iblog

Neill: Trash, the uber-trendy Monday night spot for the newest and finest rock and dance music in the land is to come to an end. The End, London, its natural home for the last few years is to celebrate the 10th Birthday party and final night on Monday 7th January 2007. The reasons for the decision to call an end to the riotous club night remain unknown, but what is known, is that it will leave many heavy eyelinered, retro clad, beautiful youth out in the musical cold. The night grew from its humble beginnings in the dingy, sweat ridden, underground nightspot Plastic People to its now grand status as THE place to witness the best in up and coming or already established rock-electro groups, and of course, the finest DJ sessions from founder Erol Alkan and his disciples. Over the years the club has hosted bands such as Soulwax, LCD Soundsystem, The Juan Maclean, The Klaxons, The Noisettes and special DJ sets from Jacques Le Cont, Tiga, Paul Epworth and James Murphy to name but a few. Trash will be sorely missed by the UK leftfield rock and dance seen, and by all those who frequented her packed, slightly sweaty interior.

Matthew: Have you ever received emails from Nigerian Princes, ambassadors and widows of Army generals begging you to let them use your bank account to get millions of dollars out of their country? Have you ever been asking for a small amount, say, only a couple thousands pounds in order to set up this transfer? If so, then you have been targeted by a 419 scammer. Operating mainly out of Nigeria, they defraud billions out of gullible internet users every year. One man has taken it upon himself to avenge every fraudee, and has made it his mission to make life as hard, and ridiculous, as possible for the scammers. He sets them tasks such as copying out chapters of Lord of the Rings or tatooing his name on their backs, with the promise that if completed, he will transfer the money to them as requested. To see his exploits in more detail, check out http://www.419baiter.com/

Charlotte: The last time I wore a cardigan I was at infant school and had trouble doing up the buttons properly. I am sure that like me you tend to think of cardigans as something your grandma would wear but according to the fashion pages they are this year’s must-have for the trendy man’s wardrobe. Do you remember seeing the Beckhams arrive at Tom Cruise’s wedding? Do you remember what David was wearing? Yes – it was a rather strange looking woolly cardi, the type of thing his auntie might have knitted him for Christmas. How ignorant of me to think that when he was obviously bang up to date in the fashion stakes. They are all over the shops now from River Island to Dunhill and some of the young City types are even wearing them under their suits for a more relaxed feel. Whatever your age or tastes there’s one out there waiting for you!

Charlotte: Each year more and more houses are festooned with external Chistmas lights. I don’t want to sound a killjoy like the councils that make carol singers have entertainment licenses or the schools that forbid parents from taking photos of their children in the Nativity play. However, it does strike me as a bit odd that we are dashing around buying low energy light bulbs and turning off our TV sets rather than leaving them on standby whilst outside we are using enough electricity to power the whole of Oxford St!

Charlotte: Do you despair at what to put in your children’s party bags? Spare a thought for those having to decide what to put in the goody bags for the rich and famous at awards ceremonies. Some of them are worth up to $100,000 and include such give aways as jewellery, beauty items, lingerie and luxury holidays. You may well think that a donation to a charity of each celebrity’s choice would be a more worthwhile way of spending money on those who already have so much and there are some stars who agree. Fortunately the tax man has come to the rescue and the bags are being scrapped due to tax implications so the stars no longer need to feel guilty.

Charlotte: You may be looking forward to Christmas but watch out for the dangers lurking, ready to catch the unwary. Undercooked turkey is a common cause of salmonella and even if you escape that culinary disaster, too much rich food and excessive amounts of alcohol can give you a stomach upset. Then there’s the enforced company of family members who may not be your cup of tea – very bad for the blood pressure to say nothing of the mental angst which can play havoc with relationships. Relate counsellors are rushed off their feet in the post-Christmas period. Finally watch out for the Christmas tree lights. If they’re not electrocuting you, they are setting the tree on fire and as for having them near that bucket of water that you were going to use for watering the tree….Merry Christmas but take care!

Matthew: Wind farms' most vociferous critics are always those who regard them as a blemish on the landscape. They ask; 'What's the point of saving the environment if by doing so, you ruin the way it looks?'. This, coupled with the issues regarding the efficiency of such farms, means wind power currently accounts for a neglible proportion of our country's energy supply. I am yet to hear a strong argument against building such farms at sea. The government has finally approved the building of two large windfarms of the coast of Kent, which by 2008 should be able to supply a million London homes with clean energy. Farms at sea can be built on a much larger scale than those on land, and nobody will complain (except perhaps a few fishermen) about the aesthetic effect on the environment. Wind is much stronger further out at sea, making the turbines more efficient. As a windy island, we have a huge abundance of clean energy just waiting to be exploited. We now have a clear signal from the government that they are open to the idea of off shore wind energy on a larger scale, and I welcome it.

Matthew: The government of Iran is hosting a conference entitled 'Review of the Holocaust: Global vision'. It is being attended by a selection of Islamic Facsists, Neo-Nazis and other generally unsavoury types of anti-semites. The Iranian state claims it is giving freedom of speech to those who have their views censored in Europe, which on consideration, is a difficult justification to object to. It is illegal, and an imprisonable offence, to deny the Holocaust in much of Europe. Therefore, when European editors defend their right to publish cartoons that Muslims may find offensive, a form of hypocrisy is exposed. We can question the religious beliefs of Islam, but we aren't allowed to question whether a historical event actually occurred or not. They are of course, different types of questions, in that one can be verified or falsified using empiricism, the other is a metaphysical and a spiritual question that defies empirical analysis. If this conference is a serious academic endeavour rather than a clumsy, provocative political manouevre, it will assess the available evidence and come to the facile conclusion that the holocaust did indeed occurr and was a shameful episode of European history. Of course, given the political context, this is hardly likely. But if Europeans didn't imprison anyone who asked the question, the Iranians couldn't hide behind the veil of freedom of speech, and the conference would be exposed as the ugly racism it surely is.

Charlotte: Time is running out, parking is a nightmare and the shops are even worse. It can be hard thinking of something original to give parents and grandparents for Christmas, especially when they seem to have everything they could possibly want. The problem is made worse if, like me, you are a hard-up student who wishes that they had not spent quite so much on that dress for the end-of-term bash and had stuck to the cafeteria food rather than take aways. Anyway, have you thought of giving a gift of your time in the form of a booklet of vouchers? These vouchers are promises to do all sorts of things from dog walking , cooking a meal and clearing up afterwards, ironing a load of shirts or even keeping the eccentric auntie out of everyone’s hair on Boxing Day. Mind you knowing my limitations with the iron I’m rather hoping that no-one will take me up on that one.

Charlotte: If you have time over Christmas and live near London try to fit in a trip to the Imperial War Museum’s exhibition on The Children’s War. It is fascinating and personalises all the dull facts that we had to learn at school about the Second World War. The highlight for me was the letters written by evacuees to their parents and vice versa. Some are just too sad to linger over especially the ones from children who were badly treated by their foster parents or even just homesick. The most poignant of all though was a letter written by a mother to her little girl who was being evacuated to Canada. She sent it ahead of the event so that it would be waiting in Canada for her daughter when she arrived. Sadly the ship on which the children were travelling was sunk and there was only a handful of survivors, which did not include this particular little girl. The exhibition is beautifully laid out and appeals to a large age range and what’s best is that it’s free!