Skip to main content

Day: 14 October 2014

Profile: The Model Alliance

Written by Grainne Morrison on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

If I were to ask you to describe the life of a fashion model, you’d probably focus on glamorous parties, free champagne and designer clothes. I doubt you would consider sexual harassment, unpaid work, encouraged eating disorders and bullying.

As hard as it is to pity people who are paid to look good, the working conditions for most of these beautiful people are poor to non-existent. Most models aren’t earning millions. In fact, a lot of models will accept unpaid work just for the exposure. Yet in doing so they put themselves in a vulnerable position.

Take, for example, the scandal surrounding Terry Richardson. Countless models have courageously come forward to share their stories of sexual assault and harassment only to be met with derision from some of the most influential names in fashion. Many decide against coming forward for fear of losing future jobs.

Likewise, it’s been almost a decade since Ana Carolina Reston tragically died from the anorexia she developed after comments that she was ‘too fat’. At the time, the fashion industry reacted strongly with claims of massive change to follow. Yet, years later models are still pressured, even forced, to lose weight to get ahead.

In such a cutthroat industry, how does one avoid exploitation? In 2012, the not-for-profit organisation The Model Alliance was set up by Sara Ziff, a former model, who decided to take matters into her own hand. The Model Alliance works to establish a place of protection for female, male and child models of all backgrounds and ethnicities.

Although not a union, they aim to give a voice to the many models who feel helpless. They have a Bill of Rights which covers issues such as the need for a code of professionalism throughout all modelling jobs. Ziff states that “by giving models a platform to organize to improve their industry, The Model Alliance aims to enhance the vitality and moral standing of the fashion business as a whole.”

So why did it take so long for an organisation of this kind to come about? There was a Model’s Guild in 1995, but it failed so miserably that no one worth knowing ever registered its existence. Even the Model Alliance admits that this is merely the beginning and so much more needs to be done in order to improve working conditions for models.

Will it work? Hopefully; as unlike The Model’s Guild, this organisation has the backing of the CFDA (Council of Fashion Designers of America) which ultimately means they have the driving force of Anna Wintour behind them. However, until many others follow the example set by the CFDA, The Model Alliance has their work cut out for them.

One thing is for sure, things can’t get any worse.

Manchester student speaks at Birmingham University about the legal case of Meriam Ibrahim

Written by Anna Phillips on . Posted in News.

The Manchester University student responsible for the change.org petition to save Meriam Ibrahim in Sudan, joined a panel of international experts and human rights lawyer to discuss her legal case at Birmingham University last week.

Emily Clarke, Law and Politics student, spoke at Birmingham University for ‘Meriam Ibrahim, the Case that Gripped the World’ in their series of City Talks lectures.

Emily set up the change.org petition which called for the Sudanese government to save mother Meriam Ibrahim from her sentence of 100 lashes and the death penalty.

Since its set-up, the petition gained over 1092000 signatures and attracted significant media attention to Meriam’s case.

Meriam was raised as a Christian but was charged with apostasy, or abandonment of faith, for maintaining her mother’s Christian faith rather than her father’s Muslim faith.

She was freed in July 2014 following skilled lawyering and political diplomacy, and landed safely in Rome with her husband and two children in July.

The list of panellists Emily joined at Birmingham University included Mr Elshareef Ali Mohammed, of the Sudan legal team on Meriam’s case and Birmingham City University alumnus, The Rt Hon Baroness Anelay of St Johns, Minister of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and was chaired by Manjit Singh Gill QC, Head of International Human Rights at No. 5 Chambers, London.

The talk covered Women’s and Children’s rights, freedom of thought and religion, and the role of civil society and multi-media for protecting human rights.

Emily spoke about how she discovered the Meriam case on Twitter, and the role that social media can play in defending international human rights. She explained how the campaign started on personal media and private network, and traditional media followed.

They talk also covered the death penalty and whether or not it is a negative policy, with Chair Baroness Anelay saying “What we take for granted here must be defended day in, day out.”

Interview: Professor Fred Loebinger

Written by Andy van den Bent-Kelly on . Posted in Features, News, Science & Tech.

Ask any student around campus why they chose to come to Manchester and you’ll probably be faced with a standard response. Probably something containing the words “reputation” or “course structure.”

However, if you ask me the same question, my response will be a little bit different.

“A guy sat on a table waving his hands and feet told me to.”

A strange answer, you might think. But if you pose this question to anyone who’s studied physics at Manchester over the past few years, there’s a very good chance you’ll hear the same reply.

Professor Fred Loebinger is a well-known and much-loved member of the physics department here at Manchester. A particle physicist, he first came to the university as an undergraduate and never left. As the admissions tutor for the department, he has been responsible for convincing promising young students to come and study here.

Sadly for me and everyone else in the department, Professor Loebinger has just retired, ending an association with the university that has spanned for five decades. I managed to catch up with Fred just before he left.

I arrive at the sixth floor of the Schuster building, the home of particle physics at the university. Prof Loebinger is sat there with a group of students, who I assume are postgraduates. I am instantly beckoned over and told to sit down. It soon becomes apparent that they are not discussing physics, but rather are engaging in an intense session of word puzzles.

The next ten minutes or so involve me trying and failing to think up six-letter words ending in ‘r’ as I’m given hints by one of the other students. This bizarre start to the interview doesn’t even surprise me—Professor Loebinger is well known for his charismatic, if slightly quirky nature. After the puzzle is complete, we move to his office to continue our conversation.

GROWING UP

I ask Prof. Loebinger what sparked his interest in physics as a child. “There was no key moment, no epiphany,” he tells me. “What I had at school was an excellent physics teacher and a very boring chemistry teacher! And as it happened, my performance in school in chemistry was always better than in physics.

“But the guy that taught me physics was sufficiently inspiring to convince me that even though it wasn’t my strongest subject at school, it was the one I wanted to pursue. So I followed that stimulation through school and onto university, by then I’d decided that it was what I wanted to do.”

