Forge Press ISSUE 160 | MONDAY 04 APRIL 2022
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER
Sunak Spring Statement does little to help student living costs
FORGEPRESS.ORG
Club popular with students to close after eviction notice Charlotte Stokes (She/Her)
Fuel Duty to be cut by five-pence a litre until March 2023 NI threshold to be increase and basic income tax rate cut by one penny Average household to be £6 better off per month
Jade Bullen (She/Her) Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered his annual Spring Statement on 30th March as students continue to be concerned over the rising cost of living. Some of the main plans that were announced included: the cutting of fuel duty, to raise the threshold at which people start paying National Insurance, along-
Varsity Uni win Varsity again The Black and Gold of Uni win their eighth-straight pg 36 >> Women's Field Hockey Uni beat Hallam 6-0 to help propell UoS to Varsity win pg 35 >> Sports Park success Men's 1s Football win 3-2 and Women's 1s win 2-1 pg 35 >>
side pledging to cut the basic rate of income tax before the next general election. One impact that students could face is the state of unemployment. The BBC announced that the unemployment rate is predicted to be lower over the next coming years than in the Officer for Budget Responsibility's (OBR) ... Continue page 4 >>>
A popular Sheffield nightclub is set to close after 42 years of business after the building's landlord served bosses an eviction notice. The Leadmill, which opened 1980, has hosted worldwide artists such as Pulp, Coldplay, The Stone Roses, Oasis and The Housemartins. The venue is famously known for supporting up-and-coming bands and comedy events. Venue bosses went to social media to spread the news of the landlord serving an eviction notice and “forcing them out of business.” The Leadmill said: “Today we have received some devastating news that in one year's time, our Landlord is trying to evict us, forcing us to close.” This trending hashtag started today of #WeCantLoseLeadmill has been picked up by famous artists who have played here, including big names such as Tim Burgess, The Kaiser Chiefs and Joe Lycett. Arctic Monkeys lead singer, Alex Turner, has already today auctioned off a guitar, in aid of the survival of the club for 128k. The club is calling for support from locals to change the course of history.
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Forge Press
Letter from the Editor
FORGE PRESS EDITORIAL TEAM Editor-in-Chief Harry Harrison
Deputy Editor Kate Procter
Deputy Editor John Gilding Managing Editor Michael Scarborough Head of Design George Tuli Head of Photography Flo Kilby Website Manager Vacant Head of Socials and Advertising Charlotte Crompton Inclusions & Welfare Officer Molly Powell Events Coordinator Jiaxu Luo Secretary Charlotte Langford Head of News Indie Labbe-Jones News Editor Joey Grindrod News Editor Laycie Beck News Editor Kane O’Regan Features Editor Gina Marie Kalsi Features Editor Wiktoria Wrzyszcz Opinion Editor Pia Cooper Opinion Editor Leticia Chen Science & Tech Editor Louise Elliott Science & Tech Editor Tevy Kuch Lifestyle Editor Claire Gelhaus Lifestyle Editor Ella Brooker Break Editor Aidan Smith Break Editor Chloe Louise O’Connor Arts & Theatre Editor Mary Crawshaw Arts & Theatre Editor Lucy Riddell Music Editor Callum Martin Music Editor Rory O’Shea Screen Editor Miette D’Souza Screen Editor Chloe Aslett Games Editor Reiss Mason Games Editor Tom Butt Head of Sport Jemma Snowdon Sport Editor Rahul Warrier Sport Editor Miriam Kuepper Multimedia Editor Jinqian Li Multimedia Editor Larissa Hurt Multimedia Editor Tong Liu News Reporter Charlotte Stokes News Reporter Stephanie Lam News Reporter Nathan Barcio News Reporter Connor Ost News Reporter Jade Bullen Deputy Head of Socials and Advertising Joel Hooke Social Media Assistant Ellie Storey Social Media Assistant Amy Mullen-Brown
Thank you everyone
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ere we are. The last issue of 2021/22. What can I say? It’s been incredible being back out on campus this year. After spending the entirety of the previous year cooped up in our rooms, having virtual meetings, making virtual issues and doing everything through a computer screen, I could not be prouder of Forge Press’ committee and contributors for the incredible work they’ve done.
events and see what all the fuss was about after three years was brilliant. The Ice Hockey final too… I really thought we had it in the bag, then the heartbreak. Though that is part of what makes Varsity so great, it is never completely certain whether it’ll be a Uni win or a Hallam win. Shoutout to the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams too, it was a pleasure watching you all play, calling that game from the commentary gallery has been one of my Uni highlights.
Starting this year, we’d lost so much of our profile on campus. The year spent solely online really hurt us, since so much of our profile is built from these very paper, splashed around the SU and our Uni campus. It has been brilliant to see our contributor pool grow again and to have so many people get involved. It really has made everything better, I’m sure Forge TV and Radio would agree that without the contributors and our audience, our most basic work this year wouldn’t have been possible, let alone our Varsity and Elections coverage. So thank you all for your support.
Back to contributors though, thank you all again for your essential work. Our AGM is approaching and I hope loads of you will be nominating yourselves for a role. There is literally nothing we can’t offer to anyone. From Arts to Sport and Social Media to Social Secs, there is literally a role for anyone. Do go check out our Facebook AGM event for more details as we release them. You can start applying now.
Speaking of Varsity, what a result! A smashing victory for Uni of. For me, like many other third year students, this has been my first and only Varsity experience. Finally getting to go to these
Thank you to everyone once again, especially our readers. Do follow us on all your social media to remain up to date throughout Easter and the end of the year via our website. We love you all
Harry Harrison Editor-in-Chief
Monday 4 April 2022
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NEWS
The green outside Endcliffe Village in the sunshine. Image and Words: Flo Kilby
University looking to end contract with Russian gas supplier Page 5 ▶
NEWS Rail disruption expected for Easter weekend Page 6 ▶
FEATURES “I felt really bad that I’m stuck in Sheffield but going back home would be risking my life” Page 10 ▶ OPINION Should NHS staff be dismissed for refusing Covid19 vaccination Page 12 ▶
The big picture Head of Photography, Flo Kilby, on the improving weather and getting back outdoors
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he summer has finally arrived and it’s just in the nick of time. The weather has been a blessing for us all from the previous few weeks of strikes, wars and rising costs. Students have now migrated from their solitary rooms and libraries to open green fields and parks. It has
also been perfect timing for Varsity which has proved a very big success (even for those who aren’t taking part, I’ve heard the recent Roar Wednesdays have also been very good too).
LIFESTYLE Check in with your friends (and yourself!) Page 17 ▶
Screen Netflix Film Review: The Batman Page 28 ▶
GAMES Lessons other games can learn from Elden Ring Page 31 ▶
Forge Press
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News
UCU strike action called off at University of Sheffield International College Connor Ost (he/him)
An eight-day period of UCU strike action due to start last week at the University of Sheffield International College was called off after members reached an agreement on pay and holiday entitlements. The strike days at the International College were due to start Wednesday 30 March until Friday 1 April, and again from Monday 4 April to Friday 8 April after the employer, Study Group, refused to increase staff pay and holiday allowance. Earlier this month, UCU regional official Julie Kelley said members at the college had been patient and initially held off industrial action, but with no pay increase offered in the face of the ongoing cost of living crisis, said the group had no choice. She continued: “Our demands are not unreasonable and the hard-
What does Rishi Sunak’s spring statement mean for Sheffield students? Jade Bullen (she/her) >>> Continue from front ...previous prediction in October allowing for further workspace opportunities. It was announced that fuel duty will be cut by five pence per litre until March 2023. However, the OBR also predicts that energy will rise by 40% again in October if wholesale gases remain at the same level they are currently. This means students who do not have bills inclusive
rents will continue to see increases in their monthly energy costs, with little assistance from the Treasury. Mr Sunak also announced that the income threshold at which people start paying National Insurance will rise to £12,570. He also pledged to cut the basic rate of income tax from 20p to 19p before the end of this current Parliament. It is estimated that the average household will be £6 a week better off after the Chancellors review.
working staff employed by University of Sheffield International College deserve better. “Instead of pushing their own workforce towards taking industrial action, Study Group need to come back to the negotiating table with a sensible offer that will resolve this dispute.” Study Group owns and operates the college but is closely associated with the University of Sheffield, using its branding and preparing international students who intend to study at university. Now, a new deal accepted by staff promises a 3% pay rise backdated to September 2021, a slight decrease from the 4% rise the UCU initially asked for, and an equalisation of holiday allowance granting all staff 30 days leave. Study Group have also reportedly committed to starting pay negotiations for 2022 in the future, with an early offer of 3% currently on the table. Mrs Kelley said: “This
deal is good news for staff at USIC and good news for students who will no longer face disruption. Nobody ever wants to threaten strike action, but members felt they had been left with no alternative. “The settlement of this dispute will enable us to turn our attention to the cost of living award for 2022 and we welcome the opportunity for further meaningful consultation on the 3% that has so far been tabled. “This deal is a testament to the hard work of our members and the strength of feeling from staff.” Meanwhile, UCU strike action on the University of Sheffield campus took place between Monday 28 March and Friday 1 April The occupation of university buildings seen during previous strikes has not recurred, but some student involvement in picket lines has been seen.
Monday 4 April 2022
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News
University of Sheffield researchers to launch UK’s first Sexual Rights Charter Stephanie Lam (She/Her) Health researchers at the University of Sheffield recently launched the UK’s first Sexual Rights Charter, designed to help tackle discrimination regarding sex and relationships that older adults may face. The charter is a set of statements designed to help GPs, health care professionals, service providers and the community develop inclusive sex and relationship practices and policies for older adults. It was launched on 24 March with Age-Friendly Sheffield, an organisation that aims to alleviate loneliness and social isolation amongst people over 50 in the city. Lead researcher for the charter, Dr Sharron Hinchliff from the University’s Health Sciences School, said: “Sexual rights are human rights as applied to sexuality. They apply to all of us, but ol-
der adults tend to be denied these rights and often experience discrimination when it comes to their sexuality needs.” Hinchliff described discrimination against sex and relationship among older people as exclusion from information campaigns about sexual health, or being prevented from forming intimate relationships in care homes. As a result, older adults may be less likely to report sexual assault and may feel pressure to hide their gender identity or sexual orientation because of fear of prejudice. Dr Rebecca Mawson, a GP at the Valley Medical Centre in Sheffield, said: “sexuality is a vital part of wellness and being healthy. The Charter helps to bring the subject of sexuality and intimacy to the forefront of the conversation and gives people the confidence to raise issues that might be sensitive.”
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Sexuality is a vital part of wellness and being healthy
University of Sheffield will not renew contract with sanctioned Russianowned gas supplier Stephanie Lam (she/her) The University of Sheffield is not intending to renew their contract with a Russian-owned global energy company following the invasion of Ukraine. Gazprom UK, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned Gazprom Energy, is a business gas supplier which provides gas and electricity to industrial and commercial consumers as well as public sector organisations. Sheffield’s current contract
with Gazprom UK ends in 2025, however Vice-Chancellor Koen Lamberts said in a statement that the university is looking into switching energy suppliers before then. Lamberts said: “The University has been working closely with others to identify and review any actions we can take to support the ongoing sanctions against the Russian government.” The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced that Gazprom UK has been sanctioned by the government
and will no longer be able to issue debt or equity in the UK . Gazprom Energy has traded in the UK since 2006 and is one of Britain’s biggest energy suppliers to industry and organisations. Other universities have followed suit, the University of Manchester announced it would also review its active contract with the business. Nearby institutions such as Sheffield Forgemasters, a local engineering company, have been advised to terminate their Gazprom contract. Image Credit: Unsplash
“It also encourages healthcare professionals to think more holistically about a person. I’m excited to see how the charter changes the conversation about sex and sexuality.” Vic Stirling, Programme Lead from Age-Friendly Shef-
field, said: “We hope it continues to lead to people having better experiences with their health, and to feeling less shame and stigma about intimacy as we age.” Image Credit: Unsplash
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Forge Press
News
Rail disruptions expected for Easter weekend as train conductors to strike Connor Ost (he/him) Passengers are being advised to plan their journeys ahead or avoid travelling by rail over the Easter holiday as TransPennine Express conductors go on strike. TransPennine Express train conductors walked out on Sunday 3 April as part of ongoing pay disputes with the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), and are due to do the same on Saturday 16 and Sunday 17 April. Walk-outs will also happen on 30 April and 4 June, as well as every Sunday from now until 5 June. This follows previous walkouts in February and March. RMT regional organiser for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Gaz Jackson, said the 300 conductors who are affected by the dispute want a fair deal from the com-
pany and an enhancement of their overtime rates. He continued: “What they’re asking for is a 2p payment for scanning tickets, which isn’t a massive thing to ask.” Conductors’ request for a 2p rise to close the pay gap with other workers at the RMT had previously been declined. Mr Jackson expressed his sympathies with passengers but said: “Ultimately, the blame lies with the company not engaging with the union.” Other services will accept TransPennine tickets marked ‘AP TPE only’ or ‘TPE only’, as well as flexible tickets for off-peak times or anytime travel on strike days. These services include: Northern, East Midlands Railway, LNER, CrossCountry, Transport for Wales, Lumo, Hull Trains, and ScotRail. Travellers should check which dates these rail ser-
vices will accept TransPennine Express tickets and between which destinations ahead of their journey. Kathryn O’Brien, Customer Experience Director for TransPennine Express said: “We are saddened that strike action by RMT is set to cause further disruption to trains
over the Easter weekend, at a time when people will be relying on our services to catch up with friends and family. “We are instead urging customers to avoid travelling on both Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday and make their journeys either side of the strike dates.”
TransPennine Express advise passengers to check for updates up to the last minute as services may face short notice changes, and extra time should be given to journeys as the services they will still run are expected to be busier.
South Yorkshire leaders express frustration at lack of government cash to back “Levelling-Up” promise Charlotte Stokes (she/her) A special “Levelling Up” summit was held in South Yorkshire to encourage private investors and pressure the government to spend more on the region. Organisers of the summit expressed frustration with the lack of funding and complained that government rhetoric was not matched with hard cash. The summit was opened by Sheffield City Region Mayor, Dan Jarvis, who stated his aim to: “encourage investors and the government to match South Yorkshire’s ambition to level up the region and unlock a new era of prosperity.” Lucy Nickson, Chair of South Yorkshire LEP add-
ed: “There are businesses with the potential to create more than 7000 jobs in South Yorkshire. We shouldn’t have to keep going back to the government to request funding to support these companies. We need better access to funding.” Many more business leaders from across the North of England also spoke, addressing the current lack of funding. South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority updated their Twitter feed throughout the summit, starting the #unlocksouthyorkshire. In the 2019 election, the Conservatives saw success in the North of England with manifesto promises of extra investment to “level-up” the region. Prime Minister Boris
Johnson told the BBC at the time it was “the greatest project that any government can embark on.” He added: : “we have one of the most imbalanced societies and lopsided economies of all the richer countries and there are aching gaps between the regions in the country.” Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has said that the levelling-up fund is intended for “investing in ambitious local plans aimed at empowering local communities, boosting living standards, spreading opportunity, improving public services and restoring local pride.” The levelling-up fund has committed £570 million to transport across the North of England, including a renewal of Sheffield’s tram sys-
tem. Critics have pointed out that the level of investment in transport across the North of England from the levelling-up fund still pales in comparison to London’s £1.6 billion transport system. Last month, Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling-Up, described the investment as “fresh funding to shift both money and power into the hands of the working people”. Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire, described the summit as “like a love letter to levelling up: lots of ambition, lots of hope, but unless you actually have the money and the resources you are going to be struggling.” Right: Mayor Dan Jarvis - gov.uk
Monday 4 April 2022
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News
Pre-easter break strike action ends but action short of strike to continue Joey Grindrod (he/him)
The University of Sheffield’s University and College Union (UCU) branch has undertaken more strike action over the past week. UCU-affiliated members of staff at the University of Sheffield joined members at 65 other higher education institutions across the UK and undertook five days of industrial action from the 28 March to the 1 April. This week’s strike action is the third period of
industrial action that has taken place this academic year, after staff walked away from work for three days in December and ten days in February. UCU members are on strike over the ‘four fights’ of fair pay, job security, manageable workloads, and equality in higher education, as well as significant disputes over pensions. Staff at the University of Sheffield are also protesting the shutting down of the University’s archaeology department, which is due to
be permanently closed after the 2023/2024 academic year. The UCU claim that staff are at ‘breaking point’ following years of falling pay and employers' refusal to address the pay gap, precarious employment, and unsafe workloads. Many UCU staff members at the University are also taking part in action short of a strike, meaning that they will only fulfil their contracted hours and workload outside of any disruptive industrial action.
