杏吧原创

COSMETICS manufacturers are keen to appear cutting edge, and often blind consumers with scientific jargon. But buzzwords like 鈥渘anocapsules鈥� 鈥� currently one of their favourites 鈥� could be their undoing.

Scare stories about nanotechnology turning the world to 鈥済rey goo鈥� have led Caroline Lucas, Green Party MEP for South East England, to call for new regulations 鈥� and one of the targets she has in her sights is the cosmetics industry. Her website claims that 鈥渢housands of women are acting as unwitting 鈥榞uinea pigs鈥� for the cosmetics industry鈥�with many products containing ingredients manufactured by 鈥榥anotechnology鈥�.鈥�

Famous facial products, such as L鈥橭r茅al Pl茅nitude and Lanc么me鈥檚 Flash Bronzer Self Tanning Face Gel, do indeed contain billions of nanoscopic capsules designed to help the skin absorb the cream鈥檚 active ingredients. Though there鈥檚 not a goo-making nanobot in sight, Lucas claims to be 鈥渉orrified to find nanotech products sitting innocently in my bathroom cabinet鈥�.

We wonder what she expected them to do to her. Drain the colour from her face and make it go all mushy?

THE geometrical green patterns on American banknotes are famous worldwide from heist movies. But to many Americans they are a pain, because the different denominations are easily confused and far too easily forged. No wonder, then, that the new $20 bill, with no circle in the middle, and delicate peach and light blue hues, has caught the attention of CNN.com. 鈥淭he Treasury plans to redesign bills every 7 to 10 years to keep up with technological advances in counterfeiting,鈥� the website says. Keep up with? Ah, maybe that鈥檚 the problem.

WHAT do Laos and the little island state of Tuvalu have in common? Desirable internet domains.

Tuvalu licensed the rights to its 鈥�.tv鈥� domain in 2000 for a fee of $50 million, which helped pay for the country to join the United Nations. Countless television companies have grabbed .tv addresses since.

Now, LA Names Corp is marketing Los Angeles鈥檚 鈥渙wn unique internet address 鈥� .la鈥�. Sites registered at went live on 9 June, so no doubt we鈥檒l soon see everything from to .

But 鈥�.la鈥� is not the domain for Los Angeles, at all. It鈥檚 assigned to the Lao People鈥檚 Democratic Republic and there are already hundreds of Laotian .la sites on the web.

The 鈥渓egal section鈥� on refers to LANIC鈥檚 terms and conditions, LANIC being the Lao National Internet Committee. It is, however, unclear whether LA Names Corp and LANIC are collaborating on this clever scheme. If they are, we only hope Laos will benefit as handsomely as Tuvalu has.

READER Tom Saul wanted to upgrade his PC software, so he emailed the manufacturer, Evesham. The company responded with an assurance that if he provided various personal details and any previous correspondence it would allow them to 鈥済reatly increase our response time to your query鈥�.

FEEDBACK鈥橲 utter-tosh-of-the-week award goes to the makers of QLink, who describe their product as follows: 鈥淭he QLink is at the absolute cutting edge of quantum physics technology鈥�Most people have heard of molecules and atoms, but if one was to go even smaller (sub-atomic) one would find electrons, and even smaller than that photons and quarks. Imagine going even smaller (Super String Theory) and discovering a group of minute energies. They vibrate, or resonate, with each other (in sympathetic resonance). They are the most elementary form of energy.

鈥淲hat some scientists and engineers believe is that when these energies are clarified, they can be used more efficiently. When clarified through Sympathetic Resonance Technology (SRT^TM), then placed in the QLink, these refined energies will resonate with the body鈥檚 own energy. The stronger signals (the purest, most refined ones) will help reshape and clarify the weaker ones.

鈥淭his is what happens when you wear the QLink Pendant. It in effect communicates with your body鈥檚 own energy, which itself becomes more refined, clarified and strengthened鈥�The result is that people who wear the QLink will have more energy, be less prone to suffer from headaches and sleep better鈥︹��

As usual, we wonder how people get away with publishing nonsense like this. And can there be anyone in the world idiotic enough to be taken in by it?

FINALLY, when reader James Tickell bought some mango ice cream at a cafe in Chiswick, west London, he was relieved to read that the fruit had been 鈥渜uiescently frozen鈥�. He says that it is always good to know that your food broadly accepts its fate. An aggressively frozen mango could be very nasty indeed.

READER Paul Commons tells of a manual paper shredder for sale in his local stationers. Somewhat unwisely, the manufacturers have named it 鈥淗and Shredder鈥