bathimpact Issue 2 Vol 13 by bathimpact

Deadly potatoes...

Tasty times

Let’s get dirrrty

Business Page 23

Science Page 21

with bite

bathimpact The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Volume 13 Issue 2

Monday 17th October 2011

www.bathimpact.com

In this week’s bathimpact Bus battles begin The start of another term sees the bus troubles flare up yet again. Student’s have been enraged about the length of time they have been waiting for a supposedly increased service and more so by the fact some buses which are indeed empty, merely driving past students trying to make it up to campus. See page 4 of News for more

Knox’s knockers

Does this scene look familiar? Just one of the many mornings when over 100 students queued for a bus in Oldfield Park

Student housing under threat Jenna Logeais bathimpact Contributor North East Somerset Council will be holding a workshop to discuss whether or not we should be regulating the conversion of conventional homes into houses in multiple A dilemma stands between a continuous growth of ‘buy-to-let’ student houses with the seemingly ever-lasting and aggravating lack of student accommodation in the city of Bath. This is bringing frustration to residents, families and students. The Council will be discussing potential planning laws, including an Armean developers would have to be granted permission to convert homes remains mostly unregulated. Landlords and letting agents from all around the City are insisting on the vital revenue brought by the student body to Bath. A local landlady in student population, shops and pubs

would never have sustained this recession which would mean a massive loss of jobs and income. The council and supporters of the curbs wish the Universities to build more halls. Will bathimpact said he hopes to “come out of the consultation meeting with some kind of rationale on how 2/3 of students or in purposely-built accommodation, accepting that there are restrictions.” Indeed, such action is greatly restricted. The University of Bath’s campus is located on green belt

insisted that any accusation of being ‘anti-student’ is untrue, for they are simply trying to promote diversity. Young families, in need of inexpenforced out of certain streets and areas, and are even having to commute from towns and villages on the outskirts of chain of investors. It is also important not to forget about those who do not go to University but are from the community, many of which work in retail,

A landlord, owner of a number of

Charles’ privately owned land. He pointed out that, for every four rooms that are created, a house becomes free in the area. The main purpose for an A4D would be to bring back a sense of community to certain areas, as Mr Sandry took the time to explain. The consultants and councillors will be looking

well have appointed a consultant to decide what house becomes a student let but why doesn’t someone appoint a consultant to look at the amount of

noise disturbance, litter and the prob-

a room by a very narrow margin the day before term was due to start. He

should BANES be in a position to refuse student let’. Tom Joseph, a second year Architecture student at the

told bathimpact: “student housing is stupidly restricted and it is ridicuup loads of landlords, one of which told me I was one of 200 on her waiting list.” Tom confessed to having the thought, while being on the brink of defeat, of commuting every day from Bristol or even living on a canal boat or in a caravan. Naomi Mackrill, has told bathimpact that the Students’ Union remains on a neutral line despite being very involved in discussions, but, once the consultation plan is established they will have a better idea of what to exdents. The consultants are looking at the desired outcome and discussing culties will arise, however, including being able to establish the number of Many of the discussions concerning the issues which have arisen with nomenon are yet to come.

Can a person’s looks affect the decision of a jury and the opinion of cal appearance is a stonger determining factor of most things these days, but is it to such an extent that the justice system is being

See page 9 of Comment

UK’s youth slang Ever walked through the streets of Bath and heard some rather colloqial, somewhat confusng lingo being thrown around and wondered; Khan breaks down the language of British streets to discover what people really mean. See page 11 to read more

Stock up on seasonal substinance bite looks at how student’s can make the most of British food this season. Giving you some tasty tips on how to maximise your input to local growing initiatives whilst minimising the damage to you pocket. Turn to bite page 11 for more

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Editorials

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Kylie Barton Editor-in-Chief

impact-editor@bath.ac.uk

Gemma Isherwood Deputy Editor

impact-deputy@bath.ac.uk

Cerian Jenkins News/Comment Editor impact-news@bath.ac.uk impact-comment@bath.ac.uk

Esther Osarfo-Mensah Features Editor impact-features@bath.ac.uk

Holly Narey bite Editor

impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

Jonathan Gleave Sport Editor

impact-sport@bath.ac.uk

Ben Hooper Publicity/Distribution

impact-publicity@bath.ac.uk

Magali Calabressi Treasurer

ocial media has been a great boost for bathimpact. It has allowed us to make more people aware of the work of the newspaper and it has made it easier for the editors to keep in touch with each other and their contributors. Accessibility has been key in widening our audience: we can tweet as bathimpact from our phones and we can post as mintyfresh as we wander around campus. mintyfresh’s Facebook page reached over 1,000 people. That twolarge scale would have been impossible before the advent of social media. Both the bathimpact and mintyfresh pages on Facebook are available for anyone to question, to comment and to get involved but there are a lot of things organised online with our members. Ways for particular groups within bathimpact to communicate

are important, but as far as possible the newspaper has tried to have as few of these as required and, since they are mostly used by active members, these resources are a forum for communication rather than just a medium to reach a wider audience. Not every organisation which looks to take advantage of social media has such consciousness of purpose. Over the last few months we have seen a proliferation of centrallymanaged pages covering every aspect of the Union’s activity. This coverage (from ARC to Societies, bars to Volunteering) confuses communication and makes publicity overwhelming and off-putting, confusing the Union’s message. This is not the worst thing that the SU does with social media. To open up these channels of communication is to invite feedback from the people

you are interacting with. Comments about the banality of the name “The Tub” for the club formerly known as “Elements” led to comments on that Facebook page being disabled until it became clear that such blatant censorship of student views was not the policy by which the Students’ Union is run. Students who support the Union publicly on Facebook, however, are at an advantage. In response to a comment justifying the name “The Tub”, the Union-run page responded: “Well spotted [name removed] - you have a sharp instinct for marketing! Want to apply for the Marketing Assistant role or join the Marketing and Events steering group?” A number of students have questioned whether this paid role within the Union is only open to sycophants. On the main Students’ Union page, comments criticising the smartphone

app have been deleted, prompting further discontent. People have been encouraged to download the app on the promise of ‘exclusive’ deals. Either deals are only offered to people who have the Android or iPhone, which would be outrageous, or deals are being promised which do not in fact exist, which is even more outrageous. Social media networking can have huge advantages when used properly. As a tool for spreading information, engaging with the student community and gathering feedback it is an almost incomparably useful device. Just as with any implement, however, it must be used correctly to be most effective. All parts of the Students’ Union - including this paper - should think very carefully about what they are trying to achieve through it and be receptive to the feedback of those who use it.

impact-money@bath.ac.uk

The student voice will not be silenced

Jack Franklin

ext month marks the anniversary of last year’s student protest against the austerity measures put forward by the government, including the recent proposals to allow universities to set their fees. The protests of over 52,000 students last year were to try and stop this legislation going through. Though it seems that the powers that be weren’t listening, the student voice has proved that it will not be silenced: a new protest has been announced for this November to show the government there is still anger regarding the attacks on education and to voice resentment felt by students in reaction to fee rises and the EMA being axed. Student organisations are now working more closely with trade un-

impact-IT@bath.ac.uk

Nick Hill Secretary

impact-secretary@bath.ac.uk

Sam Short Social Secretary www.facebook.com/bathimpact www.bathimpact.com U n i v e r s i t y

The use (and abuse) of social media

o f

B a t h

S t u d e n t s ’

U n i o n

STUDENT

m edia Advertising Enquires Helen Freeman H.Freeman@bath.ac.uk 01225 386806

bathimpact Students’ Union University of Bath Bath BA2 7AY 01225 38 6151 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.

this latest protest will coincide with a

series of national walkouts and strikes expected to be of a scale unheard of since the twenties. Last year’s efforts were, to some extent, blighted by the trouble caused by anarchist hijackers of what was largely a peaceful protest. This said, Michael Chessum from the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts commented, “The student movement has grown up a lot in the last year”. It is fair to say, however, that the student movement was already mature and that it is simply more aware of the challenges it faces and more cautious of groups that seek to storm such events for their own cause. Such civic activity has had the government on its heels recently, especially after the August riots. So much so that restrictions on the number of people that could gather in areas of Lon-

don at certain times were put in place, ergo, the right to protest and the right of free speech were restricted, no matter how they dressed it up. This is damaging to the democratic ethics of our country, and even more reason to get out there and make our voices heard. Students are historically a politically active demographic and we need to keep that trend alive as, whether the government acknowledges it right away or not, we are the future. The Students’ Union were enthusiastically encouraging activism this time last year, a now famous moneysuit, getting prospective students to sign up on open days and at the Freshers’ Fair. This year though, we see a rather muted approach, due to the tribulations of events over the last year. In a response to the calls for a new NUS campaign,

BUSU said: “It is unclear what this national demonstration is setting out to achieve... it seems unlikely that such a move would be supported by the majority of the University of Bath student body.” It is questionable however, where this ‘feedback’ was drawn from and tember) thoughts on the issue were taken into account for a press release published in August. Many of those involved last year were from the freshers intake and Bath was one of the best represented universities at the protest, something we should be proud of. Some may argue that it is already too late; some may say it is not worth the risk, bathimpact says if you are not happy, make it known and make a the present.

BBC cuts not only a blow to Britain

t is widely acknowledged that, with the current economy, all industries are making cuts. Journalism, however, seems to have been hit disproportionately to its extensive take the biscuit. (Let’s hope lunchroom

The free-market model of media teamed with the technological advances of a new generation is having a damaging effect on the democratic nature of journalism. A fast-paced youth, demanding instantaneous, digestible chunks of watered down information, has seen an increased demand for speed rather than accuracy. The art of

reportage is being lost and, with it, the democratising function of the press and the potential to inform a nation to the level needed for citizens to be informed about the true extent of a wide variety of events both national and international. The cuts to the BBC emulate and amplify these problems. Journalism produced with a public service remit is produced to inform, educate and lastly entertain; performing the most important functions of reporting. The BBC is crucial in providing balanced and accurate reporting not only to the UK but to countries across the globe that, due to their own government’s censorship,

otherwise lack access to such information. The UK is renowned for its quality journalism and these cuts are a huge blow to that reputation. New formats of news production facilitated by the web such as blogging, social networking and other variants of citizen journalism, simply do not do the job. Their agenda is more likely to the principles that make journalism a nobel profession. Yes, journalism is a profession and the people that write our news need to be highly skilled, well paid and well resourced to create credible news. The cuts will limit the BBC’s capacity to do so. It is news from which

the majority of people draw their information and if the medium is dumbed down, so is the nation. Such brutal cuts to the centre of British media are quite frankly a frightening step in the long process of disengagement with knowledge; something which needs to be rescued not savaged. bathimpact has a few corrections to make. It was stated that an Amy Winehouse tribute act performed, when, in fact, she pulled just before the gig. Apologies also to Aileas Pringle who was not accredited on the homeless shelter piece. We also ought to point out that your FWEMs were a team, not led by one person. Sorry, Chris and Laurence.

Monday 17th October 2011

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News

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NCAFC call for demo UCU strike action D T Aga Jezierska bathimpact Contributor efend Education. Fight Privatisation. Thus urges the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC). This network of student and education worker activists who organise radical direct action against tuition fees, education and wider public services cuts, has called a national demonstration in London on Wednesday 9th November. The protest is a response to the ‘Putting students at the heart of higher education’ white paper released by the Government in June. So, what angered the campaigners about the proposed policy? NCAFC organizer, Edward Maltby, said, “the White Paper will create a tiered education system, with elite universities charging top-rate fees; and low-cost universities selling themselves as a ‘budget’ option for the majority. It means course closures and privatisation and attacks staff and access to education for working-class young people.” Maltby states that “this is not just

Grace Sheperd bathimpact Contributor

Will we see a repeat of last years’ demonstations in London? a march for marching’s sake. We can kill the White Paper. There is already broad opposition to the White Paper from academics and trade unions. The leaders of some of the biggest UK unions, including Len McCluskey from Unite and a number of Labour MPs, have already come out in support of our demo.” The NCAFC protest is also backed by Education Activist Network and School; FE Students against the National Union of Students; the National Union of Students (NUS) and many students’ unions who are expected to

show support for the action on the day. Hundreds of academics have signed a document, entitled ‘In Defence of Public Higher Education’ offering an alternative to government’s proposals and warning of consequences should the government’s white paper on higher education become law. According to SU President David Howells, “at present the SU neither support nor oppose such a demonstration… [but] at the same time, if students wish to express their views or receive support with regards to the issue, please contact the SU.”

he University and College Union (UCU) has set a date for proposed strike action; 30th November. The ‘day of action’ has been announced to defend pensions after the government imposed a new policy known as the Universities Superannuation Scheme, which came into effect on 1st October. The scheme results in academic staff facing substantial cuts to their more, work longer and have less protection if they lose their job. By linking price increase to the Retail Price Index instead of the Consumer Price Index as before, academic Furious at the introduction of the scheme they ‘vehemently oppose’ the UCU has now called on all of its members to support action short of a strike. From 10th October, members will ‘work-to-rule’ whereby staff work no more than their contracted hours with no additional voluntary activities undertaken.

“Sustained industrial action” was supported by over three-quarters of UCU members who voted; a large increase on former ballots on the subject. Nationally, the UCU expects 40,000 members in 63 universities to strike, one of which is Bath. The UCU currently represents approximately 400 senior academic staff at Bath and, whilst only the UCU has announced industrial action, it is expected that all three other campus trade unions will also strike, with ballots already arranged. Previous academic staff strike action on campus received the Students’ Union’s support after a poll

conducted online at bathstudent. com in March. This was done prior to the last strike action and reported that 80.2 per cent of those students who voted were in support of the UCU strikes.

An interview with your MP Don in disguise Kylie Barton Editor-in-Chief impact-editor@bath.ac.uk

ith so many new arrivals to the University over the past month, our Editor thought it would be a good idea to introduce the newcomers to the man who represents them. So, with pen and paper in hand, she set out to question Local MP Don Foster, a Liberal Democrat, on a series of current issues. Bath will be expanded under the proposed changes put forth by the Boundary Commission. Foster explained how this will have little effect on him as in previous boundary changes the Liberal Democrats still prevailed. On Labour’s plans to lower the cap on tuition fees the Bath MP was somewhat amused, whilst acknowledging all parties try and come up with appealing policies. Foster has had rather a rough ride on this issue in Bath, but did state that he was the only MP that voted for the legislation after going out and meeting with protesters. Editor: How do you think the boundary change proposals will affect Bath, and what are your views on the proposals? Foster: “If you think of Bath as a hole in a polo mint, then all you can do is nibble into the mint to enlarge it. The only bit that is totally new is the half of the Bath Avon South ward.

It will bring in areas which are predominantly Tory reducing the size of the majority, but we have won it on three occasions.” He continued to explain however that it may be harder for a new candidate to keep the position should he step down. Editor: Are you planning on stepping down? Foster: “I do know what I am going to do but I am not going to tell you.” Editor: Ok, it is always worth an ask. Do you think reducing the number of MPs is a good idea? Foster: “If you compare us to most democracies in the world we are massively over-represented… devolution to local government is a good thing.” He added “70 per cent of BANES budget comes from central government in terms of grants with strings attached to it, only 30 per cent in crude terms comes from council tax.” Editor: Do you think the changes

think it is something that can work? Foster: “I am more concerned about other parts of the country where I think some of the proposals are completely bizarre; people will lose their understanding of who their representative is, some recommendations are barking mad! No evidence that this is a Machiavellian plot to achieve

but there is no doubt that it does achieve that end. Many Lib-Dems are pissed off with it. relatively small number of millions when the economic disaster of the country is in the billions.” Editor What do you think of Ed Miliband’s proposals to lower the cap on tuition fees? Foster: “It is bizarre! Labour in 1997 had no plans to introduce fees, and then they did. A few years later they promised no top up fees, and then introduced them. Now they are saying they are going to reduce the cap limit which is the one thing the least likely to help the least well off in society.” Editor: What were your high lights from conference? Foster: “Firstly, sharing a platform with Hugh Grant and the dinner later.” Editor: I am very jealous. Finally, do you have a message for the fresh ers that have just arrived in Bath? Foster: “Get involved with any of the local charities or political parties, ideally join the Lib-Dems but I far rather you just get involved. The great thing is Bath University has some fantastic activities of huge and sporting life of the city. So simply; get involved.”

