So that's why he wanted to go freelance...

(One for colleagues only, this one, apologies)

Some more drawing with fire (“incediography”, maybe) tonight up at the upper Telegraph Hill park. Truth be told, I'm a bit disappointed with the results – I think it really takes two people to get good results, and with my good lady up visiting her folks, I was one short. I did meet up with a couple of drunk but friendly student-types up there who had a go, but I suspect the muse just wasn't with me today.

A few of the less shit examples are up on my Flickr page.

The Copes have arrived chez vous, and currently my better half in engaged in drawing out the 'hilarious' plans discussed over dinner tonight for Mr Cope's funeral, representing all the countries in the United Kingdom. Believe me, it's funny.

They're off to see the Minnesota Orchestra at the Proms tonight, so we accompanied them to the Albert Hall. The evening sun on all that red brick was really quite beautiful, and the recently spruced-up Albert Memorial gleamed in the light of the retiring sun. A few more photos here.

<tongue-in-cheek>
From a release that arrived chez the magazine today:

“M Style, a new publication aimed at men and women in the Midlands with high disposable incomes, launches in September. M Style will be a quarterly glossy lifestyle magazine specifically targeting the Midlands, providing readers with all the latest news on shopping, style, fashion, grooming, living, eating, drinking and going out...”

So, basically, they've found a warehouseful of GQs, and will circulate them round the Midlands four months after they've appeared in London, where they'll appear to be cutting edge Midlands style bibles.

“The magazine will also include reviews and news on all the best places to be seen at...”

So... London then?
</tongue-in-cheek>

In other news, this list of common interview questions could prove very useful.

Look, I'm sorry, OK, but I just can't help harping on about the weather. It's insane at the moment. Today we got another torrential downpour – a view from our new fifth floor office shown above, but I have never yet found a satisfactory way to show how heavy rain is – that lasted no more than a quarter of an hour, then we had beautiful bright sunshine thereafter. What gives, people?

When we were on holiday, we discovered some ancient indoor sparklers stuffed into a suitcase. They were lying in our hallway tonight just before we retired for the evening, so I decided to try to muck about with the old 'drawing with fire' technique you see above. It took a while to find the right balance of settings, and a few of the sparklers were dud, so we didn't manage to capture anything jaw-dropping, but I think we'll be investing in some more sparklers soon. There are a few more of our experiments on Flickr.

In other news, the often-interesting Microsoft Font Blog has an interesting article on how creating new ligatures was once thought a practical way to save time and money.

OK, this is just freaky. Watch the film for at least 30 seconds, so you see the bit where a guy nudges it off balance and the creepy little critter self-rights and just keeps going.

In other news, I'd never heard of 'guided buses' before – particularly this spectacular example in Adelaide – but the whole idea is somehow incredibly satisfying. Barrrrrruuum!

And so the English exam results were announced today, and the traditional ballyhoo about whether the exams were getting easier ensued. In the midst of all the reporting, it's often forgotten that continually surrounding students with the news that the exams they've knocked their collective pan out to undertake – and pass, hopefully – are viewed as being somehow 'easy'. It seriously devalues their work and achievement, and it pisses me right off.

So well done, then, to the various examining and qualification authorities in the country for taking out a full-page ad in the national press, congratulating the students and showing some examples of questions from this year's exams. These will hopefully go some way towards making just a few people realise what students today go through.

Now, the way the papers are marked and the levels at which the grades are awarded are much more subtle and contentious matters, but that's what has to be decided: what are we testing kids for? Is it more important to get the right answer ('1+1=2') or to be able to articulate how you think you'd go about solving a problem ('I have one of something, and if I add another one of something – look, I can show you with my fingers – I'll have a different number of things, which I think may be three') but possibly getting the answer wrong?

Because ultimately, society has to decide – very abstract phrase, I know – whether they want to equip its next-generation leaders with a bunch of facts, or with the tools and mental models which allow them to tease problems out.

It's an question I don't have an answer to; as with so much, the solution will probably lie somewhere between the two extremes, but all too often in the vox pops and in the opinion pieces in ought-to-know-better media outlets, we hear mock outrage that today's students get marks for the wrong answer (but for having displayed working out that got them three quarters of the way there) or that today's students couldn't tell you when the Battle of Naseby was fought.

The teaching of history is a particularly vexed topic, I think. While my parents were still of the generation that was taught reams of battle dates, I was taught how to evaluate sources, examine context for evidence of bias, and construct reports based on my research. These are skills I use every working day of my life, and which help me analyse news coverage of contemporary events. But while I think these are important – vital – skills, I do think I missed out on learning historical context that would tell me more about the geopolitical make-up of this country, this continent and this world. Perhaps some time should be given over in the citizenship lessons that pupils undertake today to make them aware of the history that leads up to this now, while History (capital H) is used to teach students how to interpret past and present events.

A big, bellowy hurrah, then, to all students who opened envelopes today to glimpse their future. How would you have done with one of this year's maths questions?

At around twenty to six this evening, there were a few desultory flashes of lightning and grumblings of thunder. Minutes later, both slammed into position above the house, and the heavens opened. Within seconds, a remarkably strong river was flowing down the street next to our house – we live at the foot of a fairly substantial city hill – and the four-lane 'A' road our front was under an inch or more of rainwater. By the time I thought to get the camera and set up the tripod, the rain had abated, but you can see from the picture above – plus a few more here – how deep and wide the mini river was. Less than ten minutes after this picture was shot, bright, crisp sunshine was adding a burnished highlight to the wavelets.

Frightfully sorry to have kept you. I hope you haven't been waiting long? We've been on holiday, d'you see, and sans Internet.

Lovely, lovely time. For an eighteen thousand word post on the subject (based on the 'a picture is worth a thousand words × 18 pictures' formula) see here.

Being back in our own, huge bed is bliss, mind. And having the Internet back? Words cannot describe...

I don't go in for Bush-bashing as a rule – it's just tiresome, most of the time – but an apparently-old quote in a BBC news story convinced me to break my silence:

“...the problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur”