Tuesday February 2 2010 | Week 4
Edinburgh's architectural blunders
C U LT U R E
» P17
S cott ish S t udent Ne wspaper of the Year 2009 S I N C E 1887
T H E U K ' S O LD E S T S T U D EN T N EW S PA P ER
Student parenting experience revealed Problems in finance, childcare, and teaching highlighted
THOSE WHO TEACH: Protesters against proposed cuts at Moray House were out in force last week
JULIA SYMMES COBB
Anna MacSwan
Hundreds march to protest teacher training cuts Moray House supported by universities across Scotland Julia Symmes Cobb
SEVERAL HUNDRED marchers turned out in support of Moray House staff last Wednsday in protest against SNP proposals to cut teacher training. Under current proposals, the School of Education would lose 25 to 40 staff members. The University of
Edinburgh has already announced that PGDE Primary places for students are being cut from 280 to 60, while PGDE Secondary will face the loss of Biology and RME. Supported by EUSA, the march from Moray House to the Scottish Parliament saw attendance by staff and students from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow, Strathclyde and Aberdeen, in addition to representatives from the University and College Union Scotland. “Moray House has to make cuts because the government has cut funding to student teachers, but the university isn’t exactly trying to cushion the blow.
We’re marching to defend Moray House,” said Katherine McMahon, EUSA external convener. EUSA president Thomas Graham, also present at the march, described the SNP’s education proposals as “A failed commitment of a failed manifesto of a failed government.” “Moray House is one of the few schools where the government controls places, on the basis that the government controls many teaching positions. And while it’s not exactly the university’s fault, they could be a lot more transparent,” he added. Similar opinions were expressed by Ross MacRae, the chair of Scot-
tish Labour Students and former Moray House student: “2,500 teachers and 1,000 support staff have already been cut this year in Scotland. When the SNP cuts now, they create a legacy of not creating teaching jobs.” University and College Union Scotland vice-president Gordon Watson, who attended the rally as part of UCU Scotland’s ‘Defend jobs, defend education’ campaign, said that the government “needs to provide consistency”. Speaking to The Student, he said: “You can’t suddenly produce new teachers. All it takes is a little arithmetic to figure out how many you’ll need Continued on page 2 »
STUDENTS WITH dependent children at the University of Edinburgh are in dire need of more adequate support mechanisms, a survey carried out by EUSA has discovered. In a report which will be published this week, it has emerged that student parents, who with 1,121 in the 2008-09 academic year account for 5 percent of the student body, face an array of issues throughout the course of their degree with regards to finance, childcare, teaching and learning and student life. It is estimated that between 20 and 35 percent of student parents at Edinburgh are lone parents, and a similar survey by the NUS estimates that nine in ten are female. A substantial gap exists between Scotland and elsewhere in the UK with regards to public funding, with Scottish student parents being eligible to less than half the amount of financial support. Whereas Student Finance England will make available up to £20,324 in loans and grants, student parents dependent on SAAS are eligible for a maximum of £9,570. Moreover, amongst Scottish students, only lone parents are eligible for childcare-specific funding. Whilst the University’s Scholarships and Student Finance Office provides a range of alternative financial support such as access, accommodation and day nursery bursaries for student parents, it has been revealed that these remain largely unpublicised. Amongst the 167 respondents which the survey questioned, 90 percent said that the University had given them no information on funding options for childcare prior to the start of their course. One in five respondents were unaware that discretionary funds exist at all, and many felt that the application process was long winded. Frustration was also expressed over the fact that postgraduate students are ineligible for the Childcare Fund, despite accounting for 70 percent of student parents. Continued on page 2 »
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
news@studentnewspaper.org
2
What’s in this issue NEWS »p1-6
»
TOO NICE TO THE HOMLESS? p4 Hotel boss reckons Edinburgh's too tolerant
EUSA'S EXPENSES 'SCANDAL' p5
EUSA forks out for taxis and Christmas cards
COMMENT »p8-9 NO WAY USA p8
Kyle Bellamy investigates local anti-Americanism
Not enough Scottish students, MSP says Joshua King SCOTLAND’S SHADOW Higher Education Minister, Labour MSP Claire Baker, has called on the SNP to do more to encourage Scottish students to study in Scotland. Her comments come despite the release of figures showing that there has been a 25 percent rise in Scottish students over the last decade. In 1999, 24,943 Scots were accepted on to a university place, compared to 31,030 last year. The figures for the whole of the UK demonstrate a 44 percent rise, according to the universities admissions body, UCAS. Claire Baker said the figures showed efforts to increase participation in higher education had been successful but added that, “there is always more
that can be done to widen access so that people from all backgrounds have the ability to realise their potential through higher education.” “It’s clear that despite getting rid of the graduate endowment, less Scottish students are being enticed to go to university here than their counterparts in England are to use the higher education system south of the border.” Labour is now calling for a full independent review of both university funding and student support. She said: “I would urge the SNP government to ensure that Scottish universities continue, particularly in this economic situation, to receive funding that allows them to offer the highest quality education for students.” A decade ago Scotland had a far higher proportion of its population involved in higher education than the
other countries of the UK. But since former Prime Minister Tony Blair introduced his target of 50 percent participation in higher education south of the border, only subjects such as Medicine, Dentistry and teaching have seen any sort of expansion in Scotland. A spokeswoman for Universities Scotland, which represents university principals, said it was a case of England catching up with Scotland. She said: “We obviously appreciate that public finances are extremely tight right now.” “However there is no cost involved in MSPs from all parties acknowledging that for the last ten years Scotland has largely stood still when it comes to numbers entering higher education (in comparison to England).” news@studentnewspaper.org
ARTS&FEATURES »p11-21
RELEASE YOUR INNER CHILD p14 Lifestyle kids around
Culture reviews The Sound of Music
MUSIC GETS A BIT PECULIAR p18 Yeasayer's second album gets an odd review
SPOT CLAIRE BAKER: The Minister's age came as a shock to one recent graduate
ASK A NINJA p19
Sean Cameron slaughters Ninja Assassin
WATCHING YOU p20
TV takes a look at what's going on in the Big Brother house
iWANT IT p21
Lyle Brennan plays with Apple's new toy
SPORT »p23-24 SWEDISH GIRL HITS THE SPOT p23
Martin Domin reports on the Archery club's top member
From front page... – education needs sustainability.” Marchers carried signs featuring slogans such as ‘Fight for the right to work’. Police halted marchers outside the main entrance to Parliament, where the protest was joined by several MSPs. Robert Brown, Liberal Democrat MSP for Glasgow and former deputy education minister, said that the issues being raised by protesters were worthwhile and important: “What the government should be doing is ensuring education jobs; frankly, they’ve made a hash of it.” His views were echoed by Ken Macintosh, Labour MSP for East Renfrewshire and shadow schools
WWW.CLAIREBAKER.ORG
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE... p16
secretary, who spoke to third-year primary education students present at the protest. “It doesn’t exactly give you a feeling of confidence, and it’s not just your jobs, it’s the jobs of your lecturers. What we need is workforce planning to predict need in advance. In four to five years there will be a shortage of teachers.” When pressed by students as to what action he would take, Macintosh assured students that his party would do all they could to prevent the cuts, saying: “One thing governments can do in a recession is provide education, so that everyone can contribute.”
UCU Scotland members, including Terry Wrigley, professor in teacher education at Moray House, met with Mike Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education whilst marchers waited outside. Commenting afterwards, Wrigley told The Student: “I personally didn’t think he was listening, it’s not hard to understand how serious this is, when jobs are cut you lose vital specialists, expertise that will never be recovered. Education is a complex tapestry – you can’t just cut the end off.”
attend university, almost half said that they do so frequently – many of whom said they would have had no other option than to abandon their studies on numerous occasions otherwise. EUSA and the university have previously been approached by students requesting facilities for breastfeeding to express breast milk, with reports that the only location where this is currently possible are toilets. In terms of academic issues, attention was drawn to the fact that timetables are frequently issued with insufficient time to arrange childcare. Furthermore, parents expressed the difficulty of attending lectures beginning at 9am, particularly those needing to drop children off at school, often at considerable distance from University campus. 53 percent of respondents said that they had at one point considered withdrawing from university, a figure which rises to 67 percent for lone students. The survey also found that student parents are less likely to become involved in student life, with 88 percent
of respondents saying they would not find this easy. EUSA has made a number of recommendations with a view to improving the student experience for those with dependent children, including reconsideration on part of the Scottish government of public funding, a review of university childcare services and facilities, and improved flexibility for student parents in academic circumstances. Susannah Compton, EUSA Equal Opportunities Officer told The Student that "The Report highlights some serious issues with the situation of student parents at this university and it is important that its findings are taken seriously. "An upcoming campaign will raise awareness, and hopefully pressure can be exerted to force some meaningful changes that will significantly improve the lives of this oft-ignored section of the student body."
news@studentnewspaper.org
From front page...
p11 The Student Newspaper | 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ Email: editors@studentnewspaper.org
Worryingly, 87 percent of respondents with the youngest dependents in need of childcare facilities described facilities at the university as unable to meet their needs. Opening hours were a key issue - of the university’s two child care facilities, the day nursery closes at 17.30, whilst Uni Tots closes at 17.00, poorly catering to the university’s academic timetable. Registered to accommodate a maximum of 59 and 24 children in one session respectively, and open to children of local residents outwith the university, the facilities serve only a small minority of Edinburgh’s student parents. Moreover, at a cost of £217 a week for Uni Tots and £194 for the day nursery, the university's nurseries rank most and fourth most expensive of all nurseries listed within a two mile radius of George Square. More than three-quarters of respondents admitted to having to rely occasionally on family and friends to look after their children whilst they
news@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
news@studentnewspaper.org
News 3
Lammy: it's not all about the money
HE minister argues for change in funding model Harrison Kelly
HIGHER EDUCATION minister David Lammy dealt another blow to universities this week, announcing that they must be prepared to wait a ‘long time’ for a funding increase. Writing in the Policy Review magazine, Lammy warns that universities must be prepared to diversify and adapt to the current economic climate: “Like Britain itself, they need to prepare now to meet the challenges that a changing world is already bringing.” The claim comes as UK universities face a £915 million reduction in their funding next year, forcing many institutions, to cut back on spending and lose whole departments altogether. Solutions to the problem have been varied, with many Russell Group Universities requesting the government to change the law to allow them to set their own tuition fees. Sir John Chisholm, who is chairman of both QinetiQ, the defence company, and the Medical Research Council, argued that elite universities must be allowed to charge up to £20,000 to remain globally competitive. However David Lammy is urging universities not to increase fees: “A different and, in my view, much better
CLAWING BACK FUNDING?: David Lammy says businesses should also lend a hand to university funding. approach, is for universities to try to diversify their sources of income, to find ways of relying less on the taxpayer as a hedge against any future tightening of the public purse-strings.” Lammy suggests this could involve further investment from the private sector, who contributed £3bn to university funding last year, as well as offering training and consultancy
services. “There are also a whole range of sponsorship and bespoke teaching opportunities of which universities can take advantage and which can form part of the basis of a long-term relationship between a university and a business.” However, critics have argued that this could detract from teaching students, as more time must be spent
on research or business relations. The suggestions put forward would only apply to research-intensive universities, widening the gap between the Russell Group and other institutions. The future of Higher Education in the UK remains uncertain as many universities are already struggling through the recent economic crisis; however Lammy stands firm that all public sec-
Jobs axed at Scottish Student Loans Company Troubles continue for governmentbacked company Alexandra Taylor ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY JOBS have been axed at the Scottish headquarters of the Student Loans Company (SLC). The move, which has been made in an attempt to streamline the business better and create greater efficiency has caused an angry reaction amongst staff. Unions and politicians were also furious with the news, labelling the action as a 'body blow' to workers at the non-profit company. The SLC currently employs 1,894 people across the UK, with 1,212 of these based in Glasgow. The company, which administers student loans on behalf of the UK government, said the redundancies were the result of a £4 million cut in current funding. It had been receiving £80m a year to assist in the completion of a four-year initiative to modernise its computer systems after the switch in 2006 from a paper-based system to an online one. However, with this initiative com-
ing to an end, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has decided to pull some of SLC’s funding. A spokesperson from the department commented: “Because these programmes are now being concluded and no new modernisation is planned, the government has reduced this portion of its budget from £11.4m to £5.2m, with a resulting impact on staff.” Ralph Jackson, chief executive of the SLC, apologised for the redundancies but said services to customers would not be affected. “I want to reassure our customers that these changes will not affect frontline staff, and we will continue to make the improvements needed to deliver a better quality of service to them in the future,” he said. “We are now entering a 90-day period of consultation, working closely with staff and the trade unions, but we anticipate that the majority of the redundancies will be through voluntary means.” It is claimed that many are still hoping that the mass surge of redundancies can be averted. The cuts have sparked concerns that the SLC will continue to struggle to cope with increased applications this year and in the future. The company has been plagued by countless stories this academic year of students missing much-needed financial support due to administrative
shortcomings. More than 100,000 UK students were left without their loans at the start of the year, many relying on hardship funds supplied by their universities. An Edinburgh student, who wished to remain anonymous, told The Student: “Now that 150 jobs have gone I think it will take a lot longer for people to get their student loans considering
“
I spoke to three different people over the course of ten days and got three different answers." Anonymous student
how many applications had to be processed for the academic year 2009-10, and people will start the academic year like the last - with little money and no student loan, unless they apply really early.” “I found that getting my loan for third-year was not easy. I sent the application off a bit late at the end of August. I got the award notice four weeks later at the end of September, but it
was not what I had applied for. “I then spoke to three different people over the course of ten days who gave me three different answers on what I needed to do to get my loan assessed for what I had applied for. By now it was mid-October and each time I had called I was put on hold for at least 45 minutes. It then took another 28 days to process what I had originally applied for. I eventually got my loan mid/end of November. ” She added: “When I spoke to the people at the call centre, I got the impression they did not know how to answer when I asked them about my application and getting it reassessed. I think this was because they had hired a lot of new people to handle all the calls they were getting regarding late awards notices.” The hope is that employment cuts will lead to improved service from welltrained individuals. However, there are questions over whether a smaller ratio of staff will be able to handle an expected increase in applications for 2010-11. The Public and Commercial Services Union have warned that this action could pave the way for more cost cutting across the public sector. It has been predicted that a further 45 posts will go in the SLC's Hillington and Darlington offices. news@studentnewspaper.org
tors must make sacrifices. “The fiscal stimulus over the last 18 months was necessary to keep companies in business and people in work. But both the taxpayer and the public sector must contribute to paying down our national debt. Universities are not being singled out.” news@studentnewspaper.org
SPEND YOUR SUMMER IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE PREMIERE THEATRE CAMP Stagedoor Manor
Performing Arts Camp
seeks camp staff for our 2010 Season (Office Assistants, Camp Counselors, Lifeguards, Support Staff, etc)
Salary plus Full Room & Board Must be at least 21 years old to apply. www.stagedoorjobs.com
INTERVIEWS
Edinburgh: 16-Feb-10 Cover letter & CV to:
UK@stagedoorjobs.com Fax: 001.267.295.8767
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
News
Rude awakening for Tesco customers TESCO HAS banned customers at a store in Cardiff from wearing their pyjamas whilst shopping. Signs outside the supermarket state: “To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted).” A spokesperson from Tesco said, “We're not a nightclub with a strict dress code, and jeans and trainers are of course more than welcome.” “We do, however, request that customers do not shop in their PJs or nightgowns.” It is not yet clear whether other Tesco stores across the country will follow the lead of the Cardiff St. Mellons branch. One irate customer labelled the ban ‘ridiculous’ and ‘pathetic.’ Elaine Carmody, 24, a full-time mother of two young boys, spoke after spending £102 in the supermarket: “If you're allowed to wear jogging bottoms, why aren't you allowed to wear pyjamas in there, that's what I don't understand!” “It's not as if you're making a show. If anything, they should be happy because you're spending your money in their shop, but obviously they're not, because you're not allowed in with pyjamas.” JK
Postgraduate pay premium decreasing THE PAY premium earned by those who graduate with master’s degrees is in decline, says a study. The joint study conducted by the Higher Education Policy Institute and the British Library found that in 2008 graduates taking a postgraduate course earned, on average, 15 percent more than those who had obtained a first class degree and 27 percent more than those who achieved a 2:1. In 2003, those numbers were 18 percent and 31 percent respectively. The authors of the study stated that “this may indicate that a postgraduate qualification such as a masters no longer carries the weight it used to, as increasing numbers of postgraduate qualifiers compete for jobs in UK workplaces.” “Such a situation would be of no small concern: if students are increasingly expected to take postgraduate qualifications to differentiate themselves from their peers, while the financial returns to this study are decreasing (and fees increasing), it may become increasingly difficult for those from less economically secure backgrounds to consider this course.” JSC
Hotelier says Edinburgh is too tolerant of beggars Edie, said: “To see homelessness on track to fall for the fourth year running shows our strategy is paying dividends and helping those who need it most.” Mr Edie added: “We have a long way to go before homelessness can be eradicated but this council will do everything in its power to ensure those who most need our help and support
Joshua King THE MANAGER of a leading Edinburgh hotel has lobbied the city council to crack down on the city’s beggars, despite the release of figures showing a 16 percent fall in homelessness from 2006. Ivan Artolli, general manager of the five-star Balmoral hotel, is encouraging the city council to take a harder line on beggars whom he believes may damage Edinburgh’s international image. Mr Artolli said: “I have been writing to anyone I know in the city because I think this is quite unacceptable.” “I have worked in 15 places across Europe and I have never come across a city with such tolerance of beggars.” “People who beg elsewhere in Europe tend to be gypsies and American tourists come to associate beggars with thieves – and lax security.” “It is not comfortable to see people sitting begging on the pavement. I think this country has a good system of health and social care and I do not know how much longer we can justify seeing people begging in the streets.” According to the council though, the number of homeless people on Edinburgh’s streets is set to fall for the fourth successive year. Local authority projections suggest that the number of homeless in the city may have fallen by as much as 5% in the 12 months since last April. Housing leader for the council, Paul
receive it.” Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce deputy chief executive Graham Birse concurred with Mr Artolli’s sentiments that begging was an issue for city-centre businesses but added: “Edinburgh is a tolerant city and generous city and its businesses want to help find ways to help the homeless.”
