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Month: October 2015

Osborne: Sorry Birmingham, President Xi is coming to the Northern Powerhouse

The President of China, Xi Jinping has visited Manchester as part of his four-day state visit of the UK. It is the first time in ten years that a Chinese head of state has visited Britain.

The Birmingham Mail has reported that George Osborne personally veered the Chinese President’s trip away from Birmingham to come to Manchester instead. Osborne recently opened contracts up to Chinese businesses to work on the £50 billion HS2 project that will, at first, connect London to Birmingham.

The Midlands city will also house HS2’s headquarters. Despite officials’ and businesses lobbying the Chancellor to bring the Chinese President to Birmingham, Manchester prevailed in the contest. A spokesperson at Downing Street said the Chancellor has no comments regarding the decision.

In the promise that China will invest millions of pounds in the North West, Osborne took the opportunity to show off the UK’s Northern Powerhouse to Xi Jinping. To make Manchester the ‘hub of the North’, Mr Osborne has encouraged Chinese companies to invest in various projects around the city.

Mr Osborne accompanied Xi Jinping and his wife, First Lady Peng Liyuan, in their visit to Manchester, which included a visit to the University of Manchester. The 62-year-old also toured the Manchester City ground, despite being a life-long Manchester United fan.

Xi, a chemical engineering graduate, visited the National Graphine Institute at the University of Manchester—meeting there with Vice-Chancellor Nancy Rothwell and Nobel Prize winners Kostya Novolselov and Andre Geim—where he learned all about the huge potential of the new-found material.

CSKA Moscow vs Manchester United match report

Ahead of the derby, Louis Van Gaal made a few interesting team selections. Juan Mata and Matteo Darmian were dropped after the weekend’s win at Goodison Park, and were replaced by Antonio Valencia and Champions League debutant Jesse Lingard.

The Manchester club made a tentative start to the game. They had clear dominancy of possession, which was a feature of the whole night, but failed to make any mark on the Russian defence.

In the 13th minute the marauding right back Mário Fernandes cut in from the right as Marcos Rojo was caught out of position and forced a great save from David De Gea at his near post. However, upon closer inspection it became obvious that Anthony Martial had committed a deliberate handball as the Brazilian right back flicked the ball past him. It was a mistake we have not been accustomed to since the Frenchman’s arrival in Manchester, one that Van Gaal described as a ”stupid reaction”. The referee Carlos Velasco Carballo dutifully pointed to the spot. David De Gea did his best to save the blushes of Martial, making a fantastic save from Roman Eremenko’s penalty onto his right post, and then flicking it away from the penalty taker with his leg. Unfortunately, (Seydou Doumbia the man who terrorised City in the group stages last year) was at hand to tuck away the rebound, securing his 13th goal in the competition.

United were close to being two behind half an hour in, as Ahmed Musa the young Nigerian called De Gea into action again, with a remarkable long-range effort.

United’s dominance of possession carried on after the goal but they failed to cause any concern for Igor Akinfeev, the Russian national keeper.  That was until Rooney’s speculative effort on 36 minutes almost crept into the far corner, marking the best chance for the reds in what was an underwhelming first half.

At half time Van Gaal made the precarious decision to take the experienced Bastian Schweinsteiger off for the Belgian Marouane Fellaini. It proved to be the correct one, allowing Ander Herrera to move back, giving the United midfield the burst of pace it badly needed.

United made a good start to the second half but it was close to being ruined in the 52nd minute when Moscow had another valid penalty appeal. Rojo – who looked uncertain all night at left back – misjudged a speculative ball from the left hand side and while attempting to head clear, the ball clearly stuck his arm.

It was just the luck the English side needed to get back into the match. The domination continued and a few minutes later Rooney almost equalised as he beat the CSKA defence to a near post ball from Herrera, but the effort was straight at the keeper.

However, it wasn’t until the 64th minute that United finally penetrated the Russian goal. It was a lovely move that saw the liberated Herrera slide a beautifully weighted pass into the path of the replacement right back Valencia. He then stood up a perfect cross to Martial who had pulled off the Moscow defence and smartly tucked away a cushioned header into the far corner. This sent the French wonder kid from villain back to his status as hero in the eyes of the United faithful.

There was almost an opening for Fellaini to win it late on but Akinfeev beat him to a Martial cut back. Nevertheless, there was little more threat posed by United who seemed content with a draw in what was a hostile atmosphere.

United will most likely be pleased to pick up their first away point in Group D, which leaves them in a reasonably strong position with two more games at Old Trafford. Finishing top of the group however does looks tough for Van Gaal’s men as Wolfsburg are two points ahead, with United still to travel to Germany. The game will give the boss a few decisions before the derby. Most notably whether to start the disappointing Schweinsteiger or whether to go with Fellaini who impressed in the second half. There is also still an air of uncertainty over the ability of Rooney to play as a lone striker. He was very much isolated against Moscow and Van Gaal will need a cohesive attacking unit against a City defence that can be penetrated.

Manchester City vs Sevilla match report

Ahead of the weekend’s derby, there were European duties for both Manchester clubs. City faced a well-organised Sevilla side in Manchester while United travelled to a freezing Moscow to face the Russian giants CSKA Moscow.

City set out with the same side that bullied Bournemouth last week. They hoped that Raheem Sterling and especially Wilfried Bony could keep up their form from the weekend. Bacary Sagna also kept his place at left back, as Alexander Kolorov was deemed not fit enough to start. Interestingly, captain Vincent Kompany remained on the bench with Manuel Pellegrini favouring the centre back duo of Nicolás Otamendi and Eliaquim Mangala—who the Chilean praised after the game.

City started the first ten minutes impressively with Jesús Navas, playing against his old side, fizzing an effort from 25 yards just past the post. However the Europa League champions quickly took hold of the half with Éver Banega, Vitolo and particularly Yevhen Konoplyanka causing the City defence numerous issues with their pace and creativity.

In the 16th minute it was the Ukrainian Konoplyanka who came closest to scoring for either side as his clever free kick caught out an unprepared Joe Hart at his near post. The strike rattled the post and seemed to give the Spanish side the initiative to intensify the pressure on the City goal. It was from the resulting corner that they came close again but the flick from the commanding midfielder, Vicente Iborra, was not capitalized on at the back post by striker Kevin Gamiero.

Soon after, City did come close to scoring themselves. Against the run of play Yaya Touré’s deflected strike from outside the box was inches from creeping in.

Nonetheless, this did not deter the attacks of the Andalusian side who were finally rewarded for their dominance in the 30th minute. It was once again the three behind the striker who were the instigators. Banega was fortunate as his pass to the right back Coke ricocheted off Kevin De Bruyne into the path of Vitolo, who cut back a perfect pass for the unmarked Konoplyanka who tucked away the opener at the far post. It was no more than Sevilla deserved, having threatened on the counter all game and really exposed the flaws in City’s defence—a common feature of their European adventures. The goal also meant that City have still only kept one clean sheet at home in the Champions League, a worrying stat for City fans.

The goal did however seem to bring alive the attacking talent among the City ranks. In the 35th minute, Yaya Touré produced a trademark surging run through the midfield and found Navas on the right hand side. He returned the favour, playing the ball to Touré who was now inside the box. He then managed to outmuscle the French centre back Timothée Kolodziejczak and fire a cross towards Sterling whose effort was saved by the keeper. Wilfried Bony was the first to react and his rebounded effort deflected off Adil Rami and into the net. It was exactly what City needed as they were being well and truly dominated up to that point. It allowed them, somewhat fortunately, to go into the break level.

The second half was a much cagier affair as City sat back more and gave Sevilla far less room on the counter. Chances were sporadic but one of the best ones fell to the disappointing Gamiero just ten minutes into the second period, when he blazed over a free header inside the six-yard box. It was a missed opportunity that Unai Emrery and his side would live to regret.

Pellegrini made a confusing substitution in the 76th minute when he took off his only striker Bony for Fernando, a defensive midfielder. Although Bony had been isolated all night, it was a home fixture in a tough group and most would see such a decision as negative, as City certainly needed the points. He subsequently placed Kevin De Bruyne up front and moved Yaya Touré higher up the pitch.

