(Image: Paul McDevitt)
Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
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Orbo offers endless spin
PERPETUAL motion devices continue to deliver amusement, if not the promised free energy. Feedback previously discussed the Enclosed Loop Electric Windmill System, a device that raised $3 of investment capital on crowd-funding site Kickstarter (18 July).
Imagine how delighted we are to discover that the charmers behind the Irish company Steorn are still cranking out promises of revolutionary free energy, almost a decade after challenging the scientific community to debunk their over-unity Orbo device. That challenge wasn鈥檛 met 鈥� the fabled machine was never presented to the gathered experts 鈥� and a public demonstration of the technology at the Kinetica Museum in London likewise suffered 鈥渢echnical difficulties鈥� and the demonstration ended prematurely. Now Steorn is back, with the Orbo recast as a never-ending battery.
The device was given a 鈥渇ield test鈥� in the august setting of Slattery鈥檚 Pub , where interested patrons could recharge their phones by connecting them to the block. Unfortunately this field trial proved too trying, and once again the demonstration ended prematurely. Further trials are purportedly taking place at .
All of which shows that free-energy fruitloopery does seem to draw upon some inexhaustible resource 鈥� if only it could be tapped for useful power.
鈥淚 know the book on nominative determinism is closed, sealed, and buried by now,鈥� writes Stephen Murray, 鈥渂ut that your own magazine interviewed a William Hill about horseracing is surely worthy of some comment鈥�
Tapping you for card names
PREVIOUSLY Feedback touched on card clash 鈥� when the remote-sensing machines that administer our world are thrown into confusion by the presence of too many contactless cards in one鈥檚 hand (11 July). Jonathan Swan draws attention to a more fundamental problem: that 鈥渃ontactless card鈥� is a clunky and cumbersome phrase.
鈥淚n more erudite times this would have been rendered in some form of Latin or Greek,鈥� says Jonathan. 鈥淯sing the standard Greek prefix 鈥榓-鈥� for without, and the Latin tactus for touch, could I propose the word 鈥榓tact鈥� to describe this new technology?鈥�
You may Jonathan, although blending Greek and Latin will have etymologists shouting at their televisions. Perhaps readers can come up with a suitable word?
Thrilling future of wearables
THE fevered minds of futurists at are agog at news that University of California researchers are working on 鈥渟mart fabrics鈥� that will adapt the wearer鈥檚 temperature to the environment.
鈥淚nstead of heating or cooling your whole house, imagine a fabric that will keep your body at a comfortable temperature 鈥� regardless of how hot or cold it actually is,鈥� they marvel.
Having thought for a moment, Feedback can imagine many such fabrics, and given the alternative is nudism, we鈥檙e rather glad for them.
New Horizons in plastic brick
PERHAPS, like us, you are saddened that New Horizons 鈥� the plucky probe that just completed a historic Pluto fly-by, a journey 10 years in the making 鈥� will soon be lost to us forever as it hurtles into the emptiness of deep space.
Take comfort, then, in the knowledge that you could own a copy of the spacecraft 鈥� albeit one made of tiny plastic bricks. Space aficionado Luis Pe帽a has designed a New Horizons kit for , a site where the toy company kindly asks the public to submit models to be considered for commercial exploitation.
If his model receives enough votes it could make its way onto shelves 鈥� hopefully this version won鈥檛 take a decade to arrive ().
Yes! Virtual 3D books!
MORE strange worlds: Feedback invites you to point your browsers to , the bookshop of the future, as envisioned in the late 1990s. Eschewing current design trends, inkflash plunges you into a crudely rendered 3D store, where you can pluck book-like objects off the shelves, just as if you were in a real shop. 鈥淒iscover your next great read in a 3D labyrinth of book rooms,鈥� the website invites visitors, somewhat unconvincingly.
A promised new feature, soon to arrive, will allow inkflash users to 鈥渞ead a whole book in 3D鈥�. the question 鈥� isn鈥檛 that what we鈥檝e been doing all along?
Where were your eggs poached?
FOLLOWING the illicit sale of Rubis the fluorescent sheep to an abattoir in France (11 July), Bill Tango brings news of more lab-based misdemeanours.
鈥淚n the 1960s when I was a student at the University of California, Berkeley, I occasionally ate lunch in the Union cafeteria,鈥� says Bill. 鈥淭here was always a basket of hard-boiled eggs by the cashier. Some of them had numbers and letters written in pencil on the shells. I asked the cashier if she knew what the numbers meant. 鈥楴o,鈥� she replied, 鈥榯hat鈥檚 the way they are when they come from the virus lab鈥�.鈥