CYCLIST Lance Armstrong did not have to take performance-enhancing drugs to succeed, Michael Kolmet suggests. All Armstrong needed to do was wear the magnetic socks Michael found promoted at . These could have helped him win his seven Tour de France titles and fixed his golf swing as well.
“Pain and muscle fatigue,” the website tells us, “can slow you down when cycling – but the magnetic technology of the SPM™ Bike Line socks help to facilitate coordination and ease muscular cramps – improving mental and physical endurance.”
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How do they do this? We’re not sure, but anything “based on the principles of foot reflexology, Chinese acupuncture, and the therapeutic properties of magnets” must be good, mustn’t it?
But Michael has a worry. “What happens when you have a hole in your magnetic socks?” he asks. “What do you mend them with?”
The makers of the Vactor sewer cleaner, Ronald Davis notes, claim it has
THIS year’s competition run by UK newspaper The Guardian to win “six mind-boggling science books” included the following question: “Food that doesn’t contain any chemicals: a) is known as organic; b) was grown without pesticides; c) will help you lose weight; d) is much healthier”.
Our mind, like Paul Manson’s, was boggled by the question. Paul suggests an additional answer: “e) doesn’t exist”.
A SELF-STYLED “important memo” forwarded by Robin McKellar warns that the Ottawa Citizen newspaper is being delivered later than normal “due to a shortage of carriers” – and “apologises for the incontinence”.
As it happens, the note was delivered to Robin’s mother in her nursing home.
READING our story about an “astrological telescope” (24 November) made Bryn Glover wonder if two areas of study haven’t been “reverse named”. “Astrology”, he points out, means, from its roots, the “study of stars”, which is mostly what astronomers do – whereas “astronomy”, also from its roots, means the “naming of stars”, which is mostly what astrologers are concerned about.
“Perhaps,” Bryn suggests, “the two old enemies should get together and agree a name swap.”
He goes on to wonder if readers can think of any other areas where swapping names would lead to greater clarity.
Keep those electrons on the move
DON’T let those electrons get lazy. That, Neville Howard discovered, is the warning Apple gives iPod users at . “Use iPod regularly,” Apple advises. “For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally.” Apple users at the Â鶹´«Ă˝ office have since confirmed that Apple gives this same advice to users of all its laptops, smartphones, iPods and iPads. Very strange.
READER William Urton supplies our favourite title of the week – albeit one belonging to a paper published in 2008 in the American Journal of Physics (vol 76, p 143).
Its author, Hrvoje Nikolic, begins his attempt to compare the work of the quantum physicists David Bohm and Max Born thus: “I discuss a hypothetical historical context in which a Bohm-like deterministic interpretation of the Schrödinger equation is proposed before the Born probabilistic interpretation and argue that in such a context the Copenhagen (Bohr) interpretation would probably have not achieved great popularity among physicists.”
In case that isn’t entirely clear, sums it up simply: “Would Bohr be born if Bohm were born before Born?”
STAFF at Humber College in Toronto, Canada, recently received an internal email informing them that “for the second year in a row, Humber was named one of “.
Given this remarkable prescience, instructor Brett Reynolds tells us he is really looking forward to working there next year.
“WARNING”, alerts the sign in the otherwise bucolic photo that Jim Jobe sends, “Shallow water”. The sign is near a bridge over a stream in Northallerton, UK. It could more usefully be worded, “Don’t dive here, stupid!”
Jim observes that in any case the sign is not always accurate. In late November, to his amazement, the stream “made the national news when it burst its banks”, nearly flooding a nearby hospital
FINALLY, it only remains for us to thank the thousands of readers who have written to us over the past year. It is impossible for us to print all your great stories or answer all your witty comments, but we’re always very glad to hear from you and there would be no Feedback without you.
Compliments of the season and a happy new year to all of you.