Ctrl Alt Shift is a social site dedicated to charity through action. Their aim is simple – to give you a platform to change the world.

They are racing to get 50,000 people to join the Ctrl Alt Shift website. Each sign-up will be a protest against the 12 countries that ban people living with HIV from entering, including Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.

Unbelievably, the US had the same ban until October this year. They’re now in the process of lifting it. It was only by people making their voice heard that this changed.

In the UK there are no travel restrictions against those with HIV. The ban doesn’t prevent the spread of infection, it just reinforces the stigma already faced by people living with HIV says the charity.

“The biggest challenge with HIV is that there’s no cure,” says the charity. “The second is stigma; not just from governments, but from our own communities. There are so many myths and stereotypes flying around that people living with HIV are driven underground. Would you admit to your mates that you had it? No, didn’t think so.

“This is why people all over the world living with HIV have NOTHING TO DECLARE.

“It is unjust and unacceptable in the 21st century for there to be such restrictions in place, violating people’s basic human rights.”
Editors and student journalists, what can you do to help?

Well it’s easy:

1) Register at www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk and get involved!

2) Embed the Ctrl Alt Shift Widget on your social network pages to show your support for the campaign and encourage your peers to sign up.

In addition, by joining the Ctrl Alt Shift community you also get the quarterly magazine for free with interviews with the likes of Estelle, Sway and Sam Roddick. You can also submit your own articles and content to be part of the magazine, highlighting issues that concern you.

Key partners such as Vice Magazine and the British Film Institute (BFI) offer you the chance to get involved through creative competitions, with mentors such as Noel Clarke, Alexia Chung. Music partners include Young Knives, GoldieLocks, Mystery Jets and Boy Better Know.

Get involved! Be Creative! It’s your world - Take Control!

RIPS, the world’s best-selling cigarette paper on the roll has launched The Great Rip Up, a national online competition to find a budding artist to design their iconic packaging, which has remained untouched since the early 1980s.

Artists must submit a design for the limited edition Xtra Thin Kingsize smoking paper box, to the theme ‘Road Trip’ by January 15th 2009.

The winning artist will receive a cash prize of £500 and will see their design printed on over 200,000 boxes, distributed through UK retailers and on promotional marketing materials.

RIPS Managing Director, Mike Gorman explains, “We don’t have any preconceptions about the kind of design we looking for, which means we want people to be as out-there and creative as they like. What we do know if that we need a design that will give our product standout in a competitive market and that really captures the personality of our consumer. It’s a fantastic opportunity for anyone who wants a leg-up in the design world.”

Artists are required to download a design template at www.thegreatripup.co.uk and submit their work via the website. All entries will be posted within the website’s Showroom until a winning design is selected by a RIPS judging panel in January 2009 from a shortlist of four designs.

Visit www.thegreatripup.co.uk for more information.

Writing to all students’ unions, president Wes Streeting described NUS members as “clamouring for change” and admitted that the union has been out of touch.

“We have suffered from poor management decisions, a lack of clear direction, inaccessibility and structures more adapted to 1922 than 2008,” writes Streeting. “NUS has been failing to deliver on key issues.”

In April 2007, NUS attempted to pass reforms at its annual conference, a notoriously volatile meeting of student activists and union officers from across the UK. But members failed to ratify the proposals put forward.

Since then, Streeting and his supporters have been considering how to succeed with a second attempt at change. They are adament they must push through proposals they see as crucial to NUS’ survival.

In his open letter, Streeting reveals revised proposals and urges members to back him.

“Our reform proposals narrowly failed to be passed,” he writes. “Missing out on the two-thirds majority necessary. Although the margin of defeat was small, we took the opportunity to listen to our members and following the conference we began to seek feedback on the review and to get thoughts on where to go next. We have considered all the feedback, made a host of changes and are proud to announce new proposals to reform NUS.

“This reform is so important for our national union as in just a few months we will have a huge fight on our hands: to rescue our higher education system from being corrupted by market forces and to prevent a future where the most esteemed universities are only accessible to the very rich.

“We must be prepared for the battle that lies ahead. We are working hard to ensure that the cap on tuition fees is not lifted and that a fairer and less complicated system of student support and fees is implemented. We need a national union fit to win for students and students’ unions.”

“For this reason I urge you to back the proposals and encourage your elected officers to choose change, because it is time that NUS delivered.”

