Forge Issue 76

INSIDE: vlogging/ taylor swift/ the science of shopping/ mr turner/ pale seas/ poppies

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The independent student newspaper of the University of Sheffield. Est. 1946.

Issue 76 Friday November 7 2014 @ForgePress /ForgePress

INSIDE

Comment

Should celebrities get involved in politics?

Games

What should we learn from #gamergate?

‘Dreadful’ University halls company exploits loophole

4SU Officer: mentors could be being underpaid by over £4000 each Tom Schneider SU officers have responded to revelations about residential mentor pay by denouncing the “dreadful” behaviour of the “opaque” body that manages student accommodation.

In an investigation carried out

by Forge Press, it has emerged that the 67 residential mentors employed by Accommodation & Commercial Services (ACS) are missing out on over £700 due to the University exploiting a legal loophole.

In 2011, ACS changed the Welfare Officer: “The system legal status of the residential needs a considerable review as a mentors from grade two workers’ rights matter” employees, who are liable to

be paid the national minimum wage, to that of ‘voluntary workers’, who are not. In a document seen by Forge Press at the time, the change was designed to “better manage and control direct operational costs”.

However, Students’ Union Welfare Officer Tom Harrison told Forge that “there isn’t any part of their work that is voluntary. The system needs a considerable review as a worker’s rights matter”.

Ex-residential mentor Scott Shaw agreed, saying: “there is nothing voluntary about the job. If you don’t turn up to work, you get sanctioned.

People are shouted at during

meetings if they don’t do their job. Residential mentors should be reclassified as regular staff just like they were before”.

Students’ Union Development Officer Jack Wyse added: “the relationship between ACS and their mentors sounds like one of employer to employee to me rather than anything voluntary”.

Currently, residential mentors save money on their accommodation costs, which this year amounts to £3730.

Continued on page 3 >>

NUS back out of march Neelam Tailor

Lifestyle

Most inspirational businesswomen

The National Union of Students (NUS) has withdrawn their support for the “free education” demonstration which is due to take place later this month.

NUS president Toni Pearce released a statement on November 4 explaining that it was with “huge reluctance and regret” that the NUS was not in a position to support the demonstration.

On September 16 the NUS National Executive Committee (NEC) had agreed to formally endorse the rally organised by a coalition of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), the Student Assembly Against Austerity and the Young Greens.

As explanation for why the NUS was withdrawing support, Pearce said: “I have made this decision with the NUS Vice Presidents and Liberation officers who hold significant concerns regarding an unacceptable level of risk that this demonstration currently poses to our members.

“The plans that are in place do not give us confidence that the demonstration will be accessible to all students – in particular disabled students.”

Continued on page 2 >>

Big Decision: referendum results

Continued on page 3 >>

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Editor

elsa.vulliamy@forgetoday.com

Elsa Vulliamy

DEPUTY EDITOR Tom Schneider Managing Editor Jon May fuse editors fuse@forgetoday.com Phil Bayles Kate Lovatt HEAD OF ONLINE matthew.smith@forgetoday.com matthew Smith News news@forgetoday.com Patrick O’Connell Neelam Tailor Adela Whittingham Estel Farell Roig Will Morgan Keri Trigg Comment comment@forgetoday.com Lauren Archer Isaac Stovell COFFEE BREAK letters@forgetoday.com Helen Hiorns Features features@forgetoday.com Kemi Alemoru Will Ross Polly Winn Lifestyle & travel lifestyle@forgetoday.com Isabel Dobinson Nikita Kesharaju Sport sport@forgetoday.com Joseph Bamford Edward McCosh Thomas Pyman Music music@forgetoday.com Rachel Bell Rebecca Stubbs Games games@forgetoday.com Samantha Fielding Robin Wilde Screen screen@forgetoday.com Joe Brennan Sophie Maxwell

in brief...

EVENT

HOMES

Estel Farell Roig

Beth Cunningham

The independently organised TED event will take place on Saturday November 15 at St George’s Church. Speakers at the conference include Dr Fay Hield, folk singer and ethnomusicologist, founder of The Long Well Walk Liam Garcia and parenting coach Bea Marshall. Tickets for the event are £30.

TED Sheffield, which started in 2009, has hosted 43 speakers so far and the videos have been seen by over 250,000 people. TED is a non-profit organisation devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading” and new TEDTalks are posted daily on TED.com.

Sheffield’s population will double over the next 52 years, requiring 100,000 extra homes, according to Sheffield’s Local Plan.

However, planning consultants Spawforths say not enough homes are being built, and this could lead to a housing crisis within 25 years.

Spawforths has just run four housing debates in Sheffield and Leeds sponsored by organisations including the University of Sheffield.

Spawforths’ Paul Bedwell said: “Delivering the homes we need is fundamental.”

TRANSPORT

INDUSTRIAL ACTION

FOOD

Will Morgan

Elsa Vulliamy

Will Morgan

Travel South Yorkshire have rolled out a new Oyster Card-style “Smartcard” system, allowing easier use of transport in the South Yorkshire region.

The scheme aims to allow for “quicker boarding” times and “best value fares” as the more efficient card based system requires a simple swipe on a scanner. Currently the cards are available from Sheffield Travel Interchange and Arundel Gate.

South Yorkshire fire chief James Courtney says firefighters may stage their longest strike ever if disputes with the government are not resolved. He called for a resolution.

The Fire Brigades Union have called for a four day strike over ministers’ plans to raise the retirement age of firefighters from 55 to 60 and raise their pension contributions.

If the Union strike again, it may last up to eight days.

This week a group of volunteers fed hundreds of hungry students in the Students’ Union for free.

The event was run by Sheffield on a Plate, an organisation who work to raise awareness of the 15 million tonnes of food waste the UK produces per year and promote more efficient living through making a pledge to: eat communally, buy locally and buy imperfect food.

TECHNOLOGY

CRIME

Will Morgan

Patrick O’Connell

The company Customuse, founded by University of Sheffield graduates Mahdi Hosseini, Sophie Findlay and Justas Cernas, have created 3D printed instruments for the award-winning band Klaxons.

The company, crowd funded using guitars printed at the University of Sheffield, were selected by the Klaxons to make their instruments after they announced last year that they would play their next tour entirely on 3D printed instruments. The band’s bassist said he was “blown away” by his custom made guitar after playing it.

Three burglars who stole seven, six-week-old Poochon puppies from their Cusworth home pleaded guilty at Sheffield Crown Court.

Richard Thomas, 27, of Ennerdale Road, Kerry Scase, 29, of Beech Street, and Tonya Newton, 25, of Almhome Lane, all appeared at the court on Tuesday October 28.

Thomas was charged with burglary and Scase and Newton were charged with handling stolen goods.

DC Andy Hotchkiss said: “All seven of the puppies recovered well from their ordeal.”

The trio face sentencing on November 25.

TED comes to Sheffield

News from the Steel City

Sheffield ‘Oyster card’

Fire chief: long strike due

3D printed guitars

STUDENT LIVING

Housing crisis could hit

Union raids bins for stew

Puppy thieves plea guilty

DI Paul Dickinson and Sgt Stuart Rowse with the seven puppies

NATIONAL UNION OF STUDENTS

Payday lender NUS refuse to back student protest for free education denounced

Arts arts@forgetoday.com Chloe Coleman Neelam Tailor Joscelin Woodend A payday lender aimed at students has been invited to speak at a seminar on COPY EDITORS student welfare.

Lucy Barnes Smart Pig, with a representative Elizabeth Cunningham example APR of 1089%, claims to be a Frederike Dannheim reponsible lender for students.

Declan Downey They have been invited by the Helena Egan Westminster Higher Education Forum Claire Fowler (WHEF) to speak at a keynote seminar Ellie Tudor on ‘tackling student welfare issues and Karen Wong improving student retention’ M edi a H u b, U n io n o f Colum McGuire, NUS Vice President Student s, We s t e r n Bank , for Welfare said: “Their presence at these S hef f ie ld, S10 2T G types of events could serve to suggest 0114 2 2286 46 // that they have a legitimate role to play f or gepr e ss@f o r g e t o day.co m in student finance. I’m clear that they do not – legal loan sharks make a pig’s ear of student’s finances, and they need to get their nose out of the trough!”

McGuire and Welfare Officer Tom Forge Press is printed on Harrison have written to WHEF to try and 100% recycled paper stop Smart Pig from speaking at the event For ge P r e ss is pu blish e d but they have not been successful. by the Un io n o f St u de n t s .

Paul Blomfield, MP for Sheffield Central Vi ew s e x pr e sse d a r e n ot said: “When I discovered that Smart nec ess a r ily t h o se o f t he Pig had been invited to lead a session on Uni ver sit y, t h e Un io n or t he ‘debt and financial literacy’ I asked the edi t or ia l t e a m . I n t h e f i r s t organiser to cancel their invitation. When i ns t anc e a ll c o m pla in t s they refused, I pulled out from chairing the shoul d be a ddr e sse d t o t h e Manag in g E dit o r, a lt h o ug h a event. It is like asking a casino to advise on f ormal pr o c e du r e e x is t s . problem gambling.”

Photo: SYP

Neelam Tailor The NUS paid for a risk assessment with an external assessor with “incomplete information” supplied by the organisers. Referring to the result of this assessment, Pearce said: “there are inadequate measures in place to mitigate against significant risks in line with our advice posing an unacceptable level of risk”.

The demonstration is set to take place on November 19 in central London under the banner ‘Free Education: No fees. No cuts. No debt’. There are currently 3.8 thousand people due to attend the rally according to the official Facebook event.

This rally would have been the first national demonstration backed by NUS since it held a march through London in November 2012.

Welfare officer, Tom Harrison said: “It’s disappointing. But we will be ensuring that any student that wants to attend can do so. With the important

caveat that the demonstration isn’t endorsed by an outside body that has the resources to ensure that all of the protocol is in place”.

There are worries that the NUS pulling out would affect the number of students attending. Harrison said: “Yes it is disappointing that the NUS and NEC couldn’t come to an agreement so we could get as many activists down to London as possible”.

The NCAFC are distraught and organiser for the campaign, Beth Redmond said: “[the NUS’ stance] was a ridiculous position to take, and directly contradicts the democratic mandate taken by conference and the NEC”.

In a public status on Facebook, Redmond said: “We are literally doing the job the NUS should be doing but for no money, with no staff, and little to no experience”.

The NCAFC have released a string of email exchanges between themselves and the NUS over the risk assessment in which NUS ask the NCAFC numerous questions relating

Continued from front page

to public liability insurance and safety measures. A reply to the NUS read: “There are some expectations that are going to have to be managed, for instance there is no way that we can take out PL [public liability] insurance”.

The lack of public liability insurance was on the list of reasons for why the NUS did not want to support the demonstration.

NUS continue to insist that this withdrawal is not a reflection of their views on free education and that they will keep lobbying and campaigning for that cause.

Lauren Archer, Comment, pg. 10

“

With every new press release, the NUS drags the student movement further into a black hole of political irrelevance

”

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YOUR UNIVERSITY

The result 80 per cent of you didn’t want Patrick O’Connell Students expressed their disappointment as the news was announced that the Development Officer position in the officer roles review would remain the same.

The Students’ Union’s referendum results were announced on Thursday October 30 in the SU’s Raynor Lounge.

Earlier in the night it was revealed that students had voted for continuing the Union’s policy on banning the sale of bottled water.

Students also voted that working committees cannot charge membership fees.

As the officer roles review and working committees referenda were constitutional changes, they required majorities of two-thirds to pass.

In the officer roles review, Option A would have created a Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Officer role, Option B was

for a Representation, Inclusion & Access Officer, Option C was for the status quo to remain, and Option D opposed all the above options.

In the first stage Option B was the most popular option on the ballot, with 970 votes, against Option A’s 930 votes.

When options C and D, which received fewer votes, were eliminated from the ballot, Option B had received only 50.5 per cent, failing to reach a twothirds majority required to alter the constitution.

Option A received 40 per cent of the votes and the nontransferable votes from the first round accounted for 9.5 per cent.

Sharmin Jahan, elected as Women’s Councillor, said: “I’ve got mixed emotions really.

“I feel really sad, upset, and angry about the BME role review.

First round voting figures Option AA(930 votes) Option (930 B (970 Optionvotes) A (930 votes) CB(524 B (970 Option A (930 votes) Option (970 D (205 C Optionvotes) B (970 A (524 (930 votes) votes) D (205 Option C BC(524 (970 votes) Option Optionvotes) D (205 votes) (524 C (524 Option DD(205 votes) Option (205 votes)

Option A (930 votes)

We’ve been campaigning hard, really hard over the past two years, but what’s done is done.”

Christy McMorrow, who was elected to the NUS National Conference and as the Philosophy Councillor, said: “despite winning I feel pretty deflated because I would have swapped any of my victories for the roles review.”

Sheffield Students’ Union has a board of trustees that decides on legal and financial matters.

The board of trustees comprises of the eight elected student officers, as well as four students and four external trustees which are appointed by Council.

The Union’s trustee board last year ruled that it would not be financially possible to create a ninth officer role.

As such, one of the Union’s eight existing officer roles would have to be replaced in order to

BREAKDOWN: OFFICER ROLES REVIEW Why do we still have Option C?

Despite receiving 19.9 per cent of the votes in the first round, the status quo (Option C) remains.

The Students’ Union Constitution requires a two-thirds majority for constitutional change, but only a 50 per cent majority for policy change.

Although 80.1 per cent of students voted for change, no category won a two-thirds majority.

Option B, the most popular

category, received 36.9 per cent of the votes in the first round.

When options C and D, the categories with the fewest votes, were eliminated from the ballot and the second round of voting was calculated, Option B only received 50.5 per cent of the votes.

As the majority of two-thirds was not reached, Option C, the status quo, remains in place.

make room for a new officer role.

Council decided that the role of Development Officer would be up for change in the referendum.

The working committees referendum vote, also required two-thirds of the vote to pass.

754 students voted yes to the introduction of membership fees, but the no campaign won, recording 2,200 votes – 74 per cent of the vote.

The SU’s bottled water ban remains in place, with 55 per cent in favour of keeping the ban.

As this is policy and not constitutional change, a margin of 50 per cent was required.

In favour of the ban received 2,108 votes, against the ban received 1,718.

The bottled water referendum vote proved most popular with students, with 3,826 votes cast.

The working committee referendum received 2,954 votes, and 2,629 votes were cast in the officer roles review referendum.

Second round voting figures Option AA(930 votes) Option Option A (930 votes) (1051 votes) B (970 Option (930 votes) votes) Option A B (970 CB(524 Option Option (970 votes) (1327 votes) Option B C (524 votes) D (205 Option Option C D (524 (205 votes) votes) Non-transferable votes Option(251) D (205 votes)

Option B (970 votes)

Option D (205 votes) YOUR UNIVERSITY

Option C (524 votes)

Ex-mentor: “I was followed by University of Sheffield security staff down the street...”

Continued from front page

Tom Schneider

Endcliffe’s Edge bar

Photo: Forgetoday

As of July 2014, University employees are paid the living wage. If residential mentors were reclassified as employees, and paid this rate (currently £7.85 per hour) based on the hours they work, they would earn £4448.

Under the current system, they are £718 worse off.

It has also emerged that ACS specifically ask their staff not to speak to Forge Press or any other media outlet. Forge contacted many current mentors who said that there were told not to speak to the media.

Wyse said: “it is dreadful that ACS won’t let their staff talk to Forge. The right to speak to your student newspaper should be paramount.”

Harrison said: “The Union Officers will investigate the matter of ACS warning their residential mentors about talking to the media. It’s important that students are not discouraged from talking to their student newspaper.

ACS were approached numerous times for comment but refused.

Harrison also said that ACS needs to be more transparent. “There is a perception that ACS are outside the University when in fact they are not. The operating structure is not student focused.

“They need to operate on a profit. That often filters through into their interactions. This is not the first time that accusations like this have been levelled against ACS.” Forge was also contacted by an ex-residential mentor who wished to remain anonymous, out of fear of repercussions if they spoke out.

“After discovering the current system is a sham I was followed by University of Sheffield security staff down the street, interviewed by police and my name discredited. Why are they going to such lengths in order to get me to hush up?”

ACS has previously been investigated by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) for not paying residential mentors the minimum wage. HMRC wrote to mentors to confirm: “in my opinion, your employer did not pay you at least the minimum wage”.

National minimum wage laws stipulate that the part of an employee’s pay that goes towards their accommodation cannot be above a certain amount, which is currently £35.56 per week.

If an employer charges its staff for accommodation more than the accommodation offset, then their minimum wage is affected.

The University of Sheffield had lobbied the Government

to change this law so that accommodation is not taken into account when working out the minimum wage if it is provided by a higher education institution to a worker who is enrolled on a full-time course with the institution.

The Government’s Memorandum explains that “the relationship between Higher Education Institutions and their students is primarily educational and is not akin to the circumstances which the accommodation rules of the National Minimum Wage were designed to cover.”

However, Harrison reopened the debate and said: “residential mentors are both students and workers. You cannot privilege one position over another.”

