bathimpact Issue 10 Volume 13

Thirsty?

News page 5

Election troubles

Festival fashion

Politics page 11

with bite

bathimpact The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Monday 26th March 2012

www.bathimpact.com Sam Short

Volume 13 Issue 10

In this week’s bathimpact

What

gap?

Research has shown that the number of students electing to take a gap year has fallen in the wake of the white paper which will see the much cited rise in tuition fees put into action. Students have reacted with a ‘get in before it goes up’ attitude, which us in the system can more than empathise with.

News page 6 Comment page 8

Syri-ously?

Fashion @ Bath at the Assembly Rooms, in support of Bath RAG, was a roaring success. The models certainly caught our attention!

Article 4: unanimous Anthony Masters bathimpact Deputy ath and North East Somerset Council’s cabinet voted unanimously in favour of making a final decision on restricting student and shared housing in 12 months.

The proposals to coalesce an Article 4 Direction with increased licensing restrictions will be put forward to a statutory six-week consultation period.

The council will then make a decision to proceed, amend or abandon the new planning rules in a year’s time.

An Article 4 Direction would remove permitted development rights across Bath, meaning that property owners would have to seek the council’s permission to convert a house into a House of Multiple Occupancy (HMO). The prospective plan is to only allow a conversion to a HMO if under 20 per cent of the houses within a 100 metre radius of the concerned house.

B&NES Council also seeks to introduce general licensing for HMOs, intending

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to increase housing standards in Bath.

The proposals were also discussed at Development Control Committee prior to the Cabinet meeting. Harry Birch, Bath Spa University’s SU Vice President of Campaigns and Communications, said that: “We were, earlier in the day, pleased to see our points taken into account and discussed at the Development Control Committee, where many of the elected local councillors aired their reservations with an Article 4 Direction in Bath”.

A large number of students attended the Cabinet meeting, voicing their concerns about the Article 4 Direction, costs to the council and other matters.

Vice President for Communities and Diversity Naomi Mackrill said: “We are opposed to the direction; we are one of the groups that will be directly affected. Why should we not be allowed to choose where we live just because we are students? This is making us feel very unwelcome in the community.”

Jackie Derbyshire, a representative of

the National Landlords’ Association, said: “The NLA doesn’t believe that either the additional licensing or an Article 4 Direction will improve the private rented sector in Bath; in fact, it will make the situation worse. It has not worked elsewhere it has been introduced.” Mark Rose, a consultant hired by the University of Bath, spoke on behalf of the University. He received contemptuous treatment from some of the councillors, with one councillor heckling that Mr Rose “should go back and tell [the university] to send someone else”.

Several councillors and residents spoke in favour of implementing an Article 4 Direction and HMO licensing. Cllr June Player (Ind, Westmoreland) expressed her view that sharp HMO densities were detrimental to Bath’s community. She said: “Students want to live in the community of Bath.

If it continues, they will only be living amongst themselves.” Cllr Will Sandry (Lib Dem, Oldfield) was pleased at the

engagement of students at the Cabinet meeting, and stated: “The massive increase in the number of HMOs in recent years has had a long term impact on housing available in Oldfield Park for anyone not looking for HMO accommodation.” Cllr Sandry also spoke angrily in the meeting about housing investors and letting agents “sucking the lifeblood of my area for over a decade”.

Concluding the debate, Cllr Tim Ball (Lib Dem, Twerton), the Cabinet member for homes and planning, said: “I believe there are too many HMOs in the community, which are left empty when the students go home. We are not saying that there should be no more HMOs; just that they need to be spread more evenly throughout the city”.

Both Bath Spa SU and our own Students’ Union have committed to continue campaigning against the Article 4 Direction in Bath for more information contact one of your sabbs.

bathimpact’s Ben Butcher looks at the increasingly difficult situation unfolding in yet another Middle Eastern country. Syria was flagged as one to watch by bathimpact in the height of the Arab Spring, Ben now looks at what is occuring in the country decending into civil war.

International page 20

Friendly living

In science this week we look at how being sociable can actually increase your life span.... no joke. Recent research has made the connection between number of friends a person has and longevity of life. Investigating further is bathimpact contributor Christiana Langma.

Science page 22

Heating it up This issue the bite team get all hot and heavy on us (so what’s new there?). Well with the mid-semester blues impending we thought we would lighten your day by directing your attention to the Summer months which are fast encroaching.

A time when exams are gone, essays done, and the fun can begin. with bite

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Monday 26th March 2012

Editorials

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Kylie Barton Editor-in-Chief

impact-editor@bath.ac.uk

Gemma Isherwood Deputy Editor

impact-deputy@bath.ac.uk

Tomos Evans News/Comment Editor impact-news@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

impact-money@bath.ac.uk

Jack Franklin IT Officer

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

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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.

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The University of Bath Students’ Union Newspaper

Should we clap for the encore?

S o Sabb election results night has been and gone and I think that it is fair to say that there were no overwhelming surprises and in particular I refer to the Presidential race. President-elect Chris ‘Clemmo’ Clements won by a huge majority, running as our current VP Sport against two students who were, before running, unknown.

Those students who are in their latter years will tell you that this is very common. In fact, if you include next year then for the last eight years we have seen eight second year Sabbs.

In those past eight years, no Sabb has rerun for any position and lost, and when you look back through BUSU history you will find that this isn’t exactly a blip. In fact it has proven impossible in writing this article to find the name of any Sabb in BUSU history who has failed to win re-election. This raises a few important questions.

Why did they win? When Sabbs run for election, they already have a public profile – simply put, even if the average student has no idea what a Sabb does, they can probably name at least one. Arguably not even the most active and involved student can ever hope to match this.

Their picture is on the wall in every Fresher kitchen, and it is Freshers that form the largest body of voters. They run already knowing, in all probability, everything there is to know about the job, and whilst this disadvantages those unlucky opponents who can’t hope to match them at Hustings, what does it matter?

They’re probably the best person for the job anyway.

Perhaps. You would hope, wouldn’t you, that only the Golden

Boys and Girls of BUSU would be the ones to rerun? Those eight Sabbs I mentioned earlier are almost certainly not the best eight Sabbs that we have seen in the last eight years, though I concede that such things are difficult to measure. So should they have won? Well if any given Sabb was good then the answer is probably yes, but as I have stated, there have been Sabbs re-run, that arguably were not brilliant and won anyway. Do they deserve it? Probably not. Can we stop that happening? Unfortunately no - allowing second year Sabbs arguably does away with the biggest weapon in the accountability arsenal.

Let us take a hypothetical scenario in which a Sabb is truly awful at their job and decides to run again. How can you, as a student, stop them? Well at any point you can gather enough signatures to call a vote of no confidence in a Sabb.

Except that no cross-campus vote of no-confidence has ever been successful. It should be noted that a Sabb was successfully removed once but that was through a Union General Meeting, which gives you an idea of how long ago that was and even then they only just managed to get enough people in the room to validate the vote. Statistically speaking a successful no-confidence vote is as likely as a Sabb losing re-election. So that is not really a viable option.

How else can you stop them?

Well, you could run against them.

Except that the rules state that you cannot announce that you are going to run for Sabb until campaigning week begins, so raising that public profile is going to prove tricky. That is worth noting; that those who have

run against Sabbs have not been largely unknown but instead were often Chairs of Execs or other high committees. And as we’ve covered, no matter how qualified you are, you will probably still lose by quite a margin.

You may be wondering then, how much of a problem really is this?

This takes us back to the beginning of this article, to results night, where two of the four Sabbs who would be eligible to rerun next year could be heard discussing their plans for reelection, having been elected just hours before. This, when you bear in mind that neither you nor they know if they are going to be any good at the job yet, and that you have absolutely no mechanism to stop them should they be bad, is quite frankly a terrifying prospect.

We’ve touched on accountability, or the lack thereof, already. But there are ways we do hold the Sabbs to account and there are certainly more ways in which we could do so in the future. Currently this responsibility lies with the Sabbatical Review Panel. However the results of the panel are not well publicised and, should a Sabb be truly awful, they have absolutely no power to do anything about it. In fact nobody has the power to do anything. Sabbs can either be ousted by a vote of no-confidence, fired for serious misconduct by the University and that’s about it.

If they are just plain bad then there is no in-between stage.

There is nothing between having the job and not having the job. A possible stage might be ineligibility to run for a second term.

So what can be done? Well for a start Sabbs can decide if they are go-

ing to run again based on whether or not such a course of action is in the interest of the student body, not based on keeping a pay cheque and a roof over their heads. Secondly we should all stop giving Sabbs a free ride into a second term. Their two greatest advantages are their public profile and their acquired knowledge. I personally think there is no harm in pushing them a little, if they are good then they will hold up just fine to a pop quiz on the finer points of Union policy.

The third part is what the SU can do. Last year all of the five eligible Sabbs were considering running again, with three focusing on the Presidency. Members of the team made it known to other members of the team that they would run for certain positions and nobody wanted two members of the team to run against each other. So some Sabbs quietly backed down and we ended up with David Howells and Matt Benka. Arguably these were pretty noble intentions, which saved the Union from what could have been a very messy election. On the other hand, by doing so they denied students a choice.

So if you, the voters, cannot choose and you, the voters, have no way to differentiate between the good and the bad Sabbs, then it seems to me to be the case that second year Sabbs are not a good idea.

Regardless, it is clear that this is a concept which needs to be debated and endlessly argued at all levels. It is a shame it will be discussed only by those with a vested interest. So I won’t be applauding the encore.

I’ll clap only when the show is truly over.

ties, Sports Clubs and all student groups. They set the direction of entire areas of the Union and work directly with the Sabbs.

On any given year almost all of the Sabbs will have come from Executive Committees. And next year those Committees will be largely empty. It is worth noting at this point that the Execs that sit under VP Sport, VP Education and the President have thus far managed to fill most if not all of their positions. But what about the Execs chaired by VP A&D and VP C&D? Having those Execs

largely (if not entirely) empty, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that those running in next year’s Sabb elections for VP A&D and VP C&D will be unusually under-qualified.

It raises even more issues within the Societies area, who only underwent a restructure last year. This restructure put five new positions on the Exec which weren’t there before and that, this year, nobody has decided to run for. If that doesn’t say that the restructure did not work then I do not know what does.

So why has all of this happened?

Who, if anyone, is to blame? Well these things always have better and worse years with more or fewer nominations depending on general involvement at hhigher levels and various other factors, but by all current standards this is an appalling year. It is easy to point the finger once more at student apathy, and to claim that students do not care.

Personally I don’t think it is ever that simple and I think that the new Sabb team will be left a mess to clear up as a result.

Executive elections emptyness

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ou probably don’t know that nominations for Executive Committee Elections have now closed. The reason that I think that you don’t know about these elections is that if you go on bathstudent you can see who has decided to run.

The Diversity and Support Exec has one candidate in total for all of their positions. The Societies Exec has three. Both Volunteering and Development and Enterprise have none at all. For those of you who don’t know what Execs are, they are the level above Socie-

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

News

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NUS week of action Costs at Bath L

ast week the NUS called for more action against Government and Universities, demanding that they ‘Come Clean’ over their plans for higher education. The NUS called for more honesty concerning the "hidden costs" of university education such as books, trips and other essential equipment, with the largest event being a walkout on March the 14th. Lectures were boycotted all over the UK to attempt to show the effect changes in tuition fees would have on pricing students out of going to university.

Campuses that participated in the protest included King’s College, Sussex, Liverpool, Manchester, Brighton, York, Bournemouth, Birmingham, Edinburgh and East Anglia.

Other events throughout the week included marches, rallies, teach-ins, discussions, petition signings and debates in an attempt to make the government come clear with their plans for the increased marketization of higher education.

NUS president Liam Burns said “We need a national debate on changes to higher education and this week we will remind minister that we are what they’re doing. When the government quietly dropped plans for a higher education bill earlier this year they didn’t drop their plans. They simply removed the opportunity for the kind if scrutiny that has been afforded to changes to the NHS.” In response, a spokesman for the

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said, “We are putting students at the heart of the system, with a diverse range of providers offering high-quality teaching. Going to university depends on ability not the ability to pay. Most new students will not pay upfront, there will be more financial support for those from disadvantaged backgrounds and everyone will make lower monthly loan repayments than they do now once they are in well-paid jobs. Students, like other

citizens, have the right to participate in peaceful protest." Unlike some earlier demonstrations the walkout went to plan and there were no disturbances between protestors and police.

As a follow up to the week of action the NUS plan to lobby Parliament on the 18th of April to further raise awareness of the issue and bring concerns that reforms will result in the private sector having an increased role in higher education into the public domain.

UCLoccupation

Thomas Gane bathimpact Contributor

Jenna Logeais bathimpact Contributor

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ith the upcoming rise in tuition fees and the new sports fee, to name only a couple of the substantial expenses which are thrust upon students, money and expenditure have become an increasing worry.

It is now one of the top priorities of the Student body both here in Bath and nationwide. A national survey has recently been released by Standard Life Your Commitment, Your future report, highlighting just how much money students and graduates are spending on a monthly basis. Full time students appear to be spending on average £320 on rent and £58 on utilities per month.

On another topic, a large number, 68% to be exact, do not pay for any kind of insurance.

In Bath, a big lifestyles survey was done last year featuring 1145 students. 42.9 per cent of these students said to spend less than £2,000 each year against 33.7 per cent who

68% Number of students without insurance

said to be spending between £2,000 and £3,500.

The Student’s Union seems to have understood the urgency of the matter putting money as one of its top ten issues in 2011-2012.

It has undertaken a number of measures to address the issue including asking a panel of students

Hidden costs are more of a worry

to keep weekly money diaries and to produce a general budget sheet throughout semester one. Naomi Mackrill, VP Community and Diversity, told bathimpact that they have yet to collate and analyse the precious information.

Another serious issue are hidden costs. The SU President, David Howells, wrote to all students back in November, asking for examples of things you are expected to pay for as part of your course beyond tuition fees. Lauren Bowman, second year Sociology and Social Policy student, recalls discussing the issue in the meetings with her fellow academic reps. Under the supervision of VP Education Matt Benka they helped to contribute in establishing where students face additional costs to their course fees within each department.

Bath’s digital festival Media Lab Alex Marshall bathimpact Contributor

Entreprise

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creative workshop hosted by global Media ThinkTank, X-Media Labs was held at the Roman Baths at the start of the month. Guests of this event included world leaders in software development, design, innovation and technology as well as the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey MP. After a drinks reception, the networking began for the winners of the Apps Cruch competition held at the University in February whose prize were tickets to the event.

The following day was the beginning of the XML experience with an all-day conference in the Assembly Rooms. The conference was a chance for the industry professionals to introduce and sell themselves to the project teams with whom they would be working with over the weekend. These speakers included Jane Hu, Head of Strategic Development at YouTube,

Winners James Isbister, Alex Marshall & CEO of ‘The Filter’ & BANTER mentor David Maher-Roberts.

Ian Livingstone OBE, creator of Lara Croft and Life President of Eidos and Jeff Gomez, storywriter of Avatar and Halo.

The conference also allowed visitors to view an expo of current technology projects, most of which came from the local area. Amidst the mass of Apple Mac laptops, iPads and iPhones were stands from companies like Double

Negative, who worked on the special effects for the recent Harry Potter movies and Inception, and a small company called Nu Desine, run by a group of young graduates with a product that could potentially change the way electronic music is produced in the future.

For the start of the two-day workshops, the project teams and the ex-

perts, soon to become mentors, were taken to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studios, the location where the score for films like Tron, Quantum of Solace and Avatar were recorded. Each of the teams had to give a 3 minute presentation in front of the mentors before dashing towards a whiteboard with a matrix on. The groups had to select 10 mentors that they wanted to work with

over the 2 days, having only 1 hour with each one.

For University of Bath students James Isbister and Alex Marshall, whose app, Virtual Loci, won the Apps Crunch Competition, this was their prize. A chance to speak to entrepreneurs and CEOs of companies at the forefront of the technology industry has given them the encouragement and advice to continue developing their app into something that one day could form a viable business. BANTER staff and all professionals involved were happy to see the Apps Crunch competition was such a success, and said they hope to work with the companies and individuals involved with running the X Media Lab in the future.

The events were part of the Bath Digital Media festival which ran from the 15th to the 25th of March and included many other sessions such as ‘Defence against the Dark Arts’; security online, and teaching sessions on the use of technology as well as Bath’s first tech awards, ‘The SPARKies’.

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The Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering and its final year Master of Architecture student, Stavros Zachariades, have been commended by the international ‘EDUCATE’ prize.

The prize aims to award not only the individual student’s work, but also the work of universities in developing high quality programmes that encourage creative investigation of the issue of sustainability in architecture and urban design.

Stavros Zachariades faced steep competition from across Europe, but ultimately stood out with his project ‘The Ark’, described as: ‘a proposal for a community market and prototype urban farm in one of East Bristol’s most deprived areas’.

Stavros said his entry ‘aimed to rethink the concept of a local high street and its buildings, and look at how they could be if their design focused heavily on sus-

tainability’. It concentrated on several of the most pressing issues surrounding sustainability, including waste reduction and recycling, water reuse, energy production and biodiversity.

Now a graduate working at a London architecture practice, Stavros expressed his gratitude for the support of his department’s staff, including studio leader Alexander Wright, who has stressed the outstanding quality of Stavros’s work, while also stating that the prize will help to raise Bath’s profile as a centre of excellence in this challenging field.

Dafydd Angove bathimpact Contributor

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Stepping down Imogen Grace Ware bathimpactor Contributor

The Roman Baths. One of Bath’s many tourist attractions which brings people to the city

Bath University’s fourth Chancellor has announced he will retire before July 2013.

Lord Tugendhat will have completed 15 years of service in the eminent role of Chancellor by next summer.

The Chancellor is the ceremonial head of the University and a significant ambassador, playing an important role in the business of the University institution.

The Chancellor appoints and works with the Vice-Chancellor in line with the University’s checks and balances, as well as being chair of Court and Convocation. The Chan-

cellor also presides and confers degrees at award ceremonies and attends formal and informal meetings at the University and elsewhere.

Furthermore the Chancellor consults and advises on major policy and strategic matters.

University staff and officials have been encouraged to put forward suggestions as to who should succeed the Chancellor by the 5th of April 2012. The Committee on the Office of Chancellor will make their recommendations to the Court in due course.

There will be a number of opportunities to thank and praise Lord Tugendhat for his successful work as Chancellor in the coming months.

Reported in the last issue of bathimpact was the case of a girl from Bath having gone missing on 21st February. In the early house, Ruth Byfield, 18 went missing from her home in Oldfield Park.

As the previous issue of bathimpact went to print, it was announced that Ruth had been found safe and well. Avon and Somerset Police announced that Ruth was found on the Sunday 11th March in Hampshire.

The teenager who is a former pupil at Hayesfield School had been missing for almost three weeks.

Manvers Street Police Station

Sam Short

Bath girl found

he chief executive of Bath Tourism Plus has called upon the people of Bath to be polite to tourists, in order to help Bath remain a favourite city amongst visitors.

Chief executive Nick BrookSykes said: “Bath is an extremely welcoming city, which thrives on its visitor economy.” He continued: “Sometimes it’s the small things that make or break a visitor’s experience. Everyone can make a difference - visitors are the lifeblood of this city, and we want them to return again and again.

We all have a part to play in this, from taxi drivers to tour guides,

from traffics wardens to locals.”

Bath Tourism Plus, a marketing organisation, used English Tourism Week to highlight the industry’s importance to the city. Over 3.6 million people are estimated to visit Bath each year, contributing around £357 million to the economy in Bath and North East Somerset, as well employing 8,000 people in related jobs, which is about 10% of all employment in the city.

The marketing body spoke of the tourism potential of major events such as the Olympics, Paralympics and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The Olympic torch relay will begin at the University of Bath’s campus, and travel throughout the city.

At the start of English Tourism

Week, Bath’s Visitor Information Centre was refurbished and reopened. Tourism and Heritage Minister John Penrose MP performed the official opening ceremony, with local MP Don Foster also in attendance. Mr Penrose stated: “Bath does not stand still and keep its ambitions high. Bath Tourism Plus is a well-run destination management organisation and a good example of public and private sectors working successfully together.”

English Tourism Week ran from 10th to 18th March to celebrate tourism, and hosted events in Bath such as sampling buns made by Sally Lunn’s, tea tasting, wine tasting and quizzes.

mendable service to the students at the University of Bath. Having won the two awards for “Best Leader” and “Regional Representative”, as well as their various award nominations, including that of “Most Improved” service in the country, it is obvious how well Nightline has done over the course of the year.

Through making changes, such as improving and expanding their contact services, Bath Nightline has become more accessible to students.

The three new contact methods, including Skype, email and Chatstat, now mean that students will receive a reply from an operator within just twelve hours, in addition to the phone service available, whose number can be found on the back of the Bath student library card.

Nightline continues to help and listen, proving to be a testament for their own achievements.

For more information, visit: www.bathstudent.com/nightline

Award for Nightline Alexandra Egan bathimpact Contributor

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he Nightline national Annual General Meeting saw not only the nomination of Bath Nightline for six out of the eight awards available, but also the winning of the “Best Leader” award by their Co-ordinator. Another victory for the Bath Nightline team came about in the election of one of their volunteers as next year’s Regional Representative.

The two impressive winnings demonstrate the success of the student volunteer service, open Wednesday to Sunday from eight in the evening until eight in the morning.

Nightline, a support system promoting confidentiality, discretion and a lending ear, allows for students to express anything from concerns that they may have about their course or relationships, to questions demanding informative answers, such as what number to call for a taxi after a night out or activities the city of Bath has to offer. The student operators, having been provided with intensive training over the course of a weekend, are obviously doing a com-

Sam Short

Bethan Rees bathimpact Contributor

Mark Hillary

Arch prize win Be nice and polite, Bath

Bath University’s Nightline has been very succesful this year

Monday 26th March 2012

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New water fountains HOTS are back Flicthisisbath

Sarah Lavery bathimpact Contributor

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ath is a city which, even simply by name, is synonymous with water. And now three local women have taken the lead in reinforcing this in launching their company “Love Tap Water”: an initiative aimed at reducing the need for plastic bottled water in Bath.

Ruth Poole, Shelley Doyle and Jo Eke are giving up their time voluntarily in order to provide Bath with ten dispensers which will keep us hydrated with free, fresh and high quality drinking water. To add to that, the scheme also includes the introduction of a stainless steel water bottle for the city which can be refilled at the fountains at any time.

The scheme is funded by ‘Alternative Source’, a charity which was set up to fund overseas clean water projects. Because of this, all profits made from the sale of the stainless steel water bottles will be donated to the charity as well as other water-based charities.

The fountains will be installed

by Wessex Water and the water itself will be sourced from the chalk and limestone hills of Dorset and Wiltshire.

An image of the water holes which are soon to be constructed The aims of the project are to reduce the harmful effects that plastic water bottles have on the environment and to increase the availability of clean, free drinking water for the citizens of Bath.

The fountains have been designed by internationally-renowned engineer Sir James Dyson.

Ms Poole has said that “Love Tap Water wants Bath to be a beacon for change throughout the country.

We want residents and visitors to be able to drink the same good tap water they drink at home ‘on the go’” adding that the availability of

fresh water is likely to make visitors to the city want to stay longer, as they will appreciate that Bath is a city with “all aspects of wellbeing at its heart.”

The chairman of Wessex Water Colin Skellett said “Bottled water costs on average 141 times more than tap water so providing the Water Holes where people can fill up makes complete sense.”

For more information on this innovative venture, or to purchase one of the bottles to support the project go to www.lovetapwater. co.uk

Bath and the 2012 Olympics Clodagh Mcguire on all things Olympic in Bath might make a nice break from revision and exams. The torch will arrive on campus at 3.28pm before being carried down Bathwick Hill and onto Great Pulteney Street.

There will be at least 20 torch bearers. On its route through the city the torch will cross Pulteney Bridge and travel around the Guildhall before heading up

end at 4.43pm. Prior to the torch being carried through the city a world record attempt will be made to form the largest human Olympic rings. This attempt will take place in Royal Victoria Park. Want to get involved? Contact getactive@ bathnes.gov.uk with the subject heading “world record attempt”.

The Olympic festivities in Bath bathimpact

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ormer Olympian David Lawrence expects Bath to make the most of the Olympic torch passing through the city.

The former kayaker and now Bath and North East Somerset Council’s director for tourism, leisure and culture would like to use the opportunity to build upon Bath’s already world-beating tourism. One plan is to have all of Bath’s shops and businesses decked out in Olympic bunting.

Lawrence would like to simulate feelings in the young people of Bath similar to those he felt during his career in the hopes of encouraging them to get involved.

He has stated “I want the hairs on children’s necks to stand on end” when the torch passes through Bath on its way to London.

