PROFESSOR Edward Prideaux, 鈥渨ho works at a London college鈥�,
recently wrote to the press about a new computer virus. In a seemingly genuine
attempt to alert PC users, the prof warned that the virus was particularly nasty
because it hides in the text of an ordinary e-mail message. When read, this
message triggers a program obliterating all data on the user鈥檚 hard disc. Before
wreaking havoc, the virus sends copies of itself to everyone on the user鈥檚 own
e-mail address list.
Until recently text files had been thought safe from viruses, because they
are passive and do not 鈥渆xecute鈥� any action in the computer. Then came the
discovery that a virus could be triggered by a macro, a text file that works
like a small program. So the professor鈥檚 technical explanation of how the e-mail
virus works rang uncomfortably true.
But Feedback smelled a rat. The professor gave an address but no phone
number. So we put the letter on one side, to check out later.
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After a few days, another letter arrived, this time from Penguin Books. It
disputed Professor Prideaux鈥檚 warning and referred to a new book due soon from
Penguin. The smell immediately got stronger.
We phoned Penguin and asked if the Prideaux letter had been a hoax. At first
Penguin鈥檚 spokesman was evasive, waffling about 鈥渢he similar context of the
letter and book鈥�. Penguin finally owned up when pushed. Yes, the prof鈥檚 letter
had been a hoax and was a publicity stunt.
The world is ready to be suspicious of odd-sounding claims made on 1 April.
But now we have a reputable publisher mailing out a plausible hoax in
mid-September.
This doesn鈥檛 inspire confidence in the reliability of the books that Penguin
publishes. It certainly doesn鈥檛 make us want to mention the name of the fiction
book Penguin was trying to publicise.
DELEGATES at the International Society for Human Ethology鈥檚
conference in Vienna this summer must have had a rattling good time debating the
paper submitted by Michael Bujatti-Narbeshuber.
The abstract of his submission appeared among the pre-conference papers
published by the Vienna Museum of Natural History. Entitled 鈥淗omo
-specific symbol-syntactic paigniotic-kolymbetic ethology鈥�, the abstract begins:
鈥淭he serotonin based neurochemistry of rest and fulfilment socioemotions
(Bujatti & Riederer 1976, J. Neural Transm., vol 39, p 257) is used
to characterise the Homo-specific socialisation pattern and
Homo-specific behavioural plasticity. This novel hagiosophic rank order
overrides but temporarily regresses to adrenergic fight or flight based primate
hedonic-agonic social rank order described by Chance & Jolly (1970) which
manifests itself as structure of attention. Fundamental to Homo
specific hagiosophic rank order it is a novel structure of attention on the
inner transcendental locus of control. According to the Littoral Double Niche
Transition (DNT-) theory of hominine evolution (Bujatti-Narbeshuber 1985) this
critical evolutionary advantage of associated species-specific behavioural
plasticity for problem solving and socialisation consists in the evolutionary
stabilisation of mammalian play-dream behaviour together with an鈥攁ll
behaviour calming鈥攈ierarchically superior ethology of vertebrate diving
co-evolving in a coastal terr-aquatic double-niche setting to teleonomic
creative intelligence . . .鈥�
No prizes, but Feedback invites readers to give a brief (maximum 20 words)
summary of what this is all about. Unless, of course, it is another hoax, like
the one by Alan Sokal which earned his editors an Ignobel prize, as we recorded
last week.
THE BBC Radio 4 programme The Network (Tuesdays, 8.30 pm) is running a
competition which will delight anyone who has had to pass on verbally the
address of a site on the World Wide Web. It鈥檚 to find a simple and easy way of
saying the two phrases which ubiquitously prefix all Web addresses: 鈥渁itch tee
tee pee colon slash slash double-u double-u double-u dot鈥� and 鈥渁itch tee tee pee
colon slash slash鈥�. The winner of the competition will be announced on the final
programme in the current series, on Tuesday 22 October. Details can be found at
http://www. poptel. org.uk/nuj/mike/compy.htm. Feedback can hardly wait.
A bbc tv news report tells how an Indian inventor is now in hiding. He has
found a way of making petrol from water by adding a secret herb. The herb comes
from a remote mountain slope and the inventor and his family brew the mix in a
secret lab in a cellar. Unscrupulous third parties want to kidnap the inventor
and steal the idea.
This reminds Feedback of a patent application filed in Britain some twenty
years ago by a firm called Lead Free Chemicals of Jersey, in the Channel
Islands. The inventor claimed to have synthesised petrol from seaweed,
cauliflower and cabbage, by pulping them in a pressure cooker and feeding 12
volts through a silver anode and mild steel cathode.
A year after we mentioned the patent, letters were still arriving at New
Scientist鈥檚 office, seeking more details. Radio stations and newspapers
round the world regurgitated the story. We gave every inquirer the company鈥檚
address and finally, out of curiosity, wrote to Jersey ourselves to ask whether
cabbage petrol was yet on sale.
Our letters were returned by the Post Office marked 鈥済one away鈥� and a check
through the files of the Patent Office showed that the patent had been allowed
to lapse. This left the idea free for anyone else to pick up and exploit.
Who knows, perhaps a copy of the lapsed patent has now found its way to
India.
AIRCREWS still haven鈥檛 fully mastered the art of reassuring
anxious passengers when things seem to be going wrong. Dave Whiteley and his
wife were travelling back to Britain from the US, but were delayed at Chicago
airport because of 鈥渢echnical problems鈥�. Eventually they boarded their plane,
which had an engine on each wing.
As they sat waiting for departure, a member of the flight crew walked through
the aircraft. A woman passenger asked what the problem was. The crew member said
that they could not get one of the engines started, but that they could manage
without it. He then walked away, and the plane revved up for departure.
The passenger started to panic. 鈥淭here are only two engines, I am not flying
across the Atlantic with only one engine,鈥� she said. Whiteley had to calm her
down by explaining what the crew member had failed to mention鈥攖hat the
engine in question was the little auxiliary engine in the tail used for power on
the ground.