A spokesman for the City of Edinburgh said: “Police and Community Safety Officers use existing powers as and when necessary to deal with aggressive begging and we're not aware of any increase in complaints about this issue.” news@studentnewspaper.org
SCARING AMERICAN TOURISTS? A homeless man makes some music on the street
Women more successful at living alone than men
Researchers find men twice as likely to live alone Harrison Kelly
RESEARCH BY the University of Edinburgh has concluded that women are better at living alone than men. The study carried out by Professor Lynn Jamieson found that men living on their own are more likely to experience financial and health difficulties - as well as disadvantages in the housing market - compared with women living alone. Over two years researchers examined differences in standards of living of more than 140 men and women aged 25-44 with results showing that 29 percent of men living on their own aged 25-44 earn less than £10,000 per year, compared with 21 percent of women living alone. Prof Jamieson, who works in the Centre for Research on Families and Relationships at the University, commented that “With the predicted increase in the proportion of one-person households there are implications for a range of social provision such as income support, pensions, health and housing.” However, researchers found that
many of those living alone did not feel isolated, even when experiencing economic disadvantages. The study showed that a sense of community enriched their lives with most solo-living adults having strong social networks and ties to their neighbourhood, and that the use of the internet helped maintain these social networks. The study also looked in to the rela-
tionships of the respondents and found that half of the women interviewed and a third of the men interviewed were in a relationship, and for the majority this was likely to be a long-term arrangement where each partner lives alone. However a small number of sololiving adults, mostly men, did not enjoy the same sense of community and had limited social networks because of factors such as long working hours,
health problems and a limited disposable income. Overall it was found that between the ages of 25-44, men are twice as likely as women to live on their own. The General Registrar Office for Scotland predicts an increase in the proportion of one-person households to 44% in 2031. news@studentnewspaper.org
WWW.STATISTICS.GOV.UK
IN
Brief
FLICKR: FRANCO FOLINI
4
news@studentnewspaper.org
PERCENTAGES OF PEOPLE LIVING ALONE BY AGE IN THE UK: Past age 75, women out-do men by an estimated 25 percent
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
news@studentnewspaper.org
News 5
TONY SIM
EUSA expenses disappoint
FLOWERS: James Wallace claimed for them, that's a scandal....right?
OUR ELECTED representatives in the Students Association have once again failed the student community. A list of EUSA sabbatical officers’ expenses released to The Student revealed a disappointing lack of extravagant, over-the-top, inappropriate or extortionate claims for official cash. As such, The Student is somewhat bereft of scandal this week.
Student journalists, in particular The Student’s news team, were unhappy about the lack of claims for booze, food and frivolous personal affects. There was a complete absence of the trouserpress, domestic cleaning and garden ornament claims that made last year’s MP’s expenses story such prominent national news. “It’s appalling, the story isn’t half as good as we thought it would be,” said downtrodden Student News Editor
Neil Pooran. “We thought we’d have so much juicy content that we could fill a few pages each week, Telegraph-style. The worst we saw is a bouquet of flowers and the fact that Thomas Graham goes to conferences a lot. I thought we’d be exposing widespread corruption in the student union, instead all we’ve revealed is a diligent work ethic and, God help us, honesty.” However, some questions remain about the overall funding deal that
EUSA expenses 2009/10
sabbaticals receive. Their current salary of £22,000 is made up of £18,000, a figure linked to the average postgraduate grant, and a guaranteed £4,000 of ‘expenses.’ The £4,000 is designed to compensate the sabbs for costs that a postgrad student would not usually incur, such as food and drink bought while travelling on Association business. The four salaries are set by the university, rather than the Students Association itself. The Student understands that this situation is being considered for review by EUSA Chief Executive Anthony Blackshaw, but still would have preferred to see some duck house and moat-cleaning receipts. Not included in the list of expenses sent to The Student are certain travel costs, including plane fares, which are paid for through the Association's credit card as part of their general expenditure. Nominations for the next round of Student’s Association elections open soon, so now would have been the perfect time to break a story involving impropriety on the part of incumbent representatives. We apologise. Four sabbaticals, or ‘sabbs’, are elected from the student body to take a year out of their studies to run the Students Association and represent students to the university and government.
TG: EUSA President, Thomas Graham JW: EUSA Vice President for Services James Wallace
JW- £15, flowers for Freshers’ Week coordinator JW- £16.50, travel expenses TG- £10, taxi to station 22/12/09 TG- £7.97, Christmas cards TG- £27.55, train, tube, taxi to/from Wales 9-12/12/09 TG- £33.81, Christmas cards TG- £54.81, Conference in China; bus, hotel, taxi expenses TG- £6.98, staple gun for EUSA office TG- £21.20, Student Experience conference travel expenses 23/11/09 TG- £9.20, taxi fares for Leeds conference 17/7/09 TG- £11.20, travel expenses for ‘out of office meetings’ (inc. to City Chambers)
news@studentnewspaper.org
TG Christmas cards- £9.97
Cambridge University scraps education degrees Dan Nicholson-Heap CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY is to scrap it's undergraduate degree in education studies by 2012, it was announced this week. The news comes at a time when the University of Edinburgh plans hefty staff cuts in its own Moray House School of Education as a cost saving measure. Currently considered to be one of the best education qualifications in the country, Cambridge will transfer some of the papers taught in the degree - known as an Education 'tripos' - to a wider social science degree. Dons at Homerton College, most of whose students study either the undergraduate degree or postgraduate PGCE teacher training courses are said to be worried about the impact of the changes on the college. University managers claim that no cuts to postgraduate degrees in the faculty are planned, but faculty staff are
TG- £36, travel to NUS development conference 05.08.09 TG- £7.80, travel expenses, 18/10/09 TG- £4.20, travel to NUS council on November 7 in Glasgow
said to be sceptical as there would not be enough staff to teach postgraduate courses. Some claim that the future of the entire faculty is at stake. Lecturer Dr. Pam Hirch claims the move is "asset stripping; a plot designed to rob Peter to pay Paul, or to shore up another Tripos which is in trouble." While University officials deny this is a cost-cutting measure, the Committee that compiled the proposals deemed the Education Tripos "not presently cost-effective" and attracting "applicants whose A Level module scores do not match those in other subjects and who therefore do not necessarily rank as being of the highest quality." Meetings between students and faculty and university officials have been taking place over the weekend, and a petition opposing the changes, signed by faculty staff and students, is due to be sent to Vice Chancellor Alison Richard this week.
NICE BUILDING: But not nice enough...
JW- £20, taxi to airport 10/12/09 The Christmas cards were sent out to various people inside and outside EUSA on behalf of the Association last year. Not included in the list of expenses released to The Student on 20 January this year: •
For some conferences, trips and events EUSA will pay for sabbs travel out of the Association’s general expenditure, rather than requiring a specific expenses claim form.
•
The EUSA President and VicePresidents’ salary is linked to the amount of a postgraduate grant, currently it is at £18,000 p/a. On top of this, they receive a block of £4,000 in ‘expenses’ that is designed to pay for costs which a postgraduate student would not usually incur.
•
Evan Beswick has claimed for around £50 worth of expenses during his tenure as Vice-President for Academic Affairs. As he has so far forgotten to pick up the cheques for them, we can’t verify what he has claimed for. Vice-President for Societies and Activities Camilla Pierry submitted no claims.
news@studentnewspaper.org
FLICKR: THEREVSTEVE
Tits McGhee
The Lowdown
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
news@studentnewspaper.org
6 News
Lara Zarum
The visa application process for foreign students entering the UK has come under new scrutiny following the failed Christmas Day bombing of Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit by Nigerian student Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. Abdulmutallab studied Mechanical Engineering for three years at University College London before graduating in June of last year. According to Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling, student visas provide a massive 'loophole' for people to enter the country under false pretences of studying at British colleges and universities. Grayling insisted that changes to the immigration system proposed by the Conservatives “will transform the system, making it much more difficult for those who want to abuse it, whilst encouraging genuine students to come to our colleges and universities.” Universities Scotland, an umbrella body for the Scottish higher education sector, however, has cautioned that tighter immigration and visa laws could prevent potential international students from pursuing higher education in Scotland. Director Alastair Sim said: “We just cannot afford a message getting out
that appears to suggest that overseas students aren’t welcome here.” The number of overseas students at universities and colleges in Scotland has doubled over the past seven years, bringing tens of millions of pounds to the Scottish economy. Sim highlighted the importance of maintaining Scotland’s reputation as a world leader in higher education, saying that “international students are especially important to Scotland, not least because of the needs of the Scottish economy. Scotland does not always have the international profile of London, and we just can’t afford to scare away potential students.” In 2008 the UK government implemented a points-based system for issuing visas, under which applications for a British visa are made under one of five possible tiers for the purpose of work, study, or training. The system is currently under review, and a report is expected to be published in coming weeks. Proposals include measures to crack down on bogus colleges acting as a false sponsor for visa applicants, and the review will consider whether visas should be granted only to students on degree and postgraduate courses. Robin McAlpine, public affairs manager for Universities Scotland, pointed out that any new immigration laws would affect institutions
Flickr: DAN PALUSKA
Foreign students under new scrutiny in wake of failed Detroit bombing
north of the border as well. Speaking to The Student, he said that the system proposed by the Conservatives could deter students from applying to internationally renowned Scottish universities. “What we are basically saying is, Give us a break. You know Edin-
burgh University isn’t an immigration scam. Everybody on the planet knows that.” “Scotland has spent almost ten years laying out the welcome mat for international students,” McAlpine said. “Those efforts have made a real difference to Scotland’s universities
and Scotland as a whole.” McAlpine expressed concern that “knee-jerk visa rules” could have dire consequences on the reputation of Scottish higher education, adding that “it doesn’t take much to send the wrong message.” news@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Feeling opinionated? comment@studentnewspaper.org
8 Comment
An unsurprising relationship Kyle Bellamy asks those criticising Americans to take a look in the mirror
THERE HAS been a recent resurgence of anti-American sentiment visible in the UK, which had noticeably dropped following Obama’s election. In many ways this is understandable; the ordinary Americans most likely to appear on our screens tend to be waving placards about healthcare reform being ‘socialist’ or ‘fascist’. When asked their opinions on the UK's National Health Service, the bile in their throats is clearly audible as they relate with absolute certainty bizarre and ill-informed statements which they claim are based on news reports. Fox News, well-known mouthpiece of the US right-wing, was recently revealed to be the most trusted source of news in the country. Many will be fa-
miliar with its main spokesman, Glenn Beck, a bombastic demagogue who regularly brings himself to tears while pontificating against the apparent evils of the Obama administration, such are the apparent power of his words. No summary of anti-American sentiment is complete without mention-
“
Glenn Beck regularly brings himself to tears while pontificating, such are the power of his words."
ing the exasperation many outsiders feel towards many Americans’ inflexible and archaic attitude to religion. The suppression of the teaching of the theory of evolution in several states and the reluctance of some Americans to separate religious and political issues are the most frequently utilised examples. One can, however, find similar scenes without looking across the Atlantic. In 2009 The Sun was the UK’s most-read newspaper, with a readership of 7.8 million. This paper famously claimed immigrants butcher and eat swans (a story, it was later admitted, with no basis in fact), once alleged that the UK was run by what it termed a ‘gay Mafia’ and that everyday
features a topless model 'commenting' on the news. The right-wing, reactionary, misogynistic and homophobic political line of this publication and Fox News are very similar. Needless to say, both Fox News and The Sun are owned by billionaire Rupert Murdoch. In response to the ignorant Americans that grace our screens, one only has to witness the equally ignorant UK citizens that are frequently featured on the commonly featured ‘Your Views’ segments of the news, to realise that such comments are not representative of the population at large and are generally featured precisely because of their controversial nature. Turning to religion, there have been recent concerns in academia due to
A degree of class
RESPONSE
Matthew Macaulay questions the value of academic qualifications RECENT COMMENTS made by the headmaster of Harrow School expressing his concern that pupils could be misled over the value of “high grades in soft subjects” has highlighted the overwhelming inadequacies of the current educational system. Barnaby Lenon said that the scrapping of Olevels and CSEs in 1988 had led to a rapid decline in educational standards, and that we were in danger of producing a generation of delusional students who believe that having a qualification, regardless of its quality, entitles them to a job. Schools Minister Vernon Coaker dismissed the comments, insisting that A-levels and GCSEs were “robust, rigorous and well-respected”. Over the past 20 years the proportion of ‘A’ grades at A-level has risen from 9 percent to 26.7 percent, gradually devaluing the qualification. An ‘A’ grade today is the equivalent to a ‘C’ grade in the 1980s. In a recent study researchers interviewed 61 admission tutors and 75 percent of them explained the year on year increase by “students being able to re-sit the exam several times”. At the comprehensive I attended, had re-sits not been available, scores of pupils would not have attained the calibre of grades that they did.
“
A-Levels must be made more academically rigorous and nonacademic talent encouraged." The current A-level system results in an intense and exam-heavy educa-
CRASH: A-Level Media Studies was a bit too much for him tional experience, where teachers have to teach for the exam instead of having the freedom to educate. More and more universities are requiring candidates to sit entrance examinations because A-levels are becoming unfit for purpose, and increasingly university admission tutors are favouring the International Baccalaureate which is run without government interference. The government has set social mobility above academic excellence and this has lead to a ‘dumbing down’ of qualifications. The education system with its ‘all must have prizes’ ethos does not reflect the competitive reality of life outside education. Under Labour the number of state school A-
level candidates taking Media Studies has increased fourfold, while hard subjects are increasingly the preserve of private schools. University should be reserved for the academically capable and yet Labour still pushes for this ridiculous figure of 50 percent of young people at university. The key to social mobility is maintaining academic standards. People from disadvantaged backgrounds should be given the opportunity to compete, but if they’re not academically inclined, they should be provided with a viable alternative option such as vocational training. Labour has tricked young people into thinking that studying degrees such as Media
higher education students and school pupils failing biology exams due to quoting passages from the Bible and other religious texts while attempting to disprove Darwin’s theories. While not on the same level as effectively banning the teaching of evolution, this is a significant development that illustrates an overlooked issue. Many of the criticisms levelled at America (rightly or wrongly) can be seen to apply to the UK too, perhaps not equally, but to some extent. AntiAmericanism, as well as being based on an inaccurate picture of the US, serves only to cause individuals to overlook similar phenomena at home and obstructs them from analysing and addressing them.
Studies, Photography and Contemporary Art at sub-standard universities is a viable option and will stand them in good stead for a job at the end. This is a fallacy, and I know numerous people who were under this illusion and now find themselves having finished their degree, riddled with debt and unable to find a job. A-levels must be made more academically rigorous and nonacademic talent encouraged again. The restoration of something like the Polytechnics would again give prestige to advanced vocational studies. Tony Blair’s 1997 mantra ‘Education, education, education’ was a promise that has yet to be fulfilled.
MATTHEW IS quite right in pointing out the contradictions of New Labour's approach to higher education, but it is a shame that it rests largely on fairly crude, well-worn caricatures of subjects like Media Studies. About half of the second- and third-years of my Social and Political Science undergrad degree revolved around media sociology: I found it an extremely engaging and academically demanding subject that required at least as much work as my tough Economics and Political Philosophy modules. Equally, my undergrad university offered Art History courses, which were also extremely rigorous and one of the hardest courses to pass. The issue is not so much the content of these subjects, but how they are are taught and examined. There is no such thing as a 'hard' or 'easy' course; courses can be as difficult as those who set the exams and mark the coursework are willing to make them. If a Physics degree is more higly valued than a Media Studies one, it is not because knowledge of Neptune's atmopshere is any more valid than knowing about how newspapers affect our political beliefs, but because more is expected by the examiners, which does not have to be the case. We need to look at making all subjects more demanding and come to a clear, more consistent position on the sorts of skills that a degree - any degree - should demand from its students; create some sort of national benchmark that a course should reach in order to be studied as an honours degree. This would be a much more valuable exercise than indulging in academic McCarthyism, denouncing some subjects and praising others. Dan Nicholson-Heap
Tell us what you think! comment@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Comment 9
Inequality in depth Dan Hope questions the assertion that ‘we’re all middle class now’
THE PAST few weeks have seen the (re)emergence of a hugely important social debate about the nature of inequality in Britain. Communities Secretary John Denham brought the issue into focus two weeks ago with a bold speech in which he contended that to understand and tackle social inequality we should look beyond one-dimensional arguments that see racial discrimination as the primary catalyst of disadvantage and consider the role that social class plays in explaining societal divisions. The following week, this theme was reiterated by another cabinet minister, Harriet Harman, whose proposed Equality Bill similarly stresses the need to erode social class differenc=es in order to make strides towards a fairer society. Inevitably, critics will see these moves as pre-election posturing; a ‘class war’ strategy that aims to draw a line between a Labour party reaching out to the white working classes as the Tories serve the interests of the privileged. However, put into the political context of recent years, highlighting class inequality seems both
“
Social class position has a greater bearing on life chances than any other variable." novel and refreshing; a realistic rebuttal to John Prescott’s claim that ‘we’re all middle class now’ and the Blairite assertion that ‘Britain is a classless society’. Such political idealism served only to mask the ugly truth that social class is still too big a deal to be swept under the carpet.
