The Iron Warrior: Volume 23, Issue 15

7/27/2019 The Iron Warrior: Volume 23, Issue 15

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/the-iron-warrior-volume-23-issue-15 1/16

THE NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO ENGINEERING SOCIETYvolume 23 issue 15 | 8 November 2002

“Study as if you were going to live forever; live as if you were going to die tomorrow.” - Maria Mitchell

Wireless Willie

Examined

The Eng Play&

UW Drama

Why Do They Sell

Boggan Burgers?

Check us out @ http://iwarrior.uwaterloo.ca/

Page 10 Page 10 Pages 7 & 13

Are We Ready?

They have known about it for years,

they say. They also have a plan in place. It

is a dynamic plan, though, as the projec-

tions are always changing - always up and

never down. Yes the double cohort is com-

ing and yes the University has been

preparing for it since before I got here in

1999. But with lab space in tremendous

demand, leagues of retiring professors,

and an increasing real-dollar operating

budget the provincial government refuses

to proportionally fund, are we ready? Can

we be ready? And will we each still haveour twelve square feet of personal space?

These questions and more were fielded on

October 30 by the provost, the admissions

director, the registrar, and a number of

other panelists at the University’s “Double

Cohort Night.”

What We’re Doing

Waterloo has been working to update

its infrastructure to prepare for its alloca-

tion of the additional demand as can clear-

ly be seen through all of the construction

on campus. However, the government cur-

riculum change that coined the term “dou-

ble cohort” is not the only reason for the

increased number of applications in recent

years.

As UW President Johnston told the

Board of Governors on the 29th and par-

ents and students alike on the 30th, the

surge in students is not a temporary thing.

In fact, while we are in middle of the

largest increase in university enrollment

since the 1960s, it is not

the first time there have

been increases. This time,

too, it is being caused by

more then just a govern-

ment push. The increase

in population, in univer-

sity participation rates,

and in demand for adulteducation figure promi-

nently not only on the

numbers now, but into

the future as well long

after the double cohort comes through.

The university will have increased admis-

sions from about 3800 to 5455 almost

evenly over the last five years to meet the

increased demand as it arrives instead of

all at once.

But is that enough?

The daily bulletin put it this way:

“Said Johnston: ‘The ministry says —

and we believe this — that there will be a

place for every qualified student.’ The

question, he went on, is whether that place

will be in the program the student wants,

and whether universities can keep deliver-

ing the quality that Ontario students are

used to.”

There is some debate in the legislature

as to the accuracy of the enrollment num-

bers the ministry has projected. Since the

creation of the double cohort issue, these

numbers have continually risen and the

speculation from the opposition is that the

government is still low-balling the num-

bers. However, 10,000 more applicants in

2002 included many fast-tracking hoping

to avoid the 2003 issue decreases the

expected 2003 spike. The additional num-

ber expected to slow-track into 2004 will

also help to minimize the spike.The important point in the statement is

whether those qualified students will find

their way into the program they want and,

more importantly, that they likely would

have got if they had only graduated in a

different year.

The government report encapsulates

that sentiment as follows:

“For the first time in many years,

enrollment decisions are taking into

account the number of applicants.

Although the number of university spaces

has been increased for 2002, increases in

spaces have not been made proportionate-

ly by programs or institutions and have

increased mainly in Arts and Sciences.”

So, while UW has always been diffi-

cult to get into for Engineering we are

quite aware that the enrollment increase in

2003 will be minimal so the 800 addition-

al students we have agreed to take will be

dispersed into other faculties.

Trade-offs and Turmoil

Of course the quality

issue is always in conflict

with the accessibility

issue. When government

funding is lacking, oper-

ating budgets are tighter,

and competition for

scholarships and bur-saries is often greater.

From a student perspec-

tive we both demand to

be able to afford our edu-

cation but we also demand an education

worth affording.

When it comes to the quality of the

incoming students and their chances of

success in their post-secondary experi-

ence, other issues do surface. How do you

Jeff Henry

3B Computer

Continued on page 3. See Double Cohort

Preparation

1 776 Stairs, 1300 Vertical Feet

Equals One Tired Engineer

For 25 years now, people have been

climbing Toronto’s CN Tower to raise

money for the United Way. For years, I

have always wanted to climb the CN

Tower. It’s just something that, as a native

Torontonian, I have wanted to accomplish.

I can now safely say that I have climbed

the tallest freestanding structure in the

World.

Taking place over the weekend of

October 25 – 27, 10 000 people would

summit to the top of the tower and be ableto claim that they “Conquered the Tower.”

Climbers aged from the very young, to the

very old, and everyone else in between.

Last year, the climb was able to raise over

$640 000 for the United Way, this year’s

total is not yet available.

As my team assembled at the base of

the Tower on a cold Sunday morning, we

all came to the realization that this would

be no easy feat. Staring straight up at the

top of the tower from its base really puts

the magnitude of the climb into perspec-

tive. 1 776 stairs, 15 landings, 11 steps per

landing, doesn’t seem like much when it’s

just numbers being thrown out there. As a

first time climber, as the rest of my team

was, none of us were truly prepared to

climb that many stairs.

Before the ascent even began it was up

to every team member to raise a minimum

of $50 in order to climb. Raising $50 is

not as easy as it may seem. Prying money

out of the cold dead hands of broke stu-

dents is rather difficult. However, with

due diligence and a can-do attitude, all

members of my team were able to collect

at least the requisite minimum.

As with any other athletic event, trash

talking was rampant as my team prepared

to climb. Small friendly side bets were

taken as to who would reach the top the

fastest. I lost, with 16:04 as my time.

Back to the Tower. Once signed in and

properly stretched, I approached the tower

with eagerness and energy. 1 776 stairs,

“I’ve done more than that on a Stair

Master, this should be no problem,” I casu-

ally said to myself before I ascended that

first flight of stairs. One quarter on the

way up the stairs (444 stairs for those of

you who are curious), I thought that I was

making good time. Three minutes andalready one quarter of the way, I should be

done in no time. It didn’t really dawn on

me that as the climb got higher, that the

degree of difficulty would increase expo-

nentially.

Halfway up the Tower now, I’m

labouring, and I can see many climbers

have stopped to take a break. I push on,

believing that if I stop that it will be much

harder for me to continue moving (Come

on people, physics from High School, a

body in motion stays in motion, a body at

rest, stays at rest). With my firm belief

that Physics would carry me to the top I

push onto the next level.

Three quarters of the way up now, 444

more stairs to go, I’ve passed dozens of

climbers who just can’t climb anymore

and must rest. What keeps me going is the

sight of a 6-year old who continues to

press on by her mother’s side. If one as

young as 6 can continue to push on, so can

I, I think to myself. I grit my teeth

and continue the ascent.

Paramedics stationed throughout

the stairwell encourage climbers

as they pass. One even had a little

fun with the situation, informing

climbers that there were only 3

more paramedics before the top.

“Only 2 more landings!” I hear

yelled down from the top. My

heart lightens and I surge forwardto the top. I cross the finish line

and punch in my time card. A

feeling of accomplishment and

tiredness overcomes me as I step

out onto the observation deck of

the CN Tower and behold the city

of Toronto before me. I have seen

the Tower, I have climbed the

Tower, I conquered the Tower!

As I remember the challenge

that I threw out at the third

EngSoc meeting, I can’t help but

wonder how the other classes

fared in their attempts.

Dan Foong

3B Civil

It’s a bit of a climb

“How do you com-

pare a new cohort

student to one of the

old cohort fairly

when curriculum is different...”



So, I have been up all night busting my

hump to get this issue put together, so that

it will be out promptly this Friday. Like

most us us plummers, I’m pretty burned

out and bummed out with all the stress and

general lack of fun. But, for the love of

God, I’m not about to spend this article

whining at you all. Instead, I’m going to

take a completely opposite approach and

just talk about all the stuff that makes me

happy right now.

First of all I have to say that I’m awful-

ly happy to live in a country with a gov-

ernment that I appreciate, for the most part.

Even the farthest right parties in the

Canadian spectrum support a social safety

net that is a lot more robust than most

countries can boast.

I’m a little freaked out by the election

results down Stateside and I’m awfully

glad we don’t have a war-mongering gov-

ernment in total control here in Canada.

Caffiene makes me pretty happy. It’s

pretty pathetic that I’m so addicted to the

drug. But, at least I know that I’m addict-

ed and I can prevent withdrawal symptoms

by ingesting coffee and Vanilla Coke. That

is something to be happy about.

I have a lot of friends around the halls

of engineering. That’s pretty freaking

awesome. Even if I’m totally swamped

with work, no matter how busy I am most

of the time, I can take a break and usuallyfind a friendly face to chill out with. That

is something that definitely makes me

happy.

I might not be in great shape, but I’m

healthy and able-bodied. My body allows

me to punish it with long hours and stimu-

lant abuse, without shutting down. I’m not

sure I could keep this up indefinitely, but

my body has not worn out yet. That is a

good reason to feel happy.

When I fall asleep after having an all-

nighter, that really makes me happy.

In the last issue I put a call out to all of

you who read this paper. I asked for car-

toonists to submit their comics. I received

an overwhelming response. This issue

premieres four new comics in the Iron

Warrior. That is freaking amazing people.

I love that the Iron Warrior is providing a

venue for several new artists and those

artists are entertaining a sizable audience.

That is some cool stuff.

Speaking of comics, I really like read-

ing them, comic books that is. Whenever Iget the chance I walk over to my local

comic store and pick up all the comic

books I read month after month. I read all

sorts of stories, from Spider-man to

whacked-out sci-fi to totally realistic cloak

and dagger. It might be totally anti-social

of me, but one of my favorite things will

always be curling up with a stack of new

comics to peruse and absorb. It’s also pret-

ty darn cool that many of my favourite

comics are getting converted to well made

movies, thanks to the mad success of

Spider-man. Not even just super-heroes

either. Yesterday I read that Greg Rucka’s

Whiteout was green-lit. That is going to

make one heck of a sweet movie, you

heard it here first.

So, those are all nice things, but the

pinnacle, the one thing that makes me most

content is my feeling of belonging that I

get when I walk into that CPH foyer each

morning. It is not really joy for the fact

that I am heading for class, nor even that

each day in these buildings brings me one

day closer to my degree. No, I feel like I

make a difference here in engineering.

Through my work on the Iron Warrior and

my presence I feel like I am noticed and

appreciated. I’m not going to pat myself

on the back for that. No, I owe that feeling

of well-being to all the people who send

me encouraging remarks and compliment

my achievements.Yes, indeed it is good to be here. I’m

not the least bit worried about being here

longer than I ought to be, if that ends up

happening.

