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THE Evening Standard recently published a letter which contained the distressing claim that people have been listening in on digital cellphone conversations for two years now. While this may well turn out to be just another heard-it-from-a-man-I-met-in-the-pub story, if not, it shakes the cellphone industry to its roots.

Admittedly, both Cellnet and Vodafone tried for several years to conceal the ease with which eavesdroppers could use a 拢200-scanner to listen into conversations on their analogue systems. When Feedback put this to the then-head of Cellnet, Stafford Taylor, at a press conference long before the Rayals were bugged, he brushed the issue aside. But this history does not necessarily mean that all the four services using digital technology are being economical with the truth when they claim that no-one has yet cracked the codes used to prevent eavesdropping.

Orange, One-2-One, Cellnet GSM and Vodafone GSM use the same digital technology. It was designed to give privacy, and is so effective that there are government bans on export of the equipment to countries which are regarded as hostile and might use a cellphone network for military communications. If anyone does have anything beyond urban rumour to suggest that any calls have been intercepted on any of the digital networks Feedback would be very interested to hear from them.

EVER since the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992 the government has been trying to clean up its environmental act. Part of this process was to designate a 鈥済reen minister鈥� in every department 鈥� that is, a minister who is concerned with the department鈥檚 impact an the environment.

Now this scarcely is a high priority initiative. The green ministers meet perhaps a couple of times a year. They met most recently an 29 January when -in the spirit of open government 鈥� the ministers decided not to publish minutes. But they did agree, a departmental environment minister said last month, 鈥渢o publish a series of case studies [to] show what measures departments have taken to ensure that environmental considerations are taken into account in policies and programmes.鈥�

Now this should make interesting reading, particularly when it comes to the Department of Transport. Far the department鈥檚 most noticeable impact on the environment is the construction of the 拢100 million Newbury bypass -which passes through three Sites of Special Scientific Interest. So did the Department of Transport, for example, conduct an environmental impact assessment of the Newbury bypass? The answer is particularly cringeworthy for the department鈥檚 green minister and longstanding member of Friends of the Earth 鈥� Sir George Young. It is: 鈥淣o鈥�.

FEEDBACK has often warned of the perils of using the spell-checker at grammar-checker that comes with a wordprocessor. Give them half a chance and they will introduce their own subtle but embarrassing errors. Insurance company, UAP Provincial, seems to have taken this warning to heart. There seems little possibility that the text far UAP鈥檚 latest advert ever went through a checker, either computer or human.

At London Underground鈥檚 entrance to Heathrow Airport鈥檚 Terminal 1, there is an huge wall-sized poster with the slogan, 鈥淲orking together to create new horizons鈥�.

The new horizon is a picture of a truck crossing a vast bridge. Underneath there is a single line of giant printed text. 鈥淭he people who insure the tr the bridge. uck also insure鈥� Sic.

THE WORLD may be suffering a paper crisis but that hasn鈥檛 staunched the unrelenting flow of cryptic brochures from blacking in-trays everywhere. Among the many and varied offerings that arrive daily, an expensively produced glossy brochure caught Feedback鈥檚 eye, promoting an arganisation called IT Services. 鈥淥ur mission is to give our customers freedom to concentrate management time and effort it gushed. on their care business.鈥�

In English, this means that they would like to take over the job of running your business, in return for a large sum of money. The brochure is aimed at government organisations and the health service, which have been told to transfer their computer operations to the private sector.

So who are IT Services? 鈥淲e are a professional services organisatian who can provide access not only to width, but real depth of IT skills and expertise.鈥� The organisation, it says, 鈥渉as been a leading supplier of information technology products since 1977鈥�.

Nowhere does the brochure say that IT Services is the computing wing of British Nuclear Fuels, which is 100 per cent owned by the British government. We are sure it is excellent at running computers. But if it is pitching for privatisatian contracts, shouldn鈥檛 it come clean about its owner?

IT GLADDENS the heart to see a tobacco company being socially progressive. Philip Morris Europe, part of a US-based multinational that owns vast chunks of the food industry as well as several leading brands of cigarettes, has set up one of the first Europe-wide works councils, complete with trades unions. These councils, which Germany has always credited far much of its economic success, are forums where workers and management work together on common goals.

The common goal at Philip Morris? To keep the thousands who work in Europe鈥檚 tobacco industry employed by fighting against the kind of anti-smoking campaigns that have plagued the US industry. Unemployment is a big fear in Europe these days 鈥� apparently, even more so than lung cancer. But we can expect no less than a fair and balanced hearing for all sides from Europe鈥檚 tobacco industry. At least so you would think of an industry whose umbrella organisation publishes a PR magazine called The News of Equilibrium.

FINALLY, there鈥檚 money in mould it seems, as the millions of pounds generated by the sales of penicillin can testify. Next week London auction house Sotheby鈥檚 will sell a tiny sample of mould that is expected to go for not less than 拢10 000. Of course, it鈥檚 not just any old collection of spores, but a sample of the mould from Alexander Fleming鈥檚 original experiment back in 1928. The owner has reportedly kept the specimen in a hat box for the past 20 years.

Which set Feedback thinking 鈥� what other treasures of science could be lurking in attics and how much would they be worth? If your cupboards are bare what would you like to find, given carte blanche to range through time and space. Answers on a postcard please.