Solar hole
OUR colleagues missed out on the story of the century earlier this month, when the revealed that a āMartian researcherā had discovered a door in the sun, leading to a hollow interior.
A recently published image from NASAās Solar and Heliospheric Observatory showed a bright line across the face of Earthās nearest star, reminiscent of an imaging artefact. Alternatively, as journalist Stacy Liberatore put it: āThis picture suggests that the theory our sun is hollow and houses āa massive world 1,000 times our own insideā has been true for millions of years.ā The gigantic door, we are told, is needed for aliens to access the sunās cavernous interior.
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Why the Mail thought that Mars researchers would have their telescopes focused on the sun instead of the Red Planet isnāt clear, though we expect that Daily Express journalist Jon Austin ā who has chronicled the discovery of various unlikely objects on Mars, including a fossilised baby (13 February) ā must feel as though he has been scooped.
Nor can Feedback imagine why NASA has so far chosen not to promote its Earth-shattering discovery. Perhaps the space agency has a lucrative sideline in collecting tolls from galaxy-hopping aliens on their way to this solar bolthole.
Liberatore cl osed her article on alien-made hollow suns with a ufologistās earnest proclamation that āIt can happen, and probably already hasā ā a sentiment shared by Feedback when imagining what fruitloopery might be published next.
Holy water
READERS may recall PLoS One grappling with an errant paper in which the authors credited the biomechanics of the hand to āproper design by the Creatorā (Ā鶹“«Ć½, 12 March, p 7).
Youād be forgiven for thinking this would put scientists off making allusions to God for a while. Yet Discoverās Neuroskeptic blog four study authors doing just that, declaring in their review on solar stills that āWater is a gift from Godā.
Tangled toes
PREVIOUSLY, Peter Davies argued that socks exist in quantum superposition, by virtue of being both left and right-footed simultaneously, only collapsing into one orientation when you put them on.
Crispin Piney provides further evidence of the quantum nature of socks. āThey are also entangled,ā he writes, ānot only when coming out of the washing machine, but also in a quantum sense.ā The moment one is put on and has its polarity set, āthe other one immediately adopts the complementary valueā.
What then should Feedback make of trousers which, like particles in a vacuum, always emerge as a pair?
Power break
UNLESS he works in a nuclear plant, āMick Johnson will never encounter nuclear electricityā, writes Kevon Kenna (19 March). āIt only gets as far as the first transformer, where the nuclear electricity in the transformer primary induces ordinary electricity in the secondary.ā
Does this mean Feedback can remove the lead cladding from our junction box?
Hot off the press
MORE unusual uses for Ā鶹“«Ć½ magazine: Paul Stapleton informs us that he always keeps a few copies in his car, to while away the time spent motionless in traffic jams.
āOne day I ran out of petrol, and a rolled-up copy of the magazine formed an excellent funnel to pour some fuel into the filler tube without drenching the paintwork and my shoes. I finished reading the issue with a fire extinguisher close at hand.ā
Please donāt try this at home, says Paulā¦ to which Feedback adds: please donāt try it anywhere else, either.
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Andy MacQueen is informed that his new lamp can be āattached to any surface classified as normally inflammableā. How thoroughly does one test such a condition?
Wet and wild
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IN CONNECTICUT, boat owners are encouraged to make waves. Brunello Nucci sends evidence from a sign in his local marina that warns boaters: āYou are responsible for your wake. Careless or reckless operation strictly enforced.ā
A 750-megalitre bottle of wine (19 March) has to be called an Alexander the Great, thinks Frank Cross ā particularly as this titan of history died after a particularly heady drinking session.
Imperial units
SPEAKING of measures, āIf ever a bandās name was a product of its time, it must have been 10cc,ā says Colin Smythe. āWhat could it call itself now? 10mL doesnāt have quite the same ring to it.ā Nor does Twenty Three Centimetre Nails, we think.
Metric beats
UK BUSINESS minister Anna Soubry called on trading standards officers to shut down rogue vendors selling dangerous lasers to children. A memo published online tempers this advice with the reminder that āā.
āSo I only need to worry about somebody shining a 1-gigawatt laser at me?ā wonders Peter Verity. āThis sounds like Ronald Reaganās star wars all over again!ā
Mega zapper
FEEDBACK has often noted how unusual units are commandeered for illustration purposes ā such as expressing the fuel expenditure of a Saturn V rocket in elephant masses. Rebecca Donnelly forwards a video that takes this idea to its literal conclusion, with an animated Saturn V rocket ejecting 3.16 elephants per second as it climbs into the sky. Watch it yourself at .
