Avid Records, Oxford’s last remaining vinyl record store, has been forced to close due to a large rent demand from Oxford City Council.
The store has been a popular haunt with music lovers, and has been especially popular with students, for over two decades.
The store was due to close in 2006 after it was hit with a backdated bill for £21,000. The owners were about to sell the lease and relocate to Bournemouth when the buyer pulled out, and fans have been able to continue to buy records, until now.
One first year student at University College told Cherwell24 that it was a “shame”, as he had spent “many an hour” browsing Avid’s vast collections. He lamented the increase in illegally downloaded music via the internet and cited that as the reason why establishments like Avid are becoming all the rarer.
However, it is not just students who will feel the loss of Avid Records. Liberal Democrat City Councillor, Patrick Murray, 27, has been visiting the shop for thirteen years and spoke to the Oxford Mail of his sadness at its closure.
"It's such a shame that Avid has closed – it's been a real Oxford institution since I was a teenager and was my favourite shop.
"The council is duty-bound to try to achieve the market rent for its properties, but we don't want a situation where small traders who add character to the city are driven out because they are being asked for years of backdated rent.”
"I suppose times change and now if people want to buy vinyl, they will have to buy it over the Internet," he said.

Friday's German parliamentary forum on anti-semitism was clearly too boring for some.Hat tip: Die Achse des Guten PS The ruling CDU won by about 0.1% is Hesse tonight but lost their overall majority, while the far-left Die Linke did well in two states. More tomorrow. Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

St John's 5 – 0 Merton/Mansfield

St John’s hopes of a Hilary Term surge on the promotion places was given a real boost on Thursday, with a 5-0 win over joint leaders Merton/Mansfield.  A hat-trick from top scorer Matt Evans-Young, plus one each for strike partnership Joel Gregory and James Earle, gave a victory which throws open the competition to be playing First Division football in 2008/09.

The visitors went into the match joint with University College on nineteen points, well clear of mid table St John’s.  Merton/Mansfield fielded an archetypal little and large partnership up front.  The towering David Wilkinson was perfectly complemented by the waspish Robbie Coleman.  In combination, they were a genuine threat to the John’s goal.  Only three minutes in, a free kick aimed at Wilkinson’s head sailed over everyone – including goalkeeper Alex Berend – to hit the bar. 

It was the home side, however, which took the lead after only ten minutes.  A through-ball was headed on by Gregory, finding Evans-Young’s perfectly timed run from midfield.  The prolific left winger placed the ball over the onrushing Reuben Holt to put St. John’s into an early lead. 

As the hosts grew in confidence they made more chances: the two James, Earle and Bell both found Holt from close in.  At the other end, Wilkinson came off worse in a nasty clash of heads.  He was able to continue, having received treatment, but the point of Merton/Mansfield’s attacking football had been blunted.

With only seven minutes of the first half remaining, St John’s doubled their lead.  Gregory, with his back to goal, was kicked by a defender.  It was an unnecessary foul, and was punished as Gregory left Holt rooted to the spot. 

A confident John’s team scored their third nine minutes into the second half.  Jamie Bell played the ball through to Evans-Young, characteristically breaking from out wide into the penalty area.  Having taken the ball on his chest, he placed the ball into the bottom corner with his right foot.  Merton’s unlucky afternoon continued as two players had to leave with injuries early in the second half.  As Wilkinson moved back into midfield, Coleman was isolated with no target man to play off. 

What Merton/Mansfield did not need was an unforced error.  But on the hour mark, Joe Pickles’ stumble gifted possession to James Earle.  Playing in the trequartista role, he dominated John’s attacks – outmuscling defenders and distributing the ball intelligently.  It was fitting that he capitalised on Pickles’ error to reward his performance with a goal.

Through no fault of their own, the visitors were down to ten men.  But they continued to compete, and nearly pulled one back when Matt Morris drove the ball narrowly wide of Berend’s right-hand post.  Another substitute – albeit one for the home side – Dave Ellis, almost scored with his first touch: a diving header from a pinpoint Gregory cross flew just over.

Thirteen minutes from time, Evans-Young grabbed his hat-trick.  Yet another run into the box, as well timed as a Michael Vaughan cover drive, led to him heading a loose ball over Holt.  Breaking into the box like Frank Lampard, Merton/Mansfield never managed to pick him up and were punished three times.  With two minutes to go, another of St John’s outstanding performers, James Earle, hit the bar with a long range freekick.  Six nil would not have been too unfair a reflection on an impressive performance by St John’s.

4/5 Damn the cold and blasted weather! Liven your spirits with this week’s fantastically indulgent romp down at the Oxford Playhouse. Sheridan’s eighteenth Century Restoration Comedy is brought forward to the decadent, post-war scene of the 1920s. Admittedly, the production is steeped in so much stereotype (complete with women flopping their wrists, clutching tumblers of slow gin, and listening to scratchy gramophone records) you half expect a fast-talking character, wearing a pinstripe suit and spanking new spats, to waltz on. But, it is precisely all this cliché that gives Chanya Button’s version such resonance: the overtly superficial style only helps to emphasise the shallow nature of the characters.Teetering on the brink of exhaustive melodrama, the actors do a tremendous job of giving poised performances, while still enjoying Sheridan’s exaggerated characterisation. With the spoiled naivety of Lydia (Charlotte Bayley) and hopeless sincerity of Julia (Emma Pearce), wonderfully paralleled by the dapper Jack Absolute (Patrick Netherton) and nervously obsessive Faulkland (Tom Palmer), there is a predictably turbulent four-way love game between the younger characters. Meanwhile, the famous Mrs. Malaprop (played by a boisterous Natasha Kirk) verbally stumbles through the play, flirting with both Sir Anthony Absolute (Matt Lacey) and Sir Lucius O Trigger (Shaun Passey). Unbeknown to these upper class knit-wits, are the conniving methods of the secretly omniscient maid of Mrs. Malaprop, Lucy (Cecily Motley), and Jack Absolute’s butler, Fag (Leo-Marcus Wan). Finally, a chaotic farce of love and misunderstanding would not be complete without the pitiable everyman with whom the audience regretfully must identify, pottering awkwardly around in the form of Acres (Peter Clapp).Such an able set of cast members, all playing strongly-defined characters, risk battling each other for the lime light. None, however, are guilty of such a fault. Every characteristic, from the acute to the explicit – from the clammy smugness of Fag to the unscrupulous disorder of Mrs. Malaprop’s speech – is brought to the fore. The biggest laughs seem to be raised by Kirk’s wonderfully delivered malapropisms, including phrases such as “anticipate the past” or “explode the matter”, but the other performances are too slick for her to steal the show.Indeed, ‘slick’ is the production’s definition, save the rather clumsy scene changes (during which we see a single character in the spot light, ironically looking uncomfortable as the black-shirted stage hands scuffle about the darkened stage). Things would have also been helped by a shorter running time, as the fast-paced nature of the setting somewhat jars with Sheridan’s exposition-heavy script: rather than speed it up, it merely proves to expose it for all its slow indulgence. Don’t count on having a last drink at the pub, but prepare to be carried away by completely hackneyed tomfoolery. You’ll be yearning to conjure up a swing band and let that muted trumpet blow your winter blues away! 2:30pm Sat
7:30pm Thurs/Sat
8:00pm Friday
Oxford Playhouse: Run ends on Saturday January 26thReview by Frankie Parham

A seemingly endless flow of people poured into the Wheatsheaf on Tuesday night, and I eventually found myself wedged in a sweaty spot somewhere between the audience and the stage. Thankfully I had emerged victorious from a small battle with the barman over the purchase of a cider: the pub has evolved a high-tech driving-licence scanning machine to ward off any shifty underage comedy-goers. However, once my drink and I were happily jammed in place, I eagerly waited to see if the Revue would triumph in the seemingly impossible feat of coming up with original material on a fortnightly basis. There is penchant for the bizarre in the scripting that echoes the recent stream of TV sketch shows, which Brits seem to have taken to with enthusiasm. Coupled with this is a distinct whiff of the writers’ Oxford degrees: references to an Anglo-Saxon heritage, the Divine Right of Kings and extended metaphors all make an appearance and create a comfortably esoteric relationship between the performers and the audience. Joe Markham was fantastic as a slightly disturbing, entirely insane victim of alien invasion. Unfortunately, his fellow Revue members also found him particularly hilarious. There were tendencies for them to lose grip on that slick timing and precision that makes for great comedy and descend into giggling. Nevertheless, there were moments of brilliance: President Kieran Hodgson didn’t disappoint; his interpretation of Oliver Cromwell as an angry south Londoner was, in my opinion, a sensitive portrayal given  the understandably irritating situation of Charles I making your-mum jokes. Audience members glanced sideways at one another to see if others shared the sophisticated understanding needed to appreciate a sketch entirely in French, happily forgetting that ‘mon hamster est mort’ was clearly one of the first sentences we all learnt at GCSE. The Revue isn’t a polished performance, but given the task at hand it’s hardly surprising. A sparkling script and peppering of real talent make the Revue a must-see. Just don’t forget your ID. by Harriet Stewart

Mpemba was a secondary school student in Tanzania in 1963 who had the fortune of re-discovering some interesting physics during one of his cookery lessons.

