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Month: March 2013

Never-fail cocoa bars

Written by Joanna Fox on . Posted in Food & Drink.

I feel a bit guilty offering this as an actual recipe since, let’s face it, it’s not exactly rocket science. However, I will justify doing so by the fact that cocoa bars represent ideal student cuisine: they are cheap, easy, require no specialist equipment and – perhaps most importantly – create very little washing-up.

If you don’t get the quantities right, they simply don’t work (or at least they didn’t when we convinced ourselves we could make them from memory in halls!)

Ingredients:

140g Milky Way bars
15ml golden syrup
50g butter
125g cocoa puffs
50g raisins (optional)
150g chocolate

Method:

Melt the Milky Way bars, golden syrup and butter together. You can either do this in the microwave or on the hob (in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.)

Mix in the cocoa puffs and the raisins if you are using them. Pour into a 20cm cake tin lined with cling-film and gently press the mixture against the edges. Leave to set in the fridge.

Meanwhile, melt the chocolate (again, either in the microwave or on the hob) and then pour on top of the base. Put back into the fridge to set.

When ready, cut into bars.

Adapted from a recipe by Tesco.

Manchester University gamers win $1000 prize

Written by Sam Dumitriu on . Posted in Games.

 

Manchester University students have finished as runners-up in the European bracket of the Collegiate Starleague in both League of Legends and StarCraft 2. For their performance in the competition, the teams both won a $1000 cash prize.

The Collegiate Starleague is an online gaming competition comprised of universities and colleges from all over the world. The competition is divided into three brackets, North America, Asia and Europe, which Manchester took part in. The European bracket covers around 40 different universities. Only two games are played in the Starleague, StarCraft 2 and League of Legends.

I spoke with University of Manchester Gaming Society eSports manager Maris Doniks about the team’s success, the popularity of eSports and the challenges of making Manchester the best eSports university in Europe.

Maris became the eSports manager of the Gaming Society in November, he’d heard about the Starleague before, but he hadn’t considered putting together a team and actually competing. It was only when Jacob Harrison (now Assistant eSports manager) took the initiative to gather people and compete in the Starleague that things started to fall in place.

At first it was a challenge to put a team together, being part of such a big university might mean a bigger pool of talent, but it’s a lot harder to get the word out and reach the right people when people are so far apart. While interest in League of Legends was strong and lots of people wanted to get involved, Starcraft 2 was a bit more of a challenge to gather a team for. But with events, like regular BarCrafts, where gamers watch the big StarCraft 2 matches, being held in Kyoto Lounge Maris was able to assemble a team. One team member was found when Maris’ friend spotted him playing StarCraft 2 on his laptop in the pub.

To start with, the team were very disorganised. Maris told me of being ringing players up ten minutes before the match only to find that they were still in bed. However, as the competition went on and they started to rack up the wins in the group stages the players became more and more serious. By the end of the group stage the StarCraft 2 team had qualified for the playoffs on 5-0.

This was the turning point; they saw that they had a chance of winning the whole thing. Now they had beaten teams with ex-professional gamers, gone where the days of Maris having to ring players up before the match to check where they were. Everyone was putting in the time and arriving online 15 minutes before each game.

The team continued to rack up the wins beating three other teams before making it to the European final where they lost to Aarhus University from Denmark 4 – 2.  Aarhus went on to the grand finals where they lost to the eventual Winners University of California Berkeley. While both the StarCraft 2 and the League of Legends teams got a $1000 prize, if they had made it through to the grand finals, they would have been looking at prize money of around $5000. Still Maris tells me “$1000 is not bad for a hobby.”

I asked Maris about the rising popularity of eSports, he told me that over the past few years, with the release of League of Legends the popularity had really expanded. Still, he told me, a lot more people would be taking part if they knew more about it.

He told me that Manchester was looking to expand its eSports team to include players of Halo and Fifa. In particular he found that Manchester had some very good Halo players.

eSports are a global phenomenon, with Starcraft matches being shown live to millions of viewers in Korea and prize pools at major competitions reaching over £2,000,000, If it continues to grow at such a rapid pace, we could soon be living in a world where the back pages of newspapers are dedicated to League of Legends matches,  and top StarCraft 2 players are household names.

Playstation 4: What you need to know

Written by Jack Crutcher on . Posted in Games.

 

Playstation 4 will be in US stores as early as Christmas 2013, with it expecting movement in the first quarter of 2014. But will the PS4 offer the features required to top the Xbox?

In terms of Hardware the PS4 will run on a single-chip custom processor and use eight X86-64 AMD Jaguar CPU stores. Sony have also committed to using a next-gen AMD Radeon based graphics engine. All in all the PS4 will be powerful, but questions will remain over how innovative this system will look a couple of years after release. Here’s to hoping the ability of the console to devote more processing power to the gaming-side of things will see Sony get plenty out of this system. It is worth noting that the 18 processing clusters, each with 64 cores should pack a greater punch than what Microsoft have currently indicated they will put in the rival Xbox console.

Looking past the boring technical stuff the PS4 will have 8 GB of memory, Blu-ray and DVD compatibility and HDMI output, making it a good all round device. The console will also offer Ultra HD video quality as a playback function, but the in game quality will come just shy of this. Some more exciting features will be on offer as well, including the PS4 eye. Ultimately a built-in camera device, the PS4 eye will differentiate between images of a player from the back and foreground as well as allowing users to log in via facial or voice recognition. Alongside the Play Station Move in game body interactions will add an interesting aspect to the PS4’s attractive repertoire.