If residential mentors were reclassified as workers and subject to the accommodation offset, they would be due a refund of over £3,300.

Commenting on ACS’ actions in general, Harrison added that “we are talking about a lot of money. The SU represents the interests of its members and we will have discussions with ACS”.

What’s on your mind?

Comment on this article online: www.forgetoday.

SCIENCE & Technology

Paralysed man walks again A cell transplant procedure has recovered a 38-year old man’s ability to walk following a paralysing knife attack.

In a research initiative led

by University College London, specialised cells, which form part of the sense of smell, were taken from the patient’s nasal cavity. These cells were transplanted to regions above and below the spinal cord lesion in a series of microinjections where they aided growth of the nervous system.

This continual regeneration was used to regrow nerve fibres damaged in the inflicted region.

Two years following initial treatments the patient is now capable of walking with a frame.

Emma Bailey Hoverboards are on the way Just as the movie “Back to the Future” predicted, hoverboards will indeed be commercially available in 2015.

The Hendo Hoverboard, Option A (1051 votes) which secured its future via the Option B (1327 votes) fundraising website Kickstarter, Non-transferablethe votes (251) same uses magnetic technology used by trains in East Asia.

Still in its infancy, this method of hover technology is a long way off being used on every day surfaces.

Instead the company intends to build specialist hoverboard skate parks around America to use their $10,000 product on.

Joey Relton

Photo: Creative Commons Pioneering heart transplant procedure to save lives A pioneering heart transplant procedure has been developed in Sydney that could increase the supply of donor hearts to save the lives of 30 per cent more transplant patients.

Usually donor hearts are removed from brain-dead patients whilst the heart is still beating, whereas this new method involves taking hearts from donors after the heart has stopped.

The hearts are stored in portable consoles, bathed in a preservation solution, developed

by St Vincent’s hospital and the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, and restarted.

So far only three patients have received transplants in this way, but the breakthrough has been called a “paradigm shift” with the potential to increase the availability of donor organs in the future.

Amy Tooke

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YOUR CITY

UniNEWS Sheffield partnership to ban ‘legal highs’

Interesting stories from other universities around the world

Football club sponsered by Pornhub

The University of Kent’s student football team the Rutherford Raiders have been told that they will be banned from playing if they decide to wear their team jersey after it was announced that they have been sponsored by the website “Pornhub”.

The team originally only had the name on their shirts as a joke but were soon contacted by the website with an offer of a real sponsorship, however the university’s sports department deemed it “totally inappropriate” and threatened them with a ban.

The team hold a different view, calling the sports department “out of touch” with society.

Will Morgan

Malte Rohwer-Kahlmann A partnership group to ban ‘legal highs’ has formed in Sheffield, following an increase in the use of yet uncontrolled substances.

South Yorkshire Police, together with Sheffield Drug and Alcohol/ Domestic Abuse Coordination Team (DACT), and the city centre residents’ action group, planned to collect evidence showing the dangers of ‘legal highs’. They then planned to present it in courts to achieve a ban.

‘Legal highs’ are chemical substances which mimick the effects of illegal drugs. Shops sell them as incense, salts or plant food, specifying they are not for human consumption to avoid the law.

Sgt Naomi Saxton, of South Yorkshire Police said: “Because there are so many loopholes, it’s a bit of emperor’s new clothes.

“The retailers are selling it based on the loophole in the law which says they can, as long as they give a warning it isn’t for human consumption”.

Luke Parkin, owner of Spaceman

on West Street, a shop selling ‘herbal highs’, supports the ban.

Differentiating his products from ‘legal highs’, he said they were free of chemicals and the effects known.

He spoke of a “massive increase” in the use of ‘legal highs’ in Sheffield.

He was of the opinion that the media and the Internet contributed to their growing popularity.

Warning of the unpredictable effects, including physical and mental damage, Parkin said: “It’s dangerous because it’s a research chemical and there hasn’t been much testing.

“They’re extremely powerful things and no one asks what they’re doing to themselves”.

A University of Sheffield student, who preferred to remain unnamed, said he had “never felt so ridiculously high” after smoking a ‘legal high’ substance.

He said: “For the next five or six days or so I felt really anxious and I was biting the inside of my cheeks and grinding my teeth.

Spaceman on West Street

Photo: Polly Winn

YOUR CITY

Spike in arson cases on Bonfire Night Photo: Twitter @RotherfordRaid New app allows us to swim with pre-historic creatures

Samsung smartphone owners will soon be able to take a virtual swim with prehistoric sea creatures, thanks to a new app being developed by a Bangor University computer scientist.

Dr Llyr ap Cenydd has been working on Ocean Rift, which is on track for release later this year, for over nine months.

He was approached by the technology giant to create the app for its Gear VR device, which is worn like goggles to allow the screen to take up the operator’s entire field of vision.

Users can go diving with long-extinct creatures, as well as dolphins, sharks and turtles.

Keri Trigg Wasting time counts towards a degree

Creative Writing students at the University of Pennsylvania who enrol in the aptly named “Wasting Time on the Internet” module next spring will receive credits towards their final degree for mindlessly browsing the internet for three hours a week.

The convenor Kenneth Goldsmith wants to enforce a “state of distraction” amongst his students, similar to the state of consciousness the Surrealist writers prized, in the hopes that they will produce a piece of similar value.

Whilst this may seem bizarre there is a chance it will work as his previous modules have been highly successful, including “Uncreative Writing” where students are actively discouraged from being original and told to plagiarise.

Will Morgan

Adela Whittingham Firefighters were called out to deal with a series of wheelie bin fires across South Yorkshire on Bonfire Night.

In Sheffield, bins were found burning on Ironside Road, Gleadless Valley, Daresbury Place, Arbourthorne and near Norton Avenue, Norton.

Firefighers extinguished the flames before they spread.

Sheffield firefithers also dealt with an outbuilding set alight at a derelic property on Wheata Road, Parson Cross, and a sofa found burning in a garden on Angram Road, High Green.

The fire service was also alerted to a shipping container found alight in Arbourthorne, a skip blaze on Senior Road, Darnall, a vehicle found alight on Carlthorpe Grove, High

Green and some burning tyres on Bochum Parkway, Meadowhead.

South Yorkshire Police were alerted to the arson attacks and investigations into all incidents are now underway.

A South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “Starting fires is reckless and costs lives, as even small fires like bin and rubbish fires can quickly spread.

“In high-profile, national cases, arson attacks on homes have resulted in murder convictions and substantial prison sentences.

“The maximum sentence for arson is life in prison and we’d encourage members of the public who know of people starting fires in their area to call Crimestoppers.”

YOUR UNIVERSITY

YOUR CITY

17 minutes to Leeds from UoS research: severe Sheffield HS3 station weather to continue

Joshua Hackett High-speed rail links between Northern cities will come to Sheffield, a new government report has revealed.

HS3, an East-West rail link between Manchester and South Yorkshire, will follow the alreadyplanned HS2 line between London and Birmingham.

HS3 would shrink journey times out of Sheffield down to 17 minutes to Leeds, 40 minutes to Birmingham, and just over one hour to London.

The report, from HS2 chairperson Sir David Higgins, calls current transport links for northern cities “limited”, citing slow, low frequency services.

The provisional placement of the new high-speed station at Meadowhall, rather than in the city centre, has already caused controversy, with critics claiming that Sheffield’s will not benefit economically from the improved links unless it reaches the city centre.

Julie Dore, leader of Sheffield City Council said: “Having a city centre station is fundamental to the future of our economy.

“Other leading cities such as Manchester, Leeds and

Birmingham are given city centre stations, meaning Sheffield is at a competitive disadvantage.”

HS3 has been called a “costly vanity project” by Dr Richard Wellings of the Institute of Economic Affairs.

Higgins responded to criticism, noting that a city centre station would be more expensive and would increase journey times.

He also drew attention to the fact that existing railway lines are already at or close to capacity. New lines are needed to meet passenger demand in the future.

It has not yet been decided whether HS3 will run primarily on new track or on reopened existing track. Tunnels are likely to be used wherever possible to minimise intrusion onto the landscape.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, who is MP for Sheffield Hallam, expressed hope that the report would “lay to rest” the claims that high speed rail should not pass through South Yorkshire.

As currently planned, the London-Birmingham route is set to be operational by 2026, with HS3 following in 2032.

Jack Hunnaball Collaborative research from the MET Office and University of Sheffield predicts thatBritain will continue to experience the volatile weather conditions which brought cold and snowy winters in 2009 and 2010.

Published research by the University of Sheffield’s Professor Edward Hanna and Tom Copper in the International Journal of Climatology, has identified extreme weather peaks in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO).

The NAO is the shifting of masses of air between the Azores High, just south of Azores, and the Icelandic Low, between Iceland and Greenland.

Over the last ten years (20042013) the NAO has reached three out of the five all time high pressures as well as two out of the five all time low pressures, measured over the last 115 years.

The NAO determines the strength of westerly winds hitting the UK, with mild winds causing cold, snowy weather, while stronger winds are responsible for the wet, stormy winter months we saw last year.

These extremes could be

caused by a number of factors.

Although global warming is a likely candidate for this volatility, additional factors attributed by Hanna include a reduction in the ice sheets, natural changes in solar energy as well as high pressure weather systems in Greenland.

Although the system cannot definitely predict how harsh this year’s winter will be, it has shown that the probability of extremely cold and snowy, or wet and windy, winters has significantly increased over the last decades.

The continued project to monitor these changes with University of Sheffield collaborating with the MET Office Hadley Centre is hoped to lead to more accurate weather prediction technology, which will become crucial as weather becomes more volatile.

Having shown that British weather has become more extreme Hanna now stresses that more research is needed to determine whether the changes are definitely the result of global warming.

It is testament to the University that it is able to conduct and be at the forefront of such important research work.

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YOUR UNIVERSITY

Living Wage Campaign creates Cardboard Keith Adela Whittingham Sheffield students from the Students’ Union Living Wage campaign on Monday staged a protest in Coffee Revolution over the University’s lack of support over providing the living wage for its employees. This follows the announcement that the London living wage will increase from £8.80 to £9.15 per hour.

Student Josh Berlyne donned a cardboard box featuring Vice Chancellor Sir Keith Burnett’s face and held a newspaper displaying a headline from The Independent earlier this year.

The SU Living Wage campaign want to raise awareness that although the University has refused to to raise it’s employees salaries to the level of the living wage, last year the Vice Chancellor’s own salary was increased by

£105,000.

The University of Sheffield had previously decided to become a Living Wage Employer from August 1, paying its employees £7.65 an hour. However, the UK Living Wage rate was increased by 2.6 per cent on Monday November 3 to £7.85 per hour.

This is 21 per cent higher than the national minimum wage of £6.50 per hour.

The protest coincides with Living Wage Week, a UK-wide celebration of the Living Wage and Living Wage Employers, which takes place every November.

Demonstrations took place throughout the week accross campus.

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Uni to explain ‘photobombing’ phenomenon

André Rhoden-Paul

Josh Berlyne

Photo: Adela Whittingham

Leading researchers will present results of their study into understanding how images are shared on social media at a conference in Sheffield.

As part of the project, researchers examined thousands of images shared on Twitter about the death of Margaret Thatcher, including spoofs, cartoons and pictures on the day of her funeral.

The project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) brings together academics from the industry and four universities including researchers from Sheffield University’s Information School.

The project is the world’s first cross-platform research into social media images including selfies and ‘photobombing’, and aims to build a research tool to monitor the popularity of images, who shares them and how they’re discussed.

Speaking on why the selfie is so popular, research associate on the Picturing the Social project Anne

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Campaign to rebrand feminism begins Estel Farell Roig Over 100 students have taken part in “Feminists of Steel”, the new campaign from the Women’s Committee.

The aim of the campaign is to promote a postive attitude towards feminism, show its relevance to students today and explore how every person relates to it.

Chair of the Women’s Committee Jenny Rose said: “We have had positive feedback, saying what a great campaign it is, but also negative ones. We got a few really offensive and hateful comments from nonstudents on Facebook. We just took them down. It is further proof why feminism is needed.

“It has been really cheering as it has showed us there is a lot of support for feminism and women’s rights in Sheffield.”

Women’s Councillor Sharmin Jahan said: “The campaign tackles many stereotypes people have in regards to feminism. It also highlights how feminism supports equality, diversity and intersectionality.

“Opening the campaign to all genders was a great idea as it shows that it is not only selfdefining women that support feminism.”

The pictures will be displayed in the Students’ Union plasma boards and in the concourse during World Week (November 16-22).

The images were taken on the concourse last week but students can still get involved by messaging Women’s Committee on Facebook.

Rose said: “In one of our first committee meetings of the year, we asked our members what they wanted us to do. They

suggested doing a campaign to remove the stigma around feminism – to show what feminism is really about. That is what we have tried to do with ‘Sheffield needs feminism’.

“Next semester, we are going to have a campaign about

abusive relationships.”

The committee is also helping organize Reclaim the Night, which will take place on November 21. The aim of the event is to “reclaim the night from both the fear and reality of male violence”.

Jenny Rose on the concourse

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Photo: Feminists of Steel

Burns told Forge Press: “People see other people doing it and give it a try.”

She also said people feel comfortable taking a selfie, as they could be stopped from snapping pictures with other people in the shot in public places. Although “selfies gets you into a different kind of trouble because people like to use them to criticise other people”.

Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt was heavily criticised for her selfie with president Barack Obama and Prime Minister David Cameron at Nelson Mandela’s memorial.

Burns said: “I think that there is a strong coercion to be present on social media, to provide content for other people, to be seen to doing something - and the selfie is really effective for this”.

It is estimated 750 million social media images are shared daily.

Researchers will present their initial findings at Sheffield University on November 7 as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science.

Amnesty activists stage protest Jon Phillpotts Students from Amnesty International Society staged a protest on the concourse on November 5 against the use of torture as a means of interrogation. The students covered their heads in black bags, and sported cardboard signs around their necks.

The student group were collecting signatures from Sheffield Uni students as a contribution to Amnesty International’s main petition.

The case of Moses Akatugba in Nigeria has been highlighted in particular by the society and remains on death row still.

The event was held as part of Human Rights week, running from November 3 to November 7 . Events have been held every day to publicise the work of human rights organisations.

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Pool memorial to be held Library fines finally abolished Tom Schneider One of the founders of the University of Sheffield’s Pool and Snooker Society has died and a memorial event will take place to raise money for charity.

Steve Hughes died last month at the age of 23 from a rare heart condition and complications with the transplant.

The Society he founded will be holding a pool tournament on November 22 at The Edge Bar to raise money for The British Heart Foundation and Myocarditis Foundation.

The Pool and Snooker Club ExPresident, Mark Devlin said “Steve was undoubtedly the most genuine, enthusiastic and passionate person I have ever met. I think the memorial pool tournament is a fantastic idea to remember Steve whilst also raising

money for a very worthwhile cause”.

Rishi Aggarwal, Pool and Snooker Vice-President 2012/13 said “Steve’s death hit us all for six and we miss him immensely – his laughter, support, ability to bring everyone together and his constant smile”.

Steve Hughes

Photo: Pool and Snooker Society

Patrick O’Connell The University of Sheffield has abolished fines for overdue library books.

Unpaid library fines have until recently been used to prevent students from graduating at many universities.

Earlier this year the Office for Fair Trading (OFT) revealed that 75 per cent of UK universities have terms and conditions preventing students from graduating or enrolling onto the next academic year if they owe non-tuition fee debts.

In their research they said the “terms and practices considered in the investigation may be open to challenge

as potentially unfair and/or otherwise unlawful.”

The National Union of Students (NUS) said it was “incredibly unfair” that unpaid library fees were being used to stop students from graduating.

The University of Sheffield have now altered their policy, becoming one of the first universities in the UK to remove library fees entirely.

The University’s library website said: “We know you hate receiving fines, and we’re not keen on giving them either, so we’ll automatically renew your books for you and when someone else requests them we’ll give you a couple of days to bring them back to us.”

It is hoped this system will improve management of highdemand textbooks, as well as making the library more userfriendly for students.

The new policy means that if students delay in returning books, the University will not issue a fine, but instead will prevent students to be able to take out any more books in the meantime.

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YOUR UNIVERSITY

“Offensive” Nazi chanting blights Bar One’s Oktoberfest Marcus Raymond Nazi chanting blighted the Oktoberfest event at Bar One on Friday 24 October, until the offenders were asked to leave by security staff.

At around 10pm, a call and answer chant where one member of a group allegedly shouted “Sieg” and the other four responded with a chorus of “Heil!”, took place intermittently in the Raynor Lounge three or four times over the course of around 20 minutes.

Andrew Keslake, a fourth year

student, was sitting in front of the group of German-speakers, who prior to this had been singing along to songs played over the PA system.

Keslake said: “One of them started yelling out ‘Sieg’, and the rest would yell out ‘Heil’, in response. We thought ‘did we actually hear that?’ and looked up on our phones whether there was any other meaning to those words. It kept going on, it didn’t really stop, and nothing seemed to be happening about it.

