READER William Bowden points us to adverts which offer hi-fi buffs the opportunity to pay $2400 for some bits of wood to put under their audio equipment. Not just any old wood, of course, but unspecified special wood for a 鈥淭uning System Board鈥� that makes things sound better.
Intrigued, we wondered how this could work, and found some words of wisdom on the wood in 鈥� 鈥� a Creative Forum for the Audio Arts鈥�. After putting hi-fi amplifiers on the boards, a reviewer declares: 鈥淵ikes! By golly, those ninety heads in the Mahler Symphony 2 were suddenly accounted for. The space just exploded in front of me; the revelation of depth and 3-D cues was startling鈥� How a board, albeit a very expensive one ($2400 each), can engender involvement and intimacy is pretty far out 鈥� quite beyond all our measuring tools. Those objectivists have no idea what we鈥檙e talking about.鈥�
Well, that puts science in its place. How could those silly old objectivists know anything about anything?
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But it seems that not everyone with an amplifier has been impressed by the hype. The company selling the wood, based in Niagara Falls, New York, tells us: 鈥淭he TU-888 Tuning System Board has been discontinued, but we do have a few of these in stock. If you are genuinely interested, let me know and I can give you a reasonable price.鈥�
Thanks, but no thanks.
鈥淐harles McCutchen notes a New 杏吧原创 report on a lab at the University of Nevada in Reno that tests how structures cope with earthquakes. The lab is run by I. Buckle (18 April, p 20)鈥�
WHEN Ian Sturrock logged on to the online email group he administers at Yahoo Groups, he was told: 鈥淧ending members require your approval. If you take no action, they will automatically expire after 14 days.鈥�
Ian says he is not sure he is ready for the responsibility of causing someone鈥檚 demise solely because he has omitted to tell Yahoo that he approves of them.
YOU can live and work in the UK if you can show that you are a Commonwealth citizen and that you have 鈥渁 grandparent who was born in the United Kingdom (including the Channel Islands or Isle of Man) or a grandparent who was born in what is now the Republic of Ireland before 31 March 1922鈥�. That鈥檚 according to the UK Border Authority web page which can be viewed via .
Meet the other conditions, fill out the right forms in the right order and you 鈥渨ill be allowed to stay for five years鈥�, the site says. What鈥檚 more: 鈥淎fter five years, you will be able to apply to live here permanently provided you still meet the requirements for United Kingdom ancestry.鈥�
Feedback is as puzzled as Hannah Kaye, who spotted this, as to how an initially successful applicant could suddenly fail to meet those requirements. 鈥淎t what point during those five years,鈥� she wonders, 鈥渕ight one鈥檚 grandparents cease to have been born in the UK?鈥�
GREAT science writers make the complex seem simple. Others make the simple complex. Take this gem spotted by Mark Crowe in : 鈥淎round 50.55 per cent of Australia鈥檚 population has a double X karyotpe.鈥� This, Mark suggests, seems a very roundabout way of saying that half the Australian population is female.
THE kidneys, according to Biology by Kenneth Miller and Joseph Levine, 鈥渞emove 180 litres of filtrate from the blood per day鈥�. For those who find such a figure difficult to comprehend, the book clarifies: 鈥淭his volume is equivalent to 90 2-litre bottles of soft drink.鈥� Sam Joyce-Farley, who told us about this, clarifies further: 鈥淚t would also be equivalent to 120 1.5-litre bottles or 60 3-litre bottles.鈥� Or indeed 30 6-litre bottles鈥�
We could go on, but meanwhile some readers may be wondering if this means people normally expel 180 litres of urine per day. This is definitely not Feedback鈥檚 experience and readers can rest assured that the kidneys put most of what they take out of the blood straight back in again.
THE redcurrant jelly Ian Wordsworth bought from an Asda store looked tasty enough and he was on the point of adding a spoonful to his lamb casserole when he noticed a prominent announcement on the jar. It said: 鈥淣O FLAVOURS 鈥� We鈥檝e done the hard work by removing each and every flavour from this product.鈥�
Ian was left wondering if there was any point in adding any of it to his stew after all.
FINALLY, disclaimers at the bottom of emails sometimes threaten those who make unauthorised use of them with legal action. The email Mike Donoghue received from the University of Washington took a different tack: 鈥淚f you are not the intended recipient, or if the message has been addressed to you in error, do not read, disclose, reproduce, distribute or otherwise use this transmission. Otherwise, your shoes will suddenly get too tight.鈥