鈥淓xperience life as a Tudor,鈥� exhorts the UK鈥檚 South West Trains poster Tim Hetherton saw. 鈥淪ave up to 18 per cent when you go to Hampton Court Palace by train鈥�
Increasing deliciousness by 200 per cent
FEEDBACK is not the first to draw attention to the strange claim for Nature Valley cereal bars, advertised in free newspapers across the UK this summer, that: 鈥淲e wanted to increase our deliciousness by 200 per cent, so we put two bars in each pack鈥�. The staff at satirical fortnightly Private Eye win honorary membership of the Society for the Promotion of Numerate Proofreading (5 August) for their observation of the 鈥渕onumental mathematical blunder鈥�.
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It takes Feedback readers, however, to tease out the implications. 鈥淭he only explanation I can give for this,鈥� writes David McLaughlin, 鈥渋s that the bars are now two-thirds as good as they used to be.鈥� And Tony Cuthbert asks: 鈥淗ow do you measure deliciousness?鈥�
For most of the world, blue whale units do not apply in such measurements. And is the deliciousness scale linear 鈥� like the mass of the bar? Or would it be logarithmic, like decibels measuring sound or the Richter scale for earthquakes, in which each point on the scale reports a tenfold increase on the previous point?
Feedback expects that advertising executives would jump on the copywriting possibilities of an earthquake analogy 鈥� until they were gently led into a quiet room to have it explained that saying that a number on a logarithmic scale increases by 200 per cent makes no sense (27 August).
OUR report comparing blue whales with Boeing 747 aeroplanes (22 October) inspired John Hastings to look into the matter further. He looked up blue whales on and found that they weigh 181 tonnes 鈥� very close to the figure we gave for an empty Boeing 747-400 (180 tonnes). There is also a diagram comparing the size of a blue whale relative to a bus, but with no information about the dimensions of the bus.
National Geographic goes on to say that a blue whale鈥檚 tongue can weigh as much as an elephant and its heart can weigh as much as an automobile. Reading on, John discovered that an Asian elephant weighs between 2 and 5 tonnes, while an African elephant is slightly bigger: 2.3 to 6.4 tonnes. Since most cars weigh less than 2 tonnes, this implies that a blue whale鈥檚 tongue is bigger than its heart.
鈥淐learly,鈥� says John, 鈥渢here is a need for an International Committee to agree on Standard Dimensions for these Comparative Units (ICSDCU) and produce a Syst猫me International d鈥橴nit茅s Comparatif (SIUC) to work in parallel with SI units.鈥�
WHAT is the best way to deal with touchy tax collectors? When Isla Davies left her recent UK employer to set out on a new venture, officials with Her Majesty鈥檚 Revenue and Customs sent Isla the relevant P45 form and accompanying documentation. These came with a note advising her that: 鈥淔ailure to present these documents timorously may result in incorrect tax deductions and underpayment of salary鈥�.
Isla says she has 鈥渓ong suspected that HMRC should be viewed with fear and trepidation鈥�.
Facebook鈥檚 700,000 million users
DOES Flybe 鈥� 鈥淓urope鈥檚 largest independent regional airline carrier鈥� 鈥� know something we don鈥檛 about social networking?
An article in its in-flight magazine spotted by Jeff Rolfe announces: 鈥淲ith over 700,000 million people using Facebook, and 200,000 million plus on rapidly growing Twitter, these are the two sites that stand out as the most obvious and desirable to use鈥︹��
Unasked frequently asked questions
MOTOR scooter enthusiast Daniel Plant was looking for information on the technology behind so called 鈥渢wist 鈥榥鈥� go鈥� scooter transmissions.
His searches led him to and its FAQ section, which is headed: 鈥淢otor Scooter Frequently Asked Questions 鈥� featuring many questions that have never been asked before.鈥�
Daniel is still puzzling over this statement, which led him to speculate that, 鈥渟urely, every question has to be asked at least once for it to exist?鈥�
FINALLY, television chemistry wizard Andrea Sella of University College London submitted an item for inclusion in Feedback in June, and we promptly lost it. Now it has turned up again.
鈥淎 packet of Tyrrells crisps,鈥� Andrea assures us 鈥� and he sends us a scan to prove it 鈥� 鈥渟ays on the back: 鈥楧o you have a friend or relative with habits that are, shall we say, a little unconventional? If so, regale us with a story about them and if it鈥檚 suitably gigglesome, we鈥檒l publish it on our fully-digital internet site and furnish you with some freebies鈥�.鈥�
What Andrea wants to know is: 鈥淒oes anyone know of a fully analogue internet site?鈥