bathimpact Vol12 Issue 14

Gaga over Judas Comment page 7

Fun in the sun

Moving on up

Activities page 20

bite pages 1-16

bathimpact The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Monday 16th May 2011

www.bathimpact.com

Sam Short

Sam Short

Volume 12 Issue 14

Inside bathimpact The AV debate The government held a referendum on the electoral system last week. The proposal was to change the First Past the Post system that Britain has used for centuries, to the arguably fairer Alternative Vote system. This issue was debated on campus last month.

To read more on this issue turn to page 4 of News and page 7 of Comment

Osama’s dead, but what next?

A dramatic scene from the Institute of Contemporary Interdisciplinary Arts (ICIA) wooden sculpture burning last month

Placement fees fear » »University proposes a rise to £4,500 » »Students start online petition to voice anger Cerian Jenkins bathimpact Reporter news@bathimpact.com

The University of Bath has announced plans to increase the fees it charges students undertaking a placement year as part of their degree.

The proposed rise sees placement fees ranging from £2,500 for standard placement, and up to £4,500 for enhanced placements is a marked increase on the current £675 for standard placement and £1,125 for enhanced. This means a possible increase of £3375.

A survey posted on the social networking site Facebook which asked students ‘what is the maximum you would be willing to pay for a placement at the University

of Bath?’ revealed that, of the 326 students who answered, 85.3% (278) would only be willing to pay £1,000 or less. It also showed that less than 1% of those who answered would be willing to pay between £4,000 and £4,500.

Although the University has released little official information about the rise, the proposal was presented at Senate last month, the University’s most senior academic decision making body, and was discussed at the last Academic Council. It follows an announcement earlier this year that the University of Bath would be charging UK and EU undergraduate students £9,000 per annum as of 2012 - the highest level permitted by the Government.

Some students have reacted to the news by starting an online petition, calling for the students to spread the word as it is ‘time our University listened to its students.’ The petition, which opened on 11th April, has collected over 600 signatures so far but is yet to reach its target of 750.

One student who echoes these concerns is Charlotte Morbey, a first year German and Russian undergraduate, who said that: “It’d be a complete deterrent for so many bright young people, and if it were to go ahead the financial gain may be instant, but the long term economic consequences would be much greater”.

Not all students agree, however. Undergraduate Daniel Exell,

who studies Politics with International Relations, said that: “The experience gained from a year in industry would be worth the increase in money, and in such a competitive labour market, these years remain essential to acquiring the job able to pay off the inevitable burden of debt resulting from attending university.”

Despite the Students’ Union having yet to release an official response to the news, Matt Benka, VP of Education at the University’s Students’ Union, stated: “This is a massive increase in placement fees, without any clear benefit to students. Students will not be willing to pay these fees unless they feel like they are justified.”

The death of Osama Bin Laden has brought about great debate. Is it a cause for celebration or concern? bathimpact reporters question the reason behind the rise in terrorism, and consider what may come from such a monumental event.

To read this article turn to page 11 of International

Banking reform The current global economic crisis has brought into question the issue of how the banks are regulated. We explore the new proposals put forth

by The Independent Commision on Banking.

To read Maggie’s analysis head to page 14 of Business

Real Varsity 2011 Bath lost the mens... just. The final score was 16-17 to Loughborough University. Slightly better news for Bath’s womens team, who won 3110 to Loughborough.

For this and more sports coverage flick to page 24 of Sport

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Monday 16th May 2011

Editorials

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

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bathimpact Committee: Editor-in-Chief Incoming: Kylie Barton Outgoing: Gina Reay editor@bathimpact.com

The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Deputy Editor Incoming: Gemma H Isherwood Outgoing: Hannah Raymont deputy@bathimpact.com Chief Sub-Editor Sam Foxman subeditor@bathimpact.com News Incoming: Cerian Jenkins Outgoing: Katie Rocker news@bathimpact.com Comment Incoming: Cerian Jenkins Outgoing: David James opinion@bathimpact.com International Incoming: Esther Osarfo-Mensah Outgoing: Julia Lipowiecka international@bathimpact.com Science Incoming: Esther Osarfo-Mensah Outgoing: Sam Lewtas science@bathimpact.com

An article on the Sabbatical Team’s censoring of bathimpact was going to be printed here. Due to the Sabbatical Team’s censoring of bathimpact, this was prohibited. David Howells, SU President elect, disagreed with this decision.

Sport Joe Dibben sport@bathimpact.com

bite Incoming: Holy Narey Outgoing: Caroline Leach features@bathimpact.com Outgoing: Rowan Emslie ents@bathimpact.com Publicity & Distribution Officer Incoming: Ben Hooper Outgoing: Julia Lipowiecka publicity@bathimpact.com Treasurer Incoming: Magali Calabressi Outgoing:Rebecca Stagg treasurer@bathimpact.com IT Officer Jack Franklin it@bathimpact.com Advertising Enquires Helen Freeman H.Freeman@bath.ac.uk 01225 386806

bathimpact Students’ Union University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY 01225 38 6151 01225 44 4061 The opinions expressed in bathimpact are not necessarily those of the bathimpact editors nor of the University of Bath Students’ Union.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is correct and accurate at the time of going to print, the publisher cannot accept any liability for information which is later altered or incorrect. bathimpact as a publication adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Conduct.

Please contact them for any information.

University of Bath Students’ Union Printed by Harmsworth Press Ltd.

No conf vote highlights team divisions

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n the weeks following the March 25th Sabb Election Results a group of students spearheaded a campaign to no confidence the incumbent VP Education, Matt Benka.

Matt Benka had just been re-elected.

On April 21st the motion failed because not enough students voted – it would have needed 1433 votes to be quorate. It is unknown how students voted.

While, seemingly, little has changed it raises some possibly contentious issues for next year’s team. Firstly, the fact that some of the incoming Sabbatical Officers were involved in the motion, casts some doubt over how

well the team will be able to mesh next year. Many candidates recognised the problems attached to having a split team, something that can be particularly problematic if unforeseen issues arise in the next year because united decisions need to be made quickly to respond to crises. As has been outlined on these pages before, the failure to act when faced by the threat of sports fees (for example) has led to criticism from the student body. Do next year’s team anticipate any lingering ill will that could adversely affect their ability to act in the interests of the electorate?

SU Presdient elect, David Howells,

had this to say: “Obviously there are unresolved issues, however we are all comitted to moving forward and I have every confidence that professionalism will prevail and will result in a great year for the Students’ Union.”

Of course, having a Sabbatical Team that isn’t entirely united isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as they are able to discuss options and problems openly and come to conclusions then the increased rigour of debate that would naturally arise from such a team would probably represent a positive step for a management group. It is the same argument that underpins

coalition governments: if everyone in power is utterly on message then how can they possibly be said to be representative? It remains a matter of time to be able to see whether or not next year’s Sabbs can gel as a team, harmoniously or not. With the rushed and, frankly, ugly campaigns during the vote of no confidence against Matt Benka there is a good opportunity for the elected individuals to get to grips with how vital functioning as a unit will be for their terms in office. The time for picking sides is over; next comes ensuring that they and their colleagues will be able to best serve the students of the University of Bath.

A final message from the Editor-in-Chief

I

t is with a mixture of sadness and excitement that I must introduce this year’s final issue of bathimpact. Sadness, as it signals the end of an extraordinary year for our wonderful Student Newspaper and excitement at the beginning of a new one.

This year, our fabulous team of editors, writers, photographers, subeditors and committee members have broken records and produced some of our most outstanding issues to date.

One of our biggest achievements being the innovation of bite which symbolised the merging of Features and Entertainment sections. bite has been incredibly popular since its inception in December.

Following this we have closely covered the tuition fee increase, the criticisms over sports fees, an uncountable

number of Bath and Students’ Union events and, of course, the annual Sabb Elections for which we produced an informative and professional Sabb Election Special.

Thinking of all the wonderful achievements we have experienced this year makes me feel very nostalgic. But as well as the professional triumphs, we have succeeded in other ways. This year’s team have been my colleagues, my support network, and most of all, my friends. The Student Media Awards 2011 was a perfect example of the comradery that has developed this year, not only between bathimpact members, but among all of Media, CTV and URB. I’d like to say a final thank you to URB’s Stephen Briscoe and CTV’s Thomas Reis for collaborating with bathimpact con-

tinuously this year to create a culture of cross-media cohesion that we are now so proud of.

I will miss this paper dearly, but most of all I will miss the incredible friends I have made through it.

So thank you to everyone for their hard work, their dedication and their friendship. I must say a special thank you to Sam Foxman, our Chief SubEditor. We’ve had more arguments than Mark and Lauren, we’ve eaten more fried food than Arg and we’ve consumed more Red Bull than, well, anyone ever has. Most importantly though, I couldn’t have got through this year without your support, you are the Michael Caine to my Batman.

Fistbump.

Now although it is so sad to be saying goodbye, I would also like to add

how comforting it is knowing that Bath’s one and only Student Newspaper will be left in such capable hands. This issue of bathimpact was produced, almost exclusively, by the 2011/12 team and by the time it is released we will have officially handed over. I would like to formally congratulate Kylie Barton, my successor, on winning the position of Editor-inChief and wish her all the luck in the world for next year. We have done a lot of good things and now it is up to you guys to build on them, all the while knowing that, even though I am thousands and thousands of miles away (up North) I’ll be reading!

Finally, to the team I am so proud to have led this year and to everyone we have worked with, we nailed it, guys. Well done.

Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

News

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River deaths prompt safety report Council results

Cerian Jenkins bathimpact Reporter news@bathimpact.com

F

Simon O’Kane bathimpact Reporter

Sam Short

ollowing the death of Bath Spa student James Bubear last month, and two other deaths in less than two years, an independent report has been commissioned to investigate the implementation of new safety measures at the river such as railings, lights and CCTV. This news comes as post-mortem results found that 19-year-old James is likely to have drowned after falling into the Avon whilst walking home after a night out with his friends.

Numerous similar incidents have occurred, including the deaths of Casper Flagg, who died after a night out in November 2009, and University of Bath student Kharunigan Jayanatham, who fell into the river whilst on his way to a lecture in May 2009.

Although they attend only around one incident a month, Avon Police and Fire and Rescue have said the number of deaths and incidents in the river is “causing them concern.”

In a service report earlier this year, which highlighted the fact that such prolonged searches were “inherently hazardous”, they said that they: “...believe the impact on the individual, the community, business and commerce as well as the emergency services brought in to deal with the aftermath is such that it warrants efforts to try to

The River Avon is the focus of a new health and safety campaign reduce the incidence of water-related incidents”.

A joint statement published last month from Avon and Somerset Police and Bath and North East Somerset Council confirmed that experts would now be looking into the safety of the river, which is estimated to be more than 16ft deep in places.

It said that: “Avon and Somerset Police and Bath and North East Somerset Council have commissioned an independent report from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents to assess where safety improvements could be made between Churchill Bridge and Windsor Bridge, which is considered the location where most water-related safety incidents take place.

“This report will be presented to

the relevant landowners for them to consider how any recommendations can be acted upon.”

The statement has been welcomed

16 ft

River depth in places

by the families of those who died in the river; James’s mother Vanda, Casper’s parents Marian and Derek, who live in Radstock, and Tina Elliott, whose brother Philip is believed to have drowned after falling in the river more than 10 years ago.

Ms Bubear said in a statement: “Something needs to be done. Obviously something is going wrong with the river path and it is going to happen again. It is something that certainly

needs to be looked into, especially in a university town where responsibility needs to be taken for all these young students. If one good thing can come from this then it should be to stop this happening to others.”

The report follows a campaign launched earlier this year by Avon Fire and Rescue, which aimed to encourage people living in the city to take the issue of water safety more seriously.

Bath police have repeated advice to students about keeping safe on a night out in the city.

They urge people to drink responsibly; share a taxi with others; if walking, stick to well-lit main roads and not to walk alone; tell friends where you are going; and to stay in groups and look out for each other.

A

longside the AV referendum on May the 5th, council elections also took place in Bath; all 65 seats on Bath and North East Somerset Council were up for grabs.

Formerly run by a minority administration of Conservatives and Independents, the Liberal Democrats took three seats from the Conservatives. giving the two main parties 29 seats each; Labour and the Independents remain on five and two councillors respectively. The council remains in No Overall Control.

Neither of the student candidates, Anthony Masters (Conservative) and Hadleigh Roberts (Labour) were successful, although both said they were pleased by the share of the vote they won. Due to the election being held during the Easter break, most students did not use their vote in Bath.

The Mayor of Bath, Councillor Shaun McGall (Liberal Democrat) did not re-run, opting instead for a break from politics.

Conservative Party : 29 (-3) Liberal Democrats : 29 (+3) Labour Party : 5 (0) Others : 2 (0)

The Yes versus the No... a debate on AV Kylie Barton bathimpact Reporter

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heated debate filmed by the BBC took place last month on campus between the Yes and the No campaigns for the referendum on electoral reform.

Over 200 students turned out and watched both sets of speakers ferociously try to get their arguments across, to inform, but also attempt to persuade the audience to try gain support for their side of the debate.

Huge national campaigns built up both in favour of and in opposition to a change from First Past the Post (FPTP) to the Alternative Vote (AV). Both sides were represented in a debate at the University on 14th of April which members of the Bath University Debating Society (BUDS) organised and ran. For the Yes campaign BUDS invited Liberal Democrat MP for Bath Don Foster, and third year English student from Bristol University Megan Stoodle.

Foster last visited the University to face questions on the then proposed changes to University fees, the audience seemed somewhat more at ease with him at this event. On the panel for the No campaign, BUDS

invited Conservative MP for North East Somerset Jacob Reese-Mogg, and Councillor for Poole Don Collier. Reese-Mogg made the national news several times during the election campaign for his stereotypical ‘Toriness’. Before the debate commenced a short explanation of the two electoral systems was provided by politics lecturer Susan Milner.

Speakers and audience members were a little distracted as the BBC started their filming. Don Foster told the BBC that the current FPTP system is “outdated and broken”, with Reese-Mogg stating “it is simple, everyone understands it”.

Megan Stoodle started the ball rolling for the Yes campaign, and stated that AV would make the UK a “better democracy”, ensure candidates looked beyond their core voters, and reduce tactical voting and wasted votes. She summed up “a vote for AV is a vote for progress... potential and change” which was met with roaring applause. As Collier approached the microphone, there were sighs from the audience, whereas the Yes campaign was passionate, the No campaign had a more logical slant to their argument:

“I can explain FPTP in 142 characters on Twitter; I couldn’t explain AV in 142 tweets!” It would seem that he had carefully considered the demographic of his audience, until that is he started to list disabilities such as dyslexia and dyspraxia, stating that “you don’t find it difficult in this learning institution as you have a lot of people who don’t have dyslexia, why? Because they don’t manage to get to University like I did” The audience was alive with frustration at this particularly insensitive and brash part of the No argument, which was also mentioned throughout the audience questions that followed. One student put it to Collier that The University of Bath Students Union (BUSU) uses AV, and have no reports of people having difficulty with the system.

The debate carried on with Don Foster who opened with “Politicians are like babies’ nappies, should be changed regularly for exactly the same reason”. Foster said that less than one third of MPs are elected with a majority support in their constituency: that is, get over 50 per cent of the vote. He said “I do believe this is a once in a generation

opportunity to move away from an unfair voting system”.

Reese-Mogg started his argument by saying that “If you want fairness, you can’t assume it is always fair when the Tories get fewer seats... it is not a more proportional system than FPTP”. Reese-Mogg suggested that other countries that use AV experience high levels of corruption, and that the same could happen here, again he was met by laughter. He summed up his argument by comparing the proposals to a packet of chicken nuggets: lacking in meat.

The panel were then asked a serious of questions from the audience that was comprised of students, lecturers and staff from the University.

Questions covered the example of Australia, how those who have become disillusioned with the main parties should be able to express a different political view, if it is indeed as Clegg said “a miserable little compromise” then why do the major parties consider it good enough to elect their leaders? And if it is good enough to elect them, why is it not good enough for general elections?

Foster addressed the statement

made by Clegg; “If I had a choice I would move to Single Transferable Vote, but that is not what is on offer, what we were able to get is better than the current system”.

In addressing the point about BUSUs electoral system, and the accessibility of proposed AV, Collier stated that the general public do not have access to help as easily as students when it comes to disabilities like dyslexia, he said: “ten per cent of this country has dyslexia; I bet you less than one per cent of this University has dyslexia”. Statistics from 2010 provided from a Senior Student Disability Advisor at the University showed that in fact over 6 per cent of Bath Students suffer from a form of disability, two per cent suffering from dyslexia or other learning related disabilities.

On the night it seemed as though the Yes campaign had won with around 85 percent of audience members raising their hand for yes when asked how they felt they would vote. As we have seen however this did not materialise within the referendum, with a turnout of 42 per cent, of which 31 per cent voted yes, and 69 per cent voted No.

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Monday 16th May 2011

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News

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Uni: a meritocracy or plutocracy?

Tomos Evans bathimpact Reporter

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n 10th May Universities Minister, David Willetts, announced that extra university places could be provided if funded by charities, business and individuals outside of state subsidy. Willetts claimed that such a system would free up more places and not go against the coalition’s commitment to social mobility.

The idea, which is not found in any developed nation, has been criticised by student leaders, politicians and experts alike.

It is claimed that such a proposal would create a system whereby the richest applicants would be able to force their way into an institution, reinforcing British higher education as being elitist

and for the rich. Rahul Mansigani, President of Cambridge Students’ Union, speculated that this was a back door attempt to completely remove the cap on tuition fees in England.

The idea, announced by Conservative Willetts, has been strongly rejected by Prime Minister David Cameron, who is quoted as saying: “There is no question of people being able to buy their way into university”.

Tuition fees and university funding has become an increasingly sensitive issue between the coalition partners.

After being summoned to the Commons to answer questions from MPs, David Willett has been forced to abandon the idea, in what is being claimed as the

fastest U-turn in British politics.

During heated exchanges in the Commons, the Shadow Business Secretary, John Denham of Labour, accused the coalition of trying to create a two-tiered system.

He went on to attack the coalition on its “humiliating climbdown” and, in the same breath, questioned both how extra places were going to be provided and what the government’s strategy for higher education was.

The plans directly proposed

by Willetts have now been abandoned; however, a forthcoming white paper is to outline plans on how charities and business will be able to support students, possibly by withdrawing a student’s entitlement to public financial support.

As of 2012 university students face tuition fees of up to £9,000

New appointment for VC Technical failures Gemma Isherwood bathimpact Reporter

V

ice Chancellor Professor Glynis Breakwell has recently been made a new member of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) by the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts, announced on May 6th 2011.

The role of the ESRC is to provide funding on research into economic and social issues, currently funding over 4,000 researchers including postgraduate students and independent research institutes.

To fund this vast number of economists and social scientists, the

2010/11 budget is around £218 million, supporting some of the highest quality research in the country.

The impact and importance of this research on the business and pubic sectors is huge; Professor Breakwell said she was honoured to be asked to take a role in the governance of the Council. Her appointment to the Council is three years, lasting until July 2014.

Professor Breakwell has also been made a non-executive director of the Board of Student Loans Company, also for a period of three years. She succeeds Ian Dickson, whose term with the Board ended in February 2011.

Gay blood donation Tomos Evans bathimpact Reporter

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ccording to a recent report in the Sunday Times, the government is planning to reverse the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men.

The blanket ban was instituted during the 1980’s due to the panic surrounding HIV and AIDS. In recent years there have been numerous reports inestigating the risks of blood donation by gay and bisexual men. The most recent review is due to be released at the end of the summer parliamentary recess.

Preliminary reports have suggested that the ban is to be lifted.

Only men who have not had sex for 10 years, however, will be allowed to donate. Writing in the New Statesman, gay rights activist

Peter Tatchell called the 10 year ban “unjustifiable” and highlighted how, globally, there is a growing mood for a change in gay blood donation policy.

A formal announcement by the Public Health Minister Anne Milton is expected later in the year.

The decision was announced on March 11th by David Willetts, with a decision made jointly by English and Scottish Ministers with consultation of Ministers in Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Student Loans Company primarily, and most importantly, provide student loans and grants to UK students at universities throughout the United Kingdom as well as organising loan repayment.

