Exeposé Issue 661, 21 November 2016 by Exeposé

E E FR ISSUE 661 21 NOV 2016 exepose.com

EXEPOSÉ Photo: Natasa Christofidou

Fit for a King-ﬁsher? Natasa Christoﬁdou News Editor

EXCLUSIVE

The hunt for housing 2017/18

Going, going... gone? Susannah Keogh Editor

TUDENTS are panicked after demand for student houses in Exeter has once again increased, with almost 75 per cent of one leading lettings agent’s properties already gone, but the Students’ Guild are reassuring students there’s no need to worry. Cardens Estate Agents, which boasts 270 properties, has seen stronger demand this year than in their whole 25 years of trading. Last year, Cardens told Exeposé

that demand was the most it had been in ﬁve years and this year, only 60 properties remain - with 200 let since lettings opened on 7 November. The news follows the Students’ Guild’s decision to move the Housing Fair from January to November following fewer properties on offer at last year’s fair. Ivor Bullby, letting agent at Cardens, said: “It’s the same number of students but in a condensed period. As we come up to the housing fair on Tuesday, the move by the University to switch the date of the fair has alerted students to their need to act more quickly.”

Since 1 October, the Students’ Guild Advice Unit, which offers free contract checks to students before they sign, has received 53 housing enquiries, compared to 35 in the same period last year-an increase of over 50 per cent. First year Liberal Arts student Char Srahan spoke of the stress at ﬁnding a house for next year. “House hunting is the source of all stress at the moment for every person in my ﬂat. We’re constantly missing lectures and seminars for viewings, only for people to snap up houses as we’re looking around and tensions are rising as we’re having to

Leonard Cohen 1934 - 2016 MUSIC

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compromise what we want just to secure a place. Prices have skyrocketed this year and it honestly feels like all the decent houses were taken weeks ago.” Estate agent Mark Reynolds of Cooksleys told Exeposé that 95 per cent of their properites have been let, blaming in part the housing fair being brought forward to November. “The reservations for the student year 2017/18 have been the strongest ever. I am very concerned for the ﬁrst years as they have had to choose who they wish to live with and where within...

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XETER students were forced to spend the start of the year at a hotel after their rooms weren’t ready in time - and have told Exeposé the University was “unhelpful” during their struggle to find accommodation. 120 students meant to be moving into the Kingfisher Studios, owned by national company Downing Students, had to be placed in Jury’s Inn for two to three weeks, including during Freshers’ week. An anonymous first year student told Exeposé that the company notified them about the hotel arrangements just two days before their move in date, however, their hotel check-in date had only been scheduled for the start of week one, leaving the student stranded with no option but to find a hostel. “Exeter wasn’t my first choice, but when I called up for accommodation the University wasn’t helpful, so I applied for Kingfisher by myself, on 19 August and everything seemed fine. As if my stress of coming to a new place wasn’t bad enough, they called me two days before my arrival date to tell me that my room wasn’t ready. “I regret choosing this place and I’m so disappointed at the University’s inability to help me. I expected my fresher’s week to be a more pleasant experience.” A spokesperson from Kingfisher told Exeposé: “We would like to apologise for the disruption caused by delays experienced by the third-party contractors we appointed to deliver The Kingfisher development.”...

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SPORT Boxing Varsity PAGE 38-39

EXEPOSÉ

Devonshire House, Exeter, Devon, EX4 4PZ

Editors Print: Jeremy Brown, Hannah Butler, Susannah Keogh & Ben Londesbrough Online: Theodore Stone & Jessica Stanier News Editors Print: Rachel Ashenden & Natasa Christoﬁdou Online: Georgia Roberts & David Smeeton news@exepose.com Comment Editors Print: Bea Fones & Matthew Newman Online: Olivia Horncastle & Rowan Keith comment@exepose.com Features Editors Print: Georgina Bolam & Katie Jenkins Online: Samuel Fawcett & Kate Jones features@exepose.com Lifestyle Editors Print: Jade Beard & Laurel Bibby Online: Alma Crespo & Lucy Ronan lifestyle@exepose.com Arts + Lit Editors Print: Emma Bessent & Tash Ebbutt Online: Anna Blackburn & Izzy Hilliard artsandlit@exepose.com Music Editors Print: Rory Marcham & Helen Payne Online: Sam Norris & Harry Williams music@exepose.com Screen Editors Print: Mark Allison & Zak Mahinfar Online: Cormac Dreelan & James Hands screen@exepose.com Games + Tech Editors Print: Jabez Sherrington & Sam Woolf Online: Ben Assirati & James Freeth games@exepose.com

Editorial.

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Lecturer updates Bratz dolls to promote positive body image

We wanted to start this with a housing pun, but all the good ones were gone

LIZA Doolittle may have been having a pretty shit time when these wistful pleas - "All I want is a room somewhere, far away from the cold night air..." - rang out over 1950s Broadway - but hey, her life wasn't so bad. I mean, do you even know anguish and suffering until you've tried to bag a student house in Exeter? When the annual rush of contractsigning rolls round in our peaceful little city, Exeposé always faces a bit of a dilemma. Of course our ears prick up when friends complain about their housesearch nightmares... and those 1am Cardens queues are hard to ignore. The letting company has literally said this is their busiest year to date. But at the same time, we've got to ask ourselves: do we just feed into the panic by talking about it? Because surely it's a self-fulﬁlling prophecy, right? Students worry all the good houses will get snapped up before Christmas, so they start the search earlier, and suddenly everywhere's gone before we've even unwrapped our advent calendars... Sadly, though, this "if we don't talk about it, it'll go away" approach just doesn't seem to work. For a few years now, the Guild has staunchly defended it's January Housing Fair - reassuring students that they should wait until after

Science Editors Print: Victoria Bos & Beth Honey Online: Holly Belcher & Rebecca Broad sciandtech@exepose.com Sport Editors Print: Owain Evans & Lara Hopkins Online: James Angove & Ollie Lund sport@exepose.com

NEWS

Christmas until they sign. But this year? Well, as someone in-the-know summed it up to us: "You can either ﬁght against the tide, or just go with it." The fact was, landlords and agencies were dropping out of the Fair because they'd already run out of properties. So the Housing Fair is this Tuesday 22 November. Don't like it? Neither do we. But we’ve probably only got ourselves to blame... (along with perhaps a few overly-keen landlords and a healthy dose of panic in the media). Another dilemma we faced this week? How to not have Trump on our front page. We think we’ve avoided that one pretty well. However, if you’re not through with hearing about Mr President, check out Comment and Features. In completely unrelated news, Science looks at how the Neanderthal went extinct. And in lighter news… Never seen the inside of Rococo’s? Don’t worry: Sport went there, so you don’t have to. The last-minute venue change for Boxing Varsity didn’t detract from what turned out to be an exciting and well-structured event. Local residents didn’t even have to complain, as far as we’re aware (Football Varsity, we’re looking at you…) Now, let's just all head to Rabbit (see Lifestyle), have a nice vegan Breakfast Bap, and wait for all this to blow over.

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Worldwide university news Homer Simpson now "Blackface" Texas Tokyo reduces rents studied in Glasgow Snapchatters expelled for female students

HE University of Glasgow is to incorporate Homer Simpson into its philosophy syllabus, in order to examine whether the cartoon character is a ‘virtuous’ individual. The course, called "D'oh! The Simpsons intoduce Philosophy" will run for one day. Various clips from the show will be used to raise philosophical questions around morality, religion, and free will. The course will speciﬁcally examine Aristotle’s classical account of virtuous individuals, and will be open to the general public. Philosophy lecturer, Dr John Donaldson, noted that “Homer is a very complex character in many ways” and that the cartoon “encourages you to reﬂect on what’s important in life.” Donaldson says that he is a long-term fan of the cartoon.

TUDENTS from the Abilene Christian University in Texas were expelled after Snapchatting a female student who posed with a face covered in black make-up. The video showed a unidentiﬁable female student, with the caption “this is why black lives matter.” Several people were heard laughing in the background as the student mocked the movement after proceeding to put on a pair of oversized costume lips. University President, Phil Schubert, took immediate measures once notiﬁed later that afternoon, commenting: “they are no longer students [here]… this kind of hurtful behavior has no place on our campus”, whilst stressing how much the institution values diversity. Schubert apologised for "the innacurate representation" it gave of the University.

HE University of Tokyo has announced plans to cut housing rents for female students – with subsidies of 30,000 yen (around £220) a month for women in their ﬁrst and second years of study. The programme, set to be rolled out in April 2017, aims to improve the gender balance on campus. Currently only one in ﬁve applications to study at the University are from women, reports the Asahi Shimbun. Parental income won’t be a factor in deciding who gets the subsidies – instead, all female students whose commute to campus exceeds 90 minutes will be eligible for the reduced rent. In an attempt to encourage more women to apply, the University has been targeting female students in high school visits and events. However, this strategy has reportedly not paid off.

Lecturer detained after anti-Trump tweets

PROFESSOR from Rutgers, New Jersey, claims he was detained by police and forced to undergo a psychological evaluation after criticising Donald Trump on Twitter. Kevin Allred, a Women’s and Gender Studies lecturer, live-tweeted the events on 16 November – calling the arrest “a shitshow” and “proof positive that Trump's crackdown on free speech has absolutely begun.” Among the comments police deemed dangerous were a tweet asking: “will the 2nd Amendment be as cool when I buy a gun and start shooting down white people?” and one stating: “if I see any Trump bumper stickers on the road today, my brakes will go out and I’ll run you off the road.” Stories by Hannah Butler, Editor, and Natasa Christoﬁdou, News Editor

News

21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

NEWS EDITORS:

Rachel Ashenden Natasa Christoﬁdou

Students left stranded due to unﬁnished accommodation CONTINUED FROM FRONT The affected students living at Jury’s Inn were provided with a daily allowance of £15 for maintenance costs, as their initial accommodation rooms were equipped with kitchen facilities. A second-year student, however, said she “ended up paying way more for food as [she] was lacking a kitchen and it all took so much away from [her] university experience.” In addition, their check-out dates varied widely.

I regret choosing this place, and I’m so disappointed in the University’s inability to help me Anonymous ﬁrst year student

A spokesperson from Kingﬁsher assured Exeposé: “In order to ensure [that] students were as comfortable as possible during the transition phase, [they] offered… allowances for meals, laundry

and transport.” A third-year Erasmus student was recommended Kingfisher by the University’s website for exchange students, as University Halls are not provided for students enrolled on a course for only a term. “Even though I applied for accommodation in May, they forgot to even send me my hotel details, so I had to email them and only ended up getting my hotel booking confirmation a day before my flight,” they told Exeposé. “They failed to manage the situation completely and they have responded to the delay in a manner that you would never expect a respected and wellestablished company to do so.” Callum Dennis, a first year Maths student, expressed frustration at both Kingfisher and the University. The latter “failed to initially help with providing accommodation, so it seems like there’s nowhere near enough accommodation for the demand.” When the students eventually moved into the residence at the end of September,

construction outside the residence was still ongoing, and will be until December. For the Erasmus student, they claim “for my entire stay I’ve basically had to live on a construction site and no compensation has been offered. This has really given me unnecessary stress in a period where I should enjoy my time and focus on my studies.”

the bike sheds are not yet up.” A spokesperson from Downing Students, the company that owns Kingﬁsher Studios said: “We fully understand the frustration the delay caused to Exeter students and are looking forward to delivering an outstanding experience for them during the rest of their tenancy.”

In response to the issue, Alec James, VP Welfare & Diversity said: “Whilst disapointing that the situation occured in the ﬁrst place, it is good to see the landlord living up to their contractual obligations... In any case like this where students are being impacted... the Advice Unit is available to ensure students are fully are of their rights.”

Honestly, if this is “excellent student accommodation” then I hate to see what their worse ones are.

Callum Dennis, First year Maths student

Dennis agrees. “If this is ‘excellent student accommodation’ then I would hate to see what their worst ones are.” “Not only did Kingﬁsher push back our moving in date, the common room wasn’t done for a month and two months into the contract, builders are still here everyday, scaffolding is still not down and

Photo: Natasa Christofidou

Climate change experts Students want staff trained in mental to tackle public health health after mitigation investigation Suzanne Barrett Contributor

OUR experts from the University of Exeter will be working alongside 15 other interdisciplinary organisations worldwide, researching climate change’s potential risk to human health. ‘The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change’ was launched on 14 November, at the COP 22 climate talks in Morocco. As part of the initiative, climate change experts Professor Depledge, Dr Morrissey, Professor Cox and Professor Adger, are collaborating on a 15 year-long research project to analyse the ways in which climate change has affected public health worldwide. Dr Morrissey said: “This global project is crucially important. Most projections into climate change completely fail to take into account the huge implications of a warming

world impacting on human health.” The primary aim is to discover how public health adapts to the changing environment. Dr Morrissey explains that their research will “consider aspects such as infrastructure and how rising sea levels will impact coastlines”. She further stated that important issues arising from hot summers, such as increased heart disease and severe asthmas attack, must be urgently investigated. Geography Professor Adger said: “Nothing will demonstrate the urgency of climate change more than tracking how weather affects people’s health and wellbeing. In this initiative we will monitor ﬂoods, drought and heatwave to paint a picture of the real world impact on people and the environment. If we haven’t woken up to the scale of the climate change challenge, our science suggest we soon will.”

Rachel Ashenden News Editor

STUDENT Idea on the Guild website has proposed that the university should introduce compulsory staff training for mental health, with the intention to improve student-staff relationships through knowing how to deal with its effects on learning. The anonymous student who proposed the idea claimed that they were inﬂuenced by Exeposé’s investigation into mitigation policies in Issue 658. They argued that on the basis of the disclosures in the article, “it is clear that many staff members (especially in academia) do not have a basic understanding of mental health”, but that this could be improved by training staff to handle their students’ mental health difﬁculties.

Photo: Wikipedia

Many staff members do not have a basic understanding of mental health Anonymous student

One student commented “It can be very difﬁcult talking to staff who have little understanding of mental health, you

get some very strange / unhelpful answers. For those who have less common things than depression, it must be so much harder.” The poll closed on the 17 November 2016, with the majority voting in agreement, only 11 voters in disagreement, and one person neutral. The University has informed Exeposé that staff mental health training has already been intoduced in a module created by the Academic Development Team, who have worked closely with Wellbeing Services. The module, ‘Supporting Students: Mental Health, Wellbeing, and the HWSS Procedure’, is created for personal/ academic or senior tutors, but it is also relevant to all staff who are teaching, supervising or supporting students’ learning, whether they are academics or Professional Services staff. It gives advice for staff on signposting students to other services and guidance on the Health, Wellbeing and Support for Study procedure. This module is being led by Professor Wendy Robinson, Academic Dean for Students and Dean of the Faculty of Taught Programmes; it also has the full endorsement of the Students’ Guild and of FXU. Professor Robinson said: “This module is a useful and relevant resource

for staff at the University of Exeter, to help us all to ensure that students are given the best possible support during their time with us. It is absolutely vital that staff are able to support students, and that they also feel supported themselves.

This training ensures that students are given the best possible support during their time with us Professor Wendy Robinson, Academic Dean for Students

“It is now an essential requirement for people in many academic roles to take this module. So far feedback has been very positive, and Academic Development is continuing to look at ways to improve it.” Alec James, VP Welfare & Diversity, said: “Mental health training for tutors was a key priority on my manifesto. After a number of meetings with the Academic Development team raising mental health training as a priority for tutors, myself and Tom Murray-Richards from FXU were given the opportunity to feed into a training resource for tutors. “I am delighted that we now have this training resource. The module content is fantastic, early feedback has been good and I hope it makes a big difference.”

Exeter sixth worst for casual contracts Theodore Stone Online Editor

HE University of Exeter has been ranked sixth in the country for its percentage of teaching and teaching-and-research staff on temporary/‘atypical’ contracts, in a new investigation run by The Guardian newspaper. This has led to a number of trade unionists to accuse vice-chancellors of importing a “Sports Direct model” into British universities. Alongside this, the National Union of Students has warned that low-paid and overstressed tutors may not be providing quality education to undergraduates. More than half of Britain’s academic staff manage on insecure, non-permanent contracts which range from short-term (which usually elapse after nine months) to those paid hourly to give classes, or mark essays and exams. Furthermore, three-quarters of junior academics - who are most likely to teach on the front line are employed on these contracts. Exeter was found to employ 63.2 per cent of its staff through these contracts, far above the average, and just behind Queen’s, Belfast and Oxford whose rates were 63.6 per cent and 63.7 per cent respectively. Birmingham university topped the table, with 70.3 per cent of its staff receiving these contracts. The

University of Cambridge was placed at the bottom of the table, with only 13.4 per cent. One-year and two-year contracts are often inevitable when it comes to grantfunded research. However, the ﬁgures published by The Guardian appear to show that temporary and zero-hours contracts are commonplace within undergraduate teaching. It has been speculated that the results demonstrate a two-tier academic workforce, with many younger academics forced to live hand-to-mouth and unable to pursue research, whilst those at the top enjoy very sizeable salaries. Sorana Vieru, the NUS VicePresident, told The Guardian that, “when academic staff are demoralised and forced to cope with low pay and insecurity, the knock-on effect on students is signiﬁcant… Many students

are now taking on unprecedented levels of debt to go to university. They deserve good quality teaching and anything that damages that is deeply unjust.” A spokesman for the University of Exeter said: “The University strongly refutes any claims that it provides ‘precarious employment’ for any of its staff. By focusing on headline-grabbing claims, this report ignores the crucial context behind the ﬁgures that have been generated. “Some guest lecturers and occasional teachers – many of whom are Postgraduate Teaching Assistants – may also be offered temporary work which allows them the ﬂexibility to undertake short-term teaching assignments. This is invaluable for their career development, while also completing their studies. They are remunerated according to the national Photo: Wikipedia

pay scale. The University also abides by its code of practice for the employment of postgraduate students, which the Students’ Guild and UCU were invited to comment on. This limits the amount of teaching Postgraduate Research Assistants are allowed to undertake. “The University actively endorses fair and equitable employment practices for all of its staff, and invests heavily in both supporting and promoting their work and career development. This was reﬂected in the most recent Staff Survey conducted by the University, where 88 per cent of all staff described it as being a good place to work.”

É Russell Group statistics for most casual contracts: Birmingham - 70.3% Warwick - 68.1% Edinburgh - 66.6% Oxford - 63.7% Queen’s, Belfast - 63.6% Exeter - 63.2% Queen Mary, London - 62.9% Durham - 60.5% Manchester -57.9% Liverpool - 57.1% Bristol - 56.2%

Lecturer refashions Bratz and Barbie dolls to promote positive body image to children Emma Bessent Arts & Lit Editor

MMA Cayley, Associate Professor of Medieval French at the University of Exeter, has received attention in the national press including the BBC and The Mirror - for her work reclaiming hyper-sexualised fashion dolls. Her project takes precedent from the likes of Sonia Singh, the Tasmanian artist behind Tree Change Dolls. She explains that her intention in

upcycling the toys is “to promote a more body positive image to the children playing with them.” For Cayley, “the important thing is the message behind the dolls”, not their actual bodies. Creating dolls which allow children to feel represented by their playthings is important to Cayley. She claims the #ToyLikeMe campaign was a particular source of inspiration, encouraging her to remodel dolls to show physical symptoms of disability and sickness such as alopecia, cleft lip and palate.

Collaboration with child psychologists and academics specialising in child development offers Cayley a future direction for her project, and she also expresses an intent to support charities such as “Changing Faces” who work to raise awareness of facial disﬁgurement.

The important thing is the message behind the dolls, not their actual bodies Emma Cayley, Professor of Medieval French

Photo: Emma Cayley

As an academic, Cayley works “primarily in the literature, social history and culture of the medieval period in France and Europe more broadly”. Her speciﬁc interests include “the history of the ‘querelle des femmes,’” “the case for women in the medieval and early modern period” and “historical constructions of gender and gender stereotyping”. She explains “I have brought my research together with my hobby” by running workshops in local schools to teach young people “about the historical and cultural background to debates about

gender and diversity”. This also allows Cayley to help “shake off the ‘ivory tower’ image” of academia and engage her research with the local community. After the BBC coverage, Cayley thanked “amazing PhD student Dan Carpenter” for organising the workshop shown. “Without Dan, there would have been no feature!” she told Facebook fans via her Devon Rescue Dolls page. Cayley states that expanding the educational impact of her work is a key component to future expansion of the project. Alongside creating a pack of learning resources which will be made available online, allowing schools further aﬁeld to implement her research within their programmes, the Exeter academic also hopes to continue offering workshops. A percentage of the products are sold in an Exeter-based charity shop. Cayley splits the proﬁts between charity and funding for her workshops. For those inspired by her dolls, she fully encourages having a go at home: “Anyone can upcycle their own dolls – grab some nail polish remover with high acetone content and acrylic paints or watercolour pencils/ pastels, and experiment. It’s great fun, and worthwhile!”

