杏吧原创

OREGON Scientific sells an electronic weather station with indoor and outdoor sensors. Reader Robert Cailliau was tickled to discover among its many listed features: 鈥淧redicts the weather forecast鈥�. Feedback prognosticates an interdisciplinary conference of meteorologists and linguists to decide whether this is easier than predicting the weather itself. We bet it didn鈥檛 predict that weather forecast forecast鈥�

THE Chambers dictionary describes a 鈥渂estseller鈥� as 鈥渁 book that has sold many copies, overall or in a given season鈥�. So presumably the Book Club Association from Swindon, Wiltshire, which advertises 鈥淭he latest bestsellers 鈥� as soon as they鈥檙e published!鈥� in its recent prospectus, has some kind of forecast forecast too?

IT鈥橲 good to know that elderly chemists aren鈥檛 left out in the cold. The website application form for a trial subscription to the magazine Chemistry & Industry asks for all the usual personal details before allowing you to log in 鈥� name, address, email, phone, job description and so on. It also asks registrants to fill in their date of birth using the drop-down multiple-choice menu system.

The options preclude anyone under the age of 16 subscribing to the magazine, which seems a shame but is perhaps based on experience that they never do. What is strange, however, is the fact that the possible years of birth for registrants go back to 1892. It looks like C&I has its eyes clearly focused on the more mature chemist.

But then again, perhaps there is a connection between chemistry and longevity. A colleague tells us that one of the oldest professional workers in the US is Ray Crist of Messiah College, Grantham, Pennsylvania. Still an active chemist and teacher at 102, he鈥檚 well within C&I鈥榮 age range.

BIOLOGISTS are clearly not running the open days at the University of Bristol. Reader Richard Fillingham decided to reply online to an invitation 鈥� and was asked how many parents would be attending: one, two, three or four? Makes perfect sense to a sociologist, of course.

FEEDBACK heartily commends Boston University for its Lloyd G. Balfour African Presidents in Residence Program. The official details at might suggest to the bitter a bit of a boondoggle: 鈥渁n opportunity for democratically elected African leaders to transition to civilian status by providing a venue that will value and utilize the experience and expertise of these unique individuals.鈥� Thanks then to Cullen Murphy for decoding this in the Atlantic Monthly: 鈥淭he idea, simply put, is that democratically elected African leaders might not be so prone to overstay their welcome as chief executives (or to keep meddling in local politics after leaving office) if they had a well-endowed university sinecure in the United States to look forward to.鈥�

A fine example of a concrete contribution by academia to peace and human well-being. And if a university in Africa would care to reciprocate鈥�

DO THE people who run Boston鈥檚 public transport system have a low opinion of their customers鈥� intelligence? Reader Bodhipaksa reports that when taking a train from Boston鈥檚 Wellington station the other day he saw a sign showing the cost of various numbers of travel tokens.

One token was a dollar, two tokens cost two dollars and three tokens cost three dollars, the sign explained. And continued鈥� 39 tokens cost 39 dollars and, you鈥檝e guessed it, 40 tokens cost 40 dollars.

Either Bostonians are arithmetically challenged to an unusual degree, or someone is having a laugh.

GOOGLE, meanwhile, seems to be assuming considerable sophistication in those that use its search engine. Reader Arthur Magill was browsing for information on the gyromagnetic ratio of the proton and was startled to be presented with an advert: 鈥淧ROTON 鈥� find it on Ebay.co.uk鈥�. That auction site, of course, has several protons on offer (some arranged into cars). 鈥淲hat other particles do they sell?鈥�, he muses. 鈥淒oes somebody out there have a lot of dark matter for the right bidder?鈥� We tried that, and 鈥渓one quark鈥� and 鈥淗iggs particle鈥�, but none is advertised on Google 鈥� yet.

THE Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel clearly has an equally high estimate of its patients鈥� abilities. For hundreds of years this has been a neighbourhood where new arrivals first settle, so for many English is a third or fourth language. And those waiting for a blood test need to have their linguistic skills fully honed when they read a notice on the wall which tells them: 鈥淚f you are attending another clinic and having your blood taken with your yellow book when there is not an anticoagulation clinic going on downstairs please check with the phlebotomist and take a ticket as you would normally.鈥� And in Somali?

FINALLY, thanks for all your entries to the Feedback Christmas competition. We鈥檙e enjoying reading them and judging them. The results will be announced in the 21/28 December issue.

The operating instructions for the Miele tumble-dryer advise: 鈥渢his equipment is not designed for use in mobile installations such as carriages, aircraft etc.鈥