麻豆传媒

THOSE lucky enough to have visited the American Southwest or Mexico may have fond memories of tamales, the cornmeal-based staple of Mexican cuisine. One of Feedback鈥檚 correspondents in New York City heard that you can now order tamales online from New Mexico, and decided to investigate.

He clicked on SantaFeTamales.com, which offers several varieties to customers around the world. But there are limits to shopping online, it seems: 鈥淭amales must be delivered to a physical address,鈥� the website warns. Our impatient colleague is disappointed. He was hoping to receive a dozen, right now, as an email attachment.

FOLLOWING our item on mistyped web addresses (22 June), readers my be interested to know that British Midland airline has a website at where you can look at timetables, book tickets, and all the usual. But type by mistake and you get something quite different 鈥� 鈥淭he one-stop-shop for people concerned about the obesity of their houseflies.鈥�

鈥淭his site,鈥� we are told, 鈥渉as been set up as a result of unprecedented demand for a source of impartial advice and information for breeders/owners/lovers of houseflies in the UK. A recent article published in Old Scientist magazine [!] stated that 1 in 3 British houseflies is clinically obese and in danger of developing heart disease before the age of 2 weeks. This means our home-grown species is rapidly following in the footsteps of their US counterparts, where the statistic currently stands at 3 in 3. At this site you can calculate your fly鈥檚 Body Mass Index (BMI)鈥︹�� and so on. Exercises and counselling are available, as is a range of fly links.

There are no prizes for readers who write in pointing out that flies don鈥檛 have hearts.

OUCH. Reader Rebecca Dean spotted a sign in her local butcher鈥檚 shop claiming: 鈥淟arge breasts reduced here today鈥�. It made her giggle, but Feedback is wincing, even though we don鈥檛 have much to reduce鈥�

THE European Union strives, as a matter of policy, for inclusivity. No citizen may be excluded from consultation. It is reassuring that the EU wants your views on data protection and privacy at . But it is truly impressive that one of the options for 鈥淵our age group鈥� is 鈥淯nknown鈥�. Immortals and innumerates, register your opinions now.

They also offer these options for your gender: 鈥淢ale/Female/Don鈥檛 know鈥�. A computer-programming colleague thought he was merely being logically correct when he included a similar set of check boxes on a housing form 鈥� until a transsexual appeared, and was mightily impressed.

SATELLITE broadcaster Sky Digital is televising the Formula 1 Grand Prix and running a series of competitions with a grand prize at the end of the season. For the first time ever the winner gets a real F1 car, after driver Eddie Irvine has finished with it.

Feedback could do with a new car, especially one that corners nicely at 250 kilometres per hour. Unfortunately the small print dashes any such hopes.

鈥淐ertain modifications鈥� will be made before the car is handed over, the competition rules explain. These 鈥渋nclude removal of the engine鈥�.

IT鈥橲 ALWAYS nice to get an email telling you to take the rest of the day off. So reader Simon Walker鈥檚 father was, naturally, a little jealous to be sent such an email that didn鈥檛 apply to him. It was addressed to colleagues in a different office, who鈥檇 experienced a power cut. Feedback wonders if the intended recipients were actually able to read the email鈥� if they hadn鈥檛 already gone home that is.

DISCUSSION of genetic technology often raises the 鈥測uck factor鈥�. Feedback has stumbled across possibly the yuckiest work of all. Make sure you鈥檝e finished your breakfast before reading about the kissing bug, Rhodnius prolixus, which lives in South and Central America.

The kissing bug is so dubbed because it often bites its human victims around the mouth. When it bites and consumes a meal of blood, it defecates. Unfortunately, a parasite that lives in the bug鈥檚 faeces can then enter the body, transmitting Chagas disease, which causes damage to the heart and the central nervous system.

The bug can only survive thanks to gut bacteria that enable it to digest its diet of blood. But newly-hatched kissing bugs have sterile guts. They acquire the bacteria by eating their mothers鈥� faeces.

Enter Ben Beard and Robert Wirtz of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, and their collaborators at Yale University. They have genetically modified the bacteria in the bug鈥檚 gut and mixed them with ersatz excrement, made with India ink and ammonia, which the newly-hatched kissing bugs eat, thinking it comes from Mum. The modified bacteria stops the Chagas disease parasite surviving in the baby bugs鈥� digestive system, so it can鈥檛 be passed on to humans.

So the health and happiness of many people may depend on genetically modified artificial bug poo. Lovely!

FINALLY, a small ad in the Illawarra Mercury:鈥滾ost. Parachute over North Wollongong, Tues 9/4 about 1.30pm. Needed for work. Reward.鈥�

Call now. Don鈥檛 keep the owner hanging around.

Surprising research result of the year: 鈥淢onkeys that drink heavily develop liver disease, Wake Forest study shows鈥� 鈥� ScienceDaily, 7 May