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Day: 17 October 2011

Turning up the heat: tensions rise during Chilean winter

Written by Oliver Johnstone on . Posted in Opinion.

This time last year, Britain witnessed some of its’ largest ever student protests against the rising cost of a university education. Hundreds of thousands of students and union leaders took to the streets in direct action against the decision to raise the cap on tuition fees to £9,000 per year, as advised in the Brown Report.

We saw numerous and appalling scenes of violence from a small but not-insignificant group of rioters – though nothing compared to the truly shocking situation currently unfolding in Chile. With 874 arrests already made, a department store burned to the ground and a television station seized; what started as a peaceful, carnival-like series of demonstrations has taken a more sinister turn.

Initially, the reasonable and moderate majority of Chilean students took to the streets to take part in kiss-ins, fancy dress street carnivals and to run laps around the Presidential Palace in Santiago in order to campaign for reforms to Chile’s university education system, which does not include the privileges of student grants and loans that we enjoy here in the UK.

In fairness to Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, he embraced this to a generous extent and has pledged limited reforms to university education, promising an extra £2.6 billion in state funding. A pleasing and inspiring democratic compromise reached in a civilised manner to put the disagreement to bed, you might think?

Not for everyone. To some this is about more than moderate reform – it is about a complete revolution of Chilean society. Amidst the violence and tension of recent weeks, one voice has sought to radicalise the student protests and has succeeded in her attempt so far. Camila Vallejo, a hot-headed 23-year-old radical and student leader heavily immersed in the youth of the Chilean Communist Party, has taken centre-stage and allied the student movement with trade unions in calling for the complete destruction of the current education system.

Miss Vallejo and her colleagues have called for a completely state-funded system, free at the point of use and paid for via tough taxes on the rich and business. They are prepared to take drastic measures to achieve their aims, with two national ‘shutdown days’ planned for 18th and 19th October which will undoubtedly cause chaos and upset for the vast majority of hard-working Chileans.

Surely then, the Chilean student protests and those that occurred in the UK last year are totally incomparable? If anything, the argument is almost entirely the same. As the latest QS University Rankings show, Chile has only one university in the top ten of all Latin American universities.

Yes, reform is necessary, but the notion that the government should remove private investment and return university tuition to the state sector – and all the inefficiencies it brings with it – is simply ludicrous. Why should Chile drive investment and businesses out of the country, by piling on taxes to fund the grand Marxist projects of the far-left ringleaders of the violent protests such Miss Vallejo and her union cronies?

President Pinera, however, remains defiant. As government spokesman Andres Chadwick has proclaimed, “our hand won’t tremble and we won’t show any weakness in seeking to control situations of public order.”

With that in my mind, it can only be hoped that the ordinary people of Chile have the good sense to back the moderate reforms pledged by their President, and not the revolutionary fantasies of the deluded Marxist left.

Party conference season – a political charade

Written by Andrew Williams on . Posted in Opinion.

Party conference season has come and gone – and failed yet again. In recent times, the political conference has become little more than a piece of carefully stage-managed theatre; one where the delegates in the audience are reduced to helpless spectators rather than active participants. These three weeks in September have become devoid of debate, as disagreement and variance in opinion is increasingly marginalised (and in some cases, forbidden).

Given all three party leaders argue that debate is healthy and democratic, we must ask why policy deliberation is so obviously sidelined at what is supposed to be a key forum for innovative policy ideas. The sense that conference should primarily be a forum for policy formulation has been long forgotten. Instead, conferences are now dominated by corporate interests, forceful lobbyists and media posturing aplenty.

Party members have little or no voice at conference. Instead, they are made to feel like second-class citizens and pushed to the sides like living-room furniture. This is incredibly unjust, especially given that members keep their party afloat, and that they do the door-knocking and leafleting when the chips are down.

In recent years, the number of party members attending conferences has declined dramatically; unusually, even David Cameron failed to fill the conference hall for his keynote speech. Is there now a steady realisation amongst ordinary members that conference season no longer exists to reaffirm the grassroots links which hold the party together? It seems that an increasing number of disillusioned supporters now believe that party conference season exists purely as a vehicle for politicians to whore themselves out to lobbyists and be treated to lavish dinners by banks and PR firms. Far from representing a forum for serious policy-making, conferences have simply become a forum for frivolous political gossip.