The Chair of the Board said he was delighted to welcome the Vice Chancellor and that he anticipated her expertise in the higher education sector due to her roles in institutions like the University of Bath.

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ecently the University has fallen prey to numerous computing and network issues. Errors and maintenance have been creating a variety of problems for students and staff alike.

During the last week of term, before the Easter break, the library’s printers were down; this forced some subject lecturers to lengthen their submission deadlines for essays.

The Easter break and revision week also saw the loss of the bathstudent.com website. Luckily, the problems which caused the website to fail have now been resolved, although the effect upon students

has yet to be seen. Alongside both of these issues, essential maintenance is being carried out on the SAMiS web pages from 11th May; this has rendered exam timetables and results inaccessible. The impact that this will have on students’ revision is not yet clear.

Prior to these problems and maintenance issues was WebMail’s collapse at the beginning of this year, which created problems for students and staff alike.

SAMiS maintainance is due to end on 13th May. Moodle is not affected by the shutdown of SAMiS and will continue to be fully functional.

Taught Students Survey (PTSS) is open until the end of the month.

PRES surpassed last year’s takeup several weeks ago, but the University is keen to see as many students as possible take part in one of the few opportunities to gather detailed feedback from a large number of students.

Asked about postgraduate feedback Matt Benka, VP Education said: “It’s great to see more postgraduate students participating. Historically they have been a hard group to reach in terms of feedback, but it is vital that their views be heard”.

On a more local level, online unit evaluations are open across the University. As with every semester, all students are encouraged by the university to take the opportunity to provide anonymous feedback on each of their

units and the Students’ Union was keen to emphasise their importance and the impact students ‘comments can have on their future experiences.

An exciting development for the next year is the trialling of programme-level feedback at the end of each year, which will give students the opportunity to reflect on their course as a whole.

Speaking on this development, Matt said: “This is an exciting step forward, as it is often the interactions between units that has a big impact on a student’s education, and these evaluations will capture this for the first time”.

National Student Survey results for the University of Bath and other UK institutions will be available online once the survey has closed at: unistats.direct.gov. uk

Recent survey response T he University of Bath has achieved over 70% response rate to the National Student Survey this year.

The results of the survey, conducted annual on final year undergraduates across the country, are one of the principle measures of course quality in the UK, and have a significant influence on league table scores.

While the NSS has now closed,

70%

UoB Survey Response

postgraduate students still have the opportunity to take part in their respective surveys.

The Postgraduate Research Students Survey (PRES) closes on 17th May, but Postgraduate

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Monday 16th May 2011

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Red Bull party raises the roof (and eyebrows) bathimpact contributor Sarah Ashe reports on caffeine-fuelled fun

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couple of weeks ago Red Bull took Crescent Gardens by storm; throwing a mega house party in order to promote their well-known energy drink and the Red Bull Music Academy, an international music workshop and festival concept.

Their quirky, undercover way of promoting and marketing seems to have worked well in the past in creating a fun, cool and student-friendly brand.

However, arguably the house party caused more trouble than good. The Red Bull representative from the University made sure to inform the neighbours of the party in advance and even went as far as to book rooms out in the B&B next door in order to minimise noise complaints. This however caused trouble with the neighbours who chose to complain and inform both the University and the police about the party before it had even taken place. On the night of the party crowds of University students turned up to the seven bedroom semi-detached house on Crescent Gardens to enjoy a night

Enjoying a night of revelry, courtesy of Red Bull filled with good music, friends and, of course, a neverending supply of Red Bull. The neighbours, however, were in a persistent rush to shut down the party, calling the

police and even entering the property themselves in an attempt to switch off the music, which, may I add, was kept at a reasonable volume level. Come three o’clock

defeat was accepted and the party came to an end. All guests left the property satisfied with what can only be described as an eventful night.

So, was the party a success?

It could be argued that Red Bull tainted their brand name in associating themselves with the police and what the residents of Crescent Gardens considered to be an unruly, irresponsible student party.

However, Red Bull’s main aim in throwing the party was to create awareness of their brand through throwing both a memorable and fun party and through generating gossip amongst students, their main target market. With the party proving to be without a doubt the largest house party of the year, accompanied with the sheer volume of people who were heard talking about the event not only face to face but also on huge social media sites such as Facebook, I believe that the party was a huge success.

Ultimately, after attending a very unforgettable house party, the next time we students need a boost of energy during exams or before a night out, Red Bull will be the brand that springs to mind and many of us will reach towards the iconic blue and silver can.

Work experience? That’ll be £4,500, please Hannah Raymont Deputy Editor deputy@bathimpact.com

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hen you leave Bath, what exactly is going to make you stand out from the crowd from all those other graduates out there vying for that one todie-for job? Well, in its promotional literature, our University repeatedly underlines the high employability rate of its alumni. In fact, we’re one of the best universities in the UK in terms of graduate employment..

Employers are particularly attracted to Bath students given that the vast majority of courses offer a placement year in industry and that our humble 1994 Group institution continues to churn out academically bright candidates equipped with all the practical, professional and ‘soft skills’ that employers claim to find lacking in other graduates, year upon year.

With the steep increase proposed, the University is going to reverse the stellar reputation it has built up over its (albeit relatively short) existence with a prohibitively high fee for the placement year. The statistics on the front page of this issue speak for themselves.. Yes, placement years provide invaluable experience for un-

dergraduates, of which they will the primary beneficiary when they apply for graduate schemes or entry-level employment. The skills gained whilst on placement give our graduates leverage when applying to jobs when they finish their studies, as they can negotiate a higher salary based on their previous relevant experience, especially in that particular industry. In financial terms, the graduate certainly benefits more than anyone else. This, however, is often not the case during the placement year itself.

Bath attracts high calibre students through its increasingly strict admissions criteria, and this in itself could be enough to convince a potential employer to take on an undergraduate with little professional experience and reward them with a salary on which they can comfortably live.

Some students are lucky enough to get a salary close to what a graduate would earn, meaning that they do not take out a student loan for the year, therefore (sensibly) lightening their burden of student debt. Given that the most desirable placements are based in the industrial powerhouse of London, the salary needs to quite substantial, never mind the costs that might be incurred by simply having the placement as part of your univer-

sity course.

For many, a placement year away from the university is mandatory to pass the course. I speak from experience as a modern languages student, who was required to spend the equivalent of an entire academic year in countries where my two languages of study are spoken, as is the case for pretty much any language degree in this country. A compulsory ‘gap’ year abroad? Great, you might think, but the placement culture abroad is very different to this country; students often go to a university close to home rather than venturing elsewhere, with many living at home for the duration of their studies. This means that placements can pay very little, given that employers might assume that their interns do not have to cover living costs. A typical stage or internship pays 300€ per month, which is barely going to cover your rent in a typical Paris apartment. I was incredibly lucky in having a) a job with a decent salary, b) receiving funding from outside the University (via the ERASMUS scheme) and c) paying a relatively paltry placement year fee of around £640 which was then waivered (thanks again ERASMUS).

When companies in the private sector are reluctant to recruit in the

face of austerity measures, and there are swingeing cuts to public sector recruitment on the way, the futuretion looks less than bright for students as it is. Having said that, the situation is better than it was back during the height of the recession in summer 2008 but the competition for jobs is still fierce. Bath students, who have already paid a price through their tuition fees and their hard work to secure entry onto their courses, are faced by a placement fee that exceeds what tuition, the main part of a university course, costs at present (£4,500, as indicated on the front page, is the charge proposed for ‘enhanced placements’). If the student has to work for free, especially faced with companies increasingly reticent to pay for labour on the basis that it is ‘work experience,’ this simply means £4,500 more debt (as the University

propose to work this fee into the Student Loan system, which of course would be inevitable anyway). This fee reportedly covers the work of placement co-ordinators and goes towards placement officer visits. It does seem a tad steep for what often in reality amounts to merely a few emails over the course of the year. Although I was visited, received a telephone call and email contact from my department, as I say, I seemed to have been extraordinarily lucky.

Besides, if a degree with a placement is so attractive to employers, there must some room for negotiation. What about sponsorship for the best talent from companies themselves? What about suspending the student’s BUCS account for the duration of the placement? There must be other solutions.

Well, fortunately, all of us who are here now are going to escape the colossal placement fee increase proposed by the University for placements but like the £100 sports fee and tuition fee increase, the University are seemingly hiding behind government cuts to justify ever skyrocketing charges for their students, putting their reputation as an otherwise highly respected university into jeopardy.

Monday 16th May 2011

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Comment

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7

Voting reform; dead in the water?

Tomos Evans bathimpact Reporter

A

V, what’s that? I hear you say. Well, I’d have to agree with that sentiment.

On 5th May, the nation went to the ballot box and voted on whether to change the British voting system.

The result was a resounding ‘no’ with 67.9 per cent of voters rejecting the reform.

In the run-up to the referendum, Bath’s debating society hosted a debate between the two sides of the campaign. The debate itself was at times shockingly bad. The Tory representatives did nothing to dispel the image of the stuffy Conservative party. Sat alongside them was our own Bath MP Don Foster, who once again tried to justify his change of heart over tuition fees.

On AV itself, the two camps were using arguments that were merely subjective. As a politics student, I found this infuriating.

The Conservative councillor from Poole, who announced his own battle with dyslexia, decided to the use the argument that people with dyslexia “would not understand” writ-

ing 1, 2, and 3 on a ballot paper, instead of an ‘X’. In the same breath, Don Collier accused the audience of not only mocking his argument, but also people with dyslexia. This personal argument had no place in the debate whatsoever. It was neither political nor about the realities of the AV system. Admittedly, the counting process of votes under AV is more complicated, yet that is not something the voter has to worry about when they go to the ballot box and vote.

The debate itself was at times shockingly bad.

Nevertheless, the ‘No to AV’ side did come under greater questioning and criticism from the audience, which they coped well with and duly answered all questions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the ‘Yes’ campaigners’ arguments were just as subjective. For example, on the national level, Don Foster used the line that safe seats will be “done away with”. A campaign claim which has always bothered me; a ‘safe seat’ is in itself hard to define as it does

not always require 50 per cent of the vote. The New Economics Foundation did research into this claim and found that there may be a reduction in ‘very’ safe seats; this was offset, however, by a slight increase in ‘quite’ safe seats. Alongside this argument was the argument that AV would make MPs ‘work harder’ - yet another subjective argument which has no actual political basis. Bristol University student, Megan Stoodle, also claimed that under AV there would have been no expenses scandal. In my book, a corrupt politician is a corrupt politician, no matter how they won their seat. Under AV safe seats such as Pontypridd, or Derbyshire Dales are not going to change hands in one election, they would have remained safe Labour and Conservative seats. Australia uses AV and it still has safe seats.

The lack of a Labour party representative was hardly surprising; the party had no official stance.

Although it did make me wonder about the vested interests in this referendum; Liberal Democrats would be the winners, the Conservatives the losers. Labour’s suggest-

myself, I think most of the electorate saw the proposed change as just a way to keep the Lib Dems happy in the coalition. The AV system itself is such a small change to the electoral system we use that it was unnecessary. If anything, the result proved that the British public were not interested in this type of reform.

Constitutional issues, especially

Britain voted ‘No’ to AV

42.2%

Voting turnout

ed figures showed they would not be greatly affected by the change of system.

The debate was a wonderful reflection of the national campaign.

Dirty, bitter and distasteful. Posters by the ‘No to AV’ campaign which bore images of troops and children insinuated that the system would cost dramatically more were mere speculation and, to an extent, scaremongering. The ‘Yes’ campaign was just as bad in their claims, of which most had no real standing.

The campaign left me feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. Like

in this economic climate are, understandably, not at the forefront of people’s minds. Because of this, it is no surprise that turnout was 42.2% with a solid no vote.

The effects on the coalition government, however, are just beginning to surface. Don Foster was correct on one count in my opinion; that it was a “once in a generation chance”. Voting and wider constitutional reforms will now be off the agenda for the foreseeable future.

Still, at least those who voted ‘Yes’ to AV got their second preference...

thing she wears to ensure it exudes the correct symbolic message to her fans AND her critics, this is a post modern version of class and I certainly can’t see her in a leotard at 50!

It is easy to say someone is timeless with over 20 years hindsight, Gaga is timeless in the sense that she knows sex sells and she works it whilst ploughing every penny back into her wondrous shows. It is better to cause a stir than to become another manufactured pop princess. Undoubtedly, Gaga looks her hottest yet.

Judas is not supposed to be factually correct but metaphorically emblematic. It symbolises how attitudes to religion have changed and faith is deteriorating through purposeful deviations of the origi-

nal tale. It tells of the 21st century, where bad more often than not denies and defeats good and defeats it, something of a reflection on the narrative Born This Way, a story of a human race torn between good and evil. Twelve Apostles on motorbikes by any feat is genius… and in leather, as a standard nod to her gigantic gay fan base, even better! Her Jesus is also much better looking than the ‘real’ one, and I think Judas must agree with all the physical contact involved. Gaga manages to intertwine moral messages, feminism, great eyeliner and an even greater gun-shaped lipstick holder into a perfect mini movie that makes almost makes religion Street. The scene, somewhat representative of a concert, exudes the proposition that music has evolved into the new religion, and perhaps the Lady is its leader? The last scene shows the stoning of a majestic Gaga, showing that although she feels worshipped and proud to lead her little monsters, she still retains an element of human fragility and fear that her message of good will be one day lost.

I can see everyone with gun shaped lipstick holders in the near future...

Attention seeking or artistic licence? bathimpact’s Hannah Raymont and Kylie Barton go Gaga over Judas W

hen I reviewed The Fame Monster in a previous issue of bathimpact upon its release last year, I gave due credit to Lady Gaga for her sheer ingenuity and acute awareness of what whets the palette of her slavish fan base, to which she bizarrely refers as her ‘little monsters’. Hate to be rude, love, but not one of your fans could ever be so monstrously grotesque in their pathetic desperation for attention as you, Ms. Germanotta.

Mechanically churning out hits, Gaga accompanies her various violent assaults on the human ear with pretentious, extended videos, littered with images cherry-picked right from the Handbook of Sh*t Stirring. One such eyesore is, of course, Lady Gaga’s latest offering, Judas, which caused a stir amongst religious commentators - mainly as a result of its provocative release shortly before Holy Week. What a coincidence, eh?

At the start of the video, we see Gaga’s matted, urine-coloured tresses blowing the wind as she sits behind a biker gang Jesus on the back of his motorcycle, styled complete with his own crown of thorns, and, er, bleach blonde

braids. Then we witness several apparently funky dance routines, which more closely resembles a series of uncontrollable and painful muscle spasms than anything else, with Lady Gaga jiggling her breasts in a bra adorned with gold crucifixes from her own fashion house... oops, I mean Haus, of Gaga. The crucifix is of course, a symbol easily identifiable with Christianity and used extensively in the music video that actually started it all, Madonna’s Like A Prayer. Madonna, however, being rather more classy and timeless than Gaga, wore a crucifix around her neck rather on her boobs.

Okay, granted, Madonna also wore conical bras, but doesn’t need as much similar enhancement to her voice as Gaga clearly does. Despite repeatedly referring to her Catholic heritage, it’s clear that Gaga was too busy perfecting yet another ridiculous hairstyle to pay attention in Bible class; she refers to washing feet with her hair when it was used for drying the feet in that Bible story and refers to Judas denying Jesus three times - but that was Peter. Maybe it doesn’t matter: Gaga has caused her stir and that’s all there is to it. Yawn.

M

other Monster is an institution and her little monsters follow her so devotedly due to her confident ability to show artistic licence in quantities unimaginable to the rest of the music world. Generic, attention-seeking singers do not start as song writers to the stars, like Gaga did for Britney; Gaga has worked hard to earn her position as the Queen of Pop and her Little Monsters (myself included) are hellbent on keeping her there. The one thing I will agree on is that Judas is disappointingly similar to Bad Romance. The video certainly gives the song more umph, however, and has a more individual flavour. The Lady puts 100 per cent into every-

Monday 16th May 2011

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International

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9

Big Summer Trips- strike out this summer

Still haven’t planned your summer vacation? Chris Wotton’s big trip ideas will leave you with memories to cherish when deadlines beckon again come October…

Croatia

This pearl on the Adriatic is big news for travellers, with the best of everything - stunning landscapes, mesmerising historical cities and fairy-tale clear blue water on the coast. Accommodation is similarly priced to western European standards but food and drink comes at a fraction of the price - reckon on a couple of euros for a decent meal, with seafood particularly good thanks to Croatia’s blessing of a coastline guaranteeing a great catch every day.

EasyJet flies to Zagreb from London Gatwick for as little as £29.99 one way - then work your way down the country overland, making time for the awe-inspiring Plitvice Lakes National Park, a few hours by bus from the capital. The Diocletian’s Palace makes Split worth a visit in itself, but either way it’s an attractive city with a young feel to it and home to a busy port. Next stop Dubrovnik, for some stunning vistas from the walls of the old city (student admission 30KN, around £3.60) and for some tanning time on the stunning Banje beach, within easy reach of the old city and with a great view of the walls.

Thailand

South East Asia’s darling tourist magnet has gap year travellers coming here in their droves for a reason – the perfect blend of local culture, friendly people, great food and an unbeatable party scene on the islands in the south.

Play your cards right and you can land a return flight from London for under £400 - which will be your biggest outlay since, once you’re in the Land of Smiles, just about everything else costs a pittance. Get your big city fix in Bangkok, visiting the Grand Palace and the enormous Chatuchak weekend market’s 8,000 stalls, down a touristy sandcastle-style bucket or two of vodka on backpacker haven Khaosan Road, have a red bull and coke, then indulge in an hour or two of violent but relaxing Thai massage before striking north-west to Kanchanaburi. Check out the famous Bridge Over the River Kwai, tragically erected by WW2 Japanese prisoners of war and drink a few more buckets of something reasonably fun on Khaosan-wannabe Maenam Kwai Road.

Get about as rural and, dare we say

on the pleasing terrace. Dorms 130KN (£15.50); www.nokturno.hr CroParadise Hostel, Split - an absolute bugger to find, so be prepared with Google maps at the ready - but once you’ve found it, this place oozes unbeatable staff, a family-like atmosphere and perhaps the biggest collection of films in any hostel anywhere.

Watch them on the big screen in every dorm room, which is also hooked up to a PC providing free internet. Dorms

Before you fly home from Dubrovnik (EasyJet has one-way fares to London Gatwick from €42.99, around £37.50), don’t miss out on the charm of Croatia’s islands - pick from Hvar, Zdar and Mijet among the many others.

it, non-eventful as Thai towns come in charming Sangkhlaburi, just a few kilometres from the Burmese border and a three hour minibus ride from Kanchanaburi – the vast lake hides a sunken town and temple that you can see with a boat ride in dry season, and a hand-made wooden bridge connects Sangkhlaburi town with a village of Burmese ethnic Mon peoples, whose early-morning market is also a mustvisit.

Sangkhlaburi also hosts a number of organisations, like Baan Unrak, that will gladly take you on for a volunteer placement if you feel like giving something back during your travels. Highoctane activities like zorbing and white water rafting at The Nature Club just a short way out of town will give you a burst of excitement if all this local life gets a bit too much.

Finally, head south for true hedonism at the monthly Full Moon Party on the rave-crazy Koh Pha Ngan in the Thai Gulf. And don’t fret if you miss the full moon – Half Moon, Black Moon and Shiva Moon parties will all give you the chance to sip some more super-strong buckets. And yes, buckets feature heavily on every traveller’s Thailand itinerary.

Sleep Nokturno Hostel, Zagreb - clean rooms and a friendly atmosphere in a central location, though staff can be a nightmare to track down at times.

Very good food at the restaurant next door, great for an al fresco bite to eat

from 100KN (£12); www.croparadise. com Drink Rakija Bar, Split - unbeatably cool yet relaxed and unpretentious atmosphere and quite possibly the best bar in

Croatia. The blend of industrial interior in an old Croatian building with open stone walls is addictive, drinks are excellent and staff are friendly.

Also goes by the name Puls 2; find it at Buvinina 1.

