No longer mint condition
THE UK has rolled out a new, 12-sided pound coin (given the pound has been hit hard by Brexit, we assume the original design had 14 sides). Still, John Crofts relays that his local church is doing its bit to tidy up any resulting scrap: 鈥淎rnold Methodist Church is pleased to announce a Free Collection Service for all of your old redundant pound coins,鈥� a circular reads. 鈥淔or the next few months, during the Sunday morning service, a receptacle will be passed round to enable you to deposit all your old pound coins, which will be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.鈥�
Feedback is moved to add that pound coins can also be disposed of at newsagents, anyone depositing more than four at a time with the cashier is entitled to a free copy of 快猫短视频.
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鈥淯K baker Warburtons is to open a new R&D centre in Bolton. 鈥淭his will be daunting work,鈥� writes Tom Patton, 鈥渁s they鈥檒l be trying to invent the best thing since sliced bread.鈥濃��
Open secrets
FOLLOWING the recent attack in central London, politicians are once again lining up to demand that mathematics, like terrorism, be outlawed. UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd told the BBC鈥檚 Andrew Marr that end-to-end encryption was 鈥渃ompletely unacceptable鈥�, calling on internet giants to make everyone鈥檚 communications insecure.
Readers will remember that the previous home secretary, Theresa May, became fed up with waiting for drugs to be proven harmful before they were banned, and banned the sale of all things that could possibly affect citizens鈥� minds, known and unknown, unless otherwise exempted.
We can only presume that Rudd will soon outlaw anyone having secrets without government pre-approval, and ban anti-surveillance measures such as gummed envelopes, curtains and whispering.
Super sonics
SPARE a thought for the discerning audiophile, faced by ever more innovative ways to separate them from their cash. Feedback readers will no doubt recall the peerless sound quality offered by eye-wateringly expensive vacuum-sealed, gold-plated audio cables that are immune to radio interference, corrosion and the advent of robust digital signals.
The wallets of those attending last month鈥檚 Headroom trade show in London could do with similar protections against interference, after Metropolis Studios announced the world鈥檚 most expensive headphones would be on show.
A press release boasted that delegates would be able to try out a pair of Sennheiser HE 1 headphones, or walk away with them for a cool 拢55,000. For this much money, musical aesthetes might prefer having their favourite band play live in their own sitting room instead.
Social network
PREVIOUSLY Feedback discussed the concept of the Erd枚s-Bacon-Sabbath number, a way to measure the connectedness of those in the fields of science, film and music (18 February).
Richard Chapman says this technique 鈥渕ay come up with some unexpected results when expanded to all figures of note鈥�, in all walks of life. Feedback doesn鈥檛 like the idea of having to choose a paragon for each field 鈥� the sportiest, the cleverest, the fairest 鈥� students of Greek mythology will tell you wars have been fought over such accolades.
In any event, the results may not be interesting: we suspect the UK is already organised according to degrees of separation from figures of note, with the hypothetical zero point floating somewhere over Eton.
Powerless placebo
FIGHTING the good fight, Australia鈥檚 consumer advocacy group CHOICE has been putting the Geoclense Home Harmonizer through its paces.
Bernie Broom directs us to their review of what is succinctly described as a 鈥渂lock of green plastic with a plug鈥�, which promises to somehow shield the home against all kinds of invisible electrosmog, from stray Wi-Fi beams to electromagnetism leaching from those cheap, non-vacuum-sealed, gold-plated audio cables.
Unfortunately, the Geoclense failed to perform in any of the tests, proving incapable of altering electromagnetic fields, the Earth鈥檚 magnetism, light levels or negative ions. However, it did pass one test with flying colours: when plugged into the mains, the block of inert resin consumed no electricity whatsoever 鈥� prompting reviewer Ashley Iredale to wonder why it needs plugging in at all.
鈥淥ur testing shows Geoclense has all the effectiveness of a tin foil hat, but lacks the hat鈥檚 potential for use in food preparation,鈥� writes Iredale. 鈥淚f you are thinking of blowing $150, why not buy a roll of aluminium foil instead? The money you save could buy you a subscription to CHOICE 鈥� a resource that鈥檚 been 鈥�
Really super olives
ON TO the mountains of Chile, from whose fertile soils sprout radio telescopes in ever greater diameters, leaving us bereft of superlatives (25 February).
M. Myqle reports that 鈥渢he olive packers solved the problem long ago. On the shelves of my local grocery I find: small, medium, large, colossal, mammoth.鈥�
However, our investigations find that even the olive industry appears to have run short on terms: the commercial terms beyond mammoth are given by some as 鈥渟uper mammoth鈥�, and, er, 鈥渟uper super mammoth鈥�.
, UK, has a hot offer for customers, reveals Philip Woodcock. He sends Feedback a flyer announcing their 鈥渘ew molten lava stone massage鈥�, which is 鈥渄esigned to melt away deep tension鈥�. It certainly will, Philip thinks, as well as taking any nearby tissue. Effective, but hardly a recipe for repeat custom.