HIS TIME AT THE UNIVERSITY

Prof Loebinger first came to the university after finishing school and has been here ever since. After completing his degree, he stayed on as a postgraduate, then as a research associate before eventually being awarded professorship. I ask him why he decided to stay for so long.

“It’s a wonderful place!” he explains. “For me, every box was ticked. Manchester was doing everything I wanted to do.

“I always say that if where you are is particularly good, if you’re enjoying where you are, if they have a good reputation, if they’re doing the research that you want to do, if you think that the research group is a good group that you want to join, I think it’s wrong to artificially make yourself go somewhere else just to prove that you’re moving on.”

He talks about his career highlights, which he stresses have come in both teaching and research. I learn that his thesis involved disproving the existence of pentaquarks, a fact that is still used to this day. He beams as he tells me that he was in the group that discovered the gluon, an exchange particle that governs one of the four fundamental forces in the Universe.

In addition to his decades of teaching and research, Prof. Loebinger has also spent the past 30 years acting as the admissions tutor for the School of Physics and Astronomy. For most current undergraduates within the department, he is the first person they will have met, either on an open day or an interview day. I still fondly remember my first experience of him, when I came for my interview in November 2011.

As I mentioned at the start, he has a rather peculiar method of attracting students to the department. He sits on a table and starts to talk about the School’s key selling points. Each new point is accompanied by the waving of a limb. By the end of the talk, all four limbs are vigorously moving as he passionately explains why Manchester is such a wonderful place in which to study physics.

“To come clean, it’s meant to look a little bit spontaneous, but I’ve been giving the same talk, waving the same hands and feet, for many, many years,” he says. “The speech has changed a bit over time though!

“People don’t often admit to enjoying things which are seen as administrative rather than teaching or research, but I have to say that I also enjoyed doing the admissions bit.”

However, Prof Loebinger isn’t as thrilled at the popularity of his talk as you might expect. “It sounds as though I’ve been a very successful double-glazing salesman,” he laughs, “selling the place and encouraging people to come when perhaps they had better things to do!

“What I hope is that I opened their eyes to the opportunities at Manchester, which I honestly do believe is the best place to come and do physics.”

HIS WORK AT CERN

Prof Loebinger has enjoyed a long and varied career that has seen him travel across the world. I ask him about CERN, the famous research facility in Geneva where he spent many years working.

“I first went out to CERN in 1972, when it was a relatively small place compared to what it is now,” he tells me. “The accelerator that I went to work on was called the Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) and that had just switched on.

“That was the first ever collider which collided protons against protons, which is the same as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). I initially went for a year, because I had teaching duties back in Manchester, but that year got extended and extended and extended, and I ended up being there for six years!

“It was a really wonderful time, the community there was great. Geneva is a wonderful city, ideally situated in the middle of Europe, with easy access to everywhere. CERN was just a brilliant place to work—it still is!”

I was fortunate enough to visit CERN on a school trip back in 2011. Although I wasn’t able to head down into the tunnel to see the LHC for myself (it was running at this point), one thing that particularly struck me was the strong communal feel to the entire facility. I mention this to Professor Loebinger and he agrees heartily.

“There’s a real scientific buzz about the place, but it’s also very sociable,” he tells me. “There are people from all different universities, different countries, all collaborating together. There’s a wonderful feeling of collaborative spirit, everyone is working for the same goals on the same experiments.”

THE HIGGS BOSON

CERN has been the setting for many scientific and technological breakthroughs over the past few decades. Multiple particles have been discovered since the organisation was established in 1954, antimatter has been created and maintained, even the World Wide Web began as a CERN project. In recent years, however, one particular discovery has stood out above the rest.

The Higgs Boson was first proposed 50 years ago by six physicists including Peter Higgs, after whom the particle is named. A long and well-publicised hunt for the particle finally came to an end in 2012, when two separate experiments at the LHC confirmed that it had been discovered.

I ask Prof. Loebinger if, prior to the discovery, there was a particular outcome he had been hoping for.

“The Higgs Boson—the theory behind it goes back to the 1960s,” he explains. “It’s been a long, long search for it. We were homing in on it—there was only a very small window in which it could exist, we’d ruled out all the other possibilities. We were homing in on that very narrow window.

“There were some physicists who really wanted it to be there, since it would vindicate all their work and the theories and the model. But there are always lots of physicists who say, ‘wouldn’t it be even better if it wasn’t there?’ Because that would open up the opportunity for something unexpected.”

A notable example of this is Stephen Hawking. Upon hearing of the discovery of the Higgs, he remarked, “It is a pity in a way because the great advances in physics have come from experiments that gave results we didn’t expect.”

However, Prof Loebinger doesn’t share Hawking’s view on this particular matter. “Frankly I was hoping for it, because we’d spent many, many years looking for it,” he explains. “It was the sort of culmination of this big collaborative experiment.

“I was over the moon that we found it because it doesn’t shut off other opportunities, but it at least says that everything that we thought was happening is happening. It looks as though we’re on the right lines. So I think it was a very positive marker, it means that everything is slotting into place.

“It leaves open the opportunity for a lot more to be discovered, but it means we’re not going down some cul-de-sac or some diversion that turns out to be wrong.”

PUBLIC INTEREST IN SCIENCE

The hunt for the Higgs and its subsequent discovery really captured the imagination of the general public. I ask Professor Loebinger whether he thinks that it was a key moment in alerting people to the many wonders of the scientific world.

“It reached out to a huge audience, it had a huge public clamour when it was discovered,” he says. “To be honest, I was somewhat surprised by that, because it’s not the same in people’s minds as something like the first landing on the Moon. That was very tangible—you could see them standing there on the Moon.

“The Higgs Boson, however, is very non-tangible. You can’t see it and it’s a difficult concept to explain to people who are interested in science but don’t have a deep background in it.

“I was surprised how much they took on board. I was delighted, but it still surprises me. You can’t actually see the thing, you can’t really see its effects, you have to take the physicist’s word for it that it is this magical ingredient that we’re searching for. But the public have taken that on board and gone ‘Wow!’”

