Friday 11th July 2025
Blog Page 1009

Baseball’s greatest voice

Xavier Greenwood
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Baseball’s greatest voice

The American Forces Network has transmitted radio and television entertainment to American servicemen and women since its inception in May 1942. A little over fifteen years after its foundation, the young graduate Dave Niehaus abandoned his inclination towards dentistry and joined the network to cover the Los Angeles Dodgers. For a time, he broadcast success, calling for the MLB’s New York Yankees and the NHL’s New York Rangers before handling the LA Rams of the NFL along with UCLA basketball. This was all to change in 1976 when he was approached by the Seattle Mariners, the MLB’s newest team, to become their play-by-play announcer.  He accepted the offer and said of his and the Mariners’ first game, “There was just incredible excitement. Anticipation. A new baby. Hopes. I was nervous. The fans were so happy. I’ll never forget that night as long as I live.”

The Mariners lost this game, 7-0 to the California Angels, and lost many more in what came to resemble a two decade off-season. They didn’t record their first winning season until 1991, when they held a record of 83-79, still only good enough to finish fifth in the seven-team American League West. Throughout this aeon of underachievement, Dave Niehaus’ announcing was indefatigable. He was the kind of storyteller who saw windmills as giants. When Ken Levine joined Niehaus’ broadcasting team in 1992, the latter was quick with wry assurances, “I figured it out, Kenny. For me to get to a .500 record [50% Seattle Mariner victories], the team would have to go 2042-0.”

Although Niehaus had helped cultivate a fanbase for the Seattle Mariners which packed out stadiums regardless of the result, this came under threat in the mid-90s: falling attendance, falling revenue, and a tendency to lose led to the possibility that the team would be sold and relocated to a different city. In September 1995, the residents of the county voted against a tax increase to fund the building of a replacement stadium, as a result of which the ownership group of the Mariners set a deadline of the end of October for local leadership to come up with a plan to finance a new stadium, or else the team would be sold and possibly transferred to another city. Teams lose and lose and lose, but are rarely ever lost.

Amid this period of financial and existential despair, however, something special began to happen on the field. After being as many as 13 games behind the first-place California Angels in mid-August, the Mariners embarked on a September winning streak marked by late-inning comebacks, which led to them being tied with the Angels for first place at the end of the regular season. Winning the tiebreaker game 9-1, they advanced for the very first time to the American League Division Series. Two games down in a best of five series, the Mariners won the next two at home and forced a decisive Game 5. This was the game which would save baseball in Seattle.

October 8th 1995: the Mariners are down 5-4 in the bottom of the 11th inning. They need one to tie and two to win. Joey Cora is at second, Ken Griffey Jr. at first. Edgar Martinez comes in to bat. He spends his off days listening to Latin American music. If he can score Cora and Griffey, he will take the Mariners to the American League Championship. McDowell pitches. No ball. Strike. A gravelly voice laden with cigarette smoke and whiskey cracks over King County transistors:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8SBJzOEcyU&w=560&h=315]

The cadence, accent and timbre, the excitement and the incredulity of Niehaus’ call cannot possibly be transcribed. Following the match and a drastic upswing in public support, the Washington State Legislature approved funding for what would eventually become Safeco Field, securing the Mariners’ future in Seattle.

Dave Niehaus was the one figure whose belief in the cause was interminable. And even now after his death, his voice seems to bounce off Mount Rainier, sweep across Elliott Bay, and slide down 1st Avenue South, in an unbroken basso echo which hits all four corners of the diamond and rises up towards the overcast sky: “‘If’ is the biggest small word in the English language”.

A cultural devolution

Adam Dumbleton
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A cultural devolution

The lengthy summer train delays to which we become so accustomed are doubtless a blessing to advertisers, as throngs of red-faced commuters are left stuck in train carriages for even longer than usual and become, in their helplessness, the proverbial captive audience. But with more time to stare apathetically at the information overload presented by the various advertisers, some may find themselves questioning what the posters are offering.

One such advert currently to be found on the network proudly announces the arrival of ‘Time Explorers’, an event comprising new ‘digital missions for children’, at Hampton Court Palace. The event is doubtless designed to make the prospect of a visit exciting to children.

But this invites a glaring question: when did we become a society where a Tudor palace needs to be made exciting?