As the game stretched late on, it proved to be a masterstroke as the pace of De Bruyne up front was far more effective than the hold up play of Bony. In addition, it gave Touré more freedom to attack in the last period of the game.

It was the combination of those two that eventually won it for City. In injury time, Touré received a pass inside his own half with an empty middle of the field to attack. He brought it forward 40 yards where he played it out to De Bruyne on the right hand side. The Belgian then took advantage of the tired Sevilla defence, cutting in onto his left and dispatching a strike into the far corner.

The goal proved to be the winner. Heartbreaking for Sevilla who put in a really impressive performance at the Etihad. For City, however it was a brilliant result against a well-balanced and dangerous side. It also shortened the gap behind Juventus to two points, as they were held to a goalless draw against Borussia Monchengladbach. In terms of the weekend’s derby, they will be high on confidence after such a dramatic win, although Pellegrini will be hoping for an improved performance from the defence who were shaky in the first half. The end to the game will also leave him with a decision to make over whether to possibly start De Bruyne up front from the start.

Eyewitness: Chinese President visits Graphene Institute

Early on Friday morning, a huge crowd of Manchester students gathered and lined the streets to greet Xi Jinping, the President of the People’s Republic of China, on his last day of his UK tour. Mr Xi’s long-awaited visit to Britain comes after the last official visit by a Chinese Head of State ten years ago. This day also marks the first time that Manchester has been visited by a Chinese President. Among those to greet him outside the National Graphene Institute was the University’s President and Vice-Chancellor, Dame Professor Nancy Rothwell, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne.

The crowd were kept behind metal barriers and were adorned with face paint, waving both the Chinese Five-star Red Flag and Union Jacks. There was a harmonious atmosphere between students and police, because there was a shared excitement for the President’s arrival, with some students even managing to take selfies with the police.

As it got closer to 10:00am, the crowd grew more enthusiastic and cheers filled the street as the overhead helicopter signalled Mr Xi’s imminent arrival. Several police vans and motorcycles blocked both sides of Booth Street East, where the Graphene Institute is situated. A convoy of blacked-out cars followed and led the President to the red-carpeted entrance of the Graphene Institute. Students were left with bated breath as they tried to catch a glimpse of Mr Xi.

The President, a chemical engineer himself, was shown around the research centre by University of Manchester student representatives and observed demonstrations that presented a range of graphene-based prototypes, including pioneering drug delivery for cancer treatment.

The President’s visit coincided with the release of a statement from Huawei, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer based in China. The company announced their partnership with the National Graphene Institute to research graphene and other related 2D materials.

Mr Xi swiftly left out of an alternative exit of the building, leaving hundreds of students and spectators disappointed as they had hoped to see the President in person. The President then met with the Prime Minister, David Cameron, outside The Etihad Stadium and the two leaders made their way to have lunch at the Town Hall.

Union announces formal Trade Dispute and possible strike action

The University and College Union (UCU) has announced a formal Trade Dispute with the University of Manchester and will ballot for strike and other industrial action, after negotiations regarding the outsourcing of IT services broke down again.

The UMUCU Executive Committee sent a message to all its members on Wednesday the 21st of October, announcing that a six-hour meeting on Monday for Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) talks did not end in agreement.

In the AGM held the same day, it was unanimously agreed upon that a strike should be balloted for. According to President of UMUCU Dr. Adam Ozanne, this would be the first time in the history of the university that industrial action has been called locally as opposed to in a national campaign.

“In the continued absence of any concrete proposals from the Senior Leadership [Team] (SLT), UCU has no option but to exercise our members’ mandate, declare a formal Trade Dispute and ballot members on industrial action, authority for which was granted to the branch last week by UCU’s national officials,” read the Committee’s message.

“Despite this declaration, we wish to emphasise that the branch is committed to seeking a negotiated agreement and avoiding industrial action. However, achieving this will require significant concessions on key negotiation points from the SLT, which it has failed to do for nearly six months now.”

The campus unions asked the leadership of the university that there would be no compulsory redundancies of the 37 redeployees and 219 IT staff notified of their situations in April and July respectively;, that the maximum time an employee can remain on the redeployment register—currently being reduced from an unlimited time down to six months—can be negotiated; and that agreed policies and procedures were agreed to. The university, however, dispute that they have violated these procedures.

“This morning, we were told the SLT is now willing to ‘move’ from its current position of 6 months, but no concrete alternative proposal was offered. In addition, there is still no firm commitment to removing the threat of compulsory redundancies facing at risk staff,” said the Committee in its message.

“The misguided plans for outsourcing large parts of IT Services, the restructuring of FLS, MHS and EPS and the announcement last week of a review of Archaeology that focuses primarily on its “business case”… should worry every member of the University.”

Following a review of the Faculty of Life Sciences, it will be broken up and its constituent parts being integrated into the Faculty of Medical and Human Sciences or the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

A University of Manchester spokesman said: “The university continues to meet with the trade unions on a range of matters and has offered further discussions to try to resolve any issues.”

Campaigns and Citizenship Officer Hannah McCarthy said: “The decision which came out of the UCU AGM to unanimously ballot for Industrial action shows an incredible appetite from staff to resist the increasing attacks on their employment terms and conditions by university management.

“The fact that staff are forced to contemplate industrial action in order to remove pernicious compulsory redundancies from the academic sphere and to fight 67 redundancies in IT services is shocking, and merely typifies the fact that the university and higher education more generally is becoming marketised; concerned more and more with the accumulation of profit as opposed to the welfare of staff and students and the promotion of education as a public good.”

Investigation shows Manchester receives enormous funding from fossil fuel giants

The University of Manchester has received almost £28 million in funding from fossil fuel giants since 2010, according to a report released by Greenpeace, following the submission of multiple Freedom of Information requests to British universities.

More than £134 million has been taken by the country’s top universities in five years, according to the data, which is published on Greenpeace’s website.

Manchester took the highest amount of funding at £27.7 million, 20 per cent of the total found in the investigation, the vast majority of which came from BP, at £18.6 million, followed by Shell, at £5.6 million.

Manchester was followed by Cambridge, which received £25.7 million, and then Imperial College (£23.9 million). 80 per cent of Russell Group universities told Greenpeace that they have taken the funding, though this figure may be higher as some refused to release the data.

A spokesperson for the University of Manchester said: “The university has a Socially Responsible Investment Policy, which is a public document, and is available on our website. Our investment portfolio is managed by one of the world’s leading asset management firms, and is reviewed annually against our Socially Responsible Investment Policy.

“The terms of the Socially Responsible Investment Policy were agreed by the university’s Finance Committee and by the Board of Governors, which has Students’ Union representation.  We do not hold any direct shareholdings, so any influence is brought to bear purely by our Fund Managers, and because they work on behalf of a number of institutions, they can bring much greater influence to bear than a single organisation.

“As part of our review process, there have been occasions in the past when the university has disinvested in certain companies; for example, we no longer invest in tobacco companies.”

Professor Colin Bailey, the university’s Deputy President and Deputy Vice-Chancellor, said: “Ignoring the problem of the global challenges of climate change and energy is not socially responsible. The Earth’s natural resource is incredibly precious and we must not waste it or damage the planet for future generations.  Simply, refusing to engage with companies involved with fossil fuels is not the answer.

“We must work with these companies to ensure that this precious resource is not wasted.  This will involve using the latest research and techniques, together with regulation and investment, to ensure that any extraction of fuel has the least impact on the environment, is transported to its point of use without any waste and is used sparingly and effectively.

“Strong engagement with these companies, through our range of activities, will ensure responsible corporate behaviour.  In parallel, we continue apace to research and develop all low-carbon forms of energy, in terms of its source, transmission and use, with the ultimate aim of significantly reducing the world’s dependency on fossil fuels.”

The Fossil Free Campaign, commenting on this report, said: “Given the University of Manchester’s stated commitment to sustainability, we are disappointed at the level of funding that the University receives from an industry whose current business model is incompatible with a safe climate.

“We are concerned that the direction of research may be biased towards further use of fossil fuels instead of giving due urgency to research into alternative energy sources. At this critical time for tackling climate change, the University should remember its duty to act in the public interest instead of furthering the commercial interests of the fossil fuel industry at the expense of humanity’s wellbeing.”

