There’s a reason this blog is called In Actual Fact - it may have something to do with a phrase I use far too often, pedantry and the fact that they wouldn’t allow the apostrophe in “ithinkyou’llfind.com”, so this story seems perfectly sensible to me:
Simon Singh got Katie Melua to re-record Nine Million Bicycles due to its scientific errors.The problematic verse in the original version of Nine Million Bicycles is: We are 12 billion light years from the edge/That’s a guess/No one can ever say it’s true/But I know that I will always be with you.
The new, more scientifically accurate verse by Simon Singh, recorded here (Real Audio) goes: We are 13.7 billion light years from the edge of the observable universe/That’s a good estimate with well-defined error bars/Scientists say it’s true, but acknowledge that it may be refined/And with the available information, I predict that I will always be with you.
Doesn’t sound that good when she sings it, though.
Song playing as this was published: Pixies: Dig For Fire.
Has anyone checked with the Chinese authorities how many bicycles there actually are in Beijing?
Doesn’t sound that good when she sings it, though.
The 12 or the 13.7 version? Or shall we just assume both?
“There were 9 milion bicylcles in Beijing at the time of the last velocensus, however, since then, rising levels of prosperity have allowed more and more of the capital’s citizens to purchase automobiles. In the face of this new-found wealth, many look upon bicycles as symbols of poverty and have given their bikes to their simple peasant counsins in remote provinces, making it difficult to produce an accurate estimate of the number of bicycles in Beijing. On the other hand, it’s still an authoritarian state, so they could find out if they really wanted to.” Catchy.
And as for your second question, it would be ungracious of me to say. She does have pretty hair, though.
Heh. Quite humorous!
I think that she should perhaps not be relied on for accuracy. She was, of course, responsible for the line “This is the closest thing to crazy I have ever been, Feeling twenty-two, acting seventeen”. I doubt that she a) is a mental health professional and b) has the slightest idea what the word “crazy” means. I think she may have confused it with the term “fake ID”
Actually, I think Katie should be ashamed of her accuracy with the bike song. Yes, it is indeed a fact that there are 9 million bicycles in Beijing but the Chinese authorities believed in 2002 that the number of bicycles in Beijing would be greater than 10 million by the end of that year - a good 2 years before the Melua track. It is indeed a fact that you could go to Beijing and count 9 million individual bicycles but it fails to point out that the actual figure is in excess of that amount by at least 1 million. She could have just as easily said that there were 3 dwarves in Snow White. That is indeed a fact, but deliberately misleading as you aren’t allowed to use that term any more for short people who work in mines.
The cornish?
Wo-hoo, you’re back online! Willkommen zurück!