SFU Voter Funded Media

mark's (VFM founder) fave japanese places in town

2008-04-05T15:32:00.000-07:00

I’d say your best bet is to go downtown around Robson & Thurlow. From there, three of our above recommendations are within one block: Ebisu, Guu and Aki. They’re all good, authentic, and reasonably priced (dinehere.ca says $10-$20). My top pick would be Ebisu – nicest atmosphere of the three. The other two are a bit claustrophobic by comparison. Ebisu is on Bute just south of Robson, up some outside stairs to the 2^nd floor. Aki is down some stairs on the west side of Thurlow between Robson and Alberni. Guu is on the east side of Thurlow between Robson and Smithe.

Two of Hiromi’s favorites are:

Ajisai http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=190 – sushi, in Kerrisdale
Aki http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2723 – various types of J food; downtown

This one we both like a lot & often go:

Ebisu http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2093 – various types of J food; downtown; especially their chicken kara-age

Also very good:

Guu http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=75 – various types of J food; downtown
Guu with Otokomae http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=90 – various types of J food; Gastown
Hapa http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=38 – various types of J food; downtown; cool Tokyo-trendy atmosphere

Two noteworthy inexpensive sushi places outside of downtown:

Toshi http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=399– popular, I’ve eaten there, very good
Hiroshi http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=1444 – highly rated; I haven’t tried it yet

AVOID:

Stay away from Tojo’s http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=2 – overpriced!
I don’t recommend Black Tuna http://dinehere.ca/restaurant.asp?r=272 in spite of good reviews

Let me know what you try & what you think!
-- Mark

facebook

2008-04-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

most of us are on facebook. i just read a lot of research reports, by students i'm TAing, about their privacy policy.

you should all go into privacy settings and tighten up your settings.

* those applications, a lot are stealing your information. remove them.
* turn off newsfeed, so that everyone doesnt know every little thing you do on facebook.
* facebook sells your information and buys information about you from other places. for instance, if you buy a birthday present from some participating store, it will post "bradley bought a gold necklace from so and so" to your facebook acct which will be put on your newsfeed. or it might say "bradley bought a plane ticket to new jersey". you don't want that. and facebook is creepy, so go turn that off.
* also, employers, schools, etc. use facebook to check your profile. they dont need to be your friend to see it. by default if i'm in someones network i can see it. and its not too hard to get in your network. and by the way, why should you want those people to see your profile anyway? go in and turn that off too.
* basically turn it all off.

and as you turn this stuff off, go back once more to make sure its all done, because facebook is really tricky about this too. the UI is intentionally cranky.

most people have their pants down on this one. why? because they trust facebook so much. but why? don't trust facebook, don't trust any of these big companies with this important info. they dont care about you, they care about $$. they world we're coming into, we need to get serious about protecting our privacy.

privacy

2008-04-04T15:29:00.000-07:00

this semester i'm TAing computer science 320. nice fun class. students write papers about stuff like privacy, and debate all these important technology related topics like net neutrality and then write a paper at the end.

i must confess, i didnt think privacy was such a big deal. but thats just because i take it for granted.

after you read 30 papers on it, your mind might change too.

but i shouldnt. as an american, i know that bush and the NSA are spying on all network traffic (voice and data). do a web search for mark klein, the geek at ATT who blew the whistle that all their data was re-routed through a secure NSA room, in their building. this kicked off a huge political firestorm, and is a all a big mess. of course, bush is at the heart of it, doing exactly the wrong thing. he should be impeached for this alone.

surely theres not someone listening to my calls or reading my emails, but there's a good chance, that they are being data mined. the technology and algorithms exist. so in a sense, i am being spied on, or at the least may be being spied on. all of course, without a warrant, which is mandated by our constitution.

consider a few facts.............

if you want to talk to your friends and families, you're using one of a few big companies to talk to them. google, verizon, telus, shaw, att. thats a serious vulnerability.

the amount that google knows about me is unreal. (this is a google blog). they have all my email conversations, every one of them. my love letters, all the goofiest things i've ever written about, etc. they also have saved my search history for the past 2 years, if not longer. they know more about me than i know about me. if stalin had access to this kind of information there wouldnt be anyone alive in russia besides stalin himself. this is better than what big brother had in 1984. don't think for a minute that the gov't wouldnt hack them, or that the chinese or whomever else hasn't already. now they want us to put our health records online. yippee!