Earlier this year, The Mancunion reported that the university still retained a portfolio worth £40 million in the fossil fuel industry.

Protesters and supporters greet Chinese President at Town Hall

Thousands of people gathered in front of Manchester Town Hall on Friday 23rd October in order to celebrate or protest against the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. During his four-day visit in England, a series of investment deals have been signed. David Cameron welcomed him in Manchester to visit the National Graphene Institute and to promote the government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda.

Amidst the cheering of Chinese supporters, protests were called by many organisations. The reasons for protesting were varied but the main concern was China’s human rights record. The Manchester Disabled People Against The Cuts (MDPAC) states that human rights abusers are not welcome in Manchester and that earlier protests in the city were apparently not clear enough.

Members of the Manchester People’s Assembly also voiced their concerns over many government deals and protested loudly with drums and slogans. People from all walks of life were present and came from all corners of the world.

A couple who flew to Manchester from the Netherlands protested with a big group against the persecution of people who practise Falun Gong. Under China’s last president, Hu Jintao, followers of the harmless health practice were persecuted and their organs sold for transplant. The European Parliament expressed their concern over this violation of human rights in a resolution in 2013.

Mary Begley, a guest lecturer and Ph.D. student at the University of Manchester, protested against the development of two new nuclear power stations at Sizewell and Bradwell. Investments in the Hinkley Point nuclear plant have been secured although it came under fire over its costs.

It will be more expensive than current solar energy sources and the Government has just proposed huge cuts to the Feed-in Tariff (FiT), the scheme that supports small scale renewables. Cutting the tariff will put at least 20,000 people at risk of job losses and harm further investments in renewable energy in the future. Gerald Kaufman, MP for Gorton, voiced his concern in a letter to The Mancunion but sees no point in attempting to sway Cameron’s opinion. However, he promised to remain active on the matter.

It wasn’t just the protesters who came from far away. The Mancunion spoke to supporters of the President, specifically Chinese students from the University of York, Liverpool John Moores University, and some who flew in from China. Many wore traditional gowns and uniforms to greet their President. Allegations from protesters that some students were paid by the government to cheer, wear stickers, and wave flags have been denied.

Another protester was given the honour of representing Tibetan refugees in Manchester by Chodak Hunter, a well-known Tibetan activist in the UK. Supporters of Tibet hoped that the President would be reminded of his human rights responsibilities and would learn from the power of debate and democracy on show during his visit.

Although the protesters’ voices were loud, the number of Chinese supporters was higher and they will probably have made a bigger impression on the President and the gathered crowds.

Ask us

I’m a ‘live at home’ student and I’m finding it difficult to integrate myself into the uni life. I often feel left out because even though I get on with people in my lectures, I still seem to miss out on nights out. I am beginning to resent my decision to stay at home even though it saves me a lot of money. How could I connect better with with people at university and get more out of my time here?

Dear Home-boy,

Whilst halls is a unique part of the British university lifestyle, there is a substantial amount more to be enjoyed without having to be situated there. University is the perfect time and place to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and you living at home does not make you ineligible to do so. There are various clubs, societies, groups and organizations where like-minded people get together; whatever the niche, everyone is catered for. Joining one or more could springboard you to meeting new people and developing new relationships. Furthermore, if you feel you connect with the people on your course; then attend the socials, drive yourself to keep in contact with your associates, and make an effort to see them socially outside of your lectures. You will find that the more you push yourself, the less excluded you will feel, and the more you’ll enjoy university.

‘Wiggo’ returns to Manchester for Revolution Elite Series

This Saturday sees the Revolution track series make a welcome return to the Manchester velodrome for the first round of the elite events. This will be one of three rounds to be held in Manchester this season, with London and Glasgow holding hosting meetings as well. Among the athletes competing will be Sir Bradley Wiggins, who’ll be hoping that his own squad will be able to capitalise on the momentum of his recent win at the European championships. The quality of the field this year justifies its billing as one of the biggest track series in the world.

For Bradley Wiggins, this is all part of the long road to Rio 2016. Since completing the Tour/Olympic double in 2012, he has made it very clear that his major goal is now to win on the track at the Olympics again. His form in the last two years has been impressive and it does bode well for the quadruple gold medallist. Since 2013 he has won the Tour of Britain, Tour of California, World Time Trial Championships, European Track Championships, and has absolutely smashed the UCI World Hour Record.

While GB’s men have failed to win a single World Track title in the last two years, it is the case that Britain tend to peak at around the time of the Olympics. This means that events like Revolution are used as prime preparation for major championships and are a good indicator of how the British team are progressing towards the next year’s games. Wiggins will be racing with his own Team WIGGINS development squad, and will be alongside potential teammates for his event—the team pursuit—in Rio.

Like cycling in the UK, Revolution has grown exponentially in recent years. Starting in 2003, the series has gone beyond being simply a niche event. Its place in the year makes it a great winter event for road cyclists who primarily race in the summer months, and this has helped it attract the best athletes. Mark Cavendish debuted his world champion’s jersey at the event in 2011, and top British riders like Geraint Thomas and Laura Trott make regular appearances. Also, for the first time this year the event will be televised live on British Eurosport, with previous series only being shown as a highlights package.

The Elite series is the men’s professional competition at Revolution. Each team nominates two riders to compete in 5 different types of race every round for five rounds, and the team with the most points at the end is crowned champion. The Scratch race is the simplest race and is won by the first to cross the finish line. The elimination race one rider is eliminated every two laps and the winner is the last rider remaining. The points race involves a sprint for points every 10 laps and is won by the rider with most points at the end. The 1km time trial is an individual race against the clock over four laps.

By far the most unique race is the Madison Time Trial, with pairs taking part with one rider racing at the bottom of the track and one resting at the top. When the resting rider takes over they grab the hand of the racer and the racer uses his momentum to sling them forward. This is the most technically difficult of the races and is an exciting watch, especially for the uninitiated.

The HOY Future Stars series is also a major attraction, where British cycling’s best 15 and 16 year old boys and girls battle it out over 5 rounds. The impressive list of past winners includes two Olympic champions, three world champions and two European Champions.

Home support surely also will be firmly behind Team Sky, who have been based in the city since launching in 2010. European Champion Elia Viviani will be the Sky’s star rider in Manchester and is on an impressive run of form on the road and track with 12 wins this year. Australia’s Orica-Greenedge will be the international interest this year, and have one of the strongest fan followings on the World Tour.  Their lighthearted YouTube channel is one of the most watched in cycling and the team give out more freebies to fans on the roadside than any other. They will be bringing Brit Adam Blythe and Aussie Glenn O’Shea to Round 1 of the Elite Series. Other teams competing include Belgian outfit Etixx-Quickstep—who have just parted company with Mark Cavendish—and stalwarts of the domestic pro scene JLT Condor.

With this being the last Revolution before the Olympics, it will be the last major event for riders to impress the national squad coaches to make it into the world championships team. This will make it a good opportunity for fans to see the stars before the business of bettering the seven gold medal-haul of 2012 really gets serious.

Cambridge Master scolds student bullies for “sadistic initiation rites”

The Master of Gonville & Caius College at the University of Cambridge has sent out an outraged e-mail to students following the annual ‘army pub crawl’ held two weeks ago.

The e-mail, sent by Professor Sir Alan Fersht, a 72-year-old don at the University of Cambridge, demands that behaviour such as that he witnessed on CCTV at the pub crawl be “nipped in the bud.”

Fersht described the event as “a national scandal of students drinking irresponsibly, indulging in laddish behaviour and sadistic initiation rites, and men plying women with drink and abusing them.”

Foremost on the Don’s list of grievances was older student’s “bullying” first years into drinking, which he claimed to have witnessed on the university’s CCTV system. Bystanders are just as much at fault in Fersht’s book for not attempting to stop the events.

“I fear that these bullies,” Fersht explains, “will leave the College and become unethical pariahs like insider traders, exchange rate riggers and corrupt Volkswagen engineers.”

The Professor’s duties are first and foremost to monitor the welfare of the student body. Behaviour such as this, he fears, are becoming far too common, and pose a serious threat to the wellbeing of his students.