Look out for Olympic-themed events at various venues around town, including the fashion museum, Bath royal literary and scientific institution and our very own University of Bath. The Bath Literature Festival will also reflect this theme.

The Olympic torch will be passing through our city on Tuesday May 22nd so keep an eye out; it

The 2012 Olympic Torch’s route in Bath will begin at the STV through the centre of town eventually going around the Circus and the Crescent. The torch will then be carried along Upper Bristol Road and Newbridge Road to Oldfield school where the route will

will carry on until a carnivalthemed event planned on 25th August to celebrate the end of London 2012 and the handing off of the Olympic torch to Rio de Janeiro.

Amy Jackson bathimpact contributor

Healing on the Streets Bath (HOTS) is back after a winter break under a cloud of bad press.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) upheld a complaint that HOTS was falsely advertising through their website and leaflets that they could heal a score of illnesses by praying. HOTS has launched an appeal to the ASA, who rejected testimonials provided by the group, and has since removed the claims from their advertising.

Instead, they are challenging the people of Bath to find out if God can heal, rather than claiming that he does. So far, 2,465 people have signed the online petition to the Government proclaiming that ‘God

can heal.’

HOTS believe they have the right to express their Christian beliefs and are not harming or forcing anyone in the process: as the vicar of one church that supports HOTS says:

2,465

signed online petition

“When we offer to pray for people out on the streets they are a lot more receptive than one would imagine.”

Those against HOTS, however, worry about the effects of false hope for those who are led to believe they can be healed of terrible illnesses.

HOTS is awaiting the outcome of their appeal to the ASA and will continue praying in Bath in the mean time.

Face-to-face Maddie Winn bathimpact Contributor

A recent NUS report, funded by the Quality Assurance Agency, involving 5,000 students, has found that more than half of students want more interactive learning sessions.

In order to improve their academic experience, 50.2 per cent said they wanted more interactive or group teaching, 43.3 per cent of students would like more individual tutorials, and 41.9 per cent sought more contact time with a personal tutor. Thus there is a common call for increased contact hours among students.

According to the report, students do not place a particularly high val-

ue on lecturers’ research records or academic qualifications, prioritising contact time with lecturers, fellow students and inspirational teaching.

Therefore, Usman Ali, NUS VicePresident concluded that ‘there is a clear indication here that gimmicks or occasional lectures in huge theatres with famous academics are no replacement for the bread and butter of quality teaching and face-toface interaction with students.’

This report, indicating that students are demanding more face-toface learning, may well encourage universities to think twice before cutting contact time in order to save money or prioritising research over teaching.

Treasure trove Liv Hows bathimpact News Deputy

Thirty thousand Roman silver coins have been discovered in Bath, in a find which is now being termed the Beau Street Hoard.

The coins are believed to date from around 270AD, meaning that they are nearly 2,300 years old. The discovery of coins is thought to be one of the largest discoveries ever found, but also believed to be the larges single hoard discovered in

£150,000 is needed to keep the coins, so that they can be exhibited at the Roman Baths any UK Roman town. The discovery has been termed a “treasure trove” due to its size and rarity.

It is, however, not only the size

of the find that makes it so extraordinary, it is also the fact that coins were not discovered by amateur treasure finders, but were in fact discovered by professional archaeologists, working on a site near the Roman Baths.

Bath was an important city in the Roman Empire, and like many other parts of the Roman Empire, at the time, there was much war and instability. This may account for the fact the coins seemed to have been buried and hidden away.The coins, due to age, are all stuck together and so are now being sent to the British Museum, to be worked on.

Officials working for the Roman Baths have told the press that they will also be seeking to raise enough money, around £150,000, so as to be able to buy the coins so that they can become part of the exhibitions in the Roman Baths.

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

News

www.bathimpact.com

Gap years: taking a break for now Ben Butcher tells bathimpact about the decreasing trend of a year out Norman B

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he number of students taking gap years before university has decreased by up to one million, statistics reveal. The report, compiled on behalf of BIC, suggests that the decrease of up to 40 per cent is a direct result of the £9,000 tuition fees being introduced next year as one of the government’s schemes to help pay off Britain’s debt. The survey also states that of those travelling abroad, 60 per cent of them will keep their travels under six months to keep down costs.

The amount of students choosing to defer in 2011 totalled 16,229, a large decrease from the 2010 number of 33,464. Those who have chosen to defer have chosen to do so at the cost of paying the higher fees as David Willetts, minister of state for universities and science, stated as the plans were pushed through that students who take a gap year or

Map of the world. The world used to be a student’s oyster but that is no longer the case for most defer their place until 2012/13 will have to pay the new tuition fee charges. This is despite gap year companies, parents and students compiling petitions asking for an amnesty so students who defer can still pay the lower fees

when they start studying in 2012.

The gap year has become a staple of the transition between secondary and higher education since the 1960’s as it gave students the chance to travel, volunteer and work before university. Recently,

as the work force grows increasingly competitive, the gap year has been used by some to help build their CV’s. Adam Pembrey of Gapforce, a leading gap year company, says the gap year gives the opportunity “to make friends, do

something worthwhile, and learn skills such as team building, public speaking and problem solving.”

Despite the statistics showing a large decrease, many still see travelling as a goal in the future.

81 per cent of the students polled in the stated that seeing the world and travelling was a top five priority for them over the next five years, with one in four stating that friends’ gap year photos on Facebook were a key influencer in their decision to take a gap year. It also stated that girls are more inclined to travelling than boys.

With gap years on the decline, there are worries about the impacts it will have on Britain’s gap year based companies. With some increasing the amount of controversial ‘voluntourism’ available over summer, some charities are concerned with the impact this will have on said communities.

Tesco withdraws plans Britain’s great

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esco has suspended its plan to redevelop the Bath Press site following severe disagreements with planners at Bath and North East Somerset Council.

Tesco, along with the development partner St. James’s Investments (SJI) is now withdrawing two planning applications. Plans to use the site on Lower Bristol Road were estimated to cost £50 million. The multinational retail titan will now have to consider a third planning application or sale of the old print-works. The site spans five acres and was last used in 2007.

Tesco had been working on the scheme since 2008, claiming it will create around 650 jobs. Tesco corporate affairs manager Emma Heesom said: “We have received a great deal of support for our current application and believe it is the best scheme for Bath. It offers significant benefits, including ma-

Sainsbury’s plans to expand their supermarket in Green Park were unanimously approved by councillors at B&NES jor investment, jobs and additional retail choice. The council has not been prepared to accept further detail or information from us on the concerns they have raised, so we feel we have no choice but to

Sainsbury’s in Green Park is to be expanded under new plans withdraw.”

B&NES Council officials said the scheme should be rejected due to the impact on local shopping parades such as Moorland Road, and surging traffic around the Windsor Bridge junction. Tesco and SJI also clashed with the council over additional information of the potential development.

A spokesman for B&NES Council said: “The council has spent considerable time preparing for an appeal that will not be heard and we are currently taking advice on

recovering our reasonable costs on behalf of the local taxpayer for preparing our case. Bath and North East Somerset Council has an excellent track record in supporting the delivery of ambitious development projects with the private sector.”

Two days after the rejection of Tesco’s latest plan, Sainsbury’s were granted permission to expand their main store in Green Park, with B&NES councillors voting unanimously in favour of approval.

Britain remaining popular amongst overseas students, reveals Clodagh McGuire

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he British Council expects the number of overseas students, those from outside the European Union, studying at UK universities to rise by 10 per cent this decade.

There were 3.5 million students studying overseas by the end of the last decade and this number is expected to continue to rise. Currently roughly 12% of students are from overseas. A further 300,000 overseas students are predicted. This expansion is second only to that predicted for Australia. According to Jo Beall, British Council director of education the next 10 years are “critical” if the UK expects to take advantage of the increase in overseas students.

A study carried out by the British Council has set out the global trends in higher education expected up until 2020. By this time it is expected that more than half of the world’s 18 – 22 year olds will come from four countries: India, China, Indonesia and the US. It is clear from this statistic that there will be an increasing importance of Asian countries. The United States has long dominated higher education but by 2020 China is expected to have twice as many students.

According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency most of

the overseas students in the UK come from China, 67,000 students compared to the 39,000 from India. This is, however, expected change and India to become the leader in overseas students.

Higher education is a lucrative global market and these predicMark Fleming

Sam Short

Anthony Masters bathimpact Contributor

Landmark Nelson’s Column tions suggest that the number of overseas students attending UK institutions will become increasingly important. Over the next 10 years it is important that the UK takes advantage of the influx of overseas students.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Comment

www.bathimpact.com

7

We’re passionate about our apathy Sam Short counters the argument that today’s youth are apathetic XKCD

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id you vote in the last general election? According to government statistics more than half of 18 to 24 yearolds didn’t. Now I find it hard to believe that the youth of today harbor the indifference we’re branded with, particularly when I’ve wasted hours of my time online arguing obsessively with faceless individuals over trivial facts.

Where we find the irresistible urge to prove someone wrong is a mystery to me, but it seems that modern politics don’t hold the pizazz of the online communities to which we have all become a part.

By a combination of alienation and betrayal, our government have extinguished our pride in our country and driven us to develop virtual nations ruled by the creative. People who entertain us with comedy, share with us information freely, and more recently, rally us, with ‘a new kind’ of charitably fi-

Apathy. Are we really as apathetic as we are made out to be? nanced propaganda. The KONY 2012 campaign is an extraordinary example of how easily millions of people can be influenced.

As one of the first 30,000 to view

the video I can admit that after watching it, I was ready to blindly shout the cause from the rooftops; fortunately after further research I found the other side of the story.

mentary on Uganda where a five yearold white boy features more prominently than any northern Ugandan victim or survivor. Indeed, with the exception of the teenage victim Jacob, the experiences of northern Ugandans go almost completely unheard.

There is no doubt that the simplification of a situation or conflict allows for a campaign to reach a greater number of people, but there must be a limit to how far this can go. In ‘Kony 2012’, the situation in Uganda has been simplified to the level that the aforementioned child (director Jason Russell’s son) can understand. Unfortunately, things are more complicated than that. ‘Kony 2012’ draws attention to the atrocities committed by Joseph Kony, but fails to mention the current attitude of Acholi people. Reports suggest that the majority of those affected advocate the amnesty process whereby LRA soldiers – including senior officials – return to the country in

ranks and commit atrocities. Therefore, it becomes problematic to label them either “victims” or “perpetrators” as they are often both.

Given Invisible Children’s overly simplified viewpoint and dubious apperception of the issue, it becomes impossible for them to envision an appropriate resolution to the crisis. It is perhaps justified in its pride at bringing the ‘LRA question’ to the forefront of the Obama administration’s agenda and bringing about military action (last year, it was announced that 100 US military ‘advisors’ were being sent to Uganda). However, the reality is not quite so impressive.

The sending of these troops was not simply a magnanimous move by the administration as many of the troops were already in Uganda. Furthermore, this announcement was, at least partially, a reciprocal response to the Ugandan Government’s military engagement in Somalia – where the US refuses to deploy troops. Matt Brown of the Enough Project eloquently summarises this agreement: “The U.S. doesn’t have to fight al-Qaeda-linked Shabab in Somalia, so we help Uganda take care of their domestic security problems, freeing them up to fight a more dangerous – or a more pressing, perhaps – issue in Somalia.

The aforementioned troops have been given the orders – presumably supported by those behind ‘Kony 2012′ – to “kill or capture” Joseph Kony. The proposal, therefore, is for an American-led intervention in a mini-

In the days that followed, waves of brainwashed youth spread the video and soon children were walking the streets asking “Do you know who Kony is?”

If we are still capable of such passionate action then surely it must be the democratic system itself that is either flawed or unwilling to change. We are not an apathetic generation; we fought, not for ourselves but for the future of those too young to vote, in the student protests; I marched with public workers and supported the teachers and nurses who have helped us grow. Yet we were not heard, compromises were not made and our custodians ignored our response. But we are the apathetic ones, apparently.

We fight against a system that does not value us, that disparages our opinions and belittles our importance to the future of the country. This is why we join together

in our virtual nation, encouraging and supporting each other, imagining, creating, sharing. As such many avoid the debates from which they are shunned and ignored, directing their drive elsewhere. We are loosing faith in our country; a government that ignores our words as they do not speak our language but we speak theirs for “there are more things in heaven and earth”.

The government can’t call us apathetic when they make no effort to meet us halfway, when our opinions matter to them, their policies will matter to us. We are closer than ever before to the future we are told to fear, living as fleshy peripherals in a virtual world with no need to leave our homes.

When our friends, shops, entertainment and hobbies are all found at the click of a mouse, it is the natural place to look for our leaders.

mum of four nations - Uganda, The Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan - where the LRA is or has been active. Those behind the ‘Kony 2012′ campaign see this as inadequate, and

will not resolve the actual sources of the crisis, which are far more structural than a superficial analysis like the one provided by ‘Kony 2012′ would care to admit.

I can offer no better conclusion

Jack McLaren- Stewart bathimpact Contributor s you read this article, one of the most pervasive and successful human rights based viral campaigns ever, has been spreading across the globe for several weeks.

Invisible Children’s ‘Kony 2012‘ campaign has taken social media by storm, achieving over 100 million views and huge amounts of traffic. This, in many ways, is a remarkable feat. The problem? The campaign fails to communicate both the realities of northern Uganda and the attitudes of its people.

Put simply, ‘Kony 2012’ is about making Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army - a central african militia - ‘famous’ because his notoriety would then prevent anyone from ignoring his brutal campaign of terror against the people of East Africa.

The fact that Invisible Children’s analysis of the ‘LRA question’ results in the identification of the problem as “Kony isn’t popular enough” quite obviously highlights the fact that this campaign isn’t about those in the affected areas as, to the people in East Africa and the Great Lakes region, the reality is that few don’t know who Joseph Kony is. What is puzzling, however, is that Joseph Kony doesn’t experience anonymity, but is, in fact, one of the best known alleged war criminals in the world - a fact unwittingly acknowledged by ‘Kony 2012’ when the video draws attention to his position as the International Criminal Court’s most wanted criminal.

It is difficult to respect any docu-

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“

We help Uganda take care of their domestic security problems

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Matt Brown exchange for amnesty. Many continue to support this law because their own children constitute the LRA, yet this issue is barely touched upon in the film. The LRA’s use of child soldiers also proves a dilemma to the people of northern Uganda as many were abducted and forced to join the militia’s

marisatbee

Is‘Kony 2012’ all that it seems to be?

Kony 2012 has managed to engage many through social media rightly so. However, their intention to send more troops could prove disastrous.

On more than one occasion in the film, director Jason Russell refers to Uganda as a “warzone”, a statement which is undoubtedly false as northern Ugandans are currently experiencing their longest period of peace since conflict began in 1986. While there is still sporadic violence, caused primarily by land disputes, there have been no LRA attacks since the mid 2000s and Ugandan children face much greater risks from nodding disease, an incurable and debilitating neurological condition, than from Joseph Kony.

Killing Joseph Kony cannot and

than that of Mark Kersten of the London School of Economics, who claims that ‘Kony 2012’ “falls prey to the bewildering, simplified and wildly erroneous narrative of a legitimate, terror-fighting, innocent partner of the West (the Government of Uganda) seeking to eliminate a band of lunatic, child-thieving, machine-gun wielding mystics (the LRA).” Unfortunately the primary beneficiary of this campaign will not be the children abducted into the LRA, or the parents of those taken, but rather the Ugandan Government of Yoweri Museveni, who, if the ‘Kony 2012′ campaign is successful in its aims, will receive US military funding and support.

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Monday 26th March 2012

Comment

Atirek Dhir bathimpact Contributor uthanasia. The dictionary meaning is ‘the intentional killing by act or omission of a dependent human being for his or her alleged benefit’. Simply put, it means the right to give up one’s life when one is suffering from an incurable disease and lying in an unresponsive state for many years with no hope of ever leading a normal life again. First things first, according to me a person should have the right to decide whether they want to live or not. We have millions of choices to make everyday ranging from the cars we choose to drive, the clothes we wear and even the choice of bread we want to consume. Why should this choice be excluded?

Let me also categorically state here that euthanasia is very different from committing suicide. Suicide is when a person loses the will to live but is more often than not in good health, euthanasia on the other hand is when someone has the will to live but health (both physical and emotional) circumstances do not allow a person to live a life of normal existence. In such rare cases the person should be allowed to decide whether they want to continue living or put an end to years of suffering and agony.

No matter what other people say I do feel there is an element of cruelty here. I can understand that you love someone so much that you want them to be alive. But what if the person is not able to enjoy the simple joys of life like enjoying a walk out-

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side, eating some food by themselves or having a conversation with a loved one? Imagine visiting the person everyday and not getting even the faintest response from them. Accident victims are different, there have been instances when people have awoken from coma and led a normal life.

There have been stories of amazing will power wherein people have recovered remarkably even when the doctors have lost hope. In such instances there is medical assistance and there is a slim chance that the person will be fine again, euthanasia cases are different however. The decision to end or prolong such a life does not rest with the doctors or the relatives.

It does not lie with the courts or with the high end lawyers. It rests solely on the shoulders of the person who is suf-

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The person is not able to enjoy the simple joys of life

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Atirek Dhir fering. I feel we should have the right to end our own life, not when we have lost the will to live but when life has taken away our capability to survive, made us a burden on our loved ones, made us a financial liability, made us hugely dependant on people around us even for simple things like eating or going to the toilet, made us dependant on medical equipment to survive and most importantly make us take up space and time (with no breakthrough in sight) that could be utilised more beneficially. Many people might disagree and say that there are new

medical discoveries every single day and there is still hope for the person suffering. But after losing so many years of your life would you really want to come back and live again? The prime years of your life during which you make friends, find love, enjoy the many wonders of existence and make your career have been cruelly snatched from you. Getting a second chance to live won’t even seem like a consolation; rather it would prolong the agony and seem like a punishment. Imagine waking up one day as a 60 year old with no sense of direction, no job, no loved ones, no friends, no companions and with the burden of expectations to live a normal life like countless others who have been treading the same path nurturing friendships and relationships along the way, whilst you were lying on the bed without being able to walk or converse with others. Would you look forward to the second chance with anticipation or dread?

After a while, when there isn’t even a glimmer of hope, a person should have the complete right to decide whether they want to continue living or not. The loved ones need to understand that it is better to do away with the suffering rather than suffer for years clinging only to hope. The courts need to understand the humane side of the plea and people around have to understand that it is not a choice a person has to make but unfortunately the only choice available to them. Life has taken away their strength to fight, their will to live, and their countless joys and left them with just one decision to make. To die or not to die. The choice should entirely be theirs.

Liv Hows bathimpact Deputy hen Nick Clegg campaigned in the 2010 general election he posed with a pledge card promising not to increase university fees, in fact he said that he would abolish them. Well, on that day I decided that I may as well fully start to think about what I wanted to do during my gap year which I intended to take after my A – Levels, and defer a university place.

And so after weeks and months of planning, multiple conversations with parents, trying to create elaborate schemes as to how I would earn the large sum of money that my travelling dreams needed, that was when the Conservatives got into government, and the Lib Dems rolled over and decided to give into the Tories and allowed David Cameron’s ridiculous idea to triple university fees to be put in place.

Well it is safe to say that the day it was announced that tuition fees would be going up, that is when I had a conversation with my parents that went a bit like: ‘So about that gap year….’

“Yeah not going to happen, unless you want to be paying back loans for the next 15 years…’

“Right.”

What is potentially is worse is the

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It is a year where you are entirely free to decide what you want to do.

And for many it is buying some time to grow up a little, find their feet and prepare themselves for the big change that university inevitably brings.

A gap year often isn’t usually like what so many people portray it to be.

So many parents presume that their kids will spend the year sponging off them, bumming around at home, lounging around and generally making a nuisance of themselves.

The reality is very different. So many young people like myself genuinely had ambitions and goals to achieve in that year: getting a job that gives you a foot in the door for the future career you want, a chance to go away without your parents and meet new people and learn to fend for yourself.

A gap year for many of the people I know is simply a time also just to get away from academia. If you really think about it the few months between the end of secondary school and the beginning of university, it is the longest break from work that most people get. If like me you started school properly, as in learning to read and write from the age of 3 or 4, by the time you finish A-Levels or the equivalent, that is 15 straight years of work, classes, homework,

Holly Narey

Steven Depolo

To die or not to die... Lost gap year

People are going to miss out on these amazing experiences fact that I’m certainly not the only one. So many students have had to accept the same thing. They’ve had to realise that all those things they could gain from a year away just weren’t going to happen. And there are certainly many things to be gained.

You have a year to do as you wish.

It’s an opportunity to get some work experience under your belt, some time to really think about what you’re interested in, to travel and see new things, and if you need to, to reapply to university or retake exams.

deadlines, 5 day weeks and restrictive rules. So why not take a break?

Why not have some time to just enjoy life free of books? I certainly would have benefited from it. After 15 years I personally felt burnt out after ALevels, even 3 and a half months wasn’t enough time. So thank you Coalition government for making so many people feel pushed into going to university before they’re ready. It will certainly be interesting to see if the number of first year dropouts goes up.

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

bathimpact www.bathimpact.

Monday 26th March 2012

Letters to the Editor

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A generational A guest appearance? greed problem T I Scarlett Clark bathimpact Contributor

don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”

- Bill Cosby Like children having tantrums and stomping their feet, it seems that nowadays society has moulded us to believe that we “can have it all”.

We each are led to accept that every one of us is entitled to a successful career, thriving education, solid family life, money and the right to travel. We have been encouraged to think that this is a reality and what every individual should be striving for. But is the difference between being expected to have it all and having it all leaving us dissatisfied with life and demanding more?

Most people compare their lives to a box of chocolates; however life can be compared to buying a good pair of shoes. When moving to Italy, in order to break the ice my friend

it all? Barna Group examined a nationwide sample of 602 teenagers, what they thought their lives would be like when 25, 93 per cent expected to have a degree, 81 per cent were adamant that they would accomplish in obtaining a high-paid job and 7/10 said travelling the world wouldn’t be a luxury but a reoccurrence.

For our generation, we have been led to feel that anything is possible, do we have long term plans or a short term list of goals? Libraries full of books yet we find ourselves reading summaries on the internet, phone calls have been replaced by text, even coffee is instant.

Of course, this isn’t entirely our fault, from the time SATs and the 11+ are introduced, it’s apparent that we have been moulded to assume that we should at least aim to have it all. We have been urged so much that for the academic year 2011/2012 the A* grade was intro-

he issue of censorship is omnipresent within bathimpact, and is something that we are very keen to talk about. Last issue’s Editorial has lead to a broader discussion about where to draw the line.

This is obviously an unanswerable question in its general form, as each case must be taken individually, and scrutinised in the context of which

the argument appears.

We at bathimpact are advocators of free speech and we hold the principles of good journalism very close to our hearts. As a key part of this, we have recently launched a ‘Letters to the Editor’ section (which usually sits on our website) which provides a platform for students to directly contact bathimpact should they have any comments on the

newspaper. This way responses are published for all to view. We are a paper created by students, for students, and encourage engagement with the issues we and our members write about in all formats. The website provides a perfect platform, and gives all students the right to reply.

Head to www.bathimpact.com to see for yourself!

Dear bathimpact, Oliver Scott ran for President in an attempt to illustrate that he believes that full and frank freedom of speech and of opinion is necessary to realise a fully functioning democracy, the second half of your recent editorial only serves to demonstrate that his main argument has strength.

In refusing to print the manifesto, but mentioning one specific item within it, you have given the impression that Olly is at best insensitive but at worst homophobic. Without being able to see the evidence for this opinion themselves, your readers are left with little choice but to agree with it. However, if the manifesto was printed then your readers would have had the opportunity to make their own minds up and if they agreed with you to at least question Olly on his views.

As it is, through his work with both Medcin and Amnesty, I have got to know Olly quite well and whilst insensitive may stick a little bit, homophobic

certainly wouldn’t. His manifesto contained nineteen points, if taken out of context then I would have been directly insulted by four of them and would vehemently disagree with a further seven as discriminatory and insulting to others. But context here is key, the manifesto is topped and tailed with (admittedly terrible) Latin saying, “Don’t vote for this”, and, “This is a joke, this is to demonstrate that free speech is not supported”. Each point made was a view that Olly feels should be allowed to be expressed, I have little doubt that he would disagree with most of them (even the peacocks) and as one of the more politically active members of campus even take a stand in debating against that view. Many would still disagree with the manifesto, or at least its approach, only by allowing disclosure though would people be able to reach an informed opinion and be able to confront him directly on this.