Cafe Buza, Dubrovnik - Lonely Planet has this down as the place to catch the perfect sunset, but the sun actually goes down at a funny angle that means you’ll likely not see a bit of it. Still, this is a great spot for an early

evening drink, built right into the old city walls and reached through a hole in the walls themselves (meaning you don’t need to pay to go up on to the walls to get here) - just look for the ‘Cold Drinks’ sign. And avoid the toilet - we’ll say no more.

position is quite frankly stunning: literally on the beach, about three steps from the hammock outside your front door to the lapping waves of the Thai sea. Add to that powdery white sand, massage, a swimming pool and a restaurant all on the beach, and just fifteen minutes by share-taxi to the Full Moon mayhem at Had Rin, and you’ve got yourself a winner. Double/twin bungalows from 600B (£12.00); tel: 0066 77 238 443

Sleep Sam Sen Sam Place Boutique Guest House, Bangkok Easily one of the best guest houses in Bangkok, Sam Sen Sam Place has clean, comfy rooms with fan or aircon and super friendly and attentive service, all in a 100-year-old house just ten minutes’ walk from the craziness of Khaosan Road - close enough to lap it up, but far enough to escape it. Double/twin fan rooms from 590B (£11.80) air-con from 790B (£15.80); www.samsensam.com Chuen Jai House, Sangkhlaburi The rooms at Chuen Jai House might

be basic - they’re fan-cooled and each have a bare concrete bathroom with nothing but cold water - but their setting is superb, in a lush garden in one of the most ‘local’ feeling parts of Sangkhlaburi town. Staff couldn’t be friendlier, more welcoming or more genuine, and their little shop of handmade jewellery, crafts and postcards will leave you wanting to buy the lot.

Double fan rooms from 450B (£9.00); tel: 0066 814 028 960 Mac Bay Resort Don’t let the ‘resort’ tag put you off; the fan-cooled bungalows at Mac Bay are dirt cheap and, once again, their

10

Monday 16th May 2011

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International

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The French are Travel Bug - Brighton watching you!

There are few British cities cooler, gayer or more worthy of a spontaneous overnight visit than Brighton. An old crumbling pier, original shopping and an excellent foodie scene - there’s little left to wish for. bathimpact travel expert Chris Wotton recommends...

Suzanne Azmayesh Yohann Marcon bathimpact Contributors

L

et’s begin at the beginning: we are two French students, coming from Sciences Po Paris, (the French equivalent of the LSE), and landed in Bath as exchange students. A few months ago, a British student who spent her year abroad in Sciences Po created a facebook group called “Sciences Po killed my social life”, in which she wittily denounced the incredible amount of work and the constant academic pressure. As for us, we gathered our impressions, our feelings and our thoughts about this Erasmus experience in a special and secret notebook. Here are some specially selected excerpts of a typical day spent in this city...

8.30am. We attend the daily spectacle of students who, conformingly to this very particular British tradition, are artistically queuing at the bus station, watching one, two, three full blue buses passing in front of them without stopping. We suddenly miss the Parisian underground, admittedly dirty and noisy, but still far more regular. When the drivers are not on strike...

9.08am. In a state of despair, we finally pay for the orange bus, which turns out to be as fast as a horsedrawn carriage. A pedestrian overtakes us.

9.25am. People get off the bus and warmly thank the driver, conformingly to another British tradition, which would be unimaginable in Paris where people only use insults to establish communication. We are, however, still wondering whether the driver is thanked for arriving late or rather for driving so slowly.

1pm. We meet up at the Level One Café to have lunch. We resign ourselves to order a hamburger, the only comestible meal there. As we had no illusion about British food before coming here, we are not disappointed.

2.26pm. On our way for a group meeting on a presentation, we pass by a few Freshers wearing pajamas, and a girl wearing Scottish tights. British fashion is very mysterious. It takes a long time to get used to it.

2.47pm. At the ground floor of the library, we are still waiting for the other member of the presentation group.

2.52pm. We eventually receive a text from the missing member, a second year student, let’s call him Pierre, explaining that he is ‘really sorry but finally can’t make it, so we should meet another time xxx’. We answer that ‘it is not really possible to meet another time since the presentation is tomorrow at 9am and you haven’t even sent your part so we are just going to fail xxx’. A new text reveals that Pierre had ‘a very busy week with four presentations and thus didn’t manage to finish the part but will send it ASAP xxx’. Guessing that he certainly hasn’t even started it, we decide to do everything by ourselves. This is the third time we are confronted by such a situation. The next person who says that Erasmus life is a life of idleness will be hanged.

3.30pm. Pierre is tagged on twelve new Second Bridge pictures, apparently busy with enjoying himself a lot.

Following the teachings of the French song “Restons zen”, we choose not to react to this provocation.

4.30pm. We go to the departmental office to ask a question, we are answered clearly and kindly, and not treated with despise and aggressiveness as it is generally the case in our home country. Such niceness can almost make up for Pierre’s behavior.

Almost.

7pm. As we walk home, desperately freezing, we pass by dozens of half -naked girls apparently on their way to some house parties. We feel extremely jealous of their extraordinary resistance to the cold, which proves that life is very unfair.

Getting there By train from Bath Spa Station, you can be in Brighton in a little over three and a half hours, changing in either London or Southampton – the latter takes only marginally longer but is considerably cheaper; the 08.36 departure can rack in at as little as £9.90 single and will have you into Brighton just after midday.

You are spoilt for choice when it comes to a place to sleep - on a tight budget, Baggies Backpackers (dorms from £12; 01273 733 740; www.baggiesbackpackers.com) offers affordable beds in a large regency house, while the Grapevine (dorms from £12.50; 01273 777 717; www.grapevinewebsite.co.uk) sells its fun and lively atmosphere, advertising itself as the ideal place for budget stag and hen nights – you’ve been warned! If you fancy splashing a little more cash, the boutique Whitburn Lodge (01273 729 005; www.whitburnlodge. com) has stylish, individually designed double and king size rooms from £85. The designer rooms at Myhotel (01273 900 300; www. myhotels.com), Hotel Pelirocco (01273 327 055; www.hotelpelirocco.co.uk) and the Granville Hotel (01273 326 302; www.granvillehotel.co.uk) are all equally luxurious and bound to please.

Sights Head to Moshi Moshi (01273 719 195; www.moshibrighton. co.uk) for the original sushi conveyor belt experience, with particular attention to sustainable production. Try the aubergine dengaku, pan-fried and served with a miso sauce, and the Korean sashimi bowl. Nia (01273 671 371; www.nia-brighton.co.uk) has inventive brasserie fare, from ginger beer battered fish to lemon ricotta dumplings. For something heartier, traditional pie and mash is

given a modern makeover at Pokeno Pies (01273 684 921) with flavours like aubergine and feta.

The Royal Pavilion (student admission £6.90; April to September 9.30am-5.45pm, October to March 10am-5.15pm; 01273 290 900; www. royalpavilion.org.uk) and the West Pier (www.westpier.co.uk) have to top the attractions for any flying visit to Brighton. The sheer extravagance of the Asian inspired pavilion makes for a rewarding visit just to peruse the extraordinary grandeur of the various rooms, while there is a melancholy feel to the pier, which closed in 1975 but really began its demise in 2002; it began to collapse into the sea and has since caught fire on a number of occasions. For tackier, totally touristy seaside pleasure, head to Brighton Pier (www.brightonpier.co.uk) for fairground rides, bumper cars and sticks of rock.

Out and about Brighton is, of course, Britain’s capital of all things gay, so time your visit right and you can catch Brighton Pride (www.brightonpride.org) - the summer festival runs from 6th to 14th August, with the main parade kicking off at 11am on the 13th.

For another slant, take the Gay’s The Word tour run by Brighton Walks (£6; www.brightonwalks.com), which also has a Ghosts Walk and treasure hunts. Artsy types will want to check out graffiti artist Banksy’s

Kissing Coppers mural on the side of The Prince Albert pub on Trafalgar Street - but you’ll need to hurry, as it is due to be shipped off to the US and sold! Works by Dali are among the art and design pieces on show at the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (free admission; Tuesday to Sunday and bank holiday Mondays 10am-5pm; 03000 290 900; www.brighton-hove-rpml. org.uk), which is also worth a look.

For retail therapy, don’t miss the quirky independent shops in the Laines, and of course leave some time for a wander on the beach and, if the weather is unexpectedly pleasant, maybe just a cheeky dip.

If you need something quirky to round off the day, and just to say you’ve done it, take a ride on one of the eco-friendly ‘Big Lemon Buses’ that run around the city – they call at bus stops marked with a lemon symbol, and are run entirely on used cooking oil!

For a coffee during the day, a drink in the evening and anything inbetween, there is a welcome continental atmosphere at The Dorset Street Bar (01273 605 423; www.thedorset.co.uk). The city’s best cocktails are said to be had at Gin Gin (01273 671 119), while Hector’s House (01273 688 869) boasts a similarly relaxed and friendly atmosphere plus live music until 2am. Clubs include the very glittery Honey (01273 202 807; www.thehoneyclub. co.uk), Audio (01273 606 906; www.audiobrighton.com) with its dress-down crowd, and beachfront Funky Buddha (01273 725 541; www.funkybuddhabrighton. co.uk). Revenge (01273 606 064; www.revenge.co.uk) is the south’s biggest gay club, while Concorde2 (01273 673 311; www.concorde2. co.uk) and Coalition (01273 772 842) are famous for their regular live lineups.

Monday 16th May 2011

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11

International

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Can terrorism be viewed as the fault of the West?

Kylie Barton bathimpact Reporter editor@bathimpact.com

T

he death of Osama Bin Laden has recieved mixed reactions from around the globe. His organisation, al-Qaeda, led the terror attacks that caused the death of nearly 3,000 civilians in America in 2001, his death is, therefore, a cause for celebration for many US citizens. It is, however, interesting to ponder the cause of this sudden increase in extremist activity, if it is sudden at all, and if it is in fact an amalgamation of years of struggle and conflict between East and West.

From the 11th century religious battles occurred across the area now known as the Middle East. The ‘Crusades’ included conflict between Christians, Muslims and Jews and started a familiar trend of fear and hostility between the Christian West and the Islamic East. As the West industrialised and grew in military and economic power, there was an increased aggressive thirst to secure colonial empires that were on the path of trade routes needed to ensure further financial growth. The Middle East became a hot favourite for the global powers and, to pacify the threats caused by existing regimes, imperial powers took control of large areas and changed laws to suit their own capitalist agenda - to the complete humiliation and disadvantage of the native peoples. This imperial aggression reached a peak

after World War Two, when the Ottoman Empire was divided up to suit the short term needs of Britain, rather than the long term concerns of the people. The long established country of Kurdistan was split into Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, splitting up the Kurdish people. The UK set up camp in Iraq, implementing a monarchical, unsuitable form of governance which led to the rise of rebellions that spurred the start of the political career of Saddam Hussein. In British controlled Israel, the postwar structure formulated by Western powers led to an influx of Jewish immigrants, aggravating the native Islamic Arabs who felt their own culture and standing devalued, leading to increased rebel activity and terrorism until the state of Israel was independently formed. Similarly, in India where, after WWII, the state split into Hindu India and Muslim states of Pakistan and Bangladesh. All of these events occurred due to Western intervention which facilitated increased religious tensions. All parties involved experienced political dissatisfaction, a sense of lost identity, and a new found sense of nationalism based on religion.

The actions of the UK and the US in the Middle East are often put down to the lucrative oil reserves that the area hosts. Intervention due to this resource can been seen across history, most notably in Suez Crisis of 1956 which caused further rifts between Israel and the Arab world .

In Iran, the oil industry assisted by the US created great wealth.; for the top 4 per cent of the country. The remaining 96 per cent of the population (of whom a large proportion were Muslim) received no economic benefits and had their culture severely challenged. As a result, religious leaders across the area began to speak out against the Americanisation of their nation, something which proved good for the minority making money from the Oil industry, but which was thoroughly undermining the core values and traditions that the majority of the population prided themselves on.

This was the start of religious fundamentalism as we know it. A movement that has grown increasingly hostile to the imperial ethnocentric nature of the global powers and their cultural impregnation, that is now expressed in the form of people willing to give their own lives to take a stand against years of subordination and suppression. Unrest in Iran saw the emergence of one of the first governments formed on fundamentalist religious principles, after the Americans fled due to an attack on their Embassy in 1979. The case of Iran saw the goal of protecting traditional Islamic culture made universal, something which the West is increasingly wary of today.

Afghanistan is another example; it has been the site of conflict for Britain and Russia for centuries. In 1973 a military coup saw a Republican

form of government rise to power that was heavily affiliated with the USSR. Through the Cold War prism, America armed guerrillas attempted to take down the so called pro-Soviet regime, leading to success in 1988 when Soviet troops relinquished power after the death of over two million civilians, and 6 million asylum seekers fled to neighbouring countries. It just so happens that the Taliban were also part of the anti-Soviet efforts at this time and so consequentially took over governance and implemented a new, conservative style of Islam with which the West most heavily identifies today, including the oppression of women and the teaching of fundamentalist values.

It was at this time that Bin Laden set up training camps to form the terrorist group al-Qaeda, who went on to commit the biggest single assault on the west, and particularly on capitalism. Now the US are in Afghanistan again, trying once more to implement a government that sits nicely with their values and capitalist ideology, even after decades of resistance to their style of modernisation. Ideology has the amazing effect of bestowing blindness onto those who follow it; alternatives are never appreciated as a true form, or a real option. This inability and pure ignorance to acknowledge or appreciate other cultures leads to a process of demonization for that which we do not understand. As we in the West live in short political cycles, the leaders of

the day never seem to take into consideration the long term consequences of the actions they take in search of short term benefits.

The cases above are evidence that the West intervenes as and when it suits, when its own interests are at stake, when there is money to be made, and ideological capital to advance . The old democratic principle of the right to self determination, and of a peoples’ to self govern is long gone, as now nations have to suit the agendas of the West.

It has been said that politics is a boys club, who enjoy playing with guns and tanks, and that political leaders are remembered for their foreign accolades.

So for now it may be Obama: 1-0 Osama, but this ‘game’ is far from over.

As more Americans and Europeans flee to the riches of the Middle East to push economic growth and get rich off another nations resources, those fully committed to the established traditions are increasingly put out and infuriated as foreign intruders take the wealth made, and leave behind a trail of McDonald wrappers. The West has systematically raped not only the Middle East, but also Africa and Asia for their resources over centuries, diplomacy and compromise has failed, if it was ever even given a chance. Terrorism is the sorrowful communication that the Islamic world has had to revert to say ‘no sorry, we don’t like the idea of the American Dream, now please leave us alone’.

The United States of America finally got their man

Cerian Jenkins bathimpact Reporter news@bath.ac.uk e had been wanted, dead or alive, for nearly a decade.

The world’s most wanted man, Osama bin Muhammad bin Awad bin Laden, was [apparently] killed at the beginning of the month

by US forces in a ground operation in Abbottabad, in Northern Pakistan - 35 miles from the capital, Islamabad.

Bin Laden, accused of masterminding the 2001 9/11 attacks in which nearly 3,000 people died, had managed to evade capture for nearly ten years - despite a bounty of $25m (nearly £15m) having been placed on his head and massive amounts of resources being devoted to the professed ‘war on terror’.

H

It comes as no surprise then that many are hailing this event as a monumental victory, a restoration of national pride, a case of much awaited justice being served and as a form of closure for those who lost loved ones in the atrocities this man so readily advocated. In an oddly grotesque echo of the celebrations precipitated elsewhere in the world by the 9/11 attacks, huge crowds continue to gather in Washington and New York to celebrate the news. But others remain less than ecstatic, realising that Bin Laden’s death does not represent the end terrorism, and in fact may result in a potentially devastating backlash. An immediate worry for the US will of course be the reaction of Pakistani authorities. The discovery of Bin Laden’s extravagant compound a mere 35 miles from Islamabad and less that a kilometre from

a military academy in Abbottabad, comes as a huge and potentially dangerous embarrassment for Pakistan’s government, who have repeatedly stated that the al-Qaeda leader was not on their soil. Instead, Pakistan’s government had continually suggested that the Americans should focus their operations elsewhere; in particular, Afghanistan.

President Obama, in a speech given on the evening of Sunday 1st May stated that, “Over the years, I have repeatedly made clear that we would take action within Pakistan if we knew where bin Laden was. That is what we’ve done. But it’s important to note that our counterterrorism cooperation with Pakistan helped lead us to bin Laden and the compound where he was hiding. Indeed, bin Laden had declared war against Pakistan as well and ordered attacks against the Pakistani people”.

But reports indicate that the operation itself, and the use of US Special Forces in the capture of Bin Laden, were unknown to the Pakistani government. There are, of course, whispered questions now surfacing as to how Pakistani forces failed to notice

the luxurious, heavily-fortified compound hiding in plain sight.

Pakistan, a country struggling to come to terms with and deal with its own culture of violent Islamists, will undoubtedly be anticipating a bloody backlash themselves; it is a little discussed fact that tens of thousands of people have died in Pakistan as a result of terrorism since 9/11 – more than all the European and American victims combined.Similarly, Afghanistan will no doubt be on high alert, aware that they are likely to bear much of the brunt and bloodshed as a result of this ‘victory’.

Closer to home, Prime Minister David Cameron commented that: “The news that Osama Bin Laden is dead will bring great relief to people across the world…it is a great success that he has been found and will no longer be able to pursue his campaign of global terror.” He noted, however, that it did not mark the end of the threat we face from extremist terror, and stressed the necessity of heightened vigilance in the weeks ahead.

Finally, what does this mean for alQaeda? It would be exceedingly naive, and incredibly stupid, to assume that

this event indicates the end of global terrorism. Violent, extremist organisations such as al-Qaeda are similar in nature to that of the Learnaean Hydra; a mythical beast with many heads which, for each head cut off, grew two more.The demise of such a figurehead of terror at the hands of US forces not only risks that his death will be construed by some as a martyr’s death (interestingly the reason given behind the US’s apparent decision to immediately dispose of Bin Laden’s body at sea, minimising the opportunity for fanatical hype and frenzy - please note that the image of a body currently being circulated online is fake and has in fact been around for some time), but that it will create a power vacuum into which other radical extremists will attempt to step; each hoping to make their own ‘9/11’ mark on the world.

Osama Bin Laden himself predicted that he would never be captured alive and boasted that countless others would follow in his footsteps once he was gone. He was right on one account; we will have to wait and see about the second.

Student Me-

Student Me-

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Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

Business

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bathimpact BUSINESS

Magali Calabressi reports on recent news from the business world

78 billion Euro Bail-out for Portugal P ortugal has agreed to a €78bn (£70bn) aid plan with the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF), making it the third country after Greece and Ireland in need of a sovereign debt crisis bail-out.

In a televised statement, José Sócrates, Portugal’s caretaker prime minister, said that whilst the deal was demanding, it did not reflect the severity of Greece and Ireland. He suggested that the EU and IMF recognised that “the situation in Portugal is far from being [as serious] as in other countries” and added that “Portugal can feel reassured” by the three-year loan plan.

The plan involves taking austerity measures including sacrificing previous plans for a new airports and highspeed rail lines. Also, the government has promised pension cuts but it is not expected to reduce minimum national wages or propose funding cuts to the education and healthcare sectors.

Some further budgetary measures include the increase of sales tax on items such as motors and tobacco, privatisation of energy companies shares and the sale of Portuguese airline TAP Air

Portugal as well as cutting the length of unemployment benefit to just 18 months from three years. Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Portugal’s biggest deposit bank owned by the state, will not be privatised according to the current plan.

The Portuguese government is expected to cut its budget deficit to 5.9 per cent of GDP from 9.1 per cent this year, 4.5 per cent in 2012 and 3 per cent in 2013.

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The country is likely to have to face ‘deep depression’ Finance Minister, Fernando Teixeira dos Santos

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A large chunk – €12bn – of the bailout funds will go to the banking sector in order to rebuild capital ratios – an evaluation of a bank’s capital strength. According to Reuters, banks will have to improve their core tier one capital ratio – a measure of high-quality capital including equity

and disclosed reserves – to nine per cent by December 2011 and ten per cent by December 2012. However, the heads of the country’s banks said they should be able to rebuild capital ratios without utilising bailout funds. The President of Banco Comercial Portugues SA, Carlos Santos Ferreira, said: “We expect to raise our ratio through our shareholders, markets and portfolio sales”. He added that fire sales would not happen.

