STUDENT NEWSPAPER of the UNIVERSITY of LETHBRIDGE Thursday, Novermher 2, 2006 2 Editorial the Meliorist October 26,2006 Meliorist
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Volume 40 1 AWT~ ""mmmf ^mP 4m9 Issue 9 MCMTOttSt www.themeliorist.com STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF LETHBRIDGE Thursday, Novermher 2, 2006 2 Editorial The Meliorist October 26,2006 Meliorist mehio'rism (meel'e riz'm, me'le e-), n. the A bigger bang for your buck doctrine that the world tends to become better or may be made better by human effort By Chris An autonomous body, FrtHor-tn-CMaK separate from the U of L Students' Union SU-166, 4401 University Drive West, Lethbridge, AB T1K3M4 Phone:329-2334 In the beginning, there was nothing, and it exploded. The Meliorist is the student newspaper - Terry Pratchett of the University of Lethbridge, published most Thursdays throughout the academic year by The Meliorist Publishing Society, an autonomous incorporated body. Please In the most recent issue of the address all correspondence to The Meliorist, journal Science, there is an article 4401 University Drive, Lethbridge, Alberta, claiming that physicists have created T1K 3M4, or drop it off at room SU-166 Deadline for submissions is Sunday at noon. a mathematical code using 3-D The Meliorist appreciates and encourages the models that "cracks a mystery about writing of thoughtful, concise, timely letters However, The Meliorist will only consider for stellar development and reconciles publication those letters which are signed a discrepancy with the Big Bang by the author (special arrangements may theory ofthe universe's evolution." be made for those wishing anonymity, but absolutely no pseudonyms), contain the Heavy stuff, one could say. What authors legible name, address, telephone this means in normal-person terms number and student identification number is that these physicists have been (address, ID. and phone number not for publication). Letters may be edited for wrestling with some problems about brevity, clarity and legality. The Meliorist the Big Bang, and now feel one step reserves the right to edit submissions and closer to figuring it all out. The will not print libelous material. article goes on about helium-3 gas, low-mass stars, and nebulas etc., Editor-in-Chief but the details are inherently boring Chris Hibbard at least to me, as I am no more a [email protected] scientist any more than say, Paris Hilton is an intellectual. For the Business Manager uninitiated, the Big Bang may seem Kelly Kennedy complicated. For the religious, it may when he looked down his telescope to know where life began? Isn't it nor can they prove me right. [email protected] seem divine. For the astrophysicist, lens, watching events that happened better just to accept the fact that Kurt Vonnegut once wrote "Just it may seem tremendously crucial back in time or something, since there are some mysteries in the because some of us can read and Advertising Manager to their understanding. But if there light takes time to travel etc. etc. etc. world that are better left unsolved, write and do a little math, that Maria Berlando were a book called The Big Bang Confused yet? Me too... really, even making for good conversation and doesn't mean we deserve to conquer [email protected] for Dummies out there, it would The Idiot's Guide to Big Banging an eternal puzzle? Not only have we the universe." Smart man that Production Manager probably explain the theory, and its doesn't really help. (Don't bother proven that there truly is no Loch Vonnegut. If we all cared just a little Sarah Fulcher background, sort of like this: looking. This is not a real book.) Ness Monster (see the BBC study), more about this small blue planet, [email protected] Some guy named Fred Hoyle What I find most interesting about we feel the need to prove that God about each other, and about our once referred to a theory about the the Big Bang is the length to which does or does not exist, that we are children and our children's children, News Editor universe just suddenly appearing we humans go to understand our or are not related to monkeys, and a little less about the vastness of Shannon Frank M "the Big Bang" on a radio show. place in the universe, and indeed the that there is or is not life on other the universe and the great beyond, [email protected] While more of an expansion than very universe itself. Because when planets. we just might be happier. an explosion, this name stuck. I you really delve into, the Big Bang I for one am quite content to believe If all the great minds in the world Entertainment Editor suppose the Big Growth just doesn't theory doesn't say anything about in mysteries. I believe in evolution, were to tackle the problems of Amy Dewar have the same ring to it. Anyway, what caused the initial expansion. and in a God, who goes by many hunger, poverty, AIDS, or cancer [email protected] basically it would seem all galaxies What caused the Big Bang? we don't names. I believe that we are not alone - we could very likely eliminate Sports Editor know. Likewise, The Bible doesn't in the universe are moving away in the universe. I believe in spirits these issues. But instead we look Ainsley Doty from say where God came from nor can and good and evil. I believe in luck, into space, into the television, into [email protected] Us, and the further away they are, evolution tell us with any certainty karma, fate, love. I choose to believe blaming each other for our own the Cuter they're moving away. where the first single-celled that cats may be extraterrestrial deficiencies. We don't improve as Features Editor / Office Assistant Extrapolating from this logic, if organism came from - if it was spies here to manipulate us and that a species, though we're said to be Tabitha Schaub we play the whole thing in reverse, carbon or something, then where Bob Marley songs should be sung the smartest one. We repeat the [email protected] then all the galaxies will come back did the carbon come from? Herein everyday around the world, even in mistakes of yesterday and we rarely together at a single point in time. is the proverbial rub. These things countries that don't speak Jamaican look deeper inside ourselves than Photo Editor This point in time is what Hoyle just happened, and life just started. mon. I believe that aliens may have a mirror can show. Or at least, Heather MacBeath [email protected] called the Big Bang - he was kind of That's it, that's all. These theories, no crashed here in the 50's, and that so I believe, though I'm a strange joking, but it stuck. matter which one you may subscribe their technology has been harnessed combination - an optimistic cynic. Copy Editor Of course there's more to it than to, don't try to explain everything, to make new military weapons and Take a little time out of your day nor do they have to. They just try to Quinn Kuiken this. Apparently, the universe began vehicle, which are occasionally today to take a deep breath, turn [email protected] in a hot dense state, a mixture of 80 make sense of our universe, using tested over populated areas to see to our friend or neighbour, and tell whatever evidence or faith or reason per cent hydrogen and 20 per cent how "invisible" they are, leading to them that sometimes you just don't Webmaster helium or something like that, and is available, and fits the facts. This is our modern UFO sightings. I believe know. This is often as honest as Matt Sletto then began expanding, and still is why they are only theories - we just all these things because I want to, we humans can get - or at least as [email protected] to this day, carrying the rest of the cannot know for sure. because they're fun, and because it honest as extraterrestrial cats will universe away from us in a manner Having said this, here are my doesn' really matter if I'm right or allow us to be. Distribution Manager of speaking, as Mr. Hubble saw questions: Why do we feel the need not, no one can prove me wrong, George Andrews [email protected] A Letter to the Editor Production Assistant Herleyna AbdulHamid Dear Meliorist, Student's We hope that this issue has is that we do consume too many expensive multi-level parking, production2 @themel iorist.com Union, CKXU, and all U of L ignited in students a sense of fossil fuels and steps must be taken and the cost of gas, insurance, students. their democratic rights and to minimize our impact on the and parking fees are prohibitive. Creative Designer responsibilities, and that they will planet. The "give me convenience Hopefully, we can see that coming Amber Herbison [email protected] Thank you for participating, continue to wield them throughout or give me death'' mentality must and be proactive rather than their lives. In some ways, this high becoming informed, debating, also grind to a halt. retroactive. Printing and engaging in democracy. voter turnout is a greater success There must be solutions that are Though the U-Pass did not go Southern Alberta Apathy is boring, and University of than passing the U-Pass with only fair to a majority of students; we through (at least for undergrads, Newspaper Group Lethbridge students have proven a 30 per cent turnout.