The controllers will don the classic Play Station skin but the Dual Shock 4 will have majorly upgraded vibration and enhanced motion sensors, as well as a touchpad on the front much like the Vita. Disappointingly for some the PS4 will not be compatible with PS3 titles, but gamers will be able to purchase classic titles on the Sony Entertainment network. At around £299 RRP and with Bungie and Ubisoft both committing titles on release the PS4 promises to be an exciting bit of kit.

Retro Corner: Sonic the Hedgehog 2006

Written by Alasdair Preston on . Posted in Games.

I love Sonic. The original Sonic the Hedgehog was the first game I ever loved, and the first I ever broke (turns out you can’t put a Megadrive cartridge into a VCR).  I love the 3D Sonic Adventure games. I even love the poorly received spinoff Shadow the Hedgehog. But Sonic the Hedgehog 2006, I do not love.

The game was an early release on the 360 and PS3, and aimed to bring the spiky blue hero into the next generation. The story was bigger in scope than anything Sonic fans had seen before, and the levels were more realistic than ever before. The plot involved a time travelling silver hedgehog, a human princess and, inevitably, Dr Eggman. It didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

The fast paced, fluid action Sonic is famous for was all but missing in this game. There was hardly a stage that wasn’t jarringly punctuated with stops/starts as you wrestled with the camera and controls. Nothing is as frustrating as Sonic plummeting to his doom without really doing anything wrong, apart from getting caught up in another dodgy camera angle. The stages as Silver were marginally better, only because of his ability to hurl stuff around with his mind, which made a satisfying change of pace from the boss fight against him which was nigh-on impossible.

For a title that was supposed to be leading the way into the new generation, Sonic 06 was surprisingly bad graphically, barely an improvement over past-gen games from the series. It was also riddled with game-breaking glitches that, at best, lead to the scientific improbability of being able to stroll through a loop at a nice, leisurely pace. At worst, they caused spontaneous, rage-inducing death.

I knew exactly how hated this game was before I bought it, and yet it still somehow was worse than I expected. I’d talk about the final boss, but I simply do not have the insane perseverance it would have taken to get there.

Blind Date: Debbie and Jonathan

Written by Oliver Taylor on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Debbie

What were you initial thoughts when you arrived? Yes I thought he seemed nice and sort of relatively good looking. He had quite a clear mind so I was quite happy to get to know him. He didn’t have any initial prejudgments or anything.

Excellent, how did the date go? I thought it went well; we had a really nice time. We got on really well, the conversation flowed really well and I thought we agreed on a lot of things. You know, it was nice. If anything it was more of a friendly vibe than a date.

Why did you think it was more of a friendly vibe? Maybe because it was almost a bit formal, I’m not saying that’s his fault, just I think it just had quite a formal vibe; maybe it was because we were on a blind date so it was more of an official thing, but it was really nice and I thought he was a lovely guy.

Would you say then that there wasn’t much flirting? A bit but not a lot, I’m not sure why. Maybe that was my fault, I don’t know.

What did you chat about? We had interesting conversation actually, very interesting… We spoke about ourselves, our hobbies. I told him about my swimming, he told me about his skydiving.

Did he make you laugh? He made me laugh a couple of times but not a lot. He had some interesting stories though. He told me about his travels in Vietnam which I found really interesting. He mentioned he had eaten some interesting things such as tarantula which was, I suppose, intriguing to hear about.

So you said it was formal, were there any awkward moments? Not at all, the conversation flowed very well. I though we got on very, very well and I had a really nice time, I really enjoyed his company.

Did he tell you anything weird? Definitely the eating the tarantula thing, that was weird.

What happened after the meal? We stayed for quite a while, we had a nice chat and we finished our wine. We shared a bottle. He likes red wine which is good because I also like red wine.

How did you part ways? That was kind of weird. We walked to the main street and he was like, “Thank you I look forward to reading the article”. I was like, “Oh, okay.” It was sort of a bit weird as the parting was very formal.

Do you think you’ll be seeing him in future? I would definitely be up for seeing him again and if he had asked me, I would have definitely said yes.

So you didn’t swap numbers? Not really, he kept saying, “Thank you” and, “I’ll see you.” I just don’t think he was that interested in dating me.

Snog, marry or avoid? That’s a difficult one. I wouldn’t avoid.  It would either be snog or marry. I suppose I’d go with snog as I don’t know him well enough to marry, though he did seem like a lovely guy.

If he were a meal what would he be? I don’t know! He was interested in different types of food so I would say a chicken and chorizo risotto, as he seemed quite sophisticated but also interesting and down to earth. Pleasant to eat, not that I’m saying he was pleasant to eat but that the meal would be pleasant to eat.

Jonathan

How did your date go? Yeah it was great, very nice, not too many awkward moments. We were both chatty and outgoing so overall, a good date.

What was your first impression of Debbie? My first impression was that we would probably make very attractive babies, as she was very good looking and so am I. She reminded me of Natalie Portman.

What was her best feature? Probably her lips.

What did you chat about? Cockroaches, she found one in her Weetos once. We also bonded over wine.

So how did you part ways? A nice kiss on the cheek with a parting hug, then she gave me the, “So I’ll see you around…” and I was like, “Yeah, bye.” So that might have been awkward.

So were you not interested in seeing her around? I’d consider it.

So did you get her number? No.

Why not? It sounded like you were quite into her. I was, but the right moment just wasn’t there. It never came up.

