The Student 20/12/2012

Tuesday November 20 2012 | Week 10

S i n c e 1887 T h e U K ' s O ld e st S T u d ent N ews pa p er

“Keep your politics out of my uterus”

Jimena villar de onis

Jimena Villar de Onis Last Wednesday, protesters from the Edinburgh University Feminist Society (EUFS) rallied outside Merchant’s Hall as the Alliance of Pro-Life Students (APS) held its Edinburgh launch fundraiser.

The Alliance of Pro-Life Students is a new organisation training and funding pro-life activism on campuses around the UK. APS is run by Eve Farren, former President of Bristol Students for Life, along with a team of graduate volunteers, amongst them alumni from the Edinburgh, Cardiff and Bristol groups.

The keynote speaker at the event was Catholic nun Sr. Roseann Reddy of the Cardinal Winning Pro-Life Initiative.

As the launch started and guests made their way inside the building, demonstrators assembled outside the entrance to spread their message. They held banners emblazoned with slogans such as, “Fuck off out my womb,” “Keep your politics out of my uterus,” “Antichoice is not pro-life” and “If you don’t trust me with a choice how can you trust me with a child?”

They also carried coat hangers which, according to Aurora Adams, President of EUFS, represent the dangers of self-induced abortions.

Farren, APS Executive Director, told The Student, “There are some very important debates to be had. Why is abortion permitted up until birth for the disabled? What about gender selective abortion? Is euthanasia really dying with dignity?

“As young people, we need to be de-

bating these questions which concern the fundamental right to life. Universities, as hubs of debate on the tip of scientific discovery, are the ideal places for this discussion to rationally open up.”

Naomi Beecroft, EUFS committee member, explained to The Student why these types of protests are important for society. She said, “We think we need to protest them because the rise in pro-life activism is really dangerous for women. We think that reproductive rights and bodily autonomy are really fundamental to women’s liberation and the mental and physical well being of women.

“If women don’t have access to abortion which is free, safe and legal then they might be pushed into back alleys where facilities aren’t clean, aren’t free and aren’t legal.”

Niall O’Coinleáin, committee member of the Edinburgh University Life Society, affiliated with the Alliance of Pro-Life Students, spent part of the night conversing with the protesters.

Later he told The Student, “I feel it is so important that women who find themselves with a crisis or unplanned pregnancy are given real choice and support and the Alliance hopes to help empower Life Societies to do that.”

The debate reached fever pitch last week after Savita Halappanavar, of the Republic of Ireland, died of septicemia and multiple organ failure after being denied an abortion. According to her doctors, because the 17-week-old foetus still had a heartbeat, an abortion was illegal despite the fact that, by the time Halappanavar died, she had been miscarrying for three straight days.

In the Republic of Ireland, abortion is illegal except where there is a real and substantial risk to the life, as opposed to the health, of the mother. About 2,000 protesters assembled outside the Irish parliament in Dublin on Wednesday evening to call for the Irish government to urgently reform the Republic’s abortion laws.

Both groups agree that discussion is key to solving the issue, as Niall O’Coinleáin explained. He said, “I was very glad to see the protesters outside.

Life issues and abortion in particular are often ignored or not thought about by people so it is encouraging to see so many people so passionate about them even if they do hold an opposing view.

As I said earlier, debate and discussion requires both sides and we welcome the opportunity to engage with people that hold an opposing view point.”

The protests were large enough to make the access to the pavement difficult for passers-by, although most of them seemed to be supporting the prochoice protestors. Chris, a 21-year-old graduate from the University of Edinburgh, told The Student, “I am happy to see that Edinburgh is out there to show solidarity and show that we are not going to have people pushing these kind of views in Scotland where women do have the right to choose what happens with their own body. I am happy to see people out protesting here today.

“The fact that there [are] even people inside setting up a group that is pro-life at a time where it is women and not politicians who should be making these decisions over their own health frankly amazes me and saddens me.”

Jimena villar de onis

Jimena villar de onis

Alliance of Pro-Life Students launch beset by protest

Tuesday November 20 2012

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2 News

News »p1-6

VIVA VIVA PALESTINA p 5

Alistair Grant reports on the pro Pro-Palestine, Anti-Israel protests outside Holyrood against the backdrop of Operation: Pillar of Defence

Comment »p8-10

WANTED OR NEEDED? p 9

Scott 'Sickson' Dickson writes about the recent police commissioner elections

features »p11-14 ODD JOBS AND RANDOM TASKS p14

Amelia Sanders investigates some strange jobs that students do to make ends meet

LIFESTYLE »p15 FEMALE ORGASMS p15

Now we have your attention, Katie MacPherson writes an article about pine nuts. Oh no, it is actually about female orgasms.

SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT » p17-19 THe BATTLE OF BRITAIN ('s wildlife) p19

The Science section looks at the struggles being faced by Britain's wildlife

MUSIC »p26-27 CHRIS JERICHO p23

Stuart Iverson meets the ayatollah of rock n' rolla, the best in the world at what he does, the record 9-time Intercontinental Champion, the first ever Undisputed Champion, the man who beat Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock in the same night, and chats to him about his rock band

FILM »p28-29 SICK WARS p29

Sally Pugh and Dan Scott-Lintot suggest a number of Star War recasts

SPORT »p31-32

FULFILLING YOUR FANTASY p31

Josh Cook fixes your fantasy premier league team

Josh Quigley

DUE TO ever-increasing competition for top international vacancies, postgraduates are increasingly turning to top business schools for career acceleration.

There is growing feeling that the skills sought by international businesses can only be delivered by well-tailored master’s degrees. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, 95,970 postgraduates were studying business-related courses in the UK. Julia Tyler of the Graduate Management Admissions Council (GMAC) executive vice president for global market development told The Guardian, “We’ve seen accountancy rise by 36 per cent and finance by 116 per cent over five years.

“More than half of all applicants are women and what people are looking for is career acceleration and professional credibility,” she continued.

Cass, Manchester and Oxford Saïd business schools, and Lancaster University management school, are all highly-rated and known for responding to interest from students and employers in formulating tailor-made master’s degrees filled with transferable skills for business.

Prof Andrew Marshall, Head of The University of Strathclyde’s Accounting and Finance department told The Guardian, “We’re responsive to employers’ needs and in the latter case the industry was asking for people with higher levels of numeracy.

“We have about 2,500 applicants for just 137 places on our four programmes.”

Strathclyde University runs one of the UK’s oldest finance master’s programmes but its MScs in Finance and Investment, Finance and Banking and International Accounting and Finance

Tom Parnell

The Student Newspaper | 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Email: editors@studentnewspaper.org

Postgraduates turn to business school for career development

BUSINESS SCHOOL: Prospective postgraduates increasingly apply here are less than three years old.

The Master’s in Management (MiM) at the London Business School (LBS) costs £24,720 but represents value for money according to Fiona Sandford, director of LBS careers services, in a climate where many are coming to terms with rising undergraduate fees.

She told The Guardian, “The starting salary of an LBS MiM graduate is typically £10,000 higher than the £25,000 average. If a graduate starts with that sort of premium then they will easily pay any extra investment they might make.

“Top employers are looking for ‘plug and play’ graduates who are ready to slot into a specialised role.”

John Faulds, a fourth year student in International Relations, is applying for postgraduate study in Political Science.

Sceptical about the hype surrounding business schools he told The Student, “I believe that postgraduate study in any area will set you up for a career in business. When these universities talk about business they really mean finance, and they neglect industries such as aerospace, defence and IT. I believe diverse viewpoints are a recipe for suc-

Higher uni fees deter the middle class

Callum Mason

Applications to university amongst British students are down nine per cent on this time last year. Evidence provided by the University and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) suggests the drop has been most severe in wealthier, middle class areas.

Figures show some of the largest drops in applications have been in areas where unemployment rates are traditionally among the lowest in the country. In Banbury, Oxford for instance, there has been a 22 per cent fall in applications to universities, from 4,400 to 3,427.

In direct contrast, in defiance of the new £9,000-a-year fees, traditionally less affluent areas, such as Yardley, Birmingham, have seen surges in higher education demand. The constituency, where 8.1 per cent of the population is unemployed, saw a 4 per cent increase in applications from young people, this year.

Politicians and economists grappling with the figures have been working to produce possible reasons for the trends shown.

Many believe that mounting pres-

sure on universities to cater for the underprivileged, with wide access bursaries and tuition fee waivers, has led to the neglect of the middle classes.

This argument appears to hold up in the University of Edinburgh’s case. In addition to the higher student finance loan received, those with a household income of under £16,000 studying at the university automatically receive a bursary of £7,000.

Those with a parental income of just over £25,000, are given a significantly smaller bursary of £2,000, and receive much lower payments from student support bodies such as Student Finance England and the Student Awards Agency for Scotland.

It is likely that those with lower household incomes would need greater financial support to afford necessities in higher education.

Nevertheless, many students have criticised the assumption that middle class families would be prepared to pay for their children’s education or support them financially as they study.

One blogger, posting on the education-oriented social networking site ‘The Student Room’, stated that al-

though her parents earned over £60,000 per year, they didn’t support her further study in higher education, and thus would not be supporting her financially.

“My parents earn bang, smack, right on the £60k mark, which invalids [sic] me for government help,” said the student, whose name is not given on the website.

“They are against me going to university in the first place, and spend the most part of the money they earn on their sporting passions.”

Despite the drop in applications from middle class pupils, officials have been determined to see the positives in UCAS’s statistics.

Will Hutton, chairman of the commission set up to monitor the impact of the £9,000-a-year fees system introduced in 2012, said that he was “pleased” to see “no relative drop off in applicants from less advantaged neighbourhoods”.

Hutton went on to say that the commission “will continue to monitor a range of indicators as the fee increases work their way through the system”, and that, for now, it was “too early to draw any firm conclusions”.

Tuesday November 20 2012

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Charlotte Brady

The University of Edinburgh ranks a troublingly-high 14th in the UK University Drinking League 2012.

The figures were drawn from a Students and Alcohol Survey 2012 conducted by studentbeans.com and revealed that the average units drunk, per student, per week at Edinburgh are 22.1.

This figure flies in the face of government advice that people should not regularly exceed the daily unit guidelines of 3-4 units of alcohol for men (equivalent to a pint and a half of 4 per cent beer) and 2-3 units of alcohol for women (equivalent to a 175 ml glass of wine).

“

At the Advice Place we support any students who come to see us with concerns about drinking" Spokesperson for the Advice Place

A spokesperson for Edinburgh University Students Association’s (EUSA) Advice Place told The Student, “At the Advice Place we support any students who come to see us with concerns about drinking as a unique individual and support them in seeking help from the appropriate

professionals. Essentially we would always seek to empower students to make their own choices and to do so responsibly.

“One of the most important values in our service is that we are nonjudgemental. There are lots of support services both within and outwith university and we are encouraged by an increase in the uptake of these services.”

Topping the league was Queen’s University Belfast, where students drink on average 27.3 units per week, followed by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University at 26.3 units.

Compilers of the survey asked for students’ reactions to their Universities rankings. Queen’s University Belfast students appeared proud, whereas students from universities which ranked low or not at all appeared disappointed.

One Glasgow university student claimed their low ranking, 73rd, was due to being “too busy drinking to contribute to statistics.”

The biggest concern surrounding student attitudes towards alcohol appears to be the trend of binge drinking, most common among 16–24 year olds according to drinkaware.com.

For men, binge drinking means the consumption of more than eight units of alcohol – or about three pints of strong beer.

For women, it is drinking more than six units of alcohol, equivalent to two large glasses of wine.

Binge drinking can lead to antisocial, aggressive and violent behav-

Staffs Live

University scores high in drinking league

CARNAGE: A messy night out on the town iour as it is suggested that alcohol is a factor in one in three sexual offences, one in three burglaries and one in two street crimes.

The University of Cambridge,

which ranked 51st in the league with the average units drunk, per student, per week standing at 17.2, recently released a £3,000 video to tackle issues surrounding student drinking.

The video was commissioned by the Cambridge Colleges Senior Tutors Committee and assures students that “the drinking culture in Cambridge is not compulsory”.

Sam Bradley

The Student can reveal that the University’s Central Library charged almost £100,000 in book fines over the last year.

The Central Library, situated in the George Square campus, took £92,223 from overdue book fines, and £7,660 from replacement charges from books that were damaged or stolen.

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Edinburgh University Library regard fees and fines as a sanction rather than a way to generate revenue" Spokesperson for the University The figures, obtained by The Student through a Freedom of Information request, account for all the fines charged by the Central Library in 2011.

A spokesperson for the University told The Student, “Edinburgh University Library regard fees and fines as a sanction rather than a way to generate revenue.”

“Late fee punishments are actively

supported by the student body as it helps prevent texts from being selfishly and unfairly kept out of circulation at key times, for example prior to and during examination periods.

“To put these figures in context the University of Edinburgh is the largest university in Scotland and one of the UK’s top rated research universities. It has over 30,000 students, and 7,000 staff. In 2010/11 its turnover was £651 million.

“The vast majority of students do not incur fines as they use libraries and their resources responsibly.”

The figures released by the Central Library clearly show that some students are better-behaved than others when it comes to library etiquette.

Whilst 6,605 students were issued overdue fines, and 233 students were fined for damaged or stolen books, over 26,144 books were returned overdue in 2011 – and 295 books were returned damaged or were stolen.

Rachael Carson, a third year Social Work student, told The Student, “I don’t think the fines are unfair, really. You have to be pretty complacent to get one – you can renew all your books online and they send you a warning before.”

Ian Bruce-Smith, a third year chemical physics student, said, “The fines are pretty fair – they give you due notice when you need to give your books back. If you’re careful, there’s no need to pick up any fines at all. Be-

Thurston Smalley

Central Library charged nearly £100,000 in book fines over past year

LIBRARY: Officials insist that fines are punitive, not purposefully profitable sides, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing the course book you need isn’t available because someone else has kept it out too long.”

Currently, the Central Library operates a tiered fine system – charging 50 pence a day for overdue standard loan books and 20 pence for short

loan books; for books overdue from the HUB Reserve, the charge is two pence per minute.

However, the fines are capped – the maximum fine a student can incur for a short or standard overdue book loan is five pounds.

The library also uses a five day

‘Grace Period’ which allows five days on top of the allotted time for students to return the book, before the fines come into effect. A university spokesman said that this was “further indication of our policy of encouraging circulation rather than penalising users with fines.”

Tuesday 20 November 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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Raised fees cause inflation to jump to 2.7 per cent Rona Broadhead

The introduction of £9,000 tuition fees in England contributed to a surprise rise in inflation last month.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released figures showing that the Consumer Prices Index, which measures changes in the cost of living, rose from 2.2 per cent to 2.7 per cent in October.

This was a far greater rise than predicted, following a trend of decreased inflation since February. It is the largest inflation rise in a single month for five years. The government has a two per cent target for inflation but has exceeded this target for 35 months in a row.

The ONS identified the neartripling of tuition fees as one of two

main factors causing the increase.

Education costs have risen by more than 19 per cent due to the lifting of the tuition fees cap from £3,375 a year to £9,000; the largest increase on record.

“

Where do we go from here? Onwards and upwards...I don't think we're going to get anything like the two per cent inflation target.”

Alan Clarke, Scotia Bank economist Higher food prices also contributed to the rise, particularly more

“

expensive potatoes and carrots, the result of another wet summer.

A spokesman for the Treasury described the increase as “disappointing.”

He added, “The government has taken action to help people with the cost of living, including freezing fuel duty and council tax and taking two million people out of income tax altogether.”

Inflation is expected to increase further over the winter months because of higher energy bills and food prices remaining high.

Alan Clarke, economist at Scotia Bank, told the BBC: “Where do we go from here? Onwards and upwards.

Utility bill increases are on their way.

We’ve also got the effect of the US drought and increased food prices to factor in. I don’t think we’re going to get anything like the two per cent

inflation target.”

David Kern, chief economist for the British Chambers of Commerce warned that a rise in inflation threatened economic recovery which had been looking more positive after Britain emerged from a double-dip

recession around a year ago.

He announced, “Higher inflation is unwelcome news for the UK economy at a time when the government is persevering with its tough austerity plan. In the face of major economic challenges, there is only limited scope for the UK to rebalance towards exports and investment over the next year.”

Len McCluskey, general secretary of national trade union Unite, emphasised the social impact of inflation.

He told The Guardian, “We are in a desperate situation where millions of working people and their families are juggling rising food and energy bills when household incomes for the majority of people have not kept pace in recent years. Where families lead in suffering, shops and businesses will follow.”

research shows that we are innovating at a genetic level too.

“This new molecule sprang from nowhere at a time when our species was undergoing dramatic changes: living longer, walking upright, learning how to use tools and how to communicate.

We’re now hopeful that we will find more new genes that help show what makes us human.”

The effect of this gene’s expression has not been determined yet, but it is thought to be responsible for the differences in brain developmental growth seen between humans and

other primates such as apes. Future studies involving intelligence and personality could be used to determine the effect of this gene on higher brain functions.

Although one to six million years is a long period of time compared with the human lifespan, scientists say that this is a startlingly brief interval of evolutionary time for this gene to emerge and become active.

According to Dr Taylor, the gene emerged from an area dubbed as ‘evolutionarily volatile’ where mutations that speed up evolution are more likely.

However, he told The Student that “The mutation was a roll of the dice. But on top of that, the ancestral hominid species in which it occurred was the right environment for miR-941 to provide some form of competitive advantage.

“It clearly wasn’t all good though when it arose, as some genes appear to have responded to miR-941’s birth by changing their sequence so they can avoid regulation by the new gene.

Whatever competitive advantage it provided then probably outweighed those deleterious consequences of its emergence.”

In the face of major economic challenges, there is only limited scope for the UK to rebalance towards exports and investment over the next year.”

David Kern, chief economist for British Chambers of Commerce

Edinburgh researchers discover evolutionary gene Nina Seale

Human evolutionary history has received a previously missing link in the discovery of a gene unique to humans.

The gene, called miR-941, is thought to have emerged between one and six million years ago, after human and ape evolution began.

A team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh compared the human genome, using publicly available data, to that of 11 other species of mammal, including great apes (chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan) as well as more common mammals (rat, dog, opossum) to study the differences between them.

“

The ancestral hominid in which [the gene] occurred was the right environment for the miR-941 to provide some form of competitive advantage” As human and chimpanzee DNA show 94 per cent similarity, it has so far been challenging for researchers to find genes that are only found within our species. Most of the six per cent difference is within non-coding or ‘junk’ DNA, the functions of which are quite obscure, though they are thought to act as switches for other genes. miR-941 is the first gene unique to humans that has been shown to have a function, and studying these functions gives scientists an insight into what makes humans so different to the rest of the animal kingdom.

The gene is expressed in many regions of the human body, including the liver, womb and prostate, but of the most importance is its expression in the brain.

Tim Ellis

Dr. Martin Taylor

APES: Our evolutionary ancestors It is highly expressed in the cerebellum (which is involved with motor control, e.g. coordination as well as possibly attention, language and fear/pleasure responses) and the prefrontal cortex (which affects complex behaviour, personality expression and decision making).

Researcher Dr Martin Taylor, who led the study at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular Medicine at the University of Edinburgh, said, “As a species, humans are wonderfully inventive – we are socially and technologically evolving all the time. But this

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News 5

Alistair Grant

DEMO: The protest gathered momentum as it made its way down the Royal Mile on Saturday

Alistair grant

A protest on Saturday saw hundreds of demonstrators meeting in Edinburgh’s Charlotte Square to march down the Royal Mile towards the Scottish Parliament in support of Palestine.

The protest was organised by Scottish Palestinian campaign group We Are All Hana Shalabi, an organisation which acts in support of Palestinian political prisoners.

The organisers stated that the aim of the protest was to demonstrate “complete solidarity with the people of Gaza, to call on the Government to denounce Israel’s barbarity and to fully divest from Israel.”

A number of groups lent their support to the demonstration, including Stop the War, the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, and the Scottish Trades Union Congress.

The protest began at Alex Salmond’s official residence in Charlotte Square, where a letter addressed to the first minister was handed in.

The letter criticised Salmond for meeting with the Israeli Ambassador, Daniel Taub, at the beginning of November and failing to publicly raise the issue of Israel’s human rights violations.

It went on to ask Salmond to “let Scots know that the Israeli Ambassador will not be welcomed officially in Scotland until Israel ends its brutal siege of Gaza.”

It continued, “We also ask that you cancel the meeting agreed between Scottish minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism, Fergus Ewing and

representatives of the Israeli embassy while Israel denies basic Palestinian human rights.”

The protesters then marched down the Royal Mile towards the Scottish Parliament, where they gathered on the grass in front of the public entrance of the Parliament to hear pre-arranged speakers, including representatives from Medical Aid for Palestine and We Are All Hana Shalabi.

Mahmoud Mahdy, an activist and organiser for the We Are All Hana Shalabi campaign, told the crowd, “The Palestinian struggle is a revolutionary struggle between two camps.

One camp is interested in violence and implementing an unjust and selfish, disgusting misconception of peace; and the other camp wants peace but is forced to initiate and establish it through violence.

“I would like to state today that Alex Salmond should take a position… either he is with the progressive camp or the reactionary camp.”

He added, “Palestine has always been the political heart of the Arab world… Palestine is coming to a point in which it will lead the Arab spring into an Arab summer, and true liberation will be seen.”

Responding to the protest, a Scottish government spokesman told the BBC, “The Scottish government supports the view that long-term peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine is best served by a two-state solution and we urge all parties to engage constructively, proportionally and within the obligations imposed upon them by international law, to find a peaceful way forward.”

Alistair grant

Pro-Palestine protesters march to Parliament

Alistair grant

Alistair grant

SOLIDARITY: Chants called for solidarity with the Palestinians and an end to Israeli aggression

RALLY: Pre-arranged speakers address the crowd under the Crags

APPROACH TO PARLIAMENT: Protesters marched past parliament and then gathered to hear from speakers

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Government to write off half of all student debt The Student Instagrams Edinburgh

Josh Quigley

THE GOVERNMENT admitted last week that 50 per cent of graduates will likely have their student debts wiped because they will never earn enough to repay them.

Under the current system, students only begin repaying their student loans upon earning £21,000 annually, whilst the coalition government introduced a measure meaning loans are written off after a 30 year period regardless of repayment status.

David Willetts, the universities minister, told The Independent, “We estimate that around half of all borrowers will have some part of their loan written off, as payments are contingent on their future income.”

“

directly deducted from their payslips there is no such system for anyone who emigrates abroad and there is no legislation for anyone doing so to supply earnings information to the government or to set up a direct debit to repay the loans.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies reported that graduates could carry on repaying student loans well into their fifties.

The government has been quick to

defend its record. Willetts retorted in the Commons, “Our reforms are more progressive than the previous system because you only start to repay once you are earning over £21,000.”

Emma Zahedi, a third year Economics and Politics student commented, “It’s not right that the majority of university graduates should be burdened with such massive debts for the majority of their adult life.”

This follows the recent revelations that the total debt outstanding from European Union (EU) students doubled to £111.1 million in 2010/11.

Peter Lilley, former secretary of state for social security, claimed in The Times that Britain risked “subsidising the rest of the EU by providing their brightest and best with free education.”

Whilst British students loans are

Exercise.

The Scottish rower, who won gold at this year’s Olympic Games in London, began rowing as an undergraduate at the university and was captain of the university’s Boat Club.

The Student was present to pho-

tograph the occasion, which was also attended by double Commonwealth gold medallist Caitlin McClatchey.

The 26 year old swimmer is set to begin studying for a sports-related MSc at the university in 2013.

The new gym will be officially opened by the chancellor of the uni-

versity, HRH The Princess Royal.

The opening of the new facility is just one of a number of events celebrating the completion of the £350 million University of Edinburgh Campaign, launched six years ago with the aim of “furthering research, maintaining the University’s iconic

We estimate that around half of all borrowers will have some part of their loan written off, as payments are contingent on their future income.”

David Willetts, universities minister

“

For the government to pay off the student debts... discourages ambition and exacerbates a culture of dependence.”

Pippa Atkins, third year student

Willets claimed in a parliamentary response that “2,800 – or 9 per cent – of EU borrowers liable to repay were considered to be in arrears.”

However the Daily Mail reported that 33 per cent are described as “not currently repaying – further information being sought.”

