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Student Life

Three leaves + glue

by Alison Bailey on

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Everybody loves Halloween. It’s the only time of the year you can dress up or dress down. Some people opt for a creative costume while others play it safe and go for something more traditional. Whatever you decided to dress as this year, here are some of the best and worst decisions students at McGill made.

The politically incorrect costume: The Chilean Miner

It’s too soon. This costume wasn’t as bad as what I’ve seen in previous years—for example, a distasteful Al Qaeda terrorist, or Hitler. But despite this recent event having a happy ending, it’s still way too early to joke about.

The sluttiest female costume: Mother Earth

This costume is scarily simple: three leaves and glue. To date, this is the best way I’ve seen to leave as little as possible to the imagination. I know girls love to seize the moment to shorten their skirts and flash a little cleavage, but this was truly pushing it.

The sluttiest male costume: Premature Ejaculation.

Simple, to the point, and cheap, in a slightly more appropriate way: a guy without a shirt and his belt unbuckled. Although I can appreciate the wit behind it, this was either a last minute makeshift costume or an excuse for a guy to take his shirt off and show off his abs.

The most popular female costume: Katy Perry

Apart from the standard sexy cop, firewoman, or flight attendant, Katy Perry seemed to be one of the most popular costumes this year. The costume is taken from Perry’s “California Gurls” music video: a bright blue wig, short shorts, and a bra with what looks like two delicious baked goods on top and cherries right in the centre. You get the idea. At least it wasn’t Lady Gaga.

The most popular male costume: Morphsuit

This lycra spandex costume in bright metallic colours covers you from head to toe. And in case you’re wondering, you can drink through the Morphsuit.

The worst costume:

It’s a toss-up between Mother Earth and the girl I saw who wore nothing but corset and a thong.

The best costume: Tetris Team

Groups have a tendency to turn out the best, but you they must have put in a lot of thought into this type of costume. This year the best one I saw was a group of Tetris blocks running around the McGill Ghetto, stopping in the middle of the street and making Tetris formations with each other.

Science & Technology, Student Life

Stealing from the cookie jar

by Iain Macdonald on

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Your online accounts are vulnerable. From Amazon to Yahoo!, your personal information on many of your favourite sites, if used on a public network, can easily be stolen. Thanks to a Firefox plug-in called Firesheep, released last week by hacker Eric Butler, this risk is higher than ever. By installing the plug-in and connecting to a public network, amateur hackers can gain access to dozens of accounts in seconds.

Firesheep steals your identity by stealing cookies (no, not from the cookie jar). Cookies have been used for the last 15 years, and they allow site administrators to remember who certain users are. When you log in to a site like Facebook, your username and password are passed through an encryption algorithm before being sent to the site. This way, even if your information were intercepted, it would be useless. After logging in, however, all of your communication with the site is unencrypted. WEP or WPA encrypt communication, but on a public network, this client-router safeguard is absent.

Imagine your network is a giant room, with one person responsible for handling all communication out of the room. That person is the router. Each computer, or client, would be a person in the room. Over an ethernet connection, each person has a telephone to communicate with the router, so nobody can hear their conversations. With a wireless connection, however, all of the clients must shout their information at the router. In this case, everyone can hear everyone else’s communications. On an encrpyted network, each person uses a secret code to do their transmission, so while a message can be understood by the client and the router, nobody else understands what they’re saying. However, on a public network, this information is not encrpyted. This means everyone in the room can hear what everyone else is saying. All they have to do is listen.

While your computer typically ignores messages not addressed specifically to it, Firesheep uses a library called WinPCap, which listens to all messages that your computer can see on a public network. Firesheep can’t be used to steal your username and password, but when you request a page which requires cookies, your machine sends the cookie to the router in an unecnrypted format. Firesheep, when listening to transmissions, can steal this cookie and remember it. Then, the Firesheep user can simply request the page using your cookie, which will fool the site into thinking that  he or she is you. The amateur hacker can then muck around with your account all they like.

The writer, Butler, said that he didn’t intend for this plug-in to be used in a malicious manner, despite the possibility. Rather, he created it to demonstrate the issues with un-encrypted cookie transmission to these site administrators. Point taken, Butler.

The solution to this problem isn’t to stop using these sites on an unencrypted network. In fact, any site with a social network plug-in, like a tweet or a “like” button, involves this cookie information. While the onus is on site administrators to use SSL encryption protocols to encrypt all sensitive information, you can take security measures yourself until they do. Firefox users can install the HTTPS-everywhere plug-in, which forces Firefox to use the stronger HTTPS encryption whenever possible. Force-TLS uses a similar method of forcing HTTPS encryption. Logging in to a Virtual Private Network can also be used to secure communication with the web.