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Forge Press
Monday 4 April 2022
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Features
Feature by Eleanor Storey
#Break The Bias - gender based discrimination in a workplace
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Image by Diane Serimk on Unsplash his years International Women’s Day followed the theme #BreakTheBias, which encouraged people to call out gender bias in all parts of life.gender bias in the workplace often lead back to the widely misunderstood ‘gender pay gap’, which is calculated by looking at the difference between the average hourly earnings of men versus women as a proportion of men’s average hourly earnings in the UK. The statistic is frequently disputed by right-wing commentators such as Jordan Peterson due to its lack of nuance, but its value really lies in the way in which it is able to expose a base level of inequality within the workforce. Whilst the gender pay gap has been slowly declining over the last decade, there remained a 15.4% gap of mediangross hourly earnings in 2021. The imbalances don’t end there. Women also remain highly under-represented in positions of power making up just 6% of CEOs within FTSE companies. Of this 6%, none are women of colour. An intersectional approach is essential when attempting to #BreakTheBias in the workplace. Research has found that
ethnic minority candidates have to send 60% more job applications to receive an equal amount of call backs as white people, meaning that many women are faced with the double-edged sword of gender and racial bias. Furthermore, a 2018 study found that a staggering h 1 in 3 employers in the UK admitted to be ‘less likely’ to hire a transgender person. These statistics highlight just a few of the barriers that exist for women in the UK job market, but only illuminate one part of the story. I spoke to two University of Sheffield Students to find out what it’s really like working as a woman in professional and service industries. Rosie, 20, has experience working as a waitress in a popular chain restaurant and as a bartender at a smaller venue in Sheffield. “I think especially in the waitressing community, it’s seen typically that women are the waitresses and men are the chefs, and chefs have more authority and can speak down to the waitresses for doing anything wrong. And I’ve noticed especially throughout the years that if you have a male waiter who makes a mistake in a food order or something, the chefs are more likely to be nicer to them than if it was a woman. I think it’s an
authority thing that they have. Typically waitresses are quite young females that chefs who are older males can have this authority and power over.” She says that there is also an imbalance in the way female workers are treated by customers. “When working in a bar the way that drunk customers would approach you was very different, especially coming out of the first lockdown men would surge their way forward and say quite explicit things to you and try and get away with it because they were drunk or whatever. And I think a lot of men see a young female worker, especially when alcohol is involved, as an opportunity to try and get with them or make a move.” Emily, 21, is completing a year in industry and is currently working in a private sector mental health organisation. “In our workplace we’ve got a lot more women in manager roles, we have a lot of female senior staff…there’s always women in finance roles which is really nice to see, that hasn’t been seen in the past. There seems to be a lot of the men taking on lesser roles. However, I think in certain teams there is still a slight imbalance where it’s not necessarily sexism, but
there’s middle aged men making these comments and passing judgements especially to young girls.” “I find that when you have a 40 year old man in charge of 20/21 year old girls, he’s making it known that he’s quite enjoying the situation. I think it’s not quite right.” She describes a contrast
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“ I think a lot of men see a young female worker, especially when alcohol is involved, as an opportunity to try and get with them or make a move” in the way in which different generations of women view less obvious forms of harassment in the workplace. “You only notice it, I would say, if you’re a younger girl because all the middle aged women are so used to it that they become almost desensitised to it over time…a ‘men will be men’ kind of attitude.” Emily and Rosie’s
experiences highlight that gender imbalances in the workplace run deeper than equal opportunity and payment. Whilst progress has been made, it remains to be ensured that women are treated with the same degree of respect and professionalism as their male colleagues. There’s a lot more to be done to make sure that women are able to feel comfortable in the workplace, and a long way to go to #BreakTheBias. Women are so used to it that they become almost desensitised to it over time…a ‘men will be men’ kind of attitude.” Emily and Rosie’s experiences highlight that gender imbalances in the workplace run deeper than equal opportunity and payment. Whilst progress has been made, it remains to be ensured that women are treated with the same degree of respect and professionalism as their male colleagues. There’s a lot more to be done to make sure that women are able to feel comfortable in the workplace, and a long way to go to #BreakTheBias.
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Forge Press
Features
Feature by Wiktoria Wrzyszcz (She/Her)
“I felt really bad that I’m stuck in Sheffield but going back home would be risking my life’’
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n Thursday 24th of February Vitali Yalahuzian, a second-year journalism student at the University of Sheffield, was on his way to the Newsday, when he found out that Russia hasd attacked his home country – Ukraine. He said: “I felt really bad that I am stuck in Sheffield, but going back would be risking my life. I felt that I have to do something. I’ve decided to protest. I’ve protested once before in my life, so I had no plan. I created a Facebook event and printed out a Ukrainian flag. On the other side I printed a donation link to a charity helping the Ukrainian army. I went to the Town Hall in Sheffield and stood there on my own for an hour. “The next protest, I think on Friday, was five or six of us. It was a lot nicer to have someone by my side. A lot of people came up to us ask questions and expressed their support. Then, I created a Facebook group called Stand for Ukraine Sheffield. Next protest was on Sunday and there were hundreds of people. I didn’t expect that at all. Ukrainians at the protest had a chance to speak to the crowd and express how horrific these events are for us and for our families. “It’s so nice to see some understanding among people who don’t have pretty much anything to do with Ukraine. They could ignore it, say: it’s not my country, it’s not my problem. But they were just so touched by what’s happening, that they decided to help.” Viatli is in Sheffield but he was born and raised in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine. His parents and friends are still there. While in many places in Ukraine the Internet and data are disrupted, Vitali was lucky enough to be able to keep in
Vitali Yalahuzian during the protest in Sheffield touch with his parents. “My parents are separated so I call my dad and my mum separately at least two times a day, just checking on them. We text each other throughout today. Just talking to me and sharing their experience helps them mentally to get rid of at least a small portion of the pressure and stress they feel.” But his parents are not the only stressed ones. War in his hometown is affecting Vitaly as well. He still tries to help his relatives and friends as much as he can, for example by supporting his mum with shopping. “I had absolutely terrible sleeping schedule since this whole thing started. For the first two days I didn’t sleep at all and then I started falling asleep for like an hour, maybe two hours in the morning. I knew my mom was running out of long-lasting foods and drinking water so during one of these sleepless nights I spent hours on social media, Google Maps and
volunteering websites trying to find supermarkets that have products she needs. I was planning the safest route for her to get there and to get back “I called her in the morning and sent her all the details and screenshots. She was texting me throughout her little journey to the shop, letting me know she is doing fine, the supermarket is open and that she got back. Although I am hundreds of miles away from her, there are still ways I can help her out. ”One of the things that really supported Vitali’s mum was seeing a Ukrainian flag on the Town Hall in Sheffield. A Ukrainian lecturer at the University of Sheffield wrote a letter to the City Council and he proposed they have a Ukrainian flag on the Town Hall building. Vitali took a picture of it and sent it to his mum. “ When I told my mum there’s a Ukrainian flag in my city in the UK, she didn’t believe me. That’s why I took a picture and sent it to my
mum. She was incredibly happy. She heard that the international community is supporting Ukraine right now but having this more real scenario and example of support and seeing that quite a big city has a Ukrainian flag, made her feel the support. I think it was the most important thing for me out of all the protest.” Even though the international community supports Ukraine through sanctions, protests and donations, Vitali believes there is still much more that could be done. He said: “We get a lot of financial and military support which is great, but no one really wants to get involved. Everyone’s saying: we’re going to give you ton of money ton of weapons and you step for yourself, which is not great The number one thing that Ukraine needs right now is a no-fly zone. The shelling and the air bombings are so severe that in order to a lot of civilian lives we ideally need a country that would
secure the sky to reduce the damage from Russian offensive. How you can support Ukraine in the UK: 1) Financially support the army or the charities providing humanitarian support. 2) Donating long- lasting food like past or canned food, as well as medicine. Ukraine has received plenty of clothes and blankets so they are not needed at the moment. 3) Writing to a local MP or councillor to pressure them to get involved more and help Ukraine by taking in some refugees and supporting the army through donating weapons and pushing for a no-fly zone 4) Keep reading even a bit of news about Ukraine to stay updated, raise awareness and put pressure on organisations, companies and politicians
Monday 4 April 2022
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Forge Press
Opinion
UCU Strikes: Should students back them Lia Freeman
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n recent weeks, many students at the University of Sheffield have been impacted by the ongoing faculty strike action (industrial action) meant to address several concerns in the higher education sector. This mostly takes the form of canceled lectures, seminars, or inability to access the buildings needed to complete university work because of occupation by strikers. The strikes are part of disputes between the University and College Union (UCU) and Universities UK (UUK) at a national level. This creates a question about students’ role in the cause. Given the possible negative impact strikes have had on education, should students back the strikes? Over the last decade, university staff across the U.K. have experienced pay cuts in real terms, job insecurity due to casual contracts, heavy workloads, and pay discrimination against women, ethinic minorities, and the disabled. Another problem cited by the UCU is changes to the pension scheme that results in pension cuts of up to 35%. Since 2018, a series of connected strikes have been voted on by UCU members as last resort action to address these issues. The University of Sheffield as an institution takes the stance that
they alone cannot resolve disputes since they take place on a national level. However, the University provides an opinionon the UUK’s pension package, stating that it is “considered the least worst option available to us.” In response to the other disputes, the University also lists several ways it aims to improve its working environment, including plans to decrease the pay gap, implement anti-racism action, and provide mental health support for staff. Students may feel differing levels of support for the strikes depending on how impacted they are. Some academic departments participate completely in the strikes, while others do not. When asked about how she has been affected by the strikes, philosophy student Lucie Provins said, “I missed out on so many lectures that I will get assessed on in all my modules. I’ve had no guidance, no PowerPoints, so I’d say I’ve been very significantly impacted.” Provins also cites concerns about the negative educational and mental health impact of strikes on a generation of students who have “already been damaged by Covid.” Additionally, there are students who make heavy financial sacrifices to attend university and international students who often
pay more. These students may feel strongly about the financial loss of missed class time. If you feel adversely impacted by the strikes, it might feel counterintuitive to support them. However, it is important for the basic welfare of our staff and their families to receive fair pay and treatment. These strikes are meant to address inequality, not just paychecks. In addition, it impacts the quality of education students receive when lecturers are overworked and underpaid. Strikes are a last resort option and faculty do not want to have to strike. Feeling frustrated about the impact strikes have on the student experience is consistent with supporting your educators in the fight for higher quality education as a whole. Some students feel that there are ways of taking action that do not involve direct impact on students. One can support the cause but not the methods. However, calls for change are more impactful with the voices of students since they are the ones supporting and being served by the universities. Without direct impact to students, it is not as likely that they would pay attention to the needs of the faculty. The strikes are meant to be disruptive, and supporting the strikes has the
long-term goal of making sure they do not have to happen again. Backing the strikes as a student can take several forms. It means not crossing picket lines where buildings are occupied, emailing the Vice-Chancellor and the UUK to put pressure on the University, and signing student petitions. Some students at the University of Sheffield even occupied multiple buildingsthemselves in solidarity with the UCU and to protest the closure of the archaeology department. On the other hand, it is also important to not judge fellow students who have reasons for not taking action or who hold different opinions. Another point is that students have varying levels of understanding of the history of the strikes and the demands of the UCU. Doing basic research on the strikes is important given the widespread impact issues in higher education
have on staff, students, and institutions as a whole. The University and Sheffield Students’ Union provide updates and information about the strikes, as well as mental health and academic support. At a minimum, forming an opinion on these national issues is important to pushing the conversation forward. By supporting your faculty in striking, you can be a part of creating better quality higher education systems for all involved.
Should NHS staff be dismissed if they refuse Covid19 vaccination? Yashika Kapoor
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A greatest and most representative demonstration against the Vaccination Acts ever witnessed in this country” – The Daily Post, UK. The year was 1855, and the United Kingdom’s first vaccine mandate for smallpox held parents in contempt, subjecting them to fines and imprisonment if the infants were not vaccinated. However, the procession proved to be a success in that it reformed the mandate into a conscientious act. History is never long ago. Today the year is 2022. The UK is set to impose the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the frontline NHS workers in England. A way to compel people to get vaccinated, the current mandate demands that unvaccinated workers get two vaccine doses by 1 April 2022. The staff members are thus expected to have their first jab by 3 February. A failure to get vaccinated could result in moving back to office roles or a dismissal letter. Such a measure, at first glance, seems necessary and well-intentioned, especially since the vaccine rollout the highest peak in NHS staff’s
absence occurred in January 2022. The mandate also moves to protect the patients, ensuring the vulnerable are safe. The COVID-19 outbreak at a nursing home in Kentucky,USA, where one unvaccinated health worker infected 22 residents and employees, seems to justify the mandate. But is this the last resort for British healthcare workers? Have other policy interventions such as public education and meaningful engagement proved inconsequential in producing the unequivocal public health benefits? Expected to be a proportionate policy response, the forthcoming vaccine mandate also holds the potential to cause significant disruption of healthcare services. The impact statement by the Department of Health & Social Care outlines the outcomes and risks of the condition of deployment policy. Counterfactually, 92.5% of the NHS healthcare workers will get vaccinated without intervention. Due to the policy intervention, 1.5% of the unvaccinated staff will get vaccinated. At the same time, 73,000 workers may remain unvaccinated, excluding those without any exemptions. Dismissing many such workers can certainly bring havoc to the already
burdened NHS, which has also got sizeable vacancies (93,0000) to fill. The policy is also likely to impact domiciliary care more than healthcare settings, creating additional troubles for the patients and their families. If the unvaccinated and unwilling individuals are dismissed, then the workforce recruitment and retention fund, meant to support the sector, will be spent on retaining the existing workforce or paying for the additional hours put in by those who stay behind. That not only compromises the envisioned use of taxpayer’s money but also puts undue pressure on the existing workforce, even disrupting their work-life balance. A burnt-out workforce compensating for the policy measures could further increase the turnover rate, incapacitating the sector.. A pre-print publication looking into reasons for low vaccination
uptake among health and social care workers in the UK showed that those pressured by their employers to get vaccinated were more likely to deny vaccination. Such pressure exacerbated their concerns about vaccination and distrust. Besides the hostility to pressures, black African and mixed black African were less likely to be offered vaccination than white British and Irish participants. The ethnicity-based disparities also led to distrust in vaccination, healthcare
providers and policymakers, resulting in vaccine hesitancy. BMA also pointed out to the ‘enormous’ structural racism in the NHS in response to the Sewell report published by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities in March 2021. The palpable doubt coupled with pressure from the government to get vaccinated or dismissed might not paint a pretty picture for vaccination rates among healthcare workers from ethnic minority backgrounds.