Fersht cites how “incapacitated students were dumped on other students’ floors without any regard to the consequences that there could have been a fatality because of inhalation of vomit.”

Alcohol-fuelled “initiations” such as these are, as Fersht states “deeply rooted” in universities throughout the UK. This incident is far from the first in Cambridge’s track record of such behavior.

An ex-Cambridge student described to The Mancunion how, as a first year, “you would get ‘parents’ who would be two second years and they would get you drunk.”

The colleges would also host “swap” events, she tells us, where a small group of females from one college organise a night with a same-sized group of males from another college. All attendees were required to bring a bottle of wine to the event.

“The same thing for societies as well; the Natural Science society took us to the Mahal [restaurant] and you take wine and play drinking games all night.”

Cambridge also made headlines this past summer when 2,000 undergraduate students took to a city centre park “Caesarian style” and engaged in drinking games while stripping off clothing.

The don concluded his e-mail imploring students to “not indulge in irresponsible drinking but take advantage of all the academic, social, sporting and cultural activities that make up our unique environment and will shape your future lives.”

In the meantime, the college’s “Fresher’s bop” has been cancelled. Fersht also has encouraged the pub crawl’s leaders to right their misdeeds “by writing letters of apology to your victims and by discussing the events with your Tutors.”

The fickleness of fame

Now that the internet has become firmly ingrained in all of our day to day lives, more and more people are finding themselves stamped with the label of ‘celebrity’. Although internet fame is a relatively new phenomenon, it’s one that has taken society by storm, prompting millions of young people across the globe to take to their computers in bid to post something funny/controversial/disturbing enough to go viral. This type of fame is a particularly fickle one, with many people being forgotten just days after they’ve achieved international celebrity status. However, there are some who have managed to stay the test of time.

One such figure is 18-year-old Kylie Jenner. You might know her as the youngest member of the infamous Kardashian-Jenner clan (who—admit it, we all love to hate), but it has been through social media that this young lady has truly managed to find her calling. Amassing over 39 million followers on Instagram and 1.8 million on Twitter, Jenner epitomises all that is to be an ‘internet famous’ teenager.

Distinguished by THAT bee-stung, overfilled pout, a typical selfie from her generally garners over a million likes—though that is not to say that she’s no stranger to criticism. Not too long after the brunette controversially enhanced her lips with surgical fillers, the #kyliejennerchallege took the internet by storm. Millions of people across the globe began posting videos and pictures of themselves using shot glasses, bottles and cups to suction their lips into ‘the perfect Kylie pout’—however the method may have taken an attempt at humour a bit too far.

The reportedly painful process was said to leave results that could last for hours—even days, when blood vessels in the lips burst. Although the teen tried to distance herself from the challenge and its promotion, it certainly worked in thrusting her even further into the internet spotlight. Her social media followers increased dramatically, and she began to overtake nearly all of her sisters in terms of popularity—something that was dramatically pointed out for all to see when the ‘Klan’ each released their own personalised apps last month.

Kylie topped the iTunes app chart in just one day after releasing her digital hub—beating her older sister (and argued ‘leader’ of the famous family) Kim. When looking at the app, it’s easy to see why she did it—it costs $2.99 to access its content and it’s also full of links to clothes and accessories that ‘King Kylie’ recommends, earning her thousands of dollars in advertiser’s fees alone.

As much as she’s been criticised, it’s somewhat hard to blame Kylie Jenner for utilising her status as a celebrity to further her income. Given the chance, wouldn’t we all do the same? However, money making isn’t the only side effect that social media can have. Nearly everyone we know has at least some form of it on their phones or laptops, and more than most have the whole lot: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and so on. But hardly any of us seem to understand the risks that such profiles pose. While we might think social media is a great resource for stalking our exes to see whether or not their new babes is as hot as us, when you really think about it, the fact that we have the capability of doing that is actually quite scary.

While what we’re doing is pretty harmless, there are people out there that use the same methods to do a distinctly more sinister type of stalking. It’s easy to forget the safety measures you’re willingly foregoing when you sign up for social media, perhaps that’s something that we, as young people, need to become more aware of.

Preview: Unravel

If you told me this time last year that one of the games I would be the most hyped for in 2015 would be about a ball of string in a field, I would have questioned whether you were feeling alright. But there I was, intently watching a developer presentation on the EA stage about Unravel and the only thing stopping me from jumping to grab the free shirts they were throwing out was the fact I was standing in the queue to play it.

Unravel is a physics based game where you play as Yarny, an anthropomorphic ball of string that tries to traverse the world around him using his string to climb, bounce off and manipulate the environment.

Initially starting off at an elderly woman’s house, you travel through distant lands using nothing but your twine, and with distant lands comes different puzzles. You’ll find yourself navigating a small pond one minute and then the next having to deal with radioactive waste.

However, you have to be frugal with your yarn as if you run out you can’t progress, and have to back-pedal to try again. Solutions in this game are always quite novel and require a degree of lateral thinking before the sudden “Eureka!” moment hits.

The creative director on Unravel, Martin Sahlin, made a prototype Yarny doll while on holiday with his children and took pictures of him in different scenarios, which speaks volumes for the amount of heart and charm this game has.

When Sahlin speaks about the game it is always with a strong passion for the project and a love for what he is doing. His natural nervousness on stage and seeing him discussing how he wanted the game to feel and how fun he could make it was more effective than any focus group or rehashed old IP could ever be. I for one cannot wait for this game to come out in 2016.

Is our pursuit of A.I. as intelligent as we think?

Throughout the last decade, we have seen unprecedented, and perhaps to some, unimaginable technological growth. With each year that goes by, the power and influence technology possesses grows at a rate unseen in any other industry.

Whether it be for the social, economic or medicinal aspects of our lives, it is undeniable that we are rapidly heading for an existence in which we are rarely detached from technology’s influence. Whilst this growth and expansion has it indisputable benefits, are we really ready for the world which we seem so desperate to attain?

For the past few decades, science fiction has enabled us a glimpse into the future of technology and how it impacts our lives. From Ridley Scott’s dystopian and pessimistic look at our relationship with artificial intelligence in Blade Runner, to Spike Jonze’s Her—which takes a less noir approach to what it would mean to fall in love with an intelligent computer operating system—the broad scope of theories regarding the future of tech and artificial intelligence have been represented again and again.

Yet, as time goes on, such scenarios are becoming less of a figment of imagination, and more of a hard hitting reality. With 64 per cent of Americans owning a smartphone and Silicon Valley boasting an estimated GDP of $176 billion, we can see first-hand how technology and our relationship with it is shaping our society.

This growth has, of course, had numerous positive, and often life-saving, consequences. For instance, the summer of last year saw Colorado resident Les Baugh become the first double amputee to wear and operate modular prosthetic limbs. What separates these prosthetics from others previously developed and used, is that Baugh was able to operate them simply by using his brain as if he were moving his own limbs. These prosthetics are also able to simulate feelings of touch, whilst simultaneously interacting with existing muscles in the torso to enable realistic movement.

Yet, alongside undeniably important and positive developments such as this, has come an arguably darker and more troubling side of technological advancement and intelligence.

Implants and microchips have long been of interest to many, and have, again, been the subject and premise of many science fiction stories. But with both large tech companies and individual ‘biohackers’ now pursuing the development of them in real life, we are faced with an increasingly important and tough question regarding how far we should take such modifications.

Arguably, the ability to monitor and alter things such as our blood sugar through the use of a small implant in the forearm can only bear positive implications. As would brain implants, proposed by a number of companies, which offer a similar package but with the combined ability to download and store an incomprehensible and inhuman amount of data within seconds. It is this ability to take us into the realm of inhumanity, however, that is the troubling part.

Case in point—American company RealDoll are currently collaborating with robotics companies in order to produce lifelike sex dolls that allow for artificial intelligence to be installed in order to replicate ‘sex talk’ and the discourse of a real relationship. Although to some this offers a solution to a number of issues prevalent in modern day society which make it difficult to engage in a real relationship, to others it signifies a problematic and dangerous step towards the death of relationships as a whole.

This may seem like a far-fetched and unrealistic outcome, but one only has to look to Japan, a country synonymous with technological advancement, to recognise that this is not the case.

