Issue 2 final

Welcome to issue 2 of Snippet magazine for you all to enjoy. The theme of this issue is ‘identity’ and we hope you find it of interest.

Thanks as always to the talented team of people who have contributed.

Euan McKenzie

Alexandra Cole

Oliver Bowman

Riki Buckles

Polly Dawson

James Frost

Elena Ferretti

Mati Ferretti

Raffy Zoio

Olivia Goldsmith

Thomas Irvine

Emily Mitchell

India Parkinson

Beth Scahill

Will Stevens

Raffi Thomas

Rachael Vickery Miss Mardle

Ms Baynes-Robinson Miss Foster

Sonny Da Silva-Peters

Ms Hargadon

Jack Gowland-Dale

Issue 3’s theme is fear so beware…

Editor’s Note I think it was Shakespeare who once said: “woe am I!” and whoa am I having a epically horrendous day. I find myself sitting here on the verge of tears. I have had literally the worst day ever. Hell is a luxury hotel room compared to my stench of a life. I do not know why I bother to breathe (well, obviously I do), when the air stabs my lungs like a balloon filled with lead. I never knew it was this possible to be this apoplectic in this day and age. Like, OMG even when my pet guinea pig Persephone died I was not this tragic, and let me tell you, thems were tough times.

The level of sadness that I feel is not even human. I am a sloth. Yes, only a sloth could feel this sad. The never ending tunnel of despair that I am being catapulted through, due to my torturous situation and grievous yet compelling tales of despair, just keeps going on and on and on and on and on and on like Andrex (other products are also available).

Without being too dramatic about it, I am metaphorically lying in the metaphorical debris that is my metaphorical life. Metaphorically speaking of course.

I don’t really want to talk about it, it still hurts. Well, okay. Today, I argued with my best ever friend since year 7. And now she hates me and she said that she never wanted to talk to me ever again and she didn’t even like the card I gave her for her birthday and she hates the way I dress and she never even liked me anyway and she just doesn’t understand me.

Ugh! My life is so hard.

The universe is just too small to accommodate all of my problems, and neither is my brain. I have literally just remembered a piece of homework that I have to do for my next lesson. Great, I have just stuffed my already overflowing problem universe with another problem and now my problem universe is about to burst at the seams and all of my problems will whiz and fly everywhere and everybody will be infected by my problems and it will be all my fault and then that will also be my problem.

Okay, sorry, sorry, sorry. Ignore everything I just wrote. Everything is fine now. The teacher was not angry about the homework.

I talked to my friend after school and she was so apologetic. She told me about how horrible she felt about everything and how she doesn’t hate me and how everything is fine. In response to my universe qualms, she simply laughed.

And she did like the card I gave her for her birthday.

The Man

Who Survived

Ebola Ebola. When Pooley was treated for the disease, he was given antibiotics and intravenous fluids which boosted his immune system, so now his blood has the natural antibodies needed to fight the disease, which, coupled William Pooley, a volunteer he said of his return, “While I'm with the fact that he and the nurse, was helping to prevent happy to be recovered and alive, other Ebola sufferer have the the spread of Ebola at the there's a lot of stuff on my mind same blood type means that he is Kenema Government Hospital with what's going on back there. an ideal donor. Pooley is said to when he caught the disease. He It would be relatively safe for me be close friends with the infected was then flown back to Britain to go back and work there, and doctor through their work at the so he could be transferred to the it's really the least I could do hospital. The foreign office Royal Free Hospital in London having received all this amazing quickly granted a new passport for further treatment. There, care and have people look after for Pooley’s flight to Atlanta, as Pooley was treated in an isolame and potentially save my life. his first one was incinerated tion room (with a frankly terrify- It's the least I could do to go along with his other belongings ing appearance) equipped with back and return the favour to upon his diagnosis. air filters. some other people, even just for Pooley, 29, is a former Farlina little while.”