NEWS

5-metre smoking rule to be enforced

STUDENT has argued that a five metre smoking rule should be enforced with greater effect on campus, on the Guild Student Ideas website. They reasoned that this is not an “attack on smoking; it’s a life choice and people can do it if they wish, however it’s unfair for non-smokers to be forced to walk through irritating clouds of smoke around building entrances.” They also proposed that the university should use staff and security cameras to deter students from smoking near buildings. Students have mainly responded positively, with the majority in agreement. Many raised the health benefits from implementing the rule, arguing that there will be “less risk of passive smoking” and beneficial to asthmatic people. Others have commented that the current situation ruins campus as a space for nonsmokers, as many people smoke in areas that are no smoking zones, such as the library courtyard. The voting closes on 23 November. Natalie Keffler, Contributor

Syria art exhibition in the Forum

N exhibition titled “Stories of Hope and Fear from Syria” marks a series of events on the Syrian Civil War. The exhibition will feature Syrian art, curated to show human hope during periods of great fear, and will be held in the forum between 18 and 24 November. Some of the objects include a piece of contemporary Syrian protest grafﬁti by artists Ibrahim Fakhri and Zaher Omareen, and original paper chess pieces which were made and used by western hostages in Raqqa. Six iconic posters from the Syrian revolution of 2011 will also be displayed. The programme was created by Theology Professor Emma Loosley. Seeing the devastation that has swept Syria following their Civil War, she has worked with the charity Making Light, to bring more attention to the conﬂict. Other events will include a talk from Doctor Bashar Fahrahat, who was detained by the Assad regime, and a screening of the documentary, “A Tale of Two Syrias.” Jasmine Prasad, Contributor

The Prince of Wales loves Exeter farmers

HE Prince of Wales spoke highly of the research conducted by Exeter professors Michael Winter and Matt Lobley in his birthday message for the magazine Country Life. Discussing the future of rural Britain and problems that small farms face, by being taken over by larger businesses, he singled out experts from Exeter University as the ones providing insightful possible developments in the farming industry. In their report professors point out the importance of small family farms and their immense contribution to their communities. Nadia Zajancauskaite, Contributor

NEWS

Exeter students stressed out Anti-Trump grafﬁti by city-wide hunt for housing found on campus CONTINUED FROM FRONT ...4-6 weeks of arriving and I feel by next Spring there will be a number that have made the wrong decision. ” The sudden rush for housing has also frustrated incumbents of p r o p e r t i e s, w h o complain the viewings are often without warning. Sarah Johnson, a third year biology student, said: “We came home and our estate agent was showing people round our house, if we hadn’t had come home, we wouldn’t have known that people had been round... I know we haven’t been the only ones experiencing this as a friend has also had a similar problem with a different agency.” Exeter Printworks however, told Exeposé they have seen a similar demand this year compared to any other. “The Printworks is a popular site and lots of

people rebook with us so there is always a peak in the first few months of sales for those who want to secure a specific room. However, we’re a big site and have room to suit everyone so there is no need for students to panic. It’ll be interesting to see if our usual sales pattern is affected by the Housing Fair move to November.” The news follows widespread dissatisfaction from students A recently-posted Student Idea argued serious help should be offered for “the every worsening housing market”, hitting back at the university’s handling of it. “The University’s response is pathetic, if existent, usually a short email when 75 per cent of people have found a house telling freshers not to panic. They should be offering serious advice to people from the start of first term.” Until 6 December, the Students’

Guild will be running an Accommodation campaign designed to help students. A Students’ Guild spokesperson commented: “We took the decision to move the Accommodation Fair to respond to the many issues that students can face after signing accommodation contracts early, a pressure that is caused by private landlords and letting agencies. “Our hope is that by having the event and campaign earlier students are more prepared, properly supported and encounter fewer issues when looking for properties.”

É Students’ Guild housing events Accommodation Fair: 22nd Nov - 11:00-15:00, Great Hall St. Luke’s Flatmate Finder: 24th Nov - 14:30-16:00, G47, St. Luke’s

Natasa Christoﬁdou News Editor

NTI-Trump graffiti was spotted outside the female toilets, on the bottom floor of Cornwall House, on Thursday 17 October. The graffiti appeared the morning after a gig by the band “The Mouse Outfit”, held at the Lemon Grove, which is nearby Cornwall House. Campus services told Exeposé that they had been notified about the incident and intended to clear up the graffiti as soon as possible. Later that afternoon, the black marker was covered up with a thin layer of white paint. The graffiti’s appearance comes shortly after a student-led anti-Trump protest in Exeter. Hayden Cooper, co-organiser of the protest, condemned the graffiti as an act of vandalism. “Whilst I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment and am grateful these views are being represented, I do condemn this as an act of vandalism. However, one must consider why this statement was expressed via graffiti and not in the open. I believe it may be linked to the

suppression of anti-Trump views and the violence threatened at those who espouse such.” “Exeter Against Trump.” took place in Bedford Square on Tuesday 15 October, and saw students stand in solidarity with all that are affected by America’s presidential elections. A Students’ Guild spokesperson said: “It’s disappointing to see that one individual has resorted to grafﬁti to express their own political frustrations.”

Photo: Natasa Christofidou

From Syria With Love Are Student Ideas taking the mick? publishes its ﬁrst book Hannah Butler Editor

Rachel Ashenden News Editor

HE charity ‘From Syria With Love’, founded by Baraa Ehssan Kouji, a former academic representative at the University of Exeter, has seen its ﬁrst book publication. ‘From Syria With Love’ has been a registered charity since September 2016, and its aim is to raise awareness about the Syrian refugee plight, and the global humanitarian crisis. The charity launched its ﬁrst book on 1 November 2016. It was edited and compiled by volunteer Molly Masters, a second year student at the University of Sussex, and published by Indie Books Ltd. Photo: Molly Masters

The book contains a series of vignettes, short stories, poems and photography, all reﬂecting the Syrian crisis and its effect on the children of the Lebanon refugee camp. Founder Baraa’s involvement began when English student Masters pitched the project to him, and he oversaw the development of the book. Baraa initially served as translator between Masters and the Syrian children at the Lebanon refugee camp, and then introduced professional Arabic academics to proof read the book. All the proﬁts made from the book will go directly to help those featured continuing the charity’s aid work. The RRP is £10 and the book is available for purchase now.

HE Guild has defended its Students Ideas system follows complaints that some proposals are simply “taking the mick.” It doesn’t want to treat students “like naughty children,” a spokesperson told Exeposé. Over the past year, the online Student Ideas platform has registered votes on issues from NUS afﬁliation and Right2Debate to exam timings and the University’s controversial “hubs” system proposal. However, recent Ideas have sparked annoyance among voters.

These jokes are delegitimising Student Ideas Adam Eveleigh, student “This is funny, but please vote Disagree or Strongly Disagree so that this doesn’t get passed,” commenter Adam Eveleigh urged students on two Ideas – one calling for “Harambe to be recognised as Eternal Supreme Leader of the Guild,” and one demanding the Guild “provide stables so I may ride my pony to campus.” Exeposé contacted Eveleigh for his take on Student Ideas. “It’s a brilliant system,” he said, admitting the mechanism is “very clever and seems to work rather well.”

“However,” he added, “some students do seem to be taking the mick somewhat.” These jokes are “delegitimising Student Ideas,” Eveleigh complained. “It is not taken as a serious policy platform but more a place for students to have a laugh and perhaps get annoyed about non-issues.” Whatever the case, the Guild was apparently forced to take the Harambe Idea seriously: “The position of Eternal Supreme Leader of the Guild does not exist, and even if it did, a dead gorilla cannot consent to this role,” Guild Change responded on the Idea page. “We therefore cannot go through with the Idea.” “The system is designed to be fun,” a spokesperson told Exeposé, “therefore fun Ideas are a part of it.” Stressing that the Guild does not “censor or suppress, “they added “staff will not judge” the Ideas, or the students who propose them. “The fact that the system has virtually

no restrictions on submission is one of its strengths,” they said. Systems that pre-vet student proposals are “patronising in the extreme to students,” they said, “treating them like naughty children rather than fully functioning adults who are capable of reaching individual judgement on any given Idea and voting accordingly.” Eveleigh agreed that “silly ideas” shouldn’t necessarily be banned. Instead, the Guild “should stress how important Student Ideas is as a policy-making body and ask that students focus on issues which will help improve the university experience for everyone,” he told Exeposé. In any case, the Guild added, the vast majority of Ideas classed as “fun” have been rejected. “We therefore continue to trust the judgement of the students of Exeter,” they said, “who appear fully capable of passing sensible and necessary Ideas only.”

É Student Ideas: the best of the worst “Provide stables so I may ride my pony to campus” “Adopt a campus dog!” “Harambe to be recognised as Eternal Supreme Leader of the Guild” “Sell foie gras in the Ram” “The Guild should declare its plans for a Zombie Apocalypse” ““Show the Robot Wars ﬁnal in the Ram” “The Guild should erect a statue of Cecil Rhodes in the Forum”

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21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

Comment

THE SABB

’D like to talk about something that has become an issue over the last few months - drink spiking. As we get closer to the end of term, the number of parties and celebrations increase. A number of students have chatted to us sharing their concerns about this issue, so I wanted to take this chance to encourage you to be vigilant and stay safe at the end of the year. What I’m definitely not saying is that your to blame if you get spiked - it’s never your fault. But, there are things we can all be doing to make sure that if we are on a night out, we can enjoy it safely. When going out, make sure that you have a plan for getting back home again. If you are going out as a group, try to stay together. as nobody wants to have to do the lap of Unit 1 to find their mates, and it means everyone gets back safely. Alternatively, let someone know if you’re planning to go out, if you’re not going as part of a group and ask them to check up when you get back. When you’re out, keep an eye on your own drinks, and your friends’ drinks, and avoid accepting drinks if you don’t know the person who’s offering. Remember that if you’ve been drinking, you’ll be less alert, so take extra care when you can. If you’re feeling nervous it can be safer to have a bottled drink. Drink spiking can happen to anyone, even if you’re sober or drinking water. If you think your drink has been spiked, stop drinking that drink and tell someone you trust, plus the venue’s security staff. Symptoms can occur as little as half an hour after drinking. You may want to or go with a trusted friend to A&E but in an emergency, if you need urgent help call 999. Finally, and most importantly, if you have been spiked, feel empowered to report it. It is a criminal offence that is taken seriously. You can speak to one of the Guild Advice Unit’s advisors in confidence and they can talk you through your options. Google “NHS Drink Spiking” for some really helpful resources, or take a look on the Guild website. Together, if we can keep an eye out, we can make sure the end of term can be enjoyable and safe.

Bea Fones Matthew Newman

housing horrors

Alec James VP Welfare and Diversity

Drink spiking is #NeverOK

COMMENT EDITORS:

Malcolm Wong Contributor

T’S happened again. While my friends in London chill out and enjoy the dawning of winter, here we are - frantically searching for houses and scrambling for viewings like there’s no tomorrow. It’s natural to think that we should be looking for next year’s houses... Next year? Unfortunately, here at Exeter Uni, we are all fierce animals looking for good shelter, and that means the housing craze is pushed earlier every year. The housing process is long and tedious; not to mention that Freshers have to decide on who to live with based on two months of friendship. Tough. You start off delving into the depths of uncountable housing websites only to come up empty-handed, then you and your future housemates visit every single housing agency you can find. And when you finally find houses that you like, you make loads

of calls and emails to line up viewings. Apocalypse hits when you find out that your house was snatched up just hours before you signed the contract, so you settle for your backup choice… only to find out that the same has happened, so you settle for your backup’s backup. But not all hope is lost. It is still November, and you will find a house. If you aren’t a fresher, I’d say it’s good that we know what to expect, but experience only brings us so far. My friends and I had agreed to move into a flat next year, which some of them are living in right now. They told the landlord they wanted to continue to live in the same flat next year, and it was all going well until, well, mayhem. The flat was let to another group, despite the fact that we had an agreement We went for a couple of viewings, and after missing out on another good flat, we finally got hold of a good house and signed the contract last week. It was quite a surprise to me when a friend said she saw people queueing

up outside Cardens early in the morning last week. This is the state of things now. People literally have to abandon lectures to speak to housing agents; the process is simply too stressful to bear with any longer. With the housing craze coinciding with deadline season every year, managing everything is certainly no easy feat. The Guild always tells you that you don’t have to worry, and you can’t blame them for saying that because they’re trying to help students de-stress. They tell you to wait until the housing fair because there’ll be new houses on the market by then. That may be true, but if you wait until then it’ll simply be too late, not to mention the fair will be crawling with hundreds of people who are hungrier than you.

It is still November, and you will ﬁnd a house Doubtless, if everyone took it easy and handled housing next year, all hell would

not break loose. Sadly, reality prompts a more competitive scenario. It’s like when you score 80 per cent on an exam and the class average is 85 per cent. It’s not that you did badly, it’s just that everyone else did very well. Regarding housing, you have to stay with the pack, or else you’ll be easily eliminated. It’s a sad but cruel truth. You might have already lost another house by the time you’ve read this far. At this point in time, Pennsylvania Road and most of its nearby streets will be gone, but remember, optimism is key! Just because you’ve lost one doesn’t mean you can’t ﬁnd something better! Time to expand the radius of your search, and put your focus on other areas. If you’ve already got a house, congratulations! If you’re still looking, all the best and don’t let the challenges deter you. We can try and hope for better next year, but it won’t happen. You tried, Guild, it was a valiant effort. Given all the competitiveness, the stress for housing is only going to keep pushing forward every year.

#ShutDownYarlsWood Abi Setchﬁeld FemSoc Committee

VER the next few weeks, Exeter is going to be a prominent centre for the movement called #ShutDownYarlsWood. Unknown to many, Yarl’s Wood Immigration Removal Centre is a detention centre found in Bedfordshire, but plays host to almost postapocalyptic, Orwellian narratives. Holding over 400 women, often against their will, often illegally, and with over 70 per cent of the detainees having reported sexual assault and intimidation from the guards, it has been a site of immense suffering over the past decade. At the moment, this supposed ‘asylum’ can hold the women there indeﬁnitely, keeping them from friends, families, and the better life they came here searching for. As it stands, for them, Britain is hardly better than the war-ridden countries they have tried to escape from. But hopefully, with the help of local societies and movements, not for much longer. After nine demonstrations, change is ﬁnally starting to happen. Pushed into change by public revulsion, Yarl’s Wood

no longer can hold pregnant women or children, but it is not enough. The next step is to shut it down. For the next month, Exeter University’s own Feminist Society will be collaborating with local branches of Sisters Uncut (a British feminist direct action group that is opposed to cuts to UK government services for domestic violence victims) to spread knowledge of the Yarl’s Wood atrocities and to send support to East Anglia from the West Country. FemSoc and Sisters Uncut Bristol will be joining groups from all over the country in travelling to Bedford to join in the tenth protest on December 3rd at the detention centre. They want to mobilize as many people around the country as they

can, and show that Exeter – along with so many other towns nationwide – will not stand for such abuses of human rights any longer. They still have spaces for people to join them, to ﬁght to rectify the mistakes of our own countries against these refugees. This is not all. On 23 November, Movement for Justice will be speaking in Exeter, motivating and educating people on the topic of Yarl’s Wood. As a charity partly staffed by ex-detainees of the detention centre, this provides an amazing chance to hear the truth about the events and scandals which surround this institution. This event will be more than just an unparalleled learning opportunity for anyone interested in the struggles of asylum seekers

in our ‘green and pleasant land’; it allows us to show these once-victims that not only are they welcome here, but that we will defend future refugees from what they had to needlessly suffer. We stand with them. These are the two dates to mark in your diary: 23 November and 3 December. Exeter will be participating in an immense nationwide movement, one of huge importance in a post-Brexit society where the fate of refugees is too easily brushed under the carpet. Hopefully this protest will be the ﬁnal push needed to close Yarl’s Wood for good. This time, we will be able to #ShutDownYarlsWood.

We will defend future refugees from what current detainees needlessly suffer For more updates, please check the FemSoc Facebook page, or search for either of the following events; ‘From Inside Yarl’s Wood: Fighting Immigration Detention Talk’ on 23 November, or ‘Demonstration to SHUT DOWN YARLS WOOD and ALL detention centres’, on 3 December.

COMMENT Natasha Tee Organiser

N Tuesday 8 November, the USA opened its voting booths. I stayed up until nearly dawn. I had been hoping, cautiously, for a slim but decisive Democratic victory. Clinton was not who I wanted as leader of arguably the most powerful country of the world, but she was predictable. She was far more qualiﬁed for the job than her biggest opponent. By the time I went to sleep, Trump was narrowly winning; he hadn’t yet crossed the 270 electoral college vote threshold required for presidency.

I didn’t want to celebrate, if I’m honest, I wanted to be heard The US is by no means a perfect country. It has made and continues to make plenty of decisions that, in my opinion, were grave mistakes. But we grew up watching the US start taking steps in the right direction. Electing its ﬁrst AfricanAmerican President, legalising same-sex

marriage, repealing Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, instituting the Affordable Care Act, passing legislation to protect millions of undocumented immigrants, and pledging to protect the environment with the Paris Agreement. I allowed myself to be hopeful.

When I woke two hours later, Trump had won. Years of inching in the right direction had been undone. At the time, it felt personal. Tens of millions of American voters thought it at least permissible to be represented by a President and Vice-President who between them have a track record of xenophobia, islamophobia, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia. At worst, they were happy to accept this.

I don’t need to repeat the rhetoric from this campaign. We’ve seen it. We know it’s unacceptable. Many perturbed American activists started suggesting encryption of all future plans for organisation or resistance. They shared white supremacist symbols, so people of colour (and their allies) would know what to watch out for. People are queuing up to get IUDs, in case birth control becomes inaccessible or unaffordable. Trans people are rushing to get legal name changes before the inaug urati o n . Lawyers are offering free legal advice through the hashtag #TransLawHelp. Hate crime is up, and people are literally fearing for their lives. Realistically, there is nothing I can do from Exeter to overturn the election result. But, for me at least, inaction was impermissible. I organised a protest that, if nothing else, gave about a hundred people the chance to come together, vent their frustrations, and stand in solidarity with the

millions who will be negatively affected by the outcome of this election. To stand with the hundreds of thousands who have already taken to the streets. To stand up for LGBT people, who Pence has voted against at every turn. To stand against overturning Roe vs. Wade and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. To stand with the 1.5bn Muslims Trump wanted to ban from entering the US. Against the KKK, racist, antiSemitic, white supremacists who not only endorsed Trump, but are holding a victory parade to celebrate his win. I didn’t want to celebrate, if I’m honest. I wanted to be heard.

Exeter Against Trump? Charlotte Im Contributor

EDNESDAY morning, I woke up to the dawn of a nightmare. America has seen widespread dissent since the announcement of a Trump presidency, mostly a cry that demands to repudiate the election results, close to escalating out of control. Outside of America, similar protests have arisen to complement it, including one held in Exeter 15 November.

served as the method of determining the President of the USA. Trump protestors should be reﬂecting on why they had accepted this ﬂawed electoral system for so many years instead. Most importantly, what this election reveals is that the values that many Americans hold appear to us students as backward. Trump is condemned by our generation as misogynist, racist, and all other b a d

netizens seemed to support Clinton, how many Trump supporters have stayed silent? How many netizens who spoke against Trump also refused to vote for Clinton? How many Americans treasured their vote? I come from a city where I cannot vote for my own leader, despite Hong Kong’s reputation as a democratic city. I

things of the universe, so we don’t quite understand why anyone in their sane mind would vote for him. The truth is around half of the people that voted believed he was a better candidate than Clinton, aligning themselves to his values more than Clinton’s perceived ‘liberal’ ones. Even when looking at the popular vote, Clinton only led Trump by around 300,000 votes. While the most vocal of

come from a city which is now descended into political and social chaos and divided from within because our government is not legitimate, because our government does not represent us as a collective, because we do not have the vote to change our future. That is why votes are so important. Votes represent the ultimate political power that one can ever possess in their lives, and it breaks my heart to see

It isn’t our place to justify the rallies, let alone participate While I have my own reasons to prefer Clinton over Trump, why do we have the right to challenge the results of the election? It isn’t our place to justify the rallies against Trump, let alone participate in one. At this stage, the result should be recognized as legitimate, and, as far as we are concerned, Trump defeated Clinton fair-and-square and deserves his presidency (unless he rigged the votes, which I hope he did). One of the points contended by those against Trump is the ﬂaw of the electoral college, a system that has roots in the 19th Century, and for years has

t h e outcome of this election, because people wasted their votes by not voting for their future. Ultimately, protests against Trump may be conducted out of good will and belief, but these actions are unjustiﬁed and will not alter the course of the next four years. At the end of the day, if America only focuses on this one man and does not reﬂect on this election as a whole, then they will only elect another Trump in the future.

I come from a city where I cannot vote for my own leader There is simply nothing we can do about it; nothing will change after a few people got together in a small city in Devon, of all places.

student Katja Frisinger spoke at the event, where they outlined their reasons for protest:

S an American lesbian in Exeter, this protests means a lot to me. It reminds me that even though the values of the country I’m from, including those of my own friends and family, have become so opposite to my own, there’s still solidarity against these xenophobic, racist, and homophobic ideals in Exeter itself. On a personal level I feel supported, as do many other Americans like myself who are still reeling from the results. It’s easy to disengage with the politics of a country you don’t live in, so by getting involved here it reminds Americans like us that we still have the power to help shape our country, which in turn shapes the global political climate. This protest is the ﬁrst step in helping other Americans really engage with one another, so that in four years time we can work together in raising awareness and providing resources for overseas voters in places like Exeter. To those who say we have nothing to gain by doing this, I would say to you that the sense of community and solidarity is justiﬁcation enough. For marginalised groups to know there are others like them, as well as allies doing their best to support them, this truly shapes the climate in and around Exeter on a day-to-day basis. We can do our best to show the marginalised groups in Exeter that we support them and want to protect them. Not only do we not approve of what’s happened in the US, but also that we won’t allow it to spill over here. We need to be vigilant. Now more than ever, we need keep an eye out for racist and xenophobic attacks. Educate yourself on the best way to respond when you see it happen. Already Trump’s election is being used to justify attacks like these here in Devon. be prepared to help the people in these marginalised groups. Ultimately, we need to stand together against the harmful ideas that trump now has the power to enforce. Photo: Pexels

Photo credits: Sachal Khan

21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

Features

FEATURES EDITORS:

Photo: pri.org

Georgina Bolam Katie Jenkins

Trump’s rural white America Zeena Starbuck, Foreign Correspondents’ Coordinator, discusses the prospect of a USA contiguous with Trump’s racist and sexist rhetoric

OVEMBER 8: the world was anticipating a win for Hillary Clinton. The New York Times gave her an 85 per cent chance of victory. Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight, who predicted all 50 states voting patterns in 2012, said 71.4 per cent. Yet despite trailing in the polls, lacking endorsements from any major media outlets, and causing fracturing within the Republican party over whether to endorse their own candidate, Donald Trump won the presidency. Many Americans are shocked, confused, and angry. Protesting has broken out on college campuses and in major cities; many are looking for someone or something to hold accountable. He lost the popular vote but won the election, the ﬁfth candidate to do so in American history, so the Electoral College system is at fault. Third party voters ignored the realities of bipartisan politics, so they are at fault. The DNC worked in cahoots with their ‘bad candidate’, stabbing Bernie Sanders in the back, and brought this defeat upon themselves. Disillusionment with the establishment led to the death of democracy. Yet the media, the masses, and the politicians have made this election more than just numbers and campaigns, more than individual actions and political systems; ideas and identities drove this election, drove the voters, and drove Trump to the White House. Campaign discourse alone shows which rhetorics successfully aligned

voters with Trump. ‘Make America Great Again’ utilised constitutional patriotism and nostalgia, which particularly appealed to the populous baby boomers. Trump’s campaign also drew upon racial elements of American identity. The USA is diverse, but white Americans are the majority of the population; Trump’s gamble that the majority would be decisive in the election paid off. The statistics about demographic voting trends make it clear: 63 per cent of white men, 53 per cent of white women, and 58 per cent of white voters overall chose Trump, and their numbers were larger than those of minorities. Although Trump’s white plurality is actually less than Romney’s 59 per cent in 2012, this decrease further suggests racism is alive and well in the USA; the white vote was more divided because there was not a black candidate in the election.

