Predictions and reactions from Craven Cottage for 2009’s Varsity football match and boat race.
Blog Page 2146
Green green lights given green light
I realise that, running this so soon after the article on electric speed bumps, I’m running the risk of turning this into the Cherwell urban road planning ’blog, but local council transport policies have once again made environmental headlines this week.
The big news is that planners can finally support so-called ‘green waves’ of traffic lights, which use sensors in the road to allow smooth-flowing traffic to surf on a wave of consecutive green lights through towns and cities. This should decrease journey times, drivers’ aggro and, because there will be less braking and accelerating, carbon emissions.
Sounds great, doesn’t it? So, er, why weren’t town councils in favour of these before? Well, it turns out that they are forced to cede to a set of centralised Department for Transport guidelines. The new guidelines endorse the green waves, citing their environmental credentials. So, what was the previous policy? BBC News explains:
Previously the Department for Transport had discouraged the systems which reduce fuel use, resulting in less tax being paid to the Treasury.
I wish I had been sipping coffee when I read that, because I would have literally sprayed it all over the computer. Alas, I was reduced to swearing aloud.
There is obviously a degree of pointlessness in getting irate over guidelines which have just been revoked…but this advice is so egregiously batshit insane that I think it’s worth dwelling on. Official government guidelines explicitly obliged councils to inconvenience the public as much as possible in order to charge them for the privilege.
If the government need to raise taxes, and I am not so naïvely right-wing that I cannot countenance this possibility, then please put a percentage point on income tax—or even fuel duty—don’t waste our time and petrol just to tax us on the latter! Of all the horrendous stealth taxes, this is surely the most triumphantly idiotic. It’s like forcing people to take up smoking in order to boost government coffers. (Ha ha, I am funny. Coffers, coughers, geddit?! Oh, screw you.)
And how late is this advice being repealed? In 2009, after decades of persistent whingeing from environmentalists, the government finally abolishes a policy which actively requires road planners to increase emissions in order to plump up the public purse. What next, encouraging rampant consumerism to boost tax revenue on useless plastic shit? Oh, wait.
I hope you too are seething with resentment at an institution which can set out guidelines mandating public inconvenience and environmental catastrophe in order to scrape together a few extra pennies.
However, though I am glad to see the back of the previous ludicrous legislation in principle, I’m not so sure in practice. These more efficient traffic control algorithms will allow us to squeeze more vehicles onto the road, and the only law in road planning is that no matter how much extra capacity you create, it will be filled. Plus, if you don’t want people to drive in towns, making it as annoying as possible due to perverse, irrational traffic signals could be a good thing: lowering the irritation barrier may mean that those extra spaces on the road are filled quicker than you’d imagine.
Strangely, then, it might well be better to return to the previous, annoying stipulation—but crucially, if we did, it should be on the principle that it advances the greater good. We should add up the pros and cons of the various different solutions—environmental, economic and taxation—and choose the one which makes the World as good as it can be. There must never be a place in government for laws which make things worse in order to reap the tax revenue.
Endnotes: Unwrapping Books
Timed to coincide with the Sunday Times Literary Festival at Christ Church College, the O3 Gallery’s Endnotes exhibition saw sixteen artists present their interpretations of the connection between visual art and literature. The artists were given one or two books withdrawn from Oxford Central Library and drawing inspiration from them, they created artworks in media ranging from photography to basket making. One of the curators, Diane Jones-Parry, explains the motivations behind the exhibition: ” The exhibition was…designed to celebrate the value and importance of books and libraries when county, school and local libraries are under threat.” The artists were chosen for their diversity in preferred medium, age, and gender, reflecting, the curators claim, the diversity of library-goers and readers.
The effectiveness of the exhibits was as diverse as the artists that created them. Some were successful, for example, a short film by Jim le Fevre in the form of a flipbook, made from a book about movie stars, that showed the journey from Oxford Central Library to the gallery itself. The medium was a nod to the book’s original content, while the work elicited a pleasant ‘isn’t that clever’ feeling in the viewer. Similarly, another film by Laurence Halstead which used live action and stop-motion techniques, showed us a man’s effort to digest an airport novel. Literally. The film succeeds in providing viewers with a metaphor that has numerous avenues of interpretation. Perhaps the artist may have struggled his way through the novel (hence the hilarious title “Reader’s indigestion”) or maybe he is making a general statement about our position as consumers, rather than genuine appreciators, of literature. And the film itself was rather entertaining too – how often do you get to see a man eat a book?