Nevertheless, I am looking forward to

having a nice vacation, away from Carl

Pollack Hall.

Switching gears now, I wanted to talk

about something else that has been rattling

around in my head and I thought might be

worth sharing with you all.

How many of you have real strength

behind your convictions? Can you honest-

ly say that once you form an opinion that

you think is true, will you remain loyal that

opinion indefinitely?

If so, please stop. Please stop enslav-

ing yourself. Think about it. Why would

you want to be ruled by a younger, more

naïve version of yourself? Why should

you believe something because you

believed it when you were sixteen? Would

you actually just take orders from the aver-age sixteen year old.

I really hope that there are not many

people reading this who disagree with me.

But, it does seem that “convictions” are

generally thought of as virtues. I am sug-

gesting that it is far more virtuous to

remain open-minded and allow your ide-

ologies to change as freely as the wind.

How many times have you witnessed,

or participated in an ideological discussion

or debate, only to have it devolve into a

pointless argument, in which neither side

listens to the other and neither side learns

anything. I am suggesting that you allow

yourself to lose arguments such as those,

moe often. By swallowing your pride and

pretending to accept your rival’s point of

view, you may just learn something that

you might otherwise have overlooked

while trying to form an argument.

If you learn something that conflicts

with your ideology, please don’t discount

it or try to discredit it. Integrate your new

knowledge and improve your own ideolo-

gy.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everyone

could do this? If we could actually freely

exchange ideas with one another, without

letting ourselves be hampered by old and

obsolete wisdom, think about how dynam-

ic our points of view would become.

Political parties would dissolve. We would

elect leaders based on intelligence and ver-satility. Diametrically opposed groups

would gain the insight to understand each

others claims and they might negotiate

mutually acceptable terms to resolve their

differences.

Well, that’s my one big idea for this

column. I hope it makes a little bit of

sense, ‘cause I’ve really been burning the

candle at both ends for the last several

hours. If I’d confused the heck out of you

let me apologize to you and also thank you

for getting all the way through this

whacked-out column.

The Newspaper of the University of

Waterloo Engineering Society

Editor-in-Chief

Matthew Harper

Assistant Editor

Jon Fishbein

Sophie Shahrokhi

Photo Editor

Vacant

Layout Editor

Dan Foong

Technical Editor

Maria Simoes

Webmaster

Katherine Chiang

Distribution Manager

Elisa Zhang

Business Manager

Vacant

Staff

André Beltempo

Ryan Bayne

Matt Gagliardi

Jason Griese

Jeff Henry

Janna Hickson

Kristina HotzLaura Jones

Mike Kerrigan

James Kunz

John Olaveson

Jose Penate

Rajat Suri

Contributors

Kristin Farn

Tsu Chiang Chung

Shawn Klein

Laura Mooney

Jenna Olmstead

Anubhav Srivastava

Ryan Walker

Leanne Whiteley

Zeina and Kate

2 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Letter From the Editor

Matthew Harper

2B Computer

Editor-in-Chief

Questions? Comments?

We welcome letters and feedback

from all our readers. Please email us at:

[email protected]

The Iron Warrior is a forum for thought provoking

and informative articles published by the Engineering

Society. Views expressed in The Iron Warrior are

those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect theopinions of the Engineering Society.

The Iron Warrior encourages submissions from stu-

dents, faculty and members of the university commu-

nity. Submissions should reflect the concerns and

intellectual standards of the university in general. Theauthor's name and phone number should be included.

All submissions, unless otherwise stated, become the

property of The Iron Warrior, which reserves the

right to refuse publication of material which it deems

unsuitable. The Iron Warrior also reserves the right

to edit grammar, spelling and text that do not meetuniversity standards. Authors will be notified of any

major changes that may be required.

Mail should be addressed to The Iron Warrior,

Engineering Society, CPH 1327, University of

Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1. Our phone

number is (519) 888-4567 x2693. Our fax number is

(519) 725-4872. E-mail can be sent to

[email protected]

Feeling Good Despite Adversity



diesel-powered,

portable woodchucker. If said would

chuck were a computer engineer theywould create an elegant algorithm to auto-

mate wood chucking. If you laughed at

any of the above “jokes”, you’re an Engi-

nerd. Go read “The Book”, loser.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I recently bought a

“slave” at the Gradcomm

slave auction. I asked my

“slave” to drive me

around during Cub Prawl

and he didn’t! He didn’t

even show up! I couldn’t

believe it! I am so out-

raged! What should I do LowRider?

-Pharaoh

Dear Pharaoh,

I can’t believe you got taken by the

“Buy-a-Slave” scam. I was once bought as

a slave: My “master” had the audacity to

tell me to clean his house! You know what

I said? I said, “You better check yo’ self

before you wreck yo’ self!”

Then my “master” said, “What did you

say bandana-boy?” to which I deftly

replied (louder this time), “I said, you bet-

ter chiggidy-check yo’self before you rig-

gidy wreck yo’ self!” Then, him and his

roommates took my clothes off and took me outside to pelt me with snowballs. I

continued my verbal onslaught by repeat-

ing, “Momma said knock you out!” until

they got tired. So you see, this whole

“slave” thing is a scam.

-LR

3F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Columns

LowRider

4A Chemical

Dear LowRider: [email protected]

“They paved paradise and put up a parking lot, For

LowRiders: Shoo bop bop bop bop!”

Sometimes, journalists are not fully

aware of the news when they report it. We

at the Iron Warrior believe in journalistic

integrity. That is why I am issuing this

formal apology to all campus trees.

The trees were not responsible for the

cataclysms that have plagued the

University of Waterloo campus for years.

The trees were not responsible for the

incident that destroyed my dorm window.

I apologize to all trees for casting them in

a bad light, and hope that they will forgive

me in time.

The squirrels are to blame. Yes, those

fuzzy, chittery little things covered with

fur that scurry about campus all day. The

squirrels have been causing terror on this

campus all along, and have been framing

the trees. Squirrels are the real plague.

Trees are just another victim of the trau-

ma.

I say now, to all students who have

ever been hurt by the grievous acts of squirrels, stand with me now! Take up

arms against the four-legged fur-balls that

attack our sovereignty! The next time you

see a squirrel run across a path or swing

from a tree, chase that squirrel away from

here! Chase them all the way to the

University of Western Ontario! That’s

where evil begins, after all.

Once again, I offer my sincere apolo-

gies to the gentle, loving trees. They help

make campus a refreshing, beautiful place

to live and learn.

-John Olaveson, 1A Civil

Dear LowRider,

I have a date with someone from my

Econ class. I have to admit, I’m new to the

dating scene, and I don’t know what I

should do to make a good impression. I’ve

been watching “Blind Date” to get some

ideas, but I trust you to tell me how to

REALLY impress my date.

-All-out-of-Love

Dear All-out-of-Love,

“Blind Date” is a good source of infor-

mation! The problem is that since this per-

son is in your Econ class, it is no longer a

blind date. Being that you are an aspiring

Engineer, you should engineer the situa-

tion so that it is a blind date and you can

use all your known tactics. I suggest you

surprise your date by sending one of your

friends to meet them instead of you. Try

getting one from a different faculty, that

way they will be better looking.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I went to the wickedest Hallowe’en

costume party and met a cool guy who was

wearing a Ninja Turtles mask. We

exchanged emails and met up a few days

later, but for some reason he was still

wearing the mask! I didn’t want to make

him feel awkward, so I didn’t say anythingabout it. I like him, but what should I do

if he wears the mask at our next meeting?

-Anti-Mask

Dear Anti-Mask,

Don’t be afraid of the mask. Some

lucky engineering students have been cho-

sen to wear a mask at all times. This is due

to the fact that they are official “Tool

Bearers” whose identity can’t be revealed.

Consider yourself lucky. The only cooler

thing than “Tool Bearers” are the people

who put up Pro-Tool, Anti-all-other-school

propaganda on the walls of the engineer-

ing buildings. They are known as

“Arrogant Idiots”.

-LR

Dear LowRider,

I feel suddenly inspired to play the gui-

tar. I bought a really expensive guitar, a

deluxe case for the guitar, a humidifying

system for the guitar, a “learn to play the

guitar like the pros” book, a digital tuner,

extra strings, you name it, I got it! I’venever played a musical instrument before

so I don’t know how to read music, but

I’ve been rejected by five guitar teachers,

who all say that I’m “hopeless”. Should I

feel discouraged?

-Santana

Dear Santana,

Well that’s a hot one! You should not

feel discouraged. I have been in a similar

situation before. I wanted to be part of the

“Arrogant Idiots” club so I

bought the fanciest paper and

photocopied many of my own

drawings so that I could get

into that club and plaster signs

all over the place. They reject-

ed me though, saying that I

wasn’t good enough. The key

is persistence. I am currently

drawing better pictures with

bigger, shiner TOOLS. Hang in there!

-LR

Dear LowRider,

How much wood could a woodchuck

chuck if the said woodchuck was a civil

engineer?! How about for mechanical?! Or

computers?! Which UW engineering pro-

gram would give me the most woodchuck-

ing power to effort ratio?

-Phil the Woodchuck

Dear Phil the Woodchuck,

If said woodchuck were a civil engi-

neer they would chuck enough wood tokeep the tree standing. If said Woodchuck

were a mechanical engineer, they would

chuck wood faster as they would create a

“I said, you better

chiggidy-check

yo’ self before you

riggidy wreck yo’

self!” “...you should engineer the

situation so that it is a blind date... I suggest you surprise

your date by sending one of

your friends to meet them

instead of you... ”

Letter of Apology

compare a new cohort student to one of the

old cohort fairly when curriculum is dif-

ferent, application of the curricula is done

differently, and number of applicants is

high?

To come right out and say it, yes the

new curriculum is harder and the numbers

gathered for the ministry do show that

fact:

- 14% fewer students pass all grade

nine and ten courses then under the old

curriculum,

- 24% more students are enrolled in

grade nine and ten summer school courses

then under the old curriculum,

- 2% more acade-

mic stream students

are failing grade ten

math and about 2%

fewer are getting

above 80%

And the numbers

for the second group

under the new cur-riculum in those

areas are on average 2-3% lower. To make

matters worse, some smaller schools are

only offering one curriculum or students

take a mixed curriculum. As a result, the

course codes are not necessarily indicative

of the curriculum the applying student has

taken.

