DO COWS like chewing gum and is it good for them? For the answer to this
burning question you can turn to a report by B. W. Wolf and his colleagues at
the University of Illinois, Urbana. Their paper, which appeared last year in the
Journal of Animal Science (vol 77, p 3392), bears the indigestible
title 鈥淓ffects of a return chewing gum/packaging material mixture on the in situ
disappearance and on feed intake, nutrient digestibility and ruminal
characteristics of growing steers鈥�.
Some might question the significance of this research, but, as the authors
point out, 鈥淎 returned chewing gum/packaging material mixture can replace at
least 30 per cent of a growing steer鈥檚 diet (corn and alfalfa hay) without
affecting diet safety or acceptability. In addition, intakes may be improved,
and steers consuming diets containing returned chewing gum/packaging
material could have higher digestible dry matter and organic matter
颈苍迟补办别蝉.鈥�
The authors conclude: 鈥淯se of returned chewing gum/packaging material
mixtures in growing feedlot steer diets could maintain production and remove
environmental concerns of incinerating or landfilling this by-product.鈥�
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That just about wraps it up, we think. However, reader Edo Lin, who drew our
attention to this paper, has some questions to ask about it. What, he wonders,
is the total availability of returned chewing gum globally? Does 鈥渞eturned鈥�
chewing gum mean chewed chewing gum, or gum that has exceeded its shelf life and
is still in the original packaging? When the authors talk about 鈥渁cceptability鈥�,
whose acceptability are they referring to? Are they sure young steers wouldn鈥檛
prefer to have their chewing gum unwrapped? And, finally, what exactly are the
environmental concerns of landfilling with returned chewing gum?
Readers with any further questions may wish to forward them to the University
of Illinois.
READING e-mail at New Scientist can damage your peace of mind. A
colleague of Feedback鈥檚 reeled back in horror at a message telling her about
research conducted by Simon Baron-Cohen at the University of Cambridge, as
reported in the Institute of Public Relations magazine Profile.
鈥淏aron-Cohen,鈥� the report said, 鈥渁nalysed the medical results of 100
engineering undergraduates and compared them with those of 100 arts
undergraduates. A mild form of autism was detected in the engineering graduates
(or their relatives) in proportions way beyond what could be expected
statistically鈥攊n a ratio of six to one versus the arts students.鈥�
Our colleague鈥檚 teenage son is currently writing his college applications.
Choice of courses? Mechanical engineering, materials science and engineering,
aerospace engineering . . .
Symptoms of mild autism include a poor theory of mind, a lack of
understanding of other people鈥檚 point of view, repetitive behaviours and poor
communications skills. All of these had till then been dismissed by our
colleague as typical teenage behaviour. But it鈥檚 not her son she鈥檚 worried
about. What really concerns her about the report is that bit in
brackets鈥斺�漮r their relatives鈥�.
HAVE you seen AltaVista鈥檚 latest service鈥攁 street map for 鈥渁ny address
in the world鈥�?
Anywhere in the world, it turns out, means anywhere with a postal address
ending with a US state name.
Checkout http://tools.altavista.com/s?spage=t/map.htm if you don鈥檛 believe us.
FIFTEEN air-traffic controllers face suspensions or reprimands for allegedly
slowing traffic at Chicago鈥檚 O鈥橦are International Airport on 17 July, the
Federal Aviation Administration has announced. The agency says the 15
controllers at the Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) center in Elgin,
Illinois, intentionally slowed traffic. The FAA proposed penalties ranging from
30-day suspensions without pay to letters of reprimand.
Rumours that suspending the controllers will have the effect of slowing
traffic are being hotly denied.
ANOTHER example of corporate-speak, this time from