Firesheep points out a gaping hole in web security. While site administrators might think they’re keeping users safe by encrypting login, they’re fooling themselves if they’re using unencrypted HTTP connections after that point. As Butler pointed out, it’s actually quite easy to steal cookies that these sites use and pose as another user. We can only hope that popular websites fix this issue soon. Until then, it would be foolish to use any non-HTTPS site on an unencrypted network.

Opinion

Release health records, not identities

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McGill Tribune

The Supreme Court of British Columbia is currently deciding whether Olivia Pratten’s inability to access the identity and medical records of her unwitting biological father—a sperm donor 28 years ago—violates her constitutional rights to “life, liberty, and security of person.”  Pratten, a reporter for the Canadian Press, sued to mandate that records be made available to sperm donors’ children when they turn 18. The federal government disagrees, sympathizing with Pratten but contending she has not been treated like a second-class citizen. We agree with the Crown: as current federal legislation mandates, donors’ medical records should be made available to inquiring children, but individual identities should remain concealed.

For various reasons, some more obvious than others, it’s justifiable that a person would want to know the identity of their parents. For one thing, most people just want to know. Many children who are adopted or born from donated sperm have trouble later in life grappling with who they are, where they come from, and what they are doing here. There is a fundamental human need to tell stories, most importantly about ourselves. Not knowing the identity of one or both of one’s own parents can be traumatic. It’s perfectly understandable for people to want to learn the truth.

Another reason is more practical: learning the identity of one’s parents could clear up a lot of questions about medical history, and can therefore help a person take important precautions to ensure they remain healthy. Ignorance of hereditary conditions can lead to serious complications. Knowledge of your family’s medical history can help prevent such tragedies from happening, and should be available to any person who asks.

Despite this, while medical history should be available, there are valid reasons for keeping donors’ identities hidden from their offspring. One issue is that while sperm donations are important for helping many couples conceive, many men who donate sperm do so only for money, and neither expect nor want to be called “Daddy” by anybody. If they knew their identity would eventually be made known to any children their sperm managed to conceive, many of these men would be seriously disincentivized from donating. As sad as Pratten’s situation is, we have to assume it would be even sadder had she never been born.

There is also a serious issue related to retroactivity. It seems dangerously unfair—and potentially a violation of constitutional rights—to assure sperm donors anonymity at the time of donation, and then 15, 20, or even 30 years down the road strip them of that right, in direct violation of the previously-signed agreement. Whatever the psychological issues faced by children ignorant of their parents’ identities, applying this accessibility mandate to donations from the past seems especially indefensible.

One unique complication of the Pratten case is that, according to the Globe and Mail, “The Vancouver doctor who inseminated her mother said he destroyed those records in the 1990s because at the time he wasn’t required to keep such documents for more than six years.” To address precisely this problem, the federal government in 2004 passed the Assisted Human Reproduction Act, which, according to the Globe, “prevents donor records from being destroyed but still allows donors to remain anonymous.” This act does not apply retroactively, as indeed it properly should not.

The case of Olivia Pratten and those in similar situations is confusing and complex. There’s no easy answer, since recognizing the rights of one party seems in the end to violate those of the other. However, it’s unjustifiable to renege on important promises.

To paraphrase Churchill, the current federal legislation, which allows children to see medical records but not the actual identity of the father, is the worst solution to this complex problem, except for all the others.

Opinion

A close call with plagiarism

by Vicky Tobianah on

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Last week, I submitted an article to the McGill Daily. (Just broadening my horizons, not switching turfs.) When the editor told me that I had used too many of another’s words and as a result, the article could not be published, I was shocked. Had I really crossed the line to plagiarism?

A 2009 study at the University of British Columbia found that students who plagiarize or cheat have “dark” personality traits, most commonly psychopathy. The study’s author, psychology Professor Delroy Paulhus, recommended that universities should treat plagiarism as a mental disorder.

Me? A psychopath? It doesn’t match my personality traits or my strong ethical values. I still can’t come to terms with the fact that laziness and sloppy work resulted in a close call with plagiarism. I am reluctant to even talk about this incident because, like many other students, I’m hesitant to admit that I came so close to cheating. It’s a mistake I won’t make again.

