Fire in the hole
Nature continues its fightback against human depredations by attacking a home in Florida with an improvised explosive device. Florida鈥檚 WINK News reports that a couple in Port Charlotte were watching TV when their home was shaken by a loud bang. They soon discovered their toilet had exploded, scattering fragments of porcelain throughout the bathroom.
A plumber concluded that their outdoor septic tank had been struck by lightning, igniting a pocket of methane gas trapped inside and culminating in an explosion that destroyed their toilet. Feedback shares the sentiment Marylou Ward expressed to reporters: 鈥淚鈥檓 just glad none of us were on the toilet.鈥�
Given the usual direction of travel of greenhouse gas emissions under such circumstances, we can think of no more appropriate context in which to use the term 鈥渂lowback鈥�. But we also think increased vigilance is necessary. Readers of a certain age will remember being told not to use the telephone during thunderstorms for fear of electrical surges up the copper cables causing singed ears and worse. With the shift to wireless technologies, is nature鈥檚 strategy evolving?
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Kiss of the octopus
In a possibly related fightback incident 鈥� or maybe we have just crossed the fine line between bad luck and brazen stupidity 鈥� a participant in a fishing contest near the Tacoma Narrows bridge in Washington state needed hospital treatment to win the competition鈥檚 photographic prize.
Jamie Bisceglia鈥檚 only reward was to have her chin chewed by the irate cephalopod, leading to swelling and paralysis down one side of her face. 鈥淭his was not a good idea,鈥� she told reporters. 鈥淚 will never do it again.鈥�
As with toilet blowback, Feedback is relieved the outcome wasn鈥檛 worse. We recall incidents when dolphins have been suffocated by octopuses or seen with them clamped to their genitalia. Feedback鈥檚 golden rule: if it has more limbs than you, don鈥檛 mess with it.
Heavy water
In the UK, meanwhile, nature鈥檚 tactical bombardment with rain 鈥� ever a feature of the great British summer 鈥� pushed the Toddbrook Reservoir dam in Derbyshire to breaking point.
鈥淏BC News has repeatedly reported that the dam has protected the town of Whaley Bridge for 200 years,鈥� writes Perry Bebbington. 鈥淧rotected it from what? From the water behind the dam? The water that wouldn鈥檛 be there at all if the dam hadn鈥檛 been built?鈥�
Perry, you aren鈥檛 wrong 鈥� though whether residents prefer to risk small annual floods or a 1-in-200-years deluge thanks to a dam collapse will surely depend on which year they happen to be living there.
Political power
In an address to the nation streamed live on Facebook, the new UK prime minister announced the easing of visa restrictions for scientists coming to the country. One reason why, we are told, is that during a visit to Culham Science Centre near Oxford, enterprising physicists assured Boris Johnson that they were 鈥渓iterally only a few years away from being able to provide UK-made fusion reactors for sale around the world鈥�.
Ah yes, 鈥渓iterally鈥�. Feedback notes that progress on fusion energy follows the trajectory of Zeno鈥檚 arrow: with every advance, success edges a little further away. Working fusion has been a few years away for half a century.
The billions spent so far on fusion power has generated ample promises, but little in the way of concrete success. While we doubt that fusion can form a basis for a viable post-Brexit industrial strategy, Feedback wonders whether this could be why fusion resonates so strongly with the UK鈥檚 political class.
Clean calculation
Talking of spin: more unusual units, this time courtesy of 41 Action News in Kansas City, Missouri. It reports the appearance of a sinkhole in the northbound lanes of the State Line Road. Would that be front-loading or the other kind?
Game theory
Ah, the weekend: a chance to catch up with friends, drink a few beers and discuss the merits of killing your childhood pet versus the owl carrying your acceptance letter to Hogwarts. That is the premise of Trial by Trolley, a card game based on that classic of moral philosophy, the trolley problem.
In this game, developed by Skybound Games and internet comic creators Cyanide and Happiness, opposing teams must draw random cards 鈥� each containing innocent or not-so-innocent victims 鈥� to build a length of track and then argue why their runaway trolley should be sent down their opponent鈥檚 branch line to squash all in its path.
This is probably not the outcome Philippa Foot had in mind when she came up with the trolley problem in 1967, but how better to engage the public with philosophy than through friendly competition and point-scoring? Feedback is looking forward to the chance to weigh up some interesting combinations. Which would you value more: a team with a working nuclear fusion reactor or one that claimed to have a lightning-proof septic tank?
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