Our Times October 2002

on hallowed ground

The esteemed MCC is selling turf from the outfield of its Lords cricket ground. For £10 per square foot buyers receive a boxed piece of turf, along with a certificate. Iain Wilton, MCC’s director of communications, says the outfield is to be replaced this winter and the sale will help cover the cost. Some of the grass dates from 1787.

stretching it

If you use feng shui on your mobile phone, you can derive positive energy from it, claims the creator of PhoneShui.co.uk, Dr Paul Darby. The ancient Chinese art of feng shui is supposed to assist harmonious living and well-being merely by the placement of buildings, furniture and other such things. Dr Darby says the way people use and personalise their mobile phones speaks volumes.

coins in a fountain

Rome civic authorities are unable to take action against a man who each week takes thousands of lira in coins thrown into the city’s fabled fountains by tourists. Although Roberto Cercelletta is fined each day for going into the fountains, police can’t force him to pay, because he has a disability certificate. A coin thrown into the Trevi fountain ensures a tourist will return to Rome, so Cercelletta has a good future cashflow, with officials estimating he collects up to $A250,000 a year.

contented

The Swiss don’t have anything serious to complain about, researchers have discovered, although young people would be happier if “something new or unexpected were to happen occasionally.” Citizens tend to become more contented as they get older. According to the Swiss Info website, the survey “confirms what most Swiss already know: theirs is the best country in the world to live in”— even though it is among the most expensive.

truth out there

People who believe in the paranormal have higher levels of a chemical called dopamine in their brains than those who don’t, a Swiss study has found. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure and addiction, and high levels of it are also associated with people who perceive patterns where none exist and find coincidences significant. Peter Brugger, a neurologist at the University Hospital of Zurich, carried out the study, which included giving dopamine to 20 self-confessed believers in the paranormal, and also to 20 sceptics. The drug went some way toward altering the sceptics’ views.

freak of nature

A Serbian man has been found to have four kidneys after his first-ever visit to a doctor. 58- year-old Milisav Stojanovic is tremendously proud of his four kidneys, and drinks up to 10 litres of fluid a day. He wouldn’t consider selling the extra organs, although he would consider giving them to a friend or relative.

record attempt

A man who has received 11,000 phone calls, all intended for the Guinness Book of Records , may be included in the publication’s next edition. Barry Maunder of Twickenham, UK, has a phone number just one digit different to that of the Guinness Book of Records . And, making things worse, phone books in Japan, USA, Colombia and the UK have mistakenly listed his phone number instead of Guinness. Maunder averages six wrong numbers a day, with a high of 20 in nine hours.

mobile everything

A third-generation Sony Ericsson mobile phone, featuring a digital camera, personal organiser and email ability—not forgetting conversation ability—is demonstrated at the Singapore Expo Centre. The exhibition showcases the latest products in communications and information technology. —AP/AAP

Sources: www—ananova.com; telegraph.co.uk; thesun.co.uk; canada.com; thenewsmexico.com; phoneshui.co.uk; newscientist.com; swissinfo.org

100 Years ago in Signs

The following appeared in the S IGNS 100 years ago.

( S IGNS was then known as the Bible Echo and Signs of the Times .) A London cable reports: “The Railway Committee of the House of Lords has approved of the scheme of running a monorail system from Manchester to Liverpool.” The monorail system is thus referred to by the London correspondent of a New York paper: “The scheme is similar to one displayed . . . at the Chicago World’s Fair, the cars hanging, trolly fashion, from a rail overhead.

Experiments made in Brussels proved the stability of the line and the ease of the system. The promoters claim to be able to run it at 110 miles an hour.”

Extract from Signs of the Times, October 2002.

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