Ideas about how to fairly evaluate

applications from old and new curriculum

students made their way to the

Engineering Society by way of the

Director of First Year Engineering, Bill

Lennox, and Dean Chaudhuri himself. The

notion of proportioning the first year class

by the percentage of applicants from each

curriculum seems to be the “most fair” at

the moment. Unfortunately with the mix-

tures of curricula happening along with the

revelation that some high schools are even

mixing course codes means that no

process can be completely fair. Of course,

Waterloo can only expect to be as fair as

the data we receive

allows.

The agreement made

between the provincial

universities and the

provincial government is

to disperse the influx in a

prorated manner. As a

result, each university has

a specific number it has

agreed to take.

UW provost Amit Chakma

revealed that “We’re doing some

contingency planning” and that

the number of 5455 may go as

high as 5700 when all is said and

done. Both Chakma and Johnston

added that no increase could hap-

pen unless the province actuallyfunds the additional students.

Community Response

Notably, the forum on UW’s readiness

was well attended by parents, high school

students, guidance counsellors, and UW

students, faculty, and administration. The

response from some the parents was

flavoured with colourful and emotional

concern but quality questions were posed.

On the issue of comparison between stu-

dents, the response was that it would be

done “fairly.” On the issue of the disad-

vantage of new curriculum students in first

year courses, Bill Lennox added that UW

Engineering was changing its first year

curriculum to gear it to the new curriculum

as that will be the “steady-state.”

Of course with the potential of a labour

strife looming and the variety of imple-

mentations of the new and old curriculum,

not to mention having to deal with the dou-

ble cohort at all, one can

always turn to the provin-

cial government.

Conveniently for us in

Kitchener-Waterloo, our

member of provincial par-

liament is the Honourable

Elizabeth Witmer who

happens to be both

Minister of Education and

Deputy Premier.

If you have any concerns at all about

how the double cohort will affect you and

your family or friends, she can always be

reached at her constituency office, at

Queen’s Park, or by email:

K-W Constituency Office:

375 University Ave EWaterloo ON N2K 3M7

Telephone: 519-725-3477

Fax: 519-725-3667

Queen’s Park:

Mowat Block, 22nd Floor,

900 Bay St., M7A 1L2

Telephone: (416) 325-2600

Fax (416) 325-2608

Email: [email protected].

org

The ministry of education commis-

sioned report can be found at:

http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/r

eports/cohortph2.pdf

Double Cohort Preparation

“...the number of

5455 may go as

high as 5700

when all is said

and done.”

“On the issue of comparison

between students,

the response was

that it would be

done ‘fairly.’”

...continued from Page 1.



WIE Wine

and Cheese

Remembrance

Day

Quiz Bowl &

Scotch Tasting

4 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

EngSoc

ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE R EPORTS

See the EngSoc

whiteboard

(outside

Orifice) for fur-

ther event infoEngSoc

Meeting #5

TalEng @

Bombshelter

Engineering

Play

Engineering

Play

10 11 12 13 14 15 16

23222120191817

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAYSUNDAY

Upcoming Events from EngSoc

I want to dedicate this exec report to

the EngSoc Awards. Every term/year, we

try to thank and acknowledge those who

have stepped up and have made extraordi-

nary contributions to the Engineering

Society. Without the dedication of these

volunteers, the Engineering Society

wouldn’t be as well organized as it is. The

most prestigious award is the Paul and

Paula Plummer Award, which is given to

people (typically students in their 4th Year,

but could also consist of members of the

faculty, administration or community) that

have contributed to the benefit of theEngineering Society in such a manner that

is outstanding and commendable. To be

considered a candidate, you must be nom-

inated by one of your peers. This peer will

then make a brief statement about you at

the next EngSoc Council Meeting (on

November 13th). The council will listen to

all the speeches about the candidates and

will be asked to vote for 3 of them. The

winners will be announced at Grad Ball.

Please contact me as soon as possible if

you would like to nominate someone for

this award.

The 2nd most prestigious award is the

President’s Awards, which recognizes the

students who have made a significant, pos-

itive, and lasting contribution to the

Engineering Society this term. This may

include directors or people that havehelped out with various events and ser-

vices offered by the Engineering Society.

The winners will be selected by the

Engineering Society President (that’s me)

in consultation with the rest of the EngSoc

exec.

The 3rd award presented this term will

be the Paul Harlick Award that is given to

the most outstanding class rep(s). The

award is named after Paul Harlick, a mem-

ber of the 1973 Mechanical Engineering

class, and class rep. During his 3A term,

Paul’s constant effort led his class to the

P**5 Championship. His untimely death

while he and his classmates attempted topull off yet another amazing stunt prompt-

ed the Engineering Society to establish an

award to honour his memory and remind

us of the spirit that he, as a class rep,

helped foster in others. The class rep advi-

sors, in consultation with the EngSoc exec,

will choose the winner(s).

If you feel that someone you know

should receive one of these awards, please

feel free to contact me before November

13th ([email protected]).

Leanne Whiteley

President

Did Someone Say Awards?

It’s that time of the term when course

critiques are just around the corner, so I

thought it might be appropriate to take a

moment to compare and contrast inappro-

priate versus appropriate comments to

write on the back of a critique. Course cri-

tiques have become incredibly importantin our faculty, as professors take them very

seriously. A lot of improvements to teach-

ing and courses have been made over the

years because of them. Besides the useful-

ness of the comments for identifying and

fixing problems in the classroom, critiques

come to bear on a professor’s salary when-

ever it comes up for review. So make sure

to fill out the critiques, but in the mean-

time, here is an examination of various

inappropriate comments you may consider

writing for one reason or another.

1. “You suck.” This

comment is extremely

uninformative and person-

al. It’s not even witty or

amusing for anyone weed-

ing out bad-comment-critiques, so why

bother? In this case, a far more appropriate

response is to leave it blank, or maybe

think for two seconds and see if there isn’t

something else that can be said.

2. “My 2-year-old sister has better

English.” First of all, anyone who writes

this doesn’t write English very well, either,

because nobody “has” English. That aside,

there are bubbles on the front of the cri-

tique to rate a professor’s clarity. Use the

Comments section to elaborate - was it a

problem with pronunciation, accent, gram-

mar, or something else that made the

prof’s oral presentation difficult to under-

stand? Be nice and be specific.

3. “I really like your boots ... they are

SO sexy.” What??? Sorry, this report was

written at 3am. This still isn’t an appropri-

ate comment, though.

4. “This course was so bad, I wanted to

kill myself repeatedly in every lecture I

attended. With a fork.” There are a couple

of points to be made with this comment.

First of all, it doesn’t say why the course

was so bad, so there isn’t any way to

resolve the problems that made the course

so “bad”. Secondly, while the comment

could be construed as humorous on some

levels, it is rather gruesomely depicted.

Suicide is generally frowned upon incourse critique comments.

5. “My TA wasn’t helpful at all. The

questions covered in the tutorials had

nothing to do with the lectures, and when

I asked questions, I received minimal

answers.” Etc. One can provide the best,

most constructive comments in the world,

but if they’re about the TAit’s just wasting

pencil lead and the time of your prof,

because the TAs don’t get to read the

comments on the critiques. So if there are

complaints about a TA, talk to the prof

directly, maybe before

the end of term when

something can be done

about it!

Of course, these are

examples that I fabricated for the sake of

illustration. Just remember when you’re

writing comments that if one comment is

inappropriate, your whole critique is

canned.

On an unrelated note, there is a new

directorship running this term under the

VP Education. To find out more, head

down to POETS and look for the “Word of

the Day” on the front board. Get all of the

definitions in a week and submit them to

the VP Ed either in the Orifice or via e-

mail to win a prize! Bonus points if you

didn’t know which director was running

“Word of the Day” but figure out their title

from the kinds of words being used.

Laura Mooney

VP Education

Course Critiques: Your Voice

in Your EducationMake Your Voice Heard

There are a few things I would like to

cover briefly and quickly. Some you may

have heard before, but all are important.

First of all, this is the last week of the

Post-Thanksgiving & Pre-Christmas fooddrive that has been running the last two

weeks. This is an especially difficult time

of year for the food banks as we are right

in between holiday seasons. Remember

that a true social conscience cannot be sat-

isfied only at the times

everybody else is socially

conscience, but at the

times nobody else is giv-

ing. Drop by the office

(CPH 1327) and drop off

your non-perishables with

Betty asap.

This (Friday, November 8) is a day of

deadlines. Not quite as important as the

food drive are conference applications. If

you want to be considered for either soci-

ety’s delegation to the Canadian

Federation of Engineering Students

Congress this January, you must fill out an

application form (http://engsoc.uwater-

loo.ca) today. Also, the First Year

Integration Conference applications will

likely be due in two weeks time

(November 22) so first year students

please fill one out today. Both conferences

are full of interesting speakers and interac-

tive sessions that will help you gain a

sense of yourself in the engineering com-

munity but will empower you to enhance

that sense in others upon your return. Plus

there’s nothing wrong with using the

Dean’s money for such a good cause, and

it will not consume any of yours. There

simply is no better deal on the market.

This is also the last day for the

Engineering Society Survey - your oppor-

tunity to tell the society what you think we

should be doing to represent all of your

interests both social and academic. If you

or your engineering friends have yet to

take the 10 minutes required to fill one

out, please do so now (http://engsoc.uwa-

terloo.ca/www/survey.php). The second

half of the “new direction” initiative, a

Town Hall style forum where everyonecan participate in a constructive discussion

about our future, will tentatively take

place on Tuesday, November 12 - though

that may change by the time of printing.

Please look for posters advertising this

truly unique engineering

event for the most up to

date information.

Second of all,

Bridging the Gap is over

this term. One month ago,

Larry Smith was great and

drew a crowd of almost

200 of you. Hopefully, though, Daryl

Schnurr got a similar crowd as, while

nobody is “Larry,” that doesn’t mean that

there weren’t useful things said and that

good opportunities for truly bridging the

gap between undergraduate engineering

and the real world weren’t present. Look

for another useful series to run in the win-

ter. For those of you first-years in 8-stream

that will be winter 2003 while the rest of

us will wait until winter 2004.

Finally, I encourage all of you - male

and female alike - to come out to

“Breaking the Glass Ceiling”. The event,

on November 18, will be the wine and

cheese event sponsored by Women in

Engineering and is both free and open to

all students. Look for posters on the

boards around these hallowed halls.

Jeff Henry

VP External

“make sure to fill

out the critiques...”

