HOW CONFUSED folk must have been in the early days of electricity. There was
a great deal of misinformation circulating as to the nature and possible uses of
this miraculous new fluid. What exactly was one supposed to do with
it?
Feedback is dying to know what dark experimental deed lay behind one
particular entry in Britain鈥檚 Home Office records from the first decades of this
century. It describes a criminal charge brought against a woman for 鈥渕alicious
consumption of electricity鈥�.
THE BERNIE FOWLER Sneaker Index, which first reared its ingenious head in
Feedback in the 26 July issue following an article in The Washington
Post, has come back to haunt us. Brainchild of Senator C. Bernard Fowler,
the idea is to test the cleanliness of river water by wading in as far as
possible before one鈥檚 sneakers disappear from sight. We even challenged readers
to try a similar experiment in the Thames.
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Now reader Alan Maries writes to inform us that the idea is not new. In a
letter to The Times in 1855, Michael Faraday wrote that he was so moved
by the smell and brownness of the Thames, which during a steamboat ride 鈥渇orced
themselves at once on my attention鈥�, that he decided to test the water鈥檚
opacity.
He dropped pieces of white card into the water at intervals, having moistened
them so that they would not float. 鈥淏efore they had sunk an inch below the
surface they were undistinguishable,鈥� he wrote. A far cry from the senator鈥檚 44
inches in the Patuxent River of southern Maryland this year. Feedback wonders
how the Thames of today would compare.
THE MOST titillating sentence in Nature鈥檚 11 September issue was not
in the Scientific Correspondence section or in News and Views, but buried
subversively on page 32 of the classifieds.
Tucked away at the bottom of an advert for a post at the Medical Research
Council were the following words: 鈥淭he MRC is an equal opportunities
employer鈥攕moking is actively encouraged.鈥�
Could it really be a genuine typesetting error? So claims Nature,
where folk in the classified department are lying low. But given the MRC鈥檚
recent embarrassment鈥攖aking money from the tobacco industry to study the
benefits of nicotine and then sacking the head of communications, Mary Rice, for
pointing out the hypocrisy鈥擣eedback can鈥檛 quite believe it was an innocent
gaffe.
Rice, who is preparing to take the MRC to an industrial tribunal in October,
has her own opinion: 鈥淚t鈥檚 certainly a cheaper way of getting rid of staff than
sacking them.鈥�
FEEDBACK has caught a glimpse of the brave new world of motoring. Those of a
nervous disposition should close their eyes now.
German car firms are developing and patenting a system that allows a car to
steer itself down the inside lane of a motorway. Optical sensors track a white
line down the side of the road, and the distance from the cars in front and
behind.
This frees drivers from having to watch the road. At the giant IFA
international broadcasting exhibition held recently in Berlin, an electrical
engineer suggested that it won鈥檛 be long before they can play with a computer or
watch a TV screen instead.
Meanwhile, at the same exhibition, German broadcasters made a serendipitous
discovery. The digital TV system for Europe, called DVB because it was developed
by the Digital Video Broadcasting group, was designed to provide reliable
reception even on a very simple aerial. To demonstrate how robust the signal is,
even when received on the move, a German engineer put a receiver in a van and
drove it round Berlin鈥攖he pictures came in clear as a bell. So another
enterprising boffin tried it in his sports car. There are no speed limits on
German motorways and he was still getting clear pictures at the car鈥檚 top speed
of 220 kilometres per hour.
Just before the show opened, a third individual borrowed a Bugatti and
clocked 320 kilometres per hour while his passenger watched TV. This, the
Germans claim, is a world record.
OK, you can open your eyes again now.
PERSONALITY CONTROL seems to have been taken to Orwellian extremes in Sony鈥檚
description of an invention given in Japanese patent abstract 08237644 A. The
patent describes a video player which, in addition to the usual sound and video
outputs, has an 鈥渆xpression muscle control signal鈥�.
The signal stimulates muscles in the face of the viewer. 鈥淔or example, when a
video signal indicates a pleasant scene, the expression muscle corresponding to
`joy鈥� is stimulated to express `joy鈥� more and when the video signal indicates
`sorrow鈥�, the expression muscle corresponding to `sorrow鈥� is stimulated . . .鈥�
Big Brother, it seems, does not believe in freedom of interpretation when it
comes to video art.
IT IS REASSURING to learn that the people who handle all that vital census
information, upon which so many British politicians, economists and sociologists
rely, know their stuff.
The following is a recent conversation Feedback held with a representative of
the Office for National Statistics (ONS), after being referred there for a
concise definition of the term 鈥渟tatistical significance鈥�.
Feedback: 鈥淐ould you tell me the definition of statistical
蝉颈驳苍颈蹿颈肠补苍肠别?鈥�
ONS: 鈥淲hat do you mean?鈥�
Feedback: 鈥淵ou know, if you sample a population, when does that
sample become statistically significant? When is it taken into account?鈥�
ONS: 鈥淲ell, we sample the population every other year, we collect
the data, print it . . . and then it becomes significant.鈥�
To paraphrase the old adage, there鈥檚 lies, there鈥檚 damned lies, and there鈥檚
statistical significance.