A LITTLE bird tells us that London鈥檚 Natural History Museum
committed an embarrassing goof during the summer.
Visitors to the museum will undoubtedly remember the splendid
340-million-year-old fossil tree, recovered from the Craig Leith sandstone in
Edinburgh, that stands imposingly outside the building. A few months ago, a new
metal plaque suddenly appeared on the tree, and then equally suddenly
disappeared again.
The reason? The plaque explained that the tree came, not from the
Carboniferous period, but from the 鈥淐arnivorous鈥� period.
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Palaeontologists tell us that the fact that arthropods and vertebrates did
indeed indulge in the habit of devouring each other during the Carboniferous
period in Scotland does little to mitigate the howler.
THE Times Higher Education Supplement reported recently
that sheep鈥檚 eyeballs have been banned from use in laboratories. 鈥淭he move will
increase speculation,鈥� says the THES, 鈥渢hat government scientists fear
that the disease scrapie, found in sheep, could lead to BSE in humans.鈥� Scary
stuff. Feedback wonders what it could do to cows.
think twice before you lend a book to a Russian library. The Lis-Link mailing
list (for librarians and information wallahs) recently received the following
message:
鈥淪everal months ago Aberdeen University Library loaned volume 6 of Daniel
Oliver鈥檚 Flora of Tropical Africa, 1868-1937, to the Russian State
Library in Moscow. Today we received this reply, `Dear colleague, our library is
in a difficult financial situation. We don鈥檛 fulfil your requests and we don鈥檛
return your books. We鈥檙e really very sorry about it. Sincerely, Loan Department,
the Russian State Library鈥�.鈥�
EVERYONE knows that Bell Labs invented the transistor, and won a
Nobel prize for it. Or do they?
Earlier this year, the European Patent Office in Munich published its annual
report with a leading article on patent strategies round the world. This cited
鈥淲estinghouse鈥檚 successful protection of its basic transistor invention鈥� as the
classic example of how to handle a patent.
Surely it was AT&T鈥檚 Bell Labs, and its manufacturing division Western
Electric, that patented the transistor? We asked the EPO to explain. At first
there was no reply, and after a reminder, the EPO simply told us it had
forwarded our letter to the outsider who had written the article.
Nearly three months after the original query, Ingo Kober, president of the
EPO, gave his opinion. 鈥淭he essay has been edited, rewritten and checked not
only by staff of the press department, but also by a professional science writer
and the author himself. The EPO has not received any other comment [and] I am
therefore not aware of any mistake.鈥�
We began to think we were losing our marbles, until the author of the
article, a German patent attorney, wrote us a nice letter, graciously
acknowledging the error and thanking us for pointing it out.
So will next year鈥檚 annual report from the EPO own up and correct the error,
or will it remain on the public record as a tablet of stone that will for ever
mislead students who regard the EPO as a solid reference source on the
history of patents and technology?
THE US National Science Foundation press office obviously got wind
of Nature鈥檚 recent foray into the world of pop music (Feedback, 17
August) and has posted a rap with its 鈥淢edia Advisory鈥� on the Web. 鈥淭he Web
Crawl Rap鈥� doesn鈥檛 say whether it鈥檚 hip-hop or trip-hop, but the last line
suggests that the NSF, streetwise or not, is a bit out of touch with Web reality
.
鈥淔orego your dread鈥攊t鈥檚 on the Web! And from that perch you can do a
search. No mumbles or grumbles, raves or rants; you can find that award; you can
trace that grant. You can isolate and concentrate; you can search with a key
word鈥攁in鈥檛 that great? Try a title, a subject, a school or name; with a
Boolean search, it鈥檚 all the same. Knowledge is power, so says the Man, and with
a Web crawler, you鈥檙e in command! YEAH!鈥�
Hum . . .That rather depends on how good your modem is, doesn鈥檛 it? And how
noisy the phone line is . . . and how busy your server is . . . and . . .
DID ANYONE else notice the title of Robert Carroll鈥檚 paper for the
Composition of the Book of Jeremiah Group, part of the Society of Biblical
Literature conference in New Orleans last month?
The title was 鈥淚deology! Ideology in the Book of Jeremiah! Surely Not!
Whoever Heard of Such Nonsense? What Ideology? Reflections on Ideologiekritik
and Jeremiah Studies, With Special Reference to Jer 2-4鈥�.
We look forward to Fred Hoyle鈥檚 next paper: 鈥淏ig Bang? The Universe
started with a Big Bang? Surely Not! Whoever Heard of Such Nonsense . . . 鈥�
etc.
THE CRICKET season and the silly season in the press seem to go
hand in glove in Australia. The other day The Australian said that fast
bowler Glenn McGrath had aggravated a heel injury by wearing an orthodontic
device in his boot. No doubt he has the teeth marks to prove it.
The following day the newspaper said that West Indian batsman Brian Lara had
failed to get to the pitch of a dripping delivery. True, he was playing in cold
and damp Hobart at the time, but even so . . .
NIGEL EASTMAN has noticed something he thinks we should investigate: the
mystery of useless characters on IBM computer keyboards.
For example, the key to the left of the 鈥�1鈥� on the main part of the keyboard
shows a 鈥渇allen-over L鈥� shape. Also, on the small group of keys to the right of
the function keys is a key labelled 鈥淪ys Rq鈥�. What do these keys mean? Why are
they there? Did they once mean something? If they did, but don鈥檛 any more, why
do manufacturers continue to make keyboards containing them? Has the obsession
for total IBM compatibility fogged their brains?
Answers, please.
THIS IS the type of pun that makes you cringe, but . . .
Jim Pawton points out that power units of the 鈥渂uttered cat鈥� type which we
featured on 19 October and 16 November are used extensively at the purry-furry
of the Galaxy.