Ship of fools
FEEDBACK entertains a lingering fascination with the ghost ship MV Lyubov Orlova, a decommissioned cruise liner supposedly overrun with cannibalistic rats, which vanished en route to the shipbreaker鈥檚 yard in 2013. It drifted around the North Atlantic, appearing on the horizon from time to time like an ill omen.
Last week, several UK newspapers ran with the heady news that experts working for the US Science Channel documentary Mafia Ghost Ship had identified a wreck seen lying in the shallow waters off the coast of California as the ill-fated vessel. But on closer inspection, these experts admitted it was more likely to be the remains of the SS Monte Carlo, a prohibition-era casino boat.
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Quite how the rodent crew of the Lyubov Orlova were supposed to have navigated the derelict ship through the North-West Passage to arrive, unnoticed, on the US West Coast goes unrecorded. So too how the ship could have been spotted in an advanced state of decay on the Pacific seabed in 2010, three years before it vanished.
鈥淎mong many seasonal treats, Andrew Tucker discovers Marks & Spencer advertising a 鈥淔ree From Christmas Cake鈥�. He says, 鈥淚鈥檓 sure that Scrooge would have approved鈥濃��
Nor is it explained how there could be any confusion over the identity of the Monte Carlo shipwreck, a popular attraction near San Diego that is regularly exposed by storms, and has remained visible at low tide since running aground in 1937.
Could it be that the name of the Lyubov Orlova 鈥� and its supposed cannibal rats 鈥� was floated in a credulity stretching attempt to spice up a TV documentary on the Californian shipwreck, and secure some extra press coverage? That鈥檚 one mystery we don鈥檛 have to wonder at.
Stuck in first gear
IN HIS recent Budget, UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced investment in automotive research, setting a goal of seeing fully driverless cars on the streets of Britain by 2021.
Feedback suspects that the greatest success of autonomous vehicles so far has been their ability to elude any deadlines placed on their arrival. To wit, we collected some headlines on our new automobile age:
鈥淣issan: We鈥檒l have a self-driving car on roads in 2020鈥� (CNN, 2013);
鈥淪elf-driving cars available by 2019, report says鈥� (Time, 2012);
鈥淭esla to make ALL its cars autonomous and self-driving by 2018鈥� (The Sun, 2016);
鈥淔ord predicts self-driving, traffic-reducing cars by 2017鈥� (ExtremeTech, 2012);
鈥淎udi promises driverless cars by 2016鈥� (TechRadar, 2014);
鈥淐adillac promises self-driving cars by 2015鈥� (ExtremeTech, 2012);
鈥淰olvo says self-driving cars to arrive by 2014鈥� (Recombu, 2013).
Feedback won鈥檛 give up its bus pass just yet, though Hammond was looking forward to trying out the tech for himself last week. His advisors, however, put the brakes on this plan, reasoning that photos of the man responsible for steering the UK economy posing as a passenger in a driverless car might send the wrong message.
Getting ahead
ONE of the world鈥檚 longest-serving leaders was toppled in a quiet coup last month, as Emmerson Mnangagwa replaced President Robert Mugabe. However, it was only that week鈥檚 second most surprising head transplant, as far as The Telegraph was concerned.
It reported that following an 18-hour operation, Italian surgeon Sergio Canavero had successfully joined a head to a donor body (or is that a body to a donor head?). Either way, the term 鈥渟uccessful鈥� is used generously, given that the operation was carried out on two cadavers. It is one way to reduce deaths on the operating table, we suppose.
Medical malaise
TO ERR is human 鈥� but try to be a man when you do. Harvard researcher Heather Sarsons investigated how a surgeon鈥檚 gender shapes attitudes about their ability, drawn from data gathered about Medicare claims.
Following negative outcomes, such as a patient dying, referrals to a female surgeon dropped far more than they did for a male surgeon. When a female surgeon performed well, she was rewarded, but less so than her male counterparts.
In addition, after a negative experience with one female surgeon, doctors were less likely to refer patients to all other female surgeons. But when a female surgeon outperformed expectations, her bolstered reputation didn鈥檛 improve things for her female colleagues.
Sarsons says the asymmetry in how we judge men and women鈥檚 ability may contribute to the enduring pay gap, and prevent women achieving the same level of professional success as equally competent men. Physician, heal thyself (of these prejudices)!
Coffin nails
MORE scepticism over the deadly effects of air pollution (25 November). British politician Nigel Farage, a man known for his fondness of cigarettes but not for having polio, took issue with the World Health Organization鈥檚 warning that tobacco products kill 7 million people a year.
The UKIP leader, who has never had smallpox, tweeted that the organisation was 鈥渏ust another club of 鈥榗lever鈥� people who want to bully us and tell us what to do鈥�. Like a special interest political group, perhaps?
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