Dear Readers (Volume 3 Edition 6)

A really nice e-mail from China.

Dear Prof. Louise Martin,
A exciting special edition of IJVS comes [Volume 3, Edition 5]. Congratulations!

The interactions of drug and target molecules in living cells and determination of protein secondary structure from IR spectra are the most interesting articles. I am sure more and more people will read articles in IJVS. IJVS will have splendid future in the coming century.

Thank you very much for publishing our article in this edition.
Best regards,

Dr. Tiyu Gao

Louise is impressed by her promotion!

Finally a few items concerning the problems that surround a new Millennium!?

Message from Rome

December 1, 1 B.C.

Dear Cassius,

Are you still working on the Y zero K problem. This change from BC to AD is giving us a lot of headaches and we haven’t much time left. I don’t know how people will cope with working the wrong way around. Having been working happily downwards forever, now we have to start thinking upwards. You would think that someone would have thought of it earlier and not left it to us to sort out at the last minute.

I spoke to Caesar the other evening. He was livid that Julius hadn’t done something about it when he was sorting out the calendar. He said he could see why Brutus turned nasty. We called in the consulting astrologers, but they simply said that continuing downwards using minus BC won’t work. As usual, the soothsayers charged a fortune for doing nothings useful. As for myself, I just can’t see the sand in an hourglass flowing upwards.

We have heard that there are 3 wise men in the east working on the problem, but unfortunately they won’t arrive till it’s all over. Some say the world will cease to exist at the moment of transition. Anyway we are continuing to work on this blasted Y zero K problem and I will send you a parchment if anything further develops.

Plutonius

January 4, 2000

Dear Valued Employee,

Re: Vacation Pay

Our records indicate that you have not used any vacation time over the past 100 year(s).

As I’m sure you are aware employees are granted 4 weeks of paid leave per year or pay in lieu of time off. One additional week is granted for every 5 years of service.

Please either take 9,400 days off work or notify our office and your next pay check will reflect payment of £8,277,432.22 which will include all pay and interest for the past 1,200 months.

Sincerely,

Automated Payroll Processing

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