Pippa Atkins, a third year History of Art Student, told The Student, “we have all benefitted from the same university education, so we should all have to pay off the same debts. For the government to pay off the student debts of all those earning under a specified salary, both within the UK and the EU, discourages ambition and exacerbates a culture of dependence.”

The Department for Education was unavailable for comment at the time of going to the press.

Katherine Grainger marks opening of gym in her name

Alistair Grant

open Communication

Olympic medallist Katherine Grainger was in Edinburgh last Friday to celebrate the opening of a new gym named in her honour at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for Sports and

buildings and providing financial support for students.”

The campaign, which attracted support and donations from such famous faces as author J.K. Rowling, was one of the biggest fundraising initiatives in Scotland’s history.

GOLDEN GIRL: Katherine Grainger with the University of Edinburgh's rowing team

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Obama: arms trader in chief www.poplicks.com

Jonny Ross-Tatam explores the possible reasons behind the dramatic rise in gun sales in the US since Obama's election victory

CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT: Americans fiercely defend their right to arms In the wake of Barack Obama’s election victory on November 6, there has been a vast increase in the number of guns being purchased in America.

Companies such as Smith & Wesson, for instance, have seen their stocks rise by over 140 per cent, while one gun salesman from New Jersey, when talking to CNBC, even said that he “should put

Obama’s picture on the wall and name him salesman of the month”.

This soar in sales has come from a fear that a re-elected Obama, without the worry of a future election, will have free reign to impose restrictions on gun ownership, thereby impinging upon the second amendment: the constitutional ‘right to bear arms’. Gun owners,

therefore, are trying to buy while they still can. Despite the fact that Obama has maintained his commitment to the second amendment, the president is still considered a threat to this fabled constitutional right. As National Rifle Association spokesman Andrew Arulanandam pointed out, it is Obama’s “legislative track record”, as a proponent of gun control since 1998, that has gun-buyers flocking desperately to the stores.

Yet Obama’s words during the election campaign have also contributed to this rise. During the Presidential debate on October 16, he said that he would aim to “get an assault weapons ban re-introduced”, and it is these types of guns which are selling the fastest. The owner of Dragonman Arms in Colorado Springs told KOAA-TV that his “stockpile of AK-47’s were selling like hotcakes”, while a gun stock website bemoaned the lack of available assault weapons due to the increased demand following Obama’s re-election. For these gun gluttons, President Bill Clinton’s 1994 Assault Weapons Ban – which expired in 2004 – is still fresh in the memory, and there is a fear that Obama will do the same now he is back in office.

So why is this attachment to guns so ingrained in the American psyche? The right for all Americans to ‘bear arms’ is, first of all, enshrined in the US constitution in the second amendment, which is revered by many as though it were the gospel. Guns are also, ironically, seen by many as a necessary protection from criminals; a view encapsulated by the popular bumper sticker which reads: “when guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns”. It is also a view supported by prominent Republicans such as Texan governor Rick Perry, who was a leading campaigner for the right to carry a concealed firearm in Texas.

Many also see guns as necessary protection from their own government.

This idea has been expressed by American presidents throughout history, from Washington (1789-97) to Reagan (1980-88) and is still aired publicly by prominent Republicans today, notably Arkansas’ Mike Huckabee and Texas’ Ron Paul.

There exists a genuine fear that Obama will deliberately disarm the American people, so that he can freely impose on them his own brand of ‘big government tyranny’. One blogger from an online gun-owners forum, for instance, fears that Obama will use the

National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012 to “round up millions of Americans without evidence, by alleging they are a threat to national security”. Some, therefore, are desperate to ‘stock up’ while there is still a chance. There are strong echoes here with the Clinton presidency, as his Assault Weapons Ban (1994) and the fear of being ‘disarmed’ by the government, led to the rise of a national militia movement in the mid-nineties. Those who joined, as expert Mark Pitcavage explains, did so in “protection of themselves, their families and their rights from their own government”.

It is also likely that the National Rifle Association (NRA) has deliberately played on this fear in order to serve their financial interests. The NRA, using heated rhetoric, has claimed that the president’s supposed designs on gun control “threaten democracy”. This fear directly benefits the NRA as it leads to an increase in members, and it also benefits the gun industry through the increase in sales. The fact that the NRA receives over $60 million from the largest gun companies not only shows how much these companies value the NRA’s advertising, but also how the NRA are indebted to serving their interests.

Is our freedom of speech under threat?

Abi Samuels argues that the ‘BNP bus driver’ case indicates the start of a dark age of intrusion into people's private lives

“

Surely the right to freedom of association must not apply only to those who associate with that which is favourable."

Therefore, it is with great irony that we hear that such vehement opposition did not stop the BNP from praising the European Court when, this week, they rode to the rescue of Arthur Redfearn, a bus driver from Bradford and local councillor for the party. Sacked in 2004 due to his controversial BNP membership, Redfearn, having sued his employer Serco Ltd, emerged victorious due to a court ruling that their actions breached Article 11 of the European

Convention of Human Rights – the freedom of assembly and association.

However, the decision made by judges in Strasbourg is not simply a reflection of the BNP’s rather fickle manifesto. This week also saw the legal victory of Adrian Smith, a Christian who lost his managerial position and had his salary cut after posting on Facebook his view that gay marriage was an “equality too far”. Although Smith praised Britain as “a free country, where people have freedom of speech”,

he raised concern that “something has poisoned [this] atmosphere”. Both cases undoubtedly indicate a certain loss of perspective. Surely, the right to freedom of association must not apply only to those who associate themselves with that which is favourable, but to any form of association, even that which offends or disturbs, opposes gay marriage or supports arguably racist political parties?

Not only does the issue of association come into question, but the

The guardian

The BNP’s manifesto for the 2010 general election clearly marked the party’s opposition to the Human Rights Act. Not only did it outline a desire to scrap the act altogether, but stressed a need to revoke the UK’s membership to the European Court of Human Rights due to the ease with which it, supposedly, left Britain vulnerable to “the world’s scroungers”.

AN UNFAIR DISMISSAL: The European Court ruled in Redfearn's favour

implication that decisions made in someone’s private life can seriously impact their professional one. While both cases did rule in favour of their prosecutors, the court’s level of involvement in each verged on intrusive.

Elsewhere, the recent resignation of David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA, followed the exposure of his extramarital affair.

This is yet another instance of the prevailing sentiment that the boundaries of private and public life are becoming increasingly blurred. While both Smith and Redfearn fought back, Petraeus bowed to a popular mob rule, rather than one of a democratically accountable state.

Is this sugar-coated attitude that those in the public eye should be whiter than white and, if not, should suffer for their transgressions, really that plausible?

Resignations closer to home from the likes of David Laws and Liam Fox did not follow any obscene mismanagement of national affairs, but rather revelations of improper conduct as ruled by a largely public forum. Not only does this mark a worrying shift away from the efforts of parliament, select committees and other formal

institutions to hold political figures to account, but touches on a need to reassess which issues are truly issues of ‘security’ as opposed to controversial issues which attract more public attention.

“

Decisions made in someone's private life can seriously impact their professional one."

While the cases of Redfearn and Smith are obviously important on a much more limited scale than that of influential political figures, all of these cases involve the same level of intrusion into a person’s private affairs.

Not only should we have the right to express, offend and support whatever and whoever we choose, but we should be able to do so at our own discretion.

Far from being a “great day for true democracy” as celebrated by BNP chairman Nick Griffin, Redfearn’s success this week marks a dark age of intrusion, where not only is our right to association breached but our right to privacy as well.

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Comment 9 #EdUni

Policing public democracy

Scott Dickson argues that the recent public commissioner elections won't change UK police culture Rarely has the media relished the chance to report on woeful election turnout as much as it did on Thursday, when voters in England and Wales went to the polls (or not) to elect local police commissioners. BBC coverage perfectly captured the lack of interest in the event, with passers-by being genuinely confounded at the presence of reporters at small village halls. There were no voters at one polling station in Newport, South Wales. With turnout hovering between 13-20 per cent, it is difficult to sustain the argument that those who win these posts have any legitimacy whatsoever.

“

The most obvious and crucial reason for the public's refusal to get involved was that no one was convinced it was worth electing police commissionners"

Some Tory MP’s distanced themselves from the scheme, with Conor Burns declaring on Twitter that he regretted even voting for the bill. David Cameron was brave enough to defend the elections, saying that even though turnout was low, it was still an improvement to have a post that had a small

mandate rather than none. Labour was less impressed, with Yvette Cooper trotting out the standard party line that the government was introducing the wrong policy at the wrong time.

There are a few obvious reasons for the low turnout. Holding elections in November is never a good idea, not least for a post which has never been popularly elected before. Whilst Cameron has sought to defend the process, you would scarcely know the policy emanated from the Conservatives, for it was barely mentioned at the recent party conference.

Nevertheless, the most obvious and crucial reason for the public's refusal to get involved was that no one was convinced that it was worth electing local police commissioners. And this view is entirely legitimate.

The policy can be viewed as a development of the Tories’ “Big Society,” where localism thrives and policies are developed according to each area’s needs. Daniel Hannan, the Tory MEP, has pointed to Sir Ian Blair as an example of everything that is wrong with British policing, being totally unconcerned with the realities of everyday petty crime, and more with the diversity of the police force.

The police force is already politicised, Hannan contends; why not just make it official? By forcing police commission-

ers to be subject to public opinion, they must strive to ensure their communities are policed well, and at the same time reduce corruption and cronyism.

The framework for electing police commissioners seems to be drawn from the USA, with the successes of Bill Bratton in reducing crime in New York City. But this approach ignores the basic fact that Bratton applied a simple ethic to policing, one that transcends electing police commissioners; that police should adopt a zero tolerance approach to crime and genuinely act as public servants. Additionally, one would not have to look very hard to find that corruption still exists in American police departments.

“

It is doubtful that the election of local commissioners will really change the implementation of topdown legislation" Introducing a political element to policing is misguided because the opposite should be happening. Over the last few decades, successive government policies have changed how policing in the UK operates. A target-based

culture originating from Whitehall has led to increasing use of out-of-court punishments by police, as a recent Magistrates Association report illustrates. It is doubtful that the election of local commissioners will really change the implementation of top-down legislation which sets out how the police should operate. Again, this legislation further represents the damaging relationship between politics and policing.

For all the talk of re-establishing the independence of the police, these elections have been treated like any other party elections. Labour targeted the North and the Tories targeted the South, although a few independent candidates did achieve victory.

Only time will tell as to the effectiveness of this policy, but it is unlikely that it will really change the culture of policing. Without waxing lyrical about a non-existent golden age of British policing, it should be noted that for over a century Britain enjoyed an effective, independent police force which maintained relatively low levels of crime, in the absence of elected police commissioners, hence the public’s current indifference.

Perhaps it is worth looking at what worked best back then, rather than adopting a gimmick from across the pond which has had no great level of success.

Ireland's miscarriage of justice the huffington post

Charlotte Ryan condemns Ireland's abortion laws following the death of Savita Halappanavar

NEEDLESS DEATH: Crowds express anger against Irish abortion laws It would seem that women’s bodies are not their own in Northern Ireland.

As the country’s medieval abortion laws claim yet another victim, women all over the UK are asking themselves how such barbaric deaths are still being allowed to happen in modern Britain.

The answer? Legislation, created by men, supported by the beliefs of a church system also created by men, and violently upheld at every opportunity by, that’s right, men. Call it inflammatory, call it feminist, call it whatever you like but I happen to believe that women’s right to choose is simply one issue in which men do not have the right to interfere.

A quick scan of the opinion pages of the newspapers will reveal streams of articles written by men on this issue, citing pro-life arguments or even

the fact that “there is no proof that an abortion would have saved Savita Halappanavar’s life.” Will any of these men ever have to go through an unwanted pregnancy, will any of them ever be raped and told they have to keep the baby, will they suffer the pain and agony of miscarrying only to have to carry the dead baby in their womb for the rest of their pregnancy and then have to deliver that baby? No. But Irish women will; in fact they already do. Of course, there are also plenty of women who support the current legislation, but as the statistics show, this isn’t stopping thousands of Irish women every year from travelling to the rest of the UK to get abortions.

As this case shows, support for the pro-life stance even seems to have extended as far as the medical profes-

sion. Blind rhetoric aside, from a purely medical point of view, the medical staff should have saved Savita Halappanavar. Seventeen week old foetuses rarely survive, whereas Ms Halappanavar’s condition when she first arrived in hospital was not yet life-threatening. So where is the line? When does religious belief become tantamount to medical negligence? As an enquiry into this case is opened, protests have already been held all over Ireland, by women and men alike, campaigning for a change in the law.

“

Women’s right to choose is simply one issue in which men do not have the right to interfere" Abortion law in Ireland has been a problematic issue since the 80s, when the X case, that of a 14 year old rape victim who was suicidal and was therefore allowed to travel to the UK for an abortion, saw the first ruling of abortion on ‘medical grounds’. There have been many subsequent cases, but the legislation remains unclear, resulting in a ‘grey area’ which the Irish government appear unwilling to clarify as long as they can ship the problem over to the rest of the UK. But, as this case shows, the terms of this law need to be made more comprehensible before more women die at the hands of the state, and more doctors are branded negligent.

The complete ban on abortion sends out the message that women are simply vehicles to bring life into the world, and if they lose their own life in the process, well, at least they have fulfilled their ultimate purpose. The wider debate on abortion is a polemic issue which generates a variety of opinions, but in this case what is really being debated is whether the life of a premature, potentially non-viable foetus is worth more than that of a fully grown adult woman.

The Irish state would appear to believe that it is, as do the streams of pro-lifers who have weighed in on this issue to clamour that it doesn’t warrant a change in the law.

“

The complete ban on abortion sends out the message that women are simply vehicles to bring life into the world" Savita Halappanavar was reportedly told, when in agony and already dying to save her seventeen week old foetus, “This is a Catholic country.” What living in a Catholic country appears to mean is that the state, not the woman herself or even the highly qualified doctors entrusted with her care, decides women’s fate. If this were to happen in any other nation in the world we would call it totalitarianism. In Ireland, it’s called religion.

What a silly sausage!

After a tumultuous few months procuring relevant leads into who knew about Jimmy Savile’s misdemeanours at the BBC, choosing a new police commissioner and catching murderers, it is always reassuring to know that the British legal system still has the time and money to prosecute a man for attempting to feed a police horse. Francis Kelly, 41, of South Glasgow, is now facing prosecution for offering a sausage roll to the animal.

The prosecution will argue that Mr Kelly behaved in a ‘threatening or abusive manner’. implying that he endangered himself and the police officers around him because of his actions. A genuine court of law, which costs taxpayer’s money to be placed in session, will also hear how Mr. Kelly adopted an ‘aggressive stance’ when offering the animal food. Ultimately, the case for prosecution rests on the dangers of offering pastries to animals.

If you have some spare time, take a moment to imagine what horrors actually took place on that fateful day, where an inebriated Glaswegian was feeling generous with his Greggs products. A man proffers his hand to a police horse in public; in his hand is a sausage roll which the horse probably sniffs inquisitively, it may have even attempted to take a bite. The man is then arrested.

Just think about the irreparable harm this could have inflicted on the police officer astride the horse, who was forced to watch a man offer some meat wrapped in puff pastry to his mount. The horse may have even moved its head slightly which could have caused irrevocable problems.

The possible physical and psychological damage that could have been caused because of this incident are indescribable, mainly because there is no damage to describe.

In reality, Mr. Kelly’s ‘crime’ is not really illegal, it’s just stupid. The only way his actions could be seen as a crime worthy of prosecution is if he broke into the police stables and attempted to feed the horse there. And of course, if this crime was committed and resulted in the apprehension of the felon, the feeding of the horses would still not be the police’s immediate concern.

The only court that should be dealing with a case such as this is one that takes place in a children’ s nursery with a judge who is around the age of four, designed to give children a simple understanding of the legal system, something which the reallife police seemingly do not have.

Stephen Maughan

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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10 Comment #EdUni

Change can come for America

Mr Market

50 thousand Latin Americans becoming eligible voters every month, many of whom clearly intend to vote for the Democrats. If the Republicans fail to encompass the interests of American ethnic minorities in their proposals, safe states in the south like Arizona and even Texas could eventually slip from their grasp.

Obama, too, has his own problems to solve. Since his first term in office, he is no longer seen as the ‘Messiah figure,’ set on providing a cure to America’s deep-seated problems; less is expected of him now. He is also wiser and more experienced than when he entered the White House four years ago. This should stand him in good stead for negotiations with the Republican Party that has controlled the House of Representatives and blocked many of Obama’s plans for the last two years. In order to ensure that his second term is

not a disappointment, Obama has to work with the Republicans in order to implement his policies.

“

Yet, the real reason for Obama's resounding victory is that the Republican Party is an anachronism in modern-day America.

The Republicans also must realise that working with the new President is the only way to facilitate their recovery as a party. Sharing numerous interests with the Democrats means that greater co-operation between the President and Congress looks more likely. Im-

watchusplaygames.com

In the end it was rather anti-climatic. The media had promised one of the closest US Presidential elections in history, but the identity of the victor became apparent long before all the states had declared their preference.

Barack Obama comfortably won his second term in office as US president, winning 332 Electoral College votes to Mitt Romney’s 206. It is hard to think of a clearer victory by such a vulnerable candidate who was subject to Republican rallies, abusive phone calls and antiDemocrat television advertisements.

Also, considering that Obama presided over a period of high unemployment, he was not in a favourable position to retake the White House.

It would be easy to blame Romney for the Republican Party’s defeat as he was an uninspiring and unconvincing candidate who failed to capitalise on the wealth of his campaign and unexpected triumph in the first Presidential debate.

Yet, the real reason for Obama’s resounding victory is that the Republican Party is an anachronism in modernday America. In fact, Romney should be celebrating the fact that he did not suffer a heavier defeat. According to CNN, Obama won 93 per cent of the black vote, as well as gaining 60 per cent of the 18-29 year old vote and 55 per cent of the women’s. There were simply not enough conservative Americans to vote for Romney in an electorate which is becoming increasingly ethnically diverse. The influence of the Hispanic vote in US politics, particularly, grows with every Presidential election with

ALLIANCE: Is it really possible for Obama and Romney to see eye to eye?

migration reform is a priority for both sides, especially for the Republicans considering how unpopular they are with Latin Americans. Most importantly, however, it is in the best interests of both the Democrats and Republicans to keep America from falling off the ‘fiscal cliff ’.

A combination of automatic spending cuts and tax rises in the next few months will result in the loss of 5 per cent GDP in just one year. For an already slow-moving economy, the consequences are set to be catastrophic.

If the US fails to implement stringent expenditure cuts and increase revenue intake, the country will take its place on the road to financial ruin due to its ageing population. Neither side would want these results. The urgency of the economic situation in America requires inter-party co-operation in order to solve this crisis effectively.

Obama cannot be re-elected following his second term; this means he has the opportunity to pursue the ambitious agenda upon which he was elected in 2008. As promised, he has the potential to create real change in America through co-operation with the Republicans. If the parties were able to stand together, they would be far more powerful than any single President could ever hope to be.

If the political parties in America cooperate, they have the chance to strive for a better America and re-energise a flagging economy and infrastructure.

If this happens, history will be kind to them.

What do poppies stand for?

The Top 3 Tweets of the Week

#EdUni

importantly, it is about remembering that conflicts still continue today.

Conflict is all around us and, directly or indirectly, we are implicated in it. Every day, we are bombarded with images of civilians dying in Syria, women being raped in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, more recently, bomb warfare between Israel and Gaza. We sign petitions, stage protests against the government, discuss these issues in lecture halls, tutorial rooms and over cups of coffee. But, as anthropologist Nigel Eltringham states in his discussion of Rwandan genocide, conflicts are complex due to the range of radically different perceptions and

moral standpoints on these issues held by the countries and people involved.

It will take years and many discussions between nation states, NGOs and international organizations to come to any form of solution and incite real action from more people in order to bring the violence to an end.

Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion on war. But Remembrance Day should be more than remembering the troops and civilians lost in past wars but a day where we remember that war and conflict persists throughout the world today. Lest we forget the horrors of conflict and war. Lest we forget that we are surrounded by conflict.

Girl opposite me just took out a cheese grater along with her packed dinner. No joke. A cheese grater #eduni #library is full of them - @weirnormal Major verbal dispute between 2 girls in library.

One accuses other of typing too loud just to annoy her. #eduni - @CalumAM I'm strangely excited, borderline aroused that the computers in the library have google chrome on them. Life will never be the same. #EdUni - @cxsmith

euronews.com

as “a chasm of barbarism, industrialised killing and ruin beyond imagination” instigated by the insecurities of the British Empire. And rightly so. World War One was horrific - Britain, France and Germany and its respective allies lost millions of men in numerous horrific battles.

It introduced new technology into warfare in the form of machine guns and tanks. It also arguably instigated a chain of events that lead to the Second World War, the Cold War and other conflicts that are still raging today.

However, I don’t believe that Remembrance Day does focus so narrowly on what exactly happened during World War One. Cooper fails to acknowledge this in his historically revisionist approach to what Remembrance Day symbolises.

Remembrance Day and laying down a wreath of poppies or wearing one on your shirt is about more than just remembering and acknowledging the mistakes made between 1914 and 1918. It is also about remembering the sacrifices made by men that have allowed us to live in security and peace since the war ended. It is about remembering that our troops continue to fight all over the world, away from their families and friends, laying down their lives to protect our nation. But more

Market amusement over celebrities being lost in a jungle has boosted ITV’s revenues this week, as they score a first place 7.23 per cent.

The celebrities will also be pleased because though their careers are lost, Compass Group is not, gaining 0.85 per cent of their share price.

In the red this week there is Vodafone on 5.60 per cent, so consumers should note that Mr Market will be paying his phone bill soon. Mr Market has worried daily about Stella as supermarkets have not just fallen this week, they have M&S fallen by 4.13 per cent, Sainsbury’s just a bit further down at 4.63 per cent. The Market family children have been assured that Percy Pigs will continue to be available, in both small and large packets.

Carnival PLC had no cause for celebration this week, falling by a dismal 4.34 per cent. Meanwhile, Mr Market’s favourite, Burberry, has fallen by 4.36 per cent. In contrast with the table topping Stella celebrations of previous weeks, Made-in-Chelseas and Chavs are weaving together a solution as they look to their silver and mock-gold linings for inspiration.

As ever, if Mr Market has made you a fortune this week, buy him a pint. That’d be lovely.

James Taylor

#EdUni Tweets

Lisa Kobayashi argues that poppies commemorate the victims of all wars, not just World War One ‘Lest we forget’: three simple words that evoke images of men marching through muddy trenches into battle, bombs falling on cities, rows and rows of graves of both known and unknown men. We held onto these words as we stood silently on the 11th November at 11am, remembering the fallen.

However, shock and horror spread throughout the UK as images of a man burning a paper poppy on Remembrance Day were released on Facebook last week (The man was later arrested by police on the suspicion of “making malicious telecommunication,” according to The Huffington Post).

Disgust was also expressed when the University of London Union Vice President, Daniel Cooper, declined an invitation from the university to attend a Remembrance Day service and lay down a wreath of poppies due to his political principles. Soon after he declined the invitation, a Facebook page was created by University of London students petitioning him to resign from his position.

On his blog, Cooper released a copy of his letter of declination to the University, stating that the reason he refused to attend the service was due to the ‘real’ meaning of Remembrance Day through an understanding of the First World War. He describes the war

Yasmin Morgan-Griffiths

Andrew Neville stresses that in order to succeed, Barack Obama must co-operate with Republicans

COMMEMORATION: The poppy reminds us of war victims worldwide

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

A new radicalism

Features 11

Francesca Mitchell talks tuition fees and radical protest with Kevin Paul, student strike leader from Montreal, Quebec now infamous Bill 78 emergency law designed to control the strike.

In his speaker tour of UK universities, Paul seeks to help mobilise British student populations and draw parallels between the Quebecois and British student movements. He describes the two situations as “the same struggles in different locations”, owing to “a crisis of capitalism on a global scale”. He is the first to admit that for the moment it is not feasible to create a mass anticapitalist or anti-state movement, but as he sees it tuition fees and the struggle for free education are one area where student populations across the world – radical or otherwise – can unite.

He describes the current climate as a good context to “meet with students in the UK and to come to some sort of understanding as to how we can help each other, and learn from each other’s movements”.

