Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller – a review
| November 29, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under entertainment, reviews |
Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller Chapter 1 is the first chapter of a new episodic PC game from Phoenix Online Studios. A chilling point-and-click adventure, the story follows Erica Reed, an FBI agent on the trail of the elusive Cain killer. Players take control of Reed, but not just her standard-issue Glock and Bureau ID; they also gain access to Reed’s psychic abilities, which allow her to catch glimpses of the past by touching certain objects around her. The first problem I encountered with this game is that it is pretty buggy. The intro sequence is fairly long, and seemed even more so when I had to endure it three times in a row because various faults kept destroying my… more
Geneva: a casual guide
| October 7, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under international |
Geneva is probably one of the loveliest cities on Earth, especially by night when its 140-foot fountain (the Jet d’Eau) is illuminated. Of course, when you’ve been there a few times like I have, you find out some of its dirtier secrets – like the fact that that huge fountain sucks up all kinds of things from the bottom of the lake. All kinds of things. But I still love it, and that’s why I keep going back. Everyone knows Geneva as the home of diplomacy, fine chocolate and very accurate clocks; and it’s true, these things are all abundant. But there’s much more to this city than that, and for me Geneva is most importantly home to one of… more
How to not be burgled
| October 2, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under lifestyle |
Crime is always a bit of a heavy topic for students – we’ve got so much going on with study, hobbies and social activities that we don’t have a lot of time to worry about being robbed. No one likes to feel vulnerable, especially when they’re living in a new place with new people, a train ride away from home. Sadly, we are easy targets: 30% of students fall victim to crime at uni according to a 2008 survey, with those figures increasing year on year. The most common crime committed against students is theft. We’ve all heard these statistics or something similar before, and most of us are tired of hearing them. You can’t help being robbed, right? Wrong.… more
Student cameras: a guide
| September 28, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under technology |
People say that your years at university are the best years of your life, so it’d be nice to remember them forever. On graduation day your parents will probably coerce you into paying £40 or so for a classic shot of you holding a fake scroll – but you might be wiser to pre-empt your dear ma and pa by suggesting that you make that investment at the beginning of your degree. £40 is enough to buy a perfectly serviceable camera that will last for at least three years, and the photographs it takes will last forever – and that’s not to be sneezed at, when most students can’t even remember last night. Here’s a list of five cameras that are ideal… more
Album review: Heady Fwends by The Flaming Lips
| June 19, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under entertainment, reviews |
This April, almost three years after the release of the adventurous and obtusely named album, The Flaming Lips and Stardeath and White Dwarfs with Henry Rollins and Peaches Doing The Dark Side of the Moon, neo-psychadelic rockers The Flaming Lips released their 14th full-length album, Heady Fwends. A collaborative project, the new studio album made its first appearance as a limited edition vinyl for Record Store Day, each copy complete with its own unique pattern on the vinyl itself. Featuring collaborators from Nick Cave to Ke$ha, the 14-track project seems to be as ambitious as Wayne Coyne himself; the frontman said of the album, “you… you won’t believe how great all this stuff is.” As it turns out, he has a point.… more
The devil’s advocate: The problem with beauty
| April 5, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under lifestyle |
There has been a lot of fuss recently over Facebook’s plethora of “most beautiful teen” contest pages, which collect and peer-rate the physical attractiveness of teenagers. One of the concerns raised is that such pages reinforce the notion of conventional beauty – that there is a perfect body type which all people should aim to achieve, assuming that beauty is the highest goal of life. People have begun to attack the groups by posting protest pictures, often featuring anorexia and other eating disorders, or by posting pictures of disfigured teens and attributing them the greatest beauty. The trouble is that a picture of a disfigured teen isn’t beautiful, it’s ugly, and the push to rebrand beauty is not a productive… more
The devil’s advocate: The problem with strikes
| March 28, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under national |
The recession has failed to cause any noticeable change in my life. Perhaps it’s just me, but for all the news coverage I personally have noticed no especial change in prices, spending, or the availability of jobs. When I’ve needed jobs I’ve found them, and the people I know have done likewise. As far as I’m concerned, the recession is a myth, but a myth that makes a good excuse for two things: remaining unemployed, and striking for higher wages. For those who are unemployed, I don’t think it is a lack of jobs that is causing the problem, but rather a lack of palatable jobs. Jobs in factories and manual labour abound; even in the news there are a… more
The devil’s advocate: The problem with procreation
| March 21, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under lifestyle |
It’s hard to believe now that before 1935 you did not need to pass a test to drive a car on UK roads. Not only has this practice become so ingrained in our society that we no longer think of it, but also the good sense of the test is manifestly evident. Even the most recalcitrant learner – I personally hated learning to drive – would have to acknowledge that in the wrong hands a car is a deadly lump of speeding metal. The driving test stops the car from getting into the wrong hands, and driving lessons help you turn the wrong hands into the right hands. It’s a great system. In 2012, no license is required to procreate… more
The devil’s advocate: The problem with “heroes”
| March 14, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under national |
Azhar Ahmed, 19, will appear in court on March 20th. His alleged crime is that he committed a racially aggravated public order offence – in the form of posts on his Facebook page. According to a police spokesperson Ahmed was bemoaning the attention given to the six soldiers who recently died in Afghanistan, as compared with the loss of civilian life under OEF. What exactly he said is as yet unknown, but the spokesman suggested that: “he didn’t make his point very well and that is why he has landed himself in bother.” I agree with Ahmed’s sentiment; I find coverage of army fatalities uninteresting. I don’t know who these articles reach out to – outside of direct acquaintances of… more
The devil’s advocate: In defence of murder
| March 7, 2012 | Posted by James Harle under lifestyle |
Is it worse to kill an animal or a fellow human being? The presiding opinion is not only in favour of killing the animal, but strongly in favour of it – animals are slaughtered on a vast scale to service the needs, and more commonly the desires, of human society. A good working definition of moral evil might be that moral evil occurs when a body consciously acts to the detriment of another body. This seems simple enough to be going on with, but it also seems evident that for a poor man to steal from a rich man is less evil than for the rich man to steal from the poor. I would therefore suggest that, in fact, moral… more