Where the conference ‘fringe’ once provided ordinary party members and hard-working activists with an opportunity to discuss the issues closest to their hearts with the big hitters in their party, fringe meetings these days are (more often than not) corporate-sponsored and increasingly bereft of any real political meaning.

An archetypal fringe meeting this autumn might have taken the format of a senior politician in conversation with a senior media personality. If conference-goers decide they don’t want to bother with these choreographed discussions, they can instead browse such delights as the Nuclear Industry Association stall, or the Tobacco Retailers Alliance stand. Here in Manchester, Tory delegates allegedly spent as much time getting new suits fitted and purchasing extortionate cashmere jumpers from conference stalls as they did debating.

Not one of the three main parties came together in September to discuss policy. The Conservative conference held debates which were tightly controlled and scripted; in Liverpool, the Labour Party conference only allowed audience members to ask specially engineered, vetted questions; even the Liberal Democrats (the party traditionally viewed as the most consensual and participatory of the three) saw their conference descend into a lacklustre charade of passivity.

The concept which once underpinned party conference season is outdated and obsolete – the event has simply become an ode to the leader. The leader’s speech merely involves preaching to the converted, thus there is no pressure to convince the already sympathetic audience of anything noteworthy. Consequently, the set-piece leader’s speech has become a fruitless formality which turns conference into little more than a self-serving Stalinist rally.

Most importantly, the British public remains thoroughly disinterested in conference season (something which is clearly symptomatic of party politics in general). If party conferences do not even attempt to address the concerns of the British public, why should the electorate be interested in this sorry charade? Party conferencing needs a radical overhaul – we cannot blindly continue to preserve this futile and ineffective tradition.

Who’s hot, who’s not: the winners and losers of party conference season

Written by Alexandra Houghton on . Posted in Opinion.

A good conference for…

Tom Watson The Labour MP, who was heavily involved in uncovering the phone hacking scandal at News International, came down hard on the culture of “corruption and criminality” in the Murdoch empire, to the delight of his party’s conference. Watson received a standing ovation – and a new position in the Shadow Cabinet – for his speech.

Boris Johnson The Mayor of London once again had no qualms in discussing his successes over the past year. Boris charmed the crowd as he defended his record in the capital city, having “introduced Oyster on the overground, brought in a new generation of open-platform buses and frozen council tax.”

Yvette Cooper The Shadow Home Secretary impressed her fellow Labour supporters with a passionate attack on the coalition’s policy on crime. Cooper argued that although the traditional Tory stance is tough on crime, this is not reflected in the decisions made by David Cameron, who is “still cutting the police and their powers” – even in light of the recent riots. Ed Balls’ less gaffe-prone wife is a rising star.

George Osborne Whilst the public welcome plans to freeze council tax and Standard and Poor’s reaffirm Britain’s AAA credit rating, Osborne’s speech received support across the Conservative Party, as colleagues reiterated his claim that “you can’t borrow your way out of a debt crisis.”

Vince Cable Once everyone’s favourite politician, Cable made quite a comeback having been caught on tape announcing his “war on Rupert Murdoch” earlier in the year. At this year’s conference he simply kept his head down, stuck to his straight-talking strategy, and won the support of the Liberal Democrats in Birmingham.

A bad conference for…

Ed Miliband The Labour leader had a distinctly average party conference. Although he was praised for pledging to lower the cap on tuition fees from £9,000 to £6,000, NUS president Liam Burns argued that this is not nearly enough. A post-conference poll by ComRes revealed that only 24% of people see Miliband as a credible candidate for Prime Minister – 57% do not.

Nick Clegg The Lib Dem leader repeatedly reminded the audience of the hardships he has had to face over the past year. Clegg had precious few success stories to share with his party, following a poor performance in local elections in May and the lost referendum on the voting system. He quite obviously failed to rouse a despondent crowd.

Ivan Lewis The Shadow Culture Secretary suggested a state register for the regulation of journalists in order to prevent another phone hacking scandal. A step in the right direction, perhaps; a little farfetched, said most observers. The proposal was poorly received.

