Richard's blog

So the wait election results is finally over, and we now have a full set of sabbatical officers for 2012-2013. I’m proud to say that I predicted 5/6 correctly, only getting Felix Editor incorrect.

Good Luck to next years Sabbs, we are expecting great things!

The Sabbatical Team for 2012-2013:

President will be Paul Beaumont

Deputy President – Clubs and Societies will be Henry Whittaker.

Deputy President – Education will be Douglas Hunt.

Deputy President – Welfare will be Rebecca Lane

Deputy President – Finance and Services will be Stefan Nubert

Felix Editor will be Tim Arbabzadah

Continuing the Union Election theme – I’m just checking back in with the “almost” final results. [I say almost as the Presidential Election results haven't come in yet]

**** UPDATE *** PRESIDENT TO BE ANNOUNCED AT 5pm TODAY (27/03/12) ***

The Sabbatical Team for 2012-2013:

Deputy President – Clubs and Societies will be Henry Whittaker.

Deputy President – Education will be Douglas Hunt.

Deputy President – Welfare will be Rebecca Lane

Deputy President – Finance and Services will be Stefan Nubert

Felix Editor will be Tim Arbabzadah

President is yet to be elected. [Sources say they may possibly to be released on 28th or 29th March.]

In lieu of any results, these are my Sabbatical Officer 2012-2013 predictions.

*** DISCLAIMER ******Please note that these predictions in no way suggest that these are people you should be voting for or people that I have in fact voted for. However they are merely predictions as to who I think the general population will have voted for. ****

Deputy President – Clubs and Societies will most likely be Henry Whittaker as he’s been the only candidate for this position putting up posters and submitting a manifesto.

Deputy President – Education will most likely be Douglas Hunt, he seems to have had a strong poster presence on campus. I don’t think the students will have the heart to RON him even though there are no other candidates for this position.

Deputy President – Welfare. This is a hard one to call as there are five candidates, however I’ve only seen two candidates with a poster presence on campus – Rebecca Lane and Jack Hewitt. I’ve seen more campaigning from Rebecca than I have from Jack, and their manifestos seem to be evenly matched. But I predict that the imperial voters will probably have voted for Rebecca over Jack with the current issues over Women’s rights groups in the union at the moment.

Deputy President – Finance and Services. Both candidates have a totally different background, one is a PG and one is a UG. Based on Manifesto’s I’d suggest that Stefan has a stronger manifesto as he has had an insight into the way the union is run from a commercial perspective which would be useful in this role, whereas Chandana appears to have a more Society and Committee level of involvement that may, in my opinion, be more suited to a DPCS role. I’ve also seen a stronger campaigning and shout-out presence from Stefan. I predict Stefan to win this role.

Felix Editor – This appears to be a two horse race between Tim and Alex – they both have a strong campaign and on-campus presence.  I’d suggest that Alex has a longer history with Felix, however Tim seems to have the “big players” in Felix vote. I think this position will be a very close call – either going with experience or with past-editors opinions. I’d have to predict that Alex will win this position.

President – as far as I can tell Paul is the most experienced candidate for this role (as he’s been a hall senior, is SysAdmin on the union servers and is VP of RCSU and Finance Society) closely followed by Henry (as the current ACC chair). Despite this Abdul has a very strong on-campus and online presence (stronger perhaps than both Henry’s and Paul’s) and remains a strong contender, however popular opinion suggests that he could be a controversial vote. My prediction is Paul to win as he appears to have a lot of the RCSU on his side and a lot of good publicity, which I think outweighs the voting power of ACC.

Time for day 4 voting statistics.

We’re ahead of Lancaster now and Loughborough and Exeter are well within our sights.

#FunVotingFact [via Monya Zard] over ‎70,000 votes cast! If we were using paper ballots, the stack of votes would be = in height to 32 emperor penguins. #voteicu

I’ve also been informed that post-graduates are also included in the “years of study” turnouts section – which is why there’s a difference in Halls of Residence voters and 1st Year of Study voters.