The more I think about Prof. Loebinger’s response, the more I realise how surprising the public’s interest in the Higgs Boson really was. It was subject to a lot of news coverage, but it’s not an easy concept to visualise. I remember seeing the same animation of protons shooting round the LHC on all the major news stations, but that was all that there was to go on.

THE FUTURE OF PARTICLE PHYSICS

Professor Loebinger has already told me about the wide range of opportunities that have opened up in particle physics following the discovery of the Higgs Boson. I ask him what he thinks the next major breakthrough will be.

“There are lots of avenues which people are actively pursuing, notably additional Higgs Bosons,” he says. “The one Higgs that we’ve found is a neutral Higgs, but there’s the potential for positively and negatively charged Higgs Bosons out there as well, we’re looking for those.

“We’re looking for supersymmetry, which would give us a whole raft of new particles that are partners of the ones that we’ve already found, but with different properties and different masses.

“Then there are a whole load of new areas of physics that have been opened up over the last decade or so involving neutrinos. As it happens, Manchester has a big involvement in almost all those activities. We’ve really positioned ourselves well to be involved in where we think a lot of the action is going to happen.”

This leads directly onto my next question. I ask Professor Loebinger how big a part he expects Manchester to play in the near future.

“Well Manchester already plays a very big part,” he explains. “We’re involved in a major way in two of the big experiments at the LHC, called ATLAS and LHCb.

“One of the big goals of LHCb is to work out where all the antimatter in the Universe has gone. Everybody believes that when the Big Bang happened, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts. But if you look around, we don’t see large concentrations of antimatter.

“So somehow, that antimatter has disappeared. We have theories that might explain where it’s gone, but they haven’t been successfully tested experimentally. One of the big aims of LHCb is to try and experimentally verify what we can explain about where the antimatter’s gone.”

“We’re also in working parties involved in looking at the next high energy accelerators,” Prof. Loebinger tells me. “The International Linear Collider which is being proposed, and more recently, there’s the very large collider that’s being proposed at CERN. The LHC is 27km in circumference, but the one that people are now muttering about and starting to work on would be 100km! Manchester’s involved in all of these.

HOW THE DEPARTMENT HAS CHANGED

During his 50-year stint at Manchester, Professor Loebinger has seen a lot of change at the university. I learn that when he first arrived as an undergraduate, he was one of only 100 physics first years, just four of whom were girls! These days, the department takes in roughly 280 undergraduates every year, with roughly 20 per cent of them being female.

I ask him how proactive the department has been in encouraging girls to come here and study physics. “I was part of this drive to get more girls in back in the 80s,” he says. “We ran residential courses, we produced videos and posters, we had campaigns that toured round. We were very successful!”

He proudly talks about the growth of the department’s reputation. “It is now correctly seen as one of the top physics departments, certainly in the country, but I think we’re something like 13th in the world!” he states.

“We’ve got the Regius professorship—we’re the only physics department in the country ever to have been awarded it. If you look at why it was awarded, it was awarded for excellence in teaching and research.”

ADVICE

I conclude the interview by asking Professor Loebinger if he has any advice for people hoping to follow him into the world of physics.

“If you look at the areas of science that cover the range from the very smallest particles, which is particle physics, right to the very largest scales, which is astrophysics,” he says. “That is the Universe and that is all covered by physics.

“There’s nuclear physics, there’s medical physics, there’s environmental physics, there’s biophysics, there’s solid state physics—there’s a whole range that covers that. There is no other science that does it over that whole range. So from both the breadth of study that you can do and the consequential breadth of careers that you can go into, I would say that there is nothing to touch physics.

“But then again, I’m biased!”

This week in literature

Written by Alister Pearson on . Posted in Books.

On this week in 1957, Albert Camus was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature “for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.” Upon accepting the award in Stockholm, he made sure to give credit to “all those who, sharing in the same fight, [who] have not received any privilege, but have on the contrary known misery and persecution.” Camus was one of the key writers working for the underground magazine Combat in Paris during its occupation by the Germans in the Second World War and so rightly felt a degree of guilt that he was the one receiving the recognition for his bravery to prolong the freedom of literature when many others aided the fight with him and suffered much more.

But with his degree of guilt came a degree of pride and gratitude at the same time as Camus recognised his own privilege of being able to fulfil his writing potential in a more liberal climate after a long history of repression. Reflecting on the horrors of his century he said: “for more than twenty years of an insane history, hopelessly lost like all the men of my generation in the convulsions of time, I have been supported by one thing: by the hidden feeling that to write today was an honour.”

The decision for Camus to be awarded the prize was not without controversy. Although he never directly criticised the Algerian absurdist for it, Jean-Paul Sartre felt that the writer must always turn down such awards as he should “refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution, even if this occurs under the most honourable circumstances, as in the present case.” There is speculation that Sartre was jealous that Camus was offered the award seven years earlier than the French existentialist but no substantiated evidence supports it.

A more in-depth biography of Camus’ life by Aidan Gregory is available on The Mancunion website.

Dog loving millionaire to donate to dogs’ shelter

Written by Aileen Rose Duffy on . Posted in News.

Daria Radionova, a student at LSE, is to sell her Swarovski crystal-encrusted car in order to raise money for the Manchester Dogs’ Home which was devastated by a fire in mid-September this year.

The car, a Mercedes CLS 350, was hand-encrusted by three of Radionova’s personal jewellers, whom she flew over from Russia. She stated, “it took them 12 hours a day for two months to complete.”

More than 60 animals were killed and around 150 were left homeless after a fire broke out at the Dogs’ Shelter on the 11th September.

Talking to the Tab, Radionova expressed “I want to raise money for the homeless animal shelter in the UK that was burned a few weeks ago, the one in Manchester. I cannot stay away from that situation.”

However, whilst initially stating that half of the proceeds from the sale of the car were to be sent to the Dog’s Shelter, she has recently downgraded this figure to 10 per cent.

