Redbrick - 22th March 2013

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15th March-2nd May 2013 Vol. 77. Issue 1430. www.redbrick.me

Calls made for new full-time Sabbatical Officers

Liberation Associations call for new Sabbatical Officers to

represent their respective groups.

Statements Mae Rohani ‘the current non-sabbatical position of Women’s

Officer and the three other Liberation Officers (LGBTQ, Disabled, Ethnic Minority) do not have sufficient time nor resources at their disposal to be dealing with the issues each group faces on the necessary scale’.

BEMA blog ‘BEMA’s call for a full-time Black Students’ Of-

ficer is based on principles of Liberation, and so we extend our support and encouragement to any of our fellow Liberation Associations also seeking the creation of Full-time officers for their campaigns.’

Women’s Assocation blog ‘Sexism and harassment are un-

fortunately alive and healthy: 1 in 7 female students experience serious physical or sexual assault whilst at University, over two-thirds of female students experience sexual harassment (Source: NUS Hidden Marks report) and 1 in 2 women experience sexual harassment in the workplace (Source: Child & Woman Abuses Studies Unit). ’

Pg.3 // Your new Guild Sabbatical Officer team

Marianne Lampon finds out what the celebs are doing for charity this Red Nose Day LIFE&STYLE // PAGE 14

Jemima Lovatt’s take on plant-based diets

James Dolton reviews Bastille live at the HMV Institute MUSIC // PAGE 12

Rebekah McDermott on the new Birmingham culture app

FOOD // PAGE 24

ARTS // PAGE 27

Charley Ross on how to do Two Days in ‘Dam

Patrick McGhee speaks to head of the British Humanist Association

TRAVEL // PAGE 22-23

COMMENT // PAGE 8

2 | 15th - 2nd May 2013

@RedbrickNews

Weather by

Compiled by

Hannah Findley

Ludwina Santifort

@HannahDFindley

@Luidwina90

NATIONAL

BUSINESS

Minimum alcohol price plan

Google to pay a $7m fi ne for privacy issues

Differences in opinions of the government parties might result in minimum prices for alcohol to be dropped. Currently, the minimum price per unit of alcohol stands at 45p, which equates to a minimum of £4.22 for a bottle of wine and £1.56 for a can of strong lager.

12 noon Saturday

EUROPEAN UNION

EU plans to increase women director quota INTERNATIONAL

WEATHER

Grenade kills fi ve

in Kashmir

Sunshine and showers for Birmingham Saturday will see light showers and sunny spells with highs of 7°c. More rain is expected on Sunday with highs of 5°c. Cloud cover will mean overnight frosts are unlikely. Next week continues to be a mix of sunshine and showers, but warmer temperatures of 5°c.

STORY OF THE WEEK

Cardinals elect new pope Since the unexpected abdication of Benedict XVI last month, the Rome Vatican Cardinals have elected a new pope, Jorge Bergoglio, the Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

The 76-year old is the first pontiff to come from Latin America.

SPACE

THANK YOU

NASA mission points to life on Mars

Guild venues staff

save Redbrick

NASA reported that according to the Curiosity project, there are conditions that support that there could have been life on Mars. Powder that was produced by drilling in a rock shows there is a wealth of chemicals in it, like sulfur, hydrogen and oxygen.

Redbrick would like to thank the Guild's venue and security staff for allowing us to stay late beyond out usual deadline, due to a powercut at the Guild. Specific names we would like to thank include Zahed Fettah, Pete Gizauskan, Jethro Lee and Fran Strong.

Redbrick Editorial Editor Raphael Sheridan

Marketing Manager Eimear Luddy

Deputy Editors Lexie Wilson Owen Earwicker

marketing@redbrick.me

Digital Editor Chris Hutchinson Art Director Alexander Blanchard Photography Editors Anna Kirk Charlotte Wilson photography @redbrick.me

News Editors Patrick McGhee Ashley Kirk Zahra Damji Beth Clarke news@redbrick.me

Comment Editors Daniel Baird Elisha Owen James Dolton Sophie Tollet James Phillips

Music Editors Lily Blacksell Jonathon Milnes Josh Holder

Travel Editors Chloe Osborne Zara Sekhavati Will Spence

music@redbrick.me

travel@redbrick.me

Television Editors Charlotte Goodwin Russell Webb Abigail Salter

Food Editors Izzy Gibbin Jemima Lovatt Gemma Bridge Lynette Dakin

tv@redbrick.me

food@redbrick.me

Film Editors Natasha Lavender Aisha Bushby Josh Taylor

Science & Technology Editors Sam Atkins Andrew Spencer Tom Rich

film@redbrick.me

comment@redbrick.me

technology@redbrick.me

Multimedia Editors Molly Garfoot Matthew Hewson Max Powley

Arts Editors James Kinsey Rebekah McDermott Jenna Clake

Life&Style Editors Lucy Whife Megan Nisbet Megan Jones

Sport Editors Tim Pearson Felix Keith Matt Clark

multimedia@redbrick.me

arts@redbrick.me

lifestyle@redbrick.me

sports@redbrick.me

Junior Art Directors Lauren Wheatley Akhil Kothari Anita Baumgärtner Julia Jablonska Senior Editorial Assistant Isabel Mason

Editorial Assistants George Bearman Hannah Coates Alicea Francis Ellie Jarvis Ravina Khela Hannah Mason Ella Parsons Francesca Seabourne Ellie Smallwood Charley Ross

Proofreaders Naomi Baldwin Lucy Haffenden Emily Hickey-Mason Megan Kissane Rebecca Mee Bethany Prottey Amy Saul Faye Simpson Emily Trivette Elizabeth Waind Hannah Detheridge

BUSINESS

Tesco buys restaurant chain Giraff e for £48.6m

Redbrick Guild of Students Edgbaston Park Road Birmingham B15 2TT 0121 251 2462 editor@redbrick.me Redbrick is printed through www.mortonsprint.com 01507 523 456 Advertising Contact Linda Langley in Guild Marketing on 0121 251 2524 Designed and typeset by Redbrick Copyright (C) Redbrick 2013 The views expressed in Redbrick do not necessarily reflect those of the editors, the Guild or the publishers. If you find an error of fact in our pages, please write to the Editor. Our policy is to correct mistakes promptly in print and to apologise where appropriate. We reserve the right to edit any article, letter or email submitted for publication.

www.redbrick.me/news

3 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

Your Sabbatical Offi cer

Team 2013/2014

Guild Elections.

Poppy Wilkinson voted President in record-breaking elections portion of RON votes. RON obtained 47.1 per cent of the vote for VPE, and Online News Editor @AshleyKirk92 45.5 per cent for VPDR. Both positions were, however, won The 2013 Guild Elections came to by the unopposed candidates. Hatan end on Saturday 9th March with tie Craig won the position of Vice Poppy Wilkinson declared as the new President (Education), obtaining 2214 Guild President for 2013-14. votes, to RON’s 1975.

She was elected in the third round Tom Wragg won the position of Vice of voting, as no candidates reached the President (Democracy and Resourcrequired quota in the first two rounds. es). During his acceptance speech, he After Malia Bouattia (879 votes), claimed that, despite disappointing reMark Williams (415 votes) and Areeq sults for the ‘2014’ slate, ‘the Left will Chowdury (406 votes) were eliminat- be back again next year’. ed, Tim Lucas and Poppy Wilkinson Non-Sabbatical positions were also remained. She obtained 2858 votes, announced on the night. The winners against Tim’s 2245 votes. were Roz Burgin (Community AcCurrent Vice President (Housing tion Officer), Ellis Palmer (Disability and Community), James Robertson, Officer), Rachael Cavet (Ethical and announced the results for his position. Environmental Officer), Tracy MakeOnce again, no candidates received le (Ethnic Minority Officer), Jagpal the quota needed for rounds one and Pahal (Home Students Officer), Bihe two. In the third round, Dave Charles Chen (International Students Officer), won the position with 2304 votes, with Leilani Rabemananjara (LGBTQ StuAmy Hegarty coming second. dents’ Officer), Erin Lee (Mature & The position for Vice President Part Time Students’ Officer), Mae Ro(Sport) was also closely contested. The hani (Women’s Officer) and Georgia winning candidate was Vicki Harris, Levine (Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism who beat Tim Barsellotti in the fourth Officer). round of voting. Sam Travell and Sara There was a lot of speculation in the Henderson were eliminated in the first student population about the ‘2014’ round; Dan Jaeneckie in the second; slate before and during the night. Aland James Hughes in the third. together, the slate won five out of the Molly Wright won the position of seventeen roles up for election, conVice President (Activities and Devel- sisting of two Sabbatical positions opment), beating Elio De Muccio’s by and three Non-Sabbatical. The ‘2014’ 1500 votes. slate did not win a position for which Katherine East announced the win- they were opposed. ning candidate for Vice President Turnout for this year’s election (Welfare) position. Jethro Lee won, stood at 6917, which is 25.5 per cent receiving 2425 votes, beating Jen Kirk of the University of Birmingham’s by 997 votes. student population. This made the The election broke a record with election’s turnout the second highest regards to the amount of RON (Re- in Guild Elections records.

Open Nominations) votes cast by stuThe elections also produced more dents. The two unopposed positions, female Sabbatical Officers than Vice President (Education) and Vice male, with the positions of President, President (Democracy and Resourc- VPAD, VPS and VPE now occupied es), both saw their highest ever pro- by females.

Ashley Kirk

25.5% Turnout

10,599

President Poppy Wilkinson 3rd yr Law

Vice President (Activities & Development) Molly Wright 3rd yr History

Total RON votes

47.1% RON vote for VPE

65%

Newly-elected Officers that are female ‘The Sabbatical Team has the potential to be very strong and I aim to do everything I can to optimise that to ensure students receive the best support and representation available to them.

The fi rst thing I want to

do is address the issue of engagement of the Offi cer team with the student population as I feel this is at the root of a lot of obstacles the Offi cer team

face and would ensure the best possible start for the new team.’

Poppy Wilkinson President-elect

Promised Policies.

Vice President (Democracy & Resources) Thomas Wragg 3rd yr Civil & Energy Engineering

Vice President (Education) Hattie Craig 2rd yr Political Science

Vice President (Housing & Community) Dave Charles 2nd yr Biological Sciences

Redbrick has picked some of the policies promised by your newly elected Sabbatical team.

‘Create a more convenient campus. Longer library hours & more water machines’ ‘Society Saturday’ ‘Increased student control of budgeting & events’ ‘Slicing the cost of taxis’

‘Fighting against course cuts, closures and compulsory redundancies’

‘Universal mitigations and appeals procedures across departments’ ‘Sports Fest, bringing together a second Sports Fair, a Sports Night and club Taster Sessions’

Vice President (Sport) Vicki Harris 3rd yr English & Drama

Vice President (Welfare) Jethro Lee 3rd yr Sport & Exercise Science

4 | 15th - 2nd May 2013

Education.

Feminism.

University to give over 1000 International Women’s Day unconditional off ers on campus Sofia Karttunen

Zak Bentley Reporter

Reporter

@ZBentley1

The University of Birmingham has launched an initiative that involves giving unconditional offers to A-level students who have been predicted top grades by their teachers in a bid to attract the best possible students.

Predicted grades are usually based on GCSE and AS level results. 1000 unconditional offers are expected to be given across a range of 12 subjects with the University usually taking in around 4300 students each year. The move comes after it was revealed last year that the number of university applicants had dropped by 8.7%.

However, University Vice-Chancellor Professor David Eastwood told The Telegraph that ‘the issue here is less about filling our quotas and more about attracting the best possible students to a highly-selective university.’

Professor Eastwood went on to say that the University’s offer will motivate students to do even better in their A-level exams, adding ‘it’s a time when there are lots of pressures on young people and we are trying to take some of those pressures off. We believe that the effect of this is that they will do better in the summer. They have already got very strong performance in the bag and we think there is no danger of them coasting.’

Guild President David Franklin commented, ‘This may provide an answer to some short-term recruitment anxieties, but I question whether students will still be motivated to get top grades with an unconditional offer. It would be a shame if, by removing over 1000 ‘conditional’ places, this strategy works to the detriment of students with lower predictions who then overachieve in their exams. I also question how this might work in the future if other universities follow suit or whether grade predictions will become inflated if school teachers seek to take advantage of such a strategy.’

Yet these unconditional offers have failed to convince everyone offered. Alevel student Dan Lawrence wants to study Economics and was given an unconditional offer. Having already told the University of Birmingham on the phone recently that he was not so interested in coming to Birmingham, he still received an unconditional offer which struck him as ‘somewhat desperate’. Those students accepting the unconditional offer will be expected to name Birmingham as their ‘firm choice’.

He told Redbrick, ‘Birmingham was never high on my list of choices and this hasn’t really changed that. I do think it is unfair that I have such a good offer. Why they are sending me this offer, instead of giving it to someone who deserves it more and wants to go to Birmingham is beyond me.’

Ben Gallick, a maths teacher at a secodary school in Hertfordshire, spoke to Redbrick stating, ‘if they have an unconditional offer, many pupils will have less motivation to work for their A-levels and it is likely to have an adverse effect on results. Predicted grades are a very accurate reflection on ability 95% of the time but it does occasionally throw up an anomaly.’

@Zophy92

Friday 8th March marked different International Women’s Day celebrations and awareness campaigns across the world.

The University of Birmingham Women’s Association activist and social group contributed to the day by organising an event on campus called ‘I need feminism’. The participants were challenged to reflect their views on what exactly feminism is and why it is important today.

Students were encouraged to write their messages on a white board and those who gave permission were photographed holding signs reading ‘I need feminism because...’ and including their messages.

The campaign was to promote feminism and show that the movement is still ‘alive and well and necessary’. The purpose of the International Women’s Day is to celebrate all the women and raise awareness of existing inequalities.

Guild of Students.

Chair of the Trustee Board steps down Patrick McGhee News Editor

@Patricksmcg

Andrew Vallance-Owen, the Chair of the Trustee Board at the Guild of Students, announced his resignation on Monday afternoon.

In a statement, Vallance-Owen said, ‘Although there have been many challenges, I have really enjoyed my time, nearly two years, back in the Guild. I believe that the Trustee Board will, and must, continue to have an important role in the governance of the Guild.’

A statement released on Guild website said that Vallance-Owen would step down in April, adding, ‘The Guild of Students would like to express its thanks to Andrew for his dedication and time given to the Board, and to wish him all the very best for the future.’

Guild President David Frankin, who is also the current Vice Chair of the Trustee Board, will assume the role of Acting Chair until a new permanent Chair is appointed.

Sam Tunnicliffe

Jo Thomas

www.redbrick.me/news | 5

Guild of Students.

Women’s Association and BEMA call for new Sabbatical positions Jasmine Northover Reporter The Guild of Students’ Women’s Association (WA) and the Birmingham Ethnic Minority’s Association (BEMA) have issued a call for their own full-time Sabbatical representatives in the Guild of Students.

These roles currently exist as non-sabbatical positions. The extension of these roles to Sabbatical would mean that they are full time and paid.

Mae Rohani, this year’s newly elected Women’s Officer, stated that, ‘the current non-sabbatical position of Women’s Officer and the three other Liberation Officers (LGBTQ, Disabled, Ethnic Minority) do not have sufficient time nor resources at their disposal to be dealing with the issues each group faces on the necessary scale: we need to be breaking down the barriers to the Guild and education for students in each group; opening up communication between all members; encouraging them to speak out against their victimisation; raising awareness about the issues in question; and actively campaigning to condemn the attitudes which are so precarious to the comfort and safety of those targeted’.

She went on to tell Redbrick that, ‘the call for a full-time Women’s Officer in the Guild is a response to the current and disappointing student culture in which sexism and ‘being a lad’ are promoted’.

In their blog, the Women’s Association have argued that inequality and patriarchal culture is still very present in student life. They have illustrated their concerns with reference to other Student Unions, such as UCLU (University College London Union), where a male candidate, Kirk Sneade, recently ran for a full-time sabbatical Women’s Officer position on a manifesto that has been criticised for being offensive and marginalising issues faced by women. The statement calling for the introduction of the position says, ‘We, in conjunction with the Women’s Association, call for a full-time Women’s Officer Sabbatical position, like that at UCL, University of Cambridge, University of Sheffield, University of Manchester and other institutions.

‘We also support all calls for Liberation Officers from our fellow Associations. If the Guild of Students were to implement this change, we would be at the fore of Liberation in student unions across the country, and would be leading the fight against the inherent sexism, discrimination and marginalisation that exists in our institutions.’

Redbrick asked: Do you think that we need a full-time...

The University of Birmingham’s Ethnic Minority’s Association (BEMA) has also called for a full-time Sabbatical Black Student’s officer. A statement on the BEMA website said, ‘Members of BEMA (Birmingham Ethnic Minorities’ Association) are issuing a call for the introduction of a full-time Sabbatical role of a Black Students’ Officer to work alongside the President and Vice-Presidents of the Guild in order to address and specifically tackle the issues affecting the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students who constitute 28% of students at the University of Birmingham.

‘The need for a full-time Black Students’ Officer at the University of Birmingham is a reflection on the extent of the issues at hand here – where levels of BME under-representation, underachievement and disengagement are starkly at odds with the proclaimed values of our institution, and the diversity of our student population.’

They conducted a survey, in which almost all respondents felt that BME students were highly at risk of discrimination, with 1 in 6 BEM students having experienced racism during their educational experience.

The results also highlighted that 18.4% fewer BEM students than white students achieve a First Class or 2:1 honours degree at the University of Birmingham.

For these reasons, BEMA argued that the current part-time non-Sabbatical Ethnic Minority’s Officer position is thought to be under-equipped to deal with the large extent of issues at hand as the part-time nature of the role limits the responsibilities they can take on.

Malia Bouattia, Black Students’ Officer on the NUS National Executive Council and one of the Presidential candidates this year, told Redbrick that ‘during my first year, as a BEM student, a Muslim home student, I had suffered a culture shock and was constantly battling with Islamophobic and racist comments in seminars and even when joining societies in the Guild.

