Gruts

BBC: Experts tell Mr from Mrs dinosaur
Palaeontologists think they have found a way to tell whether dinosaur fossils are from males or females.

When I was at university in the mid-80s, I attended an archaeology class in which we got to play around with the bones of dead Anglo-Saxons. The honorary lecturer (a surgeon who dabbled in archaeological bones for a hobby) handed me a skull and asked me if I could tell him anything about it:

"It's definitely human."
"Very funny. Anything else?"
"It's definitely dead."
"Come on now, be serious. Can you tell me anything about this skull?"
"Erm… It's female."
"Excellent! That's amazing! Sexing a human skull is surprisingly difficult. What makes you say it's female?"
"Its mouth is open."

I was then lynched by a couple of feminist archaeology undergraduates wearing dungarees who had absolutely no sense of humour.

Actually, despite my titting about, it was a really cool class: we got to mess around with lepers' bones, and re-assemble a fox's skeleton with its head on the wrong end.

BBC: Question mark over food factory

No there isn't.

BBC: Iraq question won't go away
…What the leak does show then is that, firstly, Lord Goldsmith did originally raise significant question marks over the possible legality of the war.

No he didn't.

BBC: Pen state
Never mind Brian Sedgemore, another question mark was raised about New Labour today as a result of their campaign pens.

No one wasn't.

BBC: Dangerous new phase for DR Congo peace
…In addition, there is always a political question mark over whether UN soldiers—however good they may be technically—will fight.

No there isn't.

BBC: Eisteddfod 2007 site difficulties
…A question mark over the siting of the 2007 event was raised after Roderick Owen, President of Cymdeithas Cymry Lerpwl (Liverpool Welsh Society), confirmed he had sent a letter to Mr Roberts.

No it wasn't.

BBC: Question mark over arrest death

No there isn't.

The word is question, not question mark. A question is something that is asked (overtly or implicitly); a question mark is a punctuation symbol. Question marks only hang over physical objects in cartoons. It's not that difficult to get right.

BBC: French voters reject EU charter
French voters have overwhelmingly rejected the European Union's proposed constitution in a key referendum. Almost 55% of people voted "No", with 45% in favour, according to final interior ministry figures. The vote could deal a fatal blow to the EU constitution, which needs to be ratified by all 25 member states.

I have a little conspiracy theory going here:

We Brits are seen as the worst Europeans: we turned up late; we keep siding with the Americans (and look where that got us); we insist on a rebate; we're nearly always the last to agree to any new initiative. Never mind the fact that our rebate is totally justified, and that, when we do finally sign up to new European initiatives, we're one of the few countries that actually sticks to them—the point is, we are still seen as the worst Europeans. Why do you think we keep coming near the bottom in the European Song Contest, for Pete's sake?

Which is why the French have voted Non.

They're using reverse psychology, you see. They know the Brits are never going to vote for anything with the word European in the title—especially when it was drafted by a Frenchman—so they've voted Non to make us think it might actually be a good thing. (Which it might well be.)

Cunning devils, the French.