Sunday, May 18, 2025
Blog Page 862

Reject the Tory attempt to build a surveillance state

Michael Shao
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Reject the Tory attempt to build a surveillance state

The most extreme surveillance law passed in the history of history of western democracy, in the history of democracy in general, is about to get exponentially worse. Which beautiful nation has the pride to be the beholder of such a law? None other than the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland itself, where God evidently saves both the Queen and your browser history.

A draft of proposed new surveillance powers leaked last week hopes to push new conditions into the Investigatory Powers Act brought into law last year. The government is asking for Internet providers to introduce a backdoor on their networks to allow intelligence agencies to read private communications. The security issues regarding backdoors have already been debated to death and the conclusion is that they provide severe security issues and a complete end to guaranteed privacy. Apple CEO Tim Cook commented on this last year, warning of the “dire consequences” of backdoors. All communications companies, including phone networks and ISPs, will be required to provide real-time access to the full content of any single individual within one working day, as well as ambiguously phrased “secondary data” relating to that person.

As an American, such actions would at least create some semblance of uproar. Notably, following the SOPA and PIPA bills, stiff resistance from privacy advocacy groups, numbers of congressmen and senators, and huge pressure from individual citizens stopped the bill in its tracks and struck down the legislation. In the UK, crickets chirp. It does seem like there are notable differences in culture that at least contribute to the passivity of the British public. Throughout my time in the United Kingdom, both in London and Oxford, and even the suburbs, the number of CCTV cameras, everywhere, has been disturbing, and this is a notable stereotype in the United States regarding Britain. It is unheard of for such condensed university living spaces, such as individual colleges, in the United States, to have as many live camera feeds constantly operated by porters, as they do here in Oxford. In this regard, the failure of the American populous to embrace state-sponsored CCTV the way the United Kingdom has is admirable. None of this is to of course, downplay or ignore the attacks on Internet privacy that continue to happen in the United States. To that extent, I am marginally glad that Ron Paul exists, as I unfortunately fail to see a British equivalent.

I felt genuinely uncomfortable during the first few weeks, when a splattering of CCTV cameras covered places far away from generally monitored areas like entrances and exits, in St. Edmund Hall, my college. In fact, one of the cameras has a wide pan of all of the windows of one of the large residential areas in college: we are literally being recorded as we sleep. I was furthermore astounded that the sheer capacity of it happening is not disturbing to anyone here, and that my observations were met by pure indifference. “Just close the curtains, man.” This does scale up with a more general state of surveillance in the UK, such as the proliferation of traffic cameras, the existing widespread censorship of various websites, all met by little opposition from both the public and government (the lack of opposition from government, likely being due to the passivity of their constituents).

I don’t feel like it’s necessary to even waste time arguing the “if you’re not doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to worry about” or the “nobody cares about what you’re doing” condition, because I believe that if you’ve already stooped that low, that hope is lost. I’m also not going to bother citing more specific metaphors or comparisons to Orwellian works, because those too seem to be lost in translation, given the massive acceptance of public CCTV surveillance and the sad irony of Orwell’s English citizenship. The issue is not the success of surveillance in given sugar-laced instances, such as the role that surveillance played in allowing Special Forces to catch a man outside Westminster carrying a bag of knives (which, arguably, is no more of a crime than driving a car outside of Westminster). The issue is that if the threshold of abandoning all privacy rights is knife attacks, then you might want to reassess your outlook on life. Unless, of course, we include assault forks in the threshold as well. Then I’d happily let the IPA go into action.

There are also, of course, fundamental conflicts in the nature of public opinion on Internet privacy. In the name of supposedly preventing terrorism, many individuals are willing to give up the undying individual freedoms that they so cherish, or at least, claim to cherish. My synthesis of the commentary on Internet privacy issues from British politicians is a teaching to fear the boogeyman far more than to yearn for human rights and privacy, and to even promote the idea of a “British-specific notion of human rights”. There is a conditioning to truly make British citizens believe that terrorists will be caught in their droves, audio streams implanted wont be used for snooping, that the data they willingly and potentially, legally hand over to the surveillance state wont be sold, or hacked, or worse, due to the infinitely benevolent nature of the government.