‘Without the support of a BEMA member of staff and my family, I would have been amongst the growing statistic of BEM first year dropouts at the University.

‘The introduction of this position would be a way for the University and the Guild to finally show evidence of recognising the ongoing crisis which has been swept under the rug for far too long, and proving that they will prioritise Liberation issues’.

At the time of print, both the Women’s Association and BEMA had called for their respective Sabbatical roles.

0%

2%

21%

28%

Yes No

70%

79%

LGBTQ Students’ Officer

Ethnic Minority Students’ Officer

0%

2%

24%

Undecided

30% 76%

Disabled Students’ Officer

69%

Women’s Officer

Polls conducted on Facebook Polling data accurate as of 13th March

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6 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

@RedbrickComment

Genre is Dead Ben Norris explores the modern relevance of categorising Art. @BenNorris7 Folk-Hop, Funk-Rock, Prose-Poetry, Performance-Poetry, Acid-Jazz, AcidZumba...

Short Trousers or Long Shorts? The problem of what to call something is not a new one. Though it is one that our artistic generation are becoming increasingly obsessed with. Everything will inevitably be labelled, but this usually only happens after the event – sometimes hundreds or thousands of years after the event. When late-Romantic composers like Tchaikovsky sat down (he may have stood up, actually, I don’t know) to compose his music, he wasn’t consciously writing as per the generic constraints of late-Romanticism, he was just writing. He wasn’t to know that the Romantic era was about the end.

For all he knew, he may have later been called a mid-Romantic or early-Romantic composer, a trend-setter in what would turn out to be a millennia-long compositional style. This wasn’t the case, of course, but the point is: it didn’t concern him. And neither should it concern us 21st Century artists and journalists and makers-of-things.

Now, more than ever before, we have an insatiable desire to categorise. More often than not, this is necessary; books need blurbs, Waterstones needs sections, Amazon needs tags, people need money.

But I don’t think it is healthy, never mind practical, or even possible, to accurately do this from within the moment. We’re struggling still to neatly summarise musical and literary trends of the late 1980s onwards, so how can we hope to properly label a record released today? Influences are constant and cumulative, and if bands in 2013 are making music inspired by bands in 1997 who made music inspired by bands in 1989, then all we can do is say that 'this Everything Everything track is a bit Radiohead-R.E.M.-ey,' which is barely adequate for someone familiar with the music of the latter two bands, and utterly useless for anyone not.

So what do we do? The only way to properly get to grips with exactly what a particular piece of art or writing is all about is to consume it. But to consume it you need to be able to access it, to access it you often have to own or borrow it, and before you fork out a tenner and take the time to read a 1000-page novel, you understandably want to know what it’s all about. Art is (in)famously subjective, and genre is not exempt from this. I sat down (or stood up, I can’t remember) to read D.H. Lawrence’s (in)famously raunchy Lady Chatterley’s Lover because of the controversy surrounding its publication and the many accounts of its raciness I’d received, only to be hugely underwhelmed – frankly, bored – by the lack of anything notably sexy about it. (Not that I wanted

Fifty Shades... I didn’t, I wanted something literary and sexy).

There is sadly very little we can do about our need to categorise, but my problem with genre, indeed its true danger, is when it influences the creative process, and not simply in what terms we discuss the product of this process.

Genre should be applied only as a retrospective concept, so that we can liberate ourselves from outdated methods of communication. If you’re writing a novel to be published and bound conventionally then it probably is wise to stick loosely to triedand-tested methods of presentation. But if you’re writing a ‘novel’ to be published only in electronic form, then why limit yourself to words on a page when the tablet or PC on which someone is ‘reading’ the novel has the capacity to embed video, play audio, link to various places on the internet, etc.? This all sounds a little bit obvious, but I think the interactive potential of the e-book, to stick with this example, can be absorbed into new genres of fiction writing that use all of this potential not as an add-on in an age where we know it’s possible so we do it out of obligation, but as an inherent generic feature in an age where we can finally and fully harness the collective power of art and technology.

Power in terms of formal content, of course, but also in terms of the scope for reaching the widest audiences possible, where distribution involves clicking or swiping (and perhaps a bit of advertising!) and not printing and shipping.

Do you remember the open-ended Goosebumps novels you read as a kid?

Well imagine clicking to ‘turn’ to page 77, where page 77 is a new temporal space of moving images and words and experiences. Think of what could be achieved with intertextuality if every reference, however oblique, might lead to its source in some interesting, interactive way, which in turn leads to more references, more sources, and so on ad infinitum. It’d be like StumpleUpon, but better, because rather than bombarding you with disparate distractions, everything you ‘stumbled upon’ would revolve around characters and their shared story(ies). Like a 21st century popup book. And then what do we call it? A novel? Possibly. An e-book? More probably. Or how about nothing at all, beyond 'art' or 'a bloody good' idea, and then spend less time trying pointlessly to define it, and more time enjoying it?

Newspaper websites are getting better at this too, with rolling headlines/photos, and video reports, but too often stories from the print edition are simply uploaded and left to sit on a website, to be experienced in exactly the same way as the paper itself. Now, I understand that your commuting iPad user might not want to blare out his morning news briefing in

music and pictures for the rest of the carriage to share, but I think that consumers should have a choice in how they want to experience things. We have some choice at the moment – live streams, retrospective analyses, etc. – but these are all word-based, and I think that in limiting ourselves to one principal way of presenting narratives we are missing a trick; a trick that is right under our noses, or at our fingertips. Which might seem a strange thing for a Creative Writing student to say, but I think that art needs to make itself more dexterous in order to avoid watching technology charge off irreversibly into the ether ahead, and take the people with it.

This might mean that there’s more need for collaboration, but that’s not a bad thing. I bet The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy would have been even funnier if Ian Dury and the Blockheads had written music to go with it. But seriously, if writers write with this in mind (rather than if we just stick Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick over Douglas Adams’s prose) then it won’t be two works slammed together in an unhappy marriage, but one work in its natural state.

My point is that it doesn’t matter where performance-poetry stops and rap begins. When Dizraeli makes music he doesn't sit down with his band and brainstorm what elements of hip-hop he wants to marry with what elements of the English folk song and in what way; he simply makes music.

His influences are subconscious, and even if they're conscious, his creative process is subconscious, so his music forms itself. Folk-Hop is a critical term, applied to his music after the event.

He might describe himself as a spoken-word artist, or even a poet, but I think Stephen Fry's approach is the way forward in this respect; he prefers to refer to himself as a person who writes, presents, acts, makes comedy, rather than as a Writer, Presenter, Actor, Comedian. Because nouns are prescriptive. They say: I do this one thing, and nothing else, whereas adjectives more accurately reflect the healthy fluidity that I think increasingly defines genre in this multimedia age of digital theatre, Pecha Kucha lectures and presentations, Poetography, etc.

Even these 'new' terms are ridiculous, because we have a need (regularly frustrating but begrudgingly necessary) to pigeon-hole things. But genre, like Fry, should be an adjective – something active whose boundaries are porous – and not a noun.

www.redbrick.me/comment | 7

A True Man of the People Aqib Khan @AqibKhan_

The mainstream media once again showed its adherence to state orthodoxy, providing a performance which would make any dictator envious of the conformity of our press. The BBC in their official Venezuelan biography fails to mention the US role in the 2002 coup attempt against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, as does practically every other major news outlet following his death. For the New York Times, his removal was a ‘purely Venezuelan affair’, because US involvement does not exist - by definition. We in the west are only wonderful people. Contrary to this, any scholar of international affairs would state, as does a U.S. State Department document: ‘…it is clear that [the]…

Department of Defense (DOD), and other U.S. assistance programs provided training, institution building, and other support to individuals and organizations understood to be actively involved in the brief ouster of the Chavez government’.

With Chavez’s death, the wide range of thought, provided by the ‘competition’ of our news outlets, was on full display, with each outlet offering its own view on him. Newsweek managed to compare him to Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin, in a single article, no less. To the BBC, he was ‘the worst type of autocrat, intent on building a one-party state and ruthlessly clamping down on any who opposed him.’ Whilst the establishment press was busy keeping minds under satisfactory control, Jimmy Carter - who won a Nobel Prize in monitoring elections with his Carter Centre - acknowledged ‘of the 92 elections that we’ve monitored, I would say that the election process in Venezuela is the best in the world.’

According to PBS, the media in Venezuela is ‘virtually under the control of Chávez.’ In actuality, studies have shown the privately owned Venezuelan media possess 90 per cent audience share, and routinely pump our antiChavez propaganda. PBS which was paid until recently $2million annually by Chevron, should be true to its initials, and be renamed the Petroleum Broadcasting Station. In nationalising the oil wealth of Venezuela and handing it to the poor rather than to Washington and London, as Saudi Arabia does, Chavez quickly made powerful enemies in powerful places, and the media quickly began contorting reality to feed the public

accordingly.

To the Washington Post, there was much ‘economic pain caused by Mr Chávez’, specifically to the people.

According to the World Bank from 1999-2011, because Chavez nationalised the oil wealth, extreme poverty fell from 23% to 8%; and, because Chavez nationalised large sectors of food production, food consumption for the average person increased by 23% over the same period. The oil wealth also helped fuel social programmes, five million children now receive free meals through the School Feeding Programme; in 1999 the figure was 250,000. From 1998-2006 infant mortality rates fell by more than 1/3 and social spending per capita more than tripled. From 19982012 the unemployment rate fell from 15% to 6% with GDP per capita rising from $4,100 to $10,810. Nationalising the oil industry and keeping profits in Venezuela instead of exporting them

to Washington, allowed Chavez to introduce universal access to education in 1998, which was an overwhelming success; with UNESCO declaring in 2005 Venezuela had eradicated illiteracy.

CBS Evening News’ epithet read ‘Chávez has made a career out of bashing the United States.’ To this it must be stated, if a Latin American government had attempted to overthrow the United States government via an internal military coup, and failed, one need only imagine the resulting American response… it would surely be a different type of ‘bashing’. We, the wonderful people in the West, would rightfully be outraged over this breach of our sovereignty. But for the ‘un-peoples’ of the world, this is merely routine. In 1984 for example, the US was taken to the International Court of Justice by Nicaragua, for arming terrorists which tried to topple the government, which was implementing similar reforms as Chavez. The United

States found tackling illiteracy and poverty was unacceptable, and began an act of state terrorism. The US was found guilty of breaking international law, but vetoed the decision at the UN Security Council. The US cabinet which launched this act of state terrorism will never have their names and crimes added into history books; another trademark of a propaganda system.

The New York Times, America’s premier ‘liberal’ newspaper, argued in 2002 during the failed American orchestrated military coup: ‘Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator.’ In reality, of the 16 elections held during Chavez’s tenure, which Jimmy Carter declared as the fairest he had ever observed, Chavez won 15. Elections are only democratic if they conform to the interests of the Western powers; otherwise, they are un-democratic. Another trademark of a propaganda system. The NYT then bemoaned ‘Mr Chávez, a ruinous demagogue, stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader, Pedro Carmona.’ In non-Orwell speak, the military coup which overthrew a democratically elected leader put in power a former petro-chemical executive, showing where Washington’s (and the media’s) true interests in Venezuela really were, only for the coup to be reversed by popular pressure. One need only ask how ‘pro-Venezuelan’ we would be if it had been done to us by Chavez.

The New York Times then complained ‘He courted … Saddam Hussein’. This tactic is a similar one used by the rest of the mainstream press.

Chavez did meet Saddam, and spoke to him. Meanwhile, Saddam Hussein’s worst crime - the gassing of 100,000 Kurdish civilians in the 1988 Al-Anfal campaign - was committed during the period when Western support for him was at its greatest, and using Western weapons. To ensure this fact would not humble international news cameras in the courtroom, Saddam was executed for the killing of 148 civilians in 1982 in the city of Dujail, before the Al-Anfal trial could make headway. But of course, to hear that in the press is unthinkable, another trademark of a propaganda system.

One needn’t have read Propaganda Model by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky to know how press manipulation occurs, but rather be aware of its dangers, as presented in Orwell’s invaluable 1984: ‘If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, IT NEVER HAPPENED—that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?’

God have mercy on Hugo Chavez, a champion of the poor, a hero to the oppressed, and a Latin bulwark against American imperialism.

Hugo Chávez, que en paz descanse.

Viva la revolución!

8 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

Students and Humanism Patrick McGhee speaks to head of the British Humanist Association, Andrew Copson, about the engagement of students with Atheism, Secularism and Humanism for UoB Reason Week In 1811, the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley was expelled from University College, Oxford, for writing a pamphlet entitled The Necessity of Atheism. Shelley’s opposition to the notion of God was indicative of the radicalism that characterised his literary career, and its academic setting foreshadowed a series of conflicts and disagreements to come between science and religion in the educational sphere.

It seems much easier to be an undergraduate nonbeliever in Britain today than it was for Shelley. The University of Birmingham’s Atheist, Secular and Humanist Society has been nationally recognised following its successful Reason Week, which featured open discussions and guest speakers, including Andrew Copson, the Chief Executive of the British Humanist Association.

Being a student at university can often provide an opportunity to question our values and beliefs.

Would you be able to describe what led you to become a humanist? Did your experience at university catalyse your own support for humanism?

I was the child of a humanist mother and non-religious grandparents, the community institutions of the town where I grew up were municipal or secular cooperative ones, the multi-ethnic primary school I went to was secular, the academic secondary school I went to was the same, the popular culture I imbibed was humanistic (I liked Star Trek and science fiction), the academic subjects I studied by choice at school and at university were the culture of ancient Greece and Rome and Enlightenment Europe and as a result of these combined factors, there was nothing at all of religion of any sort in the formative aspects of my upbringing, whether at University or beforehand. .What did happen at university was that I encountered seriously religious people for the first time and learned more about religious privilege and discrimination in our society - for example in state-funded faith schools - and that political awareness catalysed my support for humanist organisations and campaigns.

Do you think humanism receives adequate attention in university courses such as History, Sociology and Philosophy?

No - but partly this is because it is often implicit in these fields, as a result of its silent cultural victories in the last couple of hundred years. Nonetheless, it does need to be named more often, made more explicit and studied more comprehensively. Novelists like E M Forster, philosophers like A J Ayer, politicians like Michael Foot - to mention just a few - had profound and explicit humanist convictions and in this if in no other way explicit humanism has shaped the world that the academy studies.

'I think that any broadening of horizons will make you challenge your own narrow beliefs and prejudices.'

By choosing the moment carefully, prioritising those instances where academic freedom or freedom of speech are most obviously threatened and then countering those claims with appeals to universal principles like freedom of belief and thought, building alliances with those whose metaphysics may be different, but who nonetheless want to live in an open society and enjoy the liberty that entails.

Should humanist students engage and debate with religious students about the nature of their beliefs?

If invited to, and if it serves a useful purpose, I don't see why not. But there are certainly instances where it is not useful to do so, and debates about the existence of gods can often become stale and pointless.

One of the difficulties you emphasised in your talk was the limitations of the national census, which contains leading questions about religious affiliation and does not properly reflect unbelief and humanism. How difficult is it to ascertain how many students in Britain hold a religious belief? How can this be improved?

It is not that difficult - there are excellent instruments like the British Social Attitudes Survey which are more reliable than the deeply flawed national census.

Individuals such as Sayeeda Warsi have expressed concern about what they describe as 'militant secularism'. Do you think term 'militant' is an appropriate description of prominent atheists, as well as of the secularist and humanism movements?

Last year, the Reading University Atheist, Humanist and Secularist Society (RAHS) was criticised and removed from a societies fair for naming a pineapple 'Mohammed'. What do you think is the best approach for student groups promoting atheism, secularism and humanism to express their views in a campus environment?

No. I think the term 'militant' gives a totally false impression (and deliberately so). Secularism as a political settlement is a liberal and inclusive approach, humanism as a worldview is premised on the fallibility of human knowledge and the need to place human beings here and now at the centre of our thoughts. I don't see how these ideas can be described as militant just because some of their advocates assert them robustly.

Courting controversy is definitely not an unacceptable way to promote a point of view, but we should also engage intelligently with those who believe differently from us.

Can social media play a role in challenging religious privilege and contributing to debates about religion, and has it done so in the past?

How do you think students can effectively counter claims of offence that seek to silence critics of religious privilege?

Yes - especially for people who may not have access around them, in their immediate family or community, to other people who share their views. By building community online, social media can be a lifeline for the otherwise isolated.

Percy Shelley was expelled from the University of Oxford for writing a pamphlet entitled 'The Necessity of Atheism'. Do you think there is something unique to the university environment that can be particularly conducive to formulating humanistic, secular or atheistic ideas?

The UB: ASH (University of Birmingham Atheist, Secular and Humanist Society) Reason Week is demonstrating that many young people are enthusiastic about the values of humanism, secularism and atheism. In your mind, what does the future hold for humanism in Britain?

I think that any broadening of horizons will make you challenge your own narrow beliefs and prejudices and - hopefully - university is a time when you meet people from a wider range of backgrounds than you have before, encounter ideas of more diverse types than ever before, are freed from the constraints of community and family, and are always encouraged to think critically. I do think that all those experiences will tend to produce doubt in any intelligent person, and doubt is a close ally of humanism.

I think that the prevalence of humanist values - implicit and explicit - will continue to increase in Britain and that we will become increasingly impatient of claims to privilege and special treatment from churches and other religious organisations. We can already see that substantial moral progress has accompanied the rise of humanism in Britain over the last century and I expect that will continue.

Even at university, some academics are uncomfortable discussing scientific concepts such as evolution without adding the caveat that some people have 'different opinions'. In the context of notions of offence and respect, what are your views of the relationship between evidence and belief at an academic level?

I don't think that offence to those who profoundly believe the contrary is ever a good reason not to advance a belief. We should respect not people's prejudices but the disinterested search for truth and the dignity of the human being.

