UNUSUAL units continue to flood in. There appears to be an inexhaustible supply 鈥� though how could we be sure, since we lack (so far) a unit unit?
During the eight-and-a-half minutes of a launch, NASA declares in an email it sent to Gary Collins, 鈥渢he shuttle鈥檚 three main engines produce energy equivalent to 23 Hoover dams 鈥� about 37 million horsepower鈥�. But what, we want to know, is that in candlepower? Or newtons?
Steven Pinker in The Language Instinct compared the probable 60,000-word vocabulary of a typical US high-school graduate with the 15,000 words used in the complete works of Shakespeare, thus defining the 鈥渢etrabard鈥� as a unit of vocabulary. We suspect that David Ridpath, who reminded us of this, may be a jaded teacher: 鈥淚 can think of a few centibards I have known,鈥� he grumbles.
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Geva Patz, meanwhile, proposes that the Department of Improbable Units should establish a Laboratory of Analogies You Don鈥檛 Want to Think Too Hard About. A recent visit to a hardware shop revealed toilets with a capacity of 鈥渙ver two dozen golf balls per flush鈥�. Comforting to know, next time we have a lot of, um, golf balls to get rid of.
鈥淭he heaviest species of otter is the sea otter,鈥� observes a sign at the aquarium in Portsmouth UK, 鈥渨hich can reach a total weight of over 45 kg or 100 lbs!鈥� So why is Thomas Cutts telling us this? 鈥淭hat鈥檚 nearly as heavy,鈥� the sign concludes, 鈥渁s Kylie Minogue.鈥�
WHEN he was about to become a father, Murad James sent us an email about Amazon including a book called Burn Baby Burn among those it recommended for people interested in buying baby books. When we published this item on 5 April 2003, it had the unexpected effect of notifying a number of James and his wife鈥檚 long-lost friends and acquaintances of the impending event. They received mail from people they had not heard from for some time congratulating them on the imminent new arrival, who was duly born on 14 September last year.
鈥淚 have framed the Feedback page containing this unconventional birth announcement,鈥� James tells us, 鈥渁nd I expect that in years to come, my daughter will be thrilled that her impending arrival was announced in your splendid publication.鈥�
Now, however, there is a problem. Sprog number two is due on 16 December. What will happen if this new addition to the family does not have a similar memento of his/her birth? 鈥淚 wonder what psychological damage and sibling rivalry this lack of recognition might cause?鈥� James asks us in desperation. 鈥淯nless, that is, I can come up with something interesting enough to warrant you including this piece of information in Feedback before 16 December.鈥�
Oh, alright, we give in. All together now: aaaaaaaah. (But don鈥檛 anyone else try this.)
SOMETHING strange is going on. Alex Ashman assures us that he found this on the website of Waterstones the bookseller when he was looking for a book on learning Greek: 鈥淓ssential Modern Greek Grammar by Douglas Q. Adams. Synopsis: Superb grammar and exercise book enables students to quickly recognise, understand and begin to use the basic patterns of modern Turkish.鈥�
An odd mistake you might think. But what makes it a lot odder is that on the same day as Ashman鈥檚 email arrived, a colleague handed us the following description of a course in classical Greek at London鈥檚 City Lit college: 鈥淟earn classical Greek at a rapid pace in this intensive course for beginners. You will have the opportunity to take an exam at the end of module 3 and, if successful, you will be awarded the City Lit Foundation Certificate in Latin.鈥�
WHILE searching through electronic journals on the web, Julie Day came across 鈥淔rostbite of the gluteal region鈥� by S. M. Azad, K. Allison, N. Khwaja and N. Moiemen in Burns (vol 29, p 739).
Reading this piece, Day says, is not for the faint of heart, as it contains some very unpleasant photographs. She also rightly guesses that we may be wondering how anyone could become frostbitten in the gluteal region. The answer, apparently, is that the subjects of this study were in a radio competition which required them to sit on dry ice.
FINALLY, there鈥檚 a nice, hopeful ring about this redefinition of the word 鈥渕inority鈥� discovered by Ian Sabroe in the editorial of the current issue of Bird Watching magazine: 鈥淎ccording to TGI 2004, a mass-participation research project that regularly delves into all human activities and attitudes, no fewer than 2.8 million citizens profess to be birdwatchers. That鈥檚 about 5 per cent of the total UK population, so I reckon it is time we stopped thinking of ourselves as a minority interest.鈥�
We liked this headline from the Xinhua news agency about the discovery of Homo floriensis: 鈥溞影稍磗 find new species of hobbits鈥