Unfortunately, not all the works were quite as good. Some felt random and lazy, like the sculpture that sat in the middle of the floor that was entirely composed of a series of photocopies stapled together. And there were others that were just perplexing – a series of pages tied up in neat little parcels, for example. One felt that the exhibits could be divided into two categories: one that took either the content of the books or the link between the artist’s chosen medium and literature as genuine inspiration, and the other that simply took the books and did something (or anything, in fact) with them without acknowledging the unusual remit set out by the curators.
In sum, possibly worth a look if you’re into this sort of thing. And if you leave disappointed, there’s always doughnuts at the Krispy Kreme nearby to cheer you up.
Alzheimer’s influence seen at age 20?
Oxford neuroscience was splashed across the media this week with new research suggesting that atypical brain activity, caused by a high-risk Alzheimer’s disease gene, can be spotted as early as age twenty.
The study was performed in collaboration with Imperial College London and is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. It shows a significant correlation between having the high-risk mutation of the gene in question, ApoE4, and a raised level of activity in the hippocampus, the part of the brain involved in memory formation. The researchers suggest that over-activity may simply wear that part of the brain out, leading to damage, and memory problems, in later life.
Alzheimer’s disease is a headline-grabber, and BBC News, The Telegraph and The Daily Mail (to name but a few) reported the findings accordingly. They detailed how this work could bring us close to a simple method of identifying those at increased risk of dementia early enough to offer prophylactic treatment.
However, these media reports are misleading. Firstly, the most important link that would allow the conclusions above to be drawn has not been demonstrated at all: we do not know whether this increased hippocampal activity is in fact linked to the actual development of Alzheimer’s disease or not.
Of course, it would take an investigation spanning half a century to show whether these mutation-carrying participants with increased brain activity at age 20-30 are more likely to develop dementia at age 70-80. But without evidence of this sort, it is entirely premature to suggest that this increased activity could be a helpful diagnostic tool.
And similarly, without this evidence, it is also premature for both the researchers and the media reports to say that over-activity in the hippocampus could be “effectively wearing it out”.
Secondly, even if it were to be shown that this higher activity is indeed linked to the future development of dementia, the diagnostic brain-scanning of all 20-30 year-olds with the rogue gene (around 25% of them) would be anything but the “simple test” that some of the articles would have you believe. These functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans take about an hour to do and are very expensive: around £1500 a pop, plus the million quid you need to buy the scanner in the first place. Furthermore, these scans would have to exclude many potential participants, such as women who are pregnant, or could be pregnant, and anyone with metal inside their body, from a pacemaker to a surgical staple.
Lastly, even if this were a practical method of screening, an the ethical queston is raised by distinguishing, at an early age, those who are more likely to go on to develop Alzheimer’s disease. Fair enough, people found to be at risk could be offered early treatment and lifestyle advice. Unfortunately, there is currently no successful “early” or preventative treatment available, and neither do we know which lifestyle factors contribute to increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease, beyond the usual “drink less, eat less, exercise more” mantra that we should all be following in any case to avoid obesity and its associated health problems. The benefit of potential protective treatment must outweigh the emotional stress that could follow the discovery that one is at increased risk of a nasty brain disease.
Again, the glossy media portrayal of a medical panacea unravels; but science has acquired another small piece in the puzzle of Alzheimer’s pathology.
Review: Last Chance Harvey
Joel Hopkins’s Last Chance Harvey is a modern romantic comedy which caters for an adult audience sadly ignored in modern cinema. Dustin Hoffman plays Harvey Shine, a disenchanted jingle writer who finds love with the equally lonely Katie Walker (Emma Thompson). Notwithstanding the predictable plot directions expected from such a film, it is saved by the acting skill of its two Golden Globe-nominated protagonists.
Unlike the recent rom-coms gracing our screens of late, Last Chance Harvey deals sensitively with the genuine trials of living and growing old – the loneliness, the disenchantment, and those bad, bad dance-moves. It seems to me just a little bit radical to have a woman in her late forties playing a romantic lead, something Emma Thompson acknowledges in a blog post about her role in the film: “I was not required to be stunningly attractive or in despair or in need of rescue, but simply [to be] an ordinary woman in her forties living a rather stale-looking life as best she can”. What seems like a popular topic in contemporary cinema -that is, the danger of living a stale, emotionless life- is portrayed in a sensitive, though not necessarily radical way. Unlike Revolutionary Road, for example, Last Chance Harvey never sags, and confidently rides on the dialogue between the characters.
