Nucleus Vol 3 No 8/9 by Nucleus

editors.

john shirley sarah owen cassandra keogh

cover art.

melanie eve pease

backcover art.

tune!fm secret squirrel surveillance

contributors. john shirley cassandra keogh cayden monckton melanie eve pease sarah owen judd newton sean o’malley (the irish fecker) melissa jones steven maynard brighid carey jess swarbrick tamara williams james vicars alex knight koady humphries lucy froud ellie smith

disclaimer.

The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the staff of Nucleus or UNESA. If you have an issue with an item published in the paper, write a letter and we will be glad to print it. All contributions must include name and contact details however we may not be able to individually reply to each contributor. Ensure that all contributions contain nothing that may be considered sexist, racist, discriminatory, violence provoking or plagiarised. We assume our readers can tolerate a degree of satire and the odd swear word, but anything containing unnecessary profanity will not be published. Publication is always at the discretion of the editors. All content is published under the Creative Commons by 3.0 license. Refer to website for license information.

Visit www.nucleus.org.au Or write to us at editors@nucleus.org.au Come and see us at the office in the Student Media Hub with Tune!FM We’re always happy to get new writers and artists on board, so send us an email for more information, or send us some of your work if you have it ready! We look forward to hearing from you!

contents. VOLUME 3, ISSUE 8, NOVEMBER 2015 VOLUME 3, ISSUE 9, DECEMBER 2015

Editorial // 03 Letters to the Editor // 04 UNESA President’s November Report // 05 News // 06 Features // 09 The University Business // 10 Enactus UNE Take On The World // 11 History Is For Hipsters // 11 Reviews & Advice // 13 Digital Insurgents // 14 The Nitty-Titty Of It All // 16 College Cuisine // 17 The O’Malley Brother // 18 #november // 19 Review - Ark // 20 DECEMBER SPECIAL!!! // 21 Editorials // 22 Meet the New Nuc Family // 23 UNESA President’s December Report // 24 Features // 27 #throwback // 29 Reviews & Advice // 31 Naughty Bits! // 32 Overcommercialmas // 33 Review - Mockingjay Part II // 34 Cards Against Humanity // 35

In the wake of the recent attacks and bombings overseas I am honestly not sure what to say. All the stress of exams, deadlines, and social dramas seem petty and insignificant in comparison.

.editorial JOHN SHIRLEY

As a white Australian, major acts of terrorism like the London bombings, or the fall of the twin towers in the U.S. have always been so distant and while the loss of life is always tragic and unforgivable, a few days or weeks later those of us who have not been directly affected are back to our normal lives with our normal routines. I don’t know why the tragedy in Paris feels different to me, but it does. I have never been there, and I don’t have and friends or family that call the city of love home. What I do know is that Daesh and the wider Islamic society are vastly different entities. Islamic leaders have been condemning the actions of this group and others for years and yet we still see people condemning the Muslim people and Islam as a whole. We see people declaring their hatred for a group of people that are trying, with every fibre of their being, to distance themselves from the degenerates whom are actually responsible for these atrocities. All this achieves is further alienation of the Muslim people, which in turn breeds distrust against those doing the alienating. Isn’t that exactly what Daesh want though? After all, to them this war is us against them.

important notices.

So why not share some love with our Muslim brothers and sisters because, in the words of Waleed Aly

LECTURES END 24 DECEMEBER

“I’m pretty sure that right now, none of us want to help these bastards”.

CHRISTMAS DAY 25 DECEMBER BOXING DAY

our love to all the humans of the world suffering from acts of terrorism

26 DECEMBER INTENSIVE SCHOOLS START/ LECTURES RECOMMENCE FOR TRIMESTER 3 4 JANUARY

Hey Guys, It’s been a quiet month with all the college kids packing up to go home. A few have kept in touch but I wish there were more that wanted to share their college experiences for the year.

LECTURES END FOR TRIMESTER 3

For those who did share thank you heaps, it’s nice to see you still are involved despite being far away from university.

TRIMESTER 3

22 JANUARY EXAMINATIONS START FOR 25 JANUARY

It’s been a big year for the colleges and if anyone wants to express what they have been going through please do.

LAST DAY TO WITHDRAW FROM YEAR-LONG HONOURS 2, 2015 UNITS

We want to hear.

WITHOUT FAILURE

I hope all the best for all colleges with the new enrolment of students coming in, and I hope that they all fill, despite the troubles with the college arrangements. Although, being on holidays for a short period of time I already miss Armidale, Austin and UNE. It’s become my second home and I love spending the majority of my year there.

1 FEBRUARY INTERNATIONAL ORIENTATION STARTS

I hope to see more articles from you in the next edition because I’m sure you’ll be missing Uni like I am.

12 FEBRUARY DOMESTIC ORIENTATION STARTS 15 FEBRUARY

Cheers, LECTURES START FOR TRIMESTER 1

Cassie

22 FEBRUARY

Nucleus acknowledges the Anaiwan people who are the traditional owners of the land University of New England is situated on. We would also like to pay our respects to elders, both past & present and extend that respect to other Aboriginal people. Nucleus would like to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers that this issue may contain images and names of deceased persons.

Dear Nucleus, As a former Austin student, I was really disappointed to see that the cleaning was being outsourced putting the current and long-standing crew out of a job. These cleaners have been like a family to many students and they will be sorely missed. I am upset that this is being announced in trimester 3 when there is minimal student input. Are any monetary benefits really worth the loss of such kind and caring individuals? I am aware it isn’t just Austin and all UNE Colleges cleaning will be outsourced.

To the editors,

letters to the editor.

So I see they are cutting out Trimesters by a week. Like they weren’t short enough, FFS guys - whose bright spark idea was this? Tired and caffeine deprived Hey Nuc,

WTF UNE, I’m really disappointed.

I recently attended the Spring Graduation for my mate. Got so burnt - reckon next round we could get some shade?

Sincerely,

Cheers,

Disappointed in my uni

Jimmy D.

have something to say? a rant, a compliment, a complaint, an idle thought? we want to hear it! send your letter to editors@nucleus.org.au or come in and see us!

To the editors, As I write this letter, some of my friends in the northern hemisphere are preparing to break bread, sit down with their loved ones, and give thanks. While I am assured by all who engage in this tradition that it is often an uncomfortable and awkward experience, I can’t help but wonder if there isn’t some wisdom to it. I’m not suggesting that the day itself, and its troubling historical roots, is a perfect concept. Indeed, you can overeat and argue with family members any day of the year, but there is something I think we could all, in this confusing and violent time in history, use. Gratitude. I know… I KNOW how it sounds, but hear me out here. If we were all just a little more focussed on what we had, we wouldn’t be so concerned with other things. For example, if we were truly grateful for what we had we might be less concerned with: • Things we want because Kim bloody Kardashian owns it, or designed it, or mentioned it once in a soundbite from a behind-the-scenes video of an ad she made. • Things we want to take that are not ours. • Things we want to ‘reclaim’ that we never lost. And not every day is going to be filled with mind-blowing stuff-of-legends type gratitude. Sometimes it might be a minute to read a book, or a loved film re-watched. Perhaps if we perceived the good things in our lives we might learn something – how to appreciate it in ourselves. And, most importantly to me at least, we might find some gratitude for our fellow men and women. I know this is probably totally unrelated to the Nucleus, but hey, if it makes print, I’ll have one more thing to be grateful for. Melanie Eve Pease. Hello Nucleus!! Pretty keen to meet the new Eds for 2016. Where they at? Love Mindy

.a baptism of fire and/or maybe puppies NOVEMBER REPORT

t has been an interesting couple of months for UNESA and it seems that this trend has continued into the third trimester of UNE. The Drummond and Smith case was the new UNESA board’s birth by fire. The letter from the UNE Chief Services Officer which was sent to students telling them that the Drummond and Smith College building was going to become the home of Robb College, and that D&S students were to assimilate into Earle Page made for an interesting choice given the previous complaints about the University’s handling of the Robb College case last year. One thing that was heard loud and clear is that students want to be consulted and their opinions recognised, and although UNESA has done its best to bridge this gap, it is now up to the University to show that these cries were heard. UNE is a unique university and I am excited about many of the projects which are currently underway. UNESA is in the process of planning some new activities for students to engage in and actually give them a reason to come on campus, other than going to lectures or the library. Stay tuned for some polls that we will be throwing out there, to see what you actually want at UNE. I have heard murmurs about a student puppy room… or perhaps a snow machine? (TuneFM seems keen).

JUDD NEWTON - UNESA PRESIDENT

In other news UNESA has received a proposal from the University for a restructure of the enterprises which currently sit under our umbrella i.e. Uni4Me, TuneFM, Clubs and Societies, and the 2nd Hand Bookshop. However, much of the information surrounding this is unclear and UNESA is seeking clarification. As soon as we have enough information to present to students, expect an update. As an additional reminder, you can call into our office at any time (except maybe 4am or Christmas Day) or contact me at unesapre@une.edu.au <mailto:unesapre@une.edu.au>. Your student President, Judd

une INTERNATIONAL DAY TINA ROSHAN

news

Dan, Kim, Julio, and Andy (Sindhal Band) performed beautiful songs for the last hour of the event. Meanwhile, student support team served more than 300 guests with delicious Iranian Chicken Kebab and salads. All in all, it was a great day!

