h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

MR, I had six modules to study for in my last set of exams at Uni which included a disertation and various essays as well as the final exam. I wanted my *2:1 and in order to get it I worked out the minimum mark I needed for each exam (taking into account the weightings of the different modules) and prioritised accordingly. I didn't have time to give all six my all because I was struggling to overcome the 3rd I was carrying from the previous year. I pretty much had to average a 1st in my finals to get my 2:1 so a worked my socks off to hit the targets I had to hit. I did it too

*note for non-ukians. The degree classification system in the UK goes 1st (top mark, over 70% in exams although it varies a bit), 2:1, 2:2, 3rd (bottom mark you would lay claim to - think this represents getting around 35% in the exams), Pass (thanks for turning up), Fail.

Humid today isn't it?

k

In my degree there were some things I just couldn't do... I laboured all third year with general problems and never made any headway, and in second year thermodynamics flew over my head, so I didn't study either of those, and concentrated on maximising my marks on some of the things I could do, and pulling up the ones that I was on the verge of understanding. It worked...

Morning - oops, no, afternoon - everyone.

I dressed my red lace shawl. It looked very impressive. I was delighted. It does alas seem to be slowly slowly creeping back to shrivelled balloon state, so I think I shall have to dress it again with extra ferocity and a steam iron.

I went to St Paul's Cathdral last night, with a friend, to listen to an assortment of famous actors reading John Donne and a choir singing more Donne. I was looking forward to it very much indeed. Alas, disaster one, Alan Rickman couldn't do it after all. Two, Mark Rylance (on whom I think I have a bit of a crush), had to all of a sudden go to the Globe and understudy poor Corin Redgrave in Pericles instead. Three, where in heck was Juliet Stevenson? I thought she was supposed to be there. If she was, she was in disguise. Oh well, we had Imogen Stubbs and Harriet Walters. And the fantastic music. Ah. But then came the crowning disaster. St Paul's, especially under the Dome (where we were sitting) has a six second echo. This played merry hell not so much with the choral music, but was utterly destructive of the spoken poetry and the lute-and-soloist bits. The whole cathedral echoed and boomed and shrilled and every cough sneeze and shift in the audience joined the muttered thunder of the arches and could we, sitting fairly close to the performance, hear much of it? Could we b****ry. All that money just to sit and be boomed at, without the consolations of staring at two of my favourite crushes into the bargain.

My friend and I (he is my theatre-going friend) normally talk out heads off in a cafe after a performance. In this case we went straight home in a subdued manner.

And to cap it all I have been turning the study upside down looking for my Complete John Donne (complete, that is, poems of. I wish I had the sermons too, but they are quite hard to find) and it seems to have vanished. I think I had better go and find something to kick.

Ag, the bright spot is that when you conduct one of your most excellent tours of London you will be able to include a discussion of acoustics in St. Paul's.

A cinnamon bun and a cup of coffee, please, Matina.

Attention food lovers of the salon. I am reading the most fascinating book on being a chef that I believe is possible. It's called Kitchen COnfidential by Anthony Bourdain. This is one of the most eye opening books I have ever read regarding cooking and the restaurant world. It has suprised me at times and I have been in the business! This is what has kept me up late for three nights running.

If you like that book you might want to check out one of his other books - A Cooks Tour. Sort of a travelogue of him visiting all sorts of places and the food he ends up eating/cooking once he's got friendly with the locl chefs. MC won it in a prize (along with a bunch of other travel related books) and said it was very good.

I'll look for the book, Marv. I enjoyed his tv series very much. Is the Food Network available in the UK?

[GDZ]

Kat,I know you're worried Ibuprofen, but I assume the news reports are refering to this article in the BMJ:

I had a look at the orginal article they're refering to

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7504/1366#TBL1

There's a slight increased risk of heart disease in elderly people taking NSAIDs including Ibuprofen.

I draw your attention to this line:

'For ibuprofen, one additional myocardial infarction would happen for every 1005 patients aged 65 and over,'

I don't really think that's a reason to panic-do you?

Ooh and if you're having trouble understanding the article then have a look at A852761 which has a bit more information on reading medical research.

(It's odd,usuallly I know what's in the BMJ before I actually read it, because it's been reported in the papers on Fridays!)

The percentage increase was 25% according to R2 this morning, and a cardiologist pointed out a flaw in the research methodology. The approach, apparently, was to look at the people who had had heart-attacks, and then check their GPs and medical records to see what painkillers they were taking, rather than to take X number of people at random and study them over 5 years.

What the study presumably excludes, therefore, are people like me who take ibuprofen, don't go to their GP, and who haven't had a heart attack.

*worries about Sol*

*worries about MR too*

*feels sleepy*

Ben

Yes, that is always odd. You get that on the radio as well. 'According to a study to be published in the Lancet next week...' I have this really bizarre image of the BMJ and Lancet offices hiring someone to search for the mole who leaks all their stories to the Beeb and the dailies.

David

I always wanted Roger Highfield's job as science editor on the Telegraph. I used to have a subscription to New Scientist so I'd get my copy the day before it hit the shelves. So did Roger, because the next day there were always about 8 stories taken from NS. Figured that must be the easiest job in the world - digesting the digest...

LOL

I have booked appointments for three Estate Agents to come round to value the flat next week, and have one letting agent. My accountant recommended two more to me, but I cannot remember who they were .

I now have less than 72 hours to clean the flat. This is serious, since I am spending Saturday nigh away, and the first of the s is around on Monday.

He-e-e-e-e-lp!

Ben

I'm sure John Donne is in the fFordean Rift, in the library. And I've got d'E's notes late last night, but I am all clients all day so I don't see a new conversation happening at all today. Relax.

Amy, I think that your bromeliad is called Bright Light.

I plan to finish up my raised beds on Sunday and then will try to get the house cleaned on Monday. I would much rather be outside working than inside.

I find that I have no problem with people saying jahb (after all I do run across people with Maine and old New England accents all the time) but people who say jorb? I want to wring their necks.

That email question is deceiving I think - they probably couldn't care less about email, but more about whether you were tech savy. Some people don't even know the difference between the internet and email (my mother, for example). Then again you can have people so techno-phobic that email is the end-all, be-all... you can just never tell.

<>

If I bring you Loyd Grossman will you do that for me?

PWM with a smart blue Union Cassock on - as apparently I am heavily Yankee...

Teuchter, apologies if I have missed it, but is your father still around, I had no idea he was a chosen one! I just happen to know a little bit about Arbroath and the mighty 45 Cdo of Her Majesties RMs. Has he been back? nothing beats the horizontal rain, a pint of heavy and the gently nose of Arbroath Smokies wafting across teh harbour!whilst the Firth of Tay does its damndest to reclaim Arbroath United FC!

Jorb is just as bad as "Warshington". Where's the r? Do you see a r in Washington?

I read Kitchen Confidential a few years ago, Marv. I really enjoyed it too. I would also recommend Jacques Pepin's The Apprentice. It has yummy recipes in addition to Pepin's autobiography. I've been making his cheese souffle ever since.

Thanks for the e-mail question support, d'E and Sporky.

I hate it when people say warsh. And liberry. And we have a woman who adds a d to the front of words starting with y. She says djes for yes, djello for yellow, etc. Drives me bonkers. She also adds h's to some words. Instead of true she will say thru.