“We weren’t really sure what to do. We thought once, maybe, was

a joke which would blow over, but it kept on going and it became apparent that nobody else was doing anything about it, so we decided we should do something.”

At this stage a member of security staff from Bar One was informed, as there were no security staff in the Raynor Lounge itself. The security staff approached the group in question and asked what was going on, with the offenders leaving quickly afterwards without complaint.

“It was a very odd event,” Keslake said. “After a while we realised there was no other

meaning and that we definitely were hearing this. It’s not funny at all but if someone is drunk they may say stupid things.”

It is a criminal offence in Germany to use the former Nazi party propaganda phrase, “Sieg, Heil!” or “Hail, Victory!”, and is punishable by up to three years in prison. It is also a crime in Austria, which also speaks German and in Switzerland, if it is used in the context of spreading Nazi ideology.

Jack Wyse, Sheffield Students’ Union Development Officer said: “Behaviour of this kind

is clearly offensive and utterly disgusting. Sheffield Students’ Union operates a Zero Tolerance policy on such vile behaviour.

I’m pleased to say that as soon as the incident was reported, our security team acted immediately and the group were asked to leave. Our aim is to always ensure an environment which is both safe and enjoyable for all our members.

“To those who committed this act: your behaviour is not welcome here.”

YOUR CITY

Amy Childs’ showcases new collection in Meadowhall Chiara Vignati & Hsin-Yu Chin

The pop-up shop

Reality TV star Amy Childs showcased her autumn/winter 2014 fashion collection in a popup stall in Meadowhall as well as promoting the Christmas charity event ‘Jumperthon’.

The three day pop-up shop, which ran from October 31 to November 2, attracted many shoppers passing by.

Claire Cosgrove, a customer, said: “I bought myself a perfume.

I like the design, though it might be aimed at younger people” Tracy Curtis, another shopper, said: “We’re here to support the charity”.

After shooting to fame in 2010 with ITV’s ‘The Only Way Is Essex’, Amy has launched her own clothing collection and beauty range available on her website and in pop-up boutiques across UK. Amy Childs made a surprise appearance for her fans, and

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Student society leads debate on “corrupt” coal industry Isaac Stovell A group of international campaigners spoke to 40 people at the University of Sheffield about their efforts to combat corruption and pollution in the coal industry.

On Sunday October 26, Pius Ginting from Indonesia’s branch of Friends of the Earth spoke about destruction of forested areas and indigenous villages occurring near his home region of Kalimantan on Borneo because of coal mining.

Two speakers from the Federation of Communities Displaced by Mining in La Guajira also spoke.

Francis Tovar (treasurer) and Rogelio Ustate (vice-president) spoke to the group of students and members of the public about similar environmental degradation taking place in Columbia, where the governments have taken an interest in coal mines. This has led to health problems, social decline and economic stagnation.

Anne Harris of the UK’s Coal Action Network then spoke about our national efforts to combat corruption and expansion of coal mining, which has large industrial ties to the corporations active in Kalimantan and La Guajira.

Members of this and other campaigns attended the AGM of the world’s biggest mining company, BHP Billiton, in London last month, to press them with questions about their involvement in such destructions of communities.

People & Planet, the student campaigning society at the University, wrapped up the talk with a notice about the relevance of such movements to students given academic investment in fossil fuel companies.

They cited their “Go Fossil Free” petition for the University to divest all such assets, which has as of yet attained 624 signatures.

Camilla Zerr, president of People and Planet said to Forge Press: “The locals in these communities are fighting as hard as they can to ensure their rights are protected and their homes are not destroyed.

“It is only when we, inhabitants and students in the UK, raise our voices to spread the word and campaign to stop our universities and institutions from investing in fossil fuels, that a real impact will be made”.

many of them posed for photos with her.

On Saturday morning, the star also headed Meadowhall’s charity Christmas ‘Jumperthon’, wearing a peppermint coloured sweater.

The event aimed to raise money for St Luke’s Hospice and to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people wearing Christmas jumpers in one place.

The event failed to break the world record but the 550 jumpers spread early Christmas spirit.

The event was later presented on Sheffield Live TV. Before the event Amy said: “I’m so excited to be returning to Meadowhall and showcasing my collection to the shoppers of Sheffield.

“I love coming to Sheffield, the people are great, it’s always such a laugh.”

Amy Childs heading the Jumperthon

YOUR CITY

Sheffield Sharrowvale shop may be “country’s smallest salon” Emily Boswell

Sheffield’s smallest shop and possibly the country’s smallest salon is located on Sharrowvale Road.

Hudson and Wood beauty salon measures just 11 metres square, the maximum number of customers the salon can hold is two.

The former sandwich shop was taken over by partners India Hudson and Alix Wood in December 2013, and has since become a modest beauty salon offering everything from manicures to hot bamboo massages.

The salon itself consists of two rooms, one room for holding treatments and another used as a welcome area.

India, 32, said: “When we found the shop I did look through the window and think that is a bit crazy, it is so small, but Alix was very positive.”

Alix, 42, added: “We loved the shop because it was on a popular road that wasn’t Ecclesall Road price wise.”

It seems however that the small nature of the shop has posed a few challenges.

India said: “We had to do everything in stages because when we painted something, if you turned around to get on with the next job you’d get covered in paint.

“When a customer comes out of the treatment room and is paying Alix runs in there to get it ready again, you need to be really organized. If someone arrives early and another hasn’t quite finished you soon get a build up of people.

Hudson and Wood

“I can’t think of a smaller shop. I sometimes say I would like a bigger space but the customers always say they like the cuteness of it and it feels cosy.”

It is not the smallest shop in the country, the suitably named Little Shop in North Yorkshire stands at 9 metres square, but India and Alix believe that their shop could be the smallest salon in the country.

Photo: Emily Boswell

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Campaigners in solidarity with Mexican students National Estel Farell Roig A group of University of Sheffield students has started a campaign in support of the 43 students who disappeared in Mexico on September 26.

The students from Ayotzinapa went missing after the municipal police raided their buses. There were six deaths and over 20 wounded in the attack.

YOUR UNIVERSITY

Around 30 students gathered on the Students’ Union concourse to show solidarity with “those who are taking action against the [Mexican] State and its injustices” on Wednesday November 5, the global action day for Ayotzinapa.

Martha Avalos, a Mexican student who is doing a PhD in Human Geography in Sheffield, said: “We started the ‘SheffieldMexico solidarity campaign’ to

support Mexican struggles and show support.

“We are hoping to have a lecture with the department of Hispanic Studies to raise awareness soon.”

This year’s traditional altar for ‘the Day of the Dead’ in the Students’ Union was dedicated to both Frida Khalo and the students from Ayotzinapa.

Sheffield Students’ Union Officers wrote on their Facebook

page: “We repudiate these events and demand to the Mexican government that the perpetrators are brought to justice alive.”

The solidarity campaign and Sheffield Marxist Society have sent a petition, asking for the Students’ Union council’s support, which has had over 50 signatures.

Academics join national marking boycott

Adela Whittingham Academics began a marking boycott on November 6 to protest against proposed changes to pensions.

The action is taking place across 69 UK institutions, including the University of Sheffield, the University and College Union (UCU) reported.

Though not all staff members are members of the UCU, and are therefore not be taking part in the boycott, it could mean students will not be set coursework, or receive formal marks and feedback on handedin work. Planned exams may also be brought to a halt while the UCU action continues.

The University and College Union balloted members who are in the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the pension scheme for academics and senior administrative staff at pre-1992 universities. Turnout for the ballot was 45 per cent.

78 per cent of those who voted in the ballot supported strikes, while 87 per cent were in favour of action short of walkouts, which includes the assessment boycott.

The dispute focuses on changes to the USS, prompted by an

expected deficit in the pension scheme. UCU claims that the process used to work out the deficit is too simplistic and does not take into account the strengths of the scheme.

From today, employees of the University of Sheffield taking part in the boycott have been informed that they can expect a 25 per cent salary deducement.

The University of Sheffield have also notified staff that they reserve the right to increase the deductment to 100 per cent.

The University of Liverpool and the University of Bradford have already began to reduce staff salaries by 100 per cent

should they join the boycott.

Talks were held between the union and employers’ representatives but UCU said that these failed to provide them with a guarantee that employers were making an effort to protect the pensions of their members who are in the USS. Academics at newer universities won’t be affected by this dispute because they are included in the Teachers’ Pensions Scheme, rather than USS, a scheme which is due to be reformed from April 2015.

Universities UK (UUK) said earlier this month that the Universities Superannuation

What do students think of the boycott?

Daniel Reader, first year Chemistry student

Jessica Alce, third year Chemical Engineering student

Scheme is not sustainable.

A Universities UK spokesman said: “We are disappointed that the UCU has decided to pursue a damaging course of industrial action aimed directly at disrupting students’ education.

“Taking industrial action will not make the substantial scheme deficit and the risks to the future viability of the scheme go away.”

A spokeswoman for Sheffield UCU branch said: “We regret the impact that this will have on students, but this is a substantial and serious attack on pensions provisions.

“We hope that the university will put pressure on other institutions to negotiate a stable resolution as soon as possible”.

Anisha Patel, second year Biomedical Science student

“I think it’s a good thing as “I think that “It’s good long as long as the marking that it will they don’t go boycott is definitely kick overboard with just going to up a fuss, but it. If they pull hinder students. They’re not helping I think it will affect students more back on it when something gets sorted themselves really.” than anything.” out, that would be fine.”

YOUR CITY

Locals oppose Council’s SYP to open £19m Sharrowvale flat plans ‘super-custody suite’ Isaac Stovell Council plans for developing a block of flats on Sharrowvale Road have sparked local opposition.

The proposed plans for a four-story building between Dyson Road and Gordon Road, include 21 two-bedroom flats, three apartments, a gym and a micropub.

Council applications claim that the development will bring a “rundown and neglected” area of Sharrowvale back into vitality.

Locals, however, feel that the suburb off Ecclesall already

Sharrowvale Road

has a vibrant community and eclectic culture, and oppose the proposition of the “eyesore”.

Complaints have also been raised about insufficient parking to accommodate the new residents, and concerns over increased noise on a road already heavily populated by students.

The plans on the Council’s website have accrued 77 comments, most of them in opposition, and a local petition is said to have gathered over a hundred signatures against the plans.

Photo: Wikimedia

Robert Langley Yorkshire Water has asked South Yorkshire Police for clarification over the proposal for a new Sheffield custody centre.

Police plans for a new £19 million ‘super-custody’ suite for holding suspects in Tinsley have been questioned by Yorkshire Water over sewerage and flooding concerns.

The proposed site for the suite is on Shepcote Lane near Meadowhall, an area which was badly hit in the 2007 Sheffield floods.

The differing information on the plans submitted to Yorkshire Water has prompted them to ask the police for clarification. They have asked for further evidence to outline how water will be disposed of, and whether new sewers will be installed.

All new site developments in the area are required to consult with Yorkshire Water to ensure they can provide water to the site and that the public sewer network has adequate capacity.

Yorkshire Water has to work under the guidance of the Sheffield City Council Flood

Risk Management Strategy when considering any plans for new developments. They have informed the council that the drainage plans outlined in the proposal are unacceptable.

The planned suite will be capable of holding up to 50 suspects at a time and would replace existing, outdated facilities in Sheffield city centre, Rotherham and Ecclesfield. The modern facility will also provide a base for investigative officers and police partner agencies.

If the plans are successful, it is hoped the centre will open in 2016 and potentially save the force £1.2 million per year. According to Chief Superintendent Rob Odell, the savings will be achieved through reduced staffing costs or “natural wastage”.

Due to cutbacks, the force needs to save a further £19 million before 2016.

The super-custody suite follows a similar multi-million pound centre which has recently opened in Taunton, Somerset.

News

Katie Melua’s ear plays host to spider for a week

When Katie Melua went to the doctor’s complaining of a scratching noise in her ear, she was shocked to discover she had been playing host to a live spider for seven days.

After it was safely removed with a suction device, she realised it must have crawled in off old headphones she had been wearing on a flight a week earlier.

Melua, who released the single ‘Spider’s Web’ in 2006, took the spider home in a test tube and released it into her garden.

Keri Trigg Crunch time for new London cereal cafe

A London cafe selling over 100 varieties of cereal is due to open in December.

Cereal Killer Cafe, on Brick Lane, Shoreditch, will also showcase a collection of memorabilia, made up of 80 vintage cereal boxes including Pokémon, Bill and Ted, The Addams family, and Cabbage Patch Kids.

Customers will be able to customise their purchase with 13 different kinds of milk and 20 different toppings.

Alan and Gary, who are identical twins, will also be serving 18 different kinds of Pop Tarts, toast, and coffee from Allpress Coffee on Redchurch Street.

Alan says: ‘We remember how exciting cereal was as kids and we are trying to recreate it in our cafe. This will be a cafe experience like no other.”

Adela Whittingham

Tesco apologise after ATM offers “free erections”

Welsh speakers have discovered an ATM in Aberystwyth that promises more than cash withdrawals.

A sign on the machine next to a new Tesco Express in the town centre offers users “codiad am ddim”, which translates colloquially to “free erections”.

Tesco only realised their mistake after it had been plastered over social media, including by Aberystwyth councillor Ceredig Davies. They removed the sign, thanking everyone who pointed out the error.

Keri Trigg

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Drugs, guns and Barbies: what should we allow in the toybox?

Isaac Stovell Last month, Toys ‘R’ Us pulled the range of Breaking Bad adult figures from its shelves indefinitely.

Several vocal moms were concerned that the small bag of “crystal meth” included in the products would push their kids into lives as dark as the show’s maniacal drug-lord protagonist.

This was what drove the ban, as their petition to pull the toys from stock gained over 9,000 signatures.

However, since removing the figures from their stores and site, Toys ‘R’ Us has come under fire from none other than Breaking Bad’s two main actors themselves. Bryan Cranston, who plays the drama’s lead role Walter White, somewhat flippantly tweeted “I’m so mad, I’m burning my Florida Mom action figure in protest”.

Aaron Paul though, who played the more empathetic supporting role of Jesse Pinkman, took the situation seriously enough to try and get people thinking. His response was one of incredulity that the retailer could pull the figures and yet continue to sell violent video games and Barbies: “Hmmmm...I wonder what is more damaging?” he tweeted.

Aaron also strongly endorsed a counter-petition to overturn the ban, which has so far gained almost seven times more signatures than the original petition to ban the toys.

The retailer has not engaged in discussions with him or other supporters yet though, unsurprising given the blatant inconsistency of their position.

Petitions aside, the whole debacle has raised some interesting questions. What we

allow children to interact and play with obviously has some level of impact on shaping their attitudes and perceptions, and so a certain degree of thought must go into ensuring that we are helping them to develop healthily as social, moral, capable persons.

We can dismiss Breaking Bad (both in show and toy form) as a bad influence in itself, because it is specifically culturally reserved for adults. Toys ‘R’ Us stocked the meth-toting figures in the adult figurine aisle, and most of these types of items have age requirements to purchase; as do DVD copies of the TV series.

If a kid’s getting negatively influenced by something intended for a grown-up, then that has no bearing on the item itself, just the foolish parent who allowed them to access it.

Similarly we can apply this to violent video games: yes, toy stores often stock things like Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, but there are laws against cashiers allowing small children to casually purchase maturerated products. Florida moms really don’t need to worry, unless they ignorantly intend to buy little Randy a shootem-up.

What should instead concern us are those things that imbue children with unrealistic, restrictive and negative ideas, which are all-too-commonly accepted as normal playthings.

Barbies are a great example, as Aaron Paul already pointed out: in exaggerating femininity and promoting unrealistic body image, they are emblematic of the tendency of toys marketed at girls to set them up for a life

of miserable submission to patriarchy (in fact, a recent Oregon State University study found that young girls playing with Barbies thought less adult career paths were open to them than girls playing with more gender-neutral toys). Boys’ toys are just as twisted: so much of what male kids are given to play with is effectively just glorified violence, in the form of soldiers and armies, guns and swords.

To broadly summarise their influences, gendered toys teach kids that manhood is rooted in the dignities of violence and supremacy, and womanhood in material

indulgence and beauty. There are many excellent toys that encourage creative thinking, collaboration and inventiveness (Lego, Meccano, etc) but these fail to be marketed in a genderneutral way.

“Toys marketed at girls set them up for a life of miserable submission to patriarchy”

In contrast to the status-quoenforcing narratives of most gender-targeted toys, one of the main draws of Breaking Bad was its commitment to ambiguity, pressing viewers into understanding the show’s various struggles with morality and character. To an appropriate audience, I believe it actually has the capacity to be extremely positive as an influence.

It’s also interesting to remember that Jesse consistently took immense care to preserve children’s innocence and safety, despite the predominant dark themes. Maybe he could give the moms a pointer or two.

A new Brand of revolution?

Malte RohwerKahlmann

Russell Brand recently took the step from being a stand-up comedian, actor and author to becoming a political activist.

With a lot of passion and glottal stops, he flamboyantly rambles through TV channels and the Internet, denouncing the ruling class and announcing the revolution. This raises the question of whether celebrities should meddle in politics or stick to what got them into the position to do so.

