闯础笔础狈鈥橲 health and welfare ministry has identified a major source of dioxin
pollution, but it won鈥檛 be easy to stop it.
Dioxins and other poisons are pouring out of Japanese crematoria because the
deceased are being cremated alongside objects they cherished during their
lifetimes, such as golf clubs, watches, fishing rods and karaoke
microphones.
So much synthetic material is going up in smoke that crematoria are producing
more toxic pollution than Japan鈥檚 waste incineration plants. Even taking fruit
and books into the afterlife can be hazardous to the health of the living.
According to Yokohama City Council, they can give off toxic gases if combustion
is incomplete.
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Some local authorities are now sending out leaflets to encourage bereaved
families to retain their dead relatives鈥� cherished objects as keepsakes, and to
cremate wooden replicas instead.
MORE ground-breaking research by psychologists appears in the Journal of
Psychology (vol 21, issue 2) with a paper entitled 鈥淜eeping up one鈥檚
appearance: its importance and the choice of type of hair-grooming 别蝉迟补产濒颈蝉丑尘别苍迟鈥�.
The conclusion of this study by researchers at the University of Nevada is
that people employed in occupations such as sales鈥斺�漣n which appearance
could influence job performance鈥濃�攊dentified maintaining an overall good
appearance as very important 鈥渟ignificantly more often than respondents employed
in other occupations鈥�. This in turn 鈥渋nfluences the choice of hair-grooming
别蝉迟补产濒颈蝉丑尘别苍迟鈥�.
Well, well, well.
WITH public mistrust of genetically modified crops refusing to wither,
British government ministers and their staff seem to be increasingly confused
about how to handle the issue.
It is illegal to grow what the tabloid newspapers call 鈥渕utants鈥� except in
isolated fields, as part of trials to see what effect they have on the
surrounding environment. A couple of weeks ago, environment minister Michael
Meacher admitted to MPs that pollen from the experimental plots could
conceivably travel any distance and contaminate non-GM crops. Whether or not
this matters is up to consumers, said Meacher, 鈥渂ecause they will have to
determine what degree of GM food in a non-GM product is acceptable鈥�.
In case that looks likes a total abdication of responsibility on the issue,
don鈥檛 worry. A spokesperson from Meacher鈥檚 department hastened to reassure us
that, in any case, releases of pollen from GM fields were not a danger to the
environment.
Phew! That鈥檚 all right then. Now, could someone remind us what the trials are
for?
THERE was a famous science broadcaster called 鈥淒r鈥� C. E. M. Joad. When asked
a simple question he would usually answer 鈥渋t all depends on what you mean by . . .鈥�
We were reminded of this when we tried to find a definitive answer to a
simple question. Is it possible for a virus to hide inside an e-mail or
attachment sent as plain ASCII text, or in the rich text format (RTF) that
software such as Word provides as a 鈥渟ave鈥� option (see Letters).
Sorry, but it all depends on what you mean by text, says Graham Cluley, an
anti-virus expert with Sophos who always does his best to talk plain
English.
Plain ASCII text should be 100 per cent safe. But if an e-mail or attachment
in plain text contains HTML coding, so that it can be opened with an Internet
browser, it could contain a virus. Viruses Bubbleboy and Kakworm already work
this way.
RTF, which is plain text with a little fancy formatting, should be as safe as
ASCII. But there is now a sneaky new virus, called Cap, which waits until you
try to save a Word document as RTF, then silently interferes to save it as a
virus-infected Word file and sticks the letters RTF at the end so that it looks
safe to open. Windows duly opens it, and the virus springs to life.
The simple solution to all this, says Cluley, is for Microsoft to sell
Windows in a default state that is safe from viruses, and leave users to change
to risky settings if they dare. But Cluley confidently expects to keep his job
while Microsoft goes on selling Windows in a default state that provides a
playground for ingenious malevolents.
READER Mike Mellor was puzzled by a notice on the entrance door of a cafe at
the National Trust鈥檚 Lyme Park, Cheshire: 鈥淧lease wipe your feet on the `Boot
Scraper鈥� before entering with muddy shoes.鈥�
Like Mellor, we are not quite sure what this means. But we are impressed by
the way the National Trust has avoided repeating any word for footwear in its
notice.
AND here is another example of redundant product information. The back of a
packet of Wrigley鈥檚 Extra Sugarfree gum gives us this data: 鈥淔at 0g (of which
saturates: 0g).鈥�
FINALLY the University of New Hampshire tells us that, as part of its
conference season, it is hosting the 鈥渓argest meeting of mammalian biologists in
the world鈥� in Durham, NH.
We hope this doesn鈥檛 imply discrimination against any biologists who happen
to be reptiles or amphibians.
