What prompts people to take the time to write online restaurant reviews? I explored Google and TripAdvisor reviews of Nanaimo restaurants, and by my investigation, it’s either a superb dining experience or an awful one. Yes, there are people who report on mediocre calamari in so-so restaurants, but the majority of the detailed, lengthy reviews tend to fall on either end of the spectrum. The “terrible” one-star reviews are my favourite; the authors often employ their finest attempt at dramatic writing, and the results are peculiarly poetic. I chopped up and rearranged the prose of three ...
By contributor Gordon Hak
On March 18, members of the Arts and Humanities faculty at the Cowichan campus, as well as a contingent of staff and students, will travel to the Malaspina Theatre to strut their stuff. The presentation is part of the Arts and Humanities Colloquium, the popular lecture series that for the past six years has highlighted the provocative, intellectually stimulating, and exciting work being done by faculty members at VIU. This presentation is entitled “Stories and Raspberry Pi’s: An Innovational Approach to Experiential Learning” and will highlight the ...
According to a Statistics Canada post-federal election report released February 22, Canadian youth (aged 18-24) hit the ballots in record numbers, which helped increase the overall voter turnout to the highest level in 25 years.
Comparing the 2011 and 2015 elections, the number of Canadians who reported that they voted increased 12 percentage points among people aged 18 to 24, and 11 percentage points among those aged 25 to 34. In 2011, 54.6 per cent of voters aged 18-24 voted in the Federal Election, while 66.9 per cent voted in 2015. For those aged 25-34, 58.7 per cent voted in ...
By contributor Shanon Fenske
Under the alias Robi Lawfull, a Nanaimo man has been administrating his own brand of justice online.
Posing as a young teenager, Lawfull lures adults who are trying to solicit children for sex online into meeting him at a public location, videotapes the encounter, and then shares the encounter through social media.
“I have the most beautiful little girl in the world,” said Lawfull. “That’s a huge motivation.”
Lawfull is a member of Creepcatcher, a small group of Canadians committed to ousting sexual predators through cunning and guile. The ...
By contributor Dane Gibson
Their daughter spoke about her spirit as early as the age of two. At first they didn’t think much of it. “Isn’t that nice,” they said with a knowing smile. But as the daughter grew and gained more words, she became more insistent.
“She said very forcefully and repeatedly that her spirit was a boy,” said the mother, who was participating in a parent and youth panel at the Generation Q Conference held at VIU in early February.
“All we ever wanted was for him to be his authentic self, to be happy,” she said. “He’s fully transitioned now and has no ...
I have a dirty secret to admit: The other day, I willingly went to the BuzzFeed website.
It was the weekend, and I was sitting with my friend having a jolly old time, laughing about internet memes and how dumb BuzzFeed is, when I had the sudden realization that I had never actually seen BuzzFeed before. Of course I’d heard of it, but I didn’t really even know what it was.
BuzzFeed was already a mockery for its “clickbait” headlines by the time it was mainstream enough to start showing its face on my Facebook feed, so I removed it from my timeline the first time I saw a link. I ...
In the small city of Nanaimo, nothing really happens. Or at least we all complain that nothing does. However, in the last two weeks, Nanaimo has seen its share of danger. In December it was reported that, along the train tracks downtown, a man attempted to sexually assault a young female who fled the scene, luckily. Then, again in February, along those same tracks, a 14-year-old female was also attacked. Reports say the assailant pulled her pants down, but she struggled and he fled. The police worked on finding details about the perp, looking at surveillance cameras. Then came Krogel. ...
On March 8, VIU’s WUSC local committee is holding a movie night—complete with beverages and popcorn—as part of the Shine a Light campaign. This campaign raises funds for tools to help girls in refugee camps attend and succeed in school, such as solar lamps so they can study at night after full days of household chores and work.
In refugee camps, 62 million girls do not attend school refugee camp classes, and boys outnumber girls four to one. This gender gap in education is the most dramatic in sub-Saharan Africa, where 23 million girls miss out on school completely.