This agreement – which has now been endorsed by Portugal’s two principal opposition parties: the centreright Social Democrats (PSD) and the conservative Popular party (CDS-PP) – follows three weeks of discussions between the Portuguese government, members of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF. The aid package is to be closed by 15th June by the time which Portugal has to repay approximately €5bn of debt. In fact, E.U. officials want a decision to be reached on 16th17th May when E.U. finance ministers are to meet. However, the Finnish political parties, who want to form a new coalition government, may cause delays to the approval. In the mean-

time, the IMF and EU desire further political support for the rescue package, which is to be put into effect following the general elections for a new government on 5th June.

It is important to realise that before an improvement can be seen in the growth of Portugal’s economy, the country is likely to have to face ‘deep recession’, as the country’s Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos San-

tos puts it. He expects an economical contraction of two per cent both in 2011 and 2012. Referring to the aid plan, he said that “This is not merely a programme of economic and financial austerity, but a package designed to re-launch growth and make the economy more competitive”.

The EU is to contribute around two thirds of the fund whilst the IMF is to contribute the remaining third.

banking to be in wholly separate firms”. This idea was not welcomed by the dissenting banking industry.

Moreover, big banks will claim that breaking up their retail industry will impose much greater costs on them since it will force them to raise and conserve more capital as well as increase their borrowing costs. Also, they believe doing this will put them at a great disadvantage when competing with international banks. However, the Commission’s report clearly indicates that any result these proposals have will outweigh in benefit any great losses made by banks. As the report indicates, their aim “beyond the immediate task of repairing bank balance sheets while restoring the normal flow of credit to the economy at large” is to “make the UK banking system more stable, and markets for banking services more competitive”.

The commission did put forward a proposal appreciated by bankers in which UK lenders are to split their activities into an independent subsidiary and have more capital

resources than current requirements. This is aimed at achieving greater loss-absorbency, which involves banks holding more equity in relation to their assets and also that creditors and not taxpayers, suffer any losses.

The suggested changes – due to be finalised in September – are similar to those currently in the U.S. where banks are limited to the deposits they are allowed to use in their retail and investment banking divisions. This similarity has also been identified by Simon Gleeson – a partner at Clifford Chance – who said that “the proposals echo the structure that has been in place in the U.S. for the last decade, which require commercial banking to be separated from other financial activities”.

The Commission has also played part in reassuring the government that they needn’t worry about big banks reacting to the reforms by moving their head offices abroad in order to abide by different laws.

If this was to happen then the loss of tax revenue and the growth and

success of the City of London would be limited. In fact, Richard Reid, head of research at the International Centre for Financial Regulation, wrote: “Decisions by major banking institutions about where to locate their headquarters are more likely to be influenced by longer-term assessments of market growth and business strategy than by these recommendations”.

The main reasoning behind the supporting proposition made by the Commission is that if the investment-banking arm of a universal bank were to collapse, then the retail banking side – that which deals with our savings – would be unharmed. And even if it were harmed, it would be easier for taxpayers to rescue just the one division.

The report does need to be revised since many fear there may be a loophole in the current version that allows banks to escape higher capital requirements. Additionally, British MPs are urging Sir John Vickers to define a new bonus transparency and determine the role of bonuses in creating systemic risk.

Finance Minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos

any are in trepidation over current rules and regulations imposed on banks due to their lack of rigour and precision. In fact, many experts believe banks are ‘greedy’, and loopholes in the present measures are the primary reason for the financial crisis of 2007/08, and a potential reason for the reccurrence of another crisis. In order to tackle this, the global banking regulation has devised reform proposals for the UK banking industry, which are similar

to those governing US banks. In turn, this has also reduced fears of British lenders doing business in New York as opposed to London.

The Independent Commission on Banking (ICB), chaired by Sir John Vickers, went as far as proposing that banks should split their securities businesses from their retail and commercial lending systems by stating on the interim report that a plausible policy report would be “for example, to require retail banking and wholesale and investment

Sir John Vickers is under some pressure from MPs

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New UK Banking Measures Introduced M

Monday 16th May 2011

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Science

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Say goodbye to depressing hospital wires Magali Calabressi bathimpact Contributor

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echnology is constantly developing, and its advances are of huge importance in the medical industry, amongst others. New equipment within this industry is continuously being developed in order to facilitate manual labour, which is crucial in very fast-moving workplaces such as hospitals.

A student at the University of York, Andres Calabressi, who is currently completing his final year project in Electronic Engineering, is working towards the implementation of a contact-less vital sign monitoring system. This system, which is designed to help patients with cardiopulmonary disorder, is said to be able to monitor the heart and respiration

rates simultaneously. The breakthrough with this device in particular, is that it is able to accomplish this without the need to attach any straps or probes to the individual. It is therefore designed to be a stand-alone unit that is able to sense the vital signs of a patient who stands in its line of sight.

Conventional medical devices are able to monitor vital signs, but these require attachment to the patient. Even existing monitors that are claimed to be ‘wireless’ do still require some kind of sensor and transmitter arrangement. This invasive device is usually tolerated by patients due to its level of importance in medical care. It can, however, often be obtrusive and restrictive to the user. It was initially aimed at patients who suffer from sleep apnoea – a condition where a

Stupid fat brain!

Esther Osarfo-Mensah Deputy Science Editor

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hilst writing this article, I logged onto facebook about fifteen times, merely to scroll up and down a bit and then log out and sigh. I returned to my notepad, picked up the pen, and then suddenly found that I had an urgent need to gawp at tumblr posts for a good hour. Again I managed to force myself to log out, only to turn, not to the pitiful three lines of scribble that I planned to later send to my editor, but all the way to the window where I stared at a tree until a bird cocked its head out of the leaves and told me to finish the article.

Now some would say that I’m too easily distracted. Scientists would explain that it’s because I have too much brain. For some reason I’m not too sad to hear this.

Researchers from University College London, headed by Ryota Kanai, compared the brains of individuals who were constantly wandering off task with those who had that enviable ability to focus solely on the task at hand. Using an MRI scanner, they found that the 15 volunteers’ brains had significant differences in the size of the left superior parietal lobe.

The superior parietal lobe is a section of the brain that deals with sensory information, particularly spatial orientation. It primarily obtains visual and sensory input from the hands, and then converts it into information that we can use and understand.

Kanai’s team determined that it was this section of the brain responsible by asking the volunteers a series of questions, such as how frequently they didn’t notice road signs, and the number of times they make it to the supermarket only to get distracted and forget what they actually wanted to

buy. The volunteers were then scored on how distracted they were in their daily lives and given points. The highest scorers were the most distracted and vice versa for the least distracted, and the results were compared to the already mentioned MRI scanner.

The researchers went on to utilise the transcranial magnetic stimulation procedure, which involves reducing brain activity in a specific section using a hand held magnet for around 30 minutes. They applied this to the left superior parietal lobe, and then asked the volunteers to complete a timed task that had a distraction in one instance, and none in another. According to Kanai, the time difference between the two allowed the researchers to quantify how distracted each volunteer was. The experiment was repeated without the use of the transcranial magnet simulation.

The results indicated that this section of the brain is important in overcoming distraction in order to complete tasks in an efficient fashion. On average, the time taken to complete the task with the transcranial magnetic stimulation was over 25% faster.

Kanai suggests that the link between brain size in this region and distraction may be due to the fact that as we grow older, certain numbers of neurons are discarded in order to improve efficiency. This could explain why children appear to be more easily distracted than adults.

He goes on to say that transcranial direct current stimulation may be useful in tackling problems presented in individuals who are constantly distracted, such as those who suffer from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

So it seems that if I have any chance in passing my first year exams, I’ll need Dr Kanai’s phone number and fast.

person stops breathing during a sleep cycle. It has quickly evolved and can now be used in a range of different areas such as baby monitoring or patient monitoring in hospital wards.

For this reason, it is grabbing the attention of many cardiologists around the world.

The enclosure has already been designed and it takes the shape of a picture frame, with measurements of only 17x22cm. Its depth is of 3cm, and as such it can be easily mounted on a wall or placed on a table-top.

The specifications of this unit make it appealing across a wider market.

The reason for its astute disguise as a picture frame is that many may feel in denial of their health condition and unwilling to have the device at home if it were just a regular ‘hospital-look-

ing’ machine.

The device works by exploiting the ‘Doppler Effect’. It contains a transmitter that is continually sending electromagnetic waves in the region of 10GHz. The radiation emitted by the transmitter then ‘bounces-off’ objects in its path, and is later detected by a receiver within the unit, which is constantly analysing changes between the emitted and received signals. The unit is highly sensitive and as a result is able to detect the movements transmitted through the chest to the surface of the skin due to the heart beating and similarly, movement in the chest associated with human breathing. A series of complex algorithms are then used to determine heart and respiration rates, and sound an alarm in the case of an

abnormality.

Despite popular belief, the device is completely harmless to any living organism. In fact, it operates at approximately 100,000 times less power than the safe-limit set by the relevant governing body.

Additionally, it is highly accurate: previous attempts at a similar system have proved to measure rates with up to 95 per cent accuracy. Moreover, the unit is able to function effectively even when the user is fully clothed. At the present time, the device is able to detect vitals from a user standing 1m away. However, experts are contemplating the idea of extending its scope to 5m.

This instrument – a revolutionary step forward – will be an essential addition to the lives of many patients.

Illuminating the future Simon Lewis bathimpact Contributor

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n the field of lighting, recent years have seen the phasing-out of the traditional filament-based light bulb in favour of the more efficient fluorescent tube. Despite fluorescent tubes being cheaper to run than filament lamps and lasting much longer, this move has caused much resentment as fluorescent tubes are dimmer than traditional bulbs and the range of colours in the white light is poorer.

However, it is estimated that in ten years both fluorescent tubes and filament lamps will be rendered largely obsolete by a new lighting technology.

It’s what makes up the flashy destination signs on the buses around Bath, not to mention the indicator lights on practically every electronic or electrical device. It even provided some of the lighting in the old Plug Bar before it was demolished. Have you guessed what it is yet?

The light-emitting diode (LED) does exactly what it says on the tin: it’s a diode that emits light. The actual LED is a tiny semiconductor chip; the

rest of the device consists of electrical wires, a mirror at the back and a protective casing of clear epoxy resin.

LEDs are not only even more efficient and long-lasting than fluorescent tubes, but are much brighter and harder to break. They are also much, much quicker to switch on and off, saving even more energy. They also, being electronic devices themselves, integrate much more easily into other devices than any other type of lighting.

Before the turn of the century, LEDs were already used as indicator lights but lacked the efficiency to compete with fluorescent tubes in the lighting market. This is because the surfaces of the LED chip are highly reflective, trapping light within the chip where it is re-absorbed and the energy wasted. In the last decade, this problem has been lessened by roughening the surfaces to make them less reflective. However, this procedure is expensive, making the cost of efficient LEDs prohibitively high; furthermore the surface roughening is somewhat random, leading to great differences in efficiency and lifetime within

batches.

I’m currently in my first year of a PhD with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering. The Solid State Lighting group there works on improving LED efficiency. One way of achieving this is the use of photonic crystals. A photonic crystal consists of two or more materials with different optical properties, arranged in such a way as to enhance or forbid light transmission depending on wavelength and direction. Controlling the direction of light emission in an LED is an attractive alternative to the expensive and unreliable surface roughening techniques used at present, with the potential to deliver better results.

My interest is in developing computer models to find out what the optical and electrical properties of LEDs with these photonic crystal structures might be like, in the hope that this knowledge may help engineers to design LEDs more efficient than ever before, along with more cost-effective and reliable manufacturing processes.

I’m here for two more years, so stay tuned and I’ll tell you how it goes.

Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

The Annual Student

Media Awards 2011

University of Bath Students’ Union

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ur annual Student Media Awards took place at Revolutions on 8th April. After weeks of planning, nominating, shortlisting and stressing over the font on the certificates (what can we say we’re a newspaper, this kind of thing matters), the members of URB, CTV and bathimpact gathered together to recognise and applaud the people who have really done Media proud this year. The awards included Outstanding Overall Contribution to bathimpact awarded to Rowan Emslie, the Tim Hollis Award for Excellence in Radio, which went to Jonty Usborne and two awards for Outstanding Contribution to Media which were awarded to Stephen Briscoe and Gina Reay.

Each and every one of the winners truly deserved their prize (and their pretty glass trophy). It was emotional for some, saying goodbye to a year or more of brilliant radio shows, television and print and broadcast journal-

ism, but an excellent time was had by all in celebrating what has been an amazing year. It has had its ups and downs, but has, overall, been brilliant for all involved. Well done, Media, we should be proud.

URBBLURB

Thank you and good night from this year’s team at 1449am URB

he end of the academic year is rapidly approaching, so we want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has been involved with 1449AM URB this year and celebrate one of our best years yet. We are delighted to have won the SU’s Activities’ Award for Student Media Group of the Year and now we’re looking forward to the next year and taking URB even further. 2010/11 has been a year for experimenting here at URB, with the launch of: Buzz – a weekly current affairs magazine; The Guide – a fortnightly round-up of the best music, film, theatre and art events in Bath; Disturbing The Peace – a comedy panel show recorded in front of a live audience; The Islamic Society Show – political and religious discussion.

University

of

Bath

If you missed Buzz or Disturbing the Peace, you can find podcasts on our website, www.1449urb.co.uk, as well as our Freshers’ Week coverage and our 2009 game show, Society Challenge.

It could be you carrying these shows forward next year or even creating brand new concepts of your own. The academic year may be ending but there’s still time to get involved in URB, especially as our planning for Freshers’ Week 2011 starts now.

If you want a distraction from revision, or if you’ve just realised as term is ending that you would have liked to do more outside of your degree, then email urb-training@bath.ac.uk for more information on how you can get involved, or stop by the studio in the Student Centre.

Students’

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STUDENT

media

Cartoon by Darius G

WHAT’S HOT ON URB:

THE CHARTS Flickr

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Some of bathimpact’s Editorial Team and Committee at the Student Media Awards 2011

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URB contributes to the Student Radio Chart – your chance to hear all those tracks that have been a favourite for presenters and listeners across the world of Student Radio in the past week. This week Kate B takes the top spot with her

second release and Rihanna is still chained well inside the top ten. Lady Gaga has slipped to an unlucky 13, and the rest seems to somewhat reminiscent of the nineties with Jlo, Eminem and the Foo Fighters all taking a slot:

1 Katy B Broken Record 2 The Vaccines If You Wanna 3 Foo Fighters Rope 4 Rihanna S&M 5 Cee-Lo Bright Lights, Bigger City 6 Tinie Tempah Wonderman (ft. Ellie Goulding) 7 PJ Harvey The Glorious Land 8 Elbow Open Arms 9 White Lies Strangers 10 Everything Everything Final Form

11 Panic! at the Disco The Ballad Of Mona Lisa 12 Wiz Khalifa Black & Yellow 13 Lady Gaga Born This Way 14 Katy Perry ET (feat. Kayne West) 15 Friendly Fires Live Those Days Tonight 16 Jennifer Lopez On The Floor (ft. Pitbull) 17 LMFAO Party Rock Anthem 18 Nero Me & You 19 Darwin Deez Radar Detector 20 Dr. Dre & Eminem I Need A Doctor

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Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

Sabbs Corner

www.bathimpact.com

National Union of Students: Conference 2011 David Howells VP Welfare and Diversity SUdiversity@bath.ac.uk

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his year I had the pleasure of representing University of Bath Students at the National Union of Students Annual Conference, alongside my fellow sabbs James ‘Julie’ Huelin, Matt Benka and Daniel ‘Dot’ O’Toole. The three day event was held in Newcastle, starting on Tuesday 12th April.

Day 1 began at the inhuman time of 3.30am. Sensible people might have travelled the day before, but for us that would have meant missing the fun of the Activities Awards the previous evening, so an early morning start was the only option. After several delays, and with the seven-hour journeyt o make, we set off to collect the three delegates from Bath Spa. The journey uneventful. The only stop of note was for breakfast at that well-known bastion of good eating, McDonalds.

A side note for those who wish to perpetuate a superiority complex over fellow students at Bath Spa: we stayed at a nice hotel, a 15 minute walk from the Sage, whereas they stayed at a Holiday Inn a 15 minute bus ride away. All for exactly the same price.

Upon arrival we were greeted by several hundred delegates from across the UK and, having fought our way to get our credentials, voting cards and all-important policy papers, we set-

Ben-Whittaker, NUS VP Welfare

tled ourselves in the main conference hall just in time for the opening of NUS Conference 2011.

It began with greetings from the chair of University & College Unions (UCU). Current NUS President, Aaron Porter, then addressed the floor. His 30-minute reflection was frank and honest about his actions over the past year and one colleague later remarking that it was one of Aaron’s best speeches. He admitted mistakes in his leadership but defended many of his decisions and, on his decision not to restand, he stated that, if he had won, the NUS would have been unable to move forward, focusing more on the failings of his leadership than on the interests of the movement.

Next came the formal acceptance of new affiliations to the NUS, including the welcome return of Durham University. Conference then debated a special policy on treating part-time students the same as full-time students when determining the number of delegates each member institution of the NUS receives. Controversially, this

motion was rejected, mostly over the cost of having more delegates at future conferences.

Conference then set about its main purpose: debating and agreeing the various motions to set the work of the NUS for the year ahead. All policies are divided into five ‘zones’ and each one is debated with speeches for and against before being put to a vote on the conference floor. First up were the Higher (HE) and Further Education (FE) zones. The motions for these two zones, despite being separate, were taken together with motions alternating between the two. Ben Whittaker, VP Welfare, took the role of chair for these zones, bringing his well-recieved unique style and good humour to the proceedings.

The first motion of Conference was entitled ‘Teaching & Learning for the 21st Century’. Coming from the FE Zone Committee, it laid out plans for NUS to support and lobby for university-style student representation across FE. The motion clearly passed, with no one speaking against it. HE Zone committee then presented their first motion which covered the approach of the NUS in supporting Students’ Unions fighting against HE funding cuts and tuition fees. The motion clearly passed. It was, however, followed by eight amendment proposals on the same topic. While moderate amendments were passed, Conference rejected five, calling for more aggressive activism, but not before Conference’s first experience of a Count. Voting on motions is usually done by a simple show of hands. If a result is particularly close, however, a call for a Count can be made, and the Democratic Procedures Committee (which manages conference democracy) must then individually count every vote. With nine committee members and over 700 delegates, this took over 20 minutes. Due to the time taken, the next zone had to be postponed, but this meant a lot important HE and FE policy had the chance to be debated.

Next was an informal hustings for the NUS Presidential candidates, but instead we opted for an early night.

The highlight of day two was the elections for the national officers. The NUS’ equivalent to Sabbs, there were six to choose, starting with the NUS President. Each of the four presidential candidates had five minutes to impress the floor and each of them managed to do it justice in their own way. The contest boiled down to a battle between the two frontrunners, the moderate Shane Chowen (NUS VP FE) and Labour Students’ slightly more radical candidate Liam Burns (NUS Scotland’s President). Liam’s activism was eclipsed by Mark Bergfield, a socialist candidate and member of the NUS National Executive Committee, and the rear was brought up by Thomas Byrne,

Liam Burns, NUS President Elect a fourth-year student from York. In the end) it was Liam’s vision of a unified NUS that won the day, but not until after several rounds of elimination (AV lovers need not despair, for it is alive and kicking in the NUS!). In the other elections, both Ed Marsh (VP Union Development) and Usman Ali (VP Higher Education) were triumphantly returned to their respective offices and joining them are Pete Mercer (VP Welfare), Dannie Grufferty (VP Society & Citizenship) and Toni Pearce (VP Further Education, who also happened to be celebrating her 18th birthday).

The day also had to cram in three more zones, starting with Union Development. This contained far less contentious issues than the previous two, but still had its fair share of arguments.

The only motion proposed by a Union in this zone that was discussed came from Loughborough and concerned the NUS better supporting Unions in finding new ways of sourcing money.

This proved to be more contentious than you might expect and resulted in an aggressive defence of the motion from Christina Yang-Zhang, NUS International Students’ Officer.