Amy Bradshaw bathimpact Contributor

ince the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition was formed over a year ago, there have been constant questions as to its stability and effectiveness. So, in a bid to discover what the Conservatives really think of their coalition colleagues, our very own Liberal MP, Don Foster, Conservative party conference. This comes just a few weeks after Conservative MP Peter Bone attended the Liberal Democrat conference between 17th and 21st September, and came away saying that he was unimpressed with what he’d heard. The Northamptonshire MP claimed that the Lib Dems would “rather be in government than stick up for their policies”, and criticised their stance on Europe, saying that they had “no views, no position whatsoever; completely in line with the leadership”. Despite these harsh criticisms, quite so negative about the Conserva-

tives during their conference. After listening to a speech from Chancellor George Osborne, Don admitted that he agreed with nearly everything said, even though the audience “didn’t seem to like much of it”. Having listened in on the speeches of some key Conservative MPs, Don decided to grill some other Conservative party members about their opinions of the role of the Liberal Democrats in the coalition. Overall, the judgement seemed positive, with one party member praising the Liberal Democrats for “choking off” the more extreme right wing Conservative agenda and creating a more balanced government; a stark contrast to what Mr Bone had to say about the Lib Dem leadership. Don Foster concluded his visit on an optimistic note, saying that whilst he has now convinced himself that he is not a Tory, many of the Conservatives at the conference believed that the coalition was continuing to work well. So as it turns out, he didn’t need his disguise after all.

Monday 17th October 2011

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News

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Tomos Evans bathimpact Contributor

Cayla Pattison bathimpact Contributor

sooner rather than later and stu-

Sophie Sachrajda bathimpact Contributor

Imogen Grace Ware bathimpact Contributor

A recent clean up event saw over 30 people of all ages take to the streets

Flickr

Tests also revealed that Joanna had

Vincent Tabak is accused of murdering Joanna Yeates from Bristol

Monday 17th October 2011

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News

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Knox’s release sparks international stir bathimpact contributor Aileas Pringle focuses on the trial which has kept the world watching

t has been almost four years since British student Meredith Kercher was found dead at her residence in the Italian city of Perugia, having been stabbed several times and sexually assaulted. The case and its aftermath have divided opinion on an international scale, but perhaps the most controversial twist took placeon Monday night, when Amanda Knox and Rafaelle Sollecito, two of the three convicted for her murder, were released upon winning their appeals. It is little wonder that the case

Devil with an angel face or victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice? has evoked what can mildly be described as a media frenzy. The case is more like a crime fiction novel plot than reality, with the protagonists being two attractive young female students, one the victim, the other the suspect of her murder, and set in the touristic and academic centre of Perugia, a beautiful city with a dark un-

derbelly. No surprise, then, that it was irresistible to tabloids. There were vast disparities between the reactions of the press, although they all placed Knox as the constant focal point of their coverage. The European press generally portrayed her as a manipulative deviant, hidden beneath a facade, while in the US she was depicted as an innocent wronged by an antiquated and unreliable justice system. Knox’s family hired a PR firm to present a positive image of her in the Italian press and supporter groups emerged to generate funds and influence opinion. Eventually, however, the conclusions of the press have been irrelevant. Devil with an angel face or victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice, the appeal court believed there was no physical evidence linking Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Rafaelle Sollecito to the crime. The prosecution’s case was fatally weakened by claims that the DNA used to convict Knox and Sollecito was contaminated, and that procedure was followed poorly

during the forensic examination. Furthermore, they were unable to establish a clear motive for the pair to have murdered Kercher. Prosecutors say they will seek retrial, but with Knox having re-

SSLC Annual Report

Simon O’Kane reveals what role our Academic Reps play within Staff-Student Liaison Committees

ccess to exam scripts and recorded lectures could soon be on their way to a department near you after the University’s Learning and Teaching Quality Committee accepted these and other recommendations of the SSLC Annual Reports Overview. The document, compiled by VP Education, Matt Benka, from the annual reports submitted by the University’s many Staff-Student Liaison Committees (SSLCs), recommended that access to exam scripts and recorded lectures should be trialled in all depart-

ments. The overview also recommended that the opening hours of computer labs be extended, reading lists be sent to library staff in addition to students and that departments sent to students a list of changes made as a result of online unit evaluations once per semester. Unit choices, learning resources, improving induction in Learning Partnership Organisations (LPOs) and enhancing the sense of community within departments were among matters flagged up for discussion. Kate Aldridge, chair of the

Physics SSLC, already has a suggestion: “A well-received new idea trialled this semester was to write layman’s descriptions for optional units, not using any technical terminology that you learn in that unit, along with a summary of comments, both good and bad, from unit questionnaires.” The first round of Academic Rep elections may be over, but nominations have re-opened for positions that remain open. Nominations also open this week for additional elections just for postgraduate students; the entirety of the Postgraduate Association (PGA) Executive Committee is up for election, as are the majority of postgraduate Faculty Rep positions. Any postgraduate student can run for any PGA position; each of the three Faculties (Science, Engineering and HSS) and the School of Management elects one PGT (postgraduate taught) Faculty Rep each year, while by-elections are also running for PGR (postgraduate research) Faculty Reps in HSS and Engineering.

turned to her hometown of Seattle on Tuesday it seems highly unlikely that the US will extradite her as the grounds for the case against her have now been dismissed. Speaking after the verdict, Me-

redith’s brother Lyle Kercher said that although the family accept the decision, they now feel “almost back to square one” and that this outcome “raises further questions” regarding the true circumstances Meredith’s murder. He said that he understood the courts had concluded that the third defendant, Rudy Guede, was not acting alone, and stated that “if the two who were released yesterday were not the guilty party, obviously we are left wondering who is the other person or other people.” Sister Stephanie voiced concerns previous to the verdict that the circus created by the press surrounding the appeals has led to Meredith, and the suffering and torture she endured, to be “hugely forgotten”. Following the acquittal, the judge underlined one important thing; that this verdict signified only that the two young defendants did not commit the crime, not that they know at all what happened on the night that Meredith Kercher was brutally killed. The investigation continues.

A Ducking good night out in Bath Madeline Winn bathimpact Contributor The Fuzzy Ducks club night came to Bath with a bang on Saturday 8th October, tickets selling out days before the event. From freshers through to fourth years, all turned up to witness the much anticipated launch, resulting in some queuing for over 40 minutes in the cold to get in to The Tub. Those who didn’t have tickets were lucky if they made it in at all. Was it worth it? The answer is a resounding ‘yes’. The two rooms of contrasting music ensured all genres were covered, from cheese to dubstep; guaranteeing that the dance

good music and a great atmosphere are what you need for a great night, and Fuzzy Ducks delivered on all accounts. It remains to be seen whether the success of the evening was merely down to the novelty factor which was supported by effective pre-night publicity, but in any event, the enthusiasm about a new student night on campus was electric. It’s worthy to note that the Fuzzy Ducks just gone sold out on Thursday. Let’s hope it doesn’t waiver, and the Tub stays like this every Saturday night. Let’s get Ducked.

Monday 17th October 2011

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Council grant Tesco planning permission Alice Oakley bathimpact Contributor

upermarket giant Tesco has won planning consent to open two new stores in Bath; one in Lower Bristol Road and a new Tesco Express store at the former Courthouse filling station at Windsor Bridge. This is a major move forward for Tesco, after the original planning permission was withdrawn in 2007, when the firm did not meet all legal conditions before their consent ran out. Bath City Council have approved the new planning application as they recognise growing demands for a supermarket in the town centre and claim to not see how the new site could have any adverse effect upon the local town centre. The council’s decision notice said: “It has been shown that there is a need for a retail store of this size in this area and that it would not have a significant adverse impact on the vitality and viability of the neighboring local centres.” The issue of two new Tesco stores in Bath, however, is highly controversial, and there has been much protest from residents and businesses alike. A petition signed by nearly 900 of Bath’s residents against the development was handed to the council in January this year, citing the main reasons

for their objection to the store. These are mainly fears over: the impact of a superstore on small, local shops on Moorland Road; likely traffic disruptions; increased noise and disturbance, and belief that the area is already well served by retailers. Moreover, the Royal United Hospital formally objected to the plans, warning that increased congestion could hold up ambulances delivering emergency patients. It is already a well-known fact This ‘anti-Tesco’ movement is nothing new in the local area. Earlier this year, the opening of a new Tesco store in Bristol on Cheltenham Road sparked anti-Tesco riots across the city, due to fears that the presence of a superstore would thwart the image of this heritage site. There was much resistance and campaigning against the new store by members of the local community, who argue that they were not properly consulted about the store. One campaigner, Claire Milne says the local community should decide: “This is not about being ‘anti’ something. This is about saying ‘this is our beautiful community that we’ve worked so hard to play a really positive role in people’s lives’. It’s just absolutely outrageous that the council has come along and given permission

for a Tesco without asking us.” Within a week of the Bristol Tesco opening its doors, the new store found itself the focal point of serious violence and confrontation; in one of the most serious outbreaks of disorder in Bristol since the St Paul’s riots in 1980, stones, bottles and other missiles were thrown at the store, leaving eight police offices and several protestors injured. It is hoped that these events will not be mirrored in Bath when the new stores open. Bath City Council has nevertheless rejected these fears in allowing the two new stores to be built. Planning inspector Andrew Poulter stated that “I have concluded above that the proposed development would not have an unacceptable effect on the vitality and viability of the Bear Flat local centre, or on highway safety or the free flow of traffic… I consider that local residents’ concerns with regard to noise and disturbance would be satisfactorily addressed by the conditions I have imposed relating to opening hours, external lighting and plant and equipment.” Poulter instead focuses on the positive impact that these stores will have on the local area, such as the many jobs it will create, proving that there are some positives in this contentious issue.

Two new Tesco have been granted planning permission in Bath

Advocates say the move will create more jobs in the local area

Masters boost Anti-nuclear campaign

rospects for post graduate funding have received some potentially heartening news, thanks to the release of a recent report. Think tank ‘CentreForum’ has concluded that there should be a framework to provide loans post graduates.

CentreForum suggests that for the first taught year of a post graduate degree a student should be offered a loan of £10,000. According to their own projections, the think tank has said the Government would recuperate monies back when the post graduate was in employment. The projections also show how any possible losses would be recuperated from increased taxable income from students who may have not taken their studies further than an undergraduate degree. The reports author Tim Leung stated that “…too many British people are being excluded from postgraduate study because of high costs and insufficient access to finance. This is bad for them, for the country, and for social mobility”. This opinion is also supported by the Professor of Public Economics at LSE, Nick Barr who said that “CentreForum’s proposal is important both because it addresses a badly-neglected area and because it shows that practical solution exist”.

Claudia Shute looks at the situation in Hinkley Point

p to 400 protesters gathered at Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset on 1st October 1this year, blockading the main gate of power firm EDF. The ‘Stop Hinkley Campaign’ held a march and a rally in Bridgwater in response

to EDF’s construction plans for a new nuclear power station on the site. EDF, energy supplier to over 1 million homes, had to reschedule its deliveries and sent in only essential staff. Reporting from the scene, BBC journalist Ruth BraFlickr

Tomos Evans bathimpact Contributor

The ‘Stop Hinkley Campaign’ members protest against the plans

dley stated that there was a high police presence, including riot vans, but a spokesman for the energy firm said “we trust the protest will be peaceful.” 206 balloons were released by the protesters, representing the number of days since the Japanese nuclear disaster at Fukushima. EDF Energy plans to finish building the new nuclear power station, which will provide energy for 5 million homes, by 2020. The nuclear power station has begun preparation work, though it awaits permission from the government. Clearing the land for the new station will create 500 jobs and increase the firm’s competitiveness. An anonymous resident said: “The town needs it; the town’s a ghost town. It needs people in the community to start working.” Meanwhile, protesters warn this will be the first of a number of demonstrations.

Monday 17th October 2011

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Anthony Masters bathimpact Contributor

hen I was knocking on doors in the run-up to the last local election, I was occasionally confronted with the issue of student housing from concerned constituents. Their complaints were highly varied; from students being too noisy to worries about the state of properties under the care of indifferent landlords. In response to these worries, local politicians have often proposed rather radical policies that are detrimental to students. For example, last year, the Bath Liberal Democrats proposed to force all the students in their first and last years from both the University of Bath and Bath Spa University to live in purposebuilt accommodation, either on campus or in city blocks like John Wood Court. Now, however, Liberal Democrat-controlled Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Council has appointed a consultant to find the best way to use planning laws to stem the number of family homes being converted into houses in multiple occupation (HMOs). The main proposal is for the Council to use an Article 4 Direction, meaning landlords would require planning consent to convert their properties into HMOs.

It follows a similar move by the City of York Council, who voted unanimously in February 2011 to apply an Article 4 Direction across York. This consultant has met with councillors in the Oldfield Park area, which has the highest density of students living there outside of the two university campuses. A national curb on the number of HMOs allowed within an authority was proposed by the last Labour government, but this was scrapped by the new Coalition government following the election. Nevertheless, the concept of moving more students out of city homes to free them up for families is shared by all the major parties in Bath. This policy would not just affect students, but also groups of young

Errant behaviour, coupled with well-known student stereotypes, has led to a gereral mistrust of students professionals, who are the other main user of these types of houses. This has been pointed out by Alan Ward, head of the Residential Landlords Association, who said to the Bath Chronicle: “Small houses in multiple occupation have an important role to play in housing the increasing number of students attending university, and

Student housing; a blight upon Bath?

many young professionals, such as nurses, for whom home ownership is simply unaffordable.” The Residential Landlords Association has unequivocally opposed this plan, stating it will drive up rents whilst lowering house prices in areas where a strict limit of HMOs is applied. The curb on HMOs is also not retrospective, meaning that it will not decrease the density of HMOs in areas like Oldfield Park, which are pejoratively referred to as ‘student ghettos’. There are several serious problems which some students do cause within the city for its residents, ranging from drunken destruction and absent bin collections to flytipping and council underfunding. The Student’s Union has respond-

ed to this kind of conduct with major campaigns s-uch as ’Be a Good Neighbour‘, launched by former SU President Alex NicholsonEvans, and which continues today. There is also the sense that such a high concentration of students within one road or area is in effect transforming the familiar into the alien. This has left what Caroline Flint MP, former Local Government Minister, has described as “ghost towns following the summer student exodus”. Errant behaviour, coupled with well-known student stereotypes, has led to a general mistrust of students, and quite a vocal antipathy. This often goes beyond banter, however, such as the Bath Chronicle headlining an article about Bath Upchuck, a charity event held

on campus, with ’Students throw up - in a good way’. It is depressing that the idea of curbing student housing has risen from the pyre once again, but as long as Bath students are associated with disorder this idea will continue to burn. We should aim to be good neighbours and positive contributors to our communities, not usurpers of this historic city. Bath is a great city which we all love, and we are bound to share it with those who are more permanently based here. We are transients, but that does not mean we care for Bath any less than our neighbours do, so we should treat Bath and its people as well as our own home. However, students should not accept this proposal, not matter which party claims it as their own.

