Digital love
Artificial intelligence is becoming more and more life-like, and Tom Whitehurst is already considering his future robot bride
Oh science, how you have enriched my life! Back in the days when I cowered in the freezing boys’ toilet of a Catholic church in a Tory constituency, I didn’t foresee how I would possibly be able to breathe in such an overwhelming universe.
God was all-powerful, yet distant and petrifying like a 1950s headmaster, occasionally descending to hand out fiery, eternal detentions. My year three teacher, Mrs Matthews, described me as a “solemn child.” I couldn’t understand how you could be anything else, what with a whole eternity resting on my marks in times table tests. I still had problems with joined-up writing, yet I was expected to work under that kind of pressure.
Keeping it off the streets
Muhammad Darwish isn't sure if China's really in it for the environment
The People’s Republic of China has exerted their force on their people once again. In an attempt to clear up the air in one of the world’s most polluted cities, the Communist regime is operating a ‘car-rota’ system, which ensures that every car gets its fair share off the road, as well as on.
The law, which came into force on October 11, sees one in five cars being taken off the road during the weekdays. The system works like this: if your car registration plate ends in a one or six, you won’t be allowed on the road on a Monday. Those ending in a two or seven, it’ll be Tuesday; for three and seven it’s Wednesday, and so on.
Lust or disgust?
With clubs and sex now hand in hand, Chris Humphrey thinks we should hold onto our dignity
Have you ever been to a sex club? I suffered the indignity of venturing inside such a place a few weeks ago. Depending on your mood, desires or desperation, you can choose upon which level, and in which surroundings, you wish to tastelessly flaunt yourself and grope anything that moves. The club was called Oceana.
All of the commercial clubs in Cardiff stand out like cockroaches on a wedding cake. Dancing, in such venues, appears to me about as attractive as these insects, and dominating the scene is a move that I like to call ‘the sexual assault’. Somehow, in these hedonistic depths, which never cease to pulsate, actions that on the High Street would cause outrage, protests and screams of attempted rape, are irrefutably accepted as the unquestionable social norm.
Much ado about nothing
Daniella Graham thinks the media is to blame for the hysteria surrounding the Sachs offenders
If you have listened to the radio, watched the television or been anywhere near the internet in the past couple of weeks, you cannot fail to have heard about the phonecalls made by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand to actor Andrew Sachs on Brand’s radio show and the subsequent uproar. People have got more worked up over this in the past few weeks than the slightly more important issue of the global economy. Is all this fuss really justified?
I think not. I am not disputing the fact that the calls were offensive. Telling a 78-year-old man Russell Brand ‘fucked your granddaughter’ isn’t normally considered acceptable. However, regular listeners to Brand’s Radio 2 show would know that his style is not to everyone’s taste – your average pensioner is unlikely to be a big fan of a recovering heroin addict who holds the title ‘Shagger of the Year’.
Canuck in Cardiff
Corey Shefman gets positive
Positive discrimination? The phrase itself reeks of bigotry, though not in the way you might think. In America, they call it affirmative action; in Canada, it’s employment equity.
Those aren’t just superficial changes. They change the very meaning of the term. The idea that members of a minority group should be given preference when it comes to the working world, (not to mention other areas of life) is not discrimination. Dictionary definitions aside, ‘discrimination’ carries serious negative connotations in our society. Memories of apartheid, segregation and the denial of women’s right to vote come to mind.
Know your limits
Katy Gorman is scared of her internet usage cap
If my student house is anything to go by, the internet is an essential part of everyday life. It’s vital for everything from communicating to shopping, browsing the web and maybe even occasionally working. Anything can be found on the internet and anyone under the age of… well everybody really, is aware of its benefits and most probably knows how to turn on a computer, use a computer and even owns, or at least has access to, a computer.
Life and the internet now go hand-in-hand, and we take our access to the World Wide Web for granted. I am incredibly fortunate that I have a technologically competent flatmate who has taken charge of our house internet account, a task that may have proven incredibly daunting had I been left in charge. I view my internet much as I view other electronic items: as essential yet mysterious objects which completely surpass the limits of my knowledge. I have no idea about the inner workings of the internet; I only know that if I click a procession of buttons my Facebook appears. So long as that continues to happen I am perfectly happy with our working relationship.
Classification alteration
The proposal for changes to the degree results' system doesn't entirely convince Nathan Allen
Now a first-year undergraduate rambling on about a shiny new grading system for the degree he may be getting in a few years’ time may seem a bit unlikely, foolish or even perhaps wrong, but let me run with this one. Last week, a set of 18 universities were announced who will be partaking in a trial of a new scheme that supplements – not replaces – your first, 2:1, 2:2 or third.
The idea is that there’ll be a more detailed report containing your individual unit grades (yes, even from your first year… you thought that wouldn’t count, didn’t you?), on top of a whole host of other things, such as a note from your personal tutor, your practical marks and maybe even some extra-curricular bits in there too. The Higher Education Achievement Report – HEAR for short – is seen by its creators as complementary to the current 200-year-old system.
Killing speed
Alison Dairy on Swindon Council's decision to pull the plug on speed cameras
Speed cameras: another Government money-making scheme to cover their ridiculous spending habits. Well, there is hope: Swindon Borough Council in Wiltshire has been accused of playing with people’s lives after the town became the first in the UK to propose the abolition of speed cameras.
After openly accusing the Government of installing speed cameras for profit rather than for accident prevention, the Conservative-run council voted unanimously to pull £400,000 out of a speed camera project. Instead, the money will go towards a more useful cause: local safety measures such as vehicle-activated speed signs, better lighting and improved road cambers.
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