YUMMY: Marx and Engels wanted to overthrow capitalism but got distracted by the delicious, delicious seals. Of course, the worry is that by engaging fervently in social class discourses, we negate the issue of racial inequality. To do so would be naïve, but what we must realise, as Denham does, is that to reduce social inequality to a question of race is to oversimplify it. Ethnicity can only be viewed in conjunction with social class position; the difficulty lies in the fact that there is significant overlap between the two factors and disentangling one from the other is far from a simple task. However, there are data we may draw upon that might help us to at least attempt this separation and
ultimately offer support to Harman’s declaration that social class background is the single biggest factor affecting life chances in Britain today. If we look, for example, at levels of educational attainment, we discover findings that cannot be explained by the presence of racial discrimination. A study by Sheffield Hallam University has shown that a significant proportion of white students are performing at a similar level to their black, Pakistani and Bangladeshi classmates while Chinese and Indian pupils can be expected to be the highest achievers at this stage.
The differences the study emphasises in explaining educational attainment are those between children from professional backgrounds and those from largely unskilled, manual backgrounds. The fact that some ethnic minorities underachieve educationally is more likely to be explained by the coincidence of their race with their socio-economic status. Furthermore, similar studies have, in fact, shown some improvement among ethnic minority students while the gulf between social classes has proven to be a far more immutable object. If we think carefully about this matter for any amount of time it seems intuitively more plausible that social class position has a greater bearing on life chances than any other variable, including race. Is it more likely that the Afro-Caribbean boy who underachieves at school does so because of inherent racism in the schools system or because he suffers the material and cultural deprivation that results from an underprivileged background? It would be of grave concern if the former proved to be the reality and while there are, sadly, inevitable instances of racial prejudice it is surely increasingly the case that these are isolated incidents rather than the basis of an endemic problem. Social class on the other hand is, by its very nature, endemic. It is worth restating that to hone in on the limiting nature of social class is not to degrade the all-too-real issue of racism in this country, but it is also worth impelling people to realise that, in spite of previous claims, social class divisions still largely dictate the terms of inequality in Britain and we should commend any government initiative that genuinely seeks to iron out these inequalities.
The right to choose
Calum Lithgow argues in favour of the Holyrood End of Life Assistance Bill IN SCOTLAND suicide is, and always has been, legal. The End of Life Assistance Bill recently put forward by Independent MSP Margo MacDonald outlines seeks to regulate a form of active euthanasia termed assisted suicide; on request, an attending physician can act immediately to end the patient’s life. The reason behind the proposal of this Bill is the current stance of Scottish law regarding assisted suicide: there isn’t one. The presumption is that assisted suicide cases are tried under the umbrella of homicide, although there’s a great deal of legal uncertainty on the issue. The Bill states that a patient who is terminally ill or permanently physically incapacitated can request assistance with suicide. The request must be approved by a doctor and a psychiatrist twice, once initially and then again after a 15 day cooling off period. The suicide is then supervised by the approving doctor. Relatives and close friends are banned from administering the drug, the patient must be over 16 and the Bill does not apply to those with degenerate mental conditions such as dementia. When parliament was asked, “Are you, in principle, for or against the End of Life Assistance Bill?” the result was
that 17 MSPs were for, 53 against, and 20 undecided. Although it is an obvious minority, Margo MacDonald is taking those 17 replies in favour as a positive sign. The fact is that the general public consistently polls more than 80 percent in favour of assisted suicide, often reaching as high as 95 percent. It’s just that the few against shout louder than the somewhat apathetic masses that are for, and it’s politically safer to agree with those that are outraged and vocal.
the daughter’s request. Jurors were told that following a failed suicide attempt, the girl’s mother crushed up pills and fed them to her through her nasal tube, gave her morphine and injected three syringes of air into her veins. This seems like a rather drawn out, painful and emotionally scarring process which could have been avoided if the practice was legalised. Furthermore there seems little point of it being illegal if when it reaches court the jury (who are after all made up from a public overwhelmingly in favour of assisted suicide) they rule that no crime has There seems little been committed. point in it being illegal Of course there are many arguments against legalising assisted suiif when it reaches the cide. Foremost is that the safeguards detailed in the Bill are insufficient to jury, they rule that guarantee that the patient truly wishes no crime has been to end their life, that their decision is completely uninfluenced. committed." There are concerns that, for exPublic opinion was clearly demon- ample, elderly grandparents whose strated by the recent case in England family are paying expensive medical of a mother who, by explicit request, care may feel obliged to request assisted ended the life of her severely ill daugh- suicide if they consider themselves to ter. The case went to court as murder, be a financial burden. Or that doctors but the jury ruled not guilty after the may, unintentionally, convey that asmother admitted to assisted suicide sisted suicide is the best option simply and clear evidence was provided of because it avoids costly end-of-life care
“
coming out of their budget. There are valid concerns that if assisted suicide becomes commonplace then it will have a detrimental affect on medical research into terminal illnesses and pain relief, and the infrastructure for care and support of the dying. Many religions object to any form of suicide, and the faithful are concerned that legalising assisted suicide is only making it easier and more socially acceptable. There are evidently downsides to the passing of the End of Life Assistance Bill, but the important principle is that of free will. If someone clearly wants to die then who are we to stop them? Yes, there will be mistakes and the safeguards will fail occasionally; yes, medical research may suffer, and every undesirable situation come to pass at some time or another, but no system in the world is perfect. No law can be relied on completely to produce the right results all the time. People should be able to make their own decisions on aspects that affect their life as significantly as their death, and, if only because the public majority want it and we live in a democracy, assisted suicide should be legalised.
The Red Light Enquiry WHEN NOT in the midst of an essay crisis, I've been spending most of this week watching the actually quite interesting Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War. I was surprised, given how important an occasion it is, that it seems to be taking place in a grotty, windowless basement. The hastily knocked up set, the dim, gloomy atmosphere and the sense that you're seeing and hearing things (at least, in theory) that have been hitherto hidden reminds me of those seedy sex booths you get in the red light district of Amsterdam, with Sir John himself ruling the roost as an ageing, flabby madam.
Right on cue, along comes a tanned, wrinkling, swaggering Blair, like an aging lothario past his prime, but desperate to prove that he still has it; flexing in front of the panel and repeating his "I did it once, and I'd do it again" message over and over again. The panellists are underwhelming; the woman to the right of Chillers, the one with grey, straggly hair, looks like she's been dragged in from the street. And this is essentially what the Chilcot Inquiry is: a faux, contrived peep show designed to show a bit of leg in order to make us think that we know what really went on. Enough to satisfy us, without actually telling us anything we didn't already know. TALKING OF things we didn't already know, I'd like to draw your attention to the plight of WikiLeaks. Set up in 2006, the website has recieved millions of documents from concerned whistleblowers. BNP membership lists, notes from meetings of the secretive Bilderberg group, documents relating to illegal toxic waste dumping in Africa and the contents of Sarah Palin's Yahoo email account have all been put into the public domain, thanks to WikiLeaks. However, it has now run out of money and is appealing for donations. Go to www.wikileaks.org and donate anything you can to keep this vital resource alive. Dan Nicholson-Heap
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
10
Something to say? editors@studentnewspaper.org
Editorial
Join us! The Student is always looking for budding reporters, reviewers, illustrators, photographers and designers to join our team. No experience necessary! If you're interested, here's how to track us down: » In person: Meetings are held in the Pentland Room, Pleasance, every Tuesday at1:15pm. Socials are held in Teviot Balcony Room on Tuesday at 9:00pm » By email: editors@studentnewspaper.org » On Facebook: tinyurl.com/StudentFacebook » On Twitter: twitter.com/TheStudentPaper
A quick history lesson... The Student was launched by Scottish novelist and poet Robert Louis Stevenson in 1887, as an independent voice for Edinburgh's literati. It is Britain's oldest university newspaper and is an independent publication, distributing 6,000 copies free to the University of Edinburgh. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lord Kitchener, David Lloyd George and Winston Churchill are a few of the famous people who have been associated with the paper. In the 1970s, Gordon Brown was the editor in chief, working alongside Robin Cook who at the time was in charge of film and concert reviews.
Disclaimer
This week, The Student decided to wear spandex while having Bulgarian fun times on the beach, all in the name of anarchy. Or at least attempt to join another society... THE STUDENT Aspirations survey (pages 12-13) discovered this week that an impressive 85 percent of Edinburgh university students take part, or have taken part, in a student society. Blissfully unaware of any activity taking place outside of what we generously refer to as our 'office', we thought we'd dip a toe in the soothing waters of extra-curricular, CV boosting procrastination. Below are some of the lesserknown of Edinburgh's societies. If yours is mentioned, don't be offended. Remember, ALL publicity is GOOD publicity. Lighthearted mockery works wonders for the profile of any society and will be a damn site more effective than the A-Z of societies on the EUSA website which has proved a prolific source of bafflement. And no, we promise there will not be a feature next week, Voice-style, where we infiltrate some unsuspecting society through the inventive use of liquid eyeliner and backcombing... Confucianism Study Society Run by self-proclaimed ‘culturelovers’, this society just can’t get enough of the 2,500-year-old Chinese big man. Indeed, testament to their Confucianinspired struggle to build an idyllic and harmonious society, their recent Chinese New Year party was lauded as - wait for it - a ‘lovely event.’ The food, by all accounts, was both ‘delicious’ and ‘plentiful’. Worryingly, however, for their continuing noble endeavours for collective calm, games at the event were reportedly ‘robust.’ Perhaps we’ll stick to the occasional Chow Mein and incense stick.
Conservative and Unionist Association
Anarchy Society
“Offers something for all Conservative-minded students.” What does that mean? A cup of PG tips (skimmed milk)? A peppered ham sandwich on wholemeal? Close readings of the latest poisonous drivel from The Telegraph? Monocles and moustaches? They've met the shadow cabinet, apparently. That's cool. I've met Philippa Forrester from Tomorrow's World. “From discussing current politics to partying,” apparently, “EUCUA is there.” We keenly followed encouragement to “get involved through our website”, but “The browser could not find the host server for the provided address.” Darn it. Bulgarian Society BULGARIAN FUN TIMES BULGARIAN FUN TIMES FUN FUN BULGARIAN TIMES BULGARIAN FUN TIMES TIMES FUN BULGARIAN FUN TIMES BULGARIAN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN Fun
You won't find any members of the Anarchy Society in the Vixens (or at least, we don't think so.) In fact, you won't find the Anarchy society on the Societies directory on the EUSA website. They're too anarchic for that. They did however have a stall at the Refreshers' Fair in Potterow and despite their subterfuge of EUSA indexing their stall was more popular than The Student's (shocking, dear readers, we know). Their members can be identified by their intimidating footwear and penchant for long black trenchcoats. Such menacing attire is their way of saying "fuck you, system," don't you know? Creationist Society And in the beginning there was the word of God. And then there was light. And then there were trees. And then there were dinosaurs and then a meteor. Then humans appeared, with teacakes and nappies and anarchists. It makes complete sense. Cocktail society
Cheerleading Society Give me a V. Give me an I. Give me an X. Give me an I. Give me an N. What does it spell? Oh,wait ... nevermind.The Vixens were first established in 2004 when its founding Vixens watched Bring It On and decided to bring the wholesome American spectacle of chanting and waving pom-poms to our melancholy grey city. Ideal if you want to learn how to do the splits or become part of a leaning tower of spandex. Not ideal if you have better things to do.
This cocktail society appreciates cocktails. The cocktail society is dedicated solely to the appreciation of cocktails. The cocktail society will be able to tell you the difference between Sex on the Beach and a Sloe Comfortable Screw. They run cocktail masterclasses where you can learn about the arts of mixology, sociology and toxicology. Or, alternatively, you can drink cheap gin and pretend Prohibition never ended. Computer Society U$
Teviot Row, Bristo Sq Debating Hall Wed 17 February 10.00am – 4.00pm
10 INPUT “What is your name: “,
20 PRINT “Hello “; U$ 30 INPUT “How many stars do you want: “, N 40 S$ = “” 50 FOR I = 1 TO N 60 S$ = S$ + “*” 70 NEXT I 80 PRINT S$ 90 INPUT “Do you want more stars? “, A$ 100 IF LEN(A$) = 0 THEN GOTO 90 110 A$ = LEFT$(A$, 1) 120 IF A$ = “Y” OR A$ = “y” THEN GOTO 30 130 PRINT “Goodbye “; U$ 140 END
)RU )ODWV $YDLODEOH IRU /HWWLQJ $GYLFH %X\LQJ DQG 6HOOLQJ )HVWLYDO 2SWLRQV $FFRPPRGDWLRQ
The Student welcomes letters for publication. The editors, however, reserve the right to edit or modify letters for clarity. Anonymous letters will not be printed but names will be witheld on request. The letters printed are the opinions of individuals outwith The Student and do not represent the views of the editors or the paper as a whole.
Diagnostics Society
Editors Susan Robinson/Charlie King News Neil Pooran/Anna MacSwan Senior News Writers Josh King/Jordan Campbell/Julia Symmes Cobb/Harrison Kelly Comment Dan NicholsonHeap/Kyle Bellamy Features Sara D'Arcy/Catherine McGloin/Juliet Evans Lifestyle Nell Frabotta/Wanja Ochwada Art&Theatre Hannah Ramsey/Lisa Parr/Luke Healey Music Andrew Chadwick/Catherine Sylvain Film Kimberlee Mclaughlan/Shan Bertelli TV Paddy Douglas Tech Richard Lane/Jonny Mowat Sport Martin Domin/Alastair Shand
If you imagined University was a series of black-tie functions in gothic surroundings, fine wines and pretentious waffle, then Diagnostics is the society for you. The society was founded in 1787 out of the Scottish Enlightenment to bring a more empirical and structured focus to debate. Although now-a-days, the speeches are mainly a mixture of jingoism and knob gags. This year’s motions have included “This Society would rather be a buckfast capitalist than a champagne socialist” and “The only good thing to have come out of Europe is the Wine Lake” If you enjoy getting over-dressed and indulging in fine oratory, then do get in touch with the society.
Copy Editing Rachel Shauger/Lara Zarum
Photography Tony Sim/Neil Hodgins/James Pope/Julia Symmes Cobb Illustration Menna Jenkins/Olivia Floyer
Website Jack Schofield Online Editor Craig Wilson President Liz Rawlings Treasurer Michaela Turner
Advertising Tony Foster 0131 650 9189 Student Newspaper, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ editors@studentnewspaper.org
Student Newspaper, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Tel: 0131 650 9189. The Student lists links to third party websites, but does not endorse them or guarantee their authenticity or accuracy. © Student Newspaper Society. All rights reserved. No section in whole or part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmited in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission of the publisher. The Student is published by the Student Newspaper Society, 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh EH8 9TJ. Distributed by Lothian Couriers, 3 John Muir Place, Dunbar EH42 1GD. Tel: 01368 860115. Printed by Cumbrian Newsprint (part of the CN Group), Carlisle Print Centre, Newspaper House, Dalston Road, Cumbria CA2 5UA, on Monday February 1st 2010. Tel: 01228 612600. Registered as a newspaper at the Post Office.