As a nation constantly in the pursuit of technological superiority, Japan are at the forefront of an artificial intelligence revolution—the revenue from their Robotics industry is expected to reach $75 billion within the next ten years. Yet, although this may do wonders for the development of useful technologies such as those previously mentioned, it is also having a dangerous and dramatic effect on their society as a whole.

With a median age of 46, Japan is the second oldest country in the world. Although not the sole cause of this issue, one factor in their reaching of such an old age may be the development of companion and sexual robots that negate the need for human interaction. Much like the aforementioned biometric implants, such a denial of the fundamental human need for relationships with one another can only signify a damaging deduction from the human experience.

It is undeniable that technology and artificial intelligence is necessary to a number of aspects of human life. And yes, it has had endless positive ramifications everywhere from the labour market to medicine. However, can we afford to take it to a a level which sees our existence as social, cohabiting people threatened? Or even to a level, as seen in Japan, that leads to the negation of reproduction itself?

Stephen Hawking said in December 2014, “the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” This may seem far-fetched, but as the pursuit of an enhanced human experience continues, it seems we are in actual fact doing more to undermine and diminish it.

Play Expo 2015

This year, I went to Manchester’s EventCity to experience Play Expo 2015. An annual event that brings together game lovers from all around the country, Play Expo lived up to the hype of previous years whilst still bringing something different this time around.

Play Expo 2015 was all about the indie-gaming experience. Although there were many games on display from the established markets, the indie games were the ones that really stood out from the crowd. That’s not to say some of the mainstream titles weren’t good. I dabbled briefly in playing Dark Souls 3 for the PlayStation 4. The game itself was beautiful, the graphics were crisp and the gameplay was definitely both engaging and lived up to the difficulty of its predecessors.

However, as someone who has never personally been a die-hard fan of the series, having only really played the first one, the game seemed to play almost identically to the first. There was nothing unique that I could pick from it that made it stand out from my previous experience of the series.

Dark Souls was the only non-indie game that I played before the indie games quickly took over. The first of these was a third person shooter called Beyond Flesh and Blood. The game is available on PC, however it will also soon be available for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Those who were at last year’s Play Expo may recognise the title as it also made an appearance there. However, for 2015, the game made a comeback with a far more polished design.

For those who are less familiar, the game is set in a post-apocalyptic recreation of Manchester. This for me became quite entertaining as I quickly began to notice landmarks from the demo area that were familiar to me. However, as far as third person shooters go the game is quite generic.

Its appeal lay mostly in the familiar setting and the fact that it also supports the Oculus Rift. Being able to engage with a virtual reality headset and play the game with a new dimension is always a bonus for any gamer, however it did not necessarily make the game itself any better. In any case, I was only able to play for about five minutes with Oculus Rift before I began to feel slightly light-headed and had to move on!

Photo: The Mancunion

The next game that caught my attention was a Mario Kart style game called Coffin Dodgers, in which players play as elderly characters who are on the run from death. Yes, it was just as funny as it sounds, however the AI did not do it any justice.

It was disappointing that the demo itself had so many flaws, such as being impossible to beat on later courses. Certain promised aspects of the game, such as items, were also not working. However, hopefully we can assume that whatever feedback is taken for the game will be implemented as this quirky racing game has a lot of potential. Personally, I think this will be the case as game representatives were on hand to provide an insight into the game’s features that were not part of the demo, such as the upgrading and customisation of your scooters.

The last game I played was a Minecraft-style, free-to-play MMO title called SkySaga, although categorising the game with the other Minecraft clones would be greatly devaluing the game as a whole.  From the very start, it is quite evident that a lot of passion had been put into the game with no assets being taken from Minecraft itself. The game is completely unique in all regards, from the models, the textures and the objectives.

Within the gameplay there are three pathways that can be undertaken: exploring and questing a procedurally generated world which requires the use of gem keys to access; house management through which you can decorate and expand your own personal island; and the coliseum which makes up the PvP section of the game that is crucial to traditional MMOs.

However, as is the case with any free-to-play MMO, micro-transactions will most definitely play a major part in the game. Although this was not too evident in the demo, there were instances that I noted in which the gaming experience could be sped up or made better through the use of real-world money, such as farming for gem keys, and I’m sure these instances will become more embedded as the game develops further.

Besides these three ‘major’ indie titles, I would like to briefly write about two smaller titles that I believe are worth mentioning: City of the Shroud, and Sokos. The former is a strategy RPG much like the Final Fantasy Tactics and Fire Emblem series but with real-time action and even a stamina meter thrown in. The game seems to require a lot of micro-management and quick thinking skills, however it has the potential to be a fun and successful strategy RPG once finished, especially as it also offers a nice multiplayer touch.

The second game, Sokos, is essentially a cross between Portal and Lemmings. You play as a creature called Soko who has the ability to create portals – you enter the green ones and exit the purple ones. Once these portals have been set, Soko runs freely through them without the player’s control, therefore adding a dimension of difficulty to the game as the portals must be laid out for Soko to run through them successfully. The overall gameplay was enjoyable and the level designs were good for the most part.

The introductory world was great and engaging as it taught the in game mechanics without the need for text boxes. Both of these games are available on mobile platforms as well as PC, with Soko looking to be green-lighted for release on Steam.

Photo: The Mancunion

Besides the gaming experience, there was much more to be seen and enjoyed. Browsing around the stalls I came across a lot of retro and arcade type games such as pinball machines and lines of cabinets and consoles. On the Saturday this area was far too busy to enjoy however on Sunday it was less packed and I tried my hand at some classic games such as Donkey Kong, Popeye and Pac-Land.

There were also card games being played including Magic and Yu-Gi-Oh! as well as a merchandise and memorabilia section. There was plenty to buy as there was something for everyone. I found myself spending a lot of time just window shopping as well as buying the odd game here and there. And, of course, no gaming convention would be complete without cosplay and Play Expo was no exception. There were contests held on both days for the best cosplays and there were a lot of participants!

The overall experience at Play Expo 2015 was definitely one to remember and I am confident that I will be back again for 2016!

How to measure a nation

How much does Gross Domestic Product (GDP) affect you? Do you share in the celebration when the Chancellor tells you how much that figure has grown? Many of the statistics we are told are flawed, and there are plenty that are simply avoided.

The ways in which we measure and define national success are extremely important in how citizens understand, perceive, and react to the actions of governments. In this digital and highly observed age, there are statistics for almost everything. Yet, what the media, study groups, and governments report is narrowed down to a few recognisable sound-bite figures. This has a significant impact on the thinking of citizens, and can shape movements and discussions, from the grassroots to the high tables of global politics.

It may be argued that many of the measures we use today are signs of the neo-liberal and hyper-globalised era. GDP—the main culprit—acts as a useful method of grouping the entire output of a nation, and applying it to everyone’s lives. It ignores issues of inequality and the potentially damaging dominance of particular sectors, as finance arguably is in many western economies.

This is a convenience for governments that are less focused on using growth to improve the living conditions of the many, but instead show a preference to transnational corporations, showing might on the world stage of global economies, and arguably using national statistics as a subtle method of encouraging nationalism.

Forms of GDP per capita are not much more use. By simply dividing the figure between how many people live here, we gain no understanding of how that money is spread out in reality. Placing more emphasis on people’s actual incomes is far more beneficial. It is crucial that this figure involves the cost of living; otherwise it is useless in comparing progress in prosperity.

However, on balance, basic economic statistics are not the major problem. Although they definitely need tweaking, they serve as a fairly good guide of how the nation’s finances are faring. The recent fall in unemployment to 5.4 per cent, for example, should be welcomed, and is an example of an effective statistic.

But there are more pressing issues that are not adequately considered by the mainstream. Whilst the economy is a very important factor in a nation’s ‘success’, there should be far more consideration in statistics for the environment, and the social implications of policies.

There are a few voices for this broadening of statistics. Notably, Jeremy Corbyn, in an interview with YouTube channel Novara Media (‘Things Are Not Going To Be The Same In 2020’) declared that if he were Prime Minister, there would be a far greater range of statistics that would be presented—from energy consumption, to biodiversity, to inequality indexes.