Benjamin Mee

@Patricksmcg

www.redbrick.me/comment | 09

Big Brands are Watching You The year is 2013, and us online consumers face a sweet disposition with an appearingly unlimited range of methods to get us what we want, when we want it.

Whether you have a sudden hankering for an long-lost forgotten album, a desperate need for those sought-after concert tickets, a love affair with a garment of clothing or a lack of inspiration for a special (or not so special) someone’s birthday, Internet moguls eBay and Amazon can normally find you what you’re looking for, at an agreeable price.

But it has transpired from recent information that the easy online shopping experience is betraying us.

As easily as we are finding that cheap DVD or book to procrastinate our impending workload, the user-friendly websites that we trust are using privacy-invading tactics to decide the prices that we pay.

It seems the borderline invasive - but often helpful - ‘Just For You’ recommendation emails are not just indicative of Amazon’s access to your browsing as well

as your purchasing history. It is in fact the tip of the iceberg.

Large corporations can do more than anticipate what products you might be interested in, and subtly nudge your Internet viewing in a direction that is most likely to get them a sale. It has been discovered that through use of specialist software and personal information provided by website accounts, they are able to discover what computer devices we are using. The companies from which millions of consumers buy thousands of different products a day know whether their customers are on a brand new MacBook Pro or a ten year old desktop PC. And guess what? Use of differential pricing with this information means that a MacBook user will be offered a higher price for a product they seek out online, because they are categorically predicted to have more money, and therefore be able to afford a higher price bracket.

Not only does this seem like a breach of a civil liberty, it reduces every consumer down to nothing more than a number or a statistic, the odds of them affording a more expensive price.

But, how can we avoid playing into the hands of the companies with the big bucks? Just like the poor citizens of Oceania in Orwell’s acclaimed 1984, we are subject to surveillance of our behaviour. Not by a totalitarian dictator Big Brother, but by large global brands. Our habits are monitored, analysed and fed into a strategy to reap the highest amount of profit.

With the decline of the high street and subsequently the option of human interaction and standardised pricing, diligence is becoming more and more essential when surfing the Internet. Investing in a wheezing old desktop contraption will act as only a short-term protection against a global market that rapidly finds less and less obstacles to keep them from squeezing every last penny out of us unsuspecting Internet shoppers.

By Charley Ross @CharleyRoss92

www.redbrick.me/comment

10| 15th March - 2nd May 2013

So long. Farewell.

Online Comment Editor

@jamesadolton

So long. Farewell. Auf Wiedersehn. Goodbye. Parting is such sweet sorrow, so I’ll say farewell until it be morrow. Except tomorrow I won’t be leaving my role in Comment I’ve held for a difficult, jubilant and ultimately brief year; I’ll have left.

Ever since writing an article for them in my second week of University, I knew it was where I wanted to be. All the people I’ve met and worked with have been delightful, and while there are too many to all mention individually, special credit must go to former editor Oscar French, delirious drunk and a genuine inspiration who was a major catalyst in making Comment what it is today. May News Views live forever! Then there’s current editor Dan Baird, a charming man who invigorated from his arrival and whose capable hands will steer Comment in the future. Then former Comment Online Editor Owen Earwicker, who I tease mercilessly but am eternally thankful for leaving such a clear path to follow. Finally, fellow departer (whose no doubt far less gushing and more taciturn goodbyes appear overleaf) Elisha Owen. She has been an absolute joy to work with from the beginning – Kind, discerning and fiercely talented. I have no doubt in her ability to achieve whatever she puts her brilliant mind to.

I leave the section with no small feeling of regret, but I have the utmost faith in James Phillips and Sophie Tollet, Elisha and I’s respective successors.

There are so many highlights – seeing a piece I uploaded win ‘Best Article’ at last year’s Redbrick Awards, and another be reprinted in the Guardian, researching and helping build a vast feature on the Redbrick archives and Deputy Editing the April 2012 edition of ‘The Lion’ that first saw Editor Raphael Sheridan’s re-design plans begin to be realised. But ultimately, the best part has been the meetings. Every week I talked and joked with fascinating people with a myriad of ideas. I am honoured that they deemed us worthy to share with them, and that is what I will miss most.

Comment is the best section in Redbrick. Since I’m going, I’m allowed to say that. There are many reasons why. The main one is because it is different every week. Every week. Have a look if you don’t believe me. I have learned so much about so many things through doing this, and while it has sometimes been hard, I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Comment Editor

@elishaowen11

My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius.

Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.

Only kidding. (That's one off the bucket list). My name's Elisha actually. I'm currently in the Redbrick Office, listening to Mariah Carey and getting rather sentimental about the last year and a bit of being Comment Editor. So forgive me for the next few paragraphs.

It goes without saying really that it has been an absolute pleasure. From the day I became Editorial Assistant in Fresherdom (lord, my Oscars Speech will be better than this, promise), it was clear that Redbrick is a family. Like all families, we tear each others' hair out at times but we also work hard, play hard and get the job done.

Before I thank anyone, I'd like to congratulate the committee, Raph, Lexie, Owen and Chris, for a phenomenal year. The Re-Design, I'm sure you'll agree, has raised the standard of Redbrick from a 'mere' student newspaper to one that rivals many Nationals (my completely biased and off the record opinion, of course). What's more, it's inspired us as section editors to be even more creative. These four have handled the stress of third year and the pressures of the spotlight with admirable aplomb.

Above all else, they are lovely people, who I have enjoyed spending slightly delirious times with and from whom I have learnt so much.

Like James's farewell, mention must also go to the darling Oscar French. He taught me that it's okay to be a scathing perfectionist, as long as you can also dance like a madman to Abba at the end of the night.

Mr Dolton. My partner-in-crime. Sorry, I'm just as gushing. From editing to radio-presenting, to putting on a play, there's no escape it seems. I wouldn't have it any other way. Here's to the world/oyster, and all that malarky.

To the men and women that truly have made Comment what it is - the writers.

This year you have not only provided us with extremely diverse content, your love of pushing boundaries (word counts included) have continually inspired us. From exlusive interviews to satirical articles about privatised grannies, I couldn't be more proud.

I will always be at home in Comment. Why, in 10 words? Opinion, debate, conviction, fun and a healthy dose of scepticism. Go on, join in the fun.

Self-Indulgent Editorial: The Album

Presents...

From 5pm for V.I.P Dinner tickets, 6.30pm for After Dinner tickets at the Guild.

Preparations for this year’s Grad Ball (Thursday 6th June) are underway!

For the third year running, the event will be held on campus and will welcome top name acts to entertain you.

With a free funfair, silent disco, bandeoke, and much more, it’s guaranteed to be a night to remember!

V.I.P Tickets

Celebrate the end of the year in style and with sophistication.

*4 bottles of wine per table for dinner tickets only.

Ball Tickets

12| 15th - 2nd May 2013 @RedbrickMusic

Live Review: Bastille @ The Institute

James Dolton Online Comment Editor

@jamesadolton

Less than a week after Bastille’s debut record was released, they played a spectacular set in Digbeth Institute’s Library. My last trip was a dimly remembered Fresher's visit to HMV (as it had been known before the world continued to melt financially), the main memory of which had been finding myself in a room that was inexplicably full of lasers. I had always doubted its existence and my sanity, until upon being ushered inside the entirely inappropriately named “Library” (an oppressive space with a not a bookshelf in sight) I was immediately hit in the face with an aggressive beam of light. I hadn’t been wrong! Secure with this fabulous new knowledge, the evening was always going to go well. Now, onto the evening.

Bastille essentially are lead-singer and synth player Dan Smith – it actually began as a solo project, named after the day on which he was born, and it is his face that adorns every frame of their videos. An over enthu-

siastic lighting tech seizes upon this throughout, shining a vast spot on his keyboard obtrusively placed in the centre of stage every time Smith strays near it unaccompanied, such as in the closing of early set highlight ‘Icarus’.

However this is not to say that his rhythm section offers nothing, or indeed that referring to them as a rhythm section is fair. As is often the case with bands based predominantly around synthesisers, Bastille’s sound is incredible, clear, precise and so catchy.

Other excellent moments are some 90s pop covers played blissfully bereft of any irony (‘What Would You Do’ by City High and a toe-tapping mashup of ‘Rhythm is a Dancer’ and ‘Rhythm of the Night’) and this is indicative of one of the best aspects of the show: Bastille have a bashfulness about them which is charmingly earnest. The denouement of every song is greeted by the audience with ecstatic cheering, which is in turn greeted by the sort of inarticulate mumbles of thanks that suggest that they aren’t altogether used to this.

However, they really had better learn quick: debut record ‘Bad Blood’ is currently storming the charts, coming straight in at number one, and every single song from it was sung along jubilantly by a fervent audience.

After declaring that ‘Pompeii’ was their last song with biggest hit ‘Flaws’ still unplayed, they managed a false exit barely a minute long before bounding back onstage. This two-song encore consisted of a euphoric ‘Get Home’ that had the loudest sing-a-long yet, before finally reaching Flaws, during which Smith leapt from the stage and, flanked by two burly security guards, strode his way through the floor space, along the back wall and back down the other side, brushing past this reviewer (and everyone else in the room, as I suppose was probably the point). This was a touch of class I had genuinely never seen in a live set before, and one can only hope that as Bastille inevitably gain experience in being adored they don’t lose the youthful exuberance that makes them such a potent force.

Album Review: Dido - Girl Who Got Away

lad 'Happy New Year' and the brilliant and slightly more uptempo 'Go Dreaming', that promises to be the perfect background music for the coming warm summer nights. The best song on the record, though, is the last track. It's called 'Day Before We Went To War' and describes daily life in summer, just before a war comes and changes everything. Lines like 'Just the gentle hum of the summer's goings on, broken by the sudden rush of two planes flying low and fast into the sun' are among the best Dido has ever written.

Other tunes like the promotional single 'Let Us Move On' – the first song to be released from the album – and the title track may be a little bit boring compared to the amazing already mentioned ones, but in general Girl Who Got Away works like most Dido albums: When you listen to it for the first time you think it's nice background music. When you listen to it for the second time you start falling love with certain songs.

When you listen to it for the third time, you wonder why you did not instantly realise how amazing the entire record is.

Christoph Buescher Music Critic

@ClebyB

Five years have passed since the release of Dido's last studio album Safe Trip Home. Since then fans of the British singer have had to wait for a new LP and be satisfied with two songs that have been released as part of movie soundtracks. Now, finally, she is back with her fourth album Girl Who Got Away and as usual her soft, angelic voice is the undeniable focus of the record.

Yet, even though her characteristic vocal delivery alone clearly makes all eleven new tracks appear as typical Dido songs, the new album has a completely different sound than its predecessor. While Safe Trip Home was a slow, dark, guitar-driven record with soft-rock influences, Girl Who Got Away is a lot more electronic and – though it seems strange to use this word in connection with Dido – dancy.

The lead single 'No Freedom' is most like her older songs. It might be a good track with an amazing music video, but compared to other tunes on the album it does not seem to be a wise choice for its lead single. The rumoured second official single 'End Of Night' is a much stronger offering, with a more electronic sound and a more interesting melody.

Other album highlights are the sad and realistic bal-

'The new album has a completely different sound' Dido may not change the pace very often, she may not be the best lyricist around and Girl Who Got Away may not be as instantly catchy as Life For Rent was – which is what probably made that album a bigger success than her later releases, even though it is not necessarily better. But after all it is still a great album and worthy successor of Safe Trip Home, and it's fair to say that 'End Of Night' and 'Day Before We Went To War' alone make it worth buying.

www.redbrick.me/music |13

Redbrick Meets: San Cisco Jessica Green Music Critic

@jesssie_cat

The young four-piece “ indie-pop” band that is San Cisco, are definitely on track to having a very bright musical career ahead of them, as I learned from not only witnessing their electrifying gig at the Institute but also from meeting the down to earth, chilled kids from Fremantle in Western Australia. They’ve already gained major success in 0z and have been together for over 3 years now, recently touring the USA with the Vaccines. I caught up with San Cisco in the midst of the beginning of their own headlining gig across Europe.

Jordi, Scarlett, Josh and Nick who had literally just leapt off the tour-bus from London, were clearly eager to get some grub down their necks and see a bit of Birmingham, a few of the questions popping up were along the lines of “Where is the Primark?” and “do you know any good pubs?” - the band’s schedule is intense and so it was great to see them so laid-back.

I asked the band how the tour was going, their response was ultimately “long, and tiring – we’re almost half way through now” and the guys let me in on a few of their favourite moments so far - such Go Karting and paint balling, drummer Scarlett added they really enjoyed San Fran Cisco “we got to play at the Fillmore, which was great because it’s so historic”. The band have a pretty exciting year ahead of

them, their tour is packed until the summer where they’ll be touring Europe , heading back to the States for SXSW, returning home and gigging at summer festivals . I asked if they had any plans for a next album, the answer was “we definitely hope to in the near future” so that’s exciting stuff! Their influences are reflective of their own upbeat, vibrant style as Jordi, San Cisco’s Front man states “ we’re mainly influenced Metronomy, The Strokes and classics like the Beatles”.

The gig itself exceeded expectations. They started with ‘Golden Revolver’, and as soon vibrant ‘Fred Astaire’ kicked in the atmosphere soared, I couldn’t help but be side-tracked by the two flamboyant audience members fox-trotting near the back and the keyboard jingles from guitarist Nick and bassist Josh definitely upped the pace and livened the room. Jordi interacted brilliantly with the small crowd, especially when carrying the atmosphere through the small tech issues “lucky they put these barriers here cause you guys are nuts”.

The rest of the set was a diverse range of upbeat songs such as ‘Rocket Ship’ and slow rhythm tracks such as ‘Beach’. The band ended the set with the deeply anticipated ‘Awkward’ which, with the addition of the tambourine, really did send the audience nuts. The 45 minute set really lit up the room with their distinct sound and synchronisation. The stealth of Jordi’s, Josh’s and Scarlett’s voices really jumped out to the audience - especially Jordi, whose voice had such a diverse and haunting range I had to calm myself for a few moments – especially when he belted out those high notes.

All in all it was a tremendous gig, and the four of them really deserved a bigger audience for how well they played. They have a wonderful raw way about them, with a distinct, catchy and refreshing style that’s glorious to behold and defies all expectations of them being the type-casted indie-pop band -when they are so much more than that. So watch this space, I feel that we haven’t seen the best of these guys yet.

Live Review: Foals @ The Institute Marianne Lampon Music Critic

@MarianneLampon

Hot off the release of their latest album ‘Holy Fire’, Foals graced Birmingham with their presence during a stop at the Institute on their UK tour. I couldn’t wait to hear some of their newest material performed live, and the band certainly did not disappoint. Their set list was a great mixture of old and new tracks which proved their incredible craft as musicians, with even the older tracks such as ‘Balloons’ and ‘Olympic Airways’ sounding just as fresh as when they were first released.

Starting with the ‘Prelude’ to their new album, the bar was immediately set high with the crowd getting a taste for what was to come from the rest of the show. The slow build of the opening track had hands clapping to the beat, with deep blue lights helping to create the intense atmosphere. As soon as the beat really came in, the crowd were jumping and dancing with the flashing strobe lights pulsing to the rocky guitar rhythms of the middle section of the track. At this point, I realised the show was going to be incredible.

There are so many highlights to mention! A personal favourite moment has to include the band’s performance of ‘Late Night’. The steady beat carried Yannis’s heart-felt, beautiful vocals around the room displaying just how far his vocal talent has developed over the years. The track built to a striking climax, and the repetition of the haunting lyrics “stay with me” were sung back to the band. Yannis’s guitar solo that followed showed his effortless tal-

ent as a musician, and his interaction with the rest of the band proved how tight they are as a group. Another incredible moment was the energy of the crowd during ‘Providence’ – one of their much more rocky tracks off the new album. The audience jumped and danced to the heavier rhythms causing Yannis to take the plunge and crowd surf. Unfortunately I was nowhere near the front at this point but it was still great to watch! After this track, there was an unexpected shift in tone as the band began to play ‘Spanish Sahara’ which always proves to be such an intense and moving track when performed live. Once again, the lights returned to a dark blue, and the crowd actually sat on the floor during the beginning of the track to appreciate its simple beauty.

After an encore and amazing performances of ‘Moon’ and ‘Inhaler’, Yannis says ‘Let’s desecrate this building!’ before leaping into crowd-favourite ‘Two Steps, Twice’. The guitar at the beginning of the track let the crowd know what was in store and the entire audience chanted along with the band, singing the repeated ‘babada, babada’ that comes around the middle of the track – and after that we really got a chance to dance.

I cannot praise Foals enough for their incredible talents both as individual musicians and as a band – they are truly on eof the best live acts I have ever seen and probably will ever see.

14| 15th - 2nd May 2013 @RedbrickLifeStyle

Fierce Katarina Bickley Life&Style Writer Royal baby – Earlier this week Kate dropped a hint that she may be having a ‘d-.’ We’re struggling to contain our excitement.

Red Nose Day – There are things happening all week, but make sure to watch the traditional Friday night show if you want to see Jessie J shave off her hair (live!), and our five favourite boys perform the official Comic Relief single, eek!

Rihanna – RiRi kicked off her smoking hot ‘Diamonds’ world tour in New York this week.

Colourfest – Let the battle of the halls commence!

Helium Booth app – Please, please, please, just download it. It will keep you so amused, promise.

Red Nose Day: What's Happening Online Life&Style Editor Marianne Lampon finds out what the celebs are doing for charity this Red Nose Day: From Stella McCartney designing t-shirts to Jessie J shaving her hair, all the celebrities are doing their bit...

Red Nose Day is just one aspect of the British charity Comic Relief, whose aims are to help improve the lives of the poor and the disadvantaged through fundraising. Money received goes towards tackling issues in the UK such as domestic abuse and issues surrounding mental health, whilst in Africa the money is channelled towards protecting people from malaria and providing communities with fresh water, amongst many others. It’s one of the biggest charity events of the year, and here at Life&Style we wanted to explore some of the ways in which fashion and involvement from famous faces are helping to make a difference this Red Nose Day, 15th March.

