BLACKFLIES don鈥檛 just bite anybody they come across when they feel like a
snack. It all depends, it seems, on their potential victim鈥檚 posture.
Reader Maria Bennett recently came across a paper in a back issue of
Veterinary Entomology called 鈥淔actors influencing nuisance blackfly (
Diptera Simuliidae) activity in the Scottish Highlands鈥�. The
paper, which examines the habits of these little pests, concludes with this
vital piece of information: 鈥淏ending over, especially during the exertion of
gardening, was more attractive to anthropophilic blackflies than standing or
办苍别别濒颈苍驳.鈥�
Now you know what not to do in the garden next time you visit the Scottish
Highlands.
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READER Hugh Griffiths was at London鈥檚 Heathrow Airport earlier this month, on
his way to Dublin. While walking to the gate for his flight, he was confronted
by a sign that said: 鈥淧A system out of service. Please listen for
补苍苍辞耻苍肠别尘别苍迟蝉.鈥�
AGREED, using bulldozers is not the most environmentally friendly way to drag
logs out of forests. So two cheers for Mark Ollis of Carnegie Mellon University
in Pittsburgh, who has come up with a green solution which he presented to the
recent Eighth International Topical Meeting on Robotics and Remote Systems.
鈥淎n alternative is to use horse logging techniques,鈥� he says, 鈥渨here small
robotic vehicles are substituted for the horse.鈥� His system uses fuzzy logic
controllers, sensor systems and algorithms to make a robot that will 鈥渄rag logs
through the forest to a central loading point鈥�.
Fine. But we鈥檒l turn our two cheers into three if Ollis will answer one
question: wouldn鈥檛 it be easier and even more environmentally friendly just to
use a horse?
ALL RIGHT, we give in. We have tried and tried to work out what Woolworths
means when it describes the candles it sells as 鈥渄isposable鈥�. But we鈥檝e
failed.
The only solution left is to write to the company鈥檚 head office and ask for a
packet of permanent candles so that we can make a comparison.
STEFAN NILSSON writes to tell us that he is feeling uneasy about his
horse-riding daughters鈥� new safety vests. The British Equestrian Trade
Association (BETA) provides a standard for 鈥淗orserider鈥檚 Body and Shoulder
Protection鈥�. The standard is based on independent tests conducted at the
University of Cambridge.
Three classes are specified. Beta class 1 (green) protectors provide a lower
level of protection than class 2 protectors. Beta class 2 (orange) protectors
provide a 鈥渘ormal鈥� level of protection. And Beta class 3 (purple) protectors
provide a higher level of protection than class 2 protectors.
Pretty good for Cambridge, eh?
THERE can be disadvantages in being a multilingual country. Three official
languages in Switzerland (German, French and Italian) are very much in evidence,
with most foodstuffs being labelled in all three.
Each carton of milk, for instance, has on it the words 鈥淢ilch lait latte鈥�.
Unfortunately, what this means in the local German dialect is: 鈥淢ilk lays you
蹿濒补迟.鈥�
ANYONE who has used a portable stereo knows what goes wrong first. The
miniature jack plug that connects the headphones stops making good contact
because any tug on the cord puts heavy sideways strain on the socket and deforms
the flimsy contacts inside. The sound then comes and goes unless the plug is
held in just the right position by a piece of sticky tape.
Are you listening, British Airways?
Twice recently Feedback has been on long-haul BA flights, where the front of
the plane is equipped with posh new seats. These have four different reclining
adjustments and an LCD screen that pops out of the armrest to offer a
bewildering choice of audio and video entertainment channels. The sound is
stereo, and is heard through good-quality headphones.
Or not, as the case may be. The headphones use a standard miniature jack plug
which plugs into the seat side, so any tug on the cord wrenches sideways on the
socket. On each flight, the only way to get uninterrupted sound was to keep
pressing a finger on the plug.
鈥淥h dear,鈥� sighed the steward, obviously all too familiar with the complaint.
鈥淲e will try and use some sticky tape to hold the plug.鈥�
滨罢鈥橲 a worrying thing, that millennium bug. According to a flier for the film
Pi given out by York鈥檚 City Screen cinema, 鈥淎s the end of the century
approaches, we are living in the shadow of the millennium bug. Alarmist news
stories conjure up a technophobic nightmare, a Doomsday scenario in which
numbers we鈥檝e manipulated for thousands of years take revenge: computers will
crash, the world banking system collapse, planets plummet from the sky . . .鈥�
READER Andrew Palmer recently bought a pair of sandals made by Merrell. At
the bottom of the box they came in was a piece of clear plastic. It was 5
centimetres square and had writing on it in several languages.
As far as Palmer could see, it had no function other than to convey the
message: 鈥淒o not eat.鈥� However, it did not specify what was not to be
eaten鈥攖he box, the shoes or the piece of plastic itself.