THIS WEEK鈥橲 offbeat research comes from the University of Warwick, where Matthew Corder and Andrew Oswald have completed a study of the demand for personalised licence plates. The researchers wanted to gain a better understanding of the way people value things that they believe give then status but seem to have little other use.
They collected data from auctions of 2748 car number plates and analysed the factors that determined the prices paid for them. Key findings were that having a person鈥檚 surname in a number plate raises the plate鈥檚 value by 拢1300, having a person鈥檚 first name in a number plate is worth 拢1100, and having a number 1 at the start of a plate makes it worth an extra 拢1000.
All of which seems fairly easy to understand, but one of the findings mystified the researchers and mystifies Feedback too. They found that having the letter S at the start of a number plate raises its value by 拢1000 鈥� but an F lowers it by about 拢500. No other letters matter one way or the other.
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Can any status-conscious reader explain?
KIM O鈥橪EARY, a bookkeeper from North East, Pennsylvania, has won a national 鈥淔avourite places to pee for free鈥� competition. Her winning entry, which beat competition from 1700 others, was the Travel Information Centre in Ashtabula County on Interstate 90 Westbound, which she says is one mile west from Penn line. 鈥淚t鈥檚 my favourite place to 鈥榞o鈥� because the bathrooms are always very clean,鈥� O鈥橪eary explained.
The competition had a serious side. It was sponsored by Uristat, a pain-relief medication for urinary tract infection, in collaboration with Citysearch, a network of online city guides.
鈥淭he promotion was launched鈥� to create awareness and educate women on the risks of retaining urine for long periods of time, which may trigger a painful urinary tract infection,鈥� the sponsor explains. 鈥淎 recent survey by Uristat indicated that more than 70 per cent of women will not go to the bathroom when they need to if they cannot find a clean or safe bathroom or if they are too busy.鈥�
Marybeth Bond, travel expert and author of Gutsy Women: More travel tips and wisdom for the road, advises: 鈥淭he thing to remember about restrooms and travel is to 鈥榞o鈥� before you go, and know where to go, wherever it is you鈥檙e going.鈥�
If you鈥檙e going travelling in the US, a list of the competition鈥檚 most highly rated places to pee is available at .
DO THEY really mean this? A prominent note on the English-language homepage on the website of the German engineering company Haver & Boecker warns: 鈥淔or your special attention: There exists no valid licence agreement for Haver packing technology in India, People鈥檚 Republic of China or elsewhere.鈥�
LOOKING at a British 拢2 coin recently, reader Andy Short was taken with the unusual design on the central disc of the 鈥渢ails鈥� side.
It appears to celebrate British technology, and the outer ring, he observed, depicts a number of unused printed circuit board conductors. The ring inside this depicts 19 gear wheels, all meshed into a ring.
But 19? With an odd number of cogs arranged this way, the whole ring is locked solid, and can perform no useful function for anybody. Short wonders what the Royal Mint is really trying to say about British technology.
READER Liz Mortimer lives in France in a hamlet of just five houses. As is common in those parts, addresses are short and there is no house name or street address.
She was recently expecting a DHL express delivery of airline tickets. They didn鈥檛 arrive as expected, but some days later the postman turned up with a letter from DHL. It informed her that her address was incomplete, and asked her to write back with more details so that DHL could send her tickets.
SOMETIMES web searches can become quite trying. Reader Pieter Smith was trying to connect to the website after he had been given it as an option by msn鈥檚 search engine. When he clicked on it, msn told him 鈥淲e can鈥檛 find 鈥� and asked: 鈥淒id you intend to go to one of these similar web addresses?鈥� The only option listed was 鈥溾��. However, he was advised that 鈥淵ou can also visit one of these related websites鈥�, citing 鈥淐hemconnect Chemical Suppliers鈥� 鈥� whose URL is, of course, .
WHO would have thought that a humble flower could be harnessed to observe solar flares? The following appears on the 鈥渟ensors online鈥� website at : 鈥淣ASA and the University of California at Berkeley developed and designed the high-energy solar spectroscopic imager (HESSI) spacecraft and sent it into orbit on February 5, 2002. The HESSI鈥檚 sole instrument, an imaging spectrometer, contains nine geranium detectors manufactured by Ametek Advanced Measurement Technology. The detectors count photons that pass through the telescope鈥檚 grid while the spacecraft rotates, enabling the spectrometer to measure the photons鈥� energy. The geranium crystals used in the detectors are among the largest hyper (n-type) coaxial geranium material available (藴7.1 cm dia. by 8.5 cm long)鈥︹��
Maybe some mistake here. Such as a spellchecker refusing to accept 鈥済ermanium鈥� perhaps?
We strongly suggest you follow this advice on a pair of shoes available by mail order from Taunton Leisure: 鈥淒o not eat.鈥� Then we suggest you teach your dog to read.