The phenomenon is neither new nor unique; the poster, in this case, indicative of a wider trend. Across countless institutions of the cultural, historical, and artistic communities, things once considered objects of cultural or intellectual import, and correspondingly presented as such, are being dumbed down in what can only be described as a gradual acceptance and encouragement of intellectual decline.

The Natural History Museum, too — surely one of the great treasures of this country — now appears intent on replacing as much actual content as possible with interactive displays and computer games. The place is scarcely recognisable compared to its former self. One can only fear for the day the same minds take control of the British Museum. It has, perhaps, been spared this fate so far by its curators’ knowledge that res ipsa loquitur: the thing speaks for itself.

It’s hard to differentiate cause and effect: are such practices a response to the genuine needs of the majority of today’s public? Or, do they do nothing but perpetuate what was once a small problem of declining engagement from certain sections of society, which now, through attitudes intended to include people despite their apparent desire for ‘culture lite’, has become more widespread unnecessarily?

The aforementioned poster perhaps offers a clue. Does it really tell us that children find history boring, and that they need it to be made exciting and accessible? Really, it tells us nothing of the sort. Who can really say what children think of such things? What it reveals, instead, is a mere belief on the part of those responsible that this is what people want. They believe that there is an engagement problem, so they make history ‘cool’. And that’s the most dangerous thing.

Such misguided beliefs guarantee only one thing: perpetuating a problem which, actually, wasn’t a problem in the first place. If ‘culture lite’ becomes the norm, what will children possibly come to grow accustomed to other than ‘culture lite’? It seems, today, that no child could foster an interest in real dinosaur fossils and facts, rather than animated cartoon dinosaurs, even if they wanted to.

Increasingly, leaders in the fields of culture, arts and history abdicate the single most important responsibility of their positions: to preserve not only artefacts and knowledge, but to preserve a curiosity and an interest in those things in the people who will come to represent the future of those fields.

Charles Dickens’ absurd caricature in Hard Times of an authoritarian schoolteacher, Mr Gradgrind, famously insists on his students’ behalf that, “we want nothing but facts, sir; nothing but facts!” As much as the character is intended as an exercise in hyperbole, there is more truth in the presentation than Dickens seemed to intend. Children are curious. They want to learn. And, contrary to the apparent belief prevailing today, they are capable of learning about the world in unadulterated form.

The world needs to learn to recognise this. In doing so, we can — and must — halt the patronising descent towards the intellectual vacuity which current practices will surely end in.

Univ launches new programme to improve access

Marianna Spring
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Univ launches new programme to improve access

University College is launching a new programme to increase the number of UK students from disadvantaged backgrounds who attend the college.

The new scheme, called the Univ Opportunity Programme, involves committing extra undergraduate to students from less privileged backgrounds, as well as introducing a free summer bridging course.

The programme comes after Univ was revealed as the fourth worst performing Oxford colleges for state school acceptance in December, with 48.3 per cent of acceptances from the state sector.

As of this October, the college is to increase its undergraduate intake by 10 per cent with new places only available to students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The applicants, however, will still be selected in the usual way according to the usual academic criteria.

The projects aims to ensure that “very deserving students of high potential who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but who might otherwise miss out on a place at Oxford due to the sheer number of applications” have the chance to study at the university.

Students who are identified in the University’s contextual data system as having attended a low-performing school and as living in a place of relative socio-economic deprivation will be eligible for the new places. Those who have been in care for more than three months will also be eligible.

In addition to this, They must be predicted to achieve the standard conditional offer for the course to which they have applied.

Students from these backgrounds are currently under-represented in the Oxford student body and so should be a priority for widening access, according to the university.

Applicants will follow the usual process and all eligible applicants, including those who initially applied to another college but are pooled to Univ, will be considered across all subjects offered by the college.

Univ will also offer targeted academic support through a four week bridging programme the summer before prospective students start their degree, which aims to ease applicants’ transition from school to high-level university study.

The bridging programme will consist of subject-specific tuition, exploration of academic material, and the development of key academic skills to ensure students “hit the ground running” when they start in Michaelmas term.

The college will offer a £500 grant to each student who attends the course to ensure they can live in Oxford during the programme, as well as free accommodation and food.