“this is the last

week of the... food

drive ”



With the P**5 MOT deadline come

and gone, here are the first round of P**5

totals for the term. We would like to thank

all the classes that submitted their P**5

points so far and remind everyone that we

are always accepting submissions

throughout the term. “So what gets my

class P**5 points?” you ask. Your class

can get points for participating in any

EngSoc event, like TalEng or the EngSoc

food drive, or by organizing your own

class events. You can even get P**5points by writing for the next issue of the

Iron Warrior. For a more detailed list of

what things get you how many points,

check out the EngSoc website under the

P**5 section. Submissions can be put in

the P**5 mailbox in the Orifice or e-

mailed to either one of the P**5 directors

([email protected] or

[email protected]). Keep

those submissions coming!

5F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

EngSoc

ENGINEERING SOCIETY EXECUTIVE R EPORTS

A few reminders and updates for

everyone.

To all directors and to anyone else that

is interested in knowing where EngSoc

funds have been spent so far this term,

check out the Society page of the EngSoc

website for an update on directorship bud-

gets.

Since we will soon be nearing the end

of term, directors, please have your

expense forms into me as soon as possible

after your events, so that I can get cheques

back to you before exams.At the next EngSoc meeting on

November 13th a vote will be made on

where to allocate the $1500 funding for

donations from the EngSoc budget. Come

out to hear the proposals and give your

opinion on where to spend the money.

As always, remember to make the

most of your EngSoc fee by using such

services as the C & D, $0.05 photocopies

and $1 cover bindings in the Orifice,

POETS, and the phones located in E2 for

local calls.

I hope everyone enjoys some good

times before exams hit.

Kristin Farn

VP Finance

VP Finance Report

The Midterm Standings

P**5 At The Half

Well it’s time to write another late exec

report before Matt kicks my butt. Here it

goes... The city cancelled our field due to

weather, so Mudbowl did not happen this

past weekend. It looks as though we willbe unable to reschedule. On another sport-

ing note, a hockey tournament is being

organised for November 23 and 24.

Contact Dan Foong at dwfoong@engmail,

or sign up in the orifice. Monday the 11th

is Remembrance Day and an act of

remembrance will be held in CPH Foyer.

Come out a buy a poppy.

Frosh week applications are now

online and due on November 15. Become

BIG, HUGE or EDCOM. This is a great

way you can help introduce the next batch

of engineers to University life. Tal-Eng is

on the 14th, so come out and show off

your talent or watch your talented friends

in an evening of fun at the Bomber. The

engineering play will be held November

15 and 16. Tickets are on sale in the

Orifice for $7. November 18 is Women in

Engineering’s wine and cheese night.

Come to DC for a night of socialising and

guest speakers. Attention connoisseurs or

just people who want to learn more about

Scotch. A Scotch tasting has been set forNovember 21. I believe it will be held at

Kick-Off. Contact Chris at cjdeck@eng-

mail for more info. This year EngSoc is

continuing the tradition of entering a float

in the Santa Claus Parade. If you would

like to help out with the float contact

Rosaline, at pcrchoy@engmail.

Otherwise, you can watch the parade start-

ing at 10am at King and Bridgeport con-

tinuing down King to Cedar.

Cheers.

Ryan Walker

VP Internal

There’s A Lot Going On

Faculty Student Quiz Bowl

In order to promote interaction

between faculty and students, the

Engineering Society is holding a faculty

student quiz bowl on Thursday, November

21st.

If you are a student, or a member of the

faculty who would like to participate in the

event, please send an e-mail to mssi-

[email protected] stating your

intention. From those responses, I will be

creating groups of four. If you’d rather

form your own group, send me your name

and the names of all your team members.

If you’d like to help out with the event,

please send an e-mail to mssimoes@eng-

mail.uwaterloo.ca. I’m looking for all the

help I can get!

Maria Simoes

3B Computer

That’s “An Album Cover” Mr. Connery, once again “An Album Cover”.

Jon Fishbein

2A Software



6 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Opinion

Liberal Distinguishing Premise Farcical

The Canadian identity is indeed a

tough thing to pin down. Many of us,

though, would respond with the only defi-

nite answer we could: we’re not American.

We would say we are a friendly people

who believe strongly in democracy, who

believe in respecting others, and probably

something about hockey and Tim Horton’s

coffee. For all the subtle and intangible

differences between us and our neighbour

to the south, the one thing we do know is

that we are in fact different. Of course, our

image to those on the other side of the

world’s longest undefended border is a lit-

tle different.

In a recent article, CNN pinned down

the differences this way:

“Despite their military ties and com-

mon democratic values, Canada has tradi-

tionally adopted more liberal social

policies, in part to distinguish itself from

its powerful neighbour. Examples include

diplomatic ties with Cuba, a ban on capital

punishment and more lenient immigration

policies.”

My visceral reaction aside, it seems

typically naïve of the Cable News

Network to paint this wide a brush in our

direction. The United States is virtually

alone in the world community in its anti-

Cuba policy and it is the only nation in the

G8 to still practice capital punishment.Also, for a nation that has so many “miss-

ing” visa owners within its borders, to

point fingers north regarding “lenient”

immigration policy seems to pass the

green American buck a little too far.

Further, to attribute to such a signifi-

cant degree our “more liberal” social poli-

cies purely as an effort to differentiate

ourselves from the all-powerful United

States is laughable. Although, I suppose I

should refer that lark to the Canadian

Senate’s standing committee on “Don’t Do

What Uncle Sam Does.”

Last issue, I dangled the notion that the

influence of the US in the world was wan-

ing but nobody had really noticed. That

they have gone on the offensive in terms of

their foreign policy was cited as a fruitless

attempt to cling to what little influence

they have so they don’t completely lose

sight of it. Not surprisingly, such a shift

and attitude has made its way into the

hearts and minds of the mainstream

American media that Bush has been lever-

aging in the name of patriotism, vigilance,

and probably some other word he’s bun-

gled repeatedly.

The article quoted above was on the

potential relaxing of marijuana laws in

Canada and how devastating it would be to

the American people. In the American tra-

dition of ignoring defeat at all costs, the

War on Drugs still carries weight in the

battle cry of the current administration so

much so that any evidence or recommen-dations to the contrary are met with the

same disdain as those on the fence are in

the current “with us or against us” War on

Terrorism.

Apparently, American officials have

cautioned the Canadian government about

any move towards this liberal distinguish-

ing and are potentially holding $1-billion

per day cross-border trade hostage. The

director of the Office of National Drug

Control Policy added to the battle cry “We

intend to protect our citizens. We would

have no choice,” while CNN naïvely

reported the potential action as a hindrance

to “trade crucial to the Canadian econo-

my” alone.

With the Canadian Senate committee

recently calling for the complete legalisa-

tion of marijuana, the alleged threat to our

still powerful and indiscriminate neigh-

bour is seen as very real to the enforcers of

their incoherent and ineffective drug poli-

cy. The chairman of the GovernmentReform Subcommittee on Criminal

Justice, Drug Policy, and Human

Resources is “still finding it hard to

believe this could actually happen” and

that it will cause more headaches for the

US.

Eight states, however, have moved

towards the medical marijuana policy

Canada implemented last year implying

that a new Canadian policy wouldn’t be

the only headache the national drug

enforcement agencies would have to face.

But, as is typical with the American drug

policy, even if the states do pass laws in

that regard, federal laws would not recog-

nise the difference between prescription

medical and other possession.

With sovereignty issues on the table

and the determination of the US being

strong regardless of national borders, trade

laws, and anything else in their way, the

issue and the potential consequences are

certainly more complex for the Canadian

government then just the legalisation issue

alone. And if the nation founded on the

principle of self-determination at the state

level won’t recognise the conflict between

state laws and the Ronald Reagan era fed-

eral law, its an issue that will only get big-

ger.

Jeff Henry

3B Computer

“In the American tradition

of ignoring defeat at all

costs, the War on Drugs still

carries weight in the battle

cry of the current adminis-

tration...”

So half our first term has come and

gone. It’s been fun... I guess. Met a lot of

really cool people. Got to live away from

home for a period longer than a week.

Experienced the radically different world

of university life. Managed to hold strong

and firm against various attempts made to

make me learn something. Struggled my

way through 24 job applications. Agonized

through five nerve-wracking midterms and

then agonized through a couple of days of

getting them back.

Fun indeed. As I walked home from

the last of those five midterms, there was

only thought going through my mind: Hey,

at least my fridge is still working.

No, I never expected Waterloo to be an

easy university, and I certainly didn’t

expect Waterloo Engineering to be an easy

program. So I’m glad I was right about

something.

The midterms themselves weren’t that

bad – just terribly stressful. I was writing

exams in which the slightest mistake could

cost you a big chunk of your final mark.

Take Physics for example. One lil’ boo-

boo and you can kiss almost 10% good-

bye. Just knowing that little fact as I was

writing the exam scared the living hell out

of me. One missed negative sign, one

wrong button punched in a calculator, one

forgotten bracket and boom, you’re just

one less question closer to failing. In a

twelve question exam, that one question

could mean quite a lot.

But hey, that’s what university is about

right? Raising the stakes for everything.

From mistakes in life to mistakes in career

choice to mistakes on exams, university is

a place where a single mistake could cost

you big time, big bucks or, perhaps worse,

big opportunities.

There is one thing all Frosh can proba-

bly understand after their 1A midterms.

Those high school grads weren’t just idiots

after all:

“Oh you think high school is tough eh?

Just wait till you’ve hit university. Your

average is going to drop like mad!”

Many a time, I have had this gem of

knowledge passed my way and many a

time I have scoffed and ridiculed such a

concept. A drop of average? Nonsense!

The only thing that could make my aver-

age go down is if the exams are written in

Swahili!

Yeah, well that and exams which make

me get marks well below my high school

average... if I make just one single, stupid,

mistake!

I think I can safely say that most of the

1A plummers have suffered some sort of

drop of average from high school, ranging

from a total collapse to a minor “negative

adjustment”. Hence, using all the calculus

skills I have not learned so far in universi-

ty, I prove the following theorem.

The Fundamental Theorem of 1A MidtermsFrosh = (Party Animals)Unwise

Midterms = (Traumatic) (Excruciatingly painful)-> Frosh + Midterms = Mass Chaos

-> Frosh + Midterms = eD (Disappointment < D < Disaster)

.

Skip next thirty lines of proof

.

Frosh + Midterms = High School Average – x

where, x = “Just how much your high school really forgot to teach you”.

And there you have it, all in a nutshell. Ain’t calculus beautiful?

Rajat Suri

1A Chemical

Being an engineer can often take a fair

amount of your free time away.

