Re: “Spending Request.”

An article called “The Joys of Approving Your Own Spending Request” was recently published as the cover story in your Jan. 30 publication. As the two Q Centre (SU Centre for Sexual and Gender Diversity) co-ordinators who were interviewed in this article, we were disturbed to see the inaccuracies that were reported.

Coming off of last week’s sentimental catch-up episode, the season three finale of BBC’s Sherlock, “His Last Vow,” is a return to action at breakneck speed. This whirlwind of an episode touches on everything we love and have come to expect from Sherlock, while being as dark and haunting as last week’s “The Sign of Three” is celebratory.

Down with Webster’s music is a blend of pop and rap with distinct electronic accents which create a more complex sound than traditional pop music. Their new album Party For Your Life, with prominent vocals and a deep driving bass, can easily be classified as punk, yet each song has its own rap section which distinguishes the music from other pop-punk groups. The instrumentals are higher in pitch than most other groups, however this is offset by the baritone vocals.

In both a topical speech on Jan. 17 as well as in last week’s annual State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama finally came forward with a response and supposed solution to the widespread data collection and surveillance controversies that have plagued his administration since last June. His new pledges, promising to end the widespread holding of phone metadata, as well as ensuring greater privacy safeguards for information collected, seem like steps in the right direction.

When I first heard about Sex and Gender Wellness Week, I was extremely pleased. A week designed to make sure that people have accurate information about a myriad of issues — consent, gender fluidity, porn, safe sex, pleasurable sex, sexual health — is exactly the kind of event I would expect at a large, public university full of young students who are likely sexually active. But while I was happy to see this kind of information presented in a friendly and informative format, this entire week is going to make me deeply uncomfortable.

With Sex and Gender Wellness Week on top of us, we should re-examine ourselves as sexual beings. If you are single or if your partner has a case of the flu that has been going around, don’t rule yourself out as a participant of sex week. Sexuality should not be restricted to copulation between two or more people. Masturbation and its seedy cousin, pornographic consumption, still count.

Consider, for the following moment, what it means to lose one’s virginity. For some, considering virginity means recalling a pleasant moment, wherein a romantic interest blossomed out of an idyllic and simple time into the beginnings of one’s sexual life. For others, the boundary of virginity has not yet been crossed, and anxiety and ambivalence can be the common sexual state of mind.

Professor Allan Bell, director of the School of Creative and Performing Arts and music professor, has been nominated for a Juno award. Bell’s composition “Field Notes” from the the Centrediscs album Gravity and Grace is up for Classical Composition of the Year. It’s Bell’s first Juno nomination.

Bell is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Order of Canada.

The album Gravity and Grace was commissioned by the Land’s End Chamber Ensemble and its release commemorated Bell’s 60th birthday.

With the help of $5 million in one-time funding from the Government of Alberta, Calgary will see its first permanent film studio open in summer 2015. The studio will be developed by Calgary Economic Development, in partnership with ComWeb Group and William F. White International.

The project, which will cost approximately $22.8 million to complete, will feature two purpose-built sound stages of 20,000 square feet and 30,000 square feet, with 18,000 square feet of warehouse space.