Apparently, I’m not the first. Researchers at Guelph University and Rutgers University revealed in a 2006 study that over 53 per cent of Canadians admitted to plagiarism and 18 per cent to cheating on tests at post-secondary schools. Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper was accused of plagiarizing his 2010 throne speech from former Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Harper was also accused of plagiarizing a speech he gave as opposition leader, urging Canada to send troops into Iraq. His speechwriter eventually was forced to resign.

The fact that plagiarism is so widespread—among politicians, students, and even professors—makes me wonder why it’s so appealing. Is it laziness, or is it a deeper societal problem?

One issue is that students often don’t realize they are cheating. Letting your parents edit your work (or write it for you) is plagiarism. Working in groups to solve a project, when the professor has forbidden it, is cheating. A survey of 20,000 students compiled by the Canadian Council on Learning found that students of our generation are more likely than those of others to cheat, and less likely to call it cheating.

Another problem is the accessibility of cheating. Internet-based cheating increased by 81 per cent between 2003 and 2006 according to a survey conducted by the CCL. Copying and pasting from an article has never been so easy.

But the biggest problem is our failure to value our own words and work. People cheat not because they are unethical or too busy to come up with their own ideas, but because they don’t value their own opinions. The thoughts of supposedly reputable others seem more important; one’s own original thoughts seem not to measure up in comparison. While discussing ideas for a class paper, my Shakespeare professor didn’t just tell us not to plagiarize. He told us not to disrespect our own intelligence.  “Borrowing” an idea from someone else only means that we don’t believe sufficiently in ourselves.

An organizer of the Rutgers/Guelph study said the best way to deal with plagiarism is to implement an honour code in schools. But students know cheating is wrong. It’s more important to encourage them to develop their own ideas and take them seriously when they vocalize those ideas.

The excuses are endless but at the root of cheating lies an under-appreciation of your own self-worth. Rather than just inserting the section “McGill values academic integrity” onto every syllabus, it would be more effective if professors and students discussed what academic integrity really is: an understanding that my ideas can only be authentic if I work hard to ensure that they’re my own.

Sports

NBA’s new-look New York Knicks visit McGill gym

by Adam Sadinsky on

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In one of the best-kept NBA secrets since “The Decision,” the New York Knicks practiced at McGill’s Love Competition Hall on Thursday. Amid little fanfare, the Knicks put in an afternoon of practice in preparation for an exhibition game Friday night against the Toronto Raptors at the Bell Centre. Members of the Redmen and Martlets basketball teams, as well as some members of the local sports media, observed the superstars.

It was the kind of event that doesn’t come around every day, and those who were there to witness it were not disappointed. On the same hardwood that our varsity teams call home and on which many of us play intramural sports, NBA players were practicing. Signs around the gym notified students that the gym was closed, and many did not even realize that their intramural contests were cancelled because of the presence of professional basketball players.

The Knicks relished a day outside of their usual surroundings and enjoyed practicing in a university environment. “To be able to go to a college where there’s lots of energy and excitement, that’s always good,” said Knicks Head Coach Mike D’Antoni. “Practicing every day, it becomes a bit of drudgery, so it’s a nice change.” Many of the pros took some time to help out the McGill athletes with some shooting technique.

The coach also mentioned that his players were enjoying their time in Montreal. “Most of our players have never been to Montreal. It’s a beautiful city, and for them to be able to experience the city the night before, I think it’s great.”

Whether that statement meant that players were loading up on poutine and enjoying the infamous Montreal nightlife or soaking in the culture is a mystery. If anyone saw some larger than average men on their way to the bar scene on Thursday night, they probably saw the Knicks.

While varsity athletes were allowed down to the gym to watch the practice, those who are not so athletically gifted were forced to watch from the windows above the gym near Tomlinson Hall. Surprisingly, in this age of instant communication, there were only about twenty people watching from above. Whether this was because McGill students don’t care about basketball or if they were too focused on their studies is irrelevant; they missed a rare opportunity.

Later on, a crowd gathered in the hall as the Knicks made their way from the gym to the bus back to their hotel. Some lucky students were able to take pictures with stars, like power forward Amar’e Stoudamire. One fan was even heard shouting to the newly signed free agent, “Take us back to the Holy Land!” A clever pun combining Amar’e’s task of revitalizing the team with the NBA’s longest playoff drought and the summer rumours that the star big man travelled to Israel and is now exploring his alleged Jewish heritage.

