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

P.S. Just read your post Walter ... I find myself embarrassed by your generous, and a touch embellished, praise. Sal and Waz, please keep in mind that Walter is one of the best flatterers that I have ever met, and one of the most modest. He has now surpassed all previous history geniuses down our way by being awarded a 92.5 for an essay. NO-ONE has ever done this before.
Cheers
Bran.

Bran,

We crossed in the mail. See my previous post re Anglo-Saxons. And yes, of course you can ride on the mower; come over any evening or weekend with one arm holding Liane and the other a bottle of plonk.

Walter.

Hello again, all,

We have crossed again!! Wazungu and StM, I protest two things. One, I am not a flatterer, but I do like giving (and receiving) compliments. Two, the mark Bran mentioned was a fluke and in any case had been in part 'bought' through a semester's worth of heavy duty red wine drinking with the Professor of Classics. Crawling to him helped a lot, too.

Walter.

Good morning Wazungu, Walter and Bran.

It's an dull morning and rain's forecast. That's ok. I've walked the dogs so it can rain any time it feels the urge.

Wazungu, I think the reason so many of our accountants have been unable to add up is that they can't seem to get their columns of figures straight. We're off to see our accountants this afternoon to agree our end of year accounts. I expect I'll have to sit and listen to them talking about golf for half an hour before we get round to discussing the accounts.

You don't like lawn mowers Walter? Well, I'm pleased to be able to say I know a man who doesn't like his mower. When I visit my brother I have to find out where he is and whether he's on the mower before I can let loose the dogs of chasing-the-mower. Little devils.

I've never really got the hang of being PC Bran. I can't imagine why there should be pressure to revise the past to make it appear that human nature was any different then than it is now. When ever I find myself condemning a whole society - you know the sort of thing: "Bloody French!" when they do the various things they do to cause the English strife, I just have to remind myself that I only notice the bad behaviour of the French because they're our next door neighbours. The French are no worse than anyone else. And when you hear about how native peoples are so much more in tune with the land I think well, they may be nice people but the native Americans completely annihilated America's native horses (ate them) and Europeans reintroduced horses when they invaded. Human nature seems to be pretty constant wherever and whenever you take your sample.

I've been to the Yorvik thing. It's a bit Disneyesque. York was a lovely place but a bit crowded. We came across the incongruous sight in an old but beautifully kept grave yard where we were reading some of the tomb stones, of a couple of youths lurking behind a stone sniffing glue from a polythene bag. It was rather sad.

The British cicadas are mainly in the New Forest I believe, Wazungu. I haven't heard them but I liked the sound the Spanish ones made. I think some must be louder and more intrusive than others. I've added a bit to the article about the Roman numeral designations and brood distribution. There's also a quote about the Chicago cicada plague, in which their noise is described like this: "The song of just one male cicada sounds like a buzz saw going through a log and the metallic screeching of millions - sometimes a continuous clamor, sometimes rising and falling in waves - made a nerve-wracking din".

I think intelligence is likely to be a bunch of mental abilities combined. One of the boys who does repairs in the workshop under my office has a problem with reading because he's dyslexic but if you give him a pile of bits that might conceivably fit together in some way to make something useful and leave him to it for half an hour, you could come back and find his made a telephone or a lawn mower. I find that quite impressive. I can remember a lecturer saying that a lot of students think they can just sit there like a row of puddings waiting to have custard poured on them, but learning isn't like that - you have to learn actively.

One of the things I like about the h2g2 community is that people are polite to each other. Out there in the wider web a lot of "flaming" happens. I didn't contribute much in CompuServe forums because people were often so rude and unpleasant to each other. There seemed to be something similar to the "road rage" pschycology going on there. It was as though people could be rude to each other because there was no possibility of physical retaliation.

My aunt's always moaning about the speedwell in her lawn Wazung, but I think it looks very pretty.

I do envy you the frogs Walter. There was one in my garden a couple of years ago but I haven't seen any since. Are any of the Tasmanian frogs poisonous?

