ONE OF the unsolved mysteries surrounding the leakage of nearly 150 highly radioactive particles from the Dounreay nuclear plant on the north coast of Scotland is how and why only one of them found its way onto a public beach. Since 1983 the UK Atomic Energy Authority has found an average of 12 particles a year on Dounreay鈥檚 rocky foreshore, but just the one on Sandside beach, an attractive and popular bay to the west.
Feedback has learnt that the eminent government advisers, who recently condemned the UKAEA for its lack of veracity and scientific rigour in determining the source of the particles (This Week, 24 June), also spent some time debating this. They wondered whether a seagull could have eaten a particle on Dounreay鈥檚 foreshore and carried it to Sandside.
The problem with this theory is that many of the leaked particles were so hot that they might have burnt their way through a seagull鈥檚 gut and killed it before it had time to fly across the bay. After much discussion, it was decided that a bird could make it to Sandside, but only just. Even so, we strongly suggest steering clear of dead seagulls around Dounreay.
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AN INTRIGUING use of words appears on the blurb extolling the Superseal Microsure cooking shelf. One of its features, we are told, is that it 鈥渄oubles the space in microwave ovens鈥�. This would be quite a feat for an innocuous little plastic table with folding legs 鈥� but in fact, of course, what the shelf does is cut the space in half, allowing cooks to put pots in the top part of the oven as well as the bottom.
If that looks like sloppy wording, perhaps more care was taken with the wording of the 鈥渇ull lifetime warranty鈥�. This tells us that the shelf 鈥渋s guaranteed by [the] manufacturer against chipping, cracking or breaking when used according to instructions for the lifetime of the product鈥�.
What, we wonder, is the lifetime of the product? Until it chips, cracks or breaks?
AT THE recent International Television Symposium in Montreux there was a hot new talking point. Should TV stations store their news programmes on computer disc, instead of tape, to make editing quicker?
One speaker soon brought everyone down to earth with a timely reminder: 鈥淚 can cope with TV news footage that is of poor picture quality. But I never want to see a Windows egg timer or OK error message frozen on screen鈥�. A timely warning because one of the local hotels had just stopped checking in guests because its computer had crashed. Over the road, Swissair鈥檚 booking centre for delegates also sat idle with a crashed terminal.
BACK in Feedback鈥檚 youth, one of the less enjoyable aspects of a visit to Paris was a trip to the toilet in a restaurant. The food in the restaurants was delicious, but the fledgling Feedback stomach was not as tough then as it is now, so such trips were sometimes quite frequent. And in those days, the toilets were almost always the hole-in-the-ground 鈥淭urkish toilet鈥� so feared by English tourists.
Times change, and now most of these have been replaced by the familiar toilet you can sit on. So it was a surprise, when Feedback revisited a few old haunts in Paris recently, to find one restaurant that had simply replaced its old Turkish toilet with a new one.
鈥淗ow come?鈥� we asked (in French).
鈥淚f you don鈥檛 have a toilet seat to sit on, you can鈥檛 get AIDS,鈥� the proprietor鈥檚 wife replied.
ON 27 May we published some examples of what Tony Holkham called 鈥渓ocative determinism鈥� 鈥� the tendency of institutions to spring up in places with names that fit their activities. Our appeal for further examples of the phenomenon produced just two names, both of them supplied by several readers.
One was drawn from an advertisement in that same issue of New 杏吧原创: 鈥淭heakston Ales are brewed in Masham,鈥� it told us. The other was the place of residence chosen by a widely known and respected School of Education鈥檚 Centre for Reading. Where else would it be but in the town of Reading?
We enjoyed these examples, but the fact that there were so few of them leads us to suspect that, as other readers were quick to point out, the whole idea was probably a load of Holkham.
ARE YOU put off by those nasty chemicals 鈥� detergents, bleaches and fabric softeners 鈥� that you have to put in your washing machine to get your clothes clean? Then why not try the chemical-free alternative from Japan: three ceramic discs.
According to a recent advertisement in the American Smithsonian magazine, these 鈥渞evolutionary laundry discs鈥�, known as Clean Power Plus, are as effective as detergents and use activated ceramic particles to produce 鈥渋onised oxygen鈥� in the water. This, apparently, enhances the water鈥檚 鈥渘atural鈥� ability to penetrate clothing fibres and lift away dirt. And, of course, the discs are environmentally friendly. The waste water at the end of the wash is as pure as the water that went in, apart from the dirt released from the clothes.
Feedback hasn鈥檛 actually tried this product, so cannot vouch for its effectiveness. But at least it has a sort of precedent: many people round the world wash their clothes by bashing them against stones in rivers. They would surely be delighted to know about the ionised oxygen they are producing.
JULY AND the holiday season is upon us. The thought of jetting off to warmer climes, visiting friends or seeing interesting sights becomes ever more appealing.
Indeed, while struggling through the hot, dark underworld of the London Underground, Feedback was tempted by an advertisement for a holiday in America. 鈥淵ou can be sure our experts will make your American Dream come true,鈥� crooned the ad. But the next sentence gave us second thoughts: 鈥淐all today on [area code] 666 666.鈥�
Although it is supposed to be hot for one鈥檚 vacation, a holiday from hell wasn鈥檛 quite what we had in mind.
FINALLY did you know that Charles Babbage, had he lived, would be 203 years old this year? And did you know that 203 in the hexadecimal notation familiar to hackers is no less than the letters CB?
We are indebted to A. Humphreys of Bromma, Sweden, for sending us this piece of serendipitous information.