Feedback is our weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more
Serving suggestions
HOW鈥橲 this for a digested read? Niels Henzwe and his colleagues have been experimenting with a laser cutter to sear messages on to bananas, bread and sausages. Or, as they reported at the 14th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia, to 鈥渟how how food can not only serve to satisfy hunger but also become a new display technology鈥�.
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Various scenarios for using the technology were tested, such as branding peppers with nutritional information and inscribing toast with instructions to 鈥渉ug the person on your right鈥�. Unfortunately, focus groups found the idea of being confronted by social triggers at the breakfast table rather unappetising, though they were more keen on the possibilities of laser-etching food with information about its origin and handling instructions.
The final word on the matter must go to the Finnish participant who, having been shown the technology, told researchers that he would be 鈥渢aking this with a pinch of salt鈥�.
鈥淛ustin Bailey spots an honourable mention for nominative determinism with an added dose of redundancy. Step forward Joe Shoemaker, self-described 鈥減rofessional reflexologist of the feet鈥濃��
Thinking outside the box
INTERNET megamart Amazon enjoyed a record-breaking year in sales, and celebrated its success at shifting units by releasing a 3000-word statement packed with even more unusual units.
, which tells us that Amazon customers 鈥減urchased enough Rope King Twine this holiday season to tie a string from Seattle to Los Angeles鈥�, and sufficient pairs of jeans to 鈥渃over the driving distance between San Francisco and Los Angeles鈥�.
We鈥檙e also reliably informed that the heaviest item purchased during the holiday season was a BendPak Super-Duty automotive lift, which 鈥渨eighs as much as the average beluga whale鈥�. Mark wonders, 鈥淚s there a beluga sub-category to measurements in whales?鈥� To which Feedback adds: what units should we use to measure self-congratulatory press releases?
Power to the USPO
WHAT the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) describes as 鈥渁 major power outage鈥� crashed its IT system just before Christmas, knocking out online patent filing, searching and payment systems for several days while the office assessed 鈥渙perational impact鈥� and 鈥渉ow soon they can be safely brought back into service鈥�.
Can it really be that the USPTO, a repository for details of the world鈥檚 major innovations, did not possess what is normal even for home PC users 鈥� an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) that uses batteries to keep computers running just long enough to shut down gracefully?
We can鈥檛 help wondering what Thomas Edison would say about this. His seminal patent on sound recording (US200,521) was rushed to the US Patent Office for filing on Christmas Eve 1877. Who knows what Yuletide gifts the USPTO missed out on.
A bright spark needed
JUST for fun, Feedback searched through the USPTO鈥檚 own records for patents on uninterruptible power supplies. We quickly found nearly 500, dating back to the 1970s with one filed by Bell Labs (US 4,038,559) which includes the gloriously apposite wording:
鈥淪ince the power supplied by commercial companies does not possess the necessary stability for safe operation of computers, it is customary to supply the power to computers with uninterruptible power supplies.鈥�
Baby bounce
GENETICIST Samantha Decombel found herself bumped from a European Commission conference after organisers took exception to her own bump. When invited, the chief scientific officer of FitnessGenes had made it clear she would be seven months pregnant at the time of the event, but was later told some at the organisation were 鈥渘ot very enthusiastic to take a risk for your health making you travel to Brussels at the late stage of your pregnancy鈥�.
The story inspired women to share stories of what they had achieved while in such a debilitating condition, such as carrying out fieldwork, earning degrees, and, er, organising conferences, under the hashtag . Organisers later admitted they had made a mistake and apologised to Decombel.
2016 by the numbers
IN THE final days of 2015 we noted the year was a palindrome when written in binary, and wondered what is in store for 11111100000 鈥� that is to say, 2016. Adrian Wilkins writes: 鈥淭he number 2016 has the highest number of factors of any year this century 鈥� 34. This feat is not matched until the year 2100.鈥�
In fact, says Adrian, 2016 nearly makes the top spot for the entire millennium, being beaten into third place only by years 2160 and 2640, both of which have 38 factors. Knowing you won鈥檛 wish to miss this auspicious occasion, Feedback is marking its calendar to revisit the topic in 144 years.
Tourist trap
WHILE on holiday in the UK鈥檚 Peak District National Park recently, Don Wycherley was extremely alarmed to find he was not far from what local maps referred to as Black Hole Mine.
鈥淭his definitely puts my earlier concerns about fracking in perspective,鈥� writes Don. Feedback is left to ponder if the site attracts many tourists, and if so, how many of them manage to escape.
(Image: Paul McDevitt)