Walter and Bran, for some reason the pair of you modestly bickering over how much more clever the other is, reminds me of my mother and aunt when they went into Lyons Corner House for a cup of tea and a sticky bun. When the time came to pay they'd have a little tussle, each trying to get the other to put her purse away, both determined that she was going to pay.

Speak to you all later.
Sal

Evnin all,
I got belted by a conker on the way home from work today! Autumn is well under way despite a couple of Martins still hanging around.

Re murky Tudors, Walter - I was thinking of popular conceptions rather than the academic side.As based on TV, films etc which now seem to focus on the lice,scabies, sewage in the streets, practise of torture etc side of Tudor times. I haven't seen it but my parents watched the most recent Eliz. 1 movie and were pretty taken aback by it. I call it a fashion because Shakespeare didn't hide the murky side, those bits used to be skated over, now they're emphasised.
I'd be over the moon to get 78 for an essay. It must have been the tone with which you wrote it Walter! Or maybe it was because you'd reminded him of Sal's pudding waiting for custard the previous day? But 92.5 %!! You must have been inspired by the Olympics. What exactly was the 7.5% deducted for? And was this the Tudor essay?

Bran(-the-renowned, or just -the-red for short? ), the TV programme said Alfred was presented to someone, can't remember who, who dressed him in robes with a purple sash, I think. Then, later, he was back in Rome for a year with his father. The implication was that he would be impressed with, and learning about, Roman civilisation and law based rule and would have brought this to "England" had it not been for the dasterdly Normans invading and cutting off this blossoming England. Sal's B. French again!
BTW the TV shots of ancient Rome during this part of the programme were, literally, seen through a rosy haze. I'm not joking.

Sal, if my brother was on a mower and I had a pack of mower hounds I'd loose them and wait for the fun! Particularly when he hasn't answered e-mails for ten days.
Your custard pudding students reminded me of the lecturer who advised me and a friend to go for a cup of tea before his lectures in future. I think that's what he was saying anyway, I was only really awake for half of it.
See you all later,
Wz

Gooday Wazungu, StM and Bran,

Wazungu!! Last evening, driving home from work, there was a car with the numberplate WAZ (can't recall the numbers, but there were three). It was an interstater. Such plates are 'specials' i.e. they are not run of the mill issues and one has to pay a lot of extra money for them so they are a nice little earner for the government. I guess it wasn't you, but you can never tell ....

Re Tudors: I am much more interested in people's impression of the Tudor age, especially Elizabeth, than the 'academic' view, which has been hammered into me endlessly. The focal point of this year's endeavour is an 'impression' of the Elizabethan age. For instance, was it really a Golden Age? And regardless of whether it was or wasn't, why did people then, and now, view it in such golden (or rosy) hues?

Bran is the modest one, but I don't think either of us are boasters. In fact, I have noticed that my friends at uni seem to be more embarrassed by talking about good marks than they ever seem to be about not so good marks. And you raise a very interesting question about why the 7.5 marks were deducted. My beloved wrote a scintillating piece that scored an 85. Terrific mark, but she is a high class act and this was about her usual standard. This one was different though in that the lecturer wrote "I can't think of the last time I read an essay so well written and which so comprehensively answered the question and on which there is nothing for me to add." Well, my question was like your's - where is the 'missing' 15 per cent? Maybe Bran can enlighten us, since it his job.

The lilacs at the side of the house are about two days away from bursting into full bloom, and with the weather having turned warm and sunny the Silver Birches have stopped being coy and are now really greening up. Does anyone know why Silver Birches have so many 'catkins'?

Ben ate four flower pots yesterday. This was the fault of the wind, which had blown them off a table. He has taken to excavating, which I have assumed has something to do with there being not enough tables, chairs, kennels etc left for him to eat.

Take care y'all,

Walter.