Further into your paper you have allowed columns advocating violence

(military intervention against Kony) and views that some faiths may find insulting (false hope and gay marriage articles), I’m sure that in past issues you must also have allowed topics and opinions that many might find insulting. It is not only your right to do so, but almost, as a paper to represent all students, an obligation. This is not to say that I think you should have felt obliged to publish the manifesto, but having chosen not to it was very poor form to then print an attack on someone’s character without an immediate right of reply.

The above defence unfortunately does not leave with much space to put my own view of freedom of speech across; I do believe that boundaries should be drawn somewhere, but quite where that boundary is I have not yet decided. A debate on this was recently held by a student group (IDEIA – soon to be a society) and drew many thoughts, for more information and further debate people should track them down on Facebook.

Yours sincerely, Phil Irvine

Dear Phil, Many thanks for your response.

This is obviously a difficult issue.

As stated in the Editorial, however, this was one of the very rare occasions where the decision not to print the manifesto was out of our hands and in the hands of Elections Committee.

As this was a Elections Special, extra funding is put towards the printing costs by the Students’ Union in part because it is in their interest to facilitate democratic proceedings and part because then they have more grounds to ask for something not to be printed.

In this case, Elections Committee decided not to circulate the manifesto, more for Mr Scott’s safety than anything else, as it is an easy piece to be misinterpreted and therefore cause offence to students even if offence was never intended, which we at bathimpact know it wasn’t. This is a sentiment bathimpact agree with. bathimpact are fully aware of the intended tone of Oliver Scott’s article and we are obviously advocates of free speech. Being some of very few students that read the manifesto, we think it is at least a laudable attempt to get

the issue onto the agenda, which it already has done (without it being printed). We were aware that our editorial may have been a little controversial which, as a result, somewhat ended up serving the same aim as the manifesto - raising the profile of the issue. The concern on our behalf was that the intended meaning may not have been conveyed to our audience which when directly referring directly to student groups (which make it very different to the other articles you cite as being contentious) is simply unacceptable even if it was a joke, if someone just dipped in and out of the article that tone is easily missed. Such humour around these subjects is a very touchy area and something we have avoided in other articles throughout our term.

In regards to the ‘false hope’ piece issue 7 covered one viewpoint and issue 9 was a response piece so all basis were covered. The gay marriage article was written to compliment the current national debate on civil marriage equality. The very fact that someone would ‘pretend joke’ about issues such as those raised in the manifesto can be construed as offensive enough to some people who are active in campaigning for equal rights. As far as bathimpact

are concerned, the fact that the part which stated the whole manifesto was not to be taken seriously was in Latin, excluded a large portion of our readership from getting that message. It was flirted with that we could place some kind of banner over it saying that it was a joke, but this would never have been a serious option as that would have shown a level of bias on our behalf which could have affected how the other candidates were viewed.

The Editorials section of the newspaper is the section where the opinion of bathimpact gets aired on important issues such as this. Therefore bathimpact is also allowed to exercise the right of free speech in this manner. I am sorry to hear that you believe this was ‘poor form’ on our behalf, but bathimpact did not make the decision not to print; it was, however, a decision we supported for the reasons outlined and we are happy that our Editorial is raising a debate surrounding the issues. bathimpact is a paper by the students for the students and any judgement call we make is with that in mind.

Many thanks for your letter, bathimpact.

This issue’s letter...

Our reply...

Are we too driven by material things? Hmm but they are pretty! organised a shopping trip. I believed duced due to the amount of stuwe were on the same page when she dents exceeding the level required. introduced me to the best shoe shop The youth of today in the UK has a around; yet 1 ½ hours later with my world of endless possibilities but are friend admiring a pair of red stilet- we being pressurised to follow the tos; she had inspected them, tried “expectations” of society; top notch them on and paraded up and down degree, prosperous career with a before she even considered buy- family on the side whilst balancing a ing them. However, up until then; social life too? Aiming for this is not I would see a pair in the window, I wrong as long as we take time out to didn’t really need them- but what enjoy the ride. girl ever did? I would swiftly buy Could it be these high “expectathem and leave without thinking tions” are leaving us wanting more twice. After questioning her, I real- from life; everything is supposedly ised that her shoes would be treas- possible after all, and not only this ured for years, whilst mine would but upon ticking our checklist, it be tossed in the back of a wardrobe, seems that life is becoming more never re-heeled and before long of a grocery list, this weekend we thrown away or given to charity. I should move over from the fast lane soon wondered whether this is how and enjoy the scenery some more the generation in the UK lives today. to appreciate everything we have Do young adults of today want achieved already.

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Politics

www.bathimpact.com

Careers on campus Election turnout

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he EPSO (European Personnel Selection Office) held a careers event on campus last month in which attendants were given a brief speech about the UK’s priorities in Europe, followed by a presentation aimed at students soon to graduate. The aim of the event was to broaden knowledge about the type of political careers available in Europe, and to inform students of the different channels available.

If you’re in your final year at Bath, you’ll probably be getting fairly tired of hearing about the next amazing graduate scheme or receiving the veritable avalanche

of emails from the infamous Mary Mears. Or at least I was. That said, as the weeks roll by and summer exams approach, you might also be struggling to accept the unavoidable idea of ‘life after uni’.

You must ask yourself, what do you want from a career? A starting salary of more than £40,000 a year, flexibility, travel opportunities or maybe the ability to have an impact on over 500 million people’s lives throughout 27 different countries?

Of course, there are a few options. You could go off to ‘find yourself’ on a gap yah in Peru, start a supermarket graduate scheme,

Marie Berne bathimpact Contributor he Politics Society led their annual trip to Brussels at the end of February. The group started at the European Parliament where they were led to ‘the Parlamentarium’,

the information given on the particular topic that was to be debated in the Parliament. Those taking part were then informed an earthquake had supposedly occurred, the conditions of which could possibly change their opinion. Questions were posed by

or maybe even join the Clapham massive as a London highflier. Or you could work for the EU. The EU competition for graduate level jobs (AD5) is open until 15th April this year, leaving less than one month to apply. Final years can go for one of five specific categories: Policy Development and Implementation, Law, Audit, Communications or External Relations. Or, if you don’t have a specific area of expertise, you can apply to the general stream.

The work is varied and there is the constant possibility of moving around once you’re in. Effectively, the EU offers a lifetime of different jobs that are both interesting and challenging. Working with an EU institution also gives you the opportunity to live and work abroad, whilst receiving constant encouragement to learn new skills and languages.There are however some provisos, you must be an EU citizen with at least two European languages, including at least one of English, French or German. For AD5, you need to be a final year or graduate.

in more turmoil?

Tomos Evans bathimpact News Editor impact-news@bath.ac.uk

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lection time has passed once more, and luckily we all survived to tell the tale. Now the dust has settled, let’s look at the issue of turnout, yet again. Bath’s Students’ Union is quoted as saying 3,220 people turned out to vote. Now, some of you may think “Wow, that’s loads” others “That’s nobody”.

Even more of you will notice how 3,220 means nothing when not presented as a percentage, which, by the way has, for some strange

tutions feels with their respective turnout.

There are numerous assumptions that could be made about a lack of turnout for any institution. Not clearly setting out the roles of a Sabbatical Team, not engaging the student body effectively or maybe it is just apathy – something often discussed in the pages of bathimpact.

It’s all very well a Students’ Union defining the roles of a sabb, but it does not necessarily show the student body that they are strong and have influence. Now, here in Bath we have Sam Short

Steven Wonnocot provides a commentary on why you should consider the EU for your political career…

A tour in Brussels...

Arina Cosac

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The Politics Society posing at the headquarters in Brussels the Parliament’s visitors’ centre; an area which reproduces the conditions in which members of Parliament (MEPs) work.

There was a press conference room, an Assembly room, and rooms for every ‘party’ the group were representing: Ecology, Traditionalist, Socialist, and Liberal. Provided with some electronic guides, attendants played the role of a MEP for one of these parties. Examples of topics addressed were the implementation of microchips in people or water wastage. Activities included discussing with party members about

‘journalists’ before finally voting on the appropriate set of policies that should be adopted by the EU. After these two intensive hours, the group were directed to one of the conference rooms next to the real Parliament room where they were told about diverse some facts about the Parliament that they may not have been aware of. One example was the rate of European Parliament elections’ participation in every EU country, the average of which was about 43%. The conference speaker, Ryan, was from Malta: ‘this small country where, when

something happens, everybody knows and is excited about it’ he told us when explaining the high percentage of people who vote at European elections in Malta (78.79% in 2009*).

The group were then led directly into the Commissioners’ Conference room, two hours of speeches by three members of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) followed. First, Margaritis Schinas, Deputy Head of the BEPA, gave the group a general introduction to what the BEPA was in charge of, how the Commission works and what its powers are. Then Graeme Carter, a Scottish adviser of the European Dialogue sector spoke about ‘the European Political scene and the UK’s role’. He especially developed what Brussels wants from the UK and what the UK expects from the EU. Baudouin Regout, a Belgium adviser of the Analysis Team, who talked about ‘Making sense of the sovereign debt crisis’, followed him. He discussed the issues of the current sovereign debt crisis and the consequences of it leaving the Eurozone, and the new fiscal treaty that was signed a week after his speech, on March 2nd.

The group later met at the famous ‘Delirium’ pub, that held the Guinness World Record with 2000 beers, coming from more than 60 countries – a truly multicultural end to the day!

The bar was certainly busy, but the ballot box was not... reason has been rounded down to 22 per cent. So, 22 per cent of Bath’s Student body voted in the Sabbatical elections of 2012. I’ll let you make your own mind up on that one.

So, where does Bath rank in terms of turnout? Comparing with Bristol, Cardiff and UWE the turnout at Bath is not too dissimilar, although it is the lowest in terms of a number published. UWE quite proudly shouts “Record Turnout: 4,055 voters!”

Bristol also expresses a comprehensive breakdown of figures, still missing that useful percentage it should be noted.

Obviously not all people vote for all positions in the elections, yet, an average turnout percentage could be provided. Surely? It could be suggested that the lack of a percentages is due to the disappointment that the Students’ Unions of each one of these insti-

had some wonderful sabbatical teams, but the lack of turnout shows people do not care over issues surrounding the Students’ Union. Then again, if we look at the general election, 2005 to be exact, turnout was down because the electorate were described as ‘content’ and the result was seen as a foregone conclusion; in short, what was the point of the election? I imagine this is the way most Students’ Unions would like to explain their low turnouts.

Election turnout is arguably the test of a democratic institution. If people don’t feel engaged, they don’t vote. It’s hard to see any immediate solution to the issue, but what is apparent is that the responsibility for engaging people with their Students’ Union falls at the door of both the university’s union but also the NUS; with whom most appear to be disillusioned.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

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Politics

www.bathimpact.com

Kylie Barton bathimpact Editor-in-Chief impact-editor@bath.ac.uk

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ailed as the pinnacle of Politics Week, Nigel Farage was predictable on the European Union, but surprising in terms of openness and character.

The event was held on a Monday evening, which didn’t put off the nearly 200 attendees, all poised to throw their questions at the leader of a party conventionally not associated with students. bathimpact asked Mr Farage why he chose to come to Bath; “I am the Billy Graham of the Eurosceptic movement; I go round the country and evangelise and try to go to one school or university a week… unlike other politicians”. He also acknowledged the fault of politicians in disengaging the youth by ‘turning them off’ of politics. Bath students certainly appeared ‘turned on’ at this event.

The evening started with a bit of a glitch as lecturer Sue Milner, who had agreed with the Politics Society to introduce the speaker, failed to show, throwing Sterios Alvargonzalez, chair of the society, in at the deep end. The main focus of the talk, as advertised, was UKIP’s stance on the European Union, but before Mr Farage explained his route into politics he stated “it was never my intention”. When he moved onto the EU he said: “To seek to create a super-state where people don’t get a say is wrong”. Throughout he stressed his view that the EU has become ‘anti-democratic’ as opposed to just un-democratic, and that any supporters of the unions mechanisms are “giving away our democ-

racy”. Farage consistently used the example of the Greeks, where, in his view, democracy has been overridden by the EU who have instated a technocrat as President who is no longer accountable to the people. This, for Farage, is the manifestation of the EU being a dictator (labelling them ‘bully boys’), to stop the Greeks from leaving the monetary union in case a domino effect incurs. He said: “If the Greeks leave the Euro, others will too!

The European project is more important!”, continuing he said “can no one else see we are driving these countries to a state of revolution?”. Mr Farage admitted being “a bloody nuisance” on the issue, but he explained this by stating that “time is running out, people are turning to the extreme right

“

It was never my intention to go into politics

”

and left”… which was met with confused looks from the audience.

On the broader issue of UKIP, Mr Farage stressed it was not about the party, or his career. He shot down a question by bathimpact Editor-inChief, who asked how the increase in votes the party experienced at the large General Election would be transferred into seats with such a single policy focus. To which Farage stated that 75 per cent of UK legislation is decided at EU level anyway, so a majority of domestic issues relate directly to the level of involvement the UK has in Europe. After speaking with a member of UKIP youth after

the event, it is clear that the younger members of the party feel this is an issue which needs addressing to make the party more approachable for the general public.

Other questions were asked about the role of the parliament, on which Mr Farage said “it has no real power and must be given it”, stating that the EU Commission is the “powerhouse”, and the need for solidarity in a time of crisis, where the response given only highlighted the fact that this could work if all member states had the same interests. According to Farage, this is definitely not true. He also claimed the bailouts in the crisis were actually illegal, and went on to champion the role of the press in the wider EU debate. One of the final questions attacked his use of the term ‘democratic deficit’ when a student mentioned that this may also be the case in other international organisations such as the UN and the IMF. Mr Farage said such institutions had been ‘hijacked’ to become ‘an outer wing’ of the EU. After cracking a joke about Milliband not being one to “liven a party” one student asked Mr Farage to “put his serious face back on”.

As the atmosphere became more heated, Farage put an end to the Q&A session, later stating he prefers to end it when the audience is still ‘buzzing’ as opposed to it running flat. Mr Farage told bathimpact the crowd “beat [him] into submission” in reference to the range of questions posed. bathimpact asked: “there are obviously a lot of students here who will be voting for the first time in the next general election, if you had one sentence to say to those students what

Kylie Barton

Leader of UKIP is predictable yet likeable

Farage kindly obliged to sign some of the books he was trying to sell would it be?” to which he said: “We are the party that believes in democracy, self-government, and we are the only party which represents the majority view in this country; that we want our pride and self-respect back”.

Let us know what you think of his response at bathimpact.com.

Farage was very friendly with students both before during and after the event. One of his many quips which aroused laughter included: “Angela Merkel in private looks even more miserable than she does in public”.

He even joined various students and organisers in Parade for a swift pint of Guinness (and a round for the

students) before returning to Kent, where conversation topics included his attitude towards lobby groups, his view of New York (where he apparently prefers the ‘seedy’ areas), how he was ‘scared of the American Religious Right’, and how he feels ‘Green is the new Red’ in British Politics.

He left on this bombshell “Miliband… it’s the bland leading the bland”. Farage was surprisingly well received by students, many of whom, whilst leaving praised his oration skills and his ability to get his point across, even to the supposedly less receptive of audiences. Surely qualities required for the field of politics?

Arina Cosac

Model United Nations weekend Bath students representing various countries of the United Nations for the weekend’s event Marie Berne bathimpact Contributor

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n the weekend of the 9th to 11th of March an event took place, organized for the third consecutive year by the Bath MUN society: the Bath MUN conference (BUMUN). Gathering people from the universities of Reading, Bristol, Exeter, Nottingham, London Metropolitan and SOAS,

in addition to the University of Bath, the conference is relatively small but consequently much more friendly than other bigger ones. Right from the opening ceremony, the chair of BUMUN society made all delegates at ease by her natural, Spanish-style eloquence. We have also been honored by the presence of Mr Gordon Glass, director of the Global Leadership, which campaigns for a United Nations

Universal Parliamentary Assembly.

Born from an East Germany mother and a British father, Mr Glass told us how he had learned to despise war since his younger age, which brought him to work for the UN and later to defend his idea of democratizing the system. With, as a final message to us, ‘find your goal in life and be your own leader’, his speech raised a lot of questions about the controversial

idea of a world parliament.

After this introductory ceremony, we split into our committees: Ecosoc, Security Council and Arab League.

For the whole weekend, delegates alimented debates in UN-style on the world at 7 billion and cholera in Haiti (Ecosoc), India-Pakistan tensions and the UN reform (Security Council), an intervention in Syria and rebuilding Egyptian democracy (Arab League).

The specificity of the Security Council at BUMUN was that delegates could be simultaneously translated in 6 languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Cantonese and Mandarin. The debate took place in the interpreters’ labs, with postgraduate students doing the translations.

In this respect, the Security Council was one of the MUN committees closest to the real United Nations

system and spirit. A moment that perfectly captured the ambiance was the translated dialogue during an un-moderated caucus (i.e. delegates can speak freely to each other without time or protocol constraints) between the China delegate speaking in German and the Russia delegate speaking in Italian.

Sunday’s session was very productive for all committees, as the Security Council passed two resolutions, while the Arab League and EcoSoc faced an interesting crisis.

The closing ceremony took place including the chairs talking about the results of the debates and highlights of the weekend, the Secretary General receiving flowers from her Vice-Chair, and finally all the delegates receiving their diplomas, some with an extra ‘Best Delegate Award’.

Monday 26th March 2012

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Sabbs Corner

www.bathimpact.com

David Howells SU President supresident@bath.ac.uk

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n undergraduate degree from the University of Bath is going to cost you £9,000 if you start next year, which seems simple enough. But what, you might ask yourself, will you be getting for your money? The question of hidden costs is one the Students’ Union has been keen to tackle.

Last November we asked students about the things they currently have to pay for outside of tuition fees. Answers were varied, and by far the most common things were printing and textbooks. Yet the more we looked into it, the more variability we found between different departments. So you want to study a science? You’ll probably need a lab coat and safety specs, but depending on your department you might get them included in your fees, might be expected to fork out for them yourself or might be offered a (unadvertised) buy-back scheme. Field trips are another thorny issue: most are optional but some are incredibly expensive. There was one incident last year of a cohort of students only being told

about their mandatory trip abroad a few weeks in advance, despite each student having to pay for it.

This brings up an important point: the difference between optional and mandatory costs. You can’t complete a chemistry degree without a lab coat or an architecture degree without building materials, but depending on your learning style you might easily pass a maths degree without opening a textbook. The other debate on the topic of hidden costs is just how ‘hidden’ are they; architecture students were very vocal about the costs associated with their course, but at the same time, so is their department, so prospective students at least know what they’re getting into. If you really want to get into a discussion of fairness, the fact architecture already costs a lot more per head than economics.

Regardless of all these debates, we have been speaking to the University about these issues in attempt to make sure students get value for their fees, and we have already made some significant progress. Firstly, from next year the University has agreed to pay for all lab coats and similar equipment as part of the fees. They are also look-

ing at equipment costs in engineering, although nothing has been confirmed.

Paying for printing and textbooks might be a long way off (given both how expensive it is and how much it varies from student to student), but all departments should be paying for dissertation binding, at least from next year. The University will also be looking at clearer upfront information on field trips and CRB checks (much to the delight of incoming pharmacy students, I’d imagine), including where these might be optional but restrict discipline specialisation. On the postgraduate side, we’ve focused on returning PhD printing costs to their pre-provider change levels, and can now confirm research students will be charged no more than their lecturer colleagues.

Hidden costs aren’t the only part of the discussion; it’d be remiss not to point out sports fees won’t be charged for those on £9,000. There have been some successes, but there’s still more work to do, especially as one competitor university (Sheffield) announced this week they’ll be paying for all costs, however hidden they may or may not be.

The neighbourly approach Naomi Mackrill looks at why being nice to your neighbours is of great importance

A typical day as a University of Bath Student: Yeah, ok, I’m not going to write about that, mainly because I can’t! It doesn’t exist. Some of you can sympathise with leaving your house at half 7, ready to get a bus up for your 8.15, whilst others have never even seen campus before 11am.

Then there are evening matches,

24 hour courseworks and 9-5 labs to throw into the mix.

What I’m getting at (yes there is a point, promise), is that we’re all trying to get on, and live together, in a rather small city, alongside many many many other people, who’s lifestyles probably vary more than ours. Back at the beginning of the year, you’ll have all

received a link to the good-neighbour booklet. With the weather improving, and the temptation for BBQs increasing, now would be a wonderful time to remind yourself of the measures you can take to minimise your impact on your neighbours. You never know who might be trying to sleep… www.townandgown.org.uk

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

Bath and North East Somerset Council have put the wheels in motion to implement an Article 4 Direction in Bath. This is despite opposition from the Students’ Unions, the University, the National Landlords Association, Bath Chamber of Commerce and the councils’ own Development Control Committee. In real terms, this means that the uphill struggle has another 12 months to go. During the next 12 months, there will be a period of 6 weeks of public consultation, as well as the opportunity, hopefully, to feed your views directly to the councillors you have elected to represent you.

We are disappointed that the points we presented, and highlighted to Cabinet in advance of the meeting, did not appear to be considered when making the decision to give “Notice to Implement” an Article 4 Direction. There has yet to be any reasoning given as to why these

points are not valid enough to warrant consideration as part of this decision. The concerns raised cover a whole spectrum of problems and issues that are continually being ignored, before even venturing into the moral questions around a policy that goes against the B&NES equal opportunities policy.

Many of the comments surrounding this seem to forget that we, as students, ARE residents of Bath. We may be here to study, and this may not be the city that our parents choose to bring us up in, but we ARE residents of Bath.

With this comes an extra responsibility on all our shoulders to treat Bath, and its fellow residents, with the respect they deserve, respect that should go both ways. We have the right to study here, we have the right to vote here and we will continue to fight for the right to live here, the right that is afforded to all our fellow residents of Bath.

To find out more visit: www.

BathStudent.com/article4

Happy Easter!

Nick Stone

Sam Short

Hidden & not so hidden More Article 4

David Howells SU President supresident@bath.ac.uk The Easter break is rapidly approaching, and the sabb team would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy vacation. The threat of exams, final year projects and transfer reports may be loaming for many, but we sincerely hope everyone finds some time to relax, whether they are going home or staying in Bath.

But the year isn’t over yet! There’s still plenty to look forward to after the break, including awards season recognising all the fantastic things achieved by students this year, more exciting events such as the 30th Bathwick Hill Fun Run, and to end it all on June 6th: the

Summer Ball.

One special message to any postgraduates staying Bath over the break, the PGA’s Cuppa Coffee will continue both Thursdays from 3pm till 4.30pm in the Graduate Centre. And as a word of caution to all students sticking around: the University operates a double bank holiday for Easter Monday, meaning almost all services and facilities will be shut both Monday and Tuesday 9th and 10th April, so it’s best to check out individual services’ opening information.

The library will, as ever, be open 24/7.

So, if you’re celebrating Easter, Passover or any other celebration, we hope it is a good one. Otherwise, we hope you enjoy the break!

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

15

Media

www.bathimpact.com

The importance of elections

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the University and the outside organisations, which might want to get in touch.

The whole point of having a dedicated group of students who sit at the top is to make sure not everyone who is involved in a particular area has to worry about admin, organising social events, organising the output of their group, sorting out events, whatever it is that your group specialises in.

There are a few core positions that every Committee has, and all other positions are built around the purpose and abilities of the Sam Short

n the Union, whether you are involved in a society, sports club or Media group, all students groups have a wonderful Committee. A Committee comprised of, hopefully, dedicated members who want to drive their club to bigger and greater things, to carve the path to fame and fortune, to reach for the stars… and other equally cheesy lines.

As much as I might joke, Committees are an essential and vital part to every group. They are the point of contact with the higher powers of the Students’ Union,

Casual naked photoshoot from media, see we are all kinds of fun!

group.

The main roles are Chair; the person who is the overseer of the Committee who chairs the meetings and is in charge of keeping their Committee in check; Treasurer who keeps finances in check and looks at the best ways for money to be spent for advertising, activities and getting people involved and a Secretary who keeps track of what’s said in meetings and generally deals with the paperwork – funnily enough, like a secretary. All other roles are based on what kind of group you are – societies, sports, Media, academic the list goes on!

Overall your Committees make sure the finances are being spent, organise events, training and matches, make sure everything runs smoothly and, yes, socials.

It is therefore ridiculously important that you vote and have your say.

At the moment voting is open on bathstudent.com to vote for your society, club or group’s 2012/13 Committees. Make sure you go along to the hustings that this year’s Committee will have organised, listen to what the candidates are proposing for your club and have fun asking them difficult questions. I know I will be. Then, you may vote. Voting for all clubs and societies can be found on: http://www.bathstudent.

Sam Short

Your Media Officer, Tamar Hudson looks at why your voice is important to Media

Members of the bathimpact team busy in production week... com/democracy/overview/ and there’s also a large red button at the top of bathstudent homepage that takes you to a page where you can find links to everything you’re

eligible to vote in.

