In a conversation about their university bucket lists, the two third-year students, Pascoe Foxell and Yves Weissenberger, decided they wanted to have written a novel before leaving Oxford. Foxell told Cherwell, “[the conversation] overlapped with a separate conversation on writing. Then we asked, ‘How long would it take to sit down and write a novel?’”

Foxell and Weissenberger agreed on some conditions for the 24 hour challenge. Each contestant had to devote 40 minutes of every hour to writing, and had to stay away from the internet in the first 12 hours. The two paid a 30 pound deposit each at the start, to be donated to a charity of choice in the event of a withdraw­al from the competition. The pair were relieved by friends for an hour.

After the challenge, Foxell commented “I couldn’t tell if I wrote a really long short story, or a really short novel. Right at the end, when I was tying it all up and making it conclude in a good way, I was saying ‘fuck you’ to my ear­lier self who had written all that unconnected bullshit.”

Weissenberger described the unexpected­ness of the writing process, “Sometimes the characters did something I didn’t know they were going to do. I had no idea how to move forward, and then a bartender uttered an un­expected command to my main character and I thought, ‘Oh, this is interesting.’”

He described his 20,000 word opus as about “a person who wakes up somewhere else every time he falls asleep. He has no idea if it is the same universe, because there is no reliable way to know how far away things are.” According to Foxell, “my piece of writing is about conspiracy theories, quite a bit, with detective stories mixed in, and lots of people transforming into other things, physically.”

Rachel Evans, a 3rd year psychologist from St John’s commented, “I’m thinking of including Pascoe and Yves as a case study of the creative process in my dissertation. This morning I went on the BBC website and found a story about a student who mooned some hell’s angels, threw a puppy at them, and escaped on a bulldozer. I wondered if Pascoe had infiltrated BBC News.”

UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS hold the least stress­ful jobs, new research finds.

A recent study has found that university pro­fessors are amongst the least stressed employ­ees in the country. The research, completed by CareerCast.com, came to its conclusion after considering almost a dozen factors including deadlines, working in the public eye, physical demands and hazards encountered within the workplace.

The study found that the substantial sal­ary most professors enjoy contributes greatly to their low levels of stress: the Times Higher Education statistics for 2011 show that the aver­age annual salary for a full time professor was £75,790. Average annual earnings for UK work­ers overall are £26,500, meaning that university professors enjoy an income almost three times higher than that of the average worker.

As well as this, the research states that uni­versity professors are also lucky in that, unlike primary and secondary school teachers, they are educating people who have chosen to study the subject they teach and are in general more enjoyable and rewarding to work with.

First year physicist Danny Johnson, speaking of his tutor, quipped, “He obviously derived stress from first principles, and worked out that it wasn’t optimal.”

However there has been some protest from university professors at the findings of the re­search. A comment left on the Career Cast web­site said, “Hmmm…so what is it to lecture to 300 students? (or 30 or 70, for that matter)? And they say public speaking is ranked among the most feared, stressful things persons can imag­ine, not even preferable to threat of death…”

There have also been arguments raised about the fact that pressure is put on professors to continue to ensure their students perform aca­demically well, even if it would not necessar­ily reflect badly on them if their students did poorly.

PPEist Sean Thomas said, “I can see that hav­ing the ability to involve yourself in your sub­ject professionally must be a hugely rewarding prospect. But then at the same time it must be utterly soul-destroying to have to read the same garbage handed in every week by your fresher philosophy students each year, for the rest of your working life.”

A first year Keble student looked at the find­ings on a much more personal level, saying, “If this is true, it explains why our tutor has so much time to think up new ways to punish us.”

OXFORD CITY COUNCIL has approved plans for an Oxford University research facility on the site of an old hospital in Headington. The Park Hospital buildings were bought from the NHS last year. The University is planning to demolish them to create 48,000 square metres of research space.

According to an Oxford University spokesman, “world leading” research will take place in the new development. Professor Rodney Phillips of the University’s Medical Sciences Division said that “the site offers great prospects for expanding the University’s world leading medical research.”

Professor Phillips stressed that the plans will also benefit local residents: “Patients at the nearby hospitals will have first access to clinical trials and new drugs and they will be treated by world-leading medical researchers.”

It will take 20 to 25 years for the new plans take shape.

Campaigners gathered on Cornmarket last Saturday in solidarity with the Idle No More movement, a Canadian campaign created to protest a bill threatening the sovereignty of First Nations people over their lands and wa­ters.

The protest, organised by UK Tar Sands Network and Lush Oxford, saw campaigners make plac­ards and sign a petition to be delivered to the Canadian government at its London High Com­mission.

During the protest, campaigners were en­couraged to create their own signs, with result­ing slogans such as “Idle No More: No more de­struction of our Mother Earth and disrespect of her people.”