CEEQOOQFCVKQPſPFGT a3_accommodationfair.indd 1
27/01/2010 14:52:57
studentnewspaper.org Tuesday February 2 2010
FEATURESINTERVIEWSREVIEWS » ARTMUSICFILM » LIFESTYLE » TECHTV
ARTS & FEATURES
IN THE STUDENT THIS WEEK
YEASAYERS
WEREWOLVES IN FILM P19
MUSIC P18
CELEBRITY BIG BROTHER TV P20
The battle for truth
Catherine McGloin comes face to face with a Nazi-hunter (and discovers he's not a Basterd) he Nazis' ‘Final Solution’, systematiT cally carried out during the closing chapter of the Second World War, was
one of, if not the most atrocious, acts of genocide in modern history. It reached far beyond the Jewish ghettos of Warsaw, the death camps of Hungary and the gas chambers of Treblinka. Anyone who has ventured through the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau will have felt the chill that accompanies the recognition that this was the terminal for thousands of Jews, gypsies and ‘social deviants’ who all came to the same horrifying end. For one man the victims of the Holocaust will never be forgotten. Through his life’s work, Dr Efraim Zuroff preserves the memory of the six million victims, ensuring that they are not merely referenced in the annals of history as a faceless mass. Dr Zuroff, along with his colleagues at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, delves daily into a dark and disturbing period of history, dealing with men and monsters that most of us only encounter in Key Stage textbooks. A New York Jew, trained historian, the director of the Israel Office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Dr Zuroff is a Nazi-hunter. Forget Tarantino; Dr Zuroff, an amiable man yet one who never fails to tell it straight, describes his work rather modestly as doing “whatever has to be done to facilitate the prosecution of Nazi war criminals.” Yet Dr Zuroff ’s work is far from uncomplicated. After the war, many of the Nazis involved in the mass extermination of Jews illegally applied for political asylum in Western Europe, for example the United Kingdom, as well as the US and Australia. Almost six decades after the atrocities, Holocaust perpetrators continue to be afforded a safe haven: “It’s not as simple as it seems because these days it’s not enough to find a Nazi war criminal and to find the evidence against them. Very often, in order for someone who committed crimes during World War II to be put on trial you have to convince the country where he or she committed the crime, or the country that sent that person to commit that crime, to put them on trial. Although it should be a purely judicial issue it’s very much a political issue.” In his courageous search to bring the last remaining perpetrators of the Holocaust to justice, Dr Zuroff acknowledges the many roles he has to play, jokingly referring to his position as “one-third detective, one-third historian and one-third political activist.” Lack of political will is one of Dr Zuroff ’s toughest obstacles that must be overcome to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. This has been most notable in countries such as Latvia and Lithuania, where there was, and to some extent remains, a degree of reluctance to admit to their role as Nazi collaborators under
OPERATION LAST CHANCE: Efraim Zuroff fights against the inevitable tides of time
the fascist regime. Dr Zuroff admits: “In cases where there’s no question about identity, there’s no question about criminality. They’re healthy and can be brought to justice; what’s stopping us is the lack of political will.” Using an analogy of a serial killer, he highlights the disparity in justice between crimes that are perceived as requiring urgent investigation for the good of public safety and the prosecution of Holocaust perpetrators, a task that governments are less than willing to embark upon. “Governments know that these people are not going to do that again and if they just wait it out the person will die and that will be the end of it. Why go through the bother, why embarrass their country by bringing this person to justice when they can just wait it out?” Successive British governments have given limited assistance to Dr Zuroff and his colleagues, suggesting that “if not for STV, if not for the All-Party War Crimes Group, if not for a couple of brave journalists who went against the trend, the War Crimes Bill would never have been passed.” However, the presence of a Nazi war criminal living in Edinburgh convinced the British government to set up its own commission of inquiry, slow as this process was. “It took us four-and-a-half years to get that bill passed. It was only passed after it was rejected twice by the House of
Lords, and we lost valuable time.” This attitude falls below Dr Zuroff ’s threshold of tolerance: “My response to that is that the presence of unprosecuted Nazi war criminals in society is a form of moral pollution. Just because the person won’t commit murder again doesn’t mean that we should ignore the murders that he or she committed in the past.” However, time continues to pass, making Dr Zuroff ’s endeavours ever more urgent, throwing up new and frustrating difficulties: “I say we’re in injury time, the match is over but the referee adds a couple of minutes. That’s what’s left and because of the importance of the crimes themselves and the heinous nature, I want to do whatever I can to hold these people accountable. This can be a very frustrating job.” Operation Last Chance, the joint project of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Targum Shlishi Foundation, and the title of Dr Zuroff ’s new book, openly highlights the scarce time left for the Nazi-hunters to achieve further successful prosecutions. The initiative offers rewards of up to 10,000 euros for information leading to the punishment of Holocaust perpetrators - an incentive that has not gone without criticism. To date, it has been launched in countries across Eastern Europe, including Austria and Germany, as well as some parts of Latin America. Sub-titled 'One man’s quest to bring Nazi war criminals to justice', Dr Zuroff ’s
most recent publication celebrates an important chapter in the history of the Holocaust: “It’s 30 years of hunting Nazis, it’s two almost cataclysmic events that have kept this issue alive, contrary to all expectations. One is the discovery that the Anglo-Saxon democracies admitted thousands of the worst of Hitler’s henchmen and allowed them to rebuild their lives. Second was the break-up of the Soviet Union and the transition into democracy, which opened up potentially very important opportunities to bring some of these people to justice.” Justice is what matters, as Dr Zuroff describes the Holocaust as 'Europe against the Jews'. Nonetheless, it is increasingly important that the future of appropriating justice for the victims of the Holocaust is directed towards education. More importantly, trivialising the Holocaust, taking this term out of context and applying it indiscriminately is something that Dr Zuroff feels particularly incensed by: “I view it as a battle for truth, for historical truth.” However, Dr Zuroff believes that while the threat of Holocaust denial has receded, “what is far more dangerous today is Holocaust inversion: turning the victim into the victimiser, making all sorts of ridiculous comparisons between the situation in the Middle East and the situation during World
War II. There’s the whole issue of distortion. There’s efforts by post-communist countries to try and steal the prestige of the Holocaust by comparing communism to the Holocaust. They use that as a way of minimising their own role in the crimes and to get back against the Jews, who in the minds of many Eastern Europeans were associated with communism. They create a symmetry that absolves them of any guilt.” Personally and professionally, Dr Zuroff assures everyone that he is not prepared to acknowledge defeat just yet. On the subject of Hollywood’s latest interpretation by Quentin Tarantino, Inglorious Basterds, he has mixed opinions: “Oh my God! First it was like, Wow! But after further reflection, I think the movie is a very cruel commentary on the fate of Jews during the Holocaust because it takes people who really had very little opportunity and power to save themselves and it makes a mockery of their fate.” With the current trial of Nazi SS guard Ivan Demjanjuk in Germany, an event billed as ‘The Last Holocaust Trial’, it is clear that Nazi war criminals are not untraceable monsters beyond justice. They are criminals that impassioned men, such as Dr Zuroff, continue to chase in the eventual hope that some level of atonement can be achieved for the millions of Holocaust victims.
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
features@studentnewspaper.org
12 Features
Here's looking It's a big bad world out there and The Student wants to know what you want from it. completed by 124 University of Edinburgh students, asking why they came to university, to, so perhaps it is not surprising that 37 percent disclosed that they came to Edinburgh to move away from their parents. This would certainly support recent research from the University of Westminster which found that one in four London university students were 'forced' into their degree subject by pushy parents. Although it may not be as dramatic as it sounds, as one third-year Edinburgh Law student explains: 'It wasn’t a case of "do law or you’re disowned" but when I got my offers they told me they wanted me to do law. They would have been okay if I had chosen history but it wasn’t what they wanted. It was more to impress them.' And she is not alone in this: 'I know a couple of others who have done law simply because they didn’t know what to do. I wouldn’t call it coercion as such but more like, "what are you going to do with an English/ History/Classics degree?"' She says she doesn’t necessarily dislike her degree but feels as though she is 'going through the motions' and is 'jealous when I see other people who are so passionate about what they study but I don’t really feel like there’s any other alternatives.
I
t would not be an understatement to say that the landscape of higher education has changed slightly over the past 50 years. Arguably, the university demographic has changed and, if graduate unemployment figures are anything to go by, the status of a degree has eroded. An undergraduate degree is no longer a passport to what might seem a like a mythical land to some, the promised land of a paid 'graduate-level' job. That’s not to say
“
Where I come from, university is simply the next step in life after school."
“
I get jealous when I see other people who are so passionate about what they study."
menna Jenkins
that there are no ivory towers left in academia, but if recent cries from the Russell group of universities are to be heeded - that they will be ‘brought to their knees’ by projected cuts to government funding - it seems that their foundations will truly be shaken. In this climate it is perhaps of interest to ask and evaluate what students really want and expect from their time at university. In The Student Aspirations Survey, students were asked to identify the motivations behind their decision to attend the University of Edinburgh in the first place. They were asked to share their aspirations and evaluate whether university was helping them to achieve their ambitions. In order to get a clearer picture of how students were going about achieving their goals, we asked what sort of activities they had been involved in and also how they thought their university experience could have been improved. It will come as a shock to few people that students come to university for a multitude of different reasons. To some, however, it may come as a surprise that a sizeable proportion of students surveyed came to university for no particular reason, with 25 percent admitting that they came to university simply because ‘they didn’t know what else to do.’ Or, as one person commented, ‘Where I come from, university is simply and generally the next step in life after school.’ Of course, it is an enviable few who know exactly what to do with their lives after school, but at least two-thirds of respondents came to university knowing that they wanted to get a good job after completing their studies. Many tutors may also be heartened to know that 75 percent of students applied to university because they loved learning and
were passionate about their chosen subject. This hopefully balances out the 20 percent of people who came to university for pubbing and clubbing, and the six percent who considered university an opportunity to find their future partner. A more
driven (although not necessarily less financially motivated) 25 percent hoped that their degree would earn them more money. It remains to be seen whether the majority of students are not money-driven or just have a pessimistic (or realistic)
opinion of the earning potential of their university education. However, for some it was not entirely a question of choice. Fortyfive percent came to university because it was expected of them or because their parents wanted them
The thought of starting again is frightening as it would be a waste of time and money.' However, this is not endemic in the student population. One respondent explained he came to university ‘for the challenge, no one else in my family has a degree.’ Indeed, when asked what going to university has done for them, 63 percent said that it is helping them to realise their potential. Conversely, that means 37 percent must feel they are in some sort of stasis - but more about them later. A positive 70 percent agreed that they had made friends for life, while an ambitious 40 percent of you have wasted no time in making useful contacts. Three-quarters said they have learned new skills and discovered new interests that they would not otherwise have had the chance to pursue if they hadn’t gone to university. When asked for examples, the answers were not particularly academic - Gallows humour, convention-organising and how to make beer - but nonetheless very useful life
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
features@studentnewspaper.org
Features 13
at you, kid Susan Robinson tells us the results of The Student Aspirations Survey which was what's good, what could be improved and what they want from the future. skills. And as half of those surveyed said they came to university for the social aspect, their activities such as music and photography prove their university experience is about more than just gaining qualifications. Unfortunately, not everyone was so enthused about their education, remarking, ‘it has taught me to lower
“
I went to university for the challenge, no one else in my family has a degree.'
my expectations’, ‘put off getting a job for four years’ and, according to one poor soul, ‘taught me I am a mediocre person’. Although, surely, even the best of us have felt overwhelmed at some point. Overall, three quarters of students said that university met their expectations and the vast majority admitted, knowing what they now know about the student experience, they still would have applied. However, it is significant to note that nine percent would not have applied, considering their own experience. When asked why, none
70 percent would have liked more guidance from tutors. Very few felt any pressure to achieve, only eight percent, and only six percent were in favour of a lighter workload. In fact, some students commented that they wanted more work, especially in the first two years and more contact time in lectures and tutorials. Many of the comments suggested a desire for a more personal touch, particularly in terms of feedback on essays and exams but also when it came to career planning. True, going to university is about learning but if universities are to produce employable graduates who can (and more importantly, want to) contribute to society then this perhaps needs to be addressed. As one respondent put it: ‘Closer relationships with staff, not feeling like a ‘statistic’ in such a large institution and a more ‘humanistic’ approach to learning.’ Another added, ‘from what I hear, Edinburgh is fine if you’re doing well but hopeless if you are struggling.’ Conversely, some felt that it was their fellow students who were holding them back, wishing that ‘other students had actually wanted to be there and to work hard’ and one happy customer simply said ‘great the way it is’. Of course, like anything else, what you get out of your student
THE BAD 9 PERCENT WOULD NOT HAVE APPLIED TO UNIVERSITY CONSIDERING THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE indicated that it was not worth the expense incurred; their issues were of a more personal nature. Half of the respondents said that it ‘just wasn’t for them’ and that it was as a result of not knowing what they wanted to do with their lives. Only one respondent said it was because they didn’t fit and another commented on lack of support. When all of the students were asked how their experience could have improved, their concerns were couched in two main areas: 60 percent think their time at university would have been more enjoyable if they hadn’t had money worries and
25 PERCENT SAY UNIVERSITY HAS NOT MET THEIR EXPECTATIONS 60 PERCENT FELT MONEY WORRIES HAD MARRED THEIR EXPERIENCE 70 PERCENT WOULD HAVE LIKED MORE GUIDANCE
experience depends upon the effort you put in. Only fifteen percent of students were not involved in any societies and an industrious 42 percent had done some form of work experience. Earning your first pay cheque is a rite of passage to some, and the real life experience gained invaluable, but 40 percent of those surveyed had never undertaken any paid work. However, a generous 30 percent had participated in charity work. How students spend their time at university is also a question of means. The question of class is never an easy one to approach. Certainly, seven percent chose not to answer when they were asked what class they considered themselves to be, one person commenting, ‘I don’t like to think about class; thinking about class is (ironically) very middle class.’ A statement that, in itself, could have an entire thesis devoted to it. What the survey found was that only one in five students considered themselves to be working class, the 70 percent majority proving that university is still very much a middle-class preserve. According to research conducted by the National Centre for Social Research in 2006, 57 percent of the UK population considered themselves to be working class. However, what became apparent when these figures were circulated by the BBC is that there was no clear definition of working class. The survey results support the idea that class stereotypes have no real grounding with boundaries between social strata being much more ambiguous. For example, only 15 percent of people who took part in the survey aspired to be rich and of those people almost all of them thought themselves middle class. What they also had in common is that they all thought their time at university could have been improved if they hadn’t had money worries and, as a result, nearly all had undertaken paid work. It would seem that growing up in what is thought of as a less wealthy and privileged background does not make someone more money driven or interested in going to university for the sake of financial gain. Another characteristic they nearly all shared was some aspect of parental pressure: most said that going to university had been expected by their parents, with many admitting they aspired to make their parents proud. Furthermore, most of the people who selected ‘being rich’ selected almost all the answers offered as aspirations; it was
THE GOOD 75 PERCENT OF STUDENTS ASPIRED TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER 70 PERCENT WERE PASSIONATE ABOUT THEIR SUBJECT 70 PERCENT HAVE MADE FRIENDS FOR LIFE 75 PERCENT HAD DISCOVERED NEW INTERESTS 40 PERCENT HAD DONE WORK EXPERIENCE something they desired but it wasn’t hugely important. However, a quarter of the people who selected ‘being rich’ actually chose it in preference to ‘being happy.’ It would seem that for some, money does equal happiness, or is at least a good substitute. Yet, of the very small number of people overall who came to university to 'find a future partner,' a number fell into this group. The notion that money attracts the opposite sex is perhaps one that dies hard and with 68 percent of students stating that they do want to get married, it is something that requires more scrutiny. When asked about their thoughts on marriage, many of the respondents took it as a veiled question about religious beliefs and indeed, a person’s views on this subject can indicate a lot about their personal beliefs, aspirations and desires. Although the desire to get married is still prevalent, many who commented spoke of it from a legal perspective or as a ‘social tool’ (tax benefit, anyone?). It was certainly a topic which provoked debate, with 18 percent choosing not to answer. Some claimed not to understand the question, although it was clear enough for the 14 percent who said that they did not believe in ‘’til death do us part.’ Despite the gripes, the debt, and
the lack of guidance voiced by many of the respondents, The Student Aspirations survey made for reading that would melt the heart of even the most ruthless admissions officer. Overall, 60 percent say they aspire to a meaningful relationship and a family and 90 percent simply want to be happy (if you gloss over the gloomy ten percent who feel this is an overlooked quality). Three-quarters wanted a successful career and almost half wanted to make their parents proud. Many had modest aspirations: ‘to help people’, ‘add to the world in some small way’, ‘make myself proud’, ‘to never stop learning.’ Others had grand plans and were downright ambitious: ‘carry forward an ever-advancing civilisation’, ‘not having to submit to the corporate yoke of mammon’ , ‘power in some tangible respect’, ‘to get what I want, on my own terms.’ Some were incredibly specific: ‘to
“
Some students commented that they actually wanted more work, especially in the first two years.'