William Pooley has now fully gaye student, and following his recovered and is immune to the But volunteering isn’t all Pooley discharge from hospital, repathogen. Remarkably, he is is doing to help, as he has returned to his parents’ home in planning on continuing his cently flown to the US to donate Eyke, near Woodbridge, to rest. volunteering work back in Si- blood for a transfusion to save What do I need to know erra Leone. When interthe life of a fellow Sierra Leone about the Ebola Epidemic? viewed by The Guardian, volunteer who is infected with The epidemic has been causing

The deadly Ebola virus that has claimed the lives of more than 2,000 people in Western Africa is a lot closer to home than you might think.

William Pooley received healthcare that many people in Sierra Leone will not be receiving.

Ebola victims’ numbers are increasing at an exponential rate in east Africa.

worldwide concern since the death of a six year old boy and his mother, sister and grandmother. Subsequently, there have been a reported 5,762 cases of the disease and 2,746 deaths from the most severe outbreak of the disease since its discovery in 1976.

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) can be caught through contact with

Ebola is caused by a virus, but there is no vaccine available yet.

blood, saliva or other bodily fluids, and is not air born. There are cases of whole families catching the disease from contact with one another. It is also thought that the washing and embalming of the bodies of the deceased has played a part in the spread of the disease.

medical care, constant rehydration and an enhanced immune system managed to rid him of the disease. The isolation unit he stayed in helped to strictly contain his illness, because if another person caught the disease from him, the UK would be on the verge of an epidemic. The fact is, hospitals in Western Africa do not have the technology, equipment or money to control the Ebola virus. This is perhaps why the scale of the disease is so severe. Some hospitals are understaffed which creates more demand for volunteers, who are simultaneously putting their own lives at risk. A report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that hospitals in Sierra Leone are only meeting 25% of the demand for hospital beds.

The Ebola epidemic began in Guinea and quickly spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. A separate outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is not as serious and is not thought to be related.

So what is being done? A three day lockdown was placed on the million residents living in Sierra Leone to try to halt the spread of the disease, as well as giving Symptoms, such as a fever, vomhealth workers a chance to disiting, a sore throat, muscle pain tribute information and hygiene and/or diarrhoea would begin to kits to the population. The latest show from two days to three news on the situation so far is weeks after contracting the disthat 92 bodies have been found ease. Internal and external and at least 56 new infections bleeding may also occur. have been discovered since the Unfortunately, there is no defi- curfew began. nite cure for Ebola, but in William Pooley’s case, dedicated

Debate

Nature vs. Nurture

One of the biggest questions concerning life, existence and creation (aside from why did the chicken cross the road, obvs) is where do we come from? Not literally speaking, of course, (I think we should all know where babies come from by now), but morally. Where do our traits, our preferences, our mind-sets originate? Where do we come from? Everyone is different, everyone is unique, but how and when do we decide who we are? Do we learn over time what we think is right or wrong, or is it programmed into us at birth? And can someone be born evil?

Our minds obviously come from our genetics, instincts and biological links. The world around us is created by human minds, not the other way round. Think of all of the human ideas that have revolutionised (and in some ways partly destroyed) the earth. This basic inquisitive attitude has to come from somewhere; it cannot be learnt from our surroundings because our surroundings have been made by us. Cave men were programmed to hunt biologically, it was wired into their brains, and this has been developed over time, but it all comes from the basic functions that they, and we, were born with.

It is silly to say that our personalities come from ourselves, and are not influenced by our surroundings. Look how far we have moved on from the cave man, and how our personalities have increased in complexity. This growth has to come from somewhere, and man’s gradual understanding of the world has led to peoples’ characters becoming more complex, therefore our personalities must come from, partly at least, the process of learning about the world and our surroundings, and we are not born into an identity as you suggest.

