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To protest the special legislation passed by the Quebec government, ten chief and assistant chief prosecutors have resigned.

The settlement put forward to provincial government lawyers offers a six percent raise over five years. The Quebec Treasury Board President hoped for a twenty-two percent pay increase.

To ease discontent, the government announced that it will hire more people to improve the working conditions.

Lawyers who defy the legislation face daily fines that go from one hundred dollars to five hundred dollars.

You might already know about TED. He’s 25 years-old and likes sharing good ideas. His name is an acronym for technology, entertainment and design, and he’s become something of a global phenomenon.

If you haven’t heard about TED, chances are you’ll be hearing more about him on campus, as Concordia hosted its very own TEDx event on Saturday, attracting a crowd of over 400 people from the student body and beyond.

TEDx (x=independently organized), is a TED-like event which shares the same mandate as its larger, American parent to spread innovative and exciting ideas but on a smaller, local scale - and at a significantly lower admission price! The "x" program is new – under two years old – but immensely popular, and interestingly, a big hit in India.

Montreal too is developing an appetite for TED. Jan Florjanczyk, a McGill master’s student and organizer from McGill’s recent TEDx said, “When they started out on the McGill campus, they didn’t think it would burst outside the McGill bubble and it did immediately.” Proudly, he added that “Montreal has such a hunger for TEDx events, the community here is brilliant, fast-paced, and active.”

In terms of numbers, Concordia and McGill hold two of the biggest TEDx conferences in Canada, and they are entirely student-run. It took eight months of careful planning to make this first TEDx Concordia a reality. Aside from the logistics of recruiting volunteers, publicity, and catering, Alexander Lynn, a member of the organizing-team, said the biggest focus of all was selecting the right speakers for the occasion. “At the end of the day,” he said, “they are the vital component.”

Concordia’s version of TED offered inspiring and thought-provoking talks about everything from mash-ups to 3-D printing. Among the speakers were a few of Concordia’s own students (Gavin Kenneally, Yan Ohayon, and Paul Gillet) and professors (Gad Saad and Owen Chapman). The conference also included live musical performances from the hip-hop collective Nomadic Massive.

Whether the speakers were based in arts or sciences though, social media, social involvement, and sharing were common threads throughout the “connect the dots” themed event. Mitch Joel, a marketing expert whose talk started the conference off, set the mood by encouraging people to open up their “digital shades” and be more social – both online and off.

As vital as the speakers are to the TED experience, attendees were reminded that all the talks were being recorded for online consumption. The point of being there went beyond the lectures and couldn’t be captured in a Youtube video, status update, or Tweet. This was something Generation Y isn’t completely familiar with: analog social networking.

To help foster communication, organizers encouraged audience members to return to a different seat after each break, and the breaks themselves were advertised as “hotbeds for serendipity.” Organizer and host David Chouinard reassured participants that, “it’s not awkward to interrupt a conversation and start talking with someone.”

Yazen Alkhouri, an electrical engineering student I spoke to during the lunch break, told me what I had already been hearing from a lot of people: “here, you won’t find two people alike.”

To find out more about the speakers, go to tedxconcordia.com. Videos from the event will be uploaded in the coming weeks.

Photography by Eva Blue

Sunday night's Heritage Classic saw the Calgary Flames beat the Montreal Canadiens four - nothing. The outdoor hockey game was a cold one, with temperatures reaching negative 10. This caused some problems with the ice. The ice crew flooded the arena with a hose, fearing the zamboni might cause it to crack. The players had heaters in their benches. The 41,000 fans however did not.

Despite the conditions, the Flames shone. Rene Bourque scored two goals and had another nine shots. This was the first outdoor NHL game in Canada since 2003.

Yeah... so when I asked to review Escape The Fate my only knowledge of them was the two music videos I had watched 15 minutes earlier (I had taken some time to look up the openers). They looked/sounded like I'd hate 'em, but I was pretty sure that I'd have nothing better to do on a Sunday night in February, so I thought I might as well go and get my hate on.

Two months pass...

I got to Club Soda at 9:26; I was aiming for 9:00, but a) I'm bad at time management and b) when I first got on the metro I realized that I had forgotten my mittens on the bus. I had to get off at the next stop, go back, get back on the bus, and find my mittens before continuing on to the show. I didn't end up finding them, though. Instead, there was a pair of gay-ass rainbow mittens where my mittens should have been. I took them, but I'm not sure I'm going to keep/wear them; they're a bit too colourful for me... Anyway... 9:26, I got to Club Soda and Escape The Fate is already on. They’re surprisingly early*, but I don't mind - I wasn't exactly hyped on the openers (who I had spent about 7 minutes 'researching' two months ago).

So yeah, Escape The Fate - remember when I said up there that I thought I'd hate them. It turns out, I didn't! Not at all! Unfortunately, I didn't like them at all either...

I pretty much just stood completely still, completely unmoved for 50 minutes. I didn't want to leave and I didn't want to move up closer. I didn't cringe, but I didn't nod my head either. Escape The Fate and I were just sort of there at the same time. That's it.

Yep... 

What's the min word count on these things?

Nah, I kid... 

Musically, the band was like their band name. "Escape The Fate" - what a meaningless, uninteresting, forgettable name. But say it out loud (really): "Escape The Fate" - it just rolls off the tongue so smoothly...

After walking out of the venue, I couldn't remember how any of the songs went. But they all went down like soft-serve aural vanilla ice cream, or maybe a flavour that's less flavourful than vanilla, if there is one.

Or, if you don't like getting ice cream in your ears, check out their logo. I guess it's okay... It's legible, it’s symmetrical, it has the band name, and it has things shooting out of the letters and stuff... But man, isn't it the most uninspired logo you've seen all week? Thought so.

If the band had any flavour, it was that they are channeling some kind of Mötley Crüe vibe. That is not a good thing, though. Mötley Crüe sucks. I think that's worth repeating - Mötley Crüe sucks. Luckily, Escape The Fate weren't channeling quite enough Mötley Crüe to suck as well. Again, they were just sort of there, playing instruments and stuff.

So, in conclusion, it's a good thing that I enjoy (what's a better word than leering?) at teenage girls, because otherwise I would have got nothing out of that show...

*It turns out a bunch of the bands didn't make the border, possibly explaining the earlyish-ness.

-Johnny Suck (host of Turn Down The Suck), Wednesday's 9:00-11:00pm, only on CJLO