DEMOCRACY 2.0

MELANIE EVE PEASE

Mr Herman Beyersdorf

On 16th of November, the University of New England and Harmony Group Armidale Celebrated the international day of students at the courtyard in front of Cafe Life. The event started at 12:00. First, Mr Goldstones welcomed the students, and Mr Herman Beyersdorf, Armidale City Council Mayor, gave a few words about the positive impacts of the international students to the city of Armidale. Then, Ms Dora Koops from Harmony Group Armidale gave a short speech. The event continued with multicultural performances. Steve, Georgie, and Dave performed awesome music, followed by Eyaad’s performance. He is from Jordan and played a traditional musical instrument and sang us two Arabic songs.

UNE Bachelor of Education student, Jackie Lobban has ranked third in the Governor General’s Prize, an essay competition administered by the Constitution Education Fund Australia. Jackie’s entry, ‘Democracy 2.0: An Analysis of Young Australian’s Democratic Engagement and the Potential for a New Politics.’ concentrates on the attitude of younger voters.

Jackie explores the perceived apathy of young voters, inter-generational engagement with the political sphere, and offers suggestions as to how these problems could be addressed through newer technologies and a different dialogue. The question of youth political engagement isn’t a new one, nor is it one that has so far been answered. Are Australian youths more disillusioned than their global peers with the democratic process? Do they have a negative view of politics in general? Are they unable to reconcile their everyday lives and the actions of the faceless, middle-aged suits that fill parliamentary buildings all over the country? Jackie admirably attempts to address these questions in the relatively short 2 500 words allotted for the task.

It is imperative that we, as the future custodians of this country, attempt to become more engaged with the policies and ideologies that are shaping current government. A good place to start your political awakening is with Jackie’s essay, which can be accessed here: http://www.cefa.org.au/jackie-lobban.

WELCOME TO OUR NEW INTERNATIONAL RESEARCHERS AND FELLOWS MELANIE EVE PEASE

Following the announcement of the 2016 Australian Government’s Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships, UNE is preparing to welcome nine international researchers and fellows to the University. Two will continue their PhD research in Agricultural Sciences. The other seven are entering the university as post-doctoral fellows. The nine new arrivals hail from countries as varied as America, Canada, Bangladesh, India and Bhutan, and from such differing fields as geology, land management, animal sciences and ecology. The program is an Australian Government initiative, in partnership with a staggering number of countries, to promote the internationalisation of Australian higher education and research. For more information on the program, please visit: https://internationaleducation.gov.au/endeavour%20program/scholarships-and-fellowships/ about/pages/default.aspx

une NEW GUIDELINES TO IMPROVE THE COMMUNICATION OF LEGAL RIGHTS TO NON NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS

news ALBIES RUGBY ALEX KNIGHT - SECRETARY

CAYDEN MONCKTON

Hacktivist group Anonymous have retaliated against the Islamic State following the recent terrorist attacks on Paris.

CAYDEN MONCKTON

The Communication of Rights Group (CoRG) consisting of 21 linguists, psychologists, lawyers, and interpreters have recently released a set of guidelines on how rights should be communicated to non-native English speakers while in police interviews. These guidelines were formed after a widespread concern regarding the communication of rights rose to attention. An example of this concern involved a ruling in the case of a Western Desert Aboriginal speaker of Pintupi, where Justice Hall ruled that the suspect’s murder confession was not a voluntary act as he didn’t have a clear understanding of his right to silence and in addition, the man was not given access to an interpreter. The new guidelines stipulate that translations and interpreters must be provided to non-native English speaking suspects. Additionally, it is now a requirement that suspects are to explain each of their rights in their own words and if this becomes a difficulty police interviews are to cease until an interpreter with experience in legal interpreting is provided. This is a very much needed improvement to a severe current issue as in extreme cases it can result in the wrong person being sent to prison.

DAESH SHOWS US A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF WHY IT’S NOT A GOOD IDEA TO MESS WITH ‘ANONYMOUS’

Upon outbreak of the Paris attacks Anonymous uploaded a video to YouTube detailing their new anti-ISIS campaign ‘OpParis’. In 2015 Albies Rugby had a commendable season, with 1st grade runners up in the competition, and 4th grade winning a premiership. This success was thanks to the Student Services Amenities Fee, and Clubs and Societies of UNE. Through this generous support, Albies Rugby was able to purchase a secure trailer which served as a storage and transport option for the rugby club. The trailer served as a great storage location for the club, due to Albies not having a storage location at their home ground or training fields. A huge thankyou to the Student Services Amenities Fee for all the work they have done and clubs they support.

uni4me independent advocacy.

Ultimately what Anonymous hopes to achieve with ‘OpParis’ is the disabling of online communication between members of Daesh, placing a hurdle in their efforts to organise further attacks. Daesh responded to Anonymous’ online tactics by naming the group “idiots” for challenging them, a response that wasn’t taken lightly as within 24 hours Anonymous had taken down over 5,500 Daesh twitter accounts. Paying no attention to the name calling Anonymous continue to hunt down members of Daesh with no sign of mercy. I guess what Daesh can learn from this is that sometimes a group of “idiots” could possibly dismantle your entire online presence. Well played Anonymous.

.volunteer with the blue shirts

Has the University Written to You? Might You be in Trouble? Uni4Me Independent Advocacy is here to help you. If the University contacts you about:

Help improve the on-campus experience for your Student Community!

plagiarism misconduct show cause

help plan and run events contribute your own ideas to build bigger and better events gain experience in teamwork meet new people and broaden your social network obtain points towards the New England Award

Uni4Me INDEPENDENT Advocates can assist you to respond and work out an overall plan to get you back on track! We are totally INDEPENDENT from the University. Anything you tell us is completely confidential. Uni4Me can also advise you about any APPEALS of assignment, exam or overall unit results. We cannot always get the outcome you want, yet we always do our best to help you improve your situation. Drop into the Uni4Me office top courtyard next to the Student Media Hub phone us on (02) 6773 2506 or email uni4me@une.edu.au

Being a Blue Shirt is totally flexible. Some give a lot of time and others a little. Whatever you can manage makes a big difference! All students are welcome. To register your interest or for further info, drop into Uni4Me, phone (02) 6773 2506 or email uni4me@une.edu.au

FEATURES

image courtesy of une

THE UNIVERSITY BUSINESS

JESS SWARBRICK

The university business is booming. As time goes on it seems, from the student’s perspective at least, that UNE is becoming less concerned with the needs of students and focusing more on financial gain. The Universities new cost cutting measures come in the way of the shortening of Trimesters. Whilst the term dates see the shortening of trimester one by only 11 days and Trimester two by seven days, there seems to be no logical reason for it. Compared to our semester counterparts, UNE students already spend a considerably lesser amount of time learning. Due to our shorter terms students are pushed to complete the required full time workload in only a brief period. The strain however, is expected to not only impact students but also lecturers, who are required to teach the same quantity in a shorter space of time. Extra-curricular activities such as sport, work experience, and volunteer programs are also likely to suffer due to the increased time commitments being required of students. Since we are at college for only half of the year as it is the question seems to be; what is the benefit? As a student, I can see no benefit to me, only the university, who charge the same amount per unit but offer less on their part. I don’t mean to keep bringing up the past but whilst were on the subject of money, lets talking about parking. As most of the students at UNE live hours and hours away from their home away from home, a place to park our car is, understandably, important. Even more so a SAFE place to park our car is a main concern, and considering parking permits went up this year to $85 for an annual pass one would expect this to be a given. Time and time again however, students find themselves having to park in the overflow areas of both ‘up top’ and down at college. Late at night and alone, it is not uncommon to be walking back from the overflow parking near the grandstand back to your given college. I’m aware this issue has been explored already in the Nucleus and every argument has been met with a rebuttal. But the real issue is once again the students are paying every expensive fee, yet things are not getting any more convenient or safe. The re-location of Robb to Drummond and Smith. Students from every college on various social media platforms have aptly covered this issue so I won’t waste time on saying what has already been said. But lets look at this from another angle, the financial angle. The reason provided to students about the relocation of Robb to Drummond was to increase intake, and work on the most popular colleges attracting future residents. This is a valid reason and no doubt the truth behind the decision; however, I’m sure the thought of the University’s back pocket was a greater driving force behind the change. As a resident of Austin College I must admit, I sympathised with the residents of Drummond, but secretly was relieved our college was safe.

Even though the changes do not impact as dramatically it seems no college, or student, is safe from the financial burden of UNE. With college fees to rise only marginally next year, I find myself asking, what for? In my two years at Austin I have not seen any dramatic improvement in the facilities, an improvement in the catering or any indication as to where my money is going. Without coming across us ungrateful and spoilt, I simply wish to echo the thoughts of all college students. Don’t get me wrong, I love Austin and the staff at college are fantastic and nothing is ever too much trouble. However, aside from the new kitchens being installed at all colleges and general upkeep, the college system is deteriorating. The rooms are in desperate need of an upgrade, as are the common rooms. Despite our recent increase in fees however, I doubt any renovations are on the cards. Without wanting to join the other legions of students who are complaining about the deteriorating relationship between campus executives and students, we need to listen to the word around the colleges. With more and more required of students, less seems to be provided to them by the University, which seems in my opinion to be a case of bad business. As students, we love the college system and we love the university but it seems that we are being taken advantage of and being billed for it.

ENACTUS UNE TAKES ON THE WORLD

HISTORY FOR HIPSTERS: PIGGY PORN IN COLONIAL NSW

KOADY HUMPHREYS - PRESIDENT OF ENACTUS UNE

Representing Australia as National Champions, 15 students from Enactus University of New England took on the 33 leading teams from across the world at the Enactus World Cup, in Johannesburg 14-16th October 2015. The team presented their most established projects, Farming Futures and The Minimbah Project. Farming Futures addresses the disconnect between graduating agribusiness students and industry. Farming Futures has connected over 600 agribusiness students to a network of 48 companies over the past 4 years through its annual graduate’s careers fair, and industry engagement dinner. This project has now been underwritten by the University of New England together with corporate support as a fully self-sustaining on-going initiative. It has now become an established part of the UNE calendar of events on an annual basis. The Minimbah Project was born after identifying a need at Armidale’s Minimbah Indigenous School. Whilst opening bank accounts for students the team found that 95% of students did not have a birth certificate and could not open a bank account. Upon further investigation it was found that 35,000 children born each year do not have their births registered and that there were no systems in place to remedy this situation. For the past 4 years Enactus UNE has been lobbying state and federal governments for a streamlined birth registration and certification process. Through undertaking birth certificate sign up days, and by utilising Government grants of over A$1.2 million the project has already equipped over 6000 Australians with an identity. Enactus UNE thoroughly enjoyed their African experience, many noting it as a once in a lifetime experience. Unfortunately the team did not advance in the competition; however, presenters Katherine Welsh, Koady Humphreys, Maria Nelson, and Sarah-Jane Bowers represented Australia proudly - delivering a sensational presentation on their projects. The overall competition was outstanding with many great projects that truly demonstrate the values of Enactus and the huge impact these projects have on communities worldwide. Learning and sharing the journeys of the teams was very inspirational and allowed our team a full global cultural experience. The Top to Future-Top Sessions and Action Leaders Forums provided excellent learning opportunities. An outstanding contributor to the World Cup was Lord Dr Michael Hastings. Lord Hastings is the Global Head of Citizenship – KPMG and is a passionate supporter of ENACTUS – he is amazing! Post- competition the team enjoyed a team safari, where the team saw 4 of the big 5, a trip to Soweto – a journey which truly opened our eyes to the poverty faced by many, and a visit to the Johannesburg Lion Park which offered a great experiences to all participants, completing our big 5 challenge and giving us some fantastic down time with lion cubs. The team at Enactus UNE encourages more Australian teams to attend the World Cup and support our National Champions whilst experiencing the once in a life time opportunities these events provide. We also congratulate Enactus University of South Hampton, United Kingdom who are the 2015 Enactus World Champion Team! On behalf of Enactus UNE, I would like to thank the University and SSAF for their continued support of our involvement in these events. #WeAllWin.

TAMARA WILLIAMS

It began with the loan of a book. No, it began before then. Probably around the time I shoehorned ‘masturbating’ into a major assessment. If you’re going to study deviance, go hard or go home. Which is how I found myself specialising in sexual history. Why study fat men in uniform when you can spend your evenings tucked up in bed with tales of lust and lewd behaviour from the Regency period? If you have to trawl primary source material, make it worth your time. I digress. Back to the pigs. Way back when our white ancestors were pillaging their latest acquisition-by-force, there was a shortage of women. We all like to joke that men will stick their member into just about anything, but back in the day bestiality was a thing. Colonial court records tell us so. Bestiality was a capital offence, but conviction required the testimony of two witnesses. This is how poor James Reece found himself convicted and executed in 1799 for having sex with a sow. One witness ‘saw the prisoner withdraw his private parts from out of the body of the said sow and that his semen or nature flew from him upon the hinder parts’. Pity the poor sow but did she consent? Peter Singer might have a thing or two to say when it comes to piggy-personhood, but in this instance the sow’s consent was irrelevant. Having suffered the indignity of rape, she was now executed under the authority of Leviticus 20:15: ‘and ye shall slay the beast’. Worse was to come. The sow had a litter of eleven who were also condemned to death through the loss of their mother and her milk. The owner of the sow, of course, was compensated. Frank Bongiorno is unsurprised that men turned to bestiality at a time when people lived in such close proximity to their animals. However, as history students, we should never take a primary source at face value. The veracity of the account should be questioned. How does one have sex with a sow? Pigs may have been smaller back in the day but they aren’t exactly easy to manipulate. Further research may be required but these images, once seen, cannot be unseen. Downloading piggy-porn doesn’t float my boat. We can assume the tale to be true as not only did Reece attempt to slit his own throat on the morning of his execution but there are other instances of bestiality in early colonial records. The shortage of colonial women was often given as an excuse for having sex with animals. Think about that the next time you try hooking up with someone in the colleges. There’s a paddock full of sheep just across the road. Bongiorno, p.8. Direct bible quote

1 2

REVIEWS & ADVICE image by Melanie Eve Pease

DIGITAL INSURGENTS: ARE GAMES AFFECTING OUR OPINIONS ON POLITICS? STEVEN MAYNARD - COMMUNITY LIAISON FOR UNE GAMING SOCIETY

In light of the recent tragedies in Paris and Beirut it provoked us into thinking about the implications attacks and events like this have on games as a wider form of interactive media. It’s no surprise that video games reach more of an audience than your average print or current affairs based news programs, at least for our generations. As a result video games, as an odd combination between media and art, have the ability to inform and cause impressions on a vast audience of impressionable minds. The biggest question we need to ask ourselves as people who consume media is, when is a game going too far? When is the line between something being “just a game” blurred to the point that it makes you feel uncomfortable and question your actions within the game, or even feel that these actions could be justified in a real life situation? In the last week alone roughly twenty different articles appeared across the web on various news sites discussing the possibility that chat programs on gaming platforms could be used to mask identification and be used to the advantage of less than desirable elements of our societies. Sony released a statement both admitting and reassuring users of the potential problems, stating ”PlayStation 4 allows for communication amongst friends and fellow gamers and, in common with all modern connected devices, this has the potential to be abused. However, we take our responsibilities to protect our users extremely seriously and we urge our users and partners to report activities that may be offensive, suspicious or illegal. When we identify or are notified of such conduct, we are committed to taking appropriate actions in conjunction with the appropriate authorities and will continue to do so.” Of course with popular Triple-A titles such as Call Of Duty (Activision, Treyarch) being released yearly on Sony’s platform and Microsoft’s, it is a reasonable fear that because there are so many games that literally put the player in control of terrorists and other non-desirables, that this could lead gamers to be influenced by ISIL’s impressive social engineering. Of course, players do still take control of the “Good Guys” but their stories are usually influenced by an archaic jingoist attitude while the opposing roles often have a more emotionally driven reason behind their actions. Other titles, such as Counter Strike: Global Offensive (Valve, Hidden Path) have the absence of a storyline related to reasoning and the players only ever encounter Terrorists or Counter Terrorists, with no instance of innocent bystanders being drawn in. The question we need to be asking is just how important is storyline at influencing the beliefs of gamers? Groups like ISIL are already influencing potential candidates with the emotional plea that they are being victimised. Is it hard to imagine that someone could be won over by a storyline in a video game, where the player has a direct interaction with the characters decisions? Take into consideration Spec Ops: The Line (Yager, 2K Games) in which the main character discovers a variety of atrocities committed by fellow allied soldiers in an attempt to maintain order, calling into question the actions deemed necessary by people when given that position of power.

Of course the viewer has to realise that it’s more likely the writers just wanted to elicit a particular emotion from them, not necessarily to push an agenda or press too hard on the point. This makes the viewer tune out. I’m sure students would know that being hammered with the same idea over and over isn’t a sure fire way to make it stick. These snippets of other lives and worlds we clamour for monthly at our local stores or online are all ways of escaping from what we currently experience. They aren’t what we’d always choose but they are a piece of art and media. To be consumed and experienced and remembered upon fondly or otherwise. They need to be treated like all media and prompt us to look further into the stories, perform our own research and take what it said and presented with a grain of salt or a cursory fact check. Here at the UNE Gaming Society, our hearts go out to the families and friends of those affected by the tragedies.

WHAT WORK EXPERIENCE OVER THE SUMMER HAS TAUGHT ME SO FAR CASSANDRA KEOGH

If you’re lucky enough to get work experience over the summer it is what can set you apart from other graduates in your field. I set off this year to get some experience in a Law Firm and I was lucky enough to be able to shadow solicitors and have them teach me practical skills over this summer. But what I was not prepared for was the insights I have gained from working thus far. Some of them are… 1

I know nothing. University teaches content but I have no practi cal skills for my career.

Everything I’ve been taught doesn’t help right now!

Oh that makes so much more sense now, why didn’t Uni explain it like this.

4 File Notes save lives… literally they will save your life. File Note everything. 5

Be extremely nice to anyone who works in court filing. They can stop anything you file from being processed till it’s too late. So be NICE!

Have a thick skin. You’re going into the law world which means people are often going to brutally criticize you. This criticism will only help you learn so go with it.

I have so far to go!

8 No one every listens to a young solicitor, you need to earn your reputation. 9

It’s all about who you know and what practical skills you have.

There are not enough hours in a work day to get it all done.

These are just some of the things I have learnt in the first few weeks of working. I know I will learn much more and I recommend for any student to try to do work experience over the holidays as it has opened my eyes to what it takes to be in the law field. University is not enough you need the practical skills.

BYE-BYE UNE!

