Apple already has the monopoly on most of the media world, newsrooms are filled with Macs and filmmakers busily edit on Apple software. The company has been around since 1977 and has since then, steadily grown bigger and bigger, establishing itself for its quality and facilities in design production in the media world.

In a nutshell, an iPad is a small computer screen (touch screen of course), a little smaller than an A4 sheet of paper, with even more applications than the iPhone and only 0.5 inches thin (that’s 13.4mm thin for those of you, who like me, only do metric system)! Technically it’s amazing and a step forward into what the technological future can bring us.

Xeni Jardin, a boingboing.net writer, has written that: ‘It strikes you when you first touch an iPad. The form just feels good, not too lightweight or heavy, nor too thin or thick. It’s sensual. It’s tactile.’ For him, the ‘Typography is crisp, images gem-like, and the speed brisk thanks to Apple’s A4 chip and solid state storage. As I browse early release iPad apps, web pages, and flip through the iBook store and books, the thought hits that this is a greater leap into a new user experience than the sum of its parts suggests.’ (source: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/03/31/a-first-look-at-ipad.html) Jardin does seem to respond to the form rather than the functions of the iPad, but he also mentions one major attraction: the iBook store.

The Apple Book Store is possibly Apple’s biggest pull for the iPad. An app that offers access to thousands of books at the touch of a button, thousands of books that can be carried around on your slim, lightweight, iPad. The ‘store’ houses 20,000 books in the UK, all of which are outside copyright, Apple have yet to finalise a deal with publishers that will allow them to house books that are still in copyright. However, when they do so, their book store will be formidable. The bookstore itself is set out like a library, complete with shelves and passage-ways. Once you have chosen and downloaded a book it will appear on your bookshelf and you can read it at your leisure; the pages will turn at the tap of a button. It is a booklovers dream.

However, like many of Apple’s products recently, the iPad has brought some controversy on itself due to the fact that only software previously approved by Apple can be used on it. Cory Doctorow, also a boingboing.net writer, has written strongly against the iPad for this reason, suggesting that, ‘The model of interaction with the iPad is to be a consumer. The way you improve your iPad isn’t to figure out how it works and make it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps.’

Doctorow goes so far as to argue that, ‘I think that the press has been all over the iPad because Apple puts on a good show, and because everyone in journalism-land is looking for a daddy figure who’ll promise them that their audience will go back to paying for their stuff. The reason people have stopped paying for a lot of “content” isn’t just that they can get it for free, though: it’s that they can get lots of competing stuff for free, too.’ ( source: http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html .

Response to the iPad.

On the 28th of May the iPad was launched in the UK; Apple has now already sold over two million world-wide. Clearly the consumer market loves it. In terms of looking at videos and photographs, the iPad is a lot faster than other laptops; it is also a lot more user friendly, it is far quicker and easier to expand and flick through images on an iPad than a normal laptop. When reading articles or books on the iPad, the user just needs to touch the screen and move their fingers apart in order to increase the size. And although the lighting of the iPad is arguably harder on the eyes than the Sony Reader or Amazon’s Kindle, it does have a brightness control setting to ensure comfort when reading books. The iPad also has scroll functions to skip through chapters and the pages turn very fast; an advantage over many e-books on the market.

However, when compared with other word processing capabilities, the iPad is not as efficient, virtual typing is difficult, especially with the added difficulty of holding the computer at an angle. It is more difficult to type on a touch sensitive keypad than on a standard keyboard, and for someone doing large amounts of typing it would be an utterly impractical piece of equipment. The touch keypad is designed for responding to emails, not for writing a novel! There is also no way to print a document directly from an iPad and it has no USB port: in order to keep in line with the Apple family, they were not put on the device. The iPad also doesn’t come with iWord; this must be separately purchased, and it has no camera, a function that many consumers would have liked to see built in.

Having said that, it has exceedingly good gaming capabilities, due to the high speed and the quality of the graphics and it is this function that rather sums up the iPad for me: it is a luxury, not a necessity. The iPad may use technology that, in the right circles, has been around for a while, but it is the first piece of technology to make this available to the average consumer, and this is very much what the iPad is: a consumer piece. It is an impressive design, with a large screen, and a thin, lightweight layout. It is designed for ease and comfort; it is as Jardin suggested ‘not too lightweight or heavy, nor too thin or thick’. It is an aesthetic wonder.

And for the screen indutsry?

