IN THE middle of the UK鈥檚 autumn 鈥渃onference season鈥�, in which political parties worry everyone with their policy pronouncements, or lack of them, a message arrived in Feedback鈥檚 inbox addressed to someone called GILL. It has continued to arrive once a week or so ever since.
Bearing in mind that a hot topic for this year鈥檚 party conferences was the National Health Service, the email asks: 鈥淭ired of waiting for a doctor?鈥� It explains: 鈥淒ear GILL, with an ageing population and far-reaching budget cuts, the NHS has never been under so much strain. Yet for less than the price of daily coffee, you could provide private healthcare for your whole family.鈥�
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We are invited to 鈥渃lick to compare quotes鈥�. When we do, we鈥檙e asked to supply our age and phone number and confirm our email address.
Who is GILL? How does the sender know that she, like Feedback, worries that the NHS is about to be crippled? What鈥檚 more, why are there no links to actual private health insurers? Why was the email sent from an address at 鈥渟afe-sender.net鈥� 鈥� an internet name that seems to be saying 鈥渓et me through, please鈥� to email filter programs, rather than conveying any actual information about the message鈥檚 sender?
A footnote says the message comes from Clinic Compare, 鈥渁 division of MVF Global鈥�. Ah. A little searching soon reveals that Marketing VF Ltd, based in Queens Road, Reading, UK, is the owner of the internet name safe-sender.net. The folks there as 鈥淕lobal Lead Generation Experts鈥� 鈥� which means that their business is collecting addresses for others to write to, not, on the face of it, offering or pricing healthscare insurance at all.
All this puts Feedback in a contrary mood. We鈥檙e tempted to send a message to 鈥淕ILL鈥� ourselves. This would simply say: 鈥淥pt for healthcare for all, free at the point of use and ignore the blandishments of the health insurance lobby, whether it鈥檚 actually sending us email messages or not.鈥�
The 鈥淭rickle Charge鈥� option on the Battery Doctor app on Norman Allen鈥檚 Android phone will, he is told, 鈥渕aintain the liquidity of electrons to extend battery life鈥�
An excessively interesting continent
ABOUT to go on a business trip to Brisbane, Australia, and hoping to do a bit of exploring as well, Adrian Page decided to download a map onto his satnav and start planning in advance. In doing so, he discovered that Australia, big as it is, is even more interesting than he had thought.
According to Adrian鈥檚 satnav, the 1.2 million kilometres of roads that cover the continent contain 鈥�879,100 million 鈥楶oints of Interest鈥�.鈥� This means that on average there is a point of interest every 1.5 millimetres of road. To put it another way, given of 7,692,024 square kilometres, the continent must contain something interesting every 10 square metres.
Clearly, truly fascinating trips lie ahead for Adrian and others.
PALAEONTOLOGISTS, it could be said, love faeces. In their quest to understand the ways of extinct species, they find that an animal鈥檚 gut contents are rarely preserved, leaving few traces of the food they liked to eat.
Far more abundant are fossils of what remained after digestion 鈥� fossilised faeces known in polite Greek as 鈥渃oprolites鈥�.
To demonstrate the point, the has devoted an entire 387-page issue of its Bulletin (No 57) to coprolites. It includes a history of discoveries going back two centuries, an account of 鈥渃oprolites and characters in Victorian Britain鈥�, the preservation of coprolites, their proper scientific classification, and what they tell us about creatures ranging from fish that swam 350 million years ago to the hyenas of late ice-age Europe. There is even a paper on coprolites and human health. What a lot you can learn from preserved pieces of poo 鈥� and all for just $30.
WHILE we鈥檙e on the subject of faeces, Michael Holroyd sends us a scan of an advertisement he saw in The Equity newspaper in Shawville, Quebec, Canada. It鈥檚 for a portable toilet rental service, and although it鈥檚 not a new Apple product, it鈥檚 called 鈥� get ready to groan here 鈥� 鈥淚-Pood鈥�.
鈥淚T ALL makes sense,鈥� says Graham King, 鈥渂ut I can not help thinking of Feedback each time I receive this pager message: 鈥楾his is the 7 pm test message. If you do not receive this message please call the office after 9 am tomorrow鈥�.鈥� We are flattered but mystified. What sense is there in this? Graham explains: 鈥淥ur district rural fire service is testing the pager system as there have been several complaints of not receiving messages, important if they happen to be a fire call. We were forewarned by email of the test, but still laugh each day.鈥�
FINALLY, Gelupo Gelato is 鈥渕uch more than ice cream鈥� according to the delicatessen flyer Alessandra Lythall sends. Indeed, it appears to be a logical conundrum too: 鈥淕elato does not contain milk or butter fats,鈥� the flyer continues, 鈥淚t is made from fresh milk, cream, eggs and fruit flavourings.鈥� So is that fat-free cream, or what?