THE Google empire gets vaster every day. Now it includes a map service at , with search facilities, direction-finders, locations of businesses and so on. Starting with, say, a map of the UK, you can zoom in right down to individual streets, or use the mouse to wander around a town, perhaps pausing to find the local pizza restaurants. Then, zooming back out, you can use the mouse to cross the Atlantic and start exploring the US in the same way.
One thing might strike you as odd, though. If, instead of heading west to the US, you head east, you find鈥� nothing. A blank screen. Europe simply isn鈥檛 there. Nor, farther on, is Asia. Nor are the Pacific islands. In fact, there鈥檚 nothing until you hit the US again, this time from the west.
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Heading south from there, you get as far as an outline (no more) of Mexico and a few Caribbean islands. After that the screen goes blank and you drop off the edge of the world again.
Google鈥檚 world, it seems, consists only of the UK and the US.
A PRESS release from the UK鈥檚 Royal Society announces: 鈥淭his year two women have been elected to the Fellowship. They are Professor Uta Frith, deputy director of the Institute of Cognitive Neurosciences at University College London.鈥�
Richard Smyth, who alerted us to this, supposes that Professor Frith will no doubt be beside themselves with delight.
Redundantly translated place names
THANKS to the many hoi polloi who responded to our mention of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles 鈥� 鈥渢he The Tar Tar Pits鈥� (Feedback, 21 May) 鈥� by telling us about other redundantly translated place names. Some of these appear to be quite famous for it, notably Torpenhow Hill in Cumbria, UK, a name that means 鈥渉ill鈥� in the language of each of the tribes that successively conquered it, so that it translates as 鈥渉ill hill hill hill鈥�. Similarly, Breedon Hill, which takes various spellings (such as Bredon and Bredden) all over the UK, combines the Celtic and the Old English words for 鈥渉ill鈥�, so it translates as 鈥渉ill hill hill鈥�.
And then there鈥檚 the River Avon, which means 鈥渞iver river鈥�, and Eas Fors Waterfall on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, which means 鈥渨aterfall waterfall waterfall鈥�, and the Sahara Desert and Gobi Desert, both of which mean 鈥渄esert desert鈥�, and Lake Nyasa, which means 鈥渓ake lake鈥濃��
But that鈥檚 quite enough, especially since a bit of Googling (try 鈥減leonasm鈥�) will lead you to many sites that deal with this topic. It only remains to add that 鈥渢he many hoi polloi鈥� translates as 鈥渢he many the many鈥�.
SCANNING his local newspaper, The Northwich Guardian, Michael McLean was surprised to read how the local Kingsmead Primary School ensures that its pupils get a healthy lunch: 鈥淓very child at the school is stored on our computer and so we have a constant record of what they have had to eat and drink. Parents can have this information emailed to them and they can track their child鈥檚 diet from snacks to main meals.鈥�
That鈥檚 an impressive technological feat, McLean observes, and one that seems to have gone unnoticed by scientists. 鈥淒oes this mean I can be emailed to America instead of flying?鈥� Presumably it reduces classroom overcrowding, too.
NOT long after he married, Dennis Miller tells us, his wife began to feel broody. He pointed out to her all the drawbacks of having a baby and the changes to their lifestyle that would follow. She replied, 鈥淚 know that, Dennis, but you try telling me that.鈥�
鈥淩eader John Devereux鈥檚 former boss used to say: 鈥淚 never make mistakes. Well, I did make one once. That was when I thought I had made a mistake, but hadn鈥檛鈥濃��
THIS magazine recently carried a review of a book about the role of the female orgasm in evolution, The Case of the Female Orgasm: Bias in the science of evolution by Elisabeth A. Lloyd (14 May, p 52). Readers might be interested to know that one of the fiercest critics of Lloyd鈥檚 theory is apparently a professor of biology at Arizona State University named John Alcock.
In somewhat similar vein, the name of the man at London鈥檚 Royal Free Hospital who led a recent trial of a contraceptive implant for men is Pierre-Marc Bouloux, which may not seem strange to French people, but to an Anglo-Saxon eye is quite disconcerting.
NIGEL Stevens was puzzled by this statement in ntlworld鈥檚 user policy: 鈥淵our account can only be used for a single internet session at any one time and therefore for no more than 24 hours in any one day.鈥�
THE Bloomsbury portable spellchecker in the Maplin online catalogue boasts 鈥淐orrections for 1000 most miss-spelt words鈥�. Clearly 鈥渕isspelt鈥� is not among them.
FINALLY, a can of Morrison鈥檚 toilet cleaner tells us that it 鈥渃leans, freshens and kills germs鈥�. Edward Williams, who noticed this, is reminded of the oyster in Lewis Carroll鈥檚 The Walrus and the Carpenter: 鈥淎fter such kindness, that would be/A dismal thing to do!鈥