Opinion

Opinions from our editorial board and contributors.

EDITORIAL: Memo to HMB: Put the pal back in “principal”

As some of you may have noticed this past Friday, just across the street from McConnell Engineering, a sizable cross-section of FACE school-from faculty members to kindergarten students-hit the sidewalks, calling for the swift return of their school principal, Nick Primiano.

INFORMATIONATION: Ideas are cheap in the digital age

There is one massive economic difference separating ideas from physical goods: The marginal cost of an idea is now zero. If I eat a sandwich, you cannot also eat it, but once an idea, an essay, a song or a better web browser comes around, it can be shared, from anyone and to everyone, network to network, at a negligible additional cost.

OFF THE BOARD: The self-shot revolution

The bastard son of the 17th century’s commissioned works and the late 19th century’s photographic revolution, portraits are here to stay. We’ve all had one taken. Graduations. Weddings. Family Reunions. Selfies in the park. Sunday night webcam sessions. Blue Dog Friday night Canon-fests.

EDITORIAL: The error of SSMU’s handbook ways

Every year, the Students’ Society produces a handbook, largely for freshmen students. The handbook contains all sorts of useful information about university life, including, among other things, tips on surviving frosh, good places to eat and details on the SSMU health plan.

OFF THE BOARD: Of football and 9/11

For many, the highlight of the TV viewing experience this weekend was the season premiere of The Simpsons or Family Guy on Fox. Both shows are usually funny, occasionally outlandish and once in a while insightful, but don’t ask me to comment on them because I didn’t watch either one.

OFF THE BOARD: Proud to be a man again

Early forms of feminism were founded upon the notion of female equality; that women should be able to take firm control of their personal and professional lives, be equally represented in the workplace, receive the same professional courtesy and salary as men and obtain the respect they merit in the home.

THE HELPLESS ROMANTIC: Dispatch from the Orient

This column comes to you from Shanghai because I’m still on vacation. I am embedded deep in the pearl-encrusted, dragon-swarming mists of the Far East. Of course, while old Western beliefs about the yellow horde no longer hold, new peculiarities have taken their place.

WET PAINT: Baby and Balanciaga

As we have probably all noticed at some point, current fashions often conflict. While everyone is still flapping about flats and their newly wistful attitude to life and walking, Pam Anderson-inspired monstrosities are somehow attaching themselves to all my friends’ feet.

OFF THE BOARD: Smart people have never been so stupid

I work at a record store and we have a listening counter on the basement level: a broad semi-circular counter with a half-dozen control panels and headphones jutting out of it at two-foot intervals. Customers stand about shoulder-length apart, skimming through the liner notes of a potential purchase, bopping their heads rhythmically.

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