PET project
SURELY the obvious way to deal with the great Pacific garbage patch, Judith Hanna writes, 鈥渋s to set up research stations there, each managing one or more plastic-collecting booms鈥�.
The plastic they collect could then be used to expand the stations, growing into an ecological hotspot and tourist attraction. 鈥淪hould I patent this notion now, or is it all too obvious to be patentable?鈥� asks Judith.
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Your patent law is no good on the high seas, Judith, which as we all know are infested with pirates. However, Feedback warmly welcomes the first independent kingdom built entirely from the flotsam of our current civilisation. Ample sea views, kelp forests and absolutely no fracking: who wouldn鈥檛 want to live there?
A bug鈥檚 slice
WHILE lesser mortals reach for blue whales and red London buses to help explain the sizes of things, let us take a moment to appreciate the no-nonsense approach of one Charles Seife.
Shane Dwyer notes that in the book Zero: The biography of a dangerous idea, Seife quantifies the strength of the Casimir effect (which pulls conductive materials together in a vacuum) as equivalent to 鈥渢he weight of one slice of an ant that鈥檚 been chopped into 30,000 pieces鈥�.
鈥� voter registration process has come under suspicion after a large number of centenarians applied to vote for the first time 鈥� including one voter aged 165鈥�
Those interested may wish to convert that figure into blue whales. We would, but our calculator can only show so many dangerous ideas on screen at once.
DI-Why?
about this for a seminal idea? A man in Ireland has been injecting his own semen into his arm in a bid to cure his back pain. Doctors in Dublin were amazed, and possibly revolted, when the 33-year-old revealed he had given himself a monthly shot for the past year and a half, using a syringe purchased online.
Why he thought this would work remains a mystery: the doctors could find no mention of semen injection as a treatment in the medical literature, noting he had 鈥渄evised this 鈥榗ure鈥� independent of any medical advice鈥�.
Their search did, however, uncover instances of other unusual (and sometimes fatal) substance injection: mercury, gasoline, acid and lighter fluid to name but a few. Well, it would certainly take your mind off back pain.
Garnishing the truth
THE spunky Dubliner is not the only one with strange ideas around his reproductive system. Last month, doctors were moved to warn against advice published in Marie Claire that parsley, placed in the vagina, could induce menstruation.
Gynaecologist Sheila Newman told The Independent: 鈥淭here are only a few things that should go in your vagina and vegetables generally aren鈥檛 one of them.鈥�
Feedback can only imagine that the wellness scientists at Goop 鈥� no strangers to unusual vaginal interventions 鈥� are hard at work applying Marie Claire鈥榮, uh, findings to their product range. Will we soon see parsley-dusted yoni eggs or bouquet garni steam cleansers? Remember, eggs, steamers and parsley: great for brunch, .
Stone the crows
LAST December, a stone circle in Aberdeenshire was added to an official register of archaeological sites, estimated to be at least 3500 years old. At the time, Neil Ackerman of Aberdeenshire Council told reporters : 鈥淚t is rare for these sites to go unidentified for so long, especially in such a good condition.鈥�
Ackerman wasn鈥檛 wrong. The former owner of the Leochel-Cushnie farm on which the megaliths stand contacted the council to say they had built the circle about 20 years ago. Yet councillor Ackerman wasn鈥檛 fazed: 鈥淭hat it so closely copies a regional monument type shows the local knowledge, appreciation and engagement with the archaeology of the region by the local community.鈥�
Sin tax
WALLS, as President Trump has pointed out, are a tried and trusted technology. Yet funding them seems to require all kinds of innovation. After one politician suggested funding the US-Mexico border wall with cryptocoins (we don鈥檛 know either), another cunning plan emerged.
Arizona representative Gail Griffin has proposed funding the wall with a one-time $20 tax levied on all devices seeking to connect to pornographic websites.
Porn taxes remain a popular way to generate headlines in the US, if not revenue, because they contravene First Amendment rights. The Arizona Mirror notes that this bill seems to be connected to anti-gay activist Chris Sevier, 鈥溾��.
Playing away
听
put the romantic dampeners on many an athlete鈥檚 trip abroad: sex before the big game will diminish your performance on the pitch. But a study in Sexual Medicine shows that coaches needn鈥檛 worry.
Measurements on eight subjects (participating separately, we presume) showed upper and lower body strength, reaction time and grip strength suffered no decline the morning after sex. However, with an average of 100 calories burned in the bedroom 鈥� equivalent to a 5 minute jog 鈥� are these subjects performing at gold medal standard?
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