be a talking head on BBC3 programmes.’ If there is any conclusion to draw from this survey it is that the university experience is more than the sum of its parts. For some, it was always just a foothold on the employment ladder; for others it was an opportunity to discover new interests that could lead to an entirely different career from what they first envisaged. University is not without its negative aspects, but if this survey proves anything it's that for the vast majority, despite social pressures, incurred debt, and uncertain prospects, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
features@studentnewspaper.org
14 Features
Paxman? No problem
Christine Johnston gets to know the laid-back team leading us to victory in University Challenge S
pot the odd one out: Carl Orff ’s apocalyptic ‘O Fortuna’; Wagner’s ‘Ride of the Valkyries’, widely known as the sound of Vietnam-era shock and awe; Bernard Herrman’s iconic, shrieking score to Psycho; Derek New’s quaint, merry string quartet, ‘College Boy’. To most of us, New’s theme tune to University Challenge evokes not impending doom, but the mild embarrassment of sitting at home, utterly stumped by a question on our own degree discipline. To those who have been there and done that, it means a little more. “When I hear that music now my heart goes a little funny”, says Max King, one of five students chosen to represent the University of Edinburgh in this year’s tournament. It’s been a good year so far, with the current team being the university’s first to reach the quarterfinals since the 2006/7 squad saw off the University of Birmingham and Oxford’s Corpus Christi College before losing to Durham. Former contestant Ishbel McFarlane remembers that year’s competition fondly, describing it as ‘definitely one of the most fun things
“
Our first press cut was in the Mirror saying 'students didn't know anything.'" I’ve ever done’. Yet it is the impact upon those around her that was the pinnacle of McFarlane’s experience: “The best thing about it was the amount of excitement all my friends and family felt in watching it.” Perhaps it’s this element – the fans, the alumni and the peers watching at home – that helps to explain the show’s 39-series-long domination of weeknight primetime TV, and its status for some as more meaningful than any university league table. With glamour and recognition lacking in the silent libraries and anonymous grades of day-to-day student life, it’s no surprise contestants jump at the rare chance to fire their neurons in public. With so much on the line, it’s surprising that, when I meet them just days after their tense encounter with Imperial College London in the quarter-finals has aired, this year’s team (completed by Hugh Brechin, Brian Gray, Alan Kimmitt and Andrew Matheson) are relatively relaxed. Though the quarterfinal ended in defeat for Edinburgh, the team still managed to break 100 and the race is not over yet; thanks to new rules, if they win two more matches, they will go through to the semis. All five remain remarkably modest despite their success in the tournament and the rigorous selection process they passed to get there. The last trials were held in Appleton Lecture Theatre with around 70 applicants. The simple process sees candidates sitting a fifty-question exam, which is then marked over the course of the afternoon. Although the teams we see on BBC2 consist of four people, five contestants are selected (one as a substitute), who then face further tests for compatibility. No mean feat, then, though as King explains: “I think we only went [to the trials] to see who did better out of the pair of us.” Matheson, his flatmate, is quick to interject: “I did
PAXMAN PRESSURE: "I hate the word 'sneering', I can't help the way my face looks." better!”. “The thing we did find out when we filled out the application forms together was that it was extremely hard to answer the question ‘why do you want to be on University Challenge?’ without using the word challenge somewhere”, says Brechin. “I used it and spelt it wrong - Challange!” King admits. “I think the first thing we did together was try and name all the countries that bordered Chad, like, they’ll probably ask us that, they’ll definitely ask us that.” This seemingly laidback attitude is consistent throughout the team, who credit spontaneity and luck more than skill or ambition. When I ask whether televisual glory was something they always wanted, they shrug off the suggestion. Matheson responds, “We joked about it.” Kimmitt is in a similar position, remembering: “I went along with a couple of friends and just did it for
“
The Oxford colleges have in-university championships. Manchester even has a coach." a laugh. I wasn’t really expecting anything to come of it.” The closest to a planned team place is Brechin, the team captain, who had been the reserve a year prior. Even he has only a vague history of similar activities. “I was in the school’s quiz team”, he explains, having grown up with a general
interest in the show: “We used to watch University Challenge as a family and I occasionally got a few answers. I did think I could be on that one day, but it was never an ambition.” As far as preparation goes, training montages and all-night cramming sessions are nowhere to be seen. “Some of us went to a pub quiz”, says Brechin – an event in which, according to Matheson, “we should have come third.” Comparing this relaxed approach to that of his competitors, Brechin explains that “the Oxford colleges have in-university championships where the college teams compete against each other. Manchester even has a coach.” Despite the team’s nonchalance, they acknowledge that this campaign has meant more to them – and to the university’s legacy – than their tactics might suggest. “There was a little bit of pressure’, Kimmitt allows. “Someone has run a University Challenge statistics site since the show has restarted and Edinburgh is the team that’s appeared the most. So if we hadn’t qualified… Anything more than that was a bonus.” King adds: “Most of the time, we were just happy to be there and not to go out in the first round.” King, however, was not aware until the eleventh hour that he would be competing. Although he had travelled down with the team, he did so as the reserve. His place on the panel was not confirmed until the morning the first round was due to be recorded. Would-be member of the first team, Brian Gray, was without a definite PhD place at Edinburgh. “They had a problem last year because the winning team got disqualified”, explain Kimmitt, referring to the
controversial twist that saw Corpus Christi Oxford stripped of the title at the last minute. “It’s filmed over two academic years and he was only a student for a year, so they were very tight on the rules this year.” King laughs “Over breakfast, he [Gray] turned to me and said Max I’ve got something to tell you.” I’m enjoying my free breakfast and then he says “I’m dropping out. You’re in the team.” This quick reshuffle did not put them off, with them taking the first round with a score of 170. It's clear the team were not rendered insensible by the show's famously intimidating host. Brechin notes, “I liked Paxman, he was a really nice guy”, while Matheson chimes, “he was really entertaining.” Kimmitt laughs, remembering comments directed towards him: ‘Sit up straight Kimmitt. You should have got that, you’re studying Divinity.’ Questions related to their degree subjects were rarely a gift from the trivia gods, as King points out: “all of the biology questions that were in it, I got all of them wrong except for one.” However, it was not wrong answers that phased this tight knit team but the pressure to perform for the camera, Brechin recalls: “I hadn’t quite satisfactorily said an answer to a bonus question and it was at quite an exciting point, I had to re-record it seven times looking for the right tone.” King informs us, “when they re-record things and you get it wrong, they say you have to re-record it at the end, buzz and look disappointed.” As our conversation draws to a close, it is Kimmit who makes the comment which really seems to resonate: “One of the things the produc-
ers said before we went on was at the end of the day this is an entertainment programme, we want you to look like you’re having fun. I think we achieved that.” If the reaction of the general public is anything to go by then this is certainly true. One supporter made a Youtube video dedicated to their performance in the second round and Kimmitt received an unexpected
“
Sit up straight, Kimmitt. You should have got that, you're studying Divinity." phone call from a mysterious fan - “My daughter said 'someone had looked you up in the phone book, after seeing you on the telly.'” They have not gone unnoticed by the national press either, King comments, “our first press cut was in the Mirror saying ‘students didn’t know anything’, that’s the only time we’ve been mentioned.” Brechin takes the blame for this dubious accolade saying, “We didn’t know anything about trade union leaders which is kind of my fault because I do politics.” Gaps in knowledge aside, clearly, this year’s team do know something; how to blend wide ranging general knowledge with the ability to engage with each other and entertain the viewing public. Always modest in their achievements, they bring out a newfound element of fun and surprise on University Challenge. Bonus.
Got a story to tell? lifestyle.studentnewspaper@googlemail.com
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Lifestyle 15
Little Miss How-To
SHALL WE DINE?
Throwing an epic flat party? Caitlin McDonald shares some pointers S tudent life asks only three things of you: that you pick up a book from time to time, that you go out on the town more than you ever thought possible and that you throw one truly incredible flat party. However, a flat party is a risky undertaking, with potentially two worstcase scenarios. One: despite much hype about what a hilarious, monumental rave
your flat party is going to be, nobody shows up and you are left to drown your sorrows in copious amounts of leftover Cheesy Wotsits. Two: everyone shows up! Success! The music is pumping, the drinks are flowing, the guests are dancing… oh, the police are knocking. Yikes. So just how do you tread the fine line between throwing a great shindig and ending up in the cells? Here are
some pointers. First and foremost, you must remember to bribe the neighbours not to complain… you might want to try some home-baked muffins, or an invitation to the best flat party of all time - just be sure they won’t rat you out to the police. Next, make sure you invite the right people. And by 'right people', we don’t just mean members of the pony club with double-barrelled surnames (although if someone could arrange to bring a real live horse to the party, it would go down in history as the stuff of legend.) A good mix of people that you know from a variety of places is essential – mates from school, your History tutorial group, the guys from the newspaper (please?) and that hottie from work that you still haven’t worked up the courage to ask out. Also, tell everyone to bring someone else along - that way, it won’t just end up as a 'gathering' of friends who’ve known each other for ages. Thirdly, decide on what kind of night you want it to be: an all-out 90s-style rave, a sophisticated wine-quaffing and cheese-munching soirée, even a fancy dress night, and make sure everyone knows either by text or through Facebook. By way of fancy dress themes, you can’t go wrong with Rocky Horror meets The Sound of Music, What-I-wanted-tobe-when-I-was-five and the classic Tarts & Vicars (or a variation thereof ). Next, plan your bar! Obviously tell everyone to BYOB, but nothing cuts a
party short like running out of booze just as people are getting into the swing of things. Vodka, beer, wine and gin are all pretty safe bets, along with some nibbles, loads of plastic cups and a deck of cards for Ring of Fire – oh, and while you’re at the shops pick up some bacon, eggs, paracetamol and Berocca. Trust us. If you’re a guest, bring a bottle yourself, along with some mixer, your iPod and your camera to help you piece things together the next morning. Right, so you’ve got the guests, the theme, the shots - now for the music. If you thought running out of beer killed the mood quickly, you’ve clearly never been to a party where someone decided to play Nickelback. Go through your music with your flatmates and create a good selection of Cheese, Indie and old school classics, finishing up with some Reggae thrown in for good measure. But hey, don’t let us tell you what to do - go ahead and create a death metal/Motown mashup if that’s what you fancy. Get the music pumping and keep all your guests happy by plying them with food and drink, but when the man asleep beneath the pile of coats is visible, more than one person has thrown up in the hallway and at least handful of you have been threatened with ASBOs, it’s time to call it a (legendary) night.
Because we say it's okay...
Wanja Ochwada gives us permission to unleash the child within
S
o what if you’re now of legal drinking age in the US? And who cares if you have spent three years researching your dissertation? Fact is you’re a student, which gives you the right to act like a child if and when you please. Here are 15 things that everyone still does, whether they’d like to admit it or not.
room and have the most relaxed sleep you’ve had in a while. Note: probably do this one in a private place; the library for example is inappropriate to have tantrums in. 11. Eat kids' cereal. Coco Pops, Lucky Charms, heck even Frosties. They may have no nutritional value whatsoever but who cares? They’re yummy and you're hungry for something Ggggggreat!
1. Stomp on crunchy leaves. You will go out of your way while walking just so you can get a run-andjump opportunity to stomp those crunchy autumn leaves.
12. Play computer games while your in the library. I know you came to do work, and those 4000 word essays won’t write themselves, but a quick round of Red Alert won’t hurt anyone.
2. Giggle when a professor says 'erect', 'hump' or 'rear entrance'. Honestly, lectures are boring enough, so go ahead and enjoy the small things. 3. Make car noises when you push the supermarket trolley. The people staring at you only wish they had the balls to do it! 4. Eat Mini Milks. They are delicious. Fact. So munch away.
the hopelessly cheesy love line make them perfect pick-me-ups; we could all use one of those now and again.
5. Walk on any wall low enough, because you can. No real explanation for this one - just remember to keep you arms out, or else you’re just an idiot trying to walk on a short wall.
7. Give fake Oscar/Grammy/Nobel Peace Prize speeches in the mirror. With your shampoo bottle as the award you actually tear up with surprise, as you had “no idea I would win this award tonight”. Don’t forget to thanks your agent and of course your mummy and daddy.
6. Secretly enjoy musicals. Grease, Wicked, Glee, We Will Rock You - something about the singing and
8. Get a little too excited when the DJ starts playing 90s music. Hey, it was our era…they had
some pretty great stuff too, so don’t be ashamed. Shake your booty even if it is to that song that was on the mixed tape your then-boyfriend made for you! 9. Prefer the 90s versions of celebrities. Britney when she was innocent, Justin with a Jew-fro and Angelina before the enormous brood of kids. 10. Throw a tantrum when you get really tired. It worked when we were children, so give it a go and kick your legs about and maybe even cry while screaming “I don’t want toooooo!”. Then go to your
13. Dig through your mother’s wardrobe for her clothes. And while you're there, try on that lipstick and go for the eye shadow; it may just be the thing to complete your look. You can play too if you want, boys. 14. Have a free-falling-while-going-nowhere crush. It used to be that we could develop a crush on that slightly older boy in the orchestra that played the sax, and suddenly you had a reason to do your hair in the morning and wear that pretty dress to the cinema on Saturday. So what’s stopping you now? 15. Watch Disney cartoons. Enough said.
C
onveniently located adjacent to the Pleasance, the unassuming Bonsai Bar Bistro is a local favourite with students for its quick, quality and delicious Japanese cuisine. With portions ranging from £4 to £7 per course, the menu also makes enjoying copious amounts of fresh sushi and grilled items affordable for the sometimes bleak student budget. We arrived early afternoon on a Tuesday and the modest décor appeared sparse and casual, and although it was packed (which we were told is an everyday occurrence, so think about booking early if you want to be seated right away), it felt quiet and relaxed. Served from 12-5 pm, the lunch menu is extensive, with hearty items ranging from teriyaki glazed salmon and chicken, agemono which are deep fried dishes, and assorted meats and seafood cooked on a traditional Japanese griddle called teppanyaki dishes, to a wide assortment of fresh nigiri sushi and sashimi. There is also a variety of side dishes offered, from a pickled cucumber salad to chukamen or steamed bread with a roasted pork filling, to even classic chips served alongside an authentic brown sauce dip. I had an order of temaki sushi, which came as large hand-rolled pieces filled with seasoned rice, avocado, cucumber, spring onion and spicy tuna. The rolls tasted as fresh as the ingredients, as all seafood in the establishment is locally sourced. For my main I got one of the fried vegetarian options called agenasu, composed of scrumptious aubergine alongside a complementary chili miso sauce. The dishes were prompt and came out immediately upon being ready. We paired the meal with one of the Japanese rice wines offered, which was warming and the perfect addition to our satisfying portions. As an added bonus Bonsai offers special lunch time deals where you can order a choice of soup, a choice of sushi roll and an entree for the bargain price of £4.90. Be sure to also check out the restrooms for added entertainment factor, as the walls are covered in whimsical cut-outs from Japanese magazines and stickers of sushi rolls. Open daily for lunch and dinner from 12noon to 10pm, the restaurant is wheelchair accessible and accepts credit and debit cards.
Nell Frabotta
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Art lover? Review it: culture.thestudent@gmail.com
16 Review
CULTURE COMMISSION #3: Gillian Andrew
COMMISSION IS a regular feature which gives weekly slots to students from Edinburgh College of Art. The 11 artists chosen
to take part are drawn from a wide variety of disciplines and have been asked to create totally new work in response to this particular setting.
BP PORTRAIT AWARD 2009
second prizes went to works by parents of their children. Peter Monkman’s ethereal portrait of his pubescent daughter, Changeling II, stands out both stylistically and by the mood it conveys. Whereas many other works are brain-breakingly photo-realistic and seem to expose their subjects unremittingly, Monkman captures the mystery at the heart of his sitter. The competition is now in its 20th year and is open to the international public – the inclusion of work by self-taught artists alongside established names adds diversity to the show which, nonetheless, lacks somewhat in diversity of form; there is no mixed media, no 3D work, there is little exploration into expressionism or colour. Yet this cannot detract from the quality of the works on show and perhaps is revealing in itself of our modern sense of character and ‘reality’. Jeni Cumming
UNTIL 21 FEB DEAN GALLERY
THE BP Portrait Award excels again in bringing some shockingly well crafted, expressive and poignant images to the public eye. In our age of cameras there is something uncanny about experiencing this exhibition; it frightens us out of our habitual sense of visual reality. Who said that photography would kill the painted portrait? The show is heavy with photo-realist paintings which stubbornly deny us easy entry into their worlds – we see few brushstrokes, few backgrounds and lots and lots of well defined wrinkles which simply look like an exact replica of the real thing. Painting, as an art, re-asserts its humanity by hiding it and parodying the objectivity that we take for granted in photographs. Rather than showing us how we see (as impressionism or expressionism may have done), works by Edward Sutcliffe, Sue Rubira or Hynek Martinec - to name a few - reveal to us how much we can see. Artists also bring ‘time’ into the narrative of their works: Eileen Hogan presents three impressionistic oil sketches of the same woman in the same position on different dates noting the subtle shift in her skin tone and features. Michael Gaskell’s small portrait took four years to finish because of his use of materials, and in that time the subject, his son, aged from 17 to 21. Family is a central theme in the exhibition overall – first and
Michael Gaskell Tom 2009
Insecure (performance photography by Gillian Carey)
"Preconceptions and misconceptions fill our world today. Who should we be? How should we look? What is feminine? As art is created
The Sound of Music: Soon to be curtains for the curtains THE SOUND OF MUSIC UNTIL 20 FEB EDINBURGH PLAYHOUSE
WITH THE spirit of Julie Andrews running through our veins, we approached the Playhouse for the Edinburgh leg of The Sound of Music tour with unrealistically high expectations. Despite its origins on the stage, the film version has taken up permanent residence in our hearts. It was always going to be a hard act to follow. If, like us, you go expecting a Christopher Plummer-type dreamboat, you will be sorely disappointed with the creepy substitute who makes his way onto the stage. Michael Praed as Captain Von Trapp, whose credits include 9 Dead Gay Guys (the film), and a stint on The Bill, has about as
much charisma as a plumber in a porn film, and the love declaration has all the romance of a premature ejaculation.
“
Captain Von Trapp has about as much charisma as a plumber in a porn film, and the love declaration has all the romance of a premature ejaculation." However, Connie Fisher - winner of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s reality search to uncover the ‘people’s Maria’
to be viewed and judged, I am using this platform to invite these judgements and reveal the true nature of society." - certainly lived up to expectations. On winning, Connie promised to "perform every night as if it were opening night". And despite a slightly bored start, she managed to keep her performance remarkably fresh - no mean feat considering the amount of time she has spent in lederhosen - dazzling in a stage school perfect over-the-top, but still delightful way. The music from the rest of the bunch is almost exactly how you would imagine it, the only exception being Von Crapp, who was painful to watch. The Nazi soldiers - who, terrifyingly, appear in the boxes above the stage during this ‘family performance’ - let him get away, but we almost want them to put him out of his musical misery. The famous nuns more than make up for Praed's shortcomings though, with their glorious highnotes that fill both the theatre and embarrassingly enough, our eyes. The set is one of our favourite things. Bar the hills, which were made of astro turf, everything seemed straight out of Salzburg. The number of scene changes defies logic, descending from the ceiling as if by magic with startling speed and frequency. The attention to detail is meticulous. Despite its inevitable differences from the film, and the one disappointing performance, the effect is much the same as the on-screen classic. We left feeling truly joyous. Coming up to the most depressing day of the year, there can surely be no better antidote than a hit of Connie Fisher and The Sound of Music. Kimberly Arms and Clare Robson
Theatre buff? Review it: culture.thestudent@gmail.com
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Review 17 Star Rating Schnitzel with noodles
Bee stings Dog bites
The ten worst buildings in Edinburgh
olivia foyer
Raindrops on roses Whiskers on kittens
Edinburgh may attract tourists from every corner of the world for its UNESCO-recognised city centre but, as Angus Doyle points out, it has also attracted coachloads of misguided architectural decisions...
'Athens of the North', World Heritage site, majestic medieval Old Town, refined Georgian New Town. We all know the score. Edinburgh is a beautiful city. Consequently, ‘bad’ buildings – where they do exist – are liable to stand out. This list comprises buildings which broadly fall into two periods. Firstly, the 1960s and 70s saw the city suffer a wave of brutalist monoliths; the sorts of buildings which our generation has grown up knowing to be 'bad'. This provoked a conservative reaction which took hold in the 1980s as a universal hatred of the former resulted in a disastrous breakdown of vision as relationships between city planners and architects turned sour. The result? Thirty incongruous years of utter flatulence!