Disillusionment with the establishment led to the death of democracy While Trump never explicitly endorsed white supremacy (although he accepted the KKK’s endorsement), he galvanised racial tensions deeply intertwined with the USA’s history and conceptions of American identity. The USA was founded upon equality yet built on the backs of slaves. George Washington, the revolutionary freedom ﬁghter, owned slaves in Virginia. The civil war saw an entire army mobilised

to defend ‘American’ ideals of racial superiority. The civil rights movement ‘ended’ 50 years ago, but violence and ingrained discrimination towards minorities by law enforcement and employers is commonplace. Yet Trump wants to use racist history to mould the future. He channelled discriminatory nostalgic patriotism and securitised white identity, by creating an enemy of the non-white ‘other’; ‘Bad hombres’, ‘the blacks’, ideological Islam, cause violence within and downfall of the nation, and the rest of white Americans are passive victims. CNN’s Van Jones summarised: “this was a whitelash against a changing country...against a black president, in part, and that’s the part where the pain comes.” Despite calls from both the right and the left throughout the election that gender plays no role in politics, this election cycle shows sexism is still rife in the USA. Gender inequality is a factual reality. Obama received 93 per cent of black votes in 2012, Clinton won 88 per cent. However, this loss came solely from male voters in the demographic: 80 per cent of black males voted for Clinton, while 94 per cent of black women voted for Clinton. Trump’s delegitimisation of women impacted how voters perceived Hillary Clinton and women as a whole. Trump argued both explicitly and subtly that having a female President would threaten national security: he asserted Clinton was unﬁt, claimed menstrual cycles determined women’s moods, and asserted women did not see ‘real’ issues

because they were distracted by ‘locker room talk’. Gender was undoubtedly a predominant discourse in this election cycle and we cannot ignore the result in relation to that.

This election cycle shows sexism is still rife in the USA The USA has a masculinity complex - while Great Britain, Germany, Israel, South Korea and Taiwan, among others, have elected female leaders, the President of the USA remains a male job. Perhaps it is the macho nature of being ‘commander in chief,’ or the history of the USA saving ‘damsels in distress’ through humanitarian, not defensive, war, but American political and military leadership remains patriarchal. Trump’s supporters used sexist catch phrases (‘Trump that bitch’, ‘Hillary sucks, but not like Monica’) engaging in these discourses of masculine superiority. This election shows a woman’s place in American democracy is limited, and that as a nation, men and women still have very different perceived roles. Furthermore, this is a societal problem: more white women voted for Trump than Clinton. Trump performed masculinity throughout the election, objectiﬁed and criticised women, and won. Trump’s victory is a tragedy: he used racist and sexist ‘American’ identities successfully in part due to failings of public education and misinformation.

The USA put economic prestige and military supremacy first, education and welfare second. Teachers in public education are poorly paid, top-down education schemes like Bush’s ‘no child left behind’ have increased educational inequality, and hardly anyone can afford college. When education fails people turn to the mainstream media, which stereotypes and fear-mongers for profit, misinforming the public. The USA is divided, and Trump cannot bring it together. Not only because his ideals are exclusionary and incite relational hatred between races, genders and religions, but because divisions within the country cannot be mended with top-down policies alone. We, as a country, need to fix ourselves. We need to communicate, listen, understand, explain, and coexist. We need a civil society and public space where we can interact with people outside of our identity bubbles. These kind of communications are always harder after an election, when one side is high on victory and the other angry in defeat. Just by winning, he endorses sexism, rape culture, gun violence, racism, and bigotry. Yet, if we fear Trump, we give him power. If we class his voters as ‘the other’, we are no different than him isolating groups in an ‘us versus them’ rhetoric. It has now become more important than ever to fight for what we believe in. This election has been difficult, it has been heartbreaking, it has been shocking, but just because the result is finalised does not mean the conversation ends.

"Your job is to keep the peace" Georgia Roberts, Online News Editor, interviews Sue Matthew, former Chief Admin Ofﬁcer at UN Peacekeeping Operations

HE Department of Peacekeeping Operations at the United Nations is, well, pretty hectic these days. There are currently 16 major operations taking place – over half of which are located in Africa. During the Cold War, Peacekeepers were deployed to the world’s most conflict-ridden regions. Now, over 100,000 personnel are spread across the globe do their best to monitor, observe and aid the implementation of peace agreements. Susan Matthew, retired Chief Administrative Officer at the UN Peacekeeping Operations, has been deployed to some of the world's horrific war zones; from genocide in Rwanda to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Complexities in the modern application process reflect the growing complexities of the role itself. “It’s wide ranging these days," Matthew says. "We get involved in so many different aspects; there are people observing elections, training police, training military personnel, doing political negotiations… It used to be restricted to Peacekeeping. Now the diversity of responsibilities for a mission are much broader than observing a ceasefire.”

Africa is the region that currently has the most Peacekeeping missions operating Contrary to many who speculate that Peacekeeping forces are overstretched Susan suggests that "the UN as a whole is overstretched, having to put the missions in place and finding the civilian staff to provide the back up and support. Many of the Peacekeeping troops come from nations that have large armies; places like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Egypt... The difficulty is administering all of these peacekeeping operations.” Peacekeepers are employed from across the globe to delve into conflict zones with appalling human rights abuses. But many Peacekeepers come from nations with their own calamitous records on human rights. Recent sexual abuse controversies involving UN staff in their place of deployment have made headlines and

raised questions about how Peacekeepers can be vetted. "They can’t really vet Peacekeepers”, Matthew tells me. “But what happens now is the UN tells countries they have to train their personnel into the ways of the UN. The UN asks for volunteers for particular mission, and if a country says yes, it’s very hard to turn round and say, “OK, now we want to vet you all” – even if you have the facilities to do it.” Moving on to the international inﬂuence countries have over the UN, Matthew explains, “It’s not necessarily the UN these other countries dictate to. It’s usually a controversial situation that they’ve been asked to go into in their home country when they refuse orders. But again, it doesn’t happen very often. You have to remember there’s not always enough military there to do a task. Not only that, sometimes the member states just don’t volunteer enough people – if the whole number of member states are being asked to volunteer troops, sometimes the state in which members are being asked to volunteer troops just don’t volunteer them. So sometimes a bad situation develops purely because of a shortfall of personnel, not because they don’t want to carry out the task.” Africa is the region that currently has the most Peacekeeping missions operating within it. Often, as in the Middle East, conﬂicts have origins in intricate and complex tribal disputes that seem impossible to resolve. I call attention to the scepticisms surrounding the effectiveness of Peacekeepers in these long-

running conﬂicts; “But you have to try and stabilise a situation," Matthew responds. "Even if it doesn’t create peace, you have to try and stabilise so people can start talking about peace. This is sometimes the best that can be achieved; to stabilise or to monitor a temporary ceaseﬁre in the hope that warring factions can get together.”

No, you don't want to take sides. Your job is to go in and keep the peace. It must be difﬁcult to resist taking sides within these conﬂicts – especially when it is clear who the perpetrators of the suffering are, and atrocities are out in the open such as those being committed by the Islamic State. Matthew is very clear

that this isn't an option: “No, you don’t want to take sides. Your job is to go in and keep the peace…you shouldn’t get involved in what side to take. As a UN staff member, your nationality is (formally recognised as second) to your position as a UN staff member so that no special favouritism is given to your home country if you’re in a mission. In a Peacekeeping Operation, everyone is strictly working for the UN and not taking sides.” The idea that Matthew has never mentally taken sides is obviously problematic for the average person, but she reiterates: “You just have to follow the Security Council mandate. In the Gulf War, UN personnel had to follow the mandate, which was Saddam had to be pushed back into his own country. It wasn’t us (the UN) who fought the oil field blazes there – independent people came in to do the firefighting. No, I’ve never found myself torn as to who I should support in a mission.” I ask her about the hardest decision she has ever had to make as a Peacekeeper. Matthew finds it difficult to pinpoint one of occasion: “Every day there are things you decide, but at the time, it’s just another job, so you just get on with it…When I was in Somalia in the eighties, near to the beginning of the armed conflict, we were trying to move troops from Kenya up into Somalia very quickly. I had to move them fast – I had New York telling me you have to move these people as quickly as possible. I was faced with a dilemma: do I go to South Africa, which was still under Apartheid, and get a South African aircraft from there which would come the

next day? Or, do I wait a week for somebody from a different country? That was a difﬁcult decision the time but in retrospect it was just an ordinary administrative decision. As it happened I went for the South African aircraft – sanctioned busted – and nobody ever said a word!” Although no longer playing a part in Peacekeeping missions and seeing the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises ﬁrst-hand, Matthew's maintains a sharp eye on the most pressing disasters as they unfold, one of which is now taking place on Europe’s shores. She outlines what she thinks are the main problems Europe faces when it comes to the Syrian refugee crisis.

The UN as a whole is overstretched “A lot haven’t been processed. This is one of the difﬁculties. They have come across from Syria and traversed the Mediterranean, landed in Italy, then many have gone to Germany – but nobody processed them. And it’s usually the UN High Commissioner for Refugees who processes refugees; they interview them, they establish whether or not they are genuine refugees, or whether they are economic migrants. There’s also the problem with the Schengen region policy, which states that you should stay in the country you ﬁrst arrive as a refugee. They haven’t done that. “How can any country cope with thousands of people landing on its shores, without any papers, without anything accept what they’re standing up in… although some do seem to have mobile phones and chargers, and you do wonder just whether these are genuine refugees. So there are an awful lot of imponderables. It’s a terrible situation, but I do think on the whole the UK has taken the right attitude in providing funding for the camps around the borders of Syria…one hopes that when peace comes to Syria, people can go back home easily because of this…Clearly Angela Merkel didn’t give the best advice.” There are high expectations of the UN these days – too high, in her view. Despite this, Matthew's experience of being a Peacekeeper was unforgettable and one she wouldn't change for the world. With such high demands being placed on Peacekeepers these days, she is probably happy she retired when she did.

Sex, drugs and... Netﬂix

Every sniff you take... Exeposé Features takes a look at drug laws across the globe

Georgina Bolam, Features Editor, explores the narco obsession overwhelming Latin American cinema, and its repercussions for the drug industry

CCENTRIC tales of shady drug bosses and glamorous female assassins are the staple of Mexican and Colombian primetime television. But the latest "narco-soaps" about the country’s drug gangs have sparked a debate about just how much of that dark reality should be broadcast into living rooms night after night. The latest narco-show to air is Rosario Tijeras, a TV adaptation of a novel of the same name about a sexy hitwoman at the service of the drug maﬁa. The show's initial slogan, "It's harder to love than to kill", sparked so many protests in the city of Medellin, where the story is set, that advertising posters were taken down. Medellin's main newspaper, El Columbiano, said that the show was a "gulp of absurdity, vulgarity, bad manners and a big dose of narco-culture." Medellin, Colombia's second-largest city, is best known for the cartel of the same name led in the 1980s and 90s by Pablo Escobar. Murder, betrayal, fast money and beautiful, buxom women may be vulgar but, according to fans of the show, it makes for riveting television and Rosario has been among the country's top-rated programs since it began last month. Over the past two years Colombians have seen The Cartel, about the powerful Norte del Valle Cartel and The Capo, which paints a crafty drug boss as a sensitive antihero. The main complaint is that such series glamorize the life of criminals and incite young people to emulate that lifestyle. The argument over the narco-soaps has even reached neighbouring Panama, whose president Ricardo Martinelli complained about the Colombian shows that air on local television there. "They exalt drug trafﬁcking, theft, muggings," he said, adding that the shows do "damage to our country" and corrupt "moral values". German Yances, a media expert at

Bogotá's Javeriana University, said that some Colombians "don't like to see their problems reflected on fictional television because the daily drama of the country is on every night on the news.” But the high ratings suggest that many viewers either see their lives reflected in or are fascinated by the shows, said Yances. Despite the ratings, a powerful group of companies in Medellin has reportedly decided it would not advertise on the show and at least one cable operator is considering blocking it. "If we don't like the programmes then we should debate that, but we should not try to censor them," added Yances. "What is painful is the reality they reflect and that's what we should think about.” Last year, the drug war really made its big break into the mainstream American media market with the release of the Oscar-nominated movie Sicario, the Netflix series Narcos and the best-selling novel The Cartel by Don Winslow. All have been commercial and critical hits, despite protests by the mayor of Juárez against Sicario for portraying his city in a bad light. The success of Narcos, which paints a largely true picture of the Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar, paved the way for Netflix to work on production of the El Chapo series.

The line between life and art is blurring Mexican politicians slam narco culture for glamorising, and even feeding, the blood-soaked trade. Writers, producers and singers retort that they are merely documenting reality. But increasingly, the line between life and art is blurring. Take the odyssey of La Reina del Sur (“Queen of the South”). It began as a 2002 novel by the Spanish writer Arturo Pérez-

Reverte, about a beautiful queen-pin in Mexico whom he called Teresa Mendoza. In 2007, Mexican detectives arrested a money launderer named Sandra Ávila Beltrán, who they said was known as the “Queen of the Pacific,” a name most likely inspired by Mr. Pérez-Reverte’s novel. Then, in 2011, the broadcaster Telemundo released a telenovela based on La Reina del Sur, starring the Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. It became a phenomenal hit, including among drug cartel soldiers themselves. Mexican politicians and political activists argue that shows such as this – a story of a fictional female kingpin – glorify crime at a time when the country is increasingly overwhelmed by drug-war violence. The line between fact and fiction may have disappeared entirely when pundits speculated that Ms. del Castillo had become consumed by her role on La Reina del Sur, or that Mr. Guzmán had fallen in love with her telenovela character. It was also revealed that Mr. Guzmán had promised the exclusive film rights of his story to Ms. del Castillo, raising further questions about Netflix’s effort. It’s easy to see why everyone wants to tell his tale. According to indictments, Mr. Guzmán smuggled billions of dollars in drugs aboard jet airliners, fishing boats and submarines into the United States. He escaped from two top-security prisons, the second one in a mile-long tunnel with lights and a rail for a motorcycle. And when Mexican marines caught him in January, he almost escaped yet again by fleeing into a sewer system. But just because it makes for a good story, is it one that Netflix should be telling? There’s certainly a risk of glorifying narco life; several gang members themselves often say they watch narco soaps and movies. But it’s harder to say whether narco fiction contributes to the

violence in Mexico — millions of people watch these same films and don’t go around decapitating victims on video. Still, producers of narco fiction do struggle with this question. In a joint statement reported by The Guardian last week, the presidents of the radio, TV and cinema commissions of the senate and chamber of deputies said that authorities should not allow television stations to “promote apologies for violence and make narco-trafficking and its activities appear aspirational as a lifestyle.”

Even if it inspires only a handful of people to follow Guzman's lead, is that worth the ratings? Zoé Robledo and Lía Limón accused the so-called narconovelas of weakening Mexico’s social fabric “by promoting false values and aggressive social behavior, which provides regrettable feedback to organized crime”. The call for a ban of these types of shows comes as Mexico approaches the 10th anniversary of the launch of a militarised crackdown on organised crime, a campaign that has cost an estimated 150,000 lives, left more than 25,000 missing, but has failed to impose the rule of law or slow the drugs trade. It’s a question that Netﬂix (and Univision) need to ask themselves over the coming year. Assuming Mr. Guzmán is extradited to the United States, he could also go on trial or make a deal, a real-life drama that could play out while the series airs. With so much in ﬂux, Mr. Guzmán could well come out a celebrity, a modernday Al Capone or John Dillinger. Even if it inspires only a handful of people to follow his lead, is that worth the ratings?

In 2013, Uruguay became the ﬁrst country in the world to legalise marijuana Japan has the toughest drug laws in the world, meaning very few addicts seek help In Washington D.C., licenses to sell marijuana are issued by the state control board

Drug posession for personal use in China is punished with a 15 day administrative detention Denmark has followed the example of the Netherlands and Germany and opened "ﬁx rooms" for drug addicts where they can safely consume and inject drugs in a supervised environment Drug trafﬁcking and possession in Singapore are punished with the death penalty

thenewsdoctor.com

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20/10/2016 16:52

lifestyle

ARTS + LIT

E X H I B IT MUSIC

GAMES + TECH

screen

CRIMINAL MINDS: STUDENT AUTHOR’s new novel

FEEDING LIKE RABBITS? EXETER’S NEW RESTAURANT

LOOKING AHEAD AT 2017

quality from quentin

time to switch things up with nintendo

16 - 18

20 - 22

24 - 26

28 - 29

30 - 32

LIFESTYLE EDITORS Jade Beard Laurel Bibby

ARTS + LIT EDITORS Emma Bessent Tash Ebbutt

MUSIC EDITORS Rory Marcham Helen Payne

SCREEN EDITORS Mark Allison Zak Mahinfar

GAMES + TECH EDITORS Jabez Sherrington Sam Woolf 21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

lifestyle Dealing with deadlines

Lauren Geall gives her top tips for coping during the most stressful time of term

HE nights are drawing in, and finding a space in the Forum Library is about as likely as getting through a day without coffee: it’s deadline season. After all the fun of first term with Halloween and Bonfire Night, only a couple of essays sit between you and the week-long buffet that is Christmas. Whilst the upcoming deadline weeks may be some of the most stressful of the year, especially for coursework subjects, it is important to take care of yourself. Below are some top tips on how to remain stress-free as you tackle your deadlines.

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF SHOULD ALWAYS BE A TOP PRIORITY One of the most important ways to make deadlines less stressful is to ensure you’re organised. Although on the surface that may be pretty obvious, we all know the feeling which comes when you look through your mammoth to-do list and throw it to the side for another day. Staying organised can be pretty simple,

but it’s all about making sure you find a system that works for you. One of the easiest and simplest ways to stay organised is by using the ‘Reminders’ and ‘Notes’ app on your phone. Although keeping a diary can also be effective, your phone has endless space and items can easily be removed or changed without making a mess on the page. By staying organised, you’re much more likely to avoid last minute stress. Another thing to remember when you’re tackling your deadlines is to take time to relax. Although you might not feel like it’s necessary, relaxing allows you to refresh your mind so you can approach your work with

new ideas. However, make sure it’s ‘productive’ relaxation (if there is such a thing!). What I mean by this is making sure you’re properly relaxed and not just doing a half and half job: @k _a watching Netflix whilst nd you do research rw s might feel like a bit of a break, but the fact is that both your research and relaxation time will suffer as a result. Some ways to relax fully are things like exercise to get you out of the house, or some mindful activities such as adult colouring books or yoga. By making sure that you’re taking care of yourself you’ll feel much more prepared and ready to take on work when you return to your library cave.

Finally, it is most important to ensure you are taking care of your physical and mental health. Long periods in the library can be lonely and isolating, so make sure that you balance that time with social breaks such as studying with a friend or chatting with your housemates in the evening. Similarly, make sure you’re fuelling your body and not neglecting regular meals for chocolate bars and twenty cups of coffee. Plan your meals in advance so it doesn’t take too much effort to prepare, and take healthy snacks with you into the library as often as you can. Besides all this, make sure you’re getting enough sleep! All-nighters might seem like a good idea when your pile of work seems never-ending, but in the long run you’ll be too tired to be productive the next day. Taking care of yourself should always be a top priority: you won’t be getting anything done if you end up ill! These are just a few ideas on how to avoid stress in deadline season. Of course you’re going to be feeling the pressure, but make sure to try and keep in check with how you’re feeling and treat yourself every so often. Good luck for deadlines, and just remember, Christmas is coming soon!

Students who lunch I

Olivia Haworth shares her favourite DIY lunches for long days on campus

T'S less than a month until the holidays, the John Lewis Christmas advert (and subsequent hype) has hit our TV screens and Facebook feeds, the Starbucks red cups are back and you may or may not have bought yourself this year’s Advent calendar. Christmas is coming… but so is end-of-term skint season. With presents to buy and a packed social calendar to enjoy, many of us are looking to save a little cash for more exciting things than a shop-bought sandwich. If you’re prone to buying lunch on campus between lectures, meal prepping could save you the equivalent of a night out in one week! (Liver strength depending). Not convinced? Read on for a few ideas you could try over the next few weeks:

Flask master The best investment you will make as a student, besides your degree itself, is buying a flask. Not only can you use one for hot beverages, but flasks can keep soups, porridge and pasta dishes warm throughout the morning (and keeps chilled foods cold!). If the idea of a sandwich or salad that’s as cold as your essay-worn fingers doesn’t appeal, get yourself a flask and experiment with whatever takes your fancy. Microwave or heat your

lunch on the hob before transferring it to your flask and seal fully; it is that simple. The plus side of making a soup is that you can chuck in whatever vegetables are sitting around in your fridge as well as store cupboard staples such as pasta, beans and lentils - ideal when you’ve not had chance to go food shopping.

