NEWS BRIEFS

Stair stepping for a cancer cure Step It Up for the Cure, a 24-hour stair climbing marathon, will have individuals and teams running up and down Molson Stadium on Sept 9 at 12 p.m. in order to raise funds and awareness for cancer research. One Canadian dies of cancer every four minutes, so the challenge to each participant is to raise $240 by running one set of stairs every four minutes.

NATIONAL: Schools quit rankings

Some of Canada’s largest research universities delivered a pointed message to the editors of Maclean’s magazine last month when they announced in an open letter that they would no longer assist the publication in preparing its annual university rankings issue.

JUMBO SHRIMP: University life and other oxymorons

If Martha Stewart has taught me nothing else, it is to never apologize for a meal before you serve it. By all means, apologize as your guests are being carted off on stretchers by EMS, but not a moment before that lobster-lychee casserole hits the table. Thankfully, Martha Stewart’s credibility is completely shot, and thus I unabashedly forgiveness culpa, dear reader.

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.

CAMPUS: Mercury takes over

The course evaluation process will move one step closer to transparency and accessibility this fall. After first being explored in the fall of 2003 and pilot tested in the winter of 2004, McGill Online Evaluations will be launched campus-wide in December under the name “Mercury.

CAMPUS: Wireless worries

As early as the nineties, McGill was at the forefront of developing a wireless network. Today that network provides over 2,500 wireless access points, each covering 250 square feet, and the university is in the process of upgrading its coverage and launching a three-year project to better integrate users around the campus.

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.

CITY: Rally marks International Darfur Day

Montreal’s rally for International Darfur Day brought attention to the inaction of the international community and common misconceptions about the controversy and violence in the region on Sunday. Held on the future site of Concordia University’s John Molson School of Business Building, hundreds of Montrealers partook in the rally, pressing for what organizers called “effective [United Nations] intervention” in the war-ravaged region of western Sudan.

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