Monday 4 April 2022
13
Opinion
Economic sanctions will lead to Putin’s demise, but the Ukrainian people will pay the price Ciaran Rooney
T
he clock is ticking for Vladimir Putin. When he launched his “special military operation” to protect ethnic Russians in the Donbas from “genocide” and to “de-Nazify” Ukraine, the leader of the Kremlin believed that victory would be swift. Ukrainian resistance would melt away in the face of overwhelming Russian firepower and Ukraine would be pulled back into Russia’s orbit. The whole business would be finished before a stunned West would have time to react. Four weeks later, thanks to a combination of stiff Ukrainian resistance and Russian military incompetence, Putin is still far from victory. The West has had time to react. For its part, the UK government has announced measures aimed at disrupting the flow of Russian commodities. For example, on 8 March the government announced it would be phasing out imports of Russian oil by the end of 2022. The UK has also imposed a ban on exporting
luxury goods to Russia and will put a 35% tax on some Russian imports, including vodka. The government has also targeted more than 1000 individuals since the invasion began. In the latest raft of measures, more than fifty oligarchs with a combined net worth of £100 billion were slapped with asset freezes and UK travel bans. As well as mega rich Russian business owners, key political allies of Putin have also been targeted. Individuals include the defence minister Sergei Shoigu, a key member of his inner circle, the prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, former president Dmitry Medvedev, as well as Maria Zakharova, a foreign affairs spokesperson. Although these measures are of course welcome, it must be asked why such prominent and influential members of Putin’s regime were not targeted sooner? It is not as if Boris Johnson and his advisers were unaware that members of the Kremlin held substantial amounts of money and assets in the UK. Indeed, there are many more prominent Russians with ties to Putin who have not faced any sanctions. Indeed, this is the point which
has been raised by Chris Bryant, a Labour MP and chair of the parliamentary group on Russia. Bryant has said that those who are yet to be targeted include: Sergei Brilev, a Russian state media TV presenter who was said to have a £700,000 flat in south London as well as a British and Russian passport; Elsina Khayrova, the daughter of a former Russian MP who has a £22m mansion in the UK, and the family members of Roman Abramovich. There has also been a lack of co-ordination between UK, EU, and US sanctions. Since the invasion on 24 February, the EU has sanctioned 424 individuals who have not been sanctioned by the UK. The US has sanctioned 38 individuals who are not on the UK’s list. There are still four individuals named by Russian dissident Alexei Navalny who appear on the EU or the US sanctions list but not on the UK’s. EU countries too have been far more reluctant than the UK and the US to ban the flow of Russian gas. The 27 member states are far more dependent on Russian gas than their allies, relying on Russia for 40% of their gas. Given the geopolitical
reality which has existed for the past two decades, it is a disgrace that Russia has been allowed to maintain such influence over the European energy market. Although more can certainly be done, the sanctions are having an impact. In early March the rouble sank to a record low. Most recently Goldman Sachs has predicted that the Russian economy will shrink by 10% this year, its greatest contraction since the years of economic catastrophe during the 1990s. The Wall Street bank also predicted that Western sanctions on Russia’s trade will cause exports to drop 10% and imports to tumble 20%. It is doubtful that Putin cares about the impact that these sanctions are having on the Russian economy. The Kremlin leader has appeared to be increasingly megalomanic and detached from reality over the past few months. All he is fixated on is achieving the removal of Zelensky’s government no matter the cost. But as this war drags on and the economic sanctions continue to bite, his close associates, allies, and partners will begin to care about the cost to their own personal wealth.
Putin is a popular man because of the wealth he has brought to the individuals around him. Remove this wealth and you remove Putin’s source of power and hold over these people. Wealthy capitalists only care about their individual prosperity. They will not support Putin’s action in Ukraine if their money is threatened. The longer this war drags on the higher the likelihood that Putin’s inner circle will turn on him. This is the sad reality that Ukrainians are faced with. The only way that the man who seeks the decapitation of their nation can be stopped is by the continuation of his war of destruction. Time is what will tell for Putin. But time is not something that the hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians in Mariupol, in Kharkiv, and in Kyiv can afford. Thousands more Ukrainians will continue to suffer and die as a result of Putin’s war before the Russian political establishment turns on him. It is Putin who will face the political cost of war, but it is the Ukrainian people who will face the human cost.
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Forge Press
Science & Tech
Controlling the A case of favouritism: Weather with Mosquitoes may be Chaos Theory drawn to specific colours Nelson Walker
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new scientific study has suggested that mosquitoes may be attracted to particular colours, and therefore colour could be used as a form of mosquito control. The study was published in the journal Nature Communications and is the latest to explore mosquitoes’ attraction to different colours. The researchers carried out a series of experiments on three disease-spreading mosquito species. The mosquitoes were fed into a wind tunnel containing cameras, with two small coloured spots placed on the floor of the tunnel:
the control and the colour (wavelength) of interest. Carbon dioxide (C02) was released into the wind tunnel after an hour, and while it is odourless to humans, mosquitoes can smell it and harness its scent to guide them to a source of blood. Mosquitoes are the deadliest creatures on Earth given the diseases that they spread. Smell, alongside vision and temperature, help them to locate a host.
The study demonstrated that one type of mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti, were most attracted to red and then black colours after C02 was introduced. Researchers also conducted a separate experiment in insect cages to explore the mosquitoes’ attraction to real human skin tones. Six volunteers from different ethnic backgrounds took part in the test however the mosquitoes did not show a preference for a particular skin tone. Only in the presence of C02 were mosquitoes attracted to the colours found in human skin, suggesting the smell of a human may act as the initial cue.
The study ultimately suggests that wearing white, blue or green, and avoiding black, red and orange colours may help humans be less attractive to mosquitoes. However, there is no guarantee of how effective these will be due to variation in colour preferences between species. Mosquitos are more attracted to certain colours Credit: Pixabay
Tevy Kuch
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very small change can make a big impact. So, what impacts on weather will geoengineering have with every little modification? Well, researchers from RIKEN Center for Computational Science are utilising computer simulations to exhibit how extreme weather could be controlled and affected by making tiny changes to components in the weather system. The chaos theoryinspired system, the ‘butterfly attractor’, has two distinctive functions. Just like a butterfly’s wings, it switches back and forth between them depending on slight variations in specific conditions. The findings of the study have a wide range of potential uses in the future, including enhanced control of weather events and deflecting the consequences of climate change. They piloted a trial where one weather simulation acted as ‘nature’ (the control), and then ran other simulations concurrently by making small changes in variables to describe how heat travels through the system - the convection. The findings revealed that by making small adjustments to ‘nature,’ they could control ‘nature’ to remain in one chosen regime or specific chosen wing of the butterfly attractor without it changing. Leading the research team, Takemasa Miyoshi of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science, said: “We have successfully built a new theory and methodology to study the controllability of weather,” “Based on observing the system simulation experiments used in previous studies, we were able to
design an experiment to investigate a. Lorenz’ butterfly attractor from the NR predictability, on the with no control assumption that the true values (nature) cannot be changed, but rather that we can change the idea of what can be changed (the object to be controlled).” Edward Lorenz, a mathematician and meteorologist, was the first to suggest the butterfly attractor. According to Lorenz, the tiniest, butterflyscale modifications within his computer weather models b. The NR attractor under control (D = resulted in an array of 0.05, T = 4T0) weather outcomes, from sunny skies to blazing storms, without a robust giving rise to the possibility method to predict its final for scientists to manipulate outcome. the weather. Because of Despite chaos theory being the increased probability initially introduced in 1972, of extreme weather events it remains a contemporary such as heavy rain and theory which inspired the storms, climate change has RIKEN team’s investigation. accelerated research in this They experimented with field. creating realistic possibilities The prospects of to diminish weather events controlling weather or like torrential rain. Geoengineering have been This discovery, according hotly-contested within this to Takemasa, paves the past decade. Its advantages way for research into the have been alluring to many, controllability of weather, including the possibility to which could lead to weather reverse climate damage on a control technology in the rapid scale. near future. “If realized, However, the this research could help unpredictability of what us prevent and mitigate impact it may have within extreme windstorms, such the long run could attract as torrential rains and consequences that may typhoons, whose risks are be risky, if not grave. increasing with climate Geoengineering efforts change.” may have unforeseen “In this case, we used consequences on Earth an ideal low-dimensional systems. Because the longmodel to establish a new term impacts cannot be theory,” he says, “and in the completely understood future, we want to examine until they are implemented, the probable controllability coupled with how effective of weather using actual the technology is, these weather models.” initiatives could pose a Supercomputer-based significant moral risk. simulations and data Phase space of the three-variable assimilation have enhanced Lorenz model weather predictions with Credits: European Geosciences more precise accuracy, Union
Monday 4 April 2022
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Science & Tech
Robotised insects may search collapsed buildings for survivors
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...They will search for signs of life such as movement, body heat and elevated CO2 levels from breathing
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Tevy Kuch
ow do you design a drone capable of carrying out searches on collapsed buildings? Take inspiration from nature and robotise them. Some scientists are experimenting on transforming flying insects like beetles into cyborgs for military uses. Others choose to concentrate on the darker side of entomology by putting cockroaches under electronic control. The first cyber-cockroach
Underwater dino-hunter Tevy Kuch
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he Spinosaurus, one of the largest carnivorous dinosaurs ever unearthed, could hunt underwater, according to a new study published in Nature. The study was a joint collaboration between the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the University of Oxford, and the University of Cambridge which employed X-ray imaging of fossilised bones to assess bone density. Spinosaurids were amphibious hunters, their diet consisted of meat and seafood, according to fossilised gut contents. Although it’s unclear whether they captured fish in the water like a crocodile or scouted from the shallows like a heron. Spinosaurus weighed up to 7 tonnes and had a huge crest-like sail along its back, comparable to T. rex. Based on their long snouts and tail fins, researchers believe they may have been utilised for propulsion in water with some palaeontologists believing spinosaurids were specialised aquatic predators. The majority of
dinosaurs walked on land, according to fossil footprints, therefore, proof of swimming is rare. The researchers gathered femur and rib bone crosssections from more than 200 living species, as well as those that hunt in the water like otters and others that scavenge on land like badgers, and used CT scanning - a type of 3D x-ray imaging. These cross-sections were compared to those of a variety of dinosaurs, including three spinosaurids: Spinosaurus, Baryonyx, and Suchomimus. The scans revealed that creatures that hunt for food underwater had bones that are virtually rock solid consistently, whereas landdwellers’ bones exhibited cross-sections that resembled a doughnut with hollow centres. Both the Spinosaurus and the Baryonyx had dense bones, indicating full submersion, although their close relative, Suchomimus, had hollower bones. While it still thrived near water and ate fish which explains its crocodile-like snout and conical teeth, it wasn’t swimming to hunt, evident in its bone density.
was created by Shimoyama Isao, at the University of Tokyo in 1997. He delivered electrical signals to the insects’ antennae, prompting it to turn left or right depending on which antenna was engaged. Sato Hirotaka of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore has been working on cyber insects including flying variants in the form of huge flower bugs. His cybercockroach iterations are autonomous units, instead of being operated by a remote control. Their backpacks are generated by algorithms that respond directly to built-in sensors, allowing them to function. One of the prototypes are the six-centimetre long Madagascar hissing
cockroaches. Their backpacks consist of a communications chip, a carbon dioxide sensor, a motion sensor, an infrared camera and a tiny battery. A flock of these roaches would be unleashed into the rubble during search and rescue efforts in collapsed structures. They will search for signs of life such as movement, body heat, and elevated CO2 levels from breathing. An artificial intelligence is configured into the camera, which determines if a set of signals signifies the presence of a human. It notifies a rescuer when it predicts that it has identified someone. Dr. Sato and his team led a series of experiments in a simulated disaster site. They
Renewable floating wind energy offers hope
Joe Brien
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ince the invasion of Ukraine, surging energy prices have drawn eyes to the upscaling of renewables. Of central interest has been wind- the U.K’s primary source of renewable energy. Last week, the backbencher group Conservative Environment Network [CEN] called for Kwasi Kwarteng to seize “the massive opportunity” presented by floating offshore wind turbines. They want the Energy, Industry and Business (EIB) Department to raise their capacity targets for the technology by a factor of fifteen, to 15-GW. The special interest in floating wind farms suits the mood within the field. While the idea was born in 1972, it wasn’t until Equinor’s Hywind Scotland that the first floating wind farm became operational. Now, markets seem to favour the technology: in January, a monumental 25-GW of offshore wind leasing capacity was auctioned to companies; half of this capacity is expected to be provided by floating wind
covered a 25-square-meter space with concrete blocks of various shapes and sizes. There were several persons among them, as well as several decoys such as a heat lamp, a microwave, and a laptop. After programming the start and finish points of the search, they released the cyber-cockroaches. The software successfully identified humans 87 percent of the time. The system will be further enhanced for outdoor use in the project’s next phase. The backpacks must next be commercialised, as well as the automation of their connection to the insects. Cyber-Cockroch. Credit: Sato Hirotaka
Wind Turbine. Credits: Pixabay
farms. The primary issue with wind farms is their intermittency. This lives at the forefront of shareholder and policymakers’ minds: the final quarter of 2021 witnessed a 30% downfall in wind generation due to lower wind speeds. That’s money lost for companies and the U.K. government, who needed to import record levels of electricity to meet demand last year. Conveniently, the primary benefit of floating wind farms are that they can be situated further out at sea, where wind speeds are more stable. However, there are risks to vesting such hopes in a new technology. There are only three operational floating wind farms in existence currently. Upscaling themrapidly could throw up a plethora of problems, ranging from supply chain shortages to functional issues in different wind speeds and water currents. Furthermore, a letter to FT signed by Cambridge Professor Michael Kelly and University of Edinburgh Professor Gordon Hughes suggests that their value is overstated. That analyses of
the existing farms’ financial accounts reveal them to be “the most costly way to generate electricity deployed in the UK to date.” The EIB department have earmarked £60mn to support the floating offshore wind sector. This is important. However, analysis like that above is also important to ensure that money is distributed aptly during our energy transition. This is fundamental to reaching Net Zero by 2050
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Forge Press
Monday 4 April 2022
17
Lifestyle
Check in with your friends (and yourself!) ‘Despite not being able to help others with actual work, simply being there has the power to be greatly beneficial’ Anna Lishman (she/her)
O
ver the upcoming months, many students are set to complete and hand in their dissertations. With celebratory events within reach, this has provided a great deal of motivation for many. However, from both conversations with people and simply looking around the library the last few weeks, I have seen some particularly stressedout faces. Despite many students getting extensions for one reason or another on dissertations, this definitely hasn’t eliminated the stress that comes with completing such a big task. Much to others annoyance, I love being organised and having plenty of time to complete uni work. This encouraged me to complete my dissertation for the original deadline, despite the fact that the geography department was given three extra weeks to complete it. The few of us that completed our dissertation for midMarch are now surrounded by our coursemates that are spending an extensive amount of time in the library, analysing their data and discussing their research questions. For those of us that have handed in our dissertations, this has made completion quite an anti-climax, as friends around us are experiencing high levels of stress about the nearing deadline. Selfishly, I think it would have been brilliant to all get our dissertations handed in at the same time to celebrate together. However, as people are increasingly carrying a lot of mental struggles on their shoulders for many reasons, this has understandably made this already daunting task even more difficult. From observing and
conversing with others it seems that viewing this piece of work as a 10,000 word essay induces an overwhelming sense of anxiety about this task. However, from chatting to geographers in the year above about their dissertations, one piece of advice they gave which I found very helpful was to simply see it as five 2000-word essays. When looking back on the work we have completed whilst at university, we have been able to finish off so many smaller pieces of work. A dissertation combines all of those smaller pieces of work together, and viewing this task in that light massively helped me see this assignment as less daunting.