Unfortunately, it’s not surprising that the incumbent government is pushing through as much controversial policy as possible while they retain such a high majority in parliament. Recently, sentiments surrounding the results of the French presidential election have been surrounded with optimism, on the positive state of affairs and the possibility of an avoidance of the previously cited domino effect: the “domino defect” of Brexit. I, am optimistic about their optimism, but not with increasing pessimism that this progress seems to be limited, for the time being, to Europe, the UK no longer being a part of it. The likely future of an even more powerful conservative majority following the general election, a full completion of Brexit conditions, and therefore an abandonment of CJEU rulings on Internet privacy, and even a possible leave from the EHCR, is depressing beyond belief. For this, I do not have much to say. I don’t know, instead of the Tory’s, give Tor a try?

Empty voices speak freely but not responsibly

Ethan Croft
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Empty voices speak freely but not responsibly

When Bill Buckley met Gore Vidal in the summer of 1968, America’s conservative establishment came face-to-face with the counter culture. Over their many hours of courteous, if slightly heated, discussions, the exception was that moment when Buckley’s Cheshire cat grin gave way to an angry scowl and he threatened to punch Vidal in the face live on air. The point of the debates, well documented in the recent film Best of Enemies, was to take to two competing world views in late 1960s America and give them some breathing spaced through calm, televised conversation. But today, it seems the exception has become the rule. TV debates are now the realm of media provocateurs, whose aim is to provoke rather than consider. Yet, the presence of a mediator, who might point out a logical fallacy, or simply maintain some level of decency between the two ‘personalities’, is still too much for some. In short, speaking freely is more important than speaking responsibly.

Was there ever a better medium for the irresponsible voice than Twitter? Free from the constraints of moderation, 140 characters is the perfect platform for glib generalisations about something or someone we take a disliking to. It is defended regularly as the modern bastion of free speech. This is not the sophisticated freedom of expression, protecting the writer from censorship, or the protester from harm. It is rather the freedom to share misattributed quotations from presidential candidates, or the freedom to instigate hate campaigns against Hollywood actresses who have too much to say for themselves. It is no surprise that the King, or in his own words the Nero, of all irresponsible voices, Milo Yiannopoulos, was so outraged at his banning from the website. And he has now substituted the approval of a hundred thousand cheering egg profiles with a physical re-enactment of the Twitter dynamic, trotting around university campuses with a series of pre-prepared riffs on the usual topics (evil feminists, ‘social justice warriors’, and the new president) to the thunderous applause of his paying fans, who shout down any opposition. Only on campuses such as Berkeley, outside of cyberspace, can we appreciate the ugliness of much of Twitter, where people throw sticks and stones in place of the words that might have hurt online.

Twitter is often inaccurately termed an ‘echo chamber’. Though the institution of the retweet facilitates the bandying about of a single idea without nuance, there is still a palpable atmosphere of argument in the comments below many a viral tweet. In shrill rage, people talk over rather than with each other.

The problem, perhaps, lies in the fact that Twitter was not conceived as a forum for serious discussion. In his documentary, How Videogames Changed the World, Charlie Brooker called the website one of the most innovative games of our time, but a game all the same. If we take Brooker’s analysis further, it seems that Twitter is incompatible with meaningful discussion. Not so much because of the character limit, which can be evaded with threaded tweets, but rather due to the system of reward on which the entire medium is predicated. All users are engaged in a search for likes, retweets, and followers. This is particularly the case for those journalists and commentators who understand the advantage of a high Twitter following now brings to any job application, especially at publications with an increasing reliance on digital clicks. Generating content for an eagerly awaiting, but ultimately fickle, group of followers takes precedence over thoughtful analysis.

