THE VIDEO games market is not what it used to be. People are
getting tired of playing shoot-em-up, knock-em-down games on a TV screen. To
make matters worse for the market leaders Nintendo and Sega, Sony鈥檚 new
Playstation system is winning a growing share of sales.
Now Sega has spotted a market opportunity. British children are the best in
the world at video games because they waste more time on them than kids in other
countries. And Britain failed dismally at the recent Olympic Games in Atlanta.
So, says Sega with unarguable logic, Britain鈥檚 sports minister, Ian Sproat,
should lobby the International Olympic Committee to make video games an official
Olympic sport. That way Britain would have 鈥渁 great chance to increase its medal
haul at the next games in Australia鈥�.
The Olympics now include beach volleyball, synchronised swimming and table
tennis as official sports, Sega points out. Surely, in the computer age, video
gaming is a 鈥渘atural step forward鈥�.
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If Sega gets its way, parents will have a problem. When little Johnnie spends
all day and every day playing video games instead of doing his homework, he will
now have the perfect excuse: 鈥淚鈥檓 doing it for Britain.鈥�
THE ARMY barracks in the village where one of Feedback鈥檚 regular
correspondents lives (39th Engineers, Waterbeach) opens its heated swimming pool
to the public during the summer months. Our correspondent indulged in a splash
recently but found his eyes very sore afterwards鈥攎uch more so than after
swimming at the public baths. He put it down to too much chlorine added to the
water.
He was nearly right, but not quite. A Royal Society of Chemistry meeting last
month heard chemist Howard Gosling explain that the typical swimming pool smell
actually comes from compounds known as chloramines which are produced when
chlorine reacts with any urine or sweat present in the water. Apparently, it is
not the chlorine in the water that makes your eyes sting but these
chloramines.
Feedback leaves readers to draw their own conclusions about why the army pool
brings tears to the eyes.
THE DOW Chemical Company makes Ethafoam, a spongy white plastic that is
widely used for packing everything from glassware to heavy machinery. The
bubbles that give the foam its resilience are produced using two flammable
solvents鈥攊sobutane and pentane鈥攚hich, after forming the bubbles,
evaporate. Dow had a problem with some shipments of Ethafoam, which continued to
give off gas during shipping, creating a fire hazard. So, to promote gas release
before the foam sheets leave the factory, they are now using a laser to drill
tiny holes in them.
Everybody is happy about this except entomologists, who pin their bugs to
Ethafoam. By a sad quirk of fate, the holes in the new, safer Ethafoam are
exactly the size of the standard insect pin. If an unwary collector sticks a pin
into one of the holes, sooner or later it will fall out鈥攁nd the bug
impaled on the pin will come tumbling after.
Feedback is delighted to report, however, that Dow is aware of the problem.
The company is considering producing an occasional batch of 鈥渘on-holey鈥� foam for
the entomologist market, and allowing more time for the plastic to release its
gas before shipping.
IN RECENT weeks the West Coast of the US has been suffering a number of power
failures of varying size and severity. The most recent was in Palo Alto, where
the local electricity supplier apparently came up with a novel way to tackle the
problem. A spokesman for the utility announced on the radio: 鈥淲e have restored
power to our customers, but until we locate and fix the cause we will be
delivering electricity to them manually.鈥�
Feedback would love to know how this was done. Did the power company workers
pour the electricity into buckets and carry it to customers on their backs? Or
was some other method of manual delivery chosen?
OUR STORIES about readers鈥� misfortunes at school brought a blush
to Michelle Norwood鈥檚 face as she recalled her first days at the mixed-sex
college she attended to study science A levels, after sitting her GCSEs at an
all-girl Catholic school. Frightened and shy, she sat through the chemistry
lesson first thing each morning, wondering if the subject, as taught by an old
and dusty professor, was really for her.
One morning she arrived about 15 minutes late and, head down, walked straight
to her seat and began to stare out of the window. A few minutes later she heard
the professor ask a question: 鈥淪o who can tell me about this character Fleming
迟丑别苍?鈥�
Norwood suddenly became alert. She knew that it was Florey and Chain鈥檚 work
that got Fleming the recognition for his discovery of penicillin. She began to
ponder her answer. A detailed reply might make her look like a swot, so she
settled for the simple approach: 鈥淢e, Sir! He discovered penicillin, didn鈥檛
丑别!鈥�
As soon as she had spoken the whole class collapsed in hysterics. Norwood had
no idea what was going on, and turned a deep shade of crimson. Looking around
the room for sympathetic eyes, she saw only tears of laughter and a stern look
on the professor鈥檚 face.
She later found out that the teacher had been taking roll call, and that
Fleming was a student who had been missing from class for the past three
days.
IT IS A rare spellchecker that can recognise Bernard Shaw鈥檚 coinage 鈥済hoti鈥�
as an alternative spelling of 鈥渇ish鈥�, as we reported on 11 May. Now George
Alderslade tells us that, following Shaw鈥檚 example, he almost convinced a
foreign student that the word we pronounce 鈥減otato鈥� should be spelt
鈥淕丑辞耻驳丑驳丑别颈驳丑驳丑辞耻驳丑鈥�.
The rationale? The 鈥済h鈥� from 鈥渉iccough鈥� gives 鈥減鈥�; 鈥渙ugh鈥� from 鈥渢hough鈥� gives
鈥渙鈥�; 鈥済h鈥� from 鈥渆ighth鈥� gives 鈥渢鈥�; 鈥渆igh鈥� from 鈥渆ight鈥� gives 鈥渁鈥�; and the final
鈥渢鈥� and 鈥渙鈥� as before.
Suddenly Feedback is not so sure that English is the best candidate for an
international language.
ARE high-powered computers usurping fast cars as the phallic symbols of our
age? The spellchecker in MSMail 3.2 certainly seems to think so. Ian Hindmarsh
informs us that when he was checking an outgoing e-mail, the said spellchecker,
faced with 鈥淧entium鈥�, did not recognise the much hyped processor. Instead it
offered the alternative of 鈥減enis鈥�. We wonder if Intel will be annoyed or
pleased about this.