Theresa May Not only did the kitten-heeled Home Secretary attempt to convince the public that the repeal of the Human Rights Act was a positive thing, she then embarrassed herself by making false observations about an illegal immigrant who, she alleged, was allowed to stay in the country “because of a pet cat.”

Ken Clarke The rogue pet cat didn’t only spell trouble for Theresa May. Ever-cheerful Ken Clarke was branded a ‘traitor’ by the tabloid press – and some in his own party – after he publicly ridiculed May, branding her claims “laughable” and “child-like”. Clarke, a rare pro-European in a largely Eurosceptic party, could now face early retirement as a result.

Lost World at Cornerhouse

Written by patrick cowling on . Posted in Film.

Well don’t I feel cultured. Arriving at the Cornerhouse on a typical Mancunion Sunday afternoon, I am genuinely more excited to be going to the cinema than I have been since I saw Tron: Legacy at the IMAX in Waterloo. Hopefully this time I won’t want to stab anyone in the face after watching it or bleed from my eyeballs during the film. The reason I am so excited is because I am about to be treated to one of Cornerhouse’s best cinematic experiences ever, and that is saying something. On Sunday, Cornerhouse are screening a showing of the 1925 release of The Lost World in all its silent black and white glory. Am I really that pretentious? Ermmm I think you will find that JJ, the keyboardist from the Scissor Sisters is playing a live score to the film during the performance… So yes, yes I am. The atmosphere is great and my housemates’ hangovers are fading slightly as we take our seats. Now I will say that whilst the music was thoroughly entertaining – and hats off to JJ for being both a very skilled pianist and quite a funny guy, the film was a bit mental. It was a really entertaining atmosphere, but there were long parts were nothing is really explained and we just see tiny people running away from clay models. That said it was yet another amazing Cornerhouse experience, and another reason why that cinema is so damn good.

All Hail King Kermode!

Written by Joshua Harris on . Posted in Film.

In a sea of film critics and academics – not to mention a veritable ocean of dicks on the internet, who think that just because they can string enough syllables together to formulate an opinion on a film we must all want to listen – it can be hard to find someone whose cinematic opinions we can take as verbatim. Thankfully there is such a man, a mighty colossus who straddles this ocean of critical conflict and YouTube bullshit, with Michael Bay’s bloated corpse in one hand and a double bass in the other. An alumnus of Manchester and considered by The Screen Directory to be one of the top ten film critics of all time, Mark Kermode lived and breathed film from the day he was born. Here is a man who is not afraid to buck the trend (he loves the Twilight Saga!). Here is a man who isn’t afraid to look Willem Dafoe in the eye and tell him that he knows more about Willem Dafoe’s new film than Willem Dafoe because he’s seen it, whereas Willem Dafoe just acted in it. Here is a man who can end a ten minute rant about Sex and the City 2 with a rousing rendition of The Internationale! Indeed, Kermode is probably best known for his blustering rants, but don’t be fooled; beneath all that hot air he’s usually right!  His first book, It’s Only a Movie, was a fantastic mix of funny anecdotes and cinematic insights. His new book, The Good, The Bad and The Multiplex, looks to be more of the same, but with a bit more anger thrown in, as it focusses on the horrors modern cinemas. So all hail King Kermode! And remember, other opinions are available, even if they are wrong.

Johnny English Reborn Review

Written by Michael Lyons on . Posted in Film.

Does the world need another Johnny English film? Put simply, no! The story is basically irrelevant; it’s just a vehicle for Rowan Atkinson making a fool out of himself. Similar films in the same ilk are Pink Panther and Get Smart, where you get a detective/special agent who clumsily go about their business creating humorous moments for the audience but still manage to get the job done. Does anyone actually like these films? I would say it is a tired overused genre already.
It’s obvious that the film is targeted at families with young children. The children will no doubt be kept amused by Johnny English’s silliness, but I feel sorry for the parents who have to sit through this. So reader, if you are a parent (which I doubt you are), don’t pay the money for this unless you are really big fan of Mr. Bean. Because let’s face it, Johnny English is just Mr. Bean with a nice suit.