Good luck to all running for the prestigious status that is a ‘Committee Member’, and make sure you vote!

Lizzy Roberts URB Head of Ad-Market urb-admarket@bath.ac.uk

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t’s all been very hectic at 1449AM URB recently. The week before last saw many of our producers and presenters intensely working on coverage of the Sabbatical Elections 2012.

We were broadcasting throughout the week and then solidly from 2pm till 10pm for the whole of results day and night with much information going out about the history of elections and voting, statistics, analysis of the sabbatical positions, interviews with all the candidates and updates and gossip from this year’s campaign.

There was also collaboration with CTV who broadcast images of what was going whilst we were on air. This all culminated with live elections results, and

Sam Short

An update from your student radio station all in all made a very successful, if pretty tiring, week.

This weekend we will be covering the Varsity Rugby game between Bath and Exeter. You can expect live commentary throughout the game and breakdown of the teams, so make sure you tune in to hear all the latest action at the Rec. As you may have heard, the Media Awards are also coming up and members are writing nominations as we speak, whilst Committee members are organising the awards ceremony.

Also you can now vote for next year’s URB committee so get along to bathstudent and have a look!

Remember to get listening at 1449urb.co.uk, if you would like to join Media go to www. bathstudent.com/media.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Activities

www.bathimpact.com

Unicycle hockey time - wait what?

Gravity Vomit

Bathwick Hill Fun!

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Huh, so it’s actually a real thing.

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ting involved; walking, crawling, skipping, hopping, or pretty much any other method of conveying yourself along the route is welcome (even using space hoppers).

All you need to do to get involved is to pick up your runner’s pack, available from the Volunteer Centre in 1 East, and start persuading anyone and everyone to sponsor you!

Prizes Prizes Prizes!!

Yes, there really are EVEN MORE reasons to join in the Fun Run – free stuff! What more could you possibly ask for? Even if you’re not the fastest runner, you can still be a winner – there will be prizes for the most sponsorship raised, and most importantly, for the best fancy dress outfit. So what are you waiting for? Sign up for the Fun Run now – limited places available!

B

y the time you read this Gravity Vomit (the juggling & circus skills society) will have just had their second unicycle hockey session this semester; yes, you did read that correctly - hockey, played on unicycles. The first session, on 4 March, was a great success - although the teams were small (4 vs 3), both players and spectators had a great time, whilst attracting some curious looks from the (ordinary) hockey players on the other side of the hall. The next

session will be on 15 April 1-2pm in the Founders' Sports Hall - unicyclists and spectators very welcome.

Details can be found on the Gravity Vomit website and facebook page.

If you cannot ride a unicycle (or juggle) and would like to learn how, Gravity Vomit meet every Friday and Sunday 2-4pm in the Arts Barn with a variety of juggling & circus equipment available for members to try, including unicycles. Membership costs £4 and can be purchased from bathstudent.com.

ChaOS a hit

Catherine Bateson

Space hoppers were all the rage at last years fun run! his year is the 30th Bath- the children. wick Hill Fun Run, and What’s involved in the Fun Run? we’re determined to make As the name might suggest, the it the best yet! Held on 22nd April, Bathwick Hill Fun Run does go up the Fun Run is one of the major Bathwick Hill – but never fear, the fundraisers for the Romania Aid route starts by going DOWN North trip organised by SCA (Student road, then returning up Bathwick Community Action) and is impera- Hill to the Uni. It’s a three-mile tive for the project to be a success. route in all, which will definitely So what is the Romania Aid Trip? gain you respect from your friends VEach summer, a group of students when you tell them you ran up travel to a town called Comenesti Bathwick Hill! Plus, this is your opin North East Romania, to spend portunity to show off your creative a couple of weeks working in two side, by running in the most imorphanages, and providing the at- aginative fancy dress you can think tention and friendship the orphans of! Previously we’ve had threeneed. The visit really enhances the legged racers, Monty-Python style lives of the children, making this a silly walks, and of course last year’s really amazing cause! All proceeds Bright Orange Bus – can you beat from the Fun Run go towards buy- that? ing resources for the trip, such as Running really not your cup of games, art supplies and books for tea? That’s no excuse for not get-

Parade take over People and Planet

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oth People & Planet and Amnesty have hopefully been very visible on Parade over the last few weeks, P&P having organised a fair-trade banana-based flashmob and a sweatshop to highlight unfair practices involved in making the clothes that we all wear.

Amnesty meanwhile ran a photo petition with the stunning car you can see in the photo on the right, in support of Saudi Arabian women and their campaign to be allowed to drive and also had waiters out on Parade offering oily prawn cocktails to inform people of the plight of fishing communities in the Niger Delta having their livelihoods ruined by Shell’s massive oil spills. This latter campaign will be transferring itself to the town centre in the very near future, joining forces with Bath Spa Amnesty and the local city group.

There’s still time to get involved with both of these fantastic campaign groups, Amnesty have the town cam-

Elias Nosrati shows ChaOS his musical talent

T People & Planet and and Amnesty are driving the campaign paign planned, along with a very exciting 50’s themed AmnesTea party, with tea, cakes and plenty of entertainment. People & Planet meanwhile will have already have run another cam-

paign for World Water Day and will hopefully have more to come before the year is over. For more information track them down on the Societies webpages or find them on Facebook.

he nine soloists (Tristan Caulfield, Elias Nosrati, Andrew Chinery, Neil Poole, Christopher Birrell, Helen Ray-Jones, Eleanor Rowntree, Andrew Castle and Peter Massey) all gave outstanding performances (with expert accompaniment from Shaun Motiani and Christopher Ashfield), and compliments were received from the Right Worshipful the Mayor of Bath, Councillor Brian Chalker who attended the evening. Special thanks go to Co-

lin Field who was the compere for the evening, the ICIA for the use of both University Hall and the piano, Backstage for all their assistance and the Wine Society for hosting the cheese and wine reception in the interval.

For those who missed out, ChaOS are giving a free informal hour long recital on Wednesday 28th March at 1.30pm in the Coach House at the American Museum in Britain, Claverton Down, just a 10 minute walk from Campus.

Monday 26th March 2012

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Activities

www.bathimpact.com

This week’s societies round-up S

ince the last edition of bathimpact, there has been plenty going on. Not only did Bath Fashion do a make-up demo on the 21st AND a Fashion Show on the 22nd, but RAG held a hugely successful fashion show in support of Sue Ryder, with many exotic and interesting clothes involved. Including Snuggies!

Lots of other things have been happening too: on the 18th, the

French Society had a film night and BAMSA went for that notoriously pleasant activity, paintballing. In a slightly more sober style, MP Nigel Farage was a guest speaker for the Politics Society on the 19th. On the 22nd, Medsin did a bone marrow drive in the Tub; on the 23rd March, BUNSS held a spring ball in the Claverton Rooms and BUIS had a film night; on the 24th and, finally, BUDS sent a team to a debating

competition in Exeter.

The Arts have been busy too - it would have been hard to miss the performance of Fame by BUSMS last weekend, but also a sell-out production of the Vagina Monologues

by BUST was held in the American Museum. Both events were, as ever, wonderful!

Coming up, we have some interesting things. ChaOS are doing two free informal recitals - one in the

American Museum on 28th March, and one at Green Park Station on 28th April.

ChinaRen has a karaoke night in the ALT on the 30th March, and BAMSA are having their annual show on the 31st – busy times. On May 3rd, BAPS have hired Adam Night, the hypnotist, for another amazing evening. This sells out every year, so keep an eye out for tickets if you’re interested…

skills and, most importantly, just to have fun!

SCA is involved with volunteering with the Social Networks aspect of Your Say - a group of people with disabilities, who currently live in Bath and North East Somerset and want to get together to experience social activities that they might otherwise not have the confidence or the opportunity to take part in. These range from going out for a meal, to the pub, bowling, preparing a nice meal, or even visiting a chocolate

workshop!

Your Say is now looking for volunteers to help support this project. If you enjoy making new friends, this could be the perfect opportunity for you!

There is a calendar of activities every month, which usually need 1-3 volunteers per activity to go along, take part, chat to the rest of the group, and generally ensure that everyone has a good time. Volunteers can choose the activity they wish to get involved in, and can support as many or as few events as they want.

To get involved, volunteers need to complete a CRB check so they can start signing up for the upcoming events.

Transport can be provided for volunteers if needed, although most events take place in Bath or the surrounding areas. SCA expects really enthusiastic volunteers. For those who really want to get participated in volunteering and do some substantial work, this is an opportunity that you can’t miss out on!

Sex industry Have your say with SCA G

ender Equality groups 'Sex Industry Awareness week' was held from 12th March, culminating in them supporting ‘The Vagina Monologues’ on Thursday through to Saturday with a cake sale in aid of Bristol Rape Crisis centre.

The week was a huge success, consisting of a sex industry debate, a stall in the SU, a one minute silence, flashmob-style on Parade and finally a screening of ‘Sex Slaves’, a moving documentary about the sex trafficking industry in Eastern Europe. We want to draw attention to 21st century slavery that is primarily constituted of the sex trade and the commodification of women. The week was also in highlighted the detachment many make from the true realities of the sex industry when consuming porn or entering a strip club.

The documentary 'Sex Slaves' is about sex trafficking from the old Soviet bloc, detailing the trail from recruitment to the final destination, and including interviews with experts, traffickers, police and former sex slaves. The Sex Industry Debate focused heavily on prostitution and the darker side of pornography and how these two issues impact women in society and our culture as whole.

In addition to the success the group had raising awareness of the sex industry, they also managed to raise a grand total of £ 77.87 for Bristol Rape Crisis centre.

Gender Equality actively welcomes new members and there’s no fee to join. The group meet every Tuesday 6.15pm at 8W2.29 and you can also add their Facebook page ‘University of Bath Gender Equality Group’ or join their mailing list on www.bathstudent.com

H

ave you ever felt that there is much more you can do for people with disabilities but do not know where to start? Why not join Your Say; a new project for 2011/12. SCA has teamed up with Your Say, which is a service that helps people with learning disabilities. It aims to let people with disabilities feel more socially accepted as they are often isolated from others. Apart from this, the project gives you the chance to meet new people, help them build up social

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

International

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New nation, old problems A Syrious issue

Chloe Wittet informs bathimpact about the ongoing tensions amongst the Sudanese

Flickr

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he world’s newest nation, is suffering from age old problems with its ex other half.

Since South Sudan peacefully separated from its Northern counterpart last summer, discussions between the states have become heated and violence has increased at an alarming rate.

The area particularly affected by the violence is South Kordofan, a contested region just north of the border. As reports of bombings and razing of entire villages have come from the region, finger-pointing has been rife. The Southern government claims that these are attacks from Al Bashir in the North.

Al-Bashir claims that President Kiir (of the South) has sent troops into the disputed region. This is not unfamiliar territory for Al-Bashir who is subject to an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity. Many experts in the area draw similarities with the genocidal techniques used in Darfur. Whilst one should be hesitant in using such strong terminology it does not lessen the atrocities that are occurring there at present.

George Clooney and members of Congress were recently arrested for taking part in demonstrations outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington.

The government in Khartoum is preventing food aid from getting to the region and at the same time bombing water sources and agricultural land. It won’t be long before the population begins to starve.

While caves provide temporary

President Kiir is accused of fueling the feud and so halting talks shelter for the fleeing citizens, it is a key role in the debates. Part of the not a long term solution and help will agreement for the South’s secession be needed to rebuild villages and re- was the repatriation of the 500,000 turn people to their homes. For now or so Southern citizens currently rethough, floods of refugees are flowing siding in the North, expected back across the border into the South to home by 8th April. The United Naseek protection in temporary camps tions has declared this deadline unwhich are now also being targeted. attainable. Khartoum remains adaThe violence that has erupted has mant that they have to go by that also halted diplomatic discussions date and as in most negotiations, between the two countries regard- Kiir will have to make sacrifices to ing the oil share. Although the South get an extension. owns most of the oil, the North is in This is neither a regional nor a possession of the pipelines leading to national problem as victims flee the markets. Hence taut negotiations their homeland to find peace in borhave been taking place but to no avail. dering countries. It was widely acSouth Sudan stopped production in cepted that oil and disputed areas January following a stale-mate over would be the cause of many quarrels oil fees. A dangerous move consider- between North and South following ing they rely almost entirely on the the independence vote. Few could revenues to fund their government. have hoped that the negotiations Oil fields have also been targeted would go without hitches. However, recently. Again, the Southern gov- we are seeing the start of what could ernment has labelled the Khartoum be a horrific humanitarian crisis. administration as responsible and The international community needs whilst facts remain hazy on the situ- to show its interest in the situation, ation, it cannot be ruled out. for who knows what could occur Citizenship issues have also played outside the view of watchful eyes.

Ben Butcher bathimpact International Deputy

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yria is in an immensely difficult situation. The country seems on the brink of a sectarian civil war, the people of Homs are being held prisoner as rebels fight a bloody battle with government forces and support for the Assad regime falters every day.

As Kofi Annan left Damascus empty-handed last week after doomed peace talks, there are worries that the troubled leader is increasingly oblivious to plight of his people as many question if he is giving direct orders to massacres being likened to ‘genocide’ and he refuses to enter negotiations with the opposition.

The statistics are diverse with the death toll of the brutal crackdown ranging from 6,000 to 10,000. One cannot over-exaggerate the terrifying cost recent events have had on Syrian society as religious and ethnic differences are highlighted more and more, every day and tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes and, to their neighbours chagrin, their country. One would not be mad to question President Bashir al-Assad’s sanity in doing this to his people. What is he hoping to achieve?

When protests first erupted throughout the country last year, Assad acted like any other despotic, Arab leader would, and have, done. There is no excuse for how violently civilians, who desired little more than basic economic wealth and civil liberties, were put down but we must note the double standards. Last week, to little

media attention, the Bahraini authorities fired tear gas to clear the streets for their Grand Prix race next month and in Saudi Arabia Shia Muslim temples are frequently burnt down, their rights consistently ignored. Yet, both these countries claim to be ‘disgusted’

by Syria’s actions and continue to reap the rewards from western support..

We must also ask what exactly the opposition wants. Understand-

“

One would not be mad to question Assad’s sanity

”

ably they desire to see the end of the Assad regime, but what to do if Assad leaves the country – which he won’t – is a topic neither they nor the anti-Assad bloc in the West or the Arab League wish to talk about. The opposition is split both regionally and ethnically in a way Libya never was: who’s to say that once the fight against Assad is through they won’t turn on each other. Assad also still commands a large amount of support. It may not be a majority, but enough of a cleavage to cut the country in two.

Stay or go, Assad is the wedge between civil disobedience turning into anarchy.

With neither side willing to talk to each other and any concessions made by the Assad regime being described as ‘too little, too late’ there is no end in sight. The troubling fact arises that this country, once an oasis of stability, will be in turmoil for years to come.

Iranian banks are SWIFT-ly cut off Julia Fioretti bathimpact International Deputy

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n an attempt to step up pressure on Iran to curb its nuclear programme, the world’s biggest electronic payment system, the Belgium-based SWIFT, cut off some two dozen blacklisted Iranian banks on 17 March in response to EU regulations.

The move, likened to being expelled from the financial equivalent of the United Nations, will financially isolate Iran by shutting down its main channel of business with the rest of the world, impacting both on the government and Iranian businesses.

SWIFT Chief Executive Lazaro Campos made a statement on Thursday saying “disconnecting banks is an extraordinary and unprecedented

step for SWIFT. It is a direct result of international and multilateral action to intensify financial sanctions against Iran". U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, who was among those pushing for the expulsion of Iranian banks from SWIFT to be included in pending U.S. sanctions legislation, said “the joint action of the U.S. and EU sends a strong message to Iran that we are serious about imposing punishing sanctions”. Similarly, the U.S. undersecretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, David Cohen, said in a statement that SWIFT’s decision “reflects the growing international consensus that substantially increased pressure is needed to convince the Iranian re-

gime to address the international community’s concerns about its illicit nuclear activities.”

SWIFT’s decision will put a dampener on Iran’s oil trade as it will hamper its ability to make or receive payments for crude oil which accounts for about half of the Iranian government’s revenues. Whilst China and India have said they will continue buying Iran’s oil, the Iranian government will need to “find workarounds for large, strategically important and government-facilitated oil payments”, such as gold. Just last week, in fact, the governor of Iran’s central bank said the country would accept payment in gold “without any reservation”.

It is Iranian businesses, however, that will bear the brunt of the measures. "It will make life even more difficult for us than before, because this is like our lifeline to the outside being cut," said Naser Shaker, who owns an oil and gas trading company in Dubai. The move will strangle Iranian businesses’ transactions and as a result cause the collapse of many banking relations. Morteza Masoumzadeh, a member of the executive committee of the Iranian Business Council in Dubai, lamented that "this is devastating news for our businesses, but what can I do? Do we have any options?" Trevor Houser, an energy analyst and partner at Rhodium Group noted that SWIFT’s action will

affect what Iran buys more than what it sells, as such “small Iranian businesses that rely on interbank electronic transfers to pay for everything from food to electronics imports are going to have a hard time buying from abroad”.

Last week’s move comes after a barrage of new measures adopted by the U.S. and EU since November as part of a concerted effort to stymie Iran’s nuclear ambitions by isolating its economy. The measures gained momentum after the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors released a report on 8 November in which they cast doubt on the supposedly civilian purposes of Iran’s nuclear programme.

Monday 26th March 2012

Celebrating the cervix

Scarlett Clark reports on how the world marked International Women’s Day

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ever doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; it is the only thing that ever has. —Margaret Mead

There is a long history of women working together to fight for their rights. Groups led by strong women such as Millicent Fawcett and Emmeline Pankhurst fought for suffrage over a century ago. This developed into a global phenomenon by 1908 - 15,000 women marched on the streets of NYC demanding voting rights, with the burning of churches and Emily Davison throwing herself in front of a horse at the Derby in Britain; soon enough the voices of women were being heard.

The first International Women’s Day (IWD) was proclaimed on 28th February across America, soon followed by German Socialist Clara Zetkin and Russia. Western Europe followed the USSR when the UN General Assembly proclaimed March 8th as the UN Day for Women’s Rights in 1977. Women have come a long way since 1865 and now each year IWD is growing. Annually, 8th March is a worldwide celebration with thousands of events being held to inspire and celebrate achievements connecting wom-

en everywhere Having lived in Italy, I remember IWD vividly; in every region girls would arrive at school to discover the symbol of IWD - the mimosa flower lying on their desks. In Portugal, it‘s tradition to organise dinner with only women. In Russia, chocolates and flowers are given to sisters, grandmothers, even teachers by their students- a nice change from the traditional apple. Last year, Barack Obama declared March “Women’s History Month” to commemorate the 100th anniversary of IWD; not forgetting Australia, the country issued a 100th anniversary commemorative coin.

IWD is a time to rejoice women. A.t the end of the 19th century Elizabeth Garrett Anderson became the first woman to qualify as a doctor yet men wouldn’t go to her because she was female. Women had a stereotypical

Symbol of IWD- the mimosa

role in society; expected to marry and attend to their children. Now look at us, being able to go to dinner together, have an educated view point and intellectual conversations ranging from family to current affairs. Pankhurst and Davison would be proud that now 1/3 of businesses are led by women, IWD is a time not only to recognise women’s rights and their independence but also rejoice in being mothers, having close friends, being able to talk and laugh together; countless evenings with my girlfriends with tubs of Ben and Jerry’s spring to mind.

Guys - if finding your soul mate is proving elusive take a step into an Italian male’s direction, 8th March women are out in force so it’s the perfect night to meet her and if it doesn’t go quite according to plan you can always find solace in a good box of chocolates. But why is it that in the UK people aren’t aware of the significance of 8th March? Ladies, let’s put a date in our diaries for next year, a date for cocktails with your girlfriends - as if we need any excuse.

Remembering the women of yesterday and thanking the women of today for teaching the history to the women of tomorrow is what 8th March is all about.

International

Wad of World News Ips State’s

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The deputy prime minister of Libya has proclaimed that Mauritanian shall be banishing the former Libyan intelligence chief; Abdullah Al-Senussi. “The Butcher”- his nickname as a significant member of the Gaddafi regime was arrested last week but there has been no confirmation of his deportation. The Libyan government may want Sennusi to remain on their turf yet inappropriate usage of public funds, using power for personal benefit and being involved in a bomb attack in 1989 killing 170 leaves the French INTERPOL demanding to extradite him.

Isamedia

bathimpact

French election approaches

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ne could be forgiven for forgetting that 2012 will see more than two elections given the excitement of the Bath sabb elections in March and the on-going entertainment which is the Republican Primary in the US, but as it happens, the French are having an election too.

I’ve been living in Strasbourg, one of France’s largest cities, and certainly one of the most politically active, for six months, watching the campaigns unroll. It’s been fascinating. I’ve attended a couple of rallies, and quite frankly I’ve been bowled over by the size and attention that they command. Not used to singing the Marseillaise, I’m now used to singing it at the end of each rally.

The media coverage of the elections has been everywhere, thorough and brutal. Not a day goes by without some kind of scandal, cutting remark or gaffe. What’s surprising though, is how many of these are coming from the President himself.

President Sarkozy’s five year term in the Elysée has been turbulent at best, with dropping approval ratings and a national sentiment that he is

just not very ‘presidential’. Marrying a supermodel and tripling his own salary in the first year of his term didn’t go down well. His fierce temper and poor grasp of French grammar have not endeared him to his electorate, and even his centre-right grassroots supporters are showing doubts.

So who’s his competition?

François Hollande, of the Socialist Party, with his 75% tax proposed for the highest-earning, has growing support. As the ‘other’ mainstream candidate, he hasn’t had to say much at all to remain top of the polls, and has, as a result, run a fairly clean campaign.

Sarkozy’s, meanwhile, has been rather less so, with the President striking the first blow in most of the fierce exchanges to date.

And yet François Hollande isn’t particularly ‘presidential’ himself.

The eternal ‘almost-man’ of his party, he has no governmental experience and will be leaning strongly on his party members and their experience if elected.

It would be fair to assume though that Hollande will be one of the two candidates in the second round. But who could join him, if Sarkozy doesn’t rally enough support?

The French far-right candidate is third in the polls. Marine Le Pen has consistently polled at around 20% but struggled to get the 500 mayoral signatures necessary to present as a candidate. Each Mayor can give one signature, so it’s understandable that few give it to Le Pen. She is now aiming for a repeat of 2002, where her father went against Jacques Chirac in the second round.

François Bayrou, the centrist candidate, is the fourth possibility. 2012 will be Bayrou’s third election campaign, and will be his last. Consistently fourth in the polls, he has been the centrist mainstay of French politics since the 1990s and a name on the ballot since 2002.

It’s possible that people tired of Sarkozy but not ready to vote Hollande will vote Bayrou, but this remains a wild card. What he lacks in academic prowess he makes up for with charm and ‘life experience’ The 2012 election will be interesting because it’s ultimately an open field. Sarkozy’s claim that he’s done the best anyone could have is potentially true, but this election isn’t about what you do, it’s about how you're seen to be doing it.

US soldier; John Henry Browne has been accused of killing 16 Afghan citizens in their homes, he is currently waiting to hear his charges at a military detention centre. To date, he is the only suspect, yet Afghans say he is was not alone. The killings have led NATO to hurry the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. Browne met with his lawyer Monday to prepare his defence; his trial could take years which could lead to a possible death penalty.

Horia Valan

Aibhee Rees bathimpact contributor

A devastating coach crash in Switzerland left 28 dead on 13th March.

The memorial service was held in Lommel, Belgium. White balloons and white wreaths of flowers decorated the hall, creating a beautiful surrounding. 10,000 citizens watched the ceremony outside on two big screens. The second school involved will be hosting a memorial service later this week , followed by private family burials. Attendees included the Belgian Prime Minister Elio di Rupo , his counterpart; Marc Rutte as well as the mayor of Lommel to give an emotional eulogy.

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Science

www.bathimpact.com

Are you a loner? You’ll die sooner.

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ometimes 24 hours a day are just not enough for some people. They want to live longer and have more time to fulfil their dreams. Unfortunately, for us mere humans, a few hundred years are all we have (if we’re lucky). The oldest man on record, Jeanne Clement, died at the age of 122. But the key to longevity, it seems, might be sitting next to you right this very moment.

Friends are apparently all you need to lengthen your lifespan. Love them or hate them, your friends are effectively keeping you alive for longer (obviously by doing the one thing that only friends can do: keeping you sane during those horrific coursework deadlines). The simple lack of human contact, it seems, is more harmful to us than alcoholism or obesity.

