Exams, Ailments and Other Things To Avoid

My prolonged absence has not been solely due to the arrival of finals. Unfortunately I fell ill last week right in the thick of them. I only discovered after Commercial that I had taken the entire exam with a fever of 38.5°C. Not, I am sure you will agree, ideal. To describe the timing as ill would be tellingly bereft of humour, since the following two exams were the big compulsory papers, EU and Equity, which I need for Law School next year. That meant I had to drag myself to each of them else come back and retake them in October. Yet Cambridge, being the academic institution it is, looks somewhat derisively upon excuses for poor performance, so had I missed the exams due to illness it may have been overlooked but by taking them, should I get a passing grade, it is likely to be used in calculating my overall class. As such I’ve forgotten about grades for the moment and am just trying to get through. I finish on Monday, with a fairly relaxed half paper. As those around me all celebrate, the end is most definitely in sight.

I had a few things earmarked to share a week ago; hopefully they are still relevant:

• Project Censored has its 2007 list up rather early and despite its obvious US slant, there are some really interesting news items there that bizarrely didn’t hit the mainstream press in the way one would expect.
• A BBC Panorama crew were kicked out of a school when even the kids were irritated by the ridiculously bad science being practised, in a clear attempt to scaremonger about the dangers of radiation. Particularly when your “scientist” also sells these.
• Recently advertisers seem keen on getting consumers to do their job, but Heinz are finding the results are not as they had expected. This is, one suspects, because consumers are not advertising agencies. The key difference is that we know those who work in advertising are morally deficient, while consumers are only slightly so.
• Star Wars fans are creating a new 3D computer generated take on the Clone Wars cartoons. The art style is reminiscent of the original and the project’s results so far look gorgeous.
• Finally Fleur recently mentioned this article about Whitgift Zoo School. Whilst true, one also ought to take everything it says with a large gulp of salt since the journalist in question was present for a cricket match and clearly knows nothing about the school’s academic side, expressing no desire to find out. Personally I feel left out — in hindsight my school days had a distinct lack of wallaby.