There are certain values that no one should be kept in the public eye if they stand for. Any celebrity revealing themselves as holding any form of unwarranted prejudice through their comments and attitudes should not be considered legitimate political opinions, regardless of how vocal they are.

That leaves the (more or less) responsible rest, and this is where it becomes hard to discern who’s worth listening to. Our opinion on whether

or not a celebrity should get involved in politics will most likely mirror our own political colour. It follows that almost every celebrity speaking out for a political cause will create controversy, as we currently see with ol’ Russell. There will always be people questioning celebrities’ opinions’ legitimacy but that shouldn’t be used as an argument against them per se – quite the contrary.

Only 44 per cent of British citizens between 18 and 24 years of age voted in the 2010 general election. A worrying political ignorance characterises our generation, and it’s not hard to understand why, from looking at the people in charge. Political celebrities have the power to burst through to the apathetic consciousness, interesting us in a world that some of us would otherwise never care about or be involved with.

Yes, there’s the danger of people blindly jumping onto

the politically-questionable bandwagons of their favourite pop singer, but that shouldn’t worry the celebrities so much as to keep them off the political stage. They have a right to speak out, and many of them are clever enough to use their positions to make good points spread wide. We need to learn the difference between a winning smile and a sound argument.

Regardless of whether we agree with the political line of celebrities: they have a better rapport to much of our generation than most politicians and can get us thinking about significant issues we lack engagement with.

So go, all you Brangelinas, Russells, Arnies – even you, Bono – stay out there, ignore the complaints, and show us that being political is trendy and caring is cool.

David Cameron wearing that t-shirt would have made him a hypocrite, not a feminist Beth Cunningham David Cameron came under fire this month when he declined to take part in an Elle magazine campaign for their Feminism issue.

Both Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband lent their support, donning t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “This is what a feminist looks like”. But after five attempts, all Elle could get from the prime minister was a brief declaration that he is “committed to doing everything [he] can do to remove barriers for women and achieve a fairer society”. The f-word, however, was curiously missing from his statement.

Cameron has shied away from the “f-”word before, most notably in a 2013 Red magazine interview, when he stated that he believes women should be equal, but “it’s up to others to attach labels”.

Feminism is too often mistakenly seen as indiscriminate man-hating, when in reality, a feminist is just someone (of any gender) who believes that women deserve equality and power over their own lives.

We need our leaders to be feminists. But I can’t help thinking that even if Cameron had decided to model the t-shirt, it wouldn’t really have been enough. If we really want politicians to make a stand, we need more than just lip-service.

This year’s study of the Global Gender Gap Index by the World Economic Forum reveals that the UK is now only 26th in the world in terms of gender equality. Since the annual enquiry was first compiled in 2006, we have fallen 17 places.

Individual statistics are just as dispiriting. Only 16 per cent of our government ministers are women, the 75th least in the world. Female politicians, senior officials and managers make up just 34 per cent overall. Whilst the average British man is estimated to earn $40,000 (USD) a year, the average woman earns just $24,820. Additionally, recent studies into violence against women highlight the need for action. UK charity Rape Crisis reports that annually over 400,000 women are the victim of a sexual offence, and a fifth of women between the ages 16-59 have suffered some kind of sexual abuse.

Then, with grim ironic relevance, comes the issue of the t-shirts themselves.

These £45 tops, which proclaim the wearer to be the very image of a topclass feminist, have been found to be manufactured by women in Mauritius working in “sweatshop” conditions. These female machinists earn just 62 pence an hour and sleep 16 to a room.

This is why we need more than just catchy slogans. Only when we have a truly feminist government in place will women’s problems be properly confronted. Many women feel discouraged from pursuing careers in traditionally male-dominated industries. Young people need to receive sufficient education on rape and abuse.

Higher conviction rates for those who perpetrate violence against women can be achieved. The rights of women working in the UK and across the world can be better protected.

So Cameron doesn’t have to wear a slogan across his chest. But if he really is committed to “removing barriers for women”, he and his government need to show us that in action.

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Wearing a poppy: commemorating killers or a potent symbol of rememberance?

Chris Saltmarsh The Tower of London memorial consists of a sea of 888,246 blood red ceramic poppies, each commemorating one lost British life from the First World War. It has come into some criticism for only remembering the British dead – rightly too, because this is just another example of how Remembrance Day has been hijacked by militaristic and nationalistic tendencies.

Remembrance Day, and the poppies which inevitably accompany the fortnight preceding it, have become emblematic of these, British society’s uglier facets: and there is social pressure to show your endorsement of them by wearing a poppy.

Not wearing a poppy, either out of protest or for thinking two weeks prior to Remembrance Day

is too early for such an ostentatious display of patriotism, is often met by accusations that you should “support our troops” who, we are assured, “died for our right to live in a free country” and without who “we’d be speaking German now”.

These bizarre assertions aside, this idea that we must be eternally thankful for our past and present soldiers’ efforts to secure our liberties is blatant propaganda, used to pacify the public into supporting the armed forces and, by extension, modern militarism.

The many who fought and died in the First World War did not do so to keep Britain or anyone else free. They did so as pawns in the power games of the international political elite of the time. The First World War was a pointless conflict between imperial powers, which resulted in millions of futile tragic deaths.

It is ridiculous for us to so readily attribute hero status to

Chloe Bolton A week prior to the 95th Day of Remembrance, Ukip leader Nigel Farage was papped nonchalantly wiping tears from his eyes as he visited the First World War memorial at the Tower of London. It’s also this time of year that Britain First saturate social media with neofascist content; gradually the topic of the poppy is becoming a bit of a taboo.

Perhaps we as a nation have lost touch with the symbol’s intention. It is not glorifying war, celebrating the Commonwealth or condemning other countries involved in the First World War in supporting Armistice Day. The poppy is a symbol of ‘Remembrance’: respectfully commiserating the tragic, barbaric and unnecessary losses of life in futile firing lines of war.

Forget why Britain was at war.

Millions of undeserving soldiers died at the hands of global

anybody foolish enough to join the military and willingly fight somebody else’s battles. Soldiers aren’t automatically heroes. They are by definition professional killers and not necessarily anything more.

They act as an arm of the powerful, defending the interests of those in charge of them, not those of the general people.

“Remembrance Day has been hijacked by militaristic and nationalistic tendencies” In more recent decades, the British military has had a direct stake in the destabilising of the Middle East and the resultant increase in terrorist threat which militarists claim we are being protected from.

And for what? Democratisation and humanitarianism? More like oil, and the proliferation of USA-

conflict; many of whom didn’t have a choice. A century ago, it was compulsory for all men (bar those with the Get Out of Jail Free card of being widowed with children and a few other exceptions) to be enlisted to serve in national (generally military) service, unlike today where soldiers are those who have bravely volunteered themselves to the profession of warfare.

“Wearing a poppy should remain a common courtesy” Between the ages of 18 - 51, sons, fathers, grandfathers and husbands were beckoned to act as cogs, willing or not, in Britain’s mobilised machine.

Forget sociological gender subscriptions: these men had every right to feel as though the world was about to fall out of their backsides. Many knew they were probably only going to

dependent neoliberal satellite states.

We should not continue to allow Remembrance Day to be used to incite nationalism and glorify war.

Nationalist sentiment is on the rise in the UK through dangerous, socially divisive groups like Ukip and Britain First who want to shut us out from the rest of the world by limiting immigration and abolishing foreign aid. They will continue to capitalise on our irrational, inward-looking patriotism to gain electoral traction, and will continue to influence our political paradigm in a wholly negative way.

We must use Remembrance Day to remember the futility of war, the futility of millions of deaths throughout history and that those who died did not do so valiantly or for some great cause, but for the consolidation of somebody else’s wealth and power. In remembering this we must strive for better.

be heard from at home again in a telegram, and even survivors were left as shadows of their former selves. Traumatising, disturbing and distressing; war always leaves psychological ruptures which never quite heal even in following peacetime.

Those who were there, both those who were regrettably sacrificed and those who lived to tell the tale, deserve to be acknowledged in modern society; wearing a poppy to do this at very little cost to oneself should remain a common courtesy.

However, we return to the far-right fiasco. Britain First, Ukip and other extreme groups have flooded social media and public discussion with their bile, bastardising the true meaning of the poppy and hence distorting its social connotations.

The poppy cannot become a caricature of misguided nationalism; this is what millions who died at war were fighting against. It is not an implication that war is acceptable. Some

say that the scarlet poppy illuminates all of the blood that was shed on Flanders Fields, a grim image; but poppies were one of the few plants that had the ability to grow there following the destruction of the soil. Remembering and paying respect to those fallen is perhaps the only good thing to come from the First World War. Up until recently, our nation calmly devoted themselves to Armistice Day and the poppy – we cannot allow hateful extremists to snatch this from our history.

Regardless of the poppy’s bastardisation, the Royal British Legion do an undeniably grand job of providing support to serving members of the Armed Forces and their families. Each poppy sold contributes to this care; something that cannot afford to be associated with fascism or racism. Remember those who are lost, not those who are a 21st century lost cause. A hundred years ago they didn’t have a choice.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Fri day November 7 2014 F O RG E P RESS

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COMMENT

@forgecomment /forgecomment comment@forgetoday.com

Another disappointment from a union that doesn’t represent us Lauren Archer The National Union of Students is an ongoing disappointment.

That’s hardly a divisive statement. With every new press release and faux-political marketing campaign, the NUS and its willing figureheads drag the student movement further into a black hole of political irrelevance.

On the 2012 Free Education demonstration it was the NUS who led us, banners in hand, out of Parliament Square, on a new route towards Kennington Park and into obscurity.

When protesters tried to form a blockade at Westminster Bridge, they were moved on by official NUS ushers, who formed an additional layer of restrictive hi vis-clad marshals, taking the police’s side over that of the students they claimed to represent.

We stood in the rain, 2.4 miles away (and across a river) from the Houses of Parliament, listening to uninspiring speech

after uninspiring speech from interchangeable middle class white men, assumedly trying to plug their books on economic reform.

When NUS president Liam Burns took to the stage, amidst boos and chants of “NUS, shame on you, where the fuck have you brought us to?”, he was pounded with mandarins and eggs, before the stage was stormed by frustrated student activists and his speech came to a premature end.

Two years and two aimless presidential figures later and the NUS has let us down again. This time by releasing a statement cowardly backing out of supporting a demonstration for free education set to take place in two weeks’ time.

Toni Pearce, among the NUS full-time officers (FTOs) who penned the statement, claimed that the NUS were not confident that the demonstration would be safe and accessible, especially for disabled students and that there were “significant risks” for the students taking part.

Accessibility and safe spaces are among the most important

Editorial Reading week! Or lack of...

Hello there!

My condolences to those who, over a week later, are still recovering from Halloween.

Perhaps we’ll feel normal again by Christmas.

Thankfully for those lucky enough to have one, week seven is reading week, or what my academic department have passive-aggressively dubbed ‘writing week’ in a desperate bid to get us to actually do something.

It’s been a pretty eventful two weeks, and we’ve been working hard to get the inside scoop on all that’s been happening locally, in the University and at the SU. If you follow us on Twitter or have been on our live blogs, you’ll know that the results for the SU Big Decision were announced over the last fornight.

We now have a full set of representative councillors and NUS delegates. Representation is important, and it’s vital that all students have a voice, so this is great news!

However, controversially, the SU officer roles are going to remain the same, to the disappointment of a lot of students - make sure you check out our info-graphic on page two.

Representation is a very hot topic this fortnight: News and Comment are looking at some other organisations that claim to represent us as students, but may not be doing the best job.

Indeed, gone are the jolly pumpkins of last issue, and we’ve replaced them with some pretty serious stuff this time around.

Features are looking at how our school days shape us in the future and Games have braved the infamous #gamergate.

Comment have also brought you some pretty sad news about a guy called… Benefit Crumpetsnatch?

Benidorm Cripplehutch?

Bendydick Cucumberpatch?

You know what? Just find out for yourself.

Happy reading!

issues in activism, and ones that desperately need addressing – but since when have NUS FTOs pioneered calls for better accessibility? And why, now, have they decided to undermine the autonomy of so many great disabled activists and pull their support for the demonstration without consulting them?

At every demonstration I have attended, it is liberation groups themselves who have defined what makes for a safe and open movement, not an over-arching, bureaucratic organisation that has repeatedly sold out its most oppressed members.

It is misleading and offensive for the FTOs to back out of supporting the demonstration under the guise of a concern for liberation politics. For the women, black and minority ethnic, LGBT+ and disabled students who have helped build momentum for this demonstration, and the countless ones before it, this is just another betrayal from the officers we campaigned for and voted for, who ultimately forgot us when they got a glimpse of power.

The real story is that Pearce

D.A.R.T.S.

Quaint heartthrob Bodysnatch Cummerbund this week announced his engagement to theatre director Sophie Hunter, to the mass upset of millions of his enamoured viewers.

Buffalo Custardbath, 38, is best known as the lead role in hit BBC series Sherlock, and has also had prominent roles in 12 Years A Slave, War Horse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and voices the dragon Smaug in The Hobbit trilogy.

Formidable acting repertoire aside, Bumblesnuff Crimpysnitch’s fame is largely attributed to his dashing persona and his unusual name. We look forward to Mr & Mrs Cabbagewank’s wedding.

Quote of the fortnight

“Excuse me while I defenstrate myself”

austerity student group, have taken control, agreeing a route with police and organising their own stewarding operation. Time will tell whether NCAFC will become another undemocratic student movement, pushing against its own members in defence of the police or politicians, but at least this demonstration ends in Parliament Square, not in a muddied field just off the Kennington Park Road.

At the end of this academic year, we will vote again on our affiliation with the NUS and unless something changes, I know which way I’ll be voting. I’d rather pay full price at the Odeon than let a spineless, disloyal students’ union claim to represent me.

Got an opinion on the topics discussed this fortnight?

Contact us: comment@forgetoday.com @ForgeComment

Forge Press takes its satirical aim

Publicly-saddening celebrity engagement of the fortnight

Chloe Coleman, frustrated Arts Editor

Elsa Vulliamy - Forge Press editor elsa.vulliamy@forgetoday.com

and her co-workers are scared.

Scared that the demonstration might escalate or become “risky”, as it very nearly did in 2012 when students tried to blockade Westminster Bridge or occupy Parliament Square. Scared that accompanying chants for free education will be cries for a complete re-evaluation of the political system that so many executive committee members desperately want a part in.

The NUS is an ineffectual shell of a representative body, useful only for a 25% discount at your local Odeon and giving a handful of careerist students a foot-up on the slippery ladder that leads to a seat on the Labour backbench.

We do not exist to prop up our peers’ bourgeoning political careers. Students up and down the country want real, radical change and the NUS has demonstrated, time and time again, that it isn’t willing to let that happen.

Despite the reluctance of Toni Pearce and the other FTOs, the demonstration on November 19 will still take place. Members of the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC), an anti-

Twitter account of the fortnight From the man who brought you such classics as “I did not hit her” and “you are tearing me apart Lisa!” comes a Twitter account of sporadic, quasi-philosophical musings, occasionally collapsing into frustrated questions about how to use the internet. Tommy Wiseua, director, screenwriter, producer and actor in “Citizen Cane of bad films” The Room, has taken to Twitter, and the results are beautiful...

FOR GE PRESS Fr i day Novembe r 7 2014

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Forge Press Friday November 7 2014

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Memoirs of a school kid (from uni)

The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFC) recently found that those who attended state schools are actually more likely to graduate with higher grades than those from independent schools. Interestingly, they concluded that this improved performance is not affected by the type of state school you attended. Kemi Alemoru, Rebecca Craig and Thomas Ling reflect on their schooling and what effect it’s had on their experiences at uni.

I

Kemi Alemoru from Loreto Grammar School for Girls, Manchester

s there a more unorthodox establishment than an allgirls catholic grammar school? I doubt it, and people’s reactions when I talk about my school suggest that, although it got me to where I am, it was essentially a mad house. There were some pranks that came across as cries for help, most notably the time where a senior member of staff had to hold a formal assembly because a student had wrapped a used sanitary towel around the door handle of the downstairs toilets.

A former convent and one of many grammar schools in the Trafford area, Loreto Grammar School teaches girls that in life there should be ‘No half measures and no half women’ - a quote from the school’s foundress Mary Ward, from whom I have many, many inspirational quotes. If you’re a half woman then you definitely did not go to my school where you could smell the oestrogen as soon as you walked through the gates.

Male teachers were overwhelmingly outnumbered by stern female staff and cackling adolescent girls that treated bitching as an olympic sport. In fact, if there was a male teacher under the age of 50 they were the object of desire by a sea of male-starved teens who would scribble ‘I love Mr Connell’ in the toilet cubicles.

I arrived at the school at 11 years of age, all round, shiny and innocent. I had just left a primary school in Manchester’s Whalley Range near Moss Side, known for its harsh living standards. For someone used to a school with many cultures, both genders and pupils from working class backgrounds, it was a very new experience to land in an overwhelmingly middle class ex-convent on the border of Altrincham, a town with a 94 per cent white population compared to Whalley Range’s 49.