Scientists have spent quite a bit of money researching how to rid us of age-induced illnesses that reduce the human lifespan, with the general

conclusion being that the healthier you are, the longer you are likely to live. This may seem like an impossible task seeing as we are literally surrounded by pathogens and if not that then the molecular and cellular damage that builds up in the body over time will eventually get us. Ambitious scientists, such as those at the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) Foundation, hope that by finding a way to eliminate the effects of ageing, we may be able to live for the incredulous sum of 1000 years. SENS concerns itself with research on ‘rejuvenation biotechnologies’ that will help prevent the natural breakdown of the body due to ageing, with the use of techniques such as stem cell therapy and tissue engineering.

Any significant breakthrough in this area of science might be a long time coming and while we wait for utopian anti-ageing solutions, all we can do is keep ourselves as healthy

as possible. The myth is that good health is the product of Davina workouts or no-carb diets (I cannot vouch for the benefits of either of these, I’m the laziest person I know), but not so. To add more years to your time on Earth, rather than hitting the gym, just get your mates round for a movie or something - other people are just better at keeping you sane and healthy than you are! Social loneliness is a big killer, especially in old age, and the best tonic to maintaining topnotch health (and hence a longer life) is your best mate Bob, Claire, or whoever. It’s not about being popular; it’s about having sufficient, purposeful contact with other human beings. Zoe Williams says: “Social loneliness is quite straightforward to deal with: people just need to spend more time together - although it doesn't need to be anything as antiseptic as a scheduled quarter-hour visit from a professional.”

Sam Short

Who needs the Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when you can just surround yourself with friends and it’s just as effective? Christiana Langma explains

There’s no point in crying - get out there and meet some people!

Deeper voices win! Scumbag space

TheWhizzer

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en, the “voters”, were then asked to vote for which version they’d prefer.

Published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the study showed that the 83 participants questioned preferred lower voices 60% of the time, often regardless of the speaker’s gender.

This follows similar research last year by the McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, that indicated men and women preferred politicians with lower voices. Instead of using recordings from hypothetical

It looks like Obama always had a good chance of beating McCain

candidates, this research modified archived recordings of previous US Presidents. This new study used speakers unknown to the “voters”, since it was believed participants in the McMaster University study may have recognised the modulated voices and voted based on political preference. The authors of “Sounds like a Winner”, Casey Klofstad, Rindy Anderson and Susan Peters, also believe their study was stronger since it used both men and women.

Professor Casey Klofstad is an associate professor of political science at the University of Miami, and said: “Candidates already know about this and they have been using vocal coaches to enhance their electability and what we have done is proven the folk wisdom that the structure of the human voice matters and actually shown that scientifically.”

Rindy Anderson also worked on this study at Duke University in North Carolina, and stated: “It's clear that our voices carry more information than the words we speak. Knowing this can help us understand the factors that influence our social interactions and possibly why there are fewer women elected to high-level political positions.”

The researchers of this latest study are now seeking to apply their findings to real elections.

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

E

ver thought about going into space? Have you wanted to be a part of history, exploring places that only a precious few have ever had the privilege to do?

Well don’t. Stop right there. Be like the rest of us and die a little inside, knowing that you’ll never get to see the stunning sight of Planet Earth from a beautifully manufactured space station.

Recent research from the Texas Medical School has shown that the eyesight of astronauts has been damaged thanks to their time spent in space. Larry Kramer and his team

used 27 NASA astronauts in the study and conducted MRI scans.

Each had spent an average of 108 days in space. The scientists found that 33 per cent suffered from expansion of the cerebral fluid space that surrounds the optic nerve, 22 per cent had a flattening of the rear of the eyeball, 15 per cent had a bulging of the optic nerve and 11 per cent had changes to the pituitary gland and its connection to the brain. Some of these conditions could lead to blindness.

Dr Larry hopes that these micro-gravity changes seen in the astronauts may help science study the causes of intracranial pressure in folk here on Earth.

WoodleyWonderWorks

Anthony Masters bathimpact Contributor study by two US universities suggests that voters are more likely to elect political candidates that have deeper voices. The researchers recorded ten men and seventeen women saying ‘I urge you to vote for me this November’, and then digitally modified their voices to produce higher- and lower-pitched versions of the original recording.

Another group of men and wom-

If you know what’s good for you, you’ll never see this in reality

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

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Science

www.bathimpact.com

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B

Bath brains busted into last month’s publication of this magazine shining example of interdisciplinarity, which the University is heavily promoting, as Dr. Pascu’s team spans three Departments and two Faculties: Dr Dan Pantos and Gabriele Kociock-Kohn (Department of Chemistry), Professor Rex Tyrrell (Department of Pharmacy and Pharmacology), Dr Justin

O’Byrne (Department of Chemical Engineering) and two PhD students in Chemistry, Zhiyuan Hu and Rory Arrowsmith.

The research was published in last month’s edition of Advanced Functional Materials, you can also read about it at www.bath.ac.uk/ news/2012/03/06/soot-cancer/

sider, but could potentially have an even more devastating effect.

Carbon dioxide is absorbed into the world’s oceans, where it forms carbonic acid. This natural process is not normally a problem, and is simply one of the planet’s simple methods of keeping equilibrium, but at

current greenhouse emission levels the rate of acidification has reached a higher level than any other time in the last 300 million years, this means a drop of 0.1pH a century. It sounds negligible, but to put it in perspective consider that 55 million years ago the reduction was only 0.5pH every 3000 years. These subtle changes severely damage key parts of the oceans’ ecosystems, especially delicate organisms such as corals, which use this dissolved carbonate to make their shells. There has also been seen an increase in ocean temperature and a reduction in oxygen absorption. All of this could lead to catastrophic consequences, seeing as a similar situation (with many other causes involved) lead to the biggest mass extinction of all time, the endPermian, with the loss of 96% of marine species.

Acidifying oceans Holly Narey bite Editor impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

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USFWS

hen people think about greenhouse gas emissions, it is normally on the topic of global warming, but there is another effect that most don’t con-

Does running in the rain keep you drier?

The beautiful coral reef is under threat

aby birds are chirping, daffodils are opening, and chocolate is being devoured. Spring has sprung, and everyone is happy. Or are they.

There is one thing that happens in spring that we always forget.

The April Showers. Weather forecasters have said in wide eyed horror that we should brace ourselves for a very wet month.

At least they should do instead of constantly predicted scorching weather, and only to get battered by the rain. I bet these weather people have a secret facebook group where they decide what lies they plan to spin to the unsuspecting public on the evening news. They probably post pictures of clouds and cats too.

But I digress. The whole purpose of this article is to inform you on whether running at full pelt in the rain will only get you more soaked than if you sauntered without a care in the world.

The debate rages, where one side says that if you are running, you are spending less time in the rain.

Others counter this by claiming that as you race to the nearest shelter, you are effectively running into more rain, so you will be soaked by rain in front of you as well as on top of you. Surprisingly, various studies have been carried out concerning the subject. One even found out an equation for the problem.

I don’t want to frighten any of

you non-mathematics students, so I’ll show you the ‘simplified total wetness equation’, which is: W = p(aVR + AVP)t.

“What does this mean?” , I hear you sob into your hands. W is the total mass of rainwater on the person, p is the density of the rain shower (so if it’s spitting or a full on monsoon), a is the top surface area, A is the front surface area, t is time, and VR and VP are the velocities of the rain and the person respectively. So the equation is basically telling us that the faster you run, the more surface area will be hit by raindrops, and so the wetter you become.

This can be backed up by the Mythbusters team, who conducted an experiment to discern the truth once and for all. Two men wore identical overalls that had been previously weighed, and one walked in a carefully orchestrated rain fall, and then the other in both rain and wind.

They then immediately took off the overalls and the clothing was weighed again. The investigation was repeated, only this time the men ran. The difference in mass of the raindrops found in the overalls in both investigations surprised the researchers. There was a sizeable increase, showing that if you run to get from A to B, you will only get wetter.

So what is the moral of the story? Buy an umbrella. bathimpact

Simon O’Kane bathimpact Contributor esearchers from the University of Bath have demonstrated proof of concept for the ability to use carbon nanotubes to deliver medicines directly into biological cells. The group, led by Dr. Sofia Pascu of the Department of Chemistry, were able to coat a carbon nanotube with a glowing compound called naphthalenediimide (NDI) and place the coated nanotube into a cancer cell without damaging the cell or the compound.

Carbon nanotubes are just that; imagine an empty toilet roll, only a few nanometres wide and with carbon atoms instead of cardboard. In a previous edition of bathimpact I wrote about a structure called graphene; another way to imagine nanotubes is to imagine rolling up a sheet of graphene to form a tube.

Like graphene, carbon nanotubes have a wide range of possible uses; this research shows drug delivery to be one such application.

Although nanotubes are commercially available, the commercial nanotubes are not biocompatible; that is to say they are damaging to biological tissue in a similar manner to asbestos. If this problem was solved, nanotubes could be used to deliver medicines directly into cells. Although NDI is merely a fluorescent compound as opposed to a medicine, it could be used to identify cancer cells in order to detect cancers in the early stages when they are easier and cheaper to treat.

The research is yet another

Flickr

Treating cancer with soot Professor Science

Your only weapon against the beast that some call rainfall

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Monday 26th March 2012

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Business

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Scepticism is healthy Osborne’s new 100-year bond I C tical of legislation emanating from Brussels, just as it is healthy for parliament to be sceptical of executive initiatives.

With regards to the present Eurocrisis, it is widely supposed that further integration – perhaps fiscal union – is the solution. Yet there has been no sceptical deliberation among Eurocrats about what this might mean; it is almost as if it is being proposed blindly.

it is widely sup“...posed that further integration - perhaps fiscal union is the solution.

”

Perhaps the 130bn euro Greek rescue package affords us an insight into what fiscal union might look like. Would the consequences of fiscal union be too dissimilar to the fiscal consequences of Greece’s selective default? The Greek gov-

ernment has surrendered control of its public spending and taxation to troika austerity conditions; democracy has been subverted and political leaders rendered impotent following the installation of an unelected technocrat. Similarly, is it unreasonable to expect that the social implications of fiscal union would be similar to the social consequences of Greece’s selective default? Social turmoil has erupted in Greek society – trust in public authority has plummeted and perceptions of Eurozone powers, the IMF and the EU institutions are overwhelmingly hostile.

Is it not inconceivable that further integration in the Eurozone would encounter the same social reaction that the imposed fiscal austerity conditions have in Greece?

Further integration may appear the theoretical answer to the Eurocrisis, but it is far from practical, and it discounts the inevitable social backlash in the member state citizenries. A healthy dose of scepticism is necessary before Brussels sets its sights on creating a European fiscal federation.

Eoghan OLionnain

n response to last edition’s article ‘Why the EU and the euro are survivors’, I would like to clarify two issues: anti-EU sentiment and integration as a solution to the Eurocrisis.

It is important to distinguish between Europhobia and Euroscepticism, which political leaders and the media have tended to confuse for the former. Europhobia is the condition that all legislation emanating from Brussels is inherently detrimental to the national interest, irrespective of its true utility (or futility). Graham Avery argues that Brussels is commonly used in populism as a diabolic fiction to explain domestic issues. It is obvious that such a condition is wholly irrational.

Euroscepticism, on the other hand, is far from irrational. Can you imagine any scenario where it is not in the public interest for the parliament to be sceptical?

Would you endorse parliamentary legislation that is premised, not on questioning deliberation, but on preconceptions or prejudice? It is healthy for parliament to be scep-

Business Glossary

Collective Action Clause (CAC) - A CAC permits a qualified majority of bondholders to reach an agreement on debt restructuring.

This agreement is legally binding on all those who hold the bond regardless of whether they are in favour or not.

Debt restructuring - A process allowing a sovereign entity (or a company) that is financially struggling to renegotiate its debts in an attempt to restore liquidity.

Gilt (or a Gilt-edged security) A government bond.

Maturity date - Expiration date of a bond, i.e. date when bond has to be repaid in full.

Coupon (aka coupon rate or

coupon per cent rate) - This refers to the interest rate that is specified on a bond when the bond is issued. Coupons are usually paid semi-annually.

Fixed coupon bonds (aka bearer bond) - A bond with “coupons” attached to it. The coupons represent semi-annual interest payments.

In other words, the bearer of a bond will receive interest on the bond every 6 months until the maturity period of the bond is reached.

Zero-coupon bonds (aka zeros) - Coupon bonds sold at a discount to face value. Interest is built up during the term of the bond, but unlike other bonds, the interest payments are not made until the bond matures.

Face Value (aka par value or par) - The face value of a coin or a security is the nominal or dollar value as stated by whoever is the issuer. When referring to stocks, the face value is the initial cost of the stock, usually printed on an issued certificate. When referring to a bond, it is the amount due to the issuer of the bond when such bond matures.

Denomination - A form of classifying a stated face value of a given financial instrument, such as currency coins and banknotes or bonds.

Bond Valuation - This refers to the determination of a fair price for a given bond.

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

hancellor George Osborne is planning to launch the ‘Osborne bond’ - a one hundred year Gilt (a Gilt is a UK government bond) - to take advantage of low interest rates. What this means is that when the UK government sells a bond to an investor such as a hedge fund or a pension fund that have traditionally been their greatest client, the government promises to pay back the money earned with interest as with any bond - but there’s a crucial difference.

The difference with this bond is just that it has a maturity date 100 years from the issue date and throughout this period the interest rate is fixed (i.e. it is at a constant rate and not linked to an index or inflation). With the UK bond yields being at their lowest levels due to the lowest base rate (in order to stimulate the UK economy) since the founding of the Bank of England combined with investor demand for safe-haven investments; the Treasury perceives it a sensible idea to try and refinance the ever-growing national debt.

Additionally, the one hundred year gilt will benefit British taxpayers by increasing the government’s borrowing at a lower cost meaning that there is more money available for the government to spend on infrastructure and job creation in the form of investments for example.

The fundamental question that remains to be answered is will there be buyers of such long-term debt?

Investors willing to buy the one

hundred year bond from the UK government must be confident that the UK will have a better inflation record than its past. Inflation is the main trigger in destroying value of fixed coupon bonds, since inflation makes money “worth less” (not worthless) and if the inflation rate is higher than the bond’s coupon rate, then you would technically be loosing money.

However, if like Japan the UK’s inflation remains low and the economy growth stagnant then the one hundred year gilt may seem appealing. But there are many indicators that deflation (opposite of inflation – makes money worth more) may not be the case. For instance oil levels are currently very high (see “Iran fuels oil prices” on next page for details – a barrel of Brent is currently at $125) and the Bank of England is taking on the task of monetary stimulus – manipulation of money available within the economy by QE which actually causes inflation in the long term.

The current average length of British government debt (remember that government debt is usually sold as bonds and a UK bond is a Gilt) is 14 years; i.e. has a maturity period of 14 years.

This is quite long compared to the rest of the Eurozone, whose average length is 6-8 years. This has meant however, that investors are influenced to own more “duration” in the UK. Duration refers to the how sensitive the price of the bond is to changes in interest rates. This means long-term Gilts are risky.

M. Holland

Will Cooper tells bathimpact his views as a response to last issue’s ‘why the EU and the euro are survivors’

Headline grabber: Osborne proposes issuing 100-year Gilts

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Business

www.bathimpact.com

/\ \/\/ /\

G

and are worth much less, taking on losses of around 74 per cent.

These losses have triggered significant payouts to investors on Credit Default Swaps (CDS), which is a method for investors to protect themselves in the case of a default.

CDS played a significant role in bringing about the financial crisis in 2008 as many banks used them to insure assets that were ultimately toxic. This caused insurers such as AIG to require bailing out after

having to pay out billions of dollars on CDS contracts. Nouriel Roubini nicely described the nature of CDS “like buying insurance on a house you did not own and then setting fire to it.”

Greece’s net outstanding CDS contracts are thought to be around $3.16 billion. However, there seems to be minimal concern as investors are only partially losing their investments, therefore payouts are thought to be less than this figure. Also, 93 per cent of CDS contracts are collateralised meaning dealers are able to cover potential payouts. Indeed, much of this reassurance was reflected in the markets with little movements over the decision and the wellregarded Fitch ratings agency feel that the debt swap is “manageable for European insurers.”

With regard to Greece’s future, however, although they seem to have made the right steps in view of the markets in the last month, there is still uncertainty surrounding Greece with elections coming up very soon, which will obviously have a large bearing upon the decisions they may make in the near future.

Marco Paköeningrat

Aran Gnana bathimpact Contributor reece has recently secured a second bailout worth 130bn euros (£110bn) after having met the condition set

by Eurozone governments and the IMF to agree with creditors to default on a massive portion of its debt. This will be done through investors swapping their current bonds on Greek debt for new ones that pay a lower rate of interest

A bite of business

Apple has announced last Monday that starting in September it will pay $2.65 quareterly dividend per share. The company has always avoided taking this step as the former CEO, Steve Jobs, thought there were better ways to spend the cash. But the company’s worth is extremely large, $97.6bn, more than the market value of all but 15 companies in S&P’s 500.

Alan Stanton Flickr

Greek CAC decision triggers CDS payouts

25

Iran fuels oil prices Magali Calabressi tells bathimpact about the fears on the markets from the Middle East port.

Markets have been shaken and kept on edge as oil supplies are under threat of disruption due to a deadlock between the West and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear pro-

“...the main prob-

lems are coming from some supply disruptions, or some fear to supply disruptions

”

Ben Bernanke, U.S. Fededral Reserve Chief gramme. Also, there is growing concern of production losses from South Sudan, Yemen, Syria and the North Sea [Reuters].

Gene McGillian, an analyst at tradition Energy said "The sharp

move up on the pipeline story points to the market nervousness on anything related to supply problems."

The cost of a barrel of brent crude oil hit $128.40, a gain of as much as $5.74, a figure not seen since July 2008 when an economic collapse sent oil rocketing, leading to a cost of over $147 a barrel.

Despite the increase caused by Middle-East frets, oil prices face longer-term issues caused by the increasing demand from fastgrowing economies such as China.

China is estimated to consume 9.4mn barrels a day - half of the amount consumed in the U.S., according to 2010 data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Analysts worry that if the cost of oil continues to rise, developing economies will be affected. In particular, this will affect struggling Western economies, which have been kept afloat due to the growth of such emerging economies.

Chancellor George Osborne has launched a tax grab on London’s booming high-end property market last Wednesday. Osborne has confirmed that he will cut the top rate of income tax from 50p to 45p, but the wealthy will be hit by vast punitive higher levies when purchasing expensive homes. The plan is to include a 7 per cent duty rate on property sales exceeding £2m.

Images of Money

O

il prices leapt to their highest levels since mid2008, amid fears that tensions with Iran could possibly cause disruptions to oil supplies.

On Wednesday 29th February, U.S. Federal Reserve Chief Ben Bernanke told U.S. House Financial Services Committee “I think the main problems are coming from some supply disruptions, or some fear to supply disruptions, particularly Iran."

Another cause for the surge in nearly 5% is a late report from Iran of a pipeline blast in Saudi Arabia.

However, prices were up prior to the report following news that Israel would test-fire a ballistic interceptor missile, announcing this in advance in an attempt to avoid familiar war tensions with Iran.

The report, although denied by a Saudi oil official, was posted on the Internet, as well as PressTV, an English-language global news network. Prices dropped marginally following the denial of the re-

In a Budget statement, Chancellor Osborne stated that income tax allowances given to pensioners will be stopped in ‘cash’ terms. Osborne expects this to raise £3.3bn for the Treasury. This freeze will become effective from April 2013.The move is expected to affect around 4.5mn pensioners.

26

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Sport

www.bathimpact.com

The importance of keeping active Jonathan Gleave Sports Editor impact-sport@bath.ac.uk

looking forward to this forthcoming test series and the chance to represent my country in front of a home crowd.”

The club are incredibly proud of the two ladies achievements and wish them all the best for the

series. You can see them both in action here in the second test which is to be held here at the Sports Training Village on Thursday 12th April. Tickets can be purchased from www.englandnetball. co.uk

alisdair ourselves up to a whole can of fatty worms, including: diabetes, coronary heart disease, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, strokes, hypertension, depression, and some studies have hinted at the possibly or even increasing ones risk of getting cancer.

The benefits of exercise and ac-

tivity are many. The only negative outcome exercise has (unless you run or cycle into a bus) is that you will get a bit sweaty and occasionally might clear out level 4 of the library because you smell a bit. But even that’s not a problem because then you might actually get a computer. In order to reap the benefits of exercise you don’t even have to do that much, a 30 minute walk every day is supposedly meant to do the trick. Although I am dubious of this, and would thoroughly recommend everyone go to some 3:Thirty Club sessions instead, although I would say that.

As we get older, it gets harder to stay in beautiful and pristine shape.

So students of Bath, I urge you to preserve what you have, while you’ve still got it and hit the pavements in a running frenzy. Now I just have to get that message across to 30 million people and we’re golden.

E

xercising and being active are concepts that have been rammed down our throats by the government, our schools and parents for a substantial number of years now. However, very few people seem to be listening. We are a nation of fatties, obviously being students; we are exceptions to the rule and are on the whole, a very attractive population. The fact we can only afford to drink water and eat 13 pence noodles does probably go some way to helping with that though.

Outside of universities though, it’s a very different story and in ‘the real world’ about half of the people living in the UK are overweight, a trend which is only set to get worse.

The problem comes when you enter the working world, sell your soul to the corporate devil and end up

Cyling can be a fantastic way to keep healthy, provided you’re not too inclined to keep falling off working 40 hour weeks. You consume nothing but restaurant quality steaks and cite a lack of time and energy to go out for a routine jog.

More than anything therefore, this article serves as a warning. If we can get into the good habits now of running around once in a while, or going for the occasional bike ride

then these might translate later on when we enter full time employment. Humans are built to be active; we simply do not have the genetic makeup to allow for days on end sitting in front of computer screens and eating vast quantities of deep fried chicken (as tasty as it may be). Without activity, we open

question the quality of medical screening in elite athletes, with Manchester City manager, Roberto Mancini, suggesting that significant changes must be made to protect players in the future. The quality and immediate nature of the care received by Muamba is largely due to improvements made following the poor care and incident management surrounding the fracturing of Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech’s skull in 2006. Jose Mourinho, then manager of the London club, claimed it took thirty minutes for an ambulance to arrive and carry the player to hospital. This event echoes the tragic death of Motherwell captain, Phil O’Donnell, who collapsed in a similar fashion to Muamba during his sides 2007 SPL clash with Dundee United.

On top of all this further criticism has come from Bolton captain, Kevin Davies, who stated that whilst it is encouraging to see the entire footballing community united in well-wishing for Muamba, it is also worrying that it has taken such an incident to bring football together. "It was both touching but sad as well… It seems that the only way you get applause from opposition fans is being carried off on a stretcher.

That's a sad state of the game”.

t was a fantastic day for the University of Bath Netball Club when England Netball announced that Mia Ritchie and Kadeen Corbin, two of the first team, had been selected to represent England in the upcoming International Netball Series against Barbados.

Echoing the sentiments of the club, Head Coach Jess Garland said “Mia and Kadeen’s selection into the England squad for the upcoming test series is a testament to their hard work and desire to represent their country. They are great ambassadors for student sport and are huge supporters of the club. It confirms the University as one of the best for netball and we are all incredibly proud of their achievement.”

Speaking of her selection Mia said “I couldn't quite believe my eyes when I saw my name but all the hard work has paid off. It means the world to me and my family, the support from them over the last few years has been unimaginable. I just can't wait to see my name on the back of the England dress!”

Kadeen followed this with “it’s so amazing to be called up again after being part of the winning team at the world netball series.

It was great to have that exposure and the confidence to go out and show what I'm made off. It was the best birthday present. I'm

Owen Tomlinson bathimpact contributor olton Wanderers’ midfielder, Fabrice Muamba, suffered a sudden and tragic cardiac arrest part way through his clubs FA quarter final tie with Tottenham Hotspur last Saturday and remains, at the time of writing, in a serious condition at the London Chest Hospital.

On-site Medical staff administered mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the pitch as well as applying a defibrillator in an attempt to restart his heart in full view of the thirty-thousand strong crowd at White Hart Lane. Bolton Wanderers and their manager, Owen Coyle, have both praised the fantastic efforts and quick thinking of all medical staff involved in the recovery of the Congolese-born player.

Muamba arrived in the UK as an 11 year old refugee and has had a hugely successful career, playing for both Arsenal and Birmingham City before moving on to Bolton. He has also represented England at every level from U16’s to U21s, earning 33 caps for the latter and featuring in the U21 European Championships in 2011.