But all of the things that mankind knows (and that you say give us our personality) had to be discovered before they were taught. Our identities are innate. Children all learn relatively the same things at young ages, when their identities are beginning to show. Moral values are drummed into primary school children. We are taught to share, not to steal, to love each other and not to argue. However, in any class in any school, you will find some children quite happy to oblige and others who go against these clearly set rules. Whether a child would co-operate would depend on the personality, and at such a young age how could their identity be defined by experience? Yes, not all of the children in the class would have the same upbringing, but to say that children who have different upbringings have different experiences and therefore different personalities would also be to say that children with similar upbringings and similar experiences would have similar personalities, which is not true. Siblings (not twins, I shall explain why later) who do not share the entirety of their genetics (around 50%), but do share their environment aren’t always, if ever, similar in identity. Studies show that siblings are similar only 20% of the time (this figure comes from the investigation by researcher Robert Plomin). According to the nurture argument, siblings sharing the same environment should be very similar, so why is this not so?

There are a lot of traits that siblings share, or that are learnt from environment (I will explain more about this further on). As for saying that children in a classroom would be too young to have had past experiences that would affect their personalities, this is ridiculous! At young ages, children pick up more things, are much more impressionable and more likely to be influenced by others, such as their parents or friends, as well as perhaps picking up more negative traits from stimuli such as television and the internet, which are becoming ever more present in domestic childhoods. We really become who we are during childhood, a time that is so heavily influenced by parents and education. Everything you know now, you only know because at some point you learnt it (aside from very basic abilities, such as smiling and blinking). We create our identities at the same time we are learning how to walk, talk and socialise.

If you need conclusive evidence for the nature argument, then look no further than the results of some very interesting studies on twins. Twins are perfect for this kind of study, because they are genetically the same, so any differences would be environmental. The ‘Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart’ was a study of the similarities and differences of twins who were separated at birth. The research particularly focused on one set of identical male twins (coincidentally both called Jim by their adoptive families) who shared remarkably similar traits. The amazing results showed that when both twins finally met aged 39, they learnt that they were both bad at spelling but good at mathematics; each took carpentry, each had been married twice, once to women named Linda and then to Betty, and one twin had a son called James Allan, whist the other had a son called James Alan (notice the missing L). The twins both named their pet dog Toy, both chain smoked, and both had law enforcement training, at some point both being the part time deputy Sheriff in Ohio. They even went on holiday on the same beach in Florida! What more proof do you need, that the genetic link between these two men had caused these similarities?

That is a very rare, coincidental case! The “Jim Twins” had differences as well. Their hairstyles were very different, one twin was married to a third wife (called Sandy) and one twin preferred conveying himself through speech whilst the other was more suited to writing.

In terms of research defending the nurture side of the argument, an investigation at the Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology hospital in London has shown that the sense of humour is learned from environment and influence, and thus does not originate from genetics. The research looked at 127 pairs of both identical and non-identical twins. They were shown 5 cartoons and then asked them to rate their wittiness (from one to 10; 1 being a “waste of paper”, 10 being “the funniest cartoons they’d ever seen”). The results showed that there was a similarity between a twins response to the cartoon, but because both identical and non-identical twins showed this, the researchers decided that this was probably more inked to growing up in the same environment, as non-identical twins share around 50% of their genes, making a significant genetic impact on the results less likely. They also suggested that a person’s ability to understand a joke may depend on their intelligence, however this was not measured before the test was carried out. If this is just one aspect of the personality, then what else might be the result of a particular environment?

So, perhaps a person’s personality is more of a family heirloom, passed down through generations, or is it learnt, taught or gradually picked up over time or maybe a person’s identity comes from a mixture of the two, with the environment a person grows up in nurturing the nature. There is no real answer to this debate, and, as is the same with so many philosophical questions such as this, we may need to accept that we may never know.

Nature

Nurture

.

A day in the Life of an identity-confused hamster

gh it is so big, it feels AHHHH! This cage is too big! Althou like a prison. ost…… and I’m….. OUT!! I’m I’m nearly……. nearly there…… alm I believe I have not properly infree! What do I do now? Oh wait, ick Sebastian Emmanuel. I altroduced myself, my name is Freder ed right now, so I will backso believe you must be very confus track.

s it a Sunday? Oh never mind, I It was a windy Thursday…wait, wa way I think is too big, but I was sitting in my cage, which by the I, like, the smallest thing in the was thinking to myself, “Why am universe?” thought. This, sort of, brain…

It just suddenly came to me. This t I believed wouldn’t go away.