 

Having boiled some milk for making ice cream, his class were told to let the mixture cool before putting it in the refrigerator. Mpemba, however was anxious of ensuring himself a space so put his mixture in straight away.

 

The other students waited and put their mixtures in later, after they’d cooled down. Having noted the time his ice cream entered the freezer compared with the rest of his class, Mpemba realised his mixture had frozen significantly faster than everyone else’s.

 

He came away with the simple observation that “hot liquids freeze faster than cold liquids”.

His science teacher told him this was impossible and he must have got mixed up. So why exactly is this impossible?

 

In a subsequent year at high school Mpemba was taught about Newton’s law of cooling in science: the rate at which a body cools is proportional to the temperature difference between that body and its surroundings:

…which leads to the solution…

Any set of cooling curves plotted from such a function will never cross, no matter what the initial starting temperature. So a curve which starts at a higher temperature will never undercut a curve starting at a lower temperature and will therefore always take longer to cool. Varying the parameter k on the other hand could well cause graphs to cross. But this parameter is determined from some initial conditions, if both systems are not identical in such things as geometry or arrangement, with the exception of starting temperature, then it is hardly appropriate to compare cooling times for different initial temperatures.

 

However, Mpemba was undeterred by a theory which didn’t seem to support his observations: he’d asked a friend who sold ice cream in a nearby town who told him he routinely used hot mixtures because they froze more quickly.

 

Still persisting with this, in 1969 a visiting academic from University College in the capital called Dr Osborne came to visit Mpemba’s school and he jumped at the opportunity to quiz him about this apparent violation of Newton’s Law. Thankfully he didn’t dismiss it outright, and upon returning to Dar es Salaam, he instructed a lab-assistant to carry out an experiment to see if hot water would freeze more quickly than cold water.

 

The lab-assistant reported the hot water had frozen first, but not to worry, "I'll keep on repeating the experiment until we get the right result." After several attempts it seemed Mpemba was right – hot water would freeze faster than cold water.

Publish or perish

Osborn and Mpemba published these results in a journal called “Physics Education”, coincidentally the same year that George Kell at the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa reported the same phenomenon that year in the “American Journal of Physics”.

 

I said Mpemba re-discovered this; having mentioned this “Mpemba Effect” in one of their articles, the “New Scientist” was subsequently flooded with anecdotes from all over the world of only the hot water pipes freezing during a short cold snap, ice-rink operators preferring to use hot water and so on.

So this clearly wasn’t unheard of.

 

Surely the validity of this effect can be deduced by carrying out experiments – however this has proved surprisingly difficult. The Mpemba effect is only observed under certain conditions – there are clearly many factors which could affect how quickly water cools such as the geometry of the container, the volume of water and the temperature of the refrigerator.

 

In 1977, Jearl Walker published results in the “Scientific American” whereby the time to freeze was measured against the initial temperature for a variety of containers. His results showed two things. Firstly where negative gradients occur, water at an initially higher temperature appeared to be freezing more quickly. Secondly, this is by no means a universal effect, since most of the curves showed very little (if any) in the way of negative gradients.

 

On the aspect of repeatability, Walker reported that whilst most of his results were repeatable, he sometimes observe large variations in his results and said “I have not been able to resolve the controversy”.

 

So assuming both Newton and Mpemba are correct – how do we understand what is going on here? Can we somehow reconcile these two arguments?

CHECK BACK NEXT WEEK TO FIND OUT…
by Will Frass

Telekommunikationsüberwachungsmaßnahmen. Now that’s a word to get your tongue around after a few.

But that hasn’t stopped the Bavarian authorities from using it to their heart’s content, and, in doing so, smacking a heavy punch in the face of the anti-statist brigade.