Is this one Tesco too far for Bath? S

ome people love it, others loathe it. No, not Marmite, but Tesco with all its 2,153 stores. Tesco, who have just been granted planning permission for another small store in Bath. Those of you who dislike Tesco will often chant lines of its domination over the British market place, along with its poor treatment or farmers, producers and its own workers. Those of you who actually like Tesco often say how the quality is better, it’s cheaper than other supermarkets and that all business will mistreat someone in some particular way. On arriving to Bath a good year ago, I was struck by the apparent domination of Waitrose and Sainsbury’s in the town centre. Very strange, I thought, considering we are a university town. I have, as have many others, wondered where our Poundland, Asda and Primark are. I would suggest that the lack of a Tesco and an accessible ‘budget’

shop or two is the realisation of a ‘snobbery’ surrounding the way Bath tries to create, keep and maintain a certain image for the outside world. Oh, and if you were wondering, Primark is located in Bristol, Poundland is in Chippenham and there’s an Asda in Trowbridge. Supermarkets are a phenomenon that the public has, mostly, accepted, although the cynics among

you may suggest that they have been forced upon us. The invention of the modern supermarket has dramatically changed the way we shop and indeed eat. I doubt we’d have ready meals and out-of-season fruit if it weren’t for the supermarket. Supermarkets were founded on the bases of convenience and price. In today’s World, it is clear that the superstore, megastore, or whatever you wish to call it is the natural pro-

gression of our obsessive, greedy, lazy culture. When it comes to Tesco, it has to be said, it is probably one of the most successful companies of all time. I, as a self-confessed doubter and critic of capitalism, am in awe of the success of the company in its ninety-two years; from a basic grocery store in Edgware, to the third largest retail company in the world by revenue. In relation to this new store, the council have done feasibility studies and, following an appeal by local resident BaNES, has decided that this new store is perfectly suited to the area. In Bath itself, it is clear to see that we are in need of more su-

Tell us about it

Tomos Evans bathimpact Contributor

permarkets, especially ones which are not either a Sainsbury’s or a Waitrose. Being from a village, I know and understand the damage a supermarket can do. We lost our local and now have to shop at Tesco. Quite unusual that I should support such a store in Bath, then; but the main difference here is that the vitality and strength of retail in Bath is not going to be affected by one more, small-sized supermarket. I would hope that the council’s decision to allow another supermarket is the beginning of a trend to widen the choice of shops we have in Bath. But I won’t hold my breath.

Something you’d like to get off your chest? A burning issue which you think the student body at the University of Bath ought to know about? Then bathimpact’s Comment section needs you! bathimpact Comment Editor Cerian Jenkins

Monday 17th October 2011

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Comment

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Julia Fiorett bathimpact Contributor

eredith Kercher’s murder had all the right ingredients for becoming a frenzied, salacious media storm; the mysterious murder of a young, pretty girl in a provincial Italian city, allegations of drugs and sexual deviancy, topped off with a two-faced American girl whose rumoured crazed appetite for perverse sex allegedly pushed two men to kill in a sex game gone wrong. Amanda Knox was recently acquitted alongside ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher in November 2007. Four long years and two trayed as an angel-faced killer, a Venus in furs, a witch and a “diabolical, satanic, demonic she-devil” by prosecution lawyers; the most scathing attacks coming from Patrick Lumumba’s lawyer, whom she wrongfully accused of the murder at the beginning of the case. It is unusual for a defendant in a murder case to be lambasted and demonized to such an extent, and what‘s even more striking is that such perthe tabloids, but permeated the very courtroom itself. The fact that she was beautiful was undoubtedly a factor that worked to her disadvantage; had she not been so photogenic, the prosecu-

tion’s case, which rested on her being a “Venus in fur” who seduced and led two men to kill for her, would not have been so self-propelling.

conclusions drawn, as evidenced by the unwarranted interest in her purchase of underwear after Meredith’s body was discovered. One need only to look at the case of Casey Anthony

“...the jury is unable to reconcile the pretty face with the odious crime.”

a pretty woman combined with allegations of sexual deviancy led to a media frenzy similar to that seen with Amanda Knox. It is tempting to claim that popular culture, with its images of a ‘good girl gone bad’ and an ever-increasing interest in extreme sexual behaviour, has permeated into society and created an insatiable appetite for cases that appeal to the archetype of the mysterious ‘femme fatale’ who hides under a mask of callow puerility. Even the defence appealed to popular culture by comparing Amanda to the shapely cartoon character Jessica Rabbit, who is a “faithful and loving woman” despite her sultry looks. However, there is no doubt that as we frantically attempt to discover the ‘real’ Amanda by postulating on all the possible faces she may have, we tend to forget that human personality is not clear cut in anyone.. It has been taken for granted that her good looks hold the key to her personality, that some-

plains that attractive women are disadvantaged in these cases as the attention shifts from the facts to their physical appearance and creates a two-case scenario. On the one hand the good looks unable to reconcile the pretty face with the odious crime. However, when a sexual motive is added and it is implied that the good looks may have abetlikely to view the defendant as an ‘evil femme-fatale’. There is a fascination today with the popular image of female evil, that of a degenerate criminal lurking behind a seemingly innocent, pretty face. When presented with such an individual we are eager to deconstruct their personality and trawl through the

malicious femme-fatale persona. Thus Amanda Knox’s past and present behaviour was mercilessly scrutinised and the most preposterous

Flickr

Amanda Knox: can beauty kill?

this heinous crime, and because of this we have proceeded, untrammelled, in dressing her in the most stereotypical female criminal clothes.

Wall Street crashed by protesters

bathimpact contributor Bruce Galliver looks at events in capitalism’s capital

n Sept 17 2011, a relatively small group of American citizens began the occupation of an institution called ‘Wall Street’. Wall home of the New York Stock Exchange, in which some of the most wealthy people in the world conduct their daily business. The purpose of the occupation was to express an overall contempt for the ruthless and detrimental actions of a very small, very rich pocket of the population who have successfully degraded the standards of living of the so-called “99%”. This process has occurred through persistent government lobbying in an regulation of the markets. Essentially, this deregulation has allowed those gamble on whatever they please, with little to no personal retroaction. Very few establishments have the ability to nancial sector does. Money talks. Evidence of this social damage can be seen clearly in the collapse of the

housing bubble in 2008. This resulted in accelerated rates of home foreclosure and the transferral of capital wealth to the banks. Consequently, the knockon effect on mortgages and general living costs were felt across the country. There have been over 980,000 foreHaving no house generally makes tuition fees, student debt, rising unemployment, corporate tax breaks and rising commodity prices, and you have a guaranteed recipe for civil disobedience. In the words of trend forecaster

Gerald Celente: “When people lose everything and have nothing left to lose, they lose it.” The occupation has now grown well into the thousands and is gathering support from unions across the counday. The overall notion of “occupy everything” is indeed spreading throughout the world thanks to the helping hand of internet social media. The slogan: “We are the 99%” spread as far as London, as protesters occupied Westminster Bridge on Sunday Oct 9 in a last ditch effort to stop

vere disruption in the central city. Despite very little attention from the mainstream media, the momentum continues to build. So how did these people end up here? Forced into a position of desperation and suffering? as responsible for the excessive wealth of the top 1% as the wealthy. Radical as that my sound, they, and we, have continued to participate in a system which consistently increases the rich/poor divide and perpetuates one class over another; it is the ’natural’ gravitation of wealth from the hands of the many to the hands of a few as the real-life game of monopoly keeps rolling. Those at the top of this pyramid are other human beings are. We have all made this manifestation possible, how could anything less be expected? We live in a system which incentivises greed, corruption and exploitation as the way to climb the capitalist lad-

der, resulting in scarcity, inequality and classism. Those that happen to play the game best end up at the better end of the spectrum, leaving everyone else feeling rather displeased they haven’t encountered the same fortune. There have been attempts to solve the Monetary-Market Model. More legislation, stimulus packages, bailouts and quantitative easing have all failed at stabilising what is essentially an unly, unsustainable system. It is time the patchwork ended? Solutions that address the root causes of these problems are urgently required. We must start with the recognition that the system is broken, that we live in paradigm in which war is more

preservation and in which politics has Street bullies. So the question emerges, what do we put in its place?

Monday 17th October 2011

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Comment

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SUEi: fool’s gold? Stripping for bathimpact contributor Rowan Emslie offers your studies his critique of our SU’s latest acclaim T

o be a student is to be constantly short on money, in my case mostly for reasons involving the union bar on Saturdays. Now though, students have a sexy new way to earn money – stripping. Still not convinced? Widely reported this week were comments on Rhino Vice President John Specht, who has apparently “urged” students to consider stripping to pay their bills. Speaking on BBC Radio

’d like to start by apologising for writing an article about the Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEi) Gold Award and seriously expecting anyone reading bathimpact to care about it at all. Sadly, bathimpact decided to report on this ridiculous decision last issue and so I feel that it’s important to give some context to the Union’s winning of this award so that people don’t mistake winning it with being good at anything. I remember when I was ten years old we would be asked to write essays in history classes. Almost all of the kids in the class had learned the text in our textbook word-for-word and they would write this down and present it to the teacher who would proceed to exclaim that all of these children were geniuses. These people were idiots. At Bath, our SU behaves like a stupid child, unable to recognise the distinction between being good and jumping through hoops while tricking people into thinking they know what they’re doing. That any organisation as fragile as our Union can be considered worthy of the highest honour that the auditor can hand out shows, as far as I’m concerned, a serious problem both with Bath’s approach to the award and with the auditing process. Anyone who is engaged on any level with the Union will be wondering how this award was won. Anyone who has little to no idea as to what the Union actually does will be wondering the same. Here is my breakdown of how SUEi is awarded and why the process leaves much to be desired. THE PROCESS SUEi aims to look at: what is special about the Union; what the Union is aiming to achieve; people man-

agement strategy of Union staff and institutional characteristics underpin the delivery of these outcomes. Its description of its assessment process is: “Participating students’ unions take 2-3 years to work towards achieving an award. They have to collect a large amount of evidence to show how they demonstrate each of the 5 key themes. They then experience an audit process which involves an independent auditor visiting the Union who look at the evidence and also speak to students who are involved with their union, students who are not involved with their union and also representatives from the University.” HOW THE SU GAMED IT The students selected to speak with the auditor were friends of the then to be willing to comment favourably on the Union and who were privately briefed in the sorts of things that they should say to elicit the desired outcome. It is noteworthy that Union staff members have also worked for SUEi in various capacities. There are posters up in Union ofSUEi audit. The Union claimed that Bath’s SU dents’ Unions [sic] in the country!” This is nonsense. Fewer than half of the students’ unions in the United Kingdom are signed up to the SUEi have reached the end of their evaluation process and been accredited, so even if SUEi’s criteria and audit are comprehensive, ours is in the top ten per cent of accredited unions. That is a statement that the Union could have legitimately made. Instead, in typical fashion, the Union has misrepresented reality.

WHY THIS IS WRONG Being told that you’re great when you’re not is lovely for the ego, but it’s the sort of thing that will make any institution complacent. SUEi encouraged the Union to focus on the wrong things. To spend their time ticking boxes and writing plans without ever changing, improving or delivering for students. Winning the gold will doubtless either encourage them to seek yet more meaningless marks of merit or it will encourage them to believe in their own hype. Hype is a polite word for it. We have a pathetic electoral turnout of over 25 per cent and a broken electoral system which the Union resisted almost all attempts by students to increase. This led to the resignation of the student chair of that committee last year. This role has have as little say as possible in the actual management of elections and so that, instead of being selected by stuchosen by the Union. Is this the representation, participation and governance that SUEi are looking for? The Union was forecast to run at a cial arm struggled last year (the successful portion of the Union’s commercial operations was handed over to the University) and year on year the budgets of student groups and the levels of staff support are cut. Is the SUEi auditors were looking for? Is this the gold standard in students’ unions? The Union can do better. It should do better. For as long as it strives for pointless awards and for as long as it believes that manipulating the system to get a pat on the back is worthwhile things will not get better. Things have to get better.

know that they can come in and earn the money they need to survive. [Spearmint Rhino] are a world known brand, it’s a fun, safe environment. They could be doing a lot worse things.” Quite why the VP of a prominent gentlemen’s club was on BBC sumably the Arctic Monkeys were busy. I can only imagine he was on the breakfast show, and that there were a great many shocked silences from the presenters while the crew in the background laughed themselves silly. His comments, which include such gems as “why not? It’s great money” have excited a lot of controversy amongst well-meaning busybodies who have taken the opportunity to bandy words like ‘hortwitter. Needless to say, the NUS saw this and it was on like Donkey Kong. Hart, called it ‘disturbing’ and stat-

of money from education and have done nothing to improve the maintenance situation for [students] and [students] are forced into doing work like that.” And breathe. Lack of punctuation aside, you might be forgiven for thinking that Mr Specht had stormed into Shefdriven a herd of students back to Spearmint Rhino to a life of indentured servitude, rather than simply mentioning that his business was hiring on a local radio station. People have seen something easily condemnable, and as a result subjected Specht to abuse which would have some of my more capitalist friends screaming ‘persecution!’ Would there have been an outcry if the VP of Eddie Stobart had gone on the radio and told said students should drive for money? I doubt it. I’m not defending the stripping industry; in my experience strip clubs are a lot like hell with better upholstery and an expensive bar – hot, dingy and full of businessmen with dead eyes. However, there are those people out in the wider world who need to recognise that it exists, and isn’t going away any time soon. There is some argument that poor students might be exploited by the industry, but regardless of whom is to blame for students needing to supplement their income there are plenty of other ways to earn that don’t involve disrobing. Sam Short

James Thomas bathimpact Contributor

on. Students who want to strip will keep on stripping, and those who don’t, won’t! Now I’m off - if anyone needs me, I’ll be on a street corner.

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Sabbs Corner

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SUEi: one more step forward Student housing David Howells SU President supresident@bath.ac.uk easuring success on an individual level can be hard. Measuring success for an organisation and its 14,000 members is certainly tricky and assessing the quality of the strange beast that is a students’ union is harder still. sations to take part in the Students’ Union Evaluation Initiative (SUEi), a decision we did not take lightly. The process creates a framework, assessing the fundamental purpose of a students’ union: having a positive difference on students’ lives. These criteria were drawn up by experts from across the sector, including university managers, charity directors and people from the student movement. Ultimately, SUEi uses experienced people to give constructive criticism so that we have more to guide us as we strive to be better for you. That said, being awarded a Gold standard is obviously something to be proud of. It puts us alongside ions which have risen above the rest and demonstrated the effectiveness of all our work. And, perhaps more importantly, this isn’t something for only the people who run your Union

to be proud of, but also for the hundreds of students involved in the daycantly to the lives of all our members. It’s not that we should simply take the Gold standard and leave it. Indeed, doing so would completely undermine the key value of continual improvement that SUEi promotes and, at least for myself, is the most important reason to do it. Looking at how well we represent you and how much time we as Sabbs spend actually talking to students are important issues. By sitting down and thinking about them, we avoid complacencies it would be easy for an organisation such as ours to fall into. We also receive a list of recommendations for improvement and processes like this give us some really worthwhile innovations, including the Top Ten programme, our much more structured approach to addressing your current issues. Like any process, SUEi isn’t without its faults. One area we have been criticised on is the selection of students to meet auditors. For each audit, a union is required to provide about 20 students on the day who meet strict criteria of non-involvement with the Union. This presents a problem though, because inviting students who are, by in the Union to take part isn’t necessar-

ily going to produce turnout. The last exams, which also made this underUnion found over 50 students who met the criteria but in the end the turnout was still low due to timing. suming for unions and, arguably, the strict criteria means any sample is far from representative of the student body as a whole. This meeting with the auditor only forms a very small part of the assessment in comparison to the much larger body of evidence submitted in advance on the Union as a whole. The Students’ Union was also con-

Naomi Mackrill VP Community and Diversity sucommunity@bath.ac.uk

ost students at Bath are lucky enough to live in halls of residence in first year. This for most undergrads, means living on campus, but after that it’s into the big wide world of Bath. The prospect of finding somewhere to live can be quite daunting - who should you live with? What do you mean you have to pay for electricity and water? Someone has to come and install the internet?! Fortunately there’s lots of advice on hand to help you

some parts of England have found the “spread of student housing” (also known as “studentification”) in certain areas to be such a problem that they have used new government legislation to deal with what they determine to be the problem. The legislation being enforced in these areas is called ‘Article 4 Direction’ (A4D). To give you a bit of an overview, the previous government were going to implement it nationally. When the current administration came into power, however, the decision was made that it wouldn’t become national policy, but that local coun-

year, we were budgeted to run at agement and, since then, we have learnt that last year came in underbudget, delivering a small surplus. We’ve learnt a lot from SUEi and we are proud to meet their Gold standard. But that won’t stop us taking opportunities to be better or to look elsewhere to measure ourselves. SUEi is but one tool we use and it mustn’t be forgotten that ultimately, as your Union, the real assessment is always down to you.

