ALTHOUGH the technologies of fax and e-mail can completely bypass 鈥渟nail mail鈥�, the Royal Mail鈥檚 letter post, one of New 杏吧原创鈥檚 regular contributors tells us that he encourages people to continue sending him letters and press releases by the old-fashioned method. That way, he argues, it costs him nothing to read his messages, either in fax paper or e-mail online time.
But for at least a year now the Royal Mail鈥檚 deliveries to his address in northwest London have been hopelessly erratic. The first post can arrive at any time from early morning to mid-afternoon.
A variety of different excuses has been given, but the latest, from customer care officer Alex Lamont, is the most intriguing. The street in question, admits the caring Lamont, is indeed receiving 鈥減oor service鈥�. But it is the people who live there and not the Royal Mail who are to blame. The 鈥渧olume of mail鈥� addressed to them is 鈥渃ausing problems鈥�.
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There appear to be two simple solutions. The Royal Mail can either be grateful for the extra revenue which all this extra mail is generating and use it to employ the extra staff needed to deliver it efficiently. Or it can ask the naughty people who are receiving too much mail to tell their correspondents to stop causing problems and use fax and e-mail instead.
Feedback is now waiting for Lamont to choose an option. At least the Royal Mail can鈥檛 now use the increase in e-mail as an excuse for job cuts.
THE STRANGE behaviour of Sri Lankan wildlife 鈥� drunken rats, bats, monkeys and butterflies (Feedback, 7 January and 13 May 1995) and even thieving frogs (26 August 1995) 鈥� seems to be spreading to the human inhabitants of the island.
From the district of Madagama comes the story of an 18-year-old boy who has worn nothing but his birthday suit since the day he was born. Sri Lankan newspaper The Island reports that R. M. Prematilleka鈥檚 allergy to textiles makes him itch all over whenever he puts any clothes on, so he prefers to remain in the buff.
Prematilleka, who is something of a local celebrity, is apparently an expert at picking coconuts and arecanuts and has worked on a farm. However, The Island is unable to provide a picture of him 鈥� his mother, understandably, has banned anyone from taking photographs of her son.
DIGITAL VIDEO compression is allowing the TV industry to deliver more channels than ever before. The programmes can be interactive, with viewers controlling what they see.
One of the speakers at the 2nd Annual European Conference on Video and Image Compression, held recently in London, was to be Simon Aboud, vice-president of the advertising agency McCann-Erickson. He planned to tell delegates how digital video would give viewers 鈥渢otal control鈥�.
Aboud circulated a summary of his presentation. It contained only a string of cryptic quotations from the likes of Wittgenstein, William Blake, Tom Wolfe and Jim Morrison, including 鈥淭he future is not a gift, it is an achievement鈥�, 鈥淭echnology today is the campfire around which we will tell our stories鈥� and 鈥淚f you label me, you negate me鈥�.
Shortly before his scheduled appearance, however, he sent word to the conference that he had 鈥渂een detained in his office鈥� and could not attend after all. So a roomful of delegates spent the remainder of the afternoon trying to guess what on earth the man from McCann鈥檚 quotes had to do with digital compression.
It later dawned on Feedback that Aboud鈥檚 no-show may have been intended as a foretaste of life in the brave new world of interactive TV. Viewers will be subjected to a barrage of baffling programmes and adverts, and then be given the opportunity to ask for an explanation of what it was all about.
EVER FELT as though you鈥檝e slipped through a timewarp? Feedback felt a definite sense of d茅j脿 vu, when the February issue of Popular Electronics landed on the desk. A banner headline proclaimed: 鈥淏uild your own vacuum tube amplifier鈥� 鈥� an idea we thought had gone out of style forty years ago.
It seems some audiophiles prefer the sound of amplifiers driven by old-fashioned valves, just as some prefer vinyl long-playing records to digital CDs. Feedback can鈥檛 hear the difference, and the emphasis on retro-tech would have annoyed the magazine鈥檚 late founder, Hugo Gernsback. He also set up the first American science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, and was a cheerleader for future electronic wonders. Then, at least, vacuum tubes were something new and exciting.
OUR MOST recent excursion into 鈥渘ominative determinism鈥�, on 16 December, set off an avalanche of responses from readers, proving again that Feedback is not alone in relishing new examples of the genre.
Our pick of the best includes Julian Brock鈥檚 mention of a worthy US Department of Energy pamphlet Nonintrusive Subsurface Surveying Capability, which was penned by Messrs T. W. Tunnell and S. P. Cave, and Martin Andrews鈥檚 observation that the American cult TV series The X-Files, which deals with all manner of strange paranormal phenomena, is produced by a David Nutter.
Closer to home, James Burns informs us of a Mr Qvist (Swedish for twig), who is the erstwhile governor of Epping Forest; a Bent Aare (pronounced 鈥渙ar鈥�), publisher of a Danish glossary of sailing terms; and a Horst E. Kipper, who has yet to find his true marine environment, but to date is a coauthor of The Optimum Aquarium.
In the category of groups of colleagues, Peter Mabey takes the prize for remembering no fewer than four employed at one time at Gloster aircraft 鈥� all of whom worked in the aeroelasticity department 鈥� who went by the names of Cecil Partridge, Terry Heron and Pat Woodcock. Their boss was Harry Peacock.
Taking the airborne theme one step further, and indeed the application of nominative determinism itself, John Humbach once travelled in an Alitalia aircraft registered I-LIFT. Does anyone know of any other machines prone to this syndrome?
IN THE PAST we have noted that while Stephen Hawking鈥檚 A Brief History of Time may be a tremendously successful 鈥渂ought鈥� book, which has generated massive sales, it is not the most 鈥渞ead鈥� of volumes. But a recent edition of The Bookseller notes that for the first time A Brief History of Time has entered the top ten of nonfiction titles most frequently borrowed from public libraries, between July 1994 and June 1995.
Of course, the report cannot say whether the book is actually read once it has been taken out 鈥� but presumably the earnest people who use libraries regularly would never dream of borrowing it merely to pose on the bus, or to display prominently on the sitting-room bookshelf.