ON opening his bottle of Snapple, Ben Haller discovered the following 鈥淩eal Fact鈥� on the inside of the cap: 鈥淏roccoli is the only vegetable that is a flower.鈥�
鈥淐auliflower?鈥� Haller thought. 鈥淎rtichoke?鈥�
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In a spirit of outrage that any Feedback reader would share, he went to , where his bottle cap proclaimed he could 鈥済et all the 鈥楻eal Facts'鈥�. Here he found 鈥淎 male firefly鈥檚 light is twice as bright as a female鈥檚鈥�; a vast over-generalisation, at best, Haller says. 鈥淭he most sensitive parts of the body are the mouth and fingertips鈥�; Haller believes the clitoris easily wins this contest. And what about eyeballs, Feedback adds. 鈥淕iraffes have no vocal cords鈥�; this is a myth, Haller suggests, born of the fact that they rarely vocalise. 鈥淭he temp[erature] of the sun can reach 15 million 掳F鈥�; the core, Haller says, is almost 25 million 掳F, while the surface is only about 10,000 掳F, so this is wrong either way. And finally, 鈥淔rowning burns more calories than smiling鈥�; urban legends website debunks this thoroughly, Haller notes.
He got tired at this point, but he doesn鈥檛 think he has exhausted Snapple鈥檚 fount of dodgy 鈥渇acts鈥�. He suggests others go 鈥渇act鈥�-finding for their own amusement. He also points out that Snapple consistently puts the word 鈥渇act鈥� in quotes, and wonders if this is because it recognises its 鈥渇act鈥� -checking leaves something to be desired. On the other hand, on its website Snapple 鈥減romises they鈥檙e correct鈥�. Huh?
THE British company that Perry Bebbington works for supplies office telephones, including the popular BT Response 75, which he discovered has a strange quirk. When a caller rings in and leaves a message, the Response 75 announces out loud: 鈥淭hank you for calling鈥�.
All very polite, you might think 鈥� but it only does this after the caller has hung up. So the caller won鈥檛 hear the message and, since answering machines are usually only switched on when their owner is out, neither will anyone else.
THE BBC鈥檚 director of future media and technology, Ashley Highfield, was frank about the perils of relying on computer technology for home entertainment, as we reported on 14 July. Will he be as frank about the technology relied on by iPlayer, the BBC system that lets people download TV programmes they have missed?
Feedback has now had a chance to try iPlayer and heartily agrees with the shed-load of criticism posted on the BBC鈥檚 website (). Entering our user name and password we got instructions to 鈥渋nstall the BBC iPlayer library software鈥�. After an apparently successful installation, we clicked to download a TV programme but instead got the same instruction to install software. Since we had already installed it, the only options available were to Remove or Repair, so we hit Repair, and tried to download a programme again. Result? We got the same instruction.
The BBC鈥檚 website provides the option to send a message pleading 鈥淗elp me with my Error Message鈥�. But trying this threw up a fresh error message: 鈥淎 runtime error has occurred. Do you wish to debug? Line 516. Error. Object expected.鈥� After some trial-and-error clicking, the Help Me message winged off, and brought back the response: 鈥淲e can鈥檛 guarantee a personal reply鈥� due to the huge volume of emails we receive.鈥� Meanwhile, the iPlayer main menu was showing a fresh message. 鈥淪orry but we are experiencing technical difficulties.鈥�
All of which makes us wonder whether the BBC management was wise to cut back on R&D and base the iPlayer on technology researched and developed by Microsoft.
KIM DOMANI is concerned. According to an advert by Crystal Clear promoting 鈥渆lectron water machines鈥� in the 2007 Old Farmer鈥檚 Almanac (Canadian edition): 鈥淔ifty years ago the hydrogen bond angle in water was 108掳 and you rarely heard of anyone with cancer. Today, it鈥檚 only 104掳, and cancer is an epidemic!鈥�
Domani asks us to pass this information on because 鈥渁t this rate we shall all be feeling the effects of decreasing angles of our hydrogen bonds very acutely鈥�.
鈥淲illiam Joseph was not sure if he was pleased to read the announcement on Tiscali鈥檚 website: 鈥淒egradation of service has been restored by our network engineers鈥�
FINALLY, here is another strange Amazon recommendation. When Don Curtin ordered a book on chess from the online retailer a year ago, he was told: 鈥淲e鈥檝e noticed that customers who have expressed interest in Think Like A Grandmaster: Algebraic Edition by Alexander Kotov have also ordered The Art of Pole Dancing: A Spin-by-Spin Guide by Peekaboo Pole Dancing Ltd. For this reason, you might like to know that鈥� The Art of Pole Dancing: A Spin-by-Spin Guide will be released Paperback on October 28鈥� You can pre-order your copy by following the link below鈥︹��
Curtin is now wondering whether Amazon needs to tweak its customer software a bit, or whether his fellow chess fans have proclivities he has hitherto been blithely ignorant of.