IB stress

I am stressed on behalf of one of my students, who took the International Baccalaureate diploma chemistry exam today.

Something went *very* wrong, and they were told they weren't allowed the data booklet or even a periodic table for Paper 1. I've NEVER heard of a public examination where you weren't allowed a periodic table for chemistry. Even my university exams, we got a periodic table!

The IB Paper 1 is an absolutely terrifying exam at the best of times. It's an hour long, multiple choice - but it is the HARDEST multiple choice exam ever. It takes me an hour to do one of the papers, and I'm a graduate chemist who's been teaching chemistry for 3 years. If it's true that they're not allowed a periodic table for Paper 1, I need to know, so I prepare my kids appropriately.

Let's say you get a multiple choice question about the electronic configuration of silicon. Armed with my l33t chemical knowledge, I know that silicon is in group 4, period 3, and can work out within seconds that it thus has the electron configuration 2,8,4, and can attempt to add 2+8+4 to work out the atomic number must be 14. But it takes me maybe 3-5 seconds to do that without a periodic table, compared to instantaneous lookup with. ( Read more... )

Q. How many Gor books are there? A. TOO MANY!

Oh my god! The Times is reporting about a "sadomasochistic sex cult" that are taking the GOR BOOKS SERIOUSLY!!

At alt.polycon 7, there was a panel where we passed around a book written by John Norman, and the idea was to open the book at a random page and read as much as possible before you started laughing. I opened it at one particular page and couldn't even START to read, I was laughing so hard. It was just that bad. It wasn't even a case of "your kink is ok, but not my kink", I just couldn't see how any rational human being could find it erotic.

So apparently there's a whole bunch of Gor fetishists living in Darlington. I'm scared.

Why I love HoopyCat, Part 2

HoopyCat is hoopycat, astra is me, baratron. Log from #soc.bi this evening.

HoopyCat: i actually found a useful and efficient bus run in rochester
HoopyCat: the bus leaves the office park at 3:10pm and arrives at my boss's boss's house at 3:28pm
HoopyCat: that's the ONLY time i've EVER seen a feasible bus run in rochester. of course, for some odd reason, it cost $2.50.
HoopyCat: ah! it's because it changes routes. from, uhh, route 92 to, uhh, route 92. so, err, it's a transfer.

* HoopyCat opens envelope full of credit card checks from credit card company
HoopyCat: something tells me they didn't get my letter saying "pleasing to cancel my account, kthx"
* HoopyCat makes checks payable to cross-cut shredder, po box 0, undermydesk ny ( And there's more... )