So snog, marry or avoid? Marry as she had the whole package. She had beauty and brains.

So no potential future plans? No, it was nice but I don’t think that there was enough chemistry there.

As always a special thanks to Trof Fallowfield. If you would like to take part please email Beth Currall at [email protected], or Lauren Arthur at [email protected] with your name, age and degree.

Live: I Am Kloot

Written by Lowell Clarke on . Posted in Music.

15th February 2013

The Ritz

9/10

Jesca Hoop kicked off proceedings (I say kicked, though perhaps nudged would be more accurate), but her set was overshadowed by a murmuring crowd anxious to see Kloot and shockingly poor sound quality, perhaps a testament to a technical crew underwhelmed by Hoop’s relatively minor status. It certainly wasn’t, however, a testament to the quality of the musician – and anyone doubting her Friday night performance should first take a listen her Snowglobe EP before casting judgement.

Kloot finally appear at around 9 to the roar of a restless, drunken, Friday night crowd. So restless, in fact, that during some songs lead singer Johnny Bramwell has to tell them all to shut up. Not that there was any atmosphere of contempt; “set my compass North, circumscribe the earth and go” sings Bramwell, an homage to the band’s Manchester roots and a furtherance of the nostalgic revelry Kloot bathed in that night.

The night reaches its peaks with performances of ‘Twist’ and ‘Proof’, where the increasingly intoxicated crowd sway to Bramwell’s melodic repeats of “without you, without you”. ‘Hold Back the Night’ is met with a buzz of excitement, as well as a half-hearted attempt at an initial singalong that only made it as far as “hold back the night, these streets are filled with laughter” before descending into drunken ramblings. There was a fair balance between classic and more recent work, and it was frankly a joy to see the same level of energy and excitement for both the old and the new. The session musicians fleshing out the live band  were on top form, although the level of depth Kloot manage as a three piece remains much more impressive. A superb homecoming performance, marred only slightly by the boisterous crowd.

Live: Clinic

Written by Johnny Mac on . Posted in Music.

2nd March 2013

The Deaf Institute

 

Where most bands shout “Yes”, Clinic have always intoned with a resounding “No”. Having recently put out their seventh long-player, Free Reign, and counterpart remix album, the imaginatively titled Free Reign II, the Liverpool band continue to stride in their own awkward and angular direction, as ever unfettered by the pressures of selling records, selling out or settling down and calling it a day.

In comparison to tonight’s support act the excellent Mugstar, Clinic look frankly like spritely novices, however. Post-rock and post-the-age-it-should-be-possible-to-rock-this-hard, Mugstar aren’t going to win many plaudits with today’s 1D-touting generation. Showcasing a distinctly dystopian lightshow, a fierce blend of krautrock, industrial and psychedelia and some ferocious drumming they are more than deserving of note here.

With the venue filled with an audience befitting no particular demographic, the giant disco ball spinning from the ceiling and Clinic clad in their usual stage attire (surgeons’ scrubs and face masks), the stage almost looks set for some bizarre and very avant-garde horror flick. Alas, the band quickly dispel this notion, launching into a set that includes several choice cuts from the last album and a number of ‘old favourites’ (if Clinic qualify as a band where you could have such a thing). Songs such as the urgent ‘IPC Subeditors Dictate Our Youth’ and ‘See Saw’ definitely benefit from an airing in the live arena, the latter’s clarinet enveloping the room, where on the album, it simply hoots brashly.

Clinic specialise in that head-nodding style of ‘60s grooves and riffage, but played in their own eccentric manner. On songs like ‘Lion Tamer’ and ‘Children of Kellogg’, this translates very well, though it does become repetitive and a little trite on others. Further, it’s a shame that tonight’s set omits the haunting ‘Misty’. That, however, leaves their signature ‘Walking with Thee’ to be received with some aplomb, as the band deliver a scintillating encore.

‘I was right to secretly record vile homophobia on campus,’ says Cortbus

Written by Colin Cortbus on . Posted in Opinion.

This month I recorded the vilest homophobic discussion imaginable at a public meeting of the ‘Global Aspirations of Women’ Society.

The meeting chair told me that in the Islamic State she was striving for thieves would have their hands cut off, adulterers would be stoned and homosexuals would be executed. She even told me that if I kissed another man outside of the Students’ Union, she would personally and morally feel comfortable to kill me. This was laconically followed by ‘no offence to you’ as if telling someone you’d be prepared to kill them could ever not be hurtful.

Showing off the sophisticated critical thinking facilities that will make her highly employable, another attendee lamented that if gays ‘can’t have kids, why didn’t they die out ages ago’.

Ever since, I have been subject to a strange mixture of praise and criticism. Douglas Murray in The Spectator called me a ‘reasonable sort of chap’ and even criticised me for being ‘too kind’ to Islam on the issue of stoning, which I had argued is not part of Islam. Even a BBC report reflected positively on what I had done. There are however those who feel I have somehow breached journalistic ethics by exposing this homophobia. Quite predictably the society chairperson, Khadijah Afzal, accused The Mancunion of deciding to ‘sneakily record’ the event and attempting to ‘malign Islam’ arguing that ‘the discussion on the punishment system in Islam shows that you are ignorant of Islam as a political system’, which is an ‘ideology just like any other ideology’. In this immensely telling statement she also appeared to advocate theocracy, urging a government on the basis of ‘obedience to the rules’ of ‘Quran and the Sunnah’, which she said would be quite ‘unlike’ Capitalism where ‘sovereignty belongs to man and he has the freedoms’. Quite ultimately she stated that it was all just a ‘hypothetical discussion’ where the views expressed ‘may or not have necessarily been that of the society’.