First up, Stella McCartney has designed this year’s Comic Relief official t-shirts with TK Maxx exclusively selling the collection – hooray! The collection includes different designs with iconic faces such as Kate Moss, The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and Tommy Cooper captured in black and white print with the charity’s classic bright red nose stamped on top. Some of the designs also feature oversized geek-look glasses to add to the humorous prints and fun-fuelled spirit of the charity.

Stella McCartney spoke to ELLE UK, and noted how ‘designing the T-Shirt collection seems like a relatively small thing for me to do, but it can have a big impact on people’s

lives and I hope everyone gets involved in any way they can.’ We must get our hands on some here at Life&Style ASAP! Next, singer Jessie J has announced that she will shave her head on the live TV broadcast of Red Nose Day in the hope of raising money for the event. The singer is well known for her sleek, straight bob cut, and such a move requires her to be very brave indeed as it will be such a drastic change to her look. But having recently visited and experienced the work of Body and Soul, a project that channels donations into helping young people with HIV, she has been quoted on the Red Nose Day website that, ‘now, more than ever, [I] want to chop off my hair for Red Nose Day’. Jessie J hopes that this bold move will really help to play a part in the fundraising.

In addition, an auction on eBay taking place between the 7th and 17th March sees iconic names in fashion offering amazing prizes and experiences to the public in order to help with the fundraising for this year’s event. The auction looks extremely exciting, with the likes of Philip Treacy, Roland Mouret, Christopher Kane and Dolce & Gabbana taking part in the activity which takes place alongside a series of other events pioneered by supermodel David Gandy.

The fashion auction includes some amazing prizes such as a Kate Moss Longchamp

handbag, tickets to Victoria Beckham’s S/S14 show in New York and lunch at the ‘by invitation only’ Louis Vuitton apartment to name but a few. Such priceless experiences seem to be another exciting way fashion is getting involved with fundraising this year.

With all this and much more happening this Red Nose Day 2013, we’ll be sure to tune in to the live TV broadcast on Friday 15th March, with fun and antics hoping to help fundraise as much as possible for Comic Relief.

"Designing the t-shirt collection seems like a relatively small thing for me to do, but it can have a big impact on people's lives."

S. McCartney

Justin Bieber – His week has just gone from bad to worse, hasn’t it?

First he was two hours late, then he collapsed on stage, then he got extremely rowdy with the paps. Sort it out, Biebs.

Frankie Boyle – Jokes about how the Queen should be dead - just no.

He’s so far past the line, he can’t even see the line, the line is a dot to him.

Guild Elections – At last, no more being harassed with sweets and flyers, and campus can stop looking like a bomb site.

Celeb tattoos – First Cheryl Cole gets a horrendously large rose on her back, now Harry Styles has an almost as horrendous butterfly on his stomach. Just why?

Harlem Shake – We’re really, really bored of this now. Can all of the videos please just STOP. English weather – Oh yeah we forgot that in England it could only be sunny for one day.

Finished

www.redbrick.me/lifestyle |15

Relationship Palavas: Texting & Sexing To Wink or Not Wink?

Hannah Myerson

Last Tuesday, as we were finalising our choices of grub, a friend of mine received a text from a lad. This text read, ‘Haha good one. Tlk 2 u later ;)’.. A brief message; admittedly the grammar is poor and the text speech potentially no longer acceptable at the age of 20. However, my potato wedges were abandoned for a good seven minutes as the six of us were seduced into a heavily detailed discussion about what this winky face could possibly mean. Was it: a) The equivalent of this boy’s standard salutation, translated into text; are small hello’s and goodbye’s punctuated with a friendly wink in this creature’s everyday life? b) A sign! A flirtatious sign. He likes her. He loves her. He wants her children.

He wants his surname to either replace or follow hers in the modern double-barrel tradition of this hip and trendy day and age. c) Just plain creepy. Sending cyber-winks to a girl you have been sitting behind for two short weeks in the Ancient Greek literature seminar is probably deemed harassment in some countries.

The majority of the group chose option b)- this was good, a nostalgic tale they would tell on their wedding night; ‘And it all began...with a mysterious winky face!’

Privately, I didn’t care for any option. I cut off all ties with smiley-users long ago when the delivery of a ludicrous emoticon dubbed ‘horny devil’ tipped me over the edge. I believe there is a clear solution for this angst- we need to abolish smilies. Imagine an interaction free of sinister, noseless faces with tongues likened to the letter ‘p’ and eyes that morph into hearts.

I look forward to the day where we rid the world of this vom-worthy subspecies.

'Karma is a bitch, Biebs.'

Hannah Coates Editorial Assistant

He’s one of, if not the, most famous teens in the world, has over 35,000,000 followers on Twitter and is generally a bit of a prat. But is Justin Bieber really that cool in the style stakes? In the week following his nineteenth birthday, we look at Justin’s latest.

It’s your birthday: you’re centre of attention and thus wear something suitably apt. Justin totes around a leopard print Christian Louboutin manbag. Questionable move. But considering his latest craze over leopard print, it’s hardly surprising. Last week donning a leopard print trousers/shoes combo, the bag was really just the tip of the iceberg. If it was anyone else in the world, I might applaud the irrefutable sense of daring, but Bieber I refuse.

Forget double animal print, he has also recently been spotted wearing a gas mask out in public. Why would anyone, in their right mind, wear a gas mask?

Out? Bieber, clearly, is not in his right mind. Sometimes it’s good to reminisce about the old days, when Bieber didn’t wear the edgy leather harems he has taken to of late, when he had a cute little side-sweeping fringe and sung about his first girlfriend, his ‘baby’. That’s when it all made sense.

Forget his clothes, he also has poor taste in venue. Post-Birmingham gig last week (his birthday) he neglected to attend our very own Mechu, in favour of London Club ‘Circque du Soir’. Unfortunately, he was turned away for trying to get his young teen friends in, tweeting the following morning ‘Worst birthday ever’. It is hard to tell whether the 25,075 favourites on the tweet were fans crazing over the fact that Bieber typed a few words, or people loving the fact that he had a terrible birthday, despite rolling in money and fame.

Either way, karma is a bitch, Biebs.

Paige Padden

To Sex or Not Sex?

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the 90 Day Rule and some of you may even use it. But is it actually effective or even necessary?

In theory, making a guy wait 90 days before you sleep with him does give women a certain sense of power and allows you to get to know the opposite sex before entering in a physically intimate relationship. As the possibility of free sex is increasingly popular during the Uni years, the idea of a three-month wait would change the sex norms everyone has become accustomed too.

However, in practice, this rule just seems like another game which many men would be willing to play since they know that after three months they’ll get what they want.

Whether you wait three days, three weeks or three months, a guy will not stick around if he doesn’t want to be with you.

Once he has slept with you, what difference does it make that you waited 90 days rather than 9? The level of respect a man has for you shouldn’t be determined by the length of time it takes to get you into bed - that seems, to me, a shallow and pre-evolutionary viewpoint to have, especially in a generation where sexuality and freedom of expression is celebrated rather than repressed.

This rule is just turning sex into a game or a calendar countdown. It should just be a natural progression that takes place in a relationship when you feel comfortable and ready to get intimate with a person, and not when some know-it-all relationship expert tells you it’s ‘respectable’ or ‘right’.

16 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013 @Redbrick @RedbrickTV

Have you seen..?

Once Upon a Time Alexandra Robinson TV Critic

If you haven’t yet seen this programme, you need to be asking yourself, why not? A fairy-tale-filled modern world encompassed with mystical characters unaware of their own identity may not be your typical prime-time watch, however, I’m going to tell you why it should be added to your bucket list, your ‘things to watch before I die’.

Dramatic, I know, but how else am I going to persuade you?

I’ve made several failed attempts to describe the content of this drama to friends; each time receiving the same response: ‘this sounds like a children’s programme’. After much persuasion, I managed to bribe them all into giving it a chance. Well, I’ve had knocks on my door for weeks since asking to borrow the box set! This adventure-thriller-romance-drama has all the ingredients suited to an any-age; any-gender audience.

Ashamedly, I was a little pessimistic myself when I received the complete first season at Christmas from my slightly eccentric aunt. Initially I was sceptical, as other recent gifts have included: A metal detector, a mouth organ, a miniature helicopter, roast dinner in a tin for the family dogs, and a printer box, yes, you heard that right, just the box!

So, you can understand why my pessimism prevented me from watching ‘Once’ to begin with! But one unproductive day during the first week of semester two, procrastination got the better of me. I dug through my still-tobe-unpacked belongings to find the DVD given to me by my aunt.

I planted the disk into my laptop and this is where my love for Once Upon A Time began to grow.

By the end of the first episode, I’d been introduced to the world of Storybrooke, the town in which these fairy tale characters are unable to break free from. The mystery, tension and alluring interlinking twists hanging over from one episode to the next were what prompted my compulsion to continue viewing. Knowing the next episode was just a click away was too tempting to resist! Suddenly, after five days, I found myself surrounded by pools of sweet wrappers, and mugs containing remnants of tea; I’d finished the whole of season one. But fear not future ‘Once’ obsessives, there is a second series!

It would be impossible to sum up this programme in a five-word slogan; it’s not your average children’s fairy tale filled with stereotypical princesses and a happy ending. The storyline is continuous from one episode to the next, bursting with fantasy, horror, betrayal, charm...and incorporating nearly every imaginative creature that you’ve ever encountered. Once Upon A Time brings these characters into contemporary American suburban life and presents them with unexpected challenges. It blends Snow White with Little Red Riding Hood; Aladdin’s Genie with Wonderland’s Mad Hatter; Belle (Emilie de Ravin) with Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle). I could go on.

I completely recommend Channel 5’s Once Upon A Time as a ‘must see’. It’s addictive yet harmless.

Editorial Column

Editorial Column

Charlotte Goodwin

Russell Webb

TV Editor

@C_E_Goodwin

Looking back at the articles I have written for the Redbrick Television section I have realised just what a range of shows I have watched, from the documentary following the reunion of pop band Steps, writing reviews of my favourite shows like Made in Chelsea, doing interviews and finding new shows I never thought I would like such as Suburgatory.

TV Editor

@rwebb92

Over the past year I have watched a lot of television and had to pitch a lot of shows that really didn’t sound any good, so here is a selection of programmes that I think you should bother with.

Four in a Bed

This show is basically Come Dine With Me for the country’s bed and breakfasts. As the title suggests, throughout the week there are four establishments on show. Each weekday the B&Bers visit each others’ establishments marking them on hospitality, cleanliness, their bed and their breakfasts. The factor that sells this show is that the owners’ My highlights of being a Television only pay what they feel their stay was Editor have definitely been doing inter- worth which is revealed on the Friday views with TV celebrities. My first show leading to some very abrupt cominterview was with Jasmine Harman, ments about other people's businesses from A Place in the Sun, who spoke and essentially homes. A really easy but about her show My Hoarder Mum and addictive watch.

Me. She was extremely open when she discussed her mum’s hoarding disorder Pramface and spoke about her ways of dealing with this and how she is helping others. This British sitcom What was great about the interview was has just had its second that it was done over the phone when series which was she was part way through filming in every bit as good as Spain. She had just had her hotel room its first. Although the messed around, but still joked about the acting in it isn’t situation! always the strongest My interview with Pixie McKenna, (especially from the male lead) the stomost famous for being one of the doc- rylines and the writing are worth persetors on Embarrassing Bodies, was great vering for. The series follows the trials because of the detailed and often comic and tribulations of Jamie and Laura as answers she gave me, even when she they sleep together at a party and Laura did recount the worst thing she had to falls pregnant. Laura is preparing to go deal with was an ingrown toenail hid- to university, but those plans have to be den under a man’s sock for six months. put on hold. If you haven’t seen it, or She also gave away that Dr Christian even heard of it Pramface is definitely spends a lot more time in make-up than well worth catching up on and waiting her! with baited breath for a third series.

How I Met Your Mother

I recently discovered Modern Family and in a very short space of time have watched the entire box set and now keep recommending everyone to watch it! The American comedy show follows the lives of three related families; a gay couple, Mitch and Cam, who have a adopted a Vietnamese daughter, Mitch’s dad who has recently married a much younger Columbian woman and his daughter, Claire, and her family whom she has three children with her husband Phil. Why the show is so watchable is because of the likeability of all the characters and the wide variety of story lines that come from the everyday lives of this family, with each episode ending with a moral lesson. Now it is time to catch up on season four!

A programme that I hadn’t seen ever until the start of this year, but that has certainly changed. From the first episode that I saw I became heavily invested in Ted’s search for a wife and his retelling of his search to his children.

Currently airing its eighth series I managed to rattle through the previous seven so that I was fully caught up with the rest of the HIMYM world.

This sitcom has certainly filled the void in my life left by Friends. The characters are new and funny and the style of the episodes is very funny as well as having running themes to look out for. A show that is easy and fun to watch and will see you whittle away hours without knowing where they have gone. It certainly is Legen...wait for it...dary!

Guild of Students Newsletter Edition Four - March 2013

Thanks for YOUR VIEW! We would like to thank all those students who took the time to complete the YOUR View survey last term. Hearing your views and opinions is important and helps us to better plan for the Guild’s future, and ensure we’re providing the services you need.

Of those who completed the survey 86% said the Guild had made a positive contribution to your time at university. 81% agreed that it’s easy to find and access help at the Guild, 66% believed the Guild provides a voice and represents you to the University, and over 74% said you have a good or really good understanding of the Guild.

think that the Guild does some great stuff, but it is always nice to be asked for one’s opinion.”

Three respondents were picked at random to receive cash prizes as a thank you for completing the quick, on-line survey. Top prize winner, Peter West-Oram (PhD in Philosophy, third year) collected a cheque for £500, he commented:

“I completed the survey to give honest feedback on the Guild and was more inclined to take part because of the enticing cash prize. I was extremely shocked when I received the email saying I had won £100 but obviously very happy. I plan on putting this money towards saving for a new car”.

“I really appreciate the opportunity to give feedback to the Guild on its work, I

A Night to Remember It’s that time of year again and preparations are being made for Grad Ball 2013. For the fourth year running the event is being held on campus! This year it will take place on Thursday 6th June.

Two lucky runner-ups were also presented with cheques for £100. Gemma Hollins, second year, Chemical Engineering commented:

With top name acts, a free funfair and silent disco it’s bound to be a night to remember, and the perfect way to celebrate the end of the year in style.

Left to Right: Gemma Hollins, Peter WestOram, David Franklin (President) and Abbey Jarvis.

Tickets for the Grad Ball go on sale on Friday 26th April from 5pm for V.I.P Dinner tickets and 6.30pm for After Dinner tickets at the Guild.

Due to the high demand for Grad Ball tickets on ticket sales day, we would like to advise all students who wish to purchase tickets that a queue is to be expected, and therefore suggest dressing appropriately for the weather.

We Want Your Unwanted Items Junkbusters is back for a second year. The joint initiative of the Guild of Students and University of Birmingham collects unwanted items from homes in Selly Oak and donates them to the British Heart Foundation (BHF).

Last year, a staggering 1,128 bags were donated raising in excess of £9,000 for BHF, the nation’s heart charity.

full working order e.g. kettles, lamps, hairdryers, audio equipment, and toasters (no rice cookers).

The Community Wardens will be posting bags through your letter boxes from Thursday 14th March. We hope you will help by filling these bags with your unwanted items: clothes, shoes, CDs and DVDs, kitchen accessories and crockery, stationery, books, small electrical items in

Filled bags should be left on doorsteps from midday on Friday 22nd March. Our Junkbusters, riding on ECO1 the environmentally friendly milk float will collect bags between 12 and 2pm.

guildofstudents.com/gradball2013 @gradball2013 Presents...

guildofstudents.com/junkbusters

Postgraduates – Still Deciding Where to Live?

Are you continuing your studies in Birmingham in the next academic year (2013/14)?

Have you decided where you are going to live and who with?

If you have not started thinking about accommodation for next year yet, don’t worry. The Postgraduate and Mature Students Association (PGMSA) and the Student Mentor Scheme have organised the Postgraduate Housing Event.

The event will provide you with all the information you need to know about finding a house in the private sector. It will also be an opportunity to meet like-

minded people who you may want to live with next year too!

The SHAC (the Guild’s lettings agency) and LIVING will also be present, providing you with the opportunity to view available properties in the private sector.

This event taking place on Wednesday 20th March in the Amos Room (Guild) between 6.30 and 8.30pm is for postgraduate students only.

If you have any questions about this event or would like more information please email mentorwelfare@guild.bham.ac.uk @GuildofStudents

Tweets of the Month Advice & Guidance

@coralmycroft “Just done my @GuildofStudents election votes ^^ #goodstudent”

David’s Column Hello again, The Easter break is almost here. Essay deadlines, revision… and for many, you might be looking at your last few months at University.

Tr u s t m e, I k n ow h ow it fe e l s . You may have noticed the Officer Elections on campus recently – we had the second largest turnout ever with almost 7000 students voting and now we’ve got a team elected who will take the Guild for wa rd from June.

I’d like to wish a massive congratulations to all of the new Guild Officer Group.

But before your 2012/13 team are out of office, there’s still plenty going on and we have work to do!

Whether it’s a second hand Textbook Fa i r, a L i ve student- l ed ente r ta i n ment on a Fr iday, Grad B a l l, wor k on hidden course costs, Junkbusters or preparing summer balls in halls, your Guild and your Officers are still ver y much here and work ing hard to make sure you get the best from Birmingham!

Have a great Easter, whether you’re staying in the UK or going elsewhere.

Make su re you get the chance to rest and relax as well as getting work done and we’ll see you next ter m, to help keep a smi le on you r face during exams and to celebrate what has been another incredible year at the University of Birmingham.

Best wishes,

David Franklin President, Guild of Students @Guild_President

Congratulations to the Guild Officer Team 2013/14 Voting in the 2013 Guild Officer Team Elections closed on Friday (8th March 2013). 6,917 of you voted - the second highest voter turn-out in the Guild’s election history. Last Saturday (9th March 2013), the results were announced live on guildelections.co.uk.