This is not to say that the movie is free from cringe-worthy or hackneyed moments. Dustin Hoffman’s dance moves at the wedding (“I’m gonna dance your socks off”) fills me with as much embarrassment as watching my own Dad pull some shapes at social occasions. The romantic clichés in the film, and there are many – the mad final dash from the airport to find said lover included – fail to add any depth to the film. By going in for the cliché, the film misses the opportunity to delve into a deeper, more interesting angle to the character’s motives for getting together, including the possibility, dare I say it, of desperation. The emotional effect of Kate’s past abortion, for example, is a subject only touched upon.
Last Chance Harvey is, more than anything, a love poem to London. The city, like the characters, slowly unveils before our eyes as we follow their conversations along the river Thames. One particularly scene involving a live performance on the South Bank by the contemporary rockabilly band Kitty, Daisy and Lewis, is truly charming. So too is the gentle humour that pervades the film, such as the minor sub-plot concerning Kate’s lonely mother and her next door neighbour, whom she fears is “Poland’s answer to Jack The Ripper”.
If the genre of ‘middle-aged-rom-com’ exists, then Last Chance Harvey surely fits into this category. However, to do this would be to pigeon-hole the film, and this is precisely the problem with the rom-com label. The rom-com suffers from a lot of prejudice, which, to be fair, is mostly justified. Last Chance Harvey is a genuinely entertaining film, with lively dialogue and believable characters. To be honest, I’d rather watch movies like this than the sheer quantity of unrealistic, often downright degrading rom-coms like He’s Just Not That Into You. Last Chance Harvey deserves to be given a chance, if not just for entertainment, but for the type of film-making it represents. You don’t have to be menopausal to enjoy this, but it helps.
3/5 stars
Jail for youths who attacked student
Two teenagers face a total of 16 years in prison for an attack of “nauseating brutality” on an Oxford student.
Craig Knowles and Thomas Mack were jailed on Friday for assaulting Kentaro Ikeda, a postgrad student at St Edmund’s Hall, as he cycled home through University Parks in July last year.
The youths, both 18, dragged Ikeda from his bike before striking him on the head with a metal bicycle lock, Oxford Crown Court heard. They fled with his laptop, mobile phone, rucksack and bike, leaving the victim semi-conscious and bleeding.
Ikeda was found by passers-by, and rushed to the John Radcliffe Hospital for emergency surgery. The attack has left him semi-paralysed and with serious brain damage.
Knowles was jailed for 9 years after he confessed to causing actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm with intent, and robbery. Mack denied all charges and faces 7 years in prison.
Ikeda now resides in a rehabilitative centre near Tokyo, where he receives permanent care. He spends his days in a wheelchair and is only able to type on a computer with one hand.
During the trial, Ikeda communicated with the jury via recorded interviews from his hospital bed. He told the court, “this attack has left me partly paralysed on my left side. I have no movement from my left elbow to the fingertips. This makes is very difficult to perform everyday actions. I have difficulty in concentrating.”
However he added, “I remain optimistic for the future and one day I would like to resume my studies.”
Judge Terence Maher told the court, “this man’s life has effectively been stolen from him.”
“It is no exaggeration to say this is an offence of the utmost gravity which has had life-changing consequences for the victim. All this from a few moments of nauseating brutality.”
The Judge described the attackers as “exalting” in the crime, shown in text messages they sent to friends shortly after the attack.
These messages allegedly included the phrase, “mate, you missed out… we saw a Chinese man on the way back and beat the shit out of him,” and, “that’s how Marston boys roll.”
Detective Chief Inspector George Bain, who led the investigation, commented, “the drunken behaviour of these two men has left the life of a promising academic changed forever.”
Friends of the victim expressed satisfaction that the case has been resolved, but concern at the length of his attackers’ sentences.
Evan Innis, also a postgrad at Teddy Hall, said, “on the one hand, I am happy that the case has been resolved, but on the other hand, the sentence itself is too light, as it seems that they could have intentionally killed him… The verdict feels very light.”