Eva Riley, an Edinburgh-based film director has said that ‘I don’t think it will change my world. I’m fairly adverse to these new technologies and my wee Mac suits me just fine. It’s just another fancy gadget.’ And this is probably the situation for so many digital media experts. Those who are willing to embrace new forms of digital media will do so with this new gadget, and those that are not, will continue with the methods they know and trust. It is unlikely that the iPad is going to revolutionise the screen world as such, or even make many lives easier or faster. Like many things, we may yearn for it but in no way are we going to need it. It is simply a new gadget on the market. What it may change however, is the way we are going to start producing our stuff, taking the iPad into account as a new platform to reach our audience, much as we do with HD.

If we are the ones producing the content, then we are the ones who will determine whether or not the iPad really has a future. So the question is, will Doctorow be proved right or wrong when he says that ‘Gadgets come and gadgets go. The iPad you buy today will be e-waste in a year or two (less, if you decide not to pay to have the battery changed for you). The real issue isn’t the capabilities of the piece of plastic you unwrap today, but the technical and social infrastructure that accompanies it.’

Claire Charras

http://edinburghscreenworks.co.uk/488/

She said: “The guys had rented out a house. They had the girls in the house and they would take them to work and back. We couldn’t go anywhere, and we couldn’t do anything just in case we were going to escape or tell the police. Whatever shopping we needed, we had to tell them what we needed, even for a box of Tampax you had to tell them and give them the money. You don’t have a life; you’re like a dog they’re using for money.”

Thanks to her current job in the sauna she is able to send up to £70 a week to her family towards the up-bringing of her eight-year old daughter. But a new review proposed by the Home Office could force Natasha out of this industry. In November 2008, the Home Office issued a review on how to tackle the demand for prostitution in the UK with the purpose of decreasing the use of sex services in the country. The review includes measures to prevent kerb-crawling, trafficking, paying for sex with someone who is under the control of a third-party and gives closure powers for premises linked with sexual exploitation to the police as well as the possibility of prosecution for prostitution users at first offence.

There are an estimated 80,000 people working in prostitution in the UK, however it is by and large agreed that this number is under-estimated as the sex industry whether prostitution, lap-dancing clubs, pornography or sex shops is growing. The Home Office’s review states: “The prostitution market in the UK is calculated to be worth up to £1bn, with estimates of the proportion of UK men paying for sex ranging from 4.3% to 11%. The sex industry itself has grown, both in size and diversity with more opportunities for sale and purchase of sex via sex clubs, the internet and sex tourism.”

The review has received opposite reactions from organisations such as the English Collective of Prostitutes (ECP) and the Glaswegian Women’s Support Project (WSP). Whereas the ECP is a firm advocate of prostitution and its rights, the WSP wishes to see prostitution disappear and those using the services of prostitutes criminalised. The Women’s Support Project offers support to people that are affected by gender based violence including women involved in prostitution and other forms of commercial sexual exploitation like lap-dancing or pornography.                                       

A spokeswoman for the ECP says: “We want the decriminalisation of prostitution and want it to be recognised as any other work. It is important to make the distinction between decriminalisation and legalisation. Legalisation would mean that prostitutes are still going to be treated differently. There isn’t any law saying that you can work as a window cleaner for example so why should there be one saying women can work as prostitutes. What the government is proposing is simply going to send prostitution further underground and make it more dangers for sex workers and clients.”

Conversely, the WSP sees the review as a welcome step forward in ending prostitution which it considers as sexual exploitation, violence against women and paid-for rape. Linda Thompson, development officer at the WSP says: “We’re certainly not judging any women involved in prostitution and we certainly support the decriminalisation of women involved in prostitution but we would seek to criminalise the demand and call for stronger legislation around men who purchase sex both indoors and outdoors.

“We cannot take out the fact that violence against women is still present and unless we tackle violence against women and challenge the norms around masculinity, it will not disappear. We believe that the responsibility should be put back on the men, and we believe that prostitution has negative impacts both on the women and children who are involved and, from the research, that it has an impact on the men.”

Natasha believes that decriminalisation could be potentially good for her and her peers: “I think it would be better if it was decriminalised. It’s safer. If the girls don’t have places like this to work then they’ll start putting advertising in the newspapers and it can be more dangerous for them. Here, it’s more protected; you come in here like in a working place. I know someone who’s doing it in her own flat and in her own bed, but then you have to sleep in that bed and you don’t know what kind of people can come to your flat.” The girls who work in saunas in Edinburgh must pay the owner £20 for their first customer of the day and £10 for the following ones.