but it doesnt make sense for these companies to sell us down the river, it would ruin their reputation, could put them out of business, they won't do it. (really they already are, they're all doing it) sure, companies are so rational and responsible. consider enron and all the companies that fell around them due to deep conspiratorial accounting fraud. consider the current meltdown over these stupid mortgages. just consider wall street for a second, and their game of heads i win, tails you lose. the money runners over there, have lots to gain by taking big risks, millions and millions of dollars, and nothing to lose save their job. but they already have millions of dollars and can go across the street and get another job. the incentive over there is to do risky and nutty things, WITH OTHER PEOPLES MONEY. and then if they mess up, the gov't bails them out. why do we assume all this rationality and reasonableness? the free-marketers tell us the market will disincentivize this behavior, but it happens all the time, and in the case of wall street, the market is incentivizing it. we need laws to stop it.

here's another one, the chinese won't sell our debt, it doesnt make sense. but the chinese gov't isnt transparent. iran won't use a nuke (if they get/have one). but the iranian gov't isnt transparent, literally iranians aren't even sure who's actually running it. these gov'ts do nutty things all the time. why assume so much rationality?

similarly, these companies which we trust so much are non-transparent and do nutty and stupid things all the time. why all the trust?

big funding cuts - letter from president stevenson

2008-04-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

related facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15210700114

-----------
To: Members of the SFU Community
From: President Michael Stevenson
Re: Budget 08/09

I need to inform members of the community that we have received
information from the Ministry of Advanced Education (AVED) which,
if confirmed in official budget letters, will create significant
new budget problems for the coming fiscal year. Total provincial
grant revenues for SFU in 08/09 will increase beyond those for
07/08, reflecting negotiated compensation increases and targeted
enrolment growth. However, there are significant changes forecast
in funding commitments previously announced and used in budget
planning so far.

Our indications are that there will be cuts to SFU's provincial
grant transferred in 07/08, a reduction in our enrolment growth
previously committed for 08/09, and a reduction in the value of
the grants attached to enrolment growth planned for SFU's Surrey
campus. These are major changes to the previous announcements
from government on which we have depended in planning for board
approval of the 08/09 budget next week. As you know, this
planning has involved a very difficult exercise, requiring a c. $9
million (2.5%) cut to 07/08 budget allocations across the
university. These reductions were required in order to
accommodate market pressures on the costs of new appointments, the
operating costs of new buildings, and inflation in non-salary
operating costs, none of which have been covered by the government
funding formula. The impact of the latest information we have
received would require further reductions of more than $6 million.

The timing of this new information just weeks prior to the start
of a new fiscal year means that most decisions have been made for
new appointments and new admissions for 08/09, with little
flexibility remaining to accommodate new budget pressures. We are
therefore concentrating on intensive conversations with government
in the hope of clarification and relief. At the same time, I have
asked the Vice-Presidents and Deans, and the budget task force
established in the Summer of last year, to consider options for
managing further reductions in the cost of our operations, in
light of the information so far received. I will be reporting to
the Board of Governors and to the Senate, and I will also be
reviewing these matters with all employee associations and with
the Student Society.

I will update the community on the results of these discussions
inside and outside of the university as soon as I am able.

actually i voted for joe

2008-04-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

oh well. i don't think there was much difference between then anyway.

however, i am very glad, that we're out of CFS. all those creepy "volunteers" from other schools had me worried. but students figured it out.

leave the CFS

2008-03-19T21:33:00.000-07:00

coppied from an email sent to the cs dept from Clement Abas Apaak.

==========

My fellow SFU students,

My name is Clement Apaak; I am a former president of the SFSS, former member
of the SFU senate, and a current student member of the SFU Board of
Governors. I write to you to ask you to take your campus and student
society back. Please vote and get our beloved SFSS out of the CFS. Our
SFSS has shown courage in the last two years, and has placed the interest of
SFU students' front and centre. We must now use our votes to help it get
out of a broken, corrupt, undemocratic, and unaccountable national student
organization, the CFS. Please read and pass this on to all SFU students you
know.

I have spend most of my years as an SFU students serving you, and our
university community in various capacities, and I was part of the recent
action led to the unprecedented removal from office of members of our SFSS
student board who engaged in a witch hunt, and underhanded practice for
political gain and to stratify the wishes of their sponsors, the CFS.

To set the record straight, I used to be an officer of the CFS. I served as
the graduate representative to the BC provincial component, and as the
international student commission at the national level. In all I have
attend four national CFS meeting on behalf of SFU students, and 3 provincial
meetings, as well as other events arranged by the CFS. By virtue of the two
positions I held in both the provincial and national components of the CFS,
I know first hand that the basis for which I have joined the call for us to
get out of this broken institution are well founded.

I know of many instances during which the CFS, BC component, interfered with
SFSS elections on campus. When I run for grad issue officer, our slate at
the time, my profile as a candidate, and posters were made in the CFS
offices. While on the board at that time, CFS staff imposed candidates on
us that we were asked to hire as SFSS staff; research and policy, and
communications. When I became president a few years later, this continued,
in spite of opposition from board members, including me. I wrote to the CFS
as president, as directed by the SFSS board of directors when, then,
external relations officer, Shawn (Philippe) Hunsdale invited CFS officers
to our campus to do class room speaking without due consultation with the
board or executives. As it tuned out, this was one of many instances in
which he communicated and gave permission to the CSF to engage our students
without the knowledge of the board.