The Welfare Zone began, only two hours later than expected. A multitude of student issues were covered and Conference managed to race through much of its policy as time ran out. Unfortunately, a couple of topics were left un-debated, notably supporting campaigning on self-harm. As with all other zones, these policies were referred to the NUS Executive Committee to decide on whether to adopt them.

The final zone (Society & Citizenship) had only 40 minutes to cover all of its policies. As this area covers ‘everything about a student’s life outside being a student’, that was quite a tall order, but several motions were passed with no rejections. The final policy guillotine fell and Conference had thirty minutes to begin the Annual General Meeting section. This covers policy on how the NUS is run. Unfortunately those thirty minutes were marred by a dispute between a delegate, the Disabled Students Campaign and the Chair (NUS Northern Ireland President) over the lack of accessibility of the conference. Second time round

the Bath delegation had a much more exciting evening, attending an event at University of Northumbria’s Students’ Union. It was a great night and especially welcome after two very long, very heavy days. Those wanting to imagine the night should remember that there were still more elections the next day and most of the delegates were there, so it was very, very similar to Score during Sabb elections: stickers flying everywhere.

Despite two exhausting days, we still managed to get to the beginning of day 3 on time. After hearing long speeches from prospective members of the National Executive Committee (part-time officers), we had our final opportunity at voting. Unfortunately the complications of a thirty-candidate AV vote meant counting couldn’t be completed at conference, so we had to leave without knowing the results.

Aaron Porter presented a number of reports on the NUS’ progress, and it wasn’t until after a break for lunch that NUS Governance motions were discussed. The most important motion to support incorporation of the NUS passed, meaning it now stands alongside many prominent organisations, such as Amnesty International, as an incorporated charity. The AGM saw many more proposals fall than the other zones, with a motion calling for one member, one vote for national officers and a call to impose stricter term limits for non-students in NUS democracy both being rejected.

There was one last thing to see before we left. Customarily, each of the outgoing national officers makes one final leaving speech. We could only stay for the first three, missing out on Shane Chowen’s swansong, but that was mostly because, in typical NUS fashion, the first three overran by two hours between them. Each speech was very different, with Aaron Porter choosing to thank various people for his experiences and Susan Nash dwelling on her long and distinguished relationship with the NUS and the Student Labour movement.

It was the final speech of the three which left the most impression on me.

Ben Whittaker gave a very personal, very moving, account of his time in

the student movement, starting from his painful realisation that his own Students’ Union was more than a bar brought on by his father’s death, and continuing through the tough decisions he had to make as a sabb and his experiences as a national officer. His passionate defence of liberation, particularly for gay students, and the importance of championing student welfare were touching on a personal level as well as a professional one. But perhaps most striking was his unflinching defence of Aaron Porter, one of the NUS’ most unpopular presidents, condemning all those who had supported and basked in his successful before the violence of the national demo last year, only to abandon him as things got tough. His entire speech was made just a little more poignant by the presence of his mother in the audience.

If (despite this boring article) your interest in the NUS or the conference experience has been piqued, then there is something you can do. NUS Delegates are elected at the start of each academic year and while this year they were all sabbatical officers, students can stand - and frequently do. Next year, it could be you.

Key policies passed at Conference Higher & Further Education

•Teaching & Learning in the 21st Century •Higher Education Funding (Fees & Cuts) •Flexible Provision •Admissions & Retention •Student Voice •Postgraduate Funding Union Development •Creating a Generation of Change •Finding the Voices of the Under-represented Millions •Student Activists: Improving the Student Experience •Finance, New Income & Fundraising Welfare •Shifting the Focus (Protecting Local Student Housing) •Getting to the Heart of Student Health •Championing the Diversity of Our Movement •Protecting Internationalisation Society & Citizenship •Protecting the Student Voice (Voting in Elections) •Drugs Patents •Education for All •Toxic Fuels & Ethical Investment

Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

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Activities

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On the pull... with DoE

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worth of Butcombe Breweries alcohol which was very kindly donated as well as free VIP Score tickets - so it’s not surprising the participants got really involved and created a fantastically competitive atmosphere. The day went smoothly and successfully, raising a large amount of money for charity. The organisers would like to warmly thank all their sponsors and prize donors, as it was they who made the day possible. First Buses very kindly lent the organisers a bus and driver

for the day with Bath Fire Station and Bath Narrowboats lending the ropes, all without which the day would have been rather uneventful. The organisers would also like to thank the many helpers on the day, again without whom the event could have turned into some sort of bus pulling cacophony.

Butcombe Brewery very kindly donated a big alcoholic prize for the winning team and for those less inclined to drinking, there were more VIP Score tickets donated by the Student’s Union. The Matthew Bannister

omething epic was going down in the East Car Park on 11th April. Bath students flexed their muscles and put on their games faces because they were about to partake in the Bus Pull Competition for the Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

It was a good turnout, with six teams of 8-12 people taking part, all mixed gender. The top two teams were extremely close, achieving times of 28:08 and 21:29; congratulations to them.

The winners enjoyed £90

Brawny students in Duke of Edinburgh’s extreme tug of war with a double decker First bus

raffle was also a great success with thanks to all of the prize donors, including Second Bridge, who provided VIP entry; First, who gave away a Term Bus pass for Autumn 2011; Abbey Ales for a crate of Bellringer Beer; Great Western who offered wine and champagne, and Butcombe Brewery who offered a Gift Box. The general consensus at the end of the day was that it was a fantastic idea and that more peo-

ple wanted to take part but either had deadlines they had to work on, a sports tournament or were busy that weekend.

Therefore, the organisers plan to repeat the event so that there is another chance to have a go next year! They are looking at running the event much closer to the start of term, probably one weekend in October, subject to approval and feasibility, so watch this space!

as convicts running three-legged, tied together! The Fun Run raises money for the charity Cry in the Dark which helps students volunteering in the Romanian Orphanages. SCA also run many other projects helping out various organisations such as Mencap, Julian House, Age Concern and Oxfam as the main benefiters all of which Matt and Jenni told us a little bit about.

Ali Dawson, the Volunteer Centre’s Tutoring Scheme Co-ordinator, talked with great passion about the Mentoring and Tutoring Schemes

and about his experiences. Both schemes this year have been at maximum capacity with the number of volunteers working with the children in schools around Bath. Student mentors help support pupils who may be having difficulties with their studies or experiencing issues both inside and outside the school environment.

This project links school students in Year 9 at Culverhay School to a mentor for one to one support outside the classroom. The school Tutoring Scheme provides volunteers with an insight into what it is like to be a teacher. Volunteers spend their time acting as classroom assistants and are involved in tasks such as one-toone reading with the children and helping with group work.

Make sure you don’t miss this event next year! All Volunteers are invited to celebrate their successes.

Thank you to all involved with organising the event: Volunteer Executive Committee and the staff Anna Boneham, Karen Thompson and Tom Davidson.

Celebrating Bath’s volunteers T

he Volunteer Celebration, the first ceremony of its kind, took place on Monday 18th April in the Claverton Rooms on campus. The evening was a chance for students involved in the Volunteer Centre, as well as the charities and organisations they support and senior members of University staff to learn about what the Volunteers have been up to this year, the skills they have developed and how much fun they have had.

The evening also featured the presentation of the Mayor’s Prize for Volunteer of the Year. Awarded to Vicki Jones of RAG, this achievement recognises Vicki’s outstanding commitment and hard work, going above and beyond her role as Events Officer on the RAG committee. Current RAG Chair, Jenny Blowers, was also thanked for her efforts and dedication with a decorative paper weight by fellow committee members.

The Volunteers were also very lucky to be joined by Volunteer Centre Alumni Helen Reed (RAG), Mark Atterbury (Student Community Action) and Alexa Bellingham (SIFE), who all gave inspirational speeches on how volunteering had enabled them to get to where they are today.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Learning and Teaching, Professor Bernard Morley, also said a few words on Widening Participation and the Big Society.

After light refreshments, accom-

panied by photos from the Volunteer Area and an introduction to the evening from host Ann Howell (VP Activities and Development), Alex Brown talked about RAG. He congratulated all volunteers on the amount they had raised this year for many charities and described the success of many of the events run since September.

RAG sponsored four charities this year known as ‘the Big Four’ with each charity being linked to a specific RAG event. At the celebration, evening each Charity was presented with a novelty cheque and given the chance to say a few words about what they do and how the money will help. The money raised from the RAG Fireworks was a record of £5,321.11 and from the Sleepout a fantastic £1,395.98 was raised, both of which went to Julian House a local homeless shelter. RAG Week, Gunk-a-Sabb and the Sabbs that ran the Bath Half all helped raise an incredible £1,134.84 for Dorothy House Hospice. The Fashion show in the Assembly Rooms managed to raise a massive £1,859.66 for Sue Ryder Care and the Paris Hitch raised a sum still being counted for the Royal United Hospital Forever Friends appeal.

Alex also presented the certificates for top RAIDS collectors,: 1. Alex Brown £1,664.76 2. Alice Keel £1,379.18

3. Joaquin Meneses £675.23 4. Katt Whalley £593.81 5. Gaby Vauclair £571.46 Matt Chapman and Jenni Spragg (Chair and Vice-Chair of SCA) spoke about SCA’s main projects for the year. They talked about the success of the Christmas Appeal, which this year incorporated their Shoebox Appeal and the Kids’ Christmas Party.

The pair then told us about SCA’s efforts to send volunteers each year to Romania and Bulgaria to work in orphanages for several weeks. The volunteers are responsible for raising the money to go and arranging their own program of activities for the children.

The Bathwick Hill Fun Run is another very successful annual event that took place the day before the celebration evening. This year there were some fantastic costumes such as four students dressed as the ‘Bright Orange Bus’ and two students

RAG needs you!

Bath RAG are looking for volunteers at this years Summer Ball! We need people to help with selling roses, giving out wristbands at the entrance, manning the info point and cloakroom, and tidying up at the end.

And you’ll get to experience this great event for free!

Sign up at www.bathstudent.com/rag/signup or email summerball@bathrag.com for more information!

20

Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

Activities

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Sun shines on Bath talent T

hursday 21st April was certainly a day to remember.

The University of Bath Students’ Union Arts Executive Committee paired up with Snowsports to hold a fun filled day of entertainment, food and most important of all, a bouncy castle.

The Arts Extravaganza took place between 1pm and 4pm in the beautiful sunshine, as arts societies showed off their stuff by the lake in the Amphitheatre. Bath University Student Musicals (BUSMS), BodySoc, Cheerleading and Ch&OS all gave the audience performances to

revel in, as they body popped and acted their hearts out. BUSMS provided a comedic performance that heartened spectators considerably, whilst BodySoc’s dance to Waka Waka by Shakira had the atmosphere pumping with excitement.

During the breaks between the societies’ shows, everyone was treated to a spot of juggling and singing as they happily munched and slurped on the BBQ and beverages provided

by Parade Bar. It’s probably safe to say that students will look forward to a similar performance which will no doubt occur again next year.

Activities Awards success

The Activities Awards on Monday 11th April in the Banqueting Room in the Guildhall were a fantastic success! Many societies, individuals and groups won well deserved prizes and enjoyed a night of celebration. The evening started with a Pimms drinks reception and was hosted by VP Activities and Development Ann Howell. Guest speakers included Madam Chairman, Mr Mayor, SU President and the University of Bath Vice Chancellor as well as other VIPs such as Pro Vice Chancellors, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Director of Finance, Director of Policy and Planning, Union Staff and staff from ICIA. Councillor Sarah Bevan Chair of Bath and Northeast Somerset Council gave a lovely speech when presenting the first prize of the evening “Outstanding Contribution to the Community”. This award went to Bath Jets Cheerleaders for the money they have raised for local and national charities, and the wide range of local sporting events they have enthusiastically supported.

Performances from BUSMS (Bath University Student Musicals Society), ACS (African Caribean Society), Ch&os (Choral and Orchestral Society), BUST (Bath University Student Theatre) ensued interspersed throughout the evening. Students’ Union Recognition Awards were given, for the first time, to recognise students who have shown outstanding initiative within the Activities Area.

Congratulations, for their recognition awards must go to Mark Colling, Co-ordinator of Global Future 2011, Mujeeb Zia Chair of the Islamic Society, Ken Fujimoto Chair of the Japanese Society and the following students for creating an Interfaith Panel and Constitution: Aurel Diamond (Chair of the Jewish Society), Ailbhe Rees (Chair

of the Catholic Society), James Madgwick (Chair of the Anglican Society) and Mujeeb Zia (Chair of the Islamic Society).

Councillor Shaun McGall presented the award for “Most Improved Activity Group” and gave a speech on his yearly theme of Town and Gown relations. This award had tough competition but the winners were Islamic Society.

Daniel O’Toole, SU President gave a delightful speech and awarded BUSMS their well-deserved prize as winners of the Best Overall Event for their October Production “Epilogue”.

The Vice Chancellor, Professor Glynis Breakwell closed the evening with a lovely speech outlining the successes of the Activities Area and the many achievements various groups had managed to complete.

She also presented, as is tradition,

the award for Best Overall Activity Group which went to Engineers Without Borders for their Wind Turbine Project. The 1 kW turbine was built from scratch by a team of 30 students from around the University during February 2011 in collaboration with the Department for Mechanical Engineering. The project looks at addressing issues of energy storing techniques and sustainability.

The prize winners were as follows: Generic Awards: Best Overall Society Backstage Best Event Bath University Student Musicals (BUSMS) - Epilogue Most Improved Activity Group Bath University Islamic Society (BUIS) Outstanding Contribution to the Community Cheerleading (Bath Jets) General Society Awards: General Society of the Year Engineers Without Borders (EWB) Outstanding Contribution to General Societies Aurel Diamond (BUMS, JSoc) Best General Society Event Engineers Without Borders (EWB) - Wind Turbine Arts Society Awards: Arts Society of the Year Backstage Best Arts Event or Performance Bath University Student Musicals (BUSMS) - Epilogue Outstanding Contribution to the Arts

Volunteer Group Awards: Most Improved Volunteer Activity RAG - Fireworks Best Volunteer Newcomer Alice Keel (RAG) Outstanding Contribution to Volunteering Naomi Mackrill (SCA, RAG, Volunteer Executive)

Student Media Group Awards: Best Student Media Group 1449am URB Student Media Newcomer of the Year Tamar Hudson (CTV) Diversity and Support Group Awards: Diversity & Support Group of the Year Gender Equality Group Outstanding Contribution to Diversity & Support Groups Susan Doshi (Mature Students Group) Congratulations to all who won and all who were nominated for such a great year!

If you want to get involved with organising the next Activities Awards keep a look out on BathStudent for applications to be on the Working Group in January 2012.

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Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact

Sport

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MoLES take 2011 IDFC crown IDFC final 2011: MoLES 4-0 Economics David Jennings MoLES Club Captain

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gloriously hot Wednesday on St John’s Pitch 1 was the setting for the 2010/2011 InterDepartmental Football Competition (IDFC) final between MoLES and Economics. Both teams had won in extra time against the group winners to reach this stage and had brought a large following - an estimated 150200 people were in attendance. The MoLES lads went onto the pitch with Nic Watkins’ inspirational video in their minds, Joe Dibben’s words of ‘in ten years time I don’t want to be in an office thinking that we should have won the IDFC’ and Richard Shuttleworth’s moving words in the huddle ringing in their ears. It was theirs for the taking.

An uncharacteristically nervy start from the strong MoLES side called the defence into action, with Economics piling on pressure with several quick-fire corners and a couple of needlessly conceded free-kicks.

Nevertheless, the fullbacks Watkins and Standing were not outpaced and centre-backs Shuttleworth and Freeman commanded the air with ease, winning nearly every ball thrown at them.

The ESML Director of Studies Howard White was spotted amongst the crowd as MoLES began to obtain the rhythm they had played with all season, with Pearce, Lambert and Fuoli interchanging passes cleverly in the centre of the field to release Jennings on the left and Mills on the right, creating numerous chances. Dibben

then made a fantastic save down to his right to keep the score-line at nilall. A push on Standing - who nevertheless won the header - produced the first clear-cut chance just on the half hour, with Lambert stepping up to drift a perfectly weighted ball into the box for Orlando Pedretti to nod MoLES into a 1-0 lead.

Just minutes later, Ferry dribbled the ball across the edge of the box to play the ball past the right-back, setting up skipper Jennings who took one touch and drilled the ball at the keeper, seeing it deflect through his legs and into the net. Elation amongst the MoLES players, jubilation amongst supporters: 2-0. The halftime whistle was blown to rousing applause from the MoLES faithful.

The second half saw the Economics side push on and pressure further forward, opening up space in their defence. Lambert and Pearce controlled the game in the midfield, with Symes replacing the tremendous Pearce and carrying on the good work. Symes, Fuoli and Pedretti tormented the Economics back line, and MoLES’ back four were watertight, calm and controlled. Dibben was called upon on a handful of occasions and dealt with any threats with ease.

Lambert played a defence-splitting pass to release Pedretti who showed fantastic composure to carry the ball 20 yards and knock the ball past the helpless keeper into the bottom-right hand corner. Three-nil and the crowd thought it was all over; the players knew better and carried on dominating play. Tonutti and Farr came on,

and Balling got his chance in the final 15 minutes, replacing the outstanding Watkins who came off to a standing ovation from the crowd. Ferry caused more blushes from the Economics keeper with a brilliant turn and fierce shot from 25 yards, that was fumbled over the bar. He wasn’t denied his goal, however, and the 4-0 scoreline was completed late on, as he beat the keeper from close range after some confusion in the box.

As the referee brought the game to a close, the MoLES boys had done it: the realisation of enormous potential.

Those in their first and second years will have the chance of IDFC glory again in the future but for the likes of Freeman, Lambert and Watkins it was the perfect ending. A fantastic season and fantastic, unprecedented support helped a very talented and close-knit football team on their way to the title. Jennings, the triumphant skipper, said: “Every single player on that pitch deserved to be part of the success. It’s an end of an era for me and several of the players but we went out on a high. There are no words to describe how happy and how proud I am to be part of this”. Finally, after five years in the wilderness, MoLES had brought the trophy back to where it belongs.

MoLES winning team: Joe Dibben, Nic Watkins, Richard Shuttleworth, Ben Freeman, Graeme Standing, David Mills, Ben Lambert, Nick Pearce, David Jennings (c); Paolo Fuoli, Orlando Pedretti, Pat Symes, Patrick Balling, Giovanni Tonutti, Rob Ferry, Tom Farr.

Photo Credits: H. Raymont, J. Dibben, D. Jennings, B. Lambert

Monday 16th May 2011

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Mixed fortunes for Bath sides in Real Varsity 2011 (cont.) continued from page 24

As time appeared to be ebbing away and Bath were in touching distance of victory, replacement Atkinson went over the line four minutes from time to score a lastgasp try – which Drake then converted to edge Loughborough into a 17-16 lead.

There was still time for Vinnicombe to try to win back the game, but his late late drop goal was charged down and Loughborough took the spoils.

Earlier in the evening the University of Bath women’s team handed out a 31-10 defeat to their Loughborough counterparts.

Nic Hoole scored a brace of tries for the hosts, with one each from Katie Mason and Sarah Graham. Sarah Holloway kicked three conversions and a penalty, Laura Prosser responded with a first half try for Loughborough converted by Danielle Martin, but the visitors couldn’t respond as the University of Bath built on their 14-7 half-time lead.

Comment Inclusion, not exclusion Ioannis Costas bathimpact Reporter

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am a team-sports sort of person. Generally speaking, my concerns usually lie with how a group can work together towards a common goal. Consequently, attending an athletics training session at the University was an idea I had never entertained, that is, until I heard about Rob Ellchuk and his group.

Monday to Friday, at the indoor sprinting track, tucked away at the end of the STV, Rob’s athletes train. What separates them from other teams, however, is that their ranks are comprised of both ‘ablebodied’ and ‘disabled’ individuals. A problem in the eyes of many coaches, about as big a non-issue as you can come across for Rob. In his eyes, treating ‘disabled’ people in a special way is discriminating against them. Instead, his approach is rooted in understanding that all human beings are different and they each have their limitations. Consequently, whereas one

23

Sport

Statue unveiled of MBE Ivor A bronze statue of former Welsh international footballer and University of Bath football coach Ivor Powell MBE has been unveiled at the STV. The 94-year-old retired a year ago after 37 years working as a football coach at the University. It followed a remarkable career that saw him play for Wales, Blackpool, Aston Villa and Queen’s Park Rangers.

