Letter: Dropping the PIN
Once again, Barry Fox (This Week, 1 February) raises the issue of the
fraud risks posed by telephone call loggers to users of British Telecom’s
Chargecard.
Since BT and Oftel’s discussion of ‘how best to resolve this difficult
issue’ seems to be taking too long for concerned users like myself, perhaps
I can suggest a simple solution.
All BT needs to do to prevent the PIN being logged is to allow for at
least 16 digits being dialled before the PIN.
At present, the 144 prefix, plus 8 digits of account number, take up
11 of these 16. So only another 5 digits are needed to make the PIN ‘drop
off’ the end of the call logging store and printout.
Keith Mitchell Edinburgh
Letter: Impossible
Everyone says it can’t be done. It’s impossible. Nonsense. We haven’t
a dish aerial or a black box, and we don’t suscribe to Sky Television, yet
we get Sky One on our old television set, on channel 6, and on channel 11
on our newer one. How come?
Raymond Rawcliffe Blackburn, Lancashire
Letter: Infallible
Storm Dunlop imputes fallibility to Ariadne (Letters, 8 February). But
surely she (who gave Theseus his vital clue) is, as always, right. Of course
our constant companion, the Moon, is a planet. If the Earth suddenly disappeared,
the Moon would presumably continue to circle the Sun.
Potney Ongo Queensland, Australia
Letter: Helpful advice
Your article on sleeping while driving (‘Stay awake, stay alive’, 4
January) reminded me of a prominent notice on the ghat (mountain) road going
up about 7000 feet to Ootacamund in the Nilgiri Hills, southern India. Like
all ghat roads it is steep and narrow, and runs along the edge of precipices,
with traffic coming down, engines switched off and out of gear to save petrol.
The notice simply says: ‘No sleeping while driving’.
Harry Miller Madras, India
Letter: Pennies on pendulums
Your report on the lightning simulator (Technology, 11 January) mentioned
a pendulum whose weight could be adjusted ‘to vary the speed of the pendulum’s
swing’. Otto Lendvai (Letters, 8 February) asks: ‘Are we witnessing the
dawn of a revolution in physics?’
The answer is no. The pendulum weight of a metronome, for example, is
adjusted (positionally) to achieve the same result. But the effect can also
be achieved without moving the weight. Big Ben’s pendulum is affected by
small changes in barometric pressure, and these are corrected by the simple
device of adding or removing old-style pennies from the pendulum boss. The
pendulum is 13 feet long to the centre of gravity of the bob, and the addition
of one old-style penny slightly raises this centre of gravity (in effect
shortening the pendulum’s working length), and speeds up the clock by almost
half a second a day.
Lewis Jones London
Letter: Filosophical point
I read with interest (Feedback, 1 February) the article about IUPAC’s
decision to change the spelling of sulphur with its ‘ph’ to sulfur with
its ‘f’.
I wonder whether this will also affect the notation used for hydrogen
ion concentrations? Is ‘pH’ going to become ‘f’?
Erica Hannant Southampton, Hampshire
Letter: Oxygen and maggots
I was interested in Virginia Bottomley’s statement on the use of oxygen
treatment of gas gangrene (Thistle Diary, 15 February).
In August 1944 I was among many Normandy wounded at Winterton Hospital,
County Durham, staffed by Swedish Red Cross nurses. Near me was a lad with
a bad case of gangrene. The doctors said, ‘Before we take your leg off,
we will clean it up and try a Swedish system.’
Maggots were applied, and later the leg was covered by a plastic sleeve
with a vent top and bottom. This was filled with oxygen and at intervals
flushed with a saline solution. After two months new flesh was being formed.
C. H. Parker Sherborne, Dorset
Letter: When north is south
Beatrice Dower (Letters, 15 February) wonders how migratory birds have
failed to be muddled, and so be wiped out, by past reversals of the Earth’s
magnetic field. No problem. It has been shown that they rely on detecting
the angle the magnetic lines of force make with the Earth’s surface for
their directional determination. They do not use the polarity of the field
at all and so do not need to know whether north is north or south.
On the other hand stellar information seems to be vital for accurate
navigation. Again, the birds have evolved navigational systems which are
insensitive to another long-term variation. The Earth precesses on its axis,
like a spinning top, so that the part of the sky at which it points describes
a huge circle over a period of 26 000 years. Thus our current Pole Star
will be some 47 degrees away from where the northern axis will be pointing
in 13 000 years.