This interference came to a head on collision with those of us who did not
approve of it when Hunsdale become president after me. AS we now know, he
used underhanded tactics, and concocted charges, in collaboration with his
lover and right hand woman, Margo Dunnet, to dismiss one of our long and
outstanding staff people at the SFSS, Hattie. Why, because she was a staff
person who was not seen as loyal to the CFS as was regarded as an obstacle
in the bid of a CFS- owned company to take over as the broker for the grad
health plan. Given that I was the person who attended meetings with Hattie,
and knew first hand where these stupid charges were coming from, I said no,
refused to be silenced in the face of shameless and blatant lies aimed at
causing be to back off. Together with independent thinking board members,
forum, grads, and the GIC, we mobilized to impeach the bad, ill informed and
CFS puppets. Our side won the support of the SFUI administration, and the
courts ruled in our favor. I mention this because; it is connected with
where we are today.

For your information, I had not yet concluded that I would support the call
to end our membership to the CFS even after the impeachment, and court
victory because I though, maybe this time the CFS will work at changing the
issues for which we as SFU students have complained about since the 1990s.
I came to that conclusion that we had to leave the CFS when word got to me
that Margo Dunnet, had been hired to work for the Dawson Students Union out
east, and that Shawn Hunsdale, had changed his name to Philippe Hunsdale and
was again back in student politics at a college in Quebec. It become clear
to me, as is the case with many other former CFS supporters on campus that,
the CFS rewarded leaders that our students impeached, and could not have the
moral basis to say that it values the membership of the very same students
who impeached Shawn and Margo. It was also clear that the CFS was not
willing to change.

Speaking of change, as a member of the CFS local 23, [that is what the SFSS
is know in the CFS], I introduced many motions at national and provincial
meetings seeking to reform the provincials and national executives of the
CFS to include international students and have been present at most of these
meeting since 2002. On each occasion my proposal was killed at the
committee level or at the closing plenary of these meetings. When I finally
got a motion passed at a national meeting about four years ago to create a
position for an international student on the national executive, the
leadership moved to ask that that idea be sent to the national executive to
investigate such a possibility. The outcome of that investigation is not
known, but the fact is that international students have no representation on
the national executive of an organization that clams to value them.

Then, as I was working with other BC student unions to ask for the repeal of
section 23 c of the BC University Act, so that international students can
run for, and sit on the boards of their institutions, the CFS offered no
help, and was unsupportive. I was called names for working with the AMS
(UBC Student Union, and its president, Spencer Keys), the University
presidents council, and MLAs, Harry Bloy in particular, to seek changes to
23 c of the Act. As you know, I was successful and now represent you on the
board of governors as the first international student in the history of this
province, and likely all of Canada to have done so. Because of what the
SFSS did, we now international students serving on boards in other parts of
BC.

I have come to the conclusion, based on seven years of active involvement in
student politics at SFU, BC, and Canada, and my intimate knowledge of how
the CFS functions, that we need to get out of it. It is not about the
principles for which the CFS stands; it is the way it has been run, its
resistance to change and insatiable need to directly influence our SFSS. It
is clear that the main reason why the CFS is now fighting to keep the SFSS
as local 23 is because of the fact that it will lose 430, 000. Well, it is
too late, and we must VOTE NO. We must send a clear message to the CFS and
to the rest of the student unions in Canada that we have a choice, and the
choice is no to take pack our campus, keep our money, and to serve our
students. And yes, we can if we go out and vote. Yes we can get ride of
the CFS from our campus. YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN, YES WE CAN.

In Solidity,

Clement Abas Apaak

2008-03-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

i'm voting for xenia, i guess. joe is already senator, lets share the wealth a little. and he's a super insider. xenia will be some fresh blood.

TA-union wants out of CFS too

2008-03-17T16:01:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Organizer
To: Stewards , exec@tssu.ca
Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:09:28 -0700
Subject: TSSU supports NO vote on CFS referendum
============URGENT============

===============URGENT=====================
All TSSU Stewards: Please forward the message below to all TSSU members
in your department today (Monday) or tomorrow morning. Thanks so much~
Veronika Miralles Sanchez, Jason Tockman and Christina Hanson
========================================================================

The TSSU urges all students (ALL graduates and undergraduates) to vote NO
on the Canadian Federation of Students referendum on this week’s ballot.
This issue was deliberated at a recent TSSU General Membership meeting,
and we voted to endorse the SFSS effort to ‘defederate’ due to the CFS’s
unaccountability, nepotism and anti-democratic behavior. Please join the
TSSU in voting NO to the CFS at Simon Fraser University. TSSU members are
welcome to forward this email to their friends or students.