Master of University College, Sir Ivor Crewe, commented, “We’ve developed a scheme which promotes widening participation and which works within the University’s current admissions process and competitive standards. It takes students who have already shown exceptional ability and potential, and then through an intensive bridging programme gives them that extra boost which other students already benefit from because of their school and family background. In offering new places, we’re not reducing anyone else’s chances of gaining a place at Univ – we’re creating a new opportunity for new students.”

Oxford University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, said, “I am delighted to welcome Univ’s creative new initiative to bring to Oxford more smart students from disadvantaged backgrounds and to provide them with an innovative bridging programme to help ensure that they thrive here.”

Oxford to establish comic research network

William Taylor
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Oxford to establish comic research network

In an attempt to combat the lack of research into comic books and graphic novels, The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities (TORCH) will set up a new network of academics and artists named Comics and Graphic Novels: The Politics of Form. To foster discussion on the range of disciplines which comics and graphic novels concern, TORCH will alternate talks by researchers and comic creators themselves, starting in the Michaelmas Term.

One of the artists speaking in the network’s inaugural term, Karrie Franzman, told Cherwell  that “there are very few barriers for entry into comics- anyone can give it a go as long as they have pencil and paper. Comics are unique in their ability to combine words and pictures into ‘sequential art’. It is the art of drawing moments in time across physical space: comics are a very primal form of storytelling that go back to drawings on cave walls.”

Despite this longevity, comics have often been overlooked in academic research in favour of traditionally ‘higher’ art forms. However, research into the field has been on the rise recently as more journals provide opportunities for publication and increasing numbers of research networks allow cooperation between different disciplines.

Dominic Davis, a member of the research group told The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities that one of the reasons for this lack of attention is because “by their very nature, they don’t fit easily into the disciplinary structures that we have today… the tools needed to read them are interdisciplinary. So it’s really important that our network creates a space for conversations to take place across the traditional disciplinary divides.”

“We’re trying to bring literary critics into dialogue with visual cultures scholars,” he added. “Given that the comics and graphic novels we’ll be discussing in the seminars cover such a range of topics, we welcome historians, geographers, and politics students into the conversation as well”

The seminars will take place every two weeks and are open to everyone. For those interested, more information can be found by joining the network’s mailing list by emailing [email protected] and following further updates on the network’s blog. In advance of her upcoming talk, examples of Karrie Franzman´s work may be found here.

Nice attack: terror made at home, not abroad

Toby Williams
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Nice attack: terror made at home, not abroad

It took less than 24 hours for the Nice attack – which killed 84 innocents including ten children – to fall from the front pages. In that time the world’s gaze had shifted from the French Riviera to Turkey. Whilst this reflected the magnitude of the attempted coup, it also demonstrated how we are growing accustomed to such deadly terror in France. It is as though some are beginning to see these events as normal, something to be expected.

This becomes most apparent in the worrying predictability of people’s reactions to an attack: Statements of sympathy and solidarity will be made by leaders around the world, Francois Hollande will announce a continuation of the state of emergency and even the same hashtags (#JeSuisNice) will be used on social media. Our familiarity with how to react, more than anything else, shows how terror is becoming an evermore common part of life in France.

But how is it that such a state of affairs has been reached? Two years ago it would have been ludicrous to suggest that France would have suffered so many atrocities to such a degree. Many of its European neighbours and allies have managed to prevent any major attacks over the past decade so why can’t France? This isn’t because things have changed but because they haven’t.

This contrasts with the view of Marine Le Pen and the National Front that France’s newfound suffering comes from a reticence to change policy in failing to take firmer military action and curtail excessive levels of tolerance toward other cultures. Yet of all European countries, France is by far the most involved in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria and the State of Emergency has permitted its security services far greater powers than ever before. Clearly then, the French don’t lack the conviction required to act through force. It is merely that this type of response is ineffective. The answer is not to be found by fighting fire with fire. As any American would testify after Iraq and Afghanistan, The War on Terror is not won on the basis of military might. Chest-beating will serve only to ferment, not prevent terror.

Regardless of the military dimension, the National Front may still point to France’s perceived over-tolerance of Islam as being the ultimate cause of the spike in attacks. Yet, given its controversial law on banning the Burqa in public spaces and the French state’s rigorous enforcement of laïcité, like prohibiting the wear of religious symbols in schools, it is difficult to say France is any more tolerant than other Western countries. Moreover, this imagined tolerance would surely make young French Muslims less, not more likely to attack their own country. Thus, it is the intolerance of France towards many of its immigrants and their cultures which has served to create a climate in which young men from Muslim countries can be easily radicalised.

