FACTORY emissions and disappearing forests have been identified as major
forces in climate change. Now researchers have discovered a new
factor鈥擧arry Potter.
According to a paper published this October in IEEE Spectrum
magazine entitled 鈥淗arry Potter and the health of the environment鈥�, more than a
quarter of a million copies of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire were
delivered by Amazon.com in the US last year, setting a record for online
orders.
The 400 grams of packaging used to encase each of those books went straight
to landfill. And that, say authors Scott Matthews, Chris Hendrickson and Lester
Lave, is cause for alarm for those worried about the environmental impact of
e-commerce鈥攏ot to mention all the carbon dioxide emitted by planes and
trucks that deliver the goods.
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While online ordering does mean that Mom doesn鈥檛 have to drive a gas-guzzling
car to the mall to get her kid (or herself) a copy of the novel, the overall
impact is unknown and quite possibly negative. The paper concludes: 鈥淲hile Harry
Potter cannot be branded as the primary contributor to global climate change,
the net effect of the current e-commerce systems is unclear.鈥�
MEANWHILE, another hitherto unsuspected contributor to climate change is
hinted at by this warning in the user鈥檚 guide to a domestic carbon monoxide
alarm:
鈥淒o not mount the alarm directly above or near a diaper pail, as high amounts
of methane gas can cause temporary readings on the digital display.鈥�
Just think how many diapers are used worldwide each day. That鈥檚 a lot of
methane.
GOOD to see that Virgin Atlantic is taking a tough line on aircraft
vandalism. On a flight from London to San Francisco recently, the flight
attendant waited until the plane had reached cruising altitude before announcing
over the PA system:
鈥淭his is a non-smoking flight. The toilets are all fitted with smoke alarms.
It is a criminal offence to tamper with them. Anyone caught tampering with the
toilet smoke alarms will be forced to leave the flight immediately.鈥�
IN A recent paper in the German Chemical Society journal Angewandte
Chemie, Nobel laureate Roald Hoffmann and colleague Garegin Papoian
describe some fascinating theoretical developments in the understanding of
obscure crystalline compounds. The paper extends to 40 pages and covers all
sorts of minutiae about networks, ions, bonding, symmetry and
lattices鈥攖hings that, quite frankly, Feedback does not understand.
Hoffmann and Papoian, however, do bring to light an odd acronym, YAeHMOP,
which is presumably pronounced something like 鈥測ah-mop鈥�. When spelled out it
reveals itself to be a computer program called 鈥淵et Another Extended H眉ckel
Molecular Orbital Package鈥�.
Yet another one? How embarrassing to have to admit that we have never heard
of a H眉ckel molecular orbital package in the first place.
TREAT everything you read on the Internet with caution. A colleague was
searching the Net for material on 鈥渆xtremely hazardous substances鈥�. One
promising lead took her to this: 鈥淭his page has been removed. The views formerly
expressed on this page were not the views of the author, but simply those which
he thought would most likely allow him to pass a ridiculous, stupid geography
class taught at UCLA.鈥�
Just as well we were told.
AN INTERESTING item featured in The Expert Verdict mail-order
catalogue is the Celsius ceramic heater. One of the advantages of these heaters
is apparently that they 鈥渁re healthier than wire element heaters because they
use up no oxygen and generate no static鈥�.
Perhaps readers can tell us which wire element heaters use up
oxygen鈥攐ther than the minute amount which forms an oxide layer on the
element, in the same way that it does with ceramic heaters.
WHILE reader Nick Elliott was sitting on the train recently, the person in
front of him was having a text-message conversation on her cellphone. Every time
she received a message, her phone made the familiar 鈥渂lip blip blip beep beep
blip blip blip鈥�.
With nothing better to do, Elliott started thinking about that sequence. Why
had it been chosen over any other pattern or tune? Then it dawned on him that
鈥渄ot dot dot dash dash dot dot dot鈥� is Morse code for SMS (short message
service).
Deliberate? Or just a coincidence?
WE HAVE never tried date tea, but its virtues appear to be impressive.
According to the label on a box brought back from China by a reader, 鈥淚t鈥檚 both
good as cold drinks and hot. Best beverage for the middle, the old and mental
飞辞谤办别谤蝉.鈥�
FINALLY, our award for the year鈥檚 least convincing advertisement goes to the
Southampton firm Computers Made Easy. The ad, which appeared last month in The
Sunday Telegraph, invites prospective purchasers to complete a form
beginning: 鈥淧lease send me the following copies of How to master your
computer in 2 hours on a one year鈥檚 trial.鈥