This event has called into

B

I

Rachel Seymour

Get better soon Netballers get GB call up Fabrice Muamba »»Rachel Seymour finds out more for impactsport

Kadeen Corbin (left) and Mia Ritchie (right)

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Swimmers splash into Olympics »»Ashley Quinlan caught up with our budding Olympians

L

ast week played host to the second 2012 Test Event held at the Aquatics Centre in the Olympic Park: The British Swimming Championships.

These championships, an annual event, took on even greater importance this year as they doubled as the primary event for 2012 GB Team qualification. The Bath ITC and Performance Squad sent their finest to compete, and came back with not only medals, but places on the British Olympic and Paralympic Teams.

Andrew Willis and Michael

Jamieson dominated the 200m Breaststroke, winning Gold and Silver respectively, both clocking FINA A times and booking their place on the Olympic Team. Incidentally Christopher Gilchrist, also

3

Number of swimmers selected

from Bath, locked out the podium, claiming Bronze. Stacey Tadd, of Mark Skimming’s Performance Squad, too was successful, claim-

ing Gold in her 200m Breaststroke event, and will be joining Willis and Jamieson in the team after swimming a personal best.

Jamieson, in an exclusive interview on The Ash & Chilli Show on 1449URB, commented, “It wasn’t the week I was after, to be honest, time-wise or results-wise [after narrowly missing out on a spot in the 100m Breaststroke event by six hundredths of a second]. But I’m there now. I’ve made it, and can’t wait to get there now!”

The swimmers have enjoyed a short break after their week in the

capital, and will soon be getting back to the grindstone to get in perfect condition for the Games.

All of us at Bath wish them the very best as they compete at the highest level this summer.

Matt Walley bathimpact Contributors This season’s Interdepartmental Football Competition, or IDFC, has been the best yet in my opinion.

Mainly due to due to the additional help of the 3:Thirty Club (and the wonderful IDFC co-ordinator as well obviously). While a lot of the usual suspects strolled through the group stages, we witnessed two relative shocks along the way.

Electrical Engineering picked up their first points in two years (six of them in total) and the previously dominant Education were eliminated for the second year running. With next years’ tournament being improved into a divisional

format they now face a play-off against Architecture to even have a chance of qualifying for the top division.

Last weekend’s quarter finals also saw POLIS and Economics, the two top ranked sides, being beaten in extra time by Chemical Engineering and Management respectively.

Semi’s (15.30 wed) – Chem Eng v Biology, Mech Eng v Management (Eastwood) Final (15.00 wed 28th) St John’s Main Pitch It costs absolutely nothing to come down and watch so you may as well come along and cheer on your house or coursemates!

Note to Editor: if you even think about making a terribly unoriginal pun involving the word ‘splash’ for the Headline, I will personally cut out your spleen. Metaphorically, of course.

Editorial note: Duly noted and duly ignored.

IDFC semi-finals loom closer

Nik Simon and Patrick Bogues bathimpact Contributors

B

ath University athletes displayed some promising performances at the recent BUCS Indoor Athletics Championships. The team brought back six medals from the weekend long event in Sheffield, setting 11 new personal bests along the way.

A gold medal for Sophie Tyers in the women’s 800m was one of the team’s standout performances. Ty-

“

It was a strong performance from the whole team

”

Colin Bovell ers took gold with a personal best time of 2 minutes and 6 seconds, a time which puts her in the top five in the UK this year. Other medals in the women’s events came in the 200m, with Jo White securing

silver, and the 4x200m where the team claimed another silver medal.

Ben Reynolds took a silver medal in the 60m hurdles; displaying form which he no doubt hopes to carry into the upcoming World Championships in Turkey. In a tight 3000m race, Steve Mitchell was unfortunate to be pipped at the line and also came away with a silver medal. Zac Randall secured the team’s final medal, taking silver in the 800m with a personal best time of 1 minute and 51 seconds.

Head coach Colin Bovell said that “It was a strong performance from the whole team. With a few athletes still to be brought in I am feeling positive for the Outdoors later in the season.”

An overall finish of 4th place was an improvement on last year’s performance, and should give the team confidence for the BUCS Outdoor Championships to be held at the Olympic Stadium later in the season.

Patrick bogues

Athletics finish fourth at BUCS

27

Sport

Gleave’s gripes Charity should not be easy

The Saturday before last saw me embrace the warmth in shorts and a t-shirt to watch the citizens of Bath pound the pavements in the half marathon. For those who didn’t know it was going on, that was the explanation as to why the entirety of Bath hummed to high heaven of body odour for a whole day. Good on them I say, they were getting some exercise and raising some money for charity.

Having witnessed my flatmate complete the distance (and shoved the obligatory pint down his throat afterwards) I realised how difficult running a half marathon can be.

Trotting 13 miles in sunshine not too dissimilar to that of an actual spring day is what I would consider a valid form of raising money for charity; as is anything that requires physical exertion or causes pain or complete and utter humiliation.

Sitting in a bath tub of baked beans, as seems to be the common theme with sports relief and other televised charitable events, is not. I would happily do this for free as the only negative outcome I can think of is that you get a baked bean or two stuck up your nose and you smell of tomatoes for a few days. People running the marathon, a lot of them, could barely stand at the end, and a number had to be taken to hospital. That is a worthy method of raising money, as is going through the agony of having your legs waxed, or humiliating yourself in front of 300 people by wearing shorts for a fashion show when you are fully aware of the fact that you have calves identical to that of a chicken.

I’ve done many things for charity in the past. I’ve sold myself to a complete stranger. I’ve sold myself to Chris Clements (VP Sport) - in a purely slavish kind of way.

I’ve done a fashion show. I’ve even done a sponsored skip (don’t judge, I was six). However, and this is where I let myself down. I once attempted a sponsored silence for a measly one hour.

I got told off four times in that hour for talking and raised a pathetic £2.50, all from my parents.

As way of punishment therefore I feel it only right that next year I run the Bath Half and for once with these gripes, put my money where my mouth is. Or at least put my money where my running shoes are. Speaking of which, where are my running shoes...?

impactsport

Bath athletes called up to GB squad Netball, p26 Jonathan Gleave

Monday 26th March 2012

Inside impactsport Health Advice bathimpact hears all about how you should resist the temptations of fried chicken and set yoursef up with good habits now to stay fitter than a butcher’s dog.

Curious? Page 26 has the full story

Footballer’s tragedy The sudden heart attack experienced by Bolton Wanderer Fabrice Muamba has caused ripples of sympathy from the world and also led to criticisms of the current screening process elite athlete’s undergo.

See page 26 for more info

Bath Men’s Futsal team looking rather chuffed with themselves following their three successive victories.

BUCS success in Sheffield Chris Clements VP Sport susport@bath.ac.uk

T

here was mixed success for Bath’s athletes at the BUCS Championships held from Wednesday 14th to Sunday 18th March in Sheffield. Two University of Bath teams were crowned National Champions, with a further two reaching national finals.

The Championships started with the Netball 1’s in Championship final action against Leeds Metropolitan University on Wednesday. Despite having won all 10 of their league matches this season with a positive goal difference of 512 and having beaten defending champions Loughborough in the Semi-final, Captain Mia Richie commented that they knew it was “going to be a tight match.”

These thoughts were echoed by the score line being level after the first quarter. Mia Ritchie commented that her team “knew we had more to give” and this was evident after a shuffling of the pack led to a lead of 2 at half time.

The same seven stepped back out on court after half time and the lead increased to 7 after 3

quarters of play. A key quarter that proved to be as Bath ran out 72-60 victors.

Ritchie picked up the MVP award along with lifting the cup.

Afterwards she commented that it was a “true team effort and the hard work has finally paid off.”

The first two days of action also saw the Men’s Futsal team in action. They were successful in the group stage with 8-3, 5-1 and 2-1 victories over Essex, Sheffield Hallam and Loughborough respectively.

Many of the teams on show boasted international players amongst their ranks and the qualification for the Championship final as a result of these victories was a statement on the development of Futsal at the University in recent years.

This set up a final against Teesside University on Thursday evening. Teesside had been victors over the Bath team 8-0 in a previous encounter. Despite this the final was a finely balanced match with Teesside coming out victors with a score line 4-3.

After the match, Futsal representative Jose Lima commented

that the side “would like to thank everyone for their support and we will rebuild for the National League play-offs in May.” In a similar competition structure to the Futsal, the Women’s Volleyball side qualified for the Championship final by topping the final 8 group B after victories over Cambridge and Loughborough.

This set them up for a final against Leeds Metropolitan which ended in a 2-0 loss for Bath.

There was, however better news on Saturday with bath being crowned national champions for the second time at the Championships with the Women’s Judo team successful. The victory was helped by Kate Walker’s victory in the Womens (1kyu and above) under 63kg category.

Bath’s Badminton teams unfortunately did not fare as well as they have in the Southern leagues this season with the Men’s 1’s going down 8-0 to Leeds Metropolitan and the Women’s 1’s losing 5-3 to Loughborough, both in the Semi-Finals.

The Badminton club can console themselves with the fact that they have won every league they

are in this year with the exception of the Men’s 3’s, who finished second in theirs behind the Bath 2’s Other notable results from the individual championships included Steph Cornish, loosing semi-finalist in the Women’s Tennis and Tom Ash, bronze medallist in the Fencing Men’s Epee.

The results of the Championship still leave Bath in close contention with Leeds Metropolitan for 3rd place in the overall BUCS standings. Predictions show that there are likely to be as few as 50 points between 3rd and 4th place at the end of the year.

There are still some major points scoring events to come with the Cricket competitions yet to take place, Tennis team Championship Semi-Finals still to come and BUCS outdoor Athletics in May. The BUCS outdoor athletics is traditionally one of our stronger competitions and will be vital to securing 3rd place. This year it is the test venue for the Olympic Stadium and if you would like to register your interest in attending as a spectator then please email susa@bath.ac.uk

Bath swimmers victorious!

The Bath University Swimming Team annihilated competition at The British Swimming Championships. Medals were aplenty and some of the triumphant team also earned themselves something even better than a medal!

Turn to page 27 to read the full results

Tensions rise as departments clash As the interdepartmental football competion starts to near it’s nailbiting climax, Matt Walley looks back over the suprises of the previous games.

For all the details flick over to page 27

Get involved If you like sport and want to contribute, then contact bathimpact Sport Editor Jonathan Gleave (impact-sport@bath.ac.uk) to find out more details about how you can get involved.

We’re always looking for writers, photographers, people to lay up, or just all round sports buffs in general to help out. So, if you have a story you want to share, don’t be afraid to get in touch!

bite has your free tickets to these festivals.

For more info head to the facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/bathimpactbite

2

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Cover photo by Sam Short

www.bathimpact.com

EDITORIAL

impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

CONTENTS

Student Lifestyle

Summer sun - Page 2 & 3 How to festival - Page 3 Red bull gives you bins - Page 3 Overworked and Underpaid - Page 5 American museum - Page 5 Horoscopes - Page 19

Sex & Relationships No harm in a fleeting fling - Page 6 A series of embarrassing events - Page 6

The Guide Page 7

Music

My experience at... - Page 9 Festival guide - Pages 10-12 The sound of a revolution - Page 8

Film

We bought a zoo - Page 14

Arts

Fame review- Page 14

Fashion

Fashion @ Bath - Page 8 Be the bad girl - Page 16 Get the look - Page 17

Videogames Next-gen living - Page 19

Food

Chocolate Feastival - Page 18 Chocolate marshmallow brownies - Page 18

Puzzle Corner

This week we are casting our eyes forwards to the joy that is summer, and the magic that it holds in the form of festival season. I’ve been to a few festivals in my time, Reading twice, then Glastonbury last year (an experience that has left me completely bereft that it is not happening this year), and it’s definitely something I would recommend to everyone else, the sense of freedom has no comparison, and the fact that everyone is there to have a lovely time means that they’re, mostly, so open and friendly and it feels pretty much exactly like Freshers’ week, apart from instead of security coming and telling you that your outdoor party is “illegal”, security only occasionally come round to put out a fire that’s got threatening close to your tent and worldly possessions. Ben Hooper covers the trials and tribulations of students in the summer attempting to maintain a lifestyle they can’t afford, or on the other side of the coin, spend the summer staring wistfully out of the window during a mind-numbing nine-to-five, building up pennies in the back that will just slide back down into the void that is the overdraft once the term starts again.

Thomas Gane gives us an alternative guide on how to not do festivals on page 3. On page 9 we have a couple of contributors’ personal accounts of certain festivals, and on pages 9 and 10 we have our almost-definitive guide to the UK’s festivals this summer.

Unfortunately we don’t cover international festivals in this issue due to space, but my mind is beginning to wander, thinking about sitting in a foreign field in the sunshine, listening to the distant strains of some excellent band echo off the sand dunes... Oh Jesus, bring on the summer, before I do a cry on you.

We’ve got the old classics here as well, Overworked and underpaid, the sex and relationship columns, the guide, horoscopes and puzzle corner, and of course Nia Evans gives us an excellent suggestion on page 18 about chocolate. Mmm. To get involved in bite head over to our facebook group at www.facebook.com/bathimpactbite Or email me at impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

Page 20

www.facebook.com/bathimpactbite www.bathimpact.com U n i v e r s i t y

o f

B a t h

S t u d e n t s ’

Summer

Written by Holly Narey

Holly Narey bite Editor

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.

Printed by Harmsworth Press Ltd.

Ah, British summers

Written by Ben Hooper

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his article goes out to all those who don’t have enough money or time to do exactly what they want to this summer, to those who do, you can continue reading just to feel good about yourselves.

Summer is just around the corner and I reckons now, more so than ever before or than ever again, we have almost, pretty much, if we’re clever about it, have complete freedom. Now I know some of you will spend your summers interning as an investment banker, probably earning lots of money but before you do that, and I know it will get you somewhere in life; maybe don’t do that. It’s tough if you’re one of those who has no money to decide what to do with your time in the summer, there is I suppose an idea of a perfect summer for a student which in my eyes consists of at least one music festival, a trip to a foreign country, a few days of attempting to get a sun tan, new sunglasses, a flowery dress (not gender exclusive). Now maybe you’re thinking ‘I’m not the kind of person who wants to see the world, or go to festivals and I want that investment banking job’ (sorry to pick on you finance types) or maybe you just have a really nice life at home and don’t really want to waste time seeing the rest of the world, but you owe it to yourself, you owe it to every fucker who doesn’t have the opportunity to see all the wondrous and wonderful things out there. I imagine those who were feeling like this are a minority and I know some of you have commitments so I’ll shut up about that now. But please, while you’re young and free. There’s nothing worse than that feeling, when you know all of your friends are off in distant lands soaking up the sun, cheap liquor and good times while you are working for most of the hours the sun is up, begging the British summertime to be good to you by wearing extra large novelty sunglasses and going straight to the park to sit, even if alone as soon as any sun does come out, only to be cast into the endless misery of huge groups of clouds passing over, you can just imagine their faces, looking at you and laughing as their cool bellies compensate for their hot fluffy heads, bastards. Don’t even get me started on my cat envy, what have they ever done for us? Nothing! Yet we give them most of our love, feeding them Whiskers so they can laze in the garden all day. I know I’ve given my cats more attention than any other family member simply because they’re accompanied by a constant rumbling noise, you think I’d have the same affection for Xbox controllers, and you’d be right to think that *click*. So why do we bother with these Xbox controllers, what have they ever done for us? Nothing! Yet we give them most of our love, feeding them skin fragments so they can laze in the garden all day. I know I’ve given my Xbox controllers more attention than any other family member simply because they’re accompanied by a constant rumbling noise, you think I’d have the same affection for vibrators, and you’d be right to think that *buzz*. So why do we love vibrators so much? What have they ever done for us? Ok that’s enough of that. I was going to do cock rings next. I’m going to try and make this summer one to remember, too often in the past I’ve worried more about having a job and making money than having fun, and having to plan things rather than just getting up and doing them. Last summer I worked my balls off at festivals for the most part, making a bit of money, having a little bit of fun, but I mean how much fun can a boy have without his balls? The summer before that I kept my balls thoroughly in place, whilst working at a hotel in Stratford with some travelling in Asia thrown in, China blew me away, Nepal almost killed me with landslides and India almost killed me from the bowels outwards. This summer I plan on getting my balls back, I’ve applied to be a teacher in a Chinese school, in China, funnily enough, through Opportunity-China.com and I’ll be paid twohundred pounds for six weeks work, accommodation and food paid for too and after that I plan on seeing as much of south-east Asia as I can, with barely any money at all. My plan is to just rely on the good will of man and my ability to whore myself out for money, ideally in some sort of travelling Star Wars theatre road show but most likely doing woodwork and carrying hats for people. One of the best things about summer is how music seems to play a much bigger part in how enjoyable life is, I truly believe this. I’m always either listening to or playing music and if I’m going about other duties, I’m definitely always singing. As soon is the sun is out and the company is good, the drinks are flowing and the day is moving along smoothly there’s something very special about that combination of sunshine on your shoulders and the sound of a soul refreshing or defining song wobbling its way into your ears (I guess that’s what sound waves do?). I think that’s why music festivals are really so

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Sun

special, it’s like starting university all over again in the way that you’re thrown into a field of people, most of whom you’ve never met and will never see again, obviously more like Bath Spa as we don’t actually study in a field. Right?! Within this magical realm there is always good feeling, drinks a-plenty, the constant sound of merriment whether it be from a drum circle, the lad who’s either still high from the night before or is drunk at 9am jumping in puddles screaming about how he’s just gotten laid or the many bands on the many stages (unless you’re at Cropredy with its one stage - Cropredy is AWESOME, but not in the same way as say Bestival is) the entertaining children’s area accompanied by wizard, the buzz is usually ruined somewhat when the sun isn’t present, not just because we want to be dry, but because that happiness we get from all that vitamin D or whatever the fuck is going on is imperative.

A bit of rain makes the weekend complete but all I’m saying is, FUCK OFF CLOUDS! So go home, or if you’re at home, then good, and whilst listening to Jan Hammer - Crockett’s Theme from hit 80s US tv show, Miami Vice imagine yourself in a car, cruising down an endless highway with the top down, wind in your hair, on your way to the best bar/ swimming pool with fun things to do from dusk until dawn. Here’s a list of things students think about when I say the word summer to them: “summer luvin’ (which is embarrassing), ice cream, a parasol, sun, freedom, grass, cider, fanta, flip flops (YES), shorts, tits and the beach. Now who wouldn’t be happy with all that, I tell you who, CATS, they’re never bloody satisfied. Enjoy bite and all the warm summer smiley tummy feelings to come.

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Red bull gives you... bins?

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ast Thursday “Pimp my Recycle Bin” transformed the entrance to the students Union into a gallery for the work of budding artists. A team of artists were asked

by Red Bull, partnered with Every Can Counts, to graffiti the University’s new recycling bins.

The idea behind it was that their creativity will inspire others to recycle in future, by making the bins more vibrant and attractive to use. The graffiti artists ranged from amateur to professional and throughout the day others were wel-

come to come get stuck in, and play their part in helping the environment. Keep an eye out for the bins dotted around the Students’ Union.

David Cameron, VP Activities and Development, said “This has been a fantastic event showing us all that environmental issues don’t have to be dull whilst also giving artists a chance to showcase their talents. The bins will look great in their final homes and will also help promote environmental work such as the Green Impact Award.”

The event was a great and colourful success

How to festival Written by Thomas Gane

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veryone has a festival guide trying to portray safe fun, but really, is that what it’s about? Is that Woodstock? It’s about embracing the music and seeing what you’re really capable of with no barriers… I mean obviously there’ll be metal barriers at the front, but I was speaking metaphorically.

Firstly, crowd-surfing, it’s awesome and you should do it constantly. Every few minutes and you should always aim for the same bouncer, that way you become friends and eventually he’ll take you backstage so you can meet the band. Trust me on this, it will definitely happen, you won’t be kicked out or anything.

Secondly, there are lots of calories in alcohol so you won’t need much food. As soon as you pitch your tent start drinking, when you wake up have some bread to make you feel human again, then open up another bevvy and keep going until you pass out after the headliners. Repeat for three days and you’ll have a cheap and awesome time. Plus you’ll come out of it much lighter and dehydrated, so therefore toned!

Thirdly, strangers and why you should always talk to them. They like the same music as you, so they’ll probably be cool. Give them some drinks, or your shoes and go to their tent for a party. You’ll have a great time, chances are they won’t kill you and who knows, you may get

some! (Festival sex, it’s in-tents… couldn’t resist). Finally if they offer you some pills or tabs, say thank you because drugs are expensive.

Fourthly, the tattoo stands by the stages are awesome. Those rumours about tattoos being wounds for a while are baloney, and a muddy, drunken field with poor shower facilities is definitely the best place for them to heal.

Get a bit drunk beforehand so you won’t feel the pain and everyone will think you’re really cool. The tattoo you should get is the name of the band currently playing or last night’s tent partner, right on your wrist. That way whenever you (or a potential employer) look down you’ll be reminded of that special moment.

Fifth and finally, here are some bands you HAVE to go and see: You Me at Six, Kids in Glass Houses, Young Guns, The Blackout, Bring Me the Horizon, Architects, Lostprophets, Asking Alexandria, Attack Attack, Deaf Havana and Bullet for my Valentine. … On a serious note, really don’t do that stuff and if you do, this bit of writing ensures that bite does not endorse it and acknowledges that this article is a poor joke. Seriously I wouldn’t try it, especially number five. For the love of god don’t do number five, it’s just not worth it. Enjoying Lostprophets after the Start Something album is the musical equivalent of syphilis.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Overworked and Underpaid Ulterior Motives: Part 1 Written by Rowan Emslie

“Franklin Delano Roosevelt, polio’s most renowned victim, had contracted the disease as a vigorous man of thirty-nine and subsequently had to be supported when he walked and, even then, had to wear heavy steeland-leather braces from his hips to his feet to enable him to stand.”

Since the 1960s the disease has been all but eradicated in the USA – not to mention Europe, South America, some of Africa and large parts of Asia – thanks to extensive vaccination programmes. Although vaccines were available from 1955, it was Albert Sabin’s oral vaccine, developed in 1961, that truly broke the back of the disease in places were large-scale immunisation pushes were enacted. The last naturally occurring cases in the USA were recorded in 1979 amongst an isolated Amish community in the mid-west.

Just two generations ago, the disease was at its height in the large cities of the global north, an affliction that seemed to come from nowhere and one that resisted medical treatment for many years. The US epidemic of 1952 was the largest, with 57,628 cases reported leading to 3,145 deaths and 21,269 people left with mild to disabling paralysis. Roth’s book details a lesser epidemic, of 1944, but it succeeds in capturing the uncertainty, the fear, the misinformation, and all those societal ills that surrounded the medical issues.

All my life, watching America Tori Jones gives us a guide of things to do

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s someone born and raised in London during the tail end of the 20th century, polio was something that, on the occasions when I was, briefly, conscious of it, I would undoubtedly relate to places and people far away. No one I knew had polio. I have since spent time in four different continents, sometimes in countries designated as LDCs, and have never, to my memory, really interacted with someone exhibiting the debilitating effects of what was once a terrifying summertime reality all over the world.

Were you to ask a group of average 9-12 year old denizens of New Jersey what next summer held for them, it is extremely unlikely that the word ‘polio’ would pass any of their lips. Philip Roth’s captivating 2010 novel, ‘Nemesis‘, details the terrifying spread of infection in a mostly affluent, lower middle class New Jersey city during the second world war.

The disease was a normalised reality back then, coming annually and targeting mostly children. It was a mysterious disease, particularly before the licensing of the vaccine in 1962, and affected an enormously diverse range of people, from inner city youngsters of Roth’s novel all the way to the very top:

Now it’s time for something a little different...

in and around Bath, slightly off the beaten track

A Polio victims in iron lungs. California, 1953.

“What is the city doing to stop this?

Nothing!” “There’s got to be something to do – but they’re not doing it!”

“They should inspect the milk the kids drink – polio comes from dirty cows and their infected milk.” “No,” said someone else, “it isn’t the cows, it’s the bottles. They don’t sterilise those milk bottles right.” “Why don’t they fumigate?” another voice said. “Why don’t they use disinfectant? Disinfect everything.”

With a combination of well-funded scientific research and the pioneering social prevention scheme led by people like former Red Cross chairman, Basil O’Connor, these problems are more or less completely unknown for people like me.

Reading this book was startling not only for its horrific subject matter but, personally, because of how little I knew about a disease that had been such a real and regular fact of life even during my own parents’ childhoods. I found myself asking the same questions as the scared parents in the narrative: where does polio come from? How does it spread? How can we avoid getting it? Is there a cure?

This research took place during my commutes which give me ample time for reading. Occasionally I would down my paperback and get out my smart phone – a tool that I take for granted and one my grandparents know almost nothing about – to explore the internet for information on this disease. When I asked my grandmother, great uncle and great aunt about polio they responded knowingly, remembering it as a great scourge of their childhoods, albeit one removed from the rural upbringing they had experienced in Paris, Illinois.

