I'm sure we've all seen the many rubber bands dropped on paths and doorsteps by postmen (and postwomen?). This huge consumption and wastage of rubber bands was reported in my newspaper a few days ago....
Increasingly I notice lorries adorned with the word 'Logistics'; sometimes it forms part of the company's name. Are transporters and delivery companies guilty of adopting and misusing this word?...
I recently watched the DVD of the incredible film 'March of the Penguins' which has been a big box office hit in America. Does anyone agree that this beautiful and moving film was slightly spoiled by...
I'm in the UK. When I record something on to a DVD-R on my DVD recorder (bought in the UK) connected to my AV set-up, is the recording coded as Region 0 or Region 2? (In case it makes a difference,...
Have you tried dining in Pizza Express or Zizi and asking for: (i) a pineapple juice, or (ii) a Hawiian style pizza (or any pizza with pineapple on it), or (iii) a sweet containing pineapple? You will...
Which was the first movie which had a multi-channel surround-sound soundtrack when it was first released? I think it was The Guns of Navarone which was made in 1961 - I remember the sound of...
There's a BBC news reporter today pronouncing the word 'nuclear' as if it were spelt 'nucula' (or 'newcuela'). He's not the first - I think that's how George Bush pronounces it too. Why do they do it?...
I have a large, very heavy 7-year-old CRT monitor (Brilliance 201B) which still works perfectly but I don't need it now. It was expensive and so I am reluctant to scrap it. Before I go to the...
A woman died recently after jumping into a fast-flowing river after her pet dog had fallen in. Her boyfriend jumped in after her in an attempt to rescue her. He didn't succeed but, luckily for him, he...
I read somewhere that a telephone number is not a number. Rather, it is a sequence of single numbers (in which any zeros are considered to be numbers). OK, I'll go along with that. After all, I don''t...
It cannot have escaped your notice (can it?) that 2006 marks the centenary of poet laureate Sir John Betjeman's birth.
What is your favourite JB poem and why?
In shallow waters on Australia's east coast a young woman swimmer recently had her arms bitten/torn off by a shark, and she later died. Fortunately such incidents are rare - about one per year - but...
Please can anyone tell me why my Marantz DR6000 Audio CD Recorder (a hifi deck) doesn't recognise JVC's Music Audio CD-R discs? (These discs are clearly not intended for computer use). I've never had...
Why are some of the question titles which appear on The Answer Bank almost immediately findable on Google, while others are not? Clicking on the appropriate Google-found result takes you to the...
In my post this morning I received a 'National Notification of New ?5 Coin' 'to celebrate the 80th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II'. This is the offer: "If you reserve your coin today it can be yours...
Can anyone suggest practical uses of the octagon? All I can think of is to achieve a decorative appearance of things like mozaics, floor tiles and structural columns. And the shape of the STOP traffic...