This is, then, a political issue. The current Conservative government could present these types of figures; only its core vote cares little for them, and it would shine light onto previously buried issues, such as their U-turn on environmental policy since the election.

There are social measures that could be used too. Figures for homelessness, obesity, or mental health are examples of measures that could be made more prominent in government reports. It is very important that the public are more aware of the effects of the policies they have voted for, and the wider state of the nation.

More ambitiously, a national happiness index, such as is carried out in Bhutan, could be very useful. This may seem like a weak fad, but it has found some very interesting results. Unmarried and younger people are the happiest, the urban are happier than the rural, and (on average) men are happier than women. Having this kind of information readily presented, and then analysing it, could be useful for raising public awareness, organising grassroots movements, and further holding governments to account.

The index does probe a deeper question over what we seek from life. Do we want high output and high performance? Interestingly, it was found that the unemployed are happier than corporate employees, and that whilst primary education increases happiness, higher education does not.

These kinds of debates could be very useful for helping to heal society; where many trudge around in growing but miserable offices, breathe polluted air, and endure mental illness or social dislocation. The country may well be recovering from a recession in economic terms, but what for?

Goodcountry.org is an example of how countries might be alternatively ranked across all spectrums. Figures on health, economics, charity, trade, peace, education and more are averaged out to form an index. The index—as promoted by Simon Anholt’s accompanying TED talk—highlights the word ‘good’ as the opposite of selfish. He criticises nations that seek to only gain prosperity (and even happiness) for being selfish, and not looking outwards. Global problems require global solutions.

He argues, rather convincingly, that in order to tackle climate change, end war, find solutions to pandemics, defend human rights, quell the roots of terrorism, design methods of dealing with demographic changes, and a whole host of other issues, nations need to look outwards more, which should involve promoting the use of an index such as his.

An overhaul of measurement is required. For too long we have remained obsessed with growth and material wealth. From the global changes in our climate, to the stressed and depressed in our offices, we are measuring our nations and our world in ways that are so detached from the issues we face. The measurements need broadening, with particular emphasis on national happiness and observing what makes a ‘good’ country.

The hypocrisy of white western feminism

In the western world, to say you are not a feminist is to send yourself to the gallows. Our increasingly informed public society has moved beyond race to focus on gender in discussions of equality, inherent rights, and systemic prejudices. This has materialised in the mainstream acceptance of feminism, being that it’s the loudest and most prominent voice offering solutions.

To say then, that you are against feminism is often equated with the idea of disagreeing that women are equal to men. What is missed however, are the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, transgressions committed by the group. Well-intentioned genesis aside, the suffrage campaign has historically excluded black men and women. This continues into the modern feminist movement, where a complete disregard for other disadvantaged groups, stemming from a passive stance, is the norm. In fact, the feminists of today have dwarfed their predecessors in their degree of false virtues via hostile intimidation methods and insolent effrontery of other cultures. What results is a limited agenda that exclusively benefits the white, educated, middle class female.

Today’s feminists dotingly reference Elizabeth Cady Stanton and her entourage of suffragettes with romantic deference. A principle actor in pushing for the 19th Amendment giving women the vote, she is commonly seen as progressing women’s rights in America. And initially, her relationship with  social reformer and ex-slave Frederick Douglass reflected how white women associated with black men within the movement: Equally supportive of the each other’s crusade.

But after the 15th Amendment was passed, allowing black men to vote, a bitter vitriol filled the air: “What will we and our daughters suffer if these degraded black men are allowed to have the rights that would make them even worse than our Saxon fathers?” Stanton clearly sees herself as superior in class and culture; disappointingly ironic since that is exactly what she’s fighting against. Her bigoted sentiments translate throughout the pro-women organisations, where privileged white women drew on their connections with powerful white men to further their cause—one that did not include poor women, immigrant women, or black women.

The exclusion was entirely premeditated. By distancing themselves from black women, suffragettes from the North were able to appeal to Southern women using race. What arises from such racism is Ida B. Wells, a black suffragist and leader of an anti-lynching campaign, being forced to walk at the end of the famous Women Suffrage Parade in 1913—despite many states being desegregated. Racist language among prominent female figures persisted in the two years after women were allowed to vote; Rebecca Ann Latimer Felton, the first woman to serve in the Senate and white supremacist, asserted “I do not want to see a negro man walk to the polls and vote on who should handle my tax money, while I myself cannot vote at all.”

The hypocrisy of working to progress one group’s liberties while feeding the toxic machine that hinders another can be seen in this country as well. Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the British suffragette movement, strongly believed in colonisation (a detail that is noticeably absent from BBC’s history page on the activist).

Another prominent figure, Millicent Garrett Fawcett considered women in New Zealand being able to vote before women in the home empire to be appalling. This humiliating woman-on-woman racism becomes outright shameful when the modern feminist movement does so little to address past faults or improve current relations.

Feminism’s severe inability to embrace women who have two equally important identities (black women, trans women, impoverished women) has rendered their dogma into little more than entitled complaints. Because when slut-shaming and rape culture is being preached, the rules of defense should also cover women of color. The current state though, is that the particular issues that are specific to non-white women are either being ignored or translated into generalised white feminist issues—ignored when the feminist sphere has accidentally acted insensitively toward another race, and translated when they see a potential member in the black girl.

The black female community simplified this in the 2013 hash-tag, “#solidarityisforwhitewomen”, pointing out the complete disregard feminists—and by extension, the media—have toward addressing black female problems. Like their predecessors, feminists are excluding black women for the advancement of their own cause—only bringing them back into the dialogue when convenient.

Women of the movement borrow their perception of conservative cultures from misconceptions originating from the opposite hemisphere, immediately leading to feminism acting as a vehicle for western jingoism. Some that subscribe to this overweening mentality that Islam or any traditionalist culture suppress women as an inherent tenet are also the ones that take violent reactionary measures. Last month at a French Muslim conference, Ukrainian feminist group Femen forced presenters and audience members to submit to their credo via their signature topless screaming. What they, and feminism as a whole fail to understand, is that Muslim teachings are not black and white. They have defended themselves since the dawn of Islam, and are presently using sharia arguments to fight against rulings that penalize rape victims in Pakistan—they do not need white women to save them.

Instead of antagonizing Islam, these Muslim women are using it to contest sexism in a way that is still respectful to their religion. Feminism doesn’t seem to comprehend that Islam is empowering to women because a large part of it intersects with the white saviour complex, whereby white people go to “fix” dilemmas of developing nations without understanding the country’s history. This can be seen in their brazen positions on male-female relations in India, and in Muslim women’s donning of veils.

Feminism needs to shed its sanctimonious tone and be more inclusive of all women. If a movement claims to defend the rights of a group, there cannot be any picking and choosing when it comes to equality.

Review: Bedwyr Williams: The Starry Messenger

Galileo’s short book Sidereus Nuncius (1610) announced to the world that the moon’s surface was uneven and the sky was more densely populated by stars than previously thought. His groundbreaking flight into space was soon pulled back to earthly corruption, however, when he had to sweeten his heretical findings by naming the moons of Jupiter after the Medici. The Starry Messenger, recreated in The Whitworth after its initial display at the 2013 Venice Biennale, is a loose artistic translation of Galileo’s title. Four centuries apart, the theme that connects the two works is exploratory verve struggling against doubt and disbelief.

Galileo’s telescope spotted wonders; Williams’ dark humour doesn’t permit such luck. In Wylo (Welsh for wailing or weeping), a garden-shed sized observatory contains items that indicate an eager star-gazer has recently left: A stack of books, star maps lining the walls, a flask of tea and a laptop on standby. Without any visible mourner, a low heavy sob repeats over and over. These tears are not celebrating a eureka moment but seem to be shed over the promethean nosiness of modern science, which is too keen on knowing everything. In a comic touch, the laptop’s looped standby screen shows stars whizzing by.

The main exhibit is a surreal film starring Williams as a disembodied head, covered in stuck-on mosaic fragments, giving a short mockumentary about our material connection to space. Clips of dentists’ drills grinding down teeth, cranes crashing into quarries and views of the Milky Way build up to depict the universe as a heap of excess dust, chipped off some great block. Throughout these sequences, his dry voice-over is a mixture of BBC astronomy presenter and mopey victim of alien abduction—a clear example of Brian Cox’s influence.