Birds have almost certainly migrated for millions of years and so each
new generation learns where the centre of rotation of the night sky is,
in relation to the current star map, and uses this as its indicator of north.
Indeed, birds shown only a nonsense sky in a planetarium will readily learn
‘north’ – provided they are shown the meaningless star pattern rotating
just as a real sky does.
Chris Mead British Trust for Ornithology Thetford, Norfolk
Letter: Missile mistake
I am 70 years of age and can walk at a velocity of two metres a second,
but I haven’t yet managed to achieve the incandescent glow of a re-entering
Scud missile (This Week, 15 February).
Robin Chalkley Mayford, Surrey
Letter: Pepper and piles
With reference to K. Fawcett’s recent letter (15 February), in which
he ascribed to malaria tablets the disappearance of his piles while on holiday,
I suggest that a more likely reason is some feature of his diet which he
temporarily abstains from while away but which in normal circumstances causes
him chronic bowel inflammation. Examples might include strong coffee (from
a vending machine at his workplace, perhaps) or pepper.
John Ramsden London
Letter: Blown both ways
Christopher Lambton asks whether his damaged train window would be blown
in or blown out (Letters, 8 February). The answer is yes to both.
The risk was not posed by the speed of his train crawling to London,
but by the passage of other trains. It is the ‘bow’ and ‘stern’ waves of
the passing northbound Intercity 225 which will first push the window in
and then try to suck it out as its last coach passes the window.
Doug White Fleet, Hampshire
Letter: Undue pessimism
Your report (This Week, 8 February) that this year the six constituent
colleges of the University of Wales received 拢15 million required
clarification. Cardiff alone last year received almost 拢12 million,
Swansea more than 拢7 million and Aberystwyth more than 拢5
million. The total for the six colleges was over 拢33 million. The
拢15 million figure relates only to research income from charities
and the research councils.
Your article accurately reflects the importance that all in the university
attach to research. However, the assessment of possible future developments
is unnecessarily pessimistic. Since the last research selectivity exercise,
much hard work has resulted in improvements in departments of colleges throughout
the university.
A more equitable method of research ranking that is not biased against
smaller departments is, of course, desirable. What is necessary now is that
sufficient funds are made available to support research throughout Wales.
In the meantime, it is less than helpful to the university to make scaremongering
comments damaging to the status and reputation of the constituent colleges.
I. D. Bowen University of Wales, Cardiff
Letter: Reflecting on radar
John Stansell’s article ‘Red tape leaves radar reflectors all at sea’
(Technology, 11 January) contains several incaccuracies. The article alleges
that the Department of Transport has not allowed Steve Bell’s ideas on radar
reflector design to be heard and that the department has unjustly withheld
approval of the Firdell reflector.
In 1989, to assist the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in
defining the specifications for an effective radar reflector in life rafts,
this department funded an extensive research project. Bell was involved
during 1990 in amending a draft specification for radar reflectors along
with other manufacturers.
In late 1990 the department distributed to these manufacturers, including
Firdell, the agreed British specification, along with an invitation to apply
for approval to the designated type testing authority. To date no such application
has been received from Firdell.
Both the ‘Blipper’ type of reflector and the internationally accepted
octahedral design have specific mounting attitudes, and performance levels
change when the reflectors are heeled. The octahedral design actually increases
in mean performance when heeled at up to +-30 degrees.
Firdell’s ‘target pattern mappings’ certainly look impressive. Unfortunately,
these are understood to be no more than colour prints of a computer screen
running Bell’s own ideal response program. Survival at sea is in the real
world and we are working closely with other administrations through the
IMO to achieve real world solutions.
Captain D. C. S. Thompson Department of Transport, London
Letter: Science in Dutch
Peter Spinks is right in stating that ‘neither of the Netherlands’ foremost
publishers produce science books in Dutch’ (Review, 1 February). However,
this doesn’t mean that Dutch science books don’t exist. It is just that
they are produced by smaller publishers. In fact, the Dutch government-funded
Foundation for Public Information on Science and Technology (PWT) received
nearly 100 entries for the last ‘Kijk/wetenschapsweekprijs’, a two-yearly
prize for the best original Dutch popular science book. The prize was won
by W. Roebroeks with his book Oermensen in Nederland about the archaeology
of the Stone Age in The Netherlands.
Govert Schilling Utrecht, The Netherlands
Letter: Taxing problem
A carbon tax would probably be a good idea (Forum, 1 February). However,
I can’t understand why Fred Pearce gives such credit to the ideas of Agarwal
and Narain. It is ridiculous to pretend that the vegetation in India (area
3.2 million square kilometres, population 900 million) soaks up 30 times
as much carbon dioxide as the vegetation of Canada (area 10 million square
kilometres, population 30 million), but that is what, in effect, their model
proposes.