It’s weird that now I am strangely appreciative of the elements of school that caused me the most frustration at the time. Every time I was chastised for having my top button undone, my tie too fat or my skirt rolled up, the hassle of these small actions actually then forced me to not get into any serious trouble.

I was a very lazy student who hardly ever did my homework and taught myself my GCSEs the night before every exam by looking at my half-arsed notes. I owe BBC Bitesize a great amount of gratitude. Interestingly the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) found that state-educated students are actually more likely to graduate with higher degree-passes than those from the independent sector. Perhaps this is due to the fact that if you manage to make it to university, despite going to a school that isn’t completely focussed on higher education and league tables, then you’re probably a lot more self motivated, which is an integral part of university. They eventually tracked my punctuality and grades through a report full of happy or sad faces and I improved as each teacher basically pushed me to realise my full potential.

Moving to university I think I appreciate how many people from different walks of life you come into contact with, and also I have had to eventually get used to doing regular independent study by myself. Although I no longer have to do the rosary for an hour once every year and I may never have to sing ‘Put ye on Christ’ again, I think Loreto did a good job of making me a well rounded individual, eventually, and their ethos ‘women in time will come to do much’ will always resonate with Loreto girls.

A

Rebecca Craig from Ashlyns School, Berkhamsted

s I enter my third year of university and begin to reflect upon my experiences at Sheffield, it seems clear to me that my life has changed completely since the start of my time university.

If I think back to two years ago when I entered Ranmoor as an eager fresher it has now become obvious that I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I came from a failing state comprehensive in the southeast of England and I was pleased to find that most of my new flatmates had come from similar state school backgrounds.

The year I started at my secondary school, it received a damning ‘notice of improvement’ from Ofsted and underwent massive reorganisation. However, although my memory is somewhat hazy, I can honestly say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time at state school, and wouldn’t change my educational experience in retrospect. It was at school where I discovered my love of history, the subject that I decided to pursue further at university and therefore it would be impossible for me to say that my time at school has not affected my experience since leaving secondary education.

The rivalry between my failing state comprehensive and the local private school was fierce, yet I feel that this created a unity among my school peers, whether being followed around the local Tesco by the security guard if you were in my school uniform, or shouting insults at the private school kids while walking past them in the park. My determination to achieve better grades than my private school friends was also a prime motivation for doing well in exams. Yet my school experience was about so much more than the actual, somewhat below par, teaching that occurred during the school day.

For me, school was essentially a relaxed and fun place to be. In Sixth Form, during our numerous free periods a week, we entertained ourselves with trips to McDonald’s or joking around the common room with teachers who were more casual friends than strict rule enforcers. My time at school was therefore extremely laid back, with the attitude of being able to teach yourself what you weren’t taught in class.

Being left unsupervised for large portions of the day with no work to do meant that pupils were not exactly pushed to achieve the top grades, yet since coming to university, finally engaging with revision after two years of messing about during A Levels, it has become clear that what grades I achieved or didn’t achieve seriously does not matter, I look back on my experience of school and remember the community spirit, the good times and the pride of coming from a failing institution and still enjoying my subject enough to undertake another three years of study.

I do believe that your schooling shapes who you are as a person, I have found that I do not necessarily push myself as much as I should, something that I strive to change now that I have entered third year. Yet in some way this has given me the drive to achieve more than if I had gone to a different school with a different attitude to learning. I do not think that I would appreciate my secondary education as much as I do now if I had gone to any other school, and this inherently is the most valuable thing that I still carry with me today.

I

Thomas Ling from Harvey Grammar School, Kent

f the schooldays are the preface to your university life then you wouldn’t be able to read mine through a mass of penises scribbled across the page. To be honest, you’d be pretty brave trying to find the book in the first place as visiting the school library was near social suicide. My all-boys grammar school was a place where you would get beaten up for reading a textbook, yet you could become an overnight sensation for drawing a realistic scrotum on the headmaster’s door. Include a few pubic hairs and you were a certified legend.

As you might guess, university revealed some blunt social realities. Most importantly, the world didn’t solely consist of white middle-class teenage boys being white middleclass boys. Suddenly I was sharing my time with a new mix of ethnicities, religions and, to my amazement, genders.

This is where my all-male education completely failed me. At school, girls were a confusing foreign delicacy you only had a glimpse of every once in a while, a bit like camembert or Um Bongo, but with nice hair. If you were particularly cool you could see girls by braving a visit to the school down the road, but I wasn’t so I didn’t. I’m not saying I didn’t have any female friends before university, but my school left me completely unprepared for the social dynamics of gossip circles, mass girl visits to the toilets, or even about that tiny bin of horrors that appears in the bathroom.

Weirdly, my school packed me off to university without any real idea how to interact with boys either. Testosterone was pumped into my school until everybody drowned in a fake macho personality that went beyond normal lad culture. Individuality died in a school where popularity hinged on hating a list of things including academia, Germaine Greer, The Notebook, reading, and, most of all, anything deemed remotely ‘gay’. It was endearingly immature on some levels but homophobic on so many more.

There was a definite watershed moment to this culture.

One day it emerged that a teacher had previously worked as a gay porn artist to pay off their student loan and the photos were spread around the school. It was like the last days in Hitler’s bunker. Pupils ran riot, parents stormed the school in outrage and a media circus descended outside the gates. Soon the place was a subject of a leading article in the Sun and the Harvey Grammar School was rebranded The Pervy Grammar School. The paper even published naked pictures of the teacher with our school crest photoshopped over his meat and two veg.

Were my classmates worried about the ethical implications of a teacher caught so exposed? Absolutely not. There was only one line of inquiry; who found these photos on a gay porn website and how many minutes can they be bogwashed before it technically counts as waterboarding?

It was a school where I found myself nursing a black eye for simply throwing a tennis ball “like Alan Carr with Parkinson’s”. It was also a school where if you mentioned anything even slightly related to gay sex you could be pushed to the ground and have a cock and balls drawn on every part of your body, except your actual cock and balls. If Freud came to our school he’d have a field day.

He’d then probably get thrown in a bin to the chants of “Semen Freud! Semen Freud!”

But everywhere on the University campus invited a feeling of tolerance where acceptance was key, geeks were cool and I could even pick up a library book without bellends etched onto the front cover.

If that isn’t social progress then I don’t know what is.

Friday November 7 2013 Forge Press

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Everyd

and why YouTub

W

hy do I suddenly think that I’m a beauty expert? I am seemingly unable to walk past the array of different products available from the makeup aisles in Boots without trying out and getting excited about new things that I didn’t even know I needed. Worse, I am guilty of lusting over high end, expensive cosmetics brands like Chanel and MAC, often being shamelessly taken in by their luxurious packaging and the hype that surrounds them.

I assure you, I haven’t always been this way. About a year ago I had a fairly normal attitude towards makeup.

I used the basics - foundation, mascara, eyeliner - and would sometimes get excited about purchasing a new shade of lipstick for a special occasion.

So what changed, I hear you ask? I discovered vlogging; people who devote their time to online video blogging via the medium of Youtube. I have spent hours and hours watching Youtubers like EssieButton getting enthused about new foundation formulas and explaining why cleansing is essential to my morning skin regime.

This has exposed me to the wide world of those who use Youtube as a platform for video blogs and yes, I have found myself, like many others, getting carried away in the fascination of watching vloggers. What may start with one 10-minute video can lead to two hours of the day gone watching people talk about makeup, turning a simple beauty routine into an art form, a series of master classes in the skills of facial artistry. Who knew there was so much to learn?

It doesn’t stop here of course. Many beauty bloggers also dip into the realms of lifestyle and fashion themed videos, using video cameras to capture their everyday goings on, and in turn these become the focus for their Youtube channel. Only a few days ago I found myself watching a video of makeup artist turned vlogger Tanya Burr making Oreo flavoured cupcakes. I guess the skills of putting on icing and foundation could be transferrable but what really was the connection? It is the consumer desire to know more that drives this branching out into more diverse areas.

This new type of entertainment is not confined to beauty and lifestyle, vlogging has become a craze attracting millions into sitting and watching ordinary people open up about their interests and daily lives. Although not necessarily a new thing,

vlogging has existed for some ye become less of a niche trend and mainstream.

Vlogger Louis Cole, or FunForLou a video diary, allowing people to his life. When his bag was stolen hashtag was set up and the campa twitter.

Two of today’s most influential v who vlogs under the name Zoella, a Deyes whose channel is titled The P Youtube to communicate with their about a multitude of subjects, at views every week. For those wh able to attract a large fan base, lucrative industry.

It is estimated that some high receive up to £4,000 for mentionin a video, and up to £20,000 for a site. If we take beauty vlogging as what a video entitled My Top Ten Fa earn a vlogger, never mind the o sent free samples to be tried and t So why has vlogging suddenly What is it that attracts us to watch their lives, likes and dislikes, and in the best brand for mascara?

The attraction of vlogging can success of reality TV. Four years scripted reality dramas such as The Only Way is Essex onto our s a new era of entertainment. The and fiction became blurred as rea broadcast for us all to view.

These shows feed off our aspirations and somehow bring the world of celebrity which has always been elite and out of touch - almost within our reach.

Programmes involving real people make the celeb life appear attainable which is undoubtedly at the heart of their rising popularity.

Is vlogging an extension of this?

Forge Press Friday November 7 2014

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day voyeurism

be vlogs are so fascinating

ears, undeniably it has moved its way into the

These people appear down to earth and personable.

They give us insights into their private lives and tell us about their problems. For example Zoella has used her uis, uses his channel as channel to talk about her battles with anxiety. To her watch daily videos of young female following, she comes across as relatable n in one of his vlogs, a and like she could be a close friend. This is a far cry from aign to find it took over the way other teen idols, such as the Kardashians, portray their image. vloggers are Zoe Sugg, Kylie Jenner has gained her popularity through posting and her boyfriend, Alfie flawless selfies on Instagram, creating a world and image Pointless Blog. Both use that most of us will never be part of or be able to match millions of subscribers up to. This seems worlds apart from watching videos of ttracting thousands of Zoe, Tanya, Estee and the like making breakfast in their ho run channels, when pyjamas with no make up on. Vlogging has created a new vlogging can prove a generation of celebrity which offers something different; we are insiders with access rather than on the outside profile bloggers may looking in. ng a certain product in The extensive use of social media by vloggers advertisements on their substantiates their ability to influence and reach their s an example, imagine audiences; they are no longer out of reach but just Favourite Lipsticks could ordinary people like you and me. obvious perks of being But how ordinary are these people really? Most of tested. the current successful vloggers are 20-somethings with y become so popular? a pretty decent disposable income, who can afford to hing people talk about vlog full time. They may appear to be typical of today’s my case, advise me on young adults but in reality, most are from privileged backgrounds with access to state of the art equipment be linked back to the and the time and resources to commit to vlogging as a ago, the explosion of career path. Youtubing may appear to be a platform that Made in Chelsea and is accessible to all, but setting up a successful vlogging screens, gave birth to channel comes with its own costs and challenges. lines between reality Vlogging flags up an issue that has surrounded the idea al people’s lives were of celebrity culture for years: is it healthy for us to be so obsessed with other peoples lives? While on the one hand, we see these people as down to earth, normal people who face many of the same challenges as we do, we have to remember that we are only seeing what they want to show us.

Vloggers have control over all aspects of the production process, which arguably gives viewers a biased video experience lacking authenticity. Youtube offers an uncensored platform for people to say what they want and those with a wide fan base can use their influence to their own advantage. There are dangers in such a course of action.

Vlogging raises the question, are we aspiring to be part of something that we perceive as achievable, which instead embodies all the same

unrealistic elements as traditional celebrity culture?

Further to this, young people are using vlogging as a form of escapism, putting trust in people that appear personal and down to earth. For example, many of us may buy a new makeup product because a vlogger has recommended it.

Their personable chatty personas and their informal style mean that we listen to their opinions and reviews, more so than we maybe would a magazine that feels false and wholly due to sponsorship. But in reality, what is the difference? If a vlogger is being paid almost £4,000 for every product they mention, why wouldn’t they exploit their influence? Are we just being taken in by the friendly relaxed exterior of a potentially lucrative industry which is in effect just a new form of advertising.

Some of the most successful Youtube vloggers have been able to use their influence to expand and form a brand. Tanya Burr has used Youtube as a launch pad for her own range of Cosmetics and False Eyelashes. Others that have taken advantage of this platform are Zoe Sugg and Ruth Crilly, with Sugg releasing Zoella Beauty containing all sorts of bath and relaxation products, and Crilly releasing her own range of dry shampoos.

While this can be limited to those who vlog on a specific issue, such as beauty, all vloggers who gain a following have advertising at their disposal, and often subconsciously endorse brands in simple ways, like through the clothes that they wear. Furthermore, is it healthy that beauty bloggers with such a young demographic are placing so much emphasis on appearance and self image in an age where there is already so much pressure on girls to conform to a media stereotype?

Is vlogging the new liberating platform for people to be themselves and talk about their interests? Or are we being taken in by a relaxed, informal setting, which vloggers can use to exert their influence for personal gain?

@forgefeatures /forgepress features@forgetoday.com

Friday November 7 2014 Forge Press

16

Lunar is a new club night at Fez Club, Sheffield. The night was launched on May 9 with Voyeur (Madtech Records), but all heads turn to Saturday November 15 when they will bring Mahogani Music’s hottest new signing Dan Shake and NTS Radio resident Jon Rust to Fez. With big plans for the next year, features editor Kemi Olivia Alemoru decided to catch up with the Lunar team to see what they’re all about.

T

o those who aren’t familiar with the night, how would you describe who you are and what type of night Lunar is in terms of genre?

Jed works more on the promotion of the night, basically making sure people hear about Lunar and why its not worth missing. Of course we are all there freezing our arses off flyering every week!

Our tagline is the best in disco, house and everything inbetween. So much of the house music we love has disco at its core. From the beginning we felt it was important to set ourselves apart from the run of the mill house nights by encompassing both disco and house.

While we do love the flares and disco balls of the 70s, it’s about how disco/house has become a genre in its own right, just listen to ‘Finally’ by Kings of Tomorrow!

So how exactly did you all meet and how did you get Lunar started?

What are your individual roles in terms of putting the night together?

In terms of ideas, we all have an equal role in bouncing ideas off each other and throwing stuff about regarding what we think will work etc. When organising a night there’s a lot to think about so we generally try to share the workload.

Our resident DJ Leroy (Leo) deals with the lineups, the online mix cloud (mixcloud.com/lunarsheffield) and the setting of the mood on the night, before and after the headliners. Ellie heads up Operations, dealing with artist liaisons and making things run smoothly on the ground.

From left to right: Ellie, Leo (Leroy) and Jed

All three of us were interested in starting an event before we came to uni so it happened very naturally as we became friends. Ellie and Leo met in halls in Endcliffe and Jed met Leo through his course. We all started bumping into each other at the same nights every weekend and it was clear that we had similar tastes in music and club nights.

We chose a venue, a headliner and a date and threw a big launch party at Jed’s house a month or so before the main event and invited our mates from Contact and Nice Like Rice to come and DJ. It was a lot of fun.

We got on with promoting the Voyeur event as much as we could online and around town and hoped for the best! It was an exciting and stressful few months, but worth it for what we’ve got coming up in the next year!

What do you think is the secret to putting on a good night?

First and foremost, good music! We are always

making sure we’ve got the right DJs to get the party started and get the crowd moving. Of course this also means doing enough before the event to get that crowd there. No DJ likes to play to an empty room and nobody likes to dance on an empty dancefloor.

How do you balance it with all of your other responsibilities?

Choose an arts degree, the hours are ridiculous.

Where would you like to take Lunar in the future?

The moon.

Would you consider continuing the night after university?

At the moment we’re focusing on November 15th and keeping our eyes on the ball. Next year we’ve got some big plans but we’re taking each event as it comes!

Ellie Ball, Jed Dixon and Leo Burrell are three undergraduates at the University of Sheffield studying Business Management, English Literature and English and Music respectively.

Forge Press Friday November 7 2014

@forgefeatures /forgepress features@forgetoday.com

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LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL Lifestyle loves

by Isabel Dobinson

Fashion Tartan scarves I have to say, I haven’t always been a fan of tartan. I can’t help but be reminded of the tasteless plastic choker and tartan skirt, the kind of thing every lower school girl wore during her grunge phase. But I admit, this season’s autumn trend of big, cosy tartan scarves has converted me. Instead of the garish bright colours which recreate the 80s punk look, go for understated tones such as dark green, navy blue and a subtle red. Not only do they look great matched with a winter coat, jeans and boots but will also keep you warm and snug through the cold coming months. Both New Look and Dorothy Perkins have a great selection at a reasonable price, plus offer a ten per cent student Image: New Look discount!

Travel

Edinburgh If you’re looking for a weekend trip away to escape the hectic student life, Edinburgh is the perfect getaway city. Either as a couple or a group of friends, Edinburgh has plenty to offer in terms of sightseeing, places to go out and shopping. Princes Street is packed full of shops, including a huge Urban Outfitters, bars and more uptown designer stores. If small independent shops are more up your street, venture into the Old Town for a browse and a cup of coffee and cake in a cute cosy café.