Here are the results!

Sabbatical Officers:

Non-Sabbatical Officers:

President Poppy Wilkinson

Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism Officer Georgia Levine

International Students’ Officer Bihe Chen

Vice President (Activities & Development) Molly Wright

Community Action Officer Roz Burgin

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Students’ Officer Leilani Rabemananjara

Vice President (Democracy & Resources) Tom Wragg

Disabled Students’ Officer Ellis Palmer

Vice President (Education) Hattie Craig

Ethical & Environmental Officer Rachel Cavet

Vice President (Housing & Community) Dave Charles

Ethnic Minority Students’ Officer Tracy Makale

Vice President (Sport) Vicki Harris

Home Students’ Officer Jagpal Pahal

Joe’s Plus is a discount card exclusively for University of Birmingham students that ensures you are getting more for your money than ever before.

Women’s Officer Mae Rohani

Vice President (Welfare) Jethro Lee

Still Time to Nominate!

There’s still time to submit nominations for both the Student Employer of the Year (SEOTY) and Birmingham Volunteer Awards.

The Birmingham Volunteer Awards are a prestigious mark of excellence to celebrate and reward the achievement, dedication and leadership of student volunteers at the University of Birmingham. The deadline for nominations is 4th April (guildofstudents.com/volunteerrecognition).

Lecture Accessibility Event

STUDENT EMPLOYEE OF THE YEAR Nominations for the SEOTY Awards close on 12th April (nases.org.uk/seoty). Being nominated for, or winning an SEOTY award, is great for your CV and can really make you feel valued. Regional winners will be offered a place on the ‘SEOTY Winners Emerging Talent Programme’, a training event designed by Teach First and National Association of Student Employment Services.

Get your Joe’s Plus card now for only £1!

The Joe’s Plus discount card is now available for only £1 until 14th June 2013!

Mature & Part-time Students’ Officer Erin Lee

Purchase your Joe’s Plus card NOW for just £1 and enjoy discounts on food, drink and much more. Purchasing your card couldn’t be easier, simply ask at the Joe’s bar within the Guild.

See guildofstudents.com/joesplus for more information.

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Your Disabled Students’ Officer, Amy Connelly is hosting an event for University staff and students next Wednesday, 20th March.

The purpose of the event is to provide information to lecturers on how they can better make lectures accessible for those students with a disability.

The event starts at 2pm until 5pm and will be held in the Guild Council Chamber, and everyone is welcome to attend.

At the event university staff will hear from two speakers, one a trainer on disability issues and a member of the NUS. University staff will also have the chance to ask questions and hear from you, the students themselves.

For further information, please email a.connelly@guild.bham. ac.uk

Community Clean-Up Last Thursday, 7th March, the University of Birmingham Islamic Society (UBISOC) ventured to the streets of Selly Oak with litter pickers for a community clean-up project. The team picked up rubbish off the roads, helping make Selly Oak a nicer place to live for students.

Focus on.. .

Valefest Established:

One of the UBISOC volunteers commented: “It felt amazing to be involved in this community clean-up. Islam encourages helping out others, and it’s nice to help clean up even if this isn’t our mess.”

In 2005, after two students at the University of Birmingham, one whom wanted to raise more awareness of the Rwandan genocides met with a couple of guys who were organising a little music festival on the Vale, decided to combine forces, and voila, the Vale Festival was born! Each year we pick a different cause and charities to support, and split the proceeds between them. This year we are increasing awareness about mental health, raising money for Young Minds and Students Against Depression.

UBISOC commented: “Together as a team we accomplished a lot, showing how easy it is to make a big difference in the community.”

President:

Arts & Science Festival

For full events listings see guildofstudents.com/events

Carnival RAG Escape & Evade Taking place on 23rd March 2013, Carnival RAG presents the ultimate global adventure, Escape & Evade. The infamous adventure gives participants just 60 hours to get as far away from Birmingham as possible without spending any money.

Your President, David Franklin, and Vice President (Welfare) Katherine East will be teaming

Your group in 20 words: Our mission is to entertain, engage, educate and excite. Vale Festival is certainly not to be missed.

Greatest achievement/proudest moment: The very end of last year’s festival; the whole committee was right at the front of a 1,000 strong crowd of students who were all going crazy dancing to the awesome swinging beats and vibes emanating from our headline act, The Electro Swing Circus, smashing out an amazing last set on the main stage. It’s at times like that you just think ‘wow’, I’ve helped create a night in other people’s lives that they will never forget, and put a smile on a thousand people’s faces’. I would definitely say that that’s something to be proud of.

The Arts and Science Festival is a free week-long festival celebrating the identity of the University of Birmingham as an exceptional research institution.

Taking place between Monday 18th and Sunday 24th March across campus, the festival will be a programme showcasing culture, research and the many talents of our students groups.

The Vale Festival committee is unique in that it runs on a non-hierarchical, consensus vote basis. This means that everyone on the committee has an equal say in every decision that gets made.

up, and your Vice President (Activities & Development) Ollie Cosentino is joining Simon Lee to take on the challenge.

Last year, the winners travelled a massive 1,170 miles to Serbia! But how far can students blag their way this year - you can watch the adventure unfold and follow each team as the clock ticks down by following @CarnivalRAG.

Give it a go!

There’s just one new student group to introduce you to in this edition of GOSiP, please welcome: The Heritage Society For trips to local and national sites of historical or heritage interest, such as castles, museums, and churches

If you want to start your own group, we can help, please download a ‘Group Start-Up’ form online from guildofstudents.com/studentgroupsandvolunteering or pick up a copy from Student Development.

What makes your group stand out from the rest?

EVERYTHING! Only joking – every group and project has its own special set of skills and experiences to offer. I love our group because you get to meet great people, listen to amazing music and put on a wicked music festival for your friends to enjoy, whilst knowing that at the end of the year you’ll have raised lots of money for some really worthwhile charities.

Why get involved with your project?

Apart from all the fun stuff like meeting people and listening to tunes, the experience you gain in event management and organisation is unbelievable. Not only that, every penny we raise goes directly to charity, so you have a great feeling at the end of the year knowing that you’ve helped to make a real difference in people’s lives.

Contacts… please contact us at valefestival@guild.bham.ac.uk or visit our website valefest.co.uk.

This year’s Vale Festival will take place at the Vale, Edgbaston on Saturday 1st June.

What’s on? and nights out, taking place over the next four weeks…

Friday 15th to Saturday 16th March

Tuesday 19th March

Thursday 21st March

Gilbert & Sullivan presents Orpheus in the Underworld 7pm, Arthur Thomson Hall, Medical School.

Join Gilbert & Sullivan in Ancient Greece for Offenbach’s rip-roaring and rather risqué rewriting of an ancient tragedy, and the original setting of the famous “Can-Can” gallop: Orpheus In The Underworld!

Guild Awards 7pm, Great Hall, Aston Webb.

An evening to celebrate and recognise the fantastic work of University of Birmingham students. SOLD OUT!

BioSoc: Easter Ball 7pm, Aston Villa Exclusive Club.

Celebrate the end of a fantastic academic year with your BioSoc course mates whilst dining on a delicious three course meal. With acts including a live band and magicians, this event is not one to be missed! Tickets: £27

BUDS Dance Show: The Big Event 7.30pm; with 2.30pm matinee on Saturday, Deb Hall, Guild of Students.

Tickets: £5 Email: guildtickets.co.uk/BUDS Friday 15th March Polish Society: Cooking Class and AGM 7pm, Oasis Room, St Francis Hall.

AGM to elect the committee for the next Academic year 2013/2014. aLive Fridays 7.30pm-1.30am, Joe’s and Beorma Bar. Burn FM, The Footnotes Comedy Society & Carnival RAG present: Comic Relief 2013.

Sunday 17th March Watch This present Batman 7.30pm, Underground, Guild of Students.

The 48 hour student-written adaption of the legendary Dark Knight’s adventures with funny twists, rehearsed by the cast in only 48 hours. Tickets: £5 Email: watchthis@guild.bham.ac.uk

Guild Awards After Show Party 10pm until late, Joe’s with entertainment in Beorma, Guild of Students.

Open to all students. Student Group perfomances. Tickets: £2 on the door.

Wednesday 20th March Miscellany Gala 7-11pm, Deb Hall, Guild of Students.

An inter-society themed formal event with live music and food.

Tickets: £15, available from the organising groups: Tabletop Gaming, CVG, Filmsoc, Humans vs Zombies, Anime & Manga, and Sci-Fi & Fantasy.

Wednesday 20th to 21st March ThreeBUGS present Wuthering Heights The Edge, Digbeth Email: fringe@guild.bham.ac.uk Lecture Accessibility for Disabled Students 2-5pm, Guild Council Chamber.

To provide information to lecturers on how they can better make lectures accessible for those students with a disability.

Email: a.connelly@guild.bham.ac.uk Thursday 21st March

Fab ‘n’ St Patricks Day 10pm-3am, Guild of Students.

The Guild’s most popular home-grown event right on your doorstep!

Tickets: £4 Monday 18th March Second-Hand Textbook Fair 10am-6pm, Amos Room, Guild of Students. to the College of Social Sciences (Business School, Education, Government and Society, and Social Policy). If you want to sell or buy course books, see guildofstudents.com/bookfair to see how you can get involved.

Guild Council 6pm, Guild Council Chamber.

Guild Council is the highest student decision making body within the Guild of Students. Guild Council passes motions ranging from making a commitment to provide mobility and access arrangements for disabled students, right the way through to taking a stance on the Government cuts to Higher Education funding.

Email: councilchair@guild.bham.ac.uk

Friday 22nd March Gaelic Football vs. Aussie Rules 7pm, Bournbrook Pitches.

Watch UBSport’s Gaelic Football and Aussie Rules teams battle it out in an exciting and fast paced spectacle like nothing you have seen before! The evening will also boast an Aussie style BBQ, half time entertainment and prize give-aways.

st

Carnival RAG: Escape & Evade 7am (to 7am on Monday 25th March), starting at the Guild of Students.

The infamous adventure gives you just 60 hours to get as far away from Birmingham as possible. Email: hitchhikes@carnivalrag.com Saturday 30th March Dubsoc: All Nation Promotions presents Defend You Town.

The Gate, 14 Studley Street.

Two big soundsystems, two selectors… one night of Dub and Bass! Flipping it back and forth in an old skool dub clash!

Tickets: £5 before midnight, £7 after (student offer).

Monday 11th to Sunday 17th April Wayfarers: Isle of Skye (Scotland) 7am, starting at the Guild of Students.

The Wayfarers’ Easter Trip to one of the most beautiful regions of the UK.

Follow the Guild of Students on twitter @guildofstudents and ‘like’ the Guild of Students’ facebook page at facebook.com/guildofstudents

Y A D S ’ K C I R T A P . t S Sunday 17th March

10pm-3am, Guild of Students.

Tickets £4 from guildtickets.co.uk

S R E H RES FEST

Friday 26th April Grad Ball Tickets Sales Day 5pm for VIP Dinner tickets.

6.30pm for After Dinner tickets.

Underground, Guild guildofstudents.com/ gradball2013

RFroEm F-ridFay 31 May st

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GUARANTEED ENTRY TO BHAM’S BUSIEST CLUB NIGHTS

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info@guild.bham.ac.uk guildofstudents.com 0121 251 2300

Saturday 23rd March

RS E H S -FRE y FEST

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For tickets visit: guildtickets.co.uk Loaded at Gatecrasher

Fab ‘n’ Fresh

aLive Fridays

Birmingham’s destination nightclub with 4 club rooms. 9 bars and 6 feature areas.

10am – 3pm Tickets £4.

10% of all drinks with a Joe’s Plus card!

The Guild’s most popular home-grown event right on your doorstep!

10am – 3pm. Tickets £4.

Free, live, Friday night entertainment in Joe’s. from 7pm. guildofstudents.com/alivefridays

www.redbrick.me/tv | 17

Game of Thrones TV critic Najmin Begum gives you a guide to series one and two of Game of Thrones with a look ahead to the third season. Warning, possible spoiler alert!

Although winter has nearly finished in Birmingham (supposedly), a different kind of winter is being anticipated in April 2013. I am of course talking about season three of Game of Thrones.

Airing on Sky Atlantic on the first of April, season three is bringing a lot of excitement and some jitters to GoT fans all around the country. Although America get to see episode one before us, we only have to wait an extra day to be able to catch up!

In season one we were introduced to the leading families including the honourable Starks, the scheming Lannisters, the estranged Baratheons, the wronged Targaryens and many more. In fact, each book has a handy section at the back where each house and its members are names along with details on their current location.

A very useful tool when there are several hundred characters and a lot of unusual names.

There are many familiar faces within the cast. First there’s Sean Bean (I love pronouncing his name phonetically to annoy people) who plays Eddard Stark. We also see Peter Dinklage as witty dwarf Tyrion and David Bradley (best known for playing Mr. Filch in the Harry Potter

series) as the despicable Lord Walder Frey. Another Harry Potter regular also appears in the series, actress Natalia Tena known for playing Nyphadora Tonks plays a wilding girl called Osha in Game of Thrones. Her character does not appear to be vital in season one but we see her becoming more of a pivotal figure in seasons two and three.

Season one ended with the start of a civil war, one that looks like it won’t be resolved any time soon.

Apart from the impending zombie apocalypse, season three looks like it’s going to be quite a hit. Based loosely on the first half of A Storm of Swords, we’re anticipating another unplanned detour from Arya, a horrific crime by the Freys that will shock viewers (even if you already know what happens), a surprising twist in Sansa’s fate and (hopefully) a few more witty remarks from Tyrion Lannister. And not forgetting a bit more on-screen amputation (without any brandy). We also see Samwell Tarly do a bit of fighting, Jon Snow a bit of lying and Daenery’s just being awesome. She has three dragons!

How is that not awesome?

Based on this alone it’s clear that season three with be a great success.

Whilst adding in more complexities, Game of Thrones is always at risk of becoming another Lost but stays at the top by developing the current plot to the appropriate detail. Plus its vast fan base existed before the TV series was created, ensuring that there will always be a market for such a show.

18 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

@RedbrickFilm

'Why does the sun come up, or are the stars just pinholes in the curtain of night?'

Ramirez Highlander (1986)

FilmReviews

Newsreel

OutNow

Broken City

Side Effects

CHARLES MOLONEY Critic Release Date: 8th March 2013 Director: Steven Soderbergh Cast: Rooney Mara, Jude Law, Channing Tatum

RUPERT ANDREWS Critic Release Date: 1st March 2013 Director: Allen Hughes Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Russel Crowe, Catherine Zeta-Jones A fast-paced political corruption thriller, Allen Hughes’ Broken City boasts a selection of Hollywood A-Listers but lacks individuality within the genre.

Publicly disgraced as an NYPD detective, Billy Taggart (Mark Wahlberg) turns to the life of an ill-paid private eye, muckraking and chasing his numerous debts with clichéd secretary, Katy (Alona Tal), by his side. When contracted by the nefarious Mayor Nicholas Hostetler (Russell Crowe) to pursue his wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), whom he suspects is having an affair, Wahlberg's honest hardman becomes entangled in a mess of city hall corruption, and the sparks begin to fly.

With tense moments involving Crowe, who is arguably not at his best, and with the expected scenes of violence from Wahlberg, Broken City fits the profile of a decent action-thriller, and for the most part, it is. Certain periods of almost Noir-esque dialogue between Wahlberg and Zeta-Jones somewhat detract from the attempted serious atmosphere of the film, but overall, these can be forgiven. The film’s serious flaws, however, are that it does little to explore the conventions of the genre, and that this mediocre corruption-meets-justice plot line has been seen a hundred times before, leading the audience to anticipate every twist and turn long before they are revealed.

All things considered, this is a well-made film with satisfactory acting that ticks most of the boxes for an enjoyable action-thriller.

However, its unimaginative plot line reduces it to just another political corruption story that will earn it an early release to DVD.

Emily (Rooney Mara) is a woman suffering from depression who begins to display suicidal tendencies. Her psychiatrist (Jude Law) prescribes her various pills as treatments, some of which include undesirable side effects. However, things take a turn for the worse when, in a drug induced trance, Emily fatally stabs her husband.

During the resultant trial we begin to question who is to blame the patient who took her medication, or the doctor who prescribed it to her? But all is not as it seems, as Jude Law’s obsessive quest to prove his innocence begins to reveal.

As a psychological thriller, this film pays tribute to the cinematic qualities which made Alfred Hitchcock’s work special. The film's plot line encourages the audience to take part in the process of judging it's characters, providing figures whom we both sympathise with and criticise. It delves into the contemporary issue of mental illness, and brilliantly utilises it's debate on sanity to throw us into a stimulating and disturbing world where nobody is entirely in the right.

For fans of intricate thrillers, that also sport bulletproof plots, Side Effects may be a bit frustrating. As the film enters its final act you will have to suspend your disbelief and ignore the obvious plot holes and incongruities. Overall though, this is a smart, original film which will not stop surprising you. After a relatively slow start, it shapes up into a film which will prove to be memorable.

DAISY EDWARDS Critic Oz the Great and Powerful, released on the 8th in the UK, has gained $24.1 million so far in the box office, which is considered to have been the strongest opening weekend thus far into 2013. Oz the Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi, follows Oz on his discovery of the famous enchanted land.

Director Paul Bond fans should McGuigan has said rejoice, as Skyfall hashe will had no longer be directjust the most sucing theopening third series cessful week of BBC’S in the UKSherlock. of any film,He ever, making £37.2 on recently announced million.

This,he comTwitter that is relobined with aAmerica very posi-to cating to tive from both scoutreaction for critics and locations audiences,for one of his isfilms. shows that Bond not McGuigan going away is anyabout time to begin working on two soon. films, one of which is an adaptation of Frankenstein.

