THE website sells a bemusing range of devices you may or may not need, including one concerned with that ever-popular elixir: oxygen. Our old friend the Obox Personal Oxygen Generator, as we noted in March 2006, provides 鈥渦p to 150 per cent of the body鈥檚 normal oxygen requirement鈥�. Sadly, it now costs 拢595 instead of the 拢150 we reported back then 鈥� but not to worry: if you鈥檙e a little short of cash you can create the same effect as the Obox by breathing faster.
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AND have you always suspected you have a powerful aura? It was Lucy Singh, spotting how you can prove it, who took us back to . The , yours for just 拢99, is mounted on a hand-sized box and festooned with a 鈥渟tate-of-the-art鈥� LED display. The box houses a bleeper and a battery. The latter, we are assured, merely powers the box鈥檚 bleeps and lights and nothing more.
Disbelief duly suspended, simply place your hand near the wheel and prepare to be amazed. The stronger your aura, the faster it spins, the makers say. Extensive tests have apparently shown that those with the highest levels of 鈥渓ife energy鈥� can make the wheel turn fastest. It follows, the website informs us, that you can measure your life energy by how fast you make the wheel turn. Not only that: 鈥淚f you have been active in spiritual work such as mediation, you may be able to make the wheel stop and change directions.鈥�
鈥淭he washing instructions for the reversible Timberland jacket Jon White was given for Christmas said: 鈥淲ash inside out.鈥� White says: 鈥淧lease help鈥�
The sellers of this device assure us that, try as they might, they could not work out what was going on inside it. They were forced to conclude that this is 鈥渢ruly the first instrument鈥� that could measure higher-dimensional energy鈥�. Oh yes. Truly.
MEANWHILE, Andrew Palmer points us to another site that is mightily concerned with oxygen. The Spirit of Ma鈥檃t site is one of many promoting . It includes amusingly fanciful statements like 鈥渉ydrogen [is] a fuel that burns without the need for external oxygen鈥� (yes, you can substitute fluorine for oxygen, but we don鈥檛 think this is what they鈥檙e trying to tell us).
Like many of its ilk, the Spirit of Ma鈥檃t argues that cars can be run on Brown鈥檚 Gas, a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen derived from the electrolysis of water. In common with its peers, it skates over the fact that the amount of energy required to electrolyse water is at least as great as any the combustion of Brown鈥檚 Gas might provide. Instead, it focuses on what it regards as the great benefit of this technology: burning Brown鈥檚 Gas 鈥渕ay actually release oxygen into the atmosphere鈥�.
We could sense what was coming here, and sure enough the Spirit of Ma鈥檃t now repeats a myth that is all too common on websites like these: 鈥淭he environment is experiencing tremendous problems at the moment, and one of the most serious of these is that we are losing our oxygen. The oxygen content of the air is becoming so low that it threatens our very existence in some areas. The normal oxygen content of our air is 21 per cent. But in some places it is only a fraction of that! In Tokyo, Japan, for example, the oxygen content of the air has dipped to 6 or 7 per cent.鈥�
We鈥檝e said it before many times, and we鈥檒l say it again here: the oxygen content of the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere 鈥� everywhere, including Tokyo 鈥� has remained constant at around 21 per cent for at least 3 millon years.
NOTING that the population of Australia is around 21 million 鈥� so half would be around 10.5 million 鈥� Peter Torney asks us to decipher the following statement from the Melbourne (Australia) newpaper, The Herald Sun: 鈥淎 whopping 10.6 million Australians were found to be below average in problem solving, while only 800,000 exceeded expectation.鈥�
THE packet of Amcal Paracetamol Pain Relief tablets that Robert Watson bought announced 鈥淣ew Formula鈥� on the front. Given that the list of ingredients simply said 鈥淓ach tablet contains Paracetamol 500 mg鈥�, Watson supposes that the ink used on the box was what contained the new formula. Or perhaps it was the box itself.
FINALLY, a large sign on the wall at Derek Woodroffe鈥檚 local post office sorting depot reads: 鈥淕as engineers. If an item does not fit in the box do not put it in.鈥�
Woodroffe is not sure what this tells us about post office staff or gas engineers.
But he finds it worrying, as we do, that either profession might need this advice.