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Month: April 2012

Get a better degree: lie in your student survey

The phone rings. Bzzzt. Bzzzt. A prospective telecommunication of hope during the bleak, long hours of study. Bzzzt. An unknown number. Bzzzt. Could it be a love interest? Bzzzt. Or a job offer? Bzzzt. Perhaps it’s an intrepid explorer looking to form a team of mavericks to explore the darkest regions of space. Bzzzt. “Hello?”. “Hi it’s Paul from the national student survey”.

“Oh fuck off”.

When humanity created form filling, it created the uncontested champion of monotonous tasks. Unfortunately, it is from these tomes of boredom that we make informed decisions about the world around us. So when you are called by a temporary acquaintance, such as Paul, to fill in the national survey, realise that you are about to in fact become a player in a game of utmost importance.

Paul will ask you questions that may seem to be prompting you to whinge about topics such as the lack of feedback from coursework, the dearth of rigor in degree material or the absence of kit-kat chunkies in vending machines. However, he is really asking you to rate the value of your degree. If you say that you are satisfied, you will be pushing your degree closer to upper echelons of the league tables; if you moan, you will only be sending it to dwell with the filth at the bottom.

Therefore, logically, for the sake of improving a piece paper and impressing HR personnel worldwide, it is an obligation to state that your time at university was the dog’s knees and bee’s bollocks – even if that is an outright lie.

A shocking call for dishonesty this may be, but one you should get to grips with fast. If you are ever planning succeeding in the commercial world, lying to improve your career prospects should seem as natural as hitting refresh on Facebook.

There is the problem of the subsequent corruption of data. The national student survey is one part of the governments method to keep an eye on how well universities are performing. The surveying itself is performed by an independent company, nominally Ipsos MORI. These poor sods are the ones having to call up drunk/hungover students nationwide on behalf of the government.

But the data is just for those boring league tables that middle class parents fuss over to decide the destiny of their sheltered offspring. Questions far more relevant to the harsh reality of student life would ask you whether agreed with statements such as: “the number of 9:00 a.m. lectures was very little”, “the selection of beer and kebabs helped me become a well rounded person” or “it was easy to find someone willing to perform the act of coitus with”.

What of the true goal of the survey – to report student satisfaction? It’s quite difficult to understand what “satisfaction” means in this context. Is it quantifying how much your intellect was given the ego trip it demanded? Or how easily you got buy living a life of cake and ale? How are prospective students expected to determine if a prospective educational establishment is a boffin-dome or a lad-nirvana?

Even if you are incredibly dissatisfied with your experience, will complaining at a national level change any of this? Could it just serve to reduce the number of applicants and thus the amount of money pumped into your course for resources and contact time? Which in the worse case could have the course itself disappear and what credibility will your degree have then?

The Vice Chancellor, Nancy Rothwell, quipped in a recent question and answer session at my school that most students decide they enjoyed their time at Manchester only once they have graduated and after they have filled in their student surveys. Was this just unadulterated propaganda from the Sith empress herself or was this wizened insight from a Jedi master?

Missed it? The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt

I put off reading this book for as long as I could, for a number of reasons. The main reason was the title – oh, they’re brothers, but their name is Sisters? Oh, I get it, you must be so clever and funny to have come up with that. In fact, I only bought it because it was part of a deal and I needed to make up the numbers.
I also don’t like the cover. Yes, I know the old adage is “don’t judge a book by its cover”, but you totally should. Always. Except in this case.

Because this book is good – not really good, just good. Don’t let the Booker Prize nomination throw you; I’ve read three other books on the shortlist, including the winner, and this is by far the best.
It’s a subtly dark and surprisingly comic yarn, set in the Wild West, which follows the exploits of two brothers as they travel down the West Coast of the States. They have been sent by their boss to kill a business rival, but that part of the story plays almost no part in the plot – instead DeWitt chooses to focus on the varied cast of characters they encounter along the way, and on the emotional growth of younger brother Eli, a gentle giant who is dominated by the cruel Charlie.

It only took me about 4 hours to finish, a light literary jog that was admittedly aided by short chapters as much as it was by the writing itself. It feels more like a mission from Red Dead Redemption than a novel. If you really want to read novels about the Wild West, stick with the genre’s undoubted modern champion Cormac McCarthy, or if you’re feeling slightly more experimental, give Nick Cave’s And The Ass Saw The Angel a go – highly recommended. But if you want to waste a few hours on a train journey and go away feeling nicely satisfied, this is the perfect book for you.

The Five Greatest Booze-Soaked Novels

1. The Sun also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Jake Barnes – Despite a very unfortunate war wound – still manages to live it up, leading a merry band of ex-pats from Paris to Pamplona in order to attend a fiesta. Hemingway’s conduit for the Lost Generation’s itinerant angst became an instant classic as wine flowed, bulls fought, hearts broke, and then wine flowed some more. Also, wine.

2. Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

While some of Fitzgerald’s creations were content to stay in West Egg, NY during the prohibition years and try their luck with the bootleggers (spoiler: they manage OK), socialites Dick and Nicole Diver make it across the pond to the French Riviera, where things are a little more, err, liberal. Famously brilliant but flawed- Fitzgerald was hitting the sauce pretty hard as he wrote it; his life falling apart in a fashion every bit as dramatic as the novel’s wasted protagonist.

3. Hollywood by Charles Bukowski

Wherein Bukowski’s fictional stand-in Henry Chinaksi narrates the real-life mess that was the liquor-soaked struggle to get Barfly produced- the film based on his book of the same name. Which was also about getting whitewashed. Chinaski acquaints himself, after forty years of working menial jobs, with the concept of an open bar. Everyone is drunk, all the time.

4. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Sebastian Flyte, who we first encounter at Oxford clutching a huge teddy bear named Aloysius, is, by the mid section, instead gripping a glass of whatever he can afford. By the book’s denouement, he’s after anything he can lay his hands on. Being both fabulously wealthy and devastatingly charming however, this turns out to be quite a bit.

5. The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr

In Karr’s childhood memoir set in the ‘suckhole’ that is Leechfield, East Texas, she is perhaps the only member of her gloriously fucked-up family that isn’t permanently smashed. Except when she is.