“

Students undertook a strategy of economic disruption, targeting the economy of the Kevin Paul state."

At the centre of the discussion Paul led in Edinburgh were his ideas on the tactics used by Quebecois students in their protests, and how these might apply to a British context. Among the

most fundamental aspects of the Canadian protest – in addition to frequent and popular marches – were strike votes, collective organisational structures like CLASSE, and class boycotts.

Paul is a particular advocate of the general assembly structure of CLASSE. The organisation, which has not disbanded, consisted of numerous general assemblies from the schools and departments of different universities and colleges from across the province (although the majority were based in the Montreal area) which each voted on strike mandates.

The student strike was kept active by weekly mandates rather than a vague or indefinite arrangement, adding to its momentum. This structure meant that although there were leaders within CLASSE, these leaders were not wholly responsible for executive decisions on behalf of the students they represented.

“CLASSE was designed to build power from the bottom up,” he says proudly.

“By April or May, power truly rested in the streets.”

Moreover, under the guidance of CLASSE and similar organisations, leaders and students undertook what Paul calls a “strategy of economic disruptions, targeting the economy of the state”, designed to affect power relations with the state. This included blockades on banks and government buildings in both Montreal and Quebec City and the disruption of Montreal’s transport networks with smoke bombs on the metro system. Paul explains that those leading the protest “knew that this was

Francesca mitchell

With the NUS-sponsored student demonstration in London this week, the words ‘student protest’ and ‘tuition fees’ are set to become media buzzwords once more. For some however, they are not merely a news item or Twitter trend, but rather something altogether more important and fundamental. In the run-up to Wednesday’s Demo 2012, the University of Edinburgh received a visit from one such person: Kevin Paul, a passionate activist from the recent successful student strikes in Quebec, Canada, as part of a speaker tour arranged by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts (NCAFC).

Paul, in addition to organising localised student strike at McGill University in Montreal, was an active member of the Quebecois student coalition CLASSE (la Coalition Large de l’Association pour une Solidarité Syndicale Étudiante) in the spring of this year. This radical syndicalist student federation was responsible for strategising the development of the student strike at a Quebec-wide level, and coordinated a strike which at its peak encompassed 300 thousand students.

The strike was multifaceted, taking the form of walk-outs, campus occupations and near daily street demonstrations lasting from February to October. These protests, which gained huge popular support both within and outside the student population, ultimately ended in success with the ousting of the Liberal government and the subsequent abandonment of the proposed tuition fee increases and the

RED SQUARE REVOLT: Edinburgh students gather to learn from the success of the Quebec protestors

what we had to target and what we wanted to target”, in order to make the seriousness of their stance understood.

However, such radical tactics lost student demonstrators some standing in public opinion: in cases of major rioting, students lost considerable support.

Fortunately for the movement, such disorderly incidents were not overly common.

Whilst Paul asserts that “public support was never particularly determining of the power the students held”, it is doubtful that the movement would have enjoyed so much success without the wider public participation that came about as a result of the emergency law against the strikes, Bill 78. That said however, Paul maintains that the very implementation of such a repressive act as Bill 78 is indicative of the force of the student movement, and while he acknowledges that there can be no guarantee of the students’ success without the wider public, he does believe that they could have won regardless.

Perhaps one of the most distinctive elements of the protests that Paul and his co-leaders organised were the student strikes. Paul argues that students can be seen as a type of labour in Quebec – and indeed in the UK – as they are going to class in order to prepare themselves for the job market. This is not to mention that striking delays graduations and costs universities huge sums of money when they are forced to repeat exam diets and semesters of classes. In Quebec, the strike is thought to have caused tens of millions of dollars worth of damage.

Strikes were particularly effective in the Francophone universities and CEGEPs (sixth form colleges), especially at the Université de Montréal and Université de Québéc à Montréal (UQAM), where thousands of students boycotted their classes.

Even at the more apathetic McGill University strikes votes and picket lines became regular orders of the day, even if they were perceived with more annoyance than espousal. It was this series of disturbances that Paul was responsible for organising – and indeed my own first encounter with him was on a picket line outside an English Literature class (incidentally in which the class and professor chose to exercise their democratic right and voted to evict him from the classroom).

It is no coincidence that it was in the disturbances to the education of those students who wished to remain in class that the strike gained the most notoriety and caused the most controversy.

This was especially the case at McGill, where many students were not actually from Quebec, and therefore would not

be affected by the tuition increases in the first place. Paul comments that his “analysis of McGill is pretty dark” and is keen to highlight the fact that tuition fees for these students were lower than in other provinces or in the US precisely because of Quebec’s history of student protest against tuition increases, and that for this reason, he believes that they should be as supportive of strike action as any other students. Nevertheless, critics may well argue that while there is nothing to stop students from striking, their right to prevent others from going to class is highly questionable at best.

Many students at McGill University held this view. Hannah Edmondson, a fourth year student from Ontario, explains the reaction of students in her class when protestors caused disruptions, stating that they “were furious because those that were in class wanted to be there, were paying good money to be there, and did not want their freedom of education taken away by those protesting for free education”.

She goes on to explain that in her view, not only did militant strikers make life more difficult for students who wished to continue learning, but they also caused unprecedented problems for university staff, who were just doing their job. “McGill was not on strike,” she explains, “so teachers had to teach regardless of the strike - and under the fear that protesters might come in and disrupt their lectures.”

Indeed, it was this issue that Edinburgh students present for Paul’s talk also seemed to have the most questions surrounding. Questions were raised relating to international students and SAAS-funded students who have to prove that they went to class in order to secure their residence rights and funding, respectively. Paul addresses these concerns, citing Quebec as an example.

“In Quebec,” he explains, “the enforcement of a strike is meant to take away individual responsibility for going to class, so the assumption is that a student can’t be held responsible legally.”

Even with this in mind, the tactics employed by the Quebecois in their recent demonstrations do seem quite extreme, especially for a UK student population beleaguered by lost battles and apathy. That said, initiating copycat protests was never Paul’s explicit intention. “I’m here to give you ideas, and to hear what’s going on in the UK, so we can work out how our movements can begin to support each other,” he says.

Only time will tell if this is a real step towards the cooperation of student movements on an international scale.

For now, in true British style, most of us may remain sceptical, but I’m sure Kevin Paul would hope so.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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12 Features

A step forward?

200moremontreal stencils

Rona Broadhead discusses Obama's upcoming visit to Burma and the country's human rights record

LIMITED FREEDOMS: Human rights concerns continue to need attention in Burma (Myanmar) It has been two years since Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi walked to freedom after fifteen years under house arrest. Earlier that year, a civilian government was introduced, replacing the military junta which had ruled Burma since 1962 and a week before Suu Kyi’s release elections were held for the first time in twenty years.

These historic events made headlines around the world and were considered a turning point in Burmese politics and in the country’s relationship with the outside world, following decades of isolation. The two years since have seen the introduction of a number of significant political and economic reforms and increased co-operation with the international community, but human rights abuses and military dominance remain widespread.

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Obama’s visit to Burma will be a success only if it generates concrete and lasting steps toward improving human rights" Human Rights Watch

This week Barack Obama visits the country, the first US president to do so, following a visit by Secretary of State Hilary Clinton last December and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague in

January. He will meet with both Suu Kyi and the country’s President Thein Sein and, according to White House spokesman Jay Carney, plans to “speak to civil society to encourage Burma’s ongoing democratic transition”. Days ahead of the visit the US lifted a ban on most imports from Burma which had been in place for the last decade. In April, the European Union suspended sanctions against Burma for a year, with the exception of arms sales, in recognition of the “historic changes” that have taken place since 2010.

While international leaders and organisations relax sanctions towards the Burmese government and praise its political reforms, Burmese activists and human rights groups have been critical of this approach. They emphasise the limits of the reforms and highlight the numerous human rights abuses that the Burmese government continues to commit.

Ahead of the US president’s visit, Human Rights Watch announced, “Obama’s visit to Burma will be a success only if it generates concrete and lasting steps toward improving human rights in the country.”

Burma’s steps towards democracy are undermined by the military’s continued influence. The historic elections in 2010 were boycotted by opposition groups including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), citing fraud and corruption, and were widely regarded as a sham. The military continues to dominate and hold influence over the parliament. The ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is military-backed and

President Thein Sein was previously a general and prime minister under the junta.

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Burma has seen the introduction of a number of significant political and economic reforms and increased cooperation with the international community, but human rights abuses and military dominance remain widespread" A constitution created while the junta was still in power in 2008 means that a quarter of seats in parliament are reserved for the military, and key cabinet posts in the interior, defence and border ministries must be held by serving generals. The military also retains the authority to dismiss the parliament.

A historic by-election this April renewed hopes for a democratic Burma. The NLD decided to participate although Suu Kyi complained of “rampant irregularities” in the election process. The party celebrated a landslide victory, winning 40 out of 45 parliamentary seats and Suu Kyi declared,

“We hope this will be the beginning of a new era.”

While a minority in parliament, it is highly significant that the NLD finally has a voice there. Its main priority is constitutional reform, particularly the abolition of the 25 per cent military quota for parliament. However, some political analysts worry that the West’s focus on Suu Kyi as a symbol of Burmese democracy is actually hindering democratic reform.

It is possible that the USDP government is placating the West by allowing Suu Kyi and her NLD some limited power, allowing the government to minimise real democratic reform. Shyan Saran, a former Indian foreign secretary believes that, “Aung San Suu Kyi is the regime’s passport to legitimacy in the international community.” The next parliamentary elections will be held in 2015 and will be viewed as a test of the government’s commitment to democracy.

Since the end of junta rule, the government has released a number of political prisoners, freeing around 700 between May 2011 and July 2012.

However the government continues to hold political prisoners, facing condemnation by international human rights groups. Speaking in July, Amnesty International’s Benjamin Zawacki announced, “While we welcome the latest releases, it is crucial that the Myanmar authorities release all other remaining prisoners of conscience, imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.”

Amnesty International estimates that around 400 political prisoners are still being detained. The organisation submitted an open letter last week asking the Burmese government to set up a review mechanism to “identify all detainees and prisoners who were charged or convicted as a result of proceedings which fell short of international human rights standards.” In the same week 452 prisoners were released ahead of Obama’s visit, but no political prisoners were included in this amnesty.

Minority rights and religious tensions are another key issue that human rights groups urge Obama to raise when he visits Burma. Recent violent clashes between Buddhist Arakanese and Rohingya Muslim communities in the Arakan state have highlighted deep-rooted ethnic tensions that have existed for decades. Last June, violence broke out between the two groups following the alleged rape of an Arakanese woman by three Rohingya men. A state of emergency was declared in the region and has been in place ever since.

In recent weeks renewed violence has broken out across the state. Around 200 Rohingya people have died and more than 100 thousand people have been displaced in the last three weeks.

Thousands of refugees have fled to Bangladesh and UN refugee camps there, but the Bangladeshi government has prevented many from entering the country. Refugee camps within Burma are overwhelmed by the high number of people fleeing violence.

Melanie Teff, researcher for Refugee International told the Guardian

in early November that, “conditions in these camps are as bad, if not worse, than ones in eastern Congo or Sudan.

Child malnutrition rates are startlingly high. There’s an urgent need for clean water and food. If further aid does not come through, there will be some unnecessary deaths.”

The Rohingya population numbers around 800 thousand in Burma and they have faced persecution and discrimination for decades by Burmese citizens and the government. Their language is similar to Bengali; because of this the government claims that the Rohingya are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and has denied them citizenship for more than 30 years, making the Rohingya a stateless people.

They must ask for permission to marry or have more than two children, and inform the authorities if they wish to travel from their villages.

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Minority rights and religious tensions are another key issue" The UN recognises the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted groups in the world. Refugees and survivors of the violence have blamed the government for encouraging ethnic persecution and facilitating ethnic cleansing.

Human Rights Watch accuses the Burmese government of “both failing to intervene to stop sectarian violence and directly participating in abuses”.

In addition to this, there have been reports of police shooting at both Rohingya and Arakanese peoples. Aung San Suu Kyi and the NDL party have also been criticised for failing to speak out about the persecution of the Rohingya.

Obama’s historic visit to Burma this week reflects the massive changes that have taken place in the country since 2010 and its increasing integration into the international community.

The country has begun making steps towards democracy but it remains to be seen how deep these changes will go and whether constitutional reform can be achieved in order to dismantle the military’s control over the country.

By gaining seats in parliament, Aung San Suu Kyi and her NDL party have achieved a legitimate political platform but they remain constrained by an undemocratic constitution. The recent violence between the Rohingya and Arakanese people reflects deeprooted ethnic and religious tensions in the country and has highlighted the government’s responsibility for this conflict and its persecution of the Rohingya people. The international political community must join human rights groups and NGOs in condemning the Burmese government’s handling of the conflict and call for an end to the persecution of the Rohingya people.

High-profile visits such as Obama’s must be used to press for democratic reform and an end to human rights abuses. Otherwise, there is a risk of legitimising a Burmese government which still has a long way to go.

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Features 13

The fundamental questions The Democratic Party’s retention of the White House and Senate in the US election on Tuesday 6th November has initiated a flurry of speculation about the future of the American political landscape. The nation’s increasing black and Latino populations, Democratic dominance among female voters and signs that the country is waxing progressive on social issues – such as the legality of abortion, gay marriage (approved by voters in the states of Maine and Maryland) and even marijuana (approved in Colorado and Washington) – have many Democrats salivating.

“The more [Republicans] tried to force chastity belts on women, and the more they made Hispanics, black and gays feel like the help, the more these groups burned to prove that, knitted together, they could give the deadenders of white male domination the boot,” wrote Maureen Dowd, a New York Times columnist.

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Republicans need to ‘cut the crap and realise that [their] message is tone deaf to voters’" Michael Steele, Chairman of Republican Natinal Committee, 2009-2001 Meanwhile, conservatives, many of whom expected a Mitt Romney victory, are grappling with the meaning of defeat. On election night Bill O’Reilly, a Fox News channel host and one of America’s most watched political pundits, seemed to echo Mitt Romney’s infamous statement that 47 per cent of Americans are “dependent on government”. “It’s not a traditional America anymore,” O’Reilly rationalised. “There are 50 per cent of the voting public who want stuff. They want things and who is going to give them things? President Obama.” O’Reilly failed to specify precisely what ‘things’ the ‘50 per cent’ feel entitled to, but he did speculate as to their appearance; associating the block with women, blacks and Hispanics.

Politico reported Michael Steele, who became the first African-American Chairman of the Republican National Committee in 2009 before his tenure ended in 2011, as saying that Republicans need to “cut the crap out and realise that your message is tone deaf to voters”.

Steele further notes that the party must account for the rising Hispanic population, an epiphany apparently undergone by many conservatives.

John Boehner, the Speaker of the House of Representatives which remains controlled by Republicans, admitted that “a comprehensive approach” to immigration reform “is long overdue”. Charles Krauthammer, a conservative commentator writing in The Washington Post, argued that the Democratic party’s presumption that it

“owns the demographic future” can be countered “in one stroke by fixing the Latino problem”. Anyone disturbed by his word choice might be comforted by the knowledge that Krauthammer’s final solution is a border fence plus amnesty, meaning that illegal immigrants present in the United States (there are over 11 million) would be allowed to stay, with future border hoppers barred from entry by a contemporary Great Wall that would no doubt be erected along the country’s Mexican, and not its Canadian, border.

Republicans such as these (and there are Democrats also guilty of this electioneering racism) speak as if every Latino is exclusively obsessed with immigration policy. The majority of Latinos say they care more about jobs and the economy. Still, a softened immigration stance can only help a party that just saw a Presidential nominee in support of Latino “self-deportation” gain only 27 per cent of the Latino vote.

The case is similar on issues like abortion, which would have scarcely been mentioned this election cycle had Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock; Republican candidates for the Senate, not postulated theories on rape-induced pregnancy in defending their opinions that abortion should be illegal without exceptions. There is no evidence that the country as a whole is becoming more liberal in this respect and the prevalence of evangelical Christians in certain constituencies guarantees that there will continue to be staunch Republican adversaries of abortion rights in Congress. It would, however, probably earn Republicans some additional votes if future candidates were not perceived as rape apologists.

On the other hand, most of the single women from whom Obama’s overall advantage among women was derived, have interests other than ensuring themselves the right to rectify sexual mistakes. As the moderate conservative New York Times columnist David Brooks points out, the decline of marriage rates around the world over the past 50 years is a product of a general protectiveness of the freedom of choice between life paths. This is partly about sex and entails not having children, but at its core, especially for women, it is a response to the juxtaposition of pursuing a career versus domesticity. Therefore, it is likely that the vast majority of single women are first and foremost voting on behalf of their professional ambitions, with which demands for sexual liberty and abortion rights are intertwined, not inseparable.

Yet post-election analyses that focus on associations between niche groups and simplistic assumptions regarding what they want are indicative of a broader philosophical vacuum in American politics. By many accounts, Obama won the election because his campaign masterfully combined degradation of Mitt Romney’s image with messaging; conveyed on television and through the expert deployment of volunteers on the ground, targeted at specific factions in swing states, a

fotopedia

Christopher Massie discusses the tactics and turns of US politics in the wake of the election

AMERICAN IDEOLOGY: There may be more to the fundamentals than liberty alone strategy Republicans will surely study and emulate.

Neither candidate attempted to articulate a thorough theoretical justification of his views and on the whole, the rhetoric of candidates for office rarely transcends the talking point catchphrase. Obama’s incessantly reiterated (and not untrue) accusation that the wealthy would not “pay their fair share” under Romney’s tax plan substituted for debate on the morality and macroeconomic consequences of higher or lower income taxes.

Meanwhile, Romney’s shots at Obama’s “big government” policies invariably evaded the details of the policies in question (which, by European standards, have been conservative), not to mention the rationale underlying them. Thus, American political discourse is dangerously superficial.

Dangerously, because popular opinion is profoundly divided.

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The question of how substantially the power of the federal government should usurp that of state and local governments has long been the leading dilemma in American politics since the 1780s" Liberal cheerleaders like Ari Melber of The Nation, who called Obama’s re-electon “the most decisive mandate for an assertive, progressive governing

model in well over a generation” have their heads in the clouds. Melber’s claim that “‘the role of government’ was not a philosophical question in Ohio, where three out of four voters said the economy is doing poorly and 59 percent backed the auto bailout” may be true in the context of this election. The bailout of the automobile industry pushed by Obama (as opposed to Romney who, in 2008, wrote a piece in The New York Times arguing that it should be allowed to go bankrupt) saved hundreds of thousands of jobs in Ohio and supposedly was the primary reason Obama carried the state.

Nonetheless, the question of how substantially the power of the federal government should usurp that of state and local governments has been the leading dilemma in American politics, at least since the Constitutional Ratification Conventions of the late 1780s.

It has periodically resurfaced in various forms, the most renowned undoubtedly being the Civil War of the 1860s.

Nonetheless, it has manifested itself more recently in the mass objection to the 2009 health care reform law which spurred the heavily publicised victories of Tea Party Republicans in the Congressional elections in 2010. This election, however, delivered nothing close to a conclusive resolution.

Even after it is cleansed of the economic residue of the housing crisis, the country will face a myriad of problems bound to endure: climate change, a national debt of $16 trillion and counting, an aging population, indispensable social programs in dire need of reform and a proportionately shrinking middle class to name but a few. In addition to this, the country faces a chasm between rich and poor that has sent 90 per cent of income gains since 2009 to the rich-

est one per cent of America’s earners.

This gap, aided by an increasingly ineffective public education system, is also solidifying the class structure, with more than 40 per of those born in the poorest 20 percentiles stuck there for life.

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The country will face a myriad of problems bound to endure, including climate change and a national debt of $16 trillion and counting" How the country will approach these problems, whether it will approach them or whether it will allow them to fester and metastasise, depends on what Americans demand of their federal government. That demand will itself be determined by how Americans answer the questions of social identity and morality underlying their political opinions: Am I an American or a Texan?

Should the young or the elderly receive the larger share of state expenditures?

What degree of economic opportunity and security should the wealthy be obligated to grant the poor? Is wealth the product of exceptional personal characteristics or lucky circumstance?

Is being born with exceptional personal characteristics not a form of luck too?

The answers to these dilemmas are unlikely to be worked out quickly. For the moment at least, the concept of an America in which such questions are posed in the mainstream feels nothing short of illusory and utopian.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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14 Features

Odd-jobs or an odd job?

Part-time jobs can be time-consuming, boring, exhausting and poorly paid, but nonetheless they are a key part of many students’ university experience. Since undergraduates rarely have the qualifications for professional posts, we very often end up working in a variety of unskilled positions, often in the retail industry, as service staff or in childcare capacities. It seems part of the inevitable circle of things.

For many, hours spent toiling over the checkout at Tesco is simply a rite of passage, and most of us have to go through the motions of having a lousy student job that will – hopefully – make us appreciate how lucky we are if we manage to land our dream job in the ‘real world’.

However, it is not always the case that students are restricted to menial or poorly paid work, with numerous students now working in less conventional fields to fund their university careers.

The appeal of unconventional work lies in it being potentially more interesting, better paid and – let’s face it – more fun to brag about at parties. Unusual, often one-off, jobs seem ideal for those currently in full-time education.

Marjory McCallum, team leader at SAGE, suggests that those looking for a more exciting job should try making the most of those one-chance-only opportunities. “Individual employers can give us very interesting short term work – I have had requests for a memoirs writer, art collection curators, and someone to look after quite a number of furry animals and reptiles!”

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I have had requests for a memoirs writer, art collection curators, and someone to look after quite a number of furry animals and reptiles!"

Marjory McCallum, SAGE team leader University provides enough free time to give you the opportunity to do something that little bit different, to experiment with something that you would never do otherwise. By the time you are slogging it out as a yuppie you just won’t have time to get paid to stand in a graveyard at night covered in fake blood and jump out at tourists.

But how does one even begin to go about tracking down that more unusual part time work? A brief glance over the Student and Graduate Employment database (SAGE) provided by the Careers Service at Edinburgh University yields up such intriguing possibilities as a mystery shopper, football coach for Manchester United Soccer Schools and Santa Claus.

Craig Methven, a third year English Literature student, stumbled into his job as a history and ghost tour guide

at Mercat Tours after following up an advert on the Careers Service. He recounts “going to the interview and being asked if you are comfortable wearing a cloak and brandishing a whip on the Royal Mile”; something of a bizarre turn for a first job interview.

Despite having a theatrical background which prepared him for the more dramatic parts of the role, there were some aspects that Methven had not anticipated – in particular the supposedly haunted vaults which he shows tourists around.

He was surprised when part of his training included advice on how to handle the ghosts and, while initially sceptical of the spirit world, he admits that in doing this job he has become more open to the possibility of the paranormal, particularly when he has to present these accounts in a believable way. “I kind of get myself into it,” he explains. “You have to play along.”

Aside from an increase in ghostly encounters though, Methven has found guiding easy enough to fit around his life and his studies. “It’s pretty perfect to do just during term time, a couple of hours here and there,” he says, adding that he’s even been able to fit in tours between lectures.

Methven compares his current work to his previous employment, calling it “the best student job I’ve had”. He prefers working as a guide where people can get entertainment out of what he does, rather than annoying them which is what happened when he worked in a call centre. The boredom that might set in through performing the same stories is staved off by the ever changing audiences who hail from all around the globe and ensure that every tour is different.

However, it is not all fun and games and ghosts. While the visitor may be ambling from close to close quite happily, the guide is frantically glancing at their watch and hoping that they will make it down to the vaults on the hour.

Methven confesses, “I still get worried about filling up the time. Do people want to listen to me talk for a full hour and a half, two hours?” For him though, the satisfaction of getting a good response from the customer at the end makes it all worthwhile.

If the idea of performing what is essentially your own one man (or one woman) show seems intimidating, then perhaps posing in the nude for people to draw you might appear easier. Modelling for life drawing groups pays well for what at first seems like doing very little: Edinburgh University’s Art Society pays its models £20 for a 90 minute shift.

However, although in theory you are being judged on your shape and bulges in the same way that a teapot is, the idea of modelling nude can be quite daunting. Dimos Panagiotakis, a fourth year Animation student at Edinburgh College of Art, jokes that, “A glass of wine helps.” He has worked for about a year for organisations including Art Soc and the North Berwick City Council, in addition to collectives of artists.