It started off reasonably well, with the odd snigger and smirk, but as time elapsed I became more and more frustrated with Johnny’s idiocy. He’s a terrible spy, lewd and a little bit racist, but MI7’s decision to re-hire Johnny English was unforgivable in my eyes because of one key thing: it created an awful unwanted sequel. Honestly, Johnny, I’ve had enough of you. I know you eventually saved the day and all, but it was an accident. A fluke! I certainly wouldn’t hire you myself. So I’m advocating early retirement for Agent English, and we can all just forget this mess ever happened. But then again, Rosamund Pike is in this film and she’s ridiculously hot. So not all bad!

 

Director: Oliver Parker

Starring: Rowan Atkinson, Rosamund Pike, Dominic West

 

2 stars

Midnight in Paris Review

Written by Elizabeth Harper on . Posted in Film.

Midnight in Paris is yet another Woody Allen film that attempts to portray a city as its own character. The film aims to take us out of our mundane everyday lives and transports us back to a golden age of romance and creativity in 1920s Paris. Allen presents caricatures of numerous American and European artistic and literary icons of the era.

 

It cannot be denied, Allen secured a tip-top cast. The acting throughout was thoroughly convincing; you could have been watching it happen in real life. I will admit though, before going into the film, I was worried about his lead actor. Owen Wilson has only ever been a DVD man in my life so far. I’ve never really had the inclination to see any of his films on their initial release in a cinema. No, not even with the added allure of a cute dog in Marley and Me. However, in Midnight in Paris he gives his puppy dog friend a run for his money in the adorability stakes. He’s not soppy or sickening, just hopelessly romantic in a Ryan-Gosling-in-The-Notebook way. He does an excellent job of steering the film throughout a storyline that quickly became tiresome, losing its sense of originality.

 

The central characters were left frustratingly undeveloped and no amount of good acting could rescue it, which was a massive shame. The script was severely lacking in depth, the dialogue was either really uninspiring or was heavily repeated. Overkill and too much stereotyping in the script really made this film lose its creative zest. Some of the scenes seemed to go around in circles and dwelt upon the main themes too much. The point of the film was made very clear to the audience, but was then needlessly reinforced by a boring stretch of dialogue between Wilson and Marion Cotillard. It left you thinking ‘alright alright, I get it’.

 

Despite its flaws, this film was enjoyable to watch, mostly due to the whimsical style that means it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Visually and musically Midnight in Paris was enchanting. It just needed to be longer so that the repetitions and inconsistencies had more of a chance to be straightened out.

My Political Hero: Joe Slovo

Written by Lucy Hall on . Posted in Uncategorised.

Many of us look back on the great struggles of history with a type of 20/20 vision that we may not have had at the time – adamant that, given the same situation, we would have done what we now see was so obviously the right thing to do.

Of course, we delude ourselves. To actively oppose the fascist regime in South Africa (whether black, white, ‘coloured’ or Indian – indeed, regardless of race) was an act of courage and a commitment that should never be underestimated. One cannot imagine the alienation and suffering that those who stood up to the regime endured. Joe Slovo’s life epitomised these elements.

Dubbed ‘South Africa’s most wanted man’ in the latter stages of the anti-Apartheid struggle, Joe Slovo is emblematic of someone so dedicated to his cause that putting his life at risk became the only way he knew how to live. A white man living in Apartheid South Africa, he was not an immediate beneficiary of the cause he fought so virulently for, the struggle that came to define him.

A law graduate of Wits University, Johannesburg (where he was a prominent student activist and shared classes with Nelson Mandela), Slovo married fellow anti-Apartheid activist, Ruth First, whilst he was still in education. Both were active in the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress (ANC). Following two arrests – he was detained for two months during the infamous treason trial of 1956 – Slovo was eventually exiled in 1963. His life in exile proved to be the most productive period of his part in the struggle.

Slovo had already emerged as the leader of the MK (the military wing of the ANC), which he continued to run from guerrilla camps based in Mozambique and Angola. As such, one might dispute his heroism on the grounds of his apparent advocacy of violence. This notion should be dispelled. The MK was a vital organ in the anti-Apartheid battle, without which the ANC would have been repressed early on and with ease. Although Slovo’s former classmate, Mandela, initially insisted upon a peaceful struggle, it quickly became clear that this was fanciful, fruitless and practically impossible. Surrendering its’ pacifism, the ANC went out of its way to ensure as few civilians as possible were harmed, focusing instead on causing maximum damage to South African infrastructure.