TopThree Elli Pendle shares her love of Jude Law with three of his stand-out roles #3 Sherlock Holmes #2 Road To Perdition #1 The Talented Mr Ripley

In this psychological thriller, Law plays the wealthy, jazz-loving Dickie Greenleaf.

Charming, charismatic and incredibly good looking, Dickie is the quintessential ‘bad boy,’ irresistible to both his fiancée (Gwyneth Paltrow) and new friend Tom Ripley (Matt Damon), who begins imitating him and obsessing over him. Despite being bludgeoned to death by Ripley before the film's halfway point, Dickie remains the film’s most captivating character.

Law gives a truly creepy performance as Harlen Maguire, a crime scene photographer who takes pleasure in photographing his dying victims. Set in 1930s America, during the Great Depression, Law is hired to murder mob enforcer Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks). In order to look the part, Law was given a thinning hairline, sallow skin tone, lower gum line and his teeth were made to look rotten. Not his greatest look, but his acting is outstanding.

Making a moustache look good is somehow effortless for Law, as he becomes Dr John Watson, colleague, companion and close friend of Sherlock Holmes. Robert Downey Jr makes a dashing Sherlock, but Law’s chivalrous conduct and unswerving loyalty to Holmes, makes him the more lovable of the two. With Warner Bros scripting a third sequel for release in 2014, I can’t wait to see the iconic duo reunite to tackle another mystery..

Posters have been released for Catching Fire, the second film in the Hunger Games trilogy. One of the posters depicts Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) with Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) in what appears to be the “Victory Tour” in the aftermath of The Hunger Games.

www.redbrick.me/film | 19

Christopher Nolan: Cinematic genius or Overrated amateur?

With the next Bond film up for grabs, Redbrick Film discuss the strengths and shortfalls of the acclaimed director BECKY MCCARTHY Film Editor Christopher Nolan has arguably altered the face of blockbuster cinema, bringing smart, intelligent films like Memento, The Prestige and Inception to the mass audience as well as transforming the comic-book adaptation genre with his Dark Knight trilogy. The cinematic visionary, who was the youngest director in history to be honoured with a hand and footprint on the walk of fame in LA, should be hailed for his contribution to film over the past decade.

Nolan, who frequently works alongside his brother Jonathan and wife Emma Thomas, often fulfils the roles of director, screenwriter, and producer. Known for his interweaving, non-linear narratives and portrayals of troubled, complex protagonists, Nolan fails to bow down to conformity, instead creating masterpieces that fail to patronise the audience whilst simultaneously stretch the realms of film-making.

His shunning of 3D and minimal use of CGI sets him apart from his contemporaries and always results in an exhilarating visual experience - the thrilling plane opening in The Dark Knight Rises being a prime example. He brings out great performances from his actors, be it veterans Al Pacino and Michael Caine or younger stars Heath Ledger and Anne Hathaway, but keeps the characters themselves an integral part of his storytelling. Equally important: he makes us think.

From Memento’s puzzling plot to Inception’s infamous final spin, Nolan does not hand us answers on a platter; this year’s money-making The Avengers appears simple and wooden in comparison. As Angier says in The Prestige: “The audience knows the truth: the world is simple. It's miserable, solid all the way through. But if you could fool them, even for a second, then you can make them wonder, and then you... then you get to see something really special.”

MEGAN JONES Life & Style Online Editor BEN JACKSON Film Online Editor In an age where Michael Bay can make millions from his Transformers films, thank goodness we have a visionary blockbuster director like Christopher Nolan. He may also top the film charts, but he does not sacrifice on originality, intelligence or substance.

With a degree in English Literature from UCL, his gripping scripts contain themes of memory, corruption and deception and along with the often urban settings, point to a 21st century neo-noir; a representation of Nolan’s cinematic knowledge.

Nolan can pull off the understatement. Just watch Following and Memento as proof. On a small scale, his characters are compelling, and his narrative tricks impressive. This can not be said of Batman, Nolan's biggest film venture to date.

Although, in part one of the trilogy, Batman Begins, we can still appreciate similar deftness. It is arguably the smaller scale film from the trilogy.

It centres around Gotham, its ‘grand’ scale is

really just one city. Tom Wilkinson’s gangster wouldn’t be out of place in The Departed.

Compare Batman Begins’s League of Shadows with The Dark Knight Rises’s pit prison, which smacks off Chronicles of Riddick. In the earlier film Nolan sticks to his guns: 'Yeah, Bruce Wayne is in a prison in deepest Asia, and what?' In the later films however, Nolan over-explains things, exhausting Marion Cotillard by having her squeeze half the twists of The Dark Knight Rises into thirty seconds.

Batman Begins is guilty of similar things, but Nolan’s melodrama is somewhat curtailed, perhaps by co-writer David S. Goyer. Nolan cares in Batman Begins about the understatement. There is some really neat dialogue: 'Does it come in black?' Since then, Nolan has foregone this kind of script, as if desperate to push his noir reputation.

When Nolan was given the money (which caused the recession) to make the sequels, he messed up. The convoluted plots seem riddled with holes. Nolan imprisons The Dark Knight Rises‘s best actor behind a garbled mask, and Catwoman is such an all-round disappointment that it seems even Nolan wanted Michelle Pfeiffer.

Obviously the money went mainly to the special effects, but the set pieces have worsened as the series progresses. Chase sequences are incredible in Batman Begins, pretty-damn-cool in The Dark Knight, but The Dark Knight Rises feels strangely muted and slow.

Christopher Nolan speaks to us, sometimes, but I challenge you to tell me what The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises are really about.

20| 15th March - 2nd May 2013

@RedbrickSci&Tech

Happy Accidents We look at some of the top scientific acheivements in the past that have been the outcome of accidents

Claire Harris Writer

We all have those moments in life where we wish things could have gone better. Luckily in science, many of the greatest historical accomplishments seem to have been achieved by accident.

This is especially true of many major medical advances.

We all know the story of Sir Alexander Fleming and his groundbreaking discovery with the antibiotic penicillin. It was perhaps one of the most fortunate discoveries of the 20th century when Fleming returned from holiday to find fungus had grown amongst the staphylococci bacteria in his experiment.

On isolating the mould he found it was greatly effective against many pathogenic bacteria such as those that cause scarlet fever,

pneumonia, meningitis and diphtheria, and the rest is history.

However there are a few other remarkable accidents in the history of medicine you may not have heard of. Lifelong inventor Wilson Greatbatch accidentally invented the world’s first implantable pacemaker in the 1950s. Working as a medical researcher, Greatbatch was building a machine to record heart sounds. When he grabbed the wrong resistor and installed it into the device, he noticed that it gave off an electrical impulse at regular intervals, much like the pattern of the human heartbeat. So the first internal pacemaker was born, changing many lives.

This isn’t just limited to

medicine; a whole host of our electrical devices may never have existed at all if it weren’t for some intrepid scientists and engineers. Percy Spencer was an engineer who worked on magnetrons in the Second World War. These machines were used to emit microwaves, and one day Spencer found the chocolate bar in his pocket had begun to melt. He tested the machine out on other food, including popcorn kernels, and voila! The first microwave and microwave popcorn came into existence. He went on to refine the microwave and it was affordably produced for all our reheating delights in 1967.

Equally, on the other end of the scale, some of our most useful but maybe not so important

inventions came about in the same way.

In 1968 Chemist Dr Spencer Silver invented a reusable adhesive which initially seemed to have no use. Success only came when Silver’s colleague Arthur Fry used it to stick his bookmark to a hymn. Despite its humble beginning, the postit-note is now found in every office in the land, reminding people of tasks for generations.

So the next time everything starts to go wrong in a science practical, don’t panic! You may just discover something incredible.

Connectome project to map out brain The human connectome project aims to examine neural connections in the brain in order to create new understandings of how it works

Soumya Perinparajah Writer

It is a very exciting time in neuroscience right now, as promising progress is being made in the quest to understand the workings of the human brain.

Following in the footsteps of the Human Genome Project, which involved the mapping of our genes, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) aims to map the human brain.

Led by the US National Institute of Health, the HCP combines cutting-edge imaging techniques and bioinformatics to accurately map neural pathways and structures. To ensure the highest quality imaging, the advanced Connectome scanner, which uses a 3 Tesla platform, was especially designed for the

project in collaboration with Siemens. Interestingly, there has been a welcome promotion of the HCP from musicians.

The band Muse used an image taken from the project showing white matter tracts for the artwork of their sixth album The 2nd Law. An individual’s connectome is the map of neural connections in their brain. It is dynamic, as the connectivity adjusts to meet demands, and is a product of many factors including childhood experiences, life events, relationships, and the environment. Your connectome is personal to you, and is a physical representation of who you are. Brain scans of 68 subjects have recently been published, and their neural connections will be assessed to see how they reflect personality,

Shows white matter fibers in the brainstem and above. Used on Muse's sixth album cover, The 2nd Law

behaviour, skills and abilities.

DNA samples of subjects are also taken to link the circuitry in the brain to coding sequences in the genome. For example,

'The mission of neuro-science is to explore their enchanted branches - to tame the jungle of the mind' how different is the brain of a classical violinist to the brain of a mathematician? Is one particular bundle of neurons thicker in one than the other because it is functionally more important?

As well as making these

new discoveries, the HCP strives to share the data collected using crowdsourcing with scientists across the world.

This required the development of a new database called ConnectomeDB. Ultimately, this new data can hopefully be used to better understand the differences between a normally functioning brain and disorders of the brain such as dementia and schizophrenia. In the future, it could also lead to the development of a treatment for these conditions.

Sebastian Seung, a professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT, has likened the brain to a forest; ‘The trees of which I speak are those special cells called neurons.

The mission of neuroscience is to explore their enchanted branches—to tame the jungle

Shows white matter fiber dataset of the Red Corpus Callosum

of the mind’. Although it may be thought of as a confusing tangled mess of cells, the brain actually has great order and purpose. Its complexity has baffled scientists for many years, and it is a mysterious organ that we still do not actually know that much about.

Somewhat ironic when it controls our body, actions, feelings and thoughts! Among other projects, the HCP is proving instrumental to put together another piece in the puzzle that is our understanding of the brain.

The complete HCP Dataset shown as fibers view from below

www.redbrick.me/tech | 21

SimCity: The franchise receives a blow of critisism as players find they are unable to play their games Sam Atkins Science & Tech Editor

@Atkins_Sam

The release of the latest version of SimCity was one of the main attractions of 2013 for many PC Gamers.

Debuting to high critical praise at tradeshows throughout last year, Maxis were looking to capitalise on the hype as the release drew near.

Once the North American release arrived on midnight of March 5th though, social networks exploded with complaints that the game was not functioning properly. The issues were due to the ‘Always online’ nature of the game, similar to the errors that prevented people from playing Diablo III on release last year.

Implemented as a way to fight illegal downloads of the game, the problem came as servers were unable to manage high volume of users attempting to play the game at once.

With multiplayer being only a small portion of the SimCity experience, the landscapes near your own city are filled by those created by other players, the insist-

ence to be online throughout meant that players would be kicked from servers without warning. Cities created in this time were not saved, due to everything being stored online, meaning hours of gameplay were lost for most people enjoying the game. In a game where play sessions can last so long it is easy to see why players became so angry when their game saves were lost.

Maxis were quick with their response, despite things escalating by the UK release on 8th March, and they pulled down servers with issues. That said, this brought the speed of the game to a standstill. Since release the @SimCity twitter account has been full of updates of them taking down servers for upgrades. Publishers EA have also tried to satisfy disappointed players, granting them a free download of any other EA title from their Origin store. This comes as those asking for a refund could not receive one through Origin, the free game acting as an apology for both this and the launch prob-

lems. Tens of thousands of new players are still streaming into the game each day.

No matter what happens from now on though, the damage has been done, both to EA and the SimCity brand. It’s hard to imagine what would have happened had this been the new Sims title instead. The impact on the creators and pulishers would have been far more damaging. For a game such as SimCity, there is arguably no necessity for it to be only playable while connected online to the servers. On Steam, games are still playable offline and this model seems to have worked well in the past.

EA are doing everything possible to get the servers working 100% again and hopefully they will learn from this experience, otherwise there could be serious consequences for the game series in the future.

EA are trying their hardest to get the game servers fully working again as tens of thousands of new players join the servers each day

22 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013 @RedbrickTravel

The Nostaliga Trip Hannah Stevens Reminisces on Holidaus in the USA I still remember the rippling excitement I felt as my parents announced our six-week trip to America, when I was six years old.

When you’re that tiny the world feels even bigger than it does when you’re heading off to your first day at university. But I also had the burning desire to see a part of the world that felt so large in comparison to the tiny island I’d spent my short life in, a desire that’s never left me.

With a nine-hour flight, that left my parents nerves more than a little frayed, we landed and the (controlled) adventures began. We visited everything between California, San Francisco and San Diego in the few short weeks we had. From stunning red woods, to the Golden Gate Bridge and the cheesiness of Universal Studios, complete with an E.T. ride, just in case we weren’t sure of just how much of a ‘cheesefest’ we were in.

America as a child was easily my favourite holiday, with adventures that allowed me to compete with my peers for the ‘best summer story’, clearly the most important factor in the summer holiday of any child! There are countless benefits to a holiday that’s paid for by your parents; no worrying about reaching the end of your overdraft, or who to call if you get lost (they’ve got the maps!), or how you’re going to get anywhere. The world appears to be yours when your parents are handing it to you; but in reality you are only seeing it through a tiny window.

My childhood holidays vary from disastrous to some of the best I’ve ever had, but the reason why they remain childhood holidays is because we learn to meet the world by ourselves. As we begin to realise that our holidays don’t have to be led by the hand of our parents, and their strict structures, the world suddenly bursts wide open with new possibilities. The traditional holidays we once couldn’t wait for, sometimes dreaded, become a thing of the past and we have to figure out how to travel on our own.

A trip to America as a child will completely contrast my planned coast-to-coast trip across America next summer. Which should be precisely the goal, the sense of freedom we find when flying the nest is easily translated into the travels some of us wish to conquer. But, it can be scary to be faced with having to pay for our own holidays, let alone navigate the airports, the hotels and the country itself. How do we begin to imagine travelling the countries we once travelled with a free guide and bank account? We jump, head first, and hope we don’t get lost.

Two Days in 'Dam: A Student Guide to doing the Green City in a Weekend.

"The majority of traffic in Amsterdam is menacingly silent in comparison to cities like London or Paris preying on you when you least expect it."

Charley Ross Travel Writer

There is not enough sleep, coffee or time in the day to allow you to see everything Amsterdam has to offer in 2 days and nights, but I gave it a go.

The first mistake (or added challenge) of the trip was the souldestroying twelve-hour coach journey we had to endure either side of our glorious time in the Dam. No matter how much more convenient or cheap it may appear when you are booking city breaks to European cities, in nine out of ten cases you are going to end up hating yourself for the entire journey, wondering why you couldn’t kiss goodbye to an extra 30 quid so you could arrive in a matter of 2 hours, refreshed after a short flight.

Instead, after attempting to snatch a few precious hours of shuteye as the coach rumbled through incredibly flat Dutch countryside, our arrival on the streets of Amsterdam saw me stumbling off the coach into a cycle lane. Bicycle bells are shriller, louder and apparently life-threatening in Amsterdam, a lesson I learned within a second of arriving, whilst bleary-eyed and confused.

But the danger didn’t relent there. The majority of traffic in Amsterdam is menacingly silent in comparison to cities like London or Paris, preying on you when you least expect it. The trams slither through the narrow streets, cyclists zoom around at a shocking speed, and any warning of their presence seems a step too late. Having to keep your wits about you for fear of being flattened by silently dormant public traffic was a problem we encountered often.

Danger aside, the significantly smaller amount of honking taxis, rumbling underground trains and road-dominating buses that characterize the centre of most other cities I have visited actually added to the charm of a snow-blanketed Amsterdam. Despite being the largest city in the Netherlands, it still had a town-like personality, easy enough to navigate and squeaky-clean. Further to that, the city centre wasn’t strangled by ugly, sunlight encompassing sky-

www.redbrick.me/travel |23

People We Meet Zara Sekhavati: Another Bizarre Encounter

"The Anne Frank museum, Van Gogh museum, the Heineken experience and finally the many sex museums are but a few of the diverse range of experiences on offer to visitors."

scrapers – as is the situation in many cities. The architecture was traditional, yet every building seemed original. So beautiful.

As students on a budget, being let loose in one of the most expensive cities in Europe was definitely a self-control exercise. Saying that, there were plenty of things to see that were completely free of charge whilst getting lost in Amsterdam.

Deciphering a route through the cluster of frozen canals proved an enjoyable, and more importantly free way to see the city and its quirky flower market, stunning Dam Square and the inspiring Homomonument. It was touch and go whilst strolling around the gorgeous Magna Plaza shopping centre though, but keeping a stingy student head on didn’t prove impossible. Of course, if you’re feeling flush, there are a plethora of culturerich museums and exhibitions to visit, even if it is just to escape the biting cold of the current winter months. The Anne Frank museum, Van Gogh museum, the Heineken experience and finally the many sex museums – the latter being slightly more individual to Amsterdam, admittedly – are but a few of the diverse range of experiences on offer to visitors.

Of course, you haven’t done Amsterdam right if you haven’t wandered around the Red Light District, testing out just how much of a prude you are. Calling the Dutch attitude towards sex liberal is a massive understatement, the true meaning behind the numerous signs for a Thai massage in the many narrow streets painfully, yet hilariously obvious. And a visit to one (or a few) of the infamous coffee shops is essential, whether it be to take advantage of certain legalities or just to listen to the reggae music and enjoy the relaxed vibe that cannot be seen or experienced just anywhere.

I returned home enriched, completely exhausted and with a new love for Heineken. The cheapest drink (and beer) around, its logo decorating every street I walked down in Amsterdam, it’s a must for any visiting student. So, upon arrival in the Netherlands capital, grab a bottle and get exploring. Avoiding cycle lanes at all costs, of course.

