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32
C&ENJuly22, 1974
by Κ. Μ. Reese
• Dip everything that's made in stuff that glows in the dark. Electric utilities draw a lot of flak from • Don't stay in more than one room their constituents, but once in a while, apparently, a positive suggestion turns at a time. up. An anonymous employee of an anonymous utility has kindly sent (1) Co-op Consumer, XXII, 4, 12 along one of these together with the (1974), Greenbelt Consumer Services, Inc., Silver Spring, Md. company's reply. The man with the idea commenced in querulous vein: Noting "the sup A lemon is a lemon . . . posed shortage of fuel," he wondered Robert S. Rabinowitz of Norwich, why "your research cannot come up N.Y., takes issue with a statement that with something suitable." Then came appeared here to the effect that the the zinger—"a mixture of carbide, U.S. produces more than 40% of the water, and air, which produces high world's lemons (C&EN, July 1, page heat and methane gas and is highly ex 44). Rabinowitz's version: "The U.S. plosive. The main problem is to har produces more than 40% of the world's ness [the reaction's] power safely lemons, some of which are citrus The utility, in response, agreed that fruits." the reaction would produce heat, but then resorted to the usual corporate nitpicking: The reaction would yield The home life of George acetylene, not methane; acetylene is and Mary Boole toxic, explosive, and highly combusti H. M. Kelley of Aiken, S.C, while ble; the calcium sludge by-product browsing through his trusty 15th edi poses a severe disposal problem; oper tion of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, ating costs would be high; and so forth. came across the following homey The impression given, in short, was touch: that the company would be reluctant "George Boole, developer of Boolean to put the process into pilot plant. The Algebra, married Mary Everest, niece response was labeled—for internal use of Sir George Everest, for whom the only, no doubt—Sensitive Communica mountain is named." tion No. 3252. It is difficult to tell This department, intrigued, dashed whether this was the total for the year for the 1967 version of Britannica (edi or only for the month. tion unspecified), only to find that Boole's home life had been neglected so St. Louis kids devise as to leave space, presumably, for the real stuff. Such as: energy-saving measures "Thus, if χ = horned and y = sheep, It is no longer chic, apparently, to dwell at length on the energy crisis, then the successive acts of election but the kids at Henry Elementary represented by χ and y, if performed on School in St. Louis, Mo., have concoct unity, give the whole of the class ed some measures that make a weird horned sheep." All perfectly correct, no doubt, but it kind of sense (1): must have been a trial to Ms. Everest. One can hear it now: "No, no—let's try In winter: • Lower people's body temperature it again, Mary. If I = x, and you = v, then " to68°F. • Make it a rule that there has to be at least two people in every big bed Department of that uses an electric blanket. • When beds aren't in use take the obscure information • A feeder pig eats 3 to 3.5 pounds blankets and put them around the of food for every pound of weight it room to help hold the heat. gains. • Put more hot sauce in the food. • The 65-and-older segment of the • Don't have so many days of U.S. population is expected to climb school. 17% in the coming decade, to a total of almost 25.5 million. In summer: • The cricket's ears are on its fore • Don't drink so much water then you won't have so much humidity in legs. • Sales of bottled water in the U.S. you and you won't feel the heat so bad. • Let birds fly around the house to have more than doubled, to $150 mil lion annually, in the past five years. keep the air circulating. • The most common type of snow Anytime: fall in the middle latitudes is a snow• Eat more carrots so we can see flake aggregate of up to 100 individual crystals. just as good with less light.
