THANKS to John Purser for drawing our attention to the âSelf help silent subliminal CDsâ produced by a company called Sprudio in California. According to the website , âJust because your conscious canât hear this silent subliminal doesnât mean your subconscious canât also.â
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 âis 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 subliminalâ.
While assuring us that âYou cannot consciously hear anything on this âaudioâ CDâ, Sprudio adds, confusingly: âWe 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.â
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John is moved by this. âAhh, loud silence. I remember that from my teaching days.â
We, meanwhile, wonder if the heirs of John Cage, composer of the infamous âsilent symphonyâ 4â33â, are going to sue for infringement of copyright.
âUp to ÂŁ3000 minimum trade in,â proclaims a car sellerâs advert in Chris Elliottâs local newspaper. âI have no idea what this means,â says Chrisâ
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: âThe public proclivity towards non-Euclidian needlework proved too great for the Third Reich to overcome.â
Philip Stone, the prize administrator, said he thought that âwhat won it for Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes is that, very simply, the title is completely bonkers.â
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
WHATâS in a âquangoâ? Feedback carelessly stated that the acronym stands for âquasi-autonomous governmental organisationâ (6 March). We were about to put our hands up and correct that to ânon- governmentalâ when we that others expand it to âquasi-autonomous national governmental organisationâ and yet others to the more tightly controlled âquasi non-governmental organisationâ. 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 âOpportunities, pathways, and solutionsâ 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: âWe have met the enemy and he is us.â
THE safety advice on the package of an Aim ânâ Flame multipurpose lighter that Laurie Walsh bought for his gas cooker warned: âDanger â extremely flammable, contents under pressure. Do not place near fire, flame or sparks.â
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 âStopâ and then informs underneath: âCross traffic does not stop.â 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 childâs scooter that Anuruddha Jaithirtha bought, two stood out. One was: âThis product is not meant to be used on roads.â The other was: âThis product is not designed for off-road use.â
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.