It’s a sabb’s life after all... David Cameron VPActivities and Development suactivities@bath.ac.uk

week following this. We also elect our CSSU reps and NUS delegates over this period. CSSU (or Council, Senate, Students’ Union) reps are three students elected to sit on a committee with senior members of the University, chaired by the Vice-Chancellor. It is here that we

o Freshers’ Week has come and gone and term is now in

an ever changing one and having got back on our feet after a great Freshers’ Week, it has changed once again – this time in the form of the arrival of students. Throughout handover and the rest of the summer, everyone says that nothing prepares you for students arriving and they are absolutely right – whilst you can feel that you are being swept off your feet trying to continue work on the priorities that you have been working on, it is a wonderful feeling being able to replace endless and faceless email exchanges with longer and more meaningful discussions in person. As a sabb, it is fantastic to be able to get involved with a student group and see what they are doing, perhaps watching a performance such as those from BUST or BUSMS or perhaps going to events such as the Student Enterprise launch night. You not only get to see great things that these students have achieved but also their continuing develop-

David Cameron: a happy bloke ment in an open and friendly environment which is really easy to join in on. Their passion and enthusiasm not only shows us that the changes that we are making will not only make a difference to the lives of students but it also re-ignites our own passions to produce the best results for the student body. One of the most important things about having students back is the ability to encourage them to take charge of their union and make a real and tangible difference. You should never forget that your Students’ Union is run entirely by students and they make the fantastic changes that you see on a daily basis. In this vein, Exec elections are being held as you read this article, with nominations in the week starting October 17th and voting in the

amongst other items, we present the Top 10 issues to the University. The NUS delegate reps will travel to the NUS National Conference next year where important national policy is passed and people such as the NUS president are elected. You can also look at how the sabbatical team operates, by standing for co-option to the Sabbatical Reby speaking to any of the sabbs or Alison Fleet (A.J.Fleet@bath.ac.uk). If you go to bit.ly/sabbreview you the panel will meet and about the application process which closes on October 24th. Remember that a Students’ Union is nothing without students at its core so take ownership of your union and stand to make our union better and together we will be able to take it to new heights.

out, but different people have different preferences. One of the first questions you’ll be asking yourselves is where should we live? Now, there are a lot of factors that will probably be considered when deciding where to live in Bath. The questions most people ask include: Is it easy does it cost? Does it involve walking up hill? And where are the rest of our friends looking at? The reality is; Bath is pretty small. It’s a beautiful city but it’s definitely well described as compact. A brilliant quality when you’re trying to walk everywhere, not so brilliant when you want to choose where to live and roughly 15,000 other students are trying to find affordable housing to live in as well. The result of this, and the fact that students make up over 20% of Baths population, leads to certain areas of Bath becoming very popular when looking for houses. More students than ever are going to University, therefore the demand for student housing everywhere is growing. Councils in

cils could decide to implement it if it was deemed there was a need. There’s quite a long lead time on this as councils have to wait a year until it can come into force, meaning we don’t know what the actual effects will be yet. Manchester has had it for two weeks, Canterbury will have it from November, but here in Bath it’s all still very new. In practical terms, A4D means that landlords would need to apply for permission from the council to convert a family home into a house of multiple occupancy be allowed to approve or reject the request based on the number would have to be done based on a pre-passed policy and can be done on a city-wide scale, a ward based scale or, potentially, on as small a scale as individual streets. There are many groups of peostudents, young professionals, migrant works and student nurses to name a few, so any policy that implications than just affecting students.

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Activities

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Medsin AIDs Tour M

edsin Bath is hosting the Student Stop AIDS Speaker Tour again this year, which is now in its sixth year. The tour brings speakers from across the globe to talk about how HIV has affected their lives,

the measures that can be taken to stop HIV, and how people can get involved in campaigning to advance the process of making treatment universally accessible and affordable. This year we will hear from Mo-

the UK and Victor from Nigeria. Mohammed broke the silence shrouding he portrayed the young face of the epidemic in the media and talked about his HIV status in an open letter to the president. Lea is a young mother living in Bedford with her two HIV negative children, committed to educating young people across the UK in protecting themselves. Victor has been living with HIV for the last 7 years and is an advocate for the rights of the mainpopulations affected by the pandemic, with an emphasis on men who have sex with men. The young people speak not as helpless victims, but as hopeful, determined and capable individuals. Their achievements should inspire us to action here in the UK. The Tour is an amazing opportunity for us to hear about the real stories behind the pandemic and to understand what living with HIV means to someone. The evening will also provide a do to prevent more people from being infected with a disease that in the future we may be able to eradicate. Do you think a HIV free genera-

Help the Stop AIDs campaign by heading to the tour

more come along to the free Student Stop AIDS Speaker Tour on Tuesday 18th October at 1830 in 5West 2.3.

101 things you never knew about wine...

ike wine and think you know about it too? Whether it’s the legal release date for Beaujolais Nouveau (third Thursday of every November), or that it is made from grapes and contains alcohol, read on! On the 22nd November WineSoc is hosting and taking part in a national competition by Wine Australia, an international organisation promoting fantastic wine from the world’s 4th largest wine exporter. Bath will be one of 8 contestant universities to put a team of 3 into the competition, and we will be facing Bristol on the day in the quiz ‘101 things you never knew about wine’. The quiz will consist of general wine trivia, with an obvious Australian focus, and will be held by an expert representative of Wine Australia. Even better, they will also be providing wine for the audience throughout the evening! The winning team will move for-

all expenses paid fortnight “wine ex-

perience” to Australia next Easter. This is just one of the many events WineSoc have planned this term, all of which can be found on bathstudent, at http://bit.ly/winesoc, along with a list of committee contact details. With weekly tastings on Tues-

day nights held by seasoned wine experts and external speakers, you can always come along to further your enological education. Or just have a chat with friends over good wine before heading to the pub with us in town!

This is definitely ribena... we promise

Get it SORTED T he SORTED training programme has opened for another year, with a wide range of vocational sessions that will help you to improve your skills and employability. Accessing the programme is simple, just visit: www.bathstudent.com/sorted and click on “SORTED Membership - Buy Your Passport”. It

costs £10 to join but this is fully refundable at the end of the year provided you attend all of the sessions that you sign up for or give us notice of at least 48 hours if you can’t make it. Once you are a member then click on “Book Your Course” to find the full range of sessions ordered by the month in which they take place.

Up and Coming Sessions: 19th Oct: - Chair Training - Leadership Skills with Accenture 20th Oct: - Critically Evaluating What You Read - Making It All Add Up - Finance session with Deloitte

- Creative Thinking with PwC 26th Oct: - Focus on Your Future - Essential First Aid - Study Skills 27th Oct: - Plagiarism - What it is and how to Avoid it - Advanced Word

Volunteers needed!

o...SCA, what on earth is it? For the freshers among you, you still might not have forgiven us for soaking you during the Campus Challenge, but what was it for? It was all in the name of volunteering or, more precisely, Student Community Action. We’re your port of call for community volunteering opportunities around town and on campus, as well as aid trips abroad. If variety is the spice of life, SCA is something akin to a vindaloo. With our range of volunteering opportunities, there is something for everyone - whether you’re keen to work with children, the elderly, the homeless, those with learning difficulties, go abroad, or do your bit for the environment. The level of

commitment varies from project to project and from person to person, with some projects running on a weekly basis, others as a one off, and some simply when you feel like it. For those who find a passion with their project, there’s also the possibility of becoming a project leader. To get the full picture on what SCA can offer you, visit www.bathstudent.com/volunteer/sca or email your questions to committee. sca@gmail.com. Every volunteer brings something unique to SCA, and in turn gains a lot. You’ll meet new people, try new things and pick up skills you’ll take with you free to join! So why not start volunteering today?

SOCS catch-up For those of you who want to keep up a hobby, or those of you who want to try something new, we have a whole pile of societies for you to choose from. Hopefully you were overwhelmed with choice at the Activities Fair, however, if you didn’t manage to join up to those societies that took your fancy, it isn’t too late! You can get involved at any time, just head on over to bathstudent.com/socs. Since the last issue of bathimpact, the societies have already been busy. Those of you lucky enough to get a ticket for Aida by BUSMS (Musicals Society) would have seen some great performances. Whilst Medsin continued their bone marrow drive last Friday up in The Tub with large amounts of interest. In the next few weeks we have yet another performance from one of our arts societies, BUST (Theatre) who will be performing Dealers’ Choice.

However we also have BUASS, a Faith and Cultural society, who are planning a Diwali Eid Ball . Alongside of the year, ‘Show in a Week’, which we are really looking forward to, and we hope you are too. I say exec-run, but who are the exec? Your Societies Executive Committee is chaired by myself, Alix. Alongside me are 2 treasurers, Jon

to be appointed. Want to be on the exec, you could now open, with voting next week. You’ll be hearing more from us over the coming year, and if you do have any questions, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Enjoy your year!

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Activities

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SIFE needs you to make a change

itting on the train in London, there probably isn’t a better time to be writing an article about SIFE (Students In Free Enterprise). Over the past two days at the SIFE team leader training event 2011, I have met many brilliant and like minded people and even learnt new skills such as effective project management and how to build a support network. So what is SIFE? SIFE is an international, non-profit organisation which works with experts from the business and higher education sector as well as university students. By planning and initiating projects, SIFE teams make a real difference in their communities while developing the skills to become socially responsible business leaders. SIFE gives you a chance to help less fortunate people to turn around lives and give back to the community. But SIFE is so much more

than just fantastic projects. It is a brilliant way to get to know lots of people who you can learn from and work and share ideas with. And whilst we know how to work hard we also enjoy heading out for a drink and having a night out with the SIFE team. How can you get involved with SIFE? There are countless roles that are available within the team. If you are interested in helping people or the environment then you can join an existing project or if you are particularly passionate about local - or even international issues, you can create your own relevant project. If you have a business mind or are more mathematical then maybe the role of a treasurer is for you or you could create a commercial project and raise funds for the team. However, you may be someone who enjoys interacting with people and forging relationships and the positions such as the Corporate Relations Executive or Media Re-

Gender Equality Update Bethany Wong bathimpact Contributor ender Equality group is a new kid on the block, but they’ve got it where it counts! Set up only a year ago, they’re got a massive membership and week 1’s meeting (on Lady Gaga and Gender stereotyping) had a record turnout. Catch them on Parade on Wednesday 19th running a cake sale for Reclaim the Night. In all their equal-rights glory, a mixed-gender bunch of them headed to Bristol on 1st October with some amazing signs to join the SlutWalk, an emerging movement aimed at raising awareness of rape and antivictim blaming. About 200 men, women and everyone else march

through the town scantily clad (but didn’t they have a nice day for it?) to end with speakers including Bristol Rape Crisis, A&S Police and campaign group Daughters of Eve. Want to meet these pioneering people? Meetings are every Tuesday in 8W 2.21 at 6.15, this fortnight covering Feminism 101 and Black Feminism & Black history. Nominations have opened for the positions of Treasurer, Publicity Ofis an amazing opportunity to really get involved with your SU and lend a hand representing your fellows and helping the D&S groups do what they do so well even better. Upload your manifesto at www.bathstudent. com/welfare/student-groups/

The gender equality group making a stand in Bristol

lations Executive may be for you. What do you gain from it? Through these positions and experiences, you will gain a phenomenal amount of life skills and knowledge whilst the networking opportunities at SIFE training days and the National SIFE competition are endless. As a result of this, SIFE students are some of the most highly employable graduates in the job market. The SIFE sponsors such as HSBC or KPMG recognise this and it is no surprise that most SIFE students have job offers before they have even graduated. But most importantly you will have some of the most brilliant, fun and memorable times of your University career. This year SIFE Bath plans to undergo a huge transformation, dramatically increasing the size of our team, improving existing projects whilst also creating new ones and securing financial income. As an organisation, we are looking for the right people to fill

SIFE on Parade parading the BSC soup school important roles of responsibility. By working together, forging relationships, being passionate and above all having fun, SIFE Bath really can achieve great things.

For your chance to be involved with the Baths SIFE team please contact either: Oliver ok215@bath.ac.uk or Alex als36@bath.ac.uk

Show in a week

alling all freshers (and freshers-at-heart)! Do you want to get involved in arts while you’re here? Perhaps you’ve seen Gravity Vomit tossing their balls about some strange-looking artist you haven’t heard of thrust into

1 West? Well, Show in a Week is the thing for you! What’s that? I hear you ask... Show in a Week is an arts variety show that happens once a year, and was started to get freshers involved in the arts. Loads of different societies, including BREAK, BUSMS, BUST and Ch&OS steel themselves to write, learn and produce an entire show in just one week. The theme is announced on Friday October 21st at a party in The Tub (with free food and performances by some of the groups involved) before everyone suddenly realises they only have a week and get to work. Then, a week later, a wondrous show spectacular is put on, to the delight of one and all! Previous themes have included but whatever the theme is, be sure that it’ll be good fun. Don’t worry if you’ve never been on stage before in your life - Show in a Week is all about getting involved. So, how do you get involved? A good start is joining societies with many of those involved in the arts,

Last year’s Show in Week makng a blast on stage so sign up on bathstudent.com now and give it a go! You also need to remember to come along to the launch party, in The Tub at 1.15pm

on Friday October 21st and even if you don’t perform, come along and see your friends as they perform their socks off!

Launch party: Friday 21st October, 1:15pm, The Tub Show: Saturday 29th October, 7:30pm, Arts Lecture Theatre. Tickets cost £5 and can be bought online through the ICIA website and we will be selling tickets on Parade throughout the week.

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Activities

www.bathimpact.com

BUSTing out a play

his weekend, Bath University Student Theatre presents Dealer’s Choice Patrick Marber’s tense, dark comedy - which will be their first major production of the year. A brilliant opening performance directed by Laurence Whitaker, Dealer’s Choice lays bare the desperation, empty posturing and machismo that lie at the heart of the world restauranthas created. Poker is everything in this world – everyone from the the sarcastic Frankie (Dev Pan-

The weekly game held in the restaurant is practically a religious event. But when sinister stranger to the game by Stephen’s only son tempt to repay a debt, tensions and buried grievances are forced

quickly and brutally to the surface. As the game wears on, weaknesses are harshly exposed and the seemingly secure lives of each of the players hang on the turn of a card. Interested? Add to all this tension a script is crackling with rapid-fire comic dialogue, and you have the makings of a hit. This is not one you want to miss! With tickets costing just £4 for students and concessions, get them as soon as possible to avoid missing out! The first performance is this Friday, with the show running until Sunday. Tickets are for sale on Parade from 12-2 for most of this week – keep an eye out for a special appearance from the characters! Alternately, you can buy tickets online at www.bath.ac.uk/icia, over the phone on 01225 386777, or through the ICIA box office in 1 East 2.1. See you there!

