This is just silly, the RCSU own mascotry club stealing its mascot. Come on Ashley. Don't you think it’s a little weird that theta was found in the trash. How likely is that?

Maybe you should investigate...

*GGGGGGRRRRKKKKKKK*

The sound of Ashley scraping the bottom of the barrell.........

Yea, it sounds like Ashley is struggling a little, today.

Very likely - it was being stored in the LifeSci lockers for the past 2 years, and the cleaners had started chopping the locks off and throwing everything out because it was the end of the year.

Dan - it's the silly season! And I wanted a picture of Jez on the front page again before I stop being editor - I managed to get one in just after taking over ;)

At least there's something else to read other than the perpetual war of attrition that is the discussion about Majid Ahmed

You know there is only so much hatred that you can show the RCS and its president before you look bitter. He earned you several thousand for the engineers just to help students.Also Ashley as an RCS alumni myself I can point that the there are no individuals who have ever been in the RCS who can’t contact the president. If he couldn’t he or she was very stupid. I don’t believe that anyone would talk to you before the president. Nor do I believe given how strongly the new president feels about theta that he didn’t know where it was. It seems to me Ash that you don’t know the details and are pretending.

crazy - You can believe I'm making it up if you want. The status concerning Theta is correct, as described above. I saw it in with the rubbish and helped move it - the reason I was contacted was because I was on site and able to lend a hand shifting it. I suspect the president wasn't contacted because the fact Theta was in the rubbish to start with means they couldn't be trusted with it...

There's no hatred towards David Charles, just gentle poking fun at him for nearly having his mascot thrown away. He does get rather worked up about mascotry issues!

If someone in the RCSU thinks they have the 'real' Theta, or know where it is, they don't...

Ashley given the things that you have said both now and in the past I would disagree. So are you categorically stating that there is an individual in the RCS that believes that you (an engineer and editor of live) are more trustworthy than the president of the RCS. That’s insane Ash. Someone is messing with you. You saw it in the trash but that could equally mean that RCS alumni placed it there and got you. I don’t know about you Ash but that doesn’t add up.

True, the alumnus in question may well have "got me". But what you're forgetting is that I'm also an honorary life member of the RCSU, for assisting them on many occasions last year, and have been chairman of the RCS Motor Club for two years.

I very much doubt the alumnus in question would try and 'get me', but hey, it's possible.

So you admit on live that you can’t verify your facts. May I point out the union does have a policy on publishing untrue statements. Look if you have a problem with the RCS or the President that your issue. I must say this looks like a clear attempt to use live to damage the RCS president and given there is no proof to support your claim and that your story sound frankly ridiculous I have to ask what’s your problem.

Why has this quite obvious tongue-in-cheek article descended into this farcical argument?

Its a f*cking mascot. get the f*ck over it.

There's no conspiracy, its probably all a bit of a mistake and after all, term's ended, its the summer (well apparently anyway), so just chiiilllllaaaax bruvvvvv.

I'm pretty sure Ashley isn't being malicious. This utterly retarded tendency to cause argument is exactly whats wrong with Imperial's student media. We can't do f*ck all without someone badmouthing it.

You're wrong, Dan.

I once saw Ashley punch a kitten.*

*By punch I mean "do nothing to" and kitten I mean "no-one"

I think someone has got a little overwrought about a violate mascot here! Given that Ash is indeed an honorary life member of RCSU (not to mention amount of time he's dedicated to Jez over the past few years) I think he'd probably be a very safe pair of hands for a mascot -- more so perhaps than a certain killjoy CCU president!

As far as the incoming DPEW's comment about Jez -- and presumably the other motorized mascots -- Jez, Bo' and Clem are pretty unique as far as mascots for universities are concerned, and I think the good publicity they bring Imperial as a whole when they are out on the road is more than worth their upkeep!

There's nothing more scary than having Ashley drive (trundle) towards you in Jez. Your life flashes before your eyes before you realise you can probably just step out the way of it; and thats after a quick glance at the newspaper and a cup of tea.

1) RSC Motor Club is in the RCC,

2) Ashley doesn't have a driving licence,

3) It is very easy to put a mascot in a very very safe place, not realising someone might just stumble upon it in an end of term clean up........

.....door banged close, tires screeching out of the drive, need to check something at in college!!!!

Can I point out that the most likely RCSU alumni to be around college are in fact ex-members of the RCS Motor Club as they regularly come to help with Jezebel. Therefore it would seem very likely that such a person would contact the Motor Club before contacting the President. Just the other day we had an RCSU Alumnus come to the garage because he was looking to purchase an RCSU Tie.

On a lighter note – Does this mean that the theta that John Matthews paid good money to retrieve from the CGCU was in fact just a rather fortunately shaped piece of scrape metal."

I don’t think so I heard an interesting rumour. Apparently, last year one was damaged. Now a new shiny bit is found.

Dan - you mean having me chauffeur driven towards you of course, given "Another City man"'s second point. I expect you could only manage half a cup of tea with one of our more 'racy' drivers behind the wheel though. The other half would end up splatted across the radiator.

I don't understand why people get so uptight about mascotry, its a bit of fun. What is especially annoying however is that the RCSU have been complaining about how Guilds scuffed Theta, because it was so valuable now the person who created it has sadly passed away, but then nearly have it chucked out.

