Amidst the grim news of snap elections and Trump’s increasingly backwards presidency, some positive statistics about our (adopted) home city of Glasgow have appeared in the news.
katie fannin
A qmunicate Cavalcade of Comfort-viewing
Illustration by Isabelle Ribe
We at qmunicate know all too well that exam-time is a season wrought in caffeine and tears. Thus, in a gesture to all those labouring in the cold grasp of deadlines, and those lucky few who’ve drifted carefree into summer, we’ve compiled our favourite comfort viewing in an effort to spark a little cinematic warmth within you.
Share this article
An Ode to the Boyd Orr
Image Couresty of the Do Not Elect Milo Yiannopoulos – Save Our Boyd Orr Facebook Group.
The rector elections are all done and dusted, but one particular manifesto worried me so much that I had to refute it – Milo Yiannopoulos’. The ‘ten commandments’ of his manifesto were particularly disturbing – threatening to ban the university’s feminist societies, and promising to visit campus on a regular basis. However, there was one point from his manifesto which stood out as particularly worrying; his promise to petition the council to demolish the ‘truly ghastly’ Boyd Orr building, in order to ‘Make Glasgow University Beautiful Again’.
Share this article
French Trans Sterilisation Law Repealed
In October 2016, France scrapped its transgender sterilisation law; a law which stated that anyone wanting to legally change their gender had to undergo obligatory sterilisation. My reaction, to put it simply, was ‘WTF?!’ (and I’m sure many of you echo my sentiment). Apparently, this barbaric law was introduced as a way of proving transgender people were serious about transitioning. Because of course there must be hundreds of people agonisingly waiting months to go through gender reassignment surgery and legally change their gender for a ‘joke’.
Share this article
The Greatness of Small Festivals
Although big festivals have got huge names on sprawling fields, we wanted to give a little love to the smaller, unique festivals that give off their own charm. Katie Fannin, Aoife Maguire, and Evan Osborne look over their summer small festival excursions.
Share this article
Extreme Solutions for Preventing Climate Change
In June this year, the Norwegian parliament approved a radical plan to become climate neutral by 2030 – two decades earlier than planned. This follows a zero deforestation parliamentary vote, making Norway the first nation to ban public procurements that contribute to deforestation. The country is already miles ahead in terms of environmental sustainability; it relies heavily on its generous hydropower resources, meaning that the electricity supply is already virtually fossil free. But to achieve full climate neutrality, the government plans to pursue a programme of accelerated CO² cuts and carbon trading to offset emissions from Norway’s oil and gas industries.
Other strategies they hope to adopt include electrifying road transport by banning fossil fuelled cars, and increasing the use of biofuels. However, the country currently emits 53 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent each year – and in order to become ‘climate neutral’, Norway will have to balance the amount of these greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted with the amount sequestered/offset. This poses the question; what big changes can be made in order to reduce our impacts on climate change? And will they work?
Share this article
Swimsuit Tips For Tweens
The publisher of a US magazine aimed at 8-12 year olds has come under fire this month, after an article teaching girls how to choose swimsuits based on their size and curves appeared on social media. The article in pre-teen magazine Discovery Girl advised girls who are “curvy up top” to wear swimsuits with cut-outs to “draw the eyes down”, and warned against girls who are “rounder in the middle” wearing big block patterns. If you’re a straight up and down girl, however, you apparently need to “add curves with asymmetrical straps”. Because, y’know, it’s never too early to instil those feelings of self-doubt and body awareness into the young girls of the world.