Throughout the months of typing away at a screen, I also found it important to put time into the things that would help me be more productive with it in the long run. For me, this meant getting plenty of time outside going on walks and runs, listening to some new music, having dinner with friends, going to see family and making weekend plans to break the working week up from some muchneeded rest. When aiming to complete work for a deadline, we have all at some
point underestimated how important rest is. However, aforementioned this can actually increase your productivity and maintain your focus for completing your dissertation. Seeing friends around you stress about their dissertations may cause you
to feel the urge to help them. Despite not greatly being able to help others with their actual dissertations, simply being there as company when they need it, offering to cook them dinner, ensuring they have plenty of breaks from their work and just being there,
has the power to be greatly beneficial to them. It’s also important to remember that there are some very fun times ahead, and summer is just around the corner!
Credit: Anna Lishmann
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Forge Press
Lifestyle
Exams are important, but so are you: Easter wellbeing and productivity for the burnt-out student By the time Easter rolls around, students are knackered. Motivation is low and exam season is looming, while holidays are often busy and can go very fast. Four weeks seems like a long time and yet every year it runs away so quickly. Ella Gilbert (she/ her) gives a few tips on how you can make the most of the Easter holidays. Be aware of deadlines Before teaching finishes for Easter, read back through your module guide and check on Blackboard for any upcoming deadlines. There’s nothing worse than getting back to uni to realise you have an assignment due in a few days. It might seem like May is months away but it’ll creep up on you. Just keep a note of when your deadlines are so they cannot surprise you. As well as this, the draft exam timetable is usually released during the Easter holidays so it’s always a good idea to have a look and keep the potential dates in mind. Spend time with friends and family Make sure you spend some time over the holidays
with those you’re close to. Whether it’s face-toface or via a FaceTime call, connecting with people is so important and provides a refreshing break from the stress of university life. It can sometimes be easy to forget to make enough time which will only result in you feeling worse. Reflect on Semester One Last semester feels like a lifetime ago but could be useful for your end-of-year exams. If you take any yearlong modules, it might be beneficial to start revising the long-forgotten content from Autumn. It’s also a good idea to start going back over the beginning of this semester too. Also, reflecting on how your exams and assignments went
last semester and thinking about what you might do differently next time could make all the difference to your grades. Use any previous feedback to your advantage. Look after your mental health There are a stressful few months ahead, but the most productive thing you can do over the holidays is to take some time out to prioritise your mental health. The key to thriving in exams and deadline season is all in your mindset so it’s important to start focusing on. Take days off to just relax, treat yourself, or do something fun. The holidays are a great time to refresh your mind and have some time away from uni’s chaos. Whether it’s going for a picnic, enjoying your favourite food and listening to music, or talking things over with friends, make sure you do something to look after and prioritise your mental health.
Plan, plan, plan
Get outdoors
There’s nothing worse than that guilty feeling looming over you when you know you have work to do. Split up your time and designate afternoons or days to work. This means you know you have time for studying. You don’t need an entirely scheduled calendar but having a rough guide of what you want to do, how much, and when will allow you to separate out your holidays and properly enjoy your time away from the screens.
Maybe it’s on a picnic, going for a walk or playing some sports, whatever you like to do outside, make sure you allow time for it over the holidays. We are finally getting some nice weather after this somewhat miserable winter, it only seems right to enjoy it. Allow yourself that time to escape your room and enjoy the fresh air. Even if you don’t feel like you want to, it’ll do you the world of good - just don’t forget your suncream! Productivity does not necessarily equate to university work. You can be productive by investing time and effort into looking after yourself and doing the things you actually want to do. You cannot and should not avoid the exams and deadlines coming up after Easter, but they do not get to dictate your life. The key to staying productive is setting boundaries and scheduling time for both what you want to do and what you need to do. Exams are important, but so are you.
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There are a few stressful months ahead, but the most productive thing you can do over the holidays is to take some time out to prioritise your mental heath
Learning a language and trying a module outside your department Jason Rose (he/him) When arriving in Sheffield last September I faced a problem. After learning Japanese for 2 years in Manchester I was keen to continue lessons, but my course in Animal and Plant Sciences had no free credits to use for this. Luckily, the school of East Asian Studies was very accommodating and let me enroll in a Japanese course as an extra-curricular module. In my first class (which was also my first ever lecture in Sheffield), I was immediately hit by the wide range of studies that my classmates came from. These
ranged from full Japanese Studies degrees to optional credits, and even noncredited students like myself! Learning in this environment was a great way to settle into life in a new city, and everyone was especially glad to meet new people after learning virtually throughout the pandemic. For me, the biggest incentive to study a language in Sheffield was the wide range of languages offered by the ‘Languages for All’ scheme. Traditionally UK schools offer a limited range of languages, and for many students this means grappling with a language
they have little interest in learning. After only 30 months of Japanese classes, I have already surpassed the level of French I reached after 12 years of learning in school. This shows that it’s never too late to pick up a language, especially as most people will have a better idea of what they want to learn when they are older. Courses are offered from a beginner level for many languages, so no prior experience is needed before enrolling. The support I received whilst studying Japanese was exactly the same as that given to the BA Japanese Studies students, and I was
even given a free textbook early in the course which I got to keep when teaching ended. A placement test was provided before enrolling on the course, and this reduced the feeling of being thrown into an unfamiliar course in a ‘sink or swim’ environment. In summary, I would highly recommend anyone with optional credits to look further than their department if none of the modules offered there are catching their eye. You will likely learn skills that are beyond the scope of your degree, and will definitely make many new friends along the way!
Monday 4 April 2022
19
Lifestyle
Groovy wall decor to spruce up your student housing
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Ella Brooker (she/her)
t is always fun to spruce up a student house with funky decor, especially now that you have moved out and there are no parents dictating what you do with their home! By making your university bedroom a well decorated space, it can help you feel much more at home and comfortable in your new surroundings. The downsides are that often room decor and interiors can be expensive, and it is likely that in a rented student house there is little freedom with how you can decorate. You can’t paint the walls or knock nails into them, which can make it tricky to turn the blank canvas into your sanctuary. Here are some ways you can decorate the empty walls on a student budget, in ways that won’t wreck the plastering. Firstly, stock up on command strips. You can buy these in most homeware and hardware stores, but the cheapest place I have found them is B&M. These are adhesive wall hooks which are designed to not rip off any paint, meaning you can hang things on your walls without leaving any damage when you move out- nobody wants to risk losing their deposit! Lights: One way you can decorate is by adding fairy lights or LED strips. You can buy so many different ones, and although this might sound like an obvious suggestion, I believe they are essential to creating a cool vibe in a room. You can buy cool coloured LED strips on Amazon, or pretty fairy lights from most home shops. With plenty of these dotted around your room, lining the walls, you can create a nice cosy atmosphere very affordably.
Prints and feature walls: Another idea is to create a feature wall using prints. Prints can be expensive, so sometimes it is best to search for them online. A good website is Desenio, which always has discount codes available. You could even have a go at making your own if you like to get crafty! Buy some cheap frames online and arrange them nicely and you will have a unique and really cool wall. If you would rather buy some ready made ones but feel they are too pricey then bare in mind that prints make wonderful gifts, so putting them on your christmas or birthday list is always an option. If you are into music, you could even turn old records into wall hangings for a really groovy design. Most charity shops will have cheap records which you could hang as they come, or paint and decorate yourself to jazz them up. Photos: Thirdly, you could collect all your favourite photographs and assemble them onto your wall using blu tack. Apps such as Freeprints enable you to get 40 free prints sent to you each month, and all you have to pay for is the delivery. By doing this every so often, you can easily rack up a collection of all your best memories at a very good price compared to other printing stores like Boots. Putting the photos on your walls is a great way to see the great times you have had, and is always nice to look at. It also looks really cool when arranged nicely as a wall feature. Tapestries: Finally, tapestries. Are you even a student if you don’t have a tapestry hanging somewhere in your uni house? You can purchase these from charity shops, Ebay, Amazon and so many
different online stores for such affordable costs. They can be huge as well, meaning all you need is one tapestry and that’s the whole wall decorated! I would highly recommend these for an edgy vibe, but you can get them in so many different prints and styles that there is a tapestry for everyone. They are super light and easy to hang with command strips or even blu tack, and are made from fabric so won’t break when moving from one house to the next.
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Forge Press
Break
April's moments of the month
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Human trials for a Male Contraceptive pill could go ahead in the US as early as July. The daily non-hormonal tablet is 99% effective at preventing pregnancies in animal testing on mice. The new development has shown zero side effects.During the trials 200 mice were tested. This resulted in two test subjects falling pregnant. The pill drastically reduced the mice’s sperm count making them infertile but once the mice stopped taking the drug their sperm count was back to normal within four – six weeks.
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The government published their white papers report on schools in the aim to level up education and make sure children are reaching their full potential in the classroom.The white paper for schools wants to encourage a 32.5 hour school week, an Ofsted inspection in every school before 2025, encourage a multi-academy trust for all schools and to give £100m to put the Education Endowment Foundation on a long-term footing.
Opinion Smith literally slapped the words out his mouth...
ill Smith recently made headlines, not for his first Best Actor Oscar win, but instead for hitting comedian Chris Rock. This happened after Rock cracked a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s baldness, saying she should take part in “G.I. Jane two”. In 2018, Pinkett Smith opened up about her painful journey with alopecia and why she chooses to shave her head. In my opinion, people should not make jokes about medical conditions or things others cannot change unless they have explicit permission
from the subject of the joke. Anyone who has watched the video has been in a frenzy and gave their opinions online about the slap. Ranging from “he did the right thing” to “how dare they give an award to someone who assaulted another person on stage”, the netizens of the world are locking horns. This is being marked as the darkest moment in Oscars, but I honestly do not understand why. Yes, it was wrong of Smith to hit Rock, as violence is not usually the solution. But what I don’t get that the people who are preaching this are the same people who were fine with bombing Iraq and are now okay with bombing Yemen. It
sure seems easy to stand up and talk about Will Smith but not about what your country is doing. Furthermore, if people think this was bad, they ought to look at what John Wayne tried to do to Sacheen Littlefeather in 1973. The latter is a Native American civil rights activist, who represented Marlo Brando when he declined the Best Actor Oscar due to the horrible portrayal of Native Americans in Hollywood. John Wayne attempted to assault her and had to be held back by others. Personally, I get where Smith was coming from, but that was not the way to handle things. With the family and his marriage being
in the media, there comes a breaking point. He shared in his memoir that his father was abusive when he was younger and this incident showed the impact of it on his psyche. His breaking point sadly overshadowed one of his career’s biggest accomplishments.
©Gage Skidmre via Flickr
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Romesa Razzaq (she/her)
@The Movie DB
The new Full Monty series will premiere on Disney+ globally, almost 25 years after the original film was released. It will follow the story of the original brothers as they explore the city of Sheffield. The new series will star many of the original cast members, including Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp, Steve Huison, Paul Barber, Tom Wilkinson and Hugo Speer.
@Wikimedia Commons
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The construction of a world-class new public park is underway in Sheffield city centre.Pound’s Park, named after the city’s first Chief Fire Officer, Superintendent John Charles Pound, is expected to officially open to the public in around nine months’ time. The park will be based between Rockingham Street, Wellington Street and Carver Street on the former fire station site. The greenspace will provide an exclusive public place for leisure whilst opening up a new site for large outdoor events. The plans include a water play area, a climbing boulder and stalls for coffee and snacks.
The biggest European women’s football event, attracting over 48,000 spectators, is coming to Sheffield and Rotherham.This July, Rotherham United’s New York Stadium and Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane are proudly hosting eight UEFA Women’s Euro matches. South Yorkshire is now encouraging people across the region to get involved and do their part to celebrate this monumental achievement for women. This year 6 nations will be competing across 10 venues, in nine cities. Both stadiums will host four games of the UEFA Women’s EURO 2022, including a one-quarter final game and one semi-finals game in July.
Smith should have given a statement later, highlighting why the joke was distasteful and raising awareness about alopecia so people can understand it better. We are in the day and age where we can consider using our brains before letting our emotions get the best of us.
Monday 7 March 2022
21
Break
Wind tunnel catapults student between libraries
particularly strong gust of wind in the Arts Tower wind tunnel has blown a student in Western Bank Library 300 metres to the IC. Jess Opwest, 20, was deposited on Level 4 of the IC, and was relieved when they arrived in the far superior space. Miss Opwest, a second year history student, said: “I was so glad to get out of there. I walked in by accident, I didn’t look where I was going and suddenly I was in a dark, quiet room surrounded by shelves. It was like being buried alive in a forgotten corner of B&Q. “I couldn’t get out, so I accepted my fate and got all my stuff out to start working when the wind rushed in and swept me outside. My
laptop and everything is all still in there, but I can’t face those corridors again, and I wouldn’t be able to find them even if I did.” Wind experts theorise that Miss Opwest’s flared trousers acted as a sail, allowing the wind to propel her such an extraordinary distance. They are yet to provide an explanation as to how the gust managed to negotiate the doors and stairs, and how it even managed to get inside without a U-Card. Some students have claimed that this is further proof of the wind tunnel having sentience, after suggestions of the tunnel being at its strongest when you are running late for a seminar that you didn’t really want to go to in the first place because you haven’t done any preparation for it whatsoever.
On her journey between the two libraries, eddies in the wind current allowed Miss Opwest to pause at the pedestrian crossing and wait for the green man, as well as grab a swift omelette from John’s Van. Miss Opwest also said: “People really need to be careful out there. One wrong step and suddenly you’re deep inside a second-rate study space with no hope of an exit. I can’t bear to think about how many people have gone in by accident and never come out. I’m one of the lucky ones. “I’m grateful to the wind for not taking me to the Diamond, that would not have been an improvement. It’s either the big circle tables which feel like a conference with some engineers, or the highbacked chairs that look like they’re from Despicable Me.”
1. Fullmonte 2. Mother 3. Gifts 4. Contraception 5. Oscars
6. School 7. Education 8. Spring 9. Happiness 10.Flowers
Fun Fact of the month @Wikimedia Commons
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John Gilding (he/him)
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he shortest commercial flight in the world takes just 1 minute. The hop is between the islands of Westray and Papa Westray in Scotland’s Orkney islands. Operated by Scottish airline Loganair, the flight is scheduled to take a minute and a half, but the record took just 53 seconds to cover the 1.7 mile distance (about
the same as Endcliffe to West Street). The record was set by pilot Stuart Linklater, who flew the route over 12,000 times before his retirement in 2013. The flight runs back and forth daily, mainly carrying archaeologists investigating the stone structures on the island, some of which date as far back as 3500 BC.
On this day, did you know?