Honourable mention: The Odyssey by Homer

In literature, the tradition of a strong stomach and a weak liver started early. Homer’s epic poem tells the tale of Odysseus’s twenty-year journey home from Troy to rescue his wife, son, and estate from a gaggle of tipsy suitors. Along the way, our hero doesn’t exactly shy away from pouring many, many libations of wine himself.

Interview: Scroobius Pip

Scroobius Pip chats to Elisha Mansuroglu about Beach Break, Celebrity Big Brother and the possibility of shaving his beard off. 

E: So, you’ve been touring your solo material recently! How’s that been for you?

S: It’s been amazing. It’s a long one. It was a full month without coming home at all but I’ve enjoyed it, I can’t really complain.

E: Any particular highlight?

S: The London, Manchester and Glasgow shows were probably the best. They were such excited crowds. We’ve just been doing France, and France is fine but they’re a bit of a stand offish crowd, so to go from that kind of crowd to Manchester and Glasgow and the London crowd even, is a bit different. The London crowds have been some of the rowdiest which is kind of rare. Normally the rowdiest crowds are always up North.

E: I definitely agree! So, the spoken word is obviously really important to you and so is music. What do you think combining these two art forms achieves for you?

S: They have always sat hand in hand for me. On the spoken word front, I’ve always written quite rhythmically, so it was never a big deal to bring music in. They just exist nicely together. I think there’s plenty of room for them to live together.

E: Did you get into the whole poetry/spoken word scene before music?

S: I got into poetry and spoken word as a necessity. It was a thing was I was writing and I live in a small town in Essex – there’s not a producer or a band on every corner. Spoken word was something I could do completely off my own back. If I succeeded it would be on my own fault – if I failed it would be my own fault. I couldn’t blame the drummer who never turned up for practice or the bassist who couldn’t make the gig – it was something I could do completely on my own.

E: So, your from Stanford and Hope in Essex. Do you think living in a small town has influenced your writing and music?

S: Yeah, definitely. I get inspiration from everywhere, all the time. So, the fact I’ve lived here for my whole life, it’s definitely influenced me hugely. I like small towns. I think if I’d lived in London – it would’ve affected how I’d write about things because I’d be in London. I’d be going to the places musicians go to. Rather than sitting in my flat in Essex. It makes you a lot more grounded. I don’t get recognized much. It’s just a standard little town.

E: So, would you say that you’re an artist that isn’t doing this solely for the fame?

S: Yeah, any fame that comes with this is welcomed but it’s not the target. I got an enquiry about going on Celebrity Big Brother this year. I find it a fascinating programme but I don’t want to get exposure or fame just for the sake of exposure or fame. If I’m going to be on TV, I want it to be doing something that I’m good at and that warrants me being on TV. I’m very good at not doing anything but I don’t think it should be celebrated on TV.

E: One thing that is evident in your writing and music is that you’re an extremely honest guy – do you ever feel exposed being so honest?

S: I don’t really think about that when writing. I’m just in the moment of writing the song. By the time you release it – as sad as it sounds, it doesn’t mean as much as it did. At that point, it’s just lyrics in a song. I could be listening to somebody else’s song. So I’ve never that that conflict of being particularly exposed.

E: I’d find it quite difficult writing about my life and experiences all the time.

S: It’s the only way I’ve ever known. I do mix things up a bit. I’ll rarely write a story or a song that’s a complete true story. I’ll draw from numerous stories and experiences and put them together to make something new. So I guess that’s my way of distancing myself and coping with it. It’s kidding myself that it’s not being as honest and open as it might be, I think.

E: So you’ve played Beach Break a few years in a row now. What is it about the festival that you enjoy most?

S: There’re loads of drunk, rowdy students. That’s always gonna be a good crowd – always gonna be a crowd that’s up for it and ready to go. It’s exciting because this is the first time I’ve played it with my solo stuff and my live band. So I’m excited to see how that goes down. I’ve done two tours with the solo stuff and the live band and we weren’t sure how it was gonna go down. People know Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius pip and it’s new. The reaction’s been amazing so I can’t wait for the festival crowds to get into it.

E: You’ve always been known as Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip .How are you finding the solo stuff without Dan?

S: It’s just a change. I used to be in little punk bands when I was growing up, who wrote a lot of distraction pieces with me and he’s the guitarist in my live band. I used to have a band with him, it’s not alien in that way because it’s familiar too. I’m really looking forward to writing and doing shows with Dan again but I’m sure after that I’ll be looking forward to doing the solo stuff again. I’m terrible at taking holidays, so the variation is really helpful!

E: So the beard (a question I’m sure you’re always asked), is the beard always gonna be there? Any plans to revamp the image?

S: I can see myself getting rid of it when I stop doing music. I can see it being the, “I’m done now, gonna shave the beard off and go back to normal life”. I’d like to see the reaction from people if it was cut off actually. That kind of thing excites me I guess.

E: I think you should keep it. It’s been amazing talking to you!

Classic album: Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On

Marvin Gaye
What’s Going On
Tamla Records
Released: May 21, 1971 

As far back as I can remember, Motown music has been a part of my life due to an uncle who absolutely loved Marvin Gaye and Motown to such an extent that I have a cousin called Tamla, named after the subsidiary of Motown Records, Tamla Records. While this piece might be biased, anyone who has heard What’s Going On will know it is a classic album. But it is more than just an album. It helped progress the music scene to releasing albums that dealt with both contentious and controversial issues on albums and singles, even if Motown didn’t originally want to release it.

Before working on the album, Gaye had suffered from depression after the loss of a close friend and in fact had tried to distance himself from the music industry as much as possible, attempting to join the NFL’s Detroit Lions. After an unsuccessful trial, he came into contact with Al Cleveland and the Four Top’s Obie Benson to help compose what would be ‘What’s Going On’, which Gaye was later persuaded to record himself.

