Pigeon-toed: I often see pigeons with extremely distorted feet and this seems to be true of city-dwelling pigeons throughout the world. It is not as common among other creatures (including other birds) in urban environments. Can anyone tell me what causes these deformities?
Tiree, good: In the BBC radio shipping forecasts, routine references are made to the visibility at a number of coastal points around Britain. How is this information obtained in the case of various automatic lightships out at sea?
Nozzle puzzle: When I fill a bucket of water using a hose, I hold the end of the nozzle under the rising water. As I move the nozzle very close to the bottom of the bucket, I feel a slight force attracting the hose towards the bottom (or at the very least, a lessening in the usual force reacting against the flow of water). Why is this so?
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Taking the plunge: On a recent flight from New York to Cleveland the plane dropped suddenly, during a thunderstorm. Both the air steward and my reading glasses shot to the roof of the plane. The plane then stopped as quickly with a resounding bang and the steward fell on top of the passengers. How could we fall so much faster than purely under the influence of gravity and leave the steward behind, as it were? Does this happen often? How did we come to such an abrupt stop (seemingly harder than landing on a solid runway) and how far can the plane fall before it starts to break up?