In a haze
IN THE US, politicians are fielding President Trump鈥檚 nominees for key government positions. Among them is William Wehrum, a former energy sector attorney and environmental engineer. He is Trump鈥檚 pick to oversee air and radiation regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency, a role with great influence over the country鈥檚 response to climate change.
Previously put forward for the same role under George W. Bush in 2007, Democrats in the Senate scuppered his chances, citing concerns including 鈥渁 pattern of discounting health impacts鈥� and 鈥渋gnoring scientific findings鈥�.
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This may explain why during the latest hearing, Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley unveiled a giant cardboard chart showing greenhouse gas emissions plotted alongside rising temperatures, to ask Wehrum if he could at least acknowledge that the two lines appeared to track each other. The air quality in the Capitol must have been particularly bad that day: despite being prompted three times, .
On loan
TERRY KLUMPP asked readers to suggest what to do with an unusual hand-me-down: a pacemaker that he expects will soon be liberated from a good friend (7 October). 鈥淚t will be the property of the NHS and he should return it to its legal owner,鈥� says Gordon Horsington. 鈥淐ardiac pacemakers, mitral valves, hearing aids and all sorts of other apparatus loaned to NHS patients are not their personal property and no one whose death is imminent can bequeath property they do not legally own.鈥�
鈥溾�滻 don鈥檛 need to understand how encryption works鈥� says UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who is calling for technologically impossible back doors that would circumvent it鈥�
Having morbid curiosities and the occasional prosthesis at Feedback, we tasked ourselves with looking into this matter. We can now refer readers to guidance issued in 1983 by the UK鈥檚 Department of Health, which declares that medical implants remain the patient鈥檚 property even after their removal, and become part of their estate on death.
However, at least one source notes that consent forms relinquishing ownership to the NHS are supposed to be routine, to clear a legal path for malfunctioning devices to be reclaimed for analysis.. So the NHS鈥檚 claim on this particular pacemaker would depend on whether such a document exists 鈥� and whether the executor could find it.
Those free of such legal paperwork ought to start dropping hints to see which of their nearest and dearest might wish to inherit a doorstop resembling a metal hip joint.
Royal flush
PREVIOUSLY Feedback wondered which non-scientist could boast the greatest number of plants and animals named after them (7 October). David Attenborough is a clear contender, with at least a couple of dozen. 鈥淚 want to come with another example of someone well honoured by scientists,鈥� writes Anne Franklin. 鈥淭he 鈥榢ing of the jungle鈥� may well be a real king.鈥�
She informs us that King Leopold III of Belgium was a fervent naturalist and traveller. 鈥淗e led several expeditions in Africa, Asia and South America among others,鈥� says Anne, and, unlike his infamous grandfather, 鈥渨as acclaimed for his defence of nature and of autochthonous populations.鈥�
In 2014, an inventory was taken of all his eponyms 鈥� clocking in at an impressive 171. III take the nomenclature crown?
The blue pill
A MONDEGREEN that turned the social media ecosystem into an egosystem for Tony Compton reminds Howie Vernon of a similar misapprehension (30 September). 鈥淲hile walking down the hall, I spotted a poster on a bulletin board for a social media giant. But the poster was slightly blocked by another one, and as such, all I could see was the word FACEBO.鈥�
Howie says this prompted him to wonder what this 鈥渇acebo effect鈥� might be. Perhaps, he says, 鈥渢he phenomenon of thinking you鈥檙e having real, beneficial personal interactions, when, in fact, you鈥檙e not.鈥�
Blue sea thinking
ON THE subject of the mysterious eight-legged structure dug out of the sand at Rhode Island鈥檚 East Beach (30 September), Sheila Herrick suggests it could be a bit of a big top circus tent frame or a children鈥檚 playground roundabout, but 鈥渢hese may be too mundane for consideration鈥�. Don鈥檛 worry Sheila, Feedback鈥檚 bar is set comfortably low.
The proportions look wrong for a children鈥檚 roundabout, says Jo Watson: 鈥淚 wondered if it might be some sort of hay-feeding device, possibly for beach donkeys?鈥� She identifies the centre of an Applegate Hay Saver Cone Insert Feeder as being a particularly good match. Does anyone happen to know if Americans are as fond of donkey rides along the beach as their British counterparts?
Appetite for love
BETTER to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all, said the Bard. And the Nashoba Brook Bakery in Massachusetts has done just that, after authorities ruled that love cannot be listed as an ingredient in their granola.
The US Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter declaring that 鈥溾�楲ove鈥� is not a common or usual name of an ingredient, and is considered to be intervening material because it is not part of the common or usual name of the ingredient.鈥� before serving, Feedback imagines.