WORRIED by hurricanes, earthquakes and volcanoes? Wondering what to blame? Would you believe that these have all been linked to the Earth鈥檚 axis shifting by 26 degrees in two stages, one in late 2004 and one in early 2005?
How is it, you may well ask, that you didn鈥檛 notice? It鈥檚 because the US government covered it up, as you will learn at . Apparently the Global Positioning System broke down at these times and it was kept secret.
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Alarmed, Feedback went out to look at the night sky. All seemed in order. The constellation Orion was just where we left it the last time we looked. But 鈥渢he average person does not notice the change in the angle of the sun,鈥� the site points out, 鈥渢hey would definitely not be able to notice the few inches difference in the positions of the stars.鈥�
Some commentators on the site are impressed. Greg declares: 鈥淚鈥檓 gonna laugh my ass off when all these global warming faithfully deceived American tardos working on their carbon footprint for ole Al Gore are freezing to death and huddling around their new light bulbs they bought to conserve energy.鈥� And, plaintively, 鈥渢he government is planning something that is not in everyone else鈥檚 best interest,鈥� writes Rachel. 鈥淯nfortunately, I have no scientific data, just intuition, dreams, and others like you who help me know that I鈥檓 not going crazy or ultra paranoid!鈥�
鈥淪een in Terence Saffell鈥檚 local supermarket: 鈥淗ealthy Living Chicken Breasts鈥� on sale鈥�
Fans of fruitloopery will find much more grade A material here. It was another site, the good-looking , that provided the clincher. We stumbled across this one June night in London. Bad Astronomy that if the Earth鈥檚 axis had shifted that much, we would have been in sunlight at midnight, whereas in fact it was quite definitely dark. What鈥檚 more, even if we didn鈥檛 look out of the window, we would surely have spotted the satellite TV blinking off as the satellite dishes ceased to point to where the satellites are.
THE latest press release sent out by Random House breaks new ground. Promoting Martin Lindstrom鈥檚 book Buy-ology 鈥� How everything we believe about why we buy is wrong, it comes in a cardboard box. When you open it, you are confronted by a diagram of the human brain showing its different regions and their functions. Then music starts to play 鈥� and one by one the areas of the brain light up.
Wow! Just for a moment we were really impressed. Then we realised that the technology of the press release has run ahead of its biology. In the diagram, the frontal lobe of the brain is situated at the back of the head, despite its name making it quite clear where it should be.
CONNOISSEURS of 1970s UK police soap operas will remember the refrain 鈥淟et鈥檚 be 鈥榓vin鈥� you鈥� when an arrest was about to be made. Matthew Falder brings to our attention what he describes as an example not of nominative determinism, but of locational determinism 鈥� the existence of a police facility on Letsby Avenue in the Yorkshire town of Sheffield.
This is true; we have checked it out. 鈥淣o news yet if there is an 鈥極nyer Way鈥� or 鈥楨venin Hall鈥� in the vicinity,鈥� observes Falder sadly, in reference to two more catchphrases of the genre.
ON 9 February we reported on an announcement at Holborn underground station in central London that told passengers: 鈥淎s you enter the platform, please move left and right away from the entrances.鈥�
Now Niraj Shah tells us of an announcement he heard the other day at the same station urging passengers to perform a similarly impossible quantum task: 鈥淧lease use both sides of the moving up escalators 鈥� standing on the right and walking on the left.鈥�
THE Scientific American book club mailing received by Bill de Mott included a flier for the Musical Heritage Society鈥檚 鈥淏est of Mozart鈥� on 鈥渇ive fully digital CDs鈥�. De Mott wants to know: 鈥淚s there another kind of CD?鈥�
SEVERAL sharp-eyed readers have alerted us to the surprising advice contained in a about polluted water. 鈥淎 rabbit has been named as the cause of a sickness bug which was found in water supplies in Northamptonshire,鈥� it begins, and goes on: 鈥淐ustomers in 100,000 homes were told by Anglian Water to boil tap water for up to 10 days.鈥�
Our readers doubted if there would be any water left after boiling it that long.
Polinymous scientists conference
FINALLY, in our discussion of conurbations 鈥� such as Ann Arbor, Milton Keynes and Paris Viii 鈥� that appear on databases as the authors of scientific papers (28 June), we suggested calling a conference of these 鈥減olinymous鈥� (鈥渢own name鈥�) scientists, but wondered where it should be held.
Thanks to Peter Buck for pointing out: 鈥淪urely there鈥檚 only one suitable place: Alice Springs.鈥