My parents, too, remembered being vaccinated for it and were slightly amused by my sudden interest in such an out of date issue. After the conversation my generational ‘technical skills’ were called upon to configure my grandmother’s new phone.

In February 2012, India was removed from the World Health Organization’s polio endemic list. Although a new possible case has emerged in the last few weeks, only one has been confirmed in the last 2 years. In 1985, there were an estimated 150,000 cases. It is several decades later but it possible that, at the moment, we are living through what will be seen as a similar generational change. The work has been done by an enormous coalition of local and international actors – it’s notable that the local press cites the activities of the local authorities, the international press much more likely to put attention on the international non-governmental organizations involved. Even in the unprecedented success of this polio story more than the positive is revealed: the divisiveness of a single story, the ‘global north’ always seemingly at odds with the ‘global south’. What is interesting for me is that, as this story is one that I only really began to investigate when prompted by a piece of non-related American literature, I feel as though I am coming at it from a different angle – this isn’t, for once, a ‘news’ or ‘international affairs’ or ‘development’ narrative. As such, a whole variety of different questions and stimuli are feeding into it. Recently, I was sent this:

Usually, practitioners of sustainable development are proponents of an education first and foremost philosophy. In this case, the medical approach was one that might just go on to create a whole new generation of people like me; people accessing successful development narratives through literature, not the newspapers.

Part 2 will explore how different sources of development knowledge could help to shape the development policy of the future.

s a child I always wondered why a place situated thousands of miles away could have such a huge importance in our own country. Growing up, America was continuously in our news and even though I’ve never visited the place, I have often questioned why its influence over Britain has always been so powerful. By visiting the American museum, I gained more of an understanding into the history of the country and why it is so significant in Europe. With the museum situated so close to campus, I would say that it is a place that all Bath students should attempt to visit before graduation. The museum itself is the historic Claverton Manor and it has recently been reopened to the public. At the museum you can not only see costume, quilts, art and furniture which have evolved over history, but also learn how phrases like ‘don’t let the bed-bugs bite’ have come into our language. Even though some of us aren’t keen on the idea, America will always be relevant in Britain. This makes having an understanding of the history of the country quite useful. Although I have to admit that even though the country interests me, I could never swap pie and mash, Downing Street and Harry Potter for hamburgers, The White House and Twilight.

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

No harm in a fleeting fling Written by bite’s relationship columnist

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ow this column is usually applicable to both the sexes, but I’m afraid this issue, it is one for the ladies.

In this liberal age of acceptation there are still HUGE double standards when it comes to being sexually liberal. Women are still not allowed to have one night stands and men are still championed for it. Pfft.

I say we put this to an end.

Ok so getting caught in a perpetual cycle of one nighters is probably not advisable, let’s face it none of us want our magic number to usurp that of a Dutch lady of the night. Post relationship break down however, it can not only be fun, but useful!

I see sexual conquests as a kind of window shopping. Your old style is no longer working all too well for you, but you don’t know which ‘look’ to go for next... the world of fashion (and dating) is a minefield of choices, which is why the ‘try before you buy’ idea is so ingenious!

Men come in many flavours, how do you know which one to settle for if you haven’t first tested all the endless possibilities? Tall/short, fat/thin, muscular/ brainy, wet/dry, extrovert/introvert, career focussed/ couch potato... I’m sure you get the gist.

This is the course of action you take for choosing clothes, food, houses, and anything else relatively important in life; you make sure you have tried out all the possible options before committing. I don’t know about you but when I choose to settle down it will be quite a big decision, so why shouldn’t I have trialled and tested all the other products on offer first?

Sex is still a taboo in the UK which is laughable

when you consider our comparatively open legged, (oops I mean minded!) counterparts. Women may discuss their desires when in a group of their own, but many are still ashamed to embrace their cravings more openly.

Men want it and tell us about it, women want it and stay quiet for fear of being labelled a ‘whore’, ‘slag’ or similar. This is your relationship columnist telling you to stand up and be proud of your diverse range of desires. Let us create a new term for women who embrace their erotic nature; bunny (I do believe bunnies like a good rabbit too?).

Let’s see how it would unfold in comparison to other terms: “God that sex columnist is a right little bunny! She loves bouncing up and down!”

Pretty positive right? None of us here thinks she should be shot to the ground for it.

“God that sex columnist is a right slut! She loves getting fucked!”

Pretty negative. Sounds dirty and as if she is doing something wrong. Which let’s face it... she definitely is not.

The occasion this tactic is most useful is when time constraints actually restrict the ability of a fuck buddy to turn into much more... so holidays, festivals, nights out in random places etc. Here you have a perfect opportunity to play, try out something new, without the fear of getting stuck with the fat, wet, introverted couch potato.

Go forth little bunnies, spring has sprung and it’s about time our sexual confidence does too!

Learn lessons from nature: be cute and happy and aww

A series of embarrassing events Written by bite’s sex columnist

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You’ve been a very bad boy...

o the other night, while hanging out with some Media types in a bar, a friend of mine revealed a sort-of secret about me that made me think about how we view the kinkier side of sex, if you can call it that. We’re not talking ball gags, dominatrix outfits and whips. Unless you’re into that, in which case good for you, you go explore; I just mean all the stuff that’s not just condoms and sausage hiding.

Now, a little back-story: this friend was sleeping in my room because his bus doesn’t run late and he was off doing photography in town. I live near town.

Logic dictates that he can sleep in my spare bed. The night in question, however, I was out late so I came back at stupid o’clock to find him in my bed (which was fine, it was the comfier option) so left him as he was, went to sleep myself and thought nothing of it.

The embarrassment began when we switch back to that night in the bar. This friend chose to reveal to the group that he’d spied my black fluffy handcuffs by the side of my bed, at which point I was so mortified that it didn’t even occur to me to bluff my way out of it. Looking back on this, that is kind of odd, though. I mean, I love a bit of tying up, being tied up, a casual choke - I’ve had enough sex to know what I like and how hard I like it! Take that as you will. It just strikes me as odd that it was so strange and awkward having it revealed in a completely non-sexual situation (despite a delightful piece of

ass being present, but let’s not go there) and that I felt so embarrassed.; it was a true hand-to-mouth moment for me.

This said, following a lift home and a brief chat in which it transpired that my gay best friend likes a cheeky bit of candle wax and one of the boys thinks he’s not very adventurous in the bedroom, I’ve now come around to being more open about it.

Yes, I own a pair of handcuffs with which I like to lock (sometimes unsuspecting) men to my door and have my wicked way with them. There’s a bottle of cherry lube next to my bed. There’s also a triple choc flavour one which smells better than it tastes. The whole point of having them is so sex is fun! I think we live in a ‘shock society’ where the more outrageous you are, the better, but I actually think my little collection is relatively tame. I know people (and have slept with people) with far naughtier toys in the arsenals (pun fully intended) and I think people, especially at our age when pretty much everyone has had some kind of sexual experience*, should be open about what we do in bed to ourselves and to others because, let’s face it, missionary is sooo snore. *And if you haven’t? I’m fat, single and ready to mingle. Except not fat.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

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The Guide Written by Tom Rookes and Anna Vidos

Arts

Music

The Futureheads go acapella

Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet @ Colston Hall 27th March

Bath Society of Artists 107th Exhibition @Victoria gallery

You can really ‘dig’ some ‘cool cats’ as they ‘swing and groove’ the night away at Colston Hall this March.

Californian Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and his jazz quintet received critical acclaim last year for their debut album Blue Note that wowed listeners with its fearless solos and toe tapping tunes. The 29 year old is only on the way up having worked with world renowned jazz musicians including Jimmy Heath and Herbie Hancock; he has even been likened to the legendary Miles Davies. Not one to miss.

The Bath society was founded in 1904 with only 26 members and now constitutes a 100 strong group of contemporary and diverse group of artists from in and around the Bath area. Every year the society puts on a show in the Victoria Art gallery to showcase and sell the members works. Along with the gallery exhibition of the 1000+ entries from the society’s members, workshops and talks are held throughout the week from the artist and industry experts. The best thing is all of these are all free to the public. Yes I said Free!

The Futureheads acapella tour @ Colston Hall 3rd April

Stewart Francis Outstanding In His Field. Komedia 25 Apr

The Futureheads are giving up playing instruments!

Well not completely I imagine but their latest album, titled Rant, is a completely acapella venture! Sounds intriguing right? The band’s move towards Babershop Quartet is unlikely to be a permanent thing so this is possible your only chance to see won of Britain’s best bands going all harmonious on us. The tour promoting the album promises a mix of new acapella songs and acoustic re-workings of their best known tracks plus some rather suprising covers including Black Eye Peas’ ‘Meet me Halfway’!

“Standing in the park, I was wondering why a frisbee looks larger the closer it gets...then it hit me” Stewart Francis has appeared on Mock the Week, Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Road show and 8 out of 10 cats, his hilarious one liners are delivered dead pan and relentlessly throughout his critically acclaimed show. Guaranteed to be a hilarious evening.

Joe Driscoll & Sekou Kouyate @ The Bell 04th April Joe Driscol an American rapper musician and beatboxer, is famous for using different styles of music and instruments all woven together live with just a loop pedal and microphone. This April he has teamed up with French Musician Sekou Kouyate to take their album on tour. The pair reportedly met at a festival in Marseilles and although neither of them spoke much of the others language the two struck up a friendship through the music they played together. The pairing results in an ‘mad fusion of afrobeat, hip-hop, folk, and reggae, that defies any simple tags or description.’

Rhod Gilbert: The Man with the Flaming Battenberg Tattoo Friday 20th April Multi award winning Welsh stand up comedian Rhod Gilbert is bringing his new show to Bath Pavilion!

A regular on Live at the Apollo and TV panel shows Rhod’s is well known for his hilarious rants about any little grievance he has however his new shows promises ‘a more chilled out Rhod’. Somehow I can’t see that lasting for long

Campus As we’re leaving for the Easter holidays, it’s good to know whether there is anything to see/hear upon returning to good old Bath. But with all fairness, there isn’t much happening.

Luke Turrel’s viola concerto should be a highlight for those who are into classical music, as he is a rising star of the European classical scene. He’ll be performing in the American Museum on the 19th of April and judging by the ticket prices it should be quite a show-not to mention a sellout. £8 might seem like a lot to a student budget, but in return you get Hummel, Hindemith, de Sarasate and Brahms. That is, Luke Turrel will play pieces from said composers, they won’t be present as they are all dead; being mostly of the romantic era.

Bodysoc’s Dancing through the decades is for those who are more drawn to movement and dance. From the 19th to the 21st of April for a mere £ 5 (concessions) you can see the dance society review the development of dance styles since the 1920ies, my personally favourite decade.

For those who have a more acquired taste in theatrical entertainment, Sylvia Rimat’s I guess if the stage exploded should prove an interesting performance. Not to mention that tickets are only £ 5 and there is supposed to be a real live Eagle Owl called Ollie involved in some way! At least that’s what ICIA’s website says, we shall just have to wait and see!

JamesAcaster Theatre Rondo Bath 25th April Tipped to be one of the best comedian acts of 2012. Last year he won Laughing Boy New Act of the Year and has since appeared on Russel Howards Good News. His standup is a whimsical look and the Idiosyncrasies of everyday life and is guaranteed to be an entertaining. #

Keep your eyes on ICIA’s website: http://www.bath.ac.uk/icia/home/ for what’s coming up after Easter, while things will be winding down for the end of the year with exams, there will still be things to keep your minds of the tedium of revision!

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

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www.bathimpact.com

Written by Tom Rookes Date: 17 – 19 August 2012 Where: Glanusk Park, Wales Price: £125 for a student ticket (includes festival entrance and camping) Ticket release date: On sale now!

Headliners: Full line up has yet to be announced though Feist, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, The Walkmen, Of Montreal, and more are all confirmed.

How likely to sell out: Teen tickets have already sold out so get moving!

James Vincent McMorrow. Wow. Listening to this guy’s haunting, falsetto, arias was both uplifting and humbling all at once. He managed, with just an electro acoustic guitar and a microphone, to totally entrance a crowd of people into a stunned silence. His songs If I Had A Boat and We Don’t Eat gave me goosebumps and in my book that’s the mark of a brilliant song, transferring a story, an emotion, an idea, a feeling all though a song. Absolutely brilliant.

The Low Anthem was probably best of all for me though. The Providence based US band were incredible, playing a mix of haunting lullabies and powering punchy anthems that kept me captivated for their entire set. The band plays on a range of instruments from guitars to clarinets to saws! At one point even an antique bellows-pump organ was played that the singer reportedly restored himself. In this way the band has a penchant for the weird and quirky, recording their last album in an abandoned pasta factory because they liked the acoustics of the place. What ever they’re doing it seems to be working in my books.

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went to Green man Festival last year and it was fucking awesome! If you haven’t heard of the festival it’s a mid size festival just outside of Crickhowell in beautiful South Wales. It’s fundamentally a folk festival though it does branch out into other areas that seem to be all encompassed in the new(ish) Hipster/indie/folk revival that seems to have taken over lately.

Anyway, all the music was awesome including Iron and Wine, Laura Marling, The Avett Brothers, Explosions in the Sky,The Ramshackle Union Band, Dry the River, Matthew and the Atlas and Benjamin Francis Leftwich to name a few.

But by far and away there were some bands that really stood out for me and just completely blew me away.

Despite my love for music I’d never been to a British festival before, I had an idealised view of it being a ‘hippie at Woodstock’ type experience and from the tales of over flowing portaloos, riots and burning tents I didn’t want to go and be disappointed. That’s why I decided to go to Greenman.

This festival for me, seem to get back to what festivals should be about, sitting in the sun enjoying great music and just having a good time. The atmosphere was great, the food was incredible, the price was such a bargain and best of all the music just blew me away.

The line up for this summer’s Greenman looks set to be great so if you’re asking me I say ‘If you can, you should go and if you can’t, go anyway!’

Fleet Foxes were incredible. Probably one of the best technically brilliant bands I’ve ever seen live. Every member was clearly a master of their instrument, especially (since I am a drummer as well) the drummer and lead singer/guitarist, Robin Pecknold. On top of the amazing instrumentation there were some of the best close part harmonies I’ve ever heard. Three of them would sing in perfect harmony totally acapella for about two minutes then come in with the music to the song and still be note perfect. Now that’s impressive.

Written by Thomas Gane Date: 24th – 26th August.

Where: Reading – Richfield Avenue, Leeds – Bramham Park Price: From £197.50 Ticket Release Date: On sale now Headliners: The Cure, Kasabian, Foo Fighters How likely to sell out: Expect a sell out!

With no Glastonbury this year Reading and Leeds is the place to be to get your fix of Indie, Alternative and Punk music so expect it to sell out. The line-up is reasonably strong this year, although the Main, headliners of Radio1/NME and the Dance Stage are the only stages released so far, so expect many more bands to be released. Highlights so far include The Gaslight Anthem, The Black Keys, Cancer Bats, Angels and Airwaves, The Shins, Enter Shikari, Two Door Cinema Club, Foster the People, Maccabees and At the Drive In. Out of the headliners the Foo Fighters stand out as a legitimate claim for the biggest (and quite possibly the best) rock band in the world and they will put on a show, while the other headliners are strong showings.

From past experience I’d say wait until the Lock Up and Festival Republic stages are released before making a true judgement as the atmosphere on these small tents are much more enjoyable, for example main stage is often full of You Me at Six / All Time Low fans who… well I’ll leave it at that to avoid offending anyone.

The camp site always has a fantastic atmosphere and half the time you have as much fun outside the arena as you do inside, this is often to do with intoxication levels and random new friends. If you don’t fancy the horrific toilets inside then a tip from someone who’s been before is that it’s worth waking up early and making the trip to Tesco for breakfast, beverages and a clean toilet.

Reading 2011 was one of the best weekends of my life and I would thoroughly recommend everyone to try it at least once, even if the bands aren’t quite what you wanted (although I’ve heard good rumours about the rest of the line-up, NoFX, Refused, Scroobius Pip, City and Colour, King Blues anyone?) then I would certainly suggest getting a ticket before they all go.

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Blissfields

Date: 29 June – 1 July 2012 Where: Winchester Price: £74 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Still to be announced!

How likely to sell out: not very Blissfield promises a mixture of family fun, fringe comedy, a traditional school sports day and live music. Feel free to participate in a white rabbit caberet, candlelit walks, roll around with zorbing or listen to musical acts such as Dr. Strangelove’s Burlesque Discotheque and Dub Pistols.

Bestival

Beach Break

Date: 14 -18 June 2012 Where: Pembry County Park, South Wales Price: £109 student ticket Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Chase and Status, Dizzee Rascal, Friendly Fires How likely to sell out: Early bird tickets already sold out!

You know the deal, the biggest gathering of students, on a beach, with amazing music and (hopefully) summer sun. It’s a student event not to miss, and with bite, you don’t have to. Email us 100 words on why you should go to Beach Break, and you’ll be in the running for 2 free tickets. email these to impact-bite@bath.ac.uk

bathimpact

Cardiff Big Weekend

Date: 6 – 9 September 2012 Where: Isle of Wght Price: from £180 - £299 Ticket release date: On Sale Now! Headliners: New Order, The XX, more to be announced How likely to sell out: The last few Bestivals have sold out.

In a year without Glastonbury, this is really the obvious alternive, with a glasto-atmo(sphere), incomparable acts and an excuse to dress up, it’s a must. Also, if you can’t afford it, swim and you get in for free!

Boomtown Date: 9 – 12 August 2012 Where: Winchester Price: earlybbird tickets £97 Ticket release date: On Sale now Headliners:http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/boomtown/2012/ How likely to sell out: Sold out last year Boomtown is hosting a wide variety of music, from gypsy to reggae, from country and western to party bands, including performances from American ska punk group Reel Big Fish. The festival will excite all your senses, with spoken word, an anarchist theatre art and incredible food. On top of this, they’ve turned the “town” into a psychadelic wonderland with displays only before seen at Glastonbury.

Download

Date: TBC Where: Cardiff Civic Centre Price: FREE Ticket release date: N/A Headliners: TBC How likely to sell out: Since 1995, the Cardiff Big Weekend has been organized as part of the Cardiff Festival. With nightly fireworks, great food and no need for a ticket, there is no reason to miss this exciting annual festival.

Date: 8 – 10 June 2012 Where: Donington Park, Derby Price: £82.50- £200 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: The Prodigy, Black Sabbath, Metallica How likely to sell out: Some tickets have already sold out Download is one of the most famous music festivals in Britain, and is in it’s 10th year. Over the course of three days, Download will host The Prodigy, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Chase and Status, Soundgarden, Tenacious D and Megadeth, so the 10th Download does not disappoint.

Field Day

Date: 2 June 2012 Where: Victoria Park, London Price: £45 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Beirut, Franz Ferdinand, Metronomy, The Vaccines How likely to sell out: Often sells out Field Day has a reputation for bringing together musical pioneers from across the globe to London’s Victoria Park. Now celebrating 5 years running, this year’s line-up includes pop rock band Franz Ferdinand and American musical duo Sleigh Bells.

Greenbelt Date: 24 – 27 August 2012 Where: Cheltenham Price: £68 for concs Ticket release date: On Sale now Headliners: http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/festival/2012/lineup/ How likely to sell out: Uncertain, popular Greenbelt offers music, talks, activism and comedy to excite creativity, invoke passion and create memories over four days. Running since 1974, Greenbelt aims to offer a forum for people to explore beliefs, arts and injustice issues.

The Great Escape

Date: 10 - 12 May 2012 Where: Brighton Price: £12.50 - £120 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: A mixture of new music covering all genres.

How likely to sell out: Early bird passes have already sold out!

The Great Escape has been called magazine NME as a “Glastonbury by the sea”, and with over 300 bands in 3 days, this Brighton festivals aims to shore its nascent reputation. This feast of new music covers all genres, and should impress all comers.

Green Man

Date: 17 – 19 August 2012 Where: Glanusk Park, Wales Price: £125 for a student ticket (includes festival entrance and camping) Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: http://www.greenman.net/lineup How likely to sell out: Teen tickets have already sold out so get moving!

The Green Man Festival is having a series of artists and acts over three days.

In order to help cultivate your curiosity, the festival has an area called ‘Einstein’s Garden’, aiming to fuse science, art and nature. With the teen tickets already sold out, the rush is on to get tickets for this involving festival.

www.bathimpact.com

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Isle of Wight

Date: 21 - 24 June 2012 Where: Isle of Wight Price: £160 - £190 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Elbow, Pearl Jam, Biffy Clyro How likely to sell out: Normally sells out The Isle of Wight festival has been bringing big bands to the small island since 2002. The large variety of music should attract all types of festival attendees, including performances from Pearl Jam, Feeder,

Larmer Tree Festival

Date: 11 – 15 July Where: Salisbury Price: £55 - £190 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Jools Holland, Tim Minchin How likely to sell out: Has sold out every year since 1995 Inspired by the Bracknell Jazz Festival, the Larmer Tree Festival has been running for 22 years, and has sold out for the past 17. Mixing music and comedy in a feel-good atmosphere, Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra will be leading the music side, with co-

Onefest Date: 14 April 2012 Where: Marlborough, Wiltshire Price: £39 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee, Dry the River How likely to sell out: lots of tickets still available The creation of this one-day music festival was documented by the BBC One’s Village SOS series, and now enters into its second year.

Featuring Damon Albarn’s Dr Dee, a battle of the bands competition, ale drinking and mystic massages, this small-time festival aims to

Secret Garden Party

Date: 19 – 22 July Where: Huntingdon Price: £185 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Orbital, KT Tunstall, Little Dragon How likely to sell out: Many tickets already sold out As a festival without sponsorship, the Secret Garden Party prides itself on its eclectic mix of musical acts and its reputation as a “garden party gone crazy”. Bordered by a lake and a forest, the festival has a capacity of 26,000 people, a massive crowd here to see some massive acts.

Wychwood Date: 8 - 10 June 2012 Where: Cheltenham Price: £24 - £90 for students Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: James, Bellowhead http://www.wychwoodfestival. com/line-up/ How likely to sell out: Get buying!

2012 is the eighth annual Wychwood Festival, taking place over 3 days at the Cheltenham Racecourse. Described by the Independent as “homely” and nominated ‘Best Family Festival in the UK’ every year, this festival promises an intimate and thrilling experience. There’s a lot to do besides music, including comedy, films and arts and crafts.

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Kendal Calling

Date: 27 -29 July 2012 Where: Kendal, the Lake District Price: £10 - £105 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Dizzee Rascle, James, Maximo Park, Dan le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip, but more to be announced.

How likely to sell out: often sells out Set in the heart of the beautiful Lake District, the Kendal Calling festival brings together rockers and rappers from all over the planet.

Having sold out in 2011, the festival once again aims to sell every last ticket with acts by Dizzee Rascal, Feeder and Maximo Park attracting

Latitude Date: 12 – 15 July 2012 Where: Southwold, Suffolk Price: from £75 - £175 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Bon Iver, Elbow, Paul Weller How likely to sell out: Sold out in 2010 and 2011 Describing itself as “more than just a music festival”, Latitude offers music, comedy, theatre, films and literary activities. Children can play

Reading and Leeds

Date: 24 - 26 August 2012 Where: Reading and Leeds Price: from £85 - £197.50 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Foo fighters, The Cure ,Kasabian and loads more.

How likely to sell out: Always a sell out The Reading Festival is a titan amongst music festivals, always selling out the tickets. This year will be no exception, with international bands such as the Foo Fighters and Paramore. The supreme mix of bands and acts will bolster the festival’s reputation for astounding entertainment

Slam Dunk

Date: 26 – 27 May 2012 Where: University of Hertfordshire, London, Leeds University Price: £32.50 - 336 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Taking Back Sunday, The King Blues, The Blackout, Motion City Soundtrack How likely to sell out: Not very Slam Dunk takes its acts from across the music spectrum, with rock, emo, ska and punk bands providing most of the festival’s line-up.

Moving around the country from London to Glasgow, Slam Dunk will be hosting Taking Back Sunday and over 40 other bands.

bite has tickets and will shortly be running a competition on our facebook page for free festival tickets, head to http://www.facebook.com/bathimpactbite for more information

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Anthony Masters gives an overview of the highlights of upcoming local festivals

Dot to Dot

Penny Farthing

Date: 2-3 June 2012 Where: Bristol Price: Early bird £20 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: The Drums, Pulled Apart by Horses, Dog Is Dead; How Likely to Sell out: Possible, get on it Offering over 100 live acts and 16 hours of music each day, Dot to Dot offers a unique mix of upcoming artists from different genres, including rock, indie, pop and dance music. The festival is being held over three venues: Bristol, Nottingham and Manchester.