MEAL PREPPING COULD SAVE YOU THE EQUIVALENT OF A NIGHT OUT Chickpeas and love Houmous, an Exetah student staple, is widely available in various forms, from reduced fat versions to sweet chilli and pestotopped varieties. It’s versatile and proteinpacked, making it a great component to incorporate into your packed lunch. There’s no need to take a whole tub; plastic shot glasses are the perfect portion size to pop in your Tupperware (if you don’t have Tupperware, you can wash and reuse takeaway food containers) along with pitta slices, tortilla chips, vegetable crudites and whatever else takes your fancy.

Tart me up Ready-to-roll puff pastry is a seriously underrated commodity. Whilst it should be consumed in moderation due to its high butter content, there’s no reason why you can’t use it in your lunch from time to time. Try making a puff-pastry tart by cutting out a hand-sized rectangle of pastry and choose a few toppings before popping into the oven (following the instructions on the packaging) for a meal that’s tasty hot or cold. For a Mediterranean flavour, try spreading with pesto and topping with cherry tomatoes, crumbled feta and basil. If something festive is more up your street, spread with cranberry sauce and top with brie and cooked chicken, turkey or bacon.

fillings. Perhaps marinate and cook chicken in peri peri and use the next day in a wrap with natural yoghurt or mayo and mixed peppers. You might try roasted Mediterranean veggies with houmous or halloumi in pitta bread, or go rustic with some of your favourite cheese and a blob of chutney or salad. With the average meal deal costing upwards of £3, there are serious savings to be made in going DIY on lunch. Who knows, you might even discover a hidden culinary talent.

That’s a wrap Wraps and sandwiches are the first things most people think of when they picture a packed lunch. They’re easy to make and don’t require much thought. You can spice things up by choosing a different kind of bread - seeded, crusty, sourdough, rye, pitta, even croissant, for example - and getting creative with your

Photo: Friendship Circle

EXHIBIT

LIFESTYLE

EDITORS: Jade Beard and Laurel Bibby

21 NOV 2016

| 17

Rabbit food

Hannah Butler, Editor, reviews Exeter's latest all-vegan culinary addition

“Y

OU'VE never tried fakon before?!” The woman behind the counter is incredulous. I’ve never felt so insecure in my demi-veganism. Luckily, I’ve just ordered something that assures me it’s “probably the best breakfast muffin you’ll eat (today).” A pile-up of burger patty, tofu “egg,” fakon, tomato, fake cheese and red sauce in a soft white bun, this decadent Breakfast Muffin is quickly making a name for itself on Rabbit’s social media feeds. If anything’s going to spark up a love affair with cured pork substitutes, it’s probably this.

IT'S THE STUFF DREAMS ARE MADE OF After all, I’m in expert hands here. Exeter’s first 100 per cent vegan café, Rabbit is owned by Chris Bellairs – who also manages Seasons vegan food store just a few doors further down on Well Street. His grandma makes the cakes and bakes I’ve been lusting over on Seasons' Instagram page for months now. This

is a proper family affair – but is it the start of Exeter’s vegan revolution? Time to find out… The muffin is certainly a sight for hungry eyes when it finally arrives (they had a few problems with a blown fuse, but I won’t hold that against them. Apparently it was the toaster’s fault). Both excitingly colourful and reassuringly stodgy-looking, every mouthful highlights a new intense flavour or texture. The verdict on fakon? I’m not a fan. But then, I’m one of those “why give up meat to then eat fake meat?” people. If you’re a committed carnivore who’s started feeling guilty about your cow consumption – or you want to impress that vegan guy you’re dating – this’ll probably be right up your street. Rich, hot, savoury and smothered in cheese and red sauce, it’s the ultimate hearty breakfast bap. And at £4.95, not a bad deal either. But give me hummus and avocado over fakon any day. In any case, Rabbit’s savoury selection is pretty impressive. From curried tofu toasties to seitan ravioli, tofu dogs and lentil & olive pie, the menu might be divided into “Vice” and “Virtue," but thankfully everything comes

devoid of calorie-counts. Instead, the focus is on flavour combinations – and if the description is anything to go by, that walnut & quinoa burger is definitely next on my hit-list. While waiting for my breakfast, I’ve already had a taster of Rabbit’s sweet menu: all thoughts of an Americano vanished when “Deluxe hot chocolate with squirty cream and marshmallows” became an option. The prospect of a drink with cream and marshmallows is enough to make any veggie or vegan go weak at the knees… and the sugary richness of this doesn’t disappoint. £3.25 seems a little steep for a regular-sized hot drink – but those vegan mallows are pricey, I guess. Let’s face it, though: I’m here for the cake. Chris’s grandma makes them here too, apparently. “She’s some kind of genius,” the waiter laughs. “Some of the sundaes she comes up with… they should be illegal. They’re outrageous!” This week’s sundae is Mint Oreo Choc Chip - but something on the counter’s already caught my eye. The Raw Chocolate Peanut Caramel Slice may just be the sexiest dessert ever to receive a cacao dusting under the im-

patient eyes of a Lifestyle reviewer. Biscuit-y crunch beneath a satisfyingly thick and gooey caramel layer and rich, velvety dark chocolate topping… it’s the stuff dreams are made of. You know, those dreams you have where Snickers bars become vegan? Yep. You get me.

QUIRKY, COSY AND CRUELTY-FREE, RABBIT IS A MUST-TRY Quirky, cosy and cruelty-free, Rabbit is a must-try for anyone interested in that muchhyped vegan lifestyle. Was I slightly disappointed when I realized there weren’t actually going to be rabbits hopping around? Of course. But somewhere between the woodland vibes, luscious food and the fact you’re dining by the remains of the ancient holy well of St Sidwell, Rabbit’s definitely created something special here. Pulled the rabbit out of the hat, some might say…

aAAAA

Photos: Hannah Butler

EXHIBIT

21 NOV 2016

EDITORS: Jade Beard and Laurel Bibby

LIFESTYLE

Weekend wandering

| 18

Rowan Keith, Online Comment Editor, shares her guide to the perfect family weekend in Exe

S a student, one of the biggest treats of term is when your parents come to visit. There’s a little slice of the comfort of home, with none of the travel, and lots of free food. But how do you make your parents fall as deeply in love with Exeter as you are in just one weekend? I’ve put together a guide to my idea of the perfect weekend to show your parents the best bits of Exeter and Devon.

Saturday morning

Start Saturday right with a brunch stop at The Boston Tea Party. For me this has a particular sentimental attachment as it is the first place my mum and I ever went for lunch in Exeter, but it is also just amazing anyway. The food is great and the open upstairs area has a studenty feel that your parents will love.

Saturday afternoon

Friday evening

Your parents have just arrived, tired and, if they’re like mine, probably a bit grumpy from the journey. Pick them up at St David’s or from wherever they have parked the car and take them on a stroll down the river to one of my favourite places in Exeter, the Quay. On The Waterfront is the perfect restaurant for this first evening because the food is great but simple (pizza is always a hit). In the summer you can sit outside overlooking the river and in the winter the inside is super cosy and relaxed. After dinner, take a walk back into town via Caramello, the best ice cream shop in town, for a quick dessert stop and a look at the Cathedral lit up before heading home for the night.

For the rest of the day, head out of the city to Killerton House, either by bus or car. Killerton is a stunning National Trust property with amazing grounds to walk in that also, of course, provide many great Instagram opportunities. In autumn, the grounds are even more beautiful than usual so if you get a chance, go as soon as possible. I went around this time last year and my dad took great pleasure in the pumpkin trail that I am sure would also be fun for any younger siblings (a.k.a. the age demographic it was intended for). There’s a small cafe that makes an amazing roast lunch and, if your parents are looking for somewhere a bit unusual to stay, there are also cottages in the grounds that can be rented to stay

in. My parents rented one of these cottages for a few days last year with my sister and grandma and it was lovely to spend a couple of nights in the middle of the countryside.

Saturday evening

For Saturday evening, treat yourself (get your parents to treat you) at my all time favourite restaurant in Exeter, Harry’s. Most of us walk past it at least once a week but it’s rare that we actually get to experience it. The restaurant itself is incredibly friendly and cosy and one of the few independent restaurants in the centre of Exeter. The food is absolutely delicious comfort food which makes up for not going home and having your mum’s cooking. I personally recommend the nachos and the peanut butter and oreo cheesecake which is just as unhealthy and amazing as it sounds.

Sunday

For your last day, make your way to one of Devon’s most charming seaside towns, Sidmouth. If you have younger siblings, or are just a fan of adorable animals, the Donkey Sanctuary

is just ten minutes out of town and offers the chance to stroke and brush the donkeys. If you’re an outdoorsy family, or, like me, a begrudgingly outdoorsy person with extremely outdoorsy parents, there is a stunning coastal path which is lovely to walk along. At the end of this walk is the sea front which boasts many seaside cafes selling fish and chips, either to be eaten in the warmth of the cafe or sat on the beach watching the waves. After this it’s only a small walk into the town to peruse the shops on the high street. The bus stop is just off the high street and the bus back to Exeter takes around an hour and has stunning views of the Devon countryside, so if your parents want to head back home straight from Sidmouth you can get back to Exeter easily. The bus stop and bus ride home also provide the perfect setting for a cinematic, emotional goodbye scene. There you have it, folks. My guide to a perfect weekend with your parents in Exeter. As long as you don’t make the mistake I did and take your parents through the high street late at night the weekend before Halloween, they are bound to leave loving Exeter just as much as you.

Photos: Rowan Keith

In the sleek midwinter W

ITH only a month left of term and the weather getting ever more unpredictable, it’s quite evident that winter is coming. A notoriously difficult season to dress for, we’re here to give you a hand with a few of our choicest style tips, you’ll be looking flyer than any Westerosi.

'TIS THE SEASON TO BE KILLING THE STYLE GAME The first thing to remember about dressing for winter here in our dear Exeter is that it’s very difficult. Thanks to our temperamental weather (if I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure it started hailing last weekend), picking out the perfect outfit down here in the South West is both an art form and a science. Our number one rule: be prepared. It

Photo: pixabay

Jasmine Prasad outlines this season's latest trends rains on average 19 days in Exeter between November and January, which is more than half a month. As such, chic rainwear is a must, and will keep you dry and put together as you pace it up Forum hill to your next lecture. Winter 2016 is seeing the continued “rain” of the Yellow Mac; you’ve probably seen three on your journey into campus today. The Mac is popular for good reason: bright and bold, and most of all waterproof. If you’re feeling bold enough to play with this striking trend, try a raincoat in another primary colour. While vinyl tends to be quite popular a material, wax Barbour raincoats never seem to lose their power. For an alternative, some current trends include cosy puffa jackets and fur lined hoods. Exeter is notoriously windy and sensible dressing for the season means protecting yourself against harsh conditions. While your

Mac may protect you from the rain and give you a bit of a break from the wind, there are definitely more substantial coat options available. We’re loving every iteration of the quilted coat that we’re seeing on the high street right now. Not quite as statement as the puffa, the quilted makes for a hardy, athletic look, perfect for layering over your society stash. For a sleeker take, the longline boyfriend coat in camel and black is blowing up Topshop right now. Pull it all together with a striking scarf. You know the ones we’re talking about. Adorning the neck of Exeter’s most on point, oversized scarves in brush check and neutral colours are the perfect accessory to keep cosy in the worst winds. We couldn’t let a winter fashion guide go without mentioning Christmas, could we? ’Tis the season to be killing the style game. The most fun part about being a fashion

junkie during the festive season is the joy of buying Christmas jumpers. And there’s something for everyone. Primark for your cheesy jumper fix, complete with bells, whistles, candy canes and all, Debenhams for something a little more special and sparkly, and ASOS to fill the ‘alternative’ Christmas jumper gap in your wardrobe. Their “This is my X-Mas Jumper” Jumper is hilarious.

YOU'LL BE LOOKING FLYER THAN ANY WESTEROSI We’re hoping you’re all geared to dress up for your wonderful Winter Balls, from the Yule Ball to SSB! Dazzle in strong metallics and shapes, and most importantly, pick something you’re happy with and feel comfortable in.

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arts + lit Chuckle brothers

Rowan Keith, Online Comment Editor, presents her five favourite funny men Daniel Simonsen I discovered Daniel Simonsen because he was the support act for another of my favourite comedians (Simon Amstell) but I ended up loving him just as much. Simonsen is Norwegian and uses the same style of deadpan, European humour as comedians such as Henning Wehn. Within minutes, he had me in fits of laughter to the extent that my date that night was genuinely concerned about my ability to breathe. If Simonsen doesn’t blow up in the next few years, the comedy world has missed out.

Tim Minchin Tim Minchin is by far the crudest of the comedians you will find on this list, but it is one hundred percent worth the wincing at his brutal use of language. He is an incredible musical talent, as shown by his composing of the music for the

musicals of both Matilda and Groundhog Day, and his comedy songs are a winning combination of his melodic and comedic talents. He produces comic entertainment and demands pure amazement with his talent.

swearing in every sentence, a skill that a lot of modern comedians seem to lack. Google ‘Eddie Izzard covered in bees’; you will not be disappointed.

Eddie Izzard

Bill Bailey is one of the most versatile and enduring comedians I know. From his acting in Black Books, to his work on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, even to his own stand up musical comedy, Bailey never disappoints. He

I grew up watching Eddie Izzard comedy and have been lucky enough to see him live. To this day, my family still use one liners from the stand up he did ten years ago. One of the things I admire most about Izzard is his ability to make an audience cry with laughter without

Bill Bailey

is not only hilarious but incredibly musically talented: to this day I cannot listen to the EastEnders theme without hearing his alternative lyrics.

Flight of the Conchords If you haven’t guessed already, I have a bit of a soft spot for musical comedy. Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement are a musical duo from New Zealand who have their own TV show spin-off from their stand up work. McKenzie even followed in Tim Minchin’s footsteps and wrote the music for The Muppets musical. The duo strike the perfect combination of awkward and nerdy whilst maintaining a dryness to their jokes, and their songs, although hysterical, are also catchy enough to just listen to as music. Experience something unique on the comedy scene as there are no other comedians around right now like these two oddballs.

Spooks on Stage

Go big or go Homer

Sam Woolf, Games and Tech Editor, draws the curtain on theatrical superstitions

Graham Moore suggests we follow The Road Not Taken and appreciate the poetry around us

OU may be familiar with the notion of actors telling each other to “break a leg” prior to the start of a performance. Far from encouraging fractured limbs, this tradition originated in the late 1500s during which time audiences would throw money onto the stage for actors, who in turn would have to bend down in order to collect their earnings, thus “breaking” the line of their leg. This is by no means the only superstition associated with the theatre. In fact, despite the association of thespians with such buzzwords as “confidence”, “conviction”, and “poise”, it would seem that dramaturgy is also deeply rooted in paranoia. For actors, everything from the colour blue to the seemingly innocent act of whistling is considered bad karma. Blue is often associated with failing theatre companies due to the fact that blue fabric dyes used to be extremely expensive: troupes that had their actors wearing blue clothes would often go bankrupt as a result of costume costs. The negative connotations surrounding

21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

whistling, on the other hand, stem from old methods of communicating between stage managers. Cues for techies used to come in the form of coded whistles: therefore, if you were an actor backstage minding your own business, whistling a chipper tune as you did so, you unknowingly had the potential to bring the whole show down around you. Another interesting superstition surrounds Shakespeare’s play Macbeth, actors involved in the play believe it to be cursed therefore avoid saying its title, instead variations such as ‘The Bard’s Play’ are used; you don’t want to be cursed by the three witches after all. Times have, of course, moved on; blue clothes won’t break the bank and the worst scenario that can come from whistling backstage is a scolding from your stage manager for not keeping quiet. Yet the theatre industry remains set in its superstitious ways. Speak to any actor and they will almost certainly tell you that to wish someone “good luck” will bring them quite the opposite, especially on opening night.

INCE we first put stylus to tablet all those thousands of years ago, humanity has entertained a fascination with poetry. Verse is the very bones of our literary tradition, the cornerstone of our species’ storytelling. Surely it is ludicrous, then, to suggest that poetry no longer has a place in our society? That’s not to say that nothing has changed. It’s been a long time since Gilgamesh and Odysseus, when the epic ruled supreme; poetry has evolved. Today’s poetry is a more flexible entity, one often characterised by individualism and riddled with self-awareness, and one no longer bound to specific constructions and formulae. We live in a world where Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature – what are songs if not poetry set to music? (To anyone who claims the likes of ‘He toss my salad like his name Romaine’ isn’t sufficient content for poetry, I highly recommend Catullus’s Carmen 16.) By that logic alone, we now produce more poetry than ever before, and in an even wider variety. I also contest any suggestion that poetry

is somehow outdated as a medium. In fact, I dare you to read such contemporary poets as Terrance Hayes, Rupi Kaur and Maya Angelou – to name but a few – and tell me that poetry is no longer relevant. Poetry provides an excellent platform for tackling complex themes and political and social commentary; it gives voice, and it gives it in volume. However, it also offers condensity. We now live in a world where, more often than not, we spread information in smaller and more concise formats. Surely this is a world where poetry would be the ideal form, with its capability to compactly deliver an intensity of emotion and thought into a shorter, easily digestible nugget. The ability to say so much with so little – to truly test the limits of our language - is part of what has always made poetry so powerful and so effective, and this brevity is certainly something of value to the many of us who struggle to find time for pleasure reading. And so, whether it be trivial or political, topping the musical charts or in the form of a Twitter haiku, I think it’s safe to say that poetry is alive and well.

EXHIBIT

ARTS + LIT

21 NOV 2016 |

EDITORS: Tash Ebbutt and Emma Bessent

Theatre focus

Maddie Davies describes her enchanting experience of ShakeSoc’s The Tempest THE TEMPEST Roborough Studios, Exeter Sunday 6th November

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N Sunday 6 November, University of Exeter’s Shakespeare Society performed their 48-hour production of The Tempest at Roborough Studios. As this play is arguably Shakespeare’s final play – hence, the epilogue’s final line “let your indulgence set me free” – many critics seek this out as one of his less successful comedies. However, ShakeSoc’s condensed and fast-paced interpretation would argue otherwise. The opening scene of the production was lit only by a piercing white light, fairy lights that decorated the stage and (much like early modern theatre) candlelight. This complimented the contemporary music ‘Until We Go Down’ perfectly, as the lighting followed the gradual crescendo of the music which helped to create a perfect physical performance of Prospero’s storm being created. I believe that credit must be given here to the producer, Leigh Spence and stage manager, Emma Bessent, as it was a truly refreshing way to open the play. However, this physical performance cannot be discussed without the mention of the five actors playing the character Ariel, who contributed to this opening scene wonderfully. It is interesting to see such a traditional play take on a different interpretation of characters,

particularly the character of Ariel who always circulates many questions for an audience, questioning his intentions, desires and loyalties. I do believe that it was very brave to present Ariel through five different actors, as a way of portraying his debatable multi-personality disorder, however I did feel that at times it was excessive to see so many actors trying to play the impor-

personality disorder). These included the theory of him being the closest to nature itself, with his master literally referring to him as “thou piece of Earth.” ShakeSoc resembled this very cleverly through the use of Caliban’s headwear that was made from leaves, which visually connected this character to nature. Yet, what was even more significant was that the headgear was gold, ap-

tant role of Prospero’s loyal spirit. Notably, Anna Blackburn playing Ariel was captivating – every movement was disturbingly intriguing, she was spiritual, magical and the embodiment of ‘the fantasy.’ Caliban’s debut appearance presented many theoretical ideologies (much like Ariel’s multi-

pearing to the audience a crown, which is very important considering “this island is [mine] by Sycorax [my] mother.” Additionally, Malusa Kilonda’s portrayal of the scapegoated character was tremendous! As it is his character who is ‘othered,’ and considered foreign, it was vital to have such an emotional representation of him in order to

do his poetic and lyrical dialogue justice. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the audience were formed in a semi-circle around the stage allowing thorough interaction between actor and audience members. This was particularly useful with the comical characters – Trinculo and Stephano played by the very funny Calum Weir and Daniel Stanger-Cornwell. The two actors directed many facial expressions and, indeed, many of their lines to the audience which just increased their hilarity. It was sometimes clear that a lot of the script had been cut as we moved from a very intense moment to a moment of comedy, however, these clown characters served their purpose of comedic relief brilliantly. Furthermore, the semi-circle creation drew the audience into a seventeenth-century theatrical culture time capsule. An element of the play that I really loved to watch was the enchantment of Miranda and Ferdinand. This very Shakespearean romance of instant love was actually dramatised to the extent of seeming almost modern. This was presented with Miranda and Ferdinand embracing each other center stage and the five Ariel’s downstage dancing to a contemporised version of ‘You’re The One That I Want.’ This contemporary dance slowed down the moment of falling in love, which to a current audience, is much more comprehensible and ShakeSoc demonstrated this very well. In conclusion, this was a very successful production by ShakeSoc. They covered the smallest of details which must have been incredibly hard within a 48-hour period and this is something which must be congratulated.

Autumn is in the air

Mubanga Mweemba gives us the lowdown on her autumnal art from the heart

S the days begin to shorten and the golden leaves are the only homage to a now gone summer, autumn is a reminder that the year is beginning to end and we must find time to tie up loose strings. For me, Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind is the perfect read, but it’s also a fantastic novel that presents a perfect autumnal atmosphere. It begins with its eerie and lyrical prologue, discussing the mundane activities of a small inn but also speaking of a louder, more chilling subject—the silence “of a man who is waiting to die”. This is a story thick with death, Rothfuss is trying to tell us, filled with things that aren’t said as much as the things that are.