#throwback

BRIGHID CAREY

artwork by Mel Jones

The year before I started university, I spent a gap year.. or two in the UK. I was away in Bristol and drinking coffee at a bar. I was enjoying watching a busy street on a gorgeous day. The University of Bristol was just up the road and before long a bunch of students descended on the bar. They popped a bottle of champagne and began passing it around themselves, going at it straight from the bottle. I thought they must have been celebrating their final exam. And in a few years time, I also thought that would be me. And four and a half years later, it was. On the 16th October, at 4pm, I was told to put down my pen in my last ever uni exam. There had been a pretty big build up to that moment. Not only had we gone through at least four years hard work, but our pharmacy cohort had also managed to complete Honours projects inbuilt into our degrees. I didn’t feel particularly confident going into or coming out of my final exam, and after debriefing with my friends, I still wasn’t that confident. But I had to put that out of my mind as I’d done as much as I could. More importantly however, I had a bottle of champagne with my name on it waiting for me. On the very first day of our final year of classes this year I, with my three closest pharmacy friends, my ‘pharmily’, descended on Dan Murphy’s. We perused the champagne aisle and each selected bottles of Moet and Chandon. We saved our champagne for thirty-three weeks and three days to also drink from the bottle in celebration of our final exam. We took the typical photos at the green UNE signs and the rest of the night was history! I can guarantee that it’s so much easier to enjoy the celebrations if you continue to work hard, push to the end, and eat dinner that night! To finish my final exam was a big weight off my shoulders, but an even bigger weight was lifted after I received my results. Thankfully all went well and I can now concentrate on and look forward to the next stage of my life. I’ve been fortunate enough to secure a job already but unfortunately my studies won’t end in Armidale. Next year I will commence intern training programs both internal and external to my work. I will also have to pass Pharmacy Board exams to become fully qualified as a pharmacist – or gain my registration. No doubt there’ll be more celebrations to be had then too! Perhaps Dom Perignon..?

MELANIE EVE PEASE

The smoke curls toward the light, scattering the moths for a few seconds. Bill doesn’t pay them any attention. He worries the inside of his lip with yellowed teeth before he indulges in another drag. The bricks at his back are rough, they catch the fibres of his shirt. When he began the cigarette they had been cool, now they feel warmer. The sounds of the pub tumble from the nearby doorway – familiar voices amplified and roughened by drink. Bill stares down at the cigarette in his hand, takes in the ash by his foot, and wonders when this became such a comfort. I really should quit, he thinks, knowing before the thought is finished that he won’t. Somehow that is comforting too. He stares at the sandwich board. Awkward letters are picked out in pink chalk. The word ‘schnitzel’ is misspelled and a small annoyance settles over Bill when he notices the sheer level of apostrophe abuse in so few lines. Probably should have gone with the steak and chips. At least it was spelled correctly. From where he is, Bill can see the Keno through the window. The hypnotising rhythm of blue and red squares and random numbers sets a slower pace that the noise of the patrons. Every now and again it is interrupted by an announcement. An enticement to the punters proclaiming that someone, somewhere – someone somewhere else – has won some money. Perhaps, the people in the bar would like to win some money too; become one of the faceless ‘winners.’ Bill stops watching it, turning away with an internal sneer so strong that it curls his lip and becomes an outward sneer. He watches a nearby couple crumple into their newly-arrived taxi. The driver looks tired and put-upon – they can’t be the first drunken couple he’s had to ferry home tonight. The tail lights cast a red shine across Bill’s eyes when he blinks. The exit of two inebriated strangers is marked on his retinas. Bill deposits the cigarette butt in the small silver bin bolted to the wall. The smoke continues to issue from the hole on the furthest right. Bill turns away and heads back to the bar as the ghostly taillights fade from his vision.

the nitty-titty of it all. SARAH OWEN

Greetings world, Despite my involvement in every issue this past year I very rarely contribute content, I mean apart from a few sneaky pieces but you’ll never know, muahahaha! So I decided as the year draws to a close and I complete my penultimate edition it was time to scrawl some vaguely incoherent rambling for you to decipher. I thought now was a chance to get to know each other, you know, intimately. So draw the blinds, slip into something a little more comfortable, lie back, and relax. There we go, that’s better isn’t it? I’m going to get the nitty-gritty out of the way first and share with you an unfortunate incident, I think I’ll call it. I was as usual trapped between serving customers and putting cutlery into paper bags for their dining pleasure. It was at this point I was engaged in most unfortunate conversation. One of my fellow colleagues insisted I just didn’t understand what they we trying to point out, whereas I was trying to point out their views were archaic and poorly articulated. The shit really hit the fan when I was informed that, even if I don’t deserve it, I am most certainly asking for it should I dress in a certain manner. I am sure you can surmise what it might be.

“Breasts are sexual” and apparently make me a sexual object. Silly old me had assumed they were much more practical reasons, such as feeding my young, holding my phone (before it was a thousand metres long and I fully understood why constantly putting it close to a sensitive organ made of breast or brain tissue, was probably not my best idea), storing lipbalm, and to let me know the temperature through a thin shirt. Now it gets serious. Firstly I am not an object and my sexuality, although important to me, is not my entire personality. In fact, I have never considered it as a predominant part of my life; my pickup lines lie somewhere between, “I like your hat,” and “do you have any strong feelings about cheese?” I have never considered myself an object, any more than a person should be considered a buffet table, and on top of everything else it undermines the common man who is innocently walking down the street and has now been turned into a predator. It reduces men to animals who have no choice but to jump me in the street, should I show a little cleavage. And that includes the beautiful, kind-hearted and proudly feminist men who are an important part of my life.

As well as this, the men in my life have the opportunity an right, should they so desire, to let me know if they deem my outfit inappropriate. I suppose I am lucky here, as the men in my life would sooner turn away lecherous eyes, than ever tell me to cover up, quieten down, or otherwise change myself to suit society. And I am incredibly grateful to these men, who are some of my biggest allies in the ongoing fight for all round equality.

And finally and most importantly, to tell me, a young woman who has grown up with privilege and education and relative safety, that this attitude is still okay, forgets about the ignored victims both here and the forgotten victims of the world who are out of sight, out of mind. It ignores the millions of (predominately) women and girls who are trafficked and forced into a life of sexual slavery every year. Changing global attitudes is hard. But it is not impossible.

As Louis C.K so beautifully and tragically put it, “How do women still go out with guys, when you consider that there is no greater threat to women than men? We’re the number one threat to women! Globally and historically, we’re the number one cause of injury and mayhem to women … You know what our number one threat is? Heart disease.”

We all watched as Facebook turned into a giant, glorious rainbow when the United States legalised and implemented marriage equality nationwide on the 26th June 2015. I know there is a long way to go for many minorities facing an ongoing uphill battle, but this was a massive step in the right direction. We were there when history was made. #tastetherainbow.

This can change.

As it stands the majority of the power in the world is held by old white men, who listen to other old white men. I’m looking at you Murdoch, you old leathery bag. Thus it stands to reason our best option is to befuddle and confuse them by befriending awesome, old (or at least esteemed) white men to infiltrate their ranks. Which leads me to my final point.

I have this crazy belief that if you have enough determination, changing harmful attitudes is far more effective than me feeling ashamed to wear a top that may at any moment release a flailing breast for all to see. #freethenipple. Now I was about to be truly vexed, because I really should be able to walk around topless like our gentlemen may and fear no evil, however it was pointed out to me that I have breasts. This observation confused me; I have spent many thousands of dollars on bras over my life and am well aware of what lays beneath my clavicle. I countered that so do many of the men who walk around topless, often larger than mine. And I applaud their body confidence and their bodies in all their voluptuous glory.

Mr Terry Snow. You may not know this but I am from Canberra. Our old airport was akin to an old shed with green chairs, next to a desolate sheep paddock. This is different now, thanks to Mr Snow. Whom I love. So much. It’s actually insane how much love I have for this man. At what other airport are you greeted by giant, corrugated iron kangaroos next to the runway?

spicy cheese dip with robin nipplés Ingredients

image courtesy of Canberra Airport

He is known in Canberra for his social commitment to the region as well as the architecturally outstanding, sustainable development across the airport generously suppporting public artworks, always being flanked by his faithful cattle dog and lastly, and most importantly, for implementing a blazing rainbow light storm across giant letters that read, “#We Can Do This”.

1 Kg Velveeta cheese (really any cheese will do) 1 tomato 1 onion 1 cup of salsa Method:

Mix the cheese, tomato, and onion in a bowl (microwave safe obviously)

Add salsa

Cook for 8-12 minutes at high heat (Stir a couple of times)

Serve while it’s hot.