Returning to the playoffs will be a tough task for the Knicks but in an Eastern Conference dominated by only a couple of teams, the last few spots should be up for grabs. “We have some good players, we’re young and we need to come together,” said D’Antoni. “We’ll try to make the playoffs, and 29 other teams are trying to do the same. We have a good shot at being pretty good this year.”

If the Knicks live up to expectations this season, a few McGill students will remember that the road back to the post-season began with a shoot-around at our very own gym.

Sports

Redmen demolish Gaels in front of rowdy home crowd

by Jacob Kanter on

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John Kelsey
John Kelsey

The McGill Redmen trounced the Queen’s University Gaels 7-1 Saturday night, in a lopsided, but spirited game that featured strong defence, volatile tempers, and a four-goal performance by star forward Francis Verreault-Paul. It was the sixth straight win for the Redmen, who are undefeated this season.

From the opening face-off, the Redmen (6-0) played a high-intensity game, dominating in shots and scoring chances. They relegated most of the play to the Queen’s zone and led 3-0 by the end of the first period. Redmen sniper Verreault-Paul scored McGill’s opening two goals.

 “Queen’s is a solid team and we played really well tonight. We played well in our own end,” said Captain Evan Vossen, clearly pleased with his team’s efforts. “Just the little things we’ve worked on are paying off, so if we can just keep going like that we’ll have a lot of success.”

During the second period, McGill’s offence exploded with four unanswered goals. Verreault-Paul led the second-period offensive assault with his third and fourth goals of the game. Verrault-Paul was unstoppable all game, earning praise from his teammates

 “That’s just the kind of guy he is,” Vossen said. “He’s definitely a sniper, with him you know what you’re going to get. Everybody like [centre Guillaume] Doucet made great plays tonight and he was the beneficiary. He was able to finish them off.”

In the second period, tempers flared as the Queen’s team became increasingly frustrated. As a series of after-the-whistle shoving matches ensued, the rambunctious and large home crowd roared. Nine separate players went to the penalty box for roughing in the span of less than one minute.

“We were up 5-0 at that point and tried not to get in their game too much, but we have to protect and defend ourselves a bit, so for sure the tempers were running high,” said Guillaume Doucet, who picked up three assists in the contest. “It’s always a rivalry when we play against Queen’s. The crowd is always loud, especially when it’s here.”

By the start of the third period, the Redmen led 7-0. McGill noticeably relaxed failing to score and only mustering four shots on goal in the third. The Gaels put up the lone marker of the period when forward Brock Ouellet scored at 1:13. The goal was the only blemish on Redmen goaltender Hubert Morin’s near-perfect night. He stopped 16 of the 17 shots sent his way.

The game was a penalty-filled outing and resulted in the Redmen’s special teams units dominating the night. They scored twice on the powerplay and notched two impressive shorthanded markers.

“Those goals are definitely big momentum builders,” said Head Coach Kelly Nobes about McGill’s special teams dominace. “Scoring on your penalty kill is unexpected and our special teams were very effective, with our power play also generating a couple goals. We were very opportunistic. We scored when we got our chances.”  

With an impressive six straight wins, the pressure is on for the Redmen to continue performing at this calibre.

“You try not to think about it, we go one night at a time, but tonight feels good, it’s a big win,” Doucet said. “It doesn’t mean much for the streak though, because next game we have to do it all over again. But it’s still a big step in the right direction. We need to keep playing like we did tonight.”

The Redmen look to keep their win streak alive on Friday in Kingston.

Sports

Winless team massacred by top-ranked Rouge-et-Or

by Adam Sadinsky on

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Adam Scotti

The nation’s number-one-ranked team, the Laval Rouge-et-Or (8-0) massacred the winless McGill Redmen (0-8), who were looking for just their second home victory in two years. Laval scored a minute and a half into the first quarter and never looked back, posting a 68-0 win over the Redmen.

There were no good signs for McGill on Saturday, especially for the many seniors who have now played their last game on McGill’s home field.

“We can’t take a lot out of this game,” said Head Coach Sonny Wolfe. “It just shows us how far we have to go to compete with the best.”

Laval scored as many touchdowns as McGill had first downs. When Rouge-et-Or placekicker Christopher Milo sent his seventh extra point through the uprights just before halftime, a flock of seagulls that had been congregating on the empty north side stands abruptly got up and flew away. Like looking directly into the sun, no one, not even the birds, could keep their eyes on the game for an extended period of time.

Except, that is, for the many Laval fans who made the trip to Montreal and were louder than the home supporters.  They at least had something to cheer about.  The highlight of the game for McGill came in the first quarter when third year defensive back Joff Gorin intercepted an errant Bruno Prud’homme pass, one of the few mistakes Laval made all game. The drive, of course, ended in another three-and-out for the Redmen.