In one of its many infamous front page splashes, a few years ago the Daily Mail ran a headline titled ‘The Man Who Hates Britain’, in reference to the then Leader of the Opposition’s late father Ralph Miliband. The piece, which claimed the eminent Marxist writer opposed British values, was based on a diary extract from a 17 year old Miliband, where he angrily raged against English nationalism. Further to this, he thoughtlessly wished that Britain might lose the Second World War to the far more nationalist Axis powers. The fact that this misguided comment from an angry teenager might have done acute damage to his son’s career decades later is a testament to the power of the irresponsible voice. Many of us have said things that we would rather forget, and cringed at the memory of a past faux pas. Yet it was only by chance that the Mail stumbled across Miliband’s juvenile polemic. Now, the Twitter user actively records all of their fatuous comments and half-baked reactions in an easily navigable online database, often from a much earlier age than 17.

There doesn’t seem to be much chance of Twitter going away any time soon, and it seems likely that we will grow more accustomed to, and even involved in, the online shrieking contests that masquerade as debate. And it will soon become necessary to decide whether digging through the Twitter feeds of political candidates really passes as investigative journalism. If we choose to say yes, then we could possibly be faced in the next few decades with the most dull and sterile governing class ever. Or we can choose to accept the role of irresponsible online voices as an ever-growing part of our earliest engagements with discourse.

Spacecraft gets between Saturn and its rings

Cherwell
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Spacecraft gets between Saturn and its rings

On 26 April, NASA’s Cassini spacecraft became the first man-made object to successfully travel through Saturn’s rings. Cassini is now in the process of sending images back, revealing the most detailed view of Saturn’s atmosphere ever seen.

Launched in 1997, Cassini has been spending the last 13 years orbiting Saturn and has found seven previously undiscovered moons, as well as accumulating vast amounts of information on the environments of these moons. One of the most exciting of these is Titan, a moon found to have liquid methane and ethane—the only place in our solar system other than Earth to sustain liquid on its surface.

Cassini was able to travel through Saturn’s rings by shielding itself with the dish used for communication to Earth, making it unable to communicate with scientists back at NASA’s HQ for a nervous 20 hours. With the craft travelling at 77,000 miles per hour, even the smallest dust particles predicted to lie in the region between Saturn and its rings could have catastrophic consequences if it were to hit a sensitive area of the spacecraft.

However, Cassini’s Radio and Plasma Wave Science (RPWS) instrument was kept outside of the protective antenna, allowing for Cassini to record the frequency and impact of the particles hitting it. This data was then converted into an audio format to create sounds that represent the collisions that occurred as Cassini navigated through the region between Saturn and its rings.

Through analysis of the data, it was found that Cassini did not encounter any particles bigger than particles of smoke. This came as a surprise to the RPWS team, who were expecting much more of a turbulent ride for the spacecraft.

“The region between the rings and Saturn is ‘the big empty,’ apparently,” said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize, in a press release from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “Cassini will stay the course, while the scientists work on the mystery of why the dust level is much lower than expected.”

By successfully navigating through Saturn’s rings and entering the region between Saturn and its rings, Cassini begins the final stage of its almost 20 year expedition—the Grand Finale. The Grand Finale brings with it the end of Cassini, with the spacecraft scheduled to dive into Saturn’s atmosphere on September 15th, 2017.

Source: NASA

View more images of Saturn taken by Cassini by visiting https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/

 

5 minute tute: Professor Joseph Conlon strings together string theory

Cherwell
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5 minute tute: Professor Joseph Conlon strings together string theory

String theory is a term that brings with it an aura of mysticism. One of the most famous ideas in modern physics and also one of the most confusing, string theory’s reputation is infamous. Talking to Professor Joseph Conlon, a theoretical physicist at New College and author of Why String Theory?, we find out more.

C: What is string theory?