Some have accused me of pandering to Islamophobia. Others have expressed their ‘deep concern’ over my covert filming. To them I say the following: you should get your priorities right. Carefully pre-considered, legitimate filming of what was disgusting homophobia at a public meeting is fully in line with British law and our long tradition of investigative journalism. At a public event, where there is no expectation of privacy. The public interest here was and is clear. Rather than appearing to come to the trivialisation of anti-gay extremists, we should stand with those who, like the 5 out of 8 Muslim MPs who voted yes to equal marriage and Ludovic-Mohamed Zahed, founder of the LGBTQ-inclusive mixed-gender mosque in Paris, demand genuine freedom, progress and equality. Let us unite to oppose all anti-humanist, anti-individualistic, anti-secular and intolerant thought, whether from Global Aspirations, the Far-Right, the Marxist-Leninists, or Fundamentalist Christians.

The least the Union ought to do after this is to work with organisations such as Imaan UK to set-up a support society for openly gay Muslim students. I stand for a tolerant, secular, free and democratic society. I hope you stand with me. I have no apology to make for being free.

Exec officer stranded in Pakistan after passport blunder

Written by Jonathan Breen on . Posted in News.

A member of the Students’ Union Executive has been on leave for over five weeks, two weeks more than his allowed holiday time.

University of Manchester Students’ Union Diversity Officer Saad Wahid applied for three weeks of leave at the end of January to visit his family in Pakistan, but at the time of going to print had gone over that time by two weeks.

Each elected officer is allowed 30 days paid leave a year. Mr Wahid has currently recorded 46 days of holiday time.

When contacted on Facebook Mr Wahid said, “I am on leave and in Pakistan to visit my family as I have been away for a year now. I will be back in early March.

“I have gone over by 2 weeks. I am not getting paid for this and I did not anticipate this delay which is due to visa processing.”

Mr Wahid, an international stu­dent from Pakistan, has not been able to return to the country after handing over his passport to the British High Commission in Paki­stan in an effort to obtain a visa for his entire family to live in Britain.

General Secretary of the Students’ Union Nick Pringle told The Mancu­nion, “At the end of the three weeks leave, Saad was unable to return to the country because he wasn’t in possession of his passport because he had sent it away to obtain a visa for his entire family to return to the UK.”

Mr Wahid said he did not antici­pate the visa application process taking so long.

“It is something I could not avoid,” he said. “I didn’t realise that it would take such a long time for the visa to be processed and now I am stuck.

“I never intended to apply for this category of visa from outside of UK ,and not take any additional leave to which I was not entitled to, however on 13th Dec 2012 visa rules were suddenly changed by [the UK Border Agency] restricting Inter­national students only to apply for visa from their respective countries rather than from inside the UK.”

“It is stated by UKBA that the outcome of the visa should be an­nounced within 15 working days.

“My new visa application along with my family member’s applica­tion was filed in a few days imme­diately when I arrived in Karachi i.e. 29th January 2013 and to date I await my passport to return from the British High Commission and therefore am unable to travel in the meantime.”

Mr Pringle added, “Given that Saad is not here, therefore he is on leave and he is over his allocation, that leave will be unpaid.

“All officers are entitled to 30 days leave and anything over that is unpaid.”

As an elected member of the Exec Team, Mr Wahid is also a trustee of the Students’ Union and sits on the Trustee Board, which oversees the finances, operations, services, and strategy of the Union. They are therefore partly responsible for 80 permanent staff and 250 student.

The position of Diversity Officer is new this year and its responsibilities include “promote and campaign for equal opportunities within the University, Union and wider community,” and “campaign to increase the di­versity of the student body,” according to the Students’ Union website. Like all Exec Team roles, the Diversity Of­ficer is contracted to work 35 hours a week and paid a yearly salary of £16,600.

In response to Mr Wahid’s absence, the Students’ Union have not put any information on the website and did not make a statement to let stu­dents know he was away for an extended period of time. Mr Pringle defended this.

“As an organisation I don’t think we should have a poli­cy that every time an officer takes a holiday we have to inform everyone about it, be­cause I think that is a bit over the top,” he said.

“We all take leave from time to time. If students would like us to start tweet­ing when we are on holiday, we can think about that.”

He added that the fact Mr Wahid is a parent and an in­ternational student should be taken into account when assessing his situation.

“There certainly are some mitigating factors in terms of Saad’s status as a parent – he has a family in Pakistan,” he said. “As an employer we have to take into account that people have family lives and have a right to see their kids.

“Also, because he is not a UK student, going home to see family is a lot different to when you or I go home to see our family.

“So something that we have to take into consideration is the fact that he is in Pakistan and he is dealing with visa restrictions that we wouldn’t have to.”

Mr Wahid is also running for General Secretary of the Students’ Union in this year’s elections, voting for which takes place from the 8th to the 14th March.

When asked how Saad’s work, outside of his regular duties such as reporting to union assemblies, was suf­fering while he was away, Pringle said:

“Although we try and keep up to date with what eve­ryone is doing and I try my best to know what everyone is working on, it is quite hard when they are not in the of­fice to know. Because he has been on leave he would not be expected to do any work from Pakistan.”

When asked how to Exec Team were coping without Saad, Pringle said: “Anything that is exec business or trus­tee business that would be shared with no individual re­sponsibility, we are still doing all that work between us.”