Polling Dates, Locations and Times: Tuesday March 18 to Thursday March 20
- Burnaby Main Library lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Vancouver Campus main lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Surrey main level: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM

For more information, see the website: www.wewantout.ca
A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted
here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html
Candidate written statements are posted here:
http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm
Recording of the candidate debates is here:
http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/

--
Christina Hanson
Organizer

Teaching Support Staff Union
at Simon Fraser University
Phone: 778 782 4735
Fax: 778 782 5369
Email: organizer(at)tssu.ca

concerns about SFSS election

2008-03-17T15:33:00.000-07:00

(i got this email today)

A year and a half ago students came out en masse to impeach many members of the SFSS Board of Directors for undemocratic actions and the illegal firing of a staff member. The affidavit of Andrea Sandau (then University Relations Officer) shows that impeached Director Margo Dunnett and her friends had hoped to get rid of this staff member merely because she had been critical of the CFS.

Last week, thousands of anonymous leaflets were placed on virtually every chair in all large lecture halls throughout the campus making false and mudslinging claims about the staff of the SFSS. For those of you followed the lead-up to the impeachments, this may sound unpleasantly familiar: a similar tactic was used then against staff and students in an attempt to dissuade students from kicking Hunsdale and his friends out of office. That people would put this much effort into a massive, dirty campaign for the relatively low stakes of a student election would be funny -- were it not for the cruelty and callousness it shows to the staff who get caught in the crossfire, and who work very hard and in good faith for the students at SFU.

Although I have so far tried to limit my comments about the upcoming SFSS election candidates, I am now personally concerned about the outcome. I find it difficult to dismiss the thought that the distribution of these mean-spirited flyers last week, which I strongly suspect to be the work of the CFS campaigners, indicates a willingness to foster future attacks against the staff of the SFSS in an attempt to drive them out so that they can be replaced with pro-CFS staff -- so that SFSS will be turned into yet another bland, ineffective, sycophantic CFS franchise like so many other student unions in BC.

I initially became involved in the impeachment drive in 2006 because of concerns for the grad health plan, but a significant part of why I became more involved in the lead-up to the SGM was because I was sickened by the way all the SFSS staff was treated by Hunsdale and his gang. Although as a grad I will not be a member of the SFSS as of May 1, 2008, I would be very distressed to see the SFSS staff subjected once again to the treatment they endured in 2006.

If CFS supporters claim a majority of seats on the SFSS Board in the upcoming election, what assurance do I have that they won't continue the work of Hunsdale, and the people who distributed the anonymous flyers last week? None. That's why I'll be voting in both the SFSS referendum AND the elections next week, and I will only vote for candidates that will vote to kick out the CFS and/or have the strength of character to withstand the peer pressure that can operate within the SFSS Board in order to do the right thing if things turn ugly once again.

Please inform yourself about the candidates and get out and vote this week.

A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html
Candidate written statements are posted here: http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm
Recording of the candidate debates is here: http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/

Polling Dates, Locations and Times:

Tuesday March 18 to Thursday March 20
- SFU Vancouver Campus main lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- SFU Surrey main level: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM
- Burnaby Main Library lobby: 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM

Clea Moray,
Graduate Issues Officer
--
Clea Moray
Graduate Issues Officer, Simon Fraser Student Society (tel: 778-782-6563; www.sfss.ca)
M.Sc. Candidate, Biology Department
Simon Fraser University

web: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/

CFS

2008-03-17T15:06:00.000-07:00

dont know what to make over all this CFS hoopla?

i didnt, but thats because i wasnt here for the big impeachment of CFS loyalists on the SFSS a year and a half ago. that seems to be the seminal event driving all of this.

so i asked 4-5 buddies who were here for it, and who i trust and they told me some positively creepy things. my friends inform me that the CFS is a really sleezy group. they use lots of misinformation, laywers, intimidation. what they're doing right now on campus, minus the lawyers. and don't you think theres something really creepy about this massive presence on campus now?

sure they have these fuzzy things they're saying, about all these wonderful things they did, but don't believe it. they're just doing it to be fuzzy. we should get out.

as far as i'm concerned, the CFS has one good argument, that without being part of some larger student organization, who will represent our interests nationally? thats a real problem we will have, and theres no good solution, so far as i know. but i dont want the CFS representing our interests, so i still support getting out.

go find someone you trust, that was here for the impeachment, and ask them about what happened.

*****
A list of how candidates say they will vote on the CFS question is posted here: http://www.sfu.ca/~cmoray/candidates.html

Candidate written statements are posted here: http://www.sfss.ca/elections/candidates.htm

Recording of the candidate debates is here: http://www.lidc.sfu.ca/archive/sfss/