BACK on 7 June 2003 we mentioned the Library Hotel in New York, whose rooms are catalogued according to the Dewey decimal system and are furnished with appropriate reading and viewing. Shortly afterwards, it seems, things started to get complicated – and we sincerely hope our story had nothing to do with bringing this about.
Given the likely involvement of some of America’s sharpest legal minds, we think it best to quote verbatim this press release we stumbled across: “Online Computer Library Center, Inc. and The Library Hotel (New York, New York) have reached a settlement agreement regarding the use of the Dewey Decimal Classification system ® trademarks by The Library Hotel.
“On Sept. 10, 2003, OCLC filed a trademark infringement complaint against The Library Hotel in federal court in Columbus, Ohio. Under the settlement terms, The Library Hotel will receive permission from OCLC to use the Dewey Decimal Classification ® trademarks in its hotel and in its marketing materials, with an acknowledgment that OCLC is the owner of the Dewey ® trademarks. The Library Hotel will make a financial donation to a non-profit organization that promotes reading by children.”
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So now you can sleep soundly in room 027.42 – that’s the Dewey classification for “Library outreach programmes”, by the way.
FEEDBACK hates helpful computers. Being merely obedient is what computers are for. Whenever a computer smirks “It seems you’re writing a letter…” we start snarling. We know perfectly well what we’re writing, thank you.
But sometimes a supposedly helpful computer can be downright cruel. A friend of reader Andrew Ferguson, whom he is delicate enough not to name, was using her boyfriend’s computer to search for ideas for a surprise 30th birthday party for him. As she began to type “party planning” into Google, the auto-complete function kicked in to help her – and suggested instead “painless break-up”.
IN the abstract of their paper in Physics Education (vol 38, p 320), Dominic Dickson and Laura Grant tell us: “This article describes how putting physics words to well-known songs can provide a valuable, innovative and fun approach for presenting, promoting and learning physics.”
The title of their paper asks the question: “Physics Karaoke: why not?” Without trying too hard, we can think of several reasons.
WHAT is it about African elephants – it is never the Indian ones – that makes them such a popular unit of measurement?
Brian White received his water bill from the Three Valleys supplier in south-east England the other day. With it was a booklet entitled What are you paying for? It told him that during the summer of 2003, “the average demand for water increased by 360 million litres per day. This meant we had to push the equivalent weight in water of 200,000 fully grown African elephants through 14,000 kilometres of water mains”.
And the bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs that was bought by Rosalind Fisher told her: “1.25 billion Mini Eggs are produced every year. This is equivalent in weight to 625 African elephants.”
MEANWHILE, at the other end of the scale, congratulations to PC Advisor magazine for inventing the most unusual unit of measurement we have come across yet. David Way discovered in the magazine’s April issue that Intel’s new Prescott chip is manufactured from transistors “only 90 nanometres across – thinner than a flu virus”.
But how big is a flu virus? PC Advisor doesn’t tell us, but Andrew Roberts informs us that researchers at Purdue University in Indiana have worked out a way of weighing one. According to the website of the UK’s Institution of Electrical Engineers, they have built a machine that is so sensitive it can weigh a single virus particle “weighing as little as a trillionth of a grain of rice”.
ON 31 January we playfully asked: “What does your beer mug hold, in joules?” We didn’t expect any replies, but Ian Dickson tells us a quick search using Google gave him 200 kilocalories per pint of beer and around 4 joules to the calorie, so the answer is a little more than 800 kilojoules – though it’s not clear if this is for lager, ale or stout.
WHAT are sensibly known as grade crossings in the US are called level crossings in the UK, and this can give rise to perplexing road signs like the one spotted by Dennis Newland near Betchworth station in Surrey. “Uneven level crossing,” it said. Newland wonders how this is possible.
FINALLY, the Shropshire branch of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain has a monthly meeting for its members. Stephen Dunning writes to tell us that in April it is holding a wine-tasting social. The following month the subject for the lecture is “Alcoholism and liver disease”.
While looking for a watch strap, reader Neil Richmond came across a tray of them on a market stall with the accompanying advice: “To be worn around the wrist”