Chernein Oon, a student at Merton, added, “9 years of imprisonment for a life that might never be the same again… Not quite fair, but at least justice has been served.”
Mrs Ikeda, the victim’s mother, said, “Kentaro would like to thank everyone for their help in his case. He feels that both his attackers should be given appropriate sentences as his life has been very much changed due to this incident.”
The incident has had irreversible consequences for Ikeda’s family, who had relied upon the money invested in his education to provide for their future. Ikeda’s father died several years ago. After the attack, his mother had to take early retirement to become his full-time carer.
A friend of Ikeda from Merton College said that he is recovering, but that it is still unknown whether he will return to Oxford.
Oxford Victorious in 125th Varsity Football Match
Sunday morning saw Oxford begin as they meant to go on with a hard-fought 1-0 victory prior to the expected triumph of their rowing counterparts in the afternoon’s boat race.
Following a 5-3 defeat the previous year, Oxford were perhaps not such heavy favourites to lift the C.B. Fry Trophy, but they displayed determination and resilience, putting in a solid performance at Craven Cottage.
The Dark Blues dominated right from kick-off, playing some very neat football and showing themselves the deft passing side they claim to be. It took only ten minutes for Sam Hall to drive a powerful low shot past Cambridge keeper Stuart Ferguson to put Oxford ahead. He could have netted a brace had he not headed wide just seconds later.
Oxford continued to enjoy chances during the first period but were unable to provide themselves with the two-goal cushion they were seeking, with Cambridge proving tough opposition at the back.
The Light Blues emerged a different side, something in coaches Alex Coleman and Sam Willett’s locker-room speeches evidently rousing them to a comeback. The second half was far more end-to-end, both teams enjoying spells of dominance and both spending plenty of time in the opposition’s half.
Oxford keeper Dwayne Whylly was called on to make some spectacular saves, and performed almost faultlessly, giving the Oxford support only one occasion for nerves when he dropped the ball close to the edge of the area – only to be quickly rescued by his solid defence. Toby Hodgson was a rock in the centre of Oxford’s back four, the partnership between he and captain Tom Wherry proving almost impregnable to the Light Blues’ forwards, and Leon Farr contributing with some tackles reminiscent of a young Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris.
As 90 minutes drew to a close, Oxford regained their advantage somewhat, settling once more into moving the ball around with precision and carving space for attacking balls. Alex Toogood was put through in a promising position ten minutes from the final whistle, but his venomous shot sailed over the crossbar. Moments later, James Kelly looked a dead cert to put his name on the scoresheet as he dribbled down the left, leaving a Cambridge defender standing, and fired across goal, only to see his shot tipped agonisingly wide of the upright.
The sound of Howard Webb’s whistle was a welcome one to everybody in Dark Blue, sealing Oxford’s 49th Varsity win, and ending a run of three consecutive victories for a devastated Cambridge side.
Let The Right One In
‘I must be gone and live, or stay and die’
Tomas Alfredson’s chilling new thriller Let the Right One In is, essentially, a tale of young love. When eleven-year-old Oskar, a shy, withdrawn, reclusive victim of schoolyard bullying, meets twelve-year-old Eli, there is a natural connection between them. Eli is everything Oskar longs to be: bold, confident and strong-willed. Soon, under her steady coaching, Oskar blossoms with fresh self-confidence. There is one slight catch, however. Eli, for all her positive qualities, is a hooded-eyed, blood-sucking vampire. As the pristine-perfect backdrop of snowy Sweden is stained with innocent blood, Oskar and Eli, united as social misfits, must fight to stay together in this haunting yet touching coming-of-age tale.
Alfredson’s casting crew deserve praise here for having sought out a remarkably convincing pair of protagonists, played earnestly and sensitively by the young Kåre Hedebrant as pale little Oskar and Lina Leandersson as the even paler Eli. Despite some highly graphic spectacles, including corrosive acid-induced facial disfigurements, severed ligaments and the unnerving sight of a young child lapping up spilt blood like a hungry kitten, Alfredson creates a highly successful balance between images of eye-watering butchery, and scenes so sensitive and tender that it is near impossible to believe the monstrosities this child is capable of. The film is more about fighting one’s personal demons than the physical demons involved, and as such, Alfredson does not have to rely too heavily on shock tactics or gory images to maintain tension. With the exception of a few well-timed comedic moments, this film will have you gripped throughout.