A FANTASTIC NOVEL THAT PRESENTS A PERFECT AUTUMNAL ATMOSPHERE Rothfuss tells the story in two timelines, one of Kote the innkeeper and one of Kvothe the

hero, Kvothe the Kingkiller. Rothfuss successfully establishes a duality we only know so well during autumn; looking like summer and feeling like winter; cosy but not warm, the brightest colours shifting into the blackest nights. The Name of the Wind is as beautiful as it is chilling, foreboding. Kote and Kvothe are the same people, but like the younger versions of ourselves, they are also not the same people. We’re older, seemingly wiser, more experienced and mature. But the past holds merit, if you know where to look. And Kote is a man who does not look back. He is afraid of the past; living in a self inflicted exile for reasons unknown to us at the start but is slowly unveiled to us as he recounts his life story. Its important that the book is split in two—one part which retrospectively tells of the tale of a brilliant young man who beats the odds as he comes into his maturity but also of a man with regrets so large they started wars. But I’m getting ahead of myself; you really need to read the details to grasp the magnitude of the simple statements. Kote utters in the start of the novel

“in autumn everything is tired and ready to die.” An innocuous statement about weeding that translates into more in the context of the story. Autumn is a melancholy time of year because remembering isn’t the same as being—perhaps that is why ‘once upon a time’ is so bittersweet; because there was a time it did exist but it’s ended now. But that’s why we have so many stories, so when one ends we can begin again. All in all, The Name of the Wind is a story about stories; about the monsters you make myths out of to keep you feeling safe; about a nostalgia that is the sweetness of home but also the pain of returning to it only in memory; and magic, if you needed any more convincing.

EXHIBIT

ARTS + LIT

EDITORS: Emma Bessent and Tash Ebbutt

Trace this star

21 NOV 2016 |

George Pope interviews Jessikah Hope Stenson and reviews her new book, Trace This Scar

EVIEWER George Pope asks author Jessikah Hope Stenson about her new novel and her experience in the literary world.

Hi Jessikah, I thought we’d begin with your career as an author so far. I gather that Trace This Scar isn’t your first published work? No - my book A Single Drop of Perfect was published in February, and is a collection of short stories. There are five stories, but it is a very thin book, only about 50 pages, but the point of that was really to get something out there, because the hardest thing is your first book, as obviously no one knows who you are. So I released that and decided to put it on a free promotion, as I didn’t expect people to go out and buy something that they’re not interested in. The free promotion went really well, and it’s built up a little group of people that already know what I’m like, and know what my writing is like. How difficult was it as a first-time author to find a publisher? I have a bit of weird story; I worked at a magazine in Belfast for a few months last summer, and I worked with a woman called Tina Calder, a journalist over there, and she set up her own publishing company. She knew that I did a lot of creative writing and asked me to send over some of my stuff. I sort of already had my way in, and knowing somebody on a personal level made it a lot easier. For my second book, I tried to branch out a bit and get an agent. I bought a copy of the Writers and Artists’ Yearbook, which has a lot of listings for agents, and it’s really useful. I got a lot of rejections, but a few positive

Arts in the news

THERE WAS CERTAINLY A STRANGE AND ECLECTIC MIX OF VOCABULARIES Daphne and Jamie were the only fleshedout characters, which isn’t a problem as I did feel as if I got to know them well as I was reading it. The internal point of view chosen by the author certainly helps here, giving us insight into both of them separately- this being said, Daphne was a much better character, with her somewhat unreliable narrative adding layers of complexity to her, personality whilst Jamie in comparison felt rather flat. This narrative choice is certainly both an effective tool and a drawback; occasionally the narration and its elevated style would bleed into the dialogue, making for some jarring moreactions as well, but they never really worked out on the right terms, so I decided to stick with the same publisher as before, as it worked best for me. Let’s move on to Trace This Scar. Why did you choose crime as the genre for your first novel? I didn’t just sit down and think, ‘I’m going to write crime’, but you know when you read a book, and you think ‘This is my favourite book ever’, and then you read another one and you think ‘No, this is my favourite book ever’ - it’s a bit like that. I read a lot of psychological thrillers and there’s a really big market for them. I got inspired by what I was reading. I was sitting in my room when I came up with the first line and thought ‘That sounds dark’, and just went with it! I was very happy to see that the novel is based in Exeter, was that an easy decision for you? No, that changed. Originally I set it in Birmingham, where I’m from, and some of the poverty scenes were a lot clearer. Birmingham was quite limited in that it’s landlocked whereas with Ex-

Zadie Smith’s new novel Swing Time warmly received by critics

eter, I could get the city scenes and the coastal scenes that I wanted to get in. Also, seeing all of the homelessness campaigns in Exeter I began to think that yes, I’d seen a lot of poverty in Birmingham, but proportionally, I think there’s a staggeringly high poverty rate here and anyone outside Exeter might not really know that.

round. I didn’t really want to be editing as I went along, so if I just word-vomited everything, I could then send it to my mum and my boyfriend’s mum, and they would feedback to me.

Were there any other contenders for the title, or was it quite clear for you? No, it was pretty clear. I can’t quite pinpoint the moment when I knew that that’s what I wanted to call it, but when I had written the first chapter, I thought that it was very important to have a visual image to go with the story. So with A Single Drop there’s an image for every story, and that might not make sense until you’ve read it, but I like to have these visual images. all

MUST admit that I do not often read crime novels, if only because of my own prejudice against the genre; I usually favour good character development over the intricacies of plot, an area where crime fiction, in my opinion, often falls short. This being said, Jessikah Hope Stenson’s first novel Trace This Scar proved that it is possible to reconcile the two, presenting some strong characters in a gripping tale of betrayal, deceit and murder. This being said, it does have some issues that I cannot ignore, and that I felt took away from its strengths. While reading the novel, I found myself wanting to read on due mostly to the compelling plot that drove it forward. What I appreciated most was that it was not overstuffed, and it was very well paced: just slow-moving enough to keep interest, while closely guarding its twists and turns. However in certain places where the pace did pick up, there came some rather un-

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that went beyond this and were in fact strikingly well-written. Trace This Scar is Jessikah Hope Stenson’s first full length novel, and considering this, it is certainly a promising debut. It undoubtedly has some issues, but there are moments that truly shone, and I very much look forward to reading her next literary endeavour.

am e

Jessikah Hope Stenson

ments especially when what the characters said did not compute with the way that actual people speak. Without wanting to reveal anything, there was a moment near the end of the novel where one of the characters is recounting a series of events, and I found that I had to keep checking back to see whether the paragraph I was reading was dialogue or narration. In terms of the writing style, there were a few moments where I questioned the choice of term, and there was certainly a strange and eclectic mix of vocabulary. There were a fair amount of Americanisms, which, when combined with the very British setting and characters, felt very out of place. This, combined with my earlier gripe with the internal point of view, did occasionally take away from the story. During the more dramatic parts of the novel - where the plot reached its climax for instance - I felt cheated on some of the literary deftness that Stenson shows in the slower passages. They felt muddied and rushed, again choosing to steam forward with only the story, at the expense of the other parts that constitute a novel. Yes, these faster paced moments were evocative, but there were certain passages

Ph oto :J

believable moments, such as the way in which the two protagonists come together. This felt particularly rushed, with believability being sacrificed for moving the plot forward, which was not a necessary decision to make.

TRACE THIS SCAR

Was it a difficult novel to write? The issues it raises are quite dark, was it difficult to tap into that or did it come quite naturally? I’d say it came quite naturally, only because I forced myself to just sit down and write for an hour or so every day. When I sat down it, it wasn’t a case of going on Google and trying to get everything perfectly accurate the first time

Hawksmoor Investment Management pair up with The Bike Shed Theatre to offer 200 free tickets to under 18s

Trace This Scar is available in selected bookshops and on Amazon, as part of the 99p eBook series.

And what are you like as a reader? I read a lot, and I’ve set myself a challenge to read a hundred books this year, and I think I’m on ninety-six or ninety-seven, so I’m getting there. Mostly I read thrillers or crime, or a lot of Young Adult fiction. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with YA fiction; it’s something I’m really interested in, it’s something I want to do my dissertation on and I think it’s very important. My favourite books will change all the time - I’m not opposed to reading anything. So what’s next for you? Are you working on your next project? As much as I like writing them, I don’t think that I’m going to do a short story release anytime soon. I do want to do another novel. My creative writing dissertation will be an extract from what I work on next. I think it’s a great opportunity, while I’m still at uni, to use the resources available to me: the Royal Literary Fund, tutors that I can go and meet with, all these really talented people that I can go and talk to about my ideas - I need to use that before I graduate. The plan, without giving too much away, is to write more focused on young adults, still in the crime/thriller genre. A lot of these books are aimed at people aged forty and over, so I want to bring that age down to about 18-25 with the next one, as I feel that there’s a real gap for things like that.

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music

An Ode to Leonard Cohen T

HE first time I heard Leonard Cohen’s music was in Godalming high-street at the turn of the new millennium. A white-haired busker in a Mediterranean shirt and John Lennon glasses was singing “Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye” to waves of Saturday morning shoppers, who watched their own shoes as they passed by his guitar case. The irony wasn’t apparent at the time, and besides, only a few of them said hello to then say goodbye. But there was a small gathering of people who had stopped in their own spaces to listen; they didn’t faction together as an obstacle to those around them, but stood to themselves, by themselves, to watch the old man playing tribute to the greatest lyricist that’s lived in music. In 1960, Cohen could barely play an instrument. He had received guitar lessons from a flamenco troubadour he met in a Montreal park, and was gifted a three-thousand dollar-grant from the Canada Council to practice poetry, following the release of his debut collection four years earlier. His writing was first nurtured in a well-to-do district on the Southern Peak of Mount Royal, where the city was his proverbial circus. It existed in the tensions between the French and English language, where the post-diasporic Yiddish folk schools lined up next to well-heeled businessmen and upside-down jazz clubs. By 1968, Cohen was moving between Montreal, London and – once the English skies had dampened his resource – a small Greek island named Hydra; he had written two novels and released five collections of poetry. A mutual friend had also arranged for him to meet Judy Collins, where his transition into music began. The few times they met, Collins described Cohen as entrancing; he had taken a guitar to her, with versions of “Suzanne,” “The Stranger Song” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” – all formerly written as poems – which he played in her company. A friendship emerged, as did Cohen’s reputation as a one-of-a-kind songwriter: his philosophy was too well-groomed to be a Dylan, and his political mind too considered to be a Baez. Both musicians owed huge debt to the other, though; Collins needed his songs as much as he needed her to sing them. The ears that first heard Dylan were the same that brought Cohen to Columbia Records, and the comparison between the two artists will remain as long as their music informs and permeates the discourse of folk music. His debut album, Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967), spent almost a year and a half in the UK album charts. It was intelligent music; cognizant of the heavy riffs of the blues, the joyous dejection of Northern Soul and the off-beat heehaw of Downtown jazz, but

Tristan Gatward, VP Activities, pays tribute to a legend Cohen’s focus was resolutely lyrical: “Now, I don’t want to give you the impression that I’m a great musicologist, but I’m a lot better than what I was described as for a long, long time; you know, people said I only knew three chords, when I actually knew five.” His second and third records, Songs From a Room (1969) and Songs of Love and Hate (1971), brought out further remarkable poems to music, telling of desperate isolation and stunted creativity in “Bird on a Wire” and “Last Year’s Man,” alongside the stunning ac-

over it, originally writing over 80 verses; the song initially got rejected from his album, and it’s now the most covered song in the English language. On religious salvation, Cohen went on to spend ten years in the Californian mountains, studying to be a Buddhist monk: “all I have to tell you is that in school I was good at sports and I have ruined the cliché of the poet forever.” When he returned, it was to the news that his former manager had stolen the royalties to his music. Cohen’s response and forgiveness is telling of his phi-

rected adolescents, lovers in all degrees of anguish, disappointed Platonists, pornography-peepers, hair-handed monks and Popists. Whichever category I fall into, the reason I tried to learn French was from a verse in “The Partisan”, and the only French I can now remember is a translation of “The Stranger Song”. The reason I came to Exeter to study English was a love of Beautiful Losers and The Book of Longing; the reason I became involved with music journalism was in wanting to justify his later recordings; my longing for Poltimore Festival to take a place in Exeter’s culture was from endless nights replaying his performance at Isle of Wight. There are many different versions of Leonard Cohen. Writing an obituary for all of them would be impossible. He was a Christian, a Buddhist and a Jew. He was an armyman: the only tourist in Havana who turned his thoughts homewards. He taught us to not exaggerate – to not make your voice weigh less than an ounce when talking about butterflies; to not close your eyes and lean your head to one side when you talk about death. On the title track from last month’s record, You Want It Darker, Cohen acknowledges that he is ready to locate that which he will serve, with the Jewish word Hineini. Released in the month before his death, it’s a fitting end for the perfectionist wanting to tie up the loose strings, but the selfish-sided fan that needs his music and comradery, one can’t help wishing that he’d waited a little longer. Leonard Cohen is the idealisation of poetry, humility and grace, and will be sorely missed.

1934 - 2016

knowledgements of an unfaithful love in “Famous Blue Raincoat,” thanking his adulterer for taking the trouble from his wife’s eyes, “I thought it was there for good so I never tried.” Where modern musicians have a penchant to write themselves into songs to achieve a quasi-desirable state of vulnerability for their listener, Cohen did it with defiance. The final words on the track read: “Sincerely, L. Cohen.” He went on to write eleven more studio albums. From these, “Hallelujah” became his masterpiece, despite a lack of commercial success with the song. Cohen had pained

losophy, simply: “it would be wrong to write this song and get rich from it too.” Cohen said of experience, that when he listened to an 82-year-old Alberta Hunter in New York, one could hear the age and wisdom in her voice. So much, that when the blues singer said “G-d bless you” at the end of her set, you really would feel blessed. Cohen’s humility continued in this form: when he thanked you at the end of a show – “thank you, friends, really thank you” – you really felt thanked, and you really felt like a friend. He said his music was for the inner-di-

Join Poltimore Festival and its creators for a night celebrating the life and music of Leonard Cohen Date: 13 December Old Firehouse

EXHIBIT

21 NOV 2016

EDITORS: Rory Marcham and Helen Payne

MUSIC

Class of 2017

Rory Marcham, Music Editor, predicts next year’s ones to watch

Photo: Twitter

Photo: Consequences of Her

Photo: TickX

LOYLE CARNER

ALEXANDRA SAVIOR

CABBAGE

Already somewhat of a star, Loyle Carner is almost certainly going to be huge in 2017. The south London, Brit School graduate (the school that also brought us the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse) has sent shockwaves through the UK hip-hop scene with his confessional lyricism and stylish Brit-hop beats. With a sold out UK tour (including a date at London’s infamous Koko) as well as some high profile festival slots at the likes of Latitude and Bestival already under his belt, anticipation is building towards his debut album set to be released next year. From the strutting beat of ‘NO CD’ to the soulful saxophone intro of ‘Ain’t Nothing Changed’, Carner has a mature sound that is easily accessible to fans of all genres and a lyrical delivery more akin to spoken word than much of today’s modern rap. Already being championed by the likes of BBC Radio 1, Loyle Carner is almost destined to be a star and my most assured pick of the class of 2017.

The rise of this LA songstress is something that has been shrouded in mystery, first appearing with the demo ‘Risk’ on the soundtrack to HBO’s True Detective, a track also co-written by Arctic Monkeys’ frontman Alex Turner. Originating from Portland, Oregon, the 21 year old has made quite a name for herself in the industry in spite of having only two songs to her name. Drenched in reverb and supported with thick bass lines, Savior’s dream poppy love songs have clearly grabbed the attention of Turner and fellow Arctic Monkeys producer James Ford who are both on production duties for her upcoming album, Strange Portrait. From her seductive voice to the desert rock guitar lines, there is definitely an Arctic Monkeys influence in her sound, with her association with a certain Mr. Turner (with whom she also co-wrote The Last Shadow Puppets’ track, ‘Miracle Aligner’) attracting great attention from Monkeys fans and industry experts alike. A very promising artist and one I would thoroughly recommend checking out.

Cabbage are well and truly a band as absurd as their name suggests. Hailing from Manchester, this group of post-punks are beginning to make a name for themselves on the live circuit following a series of archaic performances that has seen comparisons drawn with fellow hell-raisers The Fat White Family. Cabbage are the type of guitar band Britain has been missing for the last couple of years. A messy, idiosyncratic punk outfit that are out to have fun and will most certainly polarise opinion. Either you’ll jump head first into their twisted satirical wordplay or you’ll be quite disgusted by their rather revolting jet-black sense of humour, something that can be found smeared over pretty much all of their tracks. Cabbage will never be (nor want to be for that matter) world-beaters or a band for the big choruses, but already booked as the main support for Blossoms’ UK tour (catch them at the Lemon Grove), alongside an ever-swelling fan base, its fair to say that 2017 could be an interesting year for the band.

Songs to Try: ‘NO CD’, ‘Stars & Shards’

Songs to Try: ‘Shades’, ‘M.T.M.E.’

Songs to Try: ‘Uber Capitalist Death Trade’, ‘Dinner Lady’

Photo: Sodwee.com

FORMATION

In spite of currently being hidden by a series of links concerning the recent Beyoncé single, this South London quartet are taking significant steps towards making it big. With early comparisons to electronic titans LCD Soundsystem, founding twins Will and Matt Ritson have already been given big shoes to fill. Their brand of dancepunk has a trademark groove that has already seen them accrue a number of adoring fans whilst igniting festivals up and down the countries and in supporting indie rockers Foals on their recent tour. Having already released two critically acclaimed EPs as well as a number of successful singles, with the likes of ‘All the Rest is Noise’ and ‘Powerful People’ receiving airtime on BBC 6 Music, 2017 looks to be a big year for the band and an opportunity to release their great potential. Could they be also be someone great?

Declan McKenna is the youngest member of the list by some distance, aged just 17. He more than compensates for this age gap with a mature song-writing ability that has seen him tackle ambiguous topics including the corruption of the footballing body FIFA in ‘Brasil’ and the controversy of religion in ‘Bethlehem’. Coming to prominence through winning Glastonbury Festival’s ‘Emerging Talent’ competition, McKenna must have already ticked a lot off of his music check-list; playing the legendary Glastonbury festival, making his debut television appearance on BBC 2 music show Later… With Jools Holland and already having a song appear on the latest soundtrack to the football video game FIFA 17. With an stash of catchy tunes already to his name, Declan McKenna is certainly one to look out for in 2017.

Songs to try: ‘Powerful People’, ‘All the Rest is Noise’

Songs to Try: ’Bethlehem’, ‘Isombard’

deADLINE SEASON MIXTAPE Jeremy Brown ‘Library Pictures’ - Arctic Monkeys Chloe Edwards ‘A Lack of Understanding’ - The Vaccines Alex Brammer ‘The Kids Dont Stand a Chance’ - Vampire Weekend Lucy Ronan ‘Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying’ - Belle and Sebastian Theo Stone ‘Helplessness Blues’ - Fleet Foxes It’s Week 10, which means deadlines for all. Cry. Luckily, Exeposé Music has made a playlist to power you through those essays...

Rory Marcham ‘Wasted Hours’ - Arcade Fire Helen Payne ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (but they will) - The Cure Jonny Morris ‘I Tried’ - Lucy Rose Georgie Bolam ‘One Day More’ - Les Miserables

Photo: Chuff Media

DECLAN MCKENNA

EXHIBIT

EDITORS: Rory Marcham and Helen Payne

MUSIC

21 NOV 2016

Regina Spektor-cle T

Amy Batley, Copy Editor, and Harriet Conti reflect on the Russian songstress’ performance at Bristol’s Colston Hall

HE chance to see Regina Spektor playing live on tour doesn’t come often. The Russian-American singer-songwriter took a four year break from her music career after giving birth to her son, but recently released her newest offering, Remember Us To Life. As longterm fans, we were delighted to finally see her debut the album at Bristol’s Colston Hall on a rainy Saturday evening - a welcome break from our third-year reality of reading and deadlines. The concert followed a turbulent week in international politics, which left people around the world reeling - including Spektor herself. Following her energetic rendition of ‘You’ve Got Time’, soundtrack to the popular Netflix series Orange is the New Black, she could hardly keep from mentioning the shock election of Donald Trump to the US presidency. Spektor pleaded with her audience: “Promise me there are still good people in the world, Bristol?”. She followed this with her most impassioned song of the night, the cynical and defiant ‘Ballad of a Politician’, in clear reference to the US Presidentelect. In the context of Spektor’s childhood, which saw her family seeking asylum in New York City for reasons of religious persecution, the song’s assertion “But I am, but I am, but I am, not a number, not a name” was particularly emotive, given Trump’s infamously harsh stance on immigration. It is moments such as this one that Spektor’s songs are made for,

presenting complex political and philosophical realities with a tone of determined, and often humorous optimism. The songwriter also paid homage to the recent death of Leonard Cohen, calling him an embodiment of “all that is good and beautiful in the world”. Her cover of Cohen’s ‘Chelsea H o t e l #2’ was a heartfelt and poignant tribute to the renowned singer-songwriter, and encapsulated the unique and comical candour for which he was known. Fans of Spektor, both old and new, would not have been disappointed by the set list. In amongst many of her most famous tracks such as ‘On the Radio’,

‘Blue Lips’ and ‘Fidelity’, she performed almost every song from the new album. A personal favourite was ‘Grand Hotel’, a melodic track invoking an imaginary, dreamlike establishment where nothing about the Wes Anderson-esque world containing it is quite as it seems. Another particularly moving moment was Spektor’s rendition of ‘ O b s o l e t e ’, the album’s longest track by far. The song is stripped back, using no percussion and relying solely on her powerful vocals accompanied by the piano. Throughout the concert, she had an effortless way of singing each song with complete and utter conviction, as if she was performing it for the first time. The high ceilings of the 18th century

Colston Hall were a perfect fit for Spektor. Her clear, melodic voice filled the room, and throughout the performance she looked perfectly at home sitting at the imposing grand piano, which dominated the minimal stage set. Spektor is a natural, unforced performer: despite her obvious shyness, she was an engaging and endearing stage presence. There were, of course, some moments of notable eccentricity from the unorthodox vocalist – for example, when she assumed the stance of a rapper for a playful rendition of ‘Small Bill$’, accompanied by her husband Jack Dishel on electric guitar. In the aftermath of a demoralising week, Spektor, as always, succeeded in reminding her fans that there was still cause for hope. After the concert, having missed the last train back to Exeter we found ourselves stranded in Bristol for the night waiting for the morning train. Exhausted, lost, and still laughing, we were reminded of a piece of advice offered by Spektor in the wonderfully optimistic ‘Older and Taller’: “’Enjoy your youth’ sounds like a threat… But I will anyway.”

