FEEDBACK congratulates NASA on safely landing at least one Mars rover. This despite the fears reader Mike Mellor had, prompted by an interview with Jim Garvin, lead scientist for Mars exploration at NASA in the Astronomy Now 2004 Yearbook.
There Garvin states: 鈥淚 had a science group evaluate how we should image planets from their surfaces. They concluded that if you don鈥檛 take cameras at least a metre off the ground and ideally higher, you are really going to be severely limited scientifically. You really want to get 5 to 6 feet off the ground to see. That鈥檚 been our goal and that鈥檚 what we鈥檝e done.鈥�
The introduction to the interview points out that one of the two Mars Explorer probes in 1999 crashed because of confusion between metric and imperial units used by different teams. This time, thankfully, they鈥檝e managed to avoid shooting themselves in the metre.
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NASA may be the ideal customer of the Canadian firm whose website is , which sells a pocket-sized solar battery charger called the iSun庐. The site鈥檚 FAQ list includes: 鈥淐an my iSun庐 be left outdoors without a protective covering?鈥� The answer is: 鈥淵es, the iSun庐 is weatherproofed and may be left outdoors. However, the iSun庐 is not waterproof and should be brought indoors in the event of rain or snow.鈥�
So it鈥檚 only fine-weather-proofed then. Still, sounds good for Mars.
HYDROPHOBIC readers may like to find out the secret of a beauty salon in Sevenoaks, Kent, that offers 鈥渄ry hydrotherapy, which is a combination of massage, wet hydrotherapy and heat鈥�. According to the Sevenoaks Chronicle, clients at the salon can 鈥渓ie on a special bed fully clothed, while jets of water move up and down their body鈥�.
People have told the salon that 鈥渢hey would love the experience of a jacuzzi, but don鈥檛 want the hassle of getting wet and with the hydrotherapy system, they don鈥檛 have to鈥�. But what on earth are they getting? We can only guess that it somehow involves dehydrated water.
A PUZZLING warning has started to appear on adverts for movies on British TV. How is one supposed to react to the information that a film 鈥渃ontains mild language鈥�?
Wouldn鈥檛 it be more informative to label made-for-TV movies 鈥渃ontent-free鈥�? And can we expect similar warnings about sex and violence, such as 鈥渄epicts demurely dressed dames or 鈥渋ncludes calm gentlemen鈥�?
IT WAS the only possible paper title, given a researcher of a certain age: 鈥淲here have all the young girls gone?鈥�
Nancy Andrews鈥檚 paper in Nature Medicine (vol 8, p 439) did have the main title 鈥淭he other physician-scientist problem鈥�, and it was about the dearth of women in biomedical research, not the protest songs of 1959 and 1960 or the compositions of Pete Seeger and Joe Hickerson.
Nor is 鈥淥ptimal food allocation in a slave economy鈥� by R. Rees and others a protest song (Journal of Population Economics, vol 16, p 21). We think. It might be a ditty from the mathematician Tom 鈥渨e鈥檒l all fry together when we fry鈥� Lehrer. Or it might be a manual for managing graduate student research assistants.
A FEW years ago an artist well known for illustrating children鈥檚 books came to Feedback with a dilemma. Moles were digging up his lawn, and he wanted to stop them without hurting them.
鈥淚 can hardly spend the day drawing cuddly pictures of furry moles while being nasty to them at night,鈥� he confided. We found him a German device that pumps synthesised sound into molehills to drive the moles away. Having heard nothing more from him, we presume it worked.
But some people obviously have fewer scruples. The European patent office has published an international application (WO 03/041498) entitled 鈥淢ole trap with explosive鈥�. A box is placed over a molehill, with a sensor rod that extends down into the mole run. When a mole touches the rod, it trips a circuit in the box, which detonates an explosive charge. The shock wave travels down into the run and kills the mole.
The patent was filed from France by a French inventor. We can only suggest a less bloodthirsty alternative. Playing French pop music down a molehill would, we are sure, suffice to persuade the sensitive little things to go and live somewhere else.
FINALLY, the British Medical Association continues to personalise its emailed press releases. First we had 鈥淒VT risk highest within two weeks of flying to Damian Carrington鈥�, which left our online news editor protesting that he didn鈥檛 feel like an airport (Feedback, 15 November 2003). Now a medical correspondent we know is wondering what the association knows that she should know, after receiving a bulletin telling her: 鈥淏MA reaffirms its position on organ donation to Ann Smith.鈥�
Primed by our mention of 鈥渢hroughdoors鈥�, reader Alasdair Graham-Rogers spotted a TV weather forecast warning of 鈥渟nowblizzards鈥�, and a radio programme predicting 鈥渨hitesnow鈥� and 鈥渇reshnew snow鈥�. Moreextra twicedoubling doubleplus soonshortly.