FLYING back to the UK from Finland on a Finnair jet, Stuart King browsed the in-flight shopping catalogue, where he discovered the (see ). The device looks like an MP3 player, but its earphones emit bright light rather than sound.
We are told that the headset 鈥渟ubstitutes the mood-elevating effects of the sun, by channeling bright light directly to photosensitive regions of the brain through the ear canal鈥�.
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Apparently, having light shone onto our brains in this way has a very positive effect on our well-being. The website tells us, for example, that 鈥淰alkee is effective for curing seasonal affective disorder (鈥榳inter blues鈥�)鈥�.
Valkee backs up its claims by referring to research at the University of Oulu in Finland, suggesting that brain tissue contains photosensitive receptors. The website lists papers supporting this hypothesis, which have been presented to scientific conferences and published in journals.
Feedback is uncertain what to make of all this, but we are sure about one thing. Valkee will be providing a service to humanity if people on public transport start using headphones that shine light into their brains instead of leaking loud music.
鈥淪teve Vaughan鈥檚 local grocer sells 鈥淟ocal Free Range Eggs All Individually Laid鈥�. Does this mean that battery hens lay eggs in batches of six straight into the boxes, he asks?鈥�
INSPIRED by our mention of the very old joke about there being 鈥渙nly 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who don鈥檛鈥� (16 March), Roger Calvert sends one that we don鈥檛 remember. It concerns a programmer who puzzled friends by giving Christmas presents at Halloween, on 31 October, because he was unable to tell the difference between this and 25 December.
We think this joke may also be rather old, though. Once upon a time, understanding the octal (or base-8) number system was very useful for computer programmers.
And on the off-chance that you didn鈥檛 get the joke, in octal (Oct), the number 鈥�31鈥� is 3 脳 8 + 1 脳 1, which is 25 in Dec[imal]. So now you know 鈥� and if you like that one, there are plenty more like it at the maths joke site .
Meanwhile, Eric Salter observes that 鈥渢echnically, the T-shirt [bearing the 鈥�10 types of people鈥� joke] is correct鈥� 鈥� but he adds that when you hear programmers count, they often go 鈥�0, 1, 2鈥� 鈥� because that鈥檚 what they do at work.
On that basis, he claims, 10 in binary must correspond to 3, since it is the third entry in the binary sequence 00, 01, 10. So there would be three kinds of people: those who don鈥檛 understand binary, those who do, and Eric.
INSTRUCTIONS to remove security tags before microwaving a purchased object have caused us puzzlement (2 April and 20 April). Stephen Durnford, driven into a lawyerly frame of mind by such labels on bottles of wine sold in his local supermarket, notes that the wording 鈥淩emove this label before microwaving鈥� is, strictly speaking, a firm instruction to microwave the bottle after removing the label.
This could be unfortunate, in the case of a bottle of wine 鈥� although less so if one also loosens the cork and thereby achieves instant mulling rather than an explosion.
TRYING to check which branches of electronics retailer had the widget he wanted in stock, John Hinkey was initially a bit puzzled. The website offered to search for stores within 鈥�10 mi, 20 mi, 50 mi, 100 mi鈥� and 鈥�6.2 pc鈥� of his home in Seattle, Washington.
He was even more puzzled when it couldn鈥檛 find the widget in stock anywhere within 6.2 parsecs 鈥� that is 1.91 脳 1014 kilometres, or roughly the distance to Gliese 581g, an extrasolar planet which, if its existence and orbit are confirmed, may be Earth-like.
CLEAN your laptop or desktop computer for 拢19.99 + VAT. That was the offer on a flyer that fluttered onto Beryl Hanley鈥檚 doormat recently.
What grabbed her attention, though, were the reasons given for availing herself of this service: 鈥淎ll germs, high level of bacteria, viruses鈥� go in very easily. Hot environment makes they harvest inside your machine and come back into your house,鈥� the flyer says, possibly with the benefit of machine translation.
鈥淪o they think human viruses can breed inside a computer,鈥� Beryl observes. 鈥淩eally? Having been a reader of New 杏吧原创 for over 30 years, I think not.鈥�
READER Mike Furness sends us a photo of what he describes as 鈥渢he ideal accompaniment鈥� for the waterproof gaiters reviewed in Feedback (13 April)鈥�. As with other sandals, these ones by Keen have straps instead of an upper. But on the side of one of them is the claim that the sandal is 鈥渨aterproof鈥�.