Non-metric systems
Two weeks ago, Feedback got uncomfortably close to the subject of social distancing when we compared the metrics that different regions use to describe a 2-metre separation. We thought our global survey was pretty comprehensive, but readers have been writing in to point out ones we鈥檝e missed.
Ant Tuson tells us 鈥渋n the Falklands we are keeping one black-browed albatross wingspan apart鈥�, while Mike Campbell goes darker: 鈥渋n Yorkshire we were told 2 metres is the length of a coffin鈥�.
If neither suggestion floats your boat, follow Feedback鈥檚 example by taking a leaf out of our book 鈥� quite literally 鈥� and making sure you stay 7.477 New 杏吧原创 pages placed end to end away from anybody else.
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A tad salty
Thank you to those who pointed us to the tweet by the Brussels correspondent of The Daily Telegraph in which he reported on the Belgian potato surplus. It seems 750,000 excess tonnes of tuber need to be disposed of sharpish, prompting the secretary general of the Belgian potato grower federation Belgapom to ask his compatriots to up their consumption of fries. The name of said correspondent? James Crisp. 鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 mock him about his name,鈥� warns a colleague. 鈥淗e probably has a chip on his shoulder.鈥�
What to do?
I am large, said Walt Whitman after a series of particularly heavy dinners, I contain multitudes. Lucky him: Feedback鈥檚 nearest supermarket has been out of multitudes for weeks, and the next delivery slot is three weeks away.
But the man鈥檚 point, as we understand it, still stands. Each of us is doomed to perpetual hypocrisy and self-contradiction: complaining about the lockdown one week and reporting the lockdown-breakers next door to the police the week after. Clapping the National Health Service one Thursday and tearing down hospitals with our bare hands the next. Or is that just Feedback?
We are grateful to Callum J. Macgregor for pointing out that similar multitudinal largesse extends to the entirety of New 杏吧原创. In a recent feature devoted to the pandemic鈥檚 toll on mental health (25 April, p 40), we quoted Neil Greenberg at King鈥檚 College London as saying: 鈥淟imit your exposure to media stories about the pandemic 鈥� especially those with experts鈥� views about what is going to happen over the next three months 鈥� because it can cause anxiety.鈥�
鈥淚 was alarmed to read in this week鈥檚 issue that to preserve my mental health, I should probably limit my exposure to such advice,鈥� says Callum, 鈥渨hich led to an interesting conundrum: if I had already been following Neil Greenberg鈥檚 advice, how would I have access to excellent advice like Neil Greenberg鈥檚?鈥�
A fantastic question, Callum, and one with no easy answer. Feedback鈥檚 utterly unqualified suggestion is that you order yourself a nice basket of multitudes and stop worrying about it.
So CoO掳ld
Typographical errors are the bane of Feedback鈥檚 existence, making us want to throw our bespoke typewriter 鈥� the Witmaker 3000 鈥� on the floor in disgust. So we are glad to see that we are not alone in such an affliction. Illustrating this point, Barry Cash writes in with an extract from the Henleaze and Westbury Voice on how local students got a paper published in a scientific journal.
Amid a lengthy digression on superconductor physics (the only reason we maintain our Henleaze and Westbury Voice subscription), it says: 鈥淎 superconducting BSCCO tube will remain trapped in the tube for ever, unless its temperature rises above -1650C.鈥�
Barry congratulates the students but points out that the paper鈥檚 editors 鈥渟eem to have overlooked the fact that their greatest achievement is rendering the Kelvin temperature scale obsolete鈥�. Seeing as a temperature of -1650掳C would equate to one nearly 1400 degrees colder than absolute zero 鈥� the coldest temperature allowable in physics 鈥� we have no choice but to agree that the real news was well and truly buried.
Dire grams
An underappreciated online resource, in Feedback鈥檚 view, is the Twitter account 鈥淪cience Diagrams that Look Like Shitposts鈥�.
On a regular basis, it posts images of diagrams in textbooks or academic papers that can most generously be described as lacking in artistic or conceptual merit.
In recent days, we have had a gurning cat asking, 鈥淲hat are the effects of ecstasy?鈥� and a high-piled stack of what looks like cardboard captioned 鈥淯nwanted sexual urges? Have a graham cracker and calm yourself down.鈥� Our favourite, however, at least at the time of writing, is the self-explanatory image captioned 鈥淔igure 7.8c. Unsuccessful attempt to lift a pig.鈥�
Write in
This has been a bumper week for the Feedback inbox, for which we are enormously grateful. Social distancing is hard enough in person without extending it to digital correspondence. So do keep writing in with your experiences of lockdown. Have you taken up any unusual hobbies? Seen any particularly misapplied science? Christened a child Nominative Determinism? We want to know!
Got a story for Feedback?
Send it to feedback@newscientist.com or New 杏吧原创, 25 Bedford Street, London WC2E 9ES
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You can send stories to Feedback by email at feedback@newscientist.com. Please include your home address. This week鈥檚 and past Feedbacks can be seen on our website.