PURCHASING a train ticket online from Adrian Brasnett was relieved to receive an email confirming it 鈥� and puzzled to read that his train departed at 鈥�0.35416667鈥�. After a little thought, he multiplied that by 24 and got (near enough) 8.5 鈥� so he went to the station at 8.30 am and, indeed, found his train.
How wonderfully forward-looking and rational. In years to come, he asks, will we be saying 鈥淟et鈥檚 meet after work at 0.75 for a drink, but I can only stay for 0.041666667鈥�?
He wrote to tell us this at 0.6042 on the in the year 217 of the French Revolutionary decimal calendar, by the way. His message for some reason got mis-filed.
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Why did they think Stephen Hawking is American?
IN A more rational parallel universe, the debate about healthcare in the US could have focused on quality-adjusted life years and the extent to which it is helpful for insurers to cover heroic, almost invariably futile 鈥� and immensely profitable 鈥� attempts to extend life. Instead, we got what students of the rhetoric surrounding science might appreciate as a startling case study: the transformation of the UK鈥檚 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) into 鈥淭he Death Panel鈥� 鈥� because it entertains just such a discussion.
Feedback was most puzzled, though, by the now-notorious intervention of Investor鈥檚 Business Daily, which concluded that 鈥渟cientist Stephen Hawking wouldn鈥檛 have a chance in the UK, where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man鈥� is essentially worthless鈥�.
How did they work that one out? Could it be, we first wondered, that they had read Hawking鈥檚 book A Brief History of Time to the end? The book鈥檚 argument hinges on the notion of imaginary time 鈥� normal time (we paraphrase) multiplied by the square root of -1.
鈥淒avid Jeffery came across a publication entitled Emigrating Abroad in the bookseller W. H. Smith. He wants to know whether there is a sister book for people who emigrate somewhere else鈥�
And the NHS is beset by time: government targets for waiting time, treatment time, appointment time鈥� You can see how its administration could go into angry meltdown when confronted by Hawkins鈥檚 notion.
But it seems not. In Washington DC to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Hawking said 鈥� through his famous voice synthesiser 鈥� that 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 be here today if it were not for the NHS鈥�. How did the IBD website respond? Wading past its plugs for courses in special methods for trading stocks and shares, we find that the notorious quote is missing, replaced with: 鈥� corrects the original editorial which implied that physicist Stephen Hawking, a professor at the University of Cambridge, did not live in the UK.鈥�
Clearly technology is to blame. They had assumed Hawking was a US citizen, safe from the horrors of socialised medicine. The whole hoo-ha arose, we confidently surmise, because of his voice synthesiser鈥檚 accent.
If you change your date of birth鈥�
FLEXIBIRTH is commoner than we thought. Shortly after we reported Philip Welsby鈥檚 credit card provider asking whether he had changed his date of birth (7 March), a colleague of Feedback鈥檚 to add comments to blogs on the BBC news website. There he was told: 鈥淲e ask for date of birth to help improve the online safety of our young bbc.co.uk members. Once you have told us your date of birth, you will need to email us if you want to change it.鈥�
But how would you go about changing your date of birth, and why? Obviously none of Feedback鈥檚 colleagues, when registering with any public website, claims to be a nun born in 1901 in Albania. Oh no. It couldn鈥檛 be that, then.
CONTRARIWISE, in a way, Rob Ellis was delighted to receive an acknowledgement of his regular donation to the UK鈥檚 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds stating, for the purposes of the charity obtaining a tax rebate, that 鈥渢his declaration will remain in place until 06/04/2102鈥�. He thinks the age of 134 is about the right time for him to review his commitment.
INTRIGUED by the quote 鈥淚f a time traveller wanted to go back in time to a specific date, we could probably draw up a phrase book鈥� by Mark Pagel, who researches words that have changed little through time (7 March, p 10), Sally Sinclair looked for more online. She was amused to find that the homepage for this Reading University project at displayed the message: 鈥淭his web page has been removed temporally. Please check back soon.鈥�
As she says, it looks as though the proposed phrase book for time travellers is in use.
FINALLY, how would you feel about consigning your valuables to Black Hole Storage? The in Salisbury, in southern England, makes much of the security of its service, which accords with the standard physics of black holes. But Andy Pepperdine can鈥檛 find much on its website about retrieving your property intact. 鈥淒o they,鈥� he asks, 鈥渒now something Stephen Hawking doesn鈥檛?鈥