What do I call it? Erm… thing, tha with my daily life, and BAM! But as usual, it did. So I carried on bigger and bigger and BIGGER! There it was again, that… thing got even at the beginning? Yeah…

Back to the beginning, wait was I I… think… so. cage, and I thought Yeah I was. Ok, so, I got out of my it, what… have I to myself “What do I do now? Wa rything is so… so gotten myself into? Everything, eve high, the door, so ….so… big!!! The, the window, so e??? tall, the sleeping machine (?) so wid THIS big!! It I never imagined everything to be high on the looks so small from my perch, up ng back now, book holder!! Well, there’s no goi ad - wait, what I just have to go forward, look ahe !! Gotta hide… where?? was that noise? Someone is coming . the... no that’s too…. Under Behind the bed? No, too obvious…. under, nearly, yes!!! I’m unthe mattress!!! That’ll work!! Right, eone sat on the sleeping mader!!! Wait, I think… yes! No!! Som can’t… breathe... suffochine! Oh ah ow!! Ouch that hurts, a Bobby?? Is that you? Goodcating….. I see the…. light…. Grandm bye world!!

This time, it’s all about identity so in Beats we’re going to be talking about identity transformations in music. One of the biggest transformations in music was Miley Cyrus. Once a squeaky clean Disney pop star, she transformed to a twerking ‘adult’. This isn’t unusual though, with Disney starlet after Disney starlet going off the rails when they ‘grow up’. Miley Cyrus’ hit single ‘Wrecking Ball’ is a good song but ruined by the video. Miley, you can make good music without needing shocking videos.

4/10.

Another band transformation was the slow change of boy band’s music. Ever since 5SOS stormed the music scene, new rock bands have been listened to by a much wider variety of fans. One such band is New Politics, a Danish rock group that have released two albums ‘New Politics’ and ‘A Bad Girl in Harlem’. They are currently supporting Paramore on their tour and have toured with rock legends Fall Out Boy! Their song ‘Dignity’ tackles issues in society, with an epic beat behind it. Rock back to its former glory, for that it is 9 out of 10!

Over in films, I’m talking about the new releases in cinemas this month. One new film coming out this month is ‘The Book of Life’, the latest family film from 20th Century Fox Studios. The Book of Life follows Manolo Sánchez, who falls in love

with the beautiful Maria. Two spirits watch and bet on who will win Maria’s love out of two young men : Manolo or Joaquin. One spirit, enraged when Manolo wins Maria’s affections, sends a vicious snake to kill Manolo! The rest of the film follows Manolo as he journeys through three lands, in order to try and get back to the human world and Maria. Original and a clever idea for a family-friendly movie yet with an Halloween twist: 7/10!

Book to film adaptations have been happening for years, this month the acclaimed bestseller Gone Girl is the latest to go from pages to cinemas. Gone Girl is a bit too adult though, so instead here’s another adaptation that has been both a blockbuster and a bestseller. Divergent is set in a dystopian future where there are five factions who uphold a certain value: truth, bravery, selflessness, intelligence and kindness. Beatrice Prior is about to choose her faction, when at the tests (to see which faction you belong to) hers comes up as inconclusive. What this really means is that she is Divergent. The rest of the film watches her struggle with her identity, her choice and what happens in her chosen faction. A fast-paced film that makes you think : 9/10!

We are mid-way through the newest series of Doctor Who and there is lots going on in the TARDIS. Read on to find out more!

Did you know…

Capaldi says: “The Tardis is not inside an actual police box, you’re just in this big cupboard. There are quite a few people in there, so you get quite cosy and there’s no fan or anything. But you have to be the Doctor. All the other stuff you put on the back burner, because it’ll just mess you up.”

The new outfit!

Lifelong Doctor Who fan Peter said: 'He's woven the future from the cloth of the past. Simple, stark, and back to basics. No frills, no scarf, no messing; just 100% rebel Time Lord.’

The monster from Doctor Who Series 8 Ep. 4 had many at the edge of their seats, with fear for themselves, and the Doctor, Clara and the young boy!