The sultry cast of Dealer’s Choice, an excellent production by BUST

The Insider visits the Bath Science Café... T

he Bath Science Café is held on the second Monday evening of every month in the Raven pub, Queen Street, Bath. Each month, a speaker delivers a presentation to the interested general public on a different subject; past topics have included particle physics, climate change, tsunamis, anti-ageing medications and even the future of chocolate. Last Monday the Insider was attending a talk by Professor W.N. Wang of our own University, with the title “LEDs – Applications Beyond Simple Lighting”. The lecture plained how LEDs worked, how they were used for lighting and the second half focused on novel applications for LEDs. It turns out there are a LOT of such applications. For example, the small size of LEDs makes it easy to place them inside the body in order to illuminate it for interior imaging; in addition, the narrow colour range of LED light is especially useful if

Space Shuttle to remove the chemical ethylene that hindered plant growth. The process was further developed ing anthrax and other bacteria. Blue LEDs, meanwhile, are used for dental reported a 30% increase in catches when using blue-green LEDs to illuminate the water. LEDs could also prove hugely useespecially for the small proportion of high-value crops that account for over a third of farmland revenue. Plants are extremely sensitive to the different colours of light they receive, and different plants are affected in different ways in different stages of their life cycle. For example, plants grown long, thin stems and sparse leaves compared to those grown under natural light, as the ratio of red to far-red though there is a lot of work still to be

be enormous. The upstairs room in the Raven where the talk was held was packed. The presentation got fairly technical at times and many of the slides were rather bland, but his was balanced with humour and some aweinspiring statistics; for example, a series of images were shown of an anthrax culture being completely wiped out after just one minute of ultraviolet irradiation. After the talk there was a short break followed by a Q&A session, although it did seem like most of the questions were asked either by the organisers or PhD students working in Wang’s group. In conclusion, the Science Café follows a similar format to other public lectures such as those held at BRLSI, but the setting is less formal and the audience’s demographic more varied. It’s often advertised on the University website.

certain types of cells, chemicals or infectious agents. LEDs emitting in the ultraviolet can be used for photo-catalytic oxidation, a process developed in a “space greenhouse” aboard the

Become the next Picasso - join Splat!

elcome to Splat Art! You may have heard of us; we may seem like a brand new society but we’re not. We used to be known as the Visual Arts Society; we needed to be noticed around the Uni with something more than our artistic talents. Our previous name caused confusion about what we do (I actually

Splat Art is more succinct: we do art. We’re a relatively young society with high ambitions, run by students, for students like you. You don’t need to be good at the subject to take part; the way we look at it, it’s all about having fun. We offer you the opportunity to be creative and explore your artistic abilities in your free time. We provide all the space, materials and advice that you’ll need.

Over the past two years we’ve been really fortunate to have worked with the ICIA over a number of projects

ryone who took part (except for me as

which was presented in the display pus or the Fire Sculptures, made from wicker and hay and set alight at sunset on a hot summer’s evening for an amazing spectacle. We also contribute to art around the University such as at the Summer Ball where we featured an elegant couple made from wicker sculptures or helping out BUSMS, with pillars and two pyramids for their Egyptian musical, Aida! On Carnival Day, I stood with a canvas around my neck and pots of paint shouting at un-expecting freshers to “PAINT ME”. This was an exercise for everyone to see that to do art it doesn’t need to be a regimented process which requires skill. The complete canvases may seem like a horrible accident to most, but it was fun for eve-

Celebrity and Toga nights in Solsbury Court where we were painting your faces to raise funds for our society and charity. If you missed us, don’t worry! Just look out for us again at Halloween! This year we plan to do a lot more, ultimately wanting to achieve our main goal of reaching a wider audience with our art. We are arranging Indian traditional art workshops to celebrate the festival of Diwali and are planning a few big workshops, such as a Scrapheap Challenge with a twist where we will be making sculptures

Some of you freshers may (or may

bers and other intrigued students for a Bath Walk. We sketched the landscape by the lake and, after a while, walked and sketched our way to the Sham Castle followed by Bath City

centre, ending with a drink at the pub. We overcome any obstacles in our way - we decided to go to the top level of Wessex House with a brilliant view for a short while, to avoid the cold and rain. As well as traditional art and recycled sculptures, we plan to have life drawing, still-life drawing, fabric painting, collages, themed card making, wire sculptures and a lot more! We don’t commit any members to anything; if you miss a workshop there will be another one just around the corner! So, if you are at all interested in creativity and exploration, or if you want to know what else we do, check out our Facebook page “Splat Art @ University of Bath 2011/12” or visit our bathstudent.com page. Our photo albums are packed with our past workshops and projects and we’re always open to suggestions! Don’t hold back, be creative and explore your imagination.

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

International

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Harry Pitts bathimpact Contributor

hat colour are the soles of your shoes? If the less fashion-conscious among you feel the need to check before you can answer this question, it’s safe to say that you probably aren’t modelling a pair of Louboutins. Indeed, you might be issue has become the subject of a multi-million dollar lawsuit beion world. This month, the court

£6,000 How much you could pay for a pair of Louboutins case that has taken haute couture by storm looks set to continue as French fashion houses Louboutin

Louboutin is seeking $1milllion damages from YSL. The case arose Cruise 2011 collection at the New York Fashion Week. Four models graced the catwalks resplendent in signs, including one offending item

Twenty years ago Christian Lousoled high-heels, sported today by celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie. Selling hundreds of thousands of high-fashion heels at up to $6,000 a pair, the designer’s company, Louboutin, expects an annual income of $135mil-

Laurent started selling its own redsoled shoes, Louboutin claimed that to take YSL to court for trademark infringement. Louboutin trademarked the red

Flickr

Yves St Laurent vs Louboutin...the battle still rages Wizard of Oz, Dorothy wore similarly coloured slippers. The parties appeared again on August 19th in order to work out a way of proceeding with the case. Although YSL has had the better of Louboutin so far, the latter seems intent to take the case all the way to the Supreme Court. District Judge mark until appeal proceedings began against the original ruling. The Louboutin legal team are currently gathering new testimonies from as to how colours are selected. It is the judge’s statement that ‘colour New York District Court rejected Louboutin’s claim that a colour can be intellectual property, drawMonet for using the colour blue when painting his water lilies. Like all artists, he said, fashion designers should be afforded use of the choose. YSL says that Louboutin is red-soled shoes. King Louis XIV of

sion falls, it is clear that the case will hold wider implications not only for the fashion industry, but for intellectual property at large. Judge Marrero’s ruling holds any certainty that trademarks will be protected in other US courtrooms. Fashion commentators express concern that this makes it harder for the industry to defend

soled dancing shoes, and in The

and low-budget imitators. The judge ruling on the trademark itself rather than the dispute at hand. Louboutin ceedings are ‘no longer about the case’. In a sign that the case is likely to become a lengthy legal wrangle, ous industry insiders, law professors and legal personnel to continue Lewin, “Not by a long shot”.

for a preliminary injunction, the judge’s ruling that YSL can continue to produce and sell the red-soled shoes is good news for fashionistas on a slightly slimmer budget than

of YSL’s Spring/Summer 2011-2012 collection. They say that you can may only be room for one red-soled pair if Louboutin has its way.

Mate, what you chattin’? Omar Khan gives us the low-down on how strange British slang really is “Mornin”.

man in front me. “Yeah, ta. You?” replies his friend, standing next to him. “Knackered. Anyway, fancy mine laterz?” “Sucks that. Ah that sounds

for now. See you at 7!” If you were able to follow any

stand the slang. For those of you who were left scratching your head let me help you out there.

Flickr

place between two fine young chaps

Dictionaries won’t be any help to you here bruv

standing in front of me in the Students’ Union. The first one cheerfully greeted his friend and asked after his general well-being. The second friend then replied to him for his concern, and then asked about his health in return. The first friend replied back by saying that fatigue had got the better of him that morning. He then extended ing him to join him at his abode to indulge in some fine British beer (as both of them enjoy watching a good game of football). After sympathising with his dear fellow, the second chap accepted the offer, clearly pleased. After mentioning

Now, for those international students who grew up watching ter like me, were quite surprised actual example of how young adults ries in England. Don’t you worry, it only took me two whole years to get the hang of it! A long time you

say? Well, let me help you out then. The first trick of familiarising yourself with the slang, is to understand the context. When asked, ‘You alright?’ don’t be offended like I was, it’s just another way of asking ‘How are you?’. Similarly, ‘Cheers’ and ‘Ta’ (usually accom-

bump) are synonyms for ‘Thank you’... apparently. Once starting to get the feel for things, you’ll start to see that many words that basically mean ‘bad’ (wicked, sick and dope for exam-

know, it could be the next big thing in slang, and win you some new mates. Another thing I picked up whilst

one of my statements. You would

‘bare’, which has the same effect as saying ‘exceedingly’. Another

example would be the use of the word ‘proper’, as in the statement ‘I was proper full after dat chinky’. More often than not, you will hear the word ‘innit’ (pronounced in-net) at the end of each sentence, which magically turns a statement into fact. The word is in fact, the British translation of the famous phrase ‘You know?’ and is the abridgment of phrase ‘is it not’. What’s that you say? Still not sounding British enough? Well then why not add a healthy dose of ‘mate’, a word used for ‘friend’, and not your life partner. Also miss out the letters ‘h’ and ‘t’ here

now innit, mate? lol. ple state of affairs. A good deal of what we pick up comes from the people we hang out with. I hope in settling down in the UK and understanding the culture a bit better.

Monday 17th October 2011

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International

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Anti-corruption protests in India must march on Atirek Dhir bathimpact Contributor

We are all cowards and instead of blaming ourselves we blame others as it is the easiest thing to do. That is our natural reaction when we are cornered and the scapegoat here is the government. Showing our support to the movement by clicking ‘Like’ on Facebook does not make us a responsible Indian. Neither does posting statuses or participating in the protests. It just shows that we wish to be seen as responsible Indians whereas deep down we know we are guilty as well and are a part of this menace. Whether you agree or not, it is plausible that we are possibly to blame more than the government. If we were to stop giving money to get our work done or to get out of

“

Corruption begins from

the roots, and the roots here are us... the citizens.

”

tight situations then there would be a lot less corruption. We all want to be responsible citizens who wish to bring about a change. That is totally acceptable but the point here is that do the people have enough courage? The courage to get your car impounded and use public transport instead when you jump a red light? The courage to stand in line at the passport office instead of bribing the officials? The courage to not drink and drive and eradicating the ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude that we seem to glorify? And finally to accept that everyone makes mistakes sometimes and we deserve

to be punished for it? There you go. I think many of the protestors have just had the hot air stuffed in them which was then sucked out. If you were to make this the criteria to allow a person to protest, I can assure you that many of the people supporting the movement would not be allowed to participate. Corruption begins from the roots, and the roots are us, the average citizen. If you really wish to take a stand, then have the courage to stand up when you yourself commit a wrong. Have the courage to face what you have done instead of taking the easy way out and paying money to get out of the mess. I can honestly say with regret that I am a part of corruption. I declare that YES, I have helped it grow. I also vow that from now on I will try to change to the best of my abilities. Do other citizens have the courage to accept that you are all part of it as well? Are you willing to struggle a little for a better India? A few months of agony could lead to years of happiness for our next generations. It is possible for us all to be responsible citizens and point the finger of blame at ourselves. You know the answer. You can take the stand. You know whether you are a part of this or not. The protest will not change anything; on the other hand we can change everything. We should not look for a leader. We are all a part of the Indian social and political structure too and so it is everyone’s duty to help in cleaning up this mess even if it means getting their hands dirty.

A Wad of World News

Around 180 political prisoners have been freed from Burmese prisons, including monks, journalists, government critics and even a well-known comedian (pictured above). There are however, about 2000 individuals still behind bars for speaking out against the current party in power.

Girls in Chile are refusing to leave their school grounds in protest against months, with reports of the girls from the prestigious Carmela Carvajal rettes. They want free university education for all, and they’ll hold their ground until they get it.

Flickr

nti-corruption activist Anna Hazare was arrested by officials this August in Delhi India, along with 1,300 of his followers. He was intending to start a hunger strike that would last an indeterminate length of time to campaign against grafting, which is where one uses their authority to achieve their own ends. Prior to Mr Hazare, did Indians not see or face corruption within the country? Why did it take a single man to awaken a country of a billion people? A billion people face the ugly side of our corrupt country almost every day. Having a candlelit protest or a fast will not change anything. The general public do not appear to be supporting the movement - out of a population of over a billion people there are only a few thousand that are protesting. Will that really make a difference? Until everyone comes together, this movement will fizzle out too, just like all the others. The citizens have to be our strength this time instead of being a liability. The population needs to be taught the correct methods to overcome corruption. We all need to follow these procedures diligently, even though it leads to loss of time, energy and money. Corruption doesn’t only comprise of receiving money; giving money is also an essential part, if not the worst. It is generally felt that corruption is the fault of higher government officials, and that exposing them would eradicate it. This is NOT the case: the corruption is because of you, because of me, because of all of us who promote it.

A Liberian cargo vessel named Rena became stranded off the coast of New Zealand after grounding on the Astrolabe Reef. This lead to an oil leak that

The anti-corruption rally in Delhi last August was the start of bigger things to come, or was it?

into the Bay of Plenty.

Fancy journalism? Radio? Television?

WHAT’S HOT ON URB: URB have had some exciting news recently. The team

Student media needs YOU. Join Media for £6 and take advantage of the best things the Students’ Union has to offer (in our opinion, anyway).

at your university radio station recieved the news last week that they got four nominations at the Student Radio Awards 2011 for their work over the past year. The nominations are for: Best Marketing and Station Sound, Best Chart Show, Best Journalistic - for their coverage of the NUS Demo in London 2010 - and Best Station!

Nick Hill: Station Manager

The student chart... bathstudent.com/media

1. Maroon 5 - Moves Like Jagger 2. Rihanna - We Found Love 3. Emeli Sande - Heaven 4. Ed Sheeran - You Need Me, I Don’t Need You 5. Gym Class Heroes - Stereo Hearts

6. Olly Murs - Heart Skips A Beat 7. Katy Perry - Last Friday Night (TGIF) 8. Calvin Harris - Feel So Close 9. David Guetta - Turn Me ON 10. DJ Fresh - Louder

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Science

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The bacterial ‘mop’

Bruce Fanshawe tells bathimpact about research that could become incredibly useful in the future.

biological organisms to remove pollutants from the environment. The removal of soluble uranium (hexavalent) from water to form a more insoluble form of uranium (tetravalent) in Geobacter bacteria provide a means to considerably reduce radioactive contamination. Pili (see photo) have been shown to be an integral part of this mechanism. In order for this reaction to Flickr

acteria pervade all environments imaginable, often providing balance through the recycling of nutrients. A relative handful, however, have gained notoriety: often as a result of their disease-causing nature. Interesttechnology has enabled bacteria to be used in novel ways, one of which is bioremediation - or the use of

Visible hair-like extensions on a bacterium: these are the pili

alph Steinman is one of three people sharing the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this year. He was awarded it for his discovery of the dendritic cell, a discovery that had people sceptical at first when the results could not be replicated but now continues to be researched as important to adaptive immunity. However the award is tinged with sadness as Steinman passed away only a few days before the announcement. Dendritic cells are antigen presenting cells; they have projections that search out foreign bodies and present protein antigens from themselves to other immune cells so they’ll be tagged for destruction. Steinman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 4 years ago and in an unconventional move used his own research in an attempt to save his own life. He thought that if he could train his dendritic cells to recognise his own cancer cells then he could use them to track down the tumour

cells that were not removed during surgery and mount an immune response against them. However, despite some success (he lived much longer than anyone could have predicted, most sufferers of pancreatic cancer living less than a year after diagnosis whilst he survived four) it was ultimately not enough to save him. Steinman continued his research until he died on 30th September, just days before it was announced that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize. When news of his

Professor Science

If I eat potatoes raw will I die?

proceed, the transfer of electrons to soluble uranium is necessary (a reduction reaction), which is done along the pilus, in which it effectively acts as a conductor. The presence of pili mean reduction of uranium doesn’t occur within bacteria, which would produce a toxic build up of the radioactive element, but at a distance extracellularly. Pili are present dependent upon the environmental conditions occupied by bacteria, itself presenting further challenges in implementing this mode of radioactive waste removal Implications are wide-reaching; there is the possibility of modifying the pilus for different tasks, but also utilising the conductive properties of the pilus independently of bacteria (as a kind of ‘nanowire’), thereby doing away with the physiological constraints imposed by a bacterium. Given the likelihood of a nuclear future and further general pollution due to an expansive world population, bioremediation is likely to gain further interest over the coming years.

