Why the long face?
A DOZEN camels were disqualified from a beauty pageant in Saudi Arabia 鈥� for using Botox. The King Abdulaziz camel festival ran all through January, featuring races, parades and the all-important beauty contest. Around 30,000 animals gathered to compete for millions of dollars in prize money, but some unscrupulous owners weren鈥檛 leaving things to chance.
To be in vogue, a camel needs to have a long head, pert ears and a droopy pout. Breeders have moved from traditional methods 鈥� tugging on the camel鈥檚 lip daily 鈥� to cosmetic surgery, collagen fillers and Botox. Feedback worries these primped and plucked specimens are setting unrealistic beauty standards for the camel on the street. No wonder they鈥檝e got the hump.
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Making a mint
THE future is already here, science fiction author William Gibson once said, it鈥檚 just not evenly distributed. This is especially true for residents of Hammersmith and Fulham, a borough of London, who are seeking hoarders of defunct coinage.
鈥溾�漈he crafty serpent, in the Book of Genesis, who at the dawn of humanity, created the first 鈥榝ake news鈥欌�︹�� Pope Francis denounces those using 鈥渟nake tactics鈥� in public discourse鈥�
The Evening Standard reports that old-style 拢1 coins 鈥� which ceased to be legal tender in 2017 鈥� are now trading on the black market at four for 拢5. Demand is high because many of the neighbourhood鈥檚 parking meters won鈥檛 accept the new 拢1 coin.
Council authorities seem reluctant to address the situation, as a cashless payment system is being rolled out that will supersede any currency issues. Residents are demanding change 鈥� ideally in old-style pound coins, if you had some?
Robot Wars
A ROBOT shop assistant has lost its job after just one week after scaring away customers. Child-sized Fabio arrived at the Margiotta supermarket in Edinburgh, UK, as part of an experiment organised by Heriot-Watt University for the BBC鈥檚 TV programme.
Fabio, built by Japan鈥檚 SoftBank Robotics, was supposed to give out free samples and direct shoppers around the store. Despite initial promise, customers were put off by its overzealous manner and vague answers to queries, such as telling people beer could be found 鈥渋n the alcohol section鈥�. It鈥檚 not clear if Fabio will now sign on for unemployment benefit, or return to Heriot-Watt鈥檚 Interaction Lab, where Feedback understands it holds down an unpaid research position.
Instant gratification
TWITTER has its Moments, and now Facebook has launched its own unit of time: the flick. Rather than a measure of the hours you spend scrolling past baby photos each day, a flick describes a frame-tick, the time between frames in a piece of film or animation. Just shy of 1.5 nanoseconds, the unit will make it easier to program media to play smoothly on the web.
Feedback has been pondering this, and come up with other units of time that might help us navigate the modern world. They include a swipe, the time needed to decide whether or not you鈥檙e attracted to someone. A dab: the half-life of a popular trend, measured from the time schoolchildren discover it to the time their parents start doing it. And a flip: the length of time from a minor celebrity posting an ill-judged tweet to deleting it. We鈥檙e sure you can think of more.
Shroom for improvement
A STUDY of drugs in video games finds narcotics are often presented as lending players unrealistic powers. Archstone Recovery Center, a for-profit drug rehabilitation clinic in Florida, examined 100 top-selling video games for each major console. It found a smorgasbord of in-game drugs, including pills, potions and mushrooms.
These typically rewarded the players with enhanced powers, whether it was increased strength (Fallout) or doubling your size and resilience (Super Mario Bros). Sadly, these effects are a far cry from the real world, where no amount of fungi will prepare you for militarised turtles or plumber-sized carnivorous plants. For those ready to give up exploring darkened rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive music, there鈥檚 the Archstone clinic. For everyone else, there鈥檚 Pac-Man.
Oh the humanity!
THIS week, New Zealand-based firm Rocket Lab revealed it had secretly launched a disco ball into space. As it orbits Earth, the metre-wide Humanity Star will shimmer visibly to those below, 鈥渁 symbol of our unity鈥�.
Yes, nothing says togetherness quite like a unilateral PR stunt carried out in secret. Naturally, astronomers weren鈥檛 pleased with the idea of gleaming space garbage blinding their careful observations, and many took to Twitter to remonstrate.
But Peter Beck, Rocket Lab鈥檚 CEO, was holding firm: 鈥淣o matter where you are in the world, or what is happening in your life, everyone will be able to see the Humanity Star in the night sky.鈥� This is also true of real stars, but who are we to judge?
Beck says he hopes the Humanity Star will give people a chance to reflect on our place in the universe. Doomed by orbital decay, the satellite will only survive nine months aloft before meeting a fiery death in the upper atmosphere, cheered on by exasperated astronomers. Maybe not the metaphor Beck intended.
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