5. Enjoy!

“We hope that the rainbow image across the gateway to Aus tralia’s National Capital will have similar impact to lighting up the White House after the historic US Supreme Court ruling determining marriage equality in the US in June this year.” Switching on the lights, Tom Snow said: “Our family has always believed that everyone should be treated equally and given a fair go. We are here tonight to declare our support publicly and amplify the voices of the majority of Australians in favour of marriage equality. We are here tonight to say now is the time for change. Now is the time to give gay and lesbian Australians a fair go and recognise them as equals, as they are recognised in 21 other countries. Now is the time to show leadership for equality.” Canberra Airport Media Release - CBR Lights up for Marriage Equality - #WeCanDoThis Despite the obvious, unavoidable namesake connection one must make between Mr Snow and leader of Panem, President Coriolanus Snow (an unfortunate association), it goes no further than this: in my mind I like to imagine that Mr Snow too has a glorious white beard, vaguely resembles Donald Sutherland, and has a similar penchant for proper garden maintenance. But I digress. I know we all want to be the one to change the world, but the world is a big place, so perhaps if we could all start small. Education is our greatest weapon and it is something that no-one, no matter how hard they try to tell you that you are anything less, can ever take away from you. I may not change everyone’s mind; however, I enjoy envisaging a future where an ample lady may walk down a street, with an equally ample bosom flapping freely in the stiff summer breeze and no-one bats an eyelid further than to offer her some sunscreen.

image by Ilari-Grohn-Art

Only Because ‘They’ Made Me SEAN O’MALLEY - THE IRISH IN THE FECKERS

Dear disgruntled and concerned former contributor, I’m not in the least bit perturbed that you don’t like the current state of the Nucleus. Wanna know what an intelligent person does when they don’t like what they are reading – it’s a toughie – they stop reading it. Kind of like when maybe you’re eating something that doesn’t seem cooked right, sure the option of just eating it and dying from food poisoning is there, but so is the option to just not eat it. But that’s just my condescending take on your rant at the Nucleus. On a more personal note. You personally addressed us O’Malley’s on point number seven. Well, here goes. Perhaps my point was convoluted but it wasn’t that lecturers need to get angry at diabetics. My point dear-disgruntled-and-concerned-former-contributor, is that because lecturers are often too timid to speak up at all when students are being disruptive, people can inhibit the learning of those around them. There has never been a single lecture that I have attended where someone with a disability was disruptive to learning – not one. It’s people like me that are happy to be obnoxious tools that capitalize off it! Would we be able to do so if lecturers genuinely called us out and were persistent in doing so? Nope. Now I’ll agree that you had a point – diabetics may have been distressed by my words if indeed they a) ignored the disclaimers at the beginning, b) have never read anything by my brother and I, and c) actually cared – I have a feeling they’d have bigger things on their minds, but sure; I, Sean O’Malley sincerely apologise to any diabetic out there in the world that read ‘what we want from our lecturers’ and was upset or indeed distressed by this. Again on these personal notes. My ‘original apology’ was sadly rejected by the Nucleus, but I did cover the fact that blue and green are actually complimentary colours (I even used a colour wheel and explained colour theory – lots of fun!) they don’t actually clash. Furthermore, as for pseudonyms, is your name actually ‘disgruntled and concerned former contributor’? Whatever. We can argue about political correctness all day, but really what we have here is a disagreement on the semantics and application of the words. Again, whatever – after all, since this is just going to end up in your bin I’ll finalise this rewritten apology by simply saying: To any offended diabetics, I’m sorry. As to you, dearest disgruntled and concerned former contributor. Well… sorry – not sorry. Sean O’Malley

#november. CAYDEN MONCKTON

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image courtesy of boredpanda’s coverage of the 2015 world beard and moustache championships because yes that’s a thing

reviews

Spoiler Alert

game. ARK

JOHN SHIRLEY

“Picture this, we were both butt naked” … Well almost anyway.

I made the mistake of downloading this game in the middle of Tri 2 exams. Suffice it to say that not a single f*ck was given When you first start playing ark you spawn on a beach with about exams from that point on. literally nothing other than the loin cloth and/or make-shift bra you have on. From that point on you have to collect This game is currently in early access with patches being materials and resources to create everything that you will need released every few days or so, but the additional features that to survive whilst on the ark. have been added have been awesome. The twist? DINOSAURS!!!! Not just your regular, run of the mill dinosaurs either. There are dinosaurs as small as the Compsognathus (A.K.A. Compy. Those tiny little raptors from Jurassic Park 3), and the Dodo, all the way up to the terrifying Giganotosaurus (Imagine the Indominus Rex) and Quetzal (Basically a giant flying bat). For those familiar with Minecraft, this is pretty much that same thing, but the graphics are a million times better, and not only are there dinosaurs threatening your very existence everywhere, but you can also tame and ride them! Picture this; an enemy player rides up to your base on the back of a raptor… in the middle of a tamed raptor pack. You start pooping your pants (legit, press z and you make your character, and any dino you are riding, poop.)… Until you sneak up behind them on the Tyrannosaurus Rex you tamed the other day.

They even brought out a breeding function a few weeks ago! Baby dinos are so cute!!!

Holy crap, I can’t believe its December already! This year has flown by so quickly. We all joined the Nucleus for different reasons, but the main aim for this year was to help get the colleges more involved and have a larger presence in our university’s life. After the UNE’s seemingly unplanned decision to move Robb last year the last thing we wanted was to see the colleges go gently into that good night. Turns out we were right to do so. Although the UNE were the first to break the news, I am proud to be part of the team that made them push the announcement forward from trimester 3. This year we’ve spoken to a lot of people from various walks of life. We’ve listened, we’ve reported, and we’ve had so many contributors. We’ve loved reading everyone’s opinions and being able to share so many different viewpoints. We know that not everyone has enjoyed reading everything we have published this year, but that is the nature of media. We also know how many people love the Nucleus, and why wouldn’t they? This thing is sick! This is our last edition as editors and we are so glad to be handing over to next year’s team. Melanie Eve-Pease is the new Editor-in-Chief, and Cayden is the new Assistant Editor in charge of design. We know that they will do great things with the Nucleus in 2016. This edition sees the return of Constance after her absence in the last issue, as well as some insight into the lives of the new eds, and some of our faves from the past editions. This year we saw continued budget tightening from the Government and University, the UNE’s Medical Centre was moved, the music programme was moved online – leaving existing students to fight for face-to-face learning, and a whole lot about Constance Chatterley’s sex life. It’s been an interesting year to say the least.

December is the month of impromptu light sabre battles with rolls of wrapping paper, the third straight month of Christmas carols in the shops and the first month of summer.

I’d like to take a second to thank everyone who has made this year possible.

And so far, it’s been great.

To this year’s contributors we would like to thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Without your continued support and contributions all our effort would have come to nought. You really saved our bacon! (Mmm, bacon...)

The Paris Summit culminated in a global commitment to lower carbon emissions.

Bridgette and Alana, you beautiful ladies left an amazing legacy for us to follow and I hope we have lived up to your expectations.

We are celebrating the research efforts of several UNE minds.

2016 eds, it’s been a weird month so far, but thank you for being so patient and willing to learn what we do here.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is here.

Cassie Keogh. What else could I say? Thank you for everything you have done this year. You have made such a huge impact to the work we do here, and without all your hard work and effort this year I don’t think I would have retained my sanity. David Mailer. You really have done it all this year. From running UNESA to running for government, you really are a man of many depths. Thank you for sticking by us all this time and we wish you luck with your future endeavours. Judd, you may have only been president for a few months now, but you have already done so much for the Nucleus and our students. Thank you for all your valued input and work this year. Last and certainly not least, Tania Court. You have been there for us every day and every night. There’s no amount of caffeinated beverages on this planet that could repay you for all you’ve done for us. You have been our rock when times were tough and you have always looked out for the best interests of our teams (Nucleus and TuneFM!) and the wider student populace. Thank you all for everything you have done this year. Much love, Sarah and John

Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is right on its heels. And all those Fallout 4 players have finally started trying to reacquaint themselves with the superior graphics, but inferior plotline, of reality. The human meme that is Donald Trump continues to push his vaguely aimed trainwreck towards the Republican nomination for president. On the way he was recently attacked while doing a Time magazine photo shoot by Uncle Sam, a bald eagle. He was attacked by the symbol of #merica. And it was a beautiful reminder to us all to stop and appreciate the simple things in life. That tiny moment of irony – immortalised in gif. form – teaches us all in the run-up to Christmas to just take a moment and laugh at the misfortunes of those who (probably) deserve it. Until January, Mel and Cayden.

MELANIE EVE PEASE

Some important information about the 2016 Nucleus Editor-in-chief, Melanie Eve Pease: • • • • • • • •

Mel is studying a BA in Writing and History. Mel watches a lot of Monty Python, and has done so from a young age. She is warped. Mel is both ecstatic and terrified of her new role. Mel loves detective novels, particularly the Dirk Gently novels by Douglas Adams. Mel swears entirely too much, but she doesn’t actually care. Mel’s chief weapon is brutal honesty and sarcasm… Mel’s TWO chief weapons are brutal honesty and sarcasm… Mel has referred to herself in the third-person for this entire piece and wants you to know that that should in no way reflect on her character. Mel is looking forward to meeting many, many contributors – both old and new – in her new role.

