Or Otto - or are they one and the same? Didn't you keep in touch with DanB (elsewhere) after the last ban?

Yeah, I guess it's not really true to say that words moving away from their original meaning is bad or somehow degenerative - what they originally described may no longer even exist! It's only natural that they are adapted to whatever is current in society. But that's all linked to the MEANING of words - what about grammatical/spelling changes?
Shani, I do vaguely remember being told at school how the Germans kept changing their minds about the β (or double s). Interesting - I wonder have there been any recent (in the last century say) 'authoritative interventions' in Britain?

According to this ... http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50078361?single=1&query_type=word&queryword=et+al&first=1&max_to_show=10 ... it looks like you use "et al.," but "et al." (i.e. without the extra fullstop at the end of a sentence). I think it kinda makes sense that you don't have to say 'this is an abbreviation' at the end of a sentence...
As for your second point, I won't be using the (name, year) style at all - will just have numbers - but I will probably mix the numbers with specific references to that person's work ("According to Smith and Jones [21]..."). Oh, I see your point. Not sure.

(in my fourth year)

(luck) - that's my raised hand but with fingers crossed that I'll publish something soon!!!

Cool Tricky. That makes me feel a lot better - I'll actually use it proudly now in my thesis
Apostrophe - do you reckon that language only evolves through mistakes then? (words always moving further away from their original meaning and becoming less and less clear) I can't imagine any scholars sitting around thinking of ways to improve the language...not that they could force the population to comply anyway.

If you've had any contact with mechanical engineers/technicians - asking them to make you parts for something - you'll notice they'll write 'two off' for two parts OF something e.g. two screws, 'two off'. In everyday use this also manifests itself in the phrase 'x was a one-off' (it won't happen again). Until today I've always maintained that this is WRONG (so much so that I'll write 'two of these' on my mechanical drawings rather than 'two off'!!), but has become so widespread that it seems normal. I just looked it up in the OED and it's there! But I guess it's not the purpose of the OED to say what's wrong and what's not - it just documents language.
It really annoys me that I can't find some explanation for it - anyone have any ideas? Some justification for its use...

Sounds like Away knows someone else who has been accepted (or rejected) for a conference, but hasn't heard anything themselves? Now trying to suss out the procedure. Do you mean acceptance of an abstract for a poster/talk? I would have thought it unlikely that an abstract for a poster for example would ever? be rejected...unless the conference is really prestigious.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was Pea. I just googled the guy and found this (his first column?) - http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/postgraduate/story/0,,1864726,00.html - it really hits the nail on the head (and made me laugh a little as a result ).
"...I must choose between no doctorate, or completing my thesis but ending up with a mental illness. It's tough, but I think I'd rather be Dr Depressed, on the basis that wasting three years of my life and then having to compete for jobs with 21-year-olds whose souls are not weighed down by bitterness would probably make me depressed anyway"
[but if you're reading, Patrick, you're probably generally right about science, but there are exceptions - you CAN end up doing science in isolation]

Once I thought I was 3, but university is making me miserable, so maybe not. Mostly a 6.

And have to point out an 'error' in the proof...money is not the root of all evil, the LOVE of money is...

Shouldn't really post this since I am of the girl type myself, but...

Proof that girls are evil...

Girls = Time x Money
Time = Money therefore

Girls= Money x Money = (Money)2
Money = √Evil therefore

Girls = (√Evil)2
Girls = Evil

How about a pop-up that won't go away (even if you click the x to close the window - you know the type) telling every visitor to the forum that THEY HAVE WON!!! (they have been chosen as the millionth visitor etc...)

We don't discuss anything in our office, it's completely opinionless. How boring...