Over nine per cent of the population in France are immigrants, with over 25 per cent coming from North Africa and former French colonies, known as les Maghrebins. In France, unlike Britain where there has been a policy of multiculturalism, there is an expectation that new arrivals will assimilate and adopt French culture. This serves only to raise tensions between les Francais de souche, a controversial expression which refers to people not only born in France but with several generations of native French ancestry, and les Maghrebins. Neither is this helped by the somewhat acrimonious process of French decolonisation in North Africa. All of these factors create a climate in which immigrants are treated as outsiders.

A fact seen physically in the poor, dilapidated housing estates found on the edge of French cities in which many immigrants are placed. Somewhere from which Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhel, the Nice attacker, came after he moved from Tunisia in 2005. Ghettoised in a city where 25 per cent of the population vote for the National Front, it is not difficult imagine the ease with which he became radicalised. The conditions were perfect.

Over the past two years, the vast majority of perpetrators of attacks in France have been young French Magrebs, often marginalised and feeling apart from their own society. This is in no way justification for their actions, but it does help to explain them. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhel was just one in a long line that will only grow unless the French Government changes policy and bridges the divides in French society. Instead of launching further attacks abroad, the French government should be reaching out to those at home. If France does not, this horrific cycle of terror can have no end in sight.

NUS to decide Jewish rep without input from Jewish students

Daniel Kodsi
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NUS to decide Jewish rep without input from Jewish students

The National Union of Students voted yesterday to approve an amendment which gives the Union of Jewish Students no say over who represents Jewish students on the NUS’s Anti-Racism Anti-Fascism (ARAF) committee.

The deciding vote in favour of the amendment was cast by NUS President Malia Bouattia, who has previously faced allegations of antisemitism for comments she has made concerning Zionism, such as referring to “Zionist-led media outlets” and calling the University of Birmingham a “Zionist outpost in British Higher Education”.

The amendment’s approval means that NUS’s National Executive Committee will have sole responsibility over who is chosen to to be the ARAF committee’s Jewish representative, although a NUS spokesperson said that “further consultation will take place over this year and the policy may change”.

UJS campaigns director Josh Nagil said in a statement, “NUS NEC once again showed its complete lack of commitment to Jewish students by voting for a motion that means that Jewish students will have no say in who represents them on the NUS Anti-Racism, Anti-Fascism (ARAF) committee.”

“This decision is undemocratic and excludes the 8,500 Jewish students that we represent. It was no surprise that the NUS President, Malia Bouattia, who had the deciding vote, once again showed that she has absolutely no interest in defending Jewish students’ interests by voting to remove the ability of Jewish students to shape for themselves the student movements’ fight against racism and fascism,” he added.

The vote will provide slight vindication to the ‘No Thanks NUS’ campaign, who last term pushed for Oxford to disaffiliate from the NUS over Bouattia’s election to president. The campaign ultimately failed in a June referendum, with more than 58 per cent of students voting to remain affiliated.

Louis McEvoy, President-elect of the Oxford Forum, told Cherwell, “Beyond the fact that it’s obviously disgusting and exclusionary towards the one minority the hard left isn’t too keen on ‘liberating’, what is particularly infuriating is that it shows that all the words Malia Bouattia and her ilk put forth months ago on listening to and understanding Jewish concerns were simply that: just words.

“The NUS has made it clear, yet again, that they have no interest in representing Jewish students. The ‘Yes to NUS’ campaign in Oxford repeatedly spoke of reforming the NUS from the inside. We have seen no evidence of this yet, and it would be nice to see those who were part of this campaign condemning this and to see them start putting their promises into practice.”

The Oxford Jewish Society have been contacted for comment.

Pokémon Go or Pokémon No? A debate

Cherwell Culture
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Pokémon Go or Pokémon No? A debate

“Pokemon Go represents the deep malaise at the heart of this society.” Discuss.*

For – Benn Sheridan

My co-editor argues that Pokémon Go is a revolution in gaming, a ‘transformative experience’ which gets those otherwise inclined outdoors, blinking, into the fresh light of day. I’d be inclined to disagree, not because I don’t realise that encouraging slobbish, pale-skinned gamer stereotypes into the outside world is a wonderful thing, but because I don’t believe this is the stereotype to whom Pokémon Go really appeals.