JC: That’s a big question. String theory started off as a proposed fundamental theory of physics—the idea that all particles are, at small enough scales, vibrating strings. It’s grown in practice to be much more than that, and it’s seen now as a whole complex of ideas that stretch across and between both physics and mathematics. While they’ve been aspired to, they’re not necessarily reliant on the idea that at the smallest possible scale what you’d see are vibrating strings.

C: What is a string?

JC: It’s actually the same thing as your conventional image of a string. It’s something that has tension, meaning as you pull it the energy increases with the tension. They’re quantum mechanical, relativistic strings—so they’re moving at the speed of light and you have to treat them with quantum mechanics rather than classical mechanics. But at heart, they are just strings, and if you were to pull them larger and larger, their behaviour would map onto your intuition of the classical behaviour of a string.

C: What sets string theory apart from other theories of quantum gravity? 

JC: Something like the standard model of particle physics, for example, is something that’s very much experimentally confirmed. String theory, as a theory of fundamental physics, sits in this class of ideas of what goes beyond what is currently confirmed. To return to the question of what sets string theory apart from other theories of quantum gravity—it’s the way string theory has connected to so many other questions of interest. So this is why far more people work on string theory than any other theory of quantum gravity. Most people who work on it, including myself, don’t do so because their main focus is quantum gravity—it’s because string theory gives them insights into, tools, or ways of thinking about other problems they’re interested in, because of this very rich mathematical structure that string theory contains.

C: Why does string theory require so many dimensions?

JC: There’s a technical answer which is that, if you look at the equations, you realize that if you have flat dimensions, something goes wrong. There’s what’s called an anomaly, the equations don’t work unless you have a specific number of spatial dimensions—not more and not less. Rather surprisingly, all the equations don’t work unless you have ten dimensions.

C: Is there any hope in the future of having evidence that suggest that these dimensions exist?

JC: There’s little hope in the immediate future of having something like a definite up or down test for string theory. There’s quite a lot of ideas where you can think about string inspired plausible chains of reasoning, which are ideas that, if you weren’t thinking about a theory as fundamentally higher dimensional, you wouldn’t be particularly led to thinking about these things, but they give you a very good motivation. One example is particles like axions—I think about how you might observe these using astrophysical observations—these arise very naturally in string theory, and in string theory you can get lots of axions.

It’s not a logical consistency requirement, but it’s something which string theory suggests should be naturally true about our universe: it motivates us to think about how we can observe them.

C: Have there been any results so far to suggest that string theory is the underlying theory of matter?

JC: Not experimentally, no.

C: Why are so many physicists excited by string theory?

JC: The reason is because it’s proved to be such a rich complex of ideas that stretch across things like particle physics, mathematics, quantum field theory, and cosmology—it provides ways of thinking, specific computational tools, and insights which draw things together. It can be many things to many people—even if you’re not that interested in quantum gravity you can still get things out of string theory that you can use for your own interest.

And this is why so many people work in string theory, because it provides something for them: it’s not necessarily because they have a deep fas- cination with solving the problems of quantum gravity.

To find out more about, visit whystringtheory.com and purchase Professor Conlon’s book, ‘Why String Theory?’, available now on Amazon UK.

Oxford University Hospitals “on alert” following global ransomware attack

Jack Hunter
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Oxford University Hospitals “on alert” following global ransomware attack

Oxford University Hospitals are “on alert” following the global ransomware cyber attack that has infected tens of thousands of computers in almost 100 countries, a spokesperson has said.

“We were notified yesterday by NHS Digital about the cyber attacks on the NHS and we are on alert at present,” said Peter Knight, Chief Information and Digital Officer of Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

He added: “So far, our strong security measures are holding solid. We continue to closely monitor the situation and have asked staff to be vigilant. Protecting patient information is our top priority.”

Despite concerns that the University’s internal emailing system may have been affected by the breach, there have been “no reported issues” so far, a University source said.

Students at some colleges have been instructed to update computers and be “extra cautious” with email attachments. Computers running software older than the latest version of Windows and Apple OS X are susceptible to the threat.