The inspiration for much of the rest of the album was said by Gaye to be from the letters his brother sent him back from Vietnam and the unrest and social situation in the USA at the time. When the Motown founder first heard the album, he was not pleased and is reported to have said the song ‘What’s Going On’ was the worst song he had ever heard. Possibly due to its lyrical content including “Picket lines and picket signs / Don’t punish me with brutality” ultimately criticising the social situation of protesting Vietnam in 1970.

But once it was released as a single, due to Gaye’s stubborn attitude of refusing to record for Motown until it was released, it showed that political songs can be successful with it reaching the Top Five, subsequently creating a wave of socially conscious Motown music.

Along with ‘What’s Going On’, ‘Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology)’ became an instant classic and as such has been referenced and covered by numerous artists ever since, including The Strokes and fellow Motown artist Stevie Wonder.

While many people will remember him only for ‘Sexual Healing’ or ‘Let’s Get It On’, What’s Going On is an album any person who is interested in music and it’s history has to hear and while the message was for Vietnam 40 years ago, it still is as relevant, if not more, today.

Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On (live)

Interview and Live: Seye

Seye
HMV Ritz
12 April
3 stars

Let me begin with this: Seye (pronounced shey-ah) is just downright lovely. As we sit and chat in the dimly lit setting of the HMV Ritz, I can’t help but wish he was my older, cooler brother.

Seye has a cool brother of his own though in Olubenga Adelekan, bassist with Metronomy, and it’s him he has to thank for his first breaks in the music business. “I was just bumming around on his sofa thinking about, but not really trying, to go to uni” Seye states, “he knew someone that needed a guitarist so I went and it all kind of spiralled from there”. And spiralled it has ever since, playing with Paloma Faith, an album in the pipeline and a support slot on tour with Brit Award winner Emeli Sande. So he got a leg up, but he’s carried himself the rest of the way on pure talent, which a view at his cover of Bat For Lashes ‘Daniel’ demonstrates for all to see.

A master of the fretboard with a bagful of ideas he picked up while playing across Africa at such events as Malawi Lake Of Stars festival (“my favourite festival in the world- Foals played and Beverley Knight too – random”), Seye’s set is spattered with colour. With the highlife-infused ‘Mexicana Bounce’ and a vibrant rendition of single ‘White Noise’, his creativity sparkles, only needing now to be coupled with the right producer to bring out his true potential.

Later there was Manchester’s Daley (from Gorillaz’s ‘Donkamatic’ fame) with his brand of soul-ite pop, and then, with more Radio 1 chart show hits than you could shake a stick at, Emeli Sande. A fine performance showcased Sande’s well-crafted songs and proved that she’s more than just the girl who did that track with Prof Green.

Seye – White Noise

Live: The Futureheads @ RNCM

The Futureheads
RNCM
13 April
5 stars

“In a moment of insanity, we decided to make this album.” That’s what vocalist Barry Hyde of The Futureheads confessed in regards to the band’s entirely a cappella release Rant on the last night of their tour at Manchester’s RNCM. After playing together for 11 years, the four-man line up decided to release the album based on their admittedly intense desire to cover Kelis’ dance hit ‘Acapella’. It was a brave move, boasting a cover of Black Eyed Peas’ ‘Meet Me Halfway’ and sea shanty ‘Hanging Johnny’. How many indie bands are recording sea shanties these days? Many critics have considered the guys’ approach a novelty and I myself wasn’t too sure it was the best move.

Then I saw their live performance. I have to say; last Friday was the best headlining set I have seen from any band in the past year. Their on-stage chat was as captivating as their harmonizing. Full of theatrics and refreshing anecdotes, The Futureheads have thrown off the necessity to fit into the indie scene, embracing whatever music speaks to them and leaving the audience in utter captivation. Familiar old favourites were played acoustically and received with warmth.

Opening act, The Cornshed Sisters as well as Manchester’s own Northern Quarter Boys Choir joined The Futureheads on stage towards the end of the set. Strings broke, guitar straps snapped, and the banjo took five minutes to tune, but it only added to the personality of the performance. Before leaving the stage, flamboyant Hyde invited the entire audience to the Prince night at The Deaf Institute afterwards to celebrate.

As an album, Rant was a ludicrous decision, but the live performance made perfect sense. I’m certain anyone lucky enough to have caught the tour will be talking about it for a long time.

The Futureheads – The Old Dun Cow

Iain Dale: ‘I can see there being a gay Prime Minister and people just not caring’

For Iain Dale, my arrival at his Westminster office on a typically hectic Tuesday lunchtime is, bluntly, something of an inconvenience – though perfectly understandable, given his hectic schedule. Having achieved notoriety as the man behind one of the most prominent Conservative blogs on the internet, Iain Dale’s Diary, he now heads Britain’s leading political publishing company by day, and hosts a talk show on London radio station LBC by night – somehow finding the time to ply his trade as an in-demand political commentator when he is off air.

Apologetic, and slightly flustered, he directs me towards his office where I wait with his engaging assistant, Grant Tucker, for the best part of an hour. “Iain is great for lazy journalists,” Grant explains. “They know that they can phone him up about any given issue and he will tell them exactly what he thinks.” My fears that this will be a rushed, guarded interview are well and truly allayed.

Dale’s philosophy was formed against the backdrop of economic turmoil bearing comparison with the dire straits of the present day. “My teenage years were in the late 1970s when this country was more or less bankrupt… there were lots of public sector strikes, our reputation in Europe was trashed… I remember going to Germany when I was 14 on a school exchange, and they just treated us like a joke. It was embarrassing to say you were British”. Though Dale recalls “going into my parents’ bedroom and explaining to them why they should vote Labour” as his earliest political memory, he would soon change his tune; by the time he enrolled as a student at the University of East Anglia, he identified himself as a dyed-in-the-wool Conservative.

As with so many budding politicos, university was the making of Iain Dale. Being a Conservative student in Thatcher’s Britain was hardly fashionable, and he quickly found student politics to be dominated by the left. He vividly recalls his indignation at the one-sidedness of what he characterises as “a debate between the hard left and the soft left” over the Falklands War. “I remember sitting there becoming increasingly irritated by this, and in the end I couldn’t stand it any longer and I got up and I said “this is outrageous, this is some kind of lefty wank-athon” – well I didn’t say that, but that’s what it was”.