Although the car has been in the press for over three weeks now, it appears no members of the public have interest in owning the sparkling vehicle. It is still for sale online at autotrader.com at the time of going to press (10th October).

At £150000, the price is three times the original selling price of the Mercedes, despite the crystals only costing £20,000 to add to the car.

A staff member from the Manchester Dogs’ Home said: “Oh god. It sounds tacky to me, but money’s money.” The estimated donation from Daria will be around £15000, adding to the mass donations already seen by the shelter.

The Manchester Evening News set up a JustGiving account after the incident, which has received over £1 million in donations.

A spokesman from Greater Manchester Police said that a 15-year-old boy and 17-year-old boy have been arrested on suspicion of arson in connection with the incident, but that “detectives and investigators from Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service are continuing to investigate how the fire at Manchester Dogs’ Home started.”

Top tips for living harmoniously with the opposite sex

Written by Kitty Treverton Jones on . Posted in Lifestyle.

When I asked the boys I live with to share their advice for living with girls, they mostly just used it as a chance to complain. Partly about too much information regarding periods, but mostly about hair. It will forever be a mystery why as a combined entity on your head, hair is completely acceptable, yet when a singular strand escapes from the rest it becomes the most disgusting thing in the world. And they never let you forget it.

If you thought that moving in with girls would mean it would be like being back at home, having your mum there to magically stack the dishwasher and hoover the living room, I expect you had a bit of a shock. “Don’t be fooled into thinking girls are cleaner than boys. It’s a myth. And don’t expect them to take the bins out, either,” advises Phil, a Pharmacy student in his third year of living with girls.

Living with boys definitely takes some getting used to. A lot of farting, burping and a massive overuse of the word “fit.” Baking always goes down especially well if you want to put them in a good mood and ask them politely not to play FIFA. Of course, not all boys play FIFA. But if you are living with those that do, there are some ways to make things a bit more bearable. Compromise is crucial. Let them play a couple of games, and then later on they’ll let you watch the Great British Bake Off.

If your kitchen is dirty and your bedroom is cold and you just want to stay with your cup of tea in the living room without being bored to death, suggest that they mute it while you play some music. I don’t recommend constantly telling them how boring a game it is. They aren’t going to stop playing just because you think it’s duller than watching paint dry.

Boys often make out that they hate things like chick flicks, but living with girls is a chance for them to indulge in their secret guilty pleasures, such as watching Pretty Woman, The O.C. or doing the relationship quizzes in Cosmopolitan. A piece of advice for both guys and girls is to make the most of having someone of the opposite sex on hand when you have relationship problems or need help understanding why he/she hasn’t texted you back.

However, the biggest piece of advice I would give is to enjoy it! When else in your life are you going to live with your friends, just streets away from all your other friends?

Switch Off Social Media

Written by Charlotte Wheatcroft on . Posted in Lifestyle.

Social media is now a billion-pound industry and we almost see it as indispensable in our daily lives. It’s now on your phone, your tablet and your laptop—there’s no escape. Someone who doesn’t utilise one on the three major social networking sites—Facebook, Twitter and Instagram—is not only a rarity but seen as unusual, even an oddity.

However, social media gives us the dangerous ability to create fake persona of ourselves: you can construct your own social image, a better ideal you, probably quite unlike the real you. Simply look to the recent story of Zilla, the Dutch student who faked an entire five week trip to Asia through the use of Photoshop. She quotes “my goal was to prove how common and easy it is to distort reality.” Through social media, you cannot ever get a true picture of a person; they can hide behind the screen and make you believe what they want you to. You can construct your own identity and your own reality.

Using social media promotes insecurity; you do not look at who a person is but who they appear to be. This insecurity is especially predominant in relationships: likes and photos can completely be taken out of context and insecurities arise causing rifts between people. Their relationship status has more likes than mine, therefore their relationship is superior. This correlation between likes and success is dangerous.

Stop comparing yourself to the seemingly exotic lifestyles of your peers. Just because you don’t have holiday pictures online doesn’t mean you never went on holiday. Just because your relationship isn’t ‘Facebook official’ doesn’t mean you’re not in one. You don’t need evidence of your experiences. Your experiences shine through you (the real you that is) by the way you talk, or see the world, by the conversations you hold and the friends you keep. Social media has diminished the value of communication. Stop hiding behind social media and go out and talk to people again, make the effort to meet them and see who is really worthwhile of your time.

Stop judging someone’s worth by their Facebook likes, re-tweets and Instagram loves. Who knows what lurks behind a computer screen!?

So have a go, switch off social media see if you like it more. We’re a generation that has grown up on social media and maybe now we’re effectively adults, maybe it’s time to turn the clocks back?

Recipe: Shakshuka

Written by Josephine Harrington on . Posted in Food & Drink.

Great for a cheap, healthy, warming, vegetarian dinner. Shakshuka is a traditional north African dish, topped with gooey poached eggs and served with lots of chunky bread-bliss…

Ingredients

Serves 4

– ½ tsp cumin seeds

– oil

– 2 sliced onions

– 4 red and yellow peppers cut into strips

– 4 tbsp sugar

– 2 bay leaves

– 2 tbsp (plus extra to garnish) chopped coriander

– tin of chopped tomatoes

– a pinch cayenne pepper

– 4 eggs

 

Method:

In a large pan (which needs a fitting lid!) dry-roast the cumin seeds on a high heat for 2 minutes. Add a generous glug of oil and gently fry the onions for 5 minutes.

Add the peppers, sugar, bay leaves, coriander and continue cooking on a high heat for 5 – 10 minutes to get a nice colour. Now add the tomatoes, cayenne and some salt and pepper.

Reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. During the cooking, keep adding small amounts water so that the mix has a passata consistency. Now make four little egg size gaps in the mixture, carefully crack the egg in each of the gaps and cook with the lid on a very gentle heat for 10 minutes or until the eggs are set. Sprinkle the the remaining coriander and serve.

Engage with current affairs at the Battle of Ideas

Written by Jessie Krish on . Posted in News.