Nobel Prize winner dies before receiving award Clodagh McGuire bathimpct Contributor

death surfaced it threw his award into doubt as the Nobel Prize is not normally awarded posthumously. The Nobel Foundation had an emergency meeting and it has been announced that he will still be awarded the prize and his work recognised as an important landmark in immunological research as it was awarded “in good faith” with the belief he was still alive. So this story has a bittersweet ending - his research couldn’t save his own life, but in the future maybe it could save others.

Nobel Prize winner Ralph Steinman and his life changing work

Potential killers on the prowl in your kitchen cupboard

hilst sitting in the of-

idea for this column, my colleague turned to me and said, “Are there any vegetables out there that, if I eat them raw, will cause I snorted in derision and ignored his life, but then I realised. I had no answer to his question. Are there killer vegetables out there that the world should know about? I’ve trawled the internet and this is what I’ve found: POTATOES These are absolutely harmless if eaten raw IF they haven’t been exposed to light, been in your cupboard for so long that they grow those tentacle arms that reach out for your neck or you decided to beat them up thus causing them physical damage. All three things causes a group of toxins to be produced called glycoalkaloids. One of these is solanine, a poison that is also found in deadly nightshade. So what would actually happen to you if you dared to take the risk, or simply had nothing left to consume? Well the nervous system becomes affected, and leaves the victim weak and confused. Much like waking up in a superman costume after a hard night at Score. KIDNEY BEANS My vegetarian housemate is in love with them. They’re a brilliant source for protein and are known to substantially lower cholesterol. However, cook them well or a horrible experience lays in wait. Kidney beans contain a nasty compound called phytohaemagglutinin, which causes vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and even death. All this horror can be easily avoided by cooking the beans at 100°C for about 10 minutes or more, as this degrades the poison. Don’t take

a shortcut by trying to cook them at an energy saving 80°C, because can this just annoys the toxin and the consumer and any unsuspecting dinner guests. RHUBARB This is one for all you lot that enjoy baking rhubarb pie, breakever it is that you do to avoid actually studying. It is absolutely imperative that you DO NOT eat the leaves of a rhubarb. Cooking them doesn’t make any difference, so life is much easier if you just cut them completely off and chuck them onto the compost. They contain oxalates, which are substances that do their best to cause cardiovascular and respiratory problems. So heed this warning people. TOMATOES Now there was some debate on whether I should have added this one to the list, as the arguments are still out there about it not really being part of the vegetable gang. But I believe that my dear readers should be warned about these potentially nasty devils. You as it isn’t sprouting furry mould, but the leaves are a massive no-no. These contain substances called alkaloids that cause dizziness, upset stomachs and headaches. Green tomatoes are also known to contain alkaloids, and at least 1 death has been attributed to these green gremlins. So basically folks don’t just grab day, make sure that you’re cooking everything well and cutting off all the worst bits. If you would like a question answered by Professor Science, send it on to impact-features@bath. ac.uk.

Monday 17th October 2011

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Business

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Omar Khan & Aga Jezierska bathimpact Contributors eorge Carlin once said: “Most people work just

and get paid just enough money not to quit”. In one of my recent university lectures, my class was shown a picture of a reasonably polished young man from around the 1970’s, comfortably smiling into the camera. Our lecturer asked us to guess what his future aspirations or job aspects might have been. Interestingly enough, everyone guessed that he would have aimed for a comfortable life, a not-too-hard career with decent progression opportunities and, of course, a relaxed, albeit generous, pension scheme at the end of it all. Unfortunately, the job climate has changed dramatically since the ‘good ol’ days’. Dr David Hall of the

common trap you are likely to fall into is to think that only big brands will make your CV look worthwhile to an employer. In fact, at a recent commercial awareness seminar by Flickr

“Given the choice between a graduate with industrial experience and a graduate with no industrial experience, anyone is obviously more likely to choose the experienced graduate.” Summing it up, students with more of an out-of-classroom, real-life experience are being preferred by employers. However, thinking about which career path to opt for can often be a daunting task for many students. Take Richard from Propects magazine’s Job-logs for example: “They seemed (his family and friends) to be under the impression that I would have formed some kind of a general idea of what on earth I wanted to be by the age of about 2122. They were very, very wrong.”

true calling only when they have tried their hands at different careers. An insightful article written by Herb Shepard, titled ‘On the realization of human potential: A path with a heart’ highlights some very important points that every student should consider. The main theme of the article is to choose a career from the ‘heart’ - in other words, choose a career you feel really passionate about. When it comes to gaining experience before graduating, say, for example, opting for an industrial placement scheme, a lot of you would consider going after the big companies such as PwC, Deloitte, Microsoft, etc. While they are ex-

PwC, the recruiter emphasised the fact that part-time jobs at Sainsbury’s or Costa Coffee, for example, can in fact really brighten up your CV as they might highlight some skills you might have gained which are needed for the demanding roles offered by the company. Another thing students often forget about when thinking of what careers to pursue is to simply take a breather and ask themselves “why?”. Shepard states that each individual is unique and hence shouldn’t compromise his own values and opt for a career everyone

the idiom of the car driving the man when of course it should be the other way round. After you have stopped going after what you think might look good on your CV and really consider what career you wish to pursue, only then will you truly start to see the subliminal message behind George Carlin’s words. That being said, it takes a good truly know one’s heart’s desire. For would be their calling; for others a long run would be more their cup of tea. So stop a moment and ponder which career path you would like to take and why. Does it just look good on your CV or is it something that suits your ideals? Do jump at every opportunity that comes your way so that you have a well-rounded perspective about jobs. This will greatly help

Use these tips and your chances of graduate employment soar

as well as what you enjoy. A career is not something you jump into, but something you build brick by brick.

A bite of business Magali Calabressi brings you business that’s short and sweet

Wall Street Protests

few weeks since the start of the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protests, their publicity is still sketchy, some claim. But the neglect of mainstream media has not affected demonstrators, who are staying put and camping out at more than 25 cities across the US. The movement’s cause claims to go far beyond corporate greed, economic inequality, lack of jobs and politics. The actual website (occupywallst.org) provided protester’s own interesting analogy of the situation. It reads: “We all know the classic scenes from cartoons. The cat reaches a precipice. But it goes on walking… Only when it looks down and notices [it’s in the air], it falls down… We are telling the guys on Wall Street - Hey, look down!”

A perennial message amongst demonstrators is that 40% of the country’s wealth lies in the hands of 1% of the population, and that this 1% has less to pay in taxes. Mr Obama has shown an understanding for the movement - he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy to pay for his programme to widen the job market. The Bank of America drew eyes nounced its plan to impose a $5 (£3.20) monthly fee on debit aclot to say about this, mainly that banks are to blame, but so are you and I. (New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg: “We always tend to blame the wrong people. We blame the banks. They were part of this, but so was Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae and Congress and you and me and everybody.”) Flickr

How to get the perfect placement

Jobs’ parting gift

he announcement of Steve Jobs death was a shock to many. The general consensus was that if Jobs wasn’t heading the computing giant, then everything would go to pot. However, with the sad passing of the entrepreneur, the

shares of his jointly founded company have shot up. One consumer even remarked “Jobs dying was one of the best things to ever happen to Apple”. Time will tell if Jobs’ replacement, Tim Cook, will lead the company to even greater heights.

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Business

www.bathimpact.com

Prioritising studies or applications? European

debt crisis continues

Laura Tingle bathimpact Contributor

Magali Calabressi Treasurer impact-money@bath.ac.uk

ebt-laden Greece continues to -

er than down) has started with the Eu-

the sad realisation that economics -

released about the actual terms and -

Bath Graduate now ice-cream man -

where he will serve over three hun-

hand-churned ice-cream creations -

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Sport

www.bathimpact.com

England’s RWC campaign over

The number of RWC

match against Wales. The 6’7’’ goliath was hauled down on the try line by a 12 stone Shane Williams. In Banahan’s defence he brought an alternative option of brute force to

the England back three.

Vettel claims second world title

off however when a bulldozing run by Banahan set up England’s only try against the French and a potential way back into the game. It was to prove too little too late though and the nonchalant French team It was by no means a great French performance, but with a little ‘je ne selves as genuine title contenders.

but all throughout the group games. With his ongoing injury problems, Moody never really managed to assert his authority on the games, playing only a bit part role in the tournament. The English management were fully aware of this before departing for New Zealand. If they had shown more faith in the younger, in-form Tom Wood, they could perhaps have taken their performance to the next level. Matt Banahan’s selection in the

Inter national sports news

Canadian Football’s crazy, eh

The weekend before last saw Sebastian Vettel claim a second consecutive world F1 title. Despite a Grand Prix, Vettel had such a ridiculous overall lead on the rest of the competition that it was enough to see him crowned World Champion for the second year running. All of this despite there still being four races left to run. I don’t know about you, but the word I would use to describe this year’s competition would be, ironically, ‘uncompetitive’. Vettel has won nine of the 15 races so far this year and has only failed to appear on the podium once. That isn’t so much a competition as just a display of complete and utter dominance by one person. A lot of it, to be fair, is probably down to the car, but this shouldn’t distract from what is a remarkable achievement. Having said that though, hopefully next year’s season will be, oh, I dunno, a little bit closer. thesun.co.uk

against the All Blacks, a very public scathing by the coach and reports of squad disharmony all suggested any success for the French team was unlikely. Having had a less disastrous build up compared to the French, England went into the knockout match as favourites. It took just half an hour of the match for any talk of gotten as England found themselves two tries down. It was not that the England team were on the end of a severe French backlash, they just simply had not turned up.

England lacked real leadership on the pitch, not just in the half hour self destruction against the French,

match day squads continued to bemuse many followers. His size and speed gave him the potential to terrorise the bravest of defenders, however he simply did not deliver when he needed to. His critics’ worst criti-

www.telegraph.co.uk

Bath had four players selected for England’s World Cup squad, with only Lewis Moody and Matt Banahan given the chance to make a genuine impact. Lee Mears and David Wilson would have been as well off

Flickr

Nik Simon gives impactsport the run down on England’s failed World Cup campaign ngland’s build up ahead of ‘le Crunch’ was not ideal. An unbeaten progression through the group stages was met by criticism of their laboured performances against very beatable teams and overshadowed by dwarves, hotel maids and late night royal rumbles. Whilst the England camp had its problems, proceedings among their French counterparts were even

» “I resultantly found myself at the wrong end of a few pile-ups” Simon Vanstone bathimpact Contributor

y coach says to me “Welcome to College Football”

ball and been tackled by two 18 stone Defensive Linemen. Quite the introduction to the sport, I think you will agree. Let’s go back now shall we and see how I ended up getting involved in this brutal pastime known in North America as Football. I am currently taking part in a study abroad programme at Dalhousie University in Canada for the third year of my Physics masters. After playing the last two games of last season for Bath’s very

own American Football team, the Killer Bees, I decided to try out for the Dalhousie Tigers Canadian Football team. I arrived in Halifax, Nova Scotia, early September and headed over cial sports pitch, with 75 other players; all of whom were hoping to make Canadian Football is very similar to American Football. It involves two teams of fairly robust players trying to get the ball into the opponents’ end zone either by passing or running the ball. In Canadian Football there are at any one time as opposed to the 11 in American Football. They wear the typical ‘football’ kit; a helmet, shoul-

der pads, leg protectors, and if they care about their penile appendages, a cup too. In the initial week of tryouts we were put through our paces with a series of drills to see if our speed, strength and agility (the three key attributes for any football player) were up to scratch. As a running back, my job is to be handed the ball by the quarterback and basically, through a combination of brute force and agility, wriggle my way as far up the pitch as possible. After a week of training every day I was delighted to discover that I had made the squad. Practice was hard, with two sessions on Saturday leaving me needing an ice bath to even recover the ability to walk the next day. The practice is full contact and, despite being team mates, there are still some seriously big hits going in, but it was all in prep for our opening champions. Being the third string running bench watching and trying to learn as much about the game as I could. The atmosphere for our home opener against the champs was brilliant. We ran out of the changing rooms through a tunnel made up of screaming cheerleaders to the applause of

the 1,500 fans present. Unfortunately we let them down by losing 33-6. The following week the visit to Prince Edward Island to play the Holland College Hurricanes was equally disappointing; even more so as we only lost by a miniscule three points. This brings me to our third game of the season, against the mighty Acadia Axemen practice squad. As a varsity team, Acadia receives university funds which pay for full time coaches and they can offer top players scholarships. On the other hand, Dalhousie competes at club level, with no support from the university and with volunteer coaches. As such, we played the bottom 40 players from Acadia’s much larger roster. As an exhibition game, every player got a game; I got my time to shine by playing the last 15 minutes. The Axeman, living up their name, were simply bigger and stronger than our team and I resultantly found myself at the wrong end of a few pile ups. With the last few minutes of the clock ticking down, one of our receivers dropped a ball in the end zone in what would have been a certain touchdown. We unfortunately lost the game 32-7, a third successive loss. But with improvements all over soon...

Vettel; just showing off now really

Morgan’s dirty little f*ck live on camera Nyjer Morgan hit the game winning pitch in the bottom of the 10th (whatever that means) to send the Milwaukee Brewers into the National Championship League Series (I’m talking baseball here people). He then however proceeded to scream “YEAH, F*CK YEAH, F*CK YEAH” down the interviewer’s microphone which just so happened to be streaming live on TBS.

Quote of the day ‘I always turn to the sports section first. The sports pages record people’s accomplishments; the front page has nothing but man’s failures’ of the United States Supreme Court. You heard the man!

Monday 17th October 2011

bathimpact

Sport

www.bathimpact.com

Steroids! Steroids! Steroids! » Warning:

Jonathan Gleave bathimpact Sport Editor impact-sport@bath.ac.uk

bathimpact’s Sport Editor is a tit

Gleave’s gripes

ion.

anything, is the astonishing number -

50 percent The proportion of students who tested positive for banned substances

though those who are serious about

I’m going to start this issue’s column not so much with a gripe, but more with an apology (there -

the

with that training. -

There will be those who swear by -

protein). athletes, will get more than enough

is worth it. This is because I appreciate that there are only so many -

the same page. But I also apprethen putting twice as much air in

tion as much as possible... or so I

consuming.

cares (so that will be no one, but I’ll tell you anyway) it is an im-

against protein supplementation as counter nutritional supplements.

ney stones is also a real possibility.

they are Contaminated? Who knows...

The small things in life make it all worthwhile Tom Ash bathimpact Contributor

rule in athletics isn’t quite as new -

issue. A peer on my course (who shall remain nameless, ahem,

me!’

it is a ruling that is at least two

while...

The Fencing club stood out at the sports fair for all the right reasons

Your selected matches of the week Football Men’s 1st: Bath vs UWE Hartbury 19th October, St Johns pitch 1, 2pm.

Badminton Men’s 1st: Bath vs Southampton 26th October, STV 3 at 1pm -

tentially mouth-watering clash on

pions.

with some players currently playing

too. in the club again this year so pres-

many years as I can remember.

someone their place in the team.

The problem with apologies is -

impactsport

An introduction to collegiate sport Canadian Football, p25

Monday 17th October 2011

Inside impactsport England out of the Rugby World Cup For those of you unfortunate enough to wake up at whatever ungodly hour England were playing at last Saturday, you would’ve seen them crash out of the Rugby World Cup in typically uninspiring form. Turn to page 25 to see Nik Simon’s summary of England’s dismal campaign

Gleave gripes about nothing news worthy

The University of Bath has some of the country’s best sporting facilities so surely it’s only right we pay for them?