REMEMBER US TO LIFE IS OUT NOW

A Tribe at its best Ali Macleod explores the hip hop pioneer’s first album in 18 years A TRIBE CALLED QUEST We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service 11 November

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HE legendary sounds of A Tribe Called Quest will continue to reverberate through another generation. A Tribe Called Quest, one of hip-hop’s most revered and celebrated groups, released its sixth and final album last week We Got It From Here…Thank You For Your Service. The foundations of this creation continue to be supplied by Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Al Shaheed and Jarobi. Yet, as if to certify themselves in music history, a number of the industry’s finest have joined them for their final blow out. In addition to Busta Rhymes, André 3000, Elton John, Kendrick Lamar, Talib Kweli and Kanye himself all feature to end this journey. The vocals of the late Phife and Q-Tip have always been exchanged back and forth to convey digestible political messages,

cooked in wit, anger and unapologetic intelligence. Their social commentary is another narrative to contend with the likes of CNN and Fox News, yet somehow their street level dissertations seem to resonate at the top. Their messages are loud and clear, inflicting political messages in today’s socially explosive climate, yet with the usual gentle tone that diffuses positivity and hope. The group, symbolic of a wise counter-culture that originated in a time of black oppression, were either fortunate or borderline prophetic with their timings. The album could not have been released with more poignancy as America elected business tycoon come reality TV star Donald Trump to be the 45th President of the United States. ATCQ’s response: make an appearance on Saturday Night Live, imploring the crowd to raise their fists to the air, and urging them to unify under the slogan “We The People.”

THE ALBUM COULD NOT HAVE BEEN RELEASED WITH MORE POIGNANCY

THE VIBRANCY AND THE YOUTH REMAINS ‘We The People...’ is standout. Whilst neatly sampling Black Sabbaths ‘Behind the Wall of Sleep,’ the live-sounding drum kit compliments the stop-start vocals, generating a mean, aggressive tone that wryly pokes fun at Donald Trump’s inexcusable attitudes towards muslims, homosexuals and the black population of America. The transition to the next track ‘Whateva Will Be’ is smooth, but the sounds are a complete contrast. A funky, soft bass, with a dubby inclusion of Nairobi Sister’s ‘Promised Land’ is a hark back to the halcyon days of Native Tongues- a collection of groups, including that of De La Soul, focused on positivity and Afrocentric lyrics. ‘The Killing Season’ is a headline show in itself, featuring Kanye West, Consequence and Talib Kweli, pillars of their genre. And yet, there is space for Elton John’s piano and Jack white’s guitar later on too. The grouping of such talent sees ATCQ

update their catalogue of sounds and subjects, whilst remaining true to the music that defined them through the Golden Age of hiphop. Those jazz-inspired grooves that made for easy listening are now supported by the contemporaries of Kendrick Lamar and Anderson Peak. The vibrancy and the youth remains nonetheless, “We embraced the spirit of one-upping each other,” group leader QTip said. “All of a sudden the drapings of ageism and questions of ‘where we’re at...’ that shit flew out the fucking window and we fell into science mode. We just locked in and we became fucking kids again.” And although the final scratches on ‘The Donald’ might be twenty years older, they are still of equal prestige, still reminiscent of the smoggy rooms in the Bronx and Queens.

WE GOT IT FROM HERE...THANK YOU 4 YOUR SERVICE IS OUT NOW

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screen Is it a wrap for Tarantino?

Matthew Phillips looks at the career of the maverick auteur

UENTIN Tarantino decided to hang up his boots on his directing career last week, claiming he only has two more films left to make. This ten-film limit is an announcement he has reiterated several times, including after the release of Django Unchained. Reports have universally interpreted his retirement plans cynically, seeing it as a business move to preserve his status and to ensure his last film is given even more press coverage. This is unsurprising, considering Tarantino has not shied away from self-glorification throughout his career. In an interview with Vanity Fair last week, he challenged any other director to “match that shit” and stated that he wants to be remembered after his retirement as not just one of the greatest directors of all time, but a “great artist”. Whilst most other directors would balk at such an obvious publicity stunt, especially as he disclosed in an interview with the BBC in 2014 that his plan was “not etched in stone”, Tarantino’s undying bravado only adds to his appeal. This provides a contrast with other blockbuster

film-makers; despite his box-office success, Michael Bay has consistently had to defend his style of film-making, arguing that he makes films for teenage boys, not critics. Even Steven Spielberg remains humble about his directorial reputation, including admitting his sequels “aren’t as good as [his] originals” in a recent interview by the New York Times.

TARANTINO SELLS HIMSELF AS THE BAD BOY OF DIRECTING Tarantino instead sells himself as the badboy of directing, failing to mince his words in interviews, creating gory and violent visual spectacles on screen and getting hands-on with his work. He has always been at the centre of controversy, making no attempt to disguise its value as a marketing tool. This includes the decision to

give Kurt Russell a real antique guitar from 1890 to smash to pieces in his latest film, The Hateful Eight, prompting the museum Tarantino loaned it from to refuse to ever let out exhibits for films again. Tarantino is also reported to have said on the Howard Stern Show that fellow director Spike Lee would have to “stand on a chair to kiss my ass”, after Lee criticised the use of racial epithets in Jackie Brown. As they say, all publicity is good publicity. Tarantino’s talent for film-making is beyond question; his debut Reservoir Dogs regularly makes top-10 lists, his second film Pulp Fiction is legendary, while the duo of Kill Bill films are often hailed as nerdy masterpieces. However, I feel that his self-confidence has not always had a positive influence. Tarantino’s cameo in the utterly unnecessary last half an hour of Django Unchained is pitiful, attempting an Australian accent which is neither accurate nor humorous. Inglorious Basterds and The Hateful Eight also suffered from excessive length, at 153 and 168 minutes respectively. Whilst making films of such an epic scale

A right-royal review

has become part of Tarantino’s reputation for full-blooded, intense cinema, it is a poor move from an artistic point of view.

HIS TALENT FOR FILM-MAKING IS BEYOND QUESTION Tarantino will no doubt be hailed as one of the great directors when he eventually decides to retire, whether that does turn out to be in two films time or not. But that is not to say he is flawless. Whilst he he enjoys being known for his disregard of critics, it will no doubt be a nagging concern on his mind that he has failed to win a single Oscar, BAFTA or, even Golden Globe for his direction. Perhaps this means Tarantino will be remembered as a director for the viewers, and not for the critics. I think he’s mostly a director for himself.

Bethia Atkinson appraises the new big-budget biopic from Netflix The Crown Netflix Claire Foy, Matt Smith 2016

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ITH a £100 million budget, ten episodes, and a promise of six seasons in total, each covering a decade of the reign, The Crown has been one of the most hotly anticipated shows to grace the online screens of Netflix. With a star-studded cast, including Claire Foy, Matt Smith, and John Lithgow, the show has been hailed by critics and fans alike. The first season, of which all ten episodes were released on 4 November, covers Elizabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip and the first few years of her reign. Claire Foy has a natural command and great humanity as Elizabeth, a monarch being brought to an unprecedented level of underAhead upcoming November standingofandthe openness. She has a gentleness release of and Fantastic in the role doesn’t Beasts shy awayAnd fromWhere exposing To the Find Them,ofJ.a conventionally K. Rowling announced emotion steely character. at Matt a fanSmith eventbrings on Thursday 18th October a steely gravitas to the role that plansstriking for a trilogy had been of original Prince Philip, an incredibly delicate expanded, with anfather additional lms in balance between figure two who ficares a lot theabout pipeline bringing total his children, and athe manseries who has beento torn five. away from what he wanted to do and pushed into the limelight as the husband of the Queen of the Empire.

The Fantastic Five?

21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

It is evident how the copious budget was spent on the show. Lavish sets include incredible recreations of the front of Buckingham Palace, the inside of Westminster Abbey, and the various rooms that the Royal Family occupy - the series makes an effort to remain accurate to the historical reality of the period. With flashbacks to Elizabeth’s childhood, we are given a peek into the aspects of history that perhaps are considered less, notably the impact of the abdication of Edward VIII. Perhaps the episodes feel a little too distinct from one other; issues from earlier episode sometimes fail to make an appearance later in the series, even if subsequent episodes happen within months of each other, but this does not deter much from the otherwise excellent storytelling.

FAMILY IS AT THE HEART OF THE SHOW What is reinforced most throughout the show, above the tension in Parliament and the

growing distrust of the British colonies towards the monarchy, is the idea of family. Whilst it may be strained at times - the controversial relationship between Princess Margaret and Captain Peter Townsend, Queen Mary’s strong dislike of Edward VIII and even the difficulty that Prince Philip faces as he adjusts to life as a British royal - family is ultimately at the heart of the show. The Crown does not shy away from the problems that both the Queen, and those around her, had in the first few years. Instead, they lay them out on the table and remind those watching that these people, who seem so different to us “commoners”, are in fact no different and face similar problems, just in different circumstances. The show is sure to be a huge success in its further seasons. It is wise to avoid overdramatising the Royal Family, as other American funded shows, namely The Royals, have done. However, if this series is an indication of what is to come over the next six series, whenever they may be released, it is a sure sign of greater things to come from Netflix and its continued growth into original television-making.

Moore or less

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EDITORS: Mark Allison and Zak Mahinfar

21 NOV 2016

Dear Mr President P

Following the election of Trump, Maddy Parker looks at the American presidency on TV

OLITICS offers a wealth of material for television – power, money, scandal, moral dilemmas – so it’s unsurprising that political series are extremely popular these days. Following the shock results of the recent US election, I‘ve listed a few of the best TV Presidencies, for anyone who wants to escape to a world without Donald Trump.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO ESCAPE TO A WORLD WITHOUT TRUMP The Kennedys is a 2011 mini-series that follows the Kennedy family during JFK’s presidency. Even though Kennedy remains one of the nation’s most popular presidents, the atmosphere in the series is one of corruption. This mostly comes from Kennedy’s father, Joseph (Tom Wilkinson), who himself had ambitions to become president, but was forced to resign from politics after making controversial comments about World War II. In The Kennedys he is constantly behind the scenes, working to live vicariously through his sons. In the first episode, he explains what one needs to advance in politics – deception: “it’s not what you are, it’s what people think you are. And with the right amount of money you can make them think whatever you want.” Greg Kinnear’s John F Kennedy (or Jack, as he’s referred to by his family) is very different from the one we read about in school history books. The audience learn about his affairs, his struggles with Addison’s disease, and the questionable decisions his family members made on his behalf, adding an interesting backstory to one of the most famous names in America.

A lighter look at the life of the President comes in the sitcom 1600 Penn, named for the address of the White House, which was prematurely cancelled in 2013 after just one series. It follows a fictional president, Dale Gilchrist (Bill Pullman), and his family. Unlike most White House-based TV shows, politics is barely featured, instead favouring the dynamics of the first family. The issues, rather than foreign policy or financial worries, include a pregnancy scandal surrounding the President’s 22-year-old daughter, his new wife’s struggle to gain the trust of his children, and the PR disasters that follow his son, Skip (Josh Gad), who is by far the star of the show. In places, however, it does touch on more

serious subjects, like the difficulties of handling the constant scrutiny. However, my favourite recent portrayal of the American presidency has to be Sigourney Weaver as the fictional Elaine Barrish, in the USA Network mini-series Political Animals. Weaver perfectly plays the long-suffering wife of an adulterous ex-president who goes on to run for the office herself (sound familiar?). Despite losing the party primaries and settling for Secretary of State, she is determined to run for President again the next time around. While this is technically not a portrayal of an incumbent President, the fact that the main character is an unsubtle reflection of Hillary Clinton lends the show an

obvious relevance. Weaver’s portrayal of Elaine is extremely sympathetic – she is intelligent and assertive, and comes across as the moral backbone in an unprincipled government. Whether or not you agree with this interpretation of Clinton, it is a truly fantastic series. The scripts are sharp and extremely moving in places, while the cast is brilliant throughout. Where it really excels, though, is in the balance between Elaine’s political dilemmas and the struggles of her family and their position in the spotlight. Where the character diverges from Hillary most significantly is with her two children; twin sons whose upbringing affected them in extremely different ways. Growing up in the White House gave Douglas (James Wolk) a career advancement, leading him to work for the Democratic party and run Elaine’s Presidential campaign. TJ (Sebastian Stan), on the other hand, is a recovering drug addict, harassed by the press all his life for being gay. It’s worth watching for Sebastian Stan’s performance alone, but it also provides an idealised glimpse into what could have been, had the election result gone the other way.

IT PROVIDES AN IDEALISED GLIMPSE INTO WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

Arriving in cinemas

Whether you love it or hate it, political TV is always going to be relevant and will therefore remain wildly popular. It offers us a chance to look into the lives of the people who are in charge of ours, and with Donald Trump readying himself for the Presidency, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to get any less interesting.

George Gregory reviews the sci-fi behemouth from director Denis Villeneuve ARRIVAL Director: Denis Villeneuve Amy Adams. Jeremy Renner 2016, 116 minutes.

THREARSAAAA

MY Adams stars as Louise Banks, a linguistics professor who is tasked with learning to communicate with aliens who have landed in 12 gigantic spaceships. Whilst nervous nations lean towards an attack on the aliens, Banks becomes the last hope to prevent war. Arrival effortlessly weaves complex ideas and poignant themes together, whilst still making for an entertaining science fiction film. At first glance Arrival may seem to be just another story about first contact with aliens, but there is another, quite sophisticated, layer to the film which

will surprise those unfamiliar with the short story upon which it is based. This inner depth suggests ideas around how language affects our perception of the world, and even some deterministic notions. There is a big revelation in the film that really exposes this layer for all to see, and whilst this discovery will likely be predicted by more observant viewers, it is still powerful and succeeds in making you really appreciate the intricacies of the film. Where Arrival really excels is that it does not get weighed down in its more complicated plot points. The film has a sustained intensity which keeps you hooked despite the distinct lack of action or violence that some Sci-fi fans may expect. This tension is largely thanks to Jóhann Jóhannsson’s unsettling score and Bradford Young’s stunning cinematography. The scenes where Louise Banks and her team first enter one of the spaceships are simply breath-taking and a great example of visuals and music within a film com-

plementing each other perfectly. Amy Adams’s performance is magnificent and this is quickly demonstrated in the first scene which manages to be quite emotional even though we have no real knowledge of the characters at that point. Adams manages to be both fragile and strong throughout which makes Louise Banks a multifaceted character who is subsequently a very intriguing heroine. It is a challenge to pick faults in Arrival, but there are a couple of very minor scruples. Jeremy Renner is a satisfactory presence as Ian Donnelly, a military astrophysicist. Despite his large amount of screen time, Renner never has a particularly memorable scene that defines his character. Whilst this understated performance does work, it feels like there was the poten-

tial for a bit more. Furthermore, to sustain the film’s impressive intensity, the filmmakers unfortunately resort to a dull voice over sequence mid-way through the film that speeds through some of the plot. Overall, this choice probably does benefit the intense pace of the film. But considering how masterfully the other aspects of the film were dealt with, I was surprised a more creative method of handling this part of the plot was not devised. However, these immaterial problems do not detract from what is, honestly, an incredible film. Arrival presents heavy emotional themes and some complex ideas in a way that does not alienate audiences. The most impressive aspect, however, is that Arrival achieves all this whilst being utterly captivating from start to finish.

games + tech Time to switch it up

Sam Woolf, Games + Tech Editor, sums up the whole console situation

T’S certainly an exciting time to be a console gamer. With Sony having just launched the PlayStation 4 Pro, and Microsoft and Nintendo prepping for the release of the Xbox One Scorpio and Switch consoles respectively, the immediate future of console gaming appears bright. However in the context of an ever-expanding mobile gaming market, and the virtual reality revolution getting off the ground on PC, I do find myself wondering just how long the concept of a dedicated videogames system can hold out – at least in its current form.

THERE IS A FUNDAMENTAL FLAW WITH THE CONSOLE CYCLE Despite the fact that the current generation of console hardware consists of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Wii U, technologically speaking these consoles are not current. Infamously underpowered back in 2012, the Wii U was outdated the moment it launched. But even the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One – which are just over three years old at this point – are archaic in comparison to modern high-end gaming PCs. Technology is progressing so fast nowadays that by the time a console begins to hit its stride, it’s effectively obsolete. Evidently there is a problem here. A fundamental flaw with the console cycle that means systems are constantly underpowered. Something needs to be done. Following the reveal of the Switch last month, Nintendo’s proposed solution - as usual - is to just do its own thing. The Switch is not a mega powerful console, but instead will offer a wholly unique gaming setup as a hybrid of both a home console and portable system. The portable main unit will be shaped like a tablet and feature two detachable wireless controllers, called Joy-Cons, which can be used when attached to the tablet display, or removed and used individually. Through a docking station, the system can then also be connected to a television display and used in a more traditional manner.

The Switch will be placing more of an emphasis on portability than graphical prowess. So, Nintendo are clearly hoping for another Wii situation in which they are able to attract a massive casual audience. This is a massive risk though. With everybody having a casual gaming device in their pockets already, it remains to be seen whether such an audience even exists anymore. Comparatively, Sony’s game plan also involves an element of risk. Having sold in excess of 40 million units, the PS4 has dominated the console generation thus far. But, going forward the success of the console has a twofold dependence upon the success of PlayStation VR and the PlayStation 4 Pro. Whilst initially it may sound very appealing to have an affordable VR experience on a home console, it doesn’t take much to scratch away the impressive façade conjured up by PlayStation VR. Undeniably, it sits right at the bottom of the VR spectrum. Both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift graphically outpace the headset downright, and the single-camera tracking system of PSVR struggles to keep up with its dual-camera competitors. What’s more, whilst Oculus and HTC can continue to refine their headsets and make use of the increasing power of PCs, Sony’s headset is inherently tied to the stagnant PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 4 Pro consoles for the next few years.

BYTE-SIZE blast from the past by Hannah Butler

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets EA- PlayStation 2 2002 AAAAB

The PlayStation 4 Pro itself isn’t a problem for Sony - if anything, it’s good that they’re releasing an upgraded version of their current hardware in order to keep up. The issue is that all games released for the Pro will still have to work on the base PS4 model. Chained down by a console released three years ago, Sony aren’t really progressing, they’re just polishing what they already have. Bizarrely, for Microsoft’s strategy going forward we need to look to Apple’s iPhone. Through releasing increasingly powerful versions of the Xbox One over a series of years, Xbox are effectively doing away with the concept of console generations. As such, the upcoming Xbox One Scorpio is to the Xbox One what the iPhone 7 is to all earlier versions of the iPhone. Games that work on the Xbox One Scorpio will work on the original Xbox One, but software will be made with the higher specs Scorpio in mind. Just as new games released on the iPhone won’t necessarily work on older versions of the hardware, there will eventually come a time when new Xbox One games won’t necessarily work on the origi-

nal Xbox One. Going even further forward, this means that the Xbox One Scorpio will one day be succeeded by an even more powerful Xbox One. Games will then be developed with the more powerful console in mind, but will also work on the Scorpio for a while before it too is fully phased out. This strategy has the potential to revolutionize the very concept of consoles. Under normal circumstances gamers would have to splash out on a brand new system every few years, but through gradually introducing hardware revisions, Microsoft will be giving consumers the opportunity to choose when they upgrade. Between increased portability, flexibility and virtual reality; game consoles as concept have huge potential going forward. It’s impossible to say for sure whether this potential will be fully realised, but at the very least gamers have a very exciting few years ahead of them.

Image BagogG

ames, Flickr

“If Harry Potter goes back to Hogwarts, he will be in mortal danger.” When these words echoed around the living room, the whole family knew we were in for a long night. Especially if Dad hadn’t Googled how to get past the Avifors Challenge at work today… (this was pre-WiFi era in the Butler household, after all). This 2002 EA release lets users guide Harry through his second year of Hogwarts - from Quidditch and Defence Against the Dark Arts to after-dark library adventures and, you know, saving the wizarding world once again. However, the magic (sorry) of the game is in its free roaming. When all your day’s tasks are completed, you can either move straight onto tomorrow’s challenges... or hang around and explore for a bit. Daytime? Grab your Nimbus 2000 and go explore the castle grounds. Night? Well, you’ve collected enough beans for that spellbook from Fred and George’s secret shop. With an inventory to fill, gnome-flinging contests to win and that ever-elusive last Witches and Wizards card to collect, this is a world you can properly become engrossed in. Until, of course, your arm falls through a solid wall (2002 graphics, what u playing at.)

EXHIBIT

GAMES + TECH

ACK in the day there was a strange trend of almost every popular movie and TV show receiving a tie-in video game. From the critically acclaimed GoldenEye and beloved Harry Potter console adventures, to the strange genre mashup that was Simpsons: Hit and Run, these games were everywhere. Does anyone remember the 2007 game of the American version of The Office, or the 2009 Mean Girls for Nintendo DS? Apparently those exist, and people paid money to buy them. Whatever happened to this thriving industry? Nowadays video game

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tie-ins are a rare sight; only the Lego games and certain mobile apps spring to mind. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will actually be the first Harry Potter universe film without an accompanying video game.

MOVIE GAMES GOT A REPUTATION FOR BEING A BIT RUBBISH The obvious answer is that these games have a reputation for being a bit rubbish. The entire industry had a black stain on it, an unshakeable reputation for just rushing out

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EMEMBER when the music you listened to was restricted to which CDs you owned? When, if you wanted to see the whole of a programme, you had to be sat in front of the TV on time? A world without YouTube (released in 2005), or Netflix (began streaming in 2007), no Spotify (2008) or even iPlayer (also 2005). Nowadays, revenues from music streaming surpass both digital downloads and physical media. That’s just the “on-demand” stuff – live streaming is also having a moment. From Periscope, through Twitch, and into Facebook Live, there are a multitude of ways to potentially show anyone in the world, anything you like, at the very time that it’s happening. Streaming is consuming content without having to fully own or download it, and it’s everywhere.