Photo credit: NUS/Wikipedia

Writer, Anymag, University of Anytown
Broadcaster, AnyFM, University of Anytown

Interests: Fashion, Music, Film

Articles: ‘The poncho is back‘, ‘Review - Bloc Party at Anytown‘, ‘Guy Richie explained‘

Radio: ‘Breakfast Show‘

About me
I’m a 21-year-old fashion snob from Glasgow with a love of 60s soul and indie. I am looking for practical work experience now, preferably in a magazine office in Scotland but would consider a radio studio.

Read more about me on my blog and get in touch via email (bethanista AT hotmail.co.uk).

This example page shows the kind of profile that student media personnel can submit. This is your space - create this page exactly how you want it.

Photo credit: CCL http://www.flickr.com/photos/benimoto/

The study, commissioned by TV channel Dave to promote its Live at the Apollo shows, involved a team of academics trawling the annals of comedy history for two months.

Led by humour expert Dr Paul McDonald from the University of Wolverhampton, the team defined a joke as having a clear set-up and punch line structure. This definition enabled them to plot the history of the joke as far back as 1900 BC. The results provide a unique and compelling insight into how jokes have evolved over the years, both globally and in the UK.

The world’s oldest joke is revealed to be an ancient Sumerian proverb dating back to 1900 BC: ‘Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband’s lap’. The Sumerian version of this joke occurs in tablets dating to the Old Babylonian period and possibly even dates back to 2,300 BC. The study notes that this joke is almost the ancient equivalent of a well known quip by the stage actor John Barrymore: “Love is the delightful interval between meeting a beautiful girl and discovering that she looks like a haddock.”

Other jokes that make it onto the world’s oldest list include a more conventional gag from 1600 BC: ‘How do you entertain a bored pharaoh? You sail a boatload of young women dressed only in fishing nets down the Nile and urge the pharaoh to go catch a fish’. This is featured on the Westcar Papyrus and is said to be about King Snorfru.

The tale of the three ox drivers from Adab completes the top three oldest jokes in the world. Dating back to 1200 BC, this joke adheres to the so called ‘rule of three’ where the set up for the joke is reiterated three times.

By contrast, the UK’s oldest joke is a crude riddle that features in the Exeter Codex and dates back to the 10th Century AD: ‘What hangs at a man’s thigh and wants to poke the hole that it’s often poked before? Answer: A key’.

The UK’s oldest one liner is taken from England’s earliest jest book and was written in 1526: ‘When a boy was asked by the Law to say his father’s craft, the boy answered that his father was a crafty man of Law’.

Steve North, Dave channel head says, “Throughout the years, British humour has always had an element of witty banter to it. What is interesting about these ancient jokes is that they feature the same old stand up comedy subjects: relationships, toilet humour and sex jokes. The delivery may be different, but the subject matter hasn’t changed a bit.”

Dr Paul McDonald, Senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences says, “The Dave Historical Humour Study shows that jokes have varied over the years, with some taking the question and answer format while others are witty proverbs or riddles. What they all share however, is a willingness to deal with taboos and a degree of rebellion. Modern puns, Essex girl jokes and toilet humour can all be traced back to the very earliest jokes identified in this research.”

The first round of ticket sales for the 2009 event were snapped up fast. Booking lines opened at 9 am on 5 October and 50% of the tickets had been sold in the first day. For the first 30 minutes of trading there was the inevitable bottleneck as everyone wanted to be first to get their tickets, but as applications were processed the queue quickly dropped off.

There are still a few tickets available in this early batch, but organisers says they are likely to sell quickly. After this first round of sales, the remainder of tickets will be released on 5 April 2009.

Festival owner Michael Eavis said: “It’s really exciting that people are still remembering one of the best Festivals we’ve ever held and are clearly already looking forward to the next one. June saw the most diverse audience for 10 years or so, and hopefully this new fairer ticket system will mean that we have a great crowd again in 2009.”

The Children’s Mutual is calling for a change in the way society thinks about funding higher education.

With news that 42 per cent of this year’s undergraduates plan to work part-time in a bid to afford higher education, and with 78 per cent of parents saying they think that the credit crunch will make it harder for them to fund their children through university, the organisation says university fees should be saved for from early childhood.