The 18-inch tall statue is cast in bronze and was paid for by the University of Bath football alumni and Ted Baker, which has long-standing links with the football at the University.

Powell and statue at the STV

athlete’s cerebral palsy must be contended with, in another’s case it could be a tremendous lack of coordination or low self-esteem.

This attitude effectively suggests we are all disabled in our own way; a view I agree with.

Therefore, with this total inclusion atmosphere, it is no surprise to witness how Rob’s group is also a mix of professional and amateur athletes. Once again, each one works within their targets and limitations, yet everyone shares the same track without any qualms.

The friendliness of the environment irradiates an aura fun and enjoyment; a bubble in the midst of far more intense teams whose sessions are also undertaken on the STV’s sprinting straight.

But just because Rob’s group eat chocolates during warm-up or use their breaks to talk and laugh does not imply they are lazy.

They each know what to do (they are each assigned their personally specified daily objectives) and put in the utmost effort. No need to shout or ‘pump them up’ to motivate them. And, just in case you believe there is no way such a style can produce results, think again. The professional athletes win medals at top-flight international competitions (Paralympics, Commonwealth Games, World Championships) whilst the ama-

teurs improve both their speed and strength.

All in all, ‘abled’ or ‘disabled’, professional or amateur- it’s ir-

relevant: total inclusion prevails.

Something the rest of the sporting community would do well to both note and emulate.

TeamBath quartet in Worlds Four TeamBath netballers have been named in the England squad to contest the World Championships in July.

TeamBath captain Pamela Cookey is named in the 12-strong squad for Singapore along with Eboni Beckford-Chambers, Stacey Francis and Serena Guthrie.

Cookey, Beckford-Chambers and Francis all featured in the England squad that won bronze at last year’s Commonwealth Games, but Guthrie has forced her way into the squad with some impressive performances in midcourt for TeamBath.

Futsal team look to finish third

The University of Bath’s Katrina Hart took gold for England in the T37 100m event at the Commonwealth Paralympics in Delhi, India, in October 2010

Team Bath futsal look set to finish third in the FA National Futsal League Midlands division after a 6-4 win over Hereford and 17-5 win over Newbury put them within a point of Loughborough with a game in hand.

The team face their final league game of the season away at Cardiff Cymru this weekend.

The side have also received confirmation that they will be featuring in the European Universities Championships in Tampere, Finland, in mid-July.

impactsport Monday 16th May 2011

Farewell from impactsport for 2010/11!

Inside impactsport MoLES take home the IDFC MoLES took the IDFC title after a comfortable 4-0 over Economics, with goals coming from Orlando Pedretti (2), David Jennings and Rob Ferry.

Read a full match report of the game on page 22

University sports news in brief Get up-to-date with the latest sports news coming out of the university, as a bronze statue of Team Bath legend Ivor Powell MBE is revealed at the Sports Training Village.

See page 23 to catch up with the latest news

IDFC Final 2011: Moles 4-0 Economics

Full match report and photos on page 22

Mixed fortunes for Bath sides in Real Varsity 2011 »»Men: University of Bath 16 -17 Loughborough University »»Women: University of Bath 31-10 Loughborough University

T

he University of Bath men’s XV were cruelly denied victory in the rugby varsity match against Loughborough at the Rec in a contest between two of the powerhouses of university sport.

Joe Atkinson’s converted try four minutes from time was enough to earn the visitors a 17-16 win in a game that the University of Bath team had led for most of the match.

There was better news in the women’s game, where the University of Bath ran out 31-10 winners.

In front of a crowd of around 1500 colourful fans, the men’s team took an early lead through a

first minute Chris Lewis penalty.

Fly half Zac Vinnicombe doubled Bath’s lead with a drop goal 18 minutes into the game.

Ill discipline should have cost the visitors dear, with James Taylor sin binned on 24 minutes followed swiftly by Kristian Cook two minutes later.

Bath continued to dominate both possession and territory but couldn’t capitalise on their superior numbers. Winger Sam Miller went the closest on the half-hour mark but spilled the ball on the try line.

The University of Bath took the initiative after the break with full back Lewis scoring a second pen-

alty to make it 9-0 on 43 minutes, But Loughborough were quickly back into the game after Taylor offloaded to Rob Conquest, who barged his way over the line for the first try of the game on 47 minutes. George Drake kicked the conversion to make it 9-7.

Drake kicked Loughborough into the lead for the first time six minute later with a straightforward penalty kick just in front of the posts following an infringement that saw scrum half Matt Keyte sin binned.

But Bath were soon back in the lead courtesy of a terrific kick on from winger Freddie Strange.

Vinnicombe caught the Loughbor-

ough defence flat footed – he was first to the ball and sprinted clear of the defence before gleefully leaping over the line for the try. A Lewis conversion gave the University of Bath a 16-10 lead.

Loughborough thought they were back in the game on 53 minutes when replacement Luke Bowler outpaced the Bath defence and offloaded to Taylor, who grounded the ball. But the play was brought back as the touch judge signalled that Joe Ellyatt’s tackle had forced the Loughborough lock to put a foot in touch en route to the line. continued on page 23

Your sports comments In a reduced comments section this week, Ioannis Costas looks at the very positive role that athletics coach Rob Ellchuk plays at the university in terms of promoting talent‘abled’ and ‘disabled, professional and amateur.

Go to page 28 and see what you think

impactsport needs you!

Do you want to write a match report for your team?

Do you have something to say about sport at our University?

Interested in sports journalism, design or photography?

Or even just passionate about sport in general?

Get in touch, impactsport wants to hear from people like you!

Contact the bathimpact Sports Editor (jcd22@bath.ac.uk) to find out more details about how you can get yourself involved and get your team, your views, your designs or your photography seen.

Monday 16th May 2011

New Frontiers

2

Monday 16th May 2011

bite-bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

EDITORIAL Editor Incoming: Kylie Barton Outgoing: Gina Reay editor@bathimpact.com

Welcome to the ninth issue of bite. This issue marks a new beginning with the introduction of a new team; and with that in mind we are focussing on the topic of New Frontiers.

For those leaving the University of Bath this year, our first article focusses on the adventure behind moving onto something new.

For those remaining here over summer, check out page 7 for a guide for how to fill your lazy, warm days. To hear about the summer’s festivals, head to page 11.

And of course we’ve got all your usuals, Never Have I Ever, AV Positive, puzzles and, if you need some cultural activities for the month ahead, go straight to The Guide on page 11.

So goodbye to the old team, I hope we can do as great a job as they did, and I hope you, the readers, enjoy reading our work as much as we enjoy writing it.

If you like what you see or fancy writing for us yourself then please get in touch; either by using the email addresses on the left or by coming along to one of our contributors’ meetings which take place fortnightly. Search for bathimpact or bite on Facebook or Twitter for more information.

Deputy Editor Incoming: Gemma Isherwood Outgoing: Hannah Raymont deputy@bathimpact.com

bite Editors Incoming: Holly Narey Outgoing: Caroline Leach features@bathimpact.com Rowan Emslie ents@bathimpact.com Publicity Officer Incoming: Ben Hooper Outgoing: Julia Lipowiecka publicity@bathimpact.com Chief Sub-Editor Sam Foxman subeditor@bathimpact.com Advertising Enquires Helen Freeman H.Freeman@bath.ac.uk 01225 386806

bathimpact Students’ Union University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY 01225 38 6151 Printed by Harmsworth Press Ltd.

Contents Features Graduation; a New Frontier Pages 2 & 3 Foxy knows... Page 3 Summer in the City Page 7

Graduation; Written by Steff Ransom

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very generation has their new frontier: for ancient civilisations, it was the building of the Giza pyramids and conquering new lands; for the middle ages, it was sea-travel; for the early 20th century, it was developing airplanes and exploring the concept of DNA; for the late 20th century, it was space-travel, energy efficient power and dissecting the contents of a McDonalds milkshake – for which results are still inconclusive. Exploring new frontiers is the cornerstone of what each generation has to offer, and with progress being made at an increasing rate, one might wonder, are there any new frontiers left to explore?

Humans are nothing if not curious creatures; with questions come the motivation to search for answers which are never guaranteed. I mean, what would have happened if George Newton had gone to the pub with a mate rather than sit under an apple tree that fateful day? What would Galileo have contributed to history and science if he was contented with the answers the church provided based on faith? Would we still be living on a flat world if it weren’t for explorers such as Christopher Columbus? Exploration, whether scientific or geographic, was once the foundation of excitement, dreams, even careers: when did it stop being OK to put ‘explorer’ or ‘adventurer’ down as your occupation?

There seems to be a newfound cynicism circulating which perpetrates the mindset that perhaps scientific revelations and exploration of new worlds doesn’t happen anymore because the globe has been mapped, and scientists today tell us what is and what is not doable, leaving very little motivation to dedicate careers to something already deemed impossible. Might it be that there aren’t any new frontiers to explore? Space was once (and famously) labelled ‘the final frontier’, and space-travel itself was only possible in an H. G. Wells science-fiction novel.

Today, with the help of astronomers, theoretical physicists, astronauts and, most terrifyingly, with commercial flights supposedly available by 2012 (book now with Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic for the sale price of £133,000), the ‘space’ barrier has been broken and the rest is a matter of time. But does having the answers mean that our natural curiosity about the world is slowly winding down? Is ambition being replaced by complacency?

University of Bath students would seem to prove that ambition is strongly intact; with hundreds of students graduating this summer from Bachelors and Masters degrees in courses spanning maths, engineering, the social sciences, the actual sciences (sorry), economics, languages and others, it would seem that the spirit of exploration, academic or otherwise, is alive and kicking. Having completed a vast array of exams, essays and a lengthy dissertation I’m sure they’d now rather burn than read again, students of Bath are a living testament to the progression of new frontiers in each of their fields. Elbert Hubbard once said, ‘The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.’ I’m willing to wager that we are the people he was talking about, that we can be, as Barack Obama envisioned, the change we wish to see in the world.

Never have I ever.... said goodbye to student sex. Page 7

Food How to launch a Giraffe. Page4 New culinary inspirations for gods and peasants alike Page 4

The Guide Upcoming gigs, comedy, films and exhibitions near you. Page 10

Fashion The trends that time rejected Page 8 New age fun with a vintage feel Pages 8&9

Music Festivals; leave the real world outside Page 11 Festivals: a guide Page 11 Music’s causality dilemma Page 12 The next big thing or a load of old hat? Page 13

Film The inheritance principle at Studio Ghibli Page 14

Puzzles Crosswords, sudokus, brainteasers and cartoons Page 16

Roald Amunden’s team; the explorers of new frontiers

bite-bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

a New Frontier It therefore seems fitting to send off our Bath graduates into the abyss of what we students like to term ‘the real world’: this, of course, means a world in which student loans do not cover drinking binges and eBay purchases, a world in which getting up after 7am becomes a rare luxury, and a world in which ‘everyday wear’ suddenly goes from jeans and band t-shirts to suits and ties. More optimistically perhaps, it’s the chance to face new challenges with tools other than jaegarbombs, the chance to live in a world without the safety net of regular amounts of unearned money being dumped into your account, and student overdrafts. Yes, my graduating friends, I don’t mean to scare you, but you are now on your own. So I ask this year’s graduates, what will you do now? Where will you go? Who will you be?

I’m not asking or expecting any of you to be the next Christopher Columbus, or to be the one that cracks that little warp speed problem wide open – but seriously, give it a shot if you get a spare few years – but what I am saying is, you’ve just done your degree. You now have the freedom to think about what you want your life to be. Yes, wanting to take over or change the world may be a little unrealistic, heck, even trying to eat seven dry crackers in a minute might be asking too much of yourself, and the answers may not immediately spring to mind, but now is the time to ask yourself: what do you want to come next? What is your new frontier?

Degree you’re graduating from: BSc in Social Sciences Best memory of Bath: So hard to choose! Will just have to say my whole second year, definitely the most fun and best year of my life, thanks must go to all the friends I made whilst working at Plug.

What are you going to do now? Searching for a job doing literally anything, I need to save money so I can travel around Australia next year!

If you could achieve anything in the world, what would it be? I’ve never really had anything major that I wanted to achieve in life; I just want to be able to say that I’ve led a happy life and have been able to do everything I wanted to do with no regrets .

Degree: (MEng) Mechanical Engineering Best memory of Bath: I’ve had so many brilliant times at Bath, it would be hard to pick out one. I’ve made so many amazing friends here. But if pushed, I’d say when a mate fell in the canal whilst punting, it was pretty memorable.

What are you going to do now? I’ve secured a job with the people I went on my placement with and I’m really excited to be starting it after travelling round South America over summer.

If you could do anything, what would it be? Eventually succeed in my plan to to take over the world.

University of Bath Graduation 2010

Monday 16th May 2011

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Foxy knows...

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Written by Sam Foxman

his is the last Foxy Knows of the series and so it should come as no surprise that I come to you in a sombre mood. This time of year is, for many of us, the end of many things.

For people going away on placement or for people saying their final farewell to Bath and all that it has offered us, the changes that we will go through will be seismic: changes to our routines, to the things that we have known, to the people we have spent time with. For those of us who will barely return to Bath again, except to collect some certificates and shake some hands, this is the end of an era.

No doubt each of us, in whichever year we are, has endured our share of frustrations and disappointments over the course of the academic year. But this ugly, dirty campus in this beautiful city has become our home. The people we have shared our home with have been, for better or worse, our family. For some of those who are newer to Bath this sense of senseless affection might not yet have sunk in. For some it sinks in very quickly. No doubt you either are, or know someone who is, one of those people who has found their soulmate or their BFF or their heterolife-partner within a few weeks of moving in to your gross little flat in Westwood. For some of you who are leaving, you might even still love that hot guy from Brendon Court that you met in Freshers’ Week or that girl you didn’t remember kissing for the first time when your eyes met over a snakebite. For anyone who can look back with fondness, this final separation will be hard to bear.

It’s not just that it’s sad. It’s terrifying. Not in that way that people think that leaving University should be terrifying. Not because of the whole ‘stepping into a new phase of life’ nonsense that grown-ups feel should be scary. They think this because they can’t remember what it was like when they had to do it and, for the most part, they now hate their lives, which makes them think that it was obvious to them that when they stepped into the miserable mediocrity of normal living that they knew they were destined to be nothing more than average. But that’s not scary. Most of us don’t know yet how pedestrian and wholly uninspired our lives will be. We’re filled with an optimistic, unscientific hope that maybe having a job and money and ultimately kids and so forth will be great and that life will give us all that we ask for. It won’t. But shh.

Optimism.

No. I’m scared not for what I’m stepping into, but for what I’m leaving behind. This newspaper that myself and The Boss and other competent individuals have spent a year turning into something brilliant and now we’re leaving it to people who will probably break it. Probably deliberately. Probably because they don’t know anything about anything and they want to hurt this beautiful thing that we’ve built. I have literally no idea. But how can you trust something you don’t know? How can there be any hope for the future? How can I leave in good conscience? It’s terrifying.

I’m sure it will all be fine. Or it probably won’t. But that’s ok too. It’s not my problem any more. Not anything that I can or should do anything about. It’s time for me to say goodbye.

Which is sad and terrifying but that’s what happens. Things end and we move on to new people, new problems, new joys and frustrations, new lives. Maybe I’ll see some of you on the other side. Probably not. Laters.

Foxy nose

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Monday 16th May 2011

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Food: How to launch a Giraffe Written by Caroline Leach

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on’t say that your student paper never does anything for you; just before Easter I had to spend a whole evening being given free food and wine, all in the name of journalism. Now I’ll be honest, attending the launch of Bath’s newest restaurant, Giraffe, wasn’t too much of a hardship. In fact, I kind of enjoyed being plied with mini versions of Giraffe’s extensive menu. Oh all right, I flipping loved it! Mini food!? That’s like my favourite thing ever! When I go to a restaurant, I’m the one who can’t decide what she wants, so I beg someone to co-order with me so that I can try at least two meals. If that doesn’t work then I just go for the standard steal-from-people’s-plates-whilethey’re-not-looking method. So getting to try a large proportion of Giraffe’s menu in one night was pretty much my idea of heaven; particularly as the food was so delicious. Special mention goes to the chicken skewers with mojito sauce, but I can’t ignore the Jambalaya risotto, so cheesy that I’m not sure I could have managed a full portion.

Now I’m aware that not everyone is as big a fan of canapés as I am but rest assured the waiters we spoke to attested that the portions at Giraffe are normally bigger than average! Located on Dorchester Street, Giraffe is completely new to Bath, so we decided to have a chat with Juliet Joffe, one of the co-owners of the business, to see why they decided to come to Bath, and why we should spend our hard-earned cash there.

When and where did the first Giraffe restaurant open?

We opened our first Giraffe in Hampstead just over 13 years ago. Since then we have explored counties all over the UK and we now have sites all the way from Aberdeen to Brighton.

What motivated you to launch Giraffe?

We wanted to launch a restaurant that was fun, vibrant, energetic and that would suit all the family.

What kind of food do you serve?

We serve a global food menu highlighting most popular dishes from around the world. The breakfast menu includes American stacked blueberry and banana pancakes, Mexican Huevos Rancheros and of course the Full English. For lunch and dinner, enjoy our extensive burger menu plus dishes such as Japanese tiger prawns and Thai duck stir-fry.

Why did you decide to open a branch in Bath?

Bath is a great city with plenty going on. We have wanted to open here for a while but we were waiting for the right site. Then the stunning two-storey building became available on Dorchester Street and it was perfect for what we wanted to create.

What aspect of working in the catering industry do you most enjoy?

The most rewarding part is meeting customers and hearing how happy and satisfied they are with Giraffe.

It makes all the hard work worthwhile.

What aspect of working in the catering industry do you least enjoy?

As I’m sure you can imagine, it isn’t good to hear that someone has been dissatisfied with their experience of Giraffe. However we always use constructive criticism as an opportunity to learn from these and move forward.

What about Giraffe restaurants should appeal to students?

Our prices are affordable and we are always coming up with innovative great value meal deals, for example ‘Giraffe Lunch Time’ which offers a main course and a soft drink for just £6.95 Monday to Friday 12pm – 5pm, the ‘Feel-Good Menu’ is two courses for just £9.95 daily from 5pm and ‘Burger Tuesdays’ where our fantastic burgers are all just £5, complete with skin-on

fries. Plus, you can eat anytime of the day from 8am and brunch is available until 4pm daily, which should please any late risers!

Do you offer any kind of student discount?

In addition to our regular special deals, we currently offer the University of Bath students a 20% discount on presentation of their NUS card.

Giraffe’s individual interior

Frozen yoghurt with honey and walnuts

The entrance to Giraffe on Dorchester Street

bite wholeheartedly agrees

A cheeseburger and the beef burrito with green rice

Monday 16th May 2011

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Food: New culinary inspiration for gods and peasants alike Written by Caroline Leach

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hilst you’re revising, it’s important to keep your spirits up. Revision can only get more depressing if even your breaks are filled with mindless and dull activities. Here at bite we think we’ve found the perfect way to fill our break times: eating.

We’re called bite for a reason you know! Now we all have to eat three times a day, and whilst you’re hitting the books it’s really important to keep your body filled with the right stuff, to make sure that your brain doesn’t melt and ooze out of your ears because of all the extra work it’s doing. So where do you start with all this extranutrient filled eating that you need to be doing? Well since you’ve been at University for at least six months now I would hope that you’ve at least learnt the basics of making yourself a decent meal, enough to fill your belly anyway. Either that or you’ve been loading up your tummy with beer until the hunger pangs go away. Now is the time however, for you to reach beyond a hops and barley-based diet and get a little sophisticated.

Believe me those three meals a day don’t have to be simply fuel to keep you going through the endless days (and nights); they can provide an uplifting and encouraging interval rather than a bum note. In order to lift yourself from the squalor of pasta and pesto for the forth day in a row and ascend towards the dizzy heights of variation and flavour, you’re going to need a little help. Possibly more than I can provide. So in our mutual hour of need let us turn to some infinitely cleverer and more experienced aficionados in the art of feeding themselves. What follows is a collection of sources to which I urge you to turn for inspiration, some you will know, some you will not, but I hope that you can finish this page feeling safe in the knowledge that whilst you may fail your exams, with these skilled helpers at your side, you will never fail your taste buds.

