Columns

From Where I Sit – The True Price of Freedom

Through nothing more than profound good luck I was born into a country at peace. I missed the years of both great wars. I didn’t have a husband or child who expressed any interest in voluntarily joining the military and serving in places like Afghanistan. Each Remembrance Day, I can only pray for those who… Read more »

Primal Numbers – The Science of Crime

On April 20, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter passed away. His 20 years in prison on a wrongful murder conviction was an egregious miscarriage of justice, and drove him to fight for the rights of other wrongly accused prisoners. These days, It’s tempting to think that science can save us from such mistakes, that DNA and fingerprint… Read more »

In Conversation with Patrick Woodcock, Part III

Patrick Woodcock uses poetry to document the suffering of humanity in war-torn countries?a kind of poetic nonfiction. (See Voice review of Echo Gods and Silent Mountains: Poems, his book of poems based on his time in Iraqi Kurdistan.) Recently he took the time to answer Wanda Waterman’s questions about his formal and informal education and… Read more »

Dear Barb:

Dear Barb: Following my father’s diagnosis of terminal cancer, I decided to attend Athabasca. The flexibility would allow me to help my mom care for my dad. My father survived for one year and it was a difficult year for all of us. It has now been six months since my father passed and I’m… Read more »

The Mindful Bard – Who Cares?

Film: Who Cares Director: Mara Mourão “We are not guests here. We create our own life. We create our own world. Before we create our world we must imagine what kind of world we want to create and then start doing that.” -Muhammad Yunus, founder of Kiva, a global organization that provides micro-loans to the… Read more »

Primal Numbers – Mind Control

We know It’s a trick, but we can’t help being fascinated as an illusionist bends a spoon with his mind. There’s something intriguing about the idea of moving objects with our brains. Now, from exoskeletons to ball games, science is bringing that vision closer to reality. The only trouble is that our fractured attention spans… Read more »

In Conversation with Patrick Woodcock, Part II

Patrick Woodcock uses poetry to document the suffering of humanity in war-torn countries? a kind of poetic nonfiction. (See Voice review of Echo Gods and Silent Mountains: Poems, his book of poems based on his time in Iraqi Kurdistan.) Recently he took the time to answer Wanda Waterman’s questions about literary forms, his childhood, and… Read more »

Did You Know?

Focus group needed: Newer students in Edmonton A working group from the Student SUCCESS group is looking at the Undergraduate Student Orientation that was developed last year. The first thing they are looking into is overall usability of the product itself. They need a group of 8 – 10 newer AU students in the Edmonton… Read more »

Dear Barb

Dear Barb: I am in my early twenties and the youngest of three kids. My parents are great and have always been there for all of their kids. Recently I discovered that on Saturday nights they go to different friends’ homes and they all smoke marijuana. I was shocked when my cousin told me about… Read more »