In spite of his lighthearted words, he

jessica kettle

Amelia Sanders takes a look into the weird world of unusual student part-time jobs

OUT THERE: Many students take on unorthodox kinds of work to fund their studies is quick to stress that it is not all about getting your kit off, which “you get used to”, and argues that cultivating the physical and mental ability to remain in one position for a long period of time is far more challenging.

Typically, a life drawing session will last for one to two hours, beginning with shorter poses of perhaps five minutes and building up to a much longer one which might last half an hour. Models are expected to remain absolutely still, and if they do need to shift slightly they are expected to return to the exact same position. Panagiotakis finds these long periods of stillness very helpful.

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What employers really want to hear is how that particular part-time job has enhanced your skills or experience" Marjory McCallum, SAGE team leader “I find it good for my concentration actually,” he says. “Holding a pose, I can focus my gaze and I can reflect mentally.” He even gets ideas for his coursework while modelling.

In a way, the unusual set up that life drawing involves demands a high level of professionalism. “I could say that

people are more friendly and respectful to you when you have no clothes than when you do,” Panagiotakis half-jokes.

“Definitely more than when you are wearing a waiter’s outfit or something like that.”

However, both Panagiotakis and Methven say that they were slightly more cautious about telling outsiders about what they did. “I wouldn’t advertise it, of course, to everyone,” comments Panagiotakis.

Methven feels that he is at risk of not being taken seriously, with ghost guiding being an acceptable job for a student but potentially embarrassing for full-time employment. To his mind, it is more of a stepping stone to greater things.

“I think it is good experience because it shows that you are pretty fearless and can talk to people and interact with them and are not afraid of being ridiculous,” he explains. “I don’t know if these skills will transfer to other real jobs but I hope it will.”

McCallum, for her part, is quick to stress that those with ‘unusual’ jobs do not necessarily have an advantage over anyone else when it comes to graduate employers. The novelty nature of a job does not really matter, since “what employers really want to hear is how that particular part-time job has enhanced your skills or experience.”

However, she does not dismiss the impact of unconventional work in the long run entirely, as “taking up the opportunity of an unusual job might

be another way of demonstrating that you are not afraid to move out of your comfort zone.”

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If the idea of performing what is essentially your own one man (or one woman) show seems intimidating then perhaps posing in the nude for people to draw you might appear easier" For the rest of us, even though most jobs may not be the sort that get people at parties to ask questions, it does not follow that anything conventional is necessarily boring. In the process of researching, I came across many people who found their ordinary work interesting, and if alternative avenues do not seem like they are for you it might be best to leave the more unconventional work to those comfortable with it.

While those interviewed enjoyed their work, the truth of the matter might just be that you are more likely to stick with the sort of work that you enjoy. And at the end of the day of course, we are all just looking for a way to pay our bills.

Winter make-up trend Mulberry Lips Every girl loves a fresh new lipstick and while many of us never dare to experiment with bold colour, the winter months are a perfect time to treat yourself to a hot new shade. Darker coloured lips are right on trend for Winter 2012. Think deep, mulled wine red with electrifying purple undertones. While this may sound scary and maybe even intimidating, this look can be striking when correctly paired with natural, minimal face makeup and a neutral eye shadow to create a clean, matte finish.

Let's face it, there’s no harm in an early Christmas present to yourself to get you through those bitterly cold nights and dreary wet days. I have compiled a list of five of the hottest darker shades for this season – from the pricey to pursefriendly, there is something to suit everyone:

Dare to dine in the dark?

Katherine Nugent puts her sense of taste to the test at The Living Room on George St. Excited and anxious, I walk into the dimly lit room, away from the other patrons of the restaurant.

Taking a seat, I pick up the carefully placed blindfold in front of me. I put it on. Sitting anxiously, I put out my hand, waiting for it. I feel its warmth in my palm. Bringing it to my lips, I taste it. Hmm…Egg? Cheese? Mango chutney maybe? While this may sound like an extract from another shamelessly erotic, poorly written spin-off of 50 Shades of Grey, it was in fact my first ever blind dining experience.

Gastronomy today has become so much more than being about flavour.

With books being published on the many ways of ‘plating up’ particular

dishes and fancy utensils designed to perfectly ‘swirl’ spaghetti onto yourplate, taste is just one of many pieces of the pie. No one wants to indulge in a bowl of something that resembles gruel, no matter how good it tastes. But have we gone too far the other way?

Emphasising appearance at the expense of taste, some fine dining restaurants are getting away with mediocre dishes with flavors that can only be described as bland, purely because of a precisely placed biscuit or fancy swirl of sauce on a pristine white plate.

As a reaction to this, food purists are taking a stand, directing our attention back to the plate and firmly encouraging a restructuring of our sorely skewed

3. L’Oreal Colour Riche Lipstick Shade – Divine Wine Price – £8.69 A very rich colour, better suited for more tanned complexions as the deep brown hues in the red complement warmer skin tones. While a much more affordable price, it somehow retains the quality of the more expensive brands.

4. Revlon ColourBurst Shade – Plum Price – £7.99 A wonderfully glossy deep red lipstick that is very wearable with any style of makeup, an all round perfect shade for day or night.

5. Barry M Lip Paint Shade – Mulberry Price – £2.99 A glossy deep purple with brown undertones makes this lipstick perfect for those special occasions. At such an unbeatable price, there is really no excuse to avoid trying out this shade yourself.

Sara Emara

Miaow Studios

1. Estee Lauder Double wear Shade – Stay Mauve Price – £19.50 This lipstick is definitely an investment. It is pricey, but very long lasting. The colour is not too overpowering, making it suitable for day and nightwear.

2. MAC Cremesheen Shade – Hang-up Price – £14 This lipstick gives a gorgeous ‘vampiresque’ deep berry colour, perfect for adding a new twist to any outfit. Be careful not to go too heavy on the eye-makeup or your look may come across more Halloween queen than Twilight temptress.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

STRENGTHENED SENSES: An experimental approach to cuisine

priorities. Nothing is more frustrating to a foodie than a picky eater who insists that they simply cannot try even one tiny bit because they can just tell from the look of it that they will have to spit it out.

Blind dining experiences like the ‘Dining in the Dark’ event held by The Living Room on George Street help us to break down these barriers created by our judgmental eyes and refocus and re-evaluate our relationship with our taste buds.

It is often said that in the case that one of your senses is taken from you, the others are heightened; refined even. Several stories circulate of the blind or deaf being endowed with a superhuman sixth sense. Here lies the reasoning behind these unique culinary experiments.

Without getting a visual of what you are about to ingest you are free from assumption and your experience with food is uncontaminated, more intimate. Gone is the pesky third wheel that is your vision, the adulterating force making murky your relationship with your meal. What is left is purer.

With your mind left at the mercy of your taste buds, your connection with your food is refined, your bond with your sense of taste strengthened. Well, this is the idea at least.

Designed to evaluate our tasting skills, the experience did not only involve blindly sampling ten delicious dishes from The Living Room’s new autumn/winter menu, but also a quiz at which I scored a mere 11 out

of 35. While the experience was in its own way enlightening, the only fact I learned was that my taste buds are completely useless. Leaving the restaurant, I couldn’t help but feel let down; betrayed by my own body, to be specific, my tongue.

How can it not know the difference between pistachio and coconut?

Cranberry and plum? I know that I am no expert in the field of Epicureanism, but surely the difference between lentil and broccoli can be discerned by even the most untrained of taste buds.

I cannot begin to describe the frustration I felt when recognising a familiar taste but being unable to name exactly what it was. Even with the aid of smell, I couldn’t tell if the meat I tasted in the shepherd’s pie was beef, pork or lamb – it turned out to be venison.

Slowly, I came to the horrible realisation that my whole life I have been allowing my sense of sight to adulterate and contaminate almost all the others.

Was my perception of life restricted to just the sights that I saw? Have I been letting scents, textures, sounds and tastes fall to the wayside? Probably not.

Nevertheless, the experience got me questioning how well I knew my senses and how I prioritised them.

Unnerving as it is, I thoroughly recommend blind dining to anyone wanting to really get something new out of food. Eating without vision is truly eye opening.

The pursuit of pleasure

Katie Macpherson discusses the pressures and pervading gender biases of reaching climax During my first year at university, my then-boyfriend said one evening that if he couldn’t make me orgasm he would break up with me. I remember feeling incredibly shocked and a little freaked out. Talk about pressure. From that point on, it felt like I had to climax in order to feed his ego.

The experience led me to question a few things that I hadn’t previously thought about. Firstly, if I should really be in that relationship and secondly, was this pressure all a result of a society where sexual identity and ability are judged on one aspect of sex rather than the whole act? It appears that some guys need to be able to give orgasms to feel self-worth as men. It is understandable that there is a certain amount of achievement in giving a partner an orgasm. However, if a partner becomes dependant on this sense of success to feel stable in a relationship, there is bound to be a negative backlash that manifests between couples.

At this point in my life I was quite naive, just coming from the backdrop of high school dating in which sex wasn’t necessarily a given. Before this

point, I had never questioned whether I would be good at sex, let alone whether my partners would be. But my casual assumption that things would just work themselves out does appear to have been a minority viewpoint. A lot of people; in some senses boys more than girls, are definitely feeling the pressure to build a favourable sexual reputation.

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From that point on, it felt like I had to climax in order to feed his ego" Although there has been a distinct rise in the last few years of reported female masturbation, lots of us feel awkward about it. The average age for the first female orgasm in the UK is 20 and for most boys this has already occurred at 16. This is an interesting fact, considering 80 per cent of women are said to be masturbating. So ladies, the issue I put forward for your consideration is this: why is there so much pres-

sure for men to perform at such a high standard in bed, when many women cannot do the same for themselves?

Reasons for this might be that the male orgasm is an easier feat to accomplish. This makes women feel that men should be reciprocating. After all, no one wants a relationship to be all giving and no taking. On the other hand, a study by the Kinsley Institute found that many women enjoy sex without orgasms. This was due to the fact that for these women, sex was about having a connection with their partner, not their personal gratification.

It is fair enough to assume that most men will climax when having sex, but some men feel that just having an orgasm does not make it good sex. A lot of the time guys can feel just the same as women, that orgasms are not the be all and end all of sex.

While there is so much pressure on men to perform, many women do not feel the same social strain when it comes to sex. Is this because women’s reputations are affected more adversely by being sexually experienced? Maybe there are still problems, even in today’s

society of women who are looked down upon for their sexuality. Or is it the case that because ‘lad’ culture seems to require expressions of overt sexual competence while our dirty laundry doesn’t get quite so much attention, anonymity lets us work on our sexual ability in a less strained way?

It is important to say that this is only an issue if made one. Unlike impotence or other sexual issues, there is no straightforward answer on how to orgasm or how to improve sex. We can search through as many magazines and sex blogs as we want, but there is no universl answer to attaining orgasm.

Having said that, there are individual ways, namely good communication with your partner on what feels right for your own body.

Although this may not always work, like with my ex's ultimatum, it’s natural for everyone to be unsure about sex. Every improvement I’ve noticed in my own sex life is owed to actually talking about what I needed.

Safe to say, my ex and I broke up about three weeks after that; I’ll leave it up to you to figure out why.

joanna lisiovec

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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16 Editorial A beautiful picture fromThe Student Photography Department

Join us!

The Student is always looking for budding reporters, reviewers, illustrators and photographers to join us. We’re also hunting for recruits for our marketing and events teams.

If you’re interested, here’s how to track us down: » In person: Meetings every Tuesday in the Teviot Debating Hall at 1.15pm editors@studentnewspaper.org www.facebook.com/TheStudentNewspaper www.twitter.com/TheStudentPaper

ELIZABETH DOUCETTE

A quick history lesson...

Dear Louise from Made in Chelsea. <3 We put a plea in the paper a few weeks ago and you didn't respond. It made us really really sad. :( If you read the paper please let us know. If anyone is friends with Louise Thompson (#Jellys), please show her the paper. It'd be amazing.

Readers of the Student, if you see Louise, tweet us her location (#stalking) or drop a copy of the paper at her desk in the library. (#deaddrop #spyjokes) Email: editors@studentnewspaper.org Twitter: @TheStudentPaper #EdUni Get in contact peeps, thanks for reading! Love Nina and Daniel xoxoxoxoxox

The Student Comment section apologises: Following a complaint about the editing of a comment piece in last week’s issue on international student fees, I would like to offer my most sincere apologies to the writer, Aurora Adams. I take full responsibility for the changes made, and confess that I made poor editorial judgements which slightly altered the meaning of her piece.

At the Student, we reserve the right to edit articles in order to clarify arguments. I would like to stress that I intended to edit purely for the purpose of clarity, and in order to bring out what I thought (erroneously) was her argu-

ment in a few sentences which I found didn’t express her points very clearly.

I sincerely hope that I did not make the writer appear xenophobic by modifying her sentence about essays being passed which have “clear language problems”.

I simply thought that she was implying that foreign students’ university experience is made all the more difficult by language difficulties which have not been properly addressed by the university due to their expedient approach to international student admissions, NOT that international students don’t have the right to study here.

The Student was launched by Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887 as an independent voice for Edinburgh's literati. It is Britain's oldest student newspaper and is an independent publication, reaching more than 10,000 University of Edinburgh students every week.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill are a few of the famous people who have been associated with the paper. In the early 1970s, Gordon Brown worked as a news editor and diary columnist, working alongside Robin Cook who at the time was in charge of film and concert reviews.

Disclaimer

The Student welcomes letters for publication. The editors, however, reserve the right to edit or modify letters for clarity. Anonymous letters will not be printed but names will be witheld on request. The letters printed are the opinions of individuals outwith The Student and do not represent the views of the editors or the paper as a whole. Similarly, comment articles represent the views of their writers and not The Student.

Editors Nina Bicket and Daniel Swain

News Charlotte Brady, Alistair Grant, Thurston Smalley Comment Stephen Maughan, Yasmin Morgan-Griffiths & Charlotte Ryan Features Cameron Taylor & Francesca Mitchell Lifestyle Katherine Nugent & Marissa Trew Science & Environment Nina Seale & Katy Sheen Tech Alasdair MacLeod Crosswords John Wakely Culture Madeleine Ash, Troy Holmes & Lene Korseberg Music Emmett Cruddas, Stuart Iversen & Geraint Lloyd Ellis Film Dan Scott Lintott & Sally Pugh TV Hannah Clapham-Clark Sport Piers Barber, Davie Heaton & Phil Smith Head of illustration Jalen Vasquez Photo editor Elizabeth Doucette Commission Sarah Burch Production editors Christopher Sladdin & Ben Shmulevitch

I also regret changing her description of education as a “public good” to a “privilege,” as this implies a far stronger meaning than the overall context of her piece suggests. However, I felt that the term she used was vague and did not really clarify what she was trying to argue about the nature of free education.

Of course, I had no intentions to offend the writer or any international students in the editing of this piece, and this is simply a misunderstanding which got a little out of hand. I hope the writer will accept my apology.

The Comment Section

Head copy editor Melissa Geere Copy editors Lucy Dang, Elinor Smith, Jennifer Taylor, Helen Twigg, Charlotte Wagenaar, & Helena Wilson Advertising Rachel Barkey, Matt McDonald, Kirsten Weir Distribution James Wood Marketing Dan Scott Lintott Social Media Kelly Meulenberg President Anna Feintuck Secretary Rebecca O'Doherty Treasurer Katy Sheen Social Secretary Thomas 'Aussie Tom' Grant

Student Newspaper, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Tel: 0131 650 9189. The Student lists links to third party websites, but does not endorse them or guarantee their authenticity or accuracy. © The Student Newspaper Society. All rights reserved. No section in whole or part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmited in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. The Student is published by the Student Newspaper Society, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Distributed by RJM Couriers, 3 John Muir Place, Dunbar EH42 1GD. Tel: 01368 860115. Printed

by Print and Digital Associates, 01332 896525, on Monday September 10 2012. Tel: 01228 612600. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Missing information misleads masses

Do you trust Wikipedia? Kristina Simonaityte looks at the Hurricane Sandy article that omitted global warming effects due the next morning.

Wikipedia can indeed be as reliable as actual encyclopedias. A study published in Nature found that Wikipedia’s science articles were often of a similar quality to those in Encyclopedia Britannica. If this is the case, why is academia still so reluctant to embrace the enormous online resource?

It comes down to the fact that Wikipedia is written and edited by

NASA/GSFC/Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS

Citing Wikipedia always results in a fail [citation needed]. Throughout our time at university, we are repeatedly told that Wikipedia is not a reliable source and at best is only good as a starting point for researching assignments. After so much pestering, students are obviously smart enough not to reference Wikipedia, but that doesn’t prevent them from exploiting it when working overnight on an essay

SANDY: Wikipedia readers were deprived global warming information

thousands of volunteers from all over the world. Currently, there are about four million articles on the English version of the site. Anyone can edit a Wikipedia article regardless of whether or not they have any credentials, and misleading information is an inevitable byproduct. More often than not, these misleading edits are intentional and meant to be humorous or to simply test public awareness.

This was the case with the article on lunar eclipses. For a while, Wikipedia defined this phenomenon as, “When the moon turns black and explodes, releasing a poisonous gas, killing all of humanity.” This has been altered since, but screen grabs still circulate around the web making fun of Wikipedia and its users’ gullibility.

An article on Hurricane Sandy, which recently devastated the East coast of the United States and Canada, is another example of Wikipedia misleading its readers but with serious implications.

For nearly a week during the development and landing of the so-called ‘Frankenstorm’, its Wikipedia article had no mention of climate change – whether the two were related or the storm was simply a freak weather event.

True, climate change did not cause the storm in itself, but its unusual size and

strength can be attributed to shifting weather patterns due to warming of the oceans, which is caused by climate change.

“

The most popular information source completely ignored the issue of global warming throughout all due to one person's individual beliefs."

56 year old unemployed Florida resident Ken Mampel was the main contributor to Sandy’s article in its early stages. He was also the one removing any mention of climate change due to ‘lack of evidence’. If you Google ‘Hurricane Sandy’, the Wikipedia article comes up first just as it did at the height of the storm. Despite all the climate change talk surrounding the event, the most popular information source completely ignored the issue of global warming throughout – all due to one person’s individual beliefs.

That’s the problem with crowdsourced information on the internet.

Unless reputable news outlets or peer-

reviewed journals publish it, the source and quality of information is questionable. For all we know, the information has been invented to support the motives of the writer. In the lunar eclipse example, the inaccuracy of the statement was obvious.

The question of Hurricane Sandy and its relation to climate change, on the other hand, is misleading. Here’s where critical thinking should come in: to help realise if important information is missing or deliberately excluded from Wikipedia articles. Lecturers are concerned with the accuracy of Wikipedia’s content and discourage using it for this particular reason, and it should be recognised that the information which is not included in the articles might be just as important. Objectivity is the word we are looking for here.

It took a major hurricane for US presidential candidates to finally address global warming. It was a blunder for Wikipedia not to do the same. The collaborative nature of the site enabled Mampel to prevent millions of people seeing all sides of the story when it was at its peak, but without the same volunteer collaboration Wikipedia wouldn’t be nearly as extensive and valuable a project as it is now. While it has its flaws it can also be educating, as long as we remain critical about it.

Power play: Scotland’s renewable energy

Breaking barriers: Aziz Khiyami and Chiara Zaccheo discuss the economic and social potential of renewable energy sources

“I sell here, sir, what all the world desires to have: power,” boasted Matthew Boulton, one of the forefathers of the industrial revolution over 200 years ago. Since then, mankind has exploited the finite resources available in nature for its own benefit.

Climate change is real, and the future predictions of scientists are apocalyptic. But can technology, which brought us into this mess to begin with, save us once again? Many would say yes: the green revolution will overtake the industrial one.

Wind, wave and tidal power are all renewable energy sources that have significant potential in Scotland. The Scottish Parliament has set plans for Scotland to stand up and lead the way in the development of global renewable energy schemes. These technologies are not only for the benefit of future generations but current ones as well.

Investment in the renewable sector is predicted to grow, which would allow the economy to provide jobs and opportunities for young graduates and spur new sectors of growth.

But leave it to the economists to sober everyone up and impose harsh reality. According to Dr. Martin Chick,

an expert on economic and social history with expertise in energy policy, the economics of renewable energy are dubious at best.

“

The university is saving 8,500 tonnes of CO2 each year, generating savings of £1.5 million annually."

In his opinion, wind energy, so far the superstar among the various renewable sources, is actually harmful to the efficiency of the power grid. Renewables cannot be stored and accessed at will. The nature of electrical power generation is such that at any moment the amount of power consumed from the electrical grid must be the same as the power generated.

This means that when a kettle is switched on to make a cup of tea, a turbine in a power plant must spin faster to supply the additional power. If that turbine is getting its energy from coal, then we can control how much to

burn and when, but if it is powered by the wind, what happens when there is none? Since most of society refuses to live like the Amish whenever the wind stops blowing, more dependable energy sources must still be built in conjunction with renewables.

Engineers will be quick to point out that although renewables have high capital costs, they will operate at a very low expense since their fuel is free. Edinburgh University has got behind this logic.

Variable speed drivers, which can vary the output fans and pumps, have been installed in the Main Library and most other university buildings, reducing power consumption and providing significant electrical savings at a building scale. Furthermore, the three power stations on campus – Pollock, King’s Buildings and George Square – generate on combined heat and power systems, which have significantly reduced wastage of heat during power generation compared to coal-fired power supplies.

The university is saving 8,500 tonnes of CO2 each year, generating savings of £1.5 million annually. The money from these savings will be used to reinvest in new power stations at Pleasance and

Holyrood. The installments were indeed costly (over £12 million), but the long term environmental and financial savings are substantial.

The economist’s solution to climate change is to act on demand. If a carbon tax that offsets the social cost of the pollution were introduced, societies would have a larger incentive to use resources efficiently. At the end of the day, people respond to their wallets. But is that outlook too simplistic? People have deeper values and drivers than those led by money or power.

“

Tangible goals are given for schools to work towards taking a proactive approach in energy efficiency."

According to David Somervell, Sustainability Adviser for the university, it is time to tap into those values.

Monetary incentives only go so far; the change might be at risk because you haven’t reinforced a value in someone.

On the other hand, by promoting posi-

tive behaviour and common values of health, family and wanting to do good in the world, there is a higher chance of getting pro-environmental behaviour that sticks.

The Edinburgh Sustainable Awards promote these positive long term attitudes by recognising schools for doing the right thing. Tangible goals are given to motivate schools to work towards taking a proactive approach in energy efficiency. Students can get involved by signing up to be a Sustainability Award Ambassador. Somervell advocates that simply being recognised for doing the right thing can be very powerful.

Are the barriers between disciplines holding us back from finding an effective energy solution? Somervell is quick to point out that there is strength in people having a solid grounding in one subject area, but being encouraged to stay within strict disciplinary boundaries can lead to rather narrow perspectives.

The complex situations that graduates will face when employed will require communication with people both in and outside of their field. This could be key to interdisciplinary solutions to issues like renewable energy.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

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18 Science & Environment

What in the world(s) are they doing?

Planet hunter Kepler, NASA’s space telescope, has just completed its prime mission of locating and confirming other planets in the solar system. But it was barely out of action before it was sent out on its second, extended mission: to find other planets like our own.

The primary mission has revealed more than 2,300 planet candidates and confirmed over 100 planets. William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator, hints towards the potential of this research. “The initial discoveries of the Kepler mission indicate that at least a third of the stars have planets and that the number of planets in our galaxy must number in the billions. The planets of greatest interest are other Earths and these could already be in the data awaiting analysis. Kepler’s most exciting results are yet to come!”

“Other Earths” have already been discovered, as scientists have leaped to announce that some of these confirmed planets are in habitable zones of their star’s orbit and have the potential for life.

When studying the origin of life on Earth it becomes apparent that life is incredibly stubborn. According to Richard Fortey in his book Life: An Unauthorised Biography, the first cells would have emerged in “a torrid cauldron, acidic, emitting the sharp whiff of sulphur; and we have an atmosphere almost lacking oxygen. Almost everything in this biological Eden would have been damaging to most of the animals and plants alive

20th Century Fox/Everett /Rex Features

Nina Seale asks why on Earth our governments would spend so much on space research when our own planet is in such jeopardy

AVATAR'S PANDORA: Even if we did find another habitable planet, would we destroy it as we have our own? today…Truly, life began in something approximating to the medieval idea of Hell.” But chemicals formed membranes, congealed into lipid vesicles and started sucking in energy anyway. The single greatest wonder of the world is that, despite everything, life will always find a way.