Although the perception of society around the sex industry has become more and more tolerant, prostitution still echoes many stereotypes. Catherine Stephens from the International Union for Sex Workers (ISUW) says: “Prostitution is still a really, really stigmatised thing to do. It’s something which is profoundly judged by society and presented in a very cartoonish kind of way. There’s either the happy, happy belle du jour, the trafficked Albanian virgin or the skanky street whore scrabbling around for a needle whereas most people are in the middle. I think people who work in the sex industry find the stigma more difficult to deal with than the sex for money part”.

The majority of women who become involved in prostitution do so for the money. The average price in a sauna in Edinburgh is around £50 for a full service and an escort service can cost a couple hundred of pounds. Natasha says: “£50 for half an hour is normal. Because in half an hour you do a 10 minutes massage, five minutes sex and then he washes himself and out. So for five minutes of sex, £50 is enough.”

When she went to London, the young woman was told she’d get 50% of her earnings but in fact only received 30% of it. She says: “I started saying it wasn’t enough and I was going to go back home and then, they decided to sell me to Albanian people. They sold me for £3000.” Included in these £3000, was an engagement to the buyer. Unlike some girls who have been sold, Natasha considers she was lucky. They moved up to Scotland and although they eventually broke-up, she was able to get her passport back and continued working as a prostitute which she considers as “just a job with good money”.  

The English Collective of Prostitutes wishes to see prostitution laws and policies modelled on New Zealand’s Prostitution Reform Act which states: “while not endorsing or morally sanctioning prostitution or its use it aims to create a framework that: (a) safeguards the human rights of sex workers and protects them from exploitation; (b) promotes the welfare and occupational health and safety of sex workers; (c) is conducive to public health; (d) prohibits the use in prostitution of persons under 18 years of age”.

A spokeswoman from the ECP says: “The New Zealand Prostitution Reform Act is a good basis for any serious change in prostitution law and policy. It removes prostitution from the criminal law, allows people to work together collectively and distinguishes between violence and consenting sex. And crucially, it has been shown to improve sex workers’ working conditions, while making it easier for those who want to get out, to do so”.

People involved in prostitution come from all walks of life. Nearly ten years ago, at the age of 29 and after what can only be described as a messy and painful divorce, Eve decided to start working in the same sauna as Natasha. Sitting in her black laced, cherry-red slip she remembers: “The break-up was quite stressful because it wasn’t very clean, he didn’t want to give me support and refused to help me out financially. I got my home repossessed and had to stay in temporary accommodation where I wouldn’t even send my worst enemy to live. I was so skint I didn’t have enough to buy a packet of cigarettes. I went to ask my husband to lend me some money and he threw £5 at me. From that moment onwards, I swore I would never, never, ever ask anybody else to lend me money again, never ask a man anything.” Eve was born in the Caribbean, came from a strict catholic background, got a degree in bio-chemistry and had never been around anybody who worked in the sex industry. The idea popped into her head one day.

 She explains: “ I phoned up [the sauna] and they told me to come for an interview and I came along and I was terrified and thought ‘No I can’t do that’ so I struggled and struggled and maybe a month later I phoned up again then I started and that was it.” The first time she had to go with a client, she was shaking like a leaf and giggling from nervousness.

She says: “I didn’t have a clue what to do in that room. The customer wanted to have sex with me. So I lay down on my back. I had never had sex in another position. I wasn’t very sex experienced before I got married and we only ever had sex in the missionary position, so that’s what I thought sex was.” Smiling, Eve continues: “The other girl who was there with me explained that we’re supposed to get on top of the customer and get into all these positions. You pick it up quickly.”

In 2008, the WSP published a research report entitled “Challenging Men’s Demand for Prostitution in Scotland”. Based on a 110 interviews with men using the services of women involved in prostitution, the research shows how deeply rooted the stigma of prostitution is, that is to say viewing prostitutes no longer as women but as a service. One interviewee stated as a justification for using prostitution, an opportunity to dominate woman: “You need to know how to manipulate and control them – which is easy with street prostitutes – you dangle drink and drugs in front of them”. Other quotes from the interviewees included: “There will never be an end to prostitution; if men are looking for sex then someone is going to provide it”.

