Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Sneakers made of stingrays
RECENTLY Feedback was wondering about a shop in the UK town of Kimberley, Nottinghamshire, offering 鈥淎nimal Designer Accessories鈥� (4 May). Could this allow us to design an animal to our own specifications, we wondered. Sasha Frank alerts us to just such an example in the wonderful virtual world of the web, at .
This offers you the chance to 鈥済row your own sneaker鈥�. Specify your pattern online and the website promises to genetically engineer a stingray, slaughter it and make sneakers from its skin. Sasha confesses that he 鈥渇ell for the hoax鈥�.
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He wasn鈥檛 the only one. A site called carries a from a would-be customer, who received this regretful message from : 鈥淎 while ago you participated in our 鈥楪row Your Sneaker鈥� contest鈥� We regret to inform you that this contest is being suspended until further notice. On the night of August 11, animal rights activists broke into the Rayfish Footwear headquarters. Along with the destruction of valuable equipment and sneakers, these activists stole our entire stock of living stingrays and apparently released them into the ocean.鈥� So is it an elaborate joke? Or is it a scam, as annoyed geeks have labelled the site elsewhere?
It occurred to us that perhaps the site exemplifies a rather nifty piece of web coding. Could it be some design student鈥檚 degree show extravaganza? So we looked up the owner of . Step forward, please, Koert van Mensvoort of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Koert鈥檚 website also features other 鈥渨ork鈥� like a 鈥溾�� offering such hypothetical treasures as lipstick 鈥渨ith 24-carat gold particles鈥� and a 鈥渟lim-fast nano diet鈥�.
We are relieved to conclude that this is art鈥� probably.
Should this scandal be reported?鈥� frets Mike Byrne. He refers to the blue plastic bin he photographed outside a kindergarten in Limerick, Ireland, labelled 鈥淚nfant Recycling鈥�
When 60 equals 55
THE Science Hour programme on the BBC World Service . Roger Christie wondered what could cause 60 minutes to equal 55 minutes. He thought of Einstein鈥檚 equations describing 鈥渢ime dilation鈥� 鈥� in which, for example, a clock moving relative to an observer will show a different time to one at the observer鈥檚 elbow.
He dutifully plugged the BBC numbers into , and calculated that the radio studio, or perhaps the transmitter, must be 鈥渢ravelling at 40 per cent of the speed of light, relative to my radio receiver鈥�.
This would also explain why he needs to keep re-tuning his radio, since the signal from the moving radio station would be shifted in frequency as well.
Measured in ship-lengths
OUR piling system has unearthed an old press release that offers an interesting new unit of measurement. Sent back in May by NASA鈥檚 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, it notes that asteroid 1998 QE2 was expected to 鈥渟ail serenely past Earth鈥� on 31 May at a safe distance of 5.8 million kilometres. We also learned that the asteroid 鈥渋s believed to be about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometres) or nine Queen Elizabeth 2 ship-lengths in size鈥�.
Choosing such a unit of measurement for an asteroid with that name seems appropriate, but the press release hastens to add that 1998 QE2 is not named after the 鈥�12-decked, transatlantic-crossing [sic] flagship for the Cunard Line鈥�. Its name is instead based on the date of the asteroid鈥檚 discovery, used at the International Astronomical Union鈥檚 Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We are happy to say that in the event, the nine-QE2-sized 1998 QE2 did indeed sail 鈥渟erenely鈥� past Earth as predicted.
So like Jodrell Bank
STILL on the astronomy theme, you may well have noticed that Twitter sends emails to its users recommending 鈥渟imilar鈥� people to the ones they already follow. Derek Roffesoft was startled when one of these informed him that a UK astronomy researcher 鈥� whose name we won鈥檛 reveal in order to save her embarrassment 鈥� is 鈥渟imilar to Jodrell Bank鈥�.
Apart from the astronomy connection, Derek is at a loss to understand how the young woman in the photo that came with the email could be considered to resemble in any way a huge radio telescope situated in the Cheshire countryside.
鈥淢aybe she has large ears,鈥� Derek speculates.
Fantasy efficiency
鈥淚 THOUGHT you might like to see the attached leaflet which dropped through my letter box,鈥� Steve Elliott writes. We took a look at the 鈥淩enewable Solutions鈥� leaflet and found a box promoting Heat Pumps, which 鈥減rovide heating and hot water鈥� and 鈥淥perate at 300 to 400 per cent efficiency鈥�.
鈥淗aving just completed a UK Open University physics module where I did a section on thermodynamics,鈥� Steve notes, 鈥淚鈥檓 pretty sure this is an exaggeration.鈥�
Toilet鈥檚 time trial
FINALLY, at his place of work, Stephen Reynolds found a sign informing him: 鈥淭he toilet is temporally out of order.鈥�
Stephen tells us that he and his colleagues spent a long time worrying about what the implications of this might be.