CAYDEN MONCKTON

Hello Nucleus readers! Since I was introduced to Nucleus back in 2014 I always found the people behind it a rather friendly, inspiring and charismatic bunch, producing entertaining content that made me feel that little bit more involved at the uni, so I am pretty excited to jump on board as 2016’s Design Editor. But me, I am a first (and a half) year Zoology student, I watch a lot of movies, read a lot of books and try to make the most of living in our little city of Armidale. I find in a place like this it’s not really the quantity of things there is to do but the people you choose to have around you, it really makes all the difference. Anyway, I’m sure the next year as Nucleus’s Design Editor will be an awesome and challenging new experience and I look forward to kicking things off with our ‘O’ week edition. Cayden

president’s christmas report. JUDD NEWTON - UNESA PRESIDENT

DECEMBER REPORT I hope everyone is well and truly ready for Christmas, for it is upon us! Yes, spending all that money on family members you only see once a year, trying to pick that perfect present for the special someone - it is all part of the biggest event of the Australian calendar. I hope you all had a chance to attend the UNESA Christmas party, which was held Thursday 17th of December. We are living in a strange time and everything seems to be changing; not only in the localised tea-cup we call UNE, but in the broader world. I feel like there are a lot of people who aren’t really sure what is going on and I can happily add my name to that list. Know that UNESA will continue to respect students to the best of our ability and help ensure that UNE sees its students as more than just numbers on a page, but as people. UNESA continues to deal with the proposal received from Professor Creamer/the UNE administration. We have now posted the actual information on Moodle and you can expect to see a lengthy article on the subject in the next addition of Nucleus. The new Nucleus editors are in, all gearing up for the New Year when the baton of student journalism shall be passed onto them. I can only wish the out-going Editors all the best in their future endeavours, and thank them for their work this year. Until we speak again, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday period. Sincerely, Judd Newton UNESA President

une UNE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

ERA EVALUATION

MELANIE EVE PEASE

The University of New England has fared well out of the 2015 ERA evaluation by the Australian Research Council. The evaluation looks at the quality of research conducted by Australian Universities. In this national stocktake, UNE fared very well, scoring ratings of five (well above world standard), 4 (above world standard) and 3 (meeting world standard).

UNE’S Business Challenge for budding entrepreneurs acknowledged the winning entries from high school students with innovative business ideas. David Wilson from Duval High School in Armidale and Jack Paveys from Bishop Druitt College Coffs Harbour took out joint third-prize. David’s proposal was to harness the energy of everyday movement in order to charge electronic devices, while Jack wanted to convert used plastic water bottles into fence posts - both timely and environmentally-friendly ideas. Second place was awarded to Jessica Chambers for the app, Beverage Bump, allowing customers to skip the long lines at their local café and order their drinks and food ahead of time. First place, and $1000 prize-money, went to Remy Bordignon, William DeDassell, and Jock Price for ‘Your Tech Mate.’ The three boys from John Paul College, Coffs Harbour, hope to use the prize money to further develop their app – a program where tech-savvy youth address tech-illiteracy amongst older people.

news MELANIE EVE PEASE

The five star rating for work well above the world standard was awarded to nine researchers in fields as diverse as land and farm management, ecology, geology, and human movement and sport sciences. UNE researchers in eleven fields such as evolutionary biology, macromolecular and materials chemistry, nursing, psychology, pure mathematics, medical and health sciences are all producing work above the world standard. While the world standard is being maintained at UNE in twenty different areas including philosophy and religious studies.

These rankings were based on quality indicators including citation impact and expert peer review. For a full list – as it was too extensive to be printed here in full – please visit: http://www.une.edu.au/research/une-research-priorities/excellence-in-research-australia

PROFESSOR DAVID LAMB MELANIE EVE PEASE

Professor David Lamb, chief researcher of the Precision Agriculture Research Group at UNE’s School of Science and Technology, has been awarded the 2015 Research Excellence Award. This coveted award adds to Prof. Lamb’s international standing and reinforces the pivotal role he, and his team, have played in building an international reputation for UNE’s research into practical farming solutions. He received the accolade for his inroads into improving water and fertiliser efficiency and effectiveness, and in developing biomass sensor technology. For more information on Professor Lamb’s work with the PARG, please visit: http://www.une.edu.au/about-une/academic-schools/school-of-science-and-technology/ research/precision-agriculture

A CLIMATE OF CHANGE? MELANIE EVE PEASE

I don’t science. I leave sciencing to the people who are better equipped than me to understand the overwhelming scientific evidence that supports modern theory. I am however able to make informed decisions about certain popular scientific theories, based on the work of others. The general consensus among the sciency-brigade is that Climate Change is a very real and dangerous threat to the planet. I too have held this opinion for some time. After the COP21 summit in Paris, it seems the governments of the world have finally caught up, with around 200 nations pledging to limit the global average temperature rise to less than 2°C. 97% (or more) of actively publishing climate scientists agree that human activities are most likely the cause of global temperature rises.1 In a 2009 statement issued by eighteen American scientific organisations, The American Association for the Advancement of Science et al wrote, “Observations throughout the world make it clear that climate change is occurring, and rigorous scientific research demonstrates that the greenhouse gasses emitted by human activities are the primary driver.”2 So, what does the historic decision mean for Australia? As I write this Malcolm Turnbull has already lifted the ban on investing in wind power that was imposed in July by former Prime-Minister, Tony Abbott.3 The new mandate to the Clean Energy Council is to focus funding on supporting emerging and innovative renewable technologies. The Paris deal is the legally-binding culmination of twenty years of climate talks, and has been formally adopted by 195 countries. However, climate scientists and activists warned that the measures do not go far enough.4 While Malcolm Turnbull’s commitment to the targets may not be enough to sufficiently slow the effects of greenhouse gasses, it does at least help Australia save some face after placing 56th in the 58 countries assessed on their climate change action. While we were up one place from last year,5 the actual score, 36.5 out of a possible 100 wasn’t much of an improvement on the 2014 figures. For further information on the science behind the theory, I would recommend the following sources (given to me by a friend who most certainly does science.)

‘Climate Change 101 with Bill Nye.’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtW2rrLHs08 (Featuring Bill Nye the Science Guy in the obligatory adorable bow tie.) ‘Is Climate Change Just a Lot of Hot Air?’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEQghbA3pLM And NASA’s great and informative site http://climate.nasa.gov/

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

‘Scientific consensus: Earth’s climate is warming’, http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/. Leshner, A et al, letter, October 21, 2009, http://www.aaas.org/sites/default/files/migrate/uploads/1021climate_letter1.pdf. Chan, G, ‘Malcolm Turnbull Lifts Abbott Ban on Government Finance for Wind Power’, The Guardian, December 13, 2015. Vidal, Vaughan, Goldenberg, Taylor and Boffey, ‘World Leaders Hail Paris Climate Deal as ‘Major Leap for Mankind’, The Guardian, December 13, 2015. Arup, Tom, ‘Paris UN Climate Conference 2015: Australia Ranked Third-last for Emissions’, The Sydney Morning Herald, December 8, 2015.

image by Cayden Monckton

FEATURES

WRITING STANDARDS AT UNE JOHN SHIRLEY

Everyone has different opinions on their writing. Some days it’s crap, some days it’s marvellous. I started at UNE last year with full knowledge of these emotional swings, and I thought the best unit choice I could make in my first trimester would be ENCO100 – The Craft of Academic Writing. I loved it. Hell, I still love it. It was hands down the best academic writing course I have ever seen, or taken, The course textbook (The Easy Writer - Formal Writing for Academic Purposes) teaches the reader absolutely everything about writing academic essays. It takes you from what nouns, verbs, adjectives etc are, all the way through run on sentences and appositive phrases to proper paragraph structures, and finally, the academic essay. There was so much support with the coursework too! Every week we could talk to the tutorial coordinators to show our work and ask questions. The assignments even made sense. The first of 3 were 3 separate paragraphs about various topics. The second was our first short essay (1,200 words if I remember correctly), and the third was a larger essay. After finishing the unit, and even getting a HD, I thought I was ready for any form of academic writing the UNE could throw at me. After all, I had just been taught everything there is to know about writing an academic essay...apparently not. My academic writing efforts have either been good quality (>95%), or unexplained/incorrectly marked borderline fails (60%-75%). The highlight of which was when one all-knowing PhD student “corrected” my spelling and grammar. Poor choice… (I double checked because you know, I could be wrong).

For ages I just assumed it was either just me, or just the units I was taking. That was until I started proof-reading assignments for my friends, and some of their friends. I started coming across task sheets that would ask for things to be written in “Formal English”, but then tell the student to start their sentences with “I observed…”, or “I think…” (Here’s looking at you Education). I even know one student that lost marks, and I kid you not, for not starting their conclusion with “in conclusion, …”. Now that is some petty shit Humanities. The latest one I came across was a mess. It was a 4 question short answer essay. The fourth question also asked you to reflect on what you had gained from the unit in relation to your major/s. First of all, don’t ever use “I”, “we”, “my”, or any other pronouns like that in formal writing. That is like shooting kryptonite at Superman, while he is fighting Doomsday. The only time you do either of these things is when you want to fail… spectacularly. Secondly, if you want to correct someone make sure you are right when doing so. Seriously, when it backfires you are going to look like a pretentious fool in front of your peers, colleagues, and whomever the student shows your “correction” to. Thirdly, there is no such thing as a short answer essay. There just isn’t. There are short answer questions (answerable in no more than a paragraph) and there are essays (normally at least 3 paragraphs). I actually researched this for about 3 hours and every source I found, which included numerous Australian universities with much better reputations than UNE, makes very clear distinctions between the two. It is my opinion in life that if you expect to teach/critique (mark) something, anything, to/for another human being then you should probably know what you are doing first. This even reaches into the heights that are academia. If you expect to mark formal writing of any sort, please learn how to first. We have an impressive amount of writing talent on staff and in the student body here at UNE. Please start using them. Lastly, when a student is wrong please provide legitimate feedback. We come to uni to learn from academics that have apparently learned all of the material we are studying. If we get something wrong it’s generally because we don’t know, so please let us know where we go wrong. Otherwise we won’t learn a thing.