The main USP of the game is its simple combination of nostalgia and accessibility. It tugs at the heartstrings of overworked millenials whilst at the same time fitting neatly into their busy regime. In other words, it’s designed to appeal to those already out and about, and turn non-gamers into iPhone addicts. I think this is a fundamentally dangerous phenomenon. If you disagree, walk along a busy street around lunchtime and you’ll understand what I mean: when I was out, I estimated that at least one in every four people was catching ’em all. It’s quite sad really, aside from the fact that people get lost, or mugged, or attacked. Just the sight of a quarter of the population now not only using their phone, but being used by it – modifying journey routes, talk patterns and even productivity according to the closeness of the next gym.

In the US, it’s bigger than Tinder, and about to be bigger than Twitter – it seems to have more sway than either our desire for sex or socialising. This is evidenced in problems it’s caused – which form the second reason as to why Pokémon Go should be deleted from all hapless teens’ phones immediately: it’s dangerous.

My Facebook newsfeed is clogged with videos of crowds of people – like supersized insect swarms – massing at the sides of roads and then crossing as one, disrupting the oncoming traffic. Newspapers report with glee to their dwindling readership (lost to online platforms like this perhaps) cautionary tales of players stuck in caves, or lost, or even stumbling upon a dead body. Such are players’ involvement that they forget this game has tangible and real world consequences – of which, inevitably, many will be negative. In a way, once we lose the distinction between reality and its augmentations, we lose sight of what is important…like ‘should I really go down that cave’ or ‘that car’s coming on rather fast?’. I’d hazard a guess that even the poor girl who found the dead body would have had a sudden sensation of irritation at having to cut her game short – given we’ve already witnessed news of the release of a porn parody, nothing now could surprise me.

And it’s this ubiquity that riles me most: it demands that the game come first. On asking friends for thoughts on the problems with the game, one replied ‘well, there weren’t any on Oxford Street for a start’; another, ‘I don’t like it because I’m not very good’. Unwittingly, individuals’ perceptions of the game have become intertwined with their own success, such that places are valued for their pokémon yield. Apart from Oxford Street and its pathetic Poké-haul, the game teaches us to irreverence not just famous streets, but even the areas which deserve the deepest respect. This is embodied in the Pokéstops, like the one at Ground Zero or the Holocaust Museum, which imply that the significance of these places is less their commemorative agency than the fact that I can collect a few Pokémon balls. For all they represent height of the resilience of the human spirit, their power wanes before a global, and uniform, Pokémon-induced cultural apathy…this is far more than just cannily making use of endemic digital addiction, it signals its legitimisation.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2sj2iQyBTQs&w=560&h=315]

Against – Daniel Curtis

I have spent a considerable part of my Oxford career trying to maintain an outward appearance of cool or, at the very least, respectability. Whether I am believed to have succeeded or not depends on how well you know me. However, through indie music and knowledge of the creative arts, I have seemingly duped my way into having people think I am a somewhat alright guy.

I would venture a speculative guess that I am not the only one. Yet at midnight on Wednesdays on the cheese floor at Park End, all of this pretence and posturing gives way to a frenzy of childlike nostalgia with the opening blast of the Pokémon theme tune. It is the precipitator of honesty – for three blissful minutes, there is no need to pretend.

And now, that beautiful honesty has been extended to Britons everywhere with last week’s UK release of Pokémon Go; the fitness gym has been forsaken for the nearest Pokémon gym, while slovenly days inside (guilty as charged) have been forsaken for long strolls through the local surroundings. It is a truly transformative experience. Indeed, perhaps the most glaring indicator of the app’s impact is the scores of users outlining the ameliorative effect that Pokémon Go has had on their mental health: people previously fighting invisible battles keeping them from leaving the house – a PTSD-suffering war veteran, sufferers of anxiety and depression – now keenly able to escape in order to catch ‘em all.

While no way near as marked as those examples, I have found Pokémon Go to be a balm for my own depression, making the outside once again inviting when it is so much easier to stay in bed. How could one focus on the darkness of the world when there are Pokémon to catch? Having recently made it to Level Five, I can finally access Pokémon Gyms to make my first steps in the world as a trainer. As such, this tantalising prospect will only increase my game time, not reduce it. But first, I must visit the Pokéstop across the road to get some equipment… and then the hunt begins around the wilds of North East Derbyshire.

