AN UNEXPECTED spin-off of the overfishing of our seas is an accumulation of
old fridges and washing machines on the ocean floor.
Let us explain. Modern trawlers are sweeping the sea clean of fish. The only
way rod-and-line anglers can get any sport is to fish from the shore or go out
to sea in small boats and position themselves over wrecks and rock reefs.
Trawlers steer clear of such seabed obstacles because they snag their nets, so
they provide a haven for fish.
According to the angling community, new laws are allowing the trawlers to
come so close to the shore that there is no longer any point in fishing from the
beach鈥攁nd there aren鈥檛 enough offshore wrecks to go round. But an angling
colleague tells us that his friends have come up with a solution. It may sound a
bit like the story of the one that got away, but we鈥檒l pass it on just the
same.
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Electrical stores often have to collect old refrigerators and washing
machines from customers who have bought new ones. They then have to pay to
dispose of the junk. Anglers, our colleague tells us, are now collecting the old
fridges and washing machines, taking them out to sea and dumping them overboard
to create artificial mini-wrecks. No one can see the dumps, but trawlers soon
find them by losing their very expensive nets.
So the trawlers stay away, the fish have a new safe haven, anglers get their
sport, and the electrical dealers save on disposal costs. Neat, isn鈥檛 it?
础搁贰狈鈥橳 people wonderful? Reader James Morley works in a big scientific
institution which is also a major public attraction (he doesn鈥檛 want to tell us
which one). A visitor recently sent in a letter of complaint after a fire alarm
had gone off in one of the buildings.
鈥淎 loud alarm bell rang and I did not know what it meant,鈥� the visitor wrote.
鈥淭he noise was so awful, we had to leave the building.鈥�
IT IS a pleasure to learn that Adri Baan, the president and chief executive
of Philips Consumer Electronics in Holland, has a healthy scepticism about how
far the IT revolution is likely to go. Of 鈥渃onvergence鈥�, for example, he points
out that if one combination screen unit in the living room is used to watch TV,
surf the Net, receive e-mail and play games, families will argue endlessly.
Or, at least, that鈥檚 what he used to point out. 鈥淏ut then I had a chance
meeting with some builders who told me that business was booming because half
the homes in Holland are now occupied by one person鈥攕ingle, old, business
careerist or separated,鈥� he said recently.
鈥淚 raised this at the next Philips board meeting, and the others told me it
was nonsense. So I asked how many of them stay in a city apartment during the
week and go home to their family at weekends? They all did. So now we are
starting to rethink our ideas on convergence.鈥�
WHATEVER the rights and wrongs of genetically engineering crops, one thing is
certain: the biotechnology companies and research organisations certainly
misjudged the market when they started to launch their products.
Can anyone now imagine doing what the Crop Development Centre at the
University of Saskatchewan, Canada, did when it brought out its first
genetically modified variety of flax in 1994? It gave it the variety
name鈥擟DC Triffid.
FIRST there were power breakfasts and lunches. Now there鈥檚 鈥減ower viewing鈥� to
help busy executives pack even more into their waking hours.
Electronics company TiVo already sells a 鈥減ersonal video recorder鈥� in the US,
and is now launching it in Europe. For 拢400 and a monthly subscription of
拢10, the TiVo PVR records TV onto a computer disc, while playing it back
at the same time. So if someone comes to the door or the phone rings, you can
pause the playback and then come back later to pick up where you left off.
Howard Look, a TiVo vice president, says he has found another clever thing
for busy people to do with their PVRs. He records the TV news and then plays it
back at three times normal speed. The pictures are recognisable but the sound is
unintelligible, so he also records the subtitles which are broadcast for deaf
viewers.
鈥淵ou can still read them at high speed,鈥� says Look. 鈥淎nd power viewing is
good for any TV programme where the action is a little slow.鈥�
As in those tedious documentaries about the stress of modern life,
perhaps?
ONE of life鈥檚 little ironies. The water supply in the German town of Worms is
infested with worms, the Ananova online news service reported last month.
FINALLY, they obviously enjoy themselves at Trinity College Dublin鈥檚 computer
science department. A recent advertisement stated: 鈥淎pplications are invited for
lectureships in the department of computer science at Trinity College, Dublin.
The department is the largest in the college, with a fun-time academic staff of
46 and over two thousand full-time students鈥︹��