Election Hustings began last week, with separate debates for each position where students have the op­portunity to ask candidates questions. The event for Gen­eral Secretary is scheduled for this Thursday 7th March, between 6-8pm, on the 1st floor of the Students’ Union.

‘Reclaim the Night’ cost Union £7k

Written by Michael Williams on . Posted in News.

The successful ‘Reclaim the Night’ event cost the Union £7,000, figures obtained by The Mancunion show.

This means that the event cost £1,200 more than the £5,800 ‘maximum amount’ originally proposed for the event.

‘Maximum’ figures seek to evaluate the risk posed by an event to the Union finances if no sales – in this case, t-shirts and tickets – are made.

A new, higher ‘maximum amount’ of £8,000 was requested in the Executive meeting on the 18th February, just three days before the march was set to take place.

Women’s Officer Tabz O’Brien-Butcher, who organised the Reclaim the Night march, cited “costs that had not been taken into consideration” as the reason for the budget rise.

The largest contributing factor to the cost was the road closures and police presence at the event – just over £3,700 was spent to close part of Oxford Road and have two officers present at the march.

“Obviously, organizing an event of this scale has cost implications,” explained O’Brien-Butcher.

“The largest cost incurred was traffic management and ensuring participant safety, which should be a key priority for any large scale event such as this.”

The statistics also show that artist fees for the after-march party cost £1,770.

The headline act was former Manchester-born X Factor contestant Misha B.

“Bringing Misha B in brought a whole new demographic to the event,” said O’Brien-Butcher.

“It opened the march up beyond feminist campaigners, and ensured that the awesome vibes of the march continued late into the evening.”

Overall, says O’Brien-Butcher, the figures show “not even half of the picture”.

“Reclaim the Night has never been envisaged as a for profit event”, she said.

“From thousands of pounds worth of press coverage, national exposure for the union and the impact the march had on students and the local community […] I’m very proud of the event we delivered.”

UK’s biggest Model Arab League to convene

Written by Michael Williams on . Posted in News.

The University of Manchester Arab society is hosting the UK’s biggest model Arab League this weekend.

Arab societies from twelve different universities across the UK have organized for delegates to be sent to act as ambassadors and foreign ministers in the model league, based on the popular Model United Nations concept.

Besides one that has previously taken place in Birmingham, this will be the only model Arab League in the country.

The real Arab League is a regional organization of Arab states in North Africa, Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia.  It seeks to improve relations between member states.

Ibrahim Olabi, Vice President of the University of Manchester Arab Society, will be chairing the event.

He told The Mancunion of the importance of the model league in getting people interested.

“Arabs themselves don’t get involved with politics a lot, enough Arabs don’t know about the politics in that area,” he said.

“After the Arab spring, things became a little more loosened and people are more willing to know what’s going on in that region.”

“More Arabs are going into politics, and non-Arabs are learning about the politics and widening their [knowledge] about an area that they’re not from.”

The selection process for the Manchester delegates was tough, says Ibrahim.

“Doing interviews will make you the most hated person on campus,” he said, “because you have to reject some people – and then they know your face.”

“It was an extremely difficult choice,” he continued. “Most people who applied were very passionate and very competent – but ultimately we had to give it to the best [candidate].”

Of the four candidates from Manchester, Ibrahim explains, “there is not one Arab between them”.

“It’s not based on experience, it’s based on passion and skills,” he said.

“I don’t want a guy [having done] a thousand model United Nations and for us to be a thousand and one. I want to give someone who doesn’t have that opportunity to put it on his CV and increase his skills.”

Topics discussed during the model Arab League will deal with real-life current issues – like the ongoing Syrian conflict.

“The Syrian government, given what has happened, has been banned from the Arab League,” Ibrahim explained.

“So one of the topics [discussed] is that the Syrian National Coalition have a seat.

“The Syrian National Coaltion is the opposition – they have a seat in the model arab league.”

Ibrahim hopes that the event will become an annual tradition.

“The agenda we have is based on what is going on now in the Arab world,” he explained, “and these things change every year.”

The model league will take place in Samuel Alexander building, from 11am to 8pm on Saturday 9th March. The event will take place in two-hour blocks, and is open to anybody interested.

“We’re planning to get as many students involved as possible.”

‘I am not the only member of staff who has been under attack at MMU,’ says Parker

Written by Anthony Organ on . Posted in News.

World-renowned psychologist Professor Ian Parker has told students that he is “very sorry” about the situation they face following his resignation from Manchester Metropolitan University.

In an open letter published in full by The Mancunion addressed to students in MMU’s Psychology department, Prof Parker said: “My colleagues in the Department of Psychology tell me that you have not been told exactly why I was suspended or why I resigned.”

He continued: “I have been unable to contact you to explain what happened, and I am very sorry that I have not been able to continue teaching and supervising work for your degree courses.”

Prof Parker was suspended by MMU in October on charges of “gross professional misconduct”, but students were not informed and he was prevented from accessing his emails.

China Mills, a PhD student at the time, described how “he just disappeared overnight”.

A campaign was started calling for his reinstatement and an online petition received almost 4,000 signatures from around the world, including from American philosopher Noam Chomsky.

Following a disciplinary hearing he was allowed to return to work in December, but he resigned at the end of January, stating: “My professional work as an academic has been undermined to the point where there is now nothing left to return to in the psychology department.”

