NOT THAT we鈥檙e paranoid or anything, but 鈥�
In a bid to win digital satellite subscribers, Rupert Murdoch鈥檚 Sky and
partners are offering receivers at half price. But to qualify for the discount,
subscribers must agree to have the receiver鈥攖he so-called
Digibox鈥攑ermanently connected to a phone line, so that it can communicate
with a central database. Disconnection makes the owner liable to a charge of
more than 拢150.
Why should Sky care so much about this connection? Reader Rod Buck has
written to us with a possible answer. Such a system could be a junkmailer鈥檚
dream. If a TV company knows your name, address and phone number, and in
addition knows what TV programmes you buy鈥攁s the Digibox will鈥攖hen
prepare to be bombarded by 鈥渟pecial offers鈥� tailored to the tastes revealed by
your viewing habits.
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Buck is surprised that there has been no public discussion of this
possibility. Feedback isn鈥檛. Not only has Sky shown extraordinary reluctance to
provide the press with any hard, factual briefings about its digital operation,
but, judging from reader Simon Peters鈥檚 experience, even Sky鈥檚 own helpline
doesn鈥檛 know what the company is up to.
When Peters called to ask if having the Digibox connected would disrupt his
use of the phone line, a helper called Anne reassured him that 鈥渋t won鈥檛 make
calls and it won鈥檛 affect your use of the line鈥�.
鈥淪o it only receives calls, then,鈥� said Peters. 鈥淗ow come that won鈥檛 affect
me? At the very least I鈥檒l hear the phone ring.鈥�
鈥淚t only gets called in the middle of the night and won鈥檛 make your phone
ring,鈥� claimed Anne.
She was wrong. Feedback can confirm that the Digibox does make calls鈥攊t
phones Sky in the small hours, using a freephone number so there is no charge,
but still tying up the phone. However, what it tells Sky鈥檚 computer and what Sky
will use the information for remain a mystery.
As Buck succinctly puts it: 鈥淕ood old non-interactive analogue TV never
looked so attractive.鈥�
RANDY, grunting cod are making it difficult for the Norwegian navy鈥檚
submarine fleet to find its way around the North Sea, according to the
Aberdeen Press and Journal.
During the mating season, schools of passionate cod make so much noise that
the submarines鈥� sonar cannot hear anything else, making it almost impossible to
navigate.
A study by the Norwegian Defence Research Institute reveals that the cod
鈥済runt鈥� repeatedly to attract mates. 鈥淭he noise ruins listening conditions,鈥�
says researcher Erling Kjeilsby.
IT HAS come many years too late for the likes of John the Baptist, Anne
Boleyn, Charles I and the victims of the guillotine in France, not to mention
muslims mass-beheaded by the crusaders in the Holy Land. But now, it seems, we
have it鈥攁 cure for decapitation.
鈥淩eattaching the head to the neck鈥� is the heading of a press release from the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.
With a fine sense of the art of understatement, it announces: 鈥淔ollowing a
serious accident or illness, reattaching the head to the neck has always been a
major challenge for surgeons.鈥�
It turns out, however, that the technique the Little Rock surgeons have
developed is not for people whose heads have been chopped off, but for patients
whose skulls have become detached from the vertebrae at the top of the spinal
column. This can cause paralysis, as in the case of film star Christopher
Reeve.
So here, after all, is an ingenious new treatment for a genuine condition.
But the author of the press release, Bonnie Brandsgaard, is to be congratulated
on her success in catching our attention. No heads need roll in the university
press office.
READER Simon Judge wonders if the e-mail software where he works is trying to
upset the harmony of his marriage. Every time he sends an e-mail to his wife,
Jane Cox, he gets a reply saying: 鈥淵our message concerning [鈥�.] has been
displayed by Jane Cox. This is no guarantee that the message has been read or
耻苍诲别谤蝉迟辞辞诲.鈥�
JUST outside David Pilborough鈥檚 garden in the Australian bush is a termite
nest 4 metres above the ground in a tree. Pilborough swears that the azure
kingfisher he saw popping in and out of a hole in the side of the nest had a
smile on its face each time it emerged munching away on a mouthful of
termites.
And that鈥檚 not all. The kingfisher, he says, began to spend hours instead of
minutes inside the hole and soon the clamour of tiny voices could be heard. From
a kingfisher鈥檚 point of view, the nest made a perfect nursery, with full board
provided.
A short while later, lots of plump little azure lumps poked their heads out
of the hole and somehow launched themselves into the air and disappeared.
Pilborough was left with happy memories鈥攁nd what was left of the
termites.
Aaaah!
IRANIAN chemists in the 16th century were way ahead of their time, it seems.
The mail order catalogue Past Times displays a 3-metre long Afghan rug
costing 拢65. 鈥淭he design,鈥� we are told, 鈥渃omes from Isfahan, a traditional
carpet-making region in central Iran where carpets have been made in the same
way since the 16th century. 100 per cent polypropylene.鈥�
FINALLY, this was spotted by Graham Stephen in a Scottish Hydro-Electric
showroom in Perth鈥攁 Bosch washing machine described as having 鈥淔ussy
尝辞驳颈肠鈥�.