David White, Chief Executive of The Children’s Mutual, said: “It is becoming increasingly apparent that we need a sea change in the way that many parents and their children fund university. For those approaching higher education in the next few years the Government has a clear student finance package in place but for parents of younger children, one way to stave off the financial nightmares of the current university generation could be to start saving now.”

The Children’s Mutual says that many young people show a better awareness of the need for financial planning than their parents. Nearly a third of youngsters aged 11 to 18 are putting money aside for higher education. A third of parents realise they are not saving enough for their children’s futures.

Mr White said: “It is great to see that today’s teenagers are aware of the costs involved with going to university and are taking steps independently to try and avoid the high levels of debt that are now common amongst graduates. But the average cost of three years at university now sits at £40,400 - a huge amount of money for any teenager to find.”

Currently four times more teenagers are heading to university than 30 years ago, but according to The Children’s Mutual, many young people and their families are only just starting to realise the financial implications of their higher education aspirations. The average graduate leaves university with a £17,500 debt and according to the report, “little hope of paying it off.”

The report also uncovers that unlike their younger siblings who are saving for the future, many over 18s hadn’t thought it necessary to save for university and think that student debt is “normal” and that “a ‘culture of debt’ is accepted as a normal part of life.” This is despite the consensus among these young adults being that “having such large debts from student loans made it easier to fall into further debt.”

The research, commissioned by The Children’s Mutual and compiled by the Social Issues Research Centre (SIRC), further found that young men are more likely than young women to be saving for university (32 per cent versus 28 per cent).

Notes for student media editors
Photo credit CCL

The Children’s Mutual is the choice of 1 in 5 parents for their child’s Child Trust Fund (CTF) account and named the UK’s Best CTF Provider 2006 and 2007.

David White, Chief Executive of The Children’s Mutual, is available for comment. Please call Elspeth Rothwell on +44(0)20-7781-2366 or visit the website: http://www.thechildrensmutual.co.uk

Talking to the Mirror, Healy said: “I can’t drink too much as I’ve got a gig tonight. I would love to be able to misbehave but I’ve got to stay in control. At these things you always tend to have a couple of drinks.

“It’s like being back at the student union with girls being sick down their frocks.

“It’s not a pretty sight.”

A survey of employers carried out by indoor sports centre SNO!zone found that many are bored by the standard personal interest such as “reading” and “cinema” on graduate CVs.

Instead, interests including snowboarding, martial arts and rock climbing came out top when it came to hobbies prospective employers want to see.

Of the 500 bosses questioned by SNO!zone, almost 60 percent said listing reading and cooking suggested a lack of imagination or ambition in a candidate, while 82 percent said an interest in extreme sports was an attractive quality, suggesting energy and ambition.

While personal interests were rated as less important than work experience and qualifications, more than 90 percent said they took it into consideration when hiring.

Listing an interest in any sport was regarded as positive by 94 percent, 31 percent said cooking suggested creativity while 70 percent rated a foreign language as an attractive interest even if it wasn’t relevant to the role.

Lisa Allan, SNO!zone brand manager, said: “Many graduates believe the personal interests section on their CV is unimportant and don’t really think about what they put down. But this survey proves that the majority of employers want staff that stand out from the crowd and show some individuality on their CVs.

“Not only do employers want someone experienced and well qualified, they also want someone with the right personality to fit into the team and fulfil the vacant role and personal interests give a good insight into an individual.

“The feedback we got was that extreme sports suggest someone is spirited and energetic and are therefore likely to bring those characteristics to their job.

“It just goes to show that not only do activities such as snowboarding or mountain biking keep you fit, they could also land you your dream job.”

Nearly 400,000 graduates have not made repayments on their loans up to seven years after they graduated because they are not yet earning above the £15,000 threshold. It comes amid concerns that graduates now face the toughest time in a generation as firms cut down on recruitment in the credit crunch.

Stephen Williams, Liberal Democrat Shadow Innovation, Universities and Skills Secretary, said: “It is shocking that nearly a third of graduates are not yet earning enough to be repaying their students loans.

“Having forked out for at least three years to get a degree, many new graduates would be expecting to be in well-paid employment.

“Aside from their student loans, many of these young people will have also stacked up large amounts of commercial debt which they will be struggling to repay on their relatively low wages.

“As the financial crisis worsens the burden on new graduates is going to be even greater.”