21 NOV 2016

EDITORS: Jabez Sherrington and Sam Woolf

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games to meet deadlines with little to no effort put in to actually make them good. Perhaps the most famous example of this is E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600, which was met with overwhelming negative feedback and spawned the urban legend that millions of unsold copies were buried in a New Mexico landfill. Aliens being hidden in New Mexico are apparently a common trope of urban legends. While a failure on this level was never quite repeated, as video game quality consistently increased over time it became rarer and rarer to find critically acclaimed tie-ins. The Shrek Forever After tie-in game for instance was released the same year as Red Dead Redemption. That’s like pitting the Exeter Youth Football League under-12s division against Real Madrid. The market no longer exists for moderatelybudgeted movie tie-ins of middling quality. Even corporate giant Disney opted to close down its flagship tie-in series

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When Netflix released House of Cards in February 2013, it surpassed multiple trends. No longer must entertainment be drip-fed – the whole season was instantly available; consumers devoured it and loved it. No longer should investment be made cautiously step-by-step – Netflix had paid for the entire season in advance. No longer did brands rely on third party information – Netflix knew its customers, what they liked to watch, and how long they wanted to watch for. They provided a new form of entertainment, and today they have approzimately 87 million subscribers. But it’s not just viewers who are currency in the streaming world – it’s content, too. Amazon Prime saw a hike in subscribers following the airing of the first episode of The Grand Tour on 18 November. The popular trio of ex-Top exGear presenters were netted with a deal of three series of twelve episodes and a yearly pay packet of around £10 million for each host and the show’s producer. However, the popularity of streaming means that errors are becoming front page news. “Music Streaming App Slowly Killing Your

Science

Disney Infinity this year, for undisclosed reasons. In a way it’s sad, as so much of my childhood was spent playing poorly made movie cash grabs that a friend picked up from a bargain bin. They were cheap, easy to play, featured recognisable characters, and occasionally even surprised you by being good. Mostly, though, the decline of movie tiein games is a good thing. Video games, much like TV, are in a golden age of high quality and innovation. The decline of big-name, loweffort titles drawing people’s attention has freed up valuable market space for interesting, original games. We’ve already seen the movies; we don’t need to play them too.

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Hard Drives,” as featured on the techtimes. com website on 11 November, about the Spotify bug of writing huge amounts of junk data to hard drives. Solid-state hard drives (SSDs) have a limited life for being read and re-written, though lifespans have increased massively and not all computers have SSDs. Journalists found in 24 hours the Spotify app wrote and re-wrote up to 700GB – over 100 films’ worth of data.) Spotify’s version 1.0.42 apparently addresses the issue, but with Tech Times urging users to disable and uninstall the app, the damage was done.

BRANDS ARE AGREEING THAT THE FUTURE IS STREAMING Reputation of the music-streaming service also came under the spotlight in 2014 when Taylor Swift removed her entire catalogue of songs from the streaming service. She is against music being played for free. Swift told Time magazine: “I think that people should feel that there is a value to what musi-

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cians have created, and that’s that.” The royalty bias of Spotify’s system to popular artists – where money made from subscriptions is distributed based on their percentage of streams – is one of the key reasons why an indie music fan might disown the service. Despite the high stakes, brands such as Disney are reluctantly admitting that streaming is the future. They’ve recently seen shares fall and revenue targets missed, so in order to keep up with the newbies, they’re joining the streaming world. In the U.S. Disney has made deals so content is shown on Netflix and Hulu. A copy of The Lion King on DVD should set you back £12.99 in the Disney Store, but in the UK Disney Life – which includes its films, TV shows and more on demand – it’s yours for £10 a month. “Hakuna matata” seems to be the general reaction to the overwhelming popularity of streaming. With student discounts on Amazon Prime, Spotify, Apple Music and more, this demographic is very much going with the flow.

EDITORS: Jabez Sherrington and Sam Woolf

Life hacks

Theodore Stone, Online Editor, explores the possibility of getting hacked

A MECHANICAL OVERHAUL WASN'T NEEDED However, these are large companies, parties, and endeavours. The individual, such as yourself, is less at risk because you are not only easier to hack, but less interesting to hack. Whilst this might not sound like much of a comfort, it is the case that notoriety increases ones risk. Now, if you’re still scared, purchase a penetration test - where somebody hacks your computer for you - in order to gain a sharper understanding of your computer's security limits. Alongside this, keep your passwords fluid and temporary. Make sure that you know which Wi-fi source you’re using and for pity’s sake, don’t use the pen drive that Keanu Reeves lookalike gave you.

days of network outage

On 17 April 2011, a two day hack shook SONY to the very core. Lawsuits were filed, alarms were sounded, and the Playstation Network - an integral part of the Playstation 3 experence - stopped people from accessing services for almost one month.

million accounts compromised

The hack resonated around the world. Outrage was flung at Sony for having not encrypted sensitive information, as hordes of gamers were unable to access the online capabilities of their games. Anger was multiplied when it was revealed that Sony opted not to tell people about the extent of the data accessed, until a later date.

billion dollars in damages

CROSSWORD # 91

SUDOKU #28

Abandon (6)

ceremony in Washington D.C. in January 2017 (9,5)

On holiday (4)

Rules - sadly show (anagram) (5,4)

Anticlimatic thing (at the ﬁrework display?) (4,5)

Abase yourself (to someone) (6)

Rump - nadir (6)

Encourage (4,2)

Amount beyond the least needed (for victory?) (6)

Powerful nuclear device (at least one will be

Damned - off course (4)

managed by 10 12 after January 2017!) (4,4)

Aspiration (4)

Requirement (4)

Court (a lover - or a voter?) (3)

STUDY BREAK PUZZLES BY ALFRED

ANSWERS 18

Give permission (3)

10/12 A title to be assumed by a certain person at a

sway,

Holds

Risk (6)

Prized (9)

Trump,

President

Serious (6)

Across: 1 Epic, 4 Talisman, 8 Severe, 9 Threat,

Upbeat (6)

Kowtow, 20 Urge on, 21 Atom bomb, 22 Need.

Skin (of an orange, say) (4)

Down: 2 Peel, 3 Cheery, 4 Treasured, 5 Let, 6

Charm - am in last (anagram) (8)

Woo.

Incredible (4)

Hope,

Down

Strand, 7 Away, 11 Damp squib, 13 Bottom,

Across

10/12

What is needed by the hacker is a method of connecting to your device. Unfortunately, such a method no longer requires something physical, since, for the most of us, the tools used to hack into a laptop to locate your secret stash of Tim Farron fanfiction have advanced since the days of Terminator 2. Take the ‘Pineapple’ as an example. In today’s society, we are relatively reliant on the need for an internet connection. In many of these cases, we rely upon an internet router to do this. The Pineapple is, at first glance, just another one of these, an internet router designed to provide you with the connection you need to find saucy images of young Joe Biden. However, that’s where the similarities end. Once connected, the Pineapple is able to document every search you make, your entire internet history immediately becomes privy to the eyes of the hacker, all withImage: Ubisoft Press out you realising.

button. Nonetheless, this shouldn’t concern you too much. Companies such as Google are now hiring ‘White Hat Hackers’ - people employed to break into their websites and servers in order to work out where the flaws in their security systems lie. Of course, this is all rendered meaningless if those you are trying to protect your files from breach your server. We have already been witness to the power of WikiLeaks for a good few years now, and their effect on the recent Presidential Election is set to be one which won’t be soon forgotten.

ONCE THE TROJAN IS ACTIVATED, IT'S ESSENTIALLY GAME OVER

Of course, this is nothing when compared to malware-based hacking. After selecting a certain target, they will find every piece of data available about you on the internet in order to build up a profile, before creating a custom pice of malware specifically for your computer. Do you prefer the Duke of Benin to the Prince of Nigeria? If so, be prepared for that to be put to use. During these procedures you will usually receive an email with, say, a .rar file attached to it. Once opened, you’ll wind up with a remote access trojan on the loose, with the hackers controlling every aspect of your computer. They’ll even be able to use the webcam to see you, and the microphone to talk to you. Once the trojan is activated, it’s essentially game over. There is no reset

Playstation Network Hack of 2011

Lost,

ACKING. The art of the virtual breakin, where burglary is made into binary. No matter how advanced your security software may be, you are always at risk of being hacked, because therein lies the glorious danger of the practice. No system is safe enough, no passcode too complex, no equation unsolvable, all is, in essence, ripe for the taking.

21 NOV 2016

GAMES + TECH

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Science

SCIENCE EDITORS:

Victoria Bos Beth Honey

The fall of the Neanderthal

Ruth Braham looks at the recent research on the abundance of Neanderthal DNA and the causes of their extinction

HE history of human evolution is a long and fascinating one. In this issue we look at one of our closest evolutionary cousins, the infamous Homo Neanderthalensis, more commonly known as Neanderthals. But how much do we know about Neanderthals and just how closely related are we? Neanderthals were an ancient species of Hominid, commonly recognised for their stunted, robust growth and distinct facial features, the enlarged forehead and protruding chin. They ﬁrst emerged 500,000 years ago when they split from the Homo Sapiens Precursor Homo Erectus, living mainly in western and central Europe whilst modern humans lived mainly in Africa.

Neanderthals may have even been interbred and absorbed into the species we now call human The first discovery of a Neanderthal, the imaginatively named Neanderthal 1, was in August 1856 when a selection of bones, including a skull fragment, were found in a grotto in Neanderthal, Germany. The area would later lend its name to the species. A full fossilised skull was later discovered in la Chappelle-Aux-Saints, France, estimated to be around 60,000 years old and showing the distinctive Neanderthal facial features. It wasn’t until the 1950s that full skeletons would be excavated from the Shanidar cave. Neanderthals were first suggested as a possible separate species to modern humans in 1846, when geologist William King suggested the Neanderthal fossil was sufficiently different from humans to warrant its own species. His name of Homo Neanderthalensis, after the location of the fossils discovery was then given to the species, beating German biologist Ernest Haeckel’s 1848 suggestion Homo Stupidus, the fun we could have had. Many sources depict Neanderthals as the primitive intellectual inferiors of our cavemen ancestors, however this is emphatically not the truth. Archaeo-

logical finds prove that Neanderthals used stone and bone tools, made fires and may even have had some form of language, although this must have been fairly basic. Neanderthals may even have had access to water travel in the form of dugout canoes. Neanderthals lived in social groups, usually of five to ten related individuals, and evidence shows that they may even have had had some form of burial ritual. And while they may not be on the same level as their more successful cousins, who had a much larger toolkit and more complex social systems and trade, they were by no means as unsophisticated as commonly presented. Neanderthals died out about 50,000 years ago, the reasons for this are poorly understood although several theories have been put forward. Competition or even direct conflict with Homo Sapiens coming out of Africa and exposure to the new diseases they brought with them may have been partly responsible. Also, Neanderthals had much lower population sizes than humans so inbreeding may have been a much more common occurrence, leading to a build-up of harmful genes, an idea we will return to later. One alternative hypothesis suggests that Neanderthals failure to adapt to the changing conditions at the advent of the last ice age may be responsible for their extinc-

tion. Neanderthals may even have interbred and absorbed into the species we now call human. In truth we may never know conclusively what drove the Neanderthals to extinction: it could be any one of, or more likely a combination of the above factors. What we do know is that for approximately 5000 years before their extinction Neanderthals and Early Man shared Europe. During this time interbreeding occurred (likely on more than one occasion) and as a consequence some Neanderthal genes are present in modern day humans. That’s right: you may be part Neanderthal! It is thought that Neanderthals ac-

count for between one and four per cent of genes in non-African populations. This may not seem a large amount but it becomes signiﬁcant when you remember that there is a mere one per cent between us and Chimpanzees, our closest surviving relative. Recent research suggests that these genes may actually be harmful and are being weeded out by natural selection. This research was published in the journal PLOS Genetics and was carried out by researchers in the University of California. They looked at the distribution and abundance of Neanderthal genes within the human genome and found some interesting things. They found that fewer Neanderthal genes were found in gene dense regions of the human genome, suggesting that Neanderthal genes are selected against by natural selection. This may be because they are actually harmful. The study also showed a distinct lack of Neanderthal genes on the Xchromosome and none on the Y-Chromosome and mitochondria. This suggests that there may be a sexual element in the selection of these genes. It may even suggest that offspring of male Neanderthals were impossible or at least infertile, as the Y-Chromosome is passed exclusively down the male line. Neander thal genes seem particu-

Photo: WSI mag

larly common in areas of the genome associated with the immune system, this may be due to the need to adapt to new diseases as the coming together of two societies meant both were exposed to previously unseen pathogens It also has implications for our understanding of Neanderthals. In order for theses harmful alleles to be present they must have developed in Neanderthals. It seems likely that small population sizes lead to increased inbreeding.

In truth, we may never know conclusively what drove the Neanderthals to extinction This caused the build-up of these harmful alleles which in such a small population became effectively neutral, as there was no way of breeding out these harmful genes. When they get mixed into the much larger and more varied Homo Sapiens gene pool the most harmful genes get quickly selected against and disappear, leaving only those weakly harmful genes lingering in the most evolutionarily stable areas of the human genome. This suggests that over time Neanderthals may have become less “ﬁt”, a measure of how well adapted or evolved a species is. The study calculated that Neanderthals had a high evolutionary “Load” (maybe even a 94 per cent reduction in ﬁtness). This may well have contributed to their extinction and is interesting to note that Neanderthal Skeletons show a high rate of fractures, developmental stress and degenerative diseases. This is likely due to the lives spent hunting big game, but it may just be possible that harmful genes contributed, weakening bones and hastening the onset of diseases such as arthritis. So could it be that the Neanderthals gradually became less well adapted, and were driven to extinction by competition with our ancestors, who were more abundant, could run faster and were probably more intellectually advanced? That’s one possible conclusion, but in truth we may never know.

SCIENCE

Exeter’s scientiﬁc success

Tash Ebbutt, Arts & Lit Editor, examines the University of Exeter’s scientiﬁc triumphs and their global impact

HE University of Exeter has doubled the amount of research funding it receives from Research Councils UK (RCUK). During the academic year of 2015/16, the University received £29 million - a ﬁgure completely surpassing the previous year’s amount of £13 million. Due to this, Exeter has moved up the league tables of the RCUK by eight places; from 23rd to 15th. As stated by Dr Astrid Wissenburg, “This is a really great recognition of the breadth of expertise at Exeter” and is reﬂective of the “high standard of research being conducted” at the University. Our beloved university is one of the luckier institutions however. During 2015/16, the RCUK had £1.1

XETER has also been conducting a great deal of vital research into the impacts of renewable energy. Wind farms could be killing up to 80,000 bats per year. Even when risk assessments have been carried out as a preventative measure, the deaths still occur. Scientists used sniffer dogs to locate the bodies of deceased bats, struck by the blades. A survey of 29 wind farms was undertaken and the results found that 194 bats are killed monthly by the blades of wind turbines. The number is expected to be higher due to a certain amount of bodies becoming prey through the means of scavengers. If one was to extrapolate that number and apply it to every onshore wind farm

MAJOR discovery has been made in regards to wildlife and the natural world. The university has discovered that when foraging for pollen, bees use multiple sensory cues. Instead of using one sense as previously thought, it is believed that bees use a variety of senses and even memories of past experiences when deciding where to hunt for pollen. Researchers have determined that an ‘overall sensory assessment’ is made by bees at particular ﬂowers. Technically the bees do not taste the pollen when they harvest it. Instead, they store it in ‘sacs’ on their legs or on the hairs of their body. This raises

billion to distribute to UK universities yet only one year previously it had £1.3 billion in its hands. This is due to a dip in grant funding from the government. Most universities that benefitted from a high grant income suffered a reduction in the amount they received, some by up to 40 per cent . At a time when the future is looking increasingly unstable, research is becoming more and more important, especially in the STEM-M sectors (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine). Exeter is thriving in these fields, hence the increased funding. It’s unsurprising then that the University ranks first nationally for the number of awards achieved from the Natural Environment Research

Council, this alongside being ranked in the top ten of four other Research Councils. Additionally, the opening of the Living Systems Institute and extensive medical research have allowed the institution to move into the top twenty for the Medical Research Council. The Living Systems Institute intends to pioneer unique approaches to understanding diseases and their diagnosis allowing the provision of information on effective treatments.

in Britain, that would amount to 80,000 deaths. The research, partially funded by the government also discovered that the risk of bat death increased by 18 per cent for every extra metre of blade length. Dr Fiona Matthews who led the project believes that if turbines are switched off during peak migration and breeding seasons, the number would fall signiﬁcantly. Research suggests that bats turn off their sonar when high up as in the 30 million years that they have been around, nothing has previously blocked their path or posed a risk to them at that height. With the newest turbines reaching up to 640ft, bats have not adapted to such technology and as such are facing the deadly concequences.

Additionally, bats are being attracted to insects which often swarm around the blades due to the lights which are often present. The main casualties were found to be the Common Pipistrelle and the Soprano Pipistrelle. The body of a Nathusius’s Pipistrelle led to theories about turbines affecting navigation. Obviously wind turbines, as a source of renewable energy, still have many positives and will continue to evolve over the com-

a question; how do bees judge whether the pollen they have chosen is nutritious enough for their young? This confusion is lessened slightly by this new research. Dr Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, the coauthor of the research has spoken about how there is a need for more research into the behaviour and neuro-biology of the bees as to why they prefer some plants and pollens over others. The bee could indeed taste the pollen, or maybe is attracted by the odour or visual aesthetic of the pollen or ﬂower. This could prove useful in farming certain crops to increase food security but also raise the bee populace which at present faces

Biweekly Breakthroughs Forensics of phones

These will vary from treating chronic neurodegenerative disorders to animal and plant diseases which threaten food security.

ing yers, but thanks to the research of the University, the future of bats can be raised as a priority alongside the beneﬁts of wind power.

Scientists have claimed that with new advances in forensic technology, they can use the molecular signatures you leave on your phone to work out what grooming products you use, what food you eat and even what medications you are using. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the US and Germany explained that when swabbing participants phones and right hands, in 69 per cent of circumstances the unique chemical imprint could be correctly matched. There is hopes that the improving technology will assist in police investigations.

Ice Age investigation

critical endangerment. Such cues connect into the studies of social bees who use special dances alongside chemical cues. So, with help from further funding the University - a major hub of bee and pollination research - will continue to produce world-class research and thrive.

Researchers have set out on an investigation to find the oldest ice in Antarctica. Currently searching for a viable area to drill, the hope is that the chemical balance and air bubbles within the ice will allow us to see the effects of global warming going back 1.5 million years. With this data scientists hope to have a better idea of how the climate of the planet will evolve in the future as well as having a better understanding of the major chemicals and greenhouse gases which effected the Earth in the past.

SCIENCE

Cure for paralysed primates

Source: https://vikasacharya.wordpress.com

Marti Marks looks at the possibility of curing paralysis in primates and the implications for human treatment

TEAM of scientists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology have developed an implant, which has proved successful in allowing monkeys with paralysis in one leg to regain control and movement of it. If the spinal cord becomes damaged or severed, neurological signals that control limbs can no longer reach the targeted tissue and this causes paralysis. By creating an innovative technology that acts as an alternate route for the signals from the brain to reach the limb, the scientists allowed the monkeys to walk correctly again. The technology is made up of four separate components: two implants, a computer and a pulse generator. The ﬁrst implant is placed in the brain on the region of the motor cortex that controls the leg. Neurons in the brain work by sending electric signals to each other, and then down to the spinal cord. It is possible for the implant to pick up on these electrical peaks and record them as data. The implant records

electronic signals from around 50-100 neurons, which allows it to pick up on basic movement commands, such as thinking about moving the leg, and basic movements such as up and down. The recorded data is sent to a computer, which decodes it from the electrical signals and then relays the information to a pulse generator, which sends the pulse to a second implant in the monkey’s lower spine. This second implant then imitates the signal that would have been sent to the leg if the spinal cord was not severed and the monkey was not paralysed. This whole technology has allowed monkeys to regain control of their leg movements. The device simply acts as a bridge over the severed cord. The sooner the technology was implanted after the monkey was partially paralysed, the quicker it could

regain control of its paralysed leg. The monkeys were able to walk almost normally a mere

three months after the implant; the foot was not dragging and was fully

weight bearing. This is a breakthrough in neurotechnology as it is the first time a technology has been able to restore movement in primates. Neurotechnology has become a focal point for overcoming paralysis, for example, using brainwaves to control a robotic limb. Before this technology it was hard for scientists to imagine paraplegic patients ever regaining control of their limbs. Now, scientists believe that this technology will have many future uses. It is still in its early stages and will most likely only go on human trials in the next five years, but small feasibility trails have started in humans. These feasibility trials will test each component one by one in humans. The technology is most likely to appear first in rehabilitation units for patients who have spinal injuries, but

only where the cord is not fully severed. This will help them to regain some control of their limbs by strengthening the remaining nerves, allowing the correct signal to be sent and encouraging natural repair systems. The device still has a lot of limitations. For instance, the signals only work one way, so no feeling is felt in the limb. Another limitation is that it is not known how much weight the limb can bear. It is also unlikely to be able to allow completely paraplegic patients to walk again due to the fact that humans are bipedal. This will make balance and steering challenging, and frames may still have to be used. However these limitations will most likely be overcome, as technology in this area is rapidly improving. Despite these limitations the most exciting thing about this technology is that it shows what is possible and opens doors to many other neurotechnologies, which will beneﬁt many paraplegic people in the future.

What makes up our make-up? Jasmine Prasad explores the chemical compositions of different cosmetics and the potential negative side effects

AKE-UP plays a huge role in many of our lives. From fully putting on a face for a night out, to stage make-up, to even a regular use of moisturiser, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the UK spends more than £1.3bn per year on the substances that coat our faces. The chemical compositions of different cosmetics have come a long way, to the point where looking at the ingredients in modern make-up could become quite a confusing feat. Which components are safe, and which are harmful? Which chemicals are active and how do they work to give the effect we want them to? Here’s a brief run down.

WikiWikimedia media

Foundation Foundation is always made up of a base of oil, water or wax, which moisturise the skin. In addition to the base, the mixture includes a filler, which helps the colour spread evenly, and aids the smooth application of the substance onto the skin. To create the many different shades of foundation, pigments in various shades of red, yellow and brown are mixed to recreate natural skin tones. These pigments include iron oxides or titanium dioxide. Different chemicals can also be included to have different effects on skin, such as salicylic acid for blemish prone skin, or avocado oil for dry skin. One of the more modern innovations in foundation formulae is to add ingredients that diffuse light, such as silicone, crystals or quartz. They create the illusion of an even finish so it’s difficult to detect flaws. underneath.