Bath’s Sports Pass is class

» Baddeley claims “subsidised sport was substandard sport” Matthew Givans bathimpact Contributor

hilst the University of Bath has an excellent high performance sports offering, the fact that sport for students was insufficiently subsidised was leading to the high expectations of prospective students being met by a comparatively disappointing outcome. With the appointment of Stephen Baddeley to role of Director of Sport for TeamBath, there has been a conscious effort to deliver a sporting experience that will please both the casual and more hardcore sports players we have here. Over 13 national bodies for sport are regionally based, with various national squads using the University of Bath’s facilities. With this high demand from athletes, students were being marginalised and Baddeley noted one example where “we weren’t delivering intramural sport outside football”. Students won’t need the pass to participate in the interdepartment al football competition or to join a sports club using off site sporting facilities. If however you are looking to use the STV’s facilities or compete in a BUCS team then you will need to purchase the pass, or face pay as you play charges.

With an uptake of already 2,500 sports passes at the time of writing, Baddeley is hopeful that this enthusiasm from students will lead to a “student driven” way in which the pass money is spent. Working closely with VP Sport Chris Clements, the aim will be to hold regular meetings and decide the best place for the money with significant input coming from clubs, sports players and stu-

2,500 Passes bought so far dents. Clements was clear to point out “the money brought in from the sports pass will only be spent on things to improve the student sport experience”. Currently the idea is to split the revenue two ways: spending some of the money on buying more time for students at the University’s sports facilities, including dedicated student participation times, and spending the rest on the investment and development of sports facilities on campus. Whilst still at an early stage, the idea of a 3G (synthetic, not grass) pitch in future years has been rumoured, and the dedicated student times include various days between 12:00 - 2:30pm and extra time in

the evenings. Students returning to Bath who have been used to receiving access to the University’s sports facilities for free will see the £100 fee as a pain. Over the course of a 30 week term however, for just over the price of a pint of beer a week, students can gain priority access to Olympic standard sports facilities and an overall improved sporting experience. On the fee, Baddeley noted “We want to encourage people to play and not put up a barrier to that, but obviously any payment is a barrier. As student feedback noted, they wanted a better sporting experience, but the only way to offer this was to raise more money so we added in the charge. However the overall rationale behind this Sports pass is to improve student sport, and we will be reviewing participation, accessibility, and the success of the pass regularly over the next two years.” Baddeley has been Director of Sport and interim Chief Executive at Sport England. While there he helped with the funding of various national sporting bodies, including such heavyweights as the RFU, the FA and the ECB. Appointed the Director of Sport for TeamBath in February 2010, Baddeley speaks passionately about his new role

at the University, highlighting “its great environment” and how he is “delighted to be at Bath”. The overall objective of the Sports pass is that in two years a markable change should be visible in the time and quality of sport available to students, as well as the facilities. Baddeley hopes that in this two year period “more students will be doing more sport and at a level that they find enjoyable... we would have failed if that hasn’t happened”. With such a figure at the helm, we should feel confident that the sports pass will be a success and the money will be spent in the right ways. Results can already be seen. VP Sport Chris Clements is proud to illustrate that student allocation hours for various sporting facilities has increased, particularly with the sports hall and astroturfs. There are some areas of concern yet to be addressed, such as the allocation of lanes times for clubs such as canoe, polo and kayaking in the 50m swimming pool.. Baddeley has a challenging job on his hands. They are striving to strike a balance between the interests of students, the interests of commercial sectors and the interests of national sporting bodies. For around three pounds a week, maybe they’ve done an okay job.

This week your Sport Editor feels the need to moan about nothing in particular. Is that going to stop him though? No. how truly pointless his rant is this week (and every week for that matter)

Roid rage on campus A recent study into protein supplementation revealed that an alarming percentage of supplements are contaminated with substances banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. Even more worryingly, some of our students tested positive for them. students tested positive for banned substances turn to page 27

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? sign or photography? in general? Get in touch! impactsport wants to hear from people like you! Contact bathimpact Sport Editor Jon Gleave (impact-sport@bath.ac.uk) to can get yourself involved. He is also seeking a Deputy Sport Editor.

Monday 17th October 2011

FILTH

...?

Monday 17th October 2011

bite-bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

EDITORIAL

How Far is

by Holly Narey

Holly Narey bite Editor

bite

impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

CONTENTS Student Lifestyle How far is Too far? Page 2 Page 3 Overworked and Underpaid Page 4

bite Contributor James Sava

Sex & Relationships Page 5 Contraceptive conversation Page 5

Music Page 6

Page 6 Page 7 Page 8

Videogames Page 7

Film

Page

8 Page

bite

The Guide Page 9

Fashion Page 10 Page 10

Food

Page 11 Page 11

Puzzle corner Page 12

bite

Advertising Enquires -

bathimpact

bathimpact are not bathimpact editors nor

bathimpact

University of Bath Studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Union Skepta: what a naughty boy

Monday 17th October 2011

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Too Far? clothes to emerge as sex symbols for guys to lust over (in cases like this,

want to wear what they wear, eat what they eat and talk like they talk, which leads to eating disorders and girls dressing and acting irresponsibly just like

But contrastingly, however, there is a school of thought that suggests that

These two wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t stand for such behaviour

Students: Are We Filth? Written by Holly Narey

Crammed onto buses like cattle, blaring music at three in the morning, crawling the streets in the witching hour, howling at the moonâ&#x20AC;Ś we, students, must be the scourge of the Earth in the opinion of most people who have the misfortune to come across us, especially at three in the morning; as they encounter us skimpily-dressed and cackling, rugby tackling bollards, any respectability held for us will dissipate in the air amongst the dust raised from the some special cases (some people need no excuse to act like idiots), but really our mistreatment stems not just from our misbehaviour, which is mostly

our front doors and collapse onto the mercy of our parents, crying with grati-

become paradise?

a good thing that for these few years we have to struggle through a bit, so that

become deathly boring with the help of the comforting memories of when we

through the till; piles of plainly-packed basics; or conducting some minor pi-

Wild animals by night - slow moving, quiet, moaning creatures by day

Monday 17th October 2011

bite-bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Overworked and Underpaid Written by Rowan Emslie

ast week, my eye was caught by an article in The Guardian that detailed the the growing anger at the existence of unpaid internships, particularly widespread in creative and legal industries. The main point of contention seems to be that offering experience for no wage both exploits the people filling these positions and discriminates against those who can’t afford to work for free. I am doing an unpaid internship - which is why I’m living at home and, therefore, need to be back in time for mama’s homecooking - and I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. Generally, I agree with the whole exploitation/discrimination rebuke but I think simply demanding minimum wages to be added to these positions would be missing an opportunity. I have now been at my job for a little over a month and have settled nicely into a daily routine. In the morning, I arrive and vaguely mumble hellos on my way to the kitchen. What I’m mostly focused on is making a giant pot of coffee which I will nurse throughout the day. I made a conscious decision before I started work not to offer to make teas and coffees for everyone. This might strike you - and my colleagues - as rather rude but, for silly reasons like pride and self respect, I really, really didn’t want to become the tea boy. My father told me a story about his first job sometime in the early 70s. His boss called him into his giant, luxurious office and pre-

ceded to hand him a wad of cash that totaled more than my father’s monthly wage. He then ordered him to “go and fetch a box of cigars, boy” as quickly as he could. Admirably, this didn’t make my father dissolve into a pool of rage or self loathing. After gulping down some precious black nectar, I trawl through my inbox flagging things that I need to do for the day. Sometimes this is a lot, and sometimes it’s not so much - like any sector, the third (read: do-gooders’) sector has its busy times and its not so busy times, and this seems to be largely dependent on what the big kids (i.e. the UN et al.) are up to or, in our case, whether the bad guys (i.e. dictators, corrupt military leaders, the Conservative Party etc.) are being particularly violent or insane at any given moment. Either way, I make myself a list and then plough my way through it until it gets to the time where I have to leave the office so I won’t miss my dinner. Not the most complex routine, granted, but it puts me at ease. Of course, throughout the day new things come up: things have to be edited or written or tweeted; research needs to be done; people need to be briefed before interviews; contacts need to be found; and if something, anything, goes wrong with a computer, as a young person I must know how to fix that, right? Being able to react quickly and effectively is a great thing to practice and the ability to do so - even in a limited, intern-ish kind of way - garners a little bit of respect

from your colleagues. Just enough respect for them to occasionally ask you to help them in the tiniest ways on their projects. This is amazing. As the bottom of the office heap, being someone who is not automatically seen as a hindrance to other people’s work feels like a big step forward. Starting an internship - as with starting university - necessitates a thorough review (read: lowering) of your personal expectations. You’re going to have to prove yourself. Being the dregs of an organisation isn’t all as bad as it sounds nor is it simply a reflection of your (lack of) wage. Lowered expectations Not being paid means that I cannot be expected to have much responsibility for my work output, which, personally, I find relaxing and frustrating in equal measure. People mostly have lowered expectations of interns and, accordingly, don’t let them make any decisions at all, which is frustrating. On the other hand, whenever I do anything that is half way competent it amazes and surprises my superiors. Anything at all. It’s a bit like being a baby: kind of irritating and useless, yet, somehow, strangely endearing to adults. While it should probably be that everyone working gets paid, in some sectors there are only so many jobs. Because there are only so many jobs, the qualification and experience expectations are much higher. As someone with intern level qualifications and experience, I cannot expect to be paid the same amount as my superiors - anyone with an actual job/anyone - or to be hired for those jobs. It seems that the real issue might well be the lack of entry level jobs. Crucially, interns should not be used to plug gaps or solve problems in organisations. If you are using interns to do key jobs - jobs necessary to the functioning of your organisation - then you should be either paying them or seriously rethinking how you’re running your organisation. ‘Interns’ in this position are not actually interns; they’re just exploited workers. I think internships need to become things that both employee and employer get positives out of. Sure, we lowlevel shmoes don’t want to be exploited but we also don’t want to be paid minimum wage to do a crap load of data entry for six months and come out without any real skills. Employers love having cheap workers around that can help them out but they don’t want to have to give useless people actual responsibilities. Sometimes these things are, straight-up, exploitation, and the bosses involved should be prosecuted - I have no qualms about that and I absolutely, unequivocally condemn those cases. I suspect, however, that most of the time unpaid internships are not created by a cackling industrialist, whip in hand, who forces his underlings to make shoes for 23 hours a day in coal pits. I think most of the time the problem is that there either isn’t a low level job available or that the employer hasn’t properly planned what that job actually is. Internships have got to be properly structured and organised so that they give the employee the opportunity to gain new skills and experience whilst doing something useful. If employers respond to public pressure about exploitative internships by simply slapping the minimum wage onto jobs that don’t fulfil any of those functions they will have failed. They need to buckle down and actually design effective internship programmes and, boy, is that going to take a lot of coffee.

For more, go to http://rowanemslieintern.wordpress.com/ Or follow me at http://twitter.com/RowanEmslie

Monday 17rd October 2011

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Moving in Together Written by bite’s Relationship Columnist

elationships develop; they grow and strengthen with time, unlike a certain favourable part of the male anatomy. This growth, this continuous expansion of feelings, at some point, somehow, is expected to be compressed into a literal room, where the metaphorical space between you stands a chance of increasing. Moving in together brings about a wide expanse of changes. At the point the decision is taken to move the relationship to the next level, the list is made, pros and cons. The positives include spooning, sex and support on tap, and someone to share the housework (or so you hope). In actuality there are negatives attached to all these things. Spooning is good when you can retreat your heart is content. Sex is far more an attractive a past time when it is a challenge to get it, as it is one of those rare things

kind of support is universally viewed as a good thing; reciprocity makes a relation-

ship. Once however, you have been alone for some time, someone else worrying about your every move and having a say in every decision can be somewhat exhausting; even claustrophobia-inducing. As can having someone there to make you feel guilty when those three pairs of boots arrive from Ebay. Nevertheless, to advance the human species, such obstacles must be gotten over. Living together is a compromise, which both relationships and sex are made of. These compromises are dramatically increased when sharing a living space (I have

the balance between domestic goddess and use for that can of pineapple rings shall we darling?” or not. Cucumbers are way more my style. The changes made at this point in a relationship can either kill or cure your sex life, is. There is now a whole untapped plethora of pleasurable prospects on tap; you just need to plumb them correctly. In most cases, you and your partner now have a whole

Err, you want me to move up my shoe collection? I don’t think so. house as your playground. Kitchen sides, lounge carpet, shower and yes, the sofa can be used for other purposes than an escape from the volcanic sounds of his/her snoring. The opportunities are now a new level of limitless. A new sense is needed for when to hold through embrace and for when full blown creases when a couple moves in together

as it runs the risk of becoming just another compromise to keep each other happy. To keep the spark alive three crucial elements are needed: tact, respect and the element of surprise. The latter most certainly does not include slipping it in while she is sleeping boys - although I for one have not always objected to that. Don’t retire to the missionary now you continuously share the bed: get up, get it up and do it somewhere else instead.

Moving in together increases more workload than just the washing

Contraceptive Conversation Written by bite’s Sex columnist

ettling down for the evening with a few drinky-poos and my young gentleman friend of the moment: cue amnesia. Sharing a casual naked drunken jump with said gentleman friend on my little brothers trampoline: cue second bout of amnesia. Waking up in a pool of my own sweat and shame lying next to gentleman friend: cue awkward post-coital conversation. Just a regular occurrence in the life and chronicles of Bite’s new sex columnist. Certainly, after a one night stand with a sexy stranger of the night, what can be expected as normal natural conversation? After exposing oneself in possibly the most intimate way possible, how can natural occur? I mean, am I expecting too much from my male victims? This seems to be a recurring theme in regards to my sexual conquests. The only thing worse than awkward post-coital conversation is possibly awkward coital conversation. This summer, less than modest position in the back of a Land rover with a rather attractive Puerto

Rican (I have been know to have a taste for the exotic). In the midst of potential interruptions from dog walkers and parking attendants, the conversation was almost as uncomfortable as the sex itself. At least his penis was rather sizable. The topic of awkward conversation one of my more memorable experiences. In the bedroom of some young fresher-prey, I was about to get ‘down and dirty’ when it came to the ceremonious coronation of their penis. As most previous partners would’ve swiftly rolled the durex on to their love stick, my new friend had a more peculiar tactic. The moment brought me back to year 9 swimming lessons, struggling to over my head. Not the sexiest, and possibly one of the more awkward moments of sexual tension I have had to endure. And then there came the big question: to correct or not correct? Scenario one: leave it and risk improper condom usage and, of course, the possibility of being impregnated by a half wit. Indeed, the question would’ve plagued my mind throughout the

entire experience, along with his very obvious lack of sexual experience, leading to - at best - very mediocre sex. Scenario two: share my unrequested opinion leaving me with a very downtrodden phallus. I think it goes without saying, but to reiterate, I did choose the latter. Never would I purposefully jeopardize my ability to orgasm… having said that we never really did

get past third base… well, I tell myself, at least you know you didn’t catch the clap. At least we can conclude that awkward sex can act as an inexpensive contraceptive as previously illustrated, ending concerns of overpopulation and the spread of STI’s… but then again, if it were not for awkward situations, where else would I get all my hilarious stories?

So, what time was your bus?

