Tuesday 8 March 2011

A bad choice of words


In an interview on Sky News (7th March 2011), Royal Photographer Arthur Edwards describes a photograph of Kate Middleton saying: “I would have killed to have taken it myself.”

Given the circumstances of her fiancĂ©’s mother’s death, perhaps he could have phrased that better!



Tuesday 1 March 2011

The King's Speech - Part 2




Evade your eyes, don’t plagiarise!


German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg has resigned following allegations that he plagiarised his PhD dissertation.

Chancellor Angela Merkel described Zu Guttenberg as “someone of outstanding political ability, with a unique and extraordinary ability to reach people's hearts and get them interested in politics” before defiantly predicting that he would make a political comeback.

It is curiously reassuring to know that the German political system is as rotten as ours with cheating politicians being praised to the rafters.

For the rest of us mere mortals, plagiarism is probably the most serious academic offence which a student can commit. This is something to bear in mind with essay deadlines fast approaching. The temptation for some might be too hard to resist - as Tom Lehrer explains below.