Schoolwork and other obligations often

leave you little time to socialize or chill

out, or get involved with things. Although

some people are quite content with this sit-

uation, many people are not. If you love

being an engineer (say yes) but you feel

like there is more to life than school,

Campus Rec may have the answer for you.

Recreational sports offered by Campus

Rec are a great way to get out and have

some fun, take a break from studying, and

get some (needed) exercise at the same

time. There are countless different sports

out there that you can play, from soccer to

basketball to volleyball. You want it, you

got it. And you don’t have to be a profes-

sional athlete either. There are differentlevels of play, from the more advanced A

league to a pure “just for fun” C league. In

addition, because the leagues are just rec

leagues, they usually don’t occupy too

much time. From experience, there is

about one game per week.

To sign up, all you need to do is pick a

sport that you like, and get a bunch of peo-

ple together, (i.e. from your class or your

house/residence) and you have a team. Be

sure to sign up quickly because registra-

tion is early in the term. With a fair sized

team, registration should only cost each

team member about $5 – less than the

price of a meal at the SLC! See, there is

nothing to it.

A nice perk about playing in the

Campus Rec league is the ‘spirit of com-

petition’ points you earn while you play.

What is a spirit of competition point? It isbasically a score added to your team for

playing good sports and playing fairly

Quoting from the Campus Rec website:

“Sport can teach a lot about life, such

as setting goals, teamwork and coopera-

tion. But these positive values can only be

learned when the sport is enjoyable and

played fairly. The foundation of the intra-

mural leagues will be based on the fair

play principles of integrity, fairness and

respect.”

So if your team does not yell at the ref

or abuse any members of the other team

during your games, you will gain a number

of spirit of competition (S.O.C.) points

from the referee. Teams with high numbers

of S.O.C. points at the end of the season

will be awarded challenge games, which

are basically free extra games for being a

good team. Plus, if your team manages towin a few games you might even get into

the Playoffs!

Personally, I am involved in the recre-

ational soccer team for my class (Go CE-

X!). I must admit that it has been a great

opportunity for me not only to get out and

have some fun, but also to meet different

people in my class. I really look forward

to playing each game, and I know that if I

am too busy or for some reason I am

unable to attend a game, other members of

my class will be there. So next time you

are sitting at home procrastinating and

wondering what you want to get involved

with next term, think about Campus Rec.

You won’t regret it!

Shawn Klein

2A Computer

Get Up and Get Out

The Fundamental Theorem of 1A Midterms



7F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Activities

Sofa and The Loveseats: A

Welcome Addition to POETS

If you missed out on the party, on

Friday November 2, you missed out on

one hell of a party. The Middle Of Term

Pub (M.O.T.) kicked off at 9:30 PM, thir-

ty-minutes later than scheduled, but a wel-

come pause for the security team that had

assembled for the night. As curious

passers-by wandered into POETS to see

what the commotion was, regulars to

Engineering found their way into M.O.T.’s

second go around with Sofa and the

Loveseats.

Sofa and the Loveseats (comprised of

Jack Albert, Sophie Jean, Andrew Bell,

and Jay Martin) made their triumphant

return to POETS at M.O.T. They had pre-

viously played at the Winter 2002 M.O.T.

and they would not disappoint.

Many returnees

from last term com-

plained that Sofa

and the Loveseats

needed to learn

more songs and

they needed to

improve their

sound. Straight

from the get-go,Sofa would impress the most hardcore

critic and send us all on a rocket ship ride

through the sound barrier.

Songs ranged from Green Day’s

“She,” to “Wild Nights,” by John

Mellancamp & Michelle Indigechello.

There was a little something for everyone.

Everybody that arrived seemed to be in

high spirits. Midterms were over, classes

were not quite up to their usual speed yet,

and it was a Friday night. Each and every

person who passed through POETS’ hal-

lowed doors seemed to be drawn to the

music.

For their first set, Sofa and The

Loveseats played a veritable medley of

punk-rock songs that got the party jump-

ing. The talented vocal range of Sophie

enthralled punk rockers out there, as she

belted out note after note. As the

Loveseats finished up their first set, softer

music was played in the background as

patrons enjoyed their beverages and

enthusiastically awaited the night’s

upcoming events.

As their second set kicked off, Jay took

over as lead singer, and Sophie was

allowed to rest her vocal chords. A differ-ent turn from their first set, the Loveseats

proved that they were more than just a

band that knew three-chords. (Don’t you

just love Green Day?)

Just as they finished their third song, a

low thrum could be heard in the back-

ground. The lights went out and the band

suddenly cut out. What could it be? What

was happening? Patrons stared in disbe-

lief as the TOOL made its grand entrance

to POETS. It ascended the stairs and

made its way to POETS balcony, where it

would display itself in all its glory.

As Engineers eagerly chanted

“TOOOOOL, TOOOOOL” the TOOL

bared it’s mightiness once again, and then

in a flash, was gone...

Once the shock of seeing the TOOL

disappear had worn off, the P**5 banner

was displayed for all to see. Leading the

way, ComESutra, followed distantly by

The MaCiv Plumb Bobs and the SE-

Xperts. As ComESutra patted itself on the

back, the band warmed

up again, and in no

time the party was

jumping again.

However, the party

wouldn’t last, many

patrons began leaving

after the band finished

its second set.

It was shocking tosee the amount of people stream out of

POETS after the TOOL had left and the

P**5 banner displayed. Many missed out

on the bands third set and final set.

Which, according to Sophie was the

band’s “best” set. She would not be

wrong, as band played its way through a

rather enticing version of “Fever” and

finally closed with “Santoria”.

Sofa and the Loveseats are a new, and

welcome, addition to a new live band tra-

dition of M.O.T. Sofa joins Locus, a local

band who have played at previous

M.O.T.’s, in the names of bands that will

grace the hallowed walls of POETS.

I would personally like to thank Sofa

and The Loveseats for taking time out of

their busy schedules to play at M.O.T., the

security team for donating their time, and

the slaves for helping to clean up after-

wards. Please acknowledge the fact the

POETS is now relatively clean and say

thanks to the poor souls who were stuck

around cleaning until 5:00 AM, see you all

at E.O.T.

Dan Foong

3B Civil

Have you ever seen a way society

works, and not liked it? Have you ever

tried to change it? That is was David

Shlievert did.

In the late nineties when he was work-

ing for then Electrohome, he was asked to

send a large number of projectors to the

landfill. The thought of good materials

(and hazardous components) going to

landfills was devastating to him. David

started working overtime to dismantle the

projectors into recyclable parts.

A few years later Shlievert formed the

company Environmental Quesence, which

specializes in technological recovery. He

dismantles devices such as computers,

prototypes, and projection machines. An

emphasis is put on reusing, and what can’tbe reused is recycled. (Reusable material

is sold in yard sales held at local schools;

a portion of the profits goes to the school.)

The list of materials that are reused

(and available at yard sales) include:

AC Power Supplies, AC Motors,

Cords/Cables, DC Power Supplies, DC

Motors, Switches, Signal Electronics,

Transformers, Sprockets/Gears, Rods,

Latches, Pulleys, and Optics.

For more information on

Environmental Quesence visit their web-

site at www.eq-trm.com. There are 2 more

yard sales this fall: November 9th at

Stanley Park Public School and November

15th at Courtland Senior Public School.

Laura Jones

OffstreamEnviromental

Civil

Environmental Entrepreneurs

“Each and every person

who passed through

POETS’ hallowed doors

seemed to be drawn to the

music.”

It’s been a lot of work and a long term,

but some of the engineers in the halls have

been doing more then just their homework

these days. In fact, many of them are tak-

ing time out to pursue their artistic and

dramatic talents, in the form of the engi-

neering drama production for Fall 2002.

This fall’s selected plays include two one-

act comedies, Canned Hamlet and Man-

Woman-Flower.

Opening the evening’s entertainment

will be a tour through a museum exhibit

featuring a large painting, as you are pre-

sented with a myriad of amusing charac-

ters in Dan LaRocque’s

Man-Woman-Flower. The fast paced

scenes should provide amusement to all,

as everyone reacts in their own unique

way to the provocative painting with

which they are presented. From a young

man seeking something of his own in art,

to a back-water hick trying to gain culture

to impress his girlfriend, to a sarcastic,

vindictive museum proprietor, this play is

sure to leave you wanting more.Of course, if you’re wanting more, we

won’t disappoint you. Second up on the

schedule, is Tim Kochenderfer’s Canned

Hamlet. A satirical slapstick comedy

based upon Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the

play is yet another interpretation of

Shakespeare’s story, but with many of its

own unique twists on the story line. The

classic tale of treachery and revenge is

transformed before your eyes as Hamlet

stumbles through life following the death

of his father. The troubles of being a boy

named Hamlet are amusing for all, since

life just isn’t easy when your dad’s haunt-

ing your friends and you’re having prob-

lems trying to deal with a girl like Ophelia.

This play will keep you laughing all night

long and is a must see to ease the stress of

school projects.

Show times are Friday, November 15

at 7:00pm and Saturday, November 16 at

2:00pm and 7:00pm. Tickets to the play

are only $7 and are available from any

actor or actress, in the Orifice and CPH

foyer for all three shows while they last...

Get yours today!!!

The Painting and a Boy

Named Hamlet

Chris Deck

3B Computer

Some Snapshots of What You Can

Expect From the Eng Plays:

Warm Humour

Intense Action!

Tense Drama



8 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Opinion

Marijuana Decriminalization? Decriminalize it Already

Since the early 1920’s, Canada has had

very strict drug laws. After the era of pro-

hibition, laws prohibited sale, use, and

ownership of any sort of illicit drug (i.e.,

heroin, cocaine, cannabis). Any one

caught with possession of such a drug

would automatically undergo criminal

prosecution. This could often cause prob-

lems for people with a stake in keeping

their criminal record untainted, such as

doctors, engineers and other professional

workers.

In 2002, the Ontario Court of Appeal

ruled that the Canadian Charter of Rights

and Freedoms was being violated through

the banning of marijuana for medicinal

purposes. As a result, Canada was the first

country to put in place regulation to allow

for the use of medicinal marijuana.

However, the debate has not ended there.

Many Canadians want to decriminalize

recreational use of marijuana.

Currently, many people are given

undue criminal records for the possession

and use of small amounts of marijuana for

recreational purposes. They are faced with

the possibility of a jail sentence as well as

a mark upon their criminal history. This

mark can often tarnish their career and

their lives, even though the amount of

cannabis they possessedwas insignificant in

comparison.

Decriminalization of

recreational marijuana

use and possession (in

small amounts) will be

tantamount to the de-

prohibiting of alcohol.

