But wait there's more...

Try these on for size:

* "Global climate change has varying theories of prediction". Really? GCC can theorise? And it's clairvoyant; being able to predict and all.

* When carbon is assimilated by plants into complex organic carbon compounds we can refer to this C as being "sunken" and the process is therefore "C sinkage". (Referring to C sinks and sources of course).

* In a question about how animal behaviour, physiology and distribution could be affected by elevated CO2 and the resultant increase in ambient temperatures, one response started: "Insect and plant physiology is affected by CO2 in the following ways..."

* A question required students to outline how biodiversity changes, as a result of global change, will affect the goods and services delivered by ecosystems to humans. This is possibly my favourite faux pas: "Ecosystems provide many cultural goods such as dyes and recreational drugs used in both religious and social ways". Talk about over-share! And pray tell, under what sorting system are dyes and drugs similar?

Scary, but true...

An actual conversation that I overheard during a laboratory exercise involving the metabolism of a goldfish between a student (S) and a lecturer (L):


S: Ma'am, we've got a problem...


L: Yes?


S: Well, we're supposed to weigh our goldfish before we start the experiment, right?

L: Yes...

S: Well...we forgot to, so now our experiment is ruined!

L:

S: What should we do?

L: Well, how were you going to weigh the fish before?

S: We were going to weigh a jar of water, put the fish into it, weigh it again and take the difference...

L: So why don't you just do that?

S: What?! You mean we can do that? Even though we were supposed to weigh the fish first?!

L: Well, do you think that the fish is going to lose that much weight during the course of the experiment...?

S: No...