And our few million years of existence here have barely scratched the surface of discovering the gems around us.

Just earlier this year a whole new species of monkey was discovered – deep in the Lomami Basin of the Congo, a beautiful primate with hauntingly human eyes.

And there are still whole ecosystems hidden beneath the Earth and on the bottom of our oceans, that we have yet to discover. Why on earth are we spending so much time scraping the surface of Mars and watching stars for evidence of microbes?

If we do not start putting more effort into the conservation of the life teeming on our own planet we are going to lose huge numbers of our furry, scaly, flying and swimming cousins. It is just not acceptable that $18.7 billion is spent on NASA each year when only $11.7 billion was spent on “Protection of biodiversity”

by the US Government in the Fiscal Year 2013.

What happens if we do find life?

Judging by our own history, when Western civilisations go exploring, it isn’t a beautiful, majestic mission. They begin to plunder the new resources as they have their own, imagine that the land is theirs since they ‘discovered’ it and there is a lot of bloodshed when they become territorial. Some may argue that humanity has learned from its mistakes, that of course we would treat any new planet and its resources far more carefully than we have our own. But looking back on history, it

has repeated itself far too many times to justify the claim that humanity is capable of learning from its mistakes.

The movie Avatar was just a supposition of what we may do if we found a planet with abundant, un-plundered resources. Just like the European explorers who first found America, they become infected with gold lust and forget about the lives around them. Chances are, like the Pandora natives, any indigenous species found on other planets will be unequipped for our greedy aggression, but if they were it would still not exempt them from a fight over resources. As we steadily use up the resources on our own planet, we would become defensive in the light of our imminent extinction and justify any invasions and resource wars with the importance of the survival of Earth’s intelligent, but foolish, apes.

The search for life out in the Universe and any interactions with newly discovered aliens could be justified if we had first fixed our own rocky home. At the moment we exist unsustainably as we gobble up the treasures within the Earth around us, sucking the biodiversity out of our planet as we try to feed the monstrous population we have bred onto our continents. At the moment our governments should focus all their attention inwards, and space exploration can be kept alive with the money from branding giants like Red Bull. Who are we to impose ourselves on alien life in distant planets before we have properly discovered and conserved all of our own?

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Science & Environment 19

Battle for British wildlife

In light of the ash dieback outbreak, The Student presents the threats and triumphs British wilderness is facing today From ash to ashes

SINCE FEBRUARY this year, when ash dieback was first detected in an infected Dutch import of ash trees in Buckinghamshire, England, the fungal disease has been detected in numerous locations across the United Kingdom that have received stocks of young ash plants from nurseries within the past five years. The disease causes leaf loss, crown dieback and eventually tree mortality. This causes great concern for conservationists as 29 invertebrate species rely almost entirely on ash for survival, as well as lichen, birds, bats and fungi species that use ash tree resources.

Nina Seale

Rise of the Arachnids

ONE OF Britain’s most endangered species of spider, the great fen spider, is being given a new start by the collaboration of zoos across the country. The project involves collecting eggs from the remaining wild population, hand raising the spiderlings, and releasing them back into the wild. The labour intensive process of caring for the spiders is estimated to boost chances of individual survival by 90 per cent. The project, which started in an ecologist’s kitchen and three years later involves ten zoos, has already borne fruit as this year there were reports of the reintroduced spiders successfully breeding.

Eleanor Drinkwater

Four whole kits and caboodles

FOUR BABY beavers (kits) have been born in Argyll this autumn.

They are the first since over 400 years ago, when beavers were hunted for their fur until extinction. Hoping to restore and diversify wildlife, three families were brought to Scotland in 2009. The Norwegian immigrants are expected to bring progress through technology: by building dams and complex lodges – beavers create pools and wetlands which benefit many other species. Clearly they are settling in well. In about two years, the new generation will leave their parents and start their own busy lives in the hours of the night.

Lydia Heinrich

Butterflying across continents

Painted lady butterflies are a summer fixture in Britain, migrating here from the Mediterranean and North Africa for their breeding season. But by winter, all the butterflies have disappeared, and exactly what happens to them has long been an unsolved mystery. Many people assumed they simply died in harsh northern winters, but a new project based on radar tracking and crowdsourcing data has revealed that they actually migrate south again in the autumn at unobservable altitudes – sometimes over one thousand metres. Scientists analysed data from over 60 thousand reported sightings by citizen scientists to fully understand the scope of this nine thousand mile migration which is even longer than that made by the more famous North American monarch butterfly.

Maddalena Vierbuchen

Trouble in the water

SCOTLAND'S COASTS and offshore areas will be subject to vast changes in the next few years. The planned expansion of renewable energy is causing an increase in development of wind farms and wave energy projects. Also, due to the rising demand for salmon, more aquafarms are being installed in Scottish waters. Now the planned Scottish Marine Plan, which is supposed to map and protect Scotland’s marine areas and ensure the adherence of fisheries and developments to environmental standards, has been shelved for at least two more years.

Within these two years industrial interests and developments could have an uncontrolled and possibly damaging effect on marine wildlife.

Felix Wiesner

Badger off without the cull

AFTER A lengthy debate between scientists and stubborn farmers, it seems the UK government and certain farming groups have run out of time to complete the badger cull this year, in light of new official estimates that the badger populations in Gloucestshire and Somerset are almost four times the numbers previously thought. The cull has been postponed for consideration in 2013, as 60-70 badgers would have to be killed every night for the 70 per cent reduction to take place in the planned six week cull. Conservation organisations are urging the government to use this time to plan an alternative strategy: a bovine TB vaccination.

Nina Seale

THE NUMBER of breeding seabirds has fallen by 53 per cent between 1986 and 2011, according to recent reports from the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH). Possible causes of this decrease include food shortages, weather conditions and predation by foreign invading species. Population monitoring allows adequate conservation of those species. Non-native species control and reduced fishing in some areas account for recent improvements in seabirds breeding. Volunteers and workers of the SNH are working with other conservation partners to save the wildlife of the Scottish coastline.

Ada Kozlowska

Domestic villains

PREDATORY BEHAVIOUR by the common housecat has been implicated in the long-term population decline of the house sparrow.

Domestic cats, which kill an estimated 55 million British birds annually, are not natural members of the food chain in the UK, and their increasing popularity as pets threatens not only House Sparrows but also other ground-feeding birds like the Robin and Dunnock. Cat owners are advised to help prevent their pets killing birds by fitting bells to their collars. The RSPB further endorses the use by concerned garden-owners of a high-pitched noise generator that repels cats and deters them from hunting within a certain perimeter.

Thurston Smalley

NINA SEALE

Fewer birds in the hand

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

herring@studentnewspaper.org

20 Crossword & Horoscopes

ES

OS R O

H

CRYPTIC CLUES

Oliver ninnis

P O C

Dual Crossword No. 24 BY PICUS

Sparkles are a minimalist techno band from Leith combining male and female antenna to produce awesome house beats. Unfortunately due to a lack of fans, they are constantly on standby.

They use their spare time to 'wire in' to the future just like The Pet Shop Boys (but not really at all). This electric duo will blow your mains!

Aries

Hipster lens-less glasses were big last year. You give them an update to 2012 by making them even more retro: lensless monocles! As most monocles were framelss back in the day, you simply glue a link chain to your cheekbone and hit the streets!

Taurus

After three years of quality loving, this week you forget your girlfriend’s name.

Luckily, you avert any having to ask the awkward question by pretending that you think she’s an imposter and demanding to see her original birth certificate.

Gemini

Neptune dares you to dress entirely in beige this week. You are eaten by pigeons who mistake you for a gigantic slice of Hovis.

Cancer

Your father drunkenly tells you that at first he only dated your mother for a bet. But then, he tells you, he married her because he thought it’d be funny to see how ugly her kids would be. It was worth it, he tells you, roaring with laughter and drenching you in spittle in the process. Now you look even uglier.

Libra

Hooverbags, huh?! What's that all about eh?

Scorpio

This week, you star in a reality TV show (it rhymes with ‘I'm a twatebrity, get me out of her’). You spout your outdated mysogynistic views while covered in cockroaches and nobody cares.

Sagittarius

This week you finally find a cure for your dog Snoop’s crippling hip dysplasia (he is a pure breed after all). What a fantastic hip-hop-portunity!

Capricorn

You’re SO in touch with Mother Nature this week, you big hippy pervert!

Things take a bad turn when your salvia thong begins to chafe and the fumes cause all of your chickpeas to fall out of your rectum. You then realise you’re really rather high, on a new groovy legal high called Kotomobobo. The fumes from this then cuases all your chickpeas to re-enter your rectum, at which point you realise you're totally tripping on this hip new muscle relaxant called...

Aquarius

It turns out that your cousin repeatedly saying “you never know, do you?” was actually a manifestation of his chronic amnesia. Well that explains Christmas ‘97.

This week you cast a wide net in your search for a soulmate. You start to date your neighbour across the road. Unfortunately, she sees you come home with someone else through her bedroom window and shoots you down with her rifle like a wild impala. TIA my friend, TIA.

Virgo

Pisces

Leo

This week you try to impress your new foster family by sucking a glass onto your face. It gets stuck. Good luck entering into a loving relationship based on mutual respect.

This week your boyfriend will 100 per cent definitely cheat on you. You catch him red handed, like Shaggy. Shoot him down like the sleazy impala you know him to be.

CONCISE CLUES (same answers) ACROSS 1 Innocent-looking (3-4) 5 Asian desert (4) 7 Orion or Nimrod say (6) 8 The king of Ethiopia (5) 9 Lapse : woman’s garment (4) 10 Completely out of date (8) 12 Nursery hill-climbers (4, 3, 4) 14 Geometrical instruments (8) 16 Fruit (4) 17 Puccini opera (5) 19 It covers the Poles (6) 20 Entrance to a mine (4) 21 The fastest quadruped (7)

DOWN 1 Bending both ways (6-7) 2 Anatomically out of place (7) 3 Very long drink? (4, 2, 3) 4 Harass : brownish (3) 5 Russian author (5) 6 “ The drums” (4, 9) 11 An insult (in passing) (9) 13 Decline or conjugate (7) 15 A smaller picture in the corner (5) 18 The basics (3)

Solutions to Dual Crossword No. 23 ACROSS 1 BUCKETFUL buck + flute* 6 BOA boa (r) 8 HEAVE HO HE (His Eminence) + ave, ho 9 IBSEN contained memsahibs en (déshabille 10 REEVE 2 definitions 12 TWEETER 2 definitions 13 COS 2 definitions 14 TRENT tent (red wine) round R 15 OWE 0 (preceding) we 16 LIVORNO liv (e) or no 18 RUN-UP contained Plaid Cymru nuptials 20 EVITA (Perón) I’ve (rev) + ta 21 DESPOIL des (Fr) + p + oil (verb) 23 NAE n/a + E 24 SPONDULIX LIX (59) after (SNP duo)*

A bit about cryptic clues

Last week’s article ended by asking you to explain the answer to a difficult clue.

Number of hands on deck? (6,4,4) BANANA BOAT SONG One of the things to grasp about cryptic clues is that whereas surface readings should flow smoothly, the underlying structure is usually in a sort of ‘telegraphese’ that needs to be construed (decoded) and expanded. … of hands on deck? This looks like the non-definition part (NDP) of the clue, and it is. The definition is Number. However, solving the clue depends on realising three things. Firstly it’s a Musical number, secondly that of means about rather than

DOWN 1 BIHAR b + hair* 2 CHASERS 4 definitions 3 EWE wee* (Cheviot sheep) 4 FROM THE WORD GO from the Word + go 5 LEICESTER 2 definitions Gloriana (The Faerie Queene, Spenser) = QE I. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester – her favourite 6 BESET beet round s (ugar 7 AINTREE ain + tree 11 EXTERNALS ex + tern + Sal* 13 COLLEEN col + “lean” 15 OWN GOAL (Olga won)* 17 VOICE 0 in vice 19 PHLOX “Flocks” 22 SOD 2 defs ref Sod’s Law

consisting of and finally that hand doesn’t mean sailor it means a bunch of bananas (look up ‘hand’).

So, decoding the ‘telegraphese’ we get: [The answer is] The title of a song about bunches of bananas, on a boat.

The question mark is not absolutely necessary but it sends the solver a signal that the NDP is not a simple composite (i.e. that its ‘telegraphese’ is not: consisting of a word or words for ‘hands’ plus a word for ‘deck’).

Another thing to grasp about cryptic clues is that while the surface meaning can be as fanciful as you like, the underlying structure must be grammatically precise, and must conform to the accepted con-

ACROSS 1 Sweet and innocent-looking, I had to go after money, they say (3-4) 5 “Big O” goes walkabout in the desert (4) 7 Watch horse that jumps, it does her nut in (6) 8 Hot spicy drink as quaffed by come-back star (5) 9 Close fielder’s mistake (4) 10 It’s way out of date old boy, needs redesigned steel ring (8) 12 Sailor and Lady Ferret, Nursery characters (4, 3, 4) 14 Specialised compasses, and rulers too? (8) 16 Police rudely take francs for soft fruit (4) 17 Operatic heroine appears from coast in disarray (5) 19 Ace pic might show polar mantle (6) 20 Entrance to the pit, described in the Hadith (4) 21 Fast mover, revolutionary, with transfer of heat (7)

DOWN 1 Very flexible stand-in editor stashes spliff (6-7) 2 EC theme is out of place (7) 3 Long drink when drunk may lead you to “do a Farley” (4, 2, 3) 4 Brownish colour of a French horse (3) 5 Google, endlessly processed, provides Russian author (5) 6 Rumour has former president joining right-wing paper (4, 9) 11 Nick accommodates old date as a casual put-down (9) 13 Change cases with short lecture on infinitive (7) 15 Popular group, a small part of the picture (5) 18 Simple stuff from Associated British Cinemas (3) The Chambers Dictionary (2008) is recommended.

Comments, questions, complaints etc can reach the compiler via the editors.

* = anagram of the preceding material (rev) = reverse the preceding material “ …. ” the word in the clue and the word in the answer are homophones

ventions of fairness (more about those in future articles).

Church supports love and topless mania in the Pacific Isles (7) OCEANIA The surface meaning is quite racy but the ‘telegraphese’ (as a down clue) is pretty dull: CE (Church) goes under O (love); add (and) ANIA (m)ania.

Ans = (in): the Pacific Isles Greg’s first cat (with no tail), swallows ram and a whale (7) GRAMPUS Some cat! The ‘telegraphese’ of the NDP is G (Greg’s first letter) + PUS(s) (cat with no tail) around RAM. Ans = (and): whale.

Follow us on twitter @TheStudentPaper or on Facebook at facebook.com/TheStudentNewspaper tech@studentnewspaper.org

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Meanness, opportunity and locomotive

THIS JUST-IN!: Would you fall for this Facebook scam?

Ticket to Ride, we all readily agreed, is lovely. The board itself represents Europe at the turn of the century, complete with historically accurate countries, borders and with each town and city labelled in the language of its people. Over the course of the game, you and your rivals take turns placing little technicolor plastic carriages, snaking your locomotive empire across the continent and around the irritating roadblocks your friends so often create.

The Ticket to Ride series is often seen as something of a family game, thanks in no small part to its uncontroversial theme, geographical instruction and ease of play. These factors might even cause some to overlook the game.

This would be a real shame, as it veers far closer to elegance than it ever does

to simplicity and, as we found out, conflict can arise in even the most benign of settings, with the right mindset.

Each turn sees each player performing one of four actions; drawing train cards (resources), destination cards (new objectives), placing carriages or placing stations. This restriction to a single action keeps the game ticking over nicely, and means that you are never quite able to accomplish everything you want in a single turn. Thanks to this, it never takes long for control to cycle back to you, and you’re always desperate for it to arrive. Play is extremely streamlined and once the basic rules are grasped it’s rare that you ever have cause to refer back to the handouts.

In my book, one of the hallmarks of a truly great game is uncertainty. If the outcome becomes evident too early on, it's easy to lose interest. Better to have players in suspense right up until the very end. Ticket to Ride more than delivers in this department by having a scoring system that is tracked on two very discrete levels.

On the surface, each player gets points for laying down lines of carriages to connect far-flung destinations.

Shorter lines are easier to complete, while longer lines provide exponentially more points. This level of scoring is tracked during play and gives players a vague idea of how they’re measuring up to their competition, in addition to the purely visual indicator of their lines themselves.

Then, there are the destination tickets. Each card in this deck lays out a route between two destinations on the board. Athina to Edinburgh, Wien to Warsawa, and so on. The longer the route, and the more connections there are, the more valuable it is. It’s up to each player to complete their routes before the game ends. Points for tickets are only calculated at the end. Until that point there’s no way of knowing just how well the other players are doing or what they have yet to accomplish.

Other than by examining how cocky they’re acting, of course.

If you do manage to link up all the cities in your starting hand (or even before you do), you always have the opportunity to go back to the deck for more tickets. Theoretically, there is no upper limit to the number of routes a player can claim, beyond the limitations of the deck. Of course, it’s usually best practice to exercise restraint.

Points for completed routes are added to your tally at the end, whereas points for any unfinished lines are deducted.

Especially late in the game, drawing new routes can be a risky proposition.

Failing to finish a twenty point line can be crippling.

The strategists and tacticians among you will have no doubt realised that, as the lines on the board are prearranged, there are only a limited number of routes into and out of each location.

Routes that can be just as easily bought by any player, regardless of their inter-

HARSH CRITICS: Just like in reality, the cops don't take too kindly to amateur art

Days of Wonder

Alasdair MacLeod takes a ride aboard Days of Wonder’s wonderful train-themed board game, Ticket to Ride: Europe

Ticket to Ride: The best Euro game inspired by a Beatles song? ests in the region. Since there is no other mechanic for direct confrontation, this manoeuvring is where scheming and viciousness rear their ugly heads. If you are able to work out where your friends are going (and equally, they, you) it’s perfectly possible to buy up some out of the way route, far from your main line, but in their path. While this might have no conceivable benefit to yourself, beyond basic points, it might just mess with your opponent’s strategy forcing them to make expensive reroutes or even blocking them out of certain areas entirely.

There is no shortage of schadenfreude to be had when your flatmate realises you’ve just claimed the last ferry out of Britain, or the only line into Stockholm (except for that nightmarishly long tunnel out of Petrograd). As such, one of the key skills is the ability to quickly and efficiently connect up your destinations, while crucially not making it obvious exactly what your goals are.

If you're looking for a new board game, you could do much worse than choo-choosing to train your sights on this modern classic.

X years of Xbox Live

Alex Shedlock celebrates Xbox Live’s tenth birthday by thinking about its roots, and the position in society it occupies today

It has been ten years. Ten years since Microsoft’s Xbox Live service was gloriously rolled out, riding on and promptly breaking the back of the unjustified failure that was the Sega Dreamcast online service and the decent but awkward expansion brick of the PS2’s Playstation Network.

All three of these services bring back fond memories. PS2 had its niche in PC-style tactical combat sims like

SOCOM, where the Dreamcast went for more cartoonish child-friendly fun in games like ChuChu Rocket!

I spent a significant amount of time on both of these networks before Xbox Live launched in 2002. And when it did, it was a game changer, even in light of the well-established PC multiplayer market. Because as well as the console having a more varied catalogue of games and lots of power under the hood, the online service shipped asstandard with a quality headset. Those hours of awkward, anonymous, faceless, voiceless communications with others online were over.

For a single moment in gaming history, everyone online was on the same playing field of communication; everyone had a voice, and everybody had some crazy stuff to say. Many of my most lasting and enjoyable online friendships started in these years. It felt like being on a frontier where every individual you came across was a sibling in arms, someone breaking new ground. Yep, these were the days before inane and aggressive ten year olds were

endemic to the service.

However, the move towards the hordes of ten year olds didn’t take long to gain momentum. To my mind, the two years following Xbox Live’s launch were a golden age that has never reappeared on the internet gaming frontier.

The Xbox’s library for online games was mature with shooters like Rainbow Six 3 and Ghost Recon providing a really tactical, realistic, cooperative approach to shooting, while intellectual and classy racer series Progect Gotham Racing provided a really smart, skill focused driving game.

Internet connections were just getting fast enough to support games like this online consistently and PC gaming was still a bit of an awkward horse to mount at this point, from a new gamer’s perspective.

Everything started going downhill, one could say, with the release of 2004’s Halo 2. Not that Bungie’s much anticipated sequel was a bad game; quite the opposite. The game was fun, and more importantly it provided a social online framework that would become the basis

for every online networking and gaming system that would follow. From the Xbox 360’s Friends dashboard all the way to Valve’s incomprehensibly successful Steam friends network on PC. Halo 2 was the first game to let us send messages, voice or text, join friends’ games while they were playing, invite friends into games, or build parties of pals to jump between games online en mass. It was an innovation.

The problem is that between this game’s release and today there has been a complete spectrum shift in the online gaming industry. Through Xbox Live, Halo 2 opened the floodgates as to how popular the online functionality of a first person shooter could be. It was the first store-bought console game to have millions in playing numbers. And from 2004 right up until now, more and more games began to feature arbitrary, tacked-on multiplayer modes which would promise players longer gamespan and the hope for connectivity with millions online, like Halo 2 pioneered.

This was fully realised with contemporary series like Call of Duty, which

went from being a singleplayer-only, fantastically energetic and authentic WWII series in the early noughties, to the bestselling game series of all time, purchased by the millions-strong masses exclusively for the compulsive and superficially addictive multiplayer, with its tactile system of weapon and kit unlocks.

So, all in all, at its tenth birthday, Xbox Live has done a lot of things. Our decade of hindsight lets us see the good, the bad and the irritating ten year olds.

In all their glory. It has been a service that gave us a frontier of fun, and some of the greatest social-gaming innovations which we now take for granted every day, but it also spawned some of the more questionable consumerist developments that the industry has given rise to over the last five years.

Despite the rapid ascension to the heights of capitalism, there’s still so much good that could come. It feels like the innovations are all done with already, but who knows what the next generation will bring. Here’s to the next ten years.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

holly jameson

Theatre buff? Review it!!

Not much fun at the fair

Figgy Guyver finds that the offerings from the gallery stalls at Edinburgh Art Fair leave a lot to be desired

he Edinburgh Art Fair eternally feels like a Sunday. It shows the kind of art that people might make on a Sunday afternoon and then put up on the mantle piece while you have Sunday lunch; it felt a little bit like a grandmother’s tea party.

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Ashley Hold's “Nightview II” fuses multiple perspectives on a single canvas, playing with ideas of reflection and refraction" It’s also the kind of place you can get lost in. Trapped in an inescapable hall of mirrors, you find yourself recognising the gallery owners rather than the sentimental pastels of people’s pets or wincingly sweet paintings of sunsets over button-mushroom hills. The fair seemed to be divided into two halves; realistic genre paintings of the midlife middle classes, which admittedly accepted their own style as traditional, or ‘boundary pushing’ paintings that couldn’t quite let go of an element of the traditional. Think whimsical florals in a pseudo-Gerhard Richter style.

The Beside the Wave Gallery stall stood out from the swathes of sentimental niceness. Ashley Hold’s paint-

where have you been?

JOSEPH O'CONNOR Harvill Secker 2012

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ublin-born playwright and novelist Joseph O’Connor has made a return to writing short stories after a long break of 21 years, and unfortunately the effects of that break are rather evident in his new set of short stories, Where Have You Been?

The collection does have a tendency to feel slightly like a broken record, with nearly every one of the different stories reusing the same themes over and over.

Melancholic tales of mid-life crises, fragmented families and broken marriages appear central to everyone, whilst the theme of the hardships of being Irish in a modern post-boom world appears so frequently that it soon begins to feel forced and insincere.

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Each story read individually does have its own merit due to O’Connor’s lovely handling of language" The end novella and title piece of the book, Where Have You Been? is unfortunately also by far the weakest part of

ing “Nightview II” was the highlight of the fair. The painting fuses multiple spliced perspectives on a single canvas, playing with ideas of reflection and refraction. Within the one painting, you see nighttime perspectives of suburban houses, tankers out in the Edinburgh bay and reflections of the artist himself.

