Monarchy set for interplanetary travel?
THE UKâs royal family must be stepping up its campaign to present a modern image. On 5 April, the day after Elizabeth Windsor (bless âer) received a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award following her appearance in last yearâs Olympic opening ceremony, the front page of the announced: âQueen and Duke of Edinburgh to visit Marsâ.
âHer Majesty is well ahead of the field for interplanetary transport,â observes reader John Woodley. Feedback has noticed that fun headlines on the BBC site tend to appear at night, only to be made blander when the day shift comes in the following morning. This one lasted into the afternoon â even after the royal visit to the Mars chocolate factory in Slough, UK, was over.
Advertisement
An advert for âthermodynamic hot water systemsâ failed to impress Anselm Kuhn. After all, what could make water hot without thermodynamics? They turned out to be mere electric radiators
NEW ZEALAND reader Gary Bedford sends us a photo of a tray of zucchini (courgette) seedlings, supplied by Awapuni Nurseries, that was labelled: âContains 4 plants â 50% more than most competitorsâ.
âBy my calculations,â Gary notes, âmost competitors apparently sell punnets containing only two and two-thirds plants. But good news: Awapuni adds one and one-third plants. And not a sign of grafting.â
THE pack of razor blade cartridges Matthew Carse bought had a security tag bearing the warning: âRemove this label before microwavingâ. âI always wondered,â he reports, âwhat a hot shave was, and now I know.â
Feedback would have thought microwaving a razor blade would be dangerous enough without worrying about the security tag going âpfftâ â though not perhaps as risky as microwaving an amplifier (2 April 2011). At the very least, the bladesâ plastic holder might catch fire as the microwaves cause sparks to fly from the metalâŚ
Passive-aggressive cookie laws
THE European Union has regulations on the use of âcookiesâ â small files which websites store on your computer. Legislators were particularly concerned about âthird-party cookiesâ, placed by one website but readable by others. Their main purpose is to track your wanderings through the online thicket and, not least, to deliver personalised advertisements.
The to pass their own laws obliging website owners not only to ask whether they may store cookies, but also to explain what this question means.
The resulting UK law is so vague, however, that Feedback sees its main value as being to exemplify the pop-psychology term âpassive-aggressiveâ.
Fittingly, its results have been mixed. Some websites bear notes suggesting that if you donât like cookies, you can go somewhere else. Then there is the tortuous warning that Doug Fenna encountered: âMany companies use 3rd party cookies to remember that you have opted out, so you will need to enable them if you want all of the opt-outs on this page to work.â
âSo,â Doug observes, âto close the door on these advertisers I need to open it for lots of others.â
Then the light dawns: âThis allows the companies concerned to say that they are satisfying some rule by providing an opt-out facility, while doing it in such a way that people are unlikely to use it.â
Passive-aggressive, all over again.
Reply if this isnât your email
DID whoever drafted the âContact e-mail verificationâ sent to Ian Sanderson by the Australian Securities Exchange really think it could work as intended?
âThis e-mail serves as a verification of the e-mail address that you have provided to the ASX. If this is not correct please advise via return e-mail.â
CONCERN to protect the public from tampered goods, or manufacturers from liability, may not always be compatible with our mental â or indeed dental â well-being. John Fussell points to the instructions on the packaging of the Aquafresh toothpaste he bought: âThe ends of this carton have been glued down. Do not use if the carton is open.â
He wonders whether readers have any ideas to help him gain access to a carton that mustnât be used if opened. âMy breath is starting to lose me friends,â he writes, âas I wait for quantum mechanics to deliver the goods.â
Feedback thinks that this may reflect the effectiveness of fear-based advertising, of the âUse this product or your friends will shun youâŚâ variety. We have heard, John, that plain salt is as effective as toothpaste â if you can get into the salt cellar.
FINALLY, time travel has been achieved, according to an email that Ben Webb received. Dated 17 March, it apparently was sent by to inform him that a parcel had arrived for him on 21 March. He was âall set to go to pick it up when I realised I havenât ordered any packages⌠yet.â
Sadly, the message turns out to be another scam that tries to coax the unwary into opening a file that will do evil things to their computer.