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n the US in 1818, Congress decided on a design for their National flag. 13 stripes for the original colonies and 20 stars, 1 for each state. 200 years and 30 additional states later, and it’s one of the most
recognisable pieces of design in the world. The layout has since been borrowed by the nations of Liberia and Malaysia, using those classic Where’s Wally stripes and blue rectangle in the corner.
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Forge Press
Arts & Theatre
Credit: Mary Crawshaw
Review
Open Water - By Caleb Azumah Nelson Tadhg Kwasi
Caleb Azumah Nelson’s Open Water is a masterful experience of the English language, and a vivid journey into the black British experience in Britain, particularly London. He is able to paint the most expansive pictures without wasting a word. His poetic use of language blurs the line between poetry and prose, it carries a weight that’s perfectly balanced. Capturing the black experience is no easy feat, but he is able to give voice to feelings and experiences for long undescribed and unspoken. He makes intelligible the traumatic experience of being stopped by the police, feeling like every walk from and to home could
be your last, the spiritual barbershop community. He goes on to describe and decipher all that goes unsaid in relationships, the weight of absences, grief, through the lens of mental health. Overall this is a read I could not put down; it was far too immersive to pull away from, in its 145 pages it accomplishes much to bring you into another world.
What’s On? April 2022 Everybody’s Talking About Jamie The smash hit musical returns home to Sheffield, featuring Layton Williams and Shane Richie. The show follows sixteen year old Jamie - who doesn’t fit in. Yet supported by his friends and mum, Jamie overcomes prejudice and steps into the sensational spotlight. Playing at the Lyceum Theatre from 11th-16th of April. Six the Musical The six wives of Henry VIII take to the mic to tell their stories - the sell-out international phenomenon is playing at the Lyceum from 19th-30th of April.
Get Your Tickets Now Sheffield theatres announce new shows: tickets available to buy 2nd of April 2022 Bugsy Malone Penniless boxer Bugsy Malone finds himself thrown into the gangster limelight, where he must navigate love and business in New York, in the hope of being with the woman he loves. Playing at the Lyceum from the 27th of September to the 1st of October. The Rocky Horror Show Ore Oduba stars in the Rocky Horror Show, the thrilling, dazzling tale of Brad and Janet. ‘A Guaranteed Party’, the Rocky Horror Show contains hits like Sweet Transvestite, Damn it Janet, and Time Warp. Playing at the Lyceum from 23-28th of January 2023.
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Monday 4 April 2022
Arts & Theatre
Fresh books
Run Rose, Run Dolly Parton and James Patterson A young singer-songwriter on the run is determined to do whatever it takes to survive.
Galatea - A Short Story Madeline Miller Yearning for Independence, a woman in Ancient Greece fights to break free from her controlling husband.
Burning Questions Margaret Atwood A collection of essays discecting the 21st century and the most pressing questions of our time.
Opinion
Goodreads vs Storygraph: which is the better reading tracker? Lucy Riddell Tracking your reading progress via the internet is a growing phenomenon, not just because its online format appeals to the everincreasing ‘social media generation’, but it’s also proved itself to be just the ticket for getting out of a ‘reading slump.’ That is, BookTok’s term for the feeling you get when you just seem to have lost interest in picking up anything, even from your favourite author or genre. In short, it’s the reader’s version of writer’s block. I often fall victim to the reading slump, particularly when I’ve got important things to focus on like exams, or even just when I’ve finished a particularly good book and feel like nothing can really top it. But I have found that the best solution is just at my fingertips, in the form of an app through which I can track my reading progress and share it with friends, giving me the motivation to return to my old reading rhythms. The basic premise of a reading tracker - whether it be in the form of a website or an app - is that it offers the user an all-encompassing database of all published fiction and non-fiction. With this, they can save and thus keep track of the books they have finished or want to read, and track their progress on books they are currently reading. From here, any additional features can be added, and indeed the two most popular reading trackers at present - Goodreads, and a relative newcomer, Storygraph - have opted for
a strongly social-mediainfluenced format for both their websites and apps; both allow the user to add ‘Friends’ and interact with the posts they see on their feed. So which is better, Goodreads or Storygraph? Check out the breakdown below: Ease of Use Goodreads Both the website and app are moderately simple to navigate, with all the sections helpfully labelled. That said, the homepage is chock-full of extra features that make it all a bit confusing. What’s more, Goodreads is owned by Amazon, and so its users can sync their current reads from a Kindle device or the Kindle app for Goodreads to track automatically. Storygraph Storygraph’s interface is definitely much more stripped back, making it just that little bit easier to use. The homepage hosts just the main things you want to see when you log in: current reads, recommendations, to-read pile, and currently trending books. From there, users can easily find the website’s or app’s additional features via just a few clicks. Accuracy of recommendations Goodreads Goodreads’ recommendations have rarely disappointed me, and I like that you get suggestions based on not only your current reads, but also what you have in your to-read pile.
Credit: Lucy Riddell
However, on Goodreads I often find the same three or four books resurfacing again and again that I’ve also seen recommended incessantly on TikTok, but this lack of originality is the only hindrance to a five-star rating in my view.
Storygraph Now don’t get me wrong, I think Goodreads’ recommendations are great, but there’s something special about just how niche you can be on Storygraph. When a user first joins, they can type in absolutely any keywords to personalise their recommendations, and Storygraph also lets you say what genres or themes you don’t want to see, as well as those which you do. Aesthetics Goodreads Goodreads definitely has a more coherent style, and I find its muted colour scheme appealing. At the end of each year, Goodreads presents its users with a page of their ‘Year in Books’ stats, and I think this feature is a perfect paradigm of the company’s overall togetherness when it comes to presentation. Storygraph Storygraph feels a lot more clunky, even if the soft
pastel colours used on the stats page are pleasing to the eye. Although it’s clear that Storygraph has - pardon the pun - taken a leaf out of Goodreads’ book with the figures available on its endof-year wrap-up, it fails to replicate its sleek layout. Standout features Goodreads Goodreads offers its users the chance to take quizzes and vote in regular polls of varying importance, from choosing the ‘Best Books of 2021’ to testing your Harry Potter knowledge. However, besides this and a rather lacklustre ‘reading stats’ page that offers little different from Storygraph’s, Goodreads falls rather flat once again in terms of originality. Storygraph Storygraph’s additional features are indisputably the best thing about it. A relatively new feature is the ‘buddy read’, which allows group reading tracking and comments, bringing book clubs into the virtual world. And speaking of the virtual world, Storygraph also lets its users note whether they are reading a physical book or listening to an audiobook. When reviewing books, as well as providing a starrating that allows half and
quarter stars, users can tick boxes to let others know whether a book: • Is slow, medium or fast paced • Is plot or character driven • Has strong character development • Has loveable, diverse and/or flawed characters • Is ‘adventurous’, ‘dark’, ‘emotional’, ‘inspiring’, or another from a whole host of possible ‘moods’ • Has any content that could potentially be triggering (such as portrayals of drug abuse, sexual violence, etc.) As Storygraph is relatively new, some books may not have been uploaded to its database yet, but both the website and app allow users to add books themselves, so it’s no problem at all. What’s more, if you’ve already been using Goodreads and want to switch over to Storygraph, you can import your whole library from Goodreads in just a few easy steps. For me, Storygraph is the superior reading tracker, but the question still stands for the rest of you: which do you prefer?
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Forge Press
Music
Live Review: Wolf Alice at the O2 Academy Callum Martin
W
olf Alice are massive. No doubt about that. And despite covid fears and multiple reschedulings, there was still a capacity crowd ready to welcome one of the preeminent bands in the ever-saturated British Indie scene. Supporting the London rockers, Matt Maltese provided a smooth way to ease into the night. His piano-based tunes were a soulful, melodic introduction to the night, but his stories between songs got lost in the general chat of a crowd with one eye on the clock, waiting for nine o’clock to come round. His viral hit ‘As the World Caves In’ was well-received, even if it was met with a bit of “Oooohhh Matt Maltese is THAT guy”, as a measured opening to the night ceased; everyone still keeping it relatively subdued knowing what was to come. The crowd noise and size kept on building, transforming the sizable main room into a veritable sweatbox. Excitement reached boiling point as the clock ticked over to nine and at one minute past, rapturous applause and cheering broke out as Ellie Rowsell and co. came out suited and booted, ready to kick off an absolute masterpiece of a set. If there’s something you
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From the throbbing bassline to its infinitely singable chorus. 'Smile' brought about an energy to the already hyped-out crowd
always want to do as a band, it’s start out with impact and in ‘Smile’ and ‘You’re a Germ’, Wolf Alice have two killer impact songs. From the throbbing bassline to its infinitely singable chorus, ‘Smile’ brought about an energy to the already hypedout crowd that was then taken over the top by the counting pre-chorus of ‘You’re a Germ’.
“ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR, FIVE, SIX, SEVEN! YOU AIN’T GOING TO HEAVEN!” The joyful chaos of the start to the set then made way for Wolf Alice’s signature stylish shoegaze, as ‘Formidable Cool’ turned down the heat ever so slightly so that tracks ‘Delicious Things’ and ‘Lipstick on the Glass’, both off their latest LP Blue Weekend, could hit with their fullest effect. All three brought the house down with lead singer Rowsell, styled in an oversized suit jacket, leading the crowd with her angelic vocals that have taken more of a centre stage in Wolf Alice’s recent music. This signalled the beginning of a calmer period of music, though that by no means meant that this slight breather was in any way boring. Linking ‘Planet Hunter’ into ‘Bros’, the fan favourites provided one of the many special moments in the set, as you looked at who you had come with and asserted that “you are my best friend” as you sang along. The production around this point in the gig added to the already ethereal atmosphere, with blue flashing lights creating the effect of washing the band in monochrome, the sole exception being Theo Ellis’ bright-pink-feather-boaesque bass strap. Following this came the emotional core of the set. ‘Safe From Heartbreak’ and ‘How Can I Make It OK?’ drew impassioned singing
Wolf Alice's Blue Weekend was their first ever UK no.1 album; Image credit: Callum Martin from even the most timid of singers, as they joined another chorus masterfully curated by the band. These songs were two that have especially benefited from the addition of touring keys/synth player Ryan Malcom, who has taken over responsibility for the pedals, loops and keys parts that in days passed would’ve been played by lead guitarist Joff Oddie and bassist Ellis via foot-activated pedals and buttons. This has elevated Wolf Alice’s stage presence; it not only adds to the live element of the band but allows greater freedom for the guitar and bass playing members to give a performance and interact with each other as they aren’t tied down to their pedal boards and have less to worry about, which means they can really let loose. And letting loose came very soon on with a quickblast of ‘Play the Greatest Hits’ shook any slumber from the crowd in a blitzing blur of whirling blaze of noise and moshing. Once again this then made way for more measured songs, but showed the mastery of the setlist that had been put together by the band. It was a sublime mix of Wolf Alice’s heavy
rock and heady shoegaze: never too slow to bore, never too much action to tire out. It really was marvellous. The sweatbox of the O2 Academy did prove to be too much for some, as a fan towards the front seemed to pass out during the intro to ‘Visions Of A Life’. Thankfully, this was spotted by Ellis who stopped the gig and was greeted to chants of “THEEEEO, THEEEEO” from the crowd, as they showed their appreciation towards the band for their quick action. It does raise questions as to why it had to be a band member that noticed this and be the one to bring attention to the incident, rather than the security staff positioned at the barrier, or as to why water was only distributed after the incident, as this was almost an hour into an incredibly hot gig. After making sure things were all fine, Wolf Alice returned to blazing through their back catalogue of bangers, before leaving no dry eyes in the crowd with ‘No Hard Feelings’, a mournful serenading song, which was beautifully accompanied by Oddie’s switch to an acoustic guitar. Finishing off their main
set with another OG track ‘Giant Peach’, the band took the conventional couple of minutes off-stage before returning to cries, cheers, and chants to Ellis of “THEEEEO, THEEEEO”, which Oddie playfully got annoyed at until he got his own chants of “JOFF, JOFF, JOFF”. The climax of the night was upon us, and Wolf Alice had saved their best till last. ‘Last Man On Earth’ was one of the stand-out tracks on the exquisite Blue Weekend, but performed live to a venue that knew the lyrics wordfor-word gave it new layers of depth that cannot be described, so I won’t even try except for saying that I don’t think I can ever listen to the song in the same way again. And if that moment wasn’t enough, ‘Don’t Delete the Kisses’ gave another hairraising, ethereal, beautiful reason as to why this had been a special night. A wonderfully constructed, beautifully executed, and magnificently performed show from a band that seem to have the world (or at least the UK) in the palm of their hands. It was a triumphant performance from one of the best British bands currently going.
Monday 4 April 2022
25
Music
Fresh tracks
The Sulking Poet Blossoms Despite the name, this might just be the some of the funkiest music that we've ever heard Blossoms
Talk beabadoobee Bea teases her new album Beatopia with this heavier and hazier track
Shona Daisy Harris A beautifully melodic acoustic guitar gives this track huge Cranberries vibes. It sounds exactly how a lazy spring
Live Review: Alfie Templeman at the Leadmill Alice Fletcher
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he Leadmill played host to a music masterclass this week as modern-day musical prodigy Alfie Templeman made his Sheffield debut. A teenager who has crafted his own coming-of-age soundtrack, Templeman threw 80’s inspired guitar plinks and basslines at the sold-out crowd in his ninety-minute set. Simultaneously touring his mini-album Forever Isn’t Long Enough (released last year) and introducing fans to his new ‘full’ album Mellow Moon (released on the 27th May), Templeman gave us his take on sugary disco pop: each song bold and thrilling, designed to capture the essence of summer with woozy jangles and eclectic synth sounds. First however, whilst the sticky small-room floor filled up with multiple generations in funky-patterned shirts,
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He quickly proved his right to be confident, however, as he broke out into an epic rendition of 'Shady', the band’s unmatched energy filling the room
self-proclaimed “indie Britney Spears” Pixey opened the gig. Her bouncy bedroom pop sound contained multiple reverbed “heys”, strong basslines and a song that sounded suspiciously like an indie`rip-off of Cornershop’s ‘Brimful of Asha’. The crowd bopped along regardless, in eager anticipation of what was to come. Fifteen minutes later than scheduled, Templeman - casually dressed in a t-shirt and Dickies - sauntered on stage with his band (in a somewhat underwhelming entry) to screams from the crowd. He quickly proved his right to be confident however, as he broke out into an epic rendition of ‘Shady’, the band’s unmatched energy filling the room. The multi-instrumentalist instantly set the festival vibe, upgrading the live version of the song with an effortless electric guitar solo to rival guitarists three times his age. With the sleekness of a recorded album sliding from one song to the next, Templeman and his charismatic band powered out 2019 hits ‘Who Am I’ and ‘Stop Thinking (About Me)’, before taking a second to sip a can of Stella and talk to his word-perfect fans. Yet, before he could open his mouth, shouts from the front of the crowd revealed Templeman was playing to the son of his favourite dinner lady from his Bedfordshire school. Total euphoria came
Templeman's tour came at an odd time as he tried to balance touring mini-album Forever Isn't Long Enough and debut his unreleased new album Mellow Moon; Image Credit: Alice Fletcher over Templeman and his guitarist, as they dedicated the show to their “G” exdinner lady who “always gave us seconds”. Teasing his new album Mellow Moon, Templeman treated us to ‘Candyfloss’, an expert blend of electric pop and 70’s funk. There did appear to be a lack of chat between the audience and Templeman - but who could blame the man when he had his guitar pick in his mouth half the time, giving us a wicked guitar solo with every song?As fan-favourites ‘Film Scene Daydream’ and ‘Everybody’s Gonna Love Somebody’ were met with cheers from the crowd, it was evident the chemistry between the band is one to be rivalled; each musician was integral to every song. One criticism, however, would be that, when played live, some of Templeman’s songs lacked the musical integrity of the recorded versions, sounding more like demos. For me, ‘Forever Isn’t Long Enough’ relies on the delicious, summer-y layers of twinkly percussion, bongos
and brass that makes it so charming. Templeman’s pop-explorations - despite their seemingly effortless swagger - are meticulously constructed; the flawless instrumentation on each recorded song is delicately produced with layers of multiple of the 10 instruments Templeman can play. Yes, this would be difficult to recreate accurately on stage, but it seemed a wasted opportunity, not to see Templeman showing off his talents on the saxophone during ‘Film Scene Daydream’. Despite this, the musicianship didn't falter; transporting us back to the very beginning, ‘Like an Animal’ was popular with day-one fans lining the barrier, whilst new songs ‘Mellow Moon’ and ‘Colour Me Blue’ confirmed the spring album will be one to look out for. After teasing the ‘Do I Wanna Know’ riff (what else can you expect in Sheffield?) shouts of “red light, green light, go!” could just be heard above the crowd as the band broke out into
an animated version of ‘Wait I Lied’, much to the crowd’s delight. Despite a lack of mosh pits (and the encouragement to form one), Sheffield’s dancing and vocals certainly made up for it. After one of the most awkward encores I’ve seen (it took a while before the “Alfie” chants kicked in), he returned to the stage with more gusto and charisma than before, the unrestrained finale consisting of new single ‘Broken’ and the iconic ‘Happiness in Liquid Form’. The unruly teen spirit filled the stage as Templeman's smile stretched from ear to ear and bassist Cameron stood aloft on a speaker, threatening to crowd surf, much to the thrill of the fans below. Having charmed his crowd with his boy-nextdoor look and mindblowing musicianship, Templeman certainly solidified his place in the indie crowd with this gig, leaving us itching for more of his talent.
