Suitable for extremely hot air?
DOES the John Deere company know something we don鈥檛 about global warming? The for the small tractor that Graham Worthington bought advises him: 鈥淭he recommended John Deere greases are effective within an average air temperature range of -29 to 135 掳 C (-20 to 275 掳 F). If operating outside that temperature range, contact your Servicing dealer for a special-use grease.鈥� We know that engine temperatures can get this high, but we wonder, with Graham, what part of the world experiences air temperatures anything like this high, let alone higher.
One colour too many? John Doran reports seeing an advertisement on Sky Gold TV for 鈥淜rave, white chocolate brownies鈥�
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Schoolkids campaign for relevant geography
FEEDBACK extends greetings to Esha Marwaha, who is annoyed that climate change is no longer among the teaching topics in geography specified in a in England. 鈥淚 am a secondary school student from The Heathland School,鈥� opens the petition she started from Hounslow in Greater London.
The government Department for Education protests that climate change is covered in the science curriculum, but Esha pre-empted them by referring to the difference between the 鈥渉ow鈥� of science and the 鈥渨hat to do?鈥� of the humanities. 鈥淕eography鈥� inspired me enough to realise that not only is the earth a beautiful place, but one that is in desperate need of our help,鈥� she writes. 鈥淭he beauty of geography is the fact that it enables us to express frankly the problems earth and humanity faces.鈥�
When we checked, the petition was gaining about 500 signatures an hour at .
FROM the depths of our piling system we unearth an article published in Science News on 15 December 2012 entitled 鈥淭elomere length linked to risk of dying鈥� (). The article notes that telomeres 鈥� caps on the ends of chromosomes 鈥� shorten with age. It discusses ways in which this might relate to mortality figures.
Reader Pat Zura says: 鈥淎bout halfway through the article this line jumped out: 鈥楾he researchers don鈥檛 yet know the health status of the people who died鈥�.鈥�
Could anyone hazard a guess?
Geologists take on the minister
FOR those who enjoy governmental discomfort: the UK Court of Appeal found in February that the rules of a government back-to-work scheme 鈥� under which Cait Reilly, a currently unemployed geology graduate, was pressured to work for free stacking shelves 鈥� were a gigantic bureaucratic mess (not the judges鈥� exact words). So is she entitled to claim back the unemployment benefits docked under the rules? Not if Parliament overrules the court.
This takes us back to a lovely press release, forwarded by Sarah Day. Work and Pensions minister Iain Duncan Smith reacted to the case by suggesting that some people felt they were 鈥渁bove鈥� shelf-stacking. He : when they can鈥檛 find the food they want on the shelves, 鈥渨ho is more important鈥� the geologist, or the person who stacked the shelves?鈥�.
The Geological Society of London responded in its press release: 鈥淲ithout geologists, there would be no way to supply supermarkets with produce, no transport for customers or staff 鈥� no shelves, in fact.鈥�
DODO ELECTRICITY & GAS wrote to John Graves in New South Wales, Australia, suggesting he could 鈥渞eceive the same electricity you have always enjoyed PLUS a generous discount off your usage when you pay on time鈥�. He wants to know about the implied different type of electricity. Would he enjoy it more, or less?
MONGOLIA鈥橲 government has decided to convert the disused Lenin Memorial Museum into the Central Museum for Dinosaurs. Dinosaur fossils are particularly abundant in Mongolia, says the , so the government wants to 鈥減rotect this national heritage鈥�.
The Mongolian People鈥檚 Party, which has been occupying the building since the Lenin museum was closed, is upset about the change. Feedback suspects the government鈥檚 association of Leninists with dinosaurs may be entirely deliberate.
In Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, dinosaurs have not fared so well. reports that in January 鈥済overnment-salaried vigilantes, a bearded auxiliary police force familiarly known to Saudis as the Hayaa, had marched officiously into an educational exhibit featuring plaster models of dinosaurs, turned off the lights and ordered everyone out, frightening children and alarming their parents鈥�.
Saudi citizens are apparently mystified as to why the police suddenly took against dinosaurs, which have often featured in previous exhibitions. Has someone linked dinosaurs with Leninists again?
Operation that makes men pregnant
FINALLY, thanks, possibly, to Ian Napier for alerting us to Wikipedia鈥檚 comments on a male condition known as . We read that one method used to treat this 鈥渋s transurethral resection of the ejaculatory ducts. This operative procedure鈥� has some severe complications and led to natural pregnancies in approx. 20 per cent of affected men.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檇 say that was a pretty severe complication,鈥� says Ian.