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64 | NewScientist |9 March 2013 FEEDBACK PARANOID observation of the week comes to us from Russia, courtesy of Jeff Clarke, who uncovered it at the news site RT.com. Operating on the principle that readers’ comments on news events can be more interesting than the coverage of the news itself, Jeff turned to what RT’s readers had to say about the cataclysmic meteorite event at Chelyabinsk on 15 February. The not-untypical comment he draws our attention to is: “Europe is to blame. They’re using all those wind farms they are building to blow the planet off course, and deliberately tried to make Earth collide with this meteorite whilst it was over Russia.” MEANWHILE, Feedback’s award for the week’s least surprising headline goes to the Wiley Science Newsroom. Its press release on a recent paper in The Journal of Sexual Medicine (vol 10, p 474) makes the shock Tesco’s supermarket sold Alan Trusler a packet of “micro oats” with the stipulation “use by Jan 10 9020”. Nice to see such business confidence in the future announcement: “New Study Reveals Sex to be Pleasurable With or Without Use of a Condom or Lubricant.” THE revelation that horsemeat has been found in processed foods on sale in the UK and other European countries has led to some hasty mugging up on science by those who see part of their job as reassuring the public. Sometimes it has been too hasty. John Arthur reports a message from his son’s school taken from the Vale of Glamorgan council website: “Vale Council ensures food safety standards: the Council has confirmed ‘No traces of DNA have been found in food supplied by the Vale Council’s Catering Service’.” “So what were they feeding the children?” John wondered. Since then, further mugging up on science must have taken place: the council has amended its website. WATER from the purifier that Colin Robertson saw advertised in a shop window in Bayswater, west London, is, apparently, “Alkaline and hydrogen-rich with antioxidant properties!” Feedback asked round the office: “Is there a chemist in the house?” and of course there was: she confirmed that if the water were hydrogen-rich it would be acid, not alkaline – although this could indeed mean that it was antioxidant. A philosopher interjects: things that are true only by accident don’t count as knowledge. THANKS to Amazon.com for telling us the cost per unit weight of the Irwin spanners it is selling, such as “£48.17/kg” or “£1.93/oz”. But, Ed Kiernan wants to know, why are some listed in pounds sterling per ounce and others in pounds sterling per kilo? Surely, dollars per ounce and euros per kilo would be more consistent? THE packaging of the Sylvania tail light bulbs that Steve Midgley bought for his car had him “baffled”. A panel on one side of the pack promises “Up to 100%”, with a design above it that resembles an hourglass. However, as the scan of the pack Steve sends us confirms, it doesn’t say “up to 100%” of what. The statement is just there, on its own, with no reference to any kind of meaning… THE satellite navigation gizmo in the photo Perry Bebbington sends from his car instructs him to turn both left and right. Perhaps it was confused by the location: Nine Corners, in Nottinghamshire, UK. Or perhaps, as Perry suggests, it is looking forward to future quantum engineering in the automotive industry. “TWO megawatt hand-held lasers have been seized from people pointing them at a police helicopter in London” – or so Julian Ball attests he heard the London Tonight ITV news programme report on 5 February. He suggests the Ministry of Defence would want to get there first – such a laser “would at the very least have sliced the helicopter in half”. THE poster on display in Sainsbury’s supermarket in Shorehead, Yorkshire, UK, stated: “All our chickens are 100% British.” “I suppose at rival supermarkets the legs are British,” suggests Roger Denison, “but the rest of each chicken is sourced from other countries in the EU.” FINALLY, Guy Cox writes to thank us for publishing an item about the mental pain he experienced trying to respond to a recursive email from a colleague (16 February). He takes the opportunity to comment on another item we published in the same column about 5-year-old Ethan Tapsell’s conversation with his father on infinity. “When my son Cassian was three we had a very similar conversation,” Guy says. He explains that to understand what follows you have to think in a 3-year-old’s voice, in which “th” and “f” are pretty much indistinguishable. “I know a bigger number than inthinity,” Cassian announced. “What is that?” Guy asked. “Inthickity.” You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website. For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback PAUL MCDEVITT
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64 | NewScientist |9 March 2013
FEEDBACK
PARANOID observation of the week comes to us from Russia, courtesy of Jeff Clarke, who uncovered it at the news site RT.com.
