Electrons are so good for your feet
AUSTIN THOMPSON is worried that his shoes are preventing him from absorbing electrons. The worry stems from reading about Pluggz 鈥淕et Grounded鈥� Flip Flops at .
鈥淧eople say they feel better when walking barefoot on grass or sand or earth,鈥� the promo says. 鈥淎ccording to modern science that鈥檚 because being barefoot enables the body to efficiently absorb earth鈥檚 abundant electrons. The very same electrons that make us feel good.鈥� (Isn鈥檛 it amazing what modern science tells us these days?)
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鈥淭raditional shoes interfere with this absorption,鈥� the blurb goes on. 鈥淣ot pluggz. Every pair of pluggz has a black plug 鈥� the round circle towards the front of the shoe, beneath your metatarsal 鈥� that is particularly adept at allowing the free transfer of the electrons鈥� giving your body what it needs to help heal itself, and stay balanced and happy.鈥�
Shoe science must have come on a bit since Feedback last bought a pair, but even so we can鈥檛 help wondering about this. Surely everybody knows that shoes alone can鈥檛 make you happy 鈥� you need a matching handbag for that.
On a field trip to Tenerife in the Canary Islands, Patrick Kennedy was taken aback to find a menu offering 鈥渓ittle squids with potatoes in their jackets鈥�
WHEN Julian Eley was sorting through his deceased father鈥檚 belongings, he came across an eight-page set of instructions for the Baird Televisor home reception kit.
In these days of HDTV, he was intrigued to read: 鈥淓xtreme selectivity is not necessary or desirable and any form of sharp tuning that tends to distort or reduce the upper frequencies of the signal should be avoided.鈥�
Anachronistic football fixture
BOB MALLICK was puzzled by a message apparently sent from the Barclays Premier (football) League, alerting him to a match due to be played nearly three years ago. More puzzling still, the timing of the match was itself the result of a 30-year postponement.
Headed 鈥淔ixture Change Notification鈥�, the message began 鈥淗i Bob鈥�, then went on to say: 鈥淭he date and/or time of each Barclays Premier League fixture below has been amended: Man Utd v Everton, Wembley 鈥� This fixture was originally scheduled to be played on 22 Nov 1977 at 00:00. Due to lightning it will now be played on 23 Nov 2009 at 07:00.鈥�
Bob thinks this message has to have been spam. If so, what was it trying to sell? What was the point of it? Sometimes electronic communications are just plain weird (see ).
THE weather was pleasant when Chris Goddard and his family visited the Center Parcs holiday centre in Elveden Forest, Suffolk, UK, so they purchased ice creams from the boathouse by the lake.
At the bottom of the lengthy receipt for this transaction, along with a sales tax number and the instruction to keep the receipt, was the advice: 鈥淎 cycle helmet is recommended.鈥�
Chris wants to know if any readers are aware of circumstances in which consuming ice cream is rendered less hazardous by wearing a cycle helmet. For example, does eating ice cream make one susceptible to meteorite strikes? If not, what?
OH DEAR. NASA is mixing up its measurements again. Paul Cornock alerts us to a video on the NASA website at . Entitled Curiosity鈥檚 Seven Minutes of Terror, the clip dramatically describes the entry, descent and landing (EDL) sequence of the Curiosity Mars rover.
When the video gets to the final stage of the EDL, a NASA engineer explains: 鈥淭wenty metres above the surface we have to lower the rover below us on a tether that鈥檚 21 feet long.鈥�
A COLOUR photograph sent in by Simon Smallwood features a wall in Witney, Oxfordshire, UK. Inlaid in the wall is what Simon rightly describes as a 鈥渂eautifully carved sign鈥� made of a material that appears to be stone.
The elegant lettering on the sign, which would have taken a mason several hours to create, reads: 鈥淭HIS SIGN IS NOT IN USE. By order of the Magistrate. MCMXXXVII.鈥�
That鈥檚 1937 in today鈥檚 numerals, so this sign in Witney has been proclaiming its redundancy for the past 75 years 鈥� unless, that is, it is a 21st-century work of 鈥渁rt鈥�.
AN ANNOUNCEMENT on the cover of Hello! magazine on 5 June provided Alan Slater with food for thought. In what the magazine claimed was a 鈥渨orld first!鈥�, it promised: 鈥淪ee Gary in true 3D. Download the free Hello! 3D app.鈥�
The question that came into Alan鈥檚 mind was: 鈥淚f no one in the world has seen Take That鈥檚 Gary Barlow in 3D until now, has he actually been two-dimensional? Is he an escaped flatlander, and if so, how did he gain an extra dimension?鈥�
FINALLY, 鈥淲hat are vegetarian meatballs made of? Vegetarians, of course!鈥� This was the response of one reader to our brief note about 鈥渧egetarian meatballs in sauce鈥� (18 August). The reader signs himself 鈥淓rik Foxcroft (a worried vegetarian)鈥�.