The final countdown has begun, and with just two days until voting begins, the 2008 Athabasca University Students’ Union (AUSU) election promises to be unique in council history. From March 9 ? 12, AUSU members will have the chance to select their representatives for the nine positions on council, and the range of candidates is… Read more »

Dear Miss Rose, I hate to ruin a lovely friendship, but the time has come that something must be said. At first, I tried to be understanding. You’re just a poor gal out there trying to make a buck, and even though I was suspicious of your motives, I held out hope that you were… Read more »

Besides graduation, a wedding is one of the few times in life when all eyes are on you. The pressure for everything—including the bride—to be perfect can be intense. So when bride-to-be and AU student Sarah Whaley (now Kertcher) realized that both her wedding dress and time were running tight, it was time to get… Read more »

That old truism about everybody wanting his or her 15 minutes of fame has reached new heights. And It’s not just the occasional person who wants to be known for sitting on the flagpole the longest, or eating the most bugs on a reality-television show. Now, the desire to qualify, to put that extra shiny… Read more »

Ever seen a $54 million laptop? Well, an American woman has?or, more to the point, she hasn’t, which is what makes her think her laptop is worth all that dough. According to the CBC, Raelyn Campbell took her laptop to electronics giant Best Buy to have some warranty repairs done. After waiting the six weeks… Read more »

Every day we trust our lives, health, finances, and myriad other aspects of life to professionals. We visit the doctor; we trust that police, firefighters, and EMTs will be there when needed. In short, we trust these professionals? skills and put our faith in the authority their unique talents bring them. But should we also… Read more »

It’s a funny thing about perspective: a little bit can go a long way. Last week, I was struggling with a particularly difficult assignment. It was a critical review of the work of two communication theorists. Interesting stuff (well, okay, maybe not that interesting), but it felt like climbing Everest. After two weeks of wrestling… Read more »

Given that the world’s ice cover is melting at an alarming rate, it could be said that government action to address the problem is the most glacial thing around. There’s hope, though, in a recent announcement by Gerry Phillips, Ontario’s Energy Minister. It seems that substance might finally be taking precedence over style, as the… Read more »

?What am I to do now?? This has become my grandmother’s refrain. It was shocking when I saw her again after she had been moved from the Alzheimer’s care centre to the nursing home. My mother had tried to warn me, but I was still unprepared for the vacant eyes, the crooked body, and the… Read more »

In 1969, when Zager and Evans’s song In the Year 2525 became a hit, the prospect of choosing our sons and daughters from the bottom of a long glass tube looked a long way off. Today, that sci-fi vision is reality?complete with complex debates about ethics versus experimentation. Yet for all the exciting breakthroughs and… Read more »