VOICE The holidays are here! ISSUE06 DECEMBER2012 these people... Principal Mr P Morris Vice Principal Dr S Clark Staff Editor Mrs N Owen Designer Marshall & Kemp Press Officer Ms S Pearsall Photo Editor Mrs S Thompson Student Editor Michael Cartledge Music Harrison Marlow Catherine Groucott Film Michael Cartledge Abigail Evans News and Politics Sonia Wright Dylan Waldron Literature Shannon Randolph New Technology George Harding Science Namrata Mishra Gaming John Brittain Motor Vehicle Robert James Sport and Health Lauren Berry Fashion Rebecca Cutmore Emily Driscoll Gossip Natasha Crook made this possible... 02 The Principal’s Comments News 03 Academy News principal’s comments 04 News In Brief One Christmas was so much like another, in about the commercialisation of Christmas and Factual those years around the sea-town …… to look back with “rose-tinted glasses” about 06 Politics So begins “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” how much better it was when we were young, 07 Science by Dylan Thomas. I have fond memories of but, quite simply, it is a magical time. So enjoy 09 Technology Christmas in Swansea when I was growing it, make sure that you share it with your family up. Waking up at four in the morning to find a and friends, and never lose that, childlike, pure Entertainment pillowcase of toys at the end of my bed. Playing enjoyment of this time of year. 10 Fashion with my new red bus. Seeing all my relatives on 12 Games Boxing Day. Nadolig Llawen, 12 Film 14 Music As we get older the magic of Christmas tends 16 Literature to fade until we go through it again with our own 18 Sport children and experience the joys of seeing their 18 Gossip happiness. It is far too easy to become cynical 2 academy news children in need landau forte style Dressing up, having fun and raising money; participating in various activities in college. Children In Need. In total, we raised £684.38; these were the highlights of Landau’s Children in These activities not only enabled us to wax the every penny of which will be donated to Need Day this year. On Friday 16th November, leg hair from male students and tutors and re- disadvantaged children in the UK. Thank you to students and tutors were given the chance to create a famous T.V show, but they also helped everyone who took part! let their hair down and enjoy themselves by the Academy to raise hundreds of pounds for landau forte comes together for trussell trust landau forte The Trussell Trust provides emergency food Pentecostal Church, Steve Jonathan, with and support to people experiencing crisis; it many items of food in order to help poor day out offers a minimum of three day’s worth of food young families in Tamworth. This year, Dench to those families who need it. In 2011, 128,687 collected food to the approximate value of £70. people benefited from food banks. The one Once again, the Pastor, when he came into nec skills show that has now opened in Glascote, near the college, was overwhelmed and truly grateful for Not going to university? The NEC skills show old Manor House Coffee Shop has established the amount of food we had provided for families gave a considerable amount of advice to a successful partnership with LFATSF. Last in crisis in Tamworth. Year 13 students who had decided not go to year, Dench provided the Pastor of the Elim university or were undecided as to which career path they should follow. It was a great chance to learn about different careers; in fact, the exhibits gave us the chance to increase our knowledge of all the different jobs available to us and enabled us to understand what it would be like to be part of a big organisation. There were so many different types of careers to look into due to the size of the exhibit. Lauren Berry, Natasha Crook www.lfatsf.org.uk 3 do you want to news in brief adopt a spire? pac-man Milan’s main Cathedral has put its 135 spires cost €100,000 (£80,000) and donors will have up for adoption to raise money for essential their names engraved on the spire. So far, eight in space maintenance to the Cathedral. The spires spires have been adopted. Saturn “Pac-Man” spotted – astronomers have seen features on Saturn that look like the icon arcade game character Pac-man. tamworth floods Tamworth was flooded recently due to heavy local traffic. Other towns and villages around rain fall. The river, which is normally between the Tamworth area were also flooded. This isn’t 0.86 and 1.30 metres deep, rose to well over unusual: Tamworth was hit by bad floods in lost 1.68 meters. The Snowdome car park was 2007 and 1932. island also badly flooded and caused disruption to A south pacific island, Sandy, shown on marine charts and world maps such as Google maps and Google earth, does not exist. This island was considered to be a strip of land in- between Australia and New Caledonia. When scientists from the University of Sydney went to the area, they just found blue Ocean. 