IMAGINE four baby elephants pushing hard. This contribution to our collection of unusual units comes from an advertising booklet from a tyre company. It illustrates the 鈥�5 gs of force鈥� that racing drivers experience.
Generously leaving aside the distinction between acceleration and force, and the considerable differences among baby elephants, Dez Barbara wonders how many readers have been pushed by even one baby elephant, and why 鈥渇our of these units should be easier for me to imagine than simply five times the force I feel every day鈥�.
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Meanwhile Arthur Chance alerts us to 鈥� which helps stuck authors by, for example, converting areas into the UK鈥檚 standard unit, which is a Wales.
SOMEONE writes from Jersey in the Channel Islands about a school computer system there. It issues a prim warning about web pages deemed unsavoury, among which it apparently includes pages about鈥he mathematics of vectors.
Feedback is left wondering, uneasily. Do mathematicians have more kinds of fun than anyone else suspected? Or might the screening list have made the connection between biological vectors and sexually transmitted diseases, and be tailored according to the principle that information about such matters is unsuitable for minors? No, that would be ridiculous.
鈥淚s this normal nominative determinism, or some new variety? To whom did the president of the United States choose to confide 鈥� in many people鈥檚 reading of what he said 鈥� his past use of marijuana? One Doug Wead鈥�
Then we did a web search. There is a reason for the ban 鈥� if only a single page. Some electronic engineers have spent ages making indecent green-on-black wire-frame images 鈥� 鈥渧ector drawings鈥� in the jargon 鈥� on oscilloscope screens and posted photographs. How bored were they?
FOLLOWING our item about a vacuum cleaner that really sucks because it doesn鈥檛 (19 February), Michael Stone writes to tell us of a colleague who commended her slightly pink slice of pigeon breast: 鈥淭his is well done because it is not well done.鈥� Which it was because it wasn鈥檛.
And Simon Haworth reminds us of the old saying, 鈥淭here鈥檚 an exception to every rule鈥�. Which is a rule, so鈥�
Meanwhile, Wichor Bremar from the Netherlands tells of his girlfriend worrying about being too easily swayed. Bremer told her that he didn鈥檛 think this was true at all. She was the sort of person who always stuck to her guns.
鈥淥h yes, you鈥檙e right,鈥� she said.
鈥淟ASER STRAIGHT鈥� is a useful-looking device that can help you get shelves level 鈥� using, it says at , 鈥渞efractive lens technology鈥�. Gosh, that sounds advanced.
It starts to sound less useful when we come to the end of the blurb and read that it 鈥渆ven goes around corners鈥濃�nd apparently TV commercials illustrate it doing just that. Apart from the new physics this would involve鈥hat would be the point of a curved straightener?
POSITIVELY sprinting off the bookshop shelves in France, rather ironically, is a volume entitled Bonjour Paresse 鈥� 鈥淗ello, Sloth鈥� 鈥� a paean to idleness and a manual for doing as little as possible at work. But managers worried about underlings taking its advice may find an answer in neuroscience. 鈥溞影稍磗 in the United States have found a way of turning lazy monkeys into workaholics,鈥� the BBC reported soon after the book appeared, 鈥渦sing gene therapy.鈥�
Apparently they inject DNA that disables a gene that produces a receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is implicated in 鈥渞eward systems鈥�. The monkeys, deprived of dopamine鈥檚 effects, can鈥檛 tell when a reward is imminent, the researchers at the US National Institute for Mental Health surmise, so they slave away pressing levers the whole time.
Dopamine. That rings a faint bell in Feedback鈥檚 addled brain. Ah yes 鈥� the 鈥渃omedown鈥� from the party drug MDMA, better known as ecstasy, seems to reduce dopamine levels. So if managers dished out free 鈥渄isco biscuits鈥� on a Friday, could they find their workers extremely productive, if a bit moody, come Tuesday?
FEEDBACK has been reading the appendices to the minutes of the steering committee of the DVD Forum, which sets the standards for video DVDs. Well, it passes the time. But we are intrigued by a plan, apparently in the pipeline, for a 鈥淪pecial Purpose DVD used for In-Fright Entertainment鈥�.
WE stumbled on a patent filed recently in the US that might look flaky, if it weren鈥檛 the fruit of serious research at US food giant Procter & Gamble.
US filing 2004/47925 tells how a new kind of pet food can help a dog live longer, resist diseases like cancer, and generally stay more healthy. Tests on dozens of beagles over several months proved that a simple everyday additive works these wonders.
Great! Except that the additive turns out to be several grams of garlic per kilo of pet food. If it catches on, dogs may not remain Feedback鈥檚 best friend.