10
St. Colm’s Parish Church, Dalry
Road Architecturally speaking, Dalry is grim. The safe sandstone beige of our second period covers a spate of bland, poky and poorly proportioned buildings which, in many cases, break up solid (if unremarkable) Victorian war and peace 28 jan festival theatre
When composing his operatic adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s epic novel in the 1940s, Sergei Prokofiev may well have envisaged a similar opening to that of director Irina Brown and the actors of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama. Young couples assemble, absorbed in one another as a newsreel plays, calling young Russians to join the Soviet army and defend their country as their ancestors did during the Napoleonic Wars. Sliding wall panels draw back, essentially opening a window to history, out of which step the Cossacks to hand their guns to the soldiers of the Second World War. It is a sombre opening to a phenomenal piece of theatre. In the first half of the production, set just prior to the outbreak of the Napoleonic Wars, we see an intricate and surprisingly compelling, if slightly contrived, love story. Or rather, we see the story of one woman, Natasha, and the many
terraces. Replete with a squat ‘clock tower’ and ‘feature’ glass-block window, the blandest, pokiest most poorly proportioned of the lot appeared to be St. Colm’s Parish Church.
9
Radisson SAS Hotel, High Street At first glance this hotel appears to occupy a standard medieval Royal Mile tenement. Look twice and you’ll notice the stone with the building’s date: 1991! Eh? The problem is that the building represents the extreme lengths that the city went to to maintain ‘oldness’. It’s visually inoffensive but it’s pure Disneyland.
8
11-13 Valleyfield Street (Tollcross) This residential development is possibly the worst example of a very bad sort of building. It’s a small-scale modern structure which tries to look old without really making the effort. In this case, the suspiciously yellow offender sports a badly proportioned pediment and spherical ornaments which render it irredeemable.
7
Merchiston Campus, Colinton Road
men who fall for her charms. However it is the second half that is most impressive; as the war rages, we are treated to a superbly choreographed expression of Russian patriotism, or some might argue, a perfect example of Soviet propaganda. The original 19th century novel is over 1000 pages long and therefore
“
We are treated to a superbly choreographed expression of Russian patriotism, or some might argue, a perfect example of Soviet propaganda." it is not surprising that the operatic production leaves the audience with a few loose ends as the curtain falls; however the strength of the show as a whole makes up for this flaw. The actors are highly skilled and succeed in conveying depth of emotion through a medium where
Napier University’s Merchiston Campus is extremely unpleasant. It’s tall, it’s grey and it’s very ugly. What’s most frustrating is the fact that it has been built around – and is physically attached to – a 15th century castle. The recent and vast solar panel addition is all gesture.
to your right, you will see the castle (wow!), the galleries (wow!) and the Bank of Scotland (quite wow!). Look to your left and you will see Arthur’s Seat (wow!), the distant sea (wow!), and Jurys Inn (Christ!). Look right.
The Radisson represents the lengths the city went to to maintain 'oldness'. It's pure Disneyland."
(Haymarket) Morrison Circus is the Edinburgh residence in which I would least like to live. It forms a vast, insipid semicircle of off-brown centred around a carpark and encircled by a dual-carriageway. Human beings definitely aren’t supposed to live like that. Annoyingly, it has been plonked directly next to some terrific colony terraces (where human beings are supposed to live).
“
6 Appleton Tower, Crichton Street
For what happened to the north, east and south sides of George Square, the University of Edinburgh had to be represented on this list. Appleton Tower is the pick of the bunch.
5 Jurys Inn Hotel, Jeffrey Street
The Jurys Inn is a real killjoy of a building. Walking across North Bridge towards the Old Town and looking emotion can easily become melodrama. Supported by an outstanding performance from the orchestra of Scottish Opera alongside students of the Academy, the quality of the performance was magnificent. The set, however, may be most notable. The backdrop is initially the white marble walls and pillars of a fine house or Russian court, but this seemingly spartan set soon reveals stunning potential. Using sliding panels, gauze and emotive lighting the designers succeed in creating a palace veranda, a ruined, burning Moscow, a battle-field and even a desolate plain, complete with falling snow. The depth of the stage is staggering, allowing actors to work in multiple dimensions, from the main stage to what seems a mile behind; the scale of the action seems to stretch beyond the confines of the theatre. Attend this opera with no expectations, no preconceptions, for it will far surpass any you might bring. Anna Reid
4
3
Residences, Morrison Circus
Sheraton Grand Hotel, Festival
Square What is it with hotels? The Sheraton Grand represents the worst of a collection of very poor and very conservative buildings which make Festival Square a uniquely dead space within the salon: embassy members' show 2010 until 7 feb embassy gallery
Salon is the annual members’ show at the Embassy Gallery. With no restrictions on theme and one piece of work accepted from every member, the exhibition is quite varied in media and content as well as in quality. Some of these pieces feel unfinished or perhaps lacking further development or explanation. Not knowing anything about the artist or the context of their work, one can remain puzzled after confronting certain exhibits. However, there are some interesting pieces which prove that independent exhibitions can still provide studioquality and generate discussion. As it often happens with collective displays, it is quite impossible to give an overview of all of the works. Even pointing out representatives from the variety of techniques used here seems futile. As the artists have commissioned their own work, the viewers are offered a multitude of understandings of art. A good proof of the artists’ imagination is also
city centre. How could anyone build that opposite the Usher Hall? Rumour has it that it was built back to front!
2
Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Chambers
Street The Sheriff Court is the worst 1980s development in the city. The true horror of the building can only be appreciated from the Cowgate or George IV Bridge. Here you are confronted by the gross proportions of a monstrous roof and bizarre overhangs while the terrible detailing leaves it looking Ottoman – a disastrous result for a building which was clearly meant to blend in.
1 St James Centre, Leith Street
Our ‘winner’ is a really, really bad building. Incorporating a hotel and a labyrinthine set of office blocks as well as the shopping mall, the St James Centre is surely Edinburgh’s most oppressive building. How many cubic tons of grey went in to this loathsome turd? Add to this the fact that it replaced an entire New Town square. It offends every one of my senses.
the variety of topics as there aren’t many prevalent themes one could easily trace. There are paintings, sculptures, sound and video installations, drawings and works of mixed media. Some of these are small and abstract, others easily noticeable and playing on recognition and sensation. While some can easily be offered a number of interpretations, others remain somewhat obscure. Certain works like Maggie Mowbray’s Spillage’represent themselves, whereas others, like Tiffany Parbs’ Lover, make one wonder about their story. One of the most noticeable works is Tom Estes’ Virgin Bride – an empty wedding dress with a price tag which seems to imply more than the price of the dress. With Fleeting Archipelago Daniel Brown has drawn interesting comparisons between phrenology and imaginary city maps. Catherine Payton’s Untitled is an ironic take on performance art, while Dickson Brown and Catherine E Johnston both offer intriguing paintings. The overall layout suffers a bit from the lack of space as, excluding the video installations, most of the work is hung on the four walls of one small room. Still, with 90 works displayed there is a lot to see, which makes this exhibition of fresh art worth a visit. Helen Harjak
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
18
Don't go anywhere without your iPod? Email: music@studentnewspaper.org
Review
MUSIC
Pretty. Odd. YEASAYER
Odd Blood
SECRETLY CANADIAN
NATHAN BAR LEY would probably like Yeasayer. Nathan Barley would probably be over the Yeasayer backlash, over ironically liking Yeasayer and come full circle to like them again. He would get off on the jarring hyphenated-genre monstrosities that have been gargled up to define them; ‘hazy-glam-tribalpsych-folk’, ‘middle-eastern-psychsnap-gospel’. Though for all the aural sense these make you might as well say, “Picture a dead crow covered in glitter lying on a motorcycle shaped pillow twitching while a parade of Grace Jones lookalikes chant Margaret Thatcher’s 1979 campaign speech and pop party poppers, ok can you imagine that? Now imagine your optical spectrum has been inverted; what would that sound like?” Basically a hundred ways to explain ‘trippy’ to someone who’s never been on an acid trip (ok, ok, I haven’t. There.) However alienating this sounds, Barley’s in the right. Yeasayer’s com-
prehensive musical collaging somehow works to form a cohesive record in Odd Blood. The band in many ways parallel Vampire Weekend; foursome from Brooklyn, releasing their second album this year, shamelessly appropriating world music; but for some reason Yeasayer haven’t gained the same success as Vampy Weekend and it may be because they’re just too weird. It’s like pop music made by forest animals rather than irritating Ivy Leaguers. Opener ‘The Children’ sets in with hypnotic stately rhythm wading through electronic sludge and confused wildlife sounds before fading into frenetic single ‘Ambling Alp’. The tempo doesn’t let down from there. Odd Blood is consistently surprising, meticulously layered but never overdone. It’s irresistible hooks are just unfamiliar enough to remain interesting and catchy enough to lumber tracks like ‘Rome’ and ‘Mondegreen’ straight onto your near-obnoxiously cool party playlist (along with Girl Talk and any Soulwax remixes), presuming you have one. Perhaps the album’s only fault is vocalist Chris Keating’s jadedly blasé intonation. It’s hard to feel an emotional engagement with his lyrics of spurned HOT CHIP
ESSENTIAL GIGS FEBRUARY MIIKE SNOW (STEREO, GLASGOW, THURSDAY 4TH) Swedish electro-pop. Quite popular. HOT CHIP (HMV PICTURE HOUSE, SATURDAY 13TH) British electro-pop. Slightly more popular. VAMPIRE WEEKEND (HMV PICTURE HOUSE, SUNDAY 14TH)
One Life Stand EMI
AS ONE of Britain’s newest pop treasures, Hot Chip have surged ahead of their competition when it comes to securing widespread electro pop success, and their aim to create intelligent but riveting dance music is one that pervades the opening section of their new album One Life Stand. Carefully arranged beats and synth hooks catapult songs like opener 'Thieves In The Night' and 'I Feel Better' to the band’s floor-filling finest, echoing 90s house and hinting at some of their finest work since Mercury nominated The RJD2
New York afro-pop. Ubiquitous.
The Collosus
LOS CAMPESINOS (BONGO CLUB, WEDNESDAY 17TH)
Welsh indie pop. Leaning towards emo. But British, so better. YEASAYER (ORAN MOR, GLASGOW, WEDNESDAY 17TH) New York tribal-pop. Soon to be ubiquitous. MASTODON (BARROWLANDS, GLASGOW, FRIDAY 19TH) Atlanta metal. Suitable for indie kids. GIRLS (STEREO, GLASGOW, SATURDAY 27TH) California surf-pop. Soon to be the sound of summer 2010.
RJ'S ELECTRICAL CONNECTIONS
"AS USUAL, I worked very long and hard on this piece of music to make sure it was the best thing I could present to you." Four tracks into his fourth album, 'Salud II' sees RJD2 having a sampled voice explaining the nature of the record's creation and conception, just as he did on his debut; the track on offer here is a sequel to 'Salud' from 2002’s Deadringer. This link to his first effort is more significant than it may first appear. With this record, RJD2 seems to be striving for something resembling reconciliation between his divergent musical interests. When he dropped Deadringer for the flourishing Def Jux label, RJD2 gave hip-hop’s underground renaissance its greatest instrumental calling card. Some critics went as far as calling the man otherwise known as Ramble
Taxidermist, wig-sculptor, ex-gymnast, dog rapist; above all Yeasayer are exemplary musicians. romance and invitations to ‘partay’, the sort of crucial connection that can turn merely liking a record into loving it. You get the sense that the dispassionate vocals only like you, so if you love
them it gets awkward. Superficially Odd Blood is a dance record, but Yeasayer’s musical competence and the sheer vastness of their imagination and range of musical refer-
ence creates a dance record you’re not embarrassed to listen to with a degree.
Warning. The album’s title track is another undoubted highlight, in which sharp lyrics are enhanced by a catchy chorus and an enthralling electro hook that instantly demands status as a dance-floor favourite. Yet delve deeper and it becomes clear that Hot Chip have set out to create a record that dials down the eclectic invention characteristic of their earlier work in order to develop the sentimental side to a band now onto their fourth album. 'Brothers', for example, is a poignant appreciation of the band’s friendship sung by Joe Goddard, whilst touching guitar work and succulent vocals add undeniable charm to 'Alley Cats'. Despite these triumphs, the band’s extended flirtation with the soulful ballad in the album’s central stages at times comes
close to derailing its initial storming momentum. Additionally, a lack of Hot Chip-style creativity at times brings an unexpected predictability to proceedings, although this is almost rectified by closing track 'Take It In', a soulful anthem packed with the ideas and pace we have come to expect from Alexis Taylor and co. Precise and concise, it is an easily accessible album that will undoubtedly enjoy runaway commercial success, although despite being enjoyable in the main, it feels occasionally lacking in the inspiration that could have given it a more enduring power. Whatever the verdict, prepare for an inevitable remix frenzy.
A Fool In Love
John Krohn the natural successor to DJ Shadow. It was somewhat surprising, then, when over the course of his next two album releases, RJ’s trajectory began to gravitate towards a style that incorporated ever-more prevalent singer-songwriter stylings, and his remarks in interviews seemed to have him disowning his earlier output. Opener 'Let There Be Horns' is the same kind of vaguely unsettling instrumental hip-hop banger that he made his name with on his debut; 'Giant Squid' is ethereal and 'Small Plans' is gritty and propulsive. It’s not just because these tracks have actual beats that they will reassure his fan-base; they are songs that could stand up to his past glories. For every one of these, however, there’s some form of ill-advised attempt at “real” song-writing; the cod-rock of 'Gypsy Caravan' or the cringe-inducing smugness of 'The Glow'. It’s not necessarily a problem with RJ’s composition skill; when he employs guest singers to cater to his song-writing whims, the results can be glorious, as on 'The Shining Path' with Phonte Coleman. It’s a mixed bag
then, but with enough quality within it to certainly merit it as an important part of his catalogue.
Piers Barber
Michael Russam
Catherine Sylvain FLORENCE RAWLINGS DRAMATICO
TIPPED AS one to watch for 2010, Florence Rawlings is the latest protégé of producer/songwriter Mike Batt - most famous for bringing us Katie Melua and providing the Wombles with an inroad to the pop industry. The twentyone-year-old Londoner was first brought to the attention of Batt aged just thirteen but they did not begin collaboration until 2007, and A Fool in Love is their first album to be released. It is a mix of original tracks by Batt and covers of older numbers such as Chuck Berry’s ‘Can’t Catch Me’ and the title track, Ike Turner’s 'A Fool in Love'. However though Rawlings has an impressively mature and soulful voice, this album is disappointing and underwhelming. The Lily Cole lookalike seems to tick all the boxes – youth, looks, voice – but production comes across as lazy and accompaniments are lifeless and predictable. And whilst her performance is assured, it arguably lacks that certain something so vital for a performer to cross from simply a ‘good singer’, to a budding star. One could equate her to a poor man’s Joss Stone, but this may have more to do with the eminently forgettable material than particular failings on her part. Let’s hope her next offering is able to transcend simply bearable and gives her an opportunity to produce something rather more inspired (and inspiring). Alice French
Love film? Let us know! film@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 film@studentnewspaper.org
Review
19
FILM PRECIOUS DIRECTED BY LEE DANIELS ANYONE WHO has been following this year’s Hollywood awards season will know that this film has been receiving praise and multiple statuettes left, right and centre. Set in Harlem in the late 80s, the film follows the story of Clarisse Precious Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), an obese illiterate 16-year-old girl who is pregnant with her second child by her father, who raped her on a regular basis. She lives with a physically, emotionally, and (it is implied) sexually abusive mother who often force-feeds her and tries to stop her from going to school. Escaping into fantasies of being famous, having a light-skinned boyfriend and a family who loves her, Precious finally finds a glimmer of hope in an alternative education programme where her teacher, Blu Rain (played by Paula Patton and based on the author of the novel), goes above and beyond the call of duty to help Precious get on her feet. The film certainly packs the emotional punches between rape and incest and abuse and poverty and AIDS, to list but a few. However, director Lee
Daniels does an admirable job in keeping the tone light enough so that you don’t leave the cinema feeling suicidal. Heavy moments of tension are tempered with breaks of humour mostly provided by the other girls in the ‘Each One Teach One’ class as well as incisive observations in Precious’ s narrative. Some viewers may have problems with Daniels’ approach to the difficult moments in the film, as it seems as if he is avoiding them. Rape scenes are interrupted by Precious’ s brightly coloured fantasies and loud music. However, this
Who let the wolves out?
Since the advent of monster films, werewolves and vampires have been pitted against each other in an epic supernatural battle. With next week's release of Wolfman, the wolves seem to be fighting back against the recent spate of vampire films. The Student takes a look at past werewolf films - from the best to the ones that deserve a silver bullet between the eyes...
AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981) From director John Landis, this film is more of a horror-comedy than many of its B-movie predecessors. It focuses on two American students backpacking through Europe, who are viciously attacked by a mysterious beast. After the appearance of his friend’s corpse, David Kessler (David Noughton) begins to undergo some strange changes. The film’s gore sits perfectly along its tonguein-cheek take on lycanthropy. Worth seeing for the pioneering special effects alone, Academy Award winning make-up artist Rick Baker's talents give the film its edge. As well as the terrifyingly life-like Werewolf, the film boasts a cameo from the Muppets’ Frank Oz.