Slovo also provided invaluable ideological guidance for the direction of the anti-Apartheid movement, aligning communist ideals (he became General Secretary of the SACP in 1984) with the more straightforward ideological battle of fighting for equal rights for non-white citizens. Indeed, his quest for social justice extended beyond the confines of the South African borders, pleading with fellow South African exiles to help foster democracy and stability throughout the rest of post-colonial Africa.

Perhaps Slovo’s most tangible achievement was the ‘sunset clause’ he proposed in 1992, which represented a major breakthrough in the dismantlement of the Apartheid government. The clause proposed a coalition government for five years after South Africa’s first democratic election, demonstrating the art of compromise that was so important in Nelson Mandela’s fledgling government. Later, he became a minister in the Mandela government, before tragically succumbing to cancer in 1995.

Vital though they were, Joe Slovo’s importance resided not only in the practical and theoretical roles he played – it lay in the example he set. For a white man to risk everything in Apartheid South Africa can have been nothing other than a beacon of hope for the countless people who suffered under an unrelentingly cruel regime every single day. He himself suffered terribly – in 1982, his wife was killed by a letter bomb on the order of Apartheid police.  To know that Slovo was willing to endure so much for a cause that he could have quite easily ignored was of profound importance.

I am privileged to say that I know a little of Slovo on a personal level – my grandparents were also ANC members and anti-Apartheid activists, and became good friends with the man who has become my hero. They always spoke so highly of him as a friend as well as a political figure; indeed, they too went into exile in 1963, continuing to live and work in post-colonial Africa. It is this small community of South African activists that Slovo is so wonderfully representative of. There were many who struggled like him, but Slovo went above and beyond the lengths that fellow activists were prepared to go to; for this, he deserves special recognition.

Today, Joe Slovo is remembered as a hero of the Rainbow Nation, so much so that in 2004 he was voted one of the 100 ‘Great South Africans’. Roads and townships across the country are named after him.

But it wasn’t always this way; there was a time when his life was well and truly on the line as he gave everything for his cause. He was at the heart of the anti-Apartheid struggle from its earliest days, and devoted his life to fighting injustice until the bitter end. Slovo did not have the benefit of hindsight we have now – he simply had an irrefutable sense of right and wrong.

Tailor Made for Students

Written by Stephen Jones on . Posted in Books.

Sometimes, that copy of Crime and Punishment or your un-translated stack of Ovid can look a bit daunting at university. Whiskey and music will be waiting downstairs, taunting and laughing at you as you read the same sentence on page three for the 100th time in five hours. It’s only a matter of time before you snap. You’ll scream, rip the book to shreds and down a keg of gin and tonic while your housemates sit in their pants, play Scalextric and half-arsedly egg you on. Then you’ll wake up the next morning feeling terrible that you didn’t, as you had promised yourself, get to that bit where Achilles kills Hektor. Or something.

Just as bad would be to give in and read some wholly vacuous trash that you can skim through in the same amount of time it takes to watch the Jennifer Anniston film it’s based on. So where, where can you find a wonderful middle ground? A book which is a riot to read but which you wouldn’t be embarrassed to be seen leafing through in public? Well, of course, there are loads. But no other author seems to write books as tailor made for students as Haruki Murakami.

Murakami is a highly original Japanese author, whose novels often utilise magic realism and dark, looping narratives. Seemingly paradoxically, his books are as utterly baffling as they are completely accessible. If you’re a fan of predictable plots and tied-up ends, steer well clear of this one. His novels don’t follow any formula I can think of. Constant, bewildering madness hits you at every page, until you’re almost physically reacting to it. Truckloads of apparent nonsense whirl around in no particular order, acres and acres of it, like a swirling vortex of incomprehension. You have absolutely no idea what is going on most of the time, but are still incurably gripped. Their unconventional, bounding plots and unexplained occurrences and symbolism make them almost poetic, but also wholly un-putdownable.