Owen Dempsey, one of Prof Parker’s PhD students, has now officially suspended his studies and plans to ask for his fees to be refunded.

He said: “I was not impressed by the lack of communication I had from MMU since Ian was suspended, which was zero until he resigned.

“My own view is that the University has lost a leading light and this reflects the University’s obsession with being a corporate business – must make money at all costs – even if this means losing a world leading academic. It is such a shame and such a loss for the students.”

Prof Parker’s letter ends: “I wish you well in your studies, and hope that through your union and by supporting the lecturers union you will find a way to address the desperate situation in your department.”

MMU have been refusing to comment on the issue but have maintained that Prof Parker’s PhD students were offered alternative supervision.

 

Ian Parker’s letter in full:

[pullquote]

Dear students on the psychology programmes,

You may know that I was suspended from work and locked out of my email on 3 October last year, and that I eventually resigned from MMU at the beginning of February this year. My colleagues in the Department of Psychology tell me that you have not been told exactly why I was suspended or why I resigned. I have been unable to contact you to explain what happened, and I am very sorry that I have not been able to continue teaching and supervising work for your degree courses. A full account of what happened is available at www.parkerian.com/asylum I am not the only member of staff who has been under attack, and you may have noticed that there are no professors, apart from the head of department, now left in psychology. I was a representative of UCU the university and college union, and the local branch is now doing its best to defend our education system here at MMU. I wish you well in your studies, and hope that through your union and by supporting the lecturers union you will find a way to address the desperate situation in your department.

Yours sincerely,

Ian Parker

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Live: Steven Wilson

Written by Robert Foot on . Posted in Music.

1st March 2013

Academy 1

It’s hardly surprising if you haven’t heard of Steven Wilson, but this is a man who has been a mainstay of progressive rock’s rehabilitation through the 90s and 00s with Porcupine Tree, who sold out a gig at the Royal Albert Hall at the end of their last tour. Wilson’s solo project, which began in 2008, is now onto its third album, which was written specifically for the touring band.

The group reads as a who’s who of progressive rock, with guitar virtuoso Guthrie Govan and drummer Marco Minneman lending the metal expertise in contrast to the jazz backgrounds of Adam Holzman, keyboards, and Manchester University graduate Theo Travis on woodwinds. Playing bass and Chapman Stick was former Kajagoogoo member Nick Beggs, no longer playing songs like ‘Too Shy’.

The performance was set up in the same way that Wilson makes his recordings, that being the whole musical experience should be concentrated upon, hence the decision for it to be seated and the taking of pictures forbidden. The complexity of the structures of many of the songs, such as the 25 minute epic ‘Raider II’, and the deep emotional connotations of ‘The Raven That Refused To Sing’ benefited from this perfectionist approach, however harder edged numbers such as ‘Remainder The Black Dog’ and ‘Harmony Korine’ begged for the opportunity for audience members to express themselves physically.

The suitability of Academy 1, or lack of, was a major problem for the performance. Wilson’s only previous venue for this project was Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London, and one feels that the theatricality and immersiveness of the performance, with accompanying videos on a back-screen which got partially washed out by the stage lighting, would have benefited from a similar venue.

What does the rise of UKIP mean for those with disabilities?

Written by Arun Mehta on . Posted in Opinion.

As a young disabled person, and with friends and family members who also have different physical and mental disabilities, I’m always tremendously interested how these issues fit into the UK political narrative.

After the shock result in the Eastleigh by-election last week, it appears that the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) could be a force to be reckoned with come the next general election. They didn’t win and some detractors may have brushed this away as a one off during a government mid-term; but the feeling among some of the electorate cannot be ignored. They are floating away from the major parties and are landing their X’s on alternatives on the ballot paper.

The current trend of former major party voters wanting to give the current political establishment a kicking seems to be gaining some kind of traction. It has yet to fully take a formidable shape. However, that could all change if this trend remains the status quo

UKIP put in its election arsenal the promises of an in/out EU referendum, less immigration to the United Kingdom and a clamp down on so-called “political correctness.” These are all cheap but alluring buzzwords that currently strike a tone with some of the general public. There is an appetite for these political issues, and Nigel Farage appears to be satisfying many hungers by serving them with this large, three course banquet.

This emergence of the UKIP narrative has me very concerned. Forget the half-truths used to promote an EU referendum, the demonization of immigrants, the occasional denial of climate change, telling women how to dress and the other things that would go the right-winger’s guide to politics; it’s what’s not being talked about that currently concerns me.

After browsing through the UKIP web site, I have not found anything really of substance in regards to the caring for the disabled people in our society. There is one line from the policy of benefit reform. Under UKIP policy, the party would support the morphing together of Jobseekers Allowance (JSA), Student Maintenance and Incapacity Benefit payments.

I feel this reform is far too simplified, because you are asking a government department to deal with three completely different topics here; education, unemployment and disabilities. How is it manageable to give these individually specialized domains to a government office for them to juggle? It’s far too much workload, and I don’t see that office coping well with all the individual demands they bring.

Another alarming indication from UKIP’s stance towards the disabled were the personal comments of former UKIP candidate Geoffrey Clark. He stated there should be “a compulsory abortion when the foetus is detected as having Downs, spina bifida or a similar syndrome, which if it is born, could render the child a burden on the state as well as on the family.” – While some disabilities are severe, it’s not impossible live a fulfilling life while suffering from a condition. Disabled charities across the board including Mencap were appalled at these suggestions given by the candidate.