DOG SOLDIERS (2002)
Director Neil Marshall takes the genre in a new direction with this British horror. Private Cooper (Kevin McKidd) is on a routine military exercise in the Highlands. After finding the remains of a previous party, they begin to suspect the worst. And you can guess what happens from there – they are besieged by a pack of werewolves intent on ripping them to pieces. The film shunned the then-new CGI, using wolf suits instead. A slasher flick with brains, its gory fight scenes are tinged with sharp dialogue. GINGER SNAPS (2000) Death-obsessed sisters Ginger (Katharine Isabelle) and Brigitte (Emily Perkins) are attacked by the mysterious ‘Beast of Bailey Downs’ while playing a prank on a classmate. The film centres on Ginger’s transformation and her sister’s hunt for a cure amidst the ensuing chaos. Although a metaphor for the transition into sexual maturity, it feels more like a typical gory high-school movie with bucketloads of fake blood and guts. The gratuitous gore does add to the film’s appeal but unless you’re a hardcore horror fan, it is difficult to pay attention to anything else. TEEN WOLF (1985) Released on the back of Michael J. Fox’s success in Back to the Future, Teen Wolf shows Scott Howard using his newfound wolf abilities to become the campus bigshot. Possibly one of the worst werewolf films, it tries to make the genre more accessible but fails. The combination of ‘kids’ in their mid-twenties playing teenagers and wolf make-up which makes Fox look more like Big Foot is painful to watch. Alexandrea Pike
technique is quite effective in reflecting Precious’ s own way of dealing with problems, and the fantasies gradually disappear from the film as she gets stronger and more confident. What could have been handled better was the father's treatment in the film. His face is never seen and he only makes one appearance despite being at the heart of all these problems. While the story isn’t about Precious's father, his absence seems to excuse him as all the animosity is directed at her mother. If there’s one thing that can’t be
EDGE OF DARKNESS DIRECTED BY MARTIN CAMPBELL
CLINT EASTWOOD played the tough old-timer in Gran Torino; Michael Caine did the same in Harry Brown. Now it’s Gibson’s turn to play the old guy fighting against the horrors of modernity and resume his position in front of the camera, rather than behind. In Edge of Darkness, we have Mel Gibson, resuming his destined role as the tough cop fighting against all odds. But this time things are different: this is a grave thriller. There are no witty one liners, manic car chases or excessive use of pyrotechnics. Gibson plays Craven, an old policeman who waits nervously at the train station to greet his little girl, now grown up. He is a man of few words, a stock Hollywood 'repressed cop.' Once his daughter is murdered (although expected, it’s still pretty gritty), Craven's emotion is bottled up, but sometimes flickers through Gibson’s face: the furrow of his heavily lined brow, the watery eyes. While Gibson is certainly an action man, he is very much an underrated actor. The film then moves along at a rather stately pace. Craven begins to uncover the cause of his daughter’s murder and discovers she was looking to expose the nuclear company she worked at.
faulted in this film, it’s the cast. From major roles to the minor ones, everyone is amazing. Even Mariah Carey, looking far less glamorous than usual, handles the heavy job of drawing the final truths out from the broken family with more skill than you’d expect. First-time actor Gabourey Sidibe is impressive as the main character. Excluding the narration, she rarely talks to the other characters and hides her emotion behind a hardened blank expression. This makes the moment when she finally breaks down all the more powerful. But best of all is comedienne and talk show host Mo’Nique in the role of Mary Jones, Precious's mother. She infuses the role with so much aggressive hatred and disgust that you’re almost physically repulsed by her - yet she still manages to dredge some sympathy for the character out of it. While the story of Precious tackles more social issues than any one film should be able to handle, Lee Daniels is masterful at drawing it all together and making this a very watchable, though tear-inducing, film.
NINJA ASSASSIN DIRECTED BY JAMES MCTEIGUE
Shan Bertelli
Screening Times Cameo Wednesday/Thursday: 3.35pm, 6.10pm, 9.10pm Cue the other two main characters, Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) and Bennett (Danny Huston). The former is a shady spy paid to clean up the mess, although it’s unclear which side he’s on, while Danny Huston is typecast playing a greasy businessman. They might as well have given him a cat and an eye-patch. It’s clear he is the bad guy from the outset. And that’s essentially the problem with the film: it’s all a little slow and predictable. The great secret of the nuclear company turns out to be rather tame; you find yourself wondering why a Londoner is lurking in the murky depths of political scandal; and the dialogue struggles to retain the audience’s attention. The best parts of the film are the quick action pieces. They are brutal and short, more realistic than the 20 minutes it often takes the likes of Jackie Chan to dispose of an enemy. And it’s not always clear that Craven is up to the task: his breath is laboured, and it’s uncertain how much battering his old body can take. After one fight, we see Craven exhausted and clutching his heart. So when he does triumph it is quite satisfying. It’s good that Gibson is not trying to play someone unstoppable and invincible: Craven feels pain, then limps home to recuperate. As soon as Gibson is off camera, the film wallows in mediocrity. There is no real emotional investment in any of the characters aside from Craven. Huston is a villain that you can’t hate, simply because he is so boring. Winstone’s spy seems out of place and almost an unnecessary part of the plot. Edge of Darkness is precisely what this film is: tonally grey, and teetering on being a decent movie, if only the script were sharper and the conspiracy more shocking.
NINJA ASSASSIN has an intriguing premise: a film based on the legendary ninja clans of Japan, but with a western twist. And indeed it lives up to one part of the promise that it makes, in that we see both Asian people and Westerners in the same film. Unfortunately, this is a facade with little substance supporting it. Watching this movie is like dating someone who promises to be interesting, but is childish underneath it all. In the opening ten minutes of this feature we are given an overwhelming sense of legend. In one impressive sequence, a tattoo artist stands in fear in the middle of a room whilst all around him limbs rain and screams are heard. However, this memorable beginning soon deteriorates into a predictable tale about an orphan with great potential. A story of love, chivalry and many fights to the death ensues. As can be ascertained from this masterpiece of a narrative, names are not exactly forthcoming. Every masked ninja is the same as the next and every attempt to memorise names is futile given the nature of the fight sequences. This film was produced by the makers of The Matrix Trilogy and V For Vendetta, so the the audience should know to expect amazing visuals and won't be disappointed. We are treated to fight sequences where we are at a loss to know what is going on due to the highly contrasted lighting in almost every scene. Special effects are limp and the choreography owes more than a little to the styling of Bruce Lee; the film shows very little originality throughout. The main selling point of the film is the promise of ninja fighting, but in this regard we are sorely let down. Overall this film has many issues and does not merit viewing - that is, unless you are a sadistic ninja yourself, baying to see the blood of your brothers. If that is you in a nutshell, then go. Otherwise spare your eyeballs the pain.
Greg Martin
Sean Cameron
Screening Times Cineworld Daily Weekdays: 12.25pm, 3.05pm, 5.50pm, 8.30pm, 9.15pm
Screening Times Cineworld Daily Weekdays 9.10pm
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Do you want to write for the TV section? No? Well, fuck you then. tv.studentnewspaper@gmail.com
20 Review
TV DO NOT ADJUST YOUR SET
Eye can see you
The struggle is finished. Dan Sharp has won the victory over himself. He loves Celebrity Big Brother. nlike the lyrics to Alanis U Morissette’s song, the outcome of this year’s Celebrity Big Brother is
I
f you are not able to see it clearly enough, the above image is of star of the stage and screen and self-professed 'lad', Danny Dyer. According to the wise and not at all ratings-chasing, sensationalism-loving producers of BBC Three, this man is qualified enough to front a documentary about the existence of aliens, a documentary that lasts an entire hour and includes interviews with eminent and intelligent experts of science, such as celebrated, monocled astronomer, Patrick Moore. Sometimes you can judge a book by its cover, and sometimes you can judge a programme by its title. I Believe in UFOs with Danny Dyer is a bloody awful piece of television, and most people would be able to make that assumption during the first few minutes. The thing is, Dyer's scripted opening monologue isn't particularly stupid or ridiculous - it is standard TV presenting fare. But when it comes from a man that you believe to be an idiot, and said in such a way that reinforces your already rock-hard belief, it's very hard to take the whole thing seriously. Apparently, Dyer has believed in UFOs since he was a child, although this was not always the case (on crop circles: "I'd open the newspaper and see the crop circles and think, 'Oh, I dunno about that,' and then turn the page and have a look at a pair of tits.") Throughout the show Dyer sees his childhood obsession reemerge, and becomes convinced that strange, complex patterns in fields in Wiltshire were created by 'that mob up there' and not by human hands. He is ready to go 'all guns-blazing' on a couple of local non-believers in a pub, until one of them confesses that he sometimes partakes in making crop circles himself, and we see video footage of the this in action. Dyer is left gobsmacked at this completely unforeseeable development. Of course, this sort of show should be presented by someone with an open mind, but surely not with one so vacant that any second opinion is taken on face value and left entirely unchallenged. But then I suppose most BBC Three viewers wouldn't have been attracted to the idea of an experienced and astute expert fronting a documentary that treats the subject with utmost sincerity. People want fun, they want games - they want Danny Dyer in a mac in a field, saying 'pukkah' a lot. As a factual documentary, it's absolute bobbins. But as a comedy (or perhaps a drinking game, in which you down two fingers every time he says 'geezer') it works. In fact, it's one of the few recent things on the channel that genuinely made me laugh. Now I'm just sad I missed I Believe in Ghosts with Joe Swash. Paddy Douglas
ironic. Cross-dressing cage fighter Alex Reid entered the house to a chorus of boos. Known because of his on-off relationship with the glamour model turned reality TV star Katie Price, Alex was perceived merely as an extension of Katie’s shameless and trashy brand. But after four weeks of not mentioning Katie’s name, Alex left the house as its winner; with second place going to Dane Bowers, another former boyfriend of Price. Despite rumours that Dane and Alex had fought before appearing on the show, over the last few weeks they have developed a close friendship. Both men beat the bookies’ initial favourite Vinnie ‘the hardman a.k.a. the bully’ Jones, who came third and was booed heavily by the crowd as he left the house. Upon entering the house, Vinnie quickly assumed responsibility for domestic affairs, but over time his desire to control, combined with revelations about his lavish lifestyle (for example, he often spends four hundred pounds just on socks) turned the public against him. He also frequently belittled Alex,
often using him as the butt of his jokes and at one point telling him that he had ‘been doing this for thirty years not six months’. He seemed assured that he would win. But ultimately his self-assuredness equated to arrogance and the public saw him as the villain, not the hero. In contrast Alex stepped up. For instance, despite dating a woman
When Stephen asked Alex about Katie, he didn’t mention her modelling past, instead describing her as an author, popstar and up-and-coming actress. Alex also said Vinnie was an inspiration, that he too hoped to move from sport to acting, though his expectations of becoming the next James
many would describe as the devil incarnate, what with her lustful, money grabbing ways, dopey Alex cited Jesus and Gandhi as two of his idols and took time out to study the Bible with Stephen Baldwin, the actor turned evangelical Christian.
Bond seem a little overambitious given his only acting experience is playing a rapist in Hollyoaks. So the guy lives in fantasyland a little, and he might not be that bright or realistic, but he was likeable and in a popularity contest, that’s what’s
Mockin' hell
Kirsten Waller has a gander at the new series
Lovely jubbly
Richard Dennis samples some Rock & Chips
P
ANDY PARSONS: The comedic equivalent of Middle England.
A
nother year, another series of a popular panel show. Mock the Week has been running for five years now and, given that ‘stuff ’ generally keeps happening, it’s unlikely that the show will run out of material any time soon. The format is pretty much the same – Dara O’Briain introduces the rounds and the panellists fight it out to see who can get the largest amount of one-liners. This always has the effect of making proceedings slightly brutal but undeniably amusing. One of my favourites this week was a remark made by Chris Addison, when shown the figure 1.84 billion: ‘Is it how many Wombles are living wild in the sewers of London?’
There is to be no more Frankie Boyle however; instead each show will have three guests rather than two. His official reason for quitting was ‘other television commitments’; his unofficial reason is alleged to be the BBC’s new found terror of his dark humour. His absence was fairly noticeable in the first show, not in small part due to the fact that Patrick Kielty was sitting in his place. But the show did feel a little more equal – the regulars didn’t dominate quite as much, and the guests were able to get a joke in slightly more often. And – more importantly – it was still funny enough to make me snort soup through my nose.
important. It’s ironic though that he was only offered a place on the show because of his relationship with Katie, yet it was that relationship that set the public against him, and that he had to distance himself from for them to grow to really like him. But all his hard work appeared to be to no avail. As Alex left the house, he declared that he was ‘a man in love’ and the crowd turned on him. His departure reminded them that the man they had grown to love was the other half of the woman they love to hate. Katie wasn’t a participant, but the winner and runner-up were selected to enter the house because of their links to her. And it’s true that while Alex may be her on-off boyfriend, soon he will definitely be more on now that he has won. Katie may have been a silent partner in his appearance but it is certain that now he is king of the Celebrity Big Brother house, she’ll be taking centre stage and raking in the profits. It just goes to show that the nice guy might be more popular than the bully, but in the end the bully will always be able to manipulate the nice guy.
requels and sequels (less so treacles), along with re-imaginings, re-boots and re-vamps make up to 234% of the TV and film industry nowadays, because you don’t have to bother with tedious things like character establishment. So at some point in the creative process of this gritty drama about the East End of London in 1960 the choice was made to use those lovable characters that we’d last seen in John Sullivan’s previous family sitcom, Only Fools and Horses. Which is a shame, bec ause Rock and Chips’s biggest problem is in trying to decide what tone it’s trying to set. Ostensibly, this tale of Joan Trotter’s abuse at the hands of pretty much every man in East London
is a well told, often harrowing account of the life that a lot of women went/go through. Sullivan’s strength as a writer stems from his sincerity, his familiarity with these characters and the world they grew up in. As he found comedy with Only Fools and Horses, so he finds abuse and neglect in Rock and Chips. However, by segueing awkwardly between serious drama and out-andout comedy, by taking social sweeps such as cheeky 60s school drop-outs blessedly ruffling feathers at cinema houses, Rock and Chips undermines the credibility it gains from its more keen observations of the interesting, honest aspects of its characters and story. But maybe I just lack a spirited
PLONKERS: Doesn't this image just scream heartwarming comedy?
Enjoy moaning about DLC? tech@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Review
TECH-OND HAND
21
TECHNOLOGY
Bogus content
Jonathan Mowat investigates how DLC is changing the games industry hey say money can’t buy you T happiness. In the world of games however, a couple of quid can get you
A
s many of you have probably experienced, gaming can be an expensive pastime/hobby/way of life, and if financially ravenous corporations like Activision and Nintendo have their way, prices are only going to rise. Already those ridiculous plastic instruments in your average Rock Band package will set you back around £100, and if you want to buy faux-wheels for Mario Kart Wii (which do NOTHING except make you look even more like an idiot) then you're talking an additional £30 per wheel after purchasing the console, the game and the extra Wii-motes. Of course, there are ways of making your evening's entertainment less likely to suck your bank account dry. One method is simply to buy pre-owned games instead of shiny new ones. Alternatively, you can purchase a new game and, once you've completed it, sell it back to a retail store like Gamestation or CEX at a moderately reduced price. However, should you acquire your game from a digital distribution service like Steam or Direct2Drive, trading in your purchase is not an option. At least, not at present. Step forward Green Man Gaming, the first digital distribution service to advocate digital trade-ins. The fact that nobody has considered this before might initially seem absurd, but there are very good reasons for why this has not been tried yet. Game publishers are obviously not keen on outlets selling pre-owned games, as they don't recieve any profits and consequently cannot afford the unicorn blood they need to survive. GMG have found a way around this, simply by giving the publishers a share of the profits of any game that is traded in and re-sold. A more difficult issue facing GMG is that digital media does not decline in quality. Files can be corrupted and become worthless, but there is no box to scuff or manual to rest your coffee mug on, and so there is no relationship between the quality of the product and its price. Again, GMG claim to have a solution, in the form of a series of algorithms which determine the price of a pre-owned game. GMG declined to comment on precisely how their pricing algorithms work (I suspect a roulette wheel or a dartboard is involved). Nevertheless, even if their pricing system is theoretically sound, it makes little sense to buy a new game when a pre-owned one is exactly the same in terms of quality and format. No purchases of new games means no trade-ins and resultantly no re-sales. Unless GMG can find a way to accept trade-ins not originally bought on their website, the lack of new game sales may well be where Green Man Gaming falls flat on its green face. Richard Lane
a new car or two, a rock band to sing along with in your living room or a map for an undiscovered realm that you can explore without ever leaving your bedroom, which may well make you happy. Downloadable content, or DLC, can enhance your favourite games with new missions, new costumes or new weapons - but this, more often than not, comes at a price. While some appreciate the option of expanding their most played games, even for that additional cost, DLC has caused debate over how game developers are earning their money. Some DLC conspirators claim that developers are stripping down games to their most basic content, with the intention of selling the good stuff later on to an unsuspecting public hungry for more. In particular, Ubisoft have been accused of cannibalising Assassins Creed 2 to the point where you may struggle to work out what the hell is going on in Renaissance Italy without some form of history degree. Not to worry though, downloadable content has been recently announced that will help fill those pesky plot holes - at a price of course. How convenient. The biggest DLC controversy occurred with the Resident Evil 5, released last year. After purchasing the original game for around £40, it was then announced that for a further fiver, a new ‘versus’ mode was to be released as DLC. Many players felt that the extra content, being so basic, should have been provided as standard with the game – the general consensus was that Capcom
LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAP: Just like himself, Ezio realised DLC had gone a step too far was ripping off its customers, and they bore the brunt of the DLC backlash. The situation worsened when online rumours began suggesting the DLC was already on the disk, and your five pounds bought you nothing more than a ‘key’ to unlock it. As the stripping down of games to wring every penny out of customers is becoming more common, developers are coming up with newer ways of getting you to buy their latest DLC pack. Dragon Age: Origins uses in-game conversations with the other characters to advertise what the player could be doing right now, if only they had bought the DLC. Handily, some of that extra content was made available on the day of Dragon Age's release, just for those who felt a 60+ hour game wasn’t enough to be getting
on with. Developers like the idea of DLC. Alongside providing a cheap and convenient way for them to create endless updates to their best-selling games, some are using the prospect of free DLC as an incentive to buy games new, rather than second-hand. Gestapo-bashing French Resistance game The Saboteur was sold new with a one-use-only code for exclusive content, in the hope that people would be reluctant to buy the game second-hand at a cheaper price. Microsoft has suggested that for each game sold in a shop, an extra £8 is earned from DLC for those games, which soon adds up. At the moment it’s unlikely that during the most climactic scene of a game a pop-up message will demand £20 before
you can continue. Usually, downloadable content does not make or break a game. Rather it offers a few side quests or abilities along with a superflous plot line which barely stands up next to the original. Besides, downloadable content is optional – those who buy DLC do so to expand their favourite games, which they enjoy regardless of missing modes or a lack of costumes. DLC is unlikely to go away anytime soon, and so long as such content is additional arguing against it seems pointless. Conversely, when DLC is actually content initially intended to be part of the original release the company responsible should rightly be criticised. Ultimately, it's up to the consumer to remain aware of the precise nature of the content they are purchasing.