Gooday Wazungu, StM and Bran,

Wazungu!! Last evening, driving home from work, there was a car with the numberplate WAZ (can't recall the numbers, but there were three). It was an interstater. Such plates are 'specials' i.e. they are not run of the mill issues and one has to pay a lot of extra money for them so they are a nice little earner for the government. I guess it wasn't you, but you can never tell ....

Re Tudors: I am much more interested in people's impression of the Tudor age, especially Elizabeth, than the 'academic' view, which has been hammered into me endlessly. The focal point of this year's endeavour is an 'impression' of the Elizabethan age. For instance, was it really a Golden Age? And regardless of whether it was or wasn't, why did people then, and now, view it in such golden (or rosy) hues?

Bran is the modest one, but I don't think either of us are boasters. In fact, I have noticed that my friends at uni seem to be more embarrassed by talking about good marks than they ever seem to be about not so good marks. And you raise a very interesting question about why the 7.5 marks were deducted. My beloved wrote a scintillating piece that scored an 85. Terrific mark, but she is a high class act and this was about her usual standard. This one was different though in that the lecturer wrote "I can't think of the last time I read an essay so well written and which so comprehensively answered the question and on which there is nothing for me to add." Well, my question was like your's - where is the 'missing' 15 per cent? Maybe Bran can enlighten us, since it his job.

The lilacs at the side of the house are about two days away from bursting into full bloom, and with the weather having turned warm and sunny the Silver Birches have stopped being coy and are now really greening up. Does anyone know why Silver Birches have so many 'catkins'?

Ben ate four flower pots yesterday. This was the fault of the wind, which had blown them off a table. He has taken to excavating, which I have assumed has something to do with there being not enough tables, chairs, kennels etc left for him to eat.

Take care y'all,

Walter.

Evening Wazungu, Walter and Bran

Not too bad just getting winged by a conker Wazungu - wait till it's whole branches that start flying around. I know you're not keen on this time of year but I like all this weather. I'm just waiting for the excuse to light a fire. My house is surrounded by tall trees and I like to watch their shadows waving about dramatically at night.

That Panorama's on again tonight. Did you happen to watch it. It was a bit worrying. Scientists in some countries seem to be left pretty much to their own devices and I got the distinct impression that they can do whatever they think they will. It makes a bit of a joke our system where there's some sort of control - however inadequate. Maximum speed and minimum supervision is the way their work was described in the programme. This professor who's developing fungi to attack drug plants, says "yes, the fungus could mutate dangerously". They intend to carry out genetic modifications on this fungus to make it maximally aggressive. It could attack potatoes for example and cause famine. The UN is funding the project but they seem very worried about it and it appears that they're being driven against their better judgement by the Americans and the Brits. They want to spray the drug crops of Columbia and Afghanistan and they seem to be preparing to do it without the permission of the governments of those countries. Frightening!

Am I right in thinking that your brother has annoyed you? He's not living out in the bush is he? Perhaps his computer has broken and he can't get it repaired. Brothers are a bit of a law unto themselves, in my experience. I'm very very fond of mine, but they require a high degree of understanding and indulgence. As I may have remarked before: tut, Boys!

Lectures are a pain really, aren't they? I've never found it easy to stay awake through them - even interesting ones. The only way I could ever stay awake was by trying to write down everything the lecturer was saying. It's the inactivity, the droning of one voice and all the other students vacuuming up the oxygen and replacing it with some narcotic gas. I could never stay awake in the library either. Actually, I just have a bit of a job staying awake. Perhaps I was one of those puddings. Why couldn't they just pour the custard and stop moaning at us?

Good night y'all.
Sal

Good evening,
Walter, I wish it was me, spring in Tasmania would be nice right now. I suspect that one of those special licence plates might be worth more than the OldTincan Micra that I drive.
Impressions that I don't have to justify with facts! Right up my street! I think it's seen as a golden age because:
1) Elizabeth had red hair. ( Very colourful - almost rosy in fact.)
2) She was an expert at PR.
3) It was an interval of peace after the insecurity of dour Mary and her Catholic sympathies.
4) Sour James the 1 and 1V did nothing to compete with Elizabeth's memory.
5) Shakespeare has a lot to do with it. People now and then know his plays. A lot of them are fun and everyone associates them, yellow stockings and all, with Tudor times.