To be fair, UKIP Head Office did distance themselves from Mr Clark’s abhorrent views, and eventually suspended him. Rightly so, because these points of views shouldn’t be accepted in modern day Britain; but then UKIP responded with the following: “As in any party, our members have a range of views and opinions which may not always accord with party policy. Geoff makes clear that this is a personal manifesto, not a party document.”

This individual case does show complete disconnections between grassroots supporters of the party, and the higher-ups supposedly running it. Surely it should be hammered in to all your candidates that these sorts of views are deplorable. I have to say, if some UKIP candidates aren’t going to put up with unborn disabled children, I shudder to think what they would do with the already living.

It leaves me wondering how UKIP supporters really feel about the rights of disabled people and if they even recognised the conditions such as autism and dyslexia. Both of which I have to deal with on a daily basis.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not ready to slam my front door on a UKIP candidate just yet. What I would like from UKIP and from Nigel Farage is a bit of reassurance; that the most vulnerable members of our society are not forsaken. Because after so much progress has been made over the last few years to put the wellbeing of the mentally and physically challenged on the political agenda. This purple and yellow coloured party with its silence on the issue appears, for me, to be a massive step backwards.

The Eastleigh by-election: a student’s view from the front line

Written by Sarah Harding on . Posted in Opinion.

For the Liberal Democrats, the Eastleigh by-election began under dark circumstances. A guilty plea to perverting the course of justice and poll numbers in single figures aren’t the best environment for a resounding victory. But the Liberal Democrats did what we do best – rallied round and descended on the residents of Eastleigh, armed with leaflets, enthusiasm and anoraks in case of rain.

We knew we had to hold Eastleigh, that this by-election was make it or break it time for the party, we had to win. And that’s why I left my lectures behind and joined the hundreds of volunteers showing up every day. Within days we had found ourselves a giant warehouse to run the operation out of, raised tens of thousands of pounds online and encouraged volunteers from Orkney to Newquay to set up volunteer phone banks.

Despite hundreds of people turning up every day to go door-knocking, deliver leaflets or stuff letters into envelopes, we knew our task was immense. Every person passing through the building knew losing wasn’t an option.

Local Councillor Mike Thornton was selected as the candidate for the Liberal Democrats. He had lived in the area for nineteen years and knew the constituency back to front. Against a Tory whose party wouldn’t let her speak to the media (see the YouTube video of her leaving the count) and a Labour candidate whose own book told people to vote Liberal Democrat tactically, the race heated up quite nicely.

With UKIP also pouring huge resources into Eastleigh, we soon found ourselves in a four-way battle. The key rule of by-elections is to do more than your competitors – if they put out a constituency-wide leaflet every day, so must you. If they knock on 5000 doors a day, you knock on 6000, for every £10 they raise online, you must raise £20. With this ever-deepening spiral of leaflet delivery comes an increased media frenzy.

Whether it was journalists pretending to be activists to catch someone unawares, turning up with eight cameras or forming a human wall outside HQ to catch the Nick Clegg rally, the media took a particular interest in this election. And of course, not all of it is positive coverage. The collapse of the Vicky Pryce trial, continuing Chris Huhne coverage and allegations regarding Lord Rennard kept the by-election firmly in the spotlight. But Liberal Democrats are nothing if not resilient, and volunteer numbers kept on rising day by day as we churned out hundreds of thousands of pieces of paper.

Polling Day was a masterpiece. From opening the office at 3.45am until the polls closed we worked every minute out of six offices across the constituency to get our vote to the polls – including at 9.54pm finding a woman who’d given birth that morning and wanted to vote!

Hearing Mike declared the winner was truly an amazing moment – surrounded by hundreds of friends old and new, it was a moment I’ll never forget and was worth every blister, paper-cut and sleepless night for.

As good as our night turned out, Labour and the Conservatives must have felt quite differently. Labour were squeezed into fourth and the Tories third – the first time those two parties have both been outside the top two since 1950. Liberal Democrats are historically the party of by-elections, for 30 years they’ve taken seats against Labour and the Conservatives, shocking the establishment and often coming out of nowhere to take the seat. Except, as a young Liberal Democrat, these by-election victories are just stories – the last seats taken by the party  were Dunfermline and West Fife in 2005, or Brent East in 2004, when most young activists were barely out of primary school.

So to actually see a real Lib Dem by-election machine was an honour and a privilege – I watched as myth became reality in front of my eyes. The strength of the individuals who gave so much to keep Eastleigh yellow was inspiring, and those people who just kept doing one more street – despite it being the hundredth of the day – are heroes. Our team became a family – supporting each other with cake and passion to win. So don’t count the Lib Dems out quite yet, because we’re not going anywhere.

They’ll never stop the BOP

Written by Jay Meros on . Posted in News.

BOP is back. For a few long weeks, boppers have been denied access to their regular injection of hot, melted ’90s cheese. But now a team of University of Manchester music students and BOP enthusiasts are providing a delicious fat-free alternative: I Can’t Believe It’s Not BOP.

Jamie Ross, music student and a leading academic in a field, has publicly attacked Social Junkies and Fresh Fridays in response to the ritualistic slaughter of the Green Monster at the ‘Last Ever Bop.’

“When BOP ended I had to take a couple of days off uni. Fortunately those days coincided with the weekend so it was fine. But I still feel I’m owed the 48 hours I spent grieving.”

Physical theatre ensemble The Funkin’ Massive Party Band has painstakingly transcribed and memorised the entirety of the BOP oeuvre. Don’t miss the debut of BOP Live, held at The Ram. Thursday 7th March, starting at 9pm. Oh, and it’s free entry.