“Does student satisfaction make for happy pigs rather than potential Socrateses?”, “Has the Arab spring made us more polarised?”, and “Hashtag feminism: radical or banal?”: the Battle of Ideas returns to the Barbican for the 10th time with around 80 debates to get you thinking and discussing.

Over the weekend of the 17th and 18th of October, 350 speakers will argue with each other, angling to answer these questions and cover themes from Art and Culture to Technology and the City. A stretch away down the ever-faster Virgin Rail Link to London, and on that note—”From bullet trains to driverless cars: where is transport going?”, it is a journey whose assault on your student loan will at least be compensated with half-price student entry to the Battle of Ideas festival.

Fearing that the enlightenment ideals of freedom and democracy have nigh on flown out the window, the Battle of Ideas is challenging itself and anyone who dares participate, to answer, or at least ask more questions about, the challenges that face us in 2014. Acknowledging that “thinking itself is dangerous,” they advocate the virtue of philosophical thinking to seek deeper truths beyond political clichés or scientific evidence. With one of the key themes for this year’s battle being the problem of today’s avoidance of making judgements, they want to hear every opinion; ignorant, wise, shallow and kneejerk: the pre-requisite is a free thinker. They say that it is the potential for agreement that makes judgement powerful. The question is: can they convince you?

Speakers at the weekend will range from Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, to UKIP’s Janice Atkinson. Find out more, and indulge yourself in some interesting extra reading at their website http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/.

Recipe: Blackberry Mojito

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Food & Drink.

We are often being told that the smartest way to food shop is to go local and seasonal. With blackberries being in season during autumn, why not try a fruity twist on a cocktail classic this October? Some supermarkets will try and charge you a bomb for nothing more than a handful of these berries, so scope out the frozen section of Lidl or some of the Curry Mile’s supermarkets for a cheaper option.

Ingredients:
makes one glass

– Half a lime, cut into wedges
– 5/6 mint leaves
– 1 and ½ tablespoons of sugar
– 5 blackberries
– 1 shot of white rum (or vodka)
– Sparkling water
– Ice

Method:

Firstly, fill a sandwich bag with ice cubes, seal and bash with a rolling pin until all the contents is crushed. Next, in a tall glass, mix the lime wedges, mint, sugar and blackberries with a wooden spoon until the sugar is no longer visible. Add a handful of the crushed ice and pour over a shot of rum or vodka. Finally, top with sparkling water and give it a stir—you could even add a whole sprig of mint and a few extra berries for garnish to impress your housemates. Or if you really want to go all out, invest in a pack of cocktail umbrellas and novelty straws!

Which video game company should you work for?

Written by James Thursfield on . Posted in Games.

At some point in every (slightly nerdy) person’s life, there will have been consideration of the attraction of developing their own video game or working for a prestigious game company. Naturally, since most readers of this article will leave university with a first in Video Game Design, it is important to question which company it would be best to work for.

One industry favourite, which has always flourished in employee reviews and industry surveys, is Valve. Famous for its immaculate portfolio of developed games such as Half-Life 2 and Portal 2, Valve also possesses a unique design philosophy that their employees adore.

A defining feature of the management in Valve is that there is none. Supposedly, there is no “boss” and sick days/days off work, are not recorded. One employee submitted a review on the American career site Glassdoor, describing his experience as “Amazingly empowering. No management. No red tape. Salaries are above the top of the industry. And families come first.”

It is also worth noting that the company annually takes all of its employees and their families on holiday to Hawaii to “chill out”. After this discovery, I must admit, I did some research and discovered that The University of Salford offers a Computer and Video Games honours degree based in MediaCity. You can thank me later.

Another video game developer which has burst onto the scene in recent years is Riot Games. Well known for its multiplayer online battle arena League of Legends, Riot possesses a young and dynamic atmosphere in their company. As part of its company culture, every employee, whether they are in finance, marketing or game design, must play the game daily and are coached to get better. This results in competitive tournaments between different departments of the company, with a leaderboard recording wins and losses. The company claims this helps to foster a universal passion and understanding of the game and a common ground between all employees.

Another more unique characteristic of working at Riot Games is its commitment to its global staff. As one of the most played PC games in the world, much of Riot’s player base lies in Korea and China. As a way of building bridges with their Korean counterparts, Riot installed a ‘PC Café’. In these cafes they broadcast high level Korean matches, whilst offering vending machines full of Korean snacks and drinks (including alcohol). Although the connection with the Korean audience may appear superficial at best, it does seem to be a good excuse for employees to enjoy an exotic drink whilst watching TV.

Having established that holidays and snacks are important reasons to pursue a career in video game design, it also worth considering supporting locally based developers. Yippee Entertainment, based in Manchester, has seen great success with mobile titles such as Chimpact and Chimpact 2. In 2013 it was named the ‘Best Start-up’ at the Digital Big Chip Awards.

Lorraine Starr, commercial director at Yippee Entertainment, stated that with “the advent of games courses, particularly at University of Salford, and the BBC relocating to MediaCityUK—Manchester will continue to grow and soon become a powerhouse for content creation”

Whilst this article has indulged in the glamorous concept of game development as an industry that provides exotic holidays, such aspirations are a far too distant dream. The reality is that there are feasible pathways into video game development here in Manchester. Courses at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford provide pathways into an industry that used to have massive barriers to entry. Whilst Manchester may not have exotic Hawaiian beaches or Korean snacks, there is arguably no better place for you to turn your dreams of video game development into reality.

What’s race got to do with it?

Written by Mancunion on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

The lack of ethnic models has been a controversial topic within the fashion business for as long as we can remember. Although efforts have been made by certain brands to create an equilibrium of ethnic origins,the concept has evidently not been embraced by all. It is the debated, and what many consider narrow-minded, opinion that white models have more representation within the industry.

It seems you either have it or you don’t. If you get the break, you’re in—and the industry embraces you with open arms. However, if you do not make the cut, you really have to fight to earn your spot. In many ways, the model’s background therefore works for them, or strongly against them.

