Buzzkill
SILENT alarms keeping you up at night? Unfortunately nobody is quite sure what causes tinnitus, the mysterious ringing in the ears that only you can hear. Consequently, it鈥檚 not for Feedback to say if any of the remedies on offer are effective.
Nonetheless, something about the latest offering, forwarded by Paul Holmstrom, doesn鈥檛 ring true. The Antinitus sticky patches, designed to be glued behind the ear, 鈥渃ontain a unique microscopic raster, which, with the help of incident visible and thermal light, creates a regular and organised fractal light鈥�. But of course!
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You may ask how that helps with the subjective perception of noise. 鈥淚n contact with fractal light, water molecules in biological tissues adopt a more coherent state鈥� The hypothesis is that an elevated reorganisation of water in the biological environment may modulate the chaotic audio loops in the auditory system that represent the various conscious sound experiences that we call tinnitus and hence provide relief.鈥�
Yes, chaotic audio loops are no longer just a feature of the bands which might have caused your tinnitus in the first place. Feedback鈥檚 hand is poised over the 鈥淥rder鈥� button, but one niggling question remains: do the patches still work at night, when there鈥檚 no light,
鈥淎 roadside sign in Sequim, Washington, tempts drivers with the simple offer: 鈥淒rive Thru Fudge鈥�. Ross Walker wonders, 鈥淲hat type of vehicle would best suit this exercise?鈥�
Chill switch
PERHAPS with hopes of entering the market for trendy cold brew beverages, Tefal have a new kettle that Michael Harrison has seen, advertised with the claim that it 鈥渂oils at different temperatures for the perfect cup of tea鈥�.
鈥淚t may boil at different temperatures depending on altitude and solutes,鈥� says Michael, 鈥渂ut whether this results in the perfect cup of tea is open to dispute.鈥�
Atomic blocks
FORGET Beethoven for babies. If you really want to raise a genius, we suggest buying them a certain pack of building blocks from the Wicked Uncle website. David Love found his attention drawn to the Smartmax Start Magnetic Discovery pack, aimed at 1-year-olds, which contains 鈥渞ods and balls to build fun shapes and structures鈥�.
鈥淭he cold coloured bars (green & blue) have North poles and the warm coloured bars (red & yellow) have South poles,鈥� the website reveals. , it seems magnetic monopoles were under our noses all along.
Reject boring wooden blocks and get your infant playing with these quantum toys, says Feedback. In no time at all, they鈥檒l be building flux tubes from pasta shells and sketching grand unified theories in crayon.
Qualifying time
ANDY BEBINGTON writes: 鈥淚an Gordon鈥檚 tale of being given precise GPS coordinates to a site 5 miles away from the holiday cottage reminds me of a customer who called by appointment at our London office鈥� (24 June). The fellow was in the UK because his company was providing the timing equipment for the Commonwealth games, says Andy, and proudly boasted that he could time sprinters to within 1/100th of a second. However, 鈥渉e arrived an hour late for his appointment, as he was working on Central European Time鈥�.
Please no more
DESPITE our protests, readers keep emailing us about Nazis (24 June). 鈥淚 burst out laughing reading John King鈥檚 fanciful explanation of the term,鈥� writes Anja Nohlen. 鈥淭he Socialists were commonly called 鈥楽ozis鈥� and to distinguish them, the National Socialists were called 鈥楴azis鈥� as both terms are quite a mouthful, even for Germans.鈥�
Roger Savidge adds that previous correspondents have failed to point out that the term was also 鈥渁 derisory pun coined by its opponents鈥�. This was to ridicule the party鈥檚 origins in Bavaria, a place 鈥渞egarded as a backwater populated by half-witted peasants whose stereotype was a Natsie, short for Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria鈥�.
High flying fowl
IT鈥橲 one small flight for a chicken breast, but one giant leap for chickenkind. Fast-food giant KFC has announced plans to launch a piece of deep-fried poultry to the edge of space by balloon. The chicken sandwich will drift in the stratosphere for several days before returning to Earth.
The exact rationale for this epic endeavour remains a mystery, but it鈥檚 safe to say the journey time means KFC isn鈥檛 planning a new method of home delivery.
The launch vehicle is provided by World View, a company hoping to fly communications 鈥渟atellites鈥� on high-altitude winds to provide connectivity to users below.
Feedback can only speculate about this delicious twist in the privatisation of spaceflight. The confectionery world already boasts a host of products that could maximise brand synergy with off-Earth exploration: Mars, Milky Way and Galaxy chocolate bars are three in the running. Watch this mouth-watering space.
Clean drinking
PREVIOUSLY Feedback scratched its head over the existence of scentless perfume (3 June). Ian Napier writes: 鈥淢y entrepreneurial tendencies have me considering the repackaging of sparkling water as 鈥榝lavourless cola鈥�.鈥� Don鈥檛 forget to remind customers that it鈥檚 low in fat and sugar-free.