Hard to swallow
Lyle Brennan almost chokes on Apple's iPad tablet
s a longtime user of Apple hardA ware, I often find myself faced with awkward questions – sneering,
loaded questions such as, what makes that better than my laptop? How much did that cost? and, Hah! Is there an app for that? Despite this, I’ve always taken a quiet satisfaction in knowing that, for all the criticisms leveled at Apple products, their elegance comes underpinned by reliability. Yes, the company may ooze selfaggrandisement and its competitors may offer the same specs for less – but the intuitiveness and innovation of products like the iPhone or OSX have always outweighed accusations of empty luxury or style over substance. With last week’s iPad launch, though, Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive leapt with gleeful abandon into the caviar bath. The excess here lies not in the price – starting at a disarmingly reasonable $499 US – but in the fact that this supposedly must-have product can only be justified in terms of the few functions it serves only slightly better than existing laptops and smartphones. Here is a device that strays dangerously close to gadgetry for gadgetry’s sake, and no matter how many times Jobs calls the iPad ‘game-changing,’ whether the game needed such a change will remain
in question. The prospect of a ‘third category’ alongside laptops and smartphones may sound intriguing, but a genuinely compelling account of what it offers owners of either of the first two categories has yet to emerge. This is why its reception has been so tepid. What’s clear is that the iPad was never meant for the 2-in-1 shampoo model, a tidy consolidation of two options that forces each into obsolescence. Instead, it’s closer to Coke Zero – a redundant shade of grey slotted into an already sufficient range. Few felt the need for more than one alternative, fewer still could guess where to fit one in, and the selling points of almost smartphone-level portability and almost laptop-level functionality are just as flimsy as Coca-Cola’s claim that Zero almost tastes like the original. So much is made clear by rabid Apple fan Stephen Fry. His postlaunch ode to the iPad is written in the language of fairytales. He describes the user experience as 'soul-scorchingly beautiful.' Bear in mind that, although a minority of iPad users will lose themselves in Beethoven sonatas via the iPod app and use iWork to draft confessional poetry, many more will murder civilians with multitouch
on Grand Theft Auto or discover the delightful combination of pornography and a device light enough to hold in one hand. Soul-scorching beauty has nothing to do with it. Such is the power of Ive’s design and Jobs’s lofty rhetoric that, blinded by how fast and how slick everything is, we lose sight of the real issue: how the iPad will unlock possibilities that aren’t already open. Proponents like Fry – though unable to ignore the puzzling gaps left by the lack of a built-in camera, multitasking, Flash and a decent
keyboard – have been quick to secondguess any detractors with reminders that many were underwhelmed by the first iPhone. Eventually the App Store and 3GS incarnation killed off any concerns, but even if purpose-built apps and hardware updates similarly placate the iPad’s critics, its raison d’être will remain in doubt. Even for those of greater faith in the slate format, this first version is something of a let-down. If the reputedly meticulous Jobs really does insist on every product being honed to perfection before release, then why is it so obvious that this is not quite the device it should be? Whether this is a result of tricks missed or cards kept up the sleeve until later is unclear, but for a device with a lot to prove, any shortcomings could prove costly. My biggest concern is that the lure of touchscreen novelty and the need to be seen in the vanguard has upset the balance of form and function that made Apple what it is today. Then again, I haven’t had a shot yet. Check back after the iPad ships – you may well find me spellbound and drooling onto the bezel, soul well and truly scorched.
Puzzles
Ivana Trump says:
Puzzles
The Student Crossword #15
Sudoku is a logic-based number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill the 9×9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3×3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9 only once.
Hitori #15 The object of Hitori is to eliminate numbers by shading in the squares such that remaining cells do not contain numbers that appear more than once in either a given row or column. Filled-in cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent, although they can be diagonally adjacent. The remaining un-filled cells must form a single component (i.e there must be no isolated numbers)
18. Purple quartz (8) 19. Contrary to (7) 20. Have need of (7) 21. Whenever (7) 22. Storage cupboard (7) 25. Wrinkle (6) 26. Not clearly stated (5)
shake eusa up
SUDOKU
4. Protected (9) 5. Brutal (5) 6. Determined (8) 7. Pertaining to female gonad (7) 8. Employed in warfare (7) 16. Lack of courage (9)
E THEATRE
C THE PLEASAN
T
LAUNCH NIGH
0 1 0 2 b e F 3 1 t a S all welcome!
@The Pleasance Theatre
COMEDY
Student General Meeting 2 Tuesday 23rd February 7pm, McEwan Hall
with support Daniel Sloss
To submit a policy motion email: president@eusa.ed.ac.uk
Sat 13 Feb 8:00pm @ Theatre £9 / £5 (students) 60 Pleasance, Edinburgh, EH8 9TJ.
Policy motion deadline: 9th February 2010 Motion amendment deadline: 16th February 2010
CROSSWORD
HITORI
1. Nuns (7) 5. Inquisitive (7) 9. Backslide (7) 10. Fishing net (5) 11. Bloodsucking worm (5) 12. Tavern (3) 13. Written communication (6) 14. Deadlier than the male (6) 15. Expire (3) 17. Storage building (9) 21. Curve (3) 23. Dodgy male (6) 24. High-kicking dance (3-3) 27. Teenage lout (3) 28. Listened (5) 29. Children often are... (5) 30. Popular cuisine (7) 31. The Globe (7) 32. Highest mountain (7)
1. Not spotted, but... (7) 2. Capable of being dissolved (7) 3. Send abroad (6)
Solutions
Sudoku #15
ACROSS
DOWN
“
Fiction writing is great. You can make up almost anything."
Acclaimed stand-up, writer and performer Russell Kane has firmly established himself as one of hottest tipped comics in the UK. Fresh from being shortlisted once again for the highest accolade at the Edinburgh Festival, the triple-Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee has just completed the first leg of his second national tour of this year — Human Dressage.
Tickets available from EUSA Potterrow, Pollock & KB Shops, Pleasance Bar, Ripping Records & Ticket Scotland Shop on Rose Street (0131 220 3234)
www.eusa.ed.ac.uk/eusalive
ALL WELCOME! All events at the Pleasance are open to everyone — non-students and students alike. Edinburgh University Students’ Association is a Registered Scottish Charity (No.SCO15800)
Got your eye on the ball? Email sport@studentnewspaper.org
Tuesday February 2 2010 studentnewspaper.org
Sport 23
Olympic goal for Jeppsson
Injury Time
TAKES A LOOK AT THE WORLD OF SPORT
Martin Domin talks to Edinburgh's Swedish sensation who is aiming for Olympic glory and has now set her sights on the Olympic Games. Jeppsson has now won the award a staggering three times and continues to impress as the star performer of the university’s archery club. Although she was not present to collect her award, she told The Student that she was delighted to win it once again. 'It felt good to win the award. It always feels good to get acknowledged for all effort put in,' she said. 'Sadly I did not attend the ball this year as I was in France for a European Indoor Tournament so it was not at all the same [as being there in person]. To be fair, this is the third time I have won it, so I did think my chances of getting it would be much slimmer.' Jeppsson has continued her dominance of the university archery scene over the last year and can reel off a list of her achievements: 'I won both the indoor and outdoor British University and College Sport (BUCS) Championships as well as the BUCS league and Scottish Universities Sport (SUS) indoor event. 'I was also one of three women shortlisted for BUCS Woman of the Year 2009, but did not get the award.' It is outside of the university environment, however, that Jeppsson has really excelled. Having qualified for the final of the GB National Series, she went on to finish in third place, seeing off an Olympic bronze medallist in the process. Unfortunately for Great Britain, Jeppsson will not be delivering Olympic gold for her adopted country. It is the Swedes who will benefit from any future success, and she has already shown herself to be competitive on the international front. At the Swedish Championship, she finished as the best lady indoors and the third best outdoors while she has competed for her country at a number of different events including the World Indoor Championships. She ended 2009 as the best ranked outdoor female archer in Sweden and Scotland as well as the fourth best in Britain. Ultimately however, Jepps-
son wants to compete on the biggest stage of all: the Olympics. She admitted: 'I compete for Sweden internationally and would like to improve compared to the other international archers. I have not yet competed at Olympics and so of course I have ambitions. 'To compete at the 2012 Olympics in London is my big goal. The first aim is to actually qualify however!' Remarkably, Jeppsson had never shot an arrow before she came
to Edinburgh and she acknowledges the support she has received. 'I did not do archery before I came to university, so I think most of my success is due to the archery club. 'Then of course the sport performance program that the university runs, through Jim Aitken (and the Centre for Sport and Exercise), have contributed a lot. Without either I would not be where I am just now.' The club itself has been a consistent performer over the last year. They tri-
umphed at the BUCS Championships in both the indoor and outdoor disciplines while breaking their own indoor record in the process. The SUS event also proved to be a formality for the Edinburgh club as they brushed aside their opponents. It would hardly be a surprise to see Jeppsson in London in two years time, while the archery club look set to go from strength to strength and will be aiming to retain their titles this year.
STEADY AIM: Edinburgh's archers have been the dominant force in Britain of late
Anyone for intramural? Davie Heaton and Hugh Masters take a lighthearted look at intramural football SO YOU turn up at university and decide that you need to play some sport, in order to offset some of the damage done by the sharp increase in Tennents and ketchup sandwiches. At first you dabble with the idea of trying something new, because that’s what university is all about (at least for the first two weeks), but you’re no good at racquet sports, the cricket season is during the summer (and most of the games will be rained off anyway), you would rather nail your own head to a table than try to keep up with the über-enthusiastic ultimate frisbee crowd, and you can’t play rugby because you’re small and
don’t like being bullied. So you turn to trusty old football - but you’re too drunk to perform at the trials during Freshers’ Week, or you’re just not good enough. The solution lies among the broken glass and hypodermic needles that litter the grassy marshland of the Jack Kane centre, beyond the burned out Rover 500 and the roaming gangs of quad-bike bandits. For every Sunday, many men drag their Soccer Saturday and Big Cheese-ravaged bodies here to do battle under the banner of the intramural championships. Intramural football provides a setting whereby blinding yellow boots and
the haircut to match are prohibited, gloves are frowned upon, and shin guards are optional at best. There has always been one game that sticks out for me. Three members of the team, myself included, were running late but the show must go on and after all, it would be an inconvenience to keep the capacity crowd waiting. The team began the match with eight men. We arrived, in spirit at least, jogged across the seemingly endless number of pitches (thus serving as our warm-up) to greet our eight-man side who, despite their valiant efforts, were 3-0 down after ten minutes. We went on to lose this particular
match by a margin of at least eight; if my memory serves correct it was 11-3 – a feat I would love to see the Premier League match for entertainment value. Yet the point of intramural football, as we all know, is not to dazzle spectators or fill newspaper back pages. It’s about enjoyment and maintaining a sense of fitness in between the alcohol-fuelled nights that are common practice in the early months. And who knows: it may even be about the ecstasy of seeing the ball hit the back of the net which, when recalling to anyone credulous enough to listen, will no doubt miraculously be transformed into an injury time 40-yard winner.
NEIL HODGINS
rcher Jenny Jeppsson was named A Sportswoman of the Year by the Edinburgh University Sports Union
Moaning Mowbray WITH OVER half the season played, Celtic find themselves in second place in the Scottish Premier League behind local rivals Rangers. Yet their Govan neighbours are supposedly being run by the bank HBOS and haven’t bought a player for well over a year. Celtic were runners-up last season and are on course to do the same this season, so where is it all going wrong? Tony Mowbray became manager of Celtic in June 2009, but after spending money that the rest of the SPL could only dream of, Celtic are still lingering below Rangers and remarkably sit just above third placed Hibernian. Indeed, Mowbray’s team lost to Hibs last Wednesday which further increased the pressure on the Teesider, who admitted the Celtic job is one that he doesn’t enjoy. Yet Mowbray is in one of the top football jobs in Britain. Celtic have passionate, loyal fans and although not to the standard they used to be, they still have great players. For Mowbray to say that he doesn’t enjoy his job is worrying for all Celtic fans and most of all the Celtic board. Thousands of people would jump at the chance to take such an elevated job in football, but Mowbray doesn’t seem to revel in the opportunity that has been presented to him. Although Mowbray insists that he 'laughs' false stories off, there has been a big deal made of an article published claiming his midfielder Scott Brown was told he would be transferred in the January transfer window. Mowbray is furious at the 'lie' and has even claimed that the Scottish media have an 'agenda' aimed at disrupting Celtic’s dressing room. Whether the Brown story is true or not, Mowbray hasn’t covered himself in glory by working himself up at a story he could have quite simply dismissed. Instead, he attacked the media. The truth is, Mowbray is under pressure; things haven’t yet worked out for him. He insists that there is a long-term plan and has asked Celtic fans to be patient. Indeed, Mowbray should be given time, much longer than just a season. He’s building his own team and he’s enforcing his attacking football philosophy. Once he succeeds, which he should, Celtic will once again be a fantastic and successful side to watch, bringing the punters back to Celtic Park. It’s going to be a long journey and it will take time for the new players to settle in, but Mowbray needs to calm down, enjoy his job and stop criticising the media. As Celtic manager he probably wants to deflect the attention from his side’s position, but he just needs to get his head down and get the job done.
Will Lyon
Sport studentnewspaper.org Tuesday February 2 2010
Anyone for intramural?
23
The Student takes a look at the less competitive side of university sport P
Edinburgh slump to league defeat Will Lyons sees university lose out at home to neighbours Edinburgh City 0 2
AN ALMOST frozen Peffermill played host to the city clash of Edinburgh University and Edinburgh City on Saturday afternoon. It was City who came away with the crucial win as they overcame a physically weaker university side, despite a positive first half from the home team. Two second-half goals from Ian McFarland and Douglas Gair secured the result for City who inched three points away from relegation, despite the resignation of their former manager Shaun Steven last Monday. City provided the early pressure, but they couldn’t capitalise from a corner and free kick which were both comfortably dealt with by the Edinburgh keeper Mark Tait. As the home side started to settle, however, they created some good opportunities. On the 16th minute James Craigen and Jack Beesley combined well with slick passes but Michael Bruce was on hand to clear for City. Just two minutes later, the home side's Andy Watkin had a great chance when the ball fell to him after a scrappy corner, but he sent the ball wide. City almost lost a goal as Bruce hit an agonisingly short back pass to his keeper, who casually strolled out of his box and proceeded to whack the ball off the oncoming Lee Deans; but his blocked effort narrowly missed the City goal. Edinburgh's pressure ended with a Watkin cross, but recipient Beesley fired over the bar. At this point, both teams had defended resolutely and there wasn’t a clear goal-scoring opportunity to speak of. Nevertheless, the final ten minutes of the half consisted of end-to-end action. On the 35th minute a free kick chipped in by Scott Fusco narrowly missed Stuart Dearden’s free head and bobbled out for a goal kick. City hit back by pushing play into the opposition's half, but McFarland’s effort from the side of the box careered straight into Tait’s hands. As the play rampaged from half to half there were numerous efforts on target from both sides, but each goalkeeper comfortably dealt with the shots from long distances and acute angles. At the interval it would be fair to say that neither team had created any quality chances, but Edinburgh looked to have the edge over the manager-less City side. The second half started as the first had ended, with the ball rocketing back and forth from side to side. On the 49th
minute, however, City took the lead. A cross into the box by Jordan Caddow was pinballed about until McFarland found himself with time and space to control the ball and he stuck the ball past the helpless Tait. For the next 20 minutes the play became very scrappy but the pressure from City continued to grow. Eventually on the 73rd minute City sealed the points as Steven Clee fed a delightful through ball to Gair who hit
a dinked shot over the blameless Tait. Edinburgh tried to step up a gear as they pushed for a goal to get themselves back in the match. However, the 50/50 battles all over the pitch were being won by City who looked fitter than the home side. City continued to press from the restart but at the back Fusco was on hand to head clear from a dangerous-looking City corner. On the 78th minute, the Meadowbank side nearly put the result
beyond any doubt as they took an effective short corner which found Shaun Harrison who should have converted from the edge of the box. The away side had an even better opportunity just five minutes from time as a perfect cross into the box was greeted by the head of sub, Peter Stenhouse, but his effort was narrowly over. Edinburgh had two attempts to get a goal back but a freekick on 84 minutes was punched clear by Duncan Monte-
ith. In stoppage time Kerr Dodds tried an ambitious shot, but it trickled harmlessly wide of the City goal. Over the match, City deserved the three points. Edinburgh struggled in the second half and tired as time went on. Strikers on both sides had great difficulty breaking down what were two sturdy defences, but when a good chance came along, City made no mistake in finding the back of the net.
HEADING FOR DEFEAT: Edinburgh were undone by their city rivals on Saturday in the Premier League
JAMES POPE
Edinburgh University Edinburgh City