"You haven’t done Amsterdam right if you haven’t wandered around the Red Light District, testing out just how much of a prude you are."

Budapest is undoubtedly beautiful, boasting sights and scenery that is just utterly gorgeous and stunning.

Whilst InterRailing, after seeing the usual sights of Budapest of the Danube River and the Royal Palace Area, my two friends and I decided to hit the spas, which are also infamous in this capital city. We knew we packed our bikinis for a reason!

We picked the grandest spa to go to, and indeed it was grand.

We went to all the different parts of the spa, outside, inside, wave pool, sauna and all that, and we quietly went inside a room which was like the Orange Zone in the library.

Any spark of movement and noise triggers a stare and a glare. The building was outstanding. Stained glass, colourful mosaics, with statues and marble everywhere, it truly was a glorious sight. You’d notice the ‘No Pictures’ sign and the massive picture of the camera with the cross over it.

We all noticed these, apart from one person. This young, obvious tourist, decided to take a picture of the fine art on the walls of the spa.

Never again will she do that, ever.

Never will she even make her camera be seen in public anywhere in Budapest. After the flash of her camera, an old lady appears out of nowhere. A not very happy lady. A very angry lady. A very shouty lady.

Screaming, pointing and yelling at the ‘No Pictures’ sign, she is stark naked, shouting at this fully clothed woman with the tiniest camera in her hands. My friends and I are scared. We don’t know what to do or say.

This is awkward. Does this angry lady know what awkward is?

Obviously not. We decide to look at the floor of the spa in a bid to make things less uncomfortable. It did not work at all. After the fuming lady’s voice bellowed out throughout the spa, feeling like it could have broken every window in the place, she finally decides to leave in a huff, continuing to wave her arms in the air having said, or screamed what she wanted to say at somebody who no doubt did not understand a word of it.

The tourist stands there looking petrified, scared and like she wanted to get the heck out of there and go home and look at a ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ poster, which would have actually come in handy to whip out and show to the angry lady too.

Let’s just say I know that the little tourist will never be getting her camera out again in a spa in Budapest.

Ever again. So a tip for all you budding travellers, if there’s a sign that says ‘No Pictures’, just please obey the sign, or be aware and responsible for the not-very-happy-angryshouty-fuming lady that may appear shrieking at you, saying something along the lines of ‘You shall not take a picture’ in a Gandalf style fashion.

You have been warned.

24 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013 @RedbrickFood

Plant Powered Jemima Lovatt Food Editor

Plant-based diets have become increasingly popular amongst sports people and celebrities, but is it yet another overpriced dieting fad or a way to stay healthy for good?

For more on plant-based diets, check out thegreengoddesslife.com and plantpoweredkitchen.com.

"If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don't". Wise words from Michael Pollan, given the recent scandals over manufactured meat. At the end of the day, we have no idea where our food is really coming from, at least not until it's too late. As a result, plant-based diets have found a new vogue in 2013. But like so many dieting dreams before it, will this one end in an extravagant grocery shop but eventual disappointment?

There are plenty of examples of success stories. Venus and Serena Williams have been powered by nature since Venus was diagnosed with an incurable auto-immune condition, Sjogren's Syndrome. She choose to commit to a plant-based diet, so as to help ease the inflammation on her joints and her sister, Serena, joined her.

Many other celebrities have also jumped on board including Alicia Silverstone, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, and even Bill Clinton. So why is it so popular?

Well there are endless health benefits to avoiding meat, links have been established with a decrease in risk of heart disease, lowering your risk of cancer, losing weight, diabetes appears to almost evaporate and even osteoporosis can be reversed. And there isn't any room for debate, The China Study which surveys over 6,500 people from over 65 countries concluded that plant-based dieting prolongs a healthier life.

Dieticians who promote the plant-based lifestyle regularly discuss how beauty comes from within. With incredible reductions in acne and glowing skin after just a few days, it seems they are probably onto something. Vegetables and fruits are

incredibly hydrating and the proof is in the mirror. Furthermore, you can eat as much raw as you like. without any worries of putting on weight and in fact you won't be compromising your health by doing so, you'll be aiding it. Thus, portion sizes don't matter. What a relief!

Many adopt the diet to reflect a shift in their perspective eating meat. By adopting veganism, you are saving hundreds of animals' lives each year, helping to preserve an already-fragile environment and supporting your own body too. It's very much a philosophical shift that aids a more balanced mind, body and spirit. Twenty vegans can live off the same space of land that is needed to feed one meat-eater.

And if Americans reduced their meat consumption by just 10%, 12,000,000 tons of grain would be freed up, enough to feed 60,000,000 people around the world.

Just knowing that you are involved in this much greater process, simply from making more educated choices about your diet, is enough to justify many conversions. There is a sense of spiritual wellbeing, as the diet helps to create a feeling of lightness and sensitivity that aids spiritual practices such as yoga or just spiritual well-being in general.

Consumption is a very self-centred concept and it is worthwhile considering where the food is coming from as well as where it's going; food isn't just about energy, it quite literally builds you, so when you put something in your mouth remember it will stay with you for good. On that note, and as we enter exam season, prepare yourself in mind and body for success with the recipe ideas we've

www.redbrick.me/food| 25

Want to give it a go? Try out these recipes - surprisingly tasty for something that's so healthy!

Roasted and Stuffed Peppers

Super Beauty Pesto Lasagne

Makes 10 stuffed peppers

Serves 2-3

Ingredients: 100g couscous 100g quinoa 100g red lentils 2 large tomatoes 1 can Sacla aubergine pesto 3 generous handfuls spinach 1 handful parsley leaves 1 handful coriander leaves 1 large onion 2 cloves garlic 250g pine nuts (optional) 100g sultanas

Ingredients: 1 pack Tesco Free From lasagne sheets - (Gluten Free, Dairy Free) 280g frozen spinach, thawed and drained 300g firm tofu (in Tesco by the Quorn!)

30ml non-dairy milk (we had almond milk - other alternatives would be rice milk, soy milk, oat milk) 1 Jar of Sacla chargrilled aubergine pesto (the most amazing cheese-free pesto) 1 peeled garlic clove Juice from 1/2 lemon 1 handful fresh basil leaves 1 tin chopped tomatoes

Ingredients: 1 acorn squash 1 apple, cored and peeled 1 tsp cinnamon 1 handful sultanas 1 tbsp Raw, local honey

Method:

Method:

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 350F/Gas Mark 4.

2) Mix the couscous with water and leave to stand.

Drain excess water.

3) Boil the quinoa and lentils together, then drain and mix with the cous cous. Take off the heat and leave to stand.

4) Now, finely chop the onion and garlic - saute on a low heat in a little olive oil until soft.

5) Finely chop the spinach, parsley, and coriander leaves together. Place in a bowl with the onions and garlic. Then chop the tomato into small pieces and mix together with the leaves. Add the pine nuts and sultanas to the mix too.

6) Go back to your quinoa/lentil/couscous mix. Make sure any excess water has drained out, then add the pesto, and stir on a low heat.

7) Chop and prepare your peppers! Cut the tops off, take out the insides. Alternatively you could cut them sideways (I did both!) Place the chopped peppers on a baking tray with baking paper on it. Drizzle a little olive oil over.

8) Pour the bowl of leaves/veg/nuts etc into your pesto quinoa mix. Take it totally off the heat and stir well.

9) Now the fun part! Stuff your peppers with as much or as little mix as you want per pepper and arrange on the baking tray! Bake in the oven for approx 20-30 minutes.

10) Serve up and enjoy!

1) Preheat oven to 350F/Gas Mark 4.

2) Place lasagne sheets in boiling water for 2-3 minutes to soften, then drain and set aside.

3)Thaw the frozen spinach in boiling water - then drain and set aside.

4) Place the tofu, milk, garlic, lemon juice, basil leaves, and 1 teaspoon of salt, in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth. The tofu ‘ricotta’ should be thick and creamy! (You will be amazed how cheesy this tastes) 5) Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the spinach.

6) Season with a little more salt if you think it needs it.

7) Clean out the processor - now blend your tinned tomatoes with 2 heaped tablespoons of aubergine pesto - add black pepper to taste.

1) Preheat oven to 350F/Gas Mark 4.

2) Cut acorn squash in half, scoop out all seeds and pith.

3) Put about 1/2 inch of water into a baking tray, and put acorn squash halves face down in baking tray - place in oven for 15 minutes to soften.

4) Cut apple into small chunks, mix with cinnamon, sultanas and honey in a bowl.

5) Take acorn squash out, pour water out from baking tray, and spoon apple cinnamon mix to fill each half.

6) Place acorn squash halves back into baking tray face up, and sprinkle a little more cinnamon over the top!

7) Bake in the oven again for another 30 minutes.

8) Serve hot!

In your lasagne dish, layer like so: - layer of tomato/pesto - layer of pasta - layer of ‘ricotta mix’ Continue to layer until you finish with a layer of tomato/pesto on top.

Here’s a tip: The longer you leave your sweet vegetable in the oven, the sweeter it will be! Even sweet enough to eat for a yummy dessert!

Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes.

Apple and Cinnamon Acorn Squash Pudding

26 | 15th - 2nd May 2013

Reviews

@RedbrickArts @RedbrickArts

Kindertransport, historically speaking, was the evacuation of thousands of Jewish children to the UK in the foreshadow to the Second World War. Kindertransport, the play, depicts the life of one such evacuee's, Eva (Karen Leadbetter), experience after being evacuated to Manchester, and the consequences of her evacuation in later life, as her own daughter, Faith (Elaine Griffin) prepares to leave home.

It's a small-scale play, set entirely in Eva's (or Evelyn, as she becomes in later life) box room, with the story of her past displayed in the form of simple flashbacks.

Alongside the story of evacuation, Kindertransport also examines the relationship between mother and daughter, with practically all of the parts in the play being one or both of the two. It is the relationship between younger

Eva (Rosie Barnes) and her foster mother Lil (Judy O'Dowd) which is perhaps the most interesting of these, with Barnes's German accent appropriately fading as the play goes on.

Considering the large scope of the story itself, taking in what is effectively a journey, both physically and emotionally, it's initially surprising that the cast is so small, being made up of only six people, and that the Crescent have used the studio, rather than the main theatre to perform in. The reason for the small scale of this show soon becomes clear, however – in close settings the intensity of the emotionally charged story becomes much more moving, and at points it feels as if one is actually watching the characters, not the actors who portray them. Such is the standard of the actors in tonight's performance, the only

weak link being the occasional point where O' Dowd fails to slip out of the kind foster mother routine, resulting in some (though not many) arguments which lack the absolute impact they require.

Kindertransport moves the audience through many different feelings: Sometimes it's difficult to watch, such as when Eva is bullied by a Nazi officer (John Whittell); sometimes it's heartbreaking, as with the farewell between Eva and her mother Helga (Andrea Stephenson); at other times, such as when Eva imagines the ratcatcher (also played by Whittell), who appears as a physical entity on stage, it's terrifying. Overall, Kindertransport is intense and deeply moving. It's well worth watching, and is a play that is likely to stick in the mind long afterwards.

New Art West Midlands @ The Barber The 'New Art West Midlands' program is a platform for graduates, from the West Midlands's five art schools, to launch a career in art.

As is to be expected from the 'New Art' tag, the pieces on display at the three galleries around the city are extremely contemporary, giving the usually classical Barber Institute the opportunity to hang up its '30 Year Rule' and display modern art, the likes of which haven't been seen widely in Birmingham before.

Unlike the exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, the New Art West Midlands display at The Barber isn't confined to a single gallery.

Although it's centred in the small exhibition space to the left of the main staircase, many of the pieces are integrated into the main galleries, providing an interesting juxtaposition, to say the least.

Alongside pictures depicting traditional religious scenes, a bicycle wrapped in cotton stands almost casually against the wall, pieces of crockery jumbled with snatches of poetry sit next to landscape vistas, and perhaps most noticeably,

right at the end of the first hallway is a pastel-coloured bird perch, the centrepiece of which is a neatly placed golden turd.

Though the placement of these makes the exhibitions ultimately very eye-catching, they're going to provide a nasty yet humorous surprise to some of The Barber's lessaware visitors (the bird perch, actually named 'Altar 17', in particular).

The highlights of the exhibition, however, are in the dedicated smaller gallery. A large canvas adorned with Japanese-style inks named 'Entropy' provides the most visually striking of all the exhibits, though it is 'Get With The Times', a collage made of paint, wire and chicken bones which is my favourite, symbolising the 'instantaneous' nature of today's culture, and the way it effects our storytelling.

Before the evening concludes, the curator of The Barber presents the prizes for the 'Best of the New Art West Midlands pieces', the ÂŁ1,000 prize going to Rafal Zar, the creator of 'Altar 17' - that's right, the bird perch with the gold-

Ciaran Allanson-Campbell

en turd. Talking to Redbrick afterwards amongst a series of congratulations, he simply said, 'It's not a case of well-done. My work speaks for me. It's honest.' Not neglecting the chance to ask about the excrement at the centre of his piece, he laughed in response.

'Life is a struggle,' he explained, 'So is art. And that's crap. So that's what I try to show with my art, by leaving pieces of crap everywhere.'

I'm not sure I'm entirely convinced by his philosophy, though 'Altar 17' certainly gets the point across very clearly, and becomes the centre of any discussion about the work in The Barber at present.

The New Art West Midlands display is around until mid-May, and though it probably won't hit the top of students' itineraries, it's well worth a look, particularly if you have an hour or so between lectures and haven't made use of the amazing art gallery on campus. Or, of course, if you just want to see a poo placed next to some 16th-Century classics.

Ciaran Allanson-Campbell

Kindertransport @ Crescent Theatre

www.redbrick.me/arts | 27

iBrum: Birmingham in your Hand

Features

In the Waiting Room

Writer of the Month: Elisha Owen

we unfurl secrets like a striptease.

Talking bar stools, fountain pens, near-suicides.

Time floats towards the floor like a feather and I wonder why her eyes are mud and if she danced, would droplets escape and dry as crumbs on my shirt?

She pirouettes with her fingernails around a piece of lace that looks older than this building.

She whispers impatiently and I recite a prayer I haven't wanted since Anne was born with ice-pond eyes.

We link arms because we know we won't get a segment on the news, or a few lines on an internet homepage. Just a warm seat and another form to fill.

Elisha Owen is in her second year of English with Creative Writing. She is comment Editor

for Redbrick, Editor of Blogfest and has recently produced Infinity Stage Co's 'The production of The Pillowman'. Her poetry has been published in The Journal and on Ink, Sweat and Tears. As an up and coming spoken word Elisha has recently competed in national poetry slams such as Warwick Words, Worcester Literature Festival and Ledbury Poetry Festival, whilst also performing at gigs such as Hit the Ode, Word Up and Grizzly Pear.

artist,

iBrum, a new Apple app designed by students at the University of Birmingham, maps Birmingham’s cultural landmarks and attractions in one place. It has been designed by a team of twenty-two students and two lecturers, Dr Oliver Mason and Dr Jim Mussell, from the Department of English.

The app, which is due to launch on Apple’s App Store in a matter of weeks, allows the user to explore Birmingham. Using a database of places of interest, made by the students and divided into categories, the user can select a place of cultural interest and find out more information about it.

Each cultural location has a map to help the user get there. The app also contains a brief history, key information, opening times and entrance prices (if applicable) of each location. It is designed for residents and students of Birmingham, who may not have fully sampled all the city has to offer, as well as tourists visiting for a limited time, giving them inspiration for days out.

Rebekah McDermott interviews Ashley Kirk about the app When is the launch of the app planned for?

The launch of the app is planned for 21st March 2013, and the team is planning on marketing the launch with social media, a website, leaflets and posters.

Why did you choose to design such an app?

The specification was to design a user friendly app for the students, tourists and residents of Birmingham.

Is the app free?

It is free, yes. You will be able to download it from the Apple app store for all Apple devices.

Which types of locations are focused upon? I.e art galleries, bars and restaurants, theatres?

The app maps arts venues, historical locations, restaurants, landmarks and attractions. - i.e The Bullring, The Ikon Gallery, Old Joe, mac, The Mailbox, St Paul’s Cathedral and Selly Oak Manor. Anything iconic in Birmingham is on it. It gives people who live in the city the opportunity to make the most out of where they’re living, especially students who may be new to the city.

Does the app provide information about events as well as location?

Event-wise, no. But by giving information about the locations, people will be more likely to look up events. For example, the app gives website links which will allow users to find out further information.

Jim Mussell told Redbrick about the goals of the module: 'Hacking the Book is an attempt to instil digital skills into the undergraduate curriculum. Given how important digital resources and media are - whether in education, the workplace, or society more broadly - we thought it was important that students had a chance to develop their skills and think critically about digital culture.'

28 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

@RedbrickSport

Sport over Easter Redbrick Sport looks ahead to the sporting events taking place over Easter.

Grand National - Fraser Kesteven The world’s greatest steeplechase will once again be upon us on Saturday 6th April. Champion Trainer Paul Nicholls will hope to repeat the success of last year, when his horse Neptune Collanges won a dramatic contest with a photofinish. Having entered three horses – Join Together, Harry the Viking and What A Friend – the Ditcheat-based trainer is well-represented in the nearly 4 ½ mile race. However, the 51 year old faces stiff competition: Willie Mullins and Jonjo O’Neill are especially prominent having entered four horses apiece.

The former has a particularly strong showing, training the current market

leaders On His Own and Prince De Beauchene. O’Neill, meanwhile, will have his stable’s effort spearheaded by 2012 runner-up Sunnyhillboy, who missed out on glory by a nose last time round. Other trainers like Donald McCain, David Pipe, Nigel TwistonDavies, Ted Walsh, Venetia Williams and Nicky Henderson will also fancy their chances, with the latter hoping Roberta Goldback can help secure the £975,000 winning prize-money and Champion Trainer title. All of these rivalries will play out under new rules introduced to ensure greater safety, and it is hoped that a safer and more entertaining spectacle can be enjoyed by all.