The petition signed by protestors is to be de­livered to the Canadian High Commission on Thursday 17th January by Clayton Thomas-Mul­ler, who belongs to the Mathais Colomb Cree First Nation in Manitoba and runs the tar sands campaign of the Indigenous Environment Net­work.

A spokesperson for Lush was enthusiastic about the protest’s success, telling Cherwell, “Lots of people passing by stopped and stayed for about an hour or so to show solidarity, and pretty much everyone that stopped signed the petition. Every single customer who came through the shop has been told about it.”

Idle No More is a grassroots campaign found­ed in late 2012 by Saskatchewan residents Sylvia McAdam, Jess Gordo, Nina Wilson and Sheelah Mclean, established as the passing of Bill C-45 by the Conservative Harper government be­came imminent. The bill contains alterations to, amongst others, the Indian Act, the Naviga­tion Protection Act and the Environmental As­sessment Act, which campaigners argue will threaten indigenous sovereignty and environ­mental protection in their native lands.

Campaigners stress the potential impact on waterways, many of which pass through First Nations territories. The new bill means pipeline and power line projects will no longer be re­quired to prove their project is not destructive if it does pass through a listed waterway.

On the 4th December 2012, First Nations lead­ers were denied entry to the House of Com­mons in order to discuss the bill, which passed on 14th December.

Though not affiliated with the Idle No More movement, Chief Theresa Spence of Attawap­iskat First Nation is also protesting the govern­ment’s treatment of the First Nations, starting a hunger strike on 11th December which she has vowed to maintain until Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston arrange a treaty meeting with First Nations leaders.

Trinity student Ibaad ur Rehman Alvi com­mented, “It’s great to see the Idle No More cam­paign supported here in Oxford. The treatment of First Nations people by the Canadian govern­ment has been shocking and I hope steps are taken to address these issues soon.”

REGENT’S PARK COLLEGE has received almost £500,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Baptist Union Newington Court Fund to dig­itise and improve access to its collection of rare Baptist books.

The grant of £488,000 comes after a highly competitive application process lasting over two years. Part of the money will be used to con­vert the contents of the college’s Angus Library into digital form and place them online in a searchable catalogue. This will involve the dig­itisation of over 70,000 books, pamphlets, jour­nals, church records and letters dating from the late 15th century which document the history of British Baptism.

It is hoped that the money will improve awareness of non-conformist history by allow­ing much greater ease of access to the collection. As such the college aims to provide significant learning opportunities for History students, both nationally and in the local area. This will involve working with Oxford area schools to produce teaching resources which will be made available online to secondary schools across the country.

Reverend Emma Walsh, the college librarian, commented, “This grant will help us realise the dream of helping more people discover and en­gage with the unique riches that are held in the Angus.”

Walsh added, “It provides fascinating oppor­tunities for people to engage with a collection that has been unknown for such a long time, but is so important when it comes to looking at how non-conformists have impacted the shap­ing of the history of the nation.”

“We intend for the educational materials to be used to supplement the national curriculum in areas as diverse as slavery, the role of women, and the British Empire,” Walsh continued.

As part of its attempts to promote knowledge of the collection, the college will also be using the funds to arrange taster sessions for school children from disadvantaged backgrounds to visit the library and experience the collection first hand.

Walsh told Cherwell, “We are particularly excited to be expanding our partnership with IntoUniversity – who work with disadvantaged children in the London area – by running these sessions, which will attempt to de-mystify the use of archive materials and raise aspirations amongst school leavers to study History at Uni­versity.”

In the future there are also plans to make use of the easy availability of the collection by run­ning biennial lectures and exhibitions on Bap­tist history.

Dr Robert Ellis, the Principal of Regent’s Park, said, “We are privileged to have the Angus Library and Archive at Regent’s Park College where it can be accessed alongside the unri­valled resources of the University of Oxford. The college’s governing body is delighted at this grant which will enable us to further improve accessibility and awareness of the collection’s unique content.”

Stuart McLeod, Head of the Heritage Lottery Fund South East, added, “Saving our historic archives is so important – they are a valuable resource for anyone wanting to explore their past. The Angus is bursting with stories and facts that give us clues as to what Baptist life was like and how that has shaped us into what we are today.”

AN OXFORD RESEARCH team led by Dr Grant Churchill has discovered a possible alternative to lithium to treat bipolar disorder.

The researchers have discovered that an existing chemical compound called ebselen may work just as ef­fectively as lithium, but without the harmful side effects.

For the last 60 years, lithium has been used to treat the condition, but has harmful side effects includ­ing weight gain, difficulty produc­ing urine, and possible mutations during pregnancy. It is also toxic in overdose.

So far, ebselen has been tested on mice, although a study on human volunteers is planned to see whether ebselen will be just as an effec­tive treat­ment as lithium.