Edinburgh Castle is of course a must see sight, being p a r t i c u l a rly picturesque in the evening, illuminated by the Christmas lights. Being Scotland’s capital, there are plenty of restaurants, bars and clubs catering for all, my favourite being Cabaret Voltaire, which is a café by day and a cool club at night.

Image: Wikimedia

/forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com

by Caroline Wood

Every New Year, I resolve to set aside time for doing what I really enjoy - being creative and making objects simply for pleasure. And every year, I fail miserably. Wherever I am, there are always more urgent and pressing things to do, thwarting my artistic yearnings. Until I discovered Fired Arts.

At this peaceful cafe off Ecclesall Road, art is the only thing you could consider doing. The tables are stacked with brushes, paints of every shade and colour-matching tiles. Shelves groan with an exhaustive array of blank white ceramics, just waiting to be decorated with your imagination. Besides the usual pots, bowls and mugs, there are more quirky items including wall plaques, animals and money boxes. Leave the daily grind outside and step into this oasis of relaxation.

Even if you go without a specific project in mind, it is easy to pick up inspiration - I usually end up with enough ideas for several return visits. Like any good café, there is always a tempting selection of cakes, coffee, hot chocolate and tea; I recommend the green tea and lotus flower. Be as messy as you want, take as long as you like to create your masterpiece. The real excitement however, comes when you return to collect your pot as it takes about a week for them to go through the kiln. You get to see how your patterns and colours are vividly brought to life. If painting doesn’t appeal, you could also create a mosaic or have a go at Decopatch, which involves decorating items using coloured paper.

“The best part of my job is meeting different customers,” says manager Shelley, whose artistic touches are everywhere, from the café’s teapots and mugs, to the groovily Decopatched chairs.

“I love seeing the reaction from children when they come to pick up their pottery - they are so excited and happy to see how it has turned out.”

A £3 studio fee covers full use of the materials, including the paints and kiln, with the cost of the items you choose added separately. Prices start from as little as £2.50 for a coaster. There is currently a good range of Christmas items, including baubles, tea lights and ornaments.

Booking is strongly advised, especially at weekends due to its popularity for children’s parties.

The café is a perfect venue to take visiting younger family members or for a fun date. Fired Arts is open until 10pm on Thursdays. For more information, visit www.firedarts.co.uk or see the Facebook Page “Fired Arts, Sheffield”.

Images: Fired Arts

Powerful women in business

Image: Flickr.com

For years I have been a devoted Lush fan. Whether it is their famous bath bombs, gorgeous smelling soap, fresh facemasks or unusual scented shower gels, I cannot walk in without buying at least one of their amazing products. Of course, this means that when it hits winter and the Christmas stock graces the stores, my bank balance has no hope. Hot Toddy shower gel is by far my favourite with its distinctly Christmassy ginger and cinnamon scent, though Snow Fairy is a close second and is perfect if you are looking for something a bit sweeter.

Bubble bar, The Christmas Hedgehog and cleanser, Buche de Noel are also must buys and will make cute presents for friends and family. Although Lush is higher on the price range, it is important to remember that as well as being good quality and smelling out of this world, every product is freshly and handmade with natural and ethnically bought ingredients.

@forgelifestyle

Review : Fired Arts

Beauty

Lush

F O RG E P RESS

by Alice Farmery

Victoria Beckham hit the headlines once again this week, as she was awarded the title of ‘Britain’s top entrepreneur’ by the business magazine Management Today. Although this award marks an important step forward in the media’s acknowledgement of successful business women, the publication of such ‘power lists’ also highlights that for every woman who has her achievements recognised, there are hundreds who go about their work out of the public eye and whose successes go unnoticed. In a bid to readdress this imbalance, Forge Press has compiled a list of five women who are using their business skills for the common good, proving that female entrepreneurship is a powerful weapon in the fight against global inequality and social injustice.

Jacqueline Novogratz

Described as “one of the most innovative players shaping philanthropy today”, Jacqueline Image: Flickr Novogratz once had a bright future mapped out in international banking with Chase Manhattan Bank. However, her concern for the disappointing results and lack of accountability seen in traditional charities then caused her to reassess her career. In 2001, she founded Acumen, an organisation that aims to revolutionise our attitude towards charitable giving by emphasising the need for ‘bottom-up’ investment over ‘top-down’ aid in the global fight against poverty. Acumen invests in early stage companies and organisations that provide affordable and sustainable products to the world’s poor. Upwards of 40 million peoples’ lives have been transformed by Acumen, which does not just give money to these fledgling companies, but also provides the infrastructure and management expertise that enable them to succeed. Novogratz is also a renowned author, with her book The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World topping the New York Times best seller list when it was published in 2009.

Harriet Lamb

Image: Flickr

Between 2009 and 2011 the value of Fairtrade sales in the UK increased by 22 per cent, and the rise shows no signs of slowing, as demonstrated by record sales in 2012 that topped £1.5 billion. The organisation works with small farmers, 23 per cent of which are women, to ensure they are paid a decent price for their products and protect the environment in which they work. This support

empowers the whole community, allowing them to be more incomesecure and less vulnerable to the effects of poverty. Much of the brand’s success can be attributed to its Chief Executive Officer, Harriet Lamb, who has been in the job since 2012 after 11 years as Executive Director of the United Kingdom Fairtrade Foundation. She has been credited with the transition of Fairtrade from “something for a few yogurt-eating vicars” to the mainstream market. But she is not resting on her laurels; Lamb’s next ambitious goal is global trade reform, actively taking on EU’s CAP tariffs and US cotton subsidies to give producers in developing countries the chance to compete.

Jude Ower

Jude Ower is one of the growing breed of tech-entrepreneurs who are turning our modern obsession with mobile gaming into something with a positive social impact. As the founder and CEO of PlayMob, Ower has developed the world’s first gaming platform for ‘in-game giving’, that allows users to donate money to charities while playing on their phone or tablet. Developers choose a project to support and an item in their game to sell, and when a player buys that item, a percentage is donated to the chosen project. To give just one example of this company’s success, money raised for WWF through the sale of virtual pandas in Sims Social game has allowed 31 real giant pandas to be saved. Ower has also overseen the launch of Give8-bit, a YouTube channel dedicated to showcasing charitable activities by games companies. Achieving success at such a young age in a traditionally male-dominated field, Ower’s work has transformed the way we play games and interact with charity.

She has encouraged and inspired a whole generation of women to consider a career in the gaming industry, by demonstrating that ambition and determination are the most important criteria for success.

Camila Batmanghelidjh

No list of brilliant business women would be complete without the inimitable Camila Batmanghelidjh, who set up her first charity in her early twenties, and is now the director of Kids Company, an organisation t h a t provides life-changing services for children suffering from poverty, abuse and neglect. Despite having to overcome chronic dyslexia, she graduated with a first-class degree in Theatre and Dramatic Arts from the University of Warwick, before training as a psychotherapist at Regent’s University London.

Throughout her career she has worked tirelessly to highlight the government’s shortcomings and Image: Flickr improve legislation designed to protect young people. Batmanghelidjh has used her business talent to generate in excess of £146 million since Kids Company began in 1996, while creating a unique and pioneering approach to children’s services that focuses on the needs of the client rather than current trends or financial targets.

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@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com

LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL

Society Spotlight: Filipino Society

by Juliene Dolot

The Filipino Society of the University of Sheffield is one of the newest cultural societies, having been established last year. Our society is fairly small, consisting of undergraduates and postgraduates of mixed backgrounds.

One thing we all have in a common is love for food. One of the best things about being in this society is that we are all about finding new places to eat. We have regular meet-ups at LOL Bubble Tea on West Street and we love trying out international buffets and restaurants in Sheffield. We hold a variety of socials, ranging from nights out and casual gatherings to food and film nights.

Members get to know each other more and socials are a good break from the hectic student life.

Despite being a new and fairly small society, we are proud to have already achieved quite a few accomplishments. Last year, our society cooperated with RAG in raising money for the victims of Typhoon Haiyan which caused fatal devastation throughout the Philippines. Members of our society devoted their free time by running a bake sale and collecting money from the public during the annual World Food Festival last November.

Images: Mohammed Al Mannai

This year, we aim to collaborate with a home society and another international society for our activities. We are also hoping to do more volunteering activities as a group. We have a line-up of Images: Alyssa Alegre exciting international events to get involved in this year, such as the Food Festival where people are invited to try some of the most delicious Filipino cuisine prepared and cooked by members of the society. Furthermore, we are competing for the second time in the International Cultural Evening. This event is one of the best reasons to be in a cultural society such as ours. Everyone gets to learn and perform a traditional Filipino dance even with no previous dance experience and without the aid of professional dance instructors.

We have a salsa social coming up which will be held at Bloo 88 on Wednesday November 19. Our society will also run two sessions of Give It A Go ‘parol’ making in December, which involves making traditional Filipino Christmas lanterns.

Images: Megan Claudia Ong So if exploring a new culture sounds like something you would be interested in, you are very welcome to join us. Come to our upcoming socials to meet everyone, or simply join our Facebook group - just seach ‘The Filipino Society of the University of Sheffield’ and we will gladly welcome you.

Concourse couture

Fashion

Katrina Hemingway First year, Architecture Wearing: Shoes and skirt from Topshop, top from Urban Outfitters and bag from Zara.

by Mared Gruffydd and Hope Cunningham

Ejen Acebis First year, Psychology Wearing: Jacket from Levi, shoes from Nike, trousers from Yes Style, t-shirt from Zara, hat from Beloved, bag from Ted Baker.

Mollie Lidster First year, French and Spanish, Wearing: Dress from Topshop, shoes from Office, cardigan from Cow, top is vintage.

Jack Semmence Third year, Education, Culture & Childhood Wearing: T-shirt from Zara, shoes from Topman, jacket from River Island, trousers from H&M.

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LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL

@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com

The science of shopping...

Shopping is a just a way of expressing our own fashion identities. It can be an outlet for stress or even a way to socialise with other likeminded shoppers. Lifestyle teamed up with Very.co.uk, whose survey revealed some interesting shopping habits that women aged 18-21 have. Lifestyle editor, Niki Kesharaju, uses these statistics to explore three main areas which influence our shopping habits. ymlrs.com Image: ll

Bloggers and vloggers

Blogs are the new magazines. Over the past few years, bloggers and vloggers are making fashion incredibly accessible to women our age. Very.co.uk’s survey results revealed that 37 per cent of women aged 18-21 get their style advice from blogs, which is higher than magazines, TV programmes and celebrities. In addition, 47 per cent of this age group’s style is influenced by online bloggers and vloggers.

Bloggers are a step away from the catwalk. Often women find it difficult to relate to models in the fashion industry and the fashion ideals constructed by designers. Only 18 per cent of respondents believe that Fashion Week trends are realistic inspirations. Fashion that has been synthesised by celebrities or bloggers is a way to bridge the gap between our wardrobes and the catwalk.

With millions of blogs in cyberspace, there is a blog for everyone’s style identity, from 50s vintage to Japanese kawaii. Very.co.uk’s survey results revealed that 34 per cent of women aged 18-21 read fashion and beauty blogs at least once a week. This clearly goes to show how women just like us are influencing each other’s style choices. An increasing number of high street and online stores like ASOS run campaigns like ‘ASOS Insider’ to get bloggers more involved with the brand, appealing to masses of women.

Image

: shew earsfa

shion.c om

Celebrities and designers

When the respondents of Very.co.uk’s survey were asked which celebrity they would choose as their personal stylist, the majority chose Cheryl Cole. In second and third place were Victoria Beckham and Kim Kardashian respectively.

With celebrities plastered over the TV and magazines, it’s not difficult to conclude that celebrities do have a great influence on how we shop. A third of women aged 18-21 claim to recreate celebrity styles.

Just like bloggers, celebrities are another way of making fashion more real to women our age.

Celebrities like Fearne Cotton and Millie Mackintosh regularly champion high street and online shops like Topshop and ASOS. Other celebrities like Nicole Scherzinger and Kim Kardashian have come up with their own fashion lines, for Missguided and Dorothy Perkins respectively. High street shops are readily available to us at prices that we can afford and having celebrities endorse them increases the fashion factor of these items of clothing.

An increasing number of catwalk designers like Isabel Marant and Alexander Wang have taken to high street shops like H&M to offer affordable designer fashion. While these pieces are still on the expensive side, this catwalk and high street marriage is still a positive one for those of us who are after a oneoff piece. When 36 per cent of 18-21 year old women believe that Fashion Week trends can be easily recreated with items on the high street, collaborative efforts by designers and high-streets are always welcome changes.

Images : Flickr

The emotional shopping problem

The term ‘retail therapy’ is a 21st century buzzword made for young women. Shopping is the answer to our emotions. Happy because things are going your way? Let’s go shopping to celebrate. Having a rough day? Buy something to cheer you up. And if you are having a really rough day, you don’t even have to leave the house, online shopping is a lazy way out.

We get emotionally invested in brands that create positive shopping experiences for us. Most high street shops that are online regularly have exclusive discounts for those people who are signed up to their newsletters. We get discount codes in exchange for brand loyalty. And if there’s one thing women between the ages of 18-21 love, it’s a good bargain.

In fact, Very.co.uk’s survey results say that a massive 68 per cent of women in that age group get more satisfaction from bagging a bargain than splurging on a designer item. Promotional tactics like free delivery from online stores are an illusion for saving money. You do save by using these discounts, but you only save by spending! It may sound obvious but the best way of saving money would probably be by not purchasing the item in the first place.

A lot of brands also use “scarcity tactics” by stating that certain items are “exclusive” or “available for a limited time only”. This only encourages us to spend more for the fear of missing out. So therein lays our emotional shopping problem. Our shopping habits are affected by our emotional responses to advertising and brands.

Image: 4Vector.com

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@forgelifestyle /forgelifestyle lifestyle@forgetoday.com

LIFESTYLE&TRAVEL On a shoestring : Salou

Travel

By Mared Gruffydd

In this fortnight’s student travel guide, Mared Gruffydd explores Salou. Find out where to go out, where to stay and what do to so you can get the ultimate cultural experience at this beautiful Spanish city.

If you are looking for a few days’ break from the business of university life or if you are already planning next year’s summer holiday, Salou, situated on Spain’s beautiful east coast, the Costa Dorada, is the ideal place to go to for a balanced holiday of partying, relaxing and sightseeing and its all possible without breaking the bank.

Because it is so popular with tourists, there are many hotels and apartments to choose from in Salou. A great cheap place to stay is Ibersol Spa Aquaria, situated only a five minute walk from the beach and close to the supermarket and night clubs.

Each two or three bedroom apartment accomodates up to six people and has a private terrace or balcony, a spacious lounge, a kitchen, a dining area and two bathrooms. There is also a spa, a gym and a large swimming pool and it is the perfect place to meet young people from around the world as so many choose to stay there because it is so affordable.

Salou might not be well-known for its night life, but it is even better than Zante or Magaluf because you regularly meet many

young people from countries from as far afield as Cuba. However if you do feel homesick, you can go to any of the popular Irish bars where there is a very friendly atmosphere filled with people singing and drinking Guinness. There is also the option to go to Bonds, a night club aimed at Brits which also organises boat parties and events during the day. For a more international night, Kiss is a popular bar with €1 shots, perfect for that ever-dwindling student budget. Tropical and Snoepys are two of Salou’s largest clubs; Tropical has four floors with well-known Spanish club music blasting on all of them, and Snoepys has a free entry and free cocktail deal for girls and offers a VIP area.

During the day, you can relax on the beach and swim in the warm sea, or catch a cheap bus to Port Aventura; a theme park and aqua park only 15 minutes away. For a day out, Barcelona is only two hours away on the train and the return journey only costs

Lifestyle investigates...

by Alice Farmery

Geocaching

You may have never heard of a ‘Geocache’, but in all probability you unwittingly pass one on a daily basis, and there may even be one on your street! In its simplest form, geocaching can best be described as a large-scale 21st century treasure hunt, which utilises modern technology to connect ‘hiders’ and ‘seekers’ throughout the world.

The aim of this exciting game is to locate a series of concealed ‘caches’, and then log your discovery before replacing it in exactly the same hiding place for the next treasure-hunter to find. Caches can take any form, from plastic boxes to fake rocks with hidden compartments or tiny containers the size of nailheads. The role of the hider is to creatively conceal their treasure, then upload its whereabouts onto the Geocacher website or app, leaving some extra hints if desired. The hider then lets the search begin. Sometimes the hider leaves a trail of clues hidden within caches that can lead to a final ‘grand prize’.

Once registered on the Geocacher website, potential seekers can enter their postcodes to search for a cache in their area, then download its co-ordinates onto their mobile phone or any other GPS-enabled devices. The seeker then uses this information to pinpoint a location within 20 feet of the cache, and uses their phones as a map to lead them there. However technology will only get you so far, as once you reach the point indicated by the map on your phone, it is time to get searching.