Let The Right One In is completed by a first-rate orchestral soundtrack, with credit due to Johan Söderqvist, along with stunning cinematography of the brutal yet beautiful Swedish mountains. If there is any criticism to be made, it is that scenes sometimes feel overly long and drawn out, leading to a slight deceleration in pace. Despite these minimal faults, however Let The Right One In is a chilling masterpiece which is well worth watching, and is fully deserving of the 23 prizes it has already picked up overseas.
Presidential Power
The power of the President of the United States is an odd, paradoxical thing, public perceptions of which suffer from a significant misconception. The public thinks he controls the country, and expects him, therefore, to do ‘something about everything’. It’s why, I think, people in Britain and elsewhere, when polled, support the introduction in their own systems of a directly-elected executive: because they think they’ll be electing the person who will run the country. But in a presidential system of separated powers, this person has little direct power over domestic politics.
Obama’s administration may have put forward an aggressive stimulus package, but it only became law after congress amended and passed it. He is currently expending considerable time and energy persuading lawmakers that his budget is the right one. The President is, in this sense, the persuader-in-chief. His power is the power to get people in Washington to agree with him. It’s why he’s at his strongest when the public is on his side.
This excellent article shows how Presidents of the modern era can flex their muscle. This is how they can be powerful. It’s not constitutionally-enshrined power; it’s not continuous and ever-available. It’s contextual. What Obama is doing is effectively saying ‘my government has given you a bucket of money, so I’m going to get my way’.
His ability to do it is founded almost entirely on his popularity. The response has been largely favourable. If Bush had done this a year ago, it would not have been so. The ‘Obama gets tough on failing CEOs’ headline would have been substituted with ‘Bush in unprecedented intrusion into free market’. The flexing of executive muscle is, paradoxically, not often viewed positively: the US public expects the man they elect to solve every problem, to be genuinely in power, but when he pushes the boundaries of executive authority in an attempt to be so, they tend to react disapprovingly, as they did towards Bush-Cheney.
President Obama realises it’s risky, but his move was shrewd. He knows his political future is wedded to the public perception of both the economic situation and his response to it. He reasons that since by taking the bet that a huge bailout will fix things, he now ‘owns’ the economy as a political issue, then he’s right to intervene in every situation where he thinks a change needs to be made. And I think, for now, the public will side with him. They’ve tended to side with his judgement more often than with that of bailed-out CEOs.
An impressive piece of politics by the President. He’s playing hardball.
Review: The Age of Stupid
Like A Clockwork Orange or Wall Street, this film will come to define a generation. Variously described as “peril porn”, and “the most powerful cultural discourse on climate change ever produced”, Franny Armstrong’s new climate change epic evokes anything but indifference. Weighing up a vision of a post-apocalyptic world with real-life documentary footage and quirky yet informative animation, this ‘Dram-Doc-imation’ strikes a difficult balance brilliantly. With humour, charm and real-life stories, Armstrong makes the tough message easier to swallow and entertaining to the end.
Narrated by a future survivor (Oscar-Nominated Pete Postlethwaite), from a tower sanctuary from the raging climate chaos, The Age of Stupid is the story of an old man pondering why humankind watched its own extinction yet did nothing about it. Skilfully woven into a larger narrative of human and political history, Armstrong avoids the overtly left-wing stance of her earlier films, allowing it to remain accessible for activists and climate virgins alike.
But all this misses the point. The Age of Stupid is not just a film, it is a movement. Whilst delivering a simultaneous slap in the face, it also extends a hand and welcomes you to become part of the growing movement to save civilisation. With crowd-funding, nominal wages and a total advertising budget of just £1000, this word-of-mouth phenomenon has already achieved a multi-record breaking premier.
With the explicit aim to “turn 250 million viewers into climate activists”, starter packs are handed out at every screening. After a brief but powerful rejection of climate change deniers, the film is free to tackle the great scourge of progress, the defeatists. An animated history of mass protest movements along with well constructed sound bites from leading climate activists creates an infectious sense of momentum and leaves you inspired to take action. Having already prompted the tabloid press to release its first ever warnings about climate change, this film has the power to transform public perception of climate and thus force politicians to act.
While there are faults with the film, both artistically and scientifically (not least its predilection to slightly irrelevant rants), the central message of the film is hammered home with superb clarity. The truth is no longer inconvenient, it is downright devastating.
4/5 stars