“We will try to ...
It might be hard being Vancouver Island’s most recognizable sturgeon. There at almost every game, VIU’s own Stuey the Sturgeon isn’t just your average living-fossil sea creature—he holds high standards for himself and his craft. I managed to track him down as he was visiting his friends in the Aquaculture buildings on upper campus to find out what it really means to be the VIU Mariners’ mascot.
Catherine: Stuey, what made you want to become a mascot?
Stuey: I wanted to become a mascot because the ocean was just too small for a big fish like me.
C: Did you need to study for ...
You may have seen him going up and down the stands during a basketball game or riling the crowd into doing the wave during a volleyball tournament. With his big whiskers and slick grey skin, Stuey the Sturgeon, VIU Mariners’ mascot, comes from a long line of mascots, back to a time before VIU even existed and was still Malaspina College.
There are few that recall the original Mascot, the Ancient Mariner, though he is remembered fondly by a few seasoned staff members at VIU.
Bruce Hunter, VIU’s Athletic Director and Mascot Expert, imparted some of his knowledge on the school’s ...
VIU will host the 2016 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Badminton Nationals from March 2 to 5 for the first time since 2004. Having qualified for singles, Graydon Robb and Melissa Liew, 2015 mixed double silver medal winners, will be competing for their province along with six other athletes from Langara, as well as Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU).
Though provinces go through a cycle when it comes to hosting Nationals, this year is a special year, says Helen Cheung, phys-ed work-op student. “This is really big for us this year,” says Cheung. “This is the last ...
By contributor Zoe Lauckner
Have you ever been out at sea alone for too long, seal hunting, and experienced intense panic-like symptoms and fear of drowning? Ever felt like your reproductive organs are disappearing inside your own body? In western society, we would likely categorize these behaviours to fit using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), likely diagnosing in the realm of anxiety or dissociative disorders. Among the Inuit peoples who have experienced kayak-angst, and people from Southeast Asia who have experienced koro, the concept of anxiety ...
What’s white, pink, brown, and is gluten-, lactose-, and sugar-free? This recipe, of course. I don’t know if it’s just me, but sometimes the craving for ice cream strikes even in the depths of winter. Right now it’s especially bad, having had a taste of balmy weather before the rain took over again. Quick (think five minutes or less) and easy to make, this guilt-free ice cream will leave you dreaming of summer days.
Three ingredient banana ice cream
Ingredients
Vanilla-banana:
3 large, frozen, ripe bananas, cut*
1 tsp vanilla extract
Strawberry-banana:
2 large, frozen, ...
Above: A Soft Murmur on an Android
In an ideal world, reading break means catching up on projects and papers due at the beginning of March, though the allure of slacking off and having a good time can be challenging to ignore. It can be tough to focus at this point in the semester, having just come out of mid-term season and it looks like there’s no end in sight, but using ambient noise to your advantage could benefit you when studying or giving that final push for the last half of the semester.
While some of us prefer a lone, quiet space to work, others prefer lots of background ...
By contributor Brady Tighe
Vinyl is becoming increasingly expensive because of its booming popularity. While it is awesome that everyone is now buying turntables and saving the greatest listening format of all time from obscurity, it is awful for my bank account. It is also not good for my sanity to see shitty old albums from previous decades re-released and re-mastered, with a sticker mentioning how “indispensable” or “essential” said records are. The other day, I saw a remastered copy of Face Value by Phil Collins for $37—a sign of the goddamn end times if there ever was one.
In ...
By contributor Chantelle Spicer. Above: Not to Disappear album artwork.
There is something about music from the UK. Whenever I listen to my favourite artists from this part pf the world, I feel like I am transported to another place, another time, or to no time at all. It seems much of the world agrees, with so many famous groups or artists hailing from this portion of the world—The Beatles, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who, Radiohead—along with a battalion of emerging indie-folk artists. One UK-based band which is beginning to gain momentum, and who certainly deserves the ...