The painting’s magnetism perhaps comes from Hold’s astute observations of nighttime lighting. Orange street lamps, the particular hue of the sky at dusk and the individual pinpricks of light from the interiors of houses show Hold’s mastery of nighttime observation. It’s a painting that took over a year to complete and a series that has taken 15 years; you could certainly call it his masterpiece.

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The art fair seems blissfully unaware of a current art world; there is not a sinlge piece of installation or video art" Equally, the Lassen Patten and Jones’ gallery seemed to be doing something a bit different. Trevor Jones’ mosaic-like paintings of QR codes might, at first, seem a bit ‘novelty factor’ but his ideas are interesting. When scanned on a smartphone, his paintings link up to the whole collection. Meandering anecdotes from the protagonists lives give little to the plot, simply adding to the impression that you are reading a rough draft rather than a finished piece.

The end is also unsatisfying and confusing; the potential relationship between Cian and ‘maybe-definitely-notgirlfriend’ Catherine is left in complete limbo, whilst the entire final chapter (a speech made at Cian’s father’s funeral) appears to bear little to no relation to the rest of the novella.

However, despite the increasingly tedious similarity of many of the stories, “Orchard Street, Dawn” in particular is a memorable piece well worth a read.

Set in New York in 1869, it breaks away from the rest of the collection and explores the theme of Irish identity in a much more engaging way.

Following the lives of an immigrant family from birth until death, O’Connor not only captures the essentials of the time period but also the parental grief of losing a child.

Despite these admittedly quite strong criticisms, the basic writing quality is very good and each story read individually does have it’s own merit due to O’Connor’s lovely handling of language.

It is only put together that the repetitions and flaws become near impossible to ignore.

Peony Gent

a huge online art gallery connecting his own work with thousands of others who have uploaded their work. In an era defined by social networking, Jones is up to date with the potential future of the contemporary art market.

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This might project the worrying distance between what is happening in the art world and what is actually being sold" Outside of these two gallery stalls, the art fair seems blissfully unaware of the current art world. There is not a single piece of installation or video art, and sculpture is disappointingly traditional. The pieces that attempt to be original often fall short of totally relinquishing a sense of traditionalism. However, all around you the art is getting sold. This might project the worrying distance between what is happening in the art world and what is actually selling. Or perhaps the Edinburgh Art Fair simply offers a harmless Sunday afternoon outing? It certainly won’t change the future of art, but it seems unfair to deprive people of such nostalgic traditionalism if that is what they want.

Joseph and the amazing technicolour dreamcoat Edinburgh Playhouse Run Ended

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multi-coloured explosion of singing and dancing, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat has come a long way from its beginnings as a 20 minute production at Colet Court school back in 1968.

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He wears his coat of many colours confidently as he elegantly manoeuvres himself around the stage, singing the songs of many a childhood" The lead role of Joseph is played

by Jack Keith who seems all grown up from his days on the BBC’s Any Dream Will Do. He wears his beautiful coat of many colours confidently as he elegantly manoeuvres himself around the stage, singing the songs of many a childhood with feeling and panache.

Night view - ashleyhold-artist.info

T

IN THE DARK: Hold's night-time paintings reflect the art fair itself Although the set was in itself fairly unsophisticated, it was made up for by the colourful array of costumes sported by the cast, especially the brothers who were attired in a capricious collection of garments ranging from flamenco sleeves to French berets. This fantastical shift in musical genres between songs, reflected in the costumes, proved a colourful contrast to the biblical placement of the story of Joseph.

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The brothers were attired in a capricious collection of garments" The musical numbers transcended the realms of reality, with a Parisian ballad, country-western showdown, flamenco dancing and of course the Pharaoh’s “Song of the King” complete with American football-themed cheerleaders and quarterback dancers.

It all seemed rather random, but fun nonetheless, giving a simple, biblical tale a light-hearted and entertaining dimension.

The second half saw the stage transformed into a glamorous Egyptian scene, which proved the perfect backdrop for this Elvis-esque introduction to the rock’n’roll Pharaoh.

It would seem obvious to say that Joseph, or even the vociferous Pharaoh, were the lead personalities of the

show, but actually, for me, the real star was the narrator, Lauren Ingram. Her beautiful, powerful and affecting voice framed the whole production, giving life and poignancy to the storyline.

We also can’t fail to mention the young chorus, taken from various schools in Edinburgh, who did a fantastic job in their supporting role, especially on the song “Any Dream Will Do”.

It was the finale, however, that without a doubt earned the show it’s standing ovation. An energetic, sing-a-long amalgamation of all the most popular songs, it succeeded in getting everyone clapping, singing and cheering.

“

The real star was the narrator, Lauren Ingram. Her beautiful, powerful and affecting voice framed the whole production" Staying true to its light-hearted and moving nature, this production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat proved a blast from the past for many of the adults, and a wonderful introduction to the unforgettable, heartwarming story of Joseph for the children.

Emma Winterschladen

Theatre buff? Review it!!

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

23 Culture

Star Rating Giant success Prince-ly performance Snow bad Should have bean cutIsn't worth Jack

I woodn’t miss this one

ROYGBIV

Rachel Cram travels Into the Woods to experience the darker side of our favourite children's fairytales Into the woods Pleasance Theatre Run Ended

 leasance Theatre was transformed this week into a fairytale forest as members of the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group brought to life their production of musical comedy Into the Woods.

The 1987 musical by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine brings together our favourite children’s bedtime stories and intertwines them to create a darker, more twisted plot.

Featuring a stellar cast composed of members both new to the society, and those who have been involved with previous EUSOG performances such as Guys and Dolls and HMS Pinafore, the performers brought perfectly timed comedy, hugely impressive musicality and powerful emotion to a show known for its challenging composition.

Stand out performances came from Finlay MacAulay, who convincingly portrayed the stubborn yet caring Baker and displayed his charming singing voice in songs such as “No More” and “It Takes Two”, a duet with the Baker’s Wife, who was beautifully played by Abby Jackson.

While Stella Merz brought attitude

a free man AMAN SETHI Jonathan Cape 2012

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man Sethi’s debut non-fiction book, A Free Man, transports us to the streets and slums of Delhi, India where we meet Mohammed Ashraf and other homeless labourers struggling to survive.

In a straightforward, honest and wellresearched narrative the author, one of India’s acclaimed young reporters, depicts humour as well as heartbreak in

Mihaela bodlovic

P

APPLE DEAR?: Everyone knows not to trust the witch, especially when she is carrying a large machete and feistiness to her character Little Red, Sam Broer shone as Cinderella’s Prince Charming, as did Thomas Ware, whose dandy-esque portrayal of Rapunzel’s Prince had the audience in stitches. The pair’s duet, “Agony”, was a definite highlight.

The set was visually stunning, and

exquisitely portrayed the quintessential image of the enchanted forest.

Equally, the sound effects used to create the terrifying presence of the giant were particularly impressive, creating a real atmosphere for the audience.

An atmosphere further comple-

mented by the the orchestra, directed by musical director Tim Matson, who played Sondheim’s notoriously tricky score to near perfection.

EUSOG certainly have a production to be proud of here thanks to the outstandingly talented group of people involved.

the day-to-day lives of these men.

The story unfolds through the central character, Ashraf, a poor ‘wanderer’ who spends most of his time sitting in front of Kaka’s Chai Walla, drinking, smoking and gossiping with other itinerant workers, waiting for the moment in which he is completely devoid of rupees and forced to look for work.

Sethi, as he becomes better acquainted with the quick-witted and insightful Ashraf, soon narrates his past: the promising years spent studying biology, working repairing TV sets and cutting suits, his numerous travels throughout India and all those he left behind before settling down in Delhi.

Along the way we meet Ashraf ’s crew, including the level headed Lalloo, the energetic dreamer Rehaan and Ashraf ’s best friend, Satish.

This book is a moving dissection of individuals who come vibrantly to life as the pages are turned. It depicts their struggles in a very real and personal manner, giving us a true glimpse of a world that most of us have only read about in newspapers.

Aman Sethi, instead of remaining detached and separated from his characters, involves and places himself within his own tale in order to lay bare their true lives as their story is told.

A Free Man is a well written, intel-

ligent and compassionate book. Although much of the slang and Hindi phrases used throughout the dialogue and narrative at times are hard to follow, they also greatly contribute to its authenticity and to the story’s ability to completely immerse itself in India’s animated culture.

Although dark and depressing at times, revealing the alarming reality of its subjects who have nowhere to go and nowhere to live, the book sheds light in humorous ways on the common man’s simple striving for happiness, balance, and the goal of remaining true to oneself.

Mary-Louise Howell

THE POETRY DOCTOR with Isabella Flanders you. Reading “Warning” by Jenny Joseph might help, a poem in which the narrator plots her future as a disgraceful old woman. She gleefully anticipates being able to “run my stick along the public railings/And make up for the sobriety of my youth.” With this freedom from social embarrassment you will be able to hold your head high, and thus reclaim the ladle of respect from your kitchen-mates. I often think gaining respect is like busking: you have to throw a few coppers in the hat yourself before people will part with their own precious coins.

Got a problem? We can cure you!

All problems will be treated confidentially. And ever so seriously. Email us at poetrydoctor.studentnewspaper@gmail. com.

L

Look oot for...

The Traverse Theatre Dance Festival from 21 to 24 November. A chance to catch a whole range of shows, including Within This Dust - a piece based on events surrounding 9/11 that proved very popular at the Fringe.

hannah hogan

The ladle you speak of isn’t just a ladle, it is the physical embodiment of respect. You’ll probably relate to the narrator of “Sir Smasham Uppe” by E.V. Rieu, who is also the laughable victim of liberties constantly being taken with his household accoutrements. Trivial incursions on your dignity accumulate, and the more you let people get away with such liberties, the less they respect you, until you be-

gin not to respect yourself.

Everyone sometimes has the feeling that they are being taken for a fool. However, people are often too busy cringeing over their own follies and faux pas to spare a sneer for you.

John Hegley describes this social anxiety in “On the Pavement”. Hearing footsteps behind him, Hegley debates awkwardly whether to speed up or slow down. In the midst of his quandary he is relieved to realise, “Ah, it’s OK, it sounds like they’ve just fallen over.”

He is so glad to be spared humiliation that it doesn’t occur to him to laugh at the mishap of the mystery pedestrian.

Not that we should be laughing at others, but we shouldn’t worry about them laughing at us.

Let go of your fear of ridicule and ladle theft will lose its power to upset

The modern author's choice ately, the inbox of the Culture section has received several emails from so-called “self-publishing” authors. For someone who just spent half a month’s rent after skimming through the newest catalogue from Random House, the concept of a single author taking on the work of an entire publishing house is rather mind blowing. What is it about this weird and fascinating phenomenon?

Self-publishing, according to Wikipedia, is “the publication of any book or other media by the author of the work, without the involvement of an established third-party publisher”. Basically, what this means is that the author is his or her own editor, publisher, cover designer, distributor and PR person.

Obviously, self-publishing isn’t a new thing. Many of the truly great authors, including Jane Austen, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Martin Luther, all published, or paid someone to publish, their own work. As we know, their publishing stories had a happy ending – sadly, I fear that this hasn’t been the case for the vast majority of could-be authors over the last centuries. That is, up until now.

Once again, we have technological progress in general, and the internet in particular, to thank for this development. First of all, astonishing improvements in Print-On-Demand (POD) technology have made the cost of actually producing a new work manageable for the average new author. POD basically means that new copies of a book won’t be printed until an order actually has been received, thus allowing the author to avoid the financial deficit usually connected with a first publication. This is carried out through numerous online distribution channels, the most notable probably being Amazon.com. This not only decreases the initial costs but also allows unknown authors to reach a much wider audience than even a few years ago.

This isn’t a call out for a mass boycott of the traditional publishing houses or of conventional publishing. However, I do encourage you all to go online and have a look at what’s out there. After all, who knows? Perhaps you’ll find the new 21st century equivalent of Jane Austen among spam and adverts.

Lene Korseberg

This week: The Poetry Doctor tackles lost ladles and subsequent ridicule with the power of humiliation Dear Poetry Doctor, I have a rather embarrassing problem. It’s my ladle. Everyone in my shared kitchen keeps stealing it and I don’t think they actually need it; they’re just doing it to mock me. But if I tell them not to it will seem like I’m making a big deal over something weird. How can I get them to take me seriously?

This week's cultural spectrum.

Don't miss Japanese artist Urara Tsuchiya at the Embassy gallery on Broughton Street this weekend. Her show opens on Friday 24 November.

Her work is an exciting combination of performance, video and live events that explore the social and personal worlds of human existence.

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Theatre buff? Review it!!

24 Culture

Talbot Rice Gallery 'til 16 Jan 2013

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n her brilliantly surreal exhibition, A History of Dreams Remains to be Written, artist Zoe Beloff pairs two of her installations, “DREAMLAND: The Coney Island Amateur Psychoanalytic Society and their Circle” and “The Days of The Commune”, to bring together a thought provoking exhibition which examines the relationship between dreams, beliefs and reality.

“

Works like ‘Freud at The World of Wax Muses’ feature heads of states and serial killers depicted in ‘freak births’ which hints at our darkest fears that lurk in our unconscious."

In her project “Dreamland”, Beloff

lysistrata Teviot Debating Hall Run ended

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ncient Greek comedy meets British pantomime with mixed, but mostly hilarious, results in this extravagant adaptation of Aristophane’s Lysistrata.

It is the time of the Peloponnesian War (although the characters have access to Twitter and are aware of Mitt Romney).

Under the guidance of Lysistrata, the upset women of Greece decide to take matters into their own hands by occupying the sacred Acropolis and going on a sex strike until peace is made between the Athenians and the Spartans (turned respectively into the Scottish and the English for laughs, apparently).

This is the context in which Lysistrata approaches the ever-pertinent battle of the sexes and the comical consequences of sex deprivation.

The entirety of the cast delivers solid and energetic performances with an excellently determined feminist Lysistrata and a hilarious ensemble of women on the verge of celibacy-induced insanity.

acts as an archivist for the Psychoanalytic Society, an amateur psychoanalytic film club active in Coney Island, united by their interest in the writings of psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. As one would expect the works were fairly disturbing. Works like ‘Freud at The World of Wax Muses’ feature heads of state and serial killers depicted in ������� ‘������ freak births����������������������������������� ’���������������������������������� which hints at the darkest fears that lurk in our unconscious.

“

a lack of funding. “���������������������������� The Days of The Commune����� ”���� is also a showcase of another visionary’s dream, in this case playwright Bretolt Brecht. Brecht’s play dramatised the three month period in 1871 where Paris was governed independently as he believed in the power of theatre to evoke political change. Beloff restaged Brecht’s play in 2012 with a cast drawn from Occupy Wall Street supporters, which brought Brecht’s vision into a contemporary context.

“

Beloff restaged Brecht’s play in 2012 with a cast drawn from Occupy Wall Street supporters, which brought Brecht’s vision into a contempoary context."

The exhibition was brilliantly put together, giving audiences a history of Coney Island and the Paris Commune."

However, the stars of the exhibition were the sketches of Albert Grass who created designs for the reconstruction of the theme park after it was destroyed by a fire in 1911. The drawings were unsettling to say the least. From sketches that mathematically analysed the angle of a child’s smile, to designs that bordered on the perverse, they outlined Grass’ dream that the new “dreamland will resemble a nursery, the world of a child”. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Grass’s vision was never realised due to Equally remarkable is the gleeful Lampito, whose appearance as the panto’s dame is as impressively entertaining as it is short.

Careful attention has been given to every detail in the play with the background comical actions by the silent actors on stage complementing the jokes and sex innuendos at the forefront.

That said, however, it’s hard not to question the directors’ choice to blend pantomime with classics.

In a comedy that’s bursting with sexual tension and its inevitably comical implications (the play includes men appearing with giant erections as a result of the strike) the extra pop music, contemporary references and pantomime excess seem slightly superfluous.

There is often a little too much happening on stage, resulting more in confusion than comedy.

As a result, where Lysistrata shines is in the quieter, simpler aspects of the show.

It is the small details such as the cynical eye-rolling with which Lysistrata’s passionate speeches are met from her bored secretary, or the shots of wine “to Zeus” which are the most entertaining and, sadly, the least noticeable.

Pavlos Maniatopoulos

The exhibition was brilliantly put together, giving audiences a history of Coney Island and the Paris Commune.

However, more historical context was needed for “Days of the Commune��”� as it can be difficult to understand Beloff ’s work without the appropriate knowledge, most of which had to be gained by personal research separate from the exhibition itself. All in all, A History of Dreams Remains to be Written is a beautiful recreation of dreams deferred.

Andrea Yew

possession NIKI VALENTINE Sphere 2012

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nexplicable deaths, spectral scenarios and paranormal activities are at the basis of Niki Valentine’s new novel Possession, a mixture of everyday concerns and terrifying incidents in the life of a common young adult, Emma.

“

Presented as a promising physchological horror, Valentine’s novel lacks in power and suspense."

The dog-eat-dog environment of an average British Conservatoire serves as a background for the main character’s adventure. A fearful fresher, the girl finds comfort in her newborn friendship with two glamorous twins: the brilliant and confident Sophie and the shy and sweet Matilde.

amalgamate Summerhall 'til 24 Nov



louisegibson.co.uk

A

TOTALLY TWISTED: Louise Gibson's work destroys and creates

malgamate is a sculptural exhibition featuring the work of Louise Gibson which takes up one small room in the vast complex of Summerhall. The exhibition takes place on familiar ground for Gibson, who graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 2009. Indeed, her materials are locally sourced, from building yards to nearby scrap heaps.

Gibson’s process is reinforced by the medium of resin, which she is attracted to for its unique qualities. With only a

Zoe Beloff Photo: Chris Park (c) Talbot Rice Gallery.

a history of dreams remains to be written

DREAMING THE DREAM: Zoe Beloff's art imagines a strange world Their wild rush from one club to another, however, comes to an abrupt end when Matilde suddenly decides to commit suicide. The twin’s death turns Emma’s world upside-down and as time goes by, she realises getting closer to Sophie is like playing with fire: what will the remaining twin do to get what she wants?

While Emma’s present becomes blurry, and her memory starts to fail, she will find herself at a loss, incapable to decipher what is going on in her life, and afraid of reaching the pitch of insanity.

Presented as a promising psychological horror, Valentine’s novel lacks in power and suspense. The devices used by the author to generate a ‘turn of the screw’ – the idea of the double, the theme of the mirror as a mystifying object – only result in a series of clichés, too well-known by the reader to have any impact.

Adding to the feebleness of the story is the stubborn ingenuousness of the protagonist.

Determined to discard the possibility of the existence of supernatural forces even when all the clues point to the contrary, Emma blindly consents to each and every one of Sophie’s requests, short timescale in which to work before the resin sets, Gibson enjoys the tension between control and loss of control.

The contradictions of control and relinquishment, flow and static, wet and dry, male and female are all important within the work.

Gibson’s sculpture attempts to resolve these tensions. For example “Crushed Filing Cabinet washed out scaffolding” is an implosion of blue metal, cushioned by pink scaffolding material. The colours, textures and forms embody a union of the masculine and the feminine, to create an incredibly sensual work.

For such a small exhibition of only five works, it is a shame that the curation was not more carefully considered.

“Her Relic” is an incredibly sensitive

always ready to excuse her friend’s evident wickedness.

The protagonist’s far-too-gullible attitude makes for an improbable character, one towards whom the reader cannot feel sympathy, but, rather, irritation.

“

Despite its potentially mysterious plot, the novel ends up being an unimpressive work, utterly unable to accomplish the main purpose of its genre" As the story unfolds, everything Emma denies to be possibly true proves to correspond to reality, and we can clearly see where the story is heading, right until the predictable ending.

Despite its potentially mysterious plot, the novel ends up being an unimpressive work, utterly unable to accomplish the main purpose of its genre, this novel leaves an impression of unsettlement and anxiety.

Francesca Vavotici work of undercoats set in resin, yet placed so high a proper examination is refused to the viewer. Furthermore the clunky wall fittings of ‘Retreate’ interrupt the delicacy and transparency of the work.

The masterpiece of the show has to be “Below the Surface”. Gibson works with velvet, enhancing its already alluring qualities by folding and layering the cloth before setting it in resin. Gibson’s mastery of the manipulation of textures is most apparent in this work; by carving away at the ice rink smooth resin, the silky velvet is unearthed.

The result is an incredible depth, creating the sure sense of precious internal organs locked within a resilient body.

Flora Hackett

Tuesday November 20 2012

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Culture 25

COMMISSION #10: Melanie dutton Melanie Dutton is a final year Intermedia student at ECA. "My work is concered with techno-anthropomorphism. A perception of personality helps us to predict, to some extent, how something might behave.

To apply this technique to a computer we fabricate a personality that does not exist outside of our imagination. When the computer behaves in a way we do not expect, its actions can seem intentional and irrational."

(Dutton)

A night of ceilidhing, haggis, and all things Scottish!

Debating Hall Ceilidh New Amphion Haggis, Neeps and Tatties Lounge Bar Live Music

b e l e C

s n o i r at

30th November 2012 8pm

Tickets £6/£5 students (online and Potterrow Box O∞ce) www.eusalive.co.uk

Tuesday November 20 2012

studentnewspaper.org

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Ayatollah of Rock 'n' Rolla

Fozzy PR

Stuart Iversen speaks to Chris Jericho about Fozzy's new album Sin and Bones and their upcoming UK tour.

FOZZY: Happier than they look to be coming to the UK.

world at what he does in the WWE. What many perhaps don’t know is that he also fronts a talented heavy metal band by the name of Fozzy who shall be hitting our shores in the next few weeks to promote thier new album Sin and Bones; an album that has so far received a response that Chris is ecstatic about.

“The reception has been amazing; it’s had excellent reviews and is now our highest charting and fastest selling album. We put a lot of work into it and are really proud of it and you guys all seem to like it to so that’s excellent.”

Before it’s release, Jericho described this as Fozzy’s answer to Metallica’s classic Black Album and when questioned on this explained exactly what he meant.

“I didn’t mean it that way (in terms of sales or iconic status) it was more the feel and vibe as every song fits together

Guided by voices The Bears For Lunch Fire Records

 It may seem daunting to listen to a 19-song album by an Ohio schoolteacher pushing 60 and his drinking buddies that’s ‘definitely the best Guided By Voices album released in 2012’, but The Bears For Lunch is a seriously enjoyable listen that fellow GBV devotees will lap up and those unfamiliar will find consistently pleasant and engaging.

20 years on from their breakthrough lofi classic Propeller, Robert Pollard reunited the ‘classic lineup’ of his constantly shifting troupe to make three albums in 2012 after an 8 year hiatus. While Let’s Go Eat The Factory and Class Clown Spots A UFO displayed the relative inconsistency that some rail against Pollard’s boundless creativity for, The Bears For Lunch feels more like a hit parade of great

and when you listen to songs 1 to 12 it takes you on a journey and that is what we wanted to do.”

Not only do Fozzy themselves put in some incredible performances on Sin and Bones but they recruited a couple of friends as well. Jericho has spoken many times in the past about his affection for Avenged Sevenfold so the appearance of Matt Shadows on lead single “Sandpaper” is one that surely filled him with joy. “I wanted a call and response on “Sandpaper” and he sent it through and he put a lot of time and effort into it. He made it a better song not just in terms of his part but for the whole thing. It was great to have him involved on both a personal and professional level. ” Alongside Shadows is Motorhead guitarist and rock and roll legend Phil Campbell “He came and jammed with us during a show and asked if it was possible to appear on the next album and I wasn’t going to say no.

“She’s My Addiction” is a Motorhead like song anyway so it was great to have him on board.”

The heavy metal community is a harsh one; they do not like those they see as outsiders coming in and attempting to join the cause of a genre of music that they love. Therefore, it would be no surprise to feel that Jericho felt he had to battle for respect more than other bands due to his past as a wrestler. When questioned about whether he feels that the band is finally being recognised as Fozzy rather than “Chris Jericho’s band”, he unsurprisingly pushed the idea that the band as a whole has always been important. “I mean that’s the way the band always was it was always a partnership between me and Rich Ward. I think the fact we kept doing it and putting out great records, doing fantastic world tours and becoming this great exciting live band meant people begun to realise that this

2 minute psychedelic pop songs of quality almost matching their mid-90s milestones "Alien Lanes" and "Bee Thousand".

lovely jangle-pop of “Waving At Airplanes” being an instant highlight.