I would appreciate it if Bran could enlighten us on missing marks. I assume it's because 100 is perfection and that's unattainable - except in Maths of course.

Sal, I don't think I can refer to Yorkshire as the bush! And it's his work computer so there are no excuses. What brothers need is keeping in their place. My sister is the expert on this. On one occasion she lured him into the garden and brought him to the ground with a flying rugby tackle for not saying hello. 15 years on, he has not forgotten.
Lectures were indeed a pain. Our real mistake was sitting in the front row!
I did see the Panorama programme. It was worrying, like you I got the impression they will use the fungus one way or another. The American scientist obviously felt the consequences of the drugs were worse than the risks of the fungus. It made me start thinking, for the first time, whether the people advocating legalising drugs don't have a point. They've lost control of the biological technology involved in this. I don't think it's really in the hands of the American government, never mind the UK or UN.

I happier about the time of year now. I've lit the boiler and its warm again. The house feels much more like home with a fire, even if it is inside a boiler, and with the pipes and radiators gurgling away. Driving in the dark the night before last it was a branch that came down. But just a smallish one about 50 yards ahead so no problems.
Have a nice evening/morning,
Wz

Gooday Wazungu, StM and Bran (who must be working on his PhD and about time too),

Waz, it might not have been you, sadly, but the coincidences keep coming - our car is a Micra. A Nissan: is that the same brand?

Your impressions of the Tudor Age are brilliant. I do think the main influence is that Elizabeth was, as you say, an absolutely brilliant PR person, but she was also very much in tune with the people and the mood of her country, which gave her propaganda a keen edge. One aspect that hadn't crossed my mind was your point about how in later years people looked back and saw Elizabeth's era shining through the murk of sour old James I. So taken am I with this line that it is going into the essay currently being written and which is now a week overdue. Yes, I am serious, about both including it and the lateness.

StM, we don't get Panorama, but the programme you wrote about is just chilling. What concerns me is that governments are paranoid about 'bad news' stuff getting out into the public domain, so it is always mildly surprising, to me at least, when something of this nature 'gets out', because it is bound to engender controversy and anxiety. On that basis, what on earth is going on that we DON'T get to find out? I suspect that it is tip of iceberg stuff. On a happier note I should have perhaps mentioned that our government here in Tasmania has banned genetically modified crops and any further GE/GM research in this State until more extensive research has been undertaken. Given the delicate if not precarious balance that makes up the chain of being this is an extremely sensible move, although whether it was taken for reasons of populist politics or genuine concern no-one would know. Sometimes we should just take the result and not worry too much about why it came up.

And if I haven't mentioned before, did you know that, officially, Tasmania's north-west corner has the cleanest air in the World? It's pretty good down here in the south-east too, but not rated the best. Take care, y'all, and I hope that you have a relaxing and pleasant weekend.

Walter.

Hello Sa, Wz and Walter

I'm back! Yes Walter, I have indeed been working on the PhD fairly solidly so have gone into that "zone" where the rest of the world ceases to be. But, as I have made some good progress so far this week, I can reward myself by putting my head up and looking around again.

Some very good points about the marking thing. In my (albeit limited) experience, it seems largely to do with convention. In the last Uni I worked at, we did give 100% for essays if they were indeed the best that they could be under the circumstances. This didn't happen all that often, but it did occur. When I was in honours, they did the same for essays, as some people did get full marks. Down here in History, on the other hand, it almost seems like 90% is the top mark, and you get marked out of this (seems to be the same in the Managment School when I was teaching there - but that largely had to do with the poor quality of the students ... and I say this not unkindly). Thus, the convention is different. I have certainly had essays back that have had comments like "you have answered the question as far as it can be within the word limit", etc. And have then wondered why I didn't get 100. Its cos a lot of places just don't award such marks as that "is not the way things are done". (I don't agree with this sentiment by the way).