Thus, what the app has done, with a level of genius which can be attributed to the pioneers at Niantic games, is to make the world a playground once more, accessible through smartphones. To say that Pokémon Go just has more people outside with their noses buried in their phones is missing the point: if you looked around last week, or at gigs, or festivals, people are already buried in their phones to such an extent where it is genuinely becoming an epidemic – and I write that as someone who was heartbroken when their long-held high score in the Facebook Messenger basketball app was broken. In making people re-engage with the world around them, Pokémon Go uses the digital addiction of the millennial and actively rails against it, with a level of subtlety so nuanced that it’s easy to miss. Pokémon Go forces you to use your phone as a catalyst for real world exploration. Like millions around the world, I can’t wait to see where I end up.

*Quote by Magdalen second year William Rees-Mogg.

 

 

 

Weston Library and Blavatnik School shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Prize

Sophie Jordan
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Weston Library and Blavatnik School shortlisted for RIBA Stirling Prize

Two of Oxford’s newest landmarks, the Blavatnik School of Government (BSG) and the Weston Library, appeared amongst six buildings shortlisted this year for the Stirling Prize.

The prestigious prize is awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) to the country’s best new building. The winner of the 2016 prize is to be announced on October 6.

Upon announcing the shortlist, the jury noted that it is “unprecedented” in the prize’s 21 years of existence for two buildings from one institution to be shortlisted at the same time.

The BSG and Weston Library were designed by architects Herzog & de Meuron and WilkinsonEyre respectively and have already both been awarded the 2016 RIBA National and South awards. Both buildings were officially opened by HRH Prince William in Trinity of this year.

They now stand against works including DRMM Architects’ London housing project Trafalgar Place and the City of Glasgow’s Riverside Campus college facilities. As is the case this year, buildings commissioned by academic institutions have regularly been represented among the six shortlisted architectural works.

Announcing RIBA’s choices, president Jane Duncan commented on this strong presence: “With the dominance of university and further education buildings on the shortlist, it is clear that quality architecture’s main patrons this year are from the education sector.”

However, the selection has not been received without criticism, with critic Rowan Moore writing in the Guardian that the BSG’s facade is “problematic, hermetic and excluding, a too-honest representation of the them-and-us culture in which the future world leaders – for now students at the Blavatnik – will probably operate.”

The BSG has also been targeted by activists for having been built in large part thanks to a donation by Russian-born American billionaire Leonard Blavatnik.

Alvin Ong, who recently graduated with a BfA from the Ruskin School of Art, told Cherwell he was “really impressed with Herzog & de Meuron’s work with Blavatnik.”

“It’s really evocative of the Radcliffe Camera and the interior spaces are really exciting,” he added. “In relation to the historic spaces in Oxford, Blavatnik superficially supports the idea that this ancient university isn’t a time capsule. Regarding funds, it’s a bit too late to start whining about where the funds came from isn’t it? I mean, say we don’t use Russian money, are these activists capable of securing alternative sponsors themselves?”

Oxford Physics Department named a ‘Champion’ of gender equality

Katherine Pye
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Oxford Physics Department named a ‘Champion’ of gender equality

Oxford University’s Physics department has joined 15 other British universities in gaining ‘Champion’ status under the Project Juno programme.

Project Juno is a system initiated by the Institute of Physics to recognise and reward actions to address the long-term issue of the under representation of women in physics at universities in the UK and Ireland.

Oxford has achieved the highest level awarded by the project, Champion status, along with 15 other physics departments in the UK. Oxford’s physics department has successfully progressed through the two previous levels; Juno Supporter and Juno practitioner.

Juno Champion status requires that the physics department must demonstrate the implementation of the five principles of Project Juno; appointment and selection, career promotion and progression, departmental culture, work allocation, and flexible working practices. The department must also put in place a framework to deliver equality of opportunity and reward.

Professor John Wheater, Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, expressed delight at the result. He said in a statement, ‘We are delighted to have been awarded Juno Champion status. We are determined to continue to build on the Juno principles and provide an environment of uniform opportunity for people to succeed as physicists.’

Rachel Dunne, a physics and philosophy student at Brasenose, highlighted that efforts to encourage female physicists are apparent even at first year undergraduate level. She told Cherwell, “I think that the Oxford physics department is good at retaining gender equality. It was encouraging last year that a fair few of my lecturers were women. Also, the ‘Women in Physics’ initiative is effective as it’s quite casual – you just meet up with a female mentor who also did physics here whenever you want to.”