Smitten Kitchen This blog written by a New York based freelance journalist is home to some of the most mouth-watering pictures you will ever witness. With a wide variation of dishes, from leeks and blue cheese on toast to a blackberry and coconut macaroon tart there’s a recipe for every taste bud here, plus browsing through the archive is a brilliant way of procrastinating if you’re already exhausted all your usual sources. You can even get new posts delivered straight to your inbox! Check it out at smittenkitchen.com.

Delia Smith

Jamie Oliver This will probably seem like an obvious choice, and that’s because it is. Whilst dear old Jamie has been a little overexposed recently, what with the Sainsbury’s adverts, the myriad of TV shows and new books, believe me when I say that there is a reason for all this media coverage. His most recent book, 30 Minute Meals, is full of amazing recipes (I should know, I’ve made some of them) all of which can be made quickly, although I’ll be incredibly impressed if you can manage to whizz them up in half an hour. His website is also really helpful, with plenty of videos so you can see for yourself how some of his dishes are created.

Take a look at jamieoliver.com.

Just try and look past the smug grin, trust me, you won’t regret it.

The goddess of home-cooking, Delia has been gracing our screens and our bookshelves for longer than I’m sure she cares to remember. The best introduction to her genius, and a perfect resource for those who don’t know the difference between an egg and a small potato, is her book Delia’s How to Cook. Originally published in 1998, this testament to British cookery has more than stood the test of time. If you don’t fancy committing to a whole book then her website, deliaonline.com, has a wide selection of recipes organised into helpful categories such as ‘cooking for one’ or ‘under 30 minutes’, perfect for when you want good food but can’t bear to leave your books for too long.

She’s so good, they gave her a CBE.

A sour cherry slab pie from Smitten Kitchen’s archives Cakey Katie And now a quick plug for our very own columnist Cakey Katie! She’s been combining her studies with teaching you how to make desserts all term (and being a wonderful Programme Controller for URB!). And the fun doesn’t stop just because University is over for the year. Keep checking back on cakeykatie.blogspot.com for more updates of her successes and failures as Katie attempts to fulfil her resolution to make a different dessert every week for the whole of 2011, and document the results.

Katie’s White Chocolate and Raspberry Tart from Issue 10, check out her blog for the recipe.

Monday 16th May 2011

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7

Summer in the city Written by Simon O’Kane

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or most undergraduates, summer is the time to return home and have fun with their friends and family, possibly getting a summer job or doing volunteer work. For postgraduates and some undergraduates, however, it can be a lonely time where few friends are around and not much is happening on campus. So I’ve decided to write a piece advising anyone still here over the summer on what sort of things you can get up to when all things SU have ground to a halt and friends have abandoned you.

While Students’ Union based activities may have stopped running, those based in the wider Bath community have not. Ask your society committee if there’s anything you can get up to; for example the XL nightclub has Salsa nights every Thursday, while singers have an absurd range of choirs and other musical groups to choose from, many of them run by a certain Grenville Jones. There is also a solid “metalhead” community based around the Hobgoblin pub and Discord night on Wednesdays at Po Na Na, including current and former Bath students.

Those of you into politics in any of its various forms can get involved with your local party, while the Bath Activist

Network appeals to the more radical side of things. That’s just a tiny taste of what’s out there.

For that rare breed of taught student who actually has a passion for things academic, the academic staff and research students are still around, so some high-level academic stuff will still happen around the University. I also point you in the direction of the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) in Queen Square, which holds seminars on a huge range of topics and features, PhD student Richard Guthrie on its trustee board.

For postgraduates, the Postgraduate Association (PGA) is still active. Their weekly “cuppa coffee” meetings remain unchanged at 3pm every Thursday in the Graduate Centre (4W 2.5), while summer events are in the pipeline but are yet to be confirmed. Those interested in career development have the well-resourced Careers Advisory Service all to themselves. The Sabbatical Officers are still around too and could also do with some company; they will probably smile at you before reminding you that you probably have work to be getting on with.

Here lies the upshot of loneliness; fewer distractions mean more stuff gets done! It also means more time to

enjoy the scenery; it’s only as a PhD student that I’ve truly come to appreciate the stress-relieving value of the University Park (the central section where the lake is)!

Then of course there is Bath itself. The Roman Baths are free to those who can prove they are Bath residents and are lit with real flame torches in for a couple of weeks in August; I also recommend the Botanical Gardens in Royal Victoria Park.

It just goes to show, even in summer you can get distracted. It is important you focus on whatever work you’re here to do, especially if you’re a PGT student! If you’re a PGR student or a staff member, you’ll probably want to take a short break from work and use some annual leave – that’s what it’s there for!

For those of you who are still lonely, social media provides a great platform for people to organise their own get-togethers with relative ease. Keep an eye out for anything friends are doing, or if you’re confident and/or ambitious organise something of your own. Either way, you can catch up with old friends and make new ones. That’s it from me, from bite and from bathimpact. Have a great summer!

Never have I ever... said goodbye to my student sex life Written by bite’s sex & relationship columnist

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here really is nothing better than student sex. No boundaries, no commitments, no fatigue or jobrelated stress – just good, hard, squeaky-bedded fun. It is now, as I’m coming to the end of my time here at Bath, that I’m getting all nostalgic about leaving my student sex life (SSL) behind. Why was it so good I hear you ask? Well firstly, a good 50% of it was under the influence of alcohol. Now, drunk sex can be hit or miss.

If you’re a tired drunk – it can be non existent. If you’re a senseless drunk – it can be very very long. If you’re an argumentative drunk – it can be completely out of the question. And if, like me, you’re a hyperactive, fun and a little bit angry drunk, it can be goddamn awesome!

Other perks of my SSL have been the student loan (or Ann Summers Fund as it has become known over the years), an unlimited supply of free condoms (thank you Freshers’ Week!) and the countless supply of tall, sporty men to perve over. This nostalgia got me to thinking, when I enter the dreaded world of graduatedom, will it change? Will I become a tired, moody grown-up, going to bed at 9pm and spending my money on a (god forbid) mortgage? And, I guess this final question needs to be ask, will I have to start making love?

Now my boy and I have been together for a while and explored a whole range of fantasies, the good, the bad, and the pretty drunken and ugly. But we are yet to properly indulge in lovemaking, and I would quite prefer it to stay that way. Most girls will know exactly what I’m talking about here. Having sex and making love are two completely different activities, with different aims and emotions running throughout. Making love involves looking into each others eyes, holding hands, kissing

slowly and making the soul goal of the experience to transmit each others love through sex. Gross.

Maybe I’m being a bit discriminatory; adults probably have just as much sex as students do. In between jobs, meetings, paying bills, looking after kids, animals and partners, getting a mortgage and generally just growing old and getting boring. OK, stop freaking out; any of my fellow-graduates have the same worries as me. Many of them are urging each other to take advantage of the so-called ‘Gold Rush’ – a phrase invented to describe the last minute rush of students trying to get their kicks before the final summer ball screws of the year. It was during this conversation among my single friends about getting the final ‘kicks’ of University before graduating and, eventually, settling down that it dawned on me. I may be a bit of a nymph who likes writing dirty stories and publishing it for the whole of campus to read… but I’m already in a grown up relationship. And rather than dreading the end of my student relationship, I should be looking forward to starting my life with the one I love.

It is at this point in our lives that many couples are asking the question ‘what next?’. Should they split up as University ends and go their separate ways? Or should they gradually start settling down, making the (risky) decision to make choices together, anchoring down in the same place and starting to think about the scary realities of growing up. Don’t get me wrong, I’m going to miss student sex but the optimist in me thinks that, maybe, just maybe, what’s to come is going to be even better.

Bye bye Uni, bye bye bathimpact, hello Monsieur les Cordes.

Leaving uni doesn’t necessarily mean turning into these guys... at least not right away

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Monday 16th May 20111

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Fashion: New Age fun

By Harriet

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re you intrigued by the idea of vintage clothing? You may have heard people cooler than yourself raving about it, as well as annoying celebrities such as Alexa Chung, now’s your chance to try it out. Watch as I educate you.

There are a whole lot of reasons why wearing vintage clothes is awesome.

Firstly, you always end up looking damn cool. It’s something about the faded fabrics and mis-matching outfits that make someone seem like they cannot give a fuck, which is always cool. Secondly, when someone asks you where you got an item you can reply with a response that lets him or her know that they can never possibly get something the same or similar, which is a clear sign of your superiority. You can also impress people by pretending that you are saving the planet by giving old clothes new life and not investing money in any of those big evil companies that employ child labourers. Of course you also get to explore lots of trends that time dismissed, or when trends are repeated you can buy vintage and look more authentic than everyone else; and I know I’ve said this a lot, but you do look damn cool.

So where do you go to buy vintage? Most cities have a few vintage stores around. However, a lot of the time they are hidden down side streets or in arcades so you might have to hunt them down - do some research! Because of the size of these independant retailers you can sometimes pay a bit more for some things so if you are on a budget (which most of us are) going to bigger stores gets you a better deal. I regularly take a trip to London to search through the mounds of fabric in massive vintage stores such as Beyond Retro. If you can’t manage that, you can shop online. I also cannot forget eBay. There is a lot up there, so to avoid getting ripped off watch out for descriptions that are vague or phrases like ‘vintage inspired’, that’s a sure sign that it is newly made in a retro style, way less cool.

P.s. I know all of you have revision, and essays to write, and your future happiness depends on getting over whatever percentage in whatever assignment, and you are all trooping to Fresh every three hours to buy Relentless (does it really help you concentrate? or does it just give you an excuse to stop revision for 20 minutes and eventually keep you up until five in the morning watching Ocean’s Eleven again?) and sneakily fooling yourself that going on tumblr for hours is actually sociological research on the phenomenon of the Internet...

But here at bite, we’re saying fuck it. You’ll do fine. Stop stressing and have some fun while you still can. And here’s a little bite (geddit? lololol) of wisdom straight from the new bite editor herself (aren’t you lucky!):

The trends that time rejected I

Written by Holly Narey

magine, if you will, the not so distant future. The sky is filled with the obligatory flying cars, genetic modification has been perfected to make us all live to a hundred and ten and look like Jude Law and Uma Therman, and let’s say we can all read minds. Now I can predict the first question of everyone’s lips. Not “have we cured cancer”, “have humans colonised other planets” or even “was the final Harry Potter film any good?!”; it is, of course, the question of what does the average descendant of our humble species look like, other than their statuesque figure and features perfectly chiselled by science (let’s not go into more detail before this starts sounding ludicrous, trust me, I’m a biologist, this is probably possible), what are these willowy demigods wearing.

If anyone has watched any science fiction films, and I seriously hope you have, then you will all know that in the future; tightness is the key. We’ve sculpted our bodies to perfection so why not flaunt the goods? Silver plays a pretty important role in the wardrobe; get the rays of that slowly-dying sun to glint off every curve and bulge. This will not be personal trend, no; it will be a worldwide phenomenon. Why? I can’t be sure. Now I can see the convenience of the jumpsuit if we were all, say, skiing, plumbing or in prison, but unless the government imposes some sort of universal dress code to prevent prejudice, or our minds are warped by some sort of highly radioactive disaster (maybe that’s where the mind reading came from) individuality will out; whether it’s just turning that silver jumpsuit into snazzy cutoffs or a nice leotard, or bucking the trend altogether.

The predictions of the nineteen thirties for the fashion of the distant future; the year two thousand stated that we would be wearing aluminium, billowing lace, and not much else. This shares a trend with most science fiction films; as the history of the world gets longer, skirts get shorter. This seems to apply almost exclusively to the females of the population; outfits are reduced to mere scraps, although by choice or high adventure I’m not entirely certain. I’m sure

that there are solid reasons behind this, not just to boost Hollywood ratings by the promise of a glimpse of a side boob or upper thigh; perhaps global warming has got to a stage where clothes are unbearable for women, but somehow men manage to be handling a sharp suit perfectly fine.

Oh the mysteries of life.

I don’t believe that our clothes will ever begin to reflect our social status, as in the classic Logan’s Run, where colour of clothes is used to depict the length of life left for the wearer; fashion is used more as a way to escape stereotyping through changing the cover of the book to prevent its judgement, as it should be; no one should be able to discount the value of a person on sight.

Will our desire to conform to the new ever supersede our love of the old? I think not. To my mind, a much more likely (and cool) possible future is what is known as Retro Futurism and Steampunk; we regress a little to what can be considered as a slightly classier time; men mainly in suits and women dressed in vintage, with one excellent twist; gadgets people, lots and lots of gadgets. Can’t be bothered to walk? Just use your hover board. Need to ring someone? Forgot your phone? No you didn’t, it’s now incorporated into your hand. Or brain, whichever you prefer. Feel a bit lonely? It’s ok, you’ve got your very own personal robot pygmy dinosaur as company. Awesome.

I think that the media’s portrayal of the future has one main flaw; they see global trends as bottlenecking to create a narrow range of themes for fashion, whereas I believe it is more fractal; movements split off from other streams of creativity so on ad infinitum, as science progresses in the future so surely will art, finding new and bizarre ways to manifest itself in our visual world, and this will definitely include fashion. Rather than beginning to obey a set of rules, fashion will (I hope) become more and more bizarre. It’s happening already; anyone who doesn’t believe me, just check out the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie’s outfits for the royal wedding; that was some crazy shit.

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Monday 16th May 20111

bite-bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

n with a Vintage Feel

t Tangney

Enjoy the future of fashion by looking to the past.

YOUR GUIDE TO BUYING VINTAGE CLOTHING: * Keep your elbows out at all times * Look out for the ‘I’ve been in an old lady’s wardrobe for fifty years’ smell. That’s a good sign! * Seriously stomp around in shoes, and swing bags around your head like you’re doing a hammer throw in the Olympics. You don’t want them to break the first time you wear them. * Bring a belt with you shopping. If something doesn’t quite fit, belt it and hey presto! All gravy. * Be really sure about your purchases, because a lot of these shops don’t take refunds. * Get good at knowing what different fabrics feel like, so you know what you are paying for. * Hand wash! A lot of older clothing is not colour safe, and pleats may not be permanent so always be wary. * Vintage purists say you shouldn’t alter old clothes, but if they aren’t right for you, don’t be afraid to chop off long skirts, replace buttons or even cut up that ugly eighties blouse and make it into a head scarf to take advantage of the print. All of this will make your coolness factor shoot up to the height of Dan Auerbach’s. * Girls, don’t ignore the guys section, and vice versa. * Don’t worry, the holes are there to let the awesomeness shine through * Holes may be cool, but stains are a whole other thing. * Looking ridiculous is key

NOT

Silver Spacesuits

Reminiscent retro

HOT

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The Guide

Monday 16th May 2011

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Trophy Wife; some lovely boys who are headlining Dot to Dot Festival in Bristol. They make the Guide’s ears happy.

Music

Theatre/Comedy

Local Festivals

Villagers - Bristol Trinity - 18th May These guys have been doing pretty well for themselves so far; and now’s your chance to find out why. Their debut album, Becoming a Jackal was shortlisted for both the Mercury Prize and the Choice Music Prize, and they’ve been compared to Bright Eyes and Sparklehorse for their “eerie sense of disquiet” and have been a support act for Neil Young. So if you’re into eerie and heartfelt tunes, this could be a welcome break in your revision.

An Evening with Frank Turner - Komedia – 25th May, This highly acclaimed folk/punk musician is currently enjoying a constant of success. This audience charmer will be debuting tracks from his anticipated 4th studio album England Keep My Bones, in our very own Bath and this is a show not to be missed… unless like most of us you’re in the midst of exams, in which case you are forgiven. Stay home and revise, or chuck aside the textbooks for a night and enjoy yourself; remember lyrics from The Ballad of Me and my Friends; “we’re definitely going to hell, but thing of the stories we’ll tell”.

Gabrielle Aplin - Moles - 15th May Gabrielle Aplin is an apparent teenage ‘internet sensation’ from Wiltshire who has become popular through YouTube. I’m pretty sure I remember her from my myspace days. She can play guitar, and then also she can sing at the same time without having to stop and glance around with a worried look on her face which I guess is better than me. But don’t start getting impressed get! At eighteen, she’s been doing this for four years but she’s still pretty predictable and boring. But if that’s your thing, go. Oh and she’s just released an EP Never Fade which I assume is mind numbing.

Greg Davies, Firing Cheeseballs at a Dog - Komedia - 2 June You’ll know this man’s face if you don’t already know his name; he is in fact the greatly entertaining and undeniably psychotic Head of Sixth form from the Inbetweeners.

Having appeared recently on shows such as Live at the Apollo, Have I Got News for You and Mock the Week he is now touring with his debut stand-up show. For £15 for a standard ticket and £24 for a meal included, it isn’t exactly student prices, but it promises to be a pretty entertaining evening.

Brontë 17-21 May Theatre Royal Bath Retelling the story of perhaps the most well known sisters of the literary world, Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë most famous for their works Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. This piece explores their lives on the moors of Yorkshire, how they cope with their alcoholic and mentally unstable brother, Branwell, and how this might have inspired them to write some of the most well known novels written by female novelists of their time. Performed by the award winning Shared Experience, a theatre company internationally known for their theatrical responses to novels.

A New Brain – 18th–21st May - Rondo Theatre Here’s something for you: a musical about dying. It kind of looks as bad as it sounds. An irritated children’s composer called Gordon is diagnosed with a possibly fatal illness and is forced to face his own mortality, which he does head on, through song. While in a coma he writes all the songs that he always wanted to write. Also included are some strange hallucinations, in the end I think he probably gains new insight into life or something. With songs such as “ Homeless Lady’s Revenge” and “Poor, Unsuccessful and Fat”, it looks pretty weird. But don’t let me put you off, New York Theatre said “I won’t beat around the bush: A New Brain is the most exciting new musical to reach New York in quite a while”, so it might not be awful, but it probably will be.

igfest - Bristol - 28-29 May This games festival in Bristol claims to reclaim public areas for ‘street games, outdoor spectacles and mass social interaction’. With games from designers all over the world, this looks like it will be a lot of fun. One of the more full on games is 2.8 Hours Later, a real-life zombie apocalypse game involving 300 players. It’s a city-wide night-time chase through the streets of Bristol, the rules of the game to escape the zombies and make your way to Headquarters in 2.8 Hours. Last year it sold out, so if you wanted to go you better get in quick! So whether you are battling zombies, racing ducks, taking part in an ultimate thumb war or chasing the elusive Mr Smith, your nostalgia for childhood games will overcome the embarrassment of playing games in the street and I bet you’ll be teehee-ing before you know it. They have student discounts as well, making day tickets £8, weekend tickets £13 (not including 2.8 Hours Later) and the full ticket including hours of zombie fun is £18. Not bad.

Dot to Dot - Bristol - 28th May Dot to Dot is returning to Bristol for its sixth year in what have been a series of what extremely successful events. With headliners such as Hurts, the Joy Formidable, the Naked and Famous, it promised to be extremely popular; so popular in fact that they have added a new location to this travelling festival. You pay just over thirty quid but in return get over a hundred artists spread over a few venues (conveniently chosen to be near to eachother, so not much running around required). While this sounds incredible, it is worth bearing in mind that being only a day festival, you can face a difficult decision when choosing which acts to see. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re done with exams, especially since its location couldn’t be more convenient... if you ignore the difficulty of getting back to Bath once it finishes at 4am. Go with some friends and split a cab, or keep the festival spirit going until the first train.