If you’re not gasping and wincing and laughing and crying in confusion (which you usually are, simultaneously and all the time) then you’re reading an incredibly explicit sex scene. You’ll always think there’s some context or reason for it happening, but there isn’t. In fact, sometimes you don’t know if it even is happening, or if it’s just the imagination of the main character. That’s the case in Kafka on the Shore, a 600 page monster but which you will get through in two days purely by its incredibly gripping, lucid writing style. And maybe, if you’re not reading excruciatingly descriptive sex scenes, you’re reading scenes of unimaginable horror that will keep you awake for two weeks after you read it. There’s a section I still think about and shudder in The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. I won’t give it away, but it involves skinning.

None of what I have said fits the description of Norwegian Wood, which is Murakami’s most famous and most popular novel for some reason. That one is an almost completely by-the-books tragic love story. It’s the sort of book you’ll tilt your head at once you’ve read the last page and generously give a B+. Something mad like 60% of the Japanese population has read Norwegian Wood and there’s recently been a predictably ‘kind-of-alright’ film based on it, released on the island to mind-bending box office success. Their love of that novel over his other more surrealist works is almost as confusing as the plots of those books themselves.

The prior mentioned Kafka on the Shore and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle are the ones to look out for. If you liked them, pick up a copy of After Dark, and maybe Dance Dance Dance and Sputnik Sweetheart. He has recently released a novel called 1984. Don’t know if anyone told him that that title is taken already.

A lot of the time the characters in Murakami novels are students at university, flitting between doing student things and being manipulated by the labyrinthian maze that is Murakami’s mind. So there you are. If you want a real contemporary page-turner, which is also semi-relatable and genuinely good literature, look no further than this sparkling gem of an author.

 

The spoilt brats of society

Written by Lloyd Henning on . Posted in Opinion.

Self-important, self-centered and self-serving, students are some of the rudest and most useless people within society.

We are looked down on, viewed as a herd of swines, revellers rolling in the muck secreted from every filthy orifice on our bodies. And it is this collection of bumbling biological organisms that are meant to evolve into a future generation of highly skilled, civilised human beings; an idea quite difficult to believe for any one watching us can see.

Society is supposed to put up with us until we do finally contribute, supporting us financially (albeit somewhat less now) via the government and in turn the tax payer. And we do love to demonstrate our gratitude in a myriad of ways.

When partaking in our favoured activity, consumption, we understand that ordering a drink a bar as a student means you don’t ever need think of tipping, the same goes with dining out – surely every one understand that while we would like to offer a cash reward to bar and waiting staff for the pleasantry of their services, we need to save that money for important things, like the next round of sugar loaded alchopops in 15 minutes or so.

Saving bin space is also a great way to enjoy being a student. Whether it’s leaving that coffee cup in the lecture theatre or limply dropping the packaging of your cheesy chips on the street once they have been dunked into the red-bull scented acid of your stomach. By not using the bins, you are preventing them from overfilling and becoming all icky and disgusting. Society even encourages this behaviour, that is why they have cleaners and road sweepers right?

Every well cultured student knows that life without music is so dull, so feed your soul and make sure headphones are on at all times; whether on foot, on bike or even, when you really need to get some deeper understanding, in lectures. There is no part of a students lifestyle that could not be improved with ke$ha as the soundtrack.

Public transport is just one big party and bus drivers know it as well. They love to compromise their jobs and throw out all that health and safety wiff-waff and have students pile onto a bus until the windows are blocked out with butt-cheeks smushed firmly against them. They simply adore it when the stop button is jammed constantly, regardless of whether anyone is getting off – so they can get some more practise pulling into bus stops. They giggle with delight knowing that the top of the bus is clearly the no-rules-party-floor, perfect for playing games on and being a super badass and blazing up a cheeky bifta. And most important of all, they remember that there is no need to ever thank them when you get off, because after all the above, words could not convey your appreciation of their service.

Taxis drivers also get into the party mood. When ordering a five person taxi, the operator can clearly hear from all the background noise that there may be more than five of you who are actually going to try and fit in the car. So why they seem so surprised when a group of 13 of fall out of the house and then adamantly insist that they ordered the taxi correctly. But all of this is resolved by throwing up in the back seat.