Even if the aims of the likes of the Women’s Support Project and the ECP or the ISUW seem to be at opposite poles, all have in mind the welfare and the safety of the people involved in prostitution. Natasha admits: “When I finish my shift I just want to go home and sleep. As soon as you walk out the door, you block your memory. You go out, you see people and you do whatever you want to do. At the beginning it was harder; I was drinking more when I started in London because the people weren’t very nice. But now I’m fine because I’m working for myself and no one is taking my money”.

Mary Dejevsky  chief editorial writer, columnist and Russian specialist for The Independent gave Dunedin Napier News this exclusive interview on the Russian and Ukranian gas crisis. After a row over who owed what, Russia decided to cut off Ukraine’s gas supplies leaving the rest of Europe with a quarter less supplies.

Is it strategic of Russia to have cut off gas supplies over the coldest months of winter?
Of course not, but there are two qualifications. First, Russia and Ukraine have been negotiating, without success, for at least half a year, and the agreement expires at the end of the calendar year. Maybe that is another change that needs to be made. The other is that there is a dispute about who actually cut off the gas, or at least who is responsible. Russia says that Ukraine cut off the gas to force the EU to put pressure on Russia. It also says that it only cut off the gas to Ukraine when Ukraine started siphoning off gas for itself, which it wasn’t paying for – and so depriving EU countries of gas. This is all part of the dispute.  

What do you think the outcome will be of today’s meeting in Brussels with Ukraine and Russia?
Well, it’s actually already over, apparently without agreement. But that needn’t mean that no solution is in prospect. In the end, it is Russia and Ukraine who have to hammer out their differences.

How is this affecting Russia’s relationship with the EU and also the UK?
So far, I don’t think very much. This is because both EU officials in Brussels and the UK see the problem as a bilateral one between Russia and Ukraine, in which there is blame on both sides. For the UK, it is also because we are not really affected! Most of our gas still comes from the North Sea. I also have the impression that there is a better understanding of the complexities of the dispute than there was three years ago, when everyone automatically rushed to blame Russia. Now, I think that in Brussels and most of Western Europe there is a general understanding that Gazprom is not (quite) the same thing as Russia and that at least some of the difficulties rest with Ukraine, which tried to drive a harder bargain on pricing than it could and is now using the fact that Russia’s pipelines run through Ukraine to the west to discredit Gazprom as a supplier. The EU countries that are most affected – mainly former Soviet-bloc states still dependent on Russian gas – have been less successful than three years ago in presenting this as a political problem rather than primarily a commercial one.  So far, anyway.

What can be done in the future to prevent this from happening again?
- Speed up the development of pipelines which bypass third countries, such as Ukraine and Belarus, that could be tempted to pursue their quarrels with Russia by holding other countries to ransom. This is where the problem lies, more than with Russia alone. Until this year, for instance, Turkey had never had any problem with Russia as a gas supplier, and the same applies to those countries which already pay market rates.
- Convince Ukraine that it will have to accept higher prices – and/or cut its energy use – now that it is an independent, sovereign country. It can’t demand preferential prices from Russia, while orientating itself increasingly to the West.
- Convince both Russia and Ukraine to conclude three-year pricing deals, which is the international norm, which would mean that disputes would not be the annual occurrence they have become.
- Ensure that the EU, as a group, and individual EU countries, diversify their own energy sources, so they are less dependent on Russia and transit pipelines.
- Many people argue that the EU needs a comprehensive energy security policy, but I’m not sure, given the big differences between the former Soviet-bloc countries and the rest, that such a policy would be any easier to agree than a solution to the current Russia-Ukraine dispute.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m not British or just because I’m sensible (cough…cough) but I never quite understood why people drink with the final aim of not being able to speak, move or comprehend where they are. I’m not going to lie by saying it never happened to me (tequila can be lethal) and that I’ve not woken up looking through my phone to find some clues of my whereabouts and more importantly my behaviour and then spending the afternoon phoning up my friends asking if I did anything stupid – but I know when I can’t take it anymore and do stop.

The British government has come up with different ideas, such as banning under 21′s from buying drinks and soon if you look 25 or under you’ll be asked for your ID. What this ultimately implies, is that responsibility and sensibility comes with age. I can’t suppress that cornered smile when I hear this. When was the last time you saw a stag do or a hen night being sensible? I guess what I’m trying to say is, that it’s not about how old you are, it’s about what you do with it and your perception of a good night-out. As Alex Salmond has pointed it out on numerous occasions, under-age drinking and further more binge drinking is something cultural. It’s so much part of the culture that there are TV shows like Booze Britain that go around the UK and followed lads and lassies on a night out. However, I don’t think that forbidding people something they could have and now can’t is going to solve the problem. Look at the US of A, it’s easier for teenagers to get hard drugs than it is to buy booze in some states. Isn’t there something a little twisted in that?