**Voting Predictions Removed until further notice**

My prediction for the final turnout percentage is 42%

It’s that time again, time for day 3 voting statistics.

VOTE HERE

After day 3 and we’ve passed the half way stage. We’re currently increasing at a rate of 6% per day, so we should make at least 40% by the end. However, with a final day push we could get a 45% turnout.

So yet again we surpassed my conservative estimation at 28.3%, but only by 0.1%.

The postgrads are still holding us back! WHERE ARE ALL THE POST-GRADS?

Looks like someone needs to go and get the Medics and Engineers voting, they’re trailing behind! [I'm Not entirely sure what classes as "other" but they should be convinced to vote too!]

First years and fourth years also need to be targeted, they both seem to have poor turnouts, as do 5+ but I assume that includes postgraduates – who definitely need to get voting !

So we’ve done it again, surpassing my expectations even if it was only by 0.1%! I think by the end of today we “should” be able to be ahead of Lancaster at 32.2%. However I think the penultimate day will be the hardest to get people to vote on, as many people will have already voted and those that haven’t can still say “I’ll vote tomorrow!”.

Bit confused here – how can most undergraduate halls of residence have a turn out of over 40% yet the overall first year statistics are still only at 24.2% – this seems illogical. Perhaps the union need to take care of their freshers out of halls better?

Civil Engineering, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Earth Sciences and Engineering, Mathematics  and Mechanical Engineering still have a sub 30% turnouts – looks like some people need to do some lecture shout outs there. Perhaps the union need stands in Huxley, Skempton and the RSM? The business school needs to encouraged to vote too!

Today we have one extra graph to show you!

I’m not entirely sure how useful it is – but it does looks pretty!

Thus Concludes today’s attempt at statistical analysis on a budget.

Credit again to Jonathan Kim for his awesome voting page. (And taking the screen shots for me last night when I was in the pub)

It’s 23:30 again and it’s time to take a look at the election statistics so far!

VOTE HERE

We’ve surpassed my expectations of reaching 22% today. We’ve made it to 22.6%! Go us, succeeding my arbitrary expectations!

Still – WHERE ARE ALL THE POST-GRADS? I know you may not know people who are running for positions, but these positions still affect you and your college life. So VOTE VOTE VOTE!

The scientists have decreased their lead, slightly… Engineers – MOBILISE we need to catch up!

We’ve exceeded my aim for the day!  For tomorrow I predict we’ll pass York at 28.3%, but I think we’ll struggle to hit 30% tomorrow. If we have any chance of reaching 55%, we need to get voting!

All the halls of residences for Undergraduates have very high turnouts – all have turnout of over  30% – some are even over 40%! Special mention to Tizard – who’ve managed 55.9%!

Aeronautical Engineering, Materials, Medicine, Chemical Engineering and Chemistry are leading the way with a turnout of over 30%. Life sciences are streaks ahead with 42.2%.

The business school, Civil engineering, Mathematics, Earth Sciences and Mechanical Engineering all have low turnouts. This is the first time I’ve seen ESE at the bottom of a table when it comes to filling things in online! I’m surprised that Maths hasn’t got a higher turnout – especially with a Presidential Candidate among their ranks!

Thus Concludes today’s attempt at statistical analysis on a budget.

It’s 23:30 and Imperial College Big Elections have been open for 23hours and 30minutes.

This year we have another awesome voting statistics page, made by EEE’s very own Jonathan Kim. Click here to see them.

I’m not sure if anyone is taking note of the scores after each day. So I thought I’d make an attempt to do it every 24hours.

WHERE ARE ALL THE POSTGRADS?

I’m disappointed that Engineers are losing to scientists… still I suppose we have to let them win something!

Important Universities we are ahead of after one day: Oxford, King’s and UCL.

Aim for tomorrow – beat LSE, Cardiff and Bristol at 22%.

High turn outs in Life Sciences, Chemistry and Materials would be to do with candidates running for Felix Editor and Deputy President Education from Chemistry, and a DPCS and Presidential candidate in Materials.

