(Image: Paul McDevitt)
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
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Troubled time
TEXAS high school student Ahmed Mohamed got a ticking off when he showed off his latest creation 鈥� a digital clock. Seeing the box of wires and circuitry, an alarmed teacher did what any pedagogue would: assume it was a hoax bomb, call the police and have Ahmed arrested.
The action provoked a media storm with the local authorities facing accusations of Islamophobia, and support for Ahmed and his fledgling love of engineering rolled in, including from President Barack Obama to visit the White House. The last word on the matter, though, must go to Flavor Flav, erstwhile member of Public Enemy and long-time fan of wearing wall clocks as jewellery. 鈥�#IStandWithAhmed鈥�, the rapper tweeted, wearing his signature accessory. .
鈥淎fter you鈥檝e exhausted political Latin binomials you could switch to Greek,鈥� says James Chisholm. 鈥淟ong ago a zoologist colleague referred to politicians as 鈥榓 bunch of coprocephalics鈥�.鈥�
Tech wreck
ALSO having problems with technology were delegates to the IFA Consumer Electronics Show in Berlin. Our colleague reports that the IFA show organisers usually post a big notice in the press room listing all conference times and locations. This year they went high-tech and only put it online 鈥� so were kept endlessly busy answering frantic journalists鈥� requests for help on where they should be running to.
Likewise, at the launch of their new music player, Pioneer staff provided no written information. Instead, guests were given printed cards with the address of a website. Visitors to the site were asked for a password, which was not printed on the card.
Meanwhile, Samsung invited so many people to its conference on the Internet of Things that hundreds had to squeeze into a side room to watch it relayed on a single TV screen. The link crashed soon after the speeches started, leaving everyone in the side room watching a frozen image with no sound. After 5 minutes the pictures and sound returned, just as a man on stage proclaimed: 鈥淲e focus on ease of use.鈥�
Collective trip
MORE conference woes: broke earlier this month that 29 attendees of a homoeopathy symposium in Handeloh, Germany, were sent to hospital experiencing hallucinations and cramps brought on by 2C-E, a banned hallucinogenic. 鈥淚t must have been a multiple overdose,鈥� a narcotics official told reporters 鈥� though whether that means the attendees took too much of the drug, or too little of it, depends on your point of view.
Foul play was suspected, yet it has since transpired that the conference was led by a student of , the Swiss free love guru who endorses the use of recreational drugs as part of psychotherapy.
The Basler Zeitung reported that several of Widmer鈥檚 devotees had been connected to mass poisonings in recent years, including one session that led to the . Police have yet to decide whether to press charges regarding the Handeloh case; for now Feedback advises you to stick to less alternative treatments.
Appetite for affection
LAST week New 杏吧原创 explored the influence of emotional vocabulary (19 September, p 41), prompting a call out on Twitter for readers鈥� suggestions of feelings they lacked a word for, collated under the hashtag . The results were, in a word, multifarious.
We鈥檙e in love with limerence for a state of infatuation; we鈥檇 quite like to see zugzwang popularised for those facing tough decisions; and will remember lexnesia 鈥渇or when you write a word and suddenly it looks weird and you鈥檙e not even 鈥�.
Less likely to catch on is one reader鈥檚 way to describe the strong urge to cuddle someone; they suggest 鈥渟kin hunger鈥�.
Over-seasoned claim
ALSO lost for words is Matt Ashmore, who wanted to describe the use of 鈥渁ccurate if unfamiliar scientific terms鈥� to sell pseudoscientific guff (12 September). Guy Cox has nothing to offer except further evidence that this has been going on for quite some time. 鈥淚n the late 鈥�60s there was a tonic sold in health food shops called Biostrath Elixir,鈥� he reports, 鈥渁nd one of its ingredients was 鈥楴atrium muriate鈥�.鈥� Evidence, Feedback suspects, that you should always take boasts of ostentatious ingredients with a pinch of salt.
Scuttling off
MANSION tax protester Myleene Klass is feeling a new kind of pinch after claiming to have to roam on Hampstead Heath in London. The musician told journalists that she found the coconut crab in her luggage when she returned from filming a TV show on the Pacific island of Mogmog, a 鈥済ift鈥� from a playful local 鈥� or more possibly someone in her marketing department.
The story brought swift criticism from animal welfare officers, who warned that the introduction of the exotic species could threaten native wildlife. As coconut crabs can grow to a metre in length, Feedback imagines this includes Londoners.
Purportedly, the errant crab was last seen rambling near the Men鈥檚 Bathing Ponds. Watch your coconuts, gentlemen.