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Forge Press
Music
Album Reviews
Stereophonics Oochya!
In the 25 years since their debut album Word Gets Around, Stereophonics have amassed an impressive catalogue of anthemic British indie rock songs – evidenced most prominently in the recent internet resurgence of 'Dakota', the kind of track (much like Oasis' 'Wonderwall' or Arctic Monkeys' 'Fluorescent Adolescent) so iconic that you'd be hard pushed to find anyone who couldn't at least sing the chorus. It therefore comes as no surprise that, to celebrate their quarter century, the band had plans to put together a ”best of” celebration record. However, when exploring archives to examine unfinished or unreleased work for this compilation, lead singer Kelly Jones felt inspired to pen some new music. The result is a slightly spiky combined record of previously written songs, songs that were in their infancy when rediscovered and refined, and songs written entirely for Oochya!. In this case, the band's distinctive sound has been advantageous to them; it helps the album to still sound cohesive as a record in spite of the disparity in when its tracks were written. There are some definite stand outs. Opening track 'Hanging On Your Hinges' is a fun and upbeat number, reminiscent of an early Ash, which perfectly encapsulates a euphoric feeling I can only describe as ”indie summer”. 'Right Place Right Time' is so quintessentially Stereophonics-sounding it evokes pleasant nostalgia, and 'Do Ya Feel My Love'
is highly energetic and an excellent example of their heavier rock. These are great songs, but none of them are destined to become classics. There are a fair number of songs which are less notably enjoyable, but don't quite stoop to the lows of “filler”. In spite of this, the album is perhaps a little bit too long. Perhaps that's to be expected from a band who are celebrating an admirable 25 years and want something special to show for it, but it becomes less appealing to listen to as a whole, which is a black mark against any record. Overall, it's a really solid album, striking a classic Stereophonics balance between fun, emotional and anthemic. It somewhat lacks the special touch exhibited on earlier records which have become so iconic, and this combined with the slightly spiky feeling mentioned earlier is why it didn't score higher, but it's still really enjoyable. Charlotte Stonehouse
Avril Lavigne Love Sux
Twenty years after she crashed onto the scene with her first album Let Go, Avril Lavigne has returned as rightful heir to the throne of pop-punk with her seventh album Love Sux. As brash and unapologetic as ever, Lavigne sets out for revenge on ex-lovers - ‘not another break up, when I think of you I just wanna throw up’ - like she’s never been away. There’s no need for Lavigne to follow the
musical trends of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish when she created them in the first place. Like slipping into an old pair of Vans, Lavigne retraces her skatepunk footsteps, effortlessly recapturing that cool-girl brattiness that gave her such legendary status. Love Sux opens with a fervent sense of purpose: a forceful guitar intro paired with frenzied shouts from the Canadian singer characterises opener ‘Cannonball’. It is evident with just the first song alone the 37-year-old’s formidable energy hasn’t dulled; overflowing with youthful vigour, the song is a fastpaced entry to the album. With less than a second to recover from such energy, another of Lavigne’s staple drum intros kick in. Featuring the infamous Machine Gun Kelly, ‘Bois Lie’ is a mess of a brash melody and pragmatic lyrics, creating a (borderline) cheesy song - ‘Bois lie, I can too, revenge is my sweet tooth, the girls cry and so will you’. It’s safe to say this isn’t an album that requires its metaphors to be unpicked – it’s one to blast through the speakers like it’s 2002. Perhaps sticking a little too close to her early 00’s roots, Lavigne still uses her characteristic ‘Sk8er Boi’ text speak and maximalist writing style throughout the album, rhyming ‘asshole’ with ‘castle’ in ‘Déjà vu’. But it’s the simplicity and catchiness of her songs that allows her to create such head-banging, air-drumming Avril anthems. Arguably the best song on the album, ‘Bite Me’ could have easily fallen out of Lavigne’s 2007 album The Best Damn Thing. Despite maintaining her signature sound, the lyrics show how she has left her callow youth behind, whilst the familiar punk pop chord changes and drum solos create an ordered anarchy to the song. At just 33 minutes long, Love Sux is a high-intensity, sing-along album you most definitely wouldn’t want to pick a fight with. Alice Fletcher
Khruangbin & Leon Bridges
Texas Moon
When I think of all the musical pairings and collaborations that have occurred in contemporary music, few come to mind as harmonious as Khruangbin and Leon Bridges. The former, a slow funk and psychedelic trio, and the latter a soul singer, both sides bring a similar easylistening, smooth delivery, as well as ambitious, considered lyrics and arrangements. The strongest portrayal of this is ‘Texas Sun’, the title track from their 2020 EP, which both sums up and creates the mood of a relaxed, all-iswell summer's day. What overarches the magic of this pairing is the effective unison of Khruangbin’s chilled funk and hypnotising basslines with Bridges’ range and soulful, emotive singing manner. The EP’s opening track, ‘Doris’, is a strong beginning and sets up the EP to continue on to reach high levels. Its slow, echoey funk with Bridges’ lyrical delivery, which always seems to lengthen and slow down the lyric just enough, epitomises what works so well in the musical unison. A welcome change of pace to the EP’s opener comes from its B-Side track. Bridges’ range is best shown off here, with his high and low notes complementing the faster tempo of the song. Though, lyrically this track doesn’t feel to be at the standard of the others. Both Bridges and Khruangbin, respectively and as a pairing, can bring real poeticism and gentle emotion to their songs. This B-side seems to neglect the lyrics everso-slightly in favour of the instrumental when they’re capable of excelling in both areas.
To continue the splitting of hairs, this EP’s momentary leaning towards timidity does occur in its middle, where two of the five songs, ‘Chocolate Hills’ and ‘Father Father’, do feel somewhat samey. Though that isn’t to say they’re without merit. ‘Chocolate Hills’ exerts great lyrical consideration, with the sultry and suggestive lyrics like ‘kissing on your rose-coloured lips’. It’s further merited with the synth and bassline that strum throughout. ‘Father Father’ also is strengthened by its lyrics, particularly in the pleasing and neat rhymes, as well as the atmospheric backing vocals, which Khruangbin are always impressively skilled at. Comparatively, though, both tracks don’t feel different enough, and in an EP of five songs, two causing a sense of repetition will let down the whole collection. ‘Mariella’, the final track, does what each song should be doing throughout. An immediate pace and arrangement shift is clear when it starts. The meandering guitar beginning feels warm and controlled, which then opens up to Bridges’ emotive singing. The chorus of the repeated ‘Mariella’ with the lengthened final ‘a’ at the fourth repetition seems so simple yet so heartfelt as the song’s story is drawn out. As the guitar fades away at its end, the EP finishes on a strong note. Bridges and Khruangbin have clearly hit a musical gold mine. Both have their own unique sound, and when brought together still manage to retain their individuality as well as create something fresh and exciting. They can really create a mood and an ambience with their music. But with such an idiosyncrasy can come the pitfall of sticking to what you know. Going forward, as a fan of theirs, I’d love to see them keep pushing the barriers of what they know and do what they’re doing right in this Texas Moon EP. Jack Redfern
Monday 4 April 2022
27
Screen
Credit: TheMovieDB
Opinion: Does Euphoria glamorise drug abuse?
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Sromona Bhaumik (she/her) n Sam Levinson’s new season of the muchtalked-about Euphoria, we cannot help but think about the plotand what makes it one of the most popular series in the past few weeks. Zendaya plays the character of Rue, who is hopelessly addicted to drugs and keeps falling back into the loop of substance abuse. In addition to this, Euphoria does portray the ‘high-school culture’ in many of its stereotypical ways, but, does that mean it is glamorising drug culture? In the series, we see how Rue keeps suffering through withdrawal symptoms when she was put into rehabilitation and how she self-sabotages her relationships with her family, her girlfriend Jules (Hunter Schafer), and how her addiction takes the better part of her existence. This said, simply portraying the character of a person who is going through substance
abuse is not necessarily glamorising drug usage. In today’s century, I believe people who avidly consume content on OTT platforms do realise that certain content is meant to be fictionalised, even though these issues are real that many might be going through in their everyday lives. Rue’s life as portrayed in the series isn’t meant to be taken personally, although people who watch her character on screen might be moved by it. That is just good television, and in no way glamorising substance usage or suggesting that doing drugs is a ‘cool’ thing or an aspirational thing to do to fit in the society. The way in which Euphoria has been crafted means it is spreading awareness on a multitude of issues, from toxic relationships to substance abuse to body shaming. Has Euphoria in any way spread awareness about drug use? I would say yes. It has shown those viewers who were unaware
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Rue’s life as portrayed in the series isn’t meant to be taken personally, although people who watch her character on screen might be moved by it what an individual goes through when they are addicted to drugs, how difficult it is to give up, and how easy it is to fall back into old patterns. Has the show, in doing this,glamorised the issue? No. These two are two very different things, and Euphoria is successful at the former while avoiding doing the latter. When audiences watch Rue’s character, there is no way in which they would find her aspirational. It is a portrayal of something that thousands of people fight against each day of their
lives. As an industry, film and TV is so powerful that it is always easy for someone in the audience to get offended with the content that is put out. There is no way around that. If you have a series that shows a person snorting cocaine, one person is going to perceive that as something that they’ll never do,another might perceive that as glamorous, and the bunch in between will just treat the content as the fictional piece it is. The industry has the power to influence people, but do we need the content to change because of that? People need to realise the fact that any content that is fictional needs to be taken
into consideration, before being offended by it. Euphoria does not ever mention that the behaviour or outcomes of any of the characters’ lives is inspirational, or suggest that their behaviour is normal. We need to dive into the show logically: look at each person as a character, maybe learn from their actions, but definitely not view them as something from reality.
Picture Credits: TheMovieDB
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Forge Press
Screen
Netflix Film
The Batman
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Sam Quine (he/him) he infamous masked vigilante, dressed in black is back on our screen as The Batman shares the story of reclusive billionaire Bruce Wayne (Robert Pattinson) and his earlier days as Gotham’s protector. When faced with a twisted serial killer who begins murdering key political figures in the city of Gotham, questions are raised about deep-rooted corruption in the city as well as the dark involvement from the Wayne family itself. The film is an all-new immersive experience into the setting of Gotham which was carried on the backs of wonderful performances by Paul Dano as The Riddler and Zoe Kravits as Catwoman. The Batman is also shot beautifully. The colour palette and mise en scene all come together bine to really add to the
film’s dark concept as we traverse through smoky nightclubs and gloomy tunnels. Apart from the downright breathtaking cinematography, it is grounded, gritty and brings a whole new perspective to the superhero genre. You get the feeling that you are watching something more similar to the popular crime thriller series than any typical DC film. It is easily the most personal Batman film to date where Bruce Wayne feels as vital to the story as his vigilante alter ego. We delve deeper into the psyche of Wayne which is demonstrated through Robert Pattinson’s performance where he shows raw anger just through his stare and its simply captivating. Even the black eye makeup is unnerving. Kravitz is also superb in her role as Catwoman as not only does her chemistry with Pattinson aid the dynamic in the film but she also has her own purpose and motive. Meanwhile, Dano retains his reputation as an outstanding actor since he
TV Review
Killing Eve Season 4
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Tanvi Palekar
fter three engaging seasons, the Emmy awardwinning show Killing Eve is back for its final season, with the promise of an ending that audiences deserve.
Credit: TheMovieDB
Season three of the show left us hanging, the finale at the Tower Bridge marking a turning point for the characters in the show. The fourth season starts with Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) in a completely new light: she has transformed, and is embracing the darkness
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Easily the most personal Batman film to date is genuinely terrifying as The Riddler. The masked murderer is both unhinged and eerily calculated as he weaves a web of mystery for both the viewer and our main character to untangle. The costume design adds to his sense of realistic insanity to make his overall character
one to be remembered. Despite all the character development and camerawork, you shouldn’t be mistaken to think there is any lack of action. The fight scenes give an almost video game feel keeping you on the edge of your seat as we see how Batman fares in different situations with an extensive array of combat choreography. When director Matt Reeves was tasked with reimagining the beloved Batman franchise, it seemed to be
a poisoned chalice of a job where die-hard traditional fans wouldn’t even give it a chance. Although there have been comparisons between this and Christopher Nolan’s classic The Dark Knight, both exist as different depictions of Batman but are brilliant in their own ways. I would have to give The Batman a higher rating as it had the tall order of completely changing the way we look at Batman, and to answer your question, yes it did live up to the hype.
Credit: TheMovieDB
within her as she seeks to hunt down the Twelve, a secret organisation behind the many murders explored in the earlier seasons. In a surprising turn of events, a spotlight is shone on Hélène (Camille Cottin), a character that has recently grown to become a favourite villain amongst the viewers, and who is on a mission of her own. Meanwhile, the beloved psychopathic assassin Villanelle (Jodie Comer) has chosen a path towards enlightenment – she seeks religion to reinvent herself. Determined to prove she can change, the show tests her limits, raising the question of whether we can ever change our true nature? Other audience favourites like Carolyn Martens (Fiona Shaw) and Konstantin Vasiliev (Kim Bodnia) help develop an integral change in plot. Every character, at the start of the final season, is in
a different state physically, mentally, and emotionally. The first few episodes raise more questions than answers, and it almost seems like the show is trying to find the right footing with the audience, which has never seemed to be much of a challenge in the past. With a shaky and somewhat confusing start this season, it has after five episodes reminded the audience of its true nature – a dark, twisted, and enchanting story, with a unique sense of humour. These usual qualities paired with the development of new character dynamics is refreshing, to say the least. The cast is phenomenal, unsurprisingly, making the characters almost tangible and in the weirdest sense, relatable too. In terms of production, with filming taking place during the pandemic,, there were some considerable changes in the way it
was shot. Reportedly, the international locations had to be covered without travelling. Despite shooting primarily from their home base in London, there is no compromise on the scenic international locations, as the sets have been recreated on an extensive scale. To elaborate on the episodes would be to spoil them. It would however be safe to say that the show definitely catches us off guard from the first episode itself. It could almost leave audiences questioning theirloyalty to the show. Patience is key for this season, for in due time the events start unfolding in a way that feels more authentic to Killing Eve. About halfway through, the plot picks up pace, showing hope for a finale worthy of the show. Until then, we just have to wait to find out: will it be as satisfying as the creators promise?