Persons found with

small amounts of

cannabis would then be

faced with a modest

fine, without tainting

their criminal record. For Engineers and

other professionals, the possession of

small amounts of marijuana would be sim-

ilar to being caught speeding as opposed to

being caught driving under the influence.

Those found operating a vehicle with mar-

ijuana in their systems would be faced

with criminal prosecution.

The end result will be beneficial to all

people. Society will benefit from the

decrease in criminal cases that need to be

prosecuted - thereby adding funds and

time to prosecute other, more serious,

offenses. Jails would not be taken up by

those in possession; rather, more jail room

would be made available to the ax-murder-

ers and rapists in society.

People who use marijuana would also,

of course, benefit. They would no longer

have to worry about tarnishing their

records by their recre-ational cannabis use.

The use of marijuana

would therefore be rele-

gated to a *somewhat*

similar place in society

as the use of alcohol.

People could use mari-

juana recreationally in

their homes, so long as

they do not detrimental-

ly affect the health and

well-being of other citi-

zens.

Furthermore, the decriminalization of

marijuana possession should not in any

way cause an increase in recreational use.

Those who currently do not smoke the

drug often do so for personal reasons, and

not for fear of getting caught or of getting

legally prosecuted. Current smokers either

use marijuana for the sensations that the

drug induces or to oppose and rebel

against authority. The decriminalization

of cannabis possession might therefore

cause a reduction in the number of recre-

ational users, since those who smoke to

rebel will quit when the act no longer con-

stitutes rejection of authority.

In the mid 70’s, certain states in

America decriminalized marijuana in a

way similar to what is being proposed.

The end result was that fewer people

ended up in criminal court, the states

ended up with more money, and marijuanausers ended up a little more safe and

secure.

Whether or not the actual recreational

use of marijuana was diminished by such a

move remains to be seen. However, the

benefits of decriminalization are obvious:

a decrease in the number of people prose-

cuted (which would keep people’s family

and career lives intact), a larger amount of

funds and court time available for the pros-

ecution of more serious offences, and an

increase in the amount of jail space made

available for those found guilty of serious

crimes. Even if marijuana decriminaliza-

tion does not affect the recreational use of

marijuana, the act of decriminalizing will

benefit all people.

Maria Simoes

3B Computer

Editor’s Note: This article was original-

ly intended to be the Point in a Point vs.

Counterpoint article. As such, the views

and opinions expressed here do not nec-

essarily reflect those of the author, the

Iron Warrior, or the Engineering Society.

Unfortunately, due to extenuating cir-

cumstances, the Counterpoint to this

article was unavailable. If anyone

would care to compose a response to this

article, send it to iwarrior@engmail

“...the possession of

small amounts of mar-

ijuana would be simi-

lar to being caught

speeding as opposed to

being caught driving

under the influence.”

Starting university is a stressful but

exciting part of life. Everything is new:

the city, the maze of buildings, the lecture

format and more... This is a perfect oppor-

tunity for students already here to try to

help make the transition smoother for

those who follow. Engineering students

currently in school this fall have until

November 15th to apply (application form

at www.engsoc.uwaterloo.ca or in the

Orifice, CPH-1327) for any of the three

positions. Those currently on work term

will be able to apply almost as soon as they

return to campus. After applying to

become a leader, leaders will need to go

through an informal interview to help us

determine how they

will best fit into the

week.

The three leader

positions are Big,

Huge, and Edcom.

Bigs have very little

responsibility leading

up to the week and

their primary purpose

is to ensure the

incoming students

have their questions

answered, lend a hand organizing the

colour group and ensure everyone’s hav-

ing a wonderful week. Bigs are usually

just starting or just finishing their second

year and, as a result, have the best insight

into the First Year

Engineering program

and campus activities

oriented towards first

year students. In short,

Bigs make or break the

week. Huges, on the

other hand, have signif-

icant responsibility

leading up to and dur-

ing the week. The

three Huges per colour

group are responsible

for setting the group’s theme, planning the

group’s activities, budgeting the group’s

expenses and knowing where the colour

group is at all times and where it needs to

go next. Finally, Edcom (also known as

the Education Committee) also have quite

a bit of responsibility during the week. As

Edcom, leaders are responsible for the

setup, execution and takedown of events.

If you have any questions about the

application procedure or any constructive

comments about Frosh Week, I encourage

you to email this year’s organizing com-

mittee at [email protected]

loo.ca. I’ll leave you with a paraphrase of

something I recently heard from a third

year student who first participated this fall:

“The only regret that I have from Frosh

Week is that I didn’t do it the other two

times I had a chance.”

Frosh Week 2003 Already Gearing Up

“Bigs are usually just

starting or just finishing

their second year and, as

a result, have the best

insight into the First

Year Engineering pro-

gram”

James Kunz

3B Computer

The Hardhat represents every Frosh - the 12” Pipe Wrench i s for t hose select few “Psycho” Frosh Wouldn’t you like to be a part of a crowd like this again?



9F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Feature

On Tuesday, October 29th, UW

Students for Life organized a debate on the

question “Is elective abortion an immoral

act?” The debate was well advertised by

the Federation of Students club and drew

out a motley crowd of about 275 students

and community members. Although some

people refused to attend the debate

because they believed it would be heavily

biased with a pro-life group in charge, the

debate proved to be extremely balanced.

Two extremely qualified debaters, Dr. Jan

Narveson and Stephanie Gray battled

head-to-head on the issue, raising some

challenging questions that caused all but

the most ardent proponents or opponents

of elective abortion to reexamine the basis

of their beliefs.

The proponent of the question was

Stephanie Gray, who came from British

Columbia to participate in the debate. She

graduated from UBC with a degree in

Political Science, and is now the

Executive director of the Canadian Centre

for Bio-Ethical Reform. Her speaking

tours across Canada during which she tries

to make abortion unthinkable have gained

her notoriety. She contends that the mean-

ing must be restored to abortion; what was

once viewed as death is now viewed aschoice.

The opponent of the question was Dr.

Jan Narveson, a professor of philosophy at

UW who is known for his participation in

debates on campus. Most recently, he has

debated at the “Islam versus Secularism”

debate hosted by Muslim Students for

Universal Justice and a debate on deregu-

lation organized by the Political Science

Students Association. He has a reputation

as a philosophical scholar, and his many

achievements have earned him recognition

as an Officer of the Order of Canada.

The debate was opened by Ms. Gray,

who based her case on evidence that

developing babies are undeniably human,

and therefore killing them is just as

immoral as killing any other person. She

contended that from the moment of con-

ception, the developing baby is a whole

human, albeit less developed. Anticipating

Dr. Narveson’s arguments, she stated that

it is hypocritical for us not to grant per-

sonhood to fetuses, and thus the rights

granted to all people, simply because the

developing child has not yet been born.

She drew parallels with past injustices

where black people, natives and women

were denied their personhood for the self-

ish interests of those who would benefit.

Within her presentation she showed an

extremely graphic video of aborted babies,

stating that if we cannot stand to see suchdisturbing and violent images, we should

question why we allow the practices to

continue in our society.

Dr. Jan Narveson followed Ms. Gray,

and contested none of the arguments she

had given. He stated that there is no ques-

tion that fetuses are biologically human,

but that having human cells does not grant

them the rights of walking, breathing

humans. His contention is that rights of

personhood are granted to us when we

achieve the ability to express our humani-

ty, which occurs when we are capable of

rational thought. He paralleled the fetus to

the case of a woman who had been in a

serious car accident and who was in an

irreversible coma with only enough cogni-

tive ability left to live, but not to think.

This woman no longer had rights of per-

sonhood because she simply wasn’t there;

everything that made her human was dead.He cited research that showed that fetuses

have no brain activity at all when using an

electrocardiogram as the method of detec-

tion. In his view, the lack of cognition nec-

essarily implies a lack of personhood and

thus no right to life.

In the following questions, Ms. Gray

tried to find a case that would cause Dr.

Narveson to moderate his position. She

asked if he would have any problem with

parents aborting babies because they had

slight physical abnormalities, because they

were female or because they carried a gene

identified as ‘the gay gene’. Dr. Narveson

had no problems with that happening in

any of the cases. He stated that a fetus was

not a person and had no rights, so there-

fore it was fully the parents’ choice to do

as they will with their property. Ms. Gray

asked an extremely interesting question,

where she stated that her relative had been

born several weeks early and she wanted

to know if the child’s parents could moral-

ly smash the baby with a hammer a couple

weeks after birth since it had not yet devel-

oped to the state of an average newborn.

Time ran out before Dr. Narveson had a

chance to formulate a full answer, but he

certainly was not about to unequivocally

state that it would be immoral.

Dr. Narveson’s questions attempted to

define exactly what it was that gave

human matter inalienable rights simply forcontaining human genes. He challenged

Ms. Gray to explain why it was moral to

slaughter a cow for consumption but not to

abort a fetus for greater reasons.

Unfortunately, Ms. Gray wouldn’t state

whether she believed it was moral to kill a

cow for food, stalling the progress of the

questioning. Dr. Narveson spent more of

his question period continuing his argu-

ments than asking questions, reinforcing

his belief that what is unique about the

human race is our ability to reason, not the

genes in our cells.

Ultimately, the debate came down to a

single sticking point: the definition of per-

sonhood. Ms. Gray contended that devel-

oping babies are just people who are not as

developed as those who are older than

them—much as a six year old is not as

developed as an adult. Personhood derives

from inherent capacity that the developing

baby has by nature of being human. She

pointed out that, “These are not potential

people, they are people with great poten-

tial.” On the other hand, Dr. Narveson

defined personhood as the realization of

the potential that is in our genes. We have

not gained personhood and the rights

bequeathed along with the status until we

have developed the cognitive abilities that

separate us from animals. Until that point,

we are still the property of those who con-

ceived us and they justly determine ourright to life.

The debate stayed in the philosophical

and scientific realm, thankfully sparing the

audience from the religious versus secular

arguments that so often comprise debates

on abortion. Both speakers posited coher-

ent, rational arguments that would satisfy

the belief systems of people on both sides

of the discussion. The people who were

most challenged by the debate were those

without strong views on the issue. They

must now decide: Are our lives valuable

because we are human, or is the value of

humanity derived from the rational minds

that we possess? This question will

undoubtedly survive us all.

Mike Kerrigan

Feds VP Internal

Lively Debate on Abortion Draws Crowd

Professor Narveson, flanked by a zealous protestor

A question from the very crowded audience

Ms. Grey and her debate opponent, Dr. Jan Narveson



1 0 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Feature

Wireless Willie - The Student Perspective

This past year, Engineering Computing

started an initiative to de-wire campus.

