By Peter O'Neil. The federal government will outline plans Wednesday to double the number of international students in Canada by targeting China and other fast-growing countries, Postmedia News has learned. It is the latest step in the government’s strategy to inject economic development into the heart of Canada’s foreign policy. More diplomatic, visa-processing and marketing resources will be shifted to China, Vietnam, India, Brazil, Mexico, and the Middle East-North Africa region, including Turkey, in order to help recruit the world’s best and brightest, Trade Minister Ed Fast is to announce in Toronto. The goal is to boost the number of international students and academic researchers to more than 450,000 by 2022, which translates into a huge cash injection for universities due in part to the lofty tuitions paid by non-Canadians. More...

By Oronte. Coastal Louisiana is often seen as a different, vivid, kind of place, the last stop on the Mississippi Valley before saltwater ruins your Blahnik alligator pumps. There are many here who like the idea of being different. From the boat ramp of our peculiar little land’s end, all y’all, except the stilt-dwellers down in Cameron Parish, live up north. Lake Charles, nearly in Texas, promotes an Acadian culture and “beautiful natural habitats, fresh water marshes, scenic rivers, inviting sunsets on the lakefront, [and] warm sandy beaches…coupled with smiling faces and warm hearts.” I’m not saying there aren’t inviting lakefront sunsets, they can be beautiful, but they sometimes compete with enormous fiery plumes that roar off the smokestacks of petrochemical plants across the water. Read more...

By Shira Lurie. Most graduate students’ time, especially those in the liberal arts, is spent reading books, talking about books, or panicking about the books they have not yet read. In my first year of graduate study, I often found myself doing all three simultaneously (with heavy emphasis on the last). I came to revere the ability to read quickly as a rare superpower, akin to being able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, except doubly as useful. I tried everything to expedite my reading, including speedreading software, timers, and noise-cancelling headphones (you know, like my own fortress of solitude). These methods served only to increase my stress and frustration; they did nothing, however, to improve my reading speed. I then realized that I didn’t need to develop superhuman abilities in order to crush multiple books in a day. All I had to do was pair my normal speed with a good reading strategy to become an efficient, as opposed to fast, reader. Read more...