In response to an apparent attack on my integrity - it is very hard to verify things 100%, but everything on Live! generally comes from trusted sources. It's possible one of those sources could trick me one day, or get it wrong, and articles have been revised in the past when this has occurred. However, to suggest the whole thing is a fabrication is ridiculous, and those in the RCSU last year will tell you that the idea of me using Live! to try and damage the RCSU (by talking about a mascot???) is preposterous.

• I provided the artwork for the RCSU logo when it re-formed, having spent a day recreating the old RCS crown based on a very small, poor quality colour version RCSMC had on its website.
• I have helped move Theta in the past and - along with colleagues in RCS Motor (who happened to be Guildsmen) - carried Theta in public for the first time in years at the Lord Mayor's Show in 2005.
• I was trusted enough to know the location of Theta last year, even though I was a Guildsman.

Now you can whine all you want about how I'm a Guildsman and Live! Editor and hence untrustworthy, but I think you'll find a large number of people would disagree with you. There is only one thing which I can't be 100% sure of about this article, and that's whether Theta was deliberately placed in the rubbish to trick me, or whether it had genuinely been taken out by the cleaners. Given there was a pile of rubbish on the floor next to Theta, I'm reasonably certain that's what happened. It's a pretty c**ppy trick if you con Live! into publishing a false story, but lose your mascot in the process. Last night I asked the current keepers of Theta for some proof, and the article has now been updated with a photo to reflect this.

Once again: if people in the RCSU think they have all the bits of Theta, they don't. Not Theta MkIV anyway, which as of 1975 is the current one. If you've got a Theta MkV, then MkIV should either be in the round pond, or somewhere safe, on display, having been declared inviolate.

Aww, ashley you sound stresseed. However, I must point out that the story is the RCS have theta and one particular individual outside the RCSU in the RCS doesn't know whats going on.

"the story is the RCS have theta and one particular individual outside the RCSU in the RCS doesn't know whats going on"

OK. Let me know when/if you want the MkIV back then...

Lol, whatever.

Wow, this has really been blown out of all proportion. I'm surprised it's even made it onto Live!

The details in the story and Ashley's version of events are correct. If I had not chanced across the parts of Theta, it would be in landfill by now.

I chose to contact Ashley because he was most likely to be on campus, has been a friend of the RCSU for many years and would know of a safe place to put Theta.

There was no attempt at a trick (what kind of lame 'trick' would that be anyway?) and how you could construe the article as an attack on David Charles is beyond me. I simply wanted to see Theta being protected rather than being lost, something the Committee this year have failed to do.

I have subsequently emailed the person responsible for the mascots (not David Charles) and received no reply. If the other members of the 'Provisional Black Hole' would like to get in touch they can email my address above.

Obviously someone in the RCSU is feeling a bit embarrassed.

WTF - if you think the RCSU has Theta, maybe you could produce a datable picture of it? The 'provisional black hole' seem to have done so and it seems a bit tricky for you both to have it.

I don't think the location is in dispute it's the trash movement. The proof is the college timetables pertaining to disposal of locker material which I have shown. They don't corrlate with the story. Suggesting...

Let me clarify, after enquiring the some of the committee this year almost all expressed confusion because theta wasn’t in that building. Moreover, individuals were kind enough to provide me with a timetable of locker openings and disposal. The provisional black hole acquired theta a full two days before artefacts were taken and officially disposed. In fact unofficially what you will also find is no artefacts have been disposed of. Given that the pieces were not in the building one wonders about the nature of the acquisition. However, most of the old committee have bottom lined with the idea that the RCS have managed to capture their own mascot.

That was a clarifying statement?

Now I'm more confused than ever!

Well, Theta was definitely in the building on Wednesday afternoon, sitting with two black bags of rubbish.

Perhaps you should figure out where it was last time you saw it, and how it could have come to be in SAF, lying on the floor next to two black bags of rubbish.

@WTF: Are you talking about Theta MkIV? I just heard on this thread that there is a Theta MkV (apparently). Ashley and I retreived two parts of Theta MkIV from the SAF.

Are you sure it's not just the bulb from MkIII that's reared it's head?

I'm very sceptical of a MkV.

No need to be sceptical about an MkV which is the MkIV's replacement parts.

Hmm, this seems to be a broader problem - noone has any idea what's going on with the mascots. I was one of the people who helped recover Theta MkIV from Guilds when the RCSU was reforming - none of the new lot have a clue what's going on or even how to look after it.

If mascotry is going to be restarted (as people say every year but nothing happens) you need at least one person from each Union who can communicate with the others and knows where the mascot is. This never happens though. Hand it over to Archives and let them take care of it, I say.

Good point but contacting the RSC exec would also help combat the situation.

Has anyone ever known what's going on?

Combat what situation? The incoming president doesn't know where it is, and apparently the person supposedly responsible for the mascot has been contacted. If they still maintain they have Theta, despite not knowing where it is and with proof its not in their possession, something bizarre is happening.

Yes, in the old days there was always a focal point for mascotry who *did* know what was going on. His (for at that time few girls were involved) identity was kept a closely guarded secret....

Theta IV has been returned and is now in the possession of the RCSU