IPL - Felix Keith The Indian Premier League starts again in April. The corporate slogathon brings its usual mixture of international superstars and unrelenting advertising back to ITV4. Expect the biggest stars of the western world, up and coming Indian players and a plethora of second rate Australians.

This year features a few English players, including Kevin Pietersen and Eoin Morgan, but again many counties have prohibited their players from taking part.

However the lack of English interest will be made up for by the very best of the West Indies and South Africa. Chris Gayle, Kieron Pollard, AB de Villiers and Dale Steyn represent a flavour of the talent on display.

The collapse of the Deccan Chargers has made way for the new francise – Sunrisers Hyderabad, who will no doubt struggle to keep up with the might of teams like Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings.

The IPL offers the best of the brief T20 format. You can flit in and out of it as it is on almost everyday.

Choose a team to follow and tune in to see frantic run scoring, sixes galore, intermittent wicket taking and most of all – slogging.

Champions League - Ed Tyler The Champions League quarter-final first legs take place at the end of April, with no English teams involved for the first time since 1996.

It’s been a horrendous year in European football for the English sides, but there can be no complaints about the quality of teams left in the tournament.

Barcelona reminded the world of their genius with their second leg thrashing of AC Milan, but their first leg defeat at the San Siro showed they are vulnerable.

Their bitter rivals Real Madrid have shown what they’re capable of recently with back to back wins over the Catalan giants, but their place at this stage of the competition is scarcely deserved as Jose Mourinho himself will tell you.

Meanwhile the two remaining German sides, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund, have impressed everybody, with attacking abilities to rival the two Spanish clubs, and defensive capabilities which would make them rather envious. Juventus have been similarly dangerous and are showing signs that they are back to being the fearsome force they were before the Calciopoli scandal. Even France has a true contender with super-rich Paris Saint-Germain appearing to be going from strength to strength under Carlo Ancelotti.

Any of these teams stand a high chance of winning, and only a fool would be brave enough to say which one.

www.redbrick.me/sports | 29

Heineken Cup - Ellie Jones O n l y eight teams are left standing in this year’s Heineken Cup, and it seems like it's all still to play for, with the quarter-final matches being played over the first weekend in April.

Clermont, Toulon and Ulster are favourites at the moment but that could all change with the three English clubs: Leicester, Saracens and Harlequins all vying for top spot in the Aviva Premiership.

The Masters - Tim Pearson On April 11th, the golfing world will descend on Augusta, for the 77th edition of the Masters, the first major of the year. Last year’s edition will be best remembered for the dual between Bubba Watson and Louis Oosthuizen, with Watson winning in a play off. The main story going into the first major of the year is the revival of Tiger Woods’ game, bagging himself two wins already at this early stage of the season. Will Tiger finally cement his comeback with his 15th major and fifth green jacket?

When the press drive up Magnolia Lane, they will be asking whether Rory McIlroy can win his third major title, which indeed would be back to back majors for the Northern Irishman.

Following his meltdown on the final nine holes two years ago and his withdrawal with toothache from the Honda Classic, what better way would there be to confound the critics?

And that is just two of the major talking points before arguably the best tournament in the golfing calendar. The Augusta National course made news this year for admitting the first female members to the club in its history, so now the talk will begin about when the first women’s tour event will take place in Augusta. One thing is sure, we will be treated to the best golf by the best golfers in the world.

At least the English situation is totally different this year compared to last, when Saracens were the only English club to get through the Pool rounds. In the last few seasons, the latter stages of the competition have been dominated by the French and Irish teams and this year it looks like the French are the ones to beat again. Their clubs have the resources to buy the best players from all over the world, creating formidable team sheets.

Clermont are probably slight favourites to take the crown, past favourites Munster are a fading force, while Montpellier and Toulon could also make the semi-finals. The English contingent must hope that the improvement in the national side can be repeated at club level.

F1 - Brian Butterfield After the season opener in Australia this weekend, we will get a reasonable idea about which teams will be challenging for the constructors title this year. The Easter break sees the F1 go to Asia, with the Malaysian, Chinese and Bahrain Grand Prix taking place. After seven different winners in seven races last term, it will be interesting to see if one team or individual puts their head above the parapet as the ones to beat.

Ferrari will be looking to have a strong season this year, after starting preparation for their car midway through the

last season. Fernando Alonso’s impressive ending to the 2012 season and the fact that he won the Bahrain Grand Prix last season means that he will definitely fancy his chances on the Asian swing.

But it is still without doubt that three time world champion Vettel is the man with a target on his back. The heir to Schumacher will look to start the season strongly, unlike last year, where he went winless in these three races. But from a British perspective the attention will be on Button, Hamilton and De Resta. How will Hamilton do at Mercedees, and will this be De Resta’s breakout year? The Asian races will give us an indication to all these things and more.

30 | 15th March - 2nd May 2013

A Day at the Races.

Following his dissertation hand in, Fraser Kesteven headed down to Cheltenham Festival with hope of winning big on the horses.

Fraser Kesteven Sport Correspondent

What is the best way to celebrate handing in your dissertation? Is it to sink some well-deserved drinks before heading into town? Is it to head straight off for a celebratory Rooster’s? Or is it actually best to spend it aimlessly haemorrhaging money on a chilly, spring afternoon at Cheltenham racecourse? Whilst the first two options were tempting (and will undoubtedly be indulged at a later date), neither could compete with the allure of watching and betting on the greatest festival in racing. So it was with misplaced confidence and the vain hope of ending the day financially better off than when I started, that I headed to Prestbury Park – the ‘home of National Hunt racing.’

The day began in a mixed fashion.

After being caught in traffic, getting lost around Cheltenham town centre and forgetting my gloves, I arrived – cold and dishevelled - in time to see my horse Godsmejudge finish a creditable third, behind the impressive winner Back In Focus. The race was not entirely unfruitful, with Tofino Bay’s second place finish helping fulfil a Toteswinger bet laid in haste before the 1.30 start.

From this it was onto the exhaustingly named Neptune Investment Management Novices’ Hurdle, where the 6/4 favourite Pont Alexandre was pushed into third by Rule The World and eventual winner, The New One. Despite enjoying heavy backing from

the punters, myself included, the Willy Mullins-trained novice flattered to deceive, leading most of the way until being passed in the closing stages.

Although, declared ‘one of the best novices I’ve ever ridden’ by Ruby Walsh, the Rich Ricci-owned horse was no match for The New One, who strode out four lengths clear of his nearest challenger.

This was soon followed by the RSA Chase, a competitive race boasting a high class field. This three and half a furlong race – viewed as a stepping stone for the Gold Cup – was difficult to predict, leaving this writer to swim with the tide and back the 5/2 favourite Unioniste. Alas, this move was ill-fated, with the French novice unable to repeat his previous Cheltenham form and finishing a miserly fourth.

The race was won by the much less fancied Lord Windermere, who capitalised on Boston Bob’s unfortunate final fence fall when leading. The collective groan that met this misfortune attested to the horse’s popularity, with the Irishtrained novice setting off second in the market. Whilst my choice decided to run with as much zip and verve as a French prop forward, the initial disappointment quickly dissipated, being replaced by exhilaration for the Queen Mother Champion Steeple Chase.

The excitement was entirely justified, with Sprinter Sacre striding to a 19 length victory. The so-called ‘Black Aeroplane’ – the most heavily-tipped festival horse since Arkle in 1966 – flew to a comfortable win, giving trainer Nicky Henderson his third triumph at Cheltenham this week. Such is the

chaser’s indomitability that superlatives can no longer describe the ease with which he dispatches his opponents. The imperious way that he pulled away from Sizing Europe, a previous festival winner and two mile specialist, was simply stunning and set tongues wagging, including my own. Hitting the bookies, his win was astounding and cemented his status as the superstar of the sport.

Though Sprinter Sacre’s race only featured seven runners, the final three races all boasted fields of larger than 20. The Coral Cup was next and with 28 runners, choices were made less on form and more on those with the best name. Horses like Crack Away Jack, Bondage and Wyse Hill Teabags all came under consideration, but it was the German-sounding Irish horse Ericht that caught the eye.

However, despite riding from the bottom weight, the Nicky Henderson horse could only finish fifth, petering out after the last and finishing five lengths behind winner Medinas.

Starting off at the very generous price of 33/1, this Alan King trained horse stayed on well in the closing stages, easily pleasing those lucky punters who dabbled on him.

The Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle quickly followed, with Flaxen Flare dominating – much to the chagrin of the elderly Irish gentlemen stood to my immediate left. Once the 25/1 shout had crossed the line victorious, these men exploded in a fit of pique and expletives, bemoaning the fact they had not ‘backed the only decent Irish horse running’. However, these rather intem-

perate Celts should have been consoled that I and many others also missed out - not that it will bring much comfort.

The seventh and final race was the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, the last chance to recoup all of that lost throughout the day. Indeed, it was do or die; either go out on a high or wallow in penniless sorrow. Having decided that I had no clue who to pick, the eventual choice plumped for was Briar Hill. It turned out to be an inspired choice, with the young horse storming to a 25/1 victory for Willy Mullins. The Irish trainer extended his impressive record in this bumper, claiming the eighth victory in this race for his Closutton yard. Such was my happiness, that I bounded to collect the winnings – leaving me £10 in profit and able to afford a £4.50 pint of Guinness.

The day had proved one of emotional ups and downs. Unbelievable highs had been balanced by horrible lows, especially when changing selections at the last minute and inevitably choosing the equine equivalent of Per Mertesacker.

Indeed, the day could have been better: ‘Ladies Day’ could have lived up to its billing and involved more women, who were all too invisible in the great morass of balding, middle-aged men.

Equally, food outlets should try in future to not fleece people of all the money they would much rather lose on 200/1 outsider in the first race. All in all however, the day exuded all the top class competition you could want. It exhibited everything that is great about racing and is an experience most warmly recommended.

www.redbrick.me/sports | 31

Page 31 Sports Shorts

Tweet of the Week

Online this week @McIlroyRory

Heroes...

Lionel Messi The Argentinian maestro scored twice in the first half against AC Milan to single handedly overcome the Italian team’s two goal lead from the first leg.

Barcelona went on to win 4-0 and qualify for the next round of the Champions League.

Tiger Woods Tiger secured his second title of the year at the World Golf Championship in Doral.

Whilst the final winning margin was only two shots, in reality it was never in doubt, holding the lead after every round.

He is now one win away from the world number one spot.

Test Cricket

Rory McIlroy says in few words what everyone was thinking on Tuesday night:

Joel Lamy ponders England's form following their draw in the first test in New Zealand.

'Messi... Unbelievable... #enoughsaid'

Weekend Wager F1 Season Preview

9/4 France have had a disastrous Six Nations. They started as one of the favourites, but are yet to win a game. They currently sit bottom of the table with three losses and one draw.

Should they fail to win their last game France will pick up their first wooden spoon in Six Nations history.

James Froom looks ahead to the up coming season and considers the favourites for the driver and constructor championships.

Men's Rugby 2nds Won 76-0 Aston 1sts Women's Lacrosse 3rds Won 16-1 Lincoln 1sts

Six Nations Result of the Week The netball 1sts qualified for BUCS finals with a big win over Cardiff 1sts in the semi-final.

Ellie Jones assesses England's ugly win over Italy last weekend and considers whether England have the ability to win the Grand Slam.

5. What is the last event in the decathlon?

1. Red Bull-Renault 2.Warwickshire 3 Jason Leonard 4.Wigan Athletic 5. 1500m

The Redbrick Crossword Completed crosswords to be submitted to the Redbrick office, located in the Guild basement

They triumphed 53-20 to book their place in Leeds on Tuesday.

...and Villains Mickey Arthur The Australian cricket coach controversially dropped four players for failing to make a presentation on how to improve the team following defeats in the opening two Tests. Surely this won’t help the already struggling side?'

Heather Watson and Laura Robson After their success last year many would have been expecting them to continue their progress up the rankings. But after both losing in the first round at Indian Wells, their form must be called into question.

Interested in being part of Redbrick Sport?

Get in touch: sports@redbrick.me @redbricksports Redbrick Sport

Donovan Mike Crossword Editor

This week's prize is a personal tour of the Redbrick office with our Editor, Raphael Sheridan

Scribble box

Men's Rugby 1sts Lost 17-15 Edinburgh 1sts

Redbrick Sport Quiz

4. Who is the only team in the football league never to be relegated?

Phone Number:

Women's Lacrosse 2nds Won 11-1 Loughborough 2nds

Men's Squash 2nds Won 5-0 UWE 2nds

3. Who is England's most capped rugby union player?

Email Address:

Women's Hockey 2nds Won 3-0 Women's Hockey 3rds

Women's Tennis 2nds Drew 6-6 Cambridge 2nds

2. Which English county did Brian Lara play for?

Name:

Men's Football 1sts Lost 1-0 Cambridge 1sts Women's Football 2nds Drew 0-0 Nottingham Trent 1sts

1. Which team won the constructor champsionship last year?

Please complete this form before you hand in your completed crossword to the Redbrick office.

Results - 13th March

Across

Down

3. Birmingham based a capella group, The __ of Pitches (4) 5. Large mammal (8) 7. To sleep or nap (3) 9. London contemporary art gallery, The __ Modern (4) 10. Unnecessary (8) 12. American intelligence department, abv. (1,1,1) 13. Insects before metamorphosis (6) 15. Angel's headpiece (4) 16. Long state of unconsciousness (4) 17. Antogonist in the film, '2001: A Space Odyssey' (3) 20. Wild Western bar (6) 21. To ponder deeply (8) 22. Infamous line from Star Wars, 'It's a __!' (4)

1. American prison also know as 'The Rock' (8) 2. Film starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise (4,3) 3. An obstacle race containing hurdles and water pits (12) 4. The largest island in the Inner Hebrides (4) 6. Former Deputy Prime Minister, John __ (8) 8. Ski run (5) 11. Tomb Raider protagonist (4,5) 14. Country bordered by Georgia and Azerbaijan (7) 17. English actor who starred in 'The Elephant Man' and 'Nineteen Eighty-Four', John __ (4) 18. Capital of Peru 19. Legend of Zelda protagonist (4) 23. Teletubby (2)

~1~~~2~3``4~~ 5``6````~~7`8 ~`~`~`~`~~`~` 9```~0```-``` ~`~`~`~`~`~~` ~`~=``~q```w` e```~`~`~`~`~ ~`~`~~~`~r``` ~~~`~~~`~`~`~ t`y~u~i`````~ `~`~`~~`~`~`~ o```````~p``[ `~`~`~~~~~~~`

32 |15th March - 2nd May 2013

Easter Sport We give you a taste of sport to look forward to over the Easter break

p28-9

www.redbrick.me/sport

A Day at the Races Fraser Kesteven ventured to Cheltenham Festival for the day

p30

RedbrickSport

Tennis team take gold on home turf after dramatic tie-breaks Joel Lamy reports on the men's tennis firsts as they defeat rivals Loughborough in the final of the Midlands Cup Birmingham’s tennis 1sts completed a clean sweep of trophies on the men’s side with a dramatic 8-4 win in the Midlands Cup final over Loughborough 3rds.

With Birmingham leading 6-2 in points, the final two matches both went to Championship tie-breaks, with just one victory needed for Brum to secure the trophy.

A n d although Stephen Harlow and Andy Guy were defeated 10-7 in theirs, on the next court Joab Wayne held his nerve after losing two match points to secure Brum the silverware.

Wayne’s triumph completed a remarkable four hours of tennis which included court changes and controversial line calls. In the end it all came down to the final two matches with both being moved twice due to their courts being privately booked out.

Whilst Harlow and Guy were winning the second set in their match to take it to a deciding tie-break, Wayne was losing a second set tie-break of his own to mean both matches would go down to a first-to-10 points decider.

To add to the drama, both matches were once more moved courts. When play finally restarted, Wayne quickly fell behind 4-1 but after recovering well, he found himself 9-7 up and with two points to seal the trophy. However, both points were lost and on the other court Harlow and Guy were finally edged out 6-3, 5-7, 10-7 by Niall Stewart and Johno Barker, meaning that Loughborough were just two points away from forcing a tie-break shootout.

In the next point, Wayne called out a shot from opponent James Kelly, much

to the Loughborough man’s anger who loudly suggested that he was being cheated. This set up another championship point and a Kelly miss finally handed the Midlands Cup to the hosts after a stunning afternoon’s tennis at the Priory Club.

Speaking after the match, captain Alex Allen reflected on what was an outstanding victory for his side. ‘I’m ecstatic really,’ he said. ‘This now completes our unbeaten season for the men’s tennis and the whole team are just really happy to have won. We had the whole club here to support us. Great atmosphere, great support and we’re just relieved to have won.’

Earlier in the day there was no sign of the excitement which was t o come as Brum dominated the early proceedings. The opening doubles match marked the return of Allen, who was suffering from an ankle injury and Wayne, who missed the entire term through glandular fever.

Any signs of rustiness though were not evident as they quickly saw off opponents Ben Smith and James Kelly 6-1, 6-2 in a doubles masterclass.

Next to them, Guy took on Loughborough’s Stewart in a hardfought encounter. Rallies tended to be drawn out with few unforced errors given away by either player, but Guy was able to get out in front and despite being broken in the second set, he responded to win 6-3 6-4.

Whilst Allen and Wayne began their

respective singles matches against Smith and Kelly, Harry Winter was still battling away in his contest against Barker.

In a contrast to Guy’s match, points were shorter but tended to feature more winners and unforced errors as both players opened up their shoulders.

Barker in particular had a fearsome forehand which he used to great effect, and despite both players losing some form towards the end of the match, which led to some vocal outbursts, Barker triumphed 6-4, 7-5 to register Loughborough’s first points.

For the second game running Allen didn’t spend long on court as he brushed past his opponent 6-3, 6-2, but with the other two matches going right to the wire, it took a while longer for the trophy to b e

sealed.

Coming on the back of promotions for both men’s sides and the women’s firsts, it was a fitting end to an already memorable season.