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This isn鈥檛 just any scheme to sell inaccessible real estate. The site explains that its unnamed creator was abducted in 1982 by 鈥渢he most advanced beings in our universe鈥�, who explained life, the universe and everything to him. Perhaps in appreciation for his patience in listening, they also gave him ownership of 鈥渃ountless millions of galaxies鈥� catalogued by the aliens hundreds of millions of years ago and still referenced only by their original mapping reference. Curiously, those reference codes just happen to match the listings in the New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, a standard reference published in 1888 by J. L. E. Dreyer. The site does not reveal if the aliens also visited Dreyer.
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OUR mention of the Library Hotel (7 June) brought a swift response from reader Christelle Colson who is appropriately enough a librarian. She helpfully informs us that 鈥淓rotic Literature is tagged 808.803 538 in the Dewey system, while Love is tagged 808.803 543鈥�. So if you have either in mind, head for the 8th floor of the book-themed establishment.
And what, we asked, might come in between these two rooms? It鈥檚 808.803 54 鈥� Birth, Youth and Ageing. 鈥淭hat seems sensible,鈥� Colson notes. 鈥淵ou have sex, then get kids, who grow up and in turn fall in love鈥︹��
LAST month the web was ablaze with news of possibly the world鈥檚 most misleading domain name. To English speakers, does one of those it鈥檚-a-face-it鈥檚-a-vase transitions. Is it the ultimate source of appendage-enhancing spam, or a dreadful mis-think by an Italian branch of the privatised British electricity company PowerGen?
The latter resignedly denies all knowledge. So Feedback did a little rooting around in the undergrowth of the web and telephoned the site鈥檚 owner. Despite our failing to remember the differences between Spanish and Italian, we managed to establish that the name belongs to a small company in Tuscany that charges batteries. And, their English being only a little better than our Italianish, they are probably very puzzled by all the attention 鈥� enough to knock the site down for days on end.
Wait, though: a company that charges batteries? To readers of a certain age, that will evoke charming memories of steam radio. Time was when more people had radios than mains power, so they would take their valve radio to an establishment that would charge up the batteries that powered the circuitry. And 鈥� the really charming part 鈥� they would also repair it if it broke. O tempora, o technologia鈥�
US Senator Orrin Hatch is so worked up about computer piracy of copyrighted music that he says copyright owners should be able to electronically destroy computers they find storing pirated material. This statement got Laurence Simon, an unemployed computer system administrator in Houston, rather steamed up.
Simon was annoyed enough, in fact, to start poking around on Hatch鈥檚 own website. There he found 鈥� and you鈥檝e probably already guessed this 鈥� some unlicensed software: a JavaScript routine developed by British company Milonic Solutions. Hatch鈥檚 site hastily got a licence. But would the corporate vigilantes that Hatch suggests turning loose have given him time to do that, or just reduced the site to digital rubble?
FINALLY, a notice on the car deck of Irish Ferries鈥� MV Isle of Inishmore reads: 鈥淲arning 鈥� Possible Loud Noises between 80lb and 90lb.鈥�
Reader Rob Mannion, who noticed this, wonders if the company who made the laminated plastic sign did not know the abbreviation for decibel 鈥� or was it a warning that heavy rock music might be played on the deck?
The instructions for the Semco Long Stitch picture kit that reader Stephen Dedman was about to work on mystifyingly told him: 鈥淔ollowing the Key to Colours, sort all colours to match the Key. Select a piece of wool and tie a knot in the long end鈥