Not too bad, considering what a lazy bunch of muppets we usually are ;) Long may it continue.

Waits for inevitable 3 week spate of nobody posting, just to spite me for that last sentence...

hmm... application of time:

The kind of exam where it is necessary to either slow down or even stop time completely to enable you to actually complete the thing. Alternatively you could be required to learn the ways of the force and in doing so would be able to keep turning all the clocks in the room gradually backwards :P

Congratulations on the exam results. I have yet to find out mine. Furthermore, I'm basking in my ignorance - I'll go and collect them when I'm good and ready :P

Perhaps exams should be formally classified, that way you wouldn't have to rely solely on the year above you to get a feel for the injustices which await. I offer the following as a starter...

Application of learning

This is how exams ought, theoretically, to work. Each exam question relates directly to the course content or motives and each question or part becomes progressively harder. It is indeed a pleasant surprise to be presented with an exam of this type.

Learning of application

Relates to practical art/sculpture/etc. exams, where the idea is apply not so much knowledge, but anything else you can find to an area of canvas/wall/floor in an aesthetic manner. Note: Bonus points are occasionally available for incorporating the invigilator into the work without his/her consent or knowledge until the glue or concrete has set.

Lecturer ego boosting

Descriptive of those exams set by a lecturer, on the subject of the lecturer's works and with the aim of getting you, the student, to write ego massaging garbage about said lecturer in the style of an exam answer. Extra marks are usually available for being able to quote the lecturer verbatim.

Textbook/set text recital

Similar to the previous camp, only in this case the lecturer is spineless, so you have to massage someone else's ego instead. By having the class worship the Author of The Textbook, the lecturer feels they have paid their dues to their respective demigod.

Occult incantation

Descriptive of most mathematics exams, a good number of the more esoteric branches of the applied sciences, and all introductory courses in the misapplied sciences (psychology, physiology, statistics, etc). These exams involve invoking an appropriate spirit to extract a completely reasonable answer from a set of completely improbable specifications via a suitably unintelligible method. Greek and/or essence of Gelfling is usually a good place to start.

Anyone else want to take it up as a project?

Well, it appears I have passed all the exams I was required to pass; heaven alone knows how. This does mean I'm allowed back at Durham next year. Yay!

pretty pictures, too much science :P

New improved Leinir, now with Quantum Effects™ ;)

Black Holes have been studied for many years as configurations of spacetime in General Relativity, corresponding to very strong gravitational fields. But since we cannot build a consistent quantum theory from GR, several puzzles were raised concerning the microscopic physics of black holes. One of the most intriguing was related to the entropy of Black Holes. In thermodynamics, entropy is the quantity that measures the number of states of a system that look the same. A very untidy room has a large entropy, since one can move something on the floor from one side of the room to the other and no one will notice because of the mess - they are equivalent states. In a very tidy room, if you change anything it will be noticeable, since everything has its own place. So we associate entropy to disorder. Black Holes have a huge disorder. However, no one knew what the states associated to the entropy of the black hole were. The last four years brought great excitement in this area. Similar techniques to the ones used to find the islands of M-theory, allowed us to explain exactly what states correspond to the disorder of some black holes, and to explain using fundamental theory the thermodynamic properties that had been deduced previously using less direct arguments.

Brought to you by the anthropomorphicised hot dog sausage and this

*waves* just thought i'd say hi quickly :) got to go count people now! bye bye

Now, now Jimmy. We all know what the last people who refused to post ended up like, don't we?

Shant.

I should hope so. This place has had the activity of a sedated sloth recently - I did consider gradually hacking the images and CSS to grow moss and cobwebs all over the place :P

I know Linda is finding it harder to get free computer time, since bits of the library are closing down for the summer, but I wasn't aware Jimbly had an excuse. I vote we poke the Jimbly with big, pointy, novelty-scented sticks until he posts.

Mmmmmmm nice.

Are we going to try to kick this place into life again now?

For the obscure computing aficionados in our midst, look - it's an Ultra-Cappy ;)
(obligatory techie drool)

And lo, 'twas fixed.

For those (probably all of you) who didn't notice, I've just rebooted Cappy. Nasty little power demons at it again :(

you'd have to call it HGI then ;) :P