals are incredi-bly contrasting. When you started, did that happen organically, or did you have to work at it? How did this dynamic come about?

Peter: We started really simple. It was like verse for Leah, verse for me, or open on the chorus. Like “In the Garden,” for instance, it ’s pretty simply oriented. What Josh

brought up early on that was really cool about the voice contrasting, is when we broke the sections down into a one-line. It ’s more conversa-tional and back and forth. It never came together as trying to push our voices apart, they just were that far apart and we decided to use it.

Peter: A lot of it is born out of necessity. When we started, the reason our band was dynamic was because we had a really shitty sound system and we couldn’t hear Leah when she sang. So when Leah sang, it meant that Dan-ny played differently, we all came down a little, so we could hear her. It helped us create music that we wouldn’t have otherwise. It was the same with the voices. It was about creating a conversational atmosphere and letting the band’s dynamic mimic how different our voices are.

For more Q&As with the 2014 Tunes Against Tuition bands, find a copy of last week’s issue of The Omega or find us online at truomega.ca.

Kim AndersonARTS EDITOR Ω

JULY TALK: FACE TO FACEA September conversation with July Talk

6 September 10, 2014COMICS & PUZZLES

SUDOKUBecause obviously you’re probably not doing enough math

6 8 2 3 77 5

7 8 41 5

2 5 63 4

6 9 32 4

9 3 2 5 6

You got a better idea?Your work could appear on this page! We’re always looking for contributors, so if you’ve got something to contribute, whether it’s a comic, a joke, a riddle or anything otherwise entertaining, we want to hear from you!

Let’s hear it! Email editor@truomega.ca

Puzzle of the Week #1 – Binders

Welcome to a new year of puzzles.

You are taking five courses this semester: one English, one Math, andthree Computing courses. You bought six binders for notes, one for eachcourse plus one for general notes.

How many ways can you allocate binders to courses and general notes

1. So that each binder colour is used for only one course subject?

2. So that each course subject has only one binder colour?

for these scenarios:

1. You bought three red, two blue, and one green binder. (Yes, “binder”is correct. My thanks to Sara Wolfe of the Writing Centre. Haveyou been to the Writing Centre yet? OM 2674.)

2. You bought two red, two blue, and two green binders.

For each question, the general notes binder is not for a course, and eachcourse in a subject should be considered distinct, but the binders of eachcolour are not distinct from each other.

This contest is sponsored by the Mathematics and Statistics department. The

full-time student with the best score at the end of the year will win a prize.

Please submit your solution (not just the answer but also why) by noon next

Wednesday to Gene Wirchenko <genew@telus.net>. Submissions by others are

also welcome. The solution will be posted the Wednesday after that in my

blog (http://genew.ca/) and in the Math Centre (HL304). Come visit: we are

friendly.

JOKES

A skeleton walks into a bar, and orders a mug of beer and a mop.- Submitted by Alexander Wong

“MY FIRST DRINK WITH MY SON”I was reading an article last night about fathers and sons, and memo-ries came flooding back of the time I took my son out for his first drink. Off we went to our local bar, which is only two blocks from the house. I got him a Miller Genuine. He didn’t like it – so I drank it. Then I got him a Fosters, he didn’t like it either, so I drank it. It was the same with the Coors and the Bud. By the time we got down to the Irish whiskey, I could hardly push the stroller back home.

PARALLEL LINES HAVE SO MUCH IN COMMONIt’s a shame they’ll never meet.

WHAT DID THE PIRATE SAY ON HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY?

Aye matey.

7The Omega Ω Volume 24 • Issue 2 SPORTS

Kamloops longboarding park being called a world’s first

Kamloops’ new longboarding park isn’t officially open yet, but that hasn’t stopped local long-boarders from enjoying it.

“It will be officially open as soon as we get safety signage up,” said Mike Doll, Kamloops parks plan-ning and sustainability supervisor.

Doll is aware people are already using the park. “We recommend wearing a helmet. We expect the safety signs to be made by the be-ginning of next week.”

Among the early adopters are Ben Peacock and Patrick Mutrie, current and former TRU students.

Peacock, a bachelor of business administration student, has helped run the Kamloops Longboarding Club for two years.

“The park is great. Before this, the street has been the only op-tion. Now it ’s safer and gets kids off the street. It gives them an en-

vironment to practice their skills while not at risk of serious injury or death,” Peacock said.

The park has gained a lot of at-tention, being featured on long-boarding sites and groups across the world. It ’s being called the world’s first longboarding park.

Landyachtz, a Vancouver-based longboard company, called it the world’s first longboarding park during its visit, where it handed out prizes to kids and competi-tors.

Mutrie, a TRU alum, has been longboarding for seven years and has raced in longboarding com-petitions. Mutrie has been in-volved with the park since the beginning.

“We have one blue run and we have one black run. They’re very different. On the blue run, you can grip several of the corners so you don’t have to engage into a drift and you can kind of surf down,” Mutrie said.

“The black run, it ’s quite a bit steeper and the turns are a lot tighter. You have to engage in a drift to make it around and it ’s a lot more challenging. You need different skills on each run.”

“[The park] is everything we thought it would be.”

Safety signs won’t be the finish-ing touch on the park, however.

“We’re planning on adding a grassed area with picnic tables, a pit toilet and a drinking foun-tain,” Doll said. “We’re pushing to get that done by the end of September.”

There will be an official grand opening on Oct. 3 at 11:30 a.m.

The park is located at 2350 Pacific Way, just south of Pacif-ic Way Elementary. The land was already owned by the city, which made converting it to a long-boarding park a simple process.

“It ’s a great location. There’s not a lot of city-owned land that has that topography,” Doll said.

Tayla ScottSPORTS EDITOR Ω

(Tayla Scott/The Omega)

Harisson Ross/Contributed

Athletics director Ken Olynyk helps out at the 2014 Back to School BBQ. (Image courtesy TRU Athletics)

(Have a better caption for this photo? I think you might! Why not let us know? Send it along to editor@truomega.ca)

Pre-season bodes well for WolfPack baseballWolfPack team has played eight and won seven

Since Friday, Sept. 5, the Wolf-Pack baseball team has played eight games and won seven.

On Friday, the team faced a double header in Alberta and started their preseason with a disastrous 14-6 loss to the Uni-versity of Calgary Dinos, but lat-er redeemed themselves in Oko-toks against the Okotoks Dawgs (midget) with a 7-2 win.

The following day, the team faced the Dawgs four more times, winning 9-2, 4-2, 10-8, 9-1.

On Sunday, Sept. 7, the team put one more win against the Dawgs in the bag with an 8-1 victory before facing the U of C Dinos once again.

Looking for redemption, the team found it, with a decisive 10-0 victory against the Dinos, taking their preseason record to 7-1. Erik Herbranson pitched for the win and Brendan Reid went two for four with two runs batted in.

The WolfPack men will return to the field on Sept. 13 for their home opener against the UBC Thunderbirds at Norbrock Sta-dium.

Sean BradyEDITOR-IN-CHIEF Ω

Erik Herbranson pitched for the team’s win on Sept. 7. (Allen Douglas)

September 3, 20148