Leaving a general, half-assed paragraph that looks like it’s been written by the government’s PR team only helps to confuse students and make you look like an uncaring morning ablution.

and now #throwback to our two favourite articles from the year MY UTERUS IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS ISSUE 2, MARCH

In light of the recent conversation in the wider media about sexism in medicine, I wanted to continue the discussion on the topic of gender equality in medicine here. I have come to realise that despite only being a medical student, I’ve already noticed how my gender has the potential to impact on my opportunities. I’m hoping to contextualise the stories in the media within the space of the University of New England and encourage people to speak out about discrimination in all its forms. When I was 12 I broke my wrist and as a result spent a few days visiting the hospital, and I absolutely loved it. From this (and binge watching Scrubs) I decided that medicine was for me. That was fine for a few years, until people started asking me what kind of doctor I’d like to be. After a bit of research, and the proud declaration that I could handle any blood and gore the world would throw at me, I decided that surgery would suit me just fine. At the time I didn’t know about the low rate of women in the specialty. As soon as I mentioned surgery, even at 16 or 17, the first thing out of most people’s mouths is a judgemental ‘oh, but don’t you want a family?’ This response was, and is, still so common that I’ve been trying out different responses to see what people say. Sometimes I say yes, and the answer is almost invariably ‘well, surgery really isn’t family friendly.’ Other times I say ‘I’m 21, ask me in 10 years.’ Then I went all out last year and said ‘no.’ I’ll be darned if all five doctors standing around the table didn’t stop what they were doing to stare at me dumbfounded. It’s a paradox if there ever was one. The only way people take your surgical ambitions seriously is to say you don’t want kids. But then, am I really a woman if I don’t want children? By the time I got to medical school I had already started to doubt myself. Like Dylan Moran says, ‘people will kill you over time, and how they’ll kill you is with tiny, harmless phrases like “be realistic.”’ I decided to just put my head down and work hard, and hopefully it would work out for the best. That’s why I was particularly devastated when the news last week screamed sexism in medicine, especially surgery. A senior surgeon, Dr Gabrielle McMullin, made comments this month that it is better for a trainee’s career to ‘comply with requests’ for sexual favours than it is to report harassment.

ELLIE SMITH

It has ignited huge controversy and prompted an internal review at the Royal Australian College of Surgeons. It has also started a conversation about something that’s been going on for years. Research out of the US found that 92.5% of female doctors had experienced, witnessed or heard stories of gender discrimination in medical school. Health care and social assistance has the biggest gendered wage gap of any Australian industry, at 30.7%. Yet organisations in the industry aren’t investigating why. Less than a quarter of organisations in the industry have ever undertaken gender pay gap analyses. This is coming from an industry that is only five years away from gender parity (1:1 males and females in the workforce). It’s undeniable that female medical students at UNE are killing it on the leadership front. I’m the fifth female president of UNEMSA, with two females acting as VPs, Adelaide Pratt and Melanie Nardi. Of the five ‘medical’ or related societies, four have female leaders, and the majority of the committee members are females in these same four societies. The only committee with more males and a male president is, as you might have guessed, the UNE Surgical Society. To be fair, three of their past four secretaries have been blonde women, and the one exemption is Pat Felton, who does have notably feminine eyelashes.1 So what happens to this desire to lead once we graduate? Based on the above statistics, women are clearly driven to fill leadership positions, yet 80% of medical college presidents are men. While med school admissions have been tipped in favour of females for some years now, only 9% of surgeons are female. Advice from senior female surgeons often encourages women to work hard so their competency can’t be questioned. So again, women are expected to excel above and beyond the standards expected of men, just for a seat at the table.

It begins as professors chuckling heartily at how impassioned some of these ‘young ladies’ are about blatantly sexist remarks but it ends in a 30% pay difference. There is one great thing about this subtle sexism. It’s not always a big deal to call it out. Male or female, if one of your colleagues makes a sexist (or racist, or homophobic) joke, don’t laugh. If the silence isn’t deafening enough, tell them that you don’t think that discrimination is funny. Politely correct the ‘darlings’ or ‘sweethearts’ with your actual name. Every. Damn. Time. So on that note, I’m saying to hell with it. I’m a feminist who is proud to be feminine. I’m a feminist who loves Grey’s Anatomy AND Taylor Swift. I love wearing dresses to clinical, so I’m going to wear dresses to clinical. Being girly shouldn’t be synonymous with being incompetent. Why does the fact that you see my figure mean that I’m unprofessional. What on earth about my body tells you if I’m good at medicine or not? In fact, being a girl should tell you that as a UNE student, I’m more likely to have held a leadership role than my male counterparts. I want to be a surgeon and what I plan to do with my uterus is none of your damn business. Go forth my friends, we’ve come a long way but there’s still a way to go. These articles are interesting and helped to shape my opinions: • anu.edu.au/news/all-news/ yes-sexism-is-rife-in-surgery- %E2%80%93-and-its-time- to-do-something-about-it • amsa.org.au/amsa-blog/20141109 -medicine-is-not-immune-to-gen der-inequality/ • ashleighwitt.blogspot.com.au (follow her on twitter while you’re at it, her personal bio describes her as a Taylor Swift groupie. Safe to say she’s my new favourite person) Now, before you get upset at me making a light-hearted jab at a man being feminine in an article essentially about feminism, ask yourself, why is it funny for a man to be like a woman? To throw, run, laugh, or act-like a ‘girl’ is almost always an insult. Our society so heavily favours the masculine that it’s funny for a man to lower himself to a feminine quality. In turn, this is harmful for all of those people who would like to express their gender identity outside of our rigid gender norms. 1

Even in medical school women have to battle harder just to be taken seriously. Sexism comes in the form of subtle jabs and jokes, or as Laura Bates calls it ‘Everyday Sexism’. It’s in the benign things like patients assuming you are the nurse and your male colleague is the medical student. Or it’s the specialist who repeatedly introduces you to patients as the ‘gorgeous young ladies studying medicine.’ It can even be teachers who routinely favour male students because they’re more likely to become surgeons.

yteixnA: Challenging Society’s ‘Backwards’ Perception

ISSUE 6, AUGUST

After a long day, you lay in bed, exhausted. Every cell aches in anticipation of sleep. You’ve showered; put your clothes away (dirty and clean); trimmed your nails; applied pimple cream; moisturised; put on clean pyjamas; prepared your bag for tomorrow’s classes including your pencil case which has the erasable pens you MUST have for chemistry prac; you’ve filled a water bottle; decided on tomorrow’s outfit; checked the weather forecast to ensure it will be suitable; reminded yourself of where you parked your car last because you need to allow time for the walking distance and finally, you have set multiple alarms starting at an hour and a half before your first class (8am).

LANGUAGE/CONTENT Alert LUCY FROUD

You really can’t do anything to stop any of what is happening. You simply curl up into a ball under your covers and attempt to emotionally disconnect from everything. This hurts. The emotional ties you are slowly breaking are as sensitive as the skin under your nails. If you cut them too soon or too short, they are left aching and detached from the nail that is your protective armour.

Amidst the pain and restlessness, you can’t help but think you are alone. No one you care about will understand. Even if they do take the time to try - which many won’t – they won’t be able to do anything. After all, you don’t even know what you would This checklist runs through your mind ten times more. You say if someone asked; that you have literally been battling with are ready to sleep, but… it doesn’t happen. It won’t. You take a yourself, trying to control something you don’t understand? mental step backwards and try to work out why. It would be pointless. Physically: your body is exhausted, but taut; your heart is racing and your breaths are shallow and fast; your eyes are wide The pain that this nightly routine inflicts is indescribable and open; your hands are clammy and clenched, nails digging into you endure it regularly. You want to be normal, so when you your palms and the salty flavour of blood rinses your tastebuds can, you do as many of the things that you would normally as your teeth puncture the interior of your lips. do as possible: soccer, violin, writing music, college activities, writing for the nucleus etc. You can sense the relief of anyone Mentally: no matter how hard you try, your thoughts won’t who may have been slightly concerned about your wellbeing, calm. Stop. Stop thinking. Listen to the music. But, nothing is whenever you smile or join in, which is slightly alleviating. working now, which is no surprise. But not even the things you enjoy most can keep the incessant thoughts at bay when you’re alone. So, you take another mental step backwards and try to control the cause of this stress. All at once, the pressure of everything It must be noted that this is only an account experienced by you have been subconsciously keeping hidden from the out- one individual and by any means, does not apply to all who side world feels the need to be released. You sit upright… turn experience anxiety or depressive symptoms. However, this the music off. You rub your eyes, pinch the bridge of your description does depict an extent to which anxiety-induced nose, rub your head, restlessly scratch your armstrain can reach. It also illustrates the powerlessness many feel when experiencing an anxiety-attack or similar. THERE IS NOTHING YOU CAN DO. THIS IS YOUR FAULT. STOP THINKING AND SLEEP. HAVE ANOTHER SHOW- It must also be noted that every individual is dealing with ER. DRAW, BE CREATIVE. YOU SHOULD BE STUDYING. and has dealt with a different set of complications and may WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING HERE? be struggling a lot more than what is portrayed. Therefore, it is always best to maintain an open mind when associating …It releases nonetheless. with others and respect that you may not know or understand everything there is to each person. If you are feeling overwhelmed or struggling please contact a professional service for help. Lifeline - 13 11 14 UNE Counselling Services - 02 6773 2897

au.reachout.com

warning this next section contains naughty bits!