The word – all 39 letters of it – means “telecommunication surveillance measures”, and, in the latest move by the Bavarian Justice Ministry to deal with terror threats, they’re set to spread from the phone to the internet. That’s right, the German police want to be able to eavesdrop on our Skype calls. My Skype calls.

A leaked memo revealing correspondence within the Ministry outlining the potential cost and pragmatics of a Skype surveillance scheme (the English is quite a mouthful too) has found its way to various minor news networks and campaign groups.

The list of functions available with the €3,500-a-month “Skype-Capture-Software” contains a chilling list covering pretty much anything you can do with Skype, including live export of voice, chat and video communication, outgoing calls, SMS messages and Skypecasts. They can even find out who’s on your Buddy list.

It looks like the nation whose language gave us Kafka’s Trial may be playing host to the real thing.

Hat tip: Spreeblick

Cherwell 24 is not responsible for the content of external links

Ahh, the Swinging Sixties. An age of change. Music preached individual freedom, and a potent utopia, mingled with even more potent narcotics, fuelled the nation’s youth. The cocktail was compelling. The decade of equality, world peace and civil rights saw the empowerment of the young in the political arena. But who exactly took up this position at the forefront of a social revolution that broke the conservative shackles? The students of course. The young had arrived, without their chaperones, and they would not come quietly. Sit-in protests, staged across universities in opposition to the Vietnam war, and frenzied street protests in Paris, which almost culminated in the collapse of the De Gaulle government, were all driven by an outraged student population. 1968 saw the period reach its climax in a hot bed of student activism. Having emerged from the oppressive climate of the 1950s, donning a red beret and waving posters, we truly believed we could change the world. But has this flame of optimism flickered out?Lord Triesman was recently quoted in the Guardian, bemoaning the inactivity of today’s youth. The modern student, unlike his parents, apparently no longer deems it ‘cool’ to protest, apparently preferring a night at Filth instead. ‘Students are spending more time socially than before,’ he says. ‘In 1968, being involved was seen as absolutely right and there was a lot of mutual support. But now the alternative might be to do almost anything else.’Even the OUSU elections last term, with an uninspiring turn-out rate of around 40%, was a relative success compared to the voter turnout of just 2.6% at the NUS representative elections at Plymouth University. If it is simply that students no longer want to exercise the hard-won democratic rights of their revolutionary parents, where does this mass of apathy come from?Perhaps students aren’t as eager as their predecessors to leap from their lectures and take to the streets, but is this to be regretted? Was the volatility of past generations an indication of true political engagement or merely an expression of rebellious culture; merely a universal ‘fingers up’ at the establishment? Many of today’s students are simply disillusioned with politics, even at university level. The recent scandal at the Oxford Union elections has tainted an institution of integrity and forward-thinking with the bitter taste of sleaze and corruption.  To label today’s student population as an unthinking mass, indifferent to everything aside from their immediate entertainment, is surely a grossly unjust generalisation. Many students are opinionated, aware and ready to let the establishment know about it. HSBC was recently forced to drop its plans to charge graduates 9.9% APR on overdrafts after a mass student protest via Facebook. Broader issues too are not met with disinterest, but fiercely debated. The Manchester University Student Union general meeting saw the venue overwhelmed as hundreds wished to register their vote on the institution’s recent twinning with a Palestinian university. The media’s addiction to controversy has driven many protests to attention-grabbing extremes. The anti-fascist protest outside the free speech forum at the Oxford Union last term could be seen as an example of this. A number of protesters charged the gate and forced their way into the debating chamber. Whilst these antics provided perfect journalistic fodder, they seemed to distract from the essence of the protesters' purpose. This makes it far easier for the opposition to dismiss their point of view. In The Independent, the day after the forum, Nick Griffin was quoted as saying, “we in the BNP are certainly not in the fascist tradition. Free speech and democracy are our absolute core values”. The fact that the leader of a group of extremists could fashion himself as a beacon of democracy, in comparison to the group of anti-fascist protesters, in my view shows just how confusing the message sent out by the protesters was.  Perhaps we no longer feel our voices will be heard amidst the screaming headlines of celebrity scandal. The 2003 protests against the war in Iraq, which featured around 36 million people in almost 3000 protests, clearly fell on deaf ears. On 19 March approximately 1,000 students from secondary schools to universities sat down outside the BBC studios, blocking traffic. The BBC, however, neglected to film this demonstration. Yet, looking at our position in the wider world, we should feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude. In Iran, University authorities have adopted a ‘star rating’ system, which hinders political dissenters from progressing with higher education. Yet we are beleaguered for our lack of political activism. The wild protests of the past represent an age with a distinctly different flavour. Today’s political menu is rather more bland than the clash of extremes savoured in the 60s. Popular politics have moved to a comfortable and inoffensive centre, where ideals are diluted to create a dish more palatable to the majority. Are we now satisfied and well-fed? The restless students of yesterday have fought our battles,  and the liberal democracy of today is our inheritance. Surely we have more to achieve?Maybe criticism levelled at the students is a call for us to take a position currently vacant in today’s society. We rely on the youth to ignite political engagement and provide a counter-voice to the government. This role is not just for aging commies, and unemployed hippies – it belongs to you. Students, your country needs you.by Sophia Coles and Zoe Savory.