The “Wireless Willie” service was put into

place to allow students and faculty the

ability to connect to the internet using

wireless protocols (802.11).

Since its inception,

many students have taken

full advantage of the wire-

less computing services

on campus (myself being

one such person).

However, it still needs to

be determined how many

students actually use the

service. Furthermore, in

attempting to improve the availability and

usage of the service, student input was

required.

For this reason, a survey was conduct-

ed over a random set of Waterloo

Engineering students, asking them about

whether or not they use the service, how

often they use the service, and what they

might require in order for the service to be

better improved.

The results of the survey are as fol-

lows. Approximately 29% of Engineering

students own laptops on this campus. Of

that percent, approximately 62% own

wireless cards. Of which, 80% say that

they often utilize the Wireless Willie ser-

vice. Of the 71% that do not own laptops,approximately 60% would consider buy-

ing a laptop in order to utilize the wireless

service.

Some of the comments given by stu-

dents were that they would like to have

more wireless hubs placed on campus.

Specific locations suggested were: in

CPH hallway between the Orifice and the

multimedia lab, in RCH, on the 2nd and

3rd floors of E2 and in

Dana Porter library. They

also mentioned that more

lab and classroom base

stations would be

required. Many people

stated that they would like

to see more power outlets

and stronger signals in

Wireless Willie areas.

Also, others stated that they might bring in

their laptops more often if laptop lockers

were provided on campus. Some users

wondered which brand of wireless cards

work best with the network. Lastly, others

wanted to know the timeline for upgrading

network technology.

Personally, I see Wireless Willie as the

technology of the future and an impressive

move on the part of Engineering

Computing. I am proud to be a member of

such an innovative university.

Maria Simoes

3B Computer

“Personally, I see

Wireless Willie as

the technology of

the future and an

impressive move...”

So, What’s the Deal With Those “Boggan Burgers”?

As tradition dictates, each winter term,

the 4B Civil Engineering class competes

the the Great Northern Canadian

Toboggan Race (GNCTR for short). In

order to compete they must manufacture a

toboggan, made out of concrete, capableof transporting a team of intrepid Civil

Engineers down a steep hill at speeds

exceeding 60 km/h.

In order to raise money for construc-

tion and transportation of the concrete

behemoth, the senior onstream Civil class

traditionally sells hamburgers.

You need not worry that buying

“Boggan Burgers” is supporting an

unworthy cause. In fact, after the excep-

tional success that was achieved by Civil

‘02 class, a representative was interview

on the Discovery Channel, which is a

good thing for UW Engineering’s reputa-

tion, indeed.

Matthew Harper

2B Computer

These fine folk would be happy to grill you up a tasty burger



Why Are These Doors Locked?!?

Iron Inquisition: Shadow Day Edition

1 1F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

“A person who fixes things that aren't

necessarily broken..”

Alicia Grubb - Sacred Heart

“A Responsible, innovative person.”

Hiran Perera - Oakridge

“A geek.”

Chris Jee - WCI

“A genius.”

Vishal Acharya - WCI“Someone who works hard.”

Marko Dudka - WCI

“A Person who solves people's problems.”

Steve Mackie - Monsignor Doyle

“People who improve systems and

society.”

Kelley Lee - Cameron Heights

“What’s an Engineer?”

t h e

Jonathan Fishbein, 2A Software

“A Problem Solver.”

Carleton Banks - WCI

Opinion

(Begin Rant)

Why is it that the doors to the engi-

neering buildings on this campus are

always closed at the most inopportune

times? For example, it’s late Friday night

and my lab partner and I are working on a

project. Since the only time that we are

both available happens to be late Friday

night, we take the opportunity to finish our

project. At approximately one in the

morning, we both decide that we are hun-

gry and in need of coffee. We leave the

building and go to Williams. We are soon

joined by two of our friends. All four of us

then proceed to Farah’s

for butter tarts and other

inexpensive snacks. At

Farah’s, our two friends

mention that as they

were leaving campus,

they ran across a custo-

dian locking the doors to

an Engineering building.

The custodian informed

them, as they were leav-

ing, that if they left they wouldn’t be able

to get back inside. This warning does not

stop us however, as we proceed to go in

search of an entrance to the buildings that

hold all of our belongings.

After about 10 minutes, we manage tofind an open door that is somewhat close

to our destination. By somewhat close I

am referring to the fact that the door

opened into an engineering building, and

not into the Math Building or the Davis

Centre. Even though we managed to find

a way in, we were still somewhat aggra-

vated that the doors were locked in the

first place.

Engineering is, without a doubt, a very

work intensive program. I have often

spent entire days and weekends on

campus, working on projects, labs or

group work (only leaving the campus to

change, eat and possibly sleep).Considering the number of students that

can often be found on the Engineering

campus late at night and on the weekends,

I find it hard to believe how frequently and

inappropriately the doors seem to be

locked.

It might be okay to lock certain doors

if only students knew which doors were

accessible and which weren’t. One early

Sunday morning, I started my trek to

campus. Half-way during my route, it

started to rain. By the time I got to

campus, it had started to pour. All I want-

ed to do was get inside and out of the rain.

I went to the door leading into CPH Foyer

(note, in my opinion, this door is never

locked past 8 am in the

morning, and it was cur-

rently 11 am). I expected

the door to be open; to

relieve me from getting

drenched to my bones.

Alas, it was not so! The

door was locked and I was

stuck running around

campus until I found an

open door.

I would not have a problem with the

locked doors if they were locked with

some sort of logical pattern, or if the rea-

soning behind locking the doors were

given in the first place. However, as it cur-

rently stands, doors are locked haphazard-ly using some sort of unfathomable

pattern. Furthermore, no one has ever

been told why it is that doors are locked at

noon on weekends or late at night on

weekdays.

Until then, I guess I’m just going to

have to deal with locked doors, and con-

tinue to find my way inside.

(End Rant)

Maria Simoes

3B Computer

“...doors are locked

haphazardly using

some sort of unfath-

omable pattern.”



Feds Launch Co-op Meet and Greet

This past Thursday, the Federation of

Students held a new type of session for

first-year students who are currently in the

co-op machine or will be soon. In Ground

Zero, a ‘Co-op Meet and Greet’ was orga-

nized to give first-year

students a chance to

chat with students that

have had some experi-

ence with co-op, allow-

ing them to learn more

about other students’

perspectives about the

process. About thirty

students came out for

the free food and for the

information they could

learn.

First-year students

often only have the

opportunity to learn about co-op from the

administration of the University. The Co-

op Department puts a great deal of effort

into the Co-op 101 sessions it puts on for

students, but it can be difficult to connect

with students on their level. This schism

inspired Feds VP Education, Ryan

O’Connor to try something different.

“First-year students often spend most of

their time withother first-years,

and they may not

have the opportu-

nity to interact

with students

who have already

been through the

c h a l l e n g e s

they’re facing

and can explain

what they found

most important. I thought that this event

would give students that opportunity.”

In addition to the casual time offered,

there were five students who spoke about

the experiences that they’ve had on their

work terms and what they felt was key for

other students to understand about co-op.

The students were ERS student Tamara

Levine, Systems Design student Chris

Fairles, Environmental Engineering stu-

dent Greg Powell, Math student Liam

McHugh-Russell and Computer Sciencestudent Andy Wassyng. Their experiences

ranged from jobs within a business envi-

ronment to jobs in third world countries.

One message that was reinforced many

times throughout the presentations is the

need for students to go beyond standard

co-op protocol and seek out the jobs that

they want. Tamara Levine knew she want-

ed to work for the UN so

she simply contacted

them, and the person she

reached was so

impressed with her

enthusiasm that she was

eventually offered a job.

Students were encour-

aged to focus as much

energy as they could on

jobs that they really

want, researching the

company and its needs,

and ensuring that they

presented a cover letter

on resumes for key jobs. As well, students

were told not to feel as though they’d lost

out if they ended up in continuous phase;

many good jobs are available in this phase.

An additional purpose of the Co-op

Meet and Greet was to advertise the ser-

vices of Co-op Student Services, which

was the body officially hosting the event.

Copies of the service’s co-op student

handbook wereavailable for free

to students. The

handbook offers

an amusing look

at the co-op sys-

tem from a stu-

d e n t ’ s

perspective, giv-

ing both valuable

information and

an opportunity

for a rant or two about the process. CSS is

looking to start raising their profile on

campus in order to attract more volunteers

and stimulate interest in the service. A

space has been provided in the new co-op

building for the service, and CSS is hoping

to expand its presence on campus beyond

Mike Kerrigan

Feds VP Internal

1 2 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Feds

Physics Question: Baldwin of mass 80 kg and Miranda are making out

in a boat. They decide to switch positions. Baldwin, who is too obser-

vant notices that the boat moves 40 cm as they switch positions. As any

geek would, he then calculates Miranda’s weight. Baldwin wants to make

sure he will not be crushed. How much does Miranda weigh?

Adventures in the

Electrical Circus

hosting WatPubs.

Another Co-op Meet and Greet is

going to be planned for the winter term.

Although the number of people who

showed up was relatively low, a great dealof interest was expressed in the event and

the participants who attended found it a

very valuable experience. Now that all the

logistics worked out and there is evidence

that efforts to expand the event would be

worthwhile, the Feds and CSS would like

this event to be as widely known and pop-ular as the WatPubs have been.

“One message that was

reinforced many times

throughout the presen-

tations is the need for

students to go beyond standard co-op proto-

col and seek out the

jobs that they want.”



A Midsummer Night’s Dream,

Shakespeare’s perfect play, brings togeth-

er inexperienced but energetic young

lovers, cautious but willing middle-aged

lovers and a world of spirits who know too

well how easily love can be turned into

something comic or tragic.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream is,

above all, about the thin line between

comic and serious attitudes we

all tread when we are intoxicat-

ed by a love that makes rational

behaviour unwelcome and,

frankly, deadly dull.

An ensemble of 13 actors

will double and triple roles in

this UW Drama production,

and we hope that the flagrant

act of assuming roles and play-

ing out in fantasy what wescarcely allow ourselves to

deal with in life will shed new

responses to one of

Shakespeare’s most produced

plays.

The production is directed

by Joel Greenberg and

Meredith Kenzie, designed by

Bill Chesney (set), Jocelyne

Sobeski (costumes), Lesley

Wilkinson (lighting) and Fraser

Smith (sound).

