THANKS to John Purser for drawing our attention to the 鈥淪elf help silent subliminal CDs鈥� produced by a company called Sprudio in California. According to the website , 鈥淛ust because your conscious can鈥檛 hear this silent subliminal doesn鈥檛 mean your subconscious can鈥檛 also.鈥�
You can use the CDs to learn a foreign language, improve your sporting skills, give up smoking or alcohol, or tone up your extra-sensory perception. An added benefit 鈥渋s that you cannot get bored of listening to the same music over and over again, and no one around you knows that you are listening to subliminal鈥�.
While assuring us that 鈥淵ou cannot consciously hear anything on this 鈥榓udio鈥� CD鈥�, Sprudio adds, confusingly: 鈥淲e recorded our silent subliminal a little loud to give consumer confidence that the subliminal is there and not just silence. While playing silent subliminal try to not use high volume, [it] will be like someone screams into your brain bypassing the ears.鈥�
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John is moved by this. 鈥淎hh, loud silence. I remember that from my teaching days.鈥�
We, meanwhile, wonder if the heirs of John Cage, composer of the infamous 鈥渟ilent symphony鈥� 4鈥�33鈥�, are going to sue for infringement of copyright.
鈥淯p to 拢3000 minimum trade in,鈥� proclaims a car seller鈥檚 advert in Chris Elliott鈥檚 local newspaper. 鈥淚 have no idea what this means,鈥� says Chris鈥�
WE ARE pleased to see that science is well represented among the contenders for the Diagram prize for the oddest book title of the year. The for 2009 were announced last month by UK magazine The Bookseller, which organises the prize.
Overall winner, with 42 per cent of the 4500 public votes cast, was Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by Diana Taimina. This beat off competition from Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter by David Crompton, Governing Lethal Behaviour in Autonomous Robots by Ronald Arkin and The Changing World of Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Ellen Scherl and Maria Dubinski.
The less obviously scientific What Kind of Bean is this Chihuahua? by Tara Jensen-Meyer and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich by James Yannes came second and third, respectively.
Horace Bent, custodian of the prize at The Bookseller, admitted that his personal favourite had been the spoons book, but went on to acknowledge that: 鈥淭he public proclivity towards non-Euclidian needlework proved too great for the Third Reich to overcome.鈥�
Philip Stone, the prize administrator, said he thought that 鈥渨hat won it for Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is that, very simply, the title is completely bonkers.鈥�
The Diagram prize has been running since 1978. Its inaugural winner also had a scientific theme: it was Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice.
Quango needed to sort out quangos
WHAT鈥橲 in a 鈥渜uango鈥�? Feedback carelessly stated that the acronym stands for 鈥渜uasi-autonomous governmental organisation鈥� (6 March). We were about to put our hands up and correct that to 鈥渘on- governmental鈥� when we that others expand it to 鈥渜uasi-autonomous national governmental organisation鈥� and yet others to the more tightly controlled 鈥渜uasi non-governmental organisation鈥�. We think some kind of body should be set up to consult widely and decide this important matter. It should be non-governmental, and it should be fairly autonomous.
THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology sponsors an annual energy conference, which this year was titled 鈥淥pportunities, pathways, and solutions鈥� and was held in a downtown Boston hotel. describing the conference site gave detailed directions for driving there from north, south, east or west, but said nary a word about a mass-transit train line that runs by the hotel. As the much-missed US cartoon character Pogo once said: 鈥淲e have met the enemy and he is us.鈥�
THE safety advice on the package of an Aim 鈥榥鈥� Flame multipurpose lighter that Laurie Walsh bought for his gas cooker warned: 鈥淒anger 鈥� extremely flammable, contents under pressure. Do not place near fire, flame or sparks.鈥�
Laurie is trying to work out how to use the lighter without disobeying the warning.
READER Dan Ellis alerts us to a sign on Academy Street in Franklin, Tennessee, that tells traffic to 鈥淪top鈥� and then informs underneath: 鈥淐ross traffic does not stop.鈥� Dan says he understands that very upset traffic might not be willing to stop, but what happens if it is only slightly annoyed? Will it merely slow down a little?
AMONG the safety instructions for the child鈥檚 scooter that Anuruddha Jaithirtha bought, two stood out. One was: 鈥淭his product is not meant to be used on roads.鈥� The other was: 鈥淭his product is not designed for off-road use.鈥�
FINALLY, global warming has done its bit for world peace, Feedback hears. Rising sea level in the Bay of Bengal has submerged New Moore Island, resolving a long-standing dispute between India and Bangladesh, which had both claimed it.