As we’ve seen recently, Galileo’s modern successors are rewarded for their long study with the prestigious Nobel Prize for Physics. Each year a different underground base conducting incomprehensible research at great expense is given the award. Prof Katija’s neutrino flipping lab, one half of this year’s winners, resembles a metallic torture chamber with a kinky central disco ball, and could easily feature in one of Williams’ surreal works. This show cuts through the dry science of the stars and offers up a playful alternative to the Nobel Academy. If you fancy a bizarre tour through space, then definitely take a look.

Visit whitworth.manchester.ac.uk for more information

Album: Alex G – Beach Music

Released on 9th October via Domino

5/10

Although speckled with occasional moments of sonic brilliance, a blatant sense of tiredness is sadly what stands out most on Alex G’s newest LP, Beach Music, his first major label release.

Alex Giannascoli has made a name for himself as a lo-fi icon, with this being his seventh release in five years. Last year’s DSU, his first record under a label (Brooklyn-based Orchid Tapes) saw his popularity levels explode. It was always going to be a difficult one to follow.

Opening track ‘Intro’ gives little indication of what’s ahead. 50 seconds of dark, trippy noise fade in and out, before ‘Bug’, one of the three tracks released as singles, brings the listener back to what they’d expect from the 21-year-old.

The record focuses on experimentation, instrumentally and production-wise. Radiating an almost extended jam-session vibe, Rhodes-esque keys and funky drums open ‘Salt’ with a tasteful, Latino feel. Harmonics and mathematical guitar riffs repeat, under depressing, moaned lyrics. Pitch-shifted vocals add a weirdness to tracks, with the lyrics, “bug in a crosshair” repeated in a chipmunk style during the outro of ‘Bug’.

‘Brite Boy’, with its call and response vocals, feels like an uncomfortable primary school sing-along, before an odd, riff-stacked outro takes over.

With the album barely passing the half-hour mark, many of the tracks live up to their snappy, single word names. ‘Look Out’ sounds like a demo recording, leaving the listener itching to hear more.

‘Walk’ again returns to a more minimalistic style, this time in instrumental form. However, repeated ideas begin to show cracks in Giannascoli’s song-writing skills. By the time you reach the tenth track, ‘Mud’, these recycled ideas start to lose their grasp on your attention.

Although all the lo-fi elements are there, disappointingly, Beach Music does not possess that minimalistic style his niche audience craves. This record doesn’t feel like it was created due to necessity or ease, but more as a tool in order to show off. Occasional coughs in the background keep you reminded of just how ‘lo-fi’ this guy wants to remain. We get it Mr. G, one mic is all you need.

The destruction of Palmyra is a very human tragedy

Imagine a dear family heirloom. Perhaps it’s a wedding ring, a clock or an old diary—something that’s been passed through the generations, symbolic of your family, their happiness, and their achievements. Maybe it’s something that makes you feel secure, or reminds you that you will always have that small group of people to whom you’re related, connected with, and from whom you descend. Maybe it’s just something that gives you a sense of collective identity. Now imagine a stranger stamping on it, burning it or throwing it in a river—not only destroying the object, but spitting in the face of this heritage. This is what is happening to Syrian culture with the destruction of Palmyra; IS is destroying the past and all that it means.

The most recent act of historical extermination—at the time of writing this—is the blowing up of the Triumphal Arch, the centrepiece of a grand portico that led to the great temple. This monument was of great cultural significance and actually was of a fairly unique style—even at the time of its construction, one that was distinctive to the region, based along the shores of the Euphrates River that runs through Iraq and Syria.

Possibly the most striking feature of the site, was the Temple of Bel. 15 metres high and consecrated to the Mesopotamian sun god, it was the best preserved building of its type. It displayed a unique synthesis of Greco-Roman and ancient near-Eastern architecture that could not be found anywhere else; classical columns adorned with ancient near-Eastern friezes and masonry. It was awe-inspiring and incredibly significant, as a cultural landmark and as a piece of monumental art, not only in Syria—but in its part of the world. It was blown up in August.

Shrines to gods such as Bel are what keep our knowledge of ancient religious practices alive—imagine how many films wouldn’t have been made if we didn’t know about Zeus and Poseidon from all those Greek temples. It seems small, but the cultural point is that it would be tragic if this knowledge about regional ancestry dies out. It is fascinating to the foreign eye to observe and learn about something like this, which is not only beautiful, but also truly, truly unique. Yet, more to the point, for the people who live in the neighbouring modern city of Tadmur, this is their culture. This is their heritage and they are losing it.

A child born tomorrow in Tadmur will never see the legacy of this site, and might not ever be taught in school that this ancient city was known as the ‘Venice of the Sands.’ They may not know that it was a major trading site in the deep web connected to Silk Road, and how it became exceptionally wealthy under Roman rule. They may never see the huge diversity that shaped the place; it has been under the influence of religions including Christianity, Greek and Roman Paganism, Judaism and Islam—along with the worship of Mesopotamian and Arab gods which were native to the area.

IS are ridding the land of any ideology which predates their own, and Syria is all the poorer for it. People may grow up never to have known anything other than the institutionalised violence, sexism and fanaticism that the group has come to represent, all because the history of this city is considered ‘idolatrous’.

There are, of course, those who label it crass that the media even covers the loss of some ancient ruins while the loss of human life in the same area is growing to the point of abstraction. Perhaps we have heard about bombings, beheadings and needless brutality so much over the past few years that we have become inured to it. Maybe now, in our internet-age boredom, we have simply moved on, and are now bemoaning the loss of a few stone pillars because it’s different news.

I strongly dispute this logic. They are different kinds of loss, that evoke entirely different types of mourning. It is astonishing that people are able to, in some way, communicate with the words, deeds and intentions of their forebears of two millennia through these priceless monuments to civilisation. And yet this is what is being cut loose with the systematic destruction of Palmyra—a connection between generations. ‘Blocks of stone’ these temples, arches and libraries may be, but they stand for much more. Just because the tangible loss is comparatively small, the intangibility is bigger.

Consider this—the Colosseum in Rome has stood for 2,000 years, the Parthenon for nearly 2,500, and the Great Pyramid in Giza over 4,500. These are testaments to humanity. Palmyra is of the same ilk and was first mentioned in the early 2nd millennium BC. When it is destroyed, the people whose memories that lived on in its spectacular architecture, inscriptions and art are forgotten. And this humanity dies.

These are not just the bitter rantings of a Classics student whose academic niche is slowly being wiped out by IS; cultural eradication on this level is, without a shadow of a doubt, a very human tragedy.

An insider’s view of the Tory party conference

All is abuzz in the conference hall. One can hear nothing but the murmurings and merry chortles of party activists that come with winning your first majority in 23 years. The protesters outside are inaudible. Numerous and vocal though they may be, their effect on the interior is underwhelming.

“Tory scum!” and “Shame on you!” shout the crowd, creating a sound I doubt has been heard on British shores since the Jacobite charge at Culloden. It is of course, the Conservative Party Conference that has drawn such a crowd, both in and out of the conference hall.

It is indeed a momentous occasion for the Conservative party with attendance up 30 per cent and, for the first time in many students’ memories, a majority Conservative government in power. They went into the last election insisting a majority was possible whilst the pollsters and media sat in a circle and talked endlessly of the most ghastly coalitions their imaginations could conjure up. So now they have power for the first time since the 1990s and, if the protesters are to be believed, the end of the world will come about as a result.

The first major speech is from the party chairman, Lord Feldman, who talked about the election victory and what is needed to achieve a second victory in 2020, after which the attendees were treated to a montage of the events of the general election. The biggest cheers came from the clips showing Vince Cable and Ed Balls losing their seats to Tania Mathias and Andrea Jenkyns, respectively. Speeches from the Secretaries of State for Defence and Foreign and Commonwealth affairs were largely inconsequential, and had very similar overtones regarding Russia and Daesh (I refuse to give that death cult the legitimisation of statehood) breaking no news.

The media seemed much more interested in the events that were unfolding outside. A journalist was punched, a young Tory threatened with rape, two more journalists spat on—one of whom was Michael Crick from Channel 4.