The recent adverts on TV are, however going in the right direction and it’s true that most of the time you’ll feel a lot better about yourself knowing what happened the night before. When I was growing up, there was always wine on the table at meal times and us children have always been allowed to drink some if we wanted it. I suppose it works a little bit like vaccinations, if you already have it in your blood system then you less likely to be as affected by it. And you know, getting phished with your parents can actually be quite fun and at the end of the day you are in a safe environment (hopefully).

If there’s anything I would take from France to the UK it would be this. For parents, let your children drink when you’re around. They are not going to be taught this at school so teach them at home. For all these lovely politicians out there, stop the alcohol advertising. I mean £3 a bottle of wine in Tesco’s??? That’s cheaper than buying a Big Mac Meal or going to the cinema. If I had known that when I was 15, I would have got my brother to buy me bottle in the blink of an eye. If you drink Blue WKD then you’ll be cool?!! What you’ll really get out of it is a really bad sugar rush. Ultimately the aim of advertising is to attracted buyers…any buyers. And who more than our beloved children watches TV?

WINE RACK helped raise an extraordinary £1600 in aid to Remember Zoe, Teenage Cancer Trust by organising a heart-warming Winter Wine Fair in Edinburgh on Thursday 13 November.

For just a £5 donation to Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), Wine Rack customers enjoyed a range of 80 different wines and champagnes and nine whiskies to the sounds of a live brass band.

Darren Drape, district manager said: “I’m overwhelmed at the success of this event. Staff and customers alike had fun and it is all for a worthwhile cause. Over £5000 worth of orders were put through that evening. On the long term, it means that customers know who we are and where we are.”

Andrew Lundy, district manager on first track program organised the whole event. He said: “The back-up support from Threshers Head Office was fantastic even though we were organising it on a tight time scale. We all had great fun and it was a real success. We managed to build brand awareness in Edinburgh and around Scotland and show that Wine Rack is different.”

Andrew’s father-in-law, Alan Biggar set himself a target of £150 000 to raise in aid to Remember Zoe, TCT in June 2008.

Zoe, daughter of Alan’s colleague Sharon, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 14 and lost her fight four days short of turning 18 after battling with it for three years.

TCT is a long established, nation-wide charity. Lynne McNicoll, volunteer fundraiser and spokesperson said: “We want to be able to build new units in the Sick Kids hospital and the Western General hospital so that teenagers diagnosed with cancer can live life to the full. It is very important to them to be able to continue studying and believe in a future and it is very hard to it in hospital conditions. We hope to be able to build 22 units in NHS hospitals by 2012″.

Steve says: “In 1995, I got a set of juggling balls for Christmas. I was a painfully shy person and when I started getting some tricks done, I wanted to show people so I went from shy to performing and I saw that juggling was good for me.”

In less than five years, Steven Thomson has set-up his own on-line juggling store in Stirling and has made a name for himself as professional juggler in Scotland. He is called out for birthday parties, festivals, workshops, seminars or school shows and enjoys every moment of his career.

Steve explained how he got started: “In 2001, I left university with an Information and Management Degree and couldn’t find a real job after I tried for a year.  Someone offered me to juggle at a kid’s birthday party and a parent who was there then hired me for their kid. I realised I could use my degree for my own business.

“In 2002 I started up my own online store. When I ran workshops I realised I could make a bit extra by selling balls and spinning plates as they are cheaper and easier to use.”

Later on, he got the chance to take a business start-up course to have a better idea of what he was doing. They offered him a £500 start-up fund with which he bought a new computer, new equipment and improved his website.

He then applied for a number of grants to help him take his business a little bit further. All sorts of juggling props are sold on his on-line store from the simple set of balls or spinning plates to the more elaborate poi propeller as well as books and DVD’s showing different routines for balls, clubs or contact juggling.

Steve says: “The propeller poi have just come out a month ago. I showed them to a group of jugglers and they really like them. The concept of these poi are that you attach the propeller at the front of the poi and the more you spin it the more light it produces.”

One of Steve’s specialties is his one man one hour Christian show. Steve performs for the major Christian Festival as he defines himself as a Christian performer.