Monday 4th April 2022
Screen
Netflix Film
Inventing Anna
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Ruby Watson (she/her)
honda Rhimes’ latest series and Netflix debut Inventing Anna has taken the world by storm. While Julia Garner was outstanding in her portrayal of the New York con artist Anna Sorokin, it is easy to be left wondering if the series as a whole was a little too over embellished. The 2022 Netflix Original series tells the true story of Anna Sorokin, better known by her fake name Anna Delvey. Anna claimed to be a German heiress and after her
trial in 2019, she was given a sentence of four to 12 years. Despite this, she only served three years before she was released on good behaviour. However from what we know about Anna, her behaviour is often far from good. She earned her time in prison because of her tendency to not pay the bill for six figure hotel stays, and a jaunt in a stolen private jet. She borrowed huge amounts of money from friends and never paid them back, lying about her own wealth. The series follows two main storylines in different timeframes. The first is
of journalist Vivian Kent (Anna Chulmsky), based on real-life journalist Jessica Pressler. Vivian is working on a story for Manhattan Magazine about Delvey’s trial, making frequent visits to her in prison and squeezing information out of her closest friends. Oh, and she’s very heavily pregnant, which puts even more pressure on her looming deadline. Chulmsky did a great job of playing the burnt out over achieving journalist, but the series could have done with less of the baby and husband story. So much time is spent dissecting Vivian’s life, which is frustrating when all audiences want to know is what is going on with Anna. There are nine episodes in
this series, but the story could have been summed up in about six if all of the Vivian story padding was removed. Saying this, I did find myself gripped by the series, thanks to the second, more interesting storyline. We see glimpses of Anna’s old glamorous and deceptive life as she brushes shoulders with Manhattan’s elite through flashbacks. Her life seems utterly fascinating and thrilling, as she attempts to get a $25 million loan to create an arts club which is as exclusive as her. Anna is a masterful actress who twists everybody around her little finger. It does make you think, how gullible are these rich people? She constantly relies on the excuse that her money is tied up in a
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trust fund or that her dad just simply hasn’t wired the money over yet. And she does get away with it for a while, because the people around her are so utterly convinced and besotted by this ‘heiress’, that they believe her. In short, I thoroughly enjoyed the deep dive into Anna Delvey and her story. Garner continues to impress and I can’t wait to see more of her on my screen. Her imitation of Anna’s accent was amusing and jokes about it have even made it onto TikTok. I have a suspicion that she will continue to land big time roles like this for Netflix in the future. I just wish the series had only focused on only her, and on Anna’s story.
Credit: TheMovieDB
Credit: TheMovieDB
Film Review
The Adam Project
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Charles Wright (he/him)
n 2015 Ryan Reynolds starred as Deadpool, a sarcastic, self-aware action hero, and looked stunning in the process. Seven years later and Reynolds has varied
Credit: TheMovieDB
character. He honestly saves pictures such as Red Notice or The Hitman’s Bodyguard from failure, yet at the end of the day, he is playing the same exact role. This trope is not broken in his latest film The Adam Project in which Reynolds stars as the
titular character, a man from 2050 who crash lands in the past and is forced into working with his 12-yearold self. Though Reynolds is amusing, he does feel slightly repetitive, and it overall left me dissatisfied and wanting to see something different. The film opens with The Spencer Davis Group’s ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ paired with a time-travel spaceship fight, which was a promising start. The action truly is the highlight here and throughout the film, with most of its best moments stemming from the fight sequences. Additionally, it was visually brilliant as it not only included stunning space-related imagery, but it also found a unique way to kill bad guys- when they died, they disintegrated into a colourful mix of glitter and confetti for literally no reasonable explanation. Pretty and brutal! Zoe Saldana, who plays
Adam’s wife Laura, is in three of the highest grossing films of all time due to her brilliant acting ability and extreme watchability. That said, I found myself forgetting she was in The Adam Project due to her weak character and lack of screen time. Who would’ve guessed that a film with two Avengers in it, would end up not using them? The mother, Ellie (Jennifer Garner), despite her supposed importance, is also forgettable and disappears after the first act of the film. Arguably the biggest weakness of this film was the villain, who was unthreatening with confusing morals. Watching this gave me a headache at times, but trying to make sense of the time travel? That could give a migraine so bad that you’d be stuck in bed for weeks. Characters constantly feel the need to explain the science which made me more interested
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Who would have guessed that a film with two Avengers in it, would end up not making the most of them? in the pretty colours and Ryan Reynolds’ face than the complexity of the plot. The time travel aspect also leaves so many plot holes that by the conclusion, I was thinking ‘I could’ve sorted all of this an hour ago…’ Overall, The Adam Project was funny and featured some fantastic action, yet was sadly let down by a handful of weak, uninteresting characters, and a predictable yet overly explained plot. It is worth a watch if you have nothing else to do, or if you like to see Ryan Reynolds playing Ryan Reynolds.
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Forge Press
Games
National Videogame Museum: Playing With History We visited the National Videogame Museum to find out what secrets lie behind the doors of one of Sheffield’s most unique attractions. Tom Butt (he/ him) brings it all together in this piece.
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f you don’t like museums, find them boring, or generally don’t think they appeal to you then don’t worry. If anything, the National Videogame Museum (NVM) feels more like that familiar call or message from a friend asking if you’re free to come over for a gaming, board games, or card games night. And if that doesn’t resonate, then it simply boils down to having a good time with friends. The NVM is more an experience than a museum—you get to interact with almost all of it, rather than just observe. We’ve also come away with a philosophy that we need more Rock Band games (or Guitar Hero). The NVM boasts a huge array of interactive exhibits—there is genuinely something for everyone to try, learn about, or fondly remember. Reiss, my flatmate Leon, and I ended up forgetting we were even in a museum as we ended up moving from game to game in nostalgiahitting fashion, but we also discovered some hidden gems like Drink More Glurp. During our two and a half hour time
slot, notable titles we learnt-about andplayed included numerous versions of Donkey Kong, The Dreamhold, Hot Type, Epistory Typing Chronicles, Gang Beasts, Buzz Jungle (who can forget those Buzz PS2 buzzer peripheries) Snake Pass, Super Rub a Dub— developed by Sheffield studio, Sumo Digital— Zool, Super Hexagon, Switch N Shoot, Wipeout, Diddy Kong Racing, Micro Machines V3 (Reiss’ PS1 recommendation, that I now wish had a remaster), Outrun, Forza Horizon, QWOP, Trap Adventure 2, Wii Sports, Portal 2, Luigi Time, Mario is Missing (yes, this is a thing and it was developed to teach geography in schools), Luigi’s Mansion 1, New Super Luigi U, Luigi’s Mansion 2D: Eternal Night (a prominent fan-made spinoff, as some other exhibits were), Super Arcade Football, Tetris, Rock Band 3, Pac-Man, and Drink More Glurp.
And breathe. As you can tell, this museum has a lot of variation. And that’s just what we had time to look at… I suspect we’ll be going back again to check out what we missed, including the controversial Xbox Kinect —maybe a good thing depending on who you ask. Additionally, aside from the games available to play, each one has information on the developer, release date, and general information about how to play. There are also traditional exhibits of cabinets full to the brim of gaming memorabilia—I can now say I have witnessed the holy grail, Nintendo’s Virtual Boy (its VR headset released in 1995), with my very own eyes. Other fascinating pieces include a master copy (the disc used to store a game before going ‘gold’ on a production line) of Doom II signed by the development team. They even have a huge PlayStation 2 development kit used by Sony internally before the
release of the official, and much smaller, PS2, that gives the PS5 a run for its money in terms of size alone! The NVM has plenty going on, with Wii Sports and other sporting games only added in February, and its current celebration of Sonic event ongoing. Reiss and I are confident the museum will continue to adapt and welcome all gamers old and new with open arms and unique events going forward— all the staff were very welcoming and engaging to talk to, with some having ambitions to work in the industry on a closer level in the future. These guys care and it shows. The museum is usually open every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with booking encouraged to make sure you get an allotted timeslot. Over Easter (April 2nd-18th) though,
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As you can tell, this museum has a lot of variation. And that’s just what we had time to look at… I suspect we’ll be going back again...
they are open everyday. Tickets are £11 or £9 for students. Check them out on Instagram @thenvmuk too! I’ve wanted to visit this museum ever since my first year at Sheffield Uni back in 2018, so I’m glad we finally found the time to do so. Throughout our trip, we constantly found ourselves talking over our own memories of specific games, as we revisited them as if a lost part of our childhood or teenage years had been safely returned. Heck, bringing a parent or grandparent would probably do much the same when they visit the original arcade machines or even at the site of the Nintendo 64, Atari 2600, ZX Spectrum, or the Wii from many Christmases ago, when nearly everyone had one. I cannot recommend this place enough. There is simply too many systems, games, and pieces of gaming history available to see and experience, and who likes spoilers anyway? Go and enjoy it as soon as you can.
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Monday 4th April 2022
Games
Our NVM Faves
Micro Machines V3 - PS2 This adorable arcade racing game is a relic of the past, focussing less on the long-form racing and more on the moment-to-moment personal squabbles between players.
Drink More Glurp - PC This is what sports day felt like for the kids who skipped PE every week. Floppy limbs and a fun art-style make this 20 player local multiplayer olympics-em-up an absolute romp!
Rock Band 3 - Xbox 360 Mamaaaaa. Just killed a maan. Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he’s deead. MAMAAAAAA. LIFE HAD JUUST BEGUN. BUT NOW I’VE GONE AND THROWN`IT AAAALLLL AWAAYYY.
Getting schooled: the lessons other AAA games need to learn from Elden Ring At risk of sounding boomer-y, these days big budget games are too samey, too formulaic. Every studio seems to be sharing one cookie cutter to make their games fit in with the rest. There are some lessons the industry needs to learn from Elden Ring, and Reiss Mason (he/ him) is here to talk about them.
Lesson 1
Your horse (or car) should be fun to use! Torrent, the Elden Ring horse, appears instantly when you need him. One button and you’re zooming around the Lands Between. Why don’t other games do this? I’m mainly complaining about Breath of the Wild
Lesson 2
Reward the players with cool shit! There’s something to reward the player for thinking intelligently around every corner in Elden Ring. It’s not even normally an item. Sometimes it’s a beautiful view of the landscape,
or a better view of an upcoming area, or a cool fight you didn’t expect. I cannot begin to describe how many ruins, caves, houses, forests, swamps, sewers, alleyways, and dungeons I’ve explored in games just to be rewarded with nothing. Or, worse than nothing, something completely uninspired.
Let your players use their brain! When stuck in Elden Ring there are usually a few options ahead. You can go elsewhere with intent to come back later, you can plough on ahead and hope you get to the right place, or you can try to figure out what the next step is.
Clean up the HUD! So much of the HUD (heads up display) in Elden Ring is deliberate, much like the rest of the game’s systems. I don’t believe the same can be said for many other AAA titles of late, however. Usually the HUD just feels like an afterthought,
a lazy way of helping testers find the next Cool Thing™ causing a bunch of distracting crap to litter the screen. Elden Ring’s HUD comes and goes only as it’s needed, giving the player breathing space between encounters. Elden Ring also doesn’t use the same old tricks as other games such as radial quest
Witcher 3 have good examples of vehicle summoning systems in their games with Roach appearing naturally from behind the camera and your cars auto-driving to your location in Cyberpunk. And, frankly, if Cyberpunk can manage it then your game can manage it.
Figuring out the next step can be confusing, but there are enough clues around the world which allow the player the possibility of figuring it out. This is in direct comparison to the bogstandard ‘quest log and objective marker’ structure of games such as modern Fallouts,
Rockstar games, and the Horizon series. Each of these say they want the player to discover things themselves, but then will slap down a big glowing marker telling you where the next Cool Thing™ is. FromSoft teaches us that this is completely redundant.
But I want that cool shit; I want to see things I never would, discover artifacts I wasn’t supposed to, unleash a beast from its eternal slumber! I want to explore Elden Ring’s every nook and cranny because it has earned my trust. I wish more games could.
Lesson 3
Lesson 4
here, the horse in that game is useless because it doesn’t follow you anywhere and can’t be magically spawned in whenever I need it, meaning I did a lot of walking in that game when I could have been gaily zipping about. This system is present in some other games, Cyberpunk 2077 and The
markers that never leave the screen, and the game aims to have as little text on the screen as necessary where others happily display entire quest chains just in case you care. Well, Fallout 76, I don’t. Now please stop telling me about the 15 ‘miscellaneous’ quests that I’m ignoring.
Images: Elden Ring FromSoftware; Micro Machines V3 Codemasters; Drink More Glurp - Yogscast Games; Rock Band 3 Harmonix
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Sport
University Uni of Sheffield beat of Sheffield’s Hallam 3-2 in dramatic Women’s 1s take Men’s 1s game home the win and point for Varsity 2022 Nicole Calogero Jemma Snowdon
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he University of Sheffield ran out winners in a dramatic 3-2 win over Sheffield Hallam in the Men’s Football 1s match. The game saw all five goals scored before half-time, and whilst the University of Sheffield were the better of the two sides before the break, Hallam dominated considerable periods of the second half and were denied a penalty in the game’s big talking point. Disaster struck for favourites Hallam just two minutes in as Ben Mellor hoisted a dangerous ball in from the right. In his attempt to clear the danger, Hallam’s 35 could only divert the ball past his own goalkeeper Matthew Dalton and into the net. After winning a corner for his side, Mellor then doubled Uni of Sheffield’s advantage from the resulting set-piece just before the quarter of an hour mark. Hallam failed to clear Harry Meat’s corner, and the ball fell to the Black and Yellow forward, who stabbed home from six yards out.