FURTHER TO the protests over Julian Assange’s upcoming speech to the Oxford Union via videolink on Wednesday of second week, both Wadham SU and OUSU have formally objected to the Union’s decision.

Both student bodies have passed motions registering their disapproval at the perceived minimisation of the rape charges against Assange and the consequent marginalisation of rape victims. They have also called for the Union to provide a platform for victims of sexual assault, which the Union has agreed to do.

Building on the initial protest by LGBTQ Society President and second-year Hertford PPEist Simone Webb, OUSU passed a motion on Wednesday resolving to “call on the Oxford Union Society to withdraw the invitation to Assange”. The motion passed with 31 votes in favour and 20 against, while nine people abstained.

The motion stated, “Council believes that the invitation to Assange strengthens the misbelief that rape and sexual assault allegations are false and should be ignored”.

Co-proposed by OUSU VP (Women) Suzanne Holsomback, and Women’s Campaign Officer Rebekkah Hammelsbeck, the motion also mandates “the Vice-President (Women) to organise a protest against Assange’s panel presence if the Union persists in inviting him”.

Sarah Pine, a former OUSU Women’s Campaign Officer, described Assange’s request for free speech as selective, noting, “As Mr Assange refuses to be questioned about the allegations then he clearly cannot represent any integrity in freedom of speech.”

Wadham SU passed a motion proposed by Pine on Sunday night, stating, “The invitation to Mr Assange is disrespectful to survivors of rape and sexual assault by silently affirming the myth that rape reports are false and propagating the malicious idea that rape and sexual assault survivors are to blame.”

The initial Wadham motion, proposed by Pine and the Women’s Officer from Wadham, Anna Bradshaw, called for the Union to withdraw its invitation to Assange. This was changed after some members of the SU defended Assange’s right to freedom of speech.

Wadham SU resolved “to mandate the Women’s Officer to write to the President of the Oxford Union expressing our disapproval at the way in which the nature of the allegations against Assange have been marginalised in their publicity.”

The JCR also voted “to request that the Oxford Union provide more of a platform for women who have been victims of sexual assault” by recommending that the Oxford Union invite a speaker who meets these criteria to speak next term, and requested that the Union match the JCR’s donation of £235.87, the cost of Union membership, to the Oxford Sexual Abuse and Rape Crisis Centre.

One JCR member opposed the final motion, and three abstained; an estimated 40 people voted in favour.

OUSU’s VP for Women Suzanne Holsomback said, “I am disappointed that [Wadham’s] common room did not take a stronger stance. I believe in the freedom of speech for all, but also that the integrity of the criminal processing system is essential and that it should be honoured.”

On Monday, Union President Maria Rioumine expressed openness to the idea of providing a platform to speakers on sexual assault, saying, “I think it’s a fantastic idea to invite people from the other side. I think this is a very important issue and it’s an issue that needs to be discussed much more than it is.”

One Wadham student said, “In the same way that Nick Griffin was given a platform on Question Time and people saw what an idiot he was, there may be no harm in letting him speak.” A protest outside the Union’s St Michael’s street entrance is planned for before Assange’s speech on Wednesday evening, and a protest will be held outside the Ecuadorean embassy in London at the same time.

STARGAZING OXFORD returned last weekend as part of the BBC’s Stargaz­ing Live series, following last year’s success, which attracted nearly 1,200 people.

Held at the University Physics De­partment, the event featured astron­omy workshops as well as an inflat­able planetarium, solar telescopes, and talks on cosmology.

The event was part of the third se­ries of Stargazing Live, involving tel­evision programmes as well as over 500 live events, and focused on “Me­teors, Asteroids and Comets”.

Dr Jo Dunkley, an Astronomy Pro­fessor at Exeter College, was inter­viewed on the programme about the Big Bang. She told Cherwell, “It was great to be able to explain what I do and why I think it is so interesting. It’s also fantastic to know that so many people watching the programme want to find out more about space and astronomy.”

Regarding the role of events like Stargazing Live in promoting the im­portance of the sciences, Dunkley added, “I think it’s really important to be able to explain to the public what we do, as well as to show people what real scientists are like. We get to learn so many new and exciting things, and I think it’s vital that we share them. I hope these sorts of events also en­courage more young people to keep studying sciences.”

Physics students at Exeter were par­ticularly excited by the appearance of their tutor on the programme. Sam Perkins, one of Dr Dunkley’s students, commented, “We’ve always known she is an increasingly big name in astrophysics, and she’s an incredibly personable and articulate person anyway, so I guess it’s not so much of a surprise she was asked to be on the show. I don’t think her newfound celebrity status is likely to have much impact on our tutes, though we may be able to stall any discussion of sta­tistical physics if we’re lucky.”