Friday, March 29Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Author: Michele Theil

Podfasting: A Podcast Phenomenon
Features

Podfasting: A Podcast Phenomenon

Podcasts are an extremely popular way of consuming popular culture, media and general information. The iTunes Podcasts store is visited frequently by myself and many others in order to download and listen to the interesting content that creatives provide us. As Buzzfeed recently reported, there are a new sub-group of people who have discovered an entirely new way to listen to podcasts, which is to listen to them at double, triple or possibly even ten times the speed. This phenomenon is called ‘podfasting'. The reason for listening to podcasts at an increased speed is simple; to be able to listen to as many as possible in a shorter space of time. Every day, more and more podcasts are being created by dedicated creatives for their audiences to consume. Some podcasts release an episode ...
The Atlantic Discovery
Sports & Socs

The Atlantic Discovery

Royal Holloway Alumni Benjamin Ajayi-Obe, Issac Kenyon and Jack Hopkins achieved their goal to set the world record for continuous rowing on an indoor rowing machine, also called an ergo. This took place in Founders Square from Friday Jan 12 until Sunday Jan 14, where they beat the previous record of 30 hours and rowed continuously for 33 hours. This world record attempt was dedicated to raise as much money as possible for the Berkshire MS Therapy Centre, the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Mind Charity. These charities were chosen by the team members both for personal reasons as well as for the great work these charities do. They created a JustGiving page for donations and, as of writing, they have raised over £2000, half of their goal of £4000. Each and “every person who donates via...
Debrief: Rebecca Wilson
Features

Debrief: Rebecca Wilson

Speaking to Rebecca Wilson, a RHUL alumni who has taken the heartwarming decision to start her charity for homelessness, was a great pleasure of mine. We discussed her charitable pursuits, her personal motivations within charity work and the label of “activist”, which is a title she is “more than happy to take on”. At RHUL, Wilson studied English and Comparative Literature and began to want to get involved with charity work sometime during her second year when she felt that the tedium of writing an essay for her degree did not enable her to enact any sort of change in the real world. Her motivations were “initially quite political” as she is considered to be “quite socialist” in her views but they changed over time and, during her final year, “it seemed like the natural step to start [h...
The Hockey Club: An Insight
Sports & Socs

The Hockey Club: An Insight

Lizzy Blackett is the President of the highly esteemed mixed sports club here at Royal Holloway, Hockey. She agreed to speak to Orbital Magazine about her role as President and the intricacies surrounding running a mixed sports club rather than a single-sex one, as so many others are. When asked what her favourite thing about Hockey is, she tells us that “it’s just so fun” while laughing. She worries that her answer is “ridiculous” or too “obvious” but hearing her talk about the sport and how much she “love[s]” it, it doesn’t seem ridiculous at all. Her love for the sport itself fuels her passion towards the club, its members and her presidency as a whole. Blackett “started playing Hockey” when she was just six years old, and both her parents “are Hockey players” as well. The club “p...
Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal
News

Sexism Storm Surrounds Royal Holloway Principal

Royal Holloway Principal, Professor Layzell has claimed the university has a “transparent and fair pay system” despite having the seventh worst gender pay gap in the country at professorial level. Speaking at his last Staff Open Meeting in November, he claimed the problem was instead rooted in the fact there are not enough women going for promotion. In a recording of the meeting obtained by Orbital Magazine, the Principal claimed that “there are certain protected groups where there is a natural tendency to not have a go and put themselves in for promotion - sometimes that’s gender, sometimes it’s the BAME group”. The Principal is facing backlash from his “natural tendency” comments, with one member of staff in the Geography Department telling Orbital that it was “an example of ev...
Make Up Your Time
Opinion

Make Up Your Time

Makeup has been a fun and longstanding tool for people to create a brand-new outlook for themselves to present to the world. Personally, I find it useful to cover the lingering effects of that morning’s hangover. Most people would have been exposed to makeup from age 12 or 13, going through the stages of experimentation as they move through puberty and secondary school. With the abundance of makeup tutorials and the wide array of makeup brands we have access to, the world of makeup has never been the same. There are hundreds of YouTube channels and Instagram accounts that are dedicated solely to makeup reviews, hauls and specialised looks for every occasion imaginable. It is wonderful that there is an opportunity for creativity to strive and for people to utilise makeup at their leisure. B...
Silent Until Now
Culture & Literature, Film & TV

Silent Until Now

Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault Rape is despicable. That is a statement that can’t ever be disputed. In the wake of allegations against such high-profile people like Harvey Wienstein, Louis C.K and Kevin Spacey and the widely-popular #metoo campaign, there are more people than ever who are able to speak up about what has happened to them. Unfortunately, despite the progressive and welcoming atmosphere we find ourselves in, men who have been sexually assaulted continue to be silenced and are treated poorly by charities and police. With a new documentary from BBC Three, men are openly speaking up about their sexual assault experiences in order to help lift the stigma from such a prominent issue in society. The documentary is called Male Rape: Breaking the Silence, an homage to those th...
Innovative Documenting: RHUL Student Wins Film Award
News

Innovative Documenting: RHUL Student Wins Film Award

A PHD student here at Royal Holloway has been awarded with the ‘Innovation Award’ at this year’s AHCR Research Film Awards. The winners were announced earlier this month, with Iris Zaki’s short documentary Shampoo Summit winning overall. Zaki directed, produced, wrote, edited and filmed the documentary by herself. The documentary was filmed in the Israeli city of Haifa, where Zaki is originally from. Zaki got a job in a hair salon in the city and subsequently placed a camera on the edge of a washbasin so that it would face a customer as their hair was being shampooed by Zaki. Judges said that this was an “innovative technique” to use in this type of filming. Zaki would talk to the clients about a myriad of topics, including but not limited to, Israeli history and politics, general li...
RHUL Historian Awarded Prestigious Prize
News

RHUL Historian Awarded Prestigious Prize

Earlier this year, Daniel Beer, British historian and History lecturer here at Royal Holloway, published his groundbreaking book The House of the Dead: Siberian Exile under the Tsars. It is an insight into Russian history and the Tsars’ role in exiling people to Siberia under brutal conditions. The book is meticulously researched and showcases the revolutionary spirit and the regime’s desire to quell it as quickly and effectively as possible. Since its release, the book was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize 2017, the Pushkin House Russian Book Prize 2017 and the Longman-History Today Book Prize 2017, all of which are extremely prestigious historical and literary prizes. It is an amazing achievement for Dr. Beer to have The House of the Dead chosen. On Nov 17, The House of the De...
Why WiFi?
Science & Technology

Why WiFi?

Child Development, a respected journal of Psychology, published a paper in May of this year claiming that WiFi is linked to autism. The paper was written by Cindy Sage and Ernesto Burgio and was published in a section addressing technological risks. UK national media unfortunately picked up the story, with an article in The Daily Express asking the following question: Could wireless technology be causing MAJOR health problems in your children? Obviously, this is a ridiculous notion as there has never been any evidence that found developmental health risks linked to technology in this way. The original review and the subsequent article stated that “wireless mobile phones, laptops and tables could be causing major heath problems in children and contributing to autism and hyperactivi...