A Midsummer Night’s

Dream runs from Wednesday,

November 13 through Saturday,

November 16 in the Theatre of the Arts,

Modern Languages Building. Tickets are:

$10 (students and seniors) and $12 (gener-

al public). Performances begin at 8:00

p.m.

Tickets can be purchased in advance at

the Humanities Theatre Box Office, 888-

4567 x-4908, or at the door.

1 3F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

“An imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all republics.” - Plato

Events

November 8

Co-op Job Posting #3 (Continuous

Phase) available by 12 noon.

Work Reports (marked by co-op co-

ordinators) available for pick-up at Co-op

Reception.

CAREER SERVICES WORK-

SHOPS: Letter Writing – Learn how to

use letters to your advantage in the job

search. 10:30 – 11:30am. Sign up at

www.careerserv ices .uwater loo .ca.

Résumé Writing – Discover techniques for

writing an effective résumé. 11:30 – 12:30.

Sign up at www.careerservices.uwater-

loo.ca

November 11


Phase) expires at 8pm.

DUE TODAY: If you are applying to

Continuous Phase jobs hand in 1 copy of

your résumé package along with complet-

ed Continuous Phase Registration form to

Paging Desk, main floor, NH by 4:00pm.

November 12




SHOP: Interview Skills: Selling Your

Skills – Learn how to prove your skills in

an interview. 2:30 – 4:30pm. Sign up at

www.careerservices.uwaterloo.ca.

November 13



November 14



November 15



November 18



November 19



November 20




SHOP: Career Research Package – Self

assessment, occupational research, infor-

mation interviews, & career decision mak-

ing. 10:30 – 12:00. Sign up at

www.careerservices.uwaterloo.ca

November 21



CAREER SERVICES WORK-SHOP: Work Finding Package: Job/Work

Search, Networking & Employer Research

– learn the “how to’s” of job/work search-

es, networking, and employer research.

2:30 – 4:00pm. Sign up at www.careerser-

vices.uwaterloo.ca

Important Dates from CECS

for Nov 8 – Nov 22, 2002

Jenna Olmstead

Co-op and Career Services

UW Drama presents:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Recyclable Boat Race

On October 25th, two teams from

Waterloo (one from the A-soc stream, and

one from the B-soc) went to challenge

Queens and U of T in the first ever recy-

clable boat races.

Each team had to make a boat of type

1 recyclable plastic (PETE). The winner

was judged on 3 aspects: design, technical

presentation, and their placing in the race.

The B-soc team ended up in second

place after winning both the design and the

race. They were denied the top prize

because their boat manufacturing process

melted some of the recyclable plastic,

releasing trace amounts of pollutants into

the atmosphere. The A-soc team finished

fourth.

Laura Jones

Offstream

Enviromental

Civil



1 4 F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Opinion

He failed in business at the age of 21;

lost in a legislative race at the age of 22;

failed in business again at the age of 24;

Overcame the death of his sweetheart at

age 26; had a nervous breakdown at age

27; lost a Congressional race at age 34;

lost a senatorial race at age 45; failed in an

effort to become vice president at age 47;

lost a Senatorial race at

age 49; and was elected

the President of United

States at age 52. Does

anyone know who he is?

(Take a guess.) Yes

that’s right, he is

Abraham Lincoln. He

was an ordinary person

like you and me but with

extraordinary belief in

himself.

Hello everyone, my name is Anubhav

Srivastava and I want to tell you about

how you can trap the immense power that

lies within you to achieve the greatest.

This article is based on the research by Dr.

Deepak Chopra. He is a world-renowned

professor of philosophy. You can also

achieve what you want if you can take

control of 7 things inside you, which are

namely Calmness, Giving and Receiving,

Cause & Effect, Acceptance, Desire

Uncertainty and Purpose in Life. I have

control over just two (Calmness &

Uncertainty) and I can feel a phenomenal

difference in my life.

Lets us now talk about these attributes

in brief detail.

The first is CALMNESS.Relax. Don’t be judgmental. Try to sit

alone in silent meditation at least twice a

day and get in touch with yourself.

Commune with nature and remember that

happiness in life comes from small things.

So enjoy your calm state and you will

experience unending happiness in your

life.

The second is GIVING

AND RECEIVING.

Wherever you go and

whomever you encounter

you will give them a gift.

The gift can be a smile, a

compliment, a flower or

even a prayer. Receive the

gift of nature, sunlight and

birds singing. Keep the

wealth circulating in life.

The third attribute is CAUSE AND

EFFECT

As we all know, “As you sow so you

reap”. The best way to be ready for the

future is to be fully conscious in the pre-

sent. Every time you make a choice ask

yourself two questions:

1. What are the consequences of the

choice you are making?

2. Will it bring fulfillment and happi-

ness to you and to those who are affected

by this choice?

Listen to your heart for guidance and

be guided with its message of comfort or

discomfort.

The fourth attribute is ACCEPTANCE.

Tell yourself everyday that today you

will accept people, situations, circum-

stances and events as they occur. Eachmoment is as it should be. You will not

struggle against it. Take responsibility for

your actions. Remember every problem is

an opportunity in disguise. It is this alert-

ness to opportunity that allows you to take

each moment and transform it into a

greater benefit.

The fifth attribute is

what we all have,

DESIRES.

Make a list of all

your desires. Carry it

with yourself all the

time. Look at it before

you go to sleep and in

the morning when you

get up. Look at it before

you go into silence and

meditation. Release the

list of desires into the womb of creation,

trusting that when things don’t seem to go

your way, there is a reason and that the

cosmic plans have even greater designs for

you than those you have conceived.

Practice present moment awareness.

The sixth attribute is what we all run

away from, UNCERTAINTY.

Commit yourself and others around

you to the freedom to be as they are.

Participate in everything with detached

involvement. Accept uncertainty as an

essential ingredient of your experience. In

your willingness to accept uncertainty,

solution will emerge out of the problem,

confusion, disorder and chaos. The more

uncertain things are, the more secure you

should feel because uncertainty is your

path to freedom. Step into the field of allpossibilities and anticipate the excitement

that can occur when you are open to infin-

ity of choices.

Lets now talk about the final and the

most important of all attributes, PUR-

POSE IN LIFE.

Nurture the god or

goddess in embryo that

lies deep within your

soul. Make a list of your

unique talents. How can

you serve the society?

How can you help? How

can you contribute to the

betterment of mankind?

The answer will take

you further to enlighten-

ment and your purpose

in life.

In conclusion, these seven attributes

can bring immense difference in you and

you would feel more fulfilled than you are.

If you would like to know more about this

please refer to the book “The Seven

Spiritual Laws of Success” by Dr. Deepak

Chopra. I would like to end my article by

quoting a saying from the Upanishads:

“You are what your deep driving desire

is. As is your desire, so is your will. As is

your will, so is your deed. As is your deed,

so is your destiny.”

Please send comments to

[email protected]

Anubhav Srivastava

Offstream Computer

Finding Your Inner Power

Look, It’s Ed the Plummer! Anonymous

“He was an ordi-

nary person like

you and me but

with extraordinary

belief in himself..”

“If you would like to

know more about this

please refer to the

book “The Seven

Spiritual Laws of

Success” by Dr.

Deepak Chopra..”



I’m sure that by now even the Frosh

know the joys of staying up WAY too late

with an assignment to complete or exam

studying to do. I’ve been there. I’ve been

up until sunrise, sitting in front of my com-

puter, worrying over due dates and

midterms. But can one ever see me work

on a project at four in the morning? Am I

hunched over texts when the sun breaks

above the horizon?

No. For I stay up too late for a much

more noble purpose. I risk flunking every

course for a greater cause. What could be

greater than Engineering, you may ask.

Here’s the answer. The reason all

Engineers should be on the verge of fail-

ure. The most important thing in the world

(well, second to romance) is SLIME VOL-

LEYBALL!

Slime volleyball packs everything

good in life (again, excepting romance)

into one quick, easy-to-learn game. The

premise is simple, its volleyball, but

instead of controlling a team of players,

the user just has one slime-blob-thing to

move around and hit the ball. The rules

are slightly different than those of tradi-

tional volleyball yet the game is just as

intense and thrilling as full-court, six play-

er volleyball.

The game has quite a history. It began

back in the days of early Java program-

ming, the absurd creation of an under-

ground cult of Waterloo Engineers. TheseEngineers saw a gap in the education of

society and took it upon themselves to cor-

rect the matter. They knew that the gov-

ernment would not allow this action to

proceed to its ultimate resolution; the over-

throwing of the Imperialist Regime of

Canada. Fortunately for them, they knew

The TOOL on a personal level (being the

first engineers to ever lay hands on the

illustrious mascot), so these Engineers,

under the ever-watchful eye of The Tool,

made a secret programming lab in TheTool’s hidden home.

From this hidden base they struck. At

first they met strong resistance. The

Imperial Canadians attempted many times

to crush the Engineer Rebels, but The

TOOL kept the programmers safe from

harm. The new program, aptly named

Slime Volleyball after the slimy govern-

ment, spread quickly over the Internet.

Canadian citizens everywhere opened

their eyes to the oppression forced upon

them. A surge of uprising began, and with-in minutes outraged Canadian citizens had

taken control of the Imperialist Capitol,

Ottawarthiska. Change swept the coun-

try, beginning with the renaming of

Ottawarthiska to the much easier to pro-

nounce Ottawa. A democratic government

was installed and leaders were selected

from among the uprisers.

That’s when the Engineers realized the

errors of their ways. For they did not place

controls over the rebellion to allow their

own rise to power. They watched as a

tyrannical governmental body was

replaced with an inept system of rule.

So the moral of this rather abstract

story is: never believe what you think to be

true. Canada was once an Imperialist state

(the Star Wars story is based off the

Canada catastrophe). Engineers don’t

always think of everything, and cheaply-

made internet games, like Slime

Volleyball, are addictive and cause people

like myself to play them until 6:00 AM on

weekdays.

(The Iron Warrior staff do not neces-

sarily share the views regarding the

Canadian government - past or present -

presented in the preceding article.)

1 5F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

John Olaveson

1A Civil

The History of Slime Volleyball

Ryan Bayne

Computer ‘02Mutant Dog Comic Fun Art!!!

Laura Mooney2B Systems Design Surreality Check: It’s a New Comic!!

Arts and Entertainment

Slime Wars: One of the many variations of the classic Slime Volleyball



1 6F r i d ay , No v emb er 8 , 2 0 0 2

Date post:	14-Apr-2018
Category:	Documents
Upload:	the-iron-warrior
View:	213 times
Download:	0 times

The Iron Warrior: Volume 23, Issue 15

Documents