Archive

Freedom to offend

Posted 11:58pm Sunday 12th October 2014 by Lucy Hunter

"Don't read it. I don't think you should read it,” said my friend while reading American Psycho. “It will upset you. There’s eye-gouging and ... stuff.” He meant it as a well-intentioned warning. But immediately my mind went to “‘Stuff,’ huh? What could this ‘stuff’ be?” As someone who is a Read more...

Hikikomori

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Kate Stewart

It’s 9.30am, the day before your first exam. You’ve finally managed to turn off the snooze button and heave yourself out of bed. After a 40-minute shower and a breakfast worthy of MKR you drag yourself back to your room. You frantically get ready to head to Central to begin the study you planned to Read more...

The Mapuche: The People of the Land and their struggle to retain it

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Bella Macdonald

Sharing their home with a six billion dollar timber industry, the Mapuche people of Aracaunia are the poorest in Chile. After centuries of land wars and inequality, the Mapuches, meaning “people of the land,” are beginning to break the silence, uniting to fight to get their land back and get the Read more...

Return to beneath the shadow

Posted 1:49pm Sunday 5th October 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker

As the pilot beside me pulled the small plane’s steering wheel towards him, the absent co-pilot’s wheel hit my knees. For this reason (and my resolute pursuit of urban isolation), I pushed my entire body against the side of the plane and placed the clunky headphones on my head. Out the window, I Read more...

A short introduction to Iraq and the rise of ISIS

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Matty Stroller

Earlier this year I had several promising job leads surface in Kurdish Northern Iraq. As a student of Middle Eastern politics, Iraqi Kurdistan (effectively an independent state in all but name) represents the perfect compromise: it’s relatively safe, yet close enough to the region’s “hot-spots” to Read more...

The master cleanse

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Josie Adams

For nearly 70 years, the Master Cleanse has existed to “detoxify” and shed unwanted pounds. Stanley Burroughs, who is conspicuously missing a “Dr” from his title, created it in the 1940s. Regardless of whether or not detoxing is a legitimate concept (it isn’t), the Master Cleanse has been at the Read more...

Alien speculations and human chauvinism

Posted 2:58pm Sunday 28th September 2014 by Lucy Hunter

On 24 June 1947, private pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing a string of nine, shiny, unidentified flying objects flying past Mount Rainier at speeds of over 2,000 kilometres per hour. He described the objects’ movement as being “erratic, like a saucer skipping over water.” A newspaper journalist Read more...

From flat out to flatmate

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Mandy Te

Despite Knox College’s desperate attempts at securing third year residents for 2015, all 80 second-year returners have felt that two years is long enough. It’s time to move on from residential advisers banning an open vessel of V (the constant fear of wondering if a security guard will reprimand us Read more...

Original and dark fairy tales

Posted 3:00pm Sunday 21st September 2014 by Anonymous Bird

Fairy tales, we have all been exposed to them. Whether it was a toned down Disney adaptation, a dramatic retelling like Maleficent, or even a book collection from our childhood, we’ve all experienced fairy tales at some point in our lives. They inform our understanding of right and wrong as Read more...

Long time lurker

Posted 4:38pm Sunday 14th September 2014 by Josie Adams

Forget TV and print, the place to be popular right now is the Internet. It’s not just for young people anymore, either: my parents use it to research, read, form friendships, and campaign for the Labour Party; and they’re, like, 100. Unlike the rest of my family, I am singularly terrible at being Read more...