Fact: Ian O'Brien's 1,573 pieces of Doctor Who merchandise have earned him a place in 2015's Guinness World Records.

Is there more to come from the Doctor’s past? Is Steven Moffat Going to explore and show us some of the truths, dangers, and battles of the Doctor?

Watch the rest of the series to find out about the future and past!!

The Identity of ITFC Kieran Dyer, Darren Bent, Connor Wickham, Richard Wright, Darren Ambrose, and the list goes on. For decades ITFC have produced numerous youth products that have gone on to play at the very highest level. In 2005 Ipswich won the FA Youth Cup prompting excitement amongst the Town supporters, many believed this would be the generation that could take Town back into the Premier League and beyond. But under the management of Roy Keane and Paul Jewell, the spine of the side consisted of big name signings and loanees keen to progress their careers elsewhere. Now only one player from the 2005 FA Youth Cup final is at Ipswich; David McGoldrick played for Southampton with Theo Walcott, Adam Lallana and Gareth Bale.

In 2009, aged just 16 Connor Wickham made his debut for Ipswich Town. He was the youngest player ever to play for the Town first team. Just weeks after his debut, manager Jim Magilton was sacked and replaced with the infamous Roy Keane. In Roy Keane’s first year in the job he appeared to continue with the clubs philosophy and handed a debut to eighteen year old Luke Hyam and gave youth graduate Tommy Smith a long run in the first team. East Anglian boy Tom Eastman was also given his debut. Both clearly had massive potential and the Town faithful saw a bright future for the youngsters. However, over the first few months of the 2010/11 season the side struggled and many young players were dropped for older “been there, done it” players. This was not the winning formula for Keane and he was sacked in January 2011.

Paul Jewell was shortly appointed as the new boss of Town; he had a track of record of bringing through youth players and playing attractive football: two integral parts of the club’s identity. Things did slightly pick up over the second half of the season

but many of the club’s youth graduates failed to make a big break into the first team. In April Town suffered a humiliating defeat to arch rivals Norwich, and the club felt its identity ripped apart. That summer, the only shining light from Town’s youth system Connor Wickham, was sold to Sunderland for £8M. In Jewell’s second season he brought many of his old players, not the chance for youth many expected. The club faltered to an average 15th place. In October of 2012, as youth was given brief chances in the first team Paul Jewell was sacked as manager of Ipswich Town. Mick McCarthy was brought into to save the club from relegation. This time, the club was in real danger; nobody cared how he did it, as long as he did keep them up. Early in his reign, Tommy Smith was the only youth graduate who featured in the team. Later in the season, as the club pushed away from the relegation zone, Luke Hyam also broke back into the team. The club did, at last, steer clear of the drop. That summer, ITFC announced they would apply for category one youth status: it would mean that far more first team ready youth players would come through the ranks at the club. The club announced their aims to make 50% of the first team squad academy graduates by 2017 and that supporters would be made to feel part of the club. It was Bryan Klug; a man whose time at the club as a player and coach spanned five decades, summed it up best though when he said: “It just feels more like the club I have loved all these years once again.” ITFC had their identity back.

Despite the application, Town narrowly missed out on Category One youth status. Is that the point though?

Surely the fact that Ipswich Town are carrying out their philosophy of a successful youth system should be music to any Town fan’s ear. That is the identity of ITFC.

By Thomas Irvine

To Boldly Go Where Noone Has Been Before This 1977 project by NASA, turned

Voyager 1 and 2 are unmanned science fiction into science fact.

NASA scientists had to work out spacecrafts with one mission - to how the two spacecrafts would travel 3 billion miles without carryexplore the outer planets of our ing a huge amount of fuel. Gary Flandro worked out that all the outsolar system for the first time ever. er planets would align in 1977, making the journey a lot shorter.

One of their main aims was to Michael Minovitch then discovered they could use the gravitational pull find alien life. of each planet to propel the craft to the next planet, like a slingshot, also decreasing the amount of fuel needed.