The trouble is that marking of essays is largely a rank-ordering process, as well as a grading process. The mark that you get is often a better indicator of where you are in comparison to the rest of the group, rather than to some objective grade. It isn't like maths, as you say Waz, where you can be clearly right or wrong. So, just cos someone gets 80% for an essay, does not mean theirs is twice as good as someone who gets 40%, just that they are at a much higher standard in comparison (for those who are interested, maths merks would be called an "interval" scale of measurement, essay marks would best be called an "ordinal" scale). I'm not sure if I have explained this properly ... but I guess the idea I am trying to get over is that essay marking can be highly subjective, and I'm sure that a lot of markers therefore err on the side of conservatism. This is why when I have marked essays, I have set marking criteria (that have been discussed with the students) and always moderated with any other markers ... to try to make it as objective as possible. (My heavens this all sounds dull! Thank you for reading this far if you have made it).

Thanks for the impressions of Yorvik Sal. Indeed a little sad as you say. I find that such circumstances can really ruin what might otherwise have been a special visit.

Bugger! Forgot the porridge again! Bye for now ...
Bran

P.S. I may yet come up with a better way of explaining essay-marking ... I'll work on it.

P.S. As an after-thought, I remember hearing that in the Oxbridge establishments, if you get awarded over 70% you are doing very well for an essay. Don't know if this is true or not, but would reinforce my point about it being a matter of convention.

Just thought of something else ... in the last Uni I was at, grades were awarded accordingly: 50-64 = pass; 65-74 = credit; 75-84 = distinction; 85+ = high distinction. Here at UniTas: 50-59 = pass; 60-69 = credit; 70-89 = disctinction; 80+ = high distinction. So, if I was awarded a low HD I would get 80 or 85 depending upon the Uni I was studying at. Again ... a matter of convention. Is this helping explain anything or am I just going on? (I can take either answer )

Time for bed.
Night night,
Bran.

Good evening everyone.

Oh, I was miles out Wazungu - not so much the 'bush' as the hedge (once you sister's finished with him at least). Your sister sounds like a person not to be messed with.

I expect you learned not to sit in the front row as time went on. Falling asleep in lectures must be a fairly common problem. The last ones I went to were in London. I and some friends went to some psychology lectures that started at about 9am and went on till about 6pm. I'm sure they were very interesting but I was really only fully awake through the first one.

I think you're right about the GM technology. The government tries to give us this comforting impression that everything's under control, but it's not. They've lost it. The thing about material as tiny as spoors is that it can blow round the planet. Once it's out there in the world it can't be recalled. It's worse than the radiation from Chernobyl that spread to this country, in so far as it doesn't just stop where it initially lands. I also have mixed feelings about the legalisation of drugs. A nasty, murderous, gangster culture grew up in America round the illegal alcohol business in the prohibition era. If drugs were legal, but controlled like alcohol (which is also a drug after all) it would put an end to the exploitation of poor farmers, the people used to transport the stuff and, of course, all the other murderous activity that revolves around the drug trade. Incautious scientists would also have no further excuse for developing fungi for (whatever they choose to call it) biological warfare. They might find other excuses though. As you say Walter, it's most likely the tip of an iceberg.

GM's banned in Tasmania is it? Well, good for the Tasmanian government! Can we swap you? Ours may be idiots. We won't know for sure until it's too late.

The marking of essays seems like a potential cause for paranoia amongst students. I'm glad I'm not one. If I ever get back to being a student, I'm going to do maths, so I don't have to worry about the subjectivity of the examiners.

Speaking of things scholarly, I found a lovely guide entry over at the Peer Review page, about the Oxford English Dictionary. It's by Parapluie. If you enjoy a good read (and it's historical by the way, you historians), go and have a look at it. You'll find it here:
http://www.h2g2.com/A434873 or over at the Peer Review page.