4 Sonia Wright VOICE hurricane sandy start to finish Began on October 22 An estimated $50 billion worth of damage was caused. New York subway, a lifeline for millions of people, was left paralysed for days after the incident. A fire reduced 100 homes to ash in Queens, New York. 40 people were killed in total. New York required $3.5bn to fix damaged bridges, $1.65bn to rebuild homes and $1bn to reimburse emergency services and city officials for overtime. Ended on 2nd November Dylan Waldron www.lfatsf.org.uk 5 politics U.S. election the results are in After over a year of campaigning and three In the speech President Obama gave to What will Obama do in his second term? Presidential debates, Barack Obama has won America just after his win, he said “We want the Presidential election for his second term our kids to grow up in a country where they Ins Obama’ next term in office, he will hopefully in office. The Democratic President fought a have access to the best schools and the best be able to do more of the things he wanted to do close race with the Republican candidate Mitt teachers. A country that lives up to its legacy as in his last term. There will be the obvious things Romney. Americans took to the polling stations the global leader in technology and discovery that he will want to address, such as making on Tuesday 6th November. Barack Obama won and innovation, with all the good jobs and new the US economy stronger and continuing to by a narrow 0.5% majority. The Republican businesses that follow”. decrease unemployment, but also the not so party have also managed to hold on to their obvious, like trying to get equal pay for women. majority in the Senate. What has Obama achieved so far in his 4 President Obama also wants to focus on years in office? America’s immigration system and for America Up until Hurricane Sandy hit New York, Mitt to rely less on foreign oil. Romney was just ahead in the polls. Many think In Obama’s four years in office he has that hurricane Sandy helped President Obama accomplished, amongst other things, the Who would you have voted for? win the election as, after he visited New York, following: the polls started to suggest that Obama was creating a narrow lead. • He was elected America’s first Black President • During his time in office, the US found and killed terrorist Osama Bin Laden • In 2009, in a worldwide poll, Barack Obama was voted the world’s most rated leader • Obama set an estimated date of when American troops will pull out of Afghanistan. 6 Sonia Wright science & technology VOICE This Christmas season has brought about is very lightweight. Moreover, it could have some scientific questions. We were pondering nanostructured porous skin which can reduce the science the whole Santa Claus logic. ‘Would his drag by 90 per cent. magical sleigh really work?’ and ‘Can reindeers fly?’. While discussing whether Santa could fly, And finally flying reindeers! with. Mr Smith (Curriculum Leader for Physics), we came up with a few ideas such as using a Moving on to the ‘flying reindeer’ theory, super conducting magnet to attract the sleigh. there are a lot of species that have not been behind Super conducting magnets are ‘diamagnetic’. discovered and evolution can occur at a faster A super conducting magnet is similar to an rate due to changes in environmental conditions electromagnet. The idea is to place the coil (selection pressure i.e floods or other natural underneath the sleigh so that the sleigh can act disasters). This can lead to mutations (changes as the superconductor. The earth’s surface will in DNA sequence) of particular reindeers have to have a large magnetic field so that the causing evolution and development of new santa sleigh can ‘levitate’ above it. species of reindeer which can fly. However, this can take years to happen. A quicker way is to Sleigh Science: try and genetically engineer a reindeer which has wings! According to Dr. Larry Silverberg, an expert on Unified Field Theory from NCSU, the framework of Santa’s sleigh could be made claus up of honeycombed titanium alloy, which Here’s a fun experiment you could try at home! 1. Purchase an Insta-Snow packet. 2.