Don’t forget to check out bite’s new facebook page and Twitter, the first place for gig information and ticket giveaways.

bite-bathimpact

Monday 16th May 2011

11

Festivals... make reality wait outside

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Written by Ben Hooper

B

ear with me on this one. So, its 7:32am, I’ve been up all night watching the ice hockey with Iwan (that’s a name) making friends with bottles of cheap lager and have iced the evening with a thick coating of hodge-podge Chinese essay writing. I have two more essays to hand in by next week smack bang in the middle of exams, my body is like a butterfly, fluttering beside the electric fence of alcoholism and sleep deprivation induced lunacy , besides all this I have a deadline for this article, which by the by was two days ago. This is the blasé attitude towards commitment that many freshers show and this can be found in the minds of many festival goers each year, festival going culture is becoming more and more popular and over the last two decades the spectrum of choice has been growing , as you know these events usually occur in the summer months when at some point or other people drop everything for a day or two and go on a Gerry Rafferty-like bender, he was the most interesting celeb off-the-rails story, forget about Charlie Sheen, Hot Shots! was the only decent thing he ever did. So, what is it that draws us to these summer music festivals, is there a negative side to them? What do we stand to gain and lastly, which festival is best-ival. (not actually talking about bestival which incidentally is on the Isle of Wight for those who don’t know) The word festival has quite a broad array of definitions, however nowadays, at least in my circles the one that rings truest tells of gatherings of those with youthful souls looking to experience a mixture of freedom from the strictures of modern society, whilst enjoying the unique atmosphere and new inspirations in the form of art, music and a mighty soulful expression of happiness all wrapped up in a small selection of fields or venues dotted in certain thoroughfares. Is this something which only a festival can bring? I can only think of one thing that’s comparable and that’s going travelling.

Many people may associate festival going with the consumption of both legal and illegal drugs to induce fun and the care-free characteristics which are, of course essential.

This seems to be the norm for many mainstream festivals and expectedly more common in young people, it’s not necessarily a necessity. It seems moreover that festivals are alluring because of the truly liberating feeling that comes with the escape and exploration of the arts amongst a new demographic of people. I for one, have only ever met two people at festivals I knew, who I didn’t arrive with – for me that is quite an appealing feature, not only because I’m a bit of a cock, but because meeting new people, ships passing in the night is exciting. Those ships may look more handsome in the moonlight, especially if you’ve had too much sea water, as it were and the light reflecting off of the water is clouding your vision/taste. Half the time I don’t even see the people I arrived with, choosing instead to pass the time with these mysterious strangers.

So let’s have a look at some of the perhaps more alternative or eye-catching up-and-coming festivals out there, let’s just forgo your Glastonburies, Downloads and Gloucestershire cheese rolling festivals. There is a certain exotic attraction to attending a festival in a far away land, it’s safe to say I think that fewer foreigners travel to British festivals compared with the amount of Brits who travel abroad to foreign festivals, namely the European variety. Some of the most popular European festivals include: Germany’s Oktoberfest, Spain’s Benicassim and Sonar, Hungary’s Sziget. There isn’t a huge difference in what these have to offer in compared to British festivals; though it may be sunnier and have a more multinational medley of music and people the idea is pretty much the same. Do people get a bit too wrapped up in festival culture though or do they just go along for the ride? It’s true that some people make it their plan to live out the summer months on a festival calendar to escape the humdrum of daily life but it’s not always the best bet. Back in 2008, I had just split up with my ex-girlfriend and lost my job in Cardiff

Glastonbury-goers enjoy the World Field’s atmosphere amongst what we hope aren’t barrels of toxic waste and was due to move back home to Leamington when the opportunity to go on a trip through Europe cropped-up. My friend Tim had been given three free tickets to Sziget festival in Hungary and it just so happened the day he called me about it, I had just returned after spending the weekend at Cambridge Folk festival, with a severe case of festival blues I didn’t hesitate. I was hooked on festival culture for sure.

We spend two weeks travelling to the five day event which is on a small island in the Danube in the heart of Budapest.

During that two weeks we drank, smoked, played music and crossed paths with many fellow travellers and festival goers with destinations all across our beautiful continent; as well as sleeping rough all over Europe we found a lot of time to wander the streets and we discovered many a character. By the time we arrived at the festival the three of us had been separated, me by a date with a hostess from a strip club in Vienna and Alex and Tim via the mosh-pit at the Sex Pistols gig.

The festival continued on as festivals do, merriment was had and floodlit nights were seen through to sunrise. By the time the last morning of the festival had come around my body was near breaking point due to lack of sleep and abundance of Hungarian beer, I was a bit all over the place. What a ride it was though, I’d fallen in love with a Hungarian girl, sharing a first kiss against a chip van whilst enjoying the Killers, and managed to sneak backstage to watch Jose Gonzales and met a hell of a lot of interesting people; but still, I sat on a bench weeping about the mess I’d left of my life back home whilst watching the wonderment of this fabricated event being dismantled before my eyes and listening to ‘November Rain’ by Guns n’ Roses. Granted that was a rather haphazard time in my life, and now I just go for the good times and the music. It’s all about the personal experience and spending some crazy times with the ones you hold dear, simple as that really; and I guess what I’m trying to say is, despite the escape, there ain’t no cure for the summertime blues.

Festival Guide

Balaton Sound, 7-10 July, Zamárdi, Hungary: a lakeside paradise coupled with world and popular music with all night dance . Situated in Siófok, Hungary on by lake Balaton or what they call the Hungarian sea.

Calcio Storico, 24 June, Florence, Italy: a punch up/ dodgeball tournament held each year in Italy where men take it in turns (or not) to set about each other with clenched fists.

Stop Making Sense: 12-14 August, The Garden, Petrčane, Croatia: A relatively new festival which had its debut in 2010 offers a slightly more relaxed atmosphere in an all-night beachside festival in Croatia Cambridge Folk Festival: 28-31 July, Cambridge, UK: Offers great contemporary folk music as well as forms of Americana and country; you’ll never have felt this chilled.

Sonisphere, 8-10 July, Knebwood Park, Stevenage, UK: This touring festival that can be caught all over Europe, including, luckily, the UK, is one of the big four of metal - not to be missed Africa Oyé, 18-19 June, Liverpool: The UK’s largest celebration of African music and culture.

Boomtown, 11-14 August, secret location near London: A weekend of creativity and escapism, this festival is not only about the music, but also the theatrical display, and promises to take you to a world of fantasy.

Bath Banjo Festival, 11-12 June: Banjos. Lots of Banjos.

‘Nuff said.

12

Monday 16th May 2011

bite-bathimpact

Music’s causality dilemma

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Written by Mark Brandt

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usic has undeniably influenced events and people over the years, for example in political atmospheres where drumbeats and vocal chants were and are used to stir up rebellion. However, it is also plain to see how history has influenced the course of music, from the rise of blues in the 50s against oppression of black people, through to protest-folk in the 60s against the Vietnam war, punk’s rise against the establishment, heavy metal against censorship, grunge against parents...and now? Well, the dominant form seems to be commercial pop, which does not seem to be against anything except sensibility. Yet, using a few select criteria, we can determine how music may be formed due to the political, social and even economic situations of a given period.

The political situation should be apparent in its influence: people become angry at the government and produce angry music against it, whether one man with an acoustic guitar or an entire scene of punk bands with revolutionary slogans. English punk aside, a tendency I noticed is that political rants in rock and metal seem to be more of an American than a British thing, possibly due to their more outspoken nature. Also, more than anything, the British idea was to provoke thought rather than indoctrinate into any particular belief. This was certainly the case of the Sex Pistols, and the Dead Kennedys in the US. In any case, by the end of the 1970s this political hatred became the norm, and it seemed like tired old hack to say rude things about those in power (even if some still make jibes today at Bush like NOFX), so the trend shifted to attacking other things on people’s minds.

One of these things was censorship, which tightened intensively due to the work of Tipper Gore fighting against such bastions of lyrical genius as “Hot For Teacher” by Mötley Crüe (and most hair metal in general for that matter). And yet, I am pretty convinced the bands won that battle due to the notoriety they gained and the curiosity of the average 80s teenager to check out what was so “dangerous” for their health. Personally, most censorship for lyrical and video content is ridiculous, and in some cases has restricted otherwise talented bands from getting airplay or playing certain concerts (the classic case of The Doors being banned from Whisky A-Go-Go comes to mind). A shame, really.

The economic aspects may be a little more obscure, but also have had their part to play. Due to the recent recession, many bands have recorded their efforts in bedrooms and garages instead of full studios (not Foo Fighters-esque, actual bedroom bands). Causing a rise of small-time indie and rock bands, along with free audio technology such as mixing programs and loops generators, which can account for the explosion of drum n’ bass DJs in the past few years.

Another effect that the economy has had is the idea of promotion. Now, events are advertised online through Facebook and MySpace, and flyers double-up as tickets for cheaper entry, all in a clever money-saving scheme that still has people turning up. Although the idea of being economic is one I embrace fully, I do think that an element of human interaction has been lost; face-to-face interaction has been reduced to thrusting flyers into people’s hands and not taking the time to “sell” an event.

Linked with the earlier point on the rise of indie and rock bands, a sentiment I feel is that the “mystique” of being a musician has worn off. Now, it’s cool to be in a band, and there are thousands upon thousands of groups all making their own versions of music. Now, anybody can pick up a guitar, keyboard or turntable set and proclaim their latest project through one of a myriad of music-based sites. But, do these projects bring anything new to the table? Is the next indie/rock/drum n’ bass/ hip hop/deathcore group that will inevitably emerge going to be revolutionary, or even original for that matter?

The situation for me has degenerated into a “needle in a haystack” when it comes to listening to original music that isn’t forced or a mish-mash of older styles (case in point, the recent trend of “deathstep”, mixing death metal with dubstep). Time will only tell as to whether true originality will re-emerge.

So what does this all mean for Britain musically? Obviously, there will always be political acts that fight the system, such as newcomer rapper Lowkey and his controversial anti-Obama lyrics. However, I also predict a rise in political apathy, at least in the mainstream genres.

Now, the time for revolutionary music has passed, especially due to most of the lyrical content in this subject having been exhausted already. So, a genre will emerge or has emerged that captures a sense of (political) stagnation, (social) apathy, (economic) recession and technological advance; repetitive synthetic homemade drum beats with some technological “melodies” and lyrics that don’t say much interesting. ...Oh wait, sounds like dubstep.

The Sex Pistols; a major part of the UK Punk movement, boy, were these guys pissed off.

bite-bathimpact

Monday 16th May 2011

13

www.bathimpact.com

Music: the Next Big Thing or a load of old hat?

The Vaccines; the band of the year about to play the album of the year at what we’re sure would be the gig of the year. Inoculate yourself against this nonsense.

Written by Fabiana Giovanetti

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edia orgy, media hype, feeding frenzy; different names representing the same concept. Hype is an English term which defines a feeling of happiness and excitement. Secondly, hype is a clever marketing strategy in which a product is advertised as the thing everyone must have, to the point where people begin to feel they need to buy it. If we want to go deeper, hype is promotional propaganda usually used by news and entertainment media. Any medium is permitted; just think about James Vicary’s folklore theory about the insertion of subliminal advertising messages into frames of films.

Another example musically related is backmasking, in which the the subliminal message can only be heard if the song is played in reverse - have a go with Beatles “Revolver”, if you’re still skeptical. Such is the power of hype that in Spanish and Italian it is literally translated as media bombardment. This exaggerated promotion creates false expectations, which will eventually lead to great disappointment.

Popular culture has always been a victim of over-hyping, especially when it comes to music. With the internet generation advertising comes from everywhere; plastered overwebpages, flashing from popups, and crammed into spam emails, it is inescapable. Being a reviewer, I have to handle lots of information and do plenty of research, reading up on the specific topic of the moment. This means dealing with a couple of close friends of hype: promoters, other reviewers and ultimately music websites - and magazines as well.

What they do best is provide a bunch of the so-called “bands of the year”. Just to give an example, let’s say a few words about the Vaccines, a band which has been labelled

at least a hundred times as the breakthrough band of 2011 - what a pity that it was still November 2010. When I was asked to review their debut album, I started to flip through the pages of my old NMEs counting how many times the name “Vaccines” appeared in the issues. Apart from the week of The White Stripes breaking up, every single issue announced the arrival of the first album of the “band of the year”. If this is not over-hype, I don’t know what it is. Of course, you can imagine my pure bliss when my editor sent me the album to review. I repeated to myself not to be biased, to be objective and I gave it a try. Some dream pop, a pinch of indie and some funky beats - anything else? No fireworks, astounding music devices or any demonstration of anything that sets them above the rest. The same, old indie recipe. As a result, all the hype added in it had a neutralising effect; there was nothing new about it, it’s old hat.

Another infuriating, overused phrase is “album of the year”. Having had a quick look at 40 albums released since January, I found the astonishing 30 claiming to be the real deal; album of the year. Isn’t it impressive? To give further examples, the new album of Explosions in the Sky has been considered the album of the year on the base of 11 reviews, along with PJ Harvey and Gil Scott Heron and Jamie XX. James Blake beats them with 12 reviews, while Katy B and Dum Dum Girls stand in third position with 6 reviews. Whether it is stated explicitly or by paraphrasing the reviewer’s words, the long and short of it is that people seem no longer able to wait until the end of the year to draw conclusions.

Whose fault is it then? As previously stated, there are people whose job it is to ensure an effective promotion, but there are advertising and magazines as well - not to forget the power of social networking. They support these guys coming from the suburbs, armed to the teeth with tape decks, synth and some old electric guitar dating back to their father’s teens. They enter the room, flashing a cheeky grin and exclaiming “Hey, here we are, where is our British award?”. Fast forward: Festivals, single release, another single is released; after three years the first album is out in the stores. No, I’m not joking, I could mention more than one band who waited more than three years to release the debut album, still being worshipped as the “savior of the music”. All this expectation will bring about the demise of objectivity, a lot of resentment and the incapability to recognise whether we like an artist or not. Is really this the future of our musical judgment? Does it all come down to what a webzine claims or a reviewer writes? Just to be blunt, being part of the latter category I know far too many reviewers who are too soft-hearted, or just affected by all the hype round some albums - not to mention those lucky bastards who are paid to do this.

I guess that the real “next big thing” is something which is slowly disappearing in our culture due to the internet, hype, excessive promotion and artists. Why do we not accept artists with their flaws, without this maddening search for perfection? Chill out guys, and follow the suggestion Salvador Dalì gave us: “Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it”.

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Monday 16th May 2011

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Film: The inheritance principle at Studio Ghibli Written by Rowan Emslie

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tudio Ghibli is an animating powerhouse. Since it was founded in 1985 it has produced a non-stop series of critically acclaimed and commercially successful movies that have dominated the animation genre in Japan and, since 2002’s Spirited Away, gone on to garner considerable praise and popularity in the USA and Europe. Only Disney in its mid20th century heyday and Pixar can claim comparable success in feature length animated films. The creative force that has come to embody Ghibli is Hayao Miyazaki, the septuagenarian former manga artist whose charming animation style and captivating characterisation has made him the elderly Japanese man that everyone loves (Ken Watanabe is the next in line for that accolade).

In 2006, Ghibli released Tales From Earthsea, a movie loosely based on Ursula K Le Guin’s Earthsea series of novels.

Interestingly it is perhaps the only blemish on Ghibli’s record because its critical reception was mixed, particularly in Japan, although it went to number one in the box office charts of both Japan and the USA. It was directed by Goro Miyazaki, Hayao’s son, who took on the project against the wishes of his father who publically stated that he didn’t think Goro had the experience to direct a full motion picture. This caused a rift between the two who were not on speaking terms throughout the production process. Although Hayao attended the preview in 2006 and gave the film lukewarm praise there remains an element of antagonism between the two. This was exacerbated by the critical reception, many of whom compared Goro’s movie unfavourably to his father’s.

Goro is now directing a new Ghibli film, Kokurikozaka kara (literally, From Kokuriko Hill), based on a two volume manga series. His father has not condemned his role in this project but

has stepped in to co-write the script – much of the criticism for Tales From Earthsea surrounded the supposed glorified presentation of violence, something that is anathematic to the extremely moral fare that typifies Ghibli’s output. Obviously, Hayao does not feel ready to release the reins on Studio Ghibli just yet even though he ‘retired’ in 1997. He is now 70 years old and, presumably, cannot continue to take complete creative control forever. Unless he has the same doctor as Ryan Giggs.

Hayao Miyazaki is, famously, a control freak. When the Harvey Weinstein (Miramax co-chairman) suggested some cuts to the 1997 fantasy epic, Princess Mononoke, to make it more marketable to Western audiences he responded by sending him a katana with a message attached: “No cuts”. Clearly, this is a guy who doesn’t take lightly to his artistic vision being corrupted in any way, even, it seems, by his own son.

Goro initially pursued a career as a landscaper before becoming involved with his father’s studio. He has been described as reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps so, perhaps, the deviation in thematic approach he brought to Tales From Earthsea is a reflection of this. Hayao’s work is conspicuously feminist, often employing a strong female pre-teen lead character, and tends to portray nature as more powerful than the humans existing within it. There is also a tendency to suggest romantic plotlines while ruling out or avoiding any sexual connotations – particularly in Spirited Away, Luputa Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service. There is an obvious moral and thematic framework within which his canon resides and, frankly, this can only be seen as constrictive for other directors wishing to take the Studio in a different direction. Any director would want to break out of such a recognisably Hayao style movie – particularly because it is so well loved – and none more so than

his own son who, naturally, would seek to break from tradition from both an artistic and filial point of view. The pattern has played out before in the realms of literature, with Kingsley and Martin Amis. Martin has consciously sought distance from his father politically and stylistically, all the while courting controversy for some of his more outlandish statement which, one feels, are at least partly based in a desire to create room for himself away from the shadow of his much vaunted father (and competitor).

Unfortunately for Goro, history would suggest that Studio Ghibli without his father will struggle to continue to operate as the animating powerhouse that it is now. After Walt Disney’s death the studio, while enjoying some successes, gradually drifted out of critical favour and popular acclaim. The biggest commercial flop of Walt’s stewardship was 1940’s Pinocchio; it hardly seems fair to compare such sorry releases as 2003’s Brother Bear or the release the following year, Teacher’s Pet. Pixar have released 11 feature length films, six less than Ghibli, so have not yet had to face the prospect of decline. After becoming creative director in 2006, of both Walt Disney Studios and Pixar, John Lasseter has faced suggestions that the excellence of the studio could become too thinly stretched - the excellent Princess and the Frog of 2009 would suggest that considerable effort has gone into transferring Pixar’s creative prowess to the venerable older animation studio.

Best of luck Goro! We at bite certainly want Ghibli to go on giving us exquisitely beautiful, surprisingly insightful films forever.

My Neighbours the Yamadas (1999) and Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) are now available on blu-ray from Optimum Releases.

Crossword solution

The beautiful fantasy world of Tales from Earthsea, the first of hopefully many contributions by Goro Miyazaki

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Monday 16th May 2011

Puzzle Corner

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Handily placed on the back of bite, ready for your emergency revision break. Comics are once again courtesy of bathimpact’s resident artist, Darius G. The solution to this issue’s crossword is just inside the back page of bite.

Crossword and editing by Katie Rocker

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Transparent wood finish (7) Polish currency (5) Shine, glitter (7) Fire-making device (7) Solar / lunar event (7) Traumatic, upsetting (11) Distant object viewer (9) Couple (4) Cut down, naked (8) Against, opposite (8) Combining (7) Sports arena (7) React (7) Fossilized tree resin (5) Guns, swords (7) Time unit (6) Objective (3) Wellbeing (6) Insect eating carnivore (11) Music writer (8) Patient (7) Facial feature (4) Award (5) Completed (4)

Down 2.

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Royal-like (5) Fat reducing surgery (11) Attempted; gave trial (5) Colloquialisms (5) Colour changing lizard (9) Water heater (6) Mythical horse (7) Brother or sister (7) Part, section (9) Can be heard (7) Identity document (8) Delayed to another time (9) Below (10) Cocky (8) Away (6) Equine food (3) Dampening (7) Link (10) Hooked (8) Body structure (7) Social networking site (8) Very old (7) Present, proposal (5) Dangerous (5)

Brain Teasers 1. A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of corn across a river.He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing. If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.If the chicken and the corn is left together, the chicken will eat the corn.How does the man do it?

2. What is it that you can keep after giving it to someone else?

3. What is put on a table and cut, but never eaten?

Brain Teaser solutions

Hard

1. The man and the chicken cross the river, (the fox and corn are safe together), he leaves the chicken on the other side and goes back across. The man then takes the fox across the river, and brings the chicken back. Then he leaves the chicken, takes the corn across and leaves it with the fox. He returns to pick up the chicken and heads across the river one last time.

2. Your word 3. A pack of cards

Easy

Darius G

Darius G

Solution for last issue