The 130th season of McGill football will mercifully end next weekend as the Redmen go on the road to face Sherbrooke Vert-et-Or. The team is already eliminated from playoff contention, meaning that McGill has now missed the Quebec University Football League playoffs four years in a row. A loss to Sherbrooke would cap off McGill’s third winless season in the last four years.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Avey Tare – Down There

by Arielle Frank on

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Often overshadowed by the overwhelming success of his bandmate Panda Bear, many are probably unaware that Avey Tare—one-fourth of Animal Collective—works as a solo artist as well. Down There, his solo debut, takes the listener on an adventure through the depths of murky swamps, riding distorted synths and bass-heavy sampling to return thoroughly satisfied at the other end.

The album reveals Tare’s unconventional pop sensibility and sense of restraint. Songs average an accessible three to four minutes in length, and rather than overwhelm the listener with an exhaustive audio journey, each track seamlessly fades into the next.

“Laughing Hieroglyphic,” Down There‘s first track, features a pulsating accordion as Avey Tare’s voice takes the forefront, passionately singing, “It’s so easy to get lost in the mixture/ When forces strike/ Hard.” While Animal Collective has focused on making vocals merely another component of their songs, Avey Tare’s voice is the driving force of the album, allowing the sampling and layers of sound to support the song rather than dictate its sound.

Avey Tare’s 34-minute album is one of the most cohesive and structured I’ve heard in a long time. Each twist and turn has a purpose, and the journey the listener begins on the first track feels complete and fulfilled by the end.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

PS I Love You – Meet Me At The Muster Station

by Ryan Taylor on

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Let’s be thankful that PS I Love You are better at writing songs than they are at picking band names. While the moniker is ripe for ridicule, the 10 tracks that make up Meet Me At The Muster Station demand far more respect.

Hailing from Kingston, Ontario, vocalist/guitarist and bass pedal player Paul Saulnier and drummer Benjamin Nelson make fuzzy, lo-fi garage rock that’s inevitably going to draw comparisons to Vancouver rockers Japandroids and L.A. punks No Age. It’s not totally unwarranted—they’ve got the frenetic energy and youthful abandon of the former and the noisier qualities of the latter, plus there’s the “duo” angle to work—but there’s more to it than that. Songs like “2012” and “Get Over” show Saulnier’s knack for guitar hooks while “Butterflies and Boners” and the buzz-creating “Facelove” feature full-on stadium-sized guitar solos. The tunes become all the more impressive when you realize it’s just two dudes responsible for all of that noise.

Vocally, Saulnier plays kid brother to Wolf Parade’s Spencer Krug, with screams, yelps, and warbles that up the album’s “weird” factor. But being buried way, way back in the mix, and aside from a couple moments of clarity, it’s damn near impossible to pick out any lyrical narrative or sentiment. It’s frustrating—these songs are so urgent and impassioned that you want to sing along, but you don’t know what the hell they’re saying.

Arts & Entertainment, Music

Belle and Sebastian – Write About Love

by Manisha Aggarwal-Schifellite on

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Belle and Sebastian Write About Love is the Scottish group’s eighth album in 15 years, and their age is starting to show. Unfortunately, while their signature sound remains intact, the overall message of the album isn’t as obvious as previous releases.

Frontman Stuart Murdoch doesn’t wear his heart on his sleeve like he used to, and the album feels like the band has grown up. But Murdoch’s emotional reservation also makes the album a tougher listen. The honesty and quirky sadness that make up Belle and Sebastian’s quintessential sound is missing, and when familiar elements of the band’s style come out—synthesizers, horns, and airy vocals—they don’t feel as energetic as they once did.

The record has its high points, including the tracks, “I Didn’t See it Coming,” “Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John,” featuring Norah Jones, and the title track featuring actress Carey Mulligan. However, by the eighth track, “The Ghost of Rockschool,” the record begins to lag, and never really recovers. The record’s punchy beginning gets bogged down by slower tracks like “Calculating Bimbo” and the flute-heavy “Read the Blessed Pages,” both of which end up feeling out of place and not as wistful and sweet as classic Belle & Sebastian.

Murdoch and company are known for their tragedy-tinged whimsy and Write About Love sounds a little tired. It may be time for them to fully embrace their grown-up identity rather than hold on to a lesser version of the sound that has made them instantly recognizable for so many years.

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