Global brands such as Calvin Klein are known for their ability to solely hire white models year after year, ignoring the potential variety of differing ethnicities. Numéro magazine has even gone as far as using a white, blonde-haired model and covering her form head-to-toe in dark make-up, a statement that sparked debate and fury within the fashion industry. It is therefore no surprise that many non-white models have found that this situation is something that needs to be addressed. Highly acclaimed faces including Naomi Campbell and Iman Abdulmajid, believe that the abolishment of discrimination is a subject that needs to be taken more seriously, specifically due to the acceptance of a multicultural society in other forms of work. Collectively, they have created a campaign known as ‘Diversity Coalition’ which has set out to demolish the inherent ethnic imbalance of models being used both editorially and on the catwalk.

The debate is particularly ignited around the season of fashion weeks. Refreshingly, London Fashion Week is known to be one of the occasions where models of all colours are embraced in comparison to Milan and Paris—who feature very few black models. In many of the previous London shows, Topshop has famously included Jourdan Dunn in their line-up of models, representing the rise of black, British models. Dunn made history by being the first black British model to appear on the Forbes models rich list, making her the highest paid black model of the last year. The 21st century has also witnessed more non-white models being embraced on the covers of high-fashion publications. A star example of this is Elle Magazine famously featuring Joan Smalls, a Puerto Rican native, on their cover. Smalls has also recently become the first Latina model to appear as the face of Estée Lauder, displaying a refreshing change within the industry.

Essentially, all models want to be booked because they have the ideal qualities, and not just to make a statement—so, how do you know where to draw the line? It is evidently a complex topic and a sensitive subject for many. However, recent actions show a step in the right direction with more brands learning to embrace the racially diverse world. We live in a multicultural society—so why not represent this?

Is this something that you feel strongly about? Tweet us your opinion at
@MancunionFash – We’d love to hear your thoughts!

Where will your degree land you?

Written by Helen Chapman on . Posted in News.

According to statistics, computer scientists from Oxford University receive the biggest pay packets after graduating, earning an average of £43895 six months after leaving university.

Graduates in computer science from Imperial College London and Cambridge also feature in the top 10 earnings and graduate prospects.

The bottom five graduate earners include drama, music and art earning £13091 at highest. The lowest earners are on just £11963.

“Computers are the future and computer science courses command a salary premium,” agreed Professor Alan Smithers of Buckingham University.

Dylan Lewis, University of Manchester graduate in Computer Science, says “my degree has given me a broad understanding of the field and practical skills that will be invaluable as I move into the industry.

“There are not many degrees that I know of that offer such a wide breadth of applicable knowledge to today’s jobs.”

Figures also show that there is a significant difference in pay depending on which university students attend. Graduates in accounting and finance from Huddersfield received an average of £16335 whereas students from the same subject at Bath earned £29588.

However, faith should not be lost in arts subjects as Joanna Harris, co-founder of the Manchester student branch of Arts Emergency says; “Arts Emergency Manchester came about as a reaction to the increasing marketisation of higher education. Education should be a right for all, not a preserve of the privileged.

“We want to show that the arts should not be viewed as luxuries that only few can afford to study. These subjects are intrinsically important in their encouragement of critical and analytical thinking, and allow students invaluable insight into society and the world. The idea that arts and humanities subjects do not lead to jobs is a myth.”

Azar Nafisi’s The Republic of Imagination: A Case for Fiction

Written by Leonie Dunn on . Posted in Books.

Azar Nafisi’s background is important in a reading of her third novel ‘The Republic of Imagination’; she is a woman who implores a powerful and passionate case for the huge and vital role of fiction and literature in our world today. Nafisi is an Iranian writer and professor of English Literature, but this has not come without struggle. In fact Nafisi’s most renowned novel, ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books’ was written just after her move to the United States, and it focuses on her experiences as a secular woman living and working in the Islamic Republic of Iran. ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran…’ became a rapid bestseller and was named on the New York Times Bestseller list for 117 weeks.

The power of reading remains the base of ‘The Republic of Imagination’ as Nafisi uses the same structure used in ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran…’: the book consists of three main sections, ‘Huck’, ‘Babbitt’ and ‘Carson’. Nafisi actively blends and interweaves memoirs with keen critical insights of novels that represent, to her, America’s zeitgeist. But before Nafisi decidedly chooses to interrogate the way we see literature in our western culture she addresses us in her introduction, which works as a sort of Prologue or a guiding voice to this complex and compelling work of literature. It begins with what was a single comment at a book signing event, which for Nafisi engendered this novel. Ramin—the Iranian sceptic who is given an honorary title by Nafisi herself acts as a ghost or a faceless man that drives this book into autopilot—told Nafisi that Americans simply don’t care about books the way that was described in her best-selling ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran…’. Stimulated by the challenge, Nafisi seeks to rediscover classics and their relevance to our lives. She concludes her introduction with a note to all the ghosts or those who do not quite yet belong to her ‘Republic of Imagination’: “My hope is that they will find a home in its pages.”

Although to a reader of Western descent it may seem odd to have our literature typified with the likes of ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, Nafisi’s hope that her readers will find a home in her pages is used in this novel to evoke and reflect the American spirit that we are well acquainted with—freedom. She alternates her close analysis of this book with a memoir of her old friend who was a radical in post-revolution Iran detailing their struggle and eventual death due to cancer. This is the most personal aspect of the book and it evokes the strongest emotions on all levels. By interweaving something that is at the heart of the American psyche with something that was at the heart of Nafisi’s struggle as both and Iranian and a human, it allows us to see the duplicity of this artfully written novel. It acts as a pleasant reminder that there is and always will be a cultural history that we can all share, whether it be through works of fiction or not.

