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Pure alcohol
LIKE many, Feedback plans to secure a long life by steadily pickling ourselves in alcohol until we resemble a specimen in the Hunterian Museum. But some deny the preservative qualities of booze.
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Kate Lee notes that the Samuel Smith brewery claims to produce beers 鈥渟olely from authentic natural ingredients without any chemical additives, raw material adjuncts, artificial sweeteners, colourings, flavourings or preservatives鈥�.
Setting aside what counts as authentic, Kate wonders what deadly dihydrogen monoxide is if not a chemical, why hops are added if not for flavouring and if 鈥溾��
鈥溾�滻鈥檓 a bit dismayed to find Friends of the Earth campaigning for a Fossil Free Scotland,鈥� writes Nuala Lonie. 鈥淗ave they got a grudge against palaeontologists?鈥濃��
Whitewashed
A MUCH-trumpeted online beauty contest judged by artificial intelligence has turned out some ugly results. You would be forgiven for thinking that a machine mind could not eliminate the intrinsic bias in what is a subjective judgement of human beings 鈥� and in this case you would be right.
When Beauty.AI, a collaboration between Youth Laboratories and Insilico Medicine, selected its selfie victors, onlookers were quick to point out that the winners in each category had more in common than good looks. Despite having entrants from more than 100 countries, the competition鈥檚 finalists all had notably pale skin.
One researcher involved in the contest blamed the bias on a skewed set of training images and technological limitations on handling darker skin tones. If only there were to account for this.
Dirty business
A MUCKY problem is fouling up attempts by scientists to research scatological matters: the plethora of words for poo means that a search using one term fails to unearth papers that use another (27 August).
鈥淚 devoted a full chapter to this subject in my book The Origin of Feces,鈥� writes David Waltner-Toews. 鈥淭he problem is that to lump frass, spraints, manure and excrement into one category, while useful in some circumstances, is problematic in others.鈥�
We鈥檙e glad that serious thought is being given to the matter. David adds that the words science and shit 鈥渟hare the same Proto-Indo-European root鈥�. Whatever is he suggesting?
Clean sweep
A WAR on cleanliness is in effect, as the UK announces that it will ban plastic microbeads, the exfoliating grit added to liquid soaps that tends to reappear in the oceanic food chain.
Across the pond, the Food and Drug Administration ordered soap manufacturers to scrub any reference to antibacterial properties from their wares, after no company was able to justify the claim. Perhaps beleaguered grime-fighters can take direction from less-regulated parts of the personal health sector to create new useless cleansers: might we see 鈥渄etox鈥� detergents and homeopathic body wash?
Down time
A WARNING sign on an electricity pylon near the University of Arizona in Tucson warns maintenance staff to avoid operating it 鈥渨hile energized鈥�. David Yetman, who spotted it, wonders if operators 鈥渕ust be apathetic, fatigued or dispirited鈥�.
Holidays in hyperspace
LUKE O鈥橲ULLIVAN spies a higher plane of theatrical experience on offer in Camel Creek Adventure Park in Cornwall.
The venue boasts a 鈥�5D simulator experience鈥�. If that sounds too mind-bending to endure, writes Luke, take heart in the knowledge that booking 24 hours in advance nets a 20 per cent discount, 鈥渢hankfully placing you back in 4D鈥�.
Prime cuts
PREVIOUSLY Feedback mused on Roger Fisher鈥檚 proposition that nuclear launch codes ought to be implanted in the chest cavities of a senior political aide, and suggested that the back might be a more practised entry point for sticking the knife in (20 August).
This may have unintended consequences, however, says Dick Hadfield. 鈥淭here have been a number of prime ministers who would have happily started a nuclear war if it gave them a legitimate excuse to carve up one of their colleagues,鈥� he says. 鈥淢uch better to make every candidate agree to have the codes injected deep into their own flesh.鈥�
Cold comfort
THE instructions on a bag of Aldi frozen oven chips have left Guy Cox paralysed with indecision. 鈥淧roduct must be cooked before consumption,鈥� they declare. 鈥淒o not thaw before cooking. If product becomes thawed consume within 24 hours.鈥�
If anyone has advice on how to cook frozen French fries without thawing them, a hungry Guy is waiting.
Stitched up
CHRIS SMITH sends word of a great deal offered to Daily Mail readers on Oxford lace-up brogues. The coupon printed in the paper boasts 鈥淏uy one, get one free.鈥�
Judging from the accompanying picture, Chris writes, 鈥測ou get a black left and a brown right. This means that no matter how many pairs you order, you will never receive a pair of matching colour!鈥