A mistake by Uni of Sheffield’s Fabian Horrocks in midfield was pounced upon by the electric Hallam 36. As he approached the penalty area, he cut the ball back for 19, who curled an excellent effort into the bottom left corner past Archie Donaldson in the Uni of goal. Just as Hallam had begun to grow into the game, Uni of Sheffield stretched their advantage back to two goals through Keyworth. A low cross from the left by Meats was coolly swept home by the Uni of captain, who wheeled away in celebration. In a final twist, as the interval
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Hallam’s 36 and 19 combined once more with the latter producing a half-volley agonisingly over Donaldson approached, Hallam’s 36 and 19 combined once more, with the latter producing
a looping half-volley agonisingly over Donaldson. The second-half was a much more one-sided contest as Hallam dominated the ball in search of their equaliser. Just before the hour mark, 19 had a chance for his hattrick but could only head over when he was found unmarked in the Uni of Sheffield box and just after Keyworth flashed one over the bar at the other end. Then came the game’s flashpoint after 36 was fouled by Uni of Sheffield’s Will Webb in the penalty area, and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. It was only then he became aware that the linesman had already flagged for a foul on a Uni of player in the build-up to the goal. After a quick consultation, the referee was forced to overturn his decision much to the fury of the Hallam players and staff. The final 15 minutes of the game saw Hallam, who were reduced to 10 men late on, resort to more direct football, but Uni of Sheffield stood strong under the onslaught to hold on for the victory.
he University of Sheffield Women’s Football 1s have beaten Sheffield Hallam 2-1 in a close game at Hallam Sports Park. Nobody could deny that the was air filled with a certain tension before the match. After a long wait for the return of Varisty, the atmosphere before the match was filled with tension. Varsity is the most exciting sporting event for Sheffield’s universities, so expectations and nerves were unsurprisingly high. The kick-off was at 2 pm, with the strength and effort from Hallam and Uni noticeable right from the beginning. The first goal of the match came from the Black and Gold team, the University of Sheffield, in the 8th minute. Uni of made use of a defensive mistake from the Hallam side and gave themselves an early lead. It wasn’t long before Hallam created an equaliser, and in the 10th minute, they brought the scoresheet to 1-1. At this point, it seemed like anyone’s game, and both teams were playing equally well. The next couple of minutes brought a few challenges from both sides, but nobody could seem to make use of them. In the 39th minute, the University of Sheffield scored the final goal of the first half and the rest of the match, and the score was 2-1 by
half-time. The second half was quite goal-wise but was still full of action. Hallam was putting in the tackles to try and bring themselves back in the game but ultimately the University of Sheffield dominated the field.
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Hallam was putting in the tackles to try and bring themselves back in the game but ultimately the University of Sheffield dominated the field The match ended in a victory for the University of Sheffield and they took home the point for their side in the Varsity competition. My woman of the match from the Black and Gold team was Evie Driscoll-King for her impressive run. She deserves a pat on the back for keeping possession of the ball for a large proportion of the game. As for Hallam, their most impressive player in this match was Ellie Millar, their goalkeeper. Despite conceding two goals, the scoresheet could have been a lot worse. She made several good saves, and despite conceding two goals, she stopped the scoresheet from being potentially a lot worse.
Monday 4 April 2022
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Sport
Well-deserved victory for the Sheffield Hallam women basketball team Nicole Calogero
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ven before the game started, excitement was in the air as large crowds came to support their respective team. Quite early on Hallam scored, with Uni of following suit, revealing a fast-paced pattern that didn’t falter until the end of the game. Period 1 saw little pauses in between bouts of intense action, mainly because both teams competed with remarkable determination featuring Hallam’s strong attack and Uni of’s own strong defence. The first quarter ended with Uni of in the lead. In period 2, increased action from Hallam allowed several opportunities to score multiple times. However, Uni of quickly caught up to Hallam. Upon closer observation, this struggle for court dominance within minutes could turn the table on
who actually was leading. Which inevitably caused challenging pressure for Hallam. Even though throughout period 2 the Hallam team
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Quite early on Hallam scored, with Uni of following suit, revealing a fastpaced pattern that didn’t falter until the end of the game. competed exceptionally well, by the time period 3 started, Uni of was in the lead with 35 points. Hallam was still in it to win it with 31 points. Compared to the two previous periods, period 3 brought an increase in audience engagement and myriads of voices united
in one big, beautiful chant, cheering for success. Throughout period 3, the attention shifted towards Hallam’s eagerness to exert dominance in the game. They achieved control of the court and their effort paid off as their dominance continued once period 4 started.
Nonetheless, difficulty on predicting the dynamics of the game persisted because the ever-changing nature of the game meant that during period 4 both teams came to a tie and surprisingly this was a turning point in the game. It contributed towards an increase in aggressivity,
creating an extremely tense atmosphere as the final five minutes approached. As the final minutes were played in a beautiful and exceptional manner, the game concluded with a well-deserved victory for Hallam with 59 points to Uni of’s 51.
Men’s basketball: Hallam strikes again for varsity points with victory Nicole Calogero
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The game started off strong as period 1 consisted of action packed plays and within minutes Hallam scored their first point, closely followed by Uni of levelling the score. After the intense and fast-paced start, Hallam showed great plays and by the end of the quarter, Hallam was in the lead with 9-3, which is quite a remarkable positions to find your team in at such an early stage. Nevertheless, the Uni of team did everything within their power to keep up with the fast pace that Hallam dictated.
Increased action continues throughout period 2 as Hallam skilfully maintained their position as the main scorer. Despite Hallam’s dominance, Uni of made an incredible effort towards catching up. Unfortunately, amids the struggle for control, period 2 also featured an unexpected injury for Hallam’s number 8, Courtney Alexader. Nonetheless, despite the shift in action, period 2 remained a dynamic quarter and the audience and players alike seemed to appreciate the competitive spirit.
Hallam continued to lead with 27- 22 against Uni of. Furthermore, period 3 brought strong tactical plays from Uni of’s side, still showing their eagerness to challenge Hallam. Uni of’s efforts paid off when number 11 Cherno Camara beautifully scored against all odds. Finally, in period 4, the hopeful spirit contributed towards more action from Uni of and the pressure reached the game’s highest levels in the final minutes. At the end, Hallam achieved a striking victory with 68 points to 57 from Uni of.
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Sport
Rock and roll performance from Jagger gets ball rolling
Sheffield Varsity: Uni of’s Women’s Hockey beat Hallam 6-0 Nicole Calogero
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Henry Clark
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Several strong performances saw Sheffield Hallam run out winners in the Women’s 1s squash at Hallamshire Tennis and Squash Club. A large number of supporters made the journey down to Endcliffe Park to support players from both sides but it was Hallam who just proved too strong on the day. The afternoon started in perfect fashion for the hosts and their top seed Charlotte Jagger against University of Sheffield’s Megan Evans. 22-year-old Jagger, who is ranked number 185 in the world, dropped just nine
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22-year-old Jagger, who is ranked number 185 in the world, dropped just nine points in the entire match on her way to a 3-0 win.
points in the entire match on her way to a 3-0 win. It was a tough afternoon for former Scottish junior player Evans who simply had no answer to her opponent who looked to get on the front foot at every opportunity. Munya Karimazondo strengthened Hallam’s position with another 3-0 win, this time over University of Sheffield’s Olivia Satow. The game of the day in the Women’s 1s came when the Black and Gold side’s Alia Abdelghaffar faced off against Beth Tudor. A fast start in these best of five matches were crucial and Tudor gained the upper hand by winning the opening game 11-6. But Abdelghaffar responded well to win the next game through a tie-break before sneaking towards victory with an 11-4 win in the second game. With the support of a cacophony of noise created by the wave of maroon clappers, Tudor showed great fight to win the fourth game 11-5 and set up a nerve-jangling decider. The momentum swung back and forth but despite the high stakes of the game, there was some fantastic
squash played by both players. A series of backhand slices deep into the corners and some deft drop shots by Abdelghaffar were the highlights as the supporters cheered on their team. With the score tied at 1010, Tudor held her nerve to clinch a 12-10 win for Hallam
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The momentum swung back and forth but despite the high stakes of the game, there was some fantastic squash played by both players. A series of backhand slices deep into the corners and some deft drop shots by Abdelghaffar were the highlights as the supporters cheered on their team. and a deserved win for her side in the Women’s 1s with one game still to be played.
he Sheffield University Women Hockey played against Hallam Women Hockey at 5pm on the Aurora field. After an incredible and intense face-off, the University of Sheffield team won 6-0 against Hallam. The supportive crowd was already hyped up due to the striking game the men’s team put on when the women’s team stepped onto the field. Despite the evening approaching, energy was still running high on and off the pitch for what turned out to be a fast-paced, intense, and at times aggressively-played match. Shortly after the game began, Uni of took the lead against Hallam after a wellworked corner. Hallam put on the pressure and defended the penalty corner awarded to Uni of. After a good passing move and finish, Uni of extended their lead to 2:0. A Uni of player was released down the right and the resulting cross was turned in by a Hallam player to up the score to 3-0 and 4-0 after a wonderful passing move. To the first interval, the score read 4-0 for Uni of after a dominant first half to take them in the lead. Towards the end of the second half, Hallam sustained a bit of pressure with
three penalty corners, but they didn’t manage to break down the Uni of defense, which grew even stronger when scoring the 5-0. For the final result, Uni of adds another goal from a penalty corner to their impressive game report to 6-0. The atmosphere at Hallam Sports Park was ecstatic and the Black and Gold chants from the University of Sheffield ranks grew louder every time their team scored. Despite Hallam losing this game, it should be noted that the team made an excellent effort to catch up with the score at all times. There is much more to look forward to in the upcoming days of Varsity and overall
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The atmosphere at Hallam Sports Park was ecstatic and the Black and Gold chants from the University of Sheffield ranks grew louder every time their team scored. the women’s hockey game was undoubtedly well-played and revealed the dedication that each team puts into training and preparing for Varsity.
Monday 4 April 2022
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Sport
Report: Sheffield Hallam victorious at Varsity Boxing after thrilling night of fights at the Octagon
Talhah Azher (he/him) It was an amazing night of fights at the packed out Octagon Centre this Thursday as Varsity returned with its highly anticipated boxing event which resulted
in victory for the Hallam boxing team. The sold out venue had an incredible atmosphere with vocal support for both teams cheering on their fighters. Also present was British MMA pioneer and former pro boxer, meatball Molly
McCann fresh off her spectacular UFC win. University of Sheffield came into the event with a healthy lead in terms of the overall Varsity scores but this event has historically been very fruitful for Hallam, who was looking to
recreate history with another dominating performance. Although they remained victorious, the competition was fierce with the end result being Hallam winning eight bouts to University of Sheffield’s five. The bouts were going almost tit for tat going into the tenth bout of the night but Hallam’s Louis Dereux and Oliver Hudson delivered in some incredibly tough back and forth rounds to secure the overall victory for Hallam. The highlights of the night included three great finishes. Conrad Zeuner-Griffiths of the University of Sheffield ended the second bout of the night via a round three TKO in a tough match up with Mohammed Hussain whose fast hands caused trouble in the first round. Griffiths described the atmosphere and crowd as ‘unreal’ and said the
experience was ‘amazing’. University of Sheffield’s Esam Yahouni also scored a third round TKO after a dominant performance and later went on to win the boxer of the evening award. He said: “I just had so much fun, the atmosphere was great and it was really satisfying to see all the hard work that I put in pay off.” But Hallam’s Richard Naylor fast pace, conditioning and skill made for a dramatic finish to the night as he forced Adekunle Adeyose’ corner to throw in the towel for a Varsity first. One of the best fights of the night belonged to Zak Abdulmajid of Sheffield Hallam and Ben Stanton from the University of Sheffield, who both displayed incredible skill, technique and athleticism over three rounds, with Abdulmajid taking the hard earned unanimous decision.
Report: Injury for Uni of allows Hallam to battle to draw John Gilding (he/him) A mid-match injury to one of University of Sheffield’s key players allowed Sheffield Hallam to grab a draw in the men’s tennis tie. In university tennis, each player in a team of four plays one singles and one doubles match. The headline matchup of the day was Uni’s Dylan Smith facing off against Hallam captain Alex Jinks. Smith started well, dominating the first set and winning 6-3, and in the second found his groove and took it in a similar fashion. In the deciding set Jinks looked strong, but Smith pulled up with cramp in his leg. He continued after a few minutes, with some encouragement and excellent sportsmanship from Jinks. However, he was clearly hampered, and Jinks took the victory 6-3 in the
final set. After the match, Jinks said: “It’s cruel, I want to win on my own merit, but at the end of the day you’ve got to get the job done, and get the points on the board for your team.” The doubles match involving Smith and Jinks had to be forfeited by Uni of, as they were a player down, handing Hallam that point. Smith’s doubles partner Arun Bahia cruised past Hallam’s Adam Pyatt-Coppell in straight-sets on the next court. The players were a stark contrast to each other, as Bahia calmly slotted home each shot, while PyattCoppell got increasingly furious as the game wore on, bellowing and launching his racquet after any significant error, and firing off some vicious serves. The first set went down to a tie-break, Bahia coming through to take the set, and he ran away with the match
in the second, winning the second set 6-0. On the other side of the tie, Uni of captain Carlos Suarez and doubles partner Mohamed Safwat kicked off the day with a narrow straight-set win over Hallam’s Kyle Jones and Cameron Wood. After a bright first game for Suarez, even brighter than his vibrant orange trainers,
the match became a tense affair, with control of the game tossing between the two pairs repeatedly. Despite superb returns from Wood and Jones’ consistently excellent serve, tie breaks were needed on both sets, and Safwat came into his own in those situations to settle things. The even nature of the tie continued into the singles
matches, as Suarez and Wood, and Safwat and Jones traded sets, both going into a third decider. Safwat saw off Jones first, and all the attention was then focussed on one final game, where Wood used all his stamina to beat an exhausted Suarez to level the overall score and rescue a result for Hallam. The overall scoreline was 3-3.
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Forge Press
Sport
WINNERS: Dominant Black and Gold win eighth-straight Varsity
Jemma Snowdon
O
ver the last fortnight, the University of Sheffield took on Sheffield Hallam University in Sheffield’s biggest university sporting event of the year. Uni of sealed a comfortable victory at 52 points while Sheffield Hallam ended with 26.5 points by the end of the competition. The highlight of the competition was the men’s football 1s. Despite tough competition from Sheffield Hallam, an overturned decision from the referee allowed the University of Sheffield to take home the point in a
close match, which ended 3-2. The best crowd of the competition goes to the Boxing event at the Octagon Arena. Sheffield Hallam stole the point, but the Black and Gold fans were given something to cheer about, as Uni of’s Esam Yahouni was awarded boxer of the evening. Uni of had a very successful Sports Park Day on 23rd March, winning all but four events of the day. Two of those four events included draws from the Women’s Footballs 2s and 3s. Women’s Football 2s were unlucky in their match after Hallam scored their last equaliser bringing the final score to 2-2.
The athletics saw mixed results, with the Women’s team taking home the point as the Men’s team left empty-handed. But with such a successful day at Hallam Sports Park, there was no damage to the overall Varsity scoreboard. Monday 28th was the next big day in the number of events taking place on the same day. This time the excitement took place at the English Institute of Sport. Once again, the University of Sheffield stormed away with the victory, winning 8 of the available 13 points. The disappointment came from the Men’s and Women’s 1s Basketball teams. An unexpected injury from
Hallam’s Courtney Alexander in the second period of the Men’s match should have given Uni of an extra boost of confidence. However, Hallam’s competitive spirit allowed them to confirm their win at 68-57 as the final score. Ice Hockey stole the show as the final competition of Varsity 2022. 8,000 spectators watched at the Utilitia Arena as both teams sought to end the overall competition with one final victory. A scrappy first two periods saw the Black and Gold team take the lead with one goal scored by Charlie Saunders from close range. Uni of seemed to be better at winning penalties than goals,
a notable one in the first period given for having too many players on the ice. These mistakes gave Hallam a chance to dominate the ice one too many times on the powerplay. By the final period, Hallam worked out how to use these advantages and put four goals behind Uni of’s netminder, the last one being 10 seconds before the end from Joseph Colton, his second goal of the night. A few disappointing results shouldn’t distract from the University of Sheffield’s overall varsity performance. A landslide victory after two years away due to COVID-19 restrictions is something to be proud of.