What evidently worked for ‘Reading Lolita in Tehran…’ has again worked for ‘The Republic of Imagination’. Nafisi captures why this book is a case for fiction through showing how literature should have as much impact on states like America as it did in Tehran. She warns of the dangers of ignoring the rights and freedoms we have and despairs over the closure of libraries and book stores. To Nafisi, novels are powerful, and her ‘Republic of Imagination’ acts as a proposition for her readers to let go of their inhibitions and dream. This book much like Nafisi’s other works is not supposed to simply be read, but moreover to be digested and discussed. It is a movement, not simply a statement.

Top 5 Novels on mental health

Written by Leonie Dunn on . Posted in Books.

1. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
Set in a psychiatric hospital, the narrative serves as a study of the human mind and the effect of institutional processes used at the time. Kesey used his novel to interrogate the stigma that to this day still surrounds mental health, in particular the procedures that were inflicted on sufferers at the time of its publication.

2. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Bell Jar is a semi-autobiographical novel by the acclaimed Sylvia Plath. It draws on a mirroring of the protagonists descent into mental illness with what was supposed as Plath’s descent into clinical depression. This novel shows how Esther, the protagonist, feels alienated by her depression. However, while Esther finds her eventual recovery, the same cannot be said for Plath, who not long after the Bell Jar’s publication took her own life.

3. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
One of Woolf’s best known novels, Mrs Dalloway follows a day in the life of its protagonist Clarissa Dalloway. While Woolf was herself a sufferer of manic depression, she uses Mrs Dalloway as a stage through her character Septimus; Septimus is Woolf’s way of actively and loudly critiquing the way in which mental health sufferers are both clinically and culturally treated.

4. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger
While the novel’s protagonist Holden Caulfield has become an icon for teenage rebellion, Caulfield can actually be widely read as a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder. Salinger’s captivating prose focuses on how the effect of Caulfield’s misunderstood condition leads to his own alienation and antisocial behaviour.

5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
This novel follows the protagonist Christopher John Francis Boone, a 15-year-old boy who describes himself as “a mathematician with some behavioural difficulties.” It is suggested throughout the book that Boone has a form of high functioning autism, or perhaps Asperger’s Syndrome. However, Boone’s autism allows the reader to see the world in a surprising and revealing way—is this Haddon’s way of suggesting that we should no longer immediately categorise mental health sufferers?

What’s On This Month?

Written by Holly Smith on . Posted in Arts.

The Sensory War 1914 – 2014 @ Manchester Art Gallery
Opens Saturday 11th October

This major group exhibition marking the Centenary of the First World War explores how artists have communicated the impact of military conflict on the body, mind, environment and human senses between 1914 and 2014.

Bernhard Schobinger: The Rings of Saturn @ Manchester Art Gallery
Closes Sunday 19th October

Recognized as a key figure of avant-garde contemporary jewellery, Bernhard Schobinger’s subversive approach to making spans more than forty years and has earned him a reputation for rebellious innovation. His work skilfully transforms discovered objects into pieces that allude to past and present, precious and leftover.

Cornerhouse Projects: How to Build a Body Without Organs @ Cornerhouse
Opens Thursday 16th October

What’s in a body? We might say organs and bones, but French philosopher Deleuze rejects this answer. His theory Body Without Organs suggests that the body isn’t merely about the parts that make it work, but the fulfilment of potential to create something whole. In this selection of works, artists have reflected upon the process of clothing the body, emphasizing the role of dress in creating the whole ‘self’, or building a ‘body without organs’.

To Ban or Not To Ban?

Written by Holly Smith on . Posted in Arts.

From the fiery orange of Dali’s clocks to the deep red of Monet’s water lilies, the cadmium pigment has been used for hundreds of years to create the masterpieces which we know so well today. However, things are about to change as the EU considers banning the pigment after studies show that it can be potentially toxic if inhaled. But what will this mean for artists today?

Cadmium, a soft blue-white metal, was discovered in 1817 by Friedrich Stromeyer and Karl Samuel Leberecht Hermann in Germany. The cadmium pigment is very often used in oil colours, adding life and vibrancy to red and yellow colours. It has been used by many famous artists since it was discovered, with Claude Monet being particularly associated with using the pigment in almost all of his masterpiece works. He believed that in using cadmium, the colours would not only brighten his work, but they would also last longer. However, whether the pigment does preserve is still debatable. In theory it should maintain its colour for more than 100 years but the fading cadmium used in van Gogh’s Sunflowers has recently been noticed.

Sweden called for the ban, The Art Newspaper revealed, over fears that when artists wash their brushes in the sink, the pigment enters the main water system and this in turn enters the sewage network. After being spread on agricultural land, it eventually may enter the food chain and cause problems for our health. Animal studies have shown that if eaten, cadmium can be potentially toxic and a carcinogen, a factor that has swayed many votes to ban the substance.

However, many artists have signed petitions against the ban, due to the pigments being indispensable. Banning cadmium would cause a serious reduction to an artist’s pallet—arguably it could see a bigger change than the lead ban a few years ago. The only alternatives are ‘Cadmium hues’, an organic substitute; however they lack the vibrancy of the real pigment. Artists worry that a world without the pigment will get a lot a duller if the ban takes place.

You Can’t Handle the Truth – action has lost its traction

Written by Isabella Yianni on . Posted in Film.

Action has become the least compelling film genre of the lot; by definition, action movies must include dynamic sequences and a resourceful protagonist of sorts. However, more recently we witness a string of fast-paced scenes fused into a film by the inclusion of unrealistic fights and excessive explosions. We are then told repeatedly that it is a ‘must-see’.

The Fast and the Furious, for example, was an enjoyable film which included the thrill of numerous racing scenes but retained an emotional authenticity that was obliterated by the fourth film—with the seventh on the way, I have less than great expectations. Many action pictures are granted insanely large budgets that appear to be doing more harm than good and there is a worrying correlation emerging that begs the question: the larger the budget, the worse the film? Unwarranted explosions, brawling or special effects leave you with the feeling you have entered a false, Hollywood generated whirlwind of what they think the audience wants. The overuse of CGI has contributed to this; when we notice its presence it destroys the credibility of scenes that could have more often than not been performed with authenticity.