Most infamously, I took an egg to the face.

In my defence I was not brandishing Lady Thatcher’s face at the protestors; rather, I was carrying under my arm a copy of the Sunday Telegraph that happened to feature a picture of the Iron Lady on the front cover. I have no doubt that the person who threw the egg thought it would be the spark of some revolution but, in the end, all it achieved was an unexpected trip to the dry cleaners.

It was not until the next day that I quite realised the amount of coverage that what I considered to be an incident of minimal significance had received. Upon waking up on Monday morning it was to my disbelief that I had made it into every national newspaper, prompting the BBC, ITV and LBC to hound me for an interview for the remainder of the conference.

Much was said by the baying Left of how I was clearly an old Etonian who had never worked a day in his life. If they ever learnt the truth—that I am in fact state school educated and the son of two teachers, whose first proper job was in a garden centre—I doubt they could comprehend such a revelation. Taking the time to explain to them that you can be both a Conservative and not have been educated at an elite boarding school would be would be about as useful as tits on a fish. Their world view is one very much rooted in 19th century class structure, where your place in the social ladder dictates your political persuasions and where revolution is just around the corner, something they have been saying since the Victorian period.

The Conservative Party nowadays is quite a broad church, welcoming all classes, races and sexualities. Hence why it is the Conservatives who have given this country its first female prime minister, first Muslim woman in the cabinet, first Chinese MP, and currently has an ex-miner as the secretary of state for transport. I also hasten to add that, unlike the Labour Party, the Conservatives have a woman occupying one of the four great offices of state.

It was also the first year when journalists have had to enter the party’s conference alongside the rank and file members, and they got a shock. Even Owen Jones, of all people, was called “Tory scum” on his way in. Never before have I seen anything quite like it, and it has woken up the press to just how violent the radical left can be. Your average Conservative party activist will have dealt with this abuse from day one, but journalists have not ever really been on the receiving end until now. The criticism brought about by the media is rightly placed: Where is the new “gentler, kinder politics”?

I would argue there never was going to be any such thing from a man who so openly has endorsed the IRA’s attacks on British troops and civilians, and who has described the death of Osama Bin Laden as a tragedy. I only single out Jeremy Corbyn because I was there. I saw the placards in the crowd proclaiming support for Corbyn, and I have no doubt that many moved on to see him speak at a rally on the Monday evening. He has the power to tell them firmly to stop and embrace civility when dealing with one’s political adversaries, but only timid bleats can be heard from his cabal of terrorist-sympathising front benchers.

But comrades, I digress. The second day of conference began with slightly sore heads, as most members remained in the Midland bar until about 2am. While most speeches of the day were rather lacklustre—with the exception of George Osborne—the best aspect was that Liz Truss had managed to avoid making another awful speech regarding imported cheese and the opening of pork markets in China.

The Chancellor made his speech to a crowd that, even without the help of Mystic Meg, could probably have predicted most of its contents a week in advance. It mentioned a fair bit about builders and the “Northern Powerhouse” but it was a powerful speech nonetheless. Osborne talked about rebalancing the country’s economy, investing in infrastructure and of course, let’s all say it together now, “to fix the roof while the sun is shining,” this being one of the Chancellor’s favourite catchphrases that appeared in a speech so full of buzzwords, you could probably create a good drinking game out of it.

On the other hand, the fringe events were a whole different ball game. Owen Paterson MP hosted two retired army officers who talked candidly about the situation in the Middle East, and were probably the most informed people on the subject I had heard speak on the matter in a long time. One event called Open Europe, where free beer was provided in copious quantities in return for listening to a small speech on the benefits of free trade within Europe, was a firm favourite.

I was lucky enough to grab a ticket to possibly one of the most sought-after events at conference: Zac Goldsmith’s reception. It was fairly inspiring stuff and, with it being so late, one often finds politicians tend to drop the media polished façade and become more like actual people. He spoke passionately about London and his plans for it, ranging from his plan to build on Transport for London land and his opposition to a third Heathrow runway.

One thing that must be emphasised is that these are the situations where politics becomes personal. Gone are the bodyguards, lecterns and camera crews. Instead, these events tend to be held in small, crowded rooms where personal space is often something of a luxury. Zac’s event was held in the upstairs of a small, cramped, poorly lit bar, but it allowed members to get a one-on-one with the politicians. It is often said that politicians are inaccessible or too distant from reality, but they are not going to come to your door and have a chat with you about immigration in your pyjamas. An effort must be made and it is truly an effort, as this bar had noticeably failed to discover the wonderment that is modern air conditioning.

Tuesday came and with it, a new energy. It was the day the conference was going to hear from the likes of Iain Duncan Smith, Theresa May, Zac Goldsmith, Jeremy Hunt, Nicky Morgan and, of course, Boris Johnson. Seats in the main conference hall became the hottest tickets in town. Duncan Smith was one of the few that really inspired the conference hall to stand up and applaud following his speech. A standing ovation is usual procedure following each speech but his felt more deserved, like he had touched a nerve amongst the party faithful, which made one want stand up and begin singing Land of Hope and Glory. I feel his image would be much improved if people realised that “Iain Duncan Smith hasn’t actually been offering up human sacrifices to Adam Smith in the basement of the Department of Work and Pensions,” as The Telegraph put it.

However, of all the speeches that day, Theresa May’s got the most attention, and rightly so. For me, it felt as if every minister had toned down from the rhetoric of last year’s pre-election conference, except for Mrs May, who opted instead to up the ante which, though it sat well with the party faithful, did not chime as universally outside the conference hall as Osborne’s or Boris’ speeches. Some suspect her of trying to use it as a springboard for a future leadership bid, but it seems unlikely to me that the party will choose her to lead them into 2020.

The audience warmly received Zac Goldsmith, though there was a sense that he was merely the warm-up act for the Mayor of London. Boris’ speech was probably the best of his career to date. He talked on matters that ranged from the protestors outside whom he called socialists with “vested interests and, indeed, interesting vests,” a clear quip about Corbyn’s sartorial taste, to the cutting of child tax credits, his opposition to Heathrow expansion, increased life expectancy for Londoners and his proximity to hookers whilst playing rugby at Eton.

His was without a doubt a leadership bid, and you didn’t need to be a political analyst to see it. He made honeyed overtures to both the Tory heartlands and to the floating voters who always decide an election, consciously trying to seize the centre ground and embody the one nation appeal that the party has been trying to emphasise in recent years.

There was much talk at conference of George Osborne being a serious contender for the leadership, but most members are still of the opinion that Boris will be Cameron’s successor for the simple reason that, when photographed, he doesn’t look like he is diabolically plotting something, and that he can stand properly on a stage.

The final day of conference had a completely different feel compared to those previous. The usual relaxed atmosphere had gone. People queued for over an hour to get a seat in the main hall which today was focusing on Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, followed by the Prime Minister. With the assembly elections coming up next year, Andrew Davies and Ruth Davidson both brought great energy into the hall, the latter being one of only three speakers at the conference to receive a standing ovation as she entered the stage, a testament to her popularity. These two speakers however, while both giving excellent speeches, were completely eclipsed by the Prime Minister.

He entered the room to thunderous applause and cheering, having to signal four times for the crowd to stop applauding and take their seats. When he eventually did get on with his speech, it was not until the end that any of us quite realised the gravity of what had just happened.

As the first majority Conservative PM in eighteen years, his speech went down so well, it even received praise from many left-leaning journalists who normally see Cameron as some kind of incarnation of the Antichrist. In my view, he showed himself to be the true ‘heir to Blair’ by taking on such evils as racial inequality, gay rights and lack of social mobility, parking his tanks firmly in the centre ground from which Labour retreated upon its election of Corbyn last month. His comments on Corbyn received a standing ovation, and he has successfully set the government up as the antithesis of the protest group that is now Her Majesty’s Most Loyal Opposition.

As the conference wound down, mostly unaffected by the “nose-ringed crusties” outside, the centre ground of British politics was firmly occupied by the Tories. Boris looks poised to become leader, and the future looks very bright indeed as Labour head down the path to electoral oblivion. But judging by the protests outside the conference, they won’t go quietly.