杏吧原创

WELL WELL WELL鈥� Last week a letter from Martin Brough of Bradbury,
Wiltshire, arrived at the New 杏吧原创 office. 鈥淚 got home the other
day to find I had three pieces of mail,鈥� it said. 鈥淢y copy of the latest New
杏吧原创 and two routine white envelopes.

鈥淥pening NS first, I had a quick glance at the Contents page, which
had a picture relating to the cover story on coincidences
(鈥淭hat鈥檚 amazing, isn鈥檛 it?鈥�, 17 January, p 24).
In the picture, there are two dice under a bus,
with the caption that you can wait for hours for a number 3, then two turn up at
once.

鈥淭hen I opened one of the envelopes, to find it contained a 拢50 cheque
from Ernie鈥攖he first premium bond win I have ever had in my life. And the
contents of the other envelope? Another 拢50 cheque from Ernie.鈥�

We thought this was an amusing coincidence, so we mentioned it to Robert
Matthews, who writes articles for New 杏吧原创 on probability. He went
strangely quiet for a moment. Then he told us:

鈥淭hat is very odd. The day that issue of New 杏吧原创 arrived, I
also had two other letters in white envelopes. One contained a cheque for a
premium bond win of 拢50. The other contained a cheque for a premium bond
win of 拢100.鈥�

Did any other readers receive two premium bond wins along with their copy of
New 杏吧原创 that day? If so, do let us know. You might like to
calculate the chances against it happening, as well.

A HEADLINE in last month鈥檚 issue of IPMS Bulletin, the journal of
Britain鈥檚 Institution of Professionals, Managers and Specialists, caught
Feedback鈥檚 eye.

鈥淣o pensions for frozen embryos,鈥� it said. The article beneath went on to
aver that 鈥渃hildren born from frozen embryos will not be entitled to a civil
service pension鈥�.

Feedback found this announcement quite puzzling, but an explanation followed.
Under the civil service鈥檚 current rules, the child of a pension member who dies
is eligible for pension benefits if the child is 鈥渃onceived before the death and
born after it鈥�.

But what if technology advances to the point where an embryo can be frozen
and then 鈥渂orn鈥� several years after the death of the pension-member parent?

This is the issue that the Cabinet Office has now addressed. It is rewriting
the pension scheme rules to make it clear that pensions will only be paid to
children born within 12 months of the scheme member鈥檚 death. Why 12, we are not
quite sure. Perhaps pregnancies among civil servants take that little bit longer
than other people鈥檚.

Meanwhile, as far as we know, the civil service has yet to address the
question of pension rights for human clones. But you can be certain it will.

A MERGER between two Californian computer companies was announced last month
in the San Jose Mercury News. San Ramon鈥檚 Gigatronics Inc said it had
reached agreement in principle to acquire Microsource Inc of Santa Rosa.

Charles Corfield writes to suggest that this merger of 1 part in 10¹⁵ must
be the most insignificant merger in the history of business.

DECADES of science teaching in schools have finally paid off. Countless
teachers who have risked life and limb to blow up test tubes of hydrogen to
demonstrate that the gas is flammable can congratulate themselves on a job well
done. It鈥檚 now official. The December issue of Laboratory News, under a
headline telling us the gas 鈥渕ay be dangerous鈥�, announces: 鈥淗ydrogen is
potentially explosive.鈥� It goes on to caution that experimenters should 鈥渢ake
extreme care鈥� when using the gas as a carrier in GS (gas chromatology)
systems.

What a shame Laboratory News wasn鈥檛 around when the Hindenberg was
built.

NEXT TIME you decide to cook lentil and tomato soup using a recipe supplied
by Sainsbury, be sure to have an extremely precise pair of scales to hand. The
recipe stipulates that you should use, among other things, 鈥�1 large onion鈥� and a
鈥�397-gram can [of] chopped tomatoes鈥�.

Norman Shepherd, who has attempted this recipe, points out that the vagueness
of one of the masses given contrasts bizarrely with the extreme precision of the
other. But the real problem is this: Sainsbury鈥檚 own-brand can of chopped
tomatoes weighs in at 400 grams. So you need to open the tin and extract 3 grams
of the contents before you start cooking. No more, no less.

THE LADS AND LASSES at the British Meteorological Office have got a wicked
sense of humour.

They use two Cray supercomputers for analysing weather patterns and running
climate models. The names given to these Cray twins? Ronnie and Reggie, of
course.

CALIFORNIA that state of environmental awareness, is also the state of the
gas guzzler. So Feedback has been watching with interest the popularity of
General Motors鈥檚 electric car, the EV1. One unpopular aspect of the car is the
need to find somewhere to recharge the batteries. Now Californians with in-car
computers (see last week鈥檚 Feedback) can find their nearest recharge station by
looking it up in a directory on the Web (http://www.cleancarmaps.com/).

What the Web site doesn鈥檛 explain is how to use a computer, a mobile phone
and a modem in the car if the car battery needs recharging.

FINALLY, to continue our theme of labels that question consumer common sense.
Nigel Nathan bought an electronic practice mute for his trombone the
other day. It came in a box 30 centimetres long which carried the statement:
鈥淭rombone and batteries not included.鈥