REVIEWS & ADVICE image by Cayden Monckton

.the naughty bits

image courtesy of helix studios

summer lovin’

CONSTANCE CHATTERLEY

image courtesy of screenrant

SARAH OWEN

A long time ago (Thursday 17th 12:01am) in a galaxy far, far away (Belgrave Cinema)…

You may be reading this from various parts of the world, but if you’re in Armidale (or just Australia, in general), you’ll know that it’s been bloody hot. We haven’t quite reached disgustingly hot yet, but it is on its way. While I would rather sit on my lounge with a wet cloth around my neck, life doesn’t stop just because I’m sweating. Everything keeps going: work (for some), uni (for some), and the libido (for me, at least). But this is the whole problem! While we may all be sweating through our clothes, I still remain attracted to a man who is actually keen to become even more of a sweaty mess with me. Bless him….

I saw my first ever Star Wars premiere on the big screen.

Actually no, I don’t blame him.

And it was amazing.

But still, there’s only so much a fan can do in this situation. And while I encourage things to get all ‘hot and heavy’ in the bedroom, donning a sweat moustache is not exactly the look I am going for. Therefore, I’ve come up with some ways to bring together my sex life with the glorious (-ly horrible) Australian summer so that I can embrace the rest of 2016 with my dignity, a man to provide orgasms, and fewer yeast infections (a summer staple for me). They include the following:

I was not around in May 1977 and was five years old on June 3rd 1999. So this was it for me. My first ever Star Wars in a cinema.

JJ Abrams. I love you. So much love.

Sex in water

pleasemarrymejj

There is nothing more refreshing than going for it in some clear, blue water. You’re weightless, you can see each other’s bodies, (which is always sexy), you look super amazing with wet hair, and you don’t have to deal with the mess that usually follows. It’s a total win. Obviously, a waterfall would be ideal because they’re so romantic and powerful, but they’re either really tricky to find or totally crowded with people who are also selfishly trying to cool down. Next best is a quiet river or lake, but most of us will just end up f#!king in the pool. Nothing wrong with it, but please, make sure it’s clean. An unclean pool can lead to many unfortunate things for vaginas. I can’t speak for penises, but I’m assuming they often survive these things. At least, his did….I wonder what he’s up to these days?.... Oh, the bath or shower is also an option but it’s such a small area you’re working with that you may find yourself getting super annoyed with the other person. Or you fall over.

Abrams delivered and it was glorious. Enough references for the fans to revel in the nostalgia but enough stand-alone story for the newcomers.

Sex in air conditioned places Assuming that you don’t have an air conditioned home, (welcome to the group), this pointer means you may need to venture out into public places. Libraries, cinemas, and museums are generally filled with dark corners for you to quietly do the deed. However, depending on where you are, these places can also be filled with people. Therefore, you need to be smart about it. Don’t be a jerk and decide to have sex in a screening of Star Wars because everyone will be there, and we won’t tolerate other non-movie related noise!! Sex up against the fridge (with the doors open) We’re getting desperate now. But when the day has become gross, and you’re stupid bedroom pedestal fan just isn’t doing the trick, head out to the kitchen, and start pounding against the fridge. This has to be done with care as leaving the door open for too long isn’t exactly good for the fridge. In fact, I’d suggest alternating between the fridge and freezer door – but make sure your partner is getting the same amount of blasting cool air as you. Summer has no room for greedy bitches. So, do what you will with these bits of advice and good luck to you all! I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and lots of chilled sex. Hard nipples for the win!!

We have a new cute semi-sentient robot: BB - 8 and our Star Wars standard two boys, one girl. The cool new lightsaber with the hilty bits, which don’t worry if you thought it was a bit lame - COS IT IS AMAZEBALLS!!! Rey is our resident hard-core, badass mofo lady. We meet Poe and Finn. I love Finn. He is beautiful. I was worried because I was far too invested in this relationship for anything to happen at this point. And I promise this isn’t a spoiler but Harrison Ford came on and so did the sound of a thousand vaginas clapping in excitement. I laughed and I cried and then couldn’t stop crying. Then couldn’t remember if my eyeliner was waterproof or not. So I stopped crying. There was a scene and I will never be okay. I saw the bridge I knew it was coming and I couldn’t deal. I’m tearing up now. Excuse me. If you haven’t seen it, go. It will probably have been spoiled by an arsehole but it’s still worth it. YOU WILL CRY. Or you won’t, in which case you don’t have a heart. You bastard. So go see it cos reasons I can’t go into here. It was awesome and I refuse to give you anymore because someone reading this hasn’t made it and has ninja dodged the spoilers and I don’t wanna be that person.

overcommercialmas. CAYDEN MONCKTON

Christmas Crossword Complete the crossword below 1

5 6

8 9

10 11 12 13

17 Created on TheTeachersCorner.net Crossword Maker

Across

ACROSS 2. The closest college to UNE. 4. A bright red muppet. Sports person of the year 2. The 7. closest college to UNE. 12. The newest entry in the Star Wars saga. 4. A bright red muppet. 14.person Nucleus's Editor during 2015. 7. Sports of theCollege year Theentry name of Armidales cinema 12. The 15. newest in the Star Wars saga. 14. Nucleus’s College Editor during 2015. 16. A popular swimming spot east of Armidale 15. The 17. name of Armidales The Director ofcinema 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. 16. A popular swimming spot east of Armidale 17. The producer of ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’.

image courtesy of zironnetwork

Down

DOWN 1. The main road going past the colleges and up towards UNEroad going past the colleges and up towards UNE 1. The main 3.3. Several daysofofon-campus on-campus learning for off-campus Several days learning for off-campus students. students. 5. The name of the Grinch’s canine companion. 5.6. The the Grinch's canine companion. The name Prime of Minister of Canada. 6.8. The PrimeEditor-in-chief Minister of Canada. Nucleus’s during 2015. A popularEditor-in-chief group whom recently 8.9. Nucleus's duringreleased 2015. their new album ‘ A Head Full Of Dreams’ . 9. A popular group whom recently released their new 10. What is the common name of Ornithorhynchus anatinus? album 'A Head Full Of Dreams'. 11. Where would you find BigofBanana’? 10. What is the common ‘The name Ornithorhynchus 13. Nucleus’s Design Editor during 2015. anatinus? 11. Where would you find 'The Big Banana'? 13. Nucleus's Design Editor during 2015.

reviews

Spoiler Alert

movie.

CAYDEN MONCKTON

MOCKINGJAY PART II (IN 3D COS SOMETIMES YOU SHOULD TREAT YO SELF)

As a film series, which I’ve been following since its first release back in 2012, I saw it only fitting that I should cough up the $13 student concession at Belgrave cinema to watch the final entry to The Hunger Games franchise, so late one evening a good friend and I decided to set out and indulge in our Mockingjay Part II 3D experience. My thought process was that Avatar (blue cat people) was awesome in 3D, so seeing Mockingjay Part II in 3D will make it a much more cinematic experience. How very wrong I was. The 3D effects were not noticeable in action sequences, but used quite generously in conversation scenes, especially by making the back of a characters head stand out more than anything else in the frame. At times the 3D blurred and structures and characters would double, ultimately giving my movie companion a headache halfway through the film. Regarding the film’s content, Mockingjay Part II did not disappoint. The movie didn’t follow the battlefield aspect of the revolution taking place in Panem but pertained to Katniss’s journey through the war-torn Capitol. Now a traumatised propaganda icon, Katniss decides to defy her orders of encouraging violence within the districts and fulfil her personal vendetta against the now rather ill President Snow. With her “star squad” in tow, including the now psychotic Peeta who still wants to get his murder on, Katniss sets out on her adventure with countless jump scares, lots of Hunger Games themed monsters, and big, fiery explosions to follow. Mockingjay Part II stays true to the formula of the series, delivering lots of emotion, shocking controversy and an awesome soundtrack to boot making the film a pretty riveting watch as always. My movie watching companion (Jess Turner) whom had seen very little of the franchises film entries but had read all the books left the cinema stating that she believed Mockingjay Part II did extremely well with what content it was given from the novel. Tying loose ends, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part II was a fitting and entertaining end to the series, although I do believe it would have been an easier viewing experience in 2D. Pros: - - -

Awesome end to the franchise. Doesn’t lack in content. Impressive Soundtrack

Cons: - -

The 3D kinda sucked. Important plot lines were not obvious at points. Cinema Tip #142: Take a friend, it makes it more fun ;)

Student Media What did you do with your year?

WRITING

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FUTURE PREP

now recruiting for: announcers

NETWORKING UPDATE RESUME

news team

music team

Sharpen your broadcasting skills by taking on a Cover UNE, national and international news as position as an on-air announcer with Tune!FM. part of the student media News Team. You’ll be broadcast locally on 106.9FM and During your shift you’ll report on-air, on social streamed live around the world on tunefm.net. media and in print.

There’s a great team working behind the scenes at Tune!FM reviewing the mountain of new music that comes in every week to decide what gets played and what doesn’t.

TIME COMMITMENT: 2 HOURS A WEEK TIME COMMITMENT: 2 - 4 HOURS A WEEK

TIME COMMITMENT: AS MUCH AS YOU CAN GIVE

come find us at the Student Media Hub (union square - on the corner between Uni4Me and the ‘Stro) www.fb/TuneFM106.9

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ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS

VITTUJEN KEVAT JA KYRPIEN TAKATALVI!

THE BIGGEST, BLACKEST DICK.

MERRY FUCKING CHRISTMAS and a happy new(cleus) year