In an email to Somerville students, the College IT Support officers said: “We are taking steps to double check that Somerville has the latest security patches installed on all the College servers and computers.”

The email recommended that students ensure their software is up to date and update anti-virus software. It told students to “update [your] computers and be extra cautious with email attachments.”

There are concerns that once installed on a network PC, the malware will spread to other computers connect to the University’s server. It is believed that the threat, which has caused a reported 45,000 attacks worldwide, is spread through spread initially via infected email attachments. 

A University spokesperson said: “The University takes a vigilant approach to  information security and has been monitoring for the threat of a similar attack since Friday afternoon.

“At this point there is no evidence of an attack against the University, nor is there any evidence of malware infections. However the University will continue to monitor the situation and is ready to respond if required.

“Guidance has been provided to IT staff to apply critical updates recently released by Microsoft, and to staff and students to remain vigilant and to be cautious of phishing and malicious emails.”
 

The attack has affected businesses and government offices from Mexico to Russia on Friday, with experts, including the European security organisation, Interpol, calling it the biggest ransomware outbreak ever.

Computers at NHS hospitals and GP surgeries were amongst those hit by the malware, which blocks access to any files on a PC until a ransom is paid.

Royal Society recognition for University academics

Katherine Pye
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Royal Society recognition for University academics

Professor Tony Bell, Professor Yvonne Jones, Professor Alison Noble, Professor Yadvinder Malhi, Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt and Professor Hugh Watkins have become fellows at the Royal Society, following in the footsteps of the likes of Stephen Hawking and Isaac Newton.

Venki Ramakrishnan, President of the Royal Society, said: “The new Fellows of the Royal Society have already contributed much to science and it gives me great pleasure to welcome them into our ranks.”

Professor Tony Bell from the Department of Physics has undertaken pioneering work into astrophysical and laser-produced plasmas. He told Cherwell: “This recognition of my research gives me a warm sense of satisfaction. It’s more than I expected when I started out 40 years ago.”

Professor Yvonne Jones leads the Cancer Research UK Receptor Structure Research Group, which focuses on the structural biology of extracellular recognition and signalling complexes.

She is also Deputy Director at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics.

She said: “I am thrilled and honoured to be elected FRS.

“Since starting my laboratory in Oxford in 1991 I have been very fortunate to work with some wonderful graduate students, postdocs and colleagues. I am very glad that we have been able to add to the long history of Oxford structural biologists advancing biomedical research.”

Professor Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Principal of Jesus College and Professorial Research Fellow in Computer Science, made significant contributions to Artificial Intelligence and is an international leader in the field of open data.

He told Cherwell: “It is a fantastic privilege to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. As a young student, I never dreamt of such a possibility. I have been fortunate, I have worked with great colleagues and have seen the areas of AI and computer science that I research grow dramatically.”

Professor Hugh Watkins is the Head of the Radcliffe Department of Medicine and Honorary Consultant in Cardiology and General Medicine, and has has a major impact in medicine using molecular genetic analysis of cardiovascular disease to identify disease mechanisms and therapeutic targets.

Warkins said: “I am excited and honoured to have been elected as a fellow of the Royal Society. Not many clinical academics achieve this and for me it has been possible because I am fortunate to work with many exceptional colleagues. Our work really has improved the way we look after patients with inherited heart disease, and that is a privilege.”

The two other professors awarded the fellowship are Professor Alison Noble and Professor Yadvinder Malhi. Professor Noble is the Technikos Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Oxford University, and is raising the profile of ultrasound imaging in biomedical image analysis. Professor Malhi, based in the School of Geography and the Environment, is a leader in promoting the conservation of forests through research collaboration and capacity building in tropical countries.

Both were contacted for comment.