A fair carbon tax would be based on net production of greenhouse gases:
what a country burns in fossil fuel or deforestation, minus what it absorbs
by any means. We know that about half the carbon dioxide being produced
is going somewhere, and recent studies suggest that the major sink is forest,
particularly boreal and temperate forest. So, if the absorption cannot be
accurately measured, the best assumption would be that it is proportional
to total photosynthesis, and thus roughly proportional to the area of a
country, allowing for fertility and for variations due to latitude. This
model might be modified slightly – for instance one might add a ‘flat rate’
for carbon dioxide absorbed in the seas – but as compared to Agarwal and
Narain’s model it will still tend to benefit lightly populated rather than
densely populated countries.
This doesn’t let the US, Japan and Europe off the hook, but it does
mean that the major beneficiaries of a fair carbon tax will be places like
Russia, Zaire, Canada or Brazil, not crowded countries like India or China.
Andy Robertson Lewes, Sussex
Letter: Reality of sex
William Bown’s article (This Week, 18 January) relates the problems
that Olympic officials encounter in determining the sex of athletes. If
reality does not fit into the categories we divide it into, is there something
wrong with reality or something wrong with the categories?
John Negus Bessas, France
Letter: Global AIDS review
Phyllida Brown’s comments on the summary of the external review of the
WHO’s global programme on AIDS (This Week, 1 February) stresses certain
aspects over others. The review is critical – but constructively so – not
only of the programme itself, but of donors of the programme and other multilateral
agencies.
The report’s overriding concern is that current efforts to deal with
HIV and AIDS come nowhere near to dealing with the magnitude of the problem,
and much more needs to be done. Its main recommendation is that major UN
agencies and bilateral agencies need to act collaboratively in order to
make a stronger response to the epidemic. This is not because of deficiencies
in the WHO, but because the problem is multidimensional and multidisciplinary
and needs concerted action. The WHO must continue to provide leadership,
but this must be accompanied by serious, collaborative inputs from other
multilateral and bilateral agencies.
In terms of the WHO’s assistance to countries, the review concluded
that it will be necessary to rethink priorities and types of assistance,
given a likely diminution of funds and the increasing problem (and therefore
increasing needs) of a growing number of countries. This may mean some withdrawal
of support from some programmes.
Bernadette Olowo Freers, Gill Walt London School of Hygiene and Tropical
Medicine
Letter: No right to exist
I perceive no incompatibility between our understanding of evolution
and the fundamental mechanisms of the Gaian hypothesis, as challenged in
Alex Milne’s letter (15 February). The Gaian hypothesis does not assume
that any species, not even Homo sapiens, has the right to exist. Existence
is won by species that have developed adaptations which allow them to compete
successfully in the fabric of biodiversity for the prize of life’s raw materials,
such as oxygen, sunlight and water.
In essence, mass extinctions are thought to have come about when the
availability of a particular raw material has fallen (for whatever reason)
significantly below the minimum level required to sustain the volume of
biomass present on the planet at that time. James Lovelock’s Gaian hypothesis,
while embracing the catastrophic nature of mass extinctions, points to the
remarkable ability of life to change the global environment in such a way
as always to maximise the absolute availability of life’s raw materials,
thereby also increasing the amount of biomass that the Earth can sustain.
Increasing biodiversity through evolutionary speciation is merely a mechanism
which allows sustainable biomass to be maximised, not an argument for the
right of a species to exist.
Homo sapiens has developed adaptive differentials that allow us, should
we so choose, to monopolise much of the Earth’s raw materials. We are challenging
biodiversity with intensive agriculture, we are introducing toxicity into
the environment, and we don’t know what we are doing to the climate. We
as a species are having such a large impact on the global environment that
we may be ushering in the next mass extinction. Life has proved through
the fossil record that it is equipped to flourish after the next mass extinction,
but as a mere species, is Homo sapiens?
Justin Longley London
Letter: Blown both ways
Observing the effects of a 50-kilo terrorist bomb which broke some 30
of my embassy’s windows on 11 February, I am sure the answer is ‘out’. The
shattered glass, held together by anti-blast film, was bulging outwards
in every case. Clearly the compression wave of the explosion was less damaging
than the partial vacuum which immediately followed it.
Keith Haskell British Ambassador, Lima, Peru