Ingredients Required

For 2 pancakes:

• 85g/3oz self-raising flour
• 1 free-range egg
• 10fl oz/½ pt milk (approx)
• Cooking Oil

Method

1. To make your pancake batter, whisk the egg, milk, and flour in a bowl to make a “creamy” batter.

2. Heat oil in a pancake pan and “ladle” mixture in, allowing it to coat the pan.

3. Fry pancake on one side for 1-2minutes

4. Attempt to toss pancake. [Techniques vary - I prefer the "stir-fry-toss" technique.]

5. Salvage pancake from ceiling/walls/hob/floor (delete as appropriate) and fry other side of pancake.

6. Hope that you have something that vaguely resembles a pancake. (If not, cover in golden syrup and eat anyway)

7. Coat “pancake” in syrup/chocolate sauce/ sugar/ lemon juice/ ice cream to taste.

8. Repeat until all members of your party are fed.

9. Realise that your pancakes were appalling and looked more like scrambled eggs than pancakes.

10. Decide that other members of your party must be punished for this mis-demeanour.

Throw flour on failed pancake makers

11. Coat all members of your party, and the surrounding area, in pancake ingredients.

12. Clean kitchen (and if you desire, each other)

Normally I wouldn’t write a blog post about food – it’s quite hard to do justice to the delights of eating a succulent juicy dish, however I’m going to try anyway!

Last Monday night, I went together with my roommate from last year (proving that it’s possible to share a room for 9 months and still get along and sharing a room isn’t that bad!), to a “Crab Shack” called “The Big Easy” for an all you can eat Ribs and Wings buffet. I advise you to stop reading now if you’re a vegetarian – you won’t enjoy this post.

Seeing as Ben and I have a rather competitive nature, we made it into a little “competition” the rules were, you have 1 hour 30minutes to eat as many Ribs and Wings as you possibly can – needless to say we both accepted this challenge and competed fiercely!

 

Tucking in

 

The Aftermath

In the end we were able to eat 60 ribs and a whole chicken between us! Needless to say, I didn’t need any supper that evening or breakfast the next day!!

It turns out that London isn’t that far from the seaside.

So last weekend, after a strenuous week of exams for my Biologist friends, we decided to take a day trip to the seaside! Surprisingly Brighton is only an hour and a half from London Bridge and £5 return – bargain!

We arrived in Brighton just in time for lunch – at Harry Ramsden’s World Famous Fish and Chips, where we ate our fish and chips outside on the sea front. Considering the usual British January weather being able to eat outside in “relative” comfort is a feat in itself!

After eating our delicious fish and chips (Probably some of the best I’ve ever eaten – and I’ve eaten a lot of Fish and Chips [I'm English- so it comes with the territory]), we headed over to take a look at Brighton Pavilion, which resembles a mini-Taj Mahal; it’s rather beautiful and not something you’d expect to see in a British Seaside Town.

(impressive – no?)

From the Pavilion we wandered over to the Brighton’s world famous pier, where we sampled the delights of the arcade, the amusement park and won a Dolphin (called Dave the Magic Dolphin Jr. – just in case you were wondering)

*My favourite arcade game from when I was little – hitting Crocodiles over the head with a foam mallet – SO MUCH FUN*

*Samie and Oli pose before playing a round of House of the Dead 3 in which Samie was well and truly thrashed by Oli!*

*A slightly windswept me riding a “Giant Spinny Thing” on the end of the pier*

*Dave the magic dolphin Jr after being ceremoniously removed from a cow’s behind. (Don’t question the logic)*

From the Pier we took a chance to gaze upon the Brighton Eye – a slightly less exciting version of it’s Big Brother the London Eye.

Of course no visit to the seaside is complete without visiting the beach – unfortunately we all “forgot” our speedos so missed out on taking a dip…

* I think we were meant to be waving – who knows!*

Photo Taken by Joe Herbert and Sophia David