NASA encountered a problem; they didn’t have enough money to complete the project, and they were under a time limit. Their solution was Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan was a NASA scientist who loved to tell stories and really believed in the project, so they employed him as ‘the voice’, getting the public to donate.

He came up with the idea to put a gold disk on each craft, with recordings of famous music and information about us, so that if aliens found the craft they would know where they came from. Eventually, NASA raised enough money and the project could continue.

For the spacecraft to complete their mission they would have to last at least 12 years. This was a huge challenge, as nothing mankind made for space had lasted more than a few months.

It took two years to get to Jupiter from Earth, and once Voyager 1 and 2 arrived, the gravitational pull was a lot stronger than they had expected. The Voyager team wanted to see the great red spot. At the time they thought it could be an exotic island, but when the photos arrived they realised that the great red spot was a huge storm that had been going on for hundreds of years. They also wanted to see one of Jupiter’s 63 known moons, Io. Something was peeking out from behind it that seemed to be another moon, but when they looked closer they realised that Io was geologically active and that the ‘other moon’ was a volcanic eruption 270km high!

There was a long wait of five years before NASA could see Uranus and when Voyager 1 got there, there wasn’t much light for the cameras. What they did see was that Uranus’ heat source

Voyager 1

Launch

Launch

20/8/77

5/9/77

Neptune 25/8/69

Jupiter 5/3/79 Uranus 24/1/86

Jupiter 9/7/79

Saturn

Voyager 1

12/11/80 Saturn

had shut down and that its moon, Miranda, looked like it had been pulled apart and stuck back together again.

Another three years and Voyager arrived at Neptune. They only had one second to see it, so NASA had to forecast the weather to see where it was best to point the cameras (the clearest patch of sky). Forecasting the weather is hard enough on Earth, but on Neptune, 3 billion miles away, with a very complex atmosphere, it seemed impossible. Despite all these challenges they got the forecast right. Voyager got a clear view of Neptune’s great dark spot which was, like Jupiter’s red spot, a huge storm, hundreds of years old. Neptune’s moon Triton had geysers, which meant there was geological activity; this was surprising to the team, because there isn’t much heat this far away from the sun.

Voyager 2 had completed its three-billion-mile journey; Voyager 1 was now above our solar system and was told to do one last thing – to take a picture of the solar system from above, showing the sun and all the planets. The cameras were then switched off to save energy so the craft could keep going for a bit longer. Now 37 years on they are still sending back information. Voyager 1 has recently reached the outer edge of our solar system; nothing man made has ever made it this far.

Why you should start using the interr

bang

The interrobang is perhaps the greatest invention of the 20th century. Forget about the television, the internet or the mobile phone, for the interrobang is triumphant over them all.

And why have you, dear reader, never heard of this bizarre unknown invention? Because it is gloriously unnecessary. It is the answer to a problem that nobody had, and yet, it is so ingenious at the same time.

The interrobang is essentially a combination of an exclamation and a question mark. It was invented in 1962 by Martin K. Speckter, who worked in advertising and wanted to replace the unsightly “?!” that followed rhetorical slogans. Thus, the interrobang was born.

The term interrobang comes from the words interrogative

point (another word for a question mark) and bang (a printers and programmers term for exclamation mark). It could also be used to describe the ?! combination.

Some example of the Interrobang in use are: What on earth is that gorilla doing in the classroom‽ Are you ever disappointed with the performance of your dishwasher‽

Could beusing any more fabulous‽bang Why the you interrobang should start the interr It is such a small, trivial thing to invent and yet, it is actually quite clever. I’m sure you’ve all been in the situation, while writing essays or creative writing pieces, when a disgruntled character has yelled out a cantankerous query, or a powerful question has needed the little extra push of an exclamation mark, but it couldn’t be used because it would make the layout look lazy and untidy. To use an interrobang in a sentence is to not only utilise a much overlooked and underestimated tool, but also to show off an extensive knowledge of various, obscure punctuation.

