Tuesday, March 19Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Author: Kaelin Dignam

I am a computer science student who also likes to write!
The silver lining of mutually assured destruction – nuclear peace
Science & Technology

The silver lining of mutually assured destruction – nuclear peace

It's been about a month since I wrote my article about why war is highly unlikely amidst growing fears that it would break out after the US assassinated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. This article should be considered an informal follow-up to that, almost like an unofficial part two. You don't have to, but you should probably read the first article before this one as it will make a lot more sense. This article is less about reporting statistical information but more of a highly informal comment about war and in particular nuclear war. Since the second world war was ended by the hellish fire of nuclear weapons which were first unleashed to the world in 1945, decimating the Japanese town of Hiroshima in which almost 90% of the population were simply innocent civilians, the world has not se...
Is WW3 Really Going To Happen? Probably Not
News

Is WW3 Really Going To Happen? Probably Not

Concerns have been triggered worldwide following the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani in a US drone strike. In response to this, Iran has sworn "harsh revenge", dubbing the attack a "gruesome crime from criminal America", instilling fear in the entire world. Such events have caused a massive surge of interest online as concerns of a "World War III" grew, sparking anxiety amongst any Americans and European allies alike. This mainly due to the impending fear of being drafted due to such events, but also has surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) birthed a huge amount of memes parodying the entire situation. Such memes have also caused the hashtag #WW3 and similar tags to become trending on social media as these memes dominate the entire internet. But this obviously begs th...
Nato’s 70th Anniversary Overshadowed by Tensions
News

Nato’s 70th Anniversary Overshadowed by Tensions

Nato leaders are meeting near London as growing tensions between member states threaten to overshadow the summit marking the alliance's 70th anniversary. The three-hour talks are expected to address ever-growing issues such as cyber-attacks and the strategic challenges posed by China. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been named as the host and is set to remind the members that the commitment to defend one and other is at the heart of the alliance. The tensions began to grow Tuesday on the first day of the milestone summit as tensions began to bubble to the surface. US President Donald Trump and France President Emmanual Macron were already strained amid a dispute over taxes and trade, and there were comments from the French president last month that suggested the US commitment...
UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities
News

UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities

Two days ago the day this article was written the University and College Union announced eight days of strike starting this month, which will affect 60 universities across the country including Royal Holloway. The strike will take action between Monday 25th of November to Wednesday 4th of December. The action has been called in response to concerns regarding member contributions to the USS pension scheme, pay and conditions. There have been talks which could indicate the dispute could be resolved without industrial action, however this so far seems unlikely. Last week UCU members backed strike action in two separate legal disputes, one on pensions and one on pay and working conditions. Overall, 79% of UCU members voted for strike action in the ballot over changes to pensions. In the ball...
39 Found Dead Inside Lorry Container
News

39 Found Dead Inside Lorry Container

Police reported the vehicle was found just before 1:40 BST at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays. The report states that the bodies of 38 adults and a young teenager were found within the container, which has been confirmed to have been registered Bulgaria. It has been stated that the people within likely froze to death due to conditions within the container. The police told reporters that the trailer arrived by ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium into Purfleet-on-Thames. The driver has been identified locally as 25 year old "Mo Robinson" from Northern Ireland and has been detained by the police on suspicion of murder. The police have also stated that identifying the victims has remained their "number one priority" but expected the whole affair to likely be a "lengthy process". Despite th...
Snapchat Faces More Problems During Month of Turmoil
Lifestyle

Snapchat Faces More Problems During Month of Turmoil

Just after 4:30pm on the 14th of October the day this article was written, the social media giant went down once again, rendering thousands of users unable to send chats, refresh their feed or view other users stories. Snapchat released a statement via twitter addressing users that they have been made aware of the issue and are working on a fix. Other users were also quick to post to the platform, complaining of their issues, with the hashtag #snapchatdown quickly becoming a trending topic. This outage comes fairly quickly after another major previous outage on the service on the 11th of October, with outages occuring unusually frequently during this month. Some sources even suggest there have been up to 15 possible disruptions on the platform occuring in different parts of the world, ...
WedderBURN Is Burning Down
Lifestyle

WedderBURN Is Burning Down

♫Wedderburn is burning down, burning down, burning down. Wedderburn is burning down, early in the morning♫ We've all heard it before. Wedderburn is notorious, or dare I say infamous for its fire alarms. It's likely that's what we're most known for. Sadly and rather suspiciously it seems that a week cannot pass without someone setting them off. Whether it's due to students burning their food, showering with their door open, smoking in the lifts or even, recently, spraying deodorant into a sensor. At the date that this article is being written, the 9th of October 2019, the alarms were set off at 7:30AM this morning due to unknown circumstances. Rumour states that this was another drill due to "unsuccessful attempts" last week, others say the officials claimed "someone left their cooking ...