Having been astonished to discover that there was no Conservative Society at UEA, he and a friend promptly formed one at the start of their second year. “We got more members than the Labour Party had and we started doing Students’ Union debates, we’d get Cabinet ministers coming down to do speeches, and I absolutely had the time of my life. I became a bit of a ‘personality’ at university – everyone knew who I was. It was probably then that I thought, yeah, I’d quite like to go into politics”.

Young, charismatic and ambitious, Dale was determined that he wanted to go into Parliament, but was concerned that he might be hindered by his sexuality. “My problem was at that point, when I decided that I would like to be an MP, and I was gay in the 1980s… that wasn’t exactly a good thing to be if you wanted to go into politics, whether you were on the left or the right. So I decided that really that couldn’t really happen”. It was not until 2002, when he was 40, that Dale finally decided the time was right for him to make his bid for Westminster – becoming the first openly gay Conservative Parliamentary candidate.

“That really proved to be my undoing in many ways, because if you’re the first to do anything you get a certain degree of notoriety and press coverage… so I was never described as ‘Iain Dale, the Conservative candidate for North Norfolk’, I was described as ‘Iain Dale, the openly gay candidate for North Norfolk’”. Dale’s result at the 2005 general election was, by his own admission, “pretty horrendous”, as his Liberal Democrat opponent secured a majority of over 10,000.

Undeterred, Dale sought a second bite at the cherry, and began his search for a constituency to stand in at the 2010 general election. Once again, he was thwarted. “Bracknell was the one that I thought I really could get, and I nearly did, but obviously that Mail article didn’t really help”. (In 2009, Dale took the Daily Mail to the Press Complaints Commission over an article which described him as “overtly gay”, commenting, “isn’t it charming how homosexuals rally like-minded chaps to their cause”. Remarkably, he lost the case.) “I went for a couple of others – one of them I completely fluffed the speech, so it was my own fault – but when it came down to it I thought, call it quits here… don’t spend the next five years of your life hankering after something that isn’t going to happen”.

Despite the Prime Minister personally contacting him to try to persuade him otherwise, at 49 Iain Dale has let go of his almost lifelong ambition to become a Member of Parliament, but not for the want of trying. At times, his sexuality might have held him back, but in truth a whole range of factors conspired against him; nonetheless, he believes he still made an impact.

“Looking back I do think it was an achievement that I was able to make a bit of a landmark… the Tory Party has I think almost eradicated [homophobia] as an issue… I mean I can see there being a gay Prime Minister and people just not sort of caring. There will always be people who are homophobic, there will always be people who are bigoted, but it changes as the generations change”.

And so to the current government, of which Dale says he is “a great supporter”. Having championed the Coalition from the outset, “any criticism I make of the Coalition now is through the prism of having been a complete cheerleader for it right from the beginning”, he explains. “I’ve always taken the view that Lib Dems have more in common with the Conservatives than they do with Labour, even if they don’t realise it sometimes”.

Indeed, Dale backed Andrew Lansley’s controversial NHS reforms. “It’s quite clear to me that the Health Service needs radical reform. Unfortunately it’s got to the point in this country where if you utter one word of criticism against it, you’re accused of trying to privatise it. We’re the only country where private medicine is considered to be a dangerously subversive thing… when you see statistics that 21% of GPs wouldn’t send their own families to the local hospital, 16% won’t even send their patients to the hospital, you have to think that there is something wrong with the system.”

Ultimately, though, Dale is unequivocal that the sole priority for this government must be the economy. “Absolutely, it’s the economy, stupid… if Ed Miliband believes that he can win an election on the NHS, he’s delusional. In the end, people at the next election are going to… look ahead and say, what is this government going to do for me over the next five years, and how much money have I got in my pocket?”

As for the beleaguered Labour leader, Dale is at first reluctant to put the boot in. “In some ways I’m quite a fan of Ed Miliband. I interviewed him four years ago and in one of the few predictions I’ve ever got right – I interviewed him and his brother in a feature for GQ comparing the two – the conclusion was that Ed had what it took to be leader and maybe David didn’t. At that point I got slightly derided for it, so when Ed won I thought well, fuck you!”

Why is he failing so abjectly to connect with the public, then? “His problem is that he looks twelve. I won’t say it’s purely an appearance thing, but I always give politicians the Number 10 doorstep test – can you imagine them on the doorstep of Number 10 after an election, waving to the crowds, doing their ‘where there is discord, may we bring harmony’ speech, and the answer is with Ed Miliband I can’t – people can’t imagine him as Prime Minister in the same way that people couldn’t imagine Neil Kinnock as Prime Minister”.

On the whole, Dale is quite satisfied with the course that the Prime Minister is taking, almost two years into his time in office. Whilst he is somewhat dismissive of David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ – seemingly his pet project, yet “frankly, just a reflection of what society has done for donkey’s years” – he is convinced that there are fundamental, endemic problems at the very root of British society. “When there are council estates with 80% unemployment, where you have successive generations without a job, where you have successive generations of families going to prison, clearly that part of society is broken. Now at least this government is actually trying to do something about it”.

As our time together draws to a close, I return to the subject of Dale’s own career. Just as his breathtaking Westminster workplace is political at every turn – his office is plastered with monuments to Thatcher, from the imposing ten-foot-high portrait of The Iron Lady that adorns one wall, to the framed letter from her thanking him for hosting a dinner – Iain Dale is, unashamedly, political to his fingertips. Despite everything he has achieved, does he not harbour some regret about his failure to achieve the political ambitions he harboured for so long?

On the one hand, he is malcontent. “I can’t actually affect change doing what I do, or very rarely…. you can have a bit of influence at the margins, but I’m not sure how you can quantify that”. However, he reflects that his lifestyle is far preferable to that of the politician. “As I sit here today, I’ve got a radio show where I can speak to several hundred thousand people a day, I’ve got a business which I enjoy running, I look at the lives that my friends who are MPs lead – most of them hate it, they feel they have no influence at all, they’re just used as lobby fodder. I mean, I don’t know what influence I have but I can certainly talk to more people about what I think about something doing what I do now than I ever could if I were a politician”.