Operating on the principle that readers’ comments on news events can be more interesting than the coverage of the news itself, Jeff turned to what RT’s readers had to say about the cataclysmic meteorite event at Chelyabinsk on 15 February.
The not-untypical comment he draws our attention to is: “Europe is to blame. They’re using all those wind farms they are building to blow the planet off course, and deliberately tried to make Earth collide with this meteorite whilst it was over Russia.”
MEANWHILE, Feedback’s award for the week’s least surprising headline goes to the Wiley Science Newsroom. Its press release on a recent paper in The Journal of Sexual Medicine (vol 10, p 474) makes the shock
Tesco’s supermarket sold Alan Trusler a packet of “micro oats” with the stipulation “use by Jan 10 9020”. Nice to see such business confidence in the future
announcement: “New Study Reveals Sex to be Pleasurable With or Without Use of a Condom or Lubricant.”
THE revelation that horsemeat has been found in processed foods on sale in the UK and other European countries has led to some hasty mugging up on science by those who see part of their job as reassuring the public.
Sometimes it has been too hasty. John Arthur reports a message from his son’s school taken from the Vale of Glamorgan council website: “Vale Council ensures food safety standards: the Council has confirmed ‘No traces of DNA have been found in food supplied by the Vale Council’s Catering Service’.”
“So what were they feeding the children?” John wondered.
Since then, further mugging up on science must have taken place: the council has amended its website.
WATER from the purifier that Colin Robertson saw advertised in a shop window in Bayswater, west London, is, apparently, “Alkaline and hydrogen-rich with antioxidant properties!” Feedback asked round the office: “Is there a chemist in the house?” and of course there was: she confirmed that if the water were hydrogen-rich it would be acid, not alkaline – although this could indeed mean that it was antioxidant.
A philosopher interjects: things that are true only by accident don’t count as knowledge.
THANKS to Amazon.com for telling us the cost per unit weight of the Irwin spanners it is selling, such as “£48.17/kg” or “£1.93/oz”. But, Ed Kiernan wants to know, why are some listed in pounds sterling per ounce and others in pounds sterling per kilo? Surely, dollars per ounce and euros per kilo would be more consistent?
THE packaging of the Sylvania tail light bulbs that Steve Midgley bought for his car had him “baffled”. A panel on one side of the pack promises “Up to 100%”, with a design above it that resembles an hourglass. However, as the scan of the pack Steve sends us confirms, it doesn’t say “up to 100%” of what. The statement is just there, on its own, with no reference to any kind of meaning…
THE satellite navigation gizmo in the photo Perry Bebbington sends from his car instructs him to turn both left and right. Perhaps it was confused by the location: Nine Corners, in Nottinghamshire, UK. Or perhaps, as Perry suggests, it is looking forward to future quantum engineering in the automotive industry.
“TWO megawatt hand-held lasers have been seized from people pointing them at a police helicopter in London” – or so Julian Ball attests he heard the London Tonight ITV news
programme report on 5 February. He suggests the Ministry of Defence would want to get there first – such a laser “would at the very least have sliced the helicopter in half”.
THE poster on display in Sainsbury’s supermarket in Shorehead, Yorkshire, UK, stated: “All our chickens are 100% British.”
“I suppose at rival supermarkets the legs are British,”
suggests Roger Denison, “but the rest of each chicken is sourced from other countries in the EU.”
FINALLY, Guy Cox writes to thank us for publishing an item about the mental pain he experienced trying to respond to a recursive email from a colleague (16 February). He takes the opportunity to comment on another item we published in the same column about 5-year-old Ethan Tapsell’s conversation with his father on infinity.
“When my son Cassian was three we had a very similar conversation,” Guy says. He explains that to understand what follows you have to think in a 3-year-old’s voice, in which “th” and “f” are pretty much indistinguishable.
“I know a bigger number than inthinity,” Cassian announced.
“What is that?” Guy asked.“Inthickity.”
You can send stories to Feedback by email at [email protected]. Please include your home address. This week’s and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.
For more feedback, visit newscientist.com/feedback
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