THE hi-fi industry has always attracted small companies that sell magic-wand cures for poor sound quality, such as felt-tip marker pens that allegedly improve CD sound by absorbing stray laser light. The companies seldom offer any scientific proof of performance, preferring to imply that anyone who cannot hear an improvement can鈥檛 be a true connoisseur 鈥� so those who buy these audio cures prefer not to admit they can hear no difference and have wasted their money.
Reader Craig Wright has pointed us to the website run by Creative, a large company well respected for its PC sound cards and portable music players. Creative is now selling a device called the X-Fi Xmod, which takes in the sound from any desktop or notebook PC or Mac and 鈥渞estores the details, expands the music to surround sound and creates an experience that goes beyond studio quality鈥�.
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The Xmod page on offers a chart that supposedly displays the result. Audio format 鈥� studio, CD or MP3 鈥� is on one axis and 鈥渆xperience鈥� is on the other. According to the chart, the experience of listening to an X-Fi-enabled CD or MP3 exceeds the experience of studio quality.
This leaves just one little question. How do you quantify experience? Or, to put it another way: does this chart actually mean anything? We find it hard to imagine what.
鈥淟ondon Energy writes to Peter Brown offering bonuses for meeting this challenge: 鈥淩educe your energy usage by the same time next year鈥our annual gas usage is recorded below. Annual Gas usage 鈥� 000000 kWh.鈥� Can anyone help?鈥�
MEANWHILE, Panasonic, the largest consumer electronics company in the world, tells us about a new home hi-fi system. This uses a 鈥減ure water capacitor for transparent sound reproduction鈥�.
鈥淧ure water capacitor helps improve sound purity,鈥� Panasonic explained when we asked for some more detail. 鈥淲ith its high water content, this capacitor provides excellent electrical characteristics and鈥� the clean current it delivers helps the speakers produce a clear, pure transparent sound.鈥�
Oh so that鈥檚 it. To get clear sound you wash it in pure water. Doubtless it rates high on Creative鈥檚 experience scale too.
NEXT, a puzzle. Dan McDougall, writing in The Observer newspaper, London, states: 鈥淭here are also fears that even 鈥榚co-tourism鈥� is doing more harm than good. The WWF estimates that 鈥榦nly 20 pence of every 拢2 spent by an average trekker each day reaches village economies'鈥�. Andy Woodwark, who spotted this, notes: 鈥淪o that would be 10 pence in the pound, 10 cents in the dollar, 10 stotinki in the lev or, simply, 10 per cent.鈥� Indeed. So what鈥檚 with this 20 pence of every 拢2?
IT SEEMS that the scientists at the University of East Anglia in the UK have at last been getting the opportunity to overcome their past marginalisation. Allen Jamieson draws our attention to a report in Sciencewise, the UK Department of Trade and Industry鈥檚 science policy newsletter: 鈥淭raditionally under-represented voices were specifically over-recruited [to a series of community workshops on science]. These included senior citizens, people for whom English is their second language, Portuguese immigrants, homeless young men, Black and Minority Ethnic groups (BMEs), young people excluded from the school system, young mothers and disabled people, as well as a number of scientists from the University of East Anglia.鈥�
ON the warning label of Donna Holmes鈥檚 bottle of aspirin is the sentence: 鈥淚f poisoning occurs call a Poison Control Centre or doctor immediately, even if there are no symptoms鈥�. Holmes is concerned that if she ever does exhibit symptoms of poisoning she won鈥檛 be able to get through to the centre because the lines will be swamped by people who are perfectly alright.
THE environmental group at Chris Hall鈥檚 workplace was hoping to encourage the use of bicycles by providing more cycle racks, but they had to clear the old bike sheds first. They posted the following notice about a bicycle that had been left unclaimed for some time: 鈥淚f this bicycle belongs to you then we would ask that you assist us by removing it from the shed. If no owner comes forward, the bicycle will be removed for recycling after 10 March.鈥�
Hall is intrigued by the notion of recycling a cycle and wonders if there is a word for this sort of thing.
FINALLY, the Action Group on Erosion Technology and Concentration announces a competition to design a 鈥渘ano hazard鈥� symbol. It points out that: 鈥淏iotechnology, nuclear power, toxic chemicals, electromagnetic radiation 鈥� each of these technological hazards has a universally recognised warning symbol associated with it. So why not nanotechnology 鈥� the world鈥檚 most powerful (and potentially dangerous) technology?鈥�
Feedback has designed one of these already, as it happens 鈥� but sadly you can鈥檛 see it because it is a thousand times smaller than this full stop.