Sometimes, at the end of a big night, you just have to call the fastest taxi service in town. It doesn’t exactly take you home, but you do end up in a nice warm bed. Yes, the ol’ ambulance ride. An express trip straight to A & E. Lay back and relax as those funny fluids are pumped from your stomach and then bandage up that heel after a little tipsy slip down the stairs. By using the NHS you are highlighting to the public its importance and usefulness, fighting for the case to keep it.

If you choose instead to go by foot, you can utilise the opportunity to express yourself to the public. Wander through residential areas and offer a song for the good people of the land, then fertilise said lands by defecating in and around them. If you are lucky you may even spot some roadworks that seem to have an excess of traffic cones that are you are more than willing to take care of; relocating them to the far safer location of your living room.

We may not be the worst members of society, more like the brattish children than the nefarious yobs, but we certainly do not make any ones lives any easier. Could we learn to behave in a civilised manner, to show consideration for others in society, to not act like spoilt shits? I doubt it, we’re too oblivious to even notice.

Urbee, the world’s most futuristically manufactured car

Written by Aryan Safavi on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

A momentous and seminal engineering wonder has gone on display in Canada: a car that has been partly manufactured layer by layer using 3D printing. The Urbee is an environmentally friendly hybrid car, using electric motors and a backup alcohol-powered engine to achieve 200 miles per gallon. However it is the car’s body shell that has caused the excitement over a new transformation in manufacturing to rival that of the industrial revolution centuries ago.For decades this “rapid prototyping” has been used for making one-off prototypes but as the manufacturing technology develops, 3D printing is being considered as a near future viable and economic replacement to the mass-production techniques ubiquitous in the past century. 3D printing works by material flowing out a computer controlled nozzle, building layer by layer, just like a conventional printer uses ink, but in three dimensions instead of two.

Jim Kor, the project leader of Kor EcoLogic, described the manufacturing as “an additive process, building the part essentially one ‘molecule’ of material at a time, ultimately with no waste”. Traditional subtractive manufacturing involves shaving away or moulding blocks of raw metal to make engineered components, thus a process removing this waste is economically desirable. Also stockpiling components and then transporting them across seas may prove far less cost effective than using a 3D printer to simply print the part required as the designs are stored in virtual computer warehouses.

The eminent designers of this distinctive project insist that it is not just an experiment, as they intend the car to go on sale 2014. With extremely low fuel consumption and an estimated £10,000-£33,000 price tag, providing that the engineers assault the challenging development of the mass manufacturing process with sufficient intellectual vigour and investor backing, the Urbee car can revolutionise the automotive industry.

NASA five-tonne satellite crashes off US west coast

Written by Aryan Safavi on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

It is easy to sensationalise the fall from grace of a five tonne NASA satellite crashing into the earth, yet the terror induced by NASA’s oblivious claim that the satellite “could land anywhere” was not realised as it is believed to have harmlessly crashed off the US Pacific coast around 04:16 GMT on the 24th September.The UARS (Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite) was the largest NASA satellite to re-enter the earth’s atmosphere uncontrolled for 30 years. Most of the satellite was believed to have burned up on re-entry, with models indicating that 500kg of the expensive shrapnel could have survived to rain down over an 800km area on the earth’s surface.NASA estimated the threat to life posed by the UARS as being just 1 in 3,200, a figure which is higher than 1 in 10,000 risk limit NASA aims for. It was expected to land anywhere between 57° north and 57° south of the equator, a broad and hence rather unhelpful calculation encompassing most of the populated world between the UK and southern tip of South America.

The 20 year old UARS was launched in 1991 from the space shuttle. This multi-instrument equipped satellite set a president in measuring numerous chemical constituents of the atmosphere with the aim of better understanding the chemistry in the atmosphere. The UARS provided valuable information regarding the depletion of the protective stratospheric ozone, proving especially useful at illuminating concerns over the Antarctic ozone hole and the effects of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption on the atmosphere. In 2005 the satellite reached the end of its productive science life when it ran out of fuel. Wiith the days of glorious recognition of its seminal contribution to atmospheric science long in the past, the UARS had been orbiting the earth in despondent redundancy for 6 years.

