Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Wash your troubles away
HEAPS of dirty dishes piled in the sink can be a source of domestic tension. The good news from Florida State University in Tallahassee is that washing them up can relieve that stress ā if you do it mindfully.
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A press release helpfully defines mindfulness as āa meditative method of focusing attention on the emotions and thoughts of the present momentā. Meditation may be the last thing to spring to mind when contemplating an unwanted task. However, in the journal Mindfulness that students who focused on the smell of the soap, the warmth of the water and the feel of the detergent experienced 27 per cent less nervousness and 25 per cent more mental inspiration. Those who didnāt, saw no benefit.
Feedback, though, enjoys the soft, pleasant hum of the dishwasher.
āDo not take if you are pregnantā: advice spotted by Steve Etzel on a pack of Prolia ā a treatment for postmenopausal osteoporosis
Endless forms most dreadful
HOW do I dislike thee, let me count the ways. Hans Alves and colleagues at the University of Cologne explore the quirks of friendship in a titled: āMy friends are all alike ā the relation between liking and perceived similarity in person perception.ā The authors discover that although people tend to know their friends in more detail than their enemies, positive impressions are less diverse than negative ones. They conclude ā as most politicians have surely realised already ā that āthere are only a few ways to be liked, but many ways to be dislikedā.
Letās tryst again
MORE loving feelings: the twilight years offer no shortage of romance, as evidenced by a report into the sex lives of nursing homes residents. reports that over 70 per cent of nursing home directors surveyed had dealt with issues arising from residentsā sexual activities.
But perhaps most surprisingly, one in eight require family members to approve sexual activity for a resident, even if they have no cognitive impairment. The authors write that clear guidelines, communicated to the resident and their family, āwould enable residents to engage in sexual activity with understanding and support rather than hidingā. Openness is sensible but, as any teenager sneaking paramours into their bedroom knows, far less exciting.
Antimatter midges
ITāS often quipped that summer is the best day of the year in Scotland, and the most recent season was indeed wet and cold. Residents may take consolation in the dramatic effect this inclement weather has had on local pest species: the Courier & Advertiser newspaper reports that midge populations have dropped an incredible ātwo million per centā.
Nigel Henbest worries that āthe age-old annoyance of midge bites in Scotland is to be compounded by an even vaster horde of anti-matter midgesā. Feedback notes that the Courier also conveys a warning from the Scottish Midge Forecast that the mild autumn has produced a rare āthird hatchā of the biting flies; this could make for an explosive combination.
Leave them kids alone
YET more trouble with girls: in The Telegraph, columnist Cristina Odone why her 12-year-old daughter should be forced to study science, ājust to appease feministsā.
Girls, we are told, are being pressured into science, technology, engineering and maths classes to make up a shortfall of women in these industries ā an argument that, were it true, would only demonstrate how ineffective such pressure is.
Odone, who studied history at the University of Oxford, is keen to illustrate that the life scientific is no guarantee of fulfilment. She points out that āJ K Rowling strikes me as a lot happier and more successful than Alan Turing, the tortured mathematics genius who took his own lifeā. Truly is mathematics the dismal science.
Amid all this hullabaloo, Feedback canāt help but note that the reason Odoneās daughter is forced to study science is rather less sinister: it is a compulsory subject for all students under 16, regardless of their gender.
Good riddance, Earth!
RUSSIA is aiming for the stars, but finds itself weighed down by more base concerns. The Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBP) plans to seal six cosmonauts in a wood-panelled isolation chamber for eight days, to simulate a trip to the moon and back.
The fact that all six are women didnāt escape many at the press conference. The that the crew found themselves fielding questions on how they would survive a week without men or make-up.
If the all-female crew was an attempt to shore up the equality credentials of the Russian space programme ā which has sent only four women into space in its history ā IBPās director Igor Ushakov didnāt get the memo.
āIād like to wish you a lack of conflicts,ā he told the crew, āeven though they say that in one kitchen, two housewives find it hard to live together.ā Russiaās prospective cosmonauts could be forgiven for thinking eight days of isolation from the rest of the world isnāt nearly long enough.
Nuts to you
THOSE with a nut allergy and a nervous disposition should look away now. Subramaniam Divakaran is left feeling paranoid after reading the cryptic warning attached to his rossogolla (an Indian dessert of paneer balls in sweet syrup). āProduct made in nut free areas,ā it tells him, before adding: ābut nuts elsewhere.ā
(Image: Paul McDevitt)
Correction, 23 November 2015: When this article was first published, Hans Alvesās name was misspelled. This has now been corrected.