I know that now the interrobang is relatively unheard of and underused, but in the late run 1960s it was actually very popular among typographers and graphic designers, and there was even a interrobang key on certain typewriters. However, over time, the poor interrobang faded into anonymity, and as this sad story reaches present day, the interrobang is used very little. And this is why we need to save them, now, before it’s too late. Do you want the interrobang to fade into extinction? Do you want them to metaphorically die out‽ Start using them, and think about how lucky you are to have a punctuation mark so powerful. It really finishes your sentences with a bang.

I’m sure you’ve all heard of the WWF or the RSPCA, two very famous animal charities who fund and protect Pandas, Tigers and Leopards everywhere. But who looks after the Jumping Slugs, the Kakapos and even the Blob fish. There must be a charity for those creatures right?

Correct! Luckily in October 2012 Biologist, writer and TV presenter Simon Watt started up the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. A society making people aware of those animals who go unnoticed and unloved.

Recently an online vote was held to choose which of 11 ugly animals should be the society's global mascot. 11 election style presentations were given and after thousands of people had voted the winner was……….. The Blob fish! The society’s website is filled with funny and educational videos and to check it out go to: uglyanimalsoc.com.

The Blob fish The blob fish is well, you’ve guessed it, a fish, specifically, a deep sea fish. This little guy is generally found in deep waters off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. They are typically shorter than 30cm and are basically living jelly as their bodies are mainly a gelatinous mass, slightly less dense than water meaning they can float. Unfortunately scientists fear that they may become endangered because they die in deep sea fishing nets.

T

he six degrees of separation is an idea claiming that everybody in the world is linked by at most six friends. It doesn’t matter if two people live in a different country, never have met or never will, because through six or less acquaintances, they are connected. Apparently.

Does it seem a little complicated? Well, meet Paul and his best friend Paulo.

Paul has another friend called Pauline, who has never met Paulo (don’t ask me why, perhaps Paul knows that Pauline likes Oasis and Paulo likes Blur, and thus obviously need to be kept apart). You’d think that Paulo and Pauline, having never met, would not be linked in any way. Because of their ties with Paul, this actually means they are separated by one degree. But ah, the plot continues, because Paulo has a friend called Paula, who has never met Pauline nor Paul! Ignoring the fact that everybody involved in this web of deceit, lies and Britpop are terrible friends, Paula is linked to Paul by one degree of separation (through Paulo) and to Pauline (through Paulo, then Paul) by two degrees.

This fantastic theory was thought up by Frigyes Karinthy, a Hungarian author, poet and journalist, in 1929 in a short story called Chains.

The six degrees concept was explored in the 1967 Small World experiments, lead

by Stanley Milgram. The investigation looked at how many degrees on average people are linked. Letters about the experiments were posted to random members of the American public along with the name of another random person. If the recipient knew the person, they were instructed to post the letter to them. If not, then they were told to send it to another person who perhaps had more of a chance of knowing the person. The experiment was complicated by the fact that out of the 296 letters sent, 232 didn’t reach their destination, and this is put down to people not passing on their letters. The 64 letters that did reach their destinations showed that the average number of times the letter was passed on was in fact 5 or 6, proving Karinthy correct. However, the test was deemed unfair by Judith Kleinfeld, who argued that the ‘random’ people were actually chosen by the fact they considered themselves well connected. Also because it is more likely for a longer chain to be broken by an unwilling participant.

People disputing the six degrees theory, calling it an ‘urban myth’ also say how isolated tribes who only interact within themselves quash the idea.

Social networking and mutual online friends have broadened this theory into popular culture. It was calculated that everyone on Twitter is linked by 3.43 users on average.

Although it may not be true worldwide, it’s still a pretty interesting idea, and something that does carry a little weight, in terms of less people.

1. The Full Monty

7. Jack in the box

2. Generation gap

8. Little Britain

3. The plot thickens

9. More often than not

4. All around the world

10. Standing in line

5. Mind over matter

11. Lean on me

6. Heat wave

12. Double identity

These

are th e ans dingb wers ats fo to the und o n the ous is previsue o n pag e 8.

Well d one if you g these ot any right, of some were o f them quite tricky !

Look out for the answers in the next issue!

Look out for the next Word of the Week!