Mr Owl PhD

"The Casket Letters" Monkey Swallows the Universe (again) "The Bairns" Rachel Unthank and the Winterset "Totemo Aimasho" Tenniscoats "I am the Man" Simone White

My favourite song at the moment, and probably of the year, is the version of Sea Song by Rachel Unthank and the Winterset, sung by Becky Unthank. Robert Wyatt says it's the best version of it he's heard too. MySpace.com - Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - Northumberland, UK - Folk / Experimental / Roots Music - www.myspace.com/rachelunthank

I'm surprised that 'Pornograffiti' by Extreme wasn't in there. They should all have been shot for that.

Spacemen 3 - the 17 minute version of Rollercoaster. One of my favourite tunes ever. Was always rather keen on the Raincoats version of Lola too.

I thought Sonic Youth were good on Wednesday but the 'main event' for me was certainly Slint on Monday night. Majestic. No encore, no acknowledgement of the audience, no need for anything but the music.

One of my favourite shows of the year - thanks to all concerned.

Rather good. I like this tiger attack video: YouTube - Indian Tigers For something cuter, try the panda sneeze: YouTube - Panda Sneeze

I'm also very disappointed at the lack of response to the sad passing of the legendary 'One man and his dog' presenter Phil Drabble.

Terrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrriffic!

Sad. I've got fond childhood memories of watching Runaround.

I found it easy to travel around Poland and lots of people spoke good English. I didn't spend much time in Warsaw but went to Gdansk, which is an interesting city that seems to have been at the heart of much of European history. There's some great places in the countryside too. I'd recommend Bialowieza, 'Europe's last primeval forest', which is in northeast Poland near Bialystok. Slovakia is rather good too, and very cheap. The Tatra mountains are excellent for walking. Like others, I'd recommend Vilnius. I wasn't quite so keen on Hungary, a bit pricier and people weren't always as helpful. Probably the worst Eastern European country to visit if your vegetarian, although good if you're not. Finally, if you fancy some sun and sea, then you could do a lot worse than Croatia.

Has anyone mentioned Mono in Glasgow? Great venue, great record shop, nice food.

I came up with something like... Nina Nastasia 'On Leaving' The Knife 'Silent Shout' Laura Cantrell 'Not the trembling kind' Guided by Voices 'Isolation Drills' Aberfeldy 'Young Forever' Juana Molina 'Segundo' Bonnie Prince Billy 'Master and Everyone' Mary Timony 'Ex Hex' Laura Veirs 'Carbon Glacier' Tape 'Rideau'

Meg Baird 'Dear Companion' Paula Frazer and Tarnation 'Now it's Time' James Blackshaw 'The Cloud of Unknowing'

Not great, although it is at least nice to see someone from my hometown (Maps) get nominated. Even if they do sound a bit like the Beloved.

Messi against Mexico yesterday:

The Mitchell Hall at Marischal College would be a great venue for something suitably epic sounding.

This wasn't quite in Aberdeen, but earlier in the year there was a White-tailed Eagle at Loch of Strathbeg. I like this picture of it. It's really quite big.

I see there's now an offical 'Peregrine watch' in Aberdeen: BBC NEWS | Scotland | North East/N Isles | Falcons take to skies of Aberdeen If anyone's graduating at Marischal College this week then you'll probably see a family of Peregrines flying about the rooftops. They were making lots of noise this morning too.

Last year I saw an Otter on the River Don in Seaton Park. The dolphins are around a lot, especially around the mouth of the Dee/ Girdle Ness. I sometimes see Roe Deer in Seaton Park too. Aberdeen is probably as good as any British city for birds (and before some wag chimes in, not that kind. In fact definitely not that kind).

Yeah, I think that too but it depends on the importance of the word and the other qualities of the writing. A bit more leeway can be allowed when people don't have spell checks to use. I agree with you about exams being a good test of people's abilities to respond to a question there and then. But then coursework can show what people can produce when given the time. I think coursework is also a better learning experience for students, because of the feedback that they get.

I went from Aberdeen to Paris on the train a couple of months ago and it was fairly cheap and relaxed. It was about a twelve hour trip but friends who flew at the same time took almost as long because of delays and cancelled connections. As others have mentioned, it should be quicker once the St Pancras terminal is up and running.

I guess this varies from one subject to another, and I've heard different views on this, but I reckon a good exam answer is as close as possible to a good essay answer. Excepting things like referencing and spelling, the best students generally produce something close to what they produce in an essay under exam conditions, so to me that's kind of the benchmark. I find that most people do about the same on essays as on exams, although there are people who have a lot of trouble with the latter and usually underperform. There aren't many people in my subject area who consistently do a lot better on exams than essays though, which perhaps shows that the latter is a more reliable test of someone's ability.

If it's in an arts and social sciences subject at Aberdeen Uni then it's the class that you get the most credits in over all 3rd and 4th year courses or the highest class you get half your credits in i.e. if you get 50% of your credits at 2:1 and 50% at 2:2 then you get a 2:1. Not sure how it works anywhere else.

Some nice ones from round where I grew up: Titty Ho (map) 13.1 miles Willey (map) 22.8 miles Bishops Itchington (map) 25.4 miles Butts Hill (map) 28.7 miles Fairy Hole (map) 28.9 miles Shingay (map) 33.3 miles Claggy Cott (map) 36.3 miles Crotch Crescent (map) 38.8 miles Herbert's Hole (map) 39.2 miles Foul End (map) 39.4 miles