Student Press in Europe

On the cover: Great little achievements
All the time, ordinary people do things that make other people’s lives just a little bit better. Most of these achievements are so small that they go unnoticed by the media.

Ylioppilaslehti introduces four people who made a difference last year, including Ilona Junka who brought insulin for Palestinian children, and Janne Nickström who saved many factory workers from getting sacked.

Finland in statistics
Five years ago, Finland did well in the World Economic Forum statistics. For the first time, Finland was ranked first in competitiveness. After that, according to statistics, Finland has been for example the least corrupted country, Finnish children have been the best readers in the world, and Finnish women have had the highest level of education.

However, statistics cannot always be trusted, and being at the top of a ranking list often has a less known darker side. Like Osmo Soininvaara from the Green League says, you should remember that a country can be competitive – but at the same time poor.

From punk to politics
Member of Parliament Irina Krohn from the Green League will leave her post next summer. Johanna Sumuvuori, 29, will take her place. Sumuvuori has been a member of the Helsinki City Council since 2001 and was a member of the University of Helsinki Student Union Council for over seven years. She has also studied sociology at the University of Helsinki. Sumuvuori continues the march of young women into visible roles in the Green League.

More control on NGO’s
In Russia, laws regulating the actions of non-governmental organisations are being amended. The Government says that the aim is to prevent terrorism, but many organisations fear the new laws will only limit freedom of speech. The European Union has expressed its concern, but not much more can be done, says Councillor Päivi Laine from the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

CERN
The CERN in Geneva is the world’s largest particle physics centre. Here physicists come to explore what matter is made of and what forces hold it together.
CERN exists primarily to provide them with the necessary tools. These are accelerators, which accelerate particles to almost the speed of light and detectors to make the particles visible.
The VAMP takes a detailed look at the new accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, and especially at one of the detectors, the Compact Muon Solenoid, and it shows how the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology is involved in the research.
About Mathematics
The VAMP talked with Prof. Tom Ilmanen about how to become a mathematician and about math in general. The interview (hold in english) gives you a great impression on what higher math is all about.
SPINE informs you
Thanks to P.G. Kroeger from the dutch Science Guide magazin the VAMP was able to inform his readers about Shortage on Science Students. We based our report on an article published by Science Guide. So you see, SPINE begins to work.
Link to the PDF-File: VAMP January 2006

Our cover page: May the force be with you!
Life in the contemporary world is challenging and fast. People need to help themselves to be more efficient. Energy closed in metal cans and plastic boxes becomes more and more popular. Especially amongst students and young graduates…

AGAINST PLAGIARISM
Anti plagiarism system at Polish universities works as a cheap PC. There are many errors - temporary and permanent…

A few other topics:
> Society: every Pole who leaves working abroad is replaced by one citizien from the East…
> Report: foreign languages: where, how and for how much can we learn them?
> Trends: vinyl records experience their renaissance…
> Travels: Ukraine - one year after the revolution…
> Culture: Michał Witkowski, Matt Black, Eminem, Park Chan-wook, Elijah Wood…

On the front: Dancing into the New Year

Stealing Spirit

About plagiarism, happening often with seminar papers, and the boundaries between copying, quoting and stealing texts, sentences and thoughts. Tibor Nochta, assistant professor of civil law at the Faculty of Law (University of Pécs) explains how lawyers assess the matter. Zsolt György Balogh, vice-dean explaines the IT-Law side regarding copyright and download issues.

A few other topics:
- A new open-source Hungarian Linux-distribution is being developed for educational purposes as well, UnivPécs features a small report from Győző Harka, who works as an IT-specialist for the University of Pécs.
- All students apply for courses on the web, via the ETR software which is going to provide online registration for semesters and new functions.
- Fair Trade evolving slowly in Hungary, faced by negligence, indifference.

Students as criminals

Most students break the law far more often than they are aware of. Filesharing, theft or drugs are just a few examples of crimes typically committed by students. How often does a student break the law per day? What risks are there when students go on strike? How do tutors find out you copied your essay? Once caught, the academic career does not have to be over though: inmates in a Berlin prison can study via e-learning.

A few other topics:

• Adlershof, the new science campus on the outskirts of Berlin, is full of modern technology. What it lacks is student life.
• What effect does the reformation of the federal republic have for the Humboldt University?
• Why are many classes so overcrowded? We looked through university regulations and found the magic word: capacity.
• Why students and doctors of the medical faculties went on strike in december.
• Students as stand-in Father-Christmas: We visited a casting for this unusual job.
• How can I get to the World Cup? This time: As assistant of a camera-team.
• Literature for the people: A review of open reading-stages in Berlin.

Can we trust photographs?

It has always been possible to manipulate photos, but only in recent years has it become possible for almost everyone. From the beginning of the 1990s, there have been many cases of major newspapers having published manipulated pictures. For example, National Geographic published a magazine cover in which the place of a pyramid had been changed. To the media, this poses a serious question: What is real? Where lies the ethical limit of manipulating pictures?

Home in a caravan

Around twenty people live in Rastila Camping all year round. Most of them have moved to Helsinki because of work. Eeva and Risto have lived in a caravan since they started working in Helsinki five years ago. They still can’t afford to rent a flat. They are dreaming of living in their former home town, Savonlinna, when they reach retirement.

Old shopping centres disappearing

In the 50s and 60s, shopping centres were symbols of a new era and hearts of fast-growing suburbs. Later, people started to drive to gigantic super markets instead of visiting their nearby mall. Many banks and posts disappeared along with the customers. Bars and pizzerias took over the empty places, and old shopping centres began to be seen as homes to many social problems. Now there are plans to demolish many of the old shopping centres.

Fighter on vacation

Professor Tiina Rosenberg was one of the prominent figures of the Swedish feminist party that was established this autumn. In October she decided to withdraw because she felt that it was too dangerous for her to be in politics. She was attacked and blamed for being too radical. She demands the same rights for everybody to define themselves – regardless of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, age or gender.

Edited by Reeta Holma and Ylioppilaslehti staff.