UK to tap into Iceland’s volcanic energy in European Supergrid

A monumental energy project which uses green power from across the continent, could develop between the UK and Iceland. The two countries are set for talks over receiving energy from Iceland’s geothermal ‘volcano-power’.

The country, famous for its volcanoes and geysers, has used heat from the Earth’s core to become a world leader in geothermal energy and could soon supply the UK through a planned North Atlantic cable. The project would power UK homes as part of a European Supergrid, connecting green energy sources from across the continent: wind, wave and hydro-electric from North Europe; solar power from Southern Europe and North Africa; and geothermal energy from Iceland.

The UK government is searching for economic and carbon friendly solutions to replace British reliance on the dwindling North Sea oil production and, recently banned, polluting coal power plants. The energy minister Charles Hendry is “very keen” on the idea and will visit Iceland in May to discuss the UK tapping into the abundance of geothermal energy that the country boasts. He claims that “we will be dependent on imported energy” in the future and that the cables “are an absolutely critical part of energy security and for low carbon energy”.

Interconnector cables are high voltage power cables that link electricity grids, in this case Iceland with the UK’s National Grid. At around 1,500km long and at a depth of 3km, passing through a North Atlantic split in the Earth crust, the project would be the longest and one of the most ambitious interconnectors in the world.

The UK currently has access to two of these interconnectors, with France and Holland, and a further nine more currently in planning for the next decade. This could meet a third of annual UK energy demand and link into a Europe-wide Supergrid.

In autumn 2012 a Wales-Ireland interconnector is due to be completed, to exploit the green energy from the wind-battered west Ireland coast for the UK energy market.

Furthermore, a 900km interconnector to access Norway’s lakes is expected in 2019. Excess wind energy produced in the UK could be stored for later use, by pumping water up to storage lakes above the Scandinavian fjords during times of low demand. Thus providing hydro-electric power when the water is allowed to fall and spin a turbine during peak demand times, losing minimal energy in the high-voltage cable and pump. However, Hendry is “keen we should be first” as Germany are also in competition for the sought after Scandinavian capacity to store energy.

The European Supergrid would address the key problem of intermittency for wind power, the UK’s major renewable energy source. When there is insufficient wind energy and high demand, we can tap into green energy from sources such as Spain, Iceland or Norway. Then any wind energy surplus can be sold to European countries suffering from excessive demand.

Initial high investment is needed as the UK-Holland interconnector cost £500m. Favourably, the construction can be as fast as 30km a day, using 800 tonnes of copper per kilometre of cable. No irksome subsidy is needed as the running costs of such interconnector projects are taken from a cut of electricity profits.

The key benefit championed by proponents of such a project is the variety it offers. This is said to ensure that carbon emission goals can be met, as green energy from some source will be readily available. Also the variety of the energy sources from Europe is expected to keep prices competitive as the cheapest option available at any time can be chosen. Moreover energy security can be bolstered, seeing the tentative relationship between Europe and Russia’s gas hegemony become less critical and dangerous.

But however economic, green and secure this attractive and slowly growing Supergrid is, at an estimated €100m, current European austerity suggests we can’t abandon the fossil fuels just yet.

Mac attack

Malware has infected an estimated 600,000 Apple computers. The software is unknowingly installed when computer users visit malicious websites and can give hackers control of the computer.

Apple computers have traditionally been seen as more resilient when it comes to viruses but this claim has been challenged by the recent attacks on Mac systems.

Apple has released a security update that will remove “the most common variants” of the malware. The company is also working with internet providers to remove the websites which infect users’ computers with the malicious software.

Some experts believe the Apple response to the malware infection has been too slow. The security update was released a whole eight weeks after Java producers Oracle released their own solution to the malware problem. Other software development companies had also released their own solutions before Apple’s security update.

Rik Ferguson, head of security research and communication at internet security company Trend Micro, said: “Security updates issued by Apple are issued too slowly and not on any regular schedule”. He believes that because Mac computers are being increasingly targeted by hackers, Apple should be more aware of this and respond accordingly.

The malware, known as Flashback, can be used to steal passwords and other sensitive information when users browse the internet. On 6th April 2012, Dr. Web from Russian based anti-virus producers Norton believed that there were 600,000 Mac computers affected by Flashback. Norton thinks this has now more than halved to 270,000.

Another Russian anti-virus firm, Kaspersky Lab, had problems with their update to tackle Flashback. Users could have been left with deleted settings, which controlled things like configurations and file sharing. This problematic software has since been pulled with the intention of re-release when the bug is fixed.

New funding award for Manchester nuclear power

The Universities of Manchester and Sheffield have been awarded £4m by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) for nuclear research. The joint venture will investigate future possibilities for nuclear power in the UK.

The New Nuclear Build and Manufacturing (NNUMAN) programme was proposed in response to a House of Lord’s Science Committee report, which found that the UK is at risk of not being able to produce energy from nuclear sources. This is due to what the report claimed was insufficient research and development in this country.

The programme looks to develop a nuclear power supply to provide energy, not only to the UK but abroad too, using a new generation of power stations.  Once designed, the prototype power stations will be tested at the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (Nuclear AMRC) and the National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) to investigate their potential for widespread use.

NNUMAN also aims to further the expertise of scientists and engineers in this country using the most advanced research technologies and by keeping close ties to industry. By doing this they hope to fill the expected need for highly skilled employees in the next generation of industry.

The focus of the scheme is advancing the manufacturing technology in the UK, both through research and development and through educating the best scientists and engineers from around the world to use the new nuclear technology.

Programme director Mike Burke said: ”This programme grant is a foresighted investment that will enable the pursuit of new and more efficient manufacturing technologies while maintaining the standards of reliability and safety that are expected in the nuclear industry”.

“It also represents an exciting opportunity for our next generation of scientists and engineers to develop state-of-the-art understanding of new processes and product performance.”

Professor Andrew Sherry, the director of the university’s Dalton Nuclear Institute, believes the programme is beneficial for the future of nuclear research in the UK: “Innovation in manufacturing technology for new nuclear builds offers the UK a real growth opportunity. We are delighted that NNUMAN will now be the research engine that drives this forward”.

