Jenni Ajderian

           A recent article in the Guardian's Student section offers a veritable cornucopia of advice on how to water down a social networking profile in order to score in the job market. But if we're talking about a candidate's Facebook, and Googlability, we need to look at what else is out there. Issues of privacy and the multiple personalities of an internet-user make this kind of character research nigh on impossible and, ultimately, useless.      The original article, written by 'digital expert' Bernadette John, presents a pretty naive view of what employers want. We are told to 'play nicely, and never talk negatively about anyone online', and to 'never use social media when you are angry, tired, drunk or under the influence of anything else.' By all means I agree that you shouldn't use social media as a platform from which to hurl abuse at your ex or announce all the illegal substances in which you've partaken, b ut it's not a ca...

     In the 50s, having a job as a secretary may have been considered modern, or even empowering, but mostly, as Rose Pamphyle (Déborah Francois) says in her job interview, it's the chance to work for an important man. Seen in this light, the rise and fall of a Speed-Typing champion is just as much to do with a woman's personal victory as it is to do with her boss' encouragement and coaching, as well as the freedom he allows her to have.      In the film, and in life, the Speed-Typing Championship probably stemmed from a cigar-fuelled "I bet my secretary types faster than yours" argument, and the exclusively female competitors inhabit a space somewhere between real sportsman(woman?)ship and simply being allowed to play. The rocky ground of post-war sexual power-play is tested with bright colours and the happy clack-clack of a typewriter, and leads us somewhere a little more patronising than first-time director Regis Roinsard may have been hoping for. ...

     There's an advent tradition here in Provence that was entirely unknown to me until a few days ago when I picked up a leaflet in town about Saint Barbe and Le Blé de l'Espérance . Today, the 4th of December, is Saint Barbe's day, and many Provencial people will have bought wheat seeds from street vendors to plant in her honour.      Sainte Barbe was around in Lebanon in the 3rd century, and according to various highly respected sources accessible via Google, was either locked in a tower to keep her away from troublesome leanings towards Christianity, or locked herself in there to get out of marrying some Prince. Either way, she managed to sneak a priest in, who gave her a good baptising, saved her soul, and really annoyed her dad.      You know how it goes with these saints: once they've sworn their faith aloud, they get a get-out-of-death-free pass, though sometimes this isn't such a blessing. Every time they re-swear their faith, God...

          Lining one corridor inside the National Library are hundreds of books which censors did not want you to see. From the Song of Songs to the Satanic Verses , Lord of the Flies to Lady Chatterly's Lover , these books appalled, challenged and enticed the society of their times, and were all deemed unfit to be seen by the public. The exhibition aims primarily to spark debate- to make us question these books, the legislation under which they were banned, and the societies which banned them.      Perhaps predictably, books which display any kind of anti-clerical leanings make up a large part of the library's collection, and indeed were the first kind of literature to be cautioned at all. From David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, these books were seen as indecent due to a glorification of paganism, misrepresentation of biblical verse or simple questioning of common belief. ...