Common hiding places include tree roots, under rocks and behind street signs, but don’t rule anywhere out as hiders can be very innovative when disguising their caches, making them easy to overlook. Once you find the cache, open it up and record your discovery by signing the log book inside. Medium and large caches often contain small trade items which you are free to take, as long as you leave something of equal value in its place. When you are finished, be sure to replace the cache, then move on to your next challenge. Part of geocaching’s appeal is that it is accessible to everyone regardless of age and experience; all caches on the website are rated in terms of size and difficulty, so you have the freedom to choose the level that suits you.

I set out one afternoon to try geocaching for myself. Having downloaded the app I was surprised to discover just how many caches were nearby, with twenty one hidden within a one-mile radius of my flat. It took a while to find some that would be suitable for beginners, but in the end I decided to head to Endcliffe park where the app assured me that several caches had been hidden. The map on my phone led me to the first location without any problems, but despite extensive searching of the area, I couldn’t find the cache anywhere. I did receive some very strange and suspicious looks from members of the public as I rummaged through the undergrowth.

At the second site the same thing occurred, and I was almost ready to give up when I came across a small plastic box hidden beneath a gate post. I felt a great sense of achievement adding my name to the list of finders. Now that I knew what to look for I found it much easier to locate my third cache, and this time I traded a small plastic keyring for a mini packet of sweets. It was fun to read the messages left by previous finders; some had added cards and letters to communicate with other geocachers.

I really enjoyed my first attempt at geocaching and I now understand why so many people take part. There is a real sense of community among seekers, and the thrill of finding a cache can become totally addictive. This activity is great for getting some exercise and experiencing the great outdoors. Best of all, it gives you the chance to explore parts of Sheffield that you might not otherwise get to visit.

All images: Alice Farmery

€12. There you can hop on an opentop double decker tourist bus and see all the sites, like the football stadiums, the famous light up water fountains, the Sagrada Familia cathedral, the white beaches and Gaudi’s architecture.

Salou might be a tourist hotspot for families and young people alike, but you can also have the chance to learn a bit about the Spanish and Catalan culture by talking to local people and trying the country’s famous cuisine. There are many restaurants near the beach to try paella and tapas and maybe even speak a bit of Spanish at the same time.

Salou really is the perfect holiday to go on with friends if you want that mixture of partying all night and doing something effortless during the day, all for an affordable price tag.

All images: Marad Gruffydd

Lifestyle’s Recipe Corner Spaghetti in Avocado Sauce

by Michael Kind

A quick, easy, cheap and healthy recipe that makes multiple servings, so share it with your housemates, or refrigerate for another mealtime.

Ingredients: • • • • • • • • • •

2 medium sized avocadoes 1 clove garlic, chopped 1 red chilli, chopped 1 lime (juice and zest) 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp salt 1 tsp sugar 8 cherry tomatoes, quartered Half a 325g tin of sweetcorn 300g spaghetti

Method:

1. Bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to boil and add the spaghetti. Leave to cook for eight to 10 minutes, or however long the packet instructions say.

2. Meanwhile, add the avocadoes, garlic, chilli, lime juice zest, soy sauce, salt and sugar to a mixing bowl. Use a food processor to mash together. This should result in a creamy sauce.

3. Stir in the tomatoes and sweetcorn.

4. When the spaghetti has cooked, add the avocado sauce and stir through.

You can also add some chicken to it.

Serve it warm and enjoy.

Images: Michael Kind

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COFFEE BREAK Dates for the Diary

@FPCoffeeBreak /forgepresscoffeebreak

Did you know...

For those who don’t like loud noises, think Guy Fawkes probably had the right idea, or are morally opposed to fireworks, Coffee Break has found some more alternative festivities to embrace.

Our very own Sheffield is the greenest city in Europe.

November 7th is Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day! Eating chocolate stimulates the release of endorphins, generating feelings of pleasure and immense chocolaty-goodness whilst almonds help to improve your Cholesterol levels, so this one is really a no brainer.

Celebrate this special day by getting yourself a bar of the good stuff. It would be rude not to.

November 9th is Chaos Never Dies Day! This day is for those with hectic schedules, disorderly diaries and panicked plans. By recognising the turmoil in modern everyday life, Chaos Never Dies Day calls upon you to embrace the mania.

The madness never ends. It’s

a way of life. Celebrate this Sunday by recognising that truth this holiday represents; the chaos really doesn’t die.

November 15th is Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day! Hopefully, everything in your fridge was once fresh, edible food awaiting consumption, but perhaps during the chaos you forgot to keep an eye on those pesky best before dates.

Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day is the prime opportunity to investigate where that questionable smell has come from, scrub down the vegetable crisper and maybe chuck away the bottle of ketchup that’s been open for a few years. You’ll feel better afterwards. Honest.

Mistake of the Fortnight

A third of Sheffield is part of the Peak District and 61% of the city is greenspace. We also have the highest ratio of trees to people, with over two million trees in total.

When threatened, a wombat will dive into the nearest burrow headfirst, leaving it’s backside exposed. Wombats have tough, thick skin on their lower back, which is strong enough that most predators cannot cause it any damage. The wombat is then able to forcefully thrust their backsides upwards to crush a predator’s skull against the roof of its burrow.

What firework are you?

As Katy Perry so accurately said, baby, you’re a firework… but what kind? In light of Bonfire Night, Coffee Break brings you a super informative personality quiz to tell you just that.

Just answer these six simple questions...

3.) How would you describe your personality in just one word?

1.)What’s your favourite past time?

4.)What’s your favourite past time?

A) Things that cause a rush of adrenaline rushes, like extreme sports.

B)As much activity as you can fit in.

C) Something creative or artistic D)Arson 2.) Which description best fits you?

The Welsh translation of this road sign reads “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

Word

A) You rush straight into things, are spontaneous and unpredictable.

B)You are busy, chaotic and constantly on the move.

C)You a creative and enduring.

D)You are occasionally destructive, strong and bold.

A) Explosive B) Colourful C) Sparkling D) Firey

A) Things that cause a rush of adrenaline rushes, like extreme sports.

B)As much activity as you can fit in.

C) Something creative or artistic D)Arson 5.)What’s your favourite dance move?

A) Repeatedly throwing yourself into the air with as much vigour as you can muster. Jump, baby, jump.

B) Spinning. Lots of spinning. In circles.

C) You don’t dance, you just sparkle D) You’re so hot, you don’t need any special moves.

6.) What’s your favourite song?

A) Diamonds, Rihanna B) Spinning Around, Kylie Minogue C) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star D) Disco Inferno, The Trammps 7.) What’s your favourite food?

A) Tomato and rocket salad B) Mini rolls C) Satay skewers D) Something hot, hot, hot. Like chilli.

Mostly As? You’re a Mostly Bs? You’re a Mostly Cs? You’re a Mostly Ds? You’re a Catherine Wheel! sparkler! bonfire! rocket!

of the fortnight:

Minacious, adjective and noun: 1. Menacing, threatening; of a threatening character; full of threats or menaces

Unlike actual rockets, you aren’t made out of a paper tube and stuffed with gunpowder, but you are explosive, beautiful and far reaching. Outgoing and spontaneous, with just a little spark of inspiration, you can light up the sky.

Embrace it.

Dizzying and energetic, you’re the brightest light in the sky. Like a Catherine Wheel, you’re chaotic and colourful.

At first you might appear run of the mill, but you’re the most innovative of the lot. Bright and slow burning, you inspire others to follow your lead and embrace their creative instincts.

Onlookers are astonished by how much you fit into your time, but make sure Be proud of your that you don’t burn out potential. You can too quickly. really give off sparks.

Forget fireworks, you’re the main event!

A steadying, enduring presence, you pull draw people in. Like a bonfire, you burn hot and constant, with the potential to absorb and destroy everything in your path.

Keep yourself in check and people will be to your warmth.

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@FPCoffeeBreak

COFFEE BREAK

/forgepresscoffeebreak

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Quotes of the fortnight

“

I sometimes think of what future historians will say of us. A single sentence will suffice for the modern man: he fornicated and read the papers.

Albert Camus

”

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Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realise that half of them are even stupider. ” George Carlin

dingbats Dingbats are visual word puzzles from which you must identify a well-known phrase or saying.

1.

Across:

Down:

2. Tending to commit minor crime, particularly a young person (10) 7. Has a pH of less than 7 (4) 8. To look upon or examine (6) 11. Unlawful killing without malice forethought (12) 13. Shanghai World Financial Centre; the bottle ______ (6) 14. Southern city, notorious for graffiti artist Banksy (7) 15. One of Santa’s helpers (3) 16. A dull, continuous pain (4) 17. Short notes, designating something to be remembered (5) 19. To lose power or momentum; move shakily or hesitantly (6)

1. Language without metrical structure (5) 3. Fifth prime number (6) 4. Parasitic insect (3) 5. Type of leavened bread from India (4) 6. Precious stone; green (4) 9. Metal, atomic number 12 (9) 10. The most important meal of the day (8) 11. Rank above captain (5) 12. Alcoholic drink without hops (3) 13. Relating to sight, visual (7) 14. Capital of Switzerland (4) 17. The fifth month (3)

2.

3.

Mail Male P&A TEKCIT

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Matchdebating Should Ched Evans be allowed to return to football?

Denying a man work is Unapologetic Evans deserves no redemption yet another crime Sean White First things first, before I say anything else on the matter, before launching into a tirade of vitriol about a perceived trivialisation of rape and sexual assault, in no way do I defend or make excuses for any of the crimes committed

by Ched Evans, he is a convicted rapist, fact. He has caused irreparable damage to a young woman’s life, the effects of which will be significant for the rest of her life.

After Ched Evans’ recent release from prison last month, scores of people have appealed to the forces that be, the FA, to ban Evans ever returning to football and continuing the job he held previous to his conviction.

Indeed 150,000 have put their name to an online petition in support of the ban. While there is obvious merit to this viewpoint, and certain factors to be considered, to deny Evans a return to his job would deny him the chance to again become a member of society.

A prison sentence is designed to rehabilitate as well as obtain retribution for the crimes committed.

However, being refused the right to play football again would continue to single him out as a now lesser member of society. It seems that this opposition are happy for him to be released from prison, as long as he is not allowed to make a success of his life, or continue earning a comfortable wage.

He should be forced to

undertake monotonous low-paid work, almost as a perpetual punishment.

While he has shown a reluctance to directly apologise for his actions, it is understandable that as he 100% maintains his innocence, shown by his appeal of the conviction, he may fear an apology to be an admission of guilt.

He has been convicted, served his sentence, whether the sentence was sufficient is another matter, and now should be allowed to return to the job he possesses the skills to succeed at. And a skilled job is what it should be classed as. While people may argue to play football is a privilege, football clubs have evolved into businesses. They are less about the social enjoyment of the game, and more a moneymaking scheme for rich oligarchs and the like.

Morals and ethics are not generally of interest to these businesses, and if someone possesses the skills to improve their business, they will employ them.

The game has history for giving second chances as has been seen numerous times previously. Both Lee Hughes and Luke McCormick, convicted of death by dangerous driving, have returned to footballing careers.

Marlon King, with a string to convictions too long to list, was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment in 2009 for sexual assault. While his club at the time, sacked him following the conviction, Coventry City were more than happy to utilise his skills upon his release, continuing to

have a successful career despite his past.

The point is, where do we draw the line? At what point is the crime considered too severe for this person to return to aspects of a normal life?

If the person has served their sentence laid down

by Her Majesty’s Service, are we right to be able to dictate what sort of life they should be allowed to lead afterwards?

Much has been made about his position in the limelight and role model to younger generations.

However, I disagree with the notion that he will be considered a role model.

Once young children reach an age where they understand the actions that took place, I find it hard to believe anyone could aspire to his lifestyle, after the vilification he will rightly receive.

So while Evans’ actions were clearly deplorable and all action should be taken to eradicate further instances from society, a ban from football would be a means of punishment all over again.

Ed McCosh In 1992, Mike Tyson was at the top of the boxing world, the most feared man in the sport and one of the most recognised sportsmen on the planet. That year, he was convicted of raping 18 year old Desiree Washington.

Three years later, Tyson was in the ring, once again an icon of the sport for the world to see.

Fast forward twenty years, to the less glamorous surroundings of Caernarfon, Wales. In 2012 Sheffield United striker Ched Evans followed the same path, jailed for the rape of a 19 year old woman in a hotel room. Two and a half years later, Evans’ sentence has been served, and is back in the public limelight. In a normal case of a person who has done their time, this is a period of re-integration. Let them back, we say, else how could we justify our prison system?

Yet t h i s is no ordinary c a s e .

P l a y i n g professional football is not a run-of-themill job, and rape is not a crime that can ever be taken lightly.

Forge Sport

In English football, the same cases crop up as a reference point. Lee Hughes, Lee McCormick and Courtney MeppenWalter have all caused death by dangerous driving.

All have now returned to the professional scene. So Evans, as their counterpart, must surely be afforded the same retribution.

The problem is that McCormick and MeppenWalter made grave mistakes behind the wheel, and have shown a great deal of remorse for their actions. Evans, like Hughes, is unrepentant.

Considering that the court found him guilty of the heinous crime of rape, his actions are reprehensible.

If you listen to any crowd supporting the side facing up to Lee Hughes, you will realise how this sits with people. Hughes insists that the events that lead to a fatal crash were not his fault. How can Evans argue the same for a sexual offence?

Footballers are in a position of real power. They are role models and icons to the people who flock to see them every week. As a result they are always in the public spotlight. As Evans told the police when under arrest, he and his friend Clayton MacDonald “could have any woman we wanted”, because of their fame and wealth.

A convicted rapist being put back in a position of that power is incredibly dangerous.

Players such as Marlon King and Gary Madine have been found guilty of assault, but rape is much worse. It is a crime which can ruin the victim’s life. In this case, a 19 year old woman had her identity leaked and became the focal point of a hate campaign for daring to claim Evans had raped her.

awards

Now she has moved from her home town and changed her name, with the life she knew ruined.

Worse still, Evans has offered no apology.

So, serving a fraction of his time and without showing any sense of remorse for the impact of his actions, Evans could be allowed back onto the pitch and into his position of prestige. It’s as if we, as a society, are saying that if you’re famous enough you can get away with what you like. The conspiracy theories surrounding the sentencing of celebrities were heated enough without the fires being stoked by the Oscar Pistorius case.

Mike Tyson served just three years for rape.

After that, he was allowed straight back into the ring.

With his success the case was almost swept under the rug, and the world of sport failed to show that they condemned rape. The reputation of the sporting community, they who fail to protect homosexual athletes and fail to show that sexual assault can never be tolerated over and over again, is being dragged through the mud. If Ched Evans set foot on the Bramall Lane turf again, the harmful cycle will just continue. A t some point, we have to draw the line.

This week’s contributors Ed McCosh Joe Bamford Tom Pyman Danny Armstrong Rob Milne Sean White Michael Caley Jordan Slater

Forge Sport editor Ed McCosh chooses his heroes and villains of the week Misbah ul-Haq The Pakistan batsman hit the fastest ever Test fifty (21 balls) and equalled Sir Viv Richards’ 28 year old record for the fastest century with 100 scored off just 56 balls against Australia.

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Lewis Hamilton

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With victory in the US Grand Prix, Hamilton recorded his 32nd race win - the most of any British driver in history.

Chris Smalling “Stupid,” Man Utd manager Louis van Gaal said of Smalling’s dismissal in the 1-0 derby defeat to Man City.

We won’t disagree.

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Refereeing

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Any contentious officiating in the football paled in comparison with the decision to deny England’s Ryan Hall a try in a 16-12 defeat vs Australia in Rugby League’s Four Nations tournament.

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Sports personality of the week Forge Sport’s Tom Pyman met women’s futsal captain Lilith Brown for an interview

How would you describe the difference between futsal and football as we know it?

First of all, Futsal is played indoors with just five players per team including the goalkeeper.

There are kick ins instead of throw ins and a four second time limit on taking set pieces. This means the game is played at a much higher pace and intensity to football. Futsal requires greater technical ability. To play Futsal you need to be skilful, fast thinking and hard working.

“Hopefully Futsal will start to get some of the recognition it deserves” Futsal is famously South American and many of the sport’s best players are from that area. Do you think it will ever be as popular in the UK? It is hard to tell. The English FA have invested more in Futsal in recent years, but not on a big enough scale. In South America people play Futsal and street football because they simply don’t have the space and facilities to play football. For a lot of children in South America futsal can be a saviour and something to aspire to. In the UK there is a huge football culture, people are encouraged to play football from an early age, often to the detriment of their technical skills. Many great footballers say their footballing ability developed

from playing Futsal as a child, so hopefully futsal will start to get some of the recognition it deserves, and since I have been at Uni there has already been a massive increase in demand for futsal.

How long have you personally been involved in futsal?

Back home in Sweden I played football for more than 10 years; since I was eight years old. But because of the rough winters we used to go indoors and play futsal during the snowiest months. It wasn’t that serious, just training and the odd matches, but it definitely prepared me for the futsal I am playing today. Last year I joined the University’s very first women’s futsal team, and we started to develop the infrastructure for the women’s team that we have this year. I have been playing futsal for a few years now, but only in a proper team since being at University.

teammates in order to communicate effectively on the pitch. Communication is key to playing the right pass or defending in the right way.