Above: The audience at VISFF via the VISFF Facebook page
February 13 marked the 11th annual Vancouver Island Short Film Festival (VISFF). Thirteen films screened, 12 of which were filmed in BC, and four of those from Nanaimo. A wide variety of films were shown, many of which were drama, with dabs of comedy, and even a dash or two of horror. I attended the Saturday evening screening, the final show of the festival, and I was really pleased to see what appeared to be a full house.
Following the screening, the festival awards were given, with Nanaimo-produced Lost taking both Best ...
The 88th annual Academy Awards is coming up on February 28. I’ve written about the issues surrounding the representation (or lack thereof) in this particular group of nominees, and I set out to see as many of the nominated films as I could and was able to finish the eight films in the Best Picture category before sitting down to write this. These are supposed to represent the eight best films from the previous year; whether or not that is true remains to be seen.
The Big Short
(Also nominated for: Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Directing, Adapted Screenplay, and Film Editing)
This ...
On February 16, 2016, the CEO of Apple wrote in a public letter that encryption is “the only way to keep [their customers’] information safe.” The information in question refers to all the data and digital possessions on your iPhone. That means your photos, text messages, contacts, location data, medical records, passwords, credit cards, fingerprints—everything that you trust in that sliver of a computer in your pocket.
Apple knows that a passcode alone isn’t secure enough to keep all that information safe, so the digital information—the code—is all encrypted. The typical encryption ...
By contributor James MacKinnon
Students, staff, and the public are invited to the grand opening of the “Nature in the Arts” display at VIU’s Museum of Natural History on Tuesday, March 8. This event marks the beginning of a three-week display of artwork inspired by the natural world, created by students and faculty members from several departments across campus, including Fine Arts and Sciences. Free food and beverages will be served, and a number of artists and museum staff will be on-site to explain the techniques that have gone into the artwork, as well as to show the museum and ...
Above: 7-Eleven on Bowen Rd., Nanaimo via waymarking.com
By contributor Philip Gordon
When given the opportunity to escape the monotonous hell-hole that is small-town Nanaimo avail myself of the sights and sounds of a distant land, I was ecstatic. Visions of a Pacific Ocean sunset and sakura blossoms danced behind my eyes—or maybe the shores of Ireland, or the scenic vistas of a backpacking trip through Europe.
As I have learned in my tenure with the Navigator, however, a thriftier execution of budget is part of the job description.
The Fifth St. 7-Eleven several minutes from ...
Before many journalists make it to the newsroom, their careers begin at university campus papers. As women still face hurdles when it comes to equality in the workforce, campuses across Canada are proving that women studying journalism have a better chance of success in the field before they graduate.
Female students currently dominate journalism classrooms and campus papers, including the University of New Brunswick’s (UNB) the Brunswickan and University of British Columbia-Okanagan’s (UBCO) Phoenix News, where two women are beginning their newspaper careers.
Emma McPhee, ...
Above: Shq'apthut on VIU's Nanaimo campus via viu.ca
Shq’apthut: A Gathering Place was built in 2009 as a designated area that reflects and transcends our First Nations culture. The Gathering Place now boasts staff from the Services for Aboriginal Students team that supports Aboriginal students to succeed in achieving their academic goals.
The team assists students in their transition to VIU, and provides support to students with academic or personal concerns. Staff at the Gathering Place are also able to give information or referrals to other community services; offer personal or ...
Above: The Great Bear Rainforest via hellobc.com
By contributor Chantelle Spicer.
Halfway up the coast of BC sits the largest, mostly intact temperate rainforest in the world. Terrestrially, it is home to old growth trees, Kermode (also called spirit) bears, many bird species, and rare species of frogs. As the forest slopes away into the waters, one sees humpback whales, orcas, and white-sided dolphins, along with hundreds of fish species that contribute to the health and diversity of this forest ecosystem; the land and the water are one. The area is also home to many scientists ...