“I think it did help my confidence to talk to another woman who had enjoyed and done well at physics here. The initiative could have come across as quite patronising, but it was pitched to us well in Michaelmas, especially as everyone doing physics was present and addressed during the introduction, not just the women.”

Hannah Christensen, a research fellow in Physics at Corpus Christi, also emphasised the role of a “thriving women in physics group in Oxford”. She told Cherwell, “they also invite senior female academics to talk about their careers to the group over tea and cake – it is very interesting to hear these personal accounts of careers in academia, and reassuring to hear how others navigate the somewhat difficult academic career path while, for example, also having a family.”

“I have had a very good experience in the physics department at Oxford. I have always felt there are very approachable senior female academics who I can go to to ask for advice and just as importantly, many approachable senior male academics as well.”

Album review: California – blink-182

Daniel Curtis
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Album review: California – blink-182

It would be a betrayal to review blink-182’s California in light of Tom DeLonge leaving to be replaced by Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba, and his absence alone. Instead, it is much better to review California for the curious mixture of parts that it is – for its merits alone. If one thing has been settled for certain after DeLonge’s departure, it is that blink are still capable of commanding interest: California went straight to number one upon release last week – and DeLonge has been suspiciously silent in the meantime.

But in contrast to the last time this split happened, when Mark Hoppus and Travis Barker poured their souls into dark introspection and vitriol with short-lived band +44 in 2006, California is surprisingly upbeat, much more in the vein of their earlier releases than of their last two LPs or Dogs Eating Dogs. This is a refreshing change – a re-energised Blink still sound fun and bristling with charisma, as always due in no small part to Barker’s precise freneticism. While the songwriting here does sometimes fail to escape from the shadow of past hits (the chorus melody on ‘She’s Out of Her Mind’ falls far too close to that of ‘Rock Show’), it is at least refreshing to hear blink sounding markedly different to that to which we’re accustomed – even if in doing so they have retreated to the succour of their past.

But that in itself is no bad thing. If there is any overriding issue here, it is the production. Whereas the beloved and departed Jerry Finn left Blink’s breakthrough albums with a happy sheen, there was still enough of a hint of punk scuzz beneath the gleam to satisfy their skate punk roots. Not so here, where every song feels squarely angled for radio through the calculated lens of Josh Feldmann’s production – this doesn’t harm the band or the record, but for many this will be an unwelcome side-effect of blink’s emphasis on making themselves a force once more.

In reality, all they need to make them a force is the hooks they have on show during the 42 minutes of pacey punk where California proudly flexes its muscles and embraces its own racket.  ‘Los Angeles’ in particular is massive, perhaps the biggest chorus they’ve released since their self-titled 2003 LP. Indeed, California is at is strongest when it parades its sheer size on tracks such as ‘No Future’, ‘Left Alone’ and ‘Rabbit Hole’. While it would be nice to have some more breaks in the adrenaline like the mournful halfway point of ‘Home is Such a Lonely Place’, the LP’s abundance of energy is endearing, especially after in the wake of the emotional beating that they have taken over the last year.

Unlike +44’s darkness, Hoppus’ songwriting deals with that loss of a friend far more obliquely than one would have thought, instead returning to classic Blink material such as gender relations and broken homes. However, it is unavoidable to pick on such themes still being present: ‘Cynical’ begins the album with the lyric, “There’s a cynical feeling saying I should give up / You said everything you’ll ever say / There’s a moment of panic when I hear the phone ring / Anxiety’s calling in my head / Is it back again? Are you back again?” while San Diego is perhaps the most obvious tear-jerker on the track list, evoking “abandoned houses with the lights on” and lamenting that they “can’t go back to San Diego”, where Hoppus and DeLonge first met. However, to the benefit of this new feel-good zip that the band channel, blink consider the darkness through a multi-coloured lens, and while the result isn’t as satisfying a ‘fuck you’ album as +44’s When Your Heart Stops Beating, it shouldn’t have to be: this is, despite all the odds, a resplendent return for blink-182.

On ‘She’s Out of Her Mind’, Hoppus and Skiba howl “We all need something to live for.” With California and Matt Skiba, blink-182 might just have found it.

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