The Dandelion Written by Shawn Funk Red light burst from the Quick Fights neon sign, casting grotesque shadows on the faces of three security men in hot pursuit; ahead of them by a stride is a boy, Terrel Hamer, carrying a satchel full of apples he lifted from a locked cabinet owned by a wealthy vendor near the Freegarden center square, where tonight, thousands of raucous off-worlders flaunted their excess and purged their aggressive tendencies to the spectacle of carnage called The Main Event. “Stop right now, kid!” Two strides ahead now, he turned into a dim passageway with a ladder leading onto a corrugated rooftop. Three peaked caps reflecting…
Surviving the First Wave Written by Shawn Funk A highly contagious novel flesh-eating virus has been discovered in an Arctic laboratory and is now threatening our world civilization! According to a recent report by Dr. Ellis Cheever that was leaked from a remote CDC outpost in northern Alaska, the virus has already escaped containment when a scientist flew into Anchorage, Alaska for a family event. Attempts to eliminate the virus in the surrounding population have been fruitless. Unsurprisingly, any information regarding the matter is being heavily censored in the press. The symptoms, they say, are very near unbelievable. The virus is a mutated form of Streptococcus that feeds on the…
Chicago Blues Revival! Written by Shawn Funk While the origins of American blues music can be traced all the way back to cultural survivals from West Africa, blues in its most exquisite form would not be realized for nearly a century after abolition. Chicago circa 1960, bright lights big city. Chicago’s south side was the place to be for the blues. On any given night, bluesmen like Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf belted out lyrics laced with innuendos and manly overtures while playing their instruments for raucous partygoers. It was no doubt a very special time for the blues genre as a confluence of talent and technological innovations, like electrified…
Freedom on the Fritz: Rationalism Run Amok Written by Shawn Funk The Enlightenment promised to wake us from our dogmatic slumber, to reveal the world in numbers, allowing us to master nature and increase our overall happiness. It is, therefore, surprising that the rationalization of our world has produced some very irrational outcomes. For example, in the last 80 years, we have developed the capability to extinguish our species in more than one way. Can a civilization where technological innovation has led to the development of world-ending technologies call itself rational? This is rationalism run amok, that is, the rational formulation and execution of very stupid ideas. According to Max…
Integrating Learning and Life Through Architecture Written by Shawn Funk The University Hall (Uhall) opened its doors to students in 1971. The building was commissioned by Arthur Erickson, one of Canada’s premier architects of the 20th century. The design encapsulates many of the stylistic features of modern architecture, such as ribbon windows, horizontal rectangular form, open space, breezeway, and of course the use of vast amounts of concrete and steel in its construction (PHMC, 2024). Perhaps the most striking feature of the Uhall is its location nestled into the coulee. Erickson comments in his 1969 development plan that the “[b]uildings must grow out of the ground . . . never…
The February 2024 issue is now available for viewing and download. Check out the digital issue. Some articles in this issue include: The Melioristthemeliorist.ca/
Observing The Solar System Written by Shawn Funk Ever see an unusually bright “star” in the sky and wonder why you might not have noticed it before? Well, you didn’t notice it because it wasn’t there before. Wait. So, stars just appear out of nowhere? No, those aren’t stars. They are the planets in our solar system. The word “planet” is a Greek word which translates to “wandering star,” in reference to the way planets slowly move across the stellar space-scape, sometimes appearing to move in a retrograde (backward) motion (Bennet et. al., 2014). Of the eight planets, five are easily seen with the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter,…
Alienation in a Capitalist Economy Written by Shawn Funk Capitalism is an economic system that is characterized by the private ownership of the means of production and unfettered competition in the marketplace (Marx, 1844/2007). It has led to a high level of innovation and growth while increasing the standard of living for the general population, yet for all its grandeur, capitalism has a cost. That is, the alienation of the human from themselves, their work, their products, and their fellow citizens. At the heart of Marx’s theory of history is the idea that our consciousness is derived by our material conditions. This is called dialectical materialism. In other words, Marx…
CKXU history Written by Shawn Funk Buried in the Students’ Union building (across from The Meliorist office) is a room packed to the ceiling with albums of every genre across multiple decades. The spectacle will make you swoon. All that music shelved, wanting to be played by someone like you! The opportunity is yours. Did you know that CKXU is always looking for new programmers to share their interests on-air? You might think that you might need some experience to have your own show. Well, you don’t! Training is facilitated by the incredible staff at CKXU. You might think that your voice isn’t good enough for radio. It is perfectly…
Science or Pseudoscience? Written by Shawn Funk One of the central issues in the philosophy of science is to identify a criterion of demarcation that distinguishes science from pseudoscience. How are we to know when the systems we use to understand the world are scientific? Identifying any good reason why something is scientific, while another thing is not, has proved difficult. Karl Popper, Thomas Kuhn, and Larry Laudan are influential philosophers of science who wrestled with this problem during the 20th century. Sir Karl Popper proposed that the probability that any theory is true is zero. If we concede that there are an infinite number of possibilities in a general…
