Turn on, tune in, drop out
DURING his stay in idyllic Mornington Peninsula, the wine country south of Melbourne, Guy Cox noticed a strange device installed in his cabin. 鈥淧lugged in, but not switched on, was a GEOCLENSE Geopathic Stress and Electromagnetic Radiation Harmonizer 鈥� Wifi Harmonizer鈥�. The device is proudly designed and made by Orgone Effects Australia.
It has been some time since Feedback paid thought to orgone, the intangible, invisible, vitalist substance that Wilhelm Reich believed to permeate and bring form to the universe. But perhaps Orgone Effects Australia are simply hinting at the ethereal nature of their device 鈥� after all, Apple aren鈥檛 in the fruit business. 鈥淚t is a device of amazing crudity,鈥� says Guy, 鈥渁 block of epoxy with the base of a plug embedded in it.鈥� He suspects 鈥渢here is nothing connected to the pins, but since the device isn鈥檛 mine I can鈥檛 cut it up鈥�.
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At substantial risk to our own health, Feedback navigated through the electrosmog to reach , a website so opposed to all things e- that it has removed one of them from its URL. Here we learn that not only can modern electronics such as Wi-Fi, television and power lines endanger your health, but intriguingly so can fungus, artificial heating and 鈥渋mprints from previous occupants鈥� emotional distress, illnesses and deaths鈥�. What happened in that hotel room, we wonder?
鈥淒erek Woodroffe notes that halfway down the BBC鈥檚 World News page is a section labelled 鈥淣ews From Elsewhere鈥�. Time to hire an extraterrestrial affairs correspondent?鈥�
All of the above pollutants can be cleared from your vicinity with a A$165 slab of green plastic. Feedback is admittedly confused as to why a device for clearing electrosmog must itself be plugged into a power outlet, although we may be overthinking this. We worry Guy鈥檚 device may have been defective, however: 鈥淚 turned it on and the Wi-Fi still worked.鈥�
Royal gush
WITH her marriage to Prince Harry due later this year, all sorts of companies are keen to ride Meghan Markle鈥檚 wedding train. ZSL London Zoo announced its newest arrival, an okapi, had been christened Meghan 鈥渋n celebration of this year鈥檚 forthcoming royal wedding鈥�. The press release notes that 鈥渢he name is particularly fitting because okapis were coincidentally first brought to the world鈥檚 attention in 1901 by another Harry 鈥� ZSL fellow Sir Harry Johnston鈥�.
While no doubt a rare and beautiful creature, the successful actor and humanitarian might rankle at the suggestion she was discovered by Prince Harry. And even more so if she knew, as Feedback鈥檚 colleagues were quick to point out, that Johnston never laid eyes on an okapi. Instead, he procured a few pieces of striped skin and a skull 鈥� not the most romantic comparison.
Con-fusion
WHILE browsing news about the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works compact fusion project, Martin Stuart came across this illuminating fact: 鈥淔usion is the process by which a gas is heated up and separated into its ions and electrons鈥�. That describes the first step of fusion, we suppose, .
Perhaps this neatly sums up the best way to succeed when dealing with insurmountable difficulties, says Martin: if a problem is too hard to solve, redefine the problem. 鈥淚t worked on the Kobayashi Maru, so why not here? There really is no limit to what can be achieved,鈥� especially if the meaning of 鈥渁chieve鈥� itself is redefined.
Love drops
FEEDBACK is on the lookout for racy headlines in scientific journals (20 January). John Warr writes: 鈥淚 recall some years back giving an in-house presentation on solution-enhanced dispersion by supercritical fluids, which I called 鈥楾he Joy of SEDS鈥�.鈥�
Fortunately, John was persuaded not to recreate the cover of Alex Comfort鈥檚 book as his first slide 鈥渙n the grounds that it might not have been a great career move鈥�.
Stimulating stu
SOME energetic wildlife: while going through a few of BBC Radio 5 Live鈥檚 science podcasts, Mike Adams found an interview with Ken Catania at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. Mike notes that Catania鈥檚 research on electric eels appeared in the journal Current Biology.
Weigh lady weigh
ANDREW COOPER writes to accuse Feedback of feathering our own nest. 鈥淚 think you have a racket going within New 杏吧原创 to provide you with stories,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hy else would an item in the news section (13 January, p 8) use the novel unit of 鈥楽tatue of Liberty鈥� to describe the weight of a boulder shifted by storm waves.鈥�
He recommends the unit be abbreviated 鈥淪oLs鈥�, although it is 鈥渘ot clear if it is a decimal unit, or whether we must garner the weights of lesser statues to serve as an analogue of the Imperial system鈥�.
Leave to soak
WHILE wandering through his local supermarket, Alan Fowler spotted some rolls of kitchen paper advertised as having 鈥�4D action鈥�. By way of explanation, he says, the product claimed it used 鈥渕agic and physics鈥�.
鈥淚 can only assume that it doesn鈥檛 actually remove the dirt, he says, 鈥渂ut projects it into the future so it can be cleaned later.鈥�
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