Subject: Mangled measurements

1. Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi
2. 2240 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope
4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement= 1 bananosecond
5. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong
6. 365.25 days of drinking low calorie beer = 1 Lite year
7. 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
8. Half a large intestine = 1 semicolon
9. 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
10. Basic unit of laryngitis - 1 hoarsepower
11. 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
12. 1 million microphones = 1 megaphone
13. 1 million bicycles = 1 megacycles
14. 365.25 days = 1 unicycle
15. 10 cards = 1 decacard
16. 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 fig Newton
17. 1000 grams of wet socks = 1 literhosen
18. 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
19. 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
20. 2 monograms = 1 diagram
21. 8 nickels = 2 paradigms
22. 2.4 miles of intravenous surgical tubing at Yale University Hospital = 1 I.V. League

WHY WE SHOULD HAVE THE SAME TOLL FOR ALL HARBOUR TUNNELS I refer to the article by Joseph Lo headlined 'Hong Kong's tunnel of mixed blessing' (South China Morning Post, May 26). In the interest of equalising traffic flow and easing congestion, the toll for a car using any of the harbour tunnels should be set at $15. When the Western tunnel was opened, it was considered that a toll of $30 would provide profit and meet the cost of capital and government royalties, given a sufficient traffic flow. A $15 subsidy from the Cross-Harbour Tunnel would reduce that toll to $15. The Cross-Harbour Tunnel has been fully paid for and the government has reaped handsome profits since the day it opened. Its $15 toll should be used to subsidise the Western tunnel. The Eastern tunnel toll stands at $15. Operating costs of the Cross -Harbour Tunnel (CHT) should be paid for from the government royalties and charges gleaned from all other tunnels, including the Eastern and Western tunnels. When it opened in August 1972, the CHT toll was $2.50. This would return the developers, led by Duggie Clague, a healthy profit even after paying the government a royalty of 7 per cent and fees for land usage of $75,000. Jardines owned the Star Ferry and the Lau family the Yaumati Ferry. Vehicle ferry tolls were $2 and so that the CHT would not go out of business, the government directed that its toll be doubled to $5. The CHT company was very profitable, even through the inflation of the 1970s and 80s. In 1984, to ease traffic congestion, the government again doubled the toll to $10 by the imposition of a $5 tax. By 1999, when the franchise ended, instead of dropping the toll to an economically justifiable $1.25 the government again doubled the toll to $20 in an effort to ease traffic congestion. To paraphrase Denis Br ay in his Hong Kong Metamorphosis, the government has had a very nice windfall for the 30 years that the Cross-Harbour Tunnel has been in existence. It is again time for the government to act to ease cross-harbour traffic congestion, this time by setting the same toll for each harbour tunnel. And given the harsh economic realities of today, that toll should be $15. D. CASTLEDINE, Clear Water Bay, SCMP 27 May 03

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