Oxford students take on Tories over cuts to art funding

Jordan Bernstein
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Oxford students take on Tories over cuts to art funding

A group of Oxford University Fine Art students staged an ‘Open Source Artists’ exhibition this week to encourage more awareness of the need for art in the school curriculum. The project follows prolonged and severe cuts to arts education at a national level.

The exhibition, closing today, was set up at the Oxford Academy, following a visit by Fine Art student Jose Mario Dello. Following the visit, Dello took to getting support from some of his fellow Art undergraduates.

The Oxford Academy’s Head of Art, Jaclyn Wiid, said arts teaching was being “pushed out”. She added: “We are very fortunate in that we still offer arts and graphic subjects at GCSE whereas other schools have cut the subjects completely.”

Wiid’s comments reflect concerns over cut-backs in creative funding in schools across the state sector. Between 2010 and 2015, funding to Arts Council England was cut by 32 per cent, with local authority arts funding cut by £56 million across the UK.

16 students from Oxford University took part in the exhibition. One of them, Suzy Vanezis, said: “I thought the launch went really well. You don’t have to be traditionally good at drawing or painting to be an artist.

“Some of the students weren’t very impressed but that was the whole point of it really. We wanted to shock and subvert the idea of what art is; that’s what sparks curiosity.”

Coming to the rescue: Scientists use magnetic sperm to combat cancer

Jonathan Stark
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Coming to the rescue: Scientists use magnetic sperm to combat cancer

A German research team have been testing an unorthodox way of delivering drugs to cancer tumours—by putting drugs inside living sperm cells.

A common problem in the fight against cancer is delivering medication to the right spots in the body. Methods such as traditional chemotherapy can be very effective in destroying cancer, but can seriously damage the rest of the body. For this reason new methods of precise drug delivery are being developed all the time: from antibodies loaded with medication to specially engineered nanoparticles, and even combinations of both.

Mariana Medina-Sánchez and her team focused on a particularly unique solution to this problem which they think may be applicable to gynaecological cancers—harnessing the natural mobility of sperm cells to do their bidding. Attaching iron-coated caps onto the sperm cells, the team were able to guide the sperm cells through magnets from outside the body, precisely controlling where they were led.

They noted that in addition to the ability of the sperm to move quickly to the right spot, living cells have a better chance of successfully delivering treatment into the tumour cells than an artificial nanostructure, as they are more compatible with the cells to which they are delivering their payload. While bacteria have also been suggested as carriers for the same reason, they are problematic since they can often provoke a hostile response from the immune system of the patient thus jeopardising the delivery.

In order to make sure the cells reach their targets, the team designed a cylindrical tube which fits snugly over the sperm heads and is equipped with a simple system of four ‘arms’ which, when they come into contact with a cell wall, eject the sperm out of the front of the tube and into the cell. These microstructures, called ‘tetrapods’, were printed and coated with a thin layer of iron which allowed them to be guided accurately by magnets from a distance.

After being fitted with the caps, the bovine sperm (chosen for its similar shape and size to human sperm) were directed towards a culture of HeLa cells (artificially grown human cells), carrying a traditional chemotherapy drug. The team found that they could control the direction of the sperm very effectively, and after 72 hours found that the drug-loaded sperm had successfully killed 87 per cent of the HeLa cells, a significant improvement over those cells which were simply left in a solution of the same drug. Interestingly, the trial with sperm cells which did not carry any drugs also killed a small number of cells through damage caused by the sperm entering the cell wall.

The team acknowledges that there are still some hurdles to overcome, such as decreasing the chance of the synthetic tetrapod disintegrating during the process, but they believe it could be used to great effect not just in efficiently treating cancer in the reproductive tract, but also in other diseases which can be treated in the same area, such as pelvic inflammatory diseases.

The method may seem bizarre, but it is proving effective because delivering a payload is precisely what sperm cells were designed to do, and it shows. They are very mobile, they completely encase and protect the drugs inside them, they are very good at working with other human cells, and they have an ability to fuse into the cell wall. If further tests prove successful, the humble sperm cell could have a remarkable new job saving lives as well as creating them.

