Heavy metal
Old and tired: pink-washing, the practice of aiming products at women by making them condescendingly 鈥渇eminine鈥�. Newly inspired: punk-washing, the practice of aiming products at men by making them absurdly 鈥渕asculine鈥�.
News reaches us from the US of , a can of water 鈥� a 鈥�16.9 oz Tallboy鈥�, no less 鈥� that lets you 鈥渕urder your thirst鈥�. And its insignia is a melting skull. This extreme non-carbonated mountain spring water claims to be aimed at 鈥渟traight edge鈥� punks, a subculture known for abstinence from tobacco, drugs and alcohol.
A hurdle for Liquid Death may be that the puritanical punk movement hit its apex some 30 years ago. But Feedback wonders how far this pursuit of manly beverages could go. Liquid Death might dispense with ring pulls on their cans, making customers tear them open with their teeth, or perhaps blunt tools.
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Better yet, refuse to put any water in it in the first place, because succumbing to thirst is a mark of weakness. You just had a glass of water last week, remember.
Mountain march
A different take on straight edge: the Indian Army鈥檚 discovery of an unwavering line of yeti tracks in the Himalayas (11 May) doesn鈥檛 convince Chris Tomlinson. 鈥淔ox tracks in snow are almost always a straight line, and sometimes absolutely straight,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he size of individual prints gets bigger with the effect of sun melt.鈥�
Big, if true, suggests Feedback. It means that as well as existing, the abominable snowman has learned how to impersonate a fox.
Common or garden
From hominins to homonyms. Browsing The Globe and Mail, Anne Barnfield reads about the . The University of Leiden鈥檚 Hortus Botanicus has been 鈥渟ewing seedlings and saplings into the Dutch soil since 1594鈥�.
鈥淚t seems to me that one would need a very large needle to sew saplings into the soil,鈥� says Anne. She points out that the author also mentions 鈥渢he sweeping bows of an old elm tree鈥�. The friendly politeness of the Dutch obviously extends to their trees too.
Funny money
A quick once-over with the spellchecker might have saved some red faces at the Royal Australian Mint, after it made a A$2.3 billion spelling error. The word 鈥渞esponsibility鈥� was misspelled on 46 million new $50 notes, in an excerpt of a speech by Australia鈥檚 first female MP, Edith Cowan, whose face adorns it. Small mercies: the .
Double trouble
Move over, Schr枚dinger鈥檚 cat 鈥� now we have Schr枚dinger鈥檚 dad. Last month a court in Goi谩s, Brazil, was called to adjudicate a paternity case involving identical twins. DNA tests proved one of them was the father, but the mother couldn鈥檛 be sure which. It was alleged the pair routinely impersonated each other to cheat on their girlfriends.
With neither man willing to admit responsibility, Judge Filipe Luis Peruca embraced the uncertainty principle, equating to $60 a month.
Taking the biscuit
Fuzzy logic also hits the website of The Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham, UK. Like all good websites, it has a cookie policy. 鈥淔irst it asks whether you will allow cookies. All good,鈥� says reader Rob Ellis. 鈥淗owever, if you decline, a second choice comes up asking to confirm the denial of cookies. To accept this means storing your choice as a cookie.鈥�
This sent poor Rob into a 鈥渃ookie logic spiral鈥�. All Feedback can offer is the recent insight that quantum theory really does seem to allow two contradictory realities to exist at once (23 March, page 28).
Negative light
Shining more light in a dark place: for the past year, highway engineers have been digging up the road near Derek Woodroffe鈥檚 home. 鈥淒uring this time there has been a sign saying that the street lighting on this road is not in use. It has, on many occasions occurred to me that there is a large light on the top of each pole that indicates if the lighting is in use, making the sign rather redundant.鈥�
Now there is a new development. The street lights, while remaining out of use, have been updated with LED bulbs. This is a backwards step, says Derek. 鈥淲hen they weren鈥檛 using the less efficient lamps, they were saving more energy than they will now by not using more efficient LED lamps,鈥� he writes.
Bad maths
Feedback previously pondered pseudo-mathematical terms such as 鈥渟inister multiplication鈥� (20 April). 鈥淚t appears this is a simple case of a left-handed mathematician being more dexterous than his right-handed colleague,鈥� says Jan Brady.
Meanwhile, Chas Bazeley thinks all three non-existent terms we suggested are related to what Douglas Adams named bistromatics. This admits numbers, such as those on restaurant bills, whose value depends on the observer鈥檚 frame of reference. 鈥溾�業mpulsive value鈥� is peculiar to auction rooms,鈥� says Chas, 鈥溾�榮inister multiplication鈥� is the preserve of budget airline booking offices, and 鈥榯rivial figures鈥� occur in Ministry of Defence procurement.鈥�
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