Thats a lot of bikes.

Apparently, there nine million bicycles in Beijing. That's a fact, according to Miss Melua.

As I listen to that song, I wonder how many other things are in Beijing.

18 million sets of bike pedals for a start.

Nine million bikes is a lot by any means, and I believe is only surpassed by Cambridge, which has a billion bicycles (if you have ever been to Cambridge you will know what I mean)

Where exactly Katie gets her figures from, I am not sure. Is there a Bicycle Registry Scheme in Beijing? Or maybe she counted them.

Either way, its still a nice song, floating along quite happily. But what I wanted to mention, is that during the song the lyric is as follows:

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

A chap named Simon Singh has (albeit humorously) pointed out that these lyrics are in fact incorrect. Singh said that with the song Melua "demonstrates a deep ignorance of cosmology and no understanding of the scientific method", and objected to its second verse, where the song's protagonist "[contrasts] such guesswork with her own confidence in her blossoming long-term love"*

So, he came up with his own to put in place, which are quite amusing.

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

Unfortunately, its a little hard to fit in the refrain.

Best of British

Iain.



*Singh, Simon. "Katie Melua's bad science". The Guardian. September 30, 2005. Retrieved April 9, 2006.