The genre’s saving grace could be the recently rising number of heroines (The Hunger Games, Divergent) as the majority of action films are led by a male while a woman is sidelined and present only to add a romantic element to the story. Unfortunately, flawed female characters are not exclusive to the genre of action, but I’ll save that rant for another time.

Remakes of perfectly good action films are leaving the genre in despair. The past few years have witnessed premature remakes of the perfectly good Spider-Man films in the form of The (far from) Amazing Spider-Man; though they generated masses they failed to deliver anything interesting or inspiring. Point Break is next on the remake agenda. While the original is greatly enjoyable and achieved a fine balance of surf culture and bank robbing action, I have no such expectations for the remake. Action films seem to be pumped out incessantly and almost always fail to be clever—long gone are the days of The Terminator and Die Hard. We have seen it all before and so we are left with over-hyped generic films that lack a real plot line or any depth of emotion.

Review: Pangaea

Written by James Robb on . Posted in Music.

20th September

Pangaea returned to the Students’ Union for the second time under its end-of-freshers guise, offering the promise of a musically rewarding night after an entire week of traffic light parties and first-week debauchery. ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ was the theme of this year’s installment, though a sweep of the generally poor fancy dress efforts in the substantial queue wouldn’t have given that away.

Upon entering, we were sidetracked from our reconnaissance mission by the familiarly tantalising synth of Joy Orbisson’s ‘BRTHDTT’ emanating from BPM and Frontin’s ‘Tent in the Trees’. Dragging ourselves away, a brief tour of the venue suggested a lower visuals budget than previous incarnations, though a giant serpent-head DJ booth in Academy 2 and large stage set in Academy 1 added some atmosphere. Down in Club Academy, Andrew Ashong played to a sparse but appreciative audience as he took us on an eclectic and soulful journey from Latin America to Africa. Subsequent songs saw Ashong jumping borders and continents, finally finishing his set with Quantic’s beautiful ‘Not So Blue’ – though we couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed about the omission of warm-tummy-track ‘Flowers’.

Where Ashong finished Marcellus Pittman picked up. Taking the funky thread and running with it, Pittman upped the ante. Soon a worthy audience had gathered to boogie, lured by the enticing mix of funk and soulful house. At this point we took a break from So Flute’s nicely curated basement party to check out what the rest of Pangaea had to offer. Fever 105 and Fuse drew crowds for their silent disco, as did the Rubadub gang in Academy Three. Elsewhere, headliners Mike Skinner and Craig Charles delivered the goods for a baying audience, whilst Pangaea regulars Shy FX riled up the main stage with their distinctively high energy set. Soon after – and somewhat predictably, following last years form – mass exodus ensued and upon returning to watch So Flute founder, Danuka, we were greeted instead by Students’ Union staff closing up shop.

The remaining wide-eyed partiers congregated in the remaining open rooms to see the night out, including an agreeably trippy screening of The Jungle Book in the ‘AV Tent’. Now in its second year as a freshers event, some issues seem to persist; namely, that reports of students not being let in due to overcrowding could be so easily remedied if people were directed away from the pleasant outdoor areas and main stages and into some of the more secluded areas where there are real gems to be found. Naturally, it takes time to learn to navigate the Students’ Union, but even the staff were unsure of the stage names which didn’t help matters. Furthermore, with so much emphasis normally placed on Pangaea being an audio and visual delight, it seems strange to have somewhat neglected this aspect of the party.

Despite being an undoubtedly fun night, the event lacked the coherence and festival-like atmosphere of the winter and summer editions. Thankfully, come January’s return of Panagea, the early-retiring freshers will no doubt be au fait with the layout of the admittedly tortuous Students’ Union and – as is the way in Manchester – developed a keen interest in electronic music and recreational substances. We look forward to seeing you then!

Live: Sleaford Mods

Written by Daniel Arme on . Posted in Music.

19th September

Manchester Club Academy

8/10

It was Kim Gordon that said “people go to gigs to see others believe in themselves.” Whilst this is applicable for most bands, Sleaford Mods don’t operate that way with its audience. Originating from the depravity of day-to-day working class life, the duo’s music encapsulates the solidarity of a disenfranchised class of people who have lost their belief – whether it be in the political system, or through the struggles of low paid employment. Previous torchbearers include Oasis; whom, incidentally, have been attacked by the Mods numerous times for abandoning the culture that created their careers.

The turnout on Friday at the Academy reflects the unpredictability of the music itself; a demographic featuring young Manchester intelligentsia aside hardened middle aged men. Any disparity beforehand, however, dissolves as Jason Williamson (lead singer) and Andrew Fearn (music) appear on stage. There is no pre-song banter, and what proceeds is a verbal onslaught to the soundtrack of fast post-punk beats. The songs flow seamlessly together, with little chance to recover in between, and Williamson spits vitriol with such proficiency one has to concentrate to comprehend every line. Problems of repetitiveness and sound production, my personal complaints about their last album Divide and Exit, are not present in the live setting, which proves to be a more amplified, visceral experience – the vocals especially prove more hostile and uncontrollable.

Captivating moments come at the end of a number of songs, with Williamson shouting some provocative phrase repeatedly or improvising a rant, continuing even after the music ends. Examples include ‘the wage don’t fit’, ‘we all vote yes’, ‘sack the manager’ and a disturbing rant about going to the horse races and happily watching all the rich attendees be set alight.
The Mods’ affinity for shouted hooks becomes easily understood through songs played live, like ‘Fizzy’, and ‘Jobseeker’; Williamson’s snarl resonates with the audience, who happily sing along. It is these harder songs that showcase a brutal camaraderie between musician and crowd, and provide the high points of the set.

No crowd interaction can be found by Williamson during the set; he stands with his side to the audience, focusing on the rapid succession of words he’s spewing. But this doesn’t mean the duo lack sincerity. They end in thanks, and leave to the crowd’s frenzied chanting. Williamson’s face is half bemused in reaction. Although older and more wary of idolatry, it seems the Mods now represent the voices of those that cannot be heard, whether they like the worship or not.