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Music: Wolf Gang Written by Holly Narey

bite learns of Max McElligott’s murderous subconsious

olf Gang, less of a band and more of a person namely Max McElliott - is a lovely London musician who has been dishing out delicious sym-

album, Suego Faults. I had the pleasure of meeting him on view. Who inspires you? Well musically… I got a lot of my inspiration from my par-

me as much, but I still heard a lot. And how does it feel to know that now a lot of people are comparing your style to those very artists? It’s really complimentary, but I don’t get carried away by it; you’ve got to bracket people somehow, and that’s the closest

thing. What’s stuck on your iPod on repeat? I was really liking Lana Del Ray: Videogames, but then I watched the video and it put me off. Obviously this is a university magazine: you dropped out of LSE a couple of months before your thoughts or regrets about this? At the moment it seems like it was a good idea, because I’m having fun being a musician. It was worrying at the time, but I knew I had to motivate myself actually to do something as best uni didn’t feel like much of a massive personal choice, it just seemed like a well-trodden path I was going down, like a lot of people do; in all of my classes at uni the best students were the mature ones, who had gone out and seen a lot of the world and had gone back totally out of choice, not just following your

friends. I did love it, but I wasn’t treating it that seriously and I wanted to jolt myself out of that. Yeah, why not. I might redo my last year and get my degree; I basically did the whole three years, so all I have to do is write a dissertation... ha... From reading about your path into music, it seems that you almost fell into it; what advice would you give to those students who really don’t know what they want to do with their lives and who could maybe do with a few happy accidents like you? I just wouldn’t worry so much. I am so lucky I fell into it mostly by accident, until I dropped out. I mean, I’ve been a musician all my life. I’ve been playing and writing and it’s been my passion but I never thought I could do it as a job. I have a lot of friends who don’t know what they want to do, but I wouldn’t feel so rushed; there’s so much pressure to go out and get your career the moment you leave university, but there’s so much time, and you can work it out at any stage in life… everything’s a little bit fucked though because there aren’t any jobs out there. Our parents’ generation really screwed us over. pretty infamous parties, do you have any anecdotes from any of them of people behaving badly?

remember it all. Finally, a song of yours, and even your album name, ally vivid dreams? Had any weird ones lately? I do have quite real dreams, and I enjoy thinking about them. actually… I killed quite a lot of people actually (laughs nervously). It was all in this underground bunker and I killed all of these men and then had to go into hiding and I felt so sick; it felt so real. I thought my life was ruined, because I knew people were after me now and no matter how far I go or where I go they’d of a crowd… anyway, I hope they were bad guys. I had such a rush of relief when I woke up. I did eat a cheese toasty before I went to bed though so maybe that was something to do with it.

Music: S.C.U.M Sam from S.C.U.M tells us about Sun Ra, being on the road, and never trusting Wikipedia.

No, that’s just Wikipedia. According to them we were also voted the most pretentious band of 2008; it’s all a load of rubbish.It’s all just people trying to make us look like cunts.

people, who are they? We go on really long road trips, to places like Berlin, and just play music for hours. Being together as a band and listening to

and his girlfriend, none other than Peaches Geldof. Again Into Eyes, was

pretentiousness and have come out with a very cool collection of melancholic soundscapes, the highlight of which is

keyboard player for the group, and a generally all-round nice guy, who quickly rumbled us on how we’d carried out our research... The internet suggests that you claim you’re not in-

What music are you obsessed with at the moment? Neil Young and Sun Ra, especially Sun Ra’s Arkestra. I’m just think it’s fantastic. John Coltrane was massively inspired by Sun Ra. Yeah, I wish I stayed on. After GCSE I stayed on for two months, but really preferred teaching myself. At school I just didn’t learn what I wanted to learn. I would have wanted to do history, but to get to the degree I would have had to wait years to get to learn the things that I wanted to learn about. be classically trained in an instrument - only Mel is classically

trained. Mel’s a proper drummer. How did you get into music? I was always playing music, -my dad was a musician. It sets you apart from other people, and brings you together with tual love of music.

Monday 17th October 2011

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Music: J. Cole, No Longer on the Sideline Written by Alex Drake

J. Cole isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t afraid to handle serious topics

Artist Album Label

Earning his dolla and living the dream

Videogames: Great Smut Since 1987 Written by Ben Hooper

Leisure suit Larry charming the ladies

We could see the emergence of a terrifying genre

Monday 17th October 2011

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Get Yourself Educated

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Written by Nick Hill

efore we start with this column I feel I should explain it a little about it. What are we educating you in? Some of you (probably Freshers) are reading this and thinking: “But bite, I am diligently attending all my lectures and studying hard. Is there something more?”. Some of you are reading this and thinking: “But bite, I’m drinking far too much, partying hard and generally being loose in my sex life. Is there something more?”. The answer to both bookworm and hoebag is yes. This column is here to review, in student terms, a classic album last week bite was sitting and chatting to someone at the university who had never seen “Airplane!”. To protect this probably ridiculous individual from harm we shall replace their name with randomly assigned letters. So bite was talking to VC and she/he/it said that they had not seen “Airplane!” . Now whilst at this point we would usually reach for our hammer (affectionately known as Henry) and teach the VC a ruddy good lesson, instead we hit upon a good idea. We thought about all those people who post on Facebook every now and then that they are going to

Film: Airplane! ever made. Once you watch it you will suddenly get a lot more pop culture references, particularly in shows like Family Guy. Basically it revolves around a plane which

chock-a-block with slapstick comedy and Leslie Neilson being awesome in every way. It also has a lesser known sequel which we recommend called “Airplane 2: The Sequel” which has the exact same plot but on a rocket ship instead. And it has William Shatner in it which, in our opinion, is reason enough to watch anything. Seriously, did you watch old Star Trek? That uniform was tight in all the right places.

what to watch and we thought: “These people are not bebathimpact Editor-in-Chief Kylie Barton actually wrote the screenplay to The Godfather and introduced Steven Spielberg to E.T.), but also own every album (bite Editor Holly Narey taught Stevie Wonder how to play piano. Unfortunately he couldn’t keep his hands to himself and the piano so Holly set Henry Hammer on him. Yeah, that’s how that whole blind thing happened). So here is today’s selection:

world’ / ‘Yes, but don’t call me Shirley’

The gang

Music: Fleetwood Mac – Rumours Fleetwood Mac are the hippy mothers and fathers of a lot of current pop, folk and rock music. They were also a band built on band incest. The lead male and female singers and guitarists were dating, and the bassist and keyboardist were married. Then, just as they started making this album, both couples split, and the drummer, who was married, found out his wife was cheating with his best mate. This was truly a band in pain, but they stayed together for the music. All the songs but one on the album were written by individual band members so there is a range of genres on the album many of which are classics such as “Go Your Own Way”, “Don’t Stop” and “Songbird” which was later famously covered by Eva Cassidy. With a very middle of the road sound this album is more or less impossible for any music lover to hate. The most important thing to do now that you’ve read this is to go and watch and listen to these. Don’t just read about them. Get yourself educated.

Review: Johnny English Reborn Written by Ron Morrow

hen you think of Rowan Atkinson, which char-

this isn’t for you. However, if Mr Bean’s silly voice and slapstick stylings are more your thing then the return of Jonny English (Atkinson) to the silver screen is probably right up your street. Unfortunately I found myself in camp on my cavalier mind-set. Reborn starts with an explanation of why they didn’t want to call this Jonny English 2. A quick recap shows us how English got himself kicked out of the secret serv-

with Tibetan monks (during this time he rocks a pretty mean goatee that will make the less folicly-endowed men rather jealous, myself included). He’s brought back purely because some contact of MI7 will speak to him and him alone, then when that’s out of the way government keeps plain to the viewer. In the meantime, a conspiracy is uncovered and it’s up to English and his newly introduced, equally bumbling though minutely more intelligent, sidekick Tucker (Daniel Kaluyaa) to save the day. expect: the heroes inexplicably overcome a series of increasingly improbable events without you ever needing to think too strenuously over the punch line. Johnny English in the free-loving boots that Austin Powers left behind.

This rebirth may be a bit of a snore. Not quite the resurrection nothing wrong with trying to walk alongside your predecessor’s footsteps. But while it’s expected that jokes might English crosses a line when he starts lifting jokes directly from Powers. The worst part is that it’s not even the good jokes that it nicks. Not only that, but the red carpet interviews promised Johnny trying to come to terms with an MI7 that has become more PC in his absence. Sound familiar? Instead the subtly racist jokes face no opposition and the supposedly tongue in cheek Toshiba-sponsored secret service only serves to prove how prevalent advertis-

At the end of the day, Jonny English hasn’t aged well. The references feel outdated and the jokes cheap, with many of the best punch lines spoiled by trailers. While the addition of more serious moments seek to develop characters, they feels wasted on what could have been more action scenes. A few moments still left me laughing at some great comedy, so maybe I’m a cynic; everyone else in the theatre seemed to be giggling like children, though it was dark and for all I know it could have been the local special kids’ school outing. Anyone would be hard pressed to dislike Jonny English, so if you’re looking for something to please everyone for a new housemates bonding trip to the cinema, it’s ideal.

Monday 17th October 2011

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The Guide

Wunmi Mosaku in the Anti-Slavery Film, I am Slave, on at Bath’s Little Theatre Cinema

Music

Arts

On Campus

Island Festival Bristol - Start the Bus - October 22nd - 6pm to 3am Tickets £5 from Bristol Ticket Shop Heralded as ‘a festival of forward thinking music and

‘I Am Slave’ Bath - The Little Theatre Cinema - October 18th 8:30pm Tickets £2 with NUS -

Kissy Sell Out THE TUB - 25th October

Turn It On -

Unchosen -

ICIA

Wretch 32 Bristol - O2 Arena - October 26th - 7pm Tickets from £10

Private Vintage Club Bath - Opium Bar - October 20th - 7:30pm to 10:20pm Tickets £10 from Opium ing and accessories all modelled on the catwalk and accom-

Wendy Mcmurdo’s Childhood, Fantasy and Play

Bobby Baker’s selected work from her Diary Drawings Mad Gyms and Kitchens

Sam Duckworth Moles - Bath - Sat 22 Oct - 7pm Tickets £10.00

Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys Go America and Total Balalaika Rambert Dance Company Bath - Theatre Royal - October 20th to 22nd - 7:30pm Tickets from £14.90

ing Dealer’s Choice Week

Seven for a Secret tour running www.bath.ac.uk/icia

BUST Show in a

Monday 17th October 2011

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Fashion: the Hipster Paradox bite’s John Barlow gives his view on the irony of hipsterism

Time Out -

Something retro on his necklace

and

Fashion: My (Boyfriend’s) Wardrobe bite’s Harriet Tangney has stolen her boyfriend’s clothes and won’t give them back

Sharp suits and crisp collars

Oh, you’re cold? Want your cardigan? Shame

Monday 17rd October 2011

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Seasonal Food:

Written by Nia Evans

up what is in season and try to plan your recipes around the ingredients which are at their best at that time. They are easy to spot in the supermarket as they look a million is this? The answer is simple: the Italians embrace seasonal and regional food. Food is a way of life in Italy and a strong part of a region’s identity. Think about it: Bologna = Spaghetti Bolognese! Italians take great care and

which is what seasonality is all about. Rarely would you all, what’s the point?

buy something which is bland in taste and costs around three times as much as it normally should? Food produced en-mass for supermarkets often lacks -

What’s in season now?`

labels will state the country of origin so it’s not hard to

1. 2.

Fresher Cheaper

4. 5.

Supports the local economy Tastier!

permarket altogether and supporting local farmers and the local economy. Around Bath there are many farmers markets and greengrocers which sell fresh, seasonal, local produce. You will be dazzled by a rainbow of colours and So, it’s not brain surgery guys: by following the Italian example of buying what’s in season your food will cost you less, be better for you and will taste incredible. I promise, Spain again!

time it takes to import the produce, a huge amount of nu-

The next time you go to the supermarket I urge you all to think about the Italians and their amazing food. Look

www.bbc.co.uk/food or www.eattheseasons.co.uk

Seasonal Recipe: S

o, after going on about how great seasonal food is, here’s a recipe for you all to try with an in-season ingredient!

meat. It is so simple to make and yet some people are put off by the thought of making a cheese sauce from scratch. ber night. Ingredients:

cheese sauce by melting the butter in a pan. with a wooden spoon. This will turn into what is called a roux and is the base for many sauces. tle bit at a time making sure you keep stirring and mixing it in with your wooden spoon so it doesn’t go lumpy.

For the cheese sauce: 2oz/ 55g butter

add some more milk.

1 pint/ 460ml milk 60g grated cheddar cheese Salt and pepper

and salt and pepper to the sauce. Again keep stirring so it melts in and doesn’t become lumpy.

Method: bite size portions. The ultimate comfort food

Serves 6 as a side dish.

Monday 17th October 2011

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Puzzle Corner Created by Dorian Lidell

Quick Crossword

www.bathimpact.com

ArithMaster Enter the numbers 1-6 into the grid so that each number appears precisely once in each row and column. Within each barred block, the result of applying the given arithmetic operation to the numbers in the block must be the number in the block’s top-left corner.

Bridegit! Connect all the islands by horizontal or vertical bridges (straight lines), such that the number of bridges from each island is equal to the number inside the island, no two bridges cross, and all the islands are connected together. A maximum of two bridges (running in parallel if necessary) may run between the same two islands.

17 18 20 21

To put up (a building) (5) Charm, fascination (11) Inability to speak (7) Someone who resells tickets at greatly

23 Inconsiderate, unthinking (11) 25 The other country that shares La Hispaniola (see 5d) (5) 27 Occurring after a war, especially the American Civil War (4-6) 29 To speak violently and without restraint (3,3) 31 Basil’s wife in Fawlty Towers (5) 33 Nocturnal bird of prey (3) tralia (7)

Down 1 Heart-shaped (7) 2 In a state of nervous apprehension (2,11) 3 (mathematics) A set containing only one element (9) 4 To eye amorously (4) 5 One of two countries that share the Caribbean island of La Hispaniola (9,8) 6 To surpass in performance (5) 7 Often-ornamental barrier at the edge of a roof or balcony, the sides of a bridge, etc. (7) 8 (tennis) To hit in a high arc (3) 9 Said of a day: memorable and especially happy and important (3-6) 16 (heraldry) Said of an animal: sitting (6) 19 Birthplace of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order of Christianity (6)

22 A Jew of Central or East European descent (9) 24 Male turkey (7) 26 Lack of reverence or devotion (7) 28 Chinese philosopher traditionally held to have founded Taoism (5) bite needs you 30 To cease and desist (4) Contrastive conjunction which arose as a If you have any interest in getting involved at a con- 32

tributor level, or if you’re interested in learning how to lay up a magazine, get in touch and join the team. There will also be chances for free gig tickets for reviews, and even chances to interview your favourite artists.

Get in touch at: impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

This week: Dorian’s science, nature and technology megaquiz! Questions: 1. Who succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO of Apple? 2. At which temperature do the Celsius and Fahrenheit scales coincide? 3. What is the largest artery in the human body? 4. Onychophagia is the technical medical term for which bad habit? 5. The Priestley Medal is awarded for extraordinary achieve6. Frequently seen at the end of mathematical proofs, for what does the abbreviation QED stand? 7. In particle physics, which theory is often abbreviated to SUSY? 8. Tritium and deuterium are isotopes of which chemical element? 9. Which enzyme, commonly found in human saliva, catalyses the hydrolysis of starch into sugar? You should really know Bath better. Level: Pretty hard without Wikipedia I would say. 1

J 4

O 5

H 7

N W O D

T E

D 9

D A

C K

C A

D K M A

N S

I U

U M

D A

C O R

N E

Across 5. Roman name for the warm bath. [TEPIDARIUM] 9. Bath's roman name. [AQUAESULIS] 12. In roman architecture, the most ornate columns, decorated with leaves and shit. [CORINTHIAN] 13. This city in the Netherlands is twinned with

U S

8 11

T H

L A

V O N

N 18

E 12

N 16

P U

U M

O I

I G

A Q U A

F R

O 14

T E

Down 1. This father and son duo are responsible for a lot of the beautiful architecture in Bath today. I do realise there is only one answer for this, it's because they have the same name. [JOHNWOOD] 2. Roman name for the cold bath. [FRIGIDARIUM]

ANSWERS 1. Tim Cook 2. -40 degrees 3. Aorta 4. Nail biting 5. Chemistry 6. Quod erat demonstrandum 7. Supersymmetry 8. Hydrogen 9. Amylase 10. Valentina Tereshkova

Across 1 Me, for one! (9,8) 10 Vitamin A (7) 11 Cambridge university (3) 12 Fanatical; raging (5) 13 Yearly records of events (6)