“

A seriously enjoyable listen that fellow GBV devotees will lap up" Bears For Lunch not only sounds like it

was a lot of fun to record but also showcases Pollard at the top of his song writing game.

Lead single “She Lives In An Airport” is a perfect piece of his unique Pink Floyd-viaPixies style, and if album closer “You Can Fly Anything Right” marks the very end of the famously volatile song writing relationship between Pollard and the others, this beautiful and endearing acoustic ballad ends Guided By Voices on a pitch-perfect bittersweet note.

Guitarist Tobin Sprout’s contributions to the record are also invaluable, with the

was real and we weren’t going away and we are this real rock and roll band.”

Anyone who was lucky enough to be at Download festival over the summer would have seen a Fozzy performance that showed just how much of a born performer Jericho is. Therefore many will be delighted to hear that they’ve already confirmed another festival experience for next year. This time, however, they’re at the much more extreme Bloodstock, but according to Jericho the idea of it being a harder festival doesn’t faze him. “We do exactly what we do, I don’t know what is more extreme about one or the other as there were heavy bands at Download and Accept are at Bloodstock this year along with some bands that played Download last year. You can’t do the same festival twice in a row so we’re just looking forward to coming over and doing what we do, we don’t compromise our setlist for anyone.” On whether these huge

festival shows are different to those Fozzy are hitting up on their current run, Jericho is blasé: “Not really, it’s just a bigger stage, we treat every show as if it’s a huge stage and we always just go out and try to entertain.”

Its clear Chris Jericho and Fozzy are proud of how far they've come and it’s easy to see why as they are a long way from where they started off with their imagined back story and selection of classic covers. When asked to sum up what you can expect from a Fozzy show on this UK tour, Jericho keeps it simple.

“Fun. We have a reputation for being a great live act and we have a lot of energy. There are a lot of people who will have seen us before and who love us and there will be a lot of new people showing up and we love them both. The UK is like our second home and the crowds are fantastic whether they are big and small so we can’t wait to come back over, head bang and drink some beer.”

“

One of the finest collections of songs to come from anyone this year.”

Listeners won’t find pristine audio quality or musicianship here, nor will there be ground breaking hit singles: the charm of GBV lies in the unfiltered creativity and sheer volume of ideas brought to every album. If you don’t like a certain song, a new one will come along in under a minute and it’s these imperfections along with flashes of genius that make Guided By Voices’s fan base so devoted. The Bears For Lunch is as good an introduction as any into the wonderful mind of Robert Pollard, as well as being one of the finest collections of songs to come from anyone this year.

Emmett Cruddas

Greenplastic875, Flikr

hris Jericho is probably better C known for his years spent proclaiming himself as the best in the

GUIDED BY VOICES: Back and stronger than ever.

Tuesday November 20 2012 Follow us on twitter @EdStudentMusic or on Facebook at facebook.com/TheStudentNewspaper music@studentnewspaper.org studentnewspaper.org

Music 27

Star Rating WWE ChampionIntercontinental ChampionUS Champion Divas Runner-UpTNA Champion

heeran has had an incredible year.

S With two Brit awards in the bag, a debut album certified five times platinum and a string of sold-out gigs, the 21-year-old from Halifax has undoubtedly made a mark on the music scene.

And if the queue outside the venue two hours prior to the doors opening is anything to go by, he’s certain to get even bigger.

Mike Rosenberg aka Passenger provided the entertaining first half of the support for the evening. Foy Vance was part two and, whilst less engaging than his predecessor, an honorable mention is still in order. However, it is all just warm up and it is to fervent high-pitched screaming that Ed Sheeran made his entrance onto the stage of the Usher Hall on Monday 12 November and kicked things off with an energetic rendition of his new single “Give Me Love.” Leaving the signatory loop pedal on and standing up on the amp, he announced to the hysteric masses “My name’s Ed. My job for

LAU QUEENS HALL 06/11/2012

 au are a three-piece traditional L Scottish folk band made up of Kris Drever on guitar, Martin Green

on accordion and Aidan O’Rourke on fiddle. They have won the ‘Best Group’ award at the BBC Folk Awards in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Now with three studio albums, two EPs and one live album

JACK SAVORETTI ELECTRIC CIRCUS 13/11/2012 like Edinburgh. I like the buildings Ibelong in Edinburgh, they look like they in a fish tank”- it’s not any sur-

prise that Jack Savoretti started out as a poet, and quite rightfully, as it’d be a shame to waste the fortunate, rare education he had. This carries over into his lyrics, where he manages to be poetic yet coarse, romantic yet tenacious.

After attending ‘The American School in Switzerland’ it’s no wonder that Savoretti has such a distinct, hard-toput-your-finger-on accent. However, this only adds to his list of charming idiosyncrasies.

He is certainly a free spirit, who wears his heart on his sleeve. Tonight he unveils his dexterously played new album to Scotland in true (half ) Italian style. Of course, the crowd, a particular generation of couples, consists of disgruntled looking men, their partners wistfully lost far away in a land where Jack Savoretti can be everyone’s boyfriend.

Not only that, his band are a collection of Europe’s best-looking, who have an astonishing ability to put the sort of passion into their playing that makes the room glow: all layers of double bass, guitar and jazzy drumming.

Savoretti mostly plays from his new album, Before the Storm, an apparent ‘comeback’, after allegedly planning to quit the music scene altogether. I think after tonight, everyone’s glad he didn’t.

Considering Edinburgh is amongst the last few nights of what seems a par-

the next two hours is to entertain you.

Your job is to be entertained.” Both roles were definitely fulfilled.

Casually rolling up in a black Puma T-shirt, baggy jeans and his characteristic small guitar it is fair to say Sheeran looks nothing like a rock star.

However, that is probably what makes him so likeable.

In his 15-minute-strong performance of hit “You Need Me, I Don’t Need You”, Sheeran sang about how he’s “done around a thousand shows”.

And that experience definitely shines through in his ease onstage and his ability to reshape his own songs, “You Need Me” being a prime example, as he seamlessly slips in a brilliant mashup of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club” and Laid Blak’s “My Eyes Are Red”.

However the singer-songwriter isn’t just content with using every square inch of the guitar possible (strumming, picking, thumping, you name it), he believes in the involvement of the fans, and he put us in our place from the beginning, declaring, “for the next two hours, you’re going to be the gospel choir. If you’re too cool to sing,

you came to the wrong gig”. And the crowd was certainly eager to sing along, particularly during the choruses of the inspired cover of late Jazz singer Nina Simone’s “Be My Husband” and the popular chart-topping “Lego House.”

On top of this, there was also an acting lesson to be had during the performance of “This”, inspired by Sheeran’s drunken experiences at Latitude Festival. This involved imagining yourself in a similar state at said festival, hugging the random stranger next to you and swaying along to the smooth tone of Sheeran singing “This is the start of something beautiful”. An experience like no other.

“Small Bump”, the poignant song written about a friend’s miscarriage, and the tender “Kiss Me” both provided a calm interlude to the evening, and really showcased the extent of Sheeran’s vocal ability. However the highlight of the evening had to be the enthralling cover of popular American folk song “Wayfaring Stranger” (previously covered by both Johnny Cash and Jack White). You could hear a pin drop as Sheeran layered the track with his

various harmonies, beats and rhythms.

The use of the loop pedal really is a mesmerising thing to watch. More enthralling still was the last verse which was sung microphone-less. It was like a serenade to the crowd and I, for one, got shivers.

Also on the list was a duet with opening act Passenger on track “My Heart’s On Fire”, a song written by both Rosenberg and Sheeran, which

under their belt, LAU have established themselves at a number of festivals in Canada.

The support act, Blue Rose Code, with Ross Wilson playing guitar, are a perfect complement to Lau. His music was up-beat and folky, and he displayed great technical skills with the guitar. A standout song was “This is Not a Love� Song” which he had reworded to “This is Not a Folk Song” to spite a record label who said his music wasn’t suitable for their folk style. All of the songs were catchy and easy to sing along to. His

first album is set to come out in February next year and will be called North Ten so keep your eyes out for that.

Lau played a much longer set, and the audience was familiar with a number of their songs. All three members are masters of their instruments, and the dynamic between them was very tight.

The songs they played were very traditionally Scottish sounding, and the addition of some electronically produced background noises such as the ocean or a fishing boat sailing past

was enough to absorb the crowd completely in the music.

The small introductions also gave a insight into why songs had been chosen, how they were written and the meaning behind them – for example a song was named “Far from Portland” for one of the producers who had came over from there for their new album, Race the Loser. They also paid homage to the late Michael Marra, playing “Hermless” along with the crowd singing.

Overall, each of the three musi-

ticularly gruelling tour, both the support act Karima Francis and Jack himself seem beyond chirpy on stage, with a shared personable, talkative brand of patter. It’s refreshing to see someone embrace their support as much as Savoretti does, letting her join him in his encore to sing his Sienna Miller duet, “Hate & Love”, which is nothing short of wonderful. The sheer delicateness of Karima mixed with the roughness of Jack’s acoustic vocals works superbly.

Better than Sienna. Better by a mile.

“

Romantic yet tenacious.”

Savoretti is a regular on Radio 2 with his 'coffee shop on a Sunday afternoon' vibe. Nevertheless, this makes for a particularly difficult target audience to drag along to a live show, but tonight’s venue, albeit small, is full. While it’s a shame that he hasn’t managed to tap his way into the younger Paulo Nutini or Ben Howard audience, with whom he shares resemblances, it’s enough to see a crowd, any crowd, singing along to his lyrics.

There’s a telling anecdote near the end as Savoretti tells of a previous audience member who had criticised him for sounding like he was trying to be something from California in the Sixties. His simple response being “that’s because I was trying to write a song which sounded like it was written in California in the Sixties”. But it isn’t that Jack Savoretti needs to imitate existing music, as he’s doing a fine job creating something more spectacular of his own��.

Elsie Ward

really needs to be released as a single as soon as possible.

And what better way to crown off an excellent performance and an incredible evening than finishing with “The A-Team”, amongst the atmospheric glow of lighters and phones.

Ed Sheeran is a ridiculously talented individual who has to be seen to be believed.

Laura Cain

Nyssa Gaba

USHER HALL 12/11/2012

ED SHEERAN: "Your Job is to be entertained"

lana del rey RIDE INTERSCOPE

cians are very talented, playing as if each melody was interlocked and built together as a single sound. The changes from unnerving calms and dramatic uproars in the songs carried the audience through with great interest.

The atmosphere was familiar to those who know Scottish music and the resonance of the lyrics, melodies and beats were as if they came from the soul of Caledonia. A really great show, and one to try and catch if you are able to.

Michael Todd

THE KILLERS

BON IVER





MISS ATOMIC BOMB VERTIGO RECODS



BETH/REST 4AD

he past year has witnessed Lana he latest single taken from Bathe electronic experimentation in t Del Rey rise to fame after the T tle Born is another dosage of big T Bon Iver’s second album is usually popularity of her debut studio album rock-synth pop, a style that The Killers incorporated alongside their distincBorn To Die with her powerful yet soothing voice and haunting melodies providing a completely unique sound.

“Ride” is the lead single off Del Rey’s third EP entitled Paradise. Typical of her style, the track features an abundance of piano and strings with introspective, pessimistic lyrics such as “I drive fast, I am alone in the night” and “dying young and I’m playing hard.”

The pop ballad consists of themes of alcohol and loneliness as Del Rey begs “don’t leave me now, don’t say goodbye, don’t turn around,” giving the song the nostalgic, gloomy feel which her fans are familiar with. “Ride” demonstrates how effortlessly talented Del Rey is and this track will certainly be a success.

Amanda Fleet

have come to do so capably. And so often. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but there are only so many moments of euphoria a band can churn out before they become a bit sterile.

Brandon Flowers’ distinctive drawl eases the song in, and within the first minute, you can guess it is heading somewhere big. It is designed to fill a massive space, for people to wave their arms to, and have a sing-along while confetti falls from above. The Killers are good at this type of music, and so long as they are selling out huge arenas, there is no reason they should stop. Still, there aren’t any surprises in this latest release; any listener of the band will have heard “Miss Atomic Bomb” many times before.

Daniel Hatt

tive sound. Most of the album’s other tracks could easily achieve four stars.

However ‘Beth/Rest’ diverts from Bon Iver’s irresistible, recognisable sound.

“

It could be seen as an experiment we will eventually warm to with the album's context.”

Tynie Thoughts

Ed sheeran

JACK SAVORETTI: 'A Sunday Afternoon Vibe'

Bon Iver’s generic perfect components are present; a distinctive melody, harmonies and echoing synths.

However, here the usual raw voice is drowned out by techno synths. The middle’s pause yields an expectation of raw, aggressive instrumental experimentation.

Instead, this anti-crescendo ends in the addition of electric guitar and jazzy piano, making the track an experimental disappointment for an otherwise spectacular artist. Saying this, in the context of the album this track can definitely be heard from a different perspective.

Perhaps a dedicated fan would take the former view. However without this prior expectation, it could be seen as an experiment we will eventually warm to with the album’s context.

Courtney Paynter

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JOANNA LISOWIEC

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Use the force, Mickey

Lewis McLellan discusses what Disney's purchase of Lucasfilm means for the future of the Star Wars franchise n October 30, Disney bought O Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, and with it, the right to shake the tired, old

run. Even if they do a great job, there will still be the hordes of purists waiting to pour angry scorn all over it. I am inclined to sympathise with this view.

The ruthlessness of the mercenary exploitation of the success of the originals has been more than a little distasteful.

The practice of continually squeezing money out of the cupidity of the public by playing off past successes should definitely be stopped.

“

Now that Disney have got a hold of this particular cash cow you can tell they intend to bleed it absolutely dry."

money tree that is the Star Wars franchise.

Did they waste their money? The latest three episodes of the Star Wars saga were received poorly. When the highest praise on the internet consists of articles called “11 reasons why I didn’t completely hate the Star Wars prequels”, it’s safe to assume the fanbase weren’t impressed.

“

THE TWIGHT SAGA: Breaking dawn - Part 2 Directed by Bill ConDon  o the time has come for the world’s S favourite vampire love story to come to an end. Some will breathe a heavy sigh of relief. Others will shed a tear and probably go and re-read the books and pre-order the DVD. Whatever your stance is on The Twilight Saga, Breaking Dawn – Part 2 is likely to leave a lasting impression on you.

Packed full of some beautifully cringy love scenes and epic vampire posing, the film picks up perfectly from where the last one left off. We see Bella (Kristen Stewart) getting to grips with her new found vampire powers and motherhood. Before long however trouble arises when the pesky Volturi (the vampire law enforcers) get wind of Bella and Edward’s daughter. Believing she is an immortal child (a child vampire), the creation of which is against vampire law, they set out to destroy her and the rest of the Cullen clan.

ments? Has the seemingly inexhaustible golden goose finally been squeezed dry? It seems unlikely.

Star Wars is such a big name that its legacy can probably be prostituted for an almost infinitely extendable time.

Especially given that Revenge of the Sith is seven years old now and the mental scars have finally healed.

Disney have said to expect Episode VII in 2015 and by that time plenty

of people will be ready to give the franchise another chance. All this considered, the public will probably be prepared to shell out enough to make sure Disney’s investment will pay off.

Of course, it could still be a colossal disappointment.

It’s impossible to predict but given that Disney makes five minute shorts that are far more entertaining than Episodes I, II and III there’s a chance it

might be worth our money for once.

The moral simplicity of the Star Wars universe should be a perfect fit for the Disney treatment. Disney might be our best shot to inject some kind of life back into the franchise.

Unless of course they decide to take it too seriously and wind up producing something as preachy and irritating as John Carter.

Not that it really matters in the long

However, the damage has been done. To let the series die peacefully now won’t erase The Phantom Menace.

And if Disney does a good job and gives us an entertaining movie then at least the series will end on a high note.

Except, this won’t be the end. Disney is at least as mercenary as Lucasfilm.

You just have to look at their merchandise sales to tell that, despite their family image, they don’t give a damn about the Star Wars legacy.

Now that they’ve got a hold of this particular cash cow you can just tell that Disney intends to bleed it absolutely dry until they’ve ruined the last unspoiled memory of the franchise.

Vampires from all over the world come to help Edward and Bella in their fight to save their daughter and before we know it we have a full-on vampire battle with heads flying around everywhere and werewolves being bearhugged to death.

Perhaps the most bizarre part of the film is Bella and Edward’s daughter’s face. Instead of using a real baby, the decision was made to use CGI-enhancing so that the baby could perfectly develop into 11 year old Mackenzie Foy who later plays the half-vampire, half-human Renesmee. It is far from realistic and extremely difficult to take seriously.

“

The film is packed full of some beautifully cringy love scenes and epic vampire posing."

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson’s performances aren’t mind-blowing but the characters' love for each other is believable and, with the help of the excruciatingly lovey-dovey script, they will no doubt melt the hearts of Twilight fans.

IMGUR.COM

And it’s hard to blame them. The original films were terrific. Lovable characters, engaging plot and visuals that were amazingly ahead of their time combined to create the movie sensation of a generation.

But, the prequels failed to capture the magic that made the originals so special. Despite the next generation of CGI, the action didn’t impress and the less said about the deplorable Jar-Jar Binks the better.

So has our tolerance for the avaricious producers been exhausted? Have we had our fill of bitter disappoint-

JALEN Vasquez

Star Wars is such a big name that its legacy can probably be prostituted for an almost infinitely extendable time."

STRIKE A POSE : Edward Cullen prepares for his post-Twilight Saga career as a polo neck model Previous knowledge of the story is definitely assumed so some parts are not properly explained or are skimmed over. The climax of the movie also turns out not be a climax at all and with no real danger or enemy you are left wondering what the point was. The joke

about the Loch Ness Monster is one of its only redeeming features.

If you are a fan of The Twilight Saga, this film will probably satisfy you. For those of us who are not, it may just leave you slightly lost for words.

Kate Amos

All films were reviewed at cineworld

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Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Film 29

Star Rating  Death Wars: No Surrender  Pineapple Deathstar  The Nightmare Before Star Wars  Princess Leia's Diary The Phantom Menace

Amour Directed by Michael Haneke  ove and death are the eternal L themes of all art, yet rarely are they so closely entwined as in Mi-

here are a whole lot of films out T there: Oscar bait, blockbusters, the ‘bad good’ and the ugly. Nobody

“

Amour is an intimate portrayal of a French elderly couple whose retirement is destroyed, literally in a stroke."

Amour is an intimate portrayal of an elderly French couple whose comfortable retired existence of concert recitals is destroyed, literally in a stroke. A moment of silence and stillness acts as an explosion of their union, as Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) is partially paralyzed. The subsequent break down of

vulture.com

chael Haneke’s astounding new piece, Amour. Charting the descent from health to helplessness, the film resounds with issues intrinsic to the human condition. Through the microscopic view of a single couple in their apartment, Haneke evokes and addresses universal concerns of dependence, companionship and the value of life, in an original and haunting way.

N'ECOUTEZ PAS MON AMOUR: Stroke yes, but at least her head didn't fall off!

Anne’s being is excruciatingly acted out – the slipping away of independent life simultaneously gradual and shockingly rapid. Love is tested and altered, as an equal partnership becomes a struggle of dignity and dependence.

As Anne’s body becomes a prison, the classy apartment that once safely contained the couple’s life becomes an isolated fortress against outside threat.

The entire drama is acted out on this domestic stage – exterior life only suggested through the grey, rainy weather barely kept at bay by closed doors and windows.

Increasingly, quiet calm resembles funeral hush and wood panelled rooms seem as museum pieces. The effect is poignantly claustrophobic. The entire piece seems to age as both Anne and Georges ( Jean-Louis Trintignant) withdraw from their lives.

Physical difficulties – washing, moving, using the toilet – are realistically and harrowingly shown, but equally the effects of sickness on the emotions are represented exquisitely. The central performances are stunning.

Georges’s struggle to cope with the carer role thrust upon him and

the relentlessness of his situation are captured with emotional intensity by Trintignant, while Riva’s portrait of pride and despair, as dignity and humanity are eroded, is heartbreaking.

Loyalty, love and their limits are superbly interrogated by these two legendary actors. Haneke’s film is staggering; his construction of a personal tragedy beautifully highlights the inevitable tragedy of all humanity – inescapable mortality. It leaves you numb.

Eloise Hendy

Reviewed at the Filmhouse

Bizzare Wars: A New Hope for the franchise

Sally Pugh and Dan Scott Lintott take an alternative look at recasting the Star Wars series Directed by Judd Apatow

I

n this ‘spaced out’ comedy, the Empire has its base in a pineapple shaped super station capable of wiping out any gang in the neighbourhood. But when Darth Vader needs to pick up from the best dealer in the system Luke, Han and Chewy manage to infiltrate the tropical fruit station when the shields are lowered for Darth to get his fix.

Starring Jonah Hill as Luke, Seth Rogen as Han Solo and Jason Siegel as Chewbacca, purely because he’s monsterously tall. A terrifying Ken Jeong (Mr Chow) appears as the Emperor (think Role Models) while Kristen Wiig plays a quirky but lovable Leia.

PRincess leia's diary Directed by Richard curtis

D

ay 36 on the Death Star. Calories: 3800, cigarettes: 25, alcohol units: 30, boyfriends: zero. But wait! My knight in shining armour has come to save me! A strapping young beauty of a Jedi is surely going to rescue me from my own self-loathing. Better put on my granny pants.

Day 102. Turns out he was actually my brother so I’m having to marry his ruggedly aloof friend. Hopefully he doesn’t come as a package deal with his walking shag carpet of a pet.

Narrated by and starring Leia played

by Martine McCutcheon (oh Jesus),

the entire hapless cast meet at Han and Leia’s wedding. Charming shenanigans ensue.

The all-star cast includes Hugh Grant as Han Solo, Bill Nighy as the bitterly single Emperor, Colin Firth as a classically camp C-3PO and the plain looking yet boyishly charming Martin Freeman plays Luke.

The nightmare before star wars Directed by Tim burton

T

he prequel to a prequel in which someone has a dark yet Christmassy vision of the Star Wars universe in full gothic Burton mode.

In an interesting twist, when Luke loses his hand he replaces it with a high tech piece of space equipment: a giant pair of scissors.

Then, when Darth Vader’s face is finally revealed, Tim Burton’s shaved head appears before the audience; the dark lord and director of this fantastical reworking of the classic space adventure.

Starring Freddie Highmore as Luke, Helena Bonham Carter as Leia, Johnny Depp as Han Solo and the ever-sinister Alan Rickman as the Emperor. The quintessential players of a Burton movie come together to give a typically charming, macabre feel, complete with black lightsabers.

Also, as a time saving measure in the casting process, Danny DeVito is cloned to play every Ewok in the entire film and possibly Yoda.

IMDB.com

Pineapple deathstar

MUG SHOT: If you don’t know who they are, then you’re a mug

Death wars: no surrender

Directed by Quentin tarantino

A

n episodic and blood spattered incarnation of the intergalactic franchise; working title: Death Wars: No Surrender. The film will be entirely narrated by Samuel L. Jackson.

Leia is given a lightsaber, hacking and slashing along with the best of them.

A classic Tarantino cast comple-

ments Jackson’s magical voice with Bruce Willis as Han Solo, Christoph Waltz as the Emperor, Uma Thurman as Leia and Christopher Walken as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Finally, Quentin Tarantino cameos as Jar Jar Binks, who, shortly after his first screen appearance, gets brutally murdered by Willis, much to the satisfaction of a generation of Star Wars fans.

Open auditions will be held for the part of Luke, starting in rural Slovenia.

can see it all, and most don’t want to. That’s where criticism comes in: igniting word of mouth and ending debates about whether a movie ended this way or that. Criticism guides audiences toward films worth watching, and provides a conversation to partake of when friends stare at their phones through half the runtime. Forgive the metacriticism, but it’s time to talk about talking about movies.

Despite the old adage, everybody is not a critic: it’s about more than just having an opinion and an audience. Whether we’re talking reviews (‘it sucks’), analysis (‘institutionalised capitalism sucks’), or anything in between (‘the use of over-the-shoulder camerawork and overambitious colour correction sucks’), you need to decide whose opinion is worth your time. While everyone’s scoring system for people who score is different, a couple of factors are worth considering. The first is context, sometimes described as watching a heck of a lot of movies, and the second is personality.

