Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Tipping the quantum scales
INSPIRED by reports of experiments that show ever-bigger objects demonstrating quantum properties, Andrew Scott would like to propose some further research. The largest object that Feedback is aware of having gone through two points 鈥渁t once鈥� is a 鈥渂uckyball鈥�, the near-spherical carbon-based molecule that is just visible under a microscope (8 May 2010, p 37).
Andrew is 鈥渨ondering what would happen if we tried to narrow down the size range for quantum effects鈥�, working down from larger objects. He suggests that 鈥渨e could begin by letting cats wander through two cat flaps towards a wall smeared with catmint and record the points they touch first鈥�. Funding, anyone?
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鈥淭here is a fault with departure screens,鈥� read a display at Dewsbury station: 鈥減lease disregard the information shown.鈥� So they were working?
The appliance of science
FURTHER, reports of experiments in which a particle follows one path while its properties go the other way show exceptional bizarreness (26 July, p 32). And like all theoretical research that has no possible practical application, this implies grave danger. 鈥淎ny time now,鈥� Michael Hoff predicts, 鈥渨e鈥檙e going to have the usual parade of homeopaths and flimflam artists claiming that their magic water somehow retains the properties that they would have us believe it has, through this mechanism.鈥�
But with sufficient resources, and the above-mentioned research on quantum behaviour in ever-larger objects bearing fruit, this awesome effect can be turned to the good of humankind: 鈥渘amely separating humans from the property of stupidity.鈥�
How dangerous is this site?
SPEAKING of stupidity, Brian Smith asks if he has found 鈥渙ne of the most dangerous websites ever鈥�. We checked, gingerly, lest it include instructions for making sarin in our kitchen, forcing us to hand our brain in at a police station for containing 鈥渋nformation useful to a terrorist鈥�.
In fact, offers us suggestions for using solutions that contain less than 0 active ingredients to treat acne, alopecia, anthrax, meningitis鈥� People who act on what is written there could die.
The lists things that might not be in homeopathic remedies for the condition, in one case concluding that one 鈥淪palding has used the remedy as a basic one in the cerebro-spinal variety with uniform success, losing but one case鈥�. Not encouraging.
Fake delusions equal profit
STRANGELY, the above-mentioned shows signs of not being a genuinely delusional website. Most of the links that it encourages us to follow for further misinformation are 鈥渟ponsored鈥�. And we find that the phrase starting 鈥淪palding has used the remedy鈥︹�� appears by W. A. Dewey (third edition, Delhi: B. Jain Publishers Pvt Ltd, p 264; copyright the publishers, 2003) 鈥� as well as several suspect websites.
Sinister buttocks in essays
PLAGIARISM need not be so easily detectable. Times Higher Education at an essay discussing 鈥渟inister buttocks鈥�. It appeared that the student had applied a thesaurus to someone else鈥檚 essay, which mentioned something, or someone, being 鈥渓eft behind鈥�.
Chris Sadler, who鈥檚 just moved from a principal lectureship at Middlesex University, does not discuss, yet, whether his students used 鈥渟pinning鈥� software that automatically rewrites texts to generate 鈥渃lickbait鈥� websites.
One such package , but sadly searching for produces the message 鈥淪orry. This URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.鈥�
Blurry-definition television
RESPECTABLE marketeers can, of course, spout nonsense too. Having failed to foist 3D TV on the buying public, TV manufacturers are now telling us that we need ultra high-definition 鈥�4K鈥� TV.
John Watkinson has authored numerous reference books on audio and video technology. Writing in industry magazine Resolution, he says promotion of 4K TV has fallen into a quagmire of pseudoscience: the claimed benefits only hold good if the pictures are still. He works out that an object that takes less than 10 seconds to cross the screen appears no sharper than in today鈥檚 HDTV. So using 4K resolution while we see only 50 or 60 pictures per second is daft 鈥� though 鈥渋deal for snail racing鈥�.
Ticket to pride
FINALLY, Feedback is pleased to announce that Cleo Borzoi鈥檚 latest paper has been accepted for publication. The organisers of the , which will take place in October in Dalian, China, write: 鈥渁ll your materials are qualified, thanks for your support!鈥� There are obstacles. One is that 鈥� which generously includes a banquet and a proceedings document 鈥� or $2199 including accommodation. Another is the difficulty of completing her paper, which is entitled 鈥淎quadog: Use of trained border collies to herd fish and protect them in vulnerable marine aquaculture facilities鈥�.
Yet another is that Cleo was a dog, but she died in June (remembered here on 28 June). Her literary executor, Phillip Clapham, promises that this will be no obstacle to her presenting further abstracts to spamferences.