president – The Orbital

6Mar

By Madeline BreedNo Comments

Elections

SU President

In a joint venture with Insanity Radio, we have interviewed Presidential candidate Jack O'Neill – presidential candidate Rubuiya Y. Zannat declined to be interviewed – and created a podcast with questions that delve deeper into their individual manifesto points. Our ongoing Sabbatical Officer coverage and involvement with the elections has been exceptional this year, with the media outlets chairing Candidate Question Time, and we will continue with this by interviewing all winning candidates on elections night so keep an eye out for our coverage. Here are our brief summaries of each candidate and their manifestos: Jack O'Neill Jack O'Neill has been VP Education this year and is aiming to follow in predecessor Clem Jones' footsteps by running for the role of President this year. He ha...

7Jul

By Louisa WicksNo Comments

Sports & Socs

An Interview with Pole Dancing

Pole fitness is a hugely up-and-coming activity around the world, and Royal Holloway recently added it to its lengthy list of societies. I spoke to the president of the society, Marta Barton-Navarro, to find out why she joined and why pole fitness is becoming such a popular club. Why did you join the society? I decided to join the society because it was so different and exotic compared to any other society and club. It seemed like a challenge, and once I tried it I got hooked and didn’t want to stop! What does the society do? This academic year not only have we provided Pole Fitness lessons, but we have also added aerial hoop lessons as part of the society. Also new to this year, we have competed in a competition called Inter Uni Pole Dance Competition (IUPDC), where we went to Imperia...

7Jun

By Izzy SwansonNo Comments

Opinion

President Celebrity

At January’s Golden Globes, a new potential presidential candidate was born: Oprah Winfrey. In her acceptance speech for the Cecil B. DeMille award, she projected a message of solidarity and hope addressed to women across the world who have experienced sexual abuse and inequality. Raised by a single mother in poverty, Oprah’s rise from years of sexual abuse as a child to becoming the richest self-made woman in America, is a deeply inspirational story. Her influence on the American public, initially stemming from The Oprah Winfrey Show, which embedded topics such as racism, LGBT awareness and gun control into a national discourse, left Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois, to suggest that she was ‘the most instrumental person in electing Barack Obama president’. With her charitable dona...

2Oct

By Michele TheilNo Comments

Science & Technology

Vaccination Fears Go Viral

People are divided on the role of vaccinations. Most see them as a godsend, the product of the miracles of modern science, and the only way to prevent their children from getting diseases like Diphtheria, Polio, Smallpox, Measles and Whooping Cough. There are, however, a growing faction of people that are against inoculating children with vaccines as they believe that there are doubts over the antigens contained within vaccines and the effects they may have on their children and families. In addition, there are those who are in favour of vaccines but want them to be given in smaller doses over a longer period of time. Vaccination is, simply put, the process of injecting a sample of a weakened or killed virus into a person in order to provoke an immune system response into producing anti...