Since the game is so intense it is crucial that you know how your teammates play in order to make the correct decisions in a split second. This is also great because it makes us a really close team both on and off the pitch. I also love the high intensity of futsal, it gives you a massive adrenaline kick that lasts the whole game.

This makes it harder for me to adapt back to playing 11-a-side football as the game is much slower.

How much interaction do you have with the men’s team?

A lot! We are lucky to be so close with the men’s team, and I think we are probably one of the most united clubs at the Uni. The men’s players f r o m t h e

What aspects of the sport do you enjoy most?

The best thing is how well you need to know y o u r

committee coach us during training sessions, helping us to become better players. The women’s team often learn a lot from staying to watch the men’s training and matches, whilst this can also be true for the men’s team as they learn things by watching from a coaching point of view. All our club socials involve both the men’s and women’s team, so we all get on really well.

It is a pleasure to have such brilliant, engaged club mates.

What do you enjoy most about being part of a uni sports club?

To start with, the teammates I have are all absolutely fantastic; both from the men’s and women’s team. We are really like a little family and you become really close with all the people. This is helped by having a joint committee with the men’s team, as we all get to make decisions on the running and development of the club. Also, I just love to play the sport that I love with people who love it just as much, and have that drive to succeed like I do. This club is truly one of the biggest and most important parts of my stay here at Uni and in Sheffield.

How important are events like Varsity in terms of maximizing exposure and interest for the club?

Varsity is a very important event for our club, just like any other sports club at Uni, the chance to

beat our rivals across the city is something we relish. It is particularly important for a club like ours though, to ensure the sport gets the recognition it needs to continue to develop.

Sports like futsal don’t get much coverage generally, so it is nice when lots of people turn out to support futsal in varsity.

Last year the men’s team were brilliant and won varsity, but Hallam currently do not have a women’s team and so we did not get to play. The same still applies this year and the women’s team will not have Varsity again.

“As a club we want to continue to increase the interest and demand for Futsal” What are the club’s aims for the season?

As a club we want to continue to increase the interest and demand for Futsal, especially for the women’s team. The men’s team are aiming to maintain their place in the Premier League, and hopefully get as far as possible in the BUCS knockout competition.

For the women’s team it is our first year playing in BUCS, so it will be a steep learning curve, we simply aim to have a solid first season and improve as each game comes.

Cherries pick off woeful Wednesday Football Championship

Sheffield Wednesday Bournemouth

0 2

Joe Bamford Bournemouth hit the top of the Championship table on Tuesday night after dispatching a tepid 10-man Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough.

Andrew Surman opened the scoring mid-way through the second half as the away side capitalised on Royston Drenthe’s red card, before substitute Ryan Fraser clipped home a second shortly after.

The Owls are now nine games without a win, whereas Bournemouth have put together an astonishing run of seven consecutive victories.

Following on from their narrow win over Brighton at the weekend, it was the away side who started on the front foot, yet Wednesday had the game’s

first chances, Drenthe testing Cherries keeper Artur Boruc twice in quick succession.

But you don’t win six games on the trot for nothing, and Bournemouth began to strut their stuff in the search for a seventh midway through the first half, persistence from fullback Simon Francis paying off after his cross from the byline was expertly taken in his stride by an in-form Callum Wilson.

After dummying past one defender, Wilson let fly from the edge of the six-yard box, stinging the palms of Keiren Westwood as the game’s best chance went begging.

That seemed to set the tone for the remainder of the half: Bournemouth’s forwards queuing up to take pot-shots at Westwood, with first Marc Pugh and then Matt Ritchie shooting from distance.

Wednesday’s forays forward were notorious by their absence, with Jacques Maghoma looking the most likely to unlock the seemingly impassable

Bournemouth defence.

On the cusp of half time home fans headed for the halftime refreshments in their droves when Drenthe sent a free-kick sailing high into the Bournemouth fans.

Drenthe’s game ended prematurely in the second half, when he was penalised for a foul on Marc Pugh, earning his second booking – and an early bath.

However, that only seemed to speed up the inevitable.

Bournemouth had been counterattacking with menace all game, and with the extra man they broke upfield following a Wednesday corner.

Callum Wilson picked the ball up on the half-way line, rode Chris Maguire’s challenge and teed up Pugh, who curled a tidy left-footed finish past Keiren Westwood.

And it was 2-0 five minutes later, as Bournemouth broke once more, Wilson slightly overrunning the ball – but no matter, as substitute Ryan Fraser was on hand to clip the

loose ball over Westwood and give the Cherries a seemingly unassailable lead.

Substitute Stevie May couldn’t inspire a Wednesday comeback, and many home fans had seen enough. As the Cherries support chanted ‘we are top of the league’, the Owls faithful headed for the exits, wondering when this barren run would come to an end.

Sheffield Wednesday manager Stuart Gray: “That is not an acceptable

performance. That’s probably the worst I’ve felt losing a game with Sheffield Wednesday.

“You’re not going to win football matches by playing square and backwards.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe: “It was another good, professional performance and a big three points.

“We needed an extra pass before shooting and thankfully we got that in the second half.”

Hillsborough, home of Sheffield Wednesday

Photo: Joe Bamford

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Sparkling Sheffield stride on

Men’s Hockey BUCS Northern 1A University of Sheffield University of Manchester

2 1

Joe Bamford The University of Sheffield men’s 1s bounced back from defeat to Leeds Becket in style on Wednesday night, as they ran out deserved 2-1 winners against the University of Manchester 1s at Goodwin.

Marcus Hooper was Sheffield’s matchwinner, slotting home in the second half after Manchester had cancelled out Will Galloway’s opener.

After winning their opening two games, Sheffield needed to get their season back on track following the Leeds defeat, and started the game on the front foot. Galloway had the game’s

Photo: Joe Bamford

first chance, firing narrowly wide after some free-flowing hockey from the Sheffield midfield.

He made no mistake second time around though.

After Galloway had seemingly given the ball away with a heavy touch, the last Manchester defender’s brain was quicker than his feet, and his slip allowed Jack Coulson to steal in behind and square to Galloway for a tap in.

That aside, Manchester had the better of the game early on, but poor passing let them down in the final third.

Home keeper George Wright kept Sheffield in front with some superb saves before the hosts went on the counter, Marcus Hooper releasing Galloway, whose cross narrowly evaded everyone in the Manchester D. Sheffield had a shot cleared off the line towards the end of the half as they looked to extend

their lead, before Jack Culmar forced another save out of the Manchester keeper.

Black and golds captain Joel Gandhi then saved the day, his vital touch preventing a Manchester equaliser as they hit Sheffield on the counter-attack.

Manchester did however draw level shortly after, making use of a short-corner with a drag-flick deflecting into the Sheffield net.

Sheffield heads didn’t drop though, and they forced a short corner of their own on the halftime whistle.

They were denied a second goal though, as Gandhi thought he’d scored, only for the goal to be ruled out for an apparent Sheffield foot in the build-up.

Manchester started the second half on top but some stern Sheffield defending kept the visitors’ attackers at bay.

The hosts then forced a short corner, again having a goal

disallowed, but this time the deflection off a Sheffield foot was more obvious.

Matthew Ferguson’s spectacular sliding challenge broke up a Manchester attack and put Sheffield on the counter but the cross was poor and flew over the byline.

Manchester remained on top for the next 20 minutes and looked the likeliest to go in front.

Some nimble stickwork from Culmar nearly broke the deadlock but Sheffield were soon back in front against the run of play.

Hooper gathered in a deflected cross perfectly before slotting the ball home to nudge Sheffield back in front.

After Sheffield were caught on the ball in midfield Manchester then went close, but fantastic last-man defending from Wank intercepted the ball and set Sheffield on the counter.

The home side then nearly stretched their lead but the final shot dribbled agonisingly wide.

Controversy was in the air in the final minutes when a Sheffield defender was penalised for lifting the ball in the D, when it looked as though the Manchester attacker was at fault. The short corner was expertly defended by the home defence though, as Sheffield maintained their lead.

Manchester were then reduced to 10 for the remainder of the game, the umpire losing his patience after dissent from the Manchester player, who was given a yellow card and his marching orders.

The last action of the match was a Sheffield short corner, which was well defended, but it mattered little as the home side held on for a vital three points.

action following a clever move down the left flank.

In response, Jamal CampbellRyce and full back Craig Alcock linked up well down the Blades’ right hand side flank but, in the fourteenth minute, Joe Dudgeon cheekily Cruyff-turned the winger and delivered to Sam Winnall, who skewed his shot just over.

United had their only chances in the form of two snatched shots from striker Jamie Murphy. The first came after delightful onetwo play between Jose Baxter and Bob Harris but Murphy’s deflected effort was saved by Tykes keeper Ross Turnbull.

Two minutes later he aimed his shot on the turn straight into Turnbull’s imposing frame.

The half time whistle ended a rather forlorn first half for United, who failed to convert after neat play while Barnsley’s back four proved tenacious and resolute in defence.

Barnsley looked noticeably buoyed after the restart and it

didn’t take them long to make their intentions known as Devante Cole’s curling low shot was saved well by Howard.

From the resulting corner James Bailey played a beautiful ball in to the Blades’ box as Winnall rose unchallenged on the edge of the six yard area.

His header sent the ball into the back of the net and the already vocal rabble of Tykes fans who made the short trip down the M1 were sent into raptures.

In the period following the goal, which came on 56 minutes United’s attacks were reduced to desperate shots from range.

It also instigated shameless time-wasting from Barnsley keeper Turnbull with a third of the game still to play.

He was finally booked on 79 minutes and shouts of “about time” in response to the yellow card from the home crowd proved to be apt on two levels.

From then on United attacked in earnest, sensing the game slipping away. Jose Baxter

played a clever ball across the face of goal but substitute Marc McNulty’s effort was saved

by Turnbull, who by then was stealing the show in his role as pantomime villain.

The final whistle ended a tame performance that could only

merit boos from the frustrated home faithful, as United sunk to eighth. For Wilson, taking three points home from his old haunt was the mark of a perfect reunion.

Prodigal son Wilson comes back to haunt Blades Football League One Sheffield United Barnsley

0 1

Danny Armstrong Sheffield United failed to make it five league wins in a row as they were beaten by local rivals Barnsley at Bramall Lane.

The pre-match focus of this feisty South Yorkshire derby was on the returning Danny Wilson, who having led both Sheffield sides was back in the city with his Barnsley charges in need of three points after a run of three games without a win.

United kicked off and attacked a Kop that provided a cauldron of atmosphere at the oldest ground in professional football to greet one of 12 Yorkshire derbies the League One season has to offer.

Barnsley were the first to threaten as they forced United keeper Mark Howard into early

Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground

Photo: Jordan Byrne

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Teeside topple b’ball

Men’s Basketball BUCS Northern 2B

University of Sheffield Teeside University

83 90

Rob Milne The University of Sheffield Basketball 1s fell short against Teeside University, losing 83-90 in a top-of-the table clash.

The Spartans have started strongly this season with two wins in the opening two games, including one over the Sheffield Hallam 2s. But the visitors were also unbeaten, with Sheffield edging the league on pointdifference before tip-off. Each team was looking to pull out a

lead at the top of the Northern 2B and take a significant step towards promotion.

Both teams were evenly matched in size and set for a battle. Sheffield won the opening tip, but were unable to capitalise, surrendering the initiative to Teeside. Defences were very much on top in the opening quarter as both teams struggled in attack. Both sides continued to miss open looks at the basket, with multiple consecutive misses.

Sheffield registered a 0% 3-point percentage during the first quarter, something that would come back to haunt them later in the game. The Spartans’ introduction of Lianne Silver saw a team boost toward the end of

the quarter as he registered some quick fire points, contributing to a tight 19-20 score line.

Low shooting percentages remained the story of the day but Akin Lisk-Carew was driving well toward the baseline and getting opportunities at the rim for Sheffield. He registered 16 points on the evening, despite facing double teams from Teeside, who recognised Lisk-Carew was running the offense. A flashy assist to open the second quarter was a particular highlight.

Teeside started to open up a lead with fast-break points and sinking shots from beyond the arc. The visitors oozed confidence, dunking the ball and displaying pure athleticism.

Sheffield’s defensive effort fell off and Teeside took a 37-47 lead into the half time break.

The second half started slowly, with Teeside gradually building their lead. But an inspired few seconds from Pierre Michelot which saw a lay-up followed by a fade away 3-pointer bred confidence in Sheffield.

The Spartan comeback continued in the fourth quarter, rattling the visitors. George Reddington led the charge with 19 points in the game, dominating the post. Slowly but surely Sheffield came back, with Lisk-Carew’s hustle levelling the game up 80-80 on a spin and layup.

But Teeside came back strong,

Mixed fortunes for Futsal Men’s Futsal BUCS Premier Northern

Jordan Slater The University of Sheffield Futsal team yielded a win and a draw from a tubulent three-game matchday this weekend.

Sheffield 1-0 York In the first of three games, Sheffield’s superiority showed after a closely fought battle with York. Sheffield’s defensive organisation was key to their success, as they limited York to just one clear chance throughout the whole game. At the other end, finishing chances was becoming an issue for Sheffield as the York keeper was in the form of his life and refused to be beaten.

That was until, with just five seconds remaining on the clock, captain Eric Leung picked out pivot Arbaz Kapadi with a fine pass.

Kapadi’s buccaneering run down the right was followed by a composed finish to secure a thoroughly deserved win for Sheffield.

Sheffield 1-4 Northumbria

Sheffield cyclists secure sterling silver Cycling Michael Caley University cyclists celebrated a historic day of competition at the BUCS Hill Climb Championships this weekend.

The Championships are held each year at the local climb of Curbar Gap – a stone’s throw away in the Peak District. The format is simple: riders set off from the bottom of the hill at one minute intervals and race to the top as fast as they can in six to 11 minutes of utter leg-burning and lung-busting agony.

The University of Sheffield Cycling Club (UoSCC) had high

hopes for glory, and their team of 11 male and seven female riders was the largest of any university present out of over 350.

In the women’s competition there was a mix of abilities, from those aiming for high overall placings to racing novices looking to gain experience in this brutal arena. Spurred on by a strong contingent of UoSCC supporters, Rebecca Smith set the wheels rolling with a solid 08:21.1 and 20th place. Women’s captain Emily Thoday will be proud to have smashed her goal of a sub10 minute time with 09:45.2 and 45th place. Most impressive, however, was Liz Stedman’s scintillating 07:44.4 on her first outing with the club to give her a top 5 finish. Cambridge’s Hayley

Simmonds came out on top overall with a time of 06:43.5.

Fresher Paddy Clark set an impressive early marker in the men’s race with a time of 06:12.8 and briefly led the standings until UoSCC hill climb specialist Matt Brown stormed up with 05:54.0 to be the first man to go under 6 minutes. Club President Michael Caley gurned his way from bottom to top and stopped the clock at 05:43.8. This looked good for UoSCC’s top placing until Chris Bevan smashed it to go just under with 05:42.0.

These times were eventually good enough for 10th and 9th respectively out of 265 in an event of an incredibly high standard. Edmund Bradbury of Cambridge set the winning time

of the day at 05:20.3.

Along with Archie Cross’ 16th placed time of 05:53.4, UoSCC’s men’s A team (cumulative of 3 fastest times) were delighted to come away with the team silver prize – an amazing achievement against a field littered with semipro riders. The women’s A team ranked 7th to give the highest ever placing in that competition for the club.

The strength in depth of this team was demonstrated by the placing of the men’s B and C teams in 6th and 24th – both also quicker than Hallam’s A team – and the overall performance will give UoSCC’s riders plenty of confidence ahead of Varsity 2015.

Sheffield began as they had left off in the York game with a solid defensive show, and at half time with the game goalless it looked like the match could go either way.

It took a controversial refereeing decision to change the game, as Northumbria were awarded a penalty by one referee whilst the second referee clearly pointed for a corner. Alas, the penalty stood, and was duly converted by Northumbria.

Sheffield were quick to reply though as the game became more frantic, with Kapadi scoring again through a sublime back heel finish.

Just as quickly as Sheffield’s confidence was rebuilt, they were to be promptly shattered with a goal mouth scramble leading to Northumbria’s second, and a well taken set piece providing their third shortly after. Sheffield changed tactics and went fly keeper for the last few minutes in an attempt to get back into the game, but Northumbria took advantage of the empty goal to seal the win.

Sheffield 2-2 Leeds Beckett Another closely fought encounter ensued against Leeds Beckett, with both teams particularly strong and organised in defence. It took just a few lapses of concentration to change the game. Leeds had a one track attacking game, endlessly playing the ball into the pivot and hoping for a chance to be created.

Although Sheffield knew exactly what was coming, it was hard to defend and both of the Leeds goals came from said direct method.

Sheffield were looking better at the other end, and a superb strike from Garret Choy, followed by another goalmouth scramble that Choy also converted, earned Sheffield a well-deserved draw.