The A-level (advanced level) exam results are due again on Thursday this week. The percentage of students passing them is expected to have risen for the 23rd year running to around 96.5% from 68,2% in 1982. And it will be no surprise if more than one in five get the best grade, an “A”. . . . → Read More: British exam system critisised – again
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The free BBC downloads of the 9 Beethoven Symphonies has – as might be expected – caused some aggro with the music industry which has accused the Beeb of “devaluing the perceived value of music”. (Which is a bit much, coming from the managing director of the Naxos label, which itself shook up the . . . → Read More: Beethoven downloads make BBC unpopular with CD / music industry This evening I transfered some money, using internet banking, from a Barclays Bank account in the UK to another Barclays Bank account in the UK. Here, in Germany, a funds transfer between different branches of the same bank is normally instantaneous. Imagine my surprise to receive the following message when I hit “confirm”: Pay . . . → Read More: Best of British Banking If you live outside the UK, your mental picture of the country is likely to include the view that it rains a lot and it’s not exactly the place to go for a hot dry summer. Actually, that view seems to be wrong – London’s mayor, Ken Livingstone, told Londoners yesterday “if all . . . → Read More: England is wet, isn’t it? The BBC and the Oxford English Dictionary are trying to track down the first use and origin of some 50 words or phrases which have crept into the English langauge without the OED having noticed at the time. So, if you can produce evidence, which can be irrefutably dated, of where to bonk, codswollop, . . . → Read More: Words with unknown origins British banking has been an absolute disgrace for the last 15-20 years. Electronic funds transfers between banks have always taken a minimum of three days, and in our experience sometimes even longer. Now, after increasing pressure from consumer organisations and even the Bank of England, the banks have agreed to speed transactions up to . . . → Read More: British Banks to move out of Stone Age The British museum has been unknowingly exhibiting work by Banksy, better known as a graffiti artist. The “prehistoric cave-painting” was described as follows: “This finely preserved example of primitive art dates from the Post-Catatonic era.The artist responsible is known to have created a substantial body of work across South East of England under the . . . → Read More: Britsh Museum displays prehistoric supermarket trolley Those of you who live in the UK don’t need to read any further. You already know what Sudoku is, since all the major newspapers have been publishing it for weeks now and a sizable proportion of the nation seems to be addicted to it. For the rest of us, Sudoku is a . . . → Read More: Sudoku A little late (this happened last week), but none the less, pretty amazing: That hole in the wall (in Basingstoke, UK), was made by a BMW hitting a kerb at speed and then hitting the house. I just can’t imagine how fast it must have been going to hit a first floor wall, let . . . → Read More: Hole in one A system of marking exams that is aimed at making the process faster and more efficient is being introduced in the UK: Pupils’ complete exam scripts will be scanned into a computer file by the company managing the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance (AQA) examination board’s computer marking, Milton Keynes-based Data and Research Services. Candidates’ . . . → Read More: Marking of GCSE’s to be partially outsourced to India |
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