Features – Page 13 of 26

Interview with Amani Fancy; Professional Pair’s Figure Skater and ROHO Student

21Mar

By Louise JonesNo Comments

Features

Interview with Amani Fancy; Professional Pair’s Figure Skater and ROHO Student

Deputy Editor Louise Jones talks to Amani Fancy, professional pair’s figure skater, and how she balances being a professional athlete with being a student here at Royal Holloway University of London. Firstly, thank you so much for talking to us. I have watched some of your videos of you ice skating and some of the routines you perform look utterly terrifying but absolutely amazing! How do you have so much trust in your skating partner and what is the most terrifying move you have had to perform? To be a pair skater, you have to be a little bit crazy to be quite honest. I personally love the adrenaline of being thrown in the air and lifted all the time (I know, weird), but as you pointed out, there has to be an extremely high level of trust between both partners. To achieve this, it is ...

17Mar

By Abbie CheesemanNo Comments

Features

What’s the Deal With…tardigrades?

With a name meaning 'slow stepper', these eight-legged microorganisms might not sound very exciting. But tardigrades are arguably the toughest cookies in the animal kingdom and the most resilient creatures to have ever been discovered. First described in 1773, these unassuming creatures, only up to a millimetre in length, have been found all over the world, from hot springs, to Mount Everest, to the freezing conditions of Antarctica. Not many other animals have been proven to survive a few minutes of exposure to temperatures of 151°C and equally 'live to tell the tale' after a quick freeze at -272°C (colder than the average temperature on the surface of Pluto). And talking of extra-terrestrial conditions, tardigrades can even survive the vacuum of space for 10 days, when we wouldn't las...

Campaigning to end homelessness, an interview with Rebecca Wilson

27Feb

By Yasmeen FrassoNo Comments

Features

Campaigning to end homelessness, an interview with Rebecca Wilson

Yasmeen catches up with Rebecca Wilson, President of English PEN at RoHo, and the organiser of the amazingly successful Big Sleepout last month. Rebecca, firstly congratulations for the result of the Big Sleepout, you began with the target of only £500 and now you’ve raised over £2,000. Did you expect the result to be as impressive? No, not at all! I will admit that I was totally cynical about the amount we were going to raise because I wasn’t entirely confident in how enthusiastic people were going to be about giving money to a comparatively small, independent homelessness organisation. Without Sarah Newell’s (SU Women’s Officer) constant encouragement and hard work, the event wouldn’t have been half as successful. But yes, the response to The Sleepout has been insane...

24Feb

By No Comments

Features

London Anime Game Con Feb 2017

London Anime Game Con has once again started the convention season off for me in 2017, and with a huge bang. The event was perhaps one of the best organised I have ever had the privilege to attend and, to my knowledge, the very first comic con-style event that the Orbital has had the pleasure of covering. I was able to enjoy this convention as, again seems like a first for me, it was sold out on the Saturday, something I had never seen happen in the number of years I have attended. For those that don’t know what London Anime Game Con is, it's an event that focuses more on providing people an opportunity to meet friends new and old, allowing them to have a fun few days out in London. Often this involves playing various arcade machines as provided by the Heart of Gaming, or listening to t...

A Throwback On Education… What Was Is It All For?

22Feb

By Stephanie BagnallNo Comments

Features

A Throwback On Education… What Was Is It All For?

As a Fresher, it’s scary to think of this time a year ago. A level exams crept nearer and nearer and we were nervously waiting on UCAS confirmations of university offers and places. It is also scary to think of this time three years ago where our GCSEs were dawning upon us, keeping us at revision sessions after school and trapping us in 5 lesson a day. Its also incredible to think that 8 years ago, we were at primary school where the most homework we got was a few sheets of questions a week. I come from a community in which education is, on the whole, discouraged. I am lucky enough to have a family who let me choose to stay in school and ch ose my own career path. This was not the case for many of my peers where they are not given so much of a freedom. There was an attitude of ‘what fo...

14Feb

By Yasmeen FrassoNo Comments

Features

CoppaFeel! This Valentine’s Day

Features Editor, Yasmeen, interviews the Asha and Francesca of the Royal Holloway Uni Boob Team about something everybody should be doing this Valentines Day and every other day of the year. Everybody likes boobs. Let's face it. Whether you're a proud owner of a pair or not, boobs are pretty cool. Have I caught your attention yet? Good. No, you were not duped into reading this, it is actually about boobs. But I'll let the interview speak for itself. CoppaFeel! is a pretty cool name for a charity. How would you best describe it? CoppaFeel! is a charity set up by a lady called Kris Hallenga, who was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was 23. It took a long time for Kris to be diagnosed, and by the time she was, her breast cancer was at stage four. There is...

7Feb

By No Comments

Features

Dune: Fear is the mind-killer

Syed Ali discusses why the RTS game series Dune, despite being hugely influential in its genre, has been forgotten by even the most seasoned gamers. Perhaps due to the recent announcement of a possible rebirth of a new Dune TV series or a movie, or just simply because I love Dune (1969) the novel, I wanted to discuss the game Dune and its impact. It's themes and ideas are something that hark back to the 60’s concept of understanding the relation of the mind and body, but yet dreaming of a future shaped by the events of the past. This lead me to look into the second Dune, 'Dune II: Battle for Arrakis', which is largely considered the grandfather of the real-time strategy genre (also called RTS). The story of Dune is odd given the game is based on the movie Dune (1984), not the actual ...

6Feb

By No Comments

Features

Interview with Sara Pascoe

I recently caught up with inspiring comedian, actor and writer Sarah Pascoe about life on tour and her new book ‘Animal: The Autobiography of a Female Body’. DP: When writing, do you have particular writing rituals such as special places, outfits or foods that inspire you to write? SP: Coffee is the most important ingredient for me- whenever i have tried to cut out caffeine i start to sleep a lot better, but i never really wake up properly and can't get any work done! Having a nice tidy house, neatening all my papers into piles can sometimes help too. But i also really like writing in busy noisy places like cafes and trains- it focuses me somehow. DP:As a psychology student I have really noticed psychological research, theories and evolutionary biology in your writing, how did...

27Jan

By Beth CarrNo Comments

Features

Meg Radios for Rob

Beth Carr reports on Insanity Radio’s recent 36 hour radio marathon for charity. What would it take for you to do an all-nighter? For alumni Meg Walker, not sleeping for two days is just a part of raising money for CLIC Sargent - and we got to experience the whole 36 hours of ‘Radio Robbie’ with her, live on 103.2FM and via rhubarbTV’s live stream. It’s certainly not the most usual fundraising method, but this isn’t the first time Meg’s been on air for a long time. The idea of doing a marathon started after her helping with the 128.7 hour marathon back in 2014 and when the opportunity came up last year to be part of the annual Insanity Radio marathons at Easter she jumped at the chance and took on 26.2 hours of live broadcasting, raising just shy of £1000. The duration of her firs...

26Jan

By Yasmeen FrassoNo Comments

Features

Swipe Right For Love

This Valentines Day, Yasmeen Frasso discusses the use of dating apps. Dating has always been a curious thing; since the days where Victorian women would be sought after and courted by a suitor (think Jane Austen) not much has really changed. You seek out a potential partner, work up the courage to ask them out and do you best to impress them over a series of meetups. The desired result? Having lots of babies perhaps, but if not maybe just living happily ever after together. Yet, as with everything, the progression of technology has forever changed the dating landscape. Enter the dating app revolution. Back in the mid 2000’s, sites such as the ever famous Match.com began to spring up, allowing people to connect and meet new people over the internet. Since, the rise of ...