Live: Baauer

Written by James Hunter on . Posted in Music.

27th February 2013

Gorilla

You’re probably reading this because you’ve been drowned in the wave of recent viral ‘Harlem Shake’ videos and have even taken a taxing minute to look up the one responsible for your digital demise. So first things first, yes, Baauer did play Harlem Shake and yes, the aptly named record shook the crowd into a frenzied earthquake-inducing response of over-zealous (Harlem) shaking. But for those of you who are less acquainted. Baauer is a Philadelphian producer/DJ who is currently one of the forerunners in the trap game. So it was no surprise that on Wednesday, Gorilla was wall-to-wall packed, leaving just the right amount of hip-wiggle and elbow-flaring room.

Those who initially felt that more room was required were soon inspired by the insanely enthusiastic dancing by the man of the hour, Baauer. If you slacked on your finger blasting for just one second, he would be there with four fingers raised, timekeeping finger thrusting. Which did raise the question of how he had time to actually mix track after crowd-pleasing track from the likes of TNGHT, Major Lazer, 2 Chainz and Flosstradamus. Though he did, and as is now becoming necessary on the DJ circuit, Baauer supplied a hyped and energetic performance, which pandered perfectly to the baying crowd’s needs.

My only criticism would be that it could have been a little bit too hyped, as at times it felt like a barrage of sub-bass kicks and synthesized horn screeches, lacking a diversity in tempo and feel while leaving little time for much needed finger-blast recovery. Overall it can be said that Baauer came, he played, and he did exactly what was asked of him, delivered an enthusiastic musical montage of the latest and greatest in trap, and even added a little extra finger thrusting to the mix.

Live: Caitlin Rose

Written by Polly Checkland Harding on . Posted in Music.

1st March 2013

Ruby Lounge

4/10

Caitlin Rose looks like a devotional painting when she sings. With demure hair and eyes raised piously above the audience, she seems strangely detached from the sounds coming out her mouth. The purity and long reach of her voice is undeniable; on songs such as ‘For the Rabbits’ from her 2010 debut Own Side Now, the pining notes are the heart of the song. However, such settled vocal confidence dulls the grit and risk in the performance.

The audience too are curiously uptight and, though the gig is sold out, the enthusiasm during the set remains coldly restrained; talkers are shushed, jostlers tutted. It is only when Rose’s eyes drop between songs and connect with the crowd that the gig achieves any energy. Following the gently harmonized ‘Only a Clown’, from her new release The Stand In (2013), Rose starts a running gag in her Tennessee lilt, about how it is “glorious – wet and musky in here”; she closes a song by saying impishly “Thank you for your perspiration” and gets a proper laugh when using sweat as a ploy to sell t-shirts.

Speaking, Rose seems charmingly spontaneous. Musically, she slips into formula, repeating the blueprint of two or three steady verses then a guitar riff, followed by a final, more lively, round up: ‘Menagerie’, a romp that gets the audience bobbing reluctantly, is one of a few exceptions to this. Even the band’s encore is on automatic pilot: they go through the motions and stand off to the side, but don’t bother to leave the stage. Towards the end of the gig, an audience member pipes up with “We love you!”. Rose’s pat reply sums up her style playing live: “Aw, I love you too… we mean it as much as we can.”

Album: Veronica Falls – Waiting for Something to Happen

Written by Orlaith O Byrne on . Posted in Music.

A label formed in the wake of dream pop triplet Cocteau Twins, Bella Union seem to have a clear direction in the artists they choose to work with. No different are the melodic LondonersVeronicaFalls, a band with youthfulness managing to survive the curse of the second album with more breathy soprano harmonies from vocalists Roxanne Clifford and James Hoare than there are future X-Factor contestants singing their Saturday afternoon hearts out on Market Street.

The quartet’s self-titled debut was largely well received, and deservedly so when peppered with pop lovelies like Found Love in a Graveyard and Bad Feeling. Equally, it was let down by steadily unimaginative drum patterns and a tambourine that at first glitters through every track, though soon becomes tiresome as it impedes on the listeners ability to hear anything else (listen out for it in the first track and you wont be able to block it out for the rest of the album!). More trivially, their somewhat futile denial of a C86 influence is trite when their sound can be so remarkably well fitted to such a category.

Waiting For Something To Happen is a satisfying advancement, with varied and thought out songs like the first single Teenage providing the fluctuations in beat that their first album lacks. What’s more, heart-fluttering chord progressions classic of their best songs are still present, familiar and comforting like the last leg of a drunken walk home. Highlights come in the form of poppy bass track So Tired with Sonic Youth circa 2006 vibes and an ethereal grunge chant Shooting Star; the impressive equivalent to the debut album’s ‘gothic’ hit Beachy Head. Perhaps at their very best is the affectedly quaint lyricism of track Buried Alive that they are so practised at: “I wanna get sick/ I wanna catch everything you’ve ever caught”. Charming! Winding down to a composed finish with Last Conversation, it’s clear that Veronica Falls are in possession of the song-writing talent required for captivating four-minute jingles.

Clifford may fall short of the expressive performance achieved by the band’s elder influences (have you heard Elizabeth Fraser’s performance of Song to the Siren?), but a modest indie album is something Veronica Falls can most certainly deliver. Whilst sticking to their broken toy guns, what they have achieved here is a calmer and more delicately contrasting version of their debut. An admirable accomplishment.