Steve explains: “You can draw lots of parallels between juggling and religious beliefs. For example dropping a ball can be seen as a sin and so on.

“For example, tonight I am going to be doing a 15 minutes fire juggling routine called “Jesus beat the Devil”, centred around Easter. Although I am a Christian I am still using a Devil Stick. The two hand sticks represent Jesus and the Devil Stick represents the Devil. It’s a really good stick routine. In the Bible, Jesus beat the Devil by using two bits of wood on which he was crucified. You can find over 200 Christian Gospel routines in the books I sell on-line.”

On his website Steve has written about the benefits of juggling whether they are educational, physical or social.

An elementary school in Missouri included juggling in PE classes and realised juggling enhanced the children’s ability to concentrate, enhanced their eye-hand coordination and self-confidence.

Researchers from the University of Regensburg in Germany did a study on a team of 24 people. Only half of the people where asked to learn up a routine and juggle for 3 months.

It was then shown that the ones who had been juggling had in effect increased the grey matter, the nerve cells. But this was only a temporary effect and the brain would go back to its original size once the experiment stopped. As far as physical benefits are concerned, juggling improves your balance, motor skills and ambidexterity.

As for social skills, communication and socializing is necessary to learn news tricks and routines.Juggling involves a lot of perseverance, as it can sometime take weeks to get on move that might then unblock a whole range of other moves.

Although Steve usually works alone, he is sometimes called to perform along with other jugglers. He says: “I work mostly by myself but I have five or six agents and when they find me work there’s a good chance that I’ll be work with two or three other jugglers. Its good fun, it makes a change from working on your own.”

His business is going well and juggling as now become a career as well as passion. He says: “It used to be hobby, now I hardly have time to practise at all because it’s a career. I would say juggling is a passion and I’d love to find more time to practise.

“I did about a 100 gigs last year but even if sounds like a lot, in January or February I would do maybe two gigs a month and about two gigs a day in the summer. The store is the main income and I did 1300 sells last year.”

 Steve’s website: http://www.jugglingworld.biz/

She says: “After hearing from word of mouth that four people had been made redundant from our office in Glasgow, the management did not tell the rest of the office if there would be any more redundancies made or why there were redundancies in the first place; they just got rid of us.

“They even said to one girl ‘We are going to make you redundant unless you come up with a reason as to why we should keep you on? You have two days’ The girl walked out.”

Julie’s firm dealt with conveyance, estate property and family law. She explains: “In about February this year, properties went up for sale and by September some had not been sold. Over the summer period the phone hardly ever rang and it became much, much quieter”.

The young woman took her concerns to her superior on a Monday morning and was left simmering until Friday before she got an answer. The former Napier student remembers: “By this point I was a mess, not knowing what was happening with in the firm and for me.

“The managing partner said: ‘I discussed what you asked on Monday with the other partners and we have decided there is no place for you here to get training. I’m afraid we have to ask you to leave. We will pay you for the next week only, you can work that week or you can leave at any time.’ I left 15 minutes after. I was gutted and packed up my desk.”

Steve McLellan, career adviser in Napier University says: “The sectors which are the most affected at the minute are the house buildings, construction, investment banking and general property market. It could soon spread to retail and manufacturing.”

On a positive note, McLellan adds: “The strong areas in this economical context are general engineering with Aberdeen and the North Sea oil, most public sectors notably the health and civil services and education.

“Supermarkets are a good bet for graduates because they’re weathering the storm whereas more general retail is affected by the downturn. People will always need to go to the supermarket.”

After her traumatic experience, Julie no longer wants to go on with law and has found a six month temp job. For McLellan, the challenge for graduates will now be to use their original skills for different purposes.

“I believe there is a trend of under-employment”, he says, “although graduates are still finding jobs, it might a job they are over-qualified for and will have to work their way up the ladder to get where they want.”

Stuart McBride, chief executive for Blue Arrow recruitment agency told Radio 5: “We are in challenging times. We’ve found difficulties in the logistics, distribution and construction sector with a reduction in the demands for skilled and trades labour. We’re not immune to that as employment agency. We reflect what’s happening in the economy.

“Having said that we have sectors that are doing particularly well. Our catering sector is doing well and growing on year to year basis, our public sector businesses are doing well and in terms of our niches areas engineering and technical are doing well.”

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Scotland dismissed the findings of yesterday’s investigation by BBC Scotland on the suicidal effects of a drug used to help smokers quit made by Pfizer.

Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland told Dunedin Napier News: “The risks of continuing to smoke are certainly far greater than the risks from using any of the stop smoking treatments.

The BBC’s investigation discovered there have been more than 3,000 complaints on the side effects of Champix® in the UK including 260 reporting suicidal-related reactions. Sixteen people have tried to kill themselves and ten have succeeded.

Duffy added: “Tobacco is a deadly drug. It is highly addictive and lethal, killing one in two of its regular long-term users. Smoking is responsible for 24% of deaths in Scotland each year occuring years earlier than they would otherwise - that’s 13,500 lives lost to tobacco each year.

“Drug treatments like Champix or Zyban are generally considered as options when a smoker has not been able to quit using other treatments. They remain prescription only because there are some contra-indications and because any adverse reactions need to be monitored carefully.”

Pfizer said “additional information on depression, suicidal ideation and suicide, and direct guidance about discontinuation of treatment if these symptoms occur and/or are of concern” was provided in August 2008.

Champix® or varenicline has been on the market since 2006. Pfizer states that 63% of patients who use the drug have successfully quit after four weeks.

Pfizer said: “As indicated in the labelling information for varenicline, stopping smoking, with or without treatment, is associated with nicotine withdrawal symptoms and the exacerbation of underlying psychiatric illness. Depressed mood may be a symptom of nicotine withdrawal. Depression, rarely including suicidal thoughts and suicide attempt, has been reported in patients undergoing a smoking cessation attempt, including patients taking varenicline.”

The drug company has made no statement as to whether they would look further into the case.

The initiative targets those aged 18 to 26 years in an effort to raise awareness of the risks of drugs in the run up to the festive season.

Gordon Meldrum, Director General, Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) said: “The Cocaine Awareness Weekends provide an opportunity to change attitudes by engaging directly with young people to highlight the dangers of cocaine use, which we hope will encourage them to think twice about using this drug – the risks are higher than people believe.”

Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing said: “I’m delighted at the level of support from our local partners, in particular from so many licensees, for this important joint initiative.

“We are aware that many young people do not know the risks involved in cocaine use and we’re trying to ensure they have all the facts as well as making clear the legal consequences of drug misuse, people need to know the health risks, even from so-called ‘recreational’ use of cocaine. By doing just that, this campaign can help Scots enjoy the festive season in safety.”

These weekends will be running in Inverness, Renfrewshire, Dundee and Fife later on in December and provide information on the dangers of drugs across various social environments.

Click on the audio report by Ashley Toner here: Know the Score Interview

The main health problem occurring from noise pollution is stress says the Environmental and Consumer Service.  

BadVibes project aims to make the world better sounding and less stressful. “The idea is to get people thinking about the complex way we listen to and interpret sounds”; said Professor Cox, lead scientist in this field of research. “We hope to learn about what the worst sound in the world is, and maybe why it is the worst. This is important because noise significantly affects our quality of life.”

For some, the worst noise in the world can be scraping fingernails on a blackboard or the high-pitched screams of drunken girls.

Tessa Davies, student in Napier University, Edinburgh, says: “The sound of someone retching makes my skin crawl.”

Pr. Cox’s earlier work found that the unpleasantness came from the middle pitches. He said: “This is surprising because you might expect high frequencies to be the most unpleasant; after all, the thing that stands out about the fingernails down a blackboard is the shrill, high-frequency nature of the sound”..

Noise pollution such as traffic, airplanes, trains or construction also affects our ways of living and makes it more stressful.

Cheuk Fan Ng, Professor in Environmental Psychology, from University Drive, Athabasca, Canada, led a study on the Effects of Building Construction Noise on Residents. He took a group of 157 students living by a construction site who he followed and questioned during a year.

Annoyance, disrupted sleep, bad mood and an increase in the frequency of everyday errors, were the major outcomes noted by residents victim of noise pollution.

“Building construction noise will: (1) cause emotional upset and affect residents’ physical well-being negatively; (2) interfere with residents activities that involve speech or sound communications; and (3) affects residents’ studying negatively”, said Professor Cheuk Fan Ng.

“Unpredictable or irregular noise may disrupt performance of mental tasks that require learning or short-time retention of new information”, wrote Pr. Cheuk Fan Ng.

Cox stressed:” If you have control over the noise, it tends to be less annoying. But if you are fearful of the source then it usually makes it worse.”