Manchester student starts up music video production company

A student studying at the University of Manchester has set up her own music video production company. Kati Jägel, reading Film studies at Manchester, decided to launch Kati Jägel productions, making music videos for local artists in the North West, in response to the difficult and overly competitive jobs market in the media and entertainment industry.

“I was trying to find a job and work experience last year and it was really hard to find even unpaid work experience in film and TV and in the arts in general…it’s really difficult unless you know somebody” Kati said.

“So I thought if they don’t want to employ me then I’ll go it alone and do what I want to do.”

Kati swiftly registered her company and by the start of 2011 had taken on her first commission for a local band.

“I was terrified for my first music video. It was new years eve 2010 and I was celebrating in a hotel and there was a band playing downstairs and I thought it was the best time to start the rest of my life so I offered to shoot a video of the band performing live.”

“By that point I hadn’t filmed any videos, though I told the band I had, but since I didn’t have any previous work to show them I offered to film them for free. They agreed and it went well.”

Kati has created the business from very little initial investment whilst taking on a lot of the work herself, thus limiting her exposure to any major risk of financial loss. She also relies heavily on cost-free word of mouth, networking and social media advertising to drum up work.

“People think it costs you something to start a company, but it actually doesn’t especially if your selling a service and don’t need an office space.”

“I use social media such as Facebook for advertising as well as a lot of websites that focus on free advertising like Gumtree and also with anybody I work with, I promote them and they promote me…making as many contacts as possible is important.”

Currently in her third year of her undergraduate degree, Kati believes that while her degree is appropriate for her line of work she finds it only partially applicable to the practical nature of her craft, relying on the work experiences she’s gained in the past.

“Screen studies is more theoretical which I can apply to making videos by way of shot composition but before I made my first film I’d only held a camera maybe once or twice. I’ve only had one practical module…and I didn’t even film that much because I was afraid of the camera.”

“However, I worked as a runner on an independent film production where I learned everything about lighting and directing because I was stood next to the director the whole time.”

With increasing interest in her services, Kati has invested in her own cameras and lights to use in production. She has ambitions for the company to become her living by building expertise and reputation whilst studying for her post-graduate degree in 2013. You can take a look at her work at www.manchester-video-production.co.uk.

 

Invisible Children – a visible business?

Kony 2012 and Cover the Night, a chance for students to fulfill a desire to get involved in a campaign for justice. Spurred on by thoughts of the uprisings in the Arab Spring, the coming together of individuals with a common cause and purpose to make a difference and change the world. With what was to be considered the historic night of activism on April 20th, last Friday, the Business and Finance page of The Mancunion decided to look further into the funding of this charity, which has come under so much scrutiny over the past weeks.

Students across the world have made considerable donations to the cause. With the pricing schemes for the various forms of donations including $10 for a bracelet, $30 for an action kit box and $30 for a t-shirt, all excluding shipping costs. But will students see results from their donations?

As a charitable organization, Invisible Children (creator of the campaign) publishes its accounts publicly. Increasing skepticism has mounted however, as the funds generated from the Kony 2012 campaign are currently unpublished, causing further controversy. What allocation are people on the ground receiving towards the capture of Kony? How is the money being used, to enable the devastated children and families affected to recover? Will the funds be spent on further advertising, lobbying and media? Is this charitable model acceptable?

Previous expenses were published at almost $9m and these funds were spent on a variety of aspects within the group, of which much is criticised, particularly the high percentage on wages.

This ambiguity behind supposedly public financial reports led to many questions and doubts; not only regarding the efficiency, but also whether this is a sufficient business model through which to combat the problem. In this regard only time and much needed transparency will tell.

Blind date: Alex and Rosa

Alex, Medicine, Fourth year

 

What were your expectations for the evening?

I was determined to fall head over heels in love with the girl of my dreams! Sick of constantly choosing the wrong girl, I decided to let the forces of fate do a better job…

 

First impressions?

Well hello there 😉 Fate 1 – 0 Alex

 

What did you talk about?

Rosa’s undying passion for mathematics, her ambition to become a firewoman (?!?), Rosa’s hometown (Newcastle), school days (Rosa is a muscical prodigy, but very modest about it), my love-hate relationship with medicine, jobs, hobbies, student life, future plans… All beautifully accompanied by a side order of my lame jokes which mostly dropped like a lead balloon, oops! But it was lovely chatting with Rosa.

 

Best thing about them?

She wants to play dress up as a firefighter, slide down a pole and is fantastic with a hose. What more does a man want?

 

What did you eat?

Given that Rosa is Vegetarian (Or pescatarian so I was corrected) I naturally opted for the steak with sweet potato chips (The food was actually well above

par). We had sticky toffee pudding and a cocktail afterwards – I offered to seductively spoon feed a blackberry into her mouth, which didn’t go down particularly well. Oh well, points for effort?

 

Any awkwardness?

When sipping on her cocktail Rosa commented that the straw was too small to suck on. I desperately held back the urge to throw in a crude joke… She also seemed to walk reeeeally fast and didn’t look at me on the way home… Perhaps I was stalking her :S

 

How did you part ways? (Mouth-to-mouth action/heavy petting/friendly hug?)

I got the impression she was in a hurry to leave *sob, sob*. I walked her back towards her friend’s house (Safety measure in case I turned out to be a serial killer perhaps?). We parted at the train station with a friendly hug and a little peck (I was aiming for the lips of course, but miscalculated and landed it somewhere between her ear and hair. Must work on my aim).

 

Out of 10?

Approximately 7.111111 recurring. Rosa is a pretty girl, lovely company, I just didn’t feel enough “spark”. I’m still searching for love sadly.

 

Would you see them again?

Certainly – as friends. Which is a shame as I had the engagement ring, floral display (Which I’d already given her at the beginning of the date), and horse & carriage already booked – I spent the whole of the next day cancelling it. She added me on Facebook, so that’s a good result.

 

 

 

Rosa, Maths, Fourth year

 

What were your expectations for the evening?

