Owl be back

An owl returned to Girton’s Halloween formal this Thursday (30/10). The last time an owl made an appearance at a Girton Halloween ‘Spooktober’ formal was in 2022. After concerns were raised linking the owl and the Harry Potter themes to JK Rowling’s transphobic views, the JCR and senior college staff members decided to change the formal’s theme. In an email sent to Varsity, Girton confirmed that an owl will be making an appearance this Thursday adding that although “an owl has been invited from time to time as part of the student’s Halloween celebrations,” there is no “owl tradition” at the college. The college stressed that formal themes are student-generated and that this upcoming theme is “unrelated to Harry Potter”.

Cambridge student selected as UN Young Leader

Cambridge PhD candidate Tanatswa Amanda Chikaura has been recognised as an exceptional young changemaker who, through her leadership, has helped advance the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Chikaura’s research interests are centered on autism, mental health, and suicide prevention. The Zimbabwenian PhD candidate is also the Founder and Director of Ndinewe mental health organization in Zimbabwe. Chikaura’s supervisor, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, commented, “I’m delighted that Tanatswa has been selected as one of 17 Young Leaders for the SDG”. Chikaura said that young people have “the ideas, solutions, creativity and so much more to add to the development of our nations. Youth leadership gives hope and inspiration to all. We are not only the future of tomorrow but the leaders of today.”

Union Jets in Jensen

The Cambridge Union is to pay for a private jet for Jensen Huang to fly from London to Cambridge. Huang is the founder and CEO of NVIDIA, and ranks as the sixth-richest man in the world. He is set to receive the Stephen Hawking Fellowship on the 4th November, in an event hosted in the Union chamber. The Hawking Fellowship is an annual award given by the Union in recognition of an individual or group who has made an impact in science, technology and communication, and previous recipients include Bill Gates, Professor Brian Cox and Dr. Jane Goodall. The flight from London to Cambridge takes just half an hour – just a slight improvement on the 45 minute train journey.

Cambridge Academic victim of AI deepfakes

Former Cambridge PhD student Dr Ally Louks was trolled last year for her PhD thesis on the politics of smell in modern and contemporary prose. Dr Louks received death threats, negative comments on social media and even threats of sexual violence, which she reported to the police. This past week (23/10) Dr Louks took to X again to share that she had been a victim of an “inappropriate AI-generated video” of herself. She added that she “loathes that this is what women on the internet have to deal with now”. Dr Louks concluded “if you ask AI to make sexual videos of people and distribute them online, I think you are absolutely foul.”