Speak to ya later.
Sal

Good evening Sal, Walter and Bran (who I'm glad is making progress with the PhD),

Oh Walter - I hope James the I (and VI) doesn't lose you another 7.5%. Or add to the lateness.
My car is a Nissan Micra, and it's been very reliable for six years now. I'm hanging on to it, normally I'd have replaced it two years ago.

Panorama isn't bad at unearthing bad news but there seem to be fewer programmes like this now. The BBC takes a more PC line these days. Just this morning on the radio they were discussing a report on fluordisation of water supplies. A woman was interviewed who made some very good points questioning the report's research and findings. Then in the news headlines immediately afterwards the reporter read out the report findings as if they were unquestioned gospel truth.
Tasmania is on the right lines banning GM crops at this time. I hope you're wrong about the tip of the iceberg but you're in a position to know I think. I don't like all of what Friends of the Earth get up to but I do support them just to bring a bit of balance. They're good at raising issues and occasionally manage to make those that make the decisions answerable. But they lose public support by never being happy with anything. I'm sure if politicians feel they can't win at all they're less likely to bother at all.

I think I understand what you're saying about marking, Bran. Thinking about it, with the marking I do I start off with giving 40, (pass mark), for a very basic answer giving the essential facts in something that looks like English, then add to that for extras, whether it's additional information or well explained points etc. I just wish I had known all this when I was writing essays! 100 isn't possible, unless you're a genius, the exam is designed to test candidates under time pressure and there isn't time to produce the model answer. But because someone one day just might we can't give 100 for anything less!

Time to go round and check up on Mum and Dad, (and their sweet chestnut trees!) and have some proper cooking! You need a timer by your computer Bran. I got one a few weeks ago after getting fed up of burnt chops ( my usual cooking - grilled chops, sorry Sal, I know you're a veggie).
Have good weekends,
Wz

Good night,
Sal, remember our first conversation - about slugs? In last four days I've found three in the kitchen, new trails in the front room and a small black slug in the bedroom. One just by the front door keyhole. Several in the porch, one on last night's shovelful of coal (a LARGE ONE) and another on this morning's milk bottle. This is reaching plague proportions. Oh, and a snail came in on the newspaper. It's beyond a joke, I think I trod on one on the doorstep coming in just now. Trying to uncurl my stomach at this moment. Suggestions needed on how to get rid of them, I've already resorted to the (bird friendly) pellets INSIDE the house! Or on how to live with them!

BTW your last post shows as an hour earlier than mine but I'm sure it wasn't there when I posted. Maybe there's a slug in the computer. I would always advocate doing maths - no essays, no reading lists, no projects, no vivas...pefection in your reach, everything in harmony and equilibrium. I just don't know why anyone does anything else .
Wz

Evening crew

Sounds as though you're under siege Wazungu. Try laying a thin line of salt across all the little openings where you think they're getting in. Salt's as good as poison to slugs. They won't pass it. You could also put the ash from your boiler in more generous heaps round openings. They don't like ash and they don't like sharp stuff like grit. As a last resort you might try harsh language - that won't work obviously, but it might make you feel better.

I'll have to tell my aunt. She'll be just about dying of sympathy for you. Perhaps I could send you my slug eating dog. Second thoughts, better not - by the sound of it, she'll be the size of a house when you send her back.

I'd like to finish the maths A level I was half way through when I hurt my back and could hardly move for 2 years. I probably could carry on now but I've got involved in all these other things ... one day maybe I'll finish it. You're right. It's much easier than all those "arts" subjects where you have to compare and contrast the ideas of this person, that person and the other person.