Good conversation, a bit of a laugh and a tasty free meal.

 

First impressions?

OMG he bought flowers!

 

What did you talk about?

Cities, long words, unusual career ambitions, student stereotypes, nightmare housemates, emigrating, music and making music, lots of stuff.

Best thing about them?

Really easy to talk to.

 

What did you eat?

I had a falafel burger with a couple of glasses of wine, then sticky toffee pudding and finished with a lush cocktail (milked the whole free food and drinks thing). He had steak which he kept worrying would offend me since I’m veggie…..it didn’t.

 

Any awkwardness?

Not much apart from the whole ‘sorry about the steak’ thing. We managed to keep the conversation going throughout the evening with minimal awkward silences I think

How did you part ways? (Mouth-to-mouth action/heavy petting/friendly hug?)

We walked into town together where he got the tram and I went to meet a friend

Out of 10?

6

Would you see them again?

I think it’s unlikely seeing as he lives a bit outside manchester and doesn’t come in that often, also we didn’t have much in common and didn’t swap numbers.

 

 

Alex and Rosa ate at The Deaf Institute, Grosvenor Street, Manchester. Thanks to the guys down at Grosvenor Street for getting involved. To check out their menu, gig listings and have a look at what club nights are coming up visit their website www.thedeafinstitute.co.uk

To sign up for blind date please e mail your name, year of study and course [email protected] with ‘blind date’ as the subject

‘The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear’ & other bonkers book titles

We come to university because of our desire for knowledge, to educate and culture ourselves – it has nothing to do with wanting to escape our parents and drink away our futures, obviously – but in all the prospectus’ and on all the open days, a vital piece of information is kept from us: most of what we learn is bloody boring. Instead of being honest with us, professors and scholars alike sugar coat mind numbingly dull topics with “witty” and often bizarre book, chapter and module titles to trick us into choosing them. Granted, this technique manifests more frequently in humanities subjects. But all it comes down to is the addition of a poor pun, a bit of alliteration or the dramatic use of a semi colon. Here’s a pick of the best:

Bone Voyage: a journey in forensic anthropology – ancient historians can be funny, who knew?

Excitable cells – first year life sciences module about cells that are activated by different stimuli. Exciting by name, but certainly not by nature (well, technically it is nature but yeah)

Getting the Scoop from the Poop of T. Rex – Science News journal on the digestive habits of the Tyrannosaurus Rex

From Jamestown to James Brown – American Studies classic

Hip Hop and Hollywood – another American Studies module, not a documentary on MTV

Pagans, Priests and Power – enthralling

From Blitz to Big Society – what started as ‘Blitz to Blair’ was amended to ‘Blitz to Brown’ and has now reached ‘Blitz to Big Society’, that’s dedication to alliteration

Falstaff and Gandalf go to the movies – that’s an unexpected date night

Sex, drugs and shopping – based on inter-war Britain it’s not as exciting as it sounds

Stage fright, animals and other theatrical problems – a book actually found in my loan history

The trouble with men – says it all

Her husband was a woman: women’s gender-crossing in modern British popular culture – prime example of the irrelevant and dramatic use of the semi colon

And finally… “The Dark and Vicious Place”: The Dread of the Vagina in King Lear

Ask Keir: Hangovers

Ask Keir is a column aiming to answer all your health questions. If you want to know about that funny looking lump that won’t go away, why that student doctor keeps poking you or anything at all to do with health get in touch at: [email protected]

All questions will of course be kept confidential and anonymous.

 

Question of the Week

After a heavy night out I get unbelievably bad hangovers and my housemates always end up moaning about me moaning about them. Do any of these hangover remedies like raw eggs and sugary drinks work?

Hangovers are the bane of many a students life and when you’ve got a lecture at 9am and you’re trying to rise yourself against the copious amounts of alcohol you consumed the night before they can be positively rotten. But what are they?

Well like lots of things in life we are not entirely sure but there are a few certainties. Alcohol is a diuretic and what we mean by that is it causes your body to expel water faster than normal thus why many of us need to go to the toilet more regularly on a night out. That in turn causes us to become dehydrated giving you that dry mouth and banging headache when you wake up in the morning. The nausea and vomiting are most likely caused by alcohol irritating the lining of your stomach. Then to top it off getting in at 4am and having four hours sleep gives rise to a morning in hell.

Not drinking is the best form of preventing hangovers… but let’s be realistic. Here’s my three step plan to making mornings after the night before that little bit more bearable.

  1. Eat Toast – After a night out binging blood sugar levels are low and replacing can help restore them to normal levels. So get a piece of toast down you before you go to bed.
  2. Drink Water – As I said above dehydration is one of the main culprits so alleviate it by drinking a pint of water when walking through the door.
  3. Take Paracetamol – Wake up and take one with some water and it will help you through the toughest part of the day. Avoid ibuprofen and aspirin as these will irritate your stomach lining that has already been abused.

Other than that most other remedies have limited use or are only psychosomatic (don’t underestimate this though, if it makes you feel better it’s worth using). Interestingly there is some science to that old adage ‘hair of the dog’ as your body starts prioritising breaking down the fresh alcohol rather than the toxic metabolites that cause some of the problems.

If you are tempted to try this out Hemingway reportedly swore by tomato juice mixed with beer… yuck! But of course if or when you do stop drinking the hangover will kick in and the long road to recovery will begin.

Black youth unemployment in the UK higher than in the US

Unemployment among black young people in Britain is significantly higher than in America, research from the University of Manchester has found.

Professor Yaojun Li, who analysed responses from 4.7 million people to the most authoritative social surveys in the two countries, found that during the last three recessions unemployment among black British men was up to 19 percentage points higher than in America.

Unemployment among black women was also found to be consistently higher in Britain than in America.

He said, “Overall, there is greater ethnic inequality in Britain than in the USA for both sexes.

“This gives a fairly strong indication that the flexible labour market policies adopted in Britain in the last few decades did not protect the minority ethnic groups against the repercussions of recessions.”

He claimed that America’s affirmative action programme and federal procurement policy, requiring public institutions to have staff compositions representative of the population, had helped reduce the unemployment rate among black people there.