Africa Oye

Date: 23 -24 June 2012 Where: Sefton Park, Liverpool Price: FREE Ticket release date: N/A Headliners:Samba Mapangala & Orchestra Virunga, Dele Sosimi, Afrobeat Orchestra, The Endless Journey, Yaaba Funk This festival is in its twentieth year, and is still the biggest and best free celebration of African music and culture in the UK. The best names in music from Africa, the Caribbean and South America are continually drawn to this carnival of world music, and this year is no exception. All are welcome to come join in the free festivities, fully funded by generous donations.

Date: 5 May 2012 Where: Bath Price: Student tickets £8, family tickets £25 Ticket release date: On Sale Now Headliners: Tall Ships How likely to sell out: Unlikely Penny Farthing offers a truly unique experience, being both in the Bath Pavilion and being the only music to be powered by bicycles. These bicycles must be fairly quiet, since the festival will host bands such as Tall Ships, as well as live art shows.

Want something a little different? Paying a couple of hundred quid to rock it out in a field with a bunch of wasted sixteen year olds not your thing? bite suggests some alternatives...

Hay Festival

Date:31 May – 10th June Where: Hay-on-Wye Price: Depends on event Ticket Release: Gradual Headliners: Wide variety Book nerds of Bath, I give you our Mecca. Hay-on-Wye is a picturesque town in the middle of Wales that for two weeks a year becomes a hub for some of the best authors, musicians, directors, comedians and general purveyors of culture in the world. The Hay festival brings together authors from across the globe for readings and discussions about their work, the classics, wider political issues and a host of other topics. The other arts are also represented with musical showpieces and galleries that allow you to get a far more personal experience than in most other festivals. Highlights of the programme so far include Tim Minchin, Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo) and James Watson (The Double Helix), with the full programme of over 700 events being released in April. The town itself is full of second hand bookshops (the brilliant kind with piles of books in the corner and shelves running down the stairs and an organisation of space that seems to defy the physical realm of 3 dimensions), fantastic cafes, bars and ice cream parlours, so it really is the perfect place if you fancy a relaxing weekend in between the alcohol fuelled binges of other festivals.

Cardiff’s Big Weekend

Date:TBC, late July/Early August Where: Cardiff Civic Centre Price: FREE Headliners: TBC Cardiff’s Big Weekend is billed as the UK’s biggest free outdoor music festival (they seem to have forgotten about Radio 1’s Big Weekend) and in this sense, you get what you pay for. The bands usually put an emphasis on the Welsh scene and this often goes slightly wrong as they seem to really enjoy music such as The Blackout, Attack Attack and Kids in Glass Houses. Don’t get me wrong, some people like 4 chords and easy rhymes, but a festival needs a little bit of variety.

However the choice of music does create an interesting combination of scene kids by the arena and chavs in the death trap, I mean theme park, so the potential for some fisticuffs is always much higher than many other festivals. A few years ago Feeder did headline the final day and that was a very good show, but every other year I’ve gone (you’d think I’d have stopped going, but there really is that little to do in South Wales) it’s been an unsurprising disappointment. But hey, it’s free and so is the NHS, so even if you get stabbed it won’t cost you anything.

EdinburghFringe

Date: 3-27 August Where: Edinburgh, Scotland Price: Range from free to expensive depending on which events Ticket release date: Some on sale now, gradual release Headliners: Many, most TBC Everyone’s heard of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It’s the world’s largest arts festival with over 40,000 performances and more than 2,500 shows packed into 250 venues across the city, and while as expected, accomodation will be premium prices for the duration of the festival, if you have any friends who live in the area that you can scrounge off it’s definitely an experience to consider.

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bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Interviewing Sounds of Harlowe

We Bought a Zoo

Written by Esther Osarfo-Mensah

T

here I was, innocently sitting in lecture when I was suddenly pounced upon by my coursemates. They put an imaginary knife to my neck and said I had to attend a hip-hop/ jazz event at Banglo, a bar come gig venue on Lower Bristol Road.

Then again, I may have heard them talking about their plans for the evening and then invited myself along. Not sure.

So was it time well spent? Should I have stayed at home, sat on the floor and surrounded myself with lecture notes to look as though I was hard at work? Well to be honest, it was one of the best nights I’d had in a long time. And it may have had something to do with the fact that after hearing one of the bands play their sets, I put on my reporting hat, hunted Mel, Sol, Jaime, Andy, Keno and Mike down, and gave them an interview.

So you guys are called...?

SOUNDS OF HARLOWE! How did you guys meet?

Mel: From uni - first I played in an acoustic gig, and Sol came up to me and said “OH MY GOD WE SHOULD PUT A BEAT BOX OVER THAT”. So we worked together!

Jamie: Sol was trying to link Mel. (Everyone laughs) Sol: Basically, me and Mel met, and I knew Keno and Jaime. During the Christmas break of my first year, I got in touch with everybody via facebook. Then after the break we met up in my room in halls, and within half an hour, we had our first track!

Ah cool, what university was it?

Sol: Bath Spa. Both of your reporter’s eyebrows involuntarily shot up (The band laugh then a lone): Yeah - BATH SPA GO HARD!!

(More laughter, but humiliation can be seen in their eyes.)

(My attempt at sounding as though I’m down with the kids) So where do you get your sounds from?

Jaime: I think that one of the strong points of the band is that we’re all quite similar musical taste wise, yet different. It seems to work really well. One of us will say, hey lets cover this song and we’ll get on board and add our own input.

Sol: One thing that I always say is let’s never say no to an idea.

Mike: Whenever we play together, we just jam with each other for ever so long, and we try to include everybody’s interests.

Who influences you the most?

Jaime (to Mel): Don’t say Drake.

Mel: DRAKE!!

Sol: To be honest we couldn’t define one person who really influences us. We get our music from everywhere. Again, it comes back to how we’re all different. We all like a similar group of music, but different parts of it. It’s nice.

Keno: We get asked all the time, what kind of genre are you? And I just can’t really answer. It’s everything.

Where do you see yourselves in a year or two?

Jaime: I see us having fun. If we don’t enjoy it, then there’s no point.

Sol: We’re have more gigs coming up, and then after that’s all done, we’re playing at our summer ball – and hopefully we’ll smash that.

Mel: It’s my last year, and it started off as just a bunch of little kids jammin’ in a room. Since then it’s gotten bigger.

Sol: I’m definitely one of our biggest fans; I really love what we do.

I do honestly think that we have a lot of potential if we focus and really hone in on whatever it is that we have. At all of our gigs, we get a really good response from the crowd, and they say that they look forward to seeing more of us.

And with that I swaggered back to my friends and promptly forgot about the whole thing until two days later. You can find Sounds of Harlowe on facebook, where you’ll know out where their next gigs are. I encourage you to hunt them down!

Written by Ron Morrow

S

upposedly this is a film about “adventure” (as it will consistently remind you throughout), but instead is more of a slow hike through the hills you’ve known for years.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing as it gives you time to enjoy the scenery, but it’s hardly comparable to flying a plane into a hurricane like how the film begins.

As you might have guessed from the film’s title, the first twenty minutes or so of the film can be written off pretty quickly to get to where we know we’re going to end up. Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) is an adventurer (which means he’s a writer) who lost his wife 6 months ago and is struggling to deal with the whole responsible parent thing.

Father to an adorable pre-teen moptop girl who has some absolutely cracking one liners, and a pubescent narky boy recently expelled from school, they decide to start anew by casually buying a run-down zoo. As you do. Enter Scarlett Johansson as Kelly the hard working zoo keeper, a disapproving but supportive brother, Duncan (Thomas Haden Church), and the aim of spending all of his inheritance on getting the place to pass inspection in time for summer and you’ve got something resembling a plot.

Clearly, as Mr Mee isn’t a god of business or a vet in a previous life, he is in way over his head. A large portion of the film focuses on this and him coming to terms properly with the loss of his wife and how to deal with the kids, but it works because he’s actually a pretty nice guy. He has a sunny disposition, but he gets mad, upset and annoyed, so he feels real (probably because he is); it would just be nice if he didn’t try solve every problem with proverbs and throwing mon-

ey at it. Best of all though is the love interest Kelly. Clearly the man is still hung up on his wife with clear reason that he should be, and clearly miss Johansson is the hottest thing since man created vindaloo, but despite this the tension between them is played cool and believably with each of them speaking their mind. It’s refreshing stuff compared to the usual “everyone is happy so long as they end up together” approach.

The animals deserve a mention of course though (this is a film centred on a zoo after all) as well as the rest of the supporting cast. It’s a fine balance you have to strike when you have a lot of characters and We Bought a Zoo manages to get that just right I think.

In terms of the animals you’ll largely only see or hear from the cool ones (cool defined here as being able to rip you limb from limb, i.e. the exact animals you go to see), whereas the rest largely appear in montages that feel like they’re ripped straight from Life with David Attenborough’s narrative muted. As for the cast, the more interesting and fun ones are front and centre, but you still manage to get an idea of a personality for everyone else involved. The little interactions they have make it more engaging and build up to the more heart to heart moments of the main cast.

We Bought a Zoo isn’t the most thrilling film you’ll see this year, in terms of action or emotional roller coasters. The best way I can sum it up is that it’s a nice film. Slow in parts with the ups and downs in the usual predictable places, but a nice film none the less. Most importantly though, despite their most ridiculous of circumstances, you needn’t look further than here for relatable characters.

Theatre review: Fame Kit Bicket reviews BUSMS’s latest performance

H

aving always been quite opposed to musicals, I was not sure if I was going to enjoy myself. As a child I remember painfully long car journeys with my mother singing along to the latest Andrew Lloyd-Webber gem. My scepticism was short-lived, however; after leaving the theatre on Wednesday night I was on a real high; it was a great performance. Having never seen a stage production of a musical before, I was worried I was going to sit for two hours, cringing, in front of badly timed dancing. One of the things that struck me most about the performance was just how much effort had gone into it. If you were lucky enough to have seen this, I challenge you to disagree with the following: the quality and variety of singing is fantastic, as is that of the dancing. Sitting there I couldn’t help but think that everyone on stage looked happy and youthful and fabulous. The band, backstage, never dipped and played great music throughout, peaking after two and a bit hours during the superb final song. I await eagerly, with a new found appreciation, for the upcoming performance of Encore.

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Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Be the Bad Girl Written by Harriet Tangney, bite Deputy

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e’re thinking 50s, but not the pretty big skirts and pony tails that we associate so much with the decade, this S/S it’s all about the tough girl.

It’s like you’re in Grease, but you’re Rizzo instead of Sandy. You’re mean and mocking and you fuck guys at the drive in, you just don’t CARE. You you wear red lipstick and you make cigarettes look cool. Then at the end you sing the best song (controversial wooooo).

For Spring/Summer ready-to-wear Prada have gone with a 50’s inspired collection. The collection starts off with Marilyn pleated skirts paired with bandeau tops, then moves on to flaming hot rod emblazoned leather skirts.

Above middle and right: Bettie Page was the ultimate pin up bad girl. In 1955 she was one of the first Playmates of the month for Playboy, and the spread she did for that issue has become iconic of the pin-up girl style.

Her long dark locks and blunt fringe has been popularised by the rockabilly subculture.

Prada

Prada

Prada

“The neighborhood thinks I’m trashy and no good”

Above: Of course we can’t forget about Marilyn Monroe, probably the most famous pin-up. She’s not much of a bad girl, but she sure is sexy and her style is undeniable. Cultural icon and sex symbol past, present and future.

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact www.bathimpact.com

Get the look...

Go rockabilly this festival season

Floral Shirt Dress - Oasis £33 Sleeveless Check Shirt - Topshop £26 Denim shorts - H&M £19.99

Broderie Anglaise Bralet Top - Topshop £24 Polka Dot Midi Skirt - Rokit £25

Sunglasses: top - Oasis £14 bottom - Warehouse £16

Scarves: above right - H&M £6.99 above left - Oasis £10 Donna Black Side Lace Up Side Wellies Topshop £26

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bathimpact

A Chocolate Feastival

www.bathimpact.com

Written by Nia Evans

John Hritz Flickr

S

ince this edition of bite is all about festivals I’ve got a cracker for you. Who needs a muddy field and a weird indie rock band when you can celebrate the wonders of the nation’s favourite sugary snack? All you foodie peeps will be in your element this Easter weekend as the Chocolate Festival is heading to Bristol for the first time. The city’s harbour side will be transformed into a chocolate lover’s paradise with everything from taster sessions to chocolate art. As well as being able to try some of the more obscure chocolately products such as chilli chocolate and chocolate pretzels, experts will be on hand to teach you how to create your own chocolate and give master classes in chocolate recipes.

We can thank Christopher Columbus for bringing the cocoa bean back to Europe, but why is it that since then we can’t get enough of the stuff? Every country seems to have its own chocolate speciality. I would walk to Spain and back for a churro dipped in the thickest and silkiest of hot chocolate and the Belgians will forever have a place in my heart for making the smoothest of praline. The French tradition however is a bit stranger as every November models walk down the catwalk wearing nothing more than chocolate. Only in France, with their obsession and love for food, would you find supermodels dressed in chocolate skirts and truffle studded gowns with handbags made from 70 per cent cocoa solids. On the saner side of the Chanel however, we tend to prefer our chocolate in the form of a bar. Never mind the Swiss thinking that chocolate is an art form, give us Brits a Kit Kat and we’re happy as Larry. So much so that some of the more militant chocoholics amongst us have taken to social networking sites to bring certain classics back our corner shops and supermarket shelves.

Facebook and a few sugar deprived students are responsible for the return of the Wispa bar which was taken off the shelves in 2003. More recently, those weirdoes who enjoy a peanut butter Kit Kat Chunky will be jumping for joy when confectionary giant Nestlé re-launches the product this April.

But even the foodiest of foodies amongst us can appreciate the delight and nostalgia that a bar of chocolate can evoke. Childhood definitely wouldn’t have been the same without the enormous decision of what to spend 10 pence on: a fudge or a freddo? Then there were the adverts which made our mouths water whilst waiting for Ant and Dec to come back on Saturday morning telly. And who can forget the genius piece of advertising that was the Cadbury’s gorilla drumming along to Phil Collins?

Chocolate may not be the healthiest of snacks but it’s hard to find anything else that fills you with the same warmth that a smooth galaxy bar can. There’s nothing wrong with being indulgent every now and then, so make the most of it and release your inner chocoholic this Easter!

Feast your eyes on these!

The Chocolate Festival: Bristol When: Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th April Time: 10am – 6pm Where: Centre Promenade, Bristol Price: FREE More info: festivalchocolate.co.uk/festivals/bristol/

Chocolate Marshmallow Brownies If you can’t make it to the Chocolate Festival in Bristol here’s a recipe for some incredibly moreish chocolate marshmallow brownies. Perfect for a film night or a between lecture snack!

Ingredients 240g/8oz butter 150g/5oz dark chocolate 60g/2oz cocoa 150g/5oz plain flour 500g/1lb 2oz caster sugar 5 eggs, beaten 150g/5oz marshmallows, chopped

dichohecho flickr

For all you chocoholics out there

Method • Pre-heat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 • Line a 30cm/12in square tin with baking parchment.

• Melt the butter and the chocolate together very gently. The best way to do this is by placing a saucepan on the hob half filled with water. Put the chocolate and butter in a glass bowl and then place it over the boiling water in the pan. Stir the mixture gently and allow the chocolate to gradually melt so it doesn’t burn.

• In a separate bowl mix the cocoa, sugar and flour.

• Take the chocolate off the heat and add the flour mixture.

• Next, mix in the eggs and gently fold the marshmallows into the mixture.

• Put the brownie mixture into the tin and bake in the oven until the surface has set but so it still feels soft underneath. This should take about 20 minutes.

• Allow to cool and then slice.

(Makes 24 slices)

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bathimpact

Next-gen living

www.bathimpact.com

Written by Ron Morrow

A

t some point in your gaming career, you’ve probably been told you’re wasting your time.

That it’ll amount to nothing. That the ‘skills’ you’re gaining aren’t transferable to real life. But the times, they are a-changin’.

Games have always seemed ahead of the curve. They’re so varied in style, type and demographic that they can adapt to become as broadly appealing or niche as the circumstance demands. It’s because of this that you’d be hard pressed to find someone today who hasn’t played a video game. Of course you could say similar things of films, music and books, but games have one main difference: involvement. You are that assassin hiding in the shadows, you are the one deftly performing acrobatics to escape from a temple and you are the one who just wiped out 50 of the enemy with nothing more than a knife. The future of gaming is an interesting one, and when some of its strands are woven together it creates a fully comprehensive training manual representative of the 21st century’s capability.

Step 1 is simulation. Just because Bus Simulator 2000 has sat in a bargain bin for the last 12 years, doesn’t mean anyone in their right mind is going to play it. For years this was all simulation consisted of in the mainstream, but in recent times the processing power has been available to make just about anything realistic enough for all intents and purposes. Take Rock Band’s Pro mode as an example of music tuition, or the various assortment of fitness games out there, each considering themselves capable of training the next Hercules. For more extreme examples consider that The Gadget Show trained one of its presenters to fly a small plane through only simulation and Gran Turismo holds competitions to train those with the fastest online lap times into real race drivers.This is simulation people already partake in, but what’s to stop it being the most cost effective, and possibly best, training

method available? Instead of sending a troop of disinterested colleagues on a week-long training course (which in the workers’ eyes generally translates as a thinly veiled enough excuse for a booze up), why not send them to the local simulation facility? Instantly all costs such as travel and accommodation are cut and the company’s happy as Larry. Not only that, but as technology becomes more and more integrated with normal life, this may be the option most closely resembling what life has transformed into. If Kinect can help a surgeon perform remotely and a soldier control a UAV with a game pad, then you can most certainly be taught a thing or two.

Step 2 is gamification. For the uninitiated, gamification is a popular buzz word with companies at the moment in which tasks, commonly the most menial of which, are turned into “games” with rewards akin to trophies or achievements. At the moment most attempts at implementing a system such as this in the work environment have failed because management don’t understand that games are meant to be fun, and simply giving someone an additional meaningless goal to aim for doesn’t make people work harder. A few years down the line however and we, the ones with chronic thumb RSI, are the ones in management positions, and come that time games will become a lot more prevalent in the workplace. In certain circumstances this has worked already, with leader boards in place and financial incentives for those seen as hard working. Imagine being sat at your desk and suddenly seeing “BONUS 50 PTS! Geoff volunteered for overtime!” pop up on the screen. Right now you’re thinking Geoff’s a bit of a jerk, but then you realise he just overtook your experience level and became more likely to get that pay rise you want. It’s a depressingly compelling system, which, when all the kinks are worked out, will have bosses clamouring for its implementation.

The last step is indoctrination, which on paper is prob-

Horoscopes

ably the most depressing of the three. I’m not referring to the kind that forces people to cry Hollywood tears at the death of their Lonely Leader, but more of the kind that’s used in adverts convincing kids that if they don’t own fad #313 then they will literally die of unpopularity. But it works for exactly that reason, because we want things that are cool. In the years following the broadcast of CSI, the number of students studying forensics or criminology etc. has shot through the roof. The latest version of Angry Birds, Space, is in association with NASA, providing facts and figures about the projects they’re working on and how awesome physics is. If children grow up with this now, they may well be the ones petitioning in 20 years’ time for manned space travel to return. The same could be applied to any field; as work becomes more specialised, more training is needed, so why not train ‘em younger?

If you can convince someone their dream job is the one you told them about when they were 5 (in my case it was Jurassic Park trying to convince me to be an archaeologist), then you can teach them the basics by 10 and have them leave university more knowledgeable than half your current staff.

The combination is this: a generation who is adept at technology, not averse to living life in the public domain or having contrived goals to aim for, and who can be swayed into a particular career path early, with full training provided at a fraction of the current cost, so long as you can make it look cool. To me, it sounds like a marketing firm’s wet dream. It may sound depressing or even controlling, but what it’s really about is efficiency. The real game will be real life, and skills learned in games will be almost identical to their physical counterparts. If you’re good at gaming then really you should be overjoyed, as you’re the most likely to adapt and succeed in this new culture. To everyone else though, I’d suggest giving the new rule book a skim at the very least.

 Aries

 Taurus

 Gemini

 Cancer

This month you will meet the guy or gal of your dreams. Hold on for all that its worth (ignore “Who are you?! Get off me!! I’m calling 999.”) and the stars will make sure you experience a love story greater than Twilight.

This month is a time of cleansing. Dump your boring old fling, get a new look, delete all your Facebook friends, move out, move cities. It sounds like we’re trying to get rid of you Taurus, but it’s for the best.

Your sexual life is failing, it’s time for action! Dress up in a panther costume and re-enact , people love that. Experiment with PVA glue and feathers. Who doesn’t love peeling dry PVA glue of someone else’s body? Mm, sexy.

This is your lucky month! Enter every competition, raffle and invest in every exciting opportunity out there, especially if someone emails you and asks you for money. Their misspellings of English words just mean your luck is getting stronger.

 Leo

 Virgo

 Libra

 Scorpio

You know that thing you did? That terrible, terrible thing? Well someone knows about it. Someone knows, and unless you pack your bags and run - NOW - you’re going to be hunted down and killed. Sorry.

Sometimes, there’s just nothing better to do than get naked and run around. You should take note of this, Virgo, and do so at every available opportunity. Fuck the haters.

The alignment of the stars and prominence of Venus in your region of the sky has provoked the Norse Gods into action. Your best bet is to sit and do nothing - Norse Gods are like TRexes; if you don’t move, they can’t see you.

Scorpio, you have been telling some very bad jokes recently. Luckily, a run-in with a famous comedian is written in your stars so not only is your social life set for a boost, you’re going to have a great anecdote for your next stand-up.

 Sagittarius

 Capricorn

 Aquarius

 Pisces

The stars dont lie, Sagittarius, you are bloody wonderful. That’s pretty much it.

Go forth, seek out and conquer. Spread your magical love. Eat custard. Paint the town neon pink.

It looks like you are likely to be set upon by a randy Gemini this fortnight. Your best bet is to find one of the Virgos who should be hiding under a rock somewhere and camp it out until Mars leaves your quarter.

Ever wondered why your star sign looks like Bart Simpson? Ever wondered why your life feels like a cartoon sometimes? Can you feel people looking in and laughing? Turn it around: break the fourth wall.

This is your week, Pisces. Eat all the cake, make merry with your friends, paint things strange colours, name your musical instruments and stick speech bubble-shaped post-it notes to things. Rave on.

March 21 - April 20

July 22 - August 22

November 22 - December 21

April 21 - May 20

August 23 - September 22

December 22 - January 20

May 21 - June 20

September 23 - October 22

January 21 - February 19

June 21 - July 21

October 23 - November 21

February 20 - March 20

20

Monday 26th March 2012

bathimpact

Puzzle Corner

Quick Crossword

Puzzles made by Dorian Lidell

Brain Trainers

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.

Down

7 Small village (6) 8 Tranquil, serene (8) 9 Open and frank (3-2-3) 10 Call upon (6) 11 Large, long-necked Jurassic dinosaur (10) 13 FBI agent (1-3) 14 First czar of Russia (4,3,8) 16 Soft French cheese (4) 17 One’s native country (10) 19 Vulgar, lewd (6) 21 Orchestral introduction to an opera (8) 23 Protection for the ears from cold and noise (8) 24 Exactly, precisely (4,2)

1 American state whose flag includes the Union Jack (6) 2 Bodily gas (10) 3 Stop (the flow of); stalk of a plant (4) 4 Pastry shop (10) 5 Sexual deviant (4) 6 Unsolicited post (4,4) 8 State of alarm (5,8) 12 Remove moisture from (10) 13 Bladed device for decapitation (10) 15 Upright (8) 18 Not wide (6) 20 Charitable donations (4) 22 Italian island, the place of Napoleon’s first exile (4)

Last Week’s Solution

Unequality Solution

Bridge it!

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.

Darius N

Quiz This fortnight: geography!

Questions: 1. What is the capital of Honduras?

2. Which sea lies between and separates Australia and New Zealand?

3. What are the six official languages of the United Nations?

4. What was the Roman name for the city of Bath?

5. Mount Rushmore is located in which American state?

6. How many stars are there on the flag of Australia?

7. What type of geographical feature is a cataract?

8. The Salween river flows into the Andaman Sea through which three Asian countries?

9. What is the monetary unit of Nigeria?

10. What is the most southerly point on mainland Great Britain?

Answers: 1. Tegucigalpa 2. Tasman Sea 3. Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish 4. Aquae Sulis 5. South Dakota 6. Six 7. A waterfall 8. China, Burma and Thailand 9. The naira 10. Lizard Point, Cornwall

Across

Rectangulon Solution

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