Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Stealth with style
TIN foil hats may have a popular following, but they have struggled to overcome their sartorial inelegance. Kathleen James points us towards a brand that may change that: Shield, which boasts that it has created 鈥渢he world鈥檚 first signal-proof headwear鈥�.
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The founders of Shield, , claim that their silver-laced cotton beanies and baseball caps will 鈥渞eliably reflect signals from cell phones, wi-fi routers, microwaves and it generally blocks all waves transmitted from electric devices鈥�. The headwear is also radar-invisible, which should be useful for people worried that their head is being tracked from military airfields.
Any health benefit conferred by the hats is only vaguely hinted at, with the promotional copy optimistically stating that 鈥渕aybe once it will pay off鈥�. Before we stump up our cash, Feedback has to know: does it also protect against fruitloopery?
鈥淪tefan Lorett鈥檚 online bank offers a drop-down menu for birth year that starts in 1865. 鈥淭hank you, Lloyds,鈥� says Stefan. 鈥淚 feel young again鈥濃��
Magic potions
THERE鈥橲 no shortage of incredible claims in the beauty industry, but even so, credit must go to the magazine Tatler for finding so many to place on a single page. A spread in their December issue features not only a 拢28 facial roller made of jade that promises to 鈥渆xpel toxins鈥� and 鈥渨ake up sluggish skin鈥�, but also a 拢60 love potion and a chemical-free candle (拢60) that looks surprisingly solid.
Meanwhile, we are told a 拢205 鈥渂io-regeneratif serum鈥� is 鈥渋nfused with energy through precious minerals 鈥� said to stimulate cell turnover鈥�. Let鈥檚 hope that鈥檚 a good thing, then.
However, Tatler鈥榮 tongue may be firmly in its well-polished cheek, because the whole collection appears under the knowing headline 鈥淢agic formulas鈥�.
Sun protection
WILLIAM F. FAGAN writes 鈥� as many of you did 鈥� to relay news that a North Carolina town has rejected a solar farm due to fears that it would 鈥溾��.
Sadly, the story is too good to be true. The Woodland Town Council did veto the creation of a new solar farm (it has three already), but it was for more pragmatic concerns about the .
The voice of unreason was indeed loud and clear, however, in a public meeting about the plan. The Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald confirms that one local resident was concerned about draining the sun, while another 鈥� a retired science teacher 鈥� claimed the panels could interrupt photosynthesis. She 鈥渁lso questioned the high number of cancer deaths in the area, saying no one could tell her that solar panels didn鈥檛 cause cancer鈥� 鈥� although it seems that beleaguered representatives of the Strata Solar Company did try.
Underegging
A CASE of counting your eggs 鈥� badly. Kevon Kenna relays news from the Melbourne Herald Sun that a faulty test for the number of eggs that a woman produces underestimated the number by 鈥溾��. Were some women told they were producing anti-eggs, Kevon wonders.
Not irrational
ECONOMICS may be the dismal science, but John Leaver forwards evidence that it is at least willing to incorporate concepts from the others.
Attendees at the Qual360 innovation hub can learn how 鈥渃onsumers are not irrational but quantum probabilistic鈥�. The session promises 鈥済round-breaking advances in understanding complex consumer behaviour through quantum physics!鈥� Feedback is undecided about whether or not to attend 鈥� though perhaps we鈥檒l do both.
Expensive words
THE maker of Nurofen painkillers, Reckitt Benckiser, has felt the sting of . A range of pills marketed as targeting specific pains all contained identical medication 鈥� 342 milligrams of ibuprofen 鈥� a practice the Australian consumer protection authorities ruled was misleading.
The specific-pain range cost markedly more than Nurofen鈥檚 standard pill, leading Feedback to wonder exactly how much it costs to print the word 鈥渕igraine鈥� on the packet.
Members only
THANKS to all of you who wrote in to draw our attention to an outstanding example of nominative determinism: a urologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam named .
It鈥檚 always now now
IT IS often quipped that Christmas comes earlier every year, but what of other holidays? Flavio Antonietti tells us that Gold, the UK television channel specialising in rebroadcasting old programmes, has changed its name to Christmas Gold, 鈥渨here you would expect all the old favourite repeats of various Christmas shows鈥�.
Imagine his surprise, then, when he saw the French and Saunders Easter Special scheduled for mid-December. 鈥淚 know Easter moves around,鈥� says Flavio, 鈥渂ut have never known it to fall in December.鈥�
Look away now
FEEDBACK wonders what David Taub unwrapped over the holiday period, because he asks: 鈥淚s there a word for when you accidentally discover a web page about a topic you really wish you didn鈥檛 know existed? For that matter, is there a word for thinking or seeing something you wish you could unthink or unsee?鈥�
Feedback needs to know, if only to express how we felt on reading Ray Thomson鈥檚 description of intestinal ischaemia in The Last Word 鈥� still giving us nightmares (25 April 2015).
(Image: Paul McDevitt)