Lipstick One of the greatest issues with chemical components in lipsticks is that the mouth is incredibly sensitive to toxicity, which means any ingredients must be rigorously tested. Thankfully, most of the components in lipstick are harmless, consisting of mainly a wax structure, often beeswax or carnauba, which have a high melting point, and so stop the lipstick melting on hot days. Oils such as olive or silicone help the product seal to the lips and provide gloss. In order to create the colour pigments that are naturally derived are now produced synthetically, such as carmine and Al-lura Red AC. Unfortunately, reservations have been held by the beauty community over the amounts of toxic metals in lipsticks, such as lead and aluminium. While any contamination is incredibly low level as the EU speciﬁcally bans use of lead, it is impossible to eliminate contamination entirely, and so a potentially toxic build up is possible for lipstick users.

Mascara Mascara tends to include a carbon black or iron oxide pigment intended to darken lashes, a polymer to form the ﬁlm that coats lashes, preservatives, and a thickening wax or oil, mineral oil, or castor oil. One of the greatest problems concerning mascara is the growth of bacteria. While most mascara brands contain an ingredient which breaks down to produce formaldehyde, to kill bacteria, after a certain period of time, this ingredient becomes inactive. Thus mascara manufacturers advise replacing mascara every three months. An urban myth surrounding the ingredients in mascara is that bat guano (faeces) is used as a colour additive. However, the FDA has only authorised the use of guanine, which although is present in guano, must only be extracted from ﬁsh scales.

As beauty standards over the centuries have changed, demands from cosmetics have changed also. While Egyptian women crushed carmine beetles to make red lipstick, Victorian women would have championed the use of arsenic baths and ammonia night washes to get the pale complexion that was so desired. Today, with advancements in synthesising chemicals, we have so many options which derive from natural substances, so do not rely so heavily on animal ingredients. One such popular substance were the cells from the nervous system of cattle or swine, increasing moisture retention on the skin’s surface.

'S IN A ER PT N A R C O C

Not just flying around

SPORT

Sam Woolf, Games and Tech Editor, chats to Quidditch Captain Ryan Watkiss about this magical sport

DON'T think anyone ever really gets over not receiving their letter from Hogwarts. After being exposed to seven books and eight ﬁlms showcasing the magical menagerie of witches and wizards, the inevitable realisation of one’s muggle-hood can leave a lasting impression. Thankfully, for those still itching to get their magic on, there is one notable element of the Harry Potter universe that has been creatively adapted into real life: Quidditch. I recently got the chance to learn more about this originally magical sport by speaking to Ryan Watkiss – captain of Exeter’s very own Quidditch team: “The Exeter Eagles”. According to Ryan “the basic principle is taken directly from the books but has been slightly tweaked to make it more viable in the real world, instead of ﬂying around the pitch for instance, the two

teams of seven players traverse the field by running with brooms between their legs” Three ‘Chasers’ attempt to throw the main ball or the ‘quaffle’ through hoops at the opposing team’s end of the pitch for ten points a pop. One ‘Keeper’ – similar to a goalkeeper – defends these hoops. Meanwhile, two beaters – infamously responsible for many a broken limb in the books – aim dodgeballs at the chasers, who are then penalised if hit by being sent back to their own end of the pitch. Ryan informs me that “the first 17 minutes of a game serve to showcase each team’s ability as chasers, keepers and beaters”. However after 17 minutes of initial gameplay, the golden snitch or ‘snitch runner’ – who is an individual impartial to both teams – is brought into play. In the 18th minute of the match each team’s seeker – whose role it is to catch the snitch – is set loose. Whichever seeker then proceeds to catch the

snitch earns their team 30 points and ends the game. As such, matches don’t actually have ofﬁcial time and can vary greatly in length. “I’ve known matches to last well over two hours, whereas the shortest game we’ve ever played was 18 minutes, seven seconds. I’d say the longest was just over 25 minutes.”

after a particularly strong break their full back touched down and a conversion took the score to 35-24. With 23 minutes left, Cardiff needed two tries to win and at this stage it looked eminently doable. A minute later Exeter let another man slip past them and a phalanx of three Cardiff players stormed down an entirely undefended left wing. The gap closed to 35-29. The captain issued a rallying call as tension on the sidelines increased as Exeter continued to attack with increasing desperation. A knock-on ended the phase, and Cardiff once again scrummaged strongly, sending the ball down the pitch, although probably not far enough for their liking. They were soon awarded a penalty however, but squandered it and then gave away one of their own. Exeter were back in possession with 12 minutes to hold on. Lawday, who scored a try for the Chiefs last Saturday, provided the momentum needed and scored perhaps the best try of the match, brushing off at least three

defenders as he ran half the length of the pitch. Although he looked for backup he didn't need it and the subsequent conversion gave Exeter a comfortable enough lead at 42-29. With players tiring, the match turned airborne, and Exeter's kicking game was not on par with the rest of their play. A lot of poorly thoughtout kicks - from both sides - saw a lot of possession lost and few chasing attempts. Eliet managed to get on one of these balls, almost making the try line, but he was sadly dragged out of touch metres short. Exeter's line-outs remained strong and they stole the ball back, forming an impressive maul that saw Owlett across the line for the seventh and ﬁnal try.

Quidditch is such an inclusive and fun community Complicated as it may initially seem, Quidditch has proven hugely popular. In fact, according to Ryan, “There are currently over 2,000 teams across 30 countries around the world, with 45 ofﬁcial teams being situated in the UK alone.” The UK even has its own league; depending on geographical location, UK teams compete in either the Southern Cup or Northern Cup at the start of the season (September – November). The top 16 teams from both tournaments then go on to compete in the British Quidditch Cup at the end of the season (March – April). Hoping to compete in this 2017

British Quidditch Cup in Staffordshire, Ryan states: “This year, we’re interested in taking on more of a competitive edge. We currently meet twice a week; once to bolster ﬁtness, and once more for general drills. However, our overall goal is to create an inclusive community. In being a mixed gender sport based on socialising, Quidditch is an inherently friendly pastime.” Ryan goes on to explain that due to the extensive ties between the Harry Potter Society and The Exeter Eagles, Quidditch is among the easiest of sports to get involved with at the university. "What I think sets Quidditch aside from other sports is that once the game is done you don’t just separate from your team, you go out and socialise with them. At the end of football they shake hands, we do hugs and three cheers for the other team. It’s such an inclusive and fun community." For those interested in getting involved in Quidditch, the Eagles currently hold practice sessions every Sunday at 11:15am which are open to both team members and non-team members alike. There will also be a taster session held sometime at the start of term two.

EURFC climb to third in Super Rugby CONTINUED FROM BACK PAGE A knock-on by Exeter after the reset led to an uncontested Cardiff scrum, who at this stage didn't have a complete front row. However, Exeter clawed back control and a good run by Tom Holdsworth brought the ball further up the pitch. Cardiff's number seven was given a yellow card and the resulting penalty nearly brought about a fifth try, had it not been for a dropped catch directly over the line. Taking back control briefly, Cardiff won another penalty and went for the posts again. A well-hit kick looked successful but was ultimately too short. Exeter responded well and formed a great maul in Cardiff's territory, making up ten metres and scoring a fifth try at the 51st minute. Yet another breezy conversion from Landray put Exeter comfortably in the lead at 35-17. Cardiff were not giving up though and continue to win scrums, this time contested, with their performance not properly reflected on the scoreboard. Capitalising

Cardiff tried valiantly in the closing minutes but had no success and when the ﬁnal whistle blew the score was 49-29 to Exeter. They are currently standing 3rd in the league table with four wins and two losses under their belt. Exeposé Sport's Man of the Match goes to Ed Landray, who made seven out of seven conversions and scored a try of his own. This was a strong performance overall, but there remains room for improvement in the scrum, where Cardiff dominated throughout the match.

BUCS Roundup: Wednesday 16 November Men's Indoor Cricket 1s.....131 UWE 1s................................68

Women's Lacrosse 1s..........15 Bristol 1s............................... 4

Women's Volleyball 1s...........3 Swansea 1s...........................1

Plymouth 1s.........................47 Women's Basketball 1s........63

Womens Futsal 1s.................7 Southampton Solent 1s.........3

Rugby Union Fresh 1s..........57 Imperial 1s...........................12

Men's Waterpolo 1s.............19 Swansea 1s...........................5

Bournemouth 1s....................0 Women's Football 1s.............2

Men's Lacrosse 1s...............10 Bath 1s..................................7

Rugby League 1s..................44 Swansea 1s..........................22

Swansea 1s..........................60 Men's Basketball 1s............79

Bournemouth 1s..................29 Women's Netball 1s.............45

Golf continue winning streak Robin Eliot Sport Contributor

FTER EUGC 1s strong wins in previous weeks, a trip to Dudsbury Golf Club to face rivals Bournemouth 1s was set to be a huge occasion. Both teams were undefeated so far, and both teams knew the importance of the clash. It was Exeter who started the strongest with 5&4 wins from both James Blyth and Joe Carmody Firth. All the other games were extremely tight affairs. It looked as though Exeter might fall short. However, a miraculous comeback from Emily Toy turning around a 2 hole deficit with 4 to play to win 2up proved crucial. And a fine half point from Australian Fritz Arnold meant the game was won on the final green by a narrow margin of 3.52.5 - an unbelievable win which puts the EUGC 1s clear by 3 points at the top of the BUCS Premier South League table.

The 3s were confident they could make home advantage count Having won their first three matches of the league, EUGC were determined to keep their winning ways against Cardiff 1s. Dawlish Warren was in immaculate conditions for the two teams to battle it out. A couple of matches finished early with some top quality golf from the 2s. The star performer of the day was 3rd year Daniel Lane who scored a round of a couple under par accompanying a confident victory over his opponent seeing off the overall match 5-1. The 2s have a tough match against Bournemouth 2s next week and are already preparing for the challenge. Drawing the reverse encounter 3-3 away at Dudsbury Park, the EUGC 3s were confident they could make home advantage count against top of the league Bournemouth 3s. The result was a comprehensive victory for Exeter over the Western 1A reigning champions, with strong wins in many of the matches. Most of the matches were close on the front nine but after the turn the wind picked up and local knowledge became key. Spanish fresher Vicente Berenguer came back from 2 down early on to defeat his opponent 4&2, an assured performance on his 3s debut. Star performer of the day was HPP fresher Claudia Ovens who combined steady play off the tee with some short game wizardry to beat the Bournemouth 3s captain on the 16th hole. Next up for the EUGC 3s is bottom of the table Cardiff, as they seek to claim their first back-to-back wins of the season. This was another fantastic performance from EUGC’s competitors and they look forward to continuing this success next week.

Boxing Varsity 2016

SPORT

Lara Hopkins, Sport Editor, looks back on a busy night in the ring

Gandecki (Exeter) v Al-Alem (Exeter)

Holst (Exeter) v McGuinness (Weymouth)

Choi (Exeter) v Meddings (Cardiff )

Taylor (Exeter) v Stones (Portsmouth)

HE bell rang to signal the beginning of the first bout: the only one between two Exeter fighters. Gandecki got in the first punches but Al-Alem quickly retaliated. After some dancing around his opponent, Al-Alem landed a couple of good blows then ducked and blocked a few attempts from his teammate-turned-opponent. Al-Alem obviously had the upper hand, and Gandecki fell to the floor. He was soon back on his feet and the fight continued, with Al-Alem pinning Gandecki in the corner at the end of the first round. After the coaches gave their advice, the lads were back to it. Alem managed to land some good punches to the face. Gam attempted to come back but Alem proved to be too good and soon had him on the floor once again. This signalled the end of the round and, prematurely, the bout.

HIS bout started very quickly, with punches from both boxers flying absolutely everywhere. Choi Boxing needed to keep his guard up. Meddings soon had the Varsity was a upper hand, though, and forced his opponent around tremendous the ring, seemingly in complete control . Choi seemed event to be concentrating on protecting his face, trying to endure attack after attack and looking for the odd gap to showcasing counter. the talent of Gum shields went back in after the short break, and Choi got the first punches in but Meddings very members quickly countered and the referee paused the game to of the make sure the Exeter man was good to continue. The University's fight resumed and Meddings inflicted hard blows to Boxing Club the face and then more to the body. Choi could not JOSH CALLANDER get away from the ropes and Meddings owned the ring. AU PRESIDENT The match was stopped before the end as Meddings was the clear winner. The Exeter supporters were clearly cringing through that match and the Cardiff travelling fans were jubilant.

Parry-Jones (Exeter) v Barnard (Bristol)

HIS bout began almost as ferociously as the last, but this time with both fighters landing good blows. Parry-Jones seemed very keen on his jab and used it well, pinning his opponent in the corner. He came back on the attack and the Exeter man got in the final blows of this round. It was a very energetic round, but nether fighter landed anything serious In the second round, Parry-Jones kept his guard up and weathered the blows, before starting his own attack and landing some good jabs. Both men looked like they were tiring and the crowd called out for them to keep working. Unlike the previous bout this one made it to the third round. Parry-Jones came out on the attack but soon both men’s gloves seemed to be feeling heavy as the speed of the attacks slowed. As the bell rang, Parry-Jones raised his arms, appearing to think he’d won, and he was right, taking a unanimous victory. He sank to his knees and then, to the delight of his fans, climbed the ropes.

ITH shouts of “we love you Cat” filling Club Rococo, EUABC’s club captain stepped into the ring. This was the only female fight of the evening, with Exeter's reigning novice BUCS champion towering over her opponent. McGuinness started stronger though, landing blows to her opponent’s body and eventually pinning her on the ropes. Holst fought back bravely, using sharp footwork to evade, but was soon on the ropes again. Exeter fans tried to rally their girl but her opponent pinned her back. Holst shoved her to the floor and received a warning. McGuinness got back up and although the Exeter landed a good blow, McGuinness once again proved too strong and soon controlled the ring. Holst was going to have to do something special to win the fight. She successfully dodged roundhouses from McGuinness and did land a blow to her opponent’s face, but McGuinness remained dominant. Holst fought back but ultimately lost on points.

S another of EUABC’s committee entered the ring, cheers of “S T” rang out in Club Rococo. The Publicity Secretary began the fight well, landing a one-two move and chased his opponent around the ring. He got in a solid jab whilst dodging his Portsmouth opponent. However, the man in purple fought back, landing some good blows. Taylor went on the counter but eventually took a hard hit to the jaw. The Exeter fighter landed the final blow of the round in what was a close fight, but one that Taylor had the upper hand. Stones seemed determined to land the first blow of the second round so Taylor had to keep his guard up, but he allowed another fist through and Stones got in another hit. Stones seemed to take heart from this and suddenly dominated, knocking Taylor to the floor. The fight was over - Stones had won. Still, cheers rang out for the beaten Taylor.

Gale (Exeter) v Norman (Kings)

ALE jumped into the ring first, looking very pumped up and ready for the fight ahead. Despite this it was Norman who got in the first strikes, driving his opponent backwards. Both fighters then took a step back, trying to work each other out. Norman landed another then flurried him with body blows. Gale hit back, landing a strike on his opponent, but spent more time trying to evade the Kings man’s reach than attacking. The second round began with both fighters spending time looking for an opening. This time it was Gale who got the first successful attack, and he seemed have faster footwork. However, Norman’s previous dominance soon appeared again, and Gale had to be checked by the ref after he failed to block a strong punch. Norman finished the round the stronger. Once again Exeter would have to come from behind to win. Gale fought bravely but was facing a stronger opponent who rarely let his guard down. It was a valiant effort, but Norman was named the unanimous winner.

Ng (Exeter) v Fissenden (Portsmouth)

ISSENDEN got the first blow but Ng quickly pushed him back on the counter. Fissenden appeared to get in the next blows but Ng hit back. The cat and mouse game then began and the Exeter man was the first to break the deadlock, punching his opponent back. He went on attack again, driving his opponent into the corner. Fissenden fought back though and the round ended with fists flying from both boxers. With the fight seemingly poised on a knife edge, both boxers needed another strong round. Ng kept his guard high but Fissenden landed multiple body blows. This however seemed to inspire Ng as he bullied his opponent around the ring. The final round would decide the winner. Fissenden got in the first punches but was soon forced onto the ropes. He regained control though and forced Ng to retreat. Ng hit back but his opponent seemed to have the better stamina, eventually landing more blows and edging a close fight in a unanimous decision.

Islam (Exeter) v Seccombe (Bristol)

QUAD captain Simon Islam was next in the ring, trying to get a much needed win for the home club. Exeter supporters were once again incredible as their man entered the ring. This promised to be a close match, with both fighters landing early blows. Islam eventually got the upper hand, driving Seccombe into the ropes multiple times. The Bristol man struck back, but Islam manged to land the last blows of the round. Seccombe came out of the break stronger, really taking the fight to Islam and boxed his way out of some tight corners. Islam eventually landed some blows of his own but after a ferocious start the fights slowed. The round finished with both men looking tired. To start the third round, Islam got in afew good hits but Seccombe managed to counter and hit his opponent to floor. Islam looked to be badly injured, grasping his shoulder. The fight went to Seccombe and Islam was helped off, proving a sad end to a great battle.

Ogbo (Exeter) v Yakobu (Kings)

HE biggest men of the night signalled the final fight. Yakobu got the first flurry of punches but Ogbo quickly countered. Yakobu seemed to gain the upper hand but Ogbo hit back with a strong roundhouse to the jaw and then put the Kings man on the ropes, also landing some body blows before the bell. With no one dominating the first round, Yakobu looked to attack first and landed the first blow, but Ogbo countered strongly. Yakobu landed uppercuts and his Exeter rival quickly replied. Chants of EUABC rang out in support as Ogbo put Yakobu on the ropes once again as the bell rang. Going into the final round the fight was still finely balanced, with the Exeter man seeming to have a slight lead. He came out of the break the stronger too, but Yakobu fought his way to the middle of the ring as Ogbo tired slightly. Ogbo finished strongly to get the unanimous win, to screams from the crowd.

I'd like to thank the army of people who turned out to support all our athletes SAM TAYLOR EUABC

In pictures...

SPORT

Yong Yan Wang, Chief Photographer, and Malcolm Wong headed down to Boxing Varsity to capture the action

parry-jones v barnard

Gandecki v al-alem

ng v fissenden

hol st v M cG uinn ess

GALE v NORMAN

choi v meddings

OGBO v YAKOBU

Sport

21 NOV 2016 | EXEPOSÉ

Down but not out: A review of Boxing Varsity 2016

Sam Woolf ﬁnds out more about the magical sport of quidditch

Page 38-39

Page 37

SPORT EDITORS:

Owain Evans Lara Hopkins

Photo: Sachi Minami

Four on the bounce

Men’s Rugby Union

Exeter 1s....................................49 Cardiff Met 1s...........................29 Isabel Taylor Sport Team

XETER 1s had a fourth win in the BUCS Super Rugby with a 49-29 victory against Cardiff Met in a fast paced and hard fought match. They got off to a shaky start and the game was littered with penalties but ultimately they had the stronger offence, helped substantially by the presence of Jack Owlett and Tom Lawday, both of whom played for the Chiefs the previous Saturday. The match kicked off with an initial challenge from Exeter, who demonstrated the power of their forwards. This aggressive, physical style of play was to be repeated throughout. Cardiff initially maintained an

effective defence and reacted well to the Exeter pressure, but eventually gave away a penalty, the first of a match full of them. Exeter didn’t capitalise and immediately gave away possession. Upon winning it back they were awarded a second penalty that they used to apply pressure deep in their opponents’ territory but this too came to nothing. Cardiff lost the first scrum in the midfield but Exeter gave away a penalty for holding onto the ball and Cardiff eagerly capitalised, going for a drop goal and putting the first points on the board 20 minutes in. Exeter weren’t fazed, and pushed back confidently. They stole a Cardiff line-out, more as a result of luck than planning, and raced down the pitch, making it deep into the Cardiff 22’ but not quite close enough. Three resets of the scrum later and Cardiff regained possession. Another scrum in the midfield led to a Cardiff penalty and again

they went for the posts. This time the ball went slightly wide and the score remained at 3-0.

Exeter won the line-out and charged underneath the posts Cardiff maintained their momentum and pushed deep into Exeter’s half. Awarded yet another penalty, they chose to take the line-out a metre or so from the try line. This proved to be a good decision, and a wall of Cardiff men used brute force to push towards and over the line for the ﬁrst try of the match. A successful conversion took the score to 10-0 and the gathering rainclouds began to look like a sign of impending doom. Exeter didn’t give up though and soon

after stole a line-out in Cardiff’s half. Matt Eliet saw a gap in their defence and nimbly scored Exeter’s ﬁrst try. Ed Landray successfully made the conversion. He was brilliant in this match, and brought Exeter back into contention late into the second half. With the score lying at 10-7 to Cardiff, Exeter continued to press forward. A minute or so of aimless kicking between the halfbacks ended in loss of possession by Cardiff and Exeter were strong as ever out of the line-out. Ed Landray skipped around defenders and touched down. Once he’d converted his own try the score looked much healthier at 14-10 to Exeter. Building on their success, James Wilcox made a great break which took him all the way down to within metres of Cardiff’s try line. Despite losing possession Exeter quickly won back the ball and continued to apply pressure. They won a line-out and

once again charged en-masse underneath the posts to score their third try of the first half. In the closing minutes of the first half Owlett made a fantastic charge straight through Cardiff, supported by the captain Simon Linsell. A hopeful pass out to the left wing was intercepted but a combination of sloppy opposition handling and strong teamwork saw Exeter regain possession again and score yet another try. Landray converted easily and Exeter went into half time 28-10 up. An early penalty was awarded to Cardiff when the match began again and this time they chose to go for a line-out. This proved to be the right decision as they quickly scored, taking back some of the momentum they lost in the first half. A successful conversion at a tricky angle made the score 28-17.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

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