Published by Caleb Woodbridge on February 9th, 2007
in Blogs.
Looking out the windows of Gair Rhydd Towers across Cardiff, I can see the snow falling thick and steady, covering the city like icing sugar sprinkled on top of a particularly oddly decorated cake. It’s customary to grumble that we Brits are pathetic at dealing with snow. Other countries have weeks of heavy snow and yet don’t grind to the same standstill as our cities do with just a few millimeters of the white stuff.
But cobblers to that. The amount of fuss made about snow is in inverse proportion to the amount of snow you get in a year, and quite right too. Somewhere like Cardiff gets perhaps a day or two of snow each winter, so we need to cram in all the fun we can into those few short hours between snow settling and melting away into mushy sludge.
As students, we have much more opportunity to enjoy the snow than those people who are in the big wide world of work. (At least, humanities students like myself do. Apologies to medics and anyone doing “proper degrees”). This is our last opportunity to make the most of snow, for snow to mean fun and snowmen and snowball fights, rather than a disrupted commute, cold feet and a disruptive nuisance.
Rather than grumbling about snow, or grumbling about people making a fuss about snow, let’s make the most of it, and enjoy the chaos it brings for all it’s worth.
Published by Ceri Morgan on January 18th, 2007
in Media and News.
The Attorney General has written to all media outlets requesting that they tread carefully when reporting on the recent prostitute murders.
Following the arrest of at least two suspects, Lord Goldsmith is worried that any portrayal in the media now of a suspect could lead to a jury with preconceptions at the trial. A growing number of cases collapse at trial because one or more members of the jury has already formed an opinion on the defendant, and therefore will not attend the trial with an open mind.
This leads me to wonder, are there any cases where high profile police enquiries are not already in the minds of the jurors before trial? I think it would be impossible not to know about these recent murders and therefore one could surmise that media portrayal of the suspects could influence the final conviction.
I am sure there are cases where this has happened before, and I doubt it will be the last time, despite a note of caution from the Attorney General.
By blaming social ills on individuals life choices the Tories and Cameron himself, once again, prove that they are still that wolf under all the sheeps clothing.
Published by Sofie Jenkinson on December 11th, 2006
in Blogs.
I find it ridiculous and I find it utterly patronising.
A sentence which I could, most probably, apply to the way I feel about many comments made by the Tory party, but the last few days really do take the biscuit.
Maybe it’s because I could never let myself truly believe that someone in that position could begin to understand the position of those less well of than themselves or maybe because it’s such a narrow minded view. Continue reading ‘Till death do us part…’
The poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko is, obviously, a very serious and intriguing issue, but I'm finding it hard to take it seriously
Published by Ed Vanstone on December 3rd, 2006
in News.
As information is gradually uncovered on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, the story is becoming more and more farcical. Even the spy himself, when his friend Mario Scaramella confronted him with the five-man hit list with both their names, laughed off the information as “like the plot of a film”. A bad film, I might add.
Take a look, for instance, at one of the suspects fingered in Scaramella’s document, reported today in the Guardian. Continue reading ‘When is the bald guy with the cat coming on?’
Iraqis can't seem to stand us and we know not why, but slavery is the word on Blair's lips
Published by Andy Rennison on November 27th, 2006
in Iraq and News.
Memory is a terrible, terrible affliction. This many of us learn at a young point in our lives. Aged five I had my first PE lesson and suffered a near-fatal testicular accident; that memory keeps me away from balancing beams.
Remembering the past is one of the most limitless human conditions, detrimentally influential in everything from deadly World Wars to adolescent complexes. Continue reading ‘Living in the past keeps your back turned’
Iraq is locked into a cycle of killings and counter-killings that coalition forces are powerless to end.
Published by Ed Vanstone on November 25th, 2006
in Iraq and News.
The search for new tactics in Iraq labours on, producing no idea of note or innovation, and certainly nothing that stands a chance of pacifying the worsening carnage in the nation. The reason for this, of course, is that a helpful coalition strategy at this stage does not exist.
America and Britain anticipates keenly the publication of the much hyped, much leaked Baker Report, as if it will bring forth the solution that has been lurking beneath the blood all along. Baker has said that there is no “magic bullet” for the Iraq situation, but Bush is relying on his Iraq Study Group to come up with something - anything - to help get his troops out of the Iraq quagmire with a scintilla of dignity. Continue reading ‘Out of options’
Reporting on climate change is flawed
Published by Ceri Morgan on November 23rd, 2006
in Environment.
Since the publication of the Stern Report, the whole world and his wife has developed an opinion on climate change. While the media have been reporting on the findings of various scientific reports and freak weather events attributed to climate change, there are aspects of the story you may not be aware of.
A lot of the scientific reports quoted in articles are, in fact, based on exactly the same data, just interpreted differently. Did you know, for example, that most of the evidence for global sea level change in the Southern Hemisphere comes from two unmanned buoys in the Southern Ocean, whose instruments are not calibrated and serviced frequently enough. Just to reiterate, that is TWO buoys.
Other evidence to bear in mind is that the world has experienced periods of warming and cooling before. My view is that we are definetely experiencing a change in climate, but what’s hard to gauge is the level to which us humans are involved. It’s obvious we are at least partly responsible, but we need facts and figures.
Ask me in 10 years, and i guarantee you my opinion will have changed, and probably the weather too.
Clarke finally loses his battle against cancer at the age of 58.
Published by Sofie Jenkinson on November 23rd, 2006
in News.
Nick Clarke is one of those people, or should I say journalists (so often seeming like another species), that are a bit like the furniture. I must have listened to him on so many occasions without even realising it was him. But like a lot of things in life, when they disappear you truly realise what you’ve lost. And yes, I will miss his lovely voice and his sly way of educating me without me even realising! He has been described as a journalist who “brought light to journalism, not heat”. Which is a school of thought I wish was more widespread.
He is most famous for being the presenter of The World at One on Radio 4, which he did for 12 years. He was also involved in other various radio projects as well as being the author of Alistair Cooke’s biography and the critical text Shadow of a Nation. Continue reading ‘Tribute to Radio 4’s Nick Clarke’
Supermarket and motor company team up to save the planet
Published by Ceri Morgan on November 16th, 2006
in News, Business and Environment.
Morrisons in Cardiff Bay has just launched a biofuel pump in association with Saab. The timing of this is particularly good, so the cynic in me can’t help but be a little suspicious. Last thingĀ I heard biofuel pumps on a large scale were months away. Anyway, I’m sure all of this is a slow step in the right direction. As technology improves, the price will come down and sales will rocket.