Professor Li also found that Great Britain was a more unequal society than the US. The gap in employment between men and women, and between old and young, is greater in Britain than in America.

“This may be due to the fact that in Britain the mid 1980s and the early 1990s recessions were accompanied and exacerbated by a process of deindustrialization and restructuring of the economy, and by the retrenchment of the state, which happened much more abruptly in Britain than in the USA,” he said.

“The much-vaunted flexible labour market does not seem to have solved the problem of stimulating economic activity and unleashing human creativity. As amply shown in the analysis, the so-called flexible labour market in Britain was not actually all that good at evening out the peaks and troughs, let alone in protecting the most vulnerable social groups.

“The overall smaller social inequalities in the USA, with particular regard to gender and ethnicity, suggest that the affirmative action programme in the USA did play a positive role in protecting the vulnerable groups, in comparison with the British data.”

Professor Li spoke about his fears for the future, and about how the planned government cuts may affect social equality in the UK.

“The current recession has already taken its toll with nearly three million being unemployed and a similar number being inactive. Yet, worse is still to come. As a large proportion of the disadvantaged group, particularly black people, tend to find employment in the public sector, if they can find a job at all, the current Coalition Government’s stringency plan to cut public sector employment is most likely to hit the most vulnerable groups even harder,” he said.

“Economic cycles are largely beyond the control of individuals, families and even national governments. The three recessions in the last 40 years in the two archetypical liberal economies have all claimed victims by penalising the most vulnerable groups, in both countries and those just entering the labour market.

“The overall disadvantages were more salient in Britain than in the USA, suggesting that the flexible labour market policies adopted by the British government failed to protect the most vulnerable groups and that the affirmative action programmes helped reduce minority ethnic disadvantages in the USA.”

 

Late Manchester peace activist has journals published

A peace activist and photographer who was killed by an Israeli soldier in the Gaza Strip eight years ago has had a collection of his photos, poems and journal entries published.

Tom Hurndall, who studied photojournalism at Manchester Metropolitan University, last month had his work published in a book titled ‘The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall’.

The book contains a foreword by well-regarded veteran journalist Robert Fisk.

James Powell from publisher Trolley Books said, “the personal writings, poems and photography which survive him are an intimate and inspirational window into his efforts to make sense of the conflicts around him”.

Sean O’Hagan, a journalist for the Guardian, has described the journals as “a mixture of reportage and citizen journalism of the most intense kind; a visual record of struggle and conflict left by someone who comes across as extraordinarily committed and fearless.”

Wednesday 11th April marked the 8th anniversary of Hurndall’s shooting. His ties to Manchester remain strong and he is commemorated by an annual lecture hosted by MMU.

Live: The Sunshine Underground @ Club Academy

The Sunshine Underground
Club Academy
14 April
5 Stars

It was hard to know what to expect as my sister and I walked into the subterranean Club Academy (underground…geddit?), yet one thing was for sure: we were the only students (and Londoners) in the building. This realisation set the tone for what was to be one of the best live performances I’ve seen this year: a proper Northern, head nodding, fist pumping, feet-off-the-ground gig.

Before we get to the main event, it’s worth mentioning the support act, Troumaca, an incredible Birmingham five piece whose sound is an entirely fresh and original amalgamation of soul and dub with an unmistakably tropical bass feel. Couple this unique mixture with some of the best sly dance moves I’ve seen in a lead singer for a while, and the result was genius. And nothing, of course, like the act which they preceded.

Having discovered my new musical obsession, we waited with baited breath for TSU to impress. And boy, did they. Front man Craig Wellington casually greeted the crowd with his characteristic cheeky-chap quips, warming us up for a stomping set spanning the greats of their two studio albums. Tunes such as ‘A Warning Sign’ and ‘In Your Arms’ established the bands ability not only to get the crowd nodding but full on body-grooving to Stuart Jones’ incredible riffs, while ‘Put You in Your Place’ and ‘The Way It Is’ reminded of their credentials as forerunners in the indie rock scene.

The pinnacle of the performance came as the opening chords to their seminal song, ‘Borders’, began to echo through the venue. Cue gleefully destructive moshing from a group of four balding, leather-jacket clad men in their forties which did not cease until the band had finally left the stage after the encore. This is perhaps the greatest image of the bands appeal: from North to South, students to seniors, a diverse musical culture continues to prevail within The Sunshine Underground. Especially in Manchester during the Easter holidays.

The Sunshine Underground – Borders

Live: Steel Panther @ Academy 1

Steel Panther
Academy 1
30 March
5 stars

If you’ve never heard of Steel Panther before, things could go either one of two ways. You could completely fall in love with them, and feel like your life has been completed (like myself) or you could find them utterly revolting and ridiculous. However, if you end up feeling the latter, you’d be right – that’s the whole point. Steel Panther make no bones about what they do. Their riffs are straight out of the 80’s, lifting from bands like Whitesnake, Bon Jovi, Van Halen and pretty much every other spandex clad hair metal act. Their lyrics aren’t witty or clever- they could be construed as sexist and offensive to pretty much any member of the female species, but that’s the great thing about it, believe me.

Despite having embraced Steel Panther, I still wasn’t completely sure what to expect live, but what I, and every other member of the sold out audience got was nothing short of sublime. The musicianship between all 4 members, even when playing songs like ‘It Won’t Suck Itself’ is truly brilliant. Michael Starr’s vocals are perfect, hitting those wailing highs just like his idol David Lee Roth, if not better. Lead guitarist Satchel, who started out under Paul Gilbert’s wing, has got his sound down to a tee, and even manages to do pelvic thrusts while effortlessly sweeping his way up and down the neck. Then we have Stix and Lexxi, musically less in the limelight, but no less important, Panther are a band consisting of 4 front men.

These songs are meant to be taken seriously, it’s one big joke on the bands like Def Leppard and Rat. But as far as enjoyment at a gig goes, I’ve never had a better one. That’s right, I might go as far to say that Steel Panther’s Balls Out tour was possibly the best gig I’ve ever seen – and I’ve seen Meatloaf live.

Steel Panther – If You Really Really Love Me