A judge has denied Oxford University’s request for an exclusion zone to keep animal rights protesters away from the Sheldonian Theatre during graduation ceremonies.

A ban on protests against the University’s new animal testing laboratory was requested on grounds that the protesters’ shouts would ruin the “peace and quiet” of the ceremonies.

Mr Justice Treacy of the High Court in London ruled against the University’s appeal on the grounds of lacking evidence to prove the protesters’ threat to students during the Sheldonian proceedings.

Instead, the judge granted an additional 100 meters to the exclusion zone around the nearly completed laboratory in South Parks Road, so that students, faculty, and researchers will not be disturbed. The extension was issued on the  grounds that only construction workers of the lab were being given protection, and not students and faculty.

There have been previous incidents of violent attacks against the University's students and staff. Extremist activists have threatened and attacked University property, saying that the laboratory will be dismantled “brick by brick.”

“There is a high probability that unlawful harassment… will take place as a result from the unrestrained gathering of protesters,” said Justice Treacy.A university spokesman, however, says the institution will not be stirred.“The university remains firmly committed to the completion of a new facility to rehouse animals used in potentially life-saving research. The safety of staff, students and others remain the number one priority.”

“As an institution deeply committed to freedom of speech, we respect the right to protest and to make views heard within the law. However, we will protect our staff and students – and those working with us – from harassment and intimidation while going about their lawful business,” the spokesman added.

A programme consisting solely of Beethoven’s piano sonatas promised to be a challenging recital, but also a very rewarding experience for any pianist or listener.  The concert was performed by Oxford resident, Geoffrey Hopkins, at the Jacqueline du Pré Music Building, St. Hilda’s College, on 18th January. 

Despite containing music written by solely one composer, the recital was very varied.  Hopkins chose three sonatas, which were written at different stages of Beethoven’s life, and therefore differed greatly in style.   

The opening sonata (Sonata in C major, op.2 no.3) was written in the early years of Beethoven’s compositional career and demonstrates the influence of early-classical period composers such as Mozart and Haydn.  Hopkins’ rendition of this sonata began wonderfully, with an expressive melody-line and secure finger-work.  The chords throughout were generally well balanced, although some of the larger chords lacked emphasis on the top line, and thus perhaps felt a little heavy for the style.  The third (Scherzo and Trio) movement was particularly enjoyable, although could perhaps have been a little more energetic, since some of the 'bounce’ of the music was lost in the scalic passages. 

The second sonata Hopkins played (Sonata in F minor, op. 57,‘Appassionata’) contrasted greatly with the first piece.  Hopkins seemed to enjoy the later, more romantic style, and this was evident in his performance. The tone was appropriately warm throughout all three movements of the work, and the first movement displayed some particularly impressive technical playing.  Hopkins’ performance of the ‘Appassionata’ sonata was particularly warmly received.   

The final piece was Beethoven’s Sonata in C minor (op. 111).  This is the final sonata that Beethoven wrote for piano, and contains some unusual harmonies and chromaticism.  Again, Hopkins’ playing was striking and very stylistically fitting; the second movement was particularly beautiful and expressive. 

Overall, Hopkins’ playing throughout this concert was convincing and technically assured, and the programme well chosen.  However, the concert perhaps deserved a more lively encore than that chosen by Hopkins.  After the intensity of the final two sonatas, a playful Beethoven scherzo or Schubert impromptu may have been more appropriate a conclusion than the slow movement from Beethoven’s G major sonata (op. 59).  In general, however, the audience was very impressed by Hopkins’ performance.   

by Sarah Blackford