Good night all.
Sal

Thanks Sal,
I hadn't thought of ash, can't put it too close to the house tho', it will get tramped in. I will put some salt outside the doors. BUT, planning ahead, I am considering biological warfare! The Organic Gardening Catalogue has a supply of "naturally occuring microscopic nematodes which seek out and kill slugs". More manageable than a house sized dog! Soil temperature needs to be between 10c and 25c, so it will have to wait for spring. .
The birds won't be deprived of food, there are obviously far more slugs than they can eat here. (I will trust the Henry Doubleday Research Ass'n not to sell anything uncontrollable.). I have since found two more slugs, on the cabbage my mother gave me last night. There are probably more, on the loose inside the fridge. Which do you think, the dog, the ash or the salt for the fridge? .

2 years out of action! Was it ok after that? And what made you go to psychology lectures, learn anything interesting?
Wz

Reached into the potato bag in the fridge and felt something soft and slimy...........
This has got to stop.

I shall fight on the doorsteps,
I shall fight in the veg.beds,
I shall fight on the lettuce,
and through the cabbages,
I shall fight in the kitchen;
I'll get those slugs.........
Just need to hold out 'til the arrival of the Nematodes.......

(Sorry, been making posters for the rededication of the village war memorial.)

Evening everyone.

That's fighting talk Wazungu. Who do those combined "stomach and foot" slithery, undulating, vegetable thieves and squatters think they are, any way? Don't they know they're just slugs? Boy, are they in for a surprise when the incey wincey wormies attack.

For the slugs in the fridge problem, I think you need a different strategy entirely. I'd use a piece of kitchen towel to remove them manually.

On the back front ( ) : no, it persists but it's very slowly getting better. They have my desk up on breeze blocks at work, so I can work standing up. I can sit for 30-40 minutes at a time now too. Just as well because my home computer's at the usual height.

I went to the psychology lecturers because one of my friends was going with a party from Leicester Uni where she was studying at the time and she thought I would be interested too. I would have been but, as I said, I couldn't keep my eyes open after the first one.

What does the rededication of the village war memorial involve?

My pasta calls. Speak to you later.
Sal

Gooday Wazungu, StM and Bran (who shouldn't be logged in account of doing his thesis),

Slugs: ash is great. All manner of creatures want to lick up salt, but most will eschew ash.

StM, how did you do your back in? Mine 'went' many years ago (hence another attraction of motor mowers) in the silliest way imaginable. Although I have to say it seems to have improved with time, or perhaps one just gets used to it and learns to adapt. My beloved suffered similarly a couple of years ago. I understand what relief it is to stand at work, and how difficult it can be to sit at a desk. Knowing how inconvenienced you must be makes your chatting to us just that more special. Are you having treatment/therapy or letting nature take its course?

Bran, I read your marking 'interpretations' and the explanation makes sense, although I remain unconvinced about the system's intrinsic merit. I wonder if lecturers ever attempt to write the essays they set, or 'do the exam' questions they write, and under an exam environment.

I can vividly recall one year being in the finals of the school spelling competition. Forty words, and I think I got 36 or 37 correct; whatever, I tied with another student and we were several ahead of the next best. This was for a silver cup, and an Oxford Concise dictionary (a much envied item, as distinct from Collins' Gems and suchlike), and a certficate, not to mention the much needed kudos with the parents. I was declared the 'loser' because I had received some detentions during the term (not exactly unusual) whereas my tied competitor was some narky goody two-shoes who even got on with his sister. So to make it read well for posterity, my score was 'marked down' by not one, but TWO!!! Later the same year I 'won' the school essay prize, but the masters refused to award the cup to me because of my unruliness and waywardness. I remember my form master saying afterwards to me 'Let that be a lesson to you.' It was: I set a record which still stands for detentions the following term, and was expelled the term after that.

That's a long way round of saying that marking systems are always going to be capable of 'subjective' manipulation, or inconsistency. That's why I was so peeved about the 78 I told you about a few days ago: the marker got it wrong, but wasn't big enough to admit his error, so it was me who wore it. Anyway, having got THAT off my chest, enough of rants for a while.

Well, the day beckons so I must get going. Take care everyone,

Walter.