Context is the thing that separates critics from the rest of us. Again, it’s not that critics are some kind of superheroes with an awful power, but they do have a practiced skill. It’s hard to have something to say when you haven’t studied anything, when you lack the language and history of it, and when you can’t compare the sparkly vampire to the Mexican trucker vampire or the silent vampire.

It doesn’t matter if a critic doesn’t know a Dutch angle from a key grip – what matters is whether they’ve seen Fern Gully and Pocahontas and Avatar, and whether they know enough about them to convince you the subject is worth talking about.

But what separates good criticism from bad criticism is personal: it’s mostly subjective assessments of aesthetics, an attempt to define what good or important art is. Good luck. Having that opinion, and a vocabulary to back it up, is the first step. What gets anybody to read these things is a voice and personality that you can stand while it rambles.

Could you grab a pint or a pizza with the person behind the voice? They’re your sage, possibly pale, friend with a top ten list of top ten lists of films.

Don’t get caught up in the difference between review and analysis, journalism and academia, or whatever anybody else calls it. Honestly, it doesn’t matter. An odd film added to a watch list and a bafflingly popular one removed, an opinion on John Carter swayed, a new awareness of the Bechdel test or gyroscopic camerawork or horror as a genre worth thinking about – these are the things that make a critic write. So, adopt a good critic. Call them on their nonsense from time to time, but let them bend your ear. They’re worth it.

Zack O'Leary

Tuesday November 20 2012

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tv@studentnewspaper.org

T

Star Rating

 Moira Stuart Trevor McDonald Huw Edwards Kay Burley Glenn Beck

jack on the box

he BBC is wobbling. Like a pissed teen movie prom queen, it has behaved with an arrogant negligence before embarking on an uneasy cover up, a timid apology, a hissy fit and an attempt at public resurrection. But in its haste to redeem a once shining crown, it has danced a classless dance into a bottomless ditch, its old tiara glum in puddles of muck as it falls, falls, falls.

Indeed, the scale of the scandal in which the BBC finds itself embroiled reached a risible level in an episode of Newsnight, in which Newsnight investigated Newsnight’s investigation into Newsnight (or something) which has already led to the resignation of George Entwistle, whose time as BBC Director General amassed a puny 54 days.

Following his sacking from Leeds United after an even punier 44 days, football manager Brian Clough famously said that it was a “terrible day…for Leeds United” and you wouldn’t begrudge Entwistle giving the same terrible day to the BBC. Even if his termination was voluntary, his subsequent hefty severance pay means that it’s a Scooby-Doo sneak into the distance for him whilst the mask peeling continues at the corporation.

His temporary replacement is Tim Davie, who has the pained expression of a man permanently being pinched by an imaginary friend who he’s too scared to come clean about.

Though that’s not enough to dislodge him from his provisional position at the moment, in time it could transpire to be his downfall: you try leading an inquiry into the ethics of modern media with the sly prod of a figment of your imagination poking at your thighs. Impossible.

So if not Demented Davie, who?

I’ve whittled down my list, which also included Malcolm Tucker, a member of the Doritos band and Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason to a final two potential candidates for the new BBC Director General.

They are, unfortunately, either cartoon or inanimate, but considering the mess that has occurred in the buildings of BBC HQ with actual humans who have eyes and hands and nervous systems in charge, I fail to see the difference.

Option 1: Top Cat. This would be a strong appointment for two reasons. First of all, it would give headline writers everywhere an evening off with their beloved Merlot and/or children with ‘Top Cat Is Top Dog’ writing itself. Secondly, it would be nice to hear the theme tune change to reveal that his “close friends like to call him DG” – if he has any friends after this salacious career move, that is.

Option 2: A Fruit Pastille. A yellow feline or a sugary treat.

Choose wisely, BBC. And by wisely, I mean choose Top Cat, he needs a break from Dibble.

Jack Murray

Have I got old news for you?

Jacqueline Thompson reports on the return of The Hour and uncovers that it's better than ever The hour BBC 2 Wednesday, 9pm



E

veryone's favourite 1950s newsroom drama The Hour has returned for a second series, and it’s out with the Suez Crisis and Communist spies of series one and in with the nuclear arms race and Soho criminality of 1957. After the criticisms lobbed at Abi Morgan’s script last year, this series’ opener had a lot to prove.

Whilst lauded for its meticulous set design, costumes, hair and make-up, as well as its top-notch cast, series one was accused of being patchily inauthentic, with the question ‘But would they have said that in 1956?’ issuing from the mouth of many a pedantic critic.

Another problem was its pesky genre-crossing: was it a soapy period piece or a political thriller? If Mad Men could be gripping without anything really happening, where was the need for all the thrills and chills?

i'M A CELEBRITY GET ME OUT OF HERE ITV Weeknights, 9pm

 There aren’t many compelling arguments in favour of deforestation, but I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here is surely one of the strongest.

Only joking, it’s actually quite good.

I mean, what’s not to like? Minor celebrities? Check. Bushtucker Trials?

Check. Ant and Dec? Check.

This year’s series has something for everyone, especially now serving MP Nadine ‘Mad Nad’ Dorries has vowed to use the opportunity to spread her controversial views on abortion limits, thereby supplying the much needed last piece in the show's jigsaw that has been so noticeably absent from the last few series.

“

It's actually quite good. I mean, what's not to like? Minor celebrities? Check.

Bushtucker trials?

Check. Ant and Dec? Check."

Yet I fear that Mad Nad’s message might just not reach the audience she’s hoping for.

Unfortunately, and rather obviously, the general public doesn’t watch shows like I’m a Celeb to hear the moral and legal intricacies of ethical dilemmas, they watch it to see washed up, fame hungry celebrities pop various parts

It seems, however, to have ironed out these supposed problems. The human drama and thriller aspect of the season opener blended seamlessly together, and the script was as spot-on as the acting.

Romola Garai is excellent as producer Bel, elevating the character from the stock woman-in-a-man’s-world figure she could have easily become and investing her with just the right amount of ambition, ability and insecurity. Ben Whishaw is mesmerising as principled, fearless reporter (and now co-news anchor) Freddie, and Dominic West brilliantly portrays the infuriating but talented presenter Hector, whose penchant for drinking, womanising and seedy underworld nightclubs is a deliciously ticking time-bomb.

There’s a fire burning beneath the surface of Oona Chaplin’s desperate housewife Marnie (never have egg yolks been beaten so furiously), and the look on her face as Hector kisses her cheek and says what must surely be the three most chilling words a wife can hear – "Don’t wait up"– is priceless. The women’s stories here are, gratifyingly, every bit as important as the men’s.

of genitalia from various different animals into their mouths and chew for dear life. It’s entertainment, sort of.

Talking politics in the Australian bush is really no different to talking politics in the Newsnight studio, as the editors of the show have clearly recognised, and surprise surprise, the Bushtucker trial in which she chowed down on camel toe and ostrich anus has gained far more attention than any of her political opinions.

“

The Bushtucker trial in which she chowed down on camel toe and ostrich anus has gained far more attention than any of her political opinions" Dorries aside, the show’s got a great mix of ‘celebrities’ this year, ranging from the fairly well known, such as former Corrie star Helen Flanagan, to the truly obscure, like Limahl, lead singer of Kajagoogoo, who doesn’t seem to have had a hit or been relevant for over two decades. Then again, could Helen Flanagan ever have been considered relevant?

As with every series though, it’s Ant and Dec who provide the greatest value, sharing the best double act chemistry on the box, and having a knack of pitching a perfect running commentary whilst a contestant gnaws away on a kangaroo testicle.

As long as they stay put, the jungle japes look sure to continue for many series to come.

Joe Patten

LAURENCE CENDROWICZ/BBC

30 TV

PETER CAPALDI: Makes an impressive debut as Head of News Anna Chancellor steals scenes as war correspondent Lix, with her cigarettes, high-waisted trousers and gloriously plummy vowels. Peter Capaldi is fascinating as Head of News Randall Brown, cutting through bullshit, offering uncanny insights into people’s psyches and exhibiting a mean case of OCD. The hinted-at history he shares with Lix is a particularly intriguing side-plot.

Violence, or the threat of it, runs throughout the episode, whether on a personal or global scale. Soho gang culture is set alongside government scaremongering of the public in order to justify their nuclear ambitions. Throw in the growing BBC/ITV rivalry and you have a potentially explosive plot comprised of a number of skilfully interwoven threads. The result? An utterly captivating hour of television.

FULL ENGLISH

ing wave of indifference. I fear, however, that the creators of Full English will probably be overjoyed to get even that kind of reaction.

It’s bad. It’s really bad. To borrow a phrase from the inimitable Douglas Adams, you just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mindbogglingly bad it is.

Channel 4 Monday, 10:50pm

 The American remake may be more ubiquitous, but we have, on occasion, been known to borrow an idea or two from our cousins across the pond.

Channel 4 aired their own version of Saturday Night Live for a few years in the eighties, while Steven Moffat’s Coupling was, rather unfairly, dismissed as a British version of Friends for years.

So, why the sudden interest in Anglo-American relations in comedy? It’s because Full English is the answer to a question nobody asked: ‘What if there was a British version of Family Guy?’ Well, if you’re going to copy any format, you could do a lot worse than Family Guy’s. Love it or hate it, the show has been a massive success, overcoming cancellation, controversy and criticism to recently air its 200th episode.

“

It [British comedy] can be smart, funny, bold and, above all, original. Full English, though, is none of these things."

The problem is that it’s turned out to be a remarkably difficult format to reproduce successfully. Even Family Guy’s own spin-off, The Cleveland Show, was mostly met with a resound-

“

You just won't believe how mindboggingly bad it is. The character designs are ugly; the animation stiff and clumsy."

The character designs are ugly, the animation stiff and clumsy, the voice acting obnoxious. Even the normally wonderful Richard Ayoade puts in a voice performance that sounds like he’d rather be anywhere else, which, given the material he has to work with, is entirely understandable.

This opening episode revolves around an overly obvious parody of Simon Cowell talent shows without a single joke you won’t have heard done better somewhere else.

All Full English can bring to the table is a collection of tired sex jokes, culminating in a series of puns on sleeping with the Queen so terrible they become almost physically painful.

British comedy at its best is arguably among the greatest in the world.

It can be smart, funny, bold and, above all, original. Full English, though, is none of those things. It’s just…bad.

Heather Davidson

Sport fan? Write for us! sport@studentnewspaper.org

Tuesday November 20 2012 studentnewspaper.org

Sport 31 �

Focus: Rifle shooting

Let me be your fantasy (team guide)

Camilla Tait visits Edinburgh's Rifle Club to learn about another successful university team sporting just the one club coach, most of the Rifle Club students give up a lot of their time to teach novices, allowing the club’s wealth of knowledge and ability to filter down.

The Student selects the best fantasy team picks for the week ahead.

“

We are hoping to win fullbore in Blair Athol in the spring time, and to qualify for the finals in both BUCS smallbore and outdoor."

Robert Morgan, EURC President

This coaching is limited however, as facilities for a whole range of disciplines must be shared with alumni.

One of these disciplines is Pistol Shooting, which is what Edinburgh's talented Kirsty Liddon specialises in.

Though having little time to shoot the Rifle discipline, she still competes in the indoor smallbore, and is tipped as a hopeful for the Commonwealth Games in 2014 in her main discipline. With such a high level of coaching, she is unlikely to be the only member of EURC

“

strongto attempt READY, AIM, FIRE: An Edinburgh studentAprepares shoot

to remove the trophy

to watch out for in the future.

Club President Robert Morgan has high aims for the club this year: “We are hoping to win fullbore in Blair Athol in the spring time, and to qualify for the finals in both BUCS smallbore and outdoor.”

While EURC is a very ambitious club that appears to have nothing out of their reach, the nature of the discipline means that success is often dependent on competitors holding their nerve on

the day. But an ability to handle presfrom Glasgow's grasp sure seems to be a key characteristic of the club, which remains one of the for the first time since most successful clubs in the history of 1985 the Sportswould Union. provide On the back of their success, EURC grounds for optimism" is hoping to extend their array of disciplines offered in the near future. Boasting a high level of coaching and a Commonwealth hopeful, the club seems set for a very bright future.

Hibs' success brings sunshine on Leith

Daniel Halpin assesses the factors that have helped Hibs make an excellent start to the season

at Hearts, they are signing and developing young players from the British Isles. These players form the basis of the team and may also make money for the clubs in future through transfer fees.

So can a new-look Hibs team maintain a challenge for the SPL title this year? Probably not. Celtic are likely to be too strong for Hibs over an entire season. However, second place and a good run in the Scottish Cup, which they have not won since 1902, should be realistic aims.

DAVID CHESKIN

While the future of Hearts hangs in the balance, the capital’s other big club is fairing rather better.

Hibernian are undoubtedly the surprise package of the Scottish Premier League season so far. Pat Fenlon’s side have been in blistering form and find themselves toe to toe with league champions Celtic at the top of the league.

It has been a complete turnaround from the disaster of last season. Just six months ago bitter rivals Hearts beat Hibs 5-1 in the Scottish Cup final. It was one of the most humiliating results in the 137 year history of the club. Hibs also struggled in the league and only secured survival in the penultimate SPL game of the season.

However, the Hibees look a different side this year and have caught the eye with results which would have seemed unthinkable last season. The 40 demolition of Motherwell at Fir Park last month and the 2-2 draw at Celtic Park in September are two of the stand out results of the SPL season thus far.

Although there have been a few blips, the 2-0 defeat by Queen of the South in the League Cup in particular, the turnaround at Easter Road has been astonishing.

The revival at Hibs has to be credited in part to the goal scoring form of Leigh Griffiths. The boyhood Hibee, on loan from Wolves for a second successive season, is currently the top scorer in the SPL with twelve goals. Griffiths has been performing consistently this season for the first time since he left Dundee in 2011 and was handed his first appearance for Scotland against Luxembourg. Manager Pat Fenlon

HIBEES ON A HIGH: Leigh Griffiths celebrates with his teammates must be anxious to seal a permanent deal for the twenty-two year old before other clubs swoop.

Credit must also go to Fenlon, who has made some effective signings on a limited budget. Irish forward Eoin Doyle has formed a good partnership with Griffiths after signing on a free last year following a successful spell at Sligo Rovers. The midfield has been transformed due to the signings of Honduran international Jorge Claros, Englishman Paul Cairney and Irishman Gary Deegan. The signings of Irish right-back Tim Clancy, formerly of Motherwell, and Northern-Irish international Ryan McGivern, on loan from English champions Manchester City, have helped to shore up a defence which only managed six clean sheets last year. Fenlon’s eye for a player has

allowed him to rebuild the Hibernian side and this has paid dividends this season.

Hibs’ vast improvements can only be a good thing for Scottish football.

Their success has proven that Scottish football can flourish even without a strong Rangers side, despite the scaremongering by the Scottish media.

What it does need however, is the other big teams, outside of the Glasgow giants, to start producing competitive sides as they did up until the late 1980s.

In a Rangers-less SPL, clubs such as Aberdeen, Dundee United, Hearts and Hibs now have this opportunity.

Luckily, these clubs seem to be moving in the right direction. Instead of spending money unnecessarily on average foreign players, a major factor in the current financial situation

“

Hibernian are undoubtedly the surprise package of the SPL this season, finding themselves toe to toe with league champions Celtic at the top of the league."

The next couple of months could make or break their season. Four games in particular stand out. Aberdeen and Celtic both visit Easter Road on November 24th and December 29th in what are likely to be top three clashes.

There are also two Edinburgh derbies in the near future - firstly a Scottish Cup fourth round tie at home on December 2nd and then a league game at Tynecastle on January 3rd.

If Hibs can win these four games, then the sun will truly be shining on Leith this season.

eurc

hidden in the underground depths of the CSE is one of Edinburgh University's most successful clubs.

The Edinburgh University Rifle Club (EURC) competes in both smallbore and fullbore disciplines, occupying the top ranking in the country in the latter.

Very few official BUCS contests are held in the first semester, with each competing university - Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Robert Gordon and St. Andrews - holding an indoor 25m competition before Christmas.

The Edinburgh side have already lived up to expectations by securing second position at Aberdeen University and Robert Gordon University, narrowly missing out on first place to their St. Andrews rivals.

All rifle teams compete on the same day, with Edinburgh entering three teams of six. Each person shoots for roughly 30 minutes apiece, and the scores (averaging in the 90s) are divided into the relevant disciplines; team of eight, team of four, pairs, ladies' triad and individual.

Edinburgh's impressive achievements in the sport are largely down to the club’s coaching, which boasts the best set up in Scotland. Although

Ryan Shawcross - This season the top teams have not produced as many clean sheets as is normally expected, meaning fantasy managers are advised to look further down the table for defensive points. They will find them in Stoke City, who have already secured five clean sheets this season - three more than Manchester United. Shawcross is a very affordable entry and a selection that looks especially sensible considering Stoke’s favourable run of fixtures in the coming weeks.

Dimitar Berbatov - With an impressive 16 point return last week, Berbatov’s season looks to be taking off. Five goals and three assists in less than seven games is a decent return for a player who is just re-finding his feet after a season in the shadows.

He was the league’s top scorer only two seasons ago, so bringing him into your front three is probably the easiest decision you’ll make all season. Hurry though, he won’t remain a bargain for long.

James Morrison - West Brom have performed way above expectations so far this season, and Morrison has similarly surprised many with his good form. He is his team’s highest scoring player in fantasy football terms. At his current price he is a good candidate to fill that mid-price gap in your midfield, perhaps competing with Kevin Nolan for the best value midfield option.

Marouane Fellaini - After a few quiet games Fellaini has reestablished himself as a must-have player. At his current price a lot of managers might struggle to fit him into their midfield and will have to free up some money elsewhere to afford him. Given his popularity amongst fantasy managers though, not getting him in your side might mean you quickly fall off the pace this season.

Jussi Jaaskelainen - West Ham’s experienced stopper is the highest scoring goalkeeper in fantasy terms. Having been frozen out at Bolton last year, the Icelandic keeper has reasserted himself as one of the most reliable in the league in front of a typically miserly Sam Allardyce defence.

Rickie Lambert – On the scoresheet again last weekend in Southampton’s important win at QPR, expect the club’s top scorer last year to be the catalyst of any revival at St Mary’s.

Josh Cook

Sport

Tuesday November 20 2012

studentnewspaper.org

Hibees on a high

Daniel Halpin on the Edinburgh side's great start to the SPL season

31

EUBC rowers prove their mettle Marina Sergeeva and Phil Smith watch Edinburgh's rowers perform admirably at the London Fours Head event the Edinburgh University Boat Club put in a strong performance at the Fours Head event in London earlier this month.

The contest is highly prestigious and respected, which the large travelling contingent testified to. Captains, supporters and even a live commentator undertook the journey south.

BUCS Standings 11th Newcastle 12th Edinburgh 13th Oxford

“

The most remarkable performance of the day came in the women's race, in which Edinburgh overcame a faulty cox box and footplate to battle to 11th place." eubc

The prospect was in many ways a daunting one for the EUBC, with the race water ten times the width of the facilities available to the teams in Edinburgh.

Mercifully, difficult conditions of wind and rain subsided to allow the races to take place in less punishing conditions and milder temperatures.

All the Edinburgh crews performed superbly, especially considering the size of the races.

Granfield produced a barnstorming performance to seal third position for the Edinburgh team.

The most remarkable performance of the day, however, came for the other

REPRESENT : Edinburgh's rowers showed their fight in London The Men's 500m boat race was contested by over 2000 athletes, but this did little to affect the Edinburgh team, which powered to highly respectable 6th and 21st place finishes.

The 6th placed team consisted of Camilla Aldwin as cox with Andrew Sills, Freddie Sullivan, Ross Urquhuart and Ed Shackleton making up the

rest of the crew. The latter team saw Eleanor Hall as cox with Graham Ord, Ronan Murphy, Kenny Liu and Andrew Crowe forming the crew.

The female races followed soon after and EUBC again performed with unquestionable distinction. With Hannah English as cox, Jo Smith, Becky McGreevy, Lucy Carter and Georgina

Edinburgh Points Breakdown 1st Swimming 150 2nd Hockey 137 3rd Fencing 84 4th Lacrosse 84 5th Basketball 79 6th Tennis 77 Wednesday 14th October Results Edinburgh 2nd w.o vs Aberdeen 2nd (Women's Basketball) Edinburgh 2nd 16-4 Robert Gordon 1st (Women's Water Polo) Edinburgh 1st 8-11 Durham 1st (Men's Water Polo) Aberdeen 1st 41-67 Edinburgh 1st (Women's Basketball) Edinburgh 1st 2-3 Glasgow 1st (Women's Football) Edinburgh 2nd 8-4 Lancaster 1st (Men's Water Polo) Edinburgh 3rd 2-1 Glasgow 2nd (Men's Hockey) Edinburgh 2-0 Glasgow 1st (Women's Hockey) Dundee 1st 5-6 Edinburgh 1st (Men's Hockey) Edinburgh 1st 7-1 Newcastle 1st (Men's Badminton) Robert Gordon 8-9 Edinburgh 1st (Men's Table Tennis) Edinburgh 3rd 0-1 St Andrews 2nd (Women's Hockey) St Andrews 1st 1-3 Edinburgh 2nd (Women's Hockey) Edinburgh 2nd 2-2 Glasgow 1st (Men's Hockey) Glasgow 2nd 2-4 Edinburgh 4th (Women's Hockey) St Andrews 1st 2-1 Edinburgh 3rd (Men's Football) Nottingham 1st 5-0 Edinburgh 1st (Men's Squash) Edinburgh Napier 2-1 Edinburgh 4th (Men's Football)

female team, who overcame a faulty cox box and a faulty footplate to battle to an impressive 11th position.

Credit is due to Liza Adamson, Ru Clements, Chandler Wallisch, Lucy White and Laura Whitelaw for showing such fighting spirit at the end of what was a largely successful day of competition for the EUBC crews.

The trip was a highly encouraging one for the club, setting down a solid platform on which to build as it looks to dominate British University competition in the year ahead.

Glasgow win bragging rights

Piers Barber watches Glasgow Uni win the annual Spencer French Memorial Trophy at Kelvin Hall Stewart Chalmers won the 1500m with a time of 4:17.1, whilst Claire Taylor won the Women's 60m event, finishing faster than many of the male athletes with a time of 7.9 seconds.

Taylor also finished top of the pile in her Shot Putt event, recording an impressive throw of 9.02m.

Edinburgh also won three out of four relays, finishing first in the Mens and Womens 4x200m and the Mens 4x400m, a race which featured a particularly impressive comeback from the Edinburgh team in the last 200m, when Chalmers managed to catch a Glasgow team which had secured a considerable first leg lead.

Elsewhere, James Wade finished second in the Mens 60m, whilst Timothy Gray and Caroline Rodger came third in their respective 400m races.

There were third place finishes too for Tom Bateson, Nida Sajid, Hans Neufield and Patrick Corsar.

“

Claire Taylor won the Women's 60m event, finishing faster than many of the male athletes with a time of 7.9 seconds The event, which lasted only two hours because of time constraints, was structured differently to typical meetings. The teams competed in a reduced number of events, whilst the sprint events were decided by the times

EUAC

Edinburgh failed to secure the annual Spencer French Memorial Trophy after a specially arranged meeting in Glasgow earlier this month.

The trophy, an annual contest between Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, is traditionally decided at the Freshers Match at the start of the season, which Glasgow were this year unfortunately unable to attend due to funding issues.

Instead the two universities competed for the trophy at a specially arranged meeting on 10th November at Kelvin Hall, where a small Napier team comprising of four athletes was also in attendance.

Although Glasgow finished the day as winners of this year’s trophy, the meeting featured some impressive performances by Edinburgh athletes.

EUAC: Edinburgh's athletes recorded by athletes in the heats. The 800m and 1500m were decided by straight finals.

Edinburgh's athletes now turn their attention to the Scottish Indoors, which take place early next year.

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Wednesday 24th October Fixtures Edinburgh 1st vs St Andrews 2nd (Women's Tennis) Edinburgh 2nd vs Aberdeen 2nd (Women's Lacrosse) Glasgow 1st vs Edinburgh 1st (Men's Lacrosse) Aberdeen 2nd vs Edinburgh 2nd (Women's Tennis)