Music without Borders

Prateek Alkesh
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Music without Borders

As I look forward to going back home to India I find myself listening to Bollywood music more often. Perhaps my mind is subconsciously hyping me up for the overdue return.

A particular kind of Bollywood music that puts me at ease is the one that is inspired by Sufi music, the devotional music of the Islamic mystics. It has long been a staple of Indian music, introduced by the Mughals in the 16th century of the Common Era. Initially sung in religious settings by followers of a certain sect of Islam, this music is now blasted on car stereos, in nightclubs, and performed live by fusion bands at festivals.

Sufi music manifests itself in many forms, though its most recognisable elements include the accompanying harmonium or percussion. These instruments feature to give the singer’s voice a unique melodic character that helps augment the stretched harmonics used to set the stage before going on to the main stanzas in the song.The music almost always references bonding through love, drawing from the early twelfth century mystics who believed that they could attain inner peace through emotionally charged singing and dancing. Now however, the lyrics are far removed from religion or spirituality. Significant others, lost lovers, and even alcohol are more common topics.

A ghazal is a poetic form associated with Sufi music with poetic couplets and a refrain, usually sung solo, often used in Bollywood movies. It is specifically written from the point of view of the unrequited lover, expressing the pain of loss, and the beauty of love in spite of the pain. Ghazals regularly feature in rom-coms and dramas alike to break the narrative and to provide emphasis at significant plot points. Given that most Bollywood movies concern some (tolerably) cheesy romance, ghazals make up a fair chunk of the charts on a regular basis.

After a noticeable lull in the genre in the 70s, Sufi music has been revived by artists like Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, his nephew Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, and Kailash Kher, who have collaborated with others to release contemporary albums.They lead bands that are inspired by early Sufi musicians, taking lyrics for ancient ballads but adding modern flair to transform ordinary songs into masterpieces that are cool enough for the young but still hold deep meaning for the oldies. Incidentally, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan and The Fusion Project will be performing at the Sheldonian on 25 May this year, and I have no doubt that it will be a full house.

Sufi music is widely-liked for the aura of mystery that shrouds the genre. Most Sufi music is written in Urdu, which shares most of the language structure with Hindi, but uses words derived from Arabic that aren’t colloquially used. Urdu crams emotion into far fewer words than it is possible in Hindi, further adding to the poetic charm of the composition while catering to the personal interpretations of every listener.

Artists and audiences famously have shed many tears after becoming overwhelmed with emotion during performances, showing just how much power it holds on both sides of the stage. These songs linger on in one’s mind for much longer than the movies they feature in, and the public feel a deep connection with this form of art. They would certainly be on my playlist to lessen the pain of the gruelling flight back home.

Oxford Union: University should not be a safe space

Jordan Bernstein
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Oxford Union: University should not be a safe space

By a clear majority of 33 for and 267 against, and following a tense debate, the Oxford Union on Thursday evening voted against the motion ‘This House Believes A University Must Be A Safe Space’.

Spectators spoke of long delays leaving the debating chamber, due to the much longer queue to file out the door marked ‘Noes’, in accordance with the Union’s voting rules.

Despite calls from Librarian-Elect Melissa Hinkley, the student leader for the Propostion, that many students would be “afraid and angry” that such a debate was even taking place, as it risked their “identities becoming academic debate”, the floor was won over by the arguments of the Opposition, led by first year PPEist Molly Greenwood.

Katie Hopkins had been due to speak at the debate, but according to a statement from the Union, she was “sent to cover the French election and subsequent reaction”. Replacing her, human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell drew rapturous applause as he spoke of “exposing” radicalism and bigotry with free and open debate.

Daily Mail columnist Peter Hitchens said his views on a range of issues, such as marriage, “would offend a great many people”, but claimed that if the possibility of offense were allowed to limit freedom to speak, we would slowly but surely lose “the freedom to think”.

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