NASA assured reporters at a press conference before impact that nobody had ever been injured by objects re-entering from space, and the US government will pay for all damage as they did in 1979 when the Skylab satellite crashed into Western Australia. However awestruck one may be from finding a piece of space technology close by, opportunistic eBay sellers must remember that unfortunately the artefacts are still property of the US government.

Apple in court again

Written by David Lack on . Posted in News, Science & Tech.

VIA, the world’s largest independent motherboard manufacturer based in Taiwan, is suing Apple this week for copyright infringement. VIA are claiming that Apple have infringed the copyright on a series of patented microprocessors that are used in the iPod, iPad, iPhone and Apple TV.VIA have issued a complaint with the US International Trade Commission and the American district court over the alleged infringement of the way the chips in the Apple products manipulate and transfer data.Wen Chi Chen, CEO, VIA Technologies, Inc. in a statement said “We are determined to protect our interests and the interests of our stockholders when our patents are infringed upon.” Apple has not released a statement concerning the lawsuit at this time.

The lawsuit is believed to be connected to an on-going series of legal battles between Apple and the smartphone company HTC, also based in Taiwan and co-founded by the boss of VIA’s wife. So far Apple has won lawsuits against HTC which state that HTC have infringed on two of Apple’s copyrighted patents. HTC are planning on appealing that ruling and have three other lawsuits filed against Apple at the moment.

Similarly Apple and mobile phone producer Samsung are having legal battles in Europe which have caused the ban of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany as well as bans on three different types of smartphone in Holland due to the successful claim by Apple that they used Apple’s intellectual property.

These are just some the most recent of a series of mobile phone lawsuits, concerning the patents of the hardware and software of top of the range smartphones across the world. Lawsuits have been filed against and by Apple, HTC, Samsung and Nokia as well as others.

The Music Society present Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony

Written by Ceri Wills on . Posted in Societies.

What: Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony – Manchester University Music Society
When: Saturday, 22nd October 2011, 7:30-9:30pm
Where: Martin Harris Centre (Next to Manchester Museum)
After the sell-out MUMS Welcome Concert our Symphony Orchestra will be performing Tchaikovsky’s incredibly moving 6th Symphony.  Also being played are Brahms’s Tragic Overture and Strauss’s Tod und Verkarung.  Book early to ensure a seat at what will certainly be one of the highlights of the year by e-mailing [email protected], through our website www.mumusicsociety.co.uk or by calling 0161 275 8951.  We hope to see you there!
Ticket Prices are Adults £10/ Concessions £6/ Student £4/ Or free if you become a society member for just £15 – giving you free access to every concert this year.

Benicassim Festival 2011

Written by Tom Hickman on . Posted in Music.

Benicassim

14th-17th July

Benicassim (near Valencia), Spain

Standout Act

A tough one to call; The Strokes came to Beni with a lot to prove and I would go as far to say that they blew Saturday’s spectators away and Mumford & Sons brilliantly bedded new singles into their trustworthy set. But Arcade Fire pipped them both, by providing the most serene ending to a fantastic week, showcasing The Suburbs in all its glorious beauty.

Biggest Flop

Elbow. The Mancunian old-timers have been hitting the high notes for so long, but looked out of their depth on the main stage. Desperate attempts to encourage crowd participation fell on deaf ears and failed to disguise an embarrassingly mediocre back-catalogue.

Surprise Package

Tame Impala. The latest in a recent surge of burgeoning Australian talent, this psychedelic quartet stomped a bass-ridden beat across the east coast of Spain. Arriving on the main stage early on the Saturday evening, Tame Impala wonderfully exhibited the much applauded debut album Innerspeaker, most notably the funk filled ‘Solitude is Bliss’.

Atmosphere

Possibly the only downside of Benicassim must be the number of shaven-headed, union-jack clad morons you have to feast your eyes upon each morning. In spite of this, the masses were hugely friendly and the venue’s locality to the Mediterranean provided a great way to spend your hungover daytime.

Worth the Money?

The leading four-day festival has never failed to draw some of the biggest headliners since its inception in 